jority of 15,651. His opposing Democratic candidate was Gov. Medill. ExGovernor Trimble, the candidate of the American, or Know Nothing party, received 24,276 votes. In 1857 Mr. Chase was again re-elected Governor by 1,503 majority over Henry B. Payne, the Democratic candidate.

The great measure of Mr. Chase's administration was his suggestion to the legislature to organize the militia. It seems as though his vision was prophetic of coming events. In 1858 a grand review was held of the newly-organized military forces at Dayton, and rules and regulations governing military drills were printed and scattered among the militia, thereby creating a martial and patriotic spirit which afterwards burst out with almost uncontrollable enthusiasm.

"Slowly the nation was approaching the crisis of its history, and Mr. Chase marched abreast of all events that led to it. In October, 1859. John Brown made his famous invasion of Virginia, and immediately after Gov. Henry A. Wise wrote to Gov. Chase, notifying him that Virginia would pursue abolition bands even into sister States to punish them. Mr. Chase dignifiedly replied that Ohio would obey the constitution and laws of the United States and discountenance unlawful acts, but under no circumstances could the military of other States invade Ohio territory. This was his last official declaration as Governor. In January, 1860, his term closed, and he was a month later elected United States Senator."*

William Dennison, the first of "the War Governors," succeeded Mr. Chase, being elected over Judge Rufus P. Ranney, his Democratic competitor, by a majority of 13,331 votes. The legislature was in session when the news was received of the fall of Sumter and sent a thrill through that body. In the midst of the excitement the shrill tones of a woman's voice resounded from the gallery: "THANK GOD! It is the death of slavery." They were the screaming tones of Abbie Kelly Foster, who for years had been noted as an anti-slavery lecturer of the most fiery denunciatory type.

Ohio's response to the proclamation of President Lincoln, calling for 75,000 of the militia of the several States, was immediate. From all parts of the State came proffers of services from tens of thousands, and on the 19th of April, only four days after the issuance of the call, the First and Second Regiments of Ohio Volunteers had been organized at Columbus and were on their way to Washington. The legislature simultaneously voted an appropriation of a million dollars for war purposes.

Senator Garfield also offered a bill, which was passed, "to define and punish treason against the State." In his report Mr. Garfield said: "It is high time for Ohio to enact a law to meet treachery when it shall take the form of an overt act; to provide when her soldiers shall go forth to maintain the Union there shall be no treacherous fire in the rear." His bill was passed in consequence of the efforts of the Hon. C. L. Vallandigham, who was in Columbus, and, believing that the Union could not be sustained by force of arms, was vainly endeavoring to stem the patriotic fervor which led the Democratic members of the Assembly equally with the Republican to maintain the Government.

Governor Dennison was soon enveloped "in a whirlpool of events; but he proved himself equal to the emergency." Having contributed to the safety of Washington by the despatching thither of two regiments, his next attention was given to the southern border, along which for 436 miles Ohio was bounded by the slave States Virginia and Kentucky, and liable to invasion. The attitude of Virginia was most alarming. Her western mountains were a natural fortification admitting of perfect defence and behind which Richmond and the

*From. "A History of Ohio." inclusive of Biographical Sketches of the Governors and the Ordinance of 1787, by Daniel J. Ryan, Secretary of State. An excellent little compend. A. H. Smythe, publisher, Columbus, 1888, 12mo. Price $1.00.

whole South was secure and from whence they could make incursions into the free States. Less than eighty miles of free territory bordered Ohio on the east. The West Virginians who were loyal called for aid. The Ohio militia in pay of the State were pushed into West Virginia, gained the first victories of the war, and drove out the rebel troops. This being after the continued disasters at the East, electrified the nation. "Thus was West Virginia the gift of Ohio, through her State militia, to the nation at the outset of the war." Gov. Dennison had ere this written, “Ohio must lead throughout the war," and she did. Geo. B. McClellan, who had general command in West Virginia, through a prestige obtained by the celerity of action and promptness of his subordinates, mainly Gen. Wm. S. Rosecrans, was soon called to the head of the Army of the Potomac and Gov. Dennison to the Cabinet of the nation.

In 1861 David Tod, the second "War Governor," was elected by 55,000 majority over Hugh J. Jewett, the nominee of the anti-war, or regular Democratic party of the State. The legislature was overwhelmingly Union Republican.

In September, 1862, occurred an event spoken of as the "Siege of Cincinnati." Gen's. Kirby Smith and John Morgan, with united forces, entered Kentucky, with the Ohio border as the objective point. Cincinnati was defenceless as they approached toward it, when Gov. Tod called for volunteers from citizens, who, under the general name of "squirrel-hunters," for many brought their shotguns, flocked to the number of thousands from all parts of the State to the defence of their great and patriotic city. Major-Gen. Lewis Wallace was put in command. He proclaimed martial law over the three cities of Cincinnati, Covington, and Newport, and fortifications were thrown up on the Kentucky hills, on all the avenues of approach to the city, and full preparations made to meet the foe. The "squirrel-hunters," Home Guards of Cincinnati, with some newly-formed regiments, crossed the Ohio on a pontoon, marched out four miles, and there awaited for four days the attack of the enemy. There was some slight skirmishing of pickets, when the enemy, seeing the strength of force arrayed against them, withdrew.

The next year, 1863, Mr. Vallandigham continuing to influence public sentiment in Ohio by the eloquent and fearless presentation of his peace views, tending to the aid and comfort of those in arms against the Union, was seized, tried by court-martial, and found guilty of disobedience of military orders, and sentenced to imprisonment during the war. Mr. Lincoln changed this sentence to transportation to his friends within the lines of the Southern Confederacy. He passed through these rapidly, and reaching Wilmington, North Carolina, June 17, where, taking a blockade-runner, he reached Canada, and established himself at Windsor, opposite Detroit, communicated with his friends in Ohio, and awaited events.

This summer was made further notable by the raid of Gen. John Morgan through Ohio. With only about 2,000 horsemen he entered it on the Indiana border, passed within fourteen miles of Cincinnati, went through the entire southern part of Ohio, and, although over 50,000 men, mostly citizens, were in pursuit, he escaped capture until within a few miles of a crossing-place on the Ohio, in its southeasternmost county, on the Pennsylvania line. The object of this audacious raid was to distract attention from the movements of the Confederates in Kentucky and Tennessee, and it accomplished it.

On the 17th of June this year the Union Republican Convention met at Columbus, and nominated John Brough, an old-line Democrat, for Governor, he being of great popularity, and of such extraordinary executive ability as well as oratorical powers as to be thought more likely to carry the State than Mr. Tod, its then executive.

The peace party nominated Mr. Vallandigham. His banishment had aroused so much sympathy for him-the "exiled hero"-that they were constrained

to nominate him. And there on the border he counselled with his adherents, watched and directed the canvass. As it drew towards its close, when the speeches had all been made, and the issues fairly laid before the people, a few hours remained ere the depositing of the ballots, when a feeling of deep solemnity pervaded the entire commonwealth. The eyes of the whole nation were upon Ohio; on her hung the death or salvation of the Union. If Ohio. should prove recreant all was lost.

Ohio was true; she always is. John C. Brough was elected Governor by the unprecedented majority of 101,099 votes. Of this the home majority was 61,920, and the soldiers' majority 39,179. Out of 43.755 soldier votes only 2,288 were given for Vallandigham. In multitudes of cases the sons in the army voted one way, while the fathers at home on their farms, secure from war's alarms, voted the other. The soldier's vote was a signal illustration of the noble principle that those who mostly do sacrifice for a righteous cause mostly do love it.

Of the citizens who remained at home over 180,000 signified their preference for Vallandigham. Many sincerely regarded him as the subject of oppression; they were patriotic, but despairing of success, and tired, sick at heart, of what seemed an idle effusion of blood and prolongation of suffering and misery. Still others there were, probably but a trifling number, who, in the malignancy of an evil nature, desired to see the triumph of the "slave power," that there might remain a class lower than themselves to tread and spit upon, a spirit that was illustrated by the riots at this era in New York, where an orphan asylum for colored children was given to the flames and black men shot dead in cold blood for no offence but the offence of color.

Mr. Brough, the last of Ohio's War Governors, was the man for the most trying crisis. From the opposition to the war, Mr. Lincoln was fearful that another draft upon the people would result in failure, and more troops were imperative. Seeing this, Gov. Brough called a convention of the Governors of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin, which, with himself representing Ohio, met in convention, and on April 21, 1864, notified Mr. Lincoln that they could furnish him with 85,000 men for 100 days, without a dollar of bounty or a single draft. These were itizen volunteers, largely men advanced in years and with families, and holding responsible positions, the object of their brief services being mainly to garrison the forts, and thus relieve the veteran soldiers to reinforce Grant in Virginia, and enable him by weight of numbers of disciplined men to crush the rebellion. Of these Ohio supplied nearly half of the required number-over 30,000 men-National Guards, as they were called. The measure was most effective and their services most timely. It was a splendid contribution of the loyal West to the cause of the Union. Mr. Brough declined a renomination, and died in office.

The arms of Ohio's sons in the field were sustained by the work of Ohio's daughters at home. As Ohio's soldiers were the first to gain victories, so the women of Ohio were the first to organize aid societies. In five days after the fall of Sumter the ladies of the "Soldiers' Aid Society of Northern Ohio" organized at Cleveland, which eventually distributed food and clothing to the amount of a million of dollars. A similar organization was started in Cincinnati, which was alike successful, and every church and Sunday-school in the State became tributary channels through which flowed gifts to sustain the soldiers in front. When the war closed more than one-half of her able-bodied men had taken up arms for the Union, and she had shown herself to have been the most efficient of all the States, supplying, as she had, the most successful generals and the largest number of able men in the Cabinet of the President and in the councils of the nation.

This was but a natural outcome of the early history further detailed in these

pages, and the quality of the varied people of Anglo-Saxon blood, who from the fringe of the Atlantic slope, from Virginia to New England, a hundred years ago first began to emigrate to its soil, dedicated while yet a wilderness to freedom. Unlike the emigrant to the prairie States farther West, starting earlier, they had greater difficulties to encounter from the savage and the wilderness. They grew strong by felling its vast forests and opening them to cultivation, and seeing progress year by year as they overcame obstacle after obstacle, until an entire race of men were born upon the soil, who, educated by continued success, were filled with the sentiment of invincibility that will put a people that possess it everywhere to the front-make them born leaders. Ohio to-day is in the very heart of the nation; and, being on its great highway, over which its commerce and travel flow, and where its people must mingle for an interchange and broadening of ideas, she must infallibly be national and broad in her policy and character. Her soil is of the richest, and there is no preponderating industry to give to her citizens a one-sided development. Agriculture, manufactures, mining, and commerce, the four great pursuits of man, she has in remarkable equipoise. To this should be added prominence in education.

The unusually large numbers of small colleges, cheap and accessible everywhere, have given multitudes the prime requisite of the higher education, that is, mental discipline, and the uses of the instruments of knowledge. These, with natural capacity, will ever enable their possessors to attain to the very summits. In instructors in learning she has produced a host, and to-day, in the department of religion, she shows an unsurpassed spirit of Christian enterprise and self-sacrifice, leading all the States in the number of missionaries to heathen lands.

The noble history of the State, the heroic character of her sons and daughters so signally shown therein, the many eminent leaders she has produced in every department, remain an imperishable inspiration to the young now born upon her soil to further advance the commonwealth in everything that will inure to her moral and material grandeur.