[Pg. 752]
were benches, and in the midst of the room was a
cupboard. At a signal given with a horn the brothers
entered the door to the right and the sisters the one to the
left, marching two and two to the table. The sisters
in waiting, to the number of six, came at the same time from
the kitchen, and ranged themselves in one file opposite the
table of the sisters; after which, they all fell on their
knees, making a silent prayer, then arose, took hold of the
benches behind them, sat down and took their meal in teh
greatest silence. I was told this manner was observed
at all their daily meals. They ate bread, butter and
cakes and drank tea. Each member found his cup filled
before him - the serving sisters filling them when required.
One of the sisters was standing at the cupboard to pour out
the tea - the meal was very short, the whole society rose at
once, the benches were put back, they fell again on their
knees, rose again, and wheeling to the right, left the room
with a quick step. I remarked among the females some
very pretty faces, but they were all, without exception, of
a pale and sickly hue. They were disfigured by their
ugly costume, which consists of a white starched bonnet.
The men likewise had bad complexions."
The Shaker settlement described above has gradually declined
in population. In 1829 the society numbered five
hundred members, but has since steadily declined, until now
there are between seventy and eighty, and the day is
probably not far distant when the community will have ceased
to exist.
The history of the
origin of this society in Ohio is very interesting, and is
here abridged from a fuller account by
Mr. Josiah Morrow, to whom we are indebted
for much concerning the history of Warren county.
In the spring of 1802 there came to the Turtle Creek
Presbyterian Church a new pastor, the Rev. Richard
McNemar. This man was a leading spirit in the
great revival. He came from Kentucky, where he had
seen and assisted in some of its most remarkable scenes.
He was tall and gaunt, but commanding in appearance, with
piercing, restless eyes, and an expressive countenance.
He was a classical scholar, and read Latin, Greek and Hebrew
with ease.
The strange physical phenomena which, from the first,
attended the revival in Kentucky, followed McNemar's
preaching in Warren county. The singular bodily
exercises and convulsions which accompanied this revival on
both sides of the Ohio, wherever there was undue excitement,
have often been described. The Turtle Creek pastor
approvingly represents his flock as "praying, shouting,
jerking, barking, or rolling, dreaming, prophesying and
looking as through a glass at the infinite glories of Zion."
The whole congregation also sometimes prayed together, with
such power and volume of sound, that, if the pastor does not
exaggerate, "the doubtful footsteps of those in search of
the meeting might be directed sometimes to the distance of
miles around." Some time in the year 1804 they began
to encourage one another to praise God in the dance.
On the 22d of March, 1805, there arrived at Turtle
Creek three strangers with broad-brimmed hats and a fashion
of dress like that of the followers of George Fox, in
England, a generation before. They were John
Meacham, Benjamin S. Youngs and Issachar Bates,
the first of the sect of Ann Lee ever seen west of
the Alleghany mountains. They had set out from New
Lebanon, N. Y., on Jan. 1, and had made a journey of 1,000
miles on foot. They had already visited Kentucky, but
had not fully proclaimed their principles or objects.
Nowhere did they find the conditions so favorable for
carrying out the purposes of their mission as at Turtle
Creek.
The first convert was Malcham Worley, a man of
liberal education, independent fortune and unblemished
character, but his excitable temperament had led him into
such wild exercises during the revival that many doubted his
sanity. The pastor soon followed, and in a month of
dozen families had embraced Shakerism. Husbands and
wives abandoned the family relation and gave all their
property to the church. Many who became members owned
considerable tracts of land, which they consecrated to the
sue of the church, and the Shaker Society at Union Village
[Pg. 753]
is in possession of 4,000 acres of excellent land
surrounding the spot where stood the Turtle Creek
log-church.
The missionaries were successful elsewhere. They
established several communities both in Ohio and Kentucky.
Four of the ministers who had been foremost in the revival
work became their converts, and died in the shaker faith,
having passed in four years from the creed of Calvin
and Knox to that of Ann Lee. The Shaker
Society at Union Village was regularly organized May
25, 1805. In the month following there were a number
of converts at Eagle Creek, in Adams county, including
Rev. John Dunlavy; in August the work broke out in
Kentucky, and, in the spring of 1806, at Beaver Creek, in
Montgomery county, Ohio. The society at Union Village
is the oldest and has always been the largest of the Shaker
communities west of the Alleghanies.
Nearly all the members of the Turtle Creek church, who
resided in the immediate vicinity of Bedle's Station, became
Shakers. Their meetings were held for some time at the
house of McNemar - the space between the two apartments of
his double cabin being used for their dancing exercises.
Afterward a floor was built near by, much like an early
threshing-floor, on which their meetings were held
until their first church was erected.
Richard McNemar, who, by his gifts as a speaker
and his scholarship, exercised so great an influence as a
preacher on both sides of the Ohio river, continued in the
faith of the Shakers, and a leading among the, until his
death in 1839.
Of late years the society has not increased in numbers.
They look with hope on the progress of modern Spiritualism.
They say there is nothing new in its manifestations, for
long before the era of table-turnings and spirit-rappings
they had, as they continue to have, a living
intercommunications with the world of spirits.
The Shaking Quakers are a sect founded in England in
1747, at which time an English woman, Ann Lee, joined
them. She claimed to be in person the second coming of
Christ, had divine revelations, and called herself "Ann, the
word." She declared the wrath of the Almighty against
marriage. For this she was imprisoned and put in a
mad-house. In 1770 she emigrated to this country and
founded here the sect. She died in 1784, after
converting many.
About six miles east of Lebanon, on the Little Miami
river, is a very extensive ancient fortification called
Fort Ancient. The extreme length of these works,
in a direct line, is nearly a mile, although, following
their angles - retreating and salient - they reach probably
a distance of six miles. The drawing and description
annexed are from the article of Caleb Atwater, Esq.,
in the "Archaeologia Americana." |
The
fortification stands on a plain, nearly horizontal, about
236 feet above the level of the river, between two branches
with very steep and deep banks. The openings in the
walls are the gateways. The plain extends
eastward along the State road, nearly level, about half a
mile. The fortification on all sides, except on the
east and west where the road runs, is surrounded with
precipices nearly in the shape of the wall. The wall
on the inside varies in its height, according to the shape
of the ground on the outside, being generally from eight to
ten feet; but on the plain it is about nineteen and a half
feet high inside and out, on a base of four and a half
poles. In a few places it appears to be washed away in
gutters, made by water collecting on the inside.
At about twenty poles east from the gate, through which
the State road runs, are two mounds, about ten feet eight
inches high, |
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the road running between them
nearly equi-distant from each. From these mounds are
gutters running nearly north and south that appear to be
artificial, and made to communicate with the branches on
each side. Northeast from the mounds, on the plain,
are two roads, B, each about one pole wide, elevated
about three feet, and which run nearly parallel, about
one-fourth of a mile, and then form an irregular semicircle
round a small mound. Near the southwest end of the
fortification are three circular roads, A, between
thirty and forty poles in length, cut out of the precipice
between the wall and the river. The wall is made of
earth.
Many conjectures have been made as to the design of the
authors in erecting a work with no less than fifty-eight
gateways. Several of these openings have evidently
been occasioned by the water, which had been collected on
the inside until it overflowed the walls |
[Pg. 754]
and wore itself a passage. In several other places
the walls might never have been completed.
The three parallel roads, A, dug, at a great
expense of labor, into the rocks and rocky soil adjacent,
and parallel to the Little Miami river, appear to have been
designed for persons to stand on, who wished to annoy those |
|
Fortifications," to which they
appear to have higher claims than almost any other, for
reasons too apparent to require a recital.
The two parallel lines, B, are two roads very
similar to modern turnpikes, and are made to suit the nature
of the soil and make of the ground. If the roads were
for footraces, the mounds were the goals from |
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FORT ANCIENT. |
| who were passing up and down
the river. The Indians, as I have been informed, made
this use of these roads in their wars with each other and
with the whites. Whether these works all belong
to the same era and the same people I cannot say, though the
general opinion is that they do. On the whole, I have
ventured to class them among "Ancient |
|
whence the pedestrians started,
or around which they ran. The area which these
parallel walls enclose, smoothed by art, might have been the
place where games were celebrated. We cannot say that
these works were designed for such purposes; but we can say
that similar works were thus used among the early
inhabitants of Greece and Rome. |
|
Franklin in 1846. - Franklin is twelve miles
northwest of Lebanon, on the Dayton and Cincinnati turnpike,
with the Miami Canal running east of it and the Miami river
bounding it on the west. It was laid out in 1795, a
few months after the treaty of Greenville, within Symmes'
purchase, by its proprietors, two young men from New Jersey,
Daniel C. Cooper and William C. Schenck.
The first cabin was built by them, on or near lot 21 Front
street. In the spring of '96 six or eight cabins stood
on the town-plot. A church, common for all
denominations, on the site of the Baptist church, was the
first erected; it was built about the year 1808. |
[Pg. 755]
The town is on a level plot and
regularly laid out. The view shows on the right the
Methodist church, next to it Merchants' block, beyond the
Baptist church, and on the extreme left the spire of the
Presbyterian church. Franklin
contains 3 churches, a high school, 4 dry
goods and 2 grocery stores, 2 forwarding and commission
houses, and had, in 1840, 7770 inhabitants - Old Edition.
FRANKLIN is twelve miles
northwest of Lebanon, on the Great Miami river, the Miami
Canal, the C. C. C. & I., N. Y. P. & O. and C. J. & M.
Railroads. The Franklin Hydraulic was built in 1870.
City Officers, 1888: John M. Dachtler,
Mayor; J. A. Rees, Clerk; W. S. Van Horne,
Treasurer; Lew Hurst, Marshal. Newspaper:
Chronicle, Independent, Calderwood & Harding, editors
and publishers. Churches: 1 Catholic, 1
Presbyterian, 1 Christian, 1 Methodist Episcopal and 1
Baptist. Banks: First National, L. G.
Anderson, president, W. A. Boynton, cashier;
D. Adams & Son.
Manufacturers and Employees. - Buehner &
Duffy, job machinery, 6 hands; The Eagle Paper Co., wood
pulp, 10; The Harding Paper Co., rag sorting, etc., 80; The
Harding Paper Co., writing papers, 98; J. S. Van Horn,
builders' woodwork, 10; Rantzahn and Brother, flour,
4; The Friend and Forgy Paper, 61; The Franklin Paper
Co., wood pulp, 10; The Franklin Paper, 87. - State
Report, 1888.
Population, 1880, 2,385. School census, 1888,
850; Hampton Bennett, superintendent of
schools. Capital invested in manufacturing
establishments, $100,000. Value of annual product,
$125.000. Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888.
Gen. Wm. C. Schenck, the
founder of Franklin, was at that time a young surveyor, only
twenty-three years of age. He was the father of
Gen. Robert C. Schenck and Admiral James F. Schenck,
each of whom were born here. Mrs. Mary Small
Campbell, mother of Hon. Lewis Campbell and
grandmother of Gov. James E. Campbell, one of hte
pioneer women of Franklin, died Apr. 20, 1886, aged one
hundred years and one month. She saw the growth of the
town from a collection of straggling huts to a centre of
wealth and comfort. |
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BIOGRAPHY
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~ Pages 755 - 757
JEREMIAH
MORROW was born in Gettysburg, Pa., Oct. 6,
1771. He was of Scotch-Irish descent, the
family name being originally Murray.
The 1795 he removed to the Northwest Territory and
settled at the mouth of the Little Miami river, but
soon moved up to what is now Warren county.
In 1801 he was elected to the Territorial Legislature;
was a delegate to the first constitutional
convention in 1802; was elected to the State Senate
in 1803, and in the same year to Congress, serving
for ten years as the sole representative of Ohio in
the Lower House.
In 1814 he was commissioner to treat with all of the
Indians west of the Miami river. From 1813 to
1819 he was a member of the United States Senate,
and served as Chairman of the Committee on Public
Lands. In 1822 he was elected governor and
re-elected at the end of his term. He served
as canal commissioner in 1820-22. He was also
the first president of the Little Miami Railroad
Company.
In 1841 he was again elected to Congress. He died
Mar. 22, 1852.
While in Congress, Mr. Morrow drafted most of
the laws providing for the survey and disposal of
public lands. He introduced measures which led
to the construction of the Cumberland road; and in
February, 1816, presented the first report
recommending a general system of internal
improvements.
As governor of Ohio, he industriously furthered the
interests of the public works, which were commenced
during his administration.
Hon. William Henry Smith delivered an address at
Marietta, Apr. 7, 1888 (Ohio Centennial
Celebration), in which he gave an interesting and
instructive sketch of the life and services of
Gov. Morrow and the Duke of Saxe-Weimar,
in 1825, Mr. Smith gives and account, as
related by the duke some years later to a party of
Ohioans, who made his acquaintance while travelling
abroad.
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"And thereupon he related how, taking a
carriage at Cincinnati, he travelled to
Columbus to pay his respects to the
governor, but, on the advice of a Cincinnati
friend, he called en route at the
farm of Gov. Morrow. when he
reached the farm he saw a small party of men
in a new field, rolling logs. This
scene of a deadening, or clearing, is
familiar to those of us fortunate enough to
have been brought up in Ohio, but to a
European, raised in courts, it must have
been an amazing sight. Accosting one
of the workmen, a homely little man in a red
flannel shirt, and with a smutch of charcoal
across his cheek, he asked 'Where is your
master, sir?' 'Master!' exclaimed the
other, 'I own no |
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master - no master but
Him above.' The duke then said, rather
testily, 'It is the governor of the State,
Gov. Morrow, I am inquiring for.'
'Well, I am Jeremiah Morrow,' replied
the son of toil, with unaffected and
unconscious simplicity. The Grand Duke
stood amazed. This little man in a red
flannel shirt and home-made tow-linen
trousers, leaning on a dogwood hand-spike,
with a coal-smutched face and the jeweled
sweat-drops of real labor now on his brow,
and a marked Scotch-Irish brogue when he
spoke! He the governor of Ohio?
Was it possible? He could scarcely
credit his senses." |
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In our edition of 1847 we gave the following
extract from the "Travels of the Duke:" |
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The dwelling of the governor consists of a
plain frame-house, situated on a little
elevation not far from the shore of the
Little Miami, and is entirely surrounded by
fields. The business of the State
calls him once a month to Columbus, the seat
of government and the remainder of his time
he passes at his country-seat, occupied with
farming - a faithful copy of an ancient
Cincinnatus; he was engaged at our arrival
in cutting a wagon-pole, but he immediately
stopped his work to give us a heart welcome.
He appeared to be about fifty years of age;
is not tall, but thin and strong, and has an
expressive physiognomy, wit dark and
animated eyes. He is a native of
Pennsylvania, and was one of the first
settlers in the State of Ohio. He is a
native of
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Pennsylvania, and was one
of the first settlers in the State of Ohio.
He offered us a night's lodging at his
house, which invitation we accepted very
thankfully. When seated round the
chimney-fire in the evening, he related to
us a great many of the dangers and
difficulties the first settlers had to
contend with . . . . We spent our evening
with the governor and his lady. Their
children are settled, and they have with
them only a couple of grandchildren.
When we took a couple of grandchildren.
When we took our seats at supper, the
governor made a prayer. There was a
Bible and several religious bookslying on
the table. After breakfasting with our
hospitable host, we took our leave. |
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We again quote from Mr. Smith's
address as follows: |
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These homely ways occasionally led ambitions
and officious politicians to the conclusion
that he would be as potters' clay in their
hands. His pastor, the Rev. Dr.
MacDill of the Associate Reformed, or
United Presbyterian Church, of which Mr.
Morrow was a life-long and consistent
member, relates that "when his first
gubernatorial term was nearly expired, some
gentlemen about Columbus, who seemed to
regard themselves as a board specially
appointed to superintend the distribution of
offices in the State of Ohio had a meeting,
and appointed a committed to wait on him and
advise him as to his duty. The
committee called, and speedily made known
their business. It was to |
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prevail on him (for the
public good, of course) not to stand as a
candidate for a second term, but to give way
in favor of another. They promised
that if he would do this they would use
their influence to return him to the United
States Senate, where, they assured him, he
would be more useful to the State.
Having patiently heard them through, he
calmly replied: 'I consider office as
belonging to the people. A few of us
have no right to make bargains on the
subject, and I have no bargain to make.
I have concluded to serve another term, if
the people see fit to elect me, though
without caring much about it.' " |
Mr. Smith, in summing up Gov.
Morrow's career gave the following
eloquent tribute to the value of character:
"This all too briefly related is the story of a useful
life. there is not a trace of genius;
nothing of evil to attribute to
eccentricity. It is clear that Mr.
Morrow was not 'a child of destiny,' but
a plain man, who feared God and loved his
fellow-men. And here, friends of Ohio,
I wish to proclaim in this age of unbelief,
of the false and meretricious, the ancient
and divide doctrine of CHARACTER as being
the highest type of manhood. Wit may
edify, genius may captivate, but it is
truth that blesses and endures and
becomes immortal. It is not what a man
seems to be, but what he is, that should
determine his worth."
The following incident is related by A. H. Dunlevy: |
|
"When Gov. Morrow was first
elected governor of Ohio, in the fall of
1822, a number of the citizens of Lebanon
determined to visit him immediately,
announce to him the fact of his election,
and give him a proper ovation on the
occasion. To that end, some dozen of
the most respected citizens speedily
prepared to go together as a company of
cavalry, on horseback, to the governor's
residence, some ten miles from town.
Among these was William M. Wiles, an
eccentric man, but a man of ready talent at
an off-hand speech. Wiles was
anxious to make the address, and took the
night previous to the visit to prepare it.
Early next morning the cavalcade set off,
and reaching Gov. Morrow's residence
they found he was at his mill, a mile
distant. Thither they went, determined
that Wiles should not miss the chance
of making his prepared speech. But
when they reached the mill they found
the governor-elect |
|
in the forebay of his
mill, up to his middle in water, engaged in
getting a piece of timber out of the
water-gate, which prevented the gate from
shutting off the water from the wheel.
This, however, was soon effected, and up
came the governor, all wet, without coat or
hat; and in that condition the cavalcade
announced to him his election.
Thanking them for their interest in his
success, he urged them to go back to his
residence and take dinner with him.
But Wiles disgusted at finding the
governor in this condition, persuaded the
party from going to dinner, and started
home, declaring that he could not make his
speech to a man who looked so much like a
drowned rat. When he saw that,
he said, all his eloquent speech vanished
from his mind and left it a naked blank.
This speech would have been a curiosity, but
no one could ever induce Wiles to
show it." |
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Durbin Ward |
DURBIN WARD ~ Pages
768 |
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JAMES
SCOTT was born April 15,
1815, in Washington County, Pa., of Scotch-Irish
parentage. He died in Lebanon, Dec. 16, 1888.
He removed to Morrow, Warren county, O., in 1843,
and in 1851 to Lebanon, practising medicine in both
places. In 1857 he edited the Western
Star. He served in many public offices,
was for sixteen years a member of the Legislature,
and one of the best informed men on State affairs,
and one of the most useful the State ever had.
During the war he applied to Governor Tod for a
captain's commission, but was told to stay where he
was, that he was worth more in the Ohio House than
he could be with any commission in the field.
He was called "The watchdog of the treasury," and
did much to hold down public expenses, to simplify
and arrange the system of State finance and
business.
He is best known as the author of the Scott law, passed
in 1882, taxing the liquor traffic. He is the
author of many of the laws on the Ohio statute books
of to-day.
~ Page 769 |
Achilles Pugh |
ACHILLES PUGH
~ Page 769 |
William Henry Venable |
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~ Pages 758
JUDGE FRANCIS DUNLEVY,
who died at Lebanon , in 1839, was born in Virginia in 1761.
When ten years of age his family removed to Western
Pennsylvania. At the early age of fourteen years he
served in a campaign against the Indians, and continued
mostly in this service until the close of the revolution.
He assisted in building Fort McIntosh, about the year 1777,
and was afterwards in the disastrous defeat of Crawford,
from whence, with two others, he made his way alone through
the woods without provisions, to Pittsburg. In '87 he
removed to Kentucky, in ’91 to Columbia , and in '97 to this
neighborhood. By great perseverance he acquired a good
education, mainly without instructors, and part of the time
taught school and surveyed land until the year 1800.
He was returned a member of the convention from Hamilton
county which formed the State constitution. He was
also a member of the first legislature in 1803; at the first
organization of the judiciary was appointed presiding judge
of the first circuit. This place he held fourteen
years, and though his circuit embraced ten counties, he
never missed a court, frequently swimming his horse over the
Miamies rather than fail being present. On leaving the
bench he practised at the bar fifteen years and then retired
to his books and study. He was a strong-minded
philanthropic man, of great powers of memory , and a most
useful member of society.
WHY PRESIDENT JEFFERSON REMOVED
GOVERNOR ST. CLAIR.
|
The venerable Hon. A. H. Dunlevy (son
of Judge Dunlevy), beginning with the
issue of Jan. 24, 1867, communicated to the
Western Star (Lebanon) his
reminiscences of the early history of
Lebanon and vicinity. In this series
he gave the reasons for the removal of
Gov. St. Clair from the Governorship of
the Northwest Territory and the appointment
of Gen. Wm. Henry Harrison in his
place. This change occurred as
follows, as stated by him: |
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"In the winter of 1802-3, when the last
territorial legislature was in session at
Chillicothe, there had been some warm
disputes about the proposed boundaries of
the State of Ohio, soon to be organized, and
a mob had assembled one night in the
streets, as was first thought originating in
this dispute, but afterwards found to have
no connection with it.
"The next morning Gen. St. Clair came into the
room occupied by Gov. Morrow,
Judge Dunlevy, and the late Judge
Foster of Hamilton county, and
attributing this mob to political disputes
took occasion to abuse our democratic
institutions in very indecorous terms and
expressing the opinion that they could not
last and that we must soon return to a
stronger government, such as had made
England the model of nations.
"No reply was made to Gov. St. Clair; but
immediately Judge Dunlevy sat down
and drew up in writing a faithful report of
Gov. St. Clair's declarations.
The paper was signed by himself, Gov.
Morrow and Judge Foster, sworn to
before a justice of the peace and forwarded
to Thomas Jefferson, then President;
and Gov. St. Clair was immediately
removed and Gen. Harrison
appointed in his place.
"Though this removal was charged to the party
intolerance and prescription of the |
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Republicans of that day
and much noise made on account of it by
Gov. St. Clair's personal and political
friends the movers in it never thought it
necessary to make any explanation, and it
remained a secret until two of the three
actors had passed away. Then the last,
Gov. Morrow, communicated it to me,
as no longer necessary to be kept
unexplained."
Mr. Dunlevy then quotes from Judge Burnet's
"Notes," where in the judge charges St.
Clair's removal as done to gratify
the malice of St. Clair's enemies, by
Mr. Jefferson, "who has been" wrote
the judge, "his friend and adviser.
That removal was one of the first evidences
given by the new administration that
politics were stronger than friendships and
partisan services more availing than
talents."
"But friendships and enmties had nothing to do with his
removal. The men who had brought it
about were real republicans and had faith in
republican institutions, then for the first
time in the history of the world on trial in
their purity; and they could not hear this
form of government rudely assailed as it had
been by one who, in his place, should be its
protector and be silent. They spread
the facts before Mr. Jefferson, and
he agreeing with them, Gov. St.
Clair was at once removed and Gen.
Harrison put in his place." |
~ Pages 758 - 759
WM. C. SCHENCK,
father of Gen. R. C. Schenck and Admiral Jas. F.
Schenck, was born near Freehold, N. J. , Jan. 11, 1773.
He studied both law and medicine, undetermined which to make
his life-profession, and finally adopted that of surveyor.
He came to Ohio as agent for his uncle, Gen. John N.
Cumming, probably also of Messrs. Burnet,
Dayton and Judge Symmes. He became
one of the most competent surveyors in the West. In
1796 he surveyed and laid out the town of Franklin; in 1797
he set out to survey what was known as the “Military Tract;"
in the winter of 1801-2 surveyed and laid out the town of
Newark; in 1816 surveyed and laid out Port Lawrence, now
known as Toledo. In 1799 Gen. Schenck
was elected secretary of the first territorial legislature;
was a member of the first senate of Ohio. In 1803 he
removed from Cincinnati to Franklin, where he lived till his
death, in 1821. During the war of 1812 he held a
commission in the militia. Owing to the confused and
imperfect condition of the records in the office of the
adjutant-general of Ohio, it has thus far been impossible to
determine just what services Gen. W. C. Schenck
performed with the army or what rank he held. Some
time previous to the war he had resigned a commission of
brigadier-general of militia, which rank he held for a long
time. At the outbreak of the war he was present with
his troops in the field at an early date.
Gen. Schenck was one of the early and active
promoters of the Ohio canal system. In 1820 he was
appointed by Governor Brown one of the commissioners"
to survey and route of a canal."
In further prosecution of the project, Gen. Schenck
made a speech before the legislature, to which he had been
elected from Warren county, warmly advocating the immediate
construction of the canal. At the close of his speech
he left the House, and went to his lodgings, was seized with
a sudden attack of sickness and died in a few hours.
He was highly esteemed throughout the State as a man of a
high order of mental ability, unimpeachable integrity and an
active, useful citizen.
John McLean |
~ Pages 759 - 760
JOHN McLEAN was born
in Morris county, N. J., Mar. 11, 1875. In
1789 his father a man of humble circumstances, with
a large family, removed to the West, settling first
at Morgantown, Va., then near Nicholasville, Ky.,
later at Mayslick, Ky., and finally in 1799 in what
is now Warren county, O. Here he occupied and
cleared a farm. Young McLean worked on
this farm until eighteen eyras of age, in the
meanwhile obtaining such education as the merger
opportunities afforded.
He received instruction in the classics during the last
two years, paying tuition and supporting himself by
his own labor.
When eighteen years of age he went to Cincinnati, and
by writing in the county clerk's office supported
himself while studying law. In 1807 he was
admitted to the bar and began practising at Lebanon.
In October, 1812, he was elected to Congress from his
district, which then included Cincinnati, by the
Democratic party. In 1814 he was re-elected,
receiving the vote on every ballot cast in the
district.
He gave a warm support to the administration of
Madison; originated the law to indemnify individuals
for property lost in the public service; introduced
a resolution which led to granting of pensions to
widows of fallen officers and soldiers. He
sometimes voted against his political friends; yet
so highly was his integrity and judgment esteemed
that he lost no party support.
In 1815 he declined a nomination to the U. S. Senate;
the year following he was unanimously elected, by
the Ohio Legislature, a judge of the Supreme Court.
Judge McLean occupied the Supreme bench of Ohio
until 1822, when President Monroe appointed
him commissioner of the general land office, and in
July of the following year Postmaster-General.
This department he brought, by untiring industry and
energy, from great disorder into the greatly
improved condition, introducing an economical,
efficient, and systematic mail service which met
with such general approval that Congress raised his
salary from $4000 to $6000 a year. He
continued in this office until 1829, when
President Jackson tendered him the departments,
first of war and then of the navy; these he
declined, not being in sympathy with Gen. Jackson
in the disposition of offices, holding that the man
best suited to the place should have it irrespective
of party affiliations. President
Jackson appointed him an associate justice of
the U. S. Supreme Court. He entered upon his
duties in January, 1830. His charges to grand
juries were distinguished for eloquence and ability.
The most important of these were in regard to the
aiding and abetting "unlawful military combinations
against foreign government," referring to the
Canadian insurrection and its American abettors; his
opinion dissenting from that of Chief
Justice Taney in the Dred Scott
case, in which he held that slavery had its origin
in power, was contrary to right and upheld only by
local law.
He was long identified with the party opposed to
slavery and his name was prominently before the Free
Soil Convention, held at Buffalo in 1848, as a
candidate for the Presidential nomination. He
was also a candidate in the Republican National
Conventions of 1845 and 1860.
In person Judge McLean was tall and commanding;
his habits were simple, and his manners genial and
courteous. During a part of his public life he
resided on his farm in Warren county. He died
at Cincinnati, Apr. 4, 1861. |
THOMAS CORWIN was born in Bourbon
county, Ky., July 29, 1794, and died in Washington, D. C.,
Dec. 18, 1865. When four years of age his father,
Matthias, removed to Lebanon, and represented his
district in the Legislature for many years.
Shortly after his arrival at Lebanon young Corwin
was sent to a school taught by Francis Dunlevy.
Corwin acquired knowledge with great ease, and
learned perfectly the whole alphabet the first day at
school. He did not long continue at this school.
In 1806 he again attended school, and was taught by an
English Baptist clergyman, the Rev. Jacob Grigg.
This teacher encouraged recitations and dialogues by the
scholars, and it was in these exercises that Corwin,
then but twelve years of age, first distinguished himself by
his oratorical powers.
Corwin's father was too poor to make a scholar
of more than one son of his large family, and so the elder
brother Matthias was kept at school and Thomas
set at work on his father's farm. It was
necessary at that time that during certain seasons of the
year supplies and produce should be transported by wagon to
and from Cincinnati. It was the custom for five or six
teams of neighboring farmers to go together, and young
Corwin drove his father's. It was thus that he
first acquired the name of "Wagon Boy." During the war
of 1812 he drove his wagon, filled with supplies for the
army of Gen. Harrison, to the camp on the waters of
St. Mary's of the Maumee. This was no small
undertaking for a youth of eighteen, as the journey was
attended with many difficulties and dangers.
Corwin continued on his father's farm until
1814, when he entered the county clerk's office, then in
charge of his brother Matthias.
The next year he began the study of law in the office
of Judge Joshua Collett, and was admitted to the bar
in May, 1818.
It was a common custom in many of the early settlements
to have debating societies, and Mr. Corwin was a
member of one in Lebanon, where he soon gained a very high
reputation for eloquence. He was an earnest student of
English history and prose and poetic classics. His
ability and eloquence as an advocate soon gained him an
extensive practice. His public career began in 1822,
when he was elected to the Ohio Legislature, serving
seven years. In 1830 he was chosen to Congress as a
Whig, and was subsequently re-elected until he had served
ten years.
In 1840 he was nominated for governor by the Whigs, and
canvassed the State with Gen. Harrison, addressing
large gatherings in every county, and exerting great
influence with his unsurpassed oratory.
He was elected governor by a majority of 16,000, but
two years later was defeated for the governorship by
Wilson Shannon, his former opponent.
In 1844 Mr. Corwin was elected to the United
States Senate, where, in 1847, he made his celebrated speech
against the Mexican war, in which he made use of the figure
of speech, "Welcome you with bloody hands to hospital
graves."
He served the Senate until 1850, when he was called to
the head of the treasury department by President Fillmore,
a position he held until 1852, when he retired to private
life and his law practice at Lebanon.
In 1858 he was again elected to Congress and re-elected
in 1860.
He was appointed minister to Mexico by President
Lincoln, where he served during the whole of
President Lincoln's first term. In 1865 he came to
the United States on leave of absence, and did not return,
remaining in Washington and practising law until his
decease.
ANECDOTES OF CORWIN.
During Corwins first term
in the Ohio Legislature some member introduced a bill to
repeal the whipping law. Corwin gave the bill
his earnest support. A member, who had formerly
resided in Connecticut, opposed the bill, and said he had
observed that when a man was whipped in his State he
immediately left it. Whereupon Corwin rose and
said, "I know a great many people have come to Ohio from
Connecticut, but I have never before known the reason
for their coming."
Mr. Addison P. Russell, of Wilmington, Ohio,
whose charming literary works have gained for him the
sobriquet of the "American Charles Lamb," has written
a fine sketch, entitled "Thomas Corwin," from which
we make the following extracts:
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The Crary Speech. - His famous speech
in 1840, in reply to Crary, of
Michigan, who had been so unwise as to
attack the military reputation of Gen.
Harrison, then the Whig candidate for
the Presidency, immediately gave him a
national reputation. Sometime before,
at home, he had defended, in a case before a
country magistrate, a militiaman who had
been charged with an assault and battery,
alleged to have been committed upon his
captain at a general muster. Although
the defendant was unquestionably guilty.
Corwin gained his discharge mainly by
his overwhelming ridicule of the unfortunate
captain, who was the prosecuting witness,
and had provoked the assault by the airs
which he took upon himself while exercising
the functions of his office. With a
vivid recollection of the affair, he fell
upon Crary with the same weapons in
the same satirical vein, selecting his most
successful images, and polishing his
rhetoric, till the best part of the speech
must stand as a model of that kin of
eloquence. The next day after its
delivery, John Quincy Adams referred
to the vanquished militia general as "the
late Mr. Crary of Michigan."
The speech caused a broad grin upon the face
of the nation.
His irony, in the use of Scriptural illustrations, was
sometimes terrible. The novel
distinction he gave, in his great anti-war
speech, to Cain, will be recollected.
"Sir," said he, "the world's annals show
very many ferocious sieges and battles and
onslaughts before San Jacinto, Palo Alto or
Monterey. Generals of bloody renown
have frightened the nations before the
revolt of Texas or our invasion of Mexico;
and I suppose we Americans might properly
claim some share in this martial reputation,
since it was won by our own kindred, men
clearly descended from Noah, the
great 'Propositus' of our family, with whom
we all claim a very endearing relation.
But I confess I have been somewhat surprised
of late that men, read in the history of
man, who knew that war has been his trade
for six thousand years (prompted, I imagine,
by those noble 'instincts' spoken of by the
Senator from Michigan), who knew that the
first man born of woman was a hero of the
first magnitude, that he met his shepherd
brother in deadly conflict and most
heroically beat out his brains with a club;
I say," etc." |
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Comic Illustration from the Example of
NOah. - Once, when speaking of the
corruption of the times to terrify
wrong-doers, he took occasion to dwell long
upon Noah - the one only man, amidst
the general corruption of the race, who was
found by the Almighty to be righteous.
With great particularity an earnestness, he
described the venerable patriarch as the
only preacher of righteousness at the time
of the Deluge; who incessantly preached and
declared to men, not only by his discourses
but by his unblamable life, and by the
building of the ark in which he was employed
one hundred and twenty years, that the cloud
of Divine vengeance was about to burst upon
them; how his preaching produced no effect;
that when the Deluge came it found mankind
practising their usual enormities.
During the wonderful narrative, you saw the
loafing crowd of dissolute idlers that,
every day and all the time, for the hundred
and twenty years the ark was building,
longed over the timbers, and interrupted the
workmen with their gibes and skeptical
inquiries; and you saw, as distinctly, the
hoary priest, in his solemn loneliness, when
"the waters were dried up from off the
earth, "building the first" altar unto the
Lord" There he stood, before the
people in their very midst, in an Ohio
forest, the one righteous man - the last
preacher of righteousness before the
destruction of mankind - the first to set up
an altar afterward - the saved, the trusted
and blessed. The silence was
oppressive; the audience was transfixed;
something must occur to relieve it.
Just then the orator, observing an
unbelieving auditor doubtingly blinking his
eyes, turned upon him with a look of
inimitable drollery and irony, arching his
eyebrows grotesquely, working, at the same
time, in a most ludicrous manner, the
laughing machinery of his mouth and said to
him, in a familiar, inquiring tone, "But I
think I hear you say, my unbelieving
Democrat, that the old commodore did
once get tight!"
That was
sufficient. The tears that had
gathered in hundreds of eyes during the
delivery of passage after passage of
unsurpassed sublimity fell at once over
faces convulsed with laughter. Again
and again the multitude laughed -
stragglingly and in chorus. |
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His observation and experience, too, had
taught him the uncertainty of public life,
and he was loth to encourage young men to
aspire to it; especially he discouraged them
from seeking or holding positions which are
subordinate and only clerical , as sure to
weaken their manhood and unfit them for
independent, honor able occupations.
It was while he was Secretary of the
Treasury that a young man presented himself
to him for a clerkship. Thrice was he
refused, and still he made a fourth effort.
His perseverance and spirit of determination
awakened a friendly interest in his welfare,
and the secretary advised him , in the
strongest possible terms, to abandon his
purpose and go to the West, if he could do
no better outside the departments . |
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Advice to a Youhng Office-Seeker. -
"My young friend," said he, "go to the
Northwest; buy 160 acres of government land
or, if you have not the money to purchase,
squat on it; get you an axe and mattock; put
up a log-cabin for a habitation, and raise a
little corn and potatoes; keep your
conscience clear, and live like a freeman -
your own master with no one to give you
orders and without dependence upon anybody.
Do that, and you will be honored, respected,
influential and rich. But accept a
clerkship here, and you sink at once all
independence; your en- |
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ergies become relaxed,
and you are unfitted in a few years for any
other and more independent position. I
may give you a place today, and I can kick
you out to-morrow; and there is another man
over there at the White House who can kick
me out, and the people, by-and-by, can kick
him out; and so we go. But if you own
an acre of land, it is your kingdom, and
your cabin is your castle; you are sovereign
and you will feel it in every throbbing of
your pulse, and every day of your life will
assure me of your thanks for having thus
advised you." |
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His great speech in opposition to the war
with Mexico produced a profound sensation
throughout the country. The war proved
to be popular, as all wars will, in an
aggressive popular government. They
make tests for patriotism that are
apprehensible to everybody, besides opening
a way for violences of every sort. The
moral tone of the speech was too high, too
radical, for politics - even for the
Page 163 -
party to which it was especially addressed.
The virus of slavery had tainted the whole
body politic. Twenty years must elapse
before it could be attacked by
constitutional remedies.
The speech and the author of it were violently
assailed. Mr. Corwin was
denounced as a traitor by the scurvy
politicians and press of the country.
The distinguished men of his party who
promised to stand by him deserted him.
Not so with the anti-slavery Whigs of the
Miami valley; they applauded his sentiments,
and asked him to speak to them at Lebanon on
the subject of the war. |
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Wonderful Eloquence of Corwin. - We
dare say, no orator ever had such an
audience of friends. The meeting was
not very large - not so great but that it
could be held in the court-house - but it
was composed in great part of the leading
anti-slavery Whigs in that part of the
country. The good Gov. Morrow,
we believe, presided. Mr. Corwin's
speech on that occasion was regarded by his
friends, familiar with his oratorical
achievements, as the greatest of his life.
There was no reporter present, and no
attempt was ever made to recover any part of
the incomparable effort. There was not
a humorous word in it; it was grave, sober,
serious, tragic. The struggles of the
orator, at times, to express himself were
painful to witness. The great veins
and muscles in his neck enlarged; his face
was distorted; his arms wildly reached, and
his hands desperately clutched clutched in
paroxysms of unutterable emotion. Men
left their seats and gathered close around |
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him, standing
through most of the speech; and many of them
unconsciously repeated with their lips
almost audibly, every word that he uttered,
the tears streaming over their faces.
Every man in the audience was his personal
friend. The speech was a long one,
lasting two or three hours. He
reviewed with much particularity and candor
his sentiments and acts in relation to the
war, and concluded by alluding with great
feeling to old friendships - to his growing
attachment to his old home and to old
home-friends - how they had assisted him in
every effort and fortified him in every
trial - but, grateful as he felt to them,
loving them as he did, if they were all to
implore him, upon their bended knees, to
change his sentiments, and were to remain in
that posture till their bones bored the
oaken floor still he would not retract one
syllable of truth he had uttered as he
should answer to God! |
The audience dissolved of itself, swarming over the
streets and sidewalks, nearly every auditor
going his own way alone. Schenck
and Stevenson walked down the
street together, but did not speak a word
for a block or two. All at once
Schenck ejaculated, "What a speech!"
"Yes!" responded Stevenson, with
Kentucky emphasis," what a speech! I
was born and bred in a land of orators; have
been accustomed all my life to hear such
giants as Clay and Menifee,
Crittenden and Marshall; but,
blessed by God! I never heard a speech
like that!"
EXTRAORDINARY SCENE AT THE DEATH OF THOMAS
CORWIN.
The
following letter, descriptive of Mr.
Corwin's death, appeared anonymously in
the Ohio State Journal:
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WASHINGTON, D. C., Dec. 19, 1865.
Dear Sir: - It has never been deemed an invasion
of the sanctuary of private life to |
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EDWARD DEERING MANSFIELD, author, journalist and
statistician, was born in New Haven, Conn., 17th August,
1801; died in Morrow, O., 27th October, 1880. He
graduated at West Point in 1818 and then entered a classical
course at
~ Page 765 -
Princeton, graduating in 1822, and later studied the law
on Litchfield Hill, at Gould's famed law school.
He removed to Cincinnati
MORE TO COME
TRAVELLING NOTES
RECOLLECTIONS OF YAMOYDEN.
Edward Deering Mansfield
The Sage of Yamoyden
Drawn by Henry Howe in 1886
YAMOYDEN, NEAR MORROW |
EDWARD DEERING
MANSFIELD ~ Pages 764 -
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