Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/145

 HISTORY OF OHIO.

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��United States Infantry, was made Major ; but was

afterward succeeded by iMill, of Vermont.

The Fifteenth was in a number of skirmishes at first, and later in the battles of Coutreras, Cherubusco and Chapultepec. At the battle of Cherubusco, the Colonel was severely wounded, and Maj. Mill, with several officers, and a large number of men, killed. For gallant service at Contreras, Col. Mor- gan, though only twenty-seven years old, was made a Brevet Brigadier Greneral in the United States Army. Since the war he has delivered a number of addresses in Ohio, on the campaigns in Mex- ico.

The survivors of the war are now few. Though seventy-five thousand men from the United States went into that conflict, less than ten thousand now survive. They are now veterans, and as such de- light to recount their reminiscences on the fields of Mexico. They are all in the decline of life, and ere a generation passes away, few, if any, will be left.

After the war, the continual growth of Ohio, the change in all its relations, necessitated a new organic law. The Constitution of 1852 was the result. It re-affirmed the political principles of the "ordinance of 1787 " and the Constitution of 1802, and made a few changes necessitated by the advance made in the interim. It created the office of Lieutenant Grovernor, fixing the term of service at two years. This Constitution yet stands notwithstanding the prolonged attempt in 1873-7-1 to create a new one. It is now the organic law of Ohio.

From this time on to the opening of the late war, the prosperity of the State received no check. Towns and cities grew ; railroads multiplied ; com- merce was extended ; the vacant lands were rapidly filled by settlers, and everything tending to the advancement of the people was well prosecuted. Banks, after much tribulation, had become in a measure somewhat secure, their only and serious drawback being their isolation or the confinement of their circulation to their immediate localities. But signs of a mighty contest were apparent. A contest almost without a parallel in the annals of history ; a contest between freedom and slavery ; between wrong and right ; a contest that could only end in defeat to the wrong. The Republican party came into existence at the close of President Pierce's term, in 1855. Its object then was, prin- cipally, the restriction of the slave power ; ultimately its extinction. One of the chief exponents and sup- porters of this growing party in Ohio, was Salmon P.

��Chase ; one who never faltered nor lost faith ; and who was at the helm of State ; in the halls of Con gress ; chief of one the most important bureaus of the Government, and, finally, Chief Justice of the United States. When war came, after the election of Abraham Lincoln by the Republican party, Ohio was one of the first to answer to the call for troops. Mr. Chase, while Governor, had re-organized the militia on a sensible basis, and rescued it from the ignominy into which it had fallen. When Mr. Lincoln asked for vseventy-five thousand men, Ohio's quota was thirteen regiments. The various chaotic regiments and militia troops in the State did not exceed 1,500 men. The call was issued April 15, 1861 ; by the 18th, two regiments were organized in Columbus, whither these companies had gathered ; before sunrise of the 1 9th the Jirst and second regiments wei'e on their way to Wash- ington City. The President had only asked for thirteen regiments; thirti/ were gathering; the Government, not yet fully comprehending the nature of the rebelHon, refused the surplus troops, but Gov. Dennison was authorized to put ten additional regiments in the field, as a defensive measure, and was also authorized to act on the defensive as well as on the offensive. The immense extent of southern border made this necessary, as all the loyal people in West Virginia and Ken- tucky asked for help.

In the limits of this history, it is impossible to trace all the steps Ohio took in the war. One of her most talented sons, now at the head of one of the greatest newspapers of the world, says, regard- ing the action of the people and their Legislature :

" In one part of the nation there existed a grad- ual growth of sentiment against the Union, ending in open hostility against its integrity and its Con- stitutional law ; on the other side stood a resolute, and determined people, though divided in minor matters, firmly united on the question of national supremacy. The people of Ohio stood squarely on this side. Before this her people had been di- vided up to the hour when —

"'That fierce and sudden flash across the rugged black- ness broke,

And, with a voice that shook the land, the guns of Sum- ter spoke;



And whereso'er the summons came, there rose the

angry din. As when, upon a rocky coast, a stormy tide sets in.'

" All waverings then ceased among the people and in the Ohio Legislature. The Union must be

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