Andrew Johnson, in 1868, he stood in the line of presidential succession in the event of the senate finding Johnson guilty. Less than the constitutional two-thirds majority of the senate vcted to convict, and the votes of three senators stood between Benjamin F. Wade and his elevation to the presidency. It is casting no reflection upon the distinguished dead to say that he was disappointed over the result of the senate's deliberations.

During his long career in the senate Mr. Wade played a conspicuous part in all the great topics of senatorial debate and action, and he was the recognized leader of the Republican party, with which he naturally amliated upon its organization. As chairman of the committee on the conduct of the war he rendered invaluable service.

In person Mr. Wade was six feet in height, very. finely proportioned and of great physical power. An original thinker, bluff, hearty and plain spoken, he, withal, under this rough exterior, carried a tender heart, as is illustrated by his once discovering a poor man, a neighbor, entering his corn-crib and carrying off his corn, when he quietly moved out of sight so he should not pain him with the knowledge that he saw him, no doubt reasoning in this way: "Poor devil, he has a hard enough time any way, and I don't care if he does now and then help himself to my abundance."

GEORGE ELLIS PUGH OF HAMILTON COUNTY.

The first United States senator from Ohio, born on Ohio soil, was George Ellis Pugh, who was born in Cincinnati on the 28th of November, 1822, and died in the same city on the 19th of July, 1876, in the very prime of vigorous manhood. He was a Democrat and one of the most distinguished and able leaders of the party in the state during his lifetime.

Polished, urbane, eloquent and forceful in argument, he was the natural leader of men and a brilliant advocate of whatever cause, he espoused. With him came the newer generation into the senate from the great central state of the Union, some of whom have made a lasting impression on the history of the closing half of a momentous century.

He was a lawyer by profession and of the most thorough training, well educated, wonderfully endowed, open and frank, and courageous in all of his convictions. Both in military and civil life he acquitted himself becomingly.

At the outbreak of the Mexican war, in 1846, Mr. Pugh enlisted in the Fourth regiment of Ohio volunteers and commanded one of the companies constituting that organization, participating in the active campaigning which fell to its lot. During a part of his militay service he was on the staff of Major General Joseph Lane, and received high compliments for his daring and gallantry in action.

In 1848 he was elected to the Ohio house of representatives and re-elected in 1849. On the 4th of March, 1854, he was elected United States senator over Ephraim R. Eckley for the term beginning March 4, 1855, and ending March 4, 1861, and served out the full constitutional term of six years.

In the senate he displayed great power and ability in the discussion of the perplexing questions growing out of the slavery question, and the organization of the territories of Nebraska and Kansas. He was the friend and active supporter of Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, and favored the policy of popular sovereignty in reference to the question of slavery in the new territories, believing that that question should be settled by the votes of the people of the territories themselves.

In 1860 he was one of the delegates-at-large from Ohio to the national Democratic convention, which met first at Charleston, S. C., and afterwards at Baltimore, Md. During the opening session Mr. Pugh delivered a speech in answer to William L. Yancy, in which he defined the attitude of the northern Democracy in clear and unmistakable terms, setting up that while they were opposed to interference with the institution of slavery in the states where it existed, they were unalterably opposed to its extension into any of the free states under any consideration, or into any of the territories without the untrammeled consent of the residents thereof, as ascertained by an appeal to the ballot box properly safeguarded.

Mr. Pugh's speech on the occasion not only attracted the most profound

attention at the time, but subsequent events demonstrated that he understood the attitude of the great bulk of the Democratic voters in the northern states. During the civil war he advocated the use of every constitutional and rightful power by the government to preserve the integrity of the Union.

In 1863 he was the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor on the Democratic ticket with Clement L. Valandigham. Accepting the nomination, he declared, as a means of registering his protest, against what he regarded as the exercise of arbitrary and unwarranted powers by the military authorities in states where the civil courts were open and unimpeded. With Mr. Vallandigham, who headed the ticket, he was defeated by 100,000 majority at the October election, 1863.

In his profession he was regarded as being at the head of the bar in the state. He was not only a great lawyer, but a great advocate, qualities which are but seldom united in the same individual. In 1851 he was elected attorney general over Henry Stanbery, and held the office for two years.

JOHN SHERMAN OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

John Sherman enjoys the rare distinction of being the only Ohioan during the nineteenth century, who was six times elected to the United States

senate, twice resigning the senatorship,

and never defeated for the senatorial election when his name was presented to the legislature.

His active public life covered almost half a century, and early in 1899 he was the only surviving ex-senator from Ohio of the 26 who preceded him or were his colleagues.

He was a member of congress during nearly four terms, six times United States senator and twice a member of the cabinet, distinguished and conspicuous in all of these positions, and if there was ever a man who was entitled to feel that he deserved the presidency that man was John Sherman.

Four times he was a candidate before the Republican national convention for the presidential nomination, only to meet with humiliating defeat. How and why he was defeated he has

told in an interesting work covering the political history of his times, the final volume of which he wrote after retiring from the office of secretary of state in 1898. Personal feeling aside, it is a most valuable contribution to the current history of the century.

John Sherman was born in Lancaster, O., May 10, 1823. His father, Charles Robert Sherman, was a native of Norfolk, Conn., and served on the supreme bench of Ohio from 1820 to 1827. He died suddenly in 1831, leaving a widow and eleven children practically without means of support. John was taken to the home of his cousin, John Sherman, a merchant of Mt. Vernon, O., who ki dly undertook his care and education. His brother, afterward General William Tecumseh Sherman, was placed in the care of another relative, and the remainder of the family were looked after by friends and relatives. At the age of 14 he secured employment under the officers having charge of the survey of the Muskingum improvement, and continued his studies while performing the work assigned to him.

His elder brother, Charles, had located in the practice of law at Mans

field, and with him John read law and was admitted to the practice upon reaching his majority, and the two became associated in the practice of the profession.

John Sherman espoused the doctrines of the Whig party, and when that party disintegrated became one of the founders of the Republican party, of which he continued a consistent member throughout all of his distinguished political career. He was secretary of the national Whig convention of 1848, which nominated General Zachary Taylor for the presidency, and canvassed a large portion of Ohio for him in that campaign, demonstrating his marked ability as a public speaker.

He presided over the first Republican state convention in Ohio, and over almost a score of subsequent ones, his speech on each occasion being accepted as "the keynote" of the campaign.

In 1854 he was elected to the Thirty-fourth congress and was re-elected to the Thirty-fifth in 1856, the Thirty-sixth in 1858 and the Thirty-seventh in 1860, and resigned in March, 1861, to become United States senator, being succeeded in the house by Samuel T. Worcester of Huron county.

His great career as a United States senator began with his election on the 21st of March, 1861, over William Kennon, Sr., to succeed Salmon P. Chase, who resigned to enter the cabinet of President Lincoln as secretary of the treasury. He was elected Jan. 18, 1866, over Allen G. Thurman; Jan. 10, 1872, over George W. Morgan; Jan. 19, 1881, over Allen G. Thurman; Jan. 13, 1886, over Allen G. Thurman, and on Jan. 14, 1892, over James E. Neal. He resigned as senator on March 21, 1877, to become secretary of the treasury under President Rutherford B. Hayes, being succeeded by Stanley Matthews, and again resigned in March, 1897, to become secretary of state in the cabinet of President McKinley.

In 1859 he was the Whig candidate for speaker of the house, but lacked three votes of an election. During the Kansas-Nebraska troubles he took an active part against the extension of slavery and was appointed chairman of a committee to investigate the border outrages by Speaker Nathaniel P. Banks, and in the discharge of his duties met with many perilous adventures.

In the senate, during the civil war and afterward, he was the central figure of that party and largely molded the foreign, financial and general policy of the federal administration, and closely along party lines.

But for the personal intercession of President Lincoln and Secretary Chase he would have abandoned civil for military life. At the beginning of the war he joined the Ohio troops at Philadelphia, and was made an aide on the staff of General Robert Patterson, and remained with the military forces until the assembling of the congress in extraordinary session. At the close of the session he returned to Ohio and organized what was known as "Sherman's Brigade," intending to resign his seat in the senate and take command of it, but was induced to forego his determination by the president and Secretary Chase, who persuaded him that his services would be more valuable to the country in the senate than in the field.

He was the author of the resumption act, introduced in the senate in 1867 and adopted in 1870. He at once became the recognized leader of the