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CHAPTER XVIII.

GEORGE HOADLY.

OVERNOR GEORGE HOADLY, a lawyer of Cincinnati, and twenty-eighth Governor elected by the people of Ohio, was born in New Haven, Connecticut, July 31, 1826, the only son of George and Mary Ann Hoadly, daughter of William Walton Woolsey and Elizabeth Dwight Woolsey, of New York. His mother was a great-granddaughter of Jonathan Edwards, and niece of President Dwight of Yale College, and the elder daughter in a family which embraced among its members her younger brother, President Woolsey, of Yale College; her nephew, Theodore Winthrop, and her niece, Miss Sarah Woolsey, known in literature as "Susan Coolidge." His father was a man of great integrity and purity of character, ranking high in social and public life. He was at one time Mayor of New Haven, Connecticut, and, in 1830, removed with his family to Cleveland, Ohio, where he continued to reside during the remainder of his life, greatly respected by his fellow-townsmen, who also honored him with an election to the Chief Magistracy of that city.

The subject of this notice received his elementary education in Cleveland, and at the age of fourteen was sent to the Western Reserve College, at Hudson, Ohio, where he graduated in 1844. He then entered the Law School at Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he passed one year of study under the tuition of Judge Story and Professor Simon Greenleaf, and after reading a second year in the office of Charles C. Converse, Esq., then a prominent attorney in Zanesville, Ohio, and afterward a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas and Supreme Court of Ohio,

went to Cincinnati, and entered the law office of Chase & Ball, as a student, in September, 1846; he was admitted to the bar in August, 1847.

He soon attracted the attention, and secured the friendship of Salmon P. Chase, afterward Chief Justice of the United States, who was keenly alive to the importance of attaching to himself young men of prominence; and in 1849 was admitted to the law firm as junior partner, the firm being Chase, Ball & Hoadly. Mr. Chase's election to the United States Senate, and consequent withdrawal from professional duty in Cincinnati, in the same year, led to Mr. Hoadly's appearing in important cases very early in his career, and probably contributed to his election, by the Legislature, in 1851, to the office of Judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati, for the residue of the term, to which that court had been limited by the Constitutional Convention. His predecessors on that bench were Judges Este, Coffin, Johnson and James, whose legal powers had been ripened by years of study and experience. He labored with zeal to overcome the disadvantage of his youth and inexperience, and to preserve the high reputation that court had ever held among the lawyers of the State.

In 1853 he formed a copartnership with Edward Mills; was City Solicitor of Cincinnati in 1855-56, and in 1859 succeeded Judge W. Y. Gholson on the bench of the new Superior Court. In 1856 he was offered, by Governor Chase, and again by Governor Todd, in 1862, a seat upon the Supreme Bench of Ohio, but declined both appointments. He was re-elected to the bench in 1864, but resigned in 1866 to establish the firm of Hoadly, Jackson & Johnson, which soon ranked among the actively employed law firms of the country. In the Constitutional Convention of 1873-74, for the revision of the Constitution of the State, to which he was elected without opposition, he took an active part, devoting eight months to its business. In this body he was chairman of the Committee on

Municipal Corporations, and devoted his attention principally to devising methods to check the increase of public burdens. Although Judge Hoadly was considered one of the hard workers at the Cincinnati Bar, he nevertheless found time to labor as professor in the Law School (in which he has filled a chair for eighteen years), trustee of the University and of the Cincinnati Museum, member of the Committee of the School of Design, and in other ways to promote the progress of the arts and sciences. He was one of the counsel who, on behalf of the Board of Education, successfully resisted the effort to compel Bible reading in the public schools of Cincinnati. Originally a Democrat in politics, he took issue with his associates on the subject of slavery, and this difference led to his separation from them to become attached to the Republican party, of which he continued a supporter until the end of General Grant's first term. He was a member and represented Ohio in the Committee on Resolutions of the Liberal Republican National Convention in 1872; but disapproving of the principle and policy which led to the nomination of Horace Greeley, he refused to join in his support, and voted (with regret) the second time for Grant, as a choice of evils. In 1876, with many other Liberal Republicans, he joined the Democratic ranks under the banner of reform and the leadership of Tilden and Hendricks, believing that the necessary reforms in the government would be more surely secured by their success than by that of Hayes and Wheeler; and in February, 1877, upon the invitation of the Democratic committee having in charge the Tilden interest before the Electoral Commission, appointed by Congress to settle the disputed Presidency of that year, he appeared as counsel, and argued in favor of the claims of the Florida and Oregon Democratic electors. In 1880 he presided as temporary chairman over the Democratic National Convention. In social and private life Judge Hoadly is beloved as a man, warm in his

friendship and charitable toward those who differ from him. He is the friend of young men struggling for success in the legal profession. In 1883, when he received the Democratic nomination for governor of Ohio, he was actively engaged in the duties of a large practice, assisted by his partners, Edgar M. Johnson and Edward Colston, both able lawyers and highly respected citizens.

In 1875 his Alma Mater conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. At the Democratic State Convention, which convened at Columbus, Ohio, June 22, 1883, Judge Hoadly was nominated for Governor. At the inception of an exciting campaign he was stricken down by sickness, rendering it necessary for him to place himself under the care of the eminent physician, Roberts Bartholow, of Philadelphia, Pa., so that he was unable to make but five speeches during the campaign. His opponent, Hon. J. B. Foraker, made a complete tour of the State, making one hundred and five political addresses to the people. Notwithstanding these unfortunate circumstances, and the very confident feeling of the Republicans that their candidate would be triumphantly elected, Judge Hoadly carried the State by a plurality of about thirteen thousand.

In 1851 Judge Hoadly married Mary Burnet Perry, third daughter of Captain Samuel Perry, one of the earliest settlers of Cincinnati. They have three children, George (graduate of Harvard University, B.A. in 1879, and LL.B. in 1882), Laura, and Edward Mills, all of whom are living.

Governor Hoadly is quick and nervous in action and speech, but a man who considers well any subject before he forms or declares his opinions. His integrity and his mental or legal ability have never been questioned.

He is fully capable of handling any State or national question, and if elected to a higher office will undoubtedly acquit himself with the greatest credit.