Editing Allen G. Thurman (section)

===U.S. Senator===
The Ohio voters chose a Democratic [[Ohio General Assembly|state legislature]], however, which selected Thurman as senator for the term beginning in 1869. He there became a strong opponent of the [[United States Republican Party|Republicans']] [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]] measures. In 1873 Thurman crafted a strategy that led to Ohio choosing once more a Democratic legislature, and electing Thurman's uncle William Allen as governor. The legislature elected Thurman to another term in the Senate. During the twelve years he served in the Senate, he became the leader of the Democrats in that body.  He was known for constant hard work, good preparation, and courteous treatment of his opponents, and other members ranked him among the top three senators of his time, in terms of ability.   He came nearest, a Washington correspondent concluded, to "the beau ideal of a Senator of any man on his side of the House.  He has fine passing power of cutting up his political opponents, saying a word of encouragement to some Republican when he is down, and scattering the caucuses of the opposite side with a pistol shot."<ref>Cincinnati Gazette, April 10, 1871.</ref> His prepared speeches were clear and cogent, but it was in debate that he showed himself at his most picturesque.  "He would wave his red bandana pocket handkerchief like a guidon, give his nose a trumpet-blast, take a fresh pinch of snuff, and dash into the debate, dealing rough blows, and scattering the carefully prepared arguments of his adversaries like chaff," a Washington long-time reporter remembered.<ref>[[Benjamin Perley Poore]], "Reminiscences," 2:359-60.</ref> He kept up a close friendship with his chief sparring partner on the opposite side, [[George F. Edmunds]] of [[Vermont]]. Journalists told how at a given signal—a long blow of his nose—he would get ready to exit the Senate so that the two could meet in the Judiciary Committee room to share a liberal amount of Kentucky Bourbon.<ref>[[Benjamin Perley Poore]], "Reminiscences," 2:360; New York Times, January 31, 1881; Frank Carpenter scrapbook (September 26, 1885, clipping), Frank Carpenter Papers, Library of Congress.</ref>

"When I speak of the law," Senator [[Roscoe Conkling]] of New York once said, "I turn to the Senator as the Mussulman turns towards Mecca.  I look to him only as I would look to the common law of England, the world's most copious volume of human jurisprudence."<ref>[[Samuel S. Cox]], "Why We Laugh," p. 250.</ref> In particular he made himself the critic of giveaways to the large railroad corporations and of Republicans' Reconstruction policies. "A fine juicy roast of land grants is what sends Thurman's tongue a-wagging," wrote one reporter.<ref>Cincinnati Commercial, June 21, 1870.</ref>

An advocate of [[free trade]],<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=yJfNAAAAMAAJ&dq=allen+thurman+%22free+trade%22&pg=PA67 The Cosmopolitan, Volume 6], pp. 68–70. ''Google Books''. Retrieved February 23, 2022.</ref> Thurman bemoaned of protective tariffs as a taxation upon "everything one wears from the crown of his head to the soles."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=lyl2Ho0pyawC&dq=allen+thurman+%22free+trade%22&pg=PA982 Congressional Record, Volume 50], p. 982. ''Google Books''. Retrieved February 23, 2022.</ref>

In the 1876&ndash;1877 [[U.S. presidential election, 1876|electoral college crisis]], he helped to arrive at the solution of creating the [[Electoral Commission (United States)|Electoral Commission]] to settle the controversy, and ultimately served as one of the members of the commission, as one of the five Senators (one of the two Senate Democrats, and one of the seven Democrats altogether). As a Democrat, he voted with the seven-member minority, in favor of the [[Samuel J. Tilden]] electors in all cases, but the Republican majority prevailed in all the votes, and Thurman's 1867 gubernatorial opponent, Rutherford B. Hayes (who had returned to the governorship by defeating Thurman's uncle), became president. One of the House of Representatives' members of the commission, fellow Ohioan [[James Garfield]], was to become the president [[U.S. presidential election, 1880|four years later]], after being chosen by the now-Republican Ohio legislature to succeed Thurman. Both men were lifelong friends.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

"To look at Thurman one would suppose that his favorite reading was "Foxe's Book of the Martyrs' and "Baxter's Saints' Rest,'" a reporter wrote, "for Thurman's face certainly carries a heavier pressure of solemnity to the square inch than any face I ever saw."  In fact, he was a wide reader, fond of Voltaire, Chateaubriand, Renan, and the lighter French novels, and colleagues admitted him the best French scholar in the Senate.<ref>Cincinnati Enquirer, December 18, 1875.</ref> He had picked up French from one Monsieur Gregoire, a tutor in his childhood, and in retirement continued reading French novels in the original language.

In the Senate, Thurman served on the Judiciary Committee, becoming its chairman when the Democrats won control of the Senate in the 46th Congress. He became [[President pro tempore of the United States Senate|President pro tempore of the Senate]] on April 15, 1879, being the first Democrat to hold this position in nearly twenty years. He briefly served as president of the Senate because of the illness of [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] [[William A. Wheeler]], before Ohio chose a Republican legislature, which would not reelect Thurman. They first chose Garfield, but on his election to the Presidency, selected [[John Sherman (politician)|John Sherman]] to succeed Thurman beginning in 1881. Garfield did appoint Thurman as American representative to the international monetary conference in Paris, a selection that Republican senators welcomed: they regretted his departure from among them. It was noted that in twelve years in the chamber, he had never had an angry word with any colleague, and noted, too, that he left the Senate as poor as he had come to it.<ref>New York Times, April 10, 1881.</ref>