William H. West

William H. West

Signature of William H. West

William Henry West (born February 9, 1824 in Millsborough , Pennsylvania , † March 14, 1911 in Bellefontaine , Ohio ) was an American lawyer and politician of the Republican Party . He was Attorney General of Ohio from 1866 to 1868 and Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio from February 1872 to 1873 . As a result of his deteriorating eyesight and haunted eloquence, he was nicknamed Blind Man Eloquent.

Career

William Henry West was born in Washington County about nine years after the end of the British-American War . Since he was born on the same day as President William Henry Harrison , he was named in honor of him. His family settled in 1830 on a farm near Mount Vernon in Knox County, Ohio. West began attending the Martinsburg Academy in 1840 . He taught afterwards. In 1844 he began to study at Jefferson College in Pennsylvania. He graduated in 1846 as the second in his class. This comprised 58 students. His student days were overshadowed by the economic crisis of 1837 and the following years by the Mexican-American War .

West then taught at a school in Kentucky until 1848 . He then worked as a tutor at Jefferson College. After a year he got a job as an assistant professor at Hampden – Sydney College . In 1850 he began to study law in the law firm of William Lawrence in Bellefontaine, Ohio. After receiving his license to practice law, West became a partner in the law firm of Lawrence, where he practiced from July 1851 to February 1854. West was elected Prosecuting Attorney in Logan County, Ohio in 1852 . At that time he was living in Bellefontaine, where he would spend the rest of his life. He was a major contributor to the founding of the Republican Party in Ohio and was a major speaker at the 1854 Anti-Nebraska Party Convention in Columbus, Ohio. Between 1858 and 1859 he was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives . He declined another nomination in 1859, but then sat again in the Ohio General Assembly from 1862 to 1863 . In 1860 he participated as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago ( Illinois part), where Abraham Lincoln was nominated.

Between 1864 and 1865 he was a member of the Ohio Senate . West was elected Attorney General of Ohio in 1865 and re-elected in 1867. He was appointed consul in Rio de Janeiro by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1869 and confirmed by the US Senate , but then turned down the post. In 1871 he was elected judge on the Supreme Court of Ohio. He then resigned from this post after a year because of his deteriorating eyesight. In 1873 he was elected delegate to the Ohio Constituent Assembly .

The Republican Party nominated him in 1877 for governor of Ohio. A railroad strike was in progress at the time of the convention as West spoke to an assembled crowd. In doing so, he took the side of the workers. This fact was partly responsible for his defeat in the fall of 1877.

At the Republican National Convention in Chicago in 1884, West nominated James G. Blaine for President, provided that if Blaine were to become President, he would appoint him United States Attorney General . Blaine lost the election to Grover Cleveland . West continued to handle cases at the Logan County Courthouse until his 80th birthday in 1904 , using only the steep stairs and no elevator until his retirement.

West was married twice. His first marriage was on June 19, 1851 with Elizabeth Williams (1825-1871). The couple had four sons, including John Edwin (1858–1937). After the death of his first wife, he married Clara Riddle Gorton († 1901) in 1872. West died on March 14, 1911 at home in Bellefontaine. His body was buried in the local city cemetery, where his wives were also buried.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Biographical notices of the members of the fifty-fifth General Assembly of the state of Ohio , John Wallace, 1862, p. 109
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Joseph Patterson Smith: History of the Republican Party in Ohio , Volume 1, Lewis Publishing Company, 1898, pp. 213–21
3. ^ ^{A b c} Henry Howe: Historical Collections of Ohio , Volume 2, Henry Howe & Son, 1891, p. 359
4. ^ George Irving Reed, Emilius Oviatt Randall, and Charles Theodore Greve: Bench and bar of Ohio , Volume 2, Century Publishing and Engraving Company, p. 52
5. ^ Manual of Legislative Practice in the General Assembly of Ohio , Westbote Company, 1917, p. 284
6. ^ ^{A b c d} William Z. Davis: William H. West, Volume 20, Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications, 404-414
7. ^ ^{A b c} The Supreme Court of Ohio & The Ohio Judicial System - William H. West
8. ↑ Elizabeth Williams West in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved May 26, 2015.
9. ^ John Edwin West in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved May 26, 2015.
10. ^ ^{A b} William H. West in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved May 26, 2015.