CHAPTER XXXV.

THE CAPITOL.

The accommodations for the State government, although ample when first provided by the proprietors of the capital, were speedily outgrown. Early in the thirties the need of larger and better buildings began to be seriously felt. proposition to erect a new Statehouse was discussed in the General Assembly in 1836, and elicited the remark by one of its sanguine advocates that he expected to see Columbus develop within a few more years into a flourishing city of not less than ten thousand people. During the following year a committee, of which Hon. James Hughes was chairman, reported that the existing State buildings were altogether inadequate to the safe keeping of public papers or the increased requirements of the General Assembly, and recommended the immediate erection of a new capitol on the Public Square in Columbus. Referring to this report the Chillicothe Gazette spoke contemptuously of the superannuated structures which then occupied the Square, and declared them unworthy of a State like Ohio.

Impelled by such expressions of public opinion, and the report of its committee, the General Assembly, on January 26, 1838, passed an act providing:

That there shall be appointed by joint resolution of both houses of the present General Assembly three commissioners under whose direction, or a majority of them, a new State House shall be erected on the Public Square in the city of Columbus, and said commissioners shall severally take an oath or affirmation faithfully to discharge the duties assigned them, and should any vacancy in the office of either of the commissioners occur by death, removal or otherwise, the Governor shall fill the same by appointment until the next meeting of the General Assembly when an appointment shall be made to fill such vacancy by joint resolution as before herein provided.

The statute further directed that the board of commissioners thus to be appointed should, by advertisement in the newspapers of Ohio and of the cities of New York, Philadelphia and Washington, offer a premium of $500 for the first, $300 for the second and $200 for the third best plan for the proposed Statehouse to be accompanied by estimates and approved by the General Assembly. Immediate supervision of the construction was entrusted to a superintendent, with authority to contract for and procure labor and materials, his salary to be not over one thousand dollars, and his term of service to rest with the discretion of the commissioners. The superintendent might also contract for as much of the convict labor of the Penitentiary as it might be judicious to employ. The sum of $10,000 was appropriated for expenditure in such work as might be appropriated to any plan which might be adopted. The necessary expenditures of the commissioners were to be paid from the State treasury.

In token of the general gratification of the people of Columbus at the pas sage of this act, Colonel John Noble, who then kept the National Hotel, on the present site of the Neil House, "had the candles in his front windows so arranged," says Martin, as to form letters and spell NEW STATE HOUSE." The commissioners appointed by joint resolution, pursuant to the act, were Joseph Ridgway, Junior, of Columbus, William A. Adams, of Muskingum County, and William B. Van Hook, of Butler. These commissioners met during the ensuing April and contracted with William S. Sullivant for the privilege of taking from his quarry on the Scioto, three miles above the city, all the limestone necessary to erect the proposed building. The price to be paid for the stone was fifty cents per perch of twentyfive cubic feet. Of the prizes offered for the best three of about sixty plans submitted, the first was awarded to Henry Walter, of Cincinnati, the second to Martin E. Thompson, of New York City, and the third to Thomas Cole, of Catskill, New York. The commissioners explained that in making these selections they were governed by the following considerations which they supposed to have promoted the passage of the act under which they were appointed:

First, to construct an edifice which should combine in its interior arrangement perfect security to the archives of the several departments of the public service, and convenience to the several bodies and officers to be accommodated; and secondly, that in its exterior form and interior disposition of apartments there should be united that beauty and grandeur which the rules of art require, and which comport with the wealth and dignity of the State.

The plan ultimately adopted was a modification of the three obtaining premiums, and was intended to provide apartments not only for the General Assembly, but for all the State officers and for "the invaluable library."

Judging by the estimates which accompanied the plans, rating labor at the prices then prevailing, and making allowance for that of convicts, the employment of about two hundred of whom was recommended, the commissioners concluded that the building could not be erected for less than $450,000. The delivery of stone for the walls began at once, and before the end of 1838 amounted to 2,062 perches, of which a part were hauled to the Penitentiary to be dressed by convicts. Pursuant to recommendation of the commissioners the General Assembly at its next session appropriated $50,000 for the work, which, with opening of the spring of 1839, began actively. Excavation was made for the foundation, the laying of which proceeded steadily under the supervision of the commissioners and of Mr. Henry Walter, the architect. A frame building for use as an office and the safekeeping of tools and machinery was erected on the Capitol Square which was surrounded by a very high board fence to prevent escape of the convicts employed. The water required by the builders was obtained from the grounds. For the ceremony of laying the cornerstone, which was appointed for July 4, 1839, and which the existing legislature and its immediate predecessor were invited to attend, the following "officers of the day," were appointed: President, Colonel James Kilbourn; vice presidents, Robert W. McCoy, Alfred Kelley, John A. Bryan, Joseph Ridgway, Junior, Noah H. Swayne, Jacob Medary, James Allen, Philo H. Olmstead, John Noble, Christian Heyl, John McElvain, and James Dalzell; marshals, Joseph Sullivant, James C. Reynolds, Wray Thomas and Nehemiah Gregory. The order of the procession, which was directed to form on the east side of High Street with its right on Broad, was arranged as follows: 1. Marshals on horseback; 2, martial music; 3, band; 4, military on foot; 5, military on horseback; 6, revolutionary soldiers; 7, orator of the day and reader of the declaration; 8, president and vice presidents of the day; 9, clergy; 10, committee of arrangements; 11, invited guests; 12, United States and State officers; 13, societies; 14, band; 15, handicrafts; 16, city band; 17, mayor and

council; 18, citizens. The route of the procession was thus prescribed :_ North on High to Long, by countermarch south on High to Town, west on Town to Front, south on Front to Mound, east on Mound to Third, north on Third to State, west on State to High, thence on High to the Public Square. "Order of exercises at the bower:" 1, Prayer; 2, original ode; 3, Declaration of Independence; 4, ode; 5, oration; 6, ode; 7, benediction. After these exercises the Square was to be vacated in order that the public dinner might be served.

The day of the ceremony was ushered in with an artillery salute and a burst of martial music. The weather was propitious. Three military companies had arrived the evening before from Lancaster. They were the Black Hawk Braves, Captain Burnett; the Lancaster Guards, Captain Myers, and the German Guards, Captain Witty. After passing over the route mapped out for it, the procession, which was very large for those days, entered the Capitol Square. Here, as its head of column approached the northeast corner of the foundations, where the huge stone to be laid was hanging by many ropes over the companion piece on which it was to rest, one of the bands struck up Hail Columbia. In the presence of a crowd of five or six thousand people the exercises were here conducted according to programme. The ceremony of depositing the cornerstone was performed by ex-Governor Jeremiah Morrow, whose brief and appropriate address concluded with the following sentences:

I pronounce that Ohio, a member of this great republic, by her assembled people this day lays the cornerstone of her future capitol. Let the foundations be deep and strong; let the materials be of nature's most lasting gifts-durable, imperishable; let the edifice rise in solemn, simple grandeur, a monument of chaste and classic beauty. And may the lightnings of heaven, which scathe, and the whirlwind and storm which prostrate the works of man, pass by and spare this home erected by a mighty people and consecrated to social and constitutional government. And may the councils of truth and justice and public virtue preside in its halls; may discord and faction be put far from them; and may a free and united people, who reared it, and whose temple it is, watch over and cherish within its walls the form and spirit of their republican institutions. And may the blessings of a benign Providence, now and through all coming time, rest upon this people, and upon this house, the work of their hands. I now lay the cornerstone of the Capitol of Ohio!

The stone was then lowered to its place, covering a cavity in the centre of its pedestal in which were deposited, sealed up in strong glass jars, the following articles: Copy of the Declaration of Independence, constitution of the United States and of each of the twentysix States then composing the Union, ordinance of 1787, Statutes of Ohio, copy of the Bible, copy of Transactions of the Histori cal and Philosophical Society of Ohio, specimen United States gold and silver coins, 150 newspapers, various statistical works and periodicals, specimen agricultural and manufacturing products, reports of the State institutions, and a glass tube, hermetically sealed, containing a scroll bearing the following inscription:

The cornerstone of the Capitol of Ohio, in the United States of America, was laid under the direction of the Commissioners by Jeremiah Morrow, ex-Governor of the State, and one of its earliest Pioneers, in the presence of the officers of State and a large concourse of citizens, on the 4th day of July, in the year of our Lord 1839, at Meridian, being the sixtythird anniversary of our National Independence. The State of Ohio, being the sixteenth State admitted into the Union, was organized into an independent State in the year of our Lord 1802.

The ceremonies being completed, Reverend Mr. Cressy pronounced a benediction, after which the procession was again formed and moved to the corner of Broad and Fourth streets, where "a soulstirring ode" by William D. Gallagher was sung by "an excellent choir," and a Fourth of July oration was delivered by John G. Miller. After this oration the procession returned to the Capitol Square

where"

a superb dinner" prepared by Mr. George, " was served up under a very tasefully arranged bower.) At this dinner numerous toasts were proposed and responded to.

After these ceremonies and festivities work upon the foundations was resumed and continued until the end of the season of 1839. The commissioners planned to erect a basement story, and collect materials for the interior walls, during the ensuing year, but the repeal of the act for the erection of the Capitol, which took place on March 10, 1840, set all these calculations at naught. The events which led to and attended this repeal and the efforts which followed it to remove the seat of government from Columbus, have been narrated in the first chapter of this volume. Owing to these proceedings all work upon the Capitol was suspended for six years. Meanwhile the foundations of the building, not yet raised to the surface level, were covered with earth, and the high board fence which surrounded its grounds became dilapidated and weatherbeaten. The expenditure in the work up to the time of its cessation amounted to nearly $50,000.

3

Nothing was done toward resuming the erection of the building until March 13, 1844, when the General Assembly adopted a resolution appointing W. A. Adams, Samuel Medary and Joseph Ridgway, Junior, as commissioners" to report. a modification of the plan for a new Statehouse." This commission submitted a report recommending certain changes in the plan originally adopted, and accompanied its recommendations with specifications and drawings showing "in detail the whole design and arrangement of the proposed erection." Here the matter again rested until, on February 21, 1846, a second act "to provide for the erection of a new Statehouse" was passed. This act, like its predecessor of 1838, provided for the appointment of three commissioners to supervise the work, and gave them authority to appoint a superintendent, an architect, and other agents to act in their behalf. The plan submitted by the commission of 1844 was adopted, with such modifications in details as might seem, during the progress of the work, to be expedient. To the construction all the surplus labor and net profits of the Ohio Penitentiary were appropriated with a reservation that the debt which the prison officers had incurred in purchasing the stonequarry and in building a railway thereto, together with a previous appropriation of prison labor to the asylum for the insane, should first be paid. The commissioners appointed were W. A. Adams, Samuel Medary and Joseph Ridgway, Junior. In the report at the close of 1846, these gentlemen express regret that owing to poverty of resources but little progress had been made during that year. Only seventeen convicts per day, on the average, had been furnished from the prison, and the time of these had been mostly consumed in laying the foundations of the inner walls and excavating for the foundations of the west front. In 1847 still less was accomplished, and the patience of the people of Columbus with the chaotic and hideous condition of the Capitol Square began to show signs of exhaustion. The Ohio State Journal of August 10, 1847, gave expression to a popular feeling by no means confined to Columbus in the following words:

No citizen of Ohio visits the seat of government without experiencing a feeling of mortification at the appearance of the dilapidated old concern dignified by the name State House. Standing in a conspicuous part of the city, and exposed as it is to a very unfavorable contrast with the private edifices which surround it on every hand it is a disparagement to the State. The visitor turns impatiently from the spectacle, and for relief looks for the new Capitol which was commenced some ten years ago to supplant the present uncomfortable warehouse of the State's wisdom and unsafe depository of the State's archives, treasure and literature. He looks but his view is intercepted by an unsightly and rickety old board fence enclosing the public square in the very heart of the city, constructed some ten years since to secure convicts while employed upon the work of the new building. Should he persevere and get within this uncouth enclosure he would find it occupied with shapen and shapeless materials - rough ashlers, and perfect ashlers-strewn with promiscuous confusion, and overgrown in many places with rank weeds and thistles.

Similar sentiments were thus poetically expressed:

All hearts were light, and faces bright,
Some eleven years ago,

When that new fence was put around
The State House Yard, you know;

For all expected soon to see

In grandeur and in style,

Arise above that pine board fence
A vast and noble pile.

But then we felt some little pride,
Alas! that it has flown;

Or, that we buried it beneath

Yon massive corner stone.

And now that fence has grown quite old
And bears marks of decay;

And many a post has rotted off

As time has passed away,

And many a board has fallen down,
To show to passers by

The base of that stupendous work
Which was to pierce the sky.
But then, etc.

The children all rejoice to see
It tumbling to the ground;
And even some of riper years.

Smile as they pass around;

They smile to think on bygone hours
When free from every care
They used to play upon the green
In that old public square
But then, etc.

At length, in the spring of 1848, the work began to be pushed with some energy. William Russell West and J. O. Sawyer were appointed architects and general superintendents; Jacob Strickler was named as special superintendent; stone from the State quarry was arranged for; labor, both free and convict, was engaged, and on May 5 a local chronicler wrote: Operations are resumed in the construction of the new State House, under the provisions of the act of the last session." To this announcement one of the commissioners added these statements:

The architects at present employed are Messrs. West and Sawyer, of Cincinnati, the former a pupil of Mr. U. Walter, the architect of the Girard College, and the latter a superintendent of construction of the same building. Mr. Henry Walter, the gentleman to whom was awarded the first premium for a plan for the new State House, and who has measurably retired from business, was, in connection with his son, architect of the Catholic Cathedral in Cincinnati. The plan of the interior of the new State House has been somewhat modified, and in the opinion of the Commissioners considerably improved, while the exterior remains with but little alteration. The foundation for the interior, with exception of that for the rotunda, has not been laid; and the preparations now in progress are not for new and additional foundations. The elevation of the building will be no greater than was originally designed, the level of the first floor being fourteen feet eight inches above the top of the present foundations, and about twelve feet above the level of High Street, opposite the centre of the Public Square. It is the intention of the Commissioners to have the basement walls put up this season so as to be in readiness for the commencement of the ground arches early next spring.