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THOMAS CORWIN, Lebanon. It is difficult to condense within the limits. of a thousand words a satisfactory biographical sketch of a man whose biography properly written should fill a large volume. Thomas Corwin was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, July 29, 1794, and died in Washington, December 18, 1865. At the age of four years he was brought to the Territory of Ohio by his parents, who settled in the wilds of Warren county, and later in the town of Lebanon, where his father, Matthias Corwin, served as a judge. In boyhood he attended school in the log school house, for the few months he could be spared from work, and never had the opportunity of attending a higher school. His education was not obtained from the study of text-books under instruction, but from association and contact with the world, and by reading books of biography and history and science, by the firelight, after his "school days" were over. His technical knowledge was very limited, but his education was very broad, and his learning great. He won notoriety while yet a boy by driving a wagon loaded with army supplies to the headquarters of General Harrison during the War of 1812. At the time of performing this needful service he little dreamed that his fame as "the wagon boy" would make him governor of Ohio, representative in Congress and senator of the United States. It would be rash to claim so much for it now, but there can be no doubt the circumstance contributed largely to the personal popularity which made him an idol of the people. At twenty-one he began the study of law, to which he applied himself with all the earnestness of a very ardent nature, so that he was qualified for admission to the Bar the next year. In 1818 he was appointed prosecuting attorney for Warren county, and held the office twelve years. In 1822, and again in 1829, he was elected representative in the legislature of the State. In 1830 he was elected to Congress, and continued his membership in that body, by successive elections, for ten years. Before his first election to Congress he had established himself in the law and built up a remunerative practice; but when once upon the sea of politics, for which he was most admirably constituted, he could scarcely be content with a law practice, even if the people had permitted him to remain in private life. His campaign for governor, in 1840, on the Whig ticket, was one of the most memorable ever made in the State by any man. He was then in the very prime and vigor of middle life, heartily in sympathy with his party and with General Harrison, its candidate for President. Thoroughly conversant with the issues of the campaign, he presented them with matchless eloquence. He was master of all the arts of the trained orator and withal was natural and unaffected in manner as a child. His speech fairly sparkled with wit and humor. He was equally master of pathos and ridicule, panegyric and philippic, employing them as occasion demanded with consummate tact and irresistible power. Mr. Corwin was not re-elected governor, but in 1845 was elected to the United States Senate, in which he served one term. His great speech in opposition to the bill appropriating funds for the prosecution of the war with Mexico chilled the popular enthusiasm for him as a leader, and he was allowed to remain in private life, practicing law at Lebanon and Cincin

nati, until 1858, when he was again elected to Congress. President F had appointed him secretary of the treasury, however, at the close of as senator, and he served to the end of the administration, March supported Mr. Lincoln on the stump very effectively in 1860, a early appointments made by President Lincoln was that of minister to Mexico. He remained in Mexico four years, an settled in Washington for the practice of law. He was stricker fatal illness, while surrounded by a party of Ohio friends, and a. days. Mr. Corwin was a good lawyer and a great advocate; but his not eminently judicial, nor did he possess remarkable talent for the technical construction of the law. He was too broad, too generous, too no to find pleasure in the nice legal distinctions which measure so much of the professional ability of many practitioners. His understanding of principles was profound; his memory was accurate and retentive. He read much, notably of history and biography. His knowledge of the sacred Scriptures was marvellous, and his reverence for piety, truth and goodness was sincere. He was a large man every way--in stature, breadth and depth of chest, a massive head set firmly on his powerful shoulders, with a short neck. His complexion was swarthy, his eyes brilliant, and his facial expression most wonderful. His power as an actor was superb in its naturalness, and in no other aspect was it so remarkable as in the capacity of the face to express all the emotions with which the human mind or heart is familiar. His humor followed his pathos so closely as to instantly change grief into mirth, and illume with a smile the countenance which he had clouded with sorrow by his last sentence. As Colonel Parsons says:

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"I have seen a vast multitude of men and women before him with faces actually bathed in tears, suddenly breaking into the most boisterous, convulsive laughter, so that tears were actually arrested half-way down the cheeks, where they glistened like dew drops of the morning on the countenances of the weepers,' in doubt whether to dry up in the sunlight of comedy, or proceed upon the sorrowing mission on which they were originally sent to travel. As a mere orator Mr. Corwin excelled any man it has been my fortune to hear. So full of wit, humor, pathos, learning, history, imagery; a manner so charming and magnetic as to be fascinating beyond description, and a face so variable and wonderful in its power of expressing emotions that no man could look upon it without yielding at once to its bewitching influence. In private life, at the social board, he was the center and idol of the circle, and when in Congress in the latter years of his life, he was always surrounded by members who loved and honored him, and were delighted to listen to his charming conversation."

HENRY C. NOBLE, Columbus. Henry C. Noble died at his home in Columbus, December 12, 1890. The Franklin County Bar Association held a meeting and adopted a memorial reported by a committee of leading members of the association. The memorial, which it is understood was prepared by Honorable Richard A. Harrison, is so complete and so admirably adapted as

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