OHIO STATE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
REVIEWS, NOTES AND COMMENTS
BY THE EDITOR
REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
DR. GEORGE T. HARDING
Dr. George T. Harding, who is a Civil
War veteran,
recently recalled a pleasant visit to
Abraham Lincoln.
At the conclusion of his war service he
and a few of his
comrades called at the White House. A
colored at-
tendant told them that the President
was very busy but
that if they would wait awhile they
would have an op-
portunity to see him. In about an hour they were
ushered into his presence. They made
known that they
had simply come to pay their respects
and to be able to
say when they returned home that they
had seen Presi-
dent Lincoln.
"We are boys from the Buckeye
State," said Doctor
Harding to the President.
"Well," said Lincoln, "I
am very glad to meet you.
The Buckeye State has been loyal to me
and I certainly
appreciate it."
He thereupon heartily shook hands with
each of the
soldiers. Doctor Harding recalls most
distinctly the
large hands of Abraham Lincoln and his
hearty greet-
ing. The President took the right hand
of each of them
(282)
Reviews, Notes and Comments 283
in turn between his two hands in
greeting them. He
said that it was one of his busy days
and cordially asked
them to come again. As they were
leaving he said with
a smile:
"And now you can tell your people
at home that you
have seen the handsomest man in the
United States."
Little did Private George T. Harding
dream that in
the distant future he would see his own
son in the White
House, an honored successor of
President Abraham
Lincoln.
EDWARD C. MCMULLAN
Mr. Edward C. McMullan, a veteran of
the Civil
War and former resident of Springfield,
Illinois, re-
members Lincoln and the Lincoln family
as he saw
them
frequently in his earlier years.
The Columbus
Citizen publishes an interesting interview with Mr.
McMullan from which the following
extracts are taken:
In the heart of Edward C. McMullan, 49
Hubbard Ave.,
Civil War veteran, an attendant at the
Ohio State Archaeological
Museum, Ohio State University, there is cemented
a feeling of
love and intimate affection for Lincoln,
whom he knew when he
(McMullan) was but a youngster at
Springfield, Illinois, and
boyhood chum of Robert Lincoln, son of
the "Emancipator."
"I remember him quite well,"
mused the old soldier, Mon-
day, when he was asked about those early
days back in Spring-
field. "The President was always
very kind to us boys and to
everybody, for that matter. I used to
see him two or three times
every day. While playing with 'Bob' we
used to romp in and
out of Lincoln's office, and though he
was often very busy and
faced with many tribulations, he never
spoke harshly to us, nor
did I ever hear him utter a
complaint."
McMullan, who is seventy-eight years of
age and for the
past few months has been confined at his
home by illness,
straightened his shoulders and his face
beamed as he described
the shabby, poorly furnished office of
Lincoln in which he was
officially notified of his nomination to
the presidency.
"I can see that office as plainly
as though I were standing in
it right now," said McMullan,
smiling. "It was very poorly fur-
284 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
nished, containing only a rickety table,
a broken chair and a
dusty bookcase. There was of course no
carpet. Then there
was an old red plush lounge which would
now hardly be con-
sidered good enough for kindling wood.
That law office was
certainly a contrast to the mahogany
furnished law offices of the
present day."
When Lincoln was elected president, that
companionship
between Robert Lincoln and McMullan and
the latter's intimacy
with the Lincoln family naturally ended,
because the Lincolns
"moved away over east to
Washington," said McMullan with a
smile.
When 17 years of age, McMullan joined
Company B, 32nd
Ohio Regiment, and participated in 29
battles, including the
famous siege of Vicksburg. He was
captured and confined in
Andersonville Prison for 11 months. He
was finally paroled
and before his parole period expired the
war ended.
"I do not have to be told that
Lincoln was one of the best
friends this Nation and its citizens
ever had," said McMullan.
"I know it and so do my two
brothers who were members of
the Confederate Army. I often heard them
say that Lincoln
was the best friend the South ever had
and we, of the North,
know quite well that he was one of the
best we ever had."
LINCOLN ON LABOR
IN SPEECH AT CINCINNATI, 1859
By reference to page 95, it will be seen
that a part of
Abraham Lincoln's speech at Cincinnati
in 1859 was
omitted from the report. His speech
is generally, al-
most invariably, published with this
omission. In the
Life of Abraham Lincoln by W. D. Howells, published
in Columbus in 1860, the Cincinnati
speech is included
with this prefatory note:
The following speech is here reproduced,
with the insertion
of Mr. Lincoln's view upon labor and the
ability of the laborer
to become an employer. These were
omitted in the first report,
and the passages are supplied by the
reporter for the present
work.
Reviews, Notes and Comments 285
The supplied portion relating to labor
is as follows:
Upon what principle shall it be said the
planting of a new
territory by the first thousand people that migrate to
it, is a
matter concerning them exclusively? What kind of logic is it
that argues that it in no wise concerns,
if you please, the black
men who are to be enslaved? Or if you are afraid to say any-
thing about that; if you have been
bedeviled for your sympathy
for the negro; if noses have been turned
up at you; and if you
have been accused of having wanted the
negro as your social
equal, for a juror, to be a witness
against your white brethren,
or even to marry with him; if you have
been accused of all this,
until you are afraid to speak of the
colored race; -- then, I ask
you, what right is there to say that the
planting of free soil with
slavery has no effect upon the white men
that are to go there
afterward as emigrants from the older
states? By what right
do a few of the first settlers fix that
first condition beyond the
power of succeeding millions to
eradicate it? Why shall a few
men be allowed, as it were, to sow that
virgin soil with Canada
thistles, or any other pest of the soil,
which the farmer, in subse-
quent ages, cannot eradicate without
endless toil? Is it a matter
that exclusively concerns those few
people that settle there first?
Douglas argues that it is a matter of
exclusive local juris-
diction. What enables him to say that?
It is because he looks
upon slavery as so insignificant that
the people may decide that
question for themselves, albeit they are
not fit to decide who shall
be their governor, judge, or secretary,
or who have been any of
their officers. These are vast national
matters, in his estimation;
but the little matter, in his
estimation, is the planting of slavery
there. That is of purely local interest,
which nobody should be
allowed to say a word about. It is a great national question
that Sam. Medary shall be appointed by
the President as Gov-
ernor of Kansas, that he may go there
for a year or two, and
come away without there being left
behind him a sign for good
or evil of his having been there; but
the question of planting
slavery on that soil is a little, local,
unimportant matter, that
nobody ought to be allowed to speak
of. Such an expression is
absolutely shameful.
Labor is the great source from which
nearly all, if not all,
human comforts and necessaries are
drawn. There is a differ-
ence of opinion about the elements of
labor in a society. Some
men assume that there is a necessary
connection between capital
and labor, and that connection draws
within it all of the labor
of the community. They assume that
nobody works unless cap-
ital excites him to work. They begin next to consider what is
the best way for capital to be used to
induce people to work.
286 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
They say that there are but two ways;
one is, to hire men and
to allure them to labor by their own
consent, and the other is,
to buy the men and drive them to labor. This latter is
slavery.
Having assumed so much, they proceed to
discuss the question
of whether the laborers themselves are
better off in the condition
of slavery or of hired laborers; and
they usually decide that they
are better off in the condition of
slaves.
In the first place, I say that that
whole theory is a mistake.
That there is a certain relation between
capital and labor I admit.
That it does exist, and rightfully
exist, and that it is proper that
it should exist, I think is true. I
think, in the progress of things,
that men who are industrious, and sober, and honest in
the pur-
suit of their own interests, should,
after a while, accumulate
capital, and then should be allowed to
enjoy it in peace, and
also, if they choose, when they have
accumulated it, use it to
save themselves from actual labor, by
hiring other people to labor
for them. In doing so, they do not wrong the man they em-
ploy, for they find young men who have
not of their own land
to work upon, or shops to labor in, and
who are benefited by
working for others in the capacity of
hired laborers, receiving
their capital for it. Thus, a few men that own capital, hire
others, and thus establish the relation
of capital and labor right-
fully; a relation of which I make no
complaint. But I insist
that the relation, after all, does not
embrace more than one-
eighth of all the labor of the
country. At least seven-eighths
of the labor is done without relation to
it.
Take the State of Ohio. Out of eight bushels of wheat.
seven are raised by those men who labor for
themselves, aided
by their boys growing to manhood,
neither being hired nor hir-
ing, but literally laboring upon their
own hook, asking no favor
of capital, of hired laborer, or of the
slave. That is the true
condition of the larger portion of all
the labor done in this com-
munity, or that should be the condition
of labor in well regu-
lated communities of
agriculturists. Thus much for that part
of the subject.
Again: the assumption that the slave is
in a better condition
than the hired laborer includes the
further assumption that he
who is once a hired laborer always
remains a hired laborer; that
there is a certain class of men who
remain through life in a de-
pendent condition. Then they endeavor to point out that when
they get old they have no kind masters
to take care of them,
and that they fall dead in the traces,
with the harness of actual
labor upon their feeble backs. In point of fact that is a false
assumption. There is no such thing as a man who is a hired
laborer, of a necessity, always
remaining in his early condition.
Reviews, Notes and Comments 287
The general rule is otherwise. I know it is so, and I will tell
you why. When at an early age, I was
myself a hired laborer,
at twelve dollars per month; and
therefore I do know that there
is not always the necessity for being a
hired laborer because once
there was propriety in being so. My
understanding of the hired
laborer is this: A young man finds
himself of an age to be dis-
missed from parental control; he has for
his capital nothing,
save two strong hands that God has given
him, a heart willing
to labor, and a freedom to choose the
mode of his work and the
manner of his employer; he has got no
soil nor shop, and he
avails himself of the opportunity of
hiring himself to some man
who has capital to pay him a fair day's
wages for a fair day's
work. He is benefited by availing
himself of that privilege. He
works industriously, he behaves soberly,
and the result of a year
or two's labor is a surplus of capital.
Now he buys land on his
own hook; he settles, marries, begets
sons and daughters, and in
course of time he too has enough capital
to hire some new be-
ginner.
In this same way every member of the
whole community
benefits and improves his condition.
That is the true condition
of labor in the world, and it breaks up
the saying of these men
that there is a class of men chained
down throughout life to labor
for another. There is no such case
unless he be of that confiding
and leaning disposition that makes it
preferable for him to choose
that course, or unless he be a vicious
man, who by reason of his
vice, is, in some way prevented from
improving his condition,
or else he be a singularly unfortunate
man. There is no such
thing as a man being bound down in a
free country through his
life as a laborer. This progress by
which the poor, honest, in-
dustrious, and resolute man raises
himself, that he may work
on his own account and hire somebody
else, is that progress that
human nature is entitled to, is that
improvement in condition
that is intended to be secured by those
institutions under which
we live, is the great principle for
which this government was
really formed. Our government was not established that one
man might do with himself as he pleases,
and with another man
too.
I hold that if there is any one thing
that can be proved to
be the will of God by external nature
around us, without refer-
ence to revelation, it is the
proposition that whatever any one
man earns with his hands and by the sweat of his brow,
he shall
enjoy in peace. I say that whereas God Almighty has given
every man one mouth to be fed, and one
pair of hands adapted
to furnish food for that mouth, if
anything can be proved to be
the will of Heaven, it is proved by this
fact, that that mouth is to
288 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
be fed by those hands, without being
interfered with by any other
man who has also his mouth to feed and
his hands to labor with.
I hold if the Almighty had ever made a
set of men that should
do all the eating and none of the work,
he would have made
them with mouths only and no hands, and
if he had ever made
another class that he had intended
should do all the work and
none of the eating, he would have made
them without mouths
and with hands. But inasmuch as he has
not chosen to make
man in that way, if anything is proved,
it is that those hands
and mouths are to be co-operative
through life and not to be in-
terfered with. That they are to go forth
and improve their con-
dition as I have been trying to
illustrate, is the inherent right given
to mankind directly by the Maker.
In the exercise of this right you must
have room. In the
filling up of countries, it turns out
after a while that we get so
thick that we have not quite room enough
for the exercise of
that right, and we desire to go
somewhere else. Where shall we
go to?
Where shall you go to escape from over-population
and competition? To those new
territories which belong to us,
which are God-given for that purpose.
If, then, you will go to
those territories that you may improve
your condition, you have
a right to keep them in the best
condition for those going into
them, and can they make that natural
advance in their condition
if they find the institution of slavery
planted there?
My good friends, let me ask you a
question -- you who have
come from Virginia or Kentucky, to get
rid of this thing of
slavery -- let me ask you what headway
would you have made
in getting rid of it, if by popular
sovereignty you found slavery
on that soil which you expected to be
free when you got there?
You would not have made much headway if
you had found
slavery already here, if you had to sit
down to your labor by
the side of the unpaid workman.
I say, then, that it is due to
yourselves as voters, as owners
of the new territories, that you shall
keep those territories free,
in the best condition for all such of
your gallant sons as may
choose to go there.
I do not desire to elaborate this branch
of the general sub-
ject of political discussion at this
time further. I did not think
I would get upon this topic at all, and
I have detained you al-
ready too long in its discussion.
Lincoln, in his message to Congress in
December,
1861 elaborated more carefully and
effectively his view
of the relation to labor of capital that
he first set forth
Reviews, Notes and Comments 289
in his Cincinnati speech. Later, on
March 21, 1864, he
quoted from this message to a labor
delegation that
called upon him in Washington, stating
in conclusion
that he had not changed his views on
this subject.
DOCTOR HENRY SOLOMON LEHR
A great educator, to whom Ohio owes
much, has
passed away. At four o'clock on Monday
morning,
January 29, 1923, Dr. Henry S. Lehr,
aged eighty-five,
founder and former president of Ohio
Northern Uni-
versity, died at his home in Ada.
Funeral services were
held in the Lehr Memorial Building of
the University
on Wednesday, January 31. President E.
A. Smith,
successor to the deceased, presided at
the services. The
funeral sermon was delivered by Dr. P.
H. Welshimer.
President W. O. Thompson of the Ohio
State Uni-
versity spoke in behalf of the Ohio
colleges. Dr. W.
H. McMaster, President of Mt. Union
College, read
the resolutions adopted by the Mt.
Union College stu-
dents and faculty. Dr. Lehr was a
graduate of Mt.
Union, receiving his A. B. degree from
that institution
in 1871 and his M. A. degree two years
later. United
States Senator Frank B. Willis and Mr.
E. L. Miller of
Ravenna paid tributes to their great
teacher.
Among the prominent alumni present were
United
States Senator Frank B. Willis; R. M.
Wanamaker
and E. S. Matthias, Ohio supreme court
judges; J. L.
Newhouse, supreme court judge of
Oklahoma; Timothy
S. Hogan, former Attorney General of
Ohio; ex-Con-
gressman Ralph D. Cole; Earl D. Bloom,
Lieutenant
Governor of Ohio; Judge George P. Baer
of Cleveland,
and Judge Charles Crittenden of Toledo.
Vol. XXXII -- 19.
290
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
Dr. Lehr's ancestors were Germans. They
came
to America before the Revolution. He
was born in a
rented log cabin March 8, 1838, at
Oldtown, Mahoning
County, Ohio, then a part of Trumbull
County. While
he was still quite young his parents
moved successively
to Stark and Wayne Counties. He was the
eleventh of
a family of twelve children. It is said
he did not learn
to speak the English language until he
was eight years
old. At the age of sixteen he began teaching
school.
In 1854 he attended a ten weeks' term
under Alfred
Holbrook, another great Ohio teacher,
at Marlboro,
Stark County.
He determined to study medicine, but
his father
persuaded him to take up the profession
of teaching.
His first certificate was signed by
John McSweeney, for
many years the most famous criminal
lawyer in the
Middle West.
When the war came on he enlisted at
Wooster,
Ohio, but was rejected as undersized.
He again en-
listed in the fall of the same year and
was a second
time rejected. In May, 1862, he
enlisted in the Eighty-
sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry and was
accepted, but
because of poor health was discharged
in September
of the same year. He then entered Mt.
Union College
and again enlisted in the army, this
time in the One
Hundred and Seventy-sixth Ohio
Volunteer Infantry.
He was discharged from the hospital at
Nashville, Ten-
nessee, May 20, 1865. Soon afterward he
taught school
in Stark County. He was ambitious to
establish a nor-
mal school and finally decided to begin
this work at
Johnstown, now Ada, Ohio.
The writer has heard Dr. Lehr describe
his first
Reviews, Notes and Comments 291
visit to this village. The
comprehensive system of land
drainage had not then been commenced in
northwestern
Ohio. When young Lehr reached Johnstown
he found
the water so high that he could not
walk up the street
and so, he said, he got on the fence
and managed to
proceed to the higher ground on which
the first building
of the Ada University was afterwards
erected.
Here he began teaching in a modest way.
He had
great faith in the future development
of this section of
the state and time proved the wisdom of
his choice of
the location for the school. Under his
enthusiastic and
energetic management it prospered
almost from the
first. It grew into recognition not
only as one of the
popular institutions of its kind in
Ohio but in, the entire
Middle West. Dr. Lehr had himself been
a poor boy
and with those of meager means who were
struggling
to acquire the rudiments of an
education he was in
thorough sympathy. He planned courses
of study and
the arrangement of terms to meet their
needs. He ex-
ercised general supervision over
boarding and rooming
facilities and took especial pride in
what he could offer
in this productive agricultural region
at the lowest rates
for the students of his school.
His interest in normal training was
confirmed by
his contact with Dr. Alfred Holbrook
and his plans for
so arranging the terms of his school
that students could
enter at almost any time of the year
and, without losing
standing in the college, be out the
winter term to teach
school and thus earn their way he
acquired, in a meas-
ure, while a student at Mt. Union
College when Dr.
O. N. Hartshorn was President of that
institution. It
was also while there doubtless that he was
impressed
292 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications
with the importance of keeping the
institution over
which he presided close to the
patriotic and official agen-
cies of the times. Dr. Hartshorn, soon
after Mt. Union
College was established, brought that
institution to the
attention of the state and Nation by
inviting to it the
distinguished men of his time to
deliver addresses.
Not only did he invite such men but he
so persistently
followed up his invitations that he succeeded
in having
such distinguished men as Salmon P.
Chase and others
high in official position deliver
addresses at Mt. Union.
It is claimed that Dr. Lehr even
surpassed the presi-
dent of his Alma Mater in
persuading eminent men to
visit Ada. Many will recall how he
managed to stage
at that place the great political
debate between Gov-
ernor James E. Campbell and William
McKinley, then
a candidate to succeed Campbell in the
governorship of
Ohio.
The results of this policy are manifest
to anyone
who reads the list of distinguished
alumni of the Ohio
Northern University. It is indeed a
rare honor to an
educational institution that never
received any direct
aid from the state that it should give
at the same time
to the Nation two United States senators.
After March
4, Ohio will be represented in the
highest legislative
body of the United States and the world
by two men
who were not only students but teachers
in the insti-
tution founded by Dr. Lehr. Two judges
of the Su-
preme Court of Ohio, R. M. Wanamaker
and E. S.
Matthias, are graduates from the Ohio
Northern.
That institution at different periods
has been known
by different names. It was first simply
a select school.
Afterwards it was known as the
Northwestern Ohio
Reviews, Notes and Comments 293
Normal School, then as Ohio Normal
University and
finally as Ohio Northern University.
Among interesting relics given by Dr.
Lehr to the
institution that he founded, were a
flag carried by his
grandfather at the battles of the
Brandywine, German-
town and Monmouth and the epaulettes
worn by his
father as Brigadier-General in the
Militia of Pennsyl-
vania.
Dr. Lehr belonged to the Grand Army of
the Re-
public and the Masonic order. He was a
member of
the Christian Church and for many years
Superintend-
ent of the Sunday School conducted by
that denomina-
tion in Ada.
October 30, 1866, he was united in
marriage with
Albina Hoover of Stark County, Ohio. He
is survived
by his widow and two daughters, Mrs.
Sarah L. Ken-
nedy, of Chicago, and Miss Harriet M.
Lehr, of Ada.
MEETING OF AMERICAN HISTORICAL
ASSOCIATION
The next annual meeting of the American
Histori-
cal Association will be held in
Columbus, Ohio, Decem-
ber 27, 28 and 29, 1923. The
Mississippi Valley Asso-
ciation will hold its meeting at the
same time and place.
It is practically assured that the
American Political
Science Association will also hold its
annual meeting
on the above dates in Columbus.
This is an announcement of unusual
interest to all
Ohio students and teachers of history
and an especial
effort will be made to assure an
attendance worthy of
the meetings.
Ohio ranks high among the states that
have made
conspicuous contribution to American
history. Ohioans
294
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
are justly proud of the record and some
tangible evi-
dences at last are encouragingly
manifest. It must be
admitted that the state has been a
little slow to attest
the interest of its people in their
contribution to the up-
building of the state and Nation.
In this connection it is eminently
proper that some
reference should be made to the
successful effort of
Professor Wilbur H. Siebert to bring
these important
meetings to our state and capital city.
He has for a
number of years been Ohio's prominent
representative
in the American Historical
Association. He has con-
tributed a number of important books
and monographs
on historical subjects. He has been a contributor to
the leading historical periodicals in
the United States.
A number of his papers have appeared in
the QUAR-
TERLY of our Society. He is the author of the Under-
ground Railroad, published by the Mcmillan Company
and since its appearance regarded as an
authority on
this subject; also of The Government
of Ohio by the
same publisher. Recent monographs from
his pen are
The Exodus of the Loyalists from
Penobscot and the
Loyalist Settlements at
Passamaquoddy; The Loyalists
of Pennsylvania; Kentucky's Struggle
with its Loyalist
Proprietors. Readers of the QUARTERLY will recall his
interesting and timely paper in this
magazine last April,
entitled The Ohio State University
in the World War.
Professor Siebert has been very active
in the Ohio
Valley Historical Society and it is due
largely to his
initiative and persistent effort that
the proceedings and
papers of that society are soon to
appear in print.
OHIO STATE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
REVIEWS, NOTES AND COMMENTS
BY THE EDITOR
REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
DR. GEORGE T. HARDING
Dr. George T. Harding, who is a Civil
War veteran,
recently recalled a pleasant visit to
Abraham Lincoln.
At the conclusion of his war service he
and a few of his
comrades called at the White House. A
colored at-
tendant told them that the President
was very busy but
that if they would wait awhile they
would have an op-
portunity to see him. In about an hour they were
ushered into his presence. They made
known that they
had simply come to pay their respects
and to be able to
say when they returned home that they
had seen Presi-
dent Lincoln.
"We are boys from the Buckeye
State," said Doctor
Harding to the President.
"Well," said Lincoln, "I
am very glad to meet you.
The Buckeye State has been loyal to me
and I certainly
appreciate it."
He thereupon heartily shook hands with
each of the
soldiers. Doctor Harding recalls most
distinctly the
large hands of Abraham Lincoln and his
hearty greet-
ing. The President took the right hand
of each of them
(282)