After graduating, Spalding began his study of law as an apprentice under Zephaniah Swift, the father of his future wife Lucretia A.

Lawmakers in the General Assembly had proposed legislation to form a new county six years before Spalding was elected, but the bill failed to gain the necessary support.

Following the 1839 election, the Democrats, led by Spalding, and the Whigs gained enough seats to form a coalition and pass bill.

He believed that if Ohio repudiated its debt and chose not to repay its creditors, it would make it harder for the state to borrow money in the future.

It was not until John Brough, the State Auditor, joined Spalding in opposing the scheme, that the bill died.

[6] In 1847, Spalding delivered a speech in Akron in which he argued that "if the evil of slavery had been restricted, as it should have been, to the thirteen original states, self interest might have led to the extinction of practice long before now.

In 1849, local Free Soil leaders invited Spalding, who was still a Democrat, to give a speech at a party convention in Cleveland.

Spalding continued to argue that slavery should not be extended into the American territories and closed his remarks with a call to Free-Soilers to "stand fast" in their beliefs.

As an outspoken opponent of slavery, Spalding began to rally other Cleveland attorneys against southern slaveholders who came to the North looking to claim fugitive slaves.

Despite Spalding's efforts, Bushnell was found guilty and sentenced to serve sixty days in the Cuyahoga County jail, and to pay a fine of six hundred dollars.

The committee drafted six resolutions, including one that pledged that the party would render inoperative the portion of the Kansas-Nebraska act which abolished freedom in the territory withdrawn from the Missouri Compromise of 1820.

In addition to his position as a delegate, Spalding also served as the manager of John McLean's campaign for the Presidential nomination.

[14] The night prior to the commencement of the convention Spalding wrote to McLean, expressing his optimism regarding his chances of beating the other major candidate, John C.

Spalding made his commitment to the President known during his early years in Congress by introducing an act that repealed the fugitive slave laws of 1793 and 1850.

Following the President's assassination, Spalding was one of twenty-two representatives selected to meet Lincoln's remains at his funeral train in Springfield, Illinois.

[17] On January 27, 1868, Spalding introduced a successful resolution to have the House Select Committee on Reconstruction conduct an impeachment inquiry into president Andrew Johnson.

[citation needed] His daughter Emily's son William R. Day was U.S. Secretary of State and associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.