The dominant party in the convention gerrymandered the state in framing the legislative districts, and this led some of the minority to vote against adopting the constitution in the convention.

The method of amending the constitution was materially changed. Under the constitution of 1802 this could be done only in a convention called for that purpose. Under the constitution of 1851 the General Assembly was authorized to submit amendments directly to the people for approval. This was intended to facilitate amendment of the constitution. It will be seen later why this change failed in large measure to accomplish its purpose.

On July 9, 1850, the convention adjourned, because of the cholera epidemic, and met in Cincinnati, December 2, where it continued its labors until March 10, 1851.

The new constitution was submitted to the people at special election June 17, 1851, and was adopted by a vote of 125,564 to 109,276, a majority of 16,288. The proposition to prohibit the license of the sale of intoxicating liquors carried by a vote of 113,237 to 104,255, a majority of 8,982.

If the license proposal had not been thus submitted, it is more than probable, for very obvious reasons, that the constitution would have been voted down.

CHAPTER V

MEN OF THE SECOND CONSTITUTIONAL

CONVENTION OF OHIO

To the student of the development of state institutions the membership of state constitutional conventions is increasingly interesting with the passing of the years. On succeeding pages are presented brief biographical sketches of the delegates to the Second Constitutional Convention of Ohio who rendered conspicuous public service in other fields. In order that the name of no delegate shall be omitted in this brief survey, there is included at the close of this chapter the tabulated information in regard to each as published in the records of the convention.

William Medill, president of the convention, was a man of ability and wide experience in the public service, who deserved well of his party and the state, who was in every way worthy of the honor conferred upon him by his fellow delegates. The convention created the office of lieutenant governor to which William Medill was chosen in the October election of 1851. He was not, as stated again and again by able writers and public speakers, "elected the first governor" under "the constitution that he had helped to frame." Reuben Wood was the first governor elected under the Second Constitution of Ohio. On July 13, 1853, he resigned to accept the post of United States Consul at Valparaiso, Chile, and was succeeded by Lieutenant Governor Medill, who was elected to succeed himself as governor at the October election of 1853. He served to January 14, 1856.

Joseph Vance, delegate from Champaign County, had previously served as state legislator, congressman and governor.

Henry Stanberry was attorney-general of the United States in the cabinet of Andrew Johnson. Samuel J. Kirkwood became governor of Iowa and represented that state in the United States Senate and the cabinet of James A. Garfield.

Of the delegates to this convention twenty-two had been or afterward became members of Congress; more than fifty previously or subsequently were members of the General Assembly of Ohio. Joseph R. Swan, Rufus P. Ranney, William Kennon, Sr., Josiah Scott and the venerable Peter Hitchcock were judges of the Supreme Court of Ohio. A goodly number served as judges of the lower courts and almost all of the delegates had been chosen to local positions of trust and responsibility.

The roll of the convention with the nativity, residence, age and occupation of each delegate is suggestive of the varied talent and representative character of the men who revised and reconstructed the basic law of the state so well that it stood without material change for sixty years.

When it is remembered that these years embraced the period of the Civil war and the social and industrial changes that followed it; the rapid increase in population, the growth of large cities, the extension of commerce, the development and transforming influence of diversified manufacturing industries and the new problems that this material progress inevitably brought, high praise must be accorded to the ability, foresight, courage and fidelity of the delegates who submitted to the people of Ohio the constitution of 1851. Their achievement entitles them to an

honored place in the annals of the state, whose progressive course they charted and prescribed in the basic law through more than half a century. MEMBERS OF THE SECOND OHIO CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION WHO HAD BEEN Or Became Members of Congress

SHERLOCK J. ANDREWS

Sherlock J. Andrews was born in Wallingford, Connecticut, in 1801; was graduated from Union College in 1821; studied law and was admitted to the bar; came to Cleveland, Ohio, and began the practice of law in 1825; elected as a whig to the twenty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1841March 3, 1843); declined renomination because of poor health; judge of the Superior Court of Cleveland, 1848; delegate to the Second Constitutional Convention of Ohio; delegate to the Third Constitutional Convention of Ohio; first president of Cleveland Bar Association, 1873; first president of Cleveland Library Board, 1878; died February 11, 1880.

DAVID CHAMBERS

David Chambers was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, March 17, 1780; in the whiskey insurrection was a confidential rider for President Washington; learned the art of printing; moved to Zanesville, Ohio, where he established a newspaper and was elected state printer; secretary of the Ohio Senate; volunteer aid-de-camp to Gen. Lewis Cass in the War of 1812; served as recorder and mayor of Zanesville; elected to the Seventeenth Congress (March 4, 1821-March 3, 1823); member of the Ohio House of Representatives, 1814, 1828, 1836-1838, 18411842; delegate to Second Constitutional Convention of Ohio; died in Zanesville, Ohio, August 8, 1864.

JOHN CHANEY

John Chaney was born in Washington County, Maryland, January 12, 1790; attended the common schools; moved to Ohio; Jackson Presidential elector in 1832; state representative, 1828-1830, 1842; elected as a Jackson democrat to the Twenty-third, Twenty-fourth and Twentyfifth Congresses (March 4, 1833-March 3, 1839); returned to Canal Winchester, Ohio; was a member of the Second Constitutional Convention of Ohio, serving in place of Daniel A. Robertson, resigned; member of village council; died in Canal Winchester, Ohio, April 10, 1881.

WILLIAM P. CUTLER

William P. Cutler was born in Marietta, Ohio, July 12, 1812; attended public school and Ohio University; state representative, 18441847; served as speaker of the House of Representatives during his last term; member of the Second Constitutional Convention of Ohio; president of the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad, 1850-1860; elected as a republican to the Thirty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1861-March 3, 1863); died in Marietta, Ohio, April 11, 1889.

ELIAS FLORENCE

Elias Florence was born in Fauquier County, Virginia, February 15, 1797; attended the public schools; engaged in agricultural pursuits; moved to Ohio, locating in Circleville, Pickaway County; state representative in 1829, 1830, 1834 and 1840; state senator, 1835-1836; elected as a whig to Twenty-eighth Congress (March 4, 1843-March 3, 1845);

member of the Second Constitutional Convention of Ohio; died in Muhlenberg Township, Pickaway County, Ohio, November 21, 1880.

WILLIAM S. GROESBECK

William S. Groesbeck was born in New York City, July 24, 1816; was graduated from Miami University in 1835; was admitted to the bar and began the practice of law in Cincinnati, Ohio; member of the Second Constitutional Convention of Ohio; commissioner to codify the laws of Ohio in 1862; elected as a democrat to the Thirty-fifth Congress (March 4, 1857-March 3, 1859); member of the peace conference in 1851; served in the State Senate 1862-1864; delegate to the Union National Convention in Philadelphia in 1866; one of President Johnson's counsel in his impeachment trial in 1868; delegate to the international monetary conference in Paris, France, in 1878; died in Cincinnati, Ohio, July 7, 1897.

CORNELIUS S. HAMILTON

Cornelius S. Hamilton was born in Muskingum County, Ohio, January 2, 1821; attended the common school and Granville (Ohio) College; moved to Union County in 1839; studied law and was admitted to the bar; engaged in farming and banking in connection with the practice of law; appointed land appraiser and assessor in 1845; member of the Second Constitutional Convention of Ohio; member of the State Senate, 1856-1857; editor and proprietor of the Marysville Tribune; appointed by President Lincoln assessor of the Eighth Congressional District of Ohio; elected as a republican to the Fortieth Congress, and served from March 4, 1867, to December 22, when his promising career ended in a tragedy. He lost his life at the hands of a son who had become violently insane.

AARON HARLAN

Aaron Harlan was born in Warren County, Ohio, September 8, 1802; attended the public schools; studied law, was admitted to the bar and began practice in Xenia, Ohio, in 1825; state representative, 18321833, 1860; member of the State Senate, 1838-1839 and 1849; moved to Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 1841; Presidential elector on the Polk and Dallas ticket in 1844; member of the Second Constitutional Convention of Ohio; elected as a whig to the Thirty-third, Thirty-fourth and Thirtyfifth Congresses (March 4, 1853—March 3, 1859); moved to San Francisco, California, in 1864; died in San Francisco, California, January 8, 1868.

PETER HITCHCOCK

Peter Hitchcock was born in Cheshire, Connecticut, October 19, 1781; pursued classical studies and was graduated from Yale College in 1801; studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1804, and began practice in Cheshire; moved to Geauga County, Ohio, in 1806; state representative. in 1810 and state senator, 1812-1816, one term he served as president of the Senate; elected to the Fifteenth Congress (March 4, 1817-March 3, 1819); judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, 1824-1852; a portion of that time he was chief justice; delegate to the Second Constitutional Convention of Ohio; died in Painesville, Ohio, March 4, 1854; buried at Burton, Ohio.

VALENTINE BAXTER HORTON

Valentine Baxter Horton was born in Windsor, Vermont, January 29, 1802; attended the Partridge Military School and afterwards became

one of its tutors; studied law in Middletown, Connecticut, and in 1830 was admitted to the bar; moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he began practice; moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1833, and in 1835 moved to Pomeroy, Ohio, where he engaged in manufacturing; delegate to the Second Constitutional Convention of Ohio; elected to the Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth Congresses (March 4, 1855-March 3, 1859); reelected to the Thirty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1861-March 3, 1863); died in Pomeroy, Ohio, January 14, 1888.

JOHN JOHNSON

John Johnson was born in the County of Tyrone, Ireland, in 1808; attended the public schools; came to Coshocton, Ohio, in 1824 and engaged in agricultural pursuits; elected to the State Senate, 1842-1843; delegate to the Second Constitutional Convention of Ohio; elected as an independent to the Thirty-second Congress (March 4, 1851-March 3, 1853); engaged in banking until his death in Coshocton, Ohio, February 5, 1867.

WILLIAM KENNON, SR.

William Kennon, Sr., was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, May 15, 1793; attended the common schools; moved to a farm near Barnesville, Ohio, in 1804; attended Franklin College two years; studied law with William B. Hubbard in St. Clairsville and was admitted to the bar in 1824; elected as a democrat to the Twenty-first and Twentysecond Congresses (March 4, 1829-March 3, 1833); reelected to the Twenty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1835-March 3, 1837); elected common pleas judge, 1840; delegate to the Second Constitutional Convention of Ohio; appointed by Governor Medill in 1854 to fill the unexpired term of William B. Caldwell as judge of the Supreme Court, and elected to succeed himself; resigned in 1856 to resume the practice of law in St. Clairsville; at the outbreak of the Civil war Judge Kennon joined the republican party and was affiliated with it through his remaining years; died November 2, 1881.

SAMUEL JORDAN KIRKWOOD

Samuel Jordan Kirkwood was born in Hartford County, Maryland, December 20, 1813; attended the common schools and the academy of John McLeod in Washington, District of Columbia; moved to Richland County, Ohio, in 1835; studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1843; prosecuting attorney of Richland County, 1845-1849; delegate to the Second Constitutional Convention of Ohio; moved to Johnson County, Iowa, in 1855; elected to the State Senate in 1856; elected governor of Iowa in 1859; reelected in 1861; appointed by President Lincoln minister to Denmark, March 7, 1863, but declined the appointment; elected as a republican to the United States Senate to fill vacancy caused by the resignation of James Harlan and served from January 13, 1866, to March 3, 1867; reelected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1877, to March 7, 1881, when he resigned; secretary of the interior in President Garfield's cabinet, March 5, 1881, and served until April 6, 1882, when he resigned; died in Iowa City, Iowa, February 1, 1894.

WILLIAM LAWRENCE

William Lawrence was born in Washington, Ohio, September 2, 1814; was graduated from Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, in 1835; farmer and merchant; state representative in 1843; Presidential elector on the democratic ticket in 1848; delegate to the Second Constitutional