THOMAS CORWIN AND THE CONSERVATIVE
REPUBLICAN
REACTION, 1858-1861
by DARYL
PENDERGRAFT
Assistant Professor of History, Iowa
State Teachers College
By the year 1858, it had become apparent
to many of the
leaders of the young Republican party
that the party's future success
required a stronger appeal to the
conservative elements of the
North. The taint of radicalism that was
attached to the new party
was plainly frightening many of the
property-owning class and
others with more moderate views into the
Douglas camp. Unless
this trend could be stopped, there was
real danger that the election
of 1860 might be thrown into the house
of representatives and con-
ceivably result in the election to the
presidency of an undesirable
candidate. A widespread campaign to
soothe the fears of the north-
ern conservatives was clearly in order.
Furthermore, in due time,
the cumulative effect of such incidents
as John Brown's raid and
of the publication of Helper's Impending
Crisis, both of which the
Republicans were accused of having
endorsed, led more and more
people to brand that party as an
organization of extremists and
made more necessary a conservative
appeal. Even after the election
of 1860 many in the party felt the need
of continuing the denial of
radicalism in the hope of arranging a
compromise between the
extremists of both North and South.1
As a spokesman to the conservatives,
Thomas Corwin was the
logical choice of the Ohio Republicans.
Throughout his long career
as a congressman, governor of Ohio,
United States Senator, and
secretary of the treasury, he had been
known as a Henry Clay Whig.
During the Jacksonian administration he
had been one of the lead-
ing champions of the Bank of the United
States and had become a
well-known advocate of a high protective
tariff and internal im-
provements at federal expense. As an
antislavery leader he opposed
the annexation of Texas and received so
much notoriety for his
efforts to end the Mexican War that he
was frequently mentioned
1 William E. Dodd, "The Fight for
the Northwest," in American Historical
Review, XVI (1911), 774-789.