Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1869-01-26
Deaih OF DR.. Fd.on b. OId..

Death Of DR.. Edson ID. Olds.
By private intelligence from Lancaster,
we learn, with feelings of profound regret
the death OF DIR. EDsoN B. OLDs, at his
residence, in that city, on Sunday night
last.
DR.. OLDs was born in Vermont, and EN-
igrated to Ohio at an early age, and settled
in Circleville, where he practiced his pro-
fession. Subsequently, he engaged In
mercantile pursuits. In 1S4l, he became
member OF the Ohio Legislature, and,
first In the House of Representatives, ana
then in the State Senate, of which pody
he was Speaker, he served several terms,
taking leading and active part in the
business of legislation. From lS49 to 1893
he was member of Congress, represents
ing the district of which Franklin county
was part. While member OF that body,
as chairman of the committee on POST
Offices and Post Roads. DR.. OLDs, by his In
dnstry and tacr, was enabled to settle the
question of the right of the people oi
Wheeling, Va, to bridge the Ohio river
right stoutly contested by the citizens Of
ePittsburgh-by procuring the passage oil
resolution, making the bridge a part OF .
post road. 4
His many exalted qualities of head and
heart made DIR. OLDs many friends, and
when to these was Joined his talent as
public speaker, his friends looked forward
with confidence to the time when still
higher honors awaited him.
A sketch OF DR.. OLDs' lie, no matter how
brief, would be imperfect without notice
OF the foul wrong committed on his person
which was the primary cause of his death
In 1862, just after the party of Tree speech
had come into power, and inaugurated th'
war, which President LINCOLN might, al
most with word, which, in the strict lin
of his duty should have been spoken, hay
been prevented, DIR. OLDs, while sick at hi
home, had his house entered by men claim
ing authority from Secretary of War STAN
TON and Governor TOP, and without trial
without crime, and in violation OF IN
clearest principles of constitutional right
was carried off prisoner and immured
first at the Old Capital. Prison at Washing
ton, and subse quently at Fort Lafayette
and was there kept in loathsome dun
! geon, deprived OF all the comforts of life
So vindictive were his oaptors, that, to pre-
vent his reading any thing that might pos
sibly come to him, his spectacles wer'
taken from him-his eyesight being SO de-
fective that without glasses he could no
read. Harsh ,and brutal treatment, ther
and there endured, was the ultimate cause
of his death. Immediately alter DIR. OLD;
was released from his prison, vacancy
happened in the delegation, in the Legisla'
ture, from Fairfield county, and the Doctor
was taken up and elected to fill the vacancy
by an overwhelming majority.
After his deliverance from prison, DR.
OLDs sought In vain for redress. Congress
removed the right to sue for false imprison-
ment to the United States Courts. and there
to the eternal shame OF the American
people, be 1t said-there was no redress.
With broken health, DR.. OLDs fingered
until Sunday night last, when another OF
the victims of Radical power was sum-
moned to that Higher Court, where justice
will be meted out by the Judge of the
Quick and the Dead. al -
. Gladly would we have omitted that por-
tion of DR.. OLDs' life, when he was pris-
oner, without crime, in an American Bas-
tile, for it is subject that we. in common
with the right feeling, law abiding portion
, of the American people cannot but feel, as
DE WILTON said of the scoundrelly MAR
MON. 81 rt res .4If se
- vengeance to God alone belongs,
But when think of the many wrongs, y
My blood is liquid fame"
In monarchical England, such an out
rage on citizen, no matter If he were the
meanest of lis class would have convulsed
the ecountry from center to circumference
less outrages brought the head of CHARLES
the FfRsr Of England, or LOUIS the 18th
of France, to the block, while in free
America, the party which based its plat
form on free speech and freedom to the ne
gro, committed this on the person of DR..
OLDs, and similar ones on other citizens,
and the courts, by partisan decisions, in
stead of being protection, aided the min
ions of power to strike down the rights OF
the citizen.