Ohio History Journal

OHIO HISTORY AND NATIONAL HISTORY.

 

 

OHIO HISTORY TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION.

At a meeting of the Ohio History Teachers' Association, held

in April, 1915, a committee was appointed to consider the pub-

lication of one or more volumes pertaining to the history of the

state. This committee decided that it would be wise to make a

beginning by collecting a series of extracts from the sources in

such a way as to make clear the part the state has taken in impor-

tant phases of the history of the country at large. A handy vol-

ume of such material, it was believed, would afford excellent col-

lateral reading for high school students of United States history,

and would serve to quicken the student's appreciation of the his-

tory of his own state without danger of giving distorted ideas of

the state's importance, such as might result from studying purely

local history. It was believed that high school teachers would

welcome such an addition to the collateral reading resources of

their classes, and that the volume would not be without attrac-

tions for the citizen who is interested in the history of nation and

state. The work of preparing the volume is now well under way,

and it is hoped that it may be completed without undue delay.

The collaborating committee is composed of Professor J. E.

Bradford, Miami University, Professor C. L. Martzolff, Ohio

University, Miss Juliette Sessions, East High School, Columbus,

Professor E. J. Benton, Western Reserve University, and Pro-

fessor H. C. Hockett, Ohio State University, chairman.

Chiefly to give an idea of what might be done in such a

book, three members of the committee prepared papers which

were read at a session of the Association held October 21st, 1915.

The main portion of these papers are given here. The first is

by Mr. Bradford, the second by Mr. Hockett, and the last by

Miss Sessions.

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136       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

 

THE HISTORY OF OHIO AS ILLUSTRATIVE OF OUR NATIONAL HIS-

TORY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

The study and teaching of history within our state has had

two fundamental faults. One has been a study and teaching of

national history that did not give due consideration to those

great facts concerning the growth of our state that immediately

relate to our national development. The other has been the

study and teaching of local history without setting forth its re-

lationship to our national development. Either of these methods

has value, but if the relationship be duly established, this com-

posite method will prove doubly valuable in quickening interest

and imparting a fuller comprehension of our national growth.

Let us for a little consider how this relationship evinces itself,

to the time of the admission of Ohio to statehood.

We pass over the geography of Ohio as a part of the great

valley which has served not only as a trough through which civ-

ilization has poured from the Atlantic Coast Plain to the Great

Prairies and Far West, but also as the seat of a great middle

empire, which, by certain geographical bonds, is related to the

area that lies to the eastward of the Appalachians. We likewise

pass over the aboriginal period, with its Mound Builders and

their abundant remains, and the Ohio Indians, of whom Smith

has left us such an interesting account, and who had a part in

excluding the French until the English were ready to contest for

its possession, and who aided in holding the settlements east of

the mountains until political institutions were organized, con-

tributed to colonial unification, and both stimulated trade and

prepared fields ready for cultivation by the first comers into the

wilderness.

Let us note first the era of discovery and exploration. Who

were the white men who uncovered or made known Ohio to the

world? Let it be borne in mind that long before the coming of

the actual settlers the forest paths of this region had been

threaded by the white man. Who were these first comers? Was

it the French La Salle in 1669-1670, when he crossed, as some

hold, from Lake Erie to the Ohio and descended it to the Falls?

Or was it the English governor of Virginia, who, with his com-

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Ohio History and National History.         137

panion Knights of the Golden Horseshoe, stood on what they

regarded as the divide between the Atlantic and the Ohio flow-

ing streams and looked upon what he thought to be the waters

of Lake Erie? True, it was but a mist he saw, induced, perhaps,

by a too liberal draught of champagne in emptying a bottle in

which to enclose the formal claim to the Ohio Valley in the name

of the King of England. Be that as it may, he saw in a very real

sense the Ohio region, and wrote to the English authorities call-

ing attention (I) to the accessibility of the Ohio Valley and Lake

Erie from Virginia; (2) to the menace of French occupation of

that region; (3) to the danger of losing the fur trade thereby;

(4) to the desirability of establishing military posts on Lake

Erie. This was in 1716, more than thirty years prior to actual

attempt at English occupation.

And then there were those explorers, the traders, chief of

whom was Croghan, with their post Pickawillany, and Conrad

Weiser, the Moravian missionary, Captain Trent and Christopher

Gist, the agents of the Ohio Company, all of whom threaded these

Ohio forests. How interesting is their story! How well they

did their work in making known this region is shown by Frank-

lin's letter of 1754 in which he speaks of this Ohio area as "the

finest in North America for the extreme richness and fertility of

the land, the healthy temperature of the air and mildness of the

climate," and in which he proposes, among other things, the es-

tablishment of a colony on the Scioto, "the finest spot of its big-

ness in all North America," which he affirms "has the particular

advantage of sea coal in plenty (even above ground in two

places) for fuel when the woods shall be destroyed."

The relation of Ohio to the French and Indian War is so

apparent as to require little more than suggestion. It had its

place in causing the outbreak of that war, which was fought,

in part, for the possession of the Ohio Valley; it lay adjacent

to one principal seat of military operations; the attitude of its

population was a determinate factor in the issue of the struggle

in the West, while as a result of the war the Ohio region became

definitely recognized as the possession of the English crown.

"But," says the old-time history teacher, "you have now

reached your limit, for how will you connect Ohio with the be-

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138       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

ginning of the American Revolution, with its Stamp Act Con-

gress, its Continental Congress, its Boston Tea Party, its Boston

Massacre, and its Lexington and Concord? Surely the causation

of that momentous struggle lay within the folk on the Atlantic

seaboard." Let us enquire. Scarcely had the Treaty of Paris

been signed when there broke out on the frontier that notable

Indian uprising which bears the name of Pontiac's Revolt, in

which the natives of Ohio played an important part, which brought

into Ohio some hundreds of white captives, and which made

Ohio the scene of certain military operations. This war had

several important results. It led to the issuance of the Procla-

mation of 1763, which, in theory if not in fact, temporarily

stopped westward migration beyond the crest of the Alleghanies.

This was followed in 1774 by the passage of the Quebec Act,

which transferred all the region northwest of the Ohio to the

Province of Quebec, and placed it under a more highly cen-

tralized administration. It further led to the sending of troops

to America, one purpose of which was to protect the frontier.

The burden of maintaining these troops was to be laid in part

upon the colonies, hence the necessity of raising a revenue in

America. Here, then, we have the main causes of the revolt as

set forth in the Declaration of Independence. It should be added

that, in 1774, and upon Ohio soil, a body of officers connected

with Dunmore's expedition united in setting forth the grievances

of the colonists against the mother country.

In the revolutionary struggle itself, while the area imme-

diately embraced within Ohio did not contribute any soldiers to

the patriot ranks, it was nevertheless the scene of numerous

military expeditions under both British and American leadership.

It was the condition north of the Ohio that led to the concep-

tion and execution of plans for the conquest of British posts in

the West. This resulted in the organization of the territory

northwest of the Ohio into Illinois County and the establishment

of civil administration. It was the military conquest and civil

administration of this region that, at the Treaty of Versailles in

1783, secured the Mississippi River, rather than the crest of the

Appalachians, as the western boundary of the United States.

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Ohio History and National History.        139

 

In the period 1783-1803, when Ohio evolved from a wilder-

ness into a state, we see her relation to our national history be-

coming even more intimate. It was the presence of the squatter

within the bounds of Ohio prior to 1787 in such numbers as to be

reckoned by thousands, causing the government to make an

abortive attempt to exclude them, which led the old Congress

of the Confederation to provide for civil government by the

passage of the Ordinance of 1787, which, when adopted by the

first Congress under the constitution, became a sort of postscript

to the constitution, and the foundation of our colonial system.

The problem of the public domain led to the passage by Congress

of certain land laws. The problem of securing an outlet to the

world's markets for the surplus products of Ohio farms, as also

those of adjacent communities, led to a series of negotiations

that climaxed in the purchase of Louisiana. Then, too, Ohio

illustrates in an unprecedented way the process of Americaniza-

tion. Into this area was first extended the Virginia-Pennsyl-

vania frontier with its Scotch-Irish squatter class with their

characteristic indifference to legal restrictions. Then came the

New England Puritans into the valley of the Muskingum, the

Western Reserve, and, in a more individualistic way, into prac-

tically all parts of Ohio. After these came the representatives of

all the middle states: English Quaker, Dutch religionists of vari-

ous creeds-Lutherans, Reformed, Dunkards, and United Breth-

ren-and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, who settled the Miami

Valley. Then there were the Pennsylvanians, Marylanders, Vir-

ginians, and Kentuckians, who flowed into the Virginia military

district. From the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky

came numbers of English, Scotch-Irish, and French Huguenot

descent who were dissatisfied with the institution of slavery.

Here also came some direct from England, Wales, Scotland, Ire-

land, Germany, and France. These several elements mingled

and commingled, affecting each other and being affected by each

other. And when, in 1803, having the requisite population, Ohio

was admitted to statehood, it could be said of her as of no other

state until that time, that she was the typical American state, the

first of her class.

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140       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

Thus and in other ways may the history of Ohio be used to

illustrate our national history during the period of early settle-

ment.

 

 

SOURCE ILLUSTRATIONS OF OHIO'S RELATIONS TO NATIONAL

HISTORY 1816-1840.

The close of the War of 1812 is regarded as the begin-

ning of a new era in our national history, because interest then

shifted from foreign relations to problems of domestic develop-

ment. The termination of the war marks also the close of the

pioneer period in the upper Ohio Valley, and it was, in large

measure, the rapid development of Ohio and her sister common-

wealths that gave character to the next quarter-century. The dis-

cussions of internal improvements, the tariff, and banking, which

filled these years show the influence of the rising West, for the

demand for improved means of transportation and protection to

home industries was most insistent there. The history of Ohio

in this epoch therefore illuminates national history in an unusual

degree.

With a little care in selecting and arranging material, and

a few explanatory notes, the sources can be made to tell the

story of Ohio's relations to these developments vividly and in-

terestingly. Some idea of what might be done may be obtained

from the few extracts which follow. The first is taken from the

message of Governor Worthington, in 1816. While by no means

the first evidence of interest in internal improvements, it serves

very well as an expression of Ohio opinion at the time when

Congress was discussing the Bonus Bill:

"* * * Navigable rivers and public roads as the means of con-

veying the surplus produce of the country to market, are of the first

importance to the state. Notwithstanding the great fertility of our soil,

if the surplus produced from it, beyond our own consumption, does not

command a price sufficient to reward the husbandman, the spring to

industry is in a great measure destroyed."

 

New York had hoped that the passage of the Bonus Bill

would lead to federal aid in the building of the Erie Canal. The

veto of that bill by Madison resulted in the determination to go

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Ohio History and National History.              141

ahead with the project as a state enterprise, but during the winter

of 1816-1817 New York sought aid not only from the federal

government, but also from Ohio. De Witt Clinton wrote to Gov-

ernor Worthington urging that as the citizens of Ohio would

share in the benefits of the canal they should also participate in

the expense.   Worthington transmitted the letter to the legis-

lature with this comment:

"The advantages of such a water communication to the state of

Ohio generally, and in a particular manner to the northern part of it,

are so manifest, that I am persuaded you will not hesitate to give to the

subject that careful examination its great importance requires  * * *

It will become the duty of the people of Ohio, to give all the aid in their

power towards effecting an object in which they are so deeply interested."

 

From this time on the people of Ohio took a keen interest

in the New York canal, but that interest led eventually, not to a

subsidy, but to a system   of connecting canals. Worthington's

successor, Governor Brown, stated the argument for roads and

canals in words which echo Calhoun's speech on the Bonus Bill:

"Our productions, which form our only great resource, are gen-

erally of that bulky and ponderous description, as to need every easement

in conveyance, that we can afford. Experience is a faithful monitor, and

the millions expended for transportation during the late war, may teach

an useful lesson * * *. Roads and canals are veins and arteries to

the body politic, that diffuse supplies [sic], health, vigor and animation to

the whole system  * * * Nature strongly invites us to [such] enter-

prise * * *."

Interest in the Erie canal was by no means confined to that

part of Ohio which would be nearest its western terminus. Even

the remote regions saw in a connecting system a promise of a

new outlet for produce which would have great advantages over

the old route down the Ohio and Mississippi. The issue of the

Inquisitor and Cincinnati Advertiser for July 24, 1820, for ex-

ample, contains a two-column editorial on the progress of the

Erie project, while an editorial in the next issue declares:

'Should Ohio imitate [New York and build a connecting system of

canals] * * * we should be able to send the immense surplus produce

from nearly every part of our rich and fertile territory to the city of

New-York at less expense than we can now transport it to New-Orleans,

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142        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

and be able to return with groceries and other heavy articles of common

necessity at one third of the expense we are now compelled to pay for

the transportation of the same up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers

* * *"

 

Another phase of western opinion was the demand for fed-

eral action. In the Inquisitor for October 30, 1821, a writer who

signs himself "H." discussed the importance of removing ob-

structions to the navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers;

and the improbability of success through state action, as shown

by the failure of the plans for a canal around the Falls of the

Ohio at Louisville, through interstate jealousy and mismanage-

ment:

"The immense benefit that would arise to the nation from an un-

obstructed navigation of these two immense rivers of the Western

country, the Ohio and Mississippi, is so palpable to every person

acquainted with the geography of our country and with the state of the

population west of the Alleghany mountain, that I should suppose the

subject worthy of the consideration of congress. * * * [The West]

must now look to the enlightened advocates of internal improvements in

the national legislature for assistance."

 

"Dion," writing on "The Interests of the West," in the Cin-

cinnati Gazette during the summer of 1819, was more insistent.

He complains that while the West is the source of much of the

federal revenue, it receives too small a share of the expenditures,

and demands improvement of western commercial outlets at the

hands of Congress:

"Let any person cast his eye on the map and trace the line formed by

the Apalachicola, and the Allegheny, into Pennsylvania, and thence to

lake Erie, and he will see at once what proportions of country pay and

what receive the national revenue. - On the one side are cities, harbors,

roads, public works of every description, and an old, well cultivated

country; on the other, an immense wilderness, interspersed with a few

infant, tho' flourishing towns, but generally peopled by emigrants yet

struggling with the hardships of first settlements, felling the forests

around them, building their rude cabins, toiling industriously for sub-

sistence [sic], with no money to spare even for the comforts of domestic

life, much less for those public improvements so important to the pros

perity of any country. From every corner of both these sections the

public revenue is collected, and where is it distributed?   * *

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Ohio History and National History.             143

 

" * *    * This we do expect, and have a right to claim, that some

part of the revenue shall be employed on public improvements among us.

Several objects of this sort might be mentioned; I will name one, per-

haps of more immediate consequence than any other; it is a continuance

of the National Road from Wheeling to St. Louis. * * * Besides the

money distributed in payment for the labor, it would lay open to market

the very heart of this country, and scatter riches along its sides through-

out its whole extent. None, who have not experienced the difficulty of

our roads can form any idea of its importance. * * *"

 

The effect of inferior transportation facilities on prices of

western produce can be made clear by a few quotations. During

the winter, when the navigation of the Mississippi was closed,

prices soared in the New Orleans market.       When the spring

freshets came, the vast quantities of produce which reached the

city glutted the market and depressed prices, often to a point

below the cost of production.   The Supporter (Chillicothe) of

January 13, 1819, prints the following extract from a letter

written at New Orleans on December 21, 1818:

"Flour very scarce and is worth 15 and 20 dollars per barrel, as in

quality. Pork is also scarce and sells at 20 and 23 * * *."

 

On the sixteenth of the following June the same paper quotes

New Orleans prices of May 24 as follows:

"Flour, 1st quality, 5.50 per bbl.

Flour, 2d quality, 5.00 per bbl.

Hams and bacon, per lb., .10.

Lard, per lb., .09.

Corn meal, ber bbl., 3.00."

 

In no way can the rise of protectionism be made clear so

well as by extracts portraying actual conditions and contem-

porary sentiment. A starting point is found in the belief that

too many articles of foreign manufacture were imported in ex-

change for the products of the farms, so that the state was

drained of money to settle the balance of accounts. Such is the

view of Governor Worthington in advocating the encouragement

of manufactures, in 1818:

"* * * The continued importation of foreign manufactured arti-

cles is producing the worst effects on the country. To this cause * * *

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144        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

may be attributed in a great measure the extraordinary scarcity of

money, so universally felt among us * * * When we consider the

great abundance of the raw materials we possess to manufacture most

of the clothing necessary for our comfort and convenience, and the state

of improvement of our own manufactures, it is to be deeply regretted

that our fellow citizens should give a preference to foreign manufactured

articles, generally inferior to those we can, and do make of the same kind

at home: the result must be a state of dependence and embarrassment,

producing the worst consequences on the country."

 

The low prices of western produce during the years follow-

ing the panic of 1819 show plainly why the farmers were eager

for measures which would improve markets and raise prices.

Conditions may be imagined from the following quotations given

in the Cincinnati Inquisitor and Advertiser for May 29, 1821:

"Prices in market this morning: Flour $1 per cwt.; Eggs ⁴c per

doz. Hams 4c per lb.; beef same, choice pieces; inferior 2c. Butter

8c. corn meal, bu., 20c Lard 4c Oats 16c bu., Potatoes, 37c Pork, choice

pieces 3c, inferior 2c"

The inference drawn from continued low prices was that

there was overproduction in agriculture, and that more of the

productive energy of the country should be devoted to manu-

factures. A typical view is that of an anonymous contributor to

the Cincinnati Advertiser of January 27, 1823:

"* * * It appears pretty evident that there is already too much

[1]and under cultivation, witness the price of its produce. What use can

there be in cultivating land when its produce cannot find a market * * *

does not the fact speak trumpet tongued to the people of the United

States? Does it not prove, to a moral certainty, that the time is arrived

that they should turn their attention to manufactures, when it evidently

appears that the produce of what land is already under cultivation cannot

command a market to advantage? * * * Yes, we say, now is the

time for the ranks of the manufacturer to increase. Agriculture has

been pursued to its acme. The number employed in it is disproportionate

to that of the mechanical branch-and the true interest of the whole

community will be promoted by producing an equilibrium between them."

 

Much effort was made to encourage domestic manufac-

tures by appeals to public sentiment and exhortations to the peo-

ple to patronize home industry wherever possible. As an ex-

ample the following is taken from the Greensburgh Gazette:

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Ohio History and National History.             145

 

"Domestic Manufactures, are in everybody's mouth--but not on

everybody's back. Less talk and more action would look better. He that

wears a suit of homespun, does more to encourage domestic manufactures

than the whole herd of scribblers, who write so zealously on the subject.

What is to hinder a club * * * of citizens, from throwing in from

10 to 50 dolls. a piece, and sending an agent to Steubenville for domestic

cloths to the amount, to be distributed in due proportions amongst the

club? This might be made into coats and pantaloons for the approaching

winter, and would be of more real advantage to society, than all the

abuse that could in a year be heaped on agents, brokers and merchants,

by those who wear their stuffs * * *."

 

"This," comments another paper (Supporter), "looks like

doing business * * *. It is to be hoped that other districts of

country may imitate the above patriotic example--it will be

the only effectual way to prevent our money travelling over the

mountains for English cloths--and will teach storekeepers,

through the medium of their interests, that it will be better for

them to sell domestic cloths than none * * * ." The popular

fancy for imported goods was not to be corrected by voluntary

action, however, and the friends of home manufactures became

convinced of the necessity of political action.  The friends of

home manufactures, moreover, included by 1824 the bulk of the

population of the Ohio Valley, who were ready to declare, with

the governor of Pennsylvania, that "the limited demand for, and

consequent low prices of, our agricultural products in foreign

markets, cannot fail to suggest the necessity as well as the policy

of promoting domestic manufactures, which, if properly en-

couraged, would provide a sufficient home market for all our

surplus produce * * * ."

The extracts quoted will serve as some illustration of how

the topics of internal improvements and the tariff might be illus-

trated on the Ohio side during the decade from    1815 to 1825.

The other topics of the period indicated in the caption can, of

course, be similarly treated. The citations given, moreover, can

doubtless be improved upon, for the problem is chiefly one of

selecting the most suitable material from the abundance which is

available.

 

Vol. XXV- 10

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146       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

 

OHIO AND THE NATION SINCE THE CIVIL WAR.

The discussion of the question, "How Ohio History illus-

trates our National History in the Period Since the Civil War?"

presents a problem quite different from that of the earlier peri-

ods. In the first place, the passing of the States' Rights theory

and the national enthusiasm which the war engendered tended

to submerge state interests in those of the nation. Further, quick

and easy means of transportation and communication have led

the people of all the states to the East or the West, to the North

or the South, on the trail of better economic opportunities. Peo-

ple move hither and yon so often they hardly know to what state

they do belong, and state history, particularly here, in the chief

pathway between the East and the West, has ceased to have any

particular individuality.

Then, secondly, the very nature of this later period in our

national life makes it the most difficult of all for the young stu-

dent to understand, and it is in the interest of the young student

especially that this discussion has been undertaken. The Ohio

Company and the Indian treaties, the National Road and the

"Walk-in-the-Water," Webster's defense of the Union, the un-

derground railroad, Lincoln's "homely, honest arguments for

laws and humanity," all make a clear and direct appeal, and the

young student grasps them with avidity. But the protection of

business, government as a means for making secure the produc-

tion and accumulation of wealth, whether or not a certain tariff

was helpful to the laborer, the question of money in politics, of

"invisible government" - these do not touch young people. Eco-

nomic questions and political machinery have not the romantic

and emotional interest that pioneer life and the earlier ethical

problems have. Of course the history we have been making in

the last fifteen years or so is going to be, already is, a rich period

for the secondary school teacher. "Curbing the trusts," "con-

servation of natural resources," "health protection," "how the

other half lives," "the cry of the children," "the shame of the

cities," "those that knock at our door," are all watchwords of a

new crusade, a new emancipation program, that has much of the

fervor of the old anti-slavery days. And just now the United

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Ohio History and National History.          147

 

States on the outer edge of a world war makes absorbing history

But my effort has been to find what there may be in our own

state history to make real and illuminate for boys and girls the

rather barren period from the Civil War, say, to the Spanish

War.

A state that has furnished six out of ten Republican candi-

dates for the presidency, besides many other favorite sons and

the greatest president-maker of our history, and elected its candi-

date five times in forty years, has surely been "in politics" and

must have some stories to tell of her experiences there. I think

it is no exaggeration to say that in no state have more exciting

political games been played than right here in Ohio. The con-

tested election of 1876 is made especially vivid by a study of the

conduct of Governor Hayes during those long trying months.

In the newspapers of the day (I have examined the State Journal

and the Cincinnati Enquirer as representing the two extremes of

opinion) the governor is shown going quietly on with the state's

business, not once expressing the least personal ambition or ani-

mosity. Even the Enquirer, bitter to the point of vindictiveness

against the "Eight to Seven Tribunal," as it calls the Electoral

Commission, and especially hard on Justice Bradley, speaks as

follows of the governor on the occasion of his visit and address

to a Bar Association in Cincinnati, on February 12, 1877:

"Throughout all the trying hours since and before the election,

Governor Hayes has done nothing to forfeit the respect of his fellow

citizens. He has some wicked partners, though, and if he would only

say to the conspirators who are seeking to force him into an office to

which the people have not elected him, 'Be done!,' he would pass into

history as the greatest man of the times."

 

Later, when the Commission had reported, on Friday,

March 2, the same paper headlines Mr. Hayes as "Joe Bradley's

man Friday;" and when it reports his taking of the oath of office

on Saturday evening, March 3, because there was thought to be

real danger in a possible interregnum, its headlines read:

"Sworn in! In Silence, Secrecy and Darkness! Fitting con-

summation of the Rape of the Presidency." And then it quotes

the New York Sun as follows:

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148        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

"These are days of humiliation and shame and mourning for every

patriotic American citizen. A man whom the people rejected at the

polls has been declared elected President of the United States through

processes of fraud. A cheat is to sit in the seat of George Washington."

 

I believe any normal Ohio boy would feel that to be a sort

of challenge and want to get to work and find out if it were

true that Ohio had had one more president than was rightfully

hers.  It does not matter at all to what conclusion he comes;

that will probably depend on the politics of his father; but it

will be good for him to be able to give a reason for the faith

that is in him. Perhaps a reading of a bit from the speech Mr.

Hayes made here at the station in Columbus, as he took the train

for Washington on noon of March 1, will make more vivid than

anything else the great uncertainty the country was in up to the

very day of the inauguration:

"I understand very well the uncertainty of public affairs at Wash-

ington. I understand very well that possibly next week I may be with

you again to resume my place in the Governor's office and as your fellow

citizen. [His resignation as governor was in the hands of his private

secretary to be presented if he were declared elected president.] I also

understand that it is my duty to be at Washington prepared to assume

another position, higher and more responsible and with much more

difficult duties."

Ohio furnishes illuminating material in this period, also, on

the struggle against the spoils system. When Hayes was elected,

he was referred to in the Enquirer as "the angel of the post-

offices," and his firm stand for civil service reform in his in-

augural address and later in his messages, his contest over the

New York City postoffice and custom house, brought forth a

huge opposition in his own party and constant derision of "snivel

service" reform, as Conkling called it.    Today no reputable

statesman would dare speak against the principle of the merit

system, even though his practice may be against it, and no paper

attacks it except to show how the opposite party is or has been

making it a farce and a pretence. It will give a young student

some hint that at least some of our national ideals are higher

than they used to be if he can read of the early struggle for the

reduction of political patronage by the men of his own state.

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Ohio History and National History.               149

 

Hayes started the movement against the spoils system, Garfield

fell a victim to it, and Pendleton was the author of the act of

1883. The speech of the latter in the Senate is easily accessible

in Professor James' Readings in American History.

In the seventies and eighties and nineties, when political

contests seem to have been mere selfish struggles of the two

great parties to get power into their own hands, the rise of a

party of the people, of a party that should place the interests

of the toilers, the interests of men and women and children,

equal to or above the interests of property, should be a subject

of study in every high school class in history. Ohio furnishes

almost a complete sequence of events from the famous conglom-

erate convention held in Cincinnati in May, 1891, when the first

People's Party was born, to the days of the Progressive Party

of 1912. Here is a description of the convention of 1891 from

the Ohio State Journal of May 20, 1891:

"Perhaps never in the history of politics were there gathered

together a more incongruous body than that which yesterday morning

began its sessions at Cincinnati. There is not one element whose ideas

are not violently antagonized by half a dozen other elements and no two

elements probably that agree exactly upon the same thing. Here, for

instance, are the various Farmers' Alliances, representing a vast class of

men who recognize a day's work of anyone in their employ as beginning

as soon as the dew is off the grass and lasting as long as one can see in

the evening, meeting with the Knights of Labor and hundreds of indus-

trial unions whose cardinal idea is the reduction of a day's work to

eight hours.

"Here are the enthusiastic Kansas men demanding above all other

things the organization of a new political party, yet seeking to coalesce

with the cunning Bourbon politicians of the South who have no use for

Farmers' Alliances or anything of the sort except as they may be used

for putting the old Democratic party in power.

"Here are the laboring men of the North, East, and West, who

know more keenly than they have ever known before that the very life

breath of American industry is involved in maintaining the principle of

protection, yet striving in some way to strike hands with cranky 'doc-

trinaires' on one side and Jefferson Davis's principles on the other, whose

devotion is as fanatical as a Mussulman's is for free trade.

"There are organizations which look with undisguised contempt

upon all the machinery of secret rituals, grips and pass words, yet whose

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150        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

members, nevertheless, are met to form a political alliance with other

organizations into whose meetings they cannot secure even a moment's

admittance without first giving the necessary 'sign.'

"Here are the howling advocates of the free and unlimited coinage

of silver trying to get cheek by jowl with those who only want silver

restored to the place it occupied in 1873, positions which are as widely

sundered as the poles of the earth or of the heavens.

"There are the agriculturists, whose standing cry is against the

excessive taxation they are compelled to pay upon their lands, meeting

in conference with the single tax men, whose one idea is that all taxes

of every description should be levied upon and raised from land. * * *

If there is anything that marks all these various organizations it is the

intense spirit of socialism that distinguishes them all. With one accord

they believe, each for itself, however, that its peculiar views must be

placed upon the whole community through the mischievous instrumentality

of legislation.  * * *

"Will the Cincinnati meeting result in placing a new party in the

field? It is not at all unlikely that the preliminary steps thereto will at

least be taken. * * * And what will it all amount to? Well, new

party or not, these seething elements of unrest and discontent will un-

settle and disturb all political calculations until after the presidential

election of 1892."

 

Surely the "times were out of joint", and there

"Each sufferer said his say, his scheme of the weal and woe."

 

A  few selections from   the platform  adopted at Cincinnati

might be added:

"We believe the time has arrived for the crystallization of the

reform forces of our country and the formation of what should be

known as the People's Party of the United States of America.

"We demand the free and unlimited coinage of silver.

"Believing in the doctrine of equal rights, especial privileges to

none, we demand that taxation, national, state, or municipal, shall not be

used to build up one class or interest at the expense of another.

"We demand a just and equitable system of graduated tax on in-

comes.

"We demand the most rigid, honest and just national control and

supervision of the means of public communication and transportation,

and if this control and supervision does not remove the abuses now

existing, we demand the government ownership of such means of com-

munication and transportation.

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Ohio History and National History.            151

 

"We demand the election of the President, vice-president and

United States senators by the direct vote of the people."

 

Resolutions for universal suffrage (woman suffrage), the

abolition of the liquor traffic, and against great combinations in

industry, were suggested but did not carry.

In two years after this convention came the hard times of

1893 and 1894 and one phenomenon of the times, Coxey's army-

and its march on Washington, was an Ohio event, and con-

temporary accounts in local newspapers, easily accessible in li-

braries, will interest young people and easily lead to an inquiry

into what was the trouble, what was the real grievance.

Then comes the presidential election of 1896 with McKinley

at the head of the ticket and Mark Hanna to prove himself the

greatest campaign director the country has known. What called

forth his great powers at just this time was this restless dissat-

isfaction with things as they were, the feeling that government

was too much occupied with the protecting of property and the

promotion of its increase and not with a fair and just distribu-

tion of that increase. Mark Hanna stood for the old system

was the ablest exponent of that system, and he was the Repub-

lican campaign manager when Bryan and the free silver issue

as by magic gathered into one great army all the diverse elements

of dissatisfaction and made a mighty war on things as they were.

How Mark Hanna won that campaign and made the people wait

is one of the great stories in our political history, and Ohio was

the great battle ground and McKinley's front yard at Canton

was the location of the greatest siege gun. Let me suggest this

reading from Herbert Croly's Life of Hanna:

"The action of the Democratic Convention took the country by sur-

prise and completely upset the calculations and plans of the Republican

leaders. They had never suspected that the currency issue, even if made

decisive, would entirely supersede the tariff issue. * * * A few weeks

before the Republican Convention it looked like plain sailing for the

Republican nominee. A week after the Democratic Convention it looked

as if by sheer audacity and misguided enthusiasm the Democrats had

obtained the right of way, and the Boy Orator would be elected. * * *

No one could tell with any confidence what effect Mr. Bryan's gallant

and strenuous appeal to the American people would have upon the

actual vote. * * * The one thing necessary [for the Republican man-

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152        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

agers] was to establish clearly and to popularize the real meaning of the

demand for the free coinage of silver and the real necessity of an

assured standard of value. * * * The manifest duty of the Republi-

can National Committee was that of explaining to the voters the meaning

of the Democratic platform and convincing them of its palpable error.

It was confronted, that is, literally and exclusively by a campaign of

education, or better, of instruction. * * *

"One of the major necessities of the campaign as a whole was the

adoption of some measure which would counteract the effect of Mr.

Bryan's stumping tour, a tour that covered a large part of the country

and aroused great popular sympathy and interest. Of course the counter

move was to keep Mr. McKinley's ingratiating personality as much as

possible before the public; but the Republican candidate cherished great

respect for the proprieties of political life and refused to consider a

stumping tour of his own. It was arranged, consequently, that inasmuch

as McKinley could not go to the people, the people must come to Mc-

Kinley. The latter abjured the stump, but when his supporters paid him

a visit he could address them from his own front porch. This idea was

employed and developed to the very limit. Several times a week [accord-

ing to the papers I have examined it was every day for several weeks]

delegations of loyal Republicans came to Canton to pay their respects to

the candidate. The chairman of the delegation would make a short

speech, telling Mr. McKinley a few little truths with which he was

already familiar, and Mr. McKinley would reply at smaller or greater

length, according to the importance of the delegation or the require-

ments of the general campaign at that particular juncture. These dele-

gations were not mere committees.    They frequently included some

thousands of people and had to be carried to Canton in trains of several

sections.

"* * * It is characteristic of both Mr. Hanna and Mr. McKinley

that every detail of these visitations was carefully prearranged. In the

first place while many of the pilgrimages were the result of a genuine

desire on the part of enthusiastic Republicans to gaze upon their candi-

date, others were deliberately planned by the Committee for the sake of

their effect both upon the pilgrims and upon public opinion. But, whether

instigated or spontaneous, Mr. McKinley always had to know just what

the chairman was going to say. The general procedure was about as

follows: a letter would be sent to the National Committee or to Canton,

stating that a delegation of farmers, railroad employees, cigarmakers,

wholesale merchants, Presbyterians or what-not would, if convenient,

call on Mr. McKinley on such a day. An answer would immediately be

returned expressing pleasure at the idea, but requesting that the head of

the delegation make a preliminary visit to the candidate.  When he

appeared, Mr. McKinley would greet him warmly and ask: 'You are

going to represent the delegation and make some remarks. What are

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Ohio History and National History.               153

 

you going to say?' The reply would usually be: 'Oh! I don't know.

Anything that occurs to me.' Then Mr. McKinley would point out the

inconvenience of such a course and request that a copy of the address

should be sent him in advance, and he usually warned his interlocutor

that he might make certain suggestions looking toward the revision of

the speech. * * * Such a course was not calculated to produce bursts

of eloquence on the part of the chairman of the delegation, but the can-

didate preferred to provide the eloquence."*

 

An examination of the files of any paper of that year re-

veals the truth of this account by Mr. Croly. I quote here two

or three reports of a day's doings at Canton as given in the Ohio

State Journal.   Besides such accounts of the day there are al-

ways extensive reports of the candidate's speeches, some being

given in full. Rarely is there any quotation from the speeches

of the heads of delegations, only when some specially significant

thing was said. I take these accounts at random. That of any

other date of September and October, 1896, would do as well:

"CANTON, OHIO, Sept. 20, 1896. In spite of rain and bad weather

people began pouring into Canton this morning at a lively rate, and,

with the exception of yesterday [which had been the day of the opening

of the campaign] furnished the largest crowd of the campaign. The

first arrivals were railroad men from the railroads entering Chicago

* * * each road having a train or more. In all there were eleven

trains. The first one arrived at 9:15 and at intervals of 15 minutes

others arrived, the last coming at noon. In the meantime trains from

other directions came in with loads of people to be provided with shelter.

They were sent to various halls about the city. Aside from the railroad

men, the delegations for the day were Republicans from Hulton, Pa.;

two trainloads from the Carnegie steel works at Homestead; people from

the stations between Jamestown, N. Y., and New Castle, Pa.; from

points on the Western New York and Pennsylvania railroad, etc., etc.

* * * There were ten visiting delegations of from 1000 to 6000,

utilizing 26 special trains and estimated from  10,000 to 15,000 people.

There was a cold, drizzling rain all the forenoon and when it ceased the

temperature fell rapidly and overcoats were in demand. * * * After

two receptions in the Opera House the speech making was transferred

to the McKinley lawn, part of it being done in the rain. It was the big

delegation of railroad men, too large for any hall, who set the example

of defying the elements. They with the 300 to 400 telegraphers who came

with them, surrounded the little receiving stand on the major's lawn and

* Croly, Life of Marcus Alonzo Hanna, pp. 209-216.

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154        Ohio Arch. And Hist. Society Publications.

 

listened to and cheered the assurances of his hearty support delivered by

their spokesman."

 

"CANTON, OHIO, Sept. 26.  Four or five states were represented in

the day's doings, and delegations came from between 20 and 30 towns.

* * * The delegations were so massed that Major McKinley managed

to address them all in eleven speeches.

"The closing demonstration of the day was that of the People's

Patriotic Club of Cleveland, the Ladies' Marching Club and band and

other organizations of Cleveland.  It included organized bodies of

naturalized Americans who were former subjects of Bohemia, Italy,

Poland, Hungary, Germany, Afro-Americans and first voters."

 

"CANTON, OHIO, October 27. Today's demonstration was full of

beauties and features. It was notable for a large crowd. It was notable

for the wide range of territory represented by the visiting delegations. It

was notable for the varied interests of the people who came.

"The demonstration began in earnest at noon with the arrival of a

party representing three states and it continued till dark. All that time

the McKinley residence was surrounded by an interested crowd, shouting

and applauding the splendid delegations which marched up the street.

All that time the air was filled with the music of bands and at no time

was the street leading to the McKinley home without a line of men and

women, either marching or waiting orders to march. In the first party

were 16 coach loads from eastern West Virginia, western Maryland, and

Martin's Ferry, Ohio. * * *

"After these came the New England delegation under the banners

of the New England Sound Money Club. This party occupied a special

train of six sleepers and two dining cars and was on the way from

2 o'clock Monday afternoon until 2 o'clock this afternoon. The party

came largely from Boston, but a number of other New England towns

were represented. It was composed of former Democrats as well as

Republicans, and one of the men presented to Major McKinley was

introduced as one who had for over fifty years voted nothing but the

Democratic ticket, but who this year will vote for McKinley and Hobart."

The demand for the popular election of United States sen-

ators expressed in the People's Party platform at Cincinnati in

1891 grew steadily and our history pupils now have to study the

consummation of that demand in the seventeenth amendment.

Perhaps some of the reasons for that demand might be found

by them in reading the following account of the election of Sen-

ator Hanna by the Ohio legislature in January, 1898. This is

also from Croly's Life of Hanna:

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Ohio History and National History.               155

 

"During the five intervening days Columbus had been the scene of

probably the most embittered and desperate fight ever developed by

American party politics. The action of the Republican malcontents in

combining with the Democrats to defeat Mr. Hanna had taken the state

by surprise. His election had been considered secure. An extraordinary

outburst of indignation followed. The whole state was in an uproar.

Mass meetings were held in the great majority of towns and cities all

ever Ohio to denounce the traitors and their treachery. The meeting in

Cleveland was attended by eight thousand people. Vigorous measures

were taken to make these protests felt in Columbus. Delegations were

sent to the capital from many parts of the state and particularly from

those counties whose representatives were members of the conspiracy.

The delegates from Cleveland included one hundred of the most con-

spicuous business men in the city.

"Columbus come to resemble a mediaeval city given over to an angry

feud between armed partisans.  Everybody was worked up to a high

pitch of excitement and resentment. Blows were exchanged in the hotel

and on the streets. There were threats of assassination. Timid

feared to go out after dark. Certain members of the Legislature were

supplied with body-guards. Many of them never left their rooms. De-

tectives and spies who were trying to track down various stories of

bribery and corruption were scattered everywhere. * * *

"The excitement was caused, not merely by indignation and re-

sentment, but by the fact that the decision one way or the other would

depend on the votes of a very few men. Mr. Hanna required four addi-

tional votes * * * assuming, of course, that he could keep all of his

existing supporters.  The most extraordinary efforts were made, con-

sequently, to capture these doubtful men. For instance, among the As-

semblymen who had stayed away from the Republican caucus was John

E. Griffith, of Union County. He had announced definitely soon after he

reached Columbus that he would not vote for Mr. Hanna. Prior to the

time of this declaration he had been living at the Neil House, the Hanna

headquarters; but on the day of the announcement he suddenly disap-

peared, and Mr. Hanna's friends were unable to locate him. If they

could get at him they thought they could do something with him, because

his constituents had been outraged at what they regarded as his treachery,

and had been passing resolutions denouncing him and calling upon him to

redeem his pledge. Finally it was discovered that the man had been

drugged or intoxicated, and concealed in the rooms of the McKisson

men at the Southern Hotel. At the same time they learned that Griffith

was weakening and was scared by the denunciations which had been

showered upon him. So one night a carriage was sent to the rear of the

Southern Hotel, and both Mr. Griffith and his wife were brought back

rapidly and secretly to the Neil House. There they were kept under

lock and key-not only for the remainder of the night but until the day

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156        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

of the first ballot. It was feared that an attempt would be made to

abduct them, and as a matter of fact certain partisans of McKisson did

attempt to force their way to the room.

"In the meantime the friends of Mr. Hanna were busily circulating

a paper, absolutely pledging its signers to vote for him. The great ma-

jority of the signatures were readily obtained; but the pledges of the

last two or three men, necessary to assure his election came hard. A

negro Representative from Cleveland named Clifford gave a great deal

of trouble, and required constant solicitation and surveillance, although

he signed and voted true to his signature. By one or two o'clock in the

morning previous to the day of the ballot the pledges of seventy-two

legislators had been secured.* * *"

The vote of at least seventy-three was necessary to a choice,

and here Croly has an account of how       the seventy-third vote

was secured:

"On Tuesday, January 11, the two Houses balloted separately; Mr.

Hanna received seventeen votes in the Senate and fifty-six in the House.

On that day the total number of McKisson supporters was only sixty-

eight, one Democrat being absent and three bolting the caucus nominee.

But the anxiety was not yet over. It required a joint ballot to assure the

result, and one deserter would spoil everything. The seventy-three Hanna

legislators went to the State House under the protection of Mr. Hanna's

friends. Armed guards were stationed at every important point. The

State House was full of desperate and determined men. A system of

signals was arranged and operated so that Mr. Hanna and his friends at

the Neil House could be informed of the progress of the ballot. The

seventy-three voted as they had voted the day before against seventy

for McKisson. A white handkerchief waved violently by a man on the

steps of the State House gave notice to Mr. Hanna, who was watching

anxiously at a window, that he was elected."*

I believe these suggestions are sufficient to show that there

is much material in the recent history of Ohio that can be used

to illuminate and make real many movements of our national

history. Any library that has a file of local newspapers fur-

nishes admirable material. For instance, the comments I have

found concerning the first compulsory education law passed by

our legislature, in 1877, make entertaining reading and throw a

great light on the distance we have traveled since that date. If

teachers all over the state would just open their eyes to it, abun-

dant material would be found at their command.

* Croly, Life of Marcus Alonzo Hanna, pp. 255-259.

• 22