HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 375 out as a volunteer to the battle of Buffington's Island, and was mortally wounded. He was buried with military honors in Cincinnati—the brave father of heroic sons. The Vallandigham affair is important as showing the temper of a large part of the population of Ohio during the war, and also for its own sake. After the election of 1860 a large number, probably most of the Ohio Democrats joined heartily in support of the Union cause. Such men as Tod and Brough, both governors elected by the Republicans, but pre-war Democrats, were typical of this type of Democrat. On the other hand, there was a group, commonly called "Copperheads," who were either sympathetic with the Southern cause, or at least opposed to Lincoln and the methods of conduct of the war. The copperhead snake has always been regarded as an especially unpleasant type of poisonous reptile, ugly and treacherous, as opposed to the rattlesnake, whose chivalrous habit of warning his enemies before he strikes has made him friends in America, in spite of the fact that he is the more deadly of the two. The rattlesnake, it will be remembered, had his picture on one of the early American flags, with a motto underneath symbolic of his warning. But the copperhead has no friends. In some parts of Ohio, especially the northeast, the "Copperhead" was so unpopular as to be in danger of bodily harm, or even at times of death. But in the southern portions of the state lived those whose ancestors had belonged to Virginia, whose relatives still lived there, and who might be expected to sympathize with the southern cause. Of these Vallandigham became at once the leader and the potential martyr. It will be remembered, perhaps, that the first Presbyterian minister in New Lisbon was the Rev. Clement Vallandigham. He was an American of Huguenot descent, and was married to Miss Rebecca Laird, a Virginia girl of Scotch 376 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO Irish parentage. To this union of two sturdy lines of ancestry Clement Laird Vallandigham was born in New Lisbon in 1820. He became a lawyer, practiced in New Lisbon and supported the Democratic ticket in 1840 and 1844. He went to the State Legislature from Columbiana County while still in his twenties. After the Mexican War he moved to Dayton, where he edited a Democratic newspaper for a time, and then once more engaged in the practise of the law. He ran for various offices unsuccessfully, aspiring to be common pleas judge, and afterwards lieutenant governor. In 1856 he was elected to Congress from his district, after a close contest. During all this time he had been an outspoken defender of the South, and of the institution of slavery. It is an indication of the difference in sentiment between the two opposite corners of the state, that he could win at all in 1856. In northeastern Ohio he would have been defeated almost unanimously. The, election of 1862 saw him defeated for re-election. His principles at this time had become repugnant to Dayton as well as to other parts of the state. He was naturally incensed by this defeat. In the spring of 1863 General Burnside issued his General Order No. 38, "All persons within our lines who commit acts for the benefit of the enemies of our country will be tried as spies and traitors and if convicted will suffer death. The habit of declaring sympathy for the enemy will not be allowed in this department. Persons committing such offenses will be at once arrested and tried as above stated or sent beyond our lines into the lines of their friends." Burnside, whose failure at Fredericksburg had caused his removal from the command of the Army of the Potomac, was at this time commander of the Department of Ohio, with headquarters at Cincinnati. His principal duty was the business of recruiting. His location in Ohio made this order particularly obnoxious to the Vallandigham party. HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 377 It seems that in every war there are those who feel that they should be allowed to express themselves even in sympathy toward the enemy, claiming the inalienable right of free speech. These people never can understand the attitude of antagonism toward them of the men in the fighting ranks, and their families and friends. The soldier, we may state from personal experience, regards such compatriots as more vicious than the avowed enemy. Perhaps one has to be a soldier at some time to understand this feeling. At any rate, on May 1, 1863, Vallandigham made a ringing speech of great eloquence denouncing Burnside, the General Order, Lincoln and the whole conduct of the war., Burnside promptly arrested him, tried him, and sentenced him to imprisonment for the duration of the war. At this point Lincoln took a hand in the affair. Vallandigham demanded a writ of habeas corpus. This the Federal Circuit Court denied. Lincoln said, "Why not take him into the South and turn him over to his friends?" So it was done. Under direction of General Rosencrans a military escort delivered Vallandigham to General Bragg under a flag of truce. The Confederacy had received a new citizen. But the Confederacy did not want Vallandigham, nor did he want to stay. In the South his cause was lost, and his was just another mouth to feed. He took the chance of getting out on board a blockade runner, reached Canada in safety and took up his residence in Windsor, just across the river from Detroit. In the meantime came the gubernatorial campaign of 1863. Conservative Democrats wanted to nominate a Union man. But the convention was swept by the Copperheads. The Republicans nominated John Brough, after Tod had indicated his unwillingness to serve again. When the nominations were made it looked like a close fight. But soon after came Gettysburg. Lee was defeated and driven back, 378 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO and almost immediately Vicksburg surrendered to Grant. From that time on the Confederacy was doomed. Americans love to back a winner. Brough was elected by a hundred thousand majority. Vallandigham stayed in Windsor. In 1864 he disguised himself, crossed the Detroit River and made his way to Dayton. There he made a public appearance at a political meeting. Nobody cared. The cause for which he had sacrificed himself was dead. He re-entered the practice of law, and actually attended the Democratic Convention of 1864 as a delegate. After the war ended he tried to gather up the lines of his interrupted practice. He made some effort to bring about party harmony; to bring the Ohio Democracy into line with national policies. His last public appearance was at the party convention in Columbus in 1871. A few days later he was dead. A pistol which he was using for a demonstration in a murder trial exploded and mortally wounded him. He was fifty-two years old. From the point of vantage of 1935 he is a pathetic, a tragic figure. No one now doubts his sincerity; no one ever questioned his character as a private citizen. The soldiers who took him across into the Confederate lines were unanimous in praise of his gentleness and charm of character. But what he wanted to do, we are sure now, would have destroyed the Union. Such being the case, his fall was a necessity for the preservation of the nation. The Vallandigham home in Lisbon, beautiful in its aged simplicity, now offers "rooms for tourists." The proprietors, on the sign advertise it by name, in the hope, doubtless, that some traveler or two on the great Lincoln Highway, which passes along its front, will remember that it has a historic interest, and therefore stop. But it seems unlikely that many will remember Clement L. Vallandigham. He occupies the mournful place in history of the man who failed. CHAPTER VI BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE The position of Senator Wade among the statesmen of northeastern Ohio is such—he stands so nearly alone, as a man of one purpose—that he can only properly be treated by giving him a brief chapter to himself. All his life, until the end of the Civil War, was devoted to the opposition to one institution—that of slavery; and after slavery had been abolished, as a result of the war, he was in the forefront among those members of Congress who were determined to carry the punishment of the South to the extremity before they were allowed to take their place in the Union again. Yet he was fearless, and he was respected and admired, even by his enemies. An examination of his features as preserved in photographic portraits, gives some idea of the man. His brow was massive and high; his eyes stern and deep set; the line of his mouth straight and firm; and his chin was square cornered as if measured with a carpenter's square. The spirit of one of Cromwell's Ironsides lived again in "Old Ben Wade." Nor would one who looked to heredity for explanation of character be disappointed in his search among the ancestors of Wade, for he came from the most Puritan of American stock, in the heart of New England. He was born in West Springfield, Massachusetts, on October 27, 1800. He was twenty-one when his family moved to Andover, Ashtabula County. They were poor farmers; they brought nothing with them but a little live stock and a few - 379 - 380 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO tools. Ben had got a scrambling bit of education in Massachusetts; he was regarded as competent to teach in Ohio; for two years he taught part of the time, and spent the rest farming and clearing the land. He helped to drive a drove of cattle across the Alleghenies in 1823. After landing the cattle in Philadelphia he went on into Massachusetts on foot. His brother was practicing medicine near Albany. Young Ben, or "Frank", as they usually called him when young, tried the study of medicine for a few weeks. But he did not like it, and he did not like the East. Back to Ohio he came, pausing to make a little expense money on the way by helping to dig the big ditch which was growing into the Erie Canal. In Andover again he turned his attention to the law. Elisha Whittlesey was conducting his diminutive but famous law school in Canfield. Here young Wade went, in 1829. In 1831 he was admitted to the bar. Joshua R. Giddings had by this time established himself as a leading member of the Ashtabula County bar, with an office in Jefferson. He needed a partner, and took in Wade. It was a fortunate arrangement for both, although it was short-lived, as the political field soon claimed them. Giddings went to Congress in 1838 and Wade to the State Senate in 1837. Here he first met with the business of slavery, as a matter of actual conflict. In 1837 most of Ohio was passive on the subject. They were firmly opposed to the introduction of the institution among themselves, but just as firmly opposed to any interference with affairs on the southern side of the Ohio River. Wade found himself in a minority of five, in opposition to a more stringent fugitive slave law. He fought the law, was defeated in the fight, and as a result defeated for re-election. HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 381 But not for long. In four years most of Ohio underwent a reversal of form in regard to slavery. Especially the northeastern corner became not only strongly opposed to any attempt to return escaping slaves, but also there was building up a sentiment that the institution of slavery should be abolished from the whole United States. Wade went triumphantly back to the Ohio Senate, where he remained until 1847, when the Legislature chose him to the position of common pleas judge of the third judicial circuit: Ashtabula, Trumbull, Mahoning, Portage and Summit counties. Here he remained until 1851, when, without his own knowledge or intention, the state General Assembly chose him as United States Senator. The rest of Wade's career is practically the history of the Senate until the end of the reconstruction period. He served three terms, from 1851 to 1869. During that time, as every one knows, the United States passed through the crisis of her history. Wade was in the thick of the fight from the beginning, but not as a peacemaker. His ironclad spirit never gave an inch. From the beginning to the end he stood firmly, first for abolition, second for punishment. He had supported Taylor for President in 1848, in spite of Taylor's southern origin and his slaves. Scott was the last of the Whig candidates for the Presidency, and Wade gave wholehearted support to the Whig ticket again. But that was the end. He was among those who regarded the Compromise of 1850 as a bartering with the enemy. After the election of 1852 he abandoned the Whig Party, which, as a matter of fact, never had any definite platform except that of opposition to the dominant Democrats. He turned to the Republican Party at the beginning and remained a loyal, not to say radical Republican until the end. He regarded the southern Whigs as enemies as much as the Democrats. 382 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO The Kansas-Nebraska Bill further incensed Wade. As we look back at that measure now, it must seem to most students of the history of the time ill advised, and necessarily potent with trouble. But Wade would not have been satisfied even with the preservation of the Missouri Compromise line. He was definitely an abolitionist. Slavery anywhere was abhorrent to him. Yet even the opposition admired, while they feared him. His humor was caustic and effective. A southern senator in an oratorical effort asked the Senate whether he might not be allowed to take his "dear old colored mammy" into Kansas with him, if he chose to go there." "Yes," replied Wade, "but you can't sell her there." He despised Buchanan. When that gentleman mourned the fact that he was to be "the last President of the United States," Wade was disgusted. For he was determined on the preservation of the Union. When secession came, he adopted a policy which he afterwards helped to carry out, that the South must come back into the Union on their knees, but he never had a thought of letting them go. They must be subdued and then brought back. Lincoln seldom pleased him. He had none of the virtue which leads one to forgive one's enemies. The Senate has always regarded itself as entitled not only to the privilege of advising the President but also to the right of having its advice accepted and followed. The United States could not get along without the Senate, but sometimes it is very hard to get along with it. Wade belonged to that group of uncompromising advisers of the President who were one of the great man's principal difficulties. While Grant was besieging Vicksburg Wade called on Lincoln and demanded Grant's dismissal. "Senator," said Lincoln, "that reminds me of a story." HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 383 "Yes, yes," shouted Wade, "that is the way it is with you, sir, all story—story ! You are the father of every military blunder that has been made during the war. You are on your road to hell sir, with this Government, and you are not a mile off this minute." Said Lincoln, "Senator, that is just about the distance from here to the Capitol, isn't it?" Wade grabbed his hat and rushed angrily from the White House. Where Wade might have stood when it came to reconstruction, if Lincoln had lived, is a question which cannot be answered. It must be remembered that the feeling of the radical Republicans after Lincoln's death was one of mingled sadness and relief. They saw in Johnson an unrelenting foe of the conquered Confederacy, and when he began to show indications of leniency they were first shocked, then determined to overthrow him. A great man might have compelled them to kindness, but Johnson was far from a great man. He was not bad, but he was worse than bad—he was weak. As president pro-tem of the Senate, Wade was, of course, in the strongest position of any of Johnson's opponents. He has been severally criticised for his leadership in the trial of impeachment, because the removal of Johnson would, according to the then existing law, have placed him in the Presidential chair. But that criticism is probably undeserved. Wade never sought an office in his life. He certainly cannot be accused of self seeking. In the Presidency he would have done what he regarded to be his duty. In 1869 Wade retired from the Senate. He served on the Santo Domingo Commission appointed by Grant in 1871. This was his last political position, until the Republican Convention of 1876, when he ardently, supported Hayes for the nomination. He spent the remainder of his life quietly 384 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO at Jefferson, engaged in the practice of the law. On March 2, 1878, he died. In the peaceful village graveyard at Jefferson he lies, near his old friend and law partner, Giddings. Ashtabula County may point with pride to her two major statesmen. Neither rose to supreme rank, perhaps, but both had what are some of the best qualities of statesmanship : honesty, courage, and the sincerity that comes from a conviction of the righteousness of a cause. Few counties have produced two as great. CHAPTER VII JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD Of the sons of the Reserve who rose to distinction the first who reached the supreme post of honor in the nation belongs especially to the Civil War and the reconstruction that followed. It is therefore fitting that we close this section of our book with a brief account of his life and achievements. Garfield's peculiar fate it was to be removed from the presidency before he had more than laid the plans for his administration. This fact has had the result that he has been rather neglected by the historians, and is in danger of being overlooked, if not forgotten, by the students of our times. He might have been a great president; in fact, he showed definite indications to that effect. But the real greatness of the man was shown in his previous career. He was educator, preacher, soldier and statesman in turn, and in each capacity showed elements of greatness. Among the throng of biographers who rushed into print after his death there was a common tendency to emphasize his humble origins. We Americans love to glorify the self made man. But the Garfields, though poor, were not humble folk. The family came to the Western Reserve after eight generations of residence in New England, and they had come to New England with a coat of arms. They may have been English or Welsh. At any rate they belonged to good Puritan New England stock. Garfield's mother was the descendant of Mathurin Ballou, a Huguenot gentleman who - 385 - 386 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO came to Rhode Island as a result of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. It was good stock on both sides. Yet they were undoubtedly very poor when they came to Ohio. Abram Garfield, the President's father, arrived in the neighborhood of Zanesville in 1820. Here he found the Ballou family, who had been friends and neighbors in the East. Shortly after his arrival Abram married Eliza Ballou. The next few years were full of the hardships of the pioneer. Abram took a contract to build a section of the Ohio Canal. He completed his work, but made no money. After nine years the family still had no home and little property. Then, in 1829, they took up eighty acres of land in Orange Township, on the eastern border of Cuyahoga County. Three children had been born to the Garfields before this time : Mehitabel in 1821, Thomas in 1822, and Mary in 1824. Two years after their settlement in Orange, on November 19, 1831, the fourth child and second son was born. They named him James Abram. For two years they prospered and were happy. A circumstance which was to influence greatly the life of James Abram was the organization in the neighborhood of a congregation of the Disciples of Christ. Both Abram and Eliza Garfield united with the new church. Then, shortly after, the father, after overexerting and overheating himself one day in the spring of 1833, contracted a heavy cold. The doctors of the neighborhood were scarce and poorly trained. The cold was allowed to develop into pneumonia. In a few days the strong man was dead. Amos Boynton, half brother of Abram Garfield, had married Eliza's sister, and was the nearest neighbor of the widow and her children. Boynton helped greatly with the family troubles. But the saving of the family was accomplished mainly by the exertions of Eliza herself and her older son, Thomas, who at the age of ten took upon himself a man's HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 387 work. Thomas Garfield gave his boyhood up to save the family, and is to be remembered as one of the most important characters in the making of the career of the future President. James, as the baby of the family, had little to do with saving the situation. He was allowed to go to school when opportunity offered, and as he grew did his share of the work on the little farm, now reduced to forty acres. At the age of seventeen he was a tall, strong, awkward boy, with an ambition to be a sailor. He even tried to get work on a lake boat which had docked in Cleveland, but was thrown off by the captain. Then came the episode which his biographers have stressed so unduly that careless students think of it as the high spot of his early career. A cousin, Captain Amos Letcher, was running a canal boat from Cleveland to Pittsburgh, by way of the Ohio and the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canals. He offered to take James as a tow boy. In this capacity the boy made the trip to Pittsburgh ; his first view of the outside world. After one trip he was promoted to "bowman," that is, he stood in the bow of the boat and piloted it through locks and under bridges. Four round trips ended this experience. He was taken ill, went home and never worked on the canal again. When recovered he was sent to the Geauga Academy at Chester. Here he spent about three years, alternating with periods of school teaching to provide himself with funds. These years may be said to have been the first turning point of his life. He determined to be an educated man, although he still had no definite plan for a career. At Hiram, a few miles southeast, in Portage County, had been founded the Eclectic Institute, already mentioned in these pages. To Hiram went young Garfield. The institute was to boast him afterwards as its greatest son, 388 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO and he was to be its builder in later years. From the beginning of his residence he was a leading figure. After one year he took over some of the teaching duties of the lower classes. After three years he had absorbed all the learning the school could give him. He was not satisfied, although his teachers wanted him to stay. By this time he was preaching in Disciple churches here and there, so that it seemed that the ministry was to be his vocation. For the rest of his life it was a matter of regret among devout Disciples in the Reserve that he deserted the ministry. He was looking about for a place to continue his education. The venerable Alexander Campbell had shortly before founded a Disciple college at Bethany, in what is now West Virginia. Young Garfield made a visit to the place. Two things seem to have turned him against Bethany: it was in a slave-holding state, with a pro-slavery sentiment; and he wanted to get away from the Disciple environment and broaden his outlook. An encouraging letter from President Mark Hopkins, of Williams College, determined Garfield to go there. He borrowed Ave hundred dollars from an uncle and went to Williamstown, entering the Junior year. It was as different, almost, as a foreign country. In the heart of New England, in the midst of the Berkshire hills, Williams was conservative, classical, exclusive. His fellow students heard that he was a Disciple, and looked on him curiously, as a strange being from the West. But he prospered. Hopkins gave him special attention, and always afterward watched his career with admiration and affection. At twenty-four, in the class of '56, Garfield graduated with honors from Williams. Back in Hiram he became teacher ,of Greek, Latin and English. After a year the principal was forced to resign and Garfield took his place. HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 389 He now seemed to have entered on a successful career as teacher and preacher. In 1858 he married Lucretia Rudolph,, after a courtship which had begun when he first came to Hiram. If ever a man seemed settled it was James Abram Garfield. But in the meanwhile he had entered his name as a student in the office of a firm of Cleveland attorneys, and was quietly studying law. In 1859 he was nominated by the Republicans of the Portage-Summit district as a candidate for the State Senate. His election was assured in that country and at that time. In January, 1860, he took his seat. His career had changed again. He entered the game of politics, as will be seen, at the beginning of the year which turned out to be the most important political year in American history. His eloquence and his mental superiority gave him a leading position in the Ohio Senate immediately. The most important thing he did was to try to bring about a friendly agreement between Ohio and Kentucky. This undoubtedly had a great deal to do with keeping Kentucky in the Union. In the election of 1860 he supported Lincoln as a matter of course. The next year, returning to extraordinary session of the General Assembly, he had the important duty of acting as assistant to Governor Dennison in arranging for the recruiting of Ohio troops, and preparing the state for war. But, like most young men in Ohio, the idea of entering the military service himself soon became uppermost in his mind. His religious training had been of a nature to cause him some slight uneasiness. It was doubtful whether a Christian should fight. But that feeling caused him only momentary hesitation. On August 14, 1861, he accepted an appointment as lieutenant colonel, and in two weeks more was a full colonel in command of the Forty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry. 390 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO His knowledge of military affairs was exactly nothing. It was, perhaps, the one item in education he had so far overlooked. To be sure, the men in his regiment knew just as much as he. They all learned together, and his personality and habits of discipline as a teacher gave him enough of superiority so that he succeeded in controlling the situation. Nor did they have long to wait. In December they went into action in West Virginia. He spent the first months of 1861 driving a brigade of Confederates, under Humphrey Marshall, out of the mountains. In this he was successful, using valor as a substitute for experience. As a result, in April he was a brigadier general, transferred to Buell's army in the West. He got to Shiloh as a brigade commander in time to hear the roar of the guns, but not in time to fight. He stayed in the West until midsummer, taking part in that dreary campaign, sitting on court martials, worrying through the routine of army life. By midsummer he had announced himself as a candidate for Congress from the 19th Ohio District, composed of Ashtabula, Trumbull, Mahoning, Geauga and Portage counties. He thought he could manage this and remain in the army, as if elected he would not have to take his seat until December, 1863. He was not present at the convention that nominated him, and had little to do with the campaign. He was elected. Having been allowed to withdraw from the western army, he next visited Washington where, it must be admitted, he did little good. As a congressman-elect and at the same time a brigadier-general, he was a man of some importance, and some of the things he said were not particularly helpful to Lincoln. But he did not remain in Washington. Through the influence of Secretary Chase he was sent back to the Army of the Cumberland, this time to be chief of staff for Rosencrans. The veteran soldier and the young political general HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 391 became intimate friends. Rosencrans had confidence in Garfield's judgment, and Garfield had great admiration for Rosencrans' ability. Their friendship really broke over Chickamauga. That unfortunate battle, which nearly broke General Alexander McCook, and made the reputation of Thomas, caused a break between Rosencrans and his chief of staff, both of whom had a considerable responsibility to shoulder in connection with the affair. The fact that this ended Gar-field's military career, and that he was soon in Washington, a civilian and a congressman, undoubtedly roused suspicion in the slow, cautious mind of Rosencrans. But it was Lincoln, principally, who showed Garfield that it was his duty to leave the army and take his seat in Congress. On consultation Lincoln said that he had more than enough generals, but was sadly in need of loyal and intelligent congressmen. As a matter of fact, Lincoln meant more than that. He had suffered since the beginning of the war from political generals, untrained men in high military plans, and he was glad to get one of them back where he ,belonged. Garfield resigned, with a major general's commission, dating from Chickamauga. Another turning point in his career had arrived. For sixteen years Garfield served as a representative of the Nineteenth Ohio District in the House of Representatives. There is no doubt that this was his true vocation. Here, in the most difficult period in American legislative history, he filled a great place. His seat was perhaps the safest in the House. The Nineteenth Ohio has not elected a Democratic congressman even to this day. At times the district has been altered geographically, but it has always contained a rock-ribbed Ashtabula and Trumbull, the Republican strongholds of the state. With this safe constituency Garfield needed to spend little time looking after his "fences" at home, and could devote his time to national affairs. He 392 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO was worried at times. The "iron men," as he called them, of the Mahoning Valley, by their insistence on higher and higher tariff walls, caused him especial trouble. He was never a high tariff man. The iron men had to wait a little while until a change in districting gave them William McKinley as a representative before they could get all they wanted. While listed among the radical Republicans, Garfield never went as far as the extreme position of such men as Wade and Thaddeus Stevens. He supported the Fourteenth amendment, as a matter of course, and approved the military governments of the South. He was absent from his seat when the resolution of impeachment of Johnson was passed by the House. He could not persuade himself that Johnson had committed any "high crimes and misdemeanors," as required by the Constitution in impeachment cases. The Fifteenth Amendment was a little farther than he cared to go. At home in Hiram he expressed himself as doubtful concerning the experiment of giving the negroes the vote before, they had sufficient educational training to fit them for it. Most students of government even in the North now are agreed as to the wisdom of his position. He was a radical, doubtless, but a thinking radical, without undue prejudice. His greatest service to the nation while in the House, undoubtedly, was his position on the question of sound money. In every time of stress there are politicians in America who insist that prosperity and happiness can be accomplished by flooding the country with cheap money. After the war the "Greenbackers" nearly carried their point, a point which would have destroyed the national credit and brought about financial chaos. On this issue Garfield firmly took his stand for sound money. His friend and fellow statesman from Ohio, John Sherman, in the Senate held the same position, HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 393 and to these two is due most of the credit for saving the financial situation during the days of reconstruction. He had his troubles. Oakes Ames managed to involve him in the Credit Mobilier scandal. It was finally settled that Garfield did not profit by this dirty enterprise, but there is no doubt that he was innocently led into a compromising position. Like Hamilton and other great finan- ciers for the nation, Garfield had little idea of making any money for himself. He was always poor, so that an opportunity for making a little money attracted him. From this affair, however, he emerged safely, although one time, just afterwards, he was in danger of defeat at home. He was strictly a party man. When the electoral commission was appointed to decide the Hayes Tilden contest he was a member from the House, and voted as a straight Republican on every contest. The old time Democrats have hardly forgiven that commission yet. It is a fine example of the stability of the American people that this decision was accepted, when it finally arrived, without one item of trouble anywhere. With the Hayes administration, however he may have been elected, the real era of peace began. Hayes should be ranked among the great presidents for many reasons, but he could not be re-nominated. The presidential year of 1880 opened with three Republican candidates in the field and every prospect of a deadlock. The stalwarts wanted Grant back, and the remainder of the party was split between Blaine and John Sherman. In the meanwhile a Republican General Assembly in Ohio elected Garfield Senator, to succeed Allen G. Thurman. He never took his seat. He went to the Republican Convention in Chicago as a supporter of Sherman. As ballot after ballot was taken it became evident that the deadlock 394 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO could not be broken. A few votes had gone to Garfield almost from the beginning. Sherman favored Garfield, in the event that his own nomination proved to be impossible. The opposition to Grant turned to Garfield. On the thirty-fourth ballot the delegates began to swing to him. On the thirty-sixth he was nominated. The Democratic nominee was General Winfield Scott Hancock, the hero of Gettysburg, a fine soldier and an honest man. The contest between the two was honorable on both sides. It was the last presidential campaign for years in which mud was not flung freely in all directions. When the returns were all in Garfield had a clear majority, both in the popular and the electoral vote. He selected a strong cabinet, in spite of the difficulty in pleasing all the elements of the party. Blaine was the Secretary of State, his first appearance in the diplomatic field, where he later distinguished himself. The other cabinet members were good men. He managed to displease the Stalwarts, but he rather expected that. His inaugural was well received—he was always an orator. It looked like a prosperous and successful administration. The bitterness of the reconstruction was nearly gone. The President was popular and had the confidence of the people. In May of 1861 Mrs. Garfield became ill. She was in a serious condition for a month. Then her fever broke and she rapidly recovered. On July 1st, with Mrs. Garfield nearly well again, the President was planning to go to Williamstown. His boys were entering college. Garfield, on the morning he was to take the train, walked into the old B. and 0. Station in Washington, accompanied by Blaine. A disappointed office seeker, Charles J. Guiteau by name, approached the President. He fired two shots. At the second shot Garfield fell. The murderer was captured. HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 395 He was probably crazy, but not in the sense that he lacked responsibility for the crime. For months Garfield lay and suffered. After awhile he was taken to the Jersey shore, in the hope that the sea air would benefit him. Modern surgery—the X-ray, might have saved him. But the surgeons of the day were helpless. On September 19th, the anniversary of Chickamauga, he died. For two days, as has been the custom with every President who has died in office, the body lay in state under the great Capitol dome. Then they took him to Cleveland, where he is buried, in a tomb whose size is greater than its architectural excellence. He was the first President from the Reserve. Twenty years later, almost to the day, the second fell, shot down by another assassin. But Garfield's record of statesmanship had already entitled him to a permanent place in our history, even though he had no opportunity to show his worth as Chief Executive. He should be remembered with more faithfulness, especially by his own people. His service to the nation was great. He at least deserves the reward of grateful remembrance. With this chapter we close the Civil War period, and the reconstruction, as far as the political field is to be considered. We have now to recount briefly the growing of Northeastern Ohio into a great industrial empire. BOOK VI An Empire of Industry CHAPTER I THE CHANGING SCENE When the period of reconstruction followed the close of the Civil War, it, of course, affected the various parts of the nation in widely divergent ways. To the South it was a time of sorrow, sometimes approaching despair, a sorrow aggravated by the intolerant and revengeful attitude of their conquerors. Now that the bitterness has passed, we who are the descendants of those conquerors cannot help a feeling of regret that what they thought to be justice could not sooner have been tempered with mercy; that they could not have been willing to obey the great mandate of Lincoln, and bind up all the nation's wounds, both North and South. It is not for man to punish too severely; to usurp the prerogative of God. To the great West, the reconstruction became a period of development—the opening of the Range Country, to be followed by the closing of it by fences—a period when the cattle herds followed the buffalo, and in turn were followed by a procession of farmers, each in turn enclosing his portion of government land, planting trees on the prairie, turning to the growing of corn and wheat for a livelihood, developing finer - 397 - 398 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO and yet finer breeds of hogs and cattle until from the great river to the great mountains all the country was one smiling prosperous countryside. In this migration, Ohio, and especially the northeastern corner, had a great part. The young men who came home from the war too often found their places filled by other men who had stayed at home. Those of them who were farmers by trade before the war—that meant most of them—saw in the pairie country beyond the Mississippi a future hope far beyond any opportunity they could find at home. By hundreds and thousands they took up the western march. Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and on to the Dakotas and Colorado; they populated each in turn, so that each became a new Ohio, with the characteristics of industry and progressiveness which their fathers had taught them at home. The writer has in possession a copy of a history of Washington County, Iowa, printed in the early nineties. More than half the names of the citizens of the county are those of men born in Ohio. A very large proportion were veterans of the Civil War. But to Northeastern Ohio the reconstruction became another turning point. Up to this time this had been almost entirely an agricultural territory. The cleared forest land, as we have seen, had been turned into farms. Such small beginnings of manufacture as existed were not even adequate to supply the local needs. Manufactured goods of all kinds were generally imported, and in exchange the Ohio man sent east and south the surplus produce of his farm. The largest town in the district was little more than a village. Several factors contributed to the change. The coming of the railroads opened up new and vastly superior opportunities for transportation of goods and passengers. The soldiers knew more about how other men lived. Those who resisted the great temptation to "go West" looked about for greater opportunity at home. The introduction of farm machinery- HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 399 the substitution of the mowing machine for the scythe, the reaper and self-binder for the cradle, the threshing machine for the flail, not only greatly increased the efficiency of the farming methods, but also cut in two the man power needed for farming operations. Naturally the younger men began to think of developing the manufacturing industries which had begun. At the same time, unrestricted immigration was bringing to the Ohio country a large number of new inhabitants each year. In Northeastern Ohio these were almost all from some portion or other of the British Isles. While a great German immigration flooded Southwestern Ohio, Chicago, Eastern Wisconsin and the country about St. Louis, very few of these came into our territory, comparatively. The Irish immigrants, driven from home by the famine conditions of the 'forties and fifties, first came to Ohio to work on the canals, and stayed to build the railroads. When these were to a great extent completed, it was necessary to find other work for them to do, and the logical sequence was the building of mills. On the heels of the Irish, came the English and the Welsh; men who had been mill-workers and coal miners at home, and who sought employment in this land of promise at their old trades and occupations. Whether it was the increase of manufacture that brought the immigrants, or the coming of the immigrants that caused the increase of manufacture, is probably a futile question. The answer doubtless lies somewhere between. One extraordinary and apparently paradoxical reason, which is yet one of the principal reasons for this growth of manufacture, is the fact that in the development of the great and principal industry of Northeastern Ohio, and especially of the Mahoning Valley, better raw materials brought from a distance were substituted for the original materials which were to be found right at home. The three