OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List Issue 49 *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 49 Today's Topics: #1 Fw: Chapter 42 - Part A ["Maggie Stewart" To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <0b7701bf75cf$6ccfc8e0$0300a8c0@local.net> Subject: Fw: Chapter 42 - Part A Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: Kay L. Mason 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 Continued in Part B -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V00 Issue #49 ******************************************