Pennsylvania, a Democrat-sought to stem the tide of anti-foreign enthusiasm, or at least force an opinion from his associates upon the great question of the day. Many who had been elected to the house by the old parties had joined the new order, others gave it their sympathy if not support, and still others-not knowing the extent to which it might grow were too politic to declare against it. Mr. Witte decided to bring the house to an expression of opinion upon the new order by offering a series of resolutions denouncing it. Knowing that he could never bring it to a direct vote, he proposed to make the vote upon the suspension of the rules for its adoption a test as to the standing of the members. Accordingly, on February 5, 1855, he obtained consent to read his resolutions, and did so, as follows:

WHEREAS, Discussions have been indulged in this house in committee of the whole, which, with other circumstances, lead to the conviction that there exists in this country an extensive, secret, oath-bound, political association, which seems to interfere with the purity of election and the legislation of the country. Such an association has excited the fears and induced the solemn warning of Washington in his Farewell Address; therefore,

Resolved, That in the opinion of this house, the existence of secret, oath-bound, political associations, having in view an interference with the sanctity of the ballotbox and the direction of the course of National or municipal legislation, is inconsistent with, and dangerous to, the institutions of Republicanism, and directly hostile to the genius of this government.

Resolved, That every attempt to proscribe any class of citizens on account of their religious opinions, or to favor or injure any religious denomination by National legislation, is in direct violation of the spirit of the Constitution of the United States.

Resolved, That while a careful and strict administration of the naturalization laws is a solemn duty, yet every interference with

the guaranteed rights of naturalized citizens is inconsistent with the plighted faith of the Nation, and must diminish its growth and prosperity.

Objection was, of course, immediately raised, and Mr. Witte moved a suspension of the rules, and after some discussion - in which Mr. Jones of Tennessee, feeling, with others, that the time was not ripe for too sure and free a declaration for those who were looking forward to a political future, made the pertinent remark that there will be no good but some harm done here today"- the test vote was reached. The proposition was rejected.

An interesting statement of personal experience relating to slavery was that of the late John Malvin, for years one of the best known colored men of Cleveland. His mother was a free woman and his father a slave; consequently, the boy was never a slave, although reared in a slave-holding neighborhood. In his seventh year he was bound an apprentice to the owner of his father. "Though I was an apprentice," to quote Mr. Malvin's own words, "I was treated little better than a slave myself. For my clothing, I was supplied every year with one pair of shoes, two pairs of towlinen pantaloons, one pair of negro cotton pantaloons and a negro cotton round jacket. My food consisted of one peck of corn meal a week. Sometimes I received a supply of salt, but they were very sparing of that luxury." Of the means to which he was compelled to resort in order to learn to read, Mr. Malvin said: "I knew an old slave who was past labor, and who lived in a cabin three miles from where I did, and who by some means had learned to read. He could read the Bible quite readily, and he consented to teach me to read and spell. We obtained light by means of pine knots, which I would go out and find in the dark by feeling with my feet. We did not dare to talk loud, lest we should be overheard, and had to confine ourselves to whispers."

WHEN thirty-two years of age, Mr. Malvin decided to make his home in Ohio, where, "I thought," said he, "upon coming to a free state like Ohio, I would find every door thrown open to receive me, but from the treatment I received from the people generally I found it little better than Virginia." He found upon the statute books a law that decreed "that no negro or mulatto should be permitted to emigrate to this state, or settle, or acquire a domicile, without first entering into bonds of five hundred dollars, with approved security, conditioned that he would never become a town charge, and that he would keep the peace." And further along: "That no negro or mulatto shall testify in a court of justice or record where a party in a cause there pending was white. No negro or mulatto child shall enter into any of the public schools of this state, or receive the benefit of the school fund. No negro or mulatto shall be permitted to enter any of the institutions of this state, viz: A lunatic asylum, deaf and

dumb asylum, or even the poor-house." "Thus I found every door closed against the colored man in a free state, excepting the jails and penitentiaries, the doors of which were thrown wide open to receive him.” In the above quotations we do not claim to follow the language of the laws, but Mr. Malvin's recollection of their meaning and effect.

AN interesting paragraph in Mr. Malvin's autobiography-written some years before his death-is in relation to the purchase of his wife's father from slavery: "I opened correspondence with his master, and he replied that he would take four hundred dollars for the old man, who was then sixty years of age, and that he would take one hundred dollars down and the balance on time. I got a subscription paper and circulated it, and upon that subscription paper the public kindly donated one hundred dollars. I then made two notes, payable in one and two years, for one hundred and fifty

dollars each, and procured the endorsement thereon of John M. Sterling, sen., Deacon Benjamin Rouse, Judith Richmond and Thomas Whelpley. I sent my wife to Kentucky with the money and notes, and, on paying the one hundred dollars and delivering the notes, her father was released and came with her to Cleveland." Mr. Malvin eventually paid the notes.

IN the very interesting article from the pen of General A. E. Lee, published in this magazine in August last, entitled "The Slave Lucy and the War," no mention was made of the final career of the girl after she was delivered by the courts of Cleveland to her owner and returned to her former home in Wheeling. Mr. Malvin supplies that lack: "After the trial the judge ordered the girl to be delivered up to her master, who took her back with him to Wheeling, where she was placed in jail and severely punished. When the Union army arrived in Wheeling the girl was liberated, and her master, Mr. Goshorn, who had become a prisoner of war, was incarcerated in the same jail in which he had confined Lucy."

WHEN John W. Allen peacefully passed away at his home on Prospect street, Cleveland, on October 5, 1887, the west lost one of its oldest pioneers, and this city one who in times past was counted among its most active and public-spirited citizens. Born in 1802 of a family that united worth and culture in an eminent degree, he graduated from the Harvard Law school, and in 1825 came to Cleveland and entered the law office of Judge Samuel Cowles. During the next forty years he was one of the foremost in all public enterprises and the faithful occupant of numerous public offices. His career was crowned by an election to congress, and a call to the mayoralty chair of the city. Justice could not be done to his career in any memorial that did not follow the growth of Cleveland, step by step, and show his connection with a majority of its great public interests.

Mr. ALLEN's labors in connection with the building of Cleveland's first successful railroad the Cleveland & Columbus, as it was then generally called, would alone stand as the monument of a most useful public man. In a paper prepared in 1884 for the Early Settlers' association, he related some interesting facts in connection with that great venture. The original charter, issued before the great panic of 1837, required a subscription of five hundred thousand dollars, with a down payment of fifty thousand dollars; but the enterprise as then proposed came to naught, and it was not until a number of years later that the real work was commenced. "At the session of 1845-46," said Mr. Allen's narration," applications were made for several railroad charters between the lake and Columbus, which were granted, and the five hundred thousand dollars requisition for the road of the Cleveland company was reduced to fifty thousand dollars and the down payment to five per cent. on that sum, and commissioners appointed for all of them. Thus in the spring of 1846 there were three or four rival projects for a road to Columbus from the lake, either in whole or part, but none of them were unfriendly to Cleveland. We called a meeting of all the commissioners at Mansfield, and at our request they all agreed to give us six months to enable us to carry out our project, and if we were successful, they would rest quietly as to theirs. We went to work actively in getting rights of way, surveying several lines in whole or part, seeking subscriptions, collecting money by donations for expenses, etc., which we could get more readily than stock subscriptions, which last were mostly subject to conditions. When the limitation granted us was about expiring, we were not in a condition to organize, and the writer of this went to Columbus to consult our friends; four of the most prominent men made this proposition: that they would take one-half the required fifty thousand dollars and be directors, and that the writer should select four men at Cleveland and be president, and that they

should provide the other half of said sum, and that a call should be made for a meeting of the subscribers at the earliest day admissible at Columbus, and that on the question of calling for payments the writer should vote with them, and that their checks in the Clinton bank, for the five per cent., should be held till they were ready to pay them."

"THE writer for himself," continues the narration, "agreed to this offer, came home, and his associates here assented, and at the meeting called the records and papers showed a full compliance with law, the officers were chosen, a corporation was formed, and out of these devices grew this road of great and immediate importance to Cleveland."

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT.

WE take pleasure in announcing to the readers of the MAGAZINE of Western HisTORY that, commencing with this first number of Volume VII., the editorial department will be under control of Mr. J. H. Kennedy, who has terminated his various literary engagements that his whole time and service might be given to this work. Mr. Kennedy has had years of experience in editorial management in several important positions, and by study, research, reading and personal investigation, has become thoroughly acquainted with the history of our country, especially in such branches as relate to Ohio and the west. In the many articles from his pen that have appeared in these pages, he has formed so close an acquaintance with our readers that no formal introduction is needed. It remains only for the publishers to add that his contributions will be continued from month to month, and that plans for the improvement of the magazine that have been long in contemplation, will now be carried out.

The success that has crowned our efforts to gather and preserve a history of those events by which the great west was created

At a meeting of the Committee of twenty-one of the Town of Pittsburgh, on Monday morning, 4th August, 1794, report was made to them by the committee of four, who were a part of the committee of Battallions to Braddock's fields, the 2d inst., vizt: That in Committee on Braddock's fields, it was stated on the part of the Committee of four, that the three prescribed persons of the Town of Pittsburgh, vizt.: Abraham Kirkpatrick, James Brison and Edward Day were expelled the Town and had disappeared.

It was then taken into view what other persons were obnoxious, as being suspected of being friendly to the Excise Law, as might appear from letters by them written or otherwise; and on certain letters being read which had been intercepted in the Mail from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, vizt: one from Colo. Presley Neville to his father-in-law, containing in a certain paragraph, words unfavorable to the opposers of the Excise Law, tho' no persons in particular were named; but this being considered a sufficient evidence of his enmity to the cause, it was resolved that he should be expelled the Country within ten Days.

Also on letter from Gen. John Gibson to the Governor of Pennsylvania, which in a certain Paragraph evinc'd a like disposition, by a misstatement made by him in information, which information was thought not to be exact, and which he had too hastily credited, was resolved that he should be subjected to the like sentence, and that the committee of Pittsburgh should carry into effect these measures, necessary for the public safety.

scribed, at the time the people were at Braddock's fields. It is said the circumstance that induced this was facts stated by you; viz., that I had said I would suffer my own house to be made an excise office of, &c. This, if true, was what any citizen is justifiable in doing, but not being so with respect to me, I consider the lie to have been designed for my destruction, and now call on you for your authority. I would not have addressed you on this subject, had I not supposed that you were deceived in your information, and could point out the scoundrel with whom it originated, and from whom I might seek redress for the injuries intended and suffered.

I am Sir, your obedient humble servant
ISAAC CRAIG.
Washington, Pa.

David Bradford, Esq..

Washington, October 5th,, 1794.

SIR-I received yours of the first of this current month, in which you have said that Mr. Brackenridge asserted, in the presence of the commissioners of the United States, that had it not been for his interposition on your behalf at Braddock's fields, that you would have been banished.

I must inform you, that Mr. Brackenridge has either a very treacherous memory, or a strong disposition to assert falsehoods, if he asserts as you state. The truth of the case was, that he evidenced to me the strongest desire to have you banished. I shall state to you his expressions, or at least some of them. You may then judge for yourself.

The first day at Braddock's fields, Mr. Brackenridge told me the people of Pittsburgh were well pleased that the country were about to banish the persons, whose names had been mentioned; he added that they ought to go further, that little Craig ought to be banished, for he was one of the same damned junto. I replied, there appeared to be no ground to proceed against you, that there was no letter of yours intercepted, misstating facts, or the conduct of individuals, to government. Further conversation took place, which had manifestly for its object, to irritate me against you.

The next day, when the commissioners sat, Mr. Brackenridge took me aside, and mentioned to me your conduct after the burning of Neville's house; that you assumed high airs in contempt of everything that had been done by the people; that you had declared in the most positive manner, that you would keep up the letters, designating the office of inspection, at every risk; and though the

people of Pittsburgh requested you to take them down, you would not. In short, that you were determined to keep the office open, in contempt of the then ruling opinion.

He told further, that he put in operation a stratagem to see whether you had the firmness to support all the vaunts and blasts you had made. He said, he went out in the street, and asked the first person he met if he had heard there were 500 of the Washington county people, coming down armed to burn Pittsburgh, because the inspection office was kept open; and the answer was, No. He asked the next he met, the same answer was received; by this means the news was spread over the town in a few minutes, that 500 armed men were approaching the place to burn it, &c. He said the letters were immediately taken down, and torn to pieces; in short, he told me you was one of the warmest sticklers for the revenue law, and that you had been as odious to the citizens of Pittsburgh, and the neighborhood, as the excise officer himself had been.

I then mentioned to Mr. Brackenridge, that he had better state to the commissioners the circumstances he had just related to me he said it was disagreeable to him, as he lived in the same place; I replied that I would open the way, and immediately stated to the commissioners a report which I had heard, respecting your conduct after the burning of Neville's house, and stated precisely what Mr. Brackenridge had stated, one minute before, not mentioning from whom I had the report. I observed, as it was only a report, it would be improper to take it up as true, till it could be discovered whether true or false. I then called on the gentlemen from Pittsburgh, to give information, if they knew anything against you. Mr. Wilkins observed that he did not know of anything against you. McMasters to the like effect, and Mr. Brackenridge also concurred. He declined to give the narrative which he had done to me just before, though I opened the way, on what principle I know not.

Mr.

I shall mention another circumstance, though it does not concern you; perhaps, obviate false insinuations, which he may be disposed to make. On the morning of the second day's meeting of the commissioners, at Parkinson's ferry, Mr. Brackenridge told me that there was a young man, who wrote in Brison's office, attending the commissioners for the purpose of presenting a petition for the return of Brison. He wished me to oppose it, suggesting reasons, that he had always been a pest to them, at Pittsburgh; that he was a great friend to the excise, alluding to a