Ohio History Journal

RECENT ADDRESSES OF

JAMES EDWIN CAMPBELL

 

HOW AND WHEN (?) OHIO BECAME A STATE*

 

On the third day of September, 1783, a treaty of

peace was concluded at Paris, between Great Britain

and the United States of America. The commission-

ers on behalf of the United States were Benjamin

Franklin, John Jay and John Adams who had ne-

gotiated it, and Henry Laurens who arrived from cap-

tivity in the Tower of London just in time to sign it.

There had been nearly two years of vexatious wrang-

ling over the details of the treaty. The bitterest con-

tention was over the location of the boundary line be-

tween the United States and Canada. In transmitting

the treaty to America, the commissioners made a re-

port which contained the following statement: "The

Court of Great Britain claimed all of the land of the

Western Country and of the Mississippi which was not

expressly included in our charters and governments."

This "Western Country" was that immense, unsettled

tract which now comprises the states of Ohio, Indiana,

Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and a small part of Min-

nesota, with a present population of twenty-four mil-

lions -- a great and fertile empire well worth contend-

ing for.

The American commissioners demanded that the

 

* Last formal address of Governor James E. Campbell, read before the

Kit Kat Club, November 25, 1924.

(29)

• 1
 

30       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

boundary should be the line of the Great Lakes (where

it now is) but the British Commissioners refused to

yield and insisted that the boundary line should be the

Ohio River. Franklin, although undoubtedly the most

astute man of his day, and very anxious to secure this

boundary was, nevertheless, so much more anxious to

end the negotiations and secure peace, that he did not

press the American claim with his customary vigor;

Jay, who was a great lawyer and the first Chief Jus-

tice of the United States Supreme Court, held out man-

fully against the British; but the most unflinching com-

missioner, and the one to whom we owe the state of

Ohio, was that hard-headed Puritan John Adams of

whom one of his biographers says that he was "com-

bative, dogmatic and opinionated," and another de-

scribes him as a man who had "an earnest, unconquer-

able spirit and an intrepidity which shrank from no

danger." His disposition may be illustrated by an in-

cident which occurred one hundred and sixty years ago

when he was courting Abigail Smith. Her father was

a minister and, in that day, the minister was the Czar

of the community. Of them, as a body, Adams' bio-

grapher says, "They were a dictatorial, militant, po-

lemical not to say quarrelsome and harsh-tongued race,

not addicted to loving kindness toward one another nor,

indeed, toward anyone else." Father Smith was of this

type and very able, but he did not wish his daughter to

marry John.   Therefore, on a public occasion, he

preached a sermon from the text, "My daughter is tor-

mented by a devil." It cannot be denied that, upon suf-

ficient provocation, John Adams did have some of the

devil in him, and I thank God for it, because it was that

• 2
 

Recent Addresses of James Edwin Campbell  31

which prompted him to shake his fist at the British com-

missioners and snap out this ultimatum, "If this bound-

ary is not fixed at the Great Lakes, we will go back to

America and carry on the war forever." But for this

there would not have been any Ohio; and he, who un-

dertakes to tell how Ohio became a state, must begin

his story there.

In 1787 Congress designated this "Western Country"

as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio and, for

the first time in history, a great empire was dedicated

to freedom and public education. General Arthur St.

Clair was appointed Governor and, for fourteen years,

was the outstanding figure in its history. Prior to that

he not only had a long and brilliant career as an officer

in the British army in early life and as Major General

in the revolution, but he had been President of the Con-

tinental Congress (which was the sole g o v e r n i n g

power) and, thereby, occupied the highest civil office in

the country. Also, he was one of Washington's dear-

est personal friends. During the early days of his ad-

ministration he was busy fighting the Indians until his

disastrous defeat in 1791, when he was out-generaled

by Little Turtle, a Miami Chief. He had been repeat-

edly warned by Washington to look out for a surprise

but he let himself be caught unprepared, and two-thirds

of his army were killed or wounded. The battle has

gone into history by the very pertinent name of "St.

Clair's Massacre." Although very ill, he exhibited the

personal bravery which was his well-known attribute

and eight bullets passed through his clothing, but he

never recovered his military prestige.

In 1798 the territory became entitled to a legislature,

• 3
 

32       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

which was accordingly elected. Judge Jacob Burnet of

Cincinnati was the dominating figure in that body and

practically shaped its legislation. Out of thirty-nine

laws enacted, he originated fourteen. He was subse-

quently a judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio and

United States Senator, and author of valuable Notes on

the Northwestern Territory. Scarcely had the legisla-

ture assembled before friction arose between it and the

Governor -- a situation which has not been wholly un-

known to this state in recent years. St. Clair, although

unquestionably honest, intelligent and patriotic, was one

of the most stubborn men who ever lived. Prior to the

election of the legislature he had ruled the territory

with a high hand, paying little attention to the judges

who were associated with him in its government, and

was embroiled in endless controversies with the leading

citizens -- especially as to the creation of counties and

the location of county seats. He now undertook to ride

roughshod over the legislature and incurred the enmity

of many members, even of those who belonged to the

Federalist party to which he strenuously adhered. He

made himself especially obnoxious by vetoing more

than one-third of their enactments and refusing to re-

turn others to them when requested so to do.

In the year 1800 the territory was divided by a line

running substantially along the present western bound-

ary of the state. This portended the early creation of

a state and a bitter controversy broke out between St.

Clair and the Jeffersonians, who were mainly from

Virginia and constituted a majority of the legislature.

They wished to divide the territory so that the west-

ern line would be as it now is, but St. Clair and his

• 4
 

Recent Addresses of James Edwin Campbell  33

friends insisted upon making the Scioto River the west-

ern boundary because, if so done, it would be many

years before that small area could have sufficient pop-

ulation for statehood, while the larger state might come

in soon and would then be represented adversely to

them politically in the next electoral college. There

were shrewd politicians in that day and, apparently,

the breed is not yet wholly extinct. D. M. Massie of

Chillicothe, well known here, in his life of Nathaniel

Massie his grandfather, has accurately depicted the sit-

uation at that time. He says "Any one who studies the

early history of Ohio will soon discover that its birth

as a state was due to a conflict between General Arthur

St. Clair, the territorial Governor, and certain citizens

of Chillicothe: that St. Clair was overthrown and that

the Chillicotheans founded a state government."

On the thirtieth of April, 1802, the President ap-

proved an act to Congress providing that "the inhabi-

tants of the eastern division of the Territory northwest

of the River Ohio be, and they are hereby, authorized

to form for themselves a constitution and state gov-

ernment." Delegates were elected to a Constitutional

Convention which assembled at Chillicothe on Novem-

ber first and organized by electing Edward Tiffin Presi-

dent. There were thirty-five members and they sat un-

til November twenty-ninth when the constitution was

adopted in the following words "We the people of the

eastern division of the territory of the United States

northwest of the River Ohio, * * do ordain and

establish the following constitution or form of govern-

ment, and do mutually agree with each other to form

• 5
 

34       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

ourselves into a free and independent state by the name

of the State of Ohio."

The people were never permitted to ratify or reject

the constitution. In fact the Convention decided, by a

vote of twenty-seven to seven, to deny them that privi-

lege. I can imagine what the people would do if a Con-

stitutional Convention today should ignore them in

that contemptuous manner. So, looking back one hun-

dred years, we must say to ourselves that we have done

a great deal in the direction of the "Reign of the Com-

mon People." Sometimes I wonder if we have not gone

a little too far in that direction when I think of the

hordes of ignorant and unassimilated emigrants from

eastern and southern Europe upon whom we have con-

ferred suffrage, and the enormous electorate created

out of women and negroes. I confess to have voted, in

1867, to confer suffrage upon the negroes who, how-

ever, did not achieve it until the amendment to the fed-

eral constitution about two years later. It cannot be

denied that thereby the average intelligence of the elec-

torate was lowered. It may be that, like all other peo-

ple, I have unconscious prejudices and would have a

higher opinion of the colored voter if, when he depos-

ited his ballot, he occasionally exhibited a little more

discrimination in his political affiliations. I also voted

twice for woman suffrage but, sometimes, I have doubts

whether the dear things, much as we love them, are not

a trifle too temperamental to be trusted with the gov-

ernment of anybody except their own husbands, chil-

dren and sweethearts -- all of whom ought to be de-

lighted for an opportunity to submit to such gentle and

affectionate authority. Also I am not enamored with

• 6
 

Recent Addresses of James Edwin Campbell  35

the direct primary whereby an elector who can get

hold of twenty-five dollars is liable to become Gover-

nor, United States Senator or Chief Justice of the Su-

preme Court; and I particularly detest the misnamed

non-partisan judiciary law by which a judge who, be-

fore its enactment, was usually a dignified gentleman

who kept his ermine unsullied, is now compelled to get

down in the gutter of dirty politics and buttonhole vot-

ers like a candidate for constable.

One of the most remarkable actions of the Conven-

tion was the denial of the veto power to the Governor.

This is an anomaly under our political system and no-

body pretends now to uphold it. This was corrected a

hundred years later. You must not infer from this

that these exceptionally able men did not understand

the checks and balances which should exist in a repub-

lican government; but they were so completely blinded

by the bitter personal animosities growing out of their

long quarrel with St. Clair, and so exasperated by his

flagrant abuse of the veto power, that they were de-

termined no other Governor should have a chance to

become such a tyrant. The Governor was empowered

to fill vacancies in state and judicial offices but only un-

til the next meeting of the General Assembly. The

Convention also had an exaggerated idea of the powers

and duties of the General Assembly. They gave it the

exclusive right to appoint all state offices, except Gov-

ernor, and all the judges of all the courts. Thus the

Governor, deprived of the veto power and practically

of the appointing power, was a mere figurehead. This

was the basis of one of Tom Corwin's most famous

witticisms. While in office as a Whig Governor, he

• 7
 

36       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

was asked what were his official duties, to which he re-

plied, "They are confined to the appointment of notaries

and pardoning of Democrats." Being a great admirer

of Corwin, I tried, when I occupied that office, to repay

his courtesy by pardoning a few Republicans.

The question of the negro population was one which

occasioned much debate.  They limited suffrage to

white males but, at one time by a vote of nineteen to

fourteen, approved of a clause which read "all male

negroes and mulattoes now residing in this territory

shall be entitled to the right of suffrage if they shall,

within six months, make record of their citizenship."

Upon final adoption of the constitution this clause was

stricken out -- the vote standing seventeen to seventeen.

President Tiffin then cast the deciding vote against it,

although he had brought his own slaves into the terri-

tory and had set them free. There was some senti-

ment for a temporary form of slavery in the convention.

The federalists claimed that, in a committee meeting,

the Virginians had tried to insert a clause which read

"no person should be held in slavery, if he is a male,

after he is thirty-five years of age; or a female, after

twenty-five years of age." This was defeated in the

committee because Cutler persuaded Milligan to change

his vote. Randall and Ryan express the opinion that

there was no such action because the minutes of the

Convention do not mention it. They evidently over-

looked the fact that no minutes of committee meetings

get into the record of the Convention. Even if the Con-

vention should have undertaken to fasten this modified

form of slavery upon the state, it would have been null

• 8
 

Recent Addresses of James Edwin Campbell  37

and void for being in contravention of the Ordinance

of 1787.

The long controversy between John Marshall and

Thomas Jefferson had developed some hostility to the

judiciary on the part of the Jeffersonians. They didn't

go quite so far as Senator LaFollette who wishes to

emasculate the courts, but they thought that judges

would bear a little judicious watching. As they were

in control of the Convention, they provided that the

Supreme Court should sit once a year in each county

with a view, as they expressed it, "of bringing justice

nearer to the people." This resulted in great confusion

(as many of the sparsely settled counties were without

law books) and conflicting decisions were the natural

result. Besides, owing to local jealousies, no county

could be agreed upon as a permanent seat of that court.

This latter defect was corrected by legislative enact-

ment in 1821; and judges were made elective by the peo-

ple under the constitution of 1851.

The Bill-of-Rights was reported by Ephraim Cut-

ler and bears the marks of his high intellectual powers.

It is, of course, the backbone of the constitution. There

is not time to go into its details. It is sufficient to say

that it has scrupulously and safely guarded and main-

tained all the rights and liberties of the people for a

hundred and twenty-two years, and is a model of wis-

dom and statesmanship.

The work of this convention and the character of its

membership have been thus eloquently stated by the

late Daniel J. Ryan:

The first Constitutional Convention, from an intellectual

standpoint, is the greatest, as well as the most picturesque episode

in the history of our state, and the events which led up to it

• 9
 

38        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

read like a romance. The conversion of the wilderness into a

garden; the invasion of the Virginians; the overthrow of the great

Arthur St. Clair; the struggle for statehood; the victory of the

people over the aristocracy; the framing of the constitution for

a people without their consultation or consent, are all events that

form a background for a picture that has no parallel in American

history. And all these scenes wereenacted in a theater of in-

tellect; the only weapons were tongues and pens, but they were

directed by men who for brains and bravery are worthy of every

tribute of admiration and respect that the people of Ohio today

can bestow upon them.

Time will not permit especial mention of all of the

eminent members of the first Constitutional Convention.

Many of them were scholars with the courtly manners

usually known to the hardy race of empire-building

pioneers, but those not schooled in books were schooled

in honor and manhood. When they assembled in Chil-

licothe, every delegate had endured the hardships and

faced the dangers of frontier life and Indian warfare

with a stout heart. A few of the leaders may be briefly

sketched.

Edward Tiffin was probably the ablest and most in-

fluential member. He had been unanimously elected to

both Territorial legislatures, unanimously e 1 e c t e d

speaker thereof and was now unanimously elected pres-

ident of the Convention. Later he was unanimously

elected to be the first Governor and unanimously re-

elected. This office he resigned to accept the United

States senatorship. It is safe to say that this record

of universal popularity, and the confidence of a constit-

uency, has never been equaled. This confidence was

not misplaced. He came to the territory from Virginia.

Having very deep religious convictions and detesting

slavery, he manumitted his slaves and settled them com-

fortably near Chillicothe. There is not space to go into

• 10
 

Recent Addresses of James Edwin Campbell  39

details of his interesting life except to add that after

he resigned from the senate he became Commissioner

of the General Land Office and was the only public of-

ficer in Washington who saved his records when the

British burned the city in August, 1814. Dolly Madi-

son cut Washington's portrait out of the frame in the

White House and, with it and the household silver,

also eluded the British. It is a humiliating confession,

but these two seem to have been the only wide-awake

patriots there.

When Tiffin resigned the office of Governor, Thomas

Kirker who had been a member of the Constitutional

Convention from Adams County was speaker of the

senate and, by virtue of that office, stepped into the

governorship just as the Lieutenant Governor would do

under the present constitution.

Thomas Worthington, a brother-in-law of Tiffin,

was one of the first United States senators from the

new state. After leaving the senate, he served two

terms as Governor. His residence is still pointed out

as one of the show places at Chillicothe. Worthington

and Tiffin, as young men emigrating from Virginia,

rode over the mountains on horseback accompanied by

another young Virginian, Allen Trimble, who was also

elected governor several years later. If three young

men were to come into Ohio together today and all of

them became Governor, we would probably accuse them

of organizing an unlawful trust.

Samuel Huntington was another delegate who be-

came Governor. He was a nephew of the famous

Samuel Huntington who was a signer of the Declara-

tion of Independence and President of the Continental

• 11
 

40       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

Congress. Governor Huntington was a graduate of

Yale and a thoroughly polished and accomplished gen-

tleman. Being a federalist, he usually voted with the

federalist delegation from Marietta. Trumbull County,

which he and David Abbott represented, was the only

county in the northern half of the state except Wayne

County, which was too sparsely settled to be entitled

to representation.

The fifth member of the Convention to become Gov-

ernor was Jeremiah Morrow who was sole represen-

tative of the state in Congress for many years, and

subsequently United States senator and Governor.

While he was Governor, being a real "dirt farmer," he

lived upon his farm in Warren County. The Duke of

Saxe-Weimar was then traveling in America and one

of his missions was to visit the Governor. At the farm

he found some men rolling logs under the direction of

a little chap in a red flannel shirt. Whereupon they re-

tired to the Governor's modest cottage and the night

was spent by the Duke in extracting wisdom from the

storehouse of Morrow's intellect and experience. Upon

his return to Germany, he published far and wide that,

in the wilds of Ohio, he had found a veritable counter-

part of the ancient Cincinnatus.

One of the most active and influential members of

the Convention was Nathanial Massie, who had a more

notable career in accelerating the settlement of the state

than any other pioneer. He was a famous surveyor

and laid out several towns including Chillicothe. Many

of the settlers moved there from Kentucky to which

they had emigrated earlier only to find out that they

would rather live in a state where slavery did not exist.

• 12
 

Recent Addresses of James Edwin Campbell  41

Indeed this was the cause of much emigration to Ohio,

even from Virginia and other slave states. Massie was

a Virginian of the cavalier type, noted for his refine-

ment, graceful manners and highbred courtesy. Later

he was the first speaker of the House of Representa-

tives. In 1807 he ran against Return Jonathan Meigs,

Junior, for Governor. Meigs had a majority of the

votes but the legislature held that he was not a resident

of the state. This would have made Massie Governor,

but he was too much of a gentleman to accept the of-

fice in that manner. Prior to coming to the Northwest

Territory, he had been a soldier in the Revolutionary

War and, afterwards served with distinction in the In-

dian Wars and the War of 1812.

The early history of Ohio could not be written with-

out thumbnail sketches of Ephraim Cutler and General

Rufus Putnam, delegates from Marietta. Cutler was

son of Manasseh Cutler, who had been one of the

chief factors in organizing the Ohio Company which

first settled the state at Marietta. He was a man of the

highest personal character and of great influence in the

Convention, although he was the only delegate who

voted against the motion to create a state and usually

stood out against the majority on other propositions.

Upon all constructive measures and especially upon the

Bill - of - Rights, Cutler's intellect and pure charac-

ter made their distinctive marks. One of his obsessions

was an intensive hatred of Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Be-

man Dawes, of this city, is a great-great-grandson of

Cutler and I infer, from some fluent remarks made by

his brother Charles during the recent campaign, that

• 13
 

42       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

all of the family have not yet been fully converted to

the doctrines advocated by the party of Jefferson.

Perhaps General Rufus Putnam was the great out-

standing figure in the very earliest settlement of the

Northwest Territory -- having led the party from Con-

necticut which came to Marietta in 1788. Prior to that

he had made a splendid record in the Revolution -- ris-

ing by fine service and hard fighting to the rank of Brig-

adier General.

John Smith, a delegate from Cincinnati, was one of

the first two United States senators. He was the first

pastor of the first Baptist church of the Northwest Ter-

ritory and a fine orator. In the senate he was a close

friend of Aaron Burr and later, on that account, was

unjustly charged with complicity in Burr's alleged trea-

son. An unsuccessful attempt was made to expel him

from the senate. Randall and Ryan's History states

that "his relations with Aaron Burr were much misin-

terpreted and, in his subsequent persecution, he was

undoubtedly the victim of partisan intrigue." Judge

Jacob Burnet, a near neighbor of Senator Smith, and

one of his strongest political antagonists, praised him

highly and defended him from any improper designs in

connection with Burr.

Charles Willing Byrd, a delegate from Hamilton

County and scion of an ultra-aristocratic Virginia fam-

ily was a brother-in-law of Nathaniel Massie and a man

of great ability as well as a learned lawyer. He was

acting governor of the territory (as has been heretofore

stated in this paper). When the state began to func-

tion he was appointed the first United States Judge for

the District of Ohio, and sat upon that bench for more

• 14
 

Recent Addresses of James Edwin Campbell  43

than twenty years, retiring with a high reputation for

learning and ability.

It is hardly just to the many able and patriotic men

in that Convention to confine this sketch to the ten who

have been mentioned, although they were the most con-

spicuous. Benjamin Ives Gilman, the colleague of Put-

nam and Cutler from Marietta, and their peer, Michael

Baldwin, acknowledged to be the most brilliant lawyer in

the territory and Speaker of the House of Representa-

tives; John Browne and Philip Gatch, thrilling evan-

gelists; General Joseph Darlinton, the great leader of

Adams County; Henry Adams and Emanuel Carpenter,

learned judges in FairfieldCounty; Bezaleel Wells, the

founder of the industries of Steubenville -- famed for

his baronial mansion and princely hospitality, and Na-

than Updegraff of the same county, the first of a fam-

ily famous in Ohio history; William Goforth, the most

skillful and widely known physician of his day; John

Reily and Francis Dunlavy, who established the first

classical academy in the new state; John McIntyre, the

joint owner with Jonathan Zane of the land upon which

Zanesville was laid out, and such an enterprising and

successful business man that he left an estate for poor

children which annually yields eight thousand dollars;

and many other deserve mention in an account of suf-

ficient length to give a real picture of early Ohio. Truly

there were great men in that day and we owe them an

inestimable debt of gratitude for laying the foundation

of this great commonwealth so broad and so deep. To

them I say "All Hail, Men of Eighteen Hundred and

Two! Let us hope and believe that our posterity for-

ever will keep your memory green."

• 15
 

44       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

As soon as the state was organized, a flood of emi-

gration set in of which the vast majority were Revolu-

tionary soldiers. They were a sturdy race and virile,

God-fearing men who had conquered the British and

came out here to conquer the wilderness. It was a mar-

velous stream of happily mixed elements. There were

the Puritan from New England; the Knickerbocker

from New York; the Quaker, German and Swede from

Pennsylvania and New Jersey; the Catholic English

from Maryland and Delaware; the cavalier English

from Virginia; the Scotch-Irish from North Carolina;

the French Huguenots from South Carolina and the

Methodist English from Georgia. They came here and

intermarried and a new race of men, the like of which

the world never knew, was born from this intermix-

ture of those splendid strains of blood. This was why,

in 1861, when the country seemed to be in the throes

of dissolution, and government of the people, for the

people and by the people was about to perish from the

earth, that the male children of these early settlers,

born between 1810 and 1830, bounded instantly to the

front, carried off nearly all of the honors in the field,

the cabinet and Congress; and, by the common con-

sent of all of the states, put Ohio at the undisputed

head of the nation at the close of the war, where, for

sixty years, she has stood in triumph. The evidence

of this is that, in all these years, the people of the United

States have elected ten Presidents, seven of whom

were born in Ohio, of that good old pioneer stock; and,

of five Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of the

United States, three were appointed from Ohio.

The title of this paper, as it appears upon the pro-

• 16
 

Recent Addresses of James Edwin Campbell  45

gramme, is "How and When(?) Ohio Became a State."

The interrogation mark after the word "when" indi-

cates the uncertainty of that proposition which should

be briefly explained.

Congress never admitted the State of Ohio into the

Union. This fact need not alarm you for the state un-

doubtedly is in the Union although nobody knows ex-

actly when it got in. It is the only state about whose

admission there is a controversy. For some time after

the Constitutional Convention adjourned on Novem-

ber twenty-ninth, 1802, it seems to have been understood

that this was the date when the state was born or, in

the usual parlance, "admitted into the Union." That

was an obvious error for Congress has no power to

create a state; it has merely the right to admit one

after it has been lawfully organized. To illustrate, I

happened to be in Congress when in one day all records

were broken and four territories (North and South

Dakota, Montana and Washington) were empowered

to hold constitutional conventions with a view to state-

hood. This was done in February but these states were

not admitted until November when the President, by

public proclamation, gave legal notice of that fact. On

the succeeding fourth day of July, in accordance with

law, four stars representing these states were added

to the flag of the Union. That is the proper pro-

cedure.

The authorities which have held that the year 1802

marked the birth of Ohio are some of the census re-

ports, notably the ninth; a note to the eleventh volume

of the United States Statutes-at-Large; Hickey on the

Constitution; Townsend in his Analysis of Civil Gov-

• 17
 

46       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

ernment and W. H. Venable, a celebrated writer of

early Ohio history. So far as I know, it is now gener-

ally conceded that this date is in error but, to prove it,

I have here a photostat copy of an original document

in my possession, issued by the Acting Governor of the

Northwest Territory on the twenty-fourth day of Jan-

uary (1803). This is by way of an objectles-

son as one concrete fact is worth any number of

theories. Obviously the territorial and state govern-

ments could not exist simultaneously. Further, on the

thirty-first day of January, the House of Representa-

tives at Washington voted upon the question as to

whether Paul Fearing was still entitled to hold his seat

as a delegate from the Northwest Territory and decided

that he was. It has been contended that an act of Con-

gress passed February nineteenth did, by implication,

practically admit the state. This was the opinion ex-

pressed by E. D. Mansfield in his Political Manual, by

Caleb Atwater in his History of Ohio and by President

Andrews of Marietta College. This act provided for

the execution of the laws of the United States within

the state of Ohio but the federal authority did not have

jurisdiction over the state then, nor were the federal

officers for the judicial district of Ohio appointed until

March first. On that day, also, the state officers were

inaugurated and the state has functioned ever since.

This was the opinion of Rufus King in his history of

Ohio; and Randall and Ryan (in the best history of

Ohio ever written) dealt exhaustively with the question

of the birth of Ohio and pronounced final judgment as

follows: "In this inquiry it is well to bear in mind that

there was no formal admission by act of Congress.

• 18
 

Recent Addresses of James Edwin Campbell  47

*  *  It may therefore be considered as settled from

a historical and authoritative standpoint that March

first, 1803, was the date when the territorial govern-

ment ceased and when Ohio became a state and, ipso

facto, a member of the United States." In spite of this,

two writers (one of them no less a person than Salmon

P. Chase) have fixed the date at March third. Thus

it appears (in each case by excellent authority) that the

state of Ohio has five different birthdays.

Nevertheless, in due time the star of Ohio took its

rightful place upon the flag of the Union. The first

thirteen represented the states which created the gov-

ernment, Vermont fourteenth, Kentucky fifteenth, Ten-

nessee sixteenth and then OHIO. One may perhaps

be pardoned for loving his native state a little better

than any other; and, as the scriptures tell us that "one

star differeth from another star in glory," he may even

be pardoned for feeling that the star which represents

his state is a little more glorious than any of the others

in that brilliant constellation on his country's flag. I

know that I love my state. I was born in Ohio; my

father and my mother were born in Ohio; my wife and

all of my children were born in Ohio; my only grand-

child was born in Ohio. Every thing which, in a long

life, has made that life worth living, I owe to Ohio.

Therefore, I love the star which represents her, but,

when I realize that, great as Ohio is, she is just a small

part of the proudest empire the world has ever known

-- my empire, your empire -- then I know that, much

as I love her star, infinitely more do I love that whole

blue field emblazoned with the forty-eight stars which

• 19
 

48       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

represent the majesty, the dignity, the power and the

glory of this Great Republic.

 

THE GOSPEL OF BURNISHED STEEL

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE BROAD STREET PRESBY-

TERIAN CHURCH MAY 25, 1924.

Although the Honor Roll which we are dedicating

today contains names only of World War soldiers, it

is thought something should be said about the soldiers

of former wars and, perhaps, in this day of mistaken

pacificism, something about war in general.

As this service is conducted in a church, I shall speak

from a text but, not having been ordained, I will not

take it from the scriptures but from the inspiring Bat-

tle Hymn of the Republic, written by Julia Ward Howe

at the most desperate crisis of the Civil War. It is a

single line and reads thus "There is a fiery gospel writ

in burnished rows of steel." It is supplemented by an-

other line which recites that God "has loosed the fate-

ful lightnings of His terrible swift sword."  This

means (let it be said reverently here in the temple of

the Prince of Peace) that war, cruel, death-dealing and

abhorrent as it is, hath its uses and its good uses in the

hands of an overruling Providence. It means that the

Creator, in his flawless economy, purposely endowed

His image with war-waging instincts. It means that

the wrath of man has ever been the mighty engine

whereby godless and barbarous nations were leveled

one by one and better civilizations built upon their ruins.

It means that every prayer for the elevation of man-

kind has been accompanied by sacrifice upon the deep-

stained altar of Mars; and that every footstep in the

• 20
 

Recent Addresses of James Edwin Campbell  49

weary march toward liberty, civil or religious, has left

its imprint in blood-soaked earth. It means that war,

when waged in defense of liberty or justice; when un-

dertaken on behalf of an oppressed or persecuted peo-

ple; when evoked in the name of humanity; or when

carried, even to foreign shores, to extirpate a blood-

thirsty military despotism  and to terminate fiendish

barbarities; is by no means an evil to be deplored or a

duty to be shunned. It means, in a word, that there are

calamities infinitely worse than war. As someone has

poetically phrased it

 

However great the carnage may be,

War, when right's defender,

Adds another gem to the diadem

Which crowns a nation's splendor.

 

Every right-minded human being yearns for that

universal peace which we are promised will come at

the dawn of the millennium; but it should be remembered

that, in the ancient day when the millennium was fore-

told, the prophecy thereof did not prevent the frequent

battle cry "To your tents Oh, Israel," uttered by God's

chosen people as they numbered and renumbered their

warriors and sent them forth to put the heathen to the

sword.  It did not prevent Cromwell's God-fearing

Ironsides, while they were praying and psalm-singing

all over Europe, from smiting their enemies hip and

thigh. When Ethan Allen demanded the surrender of

Fort Ticonderoga "in the name of the Great Jehovah

and the Continental Congress" there was no blasphemy

in coupling their names. You cannot gild with any fig-

ure of speech the forceful words of that hero in the

Civil War who wired "Hold the fort for I am coming"

• 21
 

50       Ohio Arch. and list. Society Publications

which were appropriately made the refrain of one of

the most effective hymns ever written; nor could any-

thing add pathos or dignity to the reply of a pious Ohio

colonel who, when asked if he could hold the line at

Chickamauga in the midst of a most desperate attack,

replied "I will hold it or go to Heaven from it."

It is a sad fact that the millennium, which we hoped

had come at the end of the World War, is yet far

away. More men are under arms today than when

that wicked war began. Here, in the twentieth century,

no theme stirs the human heart like that of siege and

battle. Civilized man cannot recall the time when the

stirring tales of war were not told or retold. In the

rude days of tradition, legends of martial lore, re-

hearsed by patriarch or chanted by bard, captivated and

incited the untutored heart. Written history has pre-

served in more enduring form the later exploits of man;

yet its almost unvaried task has been to embalm for

posterity the chronicles of mortal combat. On each of

its pages are emblazoned the nodding plume and flut-

tering banner. Each chapter depicts the shock of con-

tending armies. Each volume is but an epitome of war.

The soldier is still enthroned as an unchallenged hero.

Ballads recounting deeds of arms are yet crooned over

the cradle; the drum and trumpet have not ceased to

be the coveted toys of childhood; youth is thrilled by

bewitching story of march and battle; manhood pays

eager homage to military fame.

The history of our own country shows that, in every

crisis, the old beaten path has been followed and the

belligerent instinct of man was evoked to work out the

beneficent purpose of God. First came the War for

• 22
 

Recent Addresses of James Edwin Campbell  51

Independence. The Fathers, few in number and weak

in equipment, but armed with a just cause, went man-

fully to war and conquered the most powerful nation on

earth. Was not God upholding the hands of Washing-

ton, Greene, Wayne, Franklin, Adams, Hamilton and

Jefferson and that incomparable band of their fellow-

patriots who created this free republic? Again, in

1812, when Great Britain impressed our seamen and

scornfully defied us, we were compelled to fight for our

honor and our rights. We swept from the high seas

the commerce of that country which had been their un-

disputed mistress for a century; and, at New Orleans,

our backwoods riflemen exterminated an army com-

posed of Wellington's picked veterans. Our loss was

thirteen and their's twenty-six hundred -- the most bit-

ter defeat inflicted in the wars of all the ages. Did that

look as if God had rebuked us for bringing on the war?

When the unspeakable Spaniard had established a de-

cadent despotism at our very door and every instinct

of decency and self-respect demanded that we should

abolish it; when he blew up one of our ships anchored

in his supposedly friendly harbor; could we do less than

go to war? If God was not with us why did he permit

us to establish security and home rule in Cuba and put

an end to a three-hundred year war in the Philippines?

When in 1861 Providence, watching over us, decided

that the time had come to wipe out the stain of African

slavery and root up the heresy of secession, again it

was war -- a war between brethren whereby the politi-

cal sins of the people were cleansed in a sea of blood

under whose turbulent waves were engulfed the twin

perils which had menaced the unity and perpetuity of

• 23
 

52       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

our institutions; and, in the immortal words of Abra-

ham Lincoln "Government of the people, by the people

and for the people shall not perish from the earth."

But a very small proportion of this audience can re-

member the Civil War or comprehend its magnitude --

its terrific drain on human life. To illustrate: Ohio,

with less than forty per cent of its present population,

emblazoned 313,000 names on the Muster Roll of the

Union. Proportionately, today she would have to fur-

nish 770,000 and the quota of Franklin County would

be 40,000. If the losses in killed and wounded were

proportioned to those of the Civil War Ohio's share

would be 63,000 and that of Franklin County 3,000. It

is when our thoughts turn to the frightful bloodshed of

the four long and tragic years of Civil War that our

emotions seem ready to choke our utterance. Today

there lie in the graveyards of our country more than

two million Union veterans; we know where they are

but where are the thousands upon thousands of un-

known dead whose resting place no human eye can

see? They are everywhere -- in the mountain gorges

of the Blue Ridge; on the fertile plains of the cotton

belt; under the deadly swamps of the Carolinas; and

amidst the dense thickets of the Wilderness. Their

bones are heaped in trenches where the leaden hail fell

thickest, and bleach unknown in prison pens, where

ghastly famine stalked. The turbulent waves of the

Atlantic and the tepid waters of the Gulf flow over the

sunken iron ships, coffined in which they lie. The gen-

tle breezes rustle unheeded through the shadowy woods,

and the wild birds warble their silvery notes, while be-

• 24
 

Recent Addresses of James Edwin Campbell    53

neath rest those whom we call "The Dead"; but they

are not dead.

 

And dare ye call that dying? The dignity sublime,

Which gains a furlough from the grave, and then reports to time?

Doth the earth give up the daisies to a little sun and rain,

And keep at their roots the heroes while weary ages wane?

Sling up thy trumpet Israel? Sweet bugler of our God,

For nothing waits thy summons beneath this broken sod,

The deadest of these heroes has as silently rent the clod,

As the clouds burst into flower when the sun rides over the bar,

Or heaven breaks out of the blue, and comes out star by star;

They march abreast of the ages, with the thunder on the right,

For they bade that world "Good morning," when this world said

"Good night".

 

CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL

DELIVERED SEPTEMBER 15, 1922

A few weeks ago The Ohio State Journal sent me a

questionnaire containing a number of interrogatories.

One of them read as follows: Who is your favorite

heroine? I took time for due consideration. I passed

over the ancient queens, such as Zenobia and Semiramis,

who had established dynasties; I could not find a place

for Isabella who, of all the sovereigns of Europe, had

the nerve and vision to finance the discovery of the New

World; I even let Joan of Arc go by; I did not write

down the name of Elizabeth, that heroic queen who, de-

spite some feminine foibles, was the greatest ruler of

England in three hundred years; I could not find a

place for Maria Theresa, although she, alone in all the

world, threw down the gauntlet to that masterful and

typical Prussian, Frederick the Great; I omitted Ma-

dame Roland and the other heroines of the French Rev-

olution; I did not select one of the semi-inspired women

immortalized by the Bible, or one of the good women

• 25
 

54       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

canonized by the church. Above them all I exalted one

to whom, in my opinion, humanity owes the greatest

debt -- I wrote there the name of Florence Nightingale.

As a boy of twelve I read day by day of the war in the

Crimea and, even at that early age, was indelibly im-

pressed with her marvelous work in hospitalization

whereby she rescued from death thousands of the sick

and wounded of the allied armies. She was not only

figuratively, but actually, an angel of mercy. The arm-

ies worshipped her, and posterity has immortalized

her.

But if labor and sacrifice expended upon rough men

of full age and able intelligently to describe their ills,

should be rewarded by immortal fame, what should be

the reward of those good women who have spent their

lives in nursing suffering children back to health? For

nothing reaches down to our very heart strings and

grips us with deadly terror like the wan, emaciated and

pitiful face of a baby too young to speak its misery,

yet appealing for help in every look and gesture! There

is no love like the love of a mother for a sick child, and

the bitterest tears shed are those which fall upon the

cradle. For the baby is

Only a tender flower sent us to rear;

Only a life to love while we are here;

Only a baby small never at rest;

Small, but how dear to us God knoweth best.

It is trite and threadbare to reiterate that it is our

duty to the child to maintain, restore and preserve its

health for its own sake. For there is another reason

outside merely of humanitarian considerations, why

this should be done. Unless the health and vigor of

• 26
 

Recent Addresses of James Edwin Campbell  55

the rising generation is secured and augmented, the

whole race will deteriorate into ultimate degeneracy

and extinction. It is not too much to say that civiliza-

tion is hanging in the balance and can only be main-

tained by keeping up and advancing the physical stand-

ard of the children of today. Hence our duty is so

plain that it fairly stares us in the face. That duty

may not be so imperative with respect to the children

of the rich, although too often they suffer from the

ignorance and neglect of parents, as it is with respect

to the children of the poor. There we have to contend,

not only with ignorance and neglect, but we have also

to combat the bad results of heredity and environment

-- all this in addition to the prevailing and appalling

poverty which has devitalized these under-nourished

and anemic children, leaving them with but little power

for resistance and recuperation. Thus we must look

upon these little suffering patients as members of the

body politic, and their health and welfare are matters

of vital importance to the state.

Children's hospitals are a matter of comparatively

recent creation. It was as late as 1850 that the first

experiment was tried by English-speaking people. That

was in a very small way in a little house on an obscure

street in London. Ten years later it was attempted in

yet a smaller way in Edinburgh, but the thorough and

cautious Scot arrived very slowly at success. Now, in

this day of rapidly increasing population, the necessity

for such institutions has become vastly more impera-

tive than ever. The phenomenal and menacing pre-

ponderance of great cities is daily overcrowding the

poorer classes into wretched and unsanitary homes.

• 27
 

56       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

These swarming hordes of careless, unclean, illy housed

and frequently immoral people make the conservation

of the health of the children a moral question with

which religionists as well as humanitarians must deal.

Let us not forget that while we are doing something

for the children, they are doing a great deal for us.

Those who freely give out love, and service and sacri-

fice, get much that is of inestimable value in return.

The reflex action upon them is infinitely uplifting and

exalting. These little children who come under our

ministrations will make better men and women of all of

us. Whittier has very beautifully expressed the idea

in these words:

 

We need love's tender lessons taught

As only weakness can,

God hath His small interpreter,

The child must teach the man.

In conclusion let me express the belief that all who

faithfully and unselfishly discharge their duty to the

children of this generation will deserve to share the

commendation of the Master who said: "Inasmuch as

ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye

have done it unto Me."

 

THE MISSISSIPPI SQUADRON

If this toast had been to "Our Navy," without words

or restriction, my task would have been easy for the

mere words bring to vivid remembrance the stirring

tales of youth, when the heroes we worshipped were

Paul Jones the venturesome, Decatur the intrepid, Law-

rence the defiant and Perry the modest. The theme as-

• 28
 

Recent Addresses of James Edwin Campbell  57

signed me, however, while more circumscribed than dif-

ficult, might to some be yet more inspiring, for an elo-

quent tongue it would be that could pay an adequate

tribute to the Mississippi Squadron -- that wonderful

flotilla which sprang into existence as by enchantment

and disappeared as by magic; which lived but four

short years, yet long enough to emblazon one of the

proudest pages of human history.

The Mississippi Squadron! The words seem to con-

jure up a phantom -- so brief, yet so marvelous and

fantastic, was its career. Long after the reverberation

of the guns of Sumter had died away on the remotest

northern frontier; long after the loyal sons of the north

were locked in battle's embrace with their frenzied

brethren of the south; there was, as yet, not a federal

gun afloat on the waters of the West. There were

neither ships nor ordnance, navy-yards nor stores. The

famous gunboats that were to carry our brave boys

from the Ohio to the gulf, were uncut timber growing

in the forest and unforged iron lurking in the earth;

yet, before the war closed, there floated upon the un-

vexed waters of the Mississippi Valley, more than a

hundred vessels armed, equipped and exultant in vic-

tory. No scene of history resembles that fairy-like

transformation which suddenly covered, with a vast

and invincible navy, those muddy rivers where war-

ships were before unknown and where, let us pray, they

may never be known again. Miracles were performed;

the subtle alchemy of patriotism transmuted everything

it touched; and the hull of a snag boat was metamor-

phosed into the famous flagship "Benton" which will

• 29
 

58       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

go down to posterity as a companion-in-honor of "Old

Ironsides" of an earlier day.

As these stirring events pass before us they seem al-

most like a dream. We see Rodgers and his three lit-

tle wooden steamboats which are the nucleus of the

squadron; then follows Foote, of blessed memory, with

his broad-horned "turtlebacks;" then Davis and, later,

the indomitable Porter with a storm of varied craft --

iron-beaked rams, invulnerable monitors and cockle

shell "tin-clads" -- all carrying the flag to victory upon

every accessible water course; closing the picturesque

and bloody drama with that far-famed expedition up

the Red River, of which a great historian has said that

for romantic adventures, unusual perils, heroic courage

and severe fighting on the part of the navy, it has no

parallel in the events of the war.

Not only, at the outset, were we without ships and

material, but we were also without experience. None,

as yet, were skilled in that amphibious form of warfare

which was the untried lot of the Mississippi Squadron.

Aside from the few regular officers who came out to

lead and instruct us, we were a veritable set of land-

lubbers. I recall my own awkward and ignorant ad-

vent on the scene when that gallant officer, Commodore

Breese, subsequently the famous hero of Fort Fisher,

created me a Master's Mate. Like the other boys I was

young and raw but earnest; yet I could not have de-

scribed wherein a "half-hitch" varied from a "Turk's

head," nor the difference between a needle and a mar-

linspike. Nevertheless, under the tuition of these regu-

lar officers, as brave and gentle warriors as ever trod a

deck, we learned.

• 30
 

(59)

• 31
 

60       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

The only men who knew their business were the pi-

lots to whose indispensable service, cheerfully rendered,

justice has never been done. The pilot house was

known as the "slaughter-pen" and on the "tin-clads" --

upon which it was my unhappy lot to serve -- it was

preeminently the post of danger. It was a matter of

history that they freely volunteered for this perilous

service knowing that they would be targets for every

sharpshooter on the bank, and it was not unusual for

a single shell to wound or kill both pilots and to blow

the steering wheel in their hands into a thousand frag-

ments; yet they were poorly paid and never had either

rank or rating as officers of the navy, nor a recognized

share in the memory of its glories.

Then there were the "powder monkeys" -- those lit-

tle chaps who ran the errands in the days of quiet, and

scudded between the magazine and the guns in the hour

of battle. No speech could be complete that did not pay

a tribute to those lightfooted, roguish but lionhearted

youngsters who stood fire like veterans. Nobody ever

heard of one who blanched or deserted. I never saw

but one leave his post, and that was when a shell rolled

into the little wooden cubbyhole used by the surgeon as

a dispensary and exploded amongst the bottles and sur-

gical instruments. For a moment it looked as if the

sky had opened and was raining dynamited drug stores.

The scene was so weird, grotesque and terrifying

withal, that one poor little towhead, not fourteen years

old, dodged behind a stanchion until this unnatural

shower was over, and then went bravely back to duty.

In this affair the little vessel was struck nine times;

and, to show how these frail boats would hold on

• 32
 

Recent Addresses of James Edwin Campbell  61

amidst a pitiless storm of shot and shell, we will enu-

merate the damages inflicted on the "Naiad:"

"The first shot passed through the smoke-stack; the

second and third shots passed through the pilot-house,

the third striking the barrel of the wheel, cutting the

tiller rope, and literally tearing the wheel to pieces; the

fourth shot passed a few  feet abaft the pilot-house

shattering the steerage and skylights, but doing no fur-

ther damage; the fifth shot passed through the cabin.

*  *  *  Also *  *  four shots through the star-

board casemates; one striking abreast of the boilers,

one abaft of No. 2 gun, tearing up the decks and ex-

ploding within a few feet of the shell-room; one abaft

of No. 3 gun, killing John T. Crennell, ordinary seaman,

and wounding three others; another passed through the

port of No. 4 gun, tearing away the shutter and ex-

ploding in the dispensary."

We had our little trials too, as well as our triumphs,

in the Mississippi Squadron. I can yet see and almost

feel, in the pride of their strength, the Red River mos-

quitoes which struck terror alike to us and the foe.

When an oar, a boarding pike, a capstan bar or like im-

plement was missing, the tradition ran that they had

been carried off by a mosquito; and it has never been

denied that the least of those pests, bred in the swamps

and bayous of the lower rivers, was more than a match,

singlehanded, for any man in the navy. Then there

were the splinter, which, on the tinclad, during a bat-

tle flew like a cloud of dust. This kind of a gunboat

was ingeniously contrived so that, while a solid shot

would go clear through it, taking only what came in

its way, a shell would be carefully and safely nursed on

• 33
 

62       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

the covered deck until it had fully exploded. While it

was bad enough to be hit by a piece of a flying shell, yet

there was some glory to go home to parents, friends

and sweethearts with a genuine wound like that, but to

be scratched all over with stinging splinters, which bled

you like a butcher but left no scar, was alike disconcert-

ing and inglorious. Then worst of all was the fact

that you could not run away when you were whipped.

After escaping the peril from shot and shell, from the

explosion from magazine or boilers, from consumption

by fire or drowning by water -- sevenfold the terrors of

a battle on land -- and knowing that you were thor-

oughly licked, you realized there was no place else to

go. I decided, on several occasions, that if ever I went

to war again, I would select the army instead of the

navy upon the solid, bed-rock, copperfastened principle

that I could run, or hide, when fighting ceased to be a

virtue.

But a truce to this persiflage. There is too much of

pathos in the thought that a mighty squadron which

floated upon the waters of the west has gone never to

return. When I recall the names of the men who bled

and died upon her decks, and their deeds of valor, the

emotions that well up from my heart almost choke my

utterance; and, more than all, when I realize that not

one man is left who served with me on the gunboat

Naiad, an indescribable sense of desolation overcomes

me.

• 34