Representative Lewis Davis Campbell

Lewis Davis Campbell (August 9, 1811 – November 26, 1882) was an American politician who served multiple terms as a U.S. Representative from Ohio and held office under several party labels, including Whig, Republican, Know Nothing, Democrat, and the short-lived Opposition Party. Over his political career he was elected to six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, participating in the legislative process during a significant period in American history and representing the interests of his Ohio constituents through the turbulent decades preceding and following the Civil War.

Campbell was born on August 9, 1811, in Franklin, Warren County, Ohio. He was educated in the local public schools and entered working life early. From 1828 to 1831 he was apprenticed to learn the art of printing, a trade that introduced him to journalism and public affairs. After his apprenticeship he became assistant editor of the Cincinnati Gazette, one of the leading newspapers in the region. In 1831 he moved to Hamilton, Ohio, where he published a Henry Clay Whig newspaper, The Hamilton Intelligencer, from 1831 to 1835, using the press as a platform to advocate Whig principles and the policies of Clay. During this period he also read law, and in 1835 he was admitted to the bar. He married Jane Reily on January 5, 1836, in Butler County, Ohio, and established his home and legal practice in Hamilton.

From 1835 until 1850 Campbell practiced law in Hamilton while also engaging in agricultural pursuits, reflecting the mixed professional and agrarian economy of southwestern Ohio. He became active in local business development and internal improvements. In 1841 he was a director and secretary of the Hamilton and Rossville Hydraulic Company, organized to construct a canal through Hamilton to provide water power to local industry. He later served as an incorporator and president of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad Company, which was constructed between 1846 and 1852 and became an important transportation link in the region. These roles underscored his alignment with the Whig emphasis on economic development, infrastructure, and commercial growth.

Campbell’s early attempts to enter national politics were unsuccessful. Running as a Whig candidate, he sought election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1840, 1842, and 1844 for the 27th, 28th, and 29th Congresses, but was defeated each time. Persistence brought eventual success: in 1848 he was elected as a Whig from Ohio’s 2nd Congressional District to the 31st Congress and was re-elected in 1850. Following redistricting after the 1850 census, he ran in the newly configured 3rd District and again won election as a Whig in 1852. With the collapse of the Whig Party in the mid-1850s, Campbell aligned himself with the Opposition Party and was elected to the 34th Congress in 1854. During this period he rose to prominence in the House, becoming chairman of the powerful Committee on Ways and Means, a key position in shaping federal fiscal and economic policy.

Campbell’s congressional service placed him at the center of the sectional controversies of the 1850s. A free-soiler opposed to the extension of slavery, he played a conspicuous role in the debates over the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. Leading a filibuster against the measure, he and other antislavery northerners exchanged heated insults and invective with pro-slavery southern members. Tensions culminated on May 12, 1854, when Henry A. Edmundson, a Virginia Democrat, attempted to make a violent attack on Campbell on the House floor. Weapons were brandished, and Edmundson, described as “well oiled and well armed,” had to be restrained and arrested by the sergeant at arms before the House adjourned to restore order. In the realignment of parties that followed, Campbell claimed re-election in 1856 by a margin of 19 votes and presented his credentials as a Republican member-elect to the 35th Congress. He served from March 4, 1857, until May 25, 1858, when, by a vote of 107–100, the Democratic-controlled House decided that he was not entitled to his seat after his election was successfully contested by Democrat Clement L. Vallandigham, who took the seat on May 26, 1858. Campbell ran again against Vallandigham in 1858, but was narrowly defeated, receiving 49.5 percent of the vote to Vallandigham’s 50.5 percent.

With the outbreak of the Civil War, Campbell entered military service on the Union side. He was commissioned colonel of the 69th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in 1861. He commanded the regiment during the early years of the conflict, but his service was cut short when he resigned in 1862 due to failing health. After leaving the army, he remained a figure of some prominence in Ohio and national politics, and his experience and party flexibility made him a useful figure for postwar diplomatic service.

On May 4, 1866, President Andrew Johnson appointed Campbell as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Mexico. He traveled there accompanied by General William Tecumseh Sherman. Campbell was instructed to tender to President Benito Juárez the moral support of the United States government and to offer the use of American military force to aid in the restoration of lawful republican authority in the face of the French-backed regime of Emperor Maximilian. At the time, Juárez’s government was under severe pressure and often on the move, and Campbell was unable to reach him to fully carry out his mission. He served in the post until June 16, 1867, when he resigned and returned to Ohio to resume his elective political career.

After his return from Mexico, Campbell reentered state and national politics under yet another party banner. He was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1869 as a Democrat. The following year he resigned his state legislative seat after being elected as a Democrat to the 42nd Congress, marking his return to the U.S. House of Representatives and completing a career in which he had served in Congress as a Whig, Opposition Party member, Republican, and Democrat. He served this final term in the House from March 4, 1871, to March 3, 1873, and declined to run for re-election in 1872. In 1873 he was a delegate to the third Ohio state constitutional convention, contributing to the ongoing revision of the state’s fundamental law. Afterward he resumed his agricultural pursuits and lived in relative retirement, though he remained a respected elder statesman in his community.

Lewis Davis Campbell died in Hamilton, Butler County, Ohio, on November 26, 1882, at the age of 71. He was interred in Greenwood Cemetery in Hamilton. His family continued to play a role in Ohio politics; his nephew, James E. Campbell, later represented Ohio’s 3rd Congressional District for one term from 1885 to 1887 and subsequently served as governor of Ohio. Campbell’s life and career were recorded in contemporary works such as the “History and Biographical Encyclopaedia of Butler County, Ohio,” published in Cincinnati in 1882, reflecting his standing as a significant figure in the political and civic history of his region and state.