Free The Lost Gettysburg Address by David T. Dixon

the entrance gate. After ascending ten stone steps and
proceeding under a double-arched stone portico, visitors entered a
modest hall and continued on to an elegant suite of three rooms with
fourteen-foot ceilings. The adjoining parlors and dining room were
connected by large pocket doors that when opened created a grand
expanse nearly seventy feet wide. The parlor fronting Pike Street had
a unique feature. Hamilton inserted a huge window directly over the
fireplace, accomplished by bending twin flues around a wall
opening and rejoining them above the roof line into one central
chimney stack. This innovation brought copious daylight to the space. At
night, Anderson closed the window via a shutter mechanism concealed
in the wainscot. A large mirror graced the front of the closed
shutter, mimicking the one over the dining room fireplace at the
opposite end of the suite. The twin mirrors reflected the candlelight
from custom-made chandeliers. There was nothing quite like it in the
entire city.
    The private spaces in the house were no less dramatic. From the
hall or central parlor, Anderson and his special guests retired to the
spacious library. This room, an octagonal retreat accessed at entrance
level, was a full three stories above the ground due to the steep rear
elevation. Kitchen and servants’ quarters were cleverly constructed
below in the rear of the house, creating opportunities for light and
views unheard of in a basement service wing. Climbing the main
staircase past the bedrooms on the second level, one continued
upward in a Romanesque stair tower, finally emerging into a beautiful
belvedere of open arches. Yellow sandstone tastefully accented
architectural elements across the red brick exterior of the house. The
highlight of any tour of the Anderson residence was the flat roof deck
off the belvedere, which boasted unparalleled views of the Cincinnati
environs that delighted everyone who visited. 1
    By the time his new house was completed in 1854, Anderson
appeared to have it all. He was surrounded by like-minded people of
education and taste. His promising eighteen-year-old son,Allen
Latham, was preparing to enter West Point. DaughtersKitty andBelle were busy being instructed in French, music, and the domestic
arts. Anderson’s services as a celebrated orator were always in
great demand. He rarely resisted an invitation to address friends and
neighbors on a wide range of topics. He and his law partner,Rufus
King, once spent an entire afternoon discussing which works of art
they should purchase. While Anderson’s prosperity and leisure time
increased, however, the nation drifted closer to disaster. 2
    One of the political deals that had held the nation together, theMissouri Compromise of 1820, was essentially repealed in 1854 with
the passage of theKansas-Nebraska Act. Anderson imagined Clay
rolling over in his grave afterStephen A. Douglas of Illinois was
successful in selling his doctrine of popular sovereignty in the territories
to the U.S. Congress and toPresident Franklin Pierce. The act precipitated
a civil war in Kansas, a territory that had been free of slaves, as
slave owners rushed in to tip the political balance in their favor.Free
Soil men and other Northerners felt betrayed, leading to the birth of
the Republican Party on an antislavery platform. While these alignments
were taking shape, a gubernatorial election loomed in Ohio in
the fall of 1855. Hard-core Union men like Anderson faced a difficult
choice between two candidates they could not abide.
    Incumbent governorWilliam Medill, a Democrat, and Free Soil/Republican
“Fusion” candidateSalmon P. Chase had only one thing
in common, according to Anderson and other prominent ex-Whigs
such asJudge William Johnston. Their platforms were sectional and
threatened to accelerate the momentum toward disunion. Supporting
the Democrat was unthinkable. Chase was regarded by his opponents
as a radical abolitionist. What could Anderson and his friends do