CHAPTER 19 GOVERNOR TIFFIN

CHAPTER 19 GOVERNOR TIFFIN The following interesting sketch of the life of Edward Tiffin, the first Governor of the state of Ohio, has been kindly furnished us by Samuel Williams, Esq. to whose correct and graphic pen Methodism is largely indebted for historical recollections.

Edward Tiffin was born in the town of Carlisle, Cumberland county, England, a few miles south of the border of Scotland, June 10, 1766. His education was limited to the ordinary branches of a common English course, as his parents were in moderate circumstances and unable to educate him better. At an early age he commenced the study of medicine; and in 1784, at the age of about eighteen years, before he had completed his medical course, he immigrated to the United States and settled in Charlestown, Berkley — now Jefferson — county, Virginia, whither his parents and all the family soon afterward removed. Having finished the study of medicine, under a distinguished physician, whose name I have forgotten, Mr. Tiffin, while yet very young, commenced the practice; and by his skill and success in his profession, he soon acquired a high character and standing as a physician. His natural buoyancy of spirit and great vivacity, his sprightliness of temperament and pleasing manners, together with his engaging conversational powers, and his active and agile movements, made him the favorite in the fashionable and gay circles around him, and the life and soul of the company wherever he was present. In 1789, when about twenty-three years old, he united in marriage with Miss Mary Worthington, daughter of Mr. Robert Worthington, near Charlestown, and sister of the late Governor Thomas Worthington, of Ohio. The year following Dr. Tiffin and his wife, were attracted by curiosity, perhaps, to hear the Rev. Lewis Chastain and Rev. Thomas Scott — the two Methodist preachers stationed that year on Berkley circuit, and whose fame brought out large congregations to hear them. Mr. Scott, by his preaching, and especially by his youthfulness — being then only eighteen years old — attracted particular notice. The truth reached the heart and conscience of the Doctor, and he was received into the Church as a probationer by Mr. Scott — who thus notices the circumstance in his ’Historical Recollections,’ in the Western Christian Advocate of June 5, 1858:

"’After preaching at Hite’s Chapel, the first round I took on the [Berkley] circuit, I was invited by Mr. John Anderson, grandfather of the late Rev. Mr. Anderson, of the Ohio conference, deceased, to preach in Charlestown, situated about four miles distant, the next time I came round. I consented and appointed to preach there on the Sabbath. Mr. Anderson and his wife belonged to the class at Hite’s Chapel, but resided in Charlestown. In the interval between that and the time appointed for preaching, several prayer meetings were held at Mr. Anderson’s, during which they were greatly disturbed by mobs.

"The day named for the purpose was beautiful, and I preached to a large, attentive congregation, in a grove near the town. When I had concluded, I notified the congregation that it was my wish to form, on that day, a Methodist society or class in that town, and invited all who were determined to flee the wrath to come and be saved from their sins, to meet me at the house of Mr. Anderson at an hour named. Before the hour had arrived Dr. Edward Tiffin came into the room where I was sitting and commenced a conversation with me. Being a stranger to me, and not knowing but that he had been one of those who had favored the mobs, I conversed with him cautiously. He, however, remained, and several others soon collected. After singing, prayer, and an exhortation, I gave an invitation to those who wished to become members to come forward and announce their names. The Doctor was standing on the opposite side of the room fronting me. I had not perceived that he was affected; but the moment I gave the invitation he quickly stepped forward, evidently under deep and pungent conviction, roaring almost with anguish, and asked for admission into our Church.

He was admitted; and before I had completed that round on the circuit, he had preached several sermons." In another place the Judge writes: "Immediately after I had received Dr. Tiffin into the Church he became convinced of his call to the ministry. Conferring not with flesh and blood, and without waiting for a license, he immediately commenced preaching. One of the places selected by him for that purpose was Bullskin. There his ministerial labors, as also the labors of the Revs. Lewis Chastain and Valentine Cook, were greatly blessed. A very large class of lively, excellent members was formed, who met at the house of old Mr. Smith, father of the Rev. Henry Smith, of Pilgrim’s Rest, near Baltimore. Mr. Smith, in his ’Recollections,’ speaks of Dr. Tiffin’s preaching as ’pathetic and powerful.’ But although the Doctor commenced preaching before receiving license for that purpose, it was evident that he had not run before he was sent. Not only did the love of Christ constrain him to proclaim the unsearchable riches of his Gospel, but the divine call to the ministry was so powerfully impressed upon his mind that he dared not, at his peril, disobey it. Yet the cross was almost insupportably heavy, and he had, at first, well nigh sunk under it. The Doctor told me himself, more than thirty five years ago, that, attending at one of his appointments — perhaps one of the first that had been made for him — seeing the people flock in in multitudes, and knowing that mere curiosity to hear him preach had brought most of them out, his heart failed within him. He slipped out some half an hour before the time appointed for commencing the meeting, and hastily retired to a deep forest near at hand, with the intention of hiding himself till the congregation should become tired of waiting and disperse. But it would not do. He could not flee from the vivid conviction which seemed to sound in his ear like thunder, and thrill like lightning through all his soul. ’A dispensation of the Gospel is committed to me, and woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel.’ In his agony the perspiration fell in large drops from his face, and his garments were wet with its profuse flow. He felt almost involuntarily impelled to return to the house, which was now full to overflowing, and great numbers outside. Scarcely able to stand, the Doctor — like one of his distinguished predecessors in the ministry, the first time he preached at Corinth — commenced the service ’in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.’ But he soon felt divinely aided, and threw off the incubus which seemed to press him to the earth, and he preached with great liberty; and if his ’speech and his preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom,’ yet it was ’in demonstration of the Spirit, and of power;’ for sinners were cut to the heart, and God honored his servant in the sight if all the people.

About two years after Dr. Tiffin began to preach, he was admitted to the office of a deacon in the Methodist Episcopal Church, by Bishop Asbury, by whom he was ordained on the 19th of November, 1792, as appears by the Bishop’s parchment of ordination, of that date, now before me. At that period the Discipline authorized the Bishop to ordain local preachers to the order of deacons, on a testimonial of the requisite qualifications, signed by three elders, three deacons, and three traveling preachers. But in the case of Dr. Tiffin — as I learned, either from the Doctor himself or one of his sisters — this formality was dispensed with; and the good Bishop, who greatly loved the Doctor, on the occasion of a visit at his house, voluntarily and without the solicitation or suggestion of any one, conferred upon him, impromptu, by regular ordination, the office of deacon.

"In 1796 Dr. Tiffin removed to and settled in the village of Chillicothe, in the territory north-west of the Ohio river. That village had been laid out but a short time before by General Nathaniel Massie, and most of it was yet covered with a dense forest. The Doctor selected a four acre out-lot at the upper end of the town for his residence, and built thereon the first house erected in town which was graced with a shingle roof. He continued the practice of medicine in Chillicothe and the surrounding country, attending promptly, as far as practicable, to all calls for professional services, encountering often severe sufferings from the inclemency of the weather, in long and fatiguing rides on horseback, on dark nights over wretched roads, or, rather, no roads at all, crossing swollen streams with dangerous fords, and with the full knowledge, frequently, that the patient was too poor to make him any remuneration for his services and medicines. It was his custom, whenever practicable, to pray with his patients, and administer to them suitable religious counsel and instruction; and these exercises were usually accompanied with good effect. In obstetric cases this was especially his practice; and in protracted cases of this nature, he has been known to engage in fervent prayer with and for the patient twice or thrice, or oftener. His example of praying with his patients would be well worthy of imitation by all pious physicians. This, we believe, a portion of them do.

"Notwithstanding his extensive and laborious practice as a physician, Doctor Tiffin found time to labor much and zealously, and with great usefulness, in his Lord’s vineyard. He had his regular Sabbath appointments for preaching in the country — for there was then no opening for it in town — and his ministry was signally blest to his congregations. One of his regular preaching-places was at Anthony Davenport’s, on Deer creek, twelve miles north of Chillicothe. Here he had a large congregation, and organized a flourishing society long before any of the traveling preachers had visited that part of the country. The Rev. Henry Smith, in his ’Recollections of an old itinerant’ — p. 326 — who visited that society in October, 1799, speaks warmly of its prosperous condition. Mr. Smith, in the same connection, adds: ’Monday, October 4th.

I rode down the river to Chillicothe, and put up with Doctor Tiffin, with whom I had been long acquainted, [in Virginia.] The Doctor had often preached in our neighborhood, and sometimes at my father’s. He and his excellent wife received me as a messenger of Christ, and treated me with great kindness. Sister Tiffin was one of the most conscientious and heavenly minded women I ever saw. She was a mother in our Israel indeed. About that time a report was put in circulation that the Doctor had given up his religion. He laughed at it, and said, "It would not do for me to backslide; for my wife would let me have no peace." The Doctor, however, refused to take any part in religious exercises in Chillicothe out of his own family. He had his reasons for it. Those ’reasons,’ it would seem, were considered by Mr. Smith valid. They probably grew out of the ’report’ mentioned by him, which, I suppose, ’was put in circulation’ by some narrow-minded and malicious persons, through envy or jealousy, because of the Doctor’s deservedly great popularity.

About the time Mr. Smith speaks of — autumn of 1799 — Dr. Tiffin was elected a member of the territorial Legislature. The North-Western territory then embraced all the country lying north-west of the Ohio river and east of the Mississippi; and delegates were in attendance from the isolated settlements of Kaskaskia, on the Mississippi, at Vincennes, on the Wabash, and at Detroit, in Michigan. Solomon Sibley represented the latter in the territorial Legislature. Mr. Sibley and the Doctor took prominent parts in the debates; and were frequently on opposite sides in the discussions. The former was cool, deliberate, and logical in debate; while the latter, though not less logical and conclusive in his argument, was exceedingly animated and ardent in his feelings, and would sometimes, unguardedly, expose himself to the keen retorts of his philosophic opponent. Some sixteen or eighteen years after this period, I was present when Mr. Sibley, on his return from a session of Congress, of which he was a member, paid a visit to Dr. Tiffin, in Chillicothe. Their service together in the territorial Legislature was alluded to, when the Doctor very pleasantly remarked, ’In our debates, Mr. Sibley, I wished a thousand times that I could have the same calm, philosophic, and imperturbable spirit which you possessed. I saw and felt the advantage which it gave you over me when we happened to come into collision.’ ’I hope, Doctor,’ replied Mr. Sibley ’that I never said any thing, when replying to you, that was in any way personally offensive?’ ’Not at all,’ rejoined the Doctor; ’the marked respect which you always showed toward those opposed to you in debate, could not but command my admiration, and often filled me with keen regret at the unguarded expressions which escaped me in the heat of debate.’ Mr. Sibley laughingly replied, ’I well remember, Doctor, how often I have wished that I could infuse into my remarks on the floor the same ardor of feeling which was displayed in your speeches.’ The interview was a very pleasant one to both these gentlemen.

Mr. Sibley was one of the early pioneers of Michigan, whither he emigrated from Massachusetts, his native state. He was a prominent, useful, and influential citizen, and held successively several important offices, both under the territorial and state governments. he died at Detroit some years since.

"In the autumn of 1802 an election was held to choose delegates to the convention which adopted the first Constitution, and formed a state government for Ohio. Dr. Tiffin was elected one of the delegates from Ross county; and on the meeting of the convention he was chosen its President, the duties of which office he discharged with much ability and great satisfaction. The members were chosen for their honesty and capacity. They came together as business men, and without wasting their time in speeches ’for Buncombe,’ they went earnestly to work, and in thirty days framed an excellent Constitution, which served the state for nearly half a century, a monument of the wisdom of its founders. The next year, when the chief Executive of the state was to be chosen under the new Constitution, the eyes of the people were turned to Dr. Tiffin, and he was elected their first Governor without opposition, I believe. Two years afterward, when his term of service expired, he was re-elected to the same office.

It was during Governor Tiffin’s second term of office, near the close of 1806, that the conspiracy of Aaron Burr was developed. His object was either a severance of the western states from the Union, or to seize upon that portion embraced in Louisiana, lately ceded by France to the United States. Burr had procured, at different points on the upper Ohio, a great number of flatboats, and secretly freighted them with a large quantity of provisions and munitions of war. These boats were to rendezvous, at a given time, at Blennerhassett’s Island. Governor Tiffin, on obtaining information of Burr’s movements, promptly dispatched an express to the military commandant at Marietta, with orders to call out a strong militia force, armed and equipped for service, and post them, with all expedition, at a given point below Blennerhassett’s Island, where the channel would oblige the boat to pass very near to the Ohio side of the river. The order was promptly executed; and before Burr had any knowledge of the movement, the armed force to intercept his fleet was at the narrows, with a small battery of light field artillery. To pass this battery was found impossible; and Burr was obliged to abandon the expedition, and make his escape to parts unknown. As an interesting fragment of history pertaining to this affair, I insert the following, clipped from the New York Standard, an old newspaper:

"’It is well known that Burr, defeated in his efforts to divide and crush the republican party, planned a conspiracy, having for its object the severance of the Union, and that in December, 1806, various parties of men collected by him, and brought over to his views, embarked upon the Ohio river, and were to rendezvous at Blennerhassett’s Island, which was the great point of concentration and depot, whence the expedition was to go forth to accomplish its nefarious project. But Mr. Jefferson, then at the head of the Government, had not been an inactive observer of these proceedings. He dispatched a messenger, Mr. John Graham, into the western country, to put himself in communication with the executives and legislatures of the several states, and to urge the adoption of such measures as might be necessary to arrest the conspiracy. The authorities of Ohio immediately put themselves in action. A law was passed unanimously, for calling out the militia, and vesting all necessary powers in the Governor, and an address was transmitted to Mr. Jefferson, assuring him of the confidence of the people of Ohio in his administration, and of their determination to put down all efforts to sever the Union. The then Governor, Mr. Tiffin, acted with promptitude. The people responded by one simultaneous expression against the adventurer thus aiming a fatal blow at the liberties of our country. The militia were called out, many of the persons engaged in the enterprise were arrested, and the whole project was defeated.

We have lately turned to the files of the National Intelligencer, and found the following proceedings which it may not be uninteresting to read. The admirable letter to Mr. Jefferson can not fail to commend itself to the country, as well for its beautiful tone as for its truly republican sentiments.

CHILLICOTHE, December 26, 1806.

"On Thursday last Mr. Lewis Cass introduced the following resolution, which was agreed to, and passed both houses without one dissenting voice:

"Resolved, unanimously, by the General Assembly of the state of Ohio, that the Governor be requested to transmit to the President of the United States the following address—

"To Thomas Jefferson, Esq., President of the United States: SIR: At a time when the public mind throughout the Union is agitated with alarming reports respecting the existence and designs of a party hostile to the welfare and prosperity of our country, we deem it a duty incumbent on us to express to the Executive of the Union our attachment to the Government of the United States, and our confidence in its administration. Whatever may be the intentions of desperate and abandoned men respecting the destruction of that Constitution which has raised us to our present elevated rank among the nations of the world, and which is our only security for the future, we trust they will find very few advocates in the state of Ohio. We express the feelings and opinions of our constituents, when we say that no arts of intriguing men — no real or visionary prospects of advantage, will ever induce us to sever that bond of union, which is our only security against domestic violence and foreign invasion.

"Believing that the fundamental maxims of rational liberty have guided you in the administration of our Government, we hesitate not to express our full and entire confidence in your councils and conduct. Enjoying every blessing which, as men and citizens, we could desire, and in a country fertile in nature’s choicest gifts, we could deem it presumptuous, indeed, to hazard, by intestine dissensions, these incalculable advantages. We trust that public rumor has magnified the danger; but should the design in agitation be as destructive as represented, we have no doubt that all fears will shortly be dissipated before the indignation of our citizens. That you may long live to enjoy the confidence and attachment of the American people, is the sincere and unanimous wish of the Legislature of Ohio."

Reply of Mr. Jefferson to the Governor of Ohio: "WASHINGTON, February 2, 1807.

"SIR, — The pressing business, during a session of the Legislature, has rendered me more tardy in addressing you than it was my wish to have been. That our fellow-citizens of the west would need only to be informed of criminal machinations against the public safety, to crush them at once, I never entertained a doubt.

"I have seen, with the greatest satisfaction, that among those who have distinguished themselves by their fidelity to their country, on the occasion of the enterprise of Mr. Burr, yourself and the Legislature of Ohio have been the most eminent; the promptitude and energy displayed by your state has been as honorable to itself, as salutary to its sister states; and in declaring that you have deserved most of your country, I do but express the grateful sentiments of every fellow-citizen in it. The hand of the people has given a mortal blow to a conspiracy which, it other countries, would have called for an appeal to arms, and has proved that government to be the strongest of which every man feels himself a part. It is a happy illustration, too, of the importance of preserving to the state authorities all that vigor which the Constitution foresaw would be necessary, not only for their own safety, but for that of the whole.

"In making these acknowledgments of the merit of having set this illustrious example of exertion for the common safety, I pray that they may be considered as addressed to yourself and the Legislature particularly, and generally to every citizen who has availed himself of the opportunity given, of proving his devotion to his country.

"Accept my salutations and assurances of great consideration and esteem. [Signed,] "THOMAS JEFFERSON.

^{"His Excellency, GOVERNOR TIFFIN."}

"At the session of the Legislature in 1806-7, Governor Tiffin was chosen senator in Congress, in place of Thomas Worthington, whose term expired the 4th of March following. Dr. Tiffin took his seat in the senate in December, 1807. Early in the following year he suffered a great bereavement in the death of his excellent and pious wife. Mrs. Tiffin embraced religion, and united herself to the Church at or about the same time with the Doctor. She was a most devoted and deeply-experienced Christian, loved and esteemed by all who knew her. She was a great favorite of the venerated Bishop Asbury, who speaks in the highest terms of her in his journal. This event probably determined the Doctor to retire from public life. Accordingly, after the close of the session of the Congress, which terminated on the third of March, 1809, he resigned his seat in the senate, and returned to the peaceful retirement of private life. Early in the spring of this year, after his retirement from the senate, he removed to his beautiful farm on Deer creek, about eight miles north of Chillicothe, where he enjoyed the sweets of rural life in the cultivation of the rich alluvial land on that stream. Soon after this he united in marriage with Miss Mary Porter, of Twin township, in the same — Ross county; an amiable, pious, and highly respectable young lady, who, by her estimable qualities, and sweetness of spirit, filled the measure of his domestic happiness.

"The Doctor, however, was not permitted a long respite from public life. At the general election in October following his retirement from the United States senate, his fellow-citizens of Ross county called him to represent them in the popular branch of the Legislature. The session was opened on the first Monday in December following. Dr. Alexander Campbell, of Adams county, who had been Speaker of the house of representatives for two or three sessions previous, was re-elected to that post. As Dr. Tiffin’s seat, in the United States senate was yet vacant, the two houses of the Legislature, soon after the session commenced met in joint session, in the hall of the house of representatives, to elect a successor. Chillicothe was yet the seat of government, and the old stone courthouse the capitol, in which the sessions were held. The building was very illy adapted for the purpose. The house occupied the court-room on the ground floor, a very uncomfortable, badly-lighted, and roughly-finished room, with large fireplace at each end and a wide, open stairway out of one corner, leading up to the second floor. All the wood which could be piled on the fires failed to heat the large rooms in winter. The senate occupied the grand-jury room on the second floor. This was a low room, with a platform for the Speaker’s seat at one side and long roughly-made tables on the floor, with plain, Windsor chairs ranged behind them for the reverend senators.

"The two houses, as above stated, met in joint session. The senate, headed by their Speaker, Thomas Kirker, Esq., and their Secretary, Rev. Thomas Scott, descended the wide stairway before mentioned, and, on entering the ’bar,’ were received by the members of the house, standing, and conducted to seats, the Speaker taking his seat at the right of the Speaker of the house. When all were seated and in readiness, the Speaker of the senate arose and said: ’Gentlemen of the senate, you will please prepare your ballots for senator in the Congress of the United States, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Edward Tiffin.’ The Speaker of the house then called upon the ’gentlemen of the house of representatives’ to prepare their ballots for the same purpose. A teller from each house, named by their respective Speakers, collected the ballots in hats, and read them at the Clerk’s table; each of the Clerks took down the votes given, and handed the result to their Speakers, by which it was shown that Doctor Alexander Campbell, Speaker of the house, was duly elected. This was, in due form, announced by Mr. Speaker Kirker to the ’gentlemen of the senate,’ and was followed by the Speaker of the house, who, under evident embarrassment, but which he succeeded very well in overcoming, announced in the same form: ’Gentlemen of the house of representatives, it appears that Alexander Campbell, of Adams county, has been duly elected senator in the Congress of the United States, to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Edward Tiffin.’ on the retirement of the senate to their chamber, Dr. Campbell arose, and, after a few very touching farewell remarks, handed to the Clerk, Mr. Thomas S. Hinde, a written resignation of the Speakership of the house, and retired from the chair. The Clerk immediately arose, and read the resignation to the house, and, on motion, the house proceeded at once to elect a Speaker to fill the vacancy. Dr. Tiffin was put in nomination, and, I think, unanimously chosen Speaker; and, on taking the chair, presented his thanks to the house in a neat little speech.

I was present during the whole of the proceedings which I leave here given in detail, and record them now to show the reader of the present day how such things were done in that early period of our state’s history, while yet in its primitive simplicity and purity. Let the reader contrast these simple, honest, and dignified proceedings with the disgraceful legislative caucusing, party drilling, corrupting influences, and bacchanalian orgies of some modern ’progressive’ legislatures we wot of. We are strongly inclined to indulge in some further reflections here; but, lest it might give offense, we refrain.

"Doctor Tiffin was returned to the house of representatives the following year also —1810 — and again chosen Speaker by that body. The seat of government having been, in the mean time, by order of the previous session, removed to Zanesville, the Legislature met and held its session in that town. For this removal of the seat of government, the town of Zanesville was indebted to the efforts and influence of its member, George Jackson. It remained there, however, but two or three years, and was removed back to Chillicothe, and soon afterward to Columbus, the permanent seat. Dr. Tiffin’s intimate knowledge of the duties of the chair, and his habitual promptness and business tact, admirably fitted him to preside over a deliberative assembly; and as presiding officer he was deservedly popular, and gave great satisfaction. The Doctor’s income from the rent of his house in town, and the products of his mill and farm in the country, being inadequate to the support of his family, he removed into town again, in the autumn of 1810, and resumed his practice as a physician, to which he devoted his whole attention; and his well-known skill and popularity in his profession brought him at once unto an extensive and lucrative practice. In surgical operations he was equally successful. Some instances of important cases might be mentioned; but we will name but one or two. On one occasion, when visiting the sick, some fifteen or twenty miles from Chillicothe, on Deer creek, he was sent for to see a man who had cut his foot very badly with a scythe, when mowing. The Doctor found the patient’s foot in a high state of inflammation, with mortification commenced and rapidly advancing, requiring immediate amputation. To leave delayed till he could get his surgical instruments would have been fatal to the patient, as the weather was extremely sultry. In place of a tourniquet he used a silk handkerchief, which he drew tightly around the leg. Then using his penknife for a scalpel, and a common handsaw for sawing off the bones, he soon had the diseased part of the limb severed, the wound dressed, and thereby saved the man’s life. At another time he was sent for to visit a woman, a few miles east of Chillicothe, who had an inflammatory disease in one of her breasts. Mortification having set in, the Doctor found it necessary, to save the woman’s life, to amputate the entire breast. This critical operation he performed successfully, and the patient’s life was saved.

"An act of Congress creating the General Land-Office was passed, April 25, 1812. This act provided for the appointment, by the President and senate, of a ’Commissioner of the General Land-Office,’ with a salary of three thousand dollars, under whose direction and management the business of the office was to be conducted. In selecting a suitable man to take charge of this important office, President Madison, wholly unexpected and unsolicited by either Dr. Tiffin or any of his friends, conferred it upon him. His nomination, when sent into the senate, gave great satisfaction to that body, and elicited an expression of warm approval from several members. The nomination was immediately taken up and unanimously confirmed. The first intimation which the Doctor had of his appointment, was the receipt, by the next mail, of his commission, with a friendly private letter from President Madison, and complimentary letters from Mr. Worthington, then in the senate, and several other members. The gratifying manner in which the office was conferred determined the Doctor at once to accept it. A few days thereafter, leaving his family in Chillicothe, he mounted his horse — the only practicable mode of traveling at that time — and, accompanied by the Rev. Joseph S. Collins, — The father of the Rev. John A. Collins, of the Baltimore conference. He still survives, at the advanced age of seventy-five years, and resides in Georgetown, District of Columbia — of Chillicothe, whom he took along as a clerk in the office, he set out for Washington, which he reached in about two weeks of diligent and weary travel. Here he immediately set about organizing the General Land-Office, and putting it in train for business. This was a laborious work, as the books, documents, papers, maps, etc., had to be gathered out of the several departments and bureaus of state, treasury, and war, and appropriately arranged for business in the new office. The Surveyor-General of the public lands, and the Registers and Receivers of the numerous land-offices in the west, were placed under the direction and control of the new Commissioner; and these were to be put in communication with him, and receive his instructions for their government in performing their duties.

"Early in the following autumn the Doctor returned to Chillicothe, for the purpose of settling up his affairs, and to remove his family to Washington City, which he did. He took a beautiful mansion on the summit of Meridian hill — as it is called, I believe — on the northwest extremity of Washington, to which were attached several acres of ground, including garden and an orchard of choice fruit of various kinds. The Doctor devoted unremitted attention to the duties of his office, where he was always to be found during the hours of business. When the British army, in August, 1814, was on the march upon Washington City, and the order was given to remove the books, documents, and every thing pertaining to the public offices, to places of safety, in the country, he was the first officer to commence the work. By his prompt and efficient measures for the safety of his office, he succeeded in removing its entire contents to it safe place in Loudon county, Virginia, about ten miles from Washington; while several of the other offices in the departments lost much of their valuable documents, all the public buildings, with their contents, having been burned by the enemy. The Doctor, who never relished much a residence in Washington City, where the technical formalities and customs in fashionable life were unsuited to his taste, had now a strong desire to return to the west. The office of Surveyor-General of public lands north-west of the Ohio river, was then held by Josiah Meigs, Esq., who kept the office at Cincinnati, and was paid a salary by Government of two thousand dollars per year. The Doctor conceived the project of effecting an exchange of offices with Mr. Meigs, provided the consent of the President and senate could be obtained. Early in the autumn of 1814 he wrote to Mr. Meigs, confidentially, making the proposition here named to him, who willingly consented thereto. The Doctor next brought the subject before the President privately, and satisfied him that the proposed exchange was mutually desired by himself and Mr. Meigs, and that the public interest would in no way suffer thereby. Mr. Madison obligingly assented to their wishes, and sent to the senate their nominations for that purpose, which were confirmed by that body. The way being now open for the Doctor’s return to his favored west, he lost no time in making his preparations for that purpose. Sending on his household goods in advance, he, with Mrs. Tiffin and their children and nurse, performed the tedious journey in the family carriage. He immediately removed the Surveyor-General’s office from Cincinnati to Chillicothe, its location not being fixed by law at any one place. Here he fitted up the office in an old, one-story log building, which had been erected in the early settlement of the town, and stood on Water-street, in front of his dwelling-house, and, I believe, remains there yet, a relic of the olden time. The Doctor now went to work, with his characteristic ardor and assiduity, to acquaint himself minutely with the routine of the duties devolving upon him, and to get ’the run’ — the history and present state of its business. This was a laborious task, one in which he derived little or no assistance from the only clerk, whom he found in the office, who had been himself but a short time in it; Mr. Meigs having set out for Washington City about the time that the Doctor left it for Ohio. At that time no public surveys were being made, having been suspended by the presence of hostile Indians on the territory to be surveyed, and but little current business demanded attention.

"In the spring of 1814, before he had any thought of returning to Ohio, Dr. Tiffin, without any solicitation from me or my friends, had appointed me to a clerkship in the General Land-Office. Wishing to have me in his office at Chillicothe, the Doctor, in January following, made the proposition to me, and offered me the post of chief clerk therein. This offer I very willingly accepted, and in the spring of 1815 moved back to Chillicothe, and immediately entered upon the duties of my new employment. The business of this office being exactly suited to my taste and inclinations, it will not, I hope, be considered out of place for me to say that I devoted, unremittingly, what little energy and ardor I possessed to make myself thoroughly acquainted with the whole routine of duties devolving upon me, as well as those pertaining to the head of the office; for these, likewise, as the Doctor’s health declined, he committed almost entirely to my management. It was, I will add, gratifying to me to know that the onerous duties, thus devolved by him upon his chief clerk, were performed to the Doctor’s entire satisfaction, as well as that of the department at Washington, the head of which, in after years, spoke of the manner in which the business of the office had been conducted in very flattering terms.

"During the first three or four years after the Doctor’s return from Washington, he occasionally preached in town; and, at one time, for several months, conducted the religious services of the little society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Chillicothe, who had, as yet, no pastor. Besides the morning service of that Church, he usually read a sermon from some book, using for this purpose, mostly, ’Burder’s Village Sermons.’ he was a fine reader, and read from the pages of the book, which lay on the desk before him, with all the appropriate emphasis, cadence, intonation, and pathos of an extemporaneous discourse. On one Sunday he did venture to deliver one of his own extemporaneous sermons, and with such warmth and power that his congregation was thrown into great amazement. A committee appointed by them waited upon the Doctor the next day, and expressed their disapprobation of extempore sermons, desiring him, in future, to read only. Whether he ever officiated for them afterward I do not now recollect, but think he did not.

"The Doctor had long been subject to occasional paroxysms of severe nervous headache, which did not usually continue beyond a few hours. As he advanced in years these paroxysms became more frequent and severe, with painful disturbance of the whole nervous system, and great suffering. These afflictions gradually advanced upon him to the end of his life; and during the last four or five years of it most of his time was spent in his bed. I usually went to his room every morning, to see him before opening the office; and often has he said to me, ’I had a very bad night of it, and was in hopes that I would have died before morning!’ And on more than one occasion he has added, ’O, how glad I would be if the Lord would only send the messenger, and release me from my sufferings! I fancy that when my exulting spirit would reach the ceiling it would turn a moment and gaze upon the lifeless body, and triumphantly exclaim, "Ha, you old diseased carcass, I am liberated from your loathsome prison at last! Farewell, till we meet again, when the trumpet shall awaken you from the tomb, and your mortal shall put on immortality!’ When well enough to leave his room, he would attend to some business in the office, or overlook the work in his garden, or other matters about the house; and, as often as practicable, he attended public worship and his class meetings. He read much even when unable to sit up. Hundreds of times have I found him on his bed with a book in his hand, the pages of which he was poring over with earnestness, although suffering much at the time. His reading was generally confined to religious works.

"The last few years of his life were but little diversified with incident. Disease and suffering were gradually wearing him down to the grave. He was mostly confined to his room and to his bed. And when his health permitted him to be out, he was soon obliged to return again to his room.

"Doctor Tiffin held the office of Surveyor-General for nearly fifteen years enjoying the entire confidence of Presidents Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy Adams, and the departments at Washington, in his capacity, integrity, and faithfulness in office. On the accession of General Jackson to the Presidency, the new doctrine that ’to the victors belonged the spoils’ was adopted, and carried out, through all the numerous offices of the Government, from the highest to the lowest, where the incumbents were not known to be political adherents and active partisans of the General and his administration. The Doctor had, for twenty years or more previous to this time, laid politics aside. He concerned not himself with, nor took any part whatever in, the political party movements of the day. He contented himself, when able to attend, by going to the polls and depositing his ballot. His name, of course, was enrolled high up on the list of the proscribed, and he was early removed from office by the new President. His successor was General William Lytle, of Cincinnati, a gentleman every way worthy of the appointment. On the 1st of July, 1829, General Lytle appeared, and laid before Dr. Tiffin, then on his death-bed, his commission, and an order from the department at Washington for the delivery of the office to him, as his successor. This was done very politely and promptly, and the office was at once removed by General Lytle to Cincinnati.

"The Doctor’s health continued to decline, and he gradually sunk till Sunday evening, the 9th of August, 1829, a little over six weeks after his removal from office. He had been long sensible of his approaching end, and contemplated the solemn event not only with calm complacency, but with joyful anticipations of a triumphant admission into his heavenly Father’s kingdom and to the society of ’just men made perfect.’ This joyful confidence he gave frequent expression to when visited by his friends and brethren. He retained the full exercise of his reason to the last, and gently and calmly sunk into the embraces of death about sundown of the day above mentioned, aged sixty-three years and two months. I close this brief account of his death with the following appropriate obituary notice, which I clip from the Chillicothe ’Scioto Gazette,’ of August 12, 1829:

"’Died, at his residence in this place, on Sunday evening last, the 9th inst., Dr. EDWARD TIFFIN, in the sixty-fourth year of his age.

"’The deceased was a native of England, but immigrated to America at an early period in life, and settled in Berkley county, in the state of Virginia, as a practicing physician. Shortly after this state — then a part of the North-West territory, so called — was opened for settlement, he removed to this town, then in its infancy, and erected the first house that was covered with a shingle roof. In 1799 he was elected a member of the territorial Legislature, in which capacity he continued to serve till he was chosen a member of the convention that formed the Constitution of Ohio, of which body he was President. When, in 1803, the Constitution of the state went into operation, he was called to the first executive office under it, by a very flattering vote of the people. This mark of the public confidence was again extended to him at the succeeding election of Governor. But before he had completed his second gubernatorial term, he was elected a senator in the Congress of the United States. In this distinguished station, he served the state till a heavy domestic misfortune compelled him, temporarily, to retire from public life. In the early part of the administration of President Madison, the General Land-Office was formed into a distinct bureau of the Treasury Department. In looking to the west for a suitable person to be placed at its head, the penetrating judgment of that great man selected the subject of this notice as its first Commissioner. He promptly repaired to the post, and faithfully devoted himself to the organization and discharge of the various, complicated, and arduous duties of the office, till he was appointed Surveyor-General of the United States, in which capacity he continued to act till the first of July last, when he was removed by President Jackson for his unbending honesty and independence as a politician; thus filling a life of almost continued public usefulness for upward of thirty years.

"In the various relations of a parent, husband, Christian, neighbor, and private citizen, the deceased has been but rarely equaled, and perhaps never excelled. "As a public man, he was inflexibly just, upright, independent, and firm. As a private citizen, he was emphatically an honest and conscientious man; and as a Christian, he was catholic in his religious opinions, and exemplary and practically pious.

"He has left, to deplore his loss, a widow, five children, a number of other near relations, and an extensive circle of public and private acquaintances. On the succeeding afternoon his mortal remains were committed to the tomb, attended by a large concourse of the citizens of the town and of the adjoining neighborhood.’

"In stature Dr. Tiffin was about five feet six inches, with pretty full and heavy body, and light limbs. His head was large, and his face full and round, with florid complexion. Baldness had taken place long before he had reached the meridian of life; and, for the last fifteen or twenty years of it, he was obliged to wear a wig. His countenance was one of the most expressive I have ever seen, especially when lighted up with animation. He was remarkable for the activity and quickness of his movements, and whatsoever he did, he did with promptness and with his might. Dr. Monett — a physician of Chillicothe — used to say of him, that ’what he could not do quickly, he could not do at all.’ It was his rule of action, ’never to put off till to-morrow that which could be done to-day.’ In company, his conversation was generally animated, always engaging, and his manner full of life and vivacity, which often made him, on such occasions, the ’observed of all observers.’ In his financial affairs — especially those in relation to the office, where large expenditures were annually made on account of the public surveys — he was particularly exact, making it a point to keep his accounts posted up every day, ready for settlement in case of his death. And when removed from office, having no instructions about paying over the balance of public money in his hands — some four or five thousand dollars — he gave the department at Washington no rest till he obtained an order to pay it over to his successor, which he instantly did.

"His benevolence to the poor and needy was bounded only by his inability farther to relieve them. I have known him to feel intensely when he had not the means at hand, or to spare, to supply the wants of the needy and destitute; and his known charity to the poor brought numerous calls from them for relief. In several instances, where he did not wish the recipients to know from whom the relief came, he has made me the almoner of his charity, and very probably often availed himself of similar services from others. The sufferings of the sick and poor always awakened his sympathies, and "his pity gave ere charity began"

"After his appointment as Surveyor-General, being no longer engaged in the practice of physic, he kept always on hand a supply of medicines in common use for the use of the poor and those not well able to pay, and to all such who called on him, he distributed suitable medicines, with professional advice and instructions, free of charge. Calls of this description were numerous, chiefly from the country; and I have known him to be employed for hours together in attending to the cases of the sick, in inquiring into the symptoms, in giving advice, writing prescriptions and making up packages of medicines, even when he was scarcely able to be out of his bed, or actually confined to it.

"It should have been mentioned in its proper place, in the early portion of the Doctor’s life, his filial care of his aged parents, for whom he provided a home in his own house, after their children were all settled in the world. He contributed in every way to their comfort and happiness, nursed them himself with all tenderness and affection, when they were sick, and, to the extent of his power, smoothed their passage to the tomb. They both died, I think, about the year 1807.

"As a preacher, the Doctor’s talents were much above mediocrity. He was methodical in the arrangement of his discourses, and always ’stuck to his text,’ and presented his subject with clearness and force. His language was somewhat florid, but yet plain, and adapted to the easy comprehension of all. His action in the pulpit was highly impulsive, yet natural and graceful, and his countenance lighted up with expression. His discourses were delivered with great animation and with eloquence and power, and his appeals to the hearts and consciences of his hearers were pointed, forcible, and effective. In the country around Chillicothe, where the Doctor had so often preached, he was deservedly very popular, and his labors in the pulpit much sought after, and at quarterly and campmeetings he was always assigned one, at least of the chief appointments on the Sabbath. Three of Dr. Tiffin’s sermons, preached in 1817, have been given in the ’Ohio Conference Offering,’ a collection of sermons published in 1851, by Rev. M. P. Gaddis. (See pp. 340-360.)

"To the active labors and influence of Dr. Tiffin, the Church is more indebted than to any other man for the introduction and establishment of Methodism in Chillicothe and the surrounding country.

We may add, in conclusion, that the Doctor’s excellent lady, whom he left a widow, survived him but a few years. His four daughters are still living. The eldest is married to Mr. Joseph A. Reynolds, and resides near Urbana; another married M. Scott Cook, Esq., of Chillicothe; and the youngest is the wife of Dr. C. G. Comegys, a talented and skillful physician of Cincinnati. The remaining daughter is unmarried. His only son, Edward Parker Tiffin, chose the profession of medicine, and, after completing his studies and graduating, he spent two years in Paris, France, to perfect his knowledge of the healing art, and returned to the United States last autumn, and took the cars at New York on his route home. At one of the stopping-places on the way, where the passengers breakfasted, the train started before he had got on again, and in attempting to get on one of the cars when in motion, his foot slipped off the step, and he fell on the track, and was instantly run over by the wheels, nearly cutting off one leg and one arm, both near the body. He was taken back to New York, but survived only a few hours.

"Dr. Tiffin, it is to be regretted, left no papers nor any written memorial of his life. Most of the foregoing memoir is drawn from memory, and relates to matters occurring from twenty-five to almost fifty years ago. It is also to be regretted that the only likeness left of the Doctor is a small miniature, which bears but little resemblance to the original, and altogether fails to give the striking features and fine expression of countenance of the Doctor. I have been shown a portrait on some bank notes, which is said to be copied from the miniature above mentioned; but it fails to convey even what little trace of likeness is found in the miniature."