Medina County, Ohio - Chapter 13: Ohio in the Centennial - Address of Edward D. Mansfield, Ll. D., Philadelphia, August 9, 1876, 1881

Chapter 13: Ohio in the Centennial - Address of Edward D. Mansfield, Ll. D., Philadelphia, August 9, 1876

(s hundred years ago, the whole territory, from the Alleghany to the Rocky Mountains was a wilderness, inhabited only by wild beasts and Indians. The Jesuit and Moravian missionaries were the only white men who had penetrated the wilderness or beheld its mighty lakes and rivers. While the thirteen old colonies were declaring their independence, the thirteen new States, which now lie in the western interior, had no existence, and gave no sign of the future. The solitude of nature was unbroken by the steps of civilization. The wisest statesman had not contemplated the probability of the coming States, and the boldest patriot did not dream that this interior wilderness should soon contain a greater population than the thirteen old States, with all the added growth of one hundred years.

Ten years after that, the old States had ceded their Western lands to the General Government, and the Congress of the United States had passed the ordinance of 1785, for the survey of the publie territory, and, in 1787, the celebrated ordinance which organized the Northwestern Territory, and dedicated it to freedom and intelligence.

Fifteen years after that, and more than a quarter of a century after the Declaration of Independence, the State of Ohio was admitted into the Union, being the seventeenth which accepted the Constitution of the United States. It has sinee grown up to be great, populous and prosperous under the influence of those ordinances. At her admittance, in 1803, the tide of emigration had begun to flow over the Alleghanies into the Valley of the Mississippi, and, although no steamboat, no railroad then existed, nor even a stage coach helped the immigrant, yet the wooden "ark" on the Ohio, and the heavy wagon, slowly winding over the mountains, bore these tens of thousands to the wilds of.Kentucky and the plains of Ohio. In the spring of 1788 - the first year of settlement - four thousand five hundred persons passed the mouth of the Muskingum in three months, and the tide continued to pour on for half a century in a widening stream, mingled with all the races of Europe and America, until now, in the hundredth year of America'sindependence, the five States of the Northwestern Territory, in the wilderness of 1776, contain ten millions of people, enjoying all the blessings which peace and prosperity, freedom and Christianity,can confer upon any people. Of these five States, born under the ordinance of 1787, Ohio is the first, oldest, and, in many things, the greatest. In some things it is the greatest State in the Union. Let us, then, attempt, in the briefest terms, to draw an outline portrait of this great and remarkable commonwealth.

- 40,000 square miles. It lies between Lake Erie and the Ohio River, having 200 miles of navigable waters, on one side flowing into the Atlantie Ocean, and on the other into the Gulf of Mexico. Through the lakes, its vessels touch on 6,000 miles of | interior coast, and, through the Mississippi, on 26,000 miles of river coast; so that a citizen of Ohio may pursue his navigation through 42,000 miles, allin his own country, and all within navigable reach of his own State. He who has cireumnavigated the globe, has gone but little more than half the distance which the citizen of Ohio finds within his natural reach in this vast interior. Looking upon the surface of this State, we find no mountains, no barren sands, no marshy wastes, no lava-covered plains, but one broad, compact

Ohio flows tranquilly by its side. More than three times the surface of Belgium, and one-third of the whole of Italy, it has more natural resources in proportion than either, and is capable of ultimately face in Europe. Looking from this great arable surface, where upon the very hills the grass and the forest trees now grow exuberant and abundant, we find that underneath this surface, and easily accessible, lie 10,000 square miles of coal, and 4,000 square miles of iron - coal and iron enough to supply the basis of manufacture for a world! All this vast deposit of metal and fuel does not interrupt or take from that arable surface at all. There you may find in one place the same machine bringing up coal and salt water from below, while the wheat and the corn grow upon the surface above. The immense masses of coal, iron, salt and freestone deposited below have not in any way diminished the fertility and production of the soil.

It has been said by some writer that the character of a people is shaped or modified by the character of the country in which they live. If the people of Switzerland have acquired a certain air of liberty and independence from the rugged mountains around which they live; if the people of Southern Italy, or beautiful France, have acquired a tone of ease and politeness from their mild and genial clime, so the people of Ohio, placed amidst such a wealth of nature, in the temperate zone, should show the best fruits of peaceful industry and the best culture of Christian civilization. Have they done so? Have their own labor and arts and culture come up to the advantages of thcir natural situation? Let us examine this growth and their product.

The first settlement of Ohio was made by a colony from New England, at the mouth of the Muskingum. It was literally a remnant of the officers of the Revolution. Of this colony no praise of the historian can be as competent, or as strong, a5 the language of Washington. He says, in answer to inquiries addressed to him: "No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has just commenced at the Muskingum. Information, prosperity and strength will be its characteristics. I know many of the settlers personally, and thero never were men better calculated to promote the welfaro of such a community;" and he adds that if he were a young man, he knows no country in which he would sooner settle than in this Western region." This colony, left alone for a time, made its own government and nailed its laws to a tree in the vilage, an early indication of that law-abiding and peaceful spirit which has since made Ohio a just and well-ordered community. The subsequent settlements on the Miami and Scioto wcre made by citizens of New Jersey and Virginia, and it is certainly remarkable that among all the early immigration, there were no ignorant people. In the language of Washington, they came with " information," qualified to promote the welfare of the community.

Soon after the settlement on the Muskingum and the Miami, the great wave of migration fiowed on to the plains and valleys of Ohio and Kentucky. Kentucky had been settled earlier, but the main body of emigrants in subsequent years went into Ohio, influenced partly by the great ordinance of 1787, securing freedom and schools forever, and partly by the greater security of titles under the survey and guarantee of the United States Government. Soon the new State grew up, with a rapidity which, until then, was unknown in the history of civilization. On the Muskingum, where the buffalo had roamed; on the Scioto, where the Shawanees had built their towns; on the Miami, where the great chiefs of the Miamis had reigned; on the plains of Sandusky, yet red with the blood of the white man; on the Maumee, whcre Wayne, by the victory of the " Fallen Timbers," had broken the power of the Indian confederacy - the emigrants from the old States and from Europe came in to cultivate the fields, to build up towns, and to rear the institutions of Christian civilization, until the single State of Ohio is greater in numbers, wealth, and education, than was the whole American Union when the Declaration of Independence was made.

Let us now look at the statistics of this growth and magnitude, as they are exhibited in the census of the United States. "Taking intervals of twenty years, Ohio had: In 1810, 220,760; in 1830, 937,903; in 1850, 1.980,329; in 1870, 2,665,260. Add to this the increase of population in the last six years, and Ohio now has, in round numbers, 3,000,000 of people - half a 'million more than the thirteen States in 1776; and her cities and towns have to-day six times the population of all the cities of America one hundred years ago. This State is now the third in numbers and wealth, and the first in some of those institutions which mark the progress of mankind. That a small part of the wilderness of 1776 should be more populous than the whole Union was then, and that it should have made a social and moral advance greater than that of any nation in the same time, must be regarded as one of the most startling and instructive facts which attend this year of commemoration. If such has been the social growth of Ohio, let us look at its physical development; this is best expressed by the aggregate productions of the labor and arts of a people applied to the earth. In the census statistics of the United States these are expressed in the aggregate results of agriculture, mining, manufactures, and commerce. Let us simplify these statistics, by comparing the aggregate and ratios as between several States, and between Ohio and some countries of Europe.

The aggregate amount of grain and potatoes - farinaceous food, produced in Ohio in 1870 was 134,938,413 bushels, and in 1874, there were 157,- 323,597 bushels, being the largest aggregate amount raised in any State but one, Illinois, and larger per square mile than Illinois or any other State in the country. The promises of nature were thus vindicated by the labor of man; and the industry of Ohio has fulfilled its whole duty to the sustenance of the country and the world. She has raised more grain than ten of the old States together, and more than half raised by Great Britain or by France. I have not the recent statistics of Europe, but McGregor, in his statistics of nations for 1832 - a period of profound peace - gives the following ratios for the leading countries of Europe: Great Britain, area 120,324 miles; amount of grain, 262,500,000 bushels; rate per square mile, 2,190 to 1; Austria - area 258,603 miles; amount of grain, 366,800,000 bushels; rate per square mile, 1,422 to 1; France - area 215,858 miles; amount of grain, 233,847,300 bushels ; rate per square mile, 1,080 to l. The State of Ohio - area per square miles, 40,000; amount of grain, 150,000,000 bushels ; rate per square mile, 3,750. Combining the great countries of Great Britain, Austria, and France, we find that they had 594,785 square miles and produced 863,147,300 bushels of grain, which was, at the time these statistics were taken, 1,450 bushels per square mile, and ten bushels to each one of the population. Ohio, on the other hand, had 3,750 bushels per square mile, and fifty bushels to each one of the population; that is, there was five

As letters make words, and words express ideas, so these dry figures of statistics express facts, and these facts make the whole history of civilization.

Let us now look at the statistics of domestic animals. . These are always indicative of the state of society in regard to the physical comforts. The horse must furnish domestic conveyances; the cattle must furnish the products of the dairy, as well as meat, and the sheep must furnish wool.

Let us see how Ohio compares with other States and with Europe: In 1870, Ohio had 8,818,000 domestie animals ; Illinois, 6,925,000 ; New York, 5,283,000; Pennsylvania, 4,493,000; and other States less. The proportion to population in these States was, in Ohio, to each person, 3.3; Illinois, 2.7; New York, 1.2; Pennsylvania, 1.2.

Let us now see the proportion of domestic animals in Europe. The results given by MeGregor's statistics are: In Great Britain, to each person, 2.44; Russia, 2.00; France, 1.50 ; Prussia, 1.02; Austria, 1.00. It will be seen that the proportion in Great Britain is only two-thirds that of Ohio; in France, only one-half; and in Austria and Prussia only one-third. It may be said that, in the course of civilization, the number of animals diminishes as the density of population increases ; and, therefore, this result might have been expected in the old countries of Europe. But this does not apply to Russia or Germany, still less to other States in this country. Russia in Europe has not more than half the density of population now in Ohio. Austria and Prussia have less than 150 to the square mile. The whole of the north of Europe has not so dense a population as the State of Ohio, still less have the States of Illinois and Missouri, west of Ohio. Then, therefore, Ohio showing a larger proportion of domestic animals than the north of Europe, or States west of her, with a population not so dense, we see at once there must be other causes to produce such a phenomenon.

Looking to some of the incidental results of this vast agricultural production, we see that the United States exports to Europe immense amounts of grain and provisions; and that there is manufactured in this country an immense amount of woolen goods. Then, taking these statistics of the raw material, we find that Ohio produces one-fifth of all the wool; one-seventh of all the cheese; oneeighth of all the corn, and one-tenth of all the wheat ; and yet Ohio has but a fourteenth part of the population, and one-eightieth part of the surface of this country,

Of Ohio

Let us take another - a commercial view of this matter. We haveseen that Ohio raises five times as much grain per square mile as is raised per square mile in the empires of Great Britain, France and Austria, taken together. After making allowance for the differences of living, in the working classes of this country, at least two-thirds of the food and grain of Ohio are a surplus beyond the necessities of life, and, therefore, so much in the commercial balance of exports. This corresponds | with the fact, that, in the shape of grain, meat, liquors and dairy products, this vast: surplus is constantly moved to the Atlantic States and to Europe. The money value of this exported product is equal to $100,000,000 per annum, and to a solid capital of $1,500,000,000, after all the sustenance of the people has been taken out of the annual crop.

We are speaking of agriculture alone. We are speaking of a State which began its career more than a quarter of a century after the Declaration of Independence was made. And now, it may be asked, what is the real cause of this extraordinary result, which, without saying anything invidious of other States, we may safely say has never been surpassed in any country? We have already stated two of the advantages possessed by Ohio. The first is that it is a compact, unbroken body of arable land, surrounded and intersected by watercourses, equal to all the demands of commerce and navigation. Next, that it was secured forever to freedom and intelligence by the ordinance of 1787. The intelligence of its future people was secured by immense grants of public lands for the purpose of education; but neither the blessings of nature, nor the wisdom of laws, could obtain such results without the continuous labor of an intelligent people. Such it had, and we have only to take the testimony of Washington, already quoted, and the statistical results I have given, to prove that no people has exhibited more steady industry, nor has any people directed their labor with more intelligence.

After the agricultural capacity and production of a country, its most important physical feature is its mineral products; its capacity for coal and iron, the two great elements of material civilization. If we were to take away from Great Britain her capacity to produce coal in such vast quantities, we should reduce her to a third-rate position, no longer numbered among the great nations of the earth. Coal has smelted her iron, run her steam engines, and is the basis of her manufactures. But when we compare the coal fields of Great

Britain with those of this country, they are insignificant. The coal fields of all Kurope are small compared with those of the central United States. The coal district of Durham and Northumberland, in England, is only 880 square miles. There are other districts of smaller extent, making in the whole probably one-half the extent of that in Ohio. The English coal-beds are represented as more important, in reference to extent, on account of their thickness. There is a small coal district in Lancashire, where the workable coal-beds are in all 150 feet in thickness. But this involves, as is well known, the necessity of going to immense depths and incurring immense expense. On the other hand, the workable coal-beds of Ohio are near the surface, and some of them require no excavating, except that of the horizontal lead from the mine to the river or the railroad. In one county of Ohio there are three beds of twelve, six and four feet each, within fifty feet of the surface. At some of the mines having the best coal, the lead from the mines is nearly horizontal, and just high enough to dump the coal into the railroad cars. These coals are of all qualities, from that adapted to the domestic fire to the very best quality for smelting or manufacturing iron. Recollecting these facts, let us try to get an idea of the coal district of Ohio. The bituminous coal region deescending the western slopes of the Alleghanies, occupies large portions of Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. I suppose that this coal field is not less than fifty thousand square miles, exclusive of Western Maryland and the southern terminations of that field in Georgia and Alabama. Of this vast field of coal, exceeding anything found in Europe, about onefifth part lies in Ohio. Prof. Mather, in his report on the geology of the State (first Geological Report of the State) says:

"The coal-measures within Ohio occupy a space of about one hundred and eighty miles in length by eighty in breadth at the widest part, with an area of about ten thousand square miles, extending along the Ohio from Trumbull County in the north to near the mouth of the Scioto in the south. The regularity in the dip, and the moderate inclination of the strata, afford facilities to the mines not known to those of most other countries, especially Great Britain, where the strata in which the coal is imbedded have been broken and thrown out of place since its deposit, occasioning many slips and faults, and causing much labor and expense in again recovering the bed. In Ohio there is very

Now, taking into consideration these geological facts, let us look at the extent of the Ohio coal field. It occupies, wholly or in part, thirty-six counties, including, geographically, 14,000 square miles ; but leaving out fractions, and reducing the Ohio coal field within its narrowest limits, it is 10,000 square miles in extent, lies near the surface, and hasonan average twenty feet thickness of workable coal-beds. Let us compare this with the coal mines of Durham and Northumberland (England), the largest and best coal mines there. That coal district is estimated at 850 square miles, twelve feet thick, and is calculated to contain 9,000,000,- 000 tons of coal. The coal field of Ohio is twelve times larger and one-third thicker. Estimated by that standard, the coal field of Ohio contains 180,- 000,000,000 tons of coal. Marketed at only $2 per ton, this coal is worth $360,000,000,000, or, in other words, ten times as much as the whole valuation of the United States at the present time. But we need not undertake to estimate either its quantity or value. It is enough to say that it is a quantity which we can scarcely imagine, which is tenfold that of England, and which is enough to supply the entire continent for ages to come.

After coal, iron is beyond doubt the most valuable mineral product of a State. As the material of manufacture, it is the most important. What are called the " precious metals" are not to

2 compared with it as an clement of industry or profit. But since no manufactures can be successfully carried on without fuel, coal becomes the first material element of the arts. Iron is unquestionably the next. Ohio has an iron district extending from the mouth of the Scioto River to some point north of the Mahoning River, in Trumbull County. The whole length is nearly two hundred miles, and the breadth twenty miles, making, as near as we can ascertain, 4,000 square miles. The iron in this district is of various qualities, and is manufactured largely into bars and castings. In this iron district are one hundred furnaces, forty-four rollingmills, and fifteen rail-mills, being the largest number of either in any State in the Union, except only Pennsylvania.

Although only the seventeenth State in its admission, I find that, by the census statistics of 1870, itisthe third State in the production of iron and iron manufactures. Already, and within the life of one man, this State begins to show what must in future time be the vast results of coal and iron, applied to the arts and manufactures. In the year 1874, there were 420,000 tons of pig iron produced in Ohio, which is larger than the product of any State, except Pennsylvania. The product and the manufacture of iron in Ohio have increased so rapidly, and the basis for increase is so great, that we may not doubt that Ohio will continue to be the greatest producer of iron and iron fabrics, except only Pennsylvania. At Cincinnati, the iron manufacture of the Ohio Valley is concentrating, and at Cleveland the ores of Lake Superior are being smelted.

After coal and iron, we may place salé among the necessaries of life. In connection with the coal region west of the Alleghanies, there lies in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, a large space of country underlaid by the salt rock, which already produces immense amounts of salt. Of this, Ohio has its full proportion. In a large section of the southeastern portion of the State, salt is produced without any known limitation. At Pomeroy and other points, the salt rock lies about one thousand feet below the surface, but salt water is brought easily to the surface by the steam engine. There, the salt rock, the coal seam, and the noble sandstone lie in successive strata, while the green corn and the yellow wheat bloom on the surface above. The State of Ohio produced, in 1874, 3,500,000 bushels of salt, being one-fifth of all produced in the United States. "The salt section of Ohio is exceeded only by that of Syracuse, New York, and of Saginaw, Michigan. There is no definite limit to the underlying salt rock of Ohio, and, therefore, the production will be proportioned only to the extent of the demand.

Having now considered the resources and the products of the soil and the mines of Ohio, we may properly ask how far the people have employed their resources in the increase of art and manufacture. We have two modes of comparison, the rate of increase within the State, and the ratio they bear to other States. The aggregate value of the products of manufacture, exclusive of mining, in the last three censuses were: in 1850, $62.692.000; in 1860, $121,691,000; in 1870, $269,713,000.

The ratio of increase was over 100 per cent in each ten years, a rate far beyond that of the increase of population, and much beyond the ratio of increase in the whole country. In 1850, the manufactures of Ohio were one-sixteenth part of the part; in 1870, one-twelfth part. In addition. to this, we find, from the returns of Cincinnati and Cleveland, that the value of the manufactured products of Ohio in 1875, must have reached $400,- 000,000, and, by reference to the census tables, it will be seen that the ratio of increase exceeded that of the great manufacturing States of New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Of all the States admitted into the Union prior to Ohio, Pennsylvania alone has kept pace in the progress of manufacture. Some little reference to the manufacture of leading articles may throw some light on the cause of this. In the production of agricultural machinery and implements, Ohio is the first State; in animal and vegetable oils and in pig iron, the second; in cas iron and in tobacco, the third ; in salt, in machinery and in leather, the fourth. These facts show how largely the resources of coal, iron and agriculture have entered into the manufactures of the State. This great advance in the manufactures of Ohio, when we consider that this State is, relatively to its surface, the first agricultural State in the country, leads to the inevitable inference that its people are remarkably industrious. When, on forty thousand square miles of surface, threc millions of people raise one hundred and fifty million bushels of grain, and produce manufactures to the amount of $269,000,000 (which is fifty bushels of breadstuff to each man, woman and child, and $133 of manufacture), it will be difficult to find any community surpassing such results. Itis a testimony, not only to the State of Ohio, but to the industry, sagacity and energy of the American people.

Looking now to the commerce of the State, we have said there are six hundred miles of coast line, which embraces some of the principal internal ports of the Ohio and the lakes, such as Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo and Portsmouth, but whose commerce is most wholly inland. Of course, no comparison ean be made with the foreign commerce of the ocean ports. On the other hand, it is well known that the inland trade of the country far exceeds that of all its foreign commerce, and that the largest part of this interior trade is carried on its rivers and lakes. The materials for the vast consumption of the interior must be conveyed in its vessels, whether of sail or steam, adapted to these waters. Let us take, then, the ship-building, the navigation, and the exchange trades of Ohio, as elements in determining the position of this State in reference to the commerce of the country. At the ports of Cleveland, Toledo, Sandusky and Cincinnati, there have been built one thousand sail and Steam vessels in the last twenty years, making an average of fifty each year. The number of sail, steam and all kinds of vessels in Ohio is eleven | hundred and ninety, which is equal to the number in all the other States in the Ohio Valley and the Upper Mississippi.

When we look to the navigable points to which these vessels are destined. we find them on all this vast coast line, which extends from the Gulf of Mexico to the Yellowstone, and from Duluth to the St. Lawrence.

Looking again to see the extent of this vast interior trade which is handled by Ohio alone, we find that the imports and exports of the principal articles of Cincinnati, amount in value to $500, 000,000; and when we look at the great trade of Cleveland and Toledo, we shall find that the annual trade of Ohio exceeds $700,000,000. The lines of railroad which connect with its ports, are more than four thousand miles in length, or rather more than one mile in length to each ten square miles of surface. This great amount of railroads is engaged not merely in transporting to the Atlantic and thence to Europe, the immense surplus grain and meat in Ohio, but in carrying the largest part of that greater surplus, which exists in the States west of Ohio, the granary of the West. Ohio holds the. gateway of every railroad north of the Ohio, from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, and hence it is that the great transit lines of the country pass through Ohio.

Let us now turn from the progress of the arts to the progress of ideas; from material to intellectual development. It is said that a State'consists of men, and history shows that no art or science, wealth or power, will compensate for the want of moral or intellectual stability in the minds of. a nation. Hence, it is admitted that the strength and perpetuity of our republic must consist in the intelligence and morality of the people. A republic can last only when the people are enlightened. This was an axiom with the early legislators of this country. Hence it was that when Virginia, Connecticut and the original colonies ceded to the General Government that vast and then unknown wilderness which lay west of the Alleghanies, in the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, they took care that its future inhabitants should be an educated people. The Constitution was not formed when the celebrated ordinance of 1787 was passed.

government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged;" and by the ordinance of 1785 for the survey of public lands in the Northwestern Territory, Section 16 in each township, that is, one thirty-sixth part, was reserved for the maintenance of public schools in said townships. As the State of Ohio contained a little more than twenty-five millions of acres, this, together with two special grants of three townships to universities, amounted to the dedication of 740,000 acres of land to the maintenance of schools and colleges. It was a splendid endowment, but it was many years before it became available. It was sixteen years after the passage of this ordinance (in 1803), when Ohfo entered the Union, and legislation upon this grant became possible. The Constitution of the State pursued the language of the ordinance, and declared that "schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged by legislative provision." The Governors of Ohio, in successive messages, urged attention to this subject upon the people; but the thinness of settlement, making it impossible, except in few districts, to collect youth in sufficient numbers, and impossible to sell or lease

This was again enlarged and increased by new legislation in 1836 and 1846. From that time to this, Ohio has had a broad, liberal and efficient system of publicinstruction. The taxation for schools, and the number enrolled in them at different periods, will best show what has becn done. In 1855 the total taxation for school purposes was

2,672,827. The proportion of youth of schoolable age enrolled was 67 per cent. In 1874 the amount raised by taxation was $7,425,135. The number enrolled of schoolable age was 70 per cent, or 707,943.

As the schoolable age extends to twenty-one years, and as there very few youth in school after fifteen years of age, it follows that the 70 per cent of schoolable youths enrolled in the public schools must comprehend nearly the whole | number between four and fifteen years. It is important to observe this fact, because it has been inferred that, as the whole number of youth between five and twenty-one have not been enrolled, therefore they are not educated. This is a mistake; nearly all over fifteen years of age have been in the public schools, and all the native youth of the State, and all foreign born, young enough, have had the benefit of the publie schools. But in consequence of the large number who have come from other States and from foreign countries, there are still a few who are classed by the census statistics among the "'illiterate;" the proportion of this class, however, is less in proportion than in twenty-eight other States, and less in proportion than in Connecticut and Massachusetts, two of the oldest States most noted for popular education. In fact, every youth in Ohio, under twenty-one years of age, may have the benefit of a | publie education; and, since the system of graded and high schools has been adopted, may obtain a common knowledge from the alphabet to the classics. The enumerated branches of study in the public schools of Ohio are thirty-four, including mathematics and astronomy, French, German and the classics. Thus the State which was in the heart of the wilderness in 1776, and was not a State until the nineteenth century had begun, now presents to the world, not merely an unrivaled development of material prosperity, but an unsurpassed system of popular education.

In whatis called the higher edueation, in the colleges and universities, embracing the classies and sciences taught in regular classes, it is the popular idea, and one which few dare to question, that we must look to the Eastern States for superiority and excellence; but that also is becoming an assumption without proof; a proposition difficult to sustain. The facts in regard to the education of universities and colleges, their faculties, students and course of instruction, are all set forth in the complete statistics of the Bureau of Education for 1874. They show that the State of Ohio had the largest number of such institutions; the largest number of instructors in their faculties, except one State, New York; and the largest number of students in regular college classes, in proportion to their population, except the two States of Connectieut and Massachusetts. Perhaps, if we look at the statistics of classical students in the colleges, disregarding preparatory and irregular courses, we shall get a more accurate idea of the progress of the higher education in tbose States which claim the best. In Ohio, 36 colleges, 258 teachers, 2,139 students, proportion, 1 in 124; in Pennsylvania, 27 colleges, 239 teachers, 2,359 students, proportion, 1 in 150; in New York, 26 colleges, 343 teachers, 2,764 students, proportion, 1 in 176; in thesix New England States, 17 colleges, 252 teachers, 2,241 students, proportion, 1 in 105; in Illi-

This shows there are more collegiate institutions in Ohio than in all New England ; a greater number of college teachers, and only a little smaller ratio of students to the population; a greater number of such students than eitherin New York or Pennsylvania, and, as a broad, general fact, Ohio has made more progress in education than either of the old States which formed the American Union. Such a factis a higher testimony to thestrength and the beneficent influence of the American Government than any which the statistician or the historian can advance.

Let us now turn to the moral aspects of the people of Ohio. No human society is found without its poor and dependent classes, whether made so by the defects of nature, by acts of Providence, or by the accidents of fortune. Since no society is exempt from these classes, it must be judged noi so much by the fact of their existence, as by the manner in which it treats them. In the civilized nations of antiquity, such as Greece and Rome, hospitals, infirmaries, orphan homes, and asylums for the infirm, were unknown. These are the creations of Christianity, and that must be esteemed practically the most Christian State which most practices this Christian beneficence. In Ohio, as in all the States of this country, and of all Christian countries, there is a large number of the infirm and dependent classes; but, although Ohio is the third State in population, she is only the fourteenth in the proportion of dependent classes. The more important point, however, was, how does she treat them? Is there wanting any of all the varied institutions of benevolence? How does she compare with other States and countries in this respect? It is believed that no State or country can present a larger proportion of all these institutions which the benevolence of the wise and good have suggested for the alleviation of suffering and misfortune, than the State of Ohio. With 3,500 of the insane within her borders, she has five great lunatic asylums, capable of accommodating them all. She has asylums for the deaf and dumb, the idiotic, and the blind. She has the best hospitals in the country. She has schools of reform and houses of refuge. She has "homes" for the boys and girls, to the number of 800, who are children of soldiers. She has penitentiaries and jails, orphan asylums and infirmaries. In every county there is an infirmary, and in every public institution, except the penitentiary, there is a school. So that the State has used every human means to relieve the suffering, to instruct the ignorant, and to reform the criminal. There are in the State 80,000 who come under all the various forms of the infirm, the poor, the sick and the criminal, who, in a greater or less degree, make the dependent class. For these the State kas made every provision which humanity or justice or intelligence can require. A young State, developed in the wilderness, she challenges, without any invidious comparison, both Europe and America, to show her superior in the development of humanity manifested in the benefaction of public institutions.

Jntimately connected with public morals and with charitable institutions, is the religion of a people. The people of the United States area Christian people. The people of Ohio have manifested their zeal by the erection of churches, of Sunday schools, and of religious institutions. So far as,these are outwardly manifested, they are made known by the social statistics of the census. The number of*church organizations in the leading States were: In the State of Ohio, 6,488; in the State of New York, 5,627: in the State of Pennsylvania, 5,984 ; in the State of Illinois, 4,298. It thus appears that Ohio had a larger number of churches than any State of the Union. The number of sittings, however, was not quite as large as those in New York and Pennsylvania. The denominations are of all the sects known in this country, about thirty in number, the majority of the whole being Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists. Long before the American Independence, the Moravians had settled on the Mahoning and Tuscarawas Rivers, but only to be destroyed ; and when the peace with Great Britain was made, not a vestige of Christianity remained on the soil of Ohio; yet we see that within ninety ycars from that time the State of Ohio was, in the number of its churches, the first of this great Union.

In the beginning of this address, I said that Ohio was the oldest and first of these great States, carved out of the Northwestern Territory, and that it was in some things the greatest State of the American Union. Ihave now traced the physical, commercial, intellectual and moral features of the State during the seventy-five years of its constitutional history. The result is to establish fully the propositions with which I began. These facts have brought out: of the American Union; this, too, notwithstanding it has 800,000 in cities and towns, and a large development of capital and products in manufactures.

2. That Ohio has raised more grain per square mile than either France, Austria, or Great Britain. They raised 1,450 bushels per square mile, and 10 bushels to each person. Ohio raised 3,750 bushels per square mile and 50 bushels to each one of the population ; or, in other words, five times the proportion of grain raised in Europe.

3. Ohio was the first State of the Union in the production of domestic animals, being far in advance of either New York, Pennsylvania or Illinois. The proportion of domestic animals to each person in Ohio was three and one-third, and in New York and Pennsylvania less than half that. The largest proportion of domesti¢ animals produced in Europe was in Great Britain and Russia, neither of which come near that of Ohio.

4. The coal-field of Ohio is vastly greater than that of Great Britain, and we need make no comparison with other States in regard to coal or iron; for the 10,000 square miles of coal, and 4,000 square miles of iron in Ohio, are enough to supply the whole American continent for ages to como.

9. Neither need we compare the results of commerce and navigation, since, from the ports of Cleveland and Cincinnati, the vessels of Ohio touch on 42,000 miles of coast, and her 5,000 miles of railroad carry her products to every part of the American continent.

6. Notwithstanding the immense proportion and products of agriculture in Ohio, yet she has more than kept pace with New York and New England in the progress of manufactures during the last twenty years. Her coal and iron are producing their legitimate results in making her a great manufacturing State.

7. Ohio is the first State in the Union as to the proportion of youth attending school; and the States west of the Alleghanies and north of the Ohio have more youth in school, proportionably, than New England and New York. The facts on this subject are so extraordinary that I may be excused for giving them a little in detail.

The proportion of youth in Ohio attending school to the population, is 1 in 4.2; in Illinois, f in 4.3; in Pennsylvania, 1 in 4.8; in New York, : in 5.2; in Connecticut and Massachusetts, 1 in

These proportions show that it is in the West, and not in the East, that education is now advancing; and it is here that we see the stimulus given by the ordinance of 1787, is working out its great and beneficent results. The land grant for education was a great one, but, at last, its chief effort was in stimulating popular education; for the State of Ohio has taxed itself tens of millions of dollars beyond the utmost value of the land grant, to found and maintain a system of publie education which the world has not surpassed.

We have seen that above and beyond all this material and intellectual development, Ohio has provided a vast benefaction of asylums, hospitals, and infirmaries, and special schools for the support and instruction of the dependent classes. There is not within all her borders a single one of the deaf, dumb, and blind, of the poor, sick, and insane, not an orphan or a vagrant, who is not provided for by the broad and generous liberality of the State and her people. A charity which the classic ages knew nothing of, a beneficence which the splendid hierarchies and aristocracies of Europe cannot equal, has been exhibited in this young State, whose name was unknown one hundred years ago, whose people, from Europe to the Atlantic, and from the Atlantic to the Ohio, were, like Adam and Eve, cast out - " the world before them where to choose."

Lastly, we see that, although the third in population, and the seventeenth in admission to the Union, Ohio had, in 1870, 6,400 churches, the largest number in any one State, and numbering among them every form of Christian worship. The people, whose fields were rich with grain, whose mines were boundless in wealth, and whose commerce extended through thousands of miles of lakes and rivers, came here, as they came to New England's rock-bound coast -

The church and the schoolhouse rose beside the green fields, and the morning bells rang forth to cheerful children going to school, and to a Christian people going to the church of God.

Let us now look at the possibilities of Ohio in the future development of the American Republian Republic. The two most populous parts of Europe, because the most food-producing, are the Netherlands and Italy, or, more precisely, Belgium and ancient Lombardy ; to the present time, their population is, in round numbers, three hundred to the square mile. The density of population in England proper is about the same. We may assume, therefore, that three hundred to the square mile is, in round numbers, the limit of comfortable | that of a cultivated plant. We know the resources subsistence under modern civilization. It is true | of the country, its food-producing capacity, its that modern improvements in agricultural machin- | art processes, its power of education, and the undeery and fertilization have greatly increased the | fined and illimitable power of the human mind capacity of production, on a given amount of | for new inventions and unimagined progress. With land, with a given amount of labor. It is true, | this knowledge, it is not difficult nor unsafe to say also, that the old countries of Europe do not | that the future will produce more, and ina far possess an equal amount of arable land with Ohio | greater ratio, than the past. The pictured scenes in proportion to the same surface. It would seem, | of the prophets have already been more than fultherefore, that the density of population in Ohio | filled, and the visions of beauty and glory, which might exceed that of any part of Europe. On | their imagination failed fully to describe, will be the other hand, it may be said with truth that the ; more than realized in the bloom of that garden American people will not become so dense as in | which republican America will present to the Europe while they have new lands in the West | eyes of astonished mankind. Long before another to occupy. This is true; but lands such as those | century shall have passed by, the single State of in the valley of the Ohio are now becoming | Ohio will present fourfold the population with which scarce in the West, and we think that, with her | the thirteen States began their independence, more great capacity for the production of grain on one | wealth than the entire Union now has; greater hand, and of illimitable quantities of coal and ! universities than any now in the country, and a iron to manufacture with on the other, that Ohio | development of arts and manufacture which the will, at no remote period, reach nearly the density | world now knows nothing of. You have seen of Belgium, which will give her 10,000,000 of | more than that since the Constitution was adopted, people. This seems extravagant, but the tide of | and what right have you to say the future shall migration, which flowed so fast to the West, is ; not equal the past ? beginning to ebb, while the manufactures of the I have aimed, in this address, to give an exact interior offer greater inducements. picture of what Ohio is, not more for the sake of With population comes wealth, the material for | Ohio than as a representation of the products education, the development of the arts, advance which the American Republic has given to the j l | | in all the material elements of civilization, and the | world. A State which began long after the still grander advancements in the strength and | Declaration of Independence, in the then unknown elevation of the human mind, conquering to itself | wilderness of North America, presents to-day new realms of material and intellectual power, | the fairest example of what a republican governacquiring in the future what we have seen in the | ment with Christian civilization can do. Look past, a wealth of resources unknown and undreamed | upon this picture and upon those of Assyria, of when, a hundred years ago, the fathers of the | of Greece or Rome, or of Europe in her best republic declared their independence. I know | estate, and say where is the civilization of the how easy itis to treat this statement with easy | earth which can equal this. Ifa Roman citizen could say with pride, * Civis Romanus sum," with far elements of civilization are now measured, and we | greater pride can you say this day, "I am an know the progress of the human race as we know | American citizen."