but escaped under a legal technicality. The matter was not, however, dropped here. William Johnson, by authority of the Legislature, laid siege to the courts of Kentucky, presenting a test case through which it was hoped that Jerry might be rescued. The siege failed, though admirably pressed by Johnson. Citizens now raised a fund and bought the freedom of the kidnaped man; but poor Jerry had scarcely returned to his family when he died of consumption.

In spite of timidity in trade and cowardice in politics, Ohio grew steadily stronger in her attachment to those principles of liberty which were knitting together the States of the North. In the election of 1848 the people sent to the Legislature an increased number of representatives holding anti-slavery views, and one of the first measures to which the newly chosen legislators turned their attention was that known as the "black laws." These laws, which required negroes to give bonds for good behavior as a condition of residence, forbade their testifying at trials when a white, man was a party on either side, and placed other shameful disabilities upon the colored man, were at last wiped forever from the statute book.

The bill embodying this reform was drawn by Salmon P. Chase, who had been active in organizing the Liberty Party, and whom Ohio soon

afterward sent to the United States Senate. Chase had begun his career as a lawyer in Cincinnati, had argued a case before the United States Court at Columbus before he was twenty-seven, and had managed to earn at an early stage of his career the lively hatred of all who upheld slavery. In the Senate he at once took his place among the giants, and remained at this post until his election in 1855 as Governor of Ohio. Joshua R. Giddings stood in the lower House, a conspicuous figure, persistently laying the lash upon the slave-holders, stirring and astonishing the country by his vivid and caustic speeches. The passage in 1850 of the Fugitive Slave Act was effected. against his vigorous opposition. "The farmers of Ohio," he exclaimed, "will never turn out to chase the panting fugitive; they will never be metamorphosed into bloodhounds to track him to his hiding place, and seize and drag him out to deliver him to his tormentors."

Ohio had other stalwart men in Congress and at home who were voicing her views of slavery and her estimate of the twin subject of secession. Upon the suggestion of separation her comment was emphatic. She had "States rights" men, and they made themselves heard. Between these and the emancipation parties stood a strong conservative group, rational in temper and susceptible to

hard facts.

The threat of revolt from the South drew the various elements slowly together. Whigs and Democrats had united in banishing the "black laws." The imminence of war still further shattered the dividing line. Governor Chase's vigorous development of the State militia was fully sanctioned. The citizen soldiers rapidly formed new companies and were massed into regiments whose numbers and discipline had no parallel elsewhere in the West. When Abraham Lincoln was elected to the Presidency he called Chase into his Cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury. His next call upon Ohio was that of the fifteenth of April, 1861, when he asked for troops to defend the Union.

trayed a latent sense of danger. Men and women in every section felt the impelling thrill of patriotism. In a few hours the face of affairs wore a new and striking expression. Mothers gave up their sons, and wives their husbands. The cities. were stirred with excitement. Along the roads leading to the principal towns rolled farm wagons loaded with recruits; and thousands more of Ohio's sons trudged forward on foot.

The Senate at once voted a million dollars to fit

the State for war. Only one senator withheld his sanction from the bill, and he was so roundly rebuked on all hands, and particularly in his own district, that he begged leave to change his vote. The House delayed action for three days and then passed the bill unanimously. In that crucial hour party lines melted utterly away. A mere handful of public men, headed by C. L. Vallandingham, stood out against the loyal movement. It was at these that the Senate aimed a bill declaring any resident of the State who gave aid to the enemy to be guilty of treason and punishable by imprisonment for life.

The representatives of the people were ready to set an example of promptness. The acting speaker took command of troops then starting for Washington. Two senators were made brigadier generals. Senator Garfield secured a commission as colonel and was placed at the head of a regiment whose first recruits were from Hiram Institute, of which he had been a pupil in his struggling youth. Other senators and assembly-men entered various departments of the service.

But the delegates at the capital simply reflected the eager patriotism of the people. The Cleveland Grays, the Columbus Videttes, the Dayton Light Guards and other militia companies in every quarter of the State hastened to offer their services.