The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1875-10-07
ALIENS WAR UPON THE MINERS
Extracts from the Speech OF Gen. C. II.
Grosvenor, of Athens County, Deliver
ed in the Ohio House of Representa-
tives, March 10, 1875.

Mr.. Speaker, it only remains to inquire what
was the authority OF the Governor for that pur-
pose, what authority had he to call out these
OF RS Mad he
1or this, when he directed Captain Allen that
nobody should be permitted 10 disband in his
company; when he directed the Lytle Grays OF
Cincinnati that they should remain in their ar
mory; when he directed that the ammunition
belonging TO the State Government should be
shipped TO Athens, to be there consigned TO the
care of the commander of the Sill Guards AT
Chillicothe: when he directed that his private
secretary should go upon the battle-ground at
of The troops, and to issue orders to the miners
there assemblede That is the question. and
question very pertinent here. Had the Cover
nor any legal authority for these acts? Has
the Governor, Notwithstanding his great, his
unprecedented. his unheard-of protest against
the military interference of Sheridan, has he
made a record here that shows to the people of
Ohio and to the Nation and to the world that
he has armed and sent them, and incurred the
liability to pay them, under the statute that
troops are in actual service? Has he done all
this without the shadow of legal authority?
other side to meet the proposition, if they can.
Fortunately We are not here left to grope
lection of man. We take this record as made
by the Governor himself.
The Governor of the State has no power TO
call out the militia when peace prevails, and
Gu,
there is no riot or invasion, ana his order call
ing troops out is just void as would be the
order OF private individuals The fact that riot
exists, that invasons occur, or that the civil
process of the courts can not be executed, con-
the first time, he has power to call out troops.
Now, then, a pertinent inquiry is, was there
such state of facts? Is there such state of
facts? Is there such state of facts shown by
the Governor as brings this clearly within the
scope OF section % nve? Was there insurrection
and riot? The Governor says there was not.
Was there invasion? Nobody pretends it.
Was there any resistance to the enforcement of
Jaw? 1here was not Ii there was no riot or
insurrection, il there was no invasion, if there
was no resistance to civil authority, then the
Governor OF this state had no jurisdiction to
call upon these companies, and his order was in
violation of law. What was the fact? What
ernor, and respectfully submit to the members
of this House, and to the intelligent constitu-
ency here represented, if there is a shadow of
pretense that there was jurisdiction conferred.
"There was good deal of turbulence and dis
order; but the process of the courts was respect
ed, and its civil officers as far as L could learn
We're performing their duties with promptness
and fidelity" That is what the Governor saws
don't go behind that. 1t is enough for nv
purpose to say that is true. There was not,
then, any riot, there was not any insurrection
there was not any invasion, and there was not
any jurisdiction conferred upon the Governor
to call out these troops and send ammnnition
to Athens, and call upon johnson to hold his
men in Cincinnati and refuse to let them go
home, and compel them to receive ammunition
and march in the direction of the enemy.
But the Governor tells us he called out these
tropS, or did whatever he did do-(he says he
didn't do anything)-but whatever it was he
came pretty nearly doing, whatever he would
have done if he had done it. whatever he had
a great notion to do, whatever it was he threat
ened to do, whatever it was he almost did,
whatever it was he now denies he did, he did
by the following statute. And was there ever
such an attitude assumed by public man
when called upon to state the authority under
done it he would have done it under the pres
ent statute. When called upon by the author
ity OF this House to say whether he had done
SO and SO, he says he came pretty near doing it,
and II ne had done it, he would have done it
| to NelsonviIIe, didn't arm them, didn't send
ammunition to NelSonVille, didn't call on his
ering those terrible miners down there says,
81 didn't do IL, but come pretty near doing it,
Was there ever such an evasion as that uttered
before by any public officer? Never. The rec
ords of the country can not produce its parallel.
In the firstplaee, the Governor has succeeded
county, a judge of the court and legally consti-
| tuted officers in that county, the sheriff of the
county was present in the executive office, and
declined to ask for troops l read
"The Sheriff said that matters looked very
| serious; that miners would be greatly enraged,
| that he would not, at that time, take the res
| possibility of applying for them"
| Now, then, with this full knowledge that the
| Sheriff declined to ask for troops, the Governor
of the State called them out, and he says he did
1t by virtue OF this statute, and put in italics
the words "dny such tlenlith, riot mob shall be
Threatened" Now we have a proposition here
| that is unanswerable. This statute here h no
| reference to the Independent militia of Ohio,
| and call the attention of the House to the fact
| that the Governor has called out troops under
the act of April, 1870, relating to the fndepen-
| dent militia OF Ohio, and then refuses to say
that he called them out by virtue of any law
| that authorized their creation. He calls them
under his command, and goes around that law
| of their organization and creation, and goes
back into an obsolete statute. He goes back to
a statute that has been superseded by new
| statute, and is wholly imperative by the terms
of the statute ITSELF and says that by the law OF
| the organization of this Independent militia,
| he had no power to call them out, and yet, by
| D construction former ne
did call them out.
| Now, will do the Governor of Ohio the ius-
tice to believe that he never looked at that stat
ute, thought of it until this message was writ
ten. will undertake to say that if he should
| live to become an old man, of which have
| doubt, he never will deny that he has set aside
plain provisions Of the law, and never called
| them out under the provisions of that law, on
earth, and will show you the reason: The
law plainly recognizes the fact that the party
| who must notify the Governor and make the
| demand upon him, and give information upon
which the Governor shall act, must be one OF
Judges of the Court of Common Pleas or Su-
the sheriff No such requisifion N Vase; was ever er
made. The sheriff of the county said that the
citizens and the laws of the State in calling for
| the interposition of military force, was when
| the process of the court had been interfered
| with by force, and he knew no such time had
| come. And may as well state at this as al any
! other time, and do it cheerfully because of the
| stigma that has been more than once cast upon
my county and the citizens of NelSonVille, and
| IL
| cessfuIly-there was no pI ocess of any court in
| that county, or warrant issued by any justice
judicial process whatever issued duriug all this
term from the first of April to the first of July,
| inclusive, that was ever resisted by single
man or combination of men. And desire to
put it upon record, never to be blotted out, that
town or County ever resisted civil authority, or
| the process OF the civil court, is a libel and q
whatever. During the height of that excite
ment, the sheriff of that county went into the
hIust oi sndl a>senipiy oI tuTDuleht nlneIs ana
arrested five or six-five, perhaps-of their men,
| doing it almost alone. the prisoners outnum-
bering the officers as three to one; and yet he
| took them without single indication OF oppo-
| sition, transporting them down to Athens es-
corted thence by all the miners, several hun
dred strong, with a brass band, and when they
arrived at Athens, every man was marched
| the sheriff of that county. And the citizens of
| Jacksonville were then and are now as law
abiding and law-loving people as the sun shines
upon, and would have no more countenanced
a resistance of the civil authority than they
would have burned their dwellings over their
own heads. Now, then, in this state of the case,
| when the sheriff of the county was entirely
master of the situation, when writs had been
| issued and served without resistance day after
day, there came such an emergency that the
| Governor of Ohio called out three battalions of
thority What was itq Let me tell you what
it was that induced the Governor of Ohio to
arm the troops of the State, to call them out
and to send them, within the meaning of the
term, to Nelsonvile Here, again, don't go
| behind the record. Here, again, 1 am not called
| upon to introduce testimony of extraneous
facts. Here, again, 1 revert to the record itself
Here, again, am permitted to quote the Gov
| ernor: "On the morning of the llth of June
received telegram, of which the following is
copy" Listen, now. When the Governor re-
ceived his telegrap phic dispatch, the sheriff had
refused to ask for troops. There resist
| the exact situation that existed on the llth of
June in the language of the Governor himself,
| Let me show you what it was that was going
| on in the Hooking Valley and at Jacksonville on
\ the morning of the I1th of June and then take
| in, if you can, the whole situation. Glance at
it; study and comprehend it; then tell me if