The Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1863-1886, 1865-12-28
gseu From the ohio State Journal,
DEATH OF THOMAS CoRwIx.
Vivid Description OF the scene ana i,s
1neIdents.
ELOQUENT AND TOUCHING TRIBUTE FROM
Az OLD FRIEND or MR.. coawrs.

ELOQUENT AND TOUCHING TRIBUTE FROM
Ar OLD FRIEND or Mr.. coawIs.
I" WASHINGTON, December 10, 1866.
DEAR SIR-It has mover been deem
cd an invasion Of the sanctuary Of pri.
! yate life to preserve for the world and
history the last ntterances and acts Of
the men Of history. That license which
admits the treaspring up Of The "last
things" OF great and historic lives in
dnces me to write down what l do here.
1t was never my lot before 10 b.
thrilled by seeing brought together in
startling proximity Life and Death,
mirth and mourning, fame and fraili.
ty, as | saw them brought together in
the circumstances attending the last
conscious moments Of Thomas Corwin.
How. strange it seems TO me now At
q collection ofmen of Ohio, in which
Mr., Chase, and Wade, and Sherman i,
and, Schepck, and Bingham, and
Swayne, and fifty others Of the public
men Of the State, Governor Corwin
was present. Upon his entering the
room he, Of course, became, what he
forty yearshas been everywhere, where
his presence was, the center Of inter-
est and admiration. In, ten minutes
after he entered the room | saw from
some distance 0for | did not soon go to
Ihim) men collected and compacted
around him. in eager, excited, and, in
some cases, ridiculous attitudes. Chef
Justice and Associate Justices Of tie
Supreme Court Of the United States,
members OF the Cabinet Major Gener
ais of the armies of the United States
Senator'S in Congress, and members OF
the House Of Representatives were in
ihe,circIe, Some were seated by him;
some stood erect about his chair; some
leaned and pressed eagerly forward
between the more inner circles of lis
lteners, and pushed their ears forward
to hear the words and whispers which
came from the center figure Of tho cir
Gle. Somesst, some stood, some kneel-
| ed, and all leaned forward to listen.
l watched occasionally the effect,
upon this little company Of men, OF
what was drawing them TO that CEN
ter. The strange magician had taken
up once more, and the last time, his
wand to try its spell upon little CON-
pany of its subjects. 1t was the same
one with which SO often before, in the
mere wantonness and sport of his
power, he had toyed and played with
the storms Of human passions which it
conjured up, controlled and allayed at
will. ,.., .-.r 49,. n
His youth,with its inimitable charms
and graces seemed for moment to
have come TO him again. There were
once more the flow of humor, the
sparkle of merriment, the glow Of en-
thusiasm, the fash of wit, and the
charms of anecdote and illustration /;
and there the wondrous play Of feature
which made him CORWIN, Men
came repeatedly out from his presence
at that seat, that night, exelaiming,
"sthere is but one. Corwinl" For q
moment men, who, II thousand times
before, had bowed before the spell Of
| his genius, or had been swept off BY
its irresistible force, and then when
the spell was gone, wondered at their
frailties, here again bocamo its victims.
!. , When, at last the press about him
\ lessened, l sat down by his side. What
be happened first to say to me furnish
es one of those strange condolences
which help to invest our lives with a
tingle of the mysterious and awful ;
and which makes us superstitious.-
One of his first utterances to me was a
startling description OF what Tom Cor
win was to be in twenty-five minutes
after its utterance. 1t was this /: He
said, "You are more bal than when |
saw you last the day before l sailed
for Mexico" | said Eyes" He said,
with thesemi. solemn, semi. .comical face
which has become historical, "But then,
Julius Caesar was bald" | said, "But
Caesar had fits" Then he assumed a
more serious manner, and said: "Twen-
ty years ago i saw man tall in ap-
parcntly unconscious paral ysis, when
in the midst Of excited discourse. He
was carried out by his friends in this
condition, and his first act of conscious
ness was to utter The words you have
Just said. ."'Cesar had fits 7"
In twenty-five minutes after as
sisted in carrying Corwin out in the
precise condition he had so strangely
described. Hc then went into a more
general conversation with those about
him asked after old friends of.O hio !;
alluded to his late law partner Judge
Johnston, of Cincinnati, in terms of
great kindness, and as one of the most
powerful advocates and best intellects
he ever knew, but as one with which
Hamilton county could not ndorn her.
self by sending even to the Legisla
ture. He asked US what Congress
would do with the " States that were
laying around loose" and, in connec'
tion told story of a slight" man in
search OF milk "laying around loose" p"
He said he told the men who swarmed
the Capitol in search ofpardon, that
he had thought they ought all to be
hung but had changed his mind, and
now thought none ought TO bc, because
they were all consummate fools; that
of the ten thousand who came, every
one told the same story, that they were
dragged into rebellion but he never
was SO fortunate as to SEQ one who was
dragger. He told me how hard ho
worked. How hard it was to go up
the long stairway of the Treasury