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of the most confidential and trusted advisers of his later career. When he left, he had finished history, mathematics, chemistry, political economy, geology, Latin, and the third year of Greek; and would have graduated on the highest level at the end of another session, if he could have remained.

CHAPTER IV.

WORK-LAW-SLAVERY.

Mrs. Stanton had been obliged to close her store for want of capital, and was very poor. Guardian Collier could make no further advances and, James Turnbull offering to reengage him, Stanton left by stage within a week of his return from college to take charge of a large book and stationery branch at Columbus, the State capital, at two hundred and fifty dollars per year and sleeping quarters in the store. Mr. Turnbull was precise and severe, and the trust he placed in Stanton is proof of the boy's excellent character and capacity.

His time during the following year was fully occupied with bookkeeping, collections, and remittances. He attended Trinity Episcopal Church, listened to the debates of the State legislature when possible, and read such law books as the shelves of his store afforded.

In 1833 the cholera swept over Ohio. On a certain day at 2 o'clock Miss Anna Howard, daughter of a "steam doctor" with whom he had a home, served Stanton with dinner. On returning for tea he learned that she was dead and buried. Cholera, like lightning, had struck her down. He could not believe she was dead. Requesting two young friends to assist him, he proceeded to her grave, and, with his life in his hands, exhumed and opened the casket in order to be sure that she had not suffered the awful agony of burial alive. A. H. Smythe of Columbus, Ohio, says the heroic courage thus displayed in the midst of the universal panic was recognized and commented upon at the time; also that Stanton had a high standing in Columbus, although not yet twenty years of age.

At the end of his year Stanton wrote to his guardian that he wished to study law and would like to remain in Columbus. He had made the acquaintance of Mary A. Lamson, an orphan residing with her brother-in-law, the Reverend William Preston; indeed, he had fallen deeply in love with her and had already discussed betrothal.

Hence his desire to remain in Columbus. Guardian Collier advised a return to Steubenville to study law. "You may have a home in my house, and pursue your studies in my office," said he. Returning in October, 1833, Stanton devoted himself with energy to his studies, teaching a Sunday School class in the Protestant Methodist church, attending caucuses and political meetings, arranging and participating in moot-courts, and leading in a library organization called the Lyceum, but giving no time to hunting, fishing, sport, or recreation.

In 1834, Theodore D. Weld, the intrepid Massachusetts reformer, lectured in Steubenville on slavery. "At my last lecture," says Mr. Weld, "young Stanton sat in a front seat facing the pulpit. I said at the end: 'Friends, will all of you who believe it the duty of the people of the slave States to abolish slavery at once, please rise to your feet?' Stanton sprang to his feet and turned to the audience with uplifted hands, which rose in a body in response to his lead."

While pursuing his studies, Stanton attended to the collections, accounts, and small business of Mr. Collier's office, and frequently appeared in court to assist in citations, take down testimony, and care for books and papers. Having made good progress (although seriously afflicted at intervals with asthma), he went to St. Clairsville in August, 1835, to be examined for admission to the Ohio bar, and passed with honor.

Although not yet twenty-one he jumped into active practise under the patronage of his preceptor and guardian, D. L. Collier. His first appearance in court is thus described by John McCracken

of Steubenville:

Sometime in the early autumn of 1835, I saw Stanton going into court with a bundle of books and papers and followed him. A suit for slander was on, and young Stanton was handling one side of it, with D. L. Collier sitting in the rear, watching him. He was wooling into the trial like everything, when one of the attorneys on the other side asked the Court to order him out of the case for being under age and not entitled or fit to practise. Instantly Mr. Collier arose and exclaimed: "Your Honor, this young man is as well qualified to practise law as myself or any other attorney of this bar; he has passed the examination; he is the son of a poor widow and should be allowed to go on." Even then Stanton had cheek. He remained standing while Collier was making this speech, and pitched right in again the instant his guardian sat down, without waiting for a ruling by the Court. The judge gazed at him quizzically, but said nothing.

CHAPTER V.

SETTLES IN CADIZ-MARRIES.

On January 1, 1836, twelve days after he became twenty-one, Stanton removed to Cadiz, a village of one thousand inhabitants, the seat of Harrison County, and entered into partnership with Chauncey Dewey, an attorney with an established reputation, extended practise, and large wealth.

For some years Dewey and Stanton were engaged on one side or the other of nearly every suit brought in the county, and had an extensive practise in the surrounding counties of Columbiana, Belmont, Tuscarawas, Carroll, and Jefferson. In 1836, out of funds earned in the Shotwell suits brought by him against the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank of Steubenville, Stanton contributed to the expense of a course in medicine and surgery for his brother Darwin at Harvard University.

During the autumn he purchased a house in Cadiz and in December proceeded to Columbus-twenty miles of the distance on foot-to claim his bride (Mary A., orphan daughter of William K. Lamson) who for more than three years had been patiently and affectionately waiting for him. The marriage ceremony occurred in the house of the officiating clergyman, the Reverend William Preston, husband of the bride's sister, on Friday, December 31, 1836. The "bridal tour" consisted of a ride on a stage sleigh from Columbus to Cadiz, a distance of one hundred and twenty-five miles, over rough roads and through a sparsely settled country-"the brightest, sweetest journey of all my life," said Stanton years afterward. A cozy little home, handsomely situated on a knoll in the outskirts of the village and surrounded by trees, was partially furnished for the bride on her arrival in Cadiz.

The marriage was indeed happy. Stanton did not love, he worshipped. He adored as much with his head as his heart. Rugged and intense, sentiment and affection with him were fused into a glowing and absorbing passion which could not be divided or restrained.

Existence itself was wrapped up in the object of his adoration. He could not have more than one idol, and for that idol his soul was immeasurable, and in his heart "beyond the deepest deep was still another deep."

Both were poor, but Miss Lamson had been carefully educated and her manners were gentle and refined. Her heart was full and sympathetic and in it Stanton's aggressive nature found a delightful refuge, his impetuous ardor a sweet and tender response.

"I recall Mary A. Lamson as a retiring, refined, and delicate young woman, of lovable and Christian character," said Mrs. Anne E. Dennison, wife of the famous war governor of Ohio. "Mr. Stanton loved her passionately and cherished her memory to the end of his life. We bought the house that Reverend Mr. Preston built in Columbus, and lived in it; and when my daughter was married to General J. W. Forsythe, in 1867, Mr. Stanton led me under the chandeliers and said with deep feeling: 'Here is where Mary and I stood to be married.' In Washington he always treated me with the utmost kindness and consideration, connecting me fondly with the home of his Mary."

Immediately after establishing himself in Cadiz, Stanton became very active in politics. During the campaign of 1837 he was elected prosecuting attorney on the Democratic ticket. He made a personal canvass of the towns, frequently accompanied by his wife and by a novel system of organization overturned the Whig majority, a fact that, before the election, was not supposed to be possible. The salary of the office was only two hundred dollars per year, but he must have been making money in his profession, for in addition to his home in the village, he purchased a tract of eighty acres in Washington township, and acquired also several town lots.

Although his business was large in Cadiz, the matters involved were small compared to those growing out of the extensive manufacturing, banking, and commercial interests developing along the Ohio River, and at the end of three years he decided to return to Steubenville. Before following him there, however, some personal reminiscences by survivors who knew him in Cadiz will be interesting. Thomas McCrary says:

I lived with Ed Stanton from August, 1837, till March, 1838. He was one of the kindest and most affectionate of men. I had many talks with him after his wife died, and he could never speak of her without weeping.

Stanton's brother Darwin came occasionally to Cadiz and I went out

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