Losing the Market Revolution: Lebanon, Ohio, and the Economic Transformation of Warren County, 1820–1850

Losing the Market Revolution: Lebanon,Obio,and tbe Economic Transformation of Warren County, 18201850 DANIEL P. GLENN T he celebration was a gala affair, one th. it matched the visions of bountifulness and preeminence that the leaders of Lebanon,Ohio had for their town. Lebanon,a town of 1,000 people located in Warren County in the fruitful land between the Great Miaini and Little Miami Rivers in southwest Ohio, just twentyfive miles from Cincinnati, hosted some of the most distinguished leaders of the dav: Governor Dewitt Clint(, n of New York, the father of the Erie Canal; Senator Henrb Clay from Kentucky, chainpion of the West and hero to the leaders of Lebanon: William Henry Hairisc , n. future president; and Jeremiah Morrc, w, a native of Warren County and governor of Ohio. On July 22. 1825, together with Thonias Corwin, A. H. Dunlavy, George J. Smith, and others of the elite of Lebanon, they celebrated the initiation of construction on Ohio's Miami and Eric Canal. The canal would run through the Warren County town of Franklin, only ten miles from the site of the evening' s festivities, and Lebanon's leaders were sure that prosperity and progress wotild follow. This generation had a mission. Their fathers had conquered the frontier. They had battled the wilderness and won, and carved a community of farms and towns out of the forest. Now the sons of those pioneers would transform Warren County yet again from a community of small farms to a center of manufacturing and a regional marketplace. They agreed heartily with Clinton lerentiab Morrow. when he declared that night that the new canal " will grow with your growth, Ci, ici, inati Museum strengthen with your strength and affect you most prosperously in your vital Center at Union Ternlinal. Cincin, iati Historical interests."' For many years the town' s leaders had advocated the construction Soc, ety 1. ibrary of the canal. The local paper,Tbe Western Star, had printed each report of the Ohio Canal Commission in full along with details from the debates in the Ohio Assembly concerning the canal. And at last its construction had begun. There was good reason to celebrate. The gentlemen of Lebanon drank no less WINTER 2005 4 :'. 05 1,, it 23 LOSING THE MARKET REVOLUTION Central View.Lebanon. Drawing by Henry Howe, 1846. Cincinnati Museunt Center at Union Terminal. Cincinnati Historical Society than eighteen toasts that night,many to the great men in their midst. The toast to Governor Clinton followed immediately after that to George Washington. Once the applause ended,Clinton raised his own glass to the citizens of Warren County and proclaimed: " The dispensations of Heaven have been so liberal to them]that nothing but their own exertions are necessary to conduct them to a distinguished elevation of prosperity." 2 For the leaders of Lebanon his words only reconfirmed what they already believed to be true. ver the next 20 years,the leaders of Lebanon did succeed in transform ing the county,but in a way quite unintended. The Miami and Erie Canal did not bring general prosperity to Warren County. Furthermore ,it did not make Lebanon a center of manufacturing or a regional hub for commerce. Even the construction of the Warren County Canal in 1840,a branch canal running directly to Lebanon,did not change the economic prospects of the town or the county. The leaders of Lebanon, ultimately, misunderstood the economic and commercial transformation that was occurring between 1820 and 1850 in Ohio and across the United States.' Though they fully committed themselves to bringing Warren County into the market economy,they did not j foresee the results of th s integration. Once physically tied to the market economy by the Miami and Eric Canal and other internal improvements, j Lebanon and Warren County became peripheral contributors to the regional marketplace at Cincinnati and to the wider national market. As the county became more closely tied to the market,farmers began to concentrate on producing one saleable agricultural commodity pork . But even as some farmers prospered in the new economy, manufacturing in Lebanon and across the county diminished in the face of competition from workshops in Cincinnati,Dayton...