OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - HISTORY: Chapter 42 Part A (Abbott, John S. C., 1875)
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 			Chapter XLII
		Lives of the Governors - Continued


   			Hon. Salmon P. Chase

   Salmon P. Chase was born among the rough granite hills of New Hampshire, 
at Cornish, on the 13th of January, 1808. His father was a respectable farmer,
and both of his parents were ennobled by superior intelligence and by devout
Christian principle. They trained their child, who, unknown to them, was 
destined to so illustrious a career, to revere the Bible, the Sabbath, and
all those institutions of religion upon which the welfare of every community
so signally depends.
   When Salmon was seven years of age, his father removed to Keene, New Hampshire, 
where his son enjoyed the advantages of a good common school. Two years after
this his father died, leaving the widowed mother and her orphan children in
very humble circumstances. Salmon had five uncles, who were men of liberal
education and of considerable eminence. One of these, Philander Chase, was
Episcopal Bishop of the diocese of Ohio. The bishop was at that time President
of the Cincinnati College. He kindly offered to take his orphan nephew and
educate him. Salmon was at that time fourteen years old. He went to Cincinnati
and spent two years with his uncle. He then, at the age of sixteen, returned
to New England and entered the junior class in Dartmouth College, where he
graduated in the year 1826.
   One of young Salmon's uncle was Senator in the National Congress. This 
probably led him to the City of Washington, where he opened a private classical
school. But the school did not prove a success. Having spent all his money, 
and being quite discouraged, he applied to his uncle to get for him a clerkship
in some one of the departments. The senator was somewhat of a stern man. He
had that characteristic want of courtesy which so many New Englanders have 
inherited from their British forefathers. To this application he replied:
   "Salmon, I will give you a half a dollar with which you can buy a spade, 
for then you may come to something at last. But let a young man once settle
down in a government office, and he never does anything more. It is the last
you hear of him. I have ruined one or two young men in that way, and I am
not going to ruin you."
   Thus goaded, the energetic young man redoubled his exertions, and obtainint
the patronage of Henry Clay, William Wirt, and Samuel L. Southard, whose
sons were entrusted to his care, became moderately successful as a teacher.
At the same time he studied law under William Wirt, whose forensic abilities
had given him a national reputation.
   In 1829, Mr. Chase having completing his legal studies, resigned his school,
and was admitted to the bar of the District of Columbia. Crowded with the 
labors of the school he had not been able to devote much time to his legal
studies. It would seem that his examination was not very satisfactorily to
the judges, for he was told at its close that he had better read for another
year. But he replied that he could not do that as he had already made 
arrangements to commence practice immediately in Cincinnati. The presiding 
judge seemed to think that any law was good enough for that wild region, for 
he promptly replied:
   "In Cincinnati? Oh, very well; in that case, Mr. Clerk, you may swear in
Mr. Chase."
   The great West was crowded with young lawyers in all its thriving settlements.
Mr. Chase had before him weary months of waiting. At length one client came.
A poor man wanted an agreement drawn up, for which he paid half a dollar. It
is surprising that half a dollar could have remained a week in Mr. Chase's 
pocket. But it seems that it did so, for in a week his client came and
borrowed it back again.
   But real ability, combined with energy and industry, will force its way
in this tumultuous world. Gradually Mr. Chase gained reputation and practice.
In the year 1834, being then twenty-six years of age, he was called to argue
a case before the United States Court at Columbus, Ohio. It was an important
case, and it was an august tribunal before which the young lawyer was to 
appear. No man can ever become an eloquent orator who has not intense sensiblities.
The sensitive nature of young Chase was so aroused upon this occasion, that
when he arose, his agitation quite overcame him. Though he had made the most
careful preparation he could scarcely utter a word. He actually had to sit
down, and greatly embarrassed, wait some time to collect his thoughts. He
then rose again and made his plea, but not at all to his satisfaction.
  As he closed, one of the judges came forward, and shaking him by the hand, 
said, with rare good sense:
   "Mr. Chase, I congratulate you most sincerely. A person of ordinary temperament
and abilities would have gone through his part without any such symptoms of
nervousness. But when I see a young man break down in that way, I conceive
the highest hopes of him."
   Cincinnati had gathered, in its busy and thriving streets, many families
from the most cultivated classes in the older states. Mr. Chase was an unusually
fine looking man, of courtly bearing. He was scrupulously neat in his dress.
These advantages, combined with his talents and his reputation for scholarship, 
at once opened to him the doors of the best society and introduced him gradually
to its patronage.
   He was indefatigable in his industry, finding time, in addition to the
increasing labors of his office, to prepare a history of the State of Ohio, 
with a digest of its statutes. This important work, in three large octavo
volumes, is still a standard authority in the Ohio courts. The slavery question
was at this time beginning to assume the most portentious aspect. Mr. Chase
was not a man of vivid and transient feelings, but of profound principles, 
which were not to be warped by either menaces or bribes. With all the imperturbably
intensity of his nature he espoused the cause of freedom.
   A young girl was arrested on the free soil of Ohio, whom a man, crossing
the river from Kentucky, claimed as his slave. The girl, friendless, penniless,
seemed to have none but God to whom she could look for protection. Mr. Chase, 
with great moral courage, undertook her defense. By doing so, in that day, he
arrayed against him all the most powerful influences of politics and commerce.
The trade of the South was deemed of great importance to the North, and both
political parties were willing to make every concession by which Southern
votes could be obtained.
   The Hon. James G. Birney emancipated his slaves, moved across the Ohio
River to Cincinnati, and established there a paper in advocacy of freedom. A
Kentucky mob followed him, stirred up all the loose fellows of the baser sort,
sacked to printing office, smashed the press, threw the types into the river,
burned the houses of the colored people, mobbed women and children, and then,
frenzied with rum and rage, rushed, yelling like savages, towards the residence
of Mr. Birney to tar and feather him and hang him upon a gibbet.
   Mr. Chase, who had thrown himself among the mob to watch their proceedings, 
hurried to Mr. Birney's house to warn him of his danger. Boldly he took his
stand in the doorway to face the mob. His commanding person, the perfect 
courage he displayed, and the earnest words with which he remonstrated against
their acts of lawless violence, held the mob in check until Mr. Birney affected
his escape.
   The course he was pursuing, in thus allying himself with the opponents of
slavery, then a peculiarly obnoxious party, was declared by most of his friends
to be suicidal. Not long after this he eloquently but unavailingly defended a
slave girl, Matilda, who, weeping in despair, was dragged back to bondage. As
he was leaving the courtroom, a looker on, who had been impressed by his
abilities said:
   "There goes a fine young fellow who has just ruined himself."
   Another man, however, who was prominent in public life, was so influenced
by the integrity, the moral courage, and the intellectual power displayed, 
that he became an efficient co-operator in placing Mr. Chase in the Senate of
the United States. In this plea, Mr. Chase took the ground that the magistrates
of the slave states could not constitutionally call upon the magistrates of the
free states to capture and return those flying from bondage.
   Mr. Birney was arrested and brought to trial, charged with having sheltered
a fugitive slave. Mr. Chase defended him. Here he took the ground which Hon.
Charles Sumner subsequently took so effectually in Congress, that slavery was
not only sectional, while freedom was national, but the court, as usual then, 
went against him.
   John VanZandt was one of nature's noblemen. He figures in Uncle Tom's Cabin
as VanTromp. Loathing slavery, with whose horrors he was well acquainted, he
liberated his slaves and moved into Ohio. Never could the trembling, hungry
fugitive stop at his door and be driven empty away. The good old man was 
prosecuted for harboring fugitive slaves. He was defended by Salmon P. Chase
and William H. Seward. Notwithstanding their unanswerable argument, the 
decision of the United States Supreme Court was against VanZandt, and he was
fined so heavily that he was utterly ruined, and died of a broken heart.
   But the friends of freedom were rapidly increasing in numbers and in power.
Uttered truth, like God's word, never returns void. The State of Ohio and the
nation were awakening to the consciousness of the "irrepresible conflict"
between freedom and slavery. In 1841 a "Liberty Party" was organized in
Columbus, Ohio. The Democracy of Ohio at that time pronounced in favor of
freedom.
   In 1849 Mr. Chase was chosen United States Senator, receiving the entire
vote of the Democratic members of the Legislature, as well as that of a large
number of Free Soilers. Modest, unobtrusive, yet fearless, he immediately
occupied a commanding position among those distinguished men. In a debate upon
the compromise resolutions of 1850, Senator Mason, of Virginia, alluded to a
granite obelisk erected in that state in honor of Thomas Jefferson, which bore
the inscription:
			"Here is buried
			Thomas Jefferson,
			  Author of the 
		Declaration of American Independence, 
			    of the
	      Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom
			      and
		Father of the University of Virginia."
   "It is," said Senator Chase, "an appropriate inscription, and worthily
commemorates distinguished services. But if a stranger from some foreign land
should ask me for the monument of Jefferson, I would not take him to Virginia
and bid him to look on a granite obelisk, however admirable in its proportions
or inscriptions. I would ask him to accompany me beyond the Alleghenies, into 
the midst of the broad Northwest, and would say to him:
   		"'Si monumentum quaeris, circumspice.'
   "Behold on every side his monument! These thronged cities, these flourishing
villages, these cultivated fields, these million happy homes of prosperous
freemen, these churches, these schools, these asylums for the unfortunate and
the helpless, these institutions of education, religion and humanity, these
great states - great in their present resources, but greater far in the mighty
energies by which the resources of the future are to be developed - these, 
these are the monuments of Jefferson. His memorial is all over our Western 
land:
		"'Our meanest rill, our mightiest river
		Rolls mingling with his fame forever!'"
   Valiantly Chase fought the terrible battle which was waged between freedom
and slavery. In the year 1855 Mr. Chase was elected Governor of Ohio. His
inaugural address was a document of marked ability, and his fame was so
national that he was now widely talked of as a candidate for the Presidency.
At his own request, his name was at that time withdrawn. He was re-elected
to his high office by the largest vote ever given for governor in Ohio. Upon
the election of President Lincoln, and when the most direful war was desolating
our country and exhausting our finances, Governor Chase was placed in the
responsible part of Secretary of the Treasury. But for the financial skill
which he manifested, it may be doubted whether the country could have been
successfully carried through the terrible struggle. There were thousands of
miles of frontier to be guarded. We were without an army and without a navy.
Treason in the government had for years been busy in depriving the nation of
all means of defense, that it might be presented helpless before its foes.
Millions upon millions of money were to be raised, when all the ordinary
transactions of business were broken up, when the European monarchies, 
rejoicing in our prospective overthrow, refused to aid us by loans, when more
than half of our territorial expanse was in rebellion, and when nearly every
young man was compelled to abandon pursuits of industry for fields of distinction
and carnage. The financial abilites of Secretary Chase carried the nation 
grandly through the gigantic contest.
   He resigned the Secretaryship to accept the office of Chief Justice of
the Unites States Supreme Court, to which position he had been appointed by
President Lincoln upon the death of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. His decisions
in this position are marked for their clearness and soundness, and are accepted
as the best of authority the world over. In this position he died.
   There is not perhaps another man in our land to whom our government is
more indebted for its signal victory than to Governor Chase. Christian principles
guided him through life and sustained him in the hour of death. He left
this stormy world for the spirit land in the year 1873, and a nation of forty
million people mourned its loss. As a devout Christian, and as an able and
a conscientious statesman, his name will ever occupy one of the most prominent
positions in the annals of our land. He died in the communion of the Episcopal
Church.


			Hon. William Dennison.

   We regret exceedingly that we have not been able to obtain more full record
of one of Ohio's best governors, William Dennison. This man by his abilities
and patriotism has won national gratitude.
   We are first introduced to him in the year 1847, as a lawyer in successful
practice at Columbus, the capital of the state. He was elected by the Whig
party, to a seat in the State Senate in the year 1859, where he served one
term. His abilities attracted the attention of the government at Washington
and he was called to the reponsible and difficult station of Postmaster General
of the United States.
   In January 1860, when forty-five years of age he was placed in the gubernatorial
chair of Ohio. He has been favored with a collegiate education, graduating
at Miami University in the year 1815. Being a man of large wealth he has
exerted a powerful influence in the construction of railroads and other
internal improvements in Ohio. At the close of the civil War he returned to
his residence in Columbus where he resided, ever actively engaged in useful
labors, until called by President Grant to fill the important post of 
Commissioner in the District of Columbia where at the time of this writing
he resides.
   			Hon. David Tod

   David Tod was one of nature's noblemen; one of the many men of whom our
nation may be justly proud. George Tod, the father of David, emigrated from
Connecticut to Ohio in the year 1800. Ohio was then but a wilderness of the 
Northwestern Territory, spreading far and wide its sublime solitude. Bears,
wolves, panthers, and savages, more to be dreaded than any wild beasts, 
roamed its almost unbroken forests.
   Mr. Tod was not a man of property. He had but little to depend upon but
his ax and his energies. His wife was a very superior woman, noted for her
beauty and her rich intellectual and social endowments. Her sister was the
wife of Governor Ingersoll, of Connecticut. With sinewy arms the young 
emigrant felled the trees, opened his clearings, and reared his humble log
hut amidst the stumps on the lonely banks of the Mahoning River, in the 
extreme north of the present State of Ohio.
   George Tod was a man of mark. His intelligence and virtues speedily raised
him to conspicuous positions of trust and honor. The very year in which he
first took up residence in his log cabin he was applied to by Governor St.
Clair to accept the office of Secretary of the Territory. Two years after, 
when the State of Ohio was organized, he was elected one of the judges of
the Supreme Court. When the war which England provoked in 1812 broke out, 
Judge Tod resigned his seat upon the bench and entered the army as major
and then colonel, to protect the frontiers from the allied Indians and British.
   At the close of the war, in which by his heroism, he won many laurels, he
returned to his mansion, still of logs, in Trumbull County, and as soon 
elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He passed the remainder of his
peaceful and useful life in the faithful discharge of all his duties as a 
neighbor and a citizen until 1841. He then died, universally beloved as well
as respected.
   David Tod, the subject of this memoir, was born in the log house in what
is now the City of Youngstown, Mahoning County, in February, 1805, but soon
after he removed to the old log house at Briar Hill where his youth was spent.
David was reared as a farmer's boy, hard at work, remote from companionship, 
cutting down the forest, digging up the stumps, burning the brush, smoothing
the rugged ground, and creating a farm. He had no access to the school, the
church, or the library. And yet this noble boy, in the career of life, far
outstripped thousands who have enjoyed every advantage earth can give.
   Availing himself of every opportunity for mental improvement, he found his
thirst for knowledge increasing with every acquisition he made. As the population
increased he entered the common school, which afforded but very meagre instruction.
He then entered Briton Academy, paying his own expenses, as his father could
furnish him with no pecuniary aid.
   A young man, they struggling for an education, not only improves every
moment, but consecrates his most intense energies to his work. David Tod was
by nature endowed with strong powers of mind. They needed but culivation to 
enable him to stand among the foremost of his generation. In his career there
was a beautiful exemplification of the familiar words of Longfellow:

		"The heights by great men reached and kept, 
		   Were not attained by sudden flight;
		But they, while their companions slept, 
		   Were toiling upward in the night."

   Finishing his academic course, and with no assistance but from his own
energies, he entered the law office of Colonel Roswell Stone, at Warren, 
Trumbull County, and was admitted to the bar in 1827, at the age of twenty-two.
He was then in debt for his education about one thousand dollars. His father
and mother still lived, with quite limited means, in the log house at Briar
Hill. The farm was heavily mortgaged. Mr. Tod opened a law office in partnership
with Hon. Matthew Birchard.
   There is probably not one of the Western States to which so many men of
intellectual conscience and moral worth emigrated from the East as to Ohio.
The courts of Trumbull County were attended, in those days, by lawyers of great
distinction. Some of them, as Joshua R. Giddings and B.F. Wade, have attained
national celebrity. Trumbull bar was then regarded as the ablest in Ohio.
   David Tod soon acquired eminence as a jury lawyer. His commanding person, 
genial manners and musical voice always secured for him a favorable hearing.
His practice became large and profitable. He was not only able to pay the 
expenses of his education, but enjoyed the great happiness of lifting the
mortgage from his father's farm. Thus he conferred an unencumbered farm upon 
his beloved parents.
   He was a man of warm heart, and his noble mother had won his enthusiastic
devotion. He ever spoke of her as his "precious mother." After her death she
was his "sainted mother." To her influence he ascribed all that was good in 
his character, and all his success in life. He could not doubt that in her
heavenly home she was still his guardian angel. Through life he was cheered
by the hope that he should be reunited with her in the mansions of the blessed.
In a beautiful tribute to the memory of Governor Tod, written by Hon. Samuel
Galloway, we find the following interesting statement. Speaking of his mother, 
he says:
   "To her influence and example he ascribed the elements of his prosperity
and successful career. He loved to dwell upon the fact that kindness to his
mother was the key which unlocked the treasures which became the source of
his wealth. At the beginning of his professional career, when he was without
pecuniary resources, owing about one thousand dollars to friends who had
advanced him the means of procuring an academic and professional education, 
he was painfully assured that his father's creditors were about to sell the 
old family mansion, and that forbearance so long shown could no longer be
extended. The thought that his aged father and good old mother, tottering
with the infirmities of age, should become homeless wanderers, stirred his
soul to its utmost depths, and inspired him with the resolve that such a 
calamity must not and should not occur. Kind friends, admiring and sympathizing
with such rare filial devotion, came to the rescue of the young but courageous
and affectionate son. With this kind interposition he was enable to assume
all the responsiblies of the debt, and to become to owner of the farm. This
act of manhood and of love was afterwards crowned with a rich compensation
in the discovery of the coal mine imbedded in the Briar Hill premises, which
afterwards became an abundant source of his prosperity and wealth."
   This same spirit of self-sacrificing affection was extended to all the
family, and to all whom he knew. Never was there a better neighbor or a better
friend. There was a poor widow living in his vicinity. He sent some workmen
to repair her humble, dilapidated home. "Governor," the grateful woman
exclaimed, "how can I ever repay you for your kindness."
   The governor, with his accustomed playfulness, replied, "All I ask of you
is that you will attend my funeral."
   A young man who followed him to his grave, exclaimed, with gushing tears, 
"I have lost my best earthly friend. He cheered me in my days of poverty, and
aided me more than all others to my present condition and competence."
   Upon the same occasion another said: "He has been to me not only a tutor,
but a father, a brother, a friend, a happiness for thirty-five years."
   Blessed is the man who can leave such memories behind him.
   Mr. Tod continued the practice of the law with great success until the year
1844. He was a great admirer of Andrew Jackson, and became an active member
of the Democratic party, though his father was a Whig. To this party he 
adhered until the defeat of Stephen A. Douglas in 1860, and the breaking out
of the civil war seemed to obliterate all former party lines.
   In the year 1844 he removed to the home of his childhood at Briar Hill.
Here he entered upon the project of developing the coal fields which had been
discovered in that region. His integrity, abilities, and social qualities
had rendered him very popular with both parties.
   In the Spring of 1847 President Polk appointed him Minister to Brazil, to
succeed Henry A. Wise. The Brazilian Court had requested or our government
the withdrawl of Mr. Wise, as his course threatened to embroil us in a war
with that Empire. Mr. Tod, entirely unacquainted with the intrigues of 
diplomacy, and a stranger to court etiquette, accepted the appointment with
no little solicitude.
   It soon became so evident to others that he could not but admit himself
that he was the right man in the right place. He remained four years in Rio
Janiero, having home in June, 1847, with his wife and children, and returning
in December, 1851. His intelligence, sound judgement, spirit of fairness, 
and genial nature, all aided him in unraveling entanglements, and in creating
the most friendly feelings where before there was distrust and animosity. He
succeeded in concluding a convention by which the Brazilian Government paid
the United States three hundred thousand dollars. This claim had been under
negotiations for more than thirty years. Mr. Tod conducted the affair in so
frank and friendly and honest a spirit as to secure the warm commendation of
the Empire of Brazil.
   At the same time he rendered such signal service to his countrymen residing
at Rio Janiero that, upon his retirement, he was presented by them with a
very elegant place of silver plate. His important mission was recognized by
the government as a complete service. Upon his return to the home of his
childhood, his youth and his manhood, his neighbors and fellow-citizens, without
distinction of party, gave him one of these cordial greetings which remind
one of an ancient Roman triumph.
   During his long absence his private affairs had necessarily suffered from 
want of his attention. He now devoted all his energies to the development of
his coal mine, and to opening routes to market by railroads and canals. But 
for his energetic action, it is not probable that the Mahoning Valley Railroad
would have been constructed. He embarked in the undertaking with his whole
soul, and his high reputation for integrity and administrative ability enabled
the company to secure those loans which were essential to the project. His
enterprise gave a new impetus to the beautiful City of Youngstown, adding
greatly to its wealth and its attraction.
   David Tod was sent, by his Democratic friends, as a delegate to the Charleston
Convention of 1860. He was then a warm advocate of Stephen A. Douglas for
the Presidency of the United States. Caleb Cushing was chosen President of
the Convention; David Tod, Vice President. The arrogant, dictatorial air 
assumed by the pro-slavery party of the South disgusted Mr. Tod. He bade
defiance to their threats of secession. The Convention adjourned to Baltimore.
The ultra party pro-slavery party withdrew, with Caleb Cushing at their head.
Mr. Tod was recognized as President of the Baltimore Convention, and Douglas
was its nominee for the National Presidency.
   One of the most exciting political campaigns out country ever knew ensued.
Mr. Tod "stumped" the state for Douglas. Upon the defeat of Douglas and the 
election of Lincoln, like a true patriot, he declared his resolve to support
the administrative of Mr. Lincoln. When our national flag was treasonably
assaulted at Fort Sumner, Mr. Tod cast aside all party trammels in entire
devotion to the integrity of the Union.
   Again his eloquent voice was raised as he traveled far and wide, advocating
the vigorous prosecution of the war till every rebel should be subdued. From
this eventful hour he did everything he could do, with both voice and purse, 
to maintain the supremacy of that dear old flag, in whose folds the interests
of all humanity seem to be enshrined. He fully recognized the fact that there
was not, upon this globe, another flag which so fully symbolized the brotherhood
of man. He subscribed largely to the war fund of his township. He provided
Company B, of the Nineteenth Regiment, with their first uniform. And thus till
the war ended, he consecrated himself to the salvation of his country.
   When President Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation reached Youngstown, 
Mr. Tod, having perused it, sent for two of his friends, and, with a countenance
beaming with animation, inquired:
   "Have you read the President's Proclamation, and are you ready to sustain
it?"
   "Yes," they replied, "and whatever else President Lincoln may do to maintain
the cause of freedom."
   "That is right," Mr. Tod replied; "Lincoln knows better than you or I 
what is the best policy for our dear country. We must have a public meeting
to-night, and we must all address the people."
   The meeting was called and Mr. Tod made the opening speech. He avowed it
as his conviction that we could not expect that God would crown our arms with
victory until we did justice by the emancipation of the enslaved.
   In the darkest hour, and when our country seemed to be in the most deadly
peril, the patriots of Ohio met, without distinction of party, and nominated
David Tod for Governor. He was elected by a majority of fifty-five thousand.
In all the other states, there were many who did everything in their power to
embarrass the actions of the government. Ohio was threatened with invasion
from the South. Being quite unaccustomed to war, our military affairs were in
a very chaotic state. We needed more troops, better organization, immense 
sums of money, means of transportation, surgeons, nurses.
   Governor Tod was then found to be the right man in the right place. He was
unwearied in his devotion to the sick and the wounded. The widows and orphans
of those who fell in this cruel war received his constant care. His sound
judgment enabled him to appoint officers of great efficiency. His first 
inquiry was, in reference to any candidate for office:
   "Does the applicant ever indulge in excess in intoxicating drinks?"
   If this question could not be answered in the negative, he would not even
look at any other qualifications. It can not be doubted that, during the war,
thousands of precious lives were sacrificed to the orders of drunken officers.
   Governor Tod made but few requests of President Lincoln, or of Mr. Stanton,
Secretary of War. This drew from the President the remark: "David Tod aids
me more and troubles me less than any other governor."
   Upon his retirement from the Executive office, the Legislature of Ohio, 
passed a series of resolutions complimentary, in the highest degree, of his
rule. These resolutions were entered on the journals and published in the
volume of Ohio laws for 1864. The war was still raging. The following extract
from this important document demands insertion here:
   "Resolved, That the thanks of the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, 
are hereby tendered to Gover
   Charles, thus thwarted in his favorite pursuit, and being of enthusiastic
and restless of mind, was anxious to enter the army. But his friends so 
strenuously remonstrated against this course, that he relinquished the plan.
He then resolved to turn trapper. His imagination was captivated by the thought
of exploring the sublime solitudes of the Rocky Mountains, of paddling in the 
birch canoe over the crystal waters of rivers hitherto unexplored and nameless,
of sharing the hospitality of the Indians in their wigwams, and of gaining
wealth by the rich furs he should take, and which ever found a ready sale in 
the St. Louis market. But in opposition to these wild dreams of youth his
judicious friends again so vigorously interposed, that he felt constrained to
abandon this enterprise also.
   Thus bitterly disappointed, there seemed to be no resource left for him 
but to study law. Eight of the sons and sons-in-law of Colonel Richard Clough
Anderson were lawyers. Charles returned to Louisville and entered himself as
a student in the distinguished firm of Pirtle & Anderson. He was a young man
of genius, of brilliant parts, with a great command of language, and a intuitive
power of disentangling intricacies. We infer, from the whole of his career, 
that patient, plodding industry was not the most prominent of his virtues.
    In the year 1835, having completed his law studies, he went to Dayton, and
on the 16th of September was married to Miss Eliza Jane Brown, a young lady
whom he met three years before, at his college commencement, and for whom he
had formed a strong attachment.
   Dayton was a pleasant, growing place, and Mr. Anderson decided to remain
and open an office there. He had but little zeal in his profession, and was
inspired with no glowing desire to become distinguished. For ten years he 
remained in Dayton, half lawyer and half farmer, but ever displaying a strength
of moral principle, a magnanimity and calm independence of character which
was for him the increasing respect of the community.
   What was called the township of Dayton then comprehended not only the present
Dayton, but Van Buren, Harrison and Mud River Townships. Mr. Anderson, in
consequence of his earnest advocacy of popular education, was elected Town
Clerk and Superintendent of the Common Schools. To carry into vigorous effect
the new school law of 1836, he traversed the whole of this wide region on 
foot, taking a census of the entire population. Soon after he was elected
Prosecuting Attorney of his county. In 1844 he became a member of the State
Senate. Here the moral courage which conspicuously marked his life was 
displayed, in being the first man in Ohio who dared to propose and vote for 
the repeal of the cruel law which disqualified colored men for appearing as
witnesses in legal trials.
   The pro-slavery spirit was then so rampant in our land that for this act
Mr. Anderson was bitterly denounced as an abolitionist and a fool. It is 
said but a single one of his contituents ever expressed to him any commendation
for this legislative act. Being a man of exquisite taste, by nature endowed
with a remarkable love of the fine arts, especially of architecture, he was 
heartily ashamed of the old state house, and gave the grand jury no peace
until they presented it as a nuisance, and it was replaced by the present
beautiful and classical edifice. His influence undoubtedly also originated the
park between Second and Third Streets, which now embellishes the city. For 
his distinguished services, in those respects, the citizens of Columbus 
presented him with two beautiful canes.
   During his senatorial term, Mr. Anderson's health failed from very severe
attacks of asthma. As the disaster baffled the efforts of our ablest physicians,
he undertook a voyage to Europe, to place himself under the care of the
renowned Dr. Priessnitz, the discoverer of the water-cure treatment, in
Grafenberg, Austria-Silesia. This led him to an unusually extensive European
tour.
   He descended the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans. Thence he took
a sail vessel to Havana. At that port he embarked for Barcelona, Spain, by
the way of the Azores. Fortunately he entered this interesting and beautiful
city as the populace were in a state of great excitement in receiving their
young Queen Isabella, with her splendid court. The Queen and her younger 
sister, the Dutchess of Montpensier, were then in their teens. The queen-mother
was also present. It was a very brilliant display of royalty; far different
from any thing to which American eyes have been accustomed.
   But Mr. Anderson was far too severe a republican to be dazzled by this
display which was mainly, to his mind, indicative of the ignorance and
impoverishment of the people. But he was intensely interested in the 
architectural splender of this magnificent city. The old palace of the Kings
of Aragon rose before him, a majestic pile of grandeur. The great cathedral, 
with its windows of gorgeously stained glass, presented one of the finest
specimens of Gothic architecture. And the celebrated promenade, the Rambla,
which the wealth of ages had embellished, opened to his view scenes which 
must have been surpassingly attractive to one born and bred beyond the
Alleghenies. As by a step, he had passed from all the freshness of the 
wilderness of the new world, to all the sublimity of the time-worn memorials
of the most ancient days.
   We have not space here to describe the incidents of his continued tour, 
every hour of which was replete with intensest interest. He passed the beautiful
province of Catalonia, whose early history is lost in the maze of the past.
In imagination the conquering legions of Rome passed before him; then the
shaggy wolfish hordes of the Goths. They were followed by the agile Moors, 
with blood-dripping cimeters, as war's most horrid billows swept over the 
doomed land.
   He crossed the Pyrenees; visited Montpelier, Nismes, Narbonne, and Avignon.
Every city and almost every mile of the way were crowded with the most
exciting historic events to a mind familiar with the past.
   At Avignon he took a steamboat and descended the rapid Rhone to Marcelles.
The boats then upon the river were very different from the floating palaces
which now adorn our great streams. They were about one hundred feet long
and twenty-five feet wide. In their general appointments they were scarcely
equal to our canal packets. The pilot stood at the helm with the tiller in 
his hand. These boats could make but four miles an hour against the stream, 
and fourteen with its aid.
   But the scenery was enchanting, unsurpassed perhaps in picturesque beauty
by that of any other river on the globe. The stream wound its way through
continued vineyards, sheltered by mountains rising from five hundred to two
thousand feet. Every variety of landscape charms now presented. The eminences
assumed every imaginable form; now rugged, now smooth. Again a space most
gloomily sterile, would be succeeded by Eden-like luxuriance and bloom, as 
the terraced eminences were cultivated to their summits. Through the breaks 
in the mountains the snow-clad summits of the Alps could be seen in the 
distance, rising majestically to the skies. Often the river would be so
enclosed by hills that one could not imagine where it had escaped. There was
almost an unbroken line of large towns, villages, hamlets, cottages, beautiful
villas, and baronial castles, with their battlemented walls and massive 
towers, reaching back from the river's bank to the mountains. The valley, 
sometimes contracted to a mile in width, would again expand into a plain of
marvelous luxuriance ten or twelve miles broad.
   We describe these scenes thus minutely, since they afford so striking a
contrast to anything which could then or even now can be seen on the Ohio, 
the Scioto, or the Miami. After spending ten days at Marcelles, he passed on
to Genoa, Rome, Naples, Syracuse, Aetna, Malta, Corfu, the Gulf of Lepanto,
Athens, the Isles of Greece, Smyrna and Constantinople.
   From this most wonderful city he passed through perhaps the most attractive
sheet of water on the globe to the Black Sea. Then he ascended the whole
course of the Danube, touching at every place of interest, until he reached
Vienna. At all these places he devote the most eager attention to the study
of the fine arts. He particularly enjoyed the rich music of the highly cultivated
bands and choirs of those regions.
   From Vienna he explored the battle-fields of Wagram and Austerlitz; visited
Olmutz, renowned as the seat of La Fayette's five years of captivity; and
thence to Grafenburg. Here he soon found his health materially improved. After
spending six weeks, subject to the water-cure treatment, he passed through
Saxon-Switzerland to Prague. While descending the River Elbe in a canal-packet
he made the acquaintance of the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar.
   The duke had traveled in this country. Thought doubtless glad that an 
ocean three thousand miles in breadth rolled between republican America and
his baronial halls, he was exceedingly interested in what he saw here, so
totally different from anything he had ever witnessed, or even conceived of, 
in his own land. He said that he had called upon Governor Jeremiah Morrow, 
of Ohio. He found the governor, in the coarse garb of a common laborer, wearing
a red flannel shirt, at work burning the brush in a clearing. His hands and
his face were besmeared with charcoal.
   The duke, from his ancestral halls, ever clothed in regal purple, surrounded
with the splendors and almost idolarous obsequiousness of feudel homage, must
have gazed upon such a spectacle with the greatest astonishment. He expressed
much admiration for Ohio's model governor; but it is very certain that he had
no wish to imitate his example.
   From Dresden Mr. Anderson passed through Leipsic, Weimar, Frankfort, to
Weisbaden, and thence down that beautiful river where
			"The castled crags of Drachenfels,
			 From o'er the wide and winding Rhine."
Tarrying a short time at innumerable places of interest, he spent a week in
Paris, and, crossing over to Liverpool, took passage in a Cunard steamer for
his native land. As he returned to his home, from this instructive tour, with
health greatly renovated, he removed to Cincinnati and entered into partnership,
for the practice of his profession, with Rufus King, Esq. For eleven years
he continued in the busy offices of the bar. His health again failing, he
decided to seek a milder climate.
   His original farming propensities still clung to him. He went to Texas, 
there to imitate the lives of the patriarchs, amidst his herds, in raising
horses and mules. He had ever been an earnest Henry Clay Whig, and was much 
opposed to the actions of the Democratic party in its attempts to annex Texas
as a measure of slavery propagandism. When he reached Texas he soon found that
all the prominent men there, and the masses of people, were fanatically excited
in favor of a dissolution of the Union, and the establishment of a new 
government for the Southern States, with monarchiacal forms, and based on
slavery. They would seek the protectorate of England; send their cotton to
England, and receive goods of English manufacture in return.
   This was in 1859. His discerning mind soon perceived that there was a 
widely-organized and treasonable conspiracy to accomplish this end. Rapidly
the treason made headway among the ignorant masses of the South. The plan
adopted was very cunning. The South, while seemingly opposed to the election
of any northern candidate opposed to slavery to the Presidency, was to lend
its secret aid for such a result. There was no term which could be uttered
to the southern mind more full of opprobium than that of Abolitionist. Having
elected one not friendly to the extension of slavery, they could then declare
it to have been a northern measure, and, appealing to southern fanaticism, 
would call loudly for a dissolution of the Union, on the ground that as an
Abolitionist was in the Presidential chair, the safety of the South demanded
the dissolution of the Union.
   Mr. Anderson, with moral courage rarely surpassed, and with integrity
worthy of all praise, opposed these suicidal measures, when he stood alone
exposed to the fury of pro-slavery fanaticism. Revolutions bring the dregs of
society to its surface. Mr. Anderson received anonymous letters threatening
him with assassination and every conceivable indignity. There was a large
gathering of the secessionists at San Antonio, Texas, on the 20th of November,
1860. Many inflammatory speeches were made. Mr. Anderson then addressed the
excited multitude in a strain of patriotic eloquence rarely surpassed. We 
have room but for one short extract:
   "We have truly fallen upon evil times. A meeting of American citizens is 
here solemnly convened, seriously to discuss and decide the further existance
of our blessed Union. And has it indeed come to this? Has the madness of 
faction, the virulence of fanaticism, at last reached this point? Have sectional
partisans finally dared to make or devise an assault upon this beloved and 
most glorious Union which our fathers of the South and the North shed their 
united blood to cement and establish; which our mothers blessed in the earliest
prayers of our infancy; which nurtured and protected our first and best years,
and which, under God's providence, is, I trust destined to be to our children's
children, to the latest generation of mankind, the very greatest boon and
blessing which human minds and hands ever planned and executed, or which the
Divine will has ever permitted.
   "Oh, may it stand, my friends, as deep in the earth and as high in the air
as the grandest mountains; as wide and glorious as old ocean, and as enclosing
and vitalizing to its generations as the circumambient air. Whilst ever these
fair, blue and bended skies, with their kindling lights of day and night, 
shall surround our earth, may this dear Union of our native land continue to
encompass us and ours forever."
   There was, perhaps, not another man in Texas who would have had the moral
courage to make such a speech on this occasion. There were many noble Union
men there, but they could not express their sentiments but at the peril of
their lives. Such men were continually visited by a vigilance committee, 
tarred and feathered, and hung. The most prominent man in these murders was 
one of the wealthiest citizens of San Antonio, and a prominent member of the
Methodist Church.
   Notwithstanding this bold denunciation of treason and traitors, Mr. Anderson's
dignity of character and high reputation for integrity and honor, were such
that even the most fanatic secessionists did not venture immediately to assail
him. But ere long the Confederate Congress, at Richmond, passed a law allowing
forty days for any citizen of the United States, and who still adhered to the
United States, to leave the Southern Confederacy, or else to be thereafter
subject to the pains and penalties of treason.
   Mr. Anderson was compelled to abandon his property, disposing of it at
whatever sacrifice. He could not with any safety run the gauntley of the 
Confederate States. He therefore started for home by way of Mexico. He was
pursued by an armed force, captured and brought back to Antonio. Here he was
imprisoned, and his life was in great peril. There was in San Antonio an aged
and friendless widow, Mrs. Ann C. Ludlum, who loved "the dear old flag,"
and who revered the man who so nobly defended it. Her heart was moved with
the most tender sympathy for the imperiled stranger.
   This heroic woman enlisted the services of an equally heroic and noble
German, Mr. T. Z. Houzeau, and actually accomplished Mr. Anderson's escape.
And this they did while fully conscious that if they should be detected in
this, their deed of heavenly mercy, they would surely die upon the gibbet.
Ere long Mrs. Ludlum's undisguised love for the Union caused her to be driven
from her home into Mexico. The names of Ludlum and Houzeau, Americans should
ever remember and honor.
   Mr. Anderson, through many perils, succeeded in reaching the Northern states.
England, not unwilling to see our Union broken up, was in sympathy with the
rebels. Mr. Anderson was urged to go to England, and by lectures there to
endeavor to turn the tide of British public opinion and feeling in regard to
the whole question. The special necessity for this service seemed to be the
impending crisis caused by the seizing by Commodore Wilkes of Mason and
Slidell. To this end he was furnished with the best possible testimonials to
the Hon. Charles Francis Adams, then our very able Minister Plenipotentiary
to the Court of St. James, as also to Messrs. Cobden and Hope, Miss Martineau,
and many other influential personages of England. The result we give in the
language of another. We give it without comment, simply as a very clear 
explanation of his failure in England.
   "But he soon found that the American affairs had already been superabundantly
discussed by Mr. Train and others; and moreover that the particular class, 
who, in that stage of the question, were at all amenable to influence in favor
of the Union party, was far more alive to the black philanthropy than to the
white civilization of the case. Whereas, of course, with much sympathy for the
slaves, and a decided opinion that slaveholders should lose, and would forever
lose that property, he could not honestly put himself in accord with the 
current ideas of that class, that slavery could qualify its victims, the 
slaves, to equal rights of suffrage in the new and stupendous issues then
immenent in the great trial of Republical institutions.
   "For the rest, he frankly advised his friends over the water, that between
these sentiments, in so far as they were separable, patriotism was with him
a very far stronger passion than philosophy. As between the two classes, if
forced to make an election, he was compelled to prefer his own color and
race to the African or any other. For those reasons he gave up all ideas of
delivering his course of lectures upon the rebellion to the British people.
Treating this loss of time and money, therefore, as another vain sacrifice 
to that cause of his country which had ever been his religion, he again returned
to the United States."
   It was not to have been expected that Mr. Anderson, born in Kentucky, and
from infancy surrounded by slaves and breathing the atmosphere of slavery, 
could have regarded that subject as it was looked upon in the North by millions
who had never seen a slave. Returning to America, Mr. Anderson was appointed
colonel of the 93rd Regiment of Ohio Volunteers, as gallant a band as patriotism
ever sent into the battle-field.
   But we have not space to enter the details of his military service, of his 
chivalric courage, his wounds, and his almost miraculous escape from death
at the battle of Stone River. Wounds, and the exhaustion of this terrible
campaining, so impaired his health that he was compelled to resign his 
commission. But he now stood so high in the esteem of his fellow citizens
that he was soon chosen Lieutenant Governor of Ohio. Governor Brough was the
Chief Executive. His sudden death transferred Colonel Anderson to the 
gubernatorial chair, and he became the Governor of Ohio. Thus he took his 
position in the ranks of that long line of noble men whose administrative
ability has raised Ohio to the proud position which the imperial state now
occupies.
   At the close of the war Governor Anderson advocated immediate and general
amnesty. He was strongly opposed to that impartial ballot which disclaimed
all the tests of color. This led him to pass into the ranks of the Democratic
party. Upon retiring from the officer of governor, with fortune much diminished
by the war, he removed to Kentucky, and settled upon a large iron estate upon
the Cumberland River in Lyon County. Here he now lives, in 1874, in the
seclusion of private life, revered and beloved by all who know him.