Not least among the rewards which came to Kirkwood was the gratitude of Margaretta Barker, the young widow whose husband had been slain by the hand of her own brother. From the home of her husband's parents at Plymouth, where she had gone in her sorrow, she wrote many letters of appreciation for what the young attorney had done, not only in the securing of justice but also in acting as administrator of her husband's estate. And at one time she sent him the cane which Franklin Barker had carried, "not", as she said, "as a token of remembrance, (that you will not need) but as a token of my gratitude",54

V

THE OHIO CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION AT

COLUMBUS

THE years which followed the Bowland trial witnessed the fulfillment of Judge Lane's prophecy. Until the year 1849 Samuel J. Kirkwood continued to hold the office of Prosecuting Attorney of Richland County, performing his duties to the best of his ability and giving general satisfaction. In many of his cases he was opposed by John Sherman and others with whom he had contested in the moot court in former days.55 At the same time he did his share and more of the work which came to the firm of Bartley and Kirkwood, and gained the respect of the older lawyers of the Mansfield bar. Thus he came to be well known throughout the county; and the high regard in which he was held is indicated by the fact that at a nonpartisan election held on the first Monday in April, 1850, he was chosen to sit with a group of men upon whom devolved the important duty of revising the Constitution of the Commonwealth.

For nearly half a century the people of Ohio

had been governed under the provisions of the Constitution drawn up in 1802 — an instrument which expressed the best political ideas of the time at which it was made. It was comparatively brief, and very broad powers were conferred upon the legislature.56 But with the passing of the years new and unforeseen problems arose, and there was nothing to guard the people from the evil results of unwise yielding to popular and legislative fancies. There was no limitation, for instance, on the amount to which the State might become indebted; and on this account the Commonwealth by 1850 was saddled with a debt of nearly nineteen million dollars incurred for the purpose of building and aiding public improvements. The people of Ohio, like those of the neighboring States, had gone wild over the building, first of roads, canals, and harbors, and later of railroads. When private capital flowed into these enterprises too slowly to satisfy the demand for transportation facilities, the citizens were only too willing that the State should take a hand. All this was very well for those who were able to profit by the increased values and the prosperity attendant upon the rapid extension of means of transportation. But those who could see no direct personal benefit and those who came into the State in later years found the taxes levied to pay the interest on this enormous

debt increasingly burdensome. In time there arose an insistent demand for relief or at least for some assurance that the State would not be placed under additional obligations.5

57

In like manner the Constitution of 1802 was silent on the subject of corporations - a subject which at that time was scarcely considered of any importance. The legislature was left free to deal with these growing capitalistic organizations as it chose. Under a system of special legislation grave abuses arose. Free franchises were sometimes granted; corporations were largely exempted from taxation; and, in the belief that every encouragement should be given to these enterprises, powers were conferred which soon assumed monopolistic proportions, and became oppressive to the people. The need of some limit on the power of the legislature in this respect had therefore become apparent.

Public sentiment had also changed in regard to banks and banking, taxation, legal procedure, and the framework of the State government.58 In fact, a Constitution embodying chiefly the ideas of the Revolutionary period had in the course of fifty years become inadequate to meet the needs of a far more highly developed community. New evils demanded new safeguards, while altered conditions required new grants of power to the government. And so, in accordance with an act passed by the General

Assembly on February 23, 1850, delegates were elected on the first Monday of April, and a constitutional convention convened in Columbus on Monday, the sixth day of May.59

The old statehouse, which two years later was consumed by fire, was a two-story brick structure standing at the corner of State and High streets. The square roof culminated in "a balcony in the center, whence rose a spire one hundred and six feet from the ground. Above the balcony hung a well-toned bell, whose clear ringing sounds were heard in the winter season, calling the people's representatives to their duties in the legislative halls.''60 It was in the hall of the House of Representatives on the lower floor of this building that the delegates to the Convention, one hundred and eight in number, gathered to perform the high function of revising the Constitution.

Many able and prominent men were members of this Convention. Best known, perhaps, was the venerable Peter Hitchcock from Geauga County, who had served in both houses of the Ohio State legislature and in the lower house of Congress, and who for more than a quarter of a century had sat on the supreme bench of the State. Then there was Joseph Vance of Champaign County whose legislative experience in Ohio and in the Federal House of Representatives was even more extensive. He had also