Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1865-12-29
ION THOMAS cORsIN.

4
HON. THOMAS COKwIN.
Hon. Thomas Corwin, late Minister OF
the United States " the Republic of
United States Treasury, Governor of
Ohio, Senator and Representative in
Congress from that State, expired ut
Washington City, ON Monday, the
eighteenth instant.
Mr.. Corwin was born in bourbon
county, KY, on the tvrenty-ninth of
July, seventeen hundred and ninety
four, and consequently In his seventy
second year. The following facts in re-
gard to his career are derived mainly
from the new American Cyelopedia.
His immediate ancestors went from New
Jersey to Pennsylvania, from thence
to Kentucky, and from thence to Ohio.
His father, Matthias Corwin, for many
years amember of the Ohio Legislature,
removed with his family to what was
then the Northwestern territory in the
year seventeen hundred and ninety
eight, and settled neal where the townof
Lebanon, Warren county, Ohio, now is.
The Corwin family originally came from
Hungary, and in America have generally
been farmers. Thomas Corwin was
reared on a farm, where he was kept at
hard labor, except in the coolest winter
months, until he was about twenty
years old. The winter he employed in a
great measure in studying at school or at
Ehome, as opportunity offered. Though
there were good sehoolsin the country,
then almost q wilderness, he neverthe-
less, when he arrived at the age
of twenty, had acquired entirely
it MAY be said, by his own exertions,
much solid information, and whatmight
well be called a good though not a fin
ished education. His first teacher was
the late Francis Dunlevy, afterward n
of the trainers of the first Constitution OF
Ohio, and then for fourteen years in
succession presiding Judge of the Cincin-
matt circuit. Though Judge Dunlevy
was q classical scholar, Thomas was
then too young 10 derive any adj
vantages from him except in the first
was taught by the Rev. Jacob Grigg,
an English clergyman Of good edqca-
ton. Here, when about fourteen years
| of age, Thomas first began 10 exhibit
that talent for Oratory which has since
so distinguished him. Except a short
time a~fterward, with aR Irish SCHOOL,
master who made great pretensiOns TO
mathematical science, this school Of Mr..
! Grigg closed Mr.. Corwin's educational
advantages get he was always engaged
in studying some book or subject,
whether at school or not, when not ac-
| tually employed in other business. This
\ continued 10 be bis habit through
out his early life, and he never
lost more time in amusements or com
pany than necessary courtesy required.
In eighteen hundred and fourteen he
| entered the Clerks office of Warren
county, then or soon after under the
charge Of an elder brother, Matthias C'r=
win, jr. Here he continued until eighteen
hundred and fifteen, when he commenced
the study of law, and in May, eigh-
teen hundred and eighteen, he was aC-
mitted 10 the bar. From his first en-
trance on the practice If his profession,
he was the leading spirit of the courts
which he attended, comprising in a
I short time some four or five counties.
As a lawyer, beside his power IS
an advocate, he was distinguished for
keenness of discrimination in the use of
authorities and the management of evil
dence. But, when excited by any pecu-
liar event in the progress of a trial, his
| eIoquenee was unequalled in his day at
the bar ia Ohio. H eighteen hundred
and twenty-five he Was elected TO the
House of Representatives of the State
Legislature, and sOon distinguished HIM
self in a speech iii opposition TO a bill
proposing TO restore public whipping as
a punishment for small crimes. Such a
law had been previously in force for a
few years in Ohio, and a member from
Hamilton county, where such crimes
seemed to increase with the growth of
/ Cincinnati, thought the old prac-
| tice of whipping was the only remedy.
COrwin successfully opposed the bill in a
speech which is remembered TO this day.
after serving in the State Legislature for
| some seven wears, he was elected to Con-
gress in eighteen hundred and thirty.
He had supported Mr.. CLAW for President
in eighteen hundred and twenty-four,
when he received the electoral vote of
Ohio. In the Presidential election of
eighteen hundred and twenty-eight he
had been the supporter of John Quincy
/ Adams. During the administrations of
Jackson and Van Buren he uniformly
acted in concert with the Wings in re-
| gard TO all controversial political ques-
| lions between those administrations and
the opposition. In eighteen hundred and
thirty-six, and again in eighteen hundred
and forty, he supported Gen, Harrison.
I Having been elected in $50 as the can
/ didate Of The Wings for Governor of Ohio,
| he delivered a brilliant speech in defense
| of Gen. Harrison, in reply TO an attack
of Gen. Crary, of Michigan, which proba-
bly suggested the policy df bringing him
into more active service during the Presi-
Dental canvass of eighteen hundred and
forty. Accordingly, he made speeches
in almost every county of the state, dis
cussing the political topics of the day.
Immense crowds thronged to hear him,
and he thus contributed more than any
| other person to swell the majority by
which Gen. Harrison carried the State.
Mr.. COrwin wa elected to the Senate Of
the United States in eighteen hundred
and forty-fye. and was consequently a
member of that body in eighteen hun
bred and fOrty-six when the war
with Mexico was declared, or rather
affirmed to exist by act of MexiGa. He
boldly denounced the attempt to condeal
the intentions of the Executive can
party in power of possessing themselves
of Mexican territory, which they had
failed to purchase by treaty. That
speech on the Mexican war is perhaps
the ablest as it will be the most perma-
lent Of Mr., Corwin's efforts. In eighteen
hundred and fOrty-eight he supported
Gen. Taylor as a candidate for the Presi-
dency: and on the death of Gen. TAYLOR
in July, eighteen hundred and fifty, he
received from Mr.. Fillmore the office of
Secretary of the Treasury, which he
filed until March the fourth, eighteen
hundred and tifty-three, when he re
turned TO Lebanon, Ohio, where hsaqain
engaged ia the practice Of his profession.
In eighteen hundred and fifty-eight,
however, he was again elected by the
seventh Ohio district 70 the House of
| Representatives IN Congress.
Nh. CorWin took an active part in the
Presidential campaign of eighteen hun
bred and sixty, making speeches in Ohio,
Indiana and Illinois. His fame as apop-
ular orator attracted large audiences,
but he had lost his voice, and thus
while his arguments were exceedingly
telling, and his wit and humor scarcely
less Brilliant than in his earlier days
when, as the wagon boy" he drew
all Ohio after him to listen Ia
his stump speeches, it was easy 10 per-
ceive that his DAY as an effective speaker
had gone by. Upon the Inauguration of
President Lincoln in eighteen hundred
and sixty-one, Mr.. Corwin was APP
pointed Minister PlenipQtentiary TO the
Republic OF Mexico, where he displayed
signal sagacity in divining the intentions
Of the Emperor of the French against
the integrity of that country He in
formed our Government of the project
~ subvert the Republic and to place
the Archduke Macmillan upon the
throne, before the arrival of the allied
forces at Vera Cruz, but the information
was discrediUed by Mr.. Seward, as ap-
pears from the dispatches of the latter in
reply. Mr.. Corwin resigned his position
as Minister TO Mexico, and returned 10
Washington, whore he opened an Office
and RECOMMENDED the practice of the
law, devoting himself principally to
claims against the Government, in which
he continued up 20 the period Of his
death.
E3-The Nashville Bonner gives the
following pleasant picture; Before the
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