William Dennison Jr.

William Dennison
Commissioner of the District of Columbia
In office July 1, 1874 – July 1, 1878
Preceded by	position established
Succeeded by	position abolished
21stUnited States Postmaster General
In office September 24, 1864 – July 25, 1866
President	Abraham Lincoln Andrew Johnson
Preceded by	Montgomery Blair
Succeeded by	Alexander Randall
24thGovernor of Ohio
In office January 9, 1860 – January 13, 1862
Lieutenant	Robert C. Kirk
Preceded by	Salmon P. Chase
Succeeded by	David Tod
Personal details
Born	(1815-11-23)November 23, 1815 Cincinnati,Ohio,U.S.
Died	June 15, 1882(1882-06-15)(aged 66) Columbus, Ohio,U.S.
Resting place	Green Lawn Cemetery
Political party	Whig Republican
Spouse	Anne Neil
Education	Miami University, Oxford(BA)
Signature

William Dennison Jr.(November 23, 1815 – June 15, 1882) was aWhigandRepublicanpolitician fromOhio.He served as the 24thgovernor of Ohioand asU.S. Postmaster Generalin theCabinetofPresidentAbraham Lincolnduring theAmerican Civil War.

Early life and career

Born inCincinnati,Dennison graduated fromMiami University,studied law, and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1840. A canny businessman, he led the Exchange Bank and theColumbus and Xenia Railroad,and organized theColumbus and Hocking Valley Railroad,while becoming active in politics.

In 1840, he married Anne Eliza Neil, the daughter of the wealthy Columbus businessman William Neil, whose farm later became the campus ofOhio State University.Together, William and Anne Dennison had seven children. The eldest of them was a son,William Neil Dennison,who later won distinction in theCivil Warwhile serving in theU.S. Horse Artillery Brigade.

William Dennison Jr. was one of the first major Ohio politicians to leave the dying Whig Party for the new Republican Party. He rose quickly through the party ranks due to hisanti-slaveryand anti-discrimination efforts in theOhio State Senate.Dennison was elected to the governorship in 1859, defeatingRufus P. Ranney,and served a single term from 1860 to 1862. Before the outbreak of theAmerican Civil War,he refused the demands ofKentuckyandVirginiastate authorities for the extradition of fugitive slaves or the punishment of those who helped them.

Civil War

With turmoil growing in the neighboring Virginia and many states in the south seceding, Dennison, like the governors of most other states, set immediately to recruiting troops and mustering militia to defend his state. When Lincoln issued the proclamation for 75,000 in militia, Dennison was requested from Washington by wire to raise thirteen regiments of militia, but he wired back that he "could hardly stop before twenty" due to the large turnout of recruits and his concern that secessionist troops could attack Ohio from the direction of Northwest Virginia. Dennison, unfamiliar with military affairs, was like the governors of Pennsylvania, New York, and Michigan searching for qualified military men to command their growing state militia, and none was more sought after thanGeorge B. McClellanat the time, owing to his former experience and tour to the Crimean war. McClellan set out to his native state of Pennsylvania, where he wished to take command of the state militia, and itsgovernorhad even dispatched by wire the offer to McClellan, offering him command of the state militia, but it had not arrived. McClellan stopped at Columbus on his way to Pennsylvania to discuss the military situation in the Ohio valley with Dennison. Dennison was impressed with him and offered him command of the state militia on the spot.Dennison later tried but failed to be elected to theUnited States Senatein 1861, when he was defeated byJohn Sherman.

Dennison and his cabinet observed the ominous developments in north-western Virginia throughout mid-April 1861 to May of that year, where northwestern Virginians were convening to secede from eastern Virginia, and pro-union sentiment was common and widespread. Richmond at the same time was also vying to send troops to the area to suppress these secessionist activities. Many Northwestern Virginians wrote to Dennison requesting him to send troops from Ohio to the area to defend from possible reprisals from east Virginia, the editor of the Wheeling Intelligencer wrote a letter to Dennison encouraging him to occupy NW Virginia, writing that "Secession is creeping up", and that "Union men in Northwestern Virginia will shortly be slaughtered".Without being asked by theWar Department,he sent Ohio troops underGeorge McClellaninto westernVirginiaat May 4 1861, where they guarded theWheeling Convention,which eventually led to the admission ofWest Virginiaas afree state.He also took the initiative to seize control of Ohio's railroads and telegraph lines early in the war to allow military usage, angeringPeace Democratsin the Ohio Legislature. He denouncedsecessionand Ohio's"Copperheads",established a consistent supply of arms and equipment for the new troops, and was a vocal supporter of Lincoln's policies. During his term, he raised over 100,000 troops and organized 82 three-yearsregimentsfor theUnion army.

However, errors by the Governor and his subordinates led the state's alliance of Republicans andWar Democratsto drop Dennison as a candidate in 1862. The parties turned instead toDavid Tod,a War Democrat. Historian Richard H. Abbott wrote, "No Ohio chief executive [before Dennison] had ever exercised such powers and fulfilled such duties with a greater sense of public responsibility and determination. Nevertheless...politics dictated his demise."

Dennison accepted this turn of events with good grace, capably advised his successor, and provided valuable services in helping recruit black troops for Ohio units. He served as Chairman of theRepublican National Conventionin 1864. He was appointed U.S. Postmaster General by PresidentAbraham Lincoln,and served from 1864 to 1866, leaving the Cabinet after he decided he could no longer support the policies of PresidentAndrew Johnson.

Postbellum career and memorialization

After the war, Dennison served on theColumbus City Counciland organized the Franklin County Agricultural Society.PresidentUlysses S. Grantappointed him aCommissioner for the District of Columbia,the highest governing office of Washington, D.C., in which Dennison served from 1874 to 1878, acting in the capacity of a board president at all meetings he attended (no provision had been made for a president of the board, and none was ever formally elected).He sought the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 1880, but was defeated byJames Garfield.Dennison remained active in state and national politics until his death. He left behind a widow and seven children, and was buried inGreen Lawn Cemetery, Columbus, Ohio.

Of Dennison's single term in the opening stages of the Civil War, historian John S. Stilt wrote, "His wisdom and foresight were appreciated by few and condemned by many.... It is doubtful whether any of his predecessors could have met the issues any more successfully."

Camp #1 of the Department of Ohio of theSons of Union Veterans of the Civil Waris named for Governor William Dennison. It was chartered August 1, 1882, shortly after Dennison's June 15, 1882 death at age 66.

The William Dennison school in Washington, DC, named in his honor, was opened in 1885 on S Street between 13th and 14th Streets, NW. It closed sometime after 1947 and was razed prior to 1985.

Dennison is honored with a full-size bronze depiction inside theCuyahoga County Soldiers' and Sailors' Monumentin Cleveland, Ohio for his service as governor during the Civil War.

Camp Dennison is a census-designated place (CDP) just outside Indian Hill in southern Symmes Township, Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. It has a post office with the ZIP code 45111.[3] The population was 375 at the 2010 census. The community was settled in 1796 by German immigrants.[5] During the American Civil War, Camp Dennison served as a military recruiting and training post for the United States Army (see Camp Dennison). It is named for William Dennison, the 24th Governor of Ohio and U.S. Postmaster General under President Abraham Lincoln.

References

• Harper, Robert S.,Ohio Handbook of the Civil War.Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio Historical Society, 1961.
• Reid, Whitelaw,Ohio in the War: Her Statesmen, Her Generals, and Soldiers.2 vol. Cincinnati: Moore, Wilstach, & Baldwin, 1868.
• Dennison Camp of the SUCV

External links

• William Dennison Jr.atFind a Grave
• "Dennison, William".Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography.1900.