James H. Hubbell
Hon. James H. Hubbell was born in Lincoln Township, which was at that time a part of Delaware County, July 13, A. D., 1824. His parents' names were Shadrac Hubbell and Rebecca (Randolph) Hubbell. He received his early education in the public schools and began the study of law in the office of Judge Thomas W. Powell about the year 1843 and was admitted to the Bar on the fifth day of January, 1845. Mr. Hubbell became a law partner of his former preceptor and he soon acquired a remunerative practice but his greatest success in life was in the political field. Mr. Hubbell was pleasant, genial and affable and was a born politician. He had been in the practice of his profession but a few years when he was called to fill the office of representative in the General Assembly of Ohio. He was first elected as a member of the Forty-eighth General Assembly in the autumn of 1848. He was again elected as a member of the Fifty-third, Fifty-fifth, and Fifty-sixth General Assemblies and he became the speaker of the house, in the Fifty-fifth and Fifty-sixth General Assemblies. He resigned his office as a member of the Fifty-sixth Assembly to accept the nomination for Congress in the Eighth Congressional District of Ohio. He was elected and served in that capacity during the years 1865 and 1866. At this time the Ohio delegation in Congress was composed of such men as Rutherford B. Hayes, Robert C. Schenck, William Lawrence, Samuel Shellabarger, Ralph P. Buckland, James M. Ashby, Columbus Delano, John A. Bingham, Ephraim R. Eckley and James A. Garfield, and among all these distinguished representatives of Ohio, the Hon. James R. Hubbell stood as a peer. At this period in Mr. Hubbell's life, the tide which had carried him to this high pinnacle began to recede and though his ambitions were not altogether swept away in this receding tide, the foundations of his future greatness seemed to have been undermined, and he was never again restored to the position he had held in the confidence of his constituents. At the time Mr. Hubbell took his seat in Congress, Andrew Johnson had succeeded to the presidency by reason of the assassination of President Lincoln and during the long struggle in Congress for the reconstruction of the Southern States after the Civil War, and in the memorable antagonism between the president and the party that had elected him and had also elected Mr. Hubbell as a representative from Ohio, Mr. Hubbell, unfortunately adopted the views of Andrew Johnson in regard to the policy of reconstruction and thereby alienated himself from the majority of his party and ever afterward was unable to restore himself to its confidence and support. Like the president he drifted away to the policy of the Democratic party, the principles of which he maintained to the time of his death, which occurred at the home of his son, at Bellville, Richland County, Ohio, on the twenty-sixth day of November, 1890. Mr. Hubbell delivered a noted speech in Congress on February 5, 1866, on the subject of reconstruction, in support of President Johnson's policy, in which he maintained that Johnson was simply carrying out the policy inaugurated by President Lincoln, viz., the policy of peace, forgiveness, reconciliation and restoration. In illustrating the character of Lincoln in the line of policy adopted by Johnson, Mr. Hubbell in the closing of his speech quoted these lines:
"The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven.
It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes."
Which quotation would seem to give a key to Mr. Hubbell's own motives in the course he adopted and in thef closing paragraphs of that memorable speech, he said: "I heartily approve of what has been done by the president. In our deliberations it seems to me our aim should be to heal and not to irritate, to bind up the nation's wounds and so conduct our legislation as to restore to all parts of our heretofore unhappy and distracted country, peace, concord and harmony."
Mr. Hubbell, up to this time had been a Whig and a Republican in his party affiliations. He had been, in fact, one of the organizers of the Republican party. He had been presidential elector on the Fremont and Dayton ticket in 1856. Mr. Hubbell's political career did not wholly end with his accepting the policy of President Johnson; he was appointed minister to Portugal by President Johnson, but owing to the bitter contest between the president and the Republican senate, his nomination was not confirmed. Mr. Hubbell was nominated in the autumn of 1869 by the Democratic Party, in the Sixteenth Senatorial District, at that time composed of Delaware and Licking Counties, for the office of State Senator and was elected, but after having served one year, he resigned for the purpose of accepting the Democratic nomination for Congress in the Eighth Congressional District, but he was defeated by his Republican opponent, Hon. John Beatty, of Morrow County, Ohio.
Mr. Hubbell was in many respects one of the most remarkable men the county has ever produced. He studied closely and very carefully the political events of his state and nation. He possessed a marvelous memory and was well versed in the history, lives and geneaology of all the public men of the nation. There were but few of the prominent families of this county with whom he was not personally acquainted, and his friends and acquaintances were such as desired to honor and promote him.
There was a time when Mr. Hubbell might have commanded the highest honors and distinctions within the gift of his constituents. There are yet many living witnesses who date the inspiration of their success to the friendly aid and counsel he gave them. It was his peculiar pride to extend a helping hand to some young man struggling for recognition in law, medicine, politics or military services and to no one who asked his aid or assistance did he turn away and in his declining years it was a great comfort to him to hear from these persons, that they appreciated those acts of kindness and that they held him in grateful remembrance.
From 20th Century History of Delaware County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Edited and compiled by James R. Lytle, Delaware, Ohio, Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, 1908