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NUMBER  1^ 


SHKING 

1983 


Bowling  Green 

NUMBER  1^ 


sratiNG 

1983 


WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

Published  semiannually  by 

the  University  Libraries 

and  the  College  of  Arts  and  Sciences 

at  Western  Illinois  University 

Macomb,  Illinois  61455 

BOARD  OF  EDITORS 

JAY  R.  BALDERSON  GORDANA  REZAB 

DONALD  W.  GRIFFIN  ROBERT  P.  SUTTON 

JOHN  E.  HALLWAS,  Chairman 

ADVISORY  COMMITTEE 

DAVID  D.  ANDERSON.  Michigan  State  University 
MICHAEL  BECKES.  United  States  Forest  Service 
RICHARD  W.  CROCKETT.  Western  Illinois  University 
RICHARD  CROWDER,  Purdue  University 
JAMES  E.  DAVIS.  Illinois  College 
RODNEY  DAVIS.  Knox  College 
ARLIN  D.  FENTEM.  Western  Illinois  University 
MYRON  J.  bOGDE,Augustana  College 
FRANK  W.  GOLIDY,  Western  Illinois  University 
PEARCE  S.  GROVE,  Western  Illinois  University 
THOMAS  E.  HELM.  Western  Illinois  University 
WALTER  B.  HENDRICKSON.  MacMurray  College 
ROBERT  JOHANNSEN.  University  of  Illinois 
FREDERICK  G.  JONES.  Western  Illinois  University 
JERRY  KLEIN.  '-Peoria  Journal  Star" 
CHARLES  W.  MAYER.  Western  Illinois  University 
DENNIS  Q.  MclNERY,  Bradley  University 
RONALD  E.  NELSON.  District  Historian. 

Illinois  Department  of  Conservation 
RONALD  E.  NELSON.  Western  lllirwis  University 
RICHARD  D.  POLL.  Western  Illinois  University 
FRED  SOADY.  Illinois  Central  College 
STUART  STRUEVER.  Northwestern  University 
ROALD  D.  TWEET.  Augustana  College 
WILLIAM  L.  URBAN.  Monmouth  College 
ELLEN  M.  WHITNEY.  Editor  emeritus, 

"Journal  of  the  Illinois  State  Historical  Society" 
DOUGLAS  WILSON.  Kno.x  College 


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issues  are  $2.00.  Articles  published  in  WIRS  are  listed  in  the  MLA  Bibliography. 
America:  History  and  Life,  and  other  appropriate  bibliographies. 

Correspondence  about  subscriptions,  contributions,  and  books  for  review  should 
be  sent  to  the  Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Editors.  Western  Illinois  Regional  Studies, 
Western  Illinois  University.  Macomb,  Illinois  61455.  Bibliographic  and  other  in- 
formation for  the  Notes  and  Documents  section  should  be  sent  to  Professor 
Gordana  Rezab  at  the  same  address. 


WESTERN  ILLINOIS 
REGIONAL  STUDIES 

VOLUME  VI  SPRING  1983  NUMBER  1 

CONTENTS 


Joseph  Smith  III  and  the  Mormon  Succession  Crisis,  1844-1846       5 
Roger  Launius 

Utopian  Fraternity:  Ideal  and  Reality  in  Icarian  Recreation  23 

Robert  P.  Sutton 

John  Hay  on  Garfield's  Deathbed  Latin  38 

George  Monteiro 


The  Legal  Philosophy  of  Robert  G.  Ingersoll 
Scott  Owen  Reed 

42 

Quad  Cities  Writers:  A  Group  Portrait 
William  Roba 

67 

Notes  and  Documents 

82 

Reviews  of  Books 

92 

Contributors 

99 

Copyright  1983  by  Western  Illinois  University 


REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS 


Pichaske,  THE  JUBILEE  DIARY 

By  Dennis  Q.  Mclnerny  92 

Hallwas,  THE  POEMS  OF  H.:  THE  LOST  POET  OF 
LINCOLN'S  SPRINGFIELD 
BY  Dennis  Camp  94 

Hansen,  MORMONISM  AND  THE  AMERICAN 
EXPERIENCE 
By  Myron  J.  Fogde  96 

Anderson,  QUAD  CITIES:  JOINED  BY  A  RIVER 

By  Donald  W.  Griffin  97 


JOSEPH  SMITH  in  AND  THE 
MORMON  SUCCESSION  CRISIS, 

1844-1846 


Roger  Launius 


On  the  late  afternoon  of  June  27,  1844,  a  mob  stormed  the  little 
jail  at  Carthage,  Illinois,  and  murdered  Joseph  Smith,  Jr.,  and  his 
brother,  Hyrum.  Smith  had  been  a  popular,  although  controversial, 
religious  leader  in  Illinois  during  the  1840s.  As  translator  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon,  founder  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter- 
day  Saints,  and  holy  prophet  of  the  "Most  High  God,"  Smith  had 
won  both  friends  and  enemies  during  his  lifetime.  On  that  day,  while 
he  was  away  from  most  of  his  friends,  his  enemies  killed  him.  They 
believed  that  his  death  would  end  the  Mormon  religion,  but  instead 
it  made  him  a  martyr  to  the  cause  and  inspired  his  followers  to  even 
greater  conviction.' 

When  Smith's  followers  at  the  Mormon  stronghold  of  Nauvoo 
heard  about  the  death  of  their  leader,  they  began  to  ask  questions 
about  the  future  of  their  church.  The  most  important  concern  for 
those  Saints  was  who  would  be  his  successor  as  president  of  the 
movement.  Intertwined  with  that  question  was  another:  what  would 
be  the  policies  of  the  church  under  the  new  leader?  The  answers 
were  varied.  Some  followers  apparently  circulated  the  belief  that 
the  Prophet  would  arise.  Christlike,  on  the  third  day  after  his 
murder,  descend  from  heaven,  "attended  by  a  celestial  army,  cours- 
ing the  air  on  a  great  horse,"  and  lead  the  sect  himself.^ 

Eschewing  such  a  rapturous  vision,  however,  the  vast  majority 
of  the  membership  recognized  the  necessity  of  choosing  another 
leader.  They  wanted  someone  who  was  capable,  whom  they  could 
trust,  and  whom  Joseph  Smith  would  have  approved  of  as  his  suc- 
cessor. Unfortunately,  a  number  of  candidates  were  available,  for 
Smith  had  not  established  a  firm  policy  regarding  presidential  suc- 
cession in  the  event  of  his  death.  Church  doctrine.  Smith's  public 
and  private  statements,  official  church  correspondence  and  records. 


6  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

and  common  sense  provided  at  least  eight  different  methodologies 
for  succession,  each  pointing  to  a  different  successor  and  each 
equally  valid. ^ 

One  of  the  means  of  succession  developed  by  Smith,  and  even- 
tually adopted  by  the  second  most  important  sect  claiming  the 
legacy  of  the  Mormon  Prophet,  the  Reorganized  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  Latter  Day  Saints,  called  for  the  ordination  of  his  oldest 
son,  Joseph  Smith  III,  to  the  presidency.  There  is  good  indication 
that  Smith  wanted  his  oldest  son  to  succeed  him,  for  the  young 
boy's  future  as  a  leader  of  the  church  was  supposedly  hinted  at  as 
early  as  1836,  when  he  was  only  three.  At  that  time  his  grandfather 
had  pronounced  a  special  prayer  over  him,  reminiscent  of  that  given 
by  Jacob  to  his  youngest  son,  Joseph,  in  the  Old  Testament.  In  the 
blessing  Joseph's  grandfather  said,  "you  shall  have  power  to  carry 
out  all  that  your  Father  shall  leave  undone  when  you  become  of 
age.""  In  1838,  when  five-year-old  Joseph  visited  his  father,  who  had 
been  incarcerated  in  the  jail  at  Liberty,  Missouri,  the  Prophet  had 
supposedly  placed  his  hands  on  his  head  and  said,  "You  are  my 
successor  when  I  depart."^ 

Thereafter,  Smith  had  supposedly  made  several  statements  in- 
dicating that  he  wished  his  son  to  succeed  him.  In  1841  the  prophet 
revealed  that  the  Lord  had  told  him:  "In  thee,  and  in  thy  seed,  shall 
the  kindreds  of  the  earth  be  blessed."^  Other  hints  were  apparently 
dropped  that  young  Smith  was  to  be  his  father's  successor  in 
conversations  with  the  Mormon  leader.^  This  conception  became 
relatively  well  known  throughout  the  Mormon  community  and  was 
apparently  common  knowledge  to  non-Mormons  around  Nauvoo.  A 
history  of  Illinois,  published  in  New  York  in  early  1844  and  written  in 
1843  or  earlier,  reflected  this  widespread  idea  about  succession. 
The  author  announced  that  the  Mormon  "Prophet,  it  is  said,  has  left 
a  will  or  revelation,  appointing  a  successor;  and,  among  other  things, 
it  is  stated  that  his  son,  a  lad  of  twelve  years,  is  named  as  his 
successor."^ 

In  the  spring  of  1981  a  collector  of  Mormon  manuscripts,  Mark 
W.  Hofman,  discovered  a  remarkable  document  signed  by  Smith, 
containing  the  text  of  a  long,  fatherly  blessing  of  Joseph  III.  It  was 
dated  January  17,  1844,  just  a  few  months  before  the  Prophet's 
death,  and  provided  substantial  documentation  for  the  succession 
of  the  younger  Smith  to  the  prophetic  office.  It  read: 


Blessed  of  the  Lord  is  my  son  Joseph,  who  is  called  the  third, 
—  for  the  Lord  knows  the  integrity  of  his  heart,  and  loved  him, 
because  of  this  faith,  and  righteous  desires.  And,  for  this  cause, 
has  the  Lord  raised  him  up;  —  that  the  promises  made  to  the  fathers 
might  be  fulfilled,  even  that  the  anointing  of  the  progenitor  shall 


THE  MORMON  SUCCESSION  CRISIS,  1844-1846 


Joseph  Smith 
Archives. 


as  a  youth  in  1846.  Courtesy  of  Reorganized  Church  Library 


WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 


be  upon  the  head  of  the  son,  and  his  seed  after  hinn,  for  generation 
to  generation.  For  he  shall  be  my  successor  to  the  Presidency  of 
the  High  Priesthood:  a  Seer,  and  a  Revelator,  and  a  Prophet,  unto 
the  church;  which  appointment  belongeth  to  him  by  blessing,  and 
also  by  right. 

Verily,  thus  saith  the  Lord;  if  he  abides  in  me  his  days  shall  be 
lengthened  upon  the  earth,  but,  if  he  abides  not  in  me,  I,  the  Lord, 
will  receive  him  in  an  instant,  unto  myself. 

When  he  is  grown,  he  shall  be  a  strength  to  his  brethren,  and 
a  comfort  to  his  mother.  Angels  shall  minister  to  him,  and  he  shall 
be  wafted  as  on  eagle's  wings,  and  be  as  wise  as  serpents,  even  a 
multiplicity  of  blessings  shall  be  his.  Amen.' 


In  spite  of  the  evidence  indicating  that  the  Prophet  wished  his 
son  to  succeed  him,  when  Smith  died  suddenly  in  June  of  1844, 
Joseph  Smith  III  did  not  assume  leadership  of  the  Mormon  movement. 
For  a  time  the  church  seemed  to  be  in  chaos,  with  neither  prophet  nor 
direction,  and  numerous  claimants  arose  advancing  doctrinal,  pro- 
cedural, and  rational  arguments  in  support  of  their  own  succession. 
While  most  of  the  Saints  in  Nauvoo,  and  a  significant  minority  of  the 
membership  scattered  outside  that  area,  eventually  accepted  the 
leadership  of  Brigham  Young,  there  was  no  real  consensus  about 
the  presidency,  and  several  Mormon  factions  arose,  each  with  dif- 
ferent leaders  professing  that  they  alone  had  the  right  to  succeed 
the  Prophet.  Most  of  those  groups  were  shortlived,  and  all  but  a  few 
were  weak  from  the  very  beginning.  Some,  however,  have  maintained 
a  membership  down  to  the  present.  The  succession  crisis  of  1844-1846 
had  a  tremendous  impact  on  the  Smith  family  and  on  Joseph  Smith 
III  in  particular.  It  helped  significantly  in  shaping  the  response  the 
younger  Smith  made  to  his  father's  religion  and  in  his  decision  to 
become  the  President  of  the  Reorganized  Church  in  1860. 

Two  central  factors  seem  to  have  played  a  large  role  in  producing 
the  succession  struggle.  The  first  was  the  general  ambiguity  of  the 
church's  law  regarding  succession.  In  spite  of  the  evidence  for  lineal 
succession  already  discussed,  several  means  existed  that  could 
justifiably  serve  as  routes  to  the  ordination  of  a  new  president.  As  in 
all  ecclesiastical  matters,  those  various  methods  of  succession  had 
to  be  defined  and  interpreted  by  church  officials,  but  the  supreme 
interpreter  was  dead  and  no  one  could  readily  take  his  place.  The 
second  factor  was  that  young  Smith  was  not  yet  twelve  years  old  in 
1844,  and  the  church  could  not  accept  such  a  young  boy  for  the 
church's  president.  Many  reasoned,  probably  correctly,  that  the 
movement  needed  strong,  able  leadership  rather  than  what  would 
be  at  best  a  weak  regency. 

Brigham  Young,  the  man  who  assumed  the  leadership  of  the  ma- 
jority of  the  Mormon  movement,  provided  the  organization  with  just 
such  a  strong  and  able  government.  He  proposed  that  the  church 
accept  a  "caretaker"  administration  that  would  oversee  the  pro- 


THE  MORMON  SUCCESSION  CRISIS,  1844-1846  9 

cedural  and  governmental  concerns  of  the  movement.  Young  did 
not  claim  to  be  Joseph  Smith,  Jr.'s  successor,  and  this  may  have 
been  a  deciding  factor  in  his  acceptance  by  the  Saints  in  Nauvoo 
during  a  special  conference  held  there  on  August  8,  1844.  Young 
was  a  remarkable  man.  Solidly  built,  with  a  broad  face  and  long 
brown  hair,  he  had  a  powerful  magnetism  that  exerted  pressure  on 
almost  everybody  he  met.  Able,  ambitious,  and  sometimes  arrogant. 
Young  was  capable  as  any  man  in  the  church.  As  such  he  could  be 
an  opponent  of  tremendous  resourcefulness.^" 

Immediately  after  learning  of  the  prophet's  death,  Young  returned 
to  Nauvoo  to  prepare  for  the  future,  arriving  there  on  August  6  just 
before  the  beginning  of  the  special  church  conference.  When  the 
conference  met.  Young  was  present  to  guide  the  church  along  the 
path  that  he  believed  most  practical.  His  motives  were,  apparently, 
pure  in  this  regard.  He  revealed  his  thoughts  in  his  diary: 


this  day  is  long  to  be  remembered  by  me,  it  is  the  first  time  I  have 
met  with  the  Church  at  Nauvoo  since  Bro  Joseph  and  Hyrum  v\/as 
l<ild  —  and  the  occasion  on  which  the  Church  was  caule  was 
somewhat  painful  to  me,  .  .  .  now  Joseph  is  gon  it  seed  [seemed] 
as  though  manny  wanted  to  draw  off  a  party  and  be  leaders,  but 
this  cannot  be,  the  church  must  be  one  or  they  are  not  the  Lords.'' 


In  order  to  avoid  the  splintering  process  that  Young  was  so  worried 
about,  he  advocated  that  he,  as  head  of  the  Quorum  of  Twelve 
Apostles,  should  take  charge  of  the  affairs  of  the  church  for  the 
present.'^ 

The  Apostle  made  an  impressive  speech  about  the  nature  of  the 
church  and  about  the  desires  of  some  to  split  it  asunder.  When  he 
had  finished,  he  put  the  question  of  leadership  over  the  church  to 
the  body  assembled.  He  asked,  simply,  if  the  church  would  support 
the  Twelve  in  their  calling,  "and  the  vote  was  unanimous,  no  hand 
being  raised  in  the  negative. "^^ 

It  was  natural  that  the  Nauvoo  Saints,  in  view  of  the  problems 
associated  with  the  succession,  should  support  the  Twelve  in  the 
crisis.  First,  it  had  long  been  a  routine  practice  at  every  conference 
to  sustain  the  various  church  officials  in  their  posts.  The  vote  asked 
for  by  Young  called  for  nothing  more  than  this.  Second,  many  of  the 
individuals  who  wished  to  ascend  to  the  presidency  were  distrusted 
by  the  church  members  for  various  reasons.  Third,  over  4,000 
members  of  the  Nauvoo  church  population  were  immigrants  from 
Great  Britain.  The  British  mission  had  been  under  the  direction  of 
the  Twelve  since  its  inception  in  1837,  and  at  one  time  or  another 
virtually  all  of  the  Apostles  had  served  there.  Many  of  those  immi- 
grants had  been  converted  to  Mormonism  by  a  member  of  the  Twelve, 
and  they  certainly  trusted  the  Quorum.  It  was  natural  that  the 


WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 


Brigham  Young  during  the  1840's.  Courtesy  of  Church  Archives,  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints. 


THE  MORMON  SUCCESSION  CRISIS.  1844-1846  11 

English  converts  in  Nauvoo  would  support  men  that  they  knew  and 
trusted.  That  block  of  votes,  moreover,  was  probably  large  enough 
to  insure  the  Twelve's  victory/" 

Young,  although  not  technically  president  of  the  church  after 
this  meeting,  did  not  wait  long  before  exercising  the  authority 
granted  him  by  the  conference.  On  the  day  after  the  meeting  he  — 
acting  as  head  of  the  Apostles  —  issued  a  series  of  executive 
orders  firmly  placing  the  administrative  machinery  of  the  church  in 
his  hands. '^  He  managed  Nauvoo  and  church  business  very  skillfully, 
and  most  Nauvoo  residents  were  pleased  with  how  he  handled  the 
situation.  Affairs  seemed  to  be  returning  to  normal,  and  "normalcy" 
was  a  welcome  change  from  the  confusion  of  the  summer.  There 
was,  however,  the  very  large  gap  of  prophetic  leadership  that  Young 
did  not  try  to  fill.  Young  did  not  even  address  the  question  of  suc- 
cession in  the  presidency  at  that  time.  He  was  content  to  manage  a 
caretaker  government  and  to  let  the  question  of  future  prophetic 
guidance  rest  for  the  time  being. '^ 

It  may  well  have  been  that  Brigham  Young  would  have  given  up 
his  control  over  the  church  after  the  crisis  in  favor  of  Joseph  Smith 
III.  Young  acted  very  coyly  regarding  the  promises  and  blessings 
that  had  been  made  to  young  Smith  by  his  father.  Although  he  never 
clearly  stated  his  policy  regarding  young  Joseph's  future  presidency, 
his  actions  in  Nauvoo  immediately  after  the  prophet's  death  sug- 
gest that  he  intended  to  step  down  when  the  lad  came  of  age  and 
asserted  his  claim  to  the  presidency.'^  When  visited  by  Lucy  Mack 
Smith,  the  boy's  grandmother,  in  early  1845,  for  instance,  Brigham 
Young  indicated  that  he  had  no  designs  on  the  prophetic  office.  He 
claimed  that  the  church  was  in  a  time  of  crisis,  and  that  enemies 
wanted  to  kill  the  prophet's  successor.  He  explained  that  his  goals 
were  to  maintain  the  movement's  unity  and  to  shield  the  successor 
until  the  troubles  had  been  solved.  "If  it  is  known  that  he  is  the 
rightful  successor  of  his  father,  the  enemy  of  the  Priesthood  will 
seek  his  life,"  Young  told  the  old  woman.  Pragmatically,  he  added, 
"he  is  too  young  to  lead  this  people  now,  but  when  he  arrives  at  a 
mature  age  he  shall  have  his  place.  No  one  shall  rob  him  of  it."'^ 

There  is  ample  reason  to  believe  that  Brigham  Young  would 
have  honored  his  statement  to  Lucy  Mack  Smith  during  the  coming 
years,  had  it  not  been  for  a  number  of  circumstances  that  developed 
in  Nauvoo  between  Young  and  the  Smith  family.  Each  of  those  epi- 
sodes brought  out  distrust  and  dislike  in  the  two  principal  actors, 
Emma  Smith  and  Brigham  Young,  but  more  importantly,  young 
Joseph  Ill's  behavior  was  affected  by  the  conflicts. 

The  most  important  difficulty  between  Emma  Smith  and  Brigham 
Young  arose  over  the  open  and  widespread  practice  of  plural  mar- 
riage in  the  city  during  1845  and  1846,  and  the  linking  of  its  begin- 


12  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

nings  to  Joseph  Smith,  Jr.  It  was  undoubtedly  the  most  important 
factor  affecting  Emma  Smith's  ill-will  toward  the  church  and  Brigham 
Young,  and  it  led  to  her  conviction  that  the  head  of  the  Twelve  was 
leading  the  movement  into  total  apostacy.  She  believed  the  doc- 
trine an  evil  concept,  and  refused  to  accept  any  connection  of  the 
practice  with  either  the  Smith  family  or  her  dead  husband.  As  far  as 
she  was  concerned,  it  was  based  solely  upon  the  lust  of  Young  and 
his  retainers,  and  she  taught  her  children  that  their  father  had  never 
promulgated  such  a  concept.'^ 

Young  claimed,  on  the  other  hand,  that  Joseph  Smith,  Jr.  had 
begun  teaching  the  doctrine  as  early  as  1831,  and  had  become  its 
foremost  practitioner."  The  Prophet  had  tried  to  make  his  wife 
understand  the  religious  significance  of  the  doctrine,  Young 
asserted,  but  she  was  naturally  resistant.  She  had  periods  when  she 
would  violently  oppose  the  practice,  and  just  as  quickly  turn  about 
and  accept  it,  even  standing  as  a  witness  in  some  of  her  husband's 
polygamous  wedding  ceremonies. ^^  Whatever  the  truth,  Emma 
adamantly  denied  her  husband's  involvement  in  polygamy,  and  proved 
a  very  difficult  opponent  of  Young's  attempts  to  expand  the  practice 
between  1844  and  1846." 

Emma  Smith  found  herself  involved  in  the  controversy  of  plural 
marriage  in  more  ways  than  just  as  a  wife  who  denied  her  late  hus- 
band's participation  in  it.  Brigham  Young,  who  championed  the  doc- 
trine, had  taken  it  upon  himself  to  marry  over  twenty  Nauvoo  women 
between  the  prophet's  martyrdom  and  early  1846.  Several  of  them 
had  supposedly  been  plural  wives  of  Joseph  Smith."  As  he  con- 
solidated his  control  over  the  Mormon  kingdom.  Young  seemed  to 
set  his  romantic  sights  on  Emma  Smith  as  well,  offering  her  some- 
thing akin  to  queenly  status  in  the  church  if  she  would  become  his 
plural  wife.  She  refused  to  have  anything  to  do  with  Young,  how- 
ever, and  a  very  antagonistic  relationship  between  the  two  devel- 
oped rapidly.  Her  refusal  to  marry  him  was  a  real  blow  to  his  ego,  for 
which  he  never  forgave  her,  and  he  took  every  opportunity  to  attack 
her  character  thereafter.  On  one  occasion  Young  remarked  to  his 
followers,  "Joseph  used  to  say  that  he  would  have  her  in  the  here- 
after, if  he  had  to  go  to  hell  for  her,  and  he  will  have  to  go  to  hell  for 
her  as  sure  as  he  ever  got  her.''^" 

After  Emma  Smith  spurned  Brigham  Young,  difficulties  between 
the  Smith  family  and  the  church  administration  seemed  to  increase 
in  both  number  and  severity.  The  problem  affected  young  Joseph 
Smith  greatly,  and  caused  him  to  develop  a  very  uncomplimentary 
view  of  Young.  In  writing  of  this  period  in  his  memoirs  many  years 
later,  Joseph  III  labelled  the  section  "Oppression."  He  claimed  that 
in  1844  and  1845  Brigham  Young  became  a  ruthless  man  who  "had 
assumed  control  of  church  affairs,  and  seemed  inclined  to  dominate 


THE  MORMON  SUCCESSION  CRISIS,  1844-1846  13 

and  make  everything  and  everybody  bend  to  his  will."  He  added, 
"this  did  not  suit  my  mother;  and  besides  she  could  not  fellowship 
[sic]  some  other  things  that  were  occurring."  As  a  result  a  contest 
developed  between  Emma  Smith  and  Brigham  Young,  each  seeking 
to  gain  the  advantage  over  the  other.  The  two  jousted  over  seemingly 
little  things,  each  doling  out  to  the  other  what  young  Joseph  called  a 
"good  many  petty  annoyances  and  also  some  things  that  were 
much  more  serious.""  Brigham  Young,  however,  dealing  from  his 
position  of  authority,  gave  much  the  worse  to  the  Smith  family. 

One  conflict  between  the  two,  in  addition  to  the  plural  marriage 
controversy,  was  the  settlement  of  Joseph  Smith,  Jr.'s  estate.  Smith 
had  died  intestate,  presenting  the  Hancock  County,  Illinois  Probate 
Court  with  a  complex  legal  problem.  His  personal  property  was  in- 
extricably tied  up  with  the  property  of  the  church,  and  Young 
thought  that  church  officials  should,  therefore,  handle  the  estate. 
Emma,  on  the  other  hand,  was  concerned  about  providing  for  her 
five  children,  and  did  not  want  to  lose  control  of  any  property  for  an 
instant,  especially  since  the  church  made  no  promises  about  pro- 
viding for  the  family's  welfare.  She,  therefore,  treated  all  of  it  as  her 
husband's  personal  property.  Three  weeks  after  the  prophet's  murder, 
Emma  went  to  Carthage  and  obtained  appointment  as  administrator 
of  Joseph's  estate  and  legal  guardian  of  their  children."  It  infur- 
iated Young,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  occurred  before  the  August  8 
conference,  that  Emma  had  gone  ahead  without  his  approval,  and 
especially  that  she  intended  to  handle  the  estate  herself.  He  did  all 
in  his  power  to  have  the  order  rescinded,  but  failed  to  do  so  during 
the  summer  of  1844. 

He  finally  succeeded  on  September  19, 1844,  when  the  presiding 
judge  appointed  a  prominent  Mormon,  Joseph  W.  Coolidge,  as  ad- 
ministrator of  the  Prophet's  estate. ^^  Emma  protested,  but  there 
was  little  she  could  do,  for  she  had  failed  to  raise  a  bond  demanded 
by  the  court,  and  Young  persuaded  the  judge  to  appoint  Coolidge  in 
her  place."  Coolidge  served  as  administrator  for  four  years,  obtain- 
ing few  assets  tor  the  family  while  selling  off  approximately  $1,000 
worth  of  Smith  property  to  pay  the  funeral  expense  and  administra- 
tive costs."  Young  Smith  bitterly  remembered  that  Coolidge's 
administration  had  been  particularly  cruel  for  the  family.  He  allowed 
them,  for  instance,  to  retain  only  their  household  goods,  two  horses, 
two  cows,  Emma's  spinning  wheels,  and  $124  per  year  in  income 
from  rental  property. 

Joseph  III  believed  that  Young  forced  Coolidge  to  impose  this 
exceptionally  harsh  settlement  in  order  to  make  Emma  accept  his 
authority.  He  soon  "formed  the  impression  that  while  Joseph 
Coolidge  was,  under  ordinary  circumstances,  an  honest  man,  in  this 
matter  he  was  under  the  domination  of  others."  He  concluded:  "Our 


WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 


Emma  Smith,  from  a  portrait  c.  1842.  Original  in  The  Auditorium,  Reorganized 
Church  headquarters. 


THE  MORMON  SUCCESSION  CRISIS,  1844-1846  15 

family  was  subject  gradually  to  a  series  of  injustices  at  his  hands 
and  disagreeable  experiences  which  became  almost  un-bearable. 
Whether  or  not  Coolidge  lent  himself  willingly  to  the  efforts  made 
by  others  to  distress  and  annoy  mother  and  her  family,  I  do  not 
know,  but  conditions,  as  they  developed,  seem  to  warrent  that  con- 
clusion."^" To  make  the  whole  unseemly  affair  worse,  Coolidge  was 
a  very  poor  administrator  who  left  the  state  without  completing  the 
duties  assigned  him  by  the  court,  taking  with  him  some  of  the 
estate's  money. ^'  Had  not  Joseph  and  Emma  Smith  deeded  various 
pieces  of  Nauvoo  property  to  their  minor  children  during  bankruptcy 
proceedings  in  1842,  the  Smiths  would  have  ended  up  with  much 
less  than  they  actually  received  after  the  Coolidge  administration." 

As  part  of  the  controversy  over  the  estate,  Emma  Smith  angered 
Brigham  Young  over  the  matter  of  the  control  of  her  husband's 
papers.  Smith  had  a  large  collection  of  papers  at  the  time  of  his 
death,  but  they  were  scattered  about  Nauvoo  in  various  offices  and 
church  officials'  homes.  Emma  had  gathered  up  some  of  them 
before  Young  returned  to  Nauvoo.  After  his  arrival  in  August,  he 
learned  of  her  actions  and  wanted  the  papers  back,  claiming  they 
were  church  property.  When  Young's  men  came  to  her  home  to  ask 
for  them,  she  told  them  she  would  never  give  them  up.  Young  was 
not  too  concerned  about  most  of  the  papers  which  Emma  had,  since 
the  items  of  greatest  importance  for  the  church  —  the  bulk  of  his  of- 
ficial correspondence,  his  autobiography,  the  official  record  and 
minute  books,  and  ledgers  of  church  business  transactions  —  were 
still  in  the  hands  of  church  members  loyal  to  Young,  The  document 
that  Young  particularly  wanted  to  obtain,  however,  was  a  manuscript 
of  the  Bible,  known  to  the  Saints  as  the  "New  Translation,"  which 
was  an  "inspired  revision"  of  the  King  James  version  that  had  been 
prepared  by  Joseph  Smith  and  his  scribes."  Emma  refused  to  let 
the  church  take  the  manuscript  because,  as  she  later  explained  to 
her  son,  "she  felt  the  grave  responsibility  of  safely  keeping  it  until 
such  time  as  the  Lord  would  permit  or  direct  its  publication."^" 

To  assure  the  "New  Translation's"  safety,  Emma  hid  it  in  a  trunk 
for  which  she  had  a  false  bottom  built."  Only  one  person  outside 
the  Smith  family  was  allowed  to  see  that  document  between  1844 
and  1846,  for  fear  that  Young  would  somehow  confiscate  the  manu- 
script. Emma  did  permit  John  M.  Bernhisel,  her  good  friend  for 
many  years,  to  borrow  and  copy  the  manuscript,  but  even  with  him 
she  was  cautious."  She  distrusted  Brigham  Young  so  greatly  that 
she  always  maintained  her  guard.  She  made  a  telling  indictment  of 
Young  and  his  lieutenants  concerning  this  incident  in  1867.  "It  is 
true  that  every  L.D.S.  cannot  be  trusted  to  copy  them  [the  papers  of 
the  manuscript],  and  I  did  not  trust  many  of  them  with  the  reading  of 
them,"  she  wrote  to  her  son,  "and  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  if  I  had 


16  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

trusted  all  that  wished  that  privilege  you  would  not  have  them  in 
your  possession  now."" 

According  to  Joseph  III,  after  this  incident  the  conflicts  between 
Young  and  his  mother  increased  dramatically.  He  wrote  that  Young 
had  men  watch  the  Smith  home  and  spy  on  their  activities.  There  is 
evidence  to  indicate  that  Young  may  have  been  merely  providing  for 
the  family's  protection,  but  if  so,  the  Smiths  did  not  think  it  was  war- 
ranted. Joseph  III  later  wrote,  "in  1845  and  1846  no  person  was 
allowed  to  come  to  the  house  without  passing  a  cordon  of  police."^^ 
The  guards  reported  to  Young  all  comings  and  goings  in  the  neigh- 
borhood and  took  the  opportunity  to  observe  the  Smith's  visitors' 
subsequent  movements  in  the  city.  Smith  believed  the  guarding  of 
the  home  amounted  to  nothing  less  than  house  arrest  for  the  family. 

That  Young  did  not  intend  the  sentry  organization  as  purely  pro- 
tective was  demonstrated  in  an  incident  involving  young  Joseph 
Smith  and  Porter  Rockwell.  Rockwell,  the  rough,  loyal  follower  of 
the  Prophet,  had  been  a  longtime  friend  of  the  Smith  family.  After 
the  Prophet's  death  he  had  been  torn  by  the  loyalty  he  felt  for  the 
Smiths  and  the  inclination  to  cast  his  lot  with  Brigham  Young  and 
Twelve.  Young  soon  won  Rockwell's  allegiance,  and  he  became  a 
vocal  advocate  for  the  prerogatives  of  the  Apostles.  Even  so, 
Rockwell  was  not  exempt  from  surveillance  by  guards  when  he  tried 
to  maintain  his  relationship  with  the  Smith  family.  Young  Joseph 
reported  that  one  day  he  saw  this  old  friend  walking  down  the  street. 
He  ran  out  of  the  house,  jumped  his  picket  fence,  and  bounded  down 
the  road  to  talk  to  Rockwell.  They  spoke  for  a  couple  of  moments, 
but  Rockwell  seemed  somewhat  distant,  and  all  too  quickly  he 
pushed  Joseph  away.  As  he  did  so,  he  tenderly  told  him:  "You  had 
best  go  back.  I  am  glad  you  came  to  meet  me,  but  it  is  best  that  you 
are  not  seen  with  me.  It  can  do  me  no  good  and  it  may  bring  harm  to 
you."  That  fleeting  moment  always  remained  with  Smith.  It  influenced 
him  the  rest  of  his  life,  leading  him  to  reject  what  he  called  the 
"Mormon  Tyranny"  of  Brigham  Young.  "I  climbed  back  over  the 
fence,  to  wonder,  in  my  boyish  way,"  he  recalled,  "how  it  was  possi- 
ble for  men  to  be  so  wicked  and  cruel  to  good  men."" 

All  of  the  controversies  surrounding  the  succession  steeled  the 
Smith  family  to  greater  opposition  of  Young  and  his  organization. 
The  Smiths  saw  Young's  hand  in  several  other  incidents  as  well. 
Joseph  Smith  III  remembered  that  several  of  the  family's  friends 
began  to  be  attacked  by  ruffians  when  they  attempted  to  visit  their 
Nauvoo  home  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Young  had  stationed  "guards" 
to  handle  just  such  a  problem.  The  Smiths  concluded  that  the  at- 
tackers were  sanctioned  by  church  officials.  Otherwise,  would  not 
the  "guards"  have  intervened?  One  such  visitor  to  the  Smith  home 
was  assaulted  near  the  house  by  a  thug  armed  with  a  bowie  knife. 


THE  MORMON  SUCCESSION  CRISIS,  1844-1846  17 

He  fought  the  attacker  off  with  a  huge,  heavy  ebony  cane/° 

Others  were  neither  so  well  armed  nor  so  physically  able  to  de- 
fend themselves.  Austin  Cowles,  a  former  member  of  the  Nauvoo 
High  Council,  a  high-ranking  religious  body,  visited  the  city  in  1845 
only  to  be  roughly  treated  by  men  stationed  near  the  Smith  home. 
According  to  young  Joseph,  youths  known  as  the  Nauvoo  "Whistling 
and  Whittling  Brigade"  had  been  organized  to  intimidate  strangers 
into  making  a  hasty  departure  from  town.  These  youths  now  followed 
Cowles  about  "urging  him  with  wicked  knives,  saying  nothing  to 
him,  except  to  tell  him  to  move  on  when  he  stopped  to  speak  to  any- 
one." Smith  wrote  that  he  tried  to  speak  to  him,  but  "the  escort 
struck  up  their  din  of  whistling  and  whittling,  hustling  the  poor  men 
with  the  ends  of  broken  boards  and  the  sticks  they  were  whittling.""' 
By  the  summer  of  1845  Brigham  Young,  while  in  control  of  the 
church  bureaucracy  at  Nauvoo  and  firmly  administering  the  pro- 
grams of  the  movement,  still  had  not  gained  the  allegiance  of  the 
Smith  family.  Almost  every  day  he  and  Emma  Smith  had  some  sort 
of  disagreement.  The  breach  between  the  family  and  the  Young- 
controlled  sect  widened.  It  was  most  exasperating  for  Young  to 
have  such  a  powerful  holdout  to  his  authority.  It  was  a  figurative 
slap  in  the  face  that  the  Prophet's  widow  would  not  accept  his  rule. 
Emma  Smith  of  all  people,  he  reasoned,  should  have  remained  true 
to  the  Mormon  faith,  yet  she  rejected  the  church  as  it  existed  under 
Young. 

Apparently,  during  the  summer  of  1845  some  of  Young's  followers 
decided  to  rid  Nauvoo  of  the  Smith  family.  They  sent  Emma  an  ulti- 
matum demanding  that  she  pack  up  and  leave  town  within  three 
days  or  her  house  "would  be  burned  over  her  head."  Emma  flatly 
refused  to  be  intimidated  and  went  about  her  business  as  if  nothing 
had  happened.  On  the  third  day  after  the  threat,  however,  she  took 
precautions.  Emma  prepared  pallets  on  the  floor  near  the  door  so 
that  her  children  could  easily  escape  should  fire  break  out,  but  she 
slept  in  her  second  story  bedroom  in  a  forthright  defiance  of  the 
threat.  The  children,  aware  of  the  threat,  were  a  bit  fearful,  but  said 
their  prayers  and  lay  down  to  sleep.  Joseph  later  remembered  the 
event:  "We  lay  down  in  the  quietness  and  finally  went  to  sleep.  In 
the  morning  the  house  was  found  to  be  still  over  our  heads  and  in- 
tact, but  on  the  north  side  were  discovered  the  remains  of  some  fire 
material  piled  against  the  wall.  A  fire  had  been  started  and  a  portion 
of  the  siding  was  scorched,  but  it  had  not  caught  sufficiently  to  set 
the  house  on  fire;  hence  we  escaped.""^  Joseph  thought  at  the  time 
that  the  family  had  been  very  lucky.  Emma,  however,  had  been 
reasonably  sure  that  the  house  would  not  burn.  Years  later  she  ex- 
plained why.  "I  have  often  thought,"  she  wrote  to  Joseph  Smith  III  in 
1867,  "the  reason  that  our  house  did  not  burn  down  when  it  was  so 
often  on  fire  was  because  of  them  [the  manuscript  papers  of  the 


WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 


Joseph  Smith  III  c.  1910.  Courtesy  of  Reorganized  Church  Library  Archives. 


THE  MORMON  SUCCESSION  CRISIS,  1844-1846  19 

"New  Translation"  of  the  Bible  hidden  in  the  house],  and  I  still  feel 
there  is  a  sacredness  attached  to  them.""^ 

The  battle  waged  between  Emma  Smith  and  Brigham  Young 
between  1844  and  1846  affected  Joseph  Smith  III  deeply.  He  had  an 
interest  in  its  outcome,  and  naturally  sided  with  his  mother  at  every 
point.  As  a  result,  he  developed  an  abiding  hatred  of  all  that  Young 
stood  for.  He  distrusted  the  man,  and  believed  that  he  had  duped 
the  thousands  of  Latter  Day  Saints  who  had  followed  him  to  the 
Great  Basin.  Young  Smith  recognized  that  he  could  not  have  led  the 
church  in  1844.  He  was  too  young.  But  he  believed  that  Young,  who 
may  have  acted  rightly  at  first,  went  far  beyond  his  initial  grant  of 
authority  in  charting  the  course  of  the  church  along  lines  that  the 
Smith  family  disapproved.  Joseph  adopted  his  mother's  view  of 
plural  marriage,  fighting  his  entire  life  to  prove,  although  without 
much  success,  that  his  father  had  never  been  involved  in  the  practice. 
He  repeatedly  announced,  as  he  did  in  a  letter  in  1895,  that  "Father 
had  no  wife  but  my  mother,  Emma  Hale,  to  the  knowledge  of  either 
my  mother  or  myself,  and  I  was  twelve  years  old,  nearly,  when  he 
was  killed.'""'  Brigham  Young,  therefore,  was  the  great  villain,  accord- 
ing to  Smith.  He  had  instituted  polygamy,  and  had  tried  to  place  the 
burden  of  its  origination  on  the  Prophet.  As  a  result,  Joseph  could 
never  take  part  in  such  a  Mormon  movement  as  Young  led.  He  could 
not  accept  that  variety  of  Mormonism,  and  consequently  forsook 
his  call  as  the  successor,  eventually  accepting  leadership  of  a  Mor- 
mon group  better  suited  to  his  peculiar  religious  conceptions. 

Examples  of  how  the  stress  of  his  family's  life  in  Nauvoo  af- 
fected young  Joseph  are  shown  in  two  documents  which  he  wrote 
in  January  and  February  of  1845.  The  first,  entitled  "Rules  of 
Behavior  for  Youth,"  contained  not  only  the  standard  etiquette  of 
the  day,  but  also  other  rules  which  seem  to  reflect  his  unhappy 
Nauvoo  experience: 


Speak  not  when  you  should  hold  your  piece.  Many  questions, 
remarks  and  sarcasms  may  be  better  answered  by  silence  than  by 
words  —  by  silent  contempt.  Turn  not  your  back  to  others. .  . . 
Show  not  yourself  glad  at  the  misfortune  of  another,  though  it  be 
your  enemy. ...  Be  not  hasty  to  believe  flying  reports  to  the 
disparagement  of  any  one.  Associate  with  men  of  Good  character 
and  remember  it  is  better  to  be  alone  than  in  bad  company. 


The  most  important  rule  that  impressed  young  Joseph  at  that  time, 
and  which  he  tried  to  observe  throughout  the  rest  of  his  life,  may 
also  have  been  prompted  by  the  difficulties  between  his  family  and 
the  church  hierarchy:  "Never  attempt  anything  but  what  you  can  do 
openly,  free  from  fear  of  consequences.""^ 


20  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

The  second  document  was  an  account  of  "A  Thrilling  Dream."  In 
that  dream  the  adolescent  Smith,  armed  with  pistols  and  a  saber, 
was  engaged  in  admiring  a  magnificent  garden.  While  captivated  by 
the  garden's  size  and  beauty,  he  heard  a  scream  and  rushed  toward 
the  sound,  finding  a  "savage  monster"  assaulting  a  beautiful  lady. 
She  was  clad  in  a  white,  flowing  robe,  and  was  obviously  very  pure. 
Smith  defended  her,  and,  drawing  his  saber,  "laid  him  dead  with  a 
single  blow."  Other  enemies  soon  appeared  to  attack  the  lady,  but 
Smith  fought  them  off.  He  was  in  the  midst  of  one  last,  desperate 
struggle  with  a  particularly  powerful  enemy  when  he  suddenly  awoke 
in  a  terrified  state.  Although  one  can  only  surmise  what  prompted 
this  dream.  Smith's  subconscious  was  obviously  reacting  to  the 
harsh  realities  of  life  in  Nauvoo.  It  is  tempting  to  conclude  that  he 
was  defending  his  mother  against  her  enemies,  the  last  of  whom 
was  particularly  powerful  and  resourceful,  as  he  had  been  unable  to 
do  in  reality.'^ 

With  all  of  the  conflicts  of  the  period  between  1844  and  1846, 
young  Joseph  Smith  III  could  never  have  gone  any  direction  other 
than  away  from  the  Brigham  Young-controlled,  Utah-based  Mormon 
movement.  As  a  result  of  the  seeds  that  were  planted  in  Nauvoo  — 
the  seeds  of  disgust  for  plural  marriage,  autocracy,  and  ruthless- 
ness  as  well  as  those  favoring  moderate  Mormon  beliefs  like  those 
held  by  his  mother  —  Joseph  Smith  III  came  to  accept  leadership  in 
the  Reorganized  Church  in  1860.  That  movement  epitomized  the  pro- 
Smith  side  of  the  struggle  that  took  place  in  Nauvoo  in  its  doctrine, 
policy,  organization,  and  leadership.  For  the  future  development  of 
the  Missouri  branch  of  Mormonism,  then,  and  especially  for  the  role  to 
be  played  by  Joseph  Smith  III,  1844  to  1846  were  the  formative  years, 
the  years  in  which  crucial  decisions  and  lifelong  commitments 
were  made. 


NOTES 

'The  literature  of  the  martyrdom  is  extensive.  See  the  official  account  in  Book  of 
Doctrine  and  Covenants  (Independence,  Missouri:  Herald  Publishing  House,  1970), 
Section  113;  as  well  as  William  M.  Daniels,  "HanaWye,"  Journal  of  History,  11  (October, 
1919),  405-07,  and  Dallin  H.  Oaks  and  Marvin  8.  Hill,  Carthage  Conspiracy:  The  Trail  of 
the  Accused  Assassins  of  Joseph  Smith  (Urbana:  Univ.  of  Illinois  Press,  1975),  pp.  6-29. 

^Thomas  Ford,  History  of  Illinois  from  Its  Commencement  as  a  State  in  1818  to 
1848  (Chicago:  C.S.  Griggs  and  Co.,  1854),  p.  357. 

'See  the  astute  study  of  D.  Michael  Quinn,  "The  Mormon  Succession  Crisis  of 
1844,"  Brigham  Young  University  Studies,  16  (Winter,  1976),  187-233. 

"Joseph  Smith,  Sr.,  Blessing  of  Joseph  Smith  III,  remembered  by  Lucy  Mack 
Smith,  Summer,  1845  (Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints  Historical  Depart- 
ment, Salt  Lake  City,  Utah);  Saints'  Herald,  51  (8  June  1904),  526,  56  (29  July  1909), 
702. 


THE  MORMON  SUCCESSION  CRISIS,  1844-1846  21 

'Joseph  Smith  III,  "The  Memoirs  of  President  Joseph  Smith  (1832-1914),"  ibid., 
81  (6  November  1934),  1414;  Joseph  Smith  III,  "Pleasant  Chat,"  True  Latter  Day 
Saints'  tierald,  14  (October,  1868),  105;  Lyman  Wight  to  Editor,  Nortfiern  Islander,  July, 
1855,  Lyman  Wight  Letterbook  (Reorganized  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter  Day 
Saints  Library-Archives,  Independence,  Missouri). 

^Doctrine  and  Covenants,  Section  107,  item  18c. 

'D.  Michael  Quinn,  "Organizational  Development  and  Social  Origins  of  the  Mor- 
mon Hierarchy,  1832-1932,"  M.A.  Thesis,  University  of  Utah,  1973,  pp.  125-45. 

'Henry  Brown,  History  of  Illinois  (New  York:  J.  Winchester,  1844),  p.  489. 

'Joseph  Smith,  Jr.,  Blessing  of  Joseph  Smith  III,  17  January  1844  (Reorganized 
Church  Library-Archives).  This  document  was  discovered  in  March  1981,  and  received 
a  great  deal  of  media  exposure.  See  "A  Mormon  Revelation,"  Newsweek,  30  March 
1981,  p.  76.  The  events  of  the  blessing  have  been  recounted  in  James  Whitehead, 
"Testimony,"  in  Complainant's  Abstract  of  Pleading  and  Evidence  in  the  Circuit 
Court  of  ttie  United  States,  Western  District  of  l\/lissouri,  Western  Division,  at  Kansas 
City,  h/lissouri  (Lamoni,  Iowa;  Herald  Publishing  House,  1893),  pp.  27-28. 

'"James  Monroe,  Dairy,  24  April  1845,  Mormon  Collection,  Beinecke  Library,  Yale 
University,  New  Haven,  Connecticut);  Stanley  P.  Hirshson,  Tfie  Lion  of  tfie  Lord:  A 
Biograptiy  of  Brigham  Young  (New  York:  Alfred  A.  Knopf,  1969),  pp.  35-37;  T.  Edger 
Lyon,  "Nauvoo  and  the  Council  of  Twelve,"  in  F.  Mark  McKiernan,  Alma  R.  Blair,  and 
Paul  M.  Edwards,  eds.,  Ttie  Restoration  f^ovement:  Essays  and  Mormon  History 
(Lawrence,  Kansas:  Coronado  Press,  1973),  pp.  171-75. 

"Brigham  Young,  Journal,  8  August  1844  (L.D.S.  Historical  Department). 

'^A/ew  York  Herald,  18  May  1877;  Hirshson,  Lion  of  ttie  Lord,  pp.  81,  105,  323; 
Samuel  W.  Taylor,  The  Kingdom  or  Nothing:  The  Life  of  John  Taylor,  Militant  Mormon 
(New  York:  Macmillan,  1976),  pp.  134-36. 

''Zina  Diantha  Huntington  Jacobs,  Diary,  8  August  1844  (L.D.S.  Historical  De- 
partment); Times  and  Seasons  (Nauvoo,  Illinois),  2  September  1844. 

''Russell  F.  Ralston,  Succession  in  Presidency  and  Authority  (Independence, 
Missouri:  Herald  Publishing  House,  1959),  p.  15;  Aleah  G.  Koury,  The  Truth  and  the 
Evidence  (Independence,  Missouri:  Herald  Publishing  House,  1965),  pp.  83-84;  P.A.M. 
Taylor,  Expectations  Westward:  The  Mormons  and  Emigration  of  their  British  Con- 
verts in  the  Nineteenth  Century  (Ithaca,  New  York:  Cornell  Univ.  Press.  1966),  pp. 
144-45. 

"Joseph  Smith,  Jr.,  The  History  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day 
Saints,  ed.  B.H.  Roberts,  7  vols.  (Salt  Lake  City,  Utah:  Deseret  Book  Co.,  1976),  VII, 
247-52;  Robert  Bruce  Flanders,  Nauvoo:  Kingdom  on  the  Mississippi  (\Jrbar\a:  Univ.  of 
Illinois  Press,  1965),  p.  320. 

'«Heber  C.  Kimball  to  William  B.  Smith,  9  January  1845,  William  Smith  Collection 
(L.D.S.  Historical  Department);  Russell  B.  Rich,  Those  Who  Would  Be  Leaders  (Off- 
shoots of  Mormonism)  (Provo,  Utah:  Brigham  Young  Univ.  Press,  1967),  passim. 

''"An  Epistle  of  the  Twelve,"  Times  and  Seasons,  15  August  1844;  Journal  of 
Discourses  (Salt  Lake  City,  Utah),  VIII,  69;  Complainant's  Abstract,  p.  323;  Latter  Day 
Saints'  Millennial  Star  (L'\yerpoo\,  England),  vol.  16,  p.  442;  Edward  W.Tullidge,  L/7eo/ 
Joseph  the  Prophet  (Piano,  Illinois:  Herald  Publishing  House,  1880),  pp.  614-15. 

"John  D.  Lee,  Mormonism  Unveiled:  Including  the  Remarkable  Life  and  Confes- 
sion of  the  Late  Mormon  Bishop  (St.  Louis:  Bryan,  Brand,  and  Co.,  1877),  p.  161. 
"Smith,  "Memoirs,"  in  Herald,  82  (2  April  1935),  432. 

'"Journal  of  Discourses,  III,  266;  Donna  Hill,  Joseph  Smith:  The  First  Mormon 
(Garden  City,  New  York:  Doubleday,  1977),  pp.  335-62;  Flanders,  Nauvoo,  pp.  267-77; 
Leonard  J.  Arrington  and  Davis  Bitton,  The  Mormon  Experience:  A  History  of  the 
Latter-day  Saints  (New  York:  ALfred  A.  Knopf,  1979),  pp.  185-205. 

^'Andrew  Jensen,  "Plural  Marriage,"  Historical  Record,  6  (July,  1887),  205-36; 
Journal  of  Discourses,  XVII,  159. 


WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 


"Joseph  Smith  III,  "The  Last  Testimony  of  Sister  Emma,"  Saints'  Herald,  26  (1 
October  1879),  289-90. 

"Edward  W.  Tullidge,  The  Women  of  Mormondom  (New  York:  Tullidge  and  Cran- 
dall,  1877),  pp.  418-22;  New  York  Tribune,  16  December  1871;  New  York  World,  17 
November  1869;  Hirshson,  Lion  of  the  Lord,  pp.  65-66;  William  Hall,  The  Abomina- 
tions of  Mormonism  Exposed,  Containing  Many  Facts  and  Doctrines  Concerning 
That  Singular  People  during  Seven  Years  Membership  with  Them;  from  1840  to  1847 
(Cincinnati:  I.  Hart,  1852),  pp.  43-44. 

''New  York  World,  2  October  1870;  Journal  of  Discourses,  XVII,  159;  Springfield 
(Illinois)  Weekly  Republican,  1  December  1866. 

"Smith,  "Memoirs,"  in  Herald,  82  (29  January  1935),  144. 

"Probate  Records,  Book  A  (1840-1846),  pp.  341-42  (Hancock  County  Courthouse, 
Carthage,  Illinois);  State  of  Illinois,  Hancock  County  to  Emma  Smith,  17  July  1844, 
Lewis  Crum  Bidamon  Papers  (Reorganized  Church  Library-Archives). 

"Probate  Records,  Book  A  (1840-1846),  pp.  354-55;  Probate  Records,  Book  C 
(1844-1849),  28,  43  (Hancock  County  Courthouse,  Carthage,  Illinois). 

"Smith,  "Memoirs,"  in  Herald,  82  (29  January  1935),  144. 

"Chancery  Records,  Book  A,  p.  490  (Hancock  County  Courthouse,  Carthage, 
Illinois). 

^"Smith,  "Memoirs,"  in  Herald,  82  (29  January  1935),  144. 

''Probate  Records,  Book  A  (1840-1846),  pp.  412,  421;  Probate  Records,  Book  E 
(1842-1949),  191,  212;  Claims  Records,  Book  C,  p.  242  (Hancock  County  Courthouse, 
Carthage,  Illinois). 

"M.  Hamlin  Cannon,  ed.,  "Bankruptcy  Proceedings  Against  Joseph  Smith  in 
Illinois,"  Pacific  Historical  Review,  14  (December,  1945),  423-33,  and  14  (June,  1946), 
214-15. 

"Richard  P.  Howard,  Restoration  Scriptures:  A  Study  in  their  Textual  Develop- 
ment (\ndepender\ce,  Missouri:  Herald  Publishing  House,  1969),  pp.  70-193,  pass/m. 

''Smith,  "Memoirs,"  in  Herald,  82  (29  January  1935),  144. 

"Interview  with  Kenneth  E.  Stobaugh,  14  June  1975,  Joseph  Smith  Historic 
Center,  Nauvoo,  Illinois. 

"L  John  Nuttall,  Diary,  p.  335  (Harold  B.  Lee  Library,  Brigham  Young  University, 
Provo,  Utah):  Robert  J.  Matthews,  "A  Plainer  Translation:"  Joseph  Smith's  Transla- 
tion of  the  Bible,  A  History  and  Commentary  (Provo,  Utah:  Brigham  Young  University 
Press,  1975),  p.  121. 

"Emma  Smith  Bidamon  to  Joseph  Smith  III,  20  January  1867,  Emma  Smith 
Bidamon  Papers  (Reorganized  Church  Library-Archives). 

"Joseph  Smith  III,  "Autobiography  of  Joseph  Smith,"  in  Tullidge,  Life  of  Joseph 
the  Prophet,  pp.  746-48;  Flanders,  Nauvoo,  p.  319. 

"Smith,  "Memoirs,"  in  Herald,  82  (22  January  1935),  111. 

""Joseph  Smith  III,  "What  Do  I  Remember  of  Nauvoo?"  Journal  of  History,  3 
(July,  1910),  338. 

•"Smith,  "Autobiography,"  in  Tullidge,  Life  of  Joseph  the  Prophet,  p.  749;  Thur- 
man  Dean  Moody,  "Nauvoo's  Whistling  and  Whittling  Brigade,"  Brigham  Young 
University  Studies,  (Summer,  1975),  480-90. 

"'Smith,  "Memoirs,"  in  Herald,  82  (29  January  1935),  144. 

"'Emma  Smith  Bidamon  to  Joseph  Smith  III,  2  December  1867,  Joseph  Smith  III 
Papers  (Reorganized  Church  Library-Archives). 

""Joseph  Smith  III  to  Caleb  Parker,  14  August  1895,  Joseph  Smith  III  Letterbook 
#6  (Reorganized  Church  Library-Archives). 

"'Joseph  Smith  III,  "Rules  of  Behavior  for  Youth,"  January  1845  (Harold  B.  Lee 
Library,  Brigham  Young  University). 

"^Joseph  Smith  III,  "A  Thrilling  Dream,"  14  February  1845,  ibid. 


UTOPIAN  FRATERNITY:  IDEAL  AND 
REALITY  IN  ICARIAN  RECREATION 


Robert  P.  Sutton 


The  vision  of  a  new  society  put  forth  by  Etienne  Cabet  in  his 
best-selling  novel,  Voyage  en  Icarie,  published  anonymously  by  the 
author  in  Paris  in  1840,  pictured,  as  he  put  it  in  the  preface,  "a  second 
Promised  Land,  an  Eden,  an  Elysium,  a  new  Earthly  Paradise.'"  The 
immense  popularity  of  the  book  (it  went  through  five  editions  in 
eight  years)  produced  one  of  Europe's  most  significant  pre-Marxian 
social  reform  movements  and  one  of  the  most  fascinating  experi- 
ments in  secular  communitarianism  in  the  United  States.  In  fact,  the 
Icarians  were  the  longest-lived  non-religious  Utopian  community  in 
America,  running  almost  fifty  years  from  the  establishment  of  the 
first  successful  colony  at  Nauvoo  in  the  winter  of  1849  to  the 
breakup  of  the  last  Icaria  at  Corning,  Iowa  late  in  1898. 

The  book  itself  is  a  tale  of  a  young  English  nobleman.  Lord 
William  Carisdall,  and  his  four-month  visit  to  a  fantastic  island 
located  somewhere  east  of  Africa.  In  his  journal  Carisdall  recorded 
his  continual  astonishment  at  the  marvels  he  found  there,  his  close 
friendship  with  his  Icarian  guide,  Valmore,  his  love  affair  with 
Valmore's  sweetheart,  Dinaise,  his  ever-growing  admiration  for  the 
Icarian  history  professor,  Dinaros,  and  the  professor's  story  of  the 
founding  and  functioning  of  the  ideal  society. 

From  the  beginning,  as  the  quote  from  the  preface  suggests,  the 
Icarians  were  distinguished  by  their  naive  expectation  of  the  facile 
realization  of  one  central  goal  —  that  complete  "equality,  liberty, 
and  fraternity,"  in  the  words  of  their  motto,  could  be  achieved  by 
reorganizing  society  without  private  property.  That  step  was,  of 
course,  a  negative  reform.  But  Cabet  also  wished  to  add  to  society 
some  practices  which  he  saw  lacking  in  France  in  the  1820's  and 
1830's.  The  key  to  understanding  this  important  aspect  of  Cabet's 
formula  for  the  ideal  community  is  found  in  the  word  fraternity.  He 
believed  that  all  members  of  society  must  fraternize,  a  cognate 
word  meaning  the  same  in  French  and  English,  namely  "to  associate 
or  mingle. . .  to  engage  in  commradely  social  intercourse. .  .  to  be 
friendly  or  amiable." 

Fraternity,  as  pictured  in  Cabet's  vision  of  the  ideal  community, 
was  described  in  detail  in  the  pages  of  the  Voyage  and  was  a  marked 

23 


24 


WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 


..^^^^ 


CAhKT 


Etienne  Cabet  as  a  young  man.  Courtesy  of  Western  Illinois  University 
Library. 


IDEAL  AND  REALITY  IN  ICARIAN  RECREATION  25 

contrast  to  existing  conditions  in  France.  Hit  by  the  early  stages  of 
the  Industrial  Revolution,  the  average  laborer  toiled  daily  in  the 
miserable  drudgery  of  the  factory,  helpless  against  the  cycles  of 
business  depressions  and  the  downward  spiral  of  wages.  Not  so  in 
Icaria.  There,  Cabet  wrote,  workers  went  to  clean,  sanitary  "work- 
shops" where  machines  "executed  all  of  the  perilous,  fatiguing, 
unhealthy,  dirty,  and  disgusting  jobs,"  where  "everything  converges 
to  render  the  work  agreeable."'  The  workday  itself  was  amazingly 
brief:  seven  hours  in  summer  and  six  in  winter.  The  Icarians,  then, 
were  provided  with  something  unknown  to  the  French  tradesman, 
leisure  time.  And,  in  Icaria,  recreation  of  all  sorts  was  an  integral 
part  of  life's  routine.  They  spent  their  afternoons,  evenings,  and 
weekends  viewing  "spectacles,"  as  Cabet  called  them,  provided  by  the 
state  in  large  amphitheaters.  They  enjoyed  dances,  picnics,  prom- 
enades, and  horseback  riding.  They  participated  in  group  singing, 
concerts,  and  theatrical  productions.  Later  in  the  century,  Cabet's 
followers  would  strive  to  implement  his  recreational  ideals  in  the 
Icarian  colonies  of  America. 

In  Voyage  en  Icarie  the  many  dances  took  place  in  elegant 
public  buildings.  Lord  Carisdall  reflected  on  one  such  event  held 
after  a  wedding  which  he  had  attended  with  another  visitor,  a  French- 
man named  Eugene.  The  hall,  he  noted,  "is  the  most  gracious,  most 
elegant,  and  most  magnificent  that  you  can  imagine."  "The  gilding, 
the  mirrors,  the  tapestries,  the  candelabra,  the  lamps,  the  flowers, 
the  perfumes,  everthing  made  it  an  enchanting  place. "^  Carisdall 
and  Eugene,  seated  in  tiers  which  surrounded  the  dance  floor,  ob- 
served the  dance  commence  with  the  young  married  couple  coming 
onto  the  floor  "dancing  and  waltzing  all  by  themselves"  unintimi- 
dated  by  the  fixed  gazes  of  their  elders."  Next  came  the  children, 
dancing  all  together.  Then  the  young  men  entered,  followed  by  the 
young  girls.  After  them  came  the  men  and  women.  Finally,  the  elderly 
joined  in.  "All  love  to  dance,"  Carisdall  wrote  in  his  journal,  "and  a 
ball  is  always  organized  like  a . . .  ballet  where  everyone  has  a  role."^ 

Carisdall  went  on  to  describe  the  Icarian  dance  more  specifically 
as  consisting  "principally  in  figures  and  evolutions."  "The  ones  of 
the  citizens,"  he  pointed  out,  "differ  essentially  from  the  ones  of 
the  dancers  in  the  theaters  and  the  ones  of  the  men  are  not  the 
same  as  those  of  the  women. "^  Usually,  everything  began  with  a 
single  young  man  dancing  alone  for  a  few  minutes.  Then  he  was 
joined  by  another,  then  three  danced  together.  At  that  point  all  the 
young  men  entered  and  continued  the  pattern  of  dividing  into  small 
groups.  The  dance  continued: 

It  was  the  same  with  the  young  girls,  some  of  whom  accompanied 
themselves  with  castinets,  and  some  others  with  diverse  instru- 
ments. Several  of  the  elderly,  men  and  women,  executed  some 


WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 


dances  of  a  character  which  caused  a  great  deal  of  laughter.  They 
then  danced  some  waltzes  of  different  kinds.  But  the  men  waltzed 
with  men  and  the  women  with  women,  the  married  couples  alone 
having  the  privilege  of  waltzing  with  their  spouses.  I  believed  at 
first  that  they  would  have  few  who  would  waltz  but  all  of  the  boys 
waltzed  together,  all  of  the  young  girls  likewise,  and  many 
husbands  with  their  wives;  and  that  variety  produced  a  charming 
effect.  Finally  the  dance  became  general,  intermingling  all  of  the 
ages  and  all  of  the  sexes,  and  presented  a  more  animated  spectacle.' 


The  same  extravagant  display  was  seen  in  the  Icarian  theater. 
The  production  of  plays  was  a  public  responsibility  and  all  citizens 
could  see  them  free,  since  money  was  non-existant.  That  was  a  pro- 
digious undertaking  for  a  Republic  of  over  900,000  people.  But  the 
Icarians  rose  to  the  occasion.  They  build  15,000  theaters  which  put 
on  sixty  performances  simultaneously.  The  government  printed 
tickets  for  each  family  or  for  individuals  living  alone  and  distributed 
them  by  chance.  "Each  family  will  have  its  notice  like  each  single 
individual,"  Valmore  told  Lord  Carisdall,  "and  each  will  know  in  ad- 
vance the  presentation  to  attend."  "What  if  that  day  is  inconveni- 
ent?" Carisdall  asked.  Then,  said  Valmore,  "you  can  consult  the 
printed  tableaux  of  the  notices  and  find  a  family  who  wants  to  ex- 
change its  notice  against  yours."  "We  take  similar  measures  for  all 
public  curiosities,"  Valmore  stated,  "for  museums  and  for  scientific 
courses."^ 

In  the  capital  of  the  Utopia,  a  city  named  Icara,  there  was  also  a 
kind  of  outdoor  theater.  The  family  which  had  a  strong  love  of 
shows  could,  Valmore  said,  "enjoy  what  they  pleased  almost  every- 
day, for  one  finds  them  even  in  open  air  and  in  all  of  the  promen- 
ades." "You  certainly  never  have  seen  anywhere,"  he  gloated,  "as 
many  marionette  theaters,  shadow  theaters,  and  especially  Punch 
and  Judy  shows,  which  are  the  delight  of  the  children."  "Nowhere," 
he  concluded,  "have  you  seen  any  as  attractive,  because  here  it  is 
the  Republic  which  makes  them  happen,  without  sparing  any  ex- 
pense in  order  to  render  them  charming  by  ail  accounts."^ 

The  theaters  themselves  were  splendid  structures.  "What  an  im- 
mense hall!"  Eugene  exclaimed  upon  entering  one  of  them.  "In  no 
country  have  I  ever  seen  anything  so  grand!"'"  Icarian  architects, 
prior  to  designing  the  buildings,  carefully  studied  plans  of  all  the 
theaters  of  the  world  and  chose  an  amphitheater  layout.  Acoustically, 
it  was  perfect.  "One  does  not  miss  a  word,"  an  Icarian  told  Eugene, 
"because  it  is  the  foremost  requirement  of  a  hall  of  shows  to  trans- 
mit its  sounds  well,  and  it  is  the  first  thing  that  is  proposed  by  our 
builders. "''  Theater  boxes  were  discarded  as  a  sign  of  aristocracy 
and  privilege  as  well  as  for  safety.  "They  are  a  fire  hazard  and  all  of 
them  are  built  to  invite  a  fire,"  Eugene  observed.  "This  mixture  of 
population,"  he  concluded,  "these  beautiful  costumes,  these  decora- 


IDEAL  AND  REALITY  IN  ICARIAN  RECREATION  27 

tions,  everything  is  magnificent.  Tlie  Opera  of  London  or  Paris  is  not 
more  beautiful."'^  Yet  there  was  a  serious  purpose  to  all  this  dis- 
play. Cabet  asserted  that  the  theater  was  to  be  "a  school  where  the 
teachers  are  the  fine  arts  charged  with  combining  their  prestige  in 
order  to  educate  while  entertaining."  That  is,  the  theater  inculcated 
morality  and  patriotism. 

Such  democratic  rectitude  was  applied  not  just  to  dancing  and 
the  theater  but  to  all  Icarian  recreation.  All  enjoyments,  Cabet 
wrote,  must  "have  a  moral  and  practical  objective  and  that  objective 
always  is  to  be  not  the  personal  pleasure  and  the  servile  flattery  of  a 
King  but  the  interest,  the  glory  and  the  happiness  of  the  People."'^ 
The  Icarians  liked  pleasure  and  delighted  in  the  "faculties  of  the 
senses,"  as  Cabet  called  them,  so  long  as  they  enjoyed  that  which 
was  good  and  rejected  that  which  was  bad.  Three  simple  rules  pro- 
vided the  guidelines  for  this  moral  selection.  The  first  one  was  that 
all  enjoyments  had  to  be  authorized  by  the  People  by  law.  The  second 
rule  held  that  "the  agreeable  would  be  sought  only  after  one  has  the 
necessary  and  the  useful.'''*  The  third  maxim  was  that  one  "not 
allow  any  other  pleasures  than  those  which  each  Icarian  is  able  to 
enjoy  equally."'^ 

Every  Icarian  citizen  was  encouraged  to  develop  new  leisure 
pastimes  for  the  Republic  and  was  accordingly  rewarded  for  his  or 
her  efforts.  "Like  the  king  of  Persia  who  promised  a  reward  to  any- 
one who  invented  a  new  pleasure,"  Valmore  said,  "we  invite  all  of 
our  citizens  to  perfect  or  to  add  to  our  enjoyments."'^  Cabet  strongly 
contrasted  the  Icarian  practices  with  that  found  in  Europe.  Monarchies 
demanded  new  amusements  only  for  themselves  whereas  Icaria  en- 
couraged new  pleasures  only  for  the  People.  The  English  aristocracy, 
for  example,  "monopolizes  everything  for  itself,  forbidding  all  Sun- 
day amusements,  making  them  accessible  only  to  the  idle  and  to 
the  rich  during  the  week,  and  only  allowing  to  the  English  People  no 
distractions  other  than  getting  themselves  drunk  in  their  public 
houses  in  order  to  forget  their  frightful  misery."'^  The  Icarian,  on  the 
other  hand,  "cherished  by  the  Republic  like  a  child  by  its  mother, 
enjoys  every  day  all  the  pleasures,  happier  than  all  the  People  of  the 
earth  and  than  all  of  the  Aristocracies  of  the  world."  At  that  point 
Eugene  sighed,  "Ah!  Yes,  happy  Icarial"'^ 

The  spectacular  and  patriotic  quality  of  Icarian  dancing  and 
theater  reached  its  epitome  in  their  "festivals"  and  "spectacles," 
which  like  the  other  amusements  were  organized  and  staged  by  the 
Republic  and  were  free  to  all  citizens.  One  such  event  was  the  Icarian 
Independence  Day  celebration.  The  event  commemorated  the  over- 
throw on  July  14, 1782  of  the  ancient  tyrant  Lixdox  and  his  evil  queen 
Clorimide  by  the  "good  Icar"  and  the  subsequent  creation  of  the 
Community  in  the  place  of  despotism.  Perhaps  nowhere  else  in  the 


WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 


Frontispiece  of  volume  two  of  the  first  edition  of  Cabet's  Voyage  en  Icarie, 
depicting  the  fictitious  Lord  William  Carisdall. 


IDEAL  AND  REALITY  IN  ICARIAN  RECREATION 


VOYAGE 


i:  T 


AVENTLIRES 

LORD  VILLIAM  CARISDAI.L 

EN    ICARIE, 

TRA    I  115    1)E    I 'ANGI.au 

DE  FliAyCIS  ADAMS 

PAR    TH.    DUFRUIT, 


II 


|3arts , 


HIPPOLTTE  SOUVERAIN,  SDITEUR, 

De  r.  SOL'LIF,  //.  uc  c-ti./  ic,  .ir.PfiossF   i:  i.  I '\  ■■  L  :;  >  /  f  t  "  i;  .' .'■ 
nut    UES   BE.\l  X-Al'.TS,    3,    A    L'E    TIlEsOL 

Title  page  of  the  first  edition  of  Cabet's  Voyage. 


30  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

Voyage  en  Icarie  is  Cabet's  writing  so  effective  than  in  his  lyrical 
portrayal  of  the  mood  and  physical  setting  of  the  occasion.  The 
festival  took  place  in  a  huge  amphitheater  where  Icarian  actors 
began  by  recreating  the  bloody  two-day  battle  which  had  led  to  vic- 
tory. Then  there  was  a  gigantic  parade  of  the  National  Guard  followed 
by  military  maneuvers,  during  which  the  Guard  executed  "a  thousand 
different  evolutions  of  infantry  and  of  calvary."  Then  the  National 
Congress  left  the  stands  and  filed  out  "in  a  hundred  groups  of  twenty 
Deputies,  carrying  a  hundred  provincial  and  a  thousand  communal 
flags  ...  the  spectators  ...  all  standing  and  hats  off,  raise  their 
arms  together."  "Behold,"  Carisdall  exclaimed,  "20,000  children, 
from  six  to  ten  years  of  age,  who  descend  from  their  benches  into 
the  arena  . . .  and  form  the  foremost  inner  circle."  Cabet  then  wrote: 


Thirty  thousand  girls  and  30,000  boys,  from  ten  to  twenty  one 
years  of  age,  likewise  descend  and  form  two  other  circles,  some 
of  them  carrying  flowers  and  wreaths,  others  scarfs  and  garlands, 
some  others  boughs  and  flags.  Then  begins  \he ballet,  the  dances, 
the  rounds  among  80,000  dancers,  who  form  a  thousand  evolutions 
and  toss  flowers  and  wreaths  towards  Icar  and  Icaria,  while  wav- 
ing their  boughs  and  their  scarfs,  their  garlands  and  their  flags. 

Here  now  is  the  song.  The  20,000  children,  then  the  30,000 
young  girls,  then  the  30,000  boys,  then  more  than  a  million  voices, 
repeating  the  hymns  of  recognition  of  the  Community. 

Here  now  is  the  concert.  The  bell  and  its  carillon,  then  the 
cannon  above  all  of  the  palaces  of  the  city,  then  500  or  600  drums, 
then  500  or  600  trumpets,  then  the  sixty  bands  dispersed  over  the 
benches,  then  all  of  the  bands  and  nearly  10,000  instruments 
united  together  around  the  center,  make  the  arena  everywhere  re- 
sound with  different  airs  of  victory  and  of  triumph  .  .  .  with  the 
most  ravishing  harmony. 

And  meanwhile  night  begins.  ...  an  immense  fireworks  display 
is  prepared  in  wooden  frames  dispersed  everywhere  and  masked 
by  garlands,  foliage,  and  flags;  and  soon  the  heavens  appear  em- 
braced by  a  thousand  fires  which  shoot  up  on  all  sides,  which 
cross  in  all  directions,  which  present  a  thousand  colors  and  a 
thousand  forms,  and  which  terminate  with  the  most  magnificent 
bouquet  that  one  can  imagine. 

The  festival  is  nevertheless  not  ended.  For  in  leaving  the 
arena,  accompanied  by  sixty  bands,  the  People  find  their  awnings 
decorated  with  garlands  and  flags,  their  ordinary  lighting  replaced 
with  an  illumination  (always  of  gas)  which,  in  the  streets  as  on  the 
facades  and  the  monuments  or  in  the  foliage  of  the  trees  of  the 
public  promenades,  present  a  thousand  colors,  a  thousand  dif- 
ferent inscriptions,  and  a  thousand  diverse  forms. 

It  is  not  yet  over.  Arriving  at  Valmore's  house,  we  all  went  up 
to  the  terrace  where  supper  had  been  prepared  before  we  left.  And 
there,  while  eating,  we  enjoyed  a  totally  new  and  magnificient 
spectacle. 

We  saw  all  of  the  terraces  illuminated  and  filled  with  families 
eating  supper,  laughing  and  singing;  all  of  the  banisters  outlined 
by  the  illumination;  and  up  above,  all  the  peaks  of  the  mountains 
likewise  illuminated  and  outlined  by  the  light. 

Then,  in  order  to  signal  retreat,  the  large  archway  of  the 
heavens,  obscured  by  the  night,  appears  suddenly  inflamed  by 


IDEAL  AND  REALITY  IN  ICARIAN  RECREATION  31 

thousands  of  fires  of  all  colors  darting  in  all  directions  from  100 
balloons,  dispersed  to  500  or  600  feet  high  over  the  city,  discharg- 
ing finally  on  it  an  immense  shower  of  stars  and  fire.'' 

Icarian  recreation  in  theory  was  one  thing,  but  put  into  practice 
in  America,  it  was  another  matter.  The  smallness  of  the  communities 
compared  to  the  literary  model  —  about  500  residents  at  the  most  at 
Nauvoo  and  never  over  100  at  Corning,  Iowa  —  simplified  the  ideal. 
Nevertheless,  as  Albert  Shaw  has  observed  in  Icaria:  A  Chapter  in 
the  History  of  Communism,  "although  they  are  far  from  the  condi- 
tion of  the  Happy  Icarians  in  the  Voyage,  . .  .considering  the  dif- 
ficulties they  have  encountered  they  [Icarians  in  America]  must  be 
accredited  with  having  done  reasonably  well."^°  Contemporary  ac- 
counts also  testify  to  the  relatively  high  level  of  cultural  life  at 
Nauvoo  and  Corning.  Two  visitors  to  Nauvoo  during  the  summer  of 
1855,  Jean-Francois  Cretinon  and  Francois-Marie  Lacour,  described 
the  Icarians  at  their  leisure.  Pierre  Bourg,  a  devoted  disciple  of 
Cabet,  also  recorded  in  his  journal  and  letters  their  agreeable, 
bucolic  pastimes.  And  Marie  Marchand  Ross,  whose  childhood  was 
spent  in  the  Icarian  colony  at  Corning  when  the  Nauvoo  Icaria  was 
transplanted  to  that  location  in  1860,  fondly  recalled  the  pleasant 
hours  of  amusements  in  her  book  Child  of  Icaria.^^ 

The  three  main  aspects  of  recreation  portrayed  by  Cabet  in  the 
Travels  —  music  and  dancing,  the  theater,  and  festivals  —  all  figured 
prominently  in  the  daily  life  of  the  communities.  The  Nauvoo  or- 
chestra of  thirty-six  musicians,  for  instance,  was  an  outstanding 
cultural  achievement  in  frontier  America.  The  group,  under  the 
direction  of  Claude  Antoinne  Grubert,  performed  regularly  every 
Sunday  afternoon.  The  concerts  were  probably  more  like  modern 
municipal  band  performances  than  those  of  a  symphony  orchestra, 
though,  for  two  reasons.  First,  the  composition  of  the  instrumenta- 
tion as  listed  in  their  newspaper,  Colonie  Icarienne,  on  September 
27,  1854,  shows  four  ophicleides  (a  predecessor  of  the  tuba),  one 
clavichord,  four  trombones,  six  clarinets,  five  cornets,  eight  trum- 
pets, one  flute,  and  one  neocor  (similar  to  a  trench  horn),  as  well  as 
one  player  each  for  the  bass  drum  and  cymbal,  two  drummers,  and 
two  musicians  on  the  triangle."  Apparently  Grubert  had  no  inten- 
tion of  changing  the  concert-band  structure  of  the  group,  for  he 
advertised  that  in  order  to  complete  the  orchestra  it  was  necessary 
only  to  add  an  E-flat  clarinet."  In  addition  to  instrumentation,  the 
type  of  music  they  played  was  clearly  of  the  popular  vein.  Extant 
muscial  scores  bear  such  titles  as  "Song  of  the  Transporters," 
"Hymn  of  Harmony,"  "Second  March  of  Two  Days  Work,"  "Popular 
Invocation,"  "No  More  Cries,"  and  "I  Preserve  It  For  My  Wife."^^ 
And,  from  time  to  time,  they  reorganized  slightly  into  a  marching 
band  and  played  military  pieces.  At  Corning  the  musical  tradition 


32  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

continued  but  with  a  change  of  ennphasis  from  concerts  to  opera. 
As  a  regular  practice,  every  other  Saturday,  an  opera  was  presented 
in  the  dining  hall.  On  other  occasions  violins  accompanied  an 
Icarian  chorus  in  the  singing  of  Icarian  hymns.  And,  in  1877,  they 
put  together  an  orchestra  made  up  of  the  horns,  flutes,  and  clarinets 
which  had  been  brought  over  from  Nauvoo." 

Another  function  of  the  orchestra,  both  at  Nauvoo  and  Corning, 
was  to  accompany  the  colony's  theatrical  productions.  Indeed, 
Lacour  thought  that  this  duty  was  its  primary  responsibility.  He 
wrote  that  although  they  play  pretty  tunes  their  main  activities  were 
found  "especially  at  the  theater.""  His  description  of  this  aspect  of 
Icarian  culture  is  one  of  the  few  surviving  accounts  of  theatrical  life 
at  the  Nauvoo  Icaria: 


The  stage  is  at  the  end  of  the  dining  hall ....  Benches  used  for 
the  meals  are  placed  in  such  a  way  that  everyone  can  see  very  well. 
There  are  some  complimentary  passes  given  to  a  few  American 
families.  Icarian  actors  are  doing  their  best  in  order  to  render 
some  comedies  and  vaudevilles.  I  attended  the  performance  of 
The  Salamander,  The  Hundred  Piques,  The  Miser's  Daughter  and  I 
myself  was  a  member  of  the  cast  in  The  Fisherman's  Daughter.'^ 

One  of  the  most  interesting  aspects  of  Lacour's  account  was  that 
even  though  he  was  in  Nauvoo  for  less  than  four  months,  from  April 
14  to  August  7, 1855,  he  noted  a  production  of  one  play  each  month, 
an  impressive  record. 

The  orchestra  also  supported  what  might  be  labeled  Icarian 
song-and-dance  excursions.  Jules  Prudhommeaux,  who  in  1907 
published  the  only  full  account  of  the  Icarians,  believed  that  their 
delight  in  such  activities  sprang  from  their  social  background  in 
Europe.  "The  Icarians,"  he  wrote,  "most  of  them  of  the  working  men 
and  women  of  the  big  cities  of  France,  liked  very  much  to  sing  'la 
gaugriole'  or  to  hum  melodies,  so  that  [the  community]  was  never 
embarrassed  to  set  up  a  program.""  It  was  those  excursions,  also 
called  promenades,  which  came  nearest  to  duplicating  on  the 
Mississippi  frontier  the  extravagant  festivals  depected  in  Cabet's 
book.  Lacour  described  two  of  those  outings  which  took  place 
along  the  river  in  a  wooded  glen  called  the  "Woods  of  the  Young 
Ladies."  On  the  seventeenth  of  June,  1855,  he  recorded  the  follow- 
ing event  in  his  diary  under  the  caption  "Promenade  in  Icaria." 

The  sky  this  morning  promised  us  a  beautiful  day.  Almost  half  of 
the  members  of  the  colony  are  part  of  this  promenade.  The  band, 
composed  of  young  men  of  the  school,  played  several  military 
marches.  We  descended  along  the  river,  arriving  in  a  pretty  little 
wooded  area  called  the  "Woods  of  the  Young  Ladies,"  each  one 
seated  himself  on  the  grass  by  sections  of  ten.  A  wagon  contains 
the  dinner  which  is  made  up  of  ham,  radishes,  and  kneips.  The 


IDEAL  AND  REALITY  IN  ICARIAN  RECREATION 


more  obliging  go  to  fetch  the  drinks,  which  is  composed  of  soft 
water  and  muddy  water  of  the  Mississippi  or  of  a  small  brook  a  little 
distance  away.  The  musicians  organize  themselves  into  a  dance 
orchestra.  Some  of  us  take  part  in  the  dance.  But  whenever  three 
o'clock  comes  along,  the  sun  beats  down  in  such  a  way  that  no 
one  wants  to  dance  any  longer;  by  then  the  tired  musicians  play 
only  wrong  notes  on  their  instruments." 


Pierre  Bourg,  in  his  journal,  described  the  following  pastoral  oc- 
casion at  the  Nauvoo  Icaria: 


We  were  nearly  two  hundred  .  .  .  our  venerable  and  venerated 
patriarch  walked  with  a  joyeous  air  in  the  middle  of  us,  our  whole 
ensemble  formed  an  appearance  of  a  large  and  happy  family.  A 
magnificent  sky,  an  air  pure  and  fresh,  the  trees,  the  flowers,  the 
fruits  unknown  to  us,  the  prairie,  the  valleys,  the  forests,  all  of  this 
luxury  of  light,  of  vegetation,  of  the  vigorous  American  greenery 
doubled  our  feeling  of  holiday.  .  .  .  our  promenade  had,  besides,  a 
very  attractive  objective,  especially  for  the  women  and  children:  to 
concentrate  on  the  gathering  of  walnuts,  an  inexhaustible  crop  in 
this  country.  After  having  picked  a  grove  of  trees  in  the  woods 
situated  along  the  river,  we  went  to  have  our  dinner  set  out  on  the 
grass,  in  a  glen,  next  to  a  brook,  under  a  tent  of  foliage:  and  then, 
the  repast  finished,  defying  a  prescription  of  Raspail,  to  rest,  our 
orchestra  played  some  quadrilles  and  waltzes  in  order  to  make  us 
sing  and  pirouette  like  the  mythological  hostes  of  the  ancient 
forest. .  .  Finally,  at  sundown,  very  tired  but  happy,  we  returned  to 
the  communal  building  where  at  supper,  promptly  served,  we  were 
given  a  few  chilly  glances  for  having  kept  it  waiting." 

At  the  Corning  Icaria  the  tradition  of  the  promenade  continued. 
As  remembered  by  Marie  Marchand  Ross  from  her  childhood  days 
in  the  colony,  it  was  an  annual  occasion,  in  the  fall  after  the  harvest. 
This  "Fete  du  Mais"  (Festival  of  the  Corn)  involved 


. . .  many  friends  and  neighbors  [who]  came  to  help  with  the  last 
day  of  corn  picking.  .  .  .  Early  in  the  afternoon,  when  the  harvest 
was  finished,  all  cleaned  up  and  dressed  and  repaired  to  the  din- 
ing room  where  a  real  feast  was  served.  . . .  There  were  speeches 
and  toasts  made.  Old  songs  were  sung,  and,  after  the  tables  were 
cleared  and  pushed  out  of  the  way,  the  first  drama  was  held  on  the 
new  fioor.^' 

Yet,  obviously,  there  was  nothing  remotely  equivalent  to  the 
patriotic  holiday  celebrating  the  founding  of  Icaria  on  July  14,  1782. 
At  Nauvoo,  on  July  4,  Independence  Day  was  commemorated  by 
Icarians  and  Americans  alike  in  the  following  way,  as  depicted  in 
Lacour's  diary: 


In  the  city  all  of  the  guns  are  fired  into  the  air;  in  every  respect 
one  never  sees  or  hears  anything  like  that.  Some  children  of 


34  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 


scarcely  twelve  years  old  set  off  firecrackers;  that  continues  all 
night  long.  The  Icarians  set  off  cans  made  by  an  anvil;  on  the  Tem- 
ple square  and  at  the  top  of  a  large  pole,  flies  the  national  flag  of 
the  United  States. 

The  next  morning,  one  sees  arriving  from  everywhere,  in  car- 
riages or  on  horseback,  Americans  in  holiday  dress  who  gather 
together  at  Nauvoo.  One  sees  flying  the  white  and  blue  striped 
flag  of  Illinois.  The  Icarians  all  gather  together  and  the  orchestra 
with  the  students  at  the  head  form  a  long  procession.  They  make 
their  way  to  the  "Woods  of  the  Young  Ladies"  where  are  placed  a 
platform  and  some  benches.  After  having  read  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  of  the  United  States,  and  that  done  in  English,  in 
German,  and  in  French,  several  American  orators  make  their  'speech.' 

The  ministers  of  different  religious  faiths  say  some  prayers, 
then  the  cortage  resumes  its  march  in  crying  out  'Hurrah.'  That 
evening  in  the  colony,  banquet,  theater,  orchestra,  and  choirs  are 
performed  with  much  enjoyment  and  togetherness." 

Marie  Marchand  Ross  recounted  a  similar  Fourth  of  July  cele- 
bration at  the  Iowa  colony: 


The  Icarians  always  celebrated  the  4th  of  July.  Young  and  old 
took  part  in  the  demonstration.  On  the  eve  of  the  great  day  the 
cook  was  busy  in  the  kitchen.  .  .preparing  good  things  to  eat. 
...  In  the  evening  when  the  sun  was  setting  and  the  air  seemed 
nice  and  cool  after  the  heat  of  the  day,  all  would  gather  around  the 
old  mill.  ...  Up  went  the  flag  of  red,  white  and  blue,  to  the  ap- 
plause and  cheers  of  the  crowd,  to  the  roar  of  guns  and  the  sound 
of  trumpets.  All  joined  in  singing  the  "Star  Spangled  Banner," 
"America"  and  other  American  patriotic  hymns.  This  went  on  till 
dark  when  all  said  good-night  and  returned  to  their  homes. . ." 

The  Similarity  between  the  high  artistic  expression  depicted  by 
Cabet  in  his  novel  and  the  actual  artistic  expression  of  Icarians  in 
America  was  not  the  only  parallel  between  the  ideal  and  the  real  in 
the  Icarian  communities.  There  was  at  Nauvoo  in  particular,  as  in 
the  fictional  Icaria,  a  pervasive  tone  of  moralism:  all  pleasures  had  a 
moral  objective.  This  goal  was  explicit.  On  the  curtain  of  the  theater 
in  the  dining  hall  was  the  statement:  "Theater  entertains,  instructs 
and  moralizes.""  Emile  Vallet,  who  lived  at  Nauvoo  as  child  in  the 
1850's  and  saw  this  righteous  recreation  in  practice,  remembered  in 
his  book  An  Icarian  Communist  in  Nauvoo,  written  in  1891,  that 
"their  recreations  were  moral.  Nothing  was  allowed  that  would  have 
shocked  the  most  scrupulous  nature."  "All  songs,  poems,  or 
dramas  exhibited  on  their  stage,"  he  wrote,  "were  submitted  to  a 
commission,  which  did  carefully  eliminate  all  that  could  have  a 
demoralizing  influence. "^^ 

The  historian  Prudhommeaux  supports  Vallet's  account  of  cen- 
sorship. He  found  that  every  proposed  play  was  subject  to  approval 
by  a  special  committee  called  the  "Committee  on  Feasts"  and,  in 
addition,  to  the  endorsement  of  Cabet.  Such  playwrights  as  Racine 
were  forbidden  because  they  were  judged  too  dull  and  flavorless. 


IDEAL  AND  REALITY  IN  ICARIAN  RECREATION  35 

Moliere,  on  the  other  hand,  was  rejected  for  being  too  bold.  Cabet's 
tastes  ran  to  writers  such  as  Voltaire,  especially  his  tragedies  and 
comedies.  Vaudevilles  were  an  important  part  of  the  Icarian  reper- 
toire. Concerning  those  productions,  Cabet  observed  in  an  1854  letter 
to  his  son-in-law,  Jean  Paul  Beluze,  then  living  in  Paris:  "We  in  gen- 
eral like  pieces  that  are  gay,  spiritual,  moral,  and  as  far  as  possible 
conform  to  our  principles  without  anything  at  all  that  could  excite 
the  dangerous  passions."  "When  there  are  some  good  and  some 
bad,"  he  continued,  "we  cut  out  the  bad  if  it  is  possible  and  we  keep 
the  good."^^  Other  acceptable  plays  cited  in  the  list  were  Death  to 
the  Rats,  Em  He,  or  Six  Heads  in  a  l-lat.  The  Short  Straw  l\/lattress, 
and  the  Seditious  Caps. 

At  Nauvoo,  by  the  mid-1850's,  the  impact  of  such  moralism,  when 
combined  with  growing  political  problems  over  Cabet's  leadership, 
took  its  toll  on  community  morale.  Visitors  to  the  colony  came  away 
with  what  Prudhommeaux  called  a  "morose  impression. "^^  One  of 
them,  a  M.A.  Holynske,  published  his  reaction  in  Paris  in  1892  in  the 
Revue  Socialiste.  "Dispersed  in  small  groups,"  he  wrote,  "they 
were  not  talking  very  much."  "Several  were  lying  down,"  he  went 
on,  "their  inert  faces  reflecting  no  internal  gaiety.  The  women  re- 
mained seated  apart  from  the  men,  in  silence,  with  meloncholic  and 
etiolated  faces. "^^  And  Lacour,  a  couple  of  times,  succumbed  to  the 
dismal  atmosphere.  "In  a  country  so  free,  so  vast,  one  should  be 
able  to  have  a  great  deal  of  fun,"  he  complained,  "and  there  is  none 
of  it  at  all  in  the  colony:  neither  ball  games,  nor  billiards,  nothing, 
absolutely  nothing. "^^  Some  of  the  members  of  the  community 
never  even  bothered  to  participate  in  the  amusements  which  were 
offered.  Partly,  Lacour  believed,  this  was  because  they  were  "ex- 
hausted by  overwork,  disgusted  by  the  few  comforts,"  and  therefore 
were  "never  able  to  enjoy  anything."""  And,  towards  the  end  of  one 
of  the  afternoon  outings  he  himself  complained  that  "no  one  wants 
to  dance  any  longer.""' 

Rectitude  and  melancholy  notwithstanding,  the  Icarian  enjoy- 
ment of  the  fine  arts,  in  addition  to  the  high  level  of  their  intellec- 
tural  life  (at  Nauvoo  they  had  the  largest  library  in  the  state,  over 
5,000  volumes),  sets  them  distinctly  apart  from  other  secular  com- 
munal societies.  Nor  is  this  achievement  true  only  of  the  Nauvoo 
colony.  Professor  Jacques  Ranciere,  of  the  faculty  of  the  University 
of  Paris,  has  described  the  community  established  at  St.  Louis  by 
Cabet  just  before  his  death  in  1856  as  having  its  "band  of  students" 
and  "Fraternal  Festivals"  where  the  Icarians  continued  to  enjoy 
their  "theater,  purged  in  advance  of . . .  passions.""^  Music,  festi- 
vals, and  a  high  degree  of  literary  activity  were  transplanted  — 
along  with  most  of  the  library  —  to  the  Iowa  prairie  when  the 
Nauvoo  colony  moved  there  in  1860. 


36  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

Whether  successful  or  not,  the  followers  of  Cabet  strenuously 
attempted  to  realize  the  ideal  life  of  work  and  play  as  depicted  by 
their  founder  in  the  pages  of  Voyage  en  Icarie.  They  persisted  in 
seeing  their  community  as  one  harmonious  Utopia,  in  the  face  of 
obvious  contradictions.  They  seemed  not  to  lose  the  vision  of  them 
selves  as  they  were  portrayed  by  Bourg  in  Le  Populaire  in  1849 
when  he  wrote  from  Nauvoo  to  Paris  that  their  "total  assembly"  of 
fered  "an  aspect  of  a  great  and  happy  family  .  . .  and  everyone,  happy 
without  jealously,  without  care,  full  of  a  free  and  expansive  gaiety.' 
"We  live,"  he  concluded,  "in  spite  of  ourselves,  in  realizing  perhaps 
the  influence  unknown,  alas,  in  the  Old  World,  of  Liberty,  Equality 
and  above  all  Fraternity.""^ 

NOTES 

'Etienne  Cabet,  Voyage  en  Icarie,  2nd  ed.  (Paris:  J.  Mallet  et  Cie,  1842),  in  a 
typescript  translation  by  Robert  P.  Sutton,  p.  3,  in  the  Center  for  Icarian  Studies, 
Western  Illinois  University. 

^Ibid.,  pp.  137-38. 

^Ibid.,  p.  278. 

'Ibid. 

Mbid. 

^Ibid. 

'Ibid.,  pp.  278-79. 

'Ibid.,  pp.  301-03. 

'Ibid.,  p.  303. 

'"Ibid.,  p.  304. 

'Mbid. 

'^Ibid. 

'^Ibid.,  p.  371. 

''Ibid.,  p.  373. 

'^Ibid. 

'^Ibid.,  p.  374. 

"Ibid. 

''Ibid. 

''Ibid.,  p.  363. 

"Albert  Shaw,  icar'a,  A  Chapter  in  the  History  of  Communism  (New  York:  G.P. 
Putnann's  Sons,  1884),  p.  52.  The  book  was  re-issued  in  1972  by  Porcupine  Press,  Inc. 
under  the  title  The  American  Utopian  Adventure:  Icarie. 

^'Marie  Marchand  Ross,  Child  of  Icaria  (Westport,  Conn.:  Hyperion  Press,  Inc. 
1976). 

^^Colonie  Icarienne,  September  27,  1854,  p.  4. 

"Ibid. 

"See  The  Center  For  Icarian  Studies  Newsletter,  vol.  4,  no.  2,  p.  7.  The  first  three 
titles  are  in  the  collections  of  the  Center  while  the  last  three  are  in  the  hands  of  Dale 
Larsen  of  Omaha,  Nebraska. 


IDEAL  AND  REALITY  IN  ICARIAN  RECREATION  37 

"Elizabeth  Ann  Rogers,  "The  Housing  and  Family  Life  of  the  Icarian  Colonies," 
M.A.  thesis.  University  of  Iowa,  1973,  p.  82. 

"Fernand  Rude,  Voyage  en  Icarla  Deux  Ouvriers  Viennois  aux  Etats-unis  en  1855 
(Paris:  Presses  Universitaires  de  France,  1952),  p.  155. 
^'Ibid. 

"Jules  Prudhonnmeaux,  Icarie  et  son  Fondateur  Etienne  Cabet  (Paris:  Edouard 
Comely  et  Cie,  Editeurs,  1907),  p.  336.  The  book  was  reprinted  under  the  same  title  by 
Porcupine  Press,  Inc.  in  1972. 

"Rude,  Deux  Cuvriers  Viennois,  p.  154. 

"/.e  Populaire,  December  2,  1849. 

"Ross,  Child  of  Icaria,  p.  108. 

^'Rude,  Deux  Ouvriers  Viennois,  pp. 158-59. 

"Ross,  Child  of  Icaria,  p.  32. 

'"Rude,  Deux  Ouvriers  Viennois,  p.  155. 

"Emile  Vallet,  Communism:  History  of  the  Experiment  at  Nauvoo  of  the  Icarian 
Settlement  (Nauvoo,  Illinois:  Nauvoo  Rustler,  1917).  Reprinted  in  H.  Roger  Grant,  ed.. 
An  Icarian  Experiment  in  Nauvoo  (Springfield,  II.,  Illinois  State  Historical  Society, 
1971),  p.  31. 

"Prudhommeaux,  Icarie,  p.  336. 

"Ibid.,  p.  313. 

"Quoted  in  Ibid.,  pp.  333-34. 

''Rude,  Deux  Ouvriers  Viennois,  p.  155. 

""ibid. 

''Ibid. 

"^Jacques  Ranciere,  La  nuit  des  proletaires  (Paris:  Librairie  Artheme  Fayard, 
1981),  p.  388. 

"Rogers,  "Housing  and  Family  Life,"  p.  82. 
*'Le  Populaire,  December  2,  1849 

GL  Need  accents  on  Comely,  Ranciere,  proletaires,  Artheme 


JOHN  HAY  ON  GARFIELD'S 
DEATHBED  LATIN 


George  Monteiro 


The  John  Hay  letter  presented  below  is  unknown  to  his  biogra- 
phers and  bibliographers.  It  has  been  recovered  from  the  pages  of 
the  New  York  Tribune,  a  journal  which  employed  Hay  as  an  editorial 
writer  from  1870  to  1875  and  as  its  editor  on  an  interim  basis  for 
several  months  in  1881.  Indeed,  it  was  within  days  in  1881  of  his  hav- 
ing left  New  York  and  the  Tribune  for  his  home  in  Cleveland,  Ohio, 
that  he  wrote  his  letter  in  reaction  to  a  short  piece  in  the  December 
1881  issue  of  the  Century  Magazine,  addressing  it  to  the  Tribune's 
editor.  Hay  dated  his  letter  25  November  1881,  the  December  Cen- 
tury having  come  out  around  20  November. 

The  background  for  Hay's  letter  begins  on  2  July  1881  when 
Charles  J.  Guiteau,  a  disgruntled  office  seeker,  shot  President  James 
A  Garfield  in  the  Washington,  D.C.  railway  station.  Gravely  wounded, 
Garfield  lingered  for  weeks,  only  to  die  on  19  September  1881.  Two 
months  later  the  Century  published  in  facsimile  a  Garfield  auto- 
graph dating  from  17  July,  just  fifteen  days  after  Garfield  had  been 
shot.^ 


The  circumstances  surrounding  this  puzzling  autograph  were 
described  by  Colonel  A.F.  Rockwell  in  a  letter  printed  in  the  Century 
along  with  the  autograph.  It  reads  in  part:  "On  Sunday,  July  17,  at 
noon,  at  his  [Garfield's]  request  for  writing  materials,  I  placed  in  his 
hand  a  clip  and  pencil.  Lying  on  his  back  and  holding  up  the  clip  in 
his  left  hand,  he  then  wrote  his  name  and  the  prophetic  words, 
"Strangulatus  pro  Republica,"  the  facsimile  of  which  I  now  author- 
ize you  to  publish.  What  epitaph  more  significant,  eloquent,  and 
truthful  than  this  —  his  own!" 

Rockwell's  letter,  dated  17  October  1881,  does  not  translate  the 
Latin  phrase  Garfield  chose  to  write  after  his  signature,  though  later 
he  would  admit  in  a  letter  to  Hay  that  "in  conversation"  he  had  "used 
the  word  'slaughtered,'  "  because  that  word  possessed  for  him  "the 
burning  intensity  of  truth. "^  The  Century's  editors  determined  rather 

38 


JOHN  HAY  ON  GARFIELD'S  DEATHBED  LATIN 


39 


John  Hay  as  Secretary  of  State,  about  1898.  Courtesy  of  Brown  University 
Library. 


40  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

explicitly,  however,  that  the  phrase  "Strangulatus  pro  Republica" 
was  to  be  translated  "Slaughtered  for  the  Republic."  On  30  Novem- 
ber 1881  the  New  York  Tribune  published  Hay's  letter  under  the 
heading,  "  'Strangulatus  Pro  Republica':  What  General  Garfield 
Meant  By  It"  (p.4)  — 

Sir:  The  December  number  of  The  Century  Magazine  gives  a 
facsimile  of  a  remarkable  autograph  of  the  late  President 
written  on  the  17th  of  July  —  his  name  followed  by  the  words 
Strangulatus  pro  Republica.  The  phrase  is  translated  by  Col- 
onel Rockwell,  in  whose  presence  it  was  written,  and  by  the 
editor  of  the  magazine  —  "Slaughtered  for  the  Republic." 
Colonel  Rockwell  does  not  intimate  that  the  President  him- 
self translated  the  words  in  that  way,  and  we  are  therefore 
free  to  construe  the  passage  as  it  stands.  With  all  due 
respect  to  Colonel  Rockwell  —  whose  knowledge  of  Latin  is 
probably  better  than  mine  —  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  the 
tragic  fate  of  his  friend  and  classmate  has  suggested  a 
reading  of  the  phrase  which  it  will  hardly  bear.  The  Latin 
strangulare,  in  its  literal  sense,  applies  exclusively  to  death 
by  choking  or  suffocation.  It  is  derived,  without  change  of 
meaning,  from  the  corresponding  Greek  verb,  which  comes  in 
turn  from  the  noun  straggala,  a  halter.  So  good  a  Latinist  as 
the  President  would  scarcely  have  chosen  a  word  of  such  nar- 
row and  inappropriate  meaning,  when  the  better  word  occisus, 
to  describe  death  by  wounding,  must  have  been  ready  to  his 
hand.  But  there  is  a  metaphorical  meaning  of  strangulatus 
which  is  used  in  the  poets  and  in  writers  of  post-classical 
prose,  especially  writers  upon  law,  which  was  probably  in 
General  Garfield's  mind,  as  he  lay  chained  to  his  bed  in  that 
long  midsummer  agony.  The  word  in  that  sense  means  "tor- 
tured" or  "tormented."  There  is  authority  for  such  use  of  it  in 
Ovid,  Seneca  and  Juvenal.^  All  the  evidence  we  have  indicates 
that  on  the  17th  of  July  the  President's  own  hope  of  recovery, 
as  well  as  that  of  his  attendants,  was  still  strong.  May  we  not 
then  reasonably  infer  that  this  most  impressive  and  memor- 
able legend  means  "Tortured  for  the  Commonwealth?" 

JOHN  HAY 


JOHN  HAY  ON  GARFIELD'S  DEATHBED  LATIN  41 

NOTES 

'"An  Autograph  of  President  Garfield,"  Century  Magazine,  Dec.  1881,  p.  298. 
23:298. 

'IVIS  letter,  A.F.  Rockwell  to  John  Hay,  30  November  1881,  Brown  University 
Libraries.  Quoted  with  consent. 

'The  Tribune  for  27  Decennber  1881  (p. 2)  printed  a  letter  on  this  topic  over  the 
single  initial  "L,"  signing  out  of  Millbrook,  N.Y.: 

I  think  that  when  the  late  President  Garfield  wrote  the  words  quoted  above 

["Strangulatus  Pro  Republica"],  he  must  have  had  in  mind  the  following 

lines  of  Ovid,  namely: 

"Strangulat  inclusus  dolor  atque  exaestuat  intus,  Cogitur  et  virea  multipli- 

care  suas,"  Tristia,  v.,  1,  63. 

Pain,  internally  confined,  torments  there  and  ferments  and  is  thus  compelled 

to  increase  its  strength. 


THE  LEGAL  PHILOSOPHY  OF 
ROBERT  G.  INGERSOLL 


Scott  Owen  Reed 


Few  lawyer-orators  have  taken  as  great  a  fall  from  the  heights  of 
lifetime  prominence  to  the  depths  of  posthumous  obscurity  as  has 
Robert  G.  Ingersoll.  In  his  day,  Ingersoll  was  one  of  Illinois'  most 
famous  "sons."  His  reputation  as  an  exponent  of  agnosticism,  as  a 
political  publicist,  and  as  a  lawyer  of  the  first  order  was  well-nigh 
nationwide.  However,  after  his  death,  Ingersoll  seems  to  have  been 
all  but  forgotten  by  those  of  his  own  profession,  even  in  his  home 
state.  Aside  from  an  occasional  anecdote  or  shred  of  biography,  little 
is  to  be  found  on  Ingersoll  in  legal  literature.^  This  is  an  unfortunate 
omission,  for  even  though  he  did  not  survive  into  this  century, 
Robert  Ingersoll  exerted  a  powerful  influence  on  many  who  did, 
especially  among  those  who  practiced  or  shaped  the  law.  Robert 
LaFollette,  William  E.  Borah,  Clarence  Darrow,  Albert  J.  Beveridge 
and  Eugene  Debs  all  acknowledged  their  intellectual  debt  to  him.  In 
fact,  one  of  Ingersoll's  biographers  has  claimed  that  if  one  reads 
Darrow  on  Fundamentalism,  one  reads  Ingersoll.^  In  his  autobiog- 
raphy, Darrow  recalled  the  impact  that  Ingersoll  had  had  on  his  legal 
career: 


When  I  was  beginning  to  absorb  and  to  act,  all  the  young  lawyers 
and  speakers  were  aping  Ingersoll's  style  ....  I  heard  him  twice, 
and  with  every  one  in  the  audience  I  was  entranced.  Along  with 
the  other  aspiring  lawyers  I  tried  to  adopt  his  style,  and  I  think  I 
succeeded  fairly  well,  at  that  time,  but  it  was  not  Ingersoll.  Others 
tried,  too,  but  most  of  them  failed,  so  far  as  I  knew.  I  have  found  a 
few  who  mastered  his  form  of  expression,  but  they  lacked  what 
Ingersoll  never  lacked,  and  that  was  something  worth  saying.  I 
took  myself  in  hand.  I  made  up  my  mind  that  I  could  not  be  Inger- 
soll and  had  no  right  to  try,  and  did  not  want  to  try;  the  best  I  could 
do  was  to  be  myself.' 

A  man  who  was  so  important  in  moulding  the  thoughts  and  habits  of 
many  of  this  century's  lawyers  should  not  be  relegated  to  the  dust 
of  the  archives.  In  this  paper,  I  intend  to  (1)  give  a  brief  biographical 
picture  of  Ingersoll  the  lawyer  and  (2)  present  and  analyze  his  con- 
ceptions of  the  role  of  law  in  society.  Only  then  may  Ingersoll's  im- 
pact upon  the  bar  of  this  century  be  assessed. 

42 


THE  LEGAL  PHILOSOPHY  OF  INGERSOLL  43 

I.  IngersoM's  Legal  Career 

In  many  ways,  the  legal  career  of  Robert  Ingersoll  typifies  that  of 
the  self-made  nineteenth-century  lawyer,  but  his  fame  as  an  agnos- 
tic orator  distinguished  him  from  the  rest  of  his  profession.  Born  on 
August  11,  1833  in  Dresden,  New  York,  Ingersoll  was  the  son  of  an 
evangelical  minister,  the  Reverend  John  Ingersoll.  His  mother,  Mary, 
an  ardent  abolitionist  like  her  husband,  died  when  Robert  was  two 
years  old.  Not  only  were  the  five  Ingersoll  children,  of  whom  Robert 
was  the  youngest,  without  a  mother,  but  they  were  also  without  a 
permanent  home  for  most  of  their  youth.  Reverend  Ingersoll's  career 
took  the  family  from  New  York  City  to  Cazenovia,  Hampton,  and 
Belleville  in  New  York,  to  Oberlin,  Ashtabula,  and  North  Madison  in 
Ohio,  and  to  Milwaukee,  to  mention  but  a  few  of  the  stops  along  the 
way.  This  period  contributed  to  the  formation  of  many  of  Ingersoll's 
beliefs,  including  his  reaction  against  orthodox  religion.  Referring 
to  his  strict  upbringing  and  to  memories  of  fire  and  brimstone, 
Ingersoll  later  remarked  that  "I  have  a  dim  recollection  of  hating 
Jehovah  when  I  was  extremely  small."" 

When  he  was  eighteen,  Robert  headed  for  Conneautville,  Penn- 
sylvania to  find  work  in  the  lumber  business  of  a  relative.  This  fell 
through  and  Robert  rejoined  his  father  in  Greenville,  Illinois,  where 
he  received  a  general  education  at  the  "academy"  of  Socrates 
Smith.  With  a  smattering  of  formal  schooling  behind  him,  he  was 
able  to  earn  a  modest  living  as  a  teacher  in  Mount  Vernon,  Illinois. 
But  Robert  had  to  abandon  this  position  to  tend  to  his  father,  then  in 
Marion,  Illinois,  who  had  fallen  ill  with  pneumonia.  Ingersoll  was 
first  exposed  to  the  law  in  Marion.  He  found  employment  as  an 
assistant  to  the  clerk  of  the  county  and  circuit  courts,  studying  law 
in  the  offices  of  Willis  Allen  in  his  spare  time.  This  was  also  cut 
short  for  Robert  when  he  accompanied  his  father  to  Tennessee, 
where  he  found  another  teaching  job.  Teaching  and  Tennessee  both 
left  him  dissatisfied,  and  he  returned  to  Marion  and  the  law.  After 
less  than  six  months  of  further  study  in  the  Allen  offices,  Robert 
and  his  elder  brother  Ebenezer  (Ebon)  Clark  Ingersoll  were  admitted 
to  the  Illinois  bar  in  1854. 

The  Ingersoll  brothers  practiced  law  in  Marion  and  in  Shawnee- 
town.  Robert  wrote  that  "I  shall  leave  this  country  as  soon  as  I  feel 
confident  that  I  am  a  first-rate  lawyer."^  He  acted  on  this  prediction 
when  he  and  Clark  moved  to  Peoria  to  establish  a  law  office  in 
February  of  1858.  As  speaking  ability  was  vital  to  the  budding  trial 
lawyer  of  this  era,  and  as  the  Ingersolls  did  not  want  for  that  skill, 
Robert  was  able  to  say,  "I  think  we  are  going  to  make  lots  of 
money. "^  The  Ingersoll  law  offices  were  lighted  with  gas,  which 
prompted  Robert  to  proclaim  that  "gas  you  know  is  an  excellent 


WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 


Robert  Ingersoll  in  1868. 


THE  LEGAL  PHILOSOPHY  OF  INGERSOLL  45 

thing  in  law,  in  fact  indispensable."^  Some  have  intimated  that,  in 
addition  to  an  appreciation  of  the  equipment  of  the  office,  this  is 
also  an  Ingersollian  jab  at  the  substance  of  his  profession,  or  at  his 
fellow  practitioners.^ 

As  might  be  expected  of  one  with  the  skills  of  a  polished  orator 
and  the  prestige  of  an  accomplished  attorney,  Ingersoll  tried  his 
hand  at  politics.  He  was  the  Democratic  candidate  for  the  Congres- 
sional seat  from  Peoria  in  1860,  but  he  went  down  to  defeat  along 
with  Stephen  A.  Douglas  and  many  others  of  his  party.  The  outbreak 
of  Warsaw  Robert  organize  the  11th  Illinois  Cavalry,  which  he  led  into 
action  the  following  year.  In  the  meantime,  he  had  married  Eva 
Parker,  a  religious  rationalist  from  neighboring  Groveland.  Ingersoll 
was  captured  by  Confederate  forces  in  Tennessee,  but  he  was  soon 
returned  to  Peoria  where  he  could  continue  his  career. 

Immediately  after  the  war,  IngersoM's  reputation  began  to  grow 
at  an  ever-increasing  rate.  He  delivered  the  first  of  his  well-known 
addresses,  "Progress,"  in  1866,  and  the  next  year,  was  appointed  as 
Illinois'  first  Attorney-General  by  his  friend.  Governor  Richard  J. 
Oglesby.  Robert  was  firmly  in  the  Republican  camp  by  this  time, 
and  he  sought  that  party's  nomination  for  governor  in  1868.  Unsuc- 
cessful, he  turned  from  an  active  role  in  politics,  henceforth  to  serve 
only  as  an  orator  for,  not  a  candidate  in,  the  Republican  Party. 

As  he  abandoned  his  aspirations  as  a  politican,  Ingersoll  expanded 
his  efforts  as  a  champion  of  agnosticism,  delivering  such  lectures 
as  "The  Gods,"  "Humboldt,"  "Thomas  Paine,"  "Individuality,"  and 
"Heretics  and  Heresies"  in  which  he  could  express  his  true  feelings 
on  religion,  knowing  that  he  had  no  political  future  to  lose.  His 
popularity  as  a  lecturer  extended  far  beyond  Illinois.  The  strength  of 
his  persuasive  powers  took  him  east  to  Maine  and  west  to  California. 
It  was  at  the  1876  Republican  National  Convention,  however,  that 
Ingersoll  earned  for  himself  the  status  of  a  national  figure,  and 
perhaps  his  best-known  place  in  American  history.  The  Maine  dele- 
gation, because  of  Ingersoll's  great  successes  as  a  speaker  in  that 
state,  requested  him  to  nominate  James  G.  Blaine  for  the  presidency, 
and  Robert  did  not  disappoint  them:  "Like  an  armed  warrior,  like  a 
plumed  knight,  James  G.  Blaine  marched  down  the  halls  of  the 
American  Congress  and  threw  his  shining  lance  full  and  fairagainst 
the  brazen  foreheads  of  the  defamers  of  his  country  and  the 
maligners  of  his  honor."^  The  enthusiasm  generated  by  Ingersoll's 
eloquence  was  somewhat  dissipated  because  the  convention  was 
adjourned  until  the  next  day,  when  Blaine  lost  the  nomination  to 
Rutherford  B.  Hayes.  Nonetheless,  the  "man  from  Maine"  and  the 
"plumed  knight"  metaphor  were  inextricably  linked  from  then  on. 

For  some  time,  Ingersoll  had  not  been  satisfied  with  Peoria.  He 


46  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

had  written  that  "this  place  is  infinitely  stupid  and  getting  more  so 
every  day,"'"  and  that  in  Peoria  "too  much  has  to  be  done  for  too  little 
money."^^  Thus,  in  1878,  the  Ingersoll  family  moved  to  Washington, 
D.C.,  where  they  remained  until  1885.  Most  of  Robert's  time  was 
spent  on  speech-making  rather  than  on  the  practice  of  law;  at  that 
stage  in  his  career,  he  could  command  between  $400  and  $7,000  an 
appearance.  This  does  not  mean  that  he  abandoned  the  law;  on  the 
contrary,  in  1882  and  1883,  he  was  defense  counsel  in  the  so-called 
"Star  Route  Trials,"  involving  allegations  of  corruption  in  the  pro- 
curement and  use  of  mail  route  contracts.  It  was  one  of  the  most 
celebrated,  and  lengthy,  legal  battles  of  the  decade,  and  Ingersoll 
obtained  an  acquittal  —  perhaps  by  virtue  of  his  oratorical  prowess 
rather  than  from  the  apparent  innocence  of  his  clients. 

Another  move  was  prompted  in  1885  by  Robert's  increasing 
need  to  be  present  in  New  York  to  tend  to  legal  business.  After  he 
had  opened  his  law  offices  at  40  Wall  Street,  he  wrote,  "here  I  am 
among  the  bulls  and  the  bears  listening  to  the  bellowing  and  the 
growling,  ready  to  take  the  side  that  hands  over  the  money  first. "^^ 
Among  Ingersoll's  more  noteworthy  legal  nemeses  were  the  cor- 
porate creatures  of  Jay  Gould,  against  which  Ingersoll  represented 
such  potential  takeover  victims  as  the  Bankers'  and  Merchants' 
Telegraph  Company,  The  New  York  Elevated  Railroad,  and  the  Com- 
mercial Telegraph  Company.  While  corporate  litigation  was  a  staple 
for  "Bob,"  he  did  accept  an  occasional  criminal  case,  including  the 
trial  of  C.B.  Reynolds  for  violation  of  a  long-dormant  New  Jersey 
blasphemy  statute.  Reynolds  was  found  guilty,  but  the  nominal  fine 
imposed  (and  paid  by  Ingersoll)  made  this  a  moral  victory  for  Inger- 
soll, who  took  the  case  largely  because  of  his  association  with  the 
cause  of  agnosticism.  His  religious  beliefs  also  led  him  to  turn 
down  the  request  for  assistance  from  the  chief  defense  counsel  in 
the  trial  resulting  from  the  1886  Haymarket  Affair  for  fear  of  pre- 
judicing the  defendants. 

One  of  Ingersoll's  last  major  cases  came  in  1891,  with  the  con- 
test over  the  multi-million  dollar  will  of  Andrew  J.  Davis,  litigated  in 
Montana.  The  heirs  of  Davis  promised  Ingersoll  $100,000  if  the  will 
were  broken,  but  the  case  was  eventually  compromised  and  the 
legal  fees  earned  by  Ingersoll  were  only  paid  to  his  widow  in  1909, 
after  she  brought  a  suit  which  finally  reached  the  U.S.  Supreme 
Court.  Nonetheless,  Ingersoll  was  able  to  write  (albeit  in  1890),  "I 
think  the  law  a  good  profession."'^ 

Ingersoll's  substantial  involvement  in  legal  work  in  New  York  did 
not  detract  from  his  presence  on  the  lecture  circuit  or  his  prom- 
inence as  a  national  figure.  In  fact,  his  residence  in  New  York  spurred 
associations  and  gatherings  with  many  movers  and  shakers  in  politics, 
business  and  the  arts,  including  Andrew  Carnegie,  Thomas  Bracket 


THE  LEGAL  PHILOSOPHY  OF  INGERSOLL  47 

Reed,  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  Henry  George,  Walt  Whitman  and 
IVIark  Twain.  IngersoH's  agnostic  addresses  and  writings  remained 
popular;  in  1887,  when  the  North  American  Review  invited  him  to 
contribute  to  a  theological  debate,  along  with  William  E.  Gladstone 
and  Henry  Cardinal  Manning,  it  offered  Ingersoll  $25  a  page,  while  it 
paid  Gladstone  only  $15. 

Ingersoll  pursued  a  full  lecture  schedule  until  1896,  when  he  suf- 
fered a  slight  cerebral  hemorrhage  while  speaking  in  Wisconsin.  He 
returned  to  the  lecture  platform  within  a  few  months,  but  on  a  slightly 
more  restricted  timetable.  For  the  next  two  years,  he  devoted  him- 
self almost  exclusively  to  his  speaking  tours,  up  to  his  unexpected 
death  from  angina  pectoris  on  July  21, 1899.  His  passing  was  marked 
by  messages  and  eulogies  from,  among  others,  Andrew  Carnegie, 
Clarence  Darrow,  and  Mark  Twain. 

The  controversy  spawned  by  Robert  IngersoH's  theological  views 
did  not  subside  with  his  death.  An  examination  of  periodical  litera- 
ture from  thefirst  quarter  of  this  century  will  attest  to  that.  The  post- 
humous tributes  penned  by  such  literary  figures  as  Ambrose  Bierce, 
Hamlin  Garland,  and  Edgar  Lee  Masters  stand  for  a  different  propo- 
sition: that  no  matter  how  little  known  Ingersoll  may  be  today,  his 
influence  on  his  own  times  was  substantial. 


II.  IngersoH's  Legal  Philosophy 

The  most  significant  barrier  to  the  student  of  the  juristic  thought 
of  Robert  G.  Ingersoll  is  in  locating  the  "core"  of  that  thought.  For 
example,  in  a  political  speech  delivered  in  1877,  Ingersoll  mused,  "I 
have  sometimes  wondered  whether  or  not  in  the  future  there  would 
not  be  discovered  such  a  science  as  the  science  of  government.  I  do 
not  know  what  you  think,  but  what  little  I  do  know,  and  what  little 
experience  has  been  mine,  is,  I  must  admit,  against  it."'"  Yet,  in  his 
address  entitled  "Crimes  Against  Criminals,"  he  urged  that  "lawyers 
ought  to  be  foremost  in  legislative  and  judicial  reform,  and  of  all 
men  they  should  understand  the  philosophy  of  mind,  the  causes  of 
human  action,  and  the  real  science  of  government."'^  Nonetheless, 
when  one  looks  past  the  rhetorical  inconsistencies  of  the  suc- 
cessful orator,  one  discovers  an  underlying  system  of  jurisprudence 
that  presents  forceful  and  fundamental  arguments  about  the  rela- 
tionship of  man  to  his  laws. 

Many  of  IngersoH's  ideas  stemmed  from  his  views  on  the  order- 
ing of  the  world  and  the  course  of  the  history  of  mankind.  The 
universe  was  a  particularly  orderly  place  to  Ingersoll,  who  started 
with  a  scientific  postulate  as  the  basis  for  his  philosophical  system: 
"Substance  (matter)  cannot  be  destroyed.'"^  Therefore,  it  could  not 


48  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

have  been  created:  "And  then  I  asked  myself:  What  is  force?  We 
cannot  conceive  of  the  creation  of  force,  or  of  its  destruction.  Force 
may  be  changed  from  one  form  to  another  —  from  motion  to  heat  — 
but  it  cannot  be  destroyed  —  annihilated.  If  force  cannot  be  de- 
stroyed it  could  not  have  been  created.  It  is  eternal."'^  Logically,  to 
Ingersoll,  "matter  could  not  have  existed  before  force.  Force  could 
not  have  existed  before  matter.  Matter  and  force  could  only  be  con- 
ceived of  together."'^ 

Human  thought  fits  into  this  scheme  as  "a  form  of  force,"  and  is 
therefore  governed  by  all  the  laws  that  control  other  types  of  force.^^  In 
all  matter  was  to  be  found,  in  some  way,  "what  we  call  force,"  and 
one  of  the  most  important  forms  of  force  was  "intelligence,"  which 
was  present  in  various  types  of  "substance"  to  a  greater  or  lesser 
extent." 

It  is  clear  from  an  analysis  of  Ingersoll's  works  that  intelligence 
was  the  highest  form  of  force.  In  his  speeches  to  the  juries  in  the 
Star  Route  trials,  he  extolled  the  virtues  of  the  diffusion  of  in- 
telligence by  the  use  of  the  mails,  and  at  one  point  went  so  far  as  to 
claim  that  "if  there  is  anything  that  is  to  perpetuate  this  Republic  it 
is  the  distribution  of  intelligence  from  one  end  to  the  other."^'  Intel- 
ligence was  named  as  a  substitute  for  the  Bible  as  a  moral  guide, 
and  was  regarded  as  the  key  to  the  future  progress  of  mankind. ^^  As 
he  put  it  in  "Why  I  Am  An  Agnostic,"  "Perfect  intelligence  and 
perfect  goodness  must  go  together."" 

One  might  suppose  that  a  man  who  had  given  human  intelli- 
gence a  position  of  such  prominence  in  the  ordering  of  the  universe 
would  also  place  great  importance  on  the  will  of  the  individual.  But, 
one  must  recall  that  intelligence  was  like  other  forces,  and  thus  no 
more  or  less  predictable  than  inertia  or  friction.  It  was  thus  not 
under  the  control  of  the  individual;  rather,  the  individual  was  under 
the  control  of  his  own  intelligence.  As  Ingersoll  quaintly  put  it,  "the 
brain  thinks  in  spite  of  you."^"  His  writings  must  be  considered  with 
this  characterization  of  man  in  mind,  for  this  is  no  isolated  state- 
ment. As  he  said  in  "Progress,"  "States  and  nations,  like  individuals, 
do  as  they  must.  Back  of  revolution,  of  rebellion,  of  slavery  and 
freedom,  are  the  efficient  causes.""  This  is  one  of  the  most  oft- 
repeated  themes  in  Ingersoll  literature." 

Given  this  "determinist"  view,  Ingersoll  could  be  expected  to 
believe  that  "the  natural  is  supreme.""  He  marvelled  at  the  connec- 
tion between  events  in  such  a  way  that  "every  fact  in  the  universe 
will  fit  every  other  fact  in  the  universe.""  This  should  not  be  taken 
to  mean,  though,  that  Ingersoll's  world  was  static,  however  much  it 
was  ruled  by  the  laws  of  science.  His  theories  on  the  history  of 
mankind  belie  such  an  interpretation. 

The  fact  that  humanity  was  completely  controlled  by  the  forces 


THE  LEGAL  PHILOSOPHY  OF  INGERSOLL  49 

of  nature  led  Ingersoll  to  look  charitably  upon  his  species.  "There  is 
an  immensity  of  good  in  the  human  race,"  he  said,  though  perhaps 
no  more  than  in  anything  else  produced  by  nature."  Whether  this 
opinion  was  derived  from  his  conception  of  the  universe,  or  was 
merely  a  restatement  of  his  philosophy  of  history  is  open  to  a  good 
deal  of  speculation,  but  it  is  certain  that  Ingersoll's  look  backwards 
left  him  with  a  great  amount  of  optimism  for  the  future. 

Ingersoll  declared  that  "History  is  but  the  merest  outline  of  the 
exceptional  —  of  a  few  great  crimes,  calamities,  wars,  mistakes  and 
dramatic  virtues.""  But  this  did  not  stop  him  from  discerning  a  pat- 
tern to  it  (or,  as  some  would  say,  from  selecting  a  pattern  and  choos- 
ing the  facts  from  history  that  supported  it).  The  theme  was  stated 
in  one  of  his  earliest  lectures,  and  countless  variations  followed 
during  his  career.  Thus  the  history  of  mankind  is  the  history  of  pro- 
gress and  improvement. =>'  Ingersoll  was  able  to  observe  the  end 
products  of  this  linear  picture  of  history:  "a  majority  of  the  civilized 
world  is  for  freedom  —  nearly  all  the  Christian  denominations  are 
for  liberty.  The  world  has  changed  —  the  people  are  nobler,  better 
and  purer  than  ever.""  Similarly,  he  asserted,  "the  history  of 
civilization  is  the  history  of  the  slow  and  painful  enfranchisement  of 
the  human  race."" 

Perhaps  Ingersoll  looked  at  his  own  era,  compared  it  with  his 
conception  of  the  past,  and  concluded  that  continuous  progress  was 
a  necessary  component  of  human  society.  Perhaps  he  engaged  in  a 
detailed  analysis  of  two  of  his  least  favorite  institutions,  slavery  and 
organized  religion,  and  generalized  from  his  perception  of  their 
decline.  In  either  case,  he  felt  that  material  and  intellectual  advances 
were  inevitable,  all  due  to  the  omnipresent  "force"  called  intelligence. 

The  only  limits  to  progress  were  its  causes:  history  and  intelli- 
gence. In  his  essay  on  "Art  and  Morality,"  Ingersoll  noted  that  "of 
course  there  is  no  such  thing  as  absolute  morality."^"  Morality,  like 
other  thoughts,  is  produced  by  man's  surroundings,  by  the  action 
and  interaction  of  things  upon  his  mind.^^  As  he  put  it,  "Actions  are 
deemed  right  or  wrong,  according  to  experience  and  the  conclusions 
of  reason.""  Since  Ingersoll  was  wont  to  equate  morality  with  in- 
tellect, it  seems  fair  to  conclude  that  actions  were  deemed  produc- 
tive or  counter-productive  to  the  good  of  mankind  according  to  the 
same  factors.  Of  these,  intelligence  showed  the  greatest  promise  to 
lead  to  solutions  of  present  and  future  problems  faced  by  man.  If 
man  "is  intelligent  in  the  highest  sense  he  will  be  good,  and  if  good 
and  intelligent  he  will  know  that  his  highest  good  can  be  obtained 
only  through  the  happiness  of  others,  and  by  means  that  tend  to 
better  the  condition  of  the  race.  It  seems  to  me  that  intelligence 
(enough  of  it)  will  cause  the  selfish  and  the  generous  to  act  in  the 
same  way."^^ 


50  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

As  one  type  of  force  may  be  converted  into  another,  so  may  human 
thought  be  changed  into  "intelligence,"  by  the  dissemination  of 
knowledge,  particularly  of  science. ^^  Ingersoll  frequently  applauded 
the  Republican  Party  as  "the  party  of  reason  ...  the  party  of  educa- 
tion .  .  .  the  party  of  science. "^^  He  stated  that  "the  first  thing  is  to 
be  born  right,"  in  other  words,  with  certain  intellectual  capacities; 
"the  next,  to  grow  up  in  a  climate  of  kindness  and  refinement,  and 
the  next,  to  be  'really'  educated  —  taught  the  useful."""  Thus,  man 
became  more  intelligent  with  more  experience  to  draw  upon,  and 
the  few  who  were  truly  intelligent  would  gradually  modify  man's  en- 
vironment so  that  it  would  impart  a  better  set  of  experiences  to 
future  generations. 

Eventually,  man  would  reach  perfection.  Ingersoll  believed  "that 
finally  wisdom  will  sit  in  the  legislatures,  justice  in  the  courts,  charity 
will  occupy  all  the  pulpits,  and  that  finally  the  world  will  be  governed 
by  justice  and  charity,  and  by  the  splendid  light  of  liberty.""'  As  he 
said  in  his  lecture  on  "Progress," 

We  are  standing  on  the  shore  of  an  infinite  ocean  whose  count- 
less waves,  freighted  with  blessings,  are  welcoming  our  adventur- 
ous feet.  Progress  has  been  written  on  every  soul.  The  human  race 
is  advancing.  Forward  oh  sublime  army  of  progress,  forward  until 
law  is  justice,  forward  until  ignorance  is  unknown,  forward  while 
there  is  a  spiritual  or  temporal  throne,  forward  until  superstition  is 
a  forgotten  dream,  forward  until  the  world  is  free,  forward  until 
human  reason,  clothed  in  the  purple  of  authority,  is  king  of 
kings. "^ 

Yet,  Ingersoll's  vision  of  the  future  was  not  as  unqualifiedly  opti- 
mistic as  the  statement  above  would  lead  one  to  believe.  He  realized 
that  those  without  the  proper  element  of  intelligence  would  act  as  a 
perpetual  source  of  friction  on  the  forward  motion  of  mankind:  "This 
is  the  reason  that  the  work  of  raising  the  race  seems  so  enormous 
and  the  time  for  its  accomplishment  so  long.""^  He  was  also  of  the 
opinion,  however,  that  the  exceptional  individuals  could  not  speed 
the  rate  of  society's  enlightenment  by  forming  their  own  societies. 
He  wrote  that  "probably  the  society  in  which  we  live  —  that  has 
been  formed  by  necessity  —  is  the  best  that  can  at  present  exist. 
My  hope  is,  that  it  will  grow:  better,  day  by  day.  But  the  world  will 
never  be  reformed  by  the  good  people  acting  together  —  they  have 
to  remain  with  the  rest.""" 

There  was  little  room  for  chance  in  Ingersoll's  history;  one  could 
trace  civilization  with  the  use  of  the  map  of  experience  and  the  com- 
pass of  reason.  This,  of  course,  is  the  barest  trace  of  a  theory  of 
history,  and  Ingersoll  himself  realized  that  the  details  of  the  rela- 
tionship between  natural  laws  and  human  behavior  could  not  be 


THE  LEGAL  PHILOSOPHY  OF  INGERSOLL  51 

specified  to  any  great  extent  until  man's  arsenal  of  scientific  knowl- 
edge had  grown  appreciably.  In  a  letter  to  Horace  Traubel,  he  mused, 
"perhaps  Civilization  and  Savagery  pursue  each  other  like  light  and 
darkness  around  the  globe.  Perhaps  after  a  time  the  soil  occupied 
by  a  nation  —  a  people  —  wears  out  and  the  nation  goes  down  men- 
tally and  physically,  and  then  the  land  lies  idle  for  centuries  getting 
ready  for  a  better  race.""^  Nonetheless,  Ingersoll  believed  that  the 
best  society  would  dominate  the  world  eventually,  in  much  the 
same  way  that  he  believed  that  his  Republic  would  "control  every 
inch  of  soil  from  the  Arctic  to  the  Antarctic.""^ 

This  should  not  be  taken  to  mean  that,  since  Ingersoll  thought 
that  perfect  goodness  and  perfect  intelligence  would  ultimately 
triumph,  he  also  thought  that  whatever  survived  was,  of  necessity, 
good.  As  he  said  in  another  letter  to  Traubel,  "The  'Plan'  of  Nature  I 
detest.  Competition,  and  struggle,  the  survival  of  the  strongest,  of 
those  with  the  sharpest  claws  and  longest  teeth.  Life  feeding  on  life 
with  ravenous,  merciless  hunger  —  every  leaf  a  battlefield  —  war 
everywhere.  No  wonder  that  man  has  believed  in  devils.""^  To  call 
Ingersoll  a  pure  "social  Darwinist,"  then,  may  be  to  go  too  far.  But 
there  is  a  fine  line  between  a  world  in  which  progress  is  determined 
by  the  laws  of  nature  and  one  in  which  it  is  determined  by  intelli- 
gence and  experience,  which  are  controlled  by  the  laws  of  nature. 
Ingersoll  may  have  wanted  to  place  his  faith  in  some  element  of 
man  beyond  his  scientific  capacities,  but  could  find  no  method  by 
which  to  do  so  without  returning  to  the  mysticism  and  superstition 
which  he  detested.  As  in  other  issues,  the  radical  and  the  orthodox 
tugged  at  Ingersoll's  sleeve,  and  his  writings  and  speeches  indicate 
that  neither  was  able  to  win  him  over. 

Ingersoll  was  also  a  political  orator,  but  it  seems  that  his  philo- 
sophical creed  dictated  his  political  affiliations  rather  than  vice  versa. 
The  rationalist  unveiled  in  his  views  on  history  appears  again  with 
great  force  in  his  theories  of  government.  That  men  would  form  a 
government  was  inevitable;  that  they  would  agree  to  band  together 
no  sooner  than  the  formation  of  a  government  was  incredible: 


So  the  defenders  of  monarchy  have  taken  the  ground  that  societies 
were  formed  by  contract  —  as  though  at  one  time  men  all  lived 
apart,  and  came  together  by  agreement  and  formed  a  government. 
We  might  just  as  well  say  that  the  trees  got  into  groves  by  con- 
tract or  conspiracy.  Man  is  a  social  being.  By  living  together  there 
grow  out  of  the  relation,  certain  regulations,  certain  customs. 
These  at  last  hardened  into  what  we  call  law  —  into  what  we  call 
forms  of  government  —  and  people  who  wish  to  defend  the  idea 
that  we  got  everything  from  the  king,  say  that  our  fathers  made  a 
contract.  Nothing  can  be  more  absurd.  Men  did  not  agree  upon  a 
form  of  government  and  then  come  togther;  but  being  together, 
they  made  rules  for  the  regulation  of  conduct."' 


52  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

Government  thus  reflects  the  practices  rather  than  the  aspirations 
of  the  men  who  founded  it,  and  its  formation  was  one  of  necessity, 
though  certainly  not  the  necessity  found  in  Hobbes.  Ingersoll,  denying 
the  contractual  theory  of  government,  also  denied  that  man  could 
alienate  his  inherent  right  to  self  defense  when  he  either  joined  a 
society  or  formed  a  government:  "The  right  of  self-defense  exists, 
not  only  in  the  individual,  but  in  society.""^  Instead  of  viewing  the  in- 
dividual's right  of  self-defense  as  opposed  to  society's  right,  he  saw 
them  as  mutally  supportive,  and  in  fact,  the  latter  was  no  more  than 
an  aggregation  of  the  former.  The  government,  from  that  stance, 
never  took  on  a  life  of  its  own,  or  a  value  in  its  mere  existence,  as  it 
may  have  done  for  Edmund  Burke,  but  instead  was  valid  insofar  as  it 
reflected  the  activities  of  the  people  it  served. 

Consensus  was,  of  course,  the  basis  for  Ingersoll's  government, 
but  a  true  consensus  was  achieved  only  with  "the  recorded  will  of  a 
majority.""  By  this,  he  meant  not  that  the  votes  should  be  weighted 
according  to  the  intellect  or  goodness  of  a  voter,  but  only  that  a  vote 
be  free  of  the  pull  of  special  interest  groups.  One  could  ascertain 
whether  the  law  was  free  of  those  illicit  influences  by  the  way  in 
which  it  conformed  to  the  habits  of  the  governed. 

Once  a  duly  constituted  majority  had  expressed  its  will,  the  gov- 
ernment was  bound  to  follow  that  voice,  and  as  Ingersoll  intimated 
during  a  political  speech  in  the  Grant  campaign,  it  then  becomes  the 
duty  of  the  citizen  to  "enforce  submission  to  the  will  of  the  majority."^^ 
This  may  be  mere  rhetoric  aided  by  hindsight,  as  he  here  countered 
arguments  placed  forward  by  the  secessionists.  In  another  context, 
Ingersoll  was  not  quite  as  emphatic  about  the  dominance  of  the  will 
of  a  majority.  He  believed  that  "no  man  should  be  compelled  to 
adopt  the  theology  of  another;  neither  should  a  minority,  however 
small,  be  forced  to  acquiesce  in  the  opinions  of  a  majority,  however 
large,"  and,  in  1868,  he  excoriated  Ulysses  S.  Grant  for  accepting 
the  Republican  presidential  nomination  on  terms  which  indicated 
that  he  was  to  be  no  more  than  a  conduit  for  the  voice  of  the 
people."  This  may  be  seen  as  Ingersoll's  retreat  from  purely  majori- 
tarian  rule  if  it  suited  him,  as  in  the  issues  of  religion.  It  makes  more 
sense,  however,  to  accept  his  democratic  theories  only  within  the 
legitimate  sphere  of  government. 

Libertarian  oratory  adorns  the  pages  of  Ingersoll's  works.  He 
said,  for  example,  "Government  and  laws  are  for  the  preservation  of 
rights  and  the  regulation  of  conduct.  One  man  should  not  be  allowed 
to  interfere  with  the  liberty  of  another.""  In  "Civil  Rights"  he  com- 
mented that  the  preservation  of  liberty  "is  the  only  use  for  govern- 
ment. There  is  no  other  excuse  for  legislatures,  or  presidents,  or 
courts,  for  statutes  or  decisions."^"  And  he  continued. 


THE  LEGAL  PHILOSOPHY  OF  INGERSOLL 


Robert  Ingersoll  in  1899. 


54  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

Liberty  is  not  simply  a  means  —  it  is  an  end.  Take  from  our 
history,  our  literature,  our  laws,  our  hearts  —  that  word,  and  we 
are  naught  but  moulded  clay.  Liberty  is  the  one  priceless  jewel.  It 
includes  and  holds  and  is  the  weal  and  wealth  of  life.  Liberty  is  the 
soil  and  light  and  rain  —  it  is  the  plant  and  bud  and  flower  and  fruit 
—  and  in  that  sacred  word  lie  all  the  seeds  of  progress,  love  and  joy." 

One  might  have  thought  that  Ingersoll  was  addressing  the  Virginia 
House  of  Burgesses  a  century  earlier.  And  if  his  patriot  garb  does 
not  adequately  allow  him  to  express  his  vehemence  in  support  of 
liberty,  the  suit  of  a  lawyer  certainly  does.  In  his  "Centennial  Ora- 
tion," he  said,  "Let  us  be  independent  of  party,  independent  of 
everybody  and  everything,  except  our  own  consciences  and  our 
own  brains Have  the  clear  title-deeds  in  fee  simple  to  your- 
selves, without  any  mortgage  on  the  premises  to  anybody  in  the 
world."" 

Typically,  government  acted  to  preserve  liberty  when  it  did  not 
thrust  itself  upon  its  citizens.  Regulation  was  to  be  used  as  little  as 
possible,  for  it  is  not  as  effective  as  education."  Ingersoll  set  limits 
on  the  power  of  the  government;  it  could  operate  more  freely  if  it 
acted  to  preserve  rights,  as  in  enforcing  civil  rights  measures,  but  it 
should  refrain  from  acting  if  it  interferes  with  those  rights,  as  it 
does,  according  to  Ingersoll,  when  it  pays  individuals  to  act  as  in- 
formers. After  all,  "the  business  of  a  government  is  to  protect  its 
citizens,  not  to  spread  nets."" 

In  the  writings  of  Ingersoll,  it  is  difficult  to  discern  a  definition  of 
"liberty"  or  of  "rights."  Since  both  are  assumed,  it  is  not  entirely 
clear  from  whence  either  is  derived,  though  Ingersoll  hinted  at  the 
source  of  man's  rights  in  his  essay  "God  in  the  Constitution": 

A  constitution  is  for  the  government  of  man  in  this  world.  It  is  the 
chain  that  people  put  upon  their  servants  as  well  as  upon  them- 
selves. It  defines  the  limit  of  power  and  the  limit  of  obedience.  It 
follows  then,  that  nothing  should  be  in  a  constitution  that  cannot 
be  enforced  by  the  power  of  the  state  —  that  is,  by  the  army  and 
navy.  Behind  every  provision  of  the  Constitution  should  stand  the 
force  of  the  nation.  Every  sword,  every  bayonet,  every  cannon 
should  be  there." 

He  hypothesized  that  the  inclusion  of  a  religion  clause  in  the  Con- 
stitution, requiring  belief  in  a  supreme  being,  would  be  unenforce- 
able, not  because  it  transgressed  morality  to  legislate  religion,  but 
instead  because  laws  could  not  influence  theological  beliefs.  Hypo- 
crites would  conform  without  believing,  and  the  conscientious 
would  believe  without  conforming. 

It  is  obvious  that  in  Ingersoll's  system,  a  constitution  may  not  re- 
quire the  government  to  act  out  an  impossibility.  But  there  is  little 
startling  material  here.  The  interesting  question  to  put  to  Ingersoll 
is  whether  individuals,  acting  under  the  noble  banner  of  majority 


THE  LEGAL  PHILOSOPHY  OF  INGERSOLL  55 

rule,  may  allow,  or  indeed  require,  the  government  to  do  all  but  the 
impossible.  Certainly  he  believed  that  with  a  wide  and  increasing 
dissemination  of  intelligence,  people  would  choose  to  have  their 
government  interfere  with  them  less  and  less,  as  they  became  more 
competent  to  ensure  their  own  liberty.  Nonetheless,  he  could  have 
conceived  of  a  government  which  acted  according  to  the  true  will  of 
a  majority,  which  infringed  significantly  upon  individual  liberty,  and 
which  did  not  aspire  to  the  impossible. 

Here  again,  two  forces  exert  themselves  on  the  philosophy  of 
Robert  G.  Ingersoll.  Much  of  his  rhetoric  would  lead  one  to  believe 
that  he  supported  strict  majoritarian  rule,  in  the  hope  that  educa- 
tion, science  and  reason  would  render  insubstantial  the  dangers 
posed  to  individual  rights.  Yet,  he  was  not  sure  enough  of  this  prin- 
ciple to  press  it  to  its  conclusions.  He  could  not  rely  upon  the  con- 
cept of  "rights"  to  moderate  the  excesses  of  democracy,  because 
he  could  find  no  source  for  those  rights  that  was  consonant  with  his 
system.  A  "social  contract,"  the  "will  of  the  majority,"  and  "natural 
law,"  were  all  unsatisfactory,  for  various  reasons.  Thus,  the  conflict 
between  democracy  and  liberty  was  left  largely  unresolved  in  the 
Ingersoll  theory  of  government.  At  most,  his  speeches  and  writings 
point  to  a  preference  for  "liberty,"  while  finding  no  source  for  it  any 
deeper  than  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  It  could  have 
been  that  he  thought  the  task  of  accommodating  the  conflict  too 
complex  for  such  an  all-encompassing  theory  of  government,  and 
that  the  resolution  of  this  question  would  be  better  left  to  the  law. 

Of  necessity,  IngersoM's  jurisprudential  thought  was  colored  by 
his  actual  experiences  with  the  law.  Thus,  his  opinion  of  the  value  of 
his  profession  took  many  turns  throughout  his  life.  Ingersoll  the 
celebrity  was  able  to  encourage  several  young  men  who  wrote  him 
to  make  a  career  of  the  law."  But  when  he  wrote  about  the  law  dur- 
ing his  early  days  in  Illinois,  he  complained  more  often  than  not.  In 
Peoria,  he  said,  "the  whole  practice  of  law  here  is  simply  odious  to 
me."^^  While  observing  the  state  legislature  at  Springfield,  he  was 
"daily  losing  respect  for .  . .  the  thing  called  law,""  and  after  he  had 
lost  the  Republican  nomination  for  the  governorship  of  Illinois  in  1868, 
he  wrote  to  his  brother  Clark  that  he  dreaded  returning  "to  the  prac- 
tice of  that  miserable  profession  known  as  the  law.""  Some  say 
that  Ingersoll  delivered  the  ultimate  epithet  against  the  Democratic 
presidential  candidate  in  1876:  "Who  is  Samuel  J.  Tilden?  Samuel  J. 
Tilden  is  an  attorney.  He  never  gave  birth  to  an  elevated,  noble  senti- 
ment in  his  life.  He  is  a  kind  of  legal  spider,  watching  in  a  web  of 
technicalities  for  victims."" 

Despite  all  this  vitriol,  Ingersoll  found  a  place  for  the  law  in  his 
scheme  of  things.  Law  was  treated  as  another  entry  in  the  catalogue 
of  human  ideas,  and  "man  gets  all  his  ideas  from  his  surroundings 


56  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

—  from  all  that  has  been  experienced  by  his  ancestors  and  by  him- 
self."^^  Therefore,  "the  human  right  of  the  people  ...  to  make  and 
execute  the  laws"  is  a  creature  of  the  brain. ^^  This  may  be  taken  to 
mean  merely  that  all  law  is  created  by  man,  or  that  the  power  of  man 
to  make  laws  is  constrained  only  by  the  bounds  of  his  abilities  to  do 
so.  As  we  shall  see,  Ingersoll  did  place  limits  on  the  reach  of  the 
law,  but  the  restraints  he  suggested  were  minimal,  placing  few  re- 
strictions beyond  the  prohibition  of  legislation  which  was  impossible 
to  enforce. 

Law,  to  Ingersoll,  arose  to  legitimize  pre-existing  relationships, 
as  did  government.  Property  does  not  exist  by  virtue  of  law,  rather, 
law  exists  by  virtue  of  property:  "It  was  the  fact  that  man  had  property 
in  lands  and  goods,  that  produced  laws  for  the  protection  of  such 
property  .  .  .  Laws  passed  for  the  protection  of  property,  sprang 
from  the  possession  and  ownership  of  the  thing  to  be  protected. "^^ 
If  this  is  an  accurate  picture  of  the  origins  of  law,  then  the  legal 
system  has  no  obligations  of  reform.  The  highest  goal  of  the  law 
was  to  reflect  with  accuracy  the  customs  of  the  people  on  whose 
behalf  it  was  enacted.  Ingersoll  warned  his  fellow  citizens  that  "law 
is  not  a  creative  force,"  and  though,  to  a  large  extent  he  spoke  eco- 
nomically, he  could  also  have  meant  it  in  a  social  sense. ^®  "The 
legitimate  object  of  law  is  to  protect  the  weak,  to  prevent  violence 
and  fraud,  and  to  enforce  honest  contracts,  to  the  end  that  each  per- 
son may  be  free  to  do  as  he  desires,  provided  only  that  he  does  not 
interfere  with  the  rights  of  others. "^^ 

Ingersoll's  lecture  on  "Crimes  Against  Criminals,"  however, 
reveals  a  greater  faith  in  the  powers  of  the  law.  He  postulated  that 
"there  are  millions  of  people  incapable  of  committing  certain  crimes, 
and  it  may  be  true  that  there  are  millions  of  others  incapable  of  prac- 
ticing certain  virtues."^"  The  only  way  to  alleviate  the  plight  of  the 
latter  was  to  improve  their  environment.  "If  we  change  the  conditions 
of  this  man,  his  actions  will  be  changed."'^  In  searching  for  ways  in 
which  to  change  the  conditions  of  the  criminal,  Ingersoll  theorized 
that  "the  tyranny  of  governments,  the  injustice  of  nations,  the 
fierceness  of  what  is  called  the  law"  may  produce  "in  the  individual 
a  tendency  in  the  same  direction. "^^  If  one  takes  the  suggested 
negative  inference,  then  one  concludes  that  the  positive  force  of 
the  law  can  and  should  be  used  to  humanize  the  criminal.  But,  this 
view  of  "Crimes  Against  Criminals"  need  not  create  a  contradiction 
with  other  passages  portraying  laws  as  following,  not  leading, 
society.  Ingersoll  merely  stated  that  the  law  should  prohibit  what 
society  as  a  whole  does  not  engage  in;  when  attempting  to  direct 
the  conduct  of  those  who  do  not  conform,  the  law  shodid  do  so  in  a 
civilizing  manner. 


THE  LEGAL  PHILOSOPHY  OF  INGERSOLL 


Ingersoll  perceived  most  systems  of  criminal  law  as  mirroring 
the  rules  of  survival  found  in  society,  and,  in  fact,  as  magnifying 
their  ill  effects: 


In  civilized  countries  the  struggle  for  existence  is  severe  —  the 
competition  far  sharper  than  in  savage  lands.  The  consequence  is 
that  there  are  many  failures.  These  failures  lack,  it  may  be,  oppor- 
tunity or  brain  or  moral  force  or  industry,  or  something  without 
which,  under  the  circumstances,  success  is  impossible.  Certain 
lines  of  conduct  are  called  legal,  and  certain  others  criminal,  and 
the  men  who  fail  in  one  line  may  be  driven  to  the  other." 

This  was  unnecessary;  the  law  should  not  act  to  penalize  an  in- 
dividual merely  because  he  did  not  succeed  according  to  society's 
rules.  Another  concept  was  needed  to  take  the  severity  out  of  the 
operation  of  the  criminal  law,  and  to  Ingersoll,  that  was  justice. 

In  his  closing  address  to  the  jury  in  the  second  Star  Route  trial, 
Ingersoll  responded  to  a  remark  made  by  the  opposition  about  his 
agnosticism:  "It  may  be  that  I  am  guilty,  according  to  Colonel  Bliss, 
of  sneering  at  everything  that  people  hold  sacred.  But  I  do  not  sneer 
at  justice.  I  believe  that  over  all,  justice  sits  the  eternal  queen, 
holding  in  her  hand  the  scales  in  which  are  weighed  the  deeds  of 
men."'"  Certainly  we  should  not  forget  that  this  is  the  Great 
Agnostic,  the  platform  orator,  attempting  to  ingratiate  himself  with 
the  jury.  Yet,  the  notion  of  justice  in  the  law  was  no  less  important 
to  Ingersoll,  especially  if  one  considers  the  definition  he  gave  for 
that  concept.  Above  all,  a  just  juror  was  a  sympathetic  juror,  and  a 
just  law  was  made  by  those  who  thought  beyond  themselves  when 
making  the  laws."  This  yardstick  for  the  propriety  of  a  law  smacks 
of  Rousseau's  distinction  between  the  "general  will"  and  the  will  of 
a  majority,  though  Ingersoll  would  not  have  agreed  with  Rousseau 
that  a  law  is  not  a  law  if  not  the  product  of  the  general  will.  Ingersoll 
believed,  simply,  that  as  man  advances,  he  would  become  more 
sympathetic  and  therefore  his  laws  would  become  more  just.  Of 
course,  Ingersoll  defined  sympathy  as  the  realization  that  other  men 
were  not  responsible  for  their  actions,  and  therefore  laws  would 
become  more  just  because  "science"  would  support  his  view  of 
human  behavior.  But  this  does  not  undermine  Ingersoll's  reliance 
upon  justice  to  render  laws  more  realistic. 

Justice  also  played  an  important  part  in  influencing  Ingersoll's 
thoughts  on  the  proper  source  for  law  making.  There  were  certain 
elements  in  his  jurisprudential  theories  that  would  lead  him  to  sup- 
port the  process  of  judicial  decision-making  found  especially  in  the 
Amercian  version  of  the  common  law.  As  the  meaning  of  a  term 
such  as  "justice"  depends  "upon  the  man  who  uses  it  —  depends 
for  the  most  part  on  the  age  in  which  he  lives,  the  country  in  which 


5a  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

he  is  born,"^^  one  would  certainly  expect  Ingersoll  to  support  the 
common  law  virtually  without  reservation,  given  its  power  to  respond 
almost  instantaneously  to  the  problems  of  equity  posed  by  a  partic- 
ular case.  But  he  called  the  adoption  of  English  common  law  by  the 
colonies  "unfortunate.'"'^  Admittedly,  this  was  because  it  was 
"poisoned  by  kingly  prerogative  —  by  every  form  of  oppression,  by 
the  spirit  of  caste,  and  permeated,  saturated  with  the  political  heresy 
that  the  people  received  their  rights,  privileges  and  immunities  from 
the  crown. "^^  Nonetheless,  if  Ingersoll  really  believed  that  the 
English-speaking  or  Anglo-Saxon  people  were  "the  only  people  now 
upon  the  globe  with  a  genius  for  law,"^^  he  would  have  had  greater 
confidence  in  the  ability  of  the  American  judiciary  to  rid  the  com- 
mon law  of  its  feudal  tendencies. 

Perhaps  one  may  explain  IngersoH's  lack  of  enthusiasm  for  the  com- 
mon law  by  his  low  opinion  of  the  judiciary.  He  thought  it  important 
that  the  consciences  of  jurors  not  be  trampled  by  tyrannical  judges, 
for  jurors  often  realized  that  a  law  did  not  conform  to  societal  habits 
before  the  insulated  judge  was  able  to.^°  Judicial  training  made  a 
judge  no  more  intelligent  and  no  more  likely  to  rendera  just  verdict; 
judges  were,  at  best,  equal  to  the  ordinary  citizen. ^^  His  opinion  of 
the  Illinois  legislature  as  the  most  "scaly  set  of  one-horse  thieves 
and  low  lived  political  tricksters"  ever  assembled  on  the  earth, 
aside,  Ingersoll  would  likely  have  agreed  that  a  legislature  was  more 
suited  to  the  creation  of  law  than  was  the  bench. ^^ 

There  is  little  doubt,  though,  that  Ingersoll  would  not  have  pre- 
vented the  judiciary  from  making  law,  even  though  it  might  have 
been  more  prone  to  establishing  unjust  laws  than  the  general  run  of 
the  population.  After  all,  judges  were  governed  by  the  same  laws  of 
behavior  that  controlled  everyone  else;  if  they  made  a  mistake,  they 
or  their  successors  would  be  compelled  by  the  inevitable  march  of 
progress  and  reason  to  correct  it.  Ingersoll,  then,  called  it  a  necessity 
of  government  that  there  be  a  court  of  last  resort,  and  "while  all 
courts  will  more  or  less  fail  to  do  justice,  still,  the  wit  of  man  has,  as 
yet,  devised  no  better  way.""  If  judges  "make  a  decision  that  is 
wrong  it  will  be  attacked  by  reason,  it  will  be  attacked  by  argument, 
and  in  time  it  will  be  reversed  .  . .  ."^^ 

But,  if  a  decision  that  is  "wrong"  may  be  rendered,  does  this 
mean  that  Ingersoll  thought  that  there  were  occasions  when  "law" 
was  "not  law?"  And,  if  this  is  the  case,  then  what  standards  would 
be  used  to  evaluate  the  law,  and  how  should  an  individual  behave 
toward  law  that  was  not  law?  If  asked  whether  law  might  not  be  law, 
Ingersoll  would  have  given  a  resounding  "yes"  and  cited  a  support- 
ing example  from  his  own  times.  When  the  antebellum  courts  passed 
judgment  on  the  issue  of  slavery,  they  made  a  pretense  of  doing 
justice. ^^  As  he  said  in  a  Decoration  Day  speech,  "Constitution, 


THE  LEGAL  PHILOSOPHY  OF  INGERSOLL  59 

Statutes  and  decisions,  compromises,  platforms  and  resolutions 
made,  passed  and  ratified  in  the  interest  of  slavery  became  mere 
legal  lies,  base  and  baseless. "^^ 

Ingersoll  could  say  this  because  when,  in  a  tribute  to  the  German 
naturalist  Alexander  von  Humboldt,  he  praised  the  scientist  for 
demonstrating  the  sublimest  of  truths,  that  the  universe  is  governed 
by  law,  he  of  course  referred  to  the  law  beyond  that  of  cases  and 
statutes. «'  "There  is  a  higher  law  than  men  can  make.  The  facts  as 
they  exist  in  this  poor  world  —  the  absolute  consequences  of  cer- 
tain acts  —  they  are  above  all.  And  this  higher  law  is  the  breath  of 
progress,  the  very  outstretched  wings  of  civilization,  under  which 
we  enjoy  the  freedom  we  have."«»  Such  a  "higher  law"  by  which  the 
laws  of  men  are  to  be  judged,  and  which  is  discoverable  by  reason, 
clearly  has  its  origins  in  the  natural  law  jurisprudence  found  from 
Cicero  through  Aquinas,  on  to  the  present.  Ingersoll  would  have 
denied  it,  but  it  is  apparent  that  the  only  significant  difference  be- 
tween Ingersoll  and  the  natural  law  thinkers,  at  least  on  this  issue, 
is  that  he  refused  to  identify  a  supreme  being  as  the  source  of  the 
higher  law. 

IngersoM's  exhortation  to  the  jury  in  the  first  Star  Route  trial, 
namely  that  one  has  "no  right  to  violate  one  law  to  carry  out 
another,"^^  would  seem  to  be  mere  rhetoric.  If  a  law  ran  contrary  to 
reason  and  experience,  and  thus  transgressed  the  higher  law  of  pro- 
gress, then  it  need  not  be  obeyed.  The  Fugitive  Slave  Law  was  such 
a  measure;  Ingersoll  did  not  explicitly  claim  a  right  to  disobey  this 
enactment,  but  he  did  not  need  to  do  so.  The  implication  from  several 
of  his  speeches  is  obvious.  As  he  said,  "Such  laws  are  infamous 
beyond  expression;  one  would  suppose  they  had  been  passed  by  a 
Legislature,  the  lower  house  of  which  were  hyenas,  the  upper  house 
snakes  and  the  executive  a  cannibal  king."^°  Any  man  who  "proves 
or  apologizes  for  that  infamy  is  a  brute. "^^ 

The  reason  that  Ingersoll  may  not  have  stated  that  the  individual 
has  the  right  to  refuse  to  obey  an  "incorrect"  law  is  that  he  feared 
the  consequences  of  such  a  theory.  If  an  enlightened  abolitionist 
like  himself  had  the  power  to  ignore  a  law  deemed  unjust  by  him, 
then  what  would  prevent  the  former  rebel  from  failing  to  abide  by 
the  civil  rights  laws  which  he  considered  to  be  incorrect?  Ingersoll 
could  answer  that  only  his  side  of  the  slavery  issue  was  in  accord 
with  progress.  Even  assuming  that  IngersoM's  views  on  civil  rights 
best  fit  with  reason  and  science  (this  may  be  a  large  assumption, 
given  that  Ingersoll  supported  giving  the  freedmen  a  separate  coun- 
try)," this  does  not  tell  us  who  is  qualified  to  make  such  a  deter- 
mination. Judges  were  no  more  qualified  than  others,  and  Ingersoll 
did  not  think  highly  of  societies  of  the  elite;  he  preferred  that 


60  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

knowledgeable  people  act  in  conjunction  with  the  rest,  rather  than 
assuming  some  special  authority  for  themselves." 

Perhaps  the  best  way  to  resolve  this  inconsistency  in  IngersoH's 
theory  of  law  is,  first,  to  admit  that  his  "unstated  premise"  of  the 
right  to  disobey  the  law  was  not  fully  developed,  and  that  he  would 
not  have,  if  pressed,  argued  on  its  behalf;  and  second,  to  realize  that 
law  was  a  minor  part  of  IngersoH's  universe.  Some  of  the  greatest 
questions  of  man's  existence  could  not  be  resolved  by  law.  He  stated 
that  he  agreed  with  the  patriots  that  "in  the  midst  of  armies  law  falls 
to  the  ground."^"  The  struggle  of  capital  and  labor  was  another  such 
issue,  into  which  come 

...  all  the  passions  and  prejudices  —  all  the  ignorance  and  intelli- 
gence —  all  the  ends  and  ambitions  —  all  the  misery  and  happiness 
of  human  life  —  and  all  the  inventions  —  all  the  skill  and  ingenuity 
—  all  the  arts  of  buying  and  selling  —  all  the  theories  of  money  — 
of  taxation  —  of  government  —  all  these,  and  a  thousand  times 
more,  enter  into  this  question.  Production,  transportation,  distri- 
bution, exchange.  —  These  words  suggest  almost  the  infinite.  — 
The  trouble  is  in  the  nature  of  men  —  the  nature  of  things.  It  is  too 
deep  for  lav\/.^^ 

It  does  not  seem  an  exaggeration  to  portray  Robert  G.  IngersoH's 
description  of  the  law  as  a  feeling  that  it  is  an  entity  which  follows 
the  development  of  society,  one  which  is  the  product  of  individuals 
no  more  (and  perhaps  less)  competent  than  the  rest  of  society,  one 
which  could  often  work  against  justice,  and  one  which  could  do 
nothing  to  solve  the  vital  questions  of  history. 

Yet,  when  Ingersoll  stated  that  "the  law  is  the  supreme  will  of 
the  supreme  people,  and  we  must  obey  it  or  go  back  to  savagery  and 
black  night, "^^  he  meant  it.  Herein  lay  the  true  function  of  law.  Since 
society  would  progress  and  the  law  would  reflect  that  development, 
the  law  would,  of  necessity,  embody  the  wisdom  of  the  ages,  with 
some  accounting  for  a  time  lag  for  ideas  to  be  put  into  law.  Law 
could  contribute  to  the  advancement  of  mankind  by  preventing  or 
curbing  the  temporary  lapses  of  a  people  from  the  path  of  progress. 
If  one  keeps  the  Civil  War  in  mind,  one  will  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  Ingersoll  envisioned  no  small  task  for  the  law,  and  had  no  illu- 
sions about  the  progress  needed  to  be  made  in  that  field. 


III.  Conclusion 

Robert  IngersoH's  theology  was  no  doubt  controversial  and  re- 
mained so  long  after  his  death.  His  politics  and  theory  of  govern- 
ment gave  rise  to  much  criticism  from  those  of  all  political  and 
religious  persuasions.  At  a  post-humous  meeting  in  IngersoH's 
honor,  Clarence  Darrow  declared  that  "Ingersoll  believed  in  liberty 


THE  LEGAL  PHILOSOPHY  OF  INGERSOLL  61 

SO  far  as  the  church  was  concerned,  but  on  political  questions  he 
was  seemingly  color  blind.  The  older  and  more  venerable  a  political 
superstition,  the  more  he  would  cling  to  it."^^ 

Ingersoll's  political  orthodoxy  was  also  a  topic  of  discussion  in 
the  Freeman  for  1920  and  1921.  In  his  "Reviewer's  Note-book,"  Van 
Wyck  Brooks  attacked  the  characterization  of  Ingersoll  as  one  who 
led  his  audiences  to  think  for  themselves: 


Ingersoll  had  his  one  queer,  unorthodox  streak  —  he  had  got  his 
Calvinisnn  turned  inside  out  and  attributed  the  original  sin  to  the 
priests  instead  of  to  the  people;  but  otherwise  he  seems  to  have 
been  just  an  uncomnnonly  vigorous,  honest,  kind-hearted,  liberal- 
minded,  intelligent  and  opinionated  everyday  citizen.  His  ways 
were  the  ways  of  the  folk;  and  that  being  so,  he  could  not  arouse 
the  individual  because,  in  the  very  moment  when  he  was  venting 
his  one  heresy,  he  was  venting  all  the  other  orthodoxies  and  put- 
ting the  intellect  back  to  sleep  in  the  process  of  challenging  it." 


Brooks  saw  nothing  wrong  with  an  individual  regarding  "his  age  and 
his  country  as  approaching  very  closely  the  perfection  of  the  ideal. 
Only,  to  do  so,  and  to  express  one's  satisfaction  in  flights  of 
oratory,  is  not  to  make  people  think. "^^  This  attack  on  Ingersoll  pro- 
voked some  defenders  of  Ingersoll  to  write  letters  to  the  editor,  but 
one  letter-writer  included  the  text  of  a  letter  by  Ingersoll  which  he 
claimed  proved  beyond  doubt  Ingersoll's  conservatism:  "Obscenity 
is  not  a  question  of  theology;  it  is  a  question  of  fact,  and  no  matter 
what  a  man  believes,  upon  any  question  —  religious  or  irreligious 
—  we  all  ought  to  have  the  same  ideas  concerning  what  is  pure  and 
clean. "'°°  Both  Brooks  and  this  letter-writer  fault  Ingersoll  for  grant- 
ing too  much  deference  to  the  popular  will  in  most  matters,  for 
failure  to  stand  by  any  progressive  principles  or  tenets  of  political 
philosophy. 

Criticisms  from  another  perspective  do  not  fault  Ingersoll  for  re- 
taining too  many  popular  beliefs,  but  rather  for  placing  too  much 
stock  in  science.  An  author  in  the  American  Rationalist  wrote  that 
"Ingersoll  was  not  a  profound  thinker.  He  was  pre-eminently  a  des- 
tructive critic."^"'  Though  this  author  agreed  with  the  free-thought 
aspects  of  Ingersoll's  philosophy,  he  nevertheless  believed  that  his 
over-enthusiastic  acceptance  of  Darwinism  rendered  him  "a  museum 
piece  for  the  nineteenth  century."^"  Another  commentator  agreed 
that  Ingersoll  "must  fail  to  exert  the  lasting  influence  which  he 
coveted. "^°^  Like  "a  multitude  of  better  informed  men,"  Ingersoll 
was  "taken  in"  by  the  "remarkable  mechanistic  boom"  in  the  mid- 
nineteenth  century.^""  Thus,  Ingersoll's  excessive  emphasis  on 
science  would  deny  him  a  place  among  great  philosophers  "because 
sometimes  explicitly,  more  often  by  implication,  he  denied  the  ele- 


62  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

ment  of  purpose  of  life;  and  men  will  not  suffer  their  lives  to  be  put 
to  intellectual  confusion  in  this  way."'°^ 

Both  views  of  Ingersoll,  as  the  orthodox  agnostic  and  as  the 
social  Darwinist,  present  Ingersoll  as  too  one-sided.  He  was  too  pro- 
gressive on  many  issues,  including  civil  rights  and  land  reform,  to 
be  considered  strictly  conservative,^"^  and  his  faith  in  science  was 
too  qualified  to  call  him  a  pure  social  Darwinist.  A  better  interpreta- 
tion of  Ingersoll,  stressing  the  place  of  both  science  and  sentiment, 
is  found  in  a  recent  capsule  description  of  his  thought: 


Ingersoll's  philosophy,  a  form  of  anticlerical  rationalism,  can  be 
traced  back  through  Thomas  Paine  to  Voltaire  and  the  French 
encyclopaedists.  Paine's  rejection  of  the  Bible  as  revealed  truth, 
his  opposition  to  religious  persecution  and  his  republican  faith  in 
the  perfectibility  of  man  provided  the  framework  for  Ingersoll's 
philosophy.  Like  most  nineteenth  century  rationalists,  Ingersoll 
embraced  science  as  the  true  guide  for  man.  He  argued  that  mor- 
ality is  secular,  not  religious,  in  origin,  stressed  the  uncertainty  of 
a  future  life  and  the  importance  of  devoting  energy  to  this  life  only. 
He  exaggerated  the  narrow/ness  of  the  religious  mind,  painted  in 
gruesome  colors  the  tortures  and  violences  committed  in  the 
name  of  "The  Prince  of  Peace,"  and  sentimentalized  the  joys  of 
"honest  toil,"  the  secular  bliss  of  the  hearth,  conjugal  love,  and 
filial  devotion.'"' 


The  dual  nature  of  Ingersoll  is  even  more  apparent  in  his  legal 
philosophy,  especially  when  he  is  placed  in  perspective  with  other 
significant  movements  in  American  jurisprudence.  Ingersoll  was 
fairly  unconcerned  with  drawing  the  proper  boundaries  for  govern- 
ment and  law;  he  felt  that  this  would  work  itself  out  eventually.  This 
distinguishes  him  from  many  other  American  legal  thinkers  in  the 
early  and  mid-nineteenth  century,  including  men  like  John  Marshall. 
Most  students  of  jurisprudence  will  rather  find  an  analogy  in  the 
legal  thought  of  the  so-called  "sociologists,"  prominent  at  the  begin- 
ning of  this  century.  Ingersoll  would  agree  with  the  calls  of  these 
thinkers  to  make  the  law  "scientific"  by  the  use  of  sociological  data, 
rather  than  the  use  of  medieval  concepts.  He  would  accept  their 
charge  that  judges  and  the  judicial  process  were  not  well  suited  for 
the  creation  of  legislation,  and  that  legislative  and  administrative 
bodies  should  instead  assume  much  of  that  role^"^  Most  of  all,  he 
would  share  the  belief  that  the  highest  goal  for  the  law  was  to  re- 
flect the  progress  made  by  society.  The  story  of  Bogigish  of  Ragusa, 
professor  of  law  at  the  University  of  Odessa,  found  in  Brandeis'  1916 
essay,  "The  Living  Law,"  would  have  fit  just  as  well  in  an  Ingersoll 
lecture: 


When  Montenegro  w/as  admitted  to  the  family  of  nations,  its 
Prince  concluded  that,  like  other  civilized  countries,  it  must  have  a 


THE  LEGAL  PHILOSOPHY  OF  INGERSOLL 


code  of  law.  Bogigish's  fame  had  reached  Montenegro  —  for  Ragusa 
is  but  a  few  miles  distant.  So  the  Prince  begged  the  Czar  of  Russia 
to  have  the  learned  jurist  prepare  a  code  for  Montenegro.  The  Czar 
granted  the  request;  and  Bogigish  undertook  the  task.  But  instead 
of  utilizing  his  great  knowledge  of  laws  to  draft  a  code,  he  pro- 
ceeded to  Montenegro,  and  for  two  years  literally  made  his  home  with 
the  people,  —  studying  everywhere  their  customs,  their  practices, 
their  needs,  their  beliefs,  their  points  of  view.  Then  he  embodied 
in  law  the  life  which  the  Montenegrins  lived.  They  respected  that 
law;  because  it  expressed  the  will  of  the  people.'"' 


However,  it  would  be  presumptuous  to  classify  Ingersoll  as  an 
early  sociological  jurisprudent,  because  he  did  not  share  their  faith 
in  the  ability  of  the  law  to  lead  society,  or  to  solve  societal  problems. 
Many  issues  were  simply  beyond  the  reach  of  law,  and  in  this 
respect  Ingersoll  might  have  been  expected  to  endorse  some  of  the 
"judicial  nihilism"  of  Jerome  Frank.''"  This  is  an  analogy  which 
must  be  mentioned  with  great  care;  Ingersoll  would  not  have  agreed 
with  Frank's  characterization  of  the  law  as  merely  that  which  solved 
a  specific  dispute  before  a  tribunal,  and  no  more.  Law  did  have  a 
function  for  Ingersoll,  even  if  it  were  only  to  prevent  human  "back- 
sliding" from  hindering  the  onward  march  of  progress. 

Robert  G.  IngersoM's  jurisprudential  thought  reveals  a  distrust  of 
human  nature  probably  not  apparent  to  those  who  first  heard  his 
lectures.  Any  good  laws  made  by  man  were  created  according  to  the 
laws  of  progress;  any  bad  laws  would  be  corrected  according  to  pro- 
gress. The  laws  that  were  on  the  books  should  operate  to  keep  man 
in  step  with  progress.  Admittedly,  human  failures  were  produced  by 
natural  conditions,  but  even  if  man  is  completely  controlled  by  out- 
side events,  there  should  be  nothing  to  prevent  the  occasional 
exceptional  man  from  using  the  law  to  reform  society.  Ingersoll  did 
not  admit  this  possibility,  both  because  law  could  have  little  effect 
on  the  reform  of  society,  and  because  one  could  not  expect  anyone 
to  be  able  to  predict  the  course  of  progress  (probably  because  he 
himself  could  not  do  so). 

The  legal  thought  of  Ingersoll  also  reveals  doubts.  He  was  in 
doubt  about  the  propriety  of  unrestricted  majoritarian  rule,  about 
the  source  of  the  "rights"  of  man,  about  the  existence  of  a  right  to 
civil  disobedience,  and  about  the  path  that  would  be  taken  by  man, 
if  directed  by  progress.  One  cannot  accuse  him  of  doubting  that 
man  will  advance;  the  role  that  he  envisioned  for  law  was  one  of  a 
prop  for  science  and  progress  —  a  minor  prop,  but  a  necessary  one. 


NOTES 

'Tappan  Gregory,  "The  Fiber  of  Character,"  Illinois  Bar  Journal,  37  (Oct.,  1948), 
56;  George  F.  Paul,  "IngersoM's  Moment  of  Inspiration,"  Green  Bag,  26  (1914),  523. 


64  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

'Orvin  Larson,  American  Infidel:  Robert  G.  Ingersoll  (New  York:  The  Citadel 
Press,  1962),  p.  278. 

'Clarence  Darrow,  The  Story  of  My  Life  (New  York:  Charles  Scribner's  Sons, 
1932),  p.  381. 

"Larson,  p.  19. 

^Robert  G.  Ingersoll  to  John  Ingersoll,  25  June  1857,  as  quoted  in  Tfie  Life  and 
Letters  of  Robert  G.  Ingersoll,  ed.  Eva  Ingersoll  Wakefield  (New  York:  Philosophical 
Library,  1951),  p.  108. 

'Robert  G.  Ingersoll  to  John  Ingersoll,  6  May  1858,  as  quoted  in  Life  and  Letters, 
p.  110. 

'Robert  G.  Ingersoll  to  John  Ingersoll,  26  Feb.  1858,  as  quoted  in  Life  and  Let- 
ters, p.  109. 

'Clarence  H.  Cramer,  "Robert  Green  Ingersoll,"  Papers  in  Illinois  History,  4 
(1940),  66. 

'"Speech  at  Cincinnati,"  Ttie  Works  of  Robert  G.  Ingersoll,  ed.  C.P.  Farrell  (New 
York:  Dresden  Publishing  Co.,  1912),  IX,  59. 

'"Robert  G.  Ingersoll  to  Ebon  Clark  Ingersoll,  25  June  1868,  as  quoted  in  Life  and 
Letters,  p.  154. 

"Larson,  p.  137. 

'^Ibid.,  p.  211. 

''Robert  G.  Ingersoll  to  Shepard  Brown,  10  Oct.  1890,  as  quoted  in  Life  and  Let- 
ters, p.  195. 

'""Eight  to  Seven  Address,"  Works,  IX,  227. 

''"Crimes  Against  Criminals,"  Works,  XI,  143. 

""Why  I  am  an  Agnostic,"  Works,  IV,  54. 

"Ibid. 

"Ibid.,  p.  55. 

"Ibid. 

^"Larson,  p.  237;  "Why  I  am  an  Agnostic,"  Works,  IV,  55. 

""Closing  Address  to  the  Jury  in  the  First  Star  Route  Trial,"  Works,  X,  131; 
"Opening  Address  to  the  Jury  in  the  Second  Star  Route  Trial,"  Works,  X,  189. 

""What  Would  You  Substitute  for  the  Bible  as  a  Moral  Guide?"  Works,  XI,  544; 
Robert  G.  Ingersoll  to  Horace  Traubel,  31  July  1893,  as  quoted  in  Life  and  Letters,  p. 
658. 

""Why  I  am  an  Agnostic,"  Works,  IV,  55. 

""Trial  of  C.B.  Reynolds  for  Blasphemy  —  Address  to  the  Jury,"  Works,  XI,  57. 

""Progress,"  Works,  IX,  448. 

""What  is  Religion?"  Works,  IX,  505-06;  "Crimes  Against  Criminals,"  Works,  XI, 
145;  "A  Lay  Sermon,"  Works,  IV,  212-13. 

""Why  I  am  an  Agnostic,"  Works,  IV,  63. 

""Address  to  the  Jury  in  the  Munn  Trial,"  Works,  X,  10. 

""Closing  Address  to  the  Jury  in  the  Second  Star  Route  Trial,"  Works,  X,  486. 

""Decoration  Day  Oration,"  Works,  IX,  445. 

""Progress,"  Works,  IV,  423. 

""An  Address  to  the  Colored  People,"  Works,  IX,  8. 

"Ibid. 

'""Art  and  Morality,"  Works,  XI,  203. 

"Ibid. 

"Ibid. 


THE  LEGAL  PHILOSOPHY  OF  INGERSOLL  65 

"Robert  G.  Ingersoll  to  Horace  Traubel,  31  July  1893,  as  quoted  in  Life  and  Let- 
ters, p.  658. 

'"'Centennial  Oration,"  Works,  IX,  89-90. 

""New  York  Speech,"  Works,  IX,  130. 

^"Robert  G.  Ingersoll  to  Horace  Traubel,  31  July  1893,  as  quoted  in  Life  and  Let- 
ters, p.  658. 

"'"Indianapolis  Speech,"  Works,  IX,  187. 

"^"Progress,"  Works,  IV,  476. 

"Robert  G.  Ingersoll  to  Horace  Traubel,  31  July  1893,  as  quoted  in  Life  and  Let- 
ters, p.  658. 

""Robert  G.  Ingersoll  to  Julia  C.  Franklin,  13  July  1887,  as  quoted  in  Life  and  Let- 
ters, p.  652. 

"'Robert  G.  Ingersoll  to  Horace  Traubel,  31  July  1893,  as  quoted  in  Life  and  Let- 
ters, p.  659. 

""'Closing  Address  to  the  Jury  in  the  Second  Star  Route  Trial,"  Works,  X,  517. 

"'Robert  G.  Ingersoll  to  Horace  Traubel,  17  Aug.  1893,  as  quoted  in  Life  and  Let- 
ters, p.  660. 

""'Civil  Rights,"  Works,  XI,  44-45. 

""'Crimes  Against  Criminals,"  Works,  XI,  149. 

""Some  Interrogation  Points,"  Works,  XI,  190. 

^''"Speech  at  Indianapolis,"  Works,  IX,  48. 

""God  in  the  Constitution,"  Works,  XI,  132;  Robert  G.  Ingersoll  to  Ebon  Clark 
Ingersoll,  7  June  1868,  as  quoted  in  Life  and  Letters,  pp.  151-52. 

""God  in  the  Constitution,"  Works,  XI,  131. 

""Civil  Rights,"  Works,  XI,  43. 

"Ibid. 

""Centennial  Oration,"  Works,  IX,  87. 

'"'Ratification  Speech,"  Works,  IX,  484-85. 

""New  York  Speech,"  Works,  IX,  150;  "Closing  Address  to  the  Jury  in  the 
Second  Star  Route  Trial,"  Works,  X,  265. 

""God  in  the  Constitution,"  Works,  XI,  124. 

"Robert  G.  Ingersoll  to  Charles  K.  Ladd,  5  Nov.  1887,  as  quoted  in  Life  and  Let- 
ters, pp.  186-87;  Robert  G.  Ingersoll  to  Shepard  Brown,  10  Oct.  1890,  as  quoted  in  Life 
and  Letters,  p.  195. 

"Larson,  p.  98. 

"Robert  G.  Ingersoll  to  John  Ingersoll,  17  Mar.  1865,  as  quoted  in  Life  and  Let- 
ters, p.  137. 

"Robert  G.  Ingersoll  to  Ebon  Clark  Ingersoll,  29  Apr.  1868,  as  quoted  in  Life  and 
Letters,  p.  150. 

^""Bangor  Speech,"  Works,  IX,  114. 

"Robert  G.  Ingersoll  to  Matt  H.  Carpenter,  10  Apr.  1878,  as  quoted  in  Life  and 
Letters,  p.  239. 

""Decoration  Day  Oration,"  Works,  IX,  439. 

'"'Civil  Rights,"  Works,  XI,  44. 

""Some  Interrogation  Points,"  Works,  XI,  190. 

"Ibid. 

'"'Crimes  Against  Criminals,"  Works,  XI,  147. 

"Ibid. 

"Ibid.,  p.  148. 


66  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

"Ibid.,  p.  147. 

""'Closing  Address  to  the  Jury  in  the  Second  Star  Route  Trial,"  Works,  X,  459. 

""Address  to  the  Jury  in  the  Munn  Trial,"  Works,  X,  9. 

""The  Rev.  Dr.  Newton's  Sermon  on  a  New  Religion,"  Works,  XI,  425. 

""Civil  Rights,"  Works,  XI,  6. 

"Ibid. 

""Opening  Address  to  the  Jury  in  the  Second  Star  Route  Trial,"  Works,  X,  145. 

""Closing  Address  to  the  Jury  in  the  First  Star  Route  Trial,"  Works,  X,  98-99. 

''"Civil  Rights,"  Works,  XI,  4. 

'^Robert  G.  Ingersoll  to  John  Ingersoll,  17  Mar.  1865,  as  quoted  in  Life  and  Let- 
ters, p.  137. 

""Civil  Rights,"  Works,  XI,  4. 

"'"The  Chicago  and  New  York  Gold  Speech,"  Works,  XI,  572. 

«="New  York  Speech,"  Works,  IX,  136. 

'^"Decoration  Day  Oration,"  Works,  IX,  430. 

''Larson,  p.  100. 

""Trial  of  C.B.  Reynolds  for  Blasphenny  —  Address  to  the  Jury,"  Works,  XI,  69. 

""Closing  Address  to  the  Jury  in  the  First  Star  Route  Trial,"  Works,  X,  42. 

""New  York  Speech,"  Works,  IX,  134. 

'^  Larson,  p.  46. 

«Mbid.,  p.  71. 

"Robert  G.  Ingersoll  to  Julia  C.  Franklin,  13  July  1887,  as  quoted  in  Life  and  Let- 
ters, p.  652. 

^''"Speech  at  Indianapolis,"  Works,  IX,  35. 

"Robert  G.  Ingersoll  to  Frank  Gilbert,  24  July  1894,  as  quoted  in  Life  and  Letters, 
p.  625. 

"Larson,  p.  259. 

"Ibid.,  p.  279. 

""A  Reviewer's  Note-book,"  Freeman,  8  Dec.  1920,  p.  311. 

"Ibid. 

'"Theodore  Schroeder,  Letter  to  the  Editor,  Freeman,  2  Feb.  1921,  p.  498. 

'"'George  Godwin,  "Ingersoll:  The  Great  Agnostic,"  American  Rationalist,  4 
(July-Aug.,  1959),  12. 

'"Ibid.,  p.  13. 

'"Edward  M.  Chapman,  "Robert  G.  Ingersoll,  Theologian,"  Forum,  48  (1912),  352. 

'"Ibid.,  p.  351. 

'"Ibid.,  p.  352. 

'"Larson,  p.  279. 

""Thomas  D.  Schwartz,  "Mark  Twain  and  Robert  Ingersoll:  The  Freethought 
Connection,"  American  Literature,  48  (1976),  183. 

'"Roscoe  Pound,  "Mechanical  Jurisprudence,"  Columbia  Law  Review,  8  (1908), 
605. 

'"Louis  D.  Brandeis,  "The  Living  Law,"  Illinois  Law  Review,  10  (1916),  470-71. 

""Jerome  Frank,  Law  and  the  Modern  l^ind  (New  York:  Coward-McCann,  1949). 


QUAD-CITIES  WRITERS: 
A  GROUP  PORTRAIT 


William  Roba 


Literary  culture  in  the  Quad-Cities  began  with  the  appearance  of 
original  poems  and  stories  in  local  newspapers  during  the  1840s, 
but  by  1910  the  Tri-Cities  (Rock  Island,  Moline,  and  Davenport)  had  be- 
come nationally  recognized  as  a  center  of  literary  activity.  Although 
such  figures  as  Alice  French,  Susan  Glaspell,  Floyd  Dell,  and 
George  Cram  Cook  have  received  significant  attention  from  literary 
scholars,  no  one  has  discussed  the  literary  history  of  the  Quad- 
Cities.  The  present  study  is  an  overview  of  Quad-Cities  writers  which 
reveals  the  influence  of  locale,  the  importance  of  journalism,  and 
the  significance  of  social  commentary  in  the  literary  contribution  of 
these  communities  on  the  Mississippi  River. 

Some  of  the  local  writers  are  excluded.  Two  who  began  writing 
after  living  in  the  Quad-Cities  but  whose  subsequent  writing  con- 
centrated on  non-regional  topics,  were  Charles  Edward  Russell 
(1860-1940)  and  Lilian  Blanche  Fearing  (1863-1901).^  Others  who  lived 
there  earned,  and  deserved,  only  local  recognition  of  their  efforts  — 
writers  such  as  Mary  E.  Mead,  a  pioneer  whose  poetry  appeared  in 
the  newspapers;  Lillie  Bradford,  whose  Soul  Garden  (1911)  was 
another  example  of  privately  printed  poetry,  and  Harry  Downer,  a 
journalist  whose  compilation  of  local  history  in  1910  endeared  him 
to  Quad-Cities  residents.^ 

There  were  three  originators  of  the  Quad-Cities  literary  tradition, 
and  they  arrived  during  the  1850s.  The  first  was  Hiram  A.  Reid 
(1834-1895),  a  newspaperman  who  became  Iowa's  first  poet.  He 
moved  to  Davenport  from  Ohio  in  1856,  having  been  promised  a  job 
for  a  weekly  newspaper,  the  Courier.^  Unfortunately,  the  newspaper 
suspended  operation  a  few  months  after  he  started,  forcing  him  to 
open  a  temperance  saloon  that  dispensed  ice  cream,  candy  and 
cool  drinks."  Undaunted  in  his  writing,  Reid  soon  produced  the  first 
book  of  poetry  in  the  state  of  Iowa:  The  Heart-Lace.  He  also  wrote 
satire  for  The  Chip-Basket,  which  folded  after  a  few  months.  Before 
moving  on  to  Iowa  City,  and  eventually  Pasadena,  California,  Reid 
completed  Harp  of  the  West  in  1858.  In  an  advertisement,  he  pro- 
posed "to  publish  this  volume  by  subscription,  as  a  means  of 
assisting  me  in  completing  my  education  for  the  Liberal  Christian 

67 


68  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

Ministry."  And  he  asserted  that  "My  published  volumes  of  verse 
hitherto,  (four  in  number),  were  each  the  children  of  special  cir- 
cumstances —  mere  localisms  . . .  ."*  Reid  used  poetry  to  describe 
the  new  city  life  on  the  frontier  and  the  latest  developments  in 
technology.  One  of  his  poems  celebrates  the  coming  of  the  Rock 
Island,  Chicago  and  Pacific  Railroad  to  the  metropolitan  area  on  the 
river: 


With  mighty  snort  the  dragon  loud  responds, 
And  shakes  his  heavy  volunned  mane  aloft  — 
Impatient  fretting  all  his  massive  frame, 
In  huge  deposit  of  sinews  iron-bound, 
And  inward  energies  Herculean! 
He  moves  with  giant  pomp,  in  huge  display. 
Of  God  like  power  trained  to  God  like  rise. 
Quadruple  wings,  forge-plated  round,  and  ribbed 
For  Godlike  reaches  of  redolent  flight/ 


Reid  focused  on  original  subject  matter  of  the  Iowa  frontier,  but  his 
verse  was  ponderous  and  his  lyrics  imitative  of  more  popular  poets 
in  the  East. 

The  second  newspaperman  who  helped  to  originate  a  literary 
tradition  for  the  Quad-Cities  wrote  a  substantial  history.  Franc  B. 
Wilkie  (1832-1892)  had  gone  to  Union  College  in  Schnectady,  New 
York,  while  working  as  a  reporter.  A  friend  described  the  oppor- 
tunities in  the  Quad-Cities,  and  Wilkie  arrived  in  1856  to  start  work 
as  co-publisher  of  the  Davenport  News.  It  folded  within  a  year,  forc- 
ing Wilkie  to  write  an  accurate  and  well-written  account  of  the  city's 
first  thirty  years.  He  included  a  chapter  on  the  literary  achievements 
of  the  settlers,  spot-lighting  the  poetry  of  Mary  Mead.  Before  mov- 
ing to  Dubuque,  Wilkie  had  set  a  standard  for  later  writers.  An  exam- 
ple of  his  style  was  his  evocation  of  the  view  first  seen  by  the  early 
settlers.  Davenport  appeared  as  "a  waving,  irregular,  semi-circle  of 
bluffs,  enclosing  an  ampitheater  of  some  hundreds  of  yards  in  breadth, 
and  two  miles  in  length.  The  floor  or  'bottom'  of  this  amphitheater, 
sloped  gently  from  the  water  to  the  foot  of  the  bluffs  . .  ."^  Wilkie 
succeeded  in  creating  a  historical  context  for  Quad-Cities  litera- 
ture, and  later  historians  accepted  his  premises  about  the  cultural 
influence  of  the  area  upon  writers. 

The  third  newspaperman  to  produce  literary  creations  stayed  in 
Davenport.  Edward  Russell  (1830-1892)  was  originally  from  England, 
but  he  moved  to  Le  Claire,  Iowa,  twenty  miles  upstream  in  the  1850s. 
He  became  a  fanatic,  a  famous  abolitionist  who  wrote  the  amend- 
ment to  the  Iowa  Constitution  allowing  blacks  to  vote.  As  his  son 
scholar  has  said,  "He  became  widely  known,  scorned  and  hated  as 
the  'nigger  stealer'  editor,  the  pernicious  agitator  and  enemy  of 


QUAD  CITIES  WRITERS:  A  GROUP  PORTRAIT 


Edward  Russell. 


70  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

business."^  After  moving  to  Davenport  in  1860,  he  became  editor  of 
the  Gazette,  augmenting  his  income  as  a  clerk  in  the  post  office 
while  his  brothers  assisted  at  the  nev\/spaper.  During  the  winter  of 
1879  he  started  publishing  a  book-length  novel  which  ran  to  31  in- 
stallments, from  4  December  1878  to  2  July  1879.  Pseudonyms  were 
common,  and  he  used  the  pen  name  of  "Carl  Bedford."  Janet,  or 
Eastward  and  Westward  was  refreshingly  different  in  its  detailing  of 
English  immigrants  to  the  West.  Unlike  the  sentimental  and  moral- 
istic fiction  of  the  day,  it  contained  many  realistic  descriptions  of 
immigration,  which  paralleled  the  authors  own  experiences  in  coming 
from  London  as  a  young  man. 

Russell's  most  enduring  contribution  was  the  discovery  of  liter- 
ary talent  in  the  writing  of  a  young  Davenporter.  Alice  French  was 
the  first  lowan  to  gain  national  attention  for  her  fiction.  Her  first 
short  story  appeared  in  Russell's  newspaper  in  1871,  under  the 
pseudonym  "Frances  Essex."  It  was  one  of  several  early  stories 
that  used  realistic  details  from  the  Quad-Cities.  Russell  gave  her  op- 
portunities to  master  the  literary  conventions  of  the  period  and  to 
create  an  image  of  river  town  life  in  the  late  nineteenth  century:  a 
place  where  the  traditional  values  of  fair  play,  hard  work,  and  success 
were  superimposed  upon  realistic  details  of  urban  life,  such  as  striking 
industrial  workers,  German  immigrants,  and  applied  technology. 

French  was  one  of  the  first  writers  to  focus  on  a  western  com- 
munity in  fiction,  a  town  that  was  larger  than  a  village  yet  smaller 
than  a  city.  In  Stories  of  a  Western  Town  (1897)  she  described  a  river 
town  in  the  West  where  "the  lines  of  low  wooden  houses"  blended 
with  "big  brick  shops  with  their  arched  windows  and  terra-cotta  orna- 
ments that  showed  the  ambitious  architecture  of  a  growing  Western 
town,  past  these  into  mills  and  factories  and  smoke-stained  chimneys."^ 
She  made  it  clear  that  she  had  the  Tri-City  area  in  mind  as  she  chose 
her  words:  "the  wayfarer  may  catch  bird's-eye  glimpses  of  the  city, 
the  vast  river  that  the  lowans  love,  and  the  three  bridges  tying  the 
three  towns  to  the  island  arsenal."'"  Local  readers  recognized  the 
settings  and  situations  for  her  fictional  tales  of  nostalgia,  while  a 
national  audience  accepted  the  widespread  existence  of  "Western 
towns." 

By  1905  Alice  French  expanded  her  concept  into  a  fictional  region 
around  Fairport.  This  was  a  major  advance  over  her  earlier  devices 
because  the  name  itself  conveyed  the  sense  of  "fairness"  in  ethical 
terms,  besides  the  "fair"  port  in  a  stormy  sea  where  Americans 
could  find  reassuring  shelter  amidst  change.  In  this  idealized  place 
on  the  river,  "the  old  settlers  were  a  power,  . . .  true  brotherly  love 
prevailed  among  men;  and  the  river  was  the  highway  of  commerce. 
Despite  the  pioneers'  lamentations,  Fairport  was  a  kindly  town, 
where  every  one  went  to  the  High  School  before  his  lot  in  life  gave 


QUAD  CITIES  WRITERS:  A  GROUP  PORTRAIT  71 

him  college  or  work  for  his  daily  bread;  and  old  acquaintance  was 
not  forgot."  An  upper  class  viewpoint  is  presented,  as  the  references 
to  "every  one"  going  to  high  school  or  later  finding  work  reveal.  An 
influential  critic,  William  Morton  Payne  of  the  Dial,  complimented 
her  on  describing  labor  strife  as  a  civil  war,  but  hinted  that  occa- 
sionally "the  ethical  balance  seems  to  incline  a  trifle  too  much  in 
the  direction  of  a  false  sentimentaiism."^^ 

As  the  first  recognized  Quad-Cities  author,  Alice  French  has 
been  hailed  as  the  originator  of  a  local  school  of  writers  around  the 
turn  of  the  century.  This  is  the  estimation  of  Joseph  Wall  in  his  re- 
cent history  of  Iowa:  "The  nearest  approach  to  a  cultural  center  the 
state  had  in  the  late  19th  century  was  Davenport,  and  this  was  due 
not  only  to  its  river  location  but  also  to  the  remarkable  influence  of 
one  woman,  Alice  French,  whose  novels,  written  under  the  name  of 
Octave  Thanet,  are  largely  forgotten  today,  but  whose  personal  im- 
pact upon  the  culture  of  her  time  far  exceeded  in  importance  her 
own  skill  as  a  creative  writer."'^ 

Another  newspaperman  who  stopped  off  in  Davenport  before 
moving  on  helped  two  younger  writers  get  started.  Charles  Banks 
(1850-1934)  stayed  for  two  years  as  editor  of  the  Republican,  but 
managed  to  found  the  Tri-City  Press  Club  and  The  Weekly  Outlook. 
By  1898  he  had  left  to  become  a  war  correspondent.  The  next  year 
he  co-authored  with  George  Cram  Cook  (1873-1924),  a  play  glorify- 
ing the  Civil  War  battle  between  the  Monitor  and  Merrimac.'" 

The  Cook  family  had  been  among  the  first  settlers  of  Davenport, 
prominent  and  influential.  Cook's  father  was  an  attorney  for  the 
Chicago,  Rock  Island  and  Pacific  Railroad  who  enjoyed  summer 
vacations  with  his  family  at  Cape  Cod.  George  graduated  from  Har- 
vard in  1893,  along  with  Robert  French,  brother  of  Alice  French. 
After  graduate  study  at  the  University  of  Heidelberg,  Cook  taught 
English  at  the  University  of  Iowa  for  three  years. 

The  Spanish-American  War  changed  his  life.  He  had  joined  a 
reserve  unit  in  Davenport  which  sponsored  military  balls  and  drink- 
ing contests  before  mobilization  on  23  April  1898.  He  spent  the  next 
few  months  in  Cuba  Libre,  Florida  before  eventually  accepting  a 
position  at  Stanford  University.  When  he  returned  to  the  Quad-Cities 
in  June,  1903,  Cook  embraced  the  life  of  a  bohemian  writer.  During 
the  next  two  years  of  non-employment,  he  lived  on  the  family  estate 
in  Buffalo,  nine  miles  south  of  Davenport.  He  wrote  poetry,  became 
converted  to  the  Socialist  ideology,  and  expressed  that  view  in 
various  essays. 

A  good  example  of  Cook's  poetry,  is  this  posthumously  printed 
example,  which  describes  the  Mississippi  River: 


72 


WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 


# 


*«*-^i^. 


George  Cram  Cook,  in  the  shepherd's  costume  he  wore  in  Greece  during  the 
early  1920's. 


i 


QUAD  CITIES  WRITERS:  A  GROUP  PORTRAIT 


Southward  from  my  window  I  see  the  hills  of  Illinois. 

The  river  spreads  between  —  a  frozen  tumult  of  jagged  blocks  of  ice. 

The  slopes  of  the  hills  rise  sunlit,  covered  with  snow, 

The  crests  of  the  hills  are  black  with  woods; 

The  valleys  are  black  with  the  shadow  of  the  hills. 

Last  week  the  ice-floes  formed;  the  water  crystalized. 

Sheets  of  ice  slid,  ground,  crunched,  cracked,  split  into  fragments 

that  twisted,  sank,  thrust  into  the  air,  and  fell  piling  one  upon 

another. 
Pushed  gulfward  by  the  unswerving  weight  of  the  Mississippi. 
For  weeks  that  water  will  slide  down  its  bed  of  salt  and  sand  and 

gravel  in  order  to  be  at  peace  in  the  sea  —  a  thousand  feet  nearer 

the  center  of  the  earth. '^ 


Although  the  choice  of  a  regional  subject  was  rare  for  Cook,  his 
concerns  were  eclectic.  Perhaps  the  straightforward  approach  in 
this  description  of  the  winter  river  hides  the  sound  pattern.  As  in 
other  poems,  Cook  used  free  verse.  In  this  case,  the  irregular  move- 
ment of  the  iced-over  river  is  expressed  in  the  rough  and  rushing 
meter.  In  general,  Cook's  poetry  is  well  worth  reading. 

Cook's  social  criticism  blossomed  in  his  second  novel.  The 
Chasm  (1911),  which  is  set  in  Molineand  Russia.  G.  Thomas  Tanselle 
has  concluded  that  "it  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  the  book  as  a  novel, 
for  it  seems  to  have  been  written  solely  to  convey  certain  socialist 
ideas.  No  opportunity  is  overlooked  for  inserting  a  socialistic 
reference  or  parallel."'^  Thematically,  the  book  is  a  logical  exten- 
sion of  French's  Fairport.  Instead  of  the  traditional  values  of  work 
and  honesty.  Cook  reverses  the  conclusions  and  shows  how  in  the 
fictionalized  portrayal  of  Moline,  the  workers  are  exploited.  Instead 
of  an  idealized  place  of  insecurity,  the  river  town  had  become  for 
Cook  a  grinding  place  of  poverty,  and  a  community  that  is  spiritually 
bankrupt. 

Susan  Glaspell  followed  a  different  path  than  Cook.  Although 
her  ancestors  settled  in  Davenport  in  the  1830s,  at  the  same  time 
that  the  Cook  family  arrived,  Glaspell  graduated  from  Davenport 
High  School  in  1894  and  worked  for  a  living.  She  was  a  reporter  for 
the  Davenport  Republican  while  acting  as  society  editor  for  publisher 
Charles  E.  Banks.  She  learned  to  write  for  the  subscribers  in  her 
weekly  column  of  society  news,  and  she  also  wrote  a  sentimental 
Christmas  story.''  Banks  guided  her  early  writing  efforts. 

Her  approach  to  a  career  in  writing  was  to  first  work  for  a  news- 
paper before  going  to  college.  She  entered  Drake  University  in  Des 
Moines,  Iowa,  in  1897,  and  after  obtaining  a  Ph.B.  degree,  accepted 
a  position  on  the  Des  Moines  Da/7y  News.  Within  a  year  she  devel- 
oped her  own  column  by  writing  "to  the  feminine  readers  who  wanted 
chatty  personal  observations  rather  than  factual  reports."'^  In  1902 
she  continued  her  education  with  a  year  of  graduate  work  at  the 


74  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

University  of  Chicago.  After  returning  to  Davenport,  she  came  under 
the  influence  of  Alice  French  and  her  imaginary  region.  In  1904 
Glaspell's  "Man  of  Flesh  and  Blood"  started  a  series  of  twenty-six 
stories  about  Freeport,  an  imaginary  town  directly  modeled  on 
French's  creation.  In  Glaspell's  imaginary  region,  "love  and  money 
are  the  most  desirable  things  in  the  world,  but  the  greater  of  these 
is  love.  Although  social  classes  exist,  class  boundaries  may  be 
crossed  by  deserving  individuals.  Evil  is  usually  overcome  by  good; 
suffering  builds  character."^^  Glaspell  included  realistic  details  of 
Davenport  for  the  setting  of  her  popular  short  stories,  thereby 
developing  the  concept  of  an  imaginary  place. 

An  example  of  the  series  is  "Manager  of  the  Crystal  Sulphur 
Springs."^"  The  content  of  the  story  is  heavily  sentimental,  with  a 
tragic  tale  of  Bert  Groves  living  at  the  county  home,  on  land  which 
had  originally  been  the  site  for  his  bankrupt  health  spa.  In  the  story, 
he  lives  in  world  of  traditional  ethics,  the  Fairport  world  of  Alice 
French.  The  descriptions  of  locale  are  occasionally  based  upon 
Davenport,  but  the  Rock  Island  Line  train  station  was  the  basis  for 
passages  in  the  story. 

A  close  friend  and  literary  colleague  of  Cook  and  Glaspell  was 
ten  years  younger.  Floyd  Dell  moved  to  Davenport  in  1903  with  his 
family,  and  after  a  year  of  high  school,  Dell  dropped  out  of  school, 
eventually  becoming  a  reporter  for  the  Davenport  Democrat  and, 
later,  the  Times.  In  1905  he  started  publishing  the  Tri-City  Workers 
Magazine.  He  wrote  many  of  the  articles,  which  analyzed  modern 
industry  from  a  socialist  perspective.  His  focus  included  a  local 
candy  factory,  department  store,  button  factory,  and  cigar  works. 
Other  articles  exposed  the  capitalist  economics  behind  diphtheria 
epidemics,  the  motivations  leading  up  to  the  firing  of  a  school 
teacher,  and  the  profit  motive  behind  Brick  Munro's  Dance  Hall  in 
the  "red  light  district"  near  the  Arsenal  Island  bridge. 

Twelve  years  after  leaving  Davenport,  Dell  returned  to  the  con- 
cept of  the  imaginary  region  invented  by  Alice  French  with  his  first 
novel.  Moon-Calf  (1920)  describes  his  own  adolescent  years  in  a 
river  town  very  much  like  Davenport.  It  is  largely  autobiographical, 
with  the  protagonist,  Felix  Fay,  growing  up  in  Adams  County,  Illinois 
and  living  for  a  time  in  Quincy.  In  one  conversation,  Felix  reflects  on 
the  city  he  lived  in  (really  Davenport)  and  thinks  that  it  really  is 
cosmopolitan,  "not  like  other  towns  ....  No,  it  had  a  history  of  its 
own  —  from  the  first  it  had  been  a  rebellious  place.  It  had  been 
founded  so,  by  men  who  were  different  from  others  —  or  it  was 
pleasant  to  think  so."^^  The  novel  is  in  the  Fairport  tradition,  but  is 
complex  in  a  way  that  the  local  fiction  of  French  or  Glaspell  is  not. 
Its  purpose  is  to  portray  self-discovery  and  coming-of-age  in  the 
Middle  West.  Moon-Calf  is  by  far  Dell's  best  novel. 


QUAD  CITIES  WRITERS:  A  GROUP  PORTRAIT  75 

A  friend  of  Dell's  and  fellow  newspaperman  took  his  time  about 
following  the  French  tradition.  Harry  Hansen  (1884-1977)  grew  up  in 
the  German  immigrant  society  of  Davenport.  He  worked  his  way 
through  high  school,  graduating  in  January  so  he  could  work  full- 
time  for  a  newspaper.  Eventually  he  also  moved  to  Chicago,  to  be- 
come literary  editor  of  the  Daily  News  in  the  early  1920s.  A  decade 
later  he  wrote  a  regional  novel  about  Davenport  which  stressed 
many  topics  untouched  by  earlier  writers.  In  his  fictional  portrayal 
of  a  river  town,  Hansen  included  scenes  of  violence  connected  with 
the  steamboat,  the  very  different  life  of  German-American  resi- 
dents, and  the  musical  accomplishments  of  the  urban  area  in  the 
1890s.  The  first  two-thirds  of  Your  Life  Lies  Before  You  remain  the 
fullest  expression  of  the  Fairport  tradition.  The  community  is  por- 
trayed as  a  place  of  moral  ambiguity  and  widespread  ambition." 

Your  Life  Lies  Before  You  is  Hansen's  only  novel.  It  describes 
the  early  manhood  of  David  Kinsman  and  his  newspaper  work  in  a 
river  town.  Part  of  his  job  was  interviewing  passengers  who  arrived 
on  the  weekly  steamboat.  For  young  Kinsman,  the  steamboat  was 
something  "both  mysterious  and  beautiful,"  a  messenger  from 
other  worlds."  As  the  youth  listens  to  calliope  music  while  on  a 
moonlight  excursion  with  his  girl  friend,  Hansen  intrudes  into  the 
starlit  scene:  "People  not  only  grow  sentimental  but  melancholy  on 
river  journeys.  When  banter  fails  they  turn  to  song,  and  there  is 
something  about  the  monotonous  swish  of  the  water  against  the 
sides  of  the  boat,  and  the  quiet  of  the  river  night,  that  makes  them 
sing  all  the  sad  strains  in  American  balladry. "^^ 

Hansen  develops  the  theme  of  responsibility  in  the  opening  sec- 
tion of  the  novel.  In  a  river  town,  the  underside  of  sordid  violence 
erupts  into  the  respectable,  peaceful  vista  of  the  steamboat's  upper 
deck.  Unlike  the  hero  of  Dell's  Fairport  novel,  who  is  disgusted  by 
the  emotional  non-involvement  of  newspaper  work,  Hansen's  hero 
learns  to  live  with  it.  As  the  steamboat  "St.  Charles"  arrives  one 
afternoon,  David  Kinsman  is  an  eyewitness  to  the  murder  of  two 
Indians  by  a  crew  member."  He  learns  about  an  obscure  "law  of  the 
river"  which  allows  the  captain  to  support  the  first  mate's  murder  in 
broad  daylight.  Kinsman's  reaction  is  to  get  a  "scoop"  for  his  paper. 
Instead  of  compassion  for  the  victims,  or  shock  at  the  public  accep- 
tance of  violence,  Kinsman  wants  the  individual  recognition  of  get- 
ting the  story  first. 

Hansen's  novel  is  an  elegiac  reworking  of  the  Fairport  concept, 
and  it  remains  the  most  realistic  treatment  of  the  Quad-Cities  in  fic- 
tion. The  novel  is  still  worth  reading,  and  it  parallels  Dell's  novel. 
Both  f^oon-Calf  and  Your  Life  Lies  Before  You  analytically  describe 
the  personal  development  of  sensitive,  troubled  youths  who  even- 
tually leave  for  Chicago.  The  environmental  forces  that  influence 


76  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

the  two  river  town  heros  are  very  much  the  same,  but  personal 
choices  lead  to  very  different  careers  and  futures  for  Fay  and 
Kinsman. 

Another  Davenport  writer  who  gained  considerable  recognition 
was  Arthur  Davison  Ficke  (1883-1945).  He  graduated  from  Harvard  in 
1904  and  eventually  joined  his  father's  law  firm  in  Davenport  after 
being  admitted  to  the  bar.  However,  he  had  been  encouraged  by  Alice 
French  to  pursue  a  career  in  writing."  The  result  was  a  decade-long 
balancing  act  between  poetry  and  the  law.  By  1916  he  had  become 
frustrated  by  the  social  demands  of  conformity  in  Davenport.  To- 
gether with  a  friend.  Witter  Bynner,  he  concocted  a  spurious  poetry 
movement  called  Spectricism.  This  hoax  was  helped  along  by  con- 
suming of  Scotch  as  the  two  produced  such  lines  as  "the  liquor  of 
her  laughter  and  the  lacquer  of  her  limbs. "^'  Within  a  year,  the  hoax 
had  been  revealed. 

Ficke  entered  the  army.  Like  so  many  other  Americans,  he  was 
disillusioned  by  World  War  I.  A  poem  of  that  time,  "Paris  1917,"  ex- 
presses the  poet's  view  of  the  war  years: 


Damp  leaves  fall 
Where  the  gravel  paths  are  shining;  the  pavements  are  mirrors 
Streaked  with  sudden  swathes  of  light,  under  skies 
As  grey  and  lightless  as  forest-smoke.  At  dawn 
The  streets  and  vistas  and  arches  slowly  unfold 
Out  of  clinging  vapors  of  darkness;  and  like  a  city 
Under  the  sea,  are  cloudy  and  fabulous 
As  an  Atlantis. 

And  the  middle-day  is  grey 
With  light  that  comes  from  nowhere,  that  is  thick  ether 
Spread  through  space  in  even  texture. 

Grey 
Rise  the  dark  towers  of  Notre  Dame;  grey 
The  last  few  southward-flying  swallows 
Sweep  past. 

And  evening  comes,  as  with  wide  wings 
Of  greyness  folding  over  the  city.  There  burns 
No  sunset,  not  one  gleam  of  goiden  light 
To  break  the  cold  west.  Night  is  only  greyness 
Grown  old.  Night  —  then  the  perfect  silence  of  greyness  — 
Sleep.'' 


Unlike  his  more  typical  sonnets,  this  poem  examines  the  mood  of 
emotional  numbness.  The  comparison  of  Paris  to  Atlantis,  and  the 
description  of  a  foggy  morning,  suggest  the  mythical  dream  of  a 
Utopia  that  sunk  under  the  seas,  just  as  the  city  of  gaiety  had 
become  forlorn  and  lost  for  Ficke.  The  variations  on  grey  are  over- 
powering in  a  cumulative  way:  forest  smoke,  mid-day,  Notre  Dame, 


QUAD  CITIES  WRITERS:  A  GROUP  PORTRAIT  77 

swallows,  evening  and  night,  "only  greyness  grown  old."  Ficke's 
poetry  is  a  forgotten  achievennent  that  deserves  a  contemporary 
readership. 

One  of  his  proteges  participated  in  the  Spectra  hoax  and  used 
the  pseudonynn  "Elijah  Hay."  Marjorie  Allen  Seiffert  (1885-1971) 
grew  up  in  Moline  before  marrying  a  wealthy  heir  to  a  Davenport 
lumber  company.  Her  parents  lived  in  a  pseudo-Tudor  mansion  called 
"Allendale"  and  participated  in  the  socially  elite  life  of  the  metro- 
politan area.  Seiffert  started  writing  in  1912  when  Ficke  suggested 
that  she  specialize  in  the  lyrics  which  she  had  written  for  some 
songs."  She  later  became  a  strong  supporter  of  the  Poetry  Associa- 
tion of  America  and  was  part  of  the  "lllini  Poetry"  group  of  writers 
after  her  first  public  reading  in  Chicago  in  1916." 

In  her  five  published  volumes  of  verse,  many  lyrics  expressed 
her  attitude  towards  the  seasons.  The  following  excerpt  from  "April 
Storm"  captures  her  uncanny  sense  of  the  moment: 


Nothing  is  like  the  wind  that  shool<  my  door 

That  night,  or  lil<e  the  scratching  of  the  rain 
Against  the  screen,  or  the  sound  of  the  branch  that  tore 
Its  young  green  leaves,  or  the  sobbing  of  the  drain. 
Your  plea  still  echoed  in  my  ears;  I  heard 
Wind,  and  rain,  and  April  branches  beating 
Against  the  walls  that  housed  me,  and  lay  unstirred; 
No  answer  rose  in  me  and  gave  them  greeting. 
And  so  it  was  I  knew  the  quiet  room 
Was  empty  . . .  empty  of  me.  A  sudden  fear 
Kept  my  closed  eyelids  closed  against  the  gloom 
In  dreadful  loneliness.  Nothing  was  here. 
Spring  raged  outside,  but  ghostly  in  my  bed 
A  dead  self  lay  and  knew  itself  for  dead.'' 

Although  classified  as  a  "woman  poet,"  Seiffert  became  famous 
for  her  ability  to  express  psychological  states  in  a  lyrical  way.  The 
"dead  self"  at  the  end  of  the  poem  is  not  only  the  narrator  of  the 
event,  the  spring  storm,  but  also  the  denier  of  "your  plea."  Seiffert's 
five  volumes  of  poetry  often  provide  psychological  insights  into  ex- 
otic subjects,  such  as  medieval  kings  and  Russian  aristocrats.  But 
throughout  her  published  works,  there  is  also  a  recurring  use  of 
midwestern  locales  and  events. 

A  Rock  Island  writer,  a  contemporary  of  Seiffert,  chose  to 
specialize  in  juvenile  fiction.  Cornelia  Lynde  Meigs  (1885-1973)  was 
born  into  a  large  family  and  had  five  sisters.  Her  father  was  a  civil 
engineer  for  the  Rock  Island  District,  Corps  of  Engineers.  She 
graduated  from  Bryn  Mawr  in  1906  and  then  moved  back  to  live  with 
her  father  until  his  death  in  1931."  During  that  period,  she  initiated  a 
new  era  of  historical  fiction  for  children  when  her  first  novel.  Master 
Simon's  Story,  appeared  in  1916."  Rock  Island  County  was  the  set- 


WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 


Alice  French.  Courtesy  of  Iowa  State  Department  of  History  and  Archives. 


QUAD  CITIES  WRITERS:  A  GROUP  PORTRAIT  79 

ting  for  one  of  her  novels,  As  the  Crow  Flies  (1927).  In  a  half  century 
of  writing,  she  completed  more  than  forty  books,  primarily  intended 
for  children. 

The  final  writer  to  be  considered  carried  the  regional  traditions 
of  the  Quad-Cities  into  mystery  story.  Mary  Plum  (1892-1962)  wrote 
eight  mysteries  about  Chicago,  Michigan,  and  a  Middle  Western  town 
called  "Portville."  The  last  location  was  the  setting  for  Susanna, 
Don't  you  Cry!  (1946),  a  Crime  Club  selection.  The  town  is  a  thinly 
disguised  version  of  Davenport,  as  revealed  in  the  first  paragraph, 
which  refers  to  a  local  cigar  store: 

Early  June  and  already  hot  enough  for  the  annual  demonstration 
of  frying  eggs  on  a  sunny  sidewalk!  Old  stuff,  kid  stuff,  but  as 
perennial  as  dandelions.  In  front  of  Hickey  Brothers  corner  cigar 
store  a  local  citizen  snapped  shut  his  watch  and  told  the  visiting 
salesman  in  prideful  tones,  'Eleven  thirty  seven.  Less  than  three 
minutes  and  plenty  frizzled  at  the  edges.  Pretty  warm,  eh,  brother?" 


The  story  of  Susan  Marquette,  who  identifies  the  killer,  saves  her 
uncle's  hotel,  and  discovers  some  local  graft,  is  related  to  the  Alice 
French  version  of  Fairport. 

From  a  biographical  standpoint,  there  are  two  factors  that  char- 
acterize many  of  the  Quad-Cities  writers,  aside  from  their  common 
location.  First,  several  supported  themselves  by  working  for  news- 
papers. Of  the  thirteen  writers  discussed  in  this  essay,  six  were 
reporters  while  living  in  Davenport:  Reid,  Wilkie,  Russell,  Banks, 
Dell  and  Hansen.  Undoubtedly,  their  experience  in  writing  on  a  daily 
basis  was  helpful,  and  their  local  focus  made  the  Quad-Cities  a 
potential  source  for  their  literary  work.  But  only  Dell  and  Hansen  trans- 
formed their  journalistic  experiences  into  novels  about  the  area. 

Another  factor  was  the  freedom  that  independent  wealth  gave  to 
several  other  writers.  Alice  French  was  the  first  local  author  of  note 
who  did  not  need  to  be  involved  in  journalism  in  order  to  make  a  liv- 
ing. Cook  and  Glaspell  were  able  to  take  their  time  in  choosing 
careers  (each  dabbled  in  journalism  for  short  periods  of  time, 
Glaspell  in  Des  Moines  and  Cook  in  Chicago),  without  the  necessity 
of  having  a  job.  Ficke  enjoyed  the  liberality  of  his  father  as  he 
graduated  from  college  and  finally  became  a  lawyer,  but  he  was  able 
to  retire  at  the  age  of  thirty  seven.  Marjorie  Allen  Seiffert  was  mar- 
ried to  a  rich  man  who  supported  her,  and  so  was  Mary  Plum. 

Of  greater  importance  is  the  continuity  of  the  Fairport  concept 
in  novels,  short  stories,  and  plays.  Alice  French  developed  the  idea 
during  her  twenty  years  of  writing  about  the  "western  town,"  and 
then  five  younger  Quad-Cities  writers  used  that  concept  in  their 
work.  For  Glaspell  and  Plum,  the  Fairport  tradition  was  a  ready- 
made  one  for  their  formulaic  fiction.  For  three  other  writers,  the  in- 


80  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

herent  assumptions  of  the  "fair  port"  spawned  other  considerations. 
In  the  spectrum  of  fictional  treatments,  Cook  took  the  strongest 
stand  in  denying  the  idyllic  concept.  His  fictional  river  town  is  a 
place  where  competition  leads  to  suffering,  and  opportunity  is 
denied  to  almost  everyone.  Hansen  added  the  elements  of  violence 
and  moral  ambiguity,  aspects  ignored  in  the  writing  of  Alice  French. 
Dell  personalized  the  concept,  making  the  river  town  a  world  of 
moral  choices  confronting  his  autobiographical  protagonist.  Whereas 
French  originally  intended  simply  to  describe  the  locale,  the  "local 
color"  of  the  river  valley,  in  her  work,  in  the  writing  of  Dell,  Glaspell, 
Hansen,  and  Plum  the  town  became  a  metaphor  for  the  American 
experience  —  a  metaphor  that  expressed  the  regionalism  of  the 
Quad  Cities  tradition. 

NOTES 

Trank  Paluka,  Iowa  Authors;  a  Bio-Bibliography  of  Sixty  Native  Writers  (Iowa  City: 
Univ.  of  Iowa  Press,  1966),  p.  83;  Clarence  Andrews,  Chicago  in  Story;  A  Literary 
History  (Iowa  City:  Midwest  Heritage  Publishing  Company,  1982),  p.  65. 

^Davenport  Democrat,  5  April  1944,  p.  3. 

^Clarence  Andrews,  A  Literary  History  of  Iowa  (Iowa  City:  Univ.  of  Iowa  Press, 
1972),  p.  6. 

'1858  Twin  Cities  Directory  (Davenport:  Lane,  Luse,  1858),  pp.  23,  132. 

'Davenport  News,  15  September  1858,  p.  3. 

'Harp  of  the  West  (Davenport:  Lane,  Luse,  1858),  p.  7. 

Tranc  B.  Wilkie,  Davenport,  Past  and  Present  (Davenport:  Lane,  Luse,  1856),  p.  11. 

"Charles  Edward  Russell,  Pioneer  Editor  in  Early  Iowa  (Washington:  Ransdale 
Press,  1941),  p.  20. 

^Stories  of  a  Western  Town  (New  York:  Scribner's,  1897),  pp.  36-37. 

'"Ibid.,  p.  43. 

''The  l^an  of  the  Hour  (Indianapolis:  Bobbs-Merrill,  1905),  p.  3. 

'^William  Morton  Payne,  "Recent  Fiction,"  Dial,  16  Nov.  1905,  p.  308. 

''Joseph  Frazier  Wall,  Iowa:  A  Bicentennial  History  (Nashville:  American 
Association  of  State  and  Local  History,  1978),  pp.  197-198. 

'"The  play,  "In  Hampton  Roads,"  was  a  regionally  acclaimed  success  when  put 
on  by  semi-professional  players  at  the  Burtis  Opera  House  in  DAvenport  in  1899. 

''Greek  Coins  (New  York:  George  B.  Doran,  1925),  p.  62. 

""George  Cram  Cook  and  the  Poetry  of  Living,  with  a  Checklist,"  Books  at  Iowa, 
no.  24  (April  1976),  p.  9. 

"Marcia  Noe,  "A  Critical  Biography  of  Susan  Glaspell,"  Diss.  University  of  Iowa, 
1976,  pp.  15-18. 

"Arthur  Waterman,  Susan  Glaspell  (New  York:  Twayne,  1966),  p.  20. 

"Ibid.,  p.  21. 

'"Harper's,  (July,  1915),  176-77. 

''I^oon-Calf  (New  York:  Knopf,  1920),  p.  394. 

"William  Roba,  "Harry  Hansen's  Literary  Career,"  Books  at  Iowa,  no.  35 
(November,  1981),  pp.  19-22. 

"Harry  Hansen,  Your  Life  Lies  Before  You  (New  York:  Harcourt,  1035),  p.  12. 


QUAD  CITIES  WRITERS:  A  GROUP  PORTRAIT  81 

"Ibid.,  p.  169. 

"Ibid.,  p.  31. 

"Andrews,  Iowa,  p.  113. 

"Witter  Bynner,  "Ave  Atque  Vale,"  Poetry  68,  no.  1  (April  1946),  p.  58. 

^'Mountain  Against  Mountain  (Garden  City:  Doubleday,  1929),  p.  13. 

"Davenport  Times,  ?  December  1934.  Davenport  Public  Library  nev^^spaper  clipping. 

'"Wilbur  Gaffney,  "Spectra  and  Some  Echoes,"  Prairie  Sciiooner,  36  (Spring, 
1962),  pp.  59-60. 

"K/ng  With  Three  Faces  {New  York:  Scribner's,  1929),  p.  53. 

"Rock  Island  Argus,  13  August  1937,  p.  12. 

"Ruth  Vigners,  et.  al.,  A  Critical  History  of  Children's  Literature  (New  York:  Mac- 
millan,  1951),  p.  432. 

^'Susanna,  Don't  You  Cry!  (New  York:  Doubleday,  1946),  p.  1. 


NOTES  AND  DOCUMENTS 


Historical  Publications:  Bibliographies  of 
Pike  and  Calhoun  Counties 

The  following  bibliographies  continue  the  series  started  in  the 
Spring  of  1981.  Thus  far,  Fulton,  Mercer  and  Henderson  counties 
have  been  featured.  Entries  consist  of  separately  published  nnono- 
graphs,  and  typescripts  which  were  duplicated  for  limited  private 
distribution.  The  bibliographies  do  not  include  periodical  or  news- 
paper articles,  scrapbooks,  manuscripts,  photographs,  or  genealog- 
ical studies  on  individual  families. 

Indexes  to  more  important  articles  are  maintained  in  the  Illinois 
Historical  Survey  at  the  University  of  Illinois  and  at  the  Illinois  State 
Historical  Library  in  Springfield.  The  Special  Collections  unit  of  the 
Western  Illinois  University  Library  maintains  a  vertical  file  on  both 
counties  and  has  a  sizeable  collection  of  photographs  and  a  number 
of  manuscripts  from  Pike  county.  The  unit  is  also  the  location  of  the 
Illinois  Regional  Archives  Depository  Center  which  houses  Western 
Illinois  local  government  records. 

Two  local  historicans  have  been  particularly  helpful  in  the  com- 
pilation of  these  bibliographies.  James  Sanderson  of  Pittsfield  has 
helped  with  the  Pike  County  bibliography  and  George  Carpenter  of 
Hardin  has  been  helpful  with  Calhoun  County.  My  sincere  thanks 
are  due  to  both  of  these  dedicated  individuals. 

Because  of  the  limited  distribution  of  locally  produced  publica- 
tions, bibliographic  coverage  of  items  which  make  up  these  lists  is 
sometimes  incomplete.  Therefore,  all  additions  or  corrections  will 
be  welcome.  They  should  be  addressed  to  Gordana  Rezab,  Archivist 
and  Special  Collections  Librarian,  Western  Illinois  University 
Library,  Macomb  IL  61455. 


PIKE  COUNTY 
General  County  Histories 

Grimshaw,  William  A.  History  of  Pike  County:  a  Centennial  Address  . . .  July  4, 
1876.  Pittsfield,  III.:  Printed  at  the  Democratic  Job  Rooms,  1877.  46  p. 

History  of  Pike  County,  Illinois,  Together  Witti  Sketches  of  Its  Cities,  Villages 
and  Townships.  Chicago:  C.C.  Chapman,  1880.  966  p.  (Reprinted  by  Uni- 
graphic,  Inc.,  Evansville,  Ind.,  1974.) 

Massie,  Melville  D.  Past  and  Present  of  Pike  County,  Illinois.  Chicago:  S.J. 
Clarke,  S.J.,  1906.  751  p. 

82 


NOTES  AND  DOCUMENTS  83 

Portrait  and  Biographical  Album  of  Pike  and  Calhoun  Counties,  Illinois. 
Chicago:  Biographical  Publishing,  1891.  808  p.  (Reprinted  by  Unigraphic, 
Inc.,  Evansville,  Ind.,  1975. 

Thompson,  Jess  M.  The  Jess  M.  Thompson  Pike  County  History  as  Printed 
in  Installments  in  the  Pike  County  Republican,  Pittsfield,  Illinois, 
1935-1939.  Pittsfield,  III.:  Pike  County  Historical  Society,  1967.  563  p. 


Special  Aspects  of  the  County  Histot7 

Burlend,  Rebecca.  A  True  Picture  of  Emigration:  or  Fourteen  Years  in  the 
Interior  of  North  America.  London:  G.  Berger,  1848.  62.  p.  (Reprinted  by 
the  Lakeside  Press,  Chicago,  1936,  and  by  Citadel  Press,  New  York,  1968.) 

Drury,  John.  This  is  Pike  County,  Illinois:  an  Up-to-date  Historical  Narrative 
With  County  and  Township  Maps  and  Many  Unique  Aerial  Photographs 
of  Cities,  Towns,  Villages  and  Farmsteads.  Chicago:  The  Loree  Co., 
1955.  521  p. 

Hopkins,  Cyril  G.  et  al.  Pike  County  Soils:  University  of  Illinois  Agricultural 
Experiment  Station  Soil  Report,  no.  11.  Urbana,  III.:  The  Station,  1915 
48  p. 

Inventory  of  Architecture  Before  W.W.  II  in  Pike  County.  Interim  Report.  Illinois 
Historic  Structures  Survey,  1974.  21  leaves. 

Inventory  of  Historic  Landmarks  in  Pike  County.  Interim  Report,  n.p.:  Illinois 
Historic  Landnnarks  Survey,  1972.  6  leaves. 

Inventory  of  the  County  Archives  of  Illinois:  no.  75,  Pike  County.  Chicago: 
Illinois  Historical  Records  Survey  Project,  1938. 

Prairie  Farmer's  Directory  of  Farmers  and  Breeders,  Pike  and  Calhoun 
Counties,  Illinois.  Chicago:  Prairie  Farmer,  1918.  359  p.  (Reprinted  by 
Unigraphic  Inc.,  Evansville,  Ind.,  1979.) 

Thompson,  Jess  M.  Nicolay  Land  Series,  n.p.:  Grace  E.  Matteson,  n.d.  85 
leaves.  (Reprints  of  articles  in  the  Pike  County  Republican,  1937-1938.) 

County  Atlases,  Maps  and  Platbooks 

(listed  in  order  of  publication) 

Pike  County  Land  Ownership  Map.  Buffalo,  N.Y.:  Holmes  and  Arnold,  1860. 

Atlas  Map  of  Pike  County,  Illinois.  Davenport,  \ovja:  Anreas,  Lyter,  1872,  138  p. 

Plat  Book  of  Pike  County,  Illinois.  Chicago:  George  A.  Ogle  &  Co.,  1895. 60  p. 

Standard  Atlas  of  Pike  County,  Illinois.  Chicago:  George  A.  Ogle,  1912. 121  p. 

Plat  Book  of  Pike  County,  Illinois.  Rockford,  III.:  W.W.  Hixson  and  Co.,  1926. 

Plat  Book,  Pike  County,  Illinois.  Rockford,  III.:  General  Map  Company,  1950. 
51  p. 

Plat  Book,  Pike  County,  Illinois.  Rockford,  III.:  Derr  Map  Studio,  1958.  28  p. 

Farm  Plat  Book  With  Index  to  Owners,  Pike  County,  Illinois.  Rockford,  III.: 
Rockford  Map  Publishers,  1963.  47  p. 


84  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

Atlas  and  Plat  Book,  Pike  County,  Illinois.  Rockford,  III.:  Rockford  Map 
Publishers,  1966. 

Triennial  Atlas  and  Plat  Book,  Pike  County,  Illinois.  Rockford,  III.:  Rockford 
Map  Publishers,  1969.  62  p.  Editions  with  slightly  differing  titles  were 
published  in  1972  and  1974. 


County  Censuses  and  Genealogical  Publications 

Cemetery  Records  of  Pike  County,  Illinois,  by  Townships,  1816-1978.  Pitts- 
field,  III.:  Pike  County  Historical  Society,  1979-1980.  6  vol. 

Keller,  Agnes  DuVal.  The  Marriage  Records  of  Pike  County,  Illinois.  Port- 
land, Ore.:  Agnes  DuVal  Keller,  1974.  2  vol. 

Selby,  Robert  E.  7850  Census  of  Pike  County,  Illinois.  Kokomo,  Ind.:  Robert 
E.  Selby,  1979.  394  p. 


Publications  on  Towns  and  Townships 

(listed  alphabetically  by  town  name) 

New  Philadelphia 

Matteson,  Grace  E.  "Free  Frank"  McWorter  and  the  "Ghost  Town"  of  New 
Philadelphia,  Pike  County,  Illinois.  Pittsfield,  III.:  Pike  County  Historical 
Society,  1964.  34  leaves. 

Walker,  Juliet  E.K.  "Free  Frank"  and  New  Philadelphia:  Slave  and  Friedman, 
Frontiersman  and  Town  Founder.  Diss.  University  of  Chicago,  1976.  407  p. 

Pearl 

Newnom,  Lloyd.  History  of  Pearl  Township  and  the  People  That  Made  That 
History,  n.p.,  n.d.  163  leaves. 

Pittsfield 

Dinsmore,  Robert  T.  R.T.  Dinsmore  Memoir:  the  Life  of  a  County  Printer. 
Springfield,  III.:  Sangannon  State  University  Oral  History  Office,  1981. 
304  leaves. 

The  First  National  Bank  of  Pittsfield,  Illinois,  1865-1940.  n.p.,  1940?  29  p. 

Immaculate  Conception  Church,  Pittsfield,  Illinois.  Diamond  Jubilee  Souvenir, 
1870-1945.  n.p.,  1945? 

Pittsfield  Community  Unit  School  District.  The  Pittsfield  Community  Unit 
Surveys  Its  Schools.  Pittsfield,  III.:  Pittsfield  School  Survey  Committee, 
1951.  161  p. 

Re-dedication  of  the  Historic  East  School,  July  23,  1978  and  A  Brief  History 
of  the  Towns  of  Pike  County.  Pittsfield,  III.:  n.p.,  1978.  19  p. 

Shastid,  Thomas  Hall.  My  Second  Life.  Ann  Arbor,  Mich.:  George  Wahr, 
1944.  1174  p. 

Willard,  Dale.  Education  and  the  Educators  in  Pittsfield,  Illinois,  1833-1963. 
MA  Thesis,  MacMurray  College,  1964. 


NOTES  AND  DOCUMENTS  85 

Rockport 

Haines,  Tom.  A  History  of  Gilgal  Landing  and  Rockport,  Illinois.  Missoula, 
Mont.:  Gateway  Printing,  1971.  103  p. 


CALHOUN  COUNTY 
General  County  Histories 

Carpenter,  George  W.  History  of  Caltioun  County  and  Its  People  Up  to  the 
Year  1910.  MA  Thesis,  University  of  Illinois,  1933. 

Carpenter,  George  W.  History  of  Calhoun  County.  Jerseyville,  III.:  Democratic 
Print,  1934.  93  p. 

Carpenter,  George  W.  Calhoun  is  My  Kingdom:  the  Sesquicentennial  History 
of  Calhoun  County,  Illinois,  n.p.:  Board  of  County  Commissioners, 
Calhoun  County,  1967.  124  p. 

Portrait  and  Biographical  Album  of  Pike  and  Calhoun  Counties,  Illinois. 
Chicago.:  Biographical  Publishing,  1891.  808  p.  (Reprinted  by  Unigraphic 
Evansville,  Ind.,  1975.) 

Special  Aspects  of  the  County  History 

Buikstra,  Jane  E.  and  Lynne  Goldstein.  The  Perrins  Ledge  Crematory.  Spring- 
field, III.:  Illinois  State  Museum,  1973.  40  p.  (Reports  of  Investigations, 
no  28). 

Carpenter,  George  W.  And  They  Changed  the  Named  to  Gilead;  the  Story  of 
Cole's  Grove  and  Gilead,  First  County  Seats  of  Pike  and  Calhoun  Coun- 
ties, 1821-1847  and  the  Story  of  the  Child  Family  of  Child's  Landing. . . 
the  Founders  of  Hardin,  III.  Hardin:  George  W.  Carpenter,  1976.  [41] 
leaves. 

Carpenter,  George  W.  /  Want  to  See  a  Lawyer:  Murder  in  Calhoun,  1821-1981 
and  the  Story  of  Our  Calhoun  Court  Systems  in  the  Past  160  Years,  n.p., 
George  W.  Carpenter,  1981,  [49]  leaves. 

Inventory  of  Architecture  Before  W.W.II  in  Calhoun,  Green  County:  Interim 
Report,  n.p.:  Illinois  Historic  Structures  Survey,  1974.  2  leaves. 

Inventory  of  Historic  Landmarks  in  Calhoun  County:  Interim  Report,  n.p.: 
Illinois  Historic  Landmarks  Survey,  1973.  3  leaves. 

Perrin,  John  Nicholas.  At  Perrins  Ledge:  the  Joliet-Marquette  Exploring 
Expedition,  1673.  Belleville:  n.p.,  1936. 

Prairie  Farmer's  Directory  of  Farmers  and  Breeders,  Pike  and  Calhoun 
Counties,  Illinois.  Chicago:  Prairie  Farmer,  1918.  359  p.  (Reprinted  by 
Unigraphic,  Inc.,  Evansville,  ind.,  1979.) 

Smith,  R.S.  Calhoun  County  Soils:  University  of  Illinois  Agricultural  Experi- 
ment Station,  Soil  Report,  no  53.  Urbana,  III.:  The  Station,  1932.  18  p. 

Vogel,  Edward.  Calhoun  County:  a  Study  in  Geographic  Landscapes.  MA 
Thesis.  University  of  Illinois,  1939. 


86  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

County  Atlases,  Maps  and  Plat  Books 

(listed  in  order  of  publication) 

Plat  Book  of  Calhoun  County,  Illinois.  Rockford,  III.:  W.W.  Hixson,  1926. 

Farm  Plat  Book  and  Business  Guide,  Calfioun  County,  Illinois.  Rockford,  III.: 
Rockford  Map  Publishers,  1948.  34  p. 

Official  3  Year  Atlas,  Calhoun  County,  Illinois.  Rockford,  III.:  Rockford  Map 
Publishers,  1961. 

Land  Atlas  and  Plat  Book,  Calhoun  County,  Illinois.  Rockford,  III.:  Rockford 
Map  Publishers,  1965. 

Atlas  and  Plat  Book,  Calhoun  County,  Illinois.  Rockford,  III.:  Rockford  Map 
Publishers,  1972.  26  p.  Editions  under  the  same  title  were  published  in 
1975  and  1978. 

County  Censuses  and  Genealogical  Publications 

United  States  Census,  1850,  Calhoun  County,  Illinois.  Decatur,  III.:  Decatur 
Genealogical  Society,  1971.  68  p. 

Publications  on  Towns  and  Townships 

Brussels 

Goetze,  Florence.  St.  Mathews  Lutheran  Church:  a  Century  of  Blessings, 
1861-1961.  Brussels,  III.:  n.p.,  1961.  20  p. 


Guide  to  Resources  for  Regional  Studies 

The  following  "Guide  to  Resources  for  Western  Illinois/Eastern  Iowa  Regional 
Studies"  was  compiled  by  John  Caldwell  and  was  made  available  to  participants  at 
the  Fifth  Annual  Western  Illinois  Regional  Studies  Conference,  held  on  April  9  at 
Black  Hawk  College  in  Moline  and  Augustana  College  in  Rock  Island.  It  is  the  first 
bibliographic  tool  focused  on  the  diversity  of  historical  collections  housed  in  the 
region.  Copies  are  available  for  ten  cents  each  through  Augustana  library. 

Andover  Historical  Society  —  Historical  House  Museum 
418  Locust  St.,  Andover,  IL  61233 
Arline  Johnson,  President  (309)  476-8506 

Vernette  Larson,  Secretary  (309)  476-8594,  Helen  Brodd,  Treasurer  (309)  476-8404 
Hours:  June  1-Sept.  1,  Sunday  1  p.m.-4:30  p.m.  Other  times  by  appointment. 

Augustana  College,  Denkmann  Memorial  Library 

7th  Ave.  and  35th  St.,  Rock  Island,  IL  61201 

Library  (309)  794-7266;  Special  Collections  (309)  794-7317 

John  Caldwell,  Director;  Marjorie  M.  Miller,  Special  Collections  Librarian/Archivist 

Hours:  Monday-Friday  8:30  a.m.-4:30  p.m. 

The  Upper  Mississippi  Valley  collection  includes  histories,  journals,  and 
descriptive  accounts  from  the  17th,  18th  and  19th  centuries,  on  the  Upper 
Mississippi  and  its  valley;  the  Sauk  and  Fox  Indian  tribes;  city  directories  and 
pictorial  accounts  of  Rock  Island,  Moline,  and  Davenport.  The  manuscript  col- 
lection includes  the  John  Henry  Hauberg  papers,  with  materials  on  Black  Hawk 
and  the  Sauk  Indians;  Rock  Island  County  and  its  early  settlers;  and  the  George 


NOTES  AND  DOCUMENTS  87 


Davenport  Indian  trade  ledgers,  and  the  records  of  the  Moline  Water  Power  Conn- 
pany  and  the  Rock  Island  Millwork  Company. 

Bettendorf  Public  Library 

2950  18th  St.,  Bettendorf,  I A  52722  (319)  332-7427 

Faye  Clow,  Director;  Audrey  Stedman,  Archivist 

Hours:  Monday-Thursday  9  a.m.-9  p.m.,  Friday  and  Saturday  9  a.m.-5  p.m. 

"Iowa  Collection"  consists  of  recently  compiled  histories  of  Bettendorf,  Pleas- 
ant Valley  and  LeClaire,  recent  Quad-Cities  historical  and  biographical  publica- 
tions, a  few  Iowa  county  histories,  Mississippi  River  histories,  books  by  local 
authors,  historical  periodicals,  and  a  manuscript  history  of  the  Pleasant  Valley 
onion-growing  business  by  Russell  Rice.  Pamphlet  files  contain  other  local 
historical  materials:  newspaper  clippings,  etc.  Houses  the  collection  of  the 
Scott  County  Iowa  Genealogical  Society. 

Bishop  Hill  Heritage  Association 
Steeple  Building,  Bishop  Hill,  IL  61419  (mail:c/o  Edia  Warner,  BHHA,  Box  1853, 

Bishop  Hill,  IL  61419)  (309)  927-3899 
EdIa  Warner,  Archivist;  Dina  Nelson,  Coordinator 
Hours:  Open  by  appointment  only 


Black  Howk  College  Library 

6600-34th  Ave.,  Moline,  IL  61265  (309)  796-1311 
Donald  C.  Rowland,  Director  and  Archivist 
Hours:  Monday-Friday  8:30  a.m.-4:30  p.m. 

Belgian  Historical  Collection:  Several  hundred  books  and  periodicals  concern- 
ing Belgians  in  America  including  a  complete  original  copy  of  the  Gazette  van 
Moline.  Many  items  in  Flemish  and  French. 

Blackhawk  Genealogical  Society 

Bernice  Moseley,  Librarian  (309)  787-1114 
(Mail:  P.O.  Box  912,  Rock  Island,  IL  61201) 

Collection,  which  includes  newspaper,  abstracts,  local  cemetery  records, 
genealogies,  family  histories,  local  histories,  census  records,  and  the  micro- 
filmed index  to  U.S.  records  filmed  by  LDS,  is  housed  in  Moline  Public  Library. 

Bradley  University,  Cullom-Davis  Library 

1511  W.  Bradley  Ave.  (corner  of  Glenwood  Ave.)  Peoria,  IL61625  Virginius  H.Chase 
Special  Collections  Center  (309)  671-5945;  Director's  Office  (309)  671-8577 

Robert  A.  Jones,  Director;  Charles  J.  Frey,  Special  Collections  Librarian 

Hours:  Monday-Friday  9  a.m.-12  noon,  1  p.m.-4:30  p.m. 

Archival  material  relevant  to  the  history  of  Bradley  University.  A  major  collection 
pertaining  to  Philander  Chase,  the  first  Episcopal  bishop  of  Ohio  and  Illinois  and 
founder  of  Kenyon  and  Jubilee  Colleges;  materals  include  manuscripts,  books, 
pamphlets,  clippings,  maps,  and  photographic  images.  The  Spooner  Library  of 
the  Peoria  Historical  Society  is  on  deposit;  it  covers  city  and  county  history  from 
the  time  of  the  French  settlement  in  the  late  seventeenth  century. 

Davenport  Public  Library 
321  Main  St.,  Davenport,  lA  52801  (319)  326-7832 
C.Daniel  Wilson,  Jr.,  Director; 
Hours:  Monday  1  p.m.-4:30  p.m.,  6  p.m.-9  p.m.;  Tuesday  9  a.m.-noon;  Wednesday 

1  p.m.-4:30  p.m.;  Thursday  9  a.m.-noon;  Friday  9  a.m.-noon;  Saturday  9  a.m.-noon, 

2  p.m.-5  p.m. 

Special  Collections  Room  houses  materials  on  Davenport  and  Iowa  history,  in- 
cluding a  complete  set  of  Davenport  city  directories;  cemetery  and  marriage 
records;  county  histories;  and  files  of  clippings  and  photographs.  The  room  also 
houses  the  Library's  collection  of  the  works  of  local  authors.  The  Bix  Beiderbecke 
memorabilia  collection   hangs  on  the  West  wall   of  the   room;   books  and 


88  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

documents  covering  the  life  of  Davenport's  most  famous  resident  are  contained 
in  the  collection. 

Deere  &  Company  Archives 
1209-13th  Ave.,  East  Moline,  IL  61244 

(mail:  Deere  &  Company,  John  Deere  Road,  Moline,  IL  61265)  (309)  752-4881 
Betty  Hagberg,  Director;  Les  Stegh,  Archivist 
Hours:  Monday-Friday  8  a.m.-4:30  p.m.  by  appointment  only 

Book  and  manuscript  material  on  agriculture,  John  Deere,  and  Deere  &  Company. 

Everett  McKinley  Dirksen  Congressional  Leadership  Research  Center 

Broadway  and  Fourth,  Pekin,  IL  61554  (309)  347-7113 

Frank  H.  Mackaman,  Archivist 

Hours:  Manuscript  Repository:  Tuesday-Friday  9  a.m.-5  p.m.  by  appointment  only; 

Exhibit  Hall:  Tuesday-Saturday  9  a.m.-5  p.m.  both  closed  on  national  holidays. 
A  non-partisan,  not-for-profit  educational  institution  devoted  to  the  study  of 
Congress,  especially  congressional  leadership.  The  Everett  M.  Dirksen  Collection  is 
the  single  most  important  holding  but  it  is  complemented  by  numerous  smaller 
collections.  Senator  Dirksen's  papers  (1800  linear  feet)  document  his  career  in 
the  House  of  Representatives  (1933-48);  the  Senate  (1951-69);  and  his  years  as 
Senate  minority  leader  (1959-69). 

Fulton  County  Historical  and  Genealogical  Society 
Mrs.  Lawrence  I.  Bordner,  Archivist 
Holdings  are  housed  in  a  special  section  of  the  Parlin-lngersoll  Library,  205  W. 

Chestnut  St.,  Canton,  IL  61520  (309)  6470328 
Hours:  Monday-Friday  9  a.m.-8  p.m.;  Saturday  9  a.m.-4  p.m.;  Sunday  1  p.m.-4  p.m. 

Hancock  County  Historical  Society 

Third  Floor,  Courthouse,  Carthage,  IL  62321 

Robert  M.  Cochran,  Corresponding  Secretary 

Isabel  Young,  researcher 

Hours:  Monday-Thursday  8  a.m.-2:30  p.m.;  Friday  by  appointment 

Nearly  complete  file  of  bound  county  newspapers  1854-1970.  Genealogical  card 
index,  40  scrapbooks  of  obituaries,  marriages,  reunions,  etc. 

Historical  Society  of  Quincy  &  Adams  County 
425  S.  12th  St.,  Quincy,  IL  62301  (217)  222-1835 
Ms.  Debby  Tompkins,  Director 

Hours:  Monday,  Wednesday,  Friday  10  a.m.-l  p.m.  Tours  Saturday,  Sunday  1  p.m.- 
4  p.m. 

Galesburg  Public  Library 

40  E.  Simmons  St.,  Galesburg,  IL  61401  (309)  343-6118 

Bruce  Barkley,  Director;  Jane  Willenborg,  Speical  Collections  Librarian 

Hours:  Monday-Thursday  9  a.m.-9  p.m.;  Friday  &  Saturday  9  a.m.-5  p.m. 

Collection  of  Illinois  county  histories  and  atlases.  An  extensive  collection  of  Lin- 
coln and  Sandburg  materials.  Minor  collections;  Mary  Ann  Bickerdyke  collection 
manuscript  collections,  and  the  Gliessman  negative  collection.  Pamphlet,  ephe- 
mera, photograph,  slide  and  negative  files.  Oral  histories  and  slide  shows  were 
begun  in  1976.  Microfilm  of  the  U.S.  census  of  various  Illinois  counties 
1840-1880,  the  Illinois  census  from  1825-1865,  and  the  U.S.  census  of  other 
assorted  states  are  also  collected.  Special  Collections  Room  is  not  open  to  the 
public  but  reference  assistance  is  available  to  assist  patrons  in  any  way  possible. 

Jacksonville  Area  Genealogical  and  Historical  Society 
(mail:  P.O.  Box  21,  Jacksonville,  IL  62651) 
Mrs.  Florence  Hutchison,  President  (217)  243-2502 
Mrs.  Mary  Frances  Alkire,  Librarian  (217)  245-5939 
Hours:  Daytime,  Monday-Friday,  by  appointment 


NOTES  AND  DOCUMENTS 


Kewanee  Historical  Society 
211  N.  Chestnut  St.,  Kewanee,  IL  61443  (309)  854-9701 
Robert  C.  Richards  Sr.,  Archivist 
Hours:  Winter-Saturday  1:30  p.m. -4  p.m.;  other  times  by  appointment 

Knox  College,  Seymour  Library 
West  &  Berrien  Sts.,  Galesburg,  IL  61401  (309)  343-0112 
Douglas  L.  Wilson,  Director;  Mrs.  Lynn  Metz,  Archivist 
Hours:  During  College  Sessions:  Monday-Friday  8  a.m.-IO  p.m.;  Saturday  10  a.m.- 

10  p.m.;  Sunday  11  a.m.-12  p.m.  Summer:  Monday-Friday  8  a.m.-4:30  p.m. 

Books,  pamphlets  and  maps  on  the  Old  Northwest.  Archives  on  the  history  of 

Knox  College  and  Galesburg. 

Marycrest  College,  Cone  Library 

1607  W.  12th  St.,  Davenport,  I A  52804  (319)  326-9254 

Sister  Joan  Shell,  C.H.M.,  Director;  Sister  Annette  Gallagher,  C.H.M.,  Archivist 

Hours:  Monday-Friday  8  a.m.-4:30  p.m. 

Official  records  of  Marycrest  College  from  its  foundation  in  1939  to  the  present, 
including  minutes  of  committees  and  boards,  faculty  publications,  college  news- 
paper and  yearbooks,  news  releases,  and  scrapbooks  of  clippings  elated  to  college 
activities.  Limited  material  on  the  Sisters  of  the  Congregation  of  the  Humility  of 
Mary  and  on  the  Diocese  of  Davenport.  Small  collection  of  books  on  Iowa  history 
and  the  history  of  Scott  County. 

Moline  Public  Library 

504  17th  St.,  Moline,  IL  61265  (309)  762-4983 

Marie  A.  Hoscheid,  Archivist 

Hours:  Monday-Thursday  8:30  a.m.-9  p.m.;  Friday  8:30  a.m.-5:30  p.m.;  Saturday  8:30 
a.m.-5  p.m. 

Local  history  and  genealogy  room  with  a  relatively  in-depth  collection;  the  Black- 
hawk  GeneologicaL  Society  houses  approximately  200  of  their  books  at  the 
Library.  The  Library  holds  microfilm  copies  of  the  Rock  Island  County  census  for 
1840-1900  and  the  Moline  Dispatch  1894-  with  indexing  complete  from  1967. 

Monmouth  College,  Hewes  Library 
700  E.  Broadway,  Monmouth,  IL  61462  (309)  457-2031 
Harris  Hauge,  Director 
Hours:  Monday-Thursday  8  a.m.-IO  p.m.;  Friday  8  a.m.-5  p.m. 

Monmouthiana  Collection:  material  relating  to  the  founding  and  history  of  Mon- 
mouth College. 

Pekin  Public  Library 
301  South  4th  St.,  Pekin,  IL  61554  (309)  347-7111 
Mrs.  Paula  K.  Weiss,  Director 
Hours:  Tuesday-Thursday  9  a.m.-9  p.m.;  Friday  9  a.m.-6  p.m.;  Saturday  9  a.m.-5  p.m. 

Local  history  materials  on  Pekin  and  Tazewell  County. 

Peoria  Historical  Society 
Collection  housed  in  Special  Collection  Center,  CullomDavis  Library,  Bradley 

University,  Peoria,  IL  61625  (309)  671-5945 
Hours:  Appointment  recommended 


Peoria  Public  Library 

107  N.E.  Monroe,  Peoria,  IL  61602  (309)  672-8858 

Alexander  Crosman,  Director 

Hours:  Monday-Thursday  9  a.m.-9  p.m.;  Friday  &  Saturday  9  a.m.-6  p.m. 

In  the  Reference  Department:  county  histories,  state  brochures  and  other  travel 
information,  clippings  on  cities  and  towns,  college  catalogs  of  the  Western  Illinois 
region.  Some  genealogical  information:  county  census  films,  biographical  accounts 


90  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

of  the  early  pioneers,  and  other  records  of  this  area.  Books  on  Western  Illinois 
literature  and  history,  Bishop  Hill,  Dickson  Mounds  and  the  Spoon  River  Valley. 

Quincy  College,  Brenner  Library 

1831  College  Avenue,  Quincy,  IL  62301  (217)  222-8020  x345 
Rev.  Victor  Kingery,  O.F.M.,  Director  and  Archivist 
Hours:  Monday-Friday  8  a.m.-5  p.m. 

Books,  scrapbooks,  manuscripts  and  personal  correspondence  on  local  and 
Illinois  history,  especially  the  Civil  War.  Vertical  file  material:  news  clippings  and 
some  typewritten  notes  on  people  and  events  in  Quincy  and  vicinity. 

Quincy  Public  Library 

526  Jersey,  Quincy,  IL  62301  Office  (217)  223-1309;  Reference  (217)  222-0226 
Michael  G.  Garrison,  Director;  Betty  Albsmeyer,  Reference  Librarian 
Hours:  Winter-Monday-Friday  9  a.m.-9  p.m.;  Saturday  9  a.m.-6  p.m.;  Sunday  1  p.m.-5  p.m. 
Summer-Monday  9  a.m.-9  p.m.;  Tuesday-Saturday  9  a.m.-6  p.m. 
Special  collections  in  area  history,  genealogy,  art,  architecture.  Microfilmed 
local  newspaper,  Quincy  Herald-Whig,  1835-  ;  Chicago  Tribune,  1972- .  Microfilmed 
census  for  Great  River  Library  System  area.  State  Documents  Depository. 

Rock  Island  County  Historical  Society 
822  lltfi  Ave.,  Moline,  IL  61265  (309)  764-8590 
N.  Lucille  Sampson,  Librarian/Archivist 
Hours:  Tfiursday  9  a.m.-4:30  p.m.  or  by  appointment 

Rock  Island  Public  Library 
4tfi  Ave.  and  19th  St.,  Rock  Island,  IL  61201  (309)  788-7627 
James  F.  Warwick,  Director;  Meg  Sarff,  Special  Collections  Librarian 
Hours:  Monday-Tfiursday  10  a.m.-9  p.m.;  Friday  and  Saturday  10  a.m.-5:30  p.m. 

Contains  1750  items  covering  events  and  individuals  important  in  the  history 
and  development  of  Illinois  in  general  and  the  Rock  Island  area  in  particular.  The 
/Argus  is  presently  indexed  from  1861-1927, 1960-  and  the  obituary  file  covers  the 
same  years.  The  collection  includes  histories  of  the  Illinois  counties,  many 
books  useful  in  genealogical  searches,  the  U.S.  census  for  Rock  Island  County 
(on  microfilm)  and  books  by  local  authors. 

St.  Ambrose  College  Library 

518  W.  Locust  Street,  Davenport,  I A  52804  (319)  383-8795 
Mrs.  Corinne  J.  Potter,  Director  and  Archivist 
Hours:  Monday-Friday  8  a.m.-5  p.m. 

Local  area  history;  Catholic  church  historical  materials;  and  St.  Ambrose  Col- 
lege archives.  The  collection  contains  approximately  2,000  volumes.  Use  is 
limited  to  in-house  research.  Access  to  the  collection  titles  is  through  the  main 
library  catalog. 

Schuyler  County  Jail  Museum 

200  S.  Congress  St.,  Rushville,  IL  62681  (217)  322-6975 
Mrs.  David  C.  Ward,  Librarian;  Mrs.  Helma  Mermillion,  Curator 
Hours:  Open  7  days  a  week  1  p.m.-5  p.m.,  April  through  November;  Sunday  1  p.m.- 
5  p.m.,  December  through  March  if  weather  permits. 

Scott  County  Iowa  Genealogical  Society 
Joan  Loete,  Archivist  (309)  762-9146 

Collection  housed  in  Bettendorf  Public  Library,  1950  18th  St.,  Bettendorf,  lA  52722 
(319)  332-7427 

Swenson  Swedish  Immigration  Research  Center 
Augustana  College  Library,  7th  Ave.  and  35th  St.,  Rock  Island,  IL  61201  (309) 
794-7204,  (309)  794-7221 


NOTES  AND  DOCUMENTS 


Rev.  Joel  W.  Lundeen,  Acting  Director;  Kermit  B.  Westerberg,  Archivist 
Hours:  Monday-Friday  8  a.m.-12  noon,  1  p.m.-4:30  p.m. 

Microfilms  of  Swedish-American  newspapers  (20  from  western  Illinois,  1  from 
eastern  Iowa);  and  Swedish  church  records  (Augustana  Lutheran  Church).  Manu- 
script collections  of  early  Illinois  pioneers  of  Swedish  descent  including  the 
microfilmed  Bishop  Hill  Colony  and  Post  Colony  Papers  (covering  material  in 
Bishop  Hill,  Rock  Island,  and  Galesburg).  Augustana  Lutheran  church  anniversary 
booklets,  arranged  by  state  and  city.  Historical  monographs,  studies  and  com- 
pilations on  immigration  and  settlement  of  Swedes  in  Illinois  and  Iowa,  with  par- 
ticular emphasis  on  biography  and  church  life. 

Warren  County  Library 

60-62  West  Side  Square,  Monmouth,  IL  61462  (309)  734-6412 

Camille  J.  Radmacher,  Administrative  Consultant;  Ezevel  Murphy,  Special  Collec- 
tions Librarian 

Hours:  Monday-Friday  8  a.m.-8  p.m.;  Saturday  8  a.m.-5  p.m. 

Small  collection  on  Lincoln  and  local  history  includes  oral  history  material. 
Materials  are  not  circulated  but  available  for  reference  all  hours  the  Library  is 
open. 

Western  Illinois  University  Library 

Western  Ave.,  Macomb,  IL  61455  (309)  298-2411  x272-273 

Patricia  Goheen,  Library  Director;  John  Hallwas,  Director  of  Regional  Collections; 
Gordana  Rezab,  Archivist,  and  Special  Collections  Librarian 

Hours:  Monday-Friday  8  a.m.-5  p.m. 

Collections  pertaining  to  the  sixteen  county  area  of  Western  Illinois  known  as 
the  Military  Tract.  Focused  collections  are  the  Center  for  Icarian  Studies  (Robert 
P.  Sutton,  director).  Center  for  Regional  Authors  (John  Hallwas,  director)  and 
Center  for  Hancock  County  History  and  the  papers  of  Congressman  Thomas 
Railsback.  These,  and  the  general  regional  collection,  consist  of  a  variety  of 
materials  and  media;  books,  manuscripts,  maps,  tape  and  video  recordings, 
newspapers,  periodicals,  and  a  large  collection  of  photographs.  Illinois  Regional 
Archives  Depository  (IRAD)  houses,  and  makes  available  for  research,  local 
government  records  from  the  sixteen  county  area. 


REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS 


The  Jubilee  Diary.  By  David  Pichaske.  Ellis  Press,  Peoria,  IL$5.95. 

Jubilee  College  was  founded  in  1839  by  Philander  Chase,  first 
Episcopal  bishop  of  Illinois,  on  a  rolling  tract  of  land  about  ten 
miles  west  of  Peoria.  The  institution  represented  an  annbitious 
academic  undertaking,  comprising  as  it  did  a  prep  school  for  boys,  a 
finishing  school  for  girls,  the  college  proper,  and  a  divinity  school. 
The  last,  though  it  proved  to  be  the  least  successful  of  the  four  com- 
ponents, was  the  one  to  which  Chase  attached  the  most  impor- 
tance, concerned  as  he  was  in  building  up  a  strong  clerical  base  for 
the  new  diocese.  At  the  time  he  founded  Jubilee,  Chase  was  sixty- 
five  years  old  and  had  already  behind  him  extensive  experience  as  a 
pioneer  bishop  and  educator,  having  served  as  the  first  bishop  of 
Ohio  and  having  founded,  in  1824,  Kenyon  College  in  Gambler,  Ohio. 
Jubilee  was  not  to  enjoy  the  same  success  as  Kenyon.  Though  it 
thrived  during  the  bishop's  tenure  as  its  head,  it  was  closed  "tem- 
porarily" in  1862,  two  years  after  his  death,  until  the  cessation  of 
hostilities  between  North  and  South.  It  was  never  to  open  again  as 
the  institution  which  Chase  had  envisioned.  Eventually,  the  property 
belonging  to  the  College  devolved  to  the  State  of  Illinois,  and  today. 
Jubilee  State  Park,  consisting  of  over  3000  acres,  is  visited  by  some 
300,000  people  per  year.  A  central  feature  of  the  park  —  one  might 
call  it  its  center-piece  —  is  the  handsome,  limestone  college  build- 
ing built  by  Bishop  Chase.  For  years  this  building  was  in  a  sad  state 
of  disrepair,  but  thanks  to  the  work  of  the  Citizens'  Committee  dedi- 
cated to  its  restoration,  the  hope  is  that  it  will  one  day  stand  pretty 
much  as  it  stood  140  years  ago. 

Jubilee  Diary,  though  it  is  very  much  concerned  with  Jubilee 
College  and  Bishop  Chase,  and  though  it  makes  imaginative  use  of 
historical  documents  (principally  in  the  form  of  Chase's  letters),  is 
not  a  history  in  the  strict  sense.  But  that  it  has  to  do  with  history  in 
the  larger  sense  —  the  passage  of  time,  the  coming  and  going  of 
seasons,  the  arrival  and  departure  of  human  beings  and  their  works 
and  institutions  —  is  evident  on  every  page.  As  a  diary  it  has  a  marked 
personal  bent  to  it.  We  find  recorded  in  the  book  the  arresting 
reflections  of  someone  who  might  be  described  as  an  eminently 
modern  man  but  who  —  and  here  is  the  rub  —  is  paradoxically  not 
all  that  enamored  by  every  aspect  of  modernity.  Pichaske  uses 
Jubilee  State  Park  and  Bishop  Philander  Chase  and  all  they  mean 
for  him  —  in  both  cases  it  is  much  —  as  centering  realities  around 

92 


REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  93 

which,  for  the  period  of  a  year,  he  constructs  his  wide-ranging 
meditations. 

The  precipitating  event  for  the  book  was  a  crisis  of  conscious- 
ness. Pichaske,  a  professor  of  English,  a  writer,  an  editor,  a  pub- 
lisher, the  type  of  man  who  at  any  given  time  has  more  irons  in  the 
fire  than  less  imaginative  mortals  can  keep  track  of,  is  suddenly 
brought  up  short  by  the  sheer  busyness  of  his  life.  He  thinks  that 
perhaps  "life"  in  any  meaningful  sense  is  possibly  being  gobbled 
up  by  the  relentless  press  of  multiple  activities,  and  the  thought  is 
unsettling.  He  decides  to  do  something  about  it  by  injecting  some 
Thoreauvian  "deliberateness"  into  his  routine.  Unlike  Thoreau  him- 
self, who  was  relatively  free  of  pressing  personal  obligations,  he 
cannot  afford  the  luxury  of  spending  two  years  at  a  Walden  of  his 
choice  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  about  some  direct  confronta- 
tions with  the  eternal  verities.  So,  he  does  what  he  can.  He  decides 
that  one  day  a  week,  no  matter  how  put  upon  by  demands  which 
seem  inevitably  to  lead  to  a  crunch,  he  will  effectively  escape  from 
the  hurly-burly  and  spend  a  few  hours  at  Jubilee  Park.  He  does  this, 
for  the  period  from  April  10,  1980  to  April  19,  1981,  and  the  thoughts 
and  emotions  which  form  the  fundamental  stuff  of  these  weekly 
excursions  are  what  we  have  recorded  in  Jubilee  Diary. 

Pichaske  goes  off  faithfully  to  Jubilee  Park  every  week  for  a 
period  of  a  year  not  simply  to  seek  out  some  therapeutically  bene- 
ficial "quiet  time."  It  is  true  that  there  is  something  which  he  wants 
to  get  away  from  —  a  world  which  is  altogether  "too  much  with  us" 
—  but,  more  pointedly,  there  is  something  which  he  vjanXs  to  get  to. 
He  leaves  behind  the  artificial  time  created  by  a  clock-dominated 
society  and  gives  himself  over  to  the  larger,  more  elemental  rhythms 
of  the  seasons;  he  supplants  the  mechanical  with  the  natural.  What 
we  bear  witness  to  in  Jubilee  Diary  is  a  man  who  is  trying  to  come  to 
terms  with  himself,  with  the  contours  of  his  life,  but  not  in  a  kind  of 
splendid,  self-serving  isolation.  He  discovers  what  Thoreau  dis- 
covered, that  a  questing  solitude  set  in  nature  proves  to  be  an  open- 
ing-up,  not  a  closing-down  experience.  Giving  close  study  to  the 
texture  of  bark  on  a  tree,  chatting  amiably  with  animal  life  of  various 
shapes  and  sorts,  slogging  through  mud,  being  baked  by  the  noon- 
high  smiles  of  a  summer  sun,  being  stung  by  below-zero  winds  — 
these  things  have  a  way  of  waking  us  up  to  what  Hopkins  called  the 
"freshness  deep  down  things."  One  discovers  a  new  affinity  with 
the  world  as  created,  and  with  one's  fellow  creatures. 

This  is  an  eminently  American  book.  I  mean  this  not  only  in  the 
sense  that  it  fits  quite  comfortably  into  a  definite  tradition  in  our 
national  literature.  It  is  an  American  book  also  because  it  is  so 
much  concerned  about  our  country  and  its  culture  —  the  way  we 
are,  the  way  we  should  perhaps  better  be. 


94  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

I  wonder  about  myself,  settling  into  habit,  approaching  forty, 
angry  at  the  new  age  of  snowmobiles,  computors,  television,  elec- 
tronic games,  technology.  Can  I  continue  to  adapt  myself  to  my 
environment  or  my  environment  to  me?  Do  I  have  the  strength  to 
struggle  against  habit,  against  the  museum  in  my  basement  and 
in  my  heart,  against  the  thickening  atmosphere  around  me?  Do  I 
have  the  strength  to  move,  the  will  to  act?  And  where  am  I  to  go, 
spiritually,  physically?  What  world  am  I  to  make? 

This  is  an  intensely  personal  statement,  almost  embarrassingly  so, 
but  Pichaske  does  not  speak  only  for  himself.  The  questions  he  asks 
are  questions  which  each  of  us  can  ask  himself,  and  should.  All  of 
us,  to  some  degree  or  another,  have  to  contend  with  the  museums 
in  our  basements  and  in  our  hearts,  carefully  going  through  the  col- 
lection, deciding  what  is  to  be  kept  and  what,  for  the  good  of  the 
soul,  should  be  pitched.  But  it  is  not  simply  our  personal  welfare 
which  is  at  stake  in  this  at  times  all  too  frenetic  drama  in  which  we 
find  ourselves  involved.  The  day  of  the  "separate  peace"  is  gone 
forever,  and  the  destiny  of  the  individual  is  inelectuably  caught  up 
in  the  destiny  of  the  society.  At  another  point  in  the  book  he  speaks 
of  "The  flaw,  our  fondness  for  the  slick  and  the  superficial.  A  national 
disease."  And  he  asks:  "Fatal?"  The  question  is  left  handing,  as  of 
necessity  it  must  be,  for  we  are  currently  in  the  process  —  as  indi- 
viduals, as  a  society  —  of  formulating  our  answers  to  it. 

Jubilee  Diary  is  a  beautiful  book,  for  the  manner  in  which  it  is 
written.  Pichaske's  prose  has  a  pleasant  directness  to  it;  it  is  unpre- 
tentious and  clean.  One  has  the  impression  that  Pichaske  never 
says  anything  merely  for  the  sake  of  superficial  effect.  He  is  in 
earnest,  wrestling  as  he  is  here  with  the  most  basic  kinds  of  ideas 
and  emotions  with  which  we  human  beings  have  perennially  concerned 
ourselves.  But  it  is  also  a  beautiful  book  as  a  physical  object.  It  is 
nicely  laid  out,  nicely  printed,  and  the  photographs  with  which  it  is 
graced  (most  of  them  taken  by  the  author)  add  appreciably  to  the 
quality  of  immediacy,  its  cor  ad  cor  straightforwardness,  which  is 
its  chief  appeal. 

Dennis  Q.  Mclnerny 
Bradley  University 


THE  POEMS  OF  H.:  THE  LOST  POET  OF  LINCOLN'S  SPRING- 
FIELD. By  John  E.  Hallwas,  Editor.  Peoria:  Ellis  Press,  1982.  Pp  243. 
$22.95. 

The  Poems  of  H.  is  both  a  collection  of  presentable  newspaper 
verses  by  an  anonymous  immigrant  poet  and  an  interesting  story  of 
scholarly  detective  work.  "H,"  in  Hallwas'  words,  is  "the  lost  poet  of 


REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  95 

Lincoln's  Springfield"  (the  book's  subtitle),  publishing  seventy-one 
poems  in  the  Sangamo  Journal  (Springfield)  from  1831  to  1846  and 
usually  signing  the  verse  simply  with  an  "H."  In  1832,  however,  H. 
published  a  sonnet  with  an  added  footnote:  "First  published  in  the 
London  Literary  Gazette."  And  using  H's  cue,  Hallwas  relates  how 
the  Gazette  was  searched  —  only  to  discover  that  at  least  two  British 
poets  of  the  time  were  publishing  verses  signed  "H."  We  then 
follow  Hallwas'  logic  as  he  sorts  out  twenty-three  verses  in  the 
Gazette  —  from  1818  to  1825  —  verses  that  probably  were  written  by 
the  Springfield  H.  (I  use  "probably"  because  one  or  two  of  Hallwas' 
uses  of  the  words  "undoubtedly"  and  "unquestionably"  seem  at 
least  questionable  to  me.)  Since  the  one  sonnet  appeared  in  both 
the  Gazette  and  the  Journal,  the  poet's  extant  canon,  reproduced  in 
Hallwas'  edition,  is  ninety-three  verses. 

Internal  evidence  in  the  poems  reveals  that  H.  was  the  taverner 
at  Jabez  Capps'  Grocery  in  Springfield,  that  he  had  a  cat  Scracco 
and  a  dog  Jemmy,  and  that  he  was  a  confirmed  bachelor  whose 
beloved  suffered  an  untimely  death.  He  was  raised  in  Cornwall  and 
may  have  come  to  America  in  search  of  political  freedom.  He  was 
extremely  well  read  in  European  literature  and  travelled  extensively 
in  this  country.  By  1845,  he  seems  to  have  left  the  cold  Springfield 
climate  for  points  South.  Other  biographical  evidence  is  sketchy  at 
best,  and  it  is  doubtful  that  anyone  will  ever  know  more  about  Mr.  H. 

The  poet  wrote  more  sonnets  than  anything  else,  most  of  which 
are  simply  entitled  "Sonnet."  The  following  one,  which  appeared  in 
1846,  is  one  of  his  better  short  poems: 

To  struggle  on,  to  struggle  on  for  aye  — 
This  seems  of  man  th'  inexorable  doom. 
And  yet  how  quickly  glides  his  life  away  — 
No  rest  between  the  cradle  and  the  tomb. 
In  youth,  too  eager  and  with  spirits  light. 
We  still  anticipate  a  brighter  sphere. 
Filling  the  mind  with  fancies  all  too  bright. 
And  revel  in  the  visions  insincere. 
Yet  in  the  real  can  only  truth  be  found. 
When  sad  experience  lifts  the  veil  between, 
No  longer  then  we  tread  on  fairy  ground. 
But  view  with  sober  eye  the  common  scene. 
Plain  truth  alone  and  unadorned  we  see. 
Life's  vulgar  prose  and  stern  reality. 

This  edition  of  H's  poetry  is  divided  thematically:  "Early  Poems," 
"Satirical  Poems,"  "Poems  on  Nature,"  "Short  Philosophical  Lyrics," 
"Poems  on  Legend  and  Mythology,"  "Poems  on  Transience  and 
Remembrance,"  "Two  Lyrics  on  the  Black  Hawk  War,"  and  "Miscel- 
laneous Short  Lyrics."  A  useful  "Appendix"  lists  the  poems  in  chrono- 
logical order  of  publication;  and  a  "Glossary,"  largely  comprised  of 


96  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

Scots  terms,  defines  many  of  H's  dialect  words.  Finally,  the  edition 
includes  many  useful  notes,  though  one  wonders  why  Hallwas 
translates  "se  ipse"  but  notes  that  two  lines  of  17th-century  French 
may  be  found  in  "the  works  of  Antoinette  Deshouliers  (1638-1694)." 

Dennis  Camp 

Sangamon  State  University 


MORMONISM  AND  THE  AMERICAN  EXPERIENCE 

By  Klaus  J.  Hansen.  Chicago:  University  of  Chicago  Press  1981.  Pp. 

xviii,  257.  $15.00 

This  volume  in  the  "Chicago  History  of  American  Religion" 
series  utilizes  a  vast  array  of  hypotheses,  which  have  been  put  forth 
in  scholarly  attempts  to  analyze  both  nineteenth-century  America 
and  the  phenomenon  of  religion  in  America.  While  the  constant  refer- 
ence to  such  endeavors  and  their  initiators  might  become  burden- 
some for  the  casual  reader,  to  one  interested  in  an  academically 
rigorous  history,  this  is  a  collection  of  semi-independent  essays  to 
be  carefully  pondered.  In  addition  to  an  analysis  of  the  birth  of  Mor- 
monism,  there  are  specific  treatments  of  the  Mormon  rationaliza- 
tion of  death,  the  Mormon  concept  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  the 
changing  perspectives  on  sexuality  and  marriage,  and  the  transfor- 
mation of  racial  thought  and  practice. 

Basic  to  the  author's  concern  is  to  place  these  topics  in  the  con- 
text of  the  American  experience.  The  assertion  is  made  that  "the 
birth  of  Mormonism  coincided  with  the  birth  of  modern  America"  (p. 
45),  which  refers  to  the  Jacksonian  Age.  For  Mormonism,  this  meant 
rejecting  the  era  and  becoming  instead  a  restorationist  movement 
seeking  to  return  to  the  primitive  gospel,  not  only  of  the  first  century 
Christian  community,  but  of  the  Garden  of  Eden.  While  there  were 
several  contemporary  denominational  expressions  in  the  Ohio- 
Mississippi  Valley  seeking  an  understanding  of  the  faith  which  in- 
cluded a  freedom  from  the  tradition  and  culture  of  the  past  so  that 
the  gospel  could  blossom  anew,  for  the  followers  of  Joseph  Smith, 
the  Book  of  Mormon  confirmed  "what  they  believed  already,  or  what 
they  wanted  to  believe"  (p.  40).  Also,  in  not  being  persuaded  by  the 
individualistic  and  revivalistic  emphasis  of  the  rapidly  expanding 
Methodists  and  Baptists,  the  Mormons  kept  alive  the  Deistic  em- 
phasis on  God  as  He  who  brings  order  out  of  chaos,  and  so  built  a 
society  based  on  an  hierarchical  corporate  structure  of  authority 
and  cooperation  in  which  each  person  finds  his  place. 

Those  who  followed  Brigham  Young  to  the  Great  Salt  Lake  Valley 
found  the  isolation  wherein  lay  the  opportunity  to  further  articulate 
the  Mormon  way.  However,  Hansen  also  insists  it  is  here  the  Mor- 


REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  97 

mons  reaped  the  harvest  of  those  modern  habits  of  initiative  and 
self-discipline  which  have  made  them  at  home  in  middle-class  and 
pluralistic  America,  even  to  the  extent  that  Mormonism  should  now 
be  considered  in  the  mainstream  of  American  religion. 

A  telling  summary  is:  "Mormonism  seems  to  appeal  to  individ- 
uals who  have  been  dislocated  in  a  rapidly  changing  world,  who  are 
searching  for  stability  and  order,  but  who  are  at  the  same  time  look- 
ing for  a  better  future"  (pp.  202-03).  The  story  of  Mormonism  is  not, 
however,  only  the  story  of  a  people  resistant  to  nineteenth-century 
culture,  who  have  finally  caught  up,  but  rather,  the  Mormons  have 
also  articulated  the  American  dream,  and  in  some  sense  society  has 
caught  up  with  them,  or  would  do  well  to  listen  carefully  to  this  faith 
born  and  raised  in  our  midst. 

Myron  J.  Fogde 
Augustana  College 


QUAD  CITIES:  JOINED  BY  A  RIVER.  Edited  by  Frederick  J.  Ander- 
son. Davenport:  Lee  Enterprises,  Incorporated,  1982.  Pp.  264.  $24.95. 

Hannibal,  Quincy,  Warsaw,  Keokuk,  and  Nauvoo  are  places  of 
historic  and  literary  significance  that  were  spawned  and  nurtured  by 
the  Mississippi  River.  So,  as  well,  is  a  site  on  the  river  that  began  as 
a  fort  on  a  "rock  island"  at  the  foot  of  a  rapids  which  ultimately 
evolved  into  a  metropolitan  complex  of  390,000  people  —  the  Quad 
Cities. 

Quad  Cities;  Joined  by  a  River  is  a  narrative  and  pictorial  history 
that  is  presented  in  three  major  sections.  The  first  section,  aptly  en- 
titled "Formed  by  a  River,"  traces  the  geologic  history  of  the  area 
with  emphasis  on  the  formation  of  the  Rock  Island  Rapids,  discusses 
the  early  Indian  and  later  European  and  American  settlement  pat- 
terns and  the  establishment  of  Fort  Armstrong,  and  concludes  with 
a  lengthy  description  of  the  Black  Hawk  War. 

The  second  section,  and  the  principal  focus  of  the  book,  features 
descriptions  of  Rock  Island,  Davenport,  Moline,  Bettendorf,  and 
East  Moline  from  the  time  of  their  settlement  through  the  early 
1900s.  Also  included  is  the  historic  development  of  Arsenal  Island. 
Prominent  coverage  is  given  to  the  personalities  whose  names  are 
synonomous  with  the  economic,  social,  and  cultural  heritage  of  the 
Quad  Cities. 

The  third  and  final  section  is  a  continuation  of  the  Quad  Cities 
historic  development,  first  for  the  period  1920  to  1960,  and  then 
from  1960  to  the  present.  Contributors  are  listed,  as  are  illustration 
credits.  The  section  concludes  with  brief  histories  of  leading  enter- 
prises and  organizations  who  supported  publication  of  the  book. 


98  WESTERN  ILLINOIS  REGIONAL  STUDIES 

Quad  Cities:  Joined  by  a  River  was  a  massive  undertaking  and 
the  authors  of  individual  chapters  are  to  be  commended  for  the 
quality  of  their  work.  It  is  obvious  that  the  book  was  a  labor  of  love 
for  the  authors  and  others  involved  in  its  preparation.  The  book  is 
handsomely  bound,  the  paper  is  of  the  finest  quality,  and  the  print- 
ing and  reproduction  of  photographs  is  excellent.  It  deserves  a 
prominent  place  on  the  bookshelves  of  Quad  Citians  and  others 
whose  sense  of  place  is  bound  to  our  greatest  of  rivers. 

Donald  W.  Griffin 
Western  Illinois  University 


CONTRIBUTORS 


ROGER  D.  LAUNIUS  is  an  historian  with  the  Military  Airlift  Command, 
Scott  Air  Force  Base,  Illinois.  He  is  the  author  of  many  articles  on 
Mormon  history  and  the  co-editor  of  An  Early  Latter  Day  Saint 
History:  The  Book  of  J  oil  n  Whitmer  (1980).  His  biography  of  Joseph 
Smith  III  will  be  published  by  the  University  of  Illinois  Press. 

GEORGE  MONTEIRO,  Professor  of  English  at  Brown  University,  has 
published  several  articles  on  John  Hay,  and  he  is  the  author  of 
Henry  James  and  John  Hay:  The  Record  of  a  Friendship  (1965). 

SCOTT  OWEN  REED  is  a  law  clerk  in  the  office  of  Appellate  Justice 
Thomas  M.  Welch  in  Collinsville.  In  1980  he  received  a  Juris  Doctor 
degree  from  the  University  of  Illinois  College  of  Law. 

WILLIAM  ROBA  received  his  Ph.D.  from  the  University  of  Iowa  and 
teaches  both  English  and  history  at  Scott  Community  College  in 
Bettendorf,  Iowa.  He  has  previously  published  on  Harry  Hansen  and 
the  history  of  Davenport. 

ROBERT  P.  SUTTON,  Professor  of  History  at  Western  Illinois 
University,  is  the  author  of  The  Prairie  State:  A  Documentary  History 
of  Illinois  (1976)  as  well  as  various  articles  on  state  and  regional 
history.  He  is  Director  of  the  Center  for  Icarian  Studies  at  the  Univer- 
sity Library  and  has  recently  completed  a  translation  of  Etienne 
Cabet's  Voyage  en  Icarie.