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ILLINOIS 

THE  HEART  OF  THE  NATION 


BY 


HON.  EDWARD  F.  DUNNE 

FORMER  JUDGE,  MAYOR,  AND  GOVERNOR 

Author  and  Editor 


ILLINOIS  BIOGRAPHY 

Gratuitously  Published 
By  Special  Staff  of  Writers 


Issued  in  Five  Volumes 
VOLUME  I 


ILLUSTRATED 


THE  LEWIS  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

CHICAGO  AND  NEW  YORK 
1933 


Copyright,  1933 
The  Lewis  Publishing  Company 


FOREWORD 

Since  my  retirement  from  public  office  in  1917  it  has  been 
frequently  suggested  to  me  that  a  book  containing  a  record  of 
my  personal  reminiscences  and  contacts  while  in  public  life 
would  be  interesting  to  many  people.  I  had  given  the  suggestion 
favorable  consideration  and  was  about  to  respond  to  the  sug- 
gestion by  recording  my  personal  experience  and  contacts  in  a 
book  which  I  vaguely  determined  to  entitle  The  Last  Half  Cen- 
tury in  Chicago,  At  this  juncture,  in  the  spring  of  1929,  the 
Lewis  Publishing  Company  suggested  that  I  undertake  for  it  the 
writing  of  a  history  of  Illinois.  This  furnished  me  the  opportun- 
ity of  undertaking  a  work  of  wider  scope  and  extent.  As  I  had 
been  chief  executive  of  the  great  State  of  Illinois  as  well  as  chief 
executive  of  the  great  City  of  Chicago,  I  had  made  personal  con- 
tacts with  men  and  measures  throughout  the  state  as  well  as  in 
the  City  of  Chicago ;  it  did  not  seem  inappropriate  for  me  to  take 
upon  myself  the  writing  of  a  history  in  which  I  could  incorporate 
my  personal  experiences  and  contacts  in  both  of  these  exalted 
offices.  Under  contract  with  this  publishing  firm  I  undertook 
the  work  which  has  occupied  my  time  for  nearly  eighteen 
months,  and  which  I  now  submit  to  the  people  of  Illinois  for 
their  kindly  (I  hope)  consideration.  I  am  much  indebted  in  the 
preparation  for  and  the  writing  of  this  work  to  the  Newberry 
Library  for  the  many  courtesies  extended  to  me  by  its  competent 
officials.  I  am  also  indebted  to  the  Secretary  of  State  of  Illinois 
and  his  predecessor,  Governor  Emmerson  for  the  blue  books  of 
Illinois  and  other  books  placed  at  my  disposal  by  them.  Hon- 
orable Fred  J.  Kern,  of  Belleville,  a  great  bibliophile  and  stu- 
dent of  Illinois  history,  has  also  earned  my  gratitude  by  both 
books  and  suggestions.  I  am  above  all  indebted  to  my  friend, 
William  L.  Sullivan,  Esq.,  for  the  valuable  assistance  he  has 
given  me  in  compiling  these  volumes.  He  was  my  trusted 
stenographer  when  I  was  mayor  of  Chicago  and  my  official  secre- 
tary when'  governor,  and  his  wonderfully  acute  memory  and  his 

iii 


iv  FOREWORD 

indefatigable  industry  have  been  of  vital  assistance  to  me  in 
my  historical  labors. 

I  have  devoted  myself  in  composing  this  work  principally 
to  the  political  history  of  the  state  rather  than  its  industrial, 
agricultural  and  mechanical  development,  which  latter  features 
are  so  well  known  as  to  dispense  with  recapitulation  by  figures. 
I  have  been  more  familiar  with  the  political  life  of  the  state 
than  with  its  industrial  or  educational  life,  and  other  writers 
have  treated  the  industrial,  educational  and  agricultural  life 
of  the  state  with  much  more  thoroughness  than  I  could. 

When  I  have  stated  facts  and  events  I  have  tried  to  be  ac- 
curate and  truthful.  When  I  have  expressed  opinions  they  are 
my  own.  The  publishers  have  placed  no  restrictions  of  any 
character  upon  my  writings.  I  am  indebted  to  them  for  their 
courteous  and  honorable  dealings  with  me  during  the  writing 
of  this  history  and  for  the  prompt  and  cordial  approval  of  my 
work. 

Edward  F.  Dunne. 


CONTENTS 


VOLUME  I 

I 
El  Dorado — A  Wondrous  Location  for  a  New  Common- 
wealth        1 

II 
The  One  Hundred  Percent  American  In  His  Happy 
Hunting  Ground  and  His  Passing 10 

III 

The  French  Discoverers  and  Settlers 21 

IV 

Marquette  and  Joliet  Discover  the  Mississippi 26 

V 

The  French  Missionaries 36 

VI 
Character  and  Customs  of  the  French  Habitants  in 
the  Country  of  the  Illinois 47 

VII 

La  Salle,  the  Daring  and  Unfortunate 55 

VIII 
Final  Results  of  the  Struggle  Between  the  British 
and  French  for  the  Mississippi  Valley 85 

IX 
Illinois  Under  the  British  Flag 96 

X 

Part  Played  By  Illinois  In  the  Revolutionary  War 107 

XI 

George  Rogers  Clark  Captures  Kaskaskia  and  Vin- 
cennes 116 

XII 
Illinois  County,  Virginia,  Under  the  Rule  of  the  Old 
Dominion 134 

XIII 
Anarchy  In  Illinois 143 

XIV 

Struggle  In  Congress  Over  Western  Land  Titles 152 

v 


vi  CONTENTS 

XV 

The  U.  S.  Ordinance  of  1787  Creating  the  Northwest 
Territory  160 

XVI 
The  Law's  Delay  and  Struggle  for  Land 166 

XVII 
Illinois  Under  Northwest  Territorial  Government 173 

XVIII 
Slavery  and  Indentured  Servants — Territory  of  Illi- 
nois Created 188 

XIX 

Illinois  Territory  First  Class 197 

XX 

Tecumseh  and  Tippecanoe 203 

XXI 

The  Decline  and  Ultimate  Disposition  of  the  Fur 
Trade 209 

XXII 
Illinois  In  the  War  of  1812 212 

XXIII 

Illinois  a  Territory  of  the  Second  Class — and  Soon 
Becomes  a  State 227 

XXIV 

A  Picture  of  the  Infant  State  In  1818 242 

XXV 

The  Fight  For  Slavery 259 

XXVI 

The  Rapid  Development  of  the  New  State 283 

XXVII 

Politics  In  Illinois  During  the  First  Decade 290 

XXVIII 

National  Politics  Enters  Illinois 303 

XXIX 

The  Administration  of  John  Reynolds  As  Governor 316 

XXX 

Black  Hawk  and  the  Last  Stand  of  the  Indians 320 

XXXI 

Administration  of  Joseph  Duncan  As  Governor 344 


CONTENTS  vii 

XXXII 

Springfield  Becomes  the  State  Capital  and  Lincoln 
and  Douglas  Appear  In  Public  Life 354 

XXXIII 
The  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal 362 

XXXIV 
Thomas  Carlin,  Governor 375 

XXXV 

Politics  On  the  Bench 380 

XXXVI 

Governor  Thomas  Ford___ 386 

XXXVII 

The  State  Adopts  a  New  Constitution  In  1848 408 

XXXVIII 

Administration  of  Governor  French 412 

XXXIX 

Illinois  Becomes  Prominent  In  the  Politics  of  the 
Nation 415 

XL 
The  Constitution  and  Laws  of  the  U.  S.  On  Slavery 
When  Douglas  Became  Senator  In  1847 421 

XLI 
Douglas,  the  Compromise  of  1850  and  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Law 431 

XLII 
Douglas  Breaks  With  the  Democratic  Party  and  Presi- 
dent, and  Opposes  the  Lecompton  Constitution  In 

Kansas 446 

XLIII 

Governor  Matteson's  Administration 454 

XLIV 
Administration  of  Governor  Bissell 456 

XLV 
The  Birth  of  the  Republican  Party  In  Illinois 459 

XLVI 
Douglas  Opens  His  Campaign  for  Reelection  To  the 
Senate 465 

XLVII 
The  Lincoln-Douglas  Joint  Debate 481 


INDEX 


Abbott,  Katherine  L.,  Ill,  403 

Abels,  Henry,  V,  107 

Abingdon  Public  Library,  V,  247 

Abolitionists,   I,  440 

Academy  of   Our  Lady,   Peoria,   III,  73 

Acker,  John,  III,  142 

Acorn,  Henry  O.,  IV,  132 

Adair,  J.  Leroy,  V,  141 

Adamkiewicz,  Stanley,  III,  445 

Adams,  Alfred,  V,  188 

Adams,  Francis,  II,  203 

Adams,  Glenn  R.,  V,  412 

Adams,  Minnie  F.,  V,  189 

Addams,  Jane,  II,  293,  501;   III,  8 

Adkins,  John,  V,  219 

Adkins,  Walter,  V,  220 

Administration  Building,  Century  of 
Progress,  II,  551 

Aeby,  Richard,  V,  379 

Agriculture,  in  French  regime,  I,  49 

Akin,  Guy  W.,  V,  401 

Alba,  Chester  N.,  V,  366 

Albright,  Charles  H.,  IV,  458 

Aldis,  Arthur  T.,  Ill,  47 

Aldstadt,  David  A.,  Ill,  173 

Alexander,  Alonzo  M.,  V,  360 

Alexander,  John  W.,  Ill,  159 

Alexander,  Samuel,  I,  366 

Algonquin  race  of  Indians,  I,  12 

Allegretti,  Francis  B.,  IV,  494 

Allen,  Frank  G.,  V,  78 

Allen,  Frank   O.,   V,   346 

Allen,  James  C,  II,  47,  83 

Allen,  Lawrence  T.,  V,  393 

Allen,  William  J.,  II,  83;  V,  485 

Allen  &   Dalbey,  IV,  462 

Allen  law,  II,  221 

Allerton,  Robert,  V,  481 

Allerton,  Samuel  W.,  V,  481 

Allerton  Public  Library,  Monticello,  V, 
368 

Allison,  Robert  H.,  IV,  247 

Allouez,  Father,  I,  24,  37 

Allstorm,  Oliver,  V,  380 

Allstrand,  H.  P.,  IV,  196 

"Alma  Mater,"  University  of  Illinois, 
II,  465 

Alpeter,  John  J.,  I,  373 

Alschuler,  Samuel,  II,  192,  312,  461; 
IV,  9 

Altgeld,  John  P.,  elected  governor,  II, 
136,  137;  career  of,  138;  and  an- 
archists, 141 ;  after  anarchists  pardon, 
144;  protest  against  Federal  troops 
in  Illinois,  148,  156;  silver  question, 
160,  192;  administration,  and  ninety- 
nine  year  franchises,  213;  V,  25 


Altgeld  and  Yerkes'  bills,  II,   146 
Alto  Pass   Community   High   School,   V, 

222 
Alton,  I,  253,  351;   railway  center,  357, 

405;   II,  56 
Alton  Schools,  IV,  306 
Alton  State  Hospital,  II,  351,  359 
Alvarez,  Russell  J.,  IV,  257 
Amell,  J.  Bruce,  III,  453 
American  Legion,  Emery  Whistler  Post 

No.  607,  V,  257 
American   Bottom,   I,   3,   49 
American  Bottom  and  Old  French  Vil- 
lages, map,  I,  86 
American  Fur  Company,  I,  211 
American  Protective  League,  II,  400 
Americans,  native,  in  1830,  I,  251 
Anarchist    case,    II,    97;    and    Governor 

Altgeld,  140 
Anarchist,  trial  of,  II,  520 
Andersen,  Arthur  E.,  IV,  170 
Anderson,  Albert  C,  IV,  70 
Anderson,  Benjamin     F.      (Charleston), 

IV,  70 
Anderson,   Benjamin  F.    (Golconda),  V, 

319 
Anderson,  Cyrus  H.,   Ill,  211 
Anderson,  Gustaf  A.,   V,   398 
Anderson,  Herbert   S.,  IV,   71 
Anderson,  Joe  E.,  IV,  406 
Anderson,  John  O.,  IV,  266 
Anderson,  Joseph   M.,   V,   321 
Anderson,  Norman  K.,  V,  334 
Anderson,  Sumner  S.,  V,  5 
Andrew,  John   E.,   V,   79 
Angsten,  Peter  J.,  IV,  208 
Anna-Jonesboro  Community  High  School 

III,  451 
Anna    State    Hospital    for    Insane,    II, 

360;  V,  206 
Anthony,  Elliott,  II,   83;    V,  462 
Anti-Monopolist  party,   II,   90,   130,   136 
Apt,  Christian  S.,  IV,  159 
Arbogast,  Kenneth  G.,  Ill,  421 
Arch,  Henry  C,  V,  229 
Archer,  William  R.,  II,  83 
Armour,  J.   Ogden,  II,  391 
Armour,  Philip  D.,  II,  73;  III,  19 
Armour  family,  II,  549 
Armstrong,  James  W.,  IV,  460 
Arnold,  Bion  J.,  Ill,  43 
Arnold,  Isaac  N.,  II,  51;  V,  9 
Arnold,  James,  V,  455 
Arnold,  Jennie,   V,    456 
Arnold,  J.  Ross,  III,  196 
Arnston,  Otto  A.,  Ill,  433 
Aronson,  J.  Henry,  V,  62 


IX 


INDEX 


Arp,  A.  Henry,  IV,  377 

Arp,  Louis  C,  IV,  377 

Arthur,  Delia,  V,  432 

Arthur,  Hildreth,  V,  432 

Arthur,  John  J.,  14,  118 

Arthur,  Joseph,  V,  432 

Articles  of  Confederation,  I,  152 

Arzinger,  Katharine  L.,  IV,  398 

Ash,  Harry  A.,  IV,  162 

Astor,  John  Jacob,  I,  209 

Atkinson,  Henry,   I,   328,   342 

Augusta  Public  Library,  V,  38 

Austin,  Edwin  C,  IV,  270 

Australian  ballot  law,  II,  109 

Automobile  tax,  II,  331 

Avery,  Sewell   L.,   Ill,   10 

Axley,  James,   I,   254 

Aye,  Vintcen,  IV,  72 

Ayer,  Edward  E.,  V,  40 

Ayer  Public  Library,  Delavan,  III,  194 

Ayers,  Frank  D.,  Ill,  490 

Babb,  John   H.,   IV,   492 

Babcock,  F.  D.  E.,  V,  356 

Baber,  Fred,  V,  92 

Baccus,  Clyde  F.,  Ill,  86 

Bacon,  Asa  S.,  Ill,  493 

Badgley,  John  A.,  IV,  182 

Bagnall,  Loyal  B.,  Ill,  440 

Bailee,  Harry  L.,  IV,  256 

Bailey,  Albert  E.,  IV,  191 

Bailey,  Richard  H.,  V,  182 

Baird,  Waldo  B.,  IV,  314 

Baker,  David  J.,  Ill,  25 

Baker,  Edward  D.,  I,  405;  V,  27 

Baker,  Harold  G.,  V,  152 

Baker,  Jehu,  I,  459;  III,  492 

Baker,  L.   E.,  IV,  97 

Baker,  Monroe  S.,  IV,  384 

Baker,  Ralph  N.,  Jr.,  IV,  100 

Baldridge,  Balcolm  C,  V,  292 

Baldridge,  Roy   T.,   V,   282 

Baldwin,  Eugene  F.,  Ill,  70 

Balliet,  Josiah  R.,  V,  105 

Balsinger,  William  E.,  Ill,  503 

Baltz,  Harold,  V,  167 

Baltz,  William  N.,  IV,  242 

Bank  of   Illinois,   I,  314 

Banking  currency,  I,  286 

Banks,  in  1818,  I,  255;  State,  284; 
growth  of  State,  291;  early,  307,  346; 
in  1842,  386;  private,  abolished,  II,  402 

Baptist  church,   I,   255 

Barbau,  Jean  Baptiste,  lieutenant-gov- 
ernor, I,   148 

Barber,  Harry   H.,   V,    402 

Bareis,  Edward  F.,  IV,  244 

Bargh,  George  H.,  V,  281 

Bargren,  August  E.,  Ill,  108 

Barnes,  Carey  E.,  IV,  185 

Barnes,  Clifford   W.,  V,  42 

Barnes,  John  S.,  Ill,  108 

Barnes,  Roy  R.,  V,  302 

Barnett,  Calvin  O.,  IV,  348 

Barr,  George  A.,  II,  426 


Barr,  Oliver  M.,  V,  180 

Barr,  Richard   J.,   II,   373 

Barrett,  John  E.,  V,  335 

Bartelmay,  Robert  A.,  Ill,  368 

Bartelme,  Mary  M.,  V,  44 

Bartholf,  Herbert  B.,   V,   125 

Bartlett,  Paul,  II,  521 

Barton,  James  M.,  Ill,  67 

Basinski,  Stanislaus  E.,  IV,  345 

Bass,  Mrs.  George,  II,  432 

Bassett,  Jane  W.,  IV,  215 

Bastian,  Frederick   K.,  V,   61 

Batavia  Herald,    IV,   405 

Batavia  Fublic  Library,  III,  444 

Bateman,  Newton,  II,  78;  V,  477 

Bathrick,  Donald  U.,  Ill,  485 

Bauer,  John  T.,  Ill,  208 

Baum,  Martin  J.,  V,  115 

Baum,  Nettie  R.,  V,   115 

Baxter,  George  E.,  IV,  268 

Beall,  Charles  W.,  Ill,  287 

Beall,  E.  H.,  IV,  305 

Beardstown  Public  Library,  V,  200 

Beasley,  Louis,  V,  421 

Beatty,  Henry  G.,  V,  358 

Beatty,  Hobert  R.,  V,  358 

Beatty,  H.  G.  &  Company,  V,  359 

Beatty,  Samuel  F.,  V,  316 

Beauchamp,  Virgil  G.,  Ill,  168 

Beauty  spots    in    Illinois,    II,    212,    425, 

437 
Becker,  Albert  V.,  Ill,  320 
Becker,  Arthur  C,  III,  381 
Becker,  A.  G.,  Ill,  170 
Becker,  Benjamin  V.,  IV,  203 
Becker,  James  H.,  Ill,  170 
Becker,  Oscar  L.,  V,  164 
Beckers,  John   H.,   V,   350 
Beckett,  Catherine  M.,  IV,  138 
Beckett,  John  B.,  IV,  137 
Beckman,  William  F.,  IV,  393 
Beckman,  William  H.,  IV,  85 
Beckwith,  Hiram  W.,  IV,  488 
Bedel,  Anselm  L.,  V,  365 
Bedel,  John  A.,  V,  364 
Bederman,  Edwin  B.,  Ill,  55 
Beecher,  Leon  F.,  Ill,  195 
Beedy,  M.  Elizabeth,  III,  301 
Beedy,  Verner   E.,   Ill,   300 
Beggs,  Charles  E.,  V,  149 
Beggs,  Nelle,   V,   149 
Beilschmidt,  Henry   W.,   Ill,   168 
Bell,  Benjamin   S.,  Ill,  206 
Bell,  George,  II,  389 
Bellefontaine,  I,   146,  212 
Belleville,  I,  8,  250;  Old  Mansion  House, 

II,  186 
Belleville  Public  Library,  IV,  240 
Belleville  Township  High  School,  V,  269 
Belt,  Rufus   F.,   IV,  360 
Bendix,  Vincent,    V,   41 
Benedict,  George  M.,  II,  183 
Benedict,  Joseph,  IV,  158 
Beneze,  Henry   P.,   IV,   234 
Benjamin,  Reuben  M.,  II,  83,  87 


INDEX 


XI 


Benner,  William  J.,   IV,   301 

Bennett,  Henry    S.,   Ill,   209 

Bennett,  John  C,  I,  378 

Benninger,  Fred,  IV,  165 

Benson,  Arnold  P.,  IV,  405 

Benson,  Charles,   V,   488 

Benson,  Emil  J.,  V,  389 

Bentley,  Arthur   A.,    IV,    108 

Bentley,  Richard,  IV,  171 

Berbling,  Peyton,  V,   195 

Best,  Charles  L.,   V,   127 

Best,  J.  Donald,  IV,  448 

Bestold,  Fred,  III,  444 

Bevan,  Arthur  D.,  Ill,  11 

Beveridge,  John  L.,  as  governor,  II,  90, 
91;  V,  25 

Beynon,  William  J.,  IV,  142 

Bicek,  Frank  H.,  V,  77 

Biggs,  William,  I,  187 

Bill  of  Rights,  in  1787,  I,  162 

Billings,  Frank,  III,  14 

Bird,  Lewis  E.,  V,  129 

Birkbeck,  Morris,  I,  250,  264,  274,  282; 
V,  4 

Birks,  Abraham   C,  IV,   131 

Bishopp,  Olive  B.,  V,  474 

Bishopp,  William    F.,   V,   473 

Bissell,  William  H.,  I,  405;  first  Re- 
publican governor,  456,  457;   V,  28 

Bjorseth,  Conrad  M.,  V,  467 

Black,  John  C,  II,  104 

Black,  W.  P.,  II,  104 

Black  Hawk,  Chief,  I,  321 

Black  Hawk  Trail,  near  Dixon,  II,  428 

Black  Hawk  War,  I,  307,  310,  320;  first 
stepping  stone  for  eminent  careers, 
342 

Black  Partridge,  Chief,  I,  219 

Blackman,  Lee  R.,  Ill,  206 

Blackstone,  Timothy  B.,  V,  27 

Blackwell,  David,  I,  274 

Blair,  Chauncey  B.,  V,  15 

Blair,  Francis  G.,  IV,  13 

Blair,  Henry  A.,  V,  51 

Blakemore,  Fannie,  III,  326 

Bland,  Eugene,  IV,  67 

Blaney,  James  V.,  V,  36 

Blatchford,  Carter,  III,  222 

Blatt,  Maurice  L.,  IV,  273 

Bliss,  Charles  W.,  Ill,  279 

Blodgett,  Pliny  R.,  V,  490 

Bloompott,  Dietrick  J.,  Ill,  190 

Bloomquist,  Ernest  C,  III,  285 

Bloxam,  Arthur  M.,  IV,  96 

Board  of  Education,  Chicago,  II,  293, 
304,  472 

Board  of  Health,  II,  95 

Board  of  Pharmacy,  II,  95 

Boddy,  John,   III,   158 

Boeschenstein,  Charles,  V,  420 

Boggs,  Berthold  L.,  V,   278 

Bohmker,  John  C,  IV,  404 

Bohn,  John  C,  III,  418 

Bohrer,  Florence  F.,  Ill,  457 

Boisbriant,  Lieutenant,   IV,   45 

Boldenweck,  William,   I,   373 


Bolin,  Paul  L.,  Ill,  184 

Bond,  Shadrach,  I,  185,  187,  190,  229, 
232,  241,  243,  262,  273,  294;  adminis- 
tration, 301;  IV,  25 

Bond  County,  I,  233 

Bonfield,  "Black  Jack,"  II,  101 

Bonfield,  Paul  H.,  Ill,  175 

Bonk,  Harry  A.,   Ill,   180 

Bonk,  John,  IV,  484 

Booth,  Alfred,    V,    124 

Bootleggers,  II,  526 

Borders,  Grover  C,  IV,  249 

Borders,  William  F.,  V,  159 

Bourland,  Robert  C,  III,  360 

Boutell,  Francis  L.,  IV,  75 

Bovik,  Leslie  E.,  Ill,  442 

Bowden,  George  K.,  IV,  467 

Bowen,  Esco  N.,  V,  319 

Bowen,  Mrs.  F.  P.,  IV,  380 

Bowerman,  H.  E.,  Ill,  400 

Bowler,  James  B.,  IV,  494 

Bowley,  William,   III,   103 

Bowton,  Anne,  V,  248 

Bowton,  William  W.,  Ill,  368 

Boyer,  Lewis  L.,  IV,  358 

Boyes,  Walter  F.,  Ill,  370 

Boyle,  George  M.,  Ill,  428 

Boyles,  John   L.,   IV,  425 

Braddock's  defeat,  I,  90 

Bradford  Public  Library,  III,  450 

Bradley  Polytechnic  Institute,  III,  64 

Bradt,  Samuel  E.,  Ill,  398 

Bragg,  Lena,   V,   368 

Bragg,  Thomas,   V,   140 

Brainard,  Daniel,  V,  36 

Brake,  Buell,  IV,  71 

Brandenburger,  Edward  C,  IV,  146 

Brandon,  Rodney  H.,  II,  426;   IV,  25 

Bratton,  Luther  B.,  V,  395 

Braun,  Joseph  H.,  Ill,  439 

Breakstone,  Benjamin   H.,   Ill,   340 

Breed,  Donald  L.,  Ill,  92 

Breen,  James  W.,  V,  159 

Breese,  Sidney,  I,  342,  385,  414,  440, 
459,  471;  III,  29 

Bremer,  Jesse   C,  III,  329 

Brennan,  George  E.,  II,  420,  427,  464, 
490,  491,  510 

Brennan,  John,  II,  506 

Brentano,  Theodore,  III,  47 

Brian,  Floid   B.,   IV,  419 

Brick-making,  I,  252 

Brickey,  Emily  J.,  Ill,  310 

Brickey,  Franklin  M.,  Ill,  309 

Bridgeport  High   School,  IV,  298 

Bridges,  Harry  T.,  Ill,  351 

Briggs,  Clare  A.,  II,  191 

Brinkerhoff,  George  M.,  V,  102 

Brinkerhoff,  John  H.,  V,  102 

Briszko,  Anthony,  III,  425 

British  expedition,  of  1686,  I,  83 

British  law,  I,  143 

Britt,  Hugh  F.,  V,  214 

Britton,  Ernest  R.,  IV,  336 

Britton,  J.   Hays,  III,  216 

Brockman,  George,   IV,   359 


Xll 


INDEX 


Brooks,  Edwin  B.,  V,  228 

Brooks,  Hiram  A.,  V,  128 

Brooks,  Oscar  E.,  Ill,  497 

Brown,  Carl,  III,  186 

Brown,  Erastus,  I,   366 

Brown,  George  W.,  IV,  474 

Brown,  Grover  C.,  Ill,  300 

Brown,  Harold,  IV,  314 

Brown,  Harry  E.,  IV,  255 

Brown,  John  J.,  Ill,  365 

Brown,  Louis  W.,  V,  222 

Brown,  Martha  D.,  IV,  256 

Brown,  Phillip   M.,  Ill,  382 

Brown,  Scott,  III,  441 

Brown,  Thomas  C.,  I,  232,  266,  294 

Brown,  William  D.,  V,  350 

Brown,  William  H.,  I,  275 

Brown's  Business  College,  IV,  229 

Browne,  Ada  S.,  IV,  355 

Browne,  H.  Kingsbury,  V,  160 

Browne,  Thomas  C,  V,  11 

Browning,  Earl   W.,   Ill,   67 

Browning,  Orville  H.,  I,  342;  II,  12,  83; 

V,  27 
Browning,  Robert  M.,  Ill,  131 
Brownsville,  Old,  Last  house  in,  I,  384 
Brubaker,  Benjamin  F.,  Ill,  393 
Brundage,  Edward  J.,  II,  404,  479;  IV, 

45 
Bruning,  Ralph  H.,  IV,  84 
Brust,  Edmund  G.,  V,  486 
Bryan,  Annie  C,   V,   134 
Bryan,  Silas  L.,  II,  83 
Bryan,  Thomas  B.,  II,  520 
Bryan,  William   J.,   career   of,   II,    156; 

committed    to    free    silver,    162,    165; 

cross  of  gold  speech,  166,  511 
Bryant  family,  V,  419 
Buchanan,  Mary  R.,  Ill,  263 
Buchanan,  Nettie  J.,  Ill,  263 
Buchanan,  Robert   O.,   Ill,  263 
Buckingham,  George  T.,  V,  307 
Buckles,  Derias,   IV,   141 
Buckley,  Homer  J.,  Ill,  133 
Buckley,  Jeremiah   J.,  V,   313 
Budd,  Britton  I.,  V,  477 
Budd,  Harry  R.,  Ill,  375 
Budget,  State,  II,  339 
Buechler,  Joseph    N.,    V,    156 
Buehler,Ernest,  IV,  383 
Buffington,  Eugene  J.,  V,  37 
Buford,  Napoleon  B.,  II,  39 
Bugele,  Guy  G.,  V,  193 
Building  laws,   enforcement   of,   II,   292 
Building  stone,   I,   9 
Bukowski,  Peter  I.,  IV,  363 
Bulpitt,  B.   Earl,   IV,   106 
Bunch,  Lawrence  D.,  V,  176 
Bunker,  Elizabeth  J.,  Ill,  307 
Bunker,  Francis  M.,  Ill,  306 
Bunn,  Jacob,  Jr.,  V,  41 
Bunn,  Mildred  J.,  V,  41 
Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  II,  95,  334 
Burgess,  Hampton   S.,  IV,  306 
Burgess,  Kenneth  F.,  IV,  490 
Burgess,  Lucian  A.,  IV,  148 


Burke,  Edmund,  III,  240 

Burke,  John,  V,  134 

Burke,  Robert   E.,  II,   517 

Burnham,  Daniel    H.,    II,    520;    III,    34 

Burnham  plan,  II,  522 

Burns,  Robert  F.,  V,  484 

Burris,  John  R.,  Ill,  466 

Burry,  William,   IV,   213 

Burst,  Edward  M.,  Ill,  53 

Burtle,  Edward  A.,  V,  399 

Burton,  Charles  S.,  Ill,  401 

Burton,  Frank  W.,  IV,  451 

Busse,  Fred  A.,  II,  298,  306,  478 

Butler,  Edward  B.,  II,  520 

Butler,  Rush  C,  V,  184 

Butterfield,  Justin,  I,  389 

Byrne,  John   M.,    V,    279 

Cable  cars,  II,  203 

Cable,  Ransom  R.,  IV,  478 

Cadwell,  George,  I,  192 

Cahokia,  missions    at,    I,    40,    108,    113; 

capture  of,  124;   defeat  of  British  in 

1780,   137,  149;   self  government,   150, 

181,  182 
Cahokia  Courthouse,  I,  210 
Cahokia  tribe,  I,  18 
Cahokias,  I,  12 
Cain,  Noble,  V,  461 
Cairo  Bank  at  Kaskaskia,  I,  306 
Cairo- Vandalia  Highway    near    Cobden, 

II,  412 
Caldwell,  Ben  F.,  II,  312 
Caldwell,  Clifford  D.,  IV,   192 
Calhoun,  Emery  E.,  V,  277 
Calhoun,  William  J.,  V,  15 
Califf,  J.  Paul,  III,  244 
Callahan,  George  B.,  Ill,  424 
Callahan,  Martin  L.,  Ill,  140 
Cameron,  John  M.,  Ill,  329 
Camp,  Harold  M.,  Ill,  437 
Camp,  Lester   M.,   IV,  357 
Camp  Butler,  II,  56 

Camp  Douglas,    II,    54;    conspiracy,    56 
Camp  Grant,  Rockford,  II,  391 
Camp  Logan,  II,  389 
Campbell,  Bruce  A.,   V,   376 
Campbell,  Charles   O.,  IV,   174 
Campbell,  Herbert  J.,  V,  100 
Campbell,     J.   A.,   Ill,  279 
Canaday,  Stephen  D.,  II,  374 
Canal,  sanitary,  I,  372 
Canal  commissioners,  I,  366 
Canal  Scrip  Bill,  I,  416 
Canals,  I,    357 
Cannon,  H.  Floyd,  IV,  420 
Cannon,  John  H.,   IV,  447 
Cannon,  Joseph   G.,   II,   181 
Cantrall,  Carlyle  A.,   Ill,   131 
CanWell,  Robert  E.,  Jr.,  Ill,  244 
Canty,  Thomas  A.,  IV,   402 
Caplan,  Oscar   S.,  IV,  371 
Caplinger,  Benjamin  F.,  Ill,  217 
Capraro,  Alexander   V.,   V,   89 
Caraker,  Oscar,  IV,  305 
Carey,  Peter  B.,  IV,  379 


INDEX 


xm 


Carey,  Raymond  A.,  V,  460 

Carlin,  John  H.,  Ill,  152 

Carlin,  Thomas,  Governor,  I,  342,  375, 
376;   V,   16 

Carlin,  William  L.,   V,   93 

Carlin,  William   P.,  II,  39 

Carlisle,  Jonas   W.,   V,   225 

Carlisle,  Vera,  V,  228 

Carlson,  Oscar  E.,  II,  426 

Carlstrom,  Oscar  E.,  V,  484 

Carmody,  Edward  J.,  Ill,  500 

Carpenter,  Benjamin,  III,  36 

Carpenter,  George    B.,    Ill,   36 

Carpenter,  John  A.,  Ill,   36 

Carpenter,  Richard  V.,   IV,   287 

Carpentier,  Charles  F.,  V,  109 

Carr,     Robert  F.,  V,  293 

Carr,  Wilton  A.,  Ill,  261 

Carriel,  Henry   F.,   IV,   490 

Carrier,  Lee  W.,  IV,  52 

Carrington,  John   W.,   V,   171 

Carrington,  Orville  F.,  Ill,  432 

Carrington,  William  E.,  V,  333 

Carroll,  John  E.,   Ill,  356 

Carroll,  William  M.,  V,  123 

Carson,  Oliver   E.,   IV,   310 

Carter,  Carl  W.,  Ill,  176 

Carter,  Charles  D.,  IV,  187 

Carter,  Charles  E.,  Ill,  363 

Carter,  Garrett  P.,  Ill,  176 

Carter,  Orrin  N.,  I,  372;   II,  426 

Carter,  Ralph  R.,  Ill,  363 

Cartwright,  Peter,  I,  192,  254,  342;  V, 
486 

Cary,  Norman  J.,  V,  361 

Case,  Charles  C,  III,  165 

Casey,  Charles  P.,  IV,  211 

Casey,  Zadoc,   I,   318,   343,   411;    IV,   44 

Cassels,  Edwin  H.,  Ill,  278 

Cassidy,  Holland  M.,  V,  61 

Casteel,  Lowry  M.,  IV,  361 

Castetter,  Luther  L.,  V,  344 

Castle,  Charles   S.,   Ill,   253 

Castle,  John  B.,  Ill,  51 

Castle,  Mollie  L.,  Ill,  51 

Castruccio,  Giuseppe,   III,  413 

Catholic  church,  I,  255 

Caton,  John  D.,  V,  27 

Caughlan,  C.  W.,  V,  71 

Caulfield,  Bernard,   II,  474 

Caylor,  August  C,  V,  147 

Celeron  expedition,  I,  88 

Cement,  I,  9 

Census,  first   State,  I,  263 

Centennial  Memorial  Building,  Spring- 
field, II,  394 

Century  of  Progress  Exposition,  II,  512 

Cepak,  A.  William,  V,  482 

Cermak,  Anton  J.,  II,  516,  525;  V,  11 

Cerny,  Joseph   G.,  IV,  460 

Cerre,  Gabriel,  I,  145 

Cervenka,  John  A.,  V,  336 

Chamberlain,  Henry  T.,  V,  412 

Chamberlin,  Henry  B.,  Ill,  272 

Champaign,  first  schoolhouse,  I,   426 

Champaign  County,  I,  311 


Champlain,    (Gov.   of   New   France),   I, 

22 
Champion,  Julia  E.,  Ill,  180 
Champion,  Merle  C,  V,  386 
Chancellor,  Justus,  V,  49 
Chapel,  University   of   Chicago,   II,   523 
Chapman,  William  D.,  V,  331 
Charitable  Eye   and   Ear   Infirmary,   II, 

351 
Charitable  institutions,  humanization  of, 

II,  349 
Chase,  Harry  W.,  Ill,  16 
Chase,  Philander,   III,   501 
Chatfield,  Edwin   K.,   IV,   353 
Chesnut,  Mrs.    Garnet   D.,    IV,    87 
Chester,  penitentiary,  II,  356 
Chester  State  Hospital,  IV,  373 
Chicago,  incorporated,    I,    310,    339;    in 
1831,  363;  in  1836,  367;  Sanitary  Dis- 
trict canal,  372,  454;   Lake  Front,  II, 
72;    Constitution    of    1870,    87;    storm 
center  of  labor  discontent,  99;  Yerkes 
deals,   146;   police  force,   172;   consoli- 
dation of  offices,  173;  reforms  during 
Deneen    administration,     179;     Mayor 
Dunne's  administration,   188;   in  1863, 
199;    Humphrey   bills,   219;   municipal 
ownership  issue,  224;  election  of  1904, 
246;     mayoralty     campaign     of    1905, 
256;    election    of    1905,    266;    gas    and 
electric    light    rates,    290;    police    and 
fire  departments,  291;   home  rule  for, 
322;   park  consolidation,  348;   German 
population  in  1916,  386;   central  mar- 
ket,   392;    during    World    War,    395; 
Constitution     of     1922,     430;      under 
Mayor  Dever,   463;   the  Wonder  City, 
469;  in  1830,  470;  in  1833,  470;  mul- 
tiform    governments,     472;     political 
parties,  473;   mayors,  474;   Columbian 
Exposition,    476;     Thompson     regime, 
483;  crime  wave  of  1928,  485;   expert 
fees,    489;    development   of   light   and 
power  companies,  493;  its  non-official 
leaders,  498;   influence  of  Press,  518; 
its   good   and   ill  repute,   519;    fire   of 
1871,  519;  architecture,  520;  parks  and 
boulevards,    524;    spiritual   and   moral 
history,    526;    public    debt,    528;    re- 
view  of  transportation  problem,   532; 
manufacturing  city,  550 
Chicago  Bar  Association,  III,  270 
Chicago  Board   of  Trade,   II,   392 
Chicago  Federation  of  Labor,  II,  429 
Chicago  fire,  of  1871,  II,  75,  519 
Chicago  Heights  Star,  V,  381 
Chicago  Law   Institute,  V,  444 
Chicago  newspapers,  attitude  of,  II,  298 
Chicago  plan,  II,  521 
Chicago  Plan  Commission,  II,  522 
Chicago  portage,  I,  32 
Chicago  River,  mission  at,  I,  39;  II,  525 
Chicago  State  Hospital,  II,  360 
Chicago  street        railway        companies, 
record   of,   II,   195 


XIV 


INDEX 


Chicago  Teachers'  Federation,  II,  499 

Chicago  Temple,  II,  507 

Chicago  Times,  II,  50 

Chicago  traction  companies,  II,  419 

Chicago  Transit  Acts,  II,  530 

Chicago  Tribune,     II,     304,     404;     suit 

against  Thompson,   486 
Chicago  Union    Traction    Company,    II, 

223 
Child  labor,  II,  136 
Childers,  Raymond  F.,  V,  221 
Chippewa  Indians,  I,  11 
Chones,  Isaac  B.,  IV,  194 
Chones,  William,  IV,  194 
Christy,  William  H.,  I,  459 
Chritton,  George  A.,  Ill,  322 
Church,  in  politics,  I,  318 
Church,  Friend  L.,  IV,  209 
Church,  Thomas,  V,  11 
Church,  William  T.,  IV,  200 
Churches,  pioneer,  I,  253 
Churchill,  George,  I,  274 
Cirese,  Helen  M.,  IV,  364 
Civil  service  laws,  II,  179,  293;  state,  361 
Civil   War,    secession   of    South,   II,   22; 

arbitrary  arrests,  50;  draft  act,  53 
Clark,  David  W.,  IV,  344 
Clark,  Fannie  M.,  Ill,  372 
Clark,  George  Rogers,  expedition  of  1778, 

I,   115,  116,  117;  after  conquest,  134; 

campaign  of  1780,  137,  142,  143;  expe- 
dition of  1787,  I,  148,  238 
Clark,  John  S.,  Ill,  496 
Clark,  Lincoln  R.,  Ill,  318 
Clark,  Roy,  III,  345 
Clark,  William,  I,  222 
Clarke,  Philip  R.,  V,  468 
Clarke,  Robert,  V,  436 
Clarke,  William  F.,  Ill,  397 
Clarkson,  E.  Belle,  IV,  332 
Clarkson,  H.  S.,  IV,  332 
Clausen,  Morton,  III,  107 
Clavin,  Alva  M.,  Ill,  129 
Clay,  Henry,  I,  291,  434 
Clay  products,  I,  8 
Clayton,  Bert  A.,  IV,  332 
Clayton,  E.  P.,  IV,  289 
Clayton,  J.  Paul,  V,  15 
Cleaveland,  Harry  H.,  V,  279 
Clear,  James  W.,  Ill,  469 
Cleland,  McKenzie,  II,  432 
Clemensen,  Peter  C.,  V,  441 
Clendenin,  George  M.,  V,  264 
Clendenin,  Henry  W.,  V,  262 
Cleveland,  Chester  E.,  II,  432 
Climate,  I,  5 

Clinch,  Duncan  L.,  V,  337 
Clinch,  Richard  F.,  V,  337 
Clinnin,  John  B.,  II,  402 
Coal,  beds,   I,   5;   early  mining,  8,   251; 

production,  II,  136;  mines,  legislation, 

336 
Coale,  John  W.,  IV,  106 
Coburn,  John  J.,  V,  201 
Cochran,  Oscar  F.,  V,  139 


Cochran,  William  G.,  V,  139 

Cochrane,  David  K.,  V,  76 

Code,  Julia  F.,  Ill,  450 

Coffey,  Daniel  D.,  Ill,  308 

Cohen,  Archie  H.,  Ill,  81 

Cohen,  Barney,  IV,  175 

Cohlmeyer,  Ada  A.,  V,  459 

Cohlmeyer,  Augustus  H.,  V,  459 

Coinage  of  silver,  free,  II,  111 

Cole,  Hermon  H.,  V,  173 

Cole,  Philip  E.,  Ill,  482 

Coleman,  John,  V,  308 

Coles,  Edward,  I,  262;  and  slavery,  266, 
267,  273,  282;  administration,  301;  V,  9 

Collins,  Dennis  J.,  IV,  129 

Collinsville,  II,  400 

Collinsville  Memorial  Library,  IV,  246 

Collinsville  Township  High  School,  IV, 
244 

Colony  for  Epileptics,  II,  351 

Columbian  Exposition,  II,  474,  519,  520 

Combs,  Cornelia  E.,  IV,  309 

Combs,  Thornton,  IV,  309 

Comiskey,  Charles  A.,  Ill,  501 

Comiskey,  J.  Louis,  III,  502 

Commerce,  in  1818,  I,  246 

Commonwealth  Edison  Company,  II,  497 

Compensation  Law  for  Accidental  In- 
juries, II,  332 

Compromise  of  1850,  I,  431,  439 

Compton,  Edward  F.,  Ill,  331 

Compton,  Levi,  IV,  38 

Compulsory  education  act,  II,  140 

Conard,  Solon  E.,  IV,  58 

Condon,  James  G.,  Ill,  35 

Conerton,  Edward  P.,  IV,  315 

Conklin,  Grace  A.,  V,  440 

Conklin,  Jay  B.,  V,  439 

Conklin,  Winfred  E.,  IV,  240 

Conkling,  James  C,  V,  134 

Connelly,  Bernard  D.,  V,  384 

Connery,  John  T.,  II,  306 

Connett,  Ada  P.,  IV,  264 

Connett,  James  E.,  IV,  263 

Connolly,  Philip  M.,  IV,  96 

Connor,  Charles  M.,  V,  347 

Connor,  Victor  O.,  V,  228 

Constitution  of  1818,  I,  239;  framers  of, 
241;  facsimile  of,  261;  defects  and  lim- 
itations, 408 

Constitution  of  1848,  I,  408;  II,  65,  80 

Constitution  of  1870,  II,  80;  framers  of, 
83,  424 

Constitutional  convention  of  1869,  I,  368; 
of  1862,  II,  82;  of  1920,  426 

Constitutional  convention  of  1862,  II,  82; 
of  1869,  I,  368;  of  1920,  II,  468 

Convention  system,  I,  311 

Cook,  Burton  C,  II,  29;  V,  25 

Cook,  Daniel  Pope,  I,  231,  274,  280,  294, 
297,  304;  IV,  49 

Cook,  Francis  M.,  V,  345 

Cook,  Ralph,  IV,  250 

Cook,  Rex  H.,  V,  270 

Cook,  Samantha,  V,  345 


INDEX 


xv 


Cook  County,  I,  311;  tax  muddle,  II,  415; 

in  Constitution  of  1922,  427;  in  1830, 

470;  disfranchised  in  Legislature,  546; 

apportionment,  555 
Cook  County  Courthouse,  Second,  II,  24 
Cooke,  George  A.,  Ill,  148 
Cooke,  John  D.,  IV,  351 
Cooley,  George  H.,  IV,  378 
Cooley,  Lyman  E.,  I,  373;  II,  458 
Coolidge,  Walter  F.,  V,  181 
Coolley,  Elmer  B.,  IV,  439 
Copley,  Ira  C,  IV,  337 
Copp,  Herbert  G.,  V,   199 
Copp,  Louisa,  V,  200 
"Copperheads,"  II,  51 
Corcoran,  Francis  V.,  V,  437 
Corporation  acts  in  1865,  II,  65 
Corporations,  II,  88 
Correll,  Charles  D.,  Ill,  103 
Correll,  Violet  J.,  Ill,  104 
Corrupt  practices  act,  II,  348 
Costabile,  Michael,  IV,  415 
Cottingham,  Mark  L.,  V,  151 
Couch,  Gilbert  S.,  V,  298 
Coughlin,  John,  II,  506 
Counties,  in  1818,  I,  233,  249;  II,  88 
County  Hospital,  Chicago,  II,  472 
County    officials,    under    Constitution    of 

1848,  II,  82 
Coureurs  de  bois,  I,  36,  46,  48 
Courier  Herald  Company,  IV,  253 
Courter,  Edward  H.,  Ill,  371 
Courter,  Lucy  K.,  Ill,  371 
Courts,  and  laws  of  Northwest  Territory, 

I,  173;  territorial,  181;  justice,  system 

abolished,  II,  179 
Coventry,  Sarah,  IV,  225 
Covey,  Frank  R.,  Ill,  307 
Cowdin,  Frederick  P.,  V,  117 
Cowdrey,  Elmer  E.,  V,  491 
Cozby,  Harry  G.,  IV,  349 
Craig,  Alfred  M.,  II,  83,  130 
Crain,  Berdie  F.,  V,  273 
Crane,  Richard  T.,  V,  5 
Crapo,  Charles  H.,  IV,  491 
Cratz,  Bert  A.,  Ill,  159 
Crawford,  Charles  C,  V,  414 
Crawford,  Harry  A.,  Ill,  426 
Crawford,  Sadie  M.,  IV,  222 
Crawford  County,  I,  233 
Creamer,  Ben  M.,  Ill,  273 
Cregier,  DeWitte  C,  II,  474 
Creole,  French,  I,  246 
Crerar,  John,  V,  31 
Cress,  Jeannette,  V,  241 
Crews,  Halbert  O.,  Ill,  229 
Crimes,  I,  244 

Criminal  code,  in  1827,  I,  300 
Criminal  statistics,  II,  526 
Croghan,  George,  I,  102 
Cromley,  Roy  D.,  Ill,  471 
Cronson,  Berthold  A.,  V,  76 
Crowder,  J.  R.  Stanley,  IV,  67 
Crowe,  Robert  E.,  II,  484,  485;  III,  237 
Crowley,  Joseph  B.,  V,  16 
Cruzat,  Roscoe  M.,  IV,  298 


Cudahy,  Edward  A.,  V,  42 

Cudahy,  Edward  A.,  Jr.,  V,  43 

Cudahy  family,  II,  549 

Culhane,  Andrew  B.,  Ill,  93 

Culhane,  Thomas  H.,  Ill,   104 

Cullin,  Faith  P.,  Ill,  205 

Cullom,  Shelby  M.,  II,  92;  as  governor, 

93,  94,  133,  366;  IV,  39 
Cultra,  A.  J.,  IV,  383 
Cultra,  Harry  B.,  IV,  382 
Culver,  Rollin  P.,  IV,  179 
Cummings,  Walter  J.,  Ill,  324 
Cummings,  William  C,  II,  183 
Cummins,  George  F.,  Ill,  348 
Cummins,  Oscar  O.,  V,  266 
Currency  reform,  in  1876,  II,  132 
Curry,  Elizabeth,  IV,  233 
Curtis,  Chester  E.,  IV,  164 
Curtis,  Edward  C,  II,  409;  III,  296 
Curtis,  Harry  K.,  IV,  266 
Curtis,  Hugh  E.,  IV,  395 
Curtis,  Vernon,  II,  409 
Curtis,  Wilbur  R.,  IV,  306 
Cussen,  Joseph  F.,  Ill,  485 
Cuthbertson,  Andrew  S.,  Ill,  299 
Cutler,  Henry  E.,  V,  187 
Cutler,  Manassa,  I,  157 
Cutting,  Charles  S.,  II,  426;  III,  20 
Czarnecki,  Anthony,  II,  57 

Dadant,  C.  P.,  V,  240 

Dady,  Ralph  J.,  Ill,  458 

Dahlberg,  Gotthard  A.,  Ill,  209 

Dahn,  Herman,  IV,  351 

Dailey,  Oscar  S.,  Ill,  335 

Dalbey,  Everett  L.,  IV,  462 

Dale,  Alonzo  S.,  IV,  357 

Daley,  Edward  A.,  Jr.,  IV,  247 

Daley,   Edward  A.,   Sr.,   IV,  246 

Dallas  City  Enterprise,  III,  353 

Dalrymple,  Roy  M.,  V,  233 

Dames,  Gerald  S.,  Ill,  390 

Darche,  Harrison  A.,  V,  374 

Darrow,   Clarence   S.,   II,   143,   192,   266, 

278,  292,  427,  432,  464,  476,  504;  III, 

40 
Dauberman,  Clarence  L.,  IV,  392 
Dauberman,  George  T.,  IV,  398 
Dauberman,  John  W.,  IV,  416 
Davenport,  Oliver   F.,   Ill,   249 
David,  Lawrence,  IV,  281 
Davidson,  Charles  E.,  Ill,  332 
Davidson,  Henry  B.,  V,  121 
Davis,  Abel,  II,  426,  517 
Davis,  Anna  L.,  Ill,  327 
Davis,  Charles  G.,  IV,  321 
Davis,  Cyrus  M.,  IV,  290 
Davis,  David,  I,  411;  II,  12,  124;  IV,  42 
Davis,  Emil  C,  V,  424 
Davis,  Jefferson,  I,  342 
Davis,  Levi,  IV,  47 
Davis,  Nathan  S.,  Ill,  302 
Davis,  Nathan  S.  Ill,  III,  303 
Davis,  Philip  R.,  V,  65 
Davis,  Ralph  E.,  IV,  169 
Davis,  R.  E.,  Ill,  467 


XVI 


INDEX 


Davis,  Thomas  B.,  IV,  3 

Davison,  Charles,  V,  289 

Dawes,  Charles  G.,  II,  402,  511;  III,  11 

Dawes,  Henry  M.,  V,  187 

Dawes,  Rufus  C,  II,  426;  III,  19 

Dawes,  William  R.,  II,  513;  III,  21 

Dawson,  John,  I,  357 

Day,  Leslie  D.,  IV,  311 

Day,  Owen  L.,  Ill,  360 

Day,  Stephen  A.,  V,  435 

Day,  Walter  A.,  IV,  311 

Dean,  John,  V,  75 

Debs,  Eugene,  II,  148;  injunction  against, 
150 

Debts,  repudiation  of,  I,  387 

Declaration  of  Independence,  I,  108 

Deere,  John,  V,  31 

Defrees,  Donald,  III,  277 

Defrees,  Joseph  H.,  Ill,  276 

De  La  Salle,  Sieur,  I,  26 

De  La  Salle  institute,  IV,  281 

De  Laval,  Bishop,  I,  23 

Dell  'Era,  Joseph  L.,  V,  369 

De  Luca,  Alphonse,  V,  447 

Dement,  John,  I,  411;  II,  83;  III,  505 

DeMoro,  Alfred  P.,  V,  426 

Democratic  convention  of  1856,  I,  463 

Democratic  convention,  of  1896,  II,  160 

Democratic  National  Convention  of  1876, 
II,  133;  of  3896,  161 

Democratic  party  (see  also  Politics),  I, 
311;  and  aliens,  383;  in  1859,  516;  con- 
ventions of  1860,  II,  14;  in  Civil  war, 
48;  in  1864,  63;  1872-92,  113;  in  1868, 
120;  farmers'  movement,  129;  in  Chi- 
cago, 477 

Democratic  platform  of  1905,  II,  256 

Democrats,  Anti-Nebraska,  I,  459 

Deneen,  Charles  S.,  I,  374;  elected  Gov- 
ernor, II,  176,  177,  191,  308,  422,  478, 
479,  485;  V,  456 

Denkmann,  Anna  C,  IV,  6 

Denkmann,  Frederick  C,  IV,  6 

Denkmann,  Frederick  C.  A.,  IV,  5 

Dennison,  Franklin  A.,  II,  402 

Dent,  Louis  L.,  Ill,  61 

Denton,  Helen  G.,  Ill,  346 

Denton,  R.  D.,  Ill,  117 

Department  of  Agriculture,  II,  402 

Department  of  Factory  Inspection,  II, 
335 

Department  of  Finance,  II,  402 

Department  of  Labor,  II,  402 

Department  of  Mines,  II,  402 

Department  of  Public  Health,  II,  402 

Department  of  Public  Welfare,  II,  402 

Department  of  Public  Works  and  Build- 
ings, II,  402 

Department  of  Registration  and  Educa- 
tion, II,  402 

Department  of  Trade  and  Commerce,  II, 
402 

DePaul  University,  IV,  228 

De  Rosa,  Rocco,  V,  241 

Derr,  Charles  E.,  Ill,  426 


Desplaines  River,  I,  2 

de  Tissandier,  Leon,  III,  80 

Deuell,  Howard  L.,  Ill,  241 

Dever,  William  E.,  mayor,  II,  463,  490, 
545 

Dever  Traction  Ordinance  of  1925,  II, 
463 

DeVera,  Isidoro  L.  P.,  IV,  78 

De  Villard,  Jean  P.,  V,  390 

de  Villiers,  Neyon,  I,  101 

Devine,  Edward  P.,  V,  99 

Devine,  Miles  J.,  V,  65 

Dewey,  George  F.,  Ill,  293 

DeYoung,  Frederick  R.,  II,  426 

Dickinson,  William  F.,  IV,  280 

Dickson,  Frank  S.,  II,  362,  389,  396;  III, 
51 

Diel,  Homer  F.,  Ill,  291 

Dienst,  R.  Carl,  IV,  487 

Dieterich,  William  H.,  Ill,  4 

Diffenderfer,  Ralph  E.,  V,  388 

Dignan,  John  F.,  Ill,  116 

Dignan,  Mary,  III,  117 

Dillman,  Howard  B.,  V,  286 

Dillon,  Owen   O.,  V,   180 

Dimick,  Fred  G.,  Ill,  226 

Dixon,  I,  329 

Dixon,  Arthur,  II,  520;  III,  25 

Dixon,  George  W.,  Ill,  26 

Dixon,  Louis  M.,  V,  108 

Dixon,  Robert,  I,  219 

Dixon,  Winfield  S.,  V,  324 

Doak,  John  W.,  IV,  54 

Doak,  Nelle  M.,  IV,  54 

Dobbs,  Thomas  W.,  Ill,  185 

Doberstein,  Stanislaus  M.,  Ill,  473 

Docks  and  terminal  facilities,  II,  179 

Dodd,  Walter  F.,  Ill,  53 

Dodge,  John,  tyrant  of  Kaskaskia,  I,  146 

Dolder,  Fred  D.,  IV,  111 

Dolder,  Helena  U.,  IV,  111 

Doman,  Louis  A.,  V,  453 

Dombrowski,  Edward  F.,  IV,  427 

Donavan,  Robert  J.,  IV,  90 

Dondanville,  Martin  S.,  Ill,  210 

Donley,  Walter  W.,  Jr.,  Ill,  249 

Donovan,  John  H.,  V,  51 

Donovan,  Raymond,  III,  443 

Donovan,  Thomas  P.,  IV,  476 

Doty,  Elmer,  V,  359 

Dougherty,  Thomas  S.,  IV,  76 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  early  career,  I. 
354,  359,  385,  415,  420;  as  senator, 
421,  431;  spokesman  of  the  West, 
434;  political  career  of,  435;  framer 
of  Territorial  bills,  438;  Kansas - 
Nebraska  bill,  440;  breaks  with 
Democratic  party,  446;  on  Lecompton 
Constitution,.  450;  campaign  of  1858, 
465;  Bloomington  speech,  476;  early 
life,  489,  494;  birthplace  of,  500; 
elected  senator  in  1859,  515;  in  1858, 
II,  5;  and  custom  of  candidates  not 
making  campaign  speeches,  19;  against 
secession,  29;  death  of,  33 

Dowdall,  Ray  L.,  IV,  265 


INDEX 


xvi  1 


Downing,  Earl  E.,  Ill,  225 

Doyle,  Michael,  III,  456 

Doyle,  William  A.,  IV,  210 

Draft,  in  Civil  War,  II,  53 

Drainage  Canal,  II,  552 

Drake,  Tracy  C,  III,  21 

Drallmeier,  W.  H.,  IV,  253 

Dred  Scott  decision,  I,  470 

Drexler,  Mrs.  Louis,  IV,  262 

Drzewiecki,  John,  IV,  449 

DuBois,  Jesse  K.,  II,  12,  78 

Duer,  William,  I,  158 

Duffy,  Hugh  J.,  V,  421 

Dugan,  Richard  D.,  V,  179 

Dugger,  Jesse  W.,  V,  120 

Dumoulin,  Jean,  I,  186 

Duncan,  Joseph,  I,  294,  299,  342;  gov- 
ernor, 344,  348;  IV,  481 

Duncan,  Robert  C,  V,  423 

Dunham,  Robert  J.,  IV,  495 

Dunn,  Charles,  I,  366 

Dunn,  Frank  K.,  IV,  328 

Dunne,  Edmund   M.,   Ill,   284 

Dunne,  Edward  F.,  candidate  for  mayor, 
I,  265;  elected  mayor,  II,  188;  Tulley's 
letter,  247;  reply  to,  255;  elected 
mayor,  266;  plans  for  traction  settle- 
ment, 268;  misrepresentation  of,  274; 
Werno  letter,  278;  candidate  for  sec- 
ond term  as  mayor,  280;  veto  of  trac- 
tion settlement  ordinances,  281;  de- 
feated in  1907,  295;  candidate  for 
governor,  308;  and  family,  at  time 
of  inauguration  as  governor,  310; 
and  Woodrow  Wilson,  on  campaign 
tour,  313;  candidate  for  second  term 
as  governor,  368;  relations  with 
legislature,  371,  432;  views  on  traction 
settlement,  539;  V,  492 

Dunne,  Peter  Finley,  II,  130 

Dupo  Community  High   School,   IV,   242 

Duquesne,  Governor,  I,  89 

Durso,  Michael  R.,  V,  351 

Dutton,  George  E.,  IV,  15 

Dutton,  Harry  A.  R.,  IV,  56 

Dutton,  Jane  W.,  IV,  16 

Dvorak,  Frank,  III,  431 

Dyer,  Arthur  E.,  V,  457 

Dyroff,  Louis  J.,  Ill,  283 

Eagleton,  Leander  O.,  Ill,  73 

Earlville    Community   High   School,    III, 

153 
East  Peoria  Community  High  School,  V, 

75 
East  Peoria  Public  Schools,  III,  184 
East  St.  Louis  High  School,  IV,  245 
East  St.  Louis  Public  Library,  IV,  249 
Easter,  Irving  H.,  Ill,  292 
Eastern  Illinois  State  Normal  School,  II, 

360 
Eastman,  Sam  G.,  Ill,  102 
Easton,  Edward,  IV,  473 
Easton  Community  High  School,  IV,  96 
Eaton,  Clyde  D.,  IV,  87 
Eberly,  Wade  L.,  IV,  264 


Echols,  Mrs.  Webster,  IV,  246 

Eckert,  Robert  P.,  Ill,  115 

Eckert,  Walter  H.,  IV,  435 

Eckhardt,  B.  A.,  I,  373 

Eddy,  Henry,  I,  275,  342 

Eden,  John  R.,  II,  70;  V,  24 

Edgar,  John,  I,  148,  176,  185,  198;  IV,  7 

Edgar,  Louis  L.,  V,  420 

Edler,  George,  III,  105 

Edmondson,  Edward  E.,  V,  309 

Education,  I,  237;  in  frontier  State,  252, 

318;  compulsory,  II,  109,  358 
Edwards,  Arthur,  III,  500 
Edwards,  Claire  C,  V,  413 
Edwards,  Cyrus,  IV,  491 
Edwards,    Ninian,    Territorial    governor, 

I,  197,  223,  232,  257,  265;  political  ca- 
reer, 292,  299;  administration,  302, 
357;  IV,  43 

Edwards,  Richard,  III,  487 

Edwards  County,  I,  233 

Edwardsville,  I,  255 

Edwardsville  Bank,  I,  296 

Edwardsville    Free    Public   Library,    IV, 

223 
Edwardsville  Schools,  IV,  221 
Eekhoff,  Andrew  J.,  V,  287 
Efficiency  and  Economy  Commission,  II, 

337 
Eggleston,  Edgar  A.,  V,  81 
Egolf,  John  F.,  IV,  457 
Ehrler,  John,  III,  136 
Eighteenth  amendment,  II,  504,  526 
"Eight-hour"  day,  II,  99,  104,  136 
Eilers,  Gabriel,  IV,  411 
Eisenbacher,  George,  IV,  275 
Eisenmayer,  Herman  A.,  V,  44 
Ekman,  Carl  J.,  V,  417 
Eldred,  Charles  D.,  Ill,  373 
Election,  of  1804,  I,  186;  of  1818,  295;  of 

1824,  297;  of  1826,  299;  of  1830,  305; 

of   1834,   344;   of   1840,   355;   of   1854, 

462;  of  1856,  463;  of  1860,  II,  21;  of 

1862,  35,  47;  of  1864,  64;  of  1872,  78; 

of  1876,  93;  of  1888,  106;  of  1890,  111; 

of   1867,   119;   of  1872,   126;    of   1873, 

130;    of   1890,    138;    of   1892,    139;    of 

1930,    175;    mayoralty    in    1905,    266; 

of   1907,   288;    primary,   in   1912,   314; 

of    1912,    316;    of   1916,    368,    380;    of 

1920,  404;  of  1928,  530 
Election  laws,  reform  in,  II,  109 
Elections,   popular,   I,   410;   primary,   II, 

178;  cost  of,  556 
Elective  franchise,  II,  84 
Electric   light   and   power,   development, 

II,  493 

Electric  light  rates,  II,  291 
Elevation,  above  sea  level,  I,  3 
Elgin  Academy,  III,  412 
Elgin-Courier-News  Publishing  Company, 

V,  376 
Elimination  of  corrupt  lobby,  II,  340 
Elkin,  W.  F.,  I,  357 
Elkins,  Homer  J.,  IV,  317 
Ellis  &   Ellis,   V,   203 


XV111 


INDEX 


Ellis,  Ira  W.,  V,  202 

Ellis,  John  W.,  V,  57 

Elwood,  Erwin  P.,  V,  74 

Emancipation  Proclamation,  II,  35 

Emerson,  Frank  N.,  Ill,  81 

Emerson,  Ralph,  V,  8 

Emery  Whisler  Post  No.  607,  American 
Legion,  V,  257 

Emigh,  Dwight  K.,  V,  404 

Emmerson,  Louis  L.,  II,  485;  as  gov- 
ernor, 530,  531,  547;  III,  18 

Emmit,  John,  I,  268 

Employees'  compensation  act,  II,  332 

Employers'  liability,  II,  136 

Enabling  act,  I,  237 

England,  Lewis  A.,  IV,  88 

English  colonist,  character  of,  I,  85 

English,  immigrants,  I,  250 

Engstrand,  Juanita,  III,  76 

Epstein,  Benjamin  P.,  V,  103 

Erdmann,  Arthur  G.,  V,  492 

Erickson,  Erick  T.,  V,  297 

Ericsson,  John  E.,  IV,  89 

Essington,  Arthur  V.,  Ill,  78 

Essington,  Thurlow  G.,  IV,  21 

Etherton,  Lewis  E.,  V,  196 

Ettelson,  Samuel,  II,  484,  491,  496,  510 

Etter,  Samuel  M.,  II,  90,  131 

Evans,  Emmet  A.,  V,  405 

Evans,  Evan,  V,  337 

Evans,  Frank  N.,  V,  106 

Evans,  Michael  P.,  V,  404 

Evans,  Woodford  W.,  Ill,  389 

Everett,  Samuel  J.  T.,  V,  86 

Everhart,  Arthur  M.,  IV,  461 

Eversull,  Frank  L.,  IV,  245 

Ewers,  Joseph  D.,  Ill,  410 

Ewing,  Clinton  L.,  IV,  158 

Ewing,  T.  N.,  II,  378 

Ewing,  William  L.  D.,  lieutenant-gov- 
ernor, I,  315,  342;  governor,  345;  III, 
497 

Executive  Mansion,  Springfield,  I,  460 

Factory  inspection,  II,  136,  140 

Fager,  Emma  C,  IV,  90 

Faherty,  Michael  J.,  II,  486 

Fairbank,  Nathaniel  K.,  V,  14 

Fairhall,  Joseph,  Jr.,  IV,  464 

Falder,  Everett  L.,  Ill,  120 

Faletti,  Anthony  L.,  Ill,  437 

Faletti,  Michael  J.,  Ill,  137 

Faltz,  Charles,  IV,  329 

Fanyo,  Archie  H.,  IV,  430 

Fardy,  James  F.,  IV,  487 

Farmer,  Allen  R.,  Ill,  181 

Farmer,  William  M.,  Ill,  413 

Farmers,  and  tariff,  II,  106 

Farmers'  Alliance,  II,  111,  136 

Farmers'  movement,  II,  130,  134 

Farmers'  Mutual  Benefit  Association,  II, 

111 
Farming,  by  French,  I,  49,  251 
Farnsworth,  John  F.,  V,  12 
Farnsworth,  Ward,  V,  64 
Farrar,  Eugene  H.,  Ill,  281 


Farrell,  Clayton  S.,  Ill,  372 

Farris,  George  K.,  Ill,  414 

Farwell,  Charles  B.,  II,  111 

Farwell,  John  V.,  V,  19 

Farwell,  John  V.,  Jr.,  II,  522 

Farwell  family,  II,  550 

Faulkin,  Fredreka,  III,  222 

Faulkner,  Charles  J.,  Jr.,  IV,  9 

Faulkner,  George  E.,  IV,  384 

Fay,  Herbert  W.,  V,  475 

Federal  Building,  Chicago,  II,  488 

Federal  power,  broadening  of,  I,  284 

Fedou,  R.  Eaton,  V,  376 

Feehan,  Patrick  A.,  IV,  492 

Fekete,  Thomas  L.,  V,  177 

Fell,  Jesse  W.,  II,  11 

Felt,  Anna  E.,  Ill,  130 

Fenwick,  Herbert  F.,  Ill,  389 

Fergus,  John  B.,  II,  546 

Ferguson,  Charles  W.,  Ill,  77 

Ferguson,  Fred  D.,  Ill,  235 

Ferrara,  Vincent  E.,  IV,  198 

Ferris,  Henry  L.,  V,  371 

Festin,  Carl,  IV,  150 

Ficklin,  Joseph  C,  IV,  119 

Ficklin,  Orlando  B.,  Ill,  496 

Fidelity  Life  Association,  IV,  108 

Field,  A.  P.,  I,  380 

Field,  Eugene,  V,  24 

Field,  Marshall,  II,  68,  498,  520;  V,  18 

Field  family,  II,  549 

Fifer,  Joseph  W.,  as  Governor,  II,  106, 

107,  426;  III,  456 
Fine  Arts  Building,  World's  Columbian 

Exposition,  II,  190 
Finn,  Walter  L.,  V,  300 
Finney,  May  B.,  Ill,  70 
Fiore,  Joseph  M.,  V,  63 
Fire  department,  Chicago,  II,  291 
Fire  of  1871,  II,  519 
First,  Warren  R.,  Ill,  333 
First  log  courthouse,  Quincy,  I,  350 
First  schoolhouse  in  Champaign,  I,  426 
Fischer,  Oscar  H.,  V,  175 
Fiscus,  Albert  T.,  IV,  466 
Fish,  J.  F.,  Ill,  166 
Fisher,  A.  M.,  IV,  433 
Fisher,  George,  I,  187,  227;  IV,  40 
Fisher,  Harry  M.,  Ill,  499 
Fisher,  Walter  L.,  II,  278 
Fish  and  Game  Department,  II,  339 
Fishing  industry,  II,  340 
Fishwick,  Harry,  IV,  177 
Fitch,  William  E.,  Ill,  185 
FitzGerald,  Bert  L.,  IV,  452 
Fitzgerald,  Edwin  W.,  Ill,  246 
Fitzpatrick,  John,  II,  505 
Fitzsimmons,  Frank  T.,  II,  432 
FitzSimmons,  Michael  J.,  V,  236 
Flanagan,  John  J.,  V,  356 
Fleming,  Joseph  B.,  V,  55 
Fletcher,  Job,  I,  357 
Fletcher,  Robert  V.,  V,  17 
Flick,  Pius  P.,  IV,  192 
Flint,  Oliver,  V,  403 
Flint,  Theodore,  V,  378 


INDEX 


xix 


Floods,  in  1913,  II,  363 
Flora,  Ray  W.,  V,  340 
Flower,  George,  I,  250 
Fluorspar,  I,  9 
•Flynn,  Michael  J.,  V,  320 
Fogg,  Raymond  W.,  IV,  455 
Foley,  John  D.,  IV,  431 
Foley,  Julia,  V,  86 
Foley,  Maurice  V.,  V,  315 
Foley,  William  M.,  Ill,  269 
Folsom,  Richard  S.,  V,  50 
Foltz,  Ira  W.,  IV,  224 
Food  administration,   United   States,   II, 

393 
Food  conservation,  World  War,  II,  393 
Foot  and  mouth  disease,  II,  364 
Foote,  Peter,  II,  543 
Ford,  Charles  F.,  IV,  221 
Ford,  Frank  L.,  IV,  219 
Ford,  Thomas.  I,  342,  385;  as  governor, 

386,  388 
Fordyce,  Alexander  W.,  IV,  423 
Foreman,  Ferris,  I,  405 
Foreman,  Milton  J.,  II,  402,  517;  III,  23 
Forest  preserves,  II,  525 
Forestry  in  Illinois,  II,  445,  457 
Forests,  I,  3,  9 
Forman,  Leslie   H.,   Ill,   259 
Forquer,  George,  I,  232,  275;  III,  30 
Fort,  Greenbury  L.,  Ill,  491 
Fort  Armstrong,  I,  248,  328,  340 
Fort  de  Chartres,  I,  41,  94;  occupied  by 

British,  99;  powder  magazine  of,  101, 

113 
Fort  Clark,  I,  147,  222,  248 
Fort  Creve-Couer,  I,  65;  destroyed,  66,  75 
Fort  Dearborn,   I,  213;   replica  of,  215; 

massacre,  216,  248,  339;  II,  470 
Fort  Duquesne,  I,  90 
Fort  Edwards,  I,  222,  248 
Fort  LaMotte,  I,  212 
Fort  Massac,  I,  123,  212 
Fort  Russell,  I,  212,  220 
Fort  Sackville,  capture  of,  I,  130 
Fort  St.  Louis,  I,  75;  siege  of,  78;  after 

La  Salle's  death,  82 
Fort  Sheridan,  II,  75,  391 
Fort,  in  War  of  1812,  I,  212 
Foss,  George  E.,  II,  180,  401;  IV,  254 
Foss,  Josephus  F.,  Ill,  428 
Foster,  John  Q.,  Ill,  107 
Foster,  Roy  B.,  Ill,  169 
Foutch,  William  W.,  Ill,  441 
Fowler,  Henry,  III,  402 
Fraga,  Sam,  IV,  212 
Franchise  extension  ordinances,  defeated, 

II,  277 
Franchises,  street  railway,  II,  199 
Franciscan  Fathers,  III,  284 
Frank,  Jacob,  II,  363;  IV,  373 
Frankel,  Harry  A.,  Ill,  85 
Franklin  County,  I,  233 
Frazier,  Donald  P.,  IV,  470 
Freeh,  William,  V,  176 
Frederickson,  Frederick  O.,  V,  465 
Free  employment  offices,  II,  333 


Free  silver  movement,  II,  154 

Free  speech,  right  of,  II,  400 

Freedom  of  press,  II,  193 

Freeland,  John  E.,  IV,  421 

Freeman,  Thomas  O.,  IV,  59 

Freeport  Public  Library,  IV,  289 

Freeport  Public  Schools,  III,  95 

Freeto,  George  L.,  IV,  144 

Fremont,  John  C,  II,  44,  61 

French,  Augustus  C,  administration  of, 

I,  412,413;  V,  23 
French,  Daniel  C,  II,  521 
French  and  Indian  War,  I,  90 
French  colonist,  character  of,  I,  85 
French  discoveries,  I,  21 
French  habitants  in  Illinois,  I,  47:  after 

1765,  103,  245,  253 
French  land  claims,  I,  199 
French  law,  I,  143 
French  missionaries,  I,  36 
Frick,  Grant  M.,  IV,  325 
Friedman,  Herbert  J.,  II,  432 
Friel,  Thomas  F.,  Ill,  457 
Friend,  Hugo,  II,  486 
Frontenac,  Count  de,  I,  43 
Frontier  line,  in  1812,  I,  214 
Frye,  Fred  S.,  Ill,  220 
Fucik,  E.  James,  III,  218 
Fucik,  Frank,  III,  218 
Fuel  Administration,  World  War,  II,  395 
Fugitive  slave  law,  I,  439 
Fullenwider,  H.   Ernest,  IV,  173 
Fullenwider,  W.  Truman,  IV,  145 
Fuller,  Melville  W.,  II,  115;  V,  23 
Fuller,  Miles  A.,  II,  83 
Fullerton,  Leslie  F.,  V,  57 
Fullerton,  Ray  A.,  IV,  59 
Fulton,  William  J.,  IV,  221 
Funk,  Clarence  S.,  II,  183 
Funk,  Frank  H.,  II,  316,  329 
Funk,  Isaac,  V,  20 
Funk,  Joseph  M.,  V,  142 
Fuqua,  Okel  S.,  IV,  433 
Fur-bearing  animals,  I,  3 
Fur   trade,   I,   87,    181;    decline   of,   209, 

242 
Fur  traders,  I,  42 
Fur  trading  privileges,  I,  45 
Furch,  Frank,  IV,  489 
Furrer,  Earl  V.,  IV,  92 
Fyffe,  Colvin  C.  H.,  II,  432 
Fyke,  Edgar  E.,  II,  426 

Gabbrants,  John,  III,  222 

Gabriel,  James  Z.,  IV,  209 

Gaffner,   Charles  P.,  Ill,  461 

Gage,  Albert  E.,  V,  135 

Gage,  Lyman  J.,  II,  520;  V,  32 

Gahagan,  Henry  J.,  V,  428 

Gahlman,  F.,  Ill,  239 

Gail  Borden  Public  Library,  Elgin,  III, 

403 
Gaines,  Duane,  IV,  341 
Galena,  I,  253,  311;  site  of  Old  Palisade 

Fort,    371;    Grant's    home    before    the 

War,  II,  36 


XX 


INDEX 


Galena  levee,  1844,  I,  396 

Galena  Public  Library,  III,  130 

Galesburg  Public  Library,  IV,  403 

Galesburg  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation, IV,  152 

Galvin,  Lester  J.,  IV,  408 

Gamble,  George  W.,  Ill,  198 

Game  and  Fish  Conservation  Depart- 
ment,  II,   340 

Gano,  Henry  A.,  V,  101 

Gard,  Jed,  V,  362 

Gardner,  Roy  F.,  IV,  94 

Garland,  James  M.,  Ill,  255 

Garrett,  John  E.,  IV,  352 

Garrison,  Don,  V,  103 

Garrity,  J.  A.,  Ill,  355 

Garvey,  Harold  T.,  V,  242 

Garwood,  Frank  S.,  IV,  444 

Gary,  Elbert  H.,  I,  272;  V,  4 

Gary,  Joseph  E.,  in  anarchist  trial,  II, 
102,  513;  V,  4 

Gas  and  electricity  rates,  II,  179 

Gas  companies,  consolidation  of,  II,  191 

Gas  rates,  II,  290 

Gash,  Abram  D.,  II,  331;  IV,  29 

Gasoline  tax,  II,  414 

Gaston,  Percy  D.,  Ill,  139 

Gault,  Robert  H.,  V,  474 

Gauschon,  William,  II,  426 

Gauss,  Louis  J.,  Ill,  69 

Gaw,  George  D.,  V,  21 

Gaylord,  Aymer  F.,  V,  187 

Geier,  George  C,  V,  372 

Gemmill,  William  N.,  Ill,  24 

Geneseo  Township  Public  Library,  IV, 
398 

Geography,  I,  1 

Geology,  I,  4 

German,  Thomas  P.,  V,  321 

Germans,  colonists,  I,  250;  and  Kansas- 
Nebraska  bill,  444;  in  Civil  War,  II, 
40;  population,  in  1910,  386 

Gettys,  Arthur  L.,  IV,  257 

Getz,  Jacob  H.,  Ill,  193 

Gibault,  Father,  I,  124,  125;  memorial  of, 
177 

Giberson,  Oria  O.,  IV,  271 

Gilbert,  Allan  T.,  Ill,  314 

Gilbert,  Fred,  III,  155 

Gilbert,  Miles  S.,  Ill,  305 

Gilbreath,  Frank  A.,  Ill,  378 

Gill,  Ralph  W.,  IV,  99 

Gillan,  Walter  H.,  Ill,  201 

Gillespie,  George  B.,  V,  249 

Gillespie,  Joseph,  III,  32 

Gillham,  Daniel  B.,  Ill,  482 

Gillham,  John  F.,  IV,  215 

Gillis,  Hudson  B.,  Ill,  286 

Gilman,  Harold  B.,  IV,  141 

Gilmore,  P.,  I,  373 

Glacial  age,  I,  6 

Glackin,  Anna  F.,  Ill,  32 

Glackin,  Edward  J.,  Ill,  31 

Gladhill,  Mary  E.,  V,  201 

Gleason,  William,  V,  85 

Glenn,  Lawrence  A.,  V,  201 


Glenn,  Otis  F.,  Ill,  5 

Glessner,  John  J.,  IV,  46 

Goff,  Edwin  C,  IV,  359 

Gold,  George,  III,  500 

Gold  standard,  II,  155 

Goldenstein,  Tonyes  J.,  V,  252 

Golding,  William  L.,  Ill,  164 

Good,  John  L.,  V,  267 

Goodell,  William  S.,  V,  469 

Goodknecht,  Albert,  V,  411 

Goodman,  George  A.,  V,  77 

Goodspeed,  Charles  T.  B.,  Ill,  143 

Goodwin,  Clarence  N.,  Ill,  62 

Gordon,  Harold  H.,  V,  218 

Gordon,  James  W.,  Ill,  83 

Gore,  David,  II,  90 

Gore,  Ed  B.,  V,  209 

Gorham,  Sidney  S.,  Ill,  61 

Governor,  office  of,  I,  240;  time  of  elec- 
tion, 414 

Graham,  Andrew  J.,  II,  506 

Graham,  Paul  J.,  IV,  192 

Graham,  Ray,  IV,  105 

Graham,  Richey  V.,  V,  236 

Graham,  William  H.,  V,  385 

Grammar,  John,  I,  268 

Grand  Chain  Schools,  III,  345 

Granger  movement,  II,  111,  126;  organ- 
ization  of,   127,   136 

Granite  City  High  School,  V,  181 

Granite  City  Public  Library,  IV,  228 

Grant,  Elizabeth  R.,  V,  98 

Grant,  U.  S.,  in  1861,  II,  34;  home  before 
the  War,  Galena,  36,  38,  41,  42,  45; 
Lieutenant-General,  61,  67;  martial 
law  at  Chicago,  75,  119,  135 

Graves,  Mrs.  L.  D.,  Ill,  429 

Graves,  William   C,   III,   491 

Gravier,  Father,  I,  39 

Gray,  Frank  S.,  Ill,  348 

Gray,  Howard  E.,  Ill,  450 

Gray,  Maud,  V,  341 

Great  Lakes  Naval  Training  Station,  II, 
391 

Great  Lakes,  navies   on,  I,  225 

Green,  Dwight  H.,  V,  383 

Green,  Dwight  P.,  V,  261 

Green,  Henry  L,  II,  426 

Green,  William   H.,   IV,   451 

Green  Valley  Community  High  School, 
III,  185 

Greenback  party,  II,  90,  131,  136 

Greenbacks,  II,  154 

Greene,  William  B.,  V,  375 

Greenview  High    School,   IV,   92 

Greenville  College,  Bond  County,  V,  248 

Greenville  treaty,   I,   199 

Greenwood,  Charles  H.,  IV,  350 

Gregg,  Howard,  III,  199 

Gregory,  Clifford   V.,   Ill,   49 

Gregory.  Stephen  S.,  II,  476;  IV,  401 

Gregory,  Tappan,  IV,  401 

Gresham,  Walter  Q.,  IV,  49 

Grieve,  Ivan  J.,  V,  170 

Griffin,  Emmett  P.,  Ill,  265 

Griffith,  Cora  B.,  Ill,   127 


INDEX 


xxi 


Griffith.  William   M.,   Ill,   127 
Grimm,  William,  III,  200 
Grinnell,  Julius  S.,  II,  517 
Grochowski,  Leon,  IV,  189 
Grossberg,  Jacob  G.,  IV,  65 
Grosscup,  Peter  S.,  II,  226 
Grossmann,  Edgar  C.,  V,  158 
Groves,  John  L.,  IV,  414 
Groves,  William  H.,   Ill,  466 
Gruey,  Constant  I.,  V,  367 
Gruey  Memorial  Library,  V,  368 
Grundy,  Harry  B.,  IV,  316 
Gualano,  Alberto  N.,  Ill,  237 
Guerin,  John,  II,  293 
Guilliams,  John  R.,  V,   197 
Guinn,  Francis  M.,  IV,  294 
Gulick,  Bernard  M.,  IV,  112 
Gulick,  Frank  0.,  IV,  111 
Gullett,  Wesley  C.,  V,  85 
Gullion,  C.  H.,  IV,  238 
Gumbart,  L.  F.,  Ill,  122 
Gund,  Joseph  A.,  Ill,  96 
Gunning,  Thomas  P.,  IV,  459 
Gunter,  George  T.,  II,  378 
Gustin,  Robert  V.,  Ill,  391 
Gutknecht,  John,  IV,  16 

Haag,  Albert  R.,  Ill,  66 

Haag,  George  A.,  Ill,  66 

Haag    Brothers    Co.,    Ill,    66 

Haagenson,  Helmer  T.,  IV,  77 

Haas,  Joseph,  II,  478 

Hackman,  Edward  G.,  IV,  287 

Hackman,  Elizabeth,  IV,  287 

Hagan,  Henry  M„  IV,  333 

Hagebush,  Oscar  J.,  V,  206 

Hager,  George  C,  IV,  262 

Hahn,  John  F.,  V,  457 

Hale,  Raleigh,  IV,  181 

Haley,  Margaret,   II,  499 

Hall,  Albert  L.,  V,  402 

Hall,  Alonzo  J.,  Ill,  353 

Hall,  Charles  E„  V,  257 

Hall,  Edred  B.,  V,  224 

Hall,  Hal  O.,  Jr.,  IV,  92 

Hall,  James  W.,  IV,  198 

Hall,  Thomas  W.,  V,  298 

Hall,  Wendell  W.,  Ill,  484 

Hall  of    Science,    Century    of    Progress 

Exposition,  II,  553 
Hallett,  Hiram  D.,  V,  447 
Hallgren,  Carl  A.,  V,  357 
Hallstrom,  John  H.,  V,  111 
Hamann,  Fred,  V,  148 
Hamblin,  Henry  W.,  IV,  334 
Hamill,  Charles  H.,  II,  426 
Hamilton,  John  M.,  lieutenant-governor, 

II,  95,  96;  III,  490 
Hamilton,  John  R.,  IV,  65 
Hamilton,  Richard  J.,  V,  491 
Hamilton,  William   S.,   V,   32 
Hamilton  Public  Library,  V,  241 
Hammer,  A.  Howard,  III,  171 
Hammer,  George  T.,  V,  461 
Hamrick,  Daniel  F.,  V,  341 
Hancock,  John  L.,  IV,  11 


Hancock,  Joseph  L.,  IV,  12 

Hancock  County,  I,  400 

Handlin,  John  H.,  Ill,  256 

Handy,  Moses  P.,  Ill,  488 

Hanecy,  Elbridge,  II,   191 

Haney,  Eugene  T.,  Ill,  294 

Hanks,  John  I.,  Ill,  254 

Hanks,  Martha  G.,  IV,  122 

Hanks,  Samuel  J.,  IV,  122 

Hanlon,  Samuel  F.,  V,  449 

Hanna,  Reuben  S.,  Ill,  251 

Hannah,  Harry  I.,  Ill,  392 

Hansen,  Nicholas,  I,  269 

Hanson,  Harry  C,  III,  402 

Hanson,  Martin  W.,  IV,  79 

Hardesty,  Paul  L.,  V,  256 

Hardin,  John,  V,  24 

Harding,  George  F.,  II,  486,  492 

Harding,  John  P.,  IV,   16 

Hardinger,  Ralph  W.,  Ill,  219 

Hardisty,  Guy,  III,   126 

Harlan,  John  M.,  II,  221,  256,  298,  502 

Harlan  report,  II,  221 

Harmel,  Estella  L.,  IV,  243 

Harmon,  Charles   F.,   Ill,   264 

Harms,  Frank  R.,  Ill,  106 

Harnit,  Abbie  D.,  V,  407 

Harnit,  Samuel  L.,  V,  407 

Harper,  Alfred  J.,  Ill,  380 

Harper,  Francis  A.,  V,  451 

Harper,  William  R.,  IV,  48 

Harrington,  Cornelius  J.,  IV,  69 

Harris,  Clifford  M.,  V,  170 

Harris,  Evan,  III,  471 

Harris,  Thomas  L.,  I,  461 

Harrison,  Carter  H.,  elder,  II,  101,  203; 
message  of  1883,  204,  474;  assassina- 
tion of,  476 

Harrison,  Carter  H.,  younger,  II,  179, 
221,  280,  480,  543,  545;  III,  48 

Harrison,  Edith  O.,  Ill,  48 

Harrison,  Guy  R.,  IV,  113 

Harrison,  John  Q.,  V,  137 

Harrison,  William  Henry,  I,  184 

Harsin,  John  J.,  I,  405 

Hart,  Cora  O.,  Ill,  447 

Hart,  Dwight,  V,  452 

Hart,  Eugene  E.,  Ill,  447 

Hart,  Lester  L.,  V,  143 

Hart,  Ezra,  V,  272 

Hart,  Green  B.,  V,  272 

Hart,  Thomas  B.,  Ill,  462 

Hartley,  Arthur  J.,  Ill,  72 

Hartman,  Stanley,  III,  449 

Hartman,  William,  V,  174 

Hartsell,  William  W.,  IV,  300 

Harvey,  Beauchamp   A.,   Ill,   349 

Harvey,  George  C,  III,  350 

Harvey,  John  P.,  IV,  468 

Harwood,  Clarence  H.,  IV,  63 

Hastings,  J.  Barnard,  IV,  307 

Hastings,  Samuel  M.,  IV,  56 

Hatcher,  Carrie  E.  B.,  Ill,  183 

Hatcher,  Charles  C,  III,  182 

Hattan,  Albert  H.,  Ill,  415 

Haughton,  Edward  J.,  Ill,  213 


XX11 


INDEX 


Havana,  II,  552 
Havill,  Rene,  III,  345 
Hawkins,  John  J.,  Ill,  470 
Hawkins,  William  B.,  Ill,  464 
Hawthorn,  Paul  D.,  IV,  91 
Hay,  John,  I,  187;  IV,  48 
Hay,  Logan,  III,  256 
Hay,  Marion  L.,  Ill,  341 
Hay,  Milton,  II,  83 
Hayes,  Lambert  K.,  V,  433 
Hayes,  S.  Snowden,  II,  83 
Haymarket  riot,  II,  97,  101,  140,  519 
Hayner  Library,  IV,  214 
Hays,  Frank,  IV,  114 
Hays,  George   R.,  V,   164 
Head,  Franklin  H.,  Ill,  487 
Headley,  Stephen  L,   IV,  55 
Headrick,  Samuel  P.,  V,  126 
Heald,  Captain,  I,  216 
Heald,  Jesse  M.,  Ill,  468 
Healey,  Frank   F.,   V,   314 
Healy,  John  J.,  II,  304,  478 
Heard,  Oscar  E.,  IV,  13 
Hearst,  William  R,,  II,  191 
Heath,  Lawrence  S.,  V,  294 
Heath,  Monroe,  II,  474 
Heckel,  Irven  J.,  IV,   140 
Heckel,  Roy  A.,  Ill,  416 
Heckman,  George  A.,  V,  395 
Hefferan,  William  H.,  V,  300 
Hegeler,  Edward  C.,  V,  450 
Hegeler,  Julius  W.,  V,  450 
Heilig,  George  N.,  IV,  321 
Heintz,  Edward  L.,  IV,  229 
Heinz,  Nicholas  G.,  Ill,  395 
Heirich,  Bruneau  E.,  Ill,  145 
Heiser,  Daniel  C.,  IV,  288 
Heiser,  Elton  R.,  IV,  288 
Hemenway,  William  F.,  IV,  184 
Hemmer,  Nicholas,  V,  161 
Hendee,  Lew  A.,  IV,  428 
Henderson,  Euell  B.,  IV,  298 
Henderson,  James  P.,  V,  311 
Henderson,  Thomas  J.,  Ill,  487 
Hendricks,  Raymond  B.,  V,  169 
Henkel,  Leo  P.,  IV,  57 
Hennepin,  Louis,  I,  65 
Henry,  Patrick,    first    governor    of    Illi- 
nois, I,  134 
Henry,  William  S.,  V,  220 
Hensley,  William  S.,  V,  137 
Hereford,  Arthur  L„  IV,  98 
Herman,  John  E.,  V,  213 
Herndon,  Archer  G.,  I,  357 
Herndon,  William  H.,  II,  12;  V,  23 
Herr,  Vincent  A.,  Ill,  260 
Herrick,  G.  Wirt,  III,  383 
Herrick,  Lott  R.,  V,  363 
Herron,  Simon  A.,  Ill,  125 
Herten,  Arthur  D.,  IV,  143 
Hertz,  Benjamin  F.,  Ill,  355 
Hertz,  Henry,   II,   478 
Hertz,  John  D.,  V,  43 
Hetherington,  B.  William,  IV,  8 
Hetler,  Harry,  IV,  469 
Hetman,  Wencel  F.,  IV,  493 


Hextell,  Martin  N.,  IV,  408 
Heydecker,  Coral   T.,   IV,   409 
Heywood,  Oliver  C,  V,  63 
Hicks,  Girth  N.,  V,  389 
Hieronymus,  Robert  E.,  Ill,  13 
Higdon,  W.  D.,  V,  365 
Highland  High  School,  IV,  222 
Highways   (see  Roads),  II,  316 
Higinbotham,  Harlow    N.,    II,    520;    IV, 

44 
Hildrup,  Jesse  S.,  II,  83 
Hileman,  Philetus  E.,  IV,  311 
Hill,  Louis  D.,  V,  304 
Hilliev,  Albert  W.,  V,  113 
Hillmer,  Henry  A.,  Ill,  115 
Hillsboro  Public  Library,  III,  330 
Hinchliff,  Ralph,  V,  9 
Hinchliff,  William  E.,  V,  6 
Hines,  Edward,  II,  183 
Hinkle,  Charles  M.,  Ill,  121 
Hinton,  Ralph   T.,  V,   374 
Hinze,  William  J.,  IV,  381 
Hirsch,  Emil   G.,  II,   517 
Hirschi,  Christian  G.,  Ill,  377 
Hitchcock,  Charles,  II,  83 
Hitchings,  Robert    C,   V,    338 
Hoadley,  Clara,  IV,  163 
Hobart,  Karl  E.,  V,  330 
Hoechster,  Harold  J.,  IV,  325 
Hoeltmann,  Louis  T.,  Ill,  269 
Hoffman,  Francis,  I,  444 
Hoffmeier,  Fred  L.,  V,  212 
Hoffstadt,  John   P.,   IV,   445 
Hogendobler,  Ernest  C,  V,  215 
Hogland,  Frank  G.,  IV,  175 
Holabird,  William,  II,  520 
Holabird  and  Roche,  II,  521 
Holahan,  Jerome  T.,  IV,  154 
Holden,  Charles  R.,  II,  192;   IV,  272 
Hole,  Berton  W.,  V,  122 
Holladay,  William  T.,  IV,  470 
Hollinger,  Albert  L.,  IV,  223 
Holly,  William  H.,  II,  432 
Holmes,  Charles  M.,  Ill,  483 
Holmes,  Grover  E.,  Ill,  421 
Holmes,  Maurice  F.,  Ill,  222 
Holmes,  Nellie  F.,   V,   71 
Holmes,  Zealy  M.,  V,  71 
Holten,  Julius  A.,  V,  166 
Holy  Family  Parish,  IV,  489 
Holz,  Charles,  III,  369 
Home  Insurance  Building,  II,  520 
Home  rule  for  Chicago,  II,  322 
Honey,  Victor  H.,  V,  183 
Hood,  James  J.,  Ill,  240 
Hooper,  Frank  L.,  V,  422 
Hoover,  Walter  K.,  IV,  73 
Hopkins,  Albert  J.,  II,  180,  480,  482 
Hopkins,  John   P.,   II,   159,   478 
Horner,  Henry,  III,  3 
"Horse  and  Dummy  Act,"  II,  202 
Horwitz,  Sandor,   III,   272 
Hostettler,  Tony  C,  V,  230 
Hotz,  Joseph,  IV,  216 
Hough,  Charles  F.,  V,  327 
House  of  Correction,  Chicago,  II,  472 


INDEX 


xxm 


Houser,  Edwin  J.,  Ill,  252 
Houston,  Mrs.   D.   E.,   V,  81 
Hovey,  Charles   E.,   II,  39;   III,  498 
Howard,  Benjamin,  I,  222 
Howell,  Albert  S.,  IV,  459 
Howell,  Fred   W.,   IV,   209 
Howk,  Lewis,  III,   140 
Hoyne,  Thomas,  II,  471;  IV,  39 
Hruby,  Allan  J.,  IV,  400 
Hubbard,  Adolphus   F.,   IV,   48 
Hubbard,  Gordon,  I,  343 
Hubbard,  Warren,  IV,  179 
Hubeny,  Maximilian  J.,  V,   313 
Huber,  Albert,  III,  213 
Huff,  Thomas  D.,  V,  13 
Huggett,  William   W.,   IV,   35 
Hughart,  Samuel   A.,   IV,   64 
Hughes,  Caroline   B.,   IV,   288 
Hughes,  Pingree  C,  V,  440 
Hughes,  Ruth  P.,  IV,  289 
Hughitt,  Marvin,  V,  27 
Hulett,  E.  Lee,  IV,  81 
Hulick,  Charles  H.,  Ill,  157 
Hull,  Morton  D.,  II,  426 
Hull,  William,  I,  214 
Hull,  William  E.,  Ill,  28 
Hullinger,  Will,  IV,  163 
Hulse,  Minard  E.,  V,  481 
Humphrey  bills,  II,  219 
Hunter,  David,  Jr.,  Ill,  448 
Hunziker,  Otto  F.,  Ill,  242 
Hurd,  Harry  B.,  Ill,  241 
Hurlburt,  Stephen  A.,  Ill,  507 
Hurley,  Edward  N.,  Ill,  32 
Hurst,  William  C,  IV,  167 
Hurt,  Emil  B.,  Ill,  438 
Huschle,  Rudolph  H.,   IV,   361 
Huskinson,  George,  V,  354 
Huskinson,  William,  V,  352 
Hussey,  Jerry  E.,  V,  451 
Hutchings,  John   A.,    Ill,   228 
Hutchins,  Robert  M.,  Ill,  17 
Hutchins,  Harry,  III,  411 
Hutchinson,  Luzetta,  III,  397 
Hutton,  John  W.,  V,  228 
Huxley,  Henry  M.,  Ill,  234 
Hyland,  James,  IV,  422 
Hylton,  Walker  L.,  V,   143 
Hynes,  William  J.,  I,  385 

Ickes,  Harold  L.,  II,  432,  508,  543;  V,  35 

Ida  Public  Library,  IV,  288 

Igoe,  Michael  L.,  II,  347,  460;  IV,  22 

lies,  Elijah,  V,  33 

Illinois,  French  habitants,  I,  47;  in  strug- 
gle  between   the   British   and   French, 
85;  results  of  French  and  Indian  War, 
92;     ceded     to     England,     94;     under 
the     British     flag,     96;     in     Revolu- 
tionary  War,    107;    Quebec    Act,    109 
code  of  laws,  111;  first  governor,  134 
Spanish     expedition     of     1781,      139 
Treaty    of    1783,    140;    anarchy    after 
1763,    143;    Virginia    sovereignty    and 
law,    150;    struggle    over    land    titles, 
166;  under  Northwest  Territorial  gov- 


ernment, 173;  in  1790,  176;  territorial 
judges,  181;  in  1798,  182;  in  1800, 
186;  rise  of  slavery  issue,  188;  terri- 
tory created,  194;  boundaries,  197; 
laws  of  Territory,  198;  Territory  of 
second  class,  202,  227;  in  war  of 
1812,  212;  northern  boundary, 
233;  in  1812,  map,  234;  consti- 
tution of  1818,  239;  in  1818,  242;  in 
1818,  map,  247;  racial  origins,  250; 
fight  for  slavery,  259;  a  free  State, 
277;  slavery  in,  278;  development  after 
1818,  283;  State  politics  in  first  dec- 
ade, 290;  and  National  politics,  303; 
economic  conditions  in  1830,  307;  Dun- 
can administration,  344;  capital  at 
Springfield,  354;  internal  improve- 
ments in  1837,  357;  Carlin  adminis- 
tration, 375;  Supreme  Court  and  poli- 
tics, 380;  Ford  administration,  386; 
in  War  with  Mexico,  402;  Constitu- 
tion of  1848,  408;  under  Governor 
French,  412;  in  politics  of  the  Nation, 
415;  slavery  issue  in  1847,  421;  1853- 
57,  454;  Bissell  administration,  456; 
organization  of  Republican  party,  459; 
Lincoln's  nomination  for  president,  II, 
5;  military  record,  38;  in  Civil  War, 
27;  women  in  Civil  War,  40;  cam- 
paign of  1864,  58;  Oglesby  adminis- 
tration, 65;  Palmer's  administration, 
70;  Constitution  of  1870,  80;  map 
showing  organization  and  population 
of  counties,  86;  Cullom  administra- 
tion, 93;  Oglesby's  third  administra- 
tion, 97;  Fifer's  administration,  106; 
Third  parties,  113;  an  industrial  state, 
136;  strikes  of  1894,  148;  in  Free  Sil- 
ver movement,  154;  Tanner  adminis- 
tration, 170;  in  administration  of  Gov. 
Yates  the  younger,  173;  Governor 
Deneen's  administration,  176;  political 
conditions  in  1912,  308;  legislation, 
1913-17,  318;  roads  in  1913,  331;  mo- 
bilization for  Mexican  border,  363; 
Lowden  administration,  380;  in  the 
World  War,  380;  financial  contribu- 
tions to  World  War,  401;  departmental 
reorganization,  402;  Small  administra- 
tion, 404;  Constitution  of  1922,  424; 
development  of  public  utilities,  493; 
Emmerson's  administration,  530;  de- 
mand for  reapportionment,  546;  prog- 
ress and  prospects,  549 

Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal,  I,  318,  360; 
history  of,  362;  in  Constitution  of 
1870,  370,  386;  II,  83,  455,  470 

Illinois  and  Wabash  Land  Company,  I, 
158 

Illinois  bar,  eminent  members,  II,  81 

Illinois  Bottom,  I,  47 

Illinois  Central  Railroad,  land  grant,  I, 
414;  II,  87 

Illinois  College,  II,  537 

Illinois  Commerce  Commission,  II,  419; 
496 


XXIV 


INDEX 


Illinois  Country,  without  law,  I,  103;  in 
closing-  years  of  Revolution,  138;  land 
titles  in,  152 

Illinois  County,  Virginia,  created,  I,  127, 
134,  150 

Illinois  Free  Employment  offices,  II,  334 

Illinois  Historical  Library,  IV,  94 

Illinois  Indians,  I,  17;  work  of  mission- 
aries, 41;  in  French  regime,  52 

Illinois  missions,  I,  37 

Illinois  monuments,  II,  49 

Illinois  National  Guard,  II,  362,  389 

Illinois  Naval  Battalion,  World  War,  II, 
389 

Illinois  Odd  Fellows  Orphans  Home,  V, 
84 

Illinois  River,  I,  1;  Marquette  and  Joliet 
on,  32;  view  from  Prospect  Heights, 
Peoria,  II,  198;  in  waterway  scheme, 
458 

Illinois  State  Farmers  Association,  II, 
128 

Illinois  State  Journal,  IV,  337 

Illinois  State  Normal  University,  II,  360 

Illinois  State  School  for  the  Blind,  II, 
360 

Illinois  State  Labor  Association,  II,  108 

Illinois  State  Register,  V,  262 

Illinois  State  Soldiers'  and  Sailors' 
Home,  II,  360 

Illinois  tribe,  Iroquois  massacres,  I,  69 

Illinois  Valley  expeditions,  War  of  1812, 
I,  221 

Illinois  waterway,  I,  374;  II,  455,  554 

Illinois  Waterway  Commission,  II,  461 

Immigration,  I,  250 

Impeachment,  I,  240 

Income  tax,  II,  111,  442 

Independent  Order  Odd  Fellows  Orphans 
Home,  V,  84 

Indian  allies,  at  Starved  Rock,  I,  77 

Indian  lands,  cession  of,  I,  159 

Indian  mounds,  I,  18 

Indian  titles,  I,  171 

Indian  treaties,  after  War  of  1812,  I,  201 

Indian  villages,  I,  325 

Indian  warfare,  in  War  of  Revolution,  I, 
118 

Indiana  Territory  created,  I,  185 

Indians  of  Illinois  (see  also  tribal 
names),  I,  10;  at  home  and  at  war, 
15;  religious  ceremonies,  16;  evils  of 
liquor  trade,  45 ;  organized  by  La  Salle, 
71;  under  British  regime,  96;  title  to 
land,  166;  rights  to  land,  179;  land 
cessions,  198;  proposed  buffer  state, 
224,  248;  last  stand,  320 

Industrial  welfare  laws,  II,  336 

Ingersoll,  Robert  G.,  II,  141;  V,  18 

Initiative  and  referendum,  II,  342 

Insane,  care  of,  II,  179 

Insull,  Samuel,  II,  391,  421,  493,  509, 
545;  IV,  478 

Insull  corporations,  II,  494 

Internal  improvement  craze,  I,  375 


International  Association  of  Lions  Clubs, 

V,  387 
Intoxicating  liquor  (see  liquor),  I,  254 
Irish  settlers,   I,   250;   in  Civil  War,  II, 

40 
Iroquois  invasion,  I,  69 
Iroquois  tribe,  I,  12,  14 
Irwin,  Harry  C,  III,  460 
Isaacs,  Alfred  A.,  V,  291 
Isaacs,  Thomas  R.,  IV,  83 
Isley,  Albert  E.,  V,  301 
Isley,  William  E.,  V,  302 

Jack,  Charles  E.,  V,  49 

Jackpot  government,  II,  309 

"Jack  Pot  Legislature,"  II,  187 

Jackson,  Andrew,  character  of,  I,  304 

Jackson,  Charles  A.,  V,  192 

Jackson,  James  R.,  Sr.,  V.  255 

Jackson,  Lewis  L.,  V,  205 

Jackson,  William  A.,  IV,  368 

Jackson  County,  I,  233 

Jacksonian  Democracy,  I,  305 

Jacksonville  State  Hospital,  II,  360 

Jacobs,  Robert  H.,  Ill,  323 

Jacobsen,  Lars  P.,  IV,  274 

Jacobson,  Don  L.,  Ill,  487 

James,  William  R.,  Ill,  453 

Janda,  Joseph  J.,  IV,  277 

Jarecki,  Edmund   K.,  II,  517;   III,  25 

Jarman,  Lewis  A.,  II,  426 

Jarroh,  Nicholas,  I,  186 

Jarvin,  John  H.,  V,  261 

Jasper,  Frank  A.,  V,  149 

Jay  Treaty,  I,  180 

Jayne,  Gershon,  I,  366 

Jeffers,  James  E.,  Ill,  249 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  I,  156 

Jenkins,  Alexander  M.,  IV,  483 

Jenning,  G.   A.,   Ill,  365 

Jennings,  Everett,  V,  245 

Jennings,  George  T.,  V,  434 

Jennings,  Grattan  G.,  IV,  338 

Jennings,  John  W.,  Jr.,  V.  274 

Jenny,  W.  L.  B.,  II,  520 

Jensen,  Anker  C,  III,  396 

Jesuit  missionaries,  I,  22 

Jesuit  priests,  in  Illinois  country,  I,  39 

Jesuits,  and  New  France,  I,  44 

Jeter,  Charles  E.,  V,  398 

Jimison,  William  H.,  V,  360 

Jirka,  Harold  W.,  IV,  335 

Joannides,  Minas,  IV,  271 

Job,  Joseph  A.,  IV,  411 

Johns,  Charles  E.,  V,  258 

Johns,  Robert  E.,  V,  165 

Johnson,  Abraham,  III,  172 

Johnson,  Bert  R.,  V,  211 

Johnson,  George  W.,  IV,  14 

Johnson,  Gustaf  J.,  IV,  471 

Johnson,  Jean  T.,  V,  211 

Johnson,  L.  Ross,  III,  194 

Johnson,  Robert  W.,  V,  104 

Johnson,  Roy  H.,  V,  84 

Johnson,  T.  Arthur,  V,  115 

Johnson,  William  A.,  V,  401 


INDEX 


XXV 


Johnson,  William  R.,  IV,  17 

Johnston,  Albert  Sidney,  I,  342 

Johnston,  Joseph  E.,  I,  342 

Johnston,  Thomas  R.,  V,  370 

Joliet,  Louis,  I,  16,  26,  27,  28 

Joliet  penitentiary,  II,  356 

Jonas,  Edgar  A.,  II,  432 

Jones,  Alfred  H.,  V,  290 

Jones,  George  H.,  Ill,  58 

Jones,  Harry  P.,  V,  111 

Jones,  James  B.,  V,  212 

Jones,  John  Rice,  I,  148,  191,  193;  IV,  33 

Jones,  J.  Edward,  V,  257 

Jones,  Melvin,  V,  387 

Jones,  Michael,  I,  232 

Jones,  Norman  L.,  II,  404 

Jones,  Obadiah,  I,  197 

Jones,  Paul  F.,  IV,  417 

Jones,  Vernie  A.,  V,  235 

Jones,  Walter  C,  II,  312 

Jones,  William  C,  IV,  376 

Jones,  W.  W.,  II,  108 

Joppa  Community  High  School,  III,  400 

Jordan,  Myron,  II,  432 

Jorgensen,  Frederick   A.,   IV,   438 

Judd,  Norman  B.,  II,  12;  V,  20 

Judge,  Thomas  F.,  I,  372 

Judges,  selection  of,  after  1848,  I,  410 

Judiciary,  in  Chicago  and  Cook  County, 

I,  87;  Municipal  courts,  II,  179 
Juengel,  Oscar  H.,  V,  179 
Justice  courts,  system  abolished,  II,  179 

Kabella,  Edward  C,  III,  499 

Kaburick,  Edward  C,  V,  259 

Kalb,  Charles  E.,  V,  118 

Kankakee  Daily  Republican,  IV,  418 

Kane,  Elias  Kent,  I,  232,  272,  282,  294; 

V,  5 
Kankakee  Republican-News,  IV,  418 
Kankakee  River,  I,  2 
Kankakee  State  Hospital,  II,  360 
Kansas-Nebraska  Law,  I,  431 
Karnak  Community    High     School,    IV, 

307 
Karch,  Charles  A.,  IV,  318 
Karns,  John  M.,  IV,  293 
Karzas,  Andrew,  V,  467 
Kaskaskia,  I,  104,  108,  113;  captured  by 

General  Clark,  123,  143;  without  court 

of  law,  146;  lawlessness  in,  149;   181, 

182;  land  offices,  229,  253 
Kaskaskia  Indians,  I,  12,  18,  198 
Kaskaskia  Mission,  I,  39 
Kasper,  Frank  J.,  V,  470 
Kauffman,  Harlan  B.,  IV,  435 
Kavanagh,  Marcus  A.,  Ill,  27 
Kavanagh,  Maurice  F.,  V,  466 
Kay,  Wendell  P.,  IV,  437 
Keating,  Henry  E.,  Ill,  482 
Keehn,  Roy  D,  III,  87 
Keeler,  Fred  C,  III,  94 
Keeler,  Leonarde,  V,  479 
Kehoe,  Francis  B.,  IV,  233 
Keiser,  Frank  M.,  V,  265 
Kelker,  Rudolph  F.,  Jr.,  V,  275 


Keller,  Nicholas  M.,  Ill,  481 

Kelley,  Florence,  II,  140 

Kelley,  Robert  M.,  Ill,  401 

Kelley,  William  C,  IV,  150 

Kellogg   Grove   Monument,   Black   Hawk 

War,  I,  337 
Kelly,  Edward  A.,  IV,  22 
Kelly,  Edward  J.,  II,  458,  461;   III,  295 
Kelly,  Thomas,  I,  373 
Kemp,  George  W.,  V,  62 
Kendall,  A.  Fred,  V,  373 
Kenna,  Hinky  Dink,  II,  506 
Kennedy,  Archie  G.,  IV,  53 
Kennedy,  George  L.,  Ill,  143 
Kennedy,  Millard  B.,  Ill,  156 
Kent,  Laurence  E.,  IV,  157 
Kenworthy,  Samuel  R.,  Ill,  214 
Kentucky  settlements,   in    Revolutionary 

War,  I,  119 
Keokuk,  Chief,  I,  323 
Kern,  Fred.  J.,    (Foreword),  I,  305;   II, 

349,  432,  454;  III,  38 
Kern,  Jacob  J.,  II,  477,  478 
Kerner,  Otto,  IV,  286 
Kewanee  Boiler  Company,  IV,  236 
Kewanee  Public  Library,  IV,  233 
Kickapoo  Indians,  I,  11,  246 
Kilpatrick,  Harry  M.,  V,  53 
Kilpatrick,  S.  Elizabeth,  V,  54 
Kilpatrick,  Thomas  L.,  I,  412 
Kimbark,  John  R.,  Ill,  399 
Kinahan,  Simon  P.,  V,  125 
Kincaid,  John  T.,  IV,  68 
King,  Erman  A.,  Ill,  335 
King,  John  E.,  IV,  304 
King,  John  H.  (Allendale),  III,  372 
King,  John  H.  (Edinburg),  III,  459 
King,  Roy  L.,  Ill,  176 
Kinley,  David,  III,  40 
Kinney,  William,    I,   232,    273,   295,   311, 

316 
Kinsella,  William  J.,  V,  47 
Kinzie,  John,  I,  217 
Kiolbassa,  Peter,  II,  517 
Kirby,  James  J.,  IV,  268 
Kirkland,  Weymouth,  III,  318 
Klein,  William  P.,  V,  162 
Klenha,  Joseph  Z.,  V,  56 
Klimes,  Frank  E.,  Ill,  312 
Kline,  Edward  C,  IV,  164 
Kline,  Eugene  P.,  V,  162 
Klonowski,  Louis  J.,  Ill,  140 
Knapp,  Kemper  K.,  V,  205 
Knaus,  Vincent  L.,  Ill,  454 
Knight,  William  D.,  IV,  343 
Knights  of  Labor,  II,  111 
Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle,  II,  54 
Know  Nothing  party,  I,  462 
Know  Nothing  riots,  I,  483 
Koch,  Louis,  IV,  216 
Koeper,  John  J.,  IV,  258 
Koepke,  Charles  A.,  IV,  147 
Koerner,  Gustavus,  I,  444;  II,  12,  29,  59, 

78*  V    19 
Kohlbeck,  Valentine,  IV,  441 
Kohlsaat,  Christian  C,  III,  419 


XXVI 


INDEX 


Kohlsaat,  Edward  C,  III,  420 
Kohlsaat,  Herman  H.,  II,  182;  V,  432 
Rokenes,  Peter  G.,  IV,  195 
Koonce,  Ivan  E.,  V,  371 
Rosier,  Albert  H.,  IV,  472 
Rough,  Benjamin  J.,  V,  73 
Rrahl,  William  F.,  IV,  475 
Rral,  Joseph  S.,  IV,  207 
Rramer,  Dale  D.,  Ill,  427 
Rramer,  Verle  V.,  Ill,  352 
Rraus,  Adolf,  II,  192 
Rrause,  Harry  R.,  Ill,  233 
Rrebs,  Wilbur  E.,  V,  167 
Rreiling,  Christian  H.,  IV,  107 
Rreitner,  Eugene  W.,  IV,  363 
Rrempp,  John,  Jr.,  Ill,  231 
Rreshel,  Julius  J.,  IV,  223 
Rreuscher,  Philip  H.,  Ill,  492 
Rroehler,  Clarence  B.,  V,  347 
Rruse,  Robert  I.,  V,  473 
Ruechler,  Frederick  W.,  V,  234 

Labor,  convict,  II,  173 

Labor  agitation,  II,  106 

Labor  organizations,  II,  99 

Labor  party,  II,  108 

Labor  troubles,  II,  97;  in  1894,  148 

LaBuy,  Joseph  S.,  V,  227 

Lackey,  Edward  J.,  IV,  313 

Lackey,  George  W.,  IV,  291 

La  Clede,  Pierre,  I,  104 

Laflin,  Matthew,  IV,  43 

Lake,  Lewis  F.,  Ill,  311 

Lake  Chicago,  I,  6 

Lake  Michigan,     I,     1;     Illinois     River 

waterway,  35 
Lake  Peoria,  I,  11 
Lakes  to  Gulf  waterways,  I,  370;  II,  180, 

414,  455 
Lalumier,  Edward  L.,  V,  488 
Lamborn,  Josiah,  IV,  50 
Lamkin,  James  A.,  Ill,  343 
Lamont,  Robert  P.,  Ill,  18 
Land  cessions  by  Indians,  I,  203 
Land  office,  I,  199;  Raskaskia,  Shawnee- 

town,  229,  249 
Land  sales,  I,  198,  249 
Land  speculators,  I,  171 
Land  survey  plans,  I,  158;  170 
Land  titles,  I,  166,  178 
Lands,  surveys  and  titles,  I,  248;  saline, 

300;   squatter  and  preemption  rights, 

324 
Landis,  Renesaw  M.,  Ill,  504 
Landis,  Reed  G.,  IV,  56 
Landise,  Thomas  H.,  Ill,  141 
Landmesser,  Frank  H.,  V,  243 
Lane,  Josiah  B.,  IV,  63 
Langner,  Henry,  III,  320 
Lansden,  Halac,  IV,  147 
Lantry,  Thomas  B.,  Ill,  82 
LaPorte,  Charles  W.,  Ill,  75 
Larkin,  Daniel  H.,  Ill,  228 
Larson,  John  A.,  Ill,  486 
Larson,  Jonas  W.,  Ill,  187 


La  Salle,  Sieur  de,  I,  26;  career  of,  55, 
56;  grant  of  authority  over  New 
France  58,  59;  on  Illinois  River,  62,  64; 
on  Lower  Mississippi,  71,  76;  death  of, 
79;  monument  to,  81 

LaSalle,  II,  552  (City) 

LaSalle  County,  I,  311;  first  Catholic 
Church  in,  432 

Lasker,  Albert  D.,  Ill,  35 

Lathrop,  Bryan,  IV,  43 

Lathrop,  Julia  C,  V,  40 

Latimer,  Marion  M.,  V,  265 

Latter,  Cameron,  V,  453 

Lauder,  John  E.,  IV,  458 

Laughlin,  Edward  E.,  Ill,  114 

Lauher,  Paul  B.,  V,  10 

Law,  Daniel,  V,  320 

Law,  after  Clark's  conquest,  I,  150 

Law  department,  Chicago,  II,  292 

Lawler,  Joseph  B.,  Ill,  334 

Lawler,  Michael  R.,  II,  39 

Lawrence,  Charles  B.,  II,  128 

Lawrence,  Randal  L.,  Ill,  337 

Laws,  first  code  in  Northwest  Territory, 
I,  173;  private,  II,  82 

Lawson,  Victor  F.,  I,  373;  V,  28 

Lecompton  constitution,  I,  449 

Lee,  Charles  C,  IV,  259 

Lee,  Fred  A.,  Ill,  113 

Lee,  Otis  H.,  Ill,  135 

Lee,  Robert  H.,  Ill,  259 

Legge,  Alexander,  V,  33 

Legislative  corruption,  II,  65,  72 

Legislative  Reference  Bureau,  II,  338 

Legislature,  of  1812,  I,  227;  in  1836, 
355;  of  1865,  II,  65;  and  corrupt  lob- 
byist, 341;  special  session,  1928,  420; 
session  of  1930,  547 

Lehr,  William  V.,  V,  141 

Leighty,  Mack,  IV,  301 

Leiser,  William  H.,  IV,  78 

Leitch,  Olive  A.,  Ill,  230 

Leiter,  Levi  Z.,  IV,  44 

Lelivelt,  Joseph  J.,  Ill,  238 

Lenington,  Norman    G.,    Ill,    238 

Leonard,  Charles  L.,  Ill,  93 

Leonard,  James  G.,  IV,  127 

Lesch,  Roy,  IV,  375 

Lesemann,  Ralph  F.,  V,  153 

Lewe,  John  C,  III,  334 

Lewis,  Aquilla  C,  III,  434 

Lewis,  A.  Austin,  IV,  328 

Lewis,  Byron  R.,  Ill,  474 

Lewis,  C.  M.,  Ill,  474 

Lewis,  Hugo  S.,  Ill,  473 

Lewis,  James  Hamilton,  II,  266,  278, 
292;  elected  senator,  366,  395,  464,  503; 
III,  3 

Lewis  Institute,  V,  328 

L'Hote,  Eugene,  III,  357 

"Liberal  Republican"  party,  II,  78 

Liberal-Republican  revolt,  II,  122 

Liberty  bonds,  II,  391 

Libonati,  Elliodor  M.,  Ill,  64 

Libonati,  Roland  V.,  Ill,  63 


INDEX 


XXVll 


Licht,  Fred  W.,  Ill,  324 

Lieb,  Charles,  I,  468 

Ligman,  Thadeus  S.,  Ill,  438 

Lill,  Arlington  E.,  IV,  360 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  I,  342;  early  careers, 
354,  357;  facsimile  of  bill  in  handwrit- 
ing of,  403;  420;  as  a  Whig,  437;  let- 
ter, 462;  senatorial  candidate,  466; 
criticism  of  U.  S.  Supreme  Court,  470; 
Tremont  Hotel  speech,  472;  on  Su- 
preme Court  conspiracy,  478;  bio- 
graphies of,  481;  "lost  speech,"  484; 
aspirations  for  the  Presidency,  502;  re- 
sults of  joint  debates,  518;  frontis- 
piece nominated  and  elected  president, 
II,  5;  speeches  in  East,  9;  Cooper  In- 
stitute speech,  11;  facsimile  of  letter  to 
Yates,  31;  emancipation  of  slaves,  45; 
war  policy  criticised,  47;  reelected  in 
1864,  58 

Lincoln,  Nancy  Hanks,  grave  of,  I,  503 

Lincoln-Douglas,  campaign  of  1858,  I, 
468;  joint  debates,  479,  481;  at  Otta- 
wa, 493;  at  Freeport,  499;  at  Gales- 
burg,  514 

Lincoln  Evening  Courier,   IV,   253 

Lincoln  High  School,  East  St.  Louis,  V, 
168 

Lincoln  Home  at  Springfield,  II,  10 

Lincoln  Park,  Chicago,  II,  524 

Lincoln  Park  Board,  Chicago,  II,  472 

Lincoln  State  School,  II,  361 

Lincoln  telegram,  "You  are  Nominated," 
II,  20 

Lincoln  Tomb,   Springfield,  II,   121 

Linder,  Usher  F.,  V,  25 

Lindheimer,  Benjamin  F.,  V,  488 

Lindley,  Fleetwood  H.,  V,  307 

Lindley,  Cicero  J.,  II,  426 

Lindner,  F.  George,  III,  175 

Lindsay,  Edward  E.,  IV,  345 

Lindsey,  Albert,  III,  118 

Lingle,  Willis  E.,  V,  204      ■ 

Link,  Joseph  J.,  Ill,  262 

Linscott,  Charles  H.,  Ill,  85 

Lions  International,  V,  387 

Lippert,  Fred,  V,  173 

Lippincott,  Thomas,  I,  274 

Lipshulch,  George  U.,  V,  439 

Lipsky,  Harry  A.,  IV,  411 

Liquor,  intoxicating,  in  early  Illinois,  I, 
254 

Liquor  law,  of  1855,  I,  454 

Litchfield  Carnegie  Public  Library,  III, 
326 

Litsinger,  Edward   R.,  II,  490 

Little,  George  E.,  V,  280 

Little,  Richard  H.,  V,  333 

"Little  Bull  Law,"  I,  319 

Lloyd,  F.  E.  J.,  V,  29 

Locke,  George  D.,  IV,  488 

Lockie,  George  D.,  V,  112 

Lockport  Township  Public  Library,  IV, 
355 

Lockwood,  Samuel  D.,  I,  274,  411;  V,  14 

Loeffler,  William,  II,  295 


Lofgren,  Emil,  IV,  372 

Logan,  Frank  G.,  IV,  10 

Logan,  Dr.  John,  II,  39 

Logan,  John  A.,  I,  342;  II,  38;  Civil  War 
record,  39;  52;  home  in  Benton,  Frank- 
lin County,  55;  119;  V,  29 

Logan,  John  J.,  V,  90 

Logan,  Stephen  T.,  I,  411;  II,  29;  III, 
501 

Lohmann,  Martin  B.,  Ill,  172 

Londrigan,  Joseph  A.,  IV,  193 

Lonergan,  Joseph  M.,  Ill,  119 

Long,  John  W.,  V,  292 

"Long  Knives,"  I,  135 

Longcor,  Willard  H.,  IV,  429 

Lorenzen,  Anton  F.,  IV,  211 

Lorimer,  William,  elected  senator,  II, 
181;  investigation,  182,  478,  479;  III, 
36 

Louisiana  Purchase,  I,  193 

Love,  Guy  N.,  V,  364 

Love,  Mason,  V,  265 

Lovejoy,  Elijah  P.,  assassination  of,  I, 
351;  IV,  30 

Lovejoy,  Owen,  I,  409;  IV,  30 

Lovejoy  School,  St.  Clair  County,  V,  246 

Lovett,  Robert  M.,  II,  397 

Lowden,  Frank  O.,  II,  375;  administra- 
tion of,  380,  381;  candidate  for  presi- 
dent, 398;  III,  27 

Lowe,  Leo  H.,  IV,  160 

Lowe,  Walter  H.,  Ill,  310 

Loy,  Ealem  S.,  Ill,  197 

Loyda,  Fred  J.,  IV,  166 

Loyola  University,  Michael  Cudahy  Sci- 
ence Hall,  II,  248;  V,  486 

Lucas,  Peter  P.,  V,  449 

Lucey,  Patrick  J.,  Ill,  223 

Lucia,  M.,  IV,  355 

Lueder,  Arthur  C,  V,  480 

Luedke,  Bert  P.,  V,  130 

Luker,  George  H.,  Ill,  326 

Lunde,  Theodore,  II,  396 

Luster,  Max,  IV,  82 

Lustfield,  Joseph,  V,  58 

Lutz,  Cora  C,  III,  245 

Lutz,  John,  III,  245 

Lyerla,  Lois,  III,  330 

Lyford,  Will  H.,  Ill,  137 

Lyman,  J.  Frank,  III,  13 

Lyman,  William  H.,  Ill,  13 

Lyman  ordinance,  II,   223 

Lynch,  John  A.,  Ill,  340 

Lynch,  John  I.,  IV,  346 

Lynch,  William  J.,  IV,  76 

Lyon,  John  B.,  Ill,  317 

Lyon,  Vernon,  III,  183 

Lyons,  James   H.,   IV,   391 

Lytton,  George,  III,  313 

Lytton,  Henry  C,  IV,  18 

MacChesney,  Nathan  W.,  IV,  19 
Macomb  Public  Library,  III,  121 
MacDonald,  Robert  B.,  V,  72 
Mackey,  Albert  N.,  Ill,  95 
Mackey,  Ralph  A.,  Ill,  90 


XXV111 


INDEX 


Mackinaw   Township    High    School,    III, 

198 
MacLeish,  Andrew,  V,  43 
MacMonnies,  Frederick,  II,  521 
MacVeagh,  Franklin,  II,  520;  III,  16 
Madden,  Claude  P.,  V,  406 
Madding,  Jasper  D.,  IV,  284 
Madison  Public  Library,  IV,  222 
Madlener,  Albert  F.,  V,  320 
Magill,  Hugh  S.,  II,  421;  IV,  205 
Maguire,  Albert  E.,  Ill,  120 
Maguire,  Thomas  A.,  V,  97 
Maher,  Edward,  V,  445 
"Maine  law,"  I,  454,  483 
Major,  James  E.,  V,  397 
Malcor,  Gustave  C,  III,  416 
Malloy,  Charles  F.,  V,  316 
Malloy,  John  "Mique,"  IV,  403 
Maloney,  David  B.,  V,  76 
Malson,  Edward  J.,  V,  452 
Mamer,  Christopher,  II,  478 
Mandel  family,  II,  549 
Mangam,  Edward  M.,  IV,  378 
Mangum,  Ray  J.,  IV,  341 
Manierre,  George,  II,  475;  V,  28 
Mann,  Louis  L.,  Ill,  16 
Mann,  Oliver  D.,  Ill,  422 
Manny,  Walter  I.,  II,  338 
Manufacturing,  I,  252;  II,  108,  550 
Markham,  Charles  H.,  V,  425 
Markman,  Samuel  K.,  Ill,  334 
Marquard  Henry  F.,  Ill,  232 
Marquette,  Father  James,  I,  24,  26,  27, 

28;   at  Chicago,  32,  33;   death  of,  34, 

36;  and  Indian  Chief,  38 
Marshall,  John  R.,  V,  485 
Marshall,  Robert  B.,  Ill,  154 
Marshall,  Robert  F.,  V,  485 
Marshall,  Samuel  S.,  IV,  493 
Marshall,  William  H.,  IV,  446 
Marstiller,  Francis  M.,  Ill,  465 
Marston,  Leslie  R.,  V,  249 
Martin,  Alice,  III,  150 
Martin,  Charles  H.,  IV,  304 
Martin,  Mellen  C,  V,  237 
Martin,  Ralph  H.,  IV,  174 
Marysvale,  excitement  over  discovery  of 

copper  ore,  I,  437 
Mascoutah  Community  High  School,  IV, 

297 
Mason,  Edward  G.,  Ill,  499 
Mason,  Orris  W.,  Ill,  155 
Mason,  Parker  N.,  Ill,  156 
Mason,  William  E.,  II,  180,  395,  396 
Mason  City  Community  High  School,  IV, 

85 
Mason  City  Library,  IV,  86 
Masonic  Temple,  II,  521 
Massacre,  at  Fort  Dearborn,  I,  216 
Massman,  Frederick  H.,  V,  442 
Matheny,  W.  R.,  V,  60 
Mather,  Archie  J.,  IV,  232 
Mather,  Thomas,  I,  274 
Matter,  Michael,  IV,  222 
Matteson,  Joel  A.,  as  governor,  I,  454, 

455;   III,  502 


Mattheessen,  Rudolph  J.,  Ill,  178 

Matthews,  Stewart  B.,  V,  59 

Maxon,  Jesse  G.,  Ill,  91 

Maxwell,  Thomas  R.,  V,  132 

May,  Sheffie  R.,  IV,  129 

Mayer,  Levy,  II,  426 

Mayer,  Oscar  F.,  Ill,  330 

Mayhew,  John  A.,  V,  350 

Mayoralty  campaign  of  1903,  II,  225 

Mayoralty  campaign    of    1907,    Chicago, 

II,  306 
McAdams,  Mary  C,  III,  431 
McAllister,  William  K.,  II,  513 
McAndrews,  James,   V,   437 
McCahey,  James  B.,  V,  243 
McCauley,  William  R.,  IV,  296 
McClain,  Burnie,   III,   147 
McCarty,  Chevalier,  I,   92,   100 
McClernand,  John  A.,  I,  342,  380,  459; 

II,  39;  V,  21 
McCloskey,  Robert  E.,  IV,  294 
McClure,  Donald  C,  IV,  220 
McConachie,  John,  V,  198 
McConihe  Family,  III,  163 
McConnell,  Murray,   I,  342 
McConnell,  Samuel  P.,  II,  143,  147 
McCord,  Thomas    C,    IV,    241 
McCormick,  Andrew,  I,  357 
McCormick,  Cyrus  H.,  I,  448;  V,  36 
McCormick,  James  I.,  IV,  274 
McCormick,  John  V.,  V,  64 
McCormick,  Medill,  II,  395,  401 
McCormick,  Robert  P.,  Ill,  288 
McCormick,  Ruth  Hanna,  II,  175,  504 
McCormick,  R.   R.,  V,   424 
McCormick  Family,  II,  549 
McCormick  Reaper  Company,  II,  100 
McCorvie,  Archie  E.,  IV,  146 
McCoy,  John  H.,  Ill,  448 
McCrary,  William  M.,  Ill,  465 
McCreery,  W.  Harold,  IV,  109 
McCulloch,  Catharine  W.,  V,  34 
McDermaid,  William  H.,  Ill,  111 
McDowell,  Mary  E.,  IV,  23 
McElvain,  Robert  J.,  Ill,  387 
McEwen,  Harry  W.,  V,  185 
McGah,  William  J.,  V,  99 
McGarry,  John  A.,  V,   215 
McGaughey,  John  E.,  IV,  296 
McGinnis,  Edwin,   V,   354 
McGinnis,  John  P.,  Jr.,  IV,  312 
McGlynn,  Dan,  IV,  279 
McGlynn,  Daniel  F.,  IV,  280 
McGlynn,  Joseph  B.,  IV,  279 
McGlynn,  Patterson  S.,  IV,  178 
McGlynn,  Robert  E.,  IV,  280 
McGlynn  &  McGlynn,    IV,    279 
McGrath,  Arthur   R.,   Ill,   321 
McGrath,  James  W.,  V,  417 
McGregor,  James,  V,  284 
McHose,  Helen,  III,  196 
McHose,  James  D.,  Ill,  195 
Mcintosh,  Loy  N.,  V,  480 
McKeague,  Robert  I.,  Ill,  167 
McKee,  Grace,  V,  110 
McKendree,  William,  V,  491 


INDEX 


XXIX 


McKendree  College,   I,   382 

McKenna,  James  J.,  IV,  415 

McKenzie,  Edgar  A.,  V,  197 

McKinley,  William,  II,  317,  371 

McKinley,  William  B.,  II,  420 

McKinnon,  Earl,  III,  136 

McKnight,  Clark  W.,  IV,  260 

McLean,  John,  I,  232,  241,  273,  294;  IV, 
9 

McMahon,  John  J.,  V,  104 

McNemer,  George  H.,  Ill,  442 

McNulty,  Thomas   J.,   IV,   66 

McRoberts,  Samuel,  V,  15 

McShane,  James   C,  V,  375 

McWilliams,  Seymour,   III,   283 

Meccia,  John  B.,  V,   77 

Mecherle,  George  J.,  IV,  436 

Medical  practice,  laws  regulation,  II,  95 

Medill,  Joseph,  I,  492;  II,  12,  78,  83,  122; 
V,  36 

Mehan,  Thomas  N.,  Ill,  199 

Meier,  David  E.,  Ill,  336 

Melahn,  Frank,  V,  387 

Melton,  Lloyd  H.,  V,  318 

Memorial  Stadium,  University  of  Illi- 
nois, II,  418 

Menard,  Pierre,  I,  186,  187,  190,  227, 
232,  241;  IV,  22 

Mendota  Reporter,  IV,  78 

Merrier,  Father,  I,  40 

Mercy  Hospital,  Chicago,  V,  188 

Merit  system,  II,  362 

Merkle,  John  L.,  IV,  356 

Merkle  Broom   Company,  IV,  356 

Merriam,  Charles  E.,  II,  432,  506,  543 

Merriam,  Henry  M.,  V,  144 

Merriman,  Arthur  K.,  IV,  71 

Merritt,  Wesley,  III,  503 

Messer,  Adelbert  B.,  IV,  324 

Metcalf,  Howard  L.,  V,  97 

Methodist  church,  in  1824,  I,  254 

Metropolis  Community  High  School,  III, 
341 

Meurin,  Father,  I,  36 

Mexican  War,  I,  402 

Mexican  War  soldier,  I,  441 

Meyer,  Carrie   B.,   Ill,    172 

Meyer,  George  L.,  Ill,  328 

Meyer,  Henry  A.,   Ill,   327 

Meyer,  John  G.,  Ill,  91 

Meyer,  John  W.  H.,  Ill,  171 

Meyer,  Walter  W.  L.,  V,  466 

Meyercord,  George  R.,  IV,  101 

Meyers,  Joseph  L.,  V,  383 

Miami  tribe,  I,  11 

Michael,  Oscar  J.,  IV,  394 

Michael,  William   H.,   V,   276 

Michalopoulos,  Demetrios  G.,  Ill,  235 

Michigameas,  I,  12,   18 

Michigan  Boulevard,  II,  500 

Mikes,  James,  IV,  370 

Milar,  Karl  A.,  IV,  423 

Miley,  George  M.,  V,  269 

Milford  Township  High  School,  V,  349 

Miller,  Amos  C,  IV,  97 

Miller,  Andrew   D.,   Ill,   177 


Miller,  Benjamin  H.,  IV,  429 

Miller,  Carl  S.,  V,  217 

Miller,  Charles  A.,  IV,  137 

Miller,  Clarence  E.,  IV,  312 

Miller,  Frank  T.,  Ill,  67 

Miller,  George  W.,  Ill,  178 

Miller,  Henry   L.,   IV,   432 

Miller,  Herbert  L.,  V,  384 

Miller,  Hobart  G.,  Ill,  248 

Miller,  James  A.,  V,  448 

Miller,  John  H.,  IV,  124 

Miller,  John  S.,  Ill,  461 

Miller,  Theodore  W.,  IV,  421 

Miller,  Thomas   W.,  IV,  275 

Miller,  Victor  C,  IV,  69 

Millhouse,  John  G.,  Ill,  248 

Mills,  Edgar  W.,  IV,  414 

Mills,  Louis  S.,  Ill,  71 

Mills,  Luther  L.,  V,  30 

Mills,  Wiley  W.,  II,  293,  543 

Milnes,  William  D.,  IV,  121 

Mine  Examining  Board  Law,  II,  336 

Minier  Community  High  School,  V,  230 

Mining  disaster,  Braidwood,  II,  95 

Mink,  William  J.,   V,   260 

Minor,  F.  Grant,  III,  88 

Minority  representation,   II,   85 

Minton,  James  I.,  Ill,  386 

Mississippi,  discovery  of,  I,   26 

Mississippi  Valley  in   1801,  map,  I,   189 

Missouri  Compromise,  I,  431 

Mitchell,  James  E.,  V,  306 

Mitchell,  John  M.,  Ill,  339 

Mitchell,  William  H.,  V,  12 

Moberg,  Vern  H.,  Ill,  125 

Modern  Woodmen  of  America,  III,  361 

Moinguenas,  I,  12 

Mollman,  Arthur  J.,  V,  153 

Monbreun,  Sieur  de,  I,  147 

Money,  in   1818,   I,   257 

Moneypenny,  David  T.,  IV,  277 

Monroe,  James  O.,  IV,  289 

Monroe  County,  I,  233 

Montgomery,  Ettie  M.,  V,  110 

Montgomery,  Harry    C,   V,    79 

Montgomery,  William  M.,  V,  110 

Monticello  Bulletin,  III,  427;  V,  366 

Moody,  Dwight  L.,  V,  186 

Moody,  Lloyd  C,  IV,  93 

Moody,  Walter  D.,  II,  522 

Moody  Bible    Institute    of    Chicago,    V, 

186 
Moore,  Asa  B.,  V,  129 
Moore,  Byron  R.,   V,   75 
Moore,  Daniel    B.,   V,    157 
Moore,  Ella  A.  D.,  V,  193 
Moore,  Enoch,  IV,   9 
Moore,  George   H.,   Ill,   128 
Moore,  Hiram  C,  III,  390 
Moore,  James  B.,  I,  266 
Moore,  Jesse  C,  III,  192 
Moore,  Michael  F.,  IV,  236 
Moore,  Pearl  L.,  IV,  358 
Moore,  Risdon,  I,  268 
Moore,  Theodore  C,  V,  256 
Mooseheart,  III,  429 


XXX 


INDEX 


Moran,  Frank  T.,  Ill,  300 

Moran,  Thomas  A.,  II,  513 

Morford,  Marcus  L.,  IV,  340 

Morgan,  Ambert  D.,  Ill,  395 

Morgan,  Howe  V.,  V,  195 

Morgan,  James  D.,  II,  38 

Morische,  Frank,  V,  316 

Mormon  Church,  in  Illinois,  I,  401 

Mormon  Temple,  Nauvoo,  I,  391 

Mormon  War,  I,  377,  390 

Mormons,  exodus,  I,  401 

Moroney,  Edward  J.,  V,  427 

Morris,  David  J.,  V,  399 

Morris,  Edward  H.,  II,  426 

Morris,  Freeman  P.,  Ill,  376 

Morris,  Lyell  H.,  Ill,  469 

Morris   (City),  I,  2 

Morris  Daily  Herald,   V,  408 

Morris  Public  Library,  The,  III,  397 

Morrison,  James  L.  D.,  V,  484 

Morrison,  Joseph  P.,  V,  382 

Morrison,  Robert,  I,  190 

Morrison,  William,  IV,  46 

Morrison,  W.  P.,  II,  39 

Morton,  Joy,  V,  3 

Morton,  Sterling,  IV,  12 

Morton  Public  Library,  IV,  262 

Morton  Township  High  School,  III,  193 

Moseley,  Douglas,  V,  351 

Moseley,  Louise  J.,  V,  352 

Moss,  Harry  C,  V,  276 

Mossberger,  Charles  H.,  IV,  303 

Motsinger,  Ernest  L.,  IV,  340 

Moulton,  Benjamin  W.,  IV,  347 

Mound  City  Community  High  Schools, 
IV,  336 

Mount  Vernon,  Old  Supreme  Court 
Building,  I,  422 

Mounted  rangers,  in  War  of  1812,  I,  222 

Mounts,  William  L.,  Ill,  505 

Mowat,  Robert  A.,  V,  328 

Mud  Lake,  I,  362 

Mudd,  Ray  F.,  IV,  492 

Mueller  law,  II,  173,  225,  241;  vote  on 
adoption,  246;  certificates,  277 

Mulac,  Louis  E.,  IV,  194 

Mullen,  Timothy  F.,  Ill,  497 

Mulligan,  James  A.,  II,  40;  III,  503 

Mummart,  Cletus  B.,  IV,  347 

Mundelein,  George  W.,  Ill,  17 

Municipal  courts,  II,  179 

Municipal  harbors,  II,  179 

Municipal  ownership,  of  street  railways, 
II,  173,  224;  of  public  utilities,  227; 
Dunne's  views,  227;  plans  for  secur- 
ing, 268;  hostility  of  city  council,  273; 
vote  on,  277,  463,  518,  545 

Municipal  Railway  Board,  I,  466 

Munn,  Loyal  L,,  IV,  424 

Murdock,  John,  I,  190 

Murphy,  Daniel  F.,  Ill,  221 

Murphy,  John  B.,  V,  30 

Murphysboro,  following  tornado  of  1925, 
II,  359 

Murphysboro  Township  Union  High 
School,  V,  279 


Musselman,  James  T.,  IV,  237 
Meyer,  Samuel  I.,  Ill,  325 
Myers,  Leonard  F.,  Ill,  271 
Myers,  Walter  O.,  Ill,  86 
Myers,  William   H.,   V   312 

Nabholz,  Otto  C,  IV,  371 

Naghten,  James  I.,  V,  330 

Nash,  Patrick  A.,  Ill,  501 

Nash,  William  H.,  Ill,  129 

National  Security   League,    II,   401 

Naumer,  Oliver   V.,   Ill,    315 

Nauvoo,  I,  377 

Nauvoo  Charter,  I,  392 

Neary,  Michael  J.,  V,  430 

Neddermann,  John  E.,  Ill,  189 

Needham,  Lewis  H.,  V,  209 

Neely,  Robert  E.,  Ill,  479 

Nelson,  Edward  A.,  Ill,  452 

Nelson  Frithiof,   III,   144 

Nelson,  Oscar,  IV,  312 

Nelson,  Oscar  F.,  II,  335,  505;  III,  233 

Nelson,  Oscar  W.,  IV,  183 

Nelson,  Permil,  IV,  164 

Nelson,  Victor  W.,  Ill,  483 

Nelson,  William  L.,  IV,  320 

Nesbit,  Calvin,  V,  155 

Nesbitt,  George  W.,  IV,  190 

Nestor,  Agnes,  II,  505 

Nettelhorst,  Louis,  IV,  251 

New  Design,  I,  212 

New  France,  Illinois  in,  I,  43 

Newberry,  Walter  L.,  V,  37 

Newberry  Library,  IV,  362 

Newcomer,  Rosa  A.,  Ill,  423 

Newlin,  E.  E.,  V,  231 

Newlin,  Thomas  J.,  V,  231 

Newspapers,  in  Civil  War,  II,  50 

Newton  Community  High  School,  V, 
238 

Nicholas,  Albert,  V,  279 

Nicolay,  John  G.,  V,  458 

Ninety-nine  year  act,  II,  200,  226;  Su- 
preme Court  decision,  277 

Ninety-nine  year  grant,   II,  482 

Nisbet,  George  W.,  Ill,  164 

Nisley,  George  W.,  V,  91 

Nixon,  William  P.,  V,  45 

Noble,  Charles  F.,  IV,  327 

Nockles,  Ed,  II,  505 

Noonan,  Edward  J.,  IV,  217 

Noonan,  Herbert  C,  IV,  490 

Nordmeyer,  Martin  W.,   Ill,   373 

Normal  School,  first  building,  Normal, 
II,  129 

Norrix,  Loy,  III,  450 

Northern  Illinois  Normal  School,  II,  360 

Northup,  John  E.,  V,  25 

Northwest  Territory,  I,  154;  plans  for 
organization,  156;  map,  163;  boun- 
daries after  War  of  1812,  224 

Northwestern  University,  Buildings  on 
McKinlock  Campus,  II,  299;   IV,  386 

Norton,  Jesse  O.,  IV,  495 

Nortrup,  Emil,  III,   286 

Notre  Dame    Church,    Chicago,   IV,   452 


INDEX 


XXXI 


Nott,  Fred  A.,  V,  409 
Novak,  Charles  W.,  IV,  266 
Novak,  Frank  J.,  V,  427 
Novotny,  Frank,  IV,  481 
Nyden,  John  A.,  V,  483 

Oakes,  Lannes  P.,  Ill,  400 

O'Brien,  Frank  J.,  V,  58 

O'Brien,  John  J.,  IV,  74 

O'Brien,  L.  Frederick,  IV,  153 

O'Brien,  Martin  J.,  II,  426,  427 

O'Brien,  Quin,    II,    266,    517 

Obrock,  Clarence  C,  III,  423 

O'Bryan,  Edward  M.,  V,  336 

Ochsner,  Emil  A.,  Ill,  105 

Ochsner,  Ernest  E.,  Ill,  89 

O'Connell,  William  L.,  II,  293,  316,  328, 

432,  501;  V,  180 
O'Connor,  Charles   A.,  Ill,  414 
O'Connor,  Jeffrey,  III,  508 
O'Connor,  Thomas,  III,  278 
Octigan,  Thomes  P.,  Ill,  271 
Odell,  Valentine,  V,  343 
O'Donnell,  John   S.,   V,   110 
O'Donnell,  Patrick  H.,  Ill,  101 
Oekel,  Alvin  S.,  V,  322 
Oekel,  Fred,  V,  322 
Officers  training  camps,  World  War,  II, 

391 
Ogden,  William  B.,  V,  13 
Ogden  Gas  Bill  ordinance,  II,  478 
Oglesby,  John  G.,  II,  69 
Oglesby,   Richard  J.,  II,   34,   38;   elected 

governor,  65,  66 ;  three  times  governor, 

69;  third  administration,  97,  201,  545; 

IV,  31. 
O'Hair,  Frank  T.,  Ill,  147 
O'Hair,  Karl  R.,  IV,  139 
O'Hara,  Daniel,  II,  78 
Ohio  Company,  I,  88 
Ohio  Company    of    Associates,    I,    157 
Ohio  Land   Company,   I,   110 
Ohio  Valley,   English  in,   I,   88 
Ohlweiler,  Oscar,  IV,  180 
Ohnemus,  C.  T.,  V,  147 
Olander,  Victor,  II,  391,  432,  505 
Old  Brownsville,  I,  384 
Old  Kelly   Tavern,    St.   Joseph,   I,   516 
Old  New  Salem,  Where  Lincoln  clerked, 

I,  356 
Old  State  House,  Springfield,  II,  6 
Olejniczak,  John  J.,  Ill,  406 
Olsen,  Thomas  F.,  V,  181 
Olson,  Harry,  II,  478,  483 
O'Meara,  Thomas  J.,  IV,  61 
O'Melveny,  Samuel,   I,   250 
O'Neill,  Schaefer,  IV,  306 
Orators,  great,  I,  385 
Ordinance  of  1784,  I,  170 
Ordinance  of  1787,  I,  157;  provisions  of, 

160;  on  slavery,  188 
O'Reilly,  Charles  A.,  IV,  223 
O'Reilly,  Patrick  J.,  IV,  232 
Orr,  Pence  B.,  V,  416 
Orvis,  Elmer  V.,  Ill,  476 


Osborne,  Georgia  L.,  IV,  94 
O'Shaughnessy,  Francis,  II,  266 
Ostermeier,  John  H.  F.,  IV,  139 
Otis,  Frank  J.,  Ill,  203 
Otis,  Joseph  E.,  Ill,  451 
O'Toole,  William  R.,  Ill,  323 
Ottawa,  I,  367;  II,  552 
Ottawa  Indians,  I,  11 
Otten,  Harry,  IV,  97 
Outten,  George  C,  IV,  135 
Ovitz,  John  W.,  IV,  183 
Ozark  Mountains,  I,  3 

Pace,  Vincent  P.,  Ill,  238 

Pacifists,  II,  395 

Packard,  George,  V,  68 

Padden,  Frank  M.,  V,  394 

Page,  Joseph  M.,  IV,  200 

Palmer,  Ernest,  IV,  257 

Palmer,  John  M.,  I,  411  459;  II,  12,  38; 

elected   as  governor,   70;   71;   protests 

martial  law  in  Chicago,  75;  record  of, 

79;    in    1888    campaign,    108;    elected 

senator,    112;    III,   27 
Palmer,  Potter,  II,  68;  V,  453 
Palmer,  Roy  A.,  IV,  135 
Palmer,  William   C,   IV,   203 
Palmer  family,   II,   550 
Panic  of  1819,  I,  285 
Panic  of   1837,   I,   351 
Panic  of  1873,  II,  92 
Panic  of  1893,  II,  159 
Pantelis,  Athanasius  A.,  IV,  264 
Park,  Harriet,   II,   396 
Park  systems,  in  Dunne  administration, 

II,  349 
Parker,  Harry  S.,  V,  294 
Parker,  Joseph,  I,  148 
Parkinson,  Etta  C,  IV,  284 
Parkinson,  Francis    B.,   IV,   282 
Parkinson,  Laura  V.,  IV  282 
Parkinson,  Robert,  IV,  283 
Parkman,  L.  Macy,  IV,  188 
Parks,  Lawson  A.,  V,  35 
Parks,  Samuel  C,  II,  83 
Parlier,  John  W.,  IV,  118 
Parlin  Public  Library,  V,  80 
Parrish,  Bruce  D.,  Ill,  301 
Parrish,  John  R.,  V,  273 
Patterson,  George  J.,  V,  91 
Patterson  Joseph    Medill,    II,    266,    292; 

as     Commissioner    of     Public     Works, 

300,  502 
Patton,  Robert  H.,  V,  95 
Paul,  Daniel  F.,  Ill,  216 
Paxton,  J.  Hays,  IV,  77 
Payne,  James,  III,  472 
Peabody,  F.  Stuyvesant,  V,  32 
Peabody  family,  II,  550 
Peak,  George  J.,  IV,  429 
Pearson,  Irving  F.,  Ill,  82 
Pearson,  Richard,  V,  222 
Pearsons  Daniel  K.,  Ill,  481 
Peck,  Ferd  W.,  I,  520 
Peck,  John  Mason,  I,  253,  255,  274;  V,  6 
Peek,  Burton  F.,  V,  429 


XXX11 


INDEX 


Peel,  Charles  E.,  V,  400 

Peers,  George  W.,  V,  119 

Pefferle,  Leslie  G.,  Ill,  246 

Peffers,  John  M.,  IV,  404 

Pegram,  Natalie  H.,  IV,  62 

Pekin,  II,   552 

Pekin  Public  Library,  III,  76 

Pelletier,  Alphonse,  IV,  453 

Peltz,  Ralph  C,  III,  385 

Penal  reforms,   II,   352 

Penewitt,  Alexander  H.,  V,  113 

Penitentiary,  first,  Alton,  I,  207;  estab- 
lishment of,  300,  318;  II,  61;  at  Ches- 
ter, 95;  convict  labor,  173;  353;  re- 
forms, 356 

Pennock,  Irving  D.,  IV,  153 

Peona,  John,  V,  393 

"People's  Council,"  II,  396 

Peoples  Gas  Light  and  Coke  Company, 
II,  191 

People's  party,   II,   161 

People's  Protective  League,  address  of, 
II,  432 

Peoria,  I,  32,  39;  LaSalle  at,  63;  fur 
trading  center,  211;  in  1812,  221;  249, 
311;  II,  552 

Peoria  Journal-Transcript,  III,  68 

Peoria  Public  Library,  III,  66 

Peoria  Star,  The,  III,  70 

Peoria  Star  Company,  III,  70 

Peoria  State  Hospital,  II,  360 

Peorias,  I,   11,   12 

Perkins,  Charles  M.,  Ill,  374 

Perkins,  Harry  M.,  Ill,  110 

Perkins,  Joseph  B.,  V,  120 

Perrey,  Jean  Francois,  I,  186,  190 

Perrin,  J.  Nick,  IV,  248 

Perrin,  Laura  J.,  V,  390 

Perrin,  Levi,  V,  390 

Perrow,  Arthur,  V,  66 

Perry,  Joseph  S.,  Ill,  488 

Peschel,  Joseph   F.,   V,   477 

Peters,  Anna  M.,  Ill,  472 

Peterson,  Charles  S.,  IV,  286 

Peterson,  G.  Leander,  V,  296 

Peterson,  John  W.,  Ill,  384 

Peterson,  Roy  G.,  IV,  238 

Peterson,  Waino  M.,  V,  415 

Petrie,  Claude  L.,  III,  477 

Petrie,  Marion  J.,  Ill,  478 

Petroleum  deposits,  I,   8 

Pfeiffenberger,  Mather,   IV,   308 

Pfeiler,  Raymond  P.,  IV,  166 

Phelps,  Harvey  J.,  Ill,  181 

Phillips,  David  L.,  II,  78;  V,  114 

Phillips,  Jesse  J.,  Ill,  485 

Phillips,  Joseph,   I,   266,   273;    V,   13 

Phoenix,  Henry  L.,  Ill,  229 

Piasa  Rock,  I,  31 

Piggott,  James,  I,  176 
Pindell,  Henry  M.,  Ill,  68 
Pine,  Harry  E.,  Ill,  296 
Pinkerton,  Harry  B.,  Ill,  77 
"Pinkertons,"  II,  108 
Pintozzi,  Carmen  J.,  V,  207 
Pioneer  Quincy  home,  II,  103 


Pittsfield  Public  Library,  V,  69 

Pittsford,  Edith  M.,  Ill,  194 

Plamondon,  Charles  A.,  II,  382 

Pleasant  View  Luther  College,  IV,  77 

Plemon,  Thomas  H.,  II,  V,  216 

Plumb,  Glenn  E.,  II,  292 

Plunkett,  William  J.,  Ill,  498 

Police  and  fire  departments,  Chicago, 
II,  291 

Polish  National  Catholic  Church,  IV, 
188 

Political  parties,  first,  I,  294 ;  in  Chi- 
cago, II,  473 

Politics,  during  the  first  decade,  I,  290; 
National  issues,  303 ;  beginning  of  con- 
vention system,  311;  Whig  Party,  311; 
Democratic  party,  311;  and  public  im- 
provements, 359;  in  Sanitary  Canal, 
373;  on  the  Bench,  380;  in  1850,  415; 
beginning  of  Republican  party,  459; 
convention  of  1862,  II,  35;  corruption 
in  Grant  administration,  77;  in  1874, 
90;  in  1876,  93;  campaign  of  1888, 
108;  third  parties,  113;  free  silver, 
158;  conditions  in  1912,  308;  in  Chi- 
cago, 528 

Poll  tax,  I,  230 

Pond,  William  L.,  Ill,  298 

Pontiac,  I,  98 

Pontiac  Reformatory,  II,  353 

Pontiac's  war,  I,  97 

Pontius,  Miller  H.,  V,  52 

Poorman,  Andrew  J.,  IV,  309 

Pope,  Nathaniel,  I,  197;  and  statehood, 
233;  and  Northern  boundary,  238; 
293,  294;  IV,  14 

Popular  government  in   1818,   I,   283 

Population,  in  1805,  I,  187;  in  1810,  195; 
in  1810,  230;  in  1820,  230;  236;  in 
1820,  250;  in  1840,  289;  in  1850,  408; 
in  1930,  II,  547;  549 

Porikos,  George  S.,  Ill,  52 

Porter,  Chauncey  H.,  IV,  62 

Porter,  Harry  H.,  V,  260 

Porter,  May,  V,  355 

Post,  Frank  M.,  IV,  442 

Post,  Louis  F.,  II,  266 

Poston,  Emmett  V.,  V,  110 

Posvick,  Frank,   V,   51 

Pottawatomies,  I,  11,  248;  treaty  of 
1816,  365 

Potter,  H.  Melville,  IV,  486 

Pourre,  Eugenio,  I,  139 

Poust,  Cassius,  IV,  186 

Powers,  Elmer  W.,  IV,  412 

Praeger,  Robert  P.,  II,  400 

Prairie  du  Rocher,  I,  108,  181 

Prairie  Farmer,  II,  127;  III,  49 

Prairies,  I,  3 

Prante,  Gilbert  L.,  V,  288 

Pratt,  Thurlow  H.,  Ill,  158 

Preemption,  I,  32  i 

Preemption  law,  of  1813,  I,  229 

Preihs,  Carl  H.,  IV,  114 

Prendergast,  Richard,  I,  372;   II,  477 

Prentice,  Henry  W.,  IV,  172 


INDEX 


XXXlll 


Prentiss,  Benjamin  M.,  Ill,  480 
Presbyterian  church,  I,  255 
Presbyterian  Hospital,  Chicago,  III,  494 
Press,  freedom  of,  II,  193 
Preston,  S.  P.,  IV,  434 
Price,  Sharon  H.,  Ill,  347 
Primary,  preferential,   II,  314 
Primary  election  law,  direct,  II,  178 
Prime,  George  H.,  V,  234 
Primitive  grain  mill,  I,  174 
Primm,  Howard  B.,  IV,  210 
Prindable,  Dennis  A.,  V,  160 
Prindiville,  Edward  A.,  V,  487 
Prison  administration,  II,  352 
Process  Verbal,  at  mouth  of  Mississippi, 

I,  72 
Proclamation  Line  of  1763,  I,  111 
Progressive  party,     II,     316     (see    also 

politics) 
Prophetstown,  I,  329 
Propper,  William  F.,  IV,  115 
Protective  tariff,  I,  287 
Protective  tariff  policy,  I,  291 
Public  Library  Board.  Chicago,  II,  472 
Public  officials,  salaries  of,  I,  411 
Public  ownership  act,  II,  330 
Public  policy  act,  II,  224 
Public  utility  act,  II,  318 
Public  Utility  Commission,  II,  495 
Public  utility     corporations,     regulation 

of,  II,  87 
Public  Utility  Law,  II,  129 
Public  works  department,  II,  293 
Puente,  Julius  L,  IV,  457 
Pugh,  Jonathan  H.,  I,  275 
Pullman,  George  M.,  II,  159;  IV,  31 
Pullman  Company,    strike    of    1894,    II, 

148 
Purcell,  Theodore  V.,  V,  317 
Purl,  Ruthford  K.,  IV,  242 
Pusey,  William  A.,  V,  470 
Puterbaugh,  Sabin  D.,  V,  17 
Putnam  County,  I,  311 

Quan,  James  E.,  II,  328 

Quebec  Act,  I,  109,  113 

Querrey,  Eri,  IV,  116 

Quincy,  pioneer  home,  II,  103 

Quincy  House,  II,  98 

Quincy  No.  1,  Rough  and  Ready,  I,  232 

Quinlan,  George  A.,  Ill,  332 

Quinn,  Frank  J.,  Ill,  69 

Quinn,  James  R.,  V,  375 

Racketeers,  II,  485 

Rail  fence,  I,  436 

Railroad  Act  of  1871,  II,  128 

Railroad  and  Warehouse  Commission, 
II,  128 

Railroad  corporations,  II,  72 

Railroad  law  of  1873,  JI,  129 

Railroads,  I,  357;  original  system 
planned,  358;  building  in  '50s,  454; 
in  Constitution  of  1870,  II,  85;  legis- 
lation of  1871,  95;  and  farmers,  126; 


control  of  rates,  127;  abolition  of 
passes,  128;  safety  legislation,  337; 
and  waterways,  455 

Railway  strike,  1871,  II,  99 

Radeke,  August  C,  III,  358 

Ralston,  Harris  P.,  Ill,  56 

Rambo,  Manuel  G.,  Ill,  126 

Rammelkamp,  Charles  H.,  Ill,  14 

Randolph,  Isham,  II,  517 

Randolph,  James  M.,  I,  459 

Randolph  County,  I,  182 

Rantoul,  II,  391 

Rathbun,  Charles  F.,  V,  340 

Raum,  John,  I,  342 

Rawlins,  John  A.,  IV,  47 

Ray,  Edward  J.,  Ill,  265 

Ray,  Joseph  G.,  Ill,  362 

Raymond,  Charles  W.,  Ill,  425 

Read,  Francis   A,   III,   100 

Reapportionment,  of  senatorial  and  con- 
gressional districts,  II,  348;  demand 
for,  546 

Red  Cross,  II,  391 

Red  Light  district,  II,  292 

Redell,  John  M.,  Ill,  446 

Redman,  Benjamin  H.,  IV,  61 

Redpath,  Robert  W.,  V,  174 

Reed,  Clark  S.,  V,  88 

Reeda,  William,  III,  455 

Reedy,  William  H.,  I,  7 

Rees,  Thomas,  I,  390;  V,  262 

Reese,  Leal  W.,  IV,  110 

Reeve,  Austin  B.,  Ill,  160 

Reeve,  Sarah  L.  B.,  Ill,  160 

Reeve  Family,  III,  160 

Reeves,  Walter,  IV,  40 

Reformatories,  changes  in  management 
of,  II,  353 

Reichert,  Edwin  F.,  Ill,  152 

Reilly,  Thomas  P.,  V,  172 

Reisner,  Farrish  A.,  V,  271 

Religion,  in  frontier  state,   I,   252 

Religious  fanaticism,  I,  399;  II,  483 

Rennick,  Frederick  W.,  V,  227 

Rennick,  Percival  G.,  Ill,  64 

Rentner,  Otto  C,  IV,  207 

Republican  League,  National  Progress- 
ive, II,  308 

Republican  National  Convention,  of 
1860,  II,  12;  of  1912,  315;  in  1920,  398 

Republican  party,  (See  also  Politics),  I, 
456;  birth  of,  459;  in  1871,  II,  77; 
1872-92,  113;  in  1868,  119;  Liberal, 
in  1872,  126;  and  farmers'  alliance, 
129;  and  free  silver,  159;  in  Chicago, 
478 

Repudiation  of  debts,  I,  387 

Resa,  Alexander  J.,  IV,  125 

Reuling,  Clarence  W.,  Ill,  74 

Reum,  Reinhold  F.,  Ill,  113 

Revell,  A.   H.,  II,   520 

Revenue  reform,  II,  346 

Revenues,  in  1850,  I,  414 

Revolutionary  War,  conquest  of  North- 
west, I,  108 


XXXIV 


INDEX 


Reynolds,  George  M.,  V,  146 

Reynolds,  John,  I,  8;  quoted,  52,  176,  221, 
273,  295;  elected  governor,  305;  ad- 
ministration of,  316,  317,  342;  IV,  35 

Reynolds,  Myron  B.,  IV,  368 

Reynolds,  Robert,  I,   190 

Reynolds,  Thomas,  I,  273,  295 

Rhymer,  Lloyd  S.,  IV,  342 

Rhymer,  Wesley  J.,  V,  210 

Rice,  Edward  Y.,  II,  83 

Rice,  Lawrence  A.,   IV,  76 

Richards,  James  R.,  V,  169 

Richardson,  Tyrrell  A.,  V,  460 

Richardson,  William  A.,  I,  456;  II,  48; 
V,  35 

Richberg,  Donald,  II,  543 

Richert,  John  C,  V,  233 

Rickelman,  Harry  J.,  IV,  333 

Riddle,  Henry  C,  V,  117 

Riegel,  Ralph  C,  V,  268 

Riffey,  James  H.,  IV,  448 

Rigdon,  Sidney,  I,  399 

Riley,  Jesse,  IV,  117 

Ripley,  Edward  P.,  V,  24 

Risinger,  C.  Frederick,  V.  304 

Risley,  Harry  R.,  Ill,  338 

Risley,  Theodore  G.,  IV,  330 

Ritter,  Emil   W.,   IV,   218 

River  Forest,  I,  7 

Rivers,  I,  1 

Road  building,  progress,  to  October, 
1921,  II,  388;  $60,000,000  bond  issue 
authorized,  402;  progress  of,  410; 
$100,000,000  bond  issue,  411 

Road  camps,  II,  356 

Road  improvement,  in  Dunne  admini- 
stration, II,  330 

Roads,  I,  237,  in  1912,  II,  316;  convict 
labor,  356 

Robbins,  Chauncey  W.,  IV,  388 

Robbins,  Henry  S.,  IV,  226 

Roberts,  Charlotte  W.,  Ill,  338 

Roberts,  Dewey  M.,  IV,  220 

Roberts,  Edward,  I,  366 

Roberts,  Harry  C,  IV,  332 

Roberts,  Harry  E.,  IV,  133 

Roberts,  Philip  F.,  Ill,  337 

Roberts,  Robert  M.,  Ill,  141 

Roberts,  Robert  P.,  Ill,  379 

Roberts,  Thomas  E.,  Ill,  263 

Roberts,  Warren  R.,  Ill,  507 

Roberts,  William  J.,  V.  419 

Robertson,  Alexander  P.,  IV,  267 

Robertson,  John  D.,  V,  33 

Robertson,  Thomas  S.,  V,  34 

Robins,  Raymond,  II,  293,  368,  502 

Robinson,  Edward  H.,  Ill,  454 

Robinson,  Emma  F.,  Ill,  404 

Robinson,  George  W.,  Ill,  404 

Robinson,  Harrison,  V,  361 

Robinson,  James  C.,  Ill,  35 

Robinson,  John  M.,  V,  35 

Robinson,  Luther  F.,  Ill,  409 

Robinson  Carnegie  Public  Library,  V, 
227 

Roche,  John  A.,  II,  474 


Roche,  John  P.,  V,   68 

Roche,  Patrick  F.,  IV,  495 

Rock,  David  L,  V,  409 

Rock  Island,  battle  at,  I,  222,  248;  II,  56 

Rock  Island  County,  I,  311 

Rock  Island  Public  Library,  IV,  268 

Rock  River,  I,  320 

Rock  Springs  Seminary,  I,  287 

Rockford,  Camp  Grant,  II,  391 

Rogers,  Egbert  I.,  V,  169 

Rogers,  Frank  D.,  V,  430 

Rogers,  George  T.,  V,  391 

Rogers,  John,  I,  138 

Rogers,  John  G.,  II,  474 

Romberg,  Edwin,  III,  139 

Rominger,  William  E.,  IV,  322 

Roodhouse  Public  Library,  V,  256 

Rooney,  George  A.,  V,  95 

Root,  Charles  B.,  Ill,  224 

Rork,  Curtis  W.,  V,  413 

Roselle,  Ernest  N.,  Ill,  430 

Rosenfield,  Walter  A.,  Ill,  221 

Rosenheim,  David,  II,  266,  543 

Rosenwald,  Julius,  II,  514;  III,  12 

Rosenwald,  Lessing  J.,  Ill,  13 

Ross,  Lewis  W.,  II,  83 

Ross,  Walter,   V,    195 

Ross  Family,  Cass  County,  V,  195 

Rosson,  James  K.,  IV,  329 

Rostenkowski,  Joseph  P.,  IV,  253 

Rotermann,  Bernard,  Jr.,  IV,  252 

Roth,  Jesse  H.,  V,  346 

Rouland,  Adolph  E.,  V,  100 

Ruegg,  William  A.,  Ill,  244 

Rummel,  Edward,  II,  78 

Runion,  Osborne  A.,  V,  238 

Runyard,  Eugene  M.,  IV,  434 

Rushville,  I,  311 

Russell,  Paul  S.,  V,  259 

Russell,  William  H.,  I,  373 

Ryan,  Andrew  J.,  Ill,  62 

Ryan,  Frank,  V,  478 

Ryan,  Michael  F.,  IV,  178 

Ryan,  O'Neill,  Jr.,  Ill,  478 

Ryden,  Otto  G.,  IV,  393 

Ryder,  William,  V,  138 

Sabath,  A.  J.,  II,  517 

Sackett,  Loren  B.,  V,  408 

Sadler,  Lena  K.,  Ill,  30 

Sadler,  William  S.,  Ill,  30 

Safety  devises,  II,  136 

St.  Angela's  Academy,  Morris,  IV,  354 

St.  Anthony's  Church,  Rockford,  V,  356 

St.  Augustine  Parish  and  High  School, 
V,  468 

St.  Charles  School  for  Boys,  II,  361 

St.  Clair,  Arthur,  first  governor  of 
Northwest  Territory,  I,  159;  161;  ad- 
ministration of,  176;  defeat,  179;  on 
slavery,  190 

St.  Clair  County,  I,  176,  181 

St.  Gaudens,  Augustus,  II,  521 

St.  Ignatius  College,  Chicago,  III,  354; 
IV,  490 

St.  John,  Elzer,  IV,  274 


INDEX 


XXXV 


St.  Joseph's  Catholic  Church,  Peoria,  III, 

239 
St.  Lawrence  waterway,  II,  554 
St.  Mary  of  the  Angels  Parish,  Chicago, 

III,  438 
St.  Michael    Parish    and    High    School, 

Chicago,  IV,  364 
St.  Philip  Neri  Parish,  V,  47 
St.  Procopius  College,  IV,  441 
St.  Vitus  Parish,  Chicago,  III,  266 
St.  Xavier's  College  for  Women,  IV,  278 
Salaries  of  public  officials,  I,  411 
Saloon  licenses,  increase  of,  II,  277;  291 
Salt-making,  I,  252 
Salt  mines,  I,  198 
Salzenstein,  Emanuel,  III,  309 
Samios,  Harry,  IV,  332 
Sanborn,  Joseph  B.,  II,  402 
Sanders,  Tom,  V,  308 
Sangamon  County,  I,  250 
Sanitary  District  of  Chicago,  I,  372;  II, 

462,  472 
San  Jose  High  School,  IV,  162 
Sappington,  Clarence  0.,  V,  472 
Sargent,  Fred  W.,  Ill,  12 
Sauk  and  Fox  Indians,  I,  11,  198,  248 
Saukenuk,  I,  327 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  I,  28 
Saunders,  Eugene,  III,  112 
Saunders,  Neill  M.,  V,  87 
Savage,  Joseph  P.,  IV,  399 
Savanna  Public  Library,  IV,  380 
Sawbridge,  Arthur  U.,  Ill,  481 
Sawmills,  I,  9,  251 
Sawyer,  William  I.,  IV,  467 
Scammon,  J.   Young,   II,   481;   V,   87 
Scanlon,  William  M.,  II,  426 
Scarborough,  Henry  F.,  V,  283 
Scates,  Walter  B.,  I,  385,  411;  V,  30 
Schaefer,  Edwin  M.,  Ill,  386 
Schafer,  L.  A.,  IV,  297 
Scharton,  John  F.,  IV,  454 
Scheffler,  Edward  S.,  Ill,  502 
Schilling,  Henry,  III,  304 
Schlaeger,  Edward,  I,  444 
Schlaeger,  Victor  L.,  Ill,  480 
Schlueter,  Charles,  V,  469 
Schmidt,  Anthony  J.,  IV,  52 
Schmidt,  Henry  G.,  V,  268 
Schmidt,  Herman,  III,  463 
Schmidt,  Oscar  W.,  Ill,  166 
Schmidt,  Otto  L.,  Ill,  15 
Schmulbach,  Sam  C,  III,  319 
Schneider,  Frederick  F.,  Ill,  418 
Schneider,  George,  I,  444 
Schneider,  George  A.,  IV,  276 
Schoeneweiss,  William  F.,  V,  163 
Schofield,  John,  II,  83 
Schofield,  John  M.,  IV,  50 
School  lands,  I,  199 
School  law,  Free,  of  1855,  I,  454 
Schools,   in    1818,    I,   244;    pioneer,    252; 

free,   298;    laws,    109;   reading   of  the 

Bible,  II,  88;  laws,  139 
Schoonover,  Herbert  E.,  Ill,  29 
Schott,  Albert  H.,  V,  178 


Schott,  Charles,  IV,  226 

Schriver,  Harry  M.,  V,  252 

Schroeder,  Werner  W.,  V,  67 

Schroeppel,  G.  H.  R.,  IV,  452 

Schuler,  George  T.,  V,  216 

Schupp,  Robert  W.,  V,  333 

Schuwerk,  William  M.,  V,  203 

Schwab,  Charles  H.,  II,  520 

Schwartz,  Charles  K.,  Ill,  481 

Schwartz,  Charles  P.,  Ill,  385 

Schwartz,  William  A.,  V,  325 

Schwarz,  B.  Leo,  III,  220 

Schweitzer,  Edmund  O.,  IV,  485 

Scofield,  Charles  J.  (Carthage),    III,    21 

Scofield,  Charles  J.   (Chicago),  V,  472 

Scofield,  Rose  S.,  Ill,  23 

Scofield,  Timothy  J.,  V,  471 

Scollin,  Walter  J.,  Ill,  455 

Scolnik,  Avern  B.,  IV,  171 

Scott,  Frank  H.,  IV,  162 

Scott,  Frederick  D.,  IV,  295 

Scott,  George  C,  V,  410 

Scott,  Gerry  D.,  V,  379 

Scott,  Hale  C,  V,  89 

Scott,  Hugh,  IV,  390 

Scott,  John  M.,  IV,  32 

Scott,  Melvin  O.,  Ill,  260 

Scott,  Winneld,  I,  339,  342;  III,  493 

Scott  Field,  II,  391 

Scranton,  Harry  R.,  Ill,  79 

Scranton,  Hiram  L.,  Ill,  163 

Scrimger,  Schuyler  C,  III,  179 

Scroggin,  Carter  R.,  IV,  128 

Scroggin,  Nancy,  IV,  128 

Seaman,  George  G.,  IV,  102 

Searle,  Charles  J.,  IV,  24 

Searle,  J.  Clinton,  IV,  456 

Seaton,  Gordon  E.,  Ill,  458 

Second  Cook  County  Courthouse,  II,  24 

Secretary  of  State,  I,  241 

Seever,  Charles  W.,  Ill,  388 

Selby,  Paul,  I,  486;  III,  40 

Semple,  James,  I,  342;  V,  32 

Senatorial    and    congressional    districts, 

reapportionment,  II,  348 
Senatorial  deadlock,  of  1909,  II,  180;  of 

1913,  366 
Sentel,  George  A.,  IV,  33 
Sergei,  Charles  H.,  II,  432 
Sewell,  John  S.,  IV,  197 
Seymour,  Henry  M.,  V,  82 
Shabbona,  Chief,  I,  330 
Shadel,  Helen  S.,  V,  69 
Shafer,  Benjamin  F.,  Ill,  95 
Shaffer,  William  C,  V,  124 
Shallberg,  Gustavus  A.,  IV,  187 
Shanahan,   David  E.,   II,   371,   375,   391, 

426;  V,  458 
Shannon,  Frederick  F.,  Ill,  31 
Shantz,  Joseph  E.,  IV,  34 
Shaw,  Benjamin  F.,  V,  407 
Shaw,  George  B.,  V,   407 
Shaw,  Walter  A.,  II,  328,  458;  III,  316 
Shawnees,  I,  12 

tiawneetown,   1; 

marshal's  residence,  378 


XXXVI 


INDEX 


Shea,  Francis  J.,  IV,  453 

Shedd,  John  G.,  V,  30 

Sheehe,  Norman  L.,  Ill,  84 

Sheets,  Robert  W.,  IV,  143 

Sheets  Company,  The,  IV,  143 

Sheldon,  Salmon  M.,  IV,  443 

Sheldon,  Warren  M.,  IV,  443 

Shelton,  Roy,  IV,  307 

Shepherd,  Eber  D.,  IV,  75 

Sheridan,  Philip,  II,  75 

Sherman,  Lawrence  Y.,  elected  senator, 
II,  366,  368 

Sherman,  LeRoy  K.,  II,  458;  IV,  227 

Sherman,  Robert  T.,  V,  72 

Sherman  law,  of  1890,  II,  158 

Sherwood,  Charles  S.,  IV,  391 

Shields.  Balford  Q.,  IV,  57 

Shields;  James,  I,  406,  414,  423,  482;  IV, 
41 

Shipton,  A.  W.,  IV,  338 

Shirley,  Eliza  J.,  IV,  476 

Shirley,  George  B.,  IV,  476 

Shoop,  Frederick  W.,  Ill,  241 

Shope,  Simeon  F.,  II,  192 

Short,  William  T.,  Ill,  459 

Siebel,  August  F.  W.,  IV,  196 

Siedenburg,  Frederic,  IV,  37 

Sihler,  George  A.,  V,  286 

Silver  (See  Free  Silver),  II,  154 

Silverman,  Lazarus,  III,  138 

Simonds,  William  E.,  IV,  402 

Simons,  J.  W.,  Ill,  479 

Simpson,  James,  III,  15 

Sims,  Delbert  E.,  Ill,  331 

Sims,  Ira  W.,  Ill,  253 

Singleton,  James  W.,  I,  459;  III,  505 

Sinnett,  Thomas  P.,  Ill,  207 

Sisters  of  Mercy,  Chicago,  V,  188 

Skarda,  Edward,  V,  405 

Skinner,  Charles  P.,  Ill,  212 

Skinner,  Charles  S.,  Ill,  145 

Skinner,  Mark,  IV,  40 

Skinner,  Onias  C,  II,  83 

Slade,  Charles,  I,  319;  V,  487 

Sladek,  Edward,  III,  266 

Slane,  Carl  P.,  Ill,  69 

Slane,  Merle,  III,  69 

Slattery,  Patrick  J.,  IV,  250 

Slavery,  and  indentured  servants,  I,  188; 
convention  of  1802,  190;  in  1817,  232; 
240;  issue,  259;  convention  struggle, 
272;  question  in  1850,  415;  in  Consti- 
tution and  laws,  421;  as  Civil  War  is- 
sue, II,  43 

Slavery  article  in  Ordinance  of  1787,  I, 
186 

Sleezer,  Gladys,  III,  405 

Sloo,  Thomas,  I,  366 

Small,  Len,  II,  312;  administration  of, 
404,  405;  III,  33 

Small,  Leslie  C,  IV,  418 

Smietanka,  A.  M.,  Ill,  55 

Smietanka,  Julius,  II,  517 

Smith,  Adna  J.,  Ill,  462 

Smith,  Alfred  R.,  IV,  86 

Smith,  Arthur  M.,  II,  426;   III,  134 


Smith,  Ben  L.,  Ill,  174 

Smith,  Buren  H.,  Ill,  341 

Smith,  Cecil   C,  IV,  213 

Smith,  Clayton  F.,  Ill,  435 

Smith,  Clement  L.,  Ill,  336 

Smith,  Elbert  S.,  IV,  157 

Smith,  Frank  L.,  elected  as  U.  S.  Sena- 
tor, II,  420;  495,  510 

Smith,  Fred  A.,  Ill,  88 

Smith,  George  P.,  IV,  355 

Smith,  George  W.,  IV,  473 

Smith,  Horace  G.,  Ill,  31 

Smith,  John  T.,  V,  226 

Smith,  Joseph,  I,  390;  martyrdom  of,  395 

Smith,  Orson,  V,  31 

Smith,  Sidney,  II,  517 

Smith,  Theophilus  W.,  I,  273,  366;  III,  25 

Smoke  nuisance,  II,  293 

Smull,  Oscar,  III,  432 

Smulski,  John  F.,  II,  508,  517 

Sneed,  William  J.,  II,  426 

Snethen,  Edwin  S.,  Ill,  417 

Snively,  John  R.,  IV,  334 

Snodgrass,  J.  F.,  IV,  244 

Snook,  Albert  M.,  Ill,  448 

Snyder,  Adam  W.,  I,  342,  387;   V,  40 

Snyder,  Ralph  M.,  V,  251 

Snyder,  William  H.,  II,  83 

Social  conditions,  in  1818,  I,  245 

Soderlin,  Carl  W.,  Ill,  325 

Soderstrom,  Ruben  G.,  V,  10 

Sohner,  Ezra  H.,  Ill,  214 

Soil,  I,  1 

Sommer,  William  H.,  Ill,  275 

Sons  of  Liberty,  II,  54 

Sonsteby,  John  J.,  II,  293;  V,  191 

Souders,  John  C,  V,  192 

Soule,  Earle   A.,  V,   489 

South  Park  Board,  Chicago,  II,  472 

Southern  Illinois  Penitentiary,  V,  190 

Southern  Illinois  State  Normal  School, 
II,  359 

Soverhill,  Wilber  R.,  V,  223 

Sowers,  Charles  M.,  V,  237 

Spaeth,  Alonzo  M.,  Ill,  342 

Spalding,  Albert  G.,  V,  28 

Spalding  Institute,  IV,  223 

Spanish-American  War,  II,  170 

Sparr,  H.  A.,  Ill,  332 

Spaulding,  John  L.,  Ill,  284 

Spaulding,  Willis  J.,  II,  432 

Speakman,  John  W.,  IV,  416 

Speaks,  Pearly  E.,  V,  283 

Speer,  John  M.,  Ill,  135 

Spencer,  Charles  C,  V,  243 

Spiller,  Edward  M.,  Ill,  436 

Spitler,  George  B.,  IV,  134 

Spitler,  Ida  B.,  IV,  134 

Sponsler,  William  A.,  IV,  136 

Sprague,  Albert  A.,  Ill,  5 

Spreckelmeyer,  Arthur  L.,  IV,  124 

Springer,  William  M.,  V,  21 

Springfield,  becomes  State  capital,  I,  354 

"Squatter"  claims,  I,  229 

"Squatter  sovereignty,"  I,  447 

"Squatters,"  I,  323 


INDEX 


XXXVll 


Stagg,  Amos  A.,  IV,  384 

Staley,  Edward  E.,  V,  116 

Stallings,  Olive  B.,  IV,  228 

Staples,  Joseph  W.,  Ill,  227 

Starkes,  James  L.,  V,  213 

Starved  Rock,  I,  13-62;  fortified,  67,  75; 

lock  and  dam,  II,  413 
State  Administrative  code,  II,  338 
State  bank,  I,  302,  308,  410 
State  bank  law,  I,  346 
State  Board   of   Administration,   II,   349 
State  Board    of    Equalization,    II,    346; 

abolished,  403 
State   bonds,   for   system   of   public   im- 
provements, I,  358 
State  budget,  II,  339 
State  Bureau  of  Labor,  II,  334 
State  Capitol  at  Vandalia,  I,  256 
State  Capitol,  Springfield,  II,  74;  remod- 
eling of  361 
State  civil  service  law,  II,  361 
State  Colony  for  Epileptics,  II,  359 
State  Council  of  Defense,  II,  391 
State  debt,    I,    360,    386;    limitation    of, 

410;  debt,  funded,  412 
State  Factory  Inspector,  II,  335 
State  Federation  of  Labor,  II,  454 
State  Highway  Commission,  II,  331 
State  Highway  Department,  II,  332 
State  House  at  Kaskaskia,  I,  196 

State  house,  II,  67 
State  Institutions,  reforms,  II,  349 
State  militia,  in  1861,  II,  29 
State  Public  Utilities  Act,  first  commis- 
sioners, II,  328 
State  Public  Utilities  Commission,  II,  322 
State  Register,  V,  262 
State  Soldiers'   Orphans'   Home,   II,   360 
State  Tax  Commission,  Cook  County  re- 
assessment, 415 

State  treasurer,  responsibilities  and  du- 
ties of,  II,  406 

Statehood,  agitation  for,  I,  231 

Staunton  Public  Library,  III,  332 

Staver,  Elery  H.,  Ill,  133 

Stead,  William  T.,  II,  317 

Steamboats,  I,  230,  242,  284 

Steck,  Mae  C,  III,  409 

Steck,  Stephen  A.,  Ill,  409 

Stedman,  Seymour,  II,  396,  397,  432 

Steele,  Charles  N.  Ill,  473 

Steele,  Roy  F.,  V,  349 

Steidley,  Arthur  J.,  Sr.,  Ill,  282 

Stelzer,  Erwin,  V,  178 

Stephens,  Cassie  W.,  Ill,  444 

Stephenson,  Benjamin,  IV,  42 

Stepina,  James  F.,  II,  432 

Sterling,  Fred  E.,  IV,  26 

Sterling,  Thomas,  I,  103 

Steuernagel,  Bella,  IV,  240 

Stevens,  Frank  E.,  Ill,  367 

Stevens,  Riley  E.,  IV,  418 

Stevens  Family,  III,  161 

Stevenson,  Adlai  E.,  Vice  President  U.  S., 
II,  151;  III,  59 


Stevenson,  Adlai  E.,  Jr.,  Ill,  60 

Steward,  Lewis,  II,  133 

Stewart,  George  B.,  Ill,  132 

Stewart,  L.  J.,  Ill,  158 

Stewart,  William  W.,  Ill,  223 

Stickelmaier,  Henry  C,  V,  443 

Stiehl,  Clarence  G.,  V,  158 

Stierwalt,  Paris  A.,  IV,  310 

Stillman,  Isaiah,  I,  329;  defeat  of,  330 

"Stillman's  Run,"  I,  332 

Stock,  Frederick  A.,  V,  42 

Stockyards  strike,  1880,  II,  99 

Stoll,  John  O.,  V,  281 

Stolle,  Erwin  F.,  V,  62 

Stone,  Claudius  U.,  Ill,  227 

Stone,  Dan,  I,  357 

Stone,  George  L.,  Ill,  331 

Stone,  Melville  E.,  I,  372 

Stookey,  Marshall  C,  IV,  126 

Storey,  Wilbur  F.,  V,  49 

Storm,  Arthur  B.,  V,  52 

Storm,  Isaac  S.,  IV,  149 

Storrs,  Emery  A.,  great  orator,  I,  385; 

V,  32 
Stotts,  Arthur  F.,  V,  325 
Stouffer,  Karl  J.,  Ill,  412 
Stout,  Ray  D.,  Ill,  117 
Strain,  Ross  H.,  Ill,  88 
Strange,  Alexander  T.,  V,  244 
Strawn,  Silas  H.,  II,  517;  III,  19 
Streator  Public  Library,  IV,  163 
Streator  Township  High  School,  IV,  161 
Street  car  companies,  record  of,  II,  195 
Street  car  franchises,  II,  195 
Street  car  strike,  1885,  II,  99 
Street  car  system,  under  Yerkes,  II,  211; 

defects  of,  267 
Street  railways,  municipal  ownership  of, 

II,  173 
Streeter,  A.  J.,  II,  112 
Strever,  Horatio  M.,  Ill,  258 
Strike  of  teamsters,  II,  268 
Stringer,  Lawrence  B.,  II,  176;   III,  250 
Strotz,  Harold  C,  III,  152 
Strotz,  Sidney  N.,  IV,  49 
Struble,  Henry,  III,  321 
Stuart,  Alexander,  I,  197 
Stuart,  Graeme,  II,  225 
Stuart,  John  T.,  I,  343,  377;  III,  33 
Stubblefield,  Frank  A.,  IV,  372 
Studebaker,  Oscar  W.,  IV,  323 
Stump,  Walter  E.,  V,  260 
Sturgis,  Isaac  A.,  V,  208 
Sturtevant,  Julian  M.,  V,  50 
Sturtz,  Charles  E.,  IV,  444 
Suffrage,  territorial  qualifications,  I,  230; 

right   of   aliens,   381;    II,   82,   84;    for 

women,  337 
Sullivan,  Boetius  H.,  Ill,  275 
Sullivan,  Harold  P.,  V,  386 
Sullivan,  Henry  D.,  Jr.,  IV,  455 
Sullivan,  Louis  H.,  V,  36 
Sullivan,  Roger  C,  II,  159,  367,  477,  482, 

510;  III,  274 
Sullivan,  Thomas  J.,  V,  232 
Sullivan,  William  L.   (Foreword) 


XXXV111 


INDEX 


Sullivan,  William  P.,  V,  121 

Summers,  Pauline  D.,  IV,  285 

Supreme  Court,  judges  of,  I,  241 ;  in  1840, 

381;    bill   for   reorganization   of,    383; 

Lincoln's  criticism  of,  470;  decision  on 

Small  case,  II,  409,  435 
Supreme    Court    Building,    II,    408 
Supreme    Court    Building,    Old,    Mount 

Vernon,  I,  422 
Sutherland,  T.  M.,  IV,  320 
Suverkrup,  Bernard,  IV,  222 
Swan,  Dot  D.,  V,  69 
Swanson,  Ann  E.,  V.,  38 
Swanson,  David  I.,  Ill,  157 
Swanson,  H.  G.,  V,  329 
Swanson,  John  A.,  II,  460,  485 
Swanson,  Luella  A.,  V,  38 
Swanson,  Minnie  M.,  V,  38 
Swanson,  Swan  G.,  V,  37 
Sweatshop  law,  II,  140 
Sweet,  B.  J.,  II,  56 
Sweitzer,  Robert  M.,  II,  483;  IV,  29 
Swett,  Leonard,  IV,  38 
Swift,  Hardy  M.,  Ill,  463 
Swift,  Louis  F.,  V,  39 
Swift  family,  II,  549 
Swinney,  John  J.,  V,  342 
Swope,  Willis  G.,  IV,  229 
Symonds,  Nathaniel  G.,  V,  54 
Szymczak,  M.  S.,  V,  239 

Tacoma  Building,  II,  521 

Taft,  Justin,  V,  133 

Taft,  Lorado,  II,  521 

Taft,  Richard  H.,  V,  128 

Tamaroas,  I,  12-18 

Tambling,  Emma  E.  S.,  IV,  231 

Tamblmg,  Myron  E.,  IV,  231 

Tanner,  John  R.,  II,  160;  Governor,  170, 

171;  V,  48 
Taphorn,  Henry,  V,  295 
Tariff  laws,  I,  286;   and  labor,  II,   108; 

protective,  126 
Tarrent,  Michael  A.,   Ill,  493 
Tax  commission,  II,  346,  403 
Tax  revenues,  I,  307 
Tax  revolt,  II,  485 
Taxable  values,  in  1850,  I,  414 
Taxation,   Territorial,   I,   228;    equitable, 

II,  88;  inequality  of,  414;  and  revenue, 

in  proposed  Constitution,  440;  burdens, 

548;  556 
Taylor,  Albert  C,  IV,  230 
Taylor,  Albert  J.,  V,  136 
Taylor,  Benjamin  F.,  V,  31 
Taylor,  Clarence  C,  III,  136 
Taylor,  Edward  Henson,  V,  433 
Taylor,  Edward  Hyde,  V,  136 
Taylor,  Ella  H.,  IV,  447 
Taylor,  Elmer  A.,  Ill,  433 
Taylor,  E.  D.,  I,  459 
Taylor,  Frank  G.,  Ill,  153 
Taylor,  Harry  O.,  V,  208 
Taylor,  Percy  L.,  V,  108 
Taylor,  Ralph,  V,  303 


Taylor,  Richard  F.,  IV,  323 

Taylor,  Warren  E.,  Ill,  215 

Taylor,  Will,  V,  167 

Taylor,  William  L.,  IV,  338 

Taylor,  Zachary,  I,  222,  342;  III,  34 

Taylorville  Public  Library,  III,  205 

Tebeau,  Lewis,  III,  374 

Teachers'  Federation,  Chicago,  II,  454 

Tecumseh,  I,  201;  and  Tippecanoe,  203; 
204;  death  of,  207 

Teed,  Frank  B.,  IV,  207 

Telephone  service  rates,  II,  291 

Telford,  Elbridge  W.,  V,  189 

Terdina,  Frank,  III,  344 

Terminal  facilities,  II,  179 

Terra  cotta,  I,  9 

Terrell,  Thomas  J.,  Ill,  402 

Terrell,  William  J.,  Ill,  236 

Territorial  government,  classes  of  I,  183 

Teter,  Lucius,  V,  42 

Thady,  Emory,  III,  151 

Thielen,  Frank,  V,  443 

Thirteenth  amendment,  II,  65 

Thirty-Third  Division,  World  War,  II, 
389 

Thomas,  Charles  B.,  Ill,  257 

Thomas,  Edward  B.,  V,  410 

Thomas,  Jesse  B.,  I,  194,  197,  232,  273, 
294;  IV,  34 

Thomas,  John  T.,  V,  106 

Thomason,  Allison,  IV,  252 

Thomason,  Chester  A.,  IV,  253 

Thompson,  Charles  W.,  IV,  316 

Thompson,  Alice  H.,  II,  432 

Thompson,  Carl,  II,    543 

Thompson,  Floyd  E.,  II,  530;  III,  224 

Thompson,  John  R.,  II,  508;  III,  41 

Thompson,  J.  M.,  II,  111 

Thompson,  Owen  P.,  II,  328 

Thompson,  Theodore,  IV,  73 

Thompson,  William  Hale,  II,  395;  candi- 
date for  U.  S.  Senator,  401;  480; 
elected  mayor,  483;  490,  496,  538,  545 

Thompson,  William  O.,  II,  192 

Thompson  machine,  II,  484 

Thompson  Republicans,  II  398 

Thomson,  Norman  B.,  V,  438 

Thomson,  Thomas  L.,  V,  175 

Thornton,  Anthony,  I,  411;  IV,  482 

Thornton,  Charles  S.,  IV,  479 

Thornton,  Earl  L.,  IV,  269 

Thorp,  Boyd,  V,  275 

Throop,  Addison  J.,  Ill,  287 

Tice  Road  Law,  II,  331,  410 

Tiernan,  Robert  W.,  V,  166 

Tierney,  Joseph,  IV,  468 

Tiffany,  Lester,  IV,  426 

Tilden,  Edward,  II,  183 

Tilley,  Ronald   U.,   III,  99 

Tippecanoe,  battle  of,  I,  207 

Tipsword,  Miles  A.,  V,  131 

Titcomb,  Kate,  IV,  369 

Tivnen,  Bryan   R.,   Ill,   304 

Tobin,  Patrick  J.,  Ill,  188 

Todd,  Harry  M.,  Ill,  357 


INDEX 


XXXIX 


Todd,  John,  lieutenant  governor  of  Illi- 
nois County,  I,  132;  139;  resigns,  145 

Tohill,  Noah  M.,  IV,  292 

Tolman,  Edgar  B.,  II,  391,  505 

Toman,  John,  V,  324 

Tomkins,  William  J.,  V,  285 

Tonti,  Henry  de,  I,  61;  experiences  of, 
67,  68;  at  Fort  St.  Louis,  81 

Topography,  I,  2 

Township  High  School  Building,  typical, 
II,  399 

Traction  history,  II,  195;  companies,  un- 
der Allen  law,  222;  situation  in  1905, 
257;  settlement  ordinances,  vetoed, 
280;  question  in  1907,  294;  settlement 
ordinances,  approved,  295;  fares  in 
Chicago,  419;  Dever  administration, 
463;  during  Harrison  regime,  482; 
question  in  1928,  491;  settlement  of 
1930,  492;  settlement  of  1930,  530 

Traeger,  John  E.,  II,  266,  398,  426 

Trager,  John  W.,  Ill,  229 

Trainer,  J.  Milton,  III,  489 

Trainer,  William  O.,  V,  471 

Trainor,  Mary  A.  R.,  (Mrs.  Charles  J.,) 
IV,  72 

Transportation,  pioneer,  I,  188 

Traub,  William  F.,  IV,  82 

Travel  and  Transport  Building,  Century 
of  Progress  Exposition,  II,  544 

Traylor,  Melvin  A.,  II,  517;  III,  7 

Treat,  Samuel  H.,  I,  385;  II,  54;  V,  29 

Treaty  of  Greenville,  I,  180 

Treaty  of  1783,  I,  140 

Trego,  Solomon  H.,  Ill,  122 

Tripp,  Ernest,  V,  246 

Trumbull,  Lyman,  I,  440,  459,  461;  Sena- 
tor, 462;  467;  II,  44,  78,  124;  vote  in 
President  Johnson  impeachment,  118; 
IV,  38 

Tucker,  Irwin  S.,  II,  396 

Tuley,  Murray  F.,  II,  191;  proposes 
Judge  Dunne  for  mayor,  247;  513 

Tuohy,  William  J.,  V,  41 

Turnbaugh,  John    D.,    Ill,    124 

Turner,  Jonathan  B.,  II,  145;  V,  479 

Turner,  Oliver  S.,  V,  54 

Turner,  Thomas,  II,  29 

Turner,  Judge,  resigns,  I,  182 

Tweed,  Moses  H.,  Ill,  128 

Tygett,  Glenn  J.,  IV,  51 

Tym,  Charles  F.,  Ill,  146 

Ubben,  Louis,  IV,  485 

Ubben,  Sarah,  IV,  485 

Ubben,  Theodore  H.,  IV,  484 

Ubben,  Ubbo  A.,  IV,  483 

Underwood,  George  W.,  V,  445 

Underwood,  Scott,  IV,  26 

Underwood,  William  H.,  II,  83 

Union  County,  I,  233 

Union  Depot,  Chicago,  II,  525 

Union  Traction    Company    receivership, 

II,  226 
United  States  Bank,  I,  284,  291 


United  States  senators,  direct  election 
of,  II,  365;  cost  of  election,  556 

University  Club  of  Chicago,  V,  445 

University  of  Chicago,  Chapel,  II,  523 

University  of  Illinois,  II,  67,  140,  358, 
360;  "Alma  Mater,"  465 

Upham,  Fred  W.,  II,  391 

Uran,  Benjamin  F.,  IV,  369 

Urbana,  hotel  where  Lincoln  stopped,  I, 
509;  big  elm  where  Lincoln  made  fa- 
mous speech,  513 

Urch,  Leslie  L.,  V,  448 

Utica,  I,  32,  67 

Utley,  George  B.,  IV,  362 

Utz,  John  V.,  V,  154 

Valentine,  Leslie  K.,  V,  96 

Van  Doren,  Ray  N.,  V,  55 

Van  Hoe,  Albert  A.,  IV,  212 

Van  Sellar,  Frank  C,  IV,  51 

Vance,  Stanley  M.,  Ill,  98 

Vandalia,  State  Capitol  at,  I,  256,  301, 

357 
Vanderhorst,  Arie,  V,  299 
Vaughan,  Edward  D.,  IV,  344 
Vaughn,  John  B.,  IV,  204 
Vawter,  J.  H.,  V,  289 
Veech,  Everett  R.,  Ill,  476 
Veech,  Gaines  R.,  IV,  405 
Veech,  Otis,  III,  408 
Venice  High  School,  IV,  328 
Verbrugghen,  Adrian,  V,  462 
Versluis,  Gaston,  III,  295 
Vertrees,  Herbert  H.,  Ill,  149 
Vickers,  Samuel  L.,  IV,  52 
Vien,  H.  Grady,  IV,  349 
Vigo,  Francis,  I,  128,  144,  145,  242 
Vincennes,  Clark's  expedition  against,  I, 

128 
Violet,  Charles  A.,  Ill,  304 
Virgin,  John  W.,  V,  145 
Virginia,  and  Western  Lands,  I,  154 
Virnich,  Peter  J.,  Ill,  351 
Viterna,  Jerry  J.,  Ill,  357 
Vittum,  Harriet  E.,  II,  432 
Voegtle,  Henry  C,  IV,  222 
Vogelpohl,  George  T.,  V.,  174 
Vogelsang,  Clifford  J.,  IV,  98 
Vogt,  H.  E.  ("Stony"),  V,  296 
Volini,  Italo  F.,  IV,  263 
Volk,  Leonard  W.,  V,  455 
Volunteer  enlistments,  in  World  War,  II, 

390 
Vopicka,  Charles  J.,  II,  517;  III,  445 
Voter,  qualifications  of,  I,  227 
Voyageurs,  I,  46 
Vrooman,  Carl  S.,  II,  432 
Vuc,  John,  IV,  412 

Wacker,   Charles   H.,   II,   391,   520,   522; 

IV,  27 
Wacker,  Frederick  G.,  IV,  29 
Wage  loan  corporations,  II,  336 
Wagner,  Arthur,  IV,  356 
Walden,  Charles,  V,  315 


xl 


INDEX 


Waldrip,  William  D.,  IV,  161 

Wales,  Henry  W.,  V,  156 

Wales,  Henry  W.,  Sr.,  V,  155 

Walker,  Charles  L.,  Ill,  102 

Walker,  Edwin  K.,  Ill,  317 

Walker,  Francis  W.,  II,  477,  517 

Walker,  Frank,  III,  202 

Walker,  Harry  A.,  IV,  354 

Walker,  Jesse,  I,  254 

Walker,  John  H.,  II,  391 

Wallace,  James  W.,  Ill,  126 

Wallace,  Ross  S.,  IV,  318 

Wallace,  W.  H.  L.,  II,  38 

Walley,  Edwin  C,  III,  460 

Walsh,  Edward  J.,  Ill,  135 

Walter,  John  E.,  IV,  420 

Walter,  William  E.,  V,  168 

Walters,  Arthur  E.,  V,  119 

Wanless,  Fred  W.,  Ill,  443 

War  of  1812,  I,  201;  Illinois  Valley  expe- 
ditions, 221 

Ward,  Clifton  T.,  Ill,  291 

Ward,  Delos  E.,  Ill,  57 

Ward,  Frank  N.,  IV,  319 

Ward,  Mary  E.,  Ill,  98 

Wardein,  Vincent,  IV,  214 

Warehouse  Law,  II,  335 

Warnock,  William  W.,  Ill,  123 

Warren,  Franklin,  III,  177 

Warren,  Hooper,  I,  274;  III,  500 

Warterfield,  J.  Soule,  IV,  41 

Washburne,  Elihu  B.,  IV,  50 

Washburn,  William  E.,  IV,  235 

Washington  County,  I,  233 

Water  power,  I,  252 

Water  service,  reorganized,  II,  290 

Water  transportation,  I,  242 

Waters,  Philip  S.,  IV,  60 

Watertown  State  Hospital,  II,  360 

Waterway,  Lockport  and  Utica,  II,  402 

Waterway  bond  issue,  II,  180,  456 

Waterway  construction,  II,  413 

Waterway  development,  early,  I,  362 

Waterways,  I,  235 

Watseka  Community  High  School,  IV, 
412 

Watson,  Robert  L.,  IV,  160 

Watson,  Royal  L.,  Ill,  382 

Watterson,  Walter  H.,  IV,  36 

Wayman,  John  E.  W.,  II,  312 

Wayne,  Anthony,  campaign  of  1795,  I, 
179,  200 

Wear,  James  M.,  Ill,  123 

Weber,  Anne  L.,  V,  253 

Weber,  Evelyn  E.,  Ill,  424 

Webster,  W.  G.,  II,  180 

Wedig,  J.  Harrison,  V,  254 

Weeks,  Glenn  W.,  V.  93 

Wegener,  Edward  H.,  V,  184 

Weil,  Joseph  A.,  Ill,  239 

Weiller,  Jean  J.  Rene,  V,  452 

Weiss,  John  W.,  IV,  151 

Welch,  Gilford  N.,  V,  280 

Welch,  Ninian  H.,  IV,  208 

Welch,  Thomas  J.,  IV,  234 


Weldon,  Lawrence,  II,  78;  V,  466 

Wells,  E.  Roy,  V,  431 

Wells,  Franklin  N.,  V,  73 

Wells,  Henry  W.,  II,  83 

Wells,  William,  I,  218 

Welsch,  Robert  T.,  V,  396 

Welsh,  Vernon  M.,  V,  474 

Wendt  Brothers,  V,  339 

Wendt,  Chris  C,  III,  406 

Wendt,  Earl  E.,  V,  339 

Wendt,  Robert  H.,  V,  339 

Wengierski,  A.  S.,  IV,  272 

Wenter,  Frank,  I,  372,  373 

Wentworth,  Edward  N.,  V,  45 

Wentworth,  John,  I,  438,  440,  459,  462, 

477;  II,  78,  125;  V,  12 
Werckle,  Augustus  C,  V,  133 
Wermuth,  William  C,  IV,  109 
"Werno  letter,"  II,  278 
Wernsing,  Harry  J.,  Ill,  359 
Wert,  Martha  L.,  IV,  123 
Wert,  Jacob,  IV,  123 
Wessel,  Perry  H.,  IV,  176 
West,  Arthur  D.,  Ill,  207 
West,  Emanuel  J.,  I,  366 
West,  John  G.,  V,  485 
West,  Roy  O.,  II,  510 
West,  W.  J.,  IV,  442 
West  Park  Board,  Chicago,  II,  472 
Westerman,  Emil  H.,  Ill,  191 
Western  Illinois    State    Normal    School, 

II,  360 
Western  Intelligencer,  I,  231 
Westervelt,  O.  Palmer,  IV,  235 
Weston,  Hugh  S.,  Ill,  71 
Whalen,  Homer,  V,  83 
Wheelan,  Charles  W.,  Ill,  268 
Wheelan  Funeral  Home,  Inc.,  Ill,  268 
Wheeland,  Cyrus  E.,  IV,  138 
Wheeland,  Olive  B.,  IV,  139 
Wheeler,  Charles  C,  IV,  144 
Wheeler,  Charles  N.,  IV,  477 
Wheeler,  Frederick  K.,  V,  218 
Whig  party   (see  also  Politics),  I,  311; 

and  Mormons,  377;  in  1852,  440 
Whipple,  Walter  B.,  Ill,  237 
Whipple,  Warner  F.,  V,  94 
White,  Horace,  II,  78,  122;  V,  492 
White,  James  A.,  V,  190 
White,  John  C,  IV,  104 
White,  Mark  H.,  Ill,  405 
White,  Milburn  J.,  V,  224 
White  County,  I,  233 
Whiteside,  Samuel,  I,  329,  342 
Whiteman,  John  Y.,  Ill,  127 
Whiting,  Edward  S.,  IV,  237 
Whiting,  Fred  T.,  Ill,  324 
Whiting,  Morse  C,  V,  198 
Whitley,  Homer,  IV,  218 
Whitmore,  George  E.,  IV,  87 
Whitney,  Fred  B.,  Ill,  407 
Wick,  Paul  R.,  Ill,  52 
"Wiggins'  Loan,"  I,  319 
Wigmore,  John  H.,  V,  39 
Wigwam,  The,  II,  13,  15 
Wild  game,  I,  4 


INDEX 


xli 


Wiles,  Russell,  V,  322 

Wilcox,  Harry  L.,  Ill,  281 

Wilkey,  Adam  H.,  Ill,  97 

Will,  Conrad,  IV,  33 

Willard,  Frances  E.,  II,  110;  IV,  36 

Willey,  Frank,  Jr.,  V,  446 

Williams,  Charles  A.,  II,  432 

Williams,  Dixon  C,  III,  289 

Williams,  Gaar,  V,  442 

Williams,  King,  V,  382 

Williams,  Luella  A.,  IV,  92 

Williams,  Ralph  C,  IV,  434 

Williams,  Thomas  P.,  V,  378 

Williams,  Walter  W.,  V,  150 

Williams,  William  E.,  V,  381 

Williamson,  Kenney  E.,  Ill,  74 

Williamson,  William  S.,  IV,  199 

Williamson  County,  vendetta  war,  II,  90 

Willis,  Omer  M.,  Ill,  333 

Willock,  Ray  A.,  IV,  100 

Wilmot  proviso,  I,  439 

Wilson,  Frank  B.,  V,  463 

Wilson,  Glenn,  IV,  290 

Wilson,    Harrison,  I,  342 

Wilson,  James  P.,  V,  463 

Wilson,  Jay  P.,  V,  464 

Wilson,  J.  Emmett,  V,  144 

Wilson,  Louis  A.,  IV,  189 

Wilson,  Rayburn  H.,  Ill,  435 

Wilson,  Robert  J.,  Ill,  344 

Wilson,  Robert  L,,  I,  357 

Wilson,  Robert  T.,  Ill,  231 

Wilson,  William,  IV,  212 

Wilson,  William  W.,  V,  305 

Wiltse,  Charles,  III,  305 

Wiman,  Charles  D.,  Ill,  364 

Windsor,  Byron  L.,  Ill,  204 

Wineland,  Ben  F.,  V,  287 

Winnebago  Indians,  I,  11,  14,  248 

Winnemac,  Chief,  I,  217 

Winstanley,  Thomas,  I,  250 

Winston,  Fred  E.,  Ill,  285 

Winston,  Richard,      successor     to     Gov. 

Todd,  I,  136,  146 
Winters,  Claude,  V,  226 
Wirz,  Adolph  G.,  Ill,  403 
Wise,  Lewis  W.,  V,  369 
Witte,  Albert,  V,  303 
Witte,  Edward  W.,  Ill,  169 
Witte,  Henry  F.,  Ill,  168 
Witte,  William  H.,  Jr.,  Ill,  154 
Woelfle,     James  E.,  V.  204 
Woiciechowski,  Martin,  V,  183 
Wolf,  George  D.,  V,  332 
Wolf,  Harry  H.,  IV,  394 
Wolff,  Oscar,  II,  426 
Wolschlag,  Stephen,  III,  226 
Woman's  Suffrage  Act,  II,  337 
Women,  eight  hour  day,  II,  140 
Women's   Societies,  in  Civil  War,  II,  40 
Womick,  William  H.,  V,  206 


Wood,  John,  I,  342;  Lieutenant-gover- 
nor, 458,  491;  II,  29;  V,  19 

Wood,  John  H.,  V,  222 

Woodmansee,  Robert  E.,  Ill,  247 

Woodruff,  Edward  N.,  Ill,  62 

Woodruff,  J.  Lyon,  IV,  249 

Woodruff,  Sam,  IV,  361 

Woods,  Edward  G.,  IV,  463 

Woods,  Elisha,  V,  207 

Woods,  William  F.,  IV,  465 

Woodward,  Cornelius  C,  IV,  353 

Woodworth,  James  H.,  I,  461 

Woolley,  Dale  A.,  Ill,  468 

World  War,  II,  380,  385;  Illinois  enlist- 
ments, 390;  price  fixing,  392;  lynch 
law,  400 

World's  Columbian  Exposition,  II,  474 

Worrell,  Charles  C,  V,  482 

Worrell,  Francis  E.,  V,  206 

Wright,  Burton,  IV,  299 

Wright,  Clark  C,  IV,  389 

Wright,  Hulda  C,  IV,  300 

Wright,  Jeannette  S.,  Ill,  396 

Wright,  Rodney  A.,  IV,  181 

Wright,  Warren,  III,  79 

Wrigley  Building,  Chicago,  II,  515 

Wyatt,  Raleigh  E.,  V,  247 

Wylie,  Arthur  J.,  V,  148 

Wynant,  Wilbur,  III,  452 

Wyoming  Public  Library,  III,  429 

Wys,  Godfrey,  V,  81 

Wys,  Mary  M.,  V,  82 

Yardley,  Oscar  R.,  IV,  79 

Yates,  Richard,  Sr.,  I,  461;  II,  12;  war 
governor,  27;  28 

Yates,  Richard,  the  Second,  administra- 
tion of,  II,  173,  174,  312,  329;  III,  37 

Yerkes,  Charles  T.,  II,  146;  arrives  in 
Chicago,  210;  514,  520 

Yerkes,  monopoly  bills,  II,  170 

Yetter,  Jacob  J.,  Ill,  427 

York,  Frederick  W.,  Jr.,  IV,  239 

Young,  Brigham,  I,  399 

Young,  Richard  M.,  I,  273;  IV,  9 

Young,  Wayne  E.,  V,  281 

Younker,  R.  Earl,  IV,  449 

Yount,  Lozier  D.,  IV,  298 

Yunker,  Stanley  O.,  Ill,  236 

)  : 

Zane,  John  M.,  IV,  155 
Zeigler,  W.  K.,  IV,  443 
Zellers,  Frank  W.,  IV,  414 
Zeuch,  Lucius  H.,  Ill,  391 
Zibble,  Walter  H.,  IV,  407 
Zimmer,  Michael,  IV,  45 
Zimmerman,  Edward  A.,  Ill,  347 
Zink,  Samuel  H.,  V,  392 
Zintak,  Frank  V.,  IV,  275 
Zweig,  Fred,  III,  297 


History  of  Illinois 


CHAPTER  I 

EL    DORADO— A   WONDROUS    LOCATION    FOR    A    NEW 

COMMONWEALTH 

If  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  a  committee 
of  the  Caucasian  race  were  searching-  the  world  for  a  location 
within  which  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  young  commonwealth 
of  white  men,  no  place  on  earth  could  have  been  found  more 
suitable  for  that  foundation  than  that  territory  of  land  now 
known  as  the  State  of  Illinois. 

Take  a  map  of  the  United  States  and  lay  it  before  you. 
Note,  that  almost  in  the  center  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  (now 
concededly  the  richest  valley  in  the  world),  the  waters  of  three 
mighty  rivers,  the  Missouri,  Mississippi  and  Ohio,  meet  at  the 
City  of  Cairo,  the  extreme  southern  tip  of  the  State  of  Illinois. 
Down  these  three  mighty  rivers  there  had  been  washed  for  cen- 
turies the  silt  and  alluvial  soil  of  that  great  fertile  valley. 

For  almost  700  miles  of  the  total  1,160  miles  boundaries  of 
the  state,  these  mighty  rivers  had  been  dashing  their  waters  and 
depositing  their  drifting  silt  and  soil  against  lands  of  Illinois 
bordering  on  these  rivers,  making  the  bottom  lands  along  the 
rivers  as  fertile  as  those  in  the  far-famed  Valley  of  the  Nile. 

At  the  northeast  corner  of  the  state  and  bordering  the  state 
for  fifty-one  miles,  was  and  is  the  great  inland  fresh-water  sea, 
Lake  Michigan.  That  lake,  strange  to  say,  is  shaped  like  a 
great  index  finger,  the  top  of  the  finger  resting,  where  now  is 
located  the  fourth  greatest  city  in  the  world.  The  march  of 
years  have  proved  it  was  a  finger  of  destiny. 

Across  the  breast  of  that  state,  there  flowed  then,  as  now, 
diagonally  from  the  northeast  to  southwest,  like  a  cordon  of  the 
Legion  of  Honor,  the  great  Illinois  River. 


2  ILLINOIS 

Then  as  now,  in  its  upper  course,  near  what  is  now  the  City 
of  Morris,  the  Illinois  River  is  forked,  the  upper  tine  of  which 
(the  Desplaines  River)  lies  to  the  north  a  few  miles  west  of 
Chicago.  The  other  tine  of  this  fork  (the  Kankakee)  trends 
to  the  north  and  east  toward  the  St.  Joe  River  in  the  State  of 
Michigan. 

Then  as  now,  the  sources  of  the  Desplaines  River  and  the 
Kankakee  were  but  a  few  miles  from  Lake  Michigan.  Then 
as  now,  a  slight  elevation  of  ground  or  ridge  located  within  a 
few  miles  of  Lake  Michigan  constituted  the  dividing  line  between 
the  St.  Lawrence  Basin  and  the  Mississippi  Valley,  whose  waters 
empty  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

In  and  north  of  the  Village  of  Ridgeland,  in  Oak  Park,  about 
seven  miles  west  of  Chicago,  that  ridge  or  elevation  is  only  about 
twenty  feet  above  the  water  level  of  Lake  Michigan,  and  there 
are  houses  in  that  village  where  rain  drops  falling  on  the  west 
eave  of  the  roofs  ultimately  reach  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  through 
the  Des  Plaines,  Illinois,  and  Mississippi,  while  the  rain  drops 
falling  on  the  east  eaves  of  the  roofs  ultimately  reach  the  Gulf 
of  St.  Lawrence  through  the  Great  Lakes.  The  importance  of 
this  slight  elevation  dividing  the  basins  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
and  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  will  be  developed  and  dwelt  upon 
in  later  chapters  of  this  history. 

Then  as  now,  the  slope  of  the  surface  of  the  soil  of  the 
present  State  of  Illinois  was  from  a  height  of  about  800  feet 
above  sea-level  in  the  northern  portion  of  the  state  and  around 
Chicago,  to  about  300  feet  above  sea-level  at  Cairo.  The  grade 
of  descent  from  about  800  feet  to  about  300  feet  being  gradual 
most  of  the  way.  The  Illinois  River  then,  as  now,  was  navigable 
for  light  draft  vessels  from  its  mouth  to  what  is  now  Utica. 
At  that  place  there  exists  a  strata  of  rocks  between  Utica  and 
what  is  now  Lockport.  This  rocky  formation  renders  the  Illinois 
unnavigable  for  about  sixty  miles.  The  fall  in  the  river  between 
Lockport  and  Utica  is  about  132  feet.  Not  only  was  the  north- 
eastern, central  and  central  western  portions  of  this  territory 
copiously  watered  and  fertilized  by  the  broad  Illinois  River,  but 
the  western  portion  was  equally  blessed  with  the  waters  of  the 
Fox  and  Rock  rivers.    The  southeastern  portion  was  well  cared 


ILLINOIS  3 

for  in  like  manner  by  the  Wabash,  Little  Wabash,  Saline,  Embar- 
rass and  their  tributaries.  The  extreme  south  of  the  state  was 
equally  fortunate  in  having  its  soil  copiously  watered  by  the 
converging  of  the  mighty  streams,  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio, 
and  by  the  Kaskaskia,  Vermilion,  Big  Muddy,  Saline,  Little 
Wabash  and  their  tributaries. 

The  whole  of  this  splendid  rich  territory  consisted  of  rich 
rolling  prairie  land,  such  as  we  know  and  so  highly  valued 
today,  except  the  portions  of  the  same  close  to  the  rivers,  which 
were  covered,  then  as  now,  with  forests  and  undergrowth  valu- 
able for  fuel  and  housebuilding  and  furniture,  and  also  excepting 
the  rocky  ridge  crossing  the  Illinois  River  between  Lockport 
and  Utica  and  also  excepting  a  spur  of  the  Ozark  Mountains, 
lowering  these  mountains  of  Missouri  into  hills  of  considerable 
size  in  the  present  State  of  Illinois.  The  rocky  untillable  portion 
of  the  surface  of  the  soil  constituted  but  an  inconsiderable  part 
of  the  whole  territory. 

The  Illinois  plain  is,  in  fact,  the  bottom  of  a  huge  basin 
composed  of  the  states  of  Indiana,  whose  elevation  is  700  feet 
above  sea-level,  Michigan,  900  feet  above  sea-level,  Wisconsin 
1,050  feet  above  sea-level,  Iowa  1,100  feet  above,  and  Missouri 
800  feet  above.  The  mean  level  of  Illinois  is  about  600  feet 
above  sea-level. 

The  richest  and  most  productive  soil  first  discovered  was 
located  along  the  American  Bottom  or  low  lands  along  the 
banks  of  the  Mississippi  between  the  mouth  of  the  Kaskaskia 
River  and  what  is  now  St.  Louis. 

Beaver  and  other  valuable  fur  and  meat  producing  wild 
animals  were  abundant  all  over  the  territory,  and  edible  fish 
were  plentiful  in  all  the  rivers  of  the  state.  For  man  in  a 
state  of  nature,  ignorant  of  the  arts  and  weapons  of  civilized 
man,  this  territory  at  that  time  was  an  Elysium. 

All  he  needed  was  to  chip  an  arrow  head  or  a  spear  head 
from  a  stone,  cut  a  hickory  tree  for  a  bow,  string  it  with 
untanned  hide,  fashion  his  arrow  from  a  twig,  his  spear  from 
a  bough,  attach  his  chipped  stone  heads,  and  kill  his  game  from 
among  the  wild  animals  that  roved  in  great  numbers  all  around 
him. 


4  ILLINOIS 

It  was  such  a  huuting  ground  as  the  untutored  savage  pic- 
tured to  himself  in  his  dreams  of  his  future  heaven. 

Deer,  elk,  bears,  wolves,  foxes,  opossums,  racoons,  squirrels 
and  rabbits  were  plentiful  not  only  then,  but  for  years  after 
the  white  man  had  dispossessed  the  Indians.  Wild  turkeys  and 
prairie  chickens  and  quail  were  very  plentiful. 

Prodigious  flocks  of  wild  geese,  herons  and  swans  haunted 
the  headwaters  of  the  Illinois  and  the  small  lakes.  The  lakes 
and  rivers  were  alive  with  edible  fish,  such  as  black  bass,  pickerel, 
muskalonge,  lake  trout,  white  fish,  cat  fish  and  red  horse. 

High  bearded  grass  covered  most  of  the  open  prairies, 
through  which  grew  most  luxuriantly  wild  flowers  such  as  sun 
flowers,  daffodils,  prairie  dock,  ox  eye,  iron-weed,  asters,  milk 
weed,  orange  lilies,  and  wild  roses.  Blue  phlox  and  blue  bells 
were  to  be  found  in  moist  ground.  Wild  garlic  was  also  abun- 
dant. Wild  strawberries  and  blackberries  and  wild  grapes  were 
also  very  plentiful,  and  fields  often  glowed  with  the  glory  of 
golden  rod. 

The  spiritual  beauties  of  natural  scenery  were  thus  added 
to  the  material  riches  of  wild  animals,  wild  birds,  and  swift 
swimming  fishes,  to  attract  a  proposed  settler,  and  those  material 
and  spiritual  attractions  could  not  be  long  resisted  by  the  white 
man. 

The  gradual  slope  of  the  surface  of  the  soil  from  800  feet 
above  sea  level  in  the  northern  part  of  the  state  to  about  300  feet 
in  the  south  of  the  state,  is  accounted  for  by  Alvord  in  his 
splendid  Volume  I.  of  the  Centennial  History  of  Illinois,  from 
which  I  quote  pp.  17  et  seq. 

During  this  period  of  the  formation  of  the  known  rock 
layers  of  Illinois,  was  created  the  state's  wealth  in  minerals, 
the  most  important  of  which  deserves  mention,  if  for  no 
other  reason  than  to  bring  forcibly  to  the  mind  the  long 
reaches  of  time  hurriedly  passed  in  review.  During  one 
or  more  of  the  geologic  periods,  Illinois  changed  repeatedly 
from  a  coastal  swamp  to  a  shallow  sea,  depending  on  the 
unwarping  and  sinking  of  the  plane.  The  flora  of  this 
swamp  land  was  luxuriant,  its  forms  unlike  those  of  today ; 
there  flourished  huge  fern  trees  fifty  feet  high,  softwood 
evergreens,  tall  and  slender,  and  among  these  were  smaller 


ILLINOIS  5 

rank-growing  plants.  The  dominant  color  of  these  forests 
was  green,  unbroken  by  bright  flowers.  Such  forests  grew 
to  maturity,  died  and  were  changed  by  chemical  and  other 
forces  into  peat  and  then  into  coal.  It  is  estimated  that 
the  territory  of  the  state  during  this  coal  making  period 
passed  through  this  sequence  of  processes,  turning  forests 
into  coal,  at  least  six  different  times. 

After  the  coal  beds  had  been  formed,  the  territory 
of  the  state  experienced  one  of  those  continually  recurring 
internal  disturbances,  that  on  this  occasion  raised  the  whole 
surface  and  warped  the  edges,  the  southern  portion  in 
particular  being  radically  changed.  Here  rocks  were  cracked 
and  pushed  or  pressed  upward,  forming  the  Ozark  dome 
that  stretches  through  southern  Missouri.  Since  then,  the 
surface  of  the  state  has  never  been  inundated  by  the  sea, 
but  for  an  indefinitely  long  period,  the  rock  layers  were 
subjected  to  the  persistent  forces  of  erosion.  The  winds, 
the  frost,  and  the  rain  crumbled  their  surfaces,  cutting 
down  the  warped  edges  and  carving  the  Ozark  hills  into 
their  present  shape.  The  rivers  wore  their  way  through 
the  stony  beds ;  and  out  of  the  debris  of  erosion  was  formed 
a  new  soil,  wherein  trees  and  plants  took  root. 

The  resulting  territory,  warped  by  pressure  from 
beneath  and  eroded  by  wind  and  water,  resembled  the 
bowl  of  a  shallow  spoon,  or  rather  of  a  series  of  spoons 
placed  one  on  the  other,  each  representing  a  stratified 
layer  of  rock  that  during  some  previous  eon  had  been 
deposited  in  the  form  of  particles  and  transformed  into 
stone. 

Since  the  erosion  was  greater  at  the  edges,  the  lower 
layers  extended  beyond  those  above.  Over  all,  there  lay 
strewn  a  soil  of  decayed  stone,  similar  in  kind  to  that  of 
present-day  New  England.  On  the  whole,  the  landscape 
was  not  so  very  strange,  though  the  surface  was  more 
broken  by  hills  than  it  is  today;  the  Mississippi  rolled 
placidly,  probably  more  placidly  than  it  does  now,  along 
its  course,  and  its  branches,  such  as  the  Illinois,  occupied 
approximately  the  same  positions  in  the  water  system  of 
the  great  valley  that  they  do  at  the  present  time.  The 
northern  part  of  the  state  was,  however,  almost  unrecog- 
nizable.    There  were  no  Great  Lakes. 

The  climate  throughout  the  early  geologic  periods  was 
generally  mild,  even  warmer  than  it  is  today,  for  palms 
grew  here,  and  evidences  of  an  early  coral  reef  have  been 
found  near  Chicago.    The  trees,  shrubs  and  plants  presented 


6  ILLINOIS 

an  unfamiliar  scene,  wherein  unrecognizable  species  pre- 
dominated. The  earliest  forms  have  long  since  become 
extinct,  but  as  the  modern  era  approached,  the  flora 
assumed  a  more  present-day  aspect 

The  surface  of  the  Illinois  country  was  destined  to 
undergo  one  more  radical  change  before  it  should  be  the 
scene  of  human  activities.  All  forms  of  life  were  for  a 
long  period  of  time  to  be  driven  from  its  surface.  From 
causes  not  satisfactorily  explained,  there  took  place  a  change 
of  temperature.  The  mild,  almost  tropical  climate  of  the 
previous  ages  gave  way  to  one  of  an  extreme  cold.  From 
Labrador  as  a  center,  there  slowly  traveled,  moving  a  few 
feet  a  day,  great  ice  sheets,  so  thick  that  mountains  delayed, 
but  did  not  stop  their  progress.  Four  or  five  of  these  massive 
visitants  in  succession  reached  the  territory  of  the  state; 
one  that  covered  its  entire  area,  except  the  extreme  south 
and  northwest,  has  been  named  in  its  honor,  "Illinoians." 

In  their  passage,  the  glaciers  deposited  over  almost 
all  the  surface  a  layer  of  drift  or  boulder  clay  from  five 
to  five  hundred  feet  thick,  composed  of  soil,  gravel  and 
boulders.  In  many  places  where  the  edge  of  the  glaciers 
remained  practically  stationary  due  to  an  equilibrium 
between  movement  and  melting,  they  formed  those  low, 
rolling  hills  or  moraines  so  conspicuous  in  the  northern 
part  of  the  state 

By  the  advent  of  the  glaciers,  valleys  that  had  been 
conspicuous  landmarks  during  the  older  geologic  time,  were 
blotted  out,  smaller  rivers  were  forced  to  change  their 
beds  and  courses,  and  even  the  "Father  of  Waters"  was 
obliged  in  places  to  yield  to  the  power  of  these  northern 
invaders. 

The  topography  of  the  northern  part  of  Illinois  under- 
went the  most  important  changes.  As  the  glaciers  receded, 
their  progress  merged  the  bodies  of  water  that  in  time 
developed  into  the  Great  Lakes.  First  there  appeared  the 
parent  of  Lake  Michigan,  called  by  geologists  Lake  Chicago. 
It  was  a  large  sheet,  pouring  its  water  through  an  outlet 
into  the  Illinois  River.  Only  in  the  post  glacial  period 
was  this  outlet  closed;  the  level  of  the  lake  was  lowered 
by  drainage  on  the  east,  and  the  shores  of  the  present  lake 
were  built  up  by  the  slow  process  of  the  depositing  of 
sand. 

These  visitants  from  the  north  left  to  the  state  a  price- 
less gift,  a  most  fertile  soil.  In  most  places,  the  glacial 
drift  has  been  covered  by  a  layer  of  loess,  varying  from 


ILLINOIS  7 

two  feet  to  one  hundred,  blown  by  the  wind  or  carried  by 
water  since  the  recession  of  the  glaciers,  and  over  this, 
in  turn,  decaying  vegetable  matter  has  laid  a  surface  cover- 
ing of  black  earth.  Beneath  these  and  over  the  pre-glacial 
rocks  lie  the  deposit  of  the  glaciers,  the  boulder  clay  a 
respository  of  plant  food  unsurpassed  in  the  world.  In 
the  southern  part  of  the  state,  the  Illinoian  glacier  alone 
has  been  responsible  for  this  subsoil,  but  in  the  northern 
counties  there  may  be  distinguished  layer  upon  layer  of 
drift  deposited  by  a  succession  of  ice  fields. 

Continuing  further,  Alvord  states  that, 

The  climax  of  the  Illinoian  glacier,  which  covered  most 
of  the  state,  occurred  somewhere  between  70,000  and  540,- 
000  years  ago. 

Alvord  backs  up  these  statements  by  referring  to  Flagg, 
The  Far  West  in  Thwaite's  Early  Western  Travels;  Leverett, 
The  Illinois  Glacial  Lobe;  Hopkins  and  Pettitt,  The  Fertility 
in  Illinois  Soils;  Chamberlain  and  Salisbury,  Geology. 

Little  as  I  know  of  geology,  I  can  only  say  that  I  have  found, 
and  the  reader  can  find,  in  the  many  boulders  composed  of 
material  altogether  different  from  the  surrounding  soil,  that 
we  still  find  on  the  surface  of  Illinois  lands,  some  evidence  that 
these  great  glacial  periods  may  have  existed  and  probably  did 
exist  in  the  State  of  Illinois.  I  know  of  personal  knowledge 
that  a  friend  of  mine1  collected  enough  of  these  boulders  in  the 
vicinity  of  River  Forest,  a  short  distance  west  of  Chicago,  to 
build  him  a  beautiful  home  in  that  suburb  of  Chicago.  How 
these  boulders,  some  of  them  of  immense  size,  could  have  been  so 
generously  distributed  over  the  surface  of  Illinois  lands,  unless 
it  was  by  glaciers,  I  cannot  understand. 

If  such  glacial  inundation  did  occur,  as  described  by  Alvord, 
it  would  have  undoubtedly  have  done  what  he  claims  it  has 
done — enormously  enriched  the  soil  of  Illinois. 

So  much  for  the  surface  soil  of  this  wondrous  land,  and  of 
the  flora  and  fauna  that  were  found  above  it  and  upon  it.  These 
were  but  a  part  of  the  abundance  of  wealth  with  which  a 
bountiful  Creator  richly  endowed  it. 


i  William  H.  Reedy,  Esq.,  of  River  Forest,  Illinois. 


8  ILLINOIS 

The  sub-soil  of  this  land  now  demands  some  attention.  In 
searching  for  copper  and  silver  mines  along  the  banks  of  the 
Illinois  River,  the  Italian-French  explorer,  Tonti,  ran  into  a 
vein  of  rich  bituminous  coal,  near  Peoria.  When  a  boy  in 
Peoria,  I  saw  a  vein  of  such  coal  outcropping  on  the  side  of  a 
hill  south  of  that  city. 

At  the  present  time,  we  know  that  rich  bituminous  coal  de- 
posits underlie  in  the  neighborhood  of  two-thirds  of  the  surface 
soil  of  the  State  of  Illinois  in  seams  of  from  ten  to  twelve  in 
number  at  varying  depths  from  the  surface,  ranging  from  a 
few  feet  to  several  hundred  feet.  These  seams  are  not  of  uni- 
form thickness,  but  vary  in  some  places  from  a  few  inches  to 
other  places  where  these  veins  are  eight  or  nine  feet  in  width. 

The  French  settlers  seem  not  to  have  availed  themselves  of 
these  coal  mine  discoveries,  but  early  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
the  English  or  American  settlers  began  to  open  them  and  work 
them  commercially  with  rich  results.  The  Mount  Carmel  Coal 
Company  was  chartered  by  the  Legislature  in  1835.  This  mine 
was  located  on  the  Big  Muddy  in  the  southern  part  of  the  state. 
Shortly  thereafter,  Governor  John  Reynolds  developed  a  mine 
near  Belleville,  building  a  railroad  from  the  mine  at  Belleville 
to  the  Mississippi  just  below  East  St.  Louis  of  about  seven  or 
eight  miles  in  length,  the  roadbed  of  which  is  still  in  use. 

The  development  of  coal  has  grown  from  these  small  begin- 
nings to  a  point  where  the  production  of  coal  in  the  state  an- 
nually is  approximately  one  hundred  million  tons. 

It  was  found  early  in  the  twentieth  century  that  there  were 
also  valuable  petroleum  deposits  in  the  southeastern  part  of 
the  state.  In  1917,  the  State  of  Illinois  produced  eighteen  mil- 
lion barrels,  valued  at  $2  a  barrel. 

Clay  products  of  much  value  are  also  found  under  the  soil 
of  this  state,  the  most  important  being  found  in  Union  County, 
called  kaolin,  which  is  formed  from  the  decomposition  of 
feldspar. 

Fire  clay  in  the  state  has  also  been  found  in  plentiful  quan- 
tities, likewise  clay  suitable  for  drain  tile  and  for  sewer  pipe. 
Clay  for  pottery  has  also  been  found  in  extensive  quantities. 
In  many  portions  of  the  state,  the  common  clay,  from  which 


ILLINOIS  9 

building  brick  is  manufactured,  can  be  found  in  almost  inex- 
haustible quantities.  Terra  cotta  is  also  manufactured  from 
deposits  found  in  the  soil  in  the  northern  part  of  the  state. 

Large  quantities  of  building  stone  are  found  in  the  Illinois 
soil.  The  lime  stones,  however,  are  not  of  a  very  high  quality 
for  building  purposes,  but  still  great  quantities  are  utilized  for 
road  making,  for  concrete  work,  and  for  energizing  the  acid 
condition  of  the  soil.  Cement  is  manufactured  from  a  kind  of 
shale  and  limestone  found  in  the  state.  Millions  of  barrels  of 
cement  are  manufactured  every  year  in  the  State  of  Illinois.  In 
the  matter  of  road-building,  the  State  of  Illinois  has  an  un- 
limited amount  of  materials  suitable  for  cement  road  work. 

About  three-fourths  of  all  of  the  fluorspar  produced  in  the 
United  States  comes  from  the  State  of  Illinois. 

At  the  time  of  the  French  discoveries,  nearly  one-fourth  of 
the  surface  of  the  state  was  covered  with  forests,  particularly 
the  southern  part  of  the  state,  and  along  the  water  ways  of  the 
state.  The  pioneer  farmers  of  the  state,  however,  were  almost 
criminally  reckless  in  their  treatment  of  these  timbered  areas. 
A  survey  of  the  forests  of  the  state  made  about  1880  disclosed 
the  fact  that  only  15  per  cent  of  the  state  was  at  that  time  cov- 
ered with  timber.  These  pioneers  established  sawmills  near 
all  these  woodlands,  and  cut  up  and  sawed  for  firewood  fine 
oaks,  hickories,  maples,  walnuts,  ash,  and  other  less  important 
woods.  Other  settlers  in  the  lowlands  made  a  practice  of  cutting 
deep  rings  around  the  trunks  of  large  trees  with  axes,  and  allow- 
ing them  to  die.  This  was  done  generally  for  the  purpose  of 
clearing  the  woodland  and  enabling  it  to  be  cultivated  for  corn. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  these  large  resources,  heretofore 
referred  to  on  the  surface  and  under  the  surface,  vegetable, 
animal  and  mineral,  were  of  enormous  value,  and  made  this 
country  when  it  was  first  discovered  by  the  French  pioneers, 
one  of  the  most  attractive,  if  not  the  most  attractive  strip  of 
land  in  the  whole  Mississippi  Valley.  The  rivers  were  alive 
with  fish,  and  the  land  was  covered  with  wild  game  of  all 
descriptions. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    ONE    HUNDRED    PER    CENT    AMERICAN    IN    HIS 
HAPPY  HUNTING  GROUND  AND  HIS  PASSING 

Upon  the  rich  rolling  prairies  and  along  the  mighty  rivers 
described  in  the  last  chapter,  there  dwelt  and  ranged  and  hunted 
in  perfect  happiness  and  contentment  in  1673  and  for  centuries 
before  that,  the  real  one-hundred-per-cent  American,  the  North 
American  Indian. 

His  occupancy  of  this  land  flowing  with  wild  "milk  and 
honey"  for  centuries,  has  never  been  questioned.  How  these 
red-skinned  descendants  of  Adam  and  Eve  reached  these  happy 
hunting  grounds,  we  may  never  know.  They  never  made  a 
written  record  of  their  origin,  or  their  antecedents  or  progen- 
itors in  history,  song  or  story. 

Whether  the  Almighty  created,  unknown  to  the  writers  of 
Biblical  history  and  profane  history,  a  red  skinned  Adam  and 
Eve  in  the  Western  Continent,  or  whether  the  ancestors  of  these 
vigorous  men  and  women  were  the  descendants  of  the  Biblical 
Adam  and  Eve,  we  may  never  know.  We  do  not  know  now  after 
three  centuries  of  investigation  and  theorizing.  Brave  and 
crafty  in  physical  conflict,  they  never  seem  to  have  been  en- 
dowed with  mental  strength  or  shrewdness. 

They  have  never  shown  in  North  America  any  capacity  for 
coordination  or  concert  of  action.  So  far  as  I  have  read,  they 
had  not  intelligence  enough  to  create  an  alphabet  as  the  basis 
of  a  written  language.  This  is  true  not  only  of  the  tribes  who 
occupied  the  Territory  of  Illinois,  but  is  also  true  of  all  North 
American  Indians.  When  hunting  was  rich  and  productive, 
when  they  had  food  sufficient  to  satisfy  their  animal  appetites 
from  game  and  fish,  and  clothing  enough  from  the  skins  of  wild 
animals,  to  keep  warm,  they  were  contented  and  had  no  desire 
for  the  luxuries  created  by  civilization. 

10 


ILLINOIS  11 

Their  women  at  times  tilled  the  soil,  in  a  scratchily  hap- 
hazard manner,  to  coax  from  it  a  little  more  of  the  wild  grain 
and  fruit  that  grew  wildly  around  them. 

They  formed  among  themselves  families  and  clans  of  kin- 
dred blood  that  sometimes  grew  into  tribes,  but  nationhood,  as 
known  to  the  white,  brown  and  yellow  races,  was  beyond  their 
conception  and  accomplishment.  The  so-called  "Confederation 
of  Five  Nations"  was  never  more  than  a  more  or  less  temporary 
confederation  of  the  five  tribes.  The  combinations  effected  by 
Pontiac  and  Tecumseh  were  temporary  and  ineffective.  They 
were  a  brave  but  primitive  people,  utterly  unable  to  deal  intel- 
ligently or  capably  with  men  of  the  white  race. 

In  1673  when  the  first  white  men  set  foot  on  the  soil  of 
Illinois,  several  tribes  were  in  occupancy  of  different  portions 
of  the  future  state. 

In  the  center  and  southwest  portion  of  the  state  was  located 
the  "Illinois,"  of  which  the  Peorias  and  the  Kickapoos  were 
branches  or  first  cousins.  I  lived  in  Peoria  in  my  boyhood  and 
know  that  it  gets  its  name  from  the  tribe  or  sub-tribe  that  dwelt 
on  the  banks  of  the  Illinois  at  Lake  Peoria.  I  know  further 
that  the  Kickapoo  Creek  near  Peoria,  in  which  I  often  bathed 
when  a  boy,  gets  its  name  from  the  Indian  tribe  or  sub-tribe 
that  dwelt  along  its  banks  in  1673. 

The  Miami  tribe  occupied  at  the  same  time  the  eastern  por- 
tion of  Illinois  and  the  western  part  of  Indiana  along  the 
Wabash  River. 

The  Pottawatomies  occupied  the  northeastern  portion  of  the 
state  along  Lake  Michigan  from  Southern  Wisconsin  to  North- 
ern Indiana. 

The  Sauk  and  Fox,  Winnebago,  Ottawa  and  Chippewa  were 
also  frequently  found  fighting  and  marauding  in  the  northern 
part  of  the  state.  Southern  Wisconsin  and  Northern  Illinois 
seemed  to  be  their  favorite  hunting  grounds.  There  was  not, 
however,  any  close  and  lasting  confederation  or  concert  of  action 
between  these  different  tribes,  and  often  they  or  some  of  them 
were  found  in  conflict  with  each  other.  The  Winnebago  and 
the  Illinois  carried  on  a  bitter  war  for  a  time,  the  former  having 
entrapped  and  killed  five  hundred  of  the  foe.     The  Illinois  re- 


12  ILLINOIS 

taliated  and  almost  totally  destroyed  the  Winnebago,  reducing 
150  of  the  survivors  to  slavery. 

All  these  tribes  were  descendants  of  the  super-tribe  or  race 
known  as  the  Algonquin.  This  super-tribe,  the  Algonquin,  prob- 
ably had  its  origin  in  the  North  Atlantic  region.  Its  subsidiary 
tribes  located  themselves  all  the  way  from  Canada,  from  Hud- 
son Bay  to  Alberta  on  the  west,  into  the  United  States,  from 
Maine  to  North  Carolina,  from  the  Upper  Great  Lakes  through 
the  states  of  Ohio,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Kentucky  and  Tennessee. 

The  most  formidable  foe  of  this  Algonquin  super-tribe  were 
the  Iroquois  tribe,  located  around  Lake  Ontario  and  Lake  Erie 
in  the  Mohawk  Valley. 

The  most  southerly  of  these  sub-tribes  of  the  Algonquin  race 
were  the  Shawnees,  who  were  located  in  Kentucky  and  Ten- 
nessee. The  Shawnees  were  probably  the  vanguard  of  the  Al- 
gonquin tribe  in  the  incursions  of  that  tribe  into  Illinois  and 
the  states  south  of  the  Great  Lakes. 

Belonging  to  the  Algonquin  tribe  were  also  the  Sauks,  Foxes, 
Winnebagoes,  Pottawatomi,  Kickapoos,  Mascoutans,  Miami,  and 
the  Illinois.  At  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  the  state  by  the 
French  explorers,  the  Illinois  were  first  in  importance  and  power, 
although  at  the  time  they  were  visited  by  Marquette  and  Joliet, 
they  had  probably  passed  the  zenith  of  their  strength.  They 
formed  at  first  one  great  tribe.  As  their  numbers  increased, 
subdivisions  or  sub-tribes  were  given  more  particular  names. 
To  the  great  Illinois  tribe  belonged  the  Kaskaskias,  Peorias, 
Cahokias,  Tamaroas,  Moinguenas  and  Michigameas.  These  dif- 
ferent bands  of  the  Illinois  tribe  for  some  time  continued  to  act 
in  coordination  against  their  common  enemies,  that  alliance 
based  on  kinship  rather  than  any  formal  treaty.  The  Illinois 
tribe  occupied  most  of  Illinois  and  the  southern  parts  of  Wis- 
consin and  Iowa.  The  main  body  of  the  Illinois  tribe  for  some 
years  were  located  in  the  Valley  of  the  Illinois  River,  and  along 
its  banks  had  been  their  principal  villages  prior  to  the  seven- 
teenth century. 

The  Miami  tribe  was  located  in  Western  Indiana  and  East- 
ern Illinois,  and  was  of  near  kin  to  the  Illinois.  Rumors  reached 
the  early  French  settlers  in  1657,  or  thereabout,  that  they  had 


Starved  Rock 


14  ILLINOIS 

sixty  villages  in  Central  Illinois,  and  a  population  of  20,000 
human  beings,  though  this  is  no  doubt  an  exaggeration. 

The  Illinois  tribes  were  not,  even  before  the  advent  of  the 
Pale  Face,  permitted  to  enjoy  without  disturbance  the  large, 
rich  hunting  grounds  occupied  by  them.  A  belligerent  tribe  lo- 
cated to  the  west  in  Southern  Minnesota  and  Northern  Iowa, 
known  as  the  Sioux,  were  always  more  or  less  in  conflict  with 
the  Illinois.  The  Winnebagoes,  a  branch  of  the  Sioux  tribe,  were 
guilty  of  a  great  act  of  treachery  in  murdering  many  warriors 
of  the  Illinois  tribe  who  had  been  sent  to  them  with  peaceable 
intentions.  While  the  Illinois  tribe  was  engaged  in  dancing,  the 
Winnebago  cut  the  bow  strings  of  their  bows,  flung  themselves 
upon  the  Illinois  men  and  massacred  them,  not  sparing  a  man, 
in  retaliation  for  which  the  Illinois  attacked  the  Winnebago, 
surrounding  them  and  putting  most  of  them  to  death. 

Nor  were  the  Illinois  tribe  free  from  assaults  from  the  east. 
Five  great  Iroquois  tribes,  the  Mohawk,  Oneida,  Onondages, 
Cayugas  and  Senecas  were  at  all  times  hostile  to  the  Algonquin 
race.  These  five  tribes,  sometimes  called  the  Five  Nations,  en- 
tered into  a  confederation  among  themselves,  attacked  the  Miami 
tribe,  drove  them  westward  and  northward  into  the  region  of 
modern  Wisconsin,  and  in  1655  a  band  of  these  Five  Nations 
attacked  the  villages  of  the  Illinois  and  killed  many  women  and 
children.  This  war,  commenced  in  1655,  lasted  until  1667,  and 
during  the  war  the  Illinois  tribe  was  so  weakened  that  they 
were  obliged  to  abandon  their  ancient  locations  along  the  Illinois 
River  and  seek  safety  west  of  the  Mississippi.  Surrounded  as 
they  were  by  the  profusion  of  nature,  the  abundance  of  game 
and  fish  in  the  rivers,  the  Illinois  Indians  were  rather  disposed 
to  indolence.  They  relied  for  sustenance  almost  exclusively 
upon  hunting  and  fishing.  What  little  maize,  or  corn,  was  raised 
by  them  was  the  result  of  the  labor  of  their  squaws,  who  culti- 
vated crudely  and  unscientifically  some  little  corn,  beans  and 
other  vegetables.  In  summertime,  after  their  little  crops  were 
planted,  and  in  winter  after  they  had  stored  the  proceeds  of 
their  planting  and  hunting,  the  whole  group  would  move  to  a 
wilder  part  of  the  country  and  set  up  a  hunting  camp. 


ILLINOIS  15 

Their  weapons  were  very  crude,  a  bow  and  arrow,  clubs  and 
knives  made  of  flint  or  bone,  or  sometimes  of  the  shank  of  a 
deer. 

In  their  permanent  villages,  they  built  substantial  oblong 
cabins,  sufficient  to  house  from  six  to  twelve  families  each,  the 
framework  being  made  by  saplings  bent  together  and  latched  at 
the  top,  which  were  then  covered  with  layers  of  mats  or  woven 
rushes.  These  cabins  had  a  door  at  each  end,  and  an  open 
place  in  the  roof  for  the  escape  of  smoke.  The  earth  floor  was 
sometimes  covered  with  mats.  As  many  as  fifty  or  sixty  human 
beings  often  occupied  these  cabins. 

The  men  of  the  tribe  owned  as  their  exclusive  property  their 
hunting  implements  and  weapons  of  warfare.  The  women 
claimed  as  their  own  the  household  equipment  and  any  imple- 
ments that  they  had  used  in  tilling  the  soil.  There  was  no  such 
thing  as  individual  ownership  of  land.  Land  occupied  by  them 
in  and  around  their  villages  was  regarded  as  the  property  of 
the  tribe.  They  believed  that  the  tribe  owned  the  land,  and 
that  the  tribe  only  could  part  with  title  to  the  same.  The  In- 
dian tribe  was,  in  fact,  but  a  large  family  made  up  of  relatives 
tracing  descent  from  a  common  ancestor.  Marriage  was  not 
permitted  within  their  own  clan.  Matters  relating  to  the  fam- 
ily were  settled  in  family  councils.  Matters  relating  to  the  clan 
were  settled  by  a  council  of  all  the  families  within  the  group, 
and  tribal  matters  were  decided  in  a  council  attended  by  the 
heads  of  the  different  clans,  Declarations  of  war,  strange  to 
say,  however,  were  not  always  made  upon  conference  between 
the  friendly  tribes.  A  single  warrior  having  some  grievance 
against  a  warrior  of  another  tribe  could  declare  war  himself 
and  gather  around  him  such  allies  as  were  willing  to  join  in 
the  fight.  Extensive  campaigns  were  an  exception  in  Indian 
warfare.     An  early  Jesuit  writer  states, 

Ordinarily  their  party  consists  of  only  twenty,  thirty, 
or  forty  men;  sometimes  these  parties  are  of  only  six  or 
seven  persons,  and  these  are  most  to  be  feared.  As  their 
entire  skill  lies  in  surprising  their  enemy,  the  small  num- 
ber facilitates  the  pains  that  they  take  to  conceal  them- 
selves in  order  that  they  may  more  securely  strike  the 


16  ILLINOIS 

blow  which  they  are  planning Their  method  is  to 

follow  on  the  trail  of  their  enemy  and  to  kill  some  one  of 
them  while  he  is  asleep, — or  rather  to  lie  in  ambush  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  villages  and  to  split  the  head  of  the  first  one 
who  comes  forth,  and  taking  off  his  scalp,  to  display  it  as  a 
trophy  among  their  countrymen. 

The  first  Indians  met  by  Joliet  and  Pere  Marquette  were 
rather  of  a  peace-loving  character,  as  testified  to  by  these  French 
explorers.  The  French  missionaries  believed  that  their  success 
in  converting  the  Indians  to  Christianity  rose  out  of  the  fact  that 
the  Indians  believed  in  a  Great  Manitou  or  Great  Spirit.  Father 
Allouez  in  1665  wrote, 

I  have  learned  that  the  Illinouck,  the  Outagami, 
(Foxes)  and  other  savages  toward  the  south,  hold  that 
there  is  a  great  and  excellent  genius,  master  of  all  the  rest, 
who  made  heaven  and  earth,  and  who  dwells,  they  say,  in 
the  east  towards  the  country  of  the  French. 

Most  important  of  their  religious  ceremonies  was  the  Calu- 
met dance,  performed  sometimes  to  strengthen  peace  or  to  unite 
themselves  for  some  great  war,  at  other  times  for  public  rejoic- 
ing or  to  honor  a  visitor.  The  Calumet  was  a  ceremonial  tobacco 
pipe  of  polished  red  stone,  fitted  into  a  stem  or  stick  about  two 
feet  long,  and  bored  through  the  middle. 

"Less  honor,"  says  Marquette,  "is  paid  to  the  crowns 
and  scepters  of  kings,  than  the  savages  bestow  on  this. 
It  seems  to  be  the  God  of  peace  or  war,  the  arbiter  of  life 
and  of  death.  It  has  but  to  be  carried  upon  one's  person 
and  displayed,  to  enable  one  to  walk  safely  through  the 
midst  of  enemies,  who  in  the  hottest  of  the  fight  lay  down 
their  arms  when  it  is  shown.  There  is  a  calumet  for  peace, 
and  one  for  war,  which  are  distinguished  solely  by  the 
color  of  the  feathers  with  which  they  are  adorned.  Red  is 
the  sign  of  war.  They  also  use  it  to  put  an  end  to  disputes, 
to  strengthen  their  alliances,  and  to  speak  to  strangers. 
They  have  a  great  regard  for  it,  because  they  look  upon 
it  as  the  calumet  of  the  sun,  and  in  fact,  they  offer  it  to 
the  latter  to  smoke  when  they  wish  to  obtain  calm  or  rain 
or  fine  weather." 


ILLINOIS  17 

The  Illinois,  like  other  Algonquin  tribes,  believed  in  an  after- 
world.  They  were  very  poorly  advanced  in  art,  not  as  far  ad- 
vanced as  their  predecessors,  the  southern  tribes.  Most  of  their 
bowls  were  made  of  wood,  which  accounts  for  the  very  few 
which  have  survived  in  museums.  They  made  cups  and  spoons 
and  scrapers  also  out  of  fresh  water  shells.  According  to  the 
Jesuit  Fathers,  the  women  always  dressed  modestly,  but  the 
men  went  entirely  nude,  save  for  a  breech  cloth.  In  summing 
up  their  mode  of  life,  Alvord,  in  his  excellent  history,  declares, 

Hard  as  their  life  seems  to  have  been,  viewed  by  mod- 
ern eyes,  the  Illinois  fared  better  than  many  of  their  race, 
and  were  by  no  means  wholly  without  leisure  and  means 
of  recreation.  Between  the  strenuous  demands  of  hunting 
and  fighting,  the  men  relaxed  completely  and  spent  their 
time  in  a  great  variety  of  games  of  skill,  such  as  ball,  or 
guessing  games  or  games  of  chance  played  with  instru- 
ments comparable  to  dice.  Even  with  their  more  contin- 
uous labor,  the  women  found  opportunity  to  gossip  among 
themselves  and  to  play  games.  Like  most  Indians,  the 
Illinois  were  inveterate  gamblers,  and  men  and  women  alike 
would  often  stake  everything  they  owned  on  a  throw  of  the 
dice.  Many  of  the  games  had  a  religious  significance  and 
were  played  only  in  connection  with  some  formal  ceremony. 
Socially,  they  were  talkative,  good  natured,  and  fond  of  a 
joke,  although  their  extreme  dignity  of  bearing  on  public 
occasions  often  gave  observers  the  impression  that  they 
were  morose  and  silent  by  nature.  The  ease  and  persist- 
ency with  which  the  French  came  to  intermarry  with  them, 
certainly  suggests  that  both  in  disposition  and  mode  of  life, 
there  was  no  wide  gulf  between  the  two  races,  at  least  as 
they  encountered  each  other  in  seventeenth  century  Illi- 
nois. 

On  the  whole,  the  Illinois  tribe  of  Indians  were  a  brave  but 
simple  people.  They  lacked  shrewdness  in  dealing  as  individ- 
uals or  as  tribes.  They  were  over-reached  on  every  occasion 
that  they  attempted  to  bargain  with  the  white  man,  whether 
that  white  man  was  French,  British  or  American.  As  a  result 
of  their  guileless  nature  and  lack  of  organizing  intelligence,  the 
great  Illinois  tribe,  which,  it  was  said,  at  one  time  counted 
twenty  thousand  souls  along  the  Illinois  River,  is  today  prac- 


18  ILLINOIS 

tically  extinct,  and  in  the  state  named  after  them  not  a  single 
living  Illinois  Indian  now  survives. 

What  was  the  ultimate  history,  so  far  as  known,  of  the  sev- 
eral tribes  comprising  the  super-tribe  of  Indians  known  as  the 
Illinois  ?  They  were  located,  at  or  about  the  time  of  the  advent 
of  Joliet  and  Pere  Marquette,  on  the  Illinois  River  at  or  near 
what  is  now  known  as  Starved  Rock,  by  the  Indians  called 
Kaskaskia  and  afterwards  called  the  Mission  of  the  Immaculate 
Conception.  About  the  year  1700,  the  branch  of  the  Kaskaskia 
Indians  migrated  down  the  Illinois  River  and  down  the  Missis- 
sippi to  the  mouth  of  the  Kaskaskia  River.  They  remained  at 
the  latter  place  for  a  century  or  more,  and  were  then  placed 
upon  a  reservation  on  the  Big  Muddy,  from  which  they  were 
removed  to  the  Indian  Territory  on  or  before  1860. 

The  Cahokia  tribe  was  located  in  Illinois  almost  opposite 
the  present  City  of  St.  Louis.  Their  principal  village  became 
the  county  seat  of  the  first  county  organized  in  Illinois.  They 
rapidly  decreased  in  numbers,  however,  and  the  remnant  eventu- 
ally amalgamated  with  the  Kaskaskia. 

The  Michigameas,  who  gave  their  name  to  Lake  Michigan, 
were  located  on  the  borders  of  that  lake.  From  thence  they 
were  driven  south  by  the  Iroquois.  This  tribe  was  afterward 
annihilated  by  their  enemies  from  the  north. 

The  Tamaroas,  when  first  found,  lived  on  the  upper  Illinois, 
and  afterward  moved  to  St.  Clair  County,  where  they  were 
closely  associated  with  the  Cahokias.  About  1680,  while  at  war 
with  the  Iroquois,  seven  hundred  of  them  were  killed  or  carried 
into  captivity.    They  were  finally  exterminated  by  the  Shawnees. 

When  Marquette  and  Joliet  passed  up  the  Illinois  River  in 
1673,  the  Peorias  were  located  near  the  present  site  of  the  City 
of  Peoria.  They  were  afterward  driven  to  the  south  and  joined 
the  Kaskaskias,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

In  connection  with  these  Indians  found  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  seventeenth  century  on  the  banks  of  the  Illinois,  the 
Missouri  and  other  rivers  in  and  around  the  State  of  Illinois, 
it  may  be  well  to  discuss  briefly  the  origin  and  existence  of 
certain  peculiar  Indian  mounds  found  in  the  State  of  Illinois. 
It  was  contended  by  some  theorists  for  a  time  that  these  mounds 


ILLINOIS  19 

were  evidence  that  the  Indians  found  by  the  French  discoverers 
were  not  the  first  race  of  Indians  that  dwelt  where  these  mounds 
were  erected;  that  a  race  of  very  different  character  and  of 
great  genius  and  ability  occupied  the  prairies  of  Illinois  and 
constructed,  in  their  day,  these  strange  artificial  earth  mounds. 
Some  excavations  have  been  made  in  these  mounds,  but  it  is 
not  believed  that  in  any  of  these  excavations  any  satisfactory 
proof  has  been  found  that  these  mounds  were  created  by  a  dif- 
ferent race  than  the  tribes  discovered  and  dealt  with  in  1673. 
Indeed,  mounds  in  the  course  of  construction  have  been  seen 
by  European  explorers  and  in  some  of  them  they  have  found 
products  of  European  manufacture,  which  would  seem  to  dis- 
pose of  effectually  the  theory  that  these  mounds  were  created 
by  a  superior,  or  more  intelligent  race. 

There  are  quite  a  number  of  these  mounds  in  the  lower 
valley  of  the  Illinois  River  and  along  the  lowlands  of  the  Missis- 
sippi. Some  are  in  pyramidal  shape,  square  or  circular.  Some 
of  them  are  very  small,  while  the  Cahokia  mound  rises  to  a 
height  of  100  feet  and  covers  an  area  of  probably  seventeen 
acres. 

So  far,  the  building  of  these  mounds  has  not  been  conclu- 
sively shown  to  have  been  the  work  of  any  prehistoric  race  of 
Indians.  The  implements  found  in  them  are  generally  hoes  and 
implements  shaped  out  of  flint  or  other  hard  stone,  and  some 
pottery,  the  latter  being  similar  to  the  pottery  unearthed  from 
mounds  among  the  Natchez  tribes  of  Indians. 

Whoever  built  these  mounds  certainly  did  not  leave  within 
these  tumuli  any  evidence  that  the  builders  were  of  superior 
intelligence  or  marked  intellectual  ability.  The  mounds  were 
probably  used  as  the  Egyptians  used  their  pyramids,  for  the 
deposit  of  the  bodies  of  the  important  dead. 

A  great  change  came  over  the  Indians  as  the  result  of  the 
advent  of  the  white  trader,  not  only  in  his,  the  Indian's,  habits, 
but  also,  to  a  degree  in  his  character.  Before  the  coming  of 
the  white  trader,  he  had  been  by  training  and  his  experiences 
with  the  wild  animals  and  wild  men,  self-reliant  in  his  struggle 
for  a  livelihood.  The  wild  animals  of  the  woods  and  prairies 
furnished  him  both  food  and  raiment.     The  fish  in  the  lakes 


20  ILLINOIS 

and  rivers  were  abundant  as  were  the  beasts  in  the  forest.  The 
flesh  of  these  were  supplemented  at  times  with  wild  maize,  wild 
berries,  and  wild  vegetables,  and  grains  scantily  wrung  from 
the  soil  by  the  labor  of  their  squaws. 

To  secure  his  food  and  clothing,  the  primitive,  untutored 
Indian  relied  upon  his  flint-headed  arrows  and  spears  and  his 
rude  traps  and  seines,  but  mainly  he  relied  upon  his  own  courage 
and  cunning  to  wring  from  nature  a  continuance  of  life.  With 
the  coming  of  the  white  trader,  this  self-reliance  ceased. 

The  trader  had  far-reaching,  accurate  firing  guns  and  ex- 
plosive ammunition,  steel  knives  and  other  steel  weapons  for 
hunting  and  for  warfare.  With  such  implements  and  weapons 
in  his  possession,  the  Indian  knew  he  could  hunt,  trap  and  fish 
with  much  less  risk  and  labor  and  with  much  greater  profit. 
When  he  saw  and  once  used  these  modern  weapons,  the  Indian 
lost  his  spirit  of  self-reliance  and  independence.  In  procuring 
these  implements,  he  became  the  serf  of  the  trader.  For  a  little 
rum  and  a  rifle,  the  poor  Indian  was  ready  to  sell  his  soul.  The 
white  traders,  hundreds  of  miles  away  from  governmental  su- 
pervision, were  the  only  persons  who  could  supply  these  weapons, 
powder,  bullets,  pots,  pans,  blankets  and  other  necessities  of  life 
to  the  Indians.  Traders,  under  such  circumstances  became  rob- 
bers without  violence. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  FRENCH  DISCOVERERS  AND  SETTLERS 

No  white  man  disturbed  the  Indian  tribes  in  Illinois  or  con- 
tested their  right  to  use  that  territory  for  their  hunting  grounds 
until  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Disputes  as 
to  the  rights  of  occupancy  of  these  hunting  grounds  did  arise 
between  the  different  tribes,  as  we  have  seen,  but  these  disputes 
were  settled  Indian  fashion  with  the  tomahawk  and  scalping 
knife. 

Rum  and  written  treaties  had  not  as  yet  been  introduced 
into  negotiations  by  the  pale  face. 

The  Spaniard  Hernando  de  Soto  had  sailed  up  the  Mississippi, 
but  never  reached  the  Illinois  country. 

For  over  one  hundred  years  after  De  Soto's  discovery  of 
the  Mississippi,  neither  the  French  nor  English  made  any  per- 
manent settlements  in  America. 

The  French  settlements  were  in  Canada  and  Acadia,  now 
called  Nova  Scotia.  The  English  settlements  were  mainly  in 
Massachusetts  and  Virginia.  All  these  settlements  were  on  the 
Atlantic  sea  coast.  For  a  long  time  the  advance  inward  from 
the  English  settlements  was  retarded  by  the  Appalachian  moun- 
tains and  the  formidable  barrier  made  by  the  Iroquois  confed- 
eracy of  Indians. 

It  is  quite  certain  that  no  Englishman  put  foot  upon  the 
territory  of  Illinois  before  the  eighteenth  century,  because  of 
the  dangers  and  difficulties  of  travel  westward  from  the  English 
settlements. 

The  French  pioneers  in  Canada  were  much  better  situated 
for  travel  inward  from  the  Atlantic  than  the  English.  The  St. 
Lawrence  River,  the  Great  Lakes  and  their  tributary  and  con- 
necting rivers  furnished  easy  water  transportation  with  few 
portages  to  the  Mississippi.    The  English  settlements,  however, 

21 


22  ILLINOIS 

were  all  along  the  seashore  and  east  of  the  Alleghany  Moun- 
tains, over  which,  at  that  time,  there  were  no  trails  that  were 
not  extremely  hazardous.  The  occupation  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley  by  the  French  started  a  century  earlier,  and  was  much 
more  rapid  than  the  westward  trek  of  the  English  over  the 
mountains.  Three  great  incentives  moved  the  French  hunters, 
explorers  and  missionaries.  The  northern  regions  of  the  west 
about  the  Great  Lakes  abounded  in  valuable  fur-bearing  ani- 
mals, beaver,  minks,  lynxes,  muskrats,  foxes  and  other  animals 
of  that  character.  The  acquisition  of  these  furs  from  the  In- 
dians at  low  prices  and  the  selling  of  them  in  Europe  at  high 
prices,  was  a  great  incentive  to  the  French  traders  and  hunters. 
This  was  the  lure  of  wealth.  Missionary  zeal  was  another  great 
incentive.  Never  was  the  cause  of  Christianity  served  with 
greater  zeal  and  devotion  and  fearlessness  than  by  Marquette 
and  the  other  disciples  of  Ignatius  Loyola  in  the  Mississippi 
Valley.  They  endured  untold  hardships  in  their  work  among 
the  Indians,  not  only  without  complaint,  but  with  enjoyment,  and 
seemed  ever  ready  to  suffer  cruel  torture  and  even  death  rather 
than  to  abandon  the  work  that  they  had  devoted  themselves  to. 
The  third  motive  actuating  these  Frenchmen  was  love  of  coun- 
try, and  the  desire  to  spread  throughout  the  western  hemisphere 
the  glory  and  material  advancement  of  the  French  kingdom. 
At  that  period  Louis  XIV,  the  grand  monarch,  was  on  the  throne 
of  the  French,  and  the  fame  of  France  among  Christian  nations 
was  at  its  peak.  Every  Frenchman  detailed  by  that  great  mon- 
arch to  represent  him  on  the  western  continent  was  aflame 
with  the  desire  of  spreading  the  fame  of  France  throughout 
North  America.  The  first  westward  movement  was  inaugurated 
by  Champlain,  the  governor  of  New  France,  who  was  intensely 
interested  in  the  exploration  of  the  western  country.  He,  him- 
self, went  as  far  as  Lake  Huron,  and  he  placed  young  French- 
men in  the  Indian  villages  to  learn  their  languages.  At  the 
inception  of  their  efforts  of  exploration  in  the  west,  he  was  for 
some  time  obstructed  by  the  hostilities  of  the  Iroquois  Confed- 
eracy, who  were  at  all  times  inimical  to  the  French,  because  of 
the  belief  of  these  Indians  that  the  French  were  allied  with 


ILLINOIS  23 

their  enemies,  the  Algonquin  tribe.  These  hostilities  between 
the  French  and  Iroquois  Confederacy  continued  down  to  1667. 

Although  the  French  pioneers  had  discovered  Newfoundland 
and  the  St.  Lawrence  River  and  made  settlements  and  estab- 
lished fisheries  in  their  neighborhood  as  early  as  1504,  no  seri- 
ous attempt  was  made  by  the  French  discoverers  permanently  to 
locate  under  the  flag  of  the  French  king  any  territory  in  Illinois, 
or  immediately  surrounding  it,  until  the  latter  part  of  the  seven- 
teenth century. 

Champlain  was  made  governor  of  New  France,  being  the 
title  by  which  the  French  possessions  in  America  were  then 
known,  and  held  this  position  until  he  died  in  1635.  During 
the  seven  years  that  he  acted  as  governor,  he  was  consistently 
furthering  the  interests  of  his  monarch  and  the  Catholic  re- 
ligion. Reports  coming  to  him  of  a  great  river  in  the  West  and 
of  regions  rich  with  fur-bearing  animals,  he  sent  to  the  West 
as  explorers  and  for  the  purpose  of  laying  claim  to  the  country 
several  young  Frenchmen  and  among  them  a  young  friend, 
named  Jean  Nicollett,  who  had  lived  with  the  Indians,  and  be- 
came acquainted  with  their  language  and  acted  as  an  interpreter. 
Nicollett  discovered  Lake  Michigan  in  1634,  and  visited  the 
Indians  at  Green  Bay.  Two  Jesuit  missionaries  visited  the 
River  St.  Mary  on  the  south  side  of  Lake  Superior  about  1634, 
and  the  following  year  as  many  as  fifteen  Jesuit  priests  were  in 
the  region  of  the  Great  Lakes.  Their  movements  were  watched 
and  bitterly  opposed  by  the  Iroquois  Indians,  who  refused  to 
allow  them  to  make  use  of  the  St.  Lawrence  or  Lake  Ontario 
and  Lake  Erie.  In  1655,  however,  a  sort  of  peace  was  agreed 
upon  between  the  French  and  the  Iroquois,  and  after  this  the 
French  pushed  their  explorations  both  west  and  southwest. 

In  1659  the  first  Bishop  of  New  France,  Francis  Xavier  De 
Laval,  landed  at  Montreal  from  France,  bringing  more  clergy- 
men with  him  devoted  to  the  propagation  of  the  Catholic  faith. 
Most  of  these  early  clergymen  were  of  the  Franciscan  order, 
but  ultimately  were  supplanted  by  the  Jesuits,  who  were  the 
main  supports  of  the  Church  in  the  new  world. 

In  1664,  the  Valley  of  the  Hudson  became  British  property 
by  transfer  from  the  Dutch,  and  this  ended  any  influence  for 


24  ILLINOIS 

peace  that  the  French  had  with  the  Iroquois.  The  Algonquin 
of  the  West  were  always  at  war  with  the  Iroquois,  and  they  then 
sought  to  ally  themselves  with  the  French,  a  power  which 
seemed  to  be  growing  rapidly  in  the  new  world. 

In  1660,  three  hundred  Algonquin  in  sixty  canoes,  loaded 
with  furs,  accompanied  the  French  traders  on  their  return  to 
Quebec  from  the  West,  and  this  deputation  of  Algonquins  made 
clear  to  the  French  authorities  the  necessity  of  an  alliance  be- 
tween the  French  and  the  Indians  of  the  West. 

In  1669,  Father  Allouez,  S.  J.,  after  spending  two  years  on 
the  south  shore  of  Lake  Superior,  returned  to  Quebec  and  urged 
upon  the  governor  the  necessity  of  establishing  permanent  mis- 
sions and  trading  stations  in  the  West. 

About  this  time,  Father  James  Marquette,  S.  J.,  recently 
arrived  from  France,  visited  Quebec  and  was  detailed,  with 
Father  Dablau  to  found  a  mission  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  During 
his  travels,  Father  Marquette  heard  wonderful  stories  of  the 
Mississippi  River,  and  in  1669  he  began  to  study  the  Illinois 
language.  Up  to  that  time,  the  French  government  itself  had 
done  but  little  to  establish  missions,  forts  or  trading  stations  in 
the  West.  As  the  Algonquin  tribes  and  the  French  became  more 
friendly  and  as  commercial  intercourse  between  them  in  the 
way  of  purchase  and  sale  of  furs  developed,  it  finally  became 
interesting  to  the  French  government,  and  Colbert,  minister  of 
finance  of  France,  became  much  interested  in  extending  the 
power  of  France  westward  in  America.  Under  his  inspiration, 
Simon  Francois  Daumont  Sieur  de  St.  Lusson  was  authorized 
to  hold  a  congress  of  the  Indian  tribes  at  St.  Mary's  at  the  out- 
let of  Lake  Superior  in  the  summer  of  1671.  The  government 
of  France  sent  into  the  region  about  St.  Mary,  Nicholas  Pierrot, 
to  invite  the  Indian  tribes  to  assemble  at  St.  Mary's  for  the 
proposed  congress,  and  fourteen  tribes  responded  to  the  invita- 
tion. On  June  4,  1671,  St.  Lusson,  with  Father  Allouez,  and 
surrounded  by  a  retinue  of  French  officers,  opened  the  congress 
and  brought  it  out  to  the  assembled  Indian  delegates  that  it  was 
the  purpose  of  the  great  king  of  France  to  take  the  tribes  in  the 
western  part  of  New  France  under  his  care.  The  assembled 
Indians  were  much  impressed  with  the  display  of  power  and 


ILLINOIS  25 

authority,  and  reached  the  conclusion  that  the  French  govern- 
ment and  its  soldiers  were  the  only  power  to  protect  them  from 
the  persecutions  and  calamities  that  they  had  hitherto  suffered 
from  the  Iroquois.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  ceremony,  a  great 
cedar  cross  was  erected  on  the  banks  of  the  great  Lake  Superior, 
and  by  the  side  of  the  cross,  another  cedar  column  was  erected, 
which  bore  the  lilies  of  France.  From  this  time  on,  the  French 
government  began  to  display  some  interest  in  the  settlement 
of  the  far  West. 

About  this  time,  Father  James  Marquette,  heretofore  men- 
tioned, had  gathered  about  him  the  remnants  of  an  Indian  tribe 
and  founded  a  mission  near  what  is  now  known  as  the  Strait 
of  Mackinac.  His  mission  was  called  St.  Ignace,  in  honor  of 
St.  Ignatius,  the  Jesuit.  There  he  preached  the  Gospel  to  the 
Hurons  and  members  of  other  tribes,  and  while  there,  he  heard 
of  the  great  river  in  the  West.    I  quote  his  own  language : 

When  the  Illinois  come  to  the  point  (St.  Esprit),  they 
pass  a  great  river  which  is  almost  a  league  in  width.  It 
flows  from  north  to  south,  and  to  so  great  a  distance  that 
the  Illinois,  who  know  nothing  of  the  use  of  the  canoe,  have 
never  as  yet  heard  of  its  mouth. 

He  then  ventured  the  hope  that  means  would  be  found  to 
"visit  the  nations  who  dwell  along  its  shores  in  order  to  open 
the  way  to  the  many  of  our  fathers  who  were  awaiting  so  great 
an  opportunity." 


CHAPTER  IV 
MARQUETTE  AND  JOLIET  DISCOVER  THE  MISSISSIPPI 

The  first  serious  attempt  made  by  the  French  monarchy  to 
colonize  its  discoveries  in  New  France  was  made  by  Jean  Bap- 
tiste  Colbert,  the  greatest  of  French  ministers  under  Louis  XIV, 
the  grand  monarch  of  France.  His  first  venture  was  pater- 
nalistic and  monopolistic.  He  had  created  a  great  corporation, 
the  West  India  Company,  to  which  was  given  wide  monopolistic 
power  of  trading  and  development  in  and  over  all  the  over-sea 
territory  of  France  in  America.  Although  governmentally  aided 
and  fostered,  wars  and  financial  catastrophes,  caused  its  col- 
lapse and  in  1672  it  had  ceased  to  function. 

Canada  then  became  a  royal  province.  For  some  eight  or 
ten  years  prior  to  this  date,  a  real  beginning  of  exploration 
of  the  West  occurred.  A  complete  civil  government  had  been 
established  in  New  France.  Jean  Talon  was  then  the  intendant, 
one  of  the  ablest  if  not  the  greatest  of  France's  civil  officials 
ever  stationed  in  New  France.  Talon  and  Colbert,  the  great 
French  minister,  had  identical  views  with  reference  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  great  French  empire  in  America.  Soon  after  his 
appearance  in  Canada,  Talon  organized  expeditions  to  discover 
the  territory  which  might  become  a  Greater  France.  In  1669, 
he  had  sent  an  expedition  to  Lake  Superior  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Louis  Joliet,  who  made  a  successful  mission  to  Lake 
Superior  and  returned  by  the  route  of  Lake  Erie.  He  was 
probably  the  first  white  discoverer  of  that  lake.  During  the  fol- 
lowing year,  at  the  instigation  of  Talon,  Robert  Cavalier  Sieur 
de  La  Salle  made  another  exploration  south  of  the  Lakes.  An- 
other expedition  was  undertaken  by  Simon  Francois  Daumont 
Sieur  de  St.  Luson  to  the  same  lakes  region.  Luson  had  been 
delegated  by  the  French  government  to  bring  about  an  immense 
meeting  with  the  Indian  tribes  and  to  carry  out  the  significant 

26 


Marquette 


/>; 


JOLIET 


28  ILLINOIS 

ceremony  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  This  place  was  selected  because 
of  its  convenient  location,  uniting  the  territory  around  Lake 
Superior  and  Lake  Winnebago  with  the  territory  around  Lake 
Michigan  and  the  Mississippi  Valley.  In  June,  1671,  repre- 
sentatives of  fourteen  Indian  tribes  met  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie  as 
hereinbefore  stated,  and  witnessed  a  ceremony  of  great  pomp, 
both  religious  and  nationalistic.  Father  Calude  Ailouez  in  a 
stately  address  pointed  out  to  the  Indians  the  power  of  the 
great  French  king,  and  declared  that  all  of  the  country  sur- 
rounding Sault  Ste.  Marie  was  then  in  the  possession  of  the 
Great  Monarch  Louis  XIV,  and  that  all  nations  must  forbear 
from  trespassing  upon  its  confines.  At  the  conclusion  of  the 
ceremony,  they  erected  a  great  cross,  and  a  pillar  to  which  the 
arms  of  France  were  attached,  with  great  solemnity. 

The  incentive  to  this  solemn  ceremony  and  the  further  de- 
velopment of  the  territory  around  the  Great  Lakes  and  to  the 
West  was  the  desire  to  explore  and  discover  if  the  Indian's  ac- 
counts relating  to  a  great  western  river  which  flowed  to  the 
sea,  were  authentic.  Talon  had  made  up  his  mind  to  find  this 
river  and  to  discover  its  outlet  to  salt  water.  He  aimed  to 
select  for  this  mission  a  competent  and  experienced  man,  and 
finally  selected  Louis  Joliet,  who  was  not  only  an  experienced 
explorer,  but  a  capable  and  successful  leader  of  men.  He  showed 
great  sagacity  in  his  selection.  Joliet  was  born  in  Quebec  on 
or  about  1645,  and  was  educated  in  a  Jesuit  school  in  the  village 
in  which  he  was  born.  He  remained  in  the  school  until  he  was 
educated  in  the  higher  branches,  including  surveying  and  map- 
making.  He  was  by  birth  a  natural  musician,  and  often  played 
the  organ  of  the  Cathedral  of  Quebec.  He  intended  to  become 
a  priest,  but  finally  concluded  to  abandon  that  calling  and  to 
follow  the  life  of  a  fur  trader  and  explorer.  In  his  youth  he 
was  friendly  with  the  Jesuits,  and  that  friendship  continued 
throughout  his  whole  life.  The  Jesuits  on  their  part  were  al- 
ways friendly  with  him,  and  regarded  him  as  their  representa- 
tive in  his  trips  of  discovery.  Before  he  was  selected  to  under- 
take the  discovery  of  the  Mississippi,  he  had  twice  visited  Sault 
Ste.  Marie,  and  had  earned  not  only  the  confidence  of  his  civilian 


ILLINOIS  29 

superiors,  but  that  of  the  Jesuits  and  Indians  with  whom  he 
came  in  contact. 

It  was  the  policy  of  the  French  authorities  then  and  before 
that  time,  to  attach  to  any  mission  of  discovery  which  they  or- 
ganized a  French  missionary,  preferably  a  Jesuit,  because  of 
the  fact  that  these  missionaries  had  been  successful  in  obtaining 
the  confidence  of  the  Indians  and  had  secured  their  friendship 
wherever  they  met.  Accordingly,  Talon  and  the  leaders  of  the 
Jesuit  order  conferred  with  reference  to  the  selection  of  a  Jesuit 
missionary  to  accompany  Joliet  in  his  quest  for  the  wonderful 
river  of  the  West.  Both  finally  agreed  upon  the  selection  of 
Jacques  Marquette  of  the  Jesuit  order.  In  1673,  Father  Mar- 
quette was  about  thirty-six  years  of  age.  His  birthplace  was 
Laon,  France.  He  entered  the  Jesuit  order  in  1654  and  arrived 
in  Canada  in  1666.  He  succeeded  Father  Allouez  in  the  mission 
of  Chequamegon  Bay,  and  about  1671  he  built  the  mission  of 
St.  Ignace  at  Mackinac.  At  the  time  of  his  selection  as  the  com- 
panion of  Joliet,  he  was  quietly  and  unostentatiously  performing 
his  sacred  duties  in  a  little  chapel  that  he  had  built  at  St.  Ignace, 
surrounded  by  a  few  poor  savages  and  a  few  French  fur  traders. 

In  his  dreams  for  several  years,  this  quiet,  patient,  saintly 
man  had  been  dreaming  of  just  such  a  mission,  excited  thereto 
by  the  tales  that  he  had  heard  from  the  Indians,  of  the  wonder- 
ful river  of  the  West.  His  ambition  in  life  was  to  gather  into 
the  fold  of  the  true  believers  in  the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ,  the 
simple,  untutored  red-skinned  inhabitants  of  the  western  prai- 
ries, who  had  never  heard  of  the  Son  of  God  and  His  gospels 
of  love. 

Talon  had  arranged  for  this  mission  of  discovery  by  Joliet 
and  Pere  Marquette,  but  it  did  not  fall  to  his  lot  to  give  the 
final  commission  into  their  hands.  Comte  de  Frontenac  came 
to  Canada  as  Governor  in  1672.  He  adopted  the  program  pre- 
pared by  Talon,  made  no  change  in  the  personnel  of  the  leaders 
of  this  mission  of  discovery,  and  finally  authorized  Joliet  and 
Marquette  to  start  upon  their  undertaking. 

In  the  winter  of  1672-73,  at  Mackinac  on  the  Point  St.  Ig- 
nace, which  is  in  its  immediate  neighborhood,  Louis  Joliet  and 
Pere  Marquette  made  their  preparations  for  their  mission.     It 


30  ILLINOIS 

is  astounding  how  simple  these  arrangements  were.  Although 
they  contemplated  a  journey  by  land  and  water  which  would 
cover  hundreds  of  miles  in  the  wilderness,  and  might  cover  a 
thousand  miles  in  their  wanderings,  the  only  provision  made  for 
this  extraordinary  exploration  was  a  small  stock  of  Indian  corn 
and  smoked  meat.  They  had  ascertained  from  the  Indians  the 
general  direction  of  their  route,  and  had  traced  out,  upon  such 
information,  tentative  maps,  of  where  they  intended  to  go.  With 
their  guns  and  this  small  stock  of  food,  they  started  on  May  17, 
1673  with  five  men  and  two  canoes  for  this  long  voyage  of  mys- 
terious end. 

Keeping  to  the  west  shore  of  Lake  Michigan  from  Mackinac 
to  Green  Bay,  they  entered  the  Bay  and  paddled  their  canoes 
down  the  same  until  they  reached  the  Fox  River.  Up  to  this 
point,  they  were  familiar  with  the  route.  Beyond  that  point, 
the  route  was  a  mystery.  The  Indians  on  the  banks  of  the  Fox 
River  attempted  to  dissuade  them  from  further  adventure.  They 
pictured  to  Joliet  and  Pere  Marquette  a  country  beyond,  filled 
with  Indians  of  a  merciless  disposition,  and  described  the  river 
as  dangerous  of  ascent  or  descent.  None  the  less,  the  discoverers 
remained  steadfast  to  their  original  aim,  and  shortly  thereafter 
crossed  the  portage  between  the  upper  Fox  River  and  the  Wis- 
consin River,  guided  by  Miami  Indians. 

On  June  17th,  just  one  month  after  leaving  Mackinac,  they 
entered  the  Mississippi  River.  En  route  from  Lake  Michigan 
to  the  Wisconsin  River,  they  had  come  across  a  great  cross 
erected  evidently  by  white  men  at  or  near  the  portage  between 
the  Fox  River  and  the  Wisconsin  River,  but  thereafter  neither 
down  the  Wisconsin  nor  down  the  Mississippi  did  they  discover 
any  evidence  that  a  white  man  had  ever  traveled  upon  the  water 
of  these  rivers,  until  they  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas 
River. 

Marquette  is  quoted  as  saying, 

I  put  the  expedition  under  the  protection  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  Immaculate,  promising  her  that  if  she  did  us  the 
grace  to  discover  the  great  river,  I  would  give  it  the  name 
of  'Conception/  and  I  also  would  give  that  name  to  the 
first  mission  among  these  new  nations,  as  I  have  actually 


ILLINOIS  31 

done   among   the  Illinois.      (Smith's   History   of  Illinois, 
p.  73.) 

A  few  days  after  embarking  upon  the  Mississippi  River 
after  leaving  the  Wisconsin  River,  they  discovered  footprints 
in  the  vicinity  of  what  is  now  the  City  of  Keokuk,  Iowa.  Fol- 
lowing these  footprints,  Marquette  and  Joliet,  leaving  their 
canoes,  went  into  the  prairie  and  soon  came  in  contact  with  a 
village  of  Indians.  These  Indians,  carrying  tobacco  pipes,  came 
out  to  welcome  them.  Marquette,  who  spoke  several  Indian 
dialects,  addressed  them  and  they  told  him  that  they  were  Illi- 
nois, and  presented  the  pipe  of  peace.  These  Illinois  Indians 
gave  them  a  feast  of  which  both  Marquette  and  Joliet  partook, 
save  and  except  a  dish  which  consisted  of  dog  meat.  At  the 
invitation  of  these  Illinois  Indians,  they  remained  overnight, 
and  on  the  following  day  were  accompanied  to  their  boats  by 
a  crowd  of  Indians,  who  wished  them  good  luck. 

After  leaving  these  Indians,  Marquette  and  Joliet  continued 
on  their  journey  down  the  Mississippi,  passing  the  mysterious 
Piasa  Rock  and  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio.  They  kept  on  their 
journey  to  about  the  latitude  of  the  Arkansas  River.  At  this 
point,  they  met  some  Indians,  who  had  guns  and  axes,  hoes  and 
other  modern  implements.  Although  Father  Marquette  spoke 
six  Indian  dialects,  he  did  not  understand  what  any  of  them 
said,  until  an  old  man  who  spoke  a  little  of  the  Illinois  language 
was  found,  and  through  him,  Marquette  was  able  to  understand 
a  little  of  what  he  said.  These  Indians  were  located  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas  River.  All  these  different 
Indians  had  so  far  treated  them  kindly.  At  this  point,  Mar- 
quette and  Joliet  had  a  conference,  and  determined  that  the 
Mississippi  River  did  not  empty  into  the  Pacific  nor  into  the 
Atlantic,  but  that  it  flowed  southward  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
They  also  reached  the  conclusion  that  there  would  be  danger 
of  meeting  warlike  Indians  further  south,  and  made  up  their 
minds  to  return  northward  along  the  Mississippi  River. 

The  journey  homeward  commenced  on  the  17th  of  July,  two 
months,  exactly,  from  the  date  that  they  had  departed  from 
St.   Ignace.     They  found  the  northward  journey  much  more 


32  ILLINOIS 

difficult,  and  when  near  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois  River,  were 
informed  that  the  distance  to  Lake  Michigan  was  much  shorter 
by  the  Illinois  River  than  by  the  Wisconsin  and  Fox  rivers. 
Relying  upon  this  information,  they  started  northeasterly  from 
the  Mississippi  through  the  Illinois  River.  At  a  point  along 
this  river  where  the  city  of  Peoria  is  now  located,  they  went 
ashore  and  found  a  village  of  Illinois  Indians.  They  were  kindly 
received,  and  spent  several  days  with  these  Indians,  during 
which  Father  Marquette  preached  to  the  Indians  in  the  town. 
After  leaving  Peoria,  they  came  to  a  village  of  Kaskaskia  Indi- 
ans, located  at  what  is  now  known  as  Utica.  In  this  village 
there  were  seventy-four  cabins,  and  as  the  Indians  frequently 
housed  six  families  in  each  cabin,  and  as  the  Indian  family 
usually  averaged  five,  there  must  have  been  quite  an  Indian 
population  at  this  point.  These  Indians  also  received  Father 
Marquette  and  his  party  in  a  friendly,  generous  way.  They 
listened  to  his  preaching  and  became  interested  in  his  story 
of  the  Gospel.  They  exacted  from  him  his  promise  to  return 
and  preach  to  them  at  greater  length,  and  furnished  an  escort 
of  a  chief  and  several  young  men  to  accompany  Father  Marquette 
and  his  party  when  they  were  leaving,  which  guard  accompanied 
them  to  the  Chicago  portage. 

From  Chicago,  they  made  their  way  in  a  leisurely  manner 
to  the  mission  of  Green  Bay,  arriving  there  in  September,  1673. 
Father  Marquette  and  Joliet  spent  the  winter  of  1673-74  and 
the  summer  of  1674  at  the  mission  of  St.  Francis  Xavier  at 
the  head  of  Green  Bay.  Late  in  the  summer  of  1674,  Joliet 
left  the  mission  of  St.  Francis,  and  in  August  reported  to  the 
governor  of  New  France  at  Quebec,  verbally.  He  traveled  by 
water,  and  unfortunately  when  near  Quebec,  his  boat  was  upset 
and  he  lost  his  maps,  notes  and  specimens  taken  on  the  voyage 
of  discovery.  Only  the  maps  left  in  the  West  remained.  These 
were  afterward  identified.  After  reporting  to  the  governor 
of  New  France,  Joliet  sailed  to  France,  where  he  was  received 
with  great  honor  and  afterward  sent  on  a  mission  to  Central 
America. 

Father  Marquette,  in  the  fall  of  1674,  remembering  his 
promise  to  the  Kaskaskia  Indians  to  return  and  preach  to  them 


ILLINOIS  33 

again  about  the  Savior  of  Mankind,  started  on  his  journey  to 
Kaskaskia,  and  on  October  27,  1674  with  two  French  laymen 
he  left  the  mission  of  St.  Francis  Xavier  and  journeyed  south- 
ward towards  the  Kaskaskia  Village.  On  November  21,  1674, 
Father  Marquette  was  taken  sick,  it  being  a  return  of  an  old 
malady,  dysentery.  Notwithstanding  his  sickness,  he  reached 
Chicago  on  December  4,  1674.  There  his  companions  built 
some  rude  cabins  and  attempted  to  make  him  comfortable. 
That  winter  in  Chicago  was  a  long,  severe,  cold  winter  and 
he  suffered  extremely  from  exposure  and  improper  food  and 
lack  of  nursing  care,  although  his  attendants  did  everything 
that  was  possible  in  their  rude  way  for  his  comfort.  Many 
Indians  called  upon  him,  and  some  few  Frenchmen  paid  him 
comforting  visits.  He  then  heard  that  the  Indians  at  Kaskaskia 
were  on  the  point  of  starvation  on  account  of  the  severe  winter. 
A  French  physician  visited  him  about  this  time  and  brought 
food  and  otherwise  administered  to  him. 

On  February  9th,  1675  Father  Marquette  wrote  that  he 
was  feeling  better  and  expected  to  complete  his  journey  to 
the  Kaskaskia  Indians  when  the  weather  improved.  On  March 
30th,  the  ice  began  to  break  and  on  or  about  this  day  Marquette 
and  a  little  band  of  companions  started  for  the  Kaskaskia 
village.  Their  route  was  up  the  southern  branch  of  the  Chicago 
River,  across  the  portage  sometimes  known  as  Mud  Lake  to 
the  Des  Plaines  River.  On  March  30th  they  crossed  the  portage, 
and  reached  the  village  on  April  8,  1675.  The  Indians  at  Kas- 
kaskia were  as  overjoyed  upon  his  return  as  if  an  angel  from 
heaven  had  visited  them.  The  chiefs  and  elders  of  the  tribe 
surrounded  him  in  a  circle,  and  in  the  inner  and  outer  circle 
there  were  at  least  fifteen  hundred  men,  women  and  children. 
He  preached  with  intense  religious  feeling,  and  seemed  to  be 
extremely  happy.  On  the  11th  of  April,  he  established  a  mission 
there,  and  gave  it  the  name  of  the  Immaculate  Conception  of 
the  Blessed  Virgin. 

After  remaining  a  few  days  at  Kaskaskia,  he  started  back 
with  the  expectation  of  reaching  St.  Ignace.  A  large  number 
of  chiefs  and  couriers  of  the  Kaskaskia  tribe  accompanied  him  to 
the  Chicago  Portage  and  to  Lake  Michigan,  carrying  his  baggage 


34  ILLINOIS 

and  rendering  him  every  possible  assistance.  It  was  the  intention 
of  Father  Marquette  on  leaving  Chicago,  en  route  to  St.  Ignace, 
to  travel  by  canoe  along  the  southerly  shore  of  Lake  Michigan 
and  along  its  easterly  side.  He  started  upon  this  trip  upon 
Lake  Michigan  accompanied  only  by  two  Frenchmen,  Pierre 
and  Jacques.  His  strength  failing  him,  he  begged  these  two 
young  men  to  carry  him  ashore,  that  he  might  die  quietly  on 
land  and  escape  the  great  storm  then  gathering  on  the  lake. 
The  exact  spot  where  this  occurred  is  disputed,  but  the  best 
evidence  is  that  it  was  near  the  City  of  Ludington  on  an  inlet 
from  Lake  Michigan  known  as  Pere  Marquette  Lake.  Following 
Father  Marquette's  instructions,  the  two  young  Frenchmen 
buried  him  at  this  spot,  and  after  erecting  a  cross  over  his 
grave,  they  continued  their  journey  to  St.  Ignace,  and  there 
gave  the  sad  news  of  the  death  of  its  beloved  founder. 

Joliet  christened  the  great  river  that  he  and  Father  Mar- 
quette had  discovered  "Buade,"  this  being  the  family  name 
of  the  Count  de  Frontenac,  and  later  on  re-christened  it  the 
"Colbert"  after  the  great  French  minister.  On  the  other  hand, 
Father  Marquette  in  his  devotion  to  the  Virgin  Mother  of  God, 
named  it  in  commemoration  of  the  Immaculate  Conception;  but 
nonetheless,  the  name  by  which  the  Indians  christened  this 
great  stream,  "The  Mississippi"  is  still  the  name  by  which  it 
is  now  known,  and  will  be  known  in  the  centuries  yet  to  come. 
One  translation  of  the  Indian  name,  "Mississippi"  is  The  Great 
Water.  Another  writer  claims  that  the  name  is  derived  from 
"Mechah"  (Big)  and  "Seebee"  (River)  in  the  Ojibwa  language. 

Joliet,  the  seasoned  traveler  in  the  wilderness,  the  trained 
explorer  of  lakes  and  rivers,  was  more  than  delighted  when 
he  crossed  the  portage  from  the  Des  Plaines  River  to  the  southern 
branch  of  the  Chicago  River,  to  discover  the  ease  of  navigation 
from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Mississippi.  He  saw  in  this  ease 
of  transfer  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Mississippi  the  realiza- 
tion of  his  dream  of  a  great  prosperous  colony. 

"A  bark,"  said  he,  "could  be  sailed  from  Lake  Erie 
through  the  lakes  to  Lake  Michigan,  where  a  canal  through 
half  a  league  of  prairie  would  admit  the  vessel  to  the  water 
system  of  the  great  valley."     (Alvord,  P.  65). 


ILLINOIS  35 

This  vision  of  Joliet  has  been  since  his  day  the  vision  of 
every  great  statesman  in  Illinois  down  to  the  present  day,  but 
to  Joliet  belongs  the  unquestioned  honor  of  first  proposing  it 
and  originating  the  project  of  a  waterway  connecting  Lake 
Michigan  and  the  Illinois  River.  It  was  my  ambition  and 
hope,  when  I  was  governor,  to  be  able  to  open  the  gates  that 
would  pour  navigable  waters  from  Lake  Michigan  into  the 
Illinois  River.  But,  sad  to  relate,  that  ambition  was  not 
achieved,  and  as  I  write,  the  Illinois  waterway  is  still  unopened 
for  commerce. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  FRENCH  MISSIONARIES 

The  hardy  and  adventurous  coureurs  de  bois  of  Canada  were 
undoubtedly  the  first  white  men  to  plant  their  feet  on  the 
western  territory  now  comprising  the  states  of  Ohio,  Indiana, 
Michigan,  Illinois,  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota.  They  were  the 
first  to  learn  that  this  territory  was  rich  in  fur  bearing  wild 
animals  and  that  their  skins  could  be  purchased  cheaply  from 
the  Indian  hunters  and  sold  at  great  profit.  They  were  illiterate 
men  who  left  no  record  of  their  wanderings  or  discoveries.  They 
undoubtedly  preceded  the  Jesuits  around  Lake  Superior  and 
were  found  at  Green  Bay  by  the  first  missionary  that  visited 
that  body  of  water.  Father  Marquette  found  them  on  the  upper 
Illinois  River  in  1674. 

But  the  zealous  French  missionaries  were  not  long  behind 
them.  In  1669,  Father  Claude  Jean  Allouez  visited  Green  Bay, 
and  on  Lake  Ontario,  the  Sulpician  missionaries  from  Montreal 
established  a  mission  and  sent  two  of  their  number  up  the 
Detroit  River  to  explore  Lake  Erie.  From  that  time  down  to 
the  day  when  the  French  flag  was  lowered  over  Fort  Chartres 
and  Kaskaskia,  these  zealous,  devoted  men  were  always  found 
on  the  outskirts  of  civilization,  preaching  to  the  Red  Men  and 
French  Traders  the  doctrines  of  Jesus  Christ,  visiting  and 
consoling  the  sick,  giving  spiritual  consolation  to  the  dying, 
enduring  untold  hardships,  sickness  and  even  death  with  a 
courage  that  was  never  surpassed  in  the  field  of  battle. 

Alvord  in  his  history  The  Illinois  Country,  1673-1818  in 
writing  of  these  devoted  men  declares,  Page  102 : 

From  the  first  one,  Father  Marquette,  to  the  last, 
Father  Meurin,  these  learned  men  of  religion,  with  little 
thought  of  worldly  wealth  or  desire  of  self-advancement, 

36 


ILLINOIS  37 

gave  the  best  of  their  lives  to  the  conversion  of  the  Illinois 
Indians. 

As  we  have  heretofore  seen,  the  gentle  souled  Pere  Marquette 
was  the  first  of  these  holy  men  who  came  in  contact  with  the 
Indians  of  Illinois.  He  so  impressed  them,  as  he  addressed 
them  in  their  Indian  dialect,  that,  on  his  departure  from  them, 
after  a  short  stay  in  1673,  they  escorted  him  to  Chicago  and 
secured  from  him  a  promise  to  return  to  them  for  future  instruc- 
tion. That  promise  Marquette  redeemed  at  the  cost  of  his  life. 
His  delicate  physical  frame  gave  way  on  the  return  from  that 
trip  and  he  died  a  martyr  to  his  zeal  for  conversions  to 
Christianity. 

Father  Claude  Jean  Allouez,  S.  J.,  was  his  immediate  suc- 
cessor in  the  Illinois  mission.  Prior  to  his  arrival  in  Illinois, 
Father  Allouez  had  been  at  a  mission  on  the  shore  of  Lake 
Superior  and  there  met  some  Illinois  Indians  who  visited  that 
mission.  Soon  after  associating  himself  with  the  Illinois,  he 
wrote  an  account  of  them  which  was  the  first  written  document 
on  that  subject.  For  twenty-four  years  he  was  actively  engaged 
in  founding  and  maintaining  missions  among  the  Indians  of  the 
Northwest. 

After  Marquette's  death,  Father  Allouez  appeared  as  his 
successor  at  the  Illinois  mission.  On  the  approach  of  La  Salle, 
however,  he  deemed  it  prudent  to  retire  from  that  mission, 
there  being  a  feeling  of  hostility  towards  the  Jesuits  on  the 
part  of  La  Salle  and  his  followers.  In  1684,  however,  he  was 
again  acting  as  Marquette's  successor  at  the  Illinois  missions, 
and  was  not  disturbed  in  any  wise  by  Tonti,  who  was  La  Salle's 
lieutenant.  His  death  took  place  in  1689.  Kellogg,  in  his  Early 
Narrative  of  the  Northwest,  page  96,  as  quoted  by  Alvord, 
page  103,  states: 

In  1689  this  devoted  servant  of  the  Cross  (Allouez) 
died  at  the  Miami  village  on  the  St.  Joseph  River.  A  second 
St.  Francis  Xavier,  Allouez  is  said  during  his  twenty-four 
years  of  service  to  have  instructed  120,000  Western  savages 
and  baptized  at  least  10,000. 


Marquette  and  Indian  Chief 


ILLINOIS  39 

Following  Allouez  came  Father  Jacques  Gravier.  He  acted 
as  missionary  priest  to  the  Illinois  until  1705,  when  Tonti  and 
Le  Forest  left  Fort  St.  Louis  at  Starved  Rock  to  go  to  Peoria. 
Father  Gravier  followed  them  and  built  a  new  church  near  the 
new  fort.  He  is  reported  to  have  converted  the  chief  of  the 
Peoria  tribe,  and  thereafter  his  influence  among  the  Peoria  and 
Kaskaskia  Indians  was  greatly  increased.  Later  on,  Father 
Pinet  came  to  the  Illinois  tribe  from  Mackinac,  where  he  had 
been  serving  as  a  missionary  for  two  years.  Father  Pinet 
founded  the  mission  of  the  Guardian  Angel  near  the  mouth  of 
the  Chicago  River  among  the  Wea  tribe,  a  branch  of  the  Miamis. 
His  conduct  in  so  doing  gave  affront  to  Governor  Frontenac, 
who  ordered  the  mission  closed  in  1697.  Against  the  governor's 
conduct,  Father  Gravier  protested  in  a  strong  letter  written  to 
the  Bishop  of  Quebec.  The  Bishop  took  the  matter  up  with 
the  authorities  in  Quebec  and  succeeded  in  re-establishing  the 
mission,  but  for  some  reason  or  other  the  mission  was  again 
closed  or  abandoned  in  1700. 

A  little  church  had  been  erected  by  the  Jesuits  in  the  Village 
of  the  Kaskaskia  early  in  the  century,  but  in  1753  this  building 
which  had  been  rather  hastily  and  rudely  constructed,  was 
replaced  by  a  church  which  is  said  to  have  been  104  feet  long 
and  40  feet  wide.  This  new  church  was  erected  by  the  efforts 
of  three  successive  priests  attached  to  the  Kaskaskia  mission, 
Father  Tartarin,  Father  Watrin  and  Father  Aubert.  They 
succeeded  in  erecting  this  new  church  out  of  contributions  made 
by  the  parishioners  and  their  own  fees  and  offerings.  A  com- 
plete list  of  the  Jesuit  priests  who  served  in  the  Illinois  country 
contains  the  names  of  the  following  clergymen: 

Marquette,  Father  Jacques  (James),  1673-1675. 

Allouez,  Father  Claude  Jean,  1674-1688. 

Gravier,  Father  Jacques,  1688-1695,  1698-1706. 

Rale,  Father  Sebastian,  1691-1693. 

Binneteau,  Father  Julien,  1696-1699. 

Pinet,  Father  Pierre  Francois,  1696-1697,  1700-1704. 

Marest,  Father  Pierre  Gabriel,  1698-1714. 

Alexandre,  Brother,  1699. 

Limoges,  Father  Joseph  de,  1699-1700. 

Gillet,  Brother,  1702. 


40  ILLINOIS 

Guibert,  Brother  Jean  Francois,  1702-1712. 
Le  Boullenger,  Father  Jean  Antoine  (Jean  Baptiste),  1703- 
1741. 

Mermet,  Father  Jean,  1704-1716. 

Ville,  Father  Jean  Marie  de,  1707-1720. 

Guymonneau,  Father  Jean  Charles   (Gabriel),  1716-1736. 

Beaubois,  Father  Nicholas  Ignace  de,  1720-1724. 

Kereben,  Father  Joseph  Francois  de,  1725-1728. 

Dumas,  Father  Jean,  1727-1740. 

Outreleau,  Father  Etienne  d',  1727-1728. 

Tartarin,  Father  Rene,  1727-1730. 

Senat,  Father  Antoine,  1734-1756. 

Meurin,  Father  Sebastian  Louis,  1742-1763,  1763-1777. 

Magendie,  Brother  Charles,  1747-1756. 

Watrin,  Father  Philibert,  1747-1764. 

Fourre,  Father  Joseph  Julien,  1749-1756. 

Guyenne,  Father  Alexis  (Alexandre)  Xavier  de,  1732-1756. 

Vivier,  Father  Louis,  1739-1753. 

Pernelle,  Brother  Julien,  1755-1764. 

La  Mornnie,  Father  Jean  Baptiste  de,  1760  (or  1761-)  1764. 

Salleneuve,  Father  Jean  Baptiste  (Francois)  de,  1761-1764. 

Duvernai,  Father  Julien,  1763-1764. 

With  reference  to  the  conduct  of  these  priests,  Alvord  states 
in  his  history,  page  198, 

In  all  accounts  that  have  been  preserved,  the  praise 
of  the  Jesuits  and  the  performance  of  their  duties  to  their 
parishioners  is  almost  universal,  only  an  occasional  voice 
being  raised  against  their  strictness.  Besides  the  regularly 
recurring  functions  of  their  calling,  the  Fathers  gave  daily 
instructions,  for  the  most  part  religious,  to  the  French 
settlers,  thus  becoming  the  first  school  teachers  of  the 
Illinois  country. 

There  were  other  missionaries,  however,  than  the  Jesuits. 
At  Cahokia,  the  Seminary  of  Foreign  Missions  stationed  one  of 
their  clergymen,  by  name  Father  Dominique  Marie  Varlet,  who 
administered  to  the  French  inhabitants  and  the  Indians  around 
Cahokia  from  1712  to  1718.  He  was  succeeded  in  the  same 
place  by  three  other  members  of  the  same  order,  Father  Thau- 
man  de  La  Source,  Father  Calvarin,  and  Father  Mercier.  Father 
Mercier  had  quite  a  long  career  at  Cahokia,  where  he  died 
March  30,  1753.  It  is  said  that  he  passed  forty-five  years  in 
missionary  work,  and  was  always  respected  by  the  Indians  with 


ILLINOIS  41 

whom  he  came  in  contact.  The  Seminary  priests  also  sent  out 
a  missionary  to  the  Missouri  Indians,  and  served  the  church 
of  St.  Anne,  at  Fort  de  Chartres,  which  provoked  a  short  but 
well  tempered  dispute  between  the  Seminary  priests  and  the 
Jesuits. 

These  missionary  priests  were  supposed  to  have  received 
salaries  from  the  Provincial  Government.  The  Company  of  the 
West  Indies  paid  600  livres  a  year  to  each  of  the  Jesuits,  and 
200  livres  extra  for  five  years  to  cover  the  expenses  of  installing 
a  new  mission.  A  livre  was  worth  about  twenty  cents.  The 
government  continued  paying  these  salaries  until  the  parishes 
grew  in  prosperity,  and  then  their  payment  ceased.  The  sal- 
aries of  these  missionary  clergymen  were  often  unpaid.  The 
religious  bodies,  however,  sometimes  received  grants  of  land 
from  the  government.  The  Jesuits  received  a  large  grant  in 
Kaskaskia  as  early  as  1716,  and  the  Seminary  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions received  a  cession  of  four  leagues  square  at  or  near  the 
village  of  Cahokia.  The  Jesuit  missionaries  were  quite  san- 
guine about  the  result  of  their  work  as  missionaries  among  the 
Illinois  Indians,  who  were  a  friendly  and  gentle  race  and  listened 
gratefully  to  the  teachings  of  the  priests.  By  1712  it  was  as- 
serted by  the  missionaries  and  other  persons  who  were  cognizant 
of  the  facts ;  that  all  of  the  Illinois  Indians  had  accepted  Chris- 
tianity. This  was  sometimes  disputed  by  others,  but  it  is  un- 
questioned that  they  attended  mass  and  vespers  regularly  and 
seemed  to  enjoy  the  religious  services.  They  joined  in  the 
hymns  with  the  French,  the  Illinois  Indians  singing  a  couplet 
of  a  psalm  or  hymn  in  their  own  language,  and  the  French 
following  it  in  the  Latin  services  of  the  church.  It  is  said  that 
they  were  so  fond  of  instruction  and  confession  that  they  wearied 
the  Fathers  with  their  insistence.  Their  habits  were  altered 
in  many  ways  as  the  result  of  the  instruction  that  they  received 
from  those  priests.  Most  of  the  Indian  medicine  men  were 
driven  out  of  the  tribe  by  the  Kaskaskias  and  Cahokias.  They 
abandoned  torture  in  warfare.  Under  the  instruction  of  the 
priests,  they  learned  the  use  of  the  plow,  and  the  women  learned 
to  make  cloth  from  the  hair  of  the  buffalo.  The  Indian  women 
dressed  modestly.     They  had  dressing  gowns  which  reached  to 


42  ILLINOIS 

the  neck,  upon  which  they  sewed  a  cap  or  a  hat.  Underneath  the 
gown,  they  wore  a  petticoat  and  a  bodice.  They  covered  their 
bosoms  with  deer  skin.  The  men,  however,  wore  only  girdles, 
the  rest  of  their  body  being  wholly  bare. 

The  association  of  the  Jesuits  and  the  daring,  hardy  fur 
traders  doing  business  on  an  individualistic  basis,  free  from 
monopolistic  control,  at  the  start  was  mutually  advantageous. 

The  missionary  priests  had  secured  the  good  will  of  the  In- 
dian tribes  both  by  their  gentle  humanizing  conduct  and  by  their 
preaching  of  the  pure  unselfish  doctrines  of  the  Christian 
Church.  To  their  missions  wherever  established  the  Indians 
flocked  in  great  numbers.  Around  these  missions  surmounted 
by  the  cross,  the  Indians  erected  their  tepees  and  cabins.  Nat- 
urally, these  were  the  places  where  the  coureurs-de-bois  and 
the  fur  traders  would  most  easily  come  in  contact  with  the 
Indian  hunters  returning  with  their  skins  from  the  hunting 
grounds.  The  traders,  naturally,  would  help  the  missionaries 
in  the  erection  of  their  chapels,  and  homes,  and  in  the  acquisi- 
tion of  food,  clothing  and  the  other  necessities  and  comforts  of 
life  in  the  wilderness.  Naturally,  the  missionaries,  in  return, 
would  help  these  traders  as  interpreters  and  otherwise.  Cheat- 
ing and  over-reaching  of  the  Indians  by  the  traders,  however, 
frequently  occurred;  as  in  most  of  the  dealings  between  white 
men  of  all  nationalities  and  the  Indian.  Because  of  these  oc- 
currences, to  the  credit  of  the  Jesuit  missionaries,  be  it  said, 
they,  the  missionaries,  "worked  persistently  for  an  order  from 
the  court  prohibiting  fur  traders  from  going  to  the  West." 
(Alvord,  Vol.  I,  Centennial  History  of  Illinois,  p.  70.)  "They, 
the  Jesuits,  protested  ever  more  strenuously  against  the  sale  of 
liquor  to  the  Indians."     (Idem.) 

These  fur  traders,  while  allowed  to  wander  at  will,  could 
and  did  frequently  close  an  unfair  trade  with  the  simple-minded 
Indian  not  under  the  eye  of  a  French  official  or  missionary 
priest,  but  in  the  secrecy  usual  in  dishonest  transactions. 

The  missionaries  in  the  remote  western  settlements  were 
of  the  opinion  that  the  traders  should  be  prevented  from  enter- 
ing the  territory,  and  that  for  the  purpose  of  trade,  the  Indians 


ILLINOIS  43 

would  transport  their  furs  to  the  white  settlements,  where  op- 
portunity would  be  given  to  supervise  all  transactions. 

The  leaders  of  the  Jesuit  order  had  a  more  ambitious  pro- 
gram. It  was  the  establishment  in  the  heart  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley  of  a  great  Christian  state  in  which  the  red  man,  con- 
verted to  Christianity,  would  retain  his  hunting  grounds  under 
the  tutelage  of  the  Jesuits,  free  from  the  cupidity  and  avarice 
of  the  dishonest  trader.  Neither  the  views  of  the  resident  mis- 
sionaries nor  the  aspirations  of  the  Jesuit  leaders  were  ever 
realized. 

At  this  juncture,  Frontenac  appears  upon  the  scene;  the 
man  who  was  to  establish  the  future  policy  of  the  dealings  of 
the  Frenchman  with  the  Aborigine ;  but  who  was  also  to  initiate 
and  press  to  the  front  with  vigor  the  magnificent  program  of 
welding  together  the  Province  of  Canada  with  the  Province  of 
Louisiana, — both  held  by  the  French,  by  building  French  forts 
and  establishing  French  garrisons  and  settlements  across  the 
present  states  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Kentucky,  Tennessee, 
Mississippi,  Alabama  and  Louisiana  and  laying  the  foundations 
of  a  New  France  in  America  which  in  time  would  be  greater, 
richer,  and  more  powerful  than  the  mother  country. 

Louis  Baude,  Comte  de  Frontenac,  was  appointed  governor 
of  New  France  about  1674  after  Joliet  and  Pere  Marquette  had 
discovered  the  Mississippi.  The  white  skinned  population  of 
New  France  at  that  time  was  less  than  seven  thousand.  With 
consummate  enterprise  and  daring,  Frontenac  embarked  upon 
the  gigantic  scheme  of  occupying  the  whole  Mississippi  Valley 
north  of  the  Ohio  and  east  of  the  Mississippi  River  and  below 
the  junction  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi,  with  French  forts  and 
settlements.  He  seemed  to  be  the  first  of  the  governors  of  New 
France  who  had  the  breadth  of  vision  to  foresee  that  the  nation 
that  was  in  actual  formidable  possession  of  this  rich  territory 
with  sufficient  strength  to  establish  continuous  contact  of  forts 
and  settlements  could  unite  New  France  and  Louisiana  and  lay 
the  foundation  for  a  great  white  skinned  nation  in  the  Missis- 
sippi Valley. 

His  ambition  in  this  direction  was  actuated  not  only  by 
patriotic  love  for  France  and  her  aggrandizement,  but  by  a 


44  ILLINOIS 

selfish  motive.  He  saw  in  the  rich  fur  trade  of  that  territory 
financial  riches  for  himself  and  his  intimates.  If  he  or  his 
friends  could  procure  from  the  French  sovereign  a  monopoly  of 
this  trade,  his  fortune  was  made,  while  his  country  was  being 
aggrandized. 

Before  the  arrival  of  Frontenac  in  New  France,  the  Jesuits 
had  been  granted  special  rights  in  the  conduct  of  missions  among 
the  Indians  around  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  only  missions  then 
in  existence  were  those  established  by  the  Jesuits.  These  mis- 
sions around  which  the  Indians  gathered  became  magnets  for 
the  assemblage  of  the  fur  traders,  and  particularly  for  those 
traders  that  were  or  could  become  on  friendly  terms  with  the 
missionaries. 

Friendship  between  these  traders  and  the  missionaries  in 
these  outskirts  of  civilization  sprang  up  naturally.  It  was  for 
the  mutual  advantage  of  both.  Behind  these  traders  and  the 
missionaries  in  these  outposts  on  the  frontier  of  the  new  world, 
were  many  of  the  leading  merchants  of  New  France.  These 
leading  merchants  were  doubtless  the  brokers  and  financial  sup- 
porters of  the  traders  in  the  outposts  and  missions.  These 
great  merchants  and  financiers  were  as  desirous  of  monopolizing 
the  trading  privileges  as  were  Frontenac  and  his  friends. 

When  Frontenac  disclosed  his  gigantic  scheme  of  uniting 
New  France  with  Louisiana  by  a  string  of  forts  and  missions 
from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Mississippi  and  down  the  Missis- 
sippi to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  with  monopoly  rights  of  fur  trading 
in  Frontenac  and  his  friends,  bitter  opposition  developed  be- 
tween the  established  traders  on  the  one  side  and  Frontenac 
and  his  friends  on  the  other  side.  The  Jesuits,  naturally,  sided 
with  their  friends  and  intimates,  the  traders,  as  against  the 
ambitions  of  the  proposed  new  monopoly. 

Both  the  traders  and  the  priests  hoped  and  wished  to  broaden 
their  operations  around  the  lakes  and  to  extend  the  rights  and 
privileges  which  they  had  been  enjoying  in  the  North  to  the 
rich  country  north  of  the  Ohio  and  east  of  the  Mississippi, 
which  extended  to  the  Mississippi  over  what  is  now  Ohio,  Indi- 
ana, Michigan,  Illinois,  and  Wisconsin,  and  down  the  Missis- 
sippi to  New  Orleans. 


ILLINOIS  45 

With  that  end  in  view,  Joliet  (probably  aided  by  the  Jesuits) 
petitioned  the  French  authorities  for  the  right  to  found  a  colony 
of  twenty  in  the  Illinois  country  as  the  first  step  in  that  direc- 
tion. Governor  Frontenac  saw  in  the  scheme  a  plan  to  deprive 
his  friends  of  a  coveted  monopoly,  and  reported  that  "it  was 
necessary  to  multiply  the  inhabitants  of  Canada  before  thinking 
of  other  lands,"  and  the  petition  of  Joliet  was  rejected. 

The  main  object  of  the  priests,  as  shown  by  their  zeal  for 
religion  and  the  endurance  of  all  kinds  of  privations,  was  the 
spread  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ;  but  the  plain  object  of  the 
merchants  was  the  exclusive  enjoyment  of  the  profits  of  the  fur 
trade  and  both  objects  ran  upon  parallel  lines,  so  that  the  sup- 
port of  either  helped  to  obtain  the  aims  of  both. 

When  the  missionaries  pointed  to  the  demoralizing  effects 
of  French  brandy,  the  governor's  party,  seeking  the  monopoly 
of  trade,  answered  that  French  brandy  was  no  more  demoraliz- 
ing than  English  rum,  obtainable  at  Albany  from  the  British 
traders.  That  intoxicating  liquor  was  conducive  toward  the 
quick  and  often  scandalously  unfair  consummation  of  trade  be- 
tween the  white  man  and  the  red  man,  whether  the  white  man 
spoke  English,  French,  Dutch  or  Spanish,  seems  to  have  been 
an  undeniable  fact.  It  facilitated  trade  and  robbed  the  red 
man.  Alvord  in  his  history  cites  a  case  where  an  Indian  sold 
three  thousand  dollars  worth  of  skins  to  a  white  man  for  a  cask 
of  brandy  worth  forty  dollars.      (P.  72,  Alvord.) 

The  French  authorities  exercising  supervision  over  the  In- 
dians and  white  colonists,  sought  to  correct  these  evils.  In 
1673,  white  men  were  prohibited  from  going  into  the  woods  for 
over  twenty-four  hours  without  a  special  permit.  Shortly  after- 
ward, all  permits  to  trade  were  prohibited  by  the  governor. 
The  result  of  these  prohibitions  was  the  driving  of  the  French 
traders  and  coureurs  de  bois  from  Montreal  and  Fort  Frontenac 
to  Albany  for  all  purchases  and  sales.  It  made  outlaws  out  of 
these  Frenchmen,  and  made  them  expedite  barters  with  the 
Indians  with  British  rum  instead  of  French  brandy. 

Abolition  of  all  rights  of  barter  having  failed,  the  French 
authorities  then  tried  a  limitation  of  all  trading  permits  to 
twenty-five  royal  conges  or  trading  permits.    These  conges  were 


46  ILLINOIS 

issued  only  to  members  of  noble  families  or  persons  to  whom  the 
government  was  desirous  of  granting  special  consideration. 
This  plan,  however,  failed,  as  did  all  the  other  plans  devised 
for  the  purpose  of  putting  a  stop  to  unconscionable  trading. 
The  voyageurs  and  coureurs  de  bois  or  runners  in  the  woods 
who  were  engaged  in  fur  trading  with  the  Indians,  were  a  hardy, 
happy-go-lucky,  rule-defying  lot. 

In  the  early  spring  and  early  fall  of  each  year,  they  were 
wont  to  leave  Montreal  in  large  fleets  of  canoes  with  their  guns, 
scanty  subsistence  and  trading  goods,  including  French  brandy 
for  the  Great  Lakes.  With  three  men  in  a  canoe,  they  relied 
upon  their  guns  and  Ashing  tackle  almost  solely  for  food.  They 
endured  all  kinds  of  risks  and  hardships  while  paddling  their 
canoes  in  the  lakes  and  rivers  and  carrying  them  over  the  port- 
ages in  the  wilderness.  At  the  Great  Lakes  they  separated,  each 
following  the  trail  with  which  they  were  familiar,  until  they 
reached  the  Indian  settlements.  There  in  the  solitude  of  the 
woods,  far  from  the  eye  and  arm  of  the  government,  they  did 
their  trading  with  the  simple  Indian  upon  such  terms  as  they 
believed  would  be  a  recompense  for  risks  and  dangers  and  ardu- 
ous labor  they  had  endured.  Rules  and  regulations  of  a  mighty 
monarch  of  France  were  to  them,  under  the  circumstances  sur- 
rounding them,  only  so  many  jokes. 


CHAPTER  VI 

CHARACTER    AND    CUSTOMS    OF    THE    FRENCH    HAB- 
ITANTS IN  THE  COUNTRY  OF  THE  ILLINOIS 

The  country  of  the  Illinois  as  frequently  mentioned  in  this 
narrative,  and  in  all  the  French  documents  between  1673  when 
Marquette  and  Joliet  discovered  the  Mississippi  and  1763  when 
by  the  Treaty  of  Paris  the  British  obtained  sovereignty  of  the 
French  possessions  in  the  North  American  continent,  was  by 
no  means  co-terminous  with  the  present  State  of  Illinois.  The 
term  Illinois  Country,  as  used  by  the  French  officials,  extended 
from  Western  New  York,  north  of  the  Ohio  River  to  Eastern 
Kansas,  Oklahoma  and  Texas,  although  the  Spanish  govern- 
ment claimed  title  to  all  that  portion  of  the  same  west  of  the 
Mississippi  River.  The  French  coureurs  de  bois  and  traders 
in  their  travels  cared  not  for  the  claims  of  far  distant  kings 
in  the  hunt  for  furs.  These  happy-go-lucky  traders  were  found 
wherever  there  was  trade  in  the  territory  we  have  set  out 
above. 

In  all  this  wide  expanse  of  territory,  there  were  no  English 
colonists  who  tilled  the  soil,  no  Spanish  except  around  St.  Louis, 
and  but  few  French  colonists  who  had  established  permanent 
homes  and  relied  upon  agriculture  for  a  living.  The  French 
habitants,  except  along  the  Illinois  Bottom  for  about  seventy 
miles  between  Kaskaskia  and  East  St.  Louis,  were  either 
coureurs  de  bois,  traders,  or  French  soldiers,  and  naval  and 
military  officers  stationed  in  and  around  the  forts  or  posts  at 
Frontenac,  Mackinac,  Green  Bay,  Fort  Miami,  Peoria,  Vin- 
cennes  and  Chicago  and  Detroit.  French  tillers  of  the  soil  were 
few  and  far  between,  except  in  the  Illinois  Bottom,  whose  great 
fertility  attracted  many  of  them  and  made  them  permanent 
colonists.     Outside  of  the  French  settlers  gathered  around  De- 

47 


P.N^tl*' 


Le  Coureur  de  Bois 


ILLINOIS  49 

troit  and  Fort  Frontenac,  there  were  probably  not  over  three 
thousand  Frenchmen  who  were  actual  colonists  in  all  this  ex- 
tensive territory,  and  about  two  thousand  of  these  were  located 
in  the  Illinois  Bottom.  Many  writers  have  discussed  the  habits 
and  characteristics  of  the  French  settlers  in  the  Illinois  Bot- 
tom, and  if  we  gather  from  them  a  knowledge  of  these  men  and 
their  families  in  that  locality,  we  can  get  a  fair  idea  of  the  habits 
of  the  French  Colonial  settlers,  sparsely  scattered  over  this 
extensive  territory. 

In  the  American  Bottom,  the  French  inhabitants  consisted 
of  two  classes.  One  well  born,  of  fairly  comfortable  circum- 
stances who  in  Great  Britain  would  be  called  the  gentry.  These 
were  comparatively  few  and  comprised  the  officers  of  the  gar- 
rison and  the  rich  merchants  and  land-holders.  The  others, 
a  more  numerous  class,  called  habitants,  were  small  holders  of 
land,  small  merchants,  small  traders,  coureurs  de  bois,  servants 
and  laborers. 

The  holders  of  small  tracts  of  land  took  title  and  cultivated 
their  small  holdings  in  a  manner  peculiar  to  the  French  in  their 
native  land.  The  American  farmer,  as  we  all  know,  as  a  rule 
takes  title  to  and  cultivates  a  farm  in  square  lots  of  ten,  forty, 
one  hundred  and  sixty,  or  six  hundred  and  forty  acres.  The 
French  settler  in  the  American  Bottom  used  a  large  unfenced 
common  open  to  all  for  grazing  purposes,  and  for  tillage  took 
title  to,  and  plowed  long  strips  of  sometimes  a  mile  in  length 
but  very  narrow  in  width.  No  fence  or  barrier  separated  these 
separate  holdings  from  each  other,  but  a  common  fence  or  bar- 
rier enclosed  the  ends  of  these  long  strips  of  land  and  the 
owner  of  each  strip  was  required  to  maintain  that  portion  of 
the  end  fence  which  was  opposite  his  own  strip  of  land.  They 
did  not  live,  or  build  their  houses  on  these  strips  of  land  which 
they  cultivated,  but  in  a  village  close  by  their  plantings,  where 
they  could  live  in  more  intimate  contact  with  each  other. 

It  had  one  advantage  over  the  modern  farming  methods. 
There  was  not  such  isolation  of  farming  families  as  made  the 
American  farmer's  life,  before  the  coming  of  the  auto,  radio  and 
telephone,  almost  unendurable.  They  were  a  pleasure  loving, 
good  natured  lot,  fond  of  frolics,  dancing  and  card  playing,  as  are 


50  ILLINOIS 

most  illiterate  and  many  well  educated  people.  As  a  rule,  they 
seemed  more  concerned  about  having  a  happy,  rather  than  a 
luxurious  life.  They  drank  as  a  rule  with  moderation,  but  on 
occasions  went  too  far,  as  most  frontiersmen  of  other  national- 
ities were  wont  to  do.  So  far  as  the  records  show,  they  were 
singularly  free  from  felonious  crimes,  and  settled  most  of  their 
disputes  by  referring  them  to  the  civil  or  military  authorities, 
and  in  many  cases  by  submitting  them  to  their  clergymen. 

Concubinage  with  squaws,  and  marriage  to  squaws,  were 
quite  common.  The  latter  was  urged  by  the  priests  in  substitu- 
tion of  concubinage,  although  these  marriages  were  frowned 
on  by  the  civil  authorities ;  because  of  the  belief  that  such  mar- 
riages degraded  the  white  man  to  the  level  of  the  savage  and 
produced  a  progeny  that  had  the  vices  of  both  races.  At  times, 
these  marriages  were  absolutely  interdicted  by  the  civil  au- 
thorities. 

On  Sundays  and  holidays,  after  attending  church,  they  in- 
dulged themselves  in  games  and  other  recreations,  after  the 
manner  of  most  European  countries. 

Mardi  Gras  and  New  Year's  day  were  celebrated  with  en- 
thusiasm. Good  natured  charivaris  and  pancake  flappings  were 
frequent,  and  dancing  was  at  all  times  considered  the  height  of 
enjoyment. 

Their  social  intercourse  with  the  Indians  was  on  the  whole 
much  more  friendly  than  the  association  of  the  English  settler 
with  the  red  man.  The  English  settler  made  no  disguise  of  the 
fact  that  he  wanted  the  land  upon  which  the  Indian  hunted,  and 
frequently  appropriated  to  himself  that  land  by  force;  without 
attempting  to  acquire  the  tribal  rights  of  the  Indian  to  the  same. 
The  French  settler  was  more  concerned  in  acquiring  the  furs 
of  the  hunter,  which  he  was  willing  to  buy,  and  when  he  did 
acquire  the  land  itself,  it  was  obtained  in  some  peaceful  method 
rather  than  by  force  of  arms. 

Under  the  French  system,  theoretically,  the  French  inhab- 
itant had  no  voice  in  the  laws  or  ordinances,  by  which  he  was 
governed.  There  was  no  law  governing  him,  except  such  laws 
and  rules  as  were  proclaimed  by  the  King  of  France  and  by  the 
governor   of  New   France  under   royal   authority.     The   New 


ILLINOIS  51 

England  township  government  was  unknown.  The  French  sub- 
jects in  New  France  were  never  consulted  about  the  laws  and 
rules  proclaimed.  These  laws  and  rules  were  handed  to  them 
ready  made,  and  had  to  be  obeyed.  None  the  less,  these  little 
villages  like  Kaskaskia,  Cahokia,  and  New  Chartres  did  of 
their  own  volition  establish  certain  customs  that  by  unanimous 
agreement  were  treated,  obeyed  and  binding  upon  their  in- 
habitants. 

Assemblies  of  the  people  were  held  after  mass  in  front  of 
the  church.  Syndics  or  quasi-mayors  were  there  elected.  When 
matters  relating  to  the  church  arose,  the  priest  presided.  When 
civil  or  commercial  matters  were  under  consideration,  the  syndic 
took  charge. 

Auctions  were  held  there.  The  times  of  plowing  or  harvest- 
ing were  settled.  Repairs  on  churches,  roads  or  public  build- 
ings were  determined  there.  Records  were  kept  by  the  judge 
or  a  clerk,  or  notary,  of  all  transactions  at  said  assemblies,  and 
the  syndic  of  the  village  was  required  to  see  that  all  orders 
made  at  such  meetings  were  duly  carried  out. 

Military  duty  was  compulsory  upon  all  male  inhabitants  of 
these  French  villages,  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  them  from 
Indian  aggression  or  other  disorder.  The  captain  of  the  com- 
pany, in  each  village,  was  selected  by  the  French  mayor  or  com- 
mandant to  organize  the  company  and  control  it  thereafter. 

The  captain  of  the  militia  in  each  village  was  a  citizen  of 
much  importance.  He  represented  the  major  commandant  and 
represented  the  royal  government  in  all  work  performed  by  the 
villagers  for  the  government,  or  on  the  roads.  He  represented 
the  judge,  and  carried  out  and  put  into  execution  his  judgments. 
He  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes  a  man  clothed  with  the  au- 
thority and  performing  the  function  of  an  English  justice  of 
the  peace.  At  times  disputes  arose  between  the  villagers  and 
the  Indians,  which  the  captain  of  the  militia  took  charge  of 
and  assuaged  or  settled  in  some  manner.  When  the  white  men 
first  settled  among  these  Indians,  there  were  no  disputes  as  to 
titles  to  the  land.  Both  the  Indians  and  the  white  men  were 
interested  in  hunting  and  in  the  fur  trade,  rather  than  in  the 
soil,  but  as  the  settlers  began  to  show  a  disposition  to  possess 


LIBRART 

UNIVERSmr  OF  «LUN0» 


52  ILLINOIS 

themselves  of  land,  then  trouble  arose  between  them  and  the 
Indians. 

The  close  association  of  these  inhabitants  and  the  Indians 
was  probably  disadvantageous  to  both.  Intoxicating  liquor  and 
disease  spread  rapidly  among  the  Indians,  and  these  Illinois 
Indians  that  were  formerly  able  to  hold  their  own  even  against 
the  ferocious  Iroquois  tribes,  became  degenerate,  and  their 
tribes  were  reduced  in  number  to  between  three  to  three  thou- 
sand five  hundred  men,  women  and  children,  the  males  of  which 
seemed  to  have  degenerated  from  fearless  warriors  into  lazy 
and  indolent  idlers. 

They  rapidly  became  converts  and  responded  to  the  teach- 
ings of  the  missionaries.  They  attended  church  with  great 
regularity  and  participated  in  all  the  ceremonies  of  the  Catholic 
religion.  John  Reynolds,  who  was  elected  governor  in  1830, 
lived  among  the  French  habitants  for  many  years  and  had  prob- 
ably the  best  opportunity  of  any  English  writer  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  their  character  and  customs  and  in  his  history 
of  Illinois  entitled  My  Own  Times,1  he  describes  them  in  the  fol- 
lowing language: 

The  immigrants  of  the  French  villages  being  from 
different  sections  of  the  continent,  made  some  difference 
in  the  population.  Kaskaskia  and  Prairie  du  Rocher  were 
mostly  colonized  from  Mobile  and  New  Orleans,  and  Caho- 
kia  from  Canada.  The  language  possessed  a  shade  of  dif- 
ference, as  well  as  their  habits.  In  the  first-named  village, 
the  inhabitants  partook  of  the  Sunny  South,  more  than 
those  who  settled  in  Cakohia  from  Canada.  A  shade  more 
of  relaxation,  gaiety,  hilarity,  and  dancing,  prevailed  in 
Kaskaskia  and  Prairie  du  Rocher  than  in  Cahokia.  It  may 
be,  the  immigrants  from  France  to  the  north  and  south  of 
the  continent  of  North  America,  may  have  been  from 
different  provinces  of  the  mother-country,  which  made  the 
difference  above  mentioned  in  the  early  French  pioneers 
of  Illinois. 

The  masses  of  the  French  were  an  innocent  and  happy 
people.    They  were  devoutly  attached  to  the  Roman  Cath- 


i  Reynolds    (My   Own   Times),   first   and    second   sections,   p.   37,   and 
second  section,  p.  38  and  last  three  sections,  p.  39. 


ILLINOIS  53 

olic  Church,  and  had  lived  for  many  generations  in  strict 
obedience  to  the  Christian  principles  taught  by  that  church. 
They  were  removed  from  the  corruption  of  large  cities,  and 
enjoyed  an  isolated  position  in  the  interior  of  North 
America.  In  a  century  before  1800,  they  were  enabled  to 
solve  the  problem:  that  neither  wealth,  nor  splendid  pos- 
sessions, nor  an  extraordinary  degree  of  ambition,  nor 
energy,  ever  made  a  people  happy.  These  people  resided 
more  than  a  thousand  miles  from  any  other  colony,  and 
were  strangers  to  wealth  or  poverty;  but  the  Christian 
virtues  governed  their  hearts,  and  they  were  happy.  One 
virtue  among  others  was  held  in  high  estimation,  and  re- 
ligiously observed.  Chastity  with  the  Creoles  was  a  sine 
quo  non,  and  a  spurious  offspring  was  almost  unknown 
among  them.  It  is  the  immutable  decree  to  man  from  the 
Throne  itself,  that  in  proportion  to  the  introduction  of  sin 
and  guilt  into  the  heart,  in  the  same  proportion  happiness 
abandons  the  person. 

"The  French  generally,  and  the  early  Creoles  particu- 
larly, were  passionately  fond  of  dancing.  The  gay  and 
merry  disposition  of  the  French,  adopted  the  mode  of  so- 
cial amusement.  To  enjoy  the  dancing-salon  was  almost 
a  passion  among  the  French,  and  for  the  enjoyment  of 
which  they  made  many  efforts.  No  people  ever  conducted 
the  ballroom  with  more  propriety  than  they  did.  Decorum 
and  punctilious  manners  were  enforced  by  public  opinion. 
No  liquor,  cigars,  or  loud  blustering  remarks  were  tolerated 
in  their  dancing  assemblies.  All  classes,  ages,  and  degrees 
assembled  together,  and  made  one  large  family  in  these 
ballrooms.  The  aged  would  at  times  dance;  but  they  per- 
formed a  higher  duty.  The  discreet  and  aged  females 
kept  an  eye  sharp  and  searching  over  the  giddy  youth. 
Frequently  the  priest  attended  the  early  part  of  the  evening 
in  the  balls,  and  saw  that  the  innocent  and  proper  observ- 
ance of  just  principles  be  the  order  of  the  party. 

"The  habits  of  labor  and  energy  with  the  French  were 
moderate.  Their  energy  or  ambition  never  urged  them  to 
more  than  an  humble  and  competent  support.  To  hoard 
up  wealth  was  not  found  written  in  their  hearts,  and  very 
few  practiced  it.  They  were  a  temperate,  moral  people. 
They  very  seldom  indulged  in  drinking  liquor.  They  were 
at  times  rather  intemperate  in  smoking  and  dancing;  but 
seldom  indulged  in  either  to  excess  at  the  same  time  or 
place. 


54  ILLINOIS 

"All  classes  observed  a  strict  morality  against  hunting 
or  fishing  on  the  Sabbath ;  but  they  played  cards  for  amuse- 
ment often  on  the  Sabbath.  This  they  considered  one  of 
the  innocent  pastimes  that  was  not  prohibited  to  a  Chris- 
tian. 

"They  had  no  taste  for  either  horse-racing  or  foot- 
racing, wrestling,  jumping,  or  the  like;  and  did  not  often 
indulge  in  these  sports.  Shooting  fowls  on  the  wing,  and 
breaking  wild  horses  afforded  the  French  considerable 
amusement." 


CHAPTER  VII 
LA  SALLE,  THE  DARING  AND  UNFORTUNATE 

The  most  picturesque  and  romantic  figure  among  the  French 
explorers  was  Robert  Cavalier  Sieur  de  La  Salle.  Brave,  in- 
domitably persevering,  brilliant  in  conception  and  vigorous  in 
execution,  he  attained  more  for  France,  and  less  for  himself 
than  any  of  the  men  connected  with  the  settlement  of  New 
France  and  the  Illinois  Country,  excepting  Frontenac  who  vi- 
sioned  what  La  Salle  nearly  succeeded  in  accomplishing, — the 
creation  of  a  great  empire  under  the  standard  of  the  lilies  of 
France,  extending  from  Quebec  to  New  Orleans. 

He  was  a  member  of  an  aristocratic  family  located  near 
Rouen,  France,  was  born  in  that  city  November  22,  1643,  and 
received  an  excellent  education  in  a  Jesuit  school  in  which  he 
remained  until  he  was  twenty-three  years  of  age.  He  probably 
originally  intended  to  become  a  member  of  that  order,  but 
changed  his  mind  at  the  age  just  mentioned.  When  he  left  the 
Jesuits  in  1666,  he  had  a  brother,  Abbe  Jean  Cavalier,  living  in 
Montreal  and  left  France  to  meet  his  brother  in  the  new  world. 
On  arriving  in  Montreal,  he  started  into  the  business  of  trading 
in  furs,  and  acquired  a  small  estate  called  Lachine. 

By  reason  of  his  excellent  family  connections  and  his  own 
dignified  bearing  and  superior  education,  he  secured  the  confi- 
dence and  respect  of  Jean  Talon,  the  French  intendant,  who 
was  at  that  time  setting  on  foot  exploring  expeditions  into  the 
western  country. 

Before  receiving  any  official  recognition  from  Talon,  he  had 
started  exploring  on  his  own  account.  His  brother  was  a  Sul- 
pician  priest,  and  through  him  La  Salle  had  come  in  contact 
with  two  other  members  of  the  Sulpician  order,  the  Abbes  Gal- 
lince  and  Casson  who  were  about  to  go  to  the  southerly  shore 
of  Lake  Ontario  with  the  design  of  establishing  religious  mis- 

55 


56  ILLINOIS 

sions.  La  Salle  accompanied  them,  but  for  some  reason  they 
separated  and  La  Salle  returned  without  making  any  progress 
or  gaining  any  prestige. 

Talon  the  next  year  after  his  return  gave  him  official  recog- 
nition and  commissioned  him  to  explore,  over  the  same  territory. 
As  no  records  seem  to  have  been  preserved,  it  was  probably 
abortive  of  results.  These  trips  of  La  Salle,  however,  were 
utilized  by  Talon  and  his  friends,  when  properly  exaggerated, 


Kobert  Cavalier  Sieur  de  LaSalle 

to  give  prestige  to  La  Salle  when  he  became  an  applicant  for 
royal  authority  to  explore  and  colonize  the  West. 

At  this  stage  of  the  history,  it  becomes  manifest  both  by  his 
association  with  the  Sulpicians,  and  his  intimacy  with,  and  rec- 
ognition by,  Talon  that  La  Salle  had  severed  his  affiliations  with 
his  former  teachers,  the  Jesuits,  and  allied  himself  with  the 
intendant  Talon  and  the  governor,  Frontenac,  who  were  then 
seeking  a  monopoly  of  the  fur  trade  and  exclusive  control  of 
the  location  of  the  religious  missions.  The  struggle  was  on 
between  the  Jesuits  who  were  then  in  control  of  the  missions 
and  the  Frontenac-Talon-La  Salle  interests  who  desired  to  sup- 
plant them. 


ILLINOIS  57 

Under  then  existing  conditions,  the  individual  fur  trader 
could  make  his  own  living  and  his  own  profit.  Under  the  newly- 
proposed  monopoly,  backed  by  the  governor  and  intendant,  he, 
the  trader,  must  work  for  the  monopoly,  on  monopoly's  terms. 

The  success  of  Marquette  and  Joliet  in  discovering  the  Mis- 
sissippi, and  the  success  of  the  Jesuit  missionaries  in  estab- 
lishing relations  of  confidence  and  friendship  with  the  Indians 
at  their  numerous  missions  were  a  matter  of  chagrin  to  the 
Frontenac-Talon  party,  who  were  backing  La  Salle.  To  counter- 
balance these  successes,  the  friends  of  La  Salle  resorted  to 
every  possible  expedient  to  exaggerate  the  exploits  of  La  Salle 
at  Court  in  France.  La  Salle's  excursions  among  the  Indians 
did  enable  him  to  learn  the  Iroquois  language,  and  acquire  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  their  habits  of  life  and  inured  him  to  the 
labors  and  fatigues  and  dangers  of  a  life  of  exploration.  He 
had  a  fine  physical  presence,  a  vigorous  constitution,  and  great 
charm  of  manner  which  could  and  did  captivate  even  a  royal 
court. 

On  or  about  1673,  the  then  governor  of  New  France,  Fron- 
tenac,  had  constructed,  at  his  own  expense  a  hastily  constructed 
wooden  fort  at  a  point  where  Lake  Ontario  poured  its  waters 
into  the  St.  Lawrence  River,  a  site  now  occupied  by  the  modern 
City  of  Kingston.  This  fort  had  been  constructed  without  the 
authority  of  the  French  court.  Frontenac  realized  the  strategic 
strength  of  the  place,  and  knew  it  to  be  a  point  from  which  he 
could  control  the  western  fur  trade,  and  from  which  he  could 
rule  over  all,  and  keep  in  control  the  Iroquois  confederacy  to 
the  south.  This  confederacy  had  been  the  connecting  link  be- 
tween the  western  Indians  and  the  British  traders  at  Albany. 
The  government  in  France  had  raised  objections  to  these  pre- 
mature acts  of  Frontenac. 

By  this  time  La  Salle,  who  had  become  thoroughly  conversant 
with  the  Iroquois  language  and  who  had,  in  his  intercourse  with 
the  Iroquois  gained  their  confidence  and  respect,  was  sent  by 
Frontenac  to  France  to  lay  the  case  of  the  governor  before 
Colbert,  the  minister  of  Louis  XIV.  Alvord  in  his  history 
quotes  the  letter  from  Frontenac  to  Colbert  as  follows : 


58  ILLINOIS 

I  cannot  but  recommend  to  you  Msr.  Sieur  de  La  Salle, 
who  is  about  to  go  to  France  and  who  is  a  man  of  intelli- 
gence and  ability,  the  most  competent  of  anyone  I  know 
here  to  accomplish  every  enterprise  and  discovery  which 
may  be  entrusted  to  him,  as  he  has  the  most  perfect  knowl- 
edge of  the  state  of  the  country,  as  you  will  see  if  you  are 
disposed  to  give  him  a  few  moments  audience. 

Notwithstanding  the  objection  of  the  Jesuit  party,  La  Salle 
was  well  received  at  court.  He  petitioned  that  court  for  a 
patent  of  nobility  and  for  the  seigniory  of  Fort  Frontenac,  prom- 
ising to  build  a  fort  of  stone  and  develop  a  village  around  it  at 
considerable  expense;  to  repay  Count  Frontenac  for  the  cost 
of  the  fort,  and  to  make  grants  of  land  to  the  settlers  who  came 
there  to  live,  to  attract  the  Indians  to  his  place  and  grant  them 
lands  and  instruct  them  in  trades  and  labor,  and  to  build  a  church 
and  maintain  priests  to  administer  the  same.  With  his  patent 
of  nobility  and  this  grant,  he  returned  promptly  to  New  France, 
where  he  built  the  fort,  made  grants  to  the  Indians,  and  reared 
great  flocks  and  herds,  and  resumed  his  relations  with  the 
Iroquois  tribe. 

While  La  Salle  was  at  Frontenac  engaged  in  this  work,  the 
explorer  Joliet  on  his  return  from  the  Mississippi  River  dropped 
in  at  Fort  Frontenac,  visited  La  Salle  and  doubtless  made  a  full 
report  of  his  discovery.  The  Iroquois  warriors  made  the  same 
reports  with  relation  to  the  existence  of  the  Mississippi.  Upon 
hearing  said  reports,  La  Salle  decided  to  make  a  journey  into 
the  Illinois  country  and  place  the  flag  of  France  over  the  terri- 
tory between  the  Lakes  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  He  designed 
a  scheme  of  building  a  chain  of  forts  reaching  from  St.  Louis 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  In  pursuance  of  this  design, 
in  1678  he  again  went  to  France,  having  behind  him  Courselles, 
the  then  governor,  and  Talon.  He  had  no  trouble  in  securing  an 
audience  with  Colbert  at  the  French  court,  and  on  the  12th  of 
May,  1678,  procured  Letters  Patent,  which  I  quote  from  Smith's 
History  of  Illinois,  Vol.  I,  page  83,  as  follows : 

Letters  Patent 

"Granted  by  the  King  of  France  to  the  Sieur  de  La  Salle 
on  the  12th  of  May,  1678." 


60  ILLINOIS 


Translation 


"Louis,  by  the  grace  of  God,  King  of  France  and  of 
Navarre.  To  our  dear  and  well-beloved  Robert  Cavalier, 
Sieur  de  La  Salle,  greeting. 

"We  have  received  with  favor  the  very  humble  petition, 
which  has  been  presented  to  us  in  your  name,  to  permit 
you  to  endeavor  to  discover  the  Western  part  of  our  coun- 
try of  New  France ;  and  we  have  consented  to  this  proposal 
the  more  willingly,  because  there  is  nothing  we  have  more 
at  heart  than  the  discovery  of  this  country,  through  which 
it  is  probable  that  a  passage  may  be  found  to  Mexico ;  and 
because  your  diligence  in  clearing  the  lands  which  we 
granted  to  you  by  decree  of  our  council  of  the  13th  of  May, 
1675,  and,  by  Letters  Patent  of  the  same  date,  to  form 
habitations  upon  the  said  lands,  and  to  put  Fort  Frontenac 
in  good  state  of  defense,  the  seigniory  and  Government 
whereof  we  likewise  granted  to  you,  affords  us  every  rea- 
son to  hope  that  you  will  succeed  to  our  satisfaction,  and 
to  the  advantage  of  our  subjects  of  said  country. 

"For  these  reasons,  and  others  thereunto  moving  us, 
we  have  permitted,  and  do  hereby  permit  you,  by  these 
presents,  signed  by  our  hand,  to  endeavor  to  discover  the 
Western  part  of  our  country  of  New  France,  and  for  the 
execution  of  this  enterprise,  to  construct  forts  wherever 
you  shall  deem  it  necessary;  which  it  is  our  will  you  shall 
hold  on  the  same  terms  and  conditions  as  Fort  Frontenac, 
agreeably  and  conformably  to  our  said  Letters  Patent  of 
the  13th  of  May,  1675,  which  we  have  confirmed,  as  far  as 
is  needful,  and  hereby  confirm  by  these  presents.  And  it 
is  our  pleasure  that  they  be  executed  according  to  their 
form  and  tenor. 

"To  accomplish  this,  and  everything  above  mentioned, 
we  give  you  full  powers;  on  condition,  however,  that  you 
shall  finish  this  enterprise  within  five  years,  in  default  of 
which  these  presents  shall  be  void  and  of  none  effect;  that 
you  carry  on  no  trade  whatever  with  the  savages  called 
Outauoacs,  and  others  who  bring  their  beaver  skins  and 
other  peltries  to  Montreal ;  and  that  the  whole  shall  be  done 
at  your  expense,  and  that  of  your  company,  to  which  we 
have  granted  the  privilege  of  trade  in  buffalo-skins.  And 
we  call  on  Sieur  de  Frontenac,  our  governor  and  lieutenant 
general,  and  on  the  Sieur  de  Chesneau,  intendant  of  justice, 
police  and  finance,  and  on  the  officers  who  compose  the  su- 
preme council  in  the  said  country,  to  affix  their  signatures 


ILLINOIS  61 

to  these  presents;  for  such  is  our  pleasure.  Given  at  St. 
Germain  en  Laye,  this  12th  day  of  May,  1678,  and  of  our 
reign  the  thirty-fifth. 

"(Signed)     Louis." 
And  lower  down,  by  the  king. 
And  sealed  with  the  great  seal  of  yellow  wax,     Colbert. 

Having  secured  this  patent,  which  gave  him  tremendous 
prestige  and  absolute  authority  in  the  western  portion  of  New 
France  covering  the  Illinois  district,  La  Salle  undertook  to  raise 
finances  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  this  great  enterprise. 
By  strenuous  exertion,  he  succeeded  in  raising  from  his  friends 
and  relatives  the  sum  of  500,000  livres,  or  about  $100,000.  In 
this  enterprise  he  was  assisted  by  Colbert,  whose  friendship  he 
secured,  and  Colbert's  son,  Marquis  Seignley,  and  the  Prince 
de  Conte,  prominent  in  military  circles  in  France.  Among  oth- 
ers that  he  met  in  France  at  this  time  was  Henry  de  Tonti,  an 
Italian  officer  who  was  an  intimate  of  the  Prince  de  Conte. 
He  induced  de  Tonti  to  join  him  in  his  enterprise,  and  with  his 
assistance  they  gathered  in  France,  carpenters,  shipwrights, 
sailors,  blacksmiths  and  common  laborers,  and  purchased  ma- 
terial for  the  construction  of  ships.  With  Tonti  and  his  party, 
La  Salle  sailed  from  Rochelle  July  15,  1678,  and  reached  Quebec 
the  September  following.  After  paying  his  respects  to  Gov- 
ernor Frontenac,  La  Salle  and  his  expedition  a  few  days  there- 
after sailed  from  Quebec  to  Fort  Frontenac.  Within  a  few  days 
afterwards,  they  proceeded  to  Niagara  Falls,  hoping  to  secure 
a  suitable  location  for  the  building  of  a  boat  to  sail  on  the  upper 
lakes.  They  finally  selected  Tonawanda  Creek  near  Niagara 
Falls,  and  built  a  ship  of  sixty-two  tons  burden,  which  he  chris- 
tened The  Griffon.  During  the  construction  of  the  ship,  La  Salle 
had  sent  some  of  his  adherents  to  Mackinac  with  money  and 
goods  manufactured  in  Europe,  with  orders  to  purchase  furs 
from  the  Indians  and  have  them  ready  when  the  ship  should 
reach  Mackinac.  The  vessel  arrived  at  Mackinac  on  the  27th 
of  August,  having  taken  on  board  Tonti  as  they  passed  Detroit. 
When  they  arrived  at  this  point,  La  Salle  discovered  that  some 
of  his  men  who  had  been  sent  forward  to  purchase  furs,  had  been 
dissuaded  from  the  work  which  they  had  been  commissioned  to 


62  ILLINOIS 

do.  Tonti  was  immediately  sent  by  La  Salle  to  hunt  these  men 
up  and  secure  their  return,  and  La  Salle  himself  with  the  Griffon 
went  on  to  Green  Bay,  arriving  there  on  the  10th  of  September. 
Here  he  disposed  of  large  quantities  of  his  trading  goods  in 
exchange  for  furs,  at  a  large  profit.  The  ship,  with  its  cargo 
of  furs,  was  sent  back  to  Niagara,  while  La  Salle  himself  and 
fourteen  of  the  company  proceeded  southward  in  small  boats 
to  the  St.  Joe  River,  which  they  reached  on  November  1,  1679. 
Here  it  was  agreed  between  Tonti  and  La  Salle  that  Tonti  should 
report  to  La  Salle  concerning  the  deserters.  Twenty  days  there- 
after Tonti  appeared  with  some,  but  with  not  all  of  these  de- 
serters. Tonti  failed  to  secure  the  return  of  all  of  these  men, 
but  joined  La  Salle  and  ascended  the  St.  Joe  River  to  the  Kan- 
kakee portage.  Before  leaving  St.  Joe  and  the  ascent  of  that 
river,  La  Salle  caused  a  storehouse  to  be  built  at  St.  Joe,  in  the 
expectation  that  the  Griffon,  after  it  discharged  its  load  at  Ni- 
agara, would  return  with  goods  and  supplies  from  Niagara. 
The  fort  that  he  constructed  at  St.  Joe  he  called  Fort  Miami. 

With  a  company  of  thirty-eight  in  eight  canoes,  he  left  Fort 
Miami  on  the  3rd  of  December,  rowing  up  the  St.  Joe  River  to 
the  portage  between  the  St.  Joe  River  and  the  Kankakee,  which 
was  located  somewhere  in  the  neighborhood  of  South  Bend, 
Indiana.  The  portage  was  five  miles  wide,  and  the  ground 
around  it  very  swampy.  They  soon,  however,  came  to  a  current 
flowing  westerly,  and  soon  thereafter  reached  the  Illinois  River. 
Going  down  the  Illinois,  they  found  game  very  abundant,  and 
passed  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Ottawa  and  Buffalo  Rock 
on  the  right.  On  the  left  bank  of  the  river  they  passed  the  now 
famous  Starved  Rock.  Opposite  Starved  Rock  was  an  Indian 
village  occupied  by  the  Kaskaskias,  near  the  present  site  of  Utica. 
This  was  where  Marquette  had  preached  to  the  Indians  on  his 
return  from  the  Mississippi  and  where  Marquette  reported  that 
the  number  of  Indian  cabins  was  seventy-four.  In  1677  Father 
Allouez  visited  this  same  place  after  Marquette  had  established 
a  mission  there,  and  he  reports  that  there  were  then  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty  lodges.  When  La  Salle  and  his  company  reached 
this  point  on  the  Illinois  River,  they  were  practically  out  of  food 
and  game  was  scarce.    They  found  a  cache  of  corn  in  a  sort  of 


ILLINOIS  63 

cellar  left  there  by  the  Indians  who  were  away  on  a  winter  hunt. 
Driven  by  necessity,  La  Salle  was  compelled  to  appropriate  some 
of  this  corn,  as  there  was  no  one  from  whom  he  could  purchase. 
He  knew  that  according  to  the  Indian  custom,  it  was  a  great 
crime  to  take  these  supplies  without  the  consent  of  the  owner, 
but  he  determined  in  the  interests  of  the  lives  of  his  company, 
to  take  the  chance  of  taking  it  in  the  absence  of  the  Indians 
and  pay  for  it  thereafter. 

A  few  days  afterwards  in  sailing  down  the  Illinois,  they 
reached  a  place  where  now  is  located  the  City  of  Peoria,  where 
they  discovered  the  smoke  of  numerous  camp  fires  arising  from 
the  Indian  camps  which  were  on  both  sides  of  the  river.  Their 
appearance  caused  great  consternation  at  first,  but  one  of  the 
Indian  chiefs  having  produced  a  peace  pipe,  a  conference  was 
arranged  and  confidence  was  soon  restored.  Fathers  Membre 
and  Hennepin  were  in  La  Salle's  party  and  went  among  the 
people  and  explained  fully  the  cause  of  their  coming.  At  the 
request  of  La  Salle,  the  Indians  called  a  conference,  and  La 
Salle,  after  making  them  presents  of  tobacco  and  hatchets,  ex- 
plained that  he  was  compelled  to  take  their  corn  at  the  Kas- 
kaskia  village,  and  was  willing  to  restore  it  all,  or  pay  for  it 
as  the  Indians  desired.  The  Indians  answered  that  he  was  wel- 
come to  what  he  had,  and  they  offered  him  more  in  addition. 
Friendly  relations  were  soon  established  between  the  Indians 
and  La  Salle's  party.  He  told  them  that  if  he  was  to  remain 
with  them,  he  must  be  permitted  to  build  a  fort;  that  he  could 
not  join  them  in  an  attack  upon  the  Iroquois,  since  they,  the 
Iroquois,  were  subject  to  the  king  of  France.  He  assured  them, 
however,  that  if  the  Iroquois  attacked  them,  the  Illinois  Indians 
then  at  Peoria,  he  would  defend  them  and  render  them  every 
possible  assistance.  He  spoke  to  them  further  of  his  desire 
of  exploring  the  Mississippi  and  ascertaining  into  what  body  of 
water  the  Mississippi  emptied.  During  his  stay  at  Peoria,  six 
of  his  band  deserted,  and  it  is  said  that  an  effort  was  made  to 
poison  him  by  giving  him  poisoned  food. 

In  the  middle  of  January,  1680,  when  the  ice  in  the  Illinois 
River  loosened,  La  Salle  selected  near  Peoria  and  about  two 
miles  below  the  Indian  village,  a  place  for  the  erection  of  a  fort. 


f 


ct 


V-' 


De  La  Salle  on  the  Illinois  River 


ILLINOIS  65 

It  was  a  hill  two  hundred  yards  from  the  bank  of  the  river, 
with  a  ravine  on  each  side  and  low  marshy  ground  in  front.  On 
the  other  side  they  dug  a  trench,  surrounding  the  fort  with 
water.  Around  this  they  built  a  palisade,  which  they  believed 
would  be  secure  against  any  Indian  attack  either  from  the 
Illinois  or  the  Iroquois.  The  name  he  gave  it  was  the  Fort  of 
Creve-Couer,  or  Broken-Heart,  which  name  was  probably  sug- 
gested to  him  by  his  recent  misfortunes. 

La  Salle  at  this  point  had  been  expecting  a  return  of  the 
Griffon  from  Niagara  with  supplies  and  necessities.  He  ex- 
pected that  she  would  bring  him  implements  with  which  to 
construct  a  ship  to  sail  on  the  Illinois  and  lower  Mississippi  to 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Such  materials  he  had  left  at  Fort  Fron- 
tenac.  It  was  then  four  months  since  he  had  dispatched  the 
Griffon  from  Green  Bay  to  Niagara.  He  felt  certain  that  the 
ship  was  lost,  which  it  was,  in  fact,  whether  by  accident  or 
treachery,  we  do  not  know.  The  fact  that  he  had  named  the 
fort  Creve-Couer  indicates  the  desperate  condition  of  his  mind. 
Here  he  was  in  the  West,  with  some  of  his  followers  already 
deserters,  a  thousand  miles  from  Quebec,  surrounded  by  Indian 
tribes  upon  whose  friendship  he  could  not  rely,  and  having 
with  him  only  Tonti  and  a  few  more  loyal  white  men;  but  he 
was  possessed  of  an  indomitable  spirit  and  in  the  depth  of  his 
misfortunes  at  Creve-Couer,  he  began  to  construct  a  boat  of 
considerable  size  for  the  trip  on  the  Mississippi  and  to  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico.  It  was  forty-two  feet  long  and  twelve  feet  wide, 
built  of  lumber  which  was  sawed  from  the  trees  which  grew 
around.  He  lacked,  however,  cordage  and  sails  and  certain 
pieces  of  iron  necessary  for  the  completion  of  the  boat,  and  he 
finally  determined  to  go  back  to  Fort  Frontenac  to  secure  these 
necessary  supplies.  Before  leaving,  however,  he  arranged  to 
send  a  delegation  up  the  Mississippi  River,  and  selected  Father 
Louis  Hennepin  and  two  Frenchmen,  Michael  Acco  and  An- 
toine  Anguel  to  accompany  him.  He  furnished  the  party  with 
a  few  articles  of  European  manufacture  with  which  they  could 
trade  with  the  Indians.  Father  Hennepin  and  his  companions 
left  Fort  Creve-Couer  on  the  29th  of  February,  1680,  and 
reached  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois  River  on  the  8th  of  March, 


66  ILLINOIS 

and  then  proceeded  up  the  Mississippi  to  the  Falls  of  St.  An- 
thony, now  located  between  Minneapolis  and  St.  Paul.  Here 
Father  Hennepin  erected  a  cross  and  the  arms  of  France.  A 
few  days  later,  on  the  10th  of  April,  they  were  captured  by 
some  Sioux  Indians,  who  robbed  the  Frenchmen  and  kept  them 
prisoners  during  the  summer.  Daniel  Gray  Solon  due  L'hut,  a 
French  trader,  rescued  them  in  the  fall.  Father  Hennepin  in 
due  day  returned  and  gave  a  long  account  of  his  experiences 
on  the  trip. 

After  dispatching  Father  Hennepin  up  the  Mississippi,  La 
Salle  on  the  very  next  day,  March  1st,  1680,  started  from  Fort 
Creve-Couer  to  New  France,  with  six  of  his  best  French  fol- 
lowers in  two  birchbark  canoes  which  were  loaded  with  blankets, 
clothing,  gunpowder,  lead,  skins,  and  moccasins.  A  Mohegan 
hunter  accompanied  them  as  their  guide.  He  left  Tonti  in 
charge  of  Fort  Creve-Coeur,  giving  him  full  instructions  as  to 
the  course  to  pursue. 

The  Illinois  River  at  this  time  was  full  of  ice,  and  La  Salle 
and  his  companions  suffered  fearfully  from  cold  weather.  They 
were  compelled  to  pull  their  boats  on  sledges  for  miles  and 
miles.  On  the  10th  of  March,  they  reached  the  Kaskaskia  vil- 
lage where  they  had  taken  the  corn  a  few  months  before.  They 
were  visited  here  by  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Illinois  Indians, 
named  Chassogoac  (Chicago),  who  became  very  friendly  with 
La  Salle  and  furnished  him  a  canoe  full  of  corn.  He  eventually, 
after  suffering  many  hardships,  reached  Fort  Frontenac  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  supplies  and  settling  his  financial  affairs 
which  were  then  in  great  distress.  The  sinking  of  the  Griffon 
had  caused  La  Salle  the  loss  of  forty  thousand  livres,  and  his 
finances  were  in  a  desperate  condition. 

On  the  point  of  returning  to  the  Illinois  country  from  Fort 
Frontenac,  additional  bad  news  reached  him  from  the  Illinois 
country.  On  July  22nd,  two  messengers  from  Fort  Creve-Couer 
reached  Fort  Frontenac,  and  informed  La  Salle  that  while  Tonti 
with  a  small  party  of  his  followers  were  inspecting  Starved 
Rock  as  a  possible  location  for  a  fort,  that  all  the  other  men 
left  by  Tonti  at  Fort  Creve-Couer  had  plundered  and  destroyed 
the  fort  and  deserted,  and  that  they  had  also  robbed  the  fort 


ILLINOIS  67 

at  St.  Joe  and  that  at  Niagara.  "Unmerciful  disaster  followed 
fast  and  followed  faster."  Another  man  would  have  sunk  be- 
neath these  loads  of  misfortune.  Not  so  with  La  Salle.  Pos- 
sessed of  an  indomitable  spirit,  he  took  steps  at  once  to  emerge 
from  these  monstrous  troubles. 

Quickly  collecting  his  equipment,  on  August  1,  1680,  La  Salle 
started  westward  to  rescue  Tonti,  and  the  few  faithful  adher- 
ents who  still  remained  loyal  to  him.  His  party  consisted  of 
twenty-five  men  and  his  lieutenant,  Le  Forest,  most  of  them 
being  artisans.  On  November  4th  he  had  reached  the  mouth 
of  the  St.  Joe  River,  pushed  over  the  portage  from  the  St.  Joe 
to  the  Kaskaskia  with  only  six  Frenchmen  and  an  Indian.  When 
he  reached  the  old  Kaskaskia  near  the  site  of  modern  Utica,  he 
was  shocked  to  find  that  the  village  had  been  destroyed  and  the 
fields  laid  waste,  and  he  found  the  corpses  of  men  lying  about 
that  had  been  murdered  by  the  Iroquois  Indians.  No  trace  was 
found  here  of  Tonti. 

Leaving  three  men  behind  him  to  warn  the  rest  of  his  party 
to  follow,  he  and  a  few  men  paddled  their  canoes  down  the 
Illinois  River,  seeing  in  many  places  indications  of  the  flight 
of  the  Illinois  before  their  implacable  foes,  the  Iroquois.  He 
continued  down  the  Illinois  until  he  reached  the  Mississippi, 
with  no  trace  of  Tonti.  He  then  returned,  canoeing  northward 
to  the  Des  Plaines  River,  ascended  the  Des  Plaines  a  short  dis- 
tance and  found  evidence  of  the  passage  of  white  men.  He 
finally  reached  Fort  Miami  on  the  St.  Joe  River,  where  they 
found  the  rest  of  his  party  under  LeForest. 

Here  is  what  happened  to  Tonti.  Both  at  Mackinac  in  Au- 
gust, 1678,  and  at  Fort  Miami  (St.  Joseph)  afterward,  many 
of  La  Salle's  followers  had  shown  an  insubordinate  disposition, 
and  some  of  them  had  deserted.  This  feeling  of  dissatisfaction 
still  rankled  in  the  minds  of  those  who  had  been  left  with  Tonti 
at  Creve-Couer  when  La  Salle  left  them  to  get  supplies  at  Ni- 
agara and  Fort  Frontenac. 

Shortly  after  La  Salle  left  Creve-Coeur  for  Frontenac,  he 
dispatched  a  letter  to  Tonti  from  Fort  Miami  by  the  hands  of 
two  Frenchmen,  La  Chapelle  and  Leblanc,  instructing  Tonti  to 
fortify  Starved  Rock  near  the  Kaskaskia  village.     Following 


68  ILLINOIS 

instructions,  the  ever  faithful  Tonti  took  four  men  from  the 
Creve-Coeur  garrison  of  fifteen  men  and  canoed  up  the  Illinois 
River  to  Starved  Rock  and  started  upon  the  fortification  of 
the  rock.  Within  a  few  days  after  he  left  Creve-Coeur,  all  ex- 
cept two  of  the  Frenchmen  remaining  in  Creve-Coeur  revolted, 
looted  the  fort  and  started  back  to  Canada.  The  only  two  men 
who  remained  faithful,  at  Creve-Coeur  promptly  left  that  fort, 
and  reported  to  Tonti  at  Starved  Rock  what  had  taken  place  at 
Creve-Coeur. 


Tonti 

It  appears  that  the  two  messengers  sent  by  La  Salle  from 
Miami  to  Creve-Coeur  with  a  letter  of  instructions  to  Tonti, 
told  the  men  in  the  garrison  that  the  Griffon  had  been  lost  and 
that  La  Salle  was  bankrupt.  The  garrison  had  not  been  paid 
for  some  time  and  this  discouraging  news  was  the  cause  of  the 
desertion  of  the  men  and  the  looting  of  the  fort  in  Tonti's  ab- 
sence at  Starved  Rock. 

However,  Tonti's  misery  and  misfortunes  were  just  begin- 
ning. He  promptly  dispatched  two  of  the  six  men  then  with 
him  from  Starved  Rock  to  La  Salle,  informing  him  of  the  col- 
lapse of  affairs  at  Creve-Coeur,  ana  turned  to  face  a  greater 


ILLINOIS  69 

disaster.  As  we  have  heretofore  seen  in  this  narrative,  the 
Algonquin  and  Iroquois  tribes  were  deadly  enemies.  They  had 
been  sanguinary  foes  since  before  the  advent  of  the  white  man, 
by  reason  of  each  of  these  tribes  trespassing  upon  the  hunting 
grounds  claimed  by  the  other.  The  arrival  of  the  white  man 
had  simply  intensified  their  enmities.  The  white  men  began 
buying  their  pelts  and  sold  them  guns,  ammunition,  blankets, 
iron,  implements,  rum  and  brandy.  The  Iroquois  claimed  that 
all  the  territory  south  of  the  Great  Lakes  rightfully  belonged 
to  them  and  that  the  Algonquins  of  the  North  (to  which  the 
Illinois  Indians  belonged)  were  trespassers  on  their  demesne. 
La  Salle,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  Jesuits  in  New  France  as 
well  as  the  mother  country  were  opposed  to  monopolization  of 
the  trading  by  the  Frontenac-Talon-La  Salle  syndicate,  believed 
that  the  Jesuits  were  instigating  the  Iroquois  to  attack  the  west- 
ern tribes  in  the  Illinois  country.  The  fact  was  that  it  was 
ordinary  commercialism  that  caused  the  incursions  of  the  Iro- 
quois Indians  into  the  Illinois  territory.  They  were  business 
rivals  in  the  killing  of  fur-bearing  animals  and  the  sale  of  their 
skins.  A  careful  reading  of  history  covering  the  relations  be- 
tween the  western  Indians  and  the  Jesuits,  particularly  the 
Indians  at  Kaskaskia,  shows  that  the  Jesuits  were  on  such  inti- 
mate friendly  terms  with  the  Illinois  Indians  as  to  make  it  in- 
credible that  the  Jesuits  would  compass  the  Indians'  destruction. 

The  Iroquois  believed  that  the  French  government,  through 
Frontenac  and  La  Salle,  had  entered  into  a  combination  with  the 
Algonquin  Indians  dwelling  in  the  Illinois  country,  to  deprive 
them  of  their  rightfully  owned  hunting  grounds  south  of  the 
Great  Lakes  and  the  profits  resulting  therefrom,  and  because 
of  this  they  attacked  the  Illinois  Indians  at  Kaskaskia  while 
Tonti  was  at  Kaskaskia  living  with  that  tribe. 

Five  hundred  Iroquois,  assisted  by  some  renegade  Miami, 
were  reported  to  the  Kaskaskias  to  be  within  a  few  miles  of  the 
Kaskaskia  village.  Scouts  sent  out  by  the  Kaskaskias  reported 
that  a  Frenchman  was  with  the  Iroquois.  A  suspicion  devel- 
oped among  the  Kaskaskias  that  the  Frenchman  was,  in  fact, 
La  Salle  himself,  and  that  Tonti  and  his  French  companions  in 
the  village  were  traitors  and  in  league  with  the  Iroquois.     Only 


70  ILLINOIS 

by  the  exercise  of  the  utmost  tact  and  diplomacy  was  Tonti  able 
to  convince  them  to  the  contrary.  The  women  and  children 
were  hastily  removed  from  the  village  down  the  river  before 
the  battle  began,  but  the  Iroquois  at  the  outset  of  the  conflict 
sacked  and  destroyed  the  Kaskaskia  village. 

The  Kaskaskias  succeeded  for  a  time  in  keeping  the  Iro- 
quois on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  but  the  Iroquois  attacks 
continued.  The  Kaskaskia  warriors  soon  began  to  lose  heart 
and  scattered,  and  the  Iroquois  overtook  women  and  children 
and  slaughtered  seven  hundred  of  them  near  the  mouth  of 
the  Illinois.  The  surviving  Kaskaskia  warriors  abandoned  their 
old  home  on  the  Illinois  some  time  afterwards  and  located  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Kaskaskia  River  in  Southwestern  Illinois. 

Tonti,  Father  Membre  and  a  few  other  Frenchmen  managed 
in  the  face  of  almost  insuperable  obstacles  to  escape  and  took 
shelter  with  the  Pottawatomi  tribe  near  the  shore  of  Lake 
Michigan. 

When  La  Salle  returned  from  Frontenac  in  the  fall  of  1680, 
this  was  the  desperate  state  of  affairs  that  he  found  in  the 
Illinois  country.  Any  other  man  would  have  abandoned  the  en- 
terprise in  despair.  Harrassed  by  his  creditors  in  Canada,  de- 
serted by  most  of  his  followers,  surrounded  by  savage  Indian 
enemies,  his  loyal  chief  of  staff,  Tonti,  either  dead  or  in  cap- 
tivity, opposed  at  every  turn  by  the  Jesuits  both  in  France  and 
at  the  missions,  with  his  fortunes  at  the  lowest  ebb,  his  situation 
at  this  stage  seemed  hopeless.  Here,  however,  is  where  his 
full  stature  as  a  great  man  became  manifest,  and  enabled  him 
to  leave  a  name  imperishable  in  American  history.  Up  to  this 
time,  La  Salle  had  been  endeavoring  to  keep  on  good  terms  with 
the  Iroquois  tribes.  He  had  spent  considerable  time  among 
them  and  had  learned  their  language.  His  aim  had  been  to 
develop  the  remunerative  fur  trade,  not  only  with  the  Algon- 
quins  north  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  in  the  Illinois  valley,  but 
also  with  the  Iroquois.  He  now  found  this  to  be  impossible, 
owing  to  the  enmity  of  the  Iroquois  toward  the  Illinois  tribes 
which  they  believed  were  trespassers  upon  their  (the  Iroquois') 
hunting  grounds. 


ILLINOIS  71 

The  massacre  of  the  Kaskaskias  by  the  Iroquois  along  the 
Illinois  River  determined  his  future  course.  Undaunted  by  re- 
cent disasters,  he  began  to  organize  a  confederacy  of  the  western 
Algonquin  tribes  to  oppose  and  overcome  the  Iroquois.  Before 
the  following  spring,  he  had  accomplished  his  purpose.  With 
wonderful  activity  and  the  keenest  diplomacy,  he  and  his  agents 
succeeded  in  confederating  the  Illinois,  Miami,  Shawnee,  Abucki 
and  Mohegan  tribes  into  one  group  where  the  sole  aim  was  to 
overcome  and  if  possible  destroy  the  Iroquois. 

Emboldened  by  this  success,  La  Salle  conceived  and  promptly 
embarked  upon  a  greater  project  than  the  immediate  acquisi- 
tion of  a  monopoly  of  the  fur  trade.  The  commercial  aims 
could  be  delayed  until  the  greater  project  was  achieved,  and 
would  inevitably  follow  the  success  of  the  greater  achievement. 

Joliet  and  the  gentle  Marquette  had,  it  is  true,  discovered 
and  traveled  up  the  great  Mississippi  and  had  reported  their 
success.  In  La  Salle's  view,  that  discovery  was  half-baked  and 
unfinished.  They  had  never  found  the  mouth  of  that  great 
water  course.  No  one  knew  whether  it  emptied  into  the  At- 
lantic or  Pacific.  Above  all,  Joliet  and  La  Salle  had  personal 
not  national  missions.  Joliet  was  developing  the  fur  trade.  Mar- 
quette was  attempting  to  Christianize  the  savage.  Neither 
was  speading  the  power  and  glory  of  La  Belle  France.  He,  La 
Salle,  would  complete  the  unfinished  work,  trace  this  river  to  its 
mouth,  and  in  the  most  solemn  and  impressive  manner  dedi- 
cate this  great  stream  and  the  rich  country  through  which  it 
flowed  to  the  honor  and  glory  of  France  and  emblazon  her  rich 
acquisition  of  territory  to  the  whole  world. 

After  being  apprised  by  Tonti's  message  from  Kaskaskia  of 
the  disaster  at  Creve-Coeur  and  Kaskaskia,  La  Salle,  undaunted, 
hurried  back  to  Fort  Frontenac  and  nothwithstanding  the  fact 
that  his  bills  for  rebuilding  that  fort  were  still  unpaid,  with 
the  assistance  of  Governor  Frontenac  and  by  pledging  part  of 
his  monopoly  rights,  he  succeeded  in  getting  together  and  fit- 
ting out  a  rather  impressive  expedition  for  the  realization  of 
his  glorious  dream  of  exploring  the  Mississippi  to  its  mouth 
and  solemnly  dedicating  the  great  western  country  along  its 
banks  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  ocean  as  a  colony  of  the 


72  ILLINOIS 

French  monarchy.  Getting  together  twenty-three  Frenchmen 
and  eighteen  warriors  of  the  Abuaki  and  Mohegan  tribes  with 
ten  squaws  and  some  children,  he  made  his  way  from  Mackinac 
to  Fort  Miami.  The  ever  faithful  Tonti,  having  given  the  Pot- 
tawatomi  the  slip,  joined  him  at  Mackinac  and  went  with  him 
to  Fort  Miami.  From  there  in  canoes  they  paddled  the  way 
to  Chicago  in  the  depth  of  winter.  From  Chicago,  probably 
because  of  the  Chicago  and  Des  Plaines  rivers  being  frozen 
over,  they  journeyed  overland  to  the  Illinois  River.  Having 
reached  the  Illinois  River,  they  again  took  to  their  canoes  and 
floated  down  that  river  to  the  Mississippi. 

Among  the  Frenchmen  gathered  by  La  Salle  at  Fort  Fronte- 
nac  for  this  expedition  was  one  selected  for  a  specific  purpose. 
Jacques  De  La  Metairie  was  a  notary  holding  a  commission 
from  the  French  government.  He  was  selected  by  La  Salle  to 
record  the  events  that  occurred  and  the  acts  that  were  done  on 
this  expedition  and  certify  as  a  public  official  the  correctness 
thereof.    De  La  Metairie  performed  this  duty  punctiliously. 

La  Salle  and  his  companions  made  the  journey  down  the 
Mississippi  from  the  Illinois  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  safely  and 
on  April  9th,  1682,  La  Salle,  at  or  near  one  of  the  mouths  of 
the  great  river  collected  his  companions  around  him  on  a  high 
bank  and  erected  a  column.  To  this  he  solemnly  attached  the 
Royal  Arms  of  France  made  from  a  copper  kettle  and  this  in- 
scription, Loyis  Le  Grand  Roy  de  France  et  de  Navarre  le  Neu~ 
Heme  le  que  April  1682,  and  with  much  solemnity  declared  that 
he  took  possession  of  the  river  and  all  the  land  that  it  drained  in 
the  name  of  the  King  of  France.  Nor  was  the  religious  cere- 
mony lacking.  A  large  cross  was  attached  to  one  of  the  trees 
and  at  the  foot  of  the  tree  was  buried  a  leaden  plate  on  which 
was  inscribed  in  Latin  a  short  account  of  the  discovery  of  the 
river  to  its  mouth  by  La  Salle  and  his  company  as  the  first 
white  men  to  do  so. 

After  these  preliminaries,  De  La  Metairie,  the  notary,  pro- 
duced a  document  called  the  Process  Verbal,  signed  by  himself, 
La  Salle,  Tonti,  Father  Zenobe,  the  surgeon  Jean  Michael,  and 
nine  others,  which  written  document  translated  from  the  French 
reads  as  follows : 


ILLINOIS  73 

i PROCESS  VERBAL 

"Of  the  taking  possession  of  Louisiana,  at  the  Mouth  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, by  the  Sieur  De  La  Salle,  on  the  9th  of  April,  1682. 

"Jacques  De  La  Metairie,  Notary  of  Fort  Frontenac,  in  New  France, 
commissioned  to  exercise  the  said  function  of  notary  during  the  voyage 
to  Louisiana,  in  North  America,  by  M.  de  la  Salle,  Governor  of  Fort 
Frontenac  for  the  King,  and  commandant  of  the  said  discovery  by  the 
commission  of  his  Majesty  given  at  St.  Germain,  on  the  12th  day  of 
May,  1678. 

"To  all  those  to  whom  these  presents  shall  come,  greetings:  Know, 
that  having  been  requested  by  the  said  Sieur  de  la  Salle,  to  deliver  to 
him  an  act,  signed  by  us  and  by  the  witnesses  therein  named,  of  posses- 
sion by  him  taken  of  the  country  of  Louisiana,  near  the  three  mouths  of 
the  River  Colbert,  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  on  the  9th  of  April,  1682. 

"In  the  name  of  the  most  high,  mighty,  invincible  and  victorious 
Prince,  Louis,  the  Great,  by  the  Grace  of  God,  king  of  France  and  of 
Navarre  Fourteenth  of  that  name,  and  of  his  heirs,  and  the  successor  of 
his  crown,  we,  the  aforesaid  notary,  have  delivered  the  said  act  to  the 
said  Sieur  de  la  Salle,  the  tenor  whereof  follows: 

"We  came  to  the  Village  of  Maheouala,  lately  destroyed,  and  contain- 
ing dead  bodies  and  marks  of  blood.  Two  leagues  below  this  place  we 
camped.  We  continued  our  voyage  till  the  6th,  when  we  discovered  three 
channels  by  which  the  River  Colbert  discharges  itself  into  the  sea.  We 
landed  on  the  bank  of  the  most  western  channel,  about  three  leagues  from 
its  mouth.  On  the  7th,  M.  de  la  Salle  went  to  reconnoitre  the  shores  of 
the  neighboring  sea,  and  M.  de  Tonti  likewise  examined  the  middle  chan- 
nel. They  found  these  two  outlets  beautiful,  large  and  deep.  On  the  8th, 
we  re-ascended  the  river,  a  little  above  its  confluence  with  the  sea,  to  find 
a  dry  place,  beyond  the  reach  of  inundations.  The  elevation  of  the  north 
Pole  was  here  about  27  degrees.  Here  we  prepared  a  column  and  a  cross, 
and  to  the  said  column  were  affixed  the  arms  of  France,  with  this  inscrip- 
tion: 

"  'Louis  Le  Grand  Roi  De  France  Et  De  Navarre,  Regne :  Le  Neu- 
vieme,  April  1682.' 

"The  whole  party,  under  arms,  chanted  the  Te  Deum,  the  Exaudiat, 
the  Domine  salvum  fac  Regem;  and  then  after  a  salute  of  firearms  and 
cries  of  Vive  Le  Roi,  the  column  was  erected  by  M.  de  la  Salle,  who  standing 
near  it  said,  with  a  loud  voice,  in  French:  'In  the  name  of  the  most  high, 
mighty,  invincible,  and  victorious  Prince,  Louis  the  Great,  by  the  Grace 
of  God,  King  of  France  and  of  Navarre,  Fourteenth  of  that  name,  this 
ninth  day  of  April,  one  thousand  six  hundred  and  eighty  two,  I,  in  virtue 
of  the  commission  of  his  Majesty  which  I  hold  in  my  hand,  and  which 
may  be  seen  by  all  whom  it  may  concern,  have  taken  and  do  now  take,  in 
the  name  of  his  Majesty  and  of  his  successors  to  the  crown,  possession  of 
this  country  of  Louisiana,  the  seas,  harbours,  ports,  bays,  adjacent  straits; 


74  ILLINOIS 

and  all  the  nations,  people,  provinces,  cities,  towns,  villages,  mines,  min- 
erals, fisheries,  streams  and  rivers  comprised  in  the  extent  of  the  said 
Louisiana,  from  the  mouth  of  the  great  river  St.  Louis  on  the  eastern 
side,  otherwise  called  Ohio,  Alighin,  Sipore,  or  Chickachas,  and  this  with 
the  consent  of  the  Cahouanons,  Chickachas  and  ot?ier  people  dwelling 
therein,  with  whom  we  have  made  alliance;  as  also  along  the  River  Col- 
bert, or  Mississippi,  and  rivers  which  discharge  themselves  therein,  from 
its  source  beyond  the  country  of  the  Kious  or  Nadauessious,  and  this  with 
their  consent,  and  with  the  consent  of  the  Motantees,  Illinois,  Mesigameas, 
Natches,  Koroas,  which  are  the  most  considerable  nations  dwelling  there- 
in, with  whom  also  we  have  made  alliance,  either  by  ourselves  or  by  others 
in  our  behalf;  as  far  as  its  mouth  at  the  sea,  or  Gulf  of  Mexico,  about 
the  27th  degree  of  elevation  of  the  North  Pole,  and  also  to  the  mouth  of 
the  River  of  Palms;  upon  the  assurance  which  we  have  received  from 
all  these  nations,  that  we  are  the  first  Europeans  who  have  descended 
or  ascended  the  said  River  Colbert;  hereby  protesting  against  all  those 
who  may  in  future  undertake  to  invade  any  or  all  of  these  countries, 
peoples  or  lands,  above  described,  to  the  prejudice  of  the  right  of  his 
Majesty,  acquired  by  the  consent  of  the  nations  herein  named.  Of  which, 
and  of  all  that  can  be  needed,  I  hereby  take  to  witness  those  who  hear  me, 
and  demand  an  act  of  the  Notary,  as  required  by  law.' 

"To  which  the  whole  assembly  responded  with  shouts  of  Vive  le  Roi, 
and  with  salutes  of  firearms.  Moreover,  the  said  Sieur  de  la  Salle  caused 
to  be  buried  at  the  foot  of  the  tree,  to  which  the  cross  was  attached  a 
leaden  plate,  on  one  side  of  which  were  engraved  the  arms  of  France,  and 
latin  inscription: 

"After  which  the  Sieur  de  la  Salle  said,  that  his  Majesty,  as  eldest 
son  of  the  Church,  would  annex  no  country  to  his  crown,  without  making 
it  his  chief  care  to  establish  the  Christian  religion  therein,  and  that  its 
symbol  must  now  be  planted;  which  was  accordingly  done  at  once  by 
erecting  a  cross,  before  which  the  Vexilla  and  the  Domine  salvum  fac 
Regem  were  sung.  Whereupon  the  ceremony  was  concluded  with  cries 
of  Vive  le  Roi. 

"Of  all  and  every  of  the  above,  the  said  Sieur  de  la  Salle  having 
required  of  us  an  instrument,  we  have  delivered  to  him  the  same,  signed 
by  us,  and  the  undersigned  witnesses,  this  ninth  day  of  April,  one  thousand 
six  hundred  and  eighty-two. 

"La  Metairie, 

"Notary. 

"De  La  Salle  "Jacques  Cauchois 

"P.  Zenobe,  Recollect  Missionary  "Pierre  You 

"Henry  De  Tonti  "Gilles  Meucret 

"Francois  de  Boisrondet  "Jean  Michel,  Surgeon 

"Tonti  "Jean  Dulignon 

"Jean  Bourdon  "Nocolas  de  la  Salle." 
"Sieur  d'Autry 


ILLINOIS  75 

After  these  solemn  preliminaries,  La  Salle  and  his  party- 
prepared  to  return  along  the  Mississippi  to  the  North.  La  Salle, 
accompanied  by  a  few  of  the  party,  went  ahead  to  be  followed 
by  the  remainder  of  the  party.  On  reaching  Fort  Prudhomme 
in  the  Chickasaw  country,  now  in  the  State  of  Mississippi,  he 
was  seized  with  a  high  fever,  which  compelled  him  to  remain 
for  forty  days  at  that  fort.  A  surgeon  was  sent  for,  who  was 
in  the  second  section  of  his  companies  and  he  hastened  to  apply 
such  remedies  as  he  thought  wise.  La  Salle  was  so  seriously 
ill,  however,  that  it  was  determined  that  Tonti,  with  the  greater 
part  of  the  company,  should  proceed  to  Mackinac,  leaving  La 
Salle  to  be  nursed  to  health  at  Fort  Prudhomme. 

Tonti  arrived  at  Mackinac  in  July  1682,  after  overcoming 
many  obstacles  on  the  journey.  Father  Zenobe  and  Membre 
remained  with  La  Salle  and  succeeded  in  bringing  back  some 
little  strength  and  health.  With  Father  Membre,  La  Salle,  after 
a  delay  of  forty  days,  left  Fort  Prudhomme  and  arrived  at  Fort 
Creve-Coeur.  Leaving  some  of  his  men  to  hold  that  place,  he 
arrived  at  Fort  Miami  some  time  in  August,  and  shortly  there- 
after reached  Mackinac.  La  Salle  was  more  than  anxious  to 
report  in  person  to  the  King  of  France  what  he  had  succeeded 
in  doing,  but  owing  to  his  weak  state  of  health,  he  was  unable 
to  do  so.  He,  however,  sent  Father  Membre  to  France,  who 
gave  to  the  French  authorities  a  full  report  of  La  Salle's 
successes. 

At  this  point  in  his  career,  La  Salle  seemed  to  be  on  the 
verge  of  success.  His  colony  in  Illinois  was  established.  The 
Indian  tribes  had  been  confederated  together  by  him,  and  he 
had  secured  for  the  French  government  a  southern  port  of  entry, 
perennially  free  from  ice;  which  the  government  could  fortify 
and  surround  with  colonists.  He  probably  visioned  himself  at 
this  time,  as  the  colonial  governor  of  a  mighty  empire  stretching 
from  what  is  now  New  Orleans  to  the  Great  Lakes.  He  next 
proceeded  promptly,  to  fortify  the  place,  that  he  and  Tonti  had 
selected  for  a  fort  at  Starved  Rock,  which  rises  perpendicularly 
from  the  waters  of  the  Illinois  River  125  feet.  This  fort  he 
called  Fort  St.  Louis,  and  La  Salle  at  once  began  to  give  grants 
of  land  around  this  fort  to  several  Frenchmen  who  had  been 


Traditional  Landing  Place  of  La  Salle 


ILLINOIS  77 

living  there  for  years.  These  grants  caused  some  dissatisfaction, 
for  the  grantees  happened  to  be  young  Frenchmen  who  had 
married  Indian  squaws  and  were  taking  life  easy.  After  the 
fort  was  completed  on  the  top  of  Starved  Rock,  the  Indian  allies 
that  he  had  gotten  together,  began  to  gather.  They  included 
the  Illinois,  the  Wea  tribe,  the  Piankashaw,  Shawnee,  Abnacki, 
and  Miami  tribes  to  the  number  of  3,880  warriors,  according 
to  data  obtained  from  La  Salle  himself.  As  there  were  nearly 
4,000  warriors,  the  Indian  population  probably  amounted  to 
nearly  20,000.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  he  was  a  failure 
in  bringing  about  and  preserving  loyalty  and  obedience  among 
his  white  followers,  he  had  remarkable  success  with  the  Indians. 
Alvord  in  his  excellent  history  declares  that,  "Few  white  men 
have  equaled  his  (La  Salle's)  success  in  the  leadership  of  the 
Aborigines  of  the  American  wilderness.,, 

To  hasten  the  transportation  of  supplies  from  Canada  to 
Fort  St.  Louis,  La  Salle  next  sent  two  of  his  men  to  the  Chicago 
portage  to  build  a  smaller  post.  However,  while  La  Salle  was 
engaged  in  these  great  undertakings,  his  enemies  were  not  idle. 
They  succeeded  by  their  manoeuvering  in  France  in  having 
Governor  Frontenac,  La  Salle's  great  and  loyal  friend,  recalled. 
His  successor,  Governor  de  La  Barre,  proved  himself  early 
unfriendly  to  La  Salle  and  his  projects.  He  was  opposed  to 
La  Salle's  monopoly.  Calling  upon  de  La  Barre,  La  Salle  pre- 
sented his  case  forcefully  to  him;  pointed  out  that  his  losses 
amounted  to  40,000  livres,  but  that  he  was  now  on  the  road 
to  success  and  would  be  able  to  pay  his  creditors.  He  reported 
his  great  achievement  in  collecting  the  Indian  tribes  around 
Fort  St.  Louis,  and  requested  that  his  traders  whom  he  was 
then  sending  to  Quebec  for  supplies  should  be  fairly  treated 
and  protected.  Governor  de  La  Barre,  however,  was  surrounded 
by  merchant  rivals  of  La  Salle,  who  were  anxious  to  supplant 
him.  The  governor,  influenced  by  these  men,  stated  to  La  Salle 
that  his  efforts  were  involving  the  Winnebago  Indians  in  a 
warfare  with  the  Iroquois ;  that  the  Iroquois  would  destroy  them. 
The  governor  made  these  representations  to  the  French  govern- 
ment at  Versailles,  and  succeeded  in  turning  the  French  author- 
ities against  him.     The  governor  probably  had  some  basis  for 


78  ILLINOIS 

these  fears ;  for  the  Iroquois  tribes,  notwithstanding  their  success 
against  the  Kaskaskia  in  1680  were  still  bitterly  hostile  to  the 
Illinois  tribes.  They  were  still  determined  to  crush  these  West- 
ern tribes,  and  in  that  determination  they  were  ably  abetted 
and  seconded  by  the  English  and  Dutch  traders  at  Albany,  and 
by  Col.  Thomas  Dongan,  the  British  governor  of  New  York. 
Governor  de  La  Barre,  in  the  effort  to  avoid  war  between  the 
Iroquois  and  the  Illinois  Indians,  arranged  for  a  deputation  of 
Iroquois  Indians  to  meet  him  at  Montreal.  Forty-three  of  them 
attended  and  informed  the  governor  that  the  Illinois  Indians 
must  be  exterminated;  and  made  complaint  to  the  governor 
about  La  Salle's  operations,  referring,  no  doubt,  to  his  confed- 
eration of  the  Western  tribes,  De  La  Barre,  weakly,  promised 
these  Iroquois  Indians  to  punish  La  Salle. 

Finding  that  he  could  not  obtain  supplies  from  Canada, 
La  Salle  was  now  threatened  with  ruin,  and  started  for  Quebec. 
On  the  way  he  met  Chevalier  De  Baugy,  who  had  been  deputized 
by  the  governor  to  assume  command  of  the  Illinois  Indians  and 
to  summon  La  Salle  to  Quebec.  La  Salle  promptly  notified 
Tonti,  then  in  command  at  Fort  St.  Louis,  to  surrender  the 
fort  to  De  Baugy.  On  taking  possession  of  the  fort,  De  Baugy 
found  himself  facing  trouble.  A  flotilla  of  canoes,  licensed  by 
de  La  Barre  to  trade,  was  attacked  and  plundered  by  the  Iroquois, 
and  De  Baugy  and  Tonti  in  Fort  St.  Louis  were  besieged  by 
the  same  band  of  Indians  from  March  21st  to  March  27,  1684. 
The  fort,  however,  made  a  successful  resistance. 

Finding  that  he  was  without  friendship  or  support  in  the 
governor's  council  at  Quebec,  La  Salle  made  up  his  mind  to 
return  to  France  and  present  his  case  to  the  French  court. 
Upon  his  arrival  there,  he  found  that  the  report  of  his  wonderful 
discoveries  and  other  acts  had  preceded  him,  and  that  he  was 
a  famous  man.  That  fame  secured  for  him  the  honor  of  a 
personal  interview  with  the  Grand  Monarch,  upon  whom  he 
made  a  most  favorable  impression.  At  that  time,  France  was 
at  war  with  Spain,  and  La  Salle  was  able  to  convince  both  the 
monarch  and  his  ministers  that  a  fort  built  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi  would  make  it  possible  to  capture  the  Spanish  pos- 


ILLINOIS  79 

sessions  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico;  and  would  promote  French 
trade  in  all  that  region  and  up  and  down  the  Mississippi.  The 
French  government  promptly  ordered  Governor  de  La  Barre 
to  re-instate  La  Salle  in  all  his  possessions  in  New  France. 

When  departing  for  France,  Tonti  was  left  in  charge  of 
Fort  St.  Louis  with  twenty  Frenchmen  to  whom  La  Salle  had 
granted  lands.  La  Salle  while  in  France  succeeded  in  persuading 
the  French  ministry  to  establish  a  fort  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  four  vessels  were  loaded  for  the  expedition. 
One  hundred  soldiers  were  aboard,  and  a  number  of  mechanics, 
laborers,  volunteers,  and  some  gentlemen  of  distinction.  Among 
them  were  several  married  women,  as  also  some  young  unmarried 
women  that  had  an  eye  upon  matrimony.  Three  priests  accom- 
panied the  expedition,  and  three  recollects.  One  of  the  vessels 
carried  thirty-six  guns,  another  six  guns.  Altogether  there 
were  400  men  aboard  these  vessels.  A  naval  commander,  Beau- 
jeu,  accompanied  La  Salle  upon  this  expedition.  Unfortunately, 
he  and  La  Salle  quarreled  when  these  vessels  were  but  a  short 
distance  out  of  port;  and  that  quarrel  continued  all  the  way 
across  the  Atlantic.  La  Salle  was  taken  sick  with  the  old  fever, 
and  while  he  was  sick,  the  naval  commander  had  things  his  own 
way.  They  reached  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  safely,  but  were  unable, 
for  some  reason,  to  find  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  which  they 
passed  by  without  recognizing  it.  They  arrived  at  Matagorda 
Bay,  considerably  west  of  the  Mississippi,  in  the  spring  of  1685. 
One  ship  was  captured  by  the  Spanish,  and  another  wrecked 
in  the  Bay.  They  landed,  however,  in  Matagorda  Bay,  and 
began  to  make  a  settlement.  Fatal  sickness,  however,  fell  upon 
the  party,  and  before  fall,  thirty  were  dead.  The  Indians  sur- 
rounding them  were  exceedingly  hostile.  La  Salle  led  many 
exploring  expeditions  from  Matagorda  Bay,  but  having  failed 
to  find  the  Mississippi  River,  he  made  up  his  mind  to  travel 
overland  to  Canada.  Taking  sixteen  men  with  him,  he  left  the 
remainder  to  keep  the  fort  at  Matagorda  Bay,  in  the  spring 
of  1687.  Shortly  afterward,  finding  some  difficulty  in  traveling, 
insubordination  arose  among  the  men,  and  La  Salle  was  assas- 
sinated. The  conspirators  returned  to  the  fort,  over-awed  the 
garrison,  and  had  things  their  own  way.    Some  twenty  of  these 


80  ILLINOIS 

people  survived,  some  finding  their  way  to  France,  and  others 
to  the  Illinois  country. 

Such  was  the  ignominious  end  of  a  great  man,  the  tragic 
close  of  a  romantic  career.  In  the  grandeur  of  his  conceptions, 
in  the  indomitable  energy  he  displayed  in  attempting  their 
accomplishment,  and  in  the  heartbreaking  obstacles  he  found 
in  his  path,  his  career  is  without  a  parallel  in  French  colonial 
history.  Even  his  failure  was  of  enormous  benefit  to  his  country 
and  his  King,  for  the  time  being,  for  it  pointed  out  a  way  for 
France  to  acquire  an  empire  in  the  New  World.  If  France 
had  supported  his  enterprising  plans  in  his  lifetime,  or  carried 
them  out  after  his  death  with  men,  money  and  colonists  worthy 
of  the  prize  that  La  Salle  was  dangling  before  French  statesmen 
at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century;  there  was  a  possibility 
that  the  tricolor  of  France  might  have  been  waving  over  the 
Mississippi  Valley  in  the  twentieth  century.  The  very  hugeness 
of  the  enterprise  doomed  it  to  failure,  without  adequate  govern- 
mental backing.  This  support  La  Salle  never  had.  He  did 
have  the  steady,  loyal  and  continuous  aid  of  Frontenac,  and 
Talon  in  Canada,  but  they  were  the  puppets  of  a  vacillating 
government  in  France,  desperately  impoverished  by  European 
wars,  which  was  free-handed  with  paper  privileges  and  titles 
of  nobility,  but  with  no  disposition  or  power  to  back  these  paper 
titles  with  men  and  cannon. 

Like  most  great  men,  La  Salle  had  his  minor  weaknesses 
that  to  some  degree  contributed  to  his  want  of  success.  By 
his  lofty  dignified  presence  and  culture,  he  favorably  impressed 
both  great  and  obscure  men,  with  whom  he  but  infrequently 
came  in  contact.  He  so  impressed  the  greatest  monarch  of 
his  time  and  his  great  ministers  and  also  the  simple  untutored 
red  men  in  the  wilderness.  His  success  in  confederating  these 
tribes  around  Starved  Rock  was  marvelous.  But  with  the  humble 
Frenchmen  immediately  under  his  orders,  whom  he  met  day 
after  day,  he  had  no  such  success.  Over  and  over  again  we 
read  of  their  insubordination  and  desertion  at  critical  times. 
Tonti,  Le  Forest  and  his  own  relatives  were  the  only  persons 
with  whom  he  was  in  daily  contact  who  remained  loyal  to  him 
in  his  undertakings,  and  these  were  probably  participants  in 


ILLINOIS  81 

the  expected  profits  that  were  to  be  secured  in  the  monopoly 
granted  them  by  the  King.  A  high  temper  and  quick  and 
emphatic  manner  of  speech  probably  prevented  his  followers 
from  acquiring  the  love  and  loyalty  that  the  faithful  Tonti 
always  had  for  his  chief. 

La  Salle  has  left  an  enduring  impress  upon  the  history  of 
Illinois  and  the  Northwest.  He  has  given  his  name  to  the  Wall 
Street  of  the  West,  to  one  of  the  richest  counties  in  the  state, 
and  to  a  beautiful  city  on  the  Illinois.  Even  the  children  of  our 
high  schools  can  tell  the  inquirer  who  La  Salle  was  and  what 
his  accomplishments  were.  An  artistic  bronze  monument  in 
Lincoln  Park  near  one  of  our  busiest  thoroughfares,  recalls  to 
us  the  glorious  record  of  this  man  of  mark  in  the  seventeenth 
century. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  when  leaving  for  France,  La  Salle 
left  Tonti  in  charge  of  Fort  St.  Louis.  While  under  De  Baugy's 
control,  differences  arose  between  the  Illinois  tribes  and  the 
Miami.  Tonti,  by  the  exercise  of  utmost  skill  and  tact,  suc- 
ceeded in  settling  these  troubles  at  a  cost,  however,  to  himself 
of  a  thousand  dollars.  In  the  fall  of  1665  disturbing  rumors 
reached  Tonti  at  Fort  St.  Louis  relating  to  the  fate  of  the  expe- 
dition from  France  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  He  went 
immediately  to  Mackinac,  hoping  to  obtain  reliable  information. 
He  learned  at  Mackinac  that  La  Salle  had  sailed  from  France, 
but  he  had  no  news  of  the  outcome.  He  did,  however,  hear 
that  Governor  de  La  Barre  had  been  recalled  and  was  to  be 
succeeded  as  governor  by  the  Marquis  de  Nonville.  He  then 
sent  some  Indians  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  to  ascertain 
news  of  La  Salle,  but  they  returned  in  February  1686  with  no 
definite  word  about  him.  He  then  decided  to  go  to  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico  himself  in  search  of  his  chief.  He  reached  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi,  but  found  no  trace  of  La  Salle,  but  did  find 
the  column  holding  the  Coat  of  Arms  of  France  and  another 
column  upon  which  a  cross  was  placed,  being  the  monuments 
erected  by  La  Salle  when  he  first  discovered  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi.  Returning  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  Fort  St. 
Louis,  he  found  arrangements  being  made  for  a  joint  attack 
by  the  French  and  Indians  upon  the  Iroquois.     De  Nonville, 


82  ILLINOIS 

the  new  governor,  agreed  to  furnish  two  to  three  thousand 
soldiers,  and  called  upon  Tonti  to  join  him  with  the  warriors 
around  the  fort.  Tonti  was  able  to  enlist  some  four  to  five 
hundred  Indians,  and  other  French  volunteers,  and  Indians 
came  from  Green  Bay  and  Mackinac.  These  forces  met  on 
Lake  Ontario  on  July  10,  1687,  their  number  amounting  to 
3,000  men.  With  this  force,  Tonti  attacked  the  Senecas,  drove 
them  from  their  homes  and  laid  the  surrounding  territory  waste. 

Upon  returning  from  this  battle  to  Fort  St.  Louis  about  the 
middle  of  September,  Tonti  met  five  men  there  who  were  sur- 
vivors of  the  French  expedition  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi. 
These  men  were  Abbe  Jean  Cavelier,  La  Salle's  brother,  Father 
Douay,  his  nephew,  a  Recollect,  Tessier,  a  seaman  and  Henri  J. 
Joutel,  historian.  These  were  all  that  were  left  of  the  band 
who  escaped  assassination  at  the  hands  of  the  conspirators  who 
had  killed  La  Salle.  They  agreed  among  themselves  that  they 
would  not  report  the  death  of  La  Salle  at  Fort  St.  Louis,  feeling 
that  the  knowledge  of  his  death  might  impair  the  property 
rights  of  his  estate.  These  five  men  spent  the  winter  of  1687- 
1688  with  Tonti  at  Fort  St.  Louis,  but  kept  secret  the  death  of 
La  Salle.  Cavelier  was  fearful  lest  the  death  of  La  Salle  should 
be  known.  Father  Allouez  was  anxious  to  go  to  France.  Late 
in  the  fall  of  that  year,  Tonti  finally  learned  of  the  death  of 
La  Salle.  He  immediately  started  for  Matagorda  Bay  in  the 
effort  to  rescue  the  remnant  of  La  Salle's  party.  In  an  Indian 
village  somewhere  in  Louisiana,  the  native  Indians  told  him 
the  true  story  of  the  death  of  La  Salle  at  the  hands  of  the 
conspirators.  They  also  told  him  that  the  conspirators  them- 
selves were  killed  by  the  Indians.  Tonti  then  returned  from 
near  the  mouth  of  the  river  to  Fort  St.  Louis. 

The  governor  of  Canada  made  unfavorable  reports  to 
the  king  as  to  Tonti's  claims  to  Fort  St.  Louis,  but  the 
king  in  1690  granted  Fort  St.  Louis  to  Tonti  and  Le  Forest, 
formerly  the  lieutenant  of  La  Salle.  These  two  men  carried 
on  a  fur  trade  for  several  years,  which  at  times  was  remuner- 
ative. Le  Forest  carried  on  his  operations  at  a  place  which  is 
now  Chicago,  while  Tonti  carried  on  his  at  the  fort.  Governor 
de  La  Barre,  shortly  after  his  arrival  in  New  France  foolishly 


ILLINOIS  83 

notified  the  British  government  at  New  York  that  he  thought 
it  necessary  to  lead  a  punitive  expedition  against  the  Five 
Nations.  Governor  Dongan,  immediately  upon  receipt  of  this 
information,  strengthened  his  friendship  with  the  Iroquois 
Indians  by  informing  them  of  the  governor's  intentions,  and 
promised  the  Iroquois  Indians  that  he  would  assist  them  if  they 
were  attacked.  The  French  governor's  expedition  resulted  in 
a  fiasco.  He  had  assembled  but  few  troops,  and  many  of  these 
fell  ill.  He  concluded  a  rather  disgraceful  treaty  with  the 
Iroquois,  which  resulted  in  his  being  summoned  home.  He  was 
succeeded  by  the  Marquis  de  Nonville,  a  much  abler  and  more 
forceful  and  vigorous  man.  De  La  Barre's  blunders  were  the 
main  cause  of  the  hostility  of  the  Iroquois  tribes  toward  both 
the  French  and  their  Indian  allies  in  the  Illinois  country. 

Governor  Dongan,  the  British  governor  of  New  York,  was 
much  interested  in  furthering  the  Western  fur  trade  through 
the  Iroquois  Indians,  and  he  caused  to  be  sent  eleven  canoes 
under  the  command  of  one  Rooseboona  into  the  lake  regions 
to  trade.  This  was  supposedly  French  territory.  The  expedition 
was  successful,  both  politically  and  financially.  The  French 
government  became  very  indignant,  and  sent  troops  to  arrest 
the  British,  but  failed  to  find  them.  In  the  fall  of  1686,  however, 
a  much  larger  British  expedition,  consisting  of  58  white  men, 
was  organized  by  the  Albany  merchants  and  backed  by  Governor 
Dongan.  Again  the  French  government  sent  troops  to  make 
arrests,  who  were  successful  this  time.  Because  of  these  incur- 
sions, De  Nonville  in  1687  got  ready  to  attack  the  Iroquois. 
De  Nonville  led  an  army  of  2,000  men  to  Fort  Frontenac. 
He  learned  that  his  three  western  lieutenants  had  gathered  a 
large  army  of  coureurs  de  bois  and  Indians  some  of  whom  were 
commanded  by  Tonti,  and  were  coming  to  his  aid.  The  first 
success  of  the  campaign  was  won  by  the  Western  troops,  they 
being  the  troops  who  captured  the  British  traders  sent  out 
from  Albany.  The  whole  army  then  advanced  against  the  Sen- 
ecas,  where  a  battle  was  fought  and  won  by  the  French.  This 
battle,  however,  seemed  not  to  have  utterly  crushed  the  Iroquois 
Indians,  for  shortly  thereafter  they  massacred  a  number  of 
the  French  colonists  in  Lachine.     Other  incursions  into  Canada 


84  ILLINOIS 

were  made  frequently  by  the  Iroquois  Indians,  and  finally  De 
Nonville  ordered  Fort  Frontenac  to  be  destroyed  and  abandoned, 
and  de  Nonville  was  recalled  to  France.  He  was  replaced  by 
the  Comte  de  Frontenac,  then  in  his  seventieth  year. 

The  situation  of  the  French  at  this  time  was  certainly  crit- 
ical. Many  of  the  Indian  tribes  around  the  Great  Lakes  upon 
the  abandonment  of  the  French  forts  by  the  French  government 
transferred  their  allegiance  from  the  French  to  the  Iroquois. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

FINAL   RESULTS   OF   THE   STRUGGLE   BETWEEN   THE 
BRITISH  AND  FRENCH  FOR  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY 

By  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  it  became  apparent 
that  war  between  the  French  and  English  for  the  possession 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley  would  be  inevitable.  Although  the 
French  settlements  in  Nova  Scotia  and  Canada  ante-dated  the 
English  settlements  at  Jamestown  and  Plymouth  Rock,  the  first 
did  not  grow  or  develop  with  the  rapidity  that  characterized 
the  English  colonies.  One  reason  for  this  probably  was  the 
climate.  Settlers  in  Massachusetts  and  Virginia  found  the  soil 
and  climate  more  congenial  to  agriculture  than  were  those  of 
the  North.  Moreover,  the  English  settlers  brought  wives  and 
children,  with  the  plain  determination  of  remaining  if  the  soil 
was  fertile. 

The  French  colonist  was  more  concerned  with  fishing  and 
hunting  and  trafficking  in  furs.  The  English  colonist  when  he 
found  soil  that  suited  him,  began  to  dig,  and  plan  and  erect  a 
home.  The  Frenchman  ranged  the  woods  and  fields  for  game, 
paying  little  regard  to  the  soil  over  which  he  ranged.  As  the 
English  settler  soon  found  good  soil,  his  numbers  increased 
rapidly,  but  the  territory  he  occupied  and  farmed,  widened 
slowly.  As  the  French  hunter  soon  found  abundant  game  and 
more  abundant  the  further  he  explored,  his  numbers  increased 
slowly,  but  the  territory  he  covered  in  his  search  for  game 
spread  rapidly.  Thus  the  French  colonists  became  the  greater 
explorers  and  discoverers,  while  the  English  became  the  better 
and  more  successful  tillers  of  the  soil.  Pursuing  the  policy  of 
exploration  and  discovery,  the  Frenchmen  aided  by  the  navigable 
lakes  and  rivers  that  extended  from  Quebec  to  what  is  now 
Duluth  and  Lake  Superior  and  Chicago  on  Lake  Michigan,  and 

85 


Map  of  American  Bottom  and  Old  French  Villages 


ILLINOIS  87 

by  the  Mississippi  River  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  St.  Paul 
and  Minneapolis,  explored  the  whole  Mississippi  Valley,  and 
erected  forts  or  trading  stations  at  Frontenac,  Detroit,  Green 
Bay,  Peoria,  Chicago,  Kaskaskia,  Mackinac,  Miami,  Vincennes, 
Prarie  du  Chien  and  other  points  on  and  near  the  Great  Lakes 
and  on  the  Mississippi  near  the  Arkansas  River.  They  had  also 
built  a  formidable  fort  on  the  Ohio  at  what  is  now  Pittsburg. 

Thus  in  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  French 
through  the  daring  of  their  traders,  and  the  holy  zeal  of  their 
missionaries,  for  the  conversion  of  the  Indians  to  Christianity, 
were  in  possession  of  a  string  of  forts  and  small  settlements 
all  the  way  from  Quebec  over  the  territory  of  the  Illinois  and 
down  the  Mississippi  to  New  Orleans.  The  British  colonists 
along  the  sea-board  from  Maine  to  Georgia,  infected  with  land 
hunger  rather  than  fur  fever,  slowly  but  steadily  pressed  their 
holdings  from  the  sea  westward  to  the  mountains.  They  had 
few  streams  to  help  them.  They  had  to  travel  overland.  It 
took  them  many  years  to  reach  the  Alleghanies  that  were  almost 
impassable.  They  had  learned,  however,  of  the  fertility  of  the 
great  valley  beyond  the  mountains  and  were  quick  to  see  that 
investments  in  this  western  territory  would  rapidly  increase 
enormously  in  value.  Toward  the  middle  of  the  century,  land 
hunger  and  a  craze  for  speculation  impelled  the  English  colonists 
in  New  York,  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia,  the  Carolinas  and 
Maryland  to  cross  the  mountains  and  stake  out  claims  north 
and  south  of  the  Ohio  River.  They  cared  not  whether  this  was 
French  or  English  territory,  and  waited  for  no  wars  or  treaties 
to  decide  sovereignty. 

The  fur  traders  of  New  York  had  been  for  years  attempting 
to  reach  the  Great  Lakes  through  the  Mohawk  Valley  in  the 
prosecution  of  their  fur  trade.  The  settlers  in  the  Carolinas 
in  the  South  were  also  circling  around  the  southern  end  of  the 
Appalachians,  in  the  effort  to  drive  the  French  from  the  southern 
valley.  Both  the  French  and  the  English  settlers,  however,  had 
covetous  eyes  upon  the  Upper  Ohio  Valley.  The  western  end 
of  this  valley  was  occupied  by  the  French  with  some  forts  and 
settlements,  but  the  eastern  portion  near  Pittsburg  was  wholly 
unoccupied  by  either  the  French  or  the  British.     The  French 


88  ILLINOIS 

claimed  it  all  by  virtue  of  previous  discovery  and  partial  occu- 
pancy, and  when  the  British  settlers  or  colonists  from  across 
the  Alleghanies  began  to  appear  in  the  Ohio  Valley,  the  French 
government  drove  them  out  and  gave  them  notice  that  they 
were  trespassers.  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island  and  Virginia 
had  charters  under  which  they  claimed  title  to  the  land  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  and  some  of  the  colonies  or  the  col- 
onists had  claims  as  a  result  of  treaties  with  the  Iroquois,  but 
none  of  them  had  made  any  actual  effort  to  take  possession  until 
about  1750.  The  first  incomers  into  the  Ohio  Valley  were  from 
the  colonists  of  Pennsylvania,  Virginia  and  Maryland.  The 
colonists  east  of  the  Alleghanies,  the  English,  Scotch,  Irish  and 
Germans,  had  gradually  forced  their  settlements  westward  to 
the  foot-hills  of  the  Alleghanies.  These  lands  had  grown  valu- 
able, and  the  lands  beyond  and  to  the  west  of  the  mountains 
began  to  look  attractive  to  them.  Speculation  was  widespread, 
particularly  in  Virginia,  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania.  In  1744, 
representatives  from  these  three  colonies  met  the  chieftain  of 
the  Iroquois  tribes  and  obtained  from  them  a  cession  of  the 
land  extending  from  the  banks  of  the  Virginia  to  the  Ohio 
River.  Afterward,  the  Ohio  Company  was  organized,  which 
had  among  its  members  men  of  means  and  political  strength 
in  England  and  America.  That  company  ultimately  received 
a  large  grant  of  the  Ohio  Valley,  upon  terms  requiring  the 
company  to  built  a  fort  and  establish  a  settlement.  Other  com- 
panies followed  their  example.  In  1750,  the  Ohio  Company 
sent  a  surveyor  to  survey  their  grant.  This  man  made  a  favor- 
able report  and  among  other  things  stated  that  he  found  the 
Indians  well  affected  toward  the  English.  These  English  adven- 
turers established  a  trading  post  at  Logstown  on  the  Ohio,  and 
another  at  the  Miami  Town  of  Pickawillany. 

Alarmed  by  these  movements  of  the  English  colonists,  the 
French  governor,  Galissoniere,  dispatched  a  force  of  French 
troops  under  the  command  of  Chevalier  Louis  Celeron  de  Blain- 
ville  to  take  possession  of  the  Ohio  Valley  and  to  drive  the  British 
traders  both  from  Logstown  and  Pickawillany.  Celeron  was 
successful  in  his  mission.  He  spent  the  summer  and  fall  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  notified  the  British  to  leave,  and  buried  metal 


ILLINOIS  89 

plates  on  which  were  inscribed  notices  that  the  territory  was 
French  and  that  all  trespassers  would  be  removed.  Celeron  also 
found  upon  his  mission  that  the  Indians  were  friendly  disposed 
towards  the  English  and  bitterly  disposed  towards  the  French. 
The  situation  was  getting  critical  for  the  French,  and  Governor 
Galissoniere  promptly  notified  the  home  government  that  there 
would  be  danger  to  the  French  colonies  if  the  British  should 
succeed  in  breaking  into  the  Ohio  Valley  and  cutting  their  com- 
munications which  had  been  established  between  the  French 
in  Canada  and  the  French  in  New  Orleans.  To  this  message, 
however,  the  governor  did  not  receive  a  heartening  answer 
from  the  French  ministry.  He  was  instructed  from  France 
to  defend  the  rights  of  the  French  king  in  the  contested  region, 
if  necessary  by  occupying  it,  but  to  keep  the  expenses  down 
as  much  as  possible  and  avoid  giving  the  British  just  reason 
for  complaint.  Instead  of  following  promptly  the  wise  counsel 
of  the  governor,  the  French  ministry  seemed  at  this  time  to 
hesitate  and  falter.  Later  on,  however,  on  May  15,  1752,  he  was 
instructed  by  the  French  ministry  as  follows: 

1.  To  make  every  possible  effort  to  drive  the  English  away 
from  our  lands  in  that  region,  and  to  prevent  their  coming  there 
to  trade  by  seizing  their  goods  and  destroying  their  posts. 

2.  To  make  our  subjects  understand  at  the  same  time  that 
we  have  nothing  against  them  and  that  they  are  at  liberty 
to  trade  with  them  in  the  latter  country,  but  we  will  not  allow 
them  to  receive  them  on  our  lands. 

At  this  juncture,  unfortunately  for  the  French,  the  able 
Galissoniere  was  removed  from  his  position  as  governor.  He 
was  succeeded  by  La  Jonqueire,  who  was  both  inefficient  and 
dishonest,  and  afterwards  by  Vaudreuil,  a  weak  man  who  was 
transferred  from  Louisiana  to  Canada.  Associated  with  these 
men  was  Francois  Bigot,  who  was  willing  to  sell  any  power  or 
privilege  or  dignity  under  his  control.  Probably  nothing  con- 
tributed so  much  at  this  time  to  the  misfortunes  which  the 
French  government  faced,  as  the  removal  of  the  honest  and 
efficient  La  Galissoniere  and  supplanting  him  with  such  weak 
men  as  the  men  we  have  mentioned.  Later  on,  a  more  efficient 
and  capable  governor  was   appointed,   Duquesne.     This  man, 


90  ILLINOIS 

who  was  both  vigorous  and  efficient,  promptly  after  his  appoint- 
ment succeeded  in  expelling  the  British  traders  from  Pickawil- 
lany  and  making  prisoners  of  the  British  traders  captured  at 
that  point.  He  then  built  Fort  Presque  Isle  on  Lake  Erie,  and 
two  other  forts  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  the  water  route 
to  the  Allegheney  region  from  Lake  Erie.  When  news  of 
Duquesne's  activities  in  the  Ohio  country  reached  the  British 
colonies,  it  caused  some  excitement.  Governor  Dinwiddie  of 
Virginia  and  the  Ohio  Company  insisted  upon  prompt  action 
to  neutralize  the  French  activities.  Dinwiddie  in  1752  appealed 
to  the  British  government  for  aid.  He  hoped  to  establish  forts 
on  the  Ohio  River,  an,d  sent  Col.  William  Trent  with  a  company 
of  men  to  select  a  ground  suitable  for  the  location  of  a  fort 
near  the  juncture  of  the  Alleghany  and  Monongahela  rivers. 
They  actually  commenced  to  build  a  fort,  but  the  French  troops 
appeared  upon  the  schene,  captured  the  unfinished  fort  and 
replaced  it  by  a  French  fort  that  they  named  Fort  Duquesne. 
Col.  George  Washington,  afterward  President  of  the  United 
States,  was  commissioned  by  the  governor  of  Virginia  to  explore 
the  territory.  British  regulars  finally  appeared  upon  the  scene 
with  General  Braddock  at  their  head,  and  together  they  marched 
against  Fort  Duquesne  then  held  by  the  French  at  the  head 
of  the  Ohio.  Braddock  crossed  the  mountains  in  June,  his 
force  aggregating  about  2,000  men,  Colonel  Washington  being 
his  aide  de  camp.  He  was  ambushed  by  250  Frenchmen  with 
a  large  party  of  Indians,  and  after  making  an  attempt  to  defend 
himself,  was  totally  routed.  Braddock  himself  was  killed  in 
this  battle,  and  more  than  half  of  his  troops  were  either  killed 
or  wounded.  Other  expeditions  planned  by  the  British  ministry 
and  the  colonists  had  but  little  success,  excepting  the  one  against 
Acadia,  now  Nova  Scotia.  That  French  colony  was  easily 
reduced,  and  7,000  of  its  inhabitants  were  placed  upon  ship- 
board and  transported  to  English  colonies,  where  they  were 
treated  as  paupers.  All  of  these  skirmishes  took  place,  however, 
while  the  French  and  British  were  nominally  at  peace,  but  war 
now  become  inevitable. 

In  December,  1752,  Governor  Dinwiddie,  colonial  governor 
of  Virginia,  had  appealed  to  the  British  government  for  assist- 


ILLINOIS  91 

ance  to  enable  him  to  establish  forts  on  the  Ohio  River  to  protect 
the  Virginia  colonists  who  were  settling  on  that  river  from 
French  assaults.  During  the  following  year  Dinwiddie  had 
sent  Col.  William  Trent  with  a  body  of  men  to  build  a  fort 
at  the  junction  of  the  Alleghany  and  Monongahela  Rivers.  While 
it  was  in  course  of  construction,  it  was  captured  by  the  French, 
much  strengthened  in  its  character,  and  renamed  Fort  Duquesne, 
and  kept  well  garrisoned  and  commissioned  by  the  French  so 
as  to  dominate  and  control  that  portion  of  the  Ohio  Valley  which 
both  the  French  and  British  were  desirous  of  holding. 

Even  before  war  was  formally  declared,  while  Col.  George 
Washington  was  building  a  fort  called  by  him  Fort  Necessity, 
near  Fort  Duquesne,  he  and  his  party  were  attacked  by  the 
French  and  compelled  to  surrender  the  fort  and  retreat.  Even 
before  war  was  formally  declared,  General  Braddock,  command- 
ing a  formidable  body  of  British  and  colonial  troops,  with  George 
Washington  as  his  aide,  while  attempting  to  capture  Fort 
Duquesne,  was  surprised  by  a  force  of  French  and  Indians  and 
completely  routed  with  tremendous  loss  of  life  and  equipment. 

English  and  colonial  land  speculators  kept  constantly  at  work 
along  the  territory  claimed  by  the  French,  north  of  the  Ohio, 
between  what  is  now  Illinois  and  what  is  now  the  State  of 
New  York,  endeavoring  to  procure  by  hook  or  crook  titles  from 
the  Indian  tribes  and  win  them  away  from  their  friendly  rela- 
tions with  the  French.  To  expel  these  intruders,  the  governor 
of  Canada  in  1749,  as  hereinbefore  stated,  sent  Chevalier  Louis 
Celeron  with  a  body  of  Canadian  soldiers  to  nail  the  arms  of 
France  to  trees  at  what  is  now  Pittsburgh,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Muskingum  River,  at  the  great  Kanawha  and  other  streams.  In 
the  previous  year  the  Ohio  Company,  in  which  many  men  of 
means  in  England  and  Virginia,  including  George  Washington 
and  his  two  brothers,  had  obtained  from  the  Crown  a  grant  of 
land  of  500,000  acres  in  what  is  now  West  Virginia,  was  organ- 
ized. Other  land  companies  had  also  been  formed  which  laid 
claim  to  3,000,000  acres  of  land  claimed  by  the  French  under  the 
assertion  of  discovery  and  occupancy.  Soon  after  Celeron's 
expedition  the  French  erected  and  garrisoned  a  fort  at  Presque 


92  ILLINOIS 

Isle,  now  the  City  of  Erie,  Fort  Loboeuf,  twenty  miles  south  of 
Presque  Isle,  and  at  Fort  Venango,  near  the  head  waters  of 
the  Alleghany  River,  and  planned  another  fort  at  French  Creek, 
on  the  Alleghany  River. 

After  Washington's  surrender  at  Fort  Necessity,  not  a  Brit- 
ish flag  waved  west  of  the  Alleghanies.  In  1754,  or  thereabout, 
war  was  formally  declared  between  Great  Britain  and  France. 
In  Europe  it  was  known  as  the  "Seven  Years'  War ;"  in  America 
it  was  called  the  "French  and  Indian  War."  As  between  Great 
Britain  and  France,  it  was  the  most  important  and  decisive 
war  ever  waged  on  the  Western  Continent.  A  full  account 
of  this  important  conflict  would  and  should  occupy  a  great  many 
pages  in  any  history  of  America,  cover  many  glorious  episodes 
and  encounters  and  a  few  disgraceful  happenings  such  as  the 
abduction,  deportation  and  practical  extermination  of  the  Aca- 
dian people  by  the  British  and  the  massacre  of  the  British  pris- 
oners by  the  Indian  allies  of  the  French  under  Montcalm.  That 
history  belongs,  however,  to  the  history  of  the  United  States 
rather  than  to  the  history  of  Illinois.  In  the  limited  space  at 
my  disposal  I  have  not  room  for  a  full  review  of  that  great  and 
momentous  war.  It  can  be  found  in  any  popular  history  of  the 
United  States. 

None  of  the  conflicts  of  that  great  struggle  took  place  on 
what  is  now  the  soil  of  Illinois.  The  Chevalier  McCarty,  French 
commandant  at  Kaskaskia,  did  despatch  small  bodies  of  French 
troops  from  Kaskaskia  and  did  despatch  supplies  and  provisions 
to  Fort  Duquesne  to  help  the  French  garrison  in  that  fort 
when  it  was  beleaguered  by  the  British.  We  have  adverted  to 
this  elsewhere  herein;  but  this  was  the  only  connection  that 
Illinois  or  its  residents  had  with  the  war.  I  will  content  myself 
with  stating  that  during  the  first  two  years  of  the  war  the 
British  were  worsted  by  the  French  at  Fort  Duquesne  and  Fort 
Niagara,  but  succeeded  in  capturing  Crown  Point  from  the 
French.  Montcalm,  the  French  commander,  captured  a  British 
fort  at  Oswago  and  1,600  prisoners  and  100  pieces  of  artillery. 
In  1757  the  British  were  less  successful.  General  Loudon,  the 
British  commander,  attempted  to  reduce  the  French  fort  at 
Louisburg,  on  Cape  Breton  Island,  with  10,000  to  12,000  men 


ILLINOIS  93 

and  sixteen  vessels,  but  abandoned  the  effort  without  show  of 
fight.  Montcalm  captured  from  the  British  Fort  William  Henry 
and  several  hundred  prisoners,  some  of  whom  were  massacred 
by  the  Indian  allies  of  the  French,  in  spite  of  the  orders  and 
commands  of  Montcalm.  Incapacity  of  leadership  and  general- 
ship was  now  charged  by  the  British  people  against  both  the 
cabinet  ministers  and  their  generals  in  the  field.  Their  cabinet 
was  ousted  and  William  Pitt,  the  Great  Commoner,  was  called 
by  the  king  to  take  the  helm  of  the  ship  of  state.  An  alliance 
with  the  king  of  Prussia  against  France  and  Austria  now  kept 
France  busy  in  Europe  and  Pitt  devoted  his  attention  to  the 
conflict  in  America.  He  was  the  first  Englishman  to  fully 
appreciate  the  great  value  of  the  prize  at  stake  in  Canada 
and  the  Mississippi  Valley.  He  backed  Frederick  the  Great, 
the  Prussian  king,  in  Europe  principally  with  money  and  supplies 
and  assistance  on  the  high  seas.  Frederick  began  to  win  victory 
after  victory  in  Europe,  and  kept  the  French  so  engrossed  that 
they  could  not  or  did  not  give  proper  support  to  their  gallant 
and  capable  generals  in  America.  Pitt  now  changed  commanders 
in  America,  and,  recognizing  that  one  of  the  richest  empires 
in  the  world  lay  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  could  be  won 
by  an  adequate  supply  of  money,  men  and  arms,  devoted  his 
whole  energy  to  achieving  success  in  America.  Men,  money 
and  arms  were  soon  forthcoming.  Early  in  1758  he  sent  a 
fleet  of  forty  vessels  and  11,000  troops  to  capture  Louisburg 
under  Admiral  Boscawen.  Two  able  generals,  Jeffrey  Amherst 
and  James  Wolfe,  commanded  the  troops.  Early  in  June  the 
siege  of  the  fort  was  commenced.  Before  the  end  of  July  the 
most  impregnable  fortress  in  America  surrendered  to  the  Brit- 
ish, with  5,700  prisoners,  240  cannon  and  a  large  quantity  of 
ammunition  and  stores. 

The  British  were  not  so  successful  in  their  effort  to  capture 
Fort  Ticonderoga.  It  was  defended  by  Montcalm  and  4,000 
Frenchmen,  and  attacked  by  6,300  British  regulars  and  9,000 
provincial  troops  under  Abercrombie  and  Lord  Howe.  The 
latter  was  killed  in  a  preliminary  skirmish.  Abercrombie  proved 
to  be  most  incapable  of  leadership,  directed  his  operations  from 
a  safe  distance,  left  2,000  of  his  troops  dead  or  dying  on  the 


94  ILLINOIS 

battlefield,  and  retreated  southward  from  the  fort  with  his 
shattered  army.  From  this  time  on,  however,  victory  smiled 
upon  the  British  arms.  They  soon  captured  Oswego,  Fort  Fron- 
tenac  and  Fort  Duquesne.  The  last  was  abandoned  by  its  fam- 
ishing garrison  without  a  struggle. 

In  1758  the  British  were  still  more  successful.  Fort  Niagara 
fell  early  in  the  year,  soon  to  be  followed  by  the  French  forts 
between  Niagara  and  Pittsburgh.  Ticonderoga  was  now  the 
only  fort  in  what  is  now  the  United  States  still  flying  the  French 
flag.  An  army  of  10,000  men  flying  the  British  flag  soon 
approached  the  fortress,  only  to  find  that  it  had  been  abandoned. 
In  1759  fell  Quebec.  Both  Montcalm,  the  French  commander, 
and  Wolfe,  the  British  commander,  lost  their  lives  in  the  des- 
perate fighting  on  the  "Plains  of  Abraham/'  near  the  city. 
This  was  the  total  collapse  of  French  dominance  on  the  American 
continent.  It  but  remained  to  draw  up  the  treaty  under  the 
terms  of  which  the  British  flag  would  displace  the  French  colors 
wherever  they  had  hitherto  appeared  on  the  North  American 
continent.  In  February,  1763,  the  famous  and  fateful  Treaty 
of  Paris  was  signed,  under  the  terms  of  which  all  Canada,  Nova 
Scotia,  Cape  Breton,  the  Ohio  Valley  and  that  part  of  Louisiana 
east  of  the  Mississippi  and  north  of  the  River  Iberville  and 
Lake  Ponchartrain  were  ceded  by  France  to  Great  Britain.  In 
exchange  for  the  cession  of  Florida  by  Spain  to  Great  Britain, 
the  latter  nation  restored  to  Spain  Cuba  and  the  Philippines, 
which  had  been  captured  by  the  British  during  the  war. 

To  compensate  Spain  for  the  loss  of  Florida,  the  French 
ceded  to  her  ally,  Spain,  what  was  left  of  Louisiana,  which 
was  all  of  Louisiana  west  of  the  Mississippi  and  all  of  it  south 
of  the  River  Iberville  and  east  of  the  Mississippi,  including 
the  Town  of  New  Orleans.  Thus  ended  for  France  her  design 
to  colonize  and  hold  under  French  dominion  what  is  now  the 
Dominion  of  Canada  and  the  Mississippi  Valley,  now  teeming 
with  50,000,000  inhabitants  and  containing  untold  agricultural, 
mineral  and  manufacturing  wealth.  On  October  10,  1765,  over 
two  and  one-half  years  after  the  Treaty  of  Paris  was  signed, 
a  British  governor  had  finally  arrived  at  Fort  Chartres,  the 
last  fort  in  America  flying  the  French  flag.     The  French  gar- 


ILLINOIS  95 

rison  lowered  the  colors  of  France  and  the  cross  of  St.  George 
was  raised  with  due  formality.  The  little  French  garrison 
marched  to  St.  Louis  and  the  last  vestige  of  French  power  and 
authority  disappeared  from  the  North  American  continent. 

Within  a  score  of  years  however,  France  had  her  revenge. 
In  the  darkest  hour  of  the  American  Revolution,  Franklin,  the 
American  ambassador,  applied  to  the  French  king  for  succor 
and  assistance.  France  placed  at  his  disposal  a  powerful  French 
fleet  and  an  army  of  trained  soldiers  and  sailors  who  joined 
Washington  and  the  Revolutionary  army  and  helped  them  most 
materially  to  corner  and  subjugate  Cornwallis  and  the  British 
army  at  Yorktown,  compelled  them  to  surrender  and  thus  end 
the  Revolutionary  war  by  a  treaty  which  gave  to  the  thirteen 
Revolutionary  colonies  every  foot  of  soil  which  the  French  were 
compelled  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris  to  cede  to  the  British  Crown. 


CHAPTER  IX 

ILLINOIS  UNDER  THE  BRITISH  FLAG 

The  treaty  of  peace  between  Great  Britain  and  France  under 
which  France  ceded  to  the  former  practically  all  her  possessions 
on  the  North  American  continent  was  signed  February  10,  1763. 
Within  three  months  thereafter  the  Indian  tribes  belonging  to 
the  Algonquin  race  were  in  open  revolt,  under  the  leadership 
of  Chief  Pontiac,  against  British  rule. 

Resentment  toward  the  British  government  and  the  English 
speaking  colonists  had  been  developing  among  the  Indians  for 
several  years.  This  resentment  was  caused  by  the  trickery, 
dishonesty  and,  at  times,  by  the  high  handed  proceedings  of 
English  speaking  officials,  traders  and  prospectors. 

They  not  only  resorted  to  trickery,  fraud,  and  misrepre- 
sentation to  deprive  the  Indian  of  his  property,  but  when  these 
failed,  they  seized  their  lands  and  pelts  by  main  force. 

The  French  trader  was  by  no  means  an  angel,  and  frequently 
over  reached  the  Indian  and  defrauded  him  when  French  officials 
and  the  missionaries  were  absent ;  but  the  French  trader  almost 
invariably  traded  with  the  Indian,  by  actually  or  pretendedly, 
recognizing  that  the  red  man  had  property  rights  in  his  furs 
and  hunting  grounds. 

Moreover,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  the  French  trader  was 
after  the  Indian's  furs  and  not  his  land  while  the  English- 
speaking  trader  wanted  his  land  rather  than  his  pelts. 

Again  the  French  trader  placed  himself  more  nearly  on  the 
same  plane  of  humanity  as  the  Indian.  He  fraternized  with 
the  Indian,  took  part  in  his  games  and  frolics,  and  at  times 
took  an  Indian  wife  and  raised  a  family  of  half  breeds.  The 
English-speaking  official  or  trader  in  comparison  was  cold,  sel- 
fish, insolent  and  dishonest. 

96 


ILLINOIS  97 

The  Algonquin  tribes  had  watched  with  misgivings  and  dread 
the  slow  but  steady  advance  westward  along  the  south  shore 
of  Lake  Ontario  and  the  Ohio  River  of  the  English-speaking 
settler  and  speculator.  They  noted  that  he  always  seized  and 
held  possession  of  any  land  he  stepped  upon,  without  bargaining 
with  the  Indian  or  asking  his  consent.  These  abuses  as  well 
as  the  flagrant  use  of  intoxicating  liquor  in  dealing  with  the 
Indians,  were  notorious.  Sir  William  Johnson,  the  Indian  Com- 
missioner, appointed  by  the  British  government  had  pointed 
out  these  evils  in  his  reports  to  his  superiors,  but  no  attempt 
had  been  made  to  put  an  end  to  them.  Thus  Indian  resentment 
and  hatred  combined  to  fester  and  ferment  through  all  of  the 
Algonquin  tribes. 

Dissatisfaction  developed  into  revolt,  and  the  revolt  found 
for  its  leader  and  mouthpiece — Pontiac.  While  the  antipathy 
against  the  British  was  wide-spread,  it  required  concentration 
and  coordination.  Both  were  given  to  it  by  the  remarkably 
able  Indian  who  now  took  control  of  the  revolt.  During  1761 
and  1762  he  had  been  visiting  and  sending  his  messengers,  to 
all  members  of  the  Algonquin  race  and  to  the  Senecas  of  the 
Iroquois  tribe,  and  had  finally  succeeded  in  getting  them  into 
a  grand  confederacy  of  revolt. 

Pontiac  for  years  had  been  the  absolute  chief  and  master 
of  the  Ottawa  tribe  and  Pottawatomies,  and  was  actuated  in 
this  movement  both  by  Indian  patriotism  and  personal  ambition. 
He  had  noted  for  years  the  fruitless  resistance  offered  by  the 
separate  and  disunited  tribes  to  the  aggressions  of  the  white 
man.  He  saw  the  white  man  gather  his  soldiers  into  compact 
armies,  well  armed  and  equipped,  and  saw  these  compact  bodies 
overwhelm  single  Indian  tribes  and  scatter  them  like  leaves 
before  the  wind. 

Among  the  first  of  his  race  he  concluded  that  the  Indians 
were  doomed,  unless  united,  and  preached  the  gospel  of  unity 
throughout  the  whole  Indian  population.  He  dreamed  of  and 
sought  to  create  a  great  Indian  nation  that  would  present  a 
united  front  to  British  invaders  and  secure  to  the  Indian  the 
retention  of  part  if  not  all  of  his  hunting  grounds,  and  per- 
petuity as  a  nation,  in  the  land  of  his  ancestors. 


Pontiac,  Ottawa  Chief  and  Leader  of  Pontiac  Conspiracy 

of  1763 


ILLINOIS  99 

Taking  into  consideration  the  known  weaknesses  of  the  Indian 
character  as  shown  in  the  past — jealousies  and  rivalries  between 
local  tribes — Pontiac  was  wonderfully  successful.  With  con- 
summate skill  he  arranged  for  the  almost  simultaneous  attack 
by  the  Indians  upon  all  the  forts  and  ports  held  by  the  British 
in  what  had  been  New  France. 

These  attacks  commenced  in  May  1763  and  within  the  next 
sixty  days,  the  Indians  had  gained  possession  of  St.  Joe,  Miami, 
Mackinac,  Sandusky,  Ouiatenon  and  the  small  forts  and  ports. 
All  forts  west  of  Detroit  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Indians. 
The  British  retained  only  Detroit,  Niagara  and  Fort  Pitt,  strong, 
well  garrisoned  forts. 

But  the  confederation  even  though  it  had  able  leadership 
lacked  the  reserve  forces  of  ammunition  and  deadly  weapons 
which  civilization  and  the  British  soldiers  always  had  in  reserve. 
During  the  war  between  the  French  and  English  in  1761  and 
1762  Pontiac  had  doubtless  been  able  to  buy  from  the  French 
traders  and  French  authorities,  such  ammunition  as  he  desired, 
but  when  peace  was  signed  in  February  of  1763  this  resource 
was  withdrawn.  In  vain  did  Pontiac  appeal  to  Commandant 
de  Villiers  at  Kaskaskia  for  assistance.  That  French  officer 
refused  to  compromise  his  government,  by  assisting  the  Indian 
revolt  however  much  he  might  have  been  disposed  to  do  so.  . 

Two  formidable,  well-equipped  British  expeditions  were 
organized  in  1764  and  sent  into  the  heart  of  the  disaffected 
district.  The  first  reached  and  reconditioned  the  British  gar- 
rison at  Detroit.  The  second  marched  from  Fort  Pitt  into  Ohio, 
engaged  the  Indians  under  Pontiac  and  thoroughly  defeated 
them.  The  Indians  lacked  ammunition.  Bows  and  arrows  as 
against  muskets  and  cannon  had  long  become  obsolete. 

Pontiac's  defeat  practically  ended  the  war  although  it  was 
months  before  the  Indians  made  final  admission  of  defeat. 
Because  of  the  fact  that  the  Indian  submission  was  not  com- 
plete or  whole-hearted,  it  became  important  for  the  British 
authorities  to  take  possession  of  Fort  Chartres  near  Kaskaskia. 
When  the  treaty  of  Paris  between  the  French  and  English  was 
signed  that  fort  was  occupied  by  a  French  garrison  under  a 
French  commandant  and  it  remained  under  the  French  flag 


100  ILLINOIS 

for  about  two  years  thereafter.  The  still  existing  Indian  dis- 
affection made  it  difficult  for  the  British  to  send  from  Detroit  or 
Fort  Pitt  a  garrison  and  take  formal  possession  from  the  French 
commandant.  That  officer's  position  was  anything  but  an  agree- 
able one.  The  French  flag  floated  above  him  and  he  was  sur- 
rounded by  French  inhabitants,  half-breeds  and  Indians,  all 
of  whom  feared  and  hated  the  British.  Across  the  Mississippi, 
at  St.  Louis  under  the  Spanish  flag  was  La  Clede  and  other 
prosperous  French  merchants  who  were  successfully  developing 
a  fur  trade  on  both  sides  of  the  river  and  selling  their  wares 
to  the  French  settlers  at  Kaskaskia,  Cahokia  and  other  settle- 
ments. Pontiac  and  his  followers  were  soliciting  his  aid  and 
the  French  traders  were  secretly  helping  the  Indians. 

De  Villiers,  the  commandant,  nevertheless  remained  stead- 
fastly loyal  to  the  terms  of  the  treaty,  but  finally  with  the  consent 
of  the  government  of  Louisiana  resigned  his  command  in  June  15, 
1764  leaving  only  forty  men  in  Fort  Chartres  under  command 
of  Louis  St.  Ange  de  Bellerive  who  had  been  called  from  post 
Vincennes  to  take  command  at  Fort  Chartres.  The  British 
made  several  attempts  to  reach  and  take  possession  of  Fort 
Chartres  which  was  at  that  time  one  of  the  most  formidable, 
well-constructed  forts  west  of  Detroit  and  Pittsburgh. 

This  fort  was  constructed  under  the  supervision  of  a  very 
able  and  efficient  French  officer  with  a  double-barrelled  Irish 
name,  Chevalier  de  McCarty  McTigue.  He  was  a  descendant 
of  one  of  the  "Irish  Wild  Geese"  who  fled  from  Ireland  to  France 
after  the  siege  and  capture  of  Limerick  and  had  risen  to  the 
rank  of  major  of  engineers  in  the  French  army. 

With  skillful  French  engineers  between  1753  and  1760  he 
had  erected  this  fort  across  the  river  from,  and  near,  Kaskaskia 
in  such  a  substantial  manner  as  to  resist  attack  both  from 
Indians  and  from  European  soldiers.  It  was  capable  of  housing 
400  soldiers.  An  English  officer  afterwards  declared  that  "It 
is  generally  allowed  that  this  is  the  most  commodious  and  well 
built  fort  in  North  America." 

From  this  fort  between  1753  and  1758  McCarty  (Makarty) 
dispatched  several  expeditions  with  men  and  supplies  to  Fort 
Duquesne,  most  of  which  were  successful.     One  of  these  expe- 


ILLINOIS 


101 


ditions  sent  out  by  Major  McCarty  from  Fort  Chartres  was 
commanded  by  Capt.  Neyon  de  Villiers,  a  gallant  officer  serving 
under  Major  McCarty  (Makarty) .  He  was  one  of  three  brothers 
all  of  whom  were  in  the  French  service  in  the  New  World. 
One  of  them,  Coulon  de  Villiers,  was  in  command  at  Fort 
Duquesne.  He  sent  a  detachment  of  French  soldiers  from  Fort 
Duquesne  under  command  of  his  brother,  Capt.  Jumonville  de 
Villiers  to  meet  Washington  at  Little  Meadow  where  he  was 
killed.    Coulon  sent  word  of  the  death  of  his  brother  Jumonville 


Powder  Magazine  of  Old  Fort  Chartres 


to  his  brother  Neyon  at  Fort  Chartres  and  at  the  request  of 
both  living  brothers  Chevalier  de  McCarty  despatched  Captain 
Neyon  with  his  company  from  Fort  Chartres  to  Fort  Duquesne. 
Upon  arrival  of  Neyon  and  his  company  at  the  latter  fort  both 
brothers  and  their  commands  attacked  Colonel  Washington  at 
Fort  Necessity  and  compelled  its  surrender  on  July  5,  1754. 
Thus  both  brothers  avenged  the  death  of  their  deceased  brother 
by  capturing  in  battle  the  soldier  who  was  responsible  for  that 
death;  and  the  man  who  afterwards  became  the  first  President 
of  the  United  States. 

This  same  Neyon  de  Villiers  afterwards  commanded  an  escort 
of  provisions  sent  by  Chevalier  de  McCarty  to  Fort  Duquesne, 
succeeded  Major  McCarty  in  command  of  Fort  Chartres,  crossed 


102  ILLINOIS 

the  Alleghanies  with  his  company  and  captured  Fort  Granville 
on  the  Juaniata.  Captain  Aubrey,  another  French  officer,  was 
sent  from  Fort  Chartres  with  400  men  to  the  assistance  of 
Fort  Duquesne. 

He  and  his  men  met  the  British  commander  Major  Grant 
and  his  highlanders  and  signally  defeated  them  and  surprised 
an  English  camp  some  forty  miles  from  Fort  Duquesne,  captured 
a  lot  of  horses  and  rode  them  back  into  the  French  fort.  In 
May  1760  the  able  French  Irishman,  McCarty,  was  called  by 
the  French  governor  at  New  Orleans  to  assist  him  at  that  place. 
He  died  in  New  Orleans  in  1764. 

Nine  different  attempts  were  made  by  the  British  to  reach 
and  take  formal  possession  of  Fort  Chartres  after  the  treaty 
of  Paris  signed  in  1763  before  they  were  successful.  Seven 
of  them  were  made  by  commissioners  or  embassies  unaccom- 
panied by  armed  forces.  Three  of  these  embassies  reached 
Kaskaskia  but  were  threatened  by  the  Indians  and  though 
protected  by  the  French  Commandant  and  even  by  Pontiac 
accomplished  nothing.  By  this  time  Chief  Pontiac  as  the  result 
of  the  British  successes  in  the  field  and  the  refusal  of  the  French 
Commandant  at  Fort  Chartres  and  also  the  refusal  of  the  French 
government  at  New  Orleans  to  give  him  aid  had  reached  the 
conclusion  that  the  Indian  struggle  was  hopeless  and  that  his 
followers  must  accept  inevitable  defeat.  As  he  counseled  sub- 
mission, the  time  was  ripe  for  negotiating  for  peace.  Another 
Irishman  now  appeared  upon  the  scene,  this  time  on  the  British 
side. 

George  Croghan  had  been  a  successful  trader.  At  this 
juncture,  1765,  Croghan  was  the  British  deputy  agent  under 
Sir  William  Johnson.  He  was  a  genial,  popular  fellow  and 
described  as  a  "born  diplomat.,,  He  was  charged  by  his  superiors 
with  the  duty  of  meeting  Pontiac  and  the  Indian  chiefs  and 
arranging  terms  of  peace. 

On  May  15,  1765,  with  several  white  companies  and  some 
Shawnee  Indians  he  left  Fort  Pitt  after  sending  messengers  to 
several  of  the  Indian  tribes  to  meet  him  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Scioto  River.  The  Indian  tribes  to  whom  the  messages  were 
addressed  complied  and  delivered  into  their  hands  several  dis- 


ILLINOIS  103 

affected  French  traders  whom  Croghan  compelled  to  take  the 
oath  of  allegiance  to  King  George  or  leave  the  country. 

His  company  was  attacked  by  the  Mascoutens  and  Kickapoos 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Wabash  and  two  of  his  white  companions 
and  several  Shawnee  were  killed. 

The  Indians  afterwards  explained  that  the  attack  was  a 
mistake  but  nevertheless  they  plundered  his  stock  of  supplies 
and  carried  Croghan  and  his  party  to  Vincennes.  At  this  place 
delegates  of  all  the  tribes  surrounding  that  post  waited  upon 
Croghan,  asked  for  peace  and  offered  to  take  him  to  the  Illinois 
country  to  meet  Chief  Pontiac.  He  accepted  their  offer  and  a 
few  days  later  started  west  to  meet  Pontiac  under  their  escort. 
Pontiac  agreeably  surprised  him  by  meeting  him  half  way. 
With  Pontiac  he  returned  to  the  Fort  Ouiatenon  where  a  large 
council  of  the  Indians  was  assembled.  There  in  the  presence 
of  his  allied  chiefs  the  great  heart-broken  and  humiliated  chief 
declared  that  he  and  his  allies  were  willing  to  make  a  lasting 
peace.  Croghan  therefore  reported  his  success  to  Fort  Pitt, 
abandoned  his  journey  to  Fort  Chartres,  and  hastened  to  Detroit 
where  he  arranged  for  another  conference  at  which  a  general 
peace  was  consummated  with  all  of  the  western  tribes,  thus 
ending  the  Pontiac  war. 

Upon  receiving  word  of  Croghan's  great  successes  at 
Ouiatenon  and  Detroit,  Capt.  Thomas  Sterling  left  Fort  Pitt 
with  100  men  of  the  Black  Watch  on  August  24,  1765  and  arrived 
at  Fort  Chartres  on  October  9.  Next  day  St.  Ange  the  French 
commanding  officer  and  his  garrison  were  released  from  duty. 
The  French  flag  was  lowered  and  the  Cross  of  St.  George  was 
raised  for  the  first  time  over  Fort  Chartres.  This  was  the 
surrender  of  the  last  French  fort  in  the  West. 

Upon  surrender  of  the  fort  the  French  inhabitants  of  the 
American  Bottom  found  themselves  in  a  strange  predicament. 
The  French  government  having  surrendered  its  sovereignty  in 
February  1763,  there  was  no  French  law  in  existence  for  them. 
The  British  government  had  enacted  law  for  Canada  promptly 
after  the  French  surrender  but  had  failed  to  proclaim  any  kind 
of  civil  or  criminal  law  to  govern  the  Illinois  Country. 


104  ILLINOIS 

They  were  in  number  less  than  3,000  of  whom  900  were 
negroes,  and  in  a  state  of  nature,  without  any  law  or  ordinances 
of  any  character.  Upon  it  becoming  known  to  these  French 
inhabitants  in  1763  and  1764  that  New  France  had  been  ceded 
to  Great  Britain,  a  general  exodus  of  the  most  responsible  of 
these  people  took  place,  most  of  them  crossing  the  Mississippi 
to  what  is  now  St.  Louis.  Pierre  La  Clede  had  landed  in  Kas- 
kaskia  about  that  time  with  a  large  stock  of  trading  goods  from 
New  Orleans.  He  represented  some  rich  merchants  in  the  latter 
city  who  intended  opening  up  for  them  a  large  fur  trading 
establishment  in  Kaskaskia.  After  storing  his  goods  in  the 
French  fort,  consulting  with  Neyon  de  Villiers,  the  commandant, 
and  looking  the  ground  over,  he  concluded  that  it  would  be 
unprofitable  if  not  disastrous  to  attempt  to  do  business  under 
the  British  flag.  He  therefore  transferred  his  goods  over  the 
Mississippi  to  St.  Louis  and  built  up  a  large  and  profitable 
business  from  that  point  under  the  Spanish  flag.  Many  others 
followed  his  example. 

While  the  French  flag  continued  to  wave  over  Fort  Chartres 
many  of  the  inhabitants  hesitated  as  to  their  course  awaiting 
results. 

When  Captain  Sterling  raised  the  British  flag  on  October 
10,  1765,  he  followed  the  ceremonial  of  flag  raising  by  publishing 
the  following  proclamation. 

Whereas,  by  the  peace  concluded  at  Paris,  the  10th 
of  February,  1763,  the  country  of  the  Illinois  has  been 
ceded  to  his  Britannic  Majesty,  and  the  taking  possession 
of  the  said  country  of  the  Illinois,  by  the  troops  of  his 
Majesty,  though  delayed,  has  been  determined  upon;  we 
have  found  it  good  to  make  known  to  the  inhabitants — 

That  his  majesty  grants  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Illinois,  the  liberty  of  the  Catholic  religion,  as  it  has  already 
been  granted  to  his  subjects  in  Canada.  He  has  conse- 
quently given  the  most  precise  and  effective  orders,  to 
the  end  that  his  new  Roman  Catholic  subjects  of  the  Illinois 
may  exercise  the  worship  of  their  religion,  according  to 
the  rites  of  the  Romish  church,  in  the  same  manner  as  in 
Canada. 


ILLINOIS  105 

That  his  majesty,  moreover,  agrees  that  the  French 
inhabitants  or  others,  who  have  been  subjects  of  the  most 
Christian  King  (the  King  of  France),  may  retire  in  full 
safety  and  freedom  wherever  they  please,  even  to  New 
Orleans,  or  any  other  part  of  Louisiana ;  although  it  should 
happen  that  the  Spaniards  take  possession  of  it  in  the 
name  of  his  Catholic  majesty  (the  King  of  Spain),  and 
they  may  sell  their  estates,  provided  it  be  to  subjects  of 
his  majesty,  and  transport  their  effects  as  well  as  their 
persons,  without  restraint  upon  their  emigration,  under  any 
pretense  whatever,  except  in  consequence  of  debts,  or  of 
criminal  processes. 

That  those  who  choose  to  retain  their  lands  and  become 
subjects  of  his  majesty  shall  enjoy  the  same  rights  and 
privileges,  the  same  security  of  their  persons  and  effects, 
and  the  liberty  of  trade,  as  the  old  subjects  of  the  King. 

That  they  are  commanded  by  these  presents,  to  take 
the  oath  of  fidelity  and  obedience  to  his  majesty,  in  presence 
of  Sieur  Stirling,  captain  of  the  Highland  regiment,  the 
bearer  hereof,  and  furnished  with  our  full  powers  for  this 
purpose. 

That  they  act  in  concert  with  his  majesty's  officers, 
so  that  his  troops  may  take  peaceable  possession  of  all  the 
forts,  and  order  kept  in  the  country.  By  this  means  alone 
they  will  spare  his  majesty  the  necessity  of  recurring  to 
force  of  arms,  and  will  find  themselves  saved  from  the 
scourge  of  a  bloody  war,  and  all  the  evils  which  the  march 
of  an  enemy  into  their  country  would  draw  after  it. 

We  direct  that  these  presents  be  read,  published,  and 
posted  up  in  the  usual  places. 

Done  and  given  at  headquarters.  New  York — signed 
with  our  hand — sealed  with  our  seal  at  arms,  and  counter- 
signed by  our  secretary,  this  30th  day  of  December,  1764. 

Thomas  Gage. 

After  the  publication  of  this  proclamation  St.  Ange  de  Belle- 
rive  the  French  commandant  with  twenty-one  faithful,  sad  faced 
French  soldiers  marched  out  of  Kaskaskia  to  a  new  village  across 
the  Mississippi  from  Cahokia,  now  known  by  the  name  of  St. 
Louis.  About  one-third  of  the  French  population  left  Illinois 
within  a  short  time  thereafter  for  St.  Louis,  St.  Marys,  Cape 
Girardeau  or  New  Orleans. 


106  ILLINOIS 

Captain  Neyon  de  Villiers,  the  last  surviving  of  seven 
brothers  who  had  given  their  lives  for  France,  had  left  for 
New  Orleans  about  a  year  before  the  English  took  possession. 
Incidentally  after  the  signing  of  the  treaty  of  Paris  in  1763 
the  British  government  was  confronted  with  the  problem  of 
how  to  manage  and  control  its  newly  acquired  property  in  the 
Northwest  or  Mississippi  Valley  east  of  the  great  river.  The 
French  had  lost  out  in  the  game  of  war.  The  Indian  tribes 
were  in  possession  of  most  of  the  western  forts  and  trading 
posts  and  besieging  the  three  forts  still  garrisoned  by  British 
troops;  Virginia,  Massachusetts  and  the  English  colonies  were 
claiming  territorial  rights  to  the  western  lands  under  their 
original  charters;  and  the  colonists  and  speculators  from  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  Virginia  and  other  colonies  were  crossing 
the  Alleghanies  and  reckless  of  the  sovereign  rights  of  nations 
were  claiming  squatter  rights,  rights  obtained  from  Indian 
tribes  and  rights  obtained  from  Colonial  governors  to  the  lands 
north  of  the  Ohio  and  east  of  the  Mississippi. 


CHAPTER  X 

PART  PLAYED  BY  ILLINOIS  IN  THE  REVOLUTIONARY 

WAR 

It  does  not  seem  to  be  generally  understood  that  Illinois 
played  quite  an  important  part  in  bringing"  about  the  War  of 
the  Revolution,  but  also  a  very  important  part  in  framing  the 
terms  of  the  treaty  of  peace  between  Great  Britain  and  the 
American  colonies.  By  this  I  do  not  mean  that  the  soldiers 
of  Illinois  participated  in  the  winning  battles  of  the  Revolution 
or  that  the  statesmen  or  diplomats  of  Illinois  participated  in 
the  conferences  which  framed  the  terms  of  the  peace  treaty. 
I  mean  that  the  Illinois  Country,  by  reason  of  its  location,  by 
reason  of  its  past  association  with  New  France  or  Canada  and 
Louisiana,  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  its  white  inhabitants  were 
of  French  blood,  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  these  inhabitants 
were  bitterly  opposed  to  British  rule  and  on  friendly  terms  with 
the  Indians  who  were  also  bitter  enemies  of  the  English,  and 
above  all  by  reason  of  its  laws  and  government  or  rather  lack 
of  law  and  government,  immediately  before  the  outbreak  of  the 
revolution,  made  it  one  of  the  causes  of  the  Revolution  and 
made  it  one  of  the  most  material  elements  to  be  considered  in 
drawing  up  the  terms  of  the  treaty  of  peace. 

Ask  the  ordinary  American  citizen  today  what  brought  about 
the  American  revolt  against  British  rule,  and  he  will  answer, 
"Taxation  without  representation.''  The  answer  is  correct,  if 
it  be  stated  as  the  main  cause.  But  it  is  incorrect  if  it  be  claimed 
as  the  sole  cause.  If  it  was  the  sole  cause,  the  triumphant  col- 
onists in  framing  the  treaty  of  peace  would  have  been  concerned 
only  about  themselves  and  their  territory.  The  colonies  held 
no  legal  title  to  any  land  north  of  the  Ohio  and  west  of  Penn- 
sylvania. 

France  had  held  possession  of,  and  according  to  international 
policy  had  title  to,  all  this  territory  by  right  of  discovery  and 

107 


108  ILLINOIS 

occupancy  for  over  100  years,  until  by  the  treaty  of  Paris  in 
1763,  she  ceded  the  same  to  Great  Britain.  The  Declaration 
of  Independence  itself  recognizes  that  the  country  north  of  the 
Ohio  was  a  British  province  and  makes  no  claim  that  it  belonged 
to  the  colonies,  but  complains  that  the  British  king  was  "abolish- 
ing the  free  system  of  English  laws  in  a  neighboring  province, 
establishing  therein  an  arbitrary  government,  and  enlarging 
its  boundaries  so  as  to  render  it  at  once  an  example  and  fit 
instrument  for  introducing  the  same  absolute  rule  into  these 
colonies. "  (Declaration  of  Independence,  1776.)  The  war  at 
its  inception  was  a  war  for  independence  of  the  thirteen  colonies, 
and  not  a  war  of  conquest.  A  remarkable  occurrence  which  took 
place  in  the  French  settlements  in  Illinois,  two  years  after  the 
declaration  of  independence,  changed  the  whole  nature  of  the 
war.  It  was  an  episode  during  the  War  of  the  Revolution  par- 
ticipated in  by  153  men  without  firing  a  shot  or  shedding  a  drop 
of  blood,  which  at  the  time  attracted  little  attention;  but  which 
was  pregnant  with  more  tremendous  results  than  most  of  the 
great  battles  of  history.  Let  us  go  back  and  examine  the  situ- 
ation in  Southern  Illinois  as  it  existed  in  the  spring  of  1778. 

There  were  living  at  that  time  in  the  villages  of  Kaskaskia, 
Cahokia,  Prairie  du  Rocher,  and  a  few  smaller  settlements, 
between  2,000  and  3,000  men,  women  and  children  of  French 
parentage  and  language,  of  whom  a  considerable  number  were 
the  half  breed  children  of  a  French  father  and  an  Indian  mother. 
French  law  which  they  understood  and  obeyed,  had  been  abol- 
ished with  French  sovereignty  in  1763.  British  officers  with 
British  garrisons  in  Fort  Chartres  and  Fort  Gage,  without  any 
civil  law  being  enacted  or  proclaimed,  had  for  ten  or  twelve 
years  over-awed  and  abused  them.  They  were  without  a  remedy 
for  any  injury  done  them.  They  had  petitioned  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  some  sort  of  civil  government  and  had  sent  delegates 
to  General  Gage  to  secure  same,  without  avail.  The  British 
government  had,  after  the  treaty  of  Paris,  when  it  took  pos- 
session of  the  French  territory,  created  three  provinces,  one 
called  Quebec,  covering  Canada,  and  two  others,  covering  East 
and  West  Florida;  and  had  formulated  and  proclaimed  certain 
laws  and  ordinances  for  those  provinces.     The  French  villages 


ILLINOIS  109 

of  Southern  Illinois  were  so  obscure,  or  deemed  of  so  little 
importance,  that  the  lawmaking  body  of  Great  Britain  failed 
to  enact  or  promulgate  any  kind  of  law,  civil  or  criminal,  to 
govern  these  law-forgotten  subjects  of  the  British  crown.  This 
was  the  situation  down  to  1774  or  1775  when  the  law  makers 
of  Great  Britain  formulated  and  proclaimed,  with  other  acts 
relating  to  the  American  colonies,  the  so-called  Quebec  Act. 
This  act  extended  for  the  first  time  the  laws  governing  the 
Province  of  Quebec  to  the  Illinois  country  and  made  that  country 
a  part  of  the  Province  of  Quebec. 

The  act  governing  Canada  and  the  Illinois  country,  provided 
among  other  things,  that  the  governor  should  have  a  council 
of  not  less  than  seventeen,  nor  more  than  twenty-three  persons. 
The  governor  and  the  council  were  the  law-making  power  so 
far  as  law-making  was  permitted.  All  laws  or  ordinances 
passed  by  the  governor  and  council  had  to  be  submitted  to  and 
approved  of  by  the  king.  This  law  making  body  was  not  per- 
mitted to  levy  any  taxes  or  make  any  law  concerning  religion. 
The  British  government  in  the  organic  law  establishing  the 
Province  of  Quebec  had  guaranteed  the  "enjoyment  of  the 
Religion  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  subject  to  the  King's  Suprem- 
acy^ and  enacted  that  the  British  criminal  law  should  be  the 
supreme  law  of  the  province. 

The  inhabitants  who  professed  the  Catholic  religion, — as 
nearly  all  of  them  did, — were  not  required  to  take  the  oath  of 
religious  supremacy,  but  were  required  to  swear  allegiance  to 
the  British  king.  Now  the  passage  of  some  sort  of  British 
law,  or  ordinance  to  govern,  guide  and  protect  these  French 
speaking  subjects  in  the  Illinois  country,  had  been  under  con- 
sideration by  the  British  authorities  in  London  for  some  years 
prior  to  that  time. 

Whether  the  Royal  territory  north  of  the  Ohio  acquired 
by  the  British  crown  from  the  French  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris 
in  1763  should;  by  reason  of  Indian  hostilities  displayed  in  the 
Pontiac  war,  and  the  bitterness  still  rankling  in  Indian  breasts, 
be  reserved  in  whole,  or  in  part  for  Indian  hunting  grounds, 
or  be  thrown  open  to  settlers,  or  whether  a  mediary  policy  should 
be  adopted,  reserving  part  for  settlement  and  part  for  Indian 


110  ILLINOIS 

occupation;  with  a  no-mans-land  between  to  keep  the  settlers 
and  savages  apart,  had  never  been  definitely  determined  by  the 
law-making  Moguls  in  London. 

Many  influential  persons  both  in  England  and  the  colonies, 
including  the  Earl  of  Dunmore,  the  last  of  the  British  governors 
of  Virginia,  favored  the  throwing  open  of  these  rich  lands  to 
settlers  and  speculators.  Lord  Dunmore  had  the  temerity  to 
issue  warrants  granting  lands  north  of  the  Ohio  to  certain 
grantees  without  any  authority  from  Great  Britain  so  to  do. 
He  was  notoriously  using  his  office  unlawfully  for  self 
enrichment. 

As  early  as  1748,  Thomas  Lee,  a  member  of  the  King's 
Council  in  Virginia  and  a  Mr.  Hamburg,  a  rich  and  powerful 
merchant  in  London,  organized  the  Ohio  Land  Company,  com- 
posed of  fourteen  to  sixteen  persons  including  Governor  Din- 
widdie  and  Lawrence  and  Augustus  Washington,  brothers  of 
George  Washington,  and  secured  from  the  king  a  grant  of  half 
a  million  acres  along  the  Ohio,  and  the  exclusive  right  of  trading 
with  the  Indians  in  the  Ohio  district.  This  company  established 
trading  stations  on  the  Alleghany,  north  of  what  is  now  Pitts- 
burgh and  Logstown  on  the  Ohio,  eighteen  miles  south  of 
Pittsburgh. 

In  1750,  Governor  Hamilton  of  Pennsylvania  received  a  letter 
from  Louis  Celeron,  agent  of  the  Canadian  governor  dated  from 
"a  camp  on  the  river  Ohio  at  an  old  Shawnee  village"  in  which 
he  expressed  his  surprise,  at  finding  English  traders  from  Penn- 
sylvania in  a  country  to  which  England  had  never  made  any 
claim,  and  requesting  Governor  Hamilton  to  advise  his  people 
to  refrain  from  trespassing  on  the  territory  of  France. 

About  this  time,  the  Canadian  governor  wrote  letters  to  the 
governors  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  warning  them  that 
English  traders  in  the  Ohio  district  would  be  arrested  and  held 
as  trespassers.  Later  on,  after  the  English  had  taken  possession 
of  the  Ohio  Valley  from  the  French,  the  British  king,  George  III., 
himself  took  notice  of  the  unlawful  settlements  in  the  valley 
in  a  letter  he  wrote  to  John  Penn,  Lieutenant  Governer  of  Penn- 
sylvania, dated  October  24,  1765,  which  reads  as  follows: 


ILLINOIS  111 

Whereas  it  hath  been  represented  unto  us  that  several 
persons  from  Pennsylvania  and  the  back  settlements  of 
Virginia  have  migrated  westward  of  the  Alleghany  moun- 
tains, and  these  have  seated  themselves  on  lands  contiguous 
to  the  River  Ohio,  in  express  disobedience  to  our  Royal 
Proclamation  of  October,  1763,  it  is  therefore  our  will  and 
pleasure,  and  you  are  hereby  strictly  enjoined  and  required 
to  use  your  best  endeavors  to  suppress  such  unwarrantable 
proceedings,  and  to  put  a  stop  to  these  and  other  like 
encroachments  for  the  future,  by  causing  all  persons  belong- 
ing to  the  province  under  your  government  who  have  thus 
irregularly  seated  themselves  on  lands  to  the  westward  of 
the  Alleghanies  immediately  to  evacuate  those  settlements, 
and  that  you  do  enforce  as  far  as  you  are  able,  a  more 
strict  obedience  to  our  commands  signified  in  Our  Said 
Royal  Proclamation,  and  provide  against  any  future  viola- 
tion thereof. 

While  many  influential  men  and  interests  favored  the  throw- 
ing open  of  these  lands  to  settlers,  other  influential  advisers  of 
the  King  favored  appeasing  and  pacifying  the  Indians,  by  re- 
serving part  or  all  of  the  territory  north  of  the  Ohio  and  east 
of  the  Mississippi  as  hunting  grounds  for  the  Indians,  subject 
to  their  tribal  customs  and  regulations  and  the  King's 
sovereignty.  As  the  result  of  these  conflicting  counsels,  the  law- 
making powers  of  Great  Britain  arrived  at  no  conclusion;  and 
proclaimed  no  law  for  this  territory  until  1774  or  1775,  when 
they  passed  the  Quebec  Act.  This  act  gave  the  French  settlers 
in  Southern  Illinois  the  first  code  of  laws  that  they  had  since 
1763.  This  law  was  passed  solely  for  the  purpose  of  creating 
some  sort  of  a  code  of  government  and  civil  and  criminal  law 
that  would  apply  to  these  French  residents  of  Illinois  who  were 
living  in  a  state  of  anarchy. 

It  neither  expressly  declared  for  Indian  reservations,  nor 
for  colonial  settlement,  leaving  the  matter  open  for  future  con- 
sideration. But  by  passing  any  kind  of  a  law  for  the  territory, 
it  again  affirmed  the  sovereignty  of  the  Crown  over  the  district. 
But,  unfortunately  for  the  British  crown,  this  rather  anaemic 
law  was  promulgated  with,  and  about  the  same  time  that,  four 
other  very  tyrannical  and  unjust  laws  directly  applicable  to 


112  ILLINOIS 

the  thirteen  colonies  and  Massachusetts  in  particular  were  pro- 
claimed. 

These  four  laws  were  popularly  called : 

1st.  The  Boston  Port  Bill. 
2nd.     The  Regulating  Act. 

3rd.  The  Transportation  Act. 

4th.  The  Quartering  Act. 

A  short  statement  of  the  effect  of  these  laws  will  enable  us 
to  understand  why  the  American  colonists  were  filled  with  rage 
and  indignation,  and  why  the  Quebec  Act  coming  at  the  same 
time  was  believed  to  be  inspired  by  hatred  of,  and  tyranny 
towards,  the  colonists. 

The  Boston  Port  Bill  closed  the  port  of  Boston  to  all  com- 
merce and  removed  the  seat  of  government  to  Salem  until  that 
city  indemnified  the  owners  for  £15,000  worth  of  tea,  thrown 
overboard  in  Boston  harbor,  and  indemnified  the  government 
custom  officials  for  damages  done  by  mobs  in  1773  and  1774. 
It  further  made  Marblehead  the  port  of  entry,  in  place  of  Boston. 

The  Regulating  Act  annulled  the  liberal  charter  then  held 
by  Massachusetts  and  practically  abolished  self-government.  It 
provided  that  the  executive  council  should  be  appointed  by  the 
Crown  instead  of  by  the  Assembly,  empowered  the  governor 
to  appoint  and  remove  all  judges  and  administrative  officers; 
made  the  judges*  salaries  payable  by  the  Crown  instead  of  the 
Legislature,  prohibited  all  town  meetings  except  those  approved 
by  the  governor  and  vested  the  selection  of  juries  in  sheriffs  in- 
stead of  the  people. 

The  Transportation  Act  provided  for  the  removal  to  Eng- 
land for  trial  of  any  case  against  a  royal  official  (including 
soldiers)  charged  with  crime,  which  would  have  enabled  any 
British  official  to  commit  any  crime,  no  matter  how  murderous, 
and  laugh  at  prosecution. 

The  Quartering  Act  made  it  obligatory  upon  Massachusetts 
to  furnish  at  all  times  quarters  for  British  troops. 

Upon  the  promulgation  of  these  four  acts,  and  the  Quebec 
Act,  Boston  was  aflame  and  the  fire  soon  spread  to  all  the 
thirteen  colonies. 


ILLINOIS  113 

Because  it  accompanied  these  other  tyrannical  acts,  the  peo- 
ple argued  it  was  but  another  act  of  like  nature.  It  gave  an 
oligarchical,  undemocratic  law  to  a  neighboring  province  and 
it  recognized  and  legalized  the  exercise  of  the  Catholic  religion. 
Now,  in  and  around  Boston  there  were  many  descendants  and 
friends  of  the  original  Puritans  who  landed  at  Plymouth.  Their 
hardy  ancestors  regarded  Catholics  with  hatred  and  contempt 
and  prohibited  them  from  entering  Massachusetts.  The  habits, 
feelings  and  fanaticism  of  the  sires,  had  descended  to  many 
of  their  sons  and  grandsons.  The  official  recognition  in  the 
Quebec  Act  of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  was  a  shock  to  these 
inherited  antipathies.  The  tyrant  George  III,  using  this  as  a 
precedent,  they  argued,  might  soon  force  toleration  of  Roman 
Catholics  upon  them  and  their  children.  This  interpretation 
of  the  Quebec  Act  was  soon  spread  abroad  through  the  colony 
and  other  colonies.  The  Quebec  Act,  though  passed  to  affect 
only  persons  outside  of  the  thirteen  colonies,  was  to  be  used  as  a 
precedent  for  royal  acts  of  tyranny  against  the  American  col- 
onies. It  might  be  used  as  a  precedent  for  the  toleration  by  law 
of  Catholics  in  colonies  where  they  were  not  wanted. 

In  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  hereinbefore  quoted,  the 
passage  of  the  Quebec  Act  (not  by  name,  but  by  inference)  is 
mentioned  as  one  of  the  tyrannical  acts  of  the  British  King 
justifying  revolt  and  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

In  other  words,  the  promulgation  of  this  act,  which  directly 
affected  only  the  French  habitants  in  the  French  villages  in 
Southern  Illinois  and  in  the  Illinois  country  in  connection  with 
four  other  grossly  tyrannical  laws  at  an  inopportune  time, 
caused  it  to  be  construed, — and  it  was  so  construed, — as  a 
ground  for  revolution. 

Let  us  now  see  what  effect,  if  any,  the  people  in  the  Illinois 
country  had  upon  the  terms  of  peace. 

These  French  villages  in  southern  Illinois  were  about  half- 
way on  the  route  then  traveled  in  going  from  Quebec  to  New 
Orleans.  Fort  Chartres,  near  Kaskaskia,  was  about  the  middle 
link  in  a  chain  of  forts  between  these  two  cities,  all  in  posses- 
sion of  British  troops.  Kaskaskia  and  Cahokia  were  the  largest 
and  busiest  settlements  between  Detroit  and  New  Orleans.    They 


114  ILLINOIS 

were  occupied  almost  exclusively  by  Frenchmen,  their  wives  and 
children.  English  speaking  visitors  were  few  and  far  between. 
Traders  from  Philadelphia  and  the  East  occasionally  dropped 
in,  but  not  to  take  permanent  residence.  They  were  sojourners 
merely  for  business  purposes.  Whatever  nation  or  power  held 
possession  with  military  force  of  these  villages  and  their  pro- 
tecting forts,  Fort  Chartres  or  Fort  Gage,  could  prevent  the 
passage  of  both  military  and  trading  expeditions  between  Can- 
ada and  Louisiana. 

Both  troops  and  traders  in  that  age  used  the  waterways  for 
purposes  of  travel.  With  the  exception  of  a  portage  at  Niagara 
and  another  at  Chicago,  there  was  a  continuous  waterway  for  the 
canoes  and  barges  then  in  use,  from  Quebec  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  There  were  no  roadways  or  other  thoroughfares 
through  the  trackless  woods  and  prairies.  The  era  of  paved 
roads,  autos,  railroads  and  flying  machines  had  not  yet  arrived. 
All  traffic  had  to  and  did  take  to  the  waterways. 

Because  of  the  existence  of  this  splendid  course  of  water- 
ways covering  approximately  three  thousand  miles  from  Quebec 
to  New  Orleans,  the  French  had  been  able  to  discover,  and  dot 
with  little  trading  posts  and  forts  all  this  Mississippi  Valley  for 
over  one  hundred  years  before  the  English  trod  foot  upon  the 
same.  The  colonists  along  the  Atlantic  had  no  waterway  flow- 
ing westward.  Instead  of  favoring  waterways,  they  found  their 
way  towards  the  West  blocked  by  formidable  mountains.  The 
possession  of  these  waterways  made  it  easy  for  the  French  to 
anticipate  both  the  British  government  and  the  colonist  in  tak- 
ing possession  of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  Whichever  party  to 
the  struggle  between  Great  Britain  and  the  thirteen  colonies 
took  possession  of  Kaskaskia  and  Cahokia  and  their  protecting 
forts,  Fort  Chartres  and  Fort  Gage,  and  held  them  impregnably 
against  all  attack  until  the  end  of  the  war,  would  be  able,  by 
using  the  waterways  northward  and  southward  from  Kaskaskia, 
to  attack  and  reduce  hostile  forces  stationed  anywhere  along 
these  three  thousand  miles  of  waterways.  Moreover,  the  party  in 
possession  of  these  forts  and  villages  at  the  end  of  the  war 
would  be  in  a  position  to  dictate  the  terms  of  permanent  occu- 


ILLINOIS  115 

pation  and  sovereignty  of  all  the  Mississippi  Valley  east  of  the 
great  river. 

The  first  man  to  recognize  the  importance  of  the  possession 
of  these  French  villages  and  forts  in  Southern  Illinois  and  to 
conceive  a  plan  for  securing  their  possession  for  the  thirteen 
colonies  was  a  man  then  almost  unknown  to  fame,  but  whose 
daring  accomplishment  on  July  4th,  1778  has  made  his  name 
imperishable  in  American  history. 

We  will  devote  a  separate  chapter  (the  next)  to  a  recital 
of  the  dreams,  trials,  labors  and  glorious  achievements  of  this 
remarkably  able  and  daring  man,  George  Rogers  Clark. 


CHAPTER  XI 

GEORGE  ROGERS  CLARK  CAPTURES  KASKASKIA  AND 

VINCENNES 

Some  short  time  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolutionary 
war,  many  of  the  colonial  settlers,  particularly  from  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Virginia,  had  been  scaling  the  Alleghany  Mountains, 
built  up  a  village  in  what  is  now  Pittsburgh,  and  pushed  down 
the  Ohio  River  into  Kentucky.  For  a  time  they  paused  at  the 
Great  Kanawha,  the  limit  to  settlement  set  by  orders  from  Lon- 
don. But  soon  the  barrier  was  overstepped,  and  by  1773  Ameri- 
can settlements  were  springing  up  in  Western  Kentucky  and 
the  ground  platted  for  the  future  City  of  Louisville.  These 
settlements  were  largely  prompted  by  land  speculators  claiming 
under  illegal  grants  from  Lord  Dunmore  and  Indian  tribes. 

Across  the  Ohio  River  from  these  Kentucky  settlements  was 
the  territory  which  by  the  Quebec  Act  was  declared  to  be  part 
of  the  Quebec  Province.  The  colonies  could  make  no  valid  claim 
to  this  territory,  and  but  very  few  American  colonists  had  set- 
tled therein. 

Without  any  disturbance  from  white  settlers  or  speculators, 
the  Indian  tribes  roamed  and  hunted  throughout  these  lands  at 
will,  trading  with  French  habitants  at  Kaskaskia,  Cahokia,  Peo- 
ria, Mackinac  and  Detroit  rather  than  with  English  speaking 
traders  at  Pittsburgh.  The  flourishing  Village  of  Detroit,  how- 
ever, was  occupied  by  a  formidable  British  garrison  under  the 
command  of  Lieutenant  Governor  Henry  Hamilton.  From  this 
point,  early  in  the  Revolutionary  war,  a  plan  was  seriously  con- 
sidered to  attack  with  British  troops  and  Indian  allies,  the 
Americans  at  Pittsburgh,  and  if  successful  there,  to  join  forces 
with  Lord  Dunmore  and  his  forces  at  Alexandria.  This  scheme 
failed  of  accomplishment  for  lack  of  British  troops  in  the  West. 
The  Indians  north  of  the  Ohio,  however,  were  greatly  incensed 

116 


General  George  Rogers  Clark 


118  ILLINOIS 

at  the  conduct  of  the  American  settlers  in  Kentucky  south  of 
the  Ohio.  They  saw  these  settlers  in  defiance  of  royal  decrees 
and  the  treaties  made  by  the  Indians  with  the  British  authori- 
ties, appropriating  the  lands  claimed  by  them,  without  leave 
or  license. 

Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton  knew  of  these  feelings  of 
resentment  among  the  Indians.  He  nursed  these  bitter  feelings, 
loaded  the  Indian  chiefs  with  presents,  and  incited  them  to 
resent  their  wrongs  by  ambuscades  and  night  attacks  upon  the 
American  settlements  south  of  the  Ohio,  in  the  manner  usual 
to  Indian  warfare.  He  is  charged,  and  probably  truthfully, 
with  offering  rewards  to  the  Indians  for  the  scalps  of  white 
men  brought  to  him  in  Detroit.  His  memory  is  perpetuated  in 
history  under  the  name  of  "Hamilton,  the  hair-buyer." 

Housed  into  action  by  the  wrongs  that  they  had  been  suffer- 
ing at  the  hands  of  these  American  settlers  in  Kentucky,  and 
undoubtedly  furnished  with  guns,  ammunition,  knives  and  other 
implements  of  warfare  by  Hamilton,  the  Indians  opened  hostili- 
ties south  of  the  Ohio.  The  murder  of  a  friendly  Shawnee 
chief  named  Cornstalk  by  some  Kentucky  settlers  at  Fort  Ran- 
dolph, was  the  immediate  incentive  to  these  attacks.  The  Shaw- 
nee tribe,  which  up  to  that  time  was  neutral,  upon  the  murder 
of  their  chief,  led  the  assaults  upon  the  white  settlers,  spreading 
terror  and  bloodshed  throughout  Kentucky. 

George  Rogers  Clark  now  appears  upon  the  scene.  At  this 
juncture,  June,  1776,  he  was  at  Harrodsburg,  Kentucky,  in  at- 
tendance at  a  meeting  of  settlers  called  to  organize  the  people 
both  for  protection  from  exploitation  by  land  adventurers  and 
assaults  from  the  Indians.  He  was  then  about  twenty-six  years 
of  age,  and  was  possessed  of  great  courage  and  a  commanding 
presence.  It  is  claimed  that  he  bore  a  remarkable  likeness  to 
George  Washington  and  was  very  proud  of  the  resemblance. 
His  portrait  as  painted  by  Jonett,  a  photograph  of  which  is 
published  in  Alvord's  History  of  Illinois,  page  324,  bears  out  the 
claim  of  resemblance  between  Washington  and  Clark.  He  had 
been  engaged  in  vigorous  pioneering  for  some  years  prior  to  this 
time,  and  had  considerable  experience  as  a  surveyor.  He  had 
explored  the  country  as  far  west  as  the  Great  Kanawha  in  1772, 


ILLINOIS  119 

served  in  the  war  against  the  Shawnees,  and  in  the  Dunmore 
war  against  the  Iroquois. 

At  this  Harrodsburg  meeting,  he  was  appointed  one  of  the 
two  commissioners  to  present  to  the  Virginia  Legislature  a  peti- 
tion from  the  Kentucky  settlers  for  protection  from  the  Indian 
attacks.  When  he  reached  the  Virginia  State  capitol,  the  Legis- 
lature had  adjourned.  In  no  way  discouraged,  Clark  found  out 
that  the  governor,  Patrick  Henry,  was  sick  at  home  in  Han- 
over, and  Clark  sought  out  and  secured  an  interview  with  him. 
Governor  Henry  from  his  sick  bed  referred  the  matter  to  his 
council,  which  ordered  that  five  hundred  pounds  of  powder  be 
sent  by  the  State  of  Virginia  to  Fort  Pitt  and  thence  down  the 
Ohio  to  places  convenient  for  the  settlers  in  Kentucky. 

When  the  Legislature  re-convened,  Clark  and  his  colleague 
attended  same  and  were  favorably  treated  by  that  body.  The 
Legislature,  at  their  request,  passed  a  law  declaring  Kentucky 
to  be  a  county  of  Virginia,  and  making  provision  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  County  of  Kentucky. 

When  Clark  returned  to  Kentucky  in  the  spring  of  1776,  he 
was  thoroughly  convinced  that  the  Indian  assaults  upon  the 
Kentucky  settlers  were  instigated  by  the  British  commanders 
in  Detroit,  Vincennes,  Kaskaskia  and  other  forts  in  the  Quebec 
Province.  He  had  information  to  that  effect  from  a  man  named 
Bentley,  living  in  Kaskaskia.  To  gain  further  reliable  infor- 
mation, he  sent  two  men  he  trusted  implicitly  to  Kaskaskia. 

They  promptly  on  their  return  reported  to  Clark,  in  the  fall 
of  1776,  in  substance  as  follows : 

First.  That  the  commanding  officers  of  the  British  forts 
in  the  Northwest  were  largely  responsible  for  the  Indian  attacks 
upon  the  people  in  Kentucky. 

Second.  That  the  French  inhabitants  of  all  the  French  vil- 
lages were,  on  the  whole,  quite  friendly  and  sympathetic  with 
the  American  cause. 

Third.  That  in  most  of  the  French  villages  along  the  Wa- 
bash and  the  Mississippi  rivers,  there  were  well  organized  and 
well  trained  militiamen. 

After  hearing  these  reports  confirming  the  information  he 
had  obtained  from  Bentley,  Clark  left  Kentucky  to  call  upon 


120  ILLINOIS 

the  governor  of  Virginia.  His  design  was  to  procure  a  com- 
mission as  an  officer  of  the  Virginia  army  and  to  organize  an 
army  of  several  hundred  men  to  invade  the  Illinois  country 
for  the  purpose  of  overcoming  the  British  garrisons  in  Kas- 
kaskia,  Cahokia,  Vincennes,  and  probably  other  English  forts 
in  that  territory. 

He  laid  his  plans  before  Governor  Patrick  Henry,  who  at 
first  was  undecided.  The  governor  finally  authorized  him,  after 
many  secret  conferences  with  his  council,  to  raise  and  equip 
seven  companies  of  soldiers  of  fifty  men  in  each  company.  The 
conferences  and  the  authorization  were  secret  and  were  not 
submitted  to  the  Legislature  for  its  approval,  lest  it  should 
become  public.  The  governor  and  his  council  further  agreed  to 
provide  six  thousand  pounds  British  money  for  the  financing 
of  the  enterprise,  and  promised  that  the  Legislature  would  after- 
wards be  asked  to  grant  each  soldier  who  volunteered  and  took 
part  in  the  campaign  three  hundred  acres  of  land  in  the  new 
territory,  and  that  the  soldiers  should  receive  even  greater 
compensation.  In  pursuance  of  this  plan,  the  governor  handed 
to  Clark  two  letters  of  authorization.  One  of  these  letters  de- 
clared that  the  purpose  of  the  campaign  was  to  provide  for  the 
defense  of  the  Kentucky  people  against  Indian  outrages.  The 
other  letter,  which  was  to  be  kept  secret,  showed  the  real  pur- 
pose of  the  campaign.  The  public  letter,  as  contained  in  Smith's 
very  able  and  industrious  history,  is  as  follows: 

Lieutenant  Colonel  George  Rogers  Clark:  You  are  to 
proceed,  without  loss  of  time,  to  enlist  seven  companies  of 
men,  officered  in  the  usual  manner,  to  act  as  a  militia  under 
your  orders.  They  are  to  proceed  to  Kentucky,  and  there 
to  obey  such  orders  and  directions  as  you  shall  give  them, 
for  three  months  after  their  arrival  at  that  place;  but  to 
receive  pay,  etc.,  in  case  they  remain  on  duty  a  longer 
time. 

You  are  empowered  to  raise  these  men  in  any  county 
in  the  commonwealth;  and  the  county  lieutenants,  respec- 
tively, are  requested  to  give  you  all  possible  assistance  in 
that  business. 

Given  under  my  hand  at  Williamsburg,  January  2nd, 
1788. 

P.  Henry. 


ILLINOIS  121 

Private  Instructions. 

Virginia  in  Council,  Williamsburg,  January  2d,  1778. 
Lieutenant  Colonel  George  Rogers  Clark :  You  are  to  pro- 
ceed with  all  convenient  speed  to  raise  seven  companies  of 
soldiers,  to  consist  of  fifty  men  each,  officered  in  the  usual 
manner,  and  armed  most  properly  for  the  enterprise;  and 
with  this  force  attack  the  British  fort  at  Kaskaskia. 

It  is  conjectured  there  are  many  pieces  of  cannon  and 
stores  of  considerable  amount,  at  that  place,  the  taking  and 
preservation  of  which  would  be  a  valuable  acquisition  to 
the  state.  If  you  are  so  fortunate,  therefore,  as  to  succeed 
in  your  expedition,  you  will  take  every  possible  measure 
to  secure  the  artillery  and  stores,  and  whatever  may  ad- 
vantage the  state. 

For  the  transportation  of  the  troops,  provisions,  etc., 
down  the  Ohio,  you  are  to  apply  to  the  commanding  officer 
at  Fort  Pitt  for  boats;  and  during  the  whole  transaction 
you  are  to  take  especial  care  to  keep  the  true  destination  of 
your  force  secret, — its  success  depends  upon  this.  Orders 
are  therefore  given  to  secure  the  two  men  from  Kaskaskia. 
Similar  conduct  will  be  proper  in  similar  cases. 

It  is  earnestly  desired  that  you  show  humanity  to  such 
British  subjects  and  other  persons  as  fall  in  your  hands. 
If  the  white  inhabitants  of  that  post  and  the  neighborhood 
will  give  undoubted  evidence  of  their  attachment  to  this 
state  (for  it  is  certain  they  live  within  its  limits),  by 
taking  the  test  prescribed  by  law,  and  by  every  other  way 
and  means  in  their  power,  let  them  be  treated  as  fellow  cit- 
izens, and  their  person  and  property  duly  secured.  Assist- 
ance and  protection  against  all  enemies  whatever,  shall  be 
afforded  them,  and  the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia  is 
pledged  to  accomplish  it.  But  if  these  people  will  not  ac- 
cede to  these  reasonable  demands,  they  must  feel  the  mis- 
eries of  war,  under  the  direction  of  that  humanity  that  has 
hitherto  distinguished  Americans,  and  which  it  is  expected 
you  will  ever  consider  the  rule  of  your  conduct,  and  from 
which  you  are  in  no  instance  to  depart. 

The  corps  you  are  to  command  are  to  receive  the  pay 
and  allowance  of  militia  and  to  act  under  the  laws  and 
regulations  of  this  state  now  in  force,  as  militia.  The  in- 
habitants of  this  post  will  be  informed  by  you,  that  in  case 
they  acceded  to  the  offers  of  becoming  citizens  of  this 
commonwealth,  a  proper  garrison  will  be  maintained  among 
them,  and  every  attention  bestowed  to  render  their  com- 


122  ILLINOIS 

merce  beneficial,  the  fairest  prospects  being  opened  to  the 
dominions  of  France  and  Spain. 

It  is  in  contemplation  to  establish  a  post  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Ohio.  Cannon  will  be  wanted  to  fortify  it. 
Part  of  those  at  Kaskaskia  will  be  easily  brought  thither, 
or  otherwise  secured,  as  circumstances  will  make  necessary. 

You  are  to  apply  to  General  Hand  for  powder  and  lead 
necessary  for  this  expedition.  If  he  can't  supply  it,  the 
person  who  has  that  brought  from  Orleans  can.  Lead  was 
sent  to  Hampshire,  by  my  orders,  and  that  may  be  delivered 
to  you. 

Wishing  you  succeed, 

I  am,  Sir, 

Your  humble  servant, 

P.  Henry. 

Upon  receipt  of  these  two  letters  of  authorization,  Clark 
proceeded  to  recruit  his  troops.  Two  officers  that  he  appointed 
were  instructed  to  bring  their  recruits  to  Fort  Pitt.  Others 
were  directed  to  meet  him  on  the  Ohio  River  in  Kentucky.  Going 
to  Fort  Pitt,  he  gathered  together  the  men  there  assembled,  and 
obtained  boats,  provisions,  ammunition  and  fire-arms.  Finding 
some  opposition  to  his  enterprise  at  that  fort,  he  did  not  at- 
tempt there  to  do  more  than  secure  the  supplies  which  were 
ordered  to  be  given  him  by  Governor  Henry.  He  sent  word 
to  all  the  recruits  to  meet  him  at  Corn  Island,  opposite  the 
present  City  of  Louisville.  When  the  troops  were  gathered  at 
that  place,  a  conference  was  held  betwen  himself  and  his  officers, 
and  it  was  agreed  that  the  settlements  in  Kentucky  should  not 
be  left  unprotected  and  some  of  the  troops  were  ordered  to 
return  to  these  settlements  to  protect  them.  Finally,  153  men 
were  assembled,  ready  for  the  descent  on  the  Ohio  to  Illinois. 

Clark  then  explained  to  these  men  the  final  purpose  of  the 
expedition.  He  appointed  four  captains,  Bowman,  Helm,  Har- 
rod  and  Montgomery,  to  take  command  of  each  of  the  four  com- 
panies. They  left  Corn  Island  on  the  24th  of  June,  1778,  and 
were  shortly  afterward  overtaken  by  a  message  from  the  com- 
mander at  Fort  Pitt,  who  brought  most  agreeable  news,  to-wit, 
that  France  had  entered  into  a  treaty  of  alliance  with  the 
United  States  and  had  agreed  to  send  money,  men  and  ships 


ILLINOIS  123 

to  assist  the  colonists.     At  first  Clark  was   undecided  as  to 
whether  he  should  attack  the  fort  at  Vincennes  or  Kaskaskia. 

Vincennes  was  a  larger  fort  and  had  more  troops,  which  made 
it  more  difficult  of  capture.  In  addition,  if  he  were  defeated, 
he  would  have  a  hard  time  to  retreat  in  safety.  He  finally 
reached  the  conclusion  that  the  Illinois  settlements  were  more 
scattered  and  could  be  overcome  one  at  a  time  more  easily,  and 
that  in  case  of  failure  he  would  be  able  to  retreat  across  the 
Mississippi  into  Spanish  territory  in  St.  Louis. 

At  the  mouth  of  the  Tennessee  River,  Clark  met  a  hunter 
named  John  Duff,  who  reported  to  him  that  he  had  been  re- 
cently in  Kaskaskia,  and  that  there  were  no  British  soldiers  at 
either  Kaskaskia  or  Vincennes.  He  further  reported  that  a 
Frenchman,  Chevalier  de  Rocheblanc,  was  the  commander  at 
Kaskaskia;  that  he  had  no  troops  excepting  the  militia.  Duff 
and  his  companions  offered  to  accompany  Clark  and  act  as 
guides.  With  these  guides,  Clark  moved  down  the  Ohio  to  Fort 
Massac.  Here  he  hid  his  boats  and  on  June  29,  1778,  began  the 
journey  overland  from  that  point  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles 
to  Kaskaskia.  His  men  carried  four  days'  rations.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  the  4th  of  July,  they  arrived  at  a  point  within  twelve 
miles  of  Kaskaskia.  They  were  utterly  without  provisions,  and 
dared  not  kill  game,  lest  they  should  be  discovered.  On  the 
4th  of  July  at  night  they  arrived  within  a  few  miles  of  Kas- 
kaskia. There  they  learned  that  the  residents  a  few  days  be- 
fore were  under  arms  but  had  disbanded;  that  the  Indians  had 
left  Kaskaskia  and  that  all  was  quiet  in  the  village.  That  night 
Clark  secured  boats  and  transported  his  little  army  across  the 
Kaskaskia  River  to  the  west  side  of  that  river.  Disembarking 
on  the  west  side  of  the  river,  he  marched  his  little  army  to  the 
edge  of  the  town,  where  he  divided  it  into  two  parts.  With 
one,  he  marched  to  the  south  side  of  the  town,  where  the  com- 
mander, Rocheblanc,  was  quartered.  He  was  in  a  building 
surrounded  by  a  stockade,  but  it  was  in  bad  need  of  repairs 
and  the  Kentuckians  had  no  trouble  in  entering.  After  entering 
the  stockade,  they  seized  Rocheblanc  and  the  rest  of  the  army 
went  into  the  streets  and  directed  the  townspeople  to  remain 
within  their  homes.     The  next  morning  the  people  were  dis- 


124  ILLINOIS 

armed.  Father  Gibault,  the  Catholic  priest  in  charge  of  the 
villages  at  Kaskaskia  and  Vincennes,  was  left  in  Kaskaskia,  and 
with  a  few  of  the  most  prominent  citizens  of  the  town  he  called 
upon  Clark  to  ask  if  they  might  have  religious  services  in  the 
church.  Clark  consented,  and  at  the  close  of  the  services,  Father 
Gibault  again  called  upon  Clark  and  asked  that  the  prisoners 
might  be  treated  leniently  and  allowed  to  retain  their  personal 
belongings.  To  him  Clark  explained  that  the  King  of  France 
had  entered  into  a  treaty  of  alliance  with  the  American  colonies, 
and  that  it  would  be  entirely  just  and  proper  for  the  French 
colonists  in  the  Illinois  country  to  ally  themselves  with  the  allies 
of  the  French  king.  He  further  explained  that  in  order  to  prove 
that  he  was  speaking  the  truth,  that  he  would  release  all  the 
French  prisoners,  whereupon  there  was  great  demonstration  of 
joy  and  happiness  among  those  who  feared  the  worst.  The 
church  bell  was  rung,  and  thanks  were  given  to  God  for  the 
happy  deliverance. 

Clark  then  issued  a  proclamation  which  was  to  be  read  in 
the  village.  Father  Gibault  was  very  instrumental  in  persuad- 
ing the  French  inhabitants  to  become  friendly  to  the  American 
cause.  The  commander,  Rocheblanc,  however,  was  made  pris- 
oner and  sent  to  Williamsburg,  Virginia,  as  a  prisoner  of  war. 

After  administering  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  inhab- 
itants of  Kaskaskia,  Clark  took  steps  to  capture  Cahokia.  Many 
French  inhabitants  of  Kaskaskia  volunteered  to  assist  him,  and 
he  ordered  that  the  guns  and  ammunition  should  be  returned 
to  the  friendly  French  citizens.  A  company  of  French  volun- 
teers was  organized,  which  was  accepted  by  him  as  a  part  of 
the  force  sent  to  capture  Cahokia.  On  their  arrival  at  Cahokia, 
they  found  little  trouble  in  persuading  the  French  inhabitants 
to  become  friendly  to  the  American  cause.  The  post  surrendered 
without  a  struggle,  and  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Virginia  was 
administered  to  all  its  citizens. 

At  the  time  that  Clark  took  possession  of  Kaskaskia,  the 
wealthiest  citizen  was  a  Frenchman  named  Cere,  who  was  sus- 
pected of  having  assisted  the  English  officers  in  instigating 
the  Indian  attacks  upon  the  Kentucky  settlements.  Cere  was 
at  that  time  temporarily  in  St.  Louis.    However,  he  voluntarily 


Father  Gibault 

French  priest  at  Kaskaskia  and  Vincennes  at  time  of  George  Rogers  Clark's 

Conquest 

From  a  crayon  owned  by  Col.  R.  T.  Durret,  of  Louisville 


126  ILLINOIS 

crossed  the  river  and  had  an  interview  with  Colonel  Clark,  the 
result  of  which  was  that  Clark  became  convinced  of  his  inno- 
cence. Cere  voluntarily  became  an  American  citizen,  and  took 
the  oath  of  allegiance  and  pledged  loyalty  to  the  American 
cause. 

After  he  had  taken  possession  of  Cahokia,  Clark  sent  for 
Father  Gibault,  and  talked  with  him  about  the  projected  capture 
of  Vincennes.  Father  Gibault  had  recently  been  in  Vincennes, 
and  knew  the  situation  at  that  point.  He  explained  to  Clark 
that  Governor  Abbott  of  Canada  had  left  Vincennes,  and  that 
there  were  no  British  troops  there,  and  that  only  the  local  mi- 
litia were  in  charge  of  the  fort  and  its  supplies.  He,  Father 
Gibault,  promised  to  go  to  Vincennes,  and  advise  the  citizens 
to  transfer  their  allegiance  from  the  British  government  to 
Virginia,  whereupon  Clark  sent  Father  Gibault,  accompanied 
with  two  reliable  friends  of  Clark,  to  Vincennes  to  ascertain 
what  could  be  done  in  the  way  of  its  capture.  This  was  easily 
accomplished.  Father  Gibault  advised  the  French  residents  of 
Vincennes  to  become  American  citizens,  and  to  transfer  their 
allegiance  from  the  British  government  to  Virginia.  Under  his 
persuasion,  they  all  gathered  in  the  village  and  the  oath  of  al- 
legiance to  Virginia  was  administered  to  all  the  citizens.  There- 
upon the  British  flag  was  hauled  down,  and  the  flag  of  Virginia 
hoisted  in  its  place.  The  Indians  were  advised  that  the  French 
king  had  come  back  to  life,  and  that  he  was  advising  his  Indian 
friends  to  be  friendly  to  the  Americans. 

Up  to  this  point,  Colonel  Clark  had  wonderful  success, 
largely  through  the  friendship  of  the  French  habitants,  but 
now  his  troubles  began.  The  volunteers  recruited  by  him  had 
only  enlisted  for  three  months,  and  many  of  them  sought  to 
return  to  their  homes.  Finally,  he  succeeded  in  getting  a  hun- 
dred of  the  Kentuckians  to  re-enlist,  and  the  rest  were  mustered 
out.  He  then  opened  the  enlistment  to  French  citizens,  many 
of  whom  accepted  the  invitation,  and  these  new  recruits  were 
drilled  and  trained  as  American  soldiers.  Colonel  Clark  ap- 
pointed over  each  French  company  French  officers.  He  sta- 
tioned Captain  Bowman  at  Cahokia  and  Captain  Williams  at 
Kaskaskia.     Shortly  thereafter,   he  arranged   for   conferences 


ILLINOIS  127 

with  Indians,  and  held  counsel  with  them  at  Cahokia,  where 
the  chiefs  of  many  tribes  appeared,  smoked  the  pipe  of  peace, 
and  made  treaties  favorable  to  the  Americans. 

Shortly  after  his  successes  at  Kaskaskia,  Cahokia  and  Vin- 
cennes,  Clark  reported  the  same  to  Governor  Henry  and  the 
Legislature,  and  the  Legislature  of  that  colony  in  October,  1778, 
passed  a  law  creating  the  County  of  Illinois  in  the  State  of 
Virginia  in  the  following  language : 

All  of  the  citizens  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia 
who  are  already  settled  or  who  shall  hereafter  settle  on 
the  western  side  of  the  Ohio,  shall  be  included  in  a  distinct 
county  which  shall  be  called  Illinois  County;  and  the  Gov- 
ernor of  this  Commonwealth,  with  the  advice  of  counsel, 
may  appoint  a  county-lieutenant  or  commander  in  chief, 
during  pleasure,  who  shall  appoint  and  commission  as  many 
deputy  commandants,  militia  officers,  and  commissioners 
as  he  shall  think  proper  in  the  different  districts,  during 
pleasure;  all  of  whom,  before  they  enter  into  office,  shall 
take  the  oath  of  fidelity  to  this  commonwealth  and  the 
oath  of  office,  according  to  the  form  of  their  own  religion. 

And  all  civil  officers  to  which  the  inhabitants  have  been 
accustomed  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  the  peace, 
and  the  administration  of  justice,  shall  be  chosen  by  a  ma- 
jority of  the  citizens  in  their  respective  districts  to  be 
convened  for  that  purpose  by  the  county-lieutenant  or  com- 
mandant, or  his  deputy,  and  shall  be  commissioned  by  the 
said  county-lieutenant  or  commander-in-chief. 

At  the  same  time,  the  House  of  Delegates  expressed  their 
thanks  to  Clark  and  his  companions  for  their  wonderful  success, 
as  follows : 

In  The  House  of  Delegates 

Monday  the  23d,  Nov.,  1778. 

Whereas  authentic  information  has  been  received  that 
Lieut.-Col.  George  Rogers  Clark,  with  a  body  of  Virginia 
militia,  has  reduced  the  British  posts  in  the  Western  parts 
of  this  commonwealth  on  the  Mississippi  and  its  branches, 
whereby  great  advantage  may  accrue  to  the  common  cause 
of  America,  as  well  as  to  this  commonwealth  in  particular : 

Resolved  That  the  thanks  of  this  House  are  justly  due 
to  the  said  Colonel  Clark  and  the  brave  officers  and  men 


128  ILLINOIS 

under  his  command,  for  their  extraordinary  resolution  and 
perseverance  in  so  hazardous  an  enterprise,  and  for  their 
important  services  to  their  country. 

E.  C.  Randolph, 

C.  H.  D. 

But  now  Clark's  troubles  began  to  gather.  Henry  Ham- 
ilton, governor  of  Detroit,  upon  learning  that  Clark  had  invaded 
Illinois  and  was  in  possession  of  Fort  Vincennes,  raised  a  force 
consisting  of  thirty  regular  troops,  of  fifty  Canadians,  and  500 
Indians  and  started  for  headquarters  on  the  Wabash.  As  he 
neared  the  village  of  Vincennes,  Captain  Helm,  who  was  in 
charge  of  the  fort,  it  is  said,  with  only  one  assistant,  a 
soldier  named  Henry,  decided  upon  a  grotesque  and  daring 
expedient  to  obtain  terms  of  surrender.  When  Hamilton  came 
within  hearing  distance,  Helm  cried  out,  "Halt!"  Hamilton 
then  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  fort,  to  which  Helm  re- 
plied, "No  man  shall  enter  until  I  know  the  terms."  Governor 
Hamilton  then  replied  that  the  force  in  the  fort  should  be 
permitted  to  march  out  with  the  honors  of  war.  These  terms 
were  accepted  by  Helm,  and  he  and  Private  Henry  marched 
out  of  the  fort,  Helm  carrying  the  flag  and  Henry  beating  a 
drum.  However  this  may  be,  the  fort  in  fact,  was  surrendered 
to  Governor  Hamilton. 

After  the  surrender  of  the  fort  to  Lieutenant  Governor  Ham- 
ilton, Captain  Helm,  who  had  surrendered,  was  unable  to  com- 
municate from  Vincennes  with  Colonel  Clark  at  Kaskaskia,  and 
Clark  for  a  long  time  was  in  ignorance  of  the  capture.  On 
January  29,  1779,  Col.  Francis  Vigo,  an  Italian  friend  of  Clark's, 
returned  to  Kaskaskia  from  Vincennes,  and  reported  to  him  the 
surrender  of  the  fort  to  the  British  and  the  weakness  of  the 
British  garrison  therein.  He  at  once  started  to  organize  an 
expedition  for  the  recapture  of  the  fort,  and  ordered  Captain 
Bowman  to  assist  him  in  organizing  the  expedition.  He  first 
ordered  a  galley  built,  which  was  to  be  sent  down  the  Missis- 
sippi and  up  the  Ohio  and  the  Wabash  to  await  near  Vincennes 
the  coming  of  other  troops  which  would  travel  overland.  Upon 
this  galley  two  four-pound  guns  were  mounted,  and  four  large 
swivels,  and  provisions  and  ammunition  were  placed  aboard  the 


ILLINOIS  129 

boat,  which  was  under  charge  of  Captain  John  Rogers,  who 
had  forty-six  men  under  his  command.  He  left  Kaskaskia  on 
the  4th  of  February,  1779.  Captain  Rogers  then  organized 
two  militia  companies,  one  from  Cahokia  and  the  other  from 
Kaskaskia.  The  company  from  Cahokia  was  commanded  by 
Captain  McCarthy,  and  the  one  from  Kaskaskia  by  Captain 
Charleville.  In  addition  to  these  two  companies  of  militia,  he 
had  three  companies  of  Americans  commanded  by  Captains 
Bowman,  Williams  and  Worthington.  In  all,  they  mustered 
170  men.  After  preparing  for  provisions  and  stores,  the  ex- 
pedition was  ready,  and  started  on  the  5th  of  February  from 
Kaskaskia  after  receiving  absolution  from  Father  Gibault. 

The  expedition  experienced  but  little  trouble  until  they 
reached  Zenia  in  Clay  County,  as  they  killed  plenty  of  game 
and  had  plenty  of  firewood.  The  rains  were  falling,  however, 
and  the  streams  filled  their  banks.  When  they  reached  the 
Little  Wabash,  they  found  the  land  between  the  Little  Wabash 
and  the  Big  Muddy  three  miles  east  covered  with  water.  Here 
they  built  a  boat  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  them  over  the 
deeper  parts.  Pack  horses  were  compelled  to  swim  the  river. 
The  men  were  compelled  frequently  to  trudge  across  the  ice 
and  water,  where  the  water  was  from  three  to  five  feet  deep. 
They  were  compelled  to  carry  guns  with  powder  on  top  of 
their  heads  to  keep  them  dry.  On  the  18th,  they  reached  the 
Wabash,  and  spent  three  days  building  rafts  and  digging  ca- 
noes, and  had  nothing  to  eat  for  two  days.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered that  this  expedition  was  in  the  depth  of  winter  in  Feb- 
ruary, and  the  hardships  that  the  men  were  compelled  to  under- 
go were  frightful.  When  almost  famished  for  want  of  food, 
they  spied  a  canoe  in  which  were  some  Indian  squaws  and 
forced  it  to  land,  and  by  the  greatest  of  good  luck,  they  found 
in  the  canoe  a  fourth  of  a  buffalo,  some  corn,  tallow,  kettles,  etc. 
Broth  was  made  immediately,  and  served  to  the  soldiers,  some 
of  whom  were  so  famished  as  to  be  unable  to  walk. 

On  reaching  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  Vincennes, 
Clark  issued  the  following  proclamation,  which  he  had  distrib- 
uted among  the  inhabitants: 


130  ILLINOIS 

To  the  Inhabitants  of  Post  Vincennes: 

Gentlemen :  Being  now  within  two  miles  of  your  village, 
with  my  army,  determined  to  take  your  fort  this  night, 
and  not  being  willing  to  surprise  you,  I  take  this  method 
to  request  such  of  you  as  are  true  citizens  and  willing  to 
enjoy  the  liberty  I  bring  you,  to  remain  still  in  your  houses ; 
and  those,  if  any  there  be,  that  are  friends  to  the  king, 
will  instantly  repair  to  the  fort  and  join  the  hair-buyer 
general,  and  fight  like  men.  And  if  such  as  do  not  go  to 
the  fort  shall  be  discovered  afterwards,  they  may  depend 
on  severe  punishment.  On  the  contrary,  those  who  are 
true  friends  to  liberty  may  depend  on  being  well  treated; 
and  I  once  more  request  them  to  keep  out  of  the  streets. 
For  every  one  I  find  in  arms  on  my  arrival,  I  shall  treat 
him  as  an  enemy. 

(Signed)       G.  K.  Clark. 

In  the  afternoon  of  the  23rd  of  February,  1779,  Clark  began 
to  march  toward  the  village.  He  maneouvered  his  men  behind 
the  cover  of  certain  hills  so  as  to  make  it  appear  to  the  village 
and  to  those  in  the  fort  that  his  numbers  were  two  or  three  times 
as  large  as  they  really  were.  On  reaching  the  village,  he 
promptly  opened  fire  on  the  fort,  which  fire  was  vigorously 
answered  from  the  fort.  Clark's  forces  were  but  scantily  pro- 
vided with  ammunition,  which  was  almost  exhausted  when  the 
residents  of  the  town  sent  word  that  he  could  have  their  ammu- 
nition. After  receiving  this  welcome  addition  to  his  equipment, 
he  resumed  the  attack  upon  the  fort.  On  the  morning  of  the 
24th,  he  demanded  its  surrender,  on  the  following  terms; 
addressed  to  Colonel  Hamilton: 

Sir:  In  order  to  save  yourself  from  the  impending 
storm  that  now  threatens  you,  I  order  you  immediately 
to  surrender  yourself,  with  all  your  garrison,  stores,  etc., 
etc.  For  if  I  am  obliged  to  storm,  you  may  depend  on  such 
treatment  as  is  justly  due  to  a  murderer.  Beware  of 
destroying  stores  of  any  kind,  or  any  papers  or  letters  that 
are  in  your  possession,  or  hurting  one  house  in  town — for, 
by  Heavens !  if  you  do,  there  shall  be  no  mercy  shown  you. 

(Signed)       G.  R.  Clark. 


ILLINOIS  131 

To  this  haughty  demand,  Colonel  Hamilton  replied : 

Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton  begs  leave  to  acquaint 
Colonel  Clark,  that  he  and  his  garrison  are  not  disposed 
to  be  awed  into  any  action  unworthy  of  British  subjects. 

After  this  exchange  of  compliments,  the  fighting  was  resumed 
on  both  sides.  Later  in  the  day,  however,  Lieutenant  Governor 
Hamilton  proposed  a  truce  of  three  days,  which  Colonel  Clark 
refused.  Later  on,  however,  at  a  conference  between  Hamilton 
and  Clark,  they  agreed  upon  terms  of  surrender  as  follows : 

1.  Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton  engages  to  deliver  up  to 
Colonel  Clark,  Fort  Sackville,  as  it  is  at  present,  with  all  the 
stores,  etc. 

2.  The  garrison  are  to  deliver  themselves  as  prisoners  of 
war ;  and  march  out  with  their  arms  and  accoutrements,  etc. 

3.  The  garrison  to  be  delivered  up  at  10  o'clock  tomorrow. 

4.  Three  days  time  to  be  allowed  the  garrison  to  settle  their 
accounts  with  the  inhabitants  and  traders  of  this  place. 

5.  The  officers  of  the  garrison  to  be  allowed  their  necessary 
baggage,  etc. 

Signed  at  Post  St.  Vincent,  24th  February,  1779. 
Agreed  for  the   following  reasons:    The   remoteness   from 
succor;  the  state  and  quantity  of  provisions,  etc.;  unanimity  of 
officers  and  men  in  its  expediency ;  the  honorable  terms  allowed ; 
and  lastly,  the  confidence  in  a  generous  enemy. 

Henry  Hamilton, 

Lt.  Gov.  and  Superintendent. 

Three  days  thereafter,  the  boat  Willing  which  had  been  sent 
from  Kaskaskia  with  supplies  and  men,  arrived.  Governor 
Hamilton  and  Major  Hay  were  sent  to  Williamsburg  as  prisoners 
of  war.    The  soldiers  were  detained  for  a  time  and  then  paroled. 

Shortly  after  the  surrender  of  Fort  Sackville,  Clark  learned 
that  several  canoes  loaded  with  provisions  and  supplies  intended 
for  the  fort  were  on  the  way  to  Vincennes.  He  detailed  a  com- 
pany of  men  under  Captain  Helm,  and  found  the  vessels  con- 
taining these  provisions  near  the  mouth  of  the  Vermilion  River. 
All  the  boats  were  captured  by  Captain  Helm,  who  returned  to 


132  ILLINOIS 

Vincennes  with  a  large  store  of  provisions  to  be  used  for  the 
soldiers. 

We  have  seen  that  the  territory  north  and  west  of  the  Ohio 
was  by  the  act  of  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  created  a  county 
of  Virginia. 

The  act  provided  that  the  governor  of  Virginia  should  appoint 
county  lieutenants,  and  that  these  officers  shall  appoint  a  com- 
mission of  deputy  commandants,  police  officers,  and  other  needed 
assistants.  It  also  provided  that  civil  officers  were  to  be  elected 
by  the  voters  in  their  respective  districts.  In  pursuance  of  this 
law,  Governor  Henry  of  Virginia,  after  due  and  careful  delib- 
eration, selected  John  Todd,  a  judge  of  the  Kentucky  court  at 
Harrodsburg,  as  the  lieutenant  governor  of  the  county.  Todd 
was  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  educated  in  Virginia,  and  had 
moved  into  Kentucky  in  1775.  He  was  a  member  of  the  first 
House  of  Delegates  of  Kentucky,  and  also  a  representative  in 
the  Virginia  Legislature.  He  was  one  of  the  men  who  accom- 
panied Clark  in  the  campaign  for  the  capture  of  Kaskaskia, 
and  it  is  said  that  he  was  the  first  man  to  enter  the  building 
where  Rocheblanc  was  sleeping,  and  the  man  that  arrested  him 
on  the  4th  of  July,  1778.  Upon  his  appointment,  Governor 
Henry  wrote  out  himself  the  instructions  to  the  county-lieuten- 
ant, which  are  in  words  as  follows: 

The  grand  objects  which  are  disclosed  to  the  view  of 
your  countrymen  will  prove  beneficial,  or  otherwise,  accord- 
ing to  the  value  and  abilities  of  those  who  are  called  to 
direct  the  affairs  of  that  remote  country.  The  present  crisis 
rendered  favorable  by  the  good  disposition  of  the  French 
and  Indians,  may  be  improved  to  great  purposes,  but,  if, 
unhappily,  it  should  be  lost,  a  return  of  the  same  attach- 
ments to  us  may  never  happen.  Considering,  therefore,  that 
early  prejudices  are  so  hard  to  wear  out,  you  will  take  care 
to  cultivate  and  conciliate  the  affections  of  the  French  and 
Indians. 

Lieutenant  Governor  Todd  was  further  instructed  by  the 
governor  to  consult  and  advise  with  the  most  intelligent  and 
upright  persons  who  might  fall  in  his  way.  He  was  directed 
also  to  cooperate  with  the  military  authorities;  to  take  charge 
of  the  militia,  which  should  be  placed  under  the  control  of  the 


ILLINOIS  133 

military  only  at  the  command  of  the  civil  authority.  He  was 
ordered  also  to  punish  every  attempt  to  violate  the  property 
of  the  Indians,  particularly  their  land,  and  cultivate  friendly 
relations  with  the  Spanish  commandant  at  St.  Louis. 

Todd  appeared  in  Kaskaskia  in  May,  1779,  and  accepted 
the  office  and  trust  imposed  in  him.  The  French  inhabitants 
and  the  officers  and  Indians  gathered  in  front  of  the  village  on 
the  12th  of  that  month.  Clark  made  a  speech  to  those  assembled, 
praising  the  faithfulness  of  the  people  of  Kaskaskia  and  the 
neighboring  villages,  and  asking  their  participation  in  civil 
affairs  in  the  republican  form  of  government  now  to  be  estab- 
lished in  Illinois,  and  then  introduced  the  county  lieutenant, 
John  Todd.  Mr.  Todd  then  gave  a  short  address,  and  the 
assembled  citizens  voted  for  the  election  of  judges,  nine  of 
whom  were  selected  from  Kaskaskia.  The  military  commissions 
for  the  District  of  Kaskaskia  were  made  out  May  14,  1779.  The 
names  of  all  the  officers  indicate  that  except  Richard  Winston, 
the  commandant,  all  were  Frenchmen. 

On  June  15,  1779,  Colonel  Todd  issued  a  proclamation,  for- 
bidding the  further  settling  of  the  flat  lands  adjacent  to  the 
Mississippi,  Ohio,  Illinois  and  Wabash  rivers,  and  declaring 
that  in  order  to  establish  titles  to  lands  claimed  from  grants 
previously  made  by  the  governments  in  control  of  the  region, 
it  would  be  necessary  for  any  inhabitants  who  claimed  lands, 
to  present  for  record  the  source  of  their  present  titles. 

His  career  as  a  public  officer,  however,  was  very  short.  The 
finances  of  the  newly  established  county  were  at  the  lowest  ebb. 
Food  was  scarce,  and  what  there  was,  was  high  priced.  On 
August  9th,  he  wrote  a  letter  to  the  commandants  at  Ste.  Gene- 
vieve and  St.  Louis,  offering  help  in  case  they  were  attacked 
by  the  British,  and  on  the  13th  of  August  the  same  year  he 
condemned  a  vacant  lot  and  proclaimed  it  to  be  the  property  of 
the  commonwealth.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the  Virginia  Legis- 
lature in  1780,  and  married  while  in  Williamsburg,  Virginia, 
and  returned  with  his  wife  in  1781  to  Lexington,  Kentucky,  so 
that  the  chances  are  that  Governor  Todd  must  have  left  the 
Illinois  country  and  his  official  duties  some  time  the  latter  part 
of  1779  or  in  1780. 


CHAPTER  XII 

ILLINOIS  COUNTY,  VIRGINIA,  UNDER  THE  RULE  OF 
THE  OLD  DOMINION 

Back  of  the  desk  of  the  governor  of  Illinois,  in  his  inner 
office  in  the  state  capitol  at  Springfield,  there  hangs  an  oil  paint- 
ing of  a  distinguished  looking  man  with  a  white  "choker," 
in  a  scarlet  cloak  with  black  velvet  trimmings.  When  at  Spring- 
field I  was  often  asked  by  my  visitors,  of  whom  that  painting 
was  a  portrait,  and  as  often  answered:  "The  first  Governor 
of  Illinois."  My  answer  to  most  of  these  inquiries  seemed 
unsatisfactory.  Very  few  could  tell  the  name  of  the  first  gov- 
ernor of  Illinois.  Sic  transit  gloria  mundi!  But  occasionally 
a  well-informed  person  would  ask:  "Ninian  Edwards  or  Shad- 
rach  Bond?"  When  I  told  them  it  was  a  portrait  of  Patrick 
Henry,  the  first  governor  of  Illinois,  they  would  argue  that  he 
was  governor  of  Virginia  and  not  of  Illinois.  The  Legislatures 
and  public  officials  of  this  state  have  recognized  the  right  of 
Patrick  Henry  to  the  title  of  first  governor  of  Illinois  by  placing 
his  portrait  first  among  all  the  portraits  of  the  governors  of 
Illinois  in  the  chief  executive's  office  in  the  statehouse.  That 
he  was  the  first  de  facto  American  governor  of  Illinois  will  be 
conclusively  shown  by  what  follows. 

Upon  taking  possession  of  Kaskaskia,  Cahokia  and  the  other 
French  settlements  of  Illinois  and  of  the  British  fort  at  Vin- 
cennes  as  heretofore  narrated,  George  Rogers  Clark  promptly 
notified  Governor  Henry  of  Virginia  of  his  signal  successes. 
The  news  was  received  by  Governor  Henry  with  rapturous 
delight,  as  he  quickly  recognized  that  the  capture  of  these  places 
from  the  British,  laid  the  foundation  for  claiming  all  of  this 
rich  country  in  the  final  terms  of  the  peace  treaty  when  the 
time  came  for  drafting  same.     The  governor  communicated  the 

134 


ILLINOIS  135 

good  news  to  the  Legislature,  which  quickly  enacted  the  law 
creating  the  Illinois  country,  a  county  of  Virginia.  Clark's 
program,  secretly  backed  by  Governor  Henry  and  his  council, 
was  to  gain  possession  of  Kaskaskia,  Cahokia,  Vincennes  and 
as  many  more  of  the  British  forts  and  trading  posts  as  possible 
and  hold  possession  of  the  same  for  the  benefit  of  Virginia 
until  the  end  of  the  Revolutionary  war.  The  first  part  of  the 
program  as  to  these  three  posts  had  been  carried  out  with  bril- 
liant success.  The  second  and  equally  essential  part  of  the  pro- 
gram— the  retaining  possession  of  the  same — had  now  to  be 
faced  by  Clark,  and  he  found  this  to  be  a  more  difficult  matter. 
As  we  have  seen,  the  British  Colonel  Hamilton  soon  recaptured 
Vincennes,  and  it  was  only  by  the  exercise  of  extraordinary 
daring,  and  the  endurance  of  extreme  suffering  and  almost 
starvation  on  the  part  of  Clark  and  his  hardy  followers;  that 
he  forced  the  surrender  of  Hamilton  and  his  British  garrison, 
in  Fort  Sackville,  near  Vincennes. 

Clark  now  found  himself  without  supplies  and  without  money. 
The  support  he  expected  from  Virginia  failed  to  arrive.  The 
continental  money  he  had  brought  with  him  was  negotiable 
only  at  the  rate  of  12  cents  on  the  dollar,  and  this  depreciated 
money  was  soon  exhausted.  Drafts  drawn  by  Clark  on  the 
agent  of  Virginia  at  New  Orleans  were  dishonored.  The  friendly 
feeling  and  harmony  which  prevailed  between  the  French  inhab- 
itants and  the  "Long  Knives,"  as  Clark's  soldiers  were  called, 
immediately  after  the  capture  of  Kaskaskia  and  Cahokia  by 
Clark,  and  at  the  time  of  the  expedition  against  Vincennes  and 
at  the  inauguration  of  Governor  Todd,  soon  began  to  disappear. 
This  was  largely  the  result  of  violent  and  unjust  actions  of  the 
"Long  Knives."  These  latter  were  rough,  wild,  bellicose  pioneers 
recruited  from  the  outposts  of  civilization  in  Virginia  and  Ken- 
tucky, hard-fighting  and  hard-drinking  men,  ready  to  settle  all 
disputes  either  with  their  fists  or  any  other  handy  weapons,  and 
of  many  different  nationalities.  They  were  mostly  of  English, 
Irish,  German,  Dutch  and  Scotch-Irish  origin.  Few  were  Cath- 
olics in  religion,  while  all  of  the  French  settlers  professed  that 
faith.  The  latter  lived  on  good  terms  with  the  Indians,  while  the 
"Long  Knives"   and   Indians   were  always   at   daggers-points. 


136  ILLINOIS 

The  French  were,  as  a  rule,  respectful  of  law  and  obedient 
toward  their  judges  and  other  civil  officers.  The  "Long  Knives" 
usually  settled  their  disputes  with  both  white  men  and  Indians 
without  resort  to  the  courts  and  in  defiance  of  laws  and 
regulations. 

The  justices  elected  under  the  Todd  civil  administration  in 
a  memorial  to  Governor  Todd,  May  24,  1779,  complained  that 
the  soldiers  at  Fort  Clark  killed  their  domestic  animals,  seized 
supplies  from  them  without  payment,  sold  liquor  to  the  Indians 
and  traded  with  the  slaves.  Clark  shouldered  these  complaints 
over  to  Governor  Todd  and  the  civil  authorities.  He  was  getting 
no  money  or  supplies  from  Virginia,  and  even  when  he  was 
attempting  to  organize  an  expedition  for  the  capture  of  Detroit, 
he  was  compelled  to  allow  his  unruly  and  hungry  soldiers  to 
get  their  food  in  their  own  violent  way.  These  soldiers  and 
other  reckless  settlers,  in  defiance  of  British  law  and  the  Vir- 
ginia law  which  forbade  all  settlement  north  of  the  Ohio  River, 
entered  lands  after  the  "custom  of  the  tomahawk  claims,"  and 
this  outraged  both  the  Indians  and  the  French.  Governor  Todd 
attempted  to  regulate  these  matters  by  proclamation,  with  but 
little  success.  Affairs  at  this  stage  were  rapidly  developing 
towards,  and  finally  culminated  into  complete  anarchy.  Governor 
Todd,  evidently  at  his  wits  end  and  despairing  of  being  able 
to  enforce  respect  for  law,  soon  left  the  Illinois  country  after 
appointing,  with  doubtful  authority,  Richard  Winston,  deputy 
county  lieutenant,  to  represent  and  enforce  Virginia  law. 

Under  Winston,  matters  continued  to  grow  worse.  He  was 
generally  believed  by  all  who  knew  him  to  be  dishonest.  Instead 
of  attempting  to  allay  the  bitterness  between  the  French  inhab- 
itants and  the  Virginians,  all  his  official  acts  tended  to  intensify 
it.  He  antagonized  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  French  leaders  and 
many  of  those  friendly  to  the  American  cause. 

At  this  juncture,  Clark  found  himself  and  his  troops  in  a 
desperate  condition.  He  had  been  attempting  to  gather  forces 
in  such  number  as  would  justify  him  in  making  an  attack  upon 
the  British  fort  at  Detroit,  but  was  unable  to  secure  money, 
supplies  or  troops  from  Virginia  to  augment  his  hungry  and 
ill-equipped  forces  at  Kaskaskia.     Virginia  could  give  no  aid 


ILLINOIS  137 

because  she  herself  was  seriously  threatened  in  the  East  by 
British  troops.  The  southern  colonies  along  the  sea-coast  were 
being  successfully  invaded  by  British  armies  who  were  threat- 
ening to  invade  the  Old  Dominion.  Word  reached  Clark  that 
Pittsburgh  and  the  surrounding  country  were  about  to  fall  into 
British  hands  as  the  result  of  treachery  and  intrigue.  He  could 
secure  no  aid  from  that  quarter.  Finding  himself  unable  in 
this  situation  to  assume  an  offensive,  he  abandoned  his  hopes 
of  attacking  Detroit  and  took  steps  to  prepare  himself  for 
defense  in  anticipation  of  a  British  attack  from  that  city.  He 
had  not  long  to  wait.  While  he  was  preparing  to  concentrate 
his  troops  at  Fort  Jefferson,  in  Kentucky,  a  few  miles  south  of 
Cairo,  withdrawing  his  troops  from  Vincennes  and  leaving  but 
small  detachments  at  Kaskaskia  and  Cahokia,  news  reached 
him  that  a  formidable  force  of  British  soldiers  and  Indians 
was  marching  towards  the  Illinois  country. 

Spain  having  joined  France  in  war  upon  Great  Britain, 
orders  were  given  the  British  generals  to  attack  the  Spanish 
settlements  along  the  Mississippi,  both  from  the  south  and  the 
north,  in  order  to  cut  off  any  assistance  that  these  settlements 
might  give  the  colonies  during  the  war.  The  British  attack 
from  the  south  failed,  owing  to  the  skill  and  energy  displayed 
by  the  Spanish  commander,  Governor  Bernado  de  Galvez  of 
New  Orleans,  who  anticipated  the  British  attack  in  that  quarter 
and  successfully  assailed  all  the  British  forts  in  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  The  British  attack  from  the  north  got  under  way  in 
February,  1780.  It  was  surrounded  with  great  secrecy,  but 
the  Indians  at  Cahokia  in  some  way  got  wind  of  the  impending 
danger  and  sent  word  to  Clark,  who  was  then  at  Fort  Jefferson. 
The  Spanish  commander  at  St.  Louis  and  Captain  Montgomery 
at  Kaskaskia  both  confirmed  the  Cahokia  message  and  called 
for  assistance.  Clark  hastened  to  Cahokia  and  arrived  just 
in  time  to  assist  Montgomery  in  the  defense  of  that  village, 
defeating  the  British  there  and  also  saving  Kaskaskia.  The 
Spanish  in  St.  Louis  were  equally  successful.  Clark  owed  his 
success  on  this  occasion  as  on  previous  occasions  to  the  assist- 
ance given  him  by  the  French  inhabitants.  The  British  forces 
were  compelled  to  retreat  northward  and  were  followed  by  Mont- 


138  ILLINOIS 

gomery  and  his  troops.  The  British  succeeded  in  eluding  Mont- 
gomery, but  he  was  successful  with  the  assistance  of  the  Spanish 
and  the  French  Militia  in  making  reprisals  from  the  Indians 
allied  with  the  British  at  Prairie  du  Chien  and  around  Rock 
River.  This  was  the  second  if  not  the  third  occasion  when 
the  French  in  Illinois  enabled  Clark  with  their  assistance  to 
extricate  himself  and  his  troops  from  desperate  situations.  The 
repulse  of  the  British  at  Cahokia  and  St.  Louis  resulted,  however, 
in  saving  the  Illinois  country  from  British  occupation  and  retain- 
ing it  by  the  Americans  at  a  time  when  Clark  was  practically 
at  the  end  of  his  resources.  It  was  a  close  call  with  mighty 
consequences  involved. 

In  the  years  1779  and  1780  the  cause  of  Virginia  and  the 
colonies  in  the  Illinois  country,  notwithstanding  the  brilliant 
leadership  of  Clark,  seemed  in  desperate  shape.  Its  heartbeat 
was  at  its  lowest  ebb.  Because  of  the  lack  of  food  and  clothing 
the  "Long  Knives"  were  looting  the  French  at  Kaskaskia.  In 
despair,  these  unfortunates,  to  escape  robbery  and  violence, 
were  fleeing  across  the  river  to  St.  Louis.  The  Indians  were 
constantly  threatening  the  settlers  in  Kentucky  as  well  as  in 
Illinois.  During  these  two  years  Clark  was  contemplating  the 
withdrawal  of  the  Virginia  troops  from  Kaskaskia,  Cahokia 
and  Vincennes  for  concentration  at  Fort  Jefferson.  This  had 
been  interrupted  by  the  British  invasion  from  Detroit.  This 
danger  having  passed,  in  1781  Clark  carried  out  most  of  his 
plan.  The  troops  had  already  been  taken  from  Vincennes,  and 
all  the  Virginians  were  taken  from  Kaskaskia  and  Cahokia 
except  a  small  body  to  act  as  an  outpost  at  Kaskaskia  under 
Capt.  John  Rogers.  Thus  Rogers,  as  military  commander  and 
Winston,  as  deputy  lieutenant-governor  of  Illinois,  continued 
to  represent  Virginia  in  Illinois,  while  Clark  himself  represented 
the  Dominion  at  Fort  Jefferson. 

For  four  years  Clark  and  his  Virginians  (recruited  in 
Virginia  itself  and  in  Kentucky)  had  managed  to  retain  a 
desperate  hold  upon  the  Illinois  country.  Even  as  late  as  Novem- 
ber, 1782,  Clark  was  compelled  to  wage  war  against  the  Indian 
allies  of  the  British  to  retain  his  hold  in  the  country.  In  that 
month  the  Indians  north  of  the  Ohio,  in  formidable  numbers, 


ILLINOIS  139 

raided  the  Kentucky  settlements,  and  in  the  effort  to  expel  them, 
John  Todd,  the  former  lieutenant-governor  of  Illinois  County, 
appointed  by  Patrick  Henry,  was  killed.  General  Clark  mustered 
his  troops  and  quickly  avenged  his  death  by  invading  and  laying 
waste  the  Indian  villages  along  the  Miami  River  and  slaying 
many  of  these  savages  in  battle.  But  the  agony  was  soon  to  be 
ended.  While  the  Virginians  under  Clark  and  the  British  at 
Detroit  were  exhausted  and  incapable  of  effective  offensive  war- 
fare against  each  other,  preliminary  peace  treaties  were  signed 
by  the  combatants  at  Paris,  November  30,  1782,  while  the 
British  were  in  control  of  Detroit  and  Canada,  the  Americans 
in  control  of  Kaskaskia,  Cahokia  and  Vincennes,  and  the  Span- 
iards in  control  of  the  right  bank  of  the  Mississippi  River  and 
New  Orleans.  Before  the  signing  of  this  treaty,  however,  an 
episode  took  place  which  should  not  be  overlooked  in  any  history 
of  Illinois. 

A  short  way  back  in  this  narrative  we  noted  an  unsuccessful 
attack  of  a  British  and  Indian  expedition  from  Detroit  upon 
the  Spanish  settlement  at  St.  Louis.  Shortly  thereafter  the 
Spanish  commander  at  St.  Louis  organized  an  expedition  to 
attack  the  British  post  at  St.  Joseph.  Its  commander  was  Don 
Eugenio  Pourre,  and  it  consisted  of  sixty-five  white  soldiers 
and  sixty-five  Indians.  About  half  of  the  white  men  were 
Frenchmen  recruited  at  Cahokia.  The  party  left  St.  Louis 
early  in  January,  1781,  and  traveled  across  the  prairies  of 
Illinois  the  400  miles  between  St.  Louis  and  St.  Joseph  in  the 
depth  of  winter,  each  of  the  men  carrying  his  own  provisions 
and  weapons.  They  gathered  some  additional  Indian  recruits 
en  route,  and  succeeded  without  much  trouble  in  surprising  and 
capturing  the  fort  at  St.  Joseph.  The  Spanish  commander 
ordered  the  lowering  of  the  British  flag,  ran  up  the  Spanish 
flag,  took  possession  of  the  country  in  the  name  of  the  Spanish 
king,  distributed  the  supplies  in  the  fort  among  his  friendly 
Indians,  wrapped  up  the  British  flag  and  brought  it  back  in 
triumph  to  St.  Louis. 

What  was  the  real  object  and  motive  of  this  Spanish  march 
across  the  State  of  Illinois?  Writers  differ  in  their  findings 
of  the  motive.    Some  say,  simply  revenge  for  the  attack  on  St. 


140  ILLINOIS 

Louis.  One  writer,  and  a  very  painstaking  one,  argues  that 
the  real  cause  was  an  order  from  the  Spanish  court.  He  points 
out  that  Spain  as  well  as  England,  was  at  that  time  an  ambitious 
colonizing  nation;  that  in  June,  1779,  Spain  allied  herself  with 
France  in  war  upon  Great  Britain;  had  taken  steps  to  regain 
East  and  West  Florida,  lost  by  her  in  a  former  war.  He  further 
points  out  the  capture  of  British  forts  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
including  Pensacola  and  Mobile,  and  the  cooperation  of  Spanish 
and  Americans  at  St.  Louis  and  Cahokia  in  repulsing  the  British ; 
and  argues  from  these  facts  that  the  order  emanated  from 
Madrid.     There  seems  to  be  some  force  in  the  argument. 

With  the  signing  of  the  preliminary  treaty  of  peace,  hos- 
tilities in  America  ceased.  Negotiations  between  the  diplomats 
and  statesmen  of  the  colonies,  Great  Britain,  France  and  Spain 
then  commenced  in  the  effort  to  fix  the  terms  of  the  final  treaty 
of  peace,  which  was  finally  signed  September  3,  1783.  What 
actually  took  place  in  the  par  parlours  and  secret  conferences 
of  the  representatives  can  only  be  surmised  and  guessed  at,  on 
the  basis  of  information  secretly  given  and  not  of  record.  Presi- 
dent Wilson's  ideal  of  above-board  covenants  openly  arrived 
at  was  not  then  in  operation  among  diplomats,  as  it  is  not  now, 
and  may  never  be.  Negotiations  between  diplomats  and  treaty- 
makers  before  consummation  of  compacts  have  always  been 
under  cover,  and  many  think  always  will  be.  What  took  place 
in  these  secret  conferences  can  only  be  intelligently  surmised 
from  the  terms  of  the  final  treaty.  That  instrument,  after  months 
of  diplomatic  wrangling  and  controversy,  handed  over  all  of 
the  territory  east  of  the  Mississippi,  with  the  exception  of 
New  Orleans,  to  the  American  Colonies.  Why?  There  are 
many  reasons  which  we  can  see  nearly  150  years  after  the  event 
that  forced  this  disposition  of  that  great  territory,  and  these 
reasons  existed  then  and  must  have  influenced  the  very  able 
men  who  discussed  the  situation  at  the  time  and  formulated 
the  terms  of  the  final  treaty.  France  could  not  with  decency 
claim,  with  a  hope  to  acquire,  this  territory  by  the  treaty.  She 
had  discovered  and  held  possession  of  the  same  for  a  century 
and  had  failed  to  colonize  it.  By  the  terms  of  her  treaty  of 
alliance  with  the  colonies  she  bound  herself  not  to  claim  this 


ILLINOIS  141 

territory.  While  she  held  it  there  was  a  constant  drain  upon 
the  Royal  treasury.  The  fur  traders  made  money  and  the  Royal 
appointees  of  France  in  all  probability  participated  secretly, 
in  the  profits  of  the  fur  trade;  but  the  Royal  treasury  always 
showed  a  deficit  rather  than  a  profit  from  New  France.  More- 
over, France  was  exhausted  by  reason  of  almost  constant 
European  wars  and  the  rumblings  of  the  approaching  "Reign 
of  Terror"  were  heard  in  the  streets  of  Paris.  She  was  not  in 
a  position  to  regarrison  and  rebuild  forts  and  trading  posts 
between  3,000  and  5,000  miles  away,  surrounded  as  they  would 
be  by  treacherous  savages  and  menaced  by  the  onward  sweep 
of  civilization  and  settlement  from  the  American  colonies. 
France  at  this  time  could  not  have  accepted  the  Illinois  country 
as  a  gift.  She  probably  would  have  preferred  to  have  this  great 
territory  handed  over  to  Spain  by  the  terms  of  the  treaty,  rather 
than  have  it  regained  by  Great  Britain  or  secured  by  the  thirteen 
colonies.  But  Spain  was  in  no  better  position  to  accept  this 
great  trust,  at  that  time,  than  was  France.  She  had  made  some 
settlements  and  built  some  forts  at  St.  Augustine  and  Pensacola, 
in  Florida,  and  at  Mobile,  St.  Louis  and  New  Orleans,  and  had 
been  successful  in  the  War  of  the  Revolution  in  driving  the 
British  army  away  from  the  same.  But  these  settlements  were 
not  thriving  nor  was  their  population  increasing.  They  were 
mere  trading  posts.  A  few  adventurous  French  and  Spanish 
traders  had  ventured  up  along  the  Mississippi  and  established 
locations  at  Natchez,  Ste.  Genevieve  and  St.  Louis,  but  these 
men  were  interested  in  the  fur  trade  and  not  in  the  land  and 
were  inconsiderable  in  numbers.  They  could  not  have  maintained 
themselves  without  assistance  from  Spain  either  as  against 
unfriendly  Indians,  or  the  surge  of  the  advancing  waves  of 
colonists  crossing  the  Alleghanies  from  the  seaboard.  Spain, 
since  the  destruction  of  the  great  Armada  by  Nelson,  had  become 
a  decaying  power.  She  was  a  successful  colonist  in  South 
America,  but  a  flat  failure  in  the  northern  continent.  Great 
Britain  was  in  no  better  position  than  France  or  Spain.  With 
the  assistance  of  the  two  latter  countries,  the  American  colonists 
had  beaten  her  to  her  knees  in  America.  Burgoyne  had  sur- 
rendered at  Saratoga  and   Cornwallis  at  Yorktown.     France 


142  ILLINOIS 

had  secured  her  revenge  for  the  loss  of  this  land  to  Great  Britain 
in  the  treaty  of  Paris  in  1763,  but  that  revenge  would  not  be 
complete  unless  this  great,  rich  territory  was  taken  from  Great 
Britain  and  handed  over  to  her  ally,  the  Confederation  of  Amer- 
ican Colonies.  These  colonies  were  in  active  possession  of  the 
territory  south  of  the  Ohio,  and  as  a  result  of  the  daring  achieve- 
ments of  George  Rogers  Clark  were  in  possession  of  most  of 
all  the  forts  and  settlements  in  the  Northwest,  excepting  Detroit. 

Moreover,  the  American  commissioners  negotiating  for  peace 
terms,  Benjamin  Franklin,  John  Adams  and  John  Jay,  were 
not  only  men  of  sagacity  and  intelligence,  but  had  come  fresh 
from  that  part  of  the  world  adjacent  to  the  territory  in  question, 
where  the  approaching  value  of  this  land  was  better  understood 
and  appreciated  than  it  was  or  could  be  by  the  commissioners 
of  the  European  nations.  They  knew  that  the  inevitable  march 
of  civilization  westward  would  in  a  few  years  force  the  colonists 
to  absorb  this  territory  by  peaceful  or  forceful  means,  and  that 
then  was  the  time,  when  all  three  of  these  nations  were  not  in 
a  position  to  hold  and  defend  it,  to  insist  upon  its  immediate 
surrender  to  the  colonies.  The  logic  of  events  was  with  the 
Americans,  and  the  able  American  commissioners,  by  argument, 
persuasion  and  politely-phrased  demands,  succeeded  in  writing 
into  the  final  treaty  terms  that  handed  over  to  the  American 
colonies  all  the  territory  east  of  the  Mississippi,  excepting  New 
Orleans  and  the  Floridas  which  were  returned  to  Spain  upon 
the  insistence  of  the  French  commissioners. 

The  dash  of  George  Rogers  Clark  into  the  British  Northwest 
and  the  capture  of  Kaskaskia,  Cahokia  and  Vincennes,  was  a 
material  factor  in  adding  to  the  American  commonwealth  in 
1783  the  great  Mississippi  Valley,  now  teeming  with  millions 
of  prosperous  American  citizens,  and  of  almost  incomputable 
wealth,  but  which  at  that  time  contained  only  a  few  thousand 
souls  who  were  suffering  from  both  want  of  the  necessities  of 
life  and  of  civilized  government. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
ANARCHY  IN  ILLINOIS 

At  the  time  of  the  surrender  of  French  sovereignty  to  the 
British  in  1763,  the  French  villages  of  Southern  Illinois  were 
at  the  height  of  their  prosperity.  When  it  became  known  to 
the  French  inhabitants  that  the  territory  had  been  ceded  to  the 
British,  a  decline  of  prosperity,  industry  and  population  set  in. 
Pittman,  who  visited  this  part  of  the  country  in  1766,  wrote 
that  there  were  over  2,000  white  people  in  these  Illinois  settle- 
ments, and  this  number  kept  rapidly  falling.  Shortly  after  the 
British  officers  took  control  there  were  as  many  negroes  as  white 
persons,  but  both  were  heavily  outnumbered  by  the  Indians. 
In  the  absence  of  the  priests  who  had  for  a  time  fled  with  the 
more  influential  and  financially  responsible  French  leaders  to 
St.  Louis,  church  attendance  was  neglected,  and  concubinage 
without  church  sanction  quite  prevalent.  Morality  and  society 
had  sunk  to  a  low  level.  The  situation  was  worse  in  Kaskaskia 
than  any  other  village.  During  the  incumbency  of  the  British 
officials,  French  law,  as  we  have  heretofore  shown,  was  abrogated 
and  British  law  had  not  been  proclaimed  until  the  Quebec  Act 
was  promulgated  in  1774.  The  arbitrary  will  of  the  British 
commander,  enforced  at  the  point  of  a  bayonet,  was  the  sole 
substitute  for  law  and  ordinances,  and  these  arbitrary  exercises 
of  power  were  invariably  offensive  to  the  French  inhabitants 
and  deprived  them  of  the  rights  and  privileges  they  had  enjoyed 
under  French  rule. 

With  the  advent  of  George  Rogers  Clark  and  the  appointment 
of  John  Todd  as  lieutenant-governor  of  the  County  of  Illinois 
by  Virginia,  hope  succeeded  despair.  Among  the  French  villages 
the  Virginians  were  acclaimed  as  the  apostles  of  Liberty  and 
Democracy.  The  French  hailed  them  as  deliverers,  organized 
companies  of  militia,  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Virginia, 

143 


Francis  Vigo 


ILLINOIS  145 

welcomed  Governor  Todd  with  enthusiasm  and  held  elections 
for  their  judges  and  officials  as  prescribed  by  the  laws  and 
ordinances  of  Virginia.  Further  than  that,  they  volunteered 
to  help  him  to  take  possession  of  Cahokia  and  Vincennes  and 
followed  him  in  the  depth  of  winter  across  the  swamps  and  ice- 
coated  rivers  of  Illinois,  helping  him  recapture  Vincennes  from 
the  British  troops  under  Hamilton.  Many  of  them,  who  had 
fled  from  British  misrule  to  St.  Louis,  including  Gabriel  Cerre, 
the  richest  and  ablest  of  the  French  settlers,  came  back  to 
Kaskaskia  and  advanced  money  and  sold  on  credit  to  Clark 
to  enable  him  to  feed  and  clothe  his  troops.  Colonel  Vigo,  the 
Italian,  at  this  juncture  advanced  over  $10,000  to  Colonel  Clark 
for  the  same  purpose. 

Under  the  terms  of  the  proclamation  of  Governor  Todd, 
framed  by  Patrick  Henry,  they  were  promised  liberty,  religious 
equality,  citizenship  and  full  participation  in  a  democracy 
wherein  the  people  elected  their  rulers  and  lawmakers.  Great 
was  their  joy,  but  that  joy  was  short-lived.  Governor  Todd 
arrived  in  Kaskaskia  in  May,  1779.  He  left  Illinois  and  aban- 
doned his  charge  and  office  within  a  few  months  after  his  inaugu- 
ration, either  in  1779  or  1780.  Almost  conclusive  evidence  points 
to  the  year  1779.  Smith,  in  his  very  valuable  history,  quotes 
a  letter  from  Todd  to  Governor  Patrick  Henry,  dated  August 
18,  1779,  as  follows : 

I  expected  to  have  been  prepared  to  present  to  your 
excellency  some  amendments  upon  the  form  of  government 
of  Illinois,  but  the  present  will  be  attended  with  no  great 
inconvenience  till  the  spring  session,  when  I  beg  your  per- 
mission to  attend  and  get  a  discharge  from  an  office  with 
an  unwholesome  air,  a  distance  from  my  connections,  a 
language  not  familiar  to  me,  arid  an  impossibility  of  pro- 
curing many  of  the  conveniences  of  life  suitable. 

Again,  on  December  23,  1779,  he  wrote  Thomas  Jefferson 
from  the  falls  of  the  Ohio,  stating  his  intention  of  resigning. 
He  was  probably  at  that  point,  en  route  to  the  capital  of  Vir- 
ginia for  the  purpose  of  presenting  his  resignation  in  person 
to  Jefferson,  who  was  then  governor  of  Virginia.     He  was  a 


146  ILLINOIS 

delegate  to  the  Virginia  Legislature  in  1880,  took  to  himself 
a  wife  in  the  capital  city,  and  is  found  with  his  wife  in  Lexington, 
Kentucky,  early  in  1781.  Before  leaving  Illinois,  as  we  have 
heretofore  noted,  he  appointed  Richard  Winston  his  deputy  and 
sheriff  of  the  county.  This  appointment  was  a  most  unfortunate 
one,  but  what  was  worse,  he,  Winston,  was  left  without  means 
to  maintain  his  official  position  or  enforce  law  and  order.  He 
lacked  tact  and  was  frequently  antagonizing  not  only  the  French 
but  the  native  Americans.  Clark's  troops  were  ill-clad,  ill-fed 
and  without  pay,  and  lived  by  pillaging  and  despoiling  the 
already  impoverished  French  habitants. 

While  this  situation  existed  and  while  the  French  were 
highly  incensed  by  their  mistreatment,  new  complications  for 
Winston  arose  with  the  appearance  of  one  John  Dodge.  A 
colony  of  English-speaking  Americans  had  settled  in  a  village 
near  Kaskaskia  called  Bellefontaine.  The  inhabitants  of  this 
village  had  by  petition  secured  from  the  French-speaking  judges 
of  the  court  established  by  Governor  Todd,  the  right  to  elect 
a  Justice  of  the  Peace.  Not  satisfied  with  this,  the  Bellefontaine 
villagers  held  the  French-speaking  court  and  all  the  French 
villages  in  contempt.  They  regarded  the  French  as  aliens  and 
their  inferiors.  Dodge  made  himself  the  leader  and  mouthpiece 
of  these  malcontents  in  an  effort  to  abolish  the  court  established 
under  Virginia  law  by  the  Virginian,  Lieutenant-Governor  Todd. 
The  court  thus  attacked  had,  of  course,  to  defend  its  rights. 
It  rallied  to  its  support  the  great  majority  of  French  inhabitants 
and  nominally  the  support  of  Winston.  Dodge,  with  consummate 
audacity,  sued  out  a  writ  from  the  court  charging  Winston,  the 
deputy  lieutenant-governor  and  the  highest  representative  of 
the  State  of  Virginia,  with  the  utterance  of  "treasonable  expres- 
sions." The  court,  evidently  in  remembrance  of  some  of  Win- 
ston's past  official  acts  and  omissions,  refused  him  bail,  kept 
him  in  jail  for  sixteen  days  and  then  acquitted  him.  Winston, 
after  his  acquittal,  nursed  his  resentment  towards  the  court 
that  had  allowed  his  imprisonment,  and  waited  until  his  authority 
as  deputy  lieutenant-governor  had  been  re-established,  and  then, 
in  November,  1782,  issued  an  official  order  abolishing  the  court, 
thus  leaving  the  distracted  citizens  of  Kaskaskia  without  any 


ILLINOIS  147 

tribunal  for  the  redress  of  grievances.  That  remained  their 
condition  until  the  arrival  of  Governor  St.  Clair  in  1790.  Early 
in  1783  Winston  left  Illinois  for  Virginia  to  collect  loans  that 
he  had  made  to  Virginia  in  the  effort  to  establish  his  authority. 
He  had  impoverished  himself  in  so  doing,  failed  to  collect  in 
Virginia,  and  died  soon  after  in  great  poverty.  Before  leaving 
Illinois  he  had  attempted  to  transfer  what  little  shred  of  author- 
ity he  had  to  another  man,  by  appointing  or  attempting  to 
appoint  a  Frenchman  named  Jaques  Timothy  Boucher  Sieur 
de  Monbreun  as  his  successor.  Monbreun  was  a  man  of  good 
standing,  well  born,  and  had  the  respect  of  his  fellowmen,  but 
his  lack  of  legal  authority  and  the  fact  that  there  was  no  court 
to  decide  disputed  questions,  and  the  further  fact  that  he  was 
without  means  or  soldiers  to  enforce  his  findings,  led  him  to 
temporize  with  all  parties  and  satisfy  none.  He  addressed  a 
memorial  to  Virginia  explaining  his  predicament,  which  reads 
as  follows: 

Without  troops  to  oppose  the  hostile  designs  of  the 
savages,  without  any  coercive  means  to  keep  under  sub- 
jection a  country  where  a  number  of  restless  spirits  were 
exciting  commotions  and  troubles,  the  greater  circumspec- 
tion and  management  became  necessary,  and  the  Command- 
ant was  induced  to  temporize  with  all  parties  in  order  to 
preserve  tranquility,  peace  and  harmony  in  the  Country. 

Taking  advantage  of  Monbreun's  predicament,  Dodge  rallied 
the  English-speaking  inhabitants  and  had  the  colossal  impudence 
to  seize  the  old  French  fort  in  Kaskaskia  and  two  cannon  from 
Fort  Clark;  fortified  the  old  French  fort,  and  set  at  defiance 
all  law  and  authority.  By  main  force  he  ruled  the  village  as 
a  tyrant.  Anarchy  was  enthroned  and  Dodge  was  its  mouthpiece. 
The  harrowed  and  insulted  French  sought  to  communicate  their 
woes  to  Congress  and  appointed  a  messenger  to  carry  their 
complaint,  but  this  messenger,  they  claimed,  was  killed  en  route 
by  Dodge's  order.  His  tyrannical  acts  over  the  cowed  and 
helpless  French  continued  without  cessation  until  1786.  During 
that  year,  George  Rogers  Clark,  who  had  been  absent  from  Illi- 
nois for  some  time,  but  who  had  acquainted  himself  with  the 


148  ILLINOIS 

wretched  condition  of  the  French  under  Dodge's  tyrannical  treat- 
ment, advised  the  French  inhabitants  to  reconstitute  and  reestab- 
lish the  French  court  created  by  Governor  Todd.  Joseph  Parker, 
a  land  speculator  whose  interests  were  antagonistic  to  Dodge  and 
the  other  land  speculators  headed  by  the  latter,  assisted  the 
harassed  Frenchmen  in  getting  a  memorial  from  them  pre- 
sented to  Congress  when  it  was  considering  other  appeals  for 
stable  government. 

Emboldened  by  the  advice  of  Clark  and  the  support  of 
Parker,  the  French  finally  started  to  display  a  spirit  of  rebellion 
against  Dodge  and  his  crowd.  They  forced  the  resignation  of 
de  Monbreun  who  was  friendly  to  Dodge,  and  had  a  citizen  of 
St.  Phillipe  appointed  civil  and  criminal  judge,  and  Jean  Bap- 
tiste  Barbau  designated  as  deputy  lieutenant-governor  in  place 
of  Monbreun.  This  occurred  August  14,  1786,  and  in  1787 
Parker  returned  from  Virginia  with  a  message  of  hope  from 
the  Virginia  Legislature.  In  the  fall  of  the  same  year  General 
Clark,  who  still  retained  the  respect  and  friendship  of  the  French 
inhabitants,  marched  a  force  of  Kentucky  militiamen  into  the 
Illinois  country  to  attack  the  marauding  Indians.  He  began  to 
purchase  provisions  to  enable  him  to  garrison  Vincennes.  His 
agent  for  that  purpose,  John  Rice  Jones,  was  well  received  at 
Kaskaskia,  and  payment  for  the  purchases  he  made  there  were 
guaranteed  by  John  Edgar,  a  prominent  and  wealthy  American 
merchant,  who  was  on  friendly  terms  with  both  Clark  and  the 
French  inhabitants.  Now  Clark  in  these  military  moves  was  act- 
ing without  any  legal  authority  from  Congress  or  Virginia.  His 
only  justification  was  that  of  the  Roman  leader  under  like  cir- 
cumstances, Salus  populi  suprema  lex  est.  The  only  safety  for  the 
Kentuckians  was  war  upon  the  Indians.  Dodge,  however,  know- 
ing that  Clark  was  acting  illegally,  attempted  to  prevent  Clark's 
agent  from  collecting  his  provisions  in  Kaskaskia.  It  was  a 
case  of  outlaw  against  outlaw,  and  the  outlaw  with  the  largest 
and  heaviest  club  won.  Dodge  for  a  time  stopped  the  delivery 
of  the  supplies.  Jones  returned  to  Vincennes  and  brought  back 
with  him  to  Kaskaskia  a  small  force  of  Kentucky  militiamen, 
who  took  possession  of  the  fort  at  Kaskaskia  and  collected  the 
supplies  wanted  by  Clark. 


ILLINOIS  149 

This  ended  Dodge's  reign  of  terror.  He  soon  collected  all 
of  his  property  available  for  transportation  and  retired  to  St. 
Louis.  Still  there  was  no  form  of  legal  government  for  the 
unfortunate  Kaskaskians.  The  chief  anarchist  had  fled,  but 
anarchy  remained.  Congress  failed  in  the  way  of  establishing 
American  law  and  judication  for  the  newly  acquired  territory 
north  of  the  Ohio  and  east  of  the  Mississippi,  largely  because  of 
the  conflict  of  claims  of  Massachusetts,  New  York,  Connecticut 
and  Virginia  as  to  ownership  of  the  land.  These  claims  will 
be  discussed  hereafter,  but  the  final  settlement  thereof  was  not 
effected  until  all  of  the  claimants  had  transferred  their  claims  to 
the  United  States  at  the  end  of  1784,  and  the  final  ordinance 
placing  the  territory  under  the  law  of  the  United  States  was  not 
passed  until  July,  1787. 

This  terrible  condition  of  lawlessness  in  and  around  Kas- 
kaskia  naturally  ruined  the  future  prospects  of  that  village. 
It  had  been  the  largest  and  most  prosperous  village  west  of 
Detroit  under  French  rule,  had  deteriorated  under  British  rule, 
but  sank  to  its  lowest  level  under  anarchy.  When  George  Rogers 
Clark  occupied  it  in  1778  it  had  about  500  white  inhabitants. 
In  1790,  when  Governor  St.  Clair  took  office  under  the  ordi- 
nance of  1787,  there  were  only  forty-four  heads  of  families  in 
the  place.  The  population  had  decreased  nearly  eighty  per  cent. 
All  the  influential  people  of  substance  had  gone,  and  all  those 
that  remained  in  all  probability  had  not  the  means  to  enable 
them  to  travel.  A  different  picture,  however,  is  presented  when 
we  look  at  Cahokia.  There  the  population  was  almost  exclu- 
sively French.  They  were  at  all  times  submissive  to  law  from 
whence-so-ever  it  came,  and  respectful  to  officials  no  matter 
whence  they  derived  their  authority.  Animosities  did  not  arise 
between  the  English-speaking  Americans  and  French  in  Cahokia 
as  they  did  in  Kaskaskia.  The  Virginia  troops  under  Clark  left 
Cahokia  in  1780.  It  is  said  that  at  that  time  there  were  only  four 
English-speaking  men  in  Cahokia  and  three  of  them  had  married 
French  wives  and  spoke  French  fluently.  A  Frenchman  was 
the  commander  of  the  militia  from  1778  to  1790.  Their  justices 
were  elected  annually  by  the  people  pursuant  to  the  regulations 
established  by  Lieutenant-Governor  Todd.    When  the  ordinance 


150  ILLINOIS 

of  1787  was  passed  they  ceased  holding  these  elections,  await- 
ing the  coming  of  the  United  States  officials,  but  allowed  the 
incumbents  of  these  positions  to  hold  over  until  that  time  ar- 
rived. Cahokia  furnishes  us,  a  remarkable  and  unique  example 
in  modern  history  of  civilized  white  men,  subject  to  no  law  that 
was  binding  upon  them,  submitting  themselves  to  and  obeying 
the  orders  of  a  committee  of  their  own  selection  with  the  full 
knowledge  that  the  orders  of  that  committee  could  not  be  legally 
enforced  and  were  in  law  null  and  void.  French  law  ceased  to 
bind  them  after  the  treaty  of  Paris  in  1763;  British  law  was 
never  proclaimed  over  them,  and  British  military  officials  van- 
ished when  George  Rogers  Clark  captured  Kaskaskia  July  4, 
1778.  Although  they  cheerfully  submitted  to  them,  the  laws 
of  Virginia  were  not  binding  upon  them.  Mere  physical  occu- 
pation of  territory  in  time  of  war  and  before  treaties  of  peace 
are  signed  under  international  comity,  does  not  transfer  sover- 
eignty. Until  the  treaty  of  peace  between  Great  Britain  and 
the  American  Confederation  of  Colonies  was  signed,  the  former 
still  retained  sovereignty  of  this  territory  under  international 
polity.  Moreover,  the  dubious  title  of  Virginia  ended  January  5, 
1782.  The  law  of  Virginia  attempting  to  create  the  County 
of  Illinois  was  passed  December  9,  1778,  and  was  renewed  in 
May,  1780.  The  renewal  act  contained  a  provision  that  the  law 
should  continue  for  one  year  and  until  the  end  of  the  next  Legis- 
lature, which  ended  January  5,  1782.  Even  Virginia  itself 
ceased  to  make  any  claim  of  sovereignty  over  the  territory  on 
that  date. 

Upon  this  state  of  the  record  we  have  the  right  to  conclude 
that  the  Illinois  district  had  no  law  or  ordinance  binding  legally 
its  inhabitants  from  February  10,  1763,  when  the  treaty  of 
peace  was  signed  between  France  and  Great  Britain  at  Paris, 
until  1775,  when  the  Quebec  Act  was  proclaimed;  that  this 
latter  act  ceased  to  be  physically  enforceable  July  4,  1778,  when 
George  Rogers  Clark  captured  Kaskaskia  and  Cahokia;  that 
from  July  4,  1778,  to  December  9,  1778,  when  the  Legislature 
of  Virginia  asserted  title,  the  only  law  was  the  law  of  the 
bayonet  and  of  physical  occupation ;  that  from  December  9,  1778, 
to  January  5,  1782,  Virginia  held  only  a  dubious  title  acquired 


ILLINOIS  151 

by  capture  in  time  of  war,  not  cognizable  by  the  unwritten  polity 
sometimes  called  the  law  of  nations;  and  that  thereafter  there 
was  no  law  or  ordinance  enforceable  upon  its  residents  until 
Governor  St.  Clair  and  the  territorial  officials  created  by  the 
ordinance  of  1789  appeared  in  Illinois  and  proclaimed  territorial 
laws  and  regulations  for  the  territory. 

Yet  during  all  this  time  the  peaceful  French  in  Cahokia 
maintained  to  their  lasting  credit,  peace  and  order,  supported  a 
citizen  militia,  defended  themselves  against  anarchy  and  Indians, 
and  gracefully  and  gladly  submitted  themselves  to  the  laws  of 
the  United  States  and  to  the  rule  of  United  States  officials  when 
they  presented  themselves  in  1790. 

With  the  flags  of  three  different  nations  floating  from  time  to 
time  above  them,  but  without  valid  laws  binding  them,  for  twenty- 
seven  years  they  maintained  peace  and  order  while  anarchy  was 
rampant  in  a  neighboring  village,  grew  in  numbers  and  pros- 
perity and  handed  over  a  happy,  prosperous  and  peaceful  com- 
munity to  the  Government  of  the  United  States  in  1790.  We 
have  had  in  the  history  of  our  country  frequent  instances  of  the 
organization  of  vigilantes  among  our  pioneer  settlers  provoked 
by  robberies  and  murders  which  but  too  often  were  followed 
by  lynch  law,  but  in  the  case  of  Cahokia  we  read  of  no  such 
provocations  or  avenging  crimes.  There  seemed  to  have  been 
no  hot  blood  in  the  Cahokia  settlement,  but  a  cold-blooded  de- 
termination to  live  peacefully  and  honestly  without  the  enforced 
action  of  written  law. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

STRUGGLE  IN  CONGRESS  OVER  WESTERN  LAND 

TITLES 

All  of  the  Illinois  country  was  covered  and  included  in  the 
grants  by  the  British  Crown  made  in  1609  while  the  French 
were  in  actual  occupation  of  that  territory.  As  the  war  for  inde- 
pendence began  to  make  successful  progress  towards  independ- 
ence, the  states  that  had  claims  to  western  lands  derived  from 
the  British  Crown  and  Parliament  began  to  renew  their  claims 
in  Congress.  They  expected  by  so  doing  to  be  able  to  sell  these 
lands  and  reimburse  themselves  for  the  cost  of  the  Revolutionary 
war.  The  Articles  of  Confederation  between  the  different  col- 
onies were  presented  to  Congress  in  the  summer  of  1776,  and 
were  finally  endorsed  by  Congress  in  the  fall  of  1777.  There- 
upon they  were  sent  to  the  different  states  for  ratification.  The 
articles  of  confederation  provided  that  they  must  be  ratified 
by  all  the  colonies,  before  they  could  go  into  effect.  In  the 
spring  of  1781,  all  of  the  states  had  ratified  excepting  Maryland. 
Maryland  refused  to  ratify  until  some  arrangement  was  made 
between  the  different  states  as  to  the  western  lands.  The  rep- 
resentatives of  Maryland  pointed  out  that  the  states  without 
claims  for  western  lands  were  at  a  distinct  disadvantage  in  the 
way  of  paying  their  volunteer  soldiers.  They  argued  that  all  of 
the  soldiers  of  each  and  all  of  the  colonies  were  fighting  equally 
for  independence;  that  they  were  equally  risking  their  lives 
and  their  limbs  and  their  futures,  and  that  all  of  these  soldiers 
should  be  equally  rewarded.  Some  of  the  states  recognized  the 
justice  of  this  claim  put  forward  by  Maryland,  but  others,  being 
those  that  had  claim  to  western  territory,  were  selfish  and  re- 
fused to  acknowledge  the  force  of  this  contention. 

152 


ILLINOIS  153 

Finally  all  of  the  colonies,  excepting  Maryland,  ratified  the 
Articles  of  Confederation,  but  Maryland  still  stoutly  contended 
that  she  would  not  do  so  until  these  western  lands  were  ceded 
to  the  Federal  Government  for  the  benefit  of  all.  The  latter 
state,  Maryland,  on  December  15,  1778,  went  of  record  by  pass- 
ing a  resolution  in  her  Legislature,  refusing  to  enter  the  con- 
federation unless  "an  article  or  articles  be  added  thereto,  giving 
full  power  to  the  United  States  in  Congress  assembled  to  ascer- 
tain and  fix  the  western  limits  of  the  states  claiming  to  extend 
to  the  Mississippi  or  South  Sea,  and  expressly  reserving  or 
securing  to  the  United  States  a  right  in  common,  in  and  to, 
all  the  lands  lying  to  the  westward  of  the  boundaries  as  afore- 
said, not  granted  to,  surveyed  for  or  purchased  by  individuals 
at  the  commencement  of  the  present  war  in  such  manner  that 
the  lands  be  sold  out,  or  otherwise  disposed  of,  for  the  common 
benefit  of  all  the  states." 

There  were  a  number  of  prominent  and  influential  men  in 
Maryland.  Within  a  year  afterwards,  on  December  14,  1779, 
the  Legislature  of  the  State  of  Virginia  passed  a  resolution 
pointing  out  that  in  the  previous  May  the  Legislature  of  that 
state  had  forbidden  settlements  north  of  the  River  Ohio,  and 
in  the  same  resolution  the  State  of  Virginia  protested  against 
the  consideration  by  the  Continental  Congress  of  the  claims  of 
land  companies  acquired  in  violation  of  this  restriction.  The 
Legislature  of  Virginia  also  pointed  out  that  the  claims  of  the 
Vandalia  and  Indiana  land  companies  were  contrary  to  Vir- 
ginia's rights  under  the  confederation,  and  that  in  the  Illinois 
and  Wabash  land  company  there  were  "several  men  of  great 
influence  in  some  of  the  neighboring  states."  When  the  matter 
was  brought  up  in  Congress,  that  body  found  itself  somewhat 
distressed  by  the  stubborn  attitude  of  the  two  leaders  in  the 
fight,  the  State  of  Virginia  and  the  State  of  Maryland.  On 
September  6,  1780,  Congress  determined  "that  it  appears  more 
advisable  to  press  upon  those  states  which  can  remove  the  em- 
barrassment respecting  the  western  country,  a  liberal  surrender 
of  a  portion  of  their  territorial  claims,  since  they  cannot  be 
preserved  entirely  without  endangering  the  stability  of  the 
general  confederacy." 


154  ILLINOIS 

New  York  readily  gave  up  its  claim.  Virginia  soon  recog- 
nized the  strength  of  the  opposition  that  was  developing  against 
her  effort  to  maintain  her  claim  and  received  in  rather  a  kindly 
manner  the  intimation  for  the  necessity  of  a  settlement  thrown 
out  by  Congress.  On  January  2,  1781,  the  Virginia  Legislature 
adopted  a  resolution  providing  for  the  cession  of  its  claims  to 
Congress,  with  eight  conditions  added  to  the  terms  of  the  ces- 
sion, which  eight  conditions  are  about  as  follows : 

1.  That  the  territory  should  be  formed  into  states,  each 
containing  from  100  to  150  miles  square. 

2.  That  Virginia  should  be  reimbursed  for  the  expenses  it 
had  incurred  within  the  territory. 

3.  That  the  French  and  Canadian  settlers  should  be  pro- 
tected in  their  persons  and  property. 

4.  That  the  promises  of  land  conveyances  made  to  George 
Rogers  Clark  and  his  men  should  be  fulfilled,  and  that  in  case 
the  land  southeast  of  the  Ohio  reserved  for  the  Virginia  troops 
should  be  insufficient,  that  enough  land  should  be  reserved  on 
the  northwest  side  of  the  river  to  take  care  of  these  claims. 

5.  That  the  old  Northwest  Territory  thus  ceded  to  the 
United  States  should  be  considered  a  common  fund  for  the 
nation. 

6.  That  the  territory  remaining  in  Virginia  should  be  guar- 
anteed. 

7.  That  all  purchases  made  by  private  persons  from  the 
Indians  should  be  declared  void. 

With  these  concessions  made  by  Virginia,  Maryland  felt 
herself  no  longer  to  be  justified  in  continuing  the  fight,  lest 
it  should  be  construed  that  she  was  fighting  for  the  land  com- 
panies and  private  interests.  On  February  2,  1781,  the  Legis- 
lature of  Maryland  authorized  its  delegates  to  sign  the  articles. 
This  action  of  Virginia  and  Maryland  ratified  the  confederation 
of  the  states,  but  before  the  ceding  of  all  of  Virginia's  rights  to 
the  United  States  took  place,  there  was  still  a  struggle  over  the 
reservations  made  by  Virginia  in  the  resolution  passed  by  that 
state  on  January  2,  1781.  The  fight  over  these  reservations  in 
Congress  was  quite  vigorous.  The  matter  of  the  acceptance  of 
Virginia's  cession  coupled  with  the  reservations  was  referred 


ILLINOIS  155 

to  the  committee  considering  the  cessions  from  Virginia,  New 
York  and  Connecticut.  That  committee  declared  on  June  24, 
1781,  that  it  was  inexpedient  for  Congress  to  accept  any  of  the 
state's  cessions  as  they  stood  and  containing  the  reservations  as 
stated.  The  committee  recommended  that  Congress  determine 
the  western  limits  beyond  which  it  could  not  extend  its  guaranty 
to  the  particular  states,  and  recommended  that  when  these  had 
been  determined,  that  a  committee  be  appointed  to  prepare  a 
plan  for  dividing  and  disposing  of  the  territory  in  such  a  way 
as  to  discharge  the  obligations  of  the  United  States.  This 
report  of  the  committee  on  October  2,  1781,  was  referred  to  a 
new  committee  composed  of  delegates  from  states  with  definite 
western  boundaries.  That  committee  called  upon  Virginia  to 
defend  the  position  of  the  commonwealth.  The  Virginia  dele- 
gates refused  so  to  do,  declaring  that  Congress  had  no  juris- 
diction in  an  issue  between  a  commonwealth  and  private  citi- 
zens. The  committee  then  recommended  that  the  cession  of  New 
York  be  accepted  and  that  of  Virginia  rejected.  That  commit- 
tee also  reported  on  the  claims  of  the  different  land  companies 
that  had  filed  petitions  in  Congress,  and  denied  the  claims  of  the 
Illinois  and  Wabash  Land  Company  because  of  the  fact  that  its 
purchases  had  been  made  contrary  to  law.  No  action  appears 
to  have  been  taken  on  this  report,  but  on  October  29,  1782,  Con- 
gress voted  on  the  motion  of  Maryland  to  accept  the  cession 
made  by  New  York.  The  proposed  cession  of  Virginia  soon 
thereafter  was  referred  again  to  a  committee  composed  of  dif- 
ferent members  than  the  former  committee.  This  committee 
on  June  20,  1783,  made  a  report  favoring  acceptance  of  the  pro- 
posed Virginia  cession,  providing  that  certain  conditions  there- 
in were  modified.  In  particular  it  recommended  that  the  clause 
annulling  the  Indian  purchases  should  not  be  insisted  upon  be- 
cause it  was  covered  by  some  of  the  other  conditions.  The  report 
was  finally  approved  by  Congress.  The  desired  modifications 
were  made  by  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  in  1783,  and  the 
cession  of  Virginia  was  completed  on  March  1,  1784.  After  the 
approval  of  the  Virginia  cession,  Massachusetts  waived  its  claim. 
In  1786,  the  cession  of  Connecticut  reserving  the  territory 
afterward  known  as  the  Western  Reserve  was  completed,  and 


156  ILLINOIS 

by  this  act  of  Connecticut  the  whole  Northwest  Territory  was 
cleared  of  state  claims,  excepting  the  small  reservation  made 
by  Connecticut.  Soon  thereafter  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  appointed  a  committee  for  the  purpose  of  preparing  ordi- 
nances for  the  government  of  this  territory.  Thomas  Jefferson 
was  the  chairman  of  this  committee.  He  drew  up  an  ordinance 
providing  for  the  division  of  the  territory  into  sixteen  states. 
The  plan,  when  submitted  to  Congress,  was  referred  back  to 
the  same  committee  for  re-consideration.  That  committee  re- 
vised its  plan  and  proposed  the  immediate  formation  of  seven 
states  in  the  territory  bounded  by  parallels  of  latitude  and  me- 
ridian lines,  but  leaving  the  extreme  Northwest  undivided. 
Under  this  plan,  the  government  was  to  be  organized  by  the 
settlers  themselves  under  the  authority  of  Congress,  and  the 
Territorial  Government  might  adopt  with  alterations  such  laws 
of  other  states  as  suited  its  purpose.  It  was  provided  that  when 
the  population  reached  20,000  the  territory  could  establish  a 
permanent  government  upon  republican  principles,  and  that 
when  the  population  equaled  that  of  the  smallest  of  the  original 
states,  it  might  apply  to  Congress  for  admission  into  the  Union. 

This  act  was  passed  April  23,  1784.  It  never  went  into 
effect,  however.  The  Indians  were  still  in  possession  of  the  land 
and  there  were  practically  no  settlers  in  the  territory  to  organize 
the  government  except  the  French  settlers  in  Illinois,  who  were 
neither  vigorous  enough,  nor  numerous  enough,  to  bring  about 
its  organization. 

About  this  time,  Thomas  Jefferson  was  sent  to  Paris,  where 
he  remained  several  years,  and  his  plan  of  organization  was 
not  pushed  forward  for  enforcement.  James  Monroe  took  his 
place  in  Congress,  and  he  made  a  visit  to  the  Northwest  Terri- 
tory and  became  convinced  that  the  limitation  of  the  states  to 
an  area  of  150  miles  square,  which  was  provided  in  the  cession 
of  Virginia,  was  impractical.  Monroe  recommended  that  Vir- 
ginia revise  her  act  of  cession  so  as  to  provide  that  not  more 
than  five  nor  less  than  three  states  should  be  formed  out  of  the 
territory  of  the  old  Northwest.  Monroe's  views  prevailed,  and 
they  resulted  in  a  succession  of  reports  and  resolutions  in  the 
Legislature  of  Virginia  and  in  Congress  between  May  10,  1786, 


ILLINOIS  157 

and  April  26,  1787,  when  a  new  ordinance  was  formulated  and 
put  up  for  passage.  This  act  was  the  famous  Ordinance  of 
April  26,  1787,  providing  for  the  creation  of  the  Northwest 
Territory. 

From  the  foregoing  statement  we  can  learn  why  the  North- 
west Territory  was  unprovided  with  laws  or  ordinances  from 
the  time  of  the  signing  of  the  treaty  of  peace  in  1783  until  the 
year  1787. 

Let  us  now  discuss  the  conflicting  claims  between  private 
interests  and  public  interests  which  occasioned  most  of  this 
delay. 

The  soldiers  who  fought  in  the  Revolutionary  war  were  not 
given  cash  when  they  were  paid  off  at  the  close  of  the  war. 
There  was  no  cash  with  which  to  pay  them.  They  received  in- 
stead of  cash,  paper  money  or  "certificates  of  indebtedness." 
These  certificates  of  indebtedness  were  not  legal  tender,  nor 
could  they  be  exchanged  for  cash  except  at  a  frightful  discount. 
As  soon  as  the  Ordinance  of  1787  was  adopted,  the  people  began 
to  hear  of  the  rich  lands  in  the  new  Northwest  Territory  and 
they  saw  a  way  to  utilize  these  certificates  of  indebtedness  of 
the  Continental  Congress,  and  there  was  soon  a  demand  for 
these  certificates,  which  could  be  utilized  for  the  payment  of  the 
small  prices  fixed  upon  the  land  when  offered  for  sale  by  the 
Federal  Government.  Many  of  the  officers  of  the  Revolutionary 
army  after  their  discharge  became  interested  in  acquiring  these 
certificates.  Among  these  was  Gen.  Benjamin  Tupper  and  Gen. 
Samuel  Holden  Parsons.  These  officers  associated  themselves 
with  the  other  influential  men  and  the  Ohio  Company  of  Asso- 
ciates was  formed,  on  March  3,  1786,  in  Boston.  This  company 
acquired  a  very  large  amount  of  these  soldiers'  certificates,  and 
the  directors  of  the  company  sent  General  Parsons  to  Congress 
to  propose  the  purchase  of  lands  west  of  the  Ohio  for  that  com- 
pany. The  Rev.  Manassa  Cutler,  a  Congregational  minister,  also 
became  interested  in  the  company.  Doctor  Cutler  was  a  clergy- 
man of  considerable  note,  a  scientist,  and  a  man  of  great  influ- 
ence. Both  General  Parsons  and  Doctor  Cutler  visited  Washing- 
ton and  called  upon  members  of  Congress  for  the  purpose  of 
negotiating  a  purchase  of  a  tract  of  land  on  the  Ohio  River  for 


158  ILLINOIS 

the  Ohio  Company  of  Associates.  The  company  at  that  time 
had  on  hand  one  million  dollars  worth  of  these  certificates. 

Prior  to  that  time,  another  group  of  men  had  formed  the 
Indiana  Land  Company  and  the  Vandalia  Land  Company,  both 
of  which  companies  were  composed  of  many  men  of  political 
strength  and  acumen.  Another  company,  known  as  the  Illinois 
and  Wabash  Land  Company  was  organized  for  the  purpose  of 
acquiring  lands  in  what  are  now  Indiana  and  Illinois.  All  of 
these  companies  now  united  in  the  effort  to  secure  land  in  the 
Northwest  Territory.  Thomas  Jefferson  in  Congress  and  a 
group  of  powerful  leaders  were  opposed  to  the  policy  of  granting 
large  concessions  to  incorporated  companies,  and  held  to  the 
belief  that  the  land  should  be  thrown  open  to  actual  settlers.  They 
had  an  ordinance  passed,  providing  for  the  surveying  of  the  lands 
in  rectangular  sections,  providing  for  townships,  sections  and 
quarter  sections  of  land,  and  they  vigorously  opposed  the  whole- 
sale granting  of  enormous  tracts  to  speculating  companies,  and 
attempted  in  Congress  to  preserve  these  lands  from  sale  except 
as  to  actual  settlers  who  would  settle  thereon  and  pay  a  nom- 
inal price  therefor.  The  leading  spirits  on  behalf  of  the  cor- 
porations were  Gen.  Rufus  Putnam,  Gen.  Samuel  Parsons,  Win- 
throp  Sargent  and  the  Rev.  Manassa  Cutler  representing  the 
Ohio  Company;  Col.  William  Duer  representing  the  Sciota  Com- 
pany, John  Cleve  Symmes  representing  New  Jersey  interests. 
In  addition  to  these  men  representing  these  companies,  two 
men  named  Royal  Flint  and  Joseph  Parker  on  October  18,  1787, 
filed  a  petition  for  a  large  tract  of  land  between  the  Great  and 
Little  Miami  rivers.  Another  petition  asking  for  leave  to  buy 
land  came  from  the  New  Jersey  Land  Company  organized  by 
George  Morgan,  who  asked  for  two  million  acres  situated  on  the 
Miami  south  of  the  Flint  and  Parker  tracts. 

All  of  these  different  interests  finally  gathered  their  influ- 
ences together  behind  Col.  William  Duer,  a  very  shrewd  and 
capable  business  man  who  had  made  considerable  money  through 
contracts  for  furnishing  the  Revolutionary  army  during  the  war, 
and  by  speculation  in  government  securities.  He  was  intimately 
connected  with  most  of  the  financial  powers  of  the  United  States 
and  with  many  of  those  in  Europe.    Doctor  Cutler  had  offered  to 


ILLINOIS  159 

buy  a  large  tract  of  land  to  be  immediately  occupied  by  men 
from  the  northern  states,  which  had  brought  to  the  support  of 
these  companies  influential  men  from  the  North  who  had  hith- 
erto been  lukewarm. 

After  the  passage  of  the  ordinance  on  July  13,  1787,  the 
sale  of  lands  was  next  taken  up  for  consideration.  The  first 
terms  of  sale  submitted  to  the  Ohio  company  were  not  acceptable 
to  that  company.  Doctor  Cutler,  who  represented  the  company, 
was  thereupon  called  upon  by  some  of  the  leading  speculators  to 
whom  he  had  letters  of  introduction.  The  leader  of  this  band 
of  speculators  was  Duer.  Duer  suggested  the  formation  of  an- 
other and  a  larger  company  that  would  purchase  through  Cutler 
and  his  associates  5,000,000  acres  of  land  over  and  above  the 
million  and  a  half  sought  by  the  Ohio  Company.  Colonel  Duer 
is  stated  by  Alvord  in  his  history  to  have  been  at  that  time  secre- 
tary of  the  Confederacy  Board  of  Treasury,  and  had  authority 
to  make  sales  of  land.  Doctor  Cutler  and  Colonel  Duer  quickly 
came  to  an  agreement,  one  of  the  terms  of  which  was  that  Gen. 
Arthur  St.  Clair  should  be  made  the  first  governor  of  the  North- 
west Territory.  Colonel  Duer  now  organized  the  Sciota  Com- 
pany and  began  the  struggle  to  secure  land  from  the  Government. 

On  October  23,  1787,  a  resolution  was  passed,  authorizing 
the  Board  of  the  Treasury  to  enter  into  contracts  "in  behalf  of 
the  United  States  with  any  person  or  persons  for  any  quantity 
of  land  in  the  Northwest  Territory,  the  Indian  rights  whereon 
having  been  extinguished,  not  less  than  one  million  of  acres  in 
one  body,  upon  the  same  terms  as  respected  price,  payment  and 
surveying,  with  those  directed  in  the  contract  with  Mr.  Cutler 
and  W.  Sargent."  Jefferson's  effort  to  reserve  all  the  land  in 
the  Northwest  Territory  was  in  part  defeated.  These  great 
speculating  companies  had  sufficient  influence  to  secure  a  mod- 
ification of  the  ordinance  so  as  to  permit  purchases  by  them  in 
large  quantities.  Nonetheless,  great  tracts  of  fertile  lands  were 
opened  up  to  actual  settlers  who  were  already  at  the  time  of  the 
passage  of  the  ordinance  crossing  the  Alleghanies  with  the  hon- 
est desire  of  establishing  homesteads  in  the  great  Northwest. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  UNITED  STATES  ORDINANCE  OF  1787  CREATING 
THE  NORTHWEST  TERRITORY 

The  following  in  substance  are  the  provisions  of  this  famous 
ordinance : 

1.  The  territory  northwest  of  the  Ohio  River  shall  for  the 
purposes  of  government  be  considered  one  district,  but  may  be 
divided  into  two  if  found  expedient. 

2.  The  estates  of  persons  dying  intestate  shall  descend  to 
the  children  of  said  person  in  equal  parts.  If  there  are  no  chil- 
dren, then  to  nearest  of  kin. 

3.  Estates  may  be  bequeathed  by  wills  in  writing,  and  real 
estate  may  be  transferred  by  deeds,  signed,  sealed,  and  delivered. 

4.  The  laws  for  the  descent  of  property  in  Kaskaskia,  St. 
Vincennes  and  other  French  villages  shall  remain  unchanged 
by  this  ordinance. 

5.  For  purposes  of  government  Congress  shall  from  time 
to  time  appoint  a  governor  who  shall  serve  three  years  and 
shall  reside  in  the  said  territory.  There  shall  be  a  secretary 
who  shall  serve  four  years ;  he  also  must  reside  in  the  said  terri- 
tory. The  duties  of  the  secretary  shall  be  such  as  devolve  upon 
similar  officials  in  like  situations.  The  Congress  shall  appoint 
a  court  consisting  of  three  judges  who  shall  live  in  the  territory. 
Their  appointments  shall  run  during  good  behavior. 

6.  The  governor  and  judges  shall  adopt  and  publish  such 
laws  of  the  original  states,  criminal  and  civil,  as  may  be  neces- 
sary and  suited  to  the  needs  of  the  district.  These  laws  must 
be  reported  to  Congress  from  time  to  time. 

7.  The  governor  shall  be  commander-in-chief  of  the  militia, 
appoint  and  commission  all  officers  in  the  militia. 

8.  The  governor  for  the  time  being  shall  appoint  civil  of- 
ficers for  the  counties,  townships,  etc. 

160 


(From   portrait   by   Charles    Willson   Peak) 

Arthur  St.  Clair 

First   Governor  of  Northwest   Territory 


162  ILLINOIS 

9.  After  territorial  Legislatures  are  organized,  these  shall 
make  laws  for  appointments  to  civil  offices  in  the  counties,  etc. 

10.  The  laws  adopted  shall  be  in  force  in  all  parts  of  the 
district.  The  governor  shall  lay  out  and  organize  counties  for 
the  more  convenient  execution  of  law  and  the  preservation  of 
order. 

11.  When  the  population  has  reached  5,000  free  male  in- 
habitants twenty-one  years  of  age,  there  shall  be  organized  a 
Territorial  Legislature  made  up  of  representatives  elected  from 
the  several  counties  or  other  units.  The  appointment  being  one 
representative  for  every  500  free  male  inhabitants.  There  were 
property  and  residence  qualifications  for  both  electors  and  rep- 
resentatives. Vacancies  in  the  representation  should  be  filled 
by  election. 

12.  There  should  be  a  legislative  council  made  up  of  five 
members  holding  office  for  five  years.  These  five  councilors 
were  to  be  selected  by  Congress  from  a  list  of  ten  nominated  by 
the  Legislature. 

13.  The  legislative  functions  of  government  shall  be  exer- 
cised by  the  governor,  the  council  and  the  representatives.  Bills 
passing  both  houses  of  the  Legislature,  and  being  signed  by  the 
governor,  become  laws.  The  governor  had  the  power  to  con- 
vene, prorogue  and  dissolve  the  Legislature. 

14.  The  two  houses  of  the  Legislature  in  joint  session  shall 
elect  a  delegate  to  Congress  who  shall  have  all  rights  of  members 
except  voting. 

15.  "For  the  purpose  of  extending  the  fundamental  princi- 
ples of  civil  and  religious  liberty  which  form  the  basis  of  these 
republics;  and  to  fix  and  establish  those  principles  as  the  basis 
of  all  laws,  constitutions  and  governments  which  forever  here- 
after shall  be  formed  in  the  said  territory;  to  provide,  also  for 
the  establishment  of  states  and  permanent  governments  therein ; 
and  for  their  admission  to  a  share  in  the  federal  councils  on  an 
equal  footing  with  the  original  states,  Be  it  ordained,  etc." 

Following  the  foregoing  provisions  there  were  six  articles 
which  constitute  a  sort  of  fundamental  Bill  of  Rights  such  as 
are  found  in  the  constitutions  of  most  of  the  states  today.  The 
ordinance  of  1787  declared  that  the  articles  which  are  given 


Northwest  Territory 


164  ILLINOIS 

below  were  "articles  of  compact  between  the  original  states 
and  the  people  and  states  in  the  said  territory,  and  forever  re- 
main unalterable  unless  by  common  consent." 
Bill  of  Rights. 

Art.  1.  No  person,  demeaning  himself  in  a  peaceable  and 
orderly  manner,  shall  ever  be  molested  on  account  of  his  mode 
of  worship  or  religious  sentiments,  in  the  said  territory. 

Art.  2.  The  inhabitants  shall  always  be  entitled  to  the  bene- 
fits of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  and  of  trial  by  jury. 

They  shall  be  entitled  to  proportionate  representation  in  the 
Legislature,  and  of  judicial  proceedings. 

All  persons  shall  be  entitled  to  bail  except  in  capital  cases. 
All  fines  shall  be  moderate,  and  cruel  and  unusual  punishments 
shall  never  be  inflicted. 

No  man  shall  be  deprived  of  his  liberty  or  property,  but  by 
the  judgment  of  his  peers,  or  the  law  of  the  land. 

No  law  shall  ever  be  made  which  shall  interfere  with  con- 
tracts previously  entered  into,  if  bona  fide  and  without  fraud. 

Art.  3.  Religion,  morality  and  knowledge,  being  necessary 
to  good  government  and  the  happiness  of  mankind,  schools  and 
the  means  of  education  shall  forever  be  encouraged. 

Good  faith  towards  the  Indians  shall  be  observed,  and  their 
property  rights  and  liberty  shall  not  be  invaded  unless  in  just 
wars  authorized  by  Congress. 

Art.  4.  The  said  territory,  and  the  states  which  may  be 
formed  therein,  shall  forever  remain  a  part  of  this  confederacy 
of  the  United  States  of  America. 

The  inhabitants  and  settlers  in  said  territory  shall  be  subject 
to  pay  a  part  of  the  Federal  debt,  contracted  or  to  be  contracted. 

The  legislatures  of  these  districts,  or  new  states,  shall  never 
interfere  with  the  primary  disposal  of  the  soil  by  the  United 
States  in  Congress  assembled,  nor  with  any  regulations  Congress 
may  find  necessary  for  securing  the  title  in  such  soil,  to  the  bona 
fide  purchasers. 

Art.  5.  There  shall  be  formed  in  the  said  territory  not  less 
than  three,  nor  more  than  five  states,  with  boundaries  as  follows : 
The  state  farthest  west  shall  be  bound  by  the  Mississippi,  the 
Ohio,  and  the  Wabash  and  the  meridian  of  Vincennes,  and  on 


ILLINOIS  165 

the  north  by  Canada.  The  middle  state  by  the  meridian  of 
Vincennes,  the  Wabash,  the  Ohio  and  the  meridian  of  the  mouth 
of  the  Great  Miami  River,  and  on  the  north  by  Canada.  The 
eastern  state  shall  be  bounded  by  the  meridian  on  the  mouth  of 
the  Great  Miami,  the  Ohio,  and  Pennsylvania,  and  on  the  north 
by  Canada. 

But  Congress  may  run  an  east  and  west  line  through  the 
southerly  bend  of  Lake  Michigan  and  form  two  states  out  of 
the  territory  north  of  this  line. 

When  any  one  of  these  states  shall  have  60,000  free  inhab- 
itants it  may  be  admitted  as  a  state  into  the  Union,  on  equal 
footing  with  the  old  thirteen  states. 

Art.  6.  Neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  shall 
exist  in  the  said  territory  except  as  a  punishment  for  crime, 
whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted. 

Slaves  or  involuntary  servants  escaping  into  said  territory 
shall  be  delivered  up  to  the  ones  to  whom  such  labor,  or  service, 
is  due. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
THE  LAW'S  DELAY  AND  STRUGGLE  FOR  LAND 

The  treaty  of  Paris  established  the  United  States  of  America 
as  a  nation  September  3,  1783.  It  was  nearly  four  years  there- 
after before  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  passed  the  ordi- 
nance of  July,  1787,  which  finally  went  into  effect  and  gave  law 
to  the  Illinois  country.  What  were  the  causes  that  delayed 
giving  relief  and  lawful  government  to  the  people  of  the  North- 
west who  were  clamoring  for  the  same  ?  There  were  two  causes 
which  we  will  discuss  at  length:  First — Conflict  between  New 
York,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut  and  Virginia  and  the  United 
States,  and  the  conflict  of  these  four  states  with  each  other  and 
the  other  states  of  the  United  States  as  to  the  ownership  of  the 
territory;  and  second — a  bitter  contest  between  public  and  pri- 
vate interests  as  to  the  terms  of  the  fundamental  law  for  the  new 
territory  as  it  affected  private  ownership  of  the  land. 

We  will  now  discuss  the  first  cause  of  the  delay  or  the  con- 
flict of  the  several  states  with  each  other  and  the  United  States, 
as  to  the  ownership  of  the  land  in  the  Northwest  country  ac- 
quired from  Great  Britain  by  the  treaty  of  Paris  in  1783. 

The  real  and  best  title  to  this  territory  was  in  the  Indian 
tribes  that  for  over  a  century  after  its  discovery  by  white  men 
had  occupied  it  and  claimed  it  as  their  hunting-grounds.  These 
tribes  had  in  all  probability  been  in  ownership  and  occupation 
of  same  for  centuries  before  any  European  had  set  foot  upon 
the  territory.  The  white  man,  however,  whether  he  was  French, 
English,  Spanish  or  American ;  whether  he  was  a  coureur  de  hois, 
a  British  trader  or  a  Kentucky  backwoodsman,  a  diplomat  or  a 
statesman,  knew  that  the  half-naked,  illiterate  Indians,  with 
their  tomahawks  and  bows  and  arrows,  were  helpless  to  main- 
tain their  titles  either  by  diplomacy  or  by  warfare.  They  knew 
that  in  nearly  every  instance  where,  in  the  eastern  colonies,  the 

166 


ILLINOIS  167 

white  man  wanted  possession  of  the  Indian  lands,  he  secured 
them,  either  by  over-reaching"  or  swindling  the  Indians  in  so- 
called  treaties,  which  were  signed  by  the  chiefs  soaked  in  the 
white  man's  rum  and  loaded  with  the  white  man's  worthless 
baubles ;  or  by  open  violence  and  the  crack  of  rifles.  They  knew 
that  all  Caucasian  nations  without  exception  had,  in  their  deal- 
ings with  black,  brown,  yellow  or  red  uncivilized  men  throughout 
all  past  history,  treated  the  titles  of  savage  men  to  the  lands  they 
occupied  as  a  temporary  obstacle  to  be  removed  by  blandishment 
or  bloodshed. 

The  diplomats  of  Great  Britain,  France  and  the  United 
States,  when  they  signed  the  Treaty  of  Peace  in  1783,  all  acted 
on  this  understanding  and  conveyed  the  land  occupied  and  right- 
fully-owned by  the  Algonquin  tribes  of  Indians,  which  after- 
wards became  the  Northwest  Territory  to  the  United  States  of 
America,  thus  leaving  the  latter  nation  in  a  position  in  which 
it  could  dispose  of  the  Indian  titles  in  the  usual  white  man's 
way.  Let  us  then  only  discuss  the  title  of  the  American  nation 
and  of  its  several  states  to  the  land  in  question. 

The  title  to  all  this  land  by  discovery  and  occupation  was 
in  France  until  she  ceded  her  title  to  Great  Britain  by  the 
treaty  of  1763.  Under  British  law,  which  was  also  the  law  of 
the  British  colonies,  the  title  of  all  lands  within  the  nation  was 
held  by  the  Crown  under  the  feudal  system.  All  grants  made 
by  the  Crown  reserved  the  fee  simple  title  in  the  Crown,  quali- 
fied by  the  grants  or  concessions  made  to  grantees  by  charter  of 
other  royal  instrument  of  conveyance.  Often  a  nominal  quit 
rent  was  specified,  but  more  often  material  returns  of  income 
or  service  were  required  annually  from  the  grantees.  The  title 
in  fee  of  the  Crown  to  these  lands  .was  never  passed  to  any 
chartered  colony  or  any  proprietor  until  it  was  conveyed  abso- 
lutely by  the  Treaty  of  Peace  in  1763.  To  what  nation  or  state 
did  the  title  pass  by  that  treaty?  There  can  be  but  little  doubt 
that  the  title  of  the  British  Crown  passed  to  the  United  States 
of  America.  The  American  commissioners  appointed  to  settle 
the  terms  of  that  treaty  represented  no  single  state  separately, 
but  all  of  the  thirteen  states  jointly.  Great  Britain  would  not 
have  recognized  or  dealt  with  them  if  they  had  not  represented 


168  ILLINOIS 

them  jointly.  So  far  as  Great  Britain  was  concerned,  the  United 
States  of  America  sprang  into  national  life  and  became  a  sover- 
eign nation  for  the  first  time  when  that  treaty  was  signed.  In 
the  eyes  of  Great  Britain,  before  the  signature  of  the  treaty 
they  were  only  thirteen  revolting  colonies  in  America  and  not  a 
sovereign  nation. 

When  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  took  up  for  consid- 
eration the  question  of  establishing  a  government  for  the  newly 
acquired  territory,  it  had  the  lawful  right  to  it  as  a  part  of  the 
national  domain  and  the  right  to  legislate  for  its  government,  and 
some  of  the  states  advocated  this  policy.  But  opposition 
promptly  arose  as  to  the  expediency  of  so  doing,  chiefly  from 
Virginia,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut  and  New  York.  It  was 
vigorously  claimed  by  the  delegates  from  these  states  that  they 
had  rights  antedating  the  title  of  the  United  States  and  valid 
under  international  comity.  They  pointed  out  that  a  resolution 
of  the  Continental  Congress,  introduced  by  Richard  Henry  Lee, 
and  passed  by  that  body  in  1776,  read  as  follows : 

"Resolved,  that  these  united  colonies  are  and  of  right  ought 
to  be  free  and  independent  states ;"  that  the  same  words  appear 
in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  of  July  4,  1776,  and  that 
these  words  are  followed  in  that  memorable  document  by  the 
following:  ".  .  .  .  and  that  as  free  and  independent  states  they 
have  full  power  to  levy  war,  etc."  These  pregnant  words  in 
this  nation-erecting  instrument,  they  argued,  made  each  of  the 
separate  states  a  sovereign  state,  and  that  each  of  these  sover- 
eign states  became,  by  this  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the 
terms  of  the  treaty  of  1783,  the  owners  of  the  land  which  each 
colony  claimed  prior  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  All 
the  four  states  mentioned  united  in  this  contention,  but  differed 
among  themselves  as  to  priority  of  their  several  respective 
rights. 

This  requires  us  to  consider  the  joint  contention  of  the  four 
states  and  determine  whether  this  contention  had  legal  weight, 
and  then  take  up  the  question  of  priority  rights  as  between  the 
four  claimant  states.  Let  us  then  consider  the  claims  of  each 
and  ascertain  whether  they  were  well  founded,  and  if  so,  which 
had  priority  rights. 


ILLINOIS  169 

The  claim  of  New  York  can  be  quickly  disposed  of.  That 
state  did  not  claim  under  any  charter  or  grant  from  the  Crown. 
It  was  based  solely  upon  alleged  treaty  rights  obtained  from 
the  Iroquois  tribe  of  Indians,  or  the  so-called  Five  Nations. 
These  tribes  were  not  in  occupancy  of  this  territory  during  the 
120  years  that  it  was  claimed  by  France  and  Great  Britain. 
During  the  whole  of  that  period  it  had  been  occupied  by  differ- 
ent branches  of  the  Algonquin  race  of  Indians  with  whom  the 
Iroquois  were  often  in  deadly  conflict.  Occasionally  the  Iro- 
quois made  a  foray  into  Algonquin  territory  as  the  Algonquins 
made  forays  into  Iroquois  territory.  But  permanent  Iroquois 
occupancy  of  land  was  always  confined  within  the  limits  of  New 
York  State.  The  claim  of  New  York  was  a  mere  shadow  and 
seems  to  have  been  recognized  as  such  by  its  own  delegates,  for 
their  state  was  the  first  to  surrender  its  claims  and  to  convey 
its  interests  to  the  nation. 

The  claim  of  Massachusetts  was  based  upon  a  charter  ob- 
tained in  1628  or  1629  which  comprised  "a  strip  of  territory 
between  the  Merrimac  and  Charles  rivers  with  three  miles  on  the 
farther  side  of  each  and  extended  westward  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean."  This  strip  could  have  extended  over  the  north  portion 
of  the  State  of  Illinois. 

Connecticut  claimed  under  a  charter  granted  by  Charles  II, 
in  1662,  in  which  the  colony  was  given  all  the  land  south  of  the 
south  line  of  Massachusetts  reaching  to  the  latitude  of  New  York 
and  "westward  to  the  South  Sea."  This  would  have  crossed 
the  north  portion  of  the  present  State  of  Illinois  immediately 
south  of  and  adjoining  the  Massachusetts  claim. 

Virginia  claimed  under  a  charter  of  James  I,  dated  1607  and 
amended  in  1609,  which  granted  land  by  two  lines,  one  run- 
ning west  commencing  200  miles  south  of  Old  Point  Comfort, 
and  one  running  northwest  from  a  point  200  miles  north  of 
Old  Point  Comfort.  These  claims  had  been  made  and  discussed 
even  before  the  treaty  of  peace  was  signed  in  1783.  All  these 
claims,  however,  were,  as  we  have  seen,  finally  compromised 
and  settled  by  conveyance  from  all  of  the  claimant  states  to  the 
United  States. 


170  ILLINOIS 

Some  curious  reader  of  history  may  inquire  why  it  was  that 
the  United  States  ordinance  of  April  23,  1784,  creating  the 
Northwest  Territory,  did  not  go  into  effect.  The  ordinance  un- 
questionably was  passed  legally  by  Congress  and  became  a  part 
of  the  law  of  the  land;  yet  it  was  never  proclaimed,  nor  were 
any  officers  appointed  by  the  President  or  Congress  to  put  it 
into  execution.  There  are  several  reasons  that  will  naturally 
occur  to  an  inquiring  mind  if  it  examines  the  ordinance  itself 
and  the  circumstances  existing  immediately  before  and  after 
its  passage. 

Thomas  Jefferson,  who  framed  the  ordinance  of  1784,  left 
America  for  France  and  remained  abroad  for  several  years 
thereafter.  He  was  compelled  to  leave  his  legislative  child  to 
the  care  of  Madison  and  others  who  lacked  the  keen  interest  of 
paternity.  In  his  desire  to  throw  open  the  western  lands  to 
actual  settlers  who  would  buy  in  small  quantities  and  improve 
the  land  with  home  and  tillage,  Jefferson  had  inserted  in  the 
ordinance  a  provision  for  the  immediate  foundation  of  at  least 
seven  small  states,  rectangular  in  shape.  The  survey  ordinance 
of  May  20,  1785,  then  provided  that  each  state  should  be  subdi- 
vided by  survey  into  rectangular  townships  six  miles  square, 
each  township  to  contain  thirty-six  sections  of  land.  The  ordi- 
nance of  1784  further  provided  that  the  government  for  these 
states  was  to  be  organized  by  the  settlers  themselves  under  au- 
thority of  Congress,  and  that  the  territorial  government,  pending 
the  birth  of  the  states,  could  adopt  with  or  without  alteration 
such  laws  of  the  other  states  as  suited  its  purpose. 

In  1784  and  1785  the  Indians  were  still  in  undisturbed  pos- 
session of  these  lands,  excepting  a  few  French  settlements  at 
Detroit,  Peoria,  St.  Joe,  Vincennes,  Mackinac  and  in  Southern 
Illinois,  not  numbering  in  all  over  2,500  souls.  These  latter 
were  neither  numerous  enough  nor  sufficiently  acquainted  with 
the  English  language,  or  self-assertive  enough,  to  take  a  single 
step  towards  the  foundation  of  a  territorial  government.  Ex- 
cept the  French,  the  few  white  men  in  the  Northwest  Territory 
at  that  time  were  insignificant  in  number. 

Another  reason  why  there  was  no  attempt  to  create  a  govern- 
ment under  the  1784  ordinance  was  that  the  United  States  Gov- 


ILLINOIS  171 

ernment  had  made  no  provision  for  giving  title  of  the  land  to 
settlers.  The  Indian  titles  had  not  been  procured  and  no  price 
had  been  fixed,  or  the  terms  of  purchase  provided  for,  by  law 
or  ordinance.  Moreover,  there  was  no  great  inrush  of  actual 
settlers  yet  in  evidence  north  of  the  Ohio.  The  land  speculator 
had  not  yet  gotten  in  his  deadly  work  upon  the  unpaid  dis- 
charged soldiers  of  the  Revolution,  who  had  received  with  their 
discharge  papers  not  cash  but  "certificates  of  indebtedness  of  the 
United  States."  The  discharged  veteran  could  not  exchange 
these  certificates  for  cash,  food  or  clothing,  except  at  a  heavy 
discount.  The  land  speculators  soon  saw  their  opportunity,  but 
it  took  a  couple  of  years  after  peace  was  signed  in  1783  to 
organize,  advertise  and  merchandise  these  certificates  at  a  heavy 
discount.  When  this  work  was  done,  the  "Ohio  Company  of  As- 
sociates" became  active  and  appeared  before  Congress  March 
3,  1786,  having  been  organized  at  Boston  for  the  purpose  of 
dealing  in  land.  That  company  succeeded  in  buying  1,500,000 
acres,  and  then  came  the  Scioto  Company  asking  5,000,000 
acres,  and  other  companies  asking  other  millions  of  acres,  all 
under  the  terms  of  sale  given  to  the  Ohio  Company. 

The  resolution  of  Congress  under  which  the  large  sales  of 
land  in  bulk  were  made  was  passed  October  23,  1787,  and  au- 
thorized the  United  States  Board  of  Treasury  to  enter  into  con- 
tracts "in  behalf  of  the  United  States  with  any  person  or  per- 
sons for  any  quantity  of  land  in  the  western  territory,  the  In- 
dian rights  wherein  have  been  extinguished,  not  less  than  one 
million  acres  in  one  body,  upon  the  same  terms,  as  it  respects 
price,  payment  and  surveying,  with  these  directed  in  the  con- 
tract with  M.  Cutler  and  W.  Sargent."  The  M.  Cutler  and  W. 
Sargent  therein  mentioned  were  undoubtedly  the  Rev.  Manassa 
Cutler  and  Winthrop  Sargent,  who  were  the  leading  spirits  and 
lobbyists  of  the  Ohio  Company  of  Associates,  and  who  are  men- 
tioned in  a  former  chapter. 

A  consideration  of  the  above  matters  will  explain  why  it 
was  no  territorial  government  was  proclaimed  or  officered  under 
the  territorial  ordinance  of  1784  and  1785.  The  sales  made 
under  the  ordinance  of  1787,  at  or  about  this  time,  however, 
whether  made  in  bulk  or  to  actual  settlers,  did  not  affect  the 


172  ILLINOIS 

lands  of  the  present  State  of  Illinois.  That  ordinance  did  pro- 
tect or  attempt  to  protect  the  rights  of  the  French  settlers  in 
Illinois,  but  these  simple  people  had  in  many  cases  bartered 
away  their  rights  for  inadequate  and  often  trifling  considera- 
tion to  the  ever-present  crafty  land  speculator.  The  Indian 
titles  to  land  in  Illinois  were  not  extinguished  until  some  years 
afterwards,  and  the  Illinois  lands  were  not  thrown  open  to 
settlers  for  purchase  until  the  Indian  titles  were  by  hook  or 
crook  acquired. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

ILLINOIS  UNDER  NORTHWEST  TERRITORIAL 
GOVERNMENT 

On  October  5,  1787,  Gen.  Arthur  St.  Clair  was  selected  as 
governor  of  the  Northwest  Territory  and  Winthrop  Sargent  was 
appointed  secretary.  Soon  thereafter,  James  M.  Varnum,  Sam- 
uel H.  Parsons  and  John  C.  Symmes  were  appointed  judges. 
They  were  all  prominent  citizens  and  most  of  them  were  in- 
terested in  the  large  land  grants  heretofore  mentioned.  These 
gentlemen,  by  virtue  of  the  provisions  of  the  1787  ordinance, 
became  the  law-making  body  of  the  territory  and  enacted  a  set 
of  laws,  an  abstract  of  which  is,  according  to  Dillon  in  his  His- 
toric Notes: 

1.  The  first  law  was  one  providing  for  the  establishment 
of  a  militia  system  in  the  territory  of  the  United  States. 

2.  A  law  providing  for  Courts  of  Quarter  Sessions,  County 
Courts  of  Common  Pleas,  and  a  law  providing  for  the  office  of 
sheriff,  and  for  the  appointment  of  sheriffs. 

3.  Another  law  providing  for  the  establishment  of  court  of 
probate. 

4.  A  law  providing  for  the  sitting  of  the  general  court  in 
the  territory  to  hear  general  cases  beyond  the  adjudication  of 
the  courts  of  the  counties.  This  court  was  to  be  held  by  the 
three  judges  or  by  any  two  of  them.  They  were  to  be  held 
four  times  a  year  in  such  counties  as.  suits  the  pleasure  of  the 
judges.  This  general  court  shall  have  civil  and  criminal  juris- 
diction. The  law  provided  for  adjournment  of  sessions  and  for 
continuance  of  processes. 

5.  A  law  was  enacted  providing  for  oaths  of  office  for  the 
several  officials  in  the  several  counties. 

6.  A  law  respecting  crimes  and  the  punishments  thereof. 
Treason,  murder,  and  arson,  if  death  results,  are  punishable  by 

173 


^ 


Primitive  Grain  Mill 


ILLINOIS  175 

death.  Burglary  and  robbery,  by  whipping,  fines  and  imprison- 
ment. Minor  offenses  were  punishable  by  fines,  whippings,  dis- 
franchisement, or  the  pillory.  Offenders  who  could  not  pay  their 
fines  were  sold  by  the  sheriff  for  limited  terms  according  to  the 
offense. 

Children  or  servants  who  were  disobedient  to  the  commands 
of  their  parents  or  masters  might  be  sent  to  a  house  of  correc- 
tion by  the  courts. 

Drunken  persons  were  to  be  fined  for  the  first  offense  five 
dimes,  for  the  second  offense  ten  dimes  and  for  the  third  they 
could  be  sent  to  the  stocks. 

"Whereas,  idle,  vain  and  obscene  conversation,  profane  curs- 
ing and  swearing,  and  more  especially  the  irreverently  mention, 
ing,  calling  upon,  or  invoking  the  Sacred  and  Supreme  Being,  by 
any  of  the  divine  characters  in  which  he  hath  graciously  conde- 
scended to  reveal  his  infinitely  beneficent  purposes  to  mankind, 
are  repugnant  to  every  moral  sentiment,  subversive  of  every 
civil  obligation,  inconsistent  with  the  ornaments  of  polished  life, 
and  abhorrent  to  the  principles  of  the  most  benevolent  religion. 
It  is  expected,  therefore,  if  crimes  of  this  kind  should  exist, 
they  will  not  find  encouragement,  countenance,  or  approbation 
in  this  territory.  It  is  strictly  enjoined  upon  all  officers  and 
ministers  of  justice,  upon  parents  and  others,  heads  of  fam- 
ilies, and  upon  others  of  every  description,  that  they  abstain 
from  practices  so  vile  and  irrational;  and  that  by  example  and 
precept,  to  the  utmost  of  their  power  they  present  the  necessity 
of  adopting  and  publishing  laws,  with  penalties  upon  their  head. 
And  it  is  hereby  declared  that  the  Government  will  consider  as 
unworthy  its  confidence  all  those  who  may  obstinately  violate 
these  in  junctions." 

This  quotation  has  been  made  at  length  to  enable  the  reader 
to  obtain  some  insight  into  the  notions  that  the  people  of  that 
time  held  relative  to  profanity.  In  an  additional  paragraph  the 
governor  and  judges  lay  down  the  rule  governing  labor  and  acts 
of  charity  upon  the  Lord's  day  or  the  first  day  of  the  week. 

7.  A  law  regulating  marriages.  Marriage  contracts  cannot 
be  consummated  unless  the  intention  of  the  parties  to  the  con- 
tract is  published  at  least  fifteen  days  before  the  marriage.    The 


176  ILLINOIS 

means  of  publicity  was  announcement  in  the  place  of  worship 
three  different  Sundays  or  holy  days,  or  by  publishing  through 
a  written  statement  acknowledged  before  a  justice  of  the  peace, 
etc. 

8.  This  was  a  supplementary  law  pertaining  to  Act  1  rela- 
tive to  the  organization  of  the  militia. 

9.  A  law  providing  for  the  exercise  of  authority  by  the 
coroner. 

10.  A  limitation  of  the  time  of  commencing  civil  and  crim- 
inal actions. 

Governor  St.  Clair  did  not  make  his  appearance  in  Illinois 
until  some  time  in  March,  1790,  when  he  visited  Kaskaskia. 
The  white  population  then,  in  what  is  now  the  State  of  Illinois, 
did  not  exceed  2,500.  John  Reynolds,  afterwards  governor, 
who  landed  in  Illinois  in  1800,  and  who  had  an  excellent  oppor- 
tunity of  estimating  the  population  at  that  time  and  before, 
states  that  were  there  were  only  2,000  white  people  in  the  state 
in  1790,  of  whom  1,200  were  French.  He  also  states  that  in 
1800  those  who  spoke  English  were  between  800  and  1,000.  It 
is  certain  that  the  French  population  did  not  increase  between 
1790  and  1800.  The  discomforts  and  annoyances  which  they  had 
been  suffering  under  American  rule  since  Clark's  invasion  had 
been  reducing  rather  than  increasing  their  numbers.  The  people 
were  poor  and  ignorant  of  American  laws  and  customs.  Their 
holdings  had  never  been  surveyed  or  platted,  but  had  been  occu- 
pied and  utilized  under  unquestioned  claims  of  ownership  for 
many  years. 

The  governor  promptly  proceeded  to  lay  off  a  county,  and 
with  becoming  modesty  called  it  St.  Clair.  The  Illinois  and 
Mississippi  rivers  were  its  western  borders  and  the  Ohio  River 
its  southern  boundary.  The  northeasterly  boundary  was  a  line 
drawn  from  the  Illinois  River  at  the  mouth  of  Mackinac  Creek 
to  Fort  Massac  on  the  Ohio  River.  The  governor  then  appointed 
some  twenty-eight  county  officials,  twenty  of  whom  were  French. 
The  most  important  and  capable  of  the  new  appointees  were 
John  Edgar  and  James  Piggott.  The  former  of  these  was  ap- 
pointed to  three  offices,  captain  of  militia,  judge  of  Common 


ILLINOIS  177 

Pleas  and  judge  of  Quarter  Sessions.  The  latter  was  appointed 
captain  of  militia  and  justice  of  the  peace. 

After  appointing  these  officials,  the  governor  issued  a  proc- 
lamation requiring  all  persons  claiming  title  to  land  to  come  to 
his  office  and  present  their  titles.  Pursuant  to  this  order,  many 
claimants  proved  up  their  titles,  but  as  the  governor  also  re- 
quired them  to  have  their  lands  surveyed,  many  of  the  poor 
claimants  were  in  such  destitution  that  they  were  unable  to 
pay  for  surveys.  The  governor  reported  to  Congress  that  many 
surveys  were  made  and  recorded  but  that  a  part  of  the  surveys 
were  not  returned  because  the  people  objected  to  paying  the 
surveyor  and  that  it  was  too  true  that  they  "are  ill  able  to  pay." 
He  further  reported  that  the  people  in  the  settlements  in  Illi- 
nois on  the  Wabash  were  in  great  distress  and  had  been  since 
they  came  under  the  rule  of  General  Clark.  The  people  in  Kas- 
kaskia  and  other  towns  had  furnished  supplies  to  Clark's  troops 
and  had  given  Clark  everything  they  could  spare,  and  had  been 
paid  in  Virginia  certificates  that  were  without  value,  and  when 
these  certificates  were  presented  to  Virginia  they  were  rejected. 

In  this  plight  and  in  fear  of  losing  their  properties  held  for 
many  years,  the  people  appealed  to  Father  Gibault,  who  prepared 
a  heart-moving  memorial  and  gave  it  to  the  governor.  It  reads 
as  follows : 

St  Clair  County,  June  9th,  1790. 
To  His  Excellency  Arthur  St.  Clair, 
Governor  and  Commander-in-chief, 

Of  the  Territory  of  the  United  States 
Northwest  of  the  Kiver  Ohio. 

The  memorial  humbly  showeth.  that  by  an  act  of  Con- 
gress of  June  20,  1788,  it  was  declared  that  the  lands  here- 
tofore possessed  by  the  said  inhabitants  should  be  surveyed 
at  their  expense;  and  that  this  cause  appears  to  them 
neither  necessary  nor  adapted  to  quiet  the  minds  of  the 
people.  It  does  not  appear  necessary,  because  from  the 
establishment  of  the  colony  to  this  day,  they  have  enjoyed 
their  property  and  possessions  without  disputes  or  lawsuits 
on  the  subject  of  their  limits;  that  the  surveys  of  them 
were  made  at  the  time  the  concessions  were  obtained  from 
their  ancient  Kings,  Lords  and  Commandants;  and  each 


178  ILLINOIS 

of  them  knew  what  belonged  to  him  without  attempting  an 
encroachment  on  his  neighbor,  or  fearing  that  his  neigh- 
bor would  encroach  on  him.  It  does  not  appear  adapted 
to  pacify  them,  because,  instead  of  assuring  them  the  peace- 
able possessions  of  their  ancient  inheritance,  as  they  have 
enjoyed  it  till  now,  that  clause  obliges  them  to  bear  expenses 
which,  in  their  present  situation,  they  are  absolutely  in- 
capable of  paying,  and  for  the  failure  of  which  they  must 
be  deprived  of  their  lands. 

Your  Excellency  is  an  eye  witness  of  the  poverty  to 
which  the  inhabitants  are  reduced,  and  of  the  total  want 
of  provision  to  subsist  on.  Not  knowing  where  to  find  a 
morsel  of  bread  to  nourish  their  families,  by  what  means 
can  they  support  the  expense  of  a  survey  which  has  not 
been  sought  for  on  their  parts,  and  for  which,  it  is  con- 
ceived by  them,  there  is  no  necessity  ?  Loaded  with  misery, 
and  groaning  under  the  weight  of  misfortunes  accumulated 
since  the  Virginia  troops  entered  their  country,  the  un- 
happy inhabitants  throw  themselves  under  the  protection 
of  your  Excellency,  and  take  the  liberty  to  solicit  you  to 
lay  their  deplorable  situation  before  the  Congress;  and,  as 
it  may  be  interesting  for  the  United  States  to  know  exactly 
the  extent  and  limits  of  their  ancient  possessions  in  order 
to  ascertain  the  lands  which  are  yet  at  the  disposal  of  Con- 
gress, it  appears  to  them,  in  their  humble  opinion,  that  the 
expense  of  the  survey  ought  more  properly  to  be  borne  by 
Congress,  for  whom  alone  it  is  useful,  than  by  them  who 
do  not  feel  the  necessity  of  it.  Besides,  this  is  no  object 
for  the  United  States,  but  it  is  great,  too  great,  for  a  few 
unhappy  beings  who,  your  Excellency  sees  yourself,  are 
scarcely  able  to  support  their  pitiful  existence. 

Signed,  Fr.  P.  Gibault, 
and  Eighty-seven  Others. 

Before  leaving  Kaskaskia  Governor  St.  Clair  deputized  Win- 
throp  Sargent  to  complete  the  task  of  making  records  of  titles 
to  lands  on  the  Mississippi  and  Wabash  rivers.  Up  to  this  time 
(1790)  so  far  as  immigration  was  concerned,  the  situation  in 
Illinois  was  one  of  complete  stagnation.  Lack  of  laws  under 
which  settlers  could  obtain  title  to  land  was  one  cause,  but  the 
greater  cause  was  the  hostility  and  depredations  of  the  Indians. 
These  red  men  had  the  audacity  to  insist  that  the  white  men  of 
America  should  observe  and  carry  out  the  terms  of  a  solemn 


ILLINOIS  179 

treaty  that  the  white  men  had  made  with  them  under  British 
rule.  They  pointed  to  the  treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix,  signed  in 
1768,  wherein  the  white  men  of  Great  Britain  obligated  their 
country  to  respect  the  title  of  the  Indians  to  all  the  land  in  the 
Northwest  which  lay  west  of  a  line  drawn  from  about  where 
the  City  of  Lorain,  Ohio,  is  located  on  the  south  shore  of  Lake 
Erie,  south  to  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Kanawha  River.  With 
both  good  logic  and  argument  they  contended  that  when  the 
United  States  of  America  acquired  the  British  title  in  1783,  it 
did  so  subject  to  the  treaty  rights  of  the  Indians  secured  to  them 
by  the  treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix.  The  contention  would  have  been 
good  in  any  impartial-minded  court.  As  usual  in  any  contro- 
versy between  a  Caucasian  and  a  black,  brown,  yellow  or  red 
man,  the  argument  fell  on  deaf  ears.  War  was  the  result.  Bands 
of  Indians  from  the  Muskingum  to  the  Mississippi  seized  their 
guns  and  went  on  the  war-path. 

President  Washington  ordered  Governor  St.  Clair  to  gather 
an  army  and  attack  the  Indians.  In  the  fall  of  1791  the  American 
army  under  St.  Clair  was  surprised  as  Braddock  was  surprised. 
On  the  banks  of  the  Wabash  the  Indians  sprung  their  surprise 
and  administered  the  most  humiliating  and  crushing  defeats 
suffered  by  white  men  from  Indians  in  history.  The  command 
of  the  American  army  was  then  given  to  "Mad  Anthony"  Wayne, 
of  Revolutionary  fame.  The  Indians  had  been  sympathized  with 
and  encouraged,  if  not  actually  instigated,  by  the  British  officers 
at  Detroit.  Anthony's  first  act  after  his  appointment  to  the 
command  was  a  politic  and  peaceful  one.  He  negotiated  a  peace 
with  the  Pottawatomie  tribe  in  Northern  Illinois,  and  this  de- 
prived the  fighting  tribes  in  Indiana  and  Ohio  of  the  assistance 
and  support  they  had  been  receiving  from  the  tribes  in  the  West. 
He  then  began  vigorously  training  the  freshly-recruited  troops 
placed  in  his  charge,  and  after  they  had  been  thoroughly  disci- 
plined he  attacked  the  Indians  at  Fallen  Timbers,  where  they 
were  encamped  in  the  shadow  of  a  British  fort,  and  routed 
them  most  thoroughly.  The  Indians  were  expecting  British 
support,  but  to  their  consternation  and  surprise  this  was  not 
forthcoming.  The  British  commander  of  the  fort  even  refused 
them  refuge  when  they  were  beaten,  and  they  were  compelled  to 


180  ILLINOIS 

scatter  in  all  directions.  This  battle  broke  the  Indian  power 
for  the  time  being  and  enabled  General  Wayne  to  conclude  the 
treaty  of  Greenville  on  most  favorable  terms,  August  4,  1795. 

This  treaty  opened  up  for  settlement  the  eastern  and  south- 
ern parts  of  Ohio  and  provided  that  the  United  States  might 
hold  reservations  in  Indian  territory  for  forts,  also  establishing 
a  new  Indian  boundary  line.  Among  the  locations  for  forts  were 
three  in  the  present  State  of  Illinois,  one  at  Chicago,  one  at 
Peoria  and  one  at  the  junction  of  the  Illinois  and  Mississippi 
rivers.  Fifteen  years  of  peace  followed  the  signing  of  the  treaty 
of  Greenville.  That  treaty  established  the  policy  of  the  United 
States  to  be  followed  thereafter  in  dealing  with  Indian  claims; 
the  policy  of  recognizing  Indian  titles  and  of  acquiring  same  by 
treaty.  Pursuing  that  policy  while  the  strength  of  the  Indian 
for  resistance  was  constantly  and  rapidly  diminishing,  the 
United  States  was  enabled  by  successive  treaties  to  divest  the 
Indians  of  all  their  titles  in  the  Northwest  Territory  and  then 
offer  the  lands  so  acquired  to  settlers.  That  the  consideration 
paid  to  the  Indians  often  was  inconsiderable  may  be  true,  but 
such  is  the  lot  of  those  who  are  vanquished  in  battle.    Vae  victis. 

The  officials  of  the  United  States  at  that  time  always  con- 
tended that  the  antagonism  of  the  Indians  to  the  Americans  was 
constantly  fomented  and  encouraged  by  the  British  officials  in 
Canada.  They  did,  undoubtedly,  furnish  the  Indians  with  pow- 
der, guns  and  other  weapons,  and  encouraged  them  to  exchange 
their  pelts  for  British  merchandise.  They  openly  sympathized 
with  the  Indians,  but  probably  were  careful  not  to  involve  Great 
Britain  by  overt  acts  of  actual  warfare.  The  British  govern- 
ment still  maintained  garrisons  at  Mackinac,  Detroit  and  Buf- 
falo. The  treaty  of  1783  left  several  issues  undisposed  of,  which 
the  diplomats  agreed  could  be  settled  in  a  future  commercial 
treaty  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States.  The  re- 
tention of  British  garrisons  at  the  points  above  and  the  exist- 
ence of  trading  posts  in  their  vicinity  where  the  Indians  could 
procure  arms  and  ammunition  was  a  source  of  much  concern 
to  the  Americans,  and  caused  President  Washington  to  send 
John  Jay  to  London  to  bring  about  a  treaty  that  would  compel 
the  British  to  remove  their  forts  from  American  soil.    Jay  was 


ILLINOIS  181 

successful  and  such  a  treaty  was  signed  November  19,  1794, 
and  ratified  by  the  Senate  in  1795.  Pursuant  to  the  terms 
thereof  the  British  surrendered  their  forts  and  trading  posts 
on  American  soil  to  the  United  States. 

The  fur  trade,  then  in  the  hands  of  the  British  traders, 
was  a  very  lucrative  one,  and  when  the  British  abandoned 
American  soil  they  transferred  their  trade  to  Maiden,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Detroit  River,  and  to  St.  Joseph's  Island,  in  the 
channel  connecting  Lake  Superior  with  Lake  Huron.  There 
they  continued  their  trading  with  much  success  for  years 
afterward. 

These  Indian  troubles  to  the  east  of  what  is  now  Illinois 
seriously  retarded  settlements  in  Ohio  and,  in  connection  with 
the  unjust  and  unfortunate  treatment  which  the  French  settle- 
ments in  Illinois  had  received  for  years  from  both  British  and 
American  officials,  absolutely  stagnated  all  increase  of  popula- 
tion in  the  latter  territory.  A  few  Americans  visited  Kaskaskia, 
but  almost  without  exception  they  were  land  speculators  and 
not  bona  fide  settlers.  The  delayed  appearance  of  Governor 
St.  Clair  and  his  establishment  of  American  courts  did  but  little 
to  improve  the  situation.  He  had  divided  the  newly-created 
St.  Clair  County  into  three  districts,  Cahokia,  Kaskaskia  and 
Prairie  du  Rocher.  In  Cahokia  the  judges  performed  their 
functions  in  a  satisfactory  manner,  as  they  had  always  done 
in  the  past,  under  all  administrations;  but  in  Kaskaskia  and 
Prairie  du  Rocher  it  was  otherwise.  After  the  brief  and  belated 
visit  of  Governor  St.  Clair  to  Kaskaskia  in  1790,  he  created 
St.  Clair  County  and  appointed  county  officials,  and  then  shook 
the  dust  of  Southern  Illinois  from  his  shoes  and  appointed  and 
sent  Territorial  Judge  Turner  to  Illinois  to  administer  justice 
and  straighten  out  its  tangled  affairs. 

Governor  St.  Clair  and  the  territorial  judges  who  were  the 
law-making  body  of  the  new  territory,  in  enacting  and  proclaim- 
ing laws  for  the  territory,  had  exceeded  their  powers  in  so  doing. 
They  had  framed  and  attempted  to  enact  laws  of  their  own 
inspiration  instead  of  adopting  laws  already  in  force  in  some 
of  the  American  states.  The  three  judges  assumed  additional 
functions  and  made  the  court  one  of  both  original  and  appellate 


182  ILLINOIS 

jurisdiction  from  whose  decisions  there  was  no  appeal.  Nearly- 
all  of  its  sessions  were  held  at  Marietta  or  Cincinnati,  Ohio. 
No  sessions  had  been  held  in  Illinois  from  1790  to  1794.  The 
Federal  Government  had  rebuked  the  governor  and  judges  for 
blunders  in  law-making  and  the  governor  ordered  the  holding 
of  a  court  in  Illinois.  Acting  under  the  governor's  order,  Judge 
Turner  reached  Kaskaskia  in  October,  1794,  and  at  once  pro- 
ceeded to  act  in  an  insolent  and  tyrannical  manner.  The  records 
of  the  county  courts  had  been  kept  in  Cahokia  in  the  custody 
of  the  prothonotary  and  clerk,  William  St.  Clair,  a  relative 
of  Governor  St.  Clair.  Judge  Turner  ordered  them  removed 
to  Kaskaskia  and  when  the  clerk  protested  the  Judge  took 
forcible  possession  of  them,  whereupon  St.  Clair  resigned.  The 
judge,  by  other  violent  and  tactless  proceedings,  so  enraged 
the  people  of  Kaskaskia  and  Cahokia  that  they  prepared  a 
petition  to  Congress  asking  redress  of  their  grievances.  Rather 
than  face  the  issue  thus  raised,  Judge  Turner  resigned  or  fled 
the  county  to  escape  indictment  or  congressional  investigation. 

When  Governor  St.  Clair  heard  of  the  conduct  of  Judge 
Turner  he  sternly  rebuked  him,  restored  Clerk  St.  Clair  to  his 
former  position,  and  started  for  Kaskaskia  with  Territorial 
Judge  John  C.  Symmes.  On  arrival  at  his  destination  he  found 
that  a  bitter  rivalry  had  been  developed  between  Cahokia  and 
Kaskaskia  which  could  not  be  assuaged.  In  order  to  remove 
the  bitterness  or  the  dispute  as  to  whether  Cahokia  or  Kaskaskia 
was  the  county  seat,  the  governor  created  the  new  county  of 
Randolph,  covering  the  south  part  of  the  present  state,  in  which 
Kaskaskia  would  be  the  principal  town  and  county  seat,  but 
leaving  Cahokia  in  St.  Clair  County  as  its  county*  seat.  The 
governor's  proclamation  was  issued  October  5,  1795. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  year  1798,  when  it  was  first  ascer- 
tained that  the  Northwest  country  had  a  population  of  something 
over  5,000  white  male  inhabitants.  This  was  fifteen  years  after 
the  territory  had  been  ceded  by  Great  Britain  to  the  United 
States,  eleven  years  after  it  had  been  legally  created  a  territory 
by  Congress  and  eleven  years  after  a  territorial  government 
had  been  installed.  It  took  all  these  years  to  attract  2,500  white 
men  to  settle  in  one  of  the  most  fertile  valleys  of  the  world. 


ILLINOIS  183 

I  say  2,500  and  not  5,000,  because  there  were  2,500  white  men 
in  Illinois  in  and  about  the  year  1750,  and  according  to  the 
United  States  Census  of  1800  there  were  about  the  same  number 
In  the  same  territory.  During  the  gfteen  years  which  had  elapsed 
from  the  time  it  became  American  territory,  white  men  had 
been  trickling  into  the  region  at  the  rate  of  only  166  men  per 
year.  In  these  modern  days  when  we  read  of  thousands  of 
eager  men  massed  in  crowds  awaiting  the  signal  gun  which 
opens  Government  reservations  to  settlement,  we  cannot  be 
blamed  for  wondering  at  the  hesitation  and  deliberation  dis- 
played by  the  inhabitants  of  the  Eastern  states  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  2,500  men  that,  during 
these  fifteen  years  did  settle  in  the  Northwest  territory,  did 
not  settle  in  Illinois.  The  Ohio  Company,  the  Scioto  Company 
and  the  other  colonizing  companies  had  lands  in  Ohio  and  Indi- 
ana, but  none  in  Illinois.  The  few  white  settlers  that  did  come 
here  did  not  add  to  its  population.  They  merely  replaced  French 
settlers  who  had  become  dissatisfied  and  left  for  St.  Louis  or 
Canada.    Illinois  was  static  from  1763  until  1795. 

In  1795  it  was  found  that  in  the  Northwest  territory  there 
were  between  5,000  and  6,000  white  male  inhabitants.  The 
ordinance  of  1787,  it  will  be  recalled,  made  provision  for  two 
classes  of  territorial  government.  In  the  initial  or  primary 
territorial  government,  all  executive,  legislative  and  judicial 
powers  were  exercised  by  Federal  appointees.  The  secondary 
form  arose  when  the  territory  had  a  "population  of  5,000  free 
male  inhabitants  over  twenty-one  years  of  age."  It  provided 
that  a  Legislature  should  then  be  elected,  one  representative  for 
each  500  free  male  inhabitants,  that  the  Legislature  so  elected 
should  select  ten  names  for  members  of  the  territorial  council 
from  which  Congress  should  elect  five  members  of  the  council, 
and  that  the  governor,  the  council  and  the  representatives  should 
become  the  law-making  power  of  the  territory  with  power  to 
make  all  civil  appointments  to  office. 

It  having  been  duly  ascertained  that  the  territory  had  the 
necessary  population  of  5,000,  Governor  St.  Clair  called  the 
election  of  representatives  to  meet  in  Cincinnati.  The  procla- 
mation called  for  the  election  of  twenty-two  (some  writers  say 


William  Henry  Harrison 

First  Governor  of  Indiana  Territory   (including  Illinois) 


ILLINOIS  185 

twenty-three)  representatives.  There  must  have  been  a  sudden 
and  very  large  influx  of  inhabitants  between  the  time  when  it 
was  ascertained  that  there  was  a  population  of  about  5,000  and 
the  issuance  of  the  proclamation,  or  the  discovery  of  the  neces- 
sary legal  population  was  belated,  or,  further,  that  the  governor 
may  have  been  guided  by  his  conviction  that  before  the  election 
the  population  would  have  increased  to  11,000.  The  call  for 
the  election  of  twenty-two  representatives  was  based  upon  an 
estimate  of  11,000  inhabitants,  because  the  ordinance  provided 
for  one  representative  for  each  500  inhabitants.  If  there  was 
a  sudden  increase  in  population  it  was  in  Ohio  and  not  in 
Illinois. 

In  the  Legislature  elected  pursuant  to  the  call  of  the  governor 
in  1799,  Illinois  had  only  two  representatives,  Shadrach  Bond 
from  St.  Clair  County  and  John  Edgar  from  Randolph  County. 
The  residents  of  the  western  part  of  the  territory  and  particu- 
larly those  in  Illinois,  were  by  no  means  satisfied  with  their  lot 
under  the  secondary  form  of  territorial  government.  The  Legis- 
lature met  at  a  remote  distance  from  them,  the  judges  held  but 
few  and  infrequent  sessions  of  court  in  their  vicinity,  and  the 
expenses  of  the  new  government  were  largely  increased.  Their 
representation  in  the  Legislature,  two  for  2,500  inhabitants, 
seemed  clearly  unfair.  They  saw,  too,  that  the  eastern  portion  of 
the  territory,  which  was  constantly  increasing  in  population, 
would  soon  become  a  territory  of  the  first  class  and  eventually  a 
state.  This  would  revert  them  into  a  territory  of  the  first  class. 
To  escape  from  the  remoteness  of  government  and  the  increased 
expense  of  maintaining  same,  in  1800  they  petitioned  Congress 
to  separate  them  from  the  eastern  population. 

The  committee  in  Congress  to  which  this  petition  was  referred 
found  that  "in  the  western  counties  there  has  been  but  one 
court  having  cognizance  of  crimes  in  five  years/'  and  that  the 
immunity  given  to  criminals  by  the  want  of  such  courts  was 
attracting  criminals  and  deterring  settlers  from  locating.  Con- 
gress acted  promptly.  On  May  7,  1800,  a  law  created  the 
Indiana  Territory,  bounded  on  the  east  by  a  line  starting  on 
the  Ohio  opposite  the  Kentucky  River  and  running  north  to 
the  Canadian  border.    William  Henry  Harrison  was  appointed 


186  ILLINOIS 

governor  and  appeared  at  the  capital  of  the  new  territory  Jan- 
uary 10,  1801.  The  newly-created  Indiana  Territory  comprised 
all  of  Illinois  and  most  of  the  present  State  of  Indiana  and  con- 
tained a  population  of  less  than  6,000.  All  of  Illinois  except 
the  land  on  and  surrounding  the  French  villages  owned  and 
occupied  by  the  French,  was  an  Indian  reservation  recognized 
by  American  law.  In  Illinois  at  that  time  the  white  population 
was  about  2,500,  of  which  1,500  were  French.  Most  of  the 
latter  were  wretchedly  poor  and  ignorant  and  exerted  but  little 
influence.  There  were,  however,  a  few  very  able  and  financially 
responsible  leaders  of  that  nationality,  Pierre  Menard,  who  held 
many  responsible  offices  in  both  territory  and  state  and  was 
finally  elected  lieutenant-governor  of  Illinois;  and  Nicholas  Jar- 
roh,  Jean  Dumoulin  and  Jean  Francois  Perrey,  all  of  whom 
played  an  important  part  in  the  history  of  the  state. 

In  1801  most  of  the  people  of  Illinois  wanted  to  change 
the  form  of  their  territorial  government  from  the  first  to  the 
second  class,  but  were  opposed  by  Governor  Harrison  and  his 
appointees.  They,  the  people,  believed  that  the  change  would 
enable  them  to  have  a  voice  in  the  making  of  their  laws  and 
the  selection  of  their  officials.  The  change  would  also  enable 
them  to  send  a  delegate  to  Congress  who  could  express  their 
views  in  that  important  body.  One  of  the  living  issues  of  that 
day  was  the  modification  of  the  sixth  article  in  the  ordinance 
of  1787,  which  prohibited  slavery  in  the  territory.  The  governor, 
who  first  opposed  the  change,  finally  consented  to  issue  a  call 
for  an  election  upon  the  question  as  to  whether  there  should  be 
a  change  from  first  class  to  the  second  class.  On  August  4,  1804, 
this  call  was  issued,  the  governor  directing  that  the  election 
should  be  held  September  11,  1804  or  on  the  thirty-eighth  day 
thereafter.  In  view  of  the  limited  means  of  conveying  infor- 
mation, and  of  travel  existing  at  that  time,  the  time  given  was 
inadequate  and  unfair.  Partly  because  of  the  brevity  of  the 
notice  and  partly  because  of  ignorance  and  indifference  on  the 
part  of  the  voters,  only  360  voters  cast  their  ballots,  260  of 
which  were  for  the  change  and  100  against  it.  Wayne  County, 
which  then  comprised  what  is  now  all  of  Southern  Michigan, 
did  not  hear  of  the  call  for  election  and  did  not  cast  a  single 


ILLINOIS  187 

vote.  On  December  5,  1804,  the  governor  proclaimed  that  the 
territory  had  "passed  into  the  second  or  representative  grade 
of  government." 

At  the  election  for  representatives  held  in  January,  1805, 
Shadrach  Bond  and  William  Biggs  were  chosen  by  St.  Clair 
County  and  George  Fisher  by  Randolph  County.  When  the 
elected  representatives  chose  ten  names  for  submission  to  the 
President  for  members  of  the  territorial  council,  he  selected 
John  Hay  from  St.  Clair  County  and  Pierre  Menard  from 
Randolph  County. 

At  this  time  the  population  of  Illinois  proper  was  probably 
between  6,000  and  7,000.  According  to  the  Federal  Census  of 
1800  there  were  5,641  people  in  the  territory,  divided  as  follows : 
Indiana  proper,  2517;  Illinois  proper,  2458;  Michigan  proper 
551,  and  Wisconsin  proper,  115. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

SLAVERY  AND  INDENTURED  SERVANTS— TERRITORY 
OF  ILLINOIS  CREATED 

Early  in  the  history  of  the  Indiana  Territory  arose  a  question 
which  mightily  absorbed  the  attention  of  the  settlers  and  pioneers 
then  living  in  the  territory,  and  which  continued  to  excite  and 
keenly  interest  them  and  their  descendants  and  subsequently 
arriving  settlers  for  many  years  thereafter.  Article  six  of  the 
Bill  of  Rights  contained  in  the  ordinance  of  1787  provided : 

Neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  shall  exist 
in  the  said  territory  except  as  a  punishment  for  crime 
whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted. 

At  the  time  of  the  passage  of  the  ordinance  there  were 
slaves  in  Illinois.  Under  French  rule  early  in  the  eighteenth 
century  slaves  had  been  imported  and  held  in  bondage  during 
all  the  French,  British  and  American  administrations.  Slavery 
had  been  and  was  recognized  and  tolerated  by  the  Federal 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  The  French  habitants  were 
accustomed  to  it  and  acquiesced  in  it.  The  American  settlers, 
almost  without  exception,  had  come  from  Kentucky,  Tennessee 
or  other  slave-holding  states,  and  some  of  these  American  set- 
tlers had  brought  slaves  into  the  territory  from  Southern  states. 
Public  sentiment  in  Southern  Illinois  and  Indiana  was  largely 
favorable  towards  the  retention  of  the  system.  The  central 
and  northern  part  of  the  territory  then  had  no  white  population. 
Pioneer  transportation  was  almost  wholly  by  water,  because 
it  was  less  arduous,  less  dangerous  and  cheaper  than  overland 
travel  through  trackless  forests  and  prairies.  Waterway  facili- 
ties were  at  hand  for  the  Kentuckians,  Tennesseeans  and  Virgi- 
nians, but  not  for  the  northern  colonists,  while  the  Great  Lakes 

188 


Mississippi  Valley  in  1801 


190  ILLINOIS 

were  in  British  or  French  control.  Thus  the  early  settlers  were 
from  the  South,  where  they  had  acquired  pro-slavery  convictions. 
Such  being  the  condition  of  public  sentiment  both  among  the 
American  and  French  settlers,  they  were  speedily  confronted 
with  the  problem  of  what  to  do  with  reference  to  Article  Six. 
When  Governor  St.  Clair  arrived  in  Kaskaskia  in  1790  he  was 
called  upon  to  decide  the  question  as  to  whether  the  slaves  then 
owned  in  the  territory  became  freemen  by  virtue  of  the  article 
mentioned,  or  remained  in  slavery.  In  a  public  statement,  after 
giving  careful  consideration  to  the  matter,  he  declared  that  the 
ordinance  did  not  free  the  slaves  then  in  the  territory,  but  that 
it  prohibited  the  bringing  of  other  slaves  into  the  territory.  This 
quieted  the  fears  of  the  slave-owners  for  a  time  but  did  not 
wholly  satisfy  the  largely  preponderant  pro-slavery  views  of 
the  people. 

A  petition  from  Kaskaskia  was  presented  to  Congress,  Janu- 
ary 12,  1796,  asking  that  body  to  repeal  Article  Six,  but  the 
prayer  of  the  petition  was  denied.  Some  old  Revolutionary 
soldiers  in  1799  presented  a  petition  to  the  territorial  Legis- 
lature, asking  leave  to  bring  their  slaves  with  them,  and  per- 
mission to  live  with  their  slaves  on  the  military  tract  north 
of  the  Ohio,  reserved  by  Virginia.  This  was  also  denied  because 
the  Legislature  believed  that  it  would  conflict  with  the  ordinance. 
Another  petition  from  Kaskaskia  was  presented  to  Congress 
January  23,  1801,  asking  permission  to  introduce  slavery  into 
Indiana  Territory,  containing  a  clause  for  gradual  emancipation. 
No  disposition  of  this  petition  was  ever  made.  Notwithstanding 
all  their  failures  to  secure  modification  or  repeal  of  Article  Six, 
another  effort  was  made  in  1802. 

While  Governor  Harrison  was  on  a  visit  to  Kaskaskia  in  the 
fall  of  that  year,  he  was  petitioned  to  call  a  convention  for  the 
purpose  of  devising  the  best  way  to  secure  the  admission  of 
slavery  by  law  into  the  territory.  This  petition  was  granted 
and  the  governor  called  the  convention  November  22,  1802,  the 
delegates  elected  from  Illinois  being  Jean  Francois  Perrey,  Shad- 
rach  Bond  and  John  Murdock  from  St.  Clair  County  and  Pierre 
Menard,  Robert  Morrison  and  Robert  Reynolds  from  Randolph 
County.    The  convention,  which  was  presided  over  by  Governor 


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ILLINOIS  193 

Harrison,  with  John  Rice  Jones  acting  as  secretary,  prepared 
a  memorial  to  Congress  reciting  that  many  prospective  settlers 
were  compelled  to  cross  the  Mississippi  to  Spanish  territory 
for  final  settlement  because  they  feared  to  bring  their  slaves 
into  Illinois.  The  memorial  concluded  by  asking  Congress  to 
suspend  the  operation  of  Article  Six  for  ten  years  within  the 
territory.  This  memorial  met  the  same  fate  as  all  the  previous 
petitions,  for  the  reason  as  stated  in  the  committee's  report 
"that  the  labor  of  slaves  is  not  necessary  to  promote  the  growth 
and  settlement  of  colonies  in  that  region."  But  defeat  and 
disappointment  seemed  powerless  to  kill  pro-slavery  sentiment 
in  Southern  Illinois. 

The  governor  and  the  territorial  judges  were  the  law-making 
power.  In  their  legislative  capacity  they  met  in  their  second 
session  in  the  fall  of  1803  and  enacted  a  law  that  all  persons 
coming  into  the  territory  "under  contract  to  serve  another  in 
any  trade  or  occupation  shall  be  compelled  to  perform  such 
contract  specifically  during  the  term  thereof."  This  law  would 
make  contractual  slavery  lawful.  All  the  owner  of  a  law-made 
slave  had  to  do  to  secure  him  from  loss  of  his  slave  property 
was  to  order  said  slave  to  sign  a  contract  for  service  for  any 
number  of  years.  What  slave  in  fear  of  the  lash  would  fail 
to  obey? 

The  Louisiana  Purchase  from  France  was  made  in  April, 
1803.  In  the  Louisiana  tract,  which  included  what  is  now  Mis- 
souri and  Iowa,  across  the  river  from  Illinois,  slavery  was  per- 
missible. The  two  Illinois  counties  petitioned  to  be  made  part 
of  that  tract  for  three  reasons.  First,  they  wanted  the  right 
to  establish  slavery.  Second,  they  wanted  immigration  from 
the  South,  which  they  believed  would  be  fostered  by  slavery. 
Third,  they  desired  to  get  from  under  the  arbitrary  rule  of 
Governor  Harrison  and  his  appointees,  who  had  become  most 
unpopular.  This  move  failed  of  accomplishment,  whereupon 
agitation  was  commenced  for  a  change  in  the  form  of  territorial 
government,  which  movement  was  successful  as  related  in  a 
previous  chapter. 

The  struggle  between  the  pro-slavery  and  anti-slavery  par- 
tisans still  continued  and  was  carried  on  with  much  persistency 


194  ILLINOIS 

and  bitterness.  A  bill  was  introduced  into  the  Territorial  Legis- 
lature in  1805,  asking  Congress  to  admit  slavery  into  the  terri- 
tory, but  it  failed  of  passage  in  the  lower  House.  Bitter  oppo- 
sition had  developed  in  Illinois  against  Governor  Harrison  and 
his  friends  and  appointees.  Having  failed  to  escape  his  dom- 
ination by  being  transferred  into  the  Louisiana  district,  the 
people  of  Illinois  now  commenced  an  agitation  for  separation 
from  Indiana  and  the  creation  of  a  new  and  separate  territory 
to  be  called  the  Territory  of  Illinois.  A  petition  was  forwarded 
to  Congress  in  1806  to  this  effect,  but  the  committee  appointed 
by  Congress  reported  adversely.  Other  petitions  of  like  import 
were  presented  to  the  governor,  and  counter  petitions  protesting 
against  the  division  of  the  territory  were  also  presented  to 
Congress.  A  special  session  of  the  Territorial  Legislature  was 
held  in  1806,  at  which  the  question  of  slavery  or  no  slavery 
in  the  territory  was  the  principal  subject  of  discussion.  Peti- 
tions and  arguments  (probably  from  both  sides)  were  prepared 
and  forwarded  to  Congress,  none  of  which  produced  any  con- 
gressional action  at  that  time.  On  August  17,  1807,  the  Terri- 
torial Legislature  met  for  the  second  session.  Jesse  B.  Thomas, 
a  member  of  this  body  from  Dearborn  County,  was  also  a  candi- 
date for  the  position  of  delegate  to  Congress.  For  a  time  he 
was  non-committal  on  the  subject  of  separation  of  the  territory 
and  the  creation  of  a  new  territory.  Upon  obtaining  a  pledge 
from  the  separationists  that  they  would  support  his  candidacy 
for  congressional  delegate  upon  certain  conditions,  he  secretly 
pledged  himself  to  work  and  vote  for  separation  in  Congress, 
and  was  elected.  He  promptly  repaired  to  Washington,  presented 
his  credentials,  and  was  appointed  chairman  of  the  committee 
in  Congress  which  was  to  consider  the  petition  relating  to  the 
separation.  The  committee  met  promptly,  considered  all  the 
petitions  and  arguments  and  reported  favorably  to  separation. 
Thomas  voted  and  argued  very  effectively  and  it  was  largely 
through  his  efforts  that  the  law  of  separation  was  passed  and 
subsequently  signed  by  the  President,  February  3,  1809.  It 
was  estimated  at  the  time  by  the  committee  that  there  were 
17,000  people  east  of  the  Wabash  in  Indiana  and  11,000  west 
of  that  river  in  Illinois.    The  law  provided  that  all  of  Indiana 


ILLINOIS  195 

Territory  lying  west  of  the  Wabash  River  and  a  line  running 
due  north  from  Vincennes  to  the  Canadian  border  line,  should 
be  incorporated  into  a  separate  territory  to  be  known  as  the 
Territory  of  Illinois. 

By  the  passage  of  this  law  the  Illinois  Territory  became  a 
territorial  government  of  the  primary  class.  The  Federal  Census 
of  the  following  year  (1810)  showed  that  it  then  had  a  popu- 
lation of  12,282  inhabitants. 


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CHAPTER  XIX 
ILLINOIS  TERRITORY  FIRST  CLASS 

At  last  the  people  of  Illinois,  harrassed  since  1763,  when 
the  French  monarchy  ceded  its  rights  over  them  to  Great  Britain, 
by  misgovernment,  weak  government  and  no  government,  saw 
the  prospect  of  home  government  in  which  the  executive  judicial 
and  legislative  officials  would  be  compelled  to  exercise  their 
functions  in  their  midst.  No  more  were  they  to  be  compelled 
to  travel  to  Cincinnati  or  Vincennes  to  make  their  complaints 
or  assert  their  rights.  On  February  3,  1809,  Congress  passed 
an  act  establishing  the  Territory  of  Illinois.  By  the  terms  of 
the  act  it  comprised  all  of  Indiana  Territory  lying  "west  of 
the  Wabash  River  and  a  direct  line  drawn  from  said  Wabash 
River  at  Post  Vincennes  due  north  to  the  territorial  line  between 
the  United  States  and  Canada." 

On  April  28,  1809,  Nathaniel  Pope,  who  was  appointed  sec- 
retary of  Illinois  Territory  by  President  Madison,  arrived  at 
Kaskaskia  and  issued  the  proclamation  establishing  the  terri- 
torial government.  He  was  followed  to  Kaskaskia  June  11,  1809 
by  Ninian  Edwards,  who  had  been  appointed  territorial  governor. 
At  the  time  of  his  appointment  Governor  Edwards  was  chief 
justice  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  and  was  a  friend  of  Henry  Clay 
and  Senator  John  Pope  of  Kentucky.  Nathaniel  Pope  was  a 
younger  brother  to  the  latter  and  both  officials  probably  owed 
their  appointment  to  the  influence  of  Senator  Pope  and  other 
prominent  men  in  Kentucky.  The  territorial  judges  appointed 
were  Jesse  B.  Thomas,  who  had  worked  so  successfully  for 
the  establishment  of  the  separate  Territory  of  Illinois ;  Alexander 
Stuart  and  Obadiah  Jones.  Among  the  emoluments  of  office  at 
that  time  were  grants  of  land  from  the  Federal  Government, 
and  Governor  Edwards  received  1,000  acres,  which  he  located 
near   Prairie   du   Rocher.     Judge   Thomas   received   500   acres 

197 


198  ILLINOIS 

which  he  located  near  the  same  village.  Governor  Edwards 
brought  with  him  from  Kentucky  to  Illinois  his  slaves  and  herds 
of  cattle,  and  was  also  appointed  to  the  position  of  superin- 
tendent of  the  salt  mines  near  Equality. 

The  governor  and  the  judges  now  became  the  law-making 
power  and  the  former  the  appointive  power  of  the  territory. 
The  laws  of  the  Indiana  Territory  of  which  it  had  heretofore 
been  a  part,  were  reenacted  and  adopted  as  the  laws  of  the 
Illinois  Territory.  In  making  appointments  the  governor  found 
himself  immediately  importuned,  by  the  men  who  had  favored 
and  brought  about  the  separation  of  Illinois  from  the  Indiana 
Territory,  for  all  the  offices.  John  Edgar  was  the  leader  of 
this  party.  The  anti-separationists  were  equally  insistent.  Gov- 
ernor Edwards  solved  the  situation  when  he  allowed  the  militia- 
men to  select  their  own  officers,  demanded  popular  elections 
for  county  officers  and  made  his  appointments  pursuant  thereto. 

Up  to  the  year  of  1809  the  lands  of  Illinois  had  not  been 
opened  up  for  sale  and  settlement.  During  his  term  as  territorial 
governor  of  the  Territory  of  Indiana,  Governor  Harrison  had 
been  appointed  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs.  He  understood 
the  eagerness  of  the  westerners  for  the  opening  up  of  these 
lands  for  purchase  and  labored  diligently  to  secure  the  titles 
of  the  Indians,  which  was  an  essential  prerequisite.  He  con- 
summated treaties  of  any  and  all  kinds  with  isolated  and 
detached  bodies  of  Indians,  without  waiting  for  action  of  tribes 
or  confederation  of  tribes.  He  was  not  concerned  about  the 
justice  of  the  treaty  or  the  representative  character  of  the 
Indians  who  signed.  In  1803  he  made  a  treaty  with  the  Kas- 
kaskias  under  which  the  signers  surrendered  their  claims  to 
land  in  Southern  Illinois.  In  1804  a  few  chiefs  of  the  Sauks 
and  Foxes  were  wheedled  into  surrendering  their  titles  to  lands 
lying  west  of  the  Illinois  and  Fox  rivers,  and  in  1805  he  secured 
lands  on  the  Wabash  from  the  Piankashaws.  Another  treaty 
was  secured  by  him  from  other  Indians  at  Fort  Wayne  in  1809. 
These  treaties  secured  for  the  United  States  from  the  Indians 
what  the  lawyers  might  designate  as  color  of  title,  even  if  the 
color  of  some  of  them  was  either  black  or  yellow.  President 
Jefferson  was  much  concerned  about  the  character  of  some  of 


ILLINOIS  199 

these  treaties  and  is  said  to  have  rebuked  Harrison  for  his 
extreme  aggressiveness. 

As  a  result  of  these  treaties,  or  some  of  them,  a  law  was 
passed  by  Congress  in  1804,  providing  that  land  in  the  Indiana 
Territory  (then  comprising  Illinois)  could  be  sold  in  quarter 
sections  and  reserving  the  sixteenth  section  in  every  township 
for  school  purposes.  Under  this  law  land  offices  were  opened 
up  at  Detroit,  Vincennes  and  Kaskaskia,  the  registrars  and 
receivers  were  made  land  commissioners  within  their  respective 
districts,  and  provision  was  also  made  in  this  law  for  settling 
the  claims  of  those  claiming  under  French  and  English  grants. 
In  Kaskaskia  great  difficulties  arose  in  settling  some  of  the 
French  claims.  Many  of  the  original  claimants  to  bounties  or 
settlements  had  died,  moved  to  St.  Louis,  or,  in  despair,  had 
sold  their  claims  for  trifles.  Cases  were  found  where  claims 
of  400  acres  had  been  sold  for  $30,  and  a  100-acre  claim  for 
$14.  Alvord  states  in  his  history  that  in  Cahokia  there  had 
been  granted  400  head  rights,  which  by  November,  1798,  had 
passed  into  the  hands  of  eighty-nine  persons,  only  twelve  of 
whom  were  French. 

When  it  was  known  that  the  Federal  Government  had 
appointed  these  commissioners  to  unravel  the  tangled  web  of 
these  titles,  speculation  ran  wild  and  often  developed  into  dis- 
honesty. Dead  men  were  revived  and  fictitious  deeds  discovered. 
Nearly  the  whole  community  became  infected,  and  men  who 
at  other  times  would  have  scorned  to  resort  to  duplicity  or 
mendacity  became  tainted.  They  seemed  to  consider  that  Uncle 
Sam  was  the  only  sufferer  and  that  robbing  Uncle  Sam  of  his 
land  was  no  crime.  However,  many  of  our  wealthy  citizens 
of  this  later  day  seem  to  be  of  the  same  opinion  when  they 
smuggle  jewels  and  costly  raiment  through  the  custom  house. 
In  perusing  the  early  history  of  this  state,  one  is  amazed  to 
read  how  many  officials  in  the  early  days  had  land  hunger  which 
has  at  times  thrown  doubt  on  the  impartiality  of  their  official 
acts  and  conduct. 

The  treaty  that  General  Wayne  made  with  the  Indians  at 
Greenville,  in  August,  1795,  was  with  eleven  different  and  dis- 
tinct tribes  of  the  Northwest.    By  its  terms  the  Indians  parted 


1 


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■   . 


;;. 


:i 


r 

Anthony  Wayne 

Fighting  general  who  conquered  the  Indians  of  the  Northwest  in  1795. 


ILLINOIS  201 

with  their  title  to  the  eastern  and  southern  portion  of  Ohio,  but 
it  established,  as  we  have  before  said,  a  new  Indian  boundary 
line  recognizing  the  rights  of  the  Indians  to  retain  as  their 
hunting-grounds  all  of  the  territory  west  of  that  line,  excepting 
certain  small  reservations  in  Indiana  and  Illinois  upon  which 
it  was  agreed  that  the  United  States  might  build  and  garrison 
forts  to  preserve  the  peace.  This  treaty  quieted  the  hostility 
of  the  Indians  for  about  fifteen  years  and  little  or  no  complaint 
was  heard  from  them  that  the  treaty  was  invalid. 

War  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  ended 
with  the  signing  of  the  Treaty  of  Ghent,  October  18,  1814.  By 
that  treaty  the  Indian  tribes  were  placed  in  the  condition  that 
they  occupied  in  1811  before  the  declaration  of  war.  They  were 
now  abandoned  by  their  powerful  allies,  the  British,  and  left 
where  they  must  fight  it  out  with  the  young  and  powerful 
American  nation  or  sign  such  treaties  as  the  Americans 
demanded.  To  fight  it  out  would  have  been  suicidal.  Their 
great  leader,  Tecumseh,  had  fallen  in  battle.  Their  source  of 
supplies,  for  guns  and  ammunition,  Canada,  was  taken  from 
them  by  the  treaty.  Their  fighting  spirit  was  broken  by  their 
calamities.  Early  in  1815  the  President  appointed  Governor 
William  Clark,  Governor  Ninian  Edwards  and  Augusta  Chouteau 
commissioners  to  negotiate  treaties  with  the  principal  tribes 
that  had  been  allied  with  the  British  in  the  War  of  1812.  These 
commissioners  arranged  for  a  conference  with  the  chiefs  of 
some  of  the  warring  tribes  and  with  them  settled  upon  a  basis 
for  future  treaties.  The  Indians  at  this  time  were  in  much 
the  same  position  as  were  the  Germans  in  1919  at  Versailles. 
They  were  compelled  to  consider  and  finally  accept  conditions 
such  as  are  often  presented  to  the  vanquished  by  the  victors. 
It  was  another  case  of  Vae  victis — Woe  to  the  vanquished ! 

In  1816  a  treaty  was  signed  by  Indians  representing  the 
Chippewas,  Ottawas  and  Pottawatomies,  and  other  treaties  of 
like  character  by  the  Peorias  and  Illinois.  By  these  treaties 
the  Indians  quitclaimed  their  rights  to  1,418,400  acres  of  land, 
most  of  which  was  in  Illinois.  In  1818  two  other  treaties  were 
signed  by  the  terms  of  which  17,886,280  acres  of  land  were 
ceded  by  the  Indians  to  the  United  States. 


202  ILLINOIS 

Within  one  month  before  the  declaration  of  war  by  the 
United  States  against  the  British  the  Territory  of  Illinois  had, 
by  the  vote  of  its  qualified  electors,  become  a  territory  of  the 
second  class.  The  act  of  Congress  declaring  it  to  be  a  territory 
of  the  second  class  was  passed  May  21,  1812. 


CHAPTER  XX 
TECUMSEH  AND  TIPPECANOE 

Governor  Harrison  began  negotiating  treaties  with  small 
groups  of  Indians  about  1803  and  between  that  year  and  1809 
had  six  different  treaties  signed  by  different  chiefs  and  groups 
of  Indians  against  which  there  was  a  great  outcry  among  the 
Indians  who  claimed  that  they  were  signed  without  authority 
and  were  illegal  and  invalid.  Wayne's  treaty  and  Harrison's 
six  treaties  purported  to  convey  a  total  of  40,000,000  acres  of 
land  for  a  consideration  of  about  three  cents  per  acre.  The 
last  of  Harrison's  six  treaties  was  signed  at  Fort  Wayne  in 
September,  1809,  and  purported  to  convey  3,000,000  acres  of 
the  richest  land  in  Indiana,  east  of  the  Wabash  River  and 
containing  some  of  the  land  claimed  by  Tecumseh's  tribe  as 
their  hunting-ground.  The  treaty  was  entered  into  by  Indians 
claiming  to  represent  the  Pottawatomies,  Miamis,  Kickapoos, 
Weas  and  Eel  River  tribes.  The  Shawnees,  to  which  tribe 
Tecumseh  belonged,  did  not  become  a  party  to  this  treaty  and 
when  the  news  of  its  execution  reached  the  great  chief's  ears 
and  was  noised  abroad  among  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  North- 
west, there  was  an  outburst  of  rage  and  indignation  among  them. 
The  consideration  given  the  Indians  who  signed  the  treaty  was 
$9,700  cash  and  about  $3,000  in  ammunition,  or  less  than  one- 
half  a  cent  an  acre. 

Tecumseh,  the  chief,  and  his  brother,  The  Prophet,  were 
the  two  leading  spirits  of  the  Shawnee  tribe.  Both  were  men 
of  strong  character  and  great  native  ability.  The  Prophet  had 
been  preaching  a  new  gospel  among  the  Indians  of  the  Shawnee 
and  neighboring  tribes  and  had  aroused  among  them  a  religious 
frenzy  against  the  contaminations  of  the  white  men.  He  preached 
monogamy,  abandonment  of  "fire  water"  and  the  clothes  of 
white  men,  and  the  cultivation  of  the  land.     His  brother,  the 

203 


Tecumseh 


ILLINOIS  205 

chief,  gave  their  emotions  thus  aroused  a  more  practical  bent. 
He  pointed  out  to  them  the  wrongs  and  injustices  being  per- 
petrated upon  them  by  the  white  men,  and  his,  the  white  man's, 
trickery,  deceit  and  dishonesty.  He  exposed  the  character  of 
the  Harrison  treaties  and  argued  that  the  hunting-grounds 
belonged  in  common  to  all  the  Northwestern  tribes  of  Indians 
and  not  to  any  single  Indian  or  group  of  Indians  or  to  any 
single  tribe  of  Indians.  He  pointed  out  to  them  that  a  few 
unauthorized  Indians  or  a  few  weak  chiefs  bribed  with  a  few 
dollars,  or  a  few  baubles,  or  a  supply  of  rum,  had  no  moral 
or  legal  right  to  barter  away  the  hunting-grounds  that  the 
Great  Spirit  had  given  their  ancestors  centuries  before.  He 
argued  that  millions  of  acres  had  been  practically  stolen  from 
them  and  that  unless  these  treaties  were  annulled  and  such 
treaties  prevented  in  the  future,  that  they,  the  Indians,  were 
facing  starvation  and  inevitable  early  extinction.  To  prevent 
such  a  calamity  he  advised  a  confederation  of  all  the  Indian 
tribes  of  the  Northwest;  that  this  confederation  arm  and  act 
in  concert;  that  it  demand  a  recision  of  all  these  treaties,  and 
in  case  of  failure  to  obtain  their  recision  that  they  wage  war 
in  unison  in  defense  of  their  property  and  lives  against  the 
common  enemy — the  people  of  the  United  States. 

Tecumseh  had  a  wide  acquaintance  among  the  different  tribes. 
He  had  also  a  widespread  reputation  as  a  brave  warrior  chief 
and  sage  counsellor.  He  had  the  foresight  to  recognize  (as 
Pontiac  did  before  him)  that  the  different  tribes  were  helpless 
unless  united,  and  that  his  race  was  doomed  unless  the  different 
tribes  were  confederated  and  presented  a  united  front  in  their 
demand  for  fair  treatment.  He  urged  upon  his  fellow-Indians 
that  the  hunting-grounds  were  the  property  of  all  the  Northwest 
tribes  in  common  and  not  in  severalty,  and  that  no  treaty  was 
valid  unless  signed  by  all  the  tribes.  He  was  tireless  in  his 
efforts  to  form  this  confederacy  and  his  fiery  eloquence  and 
vigorous  action  were  fast  bringing  about  the  accomplishment 
of  his  aims.  He  established  as  the  headquarters  of  his  propa- 
ganda a  village  on  Tippecanoe  Creek,  a  tributary  of  the  Wabash 
River,  and  there  gathered  many  of  his  most  earnest  converts. 
He  had  been  carrying  on  this  movement  for  some  time  before 


206  ILLINOIS 

the  treaty  of  Fort  Wayne  was  signed.  When  the  news  of  the 
event  reached  him  he  redoubled  his  efforts  on  both  sides  of  the 
Ohio  River. 

Meanwhile,  his  white  protagonist,  Governor  Harrison,  was 
not  idle.  He  had  little  sympathy  with  the  red  men  and  was 
reckless  of  their  rights  as  recognized  by  the  treaties  of  Fort 
Stanwix  and  Greenville.  He  believed  that  the  Indian  right  to 
retain  the  rich,  fertile  land  for  hunting  purposes  without  utilizing 
the  soil  for  home  building  and  tillage  must  and  should  give 
way  before  the  onward  march  of  home-seekers  and  soil-tillers 
who  were  advancing  from  the  East.  He  knew  that  every  paper 
he  could  secure  from  the  Indians  purporting  to  cede  their  rights 
to  the  United  States  which  he  dignified  with  the  name  of  treaty 
would  be  welcomed  and  ratified  by  the  oncoming  horde  of  settlers 
and  land  speculators  as  well  as  by  the  white  men  living  in  the 
territory  as  squatters  or  adventurers.  He  knew  that  every 
such  treaty  procured  by  him  by  hook  or  crook  was  increasing 
his  popularity  among  the  white  men  who  had  or  soon  would 
have  votes.  In  defiance  of  Tecumseh's  assertion  that  the  land 
belonged  to  all  the  tribes  and  that  all  the  tribes  must  sign  any 
valid  treaty,  he  secured  the  Fort  Wayne  treaty  and  prepared 
for  war  which  he  knew  would  be  inevitable. 

Without  any  formal  declaration  of  war  on  either  side,  in 
1810  the  Indians  began  harrassing  the  white  settlers.  The 
British  authorities  in  Canada,  who  were  manifestly  in  sympathy 
with  the  Indians  and  antagonistic  to  the  Americans,  furnished 
the  Indians  freely  with  guns  and  ammunition  and  urged  them 
to  commit  all  kinds  of  depredations  against  the  American  set- 
tlers. The  hostility  of  the  British  was  rapidly  developing  into 
the  war  which  broke  out  between  the  British  and  Americans  in 
1812.  Many  murders  and  atrocities  against  the  whites  occurred 
in  1810  and  1811.  In  October,  1811,  while  Governor  Harrison 
was  erecting  a  small  fort  in  Indiana  near  the  present  site  of 
Terre  Haute,  one  of  the  guards  was  killed  by  Indians,  and  this 
and  other  recent  atrocities  by  the  red  men  enraged  him  and  he 
prepared  for  war. 

Gathering  together  250  United  States  Regulars,  an  army 
of  800  white  men  mostly  recruited  in  Indiana  and  Kentucky, 


ILLINOIS  207 

and  500  friendly  Indians,  Governor  Harrison  marched  them 
against  the  Indian  headquarters  at  Tippecanoe.  When  near 
their  encampment  Harrison  sent  forward  a  messenger  asking 
for  a  conference  with  their  chief.  Tecumseh,  accompanied  by 
twelve  of  his  ablest  and  most  trusty  lieutenants,  was  then  absent 
in  Kentucky  engaged  in  his  propaganda  for  confederation.    Some 


Battle  of  The  Thames — Death  of  Tecumseh 

(From  Brackenridge's  History  of  the  Late  War.) 

other  chief  or  representative  of  the  Indians  met  Governor  Har- 
rison and  arranged  for  a  further  conference  on  the  following 
day.  On  that  following  day,  November  7,  1811,  the  Indians, 
at  4  o'clock  in  the  morning,  attacked  the  Americans,  who  were 
resting  on  their  arms,  and  a  bloody  battle  ensued.  The  American 
losses  were  equal  if  not  greater  than  those  of  the  Indians,  but 
the  Americans  remained  in  possession  of  the  battlefield,  destroyed 
the  crops,  burned  the  town  and  scattered  the  surviving  Indians, 
thus  obliterating  the  headquarters  of  Tecumseh's  confederation. 
Upon  returning  from  Kentucky  and  viewing  with  dismay 
the  ruins  of  his  capital  and  headquarters,  Tecumseh  crossed 
the  border  into  Canada,  where  he  joined  the  British  forces  in 
the  War  of  1812  and  died  gallantly  in  battling  the  pale  faces 


208  ILLINOIS 

who  he  believed  were  despoiling  his  fellow-countrymen  and 
exterminating  his  race.  He  has  an  enviable  place  in  history 
as  the  gallant,  wise  and  farseeing  leader  of  a  race  doomed  to 
destruction  in  spite  of  sagacity  in  council  and  bravery  in  battle. 
The  battle  of  Tippecanoe  was  but  the  forerunner  of  greater 
and  officially  declared  warfare  between  the  British  and  the 
United  States.  Notwithstanding  the  treaty  of  peace  of  1783 
and  the  subsequent  treaty  between  Great  Britain  and  America 
under  which  British  troops  and  trading  posts  were  removed 
from  American  soil,  ill  feeling  between  the  citizens  and  subjects 
of  both  countries  in  the  Northwest  had  not  been  allayed.  Some 
of  the  old  wounds  of  the  War  of  the  Revolution  had  not  healed. 
The  most  potent  cause  of  hostility  and  ill  feeling  was  the  struggle 
for  the  control  of  the  very  valuable  fur  trade  which  had  been 
developed  between  the  Indians  and  the  whites.  Notwithstanding 
the  removal  of  the  British  garrisons  to  British  soil  in  Canada, 
the  English  traders  still  managed  to  control  most  of  that  rich 
traffic  on  the  upper  Mississippi  and  around  the  Great  Lakes. 
Their  principal  trading  posts  were  at  Mackinac  and  Prairie 
du  Chien.  At  the  latter  place  in  1811  there  were  100  Canadian 
families,  living  on  land  that  they  had  purchased  and  owned, 
and  there  carried  on  trade  with  about  6,000  Indians  who  visited 
the  place  every  year.  At  Mackinac  also  a  large  traffic  was 
carried  on  by  the  British  and  Canadians  with  the  Indians. 
Although  the  Americans  maintained  a  small  garrison  at  Mack- 
inac and  a  United  States  Indian  agent  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  they 
seem  to  have  made  but  little  headway  in  securing  trade. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

THE  DECLINE  AND  ULTIMATE  DISPOSITION  OF  THE 

FUR  TRADE 

In  this  history  we  at  frequent  occasions  referred  to  the 
importance  and  value  of  the  fur  trade  in  the  Northwest  territory. 
It  was  the  emolument  and  profits  that  could  be  derived  from 
the  purchase  of  furs  from  the  Indians  that  lured  the  French 
voyagers  and  the  coureurs  de  bois  from  Canada  all  along  the 
Great  Lakes  and  up  and  down  the  Mississippi  and  other  rivers 
of  the  West.  It  was  the  real  commercial  incentive  to  the  dis- 
coveries of  these  early  French  pioneers.  The  struggle  of  the 
French  monarchy  to  retain  this  land  was  principally  based  upon 
the  value  of  this  fur  trade  to  the  French  merchants  in  Canada. 
It  inspired  Joliet,  La  Salle  and  Tonti,  Frontenac  and  Talon, 
and  when  the  British  overcame  the  French  they  regarded  it 
as  the  paramount  method  of  rewarding  the  British  officials  and 
enabling  the  British  government  to  maintain  its  hold  upon 
the  territory.  When  the  Americans  took  possession  of  the 
territory  from  the  British,  they  regarded  the  fur  trade  of 
considerable  importance,  and  for  some  years  attempted  to  con- 
duct competition  with  the  British  authorities  for  the  retention 
of  the  same.  The  American  Government,  after  taking  possession 
of  the  territory,  passed  certain  laws  which  prevented  traders 
with  the  Indians  from  doing  business  in  the  way  of  purchasing 
furs  without  a  license  from  the  American  Government.  At 
that  time  most  of  the  important  posts  of  trading  with  the  Indians 
were  still  in  the  hands  of  the  Canadian  merchants  of  French 
extraction.  When  the  American  Government  passed  laws  pro- 
hibiting foreigners  from  trading  with  the  Indians,  the  French 
traders  entered  into  a  compact  with  John  Jacob  Astor,  who 
was  then  engaged  in  the  fur  business  in  New  York,  principally 

209 


tcsy     ^•qpyg 


ILLINOIS  211 

with  the  Iroquois  tribes,  under  which  they  joined  their  trading 
facilities  by  giving  control  thereof  to  the  Astor  interests. 

The  United  States  Government  itself  commenced  in  1816 
to  establish  fur  trading  posts  in  Mackinac,  Chicago  and  Prairie 
du  Chien,  and  also  one  at  Green  Bay.  Later  on,  a  trading  house 
was  established  at  Fort  Edwards.  The  United  States  Govern- 
ment stationed  troops  in  the  neighborhood  of  these  posts,  in 
order  to  establish  their  standing  and  prestige,  but  these  efforts 
of  the  Government  proved  fruitless  in  competition  with  the 
British  traders.  Private  traders  seemed  to  be  more  successful 
than  even  the  Government.  The  South  West  Company  which 
was  trading  in  furs  was  controlled  by  John  Jacob  Astor,  and 
this  company  for  a  time  was  conducting  a  successful  business. 
Finally  the  French  traders  sold  out  all  their  interest  in  the 
South  West  Company  to  Astor,  and  he  organized  a  new  company, 
called  the  American  Fur  Company.  This  company  retained 
almost  all  of  the  French  and  English  traders,  boatmen,  inter- 
preters, etc.,  who  had  been  working  for  the  former  companies, 
but  the  officers  of  the  company  and  all  those  holding  responsible 
positions  were  Americans.  Gradually  the  British  interests  faded 
before  it. 

In  the  Illinois  territory,  there  were  two  main  trading  posts, 
one  at  Prairie  du  Chien  in  the  territory  occupied  by  the  Sauks, 
the  Foxes  and  the  Winnebagoes,  running  up  the  Rock  River 
and  down  the  Mississippi.  The  other  post  was  in  the  Illinois 
Valley  at  Peoria. 

For  a  time  a  successful  trade  was  carried  on  by  the  American 
Fur  Company  until  about  the  year  1810  when  the  United  States 
Government  began  making  surveys  of  land.  When  these  sur- 
veys were  perfected  and  when  the  land  offices  were  opened  at 
Kaskaskia  and  Shawneetown  for  the  sale  of  lands  in  1818  or 
thereabout,  the  fur  trade  gave  way  before  the  onward  rush 
of  coming  settlers,  and  thereafter  we  hear  but  little  of  the  fur 
trade  in  the  territory  of  the  State  of  Illinois. 


CHAPTER  XXII 
ILLINOIS  IN  THE  WAR  OF  1812 

As  we  have  heretofore  noted,  bitter  feelings  had  arisen 
between  the  white  settlers  and  the  Indians  after  the  Fort  Wayne 
treaty  of  September,  1809.  As  a  result  of  Tecumseh's  appeals 
to  the  Indians  to  confederate,  and  of  certain  atrocities  committed 
by  the  Indians  in  1810  and  1811,  the  white  settlers  of  Illinois 
became  greatly  alarmed  and  began  erecting  block-house  forts 
in  or  near  all  the  settlements.  There  were  at  this  time  only 
about  12,000  to  14,000  white  people  in  the  state  and  they  were 
outnumbered  by  the  Indians  probably  over  ten  to  one.  These 
forts  were  rudely  constructed  of  logs,  built  up  eight  to  ten 
feet  high,  with  a  low  second  story  projecting  over  the  lower 
story.  They  had  strong  oaken  doors  with  inside  bars  that 
would  withstand  much  violence,  and  had  loop-holes  through 
which  the  inmates  could  fire  their  guns.  Sometimes  four  log 
houses  were  built  on  a  square  and  these  were  connected  by 
strong  palisades.  Inside  this  large  enclosure  many  persons  and 
their  belongings  could  be  grouped  in  case  of  an  Indian  raid. 
The  underbrush  and  trees  would  be  cut  down  for  some  distance 
from  the  buildings  so  that  the  Indians  could  not  creep  up  on 
them  unawares.  Such  forts  were  constructed  at  this  time  at 
or  near  most  of  the  small  settlements.  More  formidable  places 
of  defense,  however,  were  at  Chicago,  Fort  Massac,  Fort  Russell 
near  Edwardsville  and  Fort  LaMotte  and  Fort  Vincennes  on 
the  Wabash.  There  were  also  forts  of  some  kind  at  New  Design, 
Bellefontaine  and  several  other  small  places. 

The  Indians  became  very  restive  and  belligerent  and  in  small 
parties  began  stealing  the  property  of  the  whites  and  shooting 
at,  and  even  killing,  white  men  and  women.  In  these  depredations 
they  were  incited  and  encouraged  by  the  British  and  Canadians, 

212 


ILLINOIS 


213 


who  furnished  the  Indians  with  guns  and  ammunition  freely. 
For  a  time  the  British  assistance  was  given  secretly  and  was  dis- 
guised, but  as  the  ill  feeling  between  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States  developed,  hardly  any  attempt  was  made  at 
secrecy.  This  was  one  of  the  causes  of  the  War  of  1812.  The 
President  in  his  message  to  Congress  gave  as  the  causes  of 


Fort  Dearborn  Marker 


war  the  impressment  of  American  seamen;  the  patrolling  of 
our  sea  coast  with  armed  vessels,  interfering  with  our  commerce, 
and  encouraging  the  Indians  to  attack  our  settlers  in  the  West 
and  furnishing  the  savages  with  guns  and  supplies.  While 
this  cause  of  war  occupies  the  last  place  in  the  President's 
message  it  proved  to  be  the  paramount  one  at  the  treaty  of  peace 
afterwards,  as  we  will  see  when  we  come  to  discuss  the  terms 
of  that  treaty. 


214  ILLINOIS 

Responsive  to  the  President's  message  to  Congress  in  June, 
1812,  the  United  States  declared  war  against  Great  Britain. 
Although  this  was  the  first  recognition  and  declaration  of  war, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  war  had  been  carried  on  openly  by  the 
Indians  and  secretly  by  the  British  garrisons  in  Canada  for  at 
least  a  year  before  that  time.  Governor  Edwards,  without 
Federal  authority,  had  been  encouraging  the  building  of  defens- 
ive forts  and  blockhouses  and  the  organization  of  State  Militia. 
Indeed  voluntary  military  companies  had  been  gotten  together 
by  the  frontier  settlers  even  before  the  governor  gave  direct 
authorization.  The  frontier  line  of  settlements  then  extended 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois  River  through  Alton  and  Fort 
Russell,  Salem  and  Wayne  County,  thence  northeast  to  the  Indi- 
ana state  line  near  Terre  Haute.  The  United  States,  although 
full  of  warlike  spirit  at  the  time  war  was  declared,  was  by  no 
means  well  prepared  for  aggressive  action  against  the  great 
naval  and  military  power  of  Great  Britain,  "the  Mistress  of  the 
Seas,"  and  the  formidable  forces  of  Indian  allies  which  Great 
Britain  summoned  to  her  aid  on  the  western  prairies.  Almost 
without  exception  all  these  tribes,  embittered  as  they  were  by  the 
St.  Clair  treaties  and  the  dispossession  of  their  hunting-grounds 
by  the  Americans,  rallied  to  the  call  of  the  British  authorities 
in  Canada. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  war  the  Regular  Army  of  the  United 
States  consisted  of  ten  regiments  aggregating  5,000  men,  a  large 
portion  of  whom  were  stationed  in  small  bodies  in  the  different 
forts  of  the  United  States.  In  Detroit  Gen.  William  Hull  was 
in  command  of  about  1,000  men,  most  of  whom  must  have  been 
untrained  militia  judging  from  their  inefficiency  as  later  dis- 
closed. General  Hull  was  a  Revolutionary  soldier  and  was 
then  acting  as  territorial  governor  of  Michigan.  He  was  ordered 
by  his  superior  officers  to  cross  the  river  at  Detroit  and  capture 
Fort  Maiden,  then  cross  the  Canadian  peninsula  and  meet  other 
invading  American  forces  at  Niagara,  after  which  the  combined 
forces  could  overrun  and  reduce  Canada.  The  plan  was  excel- 
lent, but  its  execution  was  a  lamentable  fizzle.  While  Hull  was 
attempting  to  reduce  Fort  Maiden,  the  British  General  Brock, 
commanding  1,000  British  troops,  crossed  the  river  into  Amer- 


Replica  of  Fort  Dearborn 


Constructed  for  the  1933  Century  of  Progress  Exposition. 

The  photograph  shows,  left  to  right,  the  officers'  barracks,  a  corner  of  the 
blockhouse,  the  powder  magazine,  soldiers'  barracks. 


216  ILLINOIS 

ican  territory  and  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  American 
fort  at  Detroit,  the  Town  of  Detroit,  and  all  of  the  Territory 
of  Michigan.  General  Hull  acceded  to  this  arrogant  demand 
and  without  a  struggle  surrendered  the  fort,  town  and  territory, 
August  16,  1812.  The  American  fort  at  Mackinac  had  also 
surrendered  July  17  previous.  Hull  attempted  to  excuse  his 
shameful  conduct  afterwards  by  saying  that  his  supply  of  pro- 
visions was  limited,  that  Mackinac  had  surrendered,  that  there 
was  no  hope  of  relief  from  Niagara  and  that  the  soldiers  and 
inhabitants  of  the  Town  of  Detroit  would  be  massacred  by  the 
Indians  if  he  did  not  surrender.  The  surrender  of  Detroit  and 
Mackinac  placed  the  entire  Territory  of  Michigan  under  British 
control  and  exposed  Illinois,  Indiana  and  Ohio  to  attacks  from 
the  triumphant  British  and  Indians. 

At  this  time  the  forces  of  United  States  Regulars  stationed 
in  Illinois  and  near  Illinois  Territory  were  as  follows:  Fort 
Massac  on  the  Ohio,  thirty-six  men ;  Fort  Madison  on  the  Missis- 
sippi, forty-four  men;  Vincennes,  117,  and  Fort  Dearborn,  fifty- 
three.  These  250  men  were  confined  in  their  duties  to  defending 
these  forts  and  the  territory  immediately  surrounding  them 
and  were  not  available  for  general  open-country  warfare.  The 
pioneers  of  the  territories  of  Illinois  and  Indiana  were  therefore 
left  in  the  position  of  being  compelled  to  defend  their  lives  and 
property  without  Federal  aid  and  their  Territorial  officers  were 
compelled  to  devise  such  measures  as  they  possibly  could  to 
give  them  any  kind  of  protection. 

Governor  Edwards  energetically  encouraged  the  formation 
of  military  companies  in  the  settlements  and  the  erection  of 
block-house  forts  for  defense.  While  he  and  his  fellow-citizens 
were  thus  engaged,  the  whole  western  country  was  shocked  by 
a  bloody  catastrophe,  the  massacre  at  Fort  Dearborn,  now  Chi- 
cago, and  the  shameful  surrender  of  Detroit,  both  on  the  same 
day,  August  15,  1812.  The  craven-spirited  General  Hull  had 
learned  in  the  latter  part  of  July  that  Fort  Mackinac  had  sur- 
rendered to  the  British;  and,  fearing  that  the  small  garrison 
of  fifty-three  men  at  Fort  Dearborn  would  be  next  assailed  and 
could  not  successfully  defend  the  fort,  sent  by  a  friendly  Indian 
an  order  to  Captain  Heald,  then  in  command  of  Fort  Dearborn, 


ILLINOIS  217 

to  evacuate  the  fort  and  retire  to  Fort  Wayne.  Historical 
writers  differ  as  to  whether  this  order  was  for  immediate  evacu- 
ation or  whether  it  left  some  discretion  in  Captain  Heald  as 
to  when  the  evacuation  should  take  place.  Be  that  is  it  may 
have  been,  Captain  Heald  regarded  the  order  as  being  unwise 
and  procrastinated  and  delayed  its  execution  for  several  days. 
The  order  was  delivered  to  him  August  7  or  8  and  the  evacuation 
did  not  take  place  until  August  15.  It  is  said  that  Captain 
Heald  called  into  consultation  his  subordinate  officers  and  John 
Kinzie,  the  Government  Indian  agent  who  was  on  friendly  terms 
with  the  Indians  in  the  neighborhood,  and  that  they  advised 
Heald  not  to  evacuate  the  fort.  It  is  said  further  that  Winnemac 
(Winnemeg),  the  Pottawatomie  chief  who  had  brought  the 
order  of  evacuation  from  General  Hull,  ascertained  that  the 
Indians  surrounding  the  fort,  Winnebagoes  and  Pottawatomies, 
were  hostile  and  belligerent.  He  advised  Heald  that  if  he 
intended  to  evacuate  he  should  do  so  at  once,  but  pointed  out 
to  the  captain  that  with  the  provisions  and  supplies  that  he 
had  in  the  fort,  he  could  hold  out  against  a  six-month  siege. 
In  the  meantime  the  Indians  had  heard  from  Tecumseh  that 
Fort  Mackinac  had  surrendered  and  that  Hull  had  retreated 
from  Canada,  and  had  orders  from  the  chief  to  hold  themselves 
in  readiness  for  immediate  warfare.  Heald  still  temporized  and 
held  a  conference  with  some  of  the  Indian  chiefs  and  some 
prominent  white  men  to  devise  a  plan  for  the  safe  removal  of 
the  garrison  and  the  white  men,  women  and  children  in  and 
around  the  fort  to  Fort  Wayne.  At  this  conference  he  told  the 
Indians  present  of  his  intention  to  evacuate  and  in  order  to 
win  their  assistance  and  good  will  promised  to  leave  the  large 
stock  of  Government  supplies  in  the  fort  and  the  Government 
warehouse  for  distribution  among  the  Indians.  The  Indians 
present  promised  him  that  they  would  furnish  him  an  ample 
escort  of  friendly  Indians  to  ensure  his  safe  departure.  Among 
the  stores  were  large  quantities  of  liquor,  ammunition,  food  and 
clothing,  a  fact  that  was  well  known  to  the  Indians.  Heald 
acted  as  he  did  contrary  to  the  wishes  of  Kinzie  and  his  own 
subordinate  officers  and  soon  realized  he  had  made  a  fatal  mis- 
take.   Overnight  he  changed  his  mind  and  carried  out  a  part  of 


218  ILLINOIS 

his  promise  to  the  Indians  and  broke  his  promise  as  to  the  other 
part.  He  ordered  all  the  whiskey  and  powder  poured  into  the 
river  and  all  the  guns  broken  up  and  destroyed.  When  the 
Indians  found  the  next  day  that  among  the  goods  delivered  to 
them  for  distribution  were  neither  guns,  ammunition  nor  liquor, 
their  indignation  knew  no  bounds.  This  breach  of  faith  fanned 
the  smouldering  embers  of  their  enmity  into  a  withering  flame. 

The  cowardice  of  Hull  and  the  indecisive  and  shilly-shallying 
conduct  of  Heald  in  a  nerve-trying  crisis,  together  with  the 
hatred  and  ferocity  of  the  Indian  tribes,  brought  about  the 
shocking  calamity.  It  might  have  been  obviated  if  Heald  had 
acted  firmly  and  promptly  in  obeying  the  order  of  his  superior 
officer. 

On  the  14th  of  August,  Captain  William  Wells  arrived  at 
Fort  Dearborn  with  thirty  friendly  Miami  Indians  to  assist 
Captain  Heald  in  exacuating  the  fort.  He  had  come  in  great 
haste  from  Fort  Wayne,  having  heard  that  Captain  Heald  and 
his  company  were  in  great  distress.  Their  arrival  was  regarded 
as  a  godsend,  and  preparations  were  made  on  the  14th  of  August 
for  a  departure  the  following  morning.  In  the  meantime,  the 
Indians  had  become  furious  over  their  failure  to  receive  from 
Captain  Heald  the  guns  and  ammunition  in  the  fort.  On  August 
15th  at  about  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  evacuation  com- 
menced. Captain  Wells  with  his  band  of  Miami  Indians  were 
in  the  vanguard.  After  them  came  twelve  militiamen,  and  then 
the  regulars,  immediately  preceding  the  wagons  which  carried 
camp  equipage,  women,  children,  and  the  sick.  Behind  them 
marched  other  Miami  Indians,  escorting  Mrs.  Heald,  the  cap- 
tain's wife,  and  Mrs.  Helm.  When  they  arrived  at  what  is  now 
known  as  Fourteenth  Street  in  the  City  of  Chicago  near  the 
Illinois  Central  tracks,  Captain  Wells  noticed  that  the  savages 
to  his  right  were  making  violent  demonstrations  and  preparing 
to  attack.  Captain  Heald  then  marched  his  men  to  some  sand 
hills,  where  he  came  in  sight  of  the  hostile  Indians,  who  attacked 
them  vigorously.  The  regulars  under  Captain  Heald  returned 
the  fire  and  caused  the  savages  to  retreat  temporarily,  but  they 
gradually  surrounded  the  Fort  Dearborn  troops  and  within  a 


ILLINOIS  219 

very  short  time  they  had  possession  of  the  horses  and  wagons 
attached  to  the  American  army. 

The  Miami  Indians  were  thrown  into  dismay  and  fled.  For 
a  time  the  regular  troops  under  Captain  Heald  made  a  vigorous 
defense,  but  before  long  were  compelled  to  surrender.  After 
the  surrender,  the  Indians  attacked  the  women,  the  children 
and  the  sick.  When  the  awful  massacre  was  over,  it  was  found 
that  twenty-six  of  the  regulars,  twelve  of  the  militia,  two  women 
and  twelve  children  were  dead,  also  Ensign  George  Ronan,  Dr. 
Isaac  V.  Van  Voorhis,  and  Captain  William  Wells  died  on  the 
battlefield.  Lieutenant  Helm,  twenty-five  regulars  and  eleven 
women  and  children  were  taken  prisoners.  Many  of  these  pris- 
oners afterward  died  of  wounds  or  were  killed.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Kinzie  escaped  or  were  allowed  to  return  to  their  home,  Kinzie 
and  his  wife  having  been  on  most  friendly  terms  with  the 
Indians. 

On  the  following  day,  the  Indians  set  fire  to  the  fort,  and 
then  disappeared.  Let  it  be  said,  however,  to  the  credit  of 
Black  Partridge,  an  Indian  chief,  that  he  did  everything  he 
could  to  prevent  the  carnage.  Learning  of  the  hostility  of  the 
other  Indians,  he  came  to  the  fort  before  the  American  soldiers 
left  it,  saw  Captain  Heald,  and  delivered  into  his  hands  a  medal 
that  he  had  received  from  the  Americans,  saying  that  he  was 
unworthy  longer  to  bear  it,  as  his  fellow-tribesmen  had  made 
up  their  minds  to  massacre  the  whites.  He  stated,  "I  cannot 
restrain  them,  and  I  will  not  wear  a  token  of  peace  while  I 
am  compelled  to  act  as  an  enemy."  It  was  this  same  Black 
Partridge  who,  during  the  massacre,  saved  the  life  of  Mrs. 
Helm  and  prevented  her  massacre. 

The  year  1812  was  a  most  disastrous  one  for  America  and 
the  Northwest  Territory.  The  surrender  of  Detroit  and  Mack- 
inac and  the  destruction  of  Fort  Dearborn  encouraged  British 
soldiers  to  believe  that  they  could  again  re-possess  this  country 
and  re-establish  the  British  flag  over  the  Northwest  Territory. 
The  British  officers  had  in  their  employ  a  man  named  Robert 
Dixon,  who  was  evidently  popular  among  all  the  Indian  tribes. 
He  was  a  very  adroit  and  able  man,  and  was  able  to  muster  and 
bring  to  the  support  of  the  British  authorities  the  strongest 


220  ILLINOIS 

and  most  warlike  of  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  Northwest.  In 
1813,  he  was  found  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  which  was  then  regarded 
as  the  most  strategic  military  position  on  the  Mississippi.  This 
place  was  made  the  most  important  post  for  trading  with  the 
Indians  by  the  British  authorities.  During  1812-13,  Dixon 
operated  from  this  point  among  the  Indians  and  succeeded  in 
getting  many  of  the  Indian  tribes  to  travel  east  to  assist  the 
British  commanders  around  Detroit.  If  the  British  authorities 
after  the  fall  of  Detroit,  Mackinac  and  Fort  Dearborn  had  fol- 
lowed up  these  signal  successes  with  attacks  upon  the  American 
forts  in  Indiana  and  Illinois,  it  would  have  produced  disastrous 
consequences  for  the  American  nation  and  American  settlers. 
The  British  officers,  however,  needed  the  assistance  of  these 
Indians  around  Detroit,  and  because  of  their  military  necessities, 
the  Americans  escaped  what  the  Americans  believed  at  the  time 
to  be  imminent  disaster  in  the  West.  In  Illinois  and  Indiana, 
the  American  authorities  believed  that  any  day  the  British 
forces  with  overwhelming  Indian  allies  would  be  upon  them. 
Many  of  the  settlers  gathered  in  their  own  forts  and  around 
the  other  forts  occupied  by  American  troops,  and  began  to  cry 
loudly  to  the  Federal  authorities  for  assistance.  During  the 
first  year  of  the  war,  these  Federal  authorities  had  given  them 
no  protection.  Governor  Edwards,  the  territorial  governor, 
had  no  Federal  commission  as  military  commander,  and  no 
money  had  been  appropriated  for  the  raising  of  the  militia. 
Notwithstanding  this  awkward  situation,  Governor  Edwards 
proceeded  to  collect  and  organize  several  companies  of  mounted 
militia,  at  his  own  expense.  These  mounted  men  patrolled  the 
border  from  the  Mississippi  River  to  the  Wabash.  He  caused 
to  be  erected  a  fort  near  what  is  now  Edwardsville,  which  he 
called  Fort  Russell.  A  short  time  afterward,  a  company  of 
regulars  was  attached  to  Camp  Russell  by  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment, this  being  the  only  step  taken  by  the  Federal  Government 
to  protect  the  settlers  in  the  Illinois  territory  in  the  years  prior 
to  1813.  In  that  year,  the  Federal  Government  authorized  the 
recruiting  of  six  companies  of  rangers  for  the  protection  of 
the  settlers. 


ILLINOIS  221 

In  1812,  Governor  Edwards  organized  two  expeditions  for  the 
invasion  of  the  Illinois  River  Valley.  The  information  was  that 
at  Peoria  there  was  a  large  gathering  of  Pottawatomi,  Miami 
and  Kickapoo  Indians,  and  that  these  Indians  were  organizing 
for  assaults  upon  the  frontier  settlements  to  the  south.  The 
first  of  these  expeditions,  composed  of  recruits  raised  in  Illinois, 
were  accompanied  by  the  governor  himself,  and  in  the  ranks 
there  marched  one  John  Reynolds,  afterward  a  governor  of 
Illinois.  On  this  expedition  he  was  a  buck  private,  and  he 
wrote  a  very  interesting  account  of  the  Illinois  expedition.  On 
the  march  from  Fort  Russell  to  Peoria,  they  encountered  no 
belligerent  Indians  until  they  arrived  at  within  four  or  five 
miles  of  an  Indian  village  on  Peoria  Lake.  Here  they  killed  an 
Indian  whose  arms  were  raised  and  who  was  asking  to  surrender, 
and  captured  his  squaw.  Upon  the  arrival  at  the  village  itself, 
they  found  the  huts  deserted,  and  the  untrained  militia  plundered 
and  burned  the  village.  This  was  the  only  achievement  of  the 
campaign. 

The  second  expedition  organized  by  Governor  Edwards  trav- 
eled by  water  to  Peoria.  Upon  arrival  at  that  point,  they  found 
it  deserted  by  practically  all  of  its  inhabitants,  including  the 
United  States  Government  agent,  Forsyth,  whereupon  Captain 
Craig  began  appropriating  all  of  the  property  left  by  the  desert- 
ers. Upon  Forsyth's  coming  into  camp,  however,  he  returned 
some  of  it.  For  several  days  thereafter  Captain  Craig  and  For- 
syth were  on  friendly  terms,  but  one  day  Captain  Craig's  boats 
were  fired  upon  by  some  unknown  person,  whereupon  Craig  pro- 
nounced the  people  of  Peoria  guilty  of  the  offense  committed  by 
the  unknown  party.  He  thereupon  plundered  and  burned  most  of 
the  town  and  carried  away  forty  of  its  inhabitants  as  prisoners. 
Later  on  these  prisoners  were  released  by  Governor  Edwards. 
To  his  credit  be  it  said  that  he  compensated  them  for  their 
losses  out  of  Indian  funds  in  his  possession.  Captain  Craig's 
conduct  was  bitterly  condemned  by  many  of  his  associates  and 
contemporaries.  For  a  further  and  more  interesting  account 
of  these  expeditions,  I  would  respectfully  refer  the  reader  to 
Reynold's  account  thereof  in  his  "My  Own  Times." 


222  ILLINOIS 

By  reason  of  their  misfortunes  during  the  year  1812,  the 
Federal  authorities  finally  became  aroused  to  the  necessity  of 
better  organization  and  larger  forces.  On  May  1,  1813,  the 
states  of  Kentucky  and  Ohio,  and  the  territories  of  Indiana, 
Wisconsin  and  Michigan  were  placed  in  one  district  under  the 
command  of  Major  General  Harrison,  and  a  sub-district  thereof 
including  Illinois  and  Missouri  was  created,  with  headquarters 
at  St.  Louis  under  the  command  of  Brig.  Gen.  Benjamin  Howard. 
The  Federal  authorities  also  effected  an  organization  of  ten 
companies  of  mounted  rangers,  and  placed  four  of  them  in 
Indiana,  and  three  each  in  Illinois  and  Missouri.  These  rangers 
were  all  mounted  men  and  proved  very  effective.  They  moved 
rapidly  and  inspired  the  Indians  with  terror.  General  Howard 
began  to  act  with  great  vigor.  With  a  force  of  rangers  recruited 
from  Kentucky,  Indiana,  Missouri  and  Illinois,  he  pushed  the 
American  frontier  further  northward  and  soon  arrived  at  Peoria, 
where  he  built  a  new  fort,  which  he  called  Fort  Clark  and  which 
was  thereafter  garrisoned  by  regular  troops  until  the  end  of 
the  war. 

In  June  1813,  Gen.  William  Clark  with  200  men  succeeded 
in  capturing  Prairie  du  Chien,  in  the  absence  from  that  place 
of  Dixon  and  the  Indian  tribes,  which  he  had  taken  to  Canada. 
Clark  left  a  small  force  there  after  its  capture,  but  this  garrison 
was  compelled  to  surrender  to  a  large  force  of  British  and 
Indians  from  Mackinac  soon  thereafter.  Following  its  capture 
by  the  British,  two  expeditions  were  sent  up  from  St.  Louis 
to  regain  Prairie  du  Chien.  Hearing  of  these  expeditions,  the 
British  authorities  heavily  reinforced  the  Sauk  and  Fox  Indians 
at  Rock  Island,  and  their  combined  forces  prevented  the  first 
expedition  from  going  up  the  Mississippi  beyond  that  point. 
The  second  expedition  set  out  with  the  same  destination  in 
August  1814.  It  was  commanded  by  Major  Zachary  Taylor, 
afterward  President  of  the  United  States.  The  British  and 
Indians  met  Taylor  and  his  troops  and  inflicted  heavy  losses 
upon  them.  Taylor  was  compelled  to  retreat  with  his  troops 
to  Fort  Edwards,  a  fort  which  was  built  near  Warsaw,  Illinois, 
and  which  was  held  by  the  Americans  until  the  end  of  the  war. 
The  most  northerly  limits  of  the  aggressive  warfare  on  the  part 


Ninian  Edwards 

Territorial  Governor,  and  Governor  of  State,  1826-30. 


224  ILLINOIS 

of  the  Americans  was  a  line  drawn  from  Peoria  to  Warsaw. 
North  of  that,  the  Indians  and  British  were  triumphant. 

Early  in  the  year  1814,  both  of  the  warring  nations  began 
to  tire  of  the  conflict.  The  British  had  been  successful  on  the 
eastern  seacoast  and  in  the  Northwest,  but  had  not  been  at  all 
effective  in  the  central  or  southern  portions  of  the  United  States. 
Proposals  of  peace  were  made  and  accepted  and  peace  commis- 
sioners were  detailed  to  meet  at  Ghent  for  direct  negotiations. 
During  these  negotiations,  a  peculiar  situation  developed.  The 
main  cause  of  the  war,  to-wit  the  impressment  of  American 
seamen  by  British  vessels,  seemed  to  have  been  forgotten.  The 
British  commissioners  stressed  as  the  important  issue  to  be 
determined  in  the  negotiations  the  question  as  to  what  should 
become  of  the  Northwest  Territory.  The  result  of  the  conflict 
between  the  Americans  and  the  British  in  that  territory  had 
been  disastrous  to  the  Americans,  and  had  left  the  British  in 
control  of  the  Great  Lakes  in  about  the  situation  that  existed 
at  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  war.  The  British  commissioners 
in  their  negotiations  declared  that  an  error  had  been  made  in 
settling  the  boundary  in  1783  and  that  that  error  should  be 
now  corrected;  that  the  whole  region  of  the  Great  Lakes  with 
its  valuable  fur  trade  must  now  be  annexed  to  Canada  and 
placed  under  the  British  flag.  They  made  this  claim  not  in  so 
many  words,  believing  that  such  a  demand  would  be  promptly 
rejected  by  the  American  commissioners,  but  they  pointed  out 
to  the  American  commissioners  that  the  Indians  had  been  their 
allies  and  that  they  were  independent  nations  and  should  be 
included  in  the  treaty  and  made  parties  to  the  same.  They  argued 
that  an  independent  nation  of  the  Indians,  with  well  defined 
boundaries,  should  be  created,  wherein  neither  Great  Britain 
nor  the  United  States  would  have  any  control  or  power  to  pur- 
chase the  lard.  They  pointed  back  to  the  Treaty  of  Greenville, 
contracted  in  ^795,  which  created  the  eastern  border  of  an  Indian 
reservation  running  south  from  what  is  now  Lorain,  Ohio. 
This  line  would  have  thrown  most  of  Ohio,  and  all  of  Indiana, 
Illinois,  Michigan  and  Wisconsin  and  the  territory  west  of 
the  Mississippi  into  a  proposed  buffer  Indian  state  or  a  per- 
petual hunting  ground  for  the  Indian  tribes.    The  British  com- 


ILLINOIS  225 

missioners  also  intimated  that  they  should  be  permitted  to  estab- 
lish and  maintain  military  and  naval  posts  on  the  Great  Lakes. 
To  these  demands  thus  formulated,  the  answer  of  the  American 
commissioners  was  emphatic.  If  these  conditions  were  pressed, 
they  would  break  off  negotiations.  The  American  commissioners 
pointed  out  that  the  United  States  had  followed  the  British 
precedent  in  refusing  to  accord  rights  to  the  Indian  tribes. 
The  American  commission  was  composed  of  very  able  men, 
among  whom  was  John  Quincy  Adams,  Henry  Clay  and  Albert 
Gallatin.  Intellectually  and  diplomatically  they  were  more  than 
a  match  for  the  British  commissioners.  The  controversy  was 
strenuous,  but  in  the  end  the  British  commissioners  gave  way 
and  recognized  the  rights  of  the  Americans  to  the  disputed 
territory  by  accepting  a  statement  from  the  United  States  that 
it  would  restore  the  rights  and  privileges  held  in  the  year  1811, 
the  year  before  the  declaration  of  war.  The  commissioners  of 
the  respective  nations  reached  no  agreement  in  relation  to  arma- 
ments on  the  Lakes,  and  the  treaty  was  decided  December  24, 
1814. 

In  the  year  1817,  the  United  States  Government  proposed 
to  Great  Britain  that  both  navies  on  the  Great  Lakes  be  reduced 
to  proportions  which  would  render  them  useless  in  war.  This 
proposal  was  accepted  by  Great  Britain,  and  since  that  time  two 
great  nations  have  been  enabled  to  live  side  by  side  with  an 
unguarded  frontier  of  over  3,000  miles,  without  friction  or  blood- 
shed. It  is  believed  that  this  proposal  was  inspired  by  Benjamin 
Franklin,  a  great  lover  of  humanity,  and  accepted  by  Lord  Shel- 
burne,  an  English  diplomat  who  was  also  a  great  lover  of  peace. 

The  Indian  tribes  were  not  made  parties  to  these  treaties, 
and  after  the  treaty  was  signed  by  Great  Britain,  they  were 
placed  in  a  position  of  being  compelled  thereafter  to  treat  with 
a  great  and  growing  power  whose  citizens  had  suffered  most 
from  their  depredations  and  whose  citizens  in  the  natural  march 
of  events  would  be  insisting  upon  their  government  that  the 
great  fertile  lands  of  the  Northwest  should  be  utilized  for  agri- 
culture instead  of  for  hunting  grounds.  The  rights  which  they 
had  in  1811  the  United  States  agreed  to  recognize,  but  that 
these  rights  then  possessed  must  afterward  be  yielded  by  them 


226  ILLINOIS 

before  the  onward  march  of  civilization  was  plain  to  them  as  it 
was  to  the  white  men  whose  nation  had  signed  the  treaty.  The 
Indian  tribes  knew  that  the  great  power  upon  which  they  re- 
lied, the  British  government,  had  failed  them  in  this  emergency ; 
that  they  never  could  hope  for  further  assistance  from  that 
great  power;  that  thereafter  they  must  treat  with  a  young  and 
powerful  nation  whose  constantly  increasing  population  would 
compel  that  government  to  acquire  these  hunting  grounds  by 
force,  if  not  by  treaty.  The  Indians  recognized  the  inevitable. 
They  became  dispirited  and  down-hearted.  Their  great  leader, 
Tecumseh,  had  given  up  his  life  in  a  lost  cause.  The  tribes 
were  ready  to  trade  with  the  United  States  upon  any  terms  that 
might  be  insisted  upon  by  that  great  nation. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

ILLINOIS  A  TERRITORY  OF  THE  SECOND  CLASS— 
AND  SOON  BECOMES  A  STATE 

The  Ordinance  of  1787  provided  that  one  of  the  qualifica- 
tions of  a  voter  should  be  that  he  own  "a  freehold  of  fifty  acres 
of  land  in  the  district.,,  This  qualification,  probably  more  than 
any  other  cause,  explains  the  smallness  of  the  vote  cast  on  the 
question  of  a  change  to  a  territory  of  the  second  class.  Only 
300  votes  were  counted,  the  great  majority  of  which  favored 
the  change.  On  May  21,  1812,  Congress,  pursuant  to  this  vote, 
declared  the  Illinois  Territory  raised  to  the  second  class.  On 
September  14  of  the  same  year,  Governor  Edwards,  in  the  midst 
of  his  military  activity,  issued  a  proclamation  creating  the  new 
counties  of  Madison,  Johnson  and  Gallatin,  and  another  procla- 
mation about  the  same  time  calling  an  election  October  8,  1812, 
for  selecting  members  of  a  Legislature  and  a  delegate  to  Con- 
gress. 

The  newly-elected  Legislature  (being  the  first  to  meet  in 
Illinois)  met  at  Kaskaskia  November  25.  Pierre  Menard  was 
chosen  as  president  of  the  council  and  Dr.  George  Fisher  was 
selected  as  speaker  of  the  lower  house.  Governor  Reynolds  in 
his  history  says  that  all  twelve  members  of  the  Legislature 
"boarded  at  the  same  house  and  slept  in  the  same  room."  Much 
of  the  time  of  the  Legislature  was  taken  up  with  laws  creating 
territorial  courts  and  helping  the  governor  organize  and  pro- 
vision a  militia  to  serve  against  the  Indians.  There  was  no 
penitentiary  in  the  Territory  and  practically  no  jails  where 
prisoners  could  be  securely  imprisoned.  Hence  the  criminal 
laws  passed  by  the  Legislature  had  few  provisions  for  confine- 
ment in  prisons,  but  many  other  provisions  for  punishment  that 
were  barbarous  and  cruel  and  would  not  now  be  tolerated  in 

227 


228  ILLINOIS 

civilized  states.  Whipping  on  the  bare  back,  with  lashes  from 
ten  to  500;  confinement  in  stocks  and  pillories,  and  branding 
with  hot  irons  were  some  of  the  penalties  set  out  in  the  criminal 
code  of  that  day.  Arson,  rape  and  murder  were  punished  by 
hanging.  If  a  fine  was  not  promptly  paid  the  guilty  man  was 
auctioned  off  to  a  purchaser  of  his  labor  who  could  compel  him 
to  work  out  his  fine  at  hard  toil. 

The  maiden  efforts  of  the  first  Territorial  Legislature  to 
raise  funds  by  taxation,  for  the  support  of  the  government, 
furnish  an  amusing  contrast  to  the  methods  of  the  legislation 
of  our  day  when  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  are  readily 
appropriated  at  each  biennial  session  for  the  support  of  the 
state  government.  The  first  Legislature  in  Illinois  (territorial) 
levied  a  tax  on  real  estate  of  $1  on  each  100  acres  of  land  on 
the  bottoms  along  the  rivers,  and  seventy-five  cents  on  each 
100  acres  on  the  uplands  for  the  support  of  the  territorial  gov- 
ernment. The  expenses  of  the  counties  were  paid  for,  out  of 
personal  taxes,  which  were  collected  from  the  following  sources : 
Each  owner  of  $200  worth  of  personal  property  had  to  pay  $1 
poll  tax  and  certain  occupations  and  callings  were  licensed. 
Smith  in  his  history  gives  Struve  as  reporting  that  as  a  result 
of  the  Legislature's  efforts  to  raise  funds  to  support  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  territory,  $4,875.45  was  collected  in  three  years. 
At  the  present  rate  of  wages  this  would  not  more  than  have 
paid  the  salary  of  a  single  janitor  in  the  State  House  for  a  period 
of  three  years.  How  the  governor,  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
members  of  the  Legislature  and  other  officials  managed  to  get 
their  meager  salaries  is  a  mystery  that  the  ordinary  man  cannot 
explain.  Shadrach  Bond,  Jr.,  afterwards  governor  of  Illinois, 
was  elected  this  year  by  the  people  as  their  delegate  to  Con- 
gress. Up  to  this  time  (1812)  there  had  been  but  little  immi- 
gration into  Illinois.  Fear  of  Indian  atrocities  was  one  cause, 
but  the  greater  and  more  far-reaching  one  was  the  inability  of 
settlers  to  gain  legal  title  to  the  land  upon  which  they  located. 
We  have  heretofore  pointed  out  the  difficulties  which  the  old 
French  settlers  encountered  when  they  tried  under  American 
law  to  have  their  titles  ratified. 


ILLINOIS  229 

In  1781  and  later  on,  some  of  the  soldiers  who  served  under 
George  Rogers  Clark  took  possession  of  certain  lands  as  "squat- 
ters'' and  without  any  legal  title  made  improvements  upon  them. 
These  men,  as  well  as  the  French  occupants  of  lands,  had  been 
petitioning  Congress  for  validation  of  the  occupation  and  titles. 
In  1791  Congress  enacted  a  law  providing  that  all  Americans  that 
had  occupied  lands  before  1783  should  have  their  titles  con- 
firmed as  to  400  acres  each.  Congress  also  provided  a  law  con- 
firming the  French  titles  under  certain  conditions.  Up  to  the 
year  1800  no  other  titles  to  land  in  Illinois  could  be  obtained 
in  tracts  of  less  than  4,000  acres. 

In  1804  the  United  States  had  opened  up  land  offices  in  Kas- 
kaskia  and  Shawneetown  for  the  purpose  of  settling  titles,  and 
quite  a  considerable  number  of  settlers,  upon  learning  of  the 
location  of  these  offices,  concluded  that  from  them  they  could 
procure  title  to  land  if  they  settled  in  Illinois,  Up  to  1812, 
however,  no  land  had  been  placed  on  the  market  for  sale  to 
settlers  who  had  come  into  the  state  between  1783  and  1813,  and 
these  new  settlers  had  merely  "squatter"  claims.  In  the  hope 
of  obtaining  good  title  by  settlement,  many  of  these  "squatters" 
had  made  valuable  improvements,  built  houses  and  barns,  dug 
wells,  cleared  lands  and  enclosed  them  with  fences.  All  of 
these  improvements  would  be  lost  to  them  unless  preemption 
laws  were  passed  giving  them  relief.  William  Henry  Harrison, 
when  a  delegate  to  Congress  from  the  Northwest  Territory,  had 
recognized  the  necessity  of  enacting  some  law  which  would  give 
the  poor  settlers  an  opportunity  to  preempt  and  buy  small 
tracts  of  land  at  a  moderate  price.  H$  succeeded  in  securing 
a  law  which  enabled  a  settler  to  preempt  and  purchase  a  half- 
section  of  land  at  $2  per  acre. 

Shadrach  Bond,  upon  his  election  as  delegate  to  Congress 
for  Illinois  Territory  in  1812,  exerted  himself  vigorously  in  se- 
curing a  preemption  law  that  would  enable  a  poor  settler  to 
secure  a  quarter-section  of  land,  and  thus  attract  settlers  to 
the  territory.  He  was  a  "dirt  farmer"  himself  and  an  earnest, 
honest,  capable  man  who  was  afterwards  elected  the  first  gov- 
ernor of  Illinois  on  its  admission  to  statehood.  In  Congress, 
Bond  vigorously  and  intelligently  worked  for  the  passage  of  a 


230  ILLINOIS 

pre-emption  law  and  according  to  Governor  Reynolds  in  his 
History  of  Illinois  (p.  273)  :  "By  his  exertions  ....  the  first 
act  of  Congress  was  passed  in  1813,  to  grant  the  citizens  the 
right  of  preemption  to  secure  their  improvements."  Under 
the  provisions  of  this  law  the  settler  might  select  a  quarter- 
section  of  land,  and  if  he  made  improvements  on  the  same  he 
had  the  first  right  to  buy  at  government  sale.  If  the  settler 
did  not  exercise  his  option  to  buy,  he  still  had  a  lien  on  the 
property  for  the  value  of  his  improvements  if  bought  by  another. 

The  passage  of  this  law,  the  ending  of  the  war  with  Great 
Britain,  and  the  subsequent  treaties  of  peace  with  the  Indians 
in  1815  under  which  they  conveyed  their  titles  to  the  United 
States,  opened  wide  the  doors  in  Illinois  for  rapid  settlement 
and  growth  for  the  first  time  in  its  chequered  history.  From 
now  on  the  condition  of  Illinois  ceased  to  be  static  and  became 
dynamic.  Its  population  in  1810  was  12,282;  in  1820  it  was 
55,162.  Up  to  1815  the  increase  of  its  population  had  been 
stayed  by  Indian  guerrilla  warfare,  the  war  with  Great  Britain, 
difficulty  of  travel  over  mountains,  through  trackless  forests 
and  over  bridgeless  rivers,  and  the  failure  of  the  law  to  secure 
to  settlers  good  title  to  the  land  upon  which  they  located. 

By  the  end  of  1814  all  wars  had  ceased,  the  British  had  re- 
tired to  Canada,  the  Indians  had  ceded  their  Illinois  lands  to 
the  United  States,  the  steamboat  had  arrived,  railroads  were 
being  planned  and  the  United  States  was  selling  its  lands  to 
settlers  at  the  very  low  price  of  $1.25  an  acre.  The  dammed-up 
waters  of  immigration  and  civilization  had  sapped  and  under- 
mined the  walls  of  war,  isolation  and  law  that  had  surrounded 
Illinois,  and  the  waves  began  to  overflow  the  fertile  prairies 
of  all  the  section.  Riding  on  these  waves  came  not  only  men  and 
women  from  the  Southland,  as  heretofore,  but  from  all  over 
America  and  from  foreign  lands.  In  May,  1812,  Congress  had 
passed  a  law  repealing  the  burdensome  and  unfair  enactment 
which  compelled  a  citizen  to  own  fifty  acres  of  land  before  he 
could  vote;  at  a  time,  too,  when  it  was  almost  impossible  to  get 
title  to  any  land.  The  new  law  threw  open  the  voting  right  to 
all  "free  white  males  of  twenty-one  years  of  age"  who  had  paid 
a  territorial  poll  tax.    This  law  gave  the  newcomers  into  Illinois 


ILLINOIS  231 

from  the  North  and  East  the  same  right  to  be  heard  at  the 
polls  as  the  old  settlers  on  all  points  of  public  interest.  The 
common  people  from  the  territory  from  this  time  on  began  to 
be  heard  from  at  all  elections. 

Among  these  new  arrivals  was  Daniel  Pope  Cook,  whom 
Commodore  Vanderbilt  would  probably  characterize  as  "one  of 
those  damned  literary  fellers/'  He  first  appeared  in  Kaskaskia 
in  1814  as  a  law  student  under  the  tutelage  of  Judge  Nathaniel 
Pope,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1815  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
two  years.  Before  meeting  Judge  Pope  he  was  poor,  friendless 
and  in  delicate  health,  but  gifted  with  a  brilliant  mind  and  a 
facile  pen.  He  early  displayed  his  natural  bent  toward  news- 
paperdom,  took  editorial  charge  of  the  Kaskaskia  Herald  and 
changed  its  name  to  the  Western  Intelligencer,  and  in  1816  edi- 
torials and  articles  signed  "Aristides"  appeared  in  the  paper 
advocating  the  admission  of  Illinois  to  statehood.  They  were  so 
vigorous  and  incisive  that  they  attracted  widespread  attention 
to  a  topic  which  up  to  that  time  had  not  been  seriously  consid- 
ered by  the  public.  While  he  was  so  doing  he  was  appointed  by 
the  President  (probably  through  the  recommendation  of  Con- 
gressional Delegate  Nathaniel  Pope)  as  messenger  to  carry  con- 
fidential instructions  to  John  Quincy  Adams,  then  minister  to 
the  Court  of  St.  James,  London.  Upon  his  return  to  Kaskaskia 
in  1817  he  renewed  in  the  Intelligencer  his  virile  agitation  for 
statehood,  his  most  potent  arguments  in  favor  thereof  being 
that  under  a  State  Constitution  the  following  changes  in  gov- 
ernment could  be  secured:  First — The  power  of  absolute  veto, 
then  existing  in  the  territorial  governor  and  strongly  resented 
by  the  people,  could  be  modified  and  restricted;  second — that 
the  law-making  power  of  the  state  relating  to  internal  affairs 
would  be  supreme ;  and  third — that  the  judiciary  of  the  state  in 
all  matters  relating  to  the  police  power  would  be  controlled  and 
regulated  by)  judges  elected  by  the  people.  The  territorial 
judges  appointed  in  Washington  had  been  very  remiss  and  in- 
attentive to  their  judicial  duties,  and  serious  crimes  had  gone 
unpunished  because  of  their  indifference  and  neglect. 

At  this  time  public  sentiment  had  been  controlled  and  guided 
by  a  very  few,  able  and  forceful  men,  some  of  whom  were 


232  ILLINOIS 

affiliated  with,  and  some  opposed  to  Governor  Edwards  and  his 
policies.  Those  who  favored  him  were  Nathaniel  Pope,  terri- 
torial delegate  to  Congress;  Daniel  Pope  Cook,  Thomas  C. 
Browne,  George  Forquer  and  Pierre  Menard,  while  among  those 
of  the  opposition  were  Shadrach  Bond,  Jesse  B.  Thomas,  Michael 
Jones,  John  McLean,  Elias  Kent  Kane  and  William  Kinney. 
So  vigorous  and  convincing  were  the  arguments  that  young 
Cook  fulminated  from  time  to  time  in  his  paper  that  finally  all 
of  these  prominent  men  and  the  general  public  fell  in  with  his 
crusade  and  clamored  for  statehood.  Nathaniel  Pope,  the  friend 
and  patron  of  young  Cook,  as  territorial  delegate  to  Congress 
pressed  with  great  ability  in  that  body  the  now  popular  demand. 
One  formidable  obstacle  in  the  way  of  statehood  was  the  pro- 
vision in  the  United  States  ordinance  which  required  a  popu- 
lation of  60,000  as  a  pre-requisite  for  admission.  It  was  found, 
however,  that  when  Ohio  was  admitted  into  the  Union  of  states 
her  population  was  only  45,028,  notwithstanding  the  60,000  re- 
quirement of  the  ordinance.  Mr.  Cook  forcefully  pointed  to 
the  admission  of  Ohio,  contrary  to  the  strict  letter  of  the  ordi- 
nance and  argued  that  the  admission  of  Illinois  with  less  than 
the  prescribed  number  of  inhabitants  "would  not  be  inconsistent 
with  the  general  interests  of  the  confederacy.,,  Another  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  the  creation  of  a  new  State  of  Illinois,  which 
prevailed  at  the  time  and  which  probably  was  presented  to 
Congress  was  the  following :  The  Ordinance  of  1787  prohibited 
slavery  in  the  territory.  Nonetheless  slavery  actually  existed 
therein  and  was  tolerated  and  permitted  by  the  territorial  offi- 
cials, some  of  whom  owned  slaves  themselves.  Slavery  existed 
in  the  territory  under  both  French  and  British  rule,  and  the 
treaty  of  1783  with  Great  Britain  guaranteed  to  the  inhabitants 
all  their  possessions  under  American  rule.  The  conflict  between 
the  Ordinance  of  1787  and  the  British-American  treaty  had 
never  been  adjudicated  in  the  courts.  Consequently  many  slave- 
holders refused  to  settle  in  Illinois  lest  their  slaves  might  thereby 
become  free;  and  many  anti-slavery  immigrants  also  refused  to 
locate  here  lest  they  be  compelled  to  witness  slavery  in  all  its 
horrors.  This  anomalous  condition  of  affairs  prevented  immi- 
gration into  the  territory. 


ILLINOIS  233 

At  the  same  time  a  bill  was  pending  in  Congress  for  the 
admission  of  Missouri  to  statehood  and  it  was  generally  be- 
lieved that  it  would  be  admitted  as  a  slave  state.  The  fear  that 
the  Missourians  would  anticipate  the  men  of  Illinois  in  securing 
admission  of  their  state  into  the  Union  caused  prompt  action. 
The  anti-slavery  element  feared  that  if  Missouri  was  admitted 
as  a  slave  state,  that  it  would  be  used  as  a  precedent  for  slavery 
in  Illinois.  On  the  other  hand,  the  pro-slavery  element  feared 
the  admission  of  Missouri  to  statehood  before  Illinois  because, 
as  they  believed,  it  would  attract  immigration  from  the  South 
and  prevent  settlers  from  coming  into  Illinois.  It  developed 
that  both  discordant  elements,  from  different  motives  and 
activated  by  different  fears,  were  united  in  favoring  the  admis- 
sion of  Illinois  to  statehood  before  the  pro-slavery  crowd  in 
Missouri  could  secure  statehood  from  Congress. 

In  anticipation  of  the  approaching  statehood,  the  Legislature, 
January  2,  1812,  created  the  three  new  counties  of  Washington, 
Franklin  and  Union.  Between  1812  and  1817  seven  other  coun- 
ties had  been  created  and  named  respectively  Edwards,  White, 
Monroe,  Pope,  Jackson,  Bond  and  Crawford,  thus  making  in 
all  fifteen  counties  in  the  projected  state.  Nathaniel  Pope,  the 
territorial  delegate,  January  23,  1812,  introduced  in  Congress  the 
bill  for  the  admission  of  the  territory  as  a  state  into  the  Union. 
He  was  clever  enough  to  have  it  referred  to  a  committee  of 
five,  of  which  he  was  chairman.  Two  of  the  other  members 
were  from  the  northern  states  and  the  other  two  from  the  South. 
With  at  least  one  of  the  two  latter  he  was  on  terms  of  personal 
friendship.  As  the  bill  was  originally  drawn  it  fixed  the  north- 
ern boundary  of  the  proposed  state  at  a  line  drawn  east  and 
west  from  a  point  drawn  ten  miles  north  of  the  most  southerly 
part  of  Lake  Michigan  in  an  attempt  to  approach  compliance 
with  a  provision  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787.  Article  V  provided 
that  there  should  be  formed  in  the  Northwest  Territory,  not  less 
than  three  nor  more  than  five  states,  with  certain  boundaries 
for  the  three  states,  which  might  be  formed  "south  of  an  east 
and  west  line  passing  through  the  southerly  bend  of  Lake  Mich- 
igan." Delegate  Pope  amended  the  bill  while  it  was  pending 
before  the  committee  so  as  to  provide  that  the  north  line  of 


Map  of  Illinois  in  1812 

Showing  counties  and  location  of  Indian  tribes. 


ILLINOIS  235 

the  proposed  State  of  Illinois  should  be  at  north  latitude  42°  and 
30'  North.  This  latitude  would  place  the  north  limit  of  the 
state  where  it  now  is  and  forty-one  miles  further  north  than 
the  north  boundary  provided  for  in  the  original  draft  of  the 
bill.  Both  of  the  southern  members  of  the  committee,  Claiborne, 
of  Tennessee  and  Johnson  of  Kentucky,  were  favorable  to  the 
proposed  amendment  because  Illinois  would  be  a  neighboring 
state  and  they  wanted  it  to  be  friendly  and  powerful.  The 
northern  members,  Spencer  of  New  York  and  Whitman  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, were  soon  persuaded  by  Pope  that  it  would  be  to 
the  commercial  and  political  advantage  of  the  eastern  states  to 
give  Illinois  facilities  for  commerce  with  the  East.  He  pointed 
out  to  them  that  the  change  would  enable  Illinois  to  establish 
a  lake  port  either  at  what  is  now  Chicago  or  at  what  is  now 
South  Chicago,  or  at  both  points,  and  that  this  would  develop 
a  large  water  commerce  with  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio  and 
Indiana,  all  of  which  states  had  lake  frontage  and  locations 
suitable  for  the  building  of  lake  ports  and  harbors ;  and  that  the 
building  of  the  Erie  Canal  from  Buffalo  through  New  York 
State  to  the  Hudson  River  was  then  in  contemplation,  which 
would  give  continuous  water  communication  between  Illinois  and 
New  York  City.  He  further  contended  that  the  joining  of 
Illinois  to  these  northern  states  by  water  routes  would  insure 
the  perpetuity  of  the  Union.  If  Illinois  had  the  opportunity  to 
develop  extension  of  commercial  relations  with  the  eastern  states 
over  the  Great  Lakes  as  well  as  having  opportunities  of  devel- 
oping commerce  with  the  southern  states  via  the  Ohio  and  Mis- 
sissippi rivers,  these  commercial  connections  with  both  the 
north  and  eastern  states  as  well  as  with  the  southern  states, 
would  inevitably  make  the  future  State  of  Illinois  a  bond  of 
union  between  these  different  sections  of  the  country,  and  that 
the  future  state  could  always  be  relied  upon  to  oppose  any  move 
that  in  the  future  might  be  made  to  dis-sever  the  Union  of  the 
States.  He  further  argued  with  his  fellow-members  of  the  com- 
mittee and  to  Congress,  when  it  met  in  committee  of  the  whole, 
that  every  man  who  had  passed  over  the  narrow  portage  that 
separated  the  Chicago  River  and  the  Desplaines  River  near 
Chicago  from  Marquette  and  Joliet  down  to  that  day,  had  rec- 


236  ILLINOIS 

ognized  and  declared  that  the  construction  of  a  canal  between 
Chicago  and  the  Illinois  River,  thus  opening  up  a  waterway 
between  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  was  inevitable. 
He  showed  that  every  man  in  public  life  who  had  given  even  the 
most  cursory  examination  of  the  project,  had  favored  the  build- 
ing of  such  a  canal.  He  then  contended  that  its  building  was 
feasible  only  by  having  its  termini  both  in  the  same  state ;  that 
the  building  and  operation  of  a  canal  with  one  terminus  in  Illi- 
nois and  the  other  in  another  state  would  be  absurd  and  im- 
practical. As  a  final,  clinching  argument  he  suggested  to  the 
members  of  Congress  elected  from  the  northern  and  eastern 
states  that  if  Illinois  was  denied  the  opportunity  to  establish 
waterway  commerce  with  the  North  and  East,  that  all  of  her 
future  commerce  would  be  down  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi,  and 
that  her  commercial  relations  would  naturally  develop  into 
friendship  for  the  South  and  southern  projects.  These  adroit 
and  able  arguments  quickly  proved  convincing.  The  commit- 
tee unanimously  approved  the  amendment,  as  did  both  House 
and  Senate  shortly  after  the  report  of  the  committee. 

The  lack  of  the  necessary  population  was  still  an  obstacle 
to  the  passage  of  the  bill.  The  petition  of  the  Territorial  Legis- 
lature claimed  a  population  of  40,000,  without  presenting  any 
census  or  proof  thereof.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  territory  had 
no  such  population  when  the  petition  was  drafted.  The  mem- 
bers of  the  Territorial  Legislature,  when  in  response  to  public 
demand  they  drafted  the  petition,  were  indulging  in  the  patriotic 
guess-work,  which  we  so  often  note  in  our  own  day.  Have  we 
not,  all  of  us,  when  on  a  visit  to  another  city  asked  one  of  its 
residents  what  was  its  population?  Have  we  not  invariably 
been  given  a  figure  much  larger  than  the  last  census  and  fre- 
quently much  larger  than  the  next  census  taken  thereafter? 
The  Territorial  Legislature  in  this  manner  made  a  generous 
and  patriotic  guess  and  fixed  the  figure  at  40,000. 

The  bill  as  originally  drafted  required  the  United  States 
marshal  to  take  a  census  and  stated  that  the  convention  should 
not  take  action  until  he  had  reported  a  population  of  40,000. 
The  able  and  adroit  delegate  from  Illinois  Territory,  Nathaniel 
Pope,  secured  an  amendment  allowing  the  Territorial  Legislature 


ILLINOIS  237 

to  take  the  census.  The  census  taken  in  the  spring  of  1818 
showed  a  population  of  34,610.  The  Legislature  had,  however, 
provided  for  a  supplemental  census  of  those  who  might  come  to 
Illinois  after  the  first  census  was  taken,  and  when  this  supple- 
mental action  was  accomplished,  the  Legislature  considered 
same  and  reported  a  population  later  in  the  year  of  40,258. 

Even  before  this  finding  by  the  Legislature,  the  governor 
and  the  people  of  the  territory  proceeded  on  the  assumption 
that  the  Enabling  Act  would  be  passed,  and  called  for  elections 
of  delegates  to  a  convention  that  would  accept  the  provisions 
of  the  Enabling  Act,  and  if  advisable  adopt  a  constitution  for 
the  newly  created  state.  Too  much  credit  cannot  be  given  to 
the  sagacity  and  ability  shown  by  Nathaniel  Pope  in  advocating 
and  bringing  about  the  congressional  Enabling  Act  signed  by 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  permitting  the  Illinois  Ter- 
ritory to  become  a  state.  All  of  the  amendments  drafted  and 
advocated  by  Pope  were  of  great  importance.  One  of  these 
amendments  provided  for  turning  over  to  the  state  three-fifths 
of  the  fund  of  5  per  cent,  which  the  original  draft  of  the  En- 
abling Bill  provided  should  be  used  for  improving  roads,  for 
educational  purposes.  As  originally  drafted,  5  per  cent  of  the 
proceeds  of  the  sale  of  public  lands  were  required  to  be  utilized 
for  the  building  of  roads.  Pope's  amendment  required  three- 
fifths  of  this  fund  to  be  applied  for  educational  purposes. 

As  heretofore  stated,  the  bill  provided  that  a  census  should 
be  taken  by  the  United  States  marshal,  which  might  have  de- 
layed the  going  into  operation  of  the  Enabling  Bill  for  some 
years.  Pope's  amendment  permitted  the  Territorial  Legislature 
to  take  the  census  and  supplemental  censuses. 

The  most  material  and  important  amendment,  however,  was 
the  amendment  moving  the  northern  line  of  the  state  forty-one 
miles  north.  Pope's  foresight  and  sagacity  enabled  him  to  see 
the  value  of  this  amendment,  but  he  surely  could  not  have  seen 
at  that  time  (1818)  the  tremendous  consequences  that  resulted 
from  this  amendment.  Of  course,  he  knew  by  the  exercise  of 
his  foresight  that  it  would  be  a  wise  thing  for  the  State  of 
Illinois  to  have  a  frontage  on  Lake  Michigan  which  would  en- 
able it  to  establish  one  or  more  ports  for  commerce  with  other 


238  ILLINOIS 

states.  He  also  clearly  understood  that  it  would  be  necessary 
to  have  both  termini  of  the  future  canal  connecting  the  Great 
Lakes  with  the  Illinois  River  and  Mississippi  River  within  the 
limits  of  one  state,  but  he  never  could  have  foreseen  that  the 
effect  of  this  amendment  would  be  in  the  year  1930  to  place 
the  State  of  Illinois  in  the  third,  if  not  the  second  position  of 
power  and  importance  in  population,  industry  and  commerce 
among  all  the  states  of  the  United  States. 

If  the  reader  will  draw  a  line  from  a  point  ten  miles  north 
of  the  lowest  bend  of  Lake  Michigan  westerly  from  a  point  in 
the  lowest  bend  of  Lake  Michigan  due  westerly  to  the  Mississippi 
River,  he  will  find  that  north  of  that  line  lie  the  counties  of  Jo 
Daviess,  Stevenson,  Winnebago,  Boone,  McHenry,  Lake,  Carroll, 
Ogle,  DeKalb  and  Kane  as  they  now  exist  on  the  map  of  Illinois, 
and  most  of  Whiteside,  Lee  and  Cook  counties,  and  also  part  of 
Kendall  and  Will  counties  as  at  present  constituted.  In  that 
territory  there  lies  today  considerably  over  fifty  per  cent  of  the 
population  of  Illinois,  and  includes  within  its  limits  the  cities 
of  Rockford,  Galena,  Freeport,  Belvidere,  Woodstock,  Waukegan, 
Dixon,  Oregon,  Sycamore,  Aurora,  Wheaton,  Evanston,  Oak 
Park,  South  Chicago,  Elgin,  and  above  all,  most  of  the  great 
metropolitan  City  of  Chicago.  If  this  amendment  had  not  been 
offered  by  Pope,  approved  by  the  committee  and  adopted  by 
Congress  and  approved  by  the  President,  Illinois,  instead  of 
being  today  the  third  state  in  political,  commercial,  agricultural 
and  manufacturing  power  in  the  United  States,  with  an  oppor- 
tunity of  soon  becoming  the  second  great  state  in  the  United 
States,  would  have  been  a  state  with  a  population  of  about  three 
and  one-half  million,  which  would  make  it  rank  as  about  the 
ninth  state  in  importance  in  the  United  States. 

Somewhere  I  have  read  that  the  single  fist  of  a  human  being 
prevented  a  break  in  a  great  levee  and  prevented  a  deluge.  We 
have  seen  heretofore  in  this  history  how  George  Rogers  Clark 
with  153  volunteer  militiamen,  without  firing  a  gun  or  shedding 
a  drop  of  blood,  practically  decided  the  ownership  of  the  great 
Mississippi  Valley.  In  the  same  way,  the  forethought  and  sagac- 
ity and  intelligence  displayed  by  Nathaniel  Pope  in  1818,  re- 
sulted in  placing  the  present  State  of  Illinois  in  the  proud  posi- 


ILLINOIS  239 

tion  which  it  now  occupies  among  the  states  of  the  United  States, 
which  it  never  would  have  occupied  were  it  not  for  the  sagacity 
and  forethought  shown  by  him. 

Following  the  election  which  took  place  pursuant  to  the  call 
heretofore  mentioned,  a  convention  met  at  Kaskaskia  on  August 
3,  1818.  By  this  time  the  additional  census  returns,  with  the 
patriotic  assistance  of  Illinois  census  takers,  was  brought  up 
to  40,258,  and  the  convention  without  much  hesitation  or  critical 
investigation  accepted  the  count  and  proceeded  to  draw  up  a 
constitution  for  the  new  state.  Within  twenty-one  days  that 
convention  adopted  the  constitution  of  1818.  Considering  the 
time  consumed  by  the  convention  and  the  inaptitude  and  lack  of 
experience  which  most  of  the  members  of  the  convention  had  in 
the  drafting  of  a  constitution,  it  was  a  pretty  fair  attempt  at 
framing  an  instrument  suitable  to  the  times. 

Article  1  provided  for  the  separation  of  the  powers  of  the 
state  into  three  distinct  parts,  executive,  legislative  and  judicial. 

Article  2  created  as  a  legislative  authority  a  General  Assem- 
bly consisting  of  two  houses,  a  Senate  and  a  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. 

Article  3  placed  the  executive  power  in  the  hands  of  the 
governor. 

Article  4  vested  the  judicial  power  in  a  Supreme  Court  and 
such  inferior  courts  as  the  Legislature  shall  from  time  to  time 
create. 

Article  5  created  a  militia  for  the  state  and  provided  for  its 
proper  organization. 

Article  6  declared,  "There  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  in- 
voluntary servitude  in  this  state,  otherwise  than  for  the  punish- 
ment of  crime  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  convicted,"  etc. 
In  Section  3  of  Article  6,  however,  there  was  a  provision  which 
validated  contracts  of  service  made  under  territorial  laws  and 
provided  that  children  born  of  indentured  parents  shall  be  free, 
males  at  twenty-one  and  females  at  eighteen  years  of  age. 

Article  7  provided  for  the  amending  of  the  constitution. 

Article  8  contained  in  twenty-two  sections  the  Bill  of  Rights. 

The  constitution  enabled  every  white  male  inhabitant  twenty- 
one  years  of  age,  resident  in  the  state  for  six  months  preceding 


240  ILLINOIS 

the  election,  to  vote  at  such  election.  It  also  authorized  the 
Legislature  to  have  control  of  the  appointment  of  all  judges. 
The  constitution  also  provided  that  every  sixteenth  section  of 
each  township  of  Federal  lands  was  to  be  given  over  for  the 
use  of  schools,  and  that  one  entire  township  in  the  state  should 
be  set  aside  for  a  seminary;  that  all  of  the  United  States  lands 
should  be  exempt  from  taxation  for  six  years  after  the  sale 
thereof,  and  that  military  bounty  lands  were  to  be  exempt  from 
taxation  for  three  years  if  held  by  the  patentees  or  their  heirs. 

The  section  of  the  constitution  relative  to  slavery  and  pro- 
hibiting it  in  the  state,  as  amended  and  finally  passed,  was  a 
compromise  between  the  pro-slavery  and  anti-slavery  members 
of  the  convention.  In  effect,  it  practically  admitted  that  the 
former  indentured  laws  of  the  territory  practically  amounted 
to  slavery,  but  provided  that  the  children  of  indentured  per- 
sons were  to  become  free.  Under  that  provision,  no  indentures 
made  outside  of  the  state  could  be  enforced  within  the  state, 
but  the  constitution  failed  to  bind  the  state  not  to  make  a  re- 
vision of  the  constitution  which  would  admit  slavery.  Notwith- 
standing that  the  constitution  failed  to  have  any  provision  in 
strict  accordance  with  the  Ordinance  of  1787  relative  to  slavery, 
it  was  accepted  and  approved  by  Congress,  and  the  President 
signed  the  same  on  December  3,  1818,  and  the  State  of  Illinois 
came  into  existence  as  one  of  the  states  of  the  Union. 

The  constitution  of  1818  differs  from  the  constitution  adopted 
in  1870  in  several  important  particulars.  Under  the  consti- 
tution of  1818,  a  governor  or  judges  might  be  impeached  by 
the  Legislature  if  the  lower  house  by  a  majority  of  those  pres- 
ent voted  for  the  impeachment  and  if  two-thirds  of  those  present 
in  the  Senate  voted  for  conviction.  Under  the  present  consti- 
tution, it  requires  a  majority  for  conviction  of  all  those  elected, 
and  a  two-thirds  vote  of  the  Senate  to  secure  conviction. 

Under  the  constitution  of  1818,  the  governor  was  ineligible 
for  reelection  within  eight  years.  Under  the  present  consti- 
tution he  is  eligible  for  reelection  ad  infinitum. 

Under  the  constitution  of  1818,  the  governor  and  the  Su- 
preme judges  were  required  to  revise  all  proposed  laws  before 
their  adoption,  and  if  they  disapproved  of  same,  the  laws  could 


ILLINOIS  241 

not  go  into  effect  until  they  were  again  voted  for  by  the  Legis- 
lature and  received  the  majority  in  both  houses.  Under  the 
constitution  of  1870,  there  is  no  such  provision. 

Under  the  provisions  of  1818,  the  governor  appointed  the 
secretary  of  state.  Under  the  constitution  of  1870,  the  secre- 
tary of  state  is  elected.  In  my  humble  opinion,  the  framers  of 
the  constitution  of  1818  in  this  particular  acted  more  wisely 
than  did  the  framers  of  the  constitution  of  1870. 

Under  the  constitution  of  1818,  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court 
and  other  courts  were  elected  by  the  joint  act  of  both  houses 
of  the  Legislature  and  held  their  offices  during  good  behavior. 
Under  the  constitution  of  1870,  they  are  elected  by  the  people 
and  hold  their  offices  for  definite  fixed  terms. 

Before  closing  our  consideration  of  the  constitution,  it  might 
be  well  to  ascertain  who  were  the  framers  of  this  important 
document.  In  all  there  were  thirty-three  delegates  elected  to 
this  convention.  The  counties  of  St.  Clair,  Madison  and  Gal- 
latin elected  three  and  the  others  two  delegates  each,  making 
in  all  thirty-three.  The  leading  and  most  important  members 
of  the  convention  were :  Judge  Jesse  B.  Thomas,  Elias  K.  Kane, 
Joseph  Kitchell,  George  Fisher,  Conrad  Will,  James  Lemen,  Jr., 
Samuel  O'Melveny,  Benjamin  Stevenson,  Michael  Jones,  John 
Messinger,  and  Enoch  Moore.  There  were  six  lawyers  or  judges 
in  the  convention :  Jesse  B.  Thomas,  Elias  K.  Kane,  James  Hall, 
Adolphus  F.  Hubbard,  Joseph  Kitchell.  Five  public  officials: 
Benjamin  Stephenson,  Michael  Jones,  Willis  Hargrave,  William 
McHenry,  Enoch  Moore.  Three  doctors:  Caldwell  Cairns, 
George  Fisher,  Conrad  Will.  Four  manufacturers:  Jesse  B. 
Thomas,  Conrad  Will,  Thomas  Kirkpatrick,  Leonard  White. 
One  minister:  James  Lemen,  Jr.  One  merchant:  Abraham 
Prickett.    The  rest  were  all  farmers,  etc. 

Elections  for  public  offices  were  held  at  the  same  time  as 
the  election  for  the  delegates  to  the  constitutional  convention, 
at  which  election  Shadrach  Bond  was  elected  governor,  Pierre 
Menard  lieutenant  governor,  and  John  McLean  a  representative 
in  Congress  of  the  State  of  Illinois.  With  these  gentlemen  as  its 
first  public  officials  and  with  the  constitution  of  1818  adopted, 
the  State  of  Illinois  started  upon  its  career  as  one  of  the  states 
of  the  United  States  of  America. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 
A  PICTURE  OF  THE  INFANT  STATE  IN  1818 

To  enable  the  student  of  Illinois  history  even  faintly  to 
understand  the  course  of  events,  the  difficulties  of  its  early 
inhabitants,  the  struggles  of  its  pioneers,  the  rapid  changes  in 
its  policies  and  government  and  its  marvelous  and  swift  develop- 
ment in  population,  power  and  political  importance  among  the 
states,  it  is  necessary  that  we  picture  to  the  student,  insofar  as 
we  are  able,  the  actual  condition  of  the  young  state  in  1818. 

At  that  time,  socially,  politically  and  commercially,  it  was 
a  weak  infant.  The  first  settlers,  as  we  have  heretofore  seen, 
were  the  French  coureurs  de  bois  and  traders  in  furs.  The  men 
of  financial  substance  who  were  behind  the  fur  trade  and  sus- 
taining it  financially  dwelt  in  Canada  or  New  York.  Their 
representatives  in  Illinois  were  merely  salaried  men,  or  men 
working  on  commission,  very  few  of  whom  had  acquired  a 
competence.  With  the  exception  of  Colonel  Vigo,  a  Spaniard; 
Pierre  Menard,  Cerra  and  a  few  others,  shrewd  and  intelligent 
and  intellectually-gifted  Frenchmen,  the  inhabitants  of  Illinois 
before  the  advent  of  George  Rogers  Clark  were  poor  but  honest 
men  who  exerted  little  influence  in  the  framing  of  laws  and 
developing  the  agricultural  richness  of  the  state.  The  native 
American  or  English-speaking  settlers  that  followed  the  French 
came  almost  exclusively  from  Kentucky,  Tennessee  and  the 
southern  states.  Illinois  was  easily  accessible  to  the  incomers 
from  the  South  who  came  up  the  Mississippi  and  down  the  Ohio 
and  its  tributaries.  Water  transportation  was  the  easier  and 
less  laborious  method  of  travel  of  that  day. 

The  Alleghany  and  Appalachian  mountains  presented  to  the 
man  of  the  eastern  and  northern  states  almost  insurmountable 
obstacles  to  travel.  Railroads  were  non-existent  and  automo- 
biles undreamed  of.    Steamboats  were  just  beginning  to  appear 

242 


First  Governor  of  Illinois 

(Courtesy  Illinois  State  Historical  Library.) 


244  ILLINOIS 

upon  the  western  rivers.  Shipping  on  the  Great  Lakes  was 
still  in  the  hands  of  the  fur  traders,  and  so  insignificant  in 
amount  even  up  to  the  year  1830  as  to  be  practically  unmen- 
tioned  in  the  contemporary  history  of  that  day.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  a  few  merchants  from  Philadelphia  and  a  few  agents 
for  eastern  houses  who  were  merely  sojourners,  the  English- 
speaking  settlers  were  all  from  the  South.  A  few  of  these  were 
men  of  education  and  ability,  almost  all  of  whom  were  Federal 
officials  or  men  with  political  ambitions  who  aspired  to  become 
officials  in  the  new  territory.  Some  of  them  brought  slaves  and 
other  personal  property  into  the  territory,  but  men  of  financial 
substance  in  the  new  state  in  1818  were  few  and  far  between. 
Of  the  35,000  people  within  the  state  upon  its  admission  to 
statehood,  there  were  probably  not  over  thirty-five  who  could 
draw  a  check  for  $10,000  that  would  be  honored  by  any  bank 
in  the  United  States.  The  great  mass  of  the  people  in  Illinois 
in  1818  were  poor,  vigorous,  self-reliant,  courageous  men, 
women  and  children,  who  had  braved  the  wilderness  in  the 
hope  of  sustaining  life  with  the  rifle,  the  hoe,  and  the  axe,  until 
they  could  wring  from  the  soil  and  the  forest  a  pre-empted  or 
"squatter"  farm  for  themselves  and  their  children. 

They  dressed  in  homespun  or  deerskins  and  were  nourished 
mainly  on  the  meat  of  wild  birds  and  wild  animals  and  the  fish 
in  the  streams.  They  supplemented  this  food  with  a  little  corn, 
roasted  or  roughly  ground  into  meal,  and  vegetables  grown 
around  their  log  cabins.  Capital  was  exceedingly  scarce  in  Illi- 
nois in  that  day  and  indebtedness  was  almost  universal.  Lux- 
uries were  almost  unknown  and  the  necessities  of  life  hardly 
earned.  There  were  no  reformatories  or  penitentiaries  and  prac- 
tically no  jails;  consequently  no  imprisonment  for  crime.  Mur- 
ders and  arsons  occasioning  loss  of  life  were  punishable  with 
hanging.  All  other  crimes  were  punishable  with  the  lash,  pillory 
or  the  stocks.  Brutal  crimes  less  than  the  taking  of  life  were 
punished  with  as  high  as  500  stripes  on  the  bare  back,  or  brand- 
ing with  a  hot  iron.  There  were  no  public  schools,  and  the  few 
private  schools  were  illy  equipped  and  the  teachers  as  a  rule 
capable  of  imparting  to  their  scholars  but  the  simplest  funda- 
mentals of  education.    As  to  society,  polish  and  refinement  were 


ILLINOIS  245 

unknown  except  in  the  homes  of  public  officials  and  a  few  well- 
to-do  merchants.  As  a  rule  the  French  habitants  were  poor,  vir- 
tuous and  happy. 

These  settlements  in  Illinois  being  so  weak,  and  so  far 
removed  from  any  civilized  community,  and  amidst  sav- 
age nations  of  Indians,  that  the  inhabitants  were  forced  to 
rely  on  each  other  for  self  preservation.  This  made  them 
kind  and  friendly  to  each  other. 

These  virtues  were  cherished  and  cultivated  for  ages, 
and  transmitted  through  many  generations;  so  that  kind- 
ness and  generosity  became  a  fixed  character  with  the 
Creole  French. 

They  were  ambitious  for  neither  knowledge  nor  wealth, 
and  therefore  possessed  not  much  of  either.  That  sleep- 
less, ferocious  ambition  to  acquire  wealth  and  power  which 
seizes  on  so  many  people  at  this  day,  never  was  known 
amongst  the  early  settlers  of  Illinois.  The  French  of  these 
twenty-two  years  had  exactly,  almost  to  a  mathematical 
certainty,  a  competency  of  "worldly  gear."  There  is  a 
happy  medium  between  the  extremes  of  poverty  and  wealth, 
if  mankind  could  settle  on  it,  that  would  render  them  the 
most  happy.  These  people  had,  at  that  day,  in  my  opinion, 
found  the  "philosophers'  stone"  of  wealth  and  happiness. 
They  lived  in  that  fortunate  medium,  which  forced  itself 
on  them  than  they  on  it.1 

The  people  being  governed  by  the  precepts  of  the  gos- 
pel enforced  by  the  power  and  influence  of  the  church 
formed  a  pious  and  religious  community,  which  was  the 
basis  of  the  happiness  of  the  Illinois  people  in  the  primitive 
times. 

This  was  the  golden  age  of  Illinois,  and  at  no  subse- 
quent period  will  the  people  enjoy  the  same  happiness. 
Wealth  and  greatness  do  not  necessarily  make  a  community 
happy.  Christian  virtues  must  govern  the  heart  before  a 
people  can  be  prosperous  or  happy.2 

In  the  ball  room  much  order  and  decorum  are  observed. 
Two  aged  discreet  persons  are  chosen,  who  are  called  Pro- 
vosts ;  one  to  select  the  ladies  for  the  dance,  and  the  other 
for  the  gentlemen,  so  that  each  one  dances  in  proper  turn. 
It  is  in  this  manner  that  these  innocent  and  merry  people 
spend  much  of  their  nights  in  the  winter.     The  old  people 


1  Reynolds,  Pioneer  History  of  Illinois,  page  37. 

2  Reynolds,  Pioneer  History  of  Illinois,  page  38. 


246  ILLINOIS 

regulate  all ;  the  time  to  retire  and  the  time  to  meet  again. 
By  this  regulation,  much  of  the  excesses  of  dancing  parties 
are  avoided.  The  young  people  are  not  so  capable  to  judge 
in  these  matters  as  the  old. 

The  French,  in  the  early  settlement  of  the  country, 
turned  their  attention  to  the  Indian  trade,  and  to  hunting, 
in  a  great  measure,  for  their  support.  Game  was  then 
plenty.  Buffalo  and  other  wild  animals  were  found  in  the 
prairies  between  Kaskaskia  and  Vincennes,  that  served  to 
supply  the  inhabitants  with  food.  The  Indians  called  the 
Kaskaskia  "Raccoon  River,"  for  the  number  of  those  ani- 
mals living  on  it.  A  great  many  of  the  inhabitants  were 
expert  voyagers  and  hunters.  These  hunters  and  voyagers 
were  a  hardy  and  energetic  race  of  men.  No  hardships  of 
perils  terrified  them ;  and  this  laborious  and  difficult  service 
was  performed  with  pleasure,  and  freqeuntly  with  songs. 
Often,  these  innocent  and  kind  hearted  men  performed  this 
labor  with  scanty  allowance  of  food,  and  at  times  without 
anything,  for  day  together,  to  eat. 

These  people  solved  the  problem:  that  an  honest  and 
virtuous  people  need  no  government.  Nothing  like  a  reg- 
ular court  of  law  ever  existed  in  the  country  prior  to  the 
English  occupation  of  Illinois,  in  the  year  1763. 3 

This  course  of  life  of  the  Creole  French,  has  secured 
them  from  any  infractions  almost  entirely  of  the  penal  laws 
of  the  country.  Very  few,  or  none  of  the  Creoles  were  ever 
indicted  for  the  crimes  the  law  books  style  malum  in  se. 
Not  one,  to  my  knowledge,  was  ever  in  the  penitentiary  for 
a  crime.  I  believe,  the  records  of  the  courts  in  Illinois  do 
not  exhibit  an  indictment  against  a  Creole  Frenchman,  for 
any  crime  higher  than  keeping  his  grocery  open  on  a  pro- 
hibited day  of  the  week.4 

Commercial  business  was  largely  confined  to  barter  and  ex- 
change of  commodities.  The  population  of  the  state  at  that 
time  was  confined  to  the  southern  twenty-four  counties  lying 
along  the  banks  of  the  Ohio,  Wabash  and  Mississippi  rivers. 
The  northern  and  central  three-quarters  of  the  state  were  prac- 
tically uninhabited  by  white  men.  The  Kickapoo  Indians  still 
maintained  their  wigwams  in  the  middle  of  the  state  and  still 
used  that  territory  as  their  hunting-grounds.    The  northwestern 


3  From  page  53,  Reynolds'  Pioneer  History  of  Illinois. 

4  From  page  101,  Reynolds'  Pioneer  History  of  Illinois. 


Illinois  in  1818  at  the  Time  of  Admission  to  Statehood 


248  ILLINOIS 

portion  of  the  state  was  still  occupied  by  the  Sauk  and  Foxes 
under  military  supervision  by  American  soldiers,  at  Fort  Arm- 
strong, near  what  is  now  Rock  Island  on  the  Mississippi  River. 
To  the  east  of  these  two  tribes  lay  the  villages  of  the  Winne- 
bagoes  and  Pottawatomies.  At  Fort  Edwards  on  the  Missis- 
sippi, near  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois,  at  Fort  Clark,  the  present 
site  of  Peoria,  and  at  Fort  Dearborn,  in  what  is  now  Chicago, 
the  Federal  Government  maintained  garrisons  of  United  States 
Regulars.  Outside  of  these  troops  and  a  few  white  hangers-on, 
there  were  practically  no  white  men  in  Northern  or  Central 
Illinois  except  the  French  traders  and  the  agents  of  the  Ameri- 
can Fur  Company  who  were  still  trading  with  the  Indians. 

Fear  of  the  Indians  who  were  still  resentful  over  the  loss 
of  their  lands,  and  the  delay  of  the  United  States  Government 
in  passing  laws  and  establishing  regulations  under  which  set- 
tlers could  secure  title  to  these  lands,  delayed  the  settlement  of 
the  northern  and  central  portions  of  the  state  for  a  few  years 
after  the  admission  of  the  state  into  the  Union. 

Before  patent  titles  could  be  given  to  settlers  or  purchasers, 
it  was  necessary  to  survey  the  land  so  as  to  give  a  definite 
description  of  same  in  the  patents.  The  method  of  surveying 
adopted  by  the  Government  was  as  follows:  The  face  of  the 
county  was  surveyed  due  east  and  west,  and  due  north  and  south, 
into  rectangular  townships  of  six  miles  square.  In  each  town- 
ship there  were  set  off  thirty-six  sections,  each  containing  640 
acres  of  land  and  each  section  could  be  divided  into  four  quarter- 
sections  of  160  acres  each.  On  the  assumption  that  these  Gov- 
ernment lands  should  be  a  means  of  paying  the  national  debt, 
they  were  first  disposed  of  in  large  tracts  of  millions  of  acres 
to  large  investment  interests  and  corporations  who  claimed  that 
they  were  about  to  colonize  same.  In  1815,  however,  the  Gov- 
ernment began  to  place  lands  on  sale  in  small  lots  at  auction 
at  $2  per  acre,  payable  in  four  annual  installments.  Many 
purchasers  on  these  terms  defaulted  on  making  their  annual 
payments,  having  bought  only  for  speculation  without  intending 
to  settle  on  the  lands  or  improve  the  same.  The  Government 
therefore,  in  1820,  abandoned  the  program  of  selling  on  credit 
and  placed  the  unsold  land  on  the  market  for  $1.25  per  acre 


ILLINOIS  249 

cash.  The  immediate  but  temporary  effect  of  this  change  was 
to  slow  up  purchases.  The  Government,  before  offering  the 
lands  at  $1.25  cash,  had  parted  with  a  large  amount  of  land  to 
the  French  occupants,  on  military  warrants  and  to  speculators, 
who  had  paid  only  50  cents  per  acre  cash.  These  latter  lands 
were  on  the  market  for  sale  in  competition  with  the  unsold 
Government  lands  and  could  be  purchased  on  better  terms  than 
those  fixed  by  the  Government. 

This  situation  for  a  time  retarded  Government  sales.  In 
1822  they  had  sunk  to  about  27,000  acres.  In  1826  they  in- 
creased to  about  80,000.  In  1827  they  fell  to  50,000.  Sales 
of  100,000  acres  per  annum  were  not  made  by  the  Government 
until  1829.  The  sales  made  in  the  land  offices  at  Kaskaskia, 
Vandalia  and  Shawneetown  where  lands  in  Southern  Illinois 
were  offered  for  sale,  were  very  small.  These  three  land  offices 
combined  were  only  able  to  sell  in  1821  14,000  acres;  in  1822, 
about  6,000  acres;  in  1823  about  2,600;  in  1824,  about  4,000;  in 
1825,  about  3,000;  in  1826,  about  5,500;  in  1827,  about  7,400, 
and  in  1828  about  11,500  acres.  Many  old  settlers  in  Southern 
Illinois  had  only  "squatter"  rights  to  the  lands  they  occupied 
and  public  opinion  against  those  who  attempted  to  buy  over 
their  heads  was  overwhelming,  and  made  itself  manifest  in 
Congress,  where  legislation  was  finally  passed  compelling  all 
purchasers  at  public  sales  to  fully  recompense  the  "squatter" 
for  all  his  labor  and  improvements  before  they  could  obtain  good 
title. 

Between  1820  and  1831  inclusive,  thirty-eight  new  counties 
were  created  in  the  State  of  Illinois,  most  of  which  were  laid 
out  on  both  sides  of  the  Illinois  River  and  its  tributaries,  and 
adjoining  or  near  to  said  river,  and  as  far  north  as  the  present 
City  of  Peoria,  which  plainly  indicates  that  most  of  the  land 
purchases  and  settlements  made  in  the  '20s  of  the  nineteenth 
century  were  in  Central  Illinois.  In  the  third  and  fourth  decades 
of  the  same  century  most  of  the  new  counties  were  created 
in  the  northern  and  eastern  portions  of  the  state,  indicating 
just  as  plainly  that  the  settlements  made  in  those  decades  were 
in  those  sections.  It  was  in  the  early  '20s  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  soon  after  the  land  began  to  be  offered  to  settlers  at 


250  ILLINOIS 

$1.25  per  acre,  that  the  real  expansion  in  population  began  in 
Illinois.  In  1820  the  population  of  the  state  was  about  55,000, 
and  land  purchases  were  at  low  ebb  in  Southern  Illinois.  In  the 
early  '20s,  however,  purchases  from  the  Government  were  in- 
creasing in  Central  Illinois.  By  1830  the  population  had  in- 
creased to  157,000  and  by  1840  it  leaped  up  to  476,000  in  Central 
and  Northern  Illinois. 

George  W.  Smith,  in  his  valuable  history  of  Illinois,  de- 
clares that  "in  the  summer  of  1825  immigration  revived  con- 
siderably. A  great  tide  set  in  towards  the  center  of  the  state. 
Through  Vandalia  alone  250  wagons  were  counted  in  three  weeks' 
time,  all  going  northward.  Destined  for  Sangamon  County 
alone,  eighty  wagons  and  400  people  were  counted  in  two  weeks' 
time.  Sangamon  County  was  at  that  time  without  doubt  the 
most  populous  county  in  the  state."  What  was  the  racial  origin 
or  nationality? 

Up  to  1818  we  have  seen  most  of  the  immigrants  into  Illinois 
were  from  the  South,  but  of  different  racial  stocks.  Governor 
Reynolds  says  that  the  first  colony  of  foreign  immigrants  from 
the  South  were  Irish.  They  arrived  from  Kentucky  under  the 
leadership  of  Samuel  O'Melveny  in  1805.  They  settled  on  the 
Ohio  River  in  Illinois,  about  fifteen  miles  from  Golconda,  in 
Pope  County,  and  sent  O'Melveny  as  a  delegate  to  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  from  Pope  County  in  1818.  They  grew  rap- 
idly in  numbers,  he  says,  and  in  1830  there  were  seventy-five 
families  in  the  settlement.  Another  group  of  Irish  settlers  lo- 
cated at  Plum  Creek,  in  Randolph  County,  near  Kaskaskia,  be- 
fore 1810.  A  much  larger  settlement  of  English,  immigrants 
was  made  in  Edwards  County  under  the  leadership  of  Morris 
Birkbeck  and  George  Flower,  two  intelligent  and  earnest  Eng- 
lishmen. In  all,  there  were  probably  300  families  in  this  settle- 
ment. Another  group  of  English  colonists  settled  in  Monroe 
County  in  1817  under  the  leadership  of  Thomas  Winstanley, 
locating  and  building  a  Catholic  Church  at  Prairie  du  Long 
Creek.  Quite  a  number  of  German  colonists  located  in  St.  Clair 
County  between  St.  Louis  and  Belleville  about  1815  and  they 
were  followed  by  others  who  settled  in  the  southeast  portion  of 
the  county  near  the  Kaskaskia  River  and  on  Clear  Creek  near 


ILLINOIS  251 

Jonesborough.  The  prominent  leaders  of  these  German  colonists 
were  Germain  and  Markee.  Ferdinand  Emert,  a  German  leader, 
brought  a  colony  of  Germans  from  Hanover  to  the  neighborhood 
of  Vandalia  about  the  time  that  the  capital  was  moved  to  that 
place  from  Kaskaskia.  According  to  Historian  George  W. 
Smith,  native  Americans  in  1830  outnumbered  all  foreign-born 
settlers  in  Illinois  about  seven  to  one.  The  German-born  were 
the  most  numerous.  The  other  foreign-born  settlers  ranked 
according  to  their  numbers  as  follows:  English,  Irish,  Scotch, 
French,  Swiss,  Welsh  and  Spanish. 

The  overwhelming  majority  of  the  35,000  people  in  the  state 
when  it  was  admitted  to  the  Union  came  from  the  southern 
states  and  were  impregnated  with  southern  ideas  and  habits. 
They  were  either  laborers,  mechanics  or  small  farmers  in  the 
states  from  which  they  emigrated,  or  landless  men  with  little 
or  no  capital.  Upon  their  arrival  in  Illinois  they  resorted  to 
hunting  up  locations  for  "squatter"  rights,  building  rude  cabins, 
clearing  the  lumber  lands,  and  fighting  off  hunger  with  their 
rifles  and  fishing  tackle.  Tillage  and  hog  and  cattle  raising 
soon  followed.  Until  1830  farming  and  cattle  raising  were  prac- 
tically the  sole  occupations  of  the  men  of  Illinois. 

The  enormous  mining  and  manufacturing  industries  which 
for  many  decades  past  have  made  Illinois  one  of  the  richest 
and  most  productive  states  in  America  were  then  not  only  non- 
existent but  undreamed  of.  While  outcroppings  of  coal  had 
been  discovered  before  1830,  its  use  as  a  fuel  was  unappre- 
ciated and  unknown.  A  few  sawmills  were  in. existence  and 
lumbering  was  practiced,  but  only  for  local  and  home  consump- 
tion. There  was  no  demand  for  lumber  outside  of  the  local 
settlements,  and  commerce  in  either  coal  or  lumber  was  non- 
existent. The  lumber  from  their  rude  sawmills  was  used  for 
building  purposes,  and  for  making  wagons,  farming  implements 
and  furniture  for  local  use.  These  sawmills  were  mostly  operated 
by  horse-power  until  the  use  of  steam-power  commenced  about 
1830,  when  steam  sawmills  were  erected  and  utilized. 

There  were  no  railroads  nor  even  decent  wagon  roads  at 
this  time,  and  even  if  there  had  been  a  demand  from  outside  of 
the  state  for  Illinois  lumber  or  coal,  that  demand  could  not  have 


252  ILLINOIS 

been  answered  by  Illinois.  Coal  had  been  used  in  small  quanti- 
ties about  1825  by  settlers  on  the  prairies  where  they  had  no 
timber,  but  its  use  was  exceedingly  rare  because  of  the  difficulty 
of  transportation.  In  1835  the  Legislature  gave  a  charter  to 
the  Mount  Carbon  Coal  Company,  but  it  could  not  have  been  a 
prosperous  concern  for  its  property  was  offered  for  sale  in  1836. 

The  only  other  manufacturing  industries  carried  on  in  the 
new  state  were  brick-making,  milling  and  salt-making,  and 
these  were  only  sufficient  to  supply  local  demands.  Where  water 
fall  of  sufficient  force  existed,  water-power  wheels  were  used 
both  for  sawing  lumber  and  grinding  grain,  but  only  for  the 
purpose  of  supplying  local  demands,  and  not  for  general  com- 
mercial purposes.  In  1817  Judge  Jesse  B.  Thomas  established 
a  carding  machine  at  Cahokia,  but  it  is  undoubtedly  the  fact 
that  manufacturing  in  Illinois  when  it  became  a  state  was  of 
the  most  rudimentary  and  insignificant  character. 

In  speaking  of  the  American  people  of  that  day,  Governor 
Reynolds  says :  "Our  name,  blood  and  lineage  are  American  and 
not  Anglo-Saxon.  It  is  true  that  most  of  the  Americans  are 
descendants  of  Europeans,  but  the  preponderance  of  blood  is 
not  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  There  are  more  of  the  descendants 
of  the  Irish  and  Germans  in  the  United  States  than  of  English. 
In  fact  the  American  race  at  present  is  so  compounded  and  im- 
proved that  we  are  a  stock  of  our  own."  (P.  122,  Reynolds' 
History.) 

Education  and  Religion. 

Up  to  the  date  of  its  admission  to  statehood,  little  had  been 
done  for  education  in  the  frontier  state.  There  were  no  public 
schools  then  nor  for  many  years  afterward.  The  little  education 
that  was  imparted  was  by  private  teachers  for  pay.  This  is 
not  to  be  wondered  at.  The  prime  necessity  of  the  frontiers- 
man was  the  preservation  of  his  life  and  the  lives  of  his  depend- 
ents. To  preserve  life  he  needed  shelter,  food  and  clothing.  To 
secure  these  he  was  compelled  to  give  his  whole  time  and  energy. 
He  had  to  build  his  cabin  and  shelter  for  his  live  stock,  to 
watch  the  Indians,  to  track  the  wild  game,  and  to  make  his 
traps  and  fish  nets  in  order  by  hook  or  crook  to  keep  hunger 


ILLINOIS  253 

from  his  door.  He  had  no  time  for  education  or  for  following 
the  outward  forms  of  religion.  He  built  no  schools  or  churches, 
nor  had  he  the  means  to  pay  others  for  so  doing. 

The  French  habitants  in  Kaskaskia,  Cahokia,  Prairie  du 
Rocher  and  other  French  settlements  still  had  and  maintained 
the  churches  that  they  had  erected  during  the  French  regime 
and  divine  service  was  well  attended  in  these  up  to  and  long 
after  Illinois  became  a  state.  Private  instruction,  both  religious 
and  lay,  was  doubtless  given  in  these  churches  and  in  their 
Sunday  schools  in  French  by  the  French  missionaries,  some  of 
whom  remained  during  the  American  administration.  A  French 
clergyman  named  Des  Moulin  is  mentioned  by  historian  Pease 
in  the  second  volume  of  the  Centennial  History  of  Illinois  as 
conducting  a  French  and  Latin  school  at  Kaskaskia.  A  New 
England  schoolma'am  operated  a  private  school  at  Lalu.  These 
private  schools  were  generally  of  the  grade  of  grammar  schools. 
Girl  schools  were  also  in  evidence  where  needle-work,  painting 
and  other  specialties  were  taught.  It  was  not  until  1825,  or 
seven  years  after  Illinois  became  a  state,  that  the  Legislature 
took  action  in  reference  to  the  establishment  of  free  public 
schools.  At  this  stage  of  public  affairs,  1825,  the  hardy  pio- 
neers of  the  state  had  been  somewhat  relieved  from  the  onerous 
burdens  of  their  early  struggles  to  maintain  their  lives  and 
protect  their  growing  properties  and  could  give  some  attention 
to  the  neglected  education  of  their  young,  and  from  this  time 
forward  the  desire  of  the  people  for  both  primary  and  advanced 
education  in  both  public  and  private  schools  became  widespread 
and  emphatic.  But  schools  and  churches  were  still  woefully 
lacking  for  the  common  people  till  about  1830. 

At  Galena,  in  1829,  Kent's  school  claimed  that  it  taught 
Latin  and  Greek.  At  Alton  an  endowed  school  offered  free  edu- 
cation to  all  children  residing  within  the  corporation.  In  1827 
the  Rev.  John  Mason  Peck  opened  a  theological  seminary  pri- 
marily for  the  education  of  ministers,  but  offering  instruction 
to  all  in  literature  and  the  sciences.  A  desire  for  the  spread  of 
both  religion  and  education  soon  became  apparent. 

The  first  waves  of  pioneer  settlers  in  the  state  naturally 
by  outward  action  showed  but  little  evidence  of  the  inner  feel- 


254  ILLINOIS 

ings  of  these  hardy  men  towards  religious  ceremonies.  The 
clergymen  and  Sunday  school  teachers  of  their  old  homes  had 
not  accompanied  them  into  the  wilderness.  Except  among 
the  French  habitants  there  were  no  preachers,  teachers  or  houses 
of  worship  in  the  new  land.  Instead  of  hunting  for  churches 
which  were  non-existent  for  non-Catholics,  they  acquired  the 
habit  of  hunting  for  game,  which  was  abundant.  This  non- 
attendance  at  religious  meetings  was  not  proof  that  they  were 
all  irreligious.  As  soon  as  clergymen  of  their  own  respective 
religious  cults  began  to  arrive  and  as  soon  as  these  reverend 
men  secured  churches  or  even  temporary  houses  of  worship, 
thousands  of  them  felt  and  responded  to  the  call  to  return  to 
the  teachings  of  their  youth  and  filled  the  churches  with  zealous 
believers  in  the  Christian  faith.  Most  of  these  men  from  the 
Southland  had  been  raised  in  the  faith  of  the  Methodist,  Bap- 
tist or  Presbyterian  churches,  and  the  ministers  of  these 
churches  soon  began  campaigns  for  the  revival  of  religious  order 
among  the  pioneers  around  them  in  Illinois.  Among  the  Meth- 
odist clergy,  Peter  Cartwright,  Jesse  Walker  and  James  Axley 
were  the  most  earnest,  eloquent  and  successful.  In  1824  the 
Methodist  Church  in  Illinois  had  a  presiding  elder,  nine  circuits 
and  eleven  preachers,  and  a  membership  of  3,705  whites  and 
twenty-seven  colored. 

The  sale  and  consumption  of  hard  liquor  in  all  frontier  set- 
tlements were  almost  universal  and  Illinois  was  no  exception 
to  the  general  rule.  No  gathering  of  men  for  social,  political 
or  commercial  purposes  was  regarded  as  a  success  unless  whis- 
key, rum  or  brandy  was  furnished  in  liberal  quantities  to  round 
out  and  enliven  the  proceedings.  Governmental  officials  charged 
with  the  duties  of  securing  treaties  with  the  Indians  had  no 
hesitation  about  smoothing  out  the  negotiations  with  a  liberal 
supply  of  fire-water.  Home-  and  barn-raisings,  quilting  par- 
ties, horse-racing  and  political  gatherings  were  enlivened  in 
the  same  manner.  The  Methodist  ministers  were  among  the 
first  to  decry  and  inveigh  against  this  almost  universal  custom. 
If  they  did  not  succeed  in  eradicating  the  habit,  they  at  least 
limited  its  universality.  Many  Baptist  clergymen  and  exhorters 
appeared  in  Southern  Illinois  during  the  first  decade  of  the 


ILLINOIS  255 

state's  history.  That  denomination  claimed  in  1825  to  have 
within  the  limits  of  the  state  fifty-eight  preachers  and  exhorters. 
The  Christian  cults  known  as  the  Emancipating  Brethren  and 
the  Christian  Body  had  each  thirteen  preachers.  The  ablest  and 
most  prominent  of  the  Baptist  preachers  was  John  Mason  Peck. 
In  1817  he  represented  the  Baptist  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
at  St.  Louis.  In  1822  the  Massachusetts  Missionary  Society 
appointed  him  a  missionary  and  he  crossed  the  river  from  Mis- 
souri into  Illinois.  His  indefatigable  zeal  enabled  him  to  estab- 
lish and  maintain  Bible  societies,  Sunday  schools  and  missionary 
branches  and  bring  many  into  the  Baptist  fold.  His  success, 
however,  created  some  jealousy  among  the  pioneer  preachers 
of  his  own  faith  who  were  not  so  gifted  or  so  well  educated  as 
himself,  but  this  in  no  way  weakened  his  zeal  or  retarded  his 
success.  After  the  Methodists  and  Baptists,  the  Presbyterians 
were  next  in  importance  in  numbers  in  the  '20s.  In  1825  the 
Presbyterian  preachers  numbered  sixteen.  There  were  also  a 
few  Universalists  in  the  state,  and  the  Dunkards,  Covenanters 
and  Independents  had  each  one  preacher  among  them.  Very 
few  Catholics  had  come  in  from  the  South  excepting  the  few 
Irish  families  who  arrived  with  O'Melveny.  They  erected  a 
Catholic  Church  in  their  settlement  and  secured  the  occasional 
services  of  a  Catholic  priest.  The  French  steadfastly  main- 
tained Catholic  services  in  all  their  settlements  and  as  the  north- 
ern and  central  portions  of  their  state  began  to  be  populated 
from  the  East  and  from  abroad,  they  began  materially  to  in- 
crease in  numbers  and  commenced  to  erect  churches  and  secure 
the  services  of  Catholic  priests.  Governor  Reynolds,  in  his 
history,  locates  three  English-speaking  Catholic  (churches  in 
Illinois  before  the  year  1830. 

Banks  and  Currency, 

When  Illinois  became  a  state  there  were  only  two  banks  in 
existence  within  its  territory,  one  the  Bank  of  Illinois  located 
at  Shawneetown,  and  one  the  Bank  of  Edwardsville  located  in 
the  city  of  that  name.  The  officers  of  the  former  bank  were  all 
substantial  residents  of  Shawneetown  and  conducted  its  busi- 
ness in  an  efficient  manner  and  sustained  its  credit  while  doing 


O  CO 
<N  CO 

00  00 


£  S 

> 
O 


ILLINOIS  257 

business.  This  bank,  however,  ceased  doing  business  a  short 
time  after  the  state  was  admitted  into  the  Union.  The  other 
bank,  at  Edwardsville,  although  sponsored  by  Governor  Ninian 
Edwards,  was  backed  by  men  of  doubtful  financial  responsibility. 
Most  of  its  $300,000  stock  was  held  by  Kentuckians  and  only 
one-tenth  of  its  stock  was  paid  into  its  treasury.  In  1821  it 
failed  disastrously  while  largely  in  debt  to  the  United  Staes  for 
deposits  made  to  the  credit  of  the  Federal  treasury. 

The  currency  in  use  in  the  fledgling  state  for  all  commercial 
transactions  was  of  a  most  grotesque  and  ridiculous  character. 
The  notes  of  the  Edwardsville  Bank  were  regarded  with  well- 
founded  suspicion,  and  the  notes  of  the  Bank  of  Illinois  were 
limited  in  number  and  hard  to  And.  All  kinds  of  bank  notes 
from  all  kinds  of  banks  were  peddled  about,  at  all  kinds  of  dis- 
counts. Some  were  issued  by  solvent  banks,  some  by  specie- 
paying  banks,  some  by  banks  that  had  already  failed,  some  by 
banks  that  were  about  to  fail,  some  were  counterfeits  and  some 
were  purported  to  be  issued  by  banks  that  never  existed.  In 
this  situation  the  doors  were  thrown  open  for  swindling  and 
deception. 

In  payment  for  the  lands  sold  to  settlers,  the  United  States 
would  accept  the  notes  only  of  solvent  eastern  banks  or  of  the 
United  States  Bank,  so  that  all  the  bank  notes  of  value  were 
drained  into  the  United  States  Treasury.  Nearly  all  the  grain, 
Mississippi  to  New  Orleans  and  sold  in  a  glutted  market  where 
there  was  no  facility  for  exchanging  credits  with  the  eastern 
stock,  and  other  products  of  the  farms,  were  shipped  down  the 
states.  Clothes,  shoes  and  house  furnishings,  all  of  which  were 
manufactured  in  the  East,  and  all  of  which  were  needed  by  the 
people  in  Illinois,  could  not  be  purchased  because  of  the  want 
of  a  reliable  currency  and  the  almost  universal  indebtedness  of 
the  Illinois  settlers. 

Such  was  the  gloomy  condition  of  financial  affairs  when  the 
young  State  of  Illinois  started  on  a  financial  career  which  has 
recently  landed  her  as  the  second  richest  state  in  the  United 
States.  In  June,  1929,  the  State  of  Illinois  paid  to  the  Federal 
Government  the  second  largest  income  tax  paid  by  the  states 
of  the  Union. 


258  ILLINOIS 

In  the  last  few  pages  we  have  attempted  to  envisage  social, 
commercial,  manufacturing  and  financial  conditions  of  the  young 
state  and  its  inhabitants  at  its  birth.  If  strict  truth  be  told,  we 
cannot  boast  that  it  was  a  lusty,  vigorous  infant.  Its  popula- 
tion was  in  fact  less  than  that  required  by  the  Federal  ordi- 
nances relating  to  the  Northwest  Territory.  Its  constitution  was 
rather  restrictive  of  popular  power  and  somewhat  hazy  and 
cryptic  with  relation  to  human  servitude.  The  great  body  of 
the  people,  while  brave,  energetic  and  earnestly  striving  for  the 
opportunity  to  acquire  land  and  build  up  homes,  were  as  a  rule 
wretchedly  poor  and  unused  to  the  methods  of  self-government. 
Education,  except  among  a  few  who  had  acquired  advanced 
education  in  other  states  and  countries,  was  often  of  the  most 
rudimentary  character.  Religion  was  at  low  ebb  except  among 
the  old  French  habitants. 

And  yet  no  young  state  was  ever  born  in  the  United  States 
at  a  time  and  under  circumstances  so  propitious  for  the  rapid 
growth  and  extraordinary  development  into  a  great  common- 
wealth, as  we  will  be  able  to  demonstrate  in  the  next  chapter. 
Its  location  in  the  United  States,  with  its  waterway  connections 
both  toward  the  North  and  East,  as  well  as  to  the  South  and 
West,  made  it  the  heart  of  the  nation  and  the  nerve-center  of 
the  United  States  of  America,  soon  to  become  the  richest  and 
most  powerful  republic  in  the  whole  world. 


CHAPTER  XXV 
THE  FIGHT  FOR  SLAVERY 

To  the  student  of  history  in  the  twentieth  century,  it  seems 
incredible  that  at  any  time  in  the  history  of  Illinois  a  consid- 
erable number  of  its  citizens  were  in  favor  of  establishing  slav- 
ery of  human  beings  as  a  part  of  the  policy  and  law  of  the 
state ;  and  yet  such  is  the  historical  fact. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  human  slavery  had  been  installed 
within  the  borders  of  what  is  now  Illinois  by  the  early  French 
colonizers  in  the  eighteenth  century  and  that  it  had  never  been 
legally  abolished  either  under  French,  British  or  American  ad- 
ministrations. Indeed,  under  American  territorial  administra- 
tion, slaves  had  been  brought  into  Illinois  by  some  of  the  most 
prominent  officials  of  the  territory  and  state,  and  remained  as 
slaves  in  the  territory  until  and  after  the  admission  of  the  state 
into  the  Union.  It  also  must  be  remembered  that  the  great 
majority  of  the  residents  of  the  state  in  1818  had  come  from 
the  slave-holding  states  south  of  the  Ohio  River.  They  had 
been  accustomed  to  and  were  satisfied  with  the  conditions  of  the 
"institution,"  as  it  was  called  in  the  southern  states.  It  gave 
them  no  shock  to  find  slaves  in  Illinois.  There  was  no  concerted 
move  to  abolish  slavery  in  Illinois  before  its  admission  as  a 
state.  It  was  favored  and  encouraged  by  many  and  quietly 
tolerated  by  others.  It  had  not,  during  territorial  days,  become 
a  vital  question  or  a  subject  for  controversy. 

When  its  people  applied  for  admission  as  a  state  they  were 
confronted  with  the  United  States  Ordinance  of  1787,  creating 
the  Northwest  Territory,  which  read  as  follows : 

The  following  articles  shall  be  considered  as  articles  of 
compact  between  the  original  states  and  the  people  and 
states  in  said  territory  and  forever  remain   unalterable. 

259 


260  ILLINOIS 

Article  6:  There  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary 
servitude  in  the  said  territory,  otherwise  than  in  punish- 
ment of  crimes  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly 
convicted. 

The  pro-slavery  members  of  the  constitutional  convention 
evidently  were  in  control  of  the  same  and  were  as  anxious  for 
creation  of  the  state  as  those  who  were  opposed  to  slavery. 
All  members  favored  statehood.  Unless  some  declaration  against 
slavery  were  incorporated  into  the  constitution,  they  knew  the 
proposed  constitution  would  be  rejected  by  Congress  and  state- 
hood refused.  In  this  extremity  the  pro-slavery  people  skil- 
fully and  adroitly  drafted  a  provision  against  slavery  which 
satisfied  the  anti-slavery  element  in  the  convention  and  by  its 
weasel  words  finally  secured  the  approval  of  Congress,  while  its 
anti-slavery  members  were  asleep  or  mystified  by  its  language. 

These  were  the  words  which  were  so  cleverly  inserted  con- 
cerning slavery  in  the  first  Constitution  of  Illinois:  "Neither 
slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  shall  hereafter  be  introduced 
into  this  state  otherwise  than  for  the  punishment  of  crimes/' 
etc.  Slavery  had  already  been  introduced  into  the  state.  Slaves 
and  indentured  servants,  who  were  in  almost  as  abject  a  con- 
dition of  service  as  slaves,  were  numerous  in  Illinois  at  the 
time  this  constitution  was  adopted  and  noting  the  word  "here- 
after" in  the  constitution  there  was  a  rush  to  have  indentured 
articles  approved  before  the  constitution  went  into  effect. 

In  considering  the  peculiar  phraseology  of  the  constitutional 
provisions  of  Illinois  in  1818,  let  us  compare  it  with  the  consti- 
tutional provisions  of  the  states  of  Ohio  and  Indiana,  both  of 
which  states  were  carved  out  of  the  same  Northwest  Territory 
as  was  Illinois.  All  of  these  three  states  when  admitted  to 
statehood  were  subject  to  the  terms  and  conditions  of  the  Ordi- 
nance of  1787  which  created  the  Northwest  Territory.  When 
the  State  of  Ohio  adopted  its  constitution  for  admission  to  the 
Union  it  prohibited  slavery,  but  it  did  not  pledge  the  state  or  its 
people  not  to  amend  the  constitution  in  the  future,  and  its  rep- 
resentative in  Congress,  Mr.  Harrison,  claimed  afterwards  that 
the  state  had  a  right  to  amend  its  constitution  on  the  subject 


mitjtvith  tin  (imMiUdu'it  &jf  tty  9ti<tfjii  tfaU±*lh<  ^((m\oavu 

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(From  Illinois  Blue  Book.) 


262  ILLINOIS 

of  slavery  at  any  time  it  saw  fit  to  do  so.  The  State  of  Indiana, 
when  it  was  admitted  to  the  Union,  adopted  a  constitutional 
provision  against  slavery  and  bound  its  people  for  all  time  not 
to  amend  its  constitution  so  as  to  legalize  or  permit  slavery 
within  its  borders.  The  State  of  Illinois,  it  will  be  noted  in  the 
provisions  of  its  constitution,  neither  abolishes  slavery  at  once 
nor  contains  any  pledge  not  to  amend  its  constitution  on  that 
subject  at  any  time  thereafter.  Its  failure  to  adopt  the  pro- 
visions of  either  of  the  Ohio  or  Indiana  constitutions  on  the 
subject  of  slavery  is  specially  significant  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  both  of  these  constitutions  had  been  adopted  by  these  states 
before  that  of  Illinois,  and  the  members  of  the  Illinois  Consti- 
tutional Convention  must  have  had  the  constitutions  of  these 
other  states  before  them  when  they  framed  the  Constitution  of 
Illinois.  The  inference  is  conclusive  that  the  Constitution  of 
Illinois  was  drafted  by  pro-slavery  penmen  in  the  convention 
deliberately,  so  as  to  preserve  the  rights  of  existing  slave-holders 
and  those  having  indentured  servants,  and  to  permit  the  re- 
opening of  the  issue  of  slavery  after  the  admission  of  the  state 
into  the  Union  by  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  1818,  or 
by  a  new  constitution  thereafter  to  be  adopted.  To  have  framed 
a  constitution  favoring  slavery,  or  one  making  no  declaration 
on  the  subject,  would  have  invited  a  denial  by  Congress  of  the 
application  for  statehood.  Therefore,  some  declaration  against 
slavery  was  necessary,  and  a  cleverly-worded  declaration  against 
slavery,  but  reserving  a  method  of  reopening  the  question,  was 
devised  and  carried  in  the  convention,  and  secured  both  state- 
hood and  the  opportunity  of  further  discussion  and  amendment. 
That  opportunity  soon  arose  and  was  promptly  seized  by  the  pro- 
slavery  element  in  the  state. 

Governor  Shadrach  Bond  was  elected  in  1818;  his  term  of 
office  expired  in  1822.  As  under  the  constitution  he  was  in- 
eligible for  reelection  at  that  time.  Edward  Coles  announced 
his  candidacy  for  governor  in  October,  1821.  He  was  a  cultured, 
college-bred  gentleman,  the  son  of  a  colonel  in  the  Revolutionary 
war.  His  family  was  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  Jefferson,  Pat- 
rick Henry,  James  Madison  and  other  prominent  men  in  Vir- 
ginia.   He  became  by  heritage  the  owner  of  a  considerable  estate 


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264  ILLINOIS 

and  a  score  or  more  of  slaves.  He  acted  as  private  secretary  to 
President  Madison  from  1809  until  1815.  In  1814  he  addressed 
a  letter  to  ex-President  Jefferson,  asking  the  latter  to  exercise 
his  power  as  a  statesman  to  bring  about  the  emancipation  of 
the  slaves  of  the  United  States,  which  evoked  from  that  great 
man  the  following  response :  "The  hour  of  emancipation  is  ad- 
vancing in  the  march  of  time.  It  will  come.  This  enterprise 
(emancipation)  shall  have  all  my  prayers,  and  these  are  the 
only  weapons  of  an  old  man."  Mr.  Coles  was  appointed  by 
President  Madison  special  ambassador  to  Russia  and  had  trav- 
eled extensively  in  Europe,  visiting  Russia,  France  and  Great 
Britain.  He  spent  some  time  in  France,  where  he  met  General 
LaFayette  and  other  distinguished  Frenchmen.  While  travel- 
ing through  England  he  met  Morris  Birkbeck,  a  very  intelligent 
and  successful  tenant  farmer  in  Wiltshire,  near  Oxford,  and 
told  him  of  the  very  rich  and  undeveloped  agricultural  land  in 
Illinois.  His  description  of  the  Illinois  country  so  interested 
Birkbeck  that  the  latter  soon  afterward  came  to  Illinois  to  inves- 
tigate conditions.  Birkbeck  was  so  favorably  impressed  with 
what  he  saw  here  that  he  speedily  returned  to  England  and 
quickly  organized  a  colony  of  English  farmers  and  farm  hands, 
brought  them  to  Illinois,  and  established  a  large  and  flourishing 
colony  of  Englishmen  at  or  near  Albion,  in  Edwards  County. 

After  his  return  from  Europe,  Coles  again  visited  Illinois 
in  1818  and  was  present  in  Kaskaskia  when  the  first  consti- 
tutional convention  was  in  session.  He  had  then  been  offered 
by  President  Madison  the  position  of  registrar  of  the  land 
office  at  Edwardsville.  This  position  had  a  good  salary  attached 
and  moreover  was  a  most  advantageous  one,  in  that  it  offered 
a  splendid  opportunity  for  developing  a  wide  acquaintance  with 
the  general  public.  Coles  was  politically  ambitious  and  clearly 
saw  the  gates  of  future  advancement  opening  before  him.  He 
promptly  selected  Edwardsville  as  his  future  home,  and,  being 
a  man  of  some  means,  secured  a  considerable  amount  of  land 
there  for  his  farm  development.  Returning  to  his  Virginia 
estate  in  1819,  Coles  arranged  for  its  future  care,  packed  such 
personal  property  as  he  needed  in  Illinois  in  wagons,  and  with 
horses,  wagons  and  about  twenty  slaves  that  he  owned  traveled 


ILLINOIS  265 

overland  and  by  water  to  Illinois.  At  Brownsville,  Pennsylvania, 
he  secured  two  large  flatboats  and  floated  down  to  Pittsburgh 
and  thence  down  the  Ohio.  While  on  the  Ohio  one  day  he  ordered 
the  boats  pulled  to  shore,  and  after  surrounding  himself  with 
his  slaves  he  announced  their  main  mission.  He  then  told 
them  he  was  going  to  locate  in  Illinois  and  described  to  them 
its  rich  fields  and  their  future  opportunities  if  they  would  locate 
with  him.  He  promised  them  each  emancipation  from  slavery, 
and  160  acres  of  land  and  help  for  farming,  and  they,  of  course, 
joyfully  accepted  their  freedom  and  every  one  of  them  agreed 
to  accompany  him  to  Edwardsville.  Before  landing  in  Illinois 
Coles  gave  each  of  his  slaves  a  written  certificate  of  freedom 
and  all  settled  around  his  home  near  Edwardsville.  Upon  his 
arrival  there  Coles  commenced  his  work  as  land  registrar  and 
rapidly  made  a  wide  acquaintance,  and  by  his  agreeable  man- 
ners made  friends  of  these  acquaintances.  In  October,  1821, 
or  about  two  years  afterwards,  he  announced  his  candidacy 
for  governor  and  was  elected  to  that  office  in  1822. 

To  move  into  a  state  a  stranger  and  become  its  governor  at 
the  very  next  election,  and  all  within  three  years  after  appear- 
ance in  the  state  was  an  exhibition  of  what  a  politician  of  this 
day  would  call  "fast  work/'  which  has  not  often  been  equalled. 
I  myself  however  unwittingly  approximated  00168'  record  of 
expedition  in  securing  election  to  prominent  office  in  1905.  For 
several  years  before  that  year  I  had  been  living  in  River  Forest 
outside  of  Chicago's  corporate  limits  in  Cook  County  and  sitting 
as  judge  in  the  Circuit  Court  of  Cook  County.  My  family  was 
growing  rapidly,  my  eleventh  and  twelfth  children  (twins) 
being  born  in  1901.  Our  home  in  River  Forest  became  too  small 
to  accommodate  our  family  and  we  sold  that  home  in  River 
Forest  in  1902.  We  found  a  residence  in  Chicago  more  suitable 
to  our  family  needs.  Within  three  years  thereafter  I  was 
elected  mayor  of  Chicago.  When  I  made  the  move  in  1902  I 
had  not  the  slightest  idea  of  becoming  a  candidate  for  mayor 
of  Chicago.  Only  a  citizen  of  Chicago  was  eligible  for  the  posi- 
tion. So  far  as  we  can  learn  there  was  not  a  single  man  in  Illi- 
nois of  political  prominence  who  backed  his  candidacy.  Governor 
Ninian  Edwards,  who  was  probably  the  most  active  politician 


266  ILLINOIS 

and  most  indefatigable  political  writer  of  his  day,  does  not  in 
any  of  his  published  letters  mention  Coles'  name.  Coles'  com- 
petitors in  the  race  were  three:  Chief  Justice  Phillips  of  the 
Supreme  Bench,  Associate  Justice  Thomas  C.  Brown  of  Shaw- 
neetown  and  Gen.  James  B.  Moore.  Of  the  four  candidates, 
Coles  and  Moore  were  opposed  to  slavery,  while  Phillips  and 
Brown  were  known  to  be  in  favor  thereof.  The  result  of  the 
election  must  have  been  a  surprise  and  keen  disappointment 
to  the  pro-slavery  element,  for,  while  it  demonstrated  that  the 
pro-slavery  party  had  the  most  votes,  the  anti-slavery  party 
had  more  political  sagacity  and  success.  The  vote  according  to 
different  accounts  was  as  follows:  Coles,  2810  or  2854;  Phillips, 
2760  or  2687;  Brown,  2543  or  2443;  Moore,  522  or  622.  If 
we  add  the  votes  cast  for  Phillips  and  Brown  together  we  find 
that  the  pro-slavery  candidates  had  5303  votes,  while  the  anti- 
slavery  candidates,  Coles  and  Moore,  received  only  3,332  votes 
in  the  aggregate.  In  other  words,  the  pro-slavery  element 
divided  their  votes  almost  equally  between  the  two  pro-slavery 
candidates,  while  the  anti-slavery  element  cast  the  immense 
preponderance  of  their  votes  for  Coles.  A  plurality  of  fifty 
or  167  votes  had  elected  an  anti-slavery  governor  in  what  was 
then  a  pro-slavery  state!  What  a  narrow  escape  had  Illinois 
from  starting  out  on  a  career  of  advocacy  of  slavery  in  1822! 

Immediately  after  his  inauguration  as  governor,  Coles  forced 
the  slavery  issue  to  the  front.  In  his  inaugural  address  he  dis- 
cussed four  subjects  of  prime  public  importance, — finances,  agri- 
culture, canal  and  slavery.  The  last  of  these  subjects,  however, 
turned  out  to  be  the  first  in  public  interest.  Governor  Coles 
recommended  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  then  in  Illinois. 
Now  the  question  of  slavery  in  Illinois  was  not  a  new  one.  It 
had  been  discussed  under  British,  French  and  American  terri- 
torial administrations  in  the  past.  There  were  many  in  the 
community  that  favored  the  gradual  extinction  of  slavery  in 
the  future,  but  no  one  before  Governor  Coles  had  ever  openly 
advocated  the  instant  abolition  thereof  and  the  immediate  manu- 
mission of  slaves.  This  part  of  the  governor's  message  acted 
as  a  bomb-shell  thrown  into  the  Legislature  with  a  lighted 
fuse. 


Edward  Coles,  Governor  1822-26 


268  ILLINOIS 

The  governor's  message  was  delivered  before  the  joint  assem- 
bly of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  and  therefore 
a  joint  committee  of  the  Senate  and  House  was  appointed  to 
take  action  thereon.  This  committee  was  composed  of  eight 
men,  five  from  the  Senate  and  three  from  the  House.  The 
five  senators  were  Beard,  Boon,  Kinney,  Ladd  and  White  and 
the  three  representatives  were  Moore,  Emmit  and  Will.  The 
report  made  by  the  senators  was  unanimous  and  read  as  follows : 
"Your  committee  are  clearly  of  the  opinion  that  the  people  of 
Illinois  have  now  the  same  right  to  alter  their  constitution  as 
the  people  of  Virginia,  or  any  other  of  the  original  states,  and 
may  make  any  disposition  of  negro  slaves  they  choose  without 
breach  of  faith,  or  violation  of  compact,  ordinance  or  act  of 
Congress. "  This  was  the  position  taken  by  Harrison,  the  repre- 
sentative of  Ohio  in  Congress  long  before,  and  it  was  the 
contention  of  all  the  pro-slavery  people  in  Illinois.  It  was 
generally  understood  at  this  time,  both  in  the  Legislature  and 
by  the  people  that  if  a  constitutional  convention  were  called 
to  amend  the  constitution,  that  the  pro-slavery  sentiment  was 
so  strong  that  it  would  force  an  amendment  through  that  would 
establish  slavery  in  Illinois.  This  was  the  belief  of  the  senate 
committee,  for  after  passing  the  resolution  heretofore  reported, 
it  adopted  the  following  resolution :  "Resolved,  that  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  State  of  Illinois  (two-thirds  thereof  concurring 
therein)  do  recommend  to  the  electors,  at  the  next  election 
for  members  to  the  General  Assembly,  to  vote  for  or  against 
a  convention,  agreeable  to  the  Seventh  Article  of  the  Consti- 
tution." 

Risdon  Moore  and  John  Emmit  of  the  House  reported 
adversely  to  the  majority  report  and  recommended  the  abolition 
of  slavery,  but  Moore  was  the  only  one  of  the  eight  who  finally 
voted  against  the  convention.  The  pro-slavery  people  were  in 
a  strong  majority  in  both  House  and  Senate,  but  a  call  for  a 
constitutional  convention  under  the  provisions  of  the  funda- 
mental law  of  the  state  required  a  two-thirds  vote  in  both  houses 
of  the  Legislature.  The  pro-slavery  members  of  the  Senate 
were  two-thirds  in  number  when  all  were  present,  but  John 
Grammar,  one  of  their  number,  was  absent,  and  they  could  not 


ILLINOIS  269 

call  for  a  vote  until  he  returned.  On  February  7,  1823,  Grammar 
returned  and  a  vote  on  the  convention  resolution  was  taken  in 
the  Senate,  February  10.  The  resolution  passed,  twelve  to  six, 
and  the  Senate  resolution  was  transmitted  to  the  House.  A 
test  vote  had  been  taken  on  the  same  subject  in  the  House  a 
few  days  before,  resulting  in  a  vote  of  twenty-two  for  the 
convention  and  fourteen  against.  Two  of  the  adverse  votes 
were  cast  by  McFatridge  and  Rattan.  McFatridge  voted  against 
it  from  conviction;  Rattan  voted  adversely  so  that  he  could 
move  afterward  for  a  no-consideration.  Subsequently,  however, 
McFatridge  had  been  converted  to  vote  for  the  convention  by 
promises  made  to  him  that  the  Legislature  would  pass  a  bill 
changing  the  county  seat  in  his  county.  When  the  Senate 
resolution  was  voted  upon  in  the  House,  February  11,  all  thirty- 
six  members  of  the  House  were  present  and  voted,  but  on  the 
tally  the  vote  was  found  to  be  twenty-three  affirmed  and  thirteen 
negative.  Lacking  one  vote  of  a  two-thirds  majority,  the  reso- 
lution was  lost,  and  it  was  discovered  that  Nicholas  Hansen, 
the  representative  from  Pike  County,  who  had  before  that  time 
voted  for  the  convention,  had  changed  his  mind,  and  on  February 
11  had  voted  against  it. 

Great  was  the  excitement  thereat!  Hansen  was  denounced 
as  a  traitor  and  a  pledge-breaker  and  his  life  made  boisterous 
and  unpleasant.  That  night  a  vociferous  meeting  was  held 
in  the  State  House  and  various  emphatic  and  uncomplimentary 
remarks  and  views  expressed  about  Hansen.  After  the  meeting 
tumultuous  crowds  with  tin  pans  and  horns  visited  the  lodgings 
of  the  anti-convention  members  and  Hansen  was  hung  in  effigy. 
Plans  were  made  immediately  for  his  political  punishment.  When 
he  first  appeared  in  the  Legislature  his  election  had  been  con- 
tested by  John  Shaw,  his  opponent  in  the  election.  The  dispute 
in  the  election  arose  out  of  the  fact  that  in  one  precinct  Shaw 
had  received  eighty-three  votes  at  a  polling  place  set  up  by 
the  electors,  while  Hansen  had  received  only  twelve  votes  in  a 
polling  place  presided  over  by  the  regular  judges  of  election. 
The  returns  for  Shaw  had  been  rejected  by  the  judges,  but 
Shaw  had  filed  a  notice  of  contest  before  the  Legislature.  At 
Hansen's  request  Shaw  let  the  matter  lie  over  for  a  few  days 


270  ILLINOIS 

and  did  not  refile  the  notice  until  the  legal  time  had  expired. 
The  house  committee  had  seated  Hansen,  it  is  said,  because  it 
was  believed  he  would  vote  against  Edwards  and  for  Thomas 
as  United  States  Senator.  The  committee,  however,  threw  out 
Shaw's  contest  because  it  was  filed  too  late,  although  the  delay- 
was  caused  at  Hansen's  request.  The  equity  of  the  action  is 
doubtful.  Hansen's  betrayal  of  the  conventionists,  however, 
changed  the  sentiments  theretofore  existing  in  his  favor,  and 
the  House  proceeded  in  a  high-handed  manner  to  set  aside 
their  formal  disposal  of  the  election  contest. 

On  February  12  (Lincoln's  birthday,  afterward  in  Illinois 
to  be  made  a  legal  holiday  and  now  observed  as  a  day  sacred 
to  human  freedom)  the  House  by  a  vote  of  twenty-one  to 
thirteen  ordered  a  reconsideration  of  its  action  in  the  Shaw- 
Hansen  contest,  considered  certain  documents  and  affidavits, 
held  a  debate  on  the  same,  and  finally,  by  a  vote  of  twenty-one 
to  fourteen,  the  name  of  Shaw  was  substituted  for  the  name 
of  Hansen  as  a  sitting,  legally-elected  member  of  that  body. 
After  the  vote  was  declared  Shaw  took  Hansen's  seat  as  a 
member  of  the  House.  Representative  Turney  then  moved  to 
reconsider  an  appeal  from  the  decision  of  the  chair  on  a  motion 
for  a  reconsideration  of  the  convention  resolution.  The  decision 
was  reversed,  the  reconsideration  was  ordered,  and  the  resolution 
for  the  convention  was  then  passed  in  the  House  by  a  vote  of 
twenty-four  for  and  twelve  against. 

Further  punishment  for  Hansen  seemed  necessary.  On  motion 
of  Representative  Field,  Hansen's  name  as  one  of  the  canal 
commissioners  was  stricken  from  the  list.  The  battle  for  and 
against  the  convention  was  now  on  before  the  people  and  lasted 
for  eighteen  months.  It  was  prosecuted  with  great  bitterness 
and  intensity  on  each  side.  On  February  15  the  pro-conven- 
tionists  met  and  appointed  a  committee  to  prepare  an  address 
to  the  people,  giving  reasons  why  the  convention  should  be 
held  and  the  constitution  amended,  but  wholly  ignoring  the 
slavery  question.  A  few  days  later  the  anti-conventionists  met 
and  adopted  an  address  charging  that  the  main  object  of  the 
conventionists  was  to  establish  and  retain  slavery  in  Illinois. 


ILLINOIS  271 

This  was  probably  the  truth,  but  it  was  never  openly  admitted 
by  the  conventionists. 

Before  the  passage  of  the  convention  resolution  in  the  Legis- 
lature the  sentiment  in  favor  of  slavery  was  largely  prepon- 
derant in  Illinois.  This  assertion  we  can  establish  in  several 
ways.  First,  it  was  apparent  from  the  anemic  phraseology  of 
the  article  on  slavery  in  the  Constitution  of  1818.  The  con- 
vention that  framed  that  article  would  have  flatly  favored  slavery 
if  it  had  not  feared  that  Congress  would  undoubtedly  reject  a 
constitution  of  that  character,  flying  in  the  face  of  the  Ordinance 
of  1787.  That  convention  knew  that  some  declaration  against 
slavery  would  have  to  be  inserted  in  the  constitution  or  Illinois 
would  not  be  admitted  into  the  Union.  The  milk-and-water 
article  against  slavery  was  therefore  adopted  to  secure  statehood 
and  it  accomplished  the  purpose.  Secondly,  the  election  for 
governor  in  1822  showed  that  five-eighths  of  the  voters  cast  their 
ballots  for  pro-slavery  candidates  instead  of  the  candidates  who 
were  opposed  to  slavery.  Thirdly,  the  composition  of  the  Legis- 
lature of  1822  showed  that  nearly,  if  not  quite,  two-thirds  of 
both  houses  were  in  favor  of  slavery. 

While  the  pro-slavery  sentiment  of  the  people  of  the  state 
was  largely  preponderant  when  the  resolution  for  the  convention 
was  passed,  that  sentiment  began  to  lose  ground  soon  afterwards. 
The  high-handed,  arbitrary  and  unfair  methods  pursued  by  the 
House  in  evicting  Hansen  and  securing  thereby  a  two-thirds 
vote  for  the  convention,  disgusted  many  fair-minded  citizens 
who  had  been  tolerant  of  slavery.  An  unbiased  reading  of  the 
events  of  that  day  as  commented  upon  by  different  writers  of 
history  leads  one  to  believe  that  the  real  object  sought  by  the 
proponents  of  the  convention  was  the  amendment  of  the  consti- 
tution of  the  state  so  as  to  legalize  slavery.  The  conventionists 
never  openly  admitted  this  and  their  lack  of  candor  in  this 
regard  must  have  prejudiced  many  fair-minded  men.  A  masked 
movement  in  political  life  is  feared  as  much  as  a  masked  man 
is  dreaded  in  private  life.  The  anti-conventionists,  on  the  other 
hand,  kept  pulling  the  masks  off  of  their  opponents  and  continued 
to  denounce  the  horrors  of  human  slavery.  Many  good  men  and 
women  in  Illinois  had  grown  up  from  infancy  in  the  slave  states 


272  ILLINOIS 

and  had  their  consciences  and  sense  of  justice  so  benumbed  by- 
constant  association  with  slavery,  that  they  became  tolerant 
of  it.  And  yet,  when  the  anti-conventionists  opened  fire  upon 
slavery  and  kept  pounding  against  the  atrocity  and  inhumanity 
of  the  thing,  many  of  these  benumbed  people  from  the  South 
began  to  find  that  they  had  consciences  that  were  troubling 
them  and  began  to  regard  slavery  as  a  crime  against  both 
God  and  man. 

Early  in  the  campaign,  the  anti-conventionists  and  anti- 
slavery  people,  through  fifteen  of  the  eighteen  men  who  in  the 
Legislature  voted  against  the  convention,  issued  an  impassioned 
appeal  to  the  voters  of  the  state,  from  which  we  quote :  "Consider 
the  spectacle  that  would  be  presented  to  the  civilized  world, 
of  the  people  of  Illinois,  innocent  of  this  great  national  sin,  and 
in  the  full  enjoyment  of  all  the  blessings  of  free  government, 
sitting  down  in  solemn  convention  to  deliberate  and  determine 
whether  they  should  introduce  among  them  a  portion  of  their 
fellow-beings,  to  be  cut  off  from  these  blessings,  to  be  loaded 
with  chains  of  bondage  and  unable  to  leave  any  other  legacy  to 
their  posterity  than  the  inheritance  of  their  own  bondage.  The 
wise  and  the  good  of  all  nations  would  blush  at  our  political 
depravity." 

Such  appeals  had  their  effect  even  among  those  who  all  their 
lives  had  been  surrounded  by  slaves.  It  is  proper  and  interesting 
to  look  back  and  consider  the  names  and  standing  of  the  prom- 
inent men  of  that  day  and  ascertain  how  they  stood  in  the 
great  crisis  of  the  state's  history  and  the  national  history.  Those 
favoring  the  convention  were : 

(1)  Elias  Kent  Kane,  one  of  the  ablest  men  of  that  day, 
who  was  a  graduate  of  Yale  and  a  successful  lawyer.  He  had 
been  a  member  of  the  first  Constitutional  Convention,  Secretary 
of  State  under  Governor  Bond,  United  States  Senator,  and  was 
a  member  of  an  excellent  family.  He  had  also  been  a  United 
States  Territorial  Judge  before  the  admission  of  the  state  to 
the  Union.  During  the  campaign  for  the  convention  he  managed 
and  controlled  the  Republican  Advocate,  which  paper  strongly 
supported  the  conventionists. 


ILLINOIS  273 

(2)  Thomas  Reynolds  was  a  lawyer  of  considerable  stand- 
ing and  was  for  a  time  chief  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Illinois  and  afterwards  became  governor  of  Missouri.  He  also 
supported  the  conventionists  and  assisted  Kane  in  managing 
the  Republican  Advocate. 

(3)  Theophilus  W.  Smith  had  also  been  a  member  of  the 
Supreme  Bench,  was  very  prominent  in  politics  and  aggressively 
supported  the  call  for  the  convention. 

(4)  Shadrach  Bond,  the  first  governor  of  the  State  of 
Illinois. 

(5)  Joseph  Phillips,  then  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  who  had  been  prior  to  that  time  Secretary  of  the  Illinois 
Territory  when  Illinois  became  a  state.  He  was  a  pro-slavery 
candidate  for  governor  against  Coles  and  received  the  second 
highest  vote  for  that  office,  and  also  was  an  ardent  advocate 
of  the  convention.  Supporting  these  five  prominent  leaders  in 
politics  were  grouped, 

(6)  Richard  M.  Young,  who  had  been  a  member  of  the 
Second  Assembly,  a  Judge  and  a  Senator  of  the  United  States; 

(7)  John  McLean,  a  fine  orator,  a  Member  of  the  Assembly, 
who  had  been  a  Member  of  Congress  from  Illinois  and  in  1824 
was  elected  United  States  Senator  to  succeed  Ninian  Edwards; 

(8)  Jesse  B.  Thomas,  who  had  been  a  Territorial  Judge, 
president  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  and  one  of  the  first 
United  States  Senators  from  Illinois; 

(9)  John  Reynolds,  who  had  been  on  the  Supreme  Bench 
of  Illinois,  a  Member  of  the  State  Legislature  and  a  Member 
of  Congress,  and  who  was  afterwards  elected  the  fourth  Governor 
of  Illinois ;  and 

(10)  William  Kinney,  a  Baptist  preacher  and  politician, 
an  excellent  public  speaker  and  a  member  of  the  Legislature; 
all  actively  and  ardently  supported  the  movement  for  the 
convention. 

The  leaders  of  the  opposition  who  worked  and  talked  and 
wrote  against  the  holding  of  the  convention  were  all  ardent 
anti-slavery  men,  and  will  now  be  enumerated: 

(1)  Edward  Coles,  then  Governor,  whose  public  career 
has  been  heretofore  summarized. 


274  ILLINOIS 

(2)  Morris  Birkbeck,  a  very  intelligent,  well-educated  Eng- 
lish settler,  who  had  established  a  large  English  colony  at  or 
near  Albion.  Though  not  a  public  speaker  he  was  a  fluent 
and  able  controversial  writer.  He  was  a  vigorous  assailant 
of  slavery  and  in  the  Illinois  Gazette  he  published  very  able  and 
convincing  arguments  against  slavery  and  the  holding  of  the 
convention. 

(3)  Daniel  P.  Cook,  the  son-in-law  of  Ninian  Edwards, 
who  started  the  movement  for  the  admission  of  Illinois  to 
statehood  and  was  mainly  instrumental  in  securing  its  success. 
He  was  a  brilliant  writer  and  campaigner  and  an  ardent  enemy 
of  slavery,  and  part  owner  of  the  Illinois  Intelligencer,  in  which 
paper  he  fulminated  most  of  his  vigorous  arguments  against 
slavery  and  the  convention.  He  held  many  prominent  positions, 
including  membership  in  Congress. 

(4)  David  Blackwell,  a  lawyer,  a  member  of  the  Legis- 
lature, and,  in  1823,  secretary  of  state.  He  bought  the  Intelli- 
gencer during  the  campaign  while  it  was  advocating  a  conven- 
tion, and  made  it  an  anti-convention  paper. 

(5)  Samuel  D.  Lockwood,  attorney-general  in  1821  and  a 
loyal  supporter  of  Governor  Coles  and  his  policies.  He  was 
afterwards  placed  upon  the  Supreme  bench  of  Illinois. 

(6)  John  M.  Peck,  a  Baptist  clergyman  along  missionary 
lines,  who  in  1820  had  settled  at  Rock  Springs,  near  Belleville. 
He  organized  an  anti-convention  society  in  St.  Clair  County 
early  in  the  campaign,  and  other  societies  in  other  counties 
were  organized  on  its  inspiration.  He  was  a  very  able  organizer 
and  gave  great  strength  to  the  anti-convention  movement.  In 
1826  he  founded  the  Rock  Springs  Seminary. 

(7)  Thomas  Lippincott,  a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  who 
also  ably  supported  the  anti-colivention  movement. 

(8)  Thomas  Mather,  a  prominent  merchant. 

(9)  Hooper  Warren,  a  journalist  and  newspaper  owner, 
who  was  a  bitter  opponent  of  slavery  in  any  and  every  form. 
In  his  paper,  the  Spectator,  at  Vandalia,  he  vigorously  assailed 
slavery  and  the  conventionists. 

(10)  George  Churchill,  a  journalist-farmer  and  a  warm 
friend  of  Hooper  Warren,  and  a  constant  contributor  to  Warren's 


ILLINOIS  275 

paper,  the  Spectator.     He  was  a  member  of  the  Legislature 
and  highly  esteemed  by  the  men  of  his  day. 

(11)  Jonathan  H.  Pugh,  who  was  also  a  member  of  the 
Legislature,  from  Bond  County,  and  took  an  active  part  in 
opposing  the  calling  of  the  convention. 

(12)  George  Forquer,  a  half-brother  of  Governor  Ford, 
was  another  prominent  man  who  opposed  the  holding  of  the 
convention.  At  different  times  he  held  the  positions  of  secretary 
of  state,  attorney-general,  representative  in  the  Legislature  and 
registrar  of  the  land  office  at  Springfield. 

(13)  William  H.  Brown  was  part-owner  of  the  Intelligencer 
during  the  unseating  of  Nicholas  Hansen.  He  wrote  a  critical 
editorial  and  gave  a  detailed  account  of  that  transaction  in  the 
first  issue  of  the  paper  published  after  the  event.  Whereupon 
the  Legislature,  to  punish  Brown,  gave  the  contract  for  public 
printing  to  his  partners,  William  Berry  and  Robert  Blackwell. 
This  compelled  Brown  to  surrender  his  partnership  to  Blackwell 
and  Berry,  and  Robert  Blackwell  made  it  a  pro-convention  paper 
for  a  year  until  Governor  Coles  and  his  anti-convention  friends 
purchased  the  paper  and  placed  David  Blackwell,  brother  of 
Robert,  in  charge  as  editor.  The  paper  under  the  last  manage- 
ment became  an  open  and  earnest  opponent  of  slavery.  The 
public  printing  at  this  time  was  often  substantially  the  sole 
source  of  a  paper's  revenue.  Many  newspapers  then,  as  they 
do  now,  allowed  their  advertisers  to  control  their  policies  and 
editorial  columns. 

The  foregoing  names  were  the  names  of  the  men  most  prom- 
inent in  Illinois  at  the  time  of  the  struggle  for  and  against  the 
holding  of  the  Constitutional  Convention.  So  far  as  holding 
official  positions  in  public  life  is  to  be  considered,  the  weight 
of  authority  was  with  the  pro-conventionists.  The  anti-conven- 
tionists,  however,  had  the  governor  and  all  of  his  friends  with 
them.  Moreover,  they  had  the  better  end  of  the  argument  and 
the  more  righteous  cause,  and  in  the  end  righteousness  and 
liberty  won  and  injustice  and  slavery  went  down  to  defeat. 

Henry  Eddy,  editor  of  the  Illinois  Gazette,  is  claimed  by 
some  writers  to  have  been  opposed  to  the  convention.  Others 
claim  he  was  not.     While  his  paper  threw  its  columns  open  to 


276  ILLINOIS 

both  sides,  the  better  opinion  seems  to  be  that  he  quietly  if  not 
violently,  favored  the  convention.  The  Kaskaskia  Republican- 
Advocate  and  the  Illinois  Republican  at  Edwardsville  supported 
the  convention.  The  Illinois  Intelligencer,  as  we  have  seen, 
wobbled  and  finally  opposed  the  convention.  The  Edwardsville 
Spectator  also  wobbled,  but  finally,  by  promises  of  financial 
aid,  was  won  over  by  the  anti-con ventionists.  The  motives 
that  guided  most  of  the  newspaper  owners  of  the  day  were 
not  of  the  most  ideal  character.  They  either  favored  slavery 
or  were  induced  to  oppose  it  by  financial  rewards. 

After  a  campaign  of  exceeding  violence,  lasting  about  eigh- 
teen months,  the  people  went  to  the  polls  and  the  pro-slavery 
element  found  itself  routed.  The  vote  for  the  convention  was 
4,972;  that  opposed  to  the  convention  was  6,640.  Most  of  the 
southern  counties  voted  majorities  in  favor  of  the  convention 
by  large  percentages,  as  follows:   Gallatin  82  per  cent,  Pope 

69  per  cent,  Alexander  60  per  cent,  Jackson  66  per  cent,  Jefferson 

70  per  cent,  Hamilton  67  per  cent  and  Franklin  60  per  cent. 
In  the  south  the  conventionists  lost  only  one  county,  Union. 
In  the  north  central  counties  they  were  badly  beaten  by  large 
percentages.  Pike  County  gave  the  anti-conventionists  90  per 
cent,  Fulton  92,  Morgan  91,  Sangamon  83,  Clark  79  and  Edgar 
99.  In  the  eleven  counties  south  of  St.  Clair,  Washington, 
Marion,  Wayne  and  White,  3,788  votes  were  cast,  62  per  cent 
of  which  were  for  the  convention  and  slavery.  In  the  nineteen 
counties  north  of  that  line,  7,814  votes  were  cast,  of  which  only 
33  per  cent  were  for  the  convention  and  slavery. 

The  full  significance  of  this  election  and  its  importance 
to  the  state  and  nation  cannot  be  appreciated  by  the  student  of 
history  unless  he  widens  his  vision  beyond  the  borders  of  Illinois 
and  casts  his  inquiring  eyes  over  the  whole  of  the  United  States. 
At  the  time  of  the  formation  of  the  Republic  of  the  United 
States,  it  was  composed,  as  we  all  know,  of  the  thirteen  original 
states  of  the  Union.  In  six  of  these  states  human  slavery  existed 
as  an  institution,  recognized  by  law.  The  laws  of  these  states 
made  black  human  beings  within  their  borders  chattels  that 
could  be  bought  and  sold  as  cattle  or  sheep.  These  states  were 
Georgia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Virginia,  Maryland 


ILLINOIS  277 

and  Delaware.  The  other  seven  states,  New  Hampshire,  Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey 
and  Pennsylvania,  were  free  states.  From  the  date  of  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution  by  the  original  thirteen  states  and 
the  creation  of  the  American  Republic,  slavery  was  a  vital 
question  upon  the  admission  of  any  new  state  into  the  Union 
of  States.  Up  to  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  only 
three  new  states  had  been  admitted  into  the  Union.  Vermont, 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee  were  admitted  into  the  Union  in  the 
eighteenth  century.  The  last  of  these  three  states  to  be  admitted 
was  Tennessee,  in  1796.  At  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth 
century  the  United  States  of  America  consisted  of  sixteen  states, 
eight  of  which  were  slave  states  and  eight  free  states.  In  the 
nineteenth  century  states  were  admitted  to  the  Union  in  the 
following  order: 

Ohio,  in  1802,  a  free  state; 

Louisiana,  in  1812,  a  slave  state; 

Indiana,  in  1816,  a  free  state; 

Mississippi,  in  1817,  a  slave  state; 

Illinois,  in  1818,  a  free  state; 

Alabama,  in  1819,  a  slave  state; 

Maine,  in  1820,  a  free  state; 

Missouri,  in  1821,  a  slave  state. 

At  the  time  this  heated  campaign  was  being  carried  on  in 
Illinois  for  a  constitutional  convention  in  the  years  1823  and 
1824,  there  were  twelve  free  states  (inclusive  of  Illinois)  and 
twelve  slave  states.  If  Illinois  had  amended  its  constitution  in 
the  proposed  convention  called  to  meet  in  1824  and  declared  for 
slavery,  there  would  then  have  been  in  the  Union  thirteen  slave 
and  only  eleven  free  states.  In  other  words,  if  Illinois  amended 
its  constitution  so  as  to  favor  slavery,  it  would  have  changed 
its  position  from  among  twelve  free  states  to  a  position  among 
thirteen  slave  states.  As  each  state  was  entitled  to  two  senators 
in  the  United  States  Senate,  the  thirteen  slave  states  would 
have  had  twenty-six  votes  as  against  twenty-two  senators  from 
the  eleven  free  states  and  no  law  thereafter  could  have  been 
passed  by  Congress  limiting  or  restricting  slavery  in  the  United 
States.    If  any  new  territory,  north  or  south,  applied  for  admis- 


278  ILLINOIS 

sion  to  the  Union  and  presented  a  constitution  to  Congress  pro- 
hibiting slavery  within  its  boundaries,  the  twenty-six  senators 
in  the  Senate  could  prevent  its  admission.  If  the  conventionists 
had  succeeded  at  this  election  in  calling  the  convention,  they 
undoubtedly  would  have  been  powerful  enough  to  have  amended 
the  constitution  so  as  to  provide  for  slavery  in  Illinois  and  the 
effect  upon  the  future  of  the  United  States  would  have  been 
tremendous.  The  thirteen  slave-holding  states  would  have  been 
all-powerful  for  a  decade  at  least  in  permitting  slave-holding 
territories  to  be  admitted  to  the  Union  and  in  denying  state- 
hood to  free  soil  territories.  Even  if  they  were  unable  in  the 
lower  house  of  Congress  to  pass  laws  extending  slavery,  they 
could,  by  their  decisive  majority  in  the  Senate,  have  prevented 
the  passage  of  any  laws  limiting  or  restricting  slavery. 

The  call  for  the  constitutional  convention  in  1824  in  Illinois 
brought  on  a  great  crisis  in  American  history  that  affected  both 
the  nation  and  the  state.  If  Illinois  had  become  a  slave  state 
in  1824,  the  whole  future  history  of  the  United  States  possibly 
and  probably  would  have  been  materially  changed.  And  yet 
the  national  aspect  of  the  fight  in  Illinois  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  stressed  in  the  campaign.  The  first  edition  of  Governor 
Reynolds'  history,  published  by  N.  A.  Randall,  at  Belleville  in 
1852  (now  exceedingly  rare  and  valuable),  makes  no  mention  of 
the  national  aspect  of  the  campaign.  In  his  history,  "My  Own 
Times,"  published  by  the  Chicago  Historical  Society  in  1879,  he 
devotes  two  short  chapters  to  slavery  in  Illinois.  He  was  in  the 
midst  of  the  struggle  and  his  comments  upon  the  same,  years 
afterwards,  are  worthy  of  consideration.  Governor  Reynolds 
writes : 

It  is  well  known  that  the  first  introduction  of  slavery 
into  Illinois  was  by  Philip  Francis  Renault,  in  the  year 
1720.  On  his  passage  from  Europe  to  America  he  procured 
from  San  Domingo  five  hundred  slaves  to  work  the  mines 
in  Illinois,  and  these  negroes  are  the  ancestors  of  the 
French  slaves  in  this  state.  The  descendants  of  those  slaves, 
who  reside  in  Illinois,  are  now  free,  and  are  located  mostly 
in  and  around  Prairie  du  Rocher,  in  Randolph  County. 

When  Virginia  conquered  the  country,  and  the  same 
was  annexed  to  that  State,  the  right  of  property  to  their 


ILLINOIS  279 

slaves  was  guaranteed  to  the  inhabitants,  as  well  as  their 
other  property. 

In  the  act  of  cession  of  the  country  from  Virginia  to 
the  General  Government,  the  right  of  property,  slaves 
among  the  rest,  was  secured  to  the  inhabitants  of  Illinois. 

The  act  of  Congress  known  as  the  "Ordinance,"  which 
was  passed  in  the  year  1787,  and  by  which  the  North- 
western Territory  was  organized  as  a  government,  pro- 
hibited, positively,  the  introduction  of  slavery  into  the  Ter- 
ritory, and  Illinois,  at  that  time,  formed  a  part  of  the 
Territory. 

This  Ordinance  was  construed  to  operate  prospectively, 
and  not  to  operate  on  the  French  slaves  in  the  Territory  at 
the  time. 

This  act  of  Congress  was  the  great  sheet-anchor  that 
secured  the  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois  from 
slavery.  I  never  had  any  doubt  but  slavery  would  now 
exist  in  Illinois  if  it  had  not  been  prevented  by  this  famous 
Ordinance. 

Soon  after  the  organization  of  the  Indiana  Territory, 
of  which  Illinois  formed  a  part,  laws  were  enacted  by  the 
Territorial  legislature  permitting  slaves  to  be  introduced  as 
"Indentured  Servants;"  and  under  this  law  many  were 
admitted  into  the  Territory. 

The  owner  might  go  with  his  slaves  before  the  clerk  of 
the  court  of  common  pleas,  and  make  an  agreement  with 
his  negroes  to  serve  the  master  a  certain  number  of  years, 
and  then  become  free.  The  children  were  to  serve  their 
masters — the  males  until  they  were  thirty-five  years  old, 
and  the  females  to  thirty-two  years.  This  agreement  was 
to  be  done  within  thirty  days  after  the  slave  entered  the 
Territory,  and  if  the  slaves  would  not  consent  tothe  agree- 
ment, they  might  be  removed  out  of  the  Territory  within 
sixty  days.  This  agreement  was  made  a  record  binding  on 
the  parties. 

Although  this  proceeding  was  intended  by  the  legis- 
lature to  introduce  a  species  of  slavery,  yet  I  knew  many 
slaves  and  their  families  who  were  manumitted  by  the 
operation,  and  are  now  free.  This  act  of  the  legislature 
operated  as  a  kind  of  gradual  emancipation  of  slavery  in 
the  Territory. 

Both  constitutions  of  the  State  expressly  prohibited 
the  introduction  of  slavery,  the  first  had  no  intention  to 
manumit  the  French  slaves,  but  the  supreme  court  of  the 
State,  in  1845,  decided  that  slavery,  French  or  any  other, 


For  Whom  Cook  County  Was  Named 


ILLINOIS  281 

could  not  exist  in  the  State.  This  decision  liberated  all  the 
French  slaves  in  the  country. 

Public  opinion,  being  strong  in  this  State  against 
slavery,  reached  the  bench,  as  well  as  it  does  every  other 
department  of  the  government,  and  what  was  right  twenty 
years  before  was  wrong  in  1845,  in  relation  to  slavery. 

In  1810,  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight  slaves  are  said  to 
have  been  in  the  Territory.  In  1820,  they  increased  to  nine 
hundred  and  seventeen;  and  in  1830,  they  decreased  to 
seven  hundred  and  forty-six. 

The  Missouri  question,  so  called  at  that  day,  1823,  more 
of  a  political  character  than  the  public  lands,  agitated  little 
Illinois  to  the  very  center.  The  State  had  then  not  many 
more  than  fifty  thousand  inhabitants,  but  the  subject  of 
slavery  was  discussed  in  the  court  yards,  sometimes  in  the 
pulpits,  and  at  all  gatherings  of  the  people,  as  well  as  in  the 
presses,  and  on  the  stump  throughout  the  State.  In  the 
elections  of  this  year,  this  question  was  the  prominent  ele- 
ment. At  that  day,  there  was  no  question  of  Democracy 
or  Whiggery.  John  McLean,  the  member  then  in  Congress, 
voted  on  the  Missouri  side  of  the  question,  which  beat  him 
at  the  election.  Daniel  P.  Cook  took  the  other  side,  and 
was  elected. 

The  discussion  of  this  subject  was  bitter  and  acrimo- 
nious. This  subject  has  always  engendered  bitter  feelings 
among  the  people,  and  has  a  tendency  to  array  one  section 
of  the  Union  against  the  other.  The  people  in  Illinois,  in 
1820,  were  ready  almost  to  commit  violence  on  one  another, 
and  in  fact  the  whole  Union  was  so  agitated  that,  like  an 
earthquake,  no  one  knew  when  it  would  subside,  and  all 
friends  of  the  integrity  of  the  Union  were  alarmed  and 
shuddered  at  the  fearful  consequences  of  the  agitation,  and 
the  sectional  feelings  produced  on  the  occasion.  The  public 
agitation  of  the  subject  of  slavery,  and  particularly  in  the 
halls  of  Congress,  should  be  avoided  as  much  as  possible. 

Governor  Reynolds'  statement  that  the  "whole  Union  was  so 
agitated"  is  the  only  reference  to  national  interest  in  the  elec- 
tion that  I  can  find  in  his  writings.  Governor  Ford  in  his  his- 
tory published  in  1854  in  no  place  indicates  that  there  was 
national  interest  in  the  election  at  the  time  it  was  held.  Smith 
in  his  history,  however,  does  state  that  "the  press  of  the  South 
as  well  as  the  papers  of  St.  Louis,  which  had  a  considerable 
circulation  in  Illinois  at  that  time,  ably  supported  the  conven- 


282  ILLINOIS 

tion."  He  also  states  that  Henry  Biddle,  Roberts  Vaux  and  other 
rich  Quakers  in  Philadelphia  aided  the  anti-conventionists,  prin- 
cipally with  literature.  Still,  I  do  not  find  that  the  effect  of  the 
election  upon  the  nation  at  large  was  stressed  at  the  time  of  the 
contest  by  the  speakers  and  writers  engaged  therein. 

Before  leaving  this  very  interesting  subject  it  is  proper  to 
make  comment  upon  the  unfortunate  and  undeserved  result  of 
this  election  upon  the  future  prospects  of  the  two  most  able 
and  devoted  friends  of  human  freedom.  Governor  Coles  and 
Morris  Birkbeck  did  more  than  any  other  two  men  in  the  state 
to  prevent  it  becoming  tainted  with  the  curse  of  slavery.  Gov- 
ernor Coles'  nominations  to  office  were  all  rejected  by  the  pro- 
slavery  Senate  and  his  recommendations  to  the  Legislature  were 
ignored.  As  a  candidate  for  the  United  States  Senate  he  was 
defeated,  the  Legislature  electing  Elias  Kent  Kane  over  him. 
Soon  after  he  was  sued  by  the  State  to  recover  $200  for  each 
slave  that  he  brought  into  the  state  and  freed  without  giving 
bond  of  $200  for  the  good  behavior  of  each  freed  slave.  The 
State  actually  recovered  judgment  against  him  for  $2,000,  which 
hung  over  his  head  for  some  years.  To  add  to  his  misfortunes 
all  of  the  buildings  and  improvements  on  his  farm  near  Edwards- 
ville  were  destroyed  by  an  incendiary  fire. 

Birkbeck  was  nominated  by  Governor  Coles  as  secretary  of 
state,  but  the  nomination  was  rejected  by  the  Senate.  His  farm- 
ing investments  brought  but  poor  returns ;  he  lost  many  friends ; 
was  charged  with  being  an  infidel;  was  hanged  in  effigy  and 
forced  to  flee  for  his  life  and  drowned  while  crossing  a  river. 
The  misfortunes  suffered  by  these  two  able,  upright  and  cou- 
rageous men  offer  but  another  instance  of  the  proverbial  "in- 
gratitude of  republics."  Well  might  Governor  Coles  have  cried, 
in  the  words  of  Cardinal  Wolsey  : 

"Had  I  but  served  my  God  with  half  the  zeal 
I  served  my  State,  He  would  not  in  mine  age 
Have  left  me  naked  to  my  enemies." 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

THE  RAPID  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  NEW  STATE 

When  Illinois  became  a  state  in  the  United  States  of  America, 
December  3,  1818,  it  did  so  under  exceptionally  fortunate  cir- 
cumstances for  early  growth  and  development  of  a  democratic 
form  of  government.    Up  to  that  date  its  inhabitants  had  little, 
if  any,  experience  in  self-government.    Such  government  as  had 
been  imposed  upon  them  during  most  of  the  time  from  the 
French  occupation  in  1673  to  1763,  when  France  surrendered  to 
Great  Britain ;  from  1763  under  British  domination  until  George 
Rogers  Clark's  forceful  invasion  in  1778,  and  then  down  to  Gov- 
ernor St.  Clair's  appearance  with  United  States  credentials  in 
1790,  was  wholly  autocratic  or  oligarchical.     They  were  never 
consulted  as  to  its  form  or  conditions,  and  never  had  an  oppor- 
tunity to  voice  their  desires  at  the  ballot  box.     Even  under 
United  States  Territorial  rule  from  1790  down  to  1818,  as  part 
of  the  Northwest  Territory,  the  Indiana  Territory  or  the  Illinois 
Territory,  their  participation  in  the  making  of  laws  or  selecting 
their  own  officials  even  when  they  were  in  territories  of  the 
second  class,  was  so  limited  by  the  qualifications  thrown  around 
those  who  were  entitled  to  vote,  that  self  rule  was  a  shadow  or 
a  sham.     They  were  so  accustomed  to  oligarchical  rule  and  so 
timid  in  asserting  state  sovereignty  when  they  framed  the  Con- 
stitution of  1818,  that  in  that  instrument  they  provided  that 
the  people  could  elect  only  the  governor,  lieutenant-governor, 
sheriff,  coroner  and  members  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives.   Under  that  instrument  all  other  officials,  including 
judges,  were  to  be  selected  by  the  governor  or  the  Legislature, 
or  both.     A  jump  from  absolute  oligarchy  to  full  democracy 
seemed  to  the  men  of  that  day  too  hazardous  a  risk.    The  time 
for  development,  however,  political,  industrial  and  commercial, 
was  propitious. 

283 


284  ILLINOIS 

The  War  of  1812  had  settled  forever  all  fear  of  British 
aggression  from  Canada  and  had  paralyzed  the  fighting  spirit 
of  the  Indians.  The  Government  of  the  United  States  had 
secured  title  to  the  Indian  lands  and  was  just  beginning  to 
throw  these  lands  upon  the  market.  Steamboats  were  appear- 
ing on  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi,  displacing  the  keelboats  and 
flatboats  hitherto  used  for  navigation.  The  Erie  Canal  was 
being  dug  between  Albany  and  Buffalo,  and  financiers  were 
planning  to  construct  another  canal  from  the  Delaware  River 
to  the  Ohio.  Above  all,  the  confederated  states  of  the  United 
States  had  sensed  their  existence  and  power  as  a  nation,  both 
internally  and  externally,  in  dealing  with  each  other  and  with 
foreign  nations. 

The  Congress  of  the  United  States,  in  enacting  laws,  was 
broadening  the  Federal  power.  The  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  was  construing  each  stretch  of  Congress  for 
power  as  within  its  right;  and  the  United  States  Government 
was  enacting  laws  which  would  develop  its  commerce  on  the 
high  seas,  and  into  foreign  lands,  and  limiting  the  importation 
of  foreign  products  into  and  through  American  ports. 

Let  us  note  a  few  of  these  matters,  so  that  we  can  see  their 
importance  in  the  development  of  the  United  States  and  the 
newly-created  State  of  Illinois.  In  1816,  on  the  recommendation 
of  President  Madison,  Congress  chartered  the  second  United 
States  Bank  with  a  capital  of  $35,000,000,  one-fifth  of  which 
was  contributed  by  the  United  States,  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment electing  one-fifth  of  its  directors.  At  this  time  there  were 
about  300  state  banks  in  existence,  but  very  few  of  which  were 
on  a  specie  payment  basis.  The  law  creating  the  United  States 
Bank  required  that  after  the  creation  of  this  bank,  it  would 
become  a  depository  of  United  States  funds,  and  that  any  state 
bank  that  did  not  operate  on  a  specie  paying  basis  could  not 
become  a  United  States  depository.  This  law  was  attacked  by 
the  State  of  Maryland  as  unconstitutional,  but  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  declared  through  Chief  Justice  Mar- 
shall that  "a  national  bank  is  an  appropriate  means  to  carry 
out  some  of  the  implied  power  conferred  on  the  National  Gov- 
ernment by  the  Constitution.    If  the  end  is  within  the  scope  of 


ILLINOIS  285 

the  Constitution,  all  means  which  are  adapted  to  that  end,  and 
which  are  consistent  with  the  spirit  of  the  organic  law,  are  con- 
stitutional." 

The  epochal  decision  was  rendered  in  1819,  during  which 
year  a  widespread  financial  panic  swept  over  the  country,  caus- 
ing the  failure  of  many  state  banks  and  mercantile  establish- 
ments. The  causes  of  this  panic  were  several.  During  the 
second  administration  of  President  Jefferson,  1804  to  1808,  the 
Napoleonic  war  between  France  and  Great  Britain  was  con- 
ducted on  the  high  seas  with  a  total  disregard  of  the  rights  of 
neutral  nations.  American  ships,  which  before  the  outbreak  of 
that  war  were  carrying  on  a  large  and  lucrative  business,  were 
halted  on  the  ocean  by  armored  cruisers  of  both  belligerents, 
but  mostly  by  the  British,  their  cargoes  seized,  and  their  seamen 
arrested,  and  impressed  into  the  British  service.  These  acts 
practically  destroyed  American  commerce  and  would  have  justi- 
fied a  declaration  of  war  by  the  United  States  against  either  or 
both  of  the  belligerent  nations.  Jefferson,  however,  was  averse 
to  war,  and  both  he  and  his  Secretary  of  State,  Madison  (after- 
wards President),  were  lovers  of  peace.  Instead  of  resorting 
to  war  in  a  wholly  unprepared  condition  for  same,  either  from 
a  military  or  financial  standpoint,  Jefferson  resorted  to  retalia- 
tory legislation  in  Congress.  At  his  request  Congress  enacted 
a  law  ordering  all  British  vessels  out  of  American  harbors ;  and 
another  law,  called  the  Embargo  Act,  compelling  American 
vessels  to  refrain  from  carrying  on  foreign  commerce;  and  still 
another  non-intercourse  act,  prohibiting  all  commerce  with 
Great  Britain.  These  laws,  enacted  for  the  purpose  of  crippling 
the  English,  however,  turned  out  to  be  more  effective  in  destroy- 
ing American  commerce  and  paralyzing  the  shipping  trade  of 
the  United  States.  The  continued  confiscation  of  American 
property  and  ships,  and  the  impressment  of  American  seamen 
into  the  British  service,  however,  so  inflamed  the  American 
people  that  finally  in  1812,  under  President  Madison,  war  was 
declared  by  Congress  against  Great  Britain.  The  destruction 
of  American  shipping  during  the  Napoleonic  war,  and  the  finan- 
cial burdens  imposed  upon  the  young  nation  by  the  expense  of 
the  war,  was  one  of  the  causes  of  the  panic  of  1819.    The  war 


286  ILLINOIS 

had  cost  the  nation  by  1814  over  $100,000,000  and  over  30,000 
human  lives  and  the  destruction  of  the  nation's  trade  and  com- 
merce. 

Another  cause  of  the  financial  panic  of  1819  was  the  almost 
total  absence  of  reliable  banking  currency  and  bills  of  exchange. 
The  charter  of  the  first  United  States  Bank  had  expired  in  1811. 
It  had  furnished  an  excellent  currency,  which  was  now  with- 
drawn. Its  place  was  taken  in  1811  by  state  bank  currency, 
which  proved  disastrous.  These  state  banks  sprung  into  exist- 
ence like  mushrooms  between  1811  and  1816.  Some  authorities 
number  them  at  300;  others  between  250  and  300.  Very  few 
of  them  where  on  a  specie  paying  basis,  and  many  of  them  could 
be  negotiated  only  at  enormous  discounts.  How  a  war  could  be 
carried  on  successfully  with  such  a  currency  system  in  vogue  was 
a  mystery. 

By  1816  the  Jeffersonian  Republican  party,  then  in  power, 
which  had  opposed  the  creation  of  the  first  United  States  Bank, 
reversed  its  policy  and  declared  in  favor  of  the  creation  of  the 
second  United  States  Bank.  President  Madison  surmounted  the 
prejudices  of  a  lifetime,  it  is  said,  and  cheerfully  signed  the  bill. 
Henry  Clay  disregarded  his  former  views  of  hostility  towards 
a  national  bank,  and  actively  advocated  and  voted  for  the  bill. 
While  the  law  creating  the  bank  was  enacted  in  1816,  the  attack 
upon  its  constitutionality  by  the  State  of  Maryland  delayed  the 
going  into  effect  of  its  wholesome  provisions  until  Chief  Justice 
Marshall  declared  it  constitutional  in  1819.  The  law  creating 
this  bank  compelled  the  state  banks  to  become  specie  payment 
banks  or  cease  to  become  government  depositories.  This  drove 
the  weak  banks  into  liquidation,  and  created  widespread  distress 
among  the  manufacturing  interests,  but  in  a  few  short  years  it 
established  a  state  currency,  and  restored  public  confidence  and 
encouraged  trade  and  industry. 

Another  class  of  laws  enacted  by  Congress  about  this  time 
which  gave  enormous  impetus  to  the  development  of  the  nation 
and  its  manufacturing  interests  were  the  protective  tariff  laws. 
Great  Britain  had  been  furnishing  the  young  republic,  from  the 
day  of  its  birth  to  the  days  of  Madison,  with  all  the  manufac- 
tured products  in  use  among  its  people.     The  Embargo  and 


ILLINOIS 


287 


Non-Intercourse  policies  of  Jefferson  and  the  decrees  and  orders 
of  the  British  Council  had  worked  a  change  in  the  economic  life 
of  the  American  people.  When  they  were  unable  to  procure 
manufactured  articles  they  needed  from  abroad,  they  began  in 
a  crude  but  energetic  way  to  manufacture  substitutes  therefor 
in  American  shops  and  homes.  These  substitutes  may  not  have 
been  as  elegant  and  polished  as  the  foreign  articles,  but  they 
were  useful  and  in  demand.    When  peace  was  declared  in  1814, 


Rock  Springs  Seminary 

Built  by  the  Rev.  John  Peck  in  1826. 

the  foreign-made  articles  again  appeared  in  the  American  mar- 
ket, and  as  they  were  more  finished  in  appearance  and  more 
cheaply  manufactured,  they  threatened  the  growth  of  American 
manufactures.  The  infant  industries  of  the  Americans  were 
being  impaired  by  foreign  competition.  This  situation  gave 
birth  to  the  American  doctrine  of  a  "protective  tariff." 

Prior  to  the  Napoleonic  war,  the  American  people  had  been 
content  to  ship  abroad,  and  particularly  to  England,  their  raw 
products,  lumber,  cotton,  tobacco,  fish,  hides,  wool,  pig-iron  and 
cereals,  and  to  purchase  all  manufactured  articles,  such  as  tools, 
machinery,  furniture,  leather,  woolens,  cotton  goods,  clothing, 


288  ILLINOIS 

iron  and  steel  goods,  jewelry,  silks,  coffees,  teas,  carpets  and 
other  manufactured  necessities  and  luxuries  from  England  and 
France.  When  trade  in  these  articles  was  cut  off  by  the  Na- 
poleonic wars,  the  British  orders  in  Council  and  the  American 
Embargo  and  Non-Intercourse  laws,  the  need  of  such  manufac- 
tured articles  brought  about  the  creation  of  the  incipient  manu- 
facturers of  America,  and  when  these  young  industries  were 
threatened  with  extinction  by  foreign  competition,  Congress 
acted  promptly.  In  1816  it  passed  a  protective  tariff  law  and 
this  law  and  other  tariff  laws  of  like  character,  subsequently 
passed,  saved  the  "infant  industries"  of  the  nation  and  started 
the  manufacturing  industries  of  the  United  States  on  a  career 
which  enables  them  today  to  sell  their  products  in  all  the  seven 
seas  of  the  world  in  competition  with  all  the  great  manufactur- 
ing countries  on  earth.  Some  of  these  "infant  industries"  in 
modern  times  have  grown  so  enormously  that  laws  passed  for 
their  further  nourishment  are  and  will  be  regarded  as  extor- 
tionate rather  than  protective  legislation. 

From  a  consideration  of  the  foregoing  pregnant  occurrences 
which  took  place  within  a  few  years  of  the  admission  of  Illinois 
to  the  Union,  it  can  be  easily  seen  why  the  time  was  propitious 
for  an  early  and  tremendous  development  of  the  nation  and  the 
infant  state.  Let  us  summarize  these  occurrences  chronologically : 
In  1814  a  treaty  of  peace  had  been  signed  with  Great  Britain 
which  ended  a  costly  war  forced  upon  the  United  States,  when 
it  was  poor  and  unprepared  for  war,  by  the  arrogant  and  inde- 
fensible conduct  of  Great  Britain  upon  the  high  seas.  Under 
the  terms  of  that  treaty  the  British  evacuated  Detroit  and  other 
posts  in  the  United  States  held  by  them,  and  left  the  United 
States  free  to  deal  with  their  Indian  allies  who  were  not  made 
parties  to  the  treaty.  This  abandonment  of  their  Indian  allies 
by  Great  Britain  placed  the  Indian  tribes  at  the  mercy  of  the 
Americans.  In  1816  Congress  commenced  its  policy  of  develop- 
ing American  manufactures,  and  weakening  the  sale  of  British 
goods  in  America,  by  enacting  protective  tariff  laws.  In  1816 
Congress  established  the  United  States  Bank  which  would  secure 
to  the  people  reliable  currency  and  bills  of  exchange  and  restore 
public  confidence  in  the  Government  and  in  all  commercial  trans- 


ILLINOIS  289 

actions.  In  1818  Illinois  was  admitted  to  statehood.  In  1819 
the  Supreme  Court  sustained  the  constitutionality  of  the  United 
States  Bank  law,  thus  confirming  in  the  people  the  possession 
and  use  of  a  currency  system  which  was  both  reliable  and  im- 
pregnable. The  last  of  these  occurrences  took  place  at  a  time 
when,  owing  to  an  absurd  if  not  grotesque  system  of  state  banks 
established  under  unscientific  and  inadequate  state  laws,  had 
created  a  financial  panic  throughout  the  nation. 

Within  a  few  short  years  after  the  passage  of  the  foregoing 
Federal  laws,  the  nation  had  recovered  from  its  financial  dis- 
tress, and  the  young  State  of  Illinois  began  its  march  to  great- 
ness, but  not  until  it,  too,  had  suffered  from  the  vagaries  of 
inefficient  and  unskilful  banking  laws. 

As  manufacturing  began  to  develop  in  the  North  and  East, 
which  occurred  after  the  passage  of  protective  tariff  laws,  the 
demand  for  farm  products  in  the  West  began  to  increase,  and  in 
the  '20s  and  '30s  of  the  eighteenth  century,  immigrants  began 
to  pour  into  Illinois.  In  1830  the  population  had  increased  to 
157,000,  and  in  1840  it  was  476,000. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 
POLITICS  IN  ILLINOIS  DURING  THE  FIRST  DECADE 

When  Illinois  became  a  state,  James  Monroe  was  President 
of  the  United  States.  Monroe  was  the  successor  of  James 
Madison,  under  whom  he  had  served  as  Secretary  of  State, 
just  as  Madison  was  the  successor  of  and  had  been  the  Secretary 
of  State  under  Jefferson.  Both  had  been  trained  in  and  were 
devoted  to  the  principles  of  Jeffersonian  Democracy,  which 
had  enunciated  and  upheld  the  following  principles : 

Equal  and  exact  justice  to  all,  peace  and  friendship  with  all 
nations,  alliances  with  none,  the  preservation  of  the  rights  of 
the  national  government,  free  elections,  free  speech,  free  press, 
reliance  upon  a  disciplined  militia,  public  economy,  encourage- 
ment to  agriculture  and  commerce,  trial  by  jury,  the  habeas 
corpus  and  the  exercise  of  persuasion  before  resorting  to  force. 

Jefferson,  Madison  and  Monroe  all  were  members  of  the 
party  then  called  Republican.  The  Federalist  party,  that  was 
in  the  ascendancy  under  President  John  Adams,  had  been  routed 
and  was  in  a  hopeless  condition  of  decline  and  public  disfavor. 
John  Quincy  Adams,  Secretary  of  State  under  Monroe,  had 
abandoned  the  Federalist  party  of  his  father  and  joined  the 
Republicans,  temporarily,  at  least. 

The  commerce  and  shipping  of  the  Republic  had  been  shot 
to  pieces  by  the  Orders  in  Council  of  Great  Britain,  the  Napole- 
onic wars,  and  the  Embargo  acts  of  the  American  Congress 
prior  to  and  during  the  War  of  1812  with  Great  Britain.  During 
the  war,  from  1812  until  1814,  the  country  was  compelled  to 
incur  great  indebtedness  and  its  commerce  was  destroyed.  When 
the  treaty  of  peace  was  signed  in  1814,  its  business  was  pros- 
trated, and  in  1819  a  financial  panic  swept  the  country  largely 
as  a  result  of  its  destroyed  business,  its  blunders  in  banking 

290 


ILLINOIS  291 

and  its  lack  of  a  reliable  medium  of  exchange,  sometimes  called 
currency. 

The  charter  of  the  United  States  Bank,  created  by  Hamilton, 
had  expired  in  1811.  Its  petition  for  a  new  charter  had  been 
denied  by  a  majority  of  one  in  the  Senate  and  one  in  the  House. 
When  its  charter  expired  a  mushroom  growth  of  state  banks 
sprang  into  existence.  In  1816  there  were  246  of  these  state 
banks.  The  deluge  of  bank  notes  put  into  circulation  as  the 
result  was  disastrous.  These  notes  could  not  be  redeemed  in 
specie,  and  there  were  no  legal  remedies  for  the  refusal  to 
redeem.  Under  the  stress  of  the  embargo  and  non-intercourse 
policies  pursued  by  Congress,  and  the  constant  refusal  to  redeem 
in  specie,  these  bank  notes  rapidly  depreciated  in  value.  During 
the  war  most  of  the  banks  suspended  specie  payments,  causing 
great  financial  losses  and  general  economic  distress. 

At  this  junction  the  Republicans,  who  in  the  past  had  opposed 
granting  an  extension  of  the  charter  of  the  United  States  Bank, 
recognized  the  dangerous  condition  of  the  finances  and  the 
trade  of  the  country,  and  changed  their  policy  with  reference 
to  the  establishment  of  a  United  States  Bank,  whose  paper 
would  pass  current  as  redeemable  in  specie.  In  1816  the  United 
States  Bank  was  chartered  by  a  Congress  composed  of  members, 
a  great  majority  of  whom  were  identified  with  the  Republican 
party.  Henry  Clay,  who  was  largely  instrumental  in  defeating 
the  recharter  of  the  former  United  States  Bank  in  1811,  left 
the  speaker's  chair  to  advocate  the  passage  of  the  law  creating 
the  new  bank  in  1816,  and  President  Madison  signed  the  bill 
cheerfully  and  promptly.  It  took  some  time,  however,  after  the 
creation  of  this  Federal  bank  before  specie  payment  was 
resumed.  The  new  bank  was  patterned  along  the  same  lines 
as  the  old  one,  but  the  capital  was  $35,000,000,  while  that  of 
the  old  bank  was  only  $10,000,000.  The  Government  held  one- 
fifth  of  the  stock  and  appointed  five  out  of  the  twenty-five 
directors. 

Another  new  departure  in  politics  occurred  at  this  time  in 
the  powerful  Republican  party  which  afterwards  became  known 
as  the  protective  tariff  policy.  Before  the  War  of  1812  most 
manufactured  articles  in  common  use  among  the  people  were 


292  ILLINOIS 

imported  from  abroad,  mostly  from  England.  The  war  shut 
off  these  importations  and  the  Americans  began  in  a  feeble 
and  inexpert  way  to  manufacture  all  the  necessities  and  some 
of  the  luxuries  of  modern  life.  After  the  treaty  of  peace  was 
signed  in  1814,  the  country  was  soon  flooded  with  British  manu- 
factured goods  which  could  be  made  and  sold  much  more  cheaply 
in  the  low-wage  factories  of  England.  They  were  underselling 
and  ruining  American  manufacturers.  There  were  then  in 
truth  and  in  fact  many  real  "infant  industries"  that  were 
suffering  from  the  competition,  and  the  Republican  party  of 
Jefferson,  Madison  and  Monroe  recognized  the  necessity  of  pro- 
tecting these  young  industries  by  compelling  foreign  importers 
to  pay  an  import  duty  sufficiently  high  to  enable  the  home  indus- 
tries to  prosper  and  develop.  The  adoption  of  this  policy  and 
the  creation  of  a  stable  currency  soon  brought  to  the  whole 
country  an  era  of  prosperity.  The  Federal  party  disappeared. 
Political  animosities  died  out  for  a  time  and  a  situation  developed 
which  was  called  at  that  date  "The  Era  of  Good  Feeling."  This 
was  the  political  situation  from  a  national  standpoint  at  the 
time  of  the  admission  of  Illinois  into  the  Union  and  it  continued 
until  the  election  of  John  Quincy  Adams  to  the  Presidency  in 
1825.  There  was  no  political  difference  on  public  questions  in 
Illinois  up  to  that  time  except  upon  slavery.  All  other  contests 
were  contests  of  personality.  It  was  simply  a  succession  of 
struggles  between  men,  as  to  whom  should  hold  office  until 
Adams  was  chosen  as  President  by  Congress  over  Andrew 
Jackson. 

In  this  struggle  of  personalities  for  office  in  Illinois  before 
1825,  one  man  was  so  pre-eminent,  and  for  a  time  so  dominant 
and  successful,  as  to  give  his  name  to  one  of  these  conflicting 
forces.  Ninian  Edwards,  before  he  moved  to  Illinois,  was  a 
prominent  and  influential  citizen  of  Kentucky,  a  member  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  that  state,  and  a  cultured,  well-educated  gentle- 
man. Through  the  influence  of  Henry  Clay  and  other  powerful 
friends,  he  had  been  appointed  Territorial  Governor  of  Illinois 
and  had  occupied  that  position  for  nine  consecutive  years.  Upon 
admission  of  Illinois  into  the  Union  he  was  promptly  elected 
to  the  United  States  Senate  and  remained  in  that  exalted  body 


Nathaniel  Pope 

Territorial  Delegate  to  Congress  in  1818. 


294  ILLINOIS 

for  six  years.  Afterwards,  in  December,  1826,  he  was  inaugu- 
rated governor  of  the  State  of  Illinois.  By  reason  of  his  high 
character,  his  influential  connections,  his  culture  and  his  long 
continuance  in  public  office,  he  easily  secured  the  leadership  of 
the  office-seeking  coterie  which  was  called  the  "Edwards  party." 
Those  who  opposed  him  and  his  coterie  of  friends  had  no  such 
a  pre-eminent  leader  as  Edwards,  although  they  did  have  among 
their  members  some  very  able  men.  The  opponents  of  the 
name  to  their  combination  and  consequently  were  known  as 
the  "Anti-Edwards  party."  Attached  to  the  Edwardsites  were 
the  following  men:  Nathaniel  Pope,  former  territorial  delegate 
from  Illinois  to  Congress,  who  had  succeeded  in  moving  the 
northern  line  of  Illinois  fifty-one  miles  northward  and  securing 
the  admission  of  Illinois  to  statehood.  He  had,  however,  been 
made  a  Federal  Judge,  which  prevented  his  open  and  active 
participation  in  politics.  He  was  a  cousin  of  Edwards  and 
helped  him  in  all  his  struggles.  Another  ardent  supporter  of 
Edwards  was  Judge  Pope's  nephew,  Daniel  Pope  Cook,  a  very 
able  and  popular  young  man  who  married  Governor  Edwards' 
daughter.  Judge  Thomas  C.  Brown,  chosen  for  the  Supreme 
bench  of  Illinois,  was  also  one  of  the  Edwards  party.  Attached 
to  the  Edwards'  interests  also  were  Benjamin  Stephenson,  Wil- 
liam Kinney,  Richard  M.  Johnson  and  James  Johnson,  all  of 
whom  were  interested  financially  with  Governor  Edwards  in 
the  Edwardsville  Bank  and  real  estate  ventures.  Among  the 
prominent  and  influential  men  who  formed  the  "anti-Edwards" 
party  may  be  mentioned  the  following:  Elias  Kent  Kane  was 
the  leading  spirit  in  the  first  Constitutional  Convention  and 
more  actively  participated  in  the  writing  of  that  instrument 
than  any  other  one  man.  He  was  elected  to  the  United  States 
Senate  from  Illinois  and  served  two  terms  in  that  body.  John 
McLean,  who  was  defeated  by  Cook  for  Congress,  but  was 
elected  United  States  senator  to  succeed  Governor  Edwards. 
Jesse  B.  Thomas,  the  leader  of  the  anti-Edwards  party.  He 
had  been  successively  Territorial  Judge,  president  of  the  Con- 
stitutional Convention  and  United  States  Senator  from  1818 
until  1829.  Shadrach  Bond,  the  first  state  governor  of  Illinois, 
was  also  a  member  of  the  anti-Edwards  party.    Joseph  Duncan, 


ILLINOIS  295 

originally  not  identified  with  either  party,  was  taken  up  by 
the  anti-Edwards  party  and  nominated  by  it  for  Congress  against 
Congressman  David  Pope  Cook,  theretofore  unbeatable,  and 
succeeded  in  winning  over  that  formidable  antagonist.  He  was 
afterwards  elected  governor  of  Illinois.  John  Reynolds  was  also 
one  of  the  anti-Edwards  party.  He  had  as  a  private  served 
in  the  War  of  1812,  and  was  elected  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court 
from  1818  to  1824.  Towards  the  end  of  Governor  Edwards' 
term,  however,  Reynolds  entered  into  an  alliance  with  Governor 
Edwards,  and  was  himself  elected  governor  of  the  state  in  1830. 
Governor  Reynolds  wrote  an  interesting  history  of  the  Territory 
of  Illinois  up  to  its  admission  into  the  Union,  which  was  pub- 
lished in  1852,  and  another  historical  work  entitled  "My  Own 
Times,"  published  (or  republished)  in  1879.  He  must  be  dis- 
tinguished from  Thomas  Reynolds,  his  uncle,  who  was  also  a 
distinguished  citizen  and  official  in  early  Illinois  history.  He, 
Thomas,  was  a  member  of  the  Supreme  Court  at  the  same  time 
that  his  nephew,  John  Reynolds,  was  a  member  of  that  body. 
Rev.  William  Kinney,  a  Baptist  preacher,  was  originally  one 
of  the  anti-Edwards  party,  and  was  elected  lieutenant-governor 
over  the  Rev.  S.  M.  Thompson,  who  was  Edwards'  running 
mate  in  1826. 

At  the  first  election  for  governor,  in  1818,  both  factions 
were  agreed  in  supporting  Shadrach  Bond;  but  in  the  election 
for  senators,  Edwards,  while  successful,  was  compelled  to  sit 
in  the  Senate  with  his  rival,  Judge  Jesse  B.  Thomas.  The  rivalry 
and  antagonism  between  these  two  able  men  widened  and  deep- 
ened during  their  joint  senatorial  careers.  Thomas  succeeded 
in  procuring  from  William  H.  Crawford,  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury, the  appointment  of  himself  to  the  lucrative  position  of 
United  States  examiner  of  western  land  offices.  Cook,  the 
member  of  Congress  from  Illinois,  and  son-in-law  of  Edwards, 
attacked  Crawford  vigorously  and  persistently  for  so  doing, 
charging  improper  conduct  against  both  Crawford  and  Thomas, 
but  both  were  exonerated  in  the  congressional  committee  report. 
At  this  time  both  Crawford  and  John  C.  Calhoun  were  candidates 
for  the  Presidency  and  Calhoun's  friends  in  Congress  doubtless 
supported  Cook  in  his  charges  against  Crawford  and  Thomas, 


296  ILLINOIS 

hoping  thus  to  discredit  Crawford  and  weaken  his  prospects 
for  a  Presidential  nomination.  Edwards  himself  became  badly 
involved  in  the  controversy.  He  attacked  Crawford's  policy 
in  reference  to  the  western  banks  in  the  Senate,  using  certain 
material  which  Cook  had  dug  up  in  the  House,  in  his  demand 
for  the  production  of  official  documents  in  Crawford's  office 
which  he  believed  would  discredit  Crawford.  The  latter  retorted 
by  showing  Edwards'  connection  with  the  Edwardsville  Bank, 
which  had  failed  owing  the  United  States  Treasury  some 
$50,000.  Both  Edwards  and  his  friends  were  stockholders  in 
this  bank.  Edwards  rejoined  that  he,  Edwards,  had  in  a  letter 
warned  the  United  States  Treasury  of  the  weak  financial  condi- 
tion of  the  bank  before  it  failed.  This  Crawford  denied  and 
the  controversy  simmered  down  to  a  question  of  personal  veracity 
between  Edwards  and  Crawford  without  sufficient  corroboration 
on  Edwards'  part,  and  Crawford  secured  a  vindication  from 
Congress.  The  publication  of  letters  attacking  Crawford,  signed 
A.  B.,  was  traced  to  Edwards  and  his  failure  to  maintain  the 
charges  made  therein  brought  discredit  upon  the  writer  and 
discouragement  to  him  and  his  friends  at  a  time  when  they 
were  endeavoring  to  prevent  Thomas'  reelection  to  the  Senate. 
About  the  same  time  Edwards  became  badly  embarrassed  finan- 
cially and  weakened  in  health.  During  the  senatorial  session 
of  1822-1823  he  rarely  appeared  in  his  seat  in  the  Senate  and 
finally  sought  from  the  President  the  appointment  for  himself 
as  minister  to  Mexico.  Cook's  energy  and  influence  secured 
this  appointment,  but  when  he  failed  to  substantiate  the  charges 
made  by  him  against  Crawford  under  the  nom  de  plume  of 
"A.  B."  he  was  compelled  to  resign  this  appointment.  Prior  to  so 
doing,  he  had  resigned  his  senatorship  in  order  to  accept  the 
Presidential  appointment  and  he  was  thus  returned  for  a  time  to 
private  life.  His  son-in-law,  Cook,  however,  was  still  successful 
in  upholding  the  Edwards  flag  and  in  retaining  his  place  in 
Congress.  He  had  defeated  McLean  in  1817  and  1822,  Kane 
in  1820  and  Bond  in  1824  when  they  sought  election  to  Congress. 
He  had  developed  a  tremendous  personal  popularity  which  car- 
ried him  again  and  again  to  success.  His  intimacy  with  Edwards 
and  his  identification  with  him  and  his  policies  had  not  as  yet 


ILLINOIS  297 

weakened  his  hold  on  the  people.  A  time  was  now  approaching 
when  that  popularity  was  to  be  put  to  the  test  with  disastrous 
results. 

During  the  presidential  election  of  1824,  Cook  had  pledged 
himself  to  cast  his  vote  in  Congress,  if  the  choice  for  President 
came  before  that  body,  for  the  candidate  whom  a  majority  of 
popular  vote  indicated  to  be  the  popular  choice.  There  were 
four  candidates  for  the  Presidency  in  the  field,  Jackson,  Adams, 
Clay  and  Crawford.  In  the  state  at  large,  Jackson  received 
1,272  votes ;  Adams,  1,542 ;  Clay,  1,047,  and  Crawford,  219.  In 
this  computation,  however,  there  were  excluded  629  votes  cast 
for  Turney  as  presidential  elector.  Turney  had  pledged  himself 
to  vote  for  either  Jackson  or  Clay.  If  the  votes  for  Turney 
were  added  to  those  given  either  to  Jackson  or  to  Clay,  Jackson 
would  be  credited  with  1,901  or  Clay  would  have  been  credited 
with  1,676.  In  either  event  Jackson  or  Clay  would  have  received 
more  votes  than  Adams.  If  given  to  Jackson  he  would  have 
had  an  enormous  majority  over  Adams. 

This  was  the  situation  when  the  election  of  the  President 
was  thrown  into  the  House  of  Representatives,  by  reason  of 
the  fact  that  none  of  the  four  candidates  had  received  a  majority 
of  the  electoral  vote.  That  electoral  vote  had  been  cast  as 
follows:  Jackson  had  received  ninety-nine  votes,  Adams  eighty- 
four,  Crawford  forty-one  and  Clay  thirty-seven.  Jackson  had 
received  a  plurality  of  the  popular  vote.  Under  the  Constitution 
there  was  no  election  and  the  same  Constitution  required  that 
the  House  of  Representatives  should  select  the  President  from 
among  the  three  candidates  that  had  received  the  largest  number 
of  electoral  votes.  This  eliminated  Henry  Clay,  then  Speaker 
of  the  House.  Crawford's  chances  of  selection  were  shattered 
by  a  stroke  of  paralysis,  leaving  only  Jackson  and  Adams  as 
real  contenders.  In  this  junction,  the  situation  in  which  Cook, 
the  Illinois  Congressman,  was  placed  was  powerful  as  well  as 
critical.  As  the  vote  for  the  Presidency  in  the  House  was  taken 
by  states  and  the  successful  candidate  must  secure  a  majority 
of  the  states,  a  single  congressman  of  the  state  which  had  only 
one  congressman,  or  a  majority  of  the  congressmen  in  a  state, 
could  determine  the  vote  of  that  state  for  the  Presidency.    Cook 


Providing  for  the' establishment -of  Free  Schools* 

To  enjoy  our  rights  and  liberties,  we  must  understand  them:  their  security  and  protectioa  ought  to  be 
%  foe  first  object  of  a  free  people;  and  ft  is  a  welle#al4ijd»ed,&^ 

3  in  the  enjoyment  of  civil  and  political  freedom,  which  w,as not  both  * irtuous  and  enlightened :  and  believ* 

4  lag  that  the  advancement  of  literature  always  has  been,  and  ever  will  be,- the  means  of  developing  more; 

5  fully  the  rights  of  manj  that  the  mind  of  every  citbsea  in  a  republic  is  the  common  property  of  society, 
u  ami  constitutes  the  basis  of  its  strength  and  happinessr  it  is  therefore  considered  the  peculiar  duty  of  a 

7  free  government  like  ours,  to  encourage  and  extend  the  improvement  and  cultivation  of  the  intellectual 
$  energies  of -the  whole;  Therefore, 

Sac.  1.  Be  it  malted  foj  the  People  of  ike  SMe  of  JUlm>\$  represented  in  the  General  Jls$embhj,  That 
S  there  shall  be  established  a  common  school  or  schools  In  each  of  the  counties  of  this  state,  which  shall 
»:  he  of  en  and  free  to  every  class  of  white  citizens  between  the  ages  of  five  aad  eighteen  years, 

Szc,  2.  Bi  U  further  enacted,  That  the  county  commissioners'  courts  shall,  from  time  to  time,  form 
t  school  districts  la  their  respective  counties,  whenever  a  petition  may  be  presented  for  that  purpose,  by 

5  a  majority  of  the  qualified  voters  resident  within  such  contemplated  district:  Prottded,  That  ail  Safeb 
4  districts,  when  laid  off,  shall,  respectively,  contain  not  less  tbaaiblr'ry  families. 

Sec.  3,  Be  U  further  mscttd,  That  the  legal  voters  in  each  district  to  be  established  as  aforesaid, 
&'.  may  have  a  meeting  at  any  time  thereafter,  by  giving  ten  days  previous  notice  of  the  time  and  place  of 

8  holding  the  same;  at  which  meeting  they  may  proceed  by  ballot  to  elect  three  trustees,  one  clerk,  one 
4  treasurer,  one  assessor,  and.oae  collector,  who  shall  respectively  take  an  oath  of  office  faithfully  to  <lis* 

6  charge  their  respective  duties, 

Sec.  4.  Bi  U  farther  enacted.  That  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  trustees  to  superintend  the  schools 
•3  within  their  respective  districts,  to  examine  and  employ  teachers,  to  lease  all  land  belonging  to  the  dhv* 

3  twet,  to  call  meetings  of  the  voters  whenever  they  shall  deem  it  expedient,  or  at  any  time  when  reqses*- 

4  ted  so  to  do  by.ftre  legal  voters,  by  giving  to  each  one  at  least  five  days  notice  of  the  time  and  place  of 

5  holding  the  same,  appointing  one  or  more  persons  living  within  tha  district  -to  serve  the  necessary 
8  notice,  fa  make  an  annual  report  to  the  county  commissioners*  court  of  the  proper  county  of  the  nam* 

'  7  ber  of  children  living  within  the  bounds  of  such  district,  between  the  ages  of  five  and  eighteen  years, 

8  and  what  number  of  them  are  actually  sent  to  school,  with  a  certificate  of  the  time  a  school  is  actually 
0  kept  up  iii  the  district,  with  the  probable  expense  of  the  same.  ♦ 

•Sec,  a.  Be  it  further  enacted,  That  each  and  cv&ry  school  district,  when  established  and  organised  as 
3  aforesaid)  sisal!  be,  and  they  are'hweby,  constituted  a  body  politic  and  corporate,  so  far  as  to  commence 

9  and  maintain  actions  on  aey  agreement  made  with  any  person  or  persons  for  the  aoa-perfomaace 


Facsimile  of  First  Page  of  Original  Bill  Creating  Free 
Schools  in  Illinois,  1825 

From  Illinois  Blue  Book. 


ILLINOIS  299 

was  in  that  position  and  could  determine  the  vote  for  Illinois. 
He  cast  it  for  Adams  and  not  for  the  candidate  who  had  received 
the  plurality  of  both  the  electoral  and  popular  vote,  Andrew 
Jackson. 

In  1826,  when  he  came  up  for  reelection  he  was  compelled 
to  face  the  charge  that  he  had  violated  his  own  pledge  to  the 
people  in  1824,  and  the  charge  that  he  had  defied  the  popular 
demand  not  only  in  his  own  state,  but  in  the  nation.  He  was 
further  handicapped  by  the  fact  that  his  father-in-law,  Edwards, 
who  had  been  defeated  for  reelection  as  United  States  Senator, 
was  running  for  governor  of  the  state  at  the  same  time  that  he, 
the  son-in-law,  was  running  for  Congress.  The  resentment  of 
the  people  caused  by  his  vote  in  Congress  against  the  popular 
hero,  Jackson,  and  his  connection  with  the  Edwards  family 
oligarchy,  proved  too  much  to  overcome.  Joseph  Duncan,  a 
modest  newcomer  into  public  life  as  state  senator  from  1824 
to  1826,  sensed  the  state  of  popular  feeling  correctly,  and 
although  by  no  means  as  able  a  campaigner  as  Cook,  offered 
himself  as  candidate  for  Congress  against  Cook  and  beat  him 
decisively.  It  was  the  first  occasion  since  the  admission  of 
Illinois  to  statehood  that  Cook  failed  to  receive  popular  approval 
at  the  polls,  although  he  had  sought  public  office  every  two  years 
from  1818.  His  defeat  was  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  the 
Edwards  dynasty. 

Strange  to  say,  at  the  same  election  at  which  the  popular 
Cook  went  down  to  defeat,  his  father-in-law,  Edwards,  was 
elected  governor,  although  he  had  been  beaten  for  United  States 
senator  by  John  McLean  only  two  years  before.  From  1809 
down  to  1824  he  had  been  continuously  in  public  office  as  Terri- 
torial Governor  and  United  States  Senator,  and  in  1825  was 
for  the  first  time  in  sixteen  years  without  public  office.  He 
had  also  suffered  serious  financial  reverses  by  reason  of  his 
connection  with  an  insolvent  bank  and  rather  questionable  land 
speculation.  His  success  by  a  narrow  majority  over  Sloo,  his 
principal  opponent,  was  probably  due  to  the  weakness  of  that 
opponent,  who  was  not  widely  known  nor  possessed  of  a  forceful 
personality.  Sympathy  with  the  reduced  fortunes  of  the  former 
governor  and  senator  and  remembrance  of  some  of  the  many 


300  ILLINOIS 

good  things  he  did  in  public  life  may  also  have  contributed 
to  his  election.  Although  his  popularity  with  the  masses  was 
perceptibly  fading,  by  this  election  Edwards  had  received  a 
qualified  vindication,  and  at  his  inauguration  as  governor,  in 
December,  1826,  he  appeared  before  the  Legislature  with  all 
the  pomp  and  glory  of  early  days,  costumed  in  knee-breeches, 
silk  stockings,  ruffles  and  powdered  hair.  He  had,  however,  an 
unsympathetic  Legislature  that  paid  little  attention  to  most  of 
his  recommendations. 

One  of  the  good  laws  that  was  passed  during  Edwards'  incum- 
bency was  that  which  made  provision  for  the  establishment  of 
a  penitentiary.  Up  to  that  time  no  penitentiary  for  the  punish- 
ment of  crime  and  no  decent  jails  had  been  built  in  Illinois. 
Because  of  the  non-existence  of  such  places  practically  no  pris- 
oners were  sentenced  to  imprisonment.  They  were  either  sen- 
tenced to  whipping,  branding,  leased  out  to  the  highest  bidder 
for  enforced  labor,  or  hung.  The  criminal  code  of  the  state 
tolerated  all  these  atrocious  penalties  and  was  a  disgrace  to  the 
state.  John  Reynolds,  who  had  been  on  the  Supreme  bench 
and  who  was  afterward  to  be  elected  governor,  was  the  impelling 
personality  who  secured  the  passage  of  the  penitentiary  law. 
Having  encountered  on  the  bench  the  enormity  of  the  criminal 
code,  he  earnestly  pressed  home  upon  his  fellow-legislators,  that 
the  criminal  code  must  be  amended,  and  that  before  such  an 
amendment  could  be  secured,  there  must  be  created  a  place  where 
imprisonment  could  be  enforced  and  thus  supplant  legal  bru- 
tality. The  finances  of  the  state  at  the  time,  however,  were  in 
such  a  frightfully  depressed  condition  that  money  could  not  be 
found  to  build  the  proposed  penitentiary.  Reynolds  got  around 
this  situation  by  getting  the  Legislature  to  pass  a  petition  to 
Congress  to  donate  to  the  state  the  Saline  lands  reserved  by 
the  United  States  for  the  manufacture  of  salt.  The  timber  on 
this  land  used  for  salt  manufacture,  had  all  been  consumed  and 
the  land  had  been  practically  worthless  for  salt  manufacture 
for  some  time.  The  petition  was  adopted  by  the  Legislature 
and  granted  by  Congress.  The  state  thus  secured  about  80,000 
acres  of  land  which  it  sold  for  farming  and  other  purposes  and 
used  part  of  the  proceeds  in  building  a  penitentiary  which  was 


ILLINOIS  301 

completed   and   further   enlarged   and   developed   by    Reynolds 
when  he  became  governor. 

The  election  of  Governor  Edwards  by  a  reduced  majority, 
was  the  last  success  of  the  so-called  Edwards  party.  Its  popu- 
larity had  waned  and  its  power  greatly  weakened  by  the  defeat 
of  Cook.  It  went  into  a  rapid  decline  during  Edwards'  admin- 
istration and  exerted  no  influence  in  the  state  thereafter.  Jack- 
sonian  Democracy  had  appeared  upon  the  scene  and  local  squab- 
bles for  office  gave  way  to  national  questions  in  political  life. 

A  brief  reference  to  the  important  occurrences  and  accom- 
plishments of  the  three  gubernatorial  administrations  of  Gov- 
ernors Bond,  Coles  and  Edwards,  the  three  first  state  governors 
of  Illinois,  is  appropriate  before  we  leave  this  ten-year  era. 

After  Nathaniel  Pope,  the  territorial  delegate,  had  succeeded 
in  amending  the  petition  of  the  Illinois  Territory  for  admission 
to  statehood  so  as  to  move  the  northern  boundary  of  the  state 
fifty-one  miles  north  of  the  most  southerly  point  of  Lake  Michi- 
gan; and  securing  the  adoption  of  the  amended  petition  by 
Congress,  the  new  state  adopted  a  constitution  and  elected  offi- 
cials. Congress  then  approved  the  constitution  so  adopted  and 
formally  admitted  the  State  of  Illinois  into  the  Union.  Shadrach 
Bond,  elected  without  opposition,  was  inaugurated  governor, 
October  6,  1818.  About  two  years  afterward  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment was  moved  from  Kaskaskia  to  Vandalia,  this  being  the 
outstanding  event  of  the  Bond  administration.  Edward  Coles 
was  elected  his  successor  and  was  inaugurated  in  1822,  The 
fierce  struggle  for  a  new  convention  to  amend  the  constitution 
so  as  to  make  Illinois  a  slave  state,  which  has  heretofore  been 
commented  upon,  was  the  outstanding  occurrence  in  the  Coles' 
administration.  The  governor  bitterly  and  successfully  opposed 
the  holding  of  this  convention,  and  with  the  assistance  of  able 
friends  of  human  liberty  heretofore  mentioned,  saved  the  young 
state  from  obloquy  and  the  disgrace  of  tolerating  human  slavery 
within  its  borders.  General  Lafayette  visited  Illinois  during  the 
Coles  administration,  and  was  received  with  all  possible  honor 
and  acclaim.  The  new  State  House  at  Vandalia  was  destroyed 
by  fire  December  9,  1823,  during  Coles'  administration,  and  was 
rebuilt  by  the  citizens  of  Vandalia  at  a  cost  of  $15,000.     This, 


302  ILLINOIS 

however,  proved  an  "Indian  gift,"  as  the  citizens  sought  after- 
wards and  obtained  reimbursement  for  the  money  subscribed 
for  the  rebuilding.  The  first  general  school  law  was  also  passed 
in  1825,  during  Coles'  incumbency,  at  the  instigation  of  Senator 
Duncan,  afterwards  elected  governor. 

Ninian  Edwards,  formerly  Territorial  Governor  and  United 
States  Senator,  succeeded  Coles  in  1826.  During  the  Edwards 
administration  the  Legislature,  over  the  veto  of  the  governor 
and  his  Supreme  Court  advisory  board,  passed  the  grotesque 
and  dangerous  law  creating  a  State  Bank  with  power  to  loan 
money  to  insolvent  debtors,  elsewhere  noted  in  these  volumes. 
The  folly  of  this  law,  was  demonstrated  very  soon,  the  bank 
was  closed,  and  its  liabilities  settled  by  the  issue  of  state  bonds 
during  the  very  next  administration,  that  of  Governor  Reynolds. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

NATIONAL  POLITICS  ENTERS  ILLINOIS 

Up  to  the  year  1828,  as  we  have  seen,  all  elections  in  Illinois 
were  simply  struggles  of  individuals  to  obtain  office.  From  1818, 
when  Illinois  became  a  state,  until  the  election  of  John  Quincy 
Adams  to  the  presidency  by  Congress  in  1824,  there  was  prac- 
tically but  one  national  party  in  politics,  the  Republican  party 
founded  by  Thomas  Jefferson  and  perpetuated  by  him  and  his 
successors,  James  Madison  and  James  Monroe,  from  1801  to 
1825.  In  1809  the  Federalist  party  had  been  starved  to  death 
from  want  of  political  nourishment,  or,  in  other  words,  from 
lack  of  votes  at  the  polls.  An  "era  of  good  feeling"  had  set  in 
and  for  twenty-four  years  the  Republican  party  had  practically 
no  opposition.  In  1824  five  different  candidates  sought  the  presi- 
dency, all  of  them  ostensibly  members  of  the  Republican  party. 
They  were  Andrew  Jackson,  John  C.  Calhoun,  Henry  Clay,  Wil- 
liam H.  Crawford  and  John  Quincy  Adams.  Crawford  was  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury  and  Adams  Secretary  of  State  in  Presi- 
dent Monroe's  cabinet.  Both  of  them  must  have  claimed  to  have 
been  members  of  the  Republican  party  or  they  would  not  have 
been  chosen  for  such  responsible  positions  in  the  cabinet  of  the 
Republican  President.  None  of  the  five  candidates  received  a 
majority  in  the  electoral  college,  although  Jackson  had  a  large 
plurality  in  the  electoral  college  and  a  plurality  in  the  popular 
vote. 

As  we  have  heretofore  seen,  the  election  of  the  presidency 
was  thrown  into  the  House  of  Representatives,  where  Adams 
was  elected  President.  The  election  of  Adams  caused  a  split  in 
the  Republican  party  which  widened  and  deepened  until  the 
next  presidential  election.  One  element  of  the  party  called  itself 
the  National  Republican  party  and  nominated  Adams  for  the 
presidency,  while  the  other  element  nominated  Andrew  Jackson 
as  the  candidate  of  the  Democratic  party.    Thus  came  into  being 

303 


304  ILLINOIS 

in  American  politics,  both  in  the  nation  and  state,  the  name  and 
party  since  known  as  the  National  Democratic  party. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  at  the  election  for  the  presidency 
in  the  House  of  Representatives  in  1824,  Daniel  Pope  Cook,  the 
Illinois  representative  in  that  body,  cast  the  vote  of  Illinois  for 
Adams  and  not  for  Jackson.  In  so  doing,  although  he  may  have 
acted  with  the  best  of  motives  and  according  to  the  dictates  of 
his  own  conscience  and  sense  of  patriotic  duty,  he  committed  a 
political  blunder  which  was  the  main  cause  of  his  defeat  in  1826 
and  his  elimination  from  public  life  until  his  death,  which 
occurred  about  1830.  In  the  minds  of  the  common  people  in 
Illinois  and  elsewhere,  in  1825  and  thereafter,  Jackson  had  be- 
come an  idolized  hero.  Although  he  was  known  to  be  hot- 
tempered  and  headstrong,  his  patriotism  and  devotion  to  the 
well-being  of  the  common  people,  his  courage  and  sagacity  as 
a  soldier  and  his  glorious  record  on  the  battle-fields  of  the  nation 
had  endeared  him  to  the  average  run  of  humanity  above  all  other 
Americans  of  his  day.  His  domestic  life  was  clean,  his  integrity 
universally  conceded,  his  patriotism  unquestioned,  his  energy 
boundless  and  his  intentions  honorable  and  upright.  As  devoid 
of  early  education  as  was  Lincoln,  he  lacked  the  latter's  thirst 
for  same.  He  was  a  doer  of  great  deeds  rather  than  a  thinker 
of  great  thoughts.  Both  on  the  battle-field  and  in  the  White 
House  he  acted  with  dynamic  force  that  carried  all  before  it. 
His  vigorous,  although  at  times  hasty  and  explosive  acts,  en- 
deared him  to  a  people  who  were  then,  both  in  Illinois  and 
throughout  the  nation,  becoming  more  and  more  democratized. 
Up  to  the  advent  of  Jackson  the  nation's  executives  and  the 
executives  of  Illinois  had  been  taken  from  what  was  at  that  time 
regarded  as  the  cultured,  well-born  classes,  and  the  elective  fran- 
chise in  Illinois  had  been  limited  to  property  owners,  as  well  as 
in  many  other  states.  These  restrictions  on  the  right  of  voting 
had  recently  been  giving  way  before  the  popular  demand  for 
manhood  suffrage,  and  the  poor  and  uneducated  were  beginning 
to  understand  their  power  in  participating  in  the  machinery  of 
government.  They  were  democratizing  the  nation  in  thought 
and  action.  In  Jackson,  comparatively  poor  and  uneducated, 
who  talked,  lived  and  fought  in  democratic  fashion,  they  recog- 


ILLINOIS  305 

nized  one  of  themselves,  extraordinarily  forceful,  able  and  suc- 
cessful. He  thus  became  a  popular  idol  and  by  reason  of  his 
incorruptible  integrity  and  exalted  patriotism  so  remained  until 
his  death  and  throughout  history. 

The  casting  of  the  vote  of  Illinois  by  Cook  for  Adams  and 
against  Jackson,  the  popular  idol,  together  with  his  close  affilia- 
tion both  socially  and  politically  with  the  "Edwards  dynasty," 
brought  to  a  close  Cook's  splendid  career  in  the  history  of  Illi- 
nois. His  greatest  reward  (not  then  probably  appreciated  in  its 
full  importance)  was  to  have  his  name  given  to  what  is  today 
the  most  populous  and  powerful  county  in  the  Northwest,  and 
possibly  in  the  Western  Hemisphere. 

From  this  time  (1828)  on  for  nearly  thirty  years,  the  test 
applied  to  all  candidates  for  state  offices  in  Illinois  was  loyalty 
to  Jackson  during  his  lifetime  and  to  Jacksonian  Democracy 
after  his  death.  John  Reynolds,  both  of  whose  parents  were 
Irish-born  rebels  against  British  rule,  was  elected  governor  as 
a  conservative  Jacksonian  Democrat  and  inaugurated  in  1830. 
He  had  been  a  member  of  the  Supreme  Court  from  1818  to  1824, 
and  was  an  early  pioneer,  having  emigrated  from  Tennessee  to 
Illinois  with  his  father's  family  in  1800  when  a  boy  of  twelve 
years  of  age.  He  was  a  ranger  in  the  private  ranks  in  the  War 
of  1812  and  when  governor,  1830-1834,  took  the  field  as  com- 
mander of  the  Illinois  troops  in  the  Black  Hawk  war.  He  wrote 
and  published  in  1852  a  Pioneer  History  of  Illinois  to  the  Year 
of  1818,  which  is  not  only  intensely  interesting,  informative,  and 
at  places  amusing,  but  which  because  of  the  fact  that  he  was 
intimately  acquainted  with  and  an  active  participant  in  the 
pioneer  habits  and  social  and  political  gatherings  of  the  territory 
under  American  rule,  furnishes  the  student  of  Illinois  history 
with  the  most  reliable  picture  of  the  pioneer  life  of  the  territory 
before  it  became  a  state.  Copies  of  this  old  history  are  rare 
and  valuable.  I  am  one  of  the  fortunate  owners  of  one  of  these 
rare  histories,  as  a  result  of  the  generosity  of  that  splendid 
book-lover  and  very  able  journalist  who  still  vigorously  edits 
the  Belleville  News-Democrat,  Hon.  Fred  J.  Kern,  former  con- 
gressman from  the  Twenty-second  Illinois  Congressional  Dis- 
trict and  president  of  the  State  Board  of  Administration  from 


The  Cairo  Bank  at  Kaskaskia 


ILLINOIS  307 

1913  to  1917.  In  1879,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Chicago  His- 
torical Society,  the  Fergus  Printing  Company  published  a  mod- 
ern edition  of  Reynolds'  History  of  Illinois,  My  Own  Times, 
which  is  a  much  larger  and  more  comprehensive  work  than  the 
pioneer  history  published  in  1852.  Because  of  the  destruction  in 
the  Chicago  fire  of  1871  of  most  of  Governor  Reynolds'  original 
My  Own  Times,  I  have  not  been  able  to  get  a  copy  of  the  original 
edition. 

The  Black  Hawk  war  took  place  during  Governor  Reynolds' 
term  of  office  and  as  we  shall  later  see  in  the  account  of 
that  war,  he,  Reynolds,  acted  with  great  intelligence,  prompti- 
tude and  vigor  in  raising  the  volunteer  troops  in  Illinois  and 
placing  them  at  the  disposal  of  the  Federal  commanders.  He 
accompanied  the  troops  in  person  and  did  everything  in  his 
power  to  uphold  the  dignity  of  the  state  and  nation.  Whatever 
criticism  there  be  over  the  origin  and  prosecution  of  that  war, 
it  must  be,  if  honest,  directed  at  the  Federal  authorities.  Gov- 
ernor Reynolds,  as  we  have  heretofore  noted,  was  the  father 
of  the  legislation  providing  for  a  state  penitentiary  and  had 
the  satisfaction  of  being  able,  while  governor,  to  see  the  fruits 
of  that  legislation  demonstrated  by  the  actual  building  of  the 
first  state  penitentiary  at  Alton. 

As  illustrating  from  what  small  beginnings  the  great  State 
of  Illinois  has  developed,  I  quote  from  Reynolds'  My  Own  Times, 
as  follows :  "The  revenue  imposed  from  taxes  between  November 
1,  1811  and  the  eighth  of  the  same  month,  1814,  was  $4875.47. 
Of  this  sum  $2516.89  was  paid  into  the  Treasury  and  $2378.47 
remained  in  the  hands  of  the  delinquent  sheriffs  to  be  paid  over. 
(Reynolds  My  Own  Times,  p.  105.)  The  appalling  condition 
of  poverty  among  the  people,  the  absence  of  a  circulating  medium 
of  exchange,  and  the  grotesque,  aye  opera  bouffe  condition  of 
its  banking  laws  between  1819  and  1831  are  vividly  illustrated 
by  another  quotation  from  the  same  work,  as  follows: 

A  bank  was  chartered  by  the  first  General  Assembly 
in  1819,  but  it  never  went  into  existence.  The  country 
was  flooded  with  bank  paper  all  over  the  Union  after  the 
close  of  the  war,  but  worthless  paper  of  the  Western  States 
went  down,  and  left  the  country  almost  without  any  cur- 


308  ILLINOIS 

rency  towards  the  years  of  1819,  1820,  and  1821.  The 
pressure  reached  Illinois  in  its  aggravated  forms,  and  prop- 
erty was  down  to  nothing.  Cows  and  calves  sold  for  four 
or  five  dollars,  and  wheat  at  thirty-five  and  forty  cents 
per  bushel;  corn  was,  in  many  places,  down  to  ten  cents. 
The  people,  and  the  members  of  the  General  Assembly  who 
were  elected  in  1820,  were  enthusiastic  for  some  relief, 
but  what  kind  of  amelioration  of  "hard  times"  was  not 
considered  or  known. 

The  people  had  contracted  large  debts  when  the  money 
was  plenty,  and  now,  when  it  was  so  scarce,  it  was  almost 
impossible  to  pay  these  demands.  These  considerations 
urged  the  people  and  the  General  Assembly  to  seek  some 
relief  from  this  impending  evil. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  winter  of  1821,  the  legislature 
conceived  the  idea  of  creating  a  State  Bank,  formed  wholly 
for  the  time  present,  ON  THE  CREDIT  OF  THE  STATE. 
This  bank  was  to  have  a  capital  of  a  half  a  million  dollars, 
and  to  issue  in  the  beginning  only  three  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  The  State,  by  its  directors,  was  to  manage  the 
mother  bank  and  the  branches,  and  the  whole  to  remain 
under  the  control  of  the  General  Assembly.  Money  was 
to  be  loaned  to  no  individual  on  personal  security  in  sums 
above  one  hundred  dollars,  and  to  be  secured  in  real  estate 
at  two-thirds  the  value.  The  notes  were  to  draw  an  interest 
of  six  per  cent  per  annum,  and  the  bank  to  exist  for  ten 
years. 

The  worst  feature  yet  to  be  told,  was  that  if  a  creditor 
did  not  take  this  paper  for  his  debt  at  par  the  debt  would 
be  replevied  for  three  years.  The  paper  was  made  receiv- 
able for  all  taxes,  State  debts,  and  many  others,  which 
the  State  had  the  power  to  control.  As  it  has  already  been 
stated,  the  council  of  revision  had  to  pass  on  all  bills  and 
approve  or  reject  them.  The  bill  was  presented  to  the 
council,  and  three  of  the  five  members  vetoed  it,  and 
returned  it  to  the  House  of  Representatives  with  their 
objections.  Governor  Bond,  Judge  Philips,  and  myself, 
disapproved  of  the  measure,  and  Judge  Wilson  and  Brown 
consented  to  it.  The  General  Assembly  became  excited 
and  passed  the  law  by  a  constitutional  majority,  over  the 
objections  of  the  council.  This  charter  became  the  law 
of  the  land,  and  the  bank  went  into  operation.  The  veto- 
message  of  the  council  raised  the  objections  to  both  its 
constitutional  errors  and  its  policy.  The  paper  of  this 
bank  was  floating  through  the  atmosphere  of  Illinois  for 


ILLINOIS  309 

ten  years,  as  a  poisoning  and  pestilential  vapor  that  with- 
ered and  blighted  the  country  for  that  length  of  time.  The 
paper  never  was  at  par  and  sunk,  at  times,  down  to  twenty- 
five  cents  per  dollar. 

At  almost  every  session  of  the  General  Assembly,  during 
the  existence  of  the  bank,  either  the  bank  or  the  bank 
debtors  prayed  relief,  which  was  a  prolific  source  of 
legislation. 

The  members  of  the  legislature  paid  themselves,  at  times, 
nine  dollars  per  day,  and  the  other  officers  of  the  State 
were  also  paid  in  proportion  to  the  depreciation  of  the 
paper. 

The  "stay-laws"  and  "stop  laws,"  as  they  were  called, 
operated  a  great  injury  to  the  people,  not  only  for  the 
non-payment  of  all  debts,  but  they  encouraged  a  kind  of 
disregard  for  honesty  and  morality,  which  in  all  commu- 
nities is  essential  to  preserve.  I  always  opposed  all  laws 
that  interposed  any  impediment  between  debtor  and  cred- 
itor. This  is  a  relation — debtor  and  creditor — existing 
between  free  men,  made  by  themselves,  that  the  laws  should 
hold  sacred  and  inviolable.  The  law  in  all  well-regulated 
communities  should  extend  its  efficient  arm  to  the  collection 
of  debts.  I  am  opposed  to  imprisonment  for  debt,  but  it 
is  dishonest  legislation  to  permit  one  individual  to  retain 
the  substance  of  another  by  law. 

The  old  State  Bank  lingered  out  its  miserable  existence, 
never  observing  its  promises,  or  meeting  the  expectations 
of  its  friends,  and  was  wound  up  in  1831.  I  had  been  an 
observer  of  its  incapacity  for  the  ten  years  of  its  existence, 
and  had  suffered  by  its  muddy  water  so  much,  that  I  was 
determined  to  do  all  in  my  power  to  wind  it  up  and  rid 
the  country  of  its  pollutions.  In  my  first  message  to  the 
General  Assembly,  dated  December  3d,  1820,  I  presented 
the  subject  as  follows: 

"The  subject  of  the  State  Bank,  as  connected  with  our 
revenue,  will,  necessarily,  occupy  much  of  your  time.  The 
true  policy,  in  my  opinion,  is  to  close  the  business  of  the 
bank  as  soon  as  a  proper  regard  to  the  interests  of  the 
State  will  permit.  This,  too,  ought  to  be  done  with  as  little 
oppression  to  the  bank  debtors  as  possible. 

"Within  a  short  time  all  the  paper  of  the  bank  will 
become  payable.  And  although  the  bank  policy  has  been 
most  ruinous  to  the  State  and  many  of  its  citizens,  and 
only  benefited  a  few  speculators,  yet  the  State  is  in  honor 
and  duty  bound  for  its  payment  at  the  appointed  time.    The 


310  ILLINOIS 

credit  and  character  of  the  State  are  involved  in  the  prompt 
payment  of  this  claim ;  and  I  do  most  sincerely  recommend 
you  to  sustain  that  character,  which  no  doubt  you  will 
take  pleasure  in  doing,  by  providing  adequate  means.  The 
warrants  of  the  State  ought  not  to  be  allowed  to  fall  below 
par." 

In  pursuance  of  the  above  recommendation  a  law  was 
passed,  and  a  loan  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  was 
made  to  enable  the  State  to  meet  the  claims  against  the 
State  Bank.  The  loan  was  effected  and  the  bank  wound 
up.  A  good  currency  was  introduced  and  much  benefit 
by  the  operation,  yet  in  many  sections  of  the  State  the 
loan  was  unpopular,  and  it  was  said  the  State  was  sold 
to  Wiggins  who  made  the  loan  to  the  State.  Many  of  my 
friends  were  prostrated  a  while  for  doing  their  duty  in  this 
case,  but  at  last  the  measure  became  popular. 

These  were  the  words  of  the  man  who,  as  one  of  the  judges 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  was  on  the  advisory  committee  which 
advised  the  governor  (Bond)  to  veto  the  banking  law  and  who 
afterwards,  when  governor,  succeeded  in  having  the  grotesque 
bank  wound  up,  its  debts  paid  off  and  its  life  extinguished. 
This  wierd  law  was  passed  by  ill-informed  pioneer  legislators, 
ignorant  of  banking  requirements  and  financial  science,  avowedly 
and  openly  for  the  express  purpose  of  loaning  the  state's  credit 
to  insolvent  debtors,  in  the  vain  hope  that  in  some  vague  way 
in  the  distant  future,  these  insolvent  debtors  would  become 
solvent  and  remember  to  pay  their  debts  to  the  state.  It  was 
a  financial  joke  but  an  historical  one  that  must  be  recorded 
in  telling  the  history  of  Illinois.  The  result  was  inevitable. 
The  insolvents  secured  the  state's  bank  notes  in  exchange  for 
their  own,  failed  to  pay  their  notes,  and  the  state  was  compelled 
to  issue  its  bonds  to  pay  its  bank  notes. 

During  the  administration  of  Governor  Reynolds  occurred 
the  last  war  with  the  Indians  in  Illinois,  known  as  the  Black 
Hawk  war,  which  has  been  treated  at  some  length  elsewhere 
in  this  work.  It  entailed  the  loss  of  about  200  American  lives, 
an  almost  complete  extermination  of  the  Sac  tribe  of  Indians 
at  a  cost  to  the  state  and  nation  of  $2,000,000.  During  Reynolds' 
administration  the  population  of  the  central  and  northern  por- 
tion of  the  state  increased  immensely.    Chicago  was  incorporated 


ILLINOIS  311 

as  a  town  in  1833.  In  1830  the  County  of  Putnam  had  700 
inhabitants.  Rushville  was  incorporated  in  1831  with  180  inhab- 
itants. In  1831  there  were  10,000  people  in  the  counties  of 
Pike,  Calhoun,  Adams,  Schuyler  and  Fulton,  all  north  and  west 
of  the  Illinois  River  in  the  military  tract.  Peoria  was  laid 
out  in  1826  shortly  before  Reynolds  became  governor.  As  evi- 
dencing the  rapid  growth  of  the  population,  we  find  that  the 
counties  of  Rock  Island,  LaSalle,  Cook  and  Champaign  were 
all  created  in  1831  and  1833,  during  Reynolds'  incumbency. 
Prior  to  Reynolds'  election  in  1830,  the  population  of  Illinois 
north  of  Peoria,  excepting  at  the  lead  mines  around  Galena, 
did  not  average  two  white  human  beings  to  the  square  mile. 

Reynolds  was  elected  as  a  Jacksonian  Democrat.  His  oppo- 
nent, William  Kinney,  a  storekeeper,  Baptist  minister  and  sea- 
soned politician,  was  of  the  same  political  party.  The  latter 
was  an  ardent  professor  of  that  political  faith,  while  Reynolds, 
less  ardent,  was  just  as  steadfast  in  his  loyalty  to  Jackson. 
No  conventions  were  held  up  to  that  time  to  make  nominations. 
Both  candidates  announced  their  own  candidacies,  declaring 
their  loyalty  to  Jackson.  The  candidates,  however,  had  different 
temperaments  and  dispositions  and  conducted  their  campaigns 
along  different  lines.  Reynolds  was  the  better  educated,  and 
more  suave  and  tactful  in  his  public  utterances.  While  pro- 
claiming his  loyalty  to  Jackson  and  Democracy,  he  was  not 
abusive  of  his  political  enemies,  the  Whigs.  Instead  of  excoriat- 
ing, he  exhorted  them  to  enter  the  Democratic  fold.  Kinney, 
a  much  abler  stump  speaker,  indulged  in  invective  against 
Adams,  Clay  and  the  whole  Whig  party.  The  result  was  that 
the  Jacksonian  Democrats  split  their  votes  between  the  two 
Jacksonian  Democrats,  while  the  Whigs  who  went  to  the  polls 
voted  for  Reynolds  as  the  lesser  of  two  evils,  and  Reynolds 
was  elected  by  a  substantial  majority. 

This  election  and  the  succeeding  election  of  Duncan  over 
Kinney  for  governor  in  1834  gave  birth  to  the  convention  system 
of  selecting  candidates  in  the  Democratic  party  in  Illinois. 
Duncan  claimed  while  he  was  a  candidate  that  he  was  a  Jack- 
sonian Democrat,  although  his  loyalty  to  "Old  Hickory"  was 
doubted  by  many.    Kinney,  his  opponent,  made  the  same  pro- 


312  ILLINOIS 

fession.  The  result  was  the  same  as  when  Reynolds  was  a 
candidate.  Duncan  divided  the  Democratic  vote  with  Kinney 
and  received  nearly  all  of  the  Whig  vote  and  was  elected.  To 
prevent  such  situations  in  the  future,  the  Democrats  in  the 
nation,  about  1835,  adopted  the  convention  system  of  electing 
candidates  for  public  office.  They  declared  in  set  resolutions 
that  politics  in  the  Republic  was  based  upon  differences  of 
principle  as  to  government  and  that  the  triumph  of  principles, 
rather  than  the  triumph  of  leaders  or  a  leader,  was  the  aim  to 
be  sought  in  politics.  They  declared  that  "without  a  frequent 
interchange  of  political  sentiment,  expressed  by  the  people,  and 
repeated  by  their  delegates,  properly  authorized,  the  democracy 
cannot  insure  that  success  in  their  elections  which  the  purity 
and  integrity  of  their  principles  entitle  them  to  claim. " 

The  Democrats  had  discovered  that  victory  for  their  prin- 
ciples and  candidates  could  not  be  secured  unless  they  consoli- 
dated and  centered  the  vote  of  their  party  upon  one  man  pledged 
to  support  their  principles  and  eliminating  the  candidacy  of 
other  rivals  within  the  party,  because  these  rivals  would  divide 
the  vote  of  the  party  and  allow  a  minority  in  the  opposing  party, 
consolidated  on  one  candidate,  to  win  over  their  majority.  It 
was  decided  that  in  each  election  district  delegates  should  be 
elected  to  the  county,  state  or  national  conventions  of  the  party, 
where  a  declaration  of  principles  should  be  adopted  and  a  single 
candidate  for  each  office  should  be  selected,  pledged  to  support 
that  declaration  of  principle,  and  receive  the  undivided  support 
at  the  election  of  all  members  of  that  party. 

This  system  adopted  by  the  Democratic  party  about  1835 
had  much  to  commend  it.  By  assembling  its  leaders  and  f ramers 
of  public  principles  in  one  place  for  conferences,  consultation, 
discussion  and  debate,  it  enables  a  party,  after  mature  delibera- 
tion, to  promulgate  a  full-considered  declaration  of  the  policies 
to  be  pursued  by  that  party  if  placed  in  power,  and  enables  the 
party  as  one  man  to  support  the  candidate  who  pledges  himself 
to  carry  out  those  policies  when  elected.  The  wisdom  of  the 
plan  has  been  demonstrated  from  the  fact  that  from  that  time 
down  to  the  present,  the  same  has  been  adhered  to  by  the 
Democratic  party  and  that  within  a  short  time  afterwards  it 


ILLINOIS  313 

was  adopted  by  its  great  rival,  the  present  Republican  party. 
The  Whigs  in  Illinois  did  not  adopt  the  convention  system  till 
some  time  afterwards.  It  was  derided,  criticized  and  condemned 
by  them  until  they  began  to  ascertain  its  effectiveness.  Since 
its  adoption  by  both  of  the  great  political  parties  it  has  often 
been  criticized,  as  being  in  operation,  capable  of  fraudulent 
manipulation.  That  fraudulent  acts  in  the  election  of  delegates 
and  in  the  calling  of  conventions  and  recording  their  results 
sometimes  occur  cannot  be  questioned,  but  I  know  of  no  business 
calling,  occupation  or  trade,  and  no  meeting  of  men  or  women, 
where  fraud  may  not  and  does  not  at  some  time  enter.  Fraud 
vitiates  all  things.  Frauds  occur  under  the  direct  primary 
systems  as  they  occur  in  conventions.  Under  either  system  care 
must  be  taken  to  eliminate  fraud. 

Those  voters  in  Illinois  who  had  favored  Adams  or  Clay 
for  the  Presidency  in  preference  to  Andrew  Jackson  in  1828 
and  were  therefore  opposed  to  Jacksonian  Democracy,  were 
dubbed  as  Whigs,  which  name  they  accepted  without  demur. 
These  Whigs  for  many  years  were  in  a  hopeless  minority.  They 
were  timid  about  placing  men  in  nomination  for  public  offices 
as  Whigs.  Few  or  none  of  the  Whigs  would  announce  their 
voluntary  candidacies  as  Whigs  because  they  felt  that  such  an 
announcement  would  kill  their  chances  of  election.  Between 
1828  and  1848  no  candidate  avowedly  opposed  to  Jackson  or 
Jacksonian  Democracy  could  be,  or  was,  elected  to  state  or 
national  office  in  Illinois.  The  Whig  voters  in  Illinois,  except 
on  one  occasion,  either  remained  at  home  on  election  day,  or 
voted  for  that  Jacksonian  candidate  that  was  the  least  offensive 
to  them  of  the  candidates  seeking  election.  On  the  one  excep- 
tional occasion,  when  Harrison  was  the  National  Republican- 
Whig  candidate  for  the  presidency,  they  rallied  in  force  at  the 
polls  and  cast  a  large  but  unsuccessful  vote  for  Harrison  in 
Illinois.  Harrison  was  beaten  in  this  state,  but  won  throughout 
the  nation. 

In  the  gubernatorial  election  when  Reynolds  was  successful 
in  1830,  and  again  when  Duncan  was  elected,  both  of  these 
men  received  numbers  of  Whig  votes  because  the  Whigs  regarded 
these  men  as  the  least  offensive  Jacksonian  Democrats  at  these 


314  ILLINOIS 

two  elections.  The  Democrats  early  recognized  that  the  candi- 
dacies of  two  or  more  men  by  individual  announcements,  pro- 
fessing1 themselves  to  be  Democrats,  would  soon  split  the  party 
wide  open  and  allow  the  Whigs,  though  in  a  minority,  to  win 
at  the  polls,  and  they  soon  adopted  the  convention  system  to 
avoid  this  disaster.  The  system,  however,  was  not  found  at 
the  start  to  be  simple  or  easy  of  adoption.  It  was  often  found 
to  be  cumbersome  and  inconvenient  to  follow  the  evolution  of 
a  national  convention  up  from  the  precinct  election  through 
all  the  civil  voting  units,  to  the  choice  of  national  delegates 
to  national  conventions.  The  advisability,  aye  political  necessity 
of  the  consolidation  of  the  vote  of  the  party  behind  one  set 
of  principles  and  one  candidate,  was  to  the  Democratic  mind 
paramount  over  the  inconveniences  of  the  system.  The  Demo- 
crats believed  that  the  aims  and  wishes  of  the  common  people 
under  the  convention  system  would  be  registered  and  systemat- 
ically carried  on  and  up  from  the  simple  gatherings  of  the 
people  in  election  or  school  districts,  through  the  congressional 
or  judicial  conventions  to  the  national  conventions.  They  con- 
tended, too,  that  the  system  was  democratic  and  prevented 
wealth  from  determining  the  choice  of  candidates  in  caucuses 
as  had  frequently  happened  in  the  past. 

The  Whigs,  however,  did  not  take  kindly  to  the  system.  They 
claimed  that  it  prevented  worthy  and  financially  responsible 
men  from  offering  themselves  as  candidates  for  election.  The 
Whigs,  however,  had  the  reputation  of  having  within  their 
ranks  most  if  not  all  of  the  wealthy  men  and  bankers  in  the 
state;  and,  although  in  a  minority,  the  Whigs  had  bought  and 
owned  most  of  the  stock  in,  and  had  organized,  the  State  Bank 
and  the  Bank  of  Illinois,  in  1834,  which  institutions  had  become 
quite  unpopular.  The  majority  of  the  Whigs  were  by  no  means 
idealists,  but  were  successful  accumulators  of  wealth.  The 
Whigs  reluctantly  adopted  the  convention  system  in  1839,  some 
years  after  the  Democrats.  Prior  to  their  so  doing  they  had 
bitterly  criticized  the  system.  It  was  forced  upon  them  by  its 
apparent  success  in  the  Democratic  party  and  not  by  any  evo- 
lution within  the  party. 


ILLINOIS  315 

On  November  17,  1834,  Governor  Reynolds  resigned  as  gov- 
ernor of  Illinois,  to  become  a  member  of  Congress,  and  was 
succeeded  by  Lieutenant-Governor  William  L.  D.  Ewing,  who 
held  the  office  for  fifteen  days,  or  until  Governor  Duncan  was 
inaugurated.  Ewing's  term  as  governor  was  the  shortest  in  the 
history  of  Illinois.  Reynolds  was,  under  the  Constitution  of 
1818,  ineligible  for  reelection  and  had  been  during  his  term 
as  governor  elected  to  Congress.  This  accounts  for  his  resig- 
nation as  governor. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  JOHN  REYNOLDS  AS 

GOVERNOR 

John  Reynolds,  a  pioneer  who  had  entered  Illinois  from 
Tennessee  as  a  boy  in  1800,  the  son  of  an  Irish  rebel  against 
British  rule,  was  elected  governor  of  Illinois  in  1830.  He  had 
been  a  ranger  in  the  private  ranks  in  the  War  of  1812,  was 
practicing  law,  and  had  served  a  term  with  his  uncle,  Thomas 
Reynolds,  on  the  Supreme  bench  of  the  state.  At  the  time 
he  announced  his  candidacy  for  governor,  he  was  a  popular 
member  of  the  Lower  House  of  the  State  Legislature  and  a 
lawyer  of  good  standing  in  active  practice.  In  politics  he  was 
a  Jacksonian  Democrat,  but  not  in  favor  with  the  ultra  or 
radical  element  of  his  party.  The  Jacksonian  Democrats  of 
that  year,  1830,  were  divided  into  two  camps — the  ultras,  who 
advised  persecution  of  their  political  enemies,  the  Whigs,  because 
of  their  political  opinions,  and  the  conservative  Jacksonian  Dem- 
ocrats, who  decried  political  proscription  of  the  Whigs.  Rey- 
nolds announced  his  candidacy  as  a  Jacksonian  Democrat  but 
as  opposed  to  proscribing  any  man  because  of  his  political 
opinions. 

His  rival  candidate,  W.  C.  Kinney,  was  a  Baptist  minister, 
a  successful  store-keeper,  and  at  the  time  of  his  candidacy 
was  lieutenant-governor  of  Illinois.  He  was  in  politics  also 
a  Jacksonian  Democrat,  but  of  the  ultra  type.  It  was  alleged 
in  the  heated  campaign  between  him  and  Reynolds  that  Kinney 
had  declared  that  the  Whigs  "should  be  whipped  out  of  office 
like  dogs  out  of  a  meathouse."  Kinney  claimed  in  the  campaign 
that  he  had  the  ear  of  President  Jackson  and  could  dictate  the 
Federal  appointments  in  the  state.  Both  candidates  ardently 
claimed  to  be  Jacksonian  Democrats.    No  man  could  be  elected 

316 


Governor  1830-34 


318  ILLINOIS 

at  that  time  who  did  not  make  such  a  profession  of  political 
faith. 

The  candidate  for  lieutenant  governor  on  the  Kinney  ticket 
was  Zadoc  Casey,  who  was  also  a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  and 
Reynolds  and  his  adherents  made  much  of  the  fact  in  the  cam- 
paign and  decried  the  injection  of  "the  church  into  politics." 
This  was  particularly  effective  against  Kinney  by  reason  of  the 
fact  that  both  candidates  were  openly  following  the  custom  of 
that  time  and  treating  their  followers  to  liberal  libations  of 
whiskey.  As  Reynolds  describes  in  his  My  Own  Times:  "It 
was  the  universal  custom  of  the  times  to  treat  with  liquor.  We 
both  did  it,  but  he  was  condemned  more  for  it  than  myself  by 
the  religious  community,  he  being  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel." 
(My  Own  Times,  p.  188.)  Naturally,  there  would  be  much 
more  criticism  of  a  minister  of  the  Gospel  buying  whiskey  for 
electioneering  purposes  than  of  a  layman  doing  the  same.  The 
result  of  the  election  was  that  Reynolds  received  a  large  ma- 
jority of  the  Jacksonian  Democratic  votes  and  nearly  all  of  the 
Whigs,  and  was  elected  by  a  large  majority. 

In  his  inaugural  message,  Reynolds  advocated  free  popular 
education,  general  internal  public  improvements,  the  comple- 
tion of  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal  and  the  improvement 
of  the  Chicago  harbor.  He  cleverly  and  adroitly  dodged  the 
question  of  increasing  the  state  taxation  by  the  issuance  of 
state  bonds  for  the  making  of  these  improvements;  and  en- 
deavored in  nearly  every  instance  to  throw  the  burden  upon  the 
Federal  Government.  He  did,  however,  recommend  the  com- 
pletion of  the  first  state  penitentiary  at  Alton  at  the  direct  cost 
of  the  state.  Under  his  administration  a  law  was  passed  refund- 
ing the  old  State  Bank  paper  which  had  the  effect  of  putting  the 
state  paper  back  at  par  value. 

The  Black  Hawk  war  broke  out  in  1831  during  Governor 
Reynolds'  administration  and  lasted  for  eighteen  months.  The 
governor  actively  and  energetically  participated  therein,  as  we 
have  shown  in  another  chapter.  In  his  My  Own  Times  he  de- 
votes sixty-five  pages  to  that  interesting  topic  which  are  well 
worth  reading  by  any  history-loving  student.  In  that  work 
he  treats  his  political  rivals  with  much  courtesy  and  apparently 


ILLINOIS  319 

very  fairly.     It  is  a  very  interesting  volume  and  I  recommend 
its  perusal. 

In  the  summer  of  1834  Charles  Slade,  the  member  of  Con- 
gress from  Reynolds'  congressional  district,  died,  leaving  a 
vacancy  to  which  Reynolds  was  elected.  This  position  he  held 
for  three  years  thereafter.  Under  the  Constitution  of  1818  he 
was  ineligible  to  succeed  himself  as  governor  and  this  is  prob- 
ably the  reason  he  sought  election  to  Congress.  To  the  credit 
of  Governor  Reynolds  and  the  Legislature  who  served  under 
him  must  be  placed  the  law  which  upheld  the  financial  honor 
of  the  state  in  1830.  During  the  first  session  of  this  Legislature 
it  became  its  duty  to  make  provision  for  the  redemption  of  the 
notes  of  the  old  State  Bank  which  fell  due  during  the  next  sum- 
mer. Former  Legislatures  had  feared  to  risk  the  popularity 
of  its  members  by  the  redemption  of  these  notes  by  taxation 
or  otherwise.  Something  must  now  be  done.  At  the  insistence 
of  Governor  Reynolds  the  Legislature  authorized  the  making 
of  the  "Wiggins'  Loan"  of  $100,000.  The  money  was  obtained 
by  borrowing  this  sum,  and  with  the  money  so  obtained  the 
notes  of  the  bank  were  redeemed  and  the  honor  of  the  state  was 
saved.  This  wise  and  manly  act,  however,  recoiled  upon  the 
legislators  and  but  few  of  the  men  who  voted  for  this  loan  found 
favor  in  the  sight  of  their  constituents  for  many  years  there- 
after. They  became  as  unpopular  as  the  legislators  who  shortly 
afterwards  voted  for  the  "Little  Bull  Law."  This  "Little  Bull 
Law"  was  a  wise  law  intended  for  the  improvement  of  the  breed 
of  cattle  and  prohibited  small  bulls  of  no  pedigree  from  running 
at  large.  Popular  opinion  was  in  favor  of  placing  bulls  and 
human  beings  on  the  same  level  with  reference  to  their  wander- 
ings. The  public  denounced  the  law  as  discriminatory  and  pro- 
scriptive  and  vented  its  dissatisfaction  upon  all  who  voted  for 
it.  Votes  for  the  "Wiggins'  Loan"  and  the  "Little  Bull  Law" 
retired  many  legislators  to  private  life. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

BLACK  HAWK  AND  THE  LAST  STAND  OF  THE  INDIANS 

We  now  come  to  an  episode  in  the  history  of  state  and  nation 
which  it  is  unpleasant  to  discuss,  but  as  it  was  unquestionably 
an  important  occurrence  in  the  history  of  Illinois  it  must  be 
considered  and  frankly  treated  by  anyone  presuming  to  record 
the  facts  of  history. 

Up  to  the  year  1831  the  last  remnant  of  the  confederated 
Sac  and  Fox  tribes,  with  the  consent  and  approval  of  the  Fed- 
eral Government,  had  occupied  two  villages  near  what  is  now 
Rock  Island.  The  village  possessed  by  the  Sac  tribe  was  on  the 
north  side  of  the  Rock  River,  near  that  city.  The  Fox  village 
was  three  miles  away  on  the  Mississippi.  These  villages  for  a 
century  had  been  the  principal  seats  and  burial  grounds  of  these 
tribes.  In  the  year  1804  five  of  the  chiefs  or  head  men  of  these 
tribes  had  gone  to  St.  Louis  to  secure  the  release  of  one  of 
their  tribe  charged  with  the  murder  of  a  white  man.  It  is 
very  questionable  as  to  whether  these  five  Indians  had  instruc- 
tions from  their  tribes  in  any  other  matter.  While  in  St.  Louis 
they  were  inveigled  by  William  Henry  Harrison  (who  was  no- 
torious for  securing  by  unscrupulous  methods  unfair  treaties 
from  the  Indians)  into  signing  a  paper  by  the  terms  of  which 
their  tribes  conveyed  to  the  United  States  50,000,000  acres  of 
land  in  consideration  of  an  annuity  of  $1,000.  In  describing 
this  transaction,  Pease  in  his  volume  of  the  Centennial  History 
of  Illinois  uses  the  following  language:  "In  this  transaction 
he  (Harrison)  treated  with  five  chiefs,  away  from  home,  on  a 
mission  which  was,  at  least  primarily,  for  a  different  purpose; 
while  these  head  men  were  befuddled  by  firewater  he  concluded 
a  treaty  which,  in  return  for  an  annuity  of  $1,000,  stripped  the 
Sac  and  Foxes  of  50,000,000  acres  of  land."    P.  150,  Pease. 

320 


El 


' 


Courtesy  H.  W.  Fay,  Springfield. 

Black  Hawk 


322  ILLINOIS 

The  territory  purported  to  be  conveyed  by  this  document 
covered  all  the  land  in  Illinois  north  of  the  Illinois  River  and 
east  of  the  Mississippi  in  addition  to  large  tracts  in  Wisconsin 
and  Indiana.  Whiskey  seems  to  have  been  an  essential  and  ma- 
terial concomitant  of  most  of  the  Harrison  treaties.  President 
Jefferson  had  occasion  to  strongly  disapprove  of  Harrison's 
methods  in  securing  treaties,  and  in  May,  1805,  ordered  Har- 
rison to  make  explanations  in  order  to  "counteract  the  effect  of 
his  own  questionable  methods."  (Idem.)  Thomas  Forsythe, 
agent  for  these  two  tribes,  and  knowing  them  better  than  any 
other  white  man,  in  discussing  this  treaty  in  1832,  wrote :  "The 
Sac  and  Fox  nations  were  never  consulted  nor  had  any  hand  in 
the  treaty,  nor  knew  anything  about  it.  It  was  made  and  signed 
by  two  Sac  chiefs,  one  Fox  chief  and  one  warrior."  (Idem.) 
By  the  terms  of  this  alleged  treaty,  however,  these  two  tribes 
were  allowed  to  live  and  hunt  upon  this  land  so  long  as  it  was  the 
property  of  the  Federal  Government. 

Up  to  the  year  1823  these  tribes  lived  in  peaceful  and  un- 
molested possession  of  these  villages,  heretofore  mentioned,  and 
the  lands  surrounding  the  same.  The  land  around  these  villages 
was  very  fertile,  and  every  year  the  Indians  planted  it  with  corn 
and  other  crops  which  never  failed.  Vegetables  grew  rapidly 
and  on  the  island  near  them  strawberries,  blackberries,  plums, 
apples  and  nuts  grew  in  great  profusion.  The  Government  had 
not  parted  with  its  title  to  these  lands  by  patents  to  settlers. 
About  the  year  1823  white  men  going  to  and  from  the  lead  mines 
at  Galena  began  to  notice  the  fine  crops  produced  upon  their  lands 
by  the  Indian  squaws.  Acting  on  the  principle  that  a  red  man 
had  no  right  to  till  or  enjoy  any  land  that  a  white  man  wanted, 
these  covetous  white  men  "squatted"  on  these  lands  and  drove 
the  Indian  squaws  and  children  off  and  into  the  villages.  Nat- 
urally, the  Indians  who  had  occupied  and  tilled  these  lands  for 
a  century  resented  such  treatment.  The  conduct  of  the  white 
"squatters"  was  in  violation  of  the  law  and  the  terms  of  the 
alleged  treaty  of  1804.  Of  all  the  immense  domain  claimed  to 
have  been  conveyed  to  the  Government  by  that  document,  these 
few  and  narrow  fields  around  their  village  were  the  only  por- 
tions that  were  actually  tilled  and  made  productive  by  the  In- 


ILLINOIS  323 

dians,  and  it  would  have  been  not  only  decent  and  just,  but  good 
policy,  for  the  United  States  Government  to  have  reserved  this 
land  and  allowed  the  Indians  to  cultivate  it  as  their  forefathers 
had  done  for  years  past. 

The  "squatter,"  however,  was  not  a  man  to  consider  justice 
or  decency  as  against  an  Indian,  no  matter  how  peaceful  that 
Indian  might  be.  The  "squatters"  became  insolent  and  violent. 
The  Indians  became  resentful  and  violent.  Pontiac's  war,  the 
War  of  1812  and  wars  between  these  tribes  and  other  Indians 
had  weakened  the  Sac  and  Fox  not  only  in  number  of  warriors 
but  in  morale.  They  resisted  the  aggressiveness  of  the  white 
"squatters"  for  a  time  without  shedding  blood.  Since  the  treaty 
of  1816  these  tribes  had  killed  no  white  man  and  their  forbear- 
ance under  the  violent  encroachments  of  the  "squatters"  was 
amazing.  Each  and  every  year  the  "squatters"  came  closer 
and  fenced  in  the  fields  that  the  Indians  had  tilled.  Keokuk, 
the  most  important  of  the  Sac  chiefs,  wise,  able  and  eloquent, 
recognizing  the  futility  of  warfare  against  the  whites,  gave  up 
the  struggle  in  despair,  and  advised  his  fellow-Indians  to  aban- 
don the  homes  and  graves  of  their  ancestors,  and  to  cross  the 
Mississippi  and  establish  new  homes  in  Missouri.  Under  the 
circumstances  which  confronted  him  and  his  people,  this  was 
the  weak,  but  wise,  thing  to  do.  The  officials  of  the  Federal 
Government,  instead  of  acting  with  justice  and  humanity,  stood 
idly  by  and,  to  the  humiliation  of  the  American  sense  of  honor 
and  fair  play,  allowed  these  "squatters"  to  dispossess  the  In- 
dians of  their  homes,  their  crops  and  the  final  resting-places  of 
their  dead.  They  did  this  not  only  by  inaction,  but  by  affirma- 
tive acts. 

The  "squatters,"  for  over  seven  years,  were  allowed  by  Fed- 
eral officials  to  encroach  further  and  further  into  the  lands 
occupied  and  tilled  by  the  Indians,  and  finally  the  registrars  at 
the  United  States  Land  Office  allowed  these  "squatters"  to  file 
preemption  claims  and  accorded  to  them  preemption  rights 
over  certain  quarter-sections  of  land,  which  included  most  of 
one  of  their  villages,  their  graves  and  the  corn  lands,  which 
for  over  a  century  had  been  occupied  by  the  Sac  and  Foxes 
and  their  ancestors.     The  American  sense  of  justice  and  fair 


324  ILLINOIS 

play  had  in  the  breasts  of  the  persons  charged  with  public  duties 
at  that  time  (1830  and  1831)  been  benumbed  or  debauched  by 
the  land-gluttony  prevalent,  and  sad  to  say  it  was  tolerated  or 
overlooked  by  those  in  high  authority  in  the  nation,  and  after- 
wards enforced  by  bloody  and  shameful  warfare. 

Even  the  claim  of  right  of  preemption  was  illegal.  Preemp- 
tion presumes  that  the  land  preempted  is  peacefully  occupied  by 
the  preemptor.  This  land,  for  which  preemption  rights  were  ac- 
corded to  the  "squatters,"  was  land  in  open  and  notorious  occupa- 
tion by  the  Indians  and  had  been  so  for  years.  The  whole  affair 
was  not  only  scandalously  unjust  but  illegal  in  every  respect. 
Keokuk  had  been,  as  we  have  said,  weak  but  wise,  in  advising  his 
people  to  succumb  to  brute  force  and  retire  from  their  ancestral 
homes.  There  was  another  Indian  chief  on  the  scene,  who  was 
neither  weak  nor  wise.  Although  over  sixty  years  of  age  he  had 
still  retained  the  vigor  and  valour  of  Pontiac  and  Tecumseh, — 
aye,  and  of  Leonidas  and  Horatio.  He  regarded  the  advice  of 
Keokuk  as  weak  and  cowardly.  Many  of  the  warriors  resented 
the  attitude  of  Keokuk  and  this  faction  found  a  ready  and  reso- 
lute leader  in  Black  Hawk,  who  was  a  co-leader  and  rival  chief  of 
Keokuk.  He  was  probably  jealous  of  the  prominence  of  the 
latter,  but  he  promptly  advised  his  warrior  friends  to  resist 
the  encroachments  of  the  "squatters"  and  thus  advanced  his 
own  power  and  lessened  the  authority  of  his  rival.  The  strug- 
gle between  these  two  chiefs  continued  for  two  crop  seasons. 
Keokuk  finally  succeeded  in  inducing  the  greater  number  of  the 
two  confederated  tribes  to  cross  the  Mississippi,  surrender  their 
homes  and  graveyards  and  locate  in  Missouri. 

Black  Hawk  and  his  followers  tenaciously  remained  in  their 
village.  For  some  time  he  advised  against  bloodshed  and  vio- 
lence, being  concerned  only  with  peaceable  but  determined  acts 
of  occupation  and  possession.  When  the  preemption  claims 
of  the  "squatters"  were  brought  forward  and  the  claim  made 
that  they  had  legal  title  and  the  right  to  dispossess  the  Indians, 
he  began  to  examine  into  the  treaties  and  other  legal  questions 
and  discovered  the  terms  of  these  documents.  He  ascertained 
the  circumstances  under  which  Governor  Harrison  had  wheedled 
certain  Indian  chiefs  into  signing  the  treaty  of  1804  while  in- 


ILLINOIS  325 

toxicated,  and  the  fact  that  this  treaty  was  confirmed  by  other 
treaties  in  1816,  1822  and  1825;  which  subsequent  treaties, 
however,  made  no  specific  reference  to  the  substance  of  the 
treaty  of  1804.  He  discovered,  too,  that  certain  monies  and 
goods  which  had  been  given  to  the  Sac  and  Fox  tribes  annually 
by  agents  of  the  United  States  Government,  which  he  and  the 
other  Indians  believed  were  gifts,  were  in  fact  paid  over  to  the 
Indians  under  the  annuity  provision  of  $1,000  to  be  paid  an- 
nually under  the  terms  of  the  treaty  of  1804.  Upon  making 
these  discoveries  he  promptly  advised  his  Indian  followers  to 
refuse  thereafter  to  accept  any  such  monies  or  provisions  and 
sought  advice  from  his  friends,  the  English  officers  at  Maiden, 
Canada,  and  from  other  Indian  chiefs  in  other  tribes.  He  told 
the  men  the  result  of  his  investigation  into  the  treaties  and 
the  circumstances  surrounding  their  signatures,  and  they  ad- 
vised him  that  if  his  statements  to  them  were  true  the  United 
States  could  not,  and  would  not,  remove  him  and  his  tribes  from 
their  village  at  Saukenuk,  near  Rock  Island. 

It  is  claimed,  too,  that  General  Cass  was  also  consulted  by 
Black  Hawk  and  that  the  general  gave  him  the  same  advice. 
The  village  (or  villages)  called  Saukenuk,  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind,  was  not  the  ordinary  Indian  village  which  could  be  moved 
from  time  to  time  without  much  inconvenience.  It,  or  they, 
(for  they  were  practically  one  community)  was  as  near  an 
approach  to  a  modern  permanent  small  city  as  we  can  find  in 
Indian  history.  There  were  700  lodges  constructed  in  the  man- 
ner of  the  "long  houses"  of  the  Mohawks  which  would  accommo- 
date and  give  shelter  to  from  6,000  to  7,000  Indians.  Some  of 
them  were  100  feet  long  and  from  twenty  to  thirty  feet  wide, 
with  their  roofs  and  walls  made  weatherproof  with  thatch. 
Many  hundreds  of  acres  around  the  village  were  cultivated  and 
tilled  and  had  been  for  many  years. 

Acting  upon  the  results  of  his  investigation  and  the  advice 
he  had  been  given  by  both  white  men  and  Indian  chiefs,  Black 
Hawk  now  turned  upon  the  "squatters"  and  preemptors,  and 
told  them  defiantly  that  the  land  had  never  been  legally  ceded, 
and  ordered  them  peremptorily  to  leave  the  country.  It  was 
inconceivable  to  him  that  the  Great  Father  of  the  United  States 


326  ILLINOIS 

would  tolerate  the  forcible  seizure  of  this  small  tract  of  land 
upon  which  his  people  had  lived  for  a  century  at  least,  and 
where  they  had  buried  their  dead,  after  his  agents  had  cheated 
them  out  of  50,000,000  acres  with  bribes  and  whiskey.  When 
Black  Hawk  defiantly  ordered  the  settlers  off  of  these  lands  and 
threatened  them  with  violence  in  case  of  refusal  to  leave,  eight 
of  these  settlers  sent  a  memorial  of  their  grievances  to  Governor 
Reynolds  in  which  they  set  out  that  the  Sac  Indians  "had  threat- 
ened to  kill  them;  that  they  acted  in  a  most  outrageous  man- 
ner; threw  down  their  fences,  turned  horses  into  their  corn- 
fields, stole  their  potatoes,  saying  the  land  was  theirs  and  that 
they  had  not  sold  it,  ...  .  leveled  deadly  weapons  at  the  cit- 
izens" and  that  these  terrible  Indians  had  entered  "a  home, 
rolled  out  a  barrel  of  whiskey,  and  destroyed  it."  A  few  days 
afterward,  April  30,  1831,  thirty-seven  settlers  complained  to 
the  governor  that  the  Indians  were  acting  in  "an  outrageous 
and  menacing  manner."  Receiving  no  reply  thereto,  a  personal 
delegation  called  upon  the  governor  in  the  following  month. 
From  letters,  memorials,  delegations  and  rumors,  Governor 
Reynolds  reached  the  conclusion  that  an  Indian  war  was  immi- 
nent, and  issued  a  call  for  volunteer  soldiers. 

While  I  have  written  some  strong  words  in  criticism  of  the 
Federal  officers  who  acted  or  refused  to  act  in  the  crisis  that 
led  up  to  the  so-called  Black  Hawk  war,  let  it  be  understood 
that  I  have  no  word  of  censure  of  the  state  officials  of  Illinois, 
who,  when  hostilities  broke  out  between  the  settlers  and  the 
Indians,  called  for  volunteers  to  suppress  the  hostilities  and 
restore  peace.  War  is  war;  or,  as  Sherman  is  reputed  to  have 
said:  "War  is  hell!"  It  was  the  duty  of  the  governor  of  Illi- 
nois and  the  public  officials  of  the  state  when  war  or  organized 
violence  broke  out  within  the  confines  of  the  state,  such  as  riots, 
rebellion  or  guerrilla  warfare,  to  call  to  the  colors  the  men  of 
the  state  to  suppress  disorder,  prevent  pillage  and  prevent  blood- 
shed. Calling  for  volunteer  troops,  in  taking  the  field  in  person, 
and  placing  himself  and  his  troops  at  the  disposition  of  the 
Federal  Government  to  enforce  Federal  law  and  Federal  au- 
thority when  flouted,  was  the  duty  of  each  state  official. 


ILLINOIS  327 

In  June,  1831,  600  volunteers  had  responded  to  the  gov- 
ernor's call  for  troops,  and  along  with  ten  companies  of  United 
States  Regulars,  these  600  men  under  command  of  Gen.  E.  P. 
Gaines  soon  appeared  before  the  Indian  village  at  Saukenuk. 
Dismayed  at  the  show  of  overwhelming  force,  the  Indians 
watched  the  evolutions  of  the  soldiers  in  front  of  their  village 
June  25,  and  during  the  following  night  the  entire  tribe  vacated 
their  village  and  crossed  the  river  into  Iowa.  The  next  day  the 
troops  entered  an  empty  village,  and  set  fire  to  and  destroyed 
most  of  the  lodges.  It  turned  out  that  the  purchaser  of  the  land 
under  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  Indian  village  was  Colonel  Daven- 
port, the  United  States  Indian  agent.  This  scandalous  and  dis- 
loyal act  infuriated  Black  Hawk  and  his  followers  to  such  a  de- 
gree that  they  contemplated  killing  him.  Black  Hawk,  in  his 
autobiography,  as  quoted  by  Smith,  says : 

We  concluded  that  if  we  were  removed  by  force,  the 
trader,  agent  and  others  must  be  the  cause,  and  that  if  they 
were  found  guilty  of  having  driven  us  from  our  village 
they  should  be  killed.  The  trader  stood  foremost  on  this 
list.  He  (Colonel  Davenport)  had  purchased  the  land  on 
which  my  lodge  stood,  and  that  of  our  graveyard  also.  We 
therefore  proposed  to  kill  him  and  the  agent,  the  interpre- 
ter, the  great  chief  at  St.  Louis,  the  war  chiefs  at  Forts 
Armstrong,  Rock  Island  and  Keokuk,  these  being  the  prin- 
cipal persons  to  blame  for  endeavoring  to  remove  us. 

On  June  30,  1831,  Governor  Reynolds  and  General  Gaines 
concluded  a  treaty  with  Black  Hawk  and  his  tribe  under  the 
terms  of  which  the  Indians  agreed  to  confirm  the  treaty  of 
1804  and  bound  themselves  not  to  cross  to  the  eastern  side  of 
the  Mississippi  except  by  permission  of  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment. This  treaty  was  undoubtedly  executed  by  the  Indians 
while  they  were  in  extremes  and  facing  starvation,  but  this  time 
they  knew  and  understood  its  terms.  Up  to  this  time  they  had 
used  no  weapons  or  taken  any  lives  in  defense  of  their  homes  and 
graves.  The  American  authorities  had  acted  ruthlessly  and 
by  the  display  of  overwhelming  force  had  compelled  the  Indians 
to  sign  a  treaty  which  forever  deprived  them  of  visiting  their 
old  home  or  crossing  the  great  river.     This  last  engagement 


328  ILLINOIS 

they  afterwards  broke  deliberately  and  openly  and  thus  violated 
the  terms  of  the  treaty. 

Why  were  they  so  rash  and  foolish  as  to  defy  a  great,  power- 
ful nation  and  within  the  territory  of  one  of  its  states  that  had 
a  population  of  over  160,000  when  the  fighting-  men  of  their 
tribe  did  not  exceed  500  warriors?  Pease  in  his  volume  of  the 
Centennial  History  gives  the  two  reasons:  Starvation  and  the 
desire  to  avenge  the  murder  of  eight  of  their  tribe  by  the  Me- 
nominee Indians.  Pease  uses  the  following  language  in  dis- 
cussing this  matter : 

The  Indians,  however,  had  left  their  growing  crops  in 
Illinois,  and  it  was  too  late  to  plant  anew  in  Iowa.  By 
autumn  they  were  out  of  provisions.  One  night  a  little 
company  of  their  young  men  crossed  the  river  to  steal  roast- 
ing ears  from  the  crops  they  had  left  on  their  old  lands. 
The  whites  fired  upon  them  and  complained  loudly  of  the 
double  offense  of  thieving  and  of  violating  the  treaty.  Much 
more  startling  was  the  daring  of  an  expedition  of  Foxes, 
who  went  up  the  Mississippi  to  avenge  upon  the  Menomi- 
nee warriors  the  murder  of  eight  Fox  chiefs  the  previous 
year.  They  fell  upon  a  party  of  twenty-eight  drunken 
braves  encamped  on  an  island  opposite  the  fort  at  Prairie 
du  Chien,  and  scalped  and  mutilated  the  whole  band.  This 
to  the  Indian  code  was  only  just  reprisal;  Black  Hawk  re- 
luctantly refused  to  deliver  up  any  of  his  band  for  trial, 
especially  since  so  much  demand  had  been  made  of  the  Me- 
nominee the  year  before. 

During  the  episode  famine  conditions  continued.  At 
the  invitation  of  the  Prophet,  Black  Hawk  determined  to 
cross  the  Mississippi  the  following  spring  and  raise  a  crop 
with  his  friends,  the  Winnebago.  He  had  a  childlike  con- 
viction that  so  long  as  he  showed  no  warlike  inclinations 
and  was  not  entering  his  old  village,  the  Government  would 
not  molest  him. 

In  April,  1832,  with  400  warriors  and  their  women  and 
children  and  personal  belongings,  Black  Hawk  crossed  the  Mis- 
sissippi River  in  full  view  of  Fort  Armstrong  and  started  up 
the  Rock  River  in  the  direction  of  his  friends,  the  Winnebago 
Indians.  Gen.  Henry  Atkinson,  then  stationed  at  Fort  Arm- 
strong, sent  an  express  agent  after  the  Indians,  ordering  them 


ILLINOIS  329 

to  return  to  Iowa.  Black  Hawk  answered  that  he  was  on  a 
peaceful  mission  to  plant  corn  and  secure  food,  and  refused  to 
return.  When  threatened  with  force  he  persisted  in  his  refusal. 
It  was  for  Black  Hawk  and  his  tribe  a  fateful  blunder  caused 
by  the  hungry  bellies  of  his  tribe  and  himself.  As  soon  as  it 
was  noised  abroad  that  Black  Hawk  and  his  tribe  were  back 
in  Illinois  and  foraging  along  the  Rock  River,  the  whole  state 
was  ablaze  with  excitement.  Notwithstanding  Black  Hawk's 
protestations  to  General  Atkinson  that  he  was  on  a  peaceful 
mission  to  procure  food  for  his  starving  people,  the  public  was 
convinced  that  the  Indians  were  again  on  the  war-path.  Atroci- 
ties on  both  sides  had  always  been  the  characteristics  of  former 
Indian  wars,  and  the  160,000  white  people  of  Illinois  almost 
unanimously  determined  that  Indian  warfares  must  come  to  an 
end  and  that  this  was  the  opportunity  of  making  this  Indian 
war  the  last  one. 

Governor  Reynolds  recalled  the  terms  of  the  treaty  that 
Black  Hawk  and  his  fellows  had  signed  only  the  June  preced- 
ing and  was  indignant  that  its  terms  should  be  so  flagrantly 
violated.  He  issued  an  impassioned  and  vigorous  call  for  troops 
and  within  thirty  days  1,600  volunteers  assembled  at  Beards- 
town.  They  elected  their  own  officers,  and  while  there  was 
much  fighting  spirit,  the  discipline  was  rather  loose.  Divided 
into  four  regiments,  a  spy  battalion  and  two  odd  battalions, 
they  marched  to  Fort  Armstrong  early  in  May,  and  General 
Atkinson  of  the  United  States  Army  at  that  point,  took  com- 
mand. General  Atkinson  then  placed  Gen.  Samuel  Whiteside 
in  command  of  the  recruits,  and  he  was  ordered  to  take  them 
fifty  miles  up  the  Rock  River  to  Prophetstown,  there  to  remain 
until  they  could  be  joined  by  ten  companies  of  United  States 
Infantry  from  Fort  Armstrong,  with  provisions.  When  these 
recruits  reached  Prophetstown  they  burnt  the  vacant  village,  by 
way  of  diversion,  and  then  marched  on  to  Dixon,  leaving  their 
baggage  and  provisions  behind  them  in  order  to  make  better 
time.  Here  they  found  two  other  independent  battalions  of 
mounted  volunteers  commanded  by  Maj.  Isaiah  Stillman,  full 
of  fight  and  thirsting  for  Indian  blood. 


330  ILLINOIS 

To  appease  their  sanguinary  desires,  Whiteside  detailed  Still- 
man  and  his  men  to  go  further  up  the  Rock  River  and  try  to 
find  the  whereabouts  of  Black  Hawk  and  his  warriors.  Still- 
man  and  his  men  started  off  with  great  enthusiasm  upon  this 
mission.  On  May  14  they  encamped  in  a  small  grove  entirely 
surrounded  by  an  open  prairie,  impossible  for  ambuscade.  Black 
Hawk  and  his  band  of  Indians,  with  their  women  and  children, 
were  only  a  few  miles  away.  The  chief  had  been  for  a  week 
in  conference  with  the  Winnebagoes  and  the  Prophet,  and  found 
he  could  not  secure  any  aid  or  assistance  from  them,  from  other 
Indians  or  from  his  former  English  friends.  Even  the  hospital- 
ity of  the  Winnebagoes  was  lukewarm.  He  began  to  fear  that 
his  own  people  would  soon  discover  that  he  could  get  no  assist- 
ance. They  were  on  the  verge  of  starvation  and  he  heard  the 
ominous  news  that  the  whites  were  gathering  in  huge  armed 
force  around  him.  In  this  dilemma,  he  pushed  on  to  Sycamore 
Creek  to  have  council  with  the  Pottawatomies.  Upon  the  advice 
of  Shabbona,  their  chief,  this  tribe  refused  him  relief,  even  re- 
fusing him  corn  for  his  starving  people.  After  this  last  ex- 
perience with  the  Pottawatomies  Black  Hawk  gave  up  all  hope 
of  aid  and  made  up  his  mind  to  surrender.  Stillman's  troops, 
he  learned,  were  but  eight  miles  away,  340  in  number.  Here 
was  a  chance  with  some  little  dignity  to  raise  the  white  flag  and 
save  his  band  from  death  by  starvation.  He  sent  three  young 
warriors  under  a  flag  of  truce  to  Stillman's  camp  to  arrange 
the  surrender.  Some  of  Stillman's  men  saw  the  three  Indians 
approaching  at  a  distance  of  a  mile  away.  Without  awaiting 
any  order  these  men  jumped  on  their  horses  and,  surrounding 
the  three  peaceful  Indians,  yelled  and  swore  like  madmen.  While 
the  Indians  were  explaining  to  them  their  peaceful  mission,  the 
soldiers  in  camp  saw  five  other  Indians,  nearly  a  mile  further 
away,  whom  Black  Hawk  had  sent  to  watch  the  treatment  ac- 
corded his  three  peace  messengers.  Twenty  other  soldiers  from 
the  camp  dashed  out  to  meet  the  Indians  and  these  twenty  were 
soon  followed  by  other  soldiers.  The  five  Indians,  seeing  that 
they  would  soon  be  surrounded  by  a  large  number  of  soldiers, 
turned  and  attempted  to  flee.  The  whites  fired  and  killed  two  of 
them,  and  when  the  soldiers  having  the  three  peace  messengers 


ILLINOIS  331 

in  charge  heard  the  shots  which  killed  the  two  fleeing  Indians, 
one  of  them  deliberately  shot  and  killed  in  cold  blood  one  of  the 
three  Indians  who  were  under  the  flag  of  truce.  The  other  two 
peace-seeking  Indians  then  took  to  their  heels  and  during  the 
excitement  in  the  camp  managed  to  escape.  It  would  seem  that 
there  was  little  or  no  discipline  in  the  camp,  and  each  soldier 
acted  upon  his  own  impulse,  which  eventually  brought  disgrace 
and  tragedy  both  to  officers  and  men. 

The  escaping  Indians  returned  to  Black  Hawk  and  reported 
to  him  the  infamous  treatment  accorded  to  the  three  Indians 
who  were  his  emissaries  under  the  flag  of  truce  and  the  death 
of  their  comrades.  They  were  followed  by  wild  and  disor- 
ganized bodies  of  the  Stillman  battalions  thirsting  for  more 
Indian  gore.  Black  Hawk,  when  informed  of  the  outrageous 
treatment,  was  first  amazed  and  then  infuriated.  He  had  only 
forty  warriors  accessible.  When  he  saw  the  mounted  American 
soldiers  approaching,  he  formed  his  forty  warriors  behind  some 
chaparral  and  ordered  his  men  to  sell  their  lives  as  dearly  as 
possible  in  avenging  the  deaths  of  their  peace-seeking  comrades. 
The  foremost  line  of  Stillman's  soldiers  was  hardly  upon  them 
when  Black  Hawk's  warriors  rushed  bravely  into  their  first 
rank  with  wild  yells  and  war-whoops,  firing  their  guns  with 
deadly  effect.  The  blood-thirsty  ardor  of  the  Stillmanites  was 
soon  chilled,  and  in  the  belief  that  the  whole  Indian  tribe  was 
after  them,  they  turned  tail  and  raced  madly  for  their  own  camp 
yelling,  "Injuns!  Injuns!"  So  rapid  and  inglorious  was  their 
retreat  that  the  great  body  of  them  outdistanced  the  Indians  and 
escaped  injury.  But  a  few  who  were  injured  fell  behind  and 
eleven  were  killed. 

The  affrighted  Stillmanites  did  not  stop  when  they  reached 
their  own  encampment,  but  raced  on  madly  to  Dixon.  During 
that  night  and  the  following  day  they  kept  streaming  into  Dixon 
with  Munchausen  tales  of  being  pursued  by  from  1,500  to  2,000 
Indians  under  the  fiendish  and  diabolical  control  of  Black  Hawk, 
and  of  the  terrific  slaughter  that  resulted.  Captain  Adams  and 
a  handful  of  men,  however,  made  a  brave  stand  and  fought 
until  killed.  The  total  loss  to  the  American  troops  was  eleven 
men  killed,  but  their  camp  was  captured  by  Black  Hawk's  men, 


332  ILLINOIS 

who  found  and  confiscated  a  badly-needed  lot  of  provisions,  as 
well  as  a  goodly  supply  of  blankets,  saddle-bags  and  other  camp 
equipment.  The  fight  was  promptly  and  facetiously  christened 
"Stillman's  Run"  by  Stillman's  contemporaries  and  this  name 
still  sticks  to  it  in  history. 

The  effect  of  this  skirmish,  for  it  was  nothing  else,  was 
prodigious.  Although  between  four  and  five  regiments  of  vol- 
unteers were  already  in  the  field,  together  with  ten  companies 
of  United  States  Regulars,  while  Black  Hawk  at  no  time  since 
he  crossed  the  Mississippi  had  500  warriors,  Governor  Reynolds 
immediately  issued  a  call  for  2,000  men.  This  was  found  to  be 
necessary,  as  many  of  the  soldiers  already  in  service,  disheart- 
ened by  Stillman's  escapade,  were  begging  for  discharge.  The 
officers  began  to  find  out  that  it  was  impossible  to  carry  on  an 
effective  campaign  with  unwilling  and  disheartened  militiamen. 
About  the  end  of  May  they  consented  to  their  being  mustered  out 
of  service.  Three  hundred  rangers,  however,  reenlisted  imme- 
diately. Their  victory  over  Stillman  had  an  altogether  different 
effect  upon  the  Indians.  They  filled  their  half -starved  stomachs 
with  the  provisions  they  had  found  in  Stillman's  camp  and  ap- 
propriated the  camp  equipment  to  their  warlike  needs.  Black 
Hawk  sent  out  scouting  parties  to  watch  the  movements  of  the 
soldiers  and  then  removed  the  women  and  children  to  the 
swampy  but  secure  retreats  around  the  head  of  the  Rock  River 
in  Wisconsin.  He  then,  with  his  unencumbered  warriors  and 
Indian  recruits  that  joined  him  from  the  Winnebago  and  Potta- 
watomie tribes,  left  Wisconsin  and  began  to  harass  Northern 
Illinois  with  guerrilla  warfare.  Irregular  border  warfare  was 
now  carried  on  by  the  Indians  and  whites  in  which  about  200 
white  men  lost  their  lives,  the  Indians  suffering  about  the  same 
number  of  deaths. 

Governor  Reynolds'  call  for  additional  troops  was  answered 
promptly.  Within  three  weeks  after  Stillman's  defeat,  3,200 
mounted  volunteers  took  the  field  under  command  of  General 
Atkinson.  Together  with  the  United  States  Regulars  the  full 
number  of  men  in  the  field  numbered  4,000.  The  Indians  num- 
bered about  400  and  were  without  a  commissariat.  After  con- 
suming the   provisions   found   in   Stillman's   camp,   they   were 


ILLINOIS  333 

compelled  to  live  on  the  bark  of  trees,  roots  and  horse-flesh. 
The  swamps  into  which  they  were  compelled  to  retire  for  tem- 
porary safety  furnished  them  neither  game  nor  fish.  When 
Atkinson  with  his  superior  forces  drove  them  into  the  head- 
waters of  the  Rock  River,  near  Lake  Koshkonong,  where  the 
women  and  children  had  been  left  for  safety,  Black  Hawk  was 
compelled  to  flee  still  further  to  the  north  and  west,  where  he 
hoped  to  cross  the  Mississippi  with  his  starving  band  into  Iowa. 
When  Atkinson's  army,  after  wading  this  trackless  marsh 
country  with  water  often  up  to  their  hips,  reached  Lake  Kash- 
konong,  they  found  a  deserted  camp  and  not  an  Indian  in  sight. 
The  soldiers  had  beeen  short-rationed  and  compelled  to  sleep 
on  their  arms  every  night  lest  they  be  ambushed.  Pursuing  a 
will-of-the-wisp  enemy  that  they  feared,  and  hated,  but  never 
could  see,  they  became  discouraged  and  dissatisfied.  Governor 
Reynolds,  who  had  accompanied  the  army  thus  far,  became  dis- 
gusted with  this  type  of  military  life  and  he  and  his  entire  staff 
returned  home.  Towards  the  end  of  July  Atkinson  found  his 
forces  reduced  to  one-half  of  their  original  number  and  fell  back 
from  his  pursuit  of  the  fleeing  Indians  to  Fort  Koshkonong.  He 
then  awaited  the  return  of  the  troops  under  Generals  Henry, 
Alexander  and  Dodge,  who  had  been  detached  to  Fort  Winne- 
bago to  secure  supplies.  While  Atkinson  with  the  main  army 
was  awaiting  the  arrival  of  these  troops,  Henry,  Alexander  and 
Dodge  discovered  that  Black  Hawk  and  his  famishing  tribe  were 
only  thirty-five  miles  away.  After  a  conference  they  all  agreed 
that  they  ought  to  disobey  the  order  requiring  them  to  return 
to  Fort  Koshkonong,  and  attack  the  Indians  directly  and  without 
the  orders  of  their  superior,  General  Atkinson.  Alexander,  upon 
consulting  his  inferior  officers  and  men,  found  that  they  would 
refuse  to  obey.  Henry  found  much  of  the  same  insubordination 
among  his  officers  and  men,  but  he  promptly  and  decisively 
quelled  the  mutiny,  and  with  General  Dodge  commenced  a  three- 
day  forced  march  against  Black  Hawk  through  the  swamps. 
They  soon  found  the  fresh  trail  of  the  fleeing  Indians  leading 
towards  the  Four  Lakes  and  the  Wisconsin  River.  Here  at 
last  they  had  found  the  elusive  enemy.  They  at  once  piled  their 
tents,  blankets  and  baggage  where  they  stood,  and  thus  unen- 


334  ILLINOIS 

cumbered  hastened  their  pace  until  they  were  within  two  or 
three  miles  of  the  Indians'  rear  guard.  Cooking  implements 
abandoned  by  the  Indians  and  finally  old  and  exhausted  Indians 
lying  helpless  on  the  ground  proved  to  them  that  the  Indians 
were  almost  within  gun-shot. 

By  July  21  the  Indians  had  reached  the  bluffs  near  the  Wis- 
consin River,  but  could  go  no  further  by  reason  of  their  extreme 
exhaustion.  To  protect  their  crossing  of  the  river  in  the  night- 
time, Black  Hawk  selected  a  picked  body  of  fifty  braves  to  make 
a  last  stand.  When  the  American  soldiers  finally  came  in  sight 
of  the  Indians  they  dismounted.  Leaving  the  horses  behind 
them  they  charged  the  Indian  line,  yelling  like  madmen.  The 
Indians  after  one  wild  counter-charge,  lay  on  the  ground  and 
fired  their  guns  again  and  again  from  this  position.  The  fight 
lasted  about  half  an  hour,  with  losses  about  even.  But  Black 
Hawk  had  achieved  his  aim.  Darkness  came  on  and  Henry 
feared  to  push  his  men  into  marshy  ground  in  the  dark.  During 
the  night  Black  Hawk  managed  to  transport  his  famished  war- 
riors and  their  wives  and  children  across  the  Wisconsin. 

In  this  engagement  the  Indians  had  sixty-eight  killed  and 
many  were  wounded.  The  American  forces  had  but  one  killed 
and  eight  wounded.  This  proves  the  immense  superiority  of 
the  American  forces  both  in  the  number  of  fighting  men  and 
in  armament  and  ammunition.  Black  Hawk  afterwards  de- 
clared that  he  would  not  have  fought  this  fight  if  it  had  not  been 
that  he  desired  time  to  get  his  women  and  children  across  the 
river.  Having  rescued  his  women  and  children,  Black  Hawk 
made  up  his  mind  that  "the  game  was  up,"  and  that  the  only  way 
that  he  could  save  the  remnant  of  his  starving  tribe  was  by 
unconditional  surrender.  On  the  following  day,  before  dawn,  he 
detailed  a  loud-voiced  warrior  to  announce  to  the  Americans 
that  his  tribe  was  starving,  that  his  warriors  were  unable  to 
fight  longer  and  to  ask  the  Americans  to  peacefully  plan  it,  so 
that  he  and  his  warriors  could  cross  the  Mississippi  and  cause 
no  more  trouble.  The  Indian  detailed  for  that  purpose  came 
within  sight  and  hearing  of  the  American  camp  and  made  the 
announcement  in  his  Indian  tongue.  Unfortunately,  however, 
the  interpreters  had  left  the  American  camp  the  night  before 


ILLINOIS  335 

and  no  one  in  camp  knew  what  the  Indian  brave  was  saying. 
That  he  was  offering  on  behalf  of  Black  Hawk  to  surrender 
was  not  known  until  after  the  fight  or  massacre  at  Bad  Axe. 
What  followed  here,  after  the  fight  at  Wisconsin  Heights,  must 
bring  a  flush  of  shame  to  the  cheeks  of  every  American  who 
reads  it. 

A  large  party  of  Black  Hawk's  tribe  that  he  succeeded  in 
transporting  across  the  Wisconsin  at  the  cost  of  the  lives  of 
sixty-eight  warriors,  consisting  of  old  men,  women  and  children, 
had  secured  from  the  Winnebagoes  some  canoes  and  rafts  and 
started  to  float  down  the  Wisconsin  to  the  Mississippi.  As  non- 
combatants  they  mistakenly  believed  that  they  would  be  safe 
from  attack.  All  civilized  people  refrain  from  so  doing.  At 
Blue  Mounds,  on  the  Wisconsin  River,  these  harmless,  defense- 
less refugees  were  attacked  by  United  States  Regulars  from 
Prairie  du  Chien,  thirty-two  women  and  children  were  captured, 
and  the  rest  of  the  party  were  killed  or  drowned  in  the  attack, 
or  scattered  to  die  in  the  woods  of  wounds  or  starvation.  Some 
of  those  that  escaped  into  the  woods  were  massacred  while  in  a 
dying  condition  by  Menominee  Indians  officered  by  white  men. 
I  regret  that  I  have  not  the  names  of  these  white  officers  so 
that  I  could  hand  them  down  to  historic  infamy. 

The  remainder  of  the  starving  tribe  of  Sac  who  had  crossed 
the  Wisconsin  River  were  not  able  to  procure  other  canoes  or 
rafts  and  started  overland  through  the  woods  and  swamps  to 
the  Mississippi.  Twenty-five  of  the  warriors  wounded  in  the 
Wisconsin  Heights  fight  died  on  the  way.  Some  traveled  on 
foot,  some  on  horseback  but  all  moving  slowly  in  their  impov- 
erished condition,  at  length  what  was  left  of  them  reached  the 
great  river.  Some  of  the  old  men  and  children  perished  on  the 
way.  On  the  afternoon  of  the  day  they  reached  the  Mississippi, 
the  steamboat  Warrior,  loaded  with  soldiers,  approached  the 
helpless  Indians  on  the  western  shore  of  the  river,  under  the 
command  of  John  Throckmorton.  Black  Hawk,  fearing  that 
more  of  his  band  would  be  massacred,  ordered  his  braves  not 
to  shoot.  He  then  raised  a  white  flag  and  called  out  in  the 
Winnebago  tongue  to  send  a  canoe  so  that  he  could  go  aboard 
the  steamer  and  surrender  himself.    The  message  was  delivered 


336  ILLINOIS 

and  translated  to  Throckmorton,  but  he  pretended  to  believe  it 
was  a  decoy  and  called  to  the  Indians  to  send  a  boat  aboard. 
The  Indians  had  no  boat  or  canoe  anywhere  accessible  and  told 
him  so.  Notwithstanding,  the  redoubtable  captain  opened  fire 
with  a  cannon  on  the  unfortunate  Indians,  killing  twenty-three 
and  wounding  many  more.  Lest  this  statement  be  regarded  as 
incredible  I  quote  Throckmorton's  own  language  made  in  his 
report  of  the  occurrence. 

The  captain,  under  date  of  August  3,  1832,  writes : 

After  about  fifteen  minutes  delay,  giving  them  time  to 
remove  a  few  of  their  women  and  children,  we  let  slip  a 
six-pounder,  loaded  with  canister,  followed  by  a  severe  fire 
of  musketry;  and  if  you  ever  saw  straight  blankets,  you 

would  have  seen  them  there We  fought  them  for 

about  an  hour  or  more  until  our  wood  began  to  fail 

This  little  fight  cost  them  twenty-three  killed,  and  of  course 
a  great  many  wounded.    We  never  lost  a  man. 

At  the  time  of  this  murderous  attack  of  Throckmorton  upon 
Black  Hawk  and  his  immediate  body-guard,  the  main  body  of 
the  retreating  tribe  had  not  yet  reached  the  banks  of  the  river, 
after  Black  Hawk  had  offered  to  surrender.  He  (Black 
Hawk)  and  the  small  body  of  warriors  with  him  were  at  the 
time  engaged  in  the  effort  to  transport  some  of  their  women 
and  children  across  the  river  into  Iowa.  The  remainder  of  the 
tribe,  sore-footed,  famished  and  weary,  were  approaching  the 
Mississippi. 

The  troops  under  Henry,  after  the  fight  at  Wisconsin 
Heights,  were  short  of  provisions  and  were  unable  to  follow  up 
their  success  in  pursuit  of  the  fleeing  Indians,  and  fell  back  to 
Blue  Mounds.  In  the  meantime  General  Atkinson  had  assem- 
bled the  United  States  Regulars  and  about  2,000  volunteers  at 
Blue  Mounds.  He  marched  these  troops  and  those  of  General 
Henry  to  Helena,  on  the  Wisconsin  River.  Crossing  the  Wis- 
consin at  this  point,  he  soon  found  the  trail  of  the  retreating 
Indians  and  ascertained  that  they  were  eating  birds  and  the 
bark  of  trees  and  the  flesh  of  their  ponies  that  had  died  on  the 
march.  Atkinson,  probably  because  he  was  jealous  of  Henry's 
success  in  finding  and  vanquishing  Black  Hawk  in  his  absence, 


Kellogg  Grove  Monument,  Black  Hawk  War 


338  ILLINOIS 

placed  Henry  and  his  troops  in  the  rear  of  the  pursuing  army, 
and  in  charge  of  the  baggage,  and  pressed  the  rest  of  his  troops 
forward  upon  the  Indian  trail  with  great  vigor. 

When  Atkinson  and  his  army  were  almost  upon  them,  the 
Indians  resorted  to  a  ruse.  Twenty  or  thirty  of  them  marched 
back  upon  the  trail  and  boldly  attacked  the  pursuing  troops 
with  instructions  to  retreat  promptly  after  the  first  atack 
towards  the  Mississippi,  but  towards  a  point  on  the  river  three 
miles  away  from  the  point  where  the  main  body  would  strike 
the  bank  of  the  river.  If  the  Atkinson  troops  followed  them, 
that  would  enable  the  rest  of  the  band  to  reach  and  cross  the 
river.  The  ruse  was  partially  successful.  The  troops  in  the 
vanguard  did  follow  the  retreating  Indians,  but  when  the  troops 
in  the  rear  under  Henry  came  up,  they  discovered  that  the 
main  trail  of  the  fleeing  Indians  led  in  a  somewhat  different 
direction.  Henry,  in  command  of  the  rear-guard  numbering 
300  men,  ordered  his  men  to  follow  the  main  trail  and  shortly 
thereafter  fell  upon  the  main  body.  In  this  body  there  were 
probably  300  warriors,  but  they  were  exhausted,  half  famished 
and  illy  supplied,  and  were  burdened  with  women  and  children. 
They  fought  desperately  but  without  avail.  Atkinson,  hearing 
the  noise  of  conflict  in  his  rear,  ordered  his  troops  to  the  scene 
of  battle.  About  the  same  time  the  steamboat  Warrior  again 
appeared  upon  the  scene  and  began  to  rake  the  islands  to  which 
some  of  the  Indians  had  fled,  with  canister. 

The  massacre  (for  such  it  was)  of  Bad  Axe  lasted  for  nearly 
three  hours  and  resulted  in  the  killing  of  150  Indians  and  the 
drowning  of  the  same  number  in  their  efforts  to  cross  the  river. 
Governor  Reynolds,  in  commenting  upon  this  affair  in  his  work 
My  Own  Times,  writes  as  follows:  "Many  of  the  Indians  at- 
tempted to  swim  the  river  and  were  shot  in  the  water.  Al- 
though the  warriors  fought  with  courage  and  valor  of  despera- 
tion, yet  the  conflict  resembled  more  a  carnage  than  a  regular 
battle.  It  is  supposed  that  150  Indians  were  killed  in  this  en- 
gagement and  many  drowned  in  attempting  to  swim  the  river. 
Fifty,  mostly  squaws  and  children,  were  taken  prisoners.  Some 
squaws  were  killed  by  mistake  in  battle.  They  were  mixed 
with  the  warriors  and  some  dressed  like  males.,,      (Reynolds' 


ILLINOIS  339 

My  Own  Times,  p.  265.)  The  American  loss  was  only  seven- 
teen killed  and  twelve  wounded.  Reynolds  writes  that  Black 
Hawk  commanded  and  was  with  the  twenty  Indians  who  threw 
Atkinson  off  the  main  trail.     (P.  264.) 

As  a  result  of  the  massacre  at  Bad  Axe,  the  Black  Hawk 
Sac  were  almost  completely  exterminated.  Probably  1,000,  in- 
cluding women  and  children,  crossed  from  Iowa  into  Illinois  a 
few  months  before  under  Black  Hawk's  leadership.  Before  or 
during  the  fight  at  Bad  Axe,  only  300  had  recrossed  the  river 
back  into  Iowa.  These  were  attacked  by  Sioux  Indians  by  direc- 
tion of  General  Atkinson  and  half  of  them  were  slain.  It  is 
reputed  that  August  2,  1832,  only  150  of  the  tribe  could  be 
found  alive,  and  most  of  these  must  have  been  women  and 
children. 

On  the  night  following  the  attack  from  the  steamboat  War- 
rior upon  Black  Hawk  and  his  body-guard,  the  old  chieftain  fled 
into  the  woods  just  east  of  the  scene  of  the  slaughter,  hoping 
to  find  refuge  with  the  Winnebagoes.  General  Street,  the  Indian 
agent,  detailed  two  Winnebago  Indians  to  follow  him,  take  him 
prisoner  and  return  with  him  to  Street,  at  Prairie  du  Chien. 
They  were  successful  in  their  quest  and  delivered  him  to  Gen- 
eral Street,  August  27,  1832.  He  was  taken  from  Prairie  du 
Chien  to  St.  Louis  and  kept  in  Jefferson  Barracks  during  the 
winter  of  1832-33.  He  was  afterwards  taken  to  Washington, 
D.  C.,  at  the  request  of  President  Jackson.  After  an  interview 
with  the  President  he  was  confined  for  a  short  time  in  Fortress 
Monroe  and  then  released  and  allowed  to  spend  the  last  few 
years  of  his  life  with  the  little  remnant  of  his  tribe  which  had 
survived  war,  famine  and  massacre.    He  died  October  3,  1838. 

While  the  so-called  Black  Hawk  war  was  in  progress,  Presi- 
dent Jackson  had  ordered  Gen.  Winfield  Scott  to  assemble  a 
body  of  United  States  Regulars  and  proceed  to  the  scene  of  the 
trouble.  Scott  left  Fort  Monroe  June  20  and  reached  Chicago 
July  10.  En  route  his  troops  were  attacked  by  an  acute  type  of 
Asiatic  cholera  from  which  300  died  before  he  reached  Chicago. 
On  arrival  there,  Fort  Dearborn  was  turned  into  a  hospital  and 
the  garrison  bivouacked  on  the  open  prairie.  Ninety  more  of 
his  troops  died  at  Fort  Dearborn,  the  epidemic  persisting  until 


340  ILLINOIS 

July  29.  On  that  day  General  Scott  left  Chicago  and  arrived 
at  Prairie  du  Chien  August  8  after  the  massacre  of  Bad  Axe. 
He  had  been  authorized  by  the  President,  in  association  with 
Governor  Reynolds,  to  secure  if  possible  a  treaty  with  the  Sac 
and  Fox  tribes  that  would  insure  permanent  peace. 

Upon  arrival  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  Scott  assumed  command 
of  all  the  forces,  both  regulars  and  militia ;  placed  the  few  regu- 
lars who  had  survived  the  ravages  of  the  deadly  cholera  while 
traveling  from  Detroit  to  Prairie  du  Chien  under  command 
of  Colonel  Eustis,  and  ordered  them  to  proceed  to  Fort  Arm- 
strong on  Rock  Island.  After  mustering  out  the  volunteers, 
Scott  repaired  to  Fort  Armstrong  and  ordered  all  the  Sac  and 
Fox  prisoners  to  meet  him  at  the  fort  for  conference  and  dis- 
cussion about  a  treaty.  At  this  juncture  the  cholera  again 
broke  out  amoung  the  troops  in  Fort  Armstrong,  resulting  in 
fifty  more  deaths  and  300  attacks.  This  compelled  him  to  dis- 
miss the  Indian  prisoners  with  orders  to  await  notice  of  further 
assembly.  On  September  21,  1832,  the  ravages  of  the  cholera 
having  finally  ceased,  the  Indians  were  again  assembled  and 
a  treaty  placed  before  them  for  signature.  It  was  of  course 
signed.  A  refusal  would  have  invited  extinction  or  life  im- 
prisonment for  the  captives.  Keokuk  and  eight  others  of  the 
Sac  represented  the  Sac  tribe  and  the  Fox  were  represented 
by  twenty-four  of  that  tribe.  General  Scott  and  Governor  Reyn- 
olds represented  the  United  States  Government.  It  should  be 
noted,  however,  that  in  this  treaty,  forced  as  it  was  upon  a 
defeated  and  decimated  band  of  Indians  by  an  overwhelmingly 
powerful  and  victorious  nation,  that  more  consideration  was 
shown  to  the  conquered  than  was  shown  to  them  by  the  Har- 
rison treaty  when  they  were  unconquered  in  1804.  At  the  sign- 
ing of  the  Harrison  treaty,  four  or  five  whiskey-soaked  war- 
riors were  wheedled  into  parting  with  50,000,000  acres  of  rich 
land  for  an  annuity  of  $1,000.  A  stricken  governmental  con- 
science in  the  breasts  of  General  Scott  and  Governor  Reynolds, 
or  a  deep  sympathy  with  the  Indians  in  their  misery,  or  a  desire 
on  the  part  of  Scott  and  Reynolds  to  undo  some  of  the  injustices 
of  the  past,  induced  the  American  commissioners  to  allow  the 
Sac  and  Fox  to  retain  a  reservation  of  400  square  miles  to  be 


ILLINOIS  341 

set  aside  for  them  by  the  President,  and  secured  to  the  tribes 
an  annual  annuity  of  $20,000  a  year  for  thirty  years.  The  treaty 
further  provided  that  the  Indians  should  receive  forty  kegs  of 
tobacco  and  forty  barrels  of  salt  annually  for  thirty  years,  to 
pay  $40,000  of  their  debts  and  a  large  amount  of  provisions  to 
relieve  their  urgent  poverty.  There  is  quite  a  contrast  betiveen 
these  provisions  in  favor  of  the  Indians,  and  that  provision  in 
the  Harrison  treaty  of  180 %  which  gave  them  $1,000  a  year  for 
50,000,000  acres  of  land. 

A  gigantic  statue  of  Black  Hawk  and  not  of  General  Atkin- 
son, nor  any  other  American  warrior,  now  overlooks  with  steady 
but  sorrowful  gaze  the  beautiful  Valley  of  the  Rock  River,  the 
lost  home  of  his  people.  It  was  erected  by  patriotic  Americans 
whose  love  of  country  did  not  forbid  them  to  sympathize  with 
the  sufferings  of  rashly  brave  men  who  died  in  what  they  be- 
lieved was  a  righteous  defense  of  their  homes  and  the  graves 
of  their  ancestors.  Black  Hawk  was  a  brave,  high-souled,  in- 
telligent man  who  was  resentful  of  injuries  done  him  and  his 
people,  but  he  lacked  both  tact  and  judgment.  After  he  and 
his  tribe  had  signed  the  treaty  of  June  30,  1831,  under  the  terms 
of  which  they  retired  across  the  Mississippi  to  Iowa  and  bound 
themselves  to  remain  there,  they  acted  in  a  most  foolhardy 
manner  in  breaking  the  treaty  and  recrossing  into  Illinois  in 
the  following  year.  It  is  probably  true  that  his  people  were 
starving  in  Iowa.  But  when  Black  Hawk  and  500  warriors 
and  1,500  women  and  children  recrossed  the  river  from  Iowa 
into  Illinois  in  April,  1832,  their  former  cornfields  had  been  in 
possession  of  the  "squatters"  and  preemptors  during  the  Winter 
of  1831-32  and  no  food  could  have  been  found  on  these  fields. 
Black  Hawk  knew  that  the  crossing  of  the  river  and  violation 
of  the  treaty  would  compel  him  and  his  500  warriors  to  face 
the  armed  forces  of  a  nation  of  15,000,000  of  white  men  and 
that  such  a  conflict  would  be  suicidal.  He  lacked  the  tact  and 
discretion  of  Keokuk.  Instead  of  surrendering  himself  and  his 
starving  people  to  the  United  States  authorities  in  Iowa,  or  at 
Fort  Armstrong,  and  throwing  upon  them  the  responsibility  of 
starvation  and  famine,  he  provoked  an  inevitable  conflict  which 
could  have  but  one  end.    But  it  must  be  remembered  in  excuse 


342  ILLINOIS 

of  Black  Hawk  that  in  1832  there  was  no  telegraph  or  railroad 
by  which  he  could  have  reached  the  ear  of  the  President  at 
Washington  or  Governor  Reynolds  in  the  State  Capitol.  His 
former  treatment  by  the  United  States  agents  at  Fort  Arm- 
strong was  such  that  he  may  have  had  no  confidence  in  the 
humanity  or  sense  of  justice  in  that  quarter.  Whatever  may 
have  been  his  lack  of  tact  or  good  judgment,  it  was  not  so 
nearly  worthy  of  criticism  as  the  scandalously  unfair  treatment 
that  the  United  States  authorities  accorded  to  him  and  his  tribe 
in  and  before  the  year  1831. 

The  Black  Hawk  war  gave  an  opportunity  to  a  large  num- 
ber of  young  men  to  make  their  first  appearance  in  the  public 
life  of  the  nation.  It  was  the  first  stepping-stone  towards  future 
greatness  for  an  extraordinary  number  of  brilliant  young  men 
who  afterwards  loomed  large  in  the  history  of  the  United  States. 
Some  of  them  were  privates  in  the  ranks  of  the  volunteers  and 
some  of  them  young  lieutenants  in  the  Regular  Army  fresh  from 
West  Point.  Among  them  were  two  who  were  afterward  elected 
Presidents  of  the  United  States,  Zachary  Taylor  and  Abraham 
Lincoln ;  one  who  was  afterwards  elected  president  of  the  South- 
ern Confederacy  during  the  Civil  war,  Jefferson  Davis ;  one  who 
was  then  governor  of  Illinois,  John  Reynolds;  five  who  after- 
wards became  governors  of  the  same  state,  Thomas  Ford, 
Thomas  Carlin,  William  L.  D.  Ewing,  Joseph  Duncan  and  John 
Wood ;  four  who  afterwards  became  United  States  senators  from 
Illinois,  Sidney  Breese,  0.  H.  Browning,  James  Semple  and 
William  L.  D.  Ewing;  and  several  who  became  successful  and 
distinguished  generals  in  the  United  States  Army,  among  them 
John  A.  Logan,  John  A.  McClernand  and  Winfield  S.  Scott.  Two 
Confederate  generals  in  the  Civil  war,  Albert  Sidney  Johnston 
and  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  were  also  among  the  young  men  who 
participated  in  the  Black  Hawk  war.  Among  others  who  vol- 
unteered in  this  war  and  afterwards  rose  to  distinction  were 
Peter  Cartwright,  a  great  camp-meeting  preacher ;  Gen.  Samuel 
Whiteside;  Henry  Atkinson;  John  Raum,  father  of  Green  B. 
Raum  and  John  M.  Raum,  United  States  generals  in  the  Civil 
war;  Henry  Eddy,  of  Shawneetown;  Harrison  Wilson;  Murray 
McConnell,  and  Adam  W.  Snyder,  whose  death  after  his  nom- 


ILLINOIS  343 

ination  alone  prevented  his  election  as  governor  of  Illinois; 
Gordon  Hubbard;  Zadoc  Casey  and  John  T.  Stuart,  law  part- 
ner of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Abraham  Lincoln  volunteered  as  a 
private  and  was  afterwards  elected  captain  of  his  company  in 
the  Black  Hawk  war. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 
ADMINISTRATION  OF  JOSEPH  DUNCAN  AS  GOVERNOR 

In  December,  1834,  Joseph  Duncan  was  inducted  into  office 
as  governor  of  Illinois.  He  had  for  a  number  of  years  been 
a  member  of  Congress  from  Illinois  and  was  the  first  man  in 
Illinois  to  succeed  in  beating  Daniel  Pope  Cook  at  the  polls. 
During  his  incumbency  in  the  office  of  congressman  he  was 
always  aligned  with  Jeffersonian  Democracy,  although  during 
the  last  two  years  of  same  he  had  shown  some  independence  in 
casting  his  votes  in  Congress,  occasionally  voting  contrary  to 
Jackson's  measures. 

Nonetheless,  he  claimed  to  be  a  Jacksonian  Democrat,  ex- 
plaining that  where  he  had  voted  contrary  to  the  Jackson  pro- 
gram, Jackson  and  not  he,  Duncan,  had  changed  his  position. 
He  was  opposed  by  W.  C.  Kinney,  the  perennially  unsuccessful 
candidate  for  governor.  During  the  campaign  Duncan  remained 
in  his  seat  at  Washington  and  thus  escaped  the  heckling  and 
questioning  that  he  might  have  encountered  if  he  were  per- 
sonally on  the  stump  in  Illinois.  Kinney  was  no  more  successful 
against  Duncan  than  he  was  against  John  Reynolds  four  years 
before.  Duncan  was  elected  with  the  help  of  Whig  votes,  and 
in  his  inaugural  message  he  disclosed  his  Whig  proclivities  and 
advocated  measures  that  Jacksonian  Democrats  regarded  as 
political  heresies.  He  favored  the  establishment  of  state  banks 
in  which  the  state  would  be  financially  interested.  Only  four 
years  before,  the  people  had  seen  the  collapse  of  a  state  bank, 
leaving  a  state  debt  of  $100,000,  and  the  Legislature  was  not 
ready  to  renew  the  experiment.  Enough  members,  however, 
were  found  to  speak  in  favor  of  the  governor's  scheme  to  open 
the  subject  for  discussion,  and  work  was  energetically  com- 
menced to  convince  the  opponents  and  doubters. 

344 


Governor  1834 

(Courtesy  Illinois  State  Historical  Library.) 


346  ILLINOIS 

Ford,  in  his  History  of  Illinois,  gives  a  very  vivid  account 
of  the  log-rolling  and  reprehensible  methods  pursued  to  obtain 
votes  for  the  establishment  of  the  banks.     (Pp.  170  to  175,  in- 
clusive.)     The  final  result  of  these  efforts  was  the  enactment 
of  a  law  creating  a  banking  corporation  with  a  capital  of  $1,500,- 
000,  with  the  privilege  of  increasing  the  capital  to  $2,500,000. 
The  state  received  $100,000  worth  of  the  stock  for  its  own  in- 
vestment.   The  same  Legislature  at  about  the  same  time  revived 
the  old  charter  of  the  Shawneetown  bank,  which  had  ceased  to 
do  business  twelve  years  before.    Governor  Ford,  in  his  history 
of  Illinois   (pp.  171  and  172)   states  that  the  bill  creating  the 
state  bank  passed  the  lower  house  by  a  majority  of  one  vote 
and  that  one  of  the  votes  was  obtained  by  promising  the  caster 
of  the  vote  an  appointment  as  state's  attorney.    The  head  office 
of  the  state  bank  created  by  this  act  was  located  at  Springfield 
and  branches  were  established  at  Alton,  Chicago,  Galena,  Jack- 
sonville and  Vandalia.     The  charter,  in  the  effort  to  make  the 
state  bank  one  to  be  controlled  by  residents  of  Illinois,  gave 
a  preference  in  subscribing  for  stock  to  residents  of  Illinois 
and  required  with  the  subscription  for  each  share  of  stock  a 
deposit  of  five  dollars.     Immediately  coteries  of  scheming  cap- 
italists, according  to  Ford,  were  organized  to  secure  a  majority 
of  stockholders  and  obtain  control  of  this  bank.     Among  these 
capitalists  were  Theophilus  W.  Smith,  then  one  of  the  judges 
of  the  Supreme  Court;  John  Tilson,  Jr.,  Thomas  Mather,  God- 
frey Gilman  &  Company  of  Alton,  and  Samuel  Wiggins.    Some 
of  these  men  had  obtained  large  sums  of  money  from  New 
York  and  Connecticut  for  use  as  subscriptions  in  the  state  bank. 
As  preference  under  the  charter  was  given  to  residents  of  Illi- 
nois and  to  small  subscribers,  these  capitalists,  or  some  of  them, 
secured  the  names  of  residents  of  Illinois,  subscribed  in  their 
names  for  the  stock  and  obtained  powers  of  attorney  from  all 
such  subscribers  authorizing  the  payment  for  the  same  and 
assignments  of  all  their  right  as  subscribers  to  these  capitalists. 
By  using  these  instruments  and  other  devious  methods,  five 
men,  with  the  connivance  of  the  commission  appointed  to  or- 
ganize the  bank,  succeeded  in  having  thirty-nine  shares  more 
than  one-half  of  the  total  subscriptions  assigned  to  them.   These 


ILLINOIS  347 

five  were  Tilson,  Mather,  Wiggins  and  the  members  of  God- 
frey Gilman  &  Company.  The  state  bank  so  organized  went  into 
operation  in  1835  under  the  presidency  of  Mather  and  a  board 
of  directors  controlled  by  the  syndicate  of  five.  Godfrey  Gilman 
&  Company  were  prominent  merchants  at  Alton,  heavily  inter- 
ested in  the  lead  mines  of  Galena,  who  controlled  enough  of  the 
stock  to  elect  a  majority  of  the  board  of  nine  directors.  The 
stock  was  over-subscribed  and  for  a  time  was  quoted  at  113  on 
the  dollar.  The  Whigs  were  in  complete  control,  although  a 
few  Democrats  were  appointed  officials  for  appearance  sake. 
At  and  before  the  creation  of  the  bank  there  was  great  rivalry 
between  Alton  and  St.  Louis.  Godfrey  Gilman  &  Company  were 
heavy  backers  of  Alton  and  the  most  influential  merchants  of 
that  city.  The  great  ambition  of  that  firm  was  to  control  at 
Alton  the  great  commerce  in  lead,  most  of  which  had  been  going 
from  Galena  to  St.  Louis.  Having  control  of  the  new  state 
bank,  this  firm  succeeded  in  negotiating  a  loan  of  $800,000,  with 
which  it  attempted  to  corner  the  lead  market.  For  a  time  the 
price  of  lead  increased  enormously,  but  within  a  few  months 
the  corner  collapsed  and  the  firm  found  itself  insolvent  and 
$1,000,000  was  lost  to  the  new  state  bank.  Governor  Reynolds 
declares :  "The  bank  must  have  lost  by  all  its  Alton  operators 
nearly  $1,000,000,  and  was  nearly  insolvent  before  the  second 
year  of  its  existence,  though  the  fact  was  unknown  to  the 
people."  (P.  178.)  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  this 
state  bank,  although  its  final  collapse  occurred  later  on. 

Governor  Duncan  was  more  responsible  than  any  other  man 
for  this  and  another  disastrous  banking  law.  Although  the  crea- 
tion of  a  state  bank  was  not  an  issue  at  the  time  of  his  election, 
he,  without  any  authority  from  the  electorate,  raised  the  ques- 
tion, in  his  inaugural  message  and  in  1835  advised  the  purchase 
by  the  state  of  $100,000  worth  of  the  reserved  stock.  Under 
his  administration  again  in  1837  the  Legislature  increased  the 
capital  stock  of  the  bank  by  $2,000,000,  the  whole  of  which  was 
to  be  subscribed  for  by  the  state.  During  his  administration 
in  1835  the  old  Shawneetown  Bank,  which  had  been  dead  for 
years,  was  resuscitated  with  a  capital  of  $300,000,  and  in  1837 
this  capital  was  increased  by  $1,400,000,  of  which  $1,000,000 


M 


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Governor  1834-38 

(Courtesy  Illinois  State  Historical  Library.) 


ILLINOIS  349 

was  to  be  subscribed  for  by  the  state.  As  a  result  of  this  rash 
and  reckless  legislation,  partially  inspired  by  Governor  Duncan 
and  wholly  authorized  by  him,  the  State  of  Illinois  became  the 
owner  of  more  than  $3,000,000  worth  of  stock  out  of  a  total  of 
$5,200,000  in  two  insolvent  and  ill-managed  banks  under  the 
control  of  private  capitalists  who  deliberately  looted  one  of  them 
in  private  speculation  of  a  gambling  character.  These  ill-advised 
and  misconceived  laws  creating  these  banks,  and  the  wild  and 
visionary  laws  for  general  public  improvements  which  were 
forced  upon  the  Legislature  during  Governor  Duncan's  admin- 
istration by  public  hysteria,  brought  the  State  of  Illinois  to  the 
verge  of  bankruptcy  within  six  or  eight  years.  It  is  best  de- 
scribed and  summarized  by  Governor  Ford  in  his  history,  p.  278, 
where  he  describes  the  situation  in  1842  as  follows : 

To  sum  up,  then,  this  was  the  condition  of  the  state 
when  I  came  into  office  as  governor.  The  domestic  treas- 
ury of  the  state  was  indebted  for  the  ordinary  expenses 
of  government  to  the  amount  of  about  $313,000.  Auditor's 
warrants  on  the  treasury  were  selling  at  fifty  per  cent; 
discount,  and  there  was  no  money  in  the  treasury  what- 
ever ;  not  even  to  pay  postage  on  letters.  The  annual  reve- 
nues applicable  to  the  payment  of  ordinary  expenses, 
amounted  to  about  $130,000.  The  treasury  was  bank- 
rupt; the  revenues  were  insufficient;  the  people  were  un- 
able and  unwilling  to  pay  high  taxes;  and  the  state  had 
borrowed  itself  out  of  all  credit.  A  debt  of  near  fourteen 
millions  of  dollars  had  been  contracted  for  the  canal,  rail- 
roads and  other  purposes.  The  currency  of  the  state  had 
been  annihilated ;  there  was  not  over  two  or  three  hundred 
thousand  dollars  in  good  money  in  the  pockets  of  the  whole 
people,  which  occasioned  a  general  inability  to  pay  taxes. 
The  whole  people  were  indebted  to  the  merchants;  nearly 
all  of  whom  were  indebted  to  the  banks,  or  to  foreign  mer- 
chants; and  the  banks  owed  everybody;  and  none  were 
able  to  pay. 

Governor  Duncan  was  not  chargeable  with  the  demand  for 
general  public  improvements.  That  element  was  well  nigh  uni- 
versal. But  the  demand  for  state  banks  founded  principally 
on  state  credit,  but  controlled  by  private  capitalists,  did  not 
originate  with  the  people.     To  add  to  the  misfortunes  of  the 


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ILLINOIS  351 

banks  and  the  state,  the  panic  of  1837  now  appeared.  In  May, 
the  two  banks  suspended  payments.  Governor  Duncan  called 
a  special  session  of  the  Legislature  to  legalize  the  suspension  and 
prevent  the  forfeiture  of  the  state  bank's  charter.  Subsequent 
thereto,  the  Legislature  proceeded  to  do  so  with  certain  limita- 
tions. It  limited  the  amount  of  notes  which  the  bank  might 
issue  to  the  amount  of  capital  actually  paid  in,  and  prohibited 
dividends  until  the  bank  resumed  payments. 

In  the  meantime  the  state  bank  had  sought  to  be  made  a 
depository  of  the  United  States.  The  secretary  of  the  treasury, 
a  Democrat,  finding  it  to  be  controlled  by  his  political  enemies, 
the  Whigs,  and  that  they  were  hostile  to  the  party  in  power  at 
Washington,  refused  to  make  it  such  a  depository.  The  loans 
to  Godfrey  Gilman  &  Company,  and  other  acts  of  mismanage- 
ment, were  being  whispered  about  and  the  Democrats  in  and 
out  of  office  began  to  declaim  about  its  management  and  even 
to  demand  the  revocation  of  its  charter.  Governor  Carlin,  in 
1839,  denounced  the  bank  for  suspending  payments  and  asked 
the  Legislature  to  appoint  a  committee  of  investigation.  This 
committee  was  appointed  and  found  a  sorry  state  of  affairs  in 
the  bank.  It  discovered  that  Wiggins,  one  of  the  directors,  had 
borrowed  from  the  bank  on  his  stock,  which  was  unpaid  for; 
that  the  Chicago  branch  had  through  its  cashier  loaned  large 
sums  to  pork  speculators  and  was  denying  accommodations  to 
others.  It  also  discovered  the  scandalous  loans  made  by  the 
bank  in  Alton.  Governor  Carlin,  in  1842,  recommended  the 
repeal  of  the  bank  charter. 

During  Governor  Duncan's  term  of  office  occurred  the  shame- 
ful and  unjustifiable  killing  of  Elijah  P.  Lovejoy  in  the  streets 
of  Alton  by  a  mob  that  was  seeking  to  destroy  his  property,  a 
newspaper  press  then  stored  in  a  warehouse.  Lovejoy  was  a 
high-minded  Presbyterian  minister,  chivalrous  and  determined 
in  character.  He  was  ardently  and  pugnaciously  a  foe  of  human 
slavery  in  any  form.  He  believed  it  was  a  crime  against  both 
God  and  man  and  had  no  hesitation  in  saying  so  and  printing 
it  in  his  religious  paper.  Driven  from  St.  Louis  where  he  had 
been  publishing  his  paper,  by  the  violence  of  pro-slavery  senti- 
ment in  the  State  of  Missouri,  he  came  to  Illinois  because  it  was 


352  ILLINOIS 

a  free-soil  state  and  started  to  publish  his  anti-slavery  paper  at 
Alton.  Because  of  the  so-called  "abolition"  statements  expressed 
in  his  paper,  his  press  was  seized  and  destroyed  by  mobs  on 
three  different  occasions.  Undaunted  by  these  manifestations 
of  violent  disapproval,  he,  with  the  assistance  of  friends,  se- 
cured a  fourth  press  and  had  it  safely  stored  in  a  warehouse  at 
Alton.  He  and  his  friends  armed  themselves  to  prevent  its 
destruction.  A  mob  gathered  in  front  of  the  warehouse  in 
which  the  press  was  stored  and  in  which  Lovejoy  and  his  friends 
were  all  well  armed.  The  mob  attempted  to  set  fire  to  the  ware- 
house. A  shot  from  the  warehouse  killed  a  man  in  the  street. 
The  mob  became  furious  and  again  attempted  to  set  fire  to  the 
building.  To  prevent  this,  Lovejoy  and  two  companions  with 
arms  came  out  of  the  warehouse  and  fired  into  the  mob.  While 
so  doing,  Lovejoy  was  shot  and  killed  and  his  two  companions 
were  bady  wounded  by  fire  from  the  mob. 

This  shocking  affair  created  a  sensation  throughout  the 
entire  nation,  and  intensified  the  bitterness  which  had  long  ex- 
isted between  the  enemies  of  slavery  and  the  defenders  of  the 
same.  That  Lovejoy  had  the  legal  right  to  denounce  slavery 
and  defend  his  property  cannot  be  questioned.  Aye,  he  had  the 
legal  right  to  advocate  "abolition,"  unpopular  though  it  was 
at  that  time  and  at  that  place.  So  unpopular  was  Lovejoy  at 
Alton  that  as  Smith  declares  in  his  history:  "As  the  hearse" 
(containing  the  body  of  Lovejoy)  "passed  through  the  streets 
it  was  met  by  the  hisses  and  scoffs  of  the  men  who  were  loafing 
about  the  streets.  There  was  no  inquest  and  no  funeral."  (P. 
184,  Vol.  II.)  Yet  unpopular  as  was  the  name  of  Lovejoy  at 
Alton  in  1837,  it  became  one  idolized  throughout  the  state  and 
nation  within  a  few  short  years  thereafter.  Lovejoy,  dead,  ac- 
complished much  more  for  the  cause  of  human  freedom  than 
Lovejoy  living.  The  "blood  of  the  martyr  is  the  seed"  for  his 
cause.  The  echo  of  the  shot  that  killed  him  rang  'round  the 
world.  Love  joy's  death  and  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe's  Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin  were  the  first  skirmish-line  shots  in  the  great  Civil 
war  of  1861. 

Much  of  the  enmity  towards  and  unpopularity  of  Lovejoy 
locally  around  Alton  arose  not  from  his  opposition  to  slavery, 


ILLINOIS  353 

for  there  were  many  of  that  view  in  the  community.  Much  of 
it  developed  because  he  failed  to  keep  his  pledges  as  to  the 
public,  his  insistence  upon  abolishing  slavery  by  confiscatory 
methods,  and  unjust  and  vituperative  attacks  upon  all  who  did 
not  agree  with  him.  He  unjustly  and  untruthfully  assailed 
Christian  men  and  women  who  did  not  belong  to  his  own  sect 
of  Christians,  and  by  both  tongue  and  pen  in  matters  outside  of 
the  controversy  about  slavery  displayed  a  bitterness  and  fanati- 
cism unworthy  of  a  Christian  minister  of  the  Gospel.  How- 
ever, while  his  loss  of  local  popularity  may  be  traced  to  these 
sources,  his  loss  of  life  was  caused  by  one  cause  alone,  his  heroic 
defense  of  the  right  of  free  speech  and  a  free  press.  In  his 
brave  assertion  of  the  right  to  champion  the  cause  of  human 
liberty,  he  gave  up  his  life  as  cheerfully  and  as  gallantly  as  did 
Robert  Emmett  or  John  Brown. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 

SPRINGFIELD    BECOMES    THE    STATE    CAPITAL    AND 
LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS  APPEAR  IN  PUBLIC  LIFE 

In  the  year  1837,  Andrew  Jackson  then  being  President  of 
the  United  States  and  Joseph  Duncan  governor  of  Illinois,  the 
City  of  Springfield  was  selected  by  the  Legislature  as  the  per- 
manent capital  of  the  State  of  Illinois;  and  two  young  men 
appeared  on  the  political  horizon  as  members  of  the  Legislature 
of  1836-37  whose  names  were  to  become  famous,  not  only 
through  the  state  and  nation,  but  throughout  the  civilized  world 
— Abraham  Lincoln  and  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  The  former  was 
to  be  hailed  afterwards  as  the  "Great  Emancipator"  of  over 
3,000,000  human  beings,  then  held  in  the  bondage  of  slavery, 
the  savior  of  a  nation  threatened  with  annihilation  by  the  most 
formidable  rebellion  in  history,  and  the  greatest  martyr  to 
human  liberty  on  the  rolls  of  time.  The  latter  was  to  leave  a 
name  not  so  imperishable  in  achievement  as  that  of  Lincoln, 
but  still  a  glorious  one,  that  of  having  devoted  his  life  to  a 
strenuous,  continuous  and  nobly  patriotic  struggle,  to  prevent 
the  dismemberment  of  his  native  land  and  standing  nobly  behind 
his  political  rival  when  rebellion  raised  its  grizzly  head,  and 
seconding  every  effort  made  by  his  political  antagonist  to  con- 
quer treason  and  save  his  country. 

Laying  aside  for  the  present  the  consideration  of  their  great 
futures,  let  us  endeavor  to  visualize  the  two  men,  their  charac- 
ters and  surroundings  as  they  appeared  in  1836  when  they 
were  both  young  members  of  the  same  Legislature — the  one  a 
Whig,  the  other  a  Democrat.  Both  were  ambitious  young  law- 
yers of  limited  practice.  A  five-dollar  retainer  would  have  se- 
cured the  service  of  either  of  them  in  any  honest,  decent  litiga- 
tion.    They  were  alike  in  many  particulars.     Both  were  born 

354 


ILLINOIS  355 

outside  of  Illinois,  one  in  Kentucky,  the  other  in  Vermont.  They 
were  both  poor,  both  ambitious,  both  good  debaters.  Both  had 
already  given  evidence  that  they  were  to  become  leaders  of 
their  respective  political  parties.  Both  quickly  arrived  at  those 
positions  of  leadership.  Physically  and  temperamentally  they 
differed.  Lincoln  was  tall,  angular,  very  homely,  with  a  sad  and 
melancholy  face  when  in  repose,  self-conscious  and  awkward, 
particularly  when  in  the  presence  of  women.  In  conversation 
or  debate  he  was  far-seeing,  argumentative,  logical  and  quite 
frequently  humorous.  His  early  life  was  shockingly  poverty- 
stricken  and  was  sustained  for  years  only  by  the  coarsest  man- 
ual labor.  He  had  little  or  no  schooling,  and  what  education  he 
acquired  was  self-taught  and  self-obtained  by  gluttonous  reading. 
Douglas  in  stature  was  short  and  thick-set.  He  was  bright- 
faced  and  rather  good-looking.  His  manner  was  jovial,  im- 
pulsive and  optimistic.  He  was  a  ready  talker  and  very  elo- 
quent. His  first  appearance  in  Illinois  was  at  Jacksonville  in 
1833,  from  which  place  he  walked  to  Winchester  to  take  a  job 
as  clerk.  He  then  taught  a  private  school  for  forty  dollars  a 
month,  studied  law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1834.  Lin- 
coln and  Douglas  met  each  other  in  the  practice  of  the  law  and 
were  friendly  to  each  other.  When  they  met  as  fellow-members 
of  the  same  Legislature  in  1836,  there  were  two  widely  an- 
tagonistic parties  in  national  politics,  the  Whigs  and  the  Demo- 
crats. The  Whigs  were  led  by  Abraham  Lincoln,  John  T.  Stuart, 
Ninian  Edwards,  John  J.  Harding,  Jesse  DuBois  and  0.  H. 
Browning.  The  Democratic  leaders  were  Stephen  A.  Douglas, 
W.  L.  D.  Ewing,  James  Shields,  Ebenezer  Peck,  John  C.  Cal- 
houn and  William  Thomas.  By  1840  Lincoln  was  easily  recog- 
nized as  head  chief  of  the  one  and  Douglas  the  high  priest  of 
the  other. 

In  1839  the  presidential  election  of  the  following  year  was 
approaching.  The  administration  of  President  Van  Buren  was 
being  assailed  by  the  Whigs  and  was  being  defended  by  the 
Democrats.  A  friendly  debate  was  arranged  that  year  by  the 
Whigs  and  Democrats,  in  which  both  Douglas  and  Lincoln  en- 
gaged, in  the  first  of  the  many  debates  which  were  held  between 
these  two  great  men.    This  was  the  first  vigorous  contest  which 


Where  Lincoln  Clerked — Old  New  Salem 


ILLINOIS  357 

the  Democratic  party  had  to  face  since  the  election  of  Jefferson. 
It  lost  in  the  nation,  but  the  Democrats  carried  Illinois  for  Van 
Buren. 

Before  the  year  1837  the  state  was  wildly  agitated  on  the 
subject  of  making  public  improvements,  such  as  railroads  and 
canals  by  appropriations,  or  the  issuance  of  state  bonds.  San- 
gamon County  at  that  time,  by  virtue  of  an  apportionment  law 
passed  in  1835,  had  nine  representatives  in  the  Legislature,  two 
in  the  Senate  and  seven  in  the  House.  These  representatives, 
all  of  them  Whigs,  were  instructed  by  their  constituents  in 
Sangamon  County  to  "vote  for  a  general  system  of  local  improve- 
ments" and  "to  bring  to  Springfield  the  capital  of  the  state." 
The  persistency,  sagacity  and  loyalty  which  they  displayed 
towards  their  constituents,  and  the  remarkable  success  which 
crowned  their  efforts,  entitle  them  to  have  their  names  recorded 
at  length  in  any  history  of  Illinois.  The  names  of  these  gentle- 
men were  as  follows:  Senators  Job  Fletcher  and  Archer  G. 
Herndon  and  Representatives  Abraham  Lincoln,  W.  F.  Elkin, 
Ninian  Edwards,  Robert  L.  Wilson,  John  Dawson,  Andrew 
McCormick  and  Dan  Stone.  They  were  nearly  all  tall  men, 
the  average  being  six  feet.  Because  of  their  height  they  were 
dubbed  by  their  legislative  comrades  "The  Long  Nine,"  which 
name  has  stuck  to  them  historically. 

The  location  of  the  state  capital  at  Vandalia  was  understood 
to  be  terminated  in  1840.  Alton  had  been  favored  for  the  state 
capital  by  public  referendum  a  short  time  before,  but  its  citizens 
had  been  carried  away  during  the  craze  for  the  building  of 
railroads  with  state  money  from  that  aim,  and  had  a  glorious 
vision  of  their  city  being  made  the  terminal  for  several  railroads 
from  the  East  which  would  make  Alton  a  greater  city  than  St. 
Louis.  The  "Long  Nine"  adroitly  assured  the  Altonites  that 
their  dreams  of  a  future  railway  center  should  come  true.  They 
promised  to  vote  for  Alton  as  a  railroad  center  if  Alton  would 
vote  for  Springfield  as  state  capital.  Inasmuch  as  they  had  been 
instructed  to  vote  for  "a  general  system  of  local  improvements" 
and  "bring  the  capital  to  Springfield,"  the  "Long  Nine"  felt 
in  duty  bound  to  be  as  generous  with  their  promises  of  support 
of  favors  to  other  localities  in  the  state  upon  the  same  terms 


358  ILLINOIS 

that  they  made  with  Alton.  Chicago,  Ottawa,  LaSalle,  Joliet 
and  Peoria  wanted  support  for  the  canal  connecting  them  with 
Lake  Michigan,  then  under  construction.  Cairo  and  Galena 
wanted  a  railroad  connecting  these  two  cities.  Mount  Carmel 
wanted  a  railroad  connecting  it  with  Alton.  Peoria  wanted  a 
railroad  to  Warsaw,  Belleville  wanted  one  connecting  it  with 
Mount  Carmel  and  Bloomington  wanted  another.  The  counties 
lying  along  the  Wabash,  Illinois  and  Rock  rivers  wanted 
improved  navigation  on  all  these  streams.  Even  those  counties 
that  had  no  rivers  or  places  for  railroads  wanted  cash  for  wagon 
roads.  The  "Long  Nine"  talked  to  all  of  them.  They  were 
instructed  to  vote  for  "a  system  of  general  improvements." 
These  demands  for  canals,  railroads  and  wagon  roads,  evidenced 
a  general  system  of  demands  for  such  improvements.  The 
"Long  Nine"  decided  to  be  as  genial  and  accommodating  with 
the  other  citizens  of  the  state  as  they  were  with  the  Altonites. 
They  would  vote  for  appropriations,  or  the  issue  of  state  bonds 
to  carry  out  the  wishes  of  these  different  communities  of  the 
state,  if  the  representatives  of  these  communities  would  do 
the  decent  thing  and  make  the  charming  and  hospitable  City 
of  Springfield  the  permanent  capital  of  the  state.  The  able 
and  adroit  "Long  Nine"  found  it  easy  to  make  such  admirable 
bargains  with  the  representatives  in  the  Legislature  of  these 
cities  and  localities  of  the  state  along  the  line  of  voting  for  "a 
general  system  of  local  improvements"  and  "making  Springfield 
the  capital."  The  "Long  Nine"  and  the  representatives  of  all 
these  localities  and  interests  found  little  trouble  in  getting 
together,  the  result  of  which  fraternal  feeling  was  the  passage 
of  two  important,  far-reaching  laws. 

The  first  of  these  laws  was  one  which  in  substance  provided 
for  the  issuance  of  state  bonds  for  the  making  of  "a  general 
system  of  public  improvements"  as  follows: 

For  Construction  of  railroad  from  Galena  to 

Cairo  to  cost $  3,500,000 

For  Northern  Cross  Railroad  through  Spring- 
field      1,800,000 

For  Alton  &  Mount  Carmel  Railway 1,600,000 


ILLINOIS  359 

For  Peoria  &  Warsaw  Railway 700,000 

For  Branch  of  Central  Road  to  Terre  Haute  650,000 

For  Bloomington  &  Mackinac  Railway 350,000 

For  Belleville  &  Mount  Carmel  Railway 150,000 

For  Improvement  of  Navigation  Wabash,  Illi- 
nois and  Rock  Rivers 300,000 

For  Improvement  of  Little  Wabash  and  Kas- 

kaskia  Rivers — 100,000 

For  Counties  Having  No  Rivers  and  No  Pro- 
posed Railways  for  Their  Wagon  Roads 

and  Bridges 200,000 


$10,200,000 

The  other  law  was  the  law  to  make  Springfield  the  state 
capital. 

The  members  of  the  "Long  Nine"  were  all  Whigs,  but  it 
must  not  be  concluded  from  their  success  that  this  extraor- 
dinarily generous  disposal  of  the  state's  money  or  credit  was 
due  to  the  Whigs  alone.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  votes  for 
the  general  improvement  act  came  from  Democrats  as  well  as 
Whigs.  The  demand  for  public  improvements  had  swept  the 
state  like  a  contagious  epidemic.  Canals  were  being  built  in 
the  eastern  states.  Railroads  were  projected  and  some  actually 
constructed  in  the  old  states.  A  great  convention  had  been 
called  by  the  people  to  meet  at  Vandalia  a  few  days  before 
the  commencement  of  the  session  of  the  Legislature.  It  had 
passed,  enthusiastically,  resolutions  demanding  that  the  Legis- 
lature enact  laws  which  would  bring  about  the  digging  of  canals, 
and  the  building  of  railroads,  and  other  improvements  through- 
out the  state.  The  great  majority  of  the  people  believed  that 
the  state  could,  and  should,  be  gridironed  with  railroads  and 
canals,  and  that  the  state  and  all  its  inhabitants  would  be 
enriched  thereby.  The  resolutions  passed  by  the  public  improve- 
ment convention  were  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  man  friendly 
to  their  cause,  young  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  a  Democratic  leader, 
who  presented  their  plans  to  the  Legislature.  A  lobbying  com- 
mittee was  appointed  by  the  convention  to  argue  with  the  mem- 


360  ILLINOIS 

bers  of  the  Legislature  and  keep  track  of  their  votes.  Under 
such  pressure,  with  the  great  majority  of  the  people  known 
to  favor  the  project,  the  passage  of  some  form  of  legislation 
providing  for  such  improvement  was  inevitable.  The  only  ques- 
tion left  for  determination  was  as  whether  the  improvements 
contemplated  should  be  made  by  private  persons  or  corporations, 
or  by  the  state;  whether  by  private  capital  or  by  the  credit 
of  the  state.  The  bill  as  drawn  by  the  convention  and  as  pre- 
sented by  Douglas  called  for  the  expenditure  of  $7,450,000  in 
making  the  improvements,  the  money  to  be  borrowed  by  the 
issuance  of  state  bonds  to  be  sold  at  par.  Some  few  members 
were  opposed  to  the  measure  as  adopted,  but  they  were  unor- 
ganized, and  when  they  occasioned  a  delay  in  the  passage  of 
the  bill  it  resulted  in  an  increase  in  the  amount  involved. 

The  governor  and  his  advisory  council  vetoed  the  bill,  but 
the  Legislature  promptly  passed  the  bill  over  the  veto.  Only 
the  year  before,  the  Legislature  had  granted  charters  to  private 
companies  authorizing  the  building  of  railroads  in  the  state, 
but  as  nothing  had  been  done  under  these  charters,  the  Legis- 
lature must  have  concluded  that  if  they  relied  upon  private 
capital  for  building  the  improvements,  the  delay  would  be  vexa- 
tious and  unsatisfactory.  The  law  making  appropriations  for 
general  public  improvements  turned  out,  however,  to  be  only 
"a  noble  experiment"  which  was  soon  found  to  be  both  unwork- 
able and  expensive.  Within  five  years  the  grandiose  improve- 
ments contemplated  by  the  act  had  to  be  abandoned  when  the 
state  had  become  possibly  indebted  to  the  amount  of  $15,657,950 
and  had  little  or  nothing  to  show  for  it  except  the  Illinois  and 
Michigan  Canal,  which  alone  of  all  the  proposed  improvements 
turned  out  to  be  feasible,  practical  and  an  asset  to  the  state. 

It  is  a  matter  of  interest  to  remember  in  this  connection 
that  both  Lincoln  and  Douglas  at  the  beginning  of  their  political 
careers,  impelled  by  popular  demand  and  with  the  best  of 
motives,  were  mainly  instrumental  in  having  a  law  passed  that 
they  believed  was  a  "noble  experiment"  but  which  afterwards 
proved  to  be  disastrous  to  public  interests.  When  Governor 
Duncan  was  installed  in  December,  1834,  the  state  was  indebted 
only  to  the  amount  of  $217,276.     As  the  result  of  the  general 


ILLINOIS  361 

system  of  public  improvements  law  passed  over  his  veto  the 
state  was  actually  indebted  in  December,  1838,  when  he  retired 
and  Governor  Carlin  was  inaugurated,  in  the  sum  of  $6,688,784, 
itemized  as  follows: 

Bonds  Exchange  for  Bank  Stock __  $2,665,000 

Bonds  for  Internal  Improvements 2,204,000 

Bonds  for  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal 1,000,000 

Borrowed  from  School  &  Seminary  Fund 719,784 

Wiggins  Loan 100,000 

Grand  Total $6,688,784 

Needless  to  say  the  "Long  Nine"  was  successful  in  securing 
a  winning  majority  vote  for  Springfield  as  the  state  capital. 
Springfield  won  handsomely  and  today  still  remains  the  capital 
of  the  State  of  Illinois. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 
THE  ILLINOIS  AND  MICHIGAN  CANAL 

The  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal  has  played  so  continuous 
and  so  important  a  part  in  the  history  of  the  state  as  to  become 
entitled  to  a  separate  and  distinct  chapter  in  any  history  of 
Illinois. 

The  first  white  men  that  we  have  any  authentic  history  of 
that  floated  on  the  Illinois,  Desplaines  and  Chicago  rivers  were 
Pere  Marquette  and  Louis  Joliet.  Paddling  up  the  Illinois  from 
the  Mississippi  in  1673  they  entered  the  Desplaines,  and,  fol- 
lowing the  course  of  that  river,  came  to  what  in  modern  times 
was  called  Mud  Lake,  a  slough  which  in  springtime  floods  gave 
water  connection  between  the  Desplaines  and  the  south  branch 
of  the  Chicago  River.  The  Indians  had  used  it  as  a  portage 
between  Lake  Michigan  and  the  Illinois  River  from  time 
immemorial.  It  was  the  shortest  and  most  natural  water-course 
to  take,  as  they  were  headed  for  the  missionary  camp  and 
French  trading  post  on  Green  Bay,  whence  they  had  started 
out  on  their  voyage  of  discovery,  and  they  had  with  them  Indian 
guides  from  Kaskaskia  on  the  Illinois  River  to  guide  them  over 
waters  navigable  for  canoes  and  portages  between  streams. 

The  value  and  importance  of  every  portage  which  is  the 
shortest  cut  between  two  navigable  waters  was  known  to  every 
trained  French  explorer  and  particularly  to  so  highly  experienced 
an  explorer  as  Joliet.  That  he  and  Marquette  crossed  the 
portage  at  Mud  Lake  between  the  Desplaines  River  and  the 
south  branch  of  the  Chicago  River  cannot  be  doubted.  Mar- 
quette's own  written  statement  on  the  matter  is  exceedingly 
brief,  but  inferentially  it  amply  sustains  the  contention  that 
he  and  Joliet  passed  then  what  is  now  Chicago  on  their  return 
from  the  Mississippi. 

362 


- 


Chicago  in  1831 — Showing  Fort  Dearborn 


364  ILLINOIS 

"We  found  there  (on  the  Illinois  River)  an  Illinois  town 
called  Kaskaskia,  composed  of  seventy-four  cabins ;  they  received 
us  well,  and  compelled  me  to  promise  to  return  and  instruct 
them.  One  of  the  chiefs  of  this  tribe  with  his  young  men, 
escorted  us  to  the  Illinois  lake  (either  Mud  Lake  or  Lake 
Michigan)  whence  at  last  we  returned  in  the  close  of  September 
to  the  bay  of  the  Fetid  (Green  Bay)  whence  we  had  set  out 
in  the  beginning  of  June."  (From  Thwaites'  Jesuit  Relations, 
Vol.  59.)  If  by  the  "Illinois  Lake"  he  meant  Mud  Lake,  he 
must  have  crossed  Mud  Lake  to  get  to  Lake  Michigan,  as  they 
were  traveling  in  canoes  and  this  was  the  only  portage  from 
the  Desplaines  to  the  Chicago  River  and  Lake  Michigan. 

That  Joliet  and  Marquette  reported  to  Governor  Frontenac 
the  existence  of  the  portage  between  the  Fox  and  Wisconsin 
rivers  in  Wisconsin  and  between  the  Desplaines  and  Chicago 
rivers  at  Chicago,  and  its  adaptability  for  a  canal  cannot  be 
doubted.  All  of  Joliet's  notes  and  maps  were  lost  by  the  upset- 
ting of  his  canoe,  but  he  afterwards  drew  a  map  from  memory 
and  his  letter  to  Frontenac  declares :  "I  have  the  happiness  today 
to  present  you  with  this  map  which  gives  the  position  of  the 
lakes  which  one  had  to  cross  to  reach  Canada  or  North  America, 
which  extends  over  1,200  leagues  from  East  to  West."  That 
on  this  map  he  failed  to  make  the  course  of  his  voyage  of  dis- 
covery including  the  rivers  and  portages  is  incredible.  Indeed 
he  is  quoted  by  some  writers  as  having  declared  in  1674  that 
"it  would  only  be  necessary  to  make  a  canal  by  cutting  through 
a  half  a  league  of  prairie." 

From  the  very  earliest  times  the  importance  of  this  portage 
or  slight  elevation  of  land  about  six  miles  west  of  the  courthouse 
in  Chicago,  which  divides  the  basin  of  the  St.  Lawrence  from 
the  Mississippi  basin,  has  been  recognized  and  noted.  Its  slight 
elevation  and  the  ease  with  which  a  canal  could  be  dug  connecting 
Lake  Michigan  and  the  Mississippi  have  been  commented  upon 
by  every  writer  and  statesman  anyway  familiar  with  the  North- 
west. The  existence  of  that  portage  or  slight  elevation  of 
ground  so  near  to  Lake  Michigan  caused  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  at  the  instigation  of  Nathaniel  Pope,  to  move 
the  northern  boundary  of  Illinois  fifty-one  miles  further  north 


ILLINOIS  365 

than  originally  designed  in  order  to  place  the  building  of  a 
great  canal  between  Lake  Michigan  and  the  Illinois  River  within 
the  boundary  of  one  state,  the  State  of  Illinois.  Joliet  was 
impressed  with  its  value,  as  was  the  great  LaSalle.  All  travelers 
and  missionaries  were  quick  to  see  the  need  in  the  future  of  a 
canal  connecting  Lake  Michigan  with  the  headwaters  of  the 
Illinois. 

In  1811,  before  Illinois  became  a  state,  a  bill  was  introduced 
in  Congress  asking  for  the  construction  of  such  a  canal.  In 
1812  its  value  as  a  means  for  national  defense  was  pointed  out. 
In  1814  President  Madison,  in  a  message  to  Congress,  called 
attention  to  the  subject,  and  a  committee  was  appointed  to 
investigate  and  it  reported  that  it  was  "a  great  work  of  the 
age"  both  for  military  and  commercial  purposes.  In  1816  Gov- 
ernor Edwards,  William  Clark  and  Auguste  Chouteau,  on  behalf 
of  the  United  States,  secured  a  treaty  from  the  Pottawatomies, 
Chippewas  and  Ottawas,  under  the  terms  of  which  these  tribes 
ceded  to  the  United  States  a  tract  of  land  including  Chicago 
and  a  strip  of  land  connecting  Lake  Michigan  with  the  Illinois 
River,  upon  the  understanding  with  the  Indians  that  the  strip 
would  be  utilized  for  the  building  of  a  canal  which  would  be 
of  great  value  to  the  Indians  as  well  as  the  whites.  In  1817 
Major  Long  reported  to  Congress  that  "a  canal  uniting  the 
waters  of  the  Illinois  River  with  those  of  Lake  Michigan  may 
be  considered  the  first  of  importance  of  any  in  this  quarter 
of  the  country,  and  the  construction  would  be  attended  with 
very  little  expense  compared  with  the  magnitude  of  the  object." 

In  1819  Calhoun,  Secretary  of  War,  directed  the  attention 
of  Congress  to  the  proposed  canal  and  its  importance  for  military 
purposes.  The  first  governor  of  Illinois,  Shadrach  Bond,  in  his 
first  message  to  the  first  Legislature,  recommended  the  building 
of  such  a  canal,  and  nearly  every  governor  of  the  state  has 
favored  and  recommended  the  building  of  some  character  of  a 
canal  connecting  the  same  bodies  of  water  or  the  greater  devel- 
opment of  the  same.  In  1822  Congress  made  a  grant  of  land 
to  the  state  for  the  purpose  of  building  such  a  canal,  the  grant 
being  ninety  feet  in  width  on  each  side  of  the  proposed  canal. 
In  1822-23  the  Legislature  passed  a  law  providing  for  the  ap- 


366  ILLINOIS 

pointment  of  commissioners  to  make  estimates  and  report  in 
reference  to  the  building  of  the  canal. 

Five  men,  Emanuel  J.  West,  Thomas  Sloo,  Erastus  Brown, 
Samuel  Alexander  and  Theophilus  W.  Smith,  were  appointed 
commissioners,  and  hired  two  engineers,  Justin  Post  and  Rene 
Paul,  who  made  preliminary  surveys,  and  reported  that  the  canal 
would  not  cost  to  exceed  $700,000.  In  1824  the  Legislature 
chartered  a  corporation  called  the  "Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal 
Association"  which  was  empowered  to  dig  the  canal.  The  capital 
stock  of  the  corporation  was  $1,000,000.  The  charter  provided 
that  "all  cessions,  grants  and  transfers  made  or  that  may  here- 
after be  made,  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States  for  the 
purpose  of  promoting  the  completion  of  the  canal,  shall  and 
vest  in  said  corporation/' 

Congressman  Daniel  Pope  Cook  was  quick  to  see  that  with 
such  a  selfish  and  unconscionable  charter  in  existence,  Congress 
would  be  exceedingly  wary  about  making  any  other  grants  or 
giving  any  more  assistance  in  the  way  of  bringing  about  the 
completion  of  the  canal.  For  the  public  good,  Congress  would 
be  liberal,  but  for  private  gain  it  would  be  exceedingly  slow  to 
act  favorably.  He  demanded  the  revocation  of  the  charter  in 
1825.  His  demand  was  acceeded  to  and  the  charter  was  annulled. 
In  1827  Cook,  ably  assisted  by  the  United  States  Senators  from 
Illinois,  Elias  Kent  Kane  and  Jesse  B.  Thomas,  secured  from 
Congress  a  grant  of  land  to  the  State  of  Illinois  "for  the  purpose 
of  aiding  her  in  opening  a  canal  to  connect  the  waters  of  the 
Illinois  River  with  those  of  Lake  Michigan."  The  grant  covered 
224,322  acres  in  a  strip  ten  miles  wide  between  Ottawa  and 
Chicago,  each  alternate  section  being  granted  to  the  state.  This 
land  was  authorized  to  be  sold  and  the  proceeds  used  for  the 
construction  of  the  canal. 

In  1826  another  board  of  canal  commissioners  was  appointed, 
composed  of  three  members,  Dr.  Gershon  Jayne,  Edward  Roberts 
and  Charles  Dunn.  They  ordered  a  different  survey,  by  a  new 
engineer,  James  M.  Bucklin,  who  reported  that  the  cost  of 
construction  would  be  much  greater  than  the  former  estimate. 
In  1829  another  act  was  passed  giving  the  commission  more 
ample  powers  in  supervising  the  sales  of  land  along  the  proposed 


ILLINOIS  367 

waterway.  Under  the  powers  given  the  commission  under  this 
later  act,  the  commission  laid  out  the  towns  of  Ottawa  and 
Chicago,  at  each  end  of  the  proposed  canal.  Bucklin's  estimate 
of  the  cost  of  the  canal  was  $4,043,386.  Somewhat  later,  at  the 
request  of  persons  interested,  he  reported  the  cost  of  building 
a  railroad  between  Chicago  and  Ottawa  to  be  $1,052,488.  This 
question  of  building  a  railroad  instead  of  a  canal  between  the 
two  towns  was  being  seriously  considered  and  a  movement 
started  for  that  purpose.  Congress  was  petitioned  to  permit 
the  state  to  substitute  the  railway  for  the  canal  and  an  act 
authorizing  the  same  was  passed  by  Congress  March  2,  1833. 
Both  schemes  had  their  supporters  and  the  matter  halted  until 
1835  when  the  governor  was  authorized  to  borrow  $5,000,000, 
by  mortgaging  the  canal  lands.  Attempts  to  float  this  loan 
were  unsuccessful.  Money-loaners,  evidently,  had  doubts  as  to 
the  value  of  these  lands.  Ex-Governor  Coles,  who  had  been 
commissioned  by  the  canal  commissioners  to  negotiate  such  a 
loan  reported  that  he  could  not  obtain  such  a  loan  in  Philadelphia 
because  the  full  credit  of  the  state  was  not  pledged  to  pay  the 
proposed  loan. 

In  January,  1836,  the  full  credit  of  the  state  was  pledged 
by  the  Legislature  to  pay  the  bonds  given  for  the  loan.  Bonds 
were  issued  and  accepted,  and  the  loan  was  secured.  The  people 
along  the  line  of  the  proposed  canal  were  immensely  pleased, 
particularly  in  Chicago,  then  rapidly  growing  in  population 
and  importance,  and  on  July  4,  1836,  formal  commencement 
of  construction  was  celebrated  with  much  ceremony  in  that  city, 
at  which  Dr.  William  B.  Egan,  a  prominent  citizen  of  Chicago, 
delivered  an  excellent  congratulatory  address.  A  new  board  of 
canal  commissioners  was  created  to  work  under  the  direction 
of  the  governor,  which  was  required  to  make  reports  every  three 
months,  and  work  was  actually  commenced  in  digging  the  canal. 
A  sale  of  canal  lots  and  bonds  was  had  June  30,  1836,  both 
at  Chicago  and  Ottawa,  and  lots  were  sold  for  large  sums  of 
money.  It  took  twelve  years  to  completely  construct  and  fully 
equip  the  canal,  work  commencing  in  1836  and  being  finished 
in  1848.  The  operation  of  the  canal  by  state  commissioners 
commenced  in  the  latter  year  and  proved  both  useful  and  profit- 


368  ILLINOIS 

able.  By  1870  the  profits  under  state  ownership  and  operation 
enabled  the  state  to  pay  off  the  whole  cost  of  $8,000,000,  and 
retain  ownership  clear  of  all  liens. 

The  canal,  however,  was  constructed  at  a  time  when  all 
canals  were  operated  by  animal  power,  was  built  with  that  power 
in  contemplation,  and  was  so  operated  by  the  state.  The  depth 
and  width  of  the  canal  and  its  locks  and  banks  were  made  to 
accommodate  animal  power  only.  The  use  of  electricity  for 
transportation  was  then  unknown  and  not  even  remotely  con- 
ceived until  the  twentieth  century.  The  use  of  steam  power 
was  in  its  infancy  and  not  applied  to  canals.  It  was  the  belief 
that  if  such  power  were  attempted  that  the  agitation  of  the 
waters  of  the  canal  by  paddlewheels  on  the  side  or  rear  of  the 
boats  would  erode  and  destroy  the  banks  of  the  stream.  Steam- 
power  on  canals  was  unknown  and  unused  at  the  time  of  the 
building  of  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal. 

Before  1870,  however,  it  had  become  known  that  the  canal 
operated  as  it  was  by  animal  power  could  not  continue  to  be 
operated  at  a  profit  in  competition  with  the  railroads.  These 
latter  were  building  and  operating  heavier  and  more  powerful 
locomotives  and  longer  trains  of  cars  at  much  reduced  operating 
costs.  The  laborer  with  the  scythe  cannot  compete  with  the 
reaping  and  binding  harvester  propelled  by  the  tractor,  or  the 
old-fashioned  housewife's  needle  with  the  sewing-machines  of 
modern  times.  What  to  do  with  the  old-fashioned  animal-ope- 
rated canal  began  to  be  discussed  by  politicians  and  people  in 
1868,  when  it  was  known  that  the  old  canal  had  outlived  its 
day  and  age  and  would  soon  become  unremunerative.  It  had 
paid  for  itself  and  owed  the  state  nothing.  In  fact  it  was  the 
only  one  of  the  grandiose  projects  provided  for  in  the  "general 
system  of  internal  public  improvements"  in  the  Legislature  in 
1836  and  1837  which  proved  practical  and  which  was  carried 
out  and  utilized  by  the  people. 

In  1867  the  Legislature  passed  a  resolution  calling  for  a 
popular  vote  on  the  question  of  holding  a  constitutional  con- 
vention. Pursuant  to  a  small  but  favorable  popular  majority, 
delegates  to  the  constitution  were  elected  and  assembled  Decem- 
ber 13,  1869,  and  framed  a  new  constitution  which  was  approved 


ILLINOIS  369 

by  the  people  in  1870  and  which  is  still  the  constitution  of  the 
state.  In  that  convention  arose  the  question  as  to  what  should 
be  done  with  the  old  canal,  which  would  soon  become  unremu- 
nerative.  The  members  from  the  southern  part  of  the  state 
were  in  favor  of  selling  the  canal  and  placing  the  proceeds  of 
the  sale  into  the  public  treasury,  while  the  delegates  from  Chi- 
cago and  the  northern  part  of  the  state  strenuously  opposed  the 
same.  The  canal  had  first  been  suggested  by  the  French  explorers 
and  missionaries,  had  been  favored  and  fostered  by  the  Federal 
government,  and  had  been  advocated  by  every  governor  from 
Bond  to  Duncan.  No  territorial  or  local  jealously  would  have 
developed  if  the  other  general  improvements  legislation  in  1836- 
37  had  been  carried  out.  The  canal  was  the  only  one  of  the  con- 
templated "general  improvements"  that  was  carried  out,  and 
it  was  successful. 

The  canal  as  constructed  extended  nearly  100  miles  from 
Lake  Michigan  into  the  interior  of  the  state.  It  had  developed 
prosperous  towns  and  cities  along  its  course.  Over  it  for  twenty 
years  millions  of  dollars  worth  of  wheat,  oats,  corn,  butter  and 
other  farm  products  had  been  floated  into  Chicago  and  the 
manufactured  articles  made  in  that  city  were  carried  into  Cen- 
tral and  Southern  Illinois.  All  the  towns  and  cities  along  the 
canal  and  river  were  prosperous  and  growing  in  size  and  impor- 
tance. The  delegates  from  the  southern  counties  viewed  the 
canal,  as  a  good  thing  for  Chicago  and  the  waterway  cities  and 
towns,  but  as  of  no  use  or  benefit  to  them.  The  credit  of  the 
whole  state  had  been  used  to  build  the  canal  and  it  belonged 
to  the  whole  people  of  the  state  and  not  to  Chicago  and  environs, 
they  argued.  They  demanded  that  the  canal  be  sold  and  its 
proceeds  be  placed  in  the  public  treasury,  so  that  the  southern 
people  of  the  state  could  share  with  the  northern  people  the 
proceeds  of  the  sale.  The  northern  people  retorted  that  the 
sale  of  the  canal  was  inspired  by  the  railroads,  to  cut  off  com- 
petition and  enable  them  to  raise  freight  rates. 

The  issue  thus  framed  in  the  constitutional  convention  was 
referred  to  the  committee  on  canals  and  canal  lands,  which 
wisely  found  a  compromise  and  reported  a  provision  which  was 


370  ILLINOIS 

adopted  by  the  convention.     The  provision  is  now  a  part  of 
the  constitution  of  1870  and  reads  as  follows : 

The  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal  ....  shall  never  be 
sold  or  leased  until  the  specific  proposition  for  the  sale  or 
lease  thereof  shall  first  have  been  submitted  to  a  vote  of 
the  people  of  the  state  at  a  general  election  and  have  been 
approved  by  a  majority  of  all  the  votes  polled  at  such 
election.  The  General  Assembly  shall  never  loan  the  credit 
of  the  state  or  make  any  appropriations  from  the  treasury 
thereof,  in  aid  of  railroads  or  canals;  provided,  that  any 
surplus  earnings  of  any  canal  may  be  appropriated  for  its 
enlargement  or  extension. 

Soon  after  the  adoption  of  the  new  constitution  in  1870, 
the  old  fossilized  canal  built  between  1836  and  1848  for  operation 
by  animal  power  and  small  canal  boats  of  a  size  capable  of  being 
pulled  by  horses  or  mules  was  found  to  be  antiquated  and  unre- 
munerative.  It  is  as  useless  today  for  a  commercial  canal  as 
the  domestic  spinning-wheel  of  a  century  ago.  The  only  use 
to  which  it  is  now  put,  is  to  allow  small  launches  and  pleasure 
craft  of  light  draft  to  ply  between  the  Illinois  River  and  the 
Sanitary  District  Canal  and  its  locks  are  opened  and  shut  for 
this  purpose.  Its  right  of  way  between  Chicago  and  Joliet  is 
valuable  and  it  has  been  suggested  that  this  right  of  way  might 
be  used  for  double-decked  highways  between  these  cities  when 
it  can  be  reconstructed  for  that  purpose. 

A  demand  for  an  adequate,  up-to-date,  modern  canal  began 
to  develop  shortly  after  the  old  canal  was  found  to  be  obsolete. 
Proper  facilities  for  the  carrying  of  commerce  between  the 
Great  Lakes  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  have  always  been  demanded 
by  an  intelligent  public  and  will  be  reiterated  until  such  facilities 
are  furnished  and  in  operation. 

During  the  '70s  and  '80s  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  canal 
was  practically  abandoned  for  commercial  purposes,  because 
of  its  obsolete  character  and  was  derisively  dubbed  "the  tadpole 
ditch."  Agitation  developed  during  these  decades  for  the  build- 
ing of  a  canal  of  such  size  and  equipment  as  would  be  adapted 
to,  and  capable  of,  caring  for  the  commerce  of  the  twentieth 
century  and  all  future  developments  in  the  Mississippi  Valley. 


Present  Building  on  Site  of  Old  Palisade  Fort,  Galena 

The  foundation  being  part   of  the   original   construction.     • 


372  ILLINOIS 

The  vision  of  Joliet,  of  Nathaniel  Pope  and  of  the  many  great 
statesmen  of  state  and  nation  during  the  past,  of  an  enormous 
water  commerce  between  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  across  the  State  of  Illinois,  had  not  faded  from  the 
intelligent  minds  of  the  statesmen  and  people  of  Illinois.  There 
was  an  incessant  and  growing  demand  among  manufacturers 
and  merchants  for  the  building  of  such  a  canal  to  accommodate 
such  a  commerce.  The  disposal  of  the  sewage  of  the  great 
City  of  Chicago  and  its  environs,  whose  population  had  enor- 
mously increased  and  was  continuing  to  increase  by  leaps  and 
bounds,  was  also  demanding  the  attention  of  the  public. 

As  a  result  of  this  agitation,  the  Legislature  in  1889  incor- 
porated the  Sanitary  District  of  Chicago,  which  was  empowered 
to  dig  "one  or  more  main  channels,  drain  ditches  and  outlets 
for  carrying  off  and  disposing  of  the  drainage,  including  the 
sewage  of  such  district."  The  law  was  so  adroitly  worded  as 
to  evade  that  provision  of  the  constitution  of  1870  which  declared 
that  "the  General  Assembly  shall  never  loan  the  credit  of  the 
state,  or  make  appropriations  from  the  treasury  thereof,  in  aid 
of  railroads  or  canals."  The  word  "canal"  did  not  appear  in 
the  law  lest  the  law  might  be  attacked  as  an  indirect  subterfuge 
for  building  a  canal  by  legislative  authority,  even  though  the 
general  credit  of  the  state  was  not  involved.  While  the  main 
purpose  of  the  law  was  to  give  Chicago  and  its  surrounding 
towns  and  villages  sanitation,  it  was  generally  understood  by 
those  "in  the  know"  at  the  time  that  the  "channels"  so  con- 
structed were  to  be  of  such  great  dimensions,  that  they  or  it 
could  and  would  form  a  link  in  a  great  canal  connecting  the 
Great  Lakes  with  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

I  was  intimately  acquainted  at  that  time  with  Richard  Pren- 
dergast,  who  had  recently  retired  from  the  County  Court  Bench 
of  Cook  County,  and  also,  although  not  so  intimately,  with 
Frank  Wenter,  afterwards  president  of  the  Drainage  District; 
Melville  E.  Stone,  treasurer  of  the  District;  E.  H.  Gary,  county 
judge  of  DuPage  County  and  afterwards  president  of  the  United 
States  Steel  Company;  Orrin  N.  Carter,  attorney  for  the  Dis- 
trict, afterwards  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court;  and  Thomas  F. 
Judge,  clerk  of  the  Sanitary  District,  and  learned  from  them 


ILLINOIS  373 

and  others  that  the  "channel"  would  connect  the  south  branch 
of  the  Chicago  River  and  the  Desplaines  River,  and  would  be 
a  canal  of  enormous  dimensions,  sufficient  to  accommodate  ves- 
sels of  about  fourteen  foot  draft. 

The  election  for  the  first  board  of  trustees  in  or  about  1889 
was  a  most  interesting  one.  The  machine  managers  of  the 
Democratic  and  Republican  parties  had  met  and  agreed  upon 
a  slate  upon  which  appeared  the  names  of  eight  candidates, 
(four  Democrats  and  four  Republicans).  These  eight  names 
appeared  on  both  Democratic  and  Republican  tickets,  thus  assur- 
ing (as  both  machines  figured)  the  election  of  these  eight  men. 
Nine  trustees  were  to  be  elected.  Beside  the  eight  names  that 
appeared  on  each  ticket,  each  party  placed  in  nomination  one 
other  name ;  the  Democrats  naming  a  Democrat  and  the  Repub- 
licans a  Republican.  It  looked  like  what  the  politicians  called 
a  "cinch"  for  the  eight.  There  was  great  public  dissatisfaction 
therewith,  and  the  papers  denounced  the  plan  as  a  bipartisan 
political  trick  to  place  the  expenditure  of  an  enormous  amount 
of  public  money  in  a  self-constituted  political  junta.  Judge 
Prendergast  was  outspoken  in  his  denunciation  of  the  bipartisan 
scheme  and  called  together  a  few  men  who  felt  as  he  did,  among 
them  Democrats,  Republicans  and  independents.  They  called 
upon  Melville  E.  Stone  and  Victor  F.  Lawson,  of  the  Chicago 
Daily  News,  which  paper  was  denouncing  the  bipartisan  deal. 
As  a  result,  a  Citizens  ticket  was  placed  in  the  field,  headed  by 
Prendergast  and  containing  the  names  of  John  J.  Alpeter,  Wil- 
liam Boldenweck,  L.  E.  Cooley,  B.  A.  Eckhardt,  P.  Gilmore, 
Thomas  Kelly,  William  H.  Russell  and  Frank  Wenter.  Pren- 
dergast, who  was  a  brilliant  orator,  took  the  stump  and  roasted 
the  political  machines  until  they  became  cinders,  the  News  and 
other  papers  helped  in  turn  the  spit,  and  to  the  amazement  of 
both  machines  their  slated  tickets  were  broken  into  fragments 
and  the  whole  Citizens  ticket  was  elected. 

The  Sanitary  District  since  its  creation  in  1889  has  con- 
structed a  huge  canal,  the  main  and  power  channel  being  over 
thirty-nine  miles  in  length;  and  a  river  diversion  channel  of 
thirteen  miles  with  a  depth  of  twenty-two  feet,  and  a  width 
at  the  top  varying  from  198  to  225  feet  and  from  160  feet  to 


374  ILLINOIS 

202  feet  at  the  bottom  in  the  earth  sections ;  and  with  a  width 
at  the  top  of  162  feet  to  160  feet  at  the  bottom  in  the  solid 
rock  sections  and  a  width  of  200  feet  in  the  river  diversion. 
This  enormous  work,  calling  for  over  44,000,000  cubic  yards 
of  excavation,  had  cost  the  citizens  of  the  District  about 
$95,000,000  up  to  the  year  1924. 

The  building  of  this  great  canal,  so  suitable  for  the  navigation 
of  vessels  of  even  heavy  draft,  further  intensified  the  demand 
of  the  people  for  the  construction  of  a  large  commercial  canal 
between  Lockport  -and  Utica  which  would  enable  vessels  of 
eight-foot  draft  to  ply  between  Chicago  and  New  Orleans.  The 
inhibition  of  .the  constitution  against  loaning  the  state's  credit 
for  the  building  of  canals  stood  in  the  way  of  state  aid.  Chicago 
and  its  environs  had  already  spent  nearly  $100,000,000  on  its 
sanitary  "channel,"  and  by  no  possible  pretence  or  subterfuge 
could  it  claim  that  a  canal  between  Lockport  and  Utica  would 
be  a  sanitary  "channel." 

At  length,  however,  the  demand  for  a  "Lakes  to  the  Gulf" 
waterway  grew  so  strong  under  the  administration  of  Charles 
S.  Deneen  as  governor,  that  the  Legislature  in  1907  provided 
for  an  amendment  to  the  constitution  authorizing  the  expendi- 
ture of  not  to  exceed  $20,000,000  for  the  construction  of  the 
waterway  from  Lockport  to  Utica.  The  amendment  was  approved 
by  the  people  in  1908  and  proclaimed  by  Governor  Deneen  during 
the  same  year.  Further  reference  to  the  Illinois  waterway 
will  be  made  when  I  come  to  discuss  the  administrations  of 
Governors  Deneen,  Dunne  and  Small. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 
THOMAS  CARLIN,  GOVERNOR 

In  the  year  1838,  Thomas  Carlin,  a  Democrat,  was  elected 
governor  of  Illinois  over  Colonel  Edwards,  his  Whig  opponent. 
He  was  of  Irish  extraction,  had  been  commander  of  a  spy  bat- 
talion in  the  War  of  1812,  and  his  occupation  was  that  of  a 
farmer.  While  not  possessed  of  a  college  education  he  has  been 
described  as  a  man  of  "good  common  sense,  high  moral  standard, 
great  firmness  of  character  and  of  unfailing  courage."  His 
administration  inherited  two  heavy  loads  to  carry,  the  nation- 
wide panic  of  1837  and  1838  and  the  hysteria  for  "a  general 
system  of  public  improvements  in  Illinois,"  both  of  which  came 
into  being  during  the  preceding  administration  of  Governor 
Duncan.  Carlin  had  been  infected  with  the  craze  during  Dun- 
can's administration,  and  had  not  recovered  from  its  influence 
when  he  was  inaugurated  governor.  Among  others  who  were 
infected  with  the  craze  was  nearly  every  prominent  man  in  the 
Legislature,  both  Democrats  and  Whigs.  Among  those  favoring 
the  general  improvement  scheme  were  John  Crain,  John  Dough- 
erty, John  Dawson,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  Ninian  Edwards,  Wil- 
liam F.  Elkin,  Augustus  C.  French,  William  H.  Happy,  John 
Hogan,  Abraham  Lincoln,  N.  F.  Linder,  John  A.  McClernand, 
John  Moore,  Joseph  Naper,  James  H.  Ralston,  James  Shields, 
Robert  Smith,  Dan  Stone  and  James  Semple,  the  Speaker.  In 
the  lower  House  sixty  members  favored  the  scheme  and  only 
about  twenty-four  opposed  it.  Nearly  all  of  those  favoring 
public  improvements  were  afterwards  elected  to  prominent  and 
responsible  offices  by  the  people. 

In  his  inaugural  message  Governor  Carlin  urged  the  contin- 
uance of  the  work  on  public  improvements  in  a  restricted  and 
modified  way,  but  soon  learned  while  in  office  the  futility  of  its 

375 


&~^^c<^t > 


Governor  1838-42 

(Courtesy  Illinois  State  Historical  Library.) 


ILLINOIS  377 

further  development.  By  the  winter  of  1839-40  he  had  reached 
the  conclusion  that  the  works  projected  were  too  pretentious 
and  would  prove  too  costly  and  that  credit  could  not  be  obtained 
for  their  further  prosecution.  He  called  a  special  session  of 
the  Legislature  to  meet  at  Springfield  (the  new  capital)  Sep- 
tember 9,  1839,  to  take  action  on  the  cessation  of  work  on  the 
public  improvements  and  the  state  indebtedness.  In  his  message 
he  stated  that  "the  ruinous  policy  of  simultaneously  commencing 
all  the  works  and  constructing  them  in  detached  parcels  was 
alike  at  variance  with  the  principles  of  sound  economy,  destruc- 
tive to  the  interests  of  the  state  and  to  the  system  in  all  its 
parts."  The  last  part  of  Carlin's  administration  was  devoted 
to  schemes  for  keeping  up  the  payment  of  interest  on  the  public 
debt  and  trimming  the  sails  and  jettisoning  the  public  improve- 
ments cargo  of  the  waterlogged  ship  of  state.  No  doubt,  Governor 
Carlin  surrendered  the  ship  to  his  successor,  Governor  Ford, 
with  a  sigh  of  relief  in  1842  when  the  latter  was  inaugurated. 
He  managed,  however,  to  keep  the  interest  paid  on  all  indebted- 
ness of  the  state  up  to  and  including  the  year  1841. 

During  Carlin's  administration  in  1839  and  1840  the  peculiar 
and  aggressive  sect  of  religious  fanatics  known  as  the  Mormons 
moved  into  Illinois  from  Missouri.  In  the  latter  state  they  had 
gotten  into  bitter  controversies  with  their  non-Mormon  neigh- 
bors, as  well  as  with  the  state  authorities,  and  were  compelled 
both  by  public  sentiment  and  the  action  of  the  governor  of 
Missouri,  and  the  threat  of  criminal  proceedings  in  the  courts 
of  that  state,  to  move  out  of  its  territory  and  jurisdiction.  They 
chose  Illinois  as  their  place  of  refuge  and  many  thousands  of 
them  began  the  building  up  of  a  large  city  and  the  erection  of 
an  impressive  temple  at  Nauvoo,  in  Hancock  County. 

In  Missouri  the  Mormons  had  been  supporting  the  Democratic 
party  at  all  elections.  But  when  a  Democratic  governor  of  that 
Democratic  state  drove  them  out,  they  became  embittered  against 
the  Democrats  and  when  they  moved  into  Illinois  began  to 
vote  for  and  support  the  Whig  party.  Henry  Clay  and  John 
T.  Stuart,  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
United  States  from  Illinois,  both  of  them  Whigs,   introduced 


378 


ILLINOIS 


in  Congress  and  supported  Mormon  memorials  protesting  against 
their  treatment  in  Missouri. 

According  to  Governor  Ford's  history,  p.  262,  "in  August, 
1840,  they  voted  unanimously  for  the  Whig  candidates  for  the 
Senate  and  Assembly.  In  the  November  following  they  voted 
for  the  Whig  candidate  for  President,  and  in  August,  1841, 
they  voted  for  John  T.  Stuart,  the  Whig  candidate  for  Congress 
in  their  district."  This  alarmed  the  Democrats,  as  the  Mormons 
were  rapidly  increasing  in  members,  and  it  seemed  likely  that 
they  would  soon  hold  the  balance  of  voting  power  in  the  state. 
Both  parties  thereupon  began  to  be  solicitous  over  the  Mormon 


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John  Marshall's  Residence  in  Shawneetown 


vote,  and  sought  to  curry  favor  with  the  Mormon  leaders. 
At  this  juncture  the  Mormon  leaders  appeared  before  the  Leg- 
islature of  1840-41,  seeking  certain  charters  for  the  rapidly- 
growing  City  of  Nauvoo.  Dr.  John  C.  Bennett,  their  spokes- 
man and  main  lobbyist,  presented  the  draft  of  the  proposed 
charter  to  Mr.  Little,  the  Whig  senator  from  Hancock  County 
and  to  Mr.  Douglas,  the  Democratic  secretary  of  state.  Both 
of  these  gentlemen  were  anxious  to  do  favors  for  the  Mormons 
with  the  view  of  securing  the  Mormon  vote,  and  helped  Bennett 


ILLINOIS  379 

in  getting  the  matter  before  the  Legislature.  Little,  the  Whig, 
presented  the  Mormon  bills  in  the  Senate  and  had  them  referred 
to  the  judiciary  committee  headed  by  Snyder,  a  Democrat.  The 
proposed  charters  were  reported  upon  favorably  and  the  bills 
passed  in  the  Senate  without  a  protesting  vote.  In  the  same 
way,  shortly  afterwards,  the  bills  were  passed  in  the  House 
without  objection.  Both  parties  were  equally  participants  in 
the  passage  of  these  laws,  which  were  the  basis  of  the  Mormon 
Rebellion,  which  occurred  under  Governor  Ford  and  which 
brought  about  the  killing  of  the  Mormon  leaders  and  the  expul- 
sion of  the  cult  from  Illinois. 


CHAPTER  XXXV 
POLITICS  ON  THE  BENCH 

In  the  year  1838  Thomas  Carlin,  a  Democrat,  was  as  stated 
in  the  last  chapter  inaugurated  governor.  He  found  in  the 
office  of  secretary  of  state,  A.  P.  Field,  who  had  been  appointed 
by  Governor  Edwards  when  he  was  an  "original  Jackson  man" 
and  allowed  to  remain  in  office  for  ten  years  by  two  succeeding 
Democratic  governors.  Field  in  the  meantime  had  changed 
his  politics  and  for  some  time  before  1838  had  become  an  ardent 
and  aggressive  Whig.  He  was  not  in  sympathy  with  the  Demo- 
cratic state  administration  placed  in  power  by  popular  vote 
and  attempted  to  obstruct  its  measures  when  he  possibly  could 
do  so. 

The  office  of  secretary  of  state  was  an  appointive  one,  the 
appointment  being  placed  in  the  governor  by  the  constitution. 
Governor  Carlin,  desiring  a  secretary  in  sympathy  with  his 
administration,  appointed  John  A.  McClernand  secretary  of 
state.  Field  was  of  a  pugnacious  disposition  and  succeeded  in 
getting  the  Whig  Senate  to  stand  by  him  and  refused  to  sur- 
render his  office  to  McClernand.  After  the  adjournment  of 
the  Legislature  the  governor  again  appointed  McClernand  to 
the  office  and  the  latter  demanded  possession  of  Field.  Field 
again  refused  to  surrender  his  office  and  McClernand  appealed 
to  the  Supreme  Court  for  relief.  Field's  contention  before  that 
court  was  that  the  constitution  failed  to  fix  the  term  of  office 
of  secretary  of  state,  and  that  a  person  once  appointed  to  the 
office  held  it  without  limit  as  to  time  unless  removed  for  cause 
upon  trial.  The  McClernand  contention  was  that  the  office, 
being  an  appointive  one  and  the  appointment  being  vested  in 
the  governor,  that  the  governor  alone  had  the  right  to  determine 
the  length  of  tenure;  that  the  power  to  appoint  in  the  absence 

380 


ILLINOIS  381 

of  a  constitutional  tenure  carried  the  power  to  remove  as  a 
necessary  corollary. 

The  Supreme  Court,  as  then  constituted,  was  composed  of 
three  Whigs,  Wilson,  Brown  and  Lockwood,  and  one  Democrat, 
Smith.  Two  of  the  Whigs  on  the  bench,  Wilson  and  Lockwood, 
decided  against  McClernand.  Smith,  the  Democrat,  decided  in 
his  favor.  The  other  occupant  of  the  bench,  Brown,  being  related 
to  McClernand,  with  decent  propriety  refrained  from  rendering 
any  decision.  The  decisions  of  the  two  Whig  judges,  under  the 
circumstances,  became  the  decision  of  the  Court  binding  upon 
the  litigants.  In  effect  the  decision  held  that  a  constitution 
which  in  no  place  expressly  fixed  the  tenure  of  any  office  for 
life  or  during  good  behavior  inferentially  by  its  failure  to  fix 
a  definite  tenure  for  an  appointive  office,  made  that  office  one 
for  life  or  during  good  behavior,  regardless  of  the  wishes  and 
intent  of  the  appointive  power.  So  strained  a  construction  of 
the  state  constitution  which  would  create  offices  for  life  shocked 
the  conscience  of  the  community  and  roused  the  Legislature  to 
action.  Another  case  decided  by  the  same  court  about  the  same 
time  still  further  aroused  the  public  and  elicited  widespread 
criticism  and  doubts  of  the  integrity  of  the  court. 

A  test  case  made  up  (according  to  Governor  Ford)  by  two 
Whigs  acting  in  collusion,  was  called  for  trial  before  a  Whig 
judge  sitting  in  the  Circuit  Court,  in  the  Galena  district.  It 
involved  the  right  of  aliens  to  vote  at  elections  in  Illinois.  The 
constitution  of  1818,  then  in  force  on  this  subject,  declared: 
"In  all  elections,  all  white  male  inhabitants  above  the  age  of 
twenty-one  years  having  resided  in  the  state  six  months  pre- 
ceding the  election  shall  enjoy  the  right  of  an  elector."  This 
provision  of  the  constitution  was  adopted  by  the  pioneer  con- 
stitution builders  with  the  express  purpose  of  inducing  immigra- 
tion into  the  sparsely  settled  state  and  giving  the  new  arrivals 
into  the  state  the  right  of  participating  promptly  in  the  elec- 
tions and  governmental  policies  of  the  state.  This  right  given 
by  the  constitution  to  "inhabitants"  for  "six  months"  had  been 
exercised  by  the  newcomers  without  question  or  objection  for 
over  twenty  years.  When  the  state  began  to  build  the  Illinois 
and  Michigan  Canal  in  1837  there  was  a  great  influx  of  laborers 


'  **  H 

m     Jmk 

Wm    «f    «a 

BnM$$     jm     ?M             1 

Wjk    *    IWL4 

/> 

V 

Kill     %3&»W 

H 
O 
H 

o 


ILLINOIS  383 

from  Europe,  and  particularly  from  Ireland,  to  Chicago  and 
along  the  canal  to  obtain  employment.  These  laborers  had 
fled  from  tyrannical,  monarchical  rule  and  were  naturally  imbued 
with  a  love  of  democracy.  The  name  of  the  Democratic  party 
as  well  as  the  principles  it  at  the  time  proclaimed  attracted 
them  to  the  party.  Overwhelming  numbers  of  these  laborers, 
many  of  whom  soon  became  farmers  along  the  canal,  voted  the 
Democratic  ticket.  The  Galena  collusive  law  suit  was  designed 
to  disfranchise  these  foreign-born  "six  months  inhabitants"  of 
Illinois.  The  circuit  judge  at  Galena  promptly  ruled  that  the 
word  "inhabitant"  in  the  constitution  did  not  mean  ''inhabitant" 
but  "citizen,"  and  the  case  was  taken  to  the  Supreme  Court 
on  appeal.  The  Supreme  Court  was  constituted  as  it  was  in 
the  McClernand  case,  three  Whigs  and  one  Democrat.  The 
Democrats,  largely  as  the  result  of  the  McClernand  decision, 
were  tremendously  excited  and  alarmed.  It  was  currently 
reported  upon  respectable  authority  that  the  decision  was  to 
be  a  three-to-one  finding  in  favor  of  the  Whig  contention  that 
the  six  months  inhabitants  must  be  six  months  citizens.  Through 
a  flaw  in  the  record,  Stephen  A.  Douglas  and  other  Democratic 
lawyers  obtained  continuances  until  December,  1840.  In  the 
meantime,  however,  the  Democrats  in  the  Legislature,  fully 
convinced  of  the  political  bias  of  the  court,  and  that  it  would 
defy  decency  and  fair  construction  of  words  in  order  to  help 
the  Whig  party,  introduced  in  the  State  House,  December  10, 
1840,  a  bill  for  the  reorganization  of  the  judiciary.  It  passed 
the  Senate  after  a  long  and  bitter  debate  by  a  vote  of  twenty 
to  seventeen,  and  was  adopted  by  the  House  by  a  vote  of  forty- 
five  to  forty,  February  1,  1841.  On  February  8  the  council  of 
revision  (consisting  of  the  governor  and  the  judges  of  #the 
Supreme  Court)  returned  the  bill  with  rejection,  signed  only 
by  members  of  the  Supreme  Court.  The  Whigs  attempted  a 
fillibuster  in  the  Senate  but  it  failed  and  the  bill  passed  over 
the  veto  by  a  vote  of  twenty-three  to  sixteen  in  the  Senate  and 
forty-six  to  forty-three  in  the  House. 

The  law  as  passed,  provided  for  the  appointment  of  five 
additional  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  and  required  the  newly- 
appointed  five  and  the  four  sitting  judges  to  perform  the  duties 


384  ILLINOIS 

of  circuit  judges  in  the  nine  circuits,  and  all  as  appellate  judges 
in  the  Supreme  Court.  The  five  new  judges  appointed  were 
all  Democrats  and  thus  the  Democrats  secured  a  majority  on 
the  Supreme  bench.  The  sitting  judges  took  alarm  at  the  intro- 
duction of  the  bill  December  10,  1840,  and  at  the  December 
term  handed  down  a  decision  reversing  the  Galena  Circuit  Court, 
and  Justice  Smith's  opinion  squarely  upheld  the  right  of  a  six 


.  v?    ' 


The  Last  Remaining  House  in  Old  Brownsville 

The  first  county  seat  of  Jackson  County.     Built  about  1830. 

month's  inhabitant  to  vote.  The  two  Whig  judges,  Lockwood 
and  Wilson,  concurred  in  the  reversal,  but  rather  obscurely, 
on  the  ground  that  the  clerk  had  no  legal  power  to  ask  the 
voter  if  he  were  an  alien.  The  decision,  however,  settled  the 
right  of  resident  aliens  to  vote  until  the  adoption  of  the  second 
constitution  of  1848. 

The  spectacle  presented  by  these  transactions  in  the  Supreme 
Court  and  in  the  Legislature  is  not  one  on  which  the  state  can 
pride  itself.  That  confidence  in  the  fairness  and  integrity  of 
the  highest  judicial  tribunal  of  the  state  should  be  so  shattered 
as  it  was  in  1840,  and  that  the  highest  legislative  and  executive 


ILLINOIS  385 

bodies  in  the  state  should  take  such  drastic  action  in  reference 
to  its  judiciary  is  not  a  pleasant  chapter  to  read  in  considering 
the  history  of  any  state. 

The  five  men  placed  upon  the  Supreme  bench  pursuant  to 
the  law  reorganizing  the  courts  were  all  Democrats.  Their 
names  were  Sidney  Breese;  Thomas  Ford,  afterwards  governor 
of  Illinois ;  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  afterwards  United  States  senator 
and  Democratic  candidate  for  the  Presidency;  S.  H.  Treat  and 
Walter  B.  Scates.  All  were  men  of  ability  and  of  excellent 
character.  I  became  well  acquainted  with  the  last  of  these, 
Scates.  He  was  the  senior  member  of  the  law  firm  of  Scates, 
Hynes  &  Dunne,  of  which  I  was  the  junior  member  when  I 
began  practicing  law  at  Chicago  about  the  year  1880.  He  was 
a  fine  old  gentleman  of  the  highest  integrity,  an  excellent  lawyer, 
and  was  at  that  time  carrying  on  a  litigation  for  and  advising 
with  some  members  of  the  old  and  at  one  time  powerful  tribe 
of  the  Pottawatomie  Indians.  William  J.  Hynes,  the  other 
member  of  the  firm,  had  been  a  member  of  Congress  and  was 
the  ablest  jury  lawyer  at  the  Chicago  bar  during  the  '80s  and 
'90s  of  the  nineteenth  century.  I  have  listened  to  many  eloquent 
men  in  my  day,  and  I  doubt  if  I  ever  heard  more  eloquent 
speeches  than  those  that  fell  from  the  lips  of  William  J.  Hynes. 
The  four  great  orators  of  my  time  were  Bourke  Cochran,  W.  J. 
Bryan,  Emory  A.  Storrs  and  William  J.  Hynes,  all  of  whom 
have  gone  to  their  Great  Reward.  No  orator  now  living,  in  my 
judgment,  could  equal  any  one  of  these  great  masters  of  words 
and  emotions.  Hynes,  like  Storrs,  was  as  witty  as  he  was 
eloquent. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI 

GOVERNOR  THOMAS  FORD 

He  Completes  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal,  Funds  the 
State's  Indebtedness,  Salvages  the  Credit  of  the 
State,  Prevents  Repudiation  and  Becomes  In- 
volved in  the  Mormon  and  Mexican  War 

No  governor  of  Illinois  faced  a  more  serious  and  critical 
condition  of  state  affairs  than  did  Governor  Thomas  Ford  in 
1842  when  he  was  inducted  into  office.  According  to  Moses, 
in  his  History  of  Illinois,  the  state  at  that  time  was  indebted 
as  follows: 

To  Banks  for  Stock $  2,665,000 

For  Internal  Improvement  Bonds 6,014,749 

For  Canal  Debts   (Bonds) 4,504,160 

For  State  House  at  Springfield 121,000 

To  School,  College  and  Seminary  Fund  Bor- 
rowed by  the  State 808,084 

To  Banks    (Borrowed) 664,188 

To  Interest  Due  January  1,  1843 880,769 

Total  Debt  Due  January  1,  1843 $15,657,950 

Substantially  the  only  valuable  asset  which  the  state  could 
show  as  against  this  enormous  liability  was  the  Illinois  and 
Michigan  Canal,  which  in  the  end  proved  remunerative  to  the 
state.  The  other  projected  internal  improvements  were  known  at 
the  time  to  be  wild  and  visionary  and  conceded  to  be  "upon  the 
rocks."  The  banks  in  which  the  state  held  stock  to  the  extent  of 
$2,665,000  had  suspended  payment  and  were  expected  to  be 
wound  up  in  the  courts  for  insolvency  or  bankruptcy.    The  credit 

386 


ILLINOIS  387 

of  the  state  had,  for  the  time  being,  been  ruined  by  its  wild  ad- 
ventures into  banking-  and  building  enterprises,  and  no  more 
money  could  be  borrowed.  This  is  the  financial  situation  that 
Governor  Ford  was  compelled  to  face.  The  cry  of  state  repudia- 
tion of  its  debts  was  being  heard  both  in  the  Legislature  and 
among  the  people. 

Now  Governor  Ford  before  his  election  as  governor  was  not 
prominently  identified  with  the  politics  of  the  state.  He  was 
not  regarded  as  one  of  the  eminent  leaders  of  his  party.  When 
selected  by  the  Democratic  party  as  its  candidate  for  governor 
he  was  a  member  of  the  Supreme  Court  and  was  holding  Circuit 
Court  in  the  northern  part  of  the  state.  He  was  regarded  as  an 
upright,  honorable,  painstaking  and  just  judge.  He  had  the 
esteem  and  respect  of  his  fellow  men  in  that  position.  His 
selection  as  candidate  was  accidental  and  resulted  from  the 
fact  that  the  candidate  for  governor  selected  by  the  Democratic 
party  in  convention  assembled  in  December,  1841,  Adam  W. 
Snyder,  died  during  the  campaign,  in  May,  1842.  Compelled 
by  the  circumstances  to  act  quickly,  the  Democrats,  looking 
around  for  a  new  candidate,  finally  selected  Ford,  as  a  man  of 
clean  character  and  an  upright  judge,  and  placed  him  before 
the  people  as  their  candidate  for  the  highest  office  in  the  state. 
According  to  Governor  Ford,  the  nomination  was  tendered  him 
without  solicitation  on  his  part. 

When  the  new  governor  faced  the  gloomy  financial  situation 
which  he  found  after  his  inauguration,  and  sought  its  solution, 
the  choice  his  party  and  the  people  had  made  proved  a  most 
admirable  one.  Although  having  had  no  great  experience  as 
a  banker  or  comptroller,  he  had  the  moral  sense  and  courage 
to  recognize  the  folly  and  financial  enormity  of  a  great  and 
growing  sovereign  state  repudiating  its  debts.  His  message 
to  the  Legislature  was  a  wise  and  able  document.  Its  keynote 
was  framed  in  the  following  sentence:  "Let  it  be  known  in 
the  first  place  that  no  oppressive  or  exterminating  taxation 
is  to  be  resorted  to ;  in  the  second,  we  must  convince  our  cred- 
itors and  the  world  that  the  disgrace  of  repudiation  is  not 
countenanced  among  us,  that  we  are  honest  and  mean  to  pay 
as  soon  as  we  are  able."     In  the  message  he  pointed  out  two 


Governor  1842-46 

(Courtesy  Illinois  State  Historical  Library.) 


ILLINOIS  389 

reasons  why  the  state  in  recent  years  had  not  increased  appre- 
ciably in  population.  One  reason  was  that  the  people  of  other 
states  and  nations  feared  to  settle  in  Illinois  lest  they  be  saddled 
with  exorbitant  taxes  to  pay  state  debts.  The  other  reason  was 
that  people  outside  of  Illinois  had  acquired  a  contempt  for  the 
public  men  of  Illinois,  because  of  their  lack  of  ability  to  conduct 
public  affairs  wisely  and  economically,  and  feared  that  as  the 
result  of  reckless  government  the  people  would  declare  for 
repudiation  of  public  debts. 

The  first  thing  to  demand  Ford's  attention  was  the  completion 
of  the  unfinished  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal.  This  Ford  wisely 
determined  must  be  completed,  and,  with  the  assistance  of 
Justin  Butterfield,  a  Chicago  lawyer,  he  succeeded  in  devising 
a  financial  scheme  under  which  the  capitalists  who  held  unpaid 
canal  bonds,  would  advance  sufficient  money  to  complete  same, 
provided  the  state  would  convey  to  them  all  the  canal  property 
in  trust  to  secure  the  new  loan  and  all  the  old  canal  debt;  and 
would  obligate  the  state  to  raise  money  by  moderate  taxation, 
to  liquidate  gradually,  but  surely,  the  state's  whole  indebtedness. 
In  this  way  the  money  was  raised  to  complete  the  canal  and 
it  was  put  in  operation  in  1848. 

Governor  Ford  next  turned  his  attention  to  the  banks  in 
which  the  state  held  stock  which  was  quoted  as  worth  about 
50  cents  on  the  dollar.  He  succeeded  in  arranging  with  these 
banks  the  surrender  of  the  state  bonds  which  these  banks  held 
in  payment  for  the  state's  stock  in  exchange  for  the  state  stock 
in  the  banks,  dollar  for  dollar,  and  thus  reduced  the  state's  debts 
over  $3,000,000.  He  succeeded  in  getting  the  Legislature,  which 
was  originally  in  favor  of  cancelling  their  charters  and  throwing 
them  into  bankruptcy,  to  approve  his  scheme  of  surrendering 
the  state's  stock  in  the  two  banks  in  exchange  for  the  state's 
bonds  held  by  the  banks.  The  bills  providing  for  this  exchange, 
framed  by  the  governor,  finally  passed  the  House  by  a  vote  of 
107  to  4,  and  afterwards  were  passed  by  a  decisive  vote  in 
the  Senate.  By  these  two  bills  a  debt  of  $2,306,000  of  the  state 
was  cancelled  and  the  future  credit  of  the  state  enormously 
strengthened  in  the  money  marts  of  the  world. 


390  ILLINOIS 

Governor  Ford  was  next  called  upon  officially  to  dispose 
of  the  bitter  and  bloody  controversy  that  arose  between  the 
Mormons  at  Nauvoo  and  the  Christian  Gentiles  that  surrounded 
them  in  Hancock  County  and  the  western  part  of  the  state. 
Thomas  Rees,  the  able  editor  of  the  Springfield  Register,  has 
recently  published  in  the  Journal  of  the  Illinois  Historical  Soci- 
ety, a  review  of  this  interesting  affair,  which  is  so  lucid  and 
condensed  that  with  his  kind  permission  I  will  adopt  and  appro- 
priate it  as  part  of  this  history.    Rees  writes  as  follows : 

Inception  of  the  Mormon  Movement. 

Now  let  us  consider  the  beginning  and  the  progress 
of  the  Mormon  church  as  represented  by  these  new  arrivals 
in  Nauvoo. 

Joseph  Smith  was  born  December  23,  1805,  in  Windsor, 
Vermont,  the  son  of  a  farmer.  He  moved  with  his  family 
when  ten  years  of  age  to  Palmyra,  New  York,  and  when 
fourteen  years  old  they  moved  to  Manchester.  He  claimed 
to  have  been  converted  at  a  revival.  He  determined,  how- 
ever, to  investigate  the  subject  of  religion  more  fully. 

He  relates  the  following  story:  "I  retired  to  a  secret 
place  in  a  grove  where  I  became  enwrapped  in  a  heavenly 
vision  and  where  I  saw  two  glorious  personages.  They 
warned  me  against  the  churches  and  I  received  a  promise 
that  the  true  gospel  should  be  revealed  to  me  at  a  later 
date." 

When  he  was  about  eighteen  years  of  age,  he  said,  a 
messenger  visited  him  in  another  vision  and  proclaiming 
himself  as  an  angel  of  God  informed  him  that  he  was 
chosen  to  be  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  God  to  bring 
about  a  glorious  dispensation.  He  further  said  he  was  told 
at  that  time  of  the  location  of  a  certain  set  of  plates  that 
were  buried  in  the  ground.  There  were  a  thousand  of  these 
plates  and  they  seemed  like  gold  and  were  of  a  thickness 
equal  to  thin  tin,  each  plate  being  beautifully  engraved. 
The  plates  were  about  6x8  inches  in  size  and  the  whole 
package  was  about  six  inches  in  thickness. 

Smith  claimed  that  he  showed  these  plates  to  ten  men, 
all  of  whom  declared  they  had  seen  them  and  testified 
positively  as  follows:  "Joseph  Smith  showed  the  plates  to 
us,  that  we  did  handle  them  with  our  hands,  that  we  saw 
the  engravings  thereon,  and  that  we  had  seen  and  'hefted' 


ILLINOIS 


391 


them  and  that  we  knew  of  a  surety  that  said  Smith  had 
got  the  plates." 

These  plates  were  placed  in  the  hands  of  one  of  these 
men,  Oliver  Cowdery,  who  translated  them,  and  the  teach- 
ings thereon  as  translated  were  used  as  the  foundation 
of  the  Mormon  doctrine. 

In  1830  the  Mormon  church  was  started  in  Fayette, 
New  York.  Then  Sidney  Rigdon,  one  of  Smith's  principal 
adherents,  went  over  to  Kirtland,  Ohio,  and  after  a  great 


Mormon  Temple,  Nauvoo 

revival  established  the  church  there  and  then  they  began 
the  building  of  a  temple  there.  In  connection  with  this 
religious  movement  Smith  had  organized  a  bank  at  Kirtland, 
but  the  bank  failed  and  Smith  and  his  brother  became  very 
unpopular.  They  were  ridden  on  a  rail  through  the  town, 
tarred  and  feathered  and  ordered  to  leave  the  community. 
But  they  were  not  dismayed  and  removing  the  tar  and 
feathers  they  presented  their  doctrines  at  the  same  place 
on  Sunday,  the  day  following. 

Smith  then  claimed  to  have  received  a  new  revelation 
to  go  to  Independence,  in  Jackson  County,  Missouri,  a 
short  distance  east  of  Kansas  City  and  there  to  establish 


392  ILLINOIS 

a  new  Zion.  So  they  moved  again,  the  church  continued 
and  the  foundation  for  another  temple  was  laid  at 
Independence. 

The  Mormons  remained  there  until  they  were  compelled 
to  evacuate  and  seek  some  other  location.  This  brought 
them  up  to  the  time  of  their  removal  to  Quincy  and  their 
arrival  in  Nauvoo 

On  their  arrival  in  Nauvoo,  in  the  winter  of  1838  to  '39, 
Joseph  Smith  not  only  continued  to  hold  the  position  of  head 
of  the  church,  but  after  the  city  was  organized  he  soon  be- 
came, either  by  his  own  appointment  or  election,  the  mayor 
of  Nauvoo.  Immediately  on  their  arrival  in  Illinois  the 
Mormons  began  to  take  an  interest  in  politics  and  they  soon 
became  a  mighty  political  power.  They  elected  their  own 
representatives  to  the  Legislature. 

From  the  liberal  legislature  of  Illinois  they  demanded 
much  and  received  a  great  deal.  They  secured  from  the 
legislature — through  the  efforts  of  their  first  representative, 
one  Dr.  John  C.  Bennett — three  of  the  most  remarkable 
charters  ever  granted  by  the  State  of  Illinois  to  any 
community 

The  three  charters  which  they  secured  in  the  legislative 
session  of  1840-41  were:  one  for  the  incorporation  of  the 
city  of  Nauvoo,  one  for  the  founding  of  the  University  of 
Nauvoo,  and  the  third  for  the  organization  of  a  military 
legion.  The  success  in  securing  these  charters  was  made 
easy  by  the  fact  that  both  political  parties  at  that  time 
were  vieing  with  each  other  for  the  good  will  and  support 
of  the  Mormons. 

The  three  charters  were  all  contained  in  one  act  of  the 
legislature  and  embraced  among  other  provisions  a  city 
council,  a  board  of  trustees  and  a  court  martial.  Each  of 
these  branches,  supreme  in  their  way,  were  invested  with 
legislative,  judicial  and  executive  powers.  The  rights  were 
to  enact,  establish,  ordain  any  and  enact  all  laws  and  ordi- 
nances not  in  conflict  with  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States  or  of  the  State  of  Illinois.  There  were  no  provisions, 
however,  in  the  act  guarding  against  infringement  of  or 
the  ignoring  of  any  or  all  the  laws  either  of  the  State  of 
Illinois  or  of  the  United  States. 

The  intention  of  the  three  charters  seemed  to  be  to 
establish  at  Nauvoo  a  government  of  the  Mormons,  by  the 
Mormons  and  for  the  Mormons,  independent  of  control 
either  by  the  state  or  the  United  States.  The  third  charter 
created  a  military  legion,  an  army  to  uphold  such  acts  or 


ILLINOIS  393 

laws  as  the  Mormons  wished  to  enforce.  It  is  said  that 
this  military  legion  at  one  time  numbered  six  thousand 
men,  and  was  entirely  at  the  command  of  Joseph  Smith 
as  lieutenant-general  and  as  leader  and  prophet  of  the 
Mormons. 

In  addition  to  this  legion  there  was  a  sort  of  secret 
organization  known  as  the  Danites  or  the  sons  of  Dan, 
whose  work  was  done  secretly  and  who  could  be  depended 
upon  at  any  time  under  the  directions  of  the  prophet  to 
remove  characters  objectionable  or  obnoxious  to  the  author- 
ities of  the  church. 

Joseph  Smith  being  head  of  the  church,  mayor  of  Nau- 
voo, and  general-in-chief  of  the  Nauvoo  legion,  his  authority 
was  unquestioned.  Not  satified  with  being  the  head  of 
everything  in  his  kingdom  he  even  aspired  to  become  presi- 
dent of  the  United  States. 

On  the  third  of  February,  1841,  the  city  of  Nauvoo 
was  organized  under  its  charter,  with  Dr.  Bennett  who 
had  secured  the  charter,  as  its  first  mayor,  but  he  was  soon 
succeeded  by  Joseph  Smith.  The  legion  and  the  university 
were  organized  about  the  same  time  but  the  university 
never  seemed  to  have  made  much  progress.  However, 
Joseph  Smith's  big  asset  and  office  was  lieutenant-general 
of  the  legion. 

One  of  the  first  acts  of  the  city  council  was  to  pass  a 
vote  of  thanks  to  the  state  government  for  favors  conferred, 
and  to  the  citizens  of  Quincy  for  the  kindness  shown  them 
when  driven  from  Missouri  and  when  they  found  refuge 
in  Illinois.  This  appears  to  be  the  only  thanks  ever  extended 
by  the  Mormons. 

The  legion  was  furnished  with  state  arms  through  Gen- 
eral Bennett,  who  had  not  only  secured  the  charters  alluded 
to  but  who  had  also  been  appointed  quartermaster-general 
of  Illinois  one  year  before  by  Governor  Carlin. 

On  May  24,  1841,  Joseph  Smith  sent  out  a  notice  that 
all  Mormons  in  the  state  must  locate  in  the  county  of 
Hancock,  in  which  the  city  of  Nauvoo  was  situated,  and 
the  one  particular  part  of  the  county  where  he  proposed 
to  reign  supreme  and  govern  all  the  people  thereof  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord. 

About  this  time  as  usual,  Joseph  Smith  and  the  Mormon 
church  began  to  have  all  kinds  of  trouble,  both  internal  and 
external.  Smith  was  arrested  on  several  requisitions  sent 
over  from  Missouri  for  crimes  said  to  have  been  committed 
while  he  was  there.     But  with  the  wonderful  charters  he 


394  ILLINOIS 

possessed  and  his  control  of  the  courts,  each  time  he  was 
promptly  released  by  writs  of  habeas  corpus  or  other  means. 

The  progress  of  the  Mormon  church  continued,  however, 
and  on  the  6th  of  April  in  the  year  1841,  the  corner-stone 
of  the  third  Mormon  temple  was  laid  at  Nauvoo.  History 
records  that  there  were  ten  thousand  people  present  at 
this  ceremony  and  the  temple  which  was  to  be  erected  at 
a  cost  of  one  million  dollars — a  good  deal  of  money  in  those 
days — was  intended  to  be  and  when  completed  was,  with- 
out doubt,  the  finest  structure  of  any  kind  in  this  western 
country. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  Nauvoo,  under  Mormon 
rule,  had  become  a  hotbed  of  crime  and  the  hiding  place 
of  criminals  who  sought  and  secured  refuge  there  after 
committing  crimes  in  or  near  that  section,  the  city  as  a 
growing  metropolis  still  seemed  to  be  in  a  flourishing  con- 
dition. Both  political  parties,  the  Whigs  and  the  Democrats, 
were  continually  making  overtures  to  the  Mormons.  Stephen 
A.  Douglas  of  the  democratic  party  was  popular  with  them, 
while  John  T.  Stuart,  Lincoln's  law  instructor  and  after- 
wards his  first  law  partner,  ran  for  congress  on  the  Whig 
ticket  and  secured  almost  the  solid  vote  of  the  Mormons 
in  Hancock  County. 

The  Mormons  however  were  not  the  only  people  in 
Nauvoo.  Naturally  such  a  flourishing  city  in  the  new  west 
attracted  many  people  and  of  those  who  came  there  many 
were  just  about  as  bad  if  not  worse  than  the  Mormons. 

In  addition  to  enmities  existing  between  the  Mormons 
and  other  religious  sects,  the  Mormons  also  differed  among 
themselves  and  a  violent  quarrel  broke  out  between  Joseph 
Smith  and  his  principal  military  aid,  General  Bennett. 

The  Fatal  Tragedy, 

New  churches  with  regular  or  nondescript  doctrines 
were  organized  in  Nauvoo  and  an  anti-Mormon  newspaper, 
called  the  Expositor,  was  started  in  the  city,  but  only  one 
edition  thereof  was  ever  issued.  This  paper  was  immedi- 
ately suppressed  by  Joseph  Smith,  and  by  his  orders  the 
press  and  material  were  immediately  destroyed.  This  cre- 
ated a  great  furore 

The  non-Mormons  in  Nauvoo  met  in  convention  and 
passed  resolutions  demanding  the  immediate  expulsion  from 
Illinois  of  Smith  and  his  associates.  Smith  had  not  imagined 
that  the  breaking  up  of  this  little  printing  office  and  the 
suppression  of  this  little  newspaper  would  create  so  great 
an  excitement. 


ILLINOIS  395 

Things  became  so  threatening  that  he  ordered  out  his 
military  legion  to  defend  himself  and  save  his  church.  In 
the  meantime  the  governor,  recognizing  the  seriousness  of 
the  situation,  ordered  out  the  militia  of  the  several  counties 
in  the  vicinity  of  Nauvoo  and  started  a  march  on  the  city. 
He  met  the  legion  and  engaged  in  battle  at  rather  long 
range.  There  were  a  few  casualties,  perhaps,  but  not  many 
fatalities.     However,  the  cloud  of  war  hung  over  the  city. 

An  armistice  was  arranged  and  a  compromise  effected. 
Joseph  Smith  and  his  brother,  Hyrum,  agreed  to  surrender 
themselves  under  a  warrant  that  was  issued  against  them, 
and  for  their  own  safety  and  the  good  of  the  community 
they  agreed  to  be  incarcerated  in  the  jail  at  Carthage,  the 
county  seat,  twelve  miles  away.  They  were  promised  pro- 
tection by  Thomas  Ford,  who  was  then  governor  of  Illinois. 
In  connection  with  this  agreement  the  governor  required 
Joseph  Smith  to  turn  back  to  the  state  the  arms,  consisting 
of  guns  and  cannons,  which  had  been  placed  in  his  custody 
for  the  use  of  his  legion. 

Had  the  governor  carried  out  his  agreement  and  taken 
the  proper  precautions  to  guard  the  Smiths  in  the  jail,  the 
state  of  Illinois  would  have  escaped  a  serious  blot  that  has 
rested  upon  its  escutcheon  ever  since.  Instead  of  fulfilling 
the  agreement,  by  inexcusable  neglect  he  allowed  a  mob  to 
march  on  the  jail,  make  an  assault  thereon  and  shoot  and 
kill  Joseph  Smith  and  his  brother,  Hyrum,  in  cold  blood. 
Joseph  Smith  at  the  time  he  was  killed  was  only  41  years 
old,  but  in  that  short  span  had  led  a  busy  life.  He  was 
survived  by  three  sons. 

Governor  Ford,  however,  failed  or  was  unable  to  keep  his 
part  of  the  agreement  after  the  Smiths  had  surrendered  them- 
selves into  the  custody  of  the  state  officials  on  the  23rd  and 
24th  day  of  June,  1845.  The  Mormons  had  prior  to  that  date 
surrendered  to  the  state  authorities  the  three  cannon  and  220 
stands  of  arms,  out  of  the  250  stands  that  they  had  been  fur- 
nished by  the  state  to  equip  their  militia.  On  June  27,  1845, 
when  Governor  Ford  was  in  Nauvoo  with  some  of  the  militia, 
a  mob  composed  of  disbanded  militiamen  with  blackened  faces 
made  arrangement  with  eight  men  belonging  to  the  militia  com- 
pany guarding  the  prisoners,  called  the  Carthage  Grays,  to  load 
their  guns  with  blank  cartridges  and  fire  these  blank  cartridges 


m 


c3 


C 


ILLINOIS  397 

when  the  militiamen  with  blackened  faces  appeared  to  kill  the 
prisoners.  Under  this  nefarious  scheme  the  disbanding  militia- 
men broke  into  the  jail  and  assassinated  both  Joseph  Smith  and 
his  brother  in  cold  blood.  It  was  the  blackest  and  foulest  crime 
ever  committed  in  Illinois  and  has  brought  more  disgrace  unto 
the  state  and  upon  its  officials  than  anything  that  has  ever 
occurred  in  the  history  of  the  state.  Governor  Ford  and  his 
staff  have  been  bitterly  criticized  for  acts  and  omissions  in 
connection  with  the  disgraceful  affair.  A  state  that  will  give 
through  its  governor  assurance  of  life  and  protection  to  a  person 
who  surrenders  himself  to  the  governor  of  such  a  state  upon 
such  an  assurance  and  fails  to  keep  its  solemn  pledge  of  safety 
must  necessarily  fall  very  low  in  public  estimation.  Governor 
Ford  has  left  in  his  history  his  explanation  of  the  matter  which 
is  by  no  means  a  satisfactory  one.  He  lays  the  blame  upon  his 
treacherous  and  cowardly  subordinates,  but  it  shows  lack  of 
firmness,  decision  and  energy  on  his  part.  In  justice  to  him  who 
did  much  good  for  the  state  in  other  matters,  it  is  but  just  to 
give  his  version  of  the  matter,  which  extenuates  but  does  not 
wholly  relieve  him  from  all  responsibility. 

Governor  Ford  in  his  History  gives  in  substance  this  version 
of  the  unfortunate  affair:  On  June  27,  two  or  three  days  after 
the  surrender  of  the  Smith  brothers,  Governor  Ford  attended 
a  council  of  war  at  Carthage  to  determine  whether  or  not  the 
State  Militia,  numbering  some  1,700  men  under  arms,  should 
march  into  the  City  of  Nauvoo  to  search  for  counterfeit  money 
and  to  strike  terror  into  the  Mormons.  The  governor  had 
already  agreed  with  his  officers  to  take  this  course.  He  had 
intended  to  take  the  prisoners  along  with  him  and  his  troops 
into  Nauvoo,  but  was  dissuaded  by  his  officers  from  so  doing. 
At  the  conference  with  his  officers  on  the  morning  of  June  27, 
the  governor  had  changed  his  mind  with  reference  to  march- 
ing his  troops  into  Nauvoo.  He  had  only  1,700  men  and  only 
two  days'  provisions  and  he  was  reliably  informed  that  the 
Mormons  in  Nauvoo  could  muster  2,000  well-armed  men  in  case 
of  conflict.  A  majority  of  his  officers  at  the  conference  on  June 
27  advised  him  to  adhere  to  the  original  plan  and  march  the 
entire  body  of  the  state  militia  there  assembled  on  to  Nauvoo. 


398  ILLINOIS 

The  governor  overruled  them  and  as  commander-in-chief  or- 
dered all  the  troops  but  three  companies  disbanded  on  that  day. 
He  ordered  two  companies,  one  of  them  the  Carthage  Grays, 
to  remain  on  duty  and  guard  the  jail  at  Carthage  where  the 
Smiths  were  confined,  and  the  other  company,  commanded  by 
Captain  Dunn  he  retained  with  him  to  escort  him  to  Nauvoo. 
He  says:  "Although  I  knew  that  the  company  (the  Carthage 
Grays)  were  the  enemies  of  the  Smiths,  yet  I  had  confidence 
in  their  loyalty  and  integrity."  (P.  343.)  He  also  admits  that 
this  company  had  been  mutinous  a  few  days  before  and  "had 
behaved  badly  towards  the  brigadier-general  in  command." 
(Idem.,  p.  343.) 

Leaving  Brigadier  Deming  in  charge  of  the  two  companies 
at  Carthage  guarding  the  prisoners,  and  Captain  Smith  in 
charge  of  the  Carthage  Grays,  on  June  27  Governor  Ford, 
escorted  by  Captain  Dunn's  dragoons,  and  by  Colonel  Buck- 
master,  quartermaster-general,  left  for  Nauvoo.  When  only 
four  miles  from  Carthage,  "Colonel  Buckmaster  intimated  to 
me  a  suspicion  that  an  attack  would  be  made  upon  the 
jail."  (Idem.,  p.  345.)  Uninfluenced  by  this  communication 
the  governor  and  his  escort  continued  on  the  way  to  Nauvoo.  A 
contingent  of  the  Warsaw  militia,  on  the  way  to  their  appointed 
rendezvous,  received  the  governor's  orders  to  disband.  Disap- 
pointed and  enraged  thereby,  about  200  of  these  soldiers  black- 
ened their  faces  and  started  towards  Carthage,  where  they  en- 
camped. Here  they  learned  that  one  of  the  companies  left  in 
Carthage  to  guard  the  prisoners  had  disbanded  and  returned 
to  their  homes.  The  other  company,  the  Carthage  Grays,  was 
encamped  on  the  public  square  of  Carthage  a  few  hundred 
yards  away  from  the  jail.  Only  eight  soldiers  were  left  in  or 
about  the  jail  to  guard  the  prisoners.  These  eight  were  in  a 
conspiracy  with  the  black-faced  militiamen  to  permit  the  killing 
of  the  prisoners  by  firing  blank  cartridges  at  the  assailing  mob. 
As  the  result  of  cowardice  or  connivance,  Brigadier-General 
Dement  was  out  of  town,  and  Captain  Smith  of  the  Carthage 
Grays  nowhere  to  be  found. 

Governor  Ford  did  much  that  entitles  him  to  the  gratitude 
of  the  state  in  sustaining  her  honor  and  integrity  in  a  great 


ILLINOIS  399 

financial  crisis,  in  averting  from  her  the  disgrace  of  repudiation 
of  her  debts,  and  in  dragging  her  out  of  the  morass  of  weird 
and  wild  speculative  adventure,  and  in  nobly  responding  to 
the  call  of  the  nation  in  the  Mexican  war,  but  he  lost  much 
prestige  by  his  handling  of  the  Mormon  outbreak.  He  was  sur- 
rounded by  traitors  and  incompetents  and  his  personal  presence 
on  the  scene  failed  to  instill  into  them  any  sense  of  duty  to  him 
as  their  governor  and  leader,  or  of  loyalty  or  respect  for  their 
state.  The  only  rational  explanation  of  the  whole  disgraceful 
affair  is  that  the  entire  atmosphere  of  that  part  of  the  state 
at  that  time  was  charged  with  the  malignancy  of  religious 
fanaticism  and  hatred,  such  as  in  other  times  and  at  other 
places  have  disgraced  some  of  the  most  progressive  nations  of 
the  world;  such  as  recently  brought  humiliation  and  disgrace 
upon  Great  Britain  in  Palestine ;  and  such  as  at  times  humiliate 
the  decent,  fair-minded  citizens  of  our  own  country  when  hooded 
and  masked  men  attempt  by  violence  to  deprive  American  cit- 
izens of  their  lives  and  liberty  or  their  constitutional  and  polit- 
ical rights  in  the  United  States  of  America. 

After  the  tragic  death  of  Joseph  Smith  and  Hyrum  Smith, 
bitter  controversy  arose  in  the  Mormon  Church  as  to  the  lead- 
ership of  the  cult.  In  the  earliest  days  the  church  was  under 
the  presidency  of  Joseph  Smith,  Hyrum  Smith  and  Sidney  Rig- 
don  who  controlled  the  management  of  the  church.  Joseph 
Smith  and  Hyrum  Smith  being  dead  Rigdon  proposed  that  the 
church  abandon  Nauvoo  and  remove  to  Pittsburg.  He  par- 
ticularly desired  all  the  wealthy  Mormons  to  move  in  that  city 
and  claimed  that  he  had  a  revelation  to  that  effect  and  that  it 
must  be  obeyed.  While  he  was  making  this  contention  apostles 
engaged  in  missionary  journeys  in  the  different  states  and  coun- 
tries in  the  world  began  to  return  to  Nauvoo  and  proposed  that 
the  apostles  from  this  time  on  should  control  the  church  as  they 
did  after  the  death  of  Christ. 

Brigham  Young,  one  of  the  shrewdest  and  ablest  of  the 
apostles,  now  put  forth  the  claim  that  he  was  the  Peter  of  the 
twelve  apostles.  His  contention  prevailed  and  missionaries  were 
sent  to  the  four  corners  of  the  world  to  tell  of  the  death  of  the 
martyred  Joseph.     They  carried  out  this  purpose  with  such 


400  ILLINOIS 

zeal  that  it  was  shortly  contended  that  there  were  between  a 
quarter  and  a  half  million  people  adhering  to  the  Mormon  faith. 

While  the  conflict  between  Rigdon  and  his  friends  on  one 
side,  and  the  twelve  apostles  upon  the  other  side,  was  continued, 
there  was  constant  signs  of  disintegration.  After  Rigdon  was 
defeated  by  the  apostles,  the  wife  of  Joseph  made  claims  of 
primacy  in  behalf  of  her  young  son,  Joseph  Smith,  and  her 
claims  were  supported  by  William  Smith,  a  younger  brother 
of  the  deceased  prophet.  Brigham  Young  and  his  friends,  how- 
ever, finally  prevailed  and  William  Smith  was  excluded  from 
membership  in  the  church. 

The  question  of  removal  from  Illinois  now  arose  among  the 
apostles,  some  favoring  Texas,  others  Oregon  and  others  the 
borders  of  Mexico.  The  apostles  now  claimed  that  a  revelation 
had  been  made  to  them  under  which  they  were  not  permitted 
to  leave  Nauvoo  until  the  temple  was  completed. 

The  Gentiles  of  Hancock  County  and  the  surrounding  terri- 
tory, in  the  meantime,  were  becoming  very  impatient  over  the 
dilatory  movements  of  the  Mormons.  New  converts  began  to 
arrive  in  Nauvoo  and  the  city  had  a  population  of  from  eighteen 
to  twenty  thousand  inhabitants.  The  Mormons  appealed  to  the 
governor  to  bring  the  murderers  of  the  Smiths  to  trial.  The 
Gentiles  kept  clamoring  for  the  expulsion  of  the  Mormons.  An 
election  took  place  in  1844  and  the  Mormons  voted  solidly  for 
the  Democratic  candidates.  This  greatly  annoyed  the  Whigs 
and  the  Whig  leaders  sent  out  an  invitation  to  the  militia  cap- 
tains of  Hancock  County  and  adjoining  counties  requesting  them 
to  report  in  the  neighborhood  of  Nauvoo  to  carry  on  a  great 
"wolf  hunt."  The  wolf  hunters  began  assembling  in  Hancock 
County  for  the  purpose  of  attacking  the  Mormon  wolves  and 
the  situation  became  critical.  Governor  Ford  ordered  Brigadier- 
General  Hardin,  Colonel  Baker,  Merriman  and  Weatherford  to 
raise  500  troops  and  hold  themselves  in  readiness  to  proceed  to 
Hancock  County.  The  governor  himself  went  into  Hancock 
County  and  took  command,  whereupon  many  of  the  anti-Mor- 
mon wolf  hunters,  including  the  Carthage  Grays,  left  Hancock 
County.  Some  of  those  charged  with  the  murder  of  the  Smiths 
returned  to  Hancock  County  and  offered  to  stand  trial.     They 


ILLINOIS  401 

were  placed  on  trial  but  declared  not  guilty.  The  alleged  trial 
was  a  mere  farce.  All  persons  friendly  to  the  Mormons  were 
excluded  from  the  court  and  neighborhood.  Several  hundred 
armed  men  filled  the  courtyard  and  the  courtroom.  The  judge 
and  governor  were  both  powerless  to  enforce  the  law. 

In  the  fall  of  1845  the  homes  of  many  Mormons  in  Han- 
cock County  were  burned  and  the  occupants  forced  from  their 
homes.  The  governor  saw  that  it  was  impossible  to  execute 
the  law  in  Hancock  County  and  knowing  that  the  Mormons  were 
contemplating  moving  to  a  new  location,  advised  the  Mormon 
leaders  to  act  promptly  and  withdraw  from  the  state.  The  gov- 
ernor left  General  Hardin  in  Nauvoo  as  his  representative  and 
he,  General  Hardin,  finally  reached  an  agreement  with  the  Mor- 
mons, which  provided  that  the  state  would  cease  prosecutions 
of  the  Mormons  if  the  Mormons  would  leave  the  state  on  or 
before  the  spring  of  1846. 

In  February,  1846,  between  2,000  or  3,000  crossed  from 
Nauvoo  to  the  Iowa  side  of  the  Mississippi  on  the  ice  and  started 
westward.  In  the  course  of  the  following  summer  16,000  had 
crossed  the  Mississippi  into  Iowa.  All  of  the  Mormons  had 
departed  except  a  thousand  people  who  had  come  to  Nauvoo 
but  recently  who  were  not  able  to  dispose  of  their  property.  Not 
withholding  this  hegira  an  armed  conflict  between  250  Mormon 
soldiers  and  800  well  armed  citizens  took  place  during  the  year 
1846.  The  engagement,  however,  was  by  artillery  at  long 
range,  which  continued  for  a  day  or  two. 

A  compromise  was  finally  reached  under  which  the  Mor- 
mons agreed  to  lay  down  their  arms  and  leave  the  city  for  the 
Iowa  side  of  the  river.  The  temple  was  completed  in  the  fall 
of  1846.  There  had  been  some  sort  of  a  revelation  that  the 
saints  should  not  leave  Nauvoo  until  the  temple  was  completed. 
It  fell  to  the  lot  of  a  few  Mormons  under  this  alleged  revelation 
to  hold  at  bay  the  belligerent  Gentiles  until  the  temple  was 
finished. 

Thus  came  to  an  end  the  stormy  political,  religious  and  re- 
bellious career  of  the  Mormon  Church  in  the  State  of  Illinois. 
While  its  claim  for  inspiration  from  on  High  through  Joseph 
Smith  and  its  oft-asserted  revelations  from  the  Deity  to  Smith 


402  ILLINOIS 

appeared  to  the  ordinary,  sane  citizen  not  only  improbable  but 
dishonest  and  self-serving;  it  nonetheless  attracted  the  atten- 
tion and  secured  the  belief  of  many  honest,  hard-working  men 
and  women  who  obeyed  its  sacerdotal  orders  implicitly.  Its 
management  and  discipline  were  of  such  a  character,  however, 
as  always  to  incur  the  dislike  and  ultimately  the  hatred  of  all 
their  Gentile  neighbors.  This  was  the  case  in  Ohio,  where  they 
first  located ;  in  Missouri,  where  they  settled  after  leaving  Ohio ; 
in  Illinois  during  their  stay  in  that  state,  and  in  Utah  for  a 
considerable  time  after  they  located  in  that  then-distant  terri- 
tory. 

It  was  their  aim  in  Illinois,  as  elsewhere,  to  establish  within 
its  civil  boundaries  and  civil  and  criminal  law  an  Imperium  in 
imperio.  Their  ambition  was  to  secure  within  the  boundaries 
of  their  own  property  and  city  "a  law  unto  themselves.,,  It  was 
their  aim  to  administer  within  their  own  territory  all  laws, 
civil,  criminal  and  ecclesiastical,  not  only  as  between  members 
of  their  church,  but  as  between  members  of  their  church  and 
Gentiles,  and  as  between  Gentiles  and  other  Gentiles  residing 
in  a  Mormon  town  or  city;  to  elect  their  own  judges,  city  offi- 
cials, police  and  even  their  own  militia.  This  necessarily  and 
inevitably  brought  on  a  contest  with  the  laws  of  the  state  and 
conflict  with  the  officials  of  the  state,  and  eventually  resulted 
in  their  expulsion  from  Illinois.  Their  experience  in  Ohio,  Mis- 
souri and  Illinois  induced  them  after  leaving  the  last-named 
state  to  abate  most  of  their  inordinate  aims  for  civic  sovereignty 
and  to  become  content  to  live  and  labor  subject  to  the  civil  and 
criminal  laws  of  the  state  within  which  they  wished  to  reside. 

On  May  11,  1846,  during  Governor  Ford's  administration, 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  at  the  request  of  President 
Polk,  declared  war  on  Mexico.  The  English-speaking  people  of 
Texas  in  1836,  then  a  component  part  of  the  Republic  of  Mex- 
ico, had  revolted  from  Mexican  rule,  and  by  heroic  fighting 
against  much  more  numerous  armies  of  Mexicans  in  the  battles 
at  Gonzales,  San  Antonio  and  San  Jacinto  had  succeeded  in 
establishing  the  Republic  of  Texas.  Shortly  afterwards,  the 
inhabitants  of  this  new  republic  agitated  for  the  annexation  of 
Texas  to  the  United  States.     The  demand  for  annexation  was 


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(From  Illinois  Blue  Book.) 


404  ILLINOIS 

overwhelming  in  Texas,  but  public  opinion  in  the  United  States 
was,  for  a  time,  divided  upon  the  expediency  thereof.  The 
Texans  claimed  the  Rio  Grande  River  as  the  southerly  dividing 
line  between  their  country  and  Mexico,  while  Mexico  claimed  all 
property  south  of  the  Nueces  River.  The  Mexican  government 
by  proclamation  stated  that  it  would  regard  the  annexation  of 
Texas  by  the  United  States  as  an  act  of  hostility.  The  Demo- 
crats, particularly  those  in  the  South,  were  almost  unanimous 
for  annexation.  Polk,  then  candidate  for  the  presidency  in  1844, 
having  been  successful  over  Clay,  the  Whig  idol,  and  Tyler,  the 
Whig  President  whose  term  of  office  was  about  to  expire,  con- 
strued the  election  as  a  popular  mandate  for  annexation  and 
made  haste  to  recommend  to  Congress  that  Texas  be  annexed 
by  a  joint  resolution  of  Congress  or  through  a  treaty.  Con- 
gress passed  the  joint  resolution,  but  many  senators  expressed 
their  preference  for  a  treaty  and  it  was  believed  that  Polk,  when 
inaugurated,  would  negotiate  a  treaty  with  Texas.  President 
Tyler,  however,  decided  that  his  administration  should  not  be 
deprived  of  the  honor  of  adding  so  great  a  territory  to  the 
domain  of  the  United  States  and  before  his  term  expired  he 
forwarded  the  joint  resolution  of  Congress  to  the  Congress  of 
Texas,  which  was  promptly  approved  by  the  Texans  and  July  4, 
1845  the  Republic  of  Texas  became  a  part  of  the  United  States. 
Shortly  after  the  adoption  of  the  joint  resolution  by  the 
United  States  Congress,  the  Mexican  minister  demanded  his 
passports,  and  not  long  thereafter  the  American  minister  left 
Mexico  and  war  betwen  the  countries  became  inevitable.  War 
having  been  declared,  Congress  authorized  the  President  (Polk) 
to  call  for  50,000  volunteers  and  appropriated  $10,000,000  for 
the  prosecution  of  the  war.  The  50,000  troops  were  apportioned 
among  the  states,  but  were  mostly  drawn  from  the  South  and 
West.  Illinois  was  authorized  to  mobilize  three  regiments,  or 
3,000  men.  Governor  Ford  issued  his  general  order  as  com- 
mander-in-chief in  Illinois,  calling  for  3,000  volunteers.  Dur- 
ing the  Mormon  trouble  the  militia  had  become  badly  disor- 
ganized. The  governor  directed  the  sheriffs  to  convene  the  old 
militia  organization  in  each  county  and  add  to  the  number  those 
who  responded  the  names  of  all  volunteers  in  each  county,  an- 


ILLINOIS  405 

nouncing  at  the  same  time  that  the  first  companies  assembling 
eighty  men  to  the  company  would  be  accepted  and  enrolled  in 
the  order  of  their  reports  until  the  state's  quota  was  completed. 
Within  ten  days  more  than  the  state's  quota  reported  to  the 
governor  and  by  June  15  forty  companies  over  the  Illinois  quota 
were  offered  for  enrollment.  Alton  was  selected  as  the  place  of 
rendezvous  and  all  of  the  companies  reported  there  for  duty 
and  assignment.  Three  regiments  were  promptly  organized,  the 
first  commanded  by  Col.  John  J.  Hardin,  the  second  by  Col. 
William  H.  Bissell  (afterwards  governor  of  Illinois)  and  the 
third  by  Col.  Ferris  Foreman.  Although  only  three  regiments 
were  called  by  the  President  from  Illinois,  a  fourth  was  ready 
and  waiting  for  enrollment.  Largely  by  the  insistence  of  Con- 
gressman Edward  D.  Baker,  the  fourth  regiment  was  accepted 
and  enrolled,  and  he,  Baker,  was  commissioned  as  its  colonel. 

The  people  of  Illinois  had  become  well  acquainted  with  many 
of  the  generals  and  other  commanding  officers  who  led  them 
during  the  war  with  Mexico,  in  the  Black  Hawk  war.  Among 
them  were  Gen.  Zachary  Taylor,  Col.  Jefferson  Davis,  Gen. 
W.  S.  Harney,  General  Twiggs,  E.  D.  Baker,  Albert  Sidney 
Johnston  and  Joseph  E.  Johnston.  All  of  them  had  seen  service 
in  the  Black  Hawk  war,  most  of  them  as  junior  officers.  The 
First  and  Second  regiments  of  Illinois  troops  left  Alton  July  17, 
18  and  19  and  reached  San  Antonio  about  August  23,  where 
they  remained  until  September  26,  under  command  of  General 
Wool.  Later  on  they  crossed  the  Rio  Grande  into  Mexico  and 
reached  Saltillo,  Mexico,  where  they  were  joined  by  General 
Taylor's  army  of  4,000  men.  Near  that  point,  at  Buena  Vista, 
February  22,  1847,  was  fought  the  celebrated  battle  of  that 
name.  The  Americans  engaged  numbered  about  5,000,  while  the 
Mexicans  were  three  or  four  times  their  number.  The  Illinois 
troops,  first  and  second  regiments,  distinguished  themselves  in 
that  battle  and  contributed  most  materially  to  the  great  Ameri- 
can victory.  The  total  loss  on  the  American  side  was  killed 
264,  wounded  482.  The  Mexican  loss  was  about  2,500.  The 
first  regiment  lost,  including  Hardin,  twenty-nine  killed  and 
sixteen  wounded;  the  second  regiment  lost  in  killed  sixty-two, 
and  wounded  sixty-nine. 


406  ILLINOIS 

The  Third  and  Fourth  regiments  of  Illinois  troops  left  in 
July,  and  via  New  Orleans  reached  Camargo,  on  the  Rio  Grande, 
in  time  to  meet  Gen.  Winfield  Scott  and  his  army  at  that  place. 
Here  the  commanding  general  made  the  Third  and  Fourth  Illi- 
nois regiments  and  one  New  York  regiment  into  a  brigade  and 
placed  Gen.  James  Shields  of  Illinois  in  command. 

General  Worth  arrived  at  Cerro  Gordo  and  joined  the  forces 
under  General  Twiggs  and  General  Patterson.  At  this  place 
they  met  General  Santa  Anna  commanding  15,000  seasoned 
troops  who  had  arrived  from  Buena  Vista.  General  Scott  deemed 
the  position  occupied  by  Santa  Anna  almost  impregnable,  and  or- 
dered a  cutting  of  a  road  in  the  rear  of  the  Mexican  position. 
This  duty  was  assigned  to  the  Illinois  troops  and  the  work  was 
accomplished  with  great  skill.  It  required  the  carrying  of 
batteries  across  a  deep  chasm  and  the  placing  of  these  batteries 
on  hills  commanding  the  enemy's  position.  The  duty  was  as- 
signed to  Gen.  James  Shields'  brigade  composed  of  the  Third  Illi- 
nois, Col.  Ferris  Foreman  commanding,  Fourth  Illinois,  Col.  E. 
D.  Baker  commanding,  and  a  regiment  from  New  York.  Under 
the  direction  of  General  Shields  the  brigade  lowered  the  cannon 
down  on  the  rear  side  of  the  gorge  by  strong  ropes  and  pulled 
them  up  on  the  farther  side.  During  the  night  time  the  Illinois 
troops  under  Shields  succeeded  in  placing  the  batteries  in  posi- 
tion to  command  the  rear  of  Santa  Anna's  entrenchments.  On 
the  following  day  the  battle  was  won  and  the  Mexicans  were 
in  full  retreat.  In  the  midst  of  the  battle  General  Shields  was 
wounded  with  a  grape-shot  through  his  lungs.  The  wound  was 
so  severe  that  he  was  reported  dead  and  his  obituary  was  printed 
in  several  papers.  Almost  by  a  miracle  he  survived  the  serious 
wound,  to  become  afterwards  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Illinois  and  United  States  senator  from  three  different  states, 
Illinois,  Missouri  and  Minnesota. 

The  American  loss  in  the  battle  of  Cerro  Gordo  was  417,  64 
being  killed  and  353  wounded.  General  Twiggs  in  his  report  of 
the  battle  of  Cerro  Gordo  declares:  "The  gallant  troops  of 
Illinois  shared  to  no  inconsiderable  extent  in  the  dangers,  toils, 
and  hardships  as  their  large  ratio  of  losses  attest,  and  their 


ILLINOIS  407 

heroic  deeds  have  reflected  imperishable  honor  and  glory  upon 
our  state." 

The  Fifth  and  Sixth  regiments  from  Illinois  were  organized 
and  sent  to  the  front  but  were  unfortunate  in  not  being  able 
to  participate  in  any  of  the  active  battles  of  the  campaign  al- 
though always  ready  and  eager  so  to  do. 

In  the  Mexican  war  Illinois  furnished  6,123  volunteers  and 
suffered  a  loss  of  80  killed,  12  died  of  wounds  and  160  wounded. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII 

THE  STATE  ADOPTS  A  NEW  CONSTITUTION  IN  1848 

In  the  two  decades  between  1830  and  1850  the  population 
of  Illinois  was  growing  by  leaps  and  bounds.  In  1820  it  had 
within  its  borders  only  55,162  souls.  In  1830  it  had  157,445,  in 
1840  it  had  476,183  and  in  1850,  851,470.  With  commensurate 
rapidity  it  was  developing  its  agriculture,  commerce,  industry 
and  education.  Frontier  life,  with  its  homespun  clothes  and 
home-made  implements  and  vehicles,  and  its  uneducated  chil- 
dren, was  being  replaced  by  a  more  comfortably-clothed  and 
better-equipped  mode  of  life,  where  children  were  receiving  at 
least  a  rudimentary  education.  Thousands  of  well-educated 
men  and  women  were  moving  into  the  state  and  bringing  with 
them  some  of  the  comforts  and  atmosphere  of  civilized  life. 

The  Constitution  of  1818  was  adopted  hastily  and  hastily 
approved  by  Congress,  and  without  prescience  of  future  growth 
and  requirements.  It  was  not  submitted  to  the  people  of  the 
territory  for  their  approval.  By  1840  its  defects  and  limita- 
tions began  to  be  felt,  and  agitation  started  for  a  constitutional 
convention  which  would  frame  a  new  fundamental  law  more  in 
accordance  with  the  needs  and  requirements  of  the  day.  The 
first  effort  to  secure  such  a  convention  in  1842  was  a  failure, 
the  popular  vote  having  failed  to  respond  to  the  call.  In  1846, 
however,  the  public  voted  decisively  for  a  new  constitution  and 
elected  162  delegates  to  the  same.  By  occupation  these  dele- 
gates were  fairly  representative  of  the  people  of  the  state  at  that 
time.  Seventy-six  of  them  were  farmers,  and  strange  to  say 
there  were  only  fifty-four  of  them  lawyers.  Most  of  the  dele- 
gates were  Democrats,  but  on  the  whole  the  constitution  of  1848 
was  so  free  from  political  bias  that  it  was  supported  at  the 
election  called  for  adoption  by  the  great  body  of  the  people,  both 
Whig  and  Democratic.    Only  six  small  and  uninfluential  papers 

408 


Owen  Lovejoy 

Abolitionist  leader  and  brother  of  the  martyr,  Elijah  P.  Lovejoy. 


410  ILLINOIS 

in  the  state  opposed  the  adoption  of  the  proposed  constitution 
and  these  papers  were  supported  only  by  the  judges  in  office 
and  a  few  of  their  friends  and  appointees.  The  constitutional 
convention  was  in  session  for  about  three  months  and  the  con- 
stitution as  framed  was  adopted  by  the  people  by  an  over- 
whelming majority.  Tried  by  experience,  there  were  several 
defects  in  the  constitution  of  1818  which  inspired  and  brought 
about  the  holding  of  a  constitutional  convention.  One  of  these 
defects  was  the  method  of  the  selection  of  the  judges  of  the 
state.  Under  the  Constitution  of  1818  the  judges  were  selected 
by  the  Legislature  and  not  by  the  people.  This  method  had,  in 
the  judgment  of  the  people,  injected  politics  and  political  bias 
into  the  decisions  of  the  courts  and  in  reprisal  for  same  had 
injected  politics  into  the  selection  of  judges  into  the  Legislature. 
The  McClernand-Field  case  and  the  attempt  of  the  Whig  judges 
to  disfranchise  legal  voters  were  still  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the 
people  when  they  ordered  a  constitutional  convention  and  their 
delegates  in  that  convention  made  the  judiciary  of  the  state 
elective  by  popular  vote  so  that  in  the  future  a  judge  evincing 
political  bias  on  the  bench  could  be  punished  by  the  people  by 
driving  him  from  the  bench  at  the  next  election.  The  convention 
went  further  to  insure  control  of  all  officials  by  the  people  at 
the  ballot  box.  The  new  constitution  made  all  state  and  county 
officials  elective  by  popular  vote.  Having  before  them  the  calam- 
itous internal  improvement  and  bank  laws  recently  passed  by 
the  Legislature,  which  had  bogged  the  state  in  a  morass  of 
enormous  indebtedness,  the  constitutional  convention  prohib- 
ited the  state  from  incurring  any  indebtedness  exceeding  "$50,- 
000  to  meet  casual  deficits  or  failure  in  revenues."  It  pro- 
vided further  that  all  appropriations  must  be  made  by  the  Legis- 
lature for  the  ordinary  and  contingent  expenses — the  aggre- 
gate amount  of  which  shall  not  exceed  the  amount  of  revenue 
authorized  by  law  to  be  raised  during  the  period  for  which  the 
appropriations  were  made.  To  prevent  the  revival  or  extension 
of  the  charter  for  the  state  bank  or  any  other  bank  then  in  the 
state,  the  constitution  contained  a  provision  expressly  prohib- 
iting same.  To  further  clinch  matters  of  that  character  the 
constitution  declared  "the  credit  of  the  state  shall  not  in  any 


ILLINOIS  411 

manner  be  given  to  or  in  aid  of  any  individuals,  association  or 
corporations. " 

To  prevent  the  raising  of  the  cry  of  "repudiation"  in  the 
future,  the  constitution  provided  for  a  two-mill  tax,  the  proceeds 
of  which  were  to  be  used  exclusively  for  the  payment  of  the 
state  indebtedness.  Appalled,  evidently,  by  the  enormous  ex- 
travagance of  legislation  in  the  past,  the  convention  in  its 
strenuous  urge  for  economy  in  the  future  went  to  a  ridiculous 
extreme  in  fixing  the  salaries  of  public  officials.  It  fixed  sal- 
aries as  follows:  For  the  governor,  $1,500  per  annum;  state 
auditor,  $1,000;  state  treasurer,  $800;  judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  $1,200;  and  Circuit  Court,  $1,000.  The  number  of  the 
members  of  the  Legislature  was  cut  to  100,  or  twenty-five  sen- 
ators and  seventy-five  representatives,  who  were  to  be  paid  $2 
per  day  while  in  session  for  forty-two  days  and  $1  per  day  if 
the  session  lasted  over  forty-two  days.  How  the  State  of  Illinois 
under  the  Constitution  of  1848  was  able  to  secure  able  and  honest 
public  officials  to  accept  office  and  perform  intelligently  and 
effectively  their  official  duties  is  a  mystery. 

The  Constitution  of  1848  was  adopted  by  the  people  by  a 
vote  of  49,060  affirmative  against  20,883  negative. 

The  delegates  to  the  Constitutional  Convention  numbered 
162,  of  whom  ninety-two  were  Democrats  and  seventy  were 
Whigs.  The  convention  met  at  Springfield  on.  June  7,  1847. 
Its  most  prominent  members  were :  John  M.  Palmer,  lawyer  and 
soldier,  afterwards  elected  governor  and  United  States  senator 
from  Illinois;  Zadoc  Casey,  afterwards  elected  lieutenant-gov- 
ernor and  member  of  Congress  from  Illinois;  Walter  B.  Scates, 
judge  of  the  Circuit  Court  and  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois; 
David  Davis,  afterwards  justice  of  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court  and  United  States  senator  from  Illinois;  John  Dement, 
soldier  in  the  Black  Hawk  war  who  served  in  three  constitutional 
conventions  in  1847,  1862  and  1870;  Anthony  Thornton,  after- 
wards member  of  Congress  and  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Illinois;  Samuel  D.  Lockwood,  attorney-general  of  Illinois  and 
member  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  same  state ;  and  Stephen  T. 
Logan,  eminent  lawyer  and  partner  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII 

ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOVERNOR  FRENCH 

Augustus  C.  French  was  elected  governor  on  the  Democratic 
ticket  in  1846  over  his  Whig  competitor,  Thomas  L.  Kilpatrick, 
by  a  vote  of  67,453  to  58,700  and  gave  a  wise  and  business-like 
administration  to  the  state.  He  was  a  man  of  high  character, 
who  was  left  an  orphan  before  he  was  twenty  years  old,  with 
the  responsibility  of  educating  and  caring  for  four  younger 
brothers,  which  burden  he  cheerfully  assumed  and  splendidly 
carried  out.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  and  became  a  very 
successful  lawyer,  served  with  credit  in  the  Illinois  Legislature, 
and  was  appointed  receiver  of  public  monies  by  the  Land  Office 
at  Palestine.  He  enjoyed  the  friendship  of  Douglas,  which 
doubtless  helped  him  to  his  nomination  and  election.  Upon  his 
induction  into  office  he  found  the  state  heavily  indebted  as  a 
result  of  the  disastrous  experiments  with  "general  internal  im- 
provements" made  by  the  Legislature  during  former  adminis- 
trations. This  indebtedness  amounted  to  many  millions,  and 
four  years'  interest  thereon,  amounting  to  about  another  million 
dollars. 

Under  his  administration  the  new  Constitution  of  1848  was 
adopted,  and  in  this  constitution  there  was  a  provision  for  the 
levying  of  a  two-mill  tax  to  be  applied  to  the  principal  of  this 
great  debt.  He  wisely  recommended  to  the  Legislature  the  fund- 
ing of  the  debt,  and  as  there  was  a  widespread  belief  that  there 
were  many  counterfeit  bonds  afloat,  he  recommended  the  calling 
in  and  verification  of  all  the  state's  bonds,  their  cancellation,  and 
the  issuance  of  new  bonds  to  replace  those  found  to  be  valid. 
The  old  bonds  had  not  been  registered  and  the  new  bonds  were 
registered  and  numbered.  Both  principal  and  accrued  interest 
on  the  old  valid  bonds  were  funded  into  the  new  issue.    In  1850 

412 


Courtesy  H.  W.  Fay,  Springfield. 

Augustus  C.  French,  Governor  1846-53 


414  ILLINOIS 

Governor  French  stated  that  the  total  indebtedness  was  $16,627,- 
509,  and  that  most  of  it  had  then  been  funded. 

The  war  with  Mexico  continued  during  Governor  French's 
term.  With  much  energy  and  zeal  he  responded  to  the  Govern- 
ment's call  for  troops  and  forwarded  the  ardent  volunteers  to 
the  battle  front  with  commendable  celerity.  So  efficient  and 
satisfactory  did  Governor  French's  administration  prove  to  be, 
that  when  the  provision  of  the  new  Constitution  of  1848  legis- 
lated him  out  of  office,  the  people  demanded  his  reelection.  Prac- 
tically without  opposition,  he  was  nominated  and  reelected  for 
a  four-year  term,  commencing  January,  1849,  and  ending  Jan- 
uary, 1853. 

In  1849,  under  French's  administration,  Sidney  Breese's 
term  in  the  United  States  Senate  expired,  and  a  contest  arose 
in  the  Legislature  as  to  whom  would  succeed  him.  Breese  was 
a  candidate  for  reelection.  His  competitors  were  John  A.  Mc- 
Clernand  and  Gen.  James  Shields,  the  hero  from  Illinois  des- 
perately wounded  in  the  Mexican  war.  Shields  was  successful 
and  elected  by  the  Legislature,  but  a  question  arose  as  to  his 
eligibility  because  of  his  being  a  native  of  Ireland.  A  special 
session  of  the  Legislature  was  called  and  his  ineligibility  was 
removed  by  law,  and  he  was  then  again  elected  to  the  United 
States  Senate  from  Illinois. 

In  1850  the  revenues  of  the  state  for  the  first  time  in  many 
years  exceeded  the  expenditures.  This  was  the  result  of  increase 
in  revenue  from  the  two-mill  tax  under  the  new  constitution,  the 
one  and  one-quarter-mill  tax  under  the  old  constitution,  legis- 
lation in  Congress  making  all  lands  in  the  state  conveyed  to 
private  owners  amenable  to  state  taxation,  and  the  tremendous 
increase  of  the  value  of  land  during  the  preceding  five  years. 
The  taxable  value  of  property  in  the  state  in  1850  was  over 
$100,000,000.  Under  French's  administration  in  1850,  the  con- 
gressional land  grant  to  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  was  passed 
and  the  railroad  was  incorporated,  though  it  was  not  built  until 
six  years  afterwards.  Governor  French  was  the  first  governor 
of  the  State  of  Illinois  to  succeed  himself  in  that  office. 

Since  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  1848  all  governors 
of  Illinois  have  been  elected  in  November  and  inaugurated  in 
January. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX 

ILLINOIS  BECOMES  PROMINENT  IN  THE  POLITICS  OF 

THE  NATION 

In  the  history  of  Illinois  we  now  come  to  the  year  1850,  a 
year  pregnant  with  a  political  issue  which  at  first  affrighted 
the  nation,  but  which  was  soon  amicably  disposed  of,  for  a  time 
at  least,  by  a  compromise  suggested  by  a  great  patriot  and 
revered  leader  of  the  Whig  party,  Henry  Clay,  heartily  approved 
of  by  the  greatest  statesman  of  his  day,  Daniel  Webster,  and 
launched  into  law  by  the  brilliant  and  patriotic  leader  of  the 
Democratic  party,  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  From  that  year  of 
1850  and  for  ten  years  thereafter,  Illinois  furnished  the  stage 
upon  which  the  politics  of  the  nation  were  enacted,  and  fur- 
nished the  two  leading  actors  in  the  political  drama  of  that 
decade.  The  history  of  Illinois  for  the  next  ten  to  fifteen  years 
becomes  the  history  of  the  United  States. 

The  question  of  the  extension  or  restriction  of  slavery  ap- 
peared in  the  United  States  in  formidable  and  belligerent  shape 
in  the  year  1850,  when  California  applied  for  admission  to 
statehood,  and  the  people  resident  in  the  far  Southwest  applied 
for  the  organization  of  Utah  and  New  Mexico  into  United. States 
territories.  All  of  this  wide  domain  had  been  acquired  by 
treaty  from  Mexico  but  recently,  and  its  residents  demanded 
some  sort  of  Federal  law  for  their  protection  and  government. 
California  was  rich,  prosperous  and  ready  for  statehood,  and 
part  of  California  and  New  Mexico,  and  all  of  Utah,  were  north 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise  parallel.  When  their  applications 
for  membership  came  before  Congress  the  representatives  from 
the  Northern  states  demanded  that  any  law  admitting  California 
to  statehood  or  organizing  Utah  and  New  Mexico  into  terri- 
torial government  should  provide  that  slavery  should  never  be 

415 


416 


ILLINOIS 


permitted  within  their  boundaries.  Congressmen  from  South- 
ern states  forcibly  protested,  and  thus,  in  1850,  the  subject  of 
slavery  was  raised  to  exorcise  and  torment  the  nation  and  to 
embitter  the  North  and  South  against  each  other. 

As  we  have  heretofore  seen,  when  the  confederacy  of  the 
thirteen  colonies  was  formed  to  wage  the  War  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, slavery  existed  in  more  or  less  degree  in  all  of  them.  The 
slave  trade  was  in  full  blast,  under  the  approval  of  the  British 
king  and  was  carried  on  between  Africa  and  the  colonies  by 
the  vessels  and  mariners  of  New  England,  and  was  very  profit- 
able.    When  the  confederation  of  colonies  developed  into  the 


A  One  Hundred  Dollar  Canal  Scrip  Bill 


nation  of  the  United  States  of  America  and  adopted  a  constitu- 
tion, six  of  the  thirteen  states  had  laws  which  recognized,  en- 
couraged and  legalized  slavery,  and  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  was  so  framed  as  to  confirm  these  laws  in  these 
states  and  in  any  other  state  that  would  enact  slavery,  and  so 
as  to  prevent  the  general  Government  from  interfering  with 
these  slave  laws.  When  the  confederacy  of  the  colonies  was 
formed  in  1778  and  the  constitution  of  the  nation  was  adopted 
in  1787  slavery  had  existed  very  generally  throughout  the  civ- 
ilized world  and  had  flourished  for  two  centuries  in  the  New 
World.  In  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  the  slave 
trade  was  carried  on  very  extensively  by  British,  French,  Dutch, 
Danish  and  Portuguese  ship-owners.  The  Encyclopedia  Bri- 
tannica  states  that  "about  1790,  negro  slaves  were  exported  from 
Africa  annually  as  follows:     By  British,  38,000;  by  the  French 


ILLINOIS  417 

20,000 ;  by  the  Dutch  4,000 ;  by  the  Danes,  2,000 ;  by  the  Portu- 
guese 10,000;  total  74,000.  More  than  half  the  trade  was  in 
British  hands."  Most  of  these  slaves  went  to  the  American  col- 
onies and  the  West  Indies.  One-sixth  of  the  population  of  the 
colonies  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolutionary  war  was  com- 
posed of  black  slaves.  In  the  eighteenth  century  "there  grew 
up  a  direct  traffic  from  Africa  to  the  North  American  colonies 
in  colonial  vessels,  chiefly  owned  in  New  England  and  New 
York.  Newport  and  Bristol,  Rhode  Island,  were  the  noted  cen- 
ters of  the  trade."  (Ency.  America,  Vol.  XV,  in  chapter  on 
United  States  slavery.)     Eleventh  Edition,  1911. 

In  constructing  a  nation  out  of  the  confederated  colonies,  the 
Revolutionary  fathers  and  founders  of  the  nation  were  com- 
pelled to  recognize  that  human  slavery  was  in  existence  in  most 
of  the  thirteen  colonies  to  a  smaller  or  greater  degree,  and  that 
its  perpetuation  and  preservation  was  demanded  by  at  least  six 
of  the  thirteen  colonies  as  one  of  the  essential  elements  of  the 
nation's  fundamental  law.  To  the  men  and  women  of  our  day, 
living  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  twentieth  century,  when  human 
slavery  not  only  in  the  United  States  but  in  the  whole  civilized 
world  has  been  destroyed,  and  when  it  is  regarded  by  all  sane 
men  and  women  as  shocking  and  a  crime  against  both  God  and 
man,  it  seems  at  first  glance  that  these  nation-builders  of  1787 
were  lacking  not  only  in  the  instincts  of  humanity  and  justice, 
but  in  constructive  skill  and  far-seeing  wisdom,  in  consenting 
to  incorporate  into  the  constitution  of  the  nation,  provision  for 
the  perpetuation  of  slavery,  which  would  inevitably,  sooner  or 
later,  sap  its  foundation  and  wreck  the  whole  political  structure. 
That  a  nation  so  built  could  not  for  long  endure,  we  know.  Traf- 
fic in  human  flesh  and  the  ownership  of  human  bodies  could 
not  long  withstand  the  savage  onslaught  of  outraged  thinkers 
and  humanitarians. 

But  the  men  who  in  1787,  were  gathering  together  the  weak, 
war-worn  and  heavily  indebted  thirteen  colonies,  and  attempt- 
ing to  unite  them  in  one  great  nation,  and  were  confronted  by 
facts  and  a  situation  which  prevented  them  from  building  a  po- 
litical structure  of  white  marble.  Nearly  one-half  of  their  build- 
ing stone  was  black,  brown  or  yellow.    The  structure  had  to  be 


418  ILLINOIS 

built  or  the  colonies  would  be  homeless.  So  they  took  the  mate- 
rials they  had  and  placed  the  black  and  off-colored  stones  in  the 
foundation,  so  that  they  would  be  out  of  sight.  In  phrasing  the 
constitution  they  perpetuated  and  preserved  the  institution  of 
slavery  in  the  states,  but  soothed  their  qualms  of  conscience  by 
avoiding  the  use  of  the  specific  words  "Slave"  or  "Slavery"  in  the 
instrument.  They  placed  the  black  and  discolored  stones  in  the 
basement,  where  they  soon  began  to  rot  and  disintegrate.  Re- 
member, reader,  when  you  attempt  to  criticise  Washington,  Jef- 
ferson, Adams,  Monroe,  Hamilton,  Franklin,  Hancock  and  the 
other  great  men  of  that  day,  who  participated  in,  or  were  con- 
sulted in,  framing  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  that 
these  men  had  been  living  all  their  lives  in  communities  where 
human  slavery  had  existed  legally  for  over  two  centuries,  and  at 
a  time  when  the  most  civilized  and  progressive  nations  in  the 
world  were  trafficking  in  human  beings ;  that  they  had  just  suc- 
ceeded in  extricating  themselves  from  the  tyranny  of  a  king  who 
had  forced  the  Southern  colonies  to  invest  their  savings  in  human 
beings ;  and  that  no  nation  could  be  founded  unless  the  property 
rights  so  acquired  by  the  colonists  would  be  recognized  and  pro- 
tected. The  framers  of  the  Constitution  of  1787  were  con- 
fronted with  this  situation.  The  thirteen  colonies  could  not  con- 
tinue to  exist  as  thirteen  separate  nation  entities.  Most  of 
them  were  too  weak  in  both  population  and  resources.  It  re- 
quired the  united  action  of  the  thirteen,  with  the  assistance  of 
France,  then  the  most  powerful  rival  of  Great  Britain,  to  achieve 
their  independence.  Unless  the  thirteen  could  be  united  on  some 
basis,  two  confederations  or  nations  on  the  North  American  con- 
tinent were  inevitable.  The  six  colonies  from  Maryland  to 
Georgia,  inclusive,  whose  wealth  mainly  consisted  of  human 
beings  in  bondage,  would  form  a  confederation  or  nation  which 
would  secure  property  rights  in  their  slaves  and  thus  perpetuate 
slavery;  and  the  other  seven  colonies,  in  some  of  which  slavery 
existed  in  slight  form,  might  or  might  not  confederate  or  become 
a  nation  excluding  slaves  within  their  borders. 

The  statesmen  of  1787  were  philosophers  and  nation-builders, 
and  taking  into  consideration  their  surroundings  and  the  stub- 
born  facts   confronting  them,   they   acted   with   great  wisdom 


ILLINOIS  419 

and  patriotism,  and  built  up  the  foundations  for  the  greatest 
and  grandest  republic  yet  seen  in  the  world.  Nonetheless  the 
nation  so  builded  had  in  its  fundamental  law  the  seed  of  rebel- 
lion or  decay.  With  the  march  of  modern  progress  and  the 
advancement  of  civilization,  no  nation  could  long  maintain  peace 
within  its  borders  while  human  beings  within  its  laws  had  only 
the  legal  status  of  hogs  and  horses.  The  revolt  of  most  of  man- 
kind against  human  slavery  had  been  slow  in  coming,  but  by 
1830,  had  come  fast  and  furious  throughout  the  civilized  world. 
As  early  as  1462  the  Papacy  had  denounced  slavery  as  "a  great 
crime"  (magnus  scelus)  and  in  1815  Pius  VII  demanded  of  the 
Congress  of  Vienna  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade.  In  the 
same  year  Napoleon,  during  the  100  days  return  from  Elba, 
abolished  the  slave  trade  by  French  vessels.  The  government 
of  Buenos  Aires  abolished  slavery  for  all  born  after  January, 
1813,  and  the  Republic  of  Colombia  did  the  same  thing  in  1821. 
The  French  Government,  under  the  Restoration,  June  1,  1819, 
abolished  slavery  in  the  French  colonies,  the  Swedish  govern- 
ment stopped  the  slave  trade  in  1813,  and  the  Dutch  in  1814. 
In  1798  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  forbade  the  impor- 
tation of  slaves  into  the  United  States  after  1808.  Denmark 
was  the  first  European  nation  to  abolish  slavery.  The  royal 
decree  was  issued  in  1792  to  take  effect  in  1802.  In  1833,  Great 
Britain  abolished  slavery  in  its  colonies  and  voted  20,000,000 
pounds  as  compensation  to  the  owners  of  the  slaves.  Many  of 
the  Spanish-American  republics  upon  achieving  their  independ- 
ence abolished  slavery  within  their  territories.  In  1850x  when 
California  applied  for  admission  to  the  Union  as  a  free  state, 
and  Utah  and  New  Mexico  applied  for  organization  into  terri- 
tories, most  of  the  civilized  nations  of  the  world  had  either  to- 
tally abolished  slavery  or  taken  steps  for  its  early  extinction. 
By  this  time  the  conscience  of  the  civilized  world,  outside  of  the 
United  States,  Brazil  and  a  few  other  obscure  countries,  had 
revolted  against  the  further  continuance  or  legal  recognition  of 
human  slavery,  and  in  the  United  States  the  cry  of  the  Aboli- 
tionist was  shrill,  strident  and  far-reaching  throughout  the  land. 
At  this  juncture  the  State  of  Illinois  appears  upon  the  stage 
of  national  politics  and  from  thence  on  furnished  to  the  nation, 


420  ILLINOIS 

and  to  history,  in  the  persons  of  her  sons  and  statesmen  two 
of  American  history's  most  brilliant  and  powerful  characters 
from  the  year  1850  until  the  year  1865,  Abraham  Lincoln  and 
Stephen  A.  Douglas.  The  extension  or  restriction  of  slavery  in 
the  United  States  was  the  issue  and  Lincoln  and  Douglas  were 
the  leading  characters  who  would  discuss  and  settle  for  the 
nation  that  great  issue — Douglas  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States,  and  Lincoln  and  Douglas  upon  the  hustings  of  the  great 
State  of  Illinois. 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE     CONSTITUTION    AND    LAWS    OF    THE    UNITED 

STATES  ON  SLAVERY  WHEN  DOUGLAS 

BECAME  SENATOR  IN  1847 

When  last  we  had  to  refer  to  Stephen  A.  Douglas  as  one  of 
the  men  engaged  in  making  the  history  of  Illinois,  we  found 
him  and  his  great  compeer,  Abraham  Lincoln,  in  the  Legislature 
of  the  State  of  Illinois.  Both  of  them  were  there  engaged  in  re- 
sponse to  an  almost  unanimous  popular  demand  in  passing  laws 
providing  for  a  general  system  of  internal  public  improvements, 
which  involved  the  state  to  the  extent  of  many  millions  of  dollars 
and  which  eventually  proved  disastrous  to  the  Illinois  Common- 
wealth. All  this  occurred  under  the  administration  of  Governor 
Duncan. 

Soon  thereafter  we  find  Douglas  and  Lincoln,  when  not  at- 
tending to  their  duties  as  members  of  the  Legislature,  both  of 
them  engaged  in  a  large  and  growing  law  practice.  Douglas 
conducted  the  litigation  in  the  Supreme  Court  between  McCler- 
nand  and  Field  relating  to  the  right  of  the  governor  to  appoint 
a  secretary  of  state  and  a  representative  of  Illinois  in  the  lower 
house  of  Congress.  He  was  an  eloquent,  forceful  and  per- 
suasive pleader  in  the  courts.  Soon  thereafter  we  find  him  upon 
the  Supreme  bench  of  the  state.  In  1847  he  was  elected  United 
States  senator  for  six  years.  In  1853  he  was  again  elected  to 
the  same  honorable  position. 

While  holding  the  position  of  United  States  senator  in  1849 
and  1850  a  political  question  which  not  only  concerned  the  people 
of  the  State  of  Illinois,  but  the  people  of  the  whole  United 
States,  arose  for  determination  in  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States.  The  war  with  Mexico  had  been  concluded  and  in  1848 
a  treaty  of  peace  had  been  signed  between  the  Republic  of 

421 


The  Old  Supreme  Court  Building  in  Mount  Vernon 


ILLINOIS  423 

Mexico  and  the  United  States  of  America  under  which  enormous 
territory,  formerly  a  component  part  of  the  Mexican  Republic, 
including  Texas,  New  Mexico,  Arizona,  Utah,  Nevada  and  Cali- 
fornia were  transferred  and  surrendered  to  the  United  States 
of  America  by  the  Mexican  Republic. 

Shortly  after  the  signing  of  this  treaty  California  applied 
for  admission  to  the  Union  as  a  state  and  the  territories  of 
Mexico  and  Utah  applied  for  organization  into  territories  in 
1849.  At  this  juncture  the  people  of  the  Northern  states  were 
determined  to  prevent  the  spread  of  the  hated  institution  of 
slavery  to  any  of  the  Western  territory.  The  people  of  the 
Southern  states  seemed  desirous  to  insist  upon  the  right  of  the 
people  of  the  Western  territories  to  determine  their  status,  if 
admitted  as  states,  on  the  question  of  slavery.  Douglas  was 
then  a  senator  of  the  United  States.  He  and  his  Democratic 
friend  and  admirer,  Gen.  James  Shields,  represented  Illinois  in 
the  United  States  Senate. 

A  bitter  controversy  arose  on  the  question  as  to  whether  or 
not  slavery  should  be  excluded  from  or  tolerated  in  these  West- 
ern territories  and  Lincoln  and  Shields  in  the  United  States 
Senate  and  McClernand  in  the  lower  house,  all  Democrats,  were 
called  upon  to  act  officially  upon  this  momentous  question. 

Before  discussing  in  detail  the  specific  political  questions 
presented  to  Douglas  and  his  colleagues  and  their  action  thereon 
it  will  be  necessary  and  appropriate  to  go  back  in  history  and 
ascertain  the  status  of  slavery  under  the  constitution  and  laws 
of  the  United  States  of  America. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolutionary  war  against  Great 
Britain  negro  slavery  existed  in  all  of  the  thirteen  colonies, 
there  being  comparatively  few,  however,  of  these  unfortunates 
in  the  Northern  states.  The  negroes  were  illy  adapted  to  the 
rigors  of  the  Northern  climate  and  were  intensely  ignorant  and 
inefficient  as  laborers  on  small  farms  such  as  were  cultivated 
in  the  Northern  states.  In  the  South  large  plantations  were 
conducted  where  the  staple  crops  were  cotton,  tobacco  and  rice. 
In  the  North  slave  labor  was  less  profitable  and  negroes  were 
not  generally  used  except  for  domestic  occupations.  In  the  man- 
ufacturing industries  they  were  found  to  be  unintelligent  and 


424  ILLINOIS 

inefficient.  In  the  South,  owing  to  the  increase  in  large  cotton 
and  sugar  plantations  their  labor  was  quite  profitable  and  was 
regarded  as  an  economic  necessity. 

In  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  preceding  the  Revolu- 
tionary war,  certain  enunciations  were  made  with  reference 
to  the  rights  of  man  and  the  equality  of  man  under  the  law. 
Men  engaged  in  a  life  and  death  struggle  for  liberty,  it  was 
generally  understood,  ought  not  deny  to  their  fellow  human 
beings  equality  under  the  law  because  of  the  color  of  his  skin. 
The  slave  trade  had  been  in  existence  for  a  number  of  years 
prior  to  the  Revolutionary  war  and  over  300,000  black  men  and 
women  had  been  imported  into  the  colonies.  Before  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence  the  black  population  constituted  one- 
fifth  of  the  whole.  The  Continental  Congress  in  1774  took  the 
first  step  towards  the  extinction  of  slavery.  It  recommended 
the  non-importation  of  slaves  thereafter  into  the  thirteen  col- 
onies. Some  years  before  the  Revolution  the  colonies  had  mani- 
fested a  desire  to  prohibit  the  importation  of  negro  slaves,  but 
they  had  been  prevented  from  so  doing  by  the  greed  of  English 
merchants  and  had  been  prevented  from  stopping  the  slave 
trade  by  the  avarice  of  the  British  sovereigns  themselves,  who 
were  stockholders  in  the  Royal  African  Company,  then  engaged 
in  the  slave  trade  in  supplying  negro  slaves  to  the  American 
colonies.  To  prevent  legislation  in  the  colonies  against  the  slave 
trade  a  circular  was  addressed  to  the  colonial  governors,  ap- 
pointed by  the  Crown,  warning  them  against  presuming  to 
countenance  legislation  against  the  slave  trade. 

When  Thomas  Jefferson  drew  up  his  first  draft  of  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence  it  contained  this  charge  against  the 
King  of  England :  "He  has  prostituted  his  negative  for  suppress- 
ing every  legislative  attempt  to  prohibit  or  restrain  this  execra- 
ble commerce  and  has  waged  cruel  war  against  human  nature 
itself  violating  its  most  sacred  rights  in  the  person  of  a  distant 
people  who  had  never  offended  him."  This  original  draft  was 
afterwards  stricken  out  at  the  request  of  some  of  the  Southern 
members  of  the  convention  and  for  the  additional  reason,  as 
Jefferson  stated,  that  "our  Northern  brethren  felt  a  little  tender 
under  these  censures,  for,  though  their  people  had  very  few 


ILLINOIS  425 

slaves  themselves,  yet  they  had  been  pretty  considerable  carriers 
of  them  to  others." 

Shortly  thereafter  laws  were  passed  by  all  the  states,  except 
Georgia  and  South  Carolina,  either  prohibiting  the  further  im- 
portation of  negroes  or  discouraging  the  traffic  by  the  imposition 
of  a  heavy  duty.  The  Northern  states  went  further  and  passed 
acts  for  the  abolition  or  the  gradual  extinction  of  slavery.  Mas- 
sachusetts became  the  first  free  state  of  the  confederation.  Ver- 
mont took  like  action  and  it  was  followed  shortly  thereafter  by 
New  Hampshire  in  1783  and  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  in 
1784. 

At  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution 
slavery  had  been  either  abolished  or  put  in  a  process  of  extinc- 
tion in  all  of  the  Northern  states  excepting  New  York  and  New 
Hampshire.  The  Southern  states,  however,  took  no  legislative 
action,  although  many  of  their  eminent  men  expressed  them- 
selves personally  as  antagonistic  to  slavery.  Jefferson  declared 
in  1774  that  the  "abolition  of  slavery  is  the  great  object  of 
desire  in  the  colonies,"  and  again  in  1787  he  declared,  "I  tremble 
for  my  country  when  I  reflect  that  God  is  just  and  that  His 
justice  cannot  sleep  forever." 

Washington  in  a  letter  to  LaFayette  in  1783  congratulated 
him  on  purchasing  an  estate  in  Cayenne  with  a  view  to  emanci- 
pating the  slaves  on  it,  and  said,  "Would  to  God  a  like  spirit 
might  diffuse  itself  in  the  minds  of  the  people  of  this  country." 

Indeed,  it  is  probable  that  even  in  the  Southern  states  there 
would  have  been  a  gradual  emancipation  of  the  slaves  but  for 
the  invention  of  the  cotton  gin.  In  1793  this  invention  created 
an  industrial  revolution  in  the  South  and  made  negro  slavery 
immensely  profitable.  Many  in  the  South  regarded  slavery 
thereafter  as  an  economic  necessity.  The  capacity  of  the  slave 
was  by  this  invention  increased  one  hundred  fold.  Within  a 
few  years  the  exportation  of  cotton  mounted  from  a  few  thou- 
sand pounds  to  thirty-five  million  pounds.  It  made  cotton  the 
chief  industry  of  the  South.  Thereafter  there  was  a  demand 
for  more  negro  help  and  all  thought  of  emancipation  was  for- 
gotten. 


:■■  :  '■■■■..■ 


The  First  Schoolhouse  in  Champaign 


ILLINOIS  427 

At  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  slavery  existed  pursuant  to  law  in  six  Southern  States 
and  slavery  had  been  abolished  and  rendered  illegal  in  seven 
other  states  or  colonies.  Shortly  thereafter  Vermont  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  Union  as  a  free  soil  state.  Kentucky  and  Tennessee 
soon  applied  for  admission  to  the  Union  and  as  these  territories 
before  their  admission  to  the  Union  were  a  component  part  of 
Virginia  and  North  Carolina  and  were  ceded  by  these  states  to 
the  United  States  upon  the  understanding  that  slavery  should 
not  be  prohibited  within  their  borders,  these  territories,  to-wit: 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee  were  admitted  to  the  Union  as  slave 
states.  Upon  their  admission  to  the  Union  there  were  eight 
free  states  and  eight  slave  states,  each  entitled  to  two  senators 
in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  and  thereafter  for  many 
years,  the  Southern  states  were  able  to  prevent  the  admission 
of  any  new  territory  into  the  Union  as  a  state  unless  equality 
was  maintained  on  the  question  of  slavery.  That  is,  the  South- 
ern states  had  sufficient  power,  after  they  became  equal  in  num- 
ber to  the  free  states,  to  prevent  the  admission  of  any  territory 
as  a  free  state  unless  at  the  same  time  another  territory  was 
admitted  as  a  slave  state. 

About  the  admission  of  Vermont,  Kentucky  and  Tennessee 
to  statehood,  there  was  little  or  no  conflict.  However,  before 
the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  the  United  States  had 
acquired  a  large  domain  of  territory  in  the  Northwest  as  a  result 
of  cessions  from  states  which  had  laid  claim  thereto,  and  when 
Congress  came  to  organize  a  government  for  this  new  territory, 
it  was  agreed  that  negro  slavery  should  not  be  permitted  therein, 
even  the  Southern  members  conceding  that  point.  When  Con- 
gress was  organizing  the  Northwest  Territory  the  constitutional 
convention  sitting  at  Philadelphia  was  endeavoring  to  determine 
the  question  of  what  recognition  should  be  given  to  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery  in  the  organic  law  of  the  Republic.  Southern  and 
Northern  members  both  agreed  that  the  slaves  should  not  be 
accorded  any  political  rights  but  the  Southern  members  insisted 
that  the  slave  should  nevertheless  be  counted  in  determining 
the  distribution  of  representatives  in  Congress.  A  compromise 
was  finally  adopted  which  gave  the  Southern  states  a  substan- 


428  ILLINOIS 

tial  advantage  in  the  form  of  increased  representation  based  on 
slavery. 

The  constitutional  convention  made  another  concession  to 
the  slaveholders,  in  that  it  deprived  Congress  of  the  power  to 
interfere  with  the  slave  trade  before  the  year  1808.  A  third 
concession  was  given  to  the  slaveholding  states,  in  that  it  gave 
slavery  the  stamp  of  a  property  right  by  requiring  that  persons 
"held  to  labor  or  service"  in  any  one  state  escaping  from  their 
masters  in  any  state,  should  upon  demand  be  delivered  up  to 
the  person  from  whom  they  escaped. 

Under  this  concession,  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  1793  was 
passed,  providing  that  any  slaveholder  might  pursue  his  escap- 
ing slave  into  any  state  in  the  Union,  and  upon  making  proof 
of  ownership,  could  reclaim  and  transport  him  to  the  state  from 
which  he  fled. 

With  these  provisions  in  the  constitution,  the  Republic  of 
the  United  States  in  1789  entered  upon  the  beginning  of  its 
career  as  a  nation.  It  had  at  that  time  a  population  of  about 
four  million  of  which  seven  hundred  thousand  belonged  to  the 
class  described  in  the  constitution  as  persons  "held  to  service 
or  to  labor.''  There  were,  however,  not  over  fifty  thousand  of 
this  class  in  the  Northern  states. 

In  1790  Congress  accepted  from  the  State  of  North  Carolina 
the  cession  of  territory  now  embraced  in  Tennessee  upon  the 
express  agreement  that  slavery  should  not  be  forbidden  therein 
by  Congress.  In  1802  it  accepted  a  cession  embracing  a  large 
part  of  what  is  now  Mississippi  and  Alabama  from  Georgia, 
under  similar  conditions. 

In  1803  Louisiana  was  acquired  from  France  by  treaty.  The 
Territory  of  Louisiana  almost  doubled  the  area  of  the  republic 
and  in  it  under  French  and  Spanish  rule  slavery  had  existed. 
When  the  United  States  organized  a  territorial  government  for 
the  southern  portion  of  Louisiana  it  legalized  slavery  therein 
and  in  1812  admitted  this  territory  to  the  Union  as  a  state  with 
a  constitution  allowing  slavery.  The  upper  part  of  Louisiana 
was  organized  shortly  thereafter  as  the  Territory  of  Missouri 
and  Congress  authorized  legalized  slavery  therein,  and  when  the 
Territory  of  Missouri  applied  for  admission  to  the  Union  as  a 


ILLINOIS  429 

state  in  1818,  it  had  a  constitution  allowing  slavery.  This  was 
permitted  by  Congress,  however,  only  after  an  acrimonious  and 
protracted  debate.  A  compromise  was  agreed  upon  between 
the  friends  and  foes  of  slavery  upon  the  admission  of  Missouri 
as  a  state  under  which  it  was  agreed  that  all  of  the  territory  of 
the  Louisiana  Purchase  lying  to  the  north  of  thirty-six  degree 
thirty  minutes,  except  Missouri,  should  be  ever  thereafter  free 
soil  territory. 

In  1848  after  the  Mexican  war,  a  large  amount  of  territory 
was  acquired  by  the  treaty  of  peace  from  Mexico.  The  South- 
erners by  that  time  had  reached  the  conclusion  that  unless 
slavery  was  extended  to  the  territories  and  new  slave  states 
organized  therefrom,  the  South  would  in  time  be  left  in  the 
minority  and  at  the  mercy  of  the  North,  which  was  already 
showing  a  disposition  to  encroach  upon  the  rights  of  slavehold- 
ers in  the  South.  The  people  of  the  Northern  states,  on  the 
other  hand,  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  slavery  was  a  na- 
tional evil  and  should  be  restricted  and  that  the  only  effective 
way  of  restricting  it  was  to  prevent  slavery  in  the  territories, 
thereby  insuring  the  erection  of  free  states  therein.  Up  to  1820 
it  was  generally  conceded  that  the  plenary  power  of  Congress 
to  make  rules  and  regulations  for  the  government  of  the  terri- 
tories also  included  the  power  to  define  what  should  be  consid- 
ered private  property  within  any  territory.  After  the  admission 
of  Missouri  the  Southerners  contended  that  Congress  had  no 
power  to  determine  what  should  constitute  private  property  in 
the  territories  belonging  to  the  United  States  and  asserted  that 
it  was  the  duty  of  Congress  to  protect  slavery  therein  and  all 
slaves  held  as  property. 

The  Southerners  argued  that  the  territories  were  the  com- 
mon possession  of  the  people  of  all  the  states  acquired  by  com- 
mon sacrifices  and  common  burdens  and  if  the  people  of  the 
Southern  states  were  denied  the  right  to  emigrate  into  these 
territories  with  their  slave  property,  it  could  be  said  that  they 
were  deprived  of  equal  participation  with  their  brethren  of  the 
North  in  the  territorial  benefits. 

This  is  a  fair  statement  of  the  controversy  between  the  pro- 
slavery  people  of  the  South  and  the  anti-slavery  people  of  the 


430  ILLINOIS 

North  when  Douglas  and  Shields  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States,  representing  the  State  of  Illinois,  were  called  upon  to 
speak,  vote  and  act  upon  the  admission  of  the  Territory  of  Cali- 
fornia to  statehood,  and  the  application  of  the  territories  of 
Utah  and  New  Mexico  for  organization  into  territories  of  the 
Union. 


CHAPTER  XLI 

DOUGLAS,  THE  COMPROMISE  OF  1850  AND  THE 
KANSAS-NEBRASKA  LAW 

When  Stephen  A.  Douglas  first  took  his  seat  in  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States  from  the  State  of  Illinois  in  1847;  and 
began  his  participation  in  the  national  affairs  of  the  United 
States,  he  was  confronted  with  a  conflict  of  several  years'  dura- 
tion between  the  senators  and  representatives  of  the  Southern 
states  and  those  from  the  Northern  states  on  the  question  of  the 
extension  of  slavery  into  the  territories  of  the  nation.  It  devel- 
oped for  the  first  time  prominently  when  the  Territory  of  Mis- 
souri was  pressing  its  application  for  admission  into  the  Union 
as  a  state  in  1819.  The  Southerners  demanded  that  it  be  ad- 
mitted as  a  state  legally  authorizing  slavery  within  its  borders. 
The  Northerners  were  equally  insistent  that  it  must  not  be 
admitted  unless  it  prohibited  slavery.  As  a  result  Congress  was 
unable  to  take  action  on  admission  of  the  territory  to  statehood 
until  1820,  when  the  Territory  of  Maine  applied  for  admission 
as  a  free-soil  state.  The  Southerners  opposed  this  as  the  North- 
erners opposed  the  admission  of  Missouri  as  a  slave  state,  and 
this  forced  a  compromise  under  which  it  was  agreed  that  Maine 
would  be  admitted  as  a  free-soil  state  and  Missouri  as  a  slave 
state,  upon  the  expressed  agreement  in  the  acts  of  admission 
that  in  all  the  rest  of  the  Louisiana  territory  acquired  from 
France  north  of  the  north  parallel  thirty-six  degree,  thirty  min- 
utes, on  or  about  the  south  line  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  slavery 
never  should  be  permitted. 

This  solution,  called  the  Missouri  Compromise,  had  been 
respected  and  carried  out  by  both  parties  until  Kansas  and 
Nebraska  applied  for  admission  in  1853.  Bitterness  had  been 
developing  between  the  pro-slavery  states  of  the  South  and  the 

431 


O     06 


ILLINOIS  433 

anti-slavery  states  of  the  North  in  reference  to  the  annexation 
of  the  Republic  of  Texas  in  1846.  It  was  known  that  Texas,  if 
annexed,  would  be  a  slave  state,  but  the  southern  states  were 
able  to  take  advantage  of  the  fever  for  territorial  expansion  and 
annex  the  tremendous  territory  of  that  young  republic  to  the 
United  States  even  though  it  involved  the  latter  in  a  war  with 
Mexico.  There  was  very  strong  and  bitter  opposition  in  the 
North  both  to  the  annexation  and  to  the  war  with  Mexico.  But 
the  war  fever  which  makes  the  people  of  nearly  every  race  or 
nation  at  war  declare  "My  country,  right  or  wrong"  prevailed 
and  as  the  result  of  the  war  territory  vast  in  extent  and  enor- 
mously rich,  and  adjoining  the  Southern  states,  became  by  treaty 
with  Mexico  a  part  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States.  The 
acquisition  of  this  immense  territory,  to  the  South,  further  ex- 
cited the  anti-slavery  people  of  the  North  and  rekindled  the 
embers  of  the  fire  that  had  been  banked,  but  not  extinguished, 
by  the  Missouri  Compromise. 

After  the  conclusion  of  the  peace  with  Mexico  (or  about 
1849)  California  applied  for  admission  as  a  state,  and  Oregon, 
Utah  and  New  Mexico  for  organization  as  territories.  Because 
of  the  fact  that  Oregon  was  north  of  the  thirty-six  degree  thirty- 
minute  parallel  of  latitude,  no  trouble  arose  in  Congress  over 
its  organization  as  a  free-soil  territory.  The  votes  of  the  Illinois 
delegation  in  Congress  were  cast  for  its  organization  as  a  free- 
soil  territory  because  that  delegation  believed  that  they  were 
morally  bound  to  do  so  by  virtue  of  the  Missouri  Compromise. 
The  partisans  of  the  North  and  the  South,  in  the  meantime,  had 
become  more  obstinate  and  belligerent  in  their  attitude  towards 
each  other ;  while  they  were  considering  the  cases  of  California, 
Utah  and  New  Mexico,  all  of  whom  were  applying  for  admis- 
sion as  states  or  organization  as  territories.  The  Northerners 
announced  that  not  another  inch  of  American  soil  would  be 
contaminated  by  the  touch  of  slavery.  The  Southerners,  believ- 
ing that  they  were  being  pushed  to  the  wall;  and  would  lose 
their  equality  of  representation  in  the  Senate,  and  thus  their 
power  in  the  nation,  announced  defiantly,  that  if  their  claims 
were  denied  they  would  withdraw  from  the  Union  and  defend 
their  rights,  if  necessary,  with  the  sword.    The  Illinois  delega- 


434  ILLINOIS 

tion  and  many  others  in  Congress  from  the  North,  by  reason  of 
these  threats,  became  convinced  that  the  South  was  seriously 
considering  dissolution  of  the  Union. 

At  this  juncture  Henry  Clay,  recently  elected  to  the  Senate, 
stood  forth  as  peacemaker  and  savior  of  the  Union.  He  had, 
however,  been  out  of  active  political  life,  but  in  his  retirement 
had  retained  the  respect  and  admiration  of  the  Whigs  and  con- 
servative people  of  the  country,  who  were  convinced  of  his 
patriotism,  and  ready  to  accept  his  advice  on  important  matters 
relating  to  the  well-being  of  the  nation.  Clay  consulted  and 
advised  with  the  extremists  on  both  sides  of  the  controversy, 
as  well  as  with  the  moderates  in  both  parties.  As  a  result  he 
devised  a  compromise  bill  which,  in  one  piece  of  legislation, 
provided  simultaneously,  first  for  the  admission  of  California 
to  statehood  as  a  free-soil  state;  secondly,  the  creation  of  the 
territories  of  Utah  and  New  Mexico,  without  any  reference 
to  slavery,  so  as  to  permit  the  people  of  these  two  territories 
to  determine  the  character  of  their  government  '(called  at  the 
time  "squatter  sovereignty")  ;  third,  the  prohibition  of  the  slave 
trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia;  fourth,  the  enactment  of  a 
more  efficient  fugitive  slave  law.  Daniel  Webster  vigorously 
advocated  the  adoption  of  the  measure  suggested  by  Clay.  Presi- 
dent Taylor  was  favorable,  although  inclined  to  defer  acting 
upon  the  matter  until  the  people  in  the  territories  took  action. 
California  had  already  acted  and  declared  itself  decisively  to 
be  in  favor  of  being  a  free-soil  state. 

Douglas  and  Gen.  James  Shields  were  then  both  sitting  in 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States  from  the  State  of  Illinois. 
While  the  representatives  in  Congress  from  the  South,  on  the 
one  side,  and  those  from  the  northern  and  eastern  states  on  the 
other,  were  hurling  invectives  and  threats  against  each  other 
and  threatening  dissolution  of  the  Union,  Douglas  declared: 
"There  is  a  power  in  this  nation  greater  than  either  the  North 
or  South — that  will  be  able  to  speak  the  law  of  this  nation 
and  to  execute  the  law  as  spoken.  That  power  is  the  country 
known  as  the  Great  West,  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  one 
and  indivisible  from  the  gulf  to  the  Great  Lakes,  from  the  Alle- 
ghanies  to  the  Rocky  Mountains.     There,  sir,  is  the  hope  of 


ILLINOIS  435 

this  nation,  the  resting-place  of  the  power  that  is  not  only  to 
control,  but  to  save  the  Union."  No  more  prophetic  words  were 
ever  spoken.  Were  it  not  for  the  leaders  and  men,  statesmen, 
warriors  and  privates  in  the  ranks  that  the  Mississippi  Valley 
sent  to  the  White  House,  Congress  and  the  battlefields  of  the 
great  Civil  war  between  1861  and  1865,  the  nation  might  have 
been  split  in  twain  and  deprived  of  what  it  now  holds — the 
primacy  among  all  the  nations  of  the  world. 

The  compromise  bill  of  Clay,  supported  though  it  was  by 
the  President,  Webster  and  many  other  leaders  both  in  the 
Whig  and  Democratic  parties,  did  not  become  a  law  as  originally 
framed.  It  consolidated  too  many  problems  in  one  instrument. 
The  pro-slavery  people  refused  to  vote  for  its  anti-slavery  pro- 
visions and  the  anti-slavery  people  voted  against  its  pro-slavery 
sections.  As  it  was  a  mosaic,  its  different  pieces  were  badly 
battered  and  the  whole  plate  broken.  When  the  Clay  bill  was 
beaten,  Douglas  commended  the  patriotic  course  of  Clay  and 
Webster  and  declared:  "The  Union  will  not  be  put  in  peril; 
California  will  be  admitted,  governments  for  the  territories 
must  be  established,  and  thus  controversy  will  end,  and  I  trust 
forever."  He  made  this  statement  with  the  utmost  confidence 
immediately  after  the  defeat  of  the  Clay  bill,  because  he  believed 
that  he  had  found  a  solution  of  the  slavery  question  which 
would  appeal  to  the  sense  of  fair  play,  the  good  judgment  and 
the  patriotism  of  the  whole  country.  Part  of  his  prophetic 
statement  proved  to  be  well  founded.  California  was  admitted 
and  governments  for  the  territories  were  established,  but  the 
slavery  controversy  did  not  end. 

Let  us  consider,  now,  Douglas  the  man,  his  history,  his 
surroundings  and  his  career,  when  he  made  this  important 
declaration.  We  find  the  name  of  Stephen  A.  Douglas  rising 
above  the  political  horizon  under  Governor  Duncan's  adminis- 
tration (1837  to  1841.)  He  was  then  in  the  Legislature  of 
Illinois  as  a  Jeffersonian  and  Jacksonian  Democrat,  engaged 
with  Abraham  Lincoln  in  pushing  forward  the  general  system 
of  internal  public  improvements  demanded  almost  unanimously 
at  that  time  by  the  people  of  Illinois.  Both  Douglas,  aged  twenty- 
three,  and  Lincoln,  aged  twenty-seven,  were  then  young  and 


The  Old  Rail  Fence 


ILLINOIS  437 

ambitious  lawyers  with  a  successful  and  growing  practice.  Doug- 
las was  soon  found  conducting  important  cases  in  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Illinois,  among  them  the  McClernand-Field  case  and 
the  case  involving  the  right  of  six-month  residents  to  vote. 
In  1841  he  was  selected  as  one  of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court.  In  1843  he  was  elected  Congressman  and  in  1848  United 
States  Senator  from  the  State  of  Illinois.  His  eloquence,  tact 
and  able  mentality  had  won  for  him  a  career  of  almost  unparal- 
leled success  in  political  life.  When  first  elected  to  the  United 
States  Senate  in  1847  he  was  a  little  over  thirty  years  of  age, 
and  he  held  that  exalted  position  until  his  death.  During  this 
period  (1838  to  1847)  his  great  political  antagonist,  Lincoln, 
was  laboriously  serving  as  a  member  of  the  lower  House  of 
the  Illinois  Legislature  (1836  to  1842)  and  in  the  lower  House 
of  Congress  (1846  to  1848.)  The  party  of  Jefferson  and  Jackson 
dominated  the  politics  of  Illinois  from  the  time  of  its  admission 
to  the  Union  in  1818  until  the  election  of  Bissell  as  governor, 
a  Republican  but  formerly  a  Democrat,  in  1856.  Even  after 
that,  in  1858,  the  doctrines  of  the  Democratic  party  as  promul- 
gated by  Douglas  prevailed  in  Illinois,  and  he  was  elected  a 
third  time  to  the  Senate  in  1858.  The  dominance  of  his  party 
in  Illinois  without  doubt  contributed  largely  to  the  rapid  advance- 
ment of  Douglas  to  his  station  in  the  councils  of  his  state  and 
nation,  as  did  the  weakness  of  Lincoln's  party  (the  Whig) 
contribute  to  the  tardiness  of  Lincoln's  advancement  in  his 
political  career.  Douglas'  native  ability  and  force  of  character, 
however,  did  more  to  make  him  early  in  his  career  a  national 
character. 

In  1849-50  the  bills  for  the  admission  of  California  to  state- 
hood and  the  formation  of  territories  for  Utah  and  New  Mexico 
were  pending  before  Congress,  and  it  was  then  that  Stephen 
A.  Douglas,  now  a  commanding  force  in  the  Senate  and  a  mag- 
netic leader  in  the  Democratic  party,  made  the  optimistic  and 
comforting  statement  that:  "The  Union  will  not  be  put  in  peril; 
California  will  be  admitted;  governments  for  the  territories 
must  be  established,  and  thus  the  controversy  will  end,  I  trust 
forever."  He  believed  he  had  found  a  solution  of  the  whole 
exasperating  and  dangerous  controversy.     It  was  "popular  sov- 


438  ILLINOIS 

ereignty"  both  for  the  territories  as  well  as  for  the  states  to 
be  admitted  thereafter.  He  was  on  the  ground  in  Washington 
where  he  could  and  did  interview  all  the  leaders  of  divers  dif- 
ferent parties  and  policies.  After  the  defeat  of  the  Clay  compro- 
mise bill,  he  must  have  interviewed  these  different  leaders,  laid 
before  them  his  "popular  sovereignty"  program,  and  convinced 
them  of  its  logic  and  reasonableness.  That  he  did  so  is  shown 
by  the  action  of  Congress  in  1850  and  1854.  He  argued  to  the 
men  he  approached  along  this  line,  the  solution  of  the  slavery 
question  must  come  from  "the  laws  of  nature,  of  climate  and 
production,"  recognized  and  ratified  by  the  people  of  each  terri- 
tory and  state  and  not  by  Congress.  True  democracy,  he  claimed, 
was  to  allow  each  community  to  determine  and  regulate  its  own 
local  affairs  in  its  own  way.  It  must  have  been  as  a  result  of 
these  interviews  in  and  around  Congress  in  Washington,  and 
these  arguments  and  the  responses  he  received  thereto,  that  he 
made  his  confident  announcement. 

Five  separate  and  distinct  bills  framed  by  Douglas  along 
the  lines  of  the  Clay  bill  were  presented  by  him  in  the  Senate 
and  by  Congressman  McClernand,  a  Democratic  congressman 
in  the  House.  They  were  discussed  seriatim  and  passed  in  both 
House  and  Senate.  The  Utah  bill  was  taken  up  first  and  passed. 
Then  came  the  New  Mexico  bill  with  the  same  result.  The 
California  admission  bill  was  enacted  and  then  came  the  fugitive 
slave  bill  and  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia 
measure,  all  of  which  were  enacted  into  laws  in  1850.  "The 
Compromise  of  1850"  had  been  accomplished  and  Douglas  and 
Clay  were  hailed  as  the  "saviors  of  the  Union."  The  Illinois 
representatives  in  Congress  all  voted  for  the  California  and 
District  slavery  bills.  "Long"  John  Wentworth,  the  Democratic 
congressman  from  the  Chicago  district,  and  Congressman  Baker 
opposed  the  Utah,  New  Mexico  and  fugitive  slave  bills,  but  the 
rest  of  the  delegation  supported  them.  Douglas  and  Shields 
in  the  Senate  voted  for  all  of  the  bills,  except  the  fugitive  slave 
bill.  Both  were  absent  when  this  bill  came  to  a  vote.  The  Whig 
vote  was  divided,  some  favoring  Clay's  compromise  and  others 
favoring  no  action.  Douglas'  statements  as  to  the  passage  of 
the  bills  proved  accurate.     His  prediction  that  "the  Union  will 


ILLINOIS  439 

not  be  put  in  peril"  was  also  true  for  the  time  being.     That 
peril,  however,  was  only  postponed  for  eleven  years. 

The  passage  of  these  laws  in  1850,  however,  effectually 
disposed  of  the  Wilmot  proviso  which  had  given  rise  to  so  many 
bitter  controversies  since  the  Mexican  war.  Congressman  Wilmot, 
in  1848,  had  attached  to  the  bill  providing  for  an  appropriation 
to  the  President  of  $2,000,000  to  enable  him  to  negotiate  a  peace 
with  Mexico,  which  would  provide  for  a  cession  to  this  country 
of  a  large  amount  of  territory  then  owned  by  Mexico,  a  proviso 
that  in  the  territory  so  acquired  slavery  should  never  be  tol- 
erated. Even  the  Whig  party  that  had  contended  for  this  prin- 
ciple seemed  satisfied  to  abandon  the  claims  of  the  Wilmot 
proviso  when  the  "Compromise  of  1850"  was  crystallized  into 
law. 

After  the  passage  of  the  laws  covering  California,  Utah, 
New  Mexico,  the  slave  trade  and  fugitive  slave  laws,  Douglas 
returned  to  Illinois  and  became  in  this  state  the  acclaimed 
Democratic  candidate  for  the  Presidency.  The  Compromise 
of  1850  seemed  to  grow  in  favor  for  some  time  and  Douglas 
grew  in  popular  favor.  Daniel  Webster  had  opposed  the  annex- 
ation of  Texas  and  the  Mexican  war,  but  lent  his  powerful 
aid  to  the  adoption  of  the  compromise.  He  declared  that  slave 
labor  would  not  be  successful  in  New  Mexico  and  that  the  anti- 
slavery  people  need  have  no  fears  over  the  extension  of  slavery 
to  that  territory.  The  laws  of  nature,  he  maintained,  had 
decreed  against  slavery. 

The  Illinois  Legislature,  which  in  1849  had  favored  the 
Wilmot  proviso,  repealed  its  resolution  in  1851.  The  vote  stood 
in  the  Senate  twenty-two  for  repeal  and  two  against.  In  the 
House  the  vote  for  repeal  was  forty-nine  to  eleven  against.  Party 
lines  between  the  Whigs  and  Democrats  were  broken  down  and 
there  seemed  to  be  a  "union  of  hearts"  among  the  politicians 
in  Illinois  and  the  nation.  The  Democrats  nominated  Franklin 
Pierce  for  the  Presidency  in  1852  against  Gen.  Winfield  Scott, 
the  Whig  candidate,  and  carried  the  election  handsomely  both 
in  the  State  of  Illinois  and  the  nation. 

The  fourth  of  the  laws  passed  as  part  of  the  Compromise 
of  1850,  the  fugitive  slave  law,  soon  began  to  give  trouble  to 


440  ILLINOIS 

the  compromisers.  It  gave  but  little  material  aid  to  the  slave- 
holders, as  a  very  small  fraction  of  the  slave  population  had 
in  the  past  been  able  to  escape  from  bondage.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  passage  of  this  law  gave  great  offense  to  the  many- 
thousands  of  people  who  revolted  against  the  idea  of  the  nation 
using  its  machinery  to  enforce  human  slavery,  particularly  in 
the  states  which  prohibited  this  infamy.  Rumblings  of  dis- 
content began  to  be  heard  in  the  North,  not  only  from  Whigs 
and  Abolitionists,  but  from  men  who  had  been  voting  the  Demo- 
cratic ticket  all  their  lives.  "Long"  John  Wentworth,  Democratic 
congressman  and  newspaper  proprietor,  and  leader  of  that  party 
in  and  around  Chicago,  was  one  of  these.  So  was  Lyman 
Trumbull  and  likewise  Judge  Sidney  Breese.  The  Democrats 
of  Illinois,  however,  presented  Douglas'  name  to  the  National 
Democratic  Convention  of  1852  as  their  choice  for  the  Presi- 
dency. For  a  few  ballots  he  led  the  field,  but  was  finally  beaten 
by  Pierce  and  took  his  defeat  quite  gracefully.  After  the  Demo- 
cratic triumph  in  1852,  Whiggery  became  anaemic  and  a  break 
in  the  solidity  of  the  Democratic  party  began  to  develop.  The 
fraternization  of  the  leaders  of  the  Whig  and  Democratic  parties 
on  the  subject  of  slavery,  resulting  in  the  Compromise  of  1850, 
was  not  relished  by  many  of  the  rank  and  file  of  both  parties. 
The  fugitive  slave  law  was  the  main  cause  of  dissatisfaction 
in  the  North,  both  among  Whigs  and  many  Democrats,  although 
both  parties  had  through  their  leaders  agreed  upon  the  Com- 
promise of  1850. 

Into  this  atmosphere  of  party  disorganization  came  the  appli- 
cation of  Kansas  and  Nebraska  to  be  opened  up  for  settlement 
and  organization  as  territories,  in  1853.  Both  of  these  territories 
were  north  of  the  thirty-six  degree  thirty-minute  line.  To  permit 
by  act  of  Congress  slavery  to  exist  in  these  territories  would 
violate  the  Missouri  Compromise  law  of  1820.  To  make  them 
free-soil  territories  was  impossible  by  reason  of  the  stubborn 
attitude  of  the  representatives  of  the  southern  states.  Douglas 
was  at  this  time  chairman  of  the  Senate  committee  on  territories, 
was  the  acknowledged  father  of  the  Compromise  of  1850,  was 
the  universally-accepted  leader  of  his  party  in  Illinois,  and 
frequently  mentioned  throughout  the  nation  as  a  possible  can- 


Mexican  War  Soldier 

(Courtesy  Chicago  Historical  Society.) 


442  ILLINOIS 

didate  for  the  Presidency.  He  was  zealously  advocating  the 
building  of  a  trans-continental  railway  from  coast  to  coast 
and  was  desirous  of  having  the  lands  to  the  west  of  Illinois, 
Missouri  and  Iowa  thrown  open  to  settlement  and  railroad 
development. 

When  the  bills  for  the  organization  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska 
were  referred  to  his  committee  he  again  brought  forward  his 
plan  of  popular  sovereignty  as  a  solution  of  the  whole  problem 
and  had  the  bills  so  drafted  as  to  permit  the  people  in  each 
territory  to  decide  for  themselves  the  character  of  their  govern- 
ment on  the  subject  of  slavery.  The  Missouri  Compromise  of 
1820,  he  contended,  had  been  repealed  by  the  Compromise  of 
1850 ;  that  the  Utah  and  New  Mexico  laws  had  established  prac- 
tically by  universal  consent  the  principle  of  popular  sovereignty, 
and  had  established  a  precedent  to  be  followed  in  the  organization 
of  territories.  Above  all,  he  claimed  and  honestly  believed  that 
"people's  sovereignty"  was  the  foundation  of  real  democracy; 
that  the  Revolutionary  war  was  fought  in  assertion  of  that 
principle;  that  that  principle  was  conceded  to  the  states  in  the 
Federal  Constitution,  and  that  that  principle  should  be  conceded 
to  the  people  in  each  territory  applying  for  admission  to  the 
Union,  as  any  state  so  admitted  must  have  rights  equal  to  the 
original  thirteen  states  of  the  Union.  From  the  standpoint  of 
logic,  law  and  constitutionality  his  argument  was  effective.  The 
bills  were  reported  to  the  House  and  Senate  in  such  form  as 
to  establish  the  right  of  the  people  in  each  and  both  of  these 
territories  to  decide  for  themselves  whether  they  should  have 
slavery  or  no  slavery  within  their  borders.  In  other  words 
the  bills  as  framed  and  passed,  recognized  and  established  in 
1854  the  doctrine  of  government  tritely  and  forcefully  expressed 
in  popular  vernacular  as  "squatter  sovereignty." 

The  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  became  law  May  29,  1854.  It 
proved  to  be  not  only  a  constitutional  law  of  the  United  States 
framed  under  a  compromise  between  the  Whig  and  Democratic 
parties  but  a  political  bomb-shell  which,  when  it  fell  among 
the  people,  exploded  and  killed  the  Whig  party  and  seriously 
wounded  the  Democratic  party.  Hundreds  of  thousands,  aye 
millions,  of  good  men  and  women  in  both  the  old  parties  had 


ILLINOIS  443 

come  to  the  conclusion  that  commercial  traffic  in  human  flesh 
and  blood  was  a  crime  against  both  God  and  man  and  that  any 
law  which  permitted  its  extension  in  the  United  States  was  a 
lex  infamis,  and,  more  than  that,  a  faex  legis  infamis.  Not 
only  was  it  an  infamous  law,  but  one  dragged  out  of  the  lowest 
dregs  of  infamy.  In  a  desire  to  avert  secession  and  prevent 
the  dismemberment  of  the  Union,  Douglas  and  the  other  leaders 
of  the  Democratic  and  Whig  parties  in  Congress  had  failed  to 
appreciate  and  appraise  at  its  proper  strength  the  aversion  to 
slavery  which  had  taken  hold  of  the  people  of  the  northern  and 
eastern  states.  Douglas,  in  one  of  his  speeches,  declared  that 
the  Kansas-Nebraska  act  would  be  "as  popular  at  the  North 
as  at  the  South,  when  its  principles  and  provisions  shall  have 
been  fully  developed  and  become  well  understood."  (Congres- 
sional Globe  33,  Congress  1st  Session,  Appendix  338.)  That 
he  was  right  from  a  constitutional  and  legal  standpoint  and 
that  his  motives  were  inspired  by  the  highest  patriotism  cannot 
be  doubted,  but  he  and  his  followers,  who  framed  and  voted 
for  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  failed  to  place  themselves  on 
that  high  plane  of  morals  and  humanity  which  rises  above  all 
laws  which  set  morality  and  humanity  at  defiance. 

Those  who  regarded  slavery  as  a  crime  against  both  God 
and  man,  and  there  were  many  thousands  of  these  in  both 
parties,  began  to  take  steps  towards  the  organization  of  a  new 
party.  The  former  great  leaders  of  the  Whigs  were  superan- 
nuated and  retired,  and  the  new  leaders  were  spineless  and  tol- 
erant of  slavery.  The  Democratic  leaders,  being  intimidated  by 
the  slave-holders  of  the  South,  were  giving  way  to  the  intolerable 
demands  of  their  Democratic  colleagues  from  the  South.  A  new 
party  was  necessary  to  confront  the  "negro-hunters  and  enslavers 
of  the  South." 

In  advocating  the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill, 
Douglas  made  a  brilliant  speech  in  which  he  courageously  and 
fairly  answered  all  arguments  that  had  been  made  by  those 
who  opposed  it  and  declared  that  the  principle  of  popular  sov- 
ereignty enunciated  in  the  bill  was  "the  principle  upon  which 
the  Colonies  separated  from  the  Crown  of  Great  Britain;  the 
principle  upon  which  the  battles  of  the  Revolution  were  fought, 


444  ILLINOIS 

and  the  principle  upon  which  our  republican  system  was 
founded."  He  returned  to  Illinois  after  the  passage  of  the 
bill  and  with  the  same  courage  and  ability  defended  the  law 
even  before  hostile  audiences,  and  at  times  succeded  in  converting 
a  hostile  crowd  to  his  views.  The  Illinois  State  Register  and 
Quincy  Herald  promptly  endorsed  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  and 
several  other  Democratic  papers  followed  suit.  The  Chicago 
Democrat,  "Long"  John  Wentworth's  paper,  however,  on  March 
11  declared  that  "the  wall  of  compromises  has  been  broken 
down  .  .  .  ."  "the  wind  has  been  sown"  and  "it  may  be  that 
the  sowers  shall  reap  the  whirlwind."  The  Legislature  of  Illinois 
was  strongly  Democratic  in  both  houses  and  passed  resolutions 
endorsing  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  but  with  the  loss  of  some 
Democratic  votes,  among  them  those  of  James  M.  Campbell, 
B.  C.  Cook,  N.  B.  Judd,  Uri  Osgood  and  John  M.  Palmer. 

Many  of  the  Germans  of  Illinois  who  had  been  voting  the 
Democratic  ticket  broke  out  in  open  expressions  of  revolt,  largely 
because  the  Clayton  amendment  to  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill 
denied  to  foreigners  all  political  rights  in  the  new  territories. 
George  Schneider,  editor  of  the  Illinois  Staats  Zeitung;  Edward 
Schlaeger,  Francis  Hoffman  and  Lieutenant-Governor  Koerner 
were  among  the  most  prominent  of  these  men.  Douglas  promptly 
and  energetically  traversed  the  state  from  city  to  city,  explaining 
to  the  people  his  doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty  and  his  efforts 
to  save  the  Union  from  the  secession  which  was  threatened  by 
the  southern  states,  and  from  this  time  forward  the  eyes  of 
the  whole  nation  were  centered  upon  Douglas  and  the  fight  he 
was  making,  using  the  slogans  of  "People's  Sovereignty"  and 
"Save  the  Union." 

Up  to  this  time  Douglas  had  been  acting  in  harmony  with 
the  Democratic  President  and  the  Democratic  party.  Now, 
however,  arose  a  situation  which  compelled  Douglas,  as  an 
honest,  conscientious  man,  to  take  issue  with  President  Pierce 
and  the  great  majority  of  the  Democratic  party.  He  had,  by 
the  year  1856,  convinced  the  people  of  his  own  state  of  the 
patriotism  and  wisdom  of  his  course  in  relation  to  the  Com- 
promise of  1850  and  the  Kansas-Nebraska  law,  and  was  in  a 
fair  way  to  convince  the  great  majority  of  the  voters  of  the 


ILLINOIS  445 

nation  to  the  same  effect,  when,  in  1857,  the  poeple  of  Kansas 
applied  for  admission  to  statehood  in  the  Union  after  a  pro- 
slavery  Legislature  had  adopted  therein  a  constitution  which 
was  popularly  called  the  Lecompton  Constitution.  This  name 
had  been  given  to  it  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  it  was  framed 
in  a  town  in  Kansas  so  named.  It  had  not  been  fairly  submitted 
to  the  people  of  Kansas  for  adoption  or  rejection  by  referendum 
vote  and  its  framers  refused  the  demand  of  the  free-soil  voters 
for  an  honest  referendum.  Douglas  refused  to  favor  or  vote 
for  the  admission  of  Kansas  to  statehood  bound  by  such  a  con- 
stitution, and  thus  broke  with  the  President  and  the  great  major- 
ity of  the  Democratic  party. 


CHAPTER  XLII 

DOUGLAS  BREAKS  WITH  THE  DEMOCRATIC  PARTY  AND 

.  PRESIDENT,  AND  OPPOSES  THE  LECOMPTON 

CONSTITUTION  IN  KANSAS 

While  Douglas  was  waging  an  apparently  winning  fight  for 
"people's  sovereignty"  and  against  the  cry  for  dissolution  being 
made  by  the  secessionists  of  the  South  and  the  rabid  abolitionists 
of  the  North,  in  Illinois,  and  with  strong  hopes  of  success 
throughout  the  nation,  in  1857  the  people  of  Kansas  applied  for 
admission  to  the  Union  as  a  state  and  presented  to  Congress  for 
consideration  in  connection  with  their  application,  a  constitution 
adopted  by  a  convention  claiming  to  have  been  legally  called  and 
elected.  This  convention  was  almost  composed  of  pro-slavery 
men.  After  the  constitution  was  framed  a  strong  fight  in  the 
convention  was  made  for  a  provision  requiring  its  submission  to 
the  people  for  a  referendum  vote  thereon.  This  proposal  was  de- 
feated by  one  vote.  (Beveridge  Life  of  Lincoln,  Vol.  II,  p.  528.) 
Another  bitter  struggle  then  occurred  and  the  convention  adopted 
a  compromise  measure  by  a  majority  of  two  votes.  "By  this 
compromise  the  single  question  of  slavery  or  no-slavery  was  to 
be  submitted  to  the  people  at  an  election  to  be  held  December 
21,  1857;  but  on  no  other  part  of  proposed  constitution  were 
the  people  to  vote.  One  clause  thus  kept  from  popular  consid- 
eration provided  that  the  property  rights  of  the  few  slave- 
holders then  in  Kansas  should  not  be  taken  away  by  any  further 
legislation  of  the  new  state."     (Idem,  same  page.) 

The  constitutional  convention  which  framed  the  document 
which  preserved  forever  the  rights  of  the  slaveholders  in  the 
proposed  state  was  elected  under  the  following  circumstances, 
As  soon  as  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Law  was  passed  in  1854,  a 
horde  of  intending  settlers  which  had  camped  on  the  western 

446 


ILLINOIS  447 

borders  of  Missouri  and  Iowa,  rushed  into  the  new  territory- 
opened  up  for  settlement  by  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Law,  to  locate 
homesteads  and  pre-emptions  on  the  rich  soil  of  this  section 
of  the  country.  Many  of  these  were  actuated  solely  by  economical 
and  not  political  motives.  They  yearned  for  the  land  with  or 
without  slavery.  However,  as  soon  as  it  was  learned  that  the 
lands  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska  were  soon  to  be  opened  to  settle- 
ment under  "squatter  sovereignty,"  the  politicians  of  the  nation, 
particularly  those  who  felt  intensely,  pro  or  con,  on  the  slavery 
question,  became  active  in  encouraging  settlement  in  the  new 
land  by  those  who  agreed  with  them  on  that  question.  Some 
abolitionists  in  the  East  organized  a  $5,000,000  society  to  aid 
and  equip  settlers  from  that  section.  They  equipped  and  for- 
warded long  caravans  of  these  settlers  and  armed  them  with 
rifles  and  other  deadly  weapons,  as  well  as  furnishing  them 
with  provisions  and  farming  implements.  A  goodly  company 
of  young  Southerners  was  organized  by  a  young  slavery  enthusi- 
ast named  Buford,  who  marched  them  from  the  Southland  into 
Kansas.  The  greatest  number  of  those  who  came  from  Kansas, 
however,  came  from  Missouri,  and  most  of  these  were  ardent 
pro-slavery  men.  It  is  claimed,  and  with  much  show  of  truth, 
that  some  5,000  men  from  Missouri  crossed  into  Kansas  a  short 
time  before  the  holding  of  the  constitutional  convention  and 
voted  at  that  election,  and  that  many  of  them,  soon  after  the 
election,  returned  to  Missouri.  Because  of  this  belief  the  free- 
soil  people  of  Kansas  repudiated  and  denounced  the  constitutional 
convention  "and  all  its  works  and  pomps."  They  refused  to 
vote  on  the  question  of  "slave  or  free"  submitted  to  popular  vote 
by  this  repudiated  constitutional  convention  and  allowed  it  to 
be  confirmed  by  those  who  voted  for  confirmation.  Only  two 
weeks  later,  however,  they  elected  a  Legislature  which  was 
strongly  anti-slavery  and  thus  assumed  control  of  the  law-making 
power  of  the  state. 

When  these  facts  became  known  to  Douglas,  and  the  appli- 
cation for  statehood  with  this  constitution  framed  in  this  manner 
was  presented  to  the  Senate,  he  called  on  President  Pierce  and 
announced  that  his  conscience  and  sense  of  duty  to  his  country, 
and  his  own  self-respect,  would  prevent  him  from  voting  for 


Cyrus  McCormick 


Who  perfected  his  first  reaping  machine  in  Virginia  in  1831,  and  in  1847 
moved  his  manufacturing  and  sales  offices  to  Chicago. 


ILLINOIS  449 

and  advocating  the  admission  of  Kansas  to  the  Union,  burdened 
with  such  a  constitution  framed  under  such  circumstances  of 
fraud  and  imposture.  The  President  was  then  nearly  sixty-eight 
years  of  age  and  had  been  aggravated  and  annoyed  by  the 
frequent  and  violent  controversies  over  the  slavery  question. 
He  wished  to  get  rid  of  that  troublesome  question,  and  wanted 
it  settled  forever  during  his  administration  so  that  he  could 
turn  his  attention  to  other  domestic  and  foreign  matters  then 
awaiting  solution.  As  the  constitutional  convention  in  Kansas 
had  provided  for  the  submission  of  that  vexed  question  of  free 
soil  or  slavery  to  popular  vote,  he  deemed  that  was  and  should 
be  the  proper  solution  of  the  issue  in  Kansas.  His  cabinet  agreed 
with  him  unanimously  and  he  concluded  that  he  would  endorse 
the  application  of  Kansas  and  the  Lecompton  Constitution  and 
make  it  a  party  measure  of  his  administration.  The  President 
and  Douglas  failed  to  agree  upon  this  procedure  and  Douglas 
informed  him  he  would  oppose  the  President's  program  on  the 
floor  of  the  Senate.  Just  before  the  end  of  the  interview  the 
President  rose  from  his  seat  and  said :  "Now,  Douglas,  I  desire 
you  to  remember  that  no  Democrat  ever  differed  with  an  admin- 
istration of  his  own  choice  without  being  crushed.  Beware  of 
the  fate  of  Talmadge  and  Rives,"  two  men  whom  Jackson  had 
broken  for  party  insurgency.  To  which  Douglas  answered: 
"Mr.  President,  I  wish  you  to  understand  that  General  Jackson 
is  dead."     (Beveridge,  Vol.  II,  p.  538.) 

Shortly  after  this  emphatic  and  belligerent  interview  with 
President  Pierce,  Douglas  courageously  imperiled  his  political 
life,  when  he  arose  in  the  Senate  and  assailed  in  eloquent  and 
vigorous  language  the  Lecompton  Constitution.  He  was  impelled 
thereto  not  only  by  the  iniquity  of  the  constitution  itself;  but 
also  by  the  violence  and  corruption  of  its  conception.  In  the 
bitterness  of  the  conflict  between  the  slavery  and  anti-slavery 
parties  in  Kansas,  both  parties  had  armed  themselves  with  rifles 
and  other  deadly  weapons.  Formidable  bodies  of  men  so 
equipped  met  and  exchanged  shots  with  deadly  effect.  Defense- 
less men  were  often  murdered  in  cold  blood  because  of  their 
political  affiliations.  As  the  result  "Bleeding  Kansas"  became 
the  shibboleth  of  the  Free  Soil  party  even  though  some  of  the 


450  ILLINOIS 

blood-letting  was  done  by  the  free-soilers  themselves.  Douglas 
became  convinced  by  reliable  reports  made  to  him  by  Democratic 
friends  located  in  the  midst  of  this  turmoil,  among  them  notably 
John  Calhoun,  the  Democratic  president  of  the  constitutional 
convention,  that  the  Lecompton  Constitution  was  secured  by 
a  combination  of  violence,  fraud  and  political  corruption,  and 
that  the  real  voice  of  the  people  had  not  been  heard.  He 
believed  that  people's  sovereignty  had  been  outraged  by  the 
events  that  led  up  to  the  formation  of  the  constitution,  and  as 
an  honest  advocate  of  popular  sovereignty  he  refused  to  condone 
the  robbery. 

On  December  9,  1857,  the  President's  message  to  the  Senate 
recommended  the  admittance  of  Kansas  to  the  Union  subject 
to  the  conditions  of  the  pro-slavery  Lecompton  Constitution. 
On  the  same  day,  taking  his  political  life  in  his  hands,  Douglas 
arose  in  the  Senate  and  began  his  fight  for  political  honesty 
and  decency  and  the  preservation  of  real  people's  sovereignty. 
Before  an  audience  as  great  and  as  distinguished  as  ever  greeted 
Daniel  Webster,  he  assailed  the  constitution  both  as  to  its  form 
at  birth  and  as  to  the  method  of  its  conception.  Under  the 
doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty,  which  he  again  lauded  and 
proclaimed,  the  people  had  the  irrevocable  right  to  vote  by 
referendum  upon  each  and  every  clause  of  the  constitution.  They 
were  denied  that  right.  They  were  given  the  empty  right  to 
vote  for  "the  constitution  with  slavery  or  the  constitution  without 
slavery,"  while  the  constitution  itself  had  a  clause  therein  recog- 
nizing the  rights  of  slaveholders  to  own  slaves  and  prohibiting 
forever  the  enactment  of  legislation  interfering  with  such  rights. 
He  argued  that  Congress  had  no  right  to  force  a  slave  state 
constitution  or  a  free-soil  constitution  upon  the  people  of  Kansas. 
They  alone  had  the  right  to  determine  the  character  of  their 
constitution  at  an  honestly-conducted  election.  He  finished  one 
of  the  most  able  and  eloquent  speeches  of  his  life  with  these 
brave  and  dramatic  words:  "Neither  the  frowns  of  power  nor 
the  influence  of  patronage  will  change  my  action  or  drive  me 
from  my  principles.  I  prefer  private  life,  preserving  my  own 
self-respect  and  manhood,  to  abject  and  servile  submission  to 
executive  will."     (Beveridge's  Lincoln,  Vol.  II,  p.  543.) 


ILLINOIS  451 

At  the  time  that  Douglas  made  this  manly  and  memorable 
speech  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  he  well  knew  what 
would  be  the  inevitable  consequence — political  ostracism  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States  and  all  of  the  other  great  leaders 
of  the  party  with  which  Douglas  had  affiliated  all  of  his  life 
and  which  had  elevated  him  to  a  position  of  almost  unquestioned 
leadership.  At  the  time  he  made  this  statement  of  his  position 
to  the  Senate  he  knew  that  his  name  was  on  the  tongues  of 
thousands  of  the  most  influential  leaders  of  his  party  as  "the 
candidate"  of  the  party  for  the  Presidency,  and  that  that  party 
was  then  dominant  in  the  land.  He  knew,  too,  the  peril  of 
party  recreancy  and  insubordination.  He  had  been,  as  we  have 
seen,  warned  by  the  President  in  person  of  what  would  follow. 
He  knew  that  but  few  of  the  Democratic  Senators  and  Congress- 
men would  dare  to  risk  their  patronage  and  political  lives  by 
following  him  into  his  war  with  the  Democratic  administration. 
The  course  he  was  pursuing  he  knew  could  only  give  comfort 
to  the  Abolitionists,  Whigs,  Know-Nothings  and  other  enemies 
of  the  Democratic  party.  Nothing  but  the  noblest  sense  of 
righteousness  and  public  duty  and  self-respect  could  have 
impelled  him  to  take  this  perilous  political  course.  It  was  one 
of  the  finest  exhibitions  of  moral  courage  in  the  history  of  the 
United  States.  Up  to  this  time,  while  still  in  the  prime  of  life, 
he  had  had  unparalleled  success  in  all  his  undertakings.  His 
rare  combination  of  tact  and  talent  enabled  him  to  win  in  law, 
love  and  statesmanship.  His  eloquence  and  mental  agility  made 
him  a  successful  lawyer  at  a  bound.  After  a  few  years  of 
practice  he  was  elected  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois,  subse- 
quently elected  to  Congress,  and  then  to  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  when  only  thirty-three  years  of  age.  In  1857  he  had 
just  married  his  second  wife,  a  young  and  beautiful  woman 
who  has  often  been  described  as  "the  reigning  belle  of  Wash- 
ington/' In  the  South  he  was  the  unquestioned  leader  of  his 
party  and  outside  of  the  South  he  was  the  acclaimed  orator  and 
leader  of  the  same  party. 

In  the  midst  of  such  unlimited  success,  in  the  hey-day  of 
such  prosperity,  only  the  urge  of  a  noble  conscience  and  the 


452  ILLINOIS 

possession  of  the  highest  moral  courage  enabled  him  to  take 
this  momentous  step. 

Douglas'  onslaught  on  the  Lecompton  Constitution  resulted 
in  killing  the  bill  for  the  admission  of  Kansas  as  a  slave  state. 
It  failed  to  pass  both  houses  and  for  a  time  Kansas  was  left 
without  statehood.  The  Senate  and  House  being  deadlocked, 
the  matter  was  referred  to  a  committee  of  conference  between 
the  two  houses.  Here  a  compromise  was  agreed  upon  and  the 
bill  was  offered  to  the  House  by  William  H.  English  of  Indiana. 
This  bill,  thereafter  called  the  English  Bill,  provided  that  the 
Lecompton  Constitution  should  be  again  submitted  to  the  whole 
people  of  Kansas.  If  they  ratified  it  the  State  of  Kansas  should 
be  at  once  admitted  to  the  Union.  If  they  rejected  it  Kansas 
should  not  be  admitted  to  statehood  until  her  population  entitled 
her  to  one  representative  in  Congress.  Fervent  and  insistent 
pleas  were  made  to  Douglas  to  accept  and  vote  for  the  com- 
promise. The  President  favored  it.  The  outstanding  majority 
of  the  Democratic  members  of  Congress  wanted  it.  Even  Doug- 
las'  ardent  friends  at  Springfield  in  and  among  the  Illinois 
State  Register  office  were  anxious  to  have  Douglas  accept  it. 
But  Douglas  answered  "No!  The  English  Bill  is  a  trick  and 
a  fraud — sheer  bribery  in  fact."  Unless  the  people  accepted 
the  constitution,  they  were  to  be  kept  out  of  the  Union  until 
they  became  three  times  more  numerous  than  they  now  were. 
In  the  State  of  Kansas,  a  population  big  enough  to  make  it  a 
slave  state  was  big  enough  to  make  it  a  free  state.  (Beveridge's 
Lincoln,  Vol.  II.,  p.  561.) 

The  defeat  of  the  Kansas  bill,  however,  left  Douglas  outside 
the  breastworks  of  the  Democratic  administration  and  compelled 
him  to  fight  against  enormous  odds  the  greatest  battle  of  his 
political  life.  In  1858  the  election  of  members  of  the  Legislature 
of  Illinois  was  approached.  The  hold-over  members  of  the 
Senate  and  the  senators  and  representatives  elected  in  November, 
1858,  would  elect  the  United  States  senator  who  would  succeed 
Douglas,  whose  term  expired  in  1859.  After  the  Kansas  bill 
was  beaten  in  Congress,  Douglas  returned  to  Illinois  to  commence 
his  campaign  for  reelection  to  the  Senate.  A  few  high-minded 
and   courageous   Democrats   in   both  houses   of   Congress   and 


ILLINOIS  453 

throughout  the  nation  had  followed  Douglas  and  approved  his 
course.  Many  Democrats  in  the  northern  states  became  his 
ardent  supporters  and  advocates.  In  the  southern  states  he 
at  once  lost  caste  and  found  but  few  and  feeble  defenders.  Not 
only  did  northern  Democrats  who  were  independent  of  political 
patronage  support  him,  but  many  free-soilers  and  Whigs  began 
to  praise  his  patriotism  and  his  devotion  to  a  high  sense  of  public 
duty.  Several  Republican  senators,  such  as  Seward  and  Sumner, 
spoke  in  praise  of  his  conduct,  as  did  Horace  Greeley  and  the 
New  York  Tribune.  In  Illinois,  however,  Douglas  now  found 
he  had  "the  fight  of  his  life."  Word  came  from  the  Democratic 
administration  at  Washington  that  Douglas  must  be  beaten. 
Every  federal  office-holder  in  Illinois  was  ordered  to  line  up 
his  friends  against  Douglas  and  those  who  refused  were 
discharged. 

With  his  usual  courage  and  energy  Douglas  promptly  com- 
menced his  campaign  for  reelection  to  the  Senate. 


CHAPTER  XLIII 

GOVERNOR  MATTESON'S  ADMINISTRATION— THE 
DECADE  OF  WONDROUS  GROWTH 

Joel  A.  Matteson  was  elected  governor  of  the  state  on  the 
Democratic  ticket  in  1852  and  served  efficiently  in  that  position 
for  four  years,  from  1853  until  1857.  During  that  four  years 
took  place  a  tremendous  development  in  the  population,  com- 
merce, agriculture  and  manufacturing  of  the  state.  The  popu- 
lation of  Chicago  nearly  doubled  during  the  four  years,  and 
its  commerce  increased  four-fold.  The  population  of  the  state 
was  doubled  and  passed  the  million  mark.  Illinois  became  the 
fourth  most  populous  state  during  this  administration.  It  was 
also  a  period  of  intense  railroad  building.  Railroad  mileage 
during  the  quadrennial  increased  from  about  400  miles  to  nearly 
3,000  miles. 

Before  his  election  Matteson  was  a  successful  business  man 
and  contractor,  and  he  was  naturally  favorable  to  railway  and 
industrial  expansion.  The  wealth  of  the  state  during  his  four 
years'  incumbency  nearly  trebled,  increasing  from  about  $138,- 
000,000  in  1851  to  $350,000,000  in  1856.  Under  his  adminis- 
tration an  attempt  was  made  to  pass  a  prohibitory  liquor  law, 
then  called  the  "Maine  law."  The  law  was  passed  by  the  Legis- 
lature in  1855,  and  was  submitted  to  the  people  for  a  referendum 
vote,  but  was  decisively  beaten  by  popular  vote. 

The  indebtedness  of  the  state  was  reduced  under  Governor 
Matteson's  administration  from  $17,398,985  to  $12,843,144.  Dur- 
ing his  administration,  in  1855  was  enacted  a  Free  School  law, 
which  contained  most  of  the  essential  requirements  of  our  pres- 
ent Public  School  law.  This  law  was  found  to  be  exceedingly 
effective  in  reducing,  if  not  abolishing  entirely,  illiteracy  in 
Illinois. 

454 


Governor  1853-57 

(Courtesy  Illinois  State  Historical  Library.) 


CHAPTER  XLIV 
ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOVERNOR  BISSELL 

William  H.  Bissell,  elected  governor  in  1856  over  Col.  William 
A.  Richardson,  the  Democratic  nominee,  leader  of  the  Illinois 
Democrats  in  Congress,  and  the  friend  and  ardent  supporter 
of  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  has  the  honor  of  being  the  first  Repub- 
lican governor  ever  elected  in  the  State  of  Illinois.  Before  his 
nomination  for  governor  he  had  been  an  ardent  Jeffersonian 
Democrat  and  had  represented  his  party  as  Congressman  from 
the  Alton  district.  Owing  to  the  undisguised  attempts  of  the 
southern  Democrats  between  1850  and  1854  to  extend  slavery 
into  the  territories  of  the  North  and  the  truculent  threats  of 
these  same  men  to  dismember  the  Union,  Colonel  Bissell  severed 
his  connection  with  the  Democratic  party  and  with  Palmer, 
Trumbull  and  other  former  Democrats  allied  himself  with  the 
new-born  Republican  party. 

While  Buchanan,  the  Democratic  candidate  for  the  Presi- 
dency, carried  the  State  of  Illinois  in  1856,  Bissell,  for  the  first 
time  in  history,  carried  the  state  by  a  plurality  of  about  5,000 
and  led  his  whole  ticket.  His  courage  in  Congress  when  he  baited 
Jefferson  Davis  and  accepted  a  challenge  from  that  gentleman 
which  was  only  averted  by  the  intervention  of  friends  of  both 
parties,  made  him  exceedingly  popular.  His  determined  oppo- 
sition to  the  extension  of  slavery  brought  to  his  support  (not- 
withstanding he  was  a  Catholic)  even  the  nativists  and  the 
Know-Nothings,  as  well  as  many  thousands  of  his  old  Democratic 
friends  and  admirers  who  agreed  with  his  views  and  admired 
his  courage.  When  seated  in  the  governor's  chair  he  found 
himself  confronted  with  a  Democratic  Legislature  opposed  to 
Republican  policies. 

He  was  elected  on  a  platform  which  pledged  him  against 
the  extension  of  slavery  and  he  determined  to  carry  out  that 

456 


ILLINOIS 


457 


pledge.  The  Republican  party  had  been  charged  during  the 
campaign  as  being  tainted  with  Know-Nothingism  and  he  decided 
upon  a  liberal  policy  towards  his  naturalized  fellow-citizens. 
The  redistricting  of  the  state  according  to  the  population  as 
required  by  the  Constitution  had  been  ignored  by  the  Legislature 


Governor  1857-61 

(Courtesy  Illinois  State  Historical  Library.) 

and  he  determined  to  remind  it  of  its  constitutional  duty.  On 
January  5,  1859,  Governor  Bissell  sent  a  message  to  the  Legis- 
lature, reviewing  the  state  affairs  and  requesting  a  reapportion- 
ment of  the  legislative  and  congressional  districts  in  accordance 
with  the  actual  population  of  the  state. 


458  ILLINOIS 

The  Democrats  were  still  in  a  majority  in  the  Legislature, 
and  without  conferring  with  the  Republican  members,  the  Demo- 
crats drafted  and  presented  a  reapportionment  bill,  which  the 
Republicans  pronounced  a  gerrymander  which  was  unfair  to 
them.  The  Republican  minority  fought  it  savagely  on  the  floor 
of  the  House  and  Senate  and  resorted  to  every  conceivable  fili- 
bustering device  to  prevent  the  passage  of  the  bill.  The  Demo- 
crats, however,  succeeded  in  passing  this  reapportionment  bill 
in  both  houses  notwithstanding  the  bitterness  with  which  it 
was  fought.  When  the  bill  reached  the  governor  he  held  it 
for  several  days,  during  which  he  prepared  a  savage  veto  mes- 
sage. After  Governor  Bissell  vetoed  the  bill  the  Democrats 
attempted  to  pass  the  bill  over  his  veto,  but  the  Republicans 
induced  enough  of  their  members  to  absent  themselves  from 
the  sessions  of  both  houses  of  the  Legislature,  so  as  to  prevent 
a  quorum.  The  Republican  members  persisted  in  this  rather 
revolutionary  course  and  the  Democrats  were  unable  to  pass 
the  bill  over  the  governor's  veto  and  it  failed  to  become  a  law. 
The  abstention  of  the  Republicans  from  the  legislative  sittings 
forced  the  adjournment  of  the  session  without  action  on  many 
appropriation  bills  and  several  hundred  other  bills  pending 
before  the  Legislature. 

Governor  Bissell  died  in  March,  1860,  during  his  incumbency 
of  the  office  of  governor,  and  was  succeeded  in  office  by  John 
Wood,  the  lieutenant-governor  of  the  state.  It  was  during 
Governor  Bissell's  term  as  governor  of  the  state  that  the  cele- 
brated debates  between  Lincoln  and  Douglas  took  place,  which 
gained  for  Douglas  his  reelection  to  the  Senate  and  for  Lincoln 
a  place  in  the  political  life  of  the  nation  which  entitled  him  and 
eventually  secured  for  him  election  to  the  highest  position  in 
the  gift  of  the  nation — the  Presidency  of  the  United  States. 


CHAPTER  XLV 
THE  BIRTH  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  IN  ILLINOIS 

The  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  produced  great  disorganization 
in  the  Democratic  ranks  in  the  State  of  Illinois.  Several  of 
the  Democratic  papers  openly  repudiated  the  action  of  Senator 
Douglas  and  Congress  in  passing  this  law.  The  Rock  River 
Democrat  declared:  "We  forbear  an  expression  of  our  deep 
indignation,  and  shall  choke  the  utterance  of  our  abhorrence 
of  the  men  who  have  insanely  given  us  as  a  Democratic  party 
to  the  contempt  of  the  world." 

John  Wentworth's  paper — The  Chicago  Democrat,  wrote 
editorially  "Throughout  the  North  ....  there  is  opposition  to 
a  great  measure  which  has  just  been  consummated,  the  respon- 
sibility of  which  the  Democratic  party  of  the  nation  will  be 
compelled  to  bear."  Wentworth  and  his  paper,  however,  were 
not  yet  ready  to  abandon  the  Democratic  party  and  afterwards 
declared  that  "we  must  beat  the  enemy  handsomely;  carry  the 
State  gloriously  and  thus  continue  the  ascendancy  of  Democratic 
principles  in  our  councils." 

The  Anti-Nebraska  Democrats  pleaded  against  the  adoption 
by  the  Democratic  convention  of  the  new  test  of  democracy  to 
wit:  endorsement  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act,  but  Douglas  and 
his  followers  were  able  to  keep  the  Democratic  county  conven- 
tions in  line  and  have  them  endorse  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act. 
The  younger  Democratic  leaders,  such  as  Lyman  Trumbull, 
John  M.  Palmer,  Col.  E.  D.  Taylor,  John  A.  McClernand  and 
Jehu  Baker  took  much  offense  at  Douglas'  conduct  in  securing 
the  passage  of  the  act.  Sidney  Breese  vigorously  took  the  same 
position.  There  was  a  division  also  in  the  Whig  ranks.  The 
Whig  assemblymen,  James  W.  Singleton,  William  H.  Christy 
and  James  M.  Randolph  had  voted  for  the  Nebraska  resolutions 

459 


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o 


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m     -5 


u 

Q 

X 


ILLINOIS  461 

and  the  Illinois  Journal,  the  Whig  organ,  promptly  read  them 
out  of  the  Whig  party  and  classed  them  with  abolitionists,  and 
many  of  them  left  the  Whig  party  to  join  the  Douglas  Democrats. 

As  early  as  March  28th,  1854  a  mass  meeting  was  held  at 
Rockford,  which  passed  a  resolution  that  'The  free  states  should 
blot  out  all  former  distinction  by  uniting  themselves  into  one 
great  Northern  party."  The  Illinois  Journal  protested  against 
the  Whigs  abandoning  their  party  to  join  any  new  anti-slavery 
party.  Later  on  conventions  were  held  in  LaSalle,  Will,  Putnam 
and  other  counties  under  the  name  of  Republicans.  A  Republican 
state  convention  was  called  to  meet  in  Springfield  on  the  4th 
and  5th  of  October,  1854,  but  the  Whigs  failed  to  attend  the 
same.  Some  twenty-six  anti-slavery  men  appeared  in  the  con- 
vention but  they  were  all  so-called  Abolitionists,  and  Abraham 
Lincoln  failing  to  connect  himself  with  that  label ;  adroitly 
remained  away  from  the  meeting,  although  he  made  a  vigorous 
anti-Nebraska  speech  at  Springfield  about  the  time  that  the 
convention  was  held.  Although  this  convention  was  attended 
by  so  few;  a  number  of  men  all  of  whom  were  radicals  on  the 
anti-slavery  question,  the  convention  adopted  a  platform.  Lin- 
coln, however,  absented  himself  from  the  city  in  order  not  to 
be  identified  with  that  element.  Later  on  he  repudiated  the  use 
of  his  name  by  that  gathering.  The  Democrats  at  the  same  time 
were  at  each  others  throats  in  different  parts  of  the  state. 

James  H.  Woodworth,  a  free  soil  Democrat,  and  former 
mayor  of  Chicago,  was  nominated  for  Congress  on  the  anti- 
Kansas-Nebraska  ticket  and  was  elected. 

In  the  Alton  district  there  was  also  trouble  for  the  Democrats. 
Lyman  Trumbull  came  out  in  bold  defiance  of  Douglas  and  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Act  was  nominated  for  Congress  and  won 
out  as  against  Philip  B.  Fouke,  a  Nebraska  Democrat. 

In  the  Springfield  district  Democrats  nominated  Thomas  L. 
Harris,  a  supporter  of  Douglas  as  against  Richard  Yates.  Yates 
was  supported  by  the  anti-Nebraska  forces,  both  Whigs  and 
Democrats,  and  Harris  won  over  Yates  by  a  very  narrow 
majority. 

I  have  a  letter  in  my  possession  given  to  me  by  Former 
Governor   Richard   Yates,   the   younger,   written   by   Abraham 


462  ILLINOIS 

Lincoln,  giving  advice  in  that  campaign  to  Richard  Yates,  the 
father  of  the  younger  Governor  Yates,  as  to  how  to  manage 
the  campaign,  particularly  with  reference  to  the  "Know  nothing" 
element  in  the  district,  on  the  back  of  which  Governor  Yates 
endorsed  the  statement,  that  he  had  failed  to  follow  Lincoln's 
advice  and  lost  his  election  by  only  200  votes.  He  alleged  also 
in  this  endorsement  that  he  was  beaten  because  of  a  false  affi- 
davit charging  him  with  having  been  seen  in  a  "Know  nothing" 
lodge.  Strange  to  say,  the  nativistic  prejudice  at  that  time  was 
against  the  English  and  Germans  living  in  Illinois. 

The  election  held  in  November,  1854  in  the  State  of  Illinois 
resulted  in  a  Democratic  defeat.  Members  of  the  Legislature 
then  elected,  showed  a  majority  of  anti-Nebraskites.  The  Con- 
gressional elections  also  went  against  them;  as  they  only  were 
able  to  elect  four  of  the  nine  members  of  Congress. 

Another  blow  was  given  to  the  Democratic  party  in  1854 
when  Shields'  reelection  to  the  Senate  was  at  issue.  Lyman 
Trumbull,  an  anti-Nebraska  Democrat,  was  placed  in  nomination 
and  was  elected  by  the  Legislature  over  Shields.  The  Know 
Nothing  party  made  its  appearance  during  this  campaign  and 
it  is  claimed  that  one  of  the  reasons  for  Shields'  defeat  was  that 
he  professed  the  Roman  Catholic  religion.  The  influence  of 
this  element  in  Illinois  politics,  however,  did  not  last  very  long. 
Religious  fanaticism  did  not  seem  to  flourish  for  any  length  of 
time  on  the  prairies  of  Illinois.  Shortly  thereafter,  William  H. 
Bissell  in  1856,  though  a  Roman  Catholic,  was  nominated  for 
governor  on  the  Republican  ticket,  and  triumphantly  elected  to 
that  office. 

In  1856,  as  another  evidence  of  the  weakening  power  of  the 
Democratic  party  in  the  Northern  part  of  the  state,  John  Went- 
worth  in  his  paper  declared,  "The  North  is  all  split  to  pieces 
upon  matters  of  minor  moment  compared  with  the  great  ques- 
tion at  issue.  Now  we  think  the  North  should  unite  as  well  as 
the  South.  If  slavery  can  unite  the  South,  certainly  freedom 
should  unite  the  North." 

In  that  portion  of  the  state  there  was  a  perfection  of  local 
organizations  under  the  name  of  "Republicans"  during  that 
year,  and  they  were  quite  successful  in  some  of  their  local  elec- 


ILLINOIS  463 

tions.  In  the  summer  of  that  year  Douglas  took  the  platform 
and  appealed  to  his  followers  to  rally  for  Democracy  and  to  be- 
ware of  Know  Nothingism  and  Maine-lawism  lurking  behind  the 
Republican  party. 

In  1856  the  Republicans  had  carried  elections  in  the  neigh- 
boring states  of  Michigan  and  Wisconsin  and  many  Whigs, 
Democrats  and  Know  Nothings  expressed  their  willingness  to 
unite  under  the  name  of  the  Republican  party.  Wentworth, 
William  H.  Bissell,  Gustave  Koerner,  Lyman  Trumbull  and  many 
other  anti-Nebraska  Democrats  had  not  yet  formally  seceded 
from  the  party,  but  had  made  up  their  mind  that  if  the  Demo- 
cratic party  in  its  convention,  made  a  test  of  Democracy  the 
support  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act,  they  would  quit  their  for- 
mer affiliations  and  join  the  new  party. 

The  Democratic  convention  met  on  the  first  of  July,  1856, 
and  rallying  behind  Douglas,  adopted  an  aggressive  Nebraska 
platform  as  a  test  of  party  loyalty  and  nominated  for  governor, 
Colonel  Richardson,  the  Democratic  congressman  in  the  House, 
who  had  ably  assisted  Douglas  in  procuring  the  passage  of  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Act.  This  act  of  the  Democratic  convention 
drove  John  M.  Palmer,  William  H.  Bissell,  Gustave  Koerner, 
Lyman  Trumbull  and  hundreds  of  other  anti-Nebraska  Demo- 
crats out  of  the  party. 

From  that  time  on,  they  enthusiastically  supported  the  Re- 
publican party  which  was  born  in  Illinois  in  the  month  of  July, 
1856,  after  the  adjournment  of  the  Democratic  convention,  at 
which  William  H.  Bissell,  a  former  prominent  Democrat  but  a 
bitter  opponent  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act,  was  nominated 
for  governor  and  triumphantly  elected  in  the  following  Novem- 
ber over  Richardson,  the  Douglas  Democratic  candidate. 

National  conventions  of  both  the  Republican  and  Democratic 
parties  were  held  that  year.  The  Republican  party  met  at  Phila- 
delphia and  nominated  John  C.  Fremont  for  President  and  Wil- 
liam L.  Dayton  as  the  anti-slavery  candidates.  Prior  to  that 
time  on  June  2nd,  the  Democrats  had  placed  in  nomination  for 
President,  James  Buchanan  on  a  "squatter  sovereignty"  plat- 
form. This  was  the  first  year  that  a  candidate  labeled  "Repub- 
lican" was  placed  in  nomination  at  a  national  convention  for 


464  ILLINOIS 

election  as  President  of  the  United  States.  At  this  election 
Trumbull,  Koerner,  Bissell,  John  Wentworth  and  John  M. 
Palmer  voted  for  and  advocated  the  election  of  a  Republican 
ticket,  all  of  them  having  been  former  Democrats.  They  ap- 
peared on  the  stump  in  this  election  with  Lincoln,  Owen  Love- 
joy  and  Richard  Yates,  former  Whigs,  all  of  them  being  now 
labeled  "Republicans." 

Thus  came  into  being  in  the  year  1856  in  the  State  of  Illi- 
nois the  Republican  party,  which  ever  since  that  time,  with 
two  quadrennial  exceptions,  has  controlled  and  dominated  poli- 
tics of  the  State  of  Illinois. 

The  result  of  the  presidential  election  in  that  year  in  the 
State  of  Illinois  was  still  favorable  to  the  Democratic  party. 
Buchanan  received  the  electoral  vote  of  Illinois,  but  Colonel 
Richardson,  the  Democratic  candidate  for  governor,  went  down 
before  Bissell  and  his  associates.  Bissell  developed  remarkable 
strength.  He  was  found  to  be  popular  to  an  extraordinary  de- 
gree, both  with  his  former  Democratic  associates  and  with  the 
Whigs,  who  had  helped  him  to  a  seat  in  Congress  in  1852. 
Strange  to  say,  he  was  also  popular  with  the  foreign  voters  and 
with  the  nativists  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  was  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  faith. 

Upon  assuming  office  as  governor,  however,  he  found  him- 
self confronted  by  a  Democratic  Legislature.  He  succeeded, 
however,  by  pointing  out  the  injustice  of  the  existing  electoral 
districts  to  bring  about  a  re-districting  of  the  state  in  accord- 
ance with  the  population  shown  by  the  census  of  1855. 


CHAPTER  XLVI 

DOUGLAS  OPENS  HIS  CAMPAIGN  FOR  REELECTION  TO 

THE  SENATE 

Early  in  the  year  1858,  Douglas  returned  to  Illinois  to  open 
his  campaign  for  reelection  to  the  United  States  Senate.  He 
found  that  the  enmity  and  hostility  of  the  Democratic  adminis- 
tration had  preceded  him.  The  postmaster  at  Chicago,  who  had 
been  appointed  at  the  request  of  Douglas,  had  been  removed 
and  his  place  given  to  a  man  who  was  a  bitter  enemy  of  Doug- 
las, the  removed  postmaster  having  lost  his  position  on  charges 
of  defalcation.  The  new  postmaster,  Cook,  and  the  United  States 
marshals  in  Illinois  managed  the  war  of  the  administration 
Democrats  against  Douglas,  and  all  of  the  Federal  office-holders 
in  the  state  were  massed  in  one  solid  league  against  him.  Doug- 
las soon  found  that  he  had  to  fight  not  only  the  Republican  and 
Free  Soil  parties,  but  all  the  Democratic  office-holders  in  the 
state.  Conferences  between  the  Republican  managers  and  the 
Democratic  office-holding  league  were  frequent  and  friendly. 
On  June  9,  1858,  the  administration  Democrats  held  their  state 
convention  at  Springfield.  Douglas  was  roundly  denounced  in 
its  resolutions  and  his  defeat  demanded.  He  and  his  followers 
were  called  rebels  and  enemies  of  Democracy,  and  the  President 
lauded  as  able  and  patriotic.  This  convention  also  placed  in 
nomination  for  state  offices  men  who  were  in  opposition  to  those 
nominated  in  the  Douglas  Democratic  convention. 

Never  did  a  man  in  Illinois  face  a  more  formidable  array  of 
bitter  enemies  and  conspirators  against  his  success  than  did 
Stephen  A.  Douglas  in  that  campaign.  By  his  high-minded  in- 
sistence upon  fair  play  by  his  party  in  Kansas,  and  by  his  cour- 
ageous attack  upon  trickery  which  had  been  practiced  by  the 
pro-slavery  element  of  his  party  in  framing  the  weasel-worded 

465 


466  ILLINOIS 

Lecompton  Constitution  and  refusing  to  submit  it  to  popular 
referendum,  he  had  brought  upon  himself  and  his  candidacy 
the  bitter  hostility  of  the  Democratic  President  and  all  his  ap- 
pointees in  Illinois.  That  his  motives  in  so  doing  were  actuated 
by  the  purest  patriotism  and  disregard  of  selfish  aims  cannot 
be  seriously  questioned.  He  had  nothing  to  gain  and  everything 
to  lose  politically  by  doing  things  that  would  enable  Kansas  to 
come  into  the  Union  as  a  free-soil  state.  Notwithstanding  the 
words  of  praise  that  were  given  him  by  Greeley  and  Seward, 
Douglas  had  plenty  of  experience  in  the  working  of  party  poli- 
tics and  knew  from  that  practical  experience  that  no  party  in 
politics  would  accept  an  insurrectionist  from  the  opposite  party 
and  give  him  its  leadership.  It  might  reward  him  with  verbal 
nosegays,  or  give  him  some  subordinate  job  because  of  services 
rendered,  but  nothing  more.  His  own  party  had  already  placed 
him  in  the  highest  position,  short  of  the  presidency,  and  at  the 
time  of  his  break  there  was  no  man  in  the  Democratic  party 
who  was  so  likely  as  Douglas  to  be  nominated  and  elected  to 
succeed  the  Democratic  incumbent  of  the  position.  His  only  mo- 
tive could  have  been,  and  was,  to  preserve  his  own  self-respect 
and  sense  of  justice  and  fair  play  and  establish  a  record  of 
honesty  and  consistency  in  public  life.  Above  all  he  was  actu- 
ated by  the  patriotic  desire  to  avert  the  dissolution  of  the  Union 
threatened  by  the  fanatical  slaveholders  of  the  South  and  the 
frenzied  abolitionists  of  the  North.  Those  of  the  North  could 
not  bring  it  about,  because  they  were  in  a  small  minority  in  that 
section;  while  the  extremists  of  the  South  were  backed  by  the 
almost  unanimous  views  of  that  part  of  the  United  States.  His 
motto  midst  this  tumult  of  treasonable  threats  was:  Fiat  jus- 
ticia,  ruat  coelum. 

When  Lincoln's  partner,  Herndon,  went  from  Springfield  to 
New  York  to  remonstrate  with  Horace  Greeley  because  of  his 
praise  of  Douglas  and  the  course  he  was  pursuing  in  the  Kansas 
case,  the  great  Republican  editor  hotly  answered :  "Douglas 
is  a  brave  man.  Forget  the  past  and  sustain  the  righteous." 
Before  leaving  Washington  for  Illinois,  Douglas  was  informed 
that  Lincoln  had  been  nominated  for  the  Senate  by  the  Repub- 
lican  convention  at  Springfield,   June   16,   1858.     Speaking  to 


•Lyman  Trumbull 


468  ILLINOIS 

his  friend,  John  W.  Forney,  Douglas  said:  "I  shall  have  my 
hands  full.  He  is  the  strong  man  of  his  party — full  of  wit, 
facts,  dates — and  the  best  stump-speaker,  with  his  droll  ways 
and  dry  jokes,  in  the  West.  He  is  as  honest  as  he  is  shrewd, 
and  if  I  beat  him  my  victory  will  be  hardly  won."  He  thus 
realized  the  seriousness  of  the  contest  even  before  he  found  on 
his  return  to  Illinois  the  bitter  opposition  he  was  to  encounter 
in  his  own  party.  He  had  scarcely  arrived  in  the  state  when  he 
discovered  that  James  Ward,  special  United  States  agent  of  the 
post  office  department  and  superintendent  of  mails,  postmasters 
and  route  agents  in  Illinois,  had  been  removed  by  the  President 
because  he  would  not  desert  Douglas  in  his  fight ;  and  Dr.  Charles 
Lieb  had  been  appointed  in  his  place.  Lieb  promptly  wired 
the  secretary  of  state  of  Illinois  that  he  had  been  appointed. 
Traveling  on  railroad  passes,  Lieb  traversed  the  state,  indus- 
triously threatening  removals  of  Democratic  office-holders  and 
giving  promises  of  appointments,  and  doing  everything  in  his 
power  to  win  votes  away  from  Douglas.  He  also  acted  as  a 
liaison  officer  between  the  so-called  "regular"  Democrats  and 
the  Republican  leaders  and  brought  about  co-ordination  between 
them  to  ruin  Douglas.  Commenting  on  this  situation,  the  New 
York  Times  of  July  13,  1858,  declared:  "Mr.  Douglas  has  tre- 
mendous odds  against  him.  If  he  shall  succeed  in  detaching 
from  the  administration  Democrats  enough  to  elect  him,  it  will 
be  the  most  brilliant  triumph  of  his  life."  His  entry  into  Chi- 
cago was  a  great  triumph.  So  large  was  the  crowd  assembled 
to  meet  him  that  he  hardly  could  find  room  for  his  carriage  to 
move  towards  the  hotel  where  he  made  his  first  speech  July  9, 
1858. 

In  this,  the  opening  speech  of  this  most  remarkable  cam- 
paign, he  first  thanked  his  audience  for  their  endorsement  of 
his  course  in  relation  to  the  Lecompton  Constitution  and  the 
situation  in  Kansas  as  evidenced  by  their  turning  out  in  such 
tremendous  numbers  to  greet  him.  He  claimed  that  their  pres- 
ence in  such  huge  numbers  evidenced  their  "devotion  to  the  great 
principle  of  self-government  to  which  my  life  for  many  years 
past,  and  in  the  whole  future  will  be  devoted."  He  declared 
that  he  had  fought  the  Lecompton  Constitution  because  it  vio- 


ILLINOIS  469 

lated  that  principle  and  with  the  assistance  of  others  in  Con- 
gress had  forced  the  resubmission  of  that  instrument  to  the 
people  of  Kansas  to  be  voted  on  by  them  in  the  following  August. 
In  the  Senate  he  had  fought  for  the  principle  of  popular  self- 
government  against  opposition  from  the  North  and  more  re- 
cently against  opposition  from  the  South.  He  had  fought  the 
Lecompton  Constitution  because  that  document  did  not  provide 
for  the  submission  of  the  whole  instrument  to  the  popular  vote 
of  the  people.  "I  deny,"  he  declared,  "the  right  of  Congress  to 
enforce  upon  a  people  a  code  of  laws  they  are  unwilling  to 
receive."  He  then  complimented  Lincoln,  who  was  present  in 
the  hotel  and  within  hearing,  saying  that  he  had  known  him  for 
about  a  quarter  of  a  century  and  knew  him  to  be  a  kind,  amiable 
and  intelligent  gentleman,  a  good  citizen  and  an  honorable 
opponent,  and  that  the  issue  between  Lincoln  and  himself  was 
not  in  personalities  but  in  principles.  He  then  attacked  Lin- 
coln's assertion  that  "the  nation  could  not  endure  half-slave 
and  half-free."  That  assertnon,  Douglas  declared,  meant  uni- 
formity of  local  laws  and  domestic  institutions  of  all  the  states. 
This  would  invite  ceaseless  conflict  until  slavery  was  estab- 
lished in  all  the  states  or  abolished  in  all  of  them,  a  war  of  sec- 
tions, a  war  of  the  North  against  the  South,  or  the  free  states 
against  the  slave  states,  a  war  of  extermination  until  one  or  the 
other  of  the  combatants  should  be  subdued.  Such  uniformity 
was  neither  possible  nor  wise.  The  builders  of  the  Constitution 
foresaw  that  what  policies,  laws  and  legislation  would  suit  one 
state  might  not  suit  another  and  for  this  reason  they  wisely 
provided  in  that  instrument  that  each  state  should  be  sovereign 
in  its  domestic  affairs,  and  that  the  Federal  Government  should 
exercise  only  such  specific  powers  as  were  given  it,  and  that 
these  were  general  and  national  in  their  character.  Uniformity 
of  legislation  in  politics,  in  religion,  in  industry  and  in  social 
relations  is  the  parent  of  despotism  the  world  over.  How 
could  such  uniformity  be  had  in  the  United  States?  he  asked. 
Only  by  merging  the  rights  and  sovereignty  of  the  states  into 
one  consolidated  empire,  and  giving  Congress  the  unlimited 
power  to  enact  all  police  regulations  and  domestic  laws  for  the 
whole  republic  whether  they  were  suitable  or  unsuitable  to  local 


470  ILLINOIS 

conditions  and  whether  they  were  beneficial  or  injurious  to  cer- 
tain localities.  Variety  in  local  regulations  and  domestic  insti- 
tutions was  essential  to  liberty.  The  sovereignty  of  the  states 
in  local  matters  and  police  regulations  must  be  maintained  if 
freedom  is  to  be  preserved. 

Douglas  next  criticized  Lincoln  for  his  attack  upon  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States.  That  court  had  recently 
decided  the  celebrated  Dred  Scott  case,  holding  by  a  majority 
of  seven  to  two  that  a  negro  slave  residing  in  free-soil  territory 
for  some  time,  was  not  emancipated  and  did  not  become  thereby 
a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  and  dismissed  his  case  because 
he  was  not  a  "citizen  of  the  United  States"  and  therefore  the 
court  had  no  jurisdiction.  The  logic  and  merits  of  this  notable 
decision  will  be  more  fully  discussed  hereafter.  It  suffices  now 
to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  decision  had  been  but 
recently  rendered  and  that  Lincoln,  among  others,  had  been 
attacking  the  same.  In  discussing  Lincoln's  attack  upon  the 
Dred  Scott  decision,  Douglas  declared  that  under  the  American 
Constitution  and  system  of  government,  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
court  to  expound  and  interpret  the  Constitution  and  construe  the 
laws  and  when  the  decision  of  a  case  was  enunciated,  all  citizens 
must  yield  to  it.  Upon  that  principle,  he  declared,  all  our  rights, 
our  liberty  and  our  property  depend.  No  appeal  lies  from  a 
decision  of  a  Supreme  Court  to  a  "noisy  town  meeting,  or  to  a 
Republican  caucus  sitting  in  the  country."  He  concluded  this 
part  of  his  speech  by  insisting  that  the  people  should  and  must 
"maintain  the  Constitution,  obey  the  laws  and  uphold  the  courts." 

He  next  contended  that  the  framers  of  the  Constitution 
never  for  a  moment  intended  to  place  the  black  man  on  the 
same  plane  as  a  white  man ;  that  when  that  great  document  was 
being  devised  and  while  its  adoption  was  being  considered  with 
great  deliberation  by  the  states,  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
black  men  were  held  in  bondage  in  most  of  the  states;  that  the 
white  men  who  discussed  and  framed  the  provisions  of  that  in- 
strument intended  it  to  apply  to  white  men  alone  and  not  to 
negroes  in  chains  or  orientals.  Members  of  inferior  races,  he 
contended,  ought  to  have  all  the  rights  they  could  use  "consist- 
ent with  the  safety  of  society,"  and  that  each  state  must  decide 


By  Courtesy  c[  The  Northwestern  University  School  of  Law, 


First  reporter  of  Illinois  Supreme  Court.     Judge  of  Supreme  Court,  pro- 
found jurist  and  no  one  did  more  to  perfect  the  judicial  system  of  Illinois. 


472  ILLINOIS 

for  itself  the  nature  and  extent  of  these  rights.  Illinois,  he 
said,  had  decided  that  negroes  should  be  neither  slaves  nor 
voters.  Maine  gave  negroes  the  right  to  vote.  Neither  state  has 
the  right  to  complain  of  the  other.  Virginia  has  the  same  right 
to  protect  slavery  that  Illinois  has  to  banish  it  from  her  borders. 
"I  do  not  concede  that  the  states  must  all  be  free  or  must  all 
be  slave.  I  do  not  acknowledge  that  the  negro  must  have  civil 
and  political  rights  everywhere  or  nowhere,  or  that  California 
must  give  the  Chinese  the  same  privileges  that  Illinois  might 
grant  them.  The  issues  between  Mr.  Lincoln  and  myself  as 
candidates  for  the  United  States  are  direct  and  irreconcilable. 
He  goes  for  uniformity  in  our  domestic  institutions,  for  a  war 
of  sections  until  one  or  the  other  is  subdued.  I  go  for  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill — the  right  of  the  people  to 
decide  for  themselves.,, 

The  following  night,  July  10,  Abraham  Lincoln  addressed 
an  enormous  audience  at  the  same  place,  the  Tremont  Hotel, 
Chicago.  After  thanking  Douglas  for  procuring  him  a  con- 
venient and  comfortable  seat  on  the  preceding  night  and  for 
his  reference  to  him,  Lincoln,  as  kind,  amiable  and  intelligent,  he 
proceeded  to  discuss  Douglas'  pregnant  reference  to  popular 
sovereignty.  "What  is  popular  sovereignty?  Why  it  is  the 
sovereignty  of  the  people.  But  the  Dred  Scott  decision  said 
that  if  a  man  took  slaves  to  a  territory,  the  people  could  not 
keep  them  out.  When  they  made  a  state  constitution  they  could 
exclude  slavery,  but  during  the  preceding  territorial  govern- 
ment slaves  could  be  taken  in.  They  would  be  there  when  the 
territory  became  a  state.  Thus  they  would  have  to  tolerate 
slavery."  There  was  nothing  new,  said  Lincoln,  in  the  state- 
ment that  the  people  could  form  a  state  constitution.  That  had 
always  been  so.  Nobody,  certainly  no  Republican,  opposed  that. 
' 'Douglas  thinks  he  has  invented  that  idea.  Douglas  will  soon 
claim  that  he  is  the  inventor  of  the  idea  that  people  should 
govern  themselves."  After  quoting  that  clause  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  on  the  equality  of  man,  Lincoln  said: 
"There  is  the  origin  of  popular  sovereignty."  Lincoln  then 
denied  that  Douglas  deserved  the  credit  of  beating  the  Lecomp- 
ton  Constitution.     "He  did  right  in  fighting  it,"  he  said,  "but 


ILLINOIS  473 

all  the  Republicans  in  the  nation  opposed  it."  He  agreed  with 
Douglas  that  the  defeat  of  the  Lecompton  Constitution  was  a 
good  thing  and  then  asked:  "Who  defeated  it?"  The  audience 
answered:  "Judge  Douglas !"  Lincoln  went  on  to  show  that 
Douglas  only  controlled  three  Democratic  votes  against  that 
constitution  in  the  Senate  and  only  twenty  Democratic  votes  in 
the  House,  while  the  Republicans  gave  twenty  votes  in  the  Sen- 
ate and  ninety  in  the  House.  He  claimed  that  the  Republican 
party  and  not  Douglas  and  his  Democratic  followers  were  en- 
titled to  claim  the  honor  of  beating  the  Lecompton  Constitution. 
He  then  asked  again  his  audience:  "Now,  who  was  it  that  did 
the  work?"  Again  the  response  was:  "Douglas!"  Lincoln  then 
contended  that  Douglas  should  not  be  supported  against  him, 
Lincoln,  simply  because  he  opposed  the  Lecompton  Constitu- 
tion, but  the  crowd  in  front  of  him  interrupted  him  with  cries 
of  "Who  killed  the  bill?  Douglas!"  until  Lincoln  almost  lost 
his  temper. 

He  was  more  fortunate  in  discussing  his  house-divided- 
against-itself  theory.  While  on  this  theme  the  audience  cried: 
"Good!  Good!"  Douglas  had  drawn  wrong  inferences  from 
his  language  on  this  matter.  Lincoln  had  stated  merely  on  that 
subject  what  would  happen,  and  not  what  he,  Lincoln,  thought 
ought  to  happen.  In  that  speech  of  his  which  Douglas  so 
strongly  criticized,  he  did  not  say  that  he  wished  slavery  to  be 
put  in  course  of  ultimate  extinction.  "I  do  say  so  now,  however !" 
he  stated.  He  then  admitted,  as  Douglas  charged,  that  the 
speech  in  which  he  used  the  words  "a  home  divided  against 
itself  must  fall"  was  carefully  prepared  by  him.  "I  am. not  a 
master  of  language,"  he  said.  "I  have  not  a  fine  education,  but 
what  I  said  will  not  bear  any  such  construction  as  Douglas  puts 
upon  it.  At  least  I  knew  what  I  meant,"  said  Lincoln.  "Of 
course  the  Government  had  endured  eighty-two  years  half  slave 
and  half  free,  but  it  had  lasted  so  long  because  the  public  be- 
lieved that  slavery  would  finally  die  out."  ("Good!"  and  ap- 
plause.) 

Lincoln  then  stated  that  he  had  always  hated  slavery  but 
had  kept  quiet  about  it  until  this  new  era  of  the  introduction  of 
the  Nebraska  bill  began.     "I  always  believed,"  he  said,  "that 


474  ILLINOIS 

everybody  was  against  it  and  that  it  was  in  course  of  ultimate 
extinction.  So  thought  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  when 
they  excluded  slavery  from  new  territory,  where  it  had  not 
already  gone,  and  when  they  put  a  period  to  the  African  slave 
trade.  People  of  the  free  states  had  no  right  to  meddle  with 
slavery  in  the  slave  states  and  ought  not  to  want  to  do  it."  He 
had  said  that  a  hundred  times.  Douglas'  charge  that  he  wanted 
to  interfere  with  that  institution  where  it  existed,  was  unwar- 
ranted. If  he  ever  had  said  anything  from  which  such  an  infer- 
ence could  be  drawn,  "I  now  correct  it." 

Lincoln  then  declared  that  he  did  not  advocate  "general  con- 
solidation of  all  the  local  institutions  of  the  various  states."  He 
was  for  the  principle  of  local  self-government,  but  Douglas  mis- 
applied it.  Each  state  could  do  as  it  liked  with  all  local  matters 
"that  interfere  with  the  right  of  no  other  state"  and  the  gen- 
eral Government  could  do  nothing  that  did  not  "concern  the 
whole."  But  a  "vast  portion  of  the  American  people"  did  not 
regard  it  as  a  trifling  matter  to  be  regulated  under  the  police 
power,  but  believed  it  to  be  "a  vast  moral  evil."  Nonetheless, 
under  the  United  States  Constitution  in  the  state  where  it  exists 
"we  have  no  right  to  interfere  with  it."  Lincoln  then  took  up 
and  discussed  the  Dred  Scott  decision  and  said :    "I  do  not  resist 

it All  I  am  doing  is  refusing  to  obey  it  as  a  political 

rule.  If  I  were  in  Congress  I  would  vote  to  prohibit  slavery 
in  a  new  territory  in  spite  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  I  sub- 
mit to  it  as  far  as  it  concerns  Dred  Scott,  but  we  mean  to  reverse 
it  peaceably.  We  mean  to  do  what  we  can  to  have  the  court 
hereafter  decide  the  other  way."  The  Dred  Scott  decision  was 
contrary  to  former  decisions  of  the  same  court,  was  based  upon 
falsehood,  and  was  a  "new  wonder  of  the  world."  Douglas  had 
approved  the  course  of  General  Jackson  when  the  latter  declared 
that  the  Supreme  Court  could  not  lay  down  a  rule  to  govern 
a  coordinate  branch  of  the  Government.  So  "what  has  now 
become  of  his  tirade  about  resistance  to  the  Supreme  Court?" 

In  Douglas'  speech  delivered  on  the  night  preceding,  he, 
Douglas,  had  denounced  the  Republican  leaders  in  Illinois  for 
entering  into  a  conspiracy  with  the  administration  Democrats 
to  beat  him  as  an  unholy  alliance  and  unworthy  of  men  claim- 
ing to  be  actuated  only  by  high  principles.     Answering  this 


ILLINOIS  475 

charge,  Lincoln  denied  that  he  or  his  friends  had  entered  into 
any  such  conspiracy  and  warned  his  Republican  friends  not  to 
be  weaned  from  their  loyalty  to  free-soil  Republican  principles 
because  of  their  commendation  of  Douglas'  course  in  fighting 
the  Lecompton  Constitution.  Answering  Douglas'  argument  that 
the  United  States  Constitution  was  drawn  by  white  men  for 
white  men  and  that  they  never  intended  that  the  black  man 
should  be  placed  on  an  equality  with  white  men  politically  and 
otherwise,  Lincoln  declared  that  no  one  wanted  to  deny  that  the 
Government  was  made  for  white  men  in  the  form  that  Douglas 
put  it,  but  Douglas  "was  again  drawing  inferences  that  are  not 
warranted."  He  said  he  never  favored  social  equality  between 
the  blacks  and  whites,  and  read  from  a  speech  he  had  made 
a  year  before  in  which  he  had  stated  his  position  to  that  effect. 
Lincoln  then  quoted  from  one  of  Douglas'  speeches  in  which 
while  demanding  the  submission  of  the  Lecompton  Constitution 
to  popular  vote  he  had  said:  "I  don't  care  if  slavery  is  voted 
up  or  down."  He  rang  the  changes  on  these  words  over  and 
over  again  without  giving  the  context  and  argued  that  the  Re- 
publicans should  not  vote  for  a  man  who  did  not  care  for  free 
soil  in  Kansas. 

In  closing  his  address,  Lincoln  said:  "Let  the  principle 
that  all  men  were  created  equal  be  as  nearly  reached  as  we 
can.  If  we  cannot  give  freedom  to  every  creature,  let  us  do 
nothing  that  will  impose  slavery  upon  any  other  creature.  Let 
us  turn  this  Government  back  into  the  channel  in  which  the 
framers  of  the  Constitution  originally  placed  it.  Douglas  pro- 
poses, not  intentionally,  working  in  the  traces  that  tend  to  make 
this  one  universal  slave  nation.    As  such  I  resist  him." 

The  foregoing  pages  contain  a  condensed,  but,  I  believe,  a 
fair  summary  of  the  opening  speeches  of  these  two  great  men  in 
the  memorable  campaign  of  1858  for  election  in  Illinois  to  the 
United  States  Senate,  and  known  in  history  as  the  Lincoln- 
Douglas  campaign.  I  have  summarized  their  addresses  so  that 
the  reader  may  be  able  to  understand  the  issues  made  in  the 
campaign  by  the  able  and  eloquent  men  who  were  appealing  to 
the  people  of  Illinois  for  their  verdict.  The  issues  made  in 
these  speeches  were  not  hastily  drawn.     While  Douglas  spoke 


476  ILLINOIS 

ex  tempore,  he  had,  on  the  floor  of  the  United  States  Senate, 
been  presenting  them  to  that  body  and  the  nation  in  an  able, 
eloquent  and  elaborate  form  for  several  months  before  he  ad- 
dressed his  Chicago  audience.  Lincoln  had  been  reading,  di- 
gesting and  analyzing  Douglas'  speeches  in  the  Senate  for  at 
least  two  years  with  great  care.  He  had  watched  and  noted 
also  Douglas'  courageous  stand  on  the  Lecompton  Constitution 
which  placed  himself  outside  the  trenches  of  his  own  party,  and 
was  thoroughly  prepared  to  meet  Douglas  upon  the  new  situa- 
tion, as  well  as  his  acts  and  utterances  when  he  was  in  harmony 
with  his  party.  The  issues  made  in  these  opening  addresses 
were  the  issues  presented  in  all  of  their  subsequent  speeches 
with  more  or  less  elaboration,  variety  of  language  and  develop- 
ment of  theme.  For  a  time  thereafter  they  conducted  their 
campaigns  and  delivered  their  subsequent  speeches  from  differ- 
ent platforms  and  on  different  days. 

In  one  respect,  however,  Lincoln  departed  from  the  method 
of  his  first  speech.  It  will  be  noted  in  the  foregoing  summaries 
of  their  speeches  that  Lincoln  assumed  a  defensive  attitude. 
Most  of  hi's  speech  was  devoted  to  answering  charges  made  by 
Douglas  against  him.  Judd,  the  Republican  chairman  of  the 
state,  noticed  this,  and  wrote  to  Senator  Trumbull,  July  16, 
1858 :  "Lincoln  has  commenced  gallantly.  The  only  trouble  will 
be  (as  I  told  him)  he  will  allow  Douglas  to  put  him  on  the 
defensive."     (Trumbull  Mss.) 

Douglas  made  his  next  speech  at  Bloomington,  where  he  de- 
veloped one  new  point  which  he  had  forgotten  or  overlooked  at 
Chicago.  It  was  a  point  that  he  had  advanced  many  times  dur- 
ing the  preceding  ten  years.  The  point  that  he  formulated  in 
his  Bloomington  speech  was  that  slavery  could  not  exist  in  any 
locality  where  the  people  did  not  want  it.  It  was  the  creature 
of  municipal  law  and  police  regulations  were  essential  for  its 
existence  and  protection.  Even  with  police  protection  it  could 
not  be  forced  upon  an  unwilling  people.  "Look  at  Kansas. 
Under  the  laws  of  the  'bogus'  Legislature  slavery  was  well 
guarded,  but  it  had  been  decreasing  there  all  the  time."  He 
argued:  "Let  the  principle  of  popular  sovereignty  be  fairly 
carried  out  and  slavery  shall  never  exist  one  day,  or  one  hour, 


John  Wentworth 


Resident  of  Chicago  1836  to   1888.     Editor  and  congressman,  dominating 

force  in  politics. 


478  ILLINOIS 

in  any  territory,  against  the  unfriendly  legislation  of  an  un- 
friendly people."  That  was  the  practical  result,  he  said,  no 
matter  "how  the  Dred  Scott  decision  may  have  settled  the  ab- 
stract question."  At  Bloomington  Douglas  concluded  his  speech 
by  telling  his  hearers  to  vote  for  Lincoln  if  they  thought  he 
could  do  more  to  promote  the  Union  and  advance  the  prosperity 
and  honor  of  Illinois  than  he,  Douglas,  could.  Lincoln  had  been 
given  a  seat  on  the  platform  where  Douglas  spoke,  and  when 
called  upon  declined  to  speak  because  "the  meeting  was  called 
by  the  friends  of  Judge  Douglas  and  it  would  be  improper  for 
me  to  address  it.  He  promised,  however,  soon  to  visit  them  and 
make  a  speech. 

Before  the  campaign  had  proceeded  much  further,  Lincoln, 
admonished  by  his  partner,  Herndon,  and  probably  by  Judd,  the 
chairman  of  the  Republican  State  Committee,  became  less  de- 
fensive and  more  aggressive  in  his  addresses.  He  took  the 
offensive  in  the  Dred  Scott  decision  and  boldly  charged  that 
that  decision  was  the  result  of  a  conspiracy  between  the  judges 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  President  Pierce,  President  Buchanan 
and  Douglas.  He  cited  neither  direct  nor  hearsay  evidence  of 
this  bold  charge,  but  based  it  upon  groupings  and  dates  of  the 
parties  charged,  from  which  he  argued  ingeniously,  but  not 
convincingly,  that  such  a  conspiracy  existed  and  that  these  emi- 
nent judges  and  public  officials  were  the  conspirators. 

At  first  Douglas  treated  the  charge  with  contempt,  declaring 
that  if  Mr.  Lincoln  "deems  me  a  conspirator  of  that  kind,  all  I 
have  to  say  is  that  /  do  not  think  so  badly  of  the  President  of 
of  the  United  States  and  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States."  Upon  its  repetition  thereafter  he  denounced  it 
as  an  infamous  falsehood.  While  the  campaign  was  in  prog- 
ress the  office-holding  Democrats  and  their  relatives  and  subor- 
dinates were  working  vigorously  against  Douglas  and  in  har- 
mony with  the  Republican  organization.  The  general  manager 
of  the  office-holders,  brigade,  Post  Office  Inspector  Lieb,  al- 
though repudiated  by  Senator  Trumbull,  reported  to  him:  "I 
am  in  correspondence  with  a  number  of  gentlemen  who  are 
now  openly  with  us,  men  who,  like  myself,  will  fight  him  (Doug- 
las)   to  the  bitter  end."     With  the  administration   Democrats 


ILLINOIS  479 

fighting  him  on  one  side  and  the  Republicans  assailing  him  on 
the  other,  the  conservative,  well-informed  New  York  papers 
could  see  no  hope  for  Douglas.  The  New  York  Herald  of  July  27, 
1858,  declared:  "Had  he  (Douglas)  sustained  the  President  upon 
that  (the  Kansas)  issue,  it  would  have  placed  him  foremost 
in  the  front  rank  of  his  party  for  the  presidential  succession. " 
Greeley,  in  the  New  York  Tribune  of  July  12,  1858,  asserted  that 
since  Douglas  had  made  popular  sovereignty  his  battle  cry,  "he 
cannot  fail  to  be  beaten."  Neither  disheartened  nor  discouraged, 
Douglas  assumed  the  offensive  and  forced  the  fighting.  Through 
the  chairman  of  his  state  campaign  committee  he  made  up  a 
schedule  of  speeches  he  intended  to  make  throughout  the  state 
and  published  it.  This  schedule  covered  a  great  part  of  the 
state  and  included  every  day  for  many  weeks  ahead.  Lincoln's 
campaign  manager  thereupon  made  up  a  schedule  for  Lincoln, 
covering  the  same  territory,  the  same  day  and  place  in  which 
Douglas  was  to  speak,  and  in  other  cases  the  day  following. 
Senator  Trumbull,  the  Democratic  colleague  of  Douglas  in  the 
Senate,  now  entered  the  state  and  began  his  assault  upon  his 
fellow-senator,  and  the  Republican  press  in  the  East  gave  more 
notice  to  Trumbull  than  to  Lincoln,  as  Douglas  in  his  latest 
speeches  was  attacking  Trumbull  more  vigorously  than  he  was 
Lincoln.  Douglas  was  taking  the  initiative  and  waging  offensive 
war  against  both.  Lincoln's  adherents  opposed  the  defensive 
attitude  of  Lincoln  and  insisted  that  he  be  more  vigorous  and 
challenge  Douglas  to  a  joint  debate.  This  was  first  suggested 
by  Horace  Greeley.  This  was  forcibly  seconded  by  the  Chicago 
Press  and  Tribune.  "Let  Mr.  Douglas  and  Mr.  Lincoln  agree  to 
canvass  the  state  together  in  the  usual  western  style."  Lincoln 
went  to  Chicago  and  consulted  with  his  newspaper  friends  and 
managers,  and  finally,  one  week  after  Douglas'  Springfield  speech 
heretofore  mentioned,  through  Mr.  Judd,  his  campaign  com- 
mittee chairman,  he  presented  Douglas  with  a  letter  asking  him : 
"Will  it  be  agreeable  to  you  to  make  an  arrangement  for  you  and 
myself  to  divide  time  and  address  the  same  audiences  in  the 
present  canvass?"  Before  answering  same,  Douglas  said  to  a 
confidential  friend:  "Between  you  and  me,  I  do  not  feel  that  I 
want  to  go  into  this  debate.     The  whole  country  knows  me  and 


480  ILLINOIS 

has  me  measured.  Lincoln,  as  regards  myself,  is  comparatively- 
unknown,  and  if  he  gets  the  best  of  this  debate — and  he  is  the 
ablest  man  the  Republicans  have  got — I  shall  lose  everything. 
Should  I  win  I  shall  gain  but  little." 

Douglas  soon  answered.  He  pointed  out  that  arrangements 
had  already  been  made  and  published  for  his  meetings,  at  which 
he  and  the  Democratic  candidates  for  state  offices  were  to  speak. 
Still  he  would  take  responsibility  so  far  as  he  could  to  accom- 
modate Mr.  Lincoln.  So  let  a  place  in  each  congressional  dis- 
trict, except  the  two  in  which  he  and  Lincoln  had  already  spoken, 
be  agreed  upon  between  them.  Douglas  suggested  the  following 
places  as  most  convenient :  Freeport,  Ottawa,  Galesburg,  Quincy, 
Alton  and  Jonesboro.  These  suggestions  made  by  Douglas  were 
agreed  to  by  Lincoln  shortly  afterward,  and  the  hours  and  divi- 
sion of  time  at  each  place  of  speaking  were  arranged  between 
them. 

Thus  was  initiated  the  celebrated  campaign  of  joint  debates 
between  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  Republican  leader,  and  Stephen 
A.  Douglas,  the  Democratic  champion,  which  has  gone  down  in 
history  as  the  most  important  and  interesting  oratorical  duel  in 
American  history. 


CHAPTER  XLVII 
THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  JOINT  DEBATE 

Before  discusing  the  incidents,  issues  and  surroundings  of 
the  celebrated  intellectual  duel,  let  us  consider  the  past  history  of 
the  two  remarkable  contestants. 

More  biographies,  treatises  and  other  literature  of  a  his- 
torical character  have  been  written  about  and  in  reference  to 
Abraham  Lincoln  than  any  other  man  in  American  history,  and 
hardly  a  year  passes  but  some  new  Life  of  Lincoln  or  brochure 
upon  his  character  and  career  appears.  I  have  been  told  by  a 
well-informed  bibliophile  that  Napoleon  Bonaparte  is  the  only 
name  in  history  that  exceeds  that  of  Lincoln  in  the  number  of 
books  that  have  been  written  about  him.  To  incorporate  in  this 
work  even  a  brief  biography  of  Lincoln  worthy  of  this  great 
man  is  unnecessary.  To  my  readers  who  may  desire  a  more  inti- 
mate acquaintance  with  the  details  of  his  birth,  early  life,  man- 
hood struggles,  disappointments,  triumphs  and  martyr's  death, 
I  recommend  the  splendid,  painstaking,  brilliantly-written  and 
impartial  biography  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  1809-1858,  written  by 
Senator  Albert  J.  Beveridge,  and  published  in  1928.  It  is  a 
matter  of  widespread  regret  that  this  brilliant  biographer  of 
Lincoln  died  in  the  midst  of  his  labors  on  this  great  book  and 
that  his  untimely  death  has  deprived  the  world  of  the  fruit 
which  his  brilliant  brain  would  have  garnered  during  the  last 
and  most  glorious  years  of  Lincoln's  life  and  the  more  glorious 
but  tragic  hours  of  his  death. 

A  few  but  brief  references  to  Lincoln's  life  before  he  partici- 
pated in  the  remarkable  debate  with  Douglas  are  necessary, 
however,  to  a  full  understanding  of  some  of  the  features  of  that 
contest.  He  was  born  February  12,  1809,  in  Hardin  County, 
Kentucky,  of  humble  and  obscure  parentage.  His  mother  was 
of  strong  character  and  unusual  industry.     His  father  was  an 

481 


482  ILLINOIS 

ignorant,  shiftless  man,  classed  by  the  Southerners  as  among 
the  "poor  white  trash."  He  gave  his  son  no  education  and  from 
early  boyhood  Abraham  was  constantly  engaged  in  the  most 
heart-breaking  manual  labor  incident  to  a  penniless  pioneer 
life.  His  entire  schooling,  stolen  from  hours  of  manual  labor, 
did  not  exceed  six  months.  Between  hours  of  labor  or  at  night 
he  taught  himself  to  read  and  then  devoured  every  book  he  could 
lay  his  hands  upon.  He  once  worked  three  days  to  pay  for  the 
damage  to  a  book  he  had  borrowed  and  left  out  in  the  rain. 
He  hired  himself  out  as  a  farm  hand  and  a  deck  hand  on  a  flat- 
boat.  About  the  time  he  became  of  age  his  father  had  located 
with  his  family  at  or  near  Salem,  a  little  town  on  the  bank  of  the 
Sangamon  River,  near  Springfield.  Here  he  helped  his  father 
clear  timber  land  for  a  farm,  and  split  rails  to  fence  it.  Next  he 
became  clerk  in  a  general  country  store  which  sold  dry  goods, 
wet  goods  and  hardware,  and  established  a  reputation  as  a  good 
story-teller  and  an  excellent  boxer  and  wrestler.  He  never  quite 
overcame  the  manners,  habits,  language  and  methods  of  living 
of  those  early  rough-and-ready  days.  He  was,  however,  an 
incessant  reader,  and  early  in  life  manifested  an  ambition  to  rise 
above  his  humble  and  coarse  surroundings.  At  that  time  he  in- 
dulged in  the  dubious  humor  of  lampooning  his  associates  with 
anonymous  doggerel,  which  habit  afterwards  landed  him  into 
an  ugly  controversy  with  Gen.  James  Shields,  which  was  by  no 
means  creditable  to  him. 

About  1830  Lincoln  volunteered  in  the  Black  Hawk  war  and 
was  elected  captain  of  a  company  the  following  year.  In  1834 
he  was  elected  to  the  Lower  House  of  the  Illinois  Legislature  as 
a  Whig  from  Sangamon  County  and  was  reelected  in  1836  and 
became  a  member  of  the  "Long  Nine"  from  that  county.  As  a 
member  of  that  vigilant  and  efficient  coterie  he  helped  to  locate 
the  capital  of  the  state  at  Springfield.  When  twenty-eight  he 
moved  to  Springfield,  which  he  had  helped  to  make  the  capital, 
and  was  again  elected  to  the  Legislature.  In  1845  he  was  elected 
to  Congress  as  a  Whig  and  served  one  term  in  that  body.  Dur- 
ing that  term  he  made  a  speech  supporting  a  resolution  he 
offered,  which  denounced  the  Mexican  war  as  unjust  and  un- 
constitutional, afterwards  called  the  "spot"  speech,  which  greatly 


ILLINOIS  483 

weakened  him  in  public  estimation  and  probably  caused  his 
temporary  retirement  from  public  office.  After  the  expiration 
of  his  two-year  term  in  Congress,  he  resumed  his  law  practice, 
which  was  laborious  but  not  very  remunerative.  He  remained 
in  political  retirement  until  the  agitation  over  the  Kansas-Ne- 
braska Bill  became  violent  in  1854.  In  that  year  he  reentered 
politics  when  there  was  a  split  in  the  Democratic  party  over 
the  reelection  of  Senator  James  Shields  to  the  United  States 
Senate,  to  become  a  candidate  for  that  office.  During  all  of  his 
life  he  had  been  affiliated  with  the  Whig  party  up  to  1856.  In 
1852,  when  he  was  a  candidate  for  the  United  States  Senate 
to  succeed  Shields,  he  was  still  a  Whig,  having  refused  to  join 
the  Republican  party,  and  to  support  its  presidential  candidate. 
In  1854,  owing  to  the  split  in  the  Democratic  party  between  the 
Douglas  Democrats  and  the  Administration  Democrats,  Lincoln 
hoped  to  be  elected  to  the  Senate  to  succeed  Shields,  but  while 
the  Democrats  were  divided,  largely  owing  to  Know-Nothing 
voters  in  that  party  who  refused  to  vote  for  Shields  because  he 
was  Irish  born  and  a  Roman  Catholic  in  religion,  they  would 
not  vote  for  a  Whig  and  held  out  until  Trumbull,  a  Democratic 
enemy  of  Douglas,  received  enough  votes  to  elect  him. 

After  his  defeat  for  the  Senate  in  1854,  Lincoln  again  retired 
to  private  life  and  resumed  the  practice  of  the  law  until  May 
29,  1856.  By  that  time  he  had  become  convinced  that  the  Whig 
party  was  in  a  dying  condition  and  that  the  only  hope  of  suc- 
cess against  the  Democratic  party  lay  in  the  ranks  of  the  newly- 
formed  Republican  party,  born  in  1852,  strong  and  rapidly  devel- 
oping in  1856  by  the  accession  to  its  ranks  of  abolitionists, 
Whigs,  Know-Nothings  and  Prohibitionists  and  all  other  ele- 
ments dissatisfied  with  the  Democratic  party. 

In  1855  a  bitter  campaign  was  being  waged  in  Illinois  over 
the  question  of  prohibition  and  the  enactment  of  the  "Maine 
Law"  against  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquor.  Lincoln  never 
opened  his  mouth  upon  the  question.  In  the  same  year  violent 
Know-Nothing  riots  against  Catholics  were  convulsing  the  coun- 
try. Lincoln  never  uttered  a  word  in  condemnation  or  com- 
mendation thereof.  He  was  a  private  citizen  in  private  life, 
practicing  law,  and  though  fond  of  public  speaking  was  shrewd 


484  ILLINOIS 

and  cautious  not  to  make  any  public  statement  upon  any  ques- 
tion until  he  sounded  public  sentiment  thereon,  and  determined 
for  himself  that  public  sentiment  would  be  behind  him  in  any 
statement  he  might  make.  In  1856,  however,  the  hour  arrived 
when  Lincoln  reached  the  conclusion  that  it  would  be  safe  and 
propitious  for  him  to  take  the  platform,  reenter  politics  and 
discuss  the  vital  issue  of  the  day.  The  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  had 
reopened  the  question  of  slavery,  supposed  to  have  been  settled 
by  the  Compromise  of  1850,  agreed  to  by  both  great  political 
parties.  Blood  was  flowing  freely  in  Kansas.  As  that  territory 
was  opened  for  settlement  armed  mobs  of  slavery  men  and  free- 
soilers  were  killing  each  other  and  destroying  each  other's  prop- 
erty. "Bleeding  Kansas"  and  "the  border  ruffians"  were  the 
subjects  on  nearly  every  tongue.  The  Lecompton  Constitution 
was  framed  and  passed  by  the  pro-slavery  men  in  Kansas  and 
repudiated  and  scoffed  at  by  the  free-soilers.  Senator  Sumner 
had  been  assaulted  in  the  United  States  Senate  by  Brooks,  a 
pro-slavery  congressman  from  South  Carolina,  because  in  a 
free-soil  speech  he  had  insulted  his  relative,  Senator  Butler,  and 
the  State  of  South  Carolina.  Condemnation  of  the  assault  had 
been  universal  throughout  the  Northern  states. 

This  was  the  situation  when  Abraham  Lincoln,  on  May  29, 
1856,  arose  to  address  a  convention  of  anti-Douglas  Democrats, 
Whigs,  Know-Nothings  and  Republicans  who  had  not  as  yet 
assumed  the  name  of  Republicans.  Although  he  expected  to 
be  called  upon,  he  had  not  prepared,  as  he  usually  did,  a  written 
speech.  There  was  no  stenographer  present,  and  because  of 
that  it  has  historically  been  referred  to  as  Lincoln's  "lost  speech." 
It  was  the  speech,  however,  that  "found"  the  man  behind  whom 
the  new  Republican  party  could  mass  all  the  heterogeneous  ele- 
ments which  now  rushed  to  the  standards  of  that  party.  The 
man  had  struck  the  note  and  voiced  the  principle  upon  which 
they  all  could  agree — opposition  to  the  further  extension  of 
slavery  within  the  United  States  and  its  territories.  Lincoln, 
in  this  great  "lost  speech,"  did  not  advocate  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  yet  he  satisfied  the  Abolitionists  in  that  convention  and 
throughout  the  nation.  He  did  not  advocate  nor  defend  Know- 
Nothingness,  yet  he  satisfied  the  Know-Nothings.     He  did  not 


ILLINOIS  485 

advocate  or  oppose  prohibition,  and  yet  he  satisfied  the  Prohi- 
bitionists and  the  liberals  opposed  to  slavery.  Above  all,  he  did 
not  have  a  kind  word  for  any  element  of  the  Democratic  party, 
even  the  free-soil  element,  and  yet  he  satisfied  Trumbull,  Palmer, 
Bissell  and  a  number  of  other  old-line  Democrats  because  he 
struck  the  dominant  keynote  of  opposition  to  the  further  exten- 
sion of  slavery  to  which  they  were  opposed,  in  deadly  earnest. 

He  had,  he  said  in  the  famous  speech,  become  impressed  with 
the  wrongs  done  to  the  free-state  men  in  Kansas,  but  "we  must 
not  promise  what  we  ought  not,  lest  we  be  called  on  to  perform 
what  we  cannot."  The  ballot  was  a  better  weapon  than  the 
rifle.  Public  opinion  must  be  enunciated  promptly  and  em- 
phatically. Unless  a  halt  was  called  to  what  was  taking  place 
in  Kansas  "blood  will  flow  and  brother's  hand  will  be  raised 
against  brother."  A  great  principle  was  involved — that  of  the 
extension  of  slavery.  The  Missouri  Compromise  must  be  re- 
stored and  thus  Kansas  will  be  free.  "Let  our  practical  work 
here  be  limited  to  that  one  object."  Lincoln  then  said  that  they 
might  differ  on  other  matters,  but  they  should  all  act  on  one 
common  ground,  that  slavery  must  be  kept  out  of  Kansas.  Revo- 
lutions, he  declared,  did  not  go  backward.  Jefferson  had  written 
"all  men  were  created  equal."  Douglas  had  injected  the  adjec- 
tive "white"  before  the  noun  "men."  Lincoln  went  on  to  de- 
nounce the  assault  on  Senator  Sumner  in  Washington  by  a 
Southern  congressman.  Said  he:  "The  fearless  Sumner  was 
beaten  into  insensibility  and  is  now  slowly  dying,  while  senators 
claiming  to  be  gentlemen  and  Christians  stood  by  countenancing 
the  act."  Even  Douglas  saw  it  all  and  was  within  helping  dis- 
tance, yet  did  nothing  to  stop  it.  At  the  very  time  Sumner  was 
being  murdered,  the  City  of  Lawrence  was  being  destroyed  for 
the  crime  of  Freedom.  Slavery  had  been  made  legal  in  Kansas, 
the  same  way  that  a  gang  of  Missouri  horse-thieves  could  come 
into  Illinois  and  declare  horse  stealing  was  legal  in  our  state. 

He  then  declared  that  the  Anti-Nebraska  men  (the  name 
which  the  members  of  this  convention  called  themselves  instead 
of  Republicans)  did  not  intend  to  interfere  with  slavery  in  the 
slave  states.  Even  the  Republicans  did  not  propose  that.  "Our 
platform  says  just  the  contrary.     That  position  is  required  by 


y 


Paul  Selby 

Editor,  one  of  founders  of  Republican  party  in  Illinois. 
(Courtesy  Illinois  State  Historical  Library.) 


ILLINOIS  487 

the  necessities  of  our  Union.  The  South  must  have  a  reasonable 
and  efficient  fugitive  slave  law."  "No,"  cried  someone  in  the 
convention.  "I  say  yes,"  answered  Lincoln,  "it  is  a  part  of  the 
bargain,  but  I  go  no  further."  (Cheers.)  "The  fathers  of  the 
republic,"  said  Lincoln,  "agreed  to  slavery  where  it  existed  and 
to  a  fugitive  slave  law.  That  contract  must  be  kept.  But  they 
were  against  extending  slavery.  It  is  wise  and  right  to  do  just 
as  they  did."  "Our  troubles,"  he  said,  "are  all  due  to  this  man 
Douglas."  He  was  more  guilty  than  the  Joneses  and  String- 
fellows — the  violent  leaders  of  the  pro-slavery  crowd.  It  was 
folly,  said  Lincoln,  to  use  force  against  violence,  as  so  many 
wished  to  do,  at  least  now.  The  Government  and,  as  yet,  a 
majority  of  the  people,  are  still  against  us.  He  advised  his 
hearers  not  to  insist  upon  extreme  measures.  Moderation  would 
make  converts  to  their  cause.  The  violence  of  the  other  side 
would  cause  desertions  from  the  Democratic  ranks.  Slavery  was 
wrong  and  although  we  were  forced  to  temporize  with  it  "as 
sure  as  God  reigns  and  school  children  read,  that  foul,  black  lie 
can  never  be  consecrated  into  God's  hallowed  truth." 

"We  see  the  fruits  of  the  repeal  of  the  sacred  Missouri  Com- 
promise," he  dramatically  exclaimed,  "in  the  dying  bed  of  Sum- 
ner ;  the  ruins  of  the  Free  State  hotel ;  in  the  smoking  embers  of 
the  Herald  of  Freedom;  in  the  free-state  governor  of  Kansas 
chained  to  a  stake  on  freedom's  soil  like  a  horse-thief,  for  the 
cause  of  freedom.  Nevertheless,  retaliation  in  kind  is  not  the 
way  to  victory.  Let  the  legions  of  slavery  use  bullets;  let  us 
wait  until  November  and  fire  ballots  at  them  in  return.  It  was 
by  this  means  that  Illinois  was  made  free  and  will  ever  remain 
free. 

"Those  who  deny  freedom  to  others,"  he  declared,  "deserve 
it  not  for  themselves,  and  under  a  just  God  cannot  long  retain 
it.  If  this  thing  (slavery  in  the  territories)  is  allowed  to  con- 
tinue, it  will  be  but  one  step  further  to  impress  it  upon  Illinois." 
"The  time  must  come,"  said  Lincoln,  "when  only  local  law  instead 
of  the  Constitution  can  shield  a  slave-holder." 

Lincoln  then  took  up  the  subject  of  disunion,  threatened  by 
the  extremists  both  of  the  North  and  the  South,  and  denounced 
the  idea  in  unmeasured  terms.     He  denied  that  the  new  party 


488  ILLINOIS 

with  which  he  was  then  affiliated  favored  sectionalism  or  that 
it  would  endanger  the  integrity  of  the  nation.  Loyalty  to  the 
Constitution  and  the  Flag  of  the  Union  was  vital,  no  matter 
what  might  happen.  Even  if  Kansas  should  come  in  as  a  slave 
state,  on  the  one  hand,  or  the  Missouri  Compromise  should  be 
restored,  on  the  other  hand,  in  either  case  "we  will  say  to  the 
southern  disunionists :  'We  wont  go  out  of  the  Union  and  you 
shant!'  Elect  the  gallant  Bissell  your  governor,  who  bravely 
defended  the  honor  of  his  nation  both  on  the  battle-fields  of 
Mexico  and  in  the  halls  of  Congress  and  defied  in  the  latter  place 
the  Hotspur  of  the  South  (Jefferson  Davis.)  His  election  would 
have  a  greater  moral  effect  than  all  the  border  ruffians  can 
accomplish  in  all  their  raids  in  Kansas." 

He  concluded  his  able  and  remarkable  speech  by  counseling 
his  hearers  to  make  a  calm  and  reasonable  appeal  to  public 
opinion.  In  all  probability,  he  continued,  such  an  appeal  would 
make  a  resort  to  force  unnecessary.  "Our  moderation,  then, 
will  stand  us  in  good  stead  when,  if  ever,  we  must  make  an 
appeal  to  battle  and  the  God  of  Hosts.' ' 

This  was  the  substance  and  general  trend  of  this  remarkable 
oration  of  Lincoln.  It  is  essential  for  the  reader  to  know  the 
trend  of  that  speech  and  the  time  and  circumstances  of  its 
delivery  to  understand  how  it  was  that  this  somewhat  obscure 
and  hitherto  unsuccessful  politician  was  able  to  mount  from 
political  obscurity  and  ill  success  in  the  Whig  party  into  such 
a  position  of  prominence  as  to  suddenly  become  the  candidate 
of  the  Republican  party  two  years  after  making  this  speech, 
and  a  national  figure  throughout  the  land.  This  speech,  made 
May  29,  1856,  to  a  collection  of  heterogenous  elements  which 
had  not  as  yet  summoned  up  sufficient  courage  to  call  itself 
"Republican/'  raised  the  unsuccessful  local  leader  of  the  Whig 
party  in  Illinois  within  two  years  into  the  foremost  place  in 
the  young,  vigorous  and  valiant  Republican  party  in  1858 ;  and 
made  him  its  candidate  for  the  United  States  Senate  against 
the  ablest  and  most  successful  Democrat  in  the  nation.  It  did 
more.  The  elaboration  and  further  development  of  the  utterances 
and  arguments  of  this  speech,  when  reiterated  in  the  joint 
debate  between  him  and  Senator  Douglas,  made  him  first  the 


ILLINOIS  489 

candidate  of  the  Republican  party  for  President,  and  secondly- 
elevated  that  hitherto  unsuccessful  local  Whig  leader  to  the 
highest  position  in  the  nation,  the  Presidency  of  the  American 
Republic. 

Let  us  now  take  up  and  consider  for  a  time  the  man  who 
was  to  contest  with  Lincoln  the  race  for  the  United  States 
Senate,  his  character,  antecedents  and  surroundings.  Stephen 
A.  Douglas  was  a  son  of  Vermont,  born  at  Brandon  in  that  state, 
April  23,  1813.  He  was  the  son  of  a  doctor  who  died  within  a 
few  months  after  Stephen's  birth,  leaving  his  widow  and  child 
in  destitute  circumstances.  For  a  short  time,  at  the  age  of 
fifteen,  he  was  apprenticed  to  a  cabinet-maker,  but  his  mother 
having  again  married,  he  was  able  to  secure  a  good  education 
at  an  excellent  academy,  and  began  the  study  of  the  law  at 
Canandaigua,  New  York.  In  1833,  when  twenty  years  of  age, 
he  left  the  latter  city  to  seek  a  career  in  the  West.  He  soon 
appeared  at  Jacksonville,  Illinois,  without  friends  or  money, 
and  there  secured  a  position  as  clerk  and  school-teacher  during 
the  winter  months.  In  1834  he  was  admitted  to  the  Illinois 
bar.  Thenceforward  his  advancement  in  his  profession  and  in 
public  affairs,  was  extraordinary  and  without  precedent  even 
in  the  young  West  where  opportunities  for  advancement  were 
many.  He  was  small  in  body,  but  great  and  powerful  in  brain, 
and  possessed  a  charming  personality,  which  attributes  earned 
for  him  the  sobriquet  of  the  "Little  Giant,"  which  clung  to  him 
until  his  death. 

In  about  a  year  after  his  arrival  at  Jacksonville,  he  became 
prosecuting  attorney.  Within  two  years  he  was  elected  to  the 
Legislature,  where  he  became  a  colleague  of  his  great  competitor, 
Abraham  Lincoln.  In  1837,  when  only  twenty-four  years  of 
age,  he  was  appointed  United  States  Registrar  of  Public  Lands 
by  President  Pierce.  He  then  moved  to  Springfield,  and  in 
1838,  when  only  twenty-five  years  of  age,  became  Democratic 
candidate  for  Congress  in  this  strong  Whig  district  and  was 
beaten  by  only  five  votes.  In  1841  he  was  appointed  judge  of 
the  Illinois  Supreme  Court,  but  evidently  that  dignified  but 
somnolent  place  had  no  charms  for  his  ambition  and  energetic 
spirit.     He  resigned  his  position  on  the  bench  in  1843  and  was 


490  ILLINOIS 

elected  to  Congress  when  thirty  years  of  age.  He  was  again 
elected  to  Congress  two  years  afterwards  and  was  made  Chair- 
man of  the  Committee  on  Territories,  a  position  that  brought 
him  into  great  prominence.  In  1845  he  was  elected  to  the 
United  States  Senate  and  occupied  that  eminent  position  unin- 
terruptedly until  his  death,  June  3,  1861.  In  the  Senate  his 
tremendous  intellectual  force,  his  suavity,  his  genius  for  the 
despatch  of  business  and  his  extraordinary  eloquence  soon  placed 
him  in  the  leadership  of  his  party.  Due  to  his  Scottish-inherited 
sagacity  for  business,  he  had  acquired  a  respectable  competence 
for  that  day,  and  shortly  before  the  great  debate  with  Lincoln 
had  happily  married  a  second  time  and  secured  for  a  wife  a 
beautiful,  young  and  accomplished  woman,  who  before  her  mar- 
riage to  Douglas  was  conceded  to  be  the  "Belle  of  Washington 
society.' ' 

Thus  up  to  the  year  1858,  when  the  Lincoln-Douglas  debates 
were  held,  the  career  of  Douglas  in  business  affairs,  love,  law 
and  statesmanship  had  been  one  of  uninterrupted  and  extraor- 
dinary success.  As  Chairman  of  the  Senate  Committee  on 
Territories  he  had  charge  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bills,  and 
before  that,  in  1850,  the  bills  for  the  admission  of  California, 
Oregon,  Utah  and  Mexico.  He  had  while  in  that  position  ably 
seconded  Henry  Clay  in  advancing  the  Compromise  of  1850, 
and  in  harmony  with  the  Democratic  administration  had  man- 
aged and  put  through  the  Senate  all  of  the  bills  relating  to  these 
territories,  until  he  broke  with  Buchanan  on  the  subject  of 
the  Lecompton  Constitution  for  Kansas. 

The  methods  used  by  the  pro-slavery  party  in  Kansas  and 
Missouri  in  securing  the  formulation  and  alleged  popular 
endorsement  of  that  dubious  and  much-discussed  document,  were 
so  violent  and  corrupt  in  his  opinion  that  he  courageously  refused 
to  follow  the  leadership  of  the  Democratic  President  and  the 
Democratic  party  in  Congress.  This  course  brought  down  on 
him  the  bitter  hostility  of  the  President,  nearly  all  of  the  impor- 
tant men  his  own  party,  and  the  solid  opposition  of  all  the 
Federal  office-holders  and  their  friends  and  retainers  in  the 
State  of  Illinois,  when  he  sought  reelection  to  the  United  States 
Senate  against  Lincoln  in  1858. 


(?/£^  edfa 


^-zmL 


Governor  1860-61 

(Courtesy  Illinois  State  Historical  Library.) 


492  ILLINOIS 

As  we  have  seen  heretofore,  Douglas  returned  to  Illinois 
to  open  his  campaign  for  reelection,  had  made  a  great  speech 
at  Chicago  advocating  popular  sovereignty,  as  a  solution  of 
the  slavery  controversy  in  connection  with  the  organization  of 
new  territories,  and  had  made  another  such  speech  at  Bloom- 
ington.  He  had  then  gone  to  Springfield  and  had  arranged 
and  published  a  schedule  of  Democratic  meetings  throughout 
the  state.  At  this  juncture  Lincoln,  following  the  advice  of  his 
closest  and  most  valued  political  counsellors,  Joseph  Medill  of 
the  Chicago  Tribune;  Judd,  the  chairman  of  his  campaign,  and 
probably  Senator  Trumbull,  challenged  Douglas  to  joint  debate 
as  heretofore  mentioned  and  the  schedule  of  joint  meetings 
in  seven  different  cities,  was  agreed  upon. 

To  give  in  detail  a  full,  fair  summary  of  all  these  fourteen 
addresses  and  detailed  discussions  of  each  of  them,  would  be 
beyond  the  compass  of  this  history  and  involve  useless  reiteration 
of  both  the  arguments  of  the  speakers  and  discussions  thereon. 
The  points  made  and  arguments  advanced  were  repeated  with 
more  or  less  elaboration  in  all  these  speeches.  By  most  writers 
the  Freeport  speeches  have  been  deemed  the  most  vital  and 
important,  both  intrinsically  and  in  their  influence  and  results. 

The  first  of  the  joint  debates  was  set  for  August  21,  1858, 
at  the  City  of  Ottawa.  Douglas,  however,  kept  to  the  schedule 
of  the  Democratic  meetings  which  he  had  arranged  before 
accepting  Lincoln's  challenge.  With  characteristic  courage  and 
vim,  he  had  taken  the  offensive  in  his  Chicago  and  Bloomington 
speeches,  and  he  determined  to  keep  the  Republicans  and  their 
allies,  the  Buchanan  Democrats,  on  the  defensive  during  the 
campaign.  Lincoln  and  his  managers,  however,  resolved  to 
checkmate  his  plan  and  immediately  arranged  a  schedule  of 
meetings  for  Lincoln  at  every  place  where  Douglas  spoke,  on 
the  evening  of  the  same  day  or  on  the  day  following  the  Douglas 
speeches.  Douglas  in  all  these  speeches  assailed  Lincoln's  asser- 
tion that  "a  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand — that  the 
nation  half  slave  and  half  free  could  not  endure."  He  pointed 
out  that  the  fathers  had  framed  the  structure  half  slave  and 
half  free  and  that  it  had  endured  up  to  the  present  time;  and 
claimed  that  with  the  doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty  applied 
to  the  new  territories  that  it  could  and  would  endure.  He  boldly 
charged  as  unholy  the  alliance  between  the  Republican  and 
Buchanan  Democratic  parties,  and  charged  that  it  was  instigated 


ILLINOIS  493 

and  fostered  by  the  Republicans  to  destroy  the  Democratic  party 
in  Illinois  and  to  overthrow  the  right  of  the  people  to  select 
their  own  form  of  Republican  government.  Lincoln  kept  fol- 
lowing him  assiduously  from  city  to  city  answering  all  of  his 
arguments  and  often  attending  his  meetings  to  keep  informed 
of  his  methods  and  speeches  and  noting  the  effect  upon  the  audi- 
ences. The  prodigious  amount  of  work  done  by  Douglas  in  this 
campaign  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  he  made  fifty-nine  set 
speeches  of  from  one  to  two  hours  in  length  in  fifty-seven  dif- 
ferent counties ;  made  seventeen  responses  from  twenty  to  forty 
minutes  each  to  serenades;  and  made  thirty-seven  replies  to 
addresses  of  welcome  and  congratulation.  He  traveled  5,227 
miles  in  the  state  on  highways  and  by  rail  and  covered  the  whole 
western  border  of  the  state  by  steamboats. 

The  first  joint  debate  was  held  at  Ottawa  August  21.  Douglas 
had  the  opening  and  close,  and  with  characteristic  vim  took 
the  offensive.  He  charged  Lincoln  with  being  a  party  to  deal 
with  Senator  Trumbull,  a  Democrat,  in  1854  to  dissolve  the 
Whig  party,  and  split  the  Democratic  party  under  which  Trum- 
bull was  to  succeed  Shields,  the  Democratic  United  States  Sen- 
ator, and  Lincoln  was  to  succeed  Douglas  in  the  Senate.  He 
then  read  a  platform  which  he  said  was  adopted  by  the  Repub- 
lican party  state  convention  in  1854.  This  platform  pledged 
the  Republican  party  to  a  repeal  of  the  fugitive  slave  law,  to 
the  prevention  of  the  admission  of  slave  states  to  the  Union, 
and  to  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and 
to  prevent  the  acquisition  of  more  territory  unless  slavery  was 
forever  barred  therein.  Douglas  then  asked  Lincoln  seven  ques- 
tions, based  upon  the  declarations  made  in  this  platform..  The 
tenor  of  all  of  these  questions  was  as  to  how  Lincoln  stood  with 
reference  to  these  platform  declarations  today.  Did  Lincoln 
today  favor  a  repeal  of  the  fugitive  slave  law?  Would  he  today 
vote  against  the  admission  of  slave  states  into  the  Union?  Did 
he  now  favor  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia? 
Did  he  now  oppose  the  acquistion  of  any  more  territory  by 
the  United  States  unless  slavery  was  forever  excluded  therefrom  ? 
He  meant  nothing  disrespectful  to  Lincoln,  he  said,  in  asking 
these  questions.  He  and  Lincoln  were  long  mutual  acquaint- 
ances.    "I  was  a  school-teacher  at  Winchester  and  he  was  a 


Stephen  A.  Douglas 


ILLINOIS  495 

flourishing  store-keeper  (all  grocery  men  then  sold  wet  goods) 
in  Salem.  We  both  went  to  the  Legislature.  He  could  ruin  more 
liquor  than  all  the  boys  of  the  town  together  and  the  dignity 
and  impartiality  with  which  he  presided  at  a  horse-race  or  a 
fist-fight  was  the  praise  of  everyone  that  was  present."  Douglas 
then  went  on  to  tell  how  Lincoln  had  dropped  out  of  sight  after 
he  left  the  Legislature  "until  he  turned  up  as  a  member  of 
Congress.  In  Congress  he  distinguished  himself  by  opposing 
the  Mexican  war  and  when  he  came  back  to  his  constituents 
he  found  that  their  indignation  followed  him  everywhere  and 
he  was  compelled  to  retire  to  private  life  and  was  forgotten. 
He  now  emerges  to  help  make  the  abolition  platform."  Douglas 
then  assailed  Lincoln's  "house-divided"  speech  in  his  usual  vig- 
orous style. 

In  his  reply,  Lincoln  first  denied  that  he  and  Senator  Trum- 
bull had  made  any  deal.  He  then  declared  that  he  had  nothing 
to  do  with  the  Republican  platform  which  Douglas  had  read. 
"True,  Lovejoy,  who  is  here  upon  the  stand,  tried  to  get  me 
into  it  and  I  would  not  go  in.  I  went  away  from  Springfield 
when  the  convention  was  in  session."  The  remarkable  and 
laughable  thing  about  the  matter  was  that  both  Douglas  and 
Lincoln  believed  that  the  platform  read  by  Douglas  and  re- 
pudiated by  Lincoln  was  the  platform  adopted  by  the  Abolition 
Convention  attended  by  thirty-six  men,  held  at  Springfield  in 
1854.  After  the  Ottawa  meeting  both  Douglas  and  Lin- 
coln discovered  that  the  platform  read  by  Douglas  was 
one  adopted  in  Kane  County,  and  not  at  Springfield,  and  by  a 
Republican  County  Committee  and  not  by  a  State  Committee. 
Lincoln,  in  the  belief  that  Douglas  was  reading  (as  Douglas 
believed  he  was  reading)  the  abolition  platform  adopted  by 
Lovejoy  and  his  twenty-five  associates  at  Springfield  after  listen- 
ing to  Lincoln's  speech  at  Springfield  before  the  adoption  of 
the  platform,  repudiated  any  connection  with  the  platform,  but 
he  did  not  that  day  answer  the  seven  questions  based  upon  the 
declarations  made  in  that  platform,  and  Douglas  in  his  closing 
speech  gleefully  pointed  out  his  failure  so  to  do  and  charged 
that  Lincoln  was  afraid  to  answer  them. 


496  ILLINOIS 

Lincoln  then  took  up  that  part  of  Douglas'  speech  charging 
him  with  being  an  Abolitionist  and  favoring  equality  between 
the  black  and  white  races.  He  quoted  from  his  own  speech  made 
at  Peoria,  in  1854,  in  which  he  clearly  stated  his  position  on 
that  subject.  He  was,  he  said,  as  much  for  white  supremacy 
as  was  Douglas,  whenever  the  necessity  of  choice  arose.  "There 
is  a  physical  difference  between  the  races,  which  in  my  judgment 
will  probably  prevent  them  from  living  together  on  terms  of 
perfect  equality."  But  the  negro  was  entitled  to  the  natural 
rights  stated  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  "He  is  not 
my  equal  in  many  respects.  But  in  the  right  to  eat  the  bread, 
without  anyone's  leave,  which  his  own  hands  have  earned,  he 
is  my  equal  and  the  equal  of  Judge  Douglas."  He  then  said  that 
Douglas  was  mistaken  about  his  (Lincoln's)  having  been  a 
grocery-keeper.  He  never  kept  a  grocery  anywhere.  It  was 
true  that  he,  Lincoln,  did  work  the  latter  part  of  one  winter 
in  a  little  still-house  up  at  the  head  of  a  hollow.  (Great 
laughter.) 

With  reference  to  the  Mexican  war,  he  said,  he  was  an 
old-time  Whig  and  when  the  Democrats  tried  to  get  him  to  vote 
that  the  war  had  been  righteously  commenced  by  the  President, 
he  refused  to  do  it;  but  when  it  came  to  vote  for  monies  to 
prosecute  it,  or  for  land  warrants  to  pay  the  soldiers,  he  voted 
just  as  Judge  Douglas  voted.  He  then  answered  Judge  Douglas' 
attacks  upon  his  "house  divided"  statements.  In  his  "house 
divided"  argument,  he  had  no  thought  or  aim  to  bring  about 
a  war  between  the  slave  states  and  the  free  states.  He,  Lincoln, 
had  charged  a  conspiracy  between  the  Democratic  Presidents, 
Pierce  and  Buchanan,  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  and  the 
Democratic  leaders,  including  Douglas,  to  declare  the  Missouri 
Compromise  unconstitutional,  in  the  decision  of  the  Dred  Scott 
case;  and  if  the  evidence  of  that  conspiracy  presented  by  him, 
Lincoln,  proved  the  existence  of  that  conspiracy  "does  his  (Doug- 
las')  broad  answer,  denying  all  knowledge,  information  and 
belief,  disturb  that  fact?  It  only  shows  that  he  (Douglas)  was 
used  by  the  conspirators,  and  was  not  a  leader  of  them."  "I 
do  not  say  that  I  know  such  a  conspiracy  to  exist,  but  I  believe 
it."     Lincoln  then  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  admin- 


ILLINOIS  497 

istration  paper  published  in  Washington  had  violently  attacked 
Douglas  for  opposing  the  Lecompton  Constitution,  and  called 
him  a  renegade,  a  deserter  and  a  traitor;  and  that  Douglas,  in 
answering  the  paper's  attack  upon  him  had  quoted  an  editorial 
in  which  the  editor  asserted  that  state  laws  prohibiting  slavery- 
were  unconstitutional,  and  that  Douglas  in  criticising  the  edi- 
torial had  declared  that  such  a  doctrine  was  a  fatal  blow  to  the 
sovereignty  of  the  states.  Lincoln  contended  that  Douglas  in 
making  this  charge  against  the  official  organ  of  the  Democratic 
administration  at  Washington  was  inferentially  making  the 
same  charge  against  the  Democratic  administration,  that  he, 
Lincoln,  had  made  against  Douglas.  This  charge  of  Lincoln 
against  Douglas  was  very  cleverly  and  adroitly  made,  because 
at  the  time  the  administration  Democrats  in  Illinois  were  bitterly 
assailing  Douglas,  and  the  quoting  of  Douglas'  attack  upon  the 
administration  would  be  likely  to  widen  the  breach  between  the 
two  Democratic  factions  and  intensify  the  antagonism  between 
them. 

Lincoln  then  took  up  the  threats  of  Secession  and  resort 
to  the  sword  made  by  many  southerners,  and  said  there  was 
no  danger  to  be  apprehended  of  such,  a  war.  He  claimed  that 
Douglas  by  his  course  of  action  was  preparing  the  people  for 
complete  nationalization  of  slavery  and  for  another  Dred  Scott 
decision  that  would  make  it  legal  in  all  the  states  of  the  Union. 
Lincoln  did  not  consume  the  full  time  allotted  to  him  in  this 
speech  and  finished  fifteen  minutes  before  his  time  was  up. 

The  crowd  at  Ottawa,  present  at  these  addresses,  was  over- 
whelmingly Republican,  and  largely  and  emphatically  Aboli- 
tionist. When  Douglas  arose  to  commence  his  speech  of  rejoinder, 
he  had  much  difficulty  in  getting  a  hearing;  and  when  Douglas 
commented  upon  the  fact  that  Codding  and  many  other  aboli- 
tionists were  present  when  Lincoln  delivered  his  speech  at 
Springfield  on  the  day  of  the  abolitionists  held  their  convention 
in  that  city,  and  that  Codding  at  the  end  of  Lincoln's  speech 
asked  the  audience  to  adjourn  to  the  Senate  chamber  to  hold 
their  convention,  the  crowd  became  unruly.  The  chairman  of 
the  Republican  committee  and  Lincoln  himself  felt  called  upon 
to  rebuke  them. 


498  ILLINOIS 

Douglas  then  charged  that  the  set  of  resolutions  that  he 
had  read  in  his  opening  speech  expressed  Lincoln's  sentiments. 
This  had  been  charged  in  the  press  against  Lincoln,  again  and 
again,  and  he,  Lincoln,  had  never  denied  the  charge.  Lincoln's 
denial  that  he  had  acted  upon  the  committee  that  framed  the 
resolutions  was  a  miserable  quibble,  to  avoid  the  main  issue, 
declared  Douglas.  "He  eludes  the  main  question.  I  asked  him 
was  he  for  the  repeal  of  the  fugitive  slave  law.  He  answerd: 
'I  was  not  on  the  committee  that  framed  the  resolution.'  I 
asked  him  if  elected  to  the  Senate  would  he  vote  against  the 
admission  of  a  slave  state?  He  answers:  'I  was  not  on  that 
committee.'  I  asked  him  would  he  vote  to  abolish  slavery  in 
the  District  of  Columbia?  He  gives  no  answer.  I  asked  him 
would  he  vote  against  acquiring  territory  unless  slavery  were 
excluded  from  it?  He  gives  no  answer.  These  are  vital  and 
important  questions  relating  to  the  issues  of  the  day.  He  gives 
no  excuse  for  not  answering  these  questions,  and  sat  down 
before  his  time  was  up." 

Lincoln  had  charged  corruption  and  conspiracy  against  him, 
Douglas,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  nation,  and  two  Presidents 
of  the  United  States.  This  was  a  terrible  charge.  How  does 
Lincoln  evade  responsibility  for  making  such  a  terrible  accusa- 
tion? By  declaring  that  Douglas  had  not  denied  it.  He  admits 
that  he  does  not  know  that  it  was  true,  but  that  he  believed  it 
to  be  true.  Because  he,  Douglas,  had  not  denied  it,  Lincoln 
was  ready  to  charge  it  to  be  a  fact.  In  order  that  Lincoln  would 
have  no  excuse  for  repeating  hereafter  that  terrible  charge, 
he,  Douglas,  would  now  denounce  it  "in  all  its  bearings  as  an 
infamous  lie."  ("Three  cheers  for  Douglas,"  came  from  the 
crowd.)     "I  know  it  to  be  false,"  said  Douglas,  "and  nobody 

else  knows  it  to  be  true I  will  say  that  it  is  a  lie,  and 

let  him  prove  it  to  be  true Mr.  Lincoln  has  not  character 

enough  for  integrity  and  truth,  merely  on  his  own  ipse  dixit, 
to  arraign  President  Buchanan,  President  Pierce  and  nine  judges 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  not  one  of  whom  would  be  complimented 
to  be  put  on  an  equal  plane  with  him." 


ILLINOIS  499 

After  explaining  his  reasons  for  voting  against  the  Chase 
amendment,  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Law,  because,  as  he  claimed, 
the  Chase  amendment  was  a  redundancy  and  offered  by  Chase 
not  in  good  faith  but  as  a  political  trick,  Douglas  next  took  up 
Lincoln's  house-divided  doctrine,  which  he,  Douglas,  claimed 
would  inevitably  bring  about  the  dissolution  of  the  Union,  but 
had  to  stop,  in  the  middle  of  his  argument  because  he  had  reached 
the  limit  of  his  time. 

Six  days  elapsed  between  the  debate  at  Ottawa  and  the 
next  meeting  betwen  the  debaters,  which  took  place  at  Freeport. 
It  will  be  noted  that  Lincoln  did  not  categorically  answer  at 
Ottawa  the  questions  put  to  him  by  Douglas.  He  contented 
himself  at  Ottawa  with  denying  that  he  participated  in  the 
framing,  or  being  bound  by  the  platform  or  set  of  resolutions 
read  by  Lincoln.  His  failure  to  answer  directly  the  questions 
asked  him  by  Douglas  had  been  noted  and  commented  upon 
even  by  some  of  his  friends.  Within  the  six  days  which  elapsed 
between  the  Ottawa  and  Freeport  meetings,  however,  he  carefully 
and  deliberately  prepared  written  answers  to  Douglas'  interro- 
gations, and  as  we  will  soon  see  read  his  answers  with  much 
impressiveness  at  Freeport.  Lincoln  had  also  made  up  his 
mind  during  the  same  six-day  interval  to  prepare  and  propound 
certain  counter  questions  which  he  would  ask  Douglas  to  answer. 

Of  these  questions,  so  prepared  by  Lincoln,  the  most  pregnant 
and  by  far  the  most  important,  was  the  second :  "Can  the  people 
of  a  United  States  territory,  in  any  lawful  way,  against  any 
citizen  of  the  United  States,  exclude  slavery  from  its  limits, 
prior  to  the  formation  of  a  state  constitution?"  On  the  way 
to  the  Freeport  meeting  Lincoln  met  Joseph  Medill,  his  friend 
and  supporter  and  the  editor  of  the  ablest  Republican  paper 
published  in  Chicago;  and  submitted  these  questions  to  him 
for  his  consideration  and  advice.  Medill  advised  against  the 
second  question,  claiming  that  it  would  let  Douglas  get  out  of 
the  tight  place  he  was  in  on  the  slavery  question.  The  Republican 
state  chairman,  Norman  B.  Judd,  and,  it  is  said,  Elihu  B.  Wash- 
burne,  the  Republican  candidate  for  Congress  in  the  Freeport 
district,  also  advised  Lincoln  not  to  propound  this  question. 
But  Lincoln  was  obdurate  and  insisted  that  the  question  should 


Birthplace  of  Stephen  A.  Douglas 

(Courtesy  Illinois  State  Historical  Library.) 


ILLINOIS  501 

be  asked.  Lincoln,  as  well  as  thousands  of  others,  knew  what 
answer  Douglas  would  make  to  this  question.  Douglas  had 
over  and  over  again  stated  that  as  a  practical  matter  slavery 
could  not  exist  in  any  territory  where  the  local  laws  and  police 
regulations  were  unfriendly  to  the  system. 

At  this  time,  however,  the  fire-eating  southerners  were  loudly 
proclaiming  that  local  laws  and  regulations  in  any  state  or 
territory  were  powerless  to  deprive  the  slaveholder  of  his  prop- 
erty or  property  rights.  Lincoln  knew  that  if  Douglas  answered 
this  question  as  he  had  frequently  answered  it  before,  that  it 
would  further  embitter  the  administration  Democrats  in  Illinois 
against  him  and  still  further  imperil  his  chances  of  reelection 
to  the  Senate  and  thus  improve  Lincoln's  chances  of  election. 
That  this  was  the  way  in  which  Lincoln  viewed  the  matter  is 
shown  conclusively  by  Lincoln's  letter  to  his  friend,  Henry 
Asbury,  written  on  the  very  day  that  he  closed  with  Douglas 
the  arrangement  for  the  debates,  July  31,  1858.  This  letter 
Senator  Beveridge  quotes  in  his  Life  of  Lincoln,  Vol.  II,  p.  657. 
In  it  he  writes  to  Asbury:  "I  think  you  labor  under  a  mistake 
when  you  say  no  one  cares  how  he  answers.  This  implies  that 
it  is  equal  with  him  whether  he  is  injured  here  or  at  the  South. 
He  cares  nothing  for  the  South;  he  knows  he  is  already  dead 
there.  He  only  leans  Southward  more  to  keep  the  Buchanan 
party  from  growing  in  Illinois.  You  will  have  hard  work  to 
get  him  directly  to  the  point,  whether  a  territorial  legislature 
has  or  has  not  the  power  to  exclude  slavery.  But  if  you  succeed 
in  bringing  him  to  it — though  he  will  be  compelled  to  say  that 
it  has  no  such  power — He  will  instantly  take  the  ground  that 
slavery  cannot  actually  exist  in  the  territories  unless  the  people 
desire  it  and  so  give  it  protection  by  territorial  legislation.  If 
this  offends  the  South  he  will  let  it  offend  them,  as  at  all  events 

he  intends  to  hold  on  to  his  chances  in  Illinois Yours 

Very  Truly,  A.  Lincoln." 

It  has  been  contended  by  some  writers  of  history  that  Lincoln, 
in  framing  this  question  to  Douglas  and  in  his  consideration 
of  the  answer  that  Douglas  would  make  thereto,  had  in  mind 
the  effect  of  Douglas'  answer  to  the  question  on  the  presidential 
campaign   of   1860   rather  than  its  effect  upon  the  senatorial 


502  ILLINOIS 

contest  between  him  and  Douglas  in  1858.  They  intimate  that 
he,  Lincoln,  was  consciously  and  deliberately  gunning  for  bigger 
game  for  himself,  to  wit,  the  Presidency  in  1861,  rather  than 
the  senatorship  in  1859.  As  I  read  this  letter  of  Lincoln's  it 
shows  conclusively  that  Lincoln  was  looking  to  the  effect  of  the 
question  and  answer  in  the  senatorial  campaign,  and  not  in 
any  future  campaign.  He  believed  that  Douglas  was  "dead" 
in  the  South  and  therefore  unavailable  as  a  Democratic  candidate 
for  the  Presidency;  and  the  Democratic  party  in  Illinois  was 
divided  into  two  camps,  one  of  which  was  backing  Douglas 
enthusiastically  for  reelection  to  the  Senate;  and  the  other  of 
which,  comprising  all  of  the  Democrat  officers  of  the  state,  was 
bitterly  opposing  his  reelection.  He  believed  that  the  putting 
of  this  question  to  Douglas  and  the  answer  he  would  give,  would 
further  tear  open  the  wounds  in  the  party  in  the  State  of  Illinois, 
lose  Douglas  many  old-time  Democratic  votes,  and  thus  secure 
his,  Lincoln's,  election  to  the  Senate.  That  Lincoln  at  the  time 
he  wrote  the  letter  had  even  remote  aspirations  for  the  Presi- 
dency, I  do  not  believe.  He  had,  we  must  remember,  up  to  1858 
a  rather  unsuccessful  political  career.  He  was  about  four  years 
older  than  Douglas  when  they  both  first  appeared  in  political 
life  in  the  lower  house  of  the  Illinois  Legislature,  in  1834-36. 
He  had  been  thrice  reelected  to  that  rather  unimportant  place, 
but  was  defeated  twice  when  a  candidate  for  Speaker  of  the 
House.  In  1846  he  was  elected  to  Congress  and  made  a  speech 
in  that  body  on  the  Mexican  war  (dubbed  the  "Spot"  speech) 
which  rendered  him  unpopular  thereafter  in  his  own  district. 
He  sought  no  reelection  to  Congress  and  since  1849  had  been 
in  private  life,  having  been  defeated  as  a  candidate  for  the 
United  States  Senate  to  succeed  Gen.  James  Shields  only  two 
years  before  his  present  campaign  against  Douglas.  Before 
the  joint  debates  between  him  and  Douglas  he  was  politically 
a  novus  homo  outside  of  the  State  of  Illinois.  That  he  had  any 
aspirations  for  the  Presidency  at  the  time  he  wrote  the  letter 
to  Asbury,  July  31,  1858,  I  do  not  believe.  When  he  wrote  this 
letter  he  was  gunning  for  the  game  in  sight  of  his  gun  and  not 
for  game  that  neither  he  nor  anyone  else  could  see  at  that  time. 


Grave  of  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln,  Mother  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  Spencer  County,  Indiana 


504  ILLINOIS 

At  the  Freeport  meeting,  Lincoln  had  the  opening  and  close. 
In  his  opening  he  made  answer  to  the  questions  Douglas  had 
asked  him  at  Ottawa  in  writing.  He  was  exceedingly  cautious 
and  careful  in  so  doing.  He  would  read  Douglas'  questions  first 
and  then  read  his  answers  prepared  with  great  care  and  delib- 
eration since  the  Ottawa  meetings.  In  all  of  them  but  one  (the 
sixth)  he  answered  he  was  not  "pledged"  to  any  course,  and 
then  made  further  answer.  As  to  the  question  about  the  fugitive 
slave  law,  he  answered  that  under  the  Constitution  the  southern 
states  are  entitled  to  a  fugitive  slave  law.  The  existing  law 
had  some  defects,  but  why  talk  about  it?  No  one  was  urging 
its  amendment  or  repeal.  As  to  the  question  about  the  admission 
of  more  slave  states,  Lincoln  said  he  would  be  exceedingly  sorry 
ever  to  be  put  in  a  position  of  having  to  pass  upon  that  question ; 
he  would  be  "exceedingly  glad"  if  none  were  ever  brought  into 
the  Union;  but  if  slavery  were  kept  out  of  a  territory  until 
it  applied  for  statehood,  then  if  the  people  of  that  territory 
should  "do  such  an  extraordinary  thing  as  to  adopt  a  slave 
constitution,  I  see  no  alternative  ....  but  to  admit  them  into 
the  Union."  As  to  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  he  would  be  exceedingly  glad  to  see  it  abolished 
there,  but  within  these  conditions:  First,  the  abolition  should 
be  gradual;  second,  that  it  should  be  pursuant  to  a  vote  of  a 
majority  of  the  qualified  voters  of  the  District;  and  third,  that 
compensation  should  be  made  to  unwilling  owners.  This  was 
Lincoln's  formula  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District 
when  he  was  in  Congress  ten  years  before  this  date.  It  is 
evidence  of  the  care  and  caution  which  he  always  displayed  in 
making  any  announcement  of  his  views  on  public  questions  and 
of  the  tenacity  with  which  he  held  to  his  position  when  he 
believed  he  was  right  and  made  such  an  announcement. 

With  reference  to  the  question  of  Douglas  as  to  his,  Lincoln's, 
position  on  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  between  different 
states,  he  was  equally  cautious  and  conservative.  "I  am  pledged 
to  nothing  about  it,"  he  declared.  "It  is  a  subject  to  which  I 
have  not  given  mature  consideration."  Even  if  he  believed  that 
Congress  had'  the  constitutional  power  to  abolish  it,  he  would 
still  not  favor  its  exercise  "unless  upon  sane  conservative  prin- 


ILLINOIS  505 

ciples  ....  akin  to  what  I  have  said  in  relation  to  its  abolition 
in  the  District  of  Columbia."  He  then  declared  he  was  for 
the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  all  the  territories.  It  was  the 
right  and  duty  of  Congress  to  prohibit  it  in  them.  In  reference 
to  new  territory  "I  am  not  generally  opposed  to  the  honest 
acquisition  of  territory;  and,  in  any  given  case,  I  would  not 
oppose  such  acquisition  accordingly  as  I  might  think  such  acquisi- 
tion would  or  would  not  aggravate  the  slavery  question  among 
ourselves." 

Having  answered  all  of  Douglas'  questions  to  him,  he  now 
asked  Douglas  his  four  counter  questions. 

(1)  Would  Douglas  vote  to  admit  Kansas,  if  its  people 
would  adopt  a  state  constitution  before  they  were  as  numerous 
as  required  by  the  English  bill? 

(2)  The  Question  with  reference  to  the  right  of  the  people 
in  a  territory  to  exclude  slavery  before  admission  to  statehood, 
heretofore  quoted  verbatim. 

(3)  If  the  Supreme  Court  should  decree  that  the  states 
themselves  could  not  exclude  slavery,  would  Douglas  acquiesce 
in  such  a  decision  as  a  rule  of  political  action? 

(4)  Would  Douglas  favor  acquisition  of  new  territory 
regardless  of  how  it  would  affect  the  nation  on  the  slavery 
question  ? 

After  propounding  these  questions  to  Douglas,  Lincoln  pro- 
ceeded with  much  cleverness  to  expose  the  mistake  which  Douglas 
had  made  in  his  Ottawa  speech  in  quoting  a  platform  or  set 
of  resolutions  as  made  by  Republicans  or  Abolitionists  in  Spring- 
field in  1854;  when,  in  fact,  the  platform  which  he  read  was 
adopted  by  a  county  convention  (not  a  state  convention)  held 
in  Kane  County.  He  pointed  out  that  Douglas,  a  United  States 
senator  for  twelve  years,  "of  world-wide  renown,"  had  made 
a  charge  which  "the  slightest  investigation  would  have  shown 
him  to  be  wholly  false."  His  exposure  of  Douglas'  mistake 
was  greeted  with  roars  of  cheers  and  laughter.  Douglas  was 
the  man  who  had  charged  Trumbull  and  Lincoln  with  falsehood. 
Could  Douglas  find  in  anything  that  Trumbull  or  Lincoln  had 
said  "a  justification  at  all  compared  with  what  we  have  in 
this  instance,  for  that  sort  of  vulgarity?" 


506  ILLINOIS 

Lincoln  then  reverted  to  his  favorite  and  oft-repeated  charge 
that  the  Democrats  in  Congress,  including  Douglas,  had  voted 
against  the  Chase  amendment  to  leave  room  for  the  Dred  Scott 
decision.  Douglas  had  denounced  him,  Lincoln,  because  Lincoln 
had  upon  his  own  ipse  dixit  charged  a  conspiracy  against  two 
Presidents,  the  Supreme  Court  and  a  majority  of  Congress, 
and  had  dwelt  upon  the  enormity  of  such  a  charge.  Lincoln 
declared  that  he  had  made  this  charge  not  upon  his  own  ipse 
dixit,  but  had  marshalled  or  "arrayed  the  evidence  to  prove 
it."  He  then  asserted  that  Douglas  had  made  the  same  charge 
against  the  Democratic  administration  for  supporting  the 
Lecompton  Constitution,  and  while  on  this  topic  his  time  expired 
and  he  stopped. 

Douglas  then  addressed  the  audience.  He  was  glad,  he  said, 
that  Lincoln  had  decided  to  answer  his,  Douglas',  question.  He 
had  not  done  so  at  Ottawa,  although  he  had  ample  time  to  do  so. 
The  questions  put  by  him  to  Lincoln  were  based  upon  the 
Republican  platform.  The  questions  put  to  him,  Douglas,  by 
Lincoln  had  never  received  the  sanction  of  the  party  "with 
which  I  am  acting."  They  are  asked  simply  to  satisfy  Lincoln's 
curiosity.  But  he  would  answer  them.  What  would  he  do  about 
admitting  Kansas  with  unsufficient  population?  Why,  as  Con- 
gress seems  to  believe  that  Kansas  has  sufficient  population 
for  admission  as  a  slave  state,  "I  answer  as  she  (Kansas)  has 
population  enough  to  constitute  a  slave  state,  she  has  people 
enough  for  a  free  state."  (Cheers.)  Why  did  not  Lincoln 
say  what  he  would  do  about  Kansas  with  unsufficient  population  ? 
Trumbull,  Lincoln's  ardent  supporter,  had  voted  against  admit- 
ting Oregon  during  the  whole  of  the  last  session  of  Congress 
because  it  had  insufficient  population.  Was  Lincoln  fighting 
his  supporter  on  that  issue?  Next,  Douglas  took  up  Lincoln's 
celebrated  second  question  and  made  his  equally  celebrated  reply. 
"I  answer  emphatically  as  Lincoln  has  heard  me  answer  a 
hundred  times  from  every  stump  in  Illinois,  that  in  my  opinion 
a  people  in  a  territory  can,  by  lawful  means,  exclude  slavery 
from  their  limits  prior  to  the  formation  of  a  state  constitution. 
(Great  applause.)  Mr.  Lincoln  knew  that  I  had  answered  that 
question  over  and  over  again  ....  he  has  no  excuse  for  pre- 


ILLINOIS  507 

tending  to  be  in  doubt  as  to  my  position  on  that  question.  It 
matters  not  what  way  the  Supreme  Court  may  hereafter  decide 
as  to  the  abstract  question,  whether  slavery  may  or  may  not 
go  into  a  territory  under  the  Constitution,  the  people  have  the 
lawful  means  to  introduce  it  or  exclude  it  as  they  please,  for 
the  reason  that  slavery  cannot  exist  a  day  or  an  hour  anywhere, 
unless  it  is  supported  by  local  police  regulations.  These  police 
regulations  can  only  be  established  by  the  local  legislature;  and 
if  the  people  are  opposed  to  slavery  they  will  elect  representatives 
to  that  body  who  will  by  unfriendly  legislation  effectually  pre- 
vent the  introduction  of  it  into  their  midst  ....  Hence,  no 
matter  what  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  may  be  on  that 
abstract  question,  still  the  right  of  the  people  to  make  a  slave 
territory  or  a  free  territory  is  perfect  and  complete  under  the 
Nebraska  bill." 

Lincoln,  in  getting  this  answer  from  Douglas,  succeeded 
in  accomplishing  what  he  desired.  He  had  again  reopened  the 
wounds  in  the  ranks  of  the  divided  Democrats  which  Douglas 
had  been  endeavoring  to  heal.  The  administration  Democrats 
were  again  incited  to  war  against  Douglas.  As  to  Lincoln's 
third  question,  if  the  Supreme  Court  should  decide  that  a  state 
could  not  exclude  slavery  within  its  own  limits,  would  Douglas 
submit  to  the  decisions?  Douglas  declared  that  he  was  amazed 
that  Lincoln  should  ask  such  a  question.  Lincoln  knew,  he  said, 
that  there  was  only  one  man  in  America  claiming  any  degree 
of  intelligence  or  decency,  who  ever  for  one  moment  pretended 
such  a  thing — the  editor  of  the  Washington  Union.  When 
that  man  in  his  paper  made  that  assertion,  he,  Douglas,  had 
promptly  denounced  it  in  the  Senate,  while  Lincoln's  friends, 
Trumbull  and  Seward  and  the  whole  "Black  Republican"  side 
of  the  Senate  sat  silent.  Senator  Toombs  had  at  the  same 
time  and  place  declared  "that  there  was  not  one  man,  woman  or 
child  south  of  the  Potomac,  in  any  slave  state,  who  did  not 
repudiate  any  such  pretention."  "Lincoln  might  just  as  well 
have  asked  me  if  he,  Lincoln,  stole  a  horse,  would  I  sanction  it?" 
It  was  unthinkable !  He,  Lincoln,  discredits  the  Supreme  Court 
by  imputing  that  it  would  violate  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States.    "I  tell  Mr.  Lincoln  such  a  thing  is  impossible.    It  would 


508  ILLINOIS 

be  an  act  of  moral  treason  for  the  Court  to  render  any  such 
decision,  and  there  is  no  man  on  that  bench  who  would  descend 
to  such  an  infamy.  Douglas  then  took  up  Lincoln's  last  question 
and  said  it  was  "ingeniously  and  cunningly  put."  Would  Lincoln 
oppose  the  acquistion  of  new  territory  under  any  circumstances? 
The  "Black  Republican  creed"  made  that  pledge;  did  Lincoln 
stand  by  that  pledge?  "Lincoln  don't  answer  that  question,  but, 
Yankee  fashion,  he  asks  me  the  same  question  in  a  different 
form.  But  I  won't  dodge.  I  answer  that  when  it  becomes 
necessary,  in  our  growth  and  progress,  to  acquire  more  territory, 
that  I  am  in  favor  of  it,  without  reference  to  the  slavery  ques- 
tion; and  when  we  have  acquired  it  I  will  leave  the  people 
free  to  do  as  they  please,  either  to  make  it  slave  or  free  territory, 
as  they  prefer.  Douglas  then  made  his  oft-repeated  and  vig- 
orous argument  in  favor  of  territorial  expansion  for  the  further 
development  of  the  nation.  He  then  turned  to  Lincoln  and  asked 
him  facetiously  if  he  had  any  more  questions  to  ask  him.  "As 
soon  as  he  is  able  to  hold  council  with  his  advisers,  Lovejoy, 
Farnsworth  and  Fred  Douglass  (all  well-known  abolitionists 
and  the  last  a  negro)  he  will  frame  and  ask  other  questions." 

Here  an  episode  took  place  showing  how  quick  mentally 
Douglas  was  while  on  his  feet.  In  his  speech  he  used  the  words 
"Black  Republican,"  which  were  greeted  by  abolition  cries  in 
the  crowd  of  "White!  white!"  Whereupon  Douglas  exclaimed: 
"I  have  reason  to  recollect  that  some  people  in  this  country 
think  that  Fred  Douglass  is  a  very  good  man.  The  last  time 
I  came  here  to  make  a  speech  ....  I  saw  a  carriage — a  mag- 
nificent one — drive  up  and  take  up  a  position  on  the  outside  of 
the  crowd.  A  beautiful  young  lady  was  sitting  on  the  box  seat, 
whilst  Fred  Douglass  and  her  mother  reclined  inside  and  the 
owner  of  the  carriage  acted  as  driver."  (Cries  of  "right;  what 
have  you  to  say  against  it?")  Douglas  again  stated:  "I  saw 
this  in  your  own  town."  "What  of  it?"  To  which  Douglas 
retorted:  "All  I  have  to  say  is  this;  that  if  you  'Black  Repub- 
icans'  think  that  the  negroes  ought  to  be  on  a  social  equality 
with  your  wives  and  daughters  and  ride  in  a  carriage  with  your 
wife,  whilst  you  drive  the  team,  you  have  a  perfect  right  to 
do  so." 


Hotel  Where  Lincoln  Stopped  in  Urbana 


510  ILLINOIS 

Douglas  then  took  up  the  subject  of  the  resolutions  that  he 
had  read  at  Ottawa  the  week  before,  and  about  which  he  had 
asked  Lincoln  certain  questions.  He  explained  fully  how  he 
had  gotten  possession  of  the  resolutions  and  how  he  was 
informed  and  believed  that  they  were  adopted  by  the  Republican- 
Abolition  Convention  which  was  held  in  Springfield  on  the  same 
day  that  Lincoln  had  made  a  speech  in  that  city.  He  pointed 
out  that  at  Ottawa  both  Lincoln  and  himself  believed  that  the 
resolutions  Douglas  read  were  the  ones  adopted  at  Springfield 
that  day  and  that  Lincoln's  only  disclaimer  of  responsibility 
made  at  Ottawa  was  that  he,  Lincoln,  did  not  attend  the  con- 
vention after  his  speech,  did  not  participate  in  drawing  the 
resolutions,  and  left  Springfield  before  the  resolutions  were 
adopted.  Since  the  Ottawa  meeting,  Douglas  argued,  Lincoln 
had  found  out  that  the  resolutions  in  question  were  not  adopted, 
as  both  he  and  Douglas  believed,  at  Springfield,  but  at  a  Repub- 
lican convention  held  in  another  city  of  the  state.  He  says  nothing 
about  his  own  ignorance  of  the  subject  at  Ottawa,  but  because 
I  was  also  ignorant  on  the  subject  at  Ottawa,  he  charges  me 
with  forgery.  Lincoln  claims  the  resolutions  were  not  adopted 
on  the  "right  spot."  Lincoln  and  his  political  friends  are  great 
on  "spots."  When  in  Congress  Lincoln  declared  the  Mexican 
war  to  be  unjust  because  American  blood  was  not  shed  on 
American  soil  "in  the  right  spot."  Now  he  cannot  answer  the 
questions  I  asked  him  in  Ottawa  because  the  resolutions  I  read 
were  not  adopted  on  the  "right  spot."  Douglas  then  declared 
that  these  very  resolutions  were  adopted  in  nearly  all  the  north- 
ern counties  and  congressional  districts  that  gave  Republican 
majorities  at  the  elections  of  that  year.  He  then  argued  that 
Lincoln,  in  declining  to  state  whether  or  not  he  ratified  or  stood 
by  these  resolutions  wherever  they  were  adopted,  was  quibbling 
and  evading  the  real  issue.  Douglas  then  read  the  resolutions 
adopted  by  the  Rockford  Republican  Convention  (Freeport  Dis- 
trict) which  nominated  Washburne  in  1854  which  was  almost 
identical  with  the  resolution  he,  Douglas,  read  at  Ottawa,  and 
said:  "When  I  get  into  the  next  district,  I  will  show  that  the 
same  platform  was  adopted  there,  and  so  on  through  the  state 


ILLINOIS  511 

until  I  nail  the  responsibility  of  it  upon  the  Black  Republican 
party  throughout  the  state." 

Here  Thomas  J.  Turner,  Speaker  of  the  House  when  Trum- 
bull was  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate  over  Lincoln,  inter- 
rupted Douglas  and  declared  that  he,  Turner,  had  drawn  the 
Rockford  resolutions.  Then  cried  Douglas  he,  Turner,  would 
not  deny  that  they  were  the  Republican  creed.  Mr.  Turner: 
"They  are  our  creed  exactly."  Mr.  Douglas:  "And  yet  Lincoln 
denies  that  he  stands  on  them."     ("Good,  good,"  and  laughter.) 

Douglas  then  took  up  the  alliance  between  Senator  Trumbull 
and  Lincoln  in  this  campaign  and  charged  that  when  Trumbull 
(a  former  Democrat)  was  elected  over  Lincoln  to  succeed  Sen- 
ator Shields  two  years  before,  much  bitterness  had  developed 
between  them  and  that  this  ill  feeling  had  been  patched  up 
by  Trumbull  and  his  friends,  agreeing  with  Lincoln  and  his 
friends  to  elect  Lincoln  this  time  to  the  Senate.  "Lincoln 
could  be  silenced  in  no  other  way."  Douglas  then  read  the 
Republican  resolutions  offered  by  Lovejoy  to  the  Legislature 
the  day  before  Trumbull  was  elected.  These  resolutions  con- 
tained the  same  propositions  which  were  in  the  Aurora  resolu- 
tions read  by  Douglas  in  Ottawa.  He  then  declared  with  a  tri- 
umphant gesture  that  every  man  in  the  Legislature  but  two, 
who  had  voted  for  the  Lovejoy  resolutions,  voted  next  day  for 
Lincoln  for  United  States  senator.  Turning  to  Speaker  Turner, 
who  was  on  the  platform  near  him,  who  had  voted  for  the 
Lovejoy  resolution  and  also  for  Lincoln,  he  asked  him:  "Did 
you  violate  your  pledge  in  voting  for  Lincoln,  or  did  he  commit 
himself  to  your  platform  (the  Lovejoy  resolution)  before  you 
cast  your  vote  for  him?"  At  this  juncture  Lincoln  called  to 
Turner :  "Don't  answer,  Turner.  You  have  no  right  to  answer." 
Turner  obeyed  and  did  not  answer  Douglas'  question.  Douglas 
then  criticised  the  answers  that  Lincoln  had  made  to  his  ques- 
tions because  of  their  vagueness  and  qualifications.  Although 
Lincoln  believed  that  the  admission  of  other  slave  states  might 
dissolve  the  Union,  yet  he  would  state  that  he  would  vote  against 
bringing  another  slave  state  into  the  Union.  "Is  that  fair 
dealing?"  he  asked. 


512  ILLINOIS 

"Show  me  that  it  is  my  duty  to  do  a  particular  act  in  order 
to  save  the  Union  and  I  will  do  it,  if  the  Constitution  does  not 
prohibit  it.  Lincoln  says  that  'this  Union  cannot  continue  to 
endure  with  slave  states  in  it'  and  yet  he  will  not  state  what 
he  would  do  about  admitting  more  of  them."  He  then  took  up 
Lincoln's  charge  that  he,  Douglas,  had  assailed  the  organ  of 
the  administration  in  Washington  as  corrupt  and  said :  ' 'Suppose 
I  did,  when  it  was  true?  Does  that  justify  Lincoln  in  charging 
two  Presidents  of  the  United  States,  the  judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court  and  other  with  corruption,  when  it  was  false?  Lincoln's 
charge  was  historically  false!"  Before,  during  and  after  the 
passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  act,  Buchanan  was  in  London, 
England,  acting  as  minister  to  Great  Britain,  so  it  was  impossible 
for  him  to  have  been  in  Lincoln's  ''imaginary  conspiracy."  The 
Dred  Scott  case  was  not  even  on  the  docket  of  the  Supreme 
Court  when  the  law  was  passed.  The  high  character  of  Presi- 
dent Pierce  as  a  man  of  honor  and  integrity  was  enough  to 
vindicate  him  from  such  a  foul  charge.  "As  to  myself,  I  pro- 
nounce the  charge  an  infamous  lie  whenever  and  wherever  made 
and  by  whomsoever  made I  brand  it  as  it  deserves." 

Douglas  then  discussed  Lincoln's  tactics  in  endeavoring  to 
divide  the  Democratic  vote.  Why,  he  asked,  was  the  attempt 
being  made  to  show  that  he,  Douglas,  was  still  at  war  with 
President  Buchanan.  "When  I  differed  with  the  President, 
I  spoke  out  so  all  of  you  could  hear  me."  He  would  do  it  again 
if  it  were  necessary.  The  question  between  him  and  the  Presi- 
dent had  "passed  away"  when  the  President  in  his  message  to 
Congress  stated  that  hereafter  all  state  constitutions  ought  to 
be  submitted  to  the  people.  "I  know  Mr.  Lincoln's  object;  he 
wants  to  divide  the  Democrats,  in  order  that  he  may  defeat 
me  and  get  into  the  Senate."  Here  Douglas  was  told  that  his 
time  had  expired  and  he  ceased  speaking. 

When  Lincoln  arose  to  make  his  rejoinder,  he  was  greeted 
with  great  cheers.  Adverting  to  Douglas'  statement  that  the 
crowd  had  interrupted  him,  Douglas,  with  vulgarity  and  black- 
guardism, Lincoln  said  that  he,  Lincoln,  had  used  no  vulgarity 
or  blackguardism  when  the  crowd  was  listening.  He  then 
declared  that  the  Republican  resolutions  of  1854,  which  Douglas 


Under  Big  Elm  Tree,  Urbana  (East  of  Big  Four  Shops) 
Lincoln  Made  Famous  Speech 


514  ILLINOIS 

had  cited,  were  local  and  did  not  bind  the  party  throughout 
the  state.  "We  at  last  met  together  in  1856  from  all  parts 
of  the  state,  and  we  agreed  upon  a  common  platform'5  so  all 
the  Republicans  of  the  state  were  bound  "as  a  party  to  that 
platform."  "If  Douglas  could  find  one  member  of  the  Legis- 
lature that  voted  for  him  in  1855  who  will  tell  him  anything 
inconsistent  from  what  I  say  now  ....  I  will  retire  from  the 
race  and  give  him  no  more  trouble."  He,  Lincoln,  had  made 
no  secret  pledges  and  would  say  or  do  nothing  in  Washington 
that  he  did  not  avow  and  declare  on  the  stump.  "I'll  tell  you 
what  he,  Douglas,  is  afraid  of.  He  is  afraid  we  will  all  pull 
together."  He  said  he  had  answered  Douglas'  questions  fully 
and  fairly.  The  admission  of  a  single  slave  state  would  not 
"permanently  ....  establish  this  as  a  universal  slave  nation." 
Douglas'  charge  against  the  editor  of  the  Washington  Union 
were  really  charges  against  the  Democratic  President,  Lincoln 
contended.  "At  that  time,"  said  Lincoln,  "Douglas  had  an  eye 
further  north  than  he  has  today,  but  now  he  is  looking  toward 
the  South.  His  hope  is  to  make  'the  great  Black  Republican 
party'  ....  the  tail  to  his  new  kite."  But  now  he  was  crawling 
back  to  his  old  camp  and  would  soon  be  found  in  full  fellowship 
with  those  with  whom  he  now  pretended  to  be  at  variance. 

The  foregoing  rather  full  summary  of  the  speeches  made 
by  Lincoln  and  Douglas  in  the  cities  of  Ottawa  and  Freeport 
during  this  campaign,  memorable  in  American  history,  has  been 
given  so  that  the  reader  may  be  fairly  informed  of  the  great 
issues  involved  and  get  some  insight  into  the  methods  and 
characteristics  of  the  two  great  debaters.  It  is  not  within  the 
scope  of  this  history  nor  the  opportunities  of  the  writer  to 
follow  in  the  same  detail  the  other  joint  debates  in  which  these 
great  men  participated.  In  the  subsequent  debates  the  same 
points  were  made  and  the  same  arguments  brought  by  the 
orators  with  more  or  less  elaboration  and  dissertation. 

In  Galesburg,  October  7,  however,  Lincoln  presented  one 
new  and  powerful  issue  which  he  had  overlooked  or  but  faintly 
referred  to  at  Ottawa  and  Freeport.  That  issue  was  that  slavery 
was  fundamentally  wrong.  To  use  his  own  language,  slavery 
was  "a  moral,  social  and  political  evil."     With  due  regard  to 


ILLINOIS  515 

Constitutional  limitations  he  demanded  "a  policy  that  looked 
to  the  prevention  of  it  as  a  wrong/'  and  looked  forward  to  a 
time  "when  as  a  wrong  it  may  come  to  an  end."  He  then 
declared  that  "Douglas  discards  the  idea  that  there  is  anything 
wrong  in  slavery."  To  him  there  was  no  difference  between 
slavery  and  liberty.  If  Douglas  believed  there  was  any  differ- 
ence, he  could  not  declare,  as  he  had  done,  that  he  "don't  care 
whether  slavery  is  voted  up  or  down."  This  was  the  great 
vital  moral  issue  of  the  campaign  and  as  presented  by  Lincoln 
at  Galesburg  and  elsewhere  towards  the  end  of  the  joint  debates 
would  have  won  for  him  decisively  in  Illinois  or  in  any  northern 
state  in  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  On  this  great 
moral  issue,  Douglas  was  placed  in  a  most  disadvantageous 
position.  His  shibboleth  of  "Let  the  people  rule,"  his  doctrine 
of  popular  sovereignty,  while  they  were  popular  and  appealing 
to  all  men  favoring  a  republican  form  of  government,  were  not 
a  complete  answer  to  Lincoln's  claim  that  slavery  was  "morally 
wrong"  and  that  "a  policy  that  looks  to  the  prevention  of  it 
as  a  wrong"  must  prevail.  He  could  not  and  did  not  answer 
that  "the  people  could  do  no  wrong"  because  the  people  of  the 
southern  states  had  been  doing  "wrong"  in  maintaining  and 
fostering  slavery  for  over  a  century.  He  wisely  refrained  from 
claiming  that  the  people  of  a  state  or  county  were  always  omnis- 
cient, immaculate  and  incapable  of  injustice  or  misrule. 

This  great  moral  thrust  of  Lincoln  pierced  the  shield  of 
Douglas  and  wounded  him,  but  still  left  him  fighting  and  vic- 
torious in  the  struggle  for  the  senatorial  toga.  Every  school- 
child  in  America  knows  the  electoral  result  of  that  contest. 
Enough  Douglas  Democrats  were  elected  to  the  Legislature  to 
give  Douglas,  with  the  hold-over  Democrats  in  the  State  Senate, 
a  large  majority  over  Lincoln  when  the  Legislature  selected  the 
successor  in  the  United  States  Senate.  The  vote  in  the  Legis- 
lature was:  Douglas  54;  Lincoln  41.  At  that  time  senators 
were  not  elected  by  popular  vote.  The  law  providing  for  the 
election  of  United  States  senators  by  popular  vote  was  passed 
in  Illinois  for  the  first  time  during  my  administration  as  governor 
and  at  my  special  instance  and  request. 


516 


ILLINOIS 


This  extraordinary  series  of  debates  between  these  two 
remarkable  men  attracted  the  attention  of  every  state  in  the 
Union  and  made  Illinois  a  pivotal  state  in  the  destinies  of  the 
nation  from  that  time  to  the  present.  From  1818,  when  Illinois 
was  admitted  to  statehood,  down  to  1858,  it  had  cast  its  presi- 
dential vote  regularly  for  Democratic  Presidents.  At  this  election 
it  first  gave  substantial  evidence  that  Illinois  was  prepared  to 
quit  the  Democratic  ranks  because  of  the  policy  of  that  party 


Old  Kelly  Tavern,  St.  Joseph,  One  of  Lincoln's  Stopping 

Places 


in  regard  to  slavery.  The  debates  between  Lincoln  and  Douglas 
clearly  disclosed  to  the  voters  of  Illinois  and  the  other  northern 
states  that  the  Democratic  party  was  willing  to  aid  the  slave- 
holding  states  in  permitting  the  spread  of  slavery  into  the 
northern  territory.  They  were  further  convinced  that  the 
Buchanan  or  administration  Democrats,  along  with  all  of  the 
Democrats  in  the  slave  states,  were  attempting  by  foul  means 
and  unfair  and  corrupt  elections  to  place  Kansas  and  Nebraska 
into  the  Union  as  slave  states.  They  became  satisfied  that 
Douglas  and  his  followers  would  not  tolerate  corrupt  measures, 
or  debauchery  and  violence  at  the  polls  in  getting  a  vote  favor- 
able to  slavery  in  their  territories,  but  that  even  Douglas  and 


ILLINOIS  517 

the  Douglas  Democrats  were  willing  to  have  slavery  installed 
in  these  northern  territories,  if  the  voters  in  these  territories 
desired  it.  To  tolerate  slavery  in  the  states  where  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States  authorized  and  secured  it,  was  one 
thing.  To  permit  its  extension  into  other  territory  of  the  United 
States,  was  another  thing.  The  people  of  Illinois  and  the  other 
northern  states  were  waking  up  to  the  fact,  that  human  slavery 
was  a  great  moral  wrong  or  crime  and  that  its  further  spread 
into  northern  territories  must  be  stopped  at  all  hazards.  If 
the  slave-holding  states  of  the  South  had  been  content  to  rest 
upon  their  constitutional  rights  to  own  and  sell  slaves  within 
their  own  borders;  and  refrained  from  endeavoring  to  spread 
slavery  into  the  northern  territories  and  states,  the  Democratic 
party  might  and  probably  would  have  retained  its  supremacy 
in  the  nation  for  many  years  or  decades.  Its  tenets,  framed 
by  Thomas  Jefferson,  and  sustained  and  carried  out  by  every 
Democratic  national  administration,  were  strongly  favorable 
to  states  rights  in  all  police  and  social  legislation  and  were 
popular  with  the  rank  and  file  of  the  common  people.  Jeifer- 
sonian  and  Jacksonian  Democracy  was  uniformly  triumphant 
in  Illinois  down  to  the  time  of  the  passage  of  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  law.  The  method  of  the  passage  of  the  Lecompton 
Constitution  in  Kansas  revolted  Douglas  and  a  great  mass  of 
the  Democrats  of  Illinois.  Douglas  protested  to  Buchanan  and 
voted  and  spoke  in  the  Senate  against  the  administration  policies 
in  connection  with  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill ;  and  brought  down 
upon  his  head  in  the  senatorial  campaign  the  hatred  and  bitter 
opposition  of  all  the  Federal  appointees  in  Illinois  and  the 
enmity  of  all  the  slave-holding  states.  His  high-mindedness  and 
courage  in  so  doing  gained  him  universal  respect  and  admiration 
in  the  North;  but  lost  him  forever  any  prospect  of  being  nom- 
inated for  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States  by  a  united 
Democratic  party. .  The  Democrats  of  the  South  were  wedded 
to  the  infamous  "institution"  and  had  the  mistaken  hardiness 
to  scheme  for  its  introduction  and  spread  into  the  North.  Their 
course  in  so  doing  brought  to  the  ranks  of  the  new-born  Repub- 
lican party,  which  Lincoln  had  but  recently  joined,  not  only  the 
old  Whigs,  Free-Soilers  and  Know-Nothings,  but  thousands  of 


518  ILLINOIS 

old-line  Democrats  in  the  northern  states  who  refused  to  be  a 
party  to  the  extension  of  slavery  in  the  North. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  influence  of  the  whole  Democratic 
administration  was  thrown  against  him,  and  the  further  fact 
that  on  the  great  moral  issue  of  the  campaign — the  prevention 
of  the  extension  of  slavery — he  was  on  the  wrong  side  of  that 
issue,  the  wonder  is  that  Douglas  succeeded  against  such  obstacles 
in  winning  the  election  and  retaining  his  position  in  the  United 
States  Senate.  His  personal  magnetism,  his  winning  ways,  as 
well  as  his  eloquence  and  courage  in  the  presentation  of  his 
cause,  enabled  him  to  win  over  the  keen,  logical  arguments  of 
his  great  high-minded  competitor  and  overcome  the  superior 
moral  position  held  by  his  rival. 

It  was  a  defeat,  however,  in  which  both,  strange  to  say,  won 
a  victory.  Douglas  won  his  seat  in  the  Senate,  but  Lincoln 
won  a  world-wide  reputation  as  the  peerless  champion  of  the 
deliverance  of  the  human  race  from  the  bondage  that  had  dis- 
graced the  whole  world  from  the  beginning  of  time.  Lincoln's 
exposure  of  man's  inhumanity  towards  his  fellow  man  in  the 
black  skin,  was  heard  around  the  world.  It  sounded  the  death- 
knell  of  human  slavery  in  the  near  future  and  placed  him  in 
such  a  position  that  his  election  to  the  Presidency  of  the  United 
States  was  almost  certain.  The  care  and  caution  he  displayed 
in  keeping  all  his  arguments  within  the  limits  of  a  constitution 
which  enthroned  and  preserved  slavery  in  the  slave  states;  and 
with  which  he  demonstrated  that  within  the  limits  of  that  same 
constitution  it  could  be  prevented  entering  new  states  and  terri- 
tories, gained  for  him  the  reputation  not  only  of  being  a  foe 
to  human  slavery,  but  that  of  a  shrewd  constitutional  lawyer, 
who  could  if  placed  in  executive  position  carry  out  a  plan  within 
the  constitution  which  would  at  once  stop  the  spread  of  slavery 
and  ultimately  bring  about  its  abolition  without  confiscation 
or  injury  to  property  rights,  or  without  imperiling  in  any  way 
the  perpetuity  of  the  Union. 

Lincoln  was  no  wild-eyed  impractical  radical  in  his  presen- 
tation of  his  views  on  slavery.  He  repeatedly  stated  in  public 
that  under  the  United  States  Constitution  slaveholders  had  prop- 
erty rights  in  their  slaves,  and  that  slaveholders  were  entitled 


ILLINOIS  519 

to  a  fugitive  slave  law.  He  cautiously  kept  apart  from  the 
Abolitionists  and  often  asserted  that  black  men  were  not  and 
should  not  be  the  equal  of  white  men,  socially  or  politically. 
His  aim  was  to  stop  the  spread  of  slavery  immediately  and 
abolish  it  eventually  within  the  Constitution  and  without  confis- 
cation. His  caution  and  conservatism  eventually  made  him  the 
leader  of  his  party  and  placed  him  in  the  Presidential  chair. 

While  Seward  of  New  York  and  Chase  of  Ohio  were  preach- 
ing that  there  was  "an  irrepressible  conflict"  on  hand  which 
meant  war  and  a  "higher  law"  above  the  Constitution,  which 
meant  treason,  Lincoln  refused  to  become  emotional  and  con- 
stantly advised  compliance  with  the  laws  and  the  Constitution. 
Both  Lincoln  and  Douglas  were  thoroughly  honest  men.  Both 
were  patriots.  Douglas  feared  dissolution  of  the  Union  unless 
some  compromise  were  made  between  the  North  and  South 
on  the  slavery  question.  Lincoln  did  not.  Douglas  rightly  fore- 
saw rebellion.  Lincoln  believed  it  inconceivable.  When  rebellion 
came,  however,  both  confronted  it,  side  by  side,  Lincoln  in  the 
White  House,  Douglas  in  the  Senate.  Douglas  died  in- the  midst 
of  the  conflict,  but  sustained  his  great  Republican  adversary 
loyally  to  the  end.  What  Lincoln  did  thereafter  belongs  to 
another  chapter. 


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