Governor Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, November 3, 1868

COLUMBUS, November 3, 1868.

DEAR UNCLE: Platt heard my talk about the taxes for ditches and roads on your Wood County lands with the greatest good humor. He laughed about it; said he rather thought the lands might about as well be given up, but would leave all that to you and Doctor Rawson. He seemed to regard the big figures I gave him as a good joke. There will be no trouble or feeling with him.

Judge Matthews staid with us during the session of the Electoral College. His daughter Bella, the eldest and favorite, aged seventeen, died suddenly while he was here.

Lucy has gone down to Glendale. We got home in five hours from Fremont by way of Monroeville and Clyde. The quickest time I ever made. All well.

Sincerely,

R. B. HAYES.

S. BIRCHARD.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 3, p. 55

Speech of Lieutenant Governor Robert C. Kirk, Welcoming Abraham Lincoln to a Joint Session of the Ohio Legislature, February 13, 1861

On this day, and probably this very hour, the Congress of the United States will declare the verdict of the people, making you their President. It is my pleasurable duty, in behalf of the people of Ohio, speaking through this General Assembly, to welcome you to their capital.

Never, in the history of this government, has such fearful responsibility rested upon the chief executive of the nation, as will now devolve upon you. Never, since the memorable time our patriotic fathers gave existence to the American republic, have the people looked with such intensity of feeling to the inauguration and future policy of a President, as they do to yours.

I need not assure you that the people of Ohio have full confidence in your ability and patriotism, and will respond to you in their loyalty to the Union and the Constitution. It would seem, sir, that the great problem of self-government is to be solved under your administration; all nations are deeply interested in its solution, and they wait with breathless anxiety to know whether this form of government, which has been the admiration of the world, is to be a failure or not.

It is the earnest and united prayer of our people, that the same kind Providence, which protected us in our colonial struggles, and has attended us thus far in our prosperity and greatness, will so imbue your mind with wisdom that you may dispel the dark clouds that hang over our political horizon, and thereby secure the return of harmony and fraternal feeling to our now distracted and unhappy country. God grant their prayer may be fully realized!

Again, I bid you a cordial welcome to our capital.

SOURCE: Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Ohio: For the Second Session of the Fifty-fourth General Assembly, Commencing on Monday, January 7, 1861, Volume 57, p. 173

Diary of John Hay, September 24, 1864

This morning I asked the President if the report of the resignation of Blair were true. He said it was.

“Has Dennison been appointed to succeed him?”

“I have telegraphed to him to-day — have as yet received no answer.”

“What is Mr. Blair going to do?”

“He is going up to Maryland to make speeches. If he will devote himself to the success of the national cause without exhibiting bad temper towards his opponents, he can set the Blair family up again.”

“Winter Davis is taking the stump also. I doubt if his advocacy of you will be hearty enough to be effective.”

“If he and the rest can succeed in carrying the State for emancipation, I shall be very willing to lose the electoral vote.”

SOURCES: Abstracted from Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 221-2; Michael Burlingame & John R. Turner Ettlinger, Editors, Inside Lincoln’s White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay, p. 230