The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1879-07-17
DEATH OF eovEnnon ALLEN.


Hill home, near Chillicothe, at half
past one o'clock Friday morning, June
1ltb, In the seventy-third year of his
age. The Enquirer editorially pays
the following tribute to the memory
of the departed statesman and patriot:
An ex member of Con-
greas from Ohio, an ex-United States
Senator from this State, aud an ex-
Governor, passed suddenly away in
the ripeness of years, after the full.
ness of blameless public career,
leaving behind him the fragrance Of a
spotless name. He was brave and
noble and proud and true from boy
hood to manhood, and from manhood
to old age. He shrank from no hon.
orable encounter in his long life, to
which the people called him, but Pres
ident jackson had no appointment in
his long list which young William
Allen would accept. 'The honors l
court said the youthful Democrat,
are those which the people give me-
He was ambitious. but he would not
betray friend to secure the Presi.
dency. Thirty-one years ago Presi-
Dental nomination was rendered him,
and he said: Il would like to be
President, but still more do want to
be true to my friend, Mr.. Cass.' Loyal
as he was to his friends. he remember
ed bis enemies. 1t is believed by many
that he once took Presidency from
an enemy as measure of retributive
justice. His public life began forty
seven years ago, nearly twenty years
| before the present Con nstItution of the
State was adopted, when Ohio was
but thirty years old when the Capital
of the State was still migratory
thing when the elder Ewing had just
entered the United States Senate ;
when jackson was President, and
Calhoun had just ceased to be Vice
President; when Martin VanBuren
when Lewis Cass was Secretary OF
| the Department of the Interior was
created when Roger B. Taney was
| Acknowledgement of the United States
|
ginia, was Speaker of the House of
Representatives. The population of
| the United States was then but little
more than thirteen millions, and there
were but twenty.fOur States in the
Union. Michigan and Arkansas had
not yet been admitted. The United
States Senate had just refused to con-
firm the nomination of Martin Van
Buren, to be Minister to England, and
Andrew Jackson had just vetoed the
bill rechartering the United States
Bank. His advent upon public affairs
was in the heroic days. Boy and man,
he was an heroic Democrat. AS q
white-headed, blue-eyed urchin he had
shaken hands reverentially with JET
ferson and Jacks on, and at three score
and ten he was still an eminent de.
fender of their creed as to human gov
ernment. He had an unfalteriDg faith
in the people. He loved the courage
oue, noble, heroic things. He loved
to talk of Alexander, the Prince for
whom hope was enough. He spoke
with lofty enthusiasm of the dying
Washington, who, consciously facing
death, held his finger on his wrist
while with his own right hand he felt
the last pulse-b beat of his own great
heart. A Member of Congress, when
a boy of tw enty- six, the earliest air he
breathed in public life was that charg-
ed with the struggle of Andrew Jack
son with the Money Power of that
day, and the last sands of his public
lie, more than forty years later, fell
telling of his steadfast devotion to the
cause of the people in the same great
struggle as it presented itself to the
next generation of men in this country.
He was two years in the House OF
Representatives, twelve years in the
United States Senate, and two years
Governor of Ohio, and in these elk
teen years of public service there was
no lisp, even from an enemy, to mar
his stainless name. Amid the bitter
ness Of partisanship. while he was in
the hottest of the contest, the integrity
of William Allen remained uDQues-
toned. Indeed, when he was elected
to the Governorship of Ohio i'll 1878
it was on the sole issue OF public vir-
tue. Every candidate on the Republi-
can ticket was defeated save one, while
! William Allen, drawn from q delight
full and intellectual retirement of d
quarter of q century, was elected be.
cause his name and life were excep.
tionally white.
We have had few men in politics
whose lives and services are more ia
be commended. He had great ear.
nestness. He had what is rare, politi.
cal integrity. He had Intellectual in.
tegrity. He was capable of Catonic
virtue. He had also quality rare
among politicians, an indomitable
courage. He believed in the people, land
knew that they were ordinarily In ad
vance of their leaders. He was bold
to audacity in the expression of his
opinions, not only when the blood was
young and buoyant and the step firm
and strong, but when three score years
and ten had silvered the head, when
the hand was tremulous and the step
tOttered, and the face was furrOwed,
the spirit tainted not from the buoy
ancy of perpetual youth aud the valor
of his convictions put the youngest
and brayest politicians to shame. He
had IN him the elements of great
leader in politics. He stopped just
short of the highest political honors,
and at periods almost a generation
apart his name was prominently men
toned for the highest Office. In the
last National Convention OF the party
to which he had been true for nearly
halt century, the vote of his State
was given to him for the nomination
| for the Presidency, and after this yal-
ued recognition and tribute, when
younger and more ambitious men in
his State would have been proud OF
the honor, he withdrew from politics
forever, to live and die IN the serenest
peace. ~ rits
Those who knew him not in the
beauty of his life at his Fruit Hill
home did not know him. His clois'
tered years for quarter of q century
were consecrated to books. 1t is writ
ten of the wisest man the world e'er
saw that he spake of trees, from the