who are dead were distinguished for their Christian character.

This fact is suggestive and instructive. The parents were themselves the children of Christian parents, and the mother for thirty years a member of the Baptist church. They taught their children to believe in Christianity, and to attend upon the institutions of the Gospel, and in their old age they had the pleasure of witnessing their descendants moral and religious. These results had their origin in the Log-Cabins of the West, where their own Christian parents taught them the great truths of the Bible, in early childhood.

In 1800, they removed from Columbia to Williamsburgh, Clermont county, Ohio, for many years the capitol of that county, and in 1804 they permanently located in Bethel, where they resided the most of their active life.

An incident, marking the anti-slavery sentiment of that time and village, must, here, have an honorable record. The proprietor of the village was Obed Donham, who laid it out in 1802. He was from Virginia, and a member of the Baptist church; and in donating two lots to the Baptist denomination, he put into the deed of conveyance the following record, viz.: "I also give two lots in said town, Nos. 80 and 180, for the use of the regular Baptist church, who do not hold slaves, nor commune at the Lord's Table with those who do practice such tyranny over their fellow creatures-for to build a house for the worship of Almighty God, and to bury the dead, and for no other use." Mr. Morris said, for this act, Mr. Donham deserved a marble monument. The removal of Thomas Morris to Clermont proved fortunate. His energies found an active field for development and effort, and he resolved to be a successful winner. Without friends, without pecuniary means, with a growing family, without a preceptor, and with few books, he commenced, in 1802, the study of law. Early and late he was at his legal books.

After the hard labors of the day were over, night found him at his studies reading Blackstone, not by the light of an astral lamp, nor yet by the common light of a tallow candle, for his poverty forbade this cheap convenience, but by the light afforded by hickory bark or a clapboard in his cabin, and often from a brick kiln which he was burning, for the support of his family.

Under these formidable difficulties, with a resolute purpose and an iron will, he pushed his onward way, and reached the goal before him. Completing two years of study, he was admitted to practice as an attorney and counsellor at law. He had not mistaken his profession or his powers. He soon took a leading position as a lawyer, and reputation and business rapidly accumulated.

The Bar of Clermont, for many years, was distinguished for its ability in its home and visiting lawyers. Benham, Fox, W. H. Harrison, jr., and others from Cincinnati; Corwin, from Warren; Hamer, from Brown; Martin Marshall, from Kentucky; and Fishback, now the patriarch of the legal profession in Clermont, men of great legal attainments and intellectual abilities, were the men who met at various courts, to measure weapons with each other. Morris was among the first of that circle of distinguished lawyers. Before a jury, there were none who surpassed him in power and effect. Engaged in almost every case in Court, he ever maintained an eminence equal to the highest, and was a successful winner in the field of legal honors.

As a lawyer, and a public speaker, he quoted more frequently than most public men, from the Bible, and those quotations, being apt and accurate, greatly added to the conclusiveness of his arguments before a jury. His readi ness to employ the Scriptures to confirm his sentiments showed his familiarity with them, and his belief in their Divine authority.

In the Senate of the United States, when making a speech on the monetary interests of the country, and the evils resulting from the credit system, tending to the destruction of self-independence, he cited Bible authority, that "the borrower is servant to the lender." A coSenator, Mr. Mangum, of North Carolina, with great earnestness, denied the truth of such a doctrine. Mr. Morris replied, that the authority was of Divine origin, and he submitted the question to the Senate, whether the Senator or the Bible was of the highest authority.

A successful lawyer for forty years, yet he never encouraged litigation. "It ought to be," said he, "our aim to prevent litigation, as far as practicable with the rules and ends of justice." His services as a lawyer were rendered as willingly and energetically to the poor as to the rich. Indeed he was generally on the side of the poor; if it had not been so, his ability as an advocate would have yielded him an immense fortune. With him the right was the great leading motive, and the effort to violate it stirred the strongest energies of his nature, and brought him down on his adversary with an irresistible power and force.

In a legal contest with Benham, an able lawyer, in which he, (Benham) wielded his sarcasm and eloquence against the citizens of villages, who, he affirmed, when they got a few mechanics and one or two professional men, put on airs of importance and dignity-Mr. Morris retorted with a power and eloquence that was felt by his distinguished opponent. He contrasted city gentlemen with the free, honest, and independent citizens in country villages, and made a most powerful defense of the noble position and honorable calling of mechanics and laboring The vindication and triumph were complete. Mr. Benham said afterward, that Morris was harder to vanquish than any lawyer he contended with.

In a case of great importance, before the Court of

Brown county, he desired a continuance of his case, a principal witness being absent, on account of high waters. The Court refused the motion; and Mr. Morris procured a horse, swam the stream, and with his witness behind him, returned and replunged again into the swollen stream, entered the Court, and gained his case.

These incidents are illustrative of his unconquerable energy, as well as of his ability as a lawyer. His success had a significant connection with his reading Blackstone, by the light of hickory bark, in his log-cabin.

CHAPTER V.

ELECTED to the Legislature-Early Legislative History of Ohio-Narrow escape of Freedom in the Convention-Character of the men who framed the Constitution-Judge Cutter-Character of the Legislators of Ohio, for the first thirty-five years-Mr. Morris's position as a Legislator.

IN 1806, Mr. Morris was elected a representative from Clermont county, and took his seat at Zanesville, then the capital of Ohio.

The early legislation of Ohio forms one of the brightest and most honorable historical chapters in her record. The legislators, to whom were entrusted the task of constructing the organic system of the civil government of Ohio, were men of practical wisdom, and of just and liberal views. Its territorial government was the creation of the living breath of freedom. The Ordinance of 1787 laid the chief corner stone in the structure of her greatness and prosperity; and the men who framed the State Constitution, and created her system of legislation, conformed their policy to this great charter of freedom. They consecrated the State to Religion, Education, and Freedom. The Bill of Rights declares, "That neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for crime, shall exist in the State; that religion, morality, and knowledge, being essentially necessary for good government, and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of instruction shall forever be encouraged by legislative provision; and that all men are born equally free and independent, and have the right to life, liberty, and of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety."