Ohio History Journal

Samuel Galloway.                  263

 

 

SAMUEL GALLOWAY.*

BY WASHINGTON GLADDEN, D.D., LL. D.

It is hardly necessary to ask where the Galloways came

from. Their name bewrayeth them. The southwesternmost

peninsula of Scotland, jutting out into the Irish Channel, and

separated by only a few miles of water from County Antrim in

Ireland, was known as the Galloway district. Burns's country

of Ayr was just north of it, Carlyle's country of Ecclefechen

and Dumfries was just east of it, and Wordsworth's country of

Cumberland was not far south of it. The green hills of Ireland

were in plain sight of the eastern shores of Galloway, and their

invitation was accepted by numbers of the Scotch people, who

crossed the narrow strait and made for themselves a home in the

north of Ireland. Thus it was, no doubt, that some Scotch

John or Alexander or Andrew of Galloway found his home and

his surname in Ireland. How long the race had been established

on Irish soil we do not know; it was early in the history of this

country that the first Galloway took up his further journey west-

ward, crossing a broader sea, and setting up his roof-tree in

Gettysburg, Pa. About the same time the Buchanans, another

Scotch-Irish family, came to the same neighborhood; and a

daughter of the Buchanans became the wife of James Galloway

and the mother of Samuel, our honored townsman. President

James Buchanan and Samuel Galloway were cousins; politically

they were somewhat distant cousins, I judge, from a remark in

a letter of Galloway to his brother, written in the last days of

1860. "Are you troubled," he asks, "about the secession of

South Carolina? I am; but I should not be troubled if we had

a man of principle in the White House." Evidently he was not

inclined to shade the truth on account of relationship.

It was in the ancient and renowned town of Gettysburg that

Samuel Galloway was born March 20, 1811. The paternal resi-

dence is still standing, as I learn; during the eventful days of '63

 

* An address delivered at the First Congregational Church, Columbus,

January 6, 1895.

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it was occupied as a hospital by one or the other of the armies.

In the schools of Gettysburg Samuel received his primary train-

ing; and it was here that Thaddeus Stevens, then a rising young

lawyer of that town, heard young Galloway speak at a school

exhibition of some sort, and at once predicted for the boy a

brilliant future. Stevens did not lose sight of him; and a

friendly correspondence followed the removal of Galloway to

Ohio.

It seems difficult to fix the date of this migration. It occur-

red after the death of his father, and was probably as early as

1828 or 1829, when he was seventeen or eighteen years old. The

family settled in Greenfield, Highland county; and in 1829 Sam-

uel entered Miami University, at Oxford, from which, in 1833,

he graduated at the head of his class.

He at once began the study of law at Hillsborough; but his

religious nature had been deeply stirred by some experience, and

he abruptly abandoned his legal studies and went to Princeton,

where he remained one year as a theological student. Why he

did not complete his theological course I do not know; financial

considerations may have constrained him to turn, for a while, to

the work of teaching. In 1835 he was made Professor of Greek

at Miami University; but resigned, on account of ill-health, at

the end of a year. When his health was recovered he resumed

teaching, first at Springfield in this State, and later at South

Hanover College in Indiana, where for two or three years he was

professor of the classical languages.

The biographies which have appeared in the Cyclopedias

and the Collections all state that his purpose of abandoning the

ministry for the law was clearly formed when he left Princeton,

but I have good evidence, in a long letter written from South

Hanover, in 1840, to his brother, then a Presbyterian pastor at

Springfield, that the question of his calling was not even then

settled. It is a most interesting epistle as showing the workings

of this alert and penetrating mind. He has recently been visit-

ing in Shelbyville, Kentucky, and lecturing there on Education

and Temperance; and he makes some interesting observations

on the state of society which he finds there. " They are a peo-

ple," he says, "distinguished for their liberality and enlightened

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Samuel Galloway.                265

 

views of human rights. Many of the people there talk freely on

the subject; they admit slavery to be a sore evil and are anxiously

looking forward to the day when the curse shall be removed.

The great error that I observed in their views is their disposition

to shuffle off the responsibility from themselves upon the State."

These interesting comments are, however, but introductory

to the principal theme of his letter, which is a full expression of

his mind concerning his future career. "I intimated," he writes,

"to Bro. Steele, when we met in Kentucky, that I thought it not

improbable that I might connect myself with the Presbytery in

the spring. * * * I am still of the same opinion, yet halting.

I am aware that the state of suspense in which I have been for

three or four years is not only unfavorable to my own advance-

ment, but especially unfavorable to my usefulness and comfort,

but these are simply and honestly my feelings upon the matter.

I have been so much thwarted and disappointed in my intentions

in regard to the ministry, that I have more than once come to

the conclusion that it was not the will of Providence that I

should serve him in that department of labor. This, in addi-

tion to conditions arising from impaired constitution and my

peculiar temperament, have placed me in my present unsettled

condition. If I know my own heart, my object is to glorify

God, and no considerations drawn from wealth or the praise that

cometh from man have ever eclipsed this object in my eye.

Many of my choicest Christian friends have frequently advised

me to seek some more active life than that of the ministry; and

have (I have no doubt honestly) suggested that I could be useful

to the church and to the world by becoming a politician, and

thus make my talents bear upon some of the important moral

subjects involved in the legislation of the present day. I have

always believed that I had some natural adaptation of mind for

such and similar pursuits; and nothing but the conviction that it

was difficult to keep a conscience void of offense toward God and

man ever induced me to abandon the law and to turn an unwill-

ing ear to the solicitations which have been offered by many esti-

mable friends. If I now thought, or had thought, that I could

have been preserved faithful to God by such a consecration of

my talents, I would not have hesitated, or now hesitate, a mo-

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ment to make that disposition of my abilities. I am as sensible

of my imperfections as any individual can be, and especially of

that levity of temperament over which I have prayed and wept,

and hence I have seriously apprehended that this might be a great

hindrance to my usefulness in the ministry. These thoughts are

honestly submitted and I ask your advice."

These words show that under the lightness of temperament

there was, after all, a deep seriousness; and that a genuine self-

criticism was habitual with him.

It was very soon after this that the wavering judgment

settled, not upon the ministry, but upon the law; for it was

the next year that he returned to Ohio and began the study of

the law; in 1842 he was admitted to the bar; and in 1843 he

formed a law partnership with Nathaniel Massie of Chillicothe.

" He made his maiden speech," says one biographer, "in Hills-

borough, in the presence of several of the most distinguished

members of the bar in Southern Ohio. All gave him high com-

mendation for this effort, the jury according him the verdict

without leaving their seats; and such was the impression upon

the Hon. Thomas L. Hamer, who was present, that he said,

'Galloway, retire with your laurels; you will never be able, in

any further effort, to equal or surpass this.'"

The next year he was elected by the Legislature Secretary

of State-that office, under the old constitution, being filled in

that way; and he at once moved to Columbus, which was thence-

forth his home. This was in 1844-the year that Henry Clay

was not elected-a memorable year in the politics of Ohio.

Galloway was thirty-three years old and he had seen a good deal

of the world in one way and another; for during his teaching

experience he had been in great request as a lecturer and speaker

upon education and temperance. The days of the Washing-

tonian movement were just passing and Galloway had entered

into that with great enthusiasm, speaking everywhere, in churches

and halls and school houses, and leading great numbers of the

victims of drink to reform their habits. In the letter from which

I have quoted he tells his brother that between 80 and 100 per-

sons signed the pledge in the meetings which he held in Ken-

tucky.

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Samuel Galloway.                  267

 

He was, therefore, when he arrived at the capital, a prac-

ticed and telling public speaker; and it was not long before he

had won a place in the popular regard of this community from

which he was never to be dislodged.

The question of slavery was coming to the front in those

days, and the relation of the two parties to this question was

something like the present relation of the two great parties to

the currency question; there were free-soil whigs, and pro-slavery

whigs; "woolly heads," and "silver greys," as they were after-

wards distinguished in New York. Mr. Galloway's sympathies,

as his letter about Shelbyville will indicate, were always with

the anti-slavery wing of his party, though he preferred to make

his fight for liberty inside the party, rather than to join the anti-

slavery organizations then coming to the front. With Governor

Andrew of Massachusetts he would have said, "I am not a Come-

outer, I am a Stayinner." In 1848 he was a delegate to the con-

vention in Philadelphia which nominated Taylor and Fillmore;

and a speech which he made on that occasion was long remem-

bered for its thrilling eloquence. We have no report of it, but

its trend may be indicated by a quotation from one of Whittier's

anti-slavery poems, entitled "New England," a poem, by the

way, which has failed to find a place in his published works.

The lines were said to have been given by Mr. Galloway with

thrilling power:

 

Shall Honor bleed? shall Truth succumb;

Shall pen and press and Love be dumb?

No, by each spot of haunted ground

Where Freedom weeps her children's fall;

By Plymouth's rock, and Bunker's mound,

By Griswold's stained and shattered wall,

By Warren's host, by Langdon's shade,

By all the memories of our dead,

By their enlarging souls which burst

The bands and fetters round them set,

By the free Pilgrim spirit nursed

Within our inmost bosoms yet,-

By all above, around, below,

Be our's the indignant answer, No!"

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The real drift of the speech may be inferred from the remark

of an enthusiastic whig from Mississippi who came over to Mr.

Galloway after the roar of applause was stilled and said, "Mr.

Galloway, we applauded your poetry, but we [condemn] your

sentiments." He did not really say "condemn"; he used a more

scriptural word.

In 1854 Mr. Galloway went from this district to Congress.

It was a notable Congress, the Thirty-fourth. The reaction

against the encroachments of the Slave Power had fully set in

at the North; the Whig Party, on account of its cowardly com-

plicity with slavery had been practically annihilated, and the great

majority of the members returned from the Northern States were

pledged to resist the further extension of slavery. The Congress

assembled on the third of December, but the House was not

organized until the third of February, when Nathaniel P. Banks,

on the one hundred and thirty-third ballot, was chosen Speaker.

On the midnight of the second of February Mr. Galloway was

aroused from his sleep and summoned to a conference which

lasted till near daybreak; when he came in, in the early morn-

ing, he admonished his wife to be in attendance at the next

morning's session, if she wished to witness the election of a

Speaker. The necessary arrangements had somehow been made

and the long deadlock was broken. Mr. Banks was the first

anti-slavery man ever chosen Speaker of the House; and the

victory was the first forward step in that irrepressible conflict

which placed Mr. Lincoln in the White House.

These were great days. Gog and Magog were mustering

for battle. The Missouri Compromise, shutting slavery out of

all the territory further north than the southern boundary of that

State had been repealed, permitting the invasion, by slavery, of

the whole Northwest; the battle had begun, on the soil of Kan-

sas and Nebraska, for the possession of this territory. It was

during the session of this Congress that Sumner was assaulted

and nearly killed on the floor of the Senate chamber; and the

wrath of the Northern people was kindled to a blaze. Some of

us remember well the swiftness with which events were march-

ing on; the irresistible momentum of the gathering forces; the

thrill of resolute purpose, mixed with apprehension, with which

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Samuel Galloway.                  269

 

we watched the progress of the conflict. It was a day when

convictions ripened fast, and when manhood quickly came to its

crown.

Mr. Galloway took an active part in the deliberations of this

congress, and made at least one very trenchant speech upon the

contested election case from the territory of Kansas. It is full

of the keenest satire, and the most vigorous argument. Kansas

was organized under the principle of popular sovereignty, leav-

ing the people of each state "perfectly free to form and regulate

their domestic institutions in their own way." But the territorial

legislature, organized by fraud and violence, proceeded to enact

laws which made it a penitentiary offence for any person to write,

publish or circulate in the territory any book, magazine or news-

paper in which the right to hold slaves in the territory was called

in question. Galloway comments, in his own cutting way, upon

this legislation, in view of the organic law under which the

settlers were "perfectly free" to regulate their own domestic

affairs.

"Perfectly free!" he cries. "So were those victims whom

the fabled robber, Procrustes, placed upon his iron bed. They

enjoyed a free use of their legs; but if they were not adapted to

the principles of his legislation he stretched them if they were

too short, or lopped them off if they were too long, to suit

the length of his law in regard to free legs. Tantalus, also,

in his fabled hell, was perfectly free to eat and drink. To be

sure, when he undertook to exercise the liberty of drinking, the

water retreated from his lips, yet he was free to use what he

could not get. He was perfectly free to eat of the rich clusters

of grapes that hung above him; but when he attempted to seize

them, the wind blew them from his grasp. So will the waters of

political salvation, and rich clusters of grapes of freedom around

and over the people of Kansas. As soon as the thirsty and

hungry for political freedom attempt to eat or drink, although

perfectly free to do so, they are seized and imprisoned for exer-

cising their appetites in their own way."

And then he goes on to quote what eminent Southern

Democrats have said about slavery--Randolph and Jefferson

and Rives and Marshall and other distinguished Virginians--

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and shows that for the utterance of such words upon the soil of

Kansas they would be liable to imprisonment. And he con-

cludes with a burst of indignant eloquence, of which another

strain from Whittier forms a telling climax. We cannot wonder

that the speech produced a sensation, nor that periodicals as

critical as Blackwood's Magazine and the North British Review

gave it deserved commendation.

Mr. Galloway was not returned to the Thirty-fifth Congress;

the political complexion of the district was strongly against him,

and he was defeated, upon his second candidacy, by Samuel

S. Cox.

*For the next few years he was living in Columbus, practi-

cing his profession, and very active in all religious and philan-

thropic work. It was less than two years after he left Congress

that Mr. Lincoln was engaged in his great debate with Douglas,

and there is a letter of Mr. Lincoln's asking Mr. Galloway to

come over to Illinois and help him in that campaign. Whether

he went or not I do not know; but I think that he was a delegate

to the Chicago convention, and it is certain that he exerted all

his influence in favor of the nomination of Mr. Lincoln for the

presidency. That the work he did in that campaign was en-

thusiastic and effective may be safely assumed.

When Mr. Lincoln was here in the spring of 1861, on his

way to the White House, he had a confidential interview with

Mr. Galloway, and summoned him to Washington. Mr. Gallo-

way obeyed the summons, and it is understood that Mr. Lincoln

 

*On July 13, 1855, a convention was held in the old Town Street

Methodist Church in Columbus, attended by delegates from all over Ohio

representing anti-Nebraska elements, and presided over by John Sherman.

Mr. Galloway was one of the delegates at that convention, and aided in

framing the resolutions which gave the name of "Republican" to the new

party. And this date, the sixty-seventh anniversary of the adoption of the

ordinance of 1787, containing the prohibition of slavery in the Northwest

Territory, marks the birth of the Republican party. This convention

nominated Salmon P. Chase for Governor, and he was triumphantly

elected in the following November. On the 18th of July a meeting was

held at the City Hall to ratify the convention of the 13th, and the principal

speakers on this occasion were Mr. Galloway, Henry C. Noble and George

M. Parsons.                                       T. B. G.

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Samuel Galloway.                 271

 

made him flattering offers of responsible positions in the govern-

ment at home, which he refused. High places in the diplomatic

service were tendered him. But he could not bring himself

to put the ocean between himself and his native land in this

hour of her extremity. "Well," said Mr. Lincoln, "what will

you take? Here are thousands crowding upon me for places; it

is a pity that I cannot give something to a man like you." Mr.

Galloway would only promise to go home and consult his wife;

and the upshot of it all was that he was made judge advocate at

Camp Chase, and had the duty of examining the political prison-

ers--the non-combatants, who were arrested and sent to this

prison from the South because they were supposed to be particu-

larly dangerous enemies of the Union. Many of these were dis-

covered to be ignorant and probably harmless persons, having

very hazy notions about the meaning of the war; and most of

them were permitted to take the oath of allegiance and return to

their homes. A gentleman who was with Mr. Galloway through

all his experience gives some amusing accounts of Mr. Gallo-

way's shrewdness and humor in conducting these examinations.

This was, I believe, the only federal office he ever held.

But he was in the closest relations, during the war, with Mr.

Lincoln and Mr. Stanton, and his counsel was sought more than

once during that fierce struggle. There is one vivid report of a

conference at Washington in the very darkest days of the war,

when Pope's defeated army was huddled into the earthworks

about Washington. By telegraph Governor Tod and Mr. Gallo-

way were called to Washington for consultation. Only five per-

sons were present at this interview in Mr. Lincoln's private

office-the President, the Secretary of War, the Governor, Mr.

Galloway and the anonymous writer who tells the story. Mr.

Lincoln was in great depression; as he sat there with Governor

Tod, the narrator tells us, his countenance bore the impress of

the most agonizing thought; his tall, ungainly form seemed bent

with the burden of a great calamity. Some minutes, probably a

quarter of an hour, elapsed before the ominous and sombre

silence was broken and then only by the announcement of

Samuel Galloway, whose entrance seemed to unfold, as it were,

the President's countenance. As that gentleman entered the

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room, Mr. Lincoln advanced to the door, wrapped Mr. Galloway

in his arms, with the exclamation, 'God bless you, Sam.'"

It may have been on this occasion that the President made

the remark, "I would rather see you than any man in America."

The little group drew around a small table in the center of the

room, and began to consult about the emergency, coming to a

substantial agreement as to the first step to be taken. Then the

conversation took a wider range, and Mr. Lincoln began to dis-

cuss the effect of the preliminary proclamation which had been

recently issued, warning insurgents under arms that the slaves

would be set free by proclamation, if they did not, within ninety

days, lay down their arms. Lincoln was confident that this

would give the rebellion its finishing stroke; and Mr. Tod agreed

with him, while Stanton and Galloway were somewhat skeptical.

"Well," said Mr. Lincoln, "let us conclude that it will, and that

that phase of the question is finally settled. What most con-

cerns me, however, is the after consequences of this wholesale

emancipation of four millions of people, who for a period of

more than two centuries have been in the most absolute bond-

age, and who, necessarily, are totally devoid of the requisite

intelligence to enable them to take care of themselves." And

then he proceeded to discuss, in a most sagacious and luminous

manner, the whole problem of the uplifting and enfranchisement

of the slaves. He spoke at great length; and in speaking, this

witness says, he "seemed inspired. His countenance, just before

so full of melancholy wrinkles, seemed to smooth out; his eyes

shone like diamonds, and his whole contour was of the most

animated description. It was listened to in the most complete

silence by those in the room; and after its conclusion the silence

continued for the space of at least ten minutes. All seemed

deeply impressed- Secretary Stanton, in particular, who sat

with his hand buried in his beard and the burden of the most

intense thought on his expressive brow. Indeed the silence

was almost painful.

"Sam. Galloway was the first to break it with the expres-

sion, in a cheery tone, evidently intended as a relief: 'Mr.

President, how are you anyway?' This remark dissipated the

solemnity of the occasion, and, after a short general conversation,

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Samuel Galloway.                  273

 

Mr. Stanton took leave of the party, leaving Governor Tod,

Sam. Galloway and the President together. Then commenced

what might be called a relaxation. Mr. Lincoln told one of his

inimitable stories, Galloway duplicated it, and Tod triplicated

it,-they were all celebrated in that line; and thus another full

hour and a half was consumed, after which the Governor and

Mr. Galloway took leave of the President and went to their

hotel."

The services which Mr. Galloway rendered to the Federal

cause during the war were many and constant. He could not

undertake military duty on account of his broken health; but he

was always at the service of the Government, and his eloquence

contributed as much as that of any other man to inspire the

people with patriotic ardor and to keep the quota of Ohio always

full.

After the war professional duties and business cares kept

Mr. Golloway busy in Columbus; but he was always ready for

public duties; and it is probable that few men have rendered a

larger amount of unrequited political service to their party than

he had rendered. It was not unnatural that he should expect

some recognition of this indebtedness; and when, in 1871, he

became a candidate for the gubernatorial nomination, he had

some reason for his confidence that it would surely come to him.

His defeat in the convention was a crushing blow; the pain and

mortification and resentment which it caused him greatly dark-

ened and embittered the last months of his life. His health

gave way; he sought by travel in the South to regain his vigor,

but some constitutional malady claimed him and he came home

to die. His last days were very peaceful and beautiful. In the

presence of the great realities of existence the strifes of this

present world lost all their significance; his disappointments and

resentments were put away from his thought; his comfort was

in the love of those who stood near him, and in the hopes of the

life to come which had always been the anchor of his soul, and

he died at peace with God and all the world.

I wish that I could bring before you, in a few words, this

unique personality. It was thirty-six years ago last August

that I saw him, but his figure has not wholly faded from my

Vol. IV-18

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recollection. He was about the medium height, if I do not

forget; rather gaunt and angular, with a high and broad fore-

head, and a face with strong lines. That face was a great fund

of histrionic resources; you might almost say it was his fortune.

The uses to which it could be put-the characters it could

depict, the drolleries it could suggest, the stories it could tell

were legion. And his attitudes and gestures were as grotesque

as his grimaces. Whenever he was in the mood of it-and he

often was-it was enough for him simply to stand up and twist

his body into some fantastic pose, and put on one of his charac-

teristic expressions, and the assembly would burst into a laugh.

But he was not a harlequin. There was something more

than waggery. Behind all this fun was the ready gift of clear,

vigorous, cogent speech.

"It was, perhaps," says one of his biographers, "as the

living speaker that he is most vividly recalled by those who had

the privilege of knowing him. In this department he had few

equals; none who ever heard him can forget the power of his

eloquence. No description can convey a just idea of his manner

or style. His efforts were unequal, often affected by a depressed

nervous system; but at his best his speeches were a rare union

of scathing wit, brilliant sarcasm, intense pathos and inimitable

humor, intensified in their delivery by the profoundest feeling

of the man. Though full of anecdote and thrilling illustration,

yet they were governed by a strictly logical order, and story and

fable were linked in a chain of convincing argument. No man

could sway more successfully the feelings of a crowd. And

when he rose in a popular assembly it was the signal for a

tumultuous outburst of applause; 'the people heard him

gladly.'"

His repartee was instantaneous: woe to the venturesome

interrupter! He was very familiar with the Scriptures, and

while he did not, I think, use them irreverently, they furnished

him a great many telling phrases. One who knew him long and

intimately, being associated with him in daily work, speaks of

his irresistible humor, of his generous impulses, of his great

kindness to the poor, of the warm side which it was his nature

to show to the unfortunate and the friendless.

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Samuel Galloway.                 275

 

It is altogether plain to me that Mr. Galloway was not a

perfect man; that he was not even a perfect politician; he lived

at too early a date for this; the perfect politicians have all come

to Columbus since his day!   That levity of his, which he

deplores, was sometimes a snare to him; it led him to make

game of people behind their backs, and his little jokes at their

expense cost him friendships. Yet he was, I suppose, the most

popular public man in the city-the one man sure to be called

to grace any important occasion when speech was required. And

his old friend, the one who knew him best, protests that while

there was sometimes satire on his tongue there was never any

malice in his heart.

Mr. Galloway's religious convictions were clearly expressed

in the letter I read a little while ago. Through all his life in

this city his connection with the church was uninterrupted and

his labors in its service abundant. He was a member, at first, I

think, of the First Presbyterian Church; but when the West-

minster Church was formed, he, perhaps more than any one else,

was the moving spirit, and his loyal love and service were given

to that church until his death. I saw him thirty-six years ago,

at that church, in an evening prayer meeting, and also at the

union morning prayer meeting held, I should think, at that time,

in the basement of what is now the Third Street Methodist

Church, but what was then the Second Presbyterian Church.

There must be many people in Columbus yet who can recall his

vigorous talks in the prayer meetings, and the grotesque and

semi-humorous manner of saying serious things. It was quite

his custom to stand facing the congregation, with one foot upon

the bench, and often, in prayer, his elbow would be supported

by this elevated knee and his head would rest upon his hand.

Not at all conventional; altogether unique and individual was

this personality; those who knew him are not likely to forget

him.

In the councils of the Presbyterian Church he was an ac-

knowledged leader; more than once he was a Commissioner to

the General Assembly; in the final reunion of the Old School

and New School bodies he bore an important part.

I have reserved for the last, the mention, which must now

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Samuel Galloway.                  277

 

responsible officials; it shows how thorough an investigation is

being made into the defects of the educational system, and it

presents, in clear terms, the needful remedies. It is not dry

reading, I assure you; it is a little more rhetorical, in spots, than

would be good form now-a-days; but there is plenty of logic and

wit and wholesome Scriptural citation. Now and then he prints

a County Superintendent's report literatim, which tells the story

of the superintendent's illiteracy without the need of a diagram.

In his second report he says that the relative position of Ohio, in

the cause of education, is so lamentably " inferior, compared with

our capabilities, the wants of our people and the pre-eminence of

some of our sister States," that the true account of it can only

be humiliating to the pride of every citizen. "It is impossible,"

he says, "even to conjecture what is the number or condition of

the school-houses in Ohio; but it is more than probable that a

faithful description would embrace a grotesque scenery of broken

benches, rocking slabs, broken sashes, absent panes, gaping

walls, yawning roofs and floors bowing with infirmity, forcibly

suggesting Falstaff's regiment: No eye hath seen such scare-

crows. There's but a shirt and a half in all my company, and

the half-shirt is two napkins tacked together and thrown over the

shoulder like a herald's coat without sleeves.' " He asserts, and

gives evidence of his assertion, that more than half of the

schools of the State are taught by persons who are utterly illit-

erate and incompetent.  "Elevated and commanding as the

talents and attainments of a teacher ought to be," he argues,

"one obtains license to teach orthography who replied to the

question, "spell ocean,' that there were two ways of spelling it,

o-t-i-o-n and o-s-h-i-o-n; another who spelled philosophy, f-i-l-o-s-

o-f-e-y; and another who spelled the common word earthly,

e-r-t-h-l-e-y. Upon others were bestowed the honor of teacher

of arithmetic, one of whom could not tell how many hundred

weight were in a ton; another who was ignorant of the multipli-

cation table, and another who could not tell the cost of 9 cords

of wood at $1.37½ per cord. Another was licensed to teach geog-

raphy who bounded Virginia by Tennessee on the north and

Maryland on the east."

These searching and scorching criticisms bore fruit. The

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278       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.  [VOL. 4

 

popular interest was aroused; the slipshod methods were re-

formed; the standard of the teacher was lifted up; the Teachers'

Institutes, which Mr. Galloway first introduced into the State,

and at many of which he presided, developed a new spirit among

teachers; and within ten years from the time when Mr. Galloway

began his agitation, the public school system of Ohio was revolu-

tionized and the schools compared favorably with those of any

other State. I do not speak particularly of what was done for

Columbus; for I think that there were others, notably Mr. Joseph

Sullivant, to whom the schools of this city are more especially

indebted; but Mr. Galloway's work was done for the whole

State. It was a good and noble work; in the highest sense of

the word honorable and patriotic and philanthropic; it would

scarcely have been possible for him, in any other profession to

perform a service so important and influential as this. Whatever

else may be said of him, this great achievement must be remem-

bered to his honor. And it seems to me that Columbus ought

long ago to have given to one of its best school-houses the name

of Samuel Galloway.

Such, I think, is the fair portraiture, not greatly overdrawn,

of the life and character of one of the men of Columbus. I

have thought it best to be sparing of eulogy in all these narra-

tives, to tell a plain, unvarnished tale. I would wish, indeed, to

reverse Shakespeare's apothegm, and make the good that men

have done live after them, leaving the rest to be interred with

their bones; but not to dishonor them by fulsome praise or exag-

gerated estimates.

Of Samuel Galloway, those of you who knew him will bear

me out in saying that he was, probably, the most enjoying and

effective speaker who ever lived in this city; that he was a genial

and agreeable companion; a kind neighbor; a man of generous

impulses and true compassion; a loyal and self-denying helper of

the Church of his choice; a stout champion of the freedom of

the slave and of the unity of the nation; and a great friend of

the free school.

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