George Ellis Pugh
George Ellis Pugh was born in Cincinnati, Nov. 28, 1822, and died July 19, 1876. He was educated at Miami University became a captain in the 4th Ohio in the Mexican war; attorney-general of Ohio in 1851; and from 1855 until 1861 served the Democratic party in the United States Senate. In the National Democratic Convention, in Charleston, S. C., in 1860, he made a most memorable speech of indignation, in reply to William L. Yancey, in the course of which, alluding to the demands of the ultra pro-slavery partisans upon the Northern Democracy, he said (we write from memory): “You would humiliate us to your behests to the mouths, and our mouths in the dust.” His plea in behalf of Clement L. Vallandingham was regarded as one of his ablest efforts. This was in the habeas corpus proceeding before Judge Leavitt, involving the questions as the power and the duty of the judge to relieve Mr. Vallandingham from military confinement. Mr. Pugh was gifted with a very strong voice, a power of vehement, earnest utterance, and with a marvellous memory that was of great advantage over all opponents, enabling him, as it did, to cite authority after authority, even to the very pages, so that he could at any time, when prepared, go into court without any yellow-array breast-works, in the form of piled-up law books. His last years were greatly marred by excessive deafness.
From Historical Collections of Ohio: By Henry Howe; Pub. 1888