300 - HISTORY OF OHIO see this, others divined it and their predictions bear testimony to the fact that in this instance at least— "Coming events cast their shadows before." When he left the jail on his way to the place of execution, John Brown handed to a reporter his last written statement : "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged but with blood. I had, as I now think vainly, flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done." Victor Hugo, Edmund C. Stedman, William Dean Howells, Wendell Phillips, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Moncure D. Conway and scores of other prominent men united in declaring that the execution of Brown would ring the knell of slavery. It is remarkable how that event brought together many of the actors in the mighty conflict soon to be. Over the gallows at Charlestown the hand of Fate wrought a paradox. Hither came to witness the execution Col. Robert E. Lee, in a uniform of blue, soon to be exchanged for one of gray and the rank of commander-in-chief of the armies of the southern Confederacy. There was Governor Henry A. Wise, and there in the ranks of the Virginia troops was his promising son, the former to rise to the rank of brigadier general and the latter to lose his life in the service of the Confederacy. At the head of the cadets from Lexington stood stalwart Thomas J. Jackson, destined to become the Stonewall Jackson of history and to fall on the field of Chancellorsville. Henry C. Pate, leader of the Missourians and the captive of John Brown .at Black Jack in Kansas, who witnessed with satisfaction the ignominious death of his oldtime foe, was soon to be a Confederate colonel, and Lieut. J. E. B. Stewart, who released Pate in Kansas, was later to become a famous Confederate cavalry general, and both were to die on the same battle field. John Augustine Washington, great-great-grandnephew of George Washington, was to pour out his blood on Virginia soil for the Confederate cause. Conspicuous for his horsemanship and soldierly bearing among the assembled troops was Capt. Turner Ashby, afterwards a Confederate general, who lost his life for "the lost cause." While there with the Richmond troops, that wayward evil genius, John Wilkes Booth, witnessed an act which was to pale into insignificance compared to his murderous deed that plunged the Republic into woe and shocked the civilized world. And there, the master of ceremonies on this occasion, in gorgeous uniform, armed and bespangled, rode Gen. William B. Taliaferro, who served and survived the Confederacy ; and in the ranks of his men were many who were to rise to distinction and shed their blood in uniforms of gray. And all these were here to punish treason—to vindicate and uphold the majesty of the law of the United States and the commonwealth of Virginia. Fate turned the kaleidoscope, and to ! all these by the same token became themselves traitors and boldly joined an insurrection to rend the Union asunder ! In order that the paradox might be complete, all the surviving f ollowers of John Brown able to bear arms put on the uniform of blue and fought under the flag to preserve the Republic and blot "the dark stain of slavery * * * from our land." Richard J. Hinton, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, John Brown, Jr., Barclay Coppoc, Charles P. Tidd, Francis J. Merriam, Salmon Brown, Charles Moffett, Luke F. Parsons, Osborn P. Anderson, Richard Realf, Charles Lenhart, and others who were identified with Brown in Kansas or elsewhere answered the call of the nation. The first two rose to the rank of colonel. Others gave their lives and all followed the flag with loyalty and zeal. It is remarkable, too, that Governor Wise who so eloquently denounced traitors in 1859, in 1861 should himself become one of the chief agents in taking Virginia out of the Union and the chief conspirator in ANTI-SLAVERY AND OTHER MOVEMENTS - 301 the capture of the arsenal at Harper's Ferry and the transfer of the arms there to the enemies of the United States government, and that this same governor, a year and a half later, should rejoice that armed forces were on their way to consummate the treasonable act that he had planned, and that he should exhort Virginians to take a lesson from John Brown and with spears and lances spill the blood of their craven Yankee foes. Swiftly, with startling and dramatic sequence, the scenes shifted on the stage of history. Eighteen months after John Brown mounted the scaffold with the step of a conqueror and stood unawed with the hangman's rope around his neck, the Twelfth Massachusetts Regiment was on its way South to put down the rebellion and singing as it went : "John Brown's body lies moldering in the grave, But his soul goes marching on." And the chorus of this battle song went on from Bull Run to Appomattox. The second day of December, 1859, was clear and the spirit of peace seemed to rest on the Virginian valleys and mountains. But this was only the calm that precedes the storm. Over these roads were soon to march contending armies. The rocky escarpments of the Blue Ridge were to shake with the thunders of cannon ; the heights of Bolivar were to be strewn with the dead and dying ; the Potomac and the Shenandoah were to bear again ensanguined stains ; the mighty hosts of the blue and the gray were to be swept into the red whirlwind of civil war. Abraham Lincoln, who sought to avert the crisis, was soon calling for troops to preserve the Union and destroy slavery by force of arms. He too had moved far on the tide that had borne the nation from its old moorings. Not infrequently his statements, in spirit, were in harmony with those from the jail at Charlestown. In his last inaugural address, almost from the brink of eternity, he uttered in those solemn, poignant words the decree that not only rebellion, but slavery, should perish by the sword : Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said 3,000 years ago, so still it must be said, The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. And not until the venerated Lincoln had joined the list of martyrs and John Wilkes Booth had paid the penalty for his dire deed could a distracted country say in the presence of the awful tragedy, "It is finished" Edwin Coppoc Among many villages of our state that pursue the even tenor of their way so peacefully and quietly that they earn their way to honorable obscurity, is Winona, Columbiana County. This name was chosen from Longfellow's Hiawatha, for the citizens of this place find time to read, enjoy what we dignify as "literature" and are in a very useful and unpretentious way "cultured." The church and the school are liberally patronized. The moral standard of the community is high. Through the bellum and ante-bellum days this village was simply a crossroads, unnamed as yet, with little to distinguish it from the surrounding country, which is rolling, well watered and fertile. It was not christened Winona until the year 1868. Hither in pioneer days at the opening of the last century came the Quakers, chiefly from North Carolina. The admission of Ohio as a free state in 1803 made it attractive to these people. They were uncom- 302 - HISTORY OF OHIO promisingly opposed to slavery. They did not seek controversies with slaveholding neighbors in the South, but preferred to make their homes in a land dedicated to universal liberty. As a people they were frugal, industrious, honest, a little inconsistent, strangers say, in their plain clothes and plain language, but opposed with uncompromising firmness to all forms of organized injustice, intolerance and oppression. In the new state they found congenial environment, the opportunity to practice unmolested the tenets of their simple faith and a form of government that disturbed them little in the course of their uneventful and peaceful lives. The settlement about what afterward became Winona was typically Quaker. Year in and year out these people tilled the earth, sowed the seed and gathered the harvests in. On the first day of each week they met for silent worship. They bowed in silence before partaking of their daily bread. They were a law unto themselves and very seldom needed either the restraining or directing hand of government. This is about the last place that we should expect to give birth to anyone who shauld startle the community or aid in startling the world. And yet on some subjects these people thought seriously and profoundly. The slavery question was to them one of absorbing interest. On it they read and meditated. To many of them it was a source of education. They became familiar with all the antislavery arguments. To "remember those in bonds as bound with them," was for them invested with all the force of a direct command from Mount Sinai. Opposition to slavery grew with the passing years and the appeals of Lundy and Garrison found a fervid response in this farming community. We have heard much of the "isolation of the rural districts." This did not apply to the region of which we write in the three decades before the Civil war, for it was located in Columbiana County, and only six miles distant was the Town of Salem, a center of antislavery agitation, from which radiated the itineraries of the agents of the Western Anti-Slavery Society. In this community, when the movement was in full swing, the Coppoc brothers, Edwin and Barclay, were born. Their grandfather, John Coppoc, and his wife moved to Mount Pleasant, then in the North-Western Territory, but one year late in the State of Ohio. In the year following, 1803, he moved to what in 1806 became Butler Township, Columbiana County, Ohio. John Coppock was descended from Aaron Coppock, of Cheshire, England, who was born August 19, 1662, and came to America in 1683. He was a minister of the Gospel forty-two years. His son John, born July 1, 1709, married Margaret Coulston. To them were born five children. The youngest son, Samuel, born November 3, 1748, married Anne Stillwell. Their oldest son, John, born November 4, 1776, married Catherine Kirk. Their son Samuel married Anne Lynch. Of this union six children were born, Levi, Maria, Edwin, Barclay, Lydia and Joseph L. Levi and the two daughters died before they reached the age of twenty-five years. Joseph L. Coppoc saw very active service in the Civil war and rose to the rank of major. He was for many years a minister in the Baptist Church. A number of children survive him. The sons of Samuel Coppock spelled their family name Coppoc, omitting the final k. A cousin explains the change in spelling as follows : Levi, the oldest son of the family, who died in his twenty-fourth year, was an expert speller and inclined to favor simplified spelling, which even at that early day had a few advocates. He and his brothers and sisters omitted the k in spelling the family name, but their father always retained it. While there seems to have been no authority for changing the name from "Coppock" to "Coppoc," this latter spelling will be used in the names of those who had adopted it. In other words, each person will be accepted as authority on the spelling of his own name. ANTI-SLAVERY AND OTHER MOVEMENTS - 303 It will be seen that the Coppocks were of Colonial ancestry. They came from Pennsylvania to that part of the Northwest Territory which afterward became Ohio. Edwin Coppoc, the third child of Samuel and Catherine (Kirk) Coppock, was born in Butler Township, Columbiana County, Ohio, June 30, 1835. His brother Barclay was born at the same place January 4, 1839. Their father died when the boys were young. They grew up under the influence of a devout mother, grandparents and other relatives. The father died early in 1842, leaving a wife and six children, ranging in ages from one to ten years. In the spring of 1842, a few months after the death of his father, Edwin was placed with John Butler, a farmer of sterling character, with whom he remained for eight years. During this time he attended school in the winter and performed the work that usually fell to the lot of farmer boys in the neighborhood. The years from 1842 to 1850 were eventful. They covered not only the brief period of the Mexican war but the antislavery agitation which had been intensified by the results of that war, including a substantial extension of slave territory, and the exciting debates in Congress leading up to the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law. It is needless to say that discussion of the burning question of the hour was carried on almost without interruption in the Quaker communities of Ohio, and much that was said sank deep in the receptive minds of the young. The talk in front of the ample fireplace, at the table, in the church and on the rostrum turned upon the wrongs of those in bonds and the aggressions of the slave power. To all this Edwin Coppoc was an attentive and serious listener. His impressions were lasting ; what he heard had much to do with what he became when he reached young manhood's estate. At the age of fifteen years, somewhat to the regret of Mr. Butler, young Coppoc went to Springdale, Iowa, in what was then known as the Far West, to join his mother, who had married a man by the name of Raley and was reestablishing a home for her children. She was a women of native intelligence and strong convictions. Already she had known the trials and vicissitudes of life. She had lost the sight of one eye when she was a child and the other was beginning to fail. Two daughters and a son were soon to follow their father to the grave. As Edwin grew into sturdy young manhood she looked to him as a source of comfort and support. He was industrious, frugal and bade fair to become a successful farmer in the new western home. Late in December, 1857, an event of unusual importance occurred in the Village of Springdale. It was the arrival of John Brown and his party on their way from Kansas to Canada, preparatory to the attack on Harpers Ferry. It had not been the intention of John Brown to stop long at Springdale. He decided, however, to spend the winter here. The attitude of the peace-loving Quakers was distinctly friendly. They threw open their homes and bade the storm-beaten little expedition of anti-slavery warriors a cordial reception. "Thee is welcome," was their salutation, "but we have no use for thy guns." John Brown himself lived, while in Springdale, with John H. Painter, a Quaker who became his staunch friend. His men, however, were quartered in the home of William Maxson about three miles distant from the village. Here they found a haven of rest and social enjoyment that contrasted sharply with the excitement and turmoil of the border warfare in Kansas. Maxson was not a Quaker, but an ardent abolitionist. They had regular camp duties to perform under the direction of Aaron D. Stevens, one of their number who had served in the United States army and was an ideal instructor in military tactics. The men began their daily work at five o'clock in the morning. Immediately following breakfast they took up their studies and continued until about 304 - HISTORY OF OHIO ten o'clock. Books were then laid aside and the remainder of the forenoon was devoted to drill in the school of the soldier. A portion of each afternoon was spent in gymnastics, sword drill and company movements. This training was conducted in an open space close to the Maxson home. There was perhaps a double purpose in this. It was conveniently located with reference to "winter quarters" and the exhibition of arms, "carnal weapons," was not obtruded upon the peace-loving Quakers of the village. Of course these "conscientious objectors" to the use of arms knew what was in progress at the drill grounds. They also understood in a general way that Brown and his followers believed that slavery must be overthrown by force of arms, but their religious objections to war were very materially modified by the thought that the projected warfare was to be launched against the institution of slavery, which they considered the supreme iniquity of the age. They were in full sympathy with Brown in the object to be attained and while they did not approve they were disposed to excuse the means by which he sought to achieve the end. Had he and his followers come on a mission to return fugitive slaves to their masters, they would have found Springdale at this time a most inhospitable abiding place. With a community of views on the slavery question as a basis, there were other considerations that aroused in the people of this pioneer village additional interest in their guests. Had not these young men and their chieftain already achieved fame on the plains of Kansas? These were the heroes of Black Jack and Ossawatomie, who had opposed the border ruffians from Missouri. Free State papers and the New York Tribune had brought the news to the community. Besides, the new corners by their social deportment and their manifest interest in literary attainment most favorably impressed their Quaker friends, especially those of about their own age. Kagi was a ready writer, a skillful debater and an able speaker. Cook was of a poetic temperament, fluent and impressive on the rostrum. Richard Raelf had already written poetry of genuine merit, was a born orator and a lecturer who was heard with genuine pleasure. He had come from England, had traveled much, was reputed to have been the protege of Lady Byron and it was even hinted that he was related to her husband, the famous poet. That he was a youth with claim to native genius is attested by the substantial volume of his poetry that was collected and published after his death by his friend, Col. Richard J. Hinton. All the members of the little band had had thrilling experiences on the border which furnished interesting narratives for the long winter evenings around the hospitable firesides. In addition to this all of the men, except John Brown himself, were young and of attractive personality. It is scarcely necessary to state that from the day of the arrival of these guests, Edwin and Barclay Coppoc were sympathetic observers and listeners. "They both took much interest in Brown, his men and his cause, and at length enlisted under his leadership." If these two boys and the good people of Springdale were favorably impressed with John Brown and his men in the winter of 1857-58 and shed tears when they took their departure on April 27 of the latter year, it will be readily understood that great interest was aroused by the arrival, on February 25, 1859, of John Brown and a part of his faithful band with the eleven negroes whom he had liberated in his famous foray into Missouri. Was this not a practical demonstration of the efficacy of Brown's plans ? Here were the men, women and children that he had delivered from the land of bondage, now well on their way to freedom under the protecting folds of the British flag. The dusky charges were distributed among the homes of Springdale and here for a time they rested before starting on the final stage of their journey to freedom. To the young men of the village especially there was a strong appeal in this spectacular exploit and its antecedent adventure. ANTI-SLAVERY AND OTHER MOVEMENTS - 305 But among the older citizens of Springdale misgivings began to find guarded expression. The news came that the United States authorities were on the trail of this band of liberators, that a large reward had been offered for the capture of Brown. The officers of the government might appear at any time. The young men of the village, a number of them, were ready to take up arms to prevent the return of the slaves and the awful possibility loomed up of a pitched and bloody battle in the streets of Springdale. The Quakers, of course, did not wish to witness this. They were not yet ready for the results to which their agitation and teachings were unintentionally but inevitably leading. Much to their relief the armed conflict did not occur and John Brown with his dusky freedmen, on March 9, left to take the train and continue their journey to Canada. After the final departure of Brown from Iowa, Edwin and Barclay Coppoc remained for a time in Springdale and then went to visit friends in the old neighborhood near their birthplace south of Salem, Ohio. Just what the motive of this visit was is not very clear, but it was certainly fitting that the brothers should visit again the scenes and kindred about their old home before entering upon the enterprise that was to mean so much of loss and gain to each of them. After they left Springdale little was heard of them until the village was thrilled and the country was startled with the news of the attack on Harpers Ferry. The exact date of the arrival of the brothers at the Kennedy farm in Maryland, where John Brown's men were assembling for the attack on Harpers Ferry, is not definitely known. They were probably there before the end of the first week in August, however, and did not leave for excursions to any great distance before the night of the attack. The days of August slipped away. September came and long before it waned the men of Brown's party began to grow impatient at the delay. Each had to be constantly on his guard to avoid suspicion which was ever rife near the boundary between the free and the slave states. Efforts of slaves to escape from their masters in this region were not infrequent and the agents of the Underground Railroad were increasingly active. The days of September were finally gone and time moved on with leaden feet through the early days of October. In the meantime commissions were issued to a number of Brown's men, designating the rank of each in the little army to be formed if the raid should prove successful. Edwin Coppoc was commissioned lieutenant. At last on Sunday night, October 16, nineteen men fully armed marched from the Kennedy farm. Edwin Coppoc was among the number. Barclay remained behind with Merriam and Owen Brown to guard arms and stores. Onward in silence under the shades of night the resolute little band marched into Harpers Ferry. In accordance with previous plans, carefully laid, Albert Hazlett and Edwin Coppoc took charge of the United States armory as soon as the guards there were overpowered and made prisoners. Long before dawn of the next day Harpers Ferry, the United States arsenal, the rifle works, the engine house and the approaches to the town were in the hands of the invaders. As the startled inhabitants awoke they realized that they were captives in the hands of an unknown military force. The story of the fighting that followed on those memorable days, October 17 and 18, between Brown and his followers and the Virginia militia and the United States marines under the command of Lieut.-Col. Robert E. Lee, now in a uniform of blue but later in a uniform of gray and commander-in-chief of the Confederate Army, has been told often in graphic detail and need not here be dwelt upon at length. On the day following the attack Edwin Coppoc was driven under fire from the armory into the engine 306 - HISTORY OF OHIO house where John Brown made his last stand, fighting the infuriated Virginians and the marines as they battered in the doors behind which he and the remnant of his followers were beaten down and captured. Strange to say, Edwin was not even wounded. Jesse W. Graham, a workman in the United States armory and a captive of John Brown, related this interesting incident of the siege of the engine house, after the arrival of the marines under Lieut.-Col. Robert E. Lee : "Early on Tuesday morning I peeped out of a hole and saw Colonel Lee, whom I had seen before at the Ferry, standing close by with the troops behind him. A negro stood near him, holding a large military cloak. Just then Edwin Coppoc thrust me aside, and thrust the muzzle of his gun into the hole, drawing a bead on Lee. I interposed, putting my hand on the rifle and begging the man not to shoot, as that was Colonel Lee, of the United States army, and if he were hurt the building would be torn down and they'd all be killed. Green again put up his pistol and Coppoc readjusted his rifle. During this momentary altercation, Robert E. Lee had stepped aside, and thus his life was saved to the slaveholders' Confederacy." Shortly after the capture of the engine house, S. K. Donovan, the first newspaper correspondent on the ground after the raid commenced, impressed with the apparent youth of Edwin Coppoc, his bearing and frank face that seemed out of harmony with the tragic experiences of the last two days and nights, went up to him and said : "My God, boy, what are you doing at a place like this ?" "With remarkable coolness," said Donovan, "the boy answered, as I recall the words, 'I believe in the principles that we are trying to advance and I have no apologies for being here. I think it is a good place to be.' " The capture took place on the morning of October 18. Coppoc was held with the other prisoners in the armory guard room until noon of the following day and then taken with them to the jail at Charlestown, Virginia, the seat of justice of the county in which the raid occurred. Governor Henry A. Wise, of Virginia, went on the train that carried the prisoners. Years afterward, Rev. Joseph L. Coppoc, a younger brother who was not at Harpers Ferry, in a magazine article said : "While on the train carrying the prisoners from Harpers Ferry to Charlestown, Governor Wise approached my brother and eyeing him a moment said to him, 'You look like too honest a man to be found with a band of robbers.' " 'But, Governor,' he replied, 'we look upon you as the robbers.' " In jail at Charlestown the meditations of this youth took a wide range. This is indicated by letters written at the time from which the space at our command will not permit even brief quotation. There were hours of regret and a longing at times for the peace and quiet that he had known on the farm in Columbiana County or later with his mother at Springdale. In the meantime strenuous efforts were made to save Edwin's life. His previous good record, his deportment in prison, his courage and frankness, together with the large number of highly respectable Quaker friends who interceded in his behalf, appealed very strongly to the Virginia authorities, including Prosecutor Hunter, Judge Parker and Governor Wise. Thomas 'Winn, a Quaker friend of the Coppoc family from Springdale, took the lead in the effort to have the sentence commuted to life imprisonment. And most adroitly and effectively he pressed the plea for mercy. In reading the papers he presented, one cannot fail to be impressed with the persuasive power that he brought to bear to accomplish his great desire. Himself a consistent Quaker who was opposed to the settlement of any question by the abitrament of war, he was in a position to disclaim all sympathy with the armed invasion of Virginia. ANTI-SLAVERY AND OTHER MOVEMENTS - 307 Governor Wise was much impressed by the conduct of Edwin Coppoc in prison and the pleas made in his behalf by members of the Society of Friends. He could not commute the sentence of Coppoc in this case because he had been convicted on a charge of treason. All that the governor could do was to appeal to the Virginia Legislature then in session in Richmond, Virginia. This he did, personally declaring that if armed with the power he would commute the sentence, but his appeal was in vain. The time for his execution was rapidly approaching. On December 13, 1859, he wrote to his uncle, Joshua Coppoc, the remarkable letter that deserves to rank among the poignant and prophetic utterances called forth by the long anti-slavery struggle preceding the Civil war. If at other times what he wrote had the tone of regret to be expected from a farmer boy caught in the net of circumstance, this letter reveals the man, mindful still of his impending fate, but sustained by devotion to a cause and faith in the speedy coming of that "glorious day" which he could see in vision almost from the platform of the scaffold. Following is the letter : "Charlestown, Dec. 13th, 1859. "My Dear Uncle : "I seat myself by the stand, to write for the first, and last time, to thee and thy family. Though far from home and overtaken by misfortune, I have not forgotten you. Your generous hospitality towards me, during my short stay with you last spring, is stamped indelibly upon my heart ; and also the generosity bestowed upon my poor brother, who now wanders an outcast from his native land. But thank God he is free. I am thankful that it is I, who has to suffer, instead of him. "The time may come when he will remember me, and the time may come when he will still further remember the cause in which I die. Thank God, the principles of the cause in which we were engaged will not die with me and my brave comrades. They will spread wider and wider, and gather strength with each hour that passes. The voice of truth will echo through our land, bringing conviction to the erring, and adding numbers to that glorious army who will follow its banner. The cause of everlasting truth and justice will go on conquering, to conquer, until our broad and beautiful land shall rest beneath the banner of freedom. "I had hoped to live to see the dawn of that glorious day. I had hoped to live to see the principles of the Declaration of our Independence fully realized. I had hoped to see the dark stain of slavery blotted from our land, and the libel of our boasted freedom erased, when we can say in truth, that our beloved country is the land of the free, and the home of the brave. "But this cannot be. I have heard my sentence passed. My doom is sealed. But two more short days remain for me to fulfill my earthly destiny. But two brief days between me and eternity. At the expiration of those two days, I shall stand upon the scaffold to take my last look of earthly scenes, but that scaffold has but little dread for me ; for I honestly believe that I am innocent of any crime justifying such punishment. But by the taking of my life, and the lives of my comrades, Virginia is but hastening on that glorious day, when the slave shall rejoice in his freedom. When he can say, 'I too am a man, and am groaning no more under the yoke of oppression.' "But I must now close. Accept this short scrawl as a remembrance of me. Give my love to all the family. Kiss little Josey for me. Remember me to all my relatives and friends. And now farewell for the last time. "From thy Nephew, "Edwin Coppoc. "P. S. Thee wished to know who was here with me from Iowa. 308 - HISTORY OF OHIO "Thomas Winn is here and expects to stay until after the execution ; and then will convey my body, to Springdale. It is my wish to be buried there." "While there is life there is hope"—so runs the trite adage. When Edwin Coppoc wrote the foregoing letter he did not expect to escape execution, but he was even then working out with his fellow prisoner, John- E. Cook, a plan devised by them to regain their liberty. Along one side of the cell in which they were confined was a heavy plank, held in place by screws. With the aid of two knives and a long heavy screw taken from their bedstead they loosened the plank and under the shadow of darkness took out some of the bricks from the jail wall. A few of these were concealed in the bed ; others were left loose in the aperture that was forming back of the single outer layer of brick that remained to be removed on the night chosen to make the final effort for f reedom. And a faithful friend was ready to assist, just outside of the prison walls—an active Free State partisan from Kansas, who had arrived at the Ferry too late to join the followers of John Brown in the attack. His name was Charles Lenhart. In the hope that he might in some way aid his old leader and the other prisoners he took on the disguise of a pro-slavery sympathizer, denounced the raiders, enlisted in the Virginia militia, was present at the execution of John Brown and had remained in Charlestown in the hope that he might be of service to his friends. On the night chosen by Cook and Coppoc for the escape, Lenhart was sentinel at the angle of the jail where they had planned to scale the wall. He of course was not to see them, they were to flee to the mountains—and liberty. Thus far fortune had favored their efforts. On the evening of December 14, Lenhart was at the post outside of the prison wall. The shadows of night fell on the valley and over the mountains. The sentry paced back and forth eagerly looking through the darkness for the appearance of his friends on top of the wall back of the jail. Anxiously he watched and listened. Midnight, and no sign from the gloomy prison ! Slowly and silently passed the hours until a new day faintly dawned over the mountains—and the imprisoned men did not come forth. In the meantime Cook and Coppoc were in serious whispered conference in their cell. On the very day preceding this night, Cook's brother-in-law, Governor Ashbel P. Willard, of Indiana, Mrs. Willard, his sister, and a lady friend of the family had called for their final farewell. The parting was very affecting, for Mrs. Willard was strongly attached to her brother. She was so overcome that she and her husband did not leave Charlestown that evening as they had planned. Cook felt that his escape that night in accordance with the carefully laid plans would involve his brother-in-law and his sister in charges of complicity, and he refused to leave the jail. He urged Edwin Coppoc to go, but he would not desert his comrade in the crisis. They decided to wait until the next night and take their chances when a stranger was on guard outside. Early in the night of December 15, they removed the thin layer of brick and without difficulty reached the open space in the jail yard. The scaffold on which John Brown had been executed was there. Up this Coppoc climbed to the top of the outer wall and lay there at full length. Cook followed, but before mounting the wall held up his hat on a stick to learn whether the guard outside was on the watch. The prisoners were detected, the alarm given and the chance to escape was gone. Had the attempt been made the night before with Charles Lenhart on guard it is needless to say that there would have been a very different record to write. Intense excitement followed the attempt of the prisoners to escape. The people flocked in from the surrounding country to witness the exe- ANTI-SLAVERY AND OTHER MOVEMENTS - 309 cutions. These were times when a legal hanging was still regarded as something of a holiday. The exhibition had not yet been driven by public opinion from the light of day to the darkness of midnight and the seclusion of the dungeon. It is claimed that four or five times as many were present as at the execution of John Brown. The place and scaffold were the same. So far as known, the very last letter written by Edwin Coppoc was the short note to his faithful and resourceful friend, Thomas Winn. It was as follows: "My Dear Friend Thomas Winn : For thy love and sympathy, and for thy unwearied efforts in my behalf, accept my warmest thanks. I have no words to tell the gratitude and love I have for thee. And may God bless thee and thy family, for the love and kindness thee has always shown towards my family and me. And when life with thee is over, may we meet on that shore where there is no parting, is the farewell prayer of thy true Friend, Edwin Coppoc." On the morning of December 16 the prisoners were aroused early and prepared for execution. The ministers and a few others besides the officers were permitted to meet them before they left the jail. "It is hard to die," remarked a Quaker to Coppoc. "It is the parting of friends, not the dread of death that moves us," was the reply. The two men were remarkably cheerful before leaving, but seated on their coffins their expressions changed. One correspondent wrote : "The countenance of Coppoc changed ; his face wore a settled expression of despair. He looked wildly around upon the crowd, and his large eyes lighted with an unnatural luster. Many a heart sighed for him. Most of the community were anxious for a commutation of his sentence." Like John Brown, this youth in his last hours was sustained by the faith that the cause was worthy of the sacrifice. But he was young and the current of health coursing through his veins made life precious and its surrender sad. Arriving at the scaffold, "the calm and collected manner of both was very marked. They both exhibited the most unflinching firmness, saying nothing, with the exception of bidding farewell to the ministers and sheriff. After the cap had been placed on their heads, Coppoc turned toward Cook and stretched forth his hand as far as possible. At the same time Cook said, 'Stop a minute—where is Edwin's hand ?' Then they shook hands cordially and Cook said, 'God bless you.' " After everything was in readiness, Cook said, "Be quick—as quick as possible," which was echoed by Coppoc, and in a few moments they departed this life forever. After receiving a letter from his nephew, Joshua Coppock had gone at once to Charlestown. The day before the execution he talked over with Edwin and Thomas Winn matters of mutual interest and the former changed the request, expressed in his letter, to a preference for burial near his birthplace in Columbiana County. Back to Salem Joshua Coppock and Thomas Winn brought the body in a coffin provided by the State of Virginia. Arrangements were promptly made for a quiet funeral in accord with Quaker custom. No daily papers then announced the latest news to the people in the rural districts, but in spite of that fact they came in great numbers on December 18 to attend the funeral. Until late in the afternoon they continued to come, some through curiosity no doubt, but very generally through sympathy. All were seriously respectful. The number that came, many to remain but a short time, was estimated at between two and three thousand, and the last simple rites took on the aspect of a large public funeral. In the little room at the home of Joshua Coppock where the body lay, a neighbor woman, Rachel Whinnery, from an 310 - HISTORY OF OHIO adjoining farm, rose and in fitting voice read the following address that she had prepared only the evening before : "Friends : A brother lies before us, murdered by brothers' hands! Every heart present should swell up in deepest sympathy for the youth, who, apparently, is taking a calm slumber here, to recuperate a system which looks full of health and vigor. How can we realize that this is Death ? No sickness has wasted his natural form, nor has an unforeseen accident laid him low. With the stamina of life about him to have lengthened his time to four score years and ten, the cord of life is rent asunder at twenty-four years. The violent hands of man have been laid upon him. His own words are, 'I am thankful that no one fell by my hands !' He, as one of old, fell among thieves, and though the good Samaritans were there to bind up his bleeding, mental wounds, his physical life was sacrificed, and he was murdered for a principle, and that principle was Freedom ! On that broad and expanded brow, may be traced the lineaments of Liberty. Slavery has snatched, as it were, a birdling from our own dovecote, a brother from our own fireside—what can she more ? "The people of Virginia have manifested a great degree of hospitality towards the friends of the departed, who were with him ; but what can they give equivalent to that which they have taken away ? Can that mother, whose sight is almost obliterated, feel that she can be thus recompensed for so sad a bereavement ? Every mother's heart that looks on the lifeless form before us, will feel that Virginia has not only done HER, but themselves, too, a grievous wrong. Would that I could this day summon Governor Wise and the Legislative body of Virginia here to let them gaze on the victim of their barbarous vengeance, and from thence direct it to the aged grandmother, over whose head the snows of four-score winters have passed, bowed with grief, that one so full of life, and so young in years must cross the valley of the shadow of death before his time. I would have them gaze on the saddened faces, the falling tears of other relatives and friends, and if they were not affected by this, need we wonder at the infamous deed they have committed. "Not one smiling face is here today. Sadness overhangs us like a pall ! But this is only for the physical ; mortality has put on immortality, and to him the physical is laid aside. He died, as died other martyrs before him, and the good and the true, among the present and coming generations, will feel that for him there is a crown of glory, where dungeon walls will not loom over him ; where manacles cannot gall his limbs, and where that awful feature of barbarism, THE GIBBET, will not appall his soul. With the beautified throng of angels, we leave thee, Oh ! our Brother ! Thy physical form we consign to Mother Earth ; thy soul to thy Father, God, who gave it." As the setting sun in bars of red cloud passed below the horizon, the remains of Edwin Coppoc were lowered into the grave in the Friends' churchyard, among the quiet hills and valleys of his childhood days. When the shadows of night had fallen and the funeral crowd had vanished, a few sturdy men entered the Friends' Church with arms in their hands to guard the dead, for a rumor had gone abroad that an effort would be made to rob the new made grave. After the funeral, of course it was the one topic of conversation about the country firesides for many miles around, and there was much sympathy and resentment in the town of Salem. Dissatisfaction was felt at the quiet funeral. Fear was expressed that the body would be removed by pro-slavery sympathizers. Someone said in the midst of a crowd of listeners that it was little short of a disgrace to permit the body of this young martyr to remain in a coffin furnished by the slave state of Virginia. This view soon found frequent expression. There was a demand for a more public funeral in order that the sentiment of Salem and the surrounding country might have adequate expression. ANTI-SLAVERY AND OTHER MOVEMENTS - 311 Announcement was made in the papers and in a handbill signed by prominent citizens of Salem. December 30 was fixed upon as the date for the second and final burial, in Hope Cemetery, Salem, Ohio. The appointed day brought a very large crowd of people to Salem to attend the final obsequies. The following account in the main is a paraphrase of the one published in the Salem Republican : In the morning the people began to arrive, some of them from a considerable distance. Long before the appointed hour, one o'clock in the afternoon, the town was thronged with thousands of strangers, who came to pay the final tributes of respect and sympathy. The body of the EDWIN COPPOC dead youth was still well preserved, but his face, so lifelike at the former funeral, had begun to discolor. It was shrouded in a costly metallic coffin to which it had been transferred. Alfred Wright at the head of a committee of arrangements had charge of the funeral. The body lay in the Town Hall, which had so often, in the years gone by, rung with appeals for the cause that took Edwin Coppoc to Harpers Ferry. Rev. James A. Thome, of Ohio City, now a part of Cleveland, offered a prayer, which he followed with brief remarks. He declared that Coppoc's purpose was righteous and that he died "a martyr to the sacred cause of liberty." Through the Town Hall passed the throng, estimated at six thousand, unusually silent and solemn, even for such an occasion. Later the body was borne out of the hall to the hearse and the procession moved to the grave on the hill in the following order : First, the near relatives ; second, the pall bearers ; third, the colored people for whose race the deceased had given his life ; fourth, citizens on foot, followed by those from a distance in carriages. 312 - HISTORY OF OHIO The coffin was lowered into a strong plank box, well ironed, in a grave of unusual depth. And thus the remains of this unpretentious youth, this warrior in the anti-slavery cause, whose life was full of vicissitudes, found a final resting place in a spot that he had known in childhood days. His warfare was over and his sleep so deep that it could not be broken by the opening gun at Fort Sumpter, the marching of "that glorious army" to the southland, the thunders of contending hosts on a hundred battle fields, the final overthrow of Lee whom he had spared to lead the Confederate legions, the triumph of liberty and union, the "Declaration of Independence fully realized." All this, which he was not permitted to witness with mortal eye, he saw in vision before he went to his final rest. JOHN HENRI KAGI John Henry Kagey, the only son of Abraham Neff Kagey, was born in Bristolville, 'Trumbull County, Ohio, March 15, 1835. His mother died when he was but little more than three years old. His father was the village blacksmith. He was educated in the common schools of his day with the meagre advantages that they offered. He was studious, interested beyond his years in the acquisition of knowledge, and possessed of a remarkably retentive memory. He might almost have been considered precocious. Quiet, correct in his deportment and of good moral character, he was respected by his associates and elders. While he eagerly pursued his studies in school, he was largely self-taught. His progress in his studies led his uncle, Jackson Neff, to send him to an academy in Virginia. The Kageys originally came from that state and had many relatives. there. John Henry Kagey was interested in stenography and became a rapid and accurate shorthand writer. A little before he reached the age of seventeen he taught school at Hawkinstown in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where a number of his relatives lived. He early manifested his opposition to the institution of slavery. So strong and outspoken was his opposition that his services as teacher were no longer desired in the valley of the Shenandoah. He therefore returned to the more congenial environment of his native village. Here he continued to teach school and pursue his studies. He acquired a fair knowledge of the German and French languages and gave instruction in these. He read eagerly the literature on a wide variety of subjects and became a fluent speaker and ready debater. He was a relentless logician and followed his premises to their inevitable conclusions. He was compared by Richard Realf to Horace Greeley, not because he personally resembled the distinguished journalist, but because of his manner of speaking and the lines of argument by which he reached his conclusions. In 1853 he reported the proceedings of the constitutional convention at Lexington, Kentucky. It was probably here that he became interested in the study of the law. He was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one, "somewhere in the West," according to Villard, at .Nebraska City. There are a number of variants in the orthography of the word Kagey. This appears to have been the spelling by those who settled in Bristol Township, Trumbull County. The author of the genealogy of the family adopts the spelling Kagy and. entitles the ample volume that he has edited a "History of the Kagy Relationship in America." His own name, however, he signs Keagy, John Henry Kagey was interested in his ancestry, and changed his name to correspond with the spelling of his ancestors who came to this country from Switzerland. He subsequently wrote it John Henri Kagi. Although the name of John Henri Kagi, so far as we are aware, occurs in no Ohio history, general or local, much has been written about ANTI-SLAVERY AND OTHER MOVEMENTS - 313 him, and a number of statements relative to his character and personal appearance are available in print. Perhaps the best collection of these is found in Col. Richard J. Hinton's "John Brown and His Men." Oswald Garrison Villard states that Kagi was the best educated of all the men that went with John Brown to Harper's Ferry. "Many admirably written letters," he tells us, "survive as the products of his pen in the New York Tribune, the New York Evening Post and the National Era. He was, moreover, an able man of business, besides being an excellent debater and speaker. He was an expert stenographer. and a total abstainer." JOHN HENRI KAGI On July 4, 1856, Kagi was in Topeka, Kansas, and a deeply interested witness of the dissolution by military force of the free-state Legislature that had reassembled there. As stated elsewhere, Col. Edwin V. Sumner, acting under orders from Washington, appeared before that body and commanded its members to disperse, declaring at the same time, "this is the most disagreeable duty of my whole life." His heart was. evidently not in the work that his government commanded him to perform. This use of the military profoundly impressed young Kagi. To his mind it was now clear that force must be met by force. He soon afterward joined Company B, Second Regiment of the Free State Volunteers, in the army of General Lane. Civil war was now in progress throughout the territory. Bands of pro-slavery men and free state men in arms were in motion in different sections of Kansas. In the meantime Kagi had written much for the newspapers. He was correspondent for the New York Tribune over the signature "Potter." His contributions to the New York Evening Post were signed "Kent." He was the regular correspondent of the National Era over 314 - HISTORY OF OHIO the initial "K." He also wrote news letters to the Chicago Tribune and the Cleveland Leader ; for the Kansas Tribune at Topeka and the Republican at Lawrence, Kansas. It was as newspaper correspondent that his influence was felt, especially in the North. The Eastern papers for which he wrote were then widely read, and the news from Kansas was eagerly sought by the opponents of slavery. Kagi was indicted by the pro-slavery authorities of Kansas for highway robbery and arson. If the arrest was intended to stop his pen, as charged by the free state men, it utterly failed. He continued to write his news letters in prison and get them to the Eastern papers. The man whose buildings he was charged with having aided in burning was his jailer. In January of the following year his health failed, and he was admitted to $5,000 bail. The experiences of Kagi and his associates in prison are fully set forth in his news letters. The condition of these men has been described as "pitiable in the extreme." This did not subdue the spirit of Kagi. After his release from prison in January, 1857, he went to Lecompton to report the proceedings of the pro-slavery Legislature assembled there, and was immediately rearrested. This time he was released on bonds of $8,000. He was never brought to trial. In the early part of 1857 occurred a rather exciting incident at Tecumseh, the pro-slavery county seat of Shawnee County, Kansas. Topeka, the free state village, was located about four miles distant, and clashes between the two were frequent. A free state resident was robbed, it was claimed, by a pro-slavery townsman of Tecumseh. An appeal was made by the victim of the robbery to friends in Topeka. It was finally proposed to arbitrate the controversy. A committee was appointed, consisting of the accuser and the accused with Judge Rush Elmore, formerly of Alabama, who had served for a time as one of the United States judges of the territory. As accuser and accused naturally could not agree, the decision was left to the ex-judge, who declared his inability to decide the case. In commenting on the decision, Kagi made the following statement in a news letter : "President Pierce might not have sought a pretext for dismissing Elmore on account of his extra-judicial investments, as it was self-evident that a person who could not decide a case when the clearest evidence was given, whether a convicted robber should return stolen goods or retain them, was hardly qualified for a seat on the supreme bench of the territory." On reading this statement Elmore was greatly incensed. Various statements have been made of what followed. These differ in detail but agree in essentials. It appears that Elmore met Kagi in Tecumseh as he was going up the courthouse steps, and said to him : "Are you the man who writes over the signature 'K' ?" On being answered in the affirmative, he struck Kagi over the head with a loaded cane, knocking him down. Half blinded by the blow, with blood streaming down his face, Kagi leaped to his feet, drew his revolver and pursued Elmore around a pillar of the courthouse. Elmore also drew a revolver and fired at Kagi. The ball struck a heavy notebook in his breast pocket and glanced aside. Kagi then shot the judge in the groin, and it is said that he carried the ball to his grave. Other shots were fired and it was thought at first that both men would die. Friends of Kagi took him to Topeka, where he very soon sufficiently recovered to publish in the Kansas Tribune of February 2, 1857, a scathing "card" to Elmore. This episode illustrates the spirit of the antagonism then prevailing in the territory. Kagi was more than a voice of "bleeding Kansas" ; he was a part of it. All this occurred before Kagi joined John Brown. In the autumn ANTI-SLAVERY AND OTHER MOVEMENTS - 315 of this year he enlisted with the John Brown party which went to Springdale, Iowa, to Chatham, Canada, back to Southern Kansas, and "thence to Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and death." Of all the band he had in largest measure the confidence of the leader. On September 23, 1858, he wrote a letter to his sister in which he said, among other things : "Few of my age have toiled harder or suffered more in the cause than I, yet I regret nothing that I have done, nor am I in any discouragement at the future. It is bright and good, and treads on to meet the hopeful with rapid strides." In a letter written September 24, 1859, he said : "Things could not be more cheerful and certain of success than they are. We have worked hard and suffered much, but the hardest is done now, and a glorious success is in sight. * * * I will write soon after we commence work. When you write, give me all the news—for I shall hereafter have only three correspondents in all—Mr. Dana (Charles A., the managing editor) of the Tribune, and Mr. William A. Phillips of Lawrence (Kansas), so that I shall look to you for all news about our friends and acquaintances. * * * Don't imagine dangers. All will be well." This was written less than a month before the Harper's Ferry raid. Kagi's part in this tragic event is briefly told. In the early morning of October 17, 1859, the day following the attack on the town, Kagi urged John Brown to evacuate the place while this could still be done with some hope of escape. Brown disregarded the advice, and Kagi in true soldier fashion continued to give battle to the last. He and two other raiders were driven to the Shenandoah River. They attempted to reach a flat rock in the midst of the stream. A storm of bullets followed them, and Kagi disappeared without a struggle beneath the waves of the river which flowed by the Virginia home in which his ancestors were born. CHAPTER V THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT IN OHIO PRIOR TO 1893 From the establishment of the first permanent white settlement at Marietta to the present time, the traffic in intoxicating liquors has claimed the attention of those citizens of the Northwest Territory and Ohio who were impressed with the evils arising therefrom. Evidence of this fact is found in official and legislative acts, petitions, and the declarations of temperance organizations. In the following summary reference is made to some of the more important of these. Under the administrations of the governors of Ohio and in the constitutional evolution of the state, presented elsewhere in this work, will also be found information relating to the temperance movement of this and subsequent periods. 1787. Maj. John F. Hamtramck, commandant of Post Vincennes, Northwest Territory, issued a proclamation dated October 3d, forbidding the sale of liquor to the Indians. September 6, 1788. Act adopted by governor and judges was the first law in Northwest Territory relating to intoxicating liquors, and also contained the first "Sunday law." It provided a fine for any person convicted of drunkenness. July 19, 1790. Second liquor law of the Territory, confirming action of Major Hamtramck in forbidding sale of liquor to Indians. An act, also passed at Vincennes the following day, prohibited by severe penalties the sale of spirituous liquors to non-commissioned soldiers of the Northwest Territory, within ten miles of any encampment, post, fort or garrison, or hospital. Both these acts were repealed July 14, 1795, being superseded by an act of Congress. August 1, 1792. An act, called the first liquor license law, provided for appointment of commissioners in each county with authority to grant licenses to tavern keepers and other retail dealers in spirituous liquors. June 17, 1795. A substitute act for the preceding was adopted for the purpose of "preventing disorders and the mischiefs that may happen by multiplicity of public houses of entertainment." This law was repealed by the Territorial Legislature December 6, 1800, in "an act to establish and regulate taverns and public houses of entertainment." 1797. The chief of the Miami Indians, Mechecunnaqua, or Little Turtle, begins an agitation for relief from the whiskey peddlers. He visited Philadelphia and petitioned President John Adams for the abolition of the liquor traffic among the Indians. 1799. In "an act for the prevention of vice and immorality" passed December 2, penalties are provided for intoxication and drunkenness. The act of December 6th forbade the sale of spirituous liquors at the Moravian towns of Schoenbrunn, Gnaddenhutten and Salem. 1801. President Jefferson wrote letters to the Ohio Legislature asking it to enact legislation prohibiting the selling of intoxicants to Indians. This was in response to a plea from Chief Little Turtle. The Baltimore yearly meeting of Friends in 1801, after hearing the pathetic appeal of Little Turtle, sent to Congress a copy of the chief's address in behalf of his people. This was perhaps the first action of the church to bring the force of opinion in behalf of temperance to bear outside of its own membership. In the same year, William Henry Harrison, gov- - 316 - ANTI-SLAVERY AND OTHER MOVEMENTS - 317 ernor of Indiana Territory, in a report to the secretary of war, dealt with the outrages and atrocities committed in the Indian country on account of liquor selling. 1805. A remarkable total abstinence campaign was carried on among the Indians by the Shawnee chief, "The Prophet." In a meeting of Shawnees, Wyandots and Senecas at Wapakoneta, Ohio, he announced to the Indians that he had received a revelation warning him to denounce certain evil practices among the Indians, and especially fire-water. His influence on the Indians was so strong that intoxication became practically unknown among the Western tribes for a number of years. Governor Harrison of Indiana Territory, in his message to the first Legislature, July 29th, strongly recommended the prohibition of liquor selling to the Indians. Later, the act of February 11, 1809, passed by the Ohio General Assembly, prohibited by severe penalties the sale of liquors to the Indians without approval by the proper authority. The act of Feruary 1, 1805, provided methods of granting licenses to tavern keepers and liquor dealers, fixing penalties of fine or revocation where drunkenness or other disorder was permitted by the tavern keeper. Reenactment or revision of this act was made by laws dated February 8, 1810, January 5, 1819, February 25, 1820, February 6, 1824, January 28, 1829, March 3, 1831. The act of February 14, 1805, provided penalties for intoxicated persons who were disturbers of the peace at any tavern, court, election or other meeting of citizens. The sale of liquor within a mile of the place designated for any religious meeting was prohibited by the act of January 25, 1810. A similar law was passed March 26, 1841, probably designed to protect camp meetings from liquor dealers who found it profitable to set up in business near by, since the act did not apply to tavern keepers at their usual place of business. The act of February 8, 1815, for the first time prohibited the sale of liquors on Sunday. What was known as the "dry license" law was passed February 25, 1833, by which a license might be granted to the keeper of a tavern without authority to retail spirituous liquors. But the act of February 24, 1834, said, in effect, that a tavern without liquor for sale was, in the meaning of the act, not a tavern. The act of March 15, 1839, confined the sale of liquors to the common bar of the tavern, and nowhere else on the premises. GROWTH OF TEMPERANCE ORGANIZATIONS Within a year after the organization of the American Temperance Society in 1826, local auxiliaries had been formed in a number of states. including Ohio with one such society. The first woman's temperance society was organized in Ohio in 1828. Ohio had thirty temperance societies in 1829. The Seneca chiefs of Ohio in 1829 petitioned the President, asking. for the removal of their people to the West. Among other reasons they expressed the hope that thereby they would be out of reach of the white man's strong drink. A state temperance convention was held at Columbus in 1833, and in the same year the Ohio conference of the African M. E. Church went on record in favor of temperance societies, which the conference declared to be especially important to the colored people. Among temperance newspapers published in the United States in 1839, one was the Western Temperance Journal at Cincinnati. The Washingtonian Temperance Movement was inaugurated at Baltimore in 1840, and 60,000 signers of the pledge were reported in Ohio. In 1842 Calvary Morris of Athens County became one of the vice presidents of the Congressional Temperance Society. He represented his district three terms in Congress, and also served in both branches of the Ohio General Assembly. 318 - HISTORY OF OHIO UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1851 An act passed February 8, 1847, but repealed February 2, 1848, represented the first application of the principle of "local option." The ten counties to which the act applied were Cuyahoga, Delaware, Trumbull, Mahoning, Franklin, Geauga, Lake, Ashtabula, Preble and Marion. A majority of voters in any township of these counties could declare for "no license." "No license" to the liquor traffic was extended throughout the state by the amendment of the constitution in 1851. However, this provision of the constitution was never enforced, as the friends of the temperance cause had hoped it would be. In later years the General Assembly placed a tax upon the traffic, which prohibitionists insisted was, in effect, a license fee. Some of the acts to carry this provision of the constitution into effect are noted as follows : Act of May 1, 1854, making it unlawful to sell intoxicating liquors to be drunk in, upon or about the premises where sold. Additional restrictions were placed in the liquor tax law in 1866 and 1877. The Adair liquor law was passed April 18, 1870, amending the act of 1854 and making the liquor sellers and owners of premises jointly responsible for injury caused by liquor. The "Pond law" of April 5, 1882, was an attempt to impose a tax on liquor sellers, but it was declared unconstitutional. On April 17, 1883, was passed the "Scott law," another measure for taxing the liquor traffic. On the same date, the law making it an offense to sell intoxicating liquors to be drunk at the place where sold, was repealed. The "Dow law," passed May 14, 1886, the third measure assessing the business of dealing in intoxicating liquors, was the first to stand the test of constitutional validity, and with subsequent amendments remained on the statute books for many years. THE RISE OF MILITANT TEMPERANCE ORGANIZATIONS In 1855 representatives of ten grand lodges of the Independent Order of Good Templars met at Cleveland and created the Right Worthy Grand Lodge as the supreme head of the order. At Cleveland in 1868 was held the National Temperance Convention. On July 24, 1869, at Mansfield, Ohio, there was formed a state prohibition party which nominated a ticket. This was the first such active party organization, although a. party under the same name had been organized in Illinois in 1867 and a similar party had been organized in Michigan the same year. Neither the Illinois nor the Michigan parties, however, had gone so far as to place a ticket in the field. The Woman's Crusade has been generally recognized as having started in Hillsboro, Ohio, on December 24, 1873. It was the direct result of a meeting held in Hillsboro and addressed by Dr. Dio Lewis on the night of December 23d. Doctor Lewis, then on the lecture platform, had spoken in Hillsboro the night before and had been persuaded to stay for a second address in which he told of the unsuccessful effort of his mother and some of her friends to get rid of the saloons in their community by prayer and visitation. His story appealed to the women of Hillsboro, who decided to attempt such a movement, and the following day saw the Christian women of that village, headed by Mother Thompson, begin what was destined to sweep the country as a mighty moral crusade, and out of which was to spring in the following year the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. A few days before, after addresses by Doctor Lewis, similar movements had been undertaken in New York, but the principal point of difference between these efforts in New York and the one at Hillsboro, was that the initial New York crusade did not succeed in closing the saloons in Fredonia and Jamestown, while the Hillsboro movement did succeed in a most remarkable manner. The crusade rapidly spread into ANTI-SLAVERY AND OTHER MOVEMENTS - 319 other towns and cities in Ohio and later into the cities and towns of other states. From the time of the birth of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union at the convention in Cleveland in 1874 until the presidential campaign of 1880, the society was a non-partisan organization. There had been no connection whatsoever between the union and the prohibition party. The women, however, had been led to believe that the presidential candidate on the republican ticket in 1880, James A. Garfield, was a true friend of the temperance cause. After the election and inauguration, however, Miss Willard called upon the President at the White House. The reception which Miss Willard received on that occasion led her to believe that neither the President nor the party which he represented were vitally interested in the prohibition movement. A resolution to submit a prohibitory amendment was defeated in the Ohio Legislature in 1882, but was passed in 1883 and the same was submitted to the voters of the state during the same year, along with another constitutional amendment providing for license, the no-license provision of the constitution adopted in 1851 still being in force. Accordingly at the general election in Ohio in the fall of 1883 the people had an opportunity to express themselves both ways, with the result that the license amendment was lost by almost 100,000 majority, while the prohibitory amendment received 323,189 votes in favor and 240,975 against its adoption. But both amendments failed to pass by reason of the provision which required a majority of all votes cast at the election. Mrs. Lucy Webb Hayes, as "the first lady of the land," made an important contribution to the temperance movement by banishing intoxicating liquors from the White House in 1878 and keeping them from the White House table during the four years of the Hayes administration. The first national convention of the prohibition party was held in Columbus in 1872. James Black of Pennsylvania was nominated for President and John Russell of Michigan for Vice President. The second national convention of the party was held in Cleveland in 1876, Clay Green Smith of Kentucky being nominated for President and Gideon T. Stewart of Ohio for Vice President. Cleveland was also the place of meeting of the third national convention, in 1880, when Neal Dow of Maine was nominated for President and H. A. Thompson of Ohio for Vice President. In the meantime, during 1874, the woman's crusade against the saloons of Southern Ohio had continued. The woman crusaders at Washington Court House, on the coldest day of the winter, being locked out of a saloon they attempted to enter, stood all day on the street holding religious services. The next day they built a "tabernacle" in the street in front of the saloon and continued their "watching and praying." Before night the sheriff closed the saloon. On February 22, 1881, President Hayes issued an order "to prevent the sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, at the camps, forts and other posts of the army." As a memorial to her stand on the temperance question, especially in the White House, and at the suggestion of President Frederick Merrick of the Ohio Wesleyan University, Miss Frances E. Willard presented a picture of Mrs. Lucy Webb Hayes to be hung in the East Room of the White House. The picture was received by President Garfield on March 5, the day after his inauguration. A general convention of the Disciples of Christ at Cincinnati in 1878 had declared unequivocally for the banishment of intemperance. In 1884 the general synod of the German Reform Church at Tiffin denounced "especially the monster evil, intemperance." And in the same year the Church of God urged legal prohibition of the liquor 320 - HISTORY OF OHIO traffic everywhere. The Ohio yearly meeting of Friends in 1885 declared for total abstinence and prohibition. In 1888 the Legislature passed a township local option law. This was forty years after the passage of the first law of that kind, which as already stated was soon repealed. At the same General Assembly was passed a Sunday closing law. ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE In the Spear Library of Oberlin College, May 24, 1893, in the presence of a small company gathered to discuss methods of combatting the liquor traffic, Dr. Howard H. Russell expressed the essential ideas and purposes of the movement which historically had its inception at that time and place, and which has been known as the Anti-Saloon League. Many years later, when the league had come to exert influence in every state of the Nation, the late P. A. Baker wrote out a statement in which he said : "The Anti-Saloon League is not, strictly speaking, an organization. It is what its name indicates—a League. It is a league of organizations. It is the federated church in action against the saloon. Its agents are of the church, and under all circumstances loyal to the church. It has no interest apart from the church. It goes just as fast and just as far as the public sentiment of the church will permit. It has not come simply to build a little local sentiment, or to secure the passage of a few laws, nor yet to vote the saloons from a few hundred towns. These are mere incidents in its progress. It has come to solve the liquor problem." This statement seems to furnish at least a partial explanation of the extraordinary success and influence of the Anti-Saloon League. Its program was definite, yet indefinite, a combination of the visionary with the practical, flexible yet tenacious, accepting defeat or victory as matter of routine. The criticism has been made of American political parties that they are organizations surviving after the fulfillment of their original functions. In setting as its goal the solution of the liquor problem, the Anti-Saloon League, for all that has been accomplished in thirty years, must for a long time remain an effective fighting organization. Following the meeting in the college library, the Ohio Anti-Saloon League was formally launched on Sunday, June 4, 1893, at a union mass meeting in the old First Congregational Church at Oberlin. This was the first successful attempt at a permanent organization of this kind. But other attempts had been made. Doctor Russell himself had urged the adoption of his plan at Indianapolis nearly ten years earlier, and in 1888 had used methods, afterwards made familiar in league campaigns, to secure from the Ohio Legislature the passage of a township local option law. In 1890 he had launched an anti-saloon league in Missouri, and in 1892 some men in Massachusetts organized a league. Of more importance was the organization by Bishop Luther B. Wilson of the Anti-Saloon League of the District of Columbia, upon practically the same lines followed by the Ohio League. This was effected, without knowledge of what had been done in Ohio, on June 23, 1893, only a few weeks after the events in Oberlin. It was the District of Columbia organization that took the initiative in calling a national convention. Such a convention met in Washington and on December 18, 1895, the American Anti-Saloon League was formed by the coalition of the Anti-Saloon League of the District of Columbia, the Anti-Saloon League of Ohio and forty-five other state, national and local temperance organizations. Dr. Howard H. Russell, superintendent of the Ohio League, was chosen national superintendent. The Ohio League plan was formally adopted as the plan ANTI-SLAVERY AND OTHER MOVEMENTS - 321 for the national movement, and the nation-wide anti-saloon crusade was under way. The first three years of the league's history has been termed the struggle for existence. But for the timely financial assistance of such men as E. W. Metcalf of Elyria and A. I. Root of Medina, and but for the sacrificing spirit of Doctor Russell and his loyal family, the Anti-Saloon League might have experienced the same fate as its predecessors. By 1899 there were twenty-one states and territories where branches of the League had been organized. In fact, the history of the first decade of the League movement is concerned with the installation of League organizations in the several states and the creation of machinery for educating public sentiment to the enactment and enforcement of law. In Ohio the first tangible results claimed by the League forces was a reduction in the number of retail liquor establishments, whereas before 1893 the number had been increasing. In 1900 the Clark local option bill passed the House, but failed in the Senate by a vote of fifteen to sixteen. Then in 1902 was passed the Beal law, providing local option in incorporated villages and cities. As. told elsewhere, one of the outstanding features of Governor Herrick's administration was the passage in 1904 of the Brannock residence district local option bill. The League forces claimed that this measure had been amended to a point where it was worthless. A signal victory for the League was claimed in the election of 1905 when Governor Herrick, alone of the republican candidates, was defeated, the successful candidate being John M. Pattison, a supporter of the Anti-Saloon League. During 1906 the Legislature passed the Jones residence district remonstrance law and the search and seizure law. Many townships, municipalities and residence districts "went dry," and in Columbus and several other cities saloon were compelled .to close their doors on Sundays. It will be recalled that the rapid progress of prohibition within the next year or two resulted in some of the first "state-wide" laws, Alabama being the first of the several states to ban saloons altogether. The Rose law, a county option measure, went into effect in Ohio September 1, 1908, and by the end of the year fifty-seven counties of the state had voted "dry." However, in the fall of the same year Governor Harris was defeated for reelection, and during the next two or three years alternating defeats and victories came to the League forces in Ohio as in other states. One incident that excited nationwide interest at the time, is thus described by the League historian : Carl Etherington, a special enforcement officer, who, with other officers, armed with search and seizure warrants, raided a number of blind tigers in Newark, Ohio, and who was finally compelled in self-defense to shoot a speakeasy keeper who murderously assaulted him, was taken from the county jail by a drunken mob and lynched on the public square of Newark. The mayor of Newark and the sheriff of Licking County, who failed to protect Special Officer Etherington, were compelled to resign their offices to avoid being removed by the governor ; and the county grand jury promptly returned fifty-eight indictments against the Etherington murders." A full discussion of the license provisions in the Constitution of 1912 is to be found in the chapter on the Constitution. It was claimed by the League that the license provision was adopted in the new Constitution by virtue of the fact that between 600,000 and 800,000 voters did not vote on the question at all, and that while the Legislature of 1913 passed a license law, the temperance forces succeeded in safeguarding all the anti-liquor laws on the statute books, and in addition forced into the new license statute between thirty and forty stringent restrictions against the liquor traffic in license cities and villages. Prior to national prohibition, the greatest single victory counted by the prohibition forces was the passage of the Webb-Kenyon bill in 322 - HISTORY OF OHIO the closing days of the Sixty-second Congress, prohibiting the shipment in interstate commerce of liquors into dry territory. A fact of special interest for Ohioans is that this bill was passed over President Taft's veto. For an account of the history of the last decade, use must be made of material found in the Anti-Saloon League year book of 1925, compiled by Mr. E. H. Cherrington. The election of November 3, 1914, brought to the voters of Ohio a new problem. There was no reversal of temperance sentiment, but simply an application of sentiment to a new unit of government, viz., the state. Before the change in the Constitution making direct legislation the policy of Ohio, laws were secured through the General Assembly. Hamilton County, including Cincinnati, would send twelve or fourteen members to that body. A county like Medina or Carroll would send one member. Fourteen counties like these would offset the wet vote of Hamilton County to the Legislature. The temperance sentiment in over sixty counties in the state would send men to the General Assembly who voted, right on the temperance question. Consequently, local option and temperance laws could be enacted. The people in a majority of the counties applied these laws. In this way forty-five counties were kept in the dry column and a large number of municipalities and townships were made dry, so that a little over 85 per cent of the territory of the state was free from the saloon. The people of Ohio adopted the initiative and referendum as the policy of government and the state became the legislative unit and the individual voter in a degree took the place of the General Assembly. The liquor interests realized this would give them an advantage in massing the heavy wet vote in the cities against the more sparsely settled districts and smaller cities and villages. The large cities did not have the advantage of the moral uplift, which comes from many campaigns on this issue. The townships, villages and smaller cities had gone through these campaigns for more than ten years. The educational effect was good, even in the counties which were unable to abolish the saloon. The large cities had their moral standards steadily pulled down to a lower level by the deadening influence of the liquor traffic. Before the vote in 1914, counting all the dry territory and a reasonable estimate of the wet territory, Ohio did not have more than 400,000 votes in the state for prohibition. On November 3, seventy counties out of eighty-eight voted for state prohibition ; eighteen counties against it. Seventy-nine counties voted against the home rule amendment ; nine voted for it. Heretofore sixty-three counties marked the high tide of dry sentiment in the state. Basing the estimate on the 1910 census, the seventy counties voting for prohibition had a population of 2,500,- 000 ; the eighteen counties voting against prohibition had but 2,200,000. The seventy-nine counties voting against home rule had 3,100,000 people ; the nine counties voting for home rule had 1,600,000 people. It is clearly seen from the above that by counties the state was overwhelmingly for prohibition and against the home rule amendment. But when the new policy of government was put in operation, Cincinnati put up 75,000 of a wet majority. Fourteen dry counties could not offset this, as had been done in the Legislature. It required more than forty dry counties in the state to offset Cincinnati's wet vote, as recorded by an illegal count. The adoption of the home rule amendment in the 1914 election repealed the county option law, and as a result saloons gradually crept back into quite a number of the county seats and cities which had been dry under the county law. The liquor interests expected to open at least 2,000 additional saloons in the dry counties of the state. During ANTI-SLAVERY AND OTHER MOVEMENTS - 323 the year 1915, however, only about 800 new saloons were put into operation. The prohibition forces initiated a second state-wide prohibition amendment which was voted on at the election in November, 1915. The liquor forces initiated a so-called Stability League amendment. This Stability League amendment provided against the voting on constitutional amendments twice defeated for a period of six years from the date of the adoption of the new Constitution in 1912. The prohibition amendment was again defeated but the majority against prohibition was 55,408 'as compared with 84,152 in 1914. The brewers' Stability League amendment, moreover, was defeated by a majority of 64,891. In the 1914 election seventy of the eighty-eight counties voted for prohibition. In the 1915 election seventy-three counties voted for prohibition. Only one license county, Sandusky, increased its anti-prohibition majority of 1915 over the record of 1914, while forty no-license counties increased their dry majorities over the record of 1914. In Cuyahoga County, which includes the City of Cleveland, the wet vote decreased 3,172 under the record of 1914, while the dry vote increased 3,264 over the record of 1914. In Hamilton County, which includes the City of Cincinnati, the 1915 record as compared with the record of 1914 shows a decrease in the wet vote of 4,062 and an increase in the dry vote of 3,190. Outside of Hamilton County the state prohibition amendment swept Ohio by a majority of 13,037. The third state-wide prohibition election was held November 6, 1917. The drys polled 522,590 votes, and the wets 523,727. The wet majority was only 1,137 as against 55,408 in 1915. In the 1917 election, the drys carried seventy-six of the eighty-eight counties. They carried the capital city of Columbus, and such industrial centers as Akron, Youngstown, Canton and Lima. Outside of Hamilton County, the state went dry by more than 55,000 majority. A constitutional amendment providing for state-wide prohibition was adopted by a vote of the people on November 5, 1918. The result of the vote was : For prohibition, 463,654 ; against prohibition, 437,895 ; dry majority, 25,759. Of the eighty-eight counties in the state, all but nine gave dry majorities. The state dry amendment became operative on the 27th of May, 1919. The liquor interests petitioned for a referendum for the repeal of the state-wide prohibition amendment, and the vote was taken on November 4, 1919. The voters affirmed their position of the year previous and gave a majority of 41,855 against repeal. At this election the drys cast 496,786 votes and the wets 454,933 votes. At the November election in 1919, Ohio also defeated an amendment initiated by the wets providing for the manufacture and sale of 2.75 per cent liquor. The majority against this proposition was 29,781. On this proposal the drys cast 504,688 votes and the wets 474,907. The 1919 session of the Ohio Legislature passed a law providing for the enforcement of the state-wide prohibition amendment, but failed to attach to it an emergency clause. Under the provisions of the initiative and referendum law of the state, this suspends the operation of the law for ninety days, unless a sufficient number of signatures to a petition for a referendum is secured. The wets petitioned for such a referendum and the voters passed on the law at the election in November, 1919, and refused to sustain the Legislature in enacting the measure. The majority against the law was 26,734. On this proposition the wets cast 500,812 votes and the drys 474,078 votes. The Ohio Legislature ratified the National Prohibition Amendment, both Houses taking action January 7, 1919. In the Senate the vote was twenty to twelve, and in the House eighty-five to thirty. Ohio was the seventeenth state to ratify. At the meeting of the Legislature, January, 1920, a law was enacted 324 - HISTORY OF OHIO for the enforcement of the state-wide prohibition amendment. This measure received ninty-one votes in the lower House to twenty-three against. In the Senate the vote was twenty-five for the measure and seven against. The wets brought a referendum on this enforcement law, and the voters ratified the measure by a vote of 1,062,474 to 772,329 against, a victory for dry law enforcement by a majority of 290,- 149. This was the first general election at which the women voted after being enfranchised by the Nineteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution. The liquor interests in 1922 initiated a constitutional amendment which would allow 2.75 beer and light wines for home consumption, and which would have nullified existing prohibitory legislation. The Secretary of State refused to place the measure on the ballot, and suit was brought to decide the question. The Supreme Court held that courts may not pass on the validity of proposed laws or constitutional amendments before their adoption. The question was accordingly placed on the ballot, and was defeated at the election in November, by a majority of 189,472, the vote being 719,505 for the amendment to 908,522 against it. The Legislature which met in January, 1921, enacted several laws for the better enforcement of prohibition. The most important was a law establishing a State Bureau of Enforcement. Under this act there was appointed a commissioner of prohibition together with a deputy commissioner, and not to exceed twenty regular inspectors. The law also provides for appointment of other inspectors as emergency men. This enforcement bureau is active in running down liquor law violators, and also in placing those convicted of keeping a place where liquor is sold in violation of law on the duplicate for the Aikin tax of $1,000 with penalties. This tax is separate and apart from whatever fine may be assessed by the courts. In the first six months of the operation of this bureau, sufficient fines were paid into the state treasury to bear the expenses of the department for two years. Under the law one-half of the fines collected go to the state and the other to local subdivisions. Another law provides that the judge, or judges, may authorize the expenditure of additional funds by the prosecuting attorney for the promotion of the administration of justice, such funds not to be in excess of $10,000 in any one year. Another law gives justices of the peace jurisdiction coextensive with the county when affidavits are filed charging violation of the dry law. This measure also gives the probate and common pleas judges authority to issue search warrants. What is known as the McCoy law passed by the Legislature in the spring of 1921 prohibits the prescribing of beer by physicians for medicinal use. The Boylan measure, also passed at the same session of the Legislature, permits the seizure and sale of conveyances unlawfully transporting intoxicating liquor. Another law enacted in 1921 is known as the Norwood law, and provides that any person found in a state of intoxication shall be fined not less than $5, nor more than $100. Under the old statutes of the state, the fine for intoxication was fixed at $5. Yet another law enacted in the furtherance of the enforcement of prohibition is known as the Bender act, and prohibits the obstruction of the view of the interior of pool rooms, billiard parlors, and soft drink places, by screens, frosted windows, or anything else that may obscure the interior of the building from those who pass by on the street. Another law enacted at the same session provides that whoever unlawfully sells, furnishes, or gives away wood alcohol, or any preparation or compound containing wood alcohol, to be used for beverage purposes, and death result therefrom, shall be guilty of murder.