THURMAN, Allen Granbery, statesman, born in Lynchburg, Virginia, 13 November, 1813. His father was the Reverend Pleasant Thurman, a minister of the Methodist church, and his mother the only daughter of Colonel Nathaniel Allen, nephew and adopted son of Joseph Hewes, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. His parents removed to Chillicothe in 1819, and he made that place his home until he settled in Columbus, in 1853, where he has since resided. His education was in the Chillicothe, academy, and at the hands or his mother At the age of eighteen he assisted in hind-surveying and at twenty-one he was private secretary to Governor Lucas, studied law with his uncle, Governor William Allen, afterward was admitted to the bar in 1835, and in a few years was employed in almost every litigated case in Ross county. In 1844 he was elected by the Democrats to congress, and he entered that body, 1 December, 1845, as its youngest member. Preferring the practice of the law, he declined a renomination to congress, and remained at the bar until 1851, when he was elected to the supreme bench in Ohio. From December, 1854, till February, 1856, he served as chief justice, and on the expiration of his term he refused a renomination. His opinions, contained in the first five volumes of the state reports, are remarkable for the clear and forcible expression of his views and the accuracy of his statements of the law. In 1867 he was the choice of his party for governor of Ohio. Rutherford B. Hayes, his opponent, was elected by a majority of fewer than 3,000 votes, though the Republican majority in 1866 was more than 43,000. Mr. Thurman was then elected to the senate to succeed Benjamin F. Wade. He took his seat, 4 March, 1869, and from the first was recognized as the leader of the Democratic minority. He was a member of the committee on the judiciary and on the accession of his party to power, in the 46th congress, he was made its chairman, and also chosen president, pro tern-pore, of the senate, owing to the illness of Vice-President Wheeler. In 1874 he was elected to the senate for a second term, and in his twelve years of service, ending 4 March, 1881, he won a reputation for judicial fairness and readiness, dignity and power in debate, especially upon questions of constitutional law. Besides his labor in the judiciary committee he rendered valuable service in the committee on private land claims. He was the author of the act to compel the Pacific railroad corporations to fulfil their obligations to the government, since known as the " Thurman act," the passage of which he forced in spite of the combined influence of those companies. His arguments against the constitutionality of the civil-rights bills have since been sustained by the United States supreme court in language that is almost identical with that of his speeches. Efforts to secure for the rebellious states the most favorable reconstruction legislation, in which he vigorously persisted while in the senate, led to a charge that he had disapproved the war for the integrity of the Union. His true position he thus defined in letter to a friend: "I did all I could to help to preserve the Union without a war, but after it began I thought there was but one thing to do, and that was to fight it out. I therefore sustained all constitutional measures that tended, in my judgment, to put down the rebellion. I never believed in the doctrine of secession." Mr. Thurman retired from the senate not alone with the high respect of his partisan associates, but also with that of senators of opposite political views, one of whom, James G. Blaine, with whom he often contended in debate, says, in his "Twenty Years of Congress" : "Mr. Thurman's rank in the senate was established from the day he took his seat, and was never lowered during the period of his service. He was an admirably disciplined debater, was fair in his method of statement, logical in his argument, honest in his conclusions. He had no tricks in discussion, no catch-phrases to secure attention, but was always direct and manly .... His retirement from the senate was a serious loss to his party--a loss, indeed, to the body." General Garfield, before his election to the presidency, had been chosen to succeed Mr. Thurman in the senate; but the contest had not interrupted friendly relations of many years' standing, and, as a mark of his regard, the new president, soon after his inauguration, associated Mr. Thurman with William M. Evarts, of New York, and Timothy O. Howe, of Wisconsin, on the commission to the International monetary conference to be held in Paris. In the Democratic national convention of 1876 Mr. Thurman received some votes as a presidential candidate. In 1880 the first ballot gave him the entire vote of the Ohio delegation, with considerable support from other states. In 1884 he was a delegate-at-large to the National convention, was again put in nomination for the presidency, and stood next to Cleveland and Bayard upon the first ballot. In the convention of 1888 he was nominated for vice-president by acclamation. See "Lives and Public Services of Grover Cleveland and Allen G. Thurman," by W. U. Hensel and George F. Parker (New York, 1888).