Chardon -
HON. ISAAC N. HATHAWAY.
     Were this volume being compiled for the present generation only it would be unnecessary to give place in it to the record of the life of the worthy citizen whose name is presented above, for he is so well and favorably known, not only to the people of northeastern Ohio, but of the State, that little can be said of him but what is already known. As general history is written for the future, so to a large degree is biography, and to place in a substantial book form the memoirs of one of Geauga county's most noble and distinguished citizens is the object of this sketch.
     Books are permanent chronicles which transmit to future ages the memory of those whose lives are recorded within their sacred pages; and when the subjects treated of are as worthy as the one whose name heads this memoir they become an inspiration for good to the present and future generations.
     Isaac Newton Hathaway, of Chardon, Ohio, was born June 8, 1827, and is the oldest attorney in practice in Geauga county, of which he is a native. The first of his ancestors of whom anything definite is known was William Hathaway, who was born at Fall River, Massachusetts, of Welsh descent. He was a seafaring man and was chiefly engaged in whaling, and would often make voyages of three years' duration.  He was an enterprising, thrifty man, and was held in high respect. Heavy depredations were committed upon his marine interests by privateers during the war of 1812, and in recompense he received in liquidation from the State of Connecticut 6,000 acres of land on the Western Reserve in Ohio. He died at Fall River, at an advanced age. His son, James Hathaway (father of the subject of this biography), accompanied by a cousin, came to Ohio, in 1816, making the journey on foot. He was born at Fall River, Massachusetts, January 1, 1799. He settled on a grant of 400 acres of land made to him by his father in what is now Geauga county. Upon this he subsequently made extensive improvements.' Having established himself in his new home, he returned to Massachusetts for the companion of his heart's choice, Miss Miranda Ashley, of Springfield, born in 1806, to whom he was united in marriage. With his bride he returned to the West, this time making the journey with a primitive team. While East he had been appointed agent for the Connecticut Land Company for some of the lands in Geauga county. He immediately upon his first arrival set about the great work of his life,—that of developing a new country and recovering it from a wilderness. He became identified with the early pioneer interests of the section of the country in which he located, taking a leading part in agriculture, manufacture, commerce and all business enterprises of the county, thereby contributing largely to its development and progress. Money was scarce there, and through his enterprises and his commercial transactions he was enabled to bring money in and distribute it among the people. His operations were as varied as they were extensive, and for many years he was the life of the community. In 1844 all his manufacturing interests were destroyed by fire, entailing not only a great financial loss to him, but a great set-back to the country.
     At an early day he was appointed by the State, Fund Commissioner of Geauga county for the distribution of her portion of the surplus revenue distributed to the several States, from the sales of public lands and revenue. For many years he was Justice of the Peace and County Commissioner. In 1848, he was elected Sheriff and re-elected for the second term, on the Free Soil ticket. After the expiration of his term as Sheriff he was extensively engaged in the prosecution of pension and bounty land claims. Later he became interested in Western enterprises and removed to northern Illinois in 1860, where he died in 1868, his widow following him in 1887.
      In person, Mr. Hathaway was large and well built. He early interested himself in the cause of the Christian Church and contributed largely to its support and growth. In disposition he was warm-hearted, genial and social, he was generous, charitable and benevolent, ever ready to help the poor or his friends. To his family he was much devoted, being an affectionate husband and father.
     Isaac N. Hathaway, the subject of this biography, secured his education in the common schools and at the "Western Reserve Academy at Kirtland, and a part of the time while there was a student in the old Mormon Temple. During the time his father, was Sheriff, he acted as deputy, gaining thereby valuable experience for future work. While thus engaged he began the study of law under the direction of Phelps & Riddle, then a prominent law firm of Chardon. He made rapid progress in his studies and was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1854. He immediately began his practice, forming a partnership with W. O. Forrest.  He rose rapidly in the profession and soon became one of the leading lawyers in northeastern Ohio. Later the firm became Durfey, Forrest & Hathaway, and then Thresher, Durfey & Hathaway. This association later gave place to the firm of Canfield & Hathaway. When Mr. Canfield was elected to the bench, Mr. Hathaway took in as a partner Mr. C. W. Osborne, a young man whom he had taken into his office and whom he had trained for the legal profession. This last partnership was a prosperous one and the firm did a large business, but Mr. Osborne saw a more inviting and a larger field for his abilities at Painesville to which place he went, since which time Mr. Hathaway has conducted his business alone.
     Mr. Hathaway has been in continuous practice and in the same town for nearly forty years, the longest time covered by any attorney in Geauga county. During this long period he has had the confidence of his brother attorneys, of the court and the people, and has held the reputation as an honest, earnest and faithful lawyer. His ambition was to be a good lawyer and this desideratum has been eminently realized. While devoted to his profession he has occasionally been drawn into the political arena. Though always interested in politics and taking an active and prominent part in the councils of his party and in the campaigns, he has never sought political preferment. Mr. Hathaway has, adjacent to Chardon, three line farms, the cultivation of which not only affords him much pleasure, but offers him diversion from his professional duties.
     In 1872 Mr. Hathaway was elected to the State Senate from the counties of Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula, and while a member of that body served on the judiciary and other committees of less importance. He declined a re-nomination, as the position took too much time from his profession. Prior to this he was Prosecuting Attorney, holding the position from 1858 to 1862. In 1880 he was solicited again to be a candidate for the Legislature; he accepted the candidacy and was elected to the lower house to represent the counties of Lake and Geauga. He was again placed on the judicial committee, and served also on other committees. He was re-elected and during the second term was chosen speaker pro tern., a position which he filled with ability, dignity and impartiality.
     At home Mr. Hathaway has served as Mayor and has held various other positions in the municipality. In 1848 he was a delegate to the Philadelphia convention which nominated Zachary Taylor for President; and also to the Chicago convention of 1868, which nominated General Grant, and to the Chicago convention of 1888, when Benjamin Harrison was nominated.
     Early in life he became connected with the Masonic order, and has been actively and prominently identified with that body ever since. He is a member of the Scottish Kites, having taken the thirty-second degree, and also of the Mystic Shrine. He was one of the first members of the latter order in Ohio. For many years he has been an active member of the I. O. O. F. He was one of the organizers in Ohio of the Order of the Eastern Star; was the first Worthy Grand Patron of the Grand Chapter of the order, and aided largely in its development.
     Mr. Hathaway was united in marriage, January 9, 1854, to Sarah J., the accomplished daughter of Moses Hayden, one of the pioneers of Geauga county. Two children were born of this union: Charles J., deceased, and Katie, who was married to Charles McD. Kile, one child being born to them, Edith, now a bright and most lovable young girl of fifteen summers.
     Mrs. Hathaway departed this life July 29, 1882, to the great bereavement of her family and deeply mourned by a large circle of friends. She was a woman of great purity of character, and was distinguished for her sweetness of disposition, her large benevolence, and her charity to the poor. Mr. Hathaway has never remarried.
     Before closing the biography of one of Chardon's most distinguished citizens, a few words voicing the sentiment of the people may not be out of place. Mr. Hathaway is a man above the medium size, well formed, of courteous manners and pleasing address; he is social and genial by nature, of generous impulses and steadfast in friendship; he is most charitable in his intercourse with his fellow-men, and his hand is always open to the poor. He is essentially a home man, and through life his first thought was for his family, to whom he has ever been devoted. As a lawyer he has won the reputation of being a close student, very careful in the preparation of his causes and very successful in their trial. He always commands the respect of the court, the confidence of the jury and the good-will of the bar. He is above the petty tricks of the pettifogger, but goes to trial with his causes in full faith that the law and the evidence are all-sufficient for the demands of justice. Upon his long career as a professional man and a citizen there is no blemish. He has lived to see the place of his nativity grow to a beautiful city, in the van of civilization and culture, and as his shadow falls toward the East he can take a retrospective view of the past and contemplate with pride the growth and development of the community to which he has been a potential factor. He can also rest in the enjoyment of that consciousness, blessed with the thought that he has dealt fairly and squarely with his constituency and with the people, and that he has not been entirely selfish; that while he has wrought for himself, he has also wrought for the good of the people. He has been true to his convictions of right, true in the discharge of every duty which has devolved upon him, true to the community in which he has dwelt, and true to the State.
Source: 1798 Pioneer and General History of Geauga County with Sketches of some of the Pioneers and Prominent Men. - Published by The Historical Society of Geauga County, 1880 - Page 343

Burton -
PETER HITCHCOCK
     This gentleman, known during the life of his father as Peter Hitchcock, jr., was the third, and youngest, son of the late Chief Justice and Nabby Hitchcock.  He was born in Burton, Geauga county, Ohio, Jan. 16, 1818, and has always resided on the farm where he first saw the light.
     The Hitchcock's are a remarkable strain of men, and one turns from the meagre sketches of the father, Peter, and the elder brother, Reuben, given in the Messrs. Williams' book of Geauga and Lake counties, with disappointment and regret.  There is not the slightest reference to the ancestry of the family, save that the elder judge's father was unable to aid him in securing his education, nor is there the scantiest mention of the female portion of the family.  Such men do not spring from accidents, and it is no violation of the reserve due to women, to give some account of the mothers who bore them. I trust that the history of Burton, to which this is appended, written from the bosom of abundant memory and tradition, will supply those omissions which the scanty data before me do not furnish the means of doing.  This is due to the subjects of these sketches, and the noble women to whom they are so much indebted.
     At the time of the birth of the junior Peter, Ohio was still the west, and Geauga county quite a wilderness. Burton had been settled 20 years.  Troy was still a part of the township.  Claridon was then called Burlington, and was severed from it the year before, as was Newbury, and many other townships.  Montville received its first settlers only three years before, and Russell her first a few months after his birth.  His father, at that time, represented a large portion of the State in Congress, and was elected to his first term on the bench of the supreme court the year following.  Burton, one of the oldest settled townships of the Reserve, had passed quite through the wilderness, and the Hitchcocks had escaped the straits and pressure of pioneer life.  The childhood, boyhood, and youth of the younger son, was surrounded with the healthy, bracing atmosphere, with all the habits of industry, thrift, and prudence, of an intelligent and enterprising New England family, and community, transplanted into the freer woods and on to the more fertile soil of the west. It was a family of education, redolent of the religious faith and training of the puritans, the traces of which often become indelible lines of character.  Even the youngest boy in such a family, with such surroundings, was in little danger of becoming a spoilt child.  Slight, lithe, active, spirited, adventurous, with abounding good nature, full of fun and frolic, he could not fail of being a general favorite, nor did he ever quite outgrow this pleasant peril.
     He commenced going to school at three.  Homer Goodwin brought tobacco to school.  He begged it, chewed, and was laid terribly sick across the end of a slab bench, never afterwards using the vile stuff.  His education was finished, so far as schools are concerned, in "the old academy," at twelve.  Considering that his father and elder brothers were graduates of Yale, this seems a little remarkable.  It arose from no lack of aptitude for study.  In this he was quick and precocious, and would certainly have held his own in Yale, and succeeded in any profession.  That was not his bent.  His father was away.  His brothers were pursuing their professions elsewhere.  Here was his mother, his sisters, his beautiful home, the free, delightful, stimulating life of the farm, of cattle and horses, fields, woods, birds, spring, summer, and sunshine.  He chose them, and chose wisely, and his father wisely indulged him in his choice.  Later, when his elder brother, oppressed with overwork, would have gladly received him to the law and taken him to his side, he preferred his farm life. There is much in this domestic home life of Mr. Hitchcook, that presents many interesting features and pleasant pictures, which the necessary limits of this sketch preclude even a reference to.  He was a true farmer and an enlightened agriculturist.
     At the age of twenty-three, on the 8th of February, 1841, he was united in marriage with Miss Eliza Ann Cook, third daughter of Hiram Cook, of Burton, a fresh, lovely, and very interesting young lady of that day.  The union is to be esteemed happy and fortunate.  They became the parents of four children, three of whom are still living.  Reuben Augustus, something after the pattern of his grandfather, in mold of body and mind, is now the managing head of the large business house of J. S. Ford, Johnson & Co., in Chicago.  Ann Cynthia, the only daughter, and a younger brother, Herbert Witter, remain at home with the family.  Charles Cook, entering the service in 1862, was, just before his eighteenth birthday, instantly killed in the battle of Perrysville.
     Burton was a place in which the old military spirit kept alive by the memo ries of the Revolution and the war of 1812, was the last to die out.  As soon as Peter, jr., was of military age, he became a member of Colonel H. H. Ford's "Geauga Guards," handsomely uniformed in "Kentucky grey," and a thoroughly drilled company.  At twenty-four he became the captain ot the same company, commissioned by Thomas Corwin, commanding it for ten years thereafter.
     In May, 1862, he was mainly instrumental in organizing the Geauga Blues, of which Governor Tod commissioned him captain.  This was kept alive for any emergency. One arose in 1864, and it was called into active service by Governor Brough, and saw its share of the 100 days service.  It became a part of the 171st Regt. O. N. G., was at Johnson's Island a part of the time.  In its ranks were some of the best men of the county, some of whom, like their commander, were then past military age.
     It is needless to say that Mr. H. was one of the most ardent and active patriots.  He spent his time, used his wide influence, and freely his means, in securing and forwarding soldiers to the field.  Gen. Hazen recognized his active labor and influence in the formation of the 41st Ohio, in 1861, and attributed to him more than any other man, the numerous enlistments that so quickly filled the regiment, and early made it ready for the field.  He declined positions of rank and honor, and his labors under the war governors of Ohio were almost gratuitous.  He was appointed, by Gov. Tod, quartermaster in the 1st Ohio colored regiment, and would gladly have gone out in that service, but was prevented by paramount duties at home.  From the time of the first commission by Corwin he held some position, military or civil, until the last issued by Gov. Hayes, in 1877.
     In 1846 Mr. Hitchcock was elected a justice of the peace, and re-elected till he held the office 18 consecutive years.  With all his family and their relations, the Fords, Cooks, and others, he was an ardent Whig, and his first remembered speech, was in the memorable canvass of 1840.  This was on the return of a large delegation from one of the great mass conventions held at Ravenna, and was delivered from the platform of a four-horse wagon, in front of Pinney's tavern and brought out the party huzzas.  This year his first vote for president was cast for Harrison.  In 1849 he was the regular Whig candidate for representative, against A. G. Riddle, the Free-soil nominee.  It has been said that Mr. H. was defeated by a coalition between the Free-soilers and Democrats.  It is true, the Democrats of Geauga spontaneously nominated Mr. R., but the majority against Mr. H. was considerably more than the whole Democratic vote.  It is probably true that Mr. Hitchcock ran ahead of his ticket on that occasion, and was personally always a very popular man.
     He remained a Whig until the formation of the Republican party.  He was with great unanimity placed in nomination for the house of representatives in 1857, and elected, and re-elected in 1859.  In 1861, he was by election transferred to the Senate.  He sensed again in the House in 1866-67, and was returned for 1870-71.  He was elected to the constitutional convention, which sat through two sessions in Cincinnati in 1873-74, and was again elected to the House of 1876-77, and re-elected for 1878-79, and again chosen to the Senate of 1880.
     Doubtless, Mr. Hitchcock, upon his entrance into the House, was remembered as the son of his father.  No mere name, however, could curry any man and sustain him in the career so successfully pursued by Mr. Hitchcock, and his fellow-members, and the State, soon came to understand that the still young, and slightly-formed farmer, was there on his own account, and on his own merit.  Modest, with pleasing manners, well informed, active, fully alive to his duties, of strong, quick mind, he soon came to be known and trusted as one of the most intelligent, useful, and reliable men of the House.  One of the most unassuming of men, he gained nothing by seeming or pretense, and what he gained he never lost.  Naturally fluent, he becarrie a ready debater and good speaker.  Though not a lawyer, his appreciative readiness soon enabled him to master the rules of the House, and when Mr. Speaker Parsons resigned the chair, in 1861, Mr. Hitchcock was elected speaker, a great and deserved compliment to his character and standing, He was afterwards often called to the chair, was twice Speaker pro tem, of the House, and also president of the Senate, pro tem.  In both houses, and while a member of the constitutional convention, he occupied prominent places on important committees, and was chairman of the committee on finance, and came to be known as one of the ablest, most useful and reliable legislators of the State.
     Among the prominent matters before legislature in his time, there was the proposed amendment to the constitution, conferring the right of suffrage upon men of African blood.  As the parties were then balanced, and power distributed, the success of the measure was one of grave difficulty and doubt.  Mr. Hitchcock was the recognized leader of his party, knew the men well, and all the forces to be met, conciliated and used.  The result shows, in a general way, his success, it was one of those struggles and successses, however, which few can appreciate, for few can ever understand the difficulties to be met and over come.  Possessed of superior diplomatic ability, few men are better calculated to skillfully handle such a problem.
     In the debates of the Ohio constitutional convention, in 1873-74, upon the question of female suffrage, he said: "Convince me that the majority of the women of the State desire the ballot, and upon my part there would be no hesitation.  Say what you may, it is nevertheless true, that in conferring suffrage you impose weighty responsibilities.  They cannot be thrown off, but must be discharged.  By neglecting to vote no one is relieved from responsibility.  Give to woman the ballot, and all women, not alone those who desire it, but all women throughout the State, will be held responsible for its use.  All persons and all parties will call upon them to vote, and from the very necessity of the case, they will be forced to do it.  In determing my own course, it is sufficient to be thoroughly persuaded that a very large majority of the women of Ohio, are found in opposition to this proposition.  While not fearing evil to the body politic, from conferring suffrage upon woman; neither do I fear its degrading influence upon herself.  My confidence in her ability to discharge this great responsibility, if imposed upon her, in a judicious manner, preserving her integrity and womanly character, is very great.  For woman and a truly womanly character, my admiration knows no bounds.  If there be any influence irresistible, outside of Ornnipitence, that influence is hers.  But I am unable to divest myself of the conviction which has thus far accompanied my life, that appropriately, in one sphere, man in the out of door, rough-and-tumble public life and labor, discharges his duty, while in another, woman, quietly moulding character, shapes the destiny of man, and secures the best good of both.  With this remains the conviction that the proposed change will not advance the best good of either." 
     The important subject of State finance and taxation early became quite a specialty with Mr. Hitchcock, and few men in the State better understood its resources, or are capable of devising sounder methods of realizing and applying them.  So entirely above party is he, that leading democrats in the legislature of 1878-9 credited him with doing more to serve the interests of the State, upon questions of finance and taxation, than any member of the house.
     So, the paramount subject of education, early and constantly received his  earnest and enlightened attention.  Ohio has much to be proud of, in her system of popular education.  Perhaps the representatives of no county in the State have, on the whole, contributed so much to its advancement as the representatives of Geauga.  Of all the enlightened men whom she has given to the service of the State, none has more steadily and intelligently contributed to this cause than has he.
     At the outbreak of the Rebellion, and during the war, he took very decided ground.  Extracts from his public addresses will better convey his thought and spirit of patriotism, than anything that can be written.
     From his speech in the house, Feb. 23, 1861, on the "Bill to prevent giving aid to fugitive slaves," is extracted some paragraphs in his advocacy of human rights, and the support of the Union.  He asks, "Must we pass laws
which, if carried out in their spirit, would inflict severe penalties upon that person who should give a cup of water, a bit of bread, or bestow a blanket upon the poor, shivering, hunted fugitive?  Does duty demand this of us?  Because we declare ourselves ready to discharge constitutional obligations and aid in enforcing constitutional law, shall we volunteer legislation unasked?  The bill before us proposes to punish, by severe penalty, that person who, under certain circumstances, furnishes aid to the hungry, naked and needy fugitive.  You cannot by law prevent it.  No law can do it, and the attempt is simply an effort to exercise the law-making power, in obedience to a spirit of oppression, in stifling and preventing the manifestation of benevolence and outspoken sympathy of the human heart.  Laws for this purpose will, from the necessity of the case, prove a nullity.
     What are the provisions of one section it is proposed to repeal?
     'That no person or persons shall kidnap, or forcibly, or fraudulently carry off or decoy, out of this State, any black or mulatto person or persons, within this State, claimed as fugitives from service or labor, or shall attempt to kidnap, or forcibly, or fraudulently carry off or decoy out of this State, any such black or mulatto person or persons, without first having taken such black or mulatto person or persons before the court, judge, or commissioner of the proper circuit, district or county having jurisdiction according to the laws of the United States, in cases of persons held to service or labor in any State, escaping into this State, and there, according to the laws of the United States, establishing by proof his or their property in such person.'
     An examination of the various authorities quoted by the majority in its report, shows this to be the substance of decisions of the United States supreme court, where this principle may be supposed to be involved, more concisely stated, perhaps, in that known as the Prigg case, than any other.  1st. That the owner of a slave has the right to seize and recapture a slave where, and whenever he can do so, without force or illegal violence; and 2d. That any State law or regulation which interrupts, impedes, embarrasses, or in any way postpones the exercise of this right, is void.  That asserts the right of the owner to take his slave without compulsion. This statute only requires that if he attempts to take him by force, and remove him without taking him before the proper authority and proving his claim, then he shall suffer a penalty, severe, it is true, but can it be aught too much so?  It is a penalty for the attempt to subject a free man to slavery.  Is it too much that he who attempts this enslaving shall himself be bound?  Does it conflict with the second point, or with the fugitive slave law?  No.  It does not in any way interfere with or prevent the exercise of the ripht on the part of the owner, when he attempts to recover his slave without the exercise of force.  But the fugitive slave law having been passed, requiring certain steps to be taken by the claimant, this law is passed imposing a penalty upon that person who comes in the State and attempts, forcibly, to remove any of its people without first having complied with the provisions of that law.
     If right, justice and a proper regard to the interests of the people of our own State, demand the passage of measures like that now under consideration, then let them be enacted, otherwise not.  Is aught that we have done, or may do, to accomplish anything in solving the uncertainty which hangs over us, and stay the tide of secession and disunion threatening entire destruction?  What care our southern neighbors for what we may do, in the repeal or passage of laws?
     Having so long, in their mind's eye, followed the "ignis fatuus'' which has been leading them on - the dazzling prospect of a brilliant Southern Confederacy - in which slavery should be extended and perpetuated, and the cotton and sugar trade of the world monopolized - the leaders rejoice at this opportunity to take advantage of the prejudices of the masses, which had been excited by misrepresentations of the true sentiment of the north, as exemplified and attempted to be carried out by the Republican party, to accomplish their long concealed purposes of secession and dissolution.  Those leaders are now in open rebellion against the laws and government of the United States, and yet measure after measure, like that before us, is urged upon us, and we are told to pass them that they may be appeased.  Forcibly having possessed themselves of forts and arsenals, dock-yards, mints, and other property of the United States government, they now call upon that government to treat with them.  If one now suggests the idea or propriety of making some little preparation for contingencies which may arise, we are told "Hands off! take care! you will needlessly excite the sensitiveness of our southern brethern;" and immediately, with horror expressed in every tone, the cry of " Coercion.'" is rung in our ears.  You have no right to coerce a State.  But then has a State the right to coerce the general govornment?  What less?  What different are, and have been, States attempting?  With force and arms, surrounding and seizing upon forts and arsenals within their limits, and with greater force, and more extensive preparation, in vesting other positions not yet reduced, they demand their unconditional surrender.  War is, and has been for weeks, actually begun upon the' part of these States, although prosecuted thus far without bloodshed; they, by the force of numbers, overcoming and carrying one position after another, and yet we are called upon to legislate carefully not to disturb their equanimity.
     Yea, more, traitors dictating terms to that government against which they are plotting and acting treason.  Shall we, frightened by the noise and confusion, turn, and swallowing our words, give the lie to all our previous professions?  Is the position we have taken right? the principle we have advocated just?  Or have we no confidence in its truth, its justice, its importance?  We are told that we must compromise, that we must yield up something, or our southern brethren will continue going away as they have been going, until the Union is broken, our constitution overthrown, and government destroyed.  To sustain this Union, we must concede and compromise, and surrender, and yield what?  Our manhood.  We must abandon long cherished, and what we believe to be correct, principles -  we must consent to constitutional changes - must give guarantees - must get down and humbly ask our southern brethren what legislation will suit them, then haste to grant it.  To us the constitution is good enough - that constitution, as made and administered by its authors.  We will abide by it.  It requires of us duties repugnant to our sense of right, of humanity, yet those duties shall be discharged.  But we say plainly, unequivocally, that we do not, can not, will not admire the institution; can not love it, will not cling to it, and shout around it in our self-abandonment, as a system containing the ne plus ultra of all that is right, lovely, and of good report.  Neither can we consent to its extension.  In the States where it now exists, keep it as you desire, make the most of it.  We have no power, neither have we the inclination to interfere with it, but no farther extension.  Thus far has it come, and no further shall it go.  What is the object of constitutional change.  The recognition of the right of property in man, and this in some form to be recognized I understand to be the real object of such change.  It is no time to change.  If we cannot live under the constitution as it is, if alienation of feeling, of interest, of purpose, is such as to prevent it, certainly in this time of excitement, we cannot change that instrument with any safety.  No; let us rally around it, with it determine to stand or fall, under its ruins, if it must crumble, let us be buried; let its flag be our winding sheet; let every one of its stars go out and fade away in eternal night, rather than that it shall continue to float only as a symbol of union, for the support of a system of oppression and wrong."  
     Brief extracts, can but faintly outline the feeling aroused by his powerful words in support of the Emancipation proclamation, and for loyalty to the government, in the Ohio senate, Mar. 4, 1863.
     "MR. PRESIDENT: - War exists.  A war, terrible in nature, fearful in extent, desperate in the struggles of contending forces, fierce and desolating in its progress, and apalling in the magnitude of the consequences involved. 
     "It exists not on account of conflicting jurisdiction with neighboring nations - not by attacks upon the commerce of the country - not by invasion of a foreign foe attempting, in the fierce tribunal of arms, to settle long disputed questions of international comity, but by the act of traitors, rebels in arms against the government.  They, the prime movers, instigators of this rebellion, and leaders in its efforts, being the representatives of the recipients of the richest blessings of the government, under which this whole people has become so great, and in time past has been so prosperous and happy.
     "About two years since, in anticipation of a contingency that might arise, the general assembly of the State of Ohio, by a vote almost or quite unanimous, passed a resolution, pledging the entire resources of the State, moral and physical, in aid of the government in sustaining the constitution, and crushing out rebellion.  The anticipated contingency happens.  The present deplorable civil war has been forced upon the country by the disunionists of the Southern States, now in arms against the government, and in arms around the capitol, and we come to the consideration of the resolution before the senate:
     "Resolved, That it is with pain and mortification, that we hear of the propositions of either persons or parties in the North, to divide the loyal States with the ultimate design of attaching any portion of those States to the so-called Southern Confederacy.
     "Starting with the proposition, which all will admit, that it is the duty of every loyal man in the whole country to give his entire energies, so far as they may be needed, to the support of the government in this struggle for its existence, and that every resource of the country should be subsidized to the same end - another inevitably follows: That there is a dividing line between the supporters and opposers of the government, upon one or the other side of which every man places himself.  No matter whether, in taking any position he may, he is aware of the fact or not—it is nevertheless true. The conclusion cannot be avoided.  He is either for or against the government.  There is no neutrality in this war.  There can be none. All the power of the government is demanded to carry on this contest. That power rests in the people.  The people are the government.  The executive and legislative departments of the government, so termed, are only the agents of that government, executing its will, and the withholding the energies of any one man, rightly demanded for its support, cripples, and to that extent opposes, the administration of the government in its efforts to sustain itself and maintain its supremacy.
     "He who in arms attempts the overthrow of the government - he who sympathizes with and encourages this attempt - he who attacks the credit of the government, denounces its administrations, frowns when it succeeds, and laughs at its failures, and he who quietly folds his hands, saying this is none of my concern, I am not responsible for, and will take no part in its settlement, is alike guilty of opposition.  If there be difference, it is in favor of that one who, believing it right, however false that opinion may be, fights for it, rather than the one who, thinking to avoid responsibility, stands back silently praying for its success, while he waits with illy concealed hopes therefor.
     "Having said thus much, I turn to examine the position taken by senators in this discussion.  The senator from Perry (Mr. Finck) tells us that 'he is for the support of the government and continuance of the Union' and 'that he will never consent to any dismemberment thereof; that he sustained the administration in the conduct of the war up to the time of the issuing of the presidents emancipation proclamation, but that he will do so no longer.'
     "It is a little strange, however, and indicates a little remaining consideration on the part of the senator, and those who act with him, for the feelings of those with whom they have been politically associated in times past, and of whom we sometimes speak as our 'erring brethren,' that when you touch rebels where their strength lies, they should all at once have such a holy horror of constitutional violation.  The leaders in this rebellion are striving to establish a government whose corner-stone is slavery.  In their efforts, their great element of strength is slavery.  While white men in their army fight the battles of rebeldom, four millions of slaves are at home engaged in caring for the interests of those men, and raising supplies for the support of that army.  More than this, they are pressed into service and made to dig trenches, raise fortifications, and even hold arms and shoot bullets by which our brothers, sons and friends are wounded and killed.  Yet, if you strike at, or in any way interfere with this system, though it be necessary to save the nation, the senator is horrified.
     The senator for Ashland (Mr. Kenny), exhibits his opposition, in an attempt to discourage the people of the country, by disparaging the conduct, and attempting to render odious the neecessary results of the war.  He will not encourage and sustain the administration, in the prosecution of the war for the Union.  He will not go into the army unless drafted, and it will take a strong draft to hold him.   His declaration sounds very much like another read by the senator from Fayette in the course of his remark, from the Marion County Mirror, in which the editor of that paper says: "For our part, we shall oppose the draft.  If Old Abe or his minions arrest us for this, we will submit to the arrest, if the people say so, and not without."  These, taken in connection with telegraphic signals of approval, passing between senators upon this floor, as the quotation above referred to was read, irresistibly force upon my mind the conclusion that there is a determination on the part of some to resist the government in its attempt to add to, or fill up, its army.  I will not ask, is this loyalty?  Not one word as to the rebellion and the danger to the Republic from the combined at tacks of rebels.  No.  All the danger in the mind of the senator is in assumptions of power and constitutional encroachments by the President.  His support, like that of the senator from Perry, depends upon the adoption of a policy such as he would mark out.  All Rebeldom would be loyal, allowing them to fix the terms of their loyalty.
     Had I been conducting this war, my purpose at the commencent would have been, as it seems to me was the policy of the President, to carry it on without reference to slavery.  When by force of circumstances slavery was recognized as an element in the war, as I believe the President was convinced it was, when he issued his Emancipation Proclamation, I would have said, said, Slavery, stand from under. Where it stands in the way of sustaining the government, let the governmental car roll on.  My faith in the "patriarchal" institution is not great, and in its "christianizing" influence far less.  On this point let the long list of heathenish barbarities perpetrated by rebels during this contest testify.  The senator would have property in slaves take its chances with other property.  Exactly.  But when in that property is a rebel's strength, take it from him.  If you need it, use it, but mind it is never returned to him again.  He has forfeited all claim to it.  Thank Heaven, slavery is doomed, not because the President issued his proclamation - not because, in the conduct of this war he has sought this end, or that his administration has been directed to it, only as a means of crushing the rebellion; but because an all-wise, overruling Providence has decreed it as the result of this contest, and all the powers of earth and the infernal regions combined cannot prevent it.
     I well recollect, perhaps other senators can; hundreds of the people of this State have vivid recollections, of the feelings with which they have approached the long lines of little mounds, on one and another of the fields of strife, where has gone out so much young life, amid the roar of battle and clash of arms.  At such a time, how little seem any and all other sacrifices, in comparison with giving up a son, a brother, a friend, upon the altar of our country, a sacrifice to propitiate this unholy rebellion.  Forgetting past differences and reckless of personal consequences, let us cast away every preconceived notion of policy, and joining hand to hand, while heart beats responsive to heart, anew pledge ourselves and energies, our State and its resources, to the struggle for the Union.  With unwavering confidence in the justice of our cause, and reliance in the integrity of purpose, on the part of the executive, let us yield his administration a hearty support, while we go on in united, fearless and determined effort to crush out this rebellion and perpetuate the government.  If the snares set for the Union are so strong - which I neither admit, nor believe - and the pitfalls surrounding her so deep, that she cannot by possibility escape - then let her perish in struggles to extricate herself, rather than by the hands of armed assassins she has nourished and brought up."
     As long ago as 1858, during his first term in the house, he was placed on the committee on charitable institutions, and came to have cognizance of the infant and feeble institution for idiotic youth, the most helpless and hopeless of the human race.  He found it with seventeen inmates, while the State provided for but nine. His sympathies were at once enlisted, and from that day to the present, he devoted as much time and energy as his other duties would permit, to this noble charity.  From 1863 till the present, except during the intervals when the democracy ruled the State, he has served as a trustee of the institution.  This school, where the idiot, by nature so feeble that mother's love could find no rudiment of intellect in them whereon to build, and no ray of soul on which, in the measureless love of God, she could hope, have been gathered and placed under the hands of science and care, so subtle, patient, skilful and abiding, that, seemingly, minds are born and souls created, and they are built up, nursed, and sent forth with intelligence and moral faculties equal to the struggles of the active world.  More than one-fourth of those cared for, have been so helped as to be competent to care for themselves.
     The kind-hearted Dr. G. A. Doren, a very young physician there, since found to be eminently practical in all the endless detail of a great institution, and a remarkable manager, now father of the asylum, found, in Mr. Hitchcock a careful but determined supporter, and the little school overflowed the narrow walls of the family house on Friend street, and the State gave it a farm on the heights, west of Columbus.  The household of 1858, and its seventeen children, has grown to be the first, of its kind, in the land, if not in the world -  nursing, developing, and educating 500 children, in a magnificent home of convenient beautiful surroundings, planned to admit and radiate everywhere, the brightest quildings, with side of life.  No institution of the same extent has cost the State so little, and there is none of which she may justly be more proud.  The doctor and his sympathetic, helping wife, in the constant care through all these years, with their two little girls, is still the head of this great family.
     Years of patient, untalked of, unproclaimed, unwritten, and unknown work, in and out of office, has Mr. Hitchcock given to this problem of human charities.  The opposition could laugh at, and even abuse him, for persisting in his support and care for this and other benevolent instutions, but it made no difference; he was true to his highest convictions.
     In the long and varied career of a useful public life, it seems to me, no reward, however well deserved, can, on the whole, be so highly valued as the garnered fruit of years of work thus devoted, and all the more so, as it can win no plaudit from the multitude, no ballots at the hustings, and the memory of it should always come to shield the patient worker, from the uncharitable thoughts of enemies, if enemies he has.  All labors for this and the other benevolent institutions of the noble State, were without price or pay, and must ever be without thought of political reward.  To the managers of caucuses, the packers of primaries, and the leaders of nominating conventions, they are as unknown and inappreciable as the prayer of a christian in his closet.  Few men have remained so long in the legislative service of his State as Mr. Hitchcock.  He has grown into a complete knowledge of her needs and resources, and his trained ability and experience have given him a capacity still capable of enlargement, of rendering the most valuable services to her, and which should be acknowledged by conferring upon him the highest honors within her gift.  Most public men, as they gather experience and knowledge, and thus year by year become more valuable, in the triterations and conflicts of political life, produce atoms of jealousies, rivalries, and enmities, which deposited here and there, and in greater or less quantities, are kept stored for future use against him, or put in circulation to his annoyance or detriment.  The very fact that he has become useful and experienced, is often fatally used to defeat him in the interest of the unknown and untried.  I am not aware that Mr. Hitchcock has been accused of a grave mistake, or ever faltering in duty.  This is very much, in so many years of public service.  Nor are his faults those which may spring from want of moral courage, and the infirmities of integrity.  And now, at the age of sixty-one, at his best, with the confidence won by so many years, the future seems quite his own.
     It is fortunate and marks alike the good sense and good fortune of Mr. Hitchcock's constituents, that they early discovered his capacity and usefulness, retained him in public life until his experience and knowledge enabled him to be of the largest service, and refuse to listen to the small and often querulous complaints, that always spring up to worry the footsteps of every man in the public service many years.  A man thus steadily sustained may become most valuable.  No man can without it, and it is most creditable to the prudence and good sense of Mr. Hitchcock, that he has served so long without furnishing occasion for any grave assaults upon him.
     In person, Mr. Hitchcock is slight, wiry and nervous, one of those men capable of any amount of endurance; of good address, pleasing manners, and well calculated to win friends; has well developed intellectual powers, strengthened and quickened by a constant intercourse with the world, rather than with many books.  Seeing quickly, is sagacious, politic, a good reader of men, and mater of the arguments that will control them, having considerable personal magnetism, well liked, kind, sympathetic, and charitable, he has always been, without seeming to be, a leader of men.  He has a ready appreciation of the ludicrous, a capacity to enjoy good things, and an ability to be guilty of a joke.  He is one of the most sociable and companionable of men, while he is all that can be desired as a friend and neighbor.  At sixteen he united himself with the Congregational church, and adds the evidence of his profession and consistent life, to the weight of authority on the side of religion and pure morals.  A strong temperance advocate, few men have been more consistent or persistent in favor of the reform.  A member of every organization established in his township, since he was twelve years old, he has labored steadily for the reform of men, and the suppression of the liquor traffic, ever speaking and acting squarely against the evil, in his own county and in his public service.
     Mr. Hitchcock resides in the old homestead of his father, and perpetuates its tradition and memories in home and social life, as he continues that revered name in the service of the State.  His public life has not, in any sense, exhalted or carried him away from, and above, the ordinary pursuits of the farm.  When at home, his example is that of an industrious worker, honoring the pursuit of agriculture, with the labor of his hands, and enjoying the blessings of a genial home and the good will of his neighbors, and the social regard of his townsmen, alike honoring and being honored in any position of life.  A. G. R.
Source: 1798 Pioneer and General History of Geauga County with Sketches of some of the Pioneers and Prominent Men. - Published by The Historical Society of Geauga County, 1880 - Page 522- 531