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 A Boston Reporter's Record 
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 for the Year 1937, for Members of the 
 
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 ILLINOIS AS 
 LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 A Boston Reporter's Record 
 of a Trip in 1847 
 
 Edited by 
 HARRY E. PRATT 
 
 Reprinted from Papers in Illinois History and Transactions for the 
 Year 1937, for Members of the Abraham Lincoln Association. 
 
 SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS 
 1938
 
 9/7.73. ■ 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 A BOSTON REPORTER'S RECORD OF A TRIP IN 1847 
 
 Edited by HARRY E. PRATT 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 J. H. Buckingham, son of the founder and publisher of the 
 Boston Courier, came to Chicago in July, 1847, as a delegate to the 
 River and Harbor Convention and as a reporter for his father's 
 paper. That Convention, which Horace Greeley said was the 
 largest meeting ever held in America up to that time, convened 
 on July 5 and adjourned two days later. Its purpose was to reg- 
 ister a protest against President Polk's veto of a bill making appro- 
 priations for river and harbor improvement, and to strengthen the 
 general cause of internal improvements by federal action. Chi- 
 cago was an appropriate meeting place, because Polk's veto had 
 deprived it of an anticipated 38,000 for the harbor improvement 
 which had been in progress since 1833. 
 
 One of the Illinois delegates to the Convention was Abraham 
 Lincoln, who had been elected to the national House of Repre- 
 sentatives the preceding year but had not yet taken his seat. So 
 far as is known, this was Lincoln's first visit to the Illinois metrop- 
 olis. Buckingham made no mention of Lincoln's short speech be- 
 fore the Convention, but when they became fellow passengers on 
 the stage between Peoria and Springfield a few days later, he was 
 greatly amused by the Whig Congressman and described his antics 
 in several of the most interesting passages of this narrative. 
 
 Buckingham was fascinated by Chicago and the West, and 
 decided to proceed to St. Louis. His route took him by stage and 
 steamer through Peru, Peoria, Springfield, Jacksonville and Alton.
 
 4 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 Returning, he traveled up the Mississippi to Galena, stopping 
 for a day at Nauvoo. His description of the famous \Iormon Tem- 
 ple is one of the most detailed on record. From Galena, he followed 
 the lower route through Dixon to Chicago. 
 
 Buckingham's letters to the Courier, which appeared at inter- 
 vals in July and August, 1847, are first-rate travel literature. But 
 they have a broader interest than most travel literature, for the 
 state which they describe so accurately and vividly was the Illinois 
 of Lincoln's time. Here are the towns as he saw them, the inns in 
 which he slept, the people whom he knew — and, for good measure, 
 a pencil sketch of Lincoln himself. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE COURIER 
 
 Chicago 
 
 July 5, 1847 
 This city, with a permanent population of nearly twenty 
 thousand inhabitants, is, to-day, occupied by at least forty 
 thousand. It is a beautiful place, the most beautiful, at first 
 sight, of any I have seen since I left New-England. Its streets 
 are broad and long, and all lined with trees. It is bordered by 
 the Chicago or Skunk River and Lake Michigan, and by a ten- 
 mile prairie. The prevalent winds are from the North, blowing 
 over the lake, and they keep everything healthy. 
 
 To-day, the great, long-talked of, and very important River 
 and Harbor Convention, met in this place, and this fact, with 
 the additional fact that the day was set apart for the celebration 
 of our National Independence, has caused a great crowd. All 
 the hotels, — and Western towns and cities, are famous for the 
 number, — if not for the excellence of their hotels and taverns, 
 have been full to overflowing for more than a week. I arrived 
 here yesterday morning, in five days from Buffalo, in the steamer 
 Baltic,^ with two hundred and fifty passengers, but no hotel 
 
 1 The Baltic, Capt. A. T. Kingman in charpe, had left Buffalo. New York, for 
 Chicago on June 29, 1847; it remained there until July 8. It was an 825 ton steamer, 
 launched in Buffalo earlier in the same year. It was 221 feet in length, and had a 
 30 foot beam, with a 12 foot depth of hull.
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT b 
 
 accommodations could be had that were comfortable, and we 
 all, men, women and children, remain on board the boat, by 
 invitation of Captain Kingman, who keeps temporarily a hotel 
 for our accommodation. Five other large steamers are lying in 
 the river with their passengers also on board, and in the same 
 situation. The citizens have been very liberal, and have put 
 themselves to great expense and inconvenience to accommodate 
 strangers; — every private house where there is a spare bed, has 
 been freely offered to the strangers who are here, and I under- 
 stand that all the houses are full. I have just declined an invi- 
 tation to a spare mattress on the floor of the office of a lawyer 
 in Lake street, because I am well accommodated on board the 
 Baltic, and have no doubt some stray stranger will be glad of 
 it before bedtime. 
 
 At early dawn to-day, or rather at early dark last evening, 
 crackers, and squibs, and guns "begun to be fired," and they 
 have been "being fired" for at least twenty-four hours. I miss 
 the merry sound of the bells which are used to usher in our sun- 
 rise, noon and sunset, on such occasions in Boston; but in other 
 respects the celebration of the day has been much as such cele- 
 brations are wont to be all the world over. 
 
 The procession was formed at nine o'clock, and escorted by 
 a company of Light Artillery. Our Boston boys would have 
 laughed to see the guns, which were longer and heavier than a 
 majority of the volunteer militia of Massachusetts would be able 
 to handle if they should try. But they looked as if made for ser- 
 vice, and the men who carried them looked as if they were capable 
 of doing service with them; there were no boys in this company, 
 or if there were, they were boys with beards, and hard heads, 
 and hard frames. 
 
 Next followed the Fire Department, and a more tasteful, 
 and in fact a handsomer show was never got up in the Eastern 
 country. The Chief Engineer is a Boston Boy, and he has 
 Boston tastes, much improved, and with views enlarged to suit 
 the boundaries of this noble Western World. He got up the
 
 6 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 procession, or his part of it, in a manner that would do credit 
 to any body. The engines were mounted on cars and drawn by 
 six and eight horses; the members of the different companies 
 were dressed in appropriate costume, and a band of music ac- 
 companied each. The wheels and the brakes were garlanded 
 with flowers, and while one was covered with a bower, another 
 was covered with an open tent, and all had some appropriate 
 decoration. 
 
 Next followed the Illinoisans, marching by counties, with 
 banners, — Long John Wentworth, seven feet in height, being in 
 the front rank.' The Massachusetts delegation was formed at 
 the head of the column of foreign delegates, and were twenty- 
 eight in number. Then came the delegates from other states. 
 After marching some distance, the escort opened to the right and 
 left, and the foreign delegates passed into a large pavilion, fol- 
 lowed by the rest of the procession, so far as was practicable. 
 This pavilion was said to be calculated to seat three thousand 
 people, and half the number of persons who were in the pro- 
 cession could not get seats. The Mayor^ of the city, in a brief 
 address, gave us a welcome; and the Executive Committee, 
 who have had the arrangement, the getting up of the Convention, 
 then came forward and proposed Col. Barton of Buffalo as 
 President pro tern., and two gentlemen from the farther West 
 as Secretaries. This being agreed to, we had prayer, and then 
 the Committee proposed a plan of proceeding that was calcu- 
 lated to facilitate the operations of the Convention. After some 
 preliminary discussion as to the details of business, the Conven- 
 tion adjourned until afternoon. 
 
 * John Wentworth, 1815-1888. He was born in New Hampshire, and was a 
 graduate of Dartmouth College; he came to Chicago in 1836 and within a month 
 had become editor of the Chicago Democrat. From 1839 to 1861, he was its sole 
 owner, editor and publisher. He was admitted to the bar in 1841 ; member of Con- 
 gress from 1843 to 1851, 1853 to 1855 and 1865 to 1867; and mayor of Chicago from^ 
 1857 to 1863. In public, as in private life, his motto was "Liberty and Economy." 
 He was influential in bringing the River and Harbor Convention to Chicago. Went- 
 worth was a striking figure, being six feet, seven inches in height, and weighing some 
 three hundred pounds. 
 
 ' James Curtiss, a Democrat, was elected mayor on March 2, 1847.
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT / 
 
 Among the arrangements of the morning was one, that in 
 disputed votes, each delegation should be entitled to vote in 
 states, and each delegation should choose a person to cast the 
 votes. Another was, that each delegation should elect a person 
 to act for it, and that the persons so elected should compose a 
 committee to nominate officers for the Convention, and to make 
 rules and orders and other arrangements to be observed. We 
 chose B. B. Mussey of Boston as chairman, and authorized him 
 to vote for the Massachusetts delegation. We chose Artemas 
 Lee of Templeton as member of the nominating committee, and 
 also elected a Secretary. 
 
 The Convention then adjourned until four o'clock. This 
 afternoon the nominating committee are in session, and at the 
 time I am writing, six o'clock, have not agreed upon their re- 
 port. In the mean time, the Convention itself is in session under 
 its temporary organization, and speeches have been made by 
 several gentlemen. I was not able, without too much trouble, 
 to penetrate the mass, and so have not heard the talk of this 
 afternoon; but I heard enough from Mr. Corwin of Ohio to be 
 satisfied that he is for political action, and disposed to make 
 political capital out of this Convention. 
 
 People are here from all parties, but I cannot disguise the 
 fact that the majority appear to be Whigs. They talk Whig, 
 and they don't pretend to be any thing else than Whigs, What 
 will be the effect, time will tell; but the West is aroused and will 
 assert its right to a share of the public plunder — will have appro- 
 priations for the improvement of its lakes and rivers, let who 
 will be President. 
 
 P. S. Since the foregoing was written, the committee has 
 reported a list of officers. Judge Bates of Missouri being Presi- 
 dent,^ and each state having a Vice-President; William T. Eustis 
 of Boston is one of the latter. When the report was made, a 
 
 * Edward Bates, 1793-1869, was born in Virginia; he moved to St. Louis in 
 1814. He was a Representative in the Twentieth Congress and presided over the 
 National Whig Convention in 1856; a leading candidate for presidential nomina- 
 tion in 1860; Attorney General of the United States, 1861-1864.
 
 8 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 member of the committee stated that the minority of the same 
 was in favor of Thomas Corwin of Ohio for President of the 
 Convention, and proposed his name in opposition to the name 
 reported; but Mr. Corwin declined, and the Convention, as I 
 think they would have done without his declination, voted down 
 the proposition at once. 
 
 The mail is about to close, and I will write you more for 
 to-morrow. 
 
 Chicago 
 July 6, 1847 
 
 In my hurried letter of yesterday, I could not give you one 
 hundredth of the actual information with which I am burthened 
 respecting this place, and the convention which is now in session. 
 For particulars of the latter, I must refer to the newspapers, 
 for without taking a reporter's desk on the platform, and working 
 all the time, it would be impossible to give any thing like even 
 a sketch of what is doing. 
 
 There are men here who have come to make party capital, 
 and there are men here who have come with a single eye to the 
 professed objects of the gathering. But the majority is of the 
 latter class, and the politicians find themselves trammeled, or if 
 not trammeled, find that the leading sentiment is in opposition 
 to all the professed Democratic doctrines of Mr. President Polk 
 and his predecessors. The consequence is that while Whiggery, 
 if I may use such a word, is predominant, the Locofocos feel a 
 little uneasy, talk of their disgust at the "management," which 
 they see so clearly, and try to mar where they cannot make. 
 
 Clergymen, of all other classes of men, are the most unfit to 
 be sent on political missions, and if they have not discretion 
 enough to stay at home of their own accord, their friends and 
 neighbors ought not to make other people suffer by sending them 
 into conventions, where they are entirely out of place. New- 
 England stands high in the estimation of the Western people, 
 but yesterday she was rendered ridiculous, if not contemptible, 
 by the intrusion of a clergyman, before the thousands of people
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT y 
 
 assembled, with a written speech of adulation and praise for the 
 Puritan fathers and their descendants. I am ready to render all 
 due credit to the gentleman who placed New-England, and In 
 particular the Massachusetts delegation, In such a mortifying 
 position, for his honesty of purpose, and for his good intentions, 
 but I cannot but regret. In common with others, that he did not 
 keep his sermon for ears that could better tolerate self-glorifica- 
 tion. When he concluded, Mr. Corwin of Ohio was called for, 
 and the withering sarcasm with which that gentleman politely 
 agreed to all the fulsome twaddle of the Rev. Mr. Allen, was 
 enough to have killed any one not wrapped up [in] self-conceit as 
 with a coat of mail. 
 
 The greater part of the afternoon, yesterday, was spent in 
 discussing some trifling matters of proceeding, and resulted in 
 following the recommendations of the business committee. It 
 was Mr. Charles King of the New- York Courier and Enquirer, 
 who proposed to make Mr. Corwin the President of the Conven- 
 tion, and his movement was one injurious to any desire that he 
 may have to increase his political or personal influence. Mr. 
 Corwin's friends were much disappointed, and in proportion to 
 their disappointment is their tone of complaint. They even 
 talk of ill-usage, and intimate that Mr. Corwin expected the 
 situation, in consequence of promises held out to him in advance. 
 Mr. Corwin made an able speech yesterday afternoon, and was 
 listened to with great attention. 
 
 To-day a committee of two from each state was appointed to 
 draw up resolutions for consideration, and at half-past four 
 o'clock they reported a long series, and much to the astonishment 
 of every body the chairman stated that they had been agreed to 
 unanimously. They are very strong, and were received with 
 marks of favor, and were much applauded. When I left the 
 tent, at five o'clock, Mr. J. C. Spencer of New- York was on the 
 stand, explaining and advocating their passage. I see no reason 
 now, why the convention should not close its deliberations to- 
 morrow forenoon.
 
 10 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 If I appear enthusiastic in my notices of the new world which 
 has been opened to me, not only here, but in New- York state, 
 I can offer no excuse, for I am filled with the wonders and the 
 capacities of the West. A person living in Boston, and having 
 experience of our hard soil, and the hard work which the people 
 of Massachusetts have to undergo to produce even moderate 
 crops knows nothing of what is to be opened to us by the exten- 
 sion of our railroad communications, without coming to see for 
 himself. I consider that the Ogdensburg* Railroad is but joining 
 us on to the string of western lakes, for it must be apparent to 
 every one who looks at things as they are, that Boston is the 
 natural market, on the Atlantic shore, for the whole country. 
 New- York can never compete with us for this trade, to our in- 
 jury, and while there must always be enough for both, we must, 
 by force of natural circumstances, take the lion's share. It is 
 incredible to me that we should so long have delayed building 
 the road through Northern New- York, and it would be incred- 
 ible to all our readers if I should show them what I know must 
 be the immediate result of its being built at this present time. 
 People are absolutely suffering for want of the accommoda- 
 tions which we are about to offer them by that line, and when 
 we can say that the cars are in running order, we shall wonder 
 how they have lived so long without it. 
 
 I saw to-day in the street casks of nails manufactured at 
 Plattsburg, N. Y., which, on inquiry, I ascertained had arrived 
 at this place after a long voyage down Lake Champlain, to 
 Whitehall and Troy, thence through the Erie Canal to Buffalo, 
 and then through the lakes to Chicago. Look at the map, and 
 see how much of transportation would have been saved, if these 
 nails could have come by railroad from Lake Champlain to 
 Ogdensburg. As the newspapers say — comment is unnecessary. 
 
 Chicago is destined, some day hence, and no very far-off day 
 neither, to be one of the largest cities in the Union; and the 
 
 ' Ogdensburg, New York, located on the St. Lawrence River, Is the terminal 
 of deep water navigation on the Great Lakes.
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 11 
 
 wisdom of its projectors, in laying out its wide streets, is every 
 where apparent. The streets are all lined with trees, and the 
 Acacia and Maple and Elm are abundant; the Acacia, in par- 
 ticular, grows very thrifty and beautiful. The soil, even in its 
 worst places, after you go a few yards from the shore of the 
 lake, is nothing but the richest garden earth to the depth of 
 many feet, and its capacity for yielding produce is unfathomable. 
 
 The latitude of Chicago is about the same as that of Boston 
 and the climate, as regards heat and cold, is about the same. 
 The prevalent breezes are from the North, and blowing over the 
 pure fresh water of Lake Michigan, are very healthy and invig- 
 orating. 
 
 To-day I stood in what is called the Old Fort, a spot occupied 
 by barracks, with a square in the centre, the whole occupying 
 not more space than the Common on Fort Hill, in Boston; and 
 in that spot, in 1832, Gen. Scott collected for safety, and to 
 protect them from the Indians, every inhabitant that lived within 
 a circuit of thirty miles. In the space of that thirty miles, are 
 now living nearly fifty thousand people! Twelve years ago, one 
 hundred and fifty inhabitants was a large estimate for the census 
 of Chicago, and to-day the residents are estimated at twenty 
 thousand!* 
 
 A large proportion of the people of this city are of eastern 
 origin, mostly from New-England, and one would hardly be aware 
 in the intercourse with the town's people that he was not in 
 a New-England village. But the persons who come into town 
 from the country, and from other States, are strongly marked 
 with the characteristics of the West. The procession of yesterday 
 exhibited these hardy countenances and sturdy frames to great 
 advantage, and if nothing else results from the Convention but 
 a knowledge, by personal inspection, of the traits of character 
 existing in each and all of the different classes of the East and the 
 West, the North and the South, who are here assembled, enough 
 
 ' Chicago had a population of approximately thirty in 1829; in 1835 the census 
 figure was 3,265, and by 1847 it had increased to 16,859.
 
 12 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 will have been accomplished to pay for all the cost and labor of 
 individuals, and of this community. 
 
 The weather is intensely hot, and the roads are dusty. Chi- 
 cago has no stone, and consequently the streets are not paved. 
 Every street, however, to the end of its settlement — for some of 
 them run out for miles into the prairie, beyond where there are 
 houses, — is accommodated with a wide wooden sidewalk, which 
 is pleasant to walk on. The crossings, too, are generally accom- 
 modated with a plank foot path, which is very fortunate, as some 
 times one might run the risk of getting lost by sinking into the 
 rich and fruitful looking earth. The dust is not sand, and the 
 mud is not clay, but it looks more like the soil of a hot-house 
 garden bed, than like any thing else. 
 
 Chicago 
 July 7, 1847 
 The Convention has adjourned, sine die, after passing the 
 resolutions reported by the committee, voting thanks to the 
 citizens of Chicago, and to the President, and listening to a long 
 and eloquent speech from the President in reply. Judge Bates 
 has acquitted himself during his term of office with great ability, 
 and earned the respect of the thousands who have been m 
 attendance. His speech this morning was singularly appropriate, 
 modest. Christian and patriotic, and the three times three cheers 
 with which he was saluted on concluding were well deserved. 
 I must refer you to the Chicago papers for particulars of the 
 proceedings, with the single remark that every thing has gone 
 off harmoniously, and every body is now satisfied and pleased. 
 The disaffections and the quibblings of a few Locofocos, to 
 which I have before referred, appear to have been but the 
 effervescence of a soda bottle, and better counsels, calmer judg- 
 ment, soon settled all bickerings. I believe that now every body 
 thinks that the Convention has done good, and I am satisfied, 
 as I said yesterday, that the mere collection of so many people 
 together, in this place, will be a national good, even if nothing 
 results from our deliberations.
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 13 
 
 After the Convention adjourned, the mass went into commit- 
 tee of the whole, and we were entertained with speeches from 
 different gentlemen from different places. You never saw so 
 happy a multitude, nor so uproariously orderly and determinedly 
 happy a set of men. They called for one after another of the 
 prominent men known to be present, and would take no excuse; 
 Western men wanted speeches, and speeches they would have at 
 any rate. Among the rest, our friend Burlingame'^ was loudly 
 called for, and the Badgers of Wisconsin, and the Wolverines of 
 Illinois, would not be put oif. He tried to turn them over to 
 another gentleman of the Massachusetts delegation, but they 
 would not be turned over to any body. They told him he must 
 speak first, and they would hear his friend afterwards. He 
 spoke for a few minutes in his usual eloquent manner, and his 
 speech was received with great attention and most loudly 
 applauded. He then introduced E. H. Allen of Boston, who 
 made a short speech, which was well received, although it did 
 not attract the attention it deserved. It is always unfortunate 
 for a stranger to follow a known and popular speaker, and 
 Burlingame is so well known to the boys of the West, that they 
 were not attentive to any one else for some time. 
 
 All day, forenoon and afternoon, the tent has been full, and 
 one after another has been made to mount the stage and air his 
 vocabulary for a while. The day winds up with a bright sky, a 
 burning heat, and lots of fun of all kinds. An old-fashioned 
 country muster never exhibited any thing to be compared to the 
 scenes of the last three days, and nowhere else could such an 
 occasion pass off so well and so noisily, so rowdyish and so good- 
 naturedly, as here in the West. 
 
 The more I see of Chicago, the more I am impressed with the 
 value of its increasing trade with Boston, — for Boston is the 
 Atlantic sea-port of this great country. Everywhere one meets 
 with something new to astonish and delight him, and the only 
 
 ^ Anson Burlingame of Boston, who later became the celebrated Americaa 
 minister to China.
 
 14 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 wonder soon gets to be, that we have not sooner made efforts 
 to secure it all to ourselves. To-day I have had a ride on the prairie, 
 and although new to me, I was coolly told that I had seen nothing 
 at all. The flowers growing wildly beautiful, the roads running 
 through miles and miles of unfenced grounds rich with soft black 
 loam, the young trees growing thriftily and luxuriantly, the tall 
 grass, — all, I am told, are nothing. Well, we shall see in a few days, 
 for I am off, to-morrow, for the interior of the state, where I am to 
 find "something" worth looking at. 
 
 I could write columns about Chicago, and give statistics upon 
 statistics, to show that it is the greatest place of its age, and is 
 destined to be still greater; but cut bono} You would not believe 
 half I should tell you, and instead of writing notes from a plain 
 diary, I should be set down as a romancer. This is a great place 
 for the pork trade, in which article it is destined to rival Cincin- 
 nati, and its beef is said to be the finest in the world. Our steamer 
 is now taking on board, as freight, two hundred casks — hogsheads 
 of hams, which are to go through the lakes and the Erie Canal to 
 Troy, and perhaps to Boston. Hundreds of barrels of beef and 
 pork are also going on board, all bound East. Even at this season 
 of the year the store-houses are filled with produce, and I this 
 morning went into one where there were stored twenty-eight thou- 
 sand barrels of wheat. 
 
 On one side of the river is the Lake House,* which was built in 
 the "times of expansion," as they are called, of 1836 or 1837, for a 
 public house. It is well kept, well furnished, and very comfortable. 
 In its vicinity and for some distance around, are scattered numbers 
 of elegant private dwellings, surrounded by gardens, and the 
 streets are all wide and regularly laid out. One street on this side 
 skirts the river shore, and has on it a few warehouses, and a large 
 number of retail shops, mostly occupied by foreigners, — Dutch and 
 Irish. On the other side of the river is now the principal business, 
 and Lake-street is filled with retail stores of as much beauty of 
 
 * The construction of the Lake House was begun in 1835 and completed during 
 the following year.
 
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 16 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 arrangement, and with as valuable stocks of goods, as can be found 
 in any city in America. In fact, Chicago is now, with its present 
 population, as much of a business place as I know of, after our own 
 city. Hundreds upon hundreds of wagons are in its streets, drawn 
 by the finest horses in the world, and laden with every sort of com- 
 modity. In the fall of the year they have their wheat brought into 
 the city from the country in immense wagons, called prairie schoon- 
 ers, which hold two hundred bushels at a time, and these may be 
 seen stringing out through the roads for miles and miles. 
 
 This is a great place for the lumber trade, although no lumber 
 grows in this neighborhood. The boards, &c., are brought from the 
 Sault St. Marie and Lake Superior, in different kinds of vessels, 
 and stored in the lumber yards, to be transported by wagons into 
 the country. A canal is about being built which will soon afford 
 great facilities for internal transportation. 
 
 One of the principal features in the procession of Monday, was 
 the appearance of the fire department, and I have made many in- 
 quiries concerning its composition. It consists of four hundred 
 men, all volunteers, and they all pay their own expenses and the 
 expense of their machines and decorations. The chief engineer is 
 Mr. Gale,' a gentleman who served his apprenticeship with Hil- 
 liard. Gray & Co. in Boston. There are four engines, to which are 
 attached sixty men each, and a hook and ladder, and a hose com- 
 pany. The department is limited in number, and none but the 
 best and finest young men in the city are admitted into its ranks. 
 
 The military escort for Monday's procession was a company 
 of volunteer flying artillery, who came from Cleveland, Ohio, bring- 
 ing their horses, cannons, &c, — a hardy set of men, who certainly 
 must have felt much patriotism and great interest in the objects of 
 the Convention, to come so far and at such an expense of time and 
 money. To-day I saw them manoeuvre, going through the dif- 
 ferent evolutions as practised by Bragg's and Ringgold's troops. 
 
 ' Stephen F. Gale served as chief of the fire department from 1844 to 1847. He 
 was the first president of the Fireman's Benevolent Association, and a member of 
 the first Board of Directors of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 17 
 
 which we have all heard so much of. They certainly went through 
 with their exercises with a rapidity that was astonishing. 
 
 The drays used here are the short drays in the New York style, 
 but they are drawn by good horses. In fact I have not seen a poor- 
 looking horse in the place. The pleasure carriages, of which there 
 are an extra number for a place of this size, are of the most ap- 
 proved Eastern city style, and drawn invariably by such horses as 
 would make envious our gentlemen and ladies of taste in Boston, 
 where we generally have better carriage horses than they have in 
 other places. 
 
 The city is beginning to grow thinner, and the steamboats that 
 left last night and to-day have gone crowded with passengers. But 
 even in its desolation from the mob, it is a populous place, and the 
 streets are filled with people who go about for pleasure and busi- 
 ness. 
 
 Chicago 
 July. 
 
 History tells that many years ago, I believe in 1812, serious 
 fears being entertained that the Indians would destroy the small 
 party then resident at this place, the commanding officer con- 
 cluded to move away, and join a larger party at Fort Wayne. 
 Previous to going he destroyed all the stores on hand that he could 
 not carry, and particularly all the spirit. The Indians were very 
 much incensed, after his departure, that they could not find the 
 rum, and took to drinking the water of the river, into which the 
 rum had been poured, pronouncing it to be "very good grog." 
 They could see for themselves that the waters of the river, and the 
 lake into which it empties, do not amalgamate at once, and they 
 may have thought that the rum remained. However that may be, 
 it is very apparent that the waters remain of different color and of 
 different taste, to this day. Chicago is so low that there is no good 
 water for drinking, except that which is brought from the lake, 
 and the latter is very pure and wholesome; it is easily procured, and 
 furnishes the drink for the inhabitants; the former, which is brown 
 and muddy, is extensively used for washing, and for other ordinary 
 domestic purposes.
 
 18 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 Our friend Degrand some years ago called the Worcester depot 
 in Boston the end of "Worcester Longwharf." I know no reason 
 why I should not christen the Fitchburg depot the "Chicago Long 
 wharf," for by whatever channel of communication the trade from 
 Ogdensburg reaches Boston, — whether by the Vermont Central 
 or the Rutland route — it must all go to Boston, or most of it by 
 the way of Fitchburg. The directors are in duty bound to make 
 me and my family free passengers for the rest of our lives, for giving 
 them so good and appropriate a name. Any one who looks at the 
 map, and every one who comes out here and sees the business that 
 is transacted on the lakes and in this part of the Western country, 
 must be convinced that all this trade must go to Boston. A gentle- 
 man who is extensively engaged on the Fox river, thirty miles from 
 this place, tells me that now, round-about as it is, he sends all his 
 supplies, even his New-Orleans sugar and molasses, from Boston, — 
 now it comes through the Erie Canal; but when Ogdensburg Rail- 
 road is completed, it will come more directly, and at a saving of 
 some hundreds of miles of transportation. Perhaps I have men- 
 tioned this latter circumstance before; but I write at great disad- 
 vantage, with no opportunity to revise and correct, and as the 
 printers are by this time satisfied, with no conveniences for sta- 
 tionery. All I aim to do is to state facts, and if time and oppor- 
 tunity were given me, I could multiply my record of facts almost 
 innumerably. Never yet did Yankee go out from home with a 
 more inquisitive disposition than myself, and I never saw but one 
 man, and he was an esteemed member of the original party with 
 which I left Boston, that asked so many questions. I shall be very 
 happy if I ever become half as valuable a member of society, and 
 retain but half as much statistical knowledge, as he is noted for. 
 
 When our Massachusetts delegation assembled, on Monday 
 morning, on board the steamboat Louisiana, for organization, 
 there was a general feeling of regret as well as disappointment, that 
 we had not one distinguished man among us, no capitalist, and no 
 one whose name was known to the world. It was apparent that the 
 Western people had expected to see some great man, and that
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 19 
 
 Massachusetts was looked to particularly for something that we 
 could not supply. But we put up with the disappointment as best 
 we could, and determined to do our duty. The selection of Messrs. 
 Eustis, Lee and Hobart, for prominent candidates for the offices we 
 might be called upon to fill, was well and judiciously made, and 
 gave satisfaction. Now that the Convention is over, and we have 
 mingled with the thousands of strangers assembled here, I am not 
 only disposed to give up my regret at the absence of those to whom 
 we had a right to look for countenance on this occasion, but also 
 to be rather glad of the result. As I said before, much was ex- 
 pected of Massachusetts, and I doubt whether any delegation, 
 from any part of the country, met with more consideration and 
 respect than we did. Gentlemen were continually claiming intro- 
 ductions, and continually offering their hospitality, and proffering 
 their services to make known to us what we most wanted to know, 
 to show what we most wanted to see. If we had had with us a 
 prominent man, he would have absorbed a great part, if not the 
 whole, of the attention which was now disseminated among the 
 twenty-eight members of the delegation; and although the state 
 might have been more distinguished, I have strong doubt whether 
 as much good would have been effected. We had with us men of 
 sound sense, men of business, and men with dispositions to en- 
 courage and increase the general desire for greater intercourse be- 
 tween the East and the West. We shall find hereafter that the 
 association of intelligent men from different sections of the country 
 is of quite as much advantage as the notoriety of a political or very 
 rich delegation. 
 
 The mass of strangers is now about separating, and although 
 the hopes and the expectations of some may have been disap- 
 pointed, there is the best feeling prevailing, the utmost satisfac- 
 tion expressed by every body. Politics have been dropped, after 
 an ineffectual attempt on the part of a few unquiet and ambitious 
 aspirants to do something — they did not themselves know what; 
 the resolutions adopted, which are mostly from the pen of Mr. 
 John C. Spencer of New- York, if they are not as strong and as
 
 20 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 Startling as some people expected, are expressive of sentiments in 
 which all parties agree. The closing speech of Judge Bates, the 
 President, is spoken of on all sides with great and undisguised ad- 
 miration, and the subsequent speeches in the informal mass meet- 
 ing, of which Horace Greeley was chairman, served to let off the 
 gas with which many gentlemen were filled, as well as afforded an 
 opportunity to the curious to hear the eloquence of those who, 
 from circumstances, were not able to mingle prominently in the 
 doings of the Convention. 
 
 This place is the terminus of the Illinois and Michigan canal, 
 of which so much has been said for the last twenty years. It was 
 first surveyed in 1821, and in 1827 Congress appropriated a large 
 quantity of the public lands in aid of its construction. Of its late 
 history, the failure to complete it, its pecuniary troubles, &c., the 
 capitalists of the country are well advised. Its fortunes have been 
 chequered, and at times its fate has been doubtful.^" But better 
 days have come, and now there is a reasonable prospect of its 
 speedy completion. It will not be long before the resources of the 
 Illinois will be doubled by its means of easier transportation, and 
 another link will be added to the chain which extends to the At- 
 lantic market in Boston harbor. 
 
 I could spend much time here, in learning the sources of wealth 
 which are to be opened to our New-England people, and in enjoy- 
 ing the hospitality of the inhabitants who are so closely connected 
 with us by ties of the nearest kind. The business men are nearly 
 all from our section of the country, and have brought with them 
 and retained their New-England affections. The feelings and the 
 
 " In January, 1836, the legislature authorized the Governor to borrow $500,000 
 on the credit of the state, to begin the Illinois and Michigan Canal. Ground was 
 broken July 4, 1836. Loan after loan was authorized as the work progressed, but 
 the money did not come in fast enough and work ceased. In 1845, three trustees 
 representing the state and the bondholders were chosen, loans were secured, and the 
 work advanced rapidly. On April 23, 1848, the General Thornton passed through the 
 entire length of the canal. 
 
 The state debt in July, 1847 was over ?14,000,000. This amount was divided 
 into Internal Improvement Debt, 38,000,000 and Canal Debt, $6,000,000. Be- 
 tween the opening of the canal in 1848 and October, 1870, the receipts were 
 $4,360,419, and the expenses $1,828,790.
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 21 
 
 habits tend to connect them still with the places from which they 
 emigrated, and Boston, as the head-quarters of business, must, by 
 and by, be the recipient of most of their trade. 
 
 I believe that there is not a single bank in Illinois now in ex- 
 istence. There was a State Bank, located at the seat of govern- 
 ment in Springfield, but it has shared the fate of many others, and 
 now only lives to wind up its affairs. The money in circulation is 
 of all sorts, including New- York, Canada, Wisconsin, and New- 
 England bills; but there is money enough, and much more of the 
 business is transacted for cash than would, under the circum- 
 stances, be supposed. There are agents or brokers here, who draw 
 on New- York and Boston when wanted, who are in good standing, 
 and are quite able to supply cash drafts at all times. How far 
 business would be facilitated by the establishment of local banks 
 with small capitals, as in Massachusetts, I am not prepared to say, 
 and that is a serious question, which is now undergoing consider- 
 ation at a State Convention to revise the Constitution, which is 
 now in session at Springfield. 
 
 Springfield, Illinois 
 [July 9, 1847] 
 If any one had asked me, six weeks ago, to take a journey into 
 the interior of Illinois, I should have hesitated, and should have 
 been appalled at the task. Yet here I am, having been almost ir- 
 resistibly led along from point to point, through states and lakes 
 and rivers, and with a promise on my hands to go still further. A 
 few hours, only, before the time appointed for leaving Chicago, on 
 my way home, I was induced to join a party to this place, to in- 
 spect the interior of the country, to see the Illinois canal, and to 
 learn from personal observation whether the extravagant asser- 
 tions, — for they appear extravagant to a stranger, — which are 
 made by the people of the West, are borne out by facts. Accor- 
 dingly, as the Baltic started to go in one direction, I started in a 
 stage-coach to go in another. Our party was composed of nine 
 persons inside, three of whom were ladies. Three only were ac- 
 quainted — that is to say, two only were known to me, and they
 
 22 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 were strangers less than a week ago, and they knew no one else of 
 the company. We get acquainted strangely on such occasions, and 
 in this western country, quite readily. One lady was from Ver- 
 mont, and lived at Dresden, in this state. She was traveling alone, 
 fifty-six miles, to her present home. One man was a Bostonian, 
 now residing in Wisconsin, who came away to seek his fortune with 
 his young wife, eighteen years ago. His wife and her sister, both 
 natives of Bangor, Me., were with him, having been on a pleasure 
 tour to the lakes. They have neither of them been in New-Eng- 
 land for more than five years. One was from Connecticut, one 
 from New-Hampshire, and two from Massachusetts. All were 
 from New-England, and I was the only one who had seen his native 
 state for years. These facts came out in the course of the day. 
 
 We left Chicago at nine o'clock in the morning, and took our 
 way across the prairies. At first the road was uneven, dusty and 
 uninteresting, exhibiting some cultivated farms, and but little 
 wooded country. Soon we came upon the line of the canal, which 
 we followed, at a short distance, through its whole extent. I have 
 not time, nor inclination, to give a description of the few places we 
 stopped at on the first day, nor to tell of the gross deception, and 
 swindling actions, and gross impertinences of the stage-drivers, of 
 which I could, if so disposed, fill a column or two, and then not tell 
 half. The public houses were worse than the worst taverns ever 
 seen in New-England, — dirty, and ill-found in every respect. An 
 old lady furnished, at short notice, a dinner of boiled eggs, fresh 
 fried pork, and tolerable coffee, which was much more palatable in 
 the participation than in the appearance. 
 
 The prairie, where not cultivated, and in many places where it 
 is, remains without fences, for wood is scarce for many miles after 
 we leave Chicago, and the few houses to be met with are sadly 
 lacking in many of the necessary boards and timbers. Corn and 
 wheat grow luxuriantly, and large droves of cattle are to be found 
 grazing at different places. Hogs are numerous, and I can easily 
 conceive that Chicago may, by and by, become a great pork mar-
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 23 
 
 WTSCON^m 
 
 ; T^tu^ L H V "^ I at-, e. rtiin-H 
 
 Buckingham's Route
 
 24 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 ket." When at Chicago, I learned that the beef of this country was 
 very superior, and I had opportunities of testing its good quality. 
 The cattle are large, and grow fat on the prairie grass, at little or no 
 expense, except of the time which it takes to raise them to the 
 proper age to be driven to market. At a small place, called by 
 some name which I have now forgotten, we stopped to examine a 
 boiling spring, the water of which is as bad to the taste, and as 
 much filled with sulphur, as the most enthusiastic lover of water- 
 ing-places could desire. At several places in the neighborhood the 
 water bubbles up through white sand, and the pool into which it 
 comes looks more like a boiling cauldron than any thing else; but 
 the water is neither warm nor cold. The driver gave it freely to 
 his horses, and the people of the house in the neighborhood use it 
 altogether for all purposes. The driver said it operated upon his 
 horses as a sort of gentle cathartic, and made them healthy. 
 
 We came to no village until we arrived at Lockport, a place that 
 is not laid down on any map that I have seen, where there are a 
 number of stores and two or three taverns. Here is to be a large 
 basin on the canal, and we had a fine opportunity to observe the 
 construction of the great work, on which so many hundreds of 
 thousands of dollars have been, and so many more are to be, ex- 
 pended. The canal as far as this place is nearly level, and is, for a 
 greater part of the way, already finished; it is faced on the inside 
 with a yellowish stone, which is found at different points, and 
 which appears to be a combination of lime and sand-stone; it is 
 easy to work, and lies in the quarries in layers of unequal thickness, 
 but none of it more than a foot or a foot and a half thick. The 
 canal is not, however, built up of stone throughout its whole extent, 
 although it is for the most of the route. At Lockport the canal 
 must be about two hundred or two hundred and fifty feet in width 
 at the bottom, and the locks and abutments are laid in smooth, 
 handsome masonry, that would do no discredit to any part of our 
 country; there are seven locks in this place, in a distance of a few 
 miles. 
 
 "The exports of the port of Chicago in 1845 were: wheat 956,860 bushels, 
 flour 13,752 barrels, beef 6,199 barrels and pork 7,099 barrels.
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 25 
 
 We then passed over to a town called Joliet, which was named 
 after an old Frenchman who originally settled here and owned a 
 great part of the land. By some mistake it was originally called 
 Juliet,^^ but the name was changed by act of the legislature a year 
 or two ago, to conform to the proper title of the old original settler. 
 Here are several blocks of stone stores, evidently built with a view 
 to a large trade, which is to come at some future day. The village 
 is laid out on a plain, and on the side of a hill, with a handsome 
 stone bridge crossing the canal; and here, too, is a large, broad 
 basin. The projectors of this canal, and the original directors and 
 engineers, appear to have had in view the immense business which 
 it will take and which it will create, or they must have been very 
 extravagant in their notions. It is probable that they knew what 
 they were doing, what the future was to accomplish; but they were 
 then, in a manner, before the age; they spent too much money, and 
 by their financiering, their want of prudence, involved themselves 
 and others in difficulties from which better counsels are now re- 
 lieving the state. Now it is certain that the canal will be finished, 
 the bonds will be paid, and nothing that I can imagine, not even 
 another revulsion in the financial condition of the country, can 
 prevent the stock from being a paying investment, except some 
 mismanagement take place before the work is finished. The pro- 
 duce raised in the interior of the state is incalculable, and the pro- 
 ducers must consume other articles in their turn, both of which, 
 the exports and the imports, will, until a railroad is built side by 
 side with it, pass through the canal to Chicago. 
 
 From Joliet to Dresden^^ we had an interesting ride, and at the 
 latter place we took supper, our Yankee landlady serving us up 
 codfish as a luxury, and hashed potatoes. At a small place called 
 Morris, at half past eleven o'clock, we again stopped to change 
 horses, and remained an hour in the most uncomfortable place you 
 
 1* The plat for "Juliet" was recorded in June, 1834, the name being that of the 
 founder's daughter, Juliet Campbell; this name the town bore until 1845, when it 
 was changed to Joliet by act of the legislature. 
 
 " "A town site near the junction of the Des Plaines and Kankakee, and on 
 the line of the canal." J. M. Peck, A Gazetteer of Illinois (2nd ed.; Philadelphia, 
 3718), 191.
 
 26 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 can conceive of; the tavern-keeper and all his people were in bed, 
 but we succeeded, after some difficulty, in getting into the house, 
 and had the luxury of two tallow candles, and a little water, which 
 was warm, and not very palatable. On the opposite side of the 
 road was another still smaller tavern, from which proceeded the 
 sound of a violin. We walked over, and found about twenty per- 
 sons assembled in a room on the lower floor, trying to learn to 
 dance cotillions; the room was lighted by a solitary dip-candle; the 
 teacher, who was also the musician, was in his shirt sleeves, and 
 wore a shocking bad straw hat; the ladies were two little girls, two 
 old women, and two or three fat, coarse-looking girls, about 
 twenty; one of the male dancers wore a straw hat, two or three 
 were without coats, and the one who was evidently the dandy of 
 the place — for village it could hardly be called — wore a nankin- 
 colored frock coat, and had his blue pantaloons strapped down so 
 tight that he could scarcely move about. We amused ourselves 
 for some time in witnessing the troubles and disasters which befell 
 the instructor in his attempts to make the company go through 
 correctly with the difficult figures of right and left, cross over, and 
 promenade. 
 
 The rest of our ride during the night was as uncomfortable as 
 any enemy, if we had one, could desire. We made progress at the 
 rate of less than three miles an hour; the weather was intensely hot, 
 and not a breath of air was stirring; the horses and carriage raised 
 any quantity of dust, which, of course, rose only high enough to 
 fill the carriage; and we were nine inside passengers, a new one 
 having been taken in to replace the lady we had left at Dresden — 
 [illegible]. We arrived at Ottawa about six o'clock in the morning, 
 having seen nothing of the country for many miles, but bearing 
 about as indisputable evidence that the road had led through the 
 same soft and fertile soil that we had had during the whole day be- 
 fore. Ottawa is a considerable village, and has a large court-house, 
 pleasantly situated in a square surrounded with thriving acacia, 
 or locust trees, and a number of stores, besides some half dozen 
 bar-rooms, independent of four taverns.
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 27 
 
 I have spoken of the want of wood on the prairies. The acacia 
 is easily cultivated, and grows very rapidly wherever it is planted; 
 some people are beginning to appreciate its advantage, and when 
 we come to any considerable settlement, we find that they have 
 commenced setting out trees on the borders of the lots; in some 
 places, large groves have been planted, which will, in a few years, 
 be very valuable. Of bridges, we saw few during yesterday, being 
 obliged to ford most of the streams; as we entered Lockport we 
 forded the river Des Plaines, which is an eighth of a mile wide, 
 although there is a ricketty bridge over it. The whole road from 
 Chicago lies through a tract of country which is a sort of valley — 
 if you can call that a valley where there are no hills on either side — 
 which was once evidently the bed of a river. The prairie is in 
 many places undulating, or rolling, and the waters of Lake Mich- 
 igan once undoubtedly flowed uninterruptedly through to the 
 Illinois river; the stones and rock formations show this, and the 
 course of the former current is distinctly marked on the whole line. 
 We forded a number of inconsiderable streams, which I am in- 
 formed are sometimes — at the season of the year when the lakes 
 and rivers are at the highest — almost impassable, and the greater 
 part of the wood-land is on the borders of these streams. 
 
 After breakfast we took up our line of march, for it could hardly 
 be called anything else, at the rate of two or three miles an hour, 
 on the borders of the Illinois river, and passing by the village of 
 La Salle, arrived at the terminus of the Canal at Peru, about 
 twelve o'clock. Peru is next to Lisbon, in St. Lawrence county, 
 New- York, the most uninviting place I ever saw. It is destined to 
 become a great and growing village, the head and centre of a great 
 trade. It is at the head of the navigation of the river, and already 
 there are a number of stores, grog-shops, a barber's shop, and two 
 taverns. In the early days in the history of the Canal, it was built 
 up with log huts and mud cabins, to accommodate the Irish mud- 
 diggers, and they remain in all their primitive ugliness, and with 
 increased nastiness, the larger part of the village — certainly the 
 most peopled, if we count the dirty children and the independent
 
 28 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 hogs. I ought to state, however, that a little distance from the 
 bank of the river, on the high bluffs, are some good farms, and 
 several nice dwellings; as I had little time to go into the interior 
 from the main village, my remarks must be considered as applying 
 to the terminus of the canal. Mr. Webster once owned a farm in 
 this vicinity, where Mr. Fletcher Webster was a resident for some 
 year or more, but I believe it has been sold to some one else." 
 
 Springfield, Illinois 
 [July 11, 1847] 
 After waiting three hours at Peru, in the hope of finding a 
 better conveyance, we embarked on board a small steamboat 
 called the Dial, to come down the Illinois river. We were 
 loaded with freight and crowded with passengers. The engine 
 was out-doors, on the lower deck, and altogether the prospect 
 of comfort was very small. The captain, however, did his best 
 for the accommodation of every body, and the steward served 
 up a very good dinner. A company of about fifty raw volunteer 
 recruits for the Mexican army were desirous of coming on board, 
 but the captain refused to take them, and thereby deserves our 
 gratitude; for they were excessively noisy and very drunk. We 
 stopped at several small places on the river, to take in more freight, 
 particularly at Hennepin and at Lacon. At this latter place, 
 our friends J. & N. Fisher of Boston, own considerable property, 
 and carry on a large business in packing pork, &c. It is rather 
 a pretty place, and will, like all other places of the kind, share 
 the fate of all in this Western country, and be a place of great 
 trade. We remained at Lacon for nearly three hours, and took 
 on board two hundred barrels of flour and provisions, two hun- 
 dred bags of wheat, and some wool. We started again after 
 dark, and arrived at Peoria about two o'clock in the morning. 
 
 " Fletcher Webster, 1813-1862, was the son of the renowned Daniel Webster. 
 He was graduated from Harvard in 1833. After studying law with his father, he 
 moved to Peru, Illinois in 1837, where he practiced for three years. He was his 
 father's private secretary during part of the latter's services as Secretary of State; 
 a member of the Massachusetts legislature in 1847; and survevor of the port of 
 Boston, 1850-1861. He was killed in battle in 1862.
 
 
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 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 29 
 
 I have heard of flies, and mosquitoes, and bed bugs, and fleas, 
 and sundry other nuisances that are said to infest the Western 
 waters. I have heard of the same kind of troublesome vermin 
 being rather numerous in Mexico, but I never could be brought 
 to believe one half of what I experienced on board the Dial. 
 The boat actually swarmed with them after dark. The heat of 
 the weather and the heat of the boat, and the lights, brought 
 them about us, and I should think that they were, in variety, 
 countless as they were in number. The lady who lately so in- 
 dustriously counted the seeds in a fig, and published the results 
 of her labor in the newspapers, would here have been absolutely 
 foiled. They came and they staid; they were brushed off and fell 
 upon the deck, but their places were immediately supplied by 
 an additional increased number. The seeds in a fig would not 
 grow or increase during the process of counting, but the insects 
 were multiplying from dark until daylight. The floors, the 
 state-room partitions, the mast of the boat, the ceiling, the 
 freight, the baggage, and the passengers, were literally covered. 
 We had mosquito nets to our berths, but shutting out the winged 
 insects seemed but to serve as a better chance to allow the creep- 
 ing things to luxuriate. Some people slept! Happy immobility! 
 I tried segar smoke on the upper deck, and it had a partial effect; 
 but the enemy was invulnerable, and as soon as possible I took 
 my baggage in hand and went ashore at Peoria, and laid down 
 on the steps of the hotel at the top of the hill, to wait for 
 daylight.^* 
 
 Peoria is a beautifully situated town on the right bank of 
 the river, and is already the seat of a great business. It com- 
 mands one of the most grand and interesting views in the world, 
 and is built or laid out something in the New-England style. It 
 has a large extent of back country to supply, and has increased 
 
 1' It is a river trip of sixty-seven miles from Peru to Peoria. The hotel in Peoria 
 was either the Clinton House at the corner of Fulton and Adams, or the Planters 
 House at Hamilton and Adams streets. These hotels were only two blocks from the 
 Illinois River. In 1847, the city did not extend much, if any, above Adams Street, 
 so either may have been at the "top of the hill."
 
 30 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 within a few years almost beyond what it would be considered 
 reasonable for me to state. In the little time I remained here, 
 I had little opportunity to see its beauties or to learn of its trade 
 and capacities; but as daylight came gradually on, I saw how it 
 was situated, and soon took a walk around the more settled and 
 business portion of the town. But everybody was asleep. The 
 stores were shut, the night lamps were out or burnt dim, and the 
 early morning dawn only exposed the silent beauties of a land- 
 scape without showing vitality. It was a picture of still-life, 
 which any painter might copy, and which, if copied, would be 
 purchased and appreciated by the man of taste, as the richest 
 of his collection. 
 
 At four o'clock we took a stage coach for the interior, six 
 inside, in a carriage built to carry but four, and drawn by horses 
 that evidently knew their driver to be bent on making work 
 easy and pay profitable. We crossed the river in a ferry-boat, '• 
 and then all got out and walked up a long hill, turning every 
 now and then to admire the beautiful scenery, which included 
 the town of Peoria, the river and other objects of interest in the 
 distance. 
 
 Our party was again changed. We had two members of 
 Congress from the state of Illinois, one Whig and one Locofoco," 
 and persons of other professions. Query, — Is a member of Con- 
 gress a professional man or not? We started in a grumbling 
 humor, but our Whig congressman was determined to be good 
 natured, and to keep all the rest so if he could; he told stories, 
 and badgered his opponent, who it appeared was an old personal 
 friend, until we all laughed, in spite of the dismal circumstances 
 in which we were placed. The character of the Western people 
 is in every respect different from ours. Our Locofoco friend is 
 a regular canvasser; he says that he has a way in his district 
 
 ** The ferry was owned by William L. May, a member of Congress from 1834 
 to 1838. 
 
 '^ The Whig Congressman was Abraham Lincoln, and the Locofoco was Robert 
 Smith of Alton, Illinois. Smith was a member of Congress from 1843 to 1849 and 
 1857 to 1859.
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 31 
 
 of bowing to everybody, of kissing every man's child, and making 
 love to every man's wife and daughter; he regretted that he did 
 not ask "Long John," as everybody calls Mr. Wentworth, how 
 he should behave in Wentworth's district, because the force of 
 habit is so great with him, he feared he might exceed the bounds 
 of propriety — it may be that the fashion with Long John is more 
 abrupt, and in that case he might be going contrary to estab- 
 lished usage. For some miles we were in Wentworth's district, 
 and a tolerably poor district it appeared to be.^* 
 
 We breakfasted at Tremont, a very pretty village on a prairie, 
 but the propriety of the name did not make itself manifest, as 
 there were no three hills any where in the neighborhood; — all 
 was level country. Tremont was about twelve years ago an 
 uninhabited prairie, and a gentleman of our party stated that a 
 friend of his, one winter, since 1835, entrusted his wife to his 
 care to go to a town some miles further south. That friend had 
 purchased largely of lands in the present town of Tremont, and had 
 had a lithographic map prepared, exhibiting the squares, and the 
 buildings, and the trees which might thereafter be erected and 
 set out. The wife saw the map and wished very much to go 
 through her husband's town; but when she arrived there she was 
 of course disappointed, as no houses, no squares, no trees, no 
 any thing, was to be seen, but a level and uninteresting prairie. 
 
 Now there are houses; trees have been planted, and as every 
 thing that is planted in this soil grows very rapidly, the squares 
 and the streets are sufficiently marked; there is a meeting-house, 
 and a tavern, lots of good farms, and a number of stores, and 
 several mechanic shops, and a saw-mill worked by horse-power. 
 
 After breakfast we were fairly launched on one of the great 
 prairies of the state, and I must acknowledge that I did not see 
 a prairie in the neighborhood of Chicago — that is, comparatively 
 speaking. For miles and miles we saw nothing but a vast ex- 
 panse of what I can compare to nothing else but the ocean itself. 
 
 " Buckingham was in error; the western boundary of Wentworth's district in 
 1847 lay some miles to the east of the stage route from Peoria to Springfield.
 
 32 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 The tall grass, interspersed occasionally with fields of corn, 
 looked like the deep sea; it seemed as if we were out of sight of 
 land, for no house, no barn, no tree was visible, and the horizon 
 presented the rolling of the waves in the far-off distance. There 
 were all sorts of flowers in the neighborhood of the road, which, 
 by the way, did not appear to be a road, and all the colors of the 
 rainbow were exhibited on all sides, — before, behind, east, west, 
 north and south, — as if the sun were shining upon the gay and 
 dancing waters. We saw the white-weed of our New-England, 
 the wild indigo, the yellow mustard, the muUen, the clover, red 
 and white, the purple nettle, the various colored phlox, numer- 
 ous yellow, pink and crimson flowers, and almost everything 
 else that is beautiful, that we have ever heard of. Occasionally 
 we passed a cultivated spot, where some person had purchased 
 land from the government, and had made a farm, — cattle, too, 
 are numerous, in herds, and horses in large droves, and swine 
 uncountable. In the distance, we saw at intervals, groves of 
 trees, which looked like islands in the ocean, and we learned 
 that they were planted for the purpose of raising timber. Every 
 thing will grow in this state, and the soil is everlasting, never 
 wearing out, and never needing manure. 
 
 Again we came to a settlement, or village, called Delavan, 
 where there was a post-office and a tavern. We changed horses 
 and ordered dinner. Two doctors had offices directly opposite 
 each other, and each kept a sort of apothecary shop; but such 
 shops I never saw before. 1 went into one of them, and found 
 in one corner a bed, the sheets of which appeared as if they had 
 never been washed. On one side of the room was a case of shelves, 
 on which were paraded half a dozen books, probably comprising 
 the whole library of the worthy practitioner, and twice that num- 
 ber of bottles, labeled — mirabile dictul — with understandable 
 names, and two or three gallipots. In one corner was a pair 
 of saddle-bags, and in another corner a saddle; but the doctor 
 was off at a distance to visit a patient. I think I should be 
 patient for some time before I should send for such a son of
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 33 
 
 Esculapius — and yet he may be a patient, pains-taking, learned, 
 and very charitable member of his profession. Appearances are 
 often very deceitful, as has been remarked many hundred times 
 before. 
 
 We dined. And such a dinner! The table was set in a bed- 
 room, which was neither plastered nor boarded up, the open air, 
 if there had been any, coming through in all directions. If we 
 had had a rain storm to encounter, we should hardly have been pro- 
 tected from it, and for mid-winter there was nothing to keep out 
 the snow. But the landlord was civil, his wife and daughter bare- 
 footed and dirty, and he could only keep off the flies by waving 
 continually over the table a bough which he had cut from one 
 of his locust trees. The table-cloth was stained with the grease 
 of many former meals, if with nothing worse, and his meat, which 
 he called beef, was swimming in fat. The only things palatable 
 were some fried eggs and some hashed potatoes, with some 
 tolerable bread. However, we satisfied our craving appetites, 
 and started in good spirits, with the hope of doing better next 
 time. 
 
 How we speed on our journey for the rest of the day, it is 
 unnecessary to relate. It is sufficient to say that we came, in 
 the course of the afternoon, to a more wooded tract of land, 
 forded several streams, and saw more beautiful flowers, several 
 groves of acacias, and in the distance, what appeared to be hills 
 of trees or islands of forests. Towards Springfield the cultivated 
 farms were more numerous, and we passed through miles and 
 miles of tall corn, the bright and beautiful green of which was 
 almost dazzling in the sunlight; some acres of wheat, tall as an 
 ordinary man; and many fields of oats, with some of barley — all 
 of which appeared ready for the sickle. 
 
 We were now in the district represented by our Whig Congress- 
 man, and he knew, or appeared to know, every body we met, 
 the name of the tenant of every farm-house, and the owner of 
 every plat of ground. Such a shaking of hands — such a how- 
 d'ye-do — such a greeting of different kinds, as we saw, was never
 
 34 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 seen before; it seemed as if he knew every thing, and he had a 
 kind word, a smile and a bow for every body on the road, even 
 to the horses, and the cattle, and the swine. His labor appeared 
 to be so great, that we recommended to our Locofoco friend to 
 sit on the other side of the coach and assist in the ceremonies; 
 but he thought that that would be an interference with the vested 
 rights of his friend and opponent, and so he declined, although 
 he was evidently much disposed to play the amiable to several 
 rather pretty girls that we fell in with at one of our stopping 
 places. It seems that as there is honor among thieves, so there 
 is etiquette among Western Congressmen. 
 
 On the road, during the afternoon, we met three large wagons 
 loaded with wool, and drawn by three yokes of oxen each, on 
 their way to Chicago, the wool being destined for the Boston 
 market. Think of that. Look at the map. See what an extent 
 of country that wool is to pass over, what will be the distance 
 it is to be carried by water through the lakes, round over the 
 northern part of Michigan, through the lake St. Clair, lake 
 Erie, and thence by the Erie canal to Albany, and then by water 
 down the Hudson and over Long Island Sound, or over our 
 Western Railroad, and judge for yourself if the Ogdensburg 
 Railroad would not, if it were now open, save something in 
 time, if not in money, to the owner of that wool. 
 
 I have spoken somewhere of the cheapness of butter and cheese 
 and eggs and poultry, in Northern New-York. On our road to 
 Springfield, we saw a first rate roasting piece of beef — the first 
 cut of the rib — weighing sixteen pounds, which was sold to a 
 tavern-keeper for jour cents a pound, and that was said to be a 
 good price in this neighborhood. Think of that, ye housekeepers 
 in Boston! Of vegetables wc are now in the enjoyment of all 
 the luxuries of the season, such as green peas, cucumbers, string 
 and other beans, and new potatoes. Cherries and strawberries 
 are among the things that were. 
 
 We arrived at Springfield early in the evening, after the most 
 fatiguing day's ride that, in all my traveling, I ever experienced.
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 35 
 
 We were all tired and dirty, covered with dust and perspiration, 
 and not in much better humor than we were when we started 
 in the morning. The strangers in Buffalo complained of the 
 impositions, the lies, and the impudence of certain steamboat 
 captains, but I will put an Illinois stage agent or driver against 
 any thing that ever I saw before, in Europe or America, and bet 
 odds upon him for impudence and imposition. 
 
 [Springfield], Illinois 
 [July 12, 1847] 
 Why should I date from Springfield, or from any other town 
 or city, when what I have to say in this chapter of my Diary 
 relates to every thing and every where? Last evening, after a 
 ride of ten miles and back again, through a most excellent 
 country, lined with corn-fields, and oat-fields, and hemp-fields, I 
 was taken vi et armis to the house of a new acquaintance, all 
 dusty as I was, to supper. Remonstrance was useless, for he 
 said that Western life and Western customs would excuse every 
 thing. I am very much in the habit of accommodating myself 
 to circumstances, and on this occasion I found little difficulty in 
 making apologies for my personal appearance. The lady was, 
 as she styled herself, a "Western girl," and she was not at all 
 discommoded by her husband bringing home a stranger. We had 
 a hearty meal, and after a long conversation separated for the 
 night. 
 
 The ride I have alluded to was through a wooded part of 
 the country, up hill and down dale — but yet it could not be 
 called woods as we talk of woods In New-England and as for 
 hills, we actually rode over none that would compare with the 
 ascent from Congress-street to Washington-street through Water- 
 street. In this neighborhood there is to be found considerable 
 bituminous coal, but it is not used much — in fact, it is not used 
 at all in families, because it makes so much smoke. As far as 
 I can learn, it is about equal in quality to the common sort of 
 Sidney coal, which we use in Boston.
 
 36 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 About five miles from the city of Springfield, our old ac- 
 quaintance, J. Vincent Brown, has established himself as a 
 manufacturer of hemp. We passed by his place, but did not 
 stop, as he was not at home. He has a contract to furnish hemp 
 for the United States government, but his principal building was 
 burnt a few weeks ago, and has not yet been entirely rebuilt. 
 It is said that the hemp manufactured at his establishment is 
 the best, and is packed handsomer than any that is sent from 
 this part of the country.*' 
 
 1 have rode again on the prairies some ten miles and back, 
 to the south-east, and have been where there are no roads, riding 
 over the grass, and seeing the hemp, and the corn, and the wheat, 
 and the oats, all of which grow without any cultivation, except 
 that of sowing. With us, corn has to be hoed — but here on the 
 prairies, the ground is ploughed up, the seed deposited, and when 
 it comes up the plough is once more run through the field, and the 
 corn ripens as it stands. Dry weather does not affect it injuri- 
 ously, as there is moisture enough in the earth to sustain it, and 
 with the least attention that can be bestowed upon it, the yield 
 is from thirty to fifty bushels to the acre; on old farms, fifty 
 bushels is a fair average crop. 
 
 I said but little, nothing at all, if I recollect right, about 
 the Illinois river. It is a narrow stream, presenting many pretty 
 views, but nothing very striking, and little variety. The shore 
 is well wooded, and the different towns or landing places which 
 we passed, coming down to Peoria, were built high up on hills, 
 having levees or slopes of land running down to the water-side, 
 with no wharves; in every case where we stopped for freight or 
 passengers, the boat was run bow on to the shore and a plough 
 
 " J. Vincent Brown had a three-year contract with the United States Navy 
 for hemp. Having an aversion to slave labor, Brown came to Sangamon County 
 in 1846 and contracted with the farmers to raise 2,500 acres of hemp. He set up 
 four steam rolling and breaking mills at a cost of 360,000. The building which 
 burned was on Prairie Creek near the Beardstown Road, eight miles northwest of 
 Springfield. Citizens of Springfield and farmers of the vicinity contributed liberally 
 to the rebuilding of the structure. According to naval tests, hemp grown in Sanga- 
 mon County in 1847 was the finest in the world, but the costs of production were 
 too high for a profit-producing crop.
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 37 
 
 run out, and when we started again the boat was pushed off by 
 main force into the channel. This is said to be the worst season 
 to see the prairies for the lover of flowers, but I have gathered 
 many that were beautiful. We are now between the spring and 
 autumn, when many of the most brilliant of the plants are 
 generally in the perfection of splendor. I don't know what 
 would become of my enthusiasm if I should be here at those 
 periods, for I am all but enchanted now. 
 
 To-day I visited the State House, to listen to the debates of 
 the [Constitutional] Convention.^" The President is not worth 
 much as a presiding officer, for he understands, or at any rate 
 practises, little of the etiquette necessary for parliamentary 
 government; he seldom rises, never announces the names of the 
 speakers, allows two of them to speak at once, and puts the 
 questions in such a tone of voice that he can scarcely be under- 
 stood. The chief clerk,^^ who has a tolerably clear intonation, 
 stated the question when I was there this morning, and if it 
 had not been for his assistance, I do not see how the members 
 could have understood what they were voting for. A motion 
 was made and carried, for the Convention to go into committee 
 of the whole, and I expected something better from the new 
 chairman,^^ but he seemed to know but little, if any thing more 
 than the President, and was not any better than that officer in 
 his manner of conducting business. The members of the Conven- 
 tion are to appearance a much more intellectual body of men 
 
 '" The Constitution of 1818 was sadly outgrown; in the election of 1846, both 
 parties favored a revision by large majorities. One hundred and sixty-two delegates 
 began the task on June 7, 1847, and adjourned on August 31. The new Constitu- 
 tion, a series of compromises not too happily received by the leaders of either party, 
 was ratified by a large majority at the polls in March, 1848. 
 
 Buckingham's views on Newton Cloud, the presiding officer, were not those of 
 the Illinois State Register, Springfield's Democratic newspaper. Commenting on 
 his election it said: "Newton Cloud was the Speaker of the last House of Repre- 
 sentatives, and distinguished himself for impartiality, rapid dispatch of business 
 and thorough acquaintance with parliamentary rules and usages. A better pre- 
 siding officer could not have been chosen." 
 
 " Henry W. Moore of Gallatin County, the secretary or chief clerk, was Secre- 
 tary of the Illinois Senate, 1846-1848. 
 
 " He refers to John Crain of Nashville, Illinois, who had served for ten years in 
 the Illinois Senate and House.
 
 38 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 than the members of our House of Represer^tatives; they have 
 generally marked features, and much character. As for dis- 
 cipline and etiquette, I cannot say much for them. Every 
 member who spoke, rose and put one foot in his chair, and one 
 hand in his breeches pocket, and more than half of the whole 
 sat with their feet on the desks before them, tilting up in their 
 chairs. They looked like sensible men, but they want training, 
 from the President down. 
 
 The State-House is at present an unfinished building, of 
 stone, and intended to be well-arranged; but the architect has 
 set it too low on the ground, so that it will never be any ornament 
 to the place.^^ It has a cupola built of wood, and stands in the 
 centre of a large public square. By and by it will have a portico, 
 with several large columns, but the columns are to be laid in 
 blocks like the pillars before St. Paul's Church in Boston and will 
 never present an appearance corresponding to the design of the 
 architect. The interior, even, is not finished, and we ascend to 
 the Representatives' hall, where the Convention assembles, by a 
 flight of temporary stairs. The halls of the two houses will be 
 very pretty when they are finished, but I doubt whether they 
 will not want much remodeling before they will give satisfaction, 
 either to members or to the sovereign people, who wish to listen 
 to the debates of their servants. 
 
 Near the State-House is a much handsomer building, which 
 was erected some years ago by the State Bank of Illinois: it has 
 columns, and a porch in front, and looks quite classical. The 
 business of the place is done in stores, which are arranged round 
 and in the neighborhood of the square, and it is even now very 
 considerable. A railroad is to be built from Springfield to 
 Alton,^* which will enable the farmers in the interior of the state 
 to send their produce to a market; at present the only means 
 
 ^ The State House, now the Courthouse of Sangamon County, was raised a 
 story in 190L Begun in 1837, the building was not completed until the early fifties. 
 
 ** The first train on the Alton & Sangamon Railroad arrived in Springfield on 
 September 9, 1852. On July 30, 1854, the connection was made with Chicago.
 
 bO 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 (D 
 
 O i- 
 
 O G ^ 
 
 5c3 
 
 C 
 c/0 

 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 39 
 
 of transportation is by wagons, and this summer it has cost 
 seventy-five cents to a dollar a barrel to send flour to Alton on 
 the Mississippi, on its way to New-Orleans. Wheat cannot be 
 sent, at present, at any price, as the cost of freight would absorb 
 all its value, — the only way it can be sent to market, is in its 
 manufactured state. 
 
 The fields of corn — the miles and miles of corn to be seen 
 here — would strike a Massachusetts farmer with astonishment. 
 A farmer in this neighborhood thinks nothing of raising one 
 hundred acres of corn in one lot, and it grows of itself without 
 any assistance. There are large lots of hemp also raised here, 
 as I have before stated, and its greenness at this season, while 
 not so dazzling as the corn, is equally deep and beautiful. As 
 may be supposed, this is a great country for raising cattle, and 
 I am almost afraid to tell you that I saw yesterday, in one drove, 
 eleven hundred head of cattle, besides several hundred horses, 
 and some mules, which were on the way to the East for sale; — 
 they were going by the way of Indiana and Ohio to New- York 
 state, and probably some of them may be found at Brighton 
 before they are slaughtered. Hogs, of course, are plenty, and 
 it is for the purpose of fattening these that so much corn is raised. 
 When I said that Chicago might one day rival Cincinnati as a 
 pork market, I may have been thought extravagant, but the 
 thought is not so very absurd after all, if you will look at the 
 means of raising the material. The animals are marked and 
 turned out into the open prairie, and they come home at night, 
 like the cattle, of their own accord, to be fed with "something 
 warm and comfortable," — something that they cannot get in 
 their daily wanderings. 
 
 In the neighborhood of Springfield, and in the city itself, 
 for I believe it is a city, there are many beautiful residences, 
 and one can hardly believe that fifteen years ago, the place con- 
 tained but two houses, one of which was a common drover's 
 tavern, — that there was, as lately as 1835, but one mail a week 
 brought here from the South, and but one a fortnight from the
 
 40 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 North, — yet such is the fact.^* 
 
 Jacksonville, Illinois 
 July 14, 1847] 
 
 The weather has been so hot and dry, the crowd has been 
 so intense, and the bustle so great, that I have not as yet gone 
 out of the house to-day. The crowds of people — men, women 
 and children — which have been moving into this town since five 
 o'clock last evening, I cannot pretend to estimate. I am favored 
 with a room fronting on the public square, and can see every 
 thing that is going on. The numbers increase rather than di- 
 minish, and the people are coming from every direction, and in 
 all sorts of conveyances. Stage coaches are scarce, but large 
 wagons are plenty. Women ride on horses and on mules. 
 Whole families come in on large wagons, the travelers being seated 
 on straw-bottomed country chairs. The females are dressed in 
 all the colors of the rainbow; but white, or what was white when 
 the dresses were clean, predominates. Parasols are as plenty as 
 blackberries, and are only outnumbered by cotton umbrellas, — 
 every other man, whether on foot or on horseback, and every old 
 woman, of whom there are not a few, carrying one of the latter 
 articles. 
 
 This day is devoted to the solemn duty of depositing in the 
 grave the remains of Colonel Hardin, which have been brought 
 from Mexico for that purpose.'^* The state Convention has 
 adjourned, and came here from Springfield, for the purpose of 
 honoring the dead with the presence of its members, who may 
 be seen in the crowd with extravagant badges of black crape on 
 the left arm of each. But it is in fact a gala day. There is no 
 solemnity. A country muster in New England, in old times, 
 
 ** Buckingham overstated the rapidity of Springfield's growth, for more than 
 twenty-five years, instead of fifteen, had elapsed since its founding. Springfield had 
 perhaps thirty families in 1823, when the land was put on sale. The 1835 census 
 listed 1,419 inhabitants, and this figure had increased to 3,900 by 1848. 
 
 " Col. John J. Hardin commanded the First Regiment of Illinois Foot Volun- 
 teers. He was killed in battle at Buena Vista on February 23, 1847. The news- 
 papers estimated that the crowd in attendance at his funeral numbered over 15,000.
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 41 
 
 was as nothing to it. This is a temperance town, and no liquor 
 is allowed to be sold in its precincts, but yet drunken men and 
 boys are abundant, and noisy. Last night, a military company 
 marched into town from Springfield, and to-day it has marched 
 off to the strains of gay music, towards the former residence of 
 the dead, to take up and escort the procession. The engine 
 company is out with its banner. The masons are in full regalia. 
 The Convention has assembled in a body, with black crape and 
 blue scarfs. The square is over-run with mounted marshals, 
 dressed with enormous white sashes, who are curvetting and 
 galloping about in every direction, apparently with no other 
 object in view than to show themselves off, and defeating that 
 very object in a great measure, by raising such a quantity of 
 dust, that it is difficult to see, sometimes, who kicks it up. 
 
 After an absence of two hours the people have all returned 
 from the residence of the deceased, in the neighborhood of 
 which — in fact, in sight of its very windows — an oration was 
 delivered and a sermon preached, and other ceremonies per- 
 formed. At the head of the procession rode the chief marshal, 
 on a very gay horse, into whose sides we could see the rider, 
 every minute or two, sticking his spurs, in order to make the 
 animal still more gay. The marshal was dressed in white panta- 
 loons, having a black stripe down the legs, and a sheet tied 
 round his body, and he rode with his hat in his hand, bowing to the 
 multitude like a victorious general making a triumphal entry 
 into the city. The infantry company followed, the band playing 
 Pleyel's Hymn in quick time. After the masons and others, 
 came the black hearse bearing the corpse, and then the horse 
 of Col. Hardin, dressed in mourning. But what was all this to 
 what followed? Next came the family coach, containing the be- 
 reaved widow and orphans! I would not cast a word of censure 
 upon any one who really sorrowed. And it is not for any of us 
 to say who sorrows in this world, where the countenance and 
 the actions so often belie the real sentiments; but what a mockery 
 does this seem to be of grief, to parade it before thousands of
 
 42 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 Strangers — to follow in a gorgeous pageant the decorated hearse, 
 in a march of some miles, through dust and noise, and sur- 
 rounded with mounted marshals and racing cavalcade! 
 
 After marching all round the public square, the procession 
 went to the burying-ground, where the body was deposited. 
 After some recess, the multitude again assembled in a grove 
 near Colonel Hardin's house, where a collation was served up to 
 the public, and at which, after the manner of festive occasions, 
 several speeches were made. Those of the returned volunteers 
 who served under the deceased, and who belonged to the town, 
 were treated to a collation at the house, by invitation of the 
 widow! 
 
 And this is one scene connected with the Mexican war. It 
 has been got up to gratify a spirit of military ardor, which is 
 quite prevalent in this state, and it can result in nothing but 
 the most incalculable mischief. More volunteers are called for, 
 and regiments are now forming in Illinois. The fruit of to-day's 
 pageant will be the enlistment of at least a thousand new victims 
 to the insatiate ambition of our wicked and unprincipled gov- 
 ernment. The streets are filled with the fathers and the mothers, 
 the brothers and the sisters of volunteers, and yet the whole 
 seem to be afflicted with the military mania. 
 
 It is not in Jacksonville alone that this spirit prevails, but I 
 see it in every town and village south of Chicago, and it is more 
 apparent the further I penetrate into the interior of the state. 
 It does not appear to be patriotism, but a sort of ambition to 
 be some thing. I learn, that unlike the volunteers of Massachu- 
 setts and some other states, those from Illinois, with some few ex- 
 ceptions, have been from some of the most respectable families in 
 the state. Those who first enlisted who have not died in Mexico, 
 are now returning; but they express, at present, very little or no 
 opinion at all as to their feelings — they have generally gone 
 quietly to their homes, being for the present apparently satisfied 
 with the glory they have achieved. 
 
 Yesterday I met Lieut. Col. Weatherford, and a queerer
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 43 
 
 specimen of a sucker never yet was seen; a daguerrian picture 
 of him would have made a sketch that no one would believe 
 could have been taken from nature. On him devolved the 
 command of the regiment after Col. Hardin's death.^'' He is now 
 a thin, tall man, very much emaciated by sickness, and darker 
 colored than most Indians. He had on a coarse blue checked 
 cotton shirt, with no collar, and no neck-cloth. He wore a 
 dirty colored linen frock, which has seen much service, and was 
 open in front like a common frock coat. His pantaloons were 
 of the common cheap blue cotton, and were worn through in 
 holes about where his legs probably touched the saddle in riding. 
 He had on shoes nearly worn out, with large spurs strapped on 
 around the instep. We have had descriptions of the uncouth 
 appearance of the Mexican officers, but no description I have 
 ever seen gave me any idea of such a poverty-stricken and 
 miserable specimen of a commander as did the actual appearance 
 of the Lieutenant Colonel of the first regiment of Illinois Volun- 
 teers, on this his return from a successful and honorable (!) career 
 in the present war. This is no fancy sketch, and it is not in the 
 least exaggerated. 
 
 The Lieutenant Colonel talked of the war, and of his deeds 
 in arms, but withal was rather modest. He claimed great credit 
 for his regiment, and expressed great admiration of the character 
 of Col. Hardin. But it is plainly to be perceived, that he is a 
 broken-down man, unfit for further service, and without much 
 hope for the future. He will probably, with scores of others 
 in similar situations, become, if he is not already, a violent poli- 
 tician, an office-seeker and a demagogue. 
 
 Whitehall, Illinois 
 [July 15, 1847] 
 After the festivities of yesterday were closed at Jacksonville, 
 our party started, in an overloaded coach, for the Mississippi 
 River. The country begins to lose that level appearance that it 
 
 " William Weatherford was elected colonel at Buena Vista, February 26, 1847, 
 to succeed Colonel Hardin.
 
 44 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 has exhibited before, and, as we proceed to the south, is more 
 wooded, with more up-hill and down-hill. There is, however, 
 still much prairie land to pass over, and the soil is, if possible, 
 richer than it is farther north. Everything will grow here, and 
 the settlers have taken some pains to plant trees, particularly 
 the locust and the rock or sugar maple. In the valleys and on 
 the hill-sides we find oak, and walnut, and the hazel-nut. On 
 the hills are the blackberry and other bushes known in New- 
 England — the mustard, the mullen, the whiteweed, &c. We are 
 now in a part of the country that is "fenced in," and we behold 
 on every side the most luxurious farms, good houses and large 
 barns. As we proceed south, the corn grows, or has grown, 
 taller and taller, with ears, in the silk, higher up in the air than 
 a tolerably tall man can reach. The wheat is harvested, and the 
 oats are about ready. We have seen some beautiful fields of 
 rye, and thick tall grass of the various descriptions. As we pass 
 through a more generally settled district, we find the prairie 
 grass is nearly run out, and in its place is the timothy, and the 
 red-top, and the clover. This is surely a great country, and this 
 is a glorious season for the farmer. 
 
 We have stopped for the night at a very pleasant village, 
 situated on a prairie, and at a tavern that would do honor to 
 any good housewife in New-England. Every thing is neat and 
 clean, every body is attentive, the supper has been well got up, 
 and abundant in variety, as well as excellent in quality. The 
 name of the landlord is Tracy, and he and his wife deserve to 
 be remembered, and to be made known to the traveling com- 
 munity. May they become as rich as they wish, and be able 
 to return to their native New-England, well rewarded for their 
 toil and privations. 
 
 Late in the evening a stage-coach from Alton arrived, con- 
 taining several returned volunteers, who were met by about fifty 
 personal friends, who were in waiting. Of course there was much 
 boisterous gladness exhibited on both sides; but the volunteers 
 did not exhibit marks of much prosperity, nor of much elas-
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 45 
 
 ticity of spirit. They have "seen the elephant," and have very 
 little to say about him. The war is a sorry subject to most of 
 those who have been engaged in it. 
 
 I think that it is a sort of duty that a traveler owes to his 
 friends and acquaintances, to point out to them not only the 
 best, but the worst, places on the route. It is not probable that 
 many of my readers will ever find themselves in Jacksonville, as 
 it is not on a direct route to any where that Boston people are 
 likely to seek. But I must warn them to avoid the town until 
 it has a good tavern. It has a houl, which is not fit for a 
 decently-dressed man to set his foot in, and a house^ where he 
 can find nothing comfortable. Although the town was full of 
 people yesterday, both landlords left their boarders or guests to 
 take care of themselves, and officiated all day as marshals to the 
 procession. At the hotel we were overrun with women and 
 children; the breakfast was absolutely nasty, so that I could not 
 be prevailed upon to go to the table at dinner, which proved, I 
 was informed, still more disgustingly dirty. 
 
 It seems as if I were doomed to be a victim to the Mexican 
 war, in one shape or another. I was sick of it in Boston, and 
 glad to be absent from all discussions on the subject for several 
 weeks. But now I have again got into a current, and every day, 
 every hour, I hear something about it. We have been bored 
 almost beyond endurance, for one whole afternoon, by a returned 
 volunteer lieutenant, who has described over and over again the 
 battles of which he was a spectator, and sickened with his non- 
 sense about patriotism, and disgusted by his avowed principles. 
 He says he had a brother and a brother-in-law killed by the 
 Mexicans, and he considers it a duty, as well as a pleasure, to 
 kill as many Mexicans as he can. The scoundrel talks, too, of 
 religion, and claims that the present war is favored by the 
 Almighty, because it will be the means of eradicating Papacy, 
 and extending the benefits of Protestantism. I doubt whether he 
 has any more Christianity than knowledge, and his whole talk 
 proves him a fool and a liar.
 
 46 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 I give you a short letter to-night, for heat and dust, and the 
 fatigue of incessant travel, have rendered me more fit for the bed 
 than for my usual gossip. 
 
 Alton, Illinois 
 [July 16, 1847] 
 
 We came into this place at a snail's pace, although the road 
 was down hill. The hill was so steep that it would have been 
 dangerous for all of us if the wheels of the coach had not been 
 locked hard enough to oblige the horses to draw. On the top of 
 the last hill I had my first glimpse of the Mississippi river — ap- 
 parently a calm, sluggish stream, as smooth as plate glass, with 
 a bright polish which reflected the rays of the burning sun with 
 dazzling splendor — it was painful to look at it. I found after- 
 wards, that it was not so sluggish, but that it ran at the rate of 
 about four or five miles an hour. When one is on its banks, it 
 is a much more attractive sheet of water, and although differing 
 from the St. Lawrence in its whole character, is, perhaps, quite 
 as interesting to contemplate. Opposite to the city is a large 
 island which prevents a view of the Missouri shore, but on the 
 bluffs one can see over the low land and its trees, and have an 
 uninterrupted sight of the hills of the neighbor-state. 
 
 This place is somewhat celebrated for the abolition riots which 
 occurred here some years ago,^^ and my general impression was, 
 that it was rather a rowdy city. But I find the people of an 
 entirely different character. It is situated much like our New- 
 England towns, and instead of having all the residences collected 
 together near the centre of business, they are scattered all round 
 among the hills, and over an extent of country embracing many 
 miles. The principal portion of the inhabitants are New-England 
 people, and many were originally from Boston — men who came 
 
 " On the night of November 7, 1837, the abolitionist editor, Elijah P. Lovejoy, 
 was killed in attempting, with his friends, to prevent the seizure by a mob of his 
 printing press, stored in the warehouse of Godfrey, Gilman & Company. The in- 
 cident was broadcast by the press over the United States, many editors condemning 
 the affair as an assault on the freedom of the press and speech even while they con- 
 demned abolition.
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 47 
 
 out to this country some twelve or fifteen years ago, and have, 
 under all the fluctuations of trade, all the changes from rich to 
 poor, and poor to rich, maintained their integrity, and are now, 
 although Alton is not the thriving place it once was, doing good 
 business, and are mostly well off in this world's goods. As a 
 friend remarked a few days ago, Illinois, of all the states in the 
 Union, is the poor man's country. Its resources are unbounded, 
 and wherever an industrious man plants his foot, or digs the soil, 
 he is sure to be remunerated for his trouble. The prairies once 
 presented a vast expanse of waste land, covered with grass, and 
 flowers of all the colors of the rainbow. Only a few years have 
 been devoted to their cultivation, and now they are covered with 
 corn and wheat, and oats, potatoes, hemp, and trees. Time was 
 when there were no trees, except on the borders of the streams — 
 now the locust is to be seen every where, and the farmers have 
 planted that and many other descriptions of trees on the borders 
 of their lots, in groves, and before their dwellings. There are a 
 number of Dutch farmers settled in this neighborhood, and they 
 have profited by the facility which the ground affords to become 
 rich. As we approached Alton, the crops were more advanced 
 than we had seen them in other places, and the large and sub- 
 stantial barns, are getting to be well filled. The Yankee, how- 
 ever, is the thriving man, all the world over, and where he is, 
 there you see evidences of care and neatness, and plenty and 
 prosperity; he may be laughed at, he may be scorned, he may be 
 abused in various, or in all ways, but Jonathan is the man on 
 whom the people, his neighbors, rely for every thing that is 
 stable, every thing that brings or continues civilization, good 
 government, good order, and lasting prosperity. 
 
 The state of Illinois, some years ago, and not many years 
 ago neither, was infatuated with a sense of its own natural ad- 
 vantages, its own unbounded resources, and launched forth into 
 the wildest scheme of internal improvement.'^' It projected rail- 
 
 " The Internal Improvement Bill became a law on February 27, 1837. Ap- 
 proximately 210,000,000 was voted for river improvement and railroad building. 
 Many enterprises were begun, but none of them finished. Within three years the
 
 48 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 roads and canals in every direction. It borrowed money that it 
 could not pay. It commenced works that it could not finish. It 
 employed engineers to lay out routes, who knew only in theory 
 what the people wished to have constructed by practical men. 
 The consequences are known to the world, and canals and rail- 
 roads, half or quarter completed, some graded, some half built, 
 are to be met with in different parts of the state. A better day 
 is now dawning, and those who once thought the time for such 
 gigantic operations had not then arrived — the men of reflec- 
 tion — are now moving to accomplish the task which others too 
 soon under took — are destined to reap the benefits which early 
 cupidity came near losing. 
 
 A railroad is now to be built from Alton to Springfield, which 
 cannot fail to be an investment of great profit to the stockholders. 
 The company has a very favorable charter, and the state gives 
 its aid in the shape of a free grant, of such portions of a formerly 
 graded road as they may need or can use to advantage. The 
 road will have for its terminus the capital of the state, and will 
 open to the towns and the farms of the interior a means of com- 
 munication with the seaboard, or rather with navigation, which 
 must be immensely profitable. All along on the line, and I have 
 been over the whole of it, there is a country capable of producing, 
 which does now produce enormous crops of every thing, almost, 
 that will grow in any soil. Alton is so situated that boats of the 
 largest class can come up to its levee and load at all seasons of 
 the year; it is the head of navigation for freighting vessels, and 
 the completion of this railroad will be the means of increasing its 
 trade to an almost incalculable amount. The railroad as at 
 present is intended to be built, will be eighty-eight miles in 
 length; the engineers will undoubtedly shorten it about ten miles. 
 It runs through a country very favorable for construction, and 
 on almost a level grade for the greater part of the line. The 
 
 craze had run its course, and the state faced a debt of about S15,000,000, with re- 
 pudiation not an impossibility. No interest was paid on this debt from July 1, 1841 
 to July 1, 1846. Measures enacted during the administration of Gov. Thomas Ford, 
 1842-1846, looked toward the ultimate extinction of the debt.
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 49 
 
 State has a road graded for ten miles at one end, and fifteen at 
 the other, which will be taken by the company, and can be put 
 in order at once for the rails at a trifling expense. 
 
 I have, in a former letter, spoken of the Illinois and Michigan 
 canal, which runs from Chicago to Peru. I am not as competent 
 as some others to give an opinion, and it may be great imper- 
 tinence in me to express one; but I think that every practical 
 New-England man, who makes a personal examination of the 
 route, will agree with me in wondering that the commissioners, 
 who came out here for the English bond-holders, and induced 
 them to advance more money for its completion, did not recom- 
 mend turning it into a railroad. Since we have established it 
 as a "fixed fact" in New-England, that transportation can be had 
 cheaper on a railroad than on a canal, the expense of lockage 
 and delay are things to be avoided if possible. It will not be 
 many years before a railroad will be built on that route, that will 
 be worth to the public more than fifty canals. 
 
 Alton has, in its immediate vicinity, five extensive flour 
 mills, and a large number of stores. The steamboats from the 
 lower part of the Upper Mississippi are continually passing, and 
 last night the snorting and belching of the engines, the ringing of 
 the bells of the boats, was to be heard every four minutes. The 
 ware-houses are built of stone and brick. There is an abundance 
 of lime stone to be found in the town, close down to the edge of 
 the river. The state penitentiary^** stands on a high bluflf over- 
 looking the town, the river, and the neighboring part of the state 
 of Missouri; the prisoners are employed now in manufacturing 
 hemp, — they used to be engaged in all sorts of mechanical labor, 
 but on a remonstrance to the Legislature, setting forth that they 
 underworked the regular mechanics, a law was passed obliging 
 the overseers to put them to a kind of work that would not in- 
 terfere with the industry of more honest people. 
 
 3" The penitentiary at Alton, authorized by the legislature in 1827, was com- 
 pleted in the early thirties. It was used until 1860, when the prisoners were trans- 
 ferred to the new prison at Joliet.
 
 50 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 Gen. Semple,'^ the author of the famous post-office report, of 
 which the readers of the Courier have heard something before, 
 lives at Alton, but I understand that he is disgusted with politics, 
 and is now devoting his time and talents to the construction of a 
 steam car, that he expects will travel over the prairies with or 
 without the aid of roads.^^ j lost an opportunity to see this new 
 machine a few days ago, in consequence of the forgetfulness of a 
 friend; but I am informed that it is almost as visionary a thing as 
 the report to which I have before alluded. It will probably be 
 able to carry the mails through the Pacific Ocean, as soon as it 
 is ready to carry passengers across the continent of America. 
 The General hates President Polk and the whole administration, 
 and is not by any means chary in his comments upon their want 
 of foresight, in not appreciating his transcendant abilities suf- 
 ficiently to give him either a high military or civil appointment. 
 
 I rode out a few miles in the neighborhood, this afternoon, 
 with a friend, to see the country. The continued dry and hot 
 weather has made the roads very dusty, and every thing now 
 appears to less advantage than usual; but the sites for dwellings, 
 the houses and farms are improved, and the indications of pros- 
 perous industry every where apparent, give one a favorable idea 
 of what the citizens may become in a short time. North Alton 
 is at a short distance, and besides being a place of considerable 
 farming, is the residence of a great number of coopers, who make 
 
 " Gen. James Semple, 1798-1866, was born in Green County, Kentucky; he 
 studied law in Louisville; moved to Edwardsville, Illinois in 1818 where he stayed 
 only a short time, returning there again in 1828; Brigadier General in the Black 
 Hawk War. Semple served several terms in the legislature and was twice elected 
 Speaker of the House; he was Charge d'Affaires to New Granada, 1837-1842, and 
 United States Senator, 1843-1847. He was enthusiastic over the acquisition of 
 Oregon, and in the spring of 1846 brought in two reports to the Senate calling for 
 the establishment of a mail route to Oregon. His second report detailed the possi- 
 bilities of a route by way of the Isthmus of Panama. 
 
 ^ General Semple secured patents in 1845 on what he called a "prairie car." 
 The car was very similar to the old-fashioned locomotive in appearance, but differed 
 materially in its mechanical construction, having a broad wheel to enable it to run 
 over the prairies. The car worked successfully, but General Semple did not have 
 sufficient funds to continue experimentation. Forced to abandon the project, he 
 left the car standing out in the prairie near Springfield, where it gradually fell to 
 pieces and was pointed out to passers-by as "Semple's Folly."
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 51 
 
 a large quantity of barrels for flour and provisions. It has two 
 churches, which look rather out of character, for want of paint. 
 In this village, on a pretty spot, is situated the college, which was 
 endowed by the late Dr. Shurtleff of Boston, and which bears his 
 name.^^ It is a large brick building, but is not at present very 
 prosperous, in consequence of the want of sufficient funds to pro- 
 cure professors and teachers of the highest talent. 
 
 Another regiment of volunteers for Mexico is quartered in 
 camp in this village, — it is not quite full, but another company 
 is daily expected, and as soon as it arrives the election of officers 
 will take place. The most prominent candidate for Colonel is 
 Mr. [Joseph B.] Wells, now Lieutenant-Governor of the state. 
 Col. Baker, formerly member of Congress, who has already 
 served with distinction, was a candidate, but he peremptorily 
 declines, as he thinks he is entitled to a higher rank, and is now 
 an applicant for appointment as Brigadier General. 
 
 Yesterday, the packet-boat from St. Louis brought up the 
 bodies of three Lieutenants belonging to this place, who were 
 killed in battle in Mexico, and they were received with some cere- 
 mony. Guns were fired by way of salute, the bells tolled, and 
 a speech was made on the levee, to which nobody made any 
 reply. A procession was then formed, and the bodies were carried 
 to one of the churches, where they will lie in state for several 
 days, after which there will be a celebration on a small scale, 
 after the fashion of that which I saw at Jacksonville. Discharged 
 volunteers, who have served their year in Mexico, are daily re- 
 turning by the way of St. Louis, and on the arrival of every boat 
 they are saluted by the firing of cannon, and other demonstra- 
 tions of respect. A few nights ago, it was rumored that a number 
 were on board one of the packets, — the guns were fired as usual, 
 the crowd collected to see them land, and the chairman or spokes- 
 man of the committee of reception mounted a woodpile and made 
 a patriotic speech. But lo and behold! there was no volunteer 
 
 " In recognition of Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff's gift of 310,000 in 1835, the name 
 of Alton College was changed to Shurtleff College in 1836.
 
 52 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 on board, except a drunken Irishman, who was astonished, as 
 well he might be, at the eloquence which had been so lavishly- 
 thrown away upon him, and he exclaimed, with a hiccup, that 
 it was "very affecting — it almost made me cry." 
 
 St. Louis, Missouri 
 [July 17, 1847] 
 
 We took passage, at eight o'clock, on board the steamboat 
 Luelldy but did not get away from the levee until nearly nine. 
 These levees are the banks of the river graded to a convenient 
 slope, sometimes paved and sometimes left in their natural state, 
 and are either dusty or muddy, according to the weather. 
 Wharves there are none, in this part of the country — or rather 
 there are very few. At Alton, as at other places that I have 
 seen on the Mississippi and on the Illinois rivers, the boats pass- 
 ing down always turn round and come to the levee with the 
 bow upstream; this is done for the sake of convenience, and 
 because there would be much trouble in stopping head-way if 
 they attempted to come to with the force of the current in the 
 same direction in which they are running. 
 
 Our passage down the river was very pleasant, for there was 
 a slight breeze blowing from the south. The scenery was beauti- 
 ful. A short distance from Alton we came to the low land called 
 the American Bottom — which at times, when the river is highest, 
 is generally overflowed; it is rich soil, richer than any other in 
 the world. This bottom-land extends on both sides of the river 
 for nearly a hundred miles, and has proved to be inexhaustible — 
 it never wears out. Other lands will yield large produce, but it 
 is necessary to change the seed from year to year, from corn to 
 wheat and from wheat to oats, &c. &c.; but on the American, 
 or as some people more appropriately call it, the Mississippi 
 bottom, it has been proved that the same kind of crops can be 
 produced every year; and at one place farther south, it is said 
 that corn has been raised every year in succession for one hundred 
 and fifty years.
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 53 
 
 A few miles from Alton, I believe only three, is the mouth of 
 the Missouri, a yellow-colored water, which empties into the 
 Mississippi, but does not mix with it for miles and miles in its 
 course. The difference in the two streams is marked so strongly, 
 that while one is on the clearer waters of the latter, the waters 
 of the other, running only a few feet distance from the boat, 
 look like a sand-bar extended along the side. After we proceed 
 some miles, the two become united; but after all it is like the 
 amalgamation of milk and molasses, with a streak of light and 
 a streak of dark. The Mississippi, however, never again becomes 
 the clear, bright water that it is in the regions above. The bot- 
 tomlands are well wooded, and the foliage of the trees is the 
 most dense I have ever seen. I believe that oaks and elms, and 
 maple and locust, and walnut, are the most abundant, although 
 other varieties are interspersed. Occasionally you will see a 
 lombardy poplar, but it is where somebody has planted it — it is 
 not natural to the soil. There are no chestnuts and no pines. 
 
 At eleven o'clock, we arrived at St. Louis.'* We have heard 
 of a "forest of masts," but here, without seeing a mast, we were 
 at once in the midst of a forest of chimneys or smoke-pipes. 
 There may be sailing vessels on this river, but the commerce is 
 carried on by means of steamboats. Like the people of every 
 other place, the people here say we can see nothing now, — it is 
 not the season, there is no business doing, and there are few 
 boats here. But I see enough to surprise my unsophisticated 
 Yankeeism. The number now, dull as the season may be, may 
 very properly be named legion. 
 
 The levee is high, with a very steep slope, and is paved with 
 blocks of lime-stone. It is covered with all sorts of produce, and 
 is lined on its upper side with immense warehouses; on its lower, 
 with steamboats. The boats lie in regular order, close together, 
 with their bows run on to the shore, as compactly as they can be 
 placed, and discharge or take in freight and passengers from the 
 bow. I believe there was not a boat lying broad-side to the levey 
 
 ** The population of St. Louis in 1847 was estimated at 55,000.
 
 54 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 when we arrived, and we were obliged to come to along side of the 
 stern of another steamer, and the passengers crossed her decks 
 the whole length, in order to get on shore. 
 
 When we landed, the sun was apparently doing his utmost to 
 burn up all the life and energy that remained, after a week's sum- 
 mer weather, in man and beast. The lime-stone, of which the 
 pavements are composed, and the lime-stone soil of the unpaved 
 streets, is light colored, almost white, and the reflection of the sun 
 upon it is dazzling to the eyes. We have hotter weather in Bos- 
 ton, occasionally, than they have had at St. Louis this summer, 
 but it is only for a few days, and is even then occasionally relieved 
 by intervals of east wind. But here, the heat comes on grad- 
 ually, and is regular, affording no stopping places, so to speak, 
 although the mercury in the thermometer may not be more than 
 ninety or ninety-four, it is the same from morning to night and 
 night to morning, day to day, burning on and baking the people 
 as by a slow fire. I thought that the heat at Alton was tolerably 
 severe, but at St. Louis I find it intolerable. 
 
 The first thing that struck my attention, after the steam- 
 boats, was the business-like character of the place. I am writing 
 my first impressions, recollect, and therefore I may say something 
 by and by, or hereafter, that will not correspond with what I 
 say now. As Rochester, a small place, was more bustling to me 
 than Boston, and Buffalo appeared larger and more of a business 
 place than Rochester, so St. Louis, with only about fifty thousand 
 inhabitants, would seem at first glance to do more business than 
 New- York or Liverpool. On the levee were all sorts of goods, 
 and in all sorts of packages. The warehouses are of great height, 
 situated not only on the levee, but in the street above, or in the 
 cross streets which run down to the river, and they all appear to 
 be filled with goods of all descriptions. The drays are numerous, 
 and the draymen, black and white, keep up a constant yelling 
 and shouting that would stun a quiet man. 
 
 Hot as it was, a friend induced me in the middle of the day 
 to jump into his buggy and ride around the city, in order to obtain
 
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 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 55 
 
 a sort of outside view of its magnitude and its character. We 
 did not go off from the paved streets into the suburbs, but we 
 rode round through the principal and some of the minor thorough- 
 fares. The retail trade is extended over the whole city. Large 
 blocks of many storied brick dwelling-houses are in all the streets. 
 Churches and other public buildings are numerous. Hotels are 
 all but uncountable, and bar-rooms are quite so. The sidewalks 
 are paved with brick, and are wide and comfortable. The streets 
 in the upper part of the city are wide and run at right angles, 
 many of them being shaded with trees, which are planted on each 
 side! 
 
 Dinner time brought us to the Planters' House, where I have 
 concluded to rest for a day, before I take up my line of march 
 for a new and somewhat unknown region on the Upper Missis- 
 sippi. 
 
 St. Louis, Missouri 
 My notes of St. Louis are meagre, for the heat of the weather, 
 and the fatigue of the last week, rendered it necessary that I 
 should remain in the house nearly all the time I have been 
 here. The Planters' House, at which I am staying, is built after 
 the plan of the Astor House, and is nearly as large. It is kept 
 by Stickney & Scollay, both of whom, I believe, are Yankees. 
 Its situation is the best and pleasantest of any public house in 
 the city, and by favor of good friends, I was enabled to secure 
 an upper room, with a southern aspect, which gave me all the 
 comfort of breeze and freedom from mosquitoes that any one can 
 obtain in St. Louis. The street in front is broad, and appears 
 to be the Broadway of the city. An evening stroll on Saturday 
 night was very pleasant, exhibiting the different retail shops, con- 
 fectioneries, &c. to good advantage. The majority of the business 
 streets are narrow and much cumbered with goods and people. 
 Even in the day-time, and under a broiling sun, it appeared as 
 if the people were all in the streets in the part of the city devoted 
 to traffic. Taverns and grog-shops are abundant, and, like the 
 boot and shoe shops of Montreal, appear to be a very large per
 
 56 
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 centage of the whole number of places devoted to business in 
 some particular neighborhoods. The streets devoted to wholesale 
 trade, exhibit more bustle and activity than those of New- York or 
 Boston, even at this dull season of the year, and one is irresistibly 
 led to the belief that the trade of St. Louis is not only most 
 flourishing, but must be increasing. A gentleman informs me 
 that he has seen five hundred large steam-boats discharging and 
 taking in cargoes at the levee at the same time. There is one 
 cotton factory in the city, which was established and is kept in 
 operation by a German house. 
 
 There are several foundries and machine shops, which turn 
 out the very best of work; it is said that some of the machinery 
 manufactured in St. Louis is equal, if not superior, to any that 
 has ever been made at the East. Within a few years, there have 
 been some splendid boats built in this city or its neighborhood, 
 and the improvements which are constantly made, in the strength, 
 speed, capacity, and light draught of those which hail from this 
 port, will, ere long, make this the place in the West for ship- 
 building. 
 
 On the square, next to the Planters' House, is the Court House, 
 a most uncouth looking building at present; they tell me it is to 
 be altered and improved.^^ It is built in the shape of a square 
 cross, or a square building with four wings. The front of each 
 wing is built as high as the top of the second story, of white 
 limestone; the rest is of brick, including all the space above the 
 second story window caps. It has the air in part of falling to 
 decay, and in part of being unfinished. Good and substantial 
 stone steps lead to the entrances, and an iron fence has been 
 erected partly round the building. When seated in my chamber 
 this morning, I heard the stentorian voice of somebody making 
 a speech, for so long a time that I concluded that I would go 
 down and see what it all meant. Following the direction of the 
 sound, I soon found myself in the Criminal Court. Twelve 
 jurors, most of them with their coats off, one apparently asleep, 
 
 '* Little work was done on the courthouse in 1847.
 
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 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 57 
 
 and all seated in such way as could make them most comfortable, 
 were supposed to be listening to a one-eyed, shaggy-headed law- 
 yer, who was arguing for the defence. The Judge was quite a 
 young man, not more than thirty years of age, and the most 
 gentlemanly looking of all in the room.'® Three other persons 
 were seated at the tables appropriated to counsel, and they were 
 too much amazed, evidently, with the queer arguments of the 
 person speaking, to talk or write. There were half a dozen spec- 
 tators, and the whole number of persons present, judge, jury, 
 counsel, prisoners, and spectators, did not amount to twenty-five. 
 It was astonishing to see how a man could work so hard, and talk 
 so loud, and chew so much tobacco, with the thermometer at 
 ninety-six, and not a breath of air stirring. The gentlemen — 
 for all lawyers are gentlemen, — appeared to be trying to make 
 out a case of somnambulism in one of the witnesses, and told 
 us of his having experienced dreadful sensations on several 
 occasions, in consequence of suddenly waking at night, and 
 fancying he saw sights which he did not see; he told how easy it 
 was to be deceived by appearances, and to be frightened at noth- 
 ing; and he put it to the Jury to say for themselves, whether they 
 had not often made mistakes as to objects which they looked at 
 in the dark. From all his arguments he deduced that the prin- 
 cipal witness was half asleep when she saw what she had testified 
 to, and was not half certain of that which she did see — therefore, 
 he claimed an acquittal. Before he concluded I came away. 
 
 There are many handsome public buildings in St. Louis, and 
 many blocks of handsome and substantial private houses. But 
 I am astonished to see that, with fifty thousand inhabitants, the 
 streets are not lighted at night." I regretted that I could not 
 see the interior of some of the churches, and still more that I 
 was unable to accept of several invitations of private hospitality, 
 all of which must be deferred till circumstances, as strange as 
 those which brought me unexpectedly here now, shall send me 
 here again. 
 
 " Alonzo W. Manning was judge of the Criminal Court in 1847. 
 
 " The streets of the business section were first lighted by gas on Nov. 6, 1847.
 
 58 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 This is the first hotel I have seen, since I left home, where I 
 could enjoy a breakfast. I have eaten breakfasts every day, but 
 they have only been in the performance of a regular duty. But 
 here, at the Planters' House, a man can come to the table and 
 enjoy an hour in the morning, in comfort. So few people in this 
 busy world know how to live, that half of those who do live only 
 exist. Now men will tell us that every thing depends upon din- 
 ner, for which they want "time;" therefore they are up early in 
 the morning, swallow a cup of tea or coffee, bolt half a pound of 
 beef steak or other meat, not properly cooked, a few hot cakes, 
 and off they run to business; before noon, they are half starved, 
 and while the stuff they put into their stomachs in the morning 
 is still undigested, they take a hearty luncheon, that ought to 
 serve a moderate man for his dinner, if it were fit for anybody 
 to eat, and away they run again to business; before they have 
 digested either the breakfast or the lunch, they go to dinner, 
 and "take time for it" — that is, they perhaps sit half or three 
 quarters of an hour at table, without any appetite, very dainty, 
 and pretend to enjoy luxuries which their cooks know not how 
 to prepare for the table, and which they are not in a fit state to 
 appreciate. And yet such men live and grow rich, and before 
 they are sixty, die of apoplexy or of indigestion. If a man would 
 have a good constitution, and be in a proper state of body or 
 mind to do business and enjoy a good dinner, he should spend 
 an hour in the early mornings at his breakfast table, with his 
 family and friends — not in eating and drinking, but taking his 
 food in moderation, and sitting with his newspaper or his con- 
 versation, or both, until his food begins to digest; he will then be 
 fit for business or pleasure all the rest of the day. Let him avoid 
 a lunch, for he will need none, and he will enjoy his dinner again, 
 as his breakfast, and it will do him good, however humbly it may 
 be served, however scanty or coarse, or devoid of luxuries and 
 variety. Let no one say he has no time in the morning to waste 
 at the breakfast table, for if business requires him to be early 
 about, he can get up early enough to take all the time he wants.
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 59 
 
 At the Planters', as at the Astor House, you can get a good break- 
 fast, and take all the time you wish for. Of course, I recommend 
 it to travelers coming this way, as a place where they will not 
 be hustled out by hurrying servants, before they are half finished, 
 nor entirely deserted by company. 
 
 Mississippi River 
 And this is the "mighty father of rivers!" He is like "linked 
 sweetness, long drawn out," but he is a small father, after all, 
 at this end, not being over a mile and a half to a mile and three 
 quarters wide above St. Louis. Of course I know nothing of his 
 rotundity below. From here upwards, he is slim and shallow. 
 About twenty miles above St. Louis, the Missouri river empties 
 in him, as I have already stated, and as the Missouri is the bigger, 
 if not the better stream, it seems rather a mistake that it should 
 lose its identity — it would be more appropriate to give the name 
 Missouri to the whole river below, and to lose the Mississippi. 
 But this is no affair of mine. 
 
 We left St. Louis about half past seven o'clock in the evening, 
 that is to say, we backed out from the levee at that time, but 
 we stopped to take some passengers off from a boat just arrived 
 from Ohio, and to take in some salt from another boat, and the 
 consequence was that we actually did not get away until nine 
 o'clock. The Western people are a queer people in some respects, 
 and the delays and the stoppages that one meets with in traveling 
 in their country are rather annoying to our more regular Yankee 
 travelers. For instance — three steamboats were advertised to 
 leave St. Louis on Saturday for Galena, and one on Monday. 
 On Monday, neither of them had gone, and all were for taking 
 in freight. By the advice of those who knew, I concluded to 
 take passage in the Kentucky. The captain said he should start 
 at noon, but, if he did not, he should certainly go at three, p. m., 
 and he would send word to the hotel. Three o'clock came, and no 
 message was sent. At half past four I went on board with my 
 baggage, and, wishing to spend a short time with a friend, asked 
 if the boat would be ready before the expiration of an hour; I
 
 60 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 was told that she certainly would. However, I went off and 
 took an hour and a half, and came back and was obliged to wait, 
 as I have said above, until seven and nine o'clock. Neither of 
 the other boats were ready to leave as soon as we did, and the 
 boat advertised to sail certainly on Monday, a "regular packet," 
 we met about a hundred miles up the river on Tuesday, coming 
 down. 
 
 We stopped at Alton during the night, and took in two pas- 
 sengers, but until morning there was not much to be seen, although 
 the twilight was long, and I had my usual luck of traveling by 
 moonlight. The bottom lands which lie along the river for nearly 
 a hundred miles, are not interesting in the matter of scenery, as 
 there is much sameness in them; after they are once seen, they 
 only appear beautiful for their richness of soil and their beautiful 
 supply of produce. The shore is generally bold — sufficiently so 
 for the light draught boats to run up where it pleases the cap- 
 tains, for any purpose whatever, whether it be to shake hands 
 with a friend, to call on a sweetheart, to take in wood, or land 
 or receive passengers, for all of which purposes many captains 
 frequently stop. 
 
 We have been five nights and nearly five days on the river 
 between St. Louis and Galena. At the mouth of the Des Moines 
 river, which enters into the Mississippi near a little village called 
 Clarksville, on the Missouri side, we left some freight, and left 
 also the shore of the state of Missouri. We now had on one side 
 Iowa, and on the other Illinois, and I could not help thinking 
 that there was a great difference between the appearance of every 
 thing, — the houses, the barns, and the fields in the free states, 
 and similar objects in the slave states. It may be all imagina- 
 tion; but I have less philanthropy and less pretension than some 
 other people, and yet I think that I have seen more frugality, 
 more attention to the interest of the proprietors of the land by 
 the laborers employed, more economy and more industry dis- 
 played by all parties, — the men, the women, the children, the 
 hired, the hirer, the owner, and the tenant — in free states, than
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 61 
 
 I have ever seen in slave states. The Western people are not as 
 frugal as their Eastern friends, of either time or money. Every 
 thing in this country grows so fast that a farmer can afford to 
 idle away many hours that a Massachusetts man, or any New- 
 England man, would be obliged to spend in toil and labor — the 
 consequence is that he grows indolent. The Yankee who comes 
 out to the West with the best principles and the most industri- 
 ous habits, in a short time becomes rather careless of many of 
 the niceties which he would have insisted upon at home. Still, 
 you can always tell the farm of a Yankee settler. You can see 
 that there is a difference between the thriftiness, and the care of 
 buildings of a New-England emigrant, and those of a family who 
 came into this country from the South, particularly from a slave 
 state. 
 
 At Keokuk, the next stopping place above Clarksville, we were 
 obliged to discharge all our freight into lighters, as the waters of 
 the Mississippi are falling, and it is rather difficult for any boat 
 to pass over the rapids, which extend from this place to Montrose, 
 a distance of about twelve miles. We staid at Keokuk about 
 fifteen hours, and then, drawing only thirty-three and a half 
 inches, the Kentucky had hard work to get over the rapids. She 
 struck and struggled and rubbed on the rocks, her engines were 
 put to their hardest work, the passengers and the crew were 
 obliged to go from side to side every few minutes, in order, by 
 their weight, to up her one way or the other. Finally, she pressed 
 herself along, the steam belching and bellowing, snorting and 
 wheezing, as nothing in this world except the steam of a high- 
 pressure engine can do, and we were again safe in deeper water. 
 While we lay at Keokuk, I took some trouble to see what sort 
 of a place it is, but I was not much gratified. It must be eventually 
 a great place, as it is at the foot of the rapids, and will be the 
 headquarters of all the Southern produce which is to come up the 
 river. It is now rather below par, as there is some dispute as to 
 the title to lands, the Indians having sold out their rights to 
 several companies, and squatters having come in and made use
 
 62 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 of lands that belong of right to other people. Pettifogging law- 
 yers and greedy speculators serve to keep up the Impression that 
 no good titles can be obtained, and the consequence is that many 
 persons, who might otherwise be disposed to purchase and settle 
 at Keokuk, are deterred from doing so. 
 
 A circus company was performing here this afternoon; and for 
 the purpose of seeing the people of the country, I went to their 
 tent, at the expense of fifty cents. There were about six hundred 
 people present, of all ages, sizes and descriptions, mostly women 
 and children, with a slight sprinkling of a country dandy or so, 
 and it was amusing to witness their expressions of feeling at the 
 performances. So far as the circus company was concerned, the 
 performances were the poorest I ever saw, and the horses and the 
 band appeared to be about equally stupid; but the audience was 
 not only a delighted, but a delightful one — every body was happy, 
 and every body was astonished; the clown could not make too 
 stupid a joke, and the man who turned three summersets was 
 pronounced the wonder of the age. How easy and how cheap it 
 is to make people happy! 
 
 I forgot to mention, in its proper place in my narrative, that 
 we arrived at Quincy, in the state of Illinois, a town of much 
 importance, at night, after all reasonable people had gone to bed. 
 It was quite a disappointment to me, as I wished to see Quincy, 
 and learn more of its trade and capabilities than I can learn with- 
 out some personal examination. Soon after we again started; 
 about two miles from the levee, the boat ran upon a sand-bar, 
 and it took two hours of hard work, much scolding and consid- 
 erable straining of the engines, to get us off. We did float, how- 
 ever, and sailed along up river for about two miles further, 
 when we were obliged to come to a stand still, in consequence of 
 the pumps being choked with sand, so that they would not feed 
 the boilers. This was in consequence of the wheels having 
 stirred up the bottom of the river while we were on the bar, so 
 as to make the water all muddy and thick. Another delay of 
 five or six hours then took place, after which we started again 
 and arrived safely at Keokuk.
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 63 
 
 Nauvoo, Illinois 
 
 The Holy City of the Mormons has always possessed a certain 
 kind of interest in my mind, and I have had much curiosity to 
 know something about it. But I never expected to spend a 
 whole day in it. Newspaper accounts are generally unsatisfac- 
 tory, and the events of the last two years have raised up a strong 
 party in opposition to the Mormons, so that it has been almost 
 impossible to learn any thing as to the past or present situation 
 of Nauvoo.'^ The city is situated on the left bank of the Mis- 
 sissippi, in the state of Illinois, on a lot of land gently and grad- 
 ually sloping down to the water, but extending back over a 
 prairie some two or three or more miles. It has had eighteen 
 thousand inhabitants; it now has eighteen hundred, or at most, 
 two thousand. It appears to have been laid out by somebody, 
 originally, into streets running in squares, and each house is 
 built with regard to the original plan. The families have erected 
 each one their house on their own lot, and of course the dwellings 
 are not compact, but are scattered over a large extent of ground. 
 There is but one block of dwellings, or stores, in the whole city, 
 and that appears to have been left unfinished. Most of them are 
 of brick, two stories and a half high, and square, with a gable 
 roof. There are, however, a number of buildings of wood, and 
 some of them three stories high. Time was, and that not two 
 years and a half ago, when every house was full, and every farm 
 under good cultivation. Now, every thing looks forlorn and deso- 
 late. Not half the buildings are occupied, and of these not half 
 are half full. The stores are closed. The farms are running 
 to waste. The streets are overgrown with grass. The inhabitants 
 
 '* The Mormons founded Nauvoo in 1838. In 1840, they voted the Whig 
 ticket, in recognition of which the Whig legislature granted Nauvoo a charter of un- 
 limited power. Opposition to the Mormons' political power, their practice of poly- 
 gamy, the arrogance of their leaders, culminating in the destruction of the Expositor, 
 an anti-Mormon newspaper in Nauvoo, brought the imprisonment of Joseph and 
 Hyrum Smith in the jail at Carthage, Illinois. Here the brothers were murdered. 
 Brigham Young then became the leader of the church. In January, 1845, the char- 
 ter was repealed, and in February, 1846, the great trek of the Mormons to Utah 
 began.
 
 64 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 look like any thing but an industrious people, and every thing 
 tells of ruin instead of prosperity. 
 
 Our first object, of course, was the far-famed Mormon tem- 
 ple,^' which stands upon the top of the hill, and can be seen for 
 some miles up and down the river. The first sight we had of it 
 gave us a pang of disappointment, for it looked more like a white 
 Yankee meeting-house, with its steeple on one end, than a mag- 
 nificent structure which had cost, all uncompleted as it is, seven 
 hundred and fifty thousand dollars. But as we approached 
 nearer, it proved to be something worth seeing. It is nearly a 
 mile from the landing, the most conspicuous, in fact the only 
 conspicuous object in the city. It is built of white limestone. 
 The front is ornamented with sunken square columns of no par- 
 ticular style of architecture, having capitals representing half a 
 a man's head — the upper half — showing the forehead, eyes and 
 the top of the nose, and crowned with thorns, or perhaps what 
 was intended for the points of stars. Over the head are two 
 bugles or horns, with their largest ends outwards, and the handles, 
 on the upper side, forming a sort of festoon protection. On all 
 sides of the temple are similar columns with similar capitals; the 
 base of each column is heavy, but in good proportion and of a 
 fanciful design, which it would be difficult to describe. There is 
 a basement with small windows. Ten steps lead to the front and 
 only entrance to the main building. Three arches enable you to 
 enter into a sort of vestibule, from which, by doors, you enter 
 the grand hall, and at the sides are the entries to the staircases, 
 to ascend to the upper apartments. 
 
 The front of the temple is apparently three stories high, and 
 is surmounted by an octagonal tower or steeple, which itself is 
 three stories, with a dome, and having on four sides a clock next 
 below the dome. There is a line of circular windows over the 
 arched entrance, ornamented with carved work between each, and 
 
 *' The cornerstone of the Temple was laid on April 6, 1841, in the presence of 
 10,000 people. The Temple was destroyed by fire of unknown origin in November, 
 1848.
 
 
 O "^i 
 
 o ■*; 
 
 ai nil 
 
 ctS 
 O 
 
 S 
 o
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 65 
 
 over that again a line of square windows. In this upper row is 
 a large square entablature, on which is cut the following inscrip- 
 tion: — 
 
 THE HOUSE OF THE LORD 
 
 built by 
 
 THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST 
 
 OF LATTER DAY SAINTS, 
 
 Commenced April 6th, 184L 
 
 HOLINESS TO THE LORD. 
 
 A similar entablature is on the front [ilUgible] vestibule, over 
 the doors of entrance, with the same inscription. The letters on 
 each are gilt. 
 
 The man in attendance demanded twenty-five cents each as 
 fee for showing us the Temple, and asked every one to subscribe 
 a visitor's book. I looked over this book, and saw but two names 
 of persons hailing from Boston for the last six months, neither of 
 which was familiar to me. We were then taken to the very top 
 of the building, and enjoyed there, for some time, a view of the 
 surrounding country, which, of itself, well paid for the trouble of 
 ascending, as the whole valley of the Mississippi for miles and 
 miles lay exposed to view on the north and south, while the 
 prairie lands of Illinois, and Iowa, and Missouri, were to be seen 
 at the east and west, overlooking the few hills lying near to the 
 shore in the latter state, and showing the tortuous course of the 
 Des Moines river for some distance. 
 
 Coming down, we were ushered into the Council Chamber, 
 which is a large low room, lighted by one large half circular 
 window at the end, and several small sky-lights in the roof. On 
 each side are six small ante-chambers, said to have been intended 
 for the twelve priests, councillors, or elders, or whatever they 
 may have been called. The chamber itself is devoid of ornament, 
 and I was unable to ascertain whether it was intended to have 
 any, if it should have been completed. 
 
 In the entry, on each side of the door to the Council Chamber, 
 is a room called the wardrobe, where the priests were to keep
 
 66 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 their dresses. On one side was a room intended for a pantry, 
 showing that the priests did not mean to go supperless to bed. 
 Under the Council Chamber was another large hall, with seven 
 windows on each side, and four at the further end. 
 
 On the lower floor was the grand hall for the assemblage and 
 worship of the people. Over the windows at the end, was in- 
 scribed in gilded capital letters— "THE LORD HAS BEHELD 
 OUR SACRIFICE: COME AFTER US." This was in a circular 
 line, corresponding to the circle of the ceiling. Seats are pro- 
 vided in this hall for the accommodation at one time of thirty- 
 five hundred people, and they are arranged with backs, which 
 are fitted like the backs to seats in a modern railroad car, so as 
 to allow the spectator to sit and look in either direction, east or 
 west. At the east and west ends are raised platforms, composed 
 of series of pulpits, on steps one above the other. The fronts of 
 these pulpits were semi-circular, and are inscribed, in gilded letters, 
 on the west side, P A P, P P Q, P T Q, P D Q, meaning, as the 
 guide informed us, the uppermost one. President of Aronic Priest- 
 hood; the second, President of the Priests' Quorum; the third. 
 President of the Teachers' Quorum; and the fourth and lowest, 
 President of the Deacons' Quorum. On the east side, the pulpits 
 were marked P H P, P S Z, P H Q, and P E Q, and the knowledge 
 of the guide was no better than ours as to what these symbolical 
 letters were intended for. Like the rooms above, this was devoid 
 of any but architectural ornaments. 
 
 We next descended to the basement, where is the far-cele- 
 brated font. It is in fact the cellar of the building. The font 
 is of white lime-stone, of an oval shape, twelve by sixteen feet in 
 size on the inside, and about four and a half feet to five feet 
 deep. It is very plain, and rests on the backs of twelve stone 
 oxen or cows, which stand immersed to their knees in the earth. 
 It has two flights of steps, with iron banisters, by which you 
 enter and go out of the font, one at the east end, and the other 
 at the west end. The oxen have tin horns and tin ears, but are 
 otherwise of stone, and a stone drapery hangs like a curtain
 
 o 
 o 
 > 
 
 < 
 2
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 67 
 
 down from the font, so as to prevent the exposure of all back 
 of the four legs of the beasts. In consequence of what I had 
 heard of this font, I was disappointed; for it was neither vast nor 
 gorgeous; every thing about it was quite simple and unostenta- 
 tious. The basement is unpaved, and on each side and at the 
 ends are small alcoves, intended for robing rooms for the faithful. 
 
 I don't know as I have been able to give an intelligent descrip- 
 tion of this far-famed temple of the Mormons, but it is correct 
 as far as it goes. The whole is quite unfinished, and one can 
 imagine what it might have been in the course of time, if Joe 
 Smith had been allowed to pursue his career in prosperity. 
 
 After wandering about Nauvoo for some time, a small paity 
 concluded we would call on the widow of Joe Smith, the prophet, 
 and dine with her — she now keeps a public house, at the sign of 
 the "Nauvoo Mansion." We found her at home, and had con- 
 siderable conversation with her. She is an intelligent woman, 
 apparently about fifty years of age, rather large, and very good 
 looking, with a bright sparkling eye, but a countenance of sadness 
 when she is not talking; she must have been a handsome woman 
 when some years younger. She answered all our questions as we 
 sat at dinner, although perhaps some of them might have been 
 rather impertinent under a strict construction of the rules of eti- 
 quette, with great readiness and great willingness. Our dinner 
 consisted of fresh fried fish and stewed mutton, with vegetables 
 and pastry, to all of which we did full justice, for it was well 
 cooked and cleanly served. After obtaining considerable infor- 
 mation, and fully gratifying a not altogether useless curiosity, we 
 separated, highly pleased with our visit. 
 
 If any body should wish to go [to] Nauvoo, after this, we advise 
 the taking of a skiff or a row-boat, from a steamboat, and crossing 
 the river from Montrose, which is on the Iowa side directly oppo- 
 site, rather than put up with the delays, the impudence, and the 
 imposition, which are sure to be encountered by the fellow that 
 manages the regular ferry boat. We advise, also, all strangers 
 to walk over the city, rather than accept ot any of the different
 
 68 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 conveyances for riding, that may be offered on landing. If the 
 drivers or the ferryman insult you, let them know that you are 
 at once able and ready to chastise their insolence on the spot, 
 for if they think you are too tame, they will not cease their im- 
 pertinences otherwise, from the time you start from the Iowa 
 territory until you get back again. 
 
 The history of the rise and progress of the Mormon delusion, 
 of the causes of their downfall, and the means of their extermi- 
 nation — for they are now as a race exterminated — will be, if it 
 should ever be written, a romance of thrilling interest. No one 
 can visit Nauvoo, and come away without a conviction that what- 
 ever of rascality and crime there may have been among them, 
 the body of the Mormons were an industrious, hard-working, 
 and frugal people. In the history of the world there cannot be 
 found such another instance of so rapid a rise of a city out of a 
 wilderness — a city so well built, a territory so well cultivated. 
 That they had bad men and bad women among them, is not to 
 be doubted nor denied; but if the authorities of Illinois had acted 
 in good faith, — if Governor Ford had had firmness and moral 
 courage enough to do his duty and sustain the laws, which he 
 pretended, and, I believe, intended to sustain, the race would not 
 have been driven away by mobs to die of starvation, and di- 
 sease, and of grief. A few are left at Nauvoo, and those are too 
 poor to live honestly, too broken-hearted to work earnestly. 
 
 Joe Smith, the prophet-leader, was, although an uneducated 
 man, a man of great powers, and a man who could conceive great 
 projects. One of his errors was the meddling in the politics of 
 the state and country, and by alternately throwing the weight of 
 the Mormon vote in favor of first one political party and then 
 of another, he raised up enemies, who afterwards became embit- 
 tered towards him, and when he was suspected of moral crimes, 
 such as tampering with justice, projecting robberies, assisting at 
 burglaries, &c. &c., he not only had no friends left out of his 
 own sect, but became a sort of outlaw, against whom it was ap- 
 parently a virtue for every man to raise his hand; for whom.
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 69 
 
 when he died the death of a dog, by downright murder, no one 
 had pity, and whose cause no one dared avenge. 
 
 Galena, Illinois 
 We made very good progress after we left Montrose, which is 
 a town of not much importance, on the Iowa side of the river, 
 opposite Nauvoo. The captains of the steamboats seem to think 
 that the inhabitants of Iowa, in this section of the state, are not 
 worth much, and they give Keokuk and Montrose a bad name 
 for thievery and all other sorts of rascality; they are obliged, 
 when the river is low, to spend much time at both places. We 
 discharged all our freight at Keokuk into lighters, which were 
 drawn up, for thirteen miles, over the rapids, by horse-power. 
 There is no tow-path, but the water is so shallow that the horses 
 wade along on the Iowa side, sometimes up to their bellies in 
 the water, and occasionally on the shore, where there is a clear 
 path along the beach, finding a dry passage. Our master of the 
 Kentucky entrusted his freight to two lighters, but he put his 
 first clerk on board of one and a trusty man on board the other, 
 to protect the property from thieves, with whom it was possible 
 the lightermen might be in connection, either directly or indirectly. 
 The scenery on the river is pretty, but it is not particularly 
 striking, and we occasionally met with large rafts of timber, &c., 
 floating down. These rafts are very large, and have crews of 
 from five to twenty men, according to their size; — they have four 
 or six large sculls put out at each end, for the purpose of steering 
 or warping them over to the different sides of the river, according 
 to circumstances and the course of the channel. Sometimes they 
 get hard and fast, while going over the rapids or over the sand- 
 bars, and as they have no means of getting off again, they pull 
 their rafts in pieces, and, wading in the water, form them again 
 into new rafts, on the lower side of the shoals where they have 
 run aground. We stopped during the next night after we left the 
 rapids, to take in wood, and the scene was one of the most pic- 
 turesque I ever saw. Large pine knots were stuck up on end on 
 board the boat and on shore, and lighted so as to make torches.
 
 70 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 As no pine is to be had in this part of the country, these torches 
 are manufactured for the purpose, by binding together several 
 sticks of long wood, which the steamboat people obtain at St. 
 Louis from the boats which arrive at that place from New-Orleans 
 and other directions. At the spot where we stopped to wood this 
 night, the lights and the dark shade of the trees, the half savage 
 appearance of the woodmen, and the glare of light on the placid 
 water of the Mississippi, made every thing appear quite romantic. 
 
 About daylight, we arrived at Burlington, which is a pretty 
 place of some importance and considerable trade. I regretted 
 that for the two hours we were there, I could not meet with some 
 friends who had expected to show me some of the advantages of 
 the town, but it would have been cruel to call upon them at so 
 early an hour in the morning. Every thing wore the appearance, 
 in the early twilight, of peace and comfort, and the store-houses 
 and shops evinced a prosperity which it is to be hoped will be in- 
 creased with the increase of time, — the progress of civilization. 
 Only eighteen years ago, this place was but a wilderness, and now 
 it is a thriving, industrious and growing place of business. 
 
 The most beautiful, — not the most grand and romantic, but 
 the most strikingly pretty — scenery, is still further up the river, 
 where are situated on the opposite sides, the towns of Davenport 
 in Iowa, and Stephenson in Illinois.*" We landed freight and 
 passengers at both places, and I don't know which to describe 
 as the most pleasant. Both are generally built of good substantial 
 brick and wooden houses and stores. The situation of Davenport 
 appears the prettiest as you look up the river upon it, and that 
 of Stephenson the prettiest as you go up stream and look down 
 river to it. Davenport, however, is the place of most business at 
 present. Between the two towns is the island called Rock Island, 
 where is a fort which was the scene of a hard contested battle 
 with the British, in the war of 1812,** and where Colonel Daven- 
 
 *• The name Stephenson was officially changed to Rock Island in March, 1841. 
 " Fort Armstrong was established at the lower end of Rock Island after the 
 close of the War of 1812. Its garrison was withdrawn in 1836.
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 71 
 
 port was murdered a few years ago by a parcel of horse-thieves, 
 for the sake of his money. The fort is deserted at present, and 
 the public works are not in good preservation. The farm and 
 farm-house of Col. Davenport on the island exhibit evidences of 
 care, and are in good order. It will be recollected by some readers 
 of the newspapers that Col. Davenport was alone in his house on 
 one 4th of July, and he was attacked, murdered, and robbed of 
 about two thousand dollars by several men, three or four of whom 
 were afterwards caught and hung for the crime.** He was a 
 singular man in his character, and was divorced from his wife; 
 he afterwards married his wife's daughter, and the two wives or 
 widows now live on the estate together. 
 
 We arrived at Galena about eleven o'clock in the forenoon on 
 Saturday, and found it a much larger, much more of a business 
 place than we expected. The principal street runs along the bank 
 of the river up into a valley, and houses are scattered along on the 
 banks of the hills for some miles. This town is situated about seven 
 miles from the Mississippi, on a shallow winding stream, called 
 Fever River. The river runs in all sorts of directions, and is very 
 crooked, — sometimes to the south, sometimes to the east, some- 
 times west, and sometimes almost north again. At some seasons 
 of the year it is not navigable, except for rafts or very light flat- 
 boats, and about a mile from the village it is fordable at almost all 
 seasons by cattle and persons on foot. Two ferries are maintained 
 by the town, and the village is situated in a valley on both sides of 
 the river. 
 
 Our general impression of Galena is, that it is a rough mining 
 town, with hardly any civilization, and no business, except that 
 which naturally grows out of the wants of the miners. But it is a 
 place of much trade, and the centre of what will by and by be a 
 great agricultural country. The hills and fields are favorable for 
 the growth of wheat, and the raising of cattle. A few years ago it 
 
 *^ Col. George Davenport, born in England, came to America and entered into 
 trade with the Indians. He had lived on Rock Island for some thirty years, ac- 
 quiring a fortune and a reputation among Indians and whites for his fairness, gen- 
 erosity and kindness to all.
 
 72 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 was in reality a wilderness, but now it has a large nun^ber of stores, 
 and several nneeting-houses, good, substantial, fashionable looking 
 dwelling-houses, and about a dozen good taverns, besides a dozen 
 dashing-looking bar-rooms. The progress of civilization and the 
 great increase of travel has induced farmers to settle in the town, 
 and turn their attention to raising vegetables, fruit and poultry for 
 market, for which they get good prices. 
 
 As this is thtr lead region of the United States, from which so 
 much wealth has already been accumulated, I was anxious to 
 visit the mines. On the levee were piled up large piles of lead in 
 pigs, which were going on board several steamers, or waiting for 
 opportunities for shipment to St. Louis. Procuring a guide, I 
 started, after dinner, for the "diggings" and the furnaces. The 
 country is composed of small hills and valleys, and on almost every 
 mound we saw the yellow earth turned up in piles, showing where 
 the miners had been at work. Being Saturday afternoon, few per- 
 sons were engaged in the operation of digging, but I saw several 
 holes where the men were hoisting with a common windlass the 
 ore and earth from little wells. The land in this neighborhood has 
 all been entered and become private property. The owners have 
 no objection to any one coming on their land and digging for lead. 
 If the operators succeed in striking a vein, they make a bargain 
 with the owner to get out as much as they can, giving him a certain 
 portion — the lion's share, of course — and receiving the rest for 
 their own labor; if they are not successful, they abandon the work, 
 and commence in another part of the lot, no harm having been 
 done, except their own loss of time and money. Some laborers 
 make a great deal by this operation, while others only get about 
 enough to pay them their outfit and day's wages, while the owner 
 is sure to become rich by their labor. 
 
 Lead is a cash article, and is worth money the moment it is 
 brought to the surface of the earth. There is no credit system 
 allowed, for it sells for cash, and although not so valuable in market 
 as silver or gold, is quite as readily turned into those commodities, 
 or into bank bills. There are in the neighborhood several smelting
 
 lifluisiis. 
 
 
 Kirkfx/iri. ^ 
 
 
 4 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 
 
 tfiff^ftS 
 
 fUff'^rl 
 
 
 
 ■^^ 3 .//?/<-i/?>v ■ (U<n>rsKir>n 
 
 r-S- 
 
 
 .-I 
 
 Galena Lead Mine Region 
 From a map published by H. S. Tanner in 1841.
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 73 
 
 houses or furnaces. The ore is so pure that it requires little work- 
 ing to make it into pigs. In the furnaces there is no puddling, as 
 there is with iron. The fire is built of charcoal, or wood, or both, 
 and the earth thrown into the furnace; as it melts, the ore runs out 
 as pure as silver itself, from the mouth, into a pot in front, from 
 which it is scooped up in its liquid state and poured into moulds, 
 from which it is taken as soon as it becomes cool or hardened, and 
 thrown into wagons, to be transported to the river side. It ap- 
 pears to be the most easy and the most rapidly transformed metal 
 in the world. A large lot of dark blue earth, sometimes in large 
 lumps and sometimes apparently nothing but sand, is shoveled 
 into the fire, and it runs out pure lead, in a moment. There is a 
 considerable quantity of dross taken out of the furnaces, from time 
 to time, but it is not thrown away, — for that, in its turn, is again 
 subjected to the heat in a differently constructed furnace, and 
 yields, although not so plentifully, not so rapidly, a large quantity 
 of the precious metal. At one furnace I saw ore, or earth, as I 
 should call it, which yielded ninety-five per cent of pure lead, and 
 dross which, it was said, would yield twenty to twenty-five per 
 cent more after going through the second process. 
 
 Chicago, Illinois 
 Back again! This may be called the first mile-stone on my 
 road home. When I left Boston, I had no intention of coming 
 to Chicago; and when I came to Chicago, I had no expectation 
 or intention of going any further West or South; but every day's 
 experience proves that all human calculations are in vain, as has 
 been said and proved millions of times before; and I am sure that 
 it is best for us not to know "what a day may bring forth." I 
 have seen a much larger portion of the state of Illinois than 
 travelers for mere business or pleasure would be likely to see in 
 a hundred journeys, as my wanderings have not been confined to 
 the regular stage routes, nor to the direct roads from far-off points 
 to far-off points. I have walked, and I have sailed, and I have 
 rode, over farms, and prairies, and rivers, and on lakes; — I have 
 not only met with all sorts of people, made acquaintance with
 
 74 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 all sorts of men, women and children, but I have fallen in with 
 all sorts of relations. I traveled seven days with a gentleman 
 who helped me to ravel out a tangled string of genealogy, and we 
 found at last that we were actually relations; — it was in this wise: 
 His wife was the daughter of a second cousin to my father's grand- 
 mother, on the mother's side, and as her maiden name was the 
 same as one of my three names, it must be that we were, in this 
 extensive country, quite near relations; besides this, and to make 
 the connection still more intimate, one of her nephews is a clergy- 
 man in Boston, of whose church many of my relatives are members. 
 Par consequence, as they say in France, we became quite intimate. 
 Unfortunately, although my far-off relative is reputed to be rich, 
 he has children to inherit his property, and there are so many 
 between him and me, that I have no chance of gaining any pe- 
 cuniary advantage by the discovery. 
 
 Again, I was agreeably surprised, at a town where I had no 
 acquaintances, by a gentleman who introduced himself, after seeing 
 my name on the books at the hotel, as the brother-in-law to the 
 brother-in-law of one of my connections, and I was not only 
 pleased to make his acquaintance, but I received much benefit 
 from the circumstance. Who would not have relations.^ And yet 
 some men I have met with, are continually complaining that they 
 have too many, because they cannot, in consequence of their 
 relations, be as independent as they please, 
 
 A party of seven contracted at Galena for a stage coach with 
 nine seats to take us to Chicago, with the understanding that no 
 one else was to enter or to ride on the coach. We traveled by 
 what is called the lower route, through Dixon, Mount Carroll, 
 across the Winnebago Swamp, the Big Rock, the Little Rock, the 
 Fox River, &c., a distance of about one hundred and seventy-five 
 miles. The country is not as interesting as that of the more 
 Southern part of the state, because the prairies are not so exten- 
 sively cultivated — there is more waste land; and because the crops, 
 it being in a higher latitude, are not so far advanced. For the 
 first ten miles from Galena we passed hills where there had been
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 75 
 
 hundreds of "diggings," as they are called, for lead, many of which 
 have been successful. Mount Carroll is a thriving village, with 
 considerable water power, and a number of mills. At Dixon, 
 which is a town of considerable pretension, as well as a county 
 site, with a courthouse, we had a miserable breakfast, after a 
 long and tedious night's ride; the place seems to be prolific in 
 nothing but grocery stores and lawyer's offices. 
 
 The prettiest town we passed through was Aurora, on the Fox 
 River, and I was disappointed that we arrived too late in the eve- 
 ning to make a more thorough examination into its resources and 
 its advantages. Only nine years ago the country around this vil- 
 lage was almost unsettled. At La Fox, as it was then called — 
 now Geneva — were a few families, and within the circuit of per- 
 haps fifteen miles there only lived about twenty families in the 
 whole; now, in that same circuit there are six villages, with an 
 average population of sixteen hundred inhabitants in each! The 
 water-power on the Fox River is great, particularly for the Western 
 country, and every day is adding to the wealth of those who set- 
 tled in its valley a few short years ago. 
 
 After a ride of two days and two nights we arrived at Chicago. 
 We had fared better than I have fared on some other routes, 
 and we ought to have done so, for the expense was higher; but 
 the journey was a very tedious one, and I was glad to find myself 
 once more in a comfortable bed, and undressed. There is nothing 
 rests a man so much as undressing and getting between a pair of 
 sheets, no matter if it be only for half an hour. Those who have 
 travelled much, — and, as they say in the West, I have travelled 
 some during the last twenty years, — know this, and always act 
 on their knowledge when they can get an opportunity. 
 
 We found Chicago the same interesting, busy, bustling place 
 it was some weeks ago. The Convention and the traces of the 
 Convention are gone, but there is nothing, it would seem, can 
 deprive the city of its prosperity, its increase, its enterprise. 
 Boats arrive and depart, produce comes in, and goods from the 
 East are imported. The people are industrious, and the people
 
 76 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 multiply almost beyond belief, and the people must thrive. A 
 gentleman told me to-day that only about ten years ago he had 
 on his hands a lot of Eastern land, which, during the times of 
 speculation, he had taken up as other men did at that time, with 
 the expectation of making a fortune out of it; of course it fell in 
 value, and he considered it almost valueless. One day a stranger 
 entered his office in Boston, and offered, nay entreated, to swap 
 a few lots on the Skunk River in Chicago, for his Eastern land. 
 My friend asked, in his ignorance, where Chicago was, and had 
 to look for some time on the map before he could find it. Finally 
 he contemptuously rejected the idea of throwing away even 
 worthless lands in Maine for these lots in the West. He has 
 since sold his Eastern land for less than five hundred dollars, 
 and now that he has moved out to Chicago, finds that the despised 
 lots which he was offered in exchange for them are almost in the 
 centre of business, and cannot be purchased of the present owners 
 for twenty thousand dollars. 
 
 Chicago is the capital or shire town of Cook county. An arti- 
 ficial harbor has been made by building out into the lake two 
 long piers from the mouth of the river, but even now a dredging 
 machine is needed to keep the entrance open sufficiently to allow 
 heavy loaded vessels to enter at all times, and all seasons, and 
 all weathers. This will be remedied in time. Every thing cannot 
 be done in a day, although it appears as if every thing would 
 grow in a day in this country. Sand bars will grow, and so will 
 trees, and wheat, and corn, and pigs, and cattle, and babies, but 
 it appears that some things grow faster than they can be stunted. 
 
 Chicago, Illinois 
 Before I leave this place for the East, I must put down a few 
 matters relating to the great West, that I believe have escaped 
 notice in other pages of my diary. The Grrat West is a term 
 that I use in reference to that part of it which I have seen, but 
 they tell me I have as yet seen nothing at all of it. Travelers 
 who return from a voyage to any place whatever, whether it be 
 in America or Europe, the East or West Indies, are always sure
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 11 
 
 to be asked, on their return, if they have visited such or such a 
 spot — have been to such or such a city. If the reply is in the neg- 
 ative, they are sure to be told by some one that has, by accident, 
 seen something that they have not seen, that they ''ought to have 
 gone there-" and the superior advantage of the traveled gentleman 
 who has, by accident, been thrown in the way of some hitherto 
 unknown curiosity, or unexplored section, is, in his own estima- 
 tion at least, raised almost immeasurably. I have experienced 
 this many times before, and expect to experience it again on my 
 return, receiving the commiserating looks, if not the more directly 
 expressed pity, of those who have preceded me in their visits to 
 this part of the country. 
 
 Before I left St. Louis, a gentleman advised me not to re- 
 turn to Boston without visiting the West! I told him that I 
 was as far West as I thought proper to go at the present time. 
 But he turned up his eyes in wonder at my ignorance, and said, 
 with all the seriousness imaginable, that I had not yet commenced 
 my travels to the West! On considering all the circumstances, 
 I am inclined to think that he was more than half right. If this 
 country goes on increasing in wealth and population a few years 
 longer, the city of St. Louis will be nearly the centre, and we shall 
 have to speak of New-England as the far off great East, in the 
 same way that it is customary now all over the country, to speak 
 of Missouri and Iowa, and other now almost unexplored regions, 
 as the great West. One becomes lost in wonder in speculating on 
 this subject, and cannot even imagine to what an extent of great- 
 ness we may arrive before the expiration of another fifty years. 
 Now the wealth and the power are on the sea-board — the Atlantic 
 sea-board — and the cities of Boston, New- York, Philadelphia and 
 Baltimore on that coast are metropolitan cities; but in that time 
 they are destined to become provincial cities. The one great 
 metropolis of the country, the centre of the wealth and the popu- 
 lation and the power of the country, will be on the west bank of 
 the Mississippi river, if not even further off than that. Arguing 
 on these premises, I have not, as my friend said, yet commenced 
 my travels to the West.
 
 78 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 I forgot what or how much I have said of the Mississippi 
 river, but I was reminded today, on seeing Banvard's advertise- 
 ment in a Boston paper, of his "three mile picture," of the wonder 
 with which I listened to his description of its tortuosity." He 
 told us what we all knew before of its crooked channel — we could 
 see by the map that it was crooked, — and I believe he told us 
 of the number of times a boat was often obliged, in the course of 
 a few miles, to cross directly from one point to another. I thought 
 at the time that he might be telling rather an extravagant story, 
 which might be excusable in one who was publicly exhibiting a 
 picture on which he had expended so much time and labor. But 
 now I am satisfied that he did not tell one half of what he might 
 have told. What the navigation may be below St. Louis, I am 
 not able to testify to, but I am sure that no vessel in head wind 
 ever sailed more miles to beat up one, than I sailed in the 
 steamer Kentucky, a few days ago, to get half a mile up stream. 
 At times, we shot across to the left bank to within a few feet, 
 hardly leaving us room to turn, and then went directly back 
 again to within a few feet of the bank on the opposite side. 
 Sometimes, by this crossing and re-crossing, we gained a little, 
 and once, I believe, the channel was so twisted, that when we 
 were on the right we were actually lower down the river than we 
 were a short time before when over on the left. This was owing 
 to the shallowness of the river and the sand-bars. 
 
 The sand-bars in the Mississippi are continually shifting, and 
 a pilot who does not constantly travel over the route is very apt 
 to become unfitted for his business, and not by any fault of his 
 own. Once we ran upon a sand-bar, which the captain said did 
 not exist when he came down on his last trip. While the mate and 
 engineer were getting the steamer off, the Captain and Pilot took 
 a small boat and went out to take soundings, and find the channel; 
 having found it, they planted buoys for the benefit of whoever 
 might come after them, but without much hope that they would 
 
 ** Banvard's panorama was a "magnificent unwinding depleting of the Father 
 of Waters with the scenery along the banks from New Orleans to St. Louis, with all 
 the accompanying incidents of trade and navigation."
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 79 
 
 be of service for many days. This fact shows the necessity for 
 some action of the national government respecting the Western 
 waters. It is supposed that with a comparatively trifling expense, 
 a clear channel might be kept open all the season, that would 
 allow of much more rapid and safer communication than we now 
 have. 
 
 Travelers in the Western country — that is, the West of to- 
 day, do not experience all the inconveniences nor meet with all 
 the amusing incidents that were to be met with some years ago. 
 The country is not so wild, nor are the people so unsophisticated 
 as they were only as lately as 1832; there has been so much 
 immigration that a certain degree of civilization has been attained 
 in the country towns, and to a certain extent some luxuries may 
 be found every where. But the whole people in the interior of 
 Illinois are in a sort of transition state — between rude unsophis- 
 ticated life and civilized comfort. Almost every where, I found 
 the people had a plenty of ice, which is a luxury to every body, 
 and a necessary article to those of us who have always been 
 accustomed to it. I believe I have already spoken of the want 
 of good taverns on the stage roads, but I have said nothing of 
 the funny incidents which used to take place at log houses, where 
 people slept all in one room, some on beds, some in blankets on 
 the floor, and some on buffalo skins; because no such things came 
 under my notice. But I have seen taverns, first rate taverns too, 
 they were called, where there were four or five beds in the one 
 solitary bed-room, — all double beds, as a single bed would be a 
 luxury not dreamed of at present in those regions — where men, 
 and women, and children are obliged, even at this day, to be all 
 accommodated at once. 
 
 The nearest approach to any thing like trouble that I met 
 with, was at a tavern in quite a considerable town in this state, 
 where, after I had got comfortably into bed, one night, the land- 
 lord insisted upon my taking in as a companion, a stranger, to 
 sleep with me. I refused, and he said it must be so. I told him 
 I never yet had slept in the same bed with another man, and I 
 never would. The man, too, was determined to come to bed.
 
 80 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 and mine was the only one in the house that had not two persons 
 in it. So, rather than have a quarrel, I got up, and taking my 
 great coat, laid down on the floor in the corner of the room, with 
 my carpet bag for a pillow, and slept comfortably for the rest of 
 the night, while the landlord accommodated the stranger on my 
 abdicated straw bed; both probably laughing at and despising my 
 fastidiousness. 
 
 I had the impertinence, — I suppose some people will call it 
 so, — to doubt, in a former chapter of my diary, the wisdom of 
 those who advised the spending of a large sum of money to com- 
 plete the Illinois and Michigan Canal. Further examination has 
 convinced me that those who had the direction of that matter, 
 would have done far better to have turned the Canal into a Rail- 
 road. It is said now, that although the Canal is almost finished, 
 it will not hold water after it is filled; for the work is so finished, 
 and the soil is so porous, that the water will leech through. If 
 this is the case, the money is thrown away, and a railroad will 
 have to be built, on the same route, in order to accommodate 
 the trade from the interior to Chicago. The projected railroad 
 from Alton to Springfield will be built in the course of two or 
 three years, and our Eastern people will not be long in seeing 
 the advantages of connecting that link of communication with 
 Chicago and the lakes, thus securing to New-England the com- 
 merce of all Mississippi north of St. Louis, and consequently all 
 the northern trade of the state of Missouri. A canal cannot do 
 the business, and a railroad could. 
 
 The trade of upper Missouri, all of Wisconsin, nearly all of 
 Illinois, as well as the northern part of Indiana, must, by and by, 
 come through the lakes, and at the present time the people have 
 all their sympathies and all their plans connected with the East, 
 and in a great measure with New-England, of which Boston is 
 the great head. Chicago is destined to be a place of great export 
 for all the products of the states named, as soon as our facilities 
 of communication are opened, as they will be, by the completion 
 of the Ogdensburg Railroad. It will also be a place of much im-
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 81 
 
 portance as the port of reception for much of the merchandise, 
 the manufactured and foreign goods which are to be consumed 
 in the West. I may be thought by some persons a little — perhaps 
 a great deal — in advance of the times, in this my speculation, but 
 as a certain noted politician says, "We shall see." 
 
 I leave this place to-morrow for Buffalo, to go again through 
 the lakes.
 
 82 
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Abolition riots (Alton) 46 
 
 Allen, E.H 13 
 
 Allen, William 9 
 
 Alton, 111,, described 46-47, 49 
 
 levee 52 
 
 mentioned 3, 47, 53-54 
 
 Alton College 5 In. 
 
 Alton & Sangamon Railroad 
 
 38,48-49,80 
 
 American Bottom 
 
 described 52 
 
 Aurora, 111. 
 
 described 75 
 
 Baker, E. D 51 
 
 Baltic (steamer) 4, 5, 21 
 
 Baltimore, Md 76 
 
 Banvard, John, 
 
 panorama by 78 
 
 Barton, James L 6 
 
 Bates, Edward 
 
 biographical note 7n. 
 
 mentioned 12, 20 
 
 Big Rock 74 
 
 Boston, Mass., 
 
 compared with Chicago 11 
 
 compared with New York 10 
 
 compared with St. Louis. . 54, 56, 77 
 
 trade..... 13,18,20-21 
 
 Boston Courier 3 
 
 Bragg 16 
 
 Brown, J. Vincent 36 
 
 Buckingham, J. H., 
 
 delegate to River and Harbor 
 Convention 3-21 
 
 tours middle west 21-81 
 
 Buckingham, Joseph T 3 
 
 Burlingame, Anson 13 
 
 Burlington, Iowa, 
 
 described 70 
 
 Campbell, Juliet 25n. 
 
 Carthage, 111 63n. 
 
 Chicago, 
 
 described 10-11, 12,17 
 
 fire department 5-6, 16 
 
 harbor 76 
 
 Illinois and Michigan Canal 
 
 terminus 49 
 
 population II 
 
 River and Harbor Convention 
 in 3,4-12 
 
 trade center 13,14, 
 
 16, 20-21, 22, 25, 39, 75-76, 80-81 
 
 mentioned 3, 21, 73 
 
 Chicago River 4 
 
 Clarksville, Mo 60, 61 
 
 Clinton House (Peoria) 29n. 
 
 Cloud, Newton 37n. 
 
 Constitutional Convention (111., 
 
 1847) 21,37-38,40,41 
 
 Cook County, 111 76 
 
 Corwin, Thomas 7, 8, 9 
 
 Cotillion, 
 
 described 26 
 
 Courthouse (St. Louis), 
 
 described 56 
 
 Crain, John 37n. 
 
 Curtiss, James 6n. 
 
 Davenport, George 70-71 
 
 Davenport, Mrs. George 71 
 
 Davenport, Iowa, 
 
 described 70 
 
 Degrand, 18 
 
 Delavan, III., 
 
 described 32 
 
 Dia/ (steamer) 28,29 
 
 Dixon, 111 4,74,75 
 
 Dresden, 111 25,26 
 
 Eustis, William T 7,19 
 
 Expositor 63n. 
 
 Fever River, 
 
 described 71 
 
 Fire department (Chicago) . . . .5-6, 16 
 
 Fisher, J 28 
 
 Fisher, N 28 
 
 Ford, Thomas 48n. 
 
 Fort Armstrong 70-71 
 
 Fox River 74
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 83 
 
 Gale, Stephen F 16 
 
 Galena, 111. 
 
 described 71-72 
 
 lead industry 72-73, 74-75 
 
 mentioned 4, 69 
 
 General Thornton (ship) 20n. 
 
 Geneva, 111 75 
 
 Godfrey, Gilman & Co 46n. 
 
 Greeley, Horace 3, 20 
 
 Hardin, John J., 
 
 funeral 40-42 
 
 successor 43 
 
 Hardin, Mrs. John J 41 
 
 Hemp manufacture 36 
 
 Hennepin, 111 28 
 
 Hilliard, Gray & Co 16 
 
 Hobart, Aaron 19 
 
 Illinois, 
 
 internal improvements 47-48 
 
 products 25, 34, 
 
 35, 36n., 39, 44, 47, 48, 52, 72-73 
 
 travel experiences in 
 
 22,26,28,29,30, 
 
 .35, 52, 59-60, 61, 62, 69-70, 78-80 
 Illinois and Michigan Canal, 
 
 Buckingham comments on 
 
 21,24,25,49,80 
 
 history 20n. 
 
 Illinois River, 
 
 described 36-37 
 
 Internal improvements (111.). . . .47-48 
 
 Jacksonville, 111., 
 
 described 45 
 
 Hardin funeral in 40-42, 51 
 
 mentioned 3 
 
 Joliet, 111., 
 
 described 25 
 
 penitentiary at 49n. 
 
 Juliet, 111 25 
 
 Kentucky (steamer) 59, 61, 69, 78 
 
 Keokuk, Iowa, 
 
 described 61-62 
 
 mentioned 69 
 
 King, Charles 9 
 
 Kingman, A. T 4n., 5 
 
 Lacon, 111 28 
 
 La Fox (Geneva), 111 75 
 
 Lake House (Chicago), 
 
 described 14 
 
 Lake Michigan 4 
 
 La Salle, 111 27 
 
 Lead industry, (Galena) 72-73 
 
 Lee, Artemas 7, 19 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, 
 
 Buckingham comments on 
 
 4,30,33-34 
 
 delegate to River and Harbor 
 
 Convention 3 
 
 Little Rock 74 
 
 Lockport, 111 24,27 
 
 Locofocos 8, 12 
 
 Louisiana (steamer) 18 
 
 Lovejoy, Elijah P 46a. 
 
 Luella (steamer) 52 
 
 Manning, Alonzo W 57 
 
 Massachusetts, 
 
 delegates to River and Harbor 
 
 Convention 6,7,9,18-29 
 
 May, William L 30n. 
 
 Mexican War 42, 43, 45, 51 
 
 Mississippi River, 
 
 described 46, 
 
 .........52,53,59,60,69,77-79 
 
 Missouri River, 
 
 described 53,59 
 
 Montrose, Iowa 61, 67, 69 
 
 Moore, Henry W 37n. 
 
 Mormons, 
 
 comments on 68 
 
 history 63n. 
 
 Temple at Nauvoo described 
 
 4,64-67 
 
 Morris, 111., 
 
 described 25-26 
 
 Mount Carroll, 111 74-75 
 
 Mussey, B. B 7 
 
 Nauvoo, 111., 
 
 described 63-68 
 
 mentioned 4 
 
 "Nauvoo Mansion" 67 
 
 New York City 10, 56, 77 
 
 North Alton, 111., 
 
 described 50-51
 
 84 
 
 ILLINOIS AS LINCOLN KNEW IT 
 
 Ogdensburg Railroad. ... 10, 18, 34, 80 
 
 Old Fort (Chicago) 11 
 
 Ottawa, 111., 
 described 26 
 
 Penitentiary (Joliet) 49n. 
 
 Penitentiary (Alton) 49 
 
 Peoria, 111., 
 
 described 29-30 
 
 mentioned 3, 28 
 
 Peru, 111., 
 
 described 27-28 
 
 mentioned 3 , 49 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa 77 
 
 Planters House (Peoria) 29n. 
 
 Planters House (St. Louis) 
 
 55,56,58,59 
 
 "Pleyel's Hymn" 41 
 
 Polk, James K 3,8,50 
 
 ••Prairie Car" 50n. 
 
 Prairies, 
 
 described 14, 22, 
 
 27, 31-32,36-37,44,47,74 
 
 Quincy, 111 62 
 
 Ringgold, 
 
 16 
 
 River and Harbor Convention, 
 
 assembles 4 
 
 delegates 3 
 
 officers 7-8 
 
 parade 5-6, 11, 16 
 
 politics in 8, 12, 19 
 
 resolutions 9, 19-20 
 
 speeches 8-9, 13 
 
 River travel, 
 
 described 28-29, 
 
 ... 52, 59-60, 61, 62, 69-70, 78-79 
 
 Rock Island, 111 70n. 
 
 St. Louis, Mo., 
 
 commercial center 54, 55-56 
 
 court 56-57 
 
 levee 53-54 
 
 Planters House 55, 58, 59 
 
 mentioned 3,52 
 
 Scolly (Scoilayl, Leonard 55 
 
 Scott, Winfield 11 
 
 Semple, James 
 
 biographical note 50 
 
 Shurtleff, Benjamin 51 
 
 Shurtleff College, 
 
 described 51 
 
 Skunk River 4, 76 
 
 Smith, Hyrum 63n. 
 
 Smith, Joseph 63n., 67, 68 
 
 Smith, Mrs. Joseph 67 
 
 Smith, Robert 30,34 
 
 Spencer, J. C 9,19 
 
 Springfield, 111., 
 
 Constitutional Convention 
 
 21,37,40 
 
 described 39 
 
 population 40n. 
 
 railroad to Alton 38-39, 48 
 
 region described 33, 35, 39 
 
 State House 37, 38 
 
 mentioned 3, 34, 36, 41 
 
 Stagecoach travel, 
 described 22,26,30,35 
 
 State Bank (Springfield) 21, 38 
 
 State House (Springfield) 
 
 Constitutional Convention in. . . 37 
 described 38 
 
 Steamboats, see Baltic, Dial, Ken- 
 tucky, Louisiana and Luella. 
 
 Stephenson, III., 
 
 described 70 
 
 Stickney, Benjamin 55 
 
 44 
 44 
 
 Tracy, 
 
 Tracy, Mrs, 
 
 Transportation, 
 
 comments on 10, 18, 
 
 20, 34, 38-39, 49, 80 
 
 Tremont, 111., 
 
 described 31 
 
 Utah. 
 
 .63n 
 
 Weatherford, William, 
 
 described 42-43 
 
 Webster, Daniel 28n. 
 
 Webster, Fletcher, 
 
 biographical note 28n. 
 
 Wells, Joseph B 51 
 
 Wentworth, John, 
 
 biographical note 6n. 
 
 mentioned 31 
 
 Whigs 7, 8 
 
 Whitehall, 111 43,44 
 
 Winnebago Swamp 74 
 
 Young, Brigham 63 n
 
 
 
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