CHAPTER IX

The Influence of Ohio in National Affairs-Bitter Strife Between Whigs and Democrats-The Loco Foco Party-Wilson Shannon Elected Governor-Thomas Corwin-State Banks-Trouble in the General Assembly-Attempt to Remove the Capital from Columbus-The Abolition Party and its Influence Upon Public Opinion.

Ohio was raised to a paramount position in the nation by William Henry Harrison, and although he died in the fifth week of his Presidency and the chief magistracy fell into Democratic hands when VicePresident Tyler succeeded him, both Whigs and Democrats in Ohio continued to take an interest in affairs at Washington and to consider themselves vital elements in the national life. If the state had not heretofore been recognized by Federal patronage, the Whigs of 1840-41 made an effort to remedy that neglect. The cause of President Harrison's death was officially set down as bilious pleurisy, but contemporary historians have asserted that he was worried to physical weakness by importunate office seekers and that an ordinary cold found him so depleted in strength that it rapidly overcame the remnant of his vitality.

For the first quarter of a century of her life as a member of the sisterhood of states, Ohio felt herself to be a stepchild, but when the Whig Party came into existence and that party opposed executive interference in the public finances, many public men and newspapers in Ohio began to make themselves heard and to assert their opinions very forcibly. In 1840 Ohio was still the "West" and was to be included in the "West" for many years to come, but her population had risen to more than one and a half millions, making her the third state in the Union. She had nineteen members of Congress and twenty-one Presidential electors and had attained a strength and importance which made her a force to be recognized in national affairs.

Politics in those days were bitter. Public men assailed each other rancorously and the newspapers kept politics at the boiling point by their attacks on public men of the opposite party and editorial wars between opposing newspapers. The following extract from the Ohio State Journal of September 29, 1842, illustrates the political rancor of the times. The Journal referred editorially to President Tyler as "the corrupt, foresworn, perfidious, mocking image of executive rule at Washington." Tyler was elected on the Whig ticket and the Whigs were in favor of the National Bank system which President Jackson had destroyed. The Congress of 1841 passed a bill to establish a National Bank and Tyler vetoed the bill. For this he was dubbed "Monsieur Veto" by the Whig papers generally, and the quotation given above is a sample of the manner in which he was referred to by the Whig Press. A comparison of President Tyler with President Taft places in striking contrast the political civilities of that day and this. Tyler was elected to help the people in financial reform and broke his pledges. Taft was elected to carry out a tariff reform and after his election made speeches conjuring his party to keep faith with the people, yet when his party broke its pledges he never hesitated over signing the Tariff Bill which the party sent up to him. Tyler was the less culpable because he had not been elected President, but as Vice-President succeeded Harrison. Taft was elected President but when he signed the bill stultifying himself and his party, the Democratic editors of the country merely raised their eyebrows in mild surprise. There was no indication of the ferocious onslaughts upon him in which the Whig Press indulged against Tyler throughout the last three years of his Presidential term.

After the formation of the Whig Party the Democratic Party in Ohio was referred to by the Whig Press as the Loco Foco Party. How the Democrats came to be known as Loco Focos is interesting. It came about in this way:

The removal in 1833 of the public deposits from the Bank of the United States to the "pet banks" led to the formation of many new banks. In New York state the formation of new banks was carried to such an extent that charters for banks were purchased from the Legislature and this produced such a scandal that in 1835 a number of

Democrats of New York City, mostly members of Tammany Hall, organized for the purpose of opposing the banks. These men started a new party which they called the Equal Rights Party. A meeting of this faction was held in Tammany Hall October 29, 1835. The meeting was attended by regular Democrats who hoped to control the proceedings. This they failed to do and in order to break up the meeting they shut off the gas through the instrumentality of the janitor. The Equal Rights men were so determined to hold the meeting that they lit loco foco matches and continued the proceedings with that makeshift light. Both the Democrats and the Whigs seized upon this circumstance to give the faction the name of Loco Focos. The name not only stuck to them but the appellation spread until it was applied to the Democratic Party over the whole country. In Ohio the Whig newspapers persistently and invariably referred to the Democrats as Loco Focos and seemed to find a tang of derision in the name.

In the state election of 1842 Wilson Shannon was elected Governor over Thomas Corwin, the Whig candidate, by a vote of 119,774 against 117,902, although Corwin had defeated him in 1840 by a majority of 16,000. This was more than a surprise, it was a shock to the Whigs who counted upon the sentiment of the log cabin and hard cider campaign of two years before and doubted not that it still pervaded Ohio as strong as ever. After the election the Whig Press attributed the defeat of the party to the Abolitionists who, it was claimed, voted for the Democrats. It seems, however, that not a few Whigs were becoming Abolitionists and voted that ticket instead of their In 1840 there was no Abolition candidate for Governor, but in 1842 Lester King running upon that ticket received 1534 votes. Moreover, there were 31,000 more votes cast for Governor in 1840 than in 1842.

own.

Thomas Corwin was the greatest of the Whig governors of Ohio. Previous to his election he had served ten years in Congress and had become known throughout the whole country as the most brilliant orator of his day. He was the most powerful factor in General Harrison's campaign for President, or at least second only to the log cabin and hard cider. His administration was decidedly Whig but without any important events.

Three questions received more attention in the gubernatorial campaign of 1842 than any others. These were, the establishment of State Banks, the removal of the capital and the character of Wilson Shannon.

The Whigs were in favor of a State Bank, contending that the hard times were the result of the destruction of the currency. Bank Reform would, they asserted, cure all the financial ills, but the election of a Democratic Legislature would mean utter ruin. The Democrats were anxious to do anything that would improve business conditions. Those conditions were so bad that judgments taken in the Common Pleas Courts in 1842 had risen to three times what they had been in former years, and sheriffs were selling hay at a dollar a ton, good cows for three dollars each, and wheat and corn at proportionately low prices. These figures give some idea of the terrible consequences of the Panic of 1837 and the hard times that existed for years thereafter.

The Whigs charged that the Democrats contemplated the removal of the seat of Government from Columbus. It seems that in proroguing the previous Senate, Speaker Farran had referred to a Columbus mob threatening to coerce the Senate, and upon this pretext the Whigs sought to make much political capital out of the threatened removal. State Printer Samuel Medary was accused of being the prime mover in the plot, and the Whig Press boldly prophesied that the election of a Democratic Legislature would mean the removal of the capital. Such a Legislature was elected, but the capital was not removed.

The third question indicates that the Whigs of 1842 were ultrarighteous. Shannon at one time was so unlucky as to be caught in a poker game in Wheeling, West Virginia, and was fined $20.00 for the offense. Whig newspapers dug up this incident in the endeavor to blacken his character and to defeat him in the election. Some zealous Democratic papers were quick to contradict the accusation which only led the Whigs to produce the proof of the incident and magnify it into a serious misdemeanor. Shannon does not seem to have suffered with the voters on account of his predilection for the "American game' as his vote was only 12,000 less than he received in 1840 while that of Corwin fell off 26,000.