page_title: William Allen (governor)
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: William Allen (governor) / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Fruit Hill was the home in Ross County, Ohio of Ohio Governors Duncan McArthur and William Allen, his son-in-law, seen in photo published 1896.
context_page_description: William Allen was a Democratic Representative, Senator and 31st Governor of Ohio.
context_section_description: Allen served as United States Representative from Ohio from 1833 to 1835, losing his bid for re-election. He served as United States Senator from Ohio from 1837 to 1849, losing a bid for a third term in 1848.
  While in the Senate, Allen was one of a group of Western Democrat expansionists who asserted that the U.S. had a valid claim to the entire Oregon Country, which was an issue during the 1844 U.S. presidential election.  He suggested that the United States should be prepared to go to war with the United Kingdom in order to annex the entire Oregon Country up to Russian-owned Alaska at latitude 54°40′N.  This position ultimately produced the slogan "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!," coined in 1846 by opponents of such a policy (not, as popularly believed, a slogan in the 1844 Presidential campaign). Allen supported "popular sovereignty" and the presidential candidacy of fellow-Democrat Lewis Cass in 1848.
  In 1849, Allen retired to his farm, "Fruit Hill", which had belonged to his father-in-law, and fellow Ohio Governor, Duncan McArthur, near Chillicothe, Ohio. Allen identified himself as a "Peace Democrat" by opposing the American Civil War. Allen did not return to public service for nearly a quarter century, until he served as Governor of Ohio from 1874 to 1876. He unsuccessfully sought a second two-year term in an 1875 election.
  Allen was noted for his loud voice. A friend asked Senator Benjamin Tappan if a fellow Ohioan was still in Washington. Tappan replied "No, he left yesterday and is probably by this time in Cumberland, Maryland, but if you will go to Bill Allen and tell him to raise that window and call him he will come back."
caption: Fruit Hill (home of McArthur and Allen
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