Ohio History Journal

TRIBUTE TO JAMES EDWIN CAMPBELL*

BY DR. WILLIAM OXLEY THOMPSON

HONORABLE JAMES EDWIN CAMPBELL:

The present opportunity is taken by the University

to extend to you most cordial greetings in recognition

of your distinguished citizenship and of the approaching

anniversary of your birthday. The University, unable

to be in session on July seventh, anticipates the exact

date and assures you of its warmest felicitations upon

the noble public career to which we all turn with a gen-

uine and patriotic pride. Ohio your birthplace has had

many distinguished public citizens whose character and

achievements have been a continual inspiration to their

children from generation to generation. The University

congratulates you today that your name has been writ-

ten indelibly upon that scroll of honor and service. The

zeal of youth that carried you into the struggle for the

life of the Nation and later with unusual brilliancy into

the active field of politics has ripened in these later

years into a strength and dignity of character, a breadth

of horizon, a generosity of spirit and a refinement of

intellect that have made you the most beloved neighbor

and citizen in our great commonwealth.

The University recognizes with profound gratitude

the important service you rendered to the cause of

higher education in 1889-1891, when Governor of Ohio,

* From an address delivered by Doctor William Oxley Thompson,

President of the Ohio State University, on the occasion of the annual

commencement of that institution, June 2, 1923. Governor James E

Campbell was born July 7, 1843.

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470      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

and later, in 1895-1896, when you served as a member

of the Board of Trustees. The passage of the Hysell

bill, providing the first state levy for the maintenance

of the University, was possible because of your active

support of the measure. This was the most important

legislation of your administration and will, we trust,

perpetuate your memory as the friend of higher educa-

tion and in a most vital hour the devoted friend of the

Ohio State University.   From   your message to the

General Assembly, January 6, 1891, we direct attention

to these significant statements:

The Ohio State University is worthy of your fostering care.

The University has made notable progress, and through your

generous, although somewhat fitful aid, it has become a credit to

the State. Many persons are of the opinion that a small special

tax for the benefit of this University is a burden which the people

would bear cheerfully for the sake of education and advance-

ment. You might, therefore, very properly inquire whether the

national gift ought not to be supplemented by a permanent fund

of such a character.

The University recognizes gratefully that your at-

titude in contrast with that of five predecessors who did

not even mention the University became a clarion call

to others to urge a more liberal provision for the Uni-

versity. That day was the dawn of the modern progress

now so happily achieved in which we all rejoice.

The University finds genuine satisfaction in contem-

plating the patriotic ancestry from which you sprang.

Your grandfather -- Samuel Campbell -- served in the

war of 1812. Your grandmother -- Mary Small Camp-

bell -- was the daughter of a Revolutionary soldier.

From this ancestry sprang a son -- Lewis D. Campbell

-- who served with distinction in both civil and military

life as did his brother-in-law -- Robert Reily -- who

made the supreme sacrifice at Chancellorsville in 1863.