physically and morally. There was nothing petty, small or mean about him." Three years before his death, his efforts on behalf of racial equality were recognized by the Afro-American League of Tennessee, and he donated the proceeds of a book of his speeches to build schools. His great-great grandson Thomas William Ludlow Ashley, was later elected a U.S. Representative from Ohio. Ann Arbor, Michigan named a downtown street leading to its railroad depot after Ashley. His descendant James Ashley IV recently completed a portrait of his great-grandfather, which is installed in the LaValley Law Library at the University of Toledo College of Law. In early 2010, the Ohio Historical Society proposed Ashley as a finalist in a statewide vote for inclusion in Statuary Hall at the United States Capitol. Civil rights figure Frederick Douglass regarded Ashley as a white man who had a determination to secure equal justice for all, along with the likes of Benjamin Wade, Thaddeus Stevens, and Charles Sumner. Mary C. Ames described Ashley as the most genial and kind man in the Congress. Some historians have been unkind in their views on Ashley. C. Vann Woodward called him, "a nut with an idée fixe" and Eric McKitrick described him as having, "an occult mixture of superstition and lunacy". A contemporary journalist, Benjamin Perley Poore, said Ashley was a "man of the lightest mental calibre and most insufficient capacity" who "passed much of his time in perambulating the aisles of the House, holding short conferences with leading Republicans, and casting frequent glances into the ladies' gallery." Ashley is played by actor David Costabile in the 2012 Steven Spielberg movie Lincoln. Footnotes References Further reading Pdf. Zietlow, Rebecca E. The Forgotten Emancipator: James Mitchell Ashley and the Ideological Origins of Reconstruction (Cambridge University Press, 2018) External links 1824 births 1896 deaths People from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio Montana Republicans Governors of Montana Territory Politicians from Toledo, Ohio 19th-century American railroad executives People of Ohio in the American Civil War Burials in Ohio 19th-century American politicians American Freemasons