Gen. Samuel F. Cary
On our first coming to Ohio, in 1846, the praises of a young Whig orator, then thirty-two years old, Gen. Samuel F. Cary were in many mouths. He was born in Cincin-nati, educated at Miami University and the Cincinnati Law School, and then became a farmer. He served one term in Congress, 1867—9, as an Independent Republican, and was the only Republican that voted against the impeachment of President Johnson. In 1876, he was nominated by the Greenback party for Vice-President on the ticket with Peter Cooper for President. He has been interested in the temperance and labor reform movements, and there are few men living who have made so many speeches. Hon. Job F. Stevenson, in his paper on “Political Reminiscences of Cincinnati,” truly describes him as a man of national reputation as a temperance and political orator, endowed with wonderful gifts of eloquence, highly developed by long and varied practice in elocu-tion, of fine presence, and a voice of great power and compass.” To this we may say, one may live a long life and not hear a public speaker so well adapted to please a multitude. In his case the enjoyment is heightened by seeing how strongly he enjoys it himself. In a speech which we heard him deliver at the dedication of the Pioneer Monument, at Columbia, July 4, 1889, we saw that at the age of seventy-five his power was not abated. We, however, missed the massive shock of black hair that in the days of yore he was wont to sake too and fro, as he stood up and down the platform, pouring forth, with tremendous volume of voice, torrents of indignation upon some great public wrong, real or imaginary, with a power that reminded one of some huge lion on a rampage, now and then relieving the tragic of his speech by sly bits of humor.
From Historical >Collections of Ohio by Henry Howe; Pub. 1888