voted against striking
the word "white" from the Constitution. In that year I was elected
to the Ohio Senate, and participated in the political discussion
of those times, both on the stump and in the General Assembly, and
favored universal suffrage and the political equality of all persons.
The wisdom of such suffrage will hardly be settled so long as there
exists a great disparity of learning and moral, public and private,
among the people, race not regarded.

I originated some laws, still on the statute books of Ohio, one or
two of which have been copied in other States. An amendment to
the replevin laws, so as to prevent the plaintiff from acquiring,
regardless of right, heirlooms, keepsakes, etc., is an example of
this. I served on the Judiciary and other committees of the Ohio
Senate in the sessions of 1868-69.

I supported my old war chief for President in 1868 and 1872. I
was Commander of the Department of the Ohio, Grand Army of the
Republic, for the years 1868, 1869, and 1870, during which time,
under its auspices, the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home
was established at Xenia, through a board of trustees appointed by
me. The G. A. R. secured the land, erected some cottages and other
buildings thereon, and carried on the institution, paying the expense
for nearly two years before the State accepted the property as a
donation and assumed the management of the Home. I was Junior Vice-
Commander-in-Chief of the G. A. R., 1871-72; was trustee of the
Orphans' Home from April, 1871, date when the State took charge of
it, to March, 1878; have been a trustee of Antioch College since
June, 1873; was the first President of the Lagonda National Bank,
Springfield, Ohio, (April, 1873), a position I still hold; was a
delegate-at-large from Ohio to the National Republican Convention
in Cincinnati, in June, 1876, when General Hayes was nominated for
President; was thereafter, serving in the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth,
Forty-seventh, and Forty-eighth Congresses, ending March 4, 1885,
covering the administrations of Presidents Hayes, Garfield, and
Arthur. I served in the Forty-fifth on the Committee on War Claims,
and in the Forty-sixth on Elections, and on other less important
committees.

I opposed the repeal of the act providing for the resumption of
specie payments, January 1, 1879. In a somewhat careful speech
(November 16, 1877), I insisted that the act "to strengthen the
public credit" (March 18, 1869)