Edward Stowe Hamlin

Edward Stowe Hamlin, 1808-1894, of New England parentage; settled in Elyria, Ohio, 1830; prosecuting attorney 1833-35; nominated by Whigs candidate for the 28th Congress, was unsuccessful but elected to the 29th (1844), receiving many Liberty votes. Cf. Philanthropist, Nov. 8, 1843. In 1846 he established the True Democrat which be edited for a year or more. As an anti-slavery Whig he attended the Liberty party convention for the Northwest, Chicago, 1846, where he “spoke for Ohio with liberality and good sense, holding to his Whiggery, but avoiding anything that could rasp his Liberty audience.” Cf. Smith, T. C. Liberty and Free Soil Parties of the Northwest. This author describes the aid given by him to Chase and the Democrats in the Ohio Legislature of 1849. Ibid. pp. 165-175. He drafted the somewhat famous instrument signed by Townsend, Morse, and others, in which the contracting parties agreed to vote for the Democratic nominees to all State offices provided they would vote for Salmon P. Chase for U. S. Senator. Previously Riddle, Lee, and other ex-Whigs had entered into a deal with the Taylor men in regard to the offices, hoping to secure their support later on for the election of a U. S. Senator. Cf. Ibid.

The Ohio Standard, Columbus, was established as a Free Soil paper by E. S. Hamlin and I. Garrard, 1848; subsequently, 1854, the former assumed control of the Columbian, Columbus. Member of the Free Soil convention in Buffalo, 1848, and one of the Committee on Resolutions. Served three years as president of the Board of Public Works of Ohio, and by special act of the Legislature, was attorney for the State to arrange the water leases of the canals. Declined the appointment of Attorney-General of Ohio. Planned several canals and railroads in Ohio, and was the attorney for the Cincinnati, Indianapolis & Lafayette R. R. for a number of years. Later his various projects took him to Virginia. For further accounts see Hart's Chase; Townsend's Account of the 47th General Assembly of Ohio, 1848-9, in Mag. of Western History, V. 6, p. 623; also, Letters of Salmon P. Chase (45 in number) to Edward S. Hamlin, in American Hist. Association Annual Report, 1902, Vol. II.

SOURCE: Quarterly Publication of the Ohio Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, 1915-1917, Volumes X-XII, Selections from the Follett Papers, III, p. 23-4