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Transcription contributed by Martie Callihan 29 January 2005 |
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The History of Warren County Ohio Part III. The History of Warren County by Josiah Morrow Chapter VIII. The Distinguished Dead (Chicago, IL: W. H. Beers Co, 1882; reprint, Mt. Vernon, IN: Windmill Publications, 1992) |
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This eminent jurist and statesman was born in Morris County, N. J., March 11, 1785. His father, Fergus McLean, was a poor man with a large family, and, four years after the birth of John, he removed to the West, settling first at Morganstown, Va., afterward near Nicholasville, Ky., and finally, in 1799, found a permanent home in what is now Warren County, Ohio. He opened and cleared a farm near Ridgeville, upon which he resided until his death, forty years afterward. His distinguished son afterward owned and resided upon this farm. The town of Ridgeville was laid out by Fergus McLean in the year 1814. John received a good English education, notwithstanding the straitened circumstances of his father; he also studied the ancient languages, one of his teachers being Rev. Matthew G. Wallace, a Presbyterian clergyman. Desiring to study law, at the age of eighteen he went to Cincinnati and pursued his studies under the direction of Arthur St. Clair, Jr., a son of the Revolutionary General of that name, and a prominent lawyer, whose law office was at Cincinnati, but practiced at Lebanon and other places in the Miami Circuit. Young McLean, while pursuing his legal studies, supported himself by writing in the office of the Clerk of Court at Cincinnati. He also at times wrote in the county offices at Lebanon. Some of the early records in the court house at Warren County are in his handwriting. In his younger days, he wrote an excellent hand, and he is said to have, been noted for his rapid work as a recording copyist In the spring of 1807, he was married to Miss Rebecca Edwards,
and about the same time commenced the publication of the Western Star,
the first newspaper at Lebanon. In the autumn of 1807, he was admitted
to the bar, and commenced practice at Lebanon, editing his paper at the
same time. About three years later, he disposed of his paper to his brother
Nathaniel. He was
successful at the bar, and such were his character and ability that, at
the age of twenty-seven, he was elected a Representative in Congress from
the district which included Cincinnati, although Warren County had for
the preceding ten years furnished Ohio with its sole member of the Lower
House of Congress. In 1812, the State was for the first time divided into
Congressional districts. McLean was elected to represent the First District,
composed of the counties of Hamilton, Butler, Warren and Preble. In 1814,
he was re-elected unanimously, receiving not only every vote cast for
Representative, but, what is re- |
Page 371 |
markable, the vote of every voter who went to the polls He
declined to be a candidate for the United States Senate in 1815, when his
election was considered certain, but, the next year, resigned his seat in
Congress to accept the position of Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, to
which he had been unanimously elected by the Legislature of the State. He
remained upon the Supreme Bench of Ohio until 1822, when Monroe appointed
him Commissioner of the General Land Office. The next year, he became Postmaster
General, and administered the affairs of this department with vigor, method
and economy for six years, under the administrations of Monroe and John
Q. Adams. In 1830, Judge McLean was nominated by President Jackson, and
confirmed by the Senate, to the most honorable position attainable by the
American lawyer and jurist—Justice of the Supreme Court of the United
States. This position he held for thirty years, and until his death.
Judge McLean was first
elected to Congress as a Democrat, in favor of the war with England, and
a supporter of Madison's administration. He held a position in the cabinet
of J. Q. Adams during the Presidential election of 1828, and took no active
part in the contest between Adams and Jackson, but both the War and Navy
Departments were tendered him by Jackson and declined. His opinions from
the Supreme Bench gave him great popularity with the anti-slavery people
of the United States, especially in the Dred Scott case, in which he dissented
from the opinion of the court as given by Chief Justice Taney, and expressed
the opinion that in this country slavery was sustained only by local law.
His name was prominently identified with the party opposed to the extension
of slavery, and was before the Free-Soil convention at Buffalo for the
nomination for President At the National Republican Convention of 1856,
he received 196 votes for the same office to 359 for Fremont. |
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This page created 29 January 2005 and last updated
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