The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1868-04-29

with which Ben Wade resisted the exten-
sion Of slavery against the might of the
propagandists of the South and North, who
had banded together to accomplish that
crime. Horace Greeley in his journal, thus
characterized his speech: - ~
There are many fine orations and GOOD
arguments delivered in the United States
Senate from time to time; but not often
real good speech. In order to have good
speech, there must be Il man behind it
Such speech we have in the powerful ef-
Tort of Judge Wade, and, in this case, the
speech is but the just measure of the man,
Massachusetts gave this man birth, in the
year 1900. He was the Youngest of ten
children. His father was soldier, who
fought in every Revolutionary battle. from
Bunker Hill to Yorktown. His mother was
the daughter of Presbyterian clergyman, a
woman OF vigorous intellect and great force
of character. She fed and clothed her
brood while their father was in the army
The family was one of the poorest in New
England. A portion of its scanty property
was library of twelve books This event.
ually became Benjamin's possession. He
read the volumes through and through, and
over and over, after his mother had led him
so far into an education MS to teach him to
read and write When Ben was eighteen.
! he tearfully turned his back on the old pillow
and the older homestead; and, with seven
dollars in his pocket and a bundle of cloth
ing on his back, he started to walk from
Springfield, Mass, to Illinois, to seek his
fortune. He footed it to Ashtabula county,
Ohio. There, the snow falling, he deter
} mined to wait for spring to finish his jour
| ney; hired himself out to cut wood in the
| forest at fifty cents per cord, and snatched
! hours from sleep at night to read the Bible
by the light of the fire on the hearth OF the
log cabin. Both the Old and the New Tes-
taments are at his tongues end.
! Spring came; but the journey to Illinois
and fortune was suspended by summers
work at chopping, logging, and grubbing,
followed by "a Yankee winter at school
teaching. The journey was suspended by
second year of such work, and was finally
lost in an experience of driving IL herd of
cattle. Wade led the "lead" steer of Il drove
from Ohio to New York. Six times he
made this trip The last OK he led took him
to Albany. Twas winter Of course, the
drover there are expanded into school
teacher. When the frost was out of the
ground, scholars and teacher went to manu-
al labor. The Erie Canal got the teacher
| During the summer of 1926 Wade shoveled
and wheeled. THE only American KNOW"
said Governor Seward, in speech in the
Senate. "who worked with spade and
wheelharrow on that great improvement"
Another winter of school teaching in Ohio,
and the persuasons of Elisha Whittlesey,
and the friendly offer of a tavern keeper who
had got to loving Wade, to trust him bed
and board without limit, drew Ben, at the
age of twentv-six, into law Office to study
| for the bar. He was admitted in two years.
He waited another year for his first suit
He won that, and in winning it won the
sympathy and faith of the lawyers of the
district by his zeal and hard work for his
client. The mans hand was on success
nothing but death could detach it. Juries
in Northern Ohio got to be of his way of
thinking, and there was growing coinci-
dence between Wade's arguments and the
judgments of courts He began to be a
man of property, and part of his estate
Western Reserve that he was an honest, be-
nevolent, brave, and wise man. That part
of his estate in Ohio has been accommodating
at compound interest. 1t is very big now.
Such a man could not be permitted to
quietly practice law in community stocked
with New England Puritans, and agitated
with the preliminary conflicts between the
North and the South on the great issue
whether the Republic should be slave or free
Politics caught him up inevitably, and made
him standard bearer He was elected
prosecuting attorney of Ashtabula County !;
lie was elected to the Ohio state senate. He
stepped, naturally, to the head of the Wing
minority in that legislature. He abolished
the law for imprisonment for debt; he broke
ground for war against the Black Laws"
of Ohio, and summoned his party to follow
him to the overthrow of the pro-savery code
which held his state in bondage to Kentucky
and the South he waded into the debate
on the admission of Texas into the Union,
and took position on the declaration, $50
help me God will never assist in adding
another rod of slave territory to this coun-
try"
The Wing party in Ohio had not the
development or the courage TO follow him to
the repeal of the State laws that oppressed
negroes and gave security to slavery on its
northwestern flank. They drew back from
their brave and honest leader, and on the
expiration of his Senatorial term censured
him for the extremeness of his views and
left him at home to practice law. Time and
events brought the people of Ohio up to
Wade's position, and he was sent again to
the State Senate, against his will He there
passed the bill which founded the Oberlin
College s. for the education of persons with
out regard to race or COLOR; led the resist.
~ 70 he Nl,,t., ko1 L.
Congress denying the people the right to pc.
struggled to bring his Legislature and his
State up to the support of John Quincy Adj
ans in his fight for the sacred right of peti
ton. In 1847 he was elected President OF
the Sd judicial district of Ohio For foul
years he held the scales of justice with an
even hand, and won from bar and suitors an
undying reputation as a just and wise Judge
AS he sat on the bench hearing cause in
March, 1851, the firing of gun in the
streets of Akron announced to the public
that Ben Wade had been elected United
States Senator by the Legislature of Ohio
and telegram, brought by little boy into
the court room, and handed up to the bench
announced to the Judge his selection fo
the high office which he had not sought ant
for which his friends had not canvassed.-
The people of Ohio wanted their braves
and best man in the United States Senate
and, overruling the arrangements of politi
clans and sweeping aside the selfishness o
aspirants for place, called on Ben. Wade t.
60 to the Federal Congress, and represen
the manhood, conscience, and policy of hi
State. How he has done this for seventeen
years it would take volume to tell But
when the immortelles are woven for hi
tomb, one will have to be made for his RI