E: Earle through Ewing

See below for annotated biographies of anti-slavery Whigs. Source: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography.

EARLE, John Milton, 1794-1874, Leicester, Massachusetts, businessman, abolitionist, statesman, political leader, newspaper publisher, pioneer and leader in the anti-slavery/abolitionist movement. Member of Whig and Free Soil parties. Husband of abolitionist Sarah H. Earle.

(Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Volume 2. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, 347).



ELIOT, Thomas Dawes, 1808-1870, lawyer. Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts, 1854-1855, 1859-1869. Founder of the Republican Party from Massachusetts. Opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Bill as a member of Congress. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. Active in the Free-Soil Party.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, p. 325; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe)

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume II, p. 325:

ELIOT, Thomas Dawes, Congressman, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 20 March, 1808; died in New Bedford, Massachusetts, 12 June, 1870. He was graduated at Columbian College, Washington, D. C, in 1825, studied law in Washington and New Bedford, and was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar. After being a member of both houses of the legislature, he was elected to Congress as a Whig, to fill the unexpired term of Zeno Scudder, serving from 17 April, 1854, till 3 March, 1855, and making an eloquent speech on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, which was published (Washington, 1854). He was prominent in the Free-Soil convention at Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1855, and on the dissolution of the Whig Party was active among the founders of the Republican Party in Massachusetts, he declined its nomination for attorney-general in 1857, but was afterward elected to Congress again for five successive terms, serving from 1859 till 1869. Mr. Eliot took an active part in the proceedings of the house, particularly in the legislation on the protection and welfare of the Negroes. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, p. 325.



EWING, Thomas, 1789-1871, West Liberty, Ohio, statesman, attorney, Whig U.S. Senator, 1831-1837, from Oho, opposed slavery as a Senator. Secretary of the Treasury, 1841-1847. Secretary of the Interior. Opposed Fugitive Slave Law, Henry Clay’s Compromise Bill, and called for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. Adopted future Civil War General William T. Sherman as a boy.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 393-394; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 2, p. 237)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 2, p. 237:

Ewing was the second son of George and Rachel (Harris) Ewing. In his "Autobiography" he states that he attached "little importance to remote ancestry"; yet he could trace his lineage back to a Captain Ewing of lower Loch Lomond, Scotland, who, serving under William of Orange at the battle of the Boyne (1690), was presented with a sword by his sovereign in recognition of conspicuous bravery. Thomas Ewing, a son of this ancestor, came to America from Londonderry, Ireland, and settled in Greenwich, New Jersey, about 1718. At the beginning of the Revolution, George Ewing enlisted in the 2nd New Jersey Regiment, in which he held the rank of first lieutenant. During the course of the war, he suffered financial reverses and at the termination of hostilities decided to migrate westward. His son Thomas was born near West Liberty, Ohio County, Virginia. About 1793 the Ewings moved to Waterford on the Muskingum and in the spring of 1798 removed to what is now Ames Township, Athens County, Ohio. Here, on the outskirts of civilization, young Thomas spent his boyhood. He was taught to read by an elder sister and by his own extraordinary efforts acquired a fair elementary education. Books were his delight, and, encouraged by his parents, the boy eagerly read everything he could lay his hands upon. Before he was eight years old he had read the entire Bible and in his autobiography he says that he once walked twenty miles to borrow a translation of Virgil's Aeneid. The establishment of a circulating library in Ames Township stimulated his insatiable craving for knowledge, while his tenacious and ready memory enabled him to retain the information he acquired. In order to secure funds for a college education, he sought employment in the Kanawha salt works. In the course of two or three years he saved enough from his scanty earnings to free his father's farm of debt, and with the meager surplus enrolled in Ohio University at Athens. His funds were soon exhausted and he was compelled to return to the salt works. Once more he saved his earnings, returned to resume his studies at Ohio University, and in1815 he and his classmate John Hunter, received the first B.A. degrees ever granted by that institution.

After graduation he studied law in the office of General Philemon Beecher at Lancaster, Ohio, and in August 1816 was admitted to the bar. He rapidly acquired a reputation as one of the best equipped and most successful lawyers in the West. For several years he served as prosecuting attorney of Fairfield County and in that capacity was instrumental in freeing the district of counterfeiters. In 1823 he was defeated for the state legislature but in 1830 was elected to the United States Senate where his keen intellect earned for him the sobriquet of "Logician of the West" (Randall & Ryan, post, VI, 8). As a Whig senator he vigorously assailed the Democratic administration, supported the protective tariff policy of Clay, advocated the re-charter of the United States Bank, denounced President Jackson's removal of deposits and his "Specie Circular," opposed the confirmation of Martin Van Buren as minister to England, but voted for the revenue collection bill known as the "Force Bill." He also advocated reduced postal rates, brought about a revision of the land laws, a reorganization of the Post-Office Department, and a bill for the settlement of the Ohio-Michigan boundary. In January 1836 he was defeated for reelection by William Allen and resumed his practise at Lancaster.

He was appointed secretary of the treasury by President Harrison in 1841, retained this office after the death of Harrison and the succession of Tyler, and as secretary of the treasury helped to draft bills for the re-charter of a national bank. After President Tyler had twice vetoed such measures, Ewing resigned along with the other members of the cabinet. He returned to the practise of law; and it was following his resignation that his reputation as a lawyer was established. Among his more elaborate written professional arguments were those in the case of Oliver vs. Pratt et al., involving the title to half the land now occupied by the municipality of Toledo, Ohio; the Methodist Episcopal Church division case; the McIntire Poor School vs. Zanesville; and the McMicken Will Case, which involved large bequests for education (12 Wallace, viii).

On the inauguration of Zachary Taylor as president, Ewing was appointed secretary of the recently created Department of the Interior, which was still unorganized. In his first report, he recommended the erection of a mint near the California gold mines and the building of a railroad to the Pacific. On the death of President Taylor, July 9, 1850, and the accession of Millard Fillmore, a division in the Whig party caused a change in the cabinet. Thomas Corwin was appointed secretary of the treasury and Ewing was appointed to complete the unexpired term of Corwin in the Senate. During this term in the Senate Ewing differed with Clay in his proposals to solve the problems arising as a result of the Mexican War. He opposed the Fugitive-Slave Law and was in favor of the unconditional admission of California as a state. In 1851 he retired from public life, although he never completely lost interest in public affairs.

In 1861 he was appointed a delegate to the Peace Convention and throughout the Civil War he rendered loyal assistance to Lincoln's administration. At the time of the Trent affair he wrote President Lincoln: "There is no such thing as contraband of war between neutral ports" and urged the release of Mason and Slidell. His conservatism caused him to oppose the reconstruction policy of Congress, and during his last years he acted with the Democratic party. He gave President Johnson much good advice and cautioned him against removing Stanton as secretary of war. When Stanton was removed in 1868, President Johnson submitted Ewing's name for the vacancy; but the Senate never acted upon the recommendation (J. F. Rhodes, History of the United States, Volume VI, 1928, pp. 210-22).

Ewing was a man of great physical strength, over six feet in height, with broad shoulders, a massive frame, and a head of unusual size. His keen, logical mind, his incisive style both in speaking and in writing, his wide range of reading, and his wealth of information made him a lawyer of the first rank and a forceful leader in his day. In public and private life he was a man of strong convictions and an inflexible will, powerful as a friend or as an antagonist, dignified yet sociable in his relations with men, and a stanch believer in the "good old days." In September 1871 Archbishop Purcell of Cincinnati received him into the Catholic Church. On January 7, 1820, Ewing married Maria Wills Boyle by whom he had six children, among them Hugh Boyle Ewing and Thomas Ewing, Jr. [qq.v.]. He also adopted, in 1829, William T. Sherman [q.v.], the son of his friend, Judge Charles Sherman, and appointed him to West Point in 1836.

[See "The Autobiography of Thomas Ewing," ed. by C. L. Martzolff, in Ohio Archaeology and Historical Pubs., XXII (1913), 126 ff.; "Diary of Thomas Ewing, August and September, 1841," in American History Review, October 1912; Ellen Ewing Sherman, Memorial of Thos. Ewing of Ohio (1873); P. K. and M. E. (Williams) Ewing, The Ewing Genealogy with Cognate Branches (1919); E. W. R. Ewing, Clan Ewing of Scotland (1922); Biography Dir. American Congress (1928); G. I. Reed, Bench and Bar of Ohio, I (1897), 75 ff.; E. O. Randall and D. J. Ryan, History of Ohio (1912), volumes III-V; Cincinnati Enquirer, October 26, 27, 1871; Cincinnati Commercial, Cincinnati Daily Times and Chronicle, October 27, 1871. At Ewing's death the U. S. Supreme Court paid him the unusual honor of publishing in their reports an account of his life (12 Wallace, vii-ix).]

R. C. M.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 393-394:

EWING, Thomas, statesman, born near West Liberty, Ohio county, Virginia, 28 December, 1789; died in Lancaster, Ohio, 26 October, 1871. His father, George Ewing, served in the Revolutionary army, and removed with his family in 1792 to the Muskingum river, and then to what is now Athens county, Ohio. In this unsettled district young Ewing's education was necessarily imperfect. His sister taught him to read, and in the evenings he studied the few books at his command. In his twentieth year he left his home and worked in the Kanawha salt establishments, pursuing his studies at night by the light of the furnace-fires. He remained here till he had earned enough money to clear from debt the farm that his father had bought in 1792, and had qualified himself to enter the Ohio university at Athens, where, in 1815, he received the first degree of A. B. that was ever granted in the Northwest. He then studied law in Lancaster, was admitted to the bar in 1816, and practised with success for fifteen years. In 1831-'7 he served as U. S. senator from Ohio, having been chosen as a Whig. He supported the protective tariff system of Clay, and advocated a reduction in the rates of postage, a recharter of the U. S. bank, and the revenue collection bill, known as the “force-bill.” He opposed the removal of the deposits from the U. S. bank, and introduced a bill for the settlement of the Ohio boundary question, which was passed in 1836. During the same session he brought forward a bill for the reorganization of the general land-office, which was passed, and also presented a memorial for the abolition of slavery. In July, 1836, the secretary of the treasury, issued what was known as the “specie circular.” This directed receivers in land-offices to accept payments only in gold, silver, or treasury certificates, except from certain classes of persons for a limited time. Mr. Ewing brought in a bill to annul this circular, and another to make it unlawful for the secretary to make such a discrimination, but these were not carried. After the expiration of his term in 1837 he resumed the practice of his profession. He became secretary of the treasury in 1841, under Harrison, and in 1849 accepted the newly created portfolio of the interior, under Taylor, and organized that department. Among the measures recommended in his first report, 3 December, 1849, were the establishment of a mint near the California gold-mines, and the construction of a railroad to the Pacific. When Thomas Corwin became secretary of the treasury in 1850, Mr. Ewing was appointed to succeed him in the senate. During this term he opposed the fugitive slave law, Clay's compromise bill, reported a bill for the establishment of a branch mint in California, and advocated a reduction of postage, and the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. He retired from public life in 1851, and again resumed his law-practice in Lancaster. He was a delegate to the peace congress of 1861. During the civil war he gave, through the press and by correspondence and personal interviews, his counsel and influence to the support of the National authorities. While he devoted much of his time to political subjects, the law was his favorite study and pursuit. He early won and maintained throughout his life unquestioned supremacy at the bar of Ohio; and ranked in the supreme court of the United States among the foremost lawyers of the nation. In 1829, just after his father's death, General William T. Sherman, then a boy nine years of age, was adopted by Mr. Ewing, who afterward appointed him to the U. S. military academy, and in 1850 he married Ellen, the daughter of his benefactor. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

Sources:
Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes I-X, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volumes I-VI, Edited by James Grant Wilson & John Fiske, New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1888-1889.