Editing Edward Tiffin

{{Short description|American politician (1766–1829)}}
{{use mdy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name         = Edward Tiffin
|image        = Edward Tiffin at statehouse.jpg
|order        = 4th
|office       = Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory
|term_start   = 1815
|term_end     = August 9, 1829
|predecessor  = [[Josiah Meigs]]
|successor    = [[William Lytle II]]
|order1       = 1st
|office1      = Commissioner of the General Land Office
|term_start1  = May 7, 1812
|term_end1    = October 11, 1814
|predecessor1 = Inaugural holder
|successor1   = [[Josiah Meigs]]
|order2       = 8th
|office2      = Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives 
|term_start2  = December 4, 1809
|term_end2    = December 1, 1811
|predecessor2 = [[Alexander Campbell (American politician)|Alexander Campbell]]
|successor2   = [[Matthias Corwin]]
|office3      = [[United States Senator]] from [[Ohio]]
|term_start3  = March 4, 1807
|term_end3    = March 3, 1809
|predecessor3 = [[Thomas Worthington (governor)|Thomas Worthington]] 
|successor3   = [[Stanley Griswold]]
|order4       = 1st
|office4      = Governor of Ohio
|term_start4  = March 3, 1803
|term_end4    = March 4, 1807
|predecessor4 = [[Charles Willing Byrd]] (as Governor of the Northwest Territory)
|successor4   = [[Thomas Kirker]]
|office5      = 1st Speaker of the Northwest Territory<br>House of Representatives
|term_start5  = September 16, 1799
|term_end5    = January 23, 1802
|predecessor5 = Inaugural holder
|successor5   = Michael Baldwin (as [[Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives]])
|birth_date   = June 19, 1766
|birth_place  = [[Carlisle]], [[Cumberland]], England
|death_date   = {{death date and age|1829|8|9|1766|6|19}}
|death_place  = [[Chillicothe, Ohio]], U.S.
|restingplace = [[Grandview Cemetery (Chillicothe, Ohio)|Grandview Cemetery]]<br>[[Chillicothe, Ohio]]
|spouse       = Mary Worthington
|party        = [[Democratic-Republican]]
|signature    = Edward Tiffin signature.png
}}
'''Edward Tiffin''' (June 19, 1766 – August 9, 1829) was an American politician who served as the first [[governor of Ohio]] and later as a [[United States Senate|United States Senator]] from [[Ohio]] as a member of the [[Democratic-Republican Party|Democratic-Republican]] party.

==Biography==
Sources indicate that he was born in [[Carlisle, Cumbria|Carlisle]];<ref name="Edward Tiffin">{{cite web|url=http://www.ohiohistory.org/onlinedoc/ohgovernment/governors/tiffin.html|title=Edward Tiffin|publisher=Ohio Historical Society|access-date=July 11, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120513031722/http://www.ohiohistory.org/onlinedoc/ohgovernment/governors/tiffin.html|archive-date=May 13, 2012}}</ref> however he may have been born in or near [[Workington]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/t/i/f/Don-A-Tiffin/GENE13-0005.html|title=Ancestors of James Monroe Tiffin|publisher=Ancestry.com|access-date=2012-11-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141017060908/http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/t/i/f/Don-A-Tiffin/GENE13-0005.html|archive-date=2014-10-17|url-status=dead}}</ref> — also in the then county of [[Cumberland]], [[England]]. Tiffin attended the Latin school in Carlisle, and became an apprentice to a student of medicine in 1778. Six years later he completed his apprenticeship.<ref name="Edward Tiffin"/> His family emigrated to [[Virginia]] in 1783,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/t/i/f/Don-A-Tiffin/GENE13-0005.html|title=Ancestors of James Monroe Tiffin|publisher=Ancestry.com|access-date=July 11, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141017060908/http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/t/i/f/Don-A-Tiffin/GENE13-0005.html|archive-date=October 17, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> and he began practicing medicine at the age of seventeen.<ref name="Edward Tiffin"/>
 
In 1789, he married [[Mary Worthington]] of Berkeley County, sister of future Governor of Ohio [[Thomas Worthington (governor)|Thomas Worthington]]. She died, childless, in 1808. A year after their marriage, the Tiffins joined the [[Methodist]] church after hearing the preaching of [[Thomas Scott (Ohio)|Thomas Scott]], who would be their neighbor and friend for many years.<ref>[[#gilmore|Gilmore 1897]]: 4.</ref> Bishop Asbury ordained Tiffin a deacon of the Methodist church November 19, 1792, authorizing him to preach.<ref>[[#gilmore|Gilmore 1897]]: 5.</ref> Tiffin and Worthington inherited sixteen slaves when Worthington's father died. They each decided to [[manumission|manumit]] their slaves and move to the Northwest Territory, where slavery was outlawed.<ref>[[#gilmore|Gilmore 1897]]: 6.</ref> Tiffin headed westward, along with [[Thomas Worthington (governor)|Thomas Worthington]], in 1798, settling in [[Chillicothe, Ohio]].

==Northwest Territory==
Tiffin became the first doctor in Chillicothe, traveling on horseback, day and night, to treat the afflicted.<ref>[[#gilmore|Gilmore 1897]]: 11.</ref> He arrived with a letter addressed to the governor of the [[Northwest Territory]], [[Arthur St. Clair]] from [[George Washington]], recommending him for public office. Tiffin served as the Speaker of the Territorial House of Representatives from 1799 to 1801 and as president of the [[Ohio Constitutional Convention (1802)|1802 Constitutional Convention]],<ref>{{cite journal|year=1896|title=First Constitutional Convention, Convened November 1, 1802|journal=[[Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications]]|volume=V|pages=131–132 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nXQUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA80|last1=Ryan|first1=Daniel Joseph}}</ref> where he cast a tie-breaking vote to deny the [[suffrage|voting franchise]] to the new state's 337 [[African American]] residents.<ref>{{cite web |title=Black, White & Beyond: Multiculturalism in Greater Akron, An Interactive History |url=https://learn.uakron.edu/beyond/africanAm_antebellum.htm |website=learn.uakron.edu |access-date=October 29, 2020 |archive-date=November 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101101733/https://learn.uakron.edu/beyond/africanAm_antebellum.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> He was a leader of the [[Chillicothe Junto]], a group of Chillicothe [[Democratic-Republican Party (United States)|Democratic-Republican]] politicians who brought about the admission of Ohio as a state in 1803 and largely controlled its politics for some years thereafter. Among his colleagues in the faction were [[Thomas Worthington (governor)|Thomas Worthington]] and [[Nathaniel Massie]].

Tiffin was the obvious choice for the governorship when Ohio was admitted to the Union. He was elected almost without opposition to a first term and re-elected by similarly overwhelming numbers two years later. Tiffin acted promptly to stop the [[Burr conspiracy]] in his second term.<ref>[[#gilmore|Gilmore 1897]]: 99–102.</ref>

Tiffin was elected to the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] in 1806 and resigned the governorship in March 1807 to take his seat. He served only two years, however, resigning after the death of his wife. "He was ever faithful to the interests of the West and diligent in seeking the welfare of its inhabitants. He procured an appropriation of public money for the improvement of the Ohio River. He secured better and speedier transportation of the mails; a better and more rapid system for the surveys of western lands; and urged such modifications of the laws regarding sales of western land as would, to use his own words, 'guard the purchasers of them from unnecessary embarrassments and frequent ruin.' "<ref>[[#gilmore|Gilmore 1897]]: 108.</ref> He also voted for the expulsion of the other Ohio Senator, [[John Smith (Ohio politician, died 1824)|John Smith]], who had been implicated in the Burr conspiracy.<ref>[[#gilmore|Gilmore 1897]]: 116.</ref> He spent only a few months at home, however, before being elected to the [[Ohio House of Representatives]], where he served as speaker from 1809 to 1811. Tiffin remarried April 16, 1809, to Mary Porter, originally from [[Delaware]], and then of Ross County.<ref>[[#gilmore|Gilmore 1897]]: 119.</ref> Tiffin became the first commissioner of the [[United States General Land Office]], which managed allocations of Federal lands.

He quickly helped remove the Federal records from [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] before it was sacked during the [[War of 1812]].<ref>[[#gilmore|Gilmore 1897]]: 127–128.</ref> In 1814, he became the [[Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory]], exchanging positions with [[Josiah Meigs]] so that he might spend more time near his home in Chillicothe. Tiffin served in the post until his death.

==Death==
Tiffin was buried in [[Grandview Cemetery (Chillicothe, Ohio)|Grandview Cemetery]], [[Ross County, Ohio]]. His death was reported in the newspapers, such as this notice in the Brattleboro Messenger (Brattleboro, VT), Sep. 18, 1829, p.&nbsp;3:
At Chillicothe, Doct. Edward Tiffin, formerly Governor of Ohio, and late Surveyor General of the United States, aged 64 years.

==Legacy==
The city of [[Tiffin, Ohio|Tiffin]] in northwestern Ohio was named in honor of Tiffin in 1822.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3IJtVP9WnXEC&q=Morrow+Ohio&pg=PA243 | title=This Day in Ohio History | publisher=Emmis Books | year=2005 | access-date=November 21, 2013 | author=Goodman, Rebecca | pages=243| isbn=9781578601912 }}</ref>

{{blockquote|No man who has occupied the gubernatorial chair of Ohio has possessed a greater genius for the administration of public affairs than Edward Tiffin, its first governor. He appeared upon the scene of action in the Northwest Territory in its creative period, when the work of moulding the destinies of a future commonwealth was committed to the care of a very few men. Head and shoulders above them all stood Edward Tiffin. His official life displayed a better general average of statesmanship than that of any of his successors. ... His work in advancing and developing Ohio has not been equalled by any man in its history. |[[Daniel J. Ryan]]|1888<ref>{{cite book |title=A History of Ohio with Biographical Sketches of her Governors and the Ordinance of 1787| first=Daniel J. |last=Ryan |year=1888 |author-link=Daniel J. Ryan|publisher=A H Smythe |location=Columbus, Ohio|pages=167–170|chapter=Edward Tiffin |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M6YTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA167}}</ref>}}

==See also==
* [[List of United States senators born outside the United States]]
* [[List of U.S. state governors born outside the United States]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}

==References==
*{{cite book |ref=gilmore|title=Life of Edward Tiffin, first governor of Ohio |first=William Edward |last=Gilmore|location=Chillicothe, Ohio |publisher=Horney and Sons |year=1897 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HfUuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1}}
*Russian version: [[:ru:Тиффин,_Эдвард|Edward Tiffin]]

==External links==
{{Commons category|Edward Tiffin}}
{{CongBio|T000268}}
*{{cite web
|title=Edward Tiffin
|url=http://www.ohiomemory.org/cdm/search/searchterm/Edward%20Tiffin/
|publisher=Ohio Memory
}}

*{{Ohio History Central|381|Edward Tiffin}}
*{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Tiffin, Edward|year=1900 |short=x}}
*{{find a Grave|21697}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tiffin, Edward}}
[[Category:1766 births]]
[[Category:1829 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century American legislators]]
[[Category:American surveyors]]
[[Category:Burials at Grandview Cemetery (Chillicothe, Ohio)]]
[[Category:Commissioners of the United States General Land Office]]
[[Category:Democratic-Republican Party state governors of the United States]]
[[Category:Democratic-Republican Party United States senators from Ohio]]
[[Category:English emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Governors of Ohio]]
[[Category:Madison administration personnel]]
[[Category:Members of the Northwest Territory House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Methodists from Ohio]]
[[Category:Ohio Constitutional Convention (1802)]]
[[Category:Physicians from Virginia]]
[[Category:Politicians from Chillicothe, Ohio]]
[[Category:Speakers of the Ohio House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Surveyors General of the Northwest Territory]]
[[Category:People from Carlisle, Cumbria]]
[[Category:19th-century United States senators]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the Ohio General Assembly]]