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THE STORY OF ILLINOIS 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
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 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://archive.org/details/storyofillinoisOOpeas 
 
The Story of 
 Illinois 
 
 BY 
 
 THEODORE CALVIN PEASE, Ph. D. 
 
 Author of 
 Vol. II ", Centennial History of Illinois 
 
 CHICAGO 
 A. C. McCLURG & CO. 
 
 J 925 
 
Copyright 
 
 A. C. McClurg & Co. 
 
 1925 
 
 Published March, 1925 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
 M. A. DONOHUF. & CO., PRINTERS AND BINDERS, CHICAGO 
 
(Ho 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This volume is an attempt to present a short 
 readable history of the state of Illinois, embody- 
 ing the results of the latest research. Naturally 
 it is based to a considerable extent on the five 
 volume Centennial History of Illinois, but for 
 most of the period covered by the volume the 
 body of source material has been carefully ex- 
 amined. Still, my indebtedness to the other au- 
 thors of the Centennial History, especially to Pro- 
 fessor Clarence W. Alvord, will be apparent to 
 anyone who is acquainted with their work. I 
 have also to express my gratitude to Dr. Otto L. 
 Schmidt for encouragement and kindly criticism. 
 
 THEODORE CALVIN PEASE 
 
 October 8, 1924 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I The French Regime i 
 
 II The Day of the Briton 23 
 
 III The American Conquest 46 
 
 IV The Struggle for the Northwest, 1783-1816 68 
 V The Day of Small Things 96 
 
 VI The Frontier 117 
 
 VII Jacksonian Democracy 147 
 
 VIII The Expansion of the Frontier Common- 
 wealth, 1830-1846 169 
 
 IX The Coming of the Railroads 190 
 
 X The Beginnings of the Slavery Issue, 1837- 
 
 1856 214 
 
 XI The Climax of the Slavery Struggle, 1856- 
 
 1865 2 33 
 
 XII The Civil War and Its Aftermath, 1861- 
 
 1868 : 255 
 
 XIII Economic and Social Readjustment, 1870- 
 
 1890 271 
 
 XIV Two Decades of Party Politics 293 
 
 XV Recent Political Development 305 
 
 XVI The World War 320 
 
 XVII The Illinois of the Present. 342 
 
 Appendix 3^7 
 
 Vote for Presidential Elector, 1824 369 
 
 Vote of Illinois for the Presidency 37 2 
 
 Vote for Governor from 181 8 to 1920. . . 373 
 Population of Illinois, Each Census, 1790- 
 1920 378 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Illinois Statehouse Frontispiece 
 
 Statue of Marquette ,. . . . 4 
 
 Henri De Tonty 12 
 
 Statue of La Salle. . . 24 
 
 Edward Coles 32 
 
 George Rogers Clark 52 
 
 Old State House 86 
 
 Mr. Shadrack Bond 102 
 
 Mrs. Shadrack Bond 108 
 
 Capitol at Vandalia 128 
 
 University of Chicago 140 
 
 Chicago in 1843 160 
 
 Black Hawk 1 72 
 
 Thomas Ford 184 
 
 C. H. McCbrmick 200 
 
 Caricature of Douglas 222 
 
 Stump Speaking 236 
 
 Lincoln 252 
 
 Statue of Stephen Douglas 268 
 
 Ninian Edwards 290 
 
 John P. Altgeld 302 
 
 University of Illinois 358 
 
 MAPS 
 
 The Old Northwest 72 
 
 Sketch Map of Illinois 284 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE Illinois of the present may be under- 
 stood only as the product of the past. On 
 the basis of a physical environment made by past 
 geological ages, the state has arisen, an edifice of 
 political, industrial, and social organization, to be 
 comprehended only through a study of the plans 
 and methods by which the successive generations 
 have built it tier by tier. In York Cathedral in 
 England, beneath the present fabric illustrating 
 the successive Gothic styles of four centuries, are 
 shown the crypt of an earlier Norman church and 
 the foundations of a still earlier Saxon one. Sim- 
 ilarly the story of Illinois necessarily includes as 
 well the failure of both France and England to 
 solve the problem of empire in the heart of the 
 Mississippi Valley as the final success in the task 
 of the United States. 
 
 Nor can our study be confined too closely 
 within the geographical limits of present day 
 Illinois. State boundaries are at best but arti- 
 ficial things, and things of a late day. French- 
 man and Englishman, pursuing their imperial am- 
 bitions in the Great Valley, did not parcel out 
 their visions according to the limits of our present 
 
Introduction 
 
 may pass it most easily, lying athwart the easiest 
 paths which man may travel from east to west, 
 she and her great market at Chicago stand at the 
 cross roads of world trade such as those which in 
 earlier ages made Vienna, Constantinople, and 
 Damascus. Shaped like a rivet interlocked at the 
 head with the commonwealths of the North her 
 point drives deep into the states of the upper 
 south. In earlier days Tennesseean and New 
 Yorker, Virginian and New Englander, Kentuck- 
 ian and Pennsylvanian here stood face to face and 
 learned by political combat each to know and to 
 respect the other. In later days immigrants of 
 all the races of Europe have met in her borders 
 and have been set to learn the hard lessons of 
 toleration and mutual respect; and amid tumult, 
 disorder and violence, Illinois has pressed on her 
 way in the performance of her political mission 
 in the United States; physically and intellectually 
 in the days of the Civil War and in the days of 
 the World War alike, a bond of union among 
 sections and races. 
 
 The geological story of the making of Illinois 
 of today is not for an historian to tell in detail. 
 Sometimes covered with tropical forest, some- 
 times the bed of a great inland sea, sometimes 
 partly covered with glacial ice caps, till recently 
 the trough by which the Great Lakes flowed to 
 the Mississippi, Illinois at length became what 
 
Introduction 
 
 she was when the white man first looked on her 
 landscape, a land in places level as the bed of 
 a prehistoric lake, elsewhere gently rolling or 
 even hilly, trenched from northeast to southwest 
 by the valley of the Illinois River, crossed in the 
 extreme south by the Ozark Hills but with only a 
 difference of a few hundred feet elevation be- 
 tween her highest and lowest points. Over her 
 surface in places stretched the prairies, their fer- 
 tile soils throwing up grass as high as the waist 
 of a horseman, bordered with woods along the 
 water courses; in other places were the hills more 
 or less fertile covered by hard wood forest or 
 scrub oak. Beneath her surface lay deposits of 
 lead and other nonprecious metals and vast beds 
 of bituminous coal. On the northeast, west, 
 south, and east she touched navigable waters, and 
 across her flowed many rivers such as the Kas- 
 kaskia, the Illinois, the Sangamon, the Embar- 
 rass, the Rock, and the Desplaines that in their 
 day served as highways of trade. These are the 
 facts of the physical Illinois that especially con- 
 cern the student of her history. 
 
 Of the races that had lived in her borders be- 
 fore the white man came the historian can say 
 little save that they existed. The great earth- 
 works of the Ohio Valley, such as the Monks 
 Mound of Cahokia and the surrounding mounds 
 have challenged attention from the beginning, 
 
Introduction 
 
 and by their vastness caused men to believe them 
 the work of superior races. Now we know them 
 to be only the work of forerunners of the Indian 
 tribes of later days. Excavation of the mounds 
 reveals a primitive culture, pottery, tools, weap- 
 ons, ornaments. Male burials with crushed 
 skulls and arrow-pierced ribs; skeletons bearing 
 the mark of syphilitic lesions reveal the tragedies 
 of a thousand years ago. But none of the makers 
 of the mounds has left any system of writing for 
 us to decipher, and their history, guessed at in a 
 few instances, must remain forever unwritten. 
 
 Nor do we need to linger over the Indian in- 
 habitaifts found by the white man in the Illinois 
 country, or to consider them save as the hapless 
 tools and victims of the superior races that 
 marked the region for their own. Of the Indians 
 in general it may be said that they had attained 
 a primitive culture that included a rude agricul- 
 ture, a rude pottery, a rude weaving, a rude fash- 
 ioning of weapons from flint. But the Indian was 
 speedily diverted to hunt or to wage war for the 
 white man and to use the white man's kettles, 
 blankets, and firearms; his own culture faded 
 away. 
 
 So soon after the coming of the whites were 
 the Indian and his political and social life debased 
 that it is not easy to describe him accurately as 
 he was at that moment. In his villages were 
 
Introduction 
 
 chiefs whose prestige came from their prowess 
 in arms, medicine men whose influence came from 
 their reputed control of the supernatural, and 
 civil chiefs whose authority arose from their abil- 
 ity or descent. In the villages the chiefs exercised 
 little real control over the warriors who lawlessly 
 broke many a solemnly made treaty. Custom was 
 law, and was invoked by individuals, penalties 
 being enforced by the injured man or his kindred 
 with the support of public opinion. Parents ex- 
 ercised little control of their children. After the 
 white man had come, at least, immorality, polyg- 
 amy and divorce were frequent. Few children 
 were born, and only the hardiest survived the 
 starvation of the hard winter. The Indian popu- 
 lation at best was but stationary in a land of 
 plenty where pioneers of the white race were pro- 
 lific. And by war, by the white men's disease, and 
 above all by the white men's ardent spirits, the 
 god of the white men day by day removed their 
 red opponents from before their faces. 
 
 Much has been written about the Indians' be- 
 lief in a Great Spirit and in a monotheistic re- 
 ligion; but the error has doubtless arisen from 
 the confusion inevitable when one attempts to 
 seek abstract thoughts in a language that has al- 
 most no words for them. The Indian appears 
 to have lived in a spiritual anarchy comparable to 
 the political anarchy of his villages; the tree, the 
 
Introduction 
 
 rock, the waterfall, the animal he hunted, even the 
 weapon with which he hunted it, had each its man- 
 itou or presiding spirit to be appeased by rites and 
 offerings. The notion of one overruling Great 
 Spirit or Manitou he perhaps borrowed at an 
 early date from the Roman Catholic missionary 
 who threaded the forest to bring him the sacra- 
 ments of the church for salvation, or from the 
 gentle Moravian who sought to teach him the 
 Christian practice of humility, gentleness and non- 
 resistance. 
 
 The enumeration of the Indian tribes of the 
 Illinois is not a matter of importance; those tribes 
 generation by generation changed their habitat. 
 Father Marquette found on the Mississippi and 
 Illinois Rivers the confederated tribes of the Ca- 
 hokia, Tamaroa, Michigamea, Kaskaskia, Peoria, 
 etc., the group that called themselves the Illinois, 
 or the men. Later exploration found the Sac and 
 the Foxes in northwestern Illinois, the Pottawat- 
 tomie around the foot of Lake Michigan, the 
 Kickapoo in the central prairies, the Shawnee in 
 the southeast. War, famine, the pressure of the 
 dreaded Iroquois, the influence of French com- 
 manders anxious to group the Indians for military 
 use, made incessant changes in the hunting 
 grounds of the tribes. The reader will forgive 
 the omission of details that would only weary 
 him. 
 
THE STORY OF ILLINOIS 
 
The Story of Illinois 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE FRENCH REGIME 
 
 THE coming of white men to the northwest 
 and to Illinois turns on a succession of mo- 
 tives; the search for a route to the western sea; 
 the fur trade; the christianization of the Indians; 
 the founding of commercial and military empires; 
 the search for homes. All of these in their order 
 influenced the French and English as in the seven- 
 teenth and eighteenth centuries they approached 
 the Illinois country. 
 
 The appearance of the first Frenchman in the 
 west is but a phase of the age-long search for 
 trade-routes from Europe to the riches of the far 
 east. That trade was old at the beginning of the 
 Christian Era, when bales of Chinese silks in- 
 tended to be worn by Roman ladies were lost in 
 the great deserts of Central Asia, to be preserved 
 in the sands, and recovered in our own day. In 
 the fifteenth century it was the aspiration of the 
 European nations that fronted the Atlantic to 
 find a route for that trade by sea that perhaps 
 
The Story of Illinois 
 
 sent Columbus on the famous voyage to the west, 
 and certainly sent Vasco da Gama around the 
 Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 Early in the sixteenth century men finally rec- 
 ognized the fact that to the south the New World 
 barred the way to Cathay; and after 1540 the 
 Spaniards knew well enough the span of the 
 North American continent. But the search for 
 the Northwest Passage, for the way to China 
 through the Arctic regions, is one that has en- 
 grossed men's minds even to the present when 
 Mr. Stefansson proposes a route by submarine 
 liners under the polar ice cap. In the early sev- 
 enteenth century the same dream set Captain John 
 Smith to exploring the upper reaches of the Vir- 
 ginia rivers for a route to China. In 1634 it 
 sent Jean Nicolet, despatched by Champlain 
 from the struggling little French colony on the 
 rock of Quebec, to the shores of Green Bay 
 dressed in "a grand robe of China damask, all 
 strewn with flowers and birds of many colors," — 
 perhaps that he might make with due eclat his 
 entry into the capital of the Great Khan. 1 
 
 " If he had voyaged three days more on a great 
 river which issues from this lake, he would have 
 reached the sea." 2 Such was Nicolet's later re- 
 port of his achievement; based on information 
 
 1 Thwaites, Jesuit Relations, XXIII, 279. 
 
 2 Ibid., XVIII, 236. 
 
The French Regime 
 
 obtained in the partially understood language of 
 the savages among whom he was. Its ambiguity 
 is provoking. The sea may be the " Big Water" 
 of the Indians, the Mississippi; Nicolet may have 
 failed to understand his hosts as saying that three 
 days off was a stream that would lead to it; but 
 at all events the phrase shows how present in 
 men's thoughts was the western sea. 
 
 Nicolet's discoveries were not followed up for 
 twenty years. The scourge of the Iroquois fell 
 heavily upon the struggling colony of New 
 France. Their confederation in which the fra- 
 ternal clans of the same totem throughout the 
 five tribes linked the whole in close alliance was 
 famous for prowess and savagery in war. The 
 Jesuits, strong in unquestioning military obedience 
 to superiors, in the education, the devotion, and 
 the intelligence of their fathers had aspired to 
 do in New France what they had done in Para- 
 guay; to gather round Jesuit priests villages of 
 Indians to be instructed in the faith, and to be 
 made adept and obedient pupils of their spiritual 
 guides alike in the concerns of war and peace. 
 Their work had begun among the Hurons, when 
 in 1648 and 1649 ^ e Iroquois fell upon their 
 villages and amid their slaughtered converts Jes- 
 uit fathers gained the crown of martyrdom. The 
 remnant of the Hurons fled from the eastern 
 shore of their lake to the forests beyond Superior, 
 
The Story of Illinois 
 
 and here the Jesuits were to follow them. First 
 at La Pointe on Lake Superior and then at Green 
 Bay, Jesuit missionaries established themselves 
 in the west. 
 
 Even before the Jesuit the fur-trader had pene- 
 trated to the west. In the northern parts of 
 America the white pioneers sought in vain for 
 the pearls and precious metals that enriched the 
 Spaniards in the south; but early in the seven- 
 teenth century they had discovered a source of 
 wealth in the fur bearing animals. The trade in 
 furs, though small if judged by modern standards, 
 speedily became one of the important branches of 
 international trade. Amsterdam became a great 
 fur market, supplying western Europe and distant 
 Russia. Most important in the trade was the pelt 
 of the beaver or castor, as the French called him; 
 both his names came to be English cant synonyms 
 for hat; and the manufacture developed in both 
 France and England. In America the demands 
 of the trade forced the Indians to become the 
 white man's hunters, abandoning the practice of 
 their primitive domestic arts in order to purchase 
 with furs the white man's blankets, textiles, ket- 
 tles, guns, ornaments, and above all his fire water, 
 whether Dutch gin, English rum, French brandy, 
 or American whisky. At some time between 1654 
 and 1663 Radisson and Groseilliers had jour- 
 neyed far into the Northwest, perhaps even to 
 
STATUE OF MARQUETTE 
 
 Marquette, Michigan 
 
The French Regime 5 
 
 the Mississippi, in search of furs. Their pres- 
 ence antedated even that of the Jesuit. 
 
 Both Jesuit and fur trader found their place in 
 the new imperialism developing in France with 
 the accession to power in 1660 of Louis xiv. 
 Colbert, Louis' great minister of finance, had im- 
 bibed the mercantilist idea of the value of col- 
 onies in making the mother country strong and 
 self-sufficing, and his policy looked to strengthen- 
 ing the colony of Canada and extending its 
 bounds and trade. The exponents of his policy 
 in Canada were the Intendant, Jean Talon, and 
 after 1672 the Governor Louis de Buade, Comte 
 de Frontenac. Troops were sent to Canada in 
 sufficient force to inspire the Iroquois with respect 
 and produce a peace in 1667. In a great military 
 ceremony at Sault Ste. Marie in 1671, St. Lus- 
 son took possession of the west in the name of 
 Louis xiv. Where Jesuit and trader had come 
 before by sufferance of the Indians the imperialist 
 followed secure in armed might. 
 
 In extension of this policy, Louis Joliet, already 
 explorer of Lake Erie, was sent in 1673, ac * 
 companied by the Jesuit Father Jacques Mar- 
 quette to search out the Mississippi River. 
 Reaching it by the Fox-Wisconsin portage they 
 floated down as far as the Arkansas country. 
 Having determined that the river must flow into 
 the Gulf of Mexico, and fearing capture by the 
 
The Story of Illinois 
 
 Spaniards if they kept on, they turned back. 
 They passed up the Illinois on their return where 
 Joliet, wiser than many a man of later day, 
 noted the richness of the prairie soil and the fact 
 that no trees barred the farmer's access to it; they 
 passed the portage to the Chicago River where 
 Joliet again anticipated later ages by pointing 
 out the possibility and advantage of a canal. As 
 Joliet's journal was lost when his canoe was over- 
 set near Montreal our main source for the expedi- 
 tion is the journal of Father Marquette, whose 
 life is almost the epic of Catholic Christianity in 
 America. 
 
 The moving impulse of Marquette's life was 
 his devotion to the Virgin, and his desire to bring 
 the knowledge of her intercession to men who 
 lived in darkness. For this he had become a mis- 
 sionary; for this he had embarked on the voyage, 
 and for this he promised the confederation of the 
 Illinois that he would return and establish a mis- 
 sion among them. Returning in the late autumn 
 of 1674 in spite of the fact that death had already 
 marked him, he spent the winter in a hut near the 
 Chicago portage, racked by illness, ministered to 
 by his two companions, by neighboring fur trad- 
 ers, and by the Indians. In the spring, rallying 
 his last strength, he proceeded down the Illinois 
 as far as the villages of his friends to preach the 
 gospel to them. 
 
The French Regime 
 
 Above all he preached to them Jesus Christ 
 on the very eve (of that great day) that He died 
 upon the cross for them as well as for all the rest 
 of mankind; then he said holy mass. Three days 
 later on Easter Sunday things being prepared in 
 the same manner as on the Thursday, he cele- 
 brated the holy mysteries for the second time. 
 And by these two sacrifices — the first ever offered 
 thus to God, he took possession of that land in the 
 name of Jesus Christ, and gave to that mission the 
 name of the Immaculate Conception of the 
 Blessed Virgin. 1 
 
 His mission thus founded he regarded his life's 
 work as accomplished. He set out on his return 
 to the mission at Mackinac, growing weaker day 
 by day till finally at the Marquette River he died 
 the death of a saint, u dying as the apostle of the 
 Indians in a wretched cabin on the shore of lake 
 Illinois, forsaken by all the world." 2 
 
 As lonely va his life as was Marquette in his 
 death, but differing from him in all else but reso- 
 lution and greatness of soul was his successor in 
 the story of Illinois, the imperialist Robert Cave- 
 lier, Sieur de La Salle. Born in 1643, he had 
 been in youth the pupil of the Jesuits; but 
 La Salle's was not the metal to be tempered in 
 that forge, and to the end he hated, his old mas- 
 ters. He had come to New France in 1666, ob- 
 taining near Montreal a grant of land, soon 
 
 1 Thwaites, Jesuit Relations, LIX, 188-190. 
 
 2 Ibid., LIX, zo6. 
 
8 The Story of Illinois 
 
 called probably in derision of him because he was 
 always dreaming of a route to the Far East, 
 La Chine — China. In 1674 with the favor of 
 Governor Frontenac he had acquired Fort Fron- 
 tenac on Lake Ontario, and an opportunity of 
 growing rich from the fur trade. But the para- 
 dox of fate had made this man who could not 
 keep accounts a dreamer of vast empires, based 
 on trade, in the western wilderness; had destined 
 a reserved haughty man capable of winning the 
 loyalty only of the finest characters among his 
 followers to a great task of exploration and col- 
 onization. A will of tempered steel drove him 
 on at his task in spite of foreclosures by his credi- 
 tors, the sinking of his ships, repeated mutinies 
 and desertions, and above all that brute, inert, 
 cruel opponent, the American wilderness, terrible 
 in its forests and morasses, its treacherous lakes 
 and rivers and its winter snows. Counting three 
 failures for every success, by the day in 1687 
 when he fell by the hands of mutinous followers, 
 he had done his work; he had laid in the Illinois 
 the foundations of a French colony. 
 
 Briefly stated his project was to establish posts 
 to the south of the Great Lakes to link the fur 
 trade of the region to Fort Frontenac, and to 
 hold the Mississippi River as a second great 
 trade outlet from the interior to the ocean. Late 
 in 1679 D y wa Y °f Lake Michigan and the St. 
 
The French Regime 
 
 Joseph River, where he built a fort, he found his 
 way to the Illinois country. In January of 1680 
 he built Fort Crevecoeur at the Lake of Peoria 
 among the Illinois tribes. The loss of his vessel, 
 the Griffon, on the Great Lakes, and the attach- 
 ment of his property in Canada by his creditors 
 compelled him to return, leaving in command his 
 trusted lieutenant, Henri de Tonti. In his ab- 
 sence happened one of the great tragedies of 
 primitive Indian history. 
 
 The Iroquois were sufficiently advanced in the 
 arts of trade to recognize the ad\ antage of acting 
 as middlemen in the fur trade between the western 
 Indians and the Dutch and English at Albany. 
 The likelihood of that trade being diverted else- 
 where by La Salle they did not like; and in the 
 summer of 1680 their war parties appeared be- 
 fore the great Illinois village on the river of that 
 name, probably where the little hamlet of Utica 
 stands today. Tonti, already deserted by most of 
 La Salle's followers, used every means that his 
 dauntless spirit could devise to overcome the Iro- 
 quois by the fear of the French and save the 
 Illinois from their tomahawks. The fears of trfe 
 Iroquois, however, served only to save the lives 
 of Tonti and his few men. The Iroquois dogged 
 the Illinois on their flight down the river, and 
 when the Tamaroa did not follow the other tribes 
 across the Mississippi, drove off their warriors and 
 
io The Story of Illinois 
 
 slew their women and children by torture. Once 
 more an essential part of La Salle's great edifice 
 had collapsed; but once more he took up the task 
 of replacing it. 
 
 In the winter of 1 68 1-2 he returned to the Illi- 
 nois with new resources and early in the spring 
 descended the Mississippi to its mouth, on April 
 9, 1682, formally taking possession of the river 
 and all the territory it drained in the name of 
 Louis xiv. Returning to the Illinois River he be- 
 gan a new fort at Starved Rock, (Crevecoeur 
 had been burned by the mutineers of 1680) call- 
 ing it Fort St. Louis. Around it he gathered the 
 Indian tribes for mutual protection till he had 
 nearly four thousand warriors, too large a force 
 for any Iroquois war party to overcome. In March 
 of 1684 under Tonti the fort beat off an Iroquois 
 attack. 
 
 Once more La Salle's project was threatened 
 with destruction, this time at the hands of the 
 new governor of Canada, La Barre. Desirous 
 of undoing the work of his predecessors, Fronte- 
 nac and La Salle, La Barre took over La Salle's 
 posts including Fort St. Louis. In a vain search 
 for justice in Canada, La Salle left the Illinois for- 
 ever. Passing on to France he secured the favor 
 of Louis Xiv, obtaining not merely the return of 
 his posts, but also royal aid in the establishment 
 of a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. His 
 
The French Regime 1 1 
 
 expedition missed the mouth of the river and was 
 landed four hundred miles to the west, at Mata- 
 gorda Bay. Setting out in 1687 overland to the 
 Illinois in a desperate attempt to reach Tonti and 
 bring reenforcements for his colony he was mur- 
 dered by mutinous followers. Some of his 
 men made their way to the Illinois, and the 
 Indians forestalled the Spaniards in accounting 
 for the rest of his colony. 
 
 But if La Salle was gone, Tonti and his colony 
 in Illinois were left. On hearing of La Salle's 
 death a year after it occurred he descended the 
 Mississippi in a vain attempt to rescue the Texas 
 colony. In 1690 he with La Forest, another of 
 La Salle's followers, was granted all La Salle's 
 rights in the Illinois. Fort St. Louis was moved 
 to the neighborhood of Lake Peoria once more, 
 and subsidiary posts appeared at Maramec on the 
 Fox River, and at Chicago. 
 
 The Jesuit influence now turned the scale 
 against the imperialists. La Salle had always 
 hated the Jesuits, believing they had carried their 
 opposition to him even to the point of stirring up 
 the Iroquois against him. The Jesuits on their 
 part disliked the whole imperial scheme of 
 La Salle. Their enemies maintained that they 
 wished to keep traders out of the west in order 
 themselves to enjoy a monopoly of trade; but 
 such a motive is not necessary to explain why men 
 
12 The Story of Illinois 
 
 engaged in christianizing the Indians should op- 
 pose the introduction of brandy into their vil- 
 lages ; for, perhaps because they lacked the white 
 man's partial' immunity gained by hereditary use, 
 strong waters literally turned the Indians to 
 beasts. The Montreal traders who suspected 
 that, in spite of royal prohibitions, La Salle's 
 establishments in the west bought furs that other- 
 wise would have come to Montreal added their 
 complaints to those of the Jesuits. The Jesuit 
 influence through the pious Madame de Main- 
 tenon, privately married to Louis XIV, prevailed 
 on the king. Partly on the ground of the pres- 
 ervation of the Indians, partly on the ground that 
 the fur trade of the West was not worth the wars 
 and military preparations it cost, in 1696 an edict 
 was issued barring all traders from the West. 
 Henceforth the Indians must bring their furs to 
 Montreal to trade under supervision of the au- 
 thorities. Tonti and La Forest might retain their 
 post but must not trade in beaver. 
 
 In spite of this prohibition the Illinois posts 
 survived. Tonti was removed by death at Mo- 
 bile in 1704; after that year La Forest was not 
 in the Illinois. 1 But the missions were developing. 
 
 1 The terms "The Illinois" and "the Illinois Country" are 
 used here and hereafter in the loose sense which they retained 
 till the nineteenth century, referring to settlements scattered 
 from the banks of the Mississippi and the lower Ohio to the 
 Great Lakes. In using the terms, men ordinarily did not think 
 of any exact boundaries. 
 
HENRI DE TONTY 
 
 From Bas-Relief in Marquette Building, Chicago 
 
The French Regime 13 
 
 Father Claude Allouez had carried on the work 
 of Marquette till his death in 1689. Father 
 Jacques Gravier succeeded him, laboring till 1705. 
 For a few years after 1696 the mission station of 
 the Guardian Angel stood at Chicago. In 1699 
 the Seminary for Foreign Missions established a 
 mission to the Tamaroa at Cahokia in the Amer- 
 ican Bottom. After a controversy with the Jesu- 
 its 'it was decided finally that the Seminary was to 
 retain its station, and the Jesuits were to control 
 the rest of the Illinois field. In 1700 they had 
 moved Marquette's Mission of the Immaculate 
 Conception to Kaskaskia. Settlement in the Illi- 
 nois was shifting toward the place at which it was 
 to rest for a century and more — the rich bottom 
 lands of the east side of the Mississippi below 
 the mouth of the Missouri — the American Bot- 
 tom of later pioneer parlance. This result was 
 due to the fact that La Salle's plan for the occu- 
 pation of the mouth of the Mississippi had at 
 last been accomplished. In 1699 the Sieur dTber- 
 ville had founded Biloxi ; and he looked for a re- 
 organization of trade around the new colony, 
 and proposed a regrouping of Indian tribes in 
 the upper country for defense. Accordingly he 
 brought the Illinois tribes to the Mississippi to 
 link them closer to Louisiana. In 1702 he pro- 
 jected a post near the mouth of the Tennessee to 
 shut out the English ; one was established near the 
 
14 The Story of Illinois 
 
 present site of Cairo; it lasted but a year or two. 
 For the Illinois settlement thus relocated for 
 strategic and commercial purposes there followed 
 years of slow growth, transmuting trading posts 
 into frontier villages. Coureitrs de bois married 
 squaws and became domestic; families of settlers 
 found their way out. In one way or another Illi- 
 nois held its own during the critical years of the 
 war of the Spanish Succession, 1702-1713. The 
 trading restrictions had always been hard to en- 
 force on the lawless men of the wilderness. The 
 Indians had never liked the requirement that they 
 carry furs to Montreal or the prohibition of the 
 trade in brandy; and in the stress of war, to keep 
 them away from English influence, violations of 
 the edict on the part of French traders had been 
 winked at. With 17 14 the policy was practically 
 abandoned. Then a Scotch adventurer, John 
 Law, of Lauriston, came to Paris with the project 
 of an imperial speculation; a great bank in Paris 
 rejuvenating the finances with paper money, and 
 a vast trading and colonizing enterprise in the 
 Mississippi Valley to give that paper money validi 
 ity. 1 Even the early eighteenth century knew 
 something of advertising and Law's glowing pro- 
 spectuses of squaws weaving silks, of a land flow- 
 
 1 Crozat's trading charter of 1712 did not cover Illinois. It 
 included only Louisiana, and at that date the boundary of 
 Louisiana was the Ohio River. 
 
The French Regime 15 
 
 ing with milk and honey, out of whose hills might 
 be dug, if not brass, at least gold and silver, drew 
 men's attention to the Great Valley; even drew 
 colonists into it. When the crash of the scheme 
 came in 1720 the awakened interest of France in 
 the Illinois and her enlarged settlements were in- 
 tangible assets with real value. 
 
 With the year 1721 came a reorganization of 
 French dominions in America. Louisiana was 
 laid off into districts; two of them, Arkansas and 
 Illinois were united in the commandery of Illinois. 
 In it a court was established in 1722. In 1720 
 Philippe Renault had come to Illinois in search 
 of mines. That same year Fort de Chartres was 
 begun; rebuilt in 1753 as tne Louisbourg of the 
 west, it was continued on a site which the English 
 later condemned as dictated by the pecuniary in- 
 terests of its builders rather than its command 
 of the Mississippi River. The interminable suc- 
 cession of battles and campaigns drags on from 
 17 1 2 in the Fox war, a struggle between the 
 Foxes and the French and their Indian allies. 
 Outlying settlements grew up : Ouiatenon near the 
 present site of Lafayette, Indiana, in 1720, Vin- 
 cennes in 1 731. In that year the control of the 
 Company of the Indies, the successor of Law's 
 enterprise, came to an end; and throughout the 
 remainder of the French regime Illinois was gov- 
 erned by the king. 
 
1 6 The Story of Illinois 
 
 The history of the Illinois till 1765 must thence- 
 forth be a recital of the names of the intendants 
 and commandants who ruled in the Illinois, and 
 of the Jesuits and seminary priests who labored 
 there. One romantic name stands out, that of 
 Pierre Dartaguiette, the brave young comman- 
 dant in the Illinois from 1 733 to 1 736. His end was 
 tragic. In 1736 he led an expedition down the 
 Mississippi to cooperate with the governor of 
 Louisiana in an attack on the Indians of the South- 
 west who under the influence of English traders 
 among them attacked the French convoys on the 
 river. The conjunction of the French forces was 
 never made, the Indians, under the guidance of 
 the English defeating both expeditions in detail. 
 Dartaguiette was captured at the defeat of the 
 Chickasaw Bluffs, and perished at the stake, sing- 
 ing his death song undaunted by the fire. 
 
 The settlement in the Illinois country was never 
 very large. It numbered perhaps 2,000 French 
 and negroes at the most, scattered mainly in the 
 little villages of Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, St. 
 Philips, Fort de Chartres, and Cahokia. Yet in 
 the fertile lands of the American Bottom this lit- 
 tle population raised grain that supplied not 
 merely the later posts on the Ohio, but Louisiana 
 and New Orleans as well. Where wealth such as 
 this existed commerce flourished. The fur trade 
 was mainly carried on by way of the Missouri 
 
The French Regime 1% 
 
 River, furs being shipped out by way of Canada. 
 In the government of the colony the French au- 
 thorities applied their favorite principle of check 
 and govern; against the authority of the com- 
 mandant they balanced that of the civil and crim- 
 inal judge or intendant, representative of the 
 finance department. Lesser figures were the store 
 keeper and the notary, an official whose records 
 included legal instruments, deeds, agreements, 
 marriage contracts and wills. A degree of self 
 government in village concerns devolved upon the 
 inhabitants of the villages who elected officials to 
 attend to local affairs. The villages had their 
 common fields administered in common; other- 
 wise land was held by various tenures, some of 
 them feudal but none of them oppressive. As in 
 Canada the holdings took the form of ribbons of 
 land running back from a narrow river frontage. 
 Externally an Illinois village of the French 
 regime represented various classes and standards 
 of life. There was a sprinkling of nobles and 
 bourgeois, the officials and well-to-do traders, liv- 
 ing as close to the fashions of Versailles as three 
 thousand miles of sea and one thousand of wil- 
 derness would let them, their houses garnished 
 with good furniture and plate. There were the 
 habitants, illiterate, simple, light-hearted folk 
 ready always for dance or frolic, taking not too 
 much thought for the morrow, and not cleaning 
 
1 8 The Story of Illinois 
 
 their homes too carefully. " For clothing, the 
 cotton plant furnished its fibre, and the warm 
 Mackinaw blanket the indispensable capot, with 
 a blue cloth hood for 'winter wear,' and the skins 
 of the deer dressed in the Indian manner for 
 trousers and moccasins. Thus appareled, and 
 with a short clay pipe burnt to an ebony color 
 by constant use, wending his way to gossip with 
 his neighbor, or by his own ingle, you have a pic- 
 ture of a colonial subject of the 'Grand Mon- 
 arque.'" 1 The lawless conreur de bois is always 
 in the background, and the negro. One man in 
 1765 owned no less than eighty negro slaves. 
 Around the settlements was a fringe of Indians, 
 half-civilized and half-christianized by the Jesuit 
 fathers, and wholly decadent. 
 
 With the middle of the eighteenth century 
 came the crisis of the struggle between Great 
 Britain and France for the control of the Ohio 
 Valley. The part of the English in western ex- 
 ploration, not so well known as that of the 
 French, is equally daring. At point after point 
 French and English came in rivalry from the 
 first. 
 
 Soon after they had explored the North for 
 France, Radisson and Groseilliers went over to 
 the English service and taught their new masters 
 of the rich fur trade that could be made tributary 
 
 iBreese, Early History of Illinois, 198. 
 
The French Regime 19 
 
 to Hudson Bay. English ships could enter it, and 
 tied up to wharves r n its harbors, exchange goods 
 for furs far cheaper than could the French, ob- 
 liged to carry their merchandise over a thousand 
 miles of lakes, rivers and portages. The French 
 seized the Hudson Bay posts in 1686, and main- 
 tained partial possession for almost thirty years, 
 but the Hudson Bay Company by the Treaty of 
 Utrecht in 17 13 was restored to its rights. 
 
 Barely had St. Lusson raised the lilies of 
 France at Sault Ste. Marie on the western edge of 
 the Great Lakes Basin, when Batts and Fallam, 
 adventurous Virginia explorers, passed the 
 heights of the Blue Ridge and on the New River 
 reached westward flowing waters, finding by their 
 way evidence that other and unknown Englishmen 
 had preceded them. By the latter part of the sev- 
 enteenth century, Virginia pack trains were seek- 
 ing the fur trade of the interior with the southern 
 Indians by way of the defiles of the French Broad 
 and the Little Tennessee, and around the south- 
 ern end of the Appalachian barrier in the present 
 state of Georgia. A letter left by Father Mar- 
 quette in 1673 on the lower Mississippi to be de- 
 livered to some Spanish priest to the south found 
 its way ultimately to William Byrd of Virginia; 
 how we can only conjecture. By the beginning 
 of the eighteenth century the English had passed 
 down the Tennessee to its mouth and had crossed 
 
20 The Story of Illinois 
 
 the Mississippi to the Arkansas country. They 
 were only months behind the French in reaching 
 to seize the mouth of the Mississippi. Fifteen 
 years before under the protection of the Iroquois 
 their traders had ventured on the Great Lakes 
 from Albany as far as Mackinac. The French 
 in the west felt themselves beset; at all events 
 they strove to make the home government think 
 they were. 
 
 The pressure of the English and the hostility 
 of Indian tribes had caused the French to pay 
 but little attention to the upper Ohio country be- 
 fore the forties. Their fur trade had lain across 
 the Mississippi; they were concerned more im- 
 mediately in making sure of their communication 
 with New Orleans by way of the Mississippi, and 
 with Canada by way of the upper Wabash and 
 Maumee and by the Chicago and St. Joseph por- 
 tages to Lake Michigan. Accordingly about 1 740 
 English trading posts began to spring up in the 
 present state of Ohio; and the French feared in 
 King George's War (1744-48) that the influence 
 of English traders on the Indians might rouse 
 them to a general massacre in the Illinois. The 
 French occupation under Celoron de Blainville of 
 the portages from Lake Erie to the Forks of the 
 Ohio was a desperate attempt to block off the 
 English from the Great Valley. Their clash with 
 the Ohio Company of Virginia land speculators 
 
The French Regime 21 
 
 and George Washington and the outbreak in 
 1754 of the French and Indian War are a part of 
 the nation's history. 
 
 In that war Illinois had but a minor part to 
 play. From the wheat fields of the American 
 Bottom it supplied the French garrisons with 
 food. It sent military contingents to the Forks 
 of the Ohio that participated in the actions of 1754 
 to 1758. It saw a fort, often incorrectly called 
 Fort Gage, 1 built at Kaskaskia in 1759, and Fort 
 Massiac built opposite the mouth of the Ten- 
 nessee two years earlier. Its garrisons took part 
 in one or two later campaigns in the main seats of 
 war; but there the story ends. The military de- 
 cisions in the war of 1756-1763 were to come in 
 fields remote from Illinois; at Louisbourg, at the 
 Forks of the Ohio, on the Plains of Abraham; 
 and when the Treaty of Paris in 1763 ceded to 
 England all France had claimed east of the 
 Mississippi save New Orleans, for two years the 
 French garrisons held the Illinois till Pontiac's 
 rebellion had subsided, and the English troops 
 could make their way to Fort Chartres and take 
 possession. 
 
 So passed the French regime in Illinois. It had 
 begun in the militant dreams of imperial trade 
 expansion, and the conversion of the Indians; and 
 
 1 This fort was on the bluffs above the town. Fort Gage was 
 the name given to the Jesuits' house in Kaskaskia, when used 
 as a fort by the British. 
 
22 The Story of Illinois 
 
 it had failed. France, unlike England, had re- 
 solved to exclude from her colony religious dis- 
 sent; and the Huguenot elements that might have 
 built her an empire overseas built one for Eng- 
 land instead. Her policy of restriction and regu- 
 lation had allured but a few hundreds and thou- 
 sands of docile Frenchmen to filter into the west 
 to hold it against the onward rush of the English 
 millions. The few hundreds of French inhabit- 
 ants remained clinging to their old customs and 
 speech till submerged in the vast tide of emigra- 
 tion that brought men of other European races 
 to Illinois by the hundred thousand and the mil- 
 lion. Of material results of the French regime 
 it is vain to inquire; a few oddly shaped land 
 holdings, a few peculiar titles to be fitted into a 
 world of township surveys, and Anglo Saxon land 
 laws; a few names of places. In spiritual results 
 the contribution is far richer; it has thrown a 
 gleam of the romance and chivalry of old France 
 across the page of Illinois history in the engaging 
 figures of Dartaguiette and the loyal Tonti; above 
 all it has left to all time the two ideal figures of 
 the missionary and the explorer, the saintly Mar- 
 quette and the heroic La Salle. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE DAY OF THE BRITON 
 
 TO THE French regime in Illinois succeeded 
 the English. From the year 1763 when the 
 English acquired title to the French territory east 
 of the Mississippi to the outbreak of the Amer- 
 ican Revolution, Great Britain faced the prob- 
 lem of organizing the Illinois country and her 
 other American acquisitions, and of coordinating 
 them in the empire which the war of 17 54- 1763 
 had thrust upon her hands. For the British em- 
 pire did not begin with a far flung plan of im- 
 perial dominion; it was a casual growth. English 
 traders had traded in India and the exigencies of 
 trade forced them to govern the people with 
 whom they traded. English colonies had grown 
 up on the Atlantic seaboard largely through the 
 salutary neglect of the mother country and had 
 committed England to an American war in which 
 France was driven from the continent. The prob- 
 lem of forming an imperial system out of these 
 accidental beginnings in 1763 was indeed a great 
 one. To enlarge a little island's government, 
 gnarled and twisted with centuries of constitu- 
 tional quibbles and compromises till it might serve 
 
 23 
 
24 The Story of Illinois 
 
 also as the government of some three million 
 Englishmen, Scotchmen, Irishmen, Germans, and 
 French on the Atlantic seaboard; to regulate 
 through it the inevitable displacement of the In- 
 dian by the expansion of the whites; to extend it 
 over a trading corporation such as the East India 
 Company, fast acquiring dominions in India, 
 larger, more populous, perhaps more wealthy 
 than England herself, and insure that the corpora- 
 tion should not itself corrupt English politics; to 
 extend an imperial order alike over the primitive 
 barbarism of the American Indian, and the an- 
 cient civilization of the Hindu; in short to unite 
 the North American wilderness, the seaboard 
 colonies, the sugar islands, the African slave coast 
 and India into an empire in which all should con- 
 tribute justly to the common defense; here was 
 the problem of England in 1763. Her attempts 
 to solve it are written in many places; in the proj- 
 ects of legislation for the East India Company, 
 in the parliamentary independence for a time be- 
 stowed on Ireland, in the measures of taxation 
 that produced the American Revolution, and 
 lastly in the abortive attempts from 1763 to 1774 
 to evolve a policy for the West. 
 
 The failure of England to solve her problem is 
 to be traced to the character of the English gov- 
 ernment of the eighteenth century. The revolu- 
 tion of the seventeenth century ostensibly trans- 
 
STATUE OF LA SALLE 
 
 Lincoln Park, Chicago 
 
The Day of the Briton 25 
 
 ferring control from the crown to the parliament 
 had really transferred it from the king to the 
 great landholders. Representation of the House 
 of Commons was in no sense equally propor- 
 tioned. Great cities had no representatives or at 
 best but two or four, while medieval towns that 
 had long since turned to sheep walks or sunk be- 
 neath the North Sea had their members duly 
 nominated by some local landholder; and in many 
 a little village the ownership of a few houses or 
 a few acres of land conferred on the holder the 
 right to name two members in the most august 
 legislative assembly in the world. From the time 
 when the rising importance of the House of Com- 
 mons became apparent, great nobles and great 
 landholders had been consolidating their control 
 of the boroughs that sent members to Parliament. 
 Cliques based on family relationship or political 
 alliances pooled their holdings in the House of 
 Commons, and made or unmade ministries by giv- 
 ing or withholding the support of their votes in 
 the House. Party government, as we understand 
 it, was nonexistent; the art of constituting a min- 
 istry lay in gaining the support of a sufficient num- 
 ber of aristocratic factions to secure majorities in 
 Lords and Commons. The policies of ministries 
 so constituted, on the west as on every other sub- 
 ject were in continual fluctuation. 
 
 Many interests awaited with impatience the de- 
 
26 The Story of Illinois 
 
 cisions the ministry must make as to the disposal 
 of the new domain. Land speculation had been a 
 mania in Virginia for a century and a quarter. Vir- 
 ginia gentlemen of influence had secured larger and 
 larger grants till the good lands of Virginia were 
 spent, and they looked with longing eyes to the 
 rich land beyond the mountains. Already in 1748 
 the Ohio Company had received a grant on the 
 upper Ohio; but the French and Indian War had 
 hindered its exploitation. Pennsylvania specu- 
 lators were as acute and as determined to fore- 
 stall their Virginia rivals; it was a saying that 
 every great fortune made in the province within 
 fifty years had been made in land. The sea to 
 sea charter claims of Connecticut and Massachu- 
 setts cut belts across the new West. On every 
 side were men eager that the government permit 
 them to go up and possess it; on every side, even 
 highly placed in England, were men who owned 
 land elsewhere, in Ireland, on the Atlantic sea- 
 board, in Florida, which they feared would be de- 
 populated or settled slowly, were the new lands 
 opened to settlement. Beneath the aristocratic 
 speculators fretted the mass of frontiersmen, 
 eager to sweep over the new paradise in spite of 
 the Indians. In deciding on its policy of settle- 
 ment in the West and in pursuing it the British 
 ministry had need of firmness. 
 
 The problem of trade offered as much diffi- 
 
The Day of the Briton 27 
 
 culty. It was estimated that the fur trade for- 
 merly tributary to Montreal was worth £135,000 
 a year. The English traders in the back country, 
 men who could not be controlled, whose cheating 
 and abuse of the Indians often foiled the best en- 
 deavors of the Indian agents to keep them loyal 
 to the British, might lick their lips at the thought 
 of this prize. Other fur trading interests at 
 home, such as the Hudson Bay Company, power- 
 ful in back stairs influence in politics had no de- 
 sire to see English rivals master this trade. In 
 later years a group of Scotch merchants took over 
 the Montreal trade and found kindly Scots at 
 home to defeat measures that threatened their 
 control of It. As many economic interests were 
 arrayed on either side of the trade question as 
 on that of the land. 
 
 Indeed the influences bearing upon the ministry 
 had made it hesitate when terms of peace were 
 first debated, whether to ask for Canada or for 
 Guadeloupe, a French sugar island of the West 
 Indies. In the debate waged in the pamphlet press 
 over the question, it had been pointed out that 
 the freeing of the seaboard colonies from the fear 
 of Canada might encourage them to strike for 
 their independence ; that tropical products such as 
 sugar were more valuable to England's trade than 
 those of the temperate zone which would com- 
 pete with her own produce. Opinion differed as 
 
28 The Story of Illinois 
 
 to whether acquiring the West and allowing the 
 colonies to expand into it would hasten the day 
 of their independence by increasing their strength, 
 or retard it by thinning their population and post- 
 poning the time when their manufactures would 
 compete with Great Britain's. The advocates of 
 Canada had their way in the peace. Thenceforth 
 they were politically bound to prove the useful- 
 ness of their trophy, as those who had opposed it, 
 such as the faction of the Old Whigs were natu- 
 rally inclined to point with satisfaction to every 
 proof that the exploiting of their opponent's ac- 
 quisition was not worth the cost. 
 
 The expansionist groups were in control of the 
 ministry at the treaty of peace; and the young 
 Earl of Shelburne, President of the Board of 
 Trade, began to develop a colonial policy. Al- 
 ready it had been decided to maintain a force of 
 twenty battalions of regular troops in the col- 
 onies, to garrison the interior, and to draw a line 
 between the possessions of the whites and the 
 Indians beyond which purchases were to be made 
 only by imperial authority, when in the late sum- 
 mer of 1763 the news of Pontiac's insurrection 
 reached London. Pontiac, an Ottawa chief, dis- 
 mayed at seeing the French replaced by the Eng- 
 lish on the west and outraged by the rapacity of 
 the lawless English traders, and the encroach- 
 ments of the white settlers, had formed a con- 
 
The Day of the Briton 29 
 
 federacy of Indian tribes and lifted the toma- 
 hawk. The Indian agents were powerless to 
 check the uprising. Every British garrison in 
 the West save Detroit, Niagara and Fort Pitt fell 
 into the hands of the Indians, and a long and 
 costly Indian war seemed the only alternative to 
 a speedy reassurement and conciliation of the 
 Indians by imperial authority. 
 
 To bring this about the famous Proclamation 
 of October 7, 1763, was issued. "A very silly 
 proclamation it was," exclaimed one of the men 
 responsible for it, in a moment of candor years 
 later. 1 Before its preparation was completed 
 Shelburne, owing to a factional upheaval, had left 
 office; it passed through the hands of his suc- 
 cessor, the Earl of Hillsborough, accumulating 
 divers blunders on its way. Intentionally it set 
 the crest of the mountains as the limit of settle- 
 ment, thereby for the time being shutting off the 
 older colonies from the newer West. In enumer- 
 ating other colonies, East and West Florida, Nova 
 Scotia, and Quebec, to which population was to 
 be invited to flow, it specified among their ad- 
 vantages English law and English government, 
 thereby at a stroke of the pen depriving the 
 French inhabitants of Canada of the law by which 
 their lands and lives were secured, and imposing 
 
 1 Lord Chancellor Northington. Alvord, Mississippi Valley 
 in British Politics, I, 264. 
 
3° The Story of Illinois 
 
 on them a representative government from which 
 religious tests barred them. Eleven years passed 
 before this injustice was undone. 
 
 A second step of imperial policy taken under 
 the new British ministry, made up of an alliance 
 of the Grenville and Bedford political factions, 
 was the organization of an Indian Department. 
 Since 1755 there had been Indian superintend- 
 ences North and South, the first under the fa- 
 mous Sir William Johnson, supervising more or 
 less under the control of the military department 
 all dealings with the Indians, issuing presents to 
 them and otherwise working to conciliate them. 
 The organization was now enlarged and elabo- 
 rated. Representatives of the superintendencies 
 were lodged with every tribe, and all trade with 
 the Indians was to take place at fixed posts, under 
 licenses issued by the superintendents. To carry 
 out the new Indian policy and to provide military 
 support for it, money was necessary; and the 
 Stamp Act was passed to secure from the colonies 
 their share of it. Their vociferous protest at be- 
 ing obliged to pay for an imperial policy they 
 had not approved, and at being committed to 
 subordination to the imperial authority of the 
 British parliament in taxation, helped to drive the 
 Grenville-Bedfords out of office. 
 
 The Duke of Bedford had been the negotiator 
 of the Treaty of 1763 and he and his followers 
 
The Day of the Briton 31 
 
 were therefore necessarily imperialists; but the 
 succeeding ministry, the Old Whigs, was made up 
 of opponents of the treaty of peace who so far 
 as the West was concerned were probably anti- 
 imperialist. They were great favorers of vested 
 and corporate interests and thus inclined to sym- 
 pathize with the outcry of the colonies as corpo- 
 rations against encroachment on their privileges 
 by the Stamp Act; hence they repealed it. They 
 went out of office in 1766 before they had time to 
 formulate a western policy; but it is not improb- 
 able that they would have withdrawn Indian su- 
 perintendents, traders, and soldiers alike and 
 shutting the door on westward expansion have 
 sought to preserve the West to all time as an In- 
 dian reservation. 
 
 The most promising attempt was now to be 
 made to reach a real solution of the western prob- 
 lem. William Pitt, the war minister who in the 
 Seven Years War had won England her imperial 
 rank, whose greatness in English politics de- 
 pended on force of character rather than the num- 
 ber of his henchmen in parliament, by the king's 
 command sought to gather a ministry undomi- 
 nated by factions that would seek to solve in 
 terms of the public good the problem of the 
 West, the problem of the East India Company 
 and the problem of governmental reorganiza- 
 tions. To formulate a broad western policy he 
 
3 2 The Story of Illinois 
 
 summoned to the office of secretary of state for 
 the southern department the Earl of Shelburne. 
 
 The three years that had passed since 1763 had 
 given an opportunity for the testing by actual 
 facts of the theories of the earlier period. The 
 unhappy plight in which the Proclamation of 
 1763 had put the French Canadians was long 
 since apparent. The Indian Department had 
 duly gone into operation; it was submitting most 
 astounding bills for presents made to the Indians. 
 Especially generous were those which Commis- 
 sary Edward Cole was sending from the Illinois, 
 where at last the English had arrived. George 
 Croghan, ablest of Indian diplomatists, and the 
 trusted assistant of Sir William Johnson in the 
 summer of 1765 had completed the pacification 
 of the Indians of the Wabash country; and on 
 October 9, 1765, Captain Thomas Stirling with 
 one hundred men of the Black Watch or 42d 
 Highlanders who had descended the Ohio from 
 Fort Pitt, relieved the French garrison at Fort de 
 Chartres. 
 
 Almost immediately it became apparent that 
 the fur trade of the West was a negligible asset to 
 British merchants. The news of the cession of 
 Illinois to the English had been followed by a 
 migration of many of the wealthier French in- 
 habitants across the river to the new villages of 
 Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis, the latter founded 
 
[From original owned by Chicago Historical Society] 
 (1786- 1868) 
 
The Day of the Briton 33 
 
 by Pierre Laclede in 1 764. " He appears " wrote 
 Captain Gordon in 1766, " to be sensible, clevert 
 & has been very well educated; is very active, and 
 will give us some Trouble before we get the Parts 
 of this Trade that belong to us out of His 
 Hands. " * From its beginning St. Louis domi- 
 nated southern Illinois. French traders roamed 
 at large, on the British side of the Mississippi 
 where no British trader dare set his foot outside 
 the protection of the posts, even though he chafed 
 at the regulation of the Indian Department that 
 confined him to them. Under Laclede's guidance 
 the fur trade flowed down the Mississippi to 
 Spanish New Orleans, whose control of the river 
 from the east bank, men were repeatedly to be- 
 wail in later years. Was the limited trade in the 
 West worth the amount it cost to regulate it? 
 
 Further, Shelburne was made aware of the ex- 
 istence of numerous colonizing projects based on 
 purchases, grants, or hoped for grants in the Ohio 
 and Mississippi Valleys. Virginia projectors, 
 Pennsylvania projectors, Connecticut projectors 
 crowded in, each with his map and his smoothly 
 written prospectus, each pointing out that his 
 western colony would enable the forts to be 
 cheaply rationed and would serve as a bulwark 
 to hold the country for England. These projects, 
 many of them dating from before the treaty of 
 
 1 The New Regime. C. W. Alvord and C. E. Carter, p. 300. 
 
34 The Story of Illinois 
 
 peace had been checked temporarily by the Proc- 
 lamation of 1763, but now took on new vigor. 
 
 Shelburne, as he conscientiously studied in 
 every possible detail the complex problem before 
 him, tended toward certain conclusions derived 
 in large part from the laissez faire economics he 
 had imbibed from Doctor Adam Smith, later au- 
 thor of the Wealth of Nations. Believing that 
 human legislation could not permanently alter the 
 trend of economic events, he regarded it as a vain 
 endeavor to seek to chain the Indian trade by dis- 
 tant imperial regulations or to dam up the in- 
 evitable flow of settlement over the West. To 
 him the only possible course was to return the In- 
 dian trade to the colonies for such regulation as 
 it was to have; the westward movement might be 
 rendered as little harmful to the Indians as pos- 
 sible by establishing new colonies in the West un- 
 der imperial auspices, but with almost complete 
 democratic self-government, their expenses to be 
 paid by quitrents exacted on all grants of land by 
 the British government. The very policy of ex- 
 pansion, that, formulated by the United States 
 in the Northwest Ordinance, was to cover the 
 wilderness with sovereign states on an equality 
 with the original thirteen was already hovering 
 in Shelburne's mind. 
 
 Only the preliminaries of his plan were worked 
 out. The illness of the great William Pitt, now 
 
The Day of the Briton 35 
 
 Earl of Chatham, had fatally weakened his 
 ministry; the nominal second in command, the 
 Duke of Grafton, was an easy-going nobleman not 
 too fond of Shelburne: "The duke of Grafton " 
 so Junius pilloried him to eternity, "has always 
 some excellent reason for deserting his friends." 1 
 Grafton sought factional support for his minis- 
 try; and the incoming representatives of the Bed- 
 ford faction made their bargain for the removal 
 of colonial matters from Shelburne's hands. Once 
 more the jest of fate had made Hillsborough his 
 successor and once more his work went for 
 naught. 
 
 Meanwhile events had moved fast in the Illi- 
 nois. Garrison followed garrison and comman- 
 dant commandant. Stirling was succeeded by 
 Major Robert Farmar, Farmar by Lieutenant 
 Colonel John Reed in 1766, Reed by Captain 
 Hugh Forbes in 1768, Forbes by Lieutenant Col- 
 onel John Wilkins until 1771. Some of them, 
 such as Stirling and Forbes, seem kindly and 
 honest men; others, as Reed and Wilkins, were 
 tyrannical and corrupt, charging fees for admin- 
 istering oaths of allegiance to the inhabitants, and 
 making their profit in the purchase of rations for 
 the garrison. 
 
 Colonial traders had already sought the trade 
 of the Illinois. In 1766 the Philadelphia firm of 
 
 1 Letters of Junius, 1806 Ed. I, p. 163. 
 
3 6 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Baynton, Wharton and Morgan prepared to em- 
 bark on the scale of an investment of £30,000 in 
 the Illinois trade. Goods were to be wagoned 
 across the Alleghanies, shipped down the Ohio 
 on boats built at Pittsburg and sold in the Illinois 
 to the Indians, to the French inhabitants, and to 
 the garrison at an expected profit of two hundred 
 per cent. The partner in immediate charge in 
 the Illinois was young George Morgan, effusively 
 affectionate in letters to his wife and perhaps not 
 too faithful to her, noisy in correspondence and 
 probably also in speech, hot headed, but inclined 
 to temper valor with discretion when engaged 
 with a» superior antagonist, his affection effusive, 
 but not nearly so lasting as his enmity; so Morgan 
 has written himself down for us in his preserved 
 correspondence. 
 
 A9 profits often do the two hundred per cent 
 failed to materialize. Goods were seized by the 
 lawless " Paxton Boys" of western Pennsylvania, 
 Indian haters who regarded all goods destined 
 for the redskins as fair prize; they were pilfered 
 by rascally agents at Pittsburg who wasted them 
 on fair and frail ladies; they were seized by In- 
 dians on the route down the Ohio; when they 
 reached the Illinois they had to compete with 
 goods imported by the French merchants from 
 New Orleans; and Lieutenant Colonel Reed, re- 
 fusing to trade with his fellow countrymen, sup- 
 
The Day of the Briton 37 
 
 plied the rations of the garrison through the 
 Frenchman, Daniel Blouin. 
 
 All these difficulties developed in time; long 
 before they all appeared, the great Philadelphia 
 firm was in difficulties and had to conduct its 
 business under the supervision of its creditors. 
 Morgan found a friend with whom he could " do 
 the needful" as he put it, in Lieutenant Colonel 
 John Wilkins, with whom he was to quarrel in a 
 year or two. A certain James Rumsey — still on 
 friendly terms with Morgan — to whom the part- 
 ners wrote fulsome letters of gratitude, trans- 
 ported out for the firm a large number of negro 
 slaves, which Morgan found an excellent mer- 
 chandise. But Rumsey ultimately joined the 
 service of a rival group of Lancaster, Pennsyl- 
 vania, merchants, of whom William Murray was 
 soon to be the agent in the Illinois. Between 1 770 
 and 1773 this firm operated much as the Phila- 
 delphia one had done, perhaps without much 
 larger profits. Even if Illinois was a frontier in 
 that day, large scale business was done in it. 
 Morgan despatched his Virginia hunters to west- 
 ern Kentucky to kill and salt buffalo beef for the 
 garrison, and reported game badly thinned by 
 French interlopers from over the Mississippi, 
 years before the crack of Daniel Boone's rifle 
 was ever heard in the bounds of the common- 
 wealth. 
 
3 8 The Story of Illinois 
 
 The French population in the Illinois was a 
 serious problem. The English ministry at first 
 felt aggrieved that it should remain there and till 
 1774 made no official provision for its govern- 
 ment. Captain Stirling authorized one La 
 Grange to decide disputes according to the law 
 of the country and in 1768 Lieutenant Colonel 
 Wilkins established a civil court, partly no doubt 
 to assist his friend, George Morgan, in collecting 
 debts from French merchants. At first it con- 
 sisted mainly of Englishmen; between 1769 and 
 1770 all of them but Morgan were replaced by 
 Frenchmen. March 4, 1770, the court was given 
 criminal jurisdiction; but Morgan soon quarreled 
 with Wilkins, and the court after June 6, 1770, 
 ceased to function. 
 
 The religious problem was no less serious. Be- 
 fore England took possession of the Illinois, 
 France had decreed the banishment of the Jesuits 
 from all her domains; the possessions of the So- 
 ciety in the Illinois were confiscated and its fathers 
 expelled. One of the Seminary priests, presuma- 
 bly fearing the heretic English would not respect 
 the possessions of a Catholic Mission, sold with- 
 out due authority for much less than its value the 
 property of the Seminary at Cahokia and left a 
 community of devout Catholics scattered from 
 the Wabash to the Mississippi without any 
 spiritual guidance whatever. As English law still 
 
The Day of the Briton 39 
 
 prohibited the Catholic hierarchy, no organiza- 
 tion existed to supply the want till Monseigneur 
 Jean Olivier Briand with the title of superintend- 
 ent was allowed to function as Bishop of Quebec 
 in 1766. 
 
 Meanwhile, one of the banished Jesuits, Father 
 Meurin, gained permission to return to the care 
 of his flock. His story would be a pitiful one 
 were it not illuminated by his saintliness and resig- 
 nation. Old and feeble of body, he labored 
 heavily at his task. The Spaniards drove him 
 from the western side of the river when he ac- 
 cepted from Briand the powers of apostolic vicar. 
 Despite the threat of being sent in chains to New 
 Orleans he returned secretly when he was needed. 
 The Jesuits in the day of their power had made 
 themselves hated by continually setting on the 
 civil power to punish ; and now many men with- 
 held their confessions from Meurin as a Jesuit, 
 and accused him of avarice. He toiled to the 
 limit of his feeble physical powers, uncomplain- 
 ing, vaunting not himself, asking of his superior 
 only that laborers be sent into the harvest to re- 
 lieve him. 
 
 In answer to his prayer there came a young 
 priest Pierre Gibault. Aggressive, with an ex- 
 cellent opinion of himself, with all the arts of 
 popularity, he soon gained the affections of the 
 people, pushed his way to Vincennes to be re- 
 
4° The Story of Illinois 
 
 ceived there with the deepest feeling of delight 
 by Catholics who feared damnation for their lack 
 of the ordinances of the church. Gibault was 
 fond of Meurin, but regarded him with pity as 
 feeble in mind as well as body. There was little 
 of the saint about Gibault. He petitioned Briand 
 to be allowed to bear arms to defend himself 
 against the savages. Ingenuously he confessed 
 his love of liberty was such that a rebuke from 
 his superior put him at death's door. The spirit 
 of a younger generation unused to obedience and 
 resignation spoke in him. 
 
 In the later years of English rule the French 
 inhabitants were manifesting the same spirit. In 
 1 77 1 they sent Daniel Bloiiin to General Gage 
 the British commander-in-chief in America to 
 represent their desire for a civil government 
 modeled on that of Connecticut. Gage naturally 
 rejected the proposal. The occasion gave rise to 
 a most interesting publication — the Invitation 
 Serieuse aux Habitants des Illinois. It called on 
 the Illinois French to proceed vigorously in ex- 
 ploiting the economic resources of their country, 
 to establish schools, and to accept the new regime 
 in industry and made the best of it. The restless 
 American spirit and love of liberty had already 
 fired the docile French of the Illinois. 
 
 In these same years the English ministry had 
 been little by little reaching a decision of pure 
 
The Day of the Briton 4 r 
 
 negation. There was a period of hesitancy. To 
 the eye of the ministry the real situation of the 
 distant West lay as obscure as though veiled in 
 the morning mists that rise from the bosom of 
 its great river. Now reports would come to them 
 with a note of optimism. Strong garrisons and 
 forts at the mouths of the Wabash and the Illi- 
 nois would shut out the French traders. Western 
 colonies of British subjects would supply the gar- 
 risons with cheap food and support them in time 
 of war. A little patience, above all a little more 
 expenditure and the prize of trade and possession 
 would be in their grasp. 
 
 Then alternated pessimism. The trade was 
 bound to follow the course of the Mississippi to 
 New Orleans; the endeavor to divert it through 
 British territory by cutting a canal outlec to the 
 sea from the Mississippi to the Iberville was 
 fruitless. The expense of the garrisons was very 
 great, they would be useless in time of war, their 
 walls were falling in decay, and there was no 
 British fur trade left for them to protect. Col- 
 onies would only inspire the Indians with resent- 
 ment and cause a new war. Month by month the 
 reports foreboded an Indian war in spite of all 
 efforts to avert it, especially after April, 1769, 
 when the great Pontiac had fallen at Cahokia 
 under the tomahawk of an Illinois bribed by the 
 English. To these latter voices Hillsborough 
 
4 2 The Story of Illinois 
 
 came more and more to listen; and General Gage, 
 a political soldier, tuned his reports to fit the 
 mood of the secretary. 
 
 Hillsborough therefore adopted Shelburne's 
 plan of dropping imperial regulation of Indian 
 trade; he dropped also the project of colonies. 
 Finally he decided to abandon most of the western 
 posts. Fort de Chartres was demolished in 1772 
 as a military post, though its stone works still 
 survive in fact as a memento of French Illinois. 
 A little garrison was kept in the Illinois however, 
 at Fort Gage at Kaskaskia. The ministry had 
 drifted under the control of Bedfords and Gren- 
 villes; but its policy was now centered on the exer- 
 tion and display of the imperial authority over 
 the contumacious inhabitants of the seaboard; it 
 had no inclination for the imperial exploitation of 
 the West. 
 
 With imperial control not present to direct 
 the westward movement, government officials and 
 private men alike were exploiting the West for 
 themselves. At the actual running of the Indian 
 boundary tentatively laid down in the Proclama- 
 tion of 1763 the complacency of John Stuart the 
 southern Indian superintendent and strange mis- 
 takes on the part of surveyors pushed it as far 
 west as the Kentucky River. At the treaty of Fort 
 Stanwix in 1768 Sir William Johnson accepted of 
 the Iroquois a similar cession of the greater part 
 
The Day of the Briton 43 
 
 of Kentucky. The lawless white frontiersmen 
 began to swarm over the mountains; before them 
 even came the surveyors and agents of the land 
 speculators, choosing the choicest tracts far down 
 the Ohio. In 1774 Richard Henderson of North 
 Carolina scented a revolution on the way that 
 would throw the West open to American settle- 
 ment and projected his Transylvania colony in 
 central Kentucky. In 1773 and 1775 William 
 Murray, acting in the latter year as agent for 
 Lord Dunmore, the land speculating royal gover- 
 nor of Virginia, bought of the Indians two great 
 tracts of land on the Illinois and Wabash Rivers. 
 The British government found that if it would 
 not adopt a decisive policy its subjects would. 
 Ever since 1769 it had been coquetting with a 
 scheme for a colony on the upper course of the 
 Ohio, Vandalia, for which the astute Samuel 
 Wharton of Baynton, Wharton and Morgan, had 
 adroitly secured plenty of the best social and 
 political backing; Hillsborough had been driven 
 from office on the pretext that he opposed it. But 
 the news of the Boston Tea Party of December, 
 1773, ruined Vandalia's chances. The British 
 ministry pressed through the Quebec Act of 1774. 
 Originally designed to restore to the French of 
 Canada their law, the full exercise of their re- 
 ligion, and relief from a representative govern- 
 ment exercised among them by a handful of 
 
44 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Englishmen, it sought to deal with the problem of 
 the Illinois by extending the bounds of Quebec 
 to take in the whole Northwest. Not only would 
 this allow the little French settlements at Detroit, 
 Ouiatenon, Vincennes and the Illinois to be gov- 
 erned economically by representatives of the 
 governor at Quebec; the presence of French law 
 might keep out English settlers and land specula- 
 tors, check lawless land purchases, and tie the 
 trade to Montreal and its Scotch merchants. 
 
 On this note of negation ends the eleven years 
 of British opportunity in the Illinois. The British 
 government had shown itself as incapable of pro- 
 jecting the orderly settlement of the West as it 
 had of incorporating the Atlantic seaboard col- 
 onies in an imperial system. It had hoped to 
 maintain the status quo indefinitely in the West by 
 the means of the Quebec Act. The inevitable 
 taking possession of the interior by the new 
 American people might have been regulated as 
 Shelburne had wished to do; but it was to be 
 checked neither by paper proclamations, nor the 
 terms of Acts of Parliament. France had failed 
 in the Illinois because she had no materials there 
 for building a strong colony. England had failed 
 because by her regulations she defied great human 
 forces. As the imperial opportunity offered her 
 in 1763 fades out in the Quebec Act of 1774 cer- 
 tain facts remain. The squatter and the land 
 
The Day of the Briton 45 
 
 speculator, familiar figures of the frontier for a 
 century before and a century and a quarter to 
 follow, have passed the edge of the Great Valley. 
 The French in Illinois have become restive, and 
 are dreaming of a state of things in which they 
 may work out their destiny independent of Down- 
 ing Street and Versailles alike. Most important 
 of all, Pennsylvania trader and Virginia hunter 
 have found the path to the Illinois; if the oppor- 
 tunity invites thither they may tread it again. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE AMERICAN CONQUEST 
 
 IN MANY respects the American Revolution 
 was a frontier movement. In colony after 
 colony the dwellers in the up-country were the 
 deciding weight in the scale of revolt against 
 British rule. Many of them were non-British in 
 race; they chafed at the British policy of barring 
 the West to them; and compared with the tide 
 water colonists their sense of the social prestige 
 that reflected from London, and their respect for 
 British military and naval power was of the 
 slightest. Almost coincident in point of time with 
 the Revolution was the first great rush of settle- 
 ment in the Ohio Valley; and the need of pro- 
 tecting the new settlements against the tomahawks 
 of British Indians led to projected attacks on De- 
 troit and the conquest of the French villages in 
 the Illinois by George Rogers Clark. Ultimately 
 this last contributed to the diplomatic situation 
 that in the treaty of 1783 gave the United States 
 title to Illinois and the Northwest. 
 
 The story of the conquest of the Illinois is, 
 then, interwoven with the story of the Revolution 
 in the West ; and that story begins with Dunmore's 
 
 46 
 
The American Conquest 47 
 
 War, in the summer of 1774; when, goaded by 
 continual encroachment from squatter and sur- 
 veyor in the Ohio Valley the Indians raised the 
 hatchet. Lord Dunmore, last royal governor of 
 Virginia, himself foremost among the land specu- 
 lators, proclaimed a crusade against the redskins 
 in which backwoodsman and speculator joined. 
 "The Oppertunty we hav So long wished for, is 
 now before us," wrote Colonel William Preston 
 of the frontier Virginia county of Fincastle. 1 
 The Indians were defeated near the site of 
 Charleston, West Virginia, at the battle of Point 
 Pleasant; but before the day in 1775 which was 
 to see the definitive treaty, Dunmore was a 
 refugee on a British ship of war; and some of 
 his former associates in the war, securing posses- 
 sion of Fort Pitt negotiated the final treaty in 
 the name and interests of the Continental Con- 
 gress. 
 
 Not all Dunmore's associates joined the Revo- 
 lution. Refugees among the British like the 
 Girtys and Alexander McKee, hated from one 
 end of the frontier to the other, were to marshal 
 the Indians in the British interest against Ken- 
 tucky. To Dr. John Connelly, for thirty years 
 the stormy petrel of the northwest frontier, 
 occurred the project of leading a British and In- 
 dian expedition from Detroit to seize Fort Pitt, 
 
 1 Kellogg, Dunmore' s War, 93. 
 
48 The Story of Illinois 
 
 break the rebellion in the back country, and ulti- 
 mately establish communication with the British 
 fleet. The American attack on Canada of 1775 
 frustrated the scheme. No forces could be spared 
 from the defense of essential points like Quebec 
 and Montreal; and Connelly's plans in the hands 
 of Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton of De- 
 troit degenerated into a series of Indian raids on 
 the new Kentucky settlements in 1777. The In- 
 dians it is true were urged to take prisoners, but 
 they usually took scalps. In 1776 George Mor- 
 gan, formerly trader in the Illinois, took station 
 at Fort Pitt as Indian commissioner for Congress 
 in the middle district, seeking to keep the Indians 
 friendly to the United States; but murders by 
 lawless whites and the constant encroachment of 
 new settlers made his task supremely difficult. 
 From end to end the frontier was harried by 
 bands, often led by renegades like the Girtys. 
 
 The Americans, however, had soon discovered 
 that down the Mississippi lay needed military 
 stores and supplies presided over by a Spanish 
 governor whose neutrality toward the United 
 States was most benevolent. In 1776-7 powder 
 was run up the river from New Orleans to Wheel- 
 ing, probably with the assistance of some men in 
 the Illinois country. In 1778 Captain George 
 Willing set out on a grand expedition of plunder 
 against the hapless British settlements in West 
 
The American Conquest 49 
 
 Florida. It served as a feint to distract atten- 
 tion from Clark's blow at the Illinois in that very 
 year. 
 
 Men's minds were not only turned to the South- 
 west. It was becoming clearer and clearer that 
 Detroit was the strategic point in the British 
 position in the West. Its loss would confine them 
 to Lakes Ontario and Erie; and the upper lake 
 region and the Mississippi would slip from their 
 grasp. In 1776 both Morgan and General 
 Arthur St. Clair had urged a blow from Fort Pitt 
 at Detroit, and in 1777 and 1778 expeditions 
 under Continental generals were actually pro- 
 jected. In the latter year George Rogers Clark 
 carried out his project of seizing the Illinois coun- 
 try both as a link with the Spaniards across the 
 Mississippi and at New Orleans and as a base 
 for an attack on Detroit. 
 
 It is necessary to glance back at the situation 
 in the Illinois villages. In 1772, after the dis- 
 mantling of Fort de Chartres Captain Hugh Lord 
 had gathered the little English garrison at Kas- 
 kaskia. His relations with the French inhabitants 
 were pleasant. The Quebec Act designated Vin- 
 cennes, Detroit, and the Illinois as districts each 
 to be governed by a lieutenant governor and 
 judges; but the lieutenant governor for the Illinois 
 had never repaired to his post. In 1776 Captain 
 Lord and his garrison were withdrawn for use 
 
5° The Story of Illinois 
 
 farther east; and Lord deputed his authority to 
 Phillippe de Rocheblave, last of the British com- 
 mandants in the Illinois. 
 
 De Rocheblave's record had not been overly 
 prepossessing. He had begun his career in the 
 French regime acquiring speedily a reputation for 
 intrigue; had governed at Ste. Genevieve for the 
 Spaniards, but had left his post under a cloud. 
 In 1776 he was available for chance employment, 
 and accordingly, without subordinates, troops, or 
 funds was left to exert in the Illinois such author- 
 ity as the inhabitants would let him. 
 
 Under the circumstances he accomplished as 
 much perhaps as anyone could have done. He 
 had the support of Cerre and Viviat, two of the 
 most substantial Frenchmen of the villages, and 
 of the lesser inhabitants; but such resident Eng- 
 lishmen as Thomas Bentley, William Murray, 
 and others who had come for trade were out- 
 spoken in their opposition. Rocheblave wrote 
 long reports to his superiors, begging for support, 
 but he wrote and implored in vain. Through his 
 letters runs the note of foreseen disaster impend- 
 ing. The Spanish commandant across the river 
 has told the Indians that when the corn is so high 
 he will have something to tell them. Bentley is 
 a traitor he dares not have arrested till he is lured 
 away to Mackinac. Some of the inhabitants have 
 supplied boats bringing munitions to the Amer- 
 
The American Conquest S l 
 
 icans from New Orleans. He is surrounded by 
 spies, traitors and enemies. The last of these 
 letters he penned July 4, 1778, the day George 
 Rogers Clark broke in on him. 
 
 The figure of Clark is one of the stateliest and 
 most pathetic in American history. He was now 
 twenty-six years old. At twenty he had first come 
 to the Ohio country; at twenty-two he had served 
 in Dunmore's War. He had been instrumental 
 in securing the absorption of Henderson's colony 
 of Transylvania into the Virginia county of Ken- 
 tucky. As major of militia in the new county he 
 decided to protect his charge by capturing the 
 British bases for the Indian raids. Never success- 
 ful so far, to the end of the Revolution with in- 
 adequate resources in men and means, he kept the 
 grip on the region of the Ohio that helped to 
 secure it for the United States in 1783. His later 
 years beset by poverty and drink, in which he in- 
 trigued with Spaniard and Frenchman, are pitiful. 
 He prided himself much on his strong resem- 
 blance to George Washington in form and feature ; 
 like him also in courage, resource, and resolution, 
 he fell short of that perfect balance in character, 
 that wisdom in public and private concerns alike, 
 that makes Washington nearer the ideal citizen 
 of the Greek philosophers than any other man 
 who has arisen in the twenty-odd centuries since 
 they first framed it. Washington could render his 
 
5 2 The Story of Illinois 
 
 country supreme service and at the same time lay 
 the foundations of a great estate. Clark con- 
 quered for Virginia an abiding place for twenty 
 millions of his countrymen, but lived to see him- 
 self a poverty stricken stranger in it. 
 
 It was in December of 1777 that Clark ob- 
 tained the consent of Governor Thomas Jefferson 
 of Virginia to his scheme of conquest; the next 
 spring he set out, collecting his meager forces at 
 the Falls of the Ohio, near the present site of 
 Louisville. With a little band thinned by deser- 
 tion to a hundred and seventy-five rifles he floated 
 down the Ohio to the site of Fort Massiac whence 
 he struck out overland for Kaskaskia rather than 
 stem the current of the Mississippi with his boats. 
 He arrived at Kaskaskia the evening of July 4, 
 1778. Rocheblave could not muster the French 
 militia against him. Clark won over Cerre and 
 Father Gibault, the busy young priest sent out 
 by Briand ten years before, and the French in- 
 habitants joyfully embraced the cause of Amer- 
 ican liberty. Gibault hastened off to Vincennes 
 and persuaded the inhabitants to accept the 
 American cause and, transferring their allegiance, 
 to sign the famous Oath of Vincennes. Clark 
 made treaties with the Indian tribes of the North- 
 west. He supported his little army by supplies 
 purchased from the inhabitants with drafts on 
 New Orleans drawn on Oliver Pollock the loyal 
 
GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 
 
 (1752-1818) 
 [From a copy by Edwards of Jarvis's portrait; the copy being in posses- 
 sion of the Wisconsin Historical Society] 
 
The American Conquest 53 
 
 financial agent of Virginia who in keeping Clark 
 supplied was to ruin himself. 
 
 On hearing of Clark's success the Virginia as- 
 sembly December 9, 1778, created the County 
 of Illinois as a county of Virginia. Three days 
 later John Todd was appointed county lieutenant. 
 On his arrival in the Illinois he laid off in his 
 county, as large as an empire, three districts, 
 Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Vincennes; in each of these 
 a court of justice was elected by the inhabitants. 
 The Illinois country was now a part of the Old 
 Dominion. 
 
 Clark's work of conquest was by no means com- 
 plete. In the early winter of 1778-9 Governor 
 Hamilton of Detroit launched an expedition, 
 English, French, and Indian, against Vincennes. 
 The fickle French, unwilling to fight against their 
 countrymen, deserted their leader, Captain Helm, 
 who surrendered to Hamilton. The "Hair 
 buyer" now only awaited settled weather in the 
 spring to recapture Kaskaskia and Cahokia in 
 the same way. 
 
 Clark saw the situation demanded desperate 
 measures. With what was left of his Virginia 
 forces and with the French of the Illinois he set 
 out for Vincennes across the swollen rivers and 
 flooded bottom lands of an Illinois February. 
 The story of that journey, of weary men wading 
 for miles in water reaching to the waist or the 
 
54 The Story of Illinois 
 
 neck, crossing one by one the swollen tributaries 
 of the Wabash without place to rest for days to- 
 gether, spurred on by the indomitable will of their 
 leader, is one of the great episodes of Illinois 
 history. Arrived at Vincennes, Clark, by the art 
 of bluffing he understood so well, separated the 
 inhabitants of the town from the " Hair buyer," 
 Hamilton, besieged him in Fort Sackville in the 
 town and took him and his forces prisoner. 
 
 With the recapture of Vincennes and the taking 
 of Hamilton, Clark stood at the zenith of his 
 achievements. All that seemed left to be done 
 was to complete his original plan by the capture 
 of Detroit, which would bar the British once and 
 for all from the upper lakes and the upper Mis- 
 sissippi. Clark failed to take Detroit in 1779 be- 
 cause three hundred Kentuckians under Colonel 
 John Bowman instead of cooperating with him 
 went on a futile Indian raid. In the fall of that 
 year Clark disposed his forces in the Illinois 
 villages and at Vincennes, himself taking post at 
 Fort Jefferson at the Iron Banks on the Mis- 
 sissippi a few miles below the mouth of the Ohio. 
 He hoped to take Detroit in the spring of 1780. 
 But the French were tired of supplying his troops 
 for pay in paper money and the commander at 
 Pittsburg failed to cooperate. Instead of taking 
 the offensive Clark planned to withdraw his forces 
 to Fort Jefferson, and there from a position in 
 
The American Conquest $$ 
 
 readiness prevent the British from reoccupying 
 the Illinois. 
 
 Illinois was still a scene of military operations. 
 In 1780 the British launched a direct attack upon 
 the French villages in the Illinois and St. Louis; 
 but Clark returned to the defense of Cahokia, and 
 the attacks on both sides of the river were beaten 
 off. Later in the same year a French officer, La 
 Balme, came to the Illinois, under what auspices 
 and for what purpose is not clear. He led an ill- 
 considered expedition of Illinois French against 
 Detroit but was defeated and killed on the way. 
 In revenge early in 1781 under the auspices of the 
 Spanish commandant at St. Louis, the French 
 from both sides of the river captured the British 
 fort at St. Joseph, held it for a day and then re- 
 treated as they had come. Save for Indian raids 
 and murders becoming more and more frequent 
 as the war drew to a close the active operations 
 in Illinois ended. 
 
 The Illinois villages in the years after 1779 
 were sinking fast into anarchy. The inhabitants 
 soon recovered sufficiently from their first en- 
 thusiasm for liberty to discover that the Virginia 
 paper currency proffered them for supplies was 
 sadly depreciated. Drafts drawn by Clark on 
 Oliver Pollock at New Orleans exhausted Pol- 
 lock's private fortune long before his patriotism. 
 The French villagers in the Illinois were not so 
 
5 6 The Story of Illinois 
 
 primitive as not to have a somewhat sophisticated 
 view of credit and commercial transactions; they 
 began to withhold supplies. Withholding sup- 
 plies from Clark's Kentucky backwoodsmen was 
 an ill task, however, and in various ways they 
 supplied themselves. The French were soon at 
 odds with their deliverers. 
 
 John Todd and his elected county courts made 
 some attempt to intervene in behalf of the in- 
 habitants. But in November, 1779, Todd left 
 the Illinois forever, designating Richard Winston 
 as his deputy. Of the courts he had established, 
 the Cahokia court preserved its authority and 
 maintained its regular elections till the establish- 
 ment of county government under the Northwest 
 Ordinance in 1790. The Vincennes court held 
 office till 1787, the justices successfully staving off 
 elections to fill their places. The Kaskaskia court 
 had the most troublous experiences of any, fall- 
 ing victim finally to the opposition of the Amer- 
 ican settlers. 
 
 The year 1779 is important in the history of 
 Illinois as the year of the coming of the first 
 Americans to make their permanent homes in the 
 Illinois. The first settlement in the Kaskaskia 
 district at Bellefontaine dates from this year. 
 In the course of the next year or two, appear such 
 names familiar in later Illinois history as Moore, 
 Oglesby, Shadrach Bond. In the Cahokia dis- 
 
The American Conquest 57 
 
 trict the first American settlement was at the 
 Grand Ruisseau. Differing from the French in 
 manners, language, religion, and custom, satisfied 
 of their own superiority, defiant of law and gov- 
 ernment not of their own choice, the Americans 
 added to the difficulty of maintaining orderly au- 
 thority, some of them soon becoming the tools of 
 the tyranny of John Dodge. 
 
 John Dodge, of Connecticut origin, first made 
 his appearance in the Illinois in 1780 engaged 
 with Thomas Bentley in buying up claims on Vir- 
 ginia at a heavy discount. In 1781 they went east 
 to collect, but that same year Dodge reappeared. 
 He charged Richard Winston, deputy county lieu- 
 tenant with treason and kept him in prison for a 
 time. The Kaskaskia court did not show what 
 Winston thought sufficient energy in assisting him, 
 and he abolished the court in November, 1782. 
 Next year he returned to Virginia, leaving the 
 Sieur Timothe de Monbreun as his successor, a 
 man whose connection with the founding of Nash- 
 ville reminds us that a trade on the Mississippi, 
 Tennessee, and Cumberland had already de- 
 veloped. De Monbreun failed to restrain 
 Dodge who fortified the old fort above Kaskas- 
 kia, and with a few American adventurers ruled 
 with a heavy and corrupt hand over the luckless 
 French inhabitants. 
 
 For almost five years a second migration of 
 
58 Th e Story of Illinois 
 
 French across the river to Spanish rule had been 
 taking place. Gibault had gone in 1778, Cerre 
 in 1779. The French who could not transfer 
 their possessions across the river were reduced to 
 petitioning for relief the far away Congress of 
 the Confederation. January 5, 1782, the legal 
 existence of the Virginian county of Illinois came 
 to an end with the act creating it. Till the ques- 
 tion was settled as to whether the government of 
 the West should be vested in the states or in the 
 nation the unhappy habitants might look in vain 
 for legal government. In June of 1786 the Kas- 
 kaskians petitioned Congress against Dodge, al- 
 leging he was the tool of British traders; and 
 Congress took the petition under advisement. In 
 1787 the Kaskaskians elected a new court; but the 
 political address of the Americans at Bellefon- 
 taine secured the choice of Americans for half 
 the places in it. The impossibility of conducting 
 a court so split between races and languages led 
 to its division into two. General Harmar, the 
 commander of the American troops in the West, 
 visited the Illinois in 1787; but he felt the bland- 
 ishments and hospitality of Dodge and fell in 
 with his insinuations that the French were unfit 
 for self-government. 
 
 The news of the passage of the Ordinance of 
 1787 threw the Kaskaskia district in deeper 
 anarchy were it possible. The legal authority of 
 
The American Conquest 59 
 
 its court could thenceforth be defied as nonexist- 
 ent. John Dodge in his hilltop citadel with his 
 band of supporters was the very image of the 
 tyrant of a Greek city state of twenty-three cen- 
 turies before. The Spanish commandant encour- 
 aged Indian raids on the Illinois to attract settlers 
 to the comparative order of the Spanish side; the 
 Indians robbed and murdered; white men were 
 equally lawless; neither property nor female 
 virtue was safe. 
 
 At Cahokia things went better. Despite the 
 theory of French incapacity for self-government 
 the court there maintained its authority. When 
 the Americans at Grand Ruisseau sought to set 
 up an independent court, the French court re- 
 pressed the scheme and put the malcontents in 
 irons. Eventually, however, the Americans of 
 Grand Ruisseau and Bellefontaine were allowed 
 to unite in a court of their own. Even at this dis- 
 order was rife. John Edgar, a man of property, 
 one of the later American settlers, in 1789 prom- 
 ised that he could hold out till March of 1790. 
 If stable government did not come by then, he 
 must abandon the Illinois for good. But on 
 March 5, 1790, Governor Arthur St. Clair ar- 
 rived at Kaskaskia, and the course of the Illinois 
 country as a part of the Northwest Territory 
 began. 
 
 We must now turn back to trace the course of 
 
60 The Story of Illinois 
 
 events by which the United States secured the 
 Northwest and made the first steps toward pro- 
 viding for its government. The acquisition of the 
 territory was the result of an intricate tangle of 
 diplomacy internal and external. Since 1778 
 France had been the ally of the United States 
 and at war with Great Britain. Since 1779 Spain 
 had been involved in the war as the ally of 
 France. Much has been written as to the attitude 
 of those powers toward the young nation. The 
 view that France had dreams of recovering the 
 Northwest and perhaps Canada has the support 
 of Professor Frederick J. Turner, who sees in 
 La Balme's expedition a corroboration; but the 
 present balance of authority is the other way. 
 France entered the war with a view to reviving 
 her lost prestige in European politics by the de- 
 feat of her old rival, England. She was probably 
 at all times disposed to fulfill the specific terms 
 of her bargain with the United States; but she 
 had also to satisfy her ally, Spain; and to do both 
 was a difficult matter. 
 
 Spain had entered the war under the influence 
 of the imperialist revival she experienced in the 
 second half of the eighteenth century. ^ In those 
 years she was extending her possessions in Califor- 
 nia ; she hoped in the war to recover the Floridas, 
 lost to England in 1763 and the fortress of 
 Gibraltar lost sixty years before. But her colonial 
 
The American Conquest 61 
 
 empire was to be one of absolute rulers and doc- 
 ile subjects; and the example of rebellious colo- 
 nists and lawless frontiersmen was one which she 
 wished to keep far from her borders. She 
 wished to see the American republic remain a 
 little group of distracted states, impoverished in 
 finance, limited in territory, a perpetual object 
 lesson to subjects against the mirage called liberty. 
 Any really generous treatment of the United 
 States in the treaty of peace she opposed; and 
 France, striving to satisfy her in this respect had 
 continually to urge on the Congress extreme mod- 
 eration in its territorial demands. 
 
 She found certain of the state delegations to 
 the Congress ready to cooperate. The division 
 of the states into landed and landless is signifi- 
 cant. On the one hand such states as New Jersey, 
 Delaware, Maryland had boundaries long since 
 fixed at limits rendering them diminutive beside 
 the great belts of territory claimed by Massachu- 
 setts, Connecticut, and North Carolina under 
 seventeenth century u sea to sea" charters; far 
 more beside the vast claims of New York to the 
 lands over which her vassals, the Iroquois, 
 claimed sway to the West. Greediest and most 
 pertinaceous in her claims, however, was Virginia, 
 insisting that the extension of her boundaries west 
 and northwest as her old charter bade, would 
 throw the greatest part of the old Northwest and 
 
62 The Story of Illinois 
 
 all Kentucky into her hands. What equality, 
 argued the small states, could there be in a union 
 of which some members were so vast and others 
 so small? Should the blood and treasure of 
 Maryland and Delaware be poured out in the 
 battles of the Revolution to win fortunes for 
 Virginia speculators? Maryland refused to 
 ratify the Articles of Confederation till New 
 York's cession to Congress of her claims had en- 
 sured that all the western claims would be pooled 
 for the benefit of the United States as a whole. 
 Virginia finally ceded her claims north of the 
 Ohio in 1784; specifying that the claims of her 
 enemies the land companies should forever be 
 barred and that her expenses for Clark's con- 
 quest be reimbursed her. 
 
 Meanwhile various interests clustered around 
 Maryland. The land companies such as the Illi- 
 nois and Wabash and the Vandalia who foresaw 
 the ruin of their claims should Virginia make 
 good her hold; the French agents anxious that 
 the United States should not insist on too large 
 a territory in the treaty; all looked to Maryland 
 as their advocate. In 1780-178 1 it was a ques- 
 tion whether, losing state after state to the British 
 in the South, the confederacy would not as Spain 
 suggested negotiate on the ground of present 
 possession. 
 
 The victory of Yorktown changed the military 
 
The American Conquest 63 
 
 situation in the East; and the fall of Lord North's 
 ministry in England ensured the colonies liberal 
 terms; for the Earl of Shelburne, prime minister 
 at the critical time of the negotiations, resolved 
 to secure to Great Britain the future friendship 
 of America and at all costs to detach her from 
 dependency on France and Spain. Possibly the 
 American diplomatists might have gained Canada 
 by more astute play of their hands; but the ac- 
 quisition of all the Northwest to the channel of 
 navigation through Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, 
 and Superior was a triumph great and unfore- 
 seen by France. 
 
 The years 1 780-1 784, had seen the solution 
 of two problems regarding the Northwest and 
 the Illinois; the title in it was to rest in the 
 United States; and its settlement was to take 
 place under the auspices of the United States 
 and for the benefit of the United States as a whole. 
 Whether the new nation would have the strength 
 to hold the West when England under ministers 
 less liberal than Shelburne should repent of her 
 generosity in 1782; whether the United States 
 could muster the political wisdom necessary to 
 solve the problem of government and empire 
 where both France and England had failed, were 
 still open questions. 
 
 The first question was to be answered only in 
 the next generation ; but the United States' demon- 
 
64 The Story of Illinois 
 
 stration of her capacity to meet the second comes 
 within the space of ten years. The very fact that 
 the congress of the United States had a West 
 to develop and needed efficient powers to do so 
 was a contributing factor to the framing of the 
 Constitution of the United States in 1787; the 
 need of an organization under which free govern- 
 ment might develop in the West bore fruit in the 
 famous Ordinance for the government of the 
 territory northwest of the River Ohio. 
 
 Congressional action on the problem of west- 
 ern organization really begins with Jefferson's 
 draft of the Ordinance of 1784. In the western 
 country were already settlements; in the present 
 states of Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, 
 Tennessee, and Kentucky. Jefferson's proposal 
 was to block the whole acquisition of 1783 off 
 into embryo states, ten of them in the Northwest 
 and Kentucky, with extent determined in part at 
 least by physical configuration. Within each of 
 these states the inhabitants might form an almost 
 autonomous government that on reaching a cer- 
 tain population might be admitted to the original 
 sisterhood of states. Slavery, Jefferson, proposed 
 to prohibit in the West, North and South alike 
 after 1800. Jefferson's proposal was amended 
 and recommitted; for three years Congress 
 brooded over the ordinance. In 1785 Monroe 
 brought back word that the prairies were a hope- 
 
The American Conquest 65 
 
 less desert sure never to be densely populated; 
 and Congress decided the country north of the 
 Ohio should be the basis of three or at most of 
 five states. Congress was again debating a draft 
 ordinance not far removed in form from that 
 finally adopted, when a new factor gave an im- 
 petus to their work. 
 
 Since the close of the Revolution a group of rev- 
 olutionary soldiers, mainly New Englanders, had 
 been considering the possibility of a settlement 
 founded in the wilderness, where in the eco- 
 nomic race they might regain the ground their 
 patriotism had lost them at home. Washington 
 had endorsed their plan, but Congress did noth- 
 ing; and for a time they thought of settling in 
 the future state of Maine. However, General 
 Rufus Putnam, who had been surveying lands in 
 Maine after visiting the Ohio country reported 
 the latter incomparably better, and new interest 
 was aroused. An Ohio Company was formed in 
 New England among old soldiers who agreed 
 to contribute continental scrip and bounty land 
 warrants to the purchase of a large tract at the 
 Muskingum River. To negotiate the purchase 
 they sent several agents to Congress, notably the 
 Reverend Manasseh Cutler, Congregational 
 divine, chaplain in the Revolution, scientific bota- 
 nist, physician, financial negotiator, politician, fu- 
 ture congressman. 
 
66 The Story of Illinois 
 
 On arriving at New York where the Congress 
 was sitting Manasseh Cutler was not long in per- 
 ceiving the strong points in his position. The men 
 of his company, conservative, many of them sup- 
 posedly favorers of monarchical government in 
 the United States, were the sort of men the grow- 
 ing conservative spirit wished settled in the West 
 to curb its lawlessness. The news of the purchase 
 and prospective settlement by such men would 
 draw additional purchasers. Wealthy New York 
 speculators planned to launch a land company of 
 their own in connection and assisted the Ohio 
 Company in getting what it wanted. 
 
 With those influences working for him Cutler 
 made the best possible bargain. Primarily in- 
 terested in the financial terms of the transaction, 
 he was concerned incidentally in getting the 
 Northwest Ordinance made a fit thing for New 
 England men to live under. As it finally passed, 
 the local autonomy in Jefferson's draft was modi- 
 fied. In the first stage of territorial government, 
 authority was to be exercised by a governor, secre- 
 tary, and judges appointed by Congress, selecting 
 laws from the codes of the original thirteen states. 
 With a population of 5,000 the territory might 
 pass to the second stage in which the lower house 
 of the legislature was elected by the people, the 
 governor chosen by Congress, and the council 
 elected by cooptation of the Congress and the 
 
The American Conquest 67 
 
 territorial lower house. With a population of 
 60,000 within the bounds designated for a state, 
 the state was to be admitted to the Union on an 
 equality with the older commonwealths. By the 
 famous Sixth Article of Compact, slavery was 
 never to be introduced. 
 
 The ordinance, as has been said, represents a 
 reaction from the extreme of autonomy of Jeffer- 
 son's draft of 1784. Yet wisdom there undoubt- 
 edly was in dispensing with representative institu- 
 tions in a frontier settlement that was almost a 
 military outpost; here liberty enough would exist 
 in any case and stronger government than the com- 
 munity could impose on itself was necessary. The 
 two successive degrees of enlargement, to the 
 second territorial stage and to statehood were 
 a pledge that the older states would never try to 
 reduce the West to a permanent colonial depen- 
 dency. Citizens of the old states might go into 
 the new country secure that the political privileges 
 they had enjoyed at home would follow them as 
 fast as they were able to make use of them. So 
 far as a paper plan could solve it, the problem of 
 imperial organization in the West had been 
 solved. Whether the United States was strong 
 enough to hold the territory and put the plan in 
 operation or whether her teeming western popu- 
 lation might not develop in allegiance to some 
 other government time only could tell. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE NORTHWEST 1783-1816 
 
 BY THE treaty of 1783 the United States 
 had acquired a title to the Northwest, but 
 little more. The Illinois villages, torn by anarchy, 
 would look to her for orderly government; from 
 her borders the headstrong frontier element 
 would pour across the Ohio against the Indians; 
 but that was all the " thirteen fires" — as the In- 
 dians named the new republic — could reckon on 
 in 1783. For thirteen years Great Britain re- 
 tained the posts south of the treaty line that con- 
 trolled the Great Lakes and the northern part of 
 the Northwest Territory; for twenty years more 
 her citizens controlled the region commercially 
 and encouraged the Indian to make head against 
 the American. Not until 18 15 did the British 
 abandon the hope of obtaining a buffer Indian 
 state in the Northwest; not until 18 16 did the 
 United States enter on full possession of her 
 mighty empire. 
 
 To grasp the difficulties of the years 1783-18 16 
 one must understand a theory and a policy which 
 ran through the writings of Canadian governors 
 and commandants of that generation with respect 
 
 68 
 
The Struggle for the Northwest 69 
 
 to American control of the Northwest. The 
 theory is that the negotiators of 1782 from ignor- 
 ance or folly had committed a terrible mistake. 
 Running the international boundary through the 
 channel of navigation of the Great Lakes and 
 the Grand Portage from Lake Superior to the 
 Lake of the Woods and the Far West, they had 
 shared with the Americans the control of the 
 lakes and of the routes on which must pass the 
 fur trade of those regions. At every portage on 
 the route the Americans might establish them- 
 selves. 
 
 To Montreal merchants interested in retaining 
 a monopoly of the fur trade this was disaster 
 enough; but the military officers reasoned a step 
 further. Whoever controlled the Indian trade of 
 the Northwest controlled the Indians. Hopelessly 
 withdrawn from the independence of his fathers 
 to hunt for the white man, the Indian must look 
 to his master for blankets, kettles, gun powder 
 and rifles. In time of peace the white man's 
 hunter, in time of war his mercenary soldier, em- 
 ployment with one side or the other he must seek. 
 Supposing him employed by the American in time 
 of war — and the British officer judged the 
 American's willingness to employ him by his own 
 — the long unstable line of defense in Canada, 
 stretching from the straits of Detroit to Quebec 
 might be pierced by attack from the Chaudiere or 
 
70 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Lake Champlain, the right flank cut off by an 
 advance at the outlet of Lake Ontario, and turned 
 by the attack of an army of western Indians at 
 Niagara and Detroit. One campaign with Indian 
 assistance should bring the Americans to the gates 
 of Quebec. On the other hand, if the Indians of 
 the Northwest were on the side of the British, the 
 right flank at least was safe. At all costs, there- 
 fore, the Indians must be held in attachment to 
 the British. 
 
 The policy by which this was to be accomplished 
 must necessarily be a delicate one that sometimes 
 trod close to the margin of international comity. 
 So long as Great Britain could avoid surrendering 
 the western posts she held south of the inter- 
 national boundary she could retain fur trade and 
 Indians alike. But in the long run she must at- 
 tempt to maintain an Indian buffer state that 
 might stand permanently between the American 
 settlements on the Ohio, and the British fur trade 
 on the lakes. Not till 1815 did British officials 
 finally abandon the project, and admit that by 
 policy, commerce and the sword the United States 
 had won undisputed control of the Northwest. 
 
 Of course this policy varied from time to time. 
 Till 1790 the British counted on assistance from 
 American sources; the disaffection to the United 
 States in Kentucky and Vermont, then outlying 
 frontiers of the Union but loosely connected with 
 
The Struggle for the Northwest 7 1 
 
 it by law or sentiment, the supposed friendliness 
 of the Ohio Company settlers to monarchical in- 
 stitutions. When the Nootka Sound controversy 
 was on foot with Spain in 1790, and it seemed 
 that Great Britain would make war for control 
 of the north Pacific coast, the British realized 
 that the Americans in the West, if not the United 
 States, might be a useful auxiliary. Toward the 
 end of the century they counted on it also, in the 
 days when it seemed that Spanish Louisiana would 
 pass from the feeble hands of Spain to the vigor- 
 ous ones of France, and that French influence 
 would dominate the tribes of the Northwest and 
 control the Mississippi River route to the sea. 
 For a decade after 1796 the policy of hostility to 
 American interests in the West in view of more im- 
 mediate danger remained veiled; but then disputes 
 over the rights of neutral trade once more re- 
 vealed its presence. 
 
 The United States in 1783 had plunged boldly 
 into the solution of her difficult problem. She 
 demanded, even if in vain, the cession of the 
 western posts — Mackinac, Detroit, Niagara, and 
 the rest. She gathered the chiefs of the Iroquois 
 or Six Nations and the Indian Nations of the 
 Ohio and Indiana and in a series of treaties cul- 
 minating with the treaty of Fort Harmar of 1789 
 secured paper cessions of all but the northern 
 part of Ohio. But the treaties and the encroach- 
 
7 2 The Story of Illinois 
 
 ments of the white settlers goaded the Indians to 
 war, and in 1789 massacre broke out along the 
 Ohio. 
 
 The Americans launched punitive expeditions 
 against the country where the Indian villages lay 
 thickest — the interlocking headwaters of the 
 Wabash, the Great Miami, and the Maumee, 
 what is now northwestern Ohio and eastern In- 
 diana; General Harmar's expedition in 1790 
 ended in something very like a defeat. A year 
 later General Arthur St. Clair, Governor of the 
 Northwest Territory, a feeble old man, led a still 
 larger one; it was ill-equipped, ill-supplied, ill- 
 disciplined and started too late in the year. No- 
 vember 4, 1 79 1, its campaign came to an end 
 when its camp on the upper waters of the Wabash 
 was stormed by the tribesmen in a massacre 
 proverbial to the day when Custer's Last Fight 
 replaced it. The Indians seemed on the point of 
 making good their demand that the Americans 
 give up the claim to the Northwest acquired by 
 the Treaty of 1783, and retire behind the Ohio. 
 The United States, while raising a new army, 
 opened negotiations for peace. 1 
 
 1 It is hard to state precisely the policy of the British from 
 1791 to 1795. The home government and the Canadian officials 
 alike had welcomed the pretexts offered by the American fail- 
 ure to live up to the provisions of the Treaty of 1783, that no 
 legal barrier should be opposed to the payment of debts owed 
 to British merchants, in order to retain the western posts and 
 the western fur trade. The local British Indian agents and the 
 
The Struggle for the Northwest 73 
 
 After St. Clair's defeat the British game became 
 indeed a difficult one. Elaborate American prep- 
 arations against the Indians equally threatened 
 Detroit; and as an outpost to defend it in 1794 
 the British founded a new fort on American soil 
 at the rapids of the Maumee. They took under 
 their fostering care the negotiations of the United 
 States with the Indians, permitting American com- 
 missioners in 1793 to deal with the Indians 
 through British intermediaries. The English of- 
 ficials hoped that the Indians would grant a 
 boundary that the United States could accept, and 
 thus assure permanently their desired neutral 
 ground in the Old Northwest. They enlisted the 
 
 British fur traders who wandered unchecked through the terri- 
 tory undoubtedly encouraged the Indian resistance. The higher 
 British officials in Canada were at least complacent to it. They 
 were convinced, or affected to be convinced, that the expeditions 
 of Harmar and St. Clair had for their goal the seizure of 
 Detroit and with it control of the upper lake3 and the lion's 
 share of their fur trade. Yet while they wished Indian resist- 
 ance to American aggression they disapproved strongly its 
 reaching the point of war. War injured the fur trade and 
 threatened ultimately to involve Great Britain herself. John 
 Jay was in England endeavoring by a general treaty to settle 
 the various issues, including those of the Indians and the west- 
 ern posts which in 1793 had seemed to be hurrying the two na- 
 tions into a general war for which neither one was anxious. 
 Therefore when Lord Dorchester, governor of Canada, early 
 in 1794 told the Indians that he would not be surprised at war 
 with the United States, and reminded them that a new boundary 
 must then be drawn by the warriors, he much exceeded the 
 policy of the English ministry. Once the American campaign 
 of 1794 against the Indians began Canadian officials had the 
 hard task of retaining the confidence of the Indians without 
 assisting them by any overt act. That they failed is not sur- 
 prising. 
 
74 The Story of Illinois 
 
 influence of the Six Nations to this end. The Six 
 Nations and the Lake Indians would have offered 
 the United States the Muskingum; but the re- 
 mainder insisted on the Ohio and the old line of 
 the Treaty of Fort Stanwix of 1768. They re- 
 fused in the negotiation of 1793 to admit the 
 American commissioners to council until they 
 yielded the Ohio boundary; and the negotiations 
 broke off, as the British believed the Americans 
 intended they should. 
 
 While the Indian negotiations of 1793 were in 
 progress, Major General Anthony Wayne had 
 been patiently disciplining a new army, and drill- 
 ing it in open order formations. In the spring 
 of 1794, Wayne, a wise, wily, cunning Wayne far 
 different from the dare devil hero of such enter- 
 prises as the storm of Stony Point where the last 
 order was to carry the works by the bayonet 
 alone, had begun his campaign. Slowly he crept 
 forward into the Indian country fortifying a post 
 at each step. Indian chiefs who knew what good 
 exterior guard was tried in vain to penetrate his 
 outposts and announced that the Americans had 
 now a new war chief who never slept. On August 
 13, 1794, he issued a manifesto to the tribesmen 
 bidding them take the choice of peace or war, and 
 receiving no satisfactory answer passed down the 
 Maumee valley devastating their villages and 
 corn fields. On the twentieth of August advanc- 
 
The Struggle for the Northwest 75 
 
 ing in open formation through a windrow of the 
 forest he came on the Indians prepared for battle. 
 His infantry, trained as Colonel Bouquet had 
 trained them forty years before, fired and ad- 
 vanced in open order at the charge; the cavalry 
 turned the Indian flank and all was over. 
 
 As a military engagement the Battle of the 
 Fallen Timbers was a small affair; the British 
 insisted and probably with truth that but a frac- 
 tion of the Indian strength was engaged in it; but 
 Wayne, aided by fortune, exploited its full 
 psychological effect on the mercurial Indian tem- 
 perament. It took place but a little above the 
 new British fort at the Rapids, and the beaten 
 Indians, fleeing to the fort of their British father 
 for shelter, found the gates closed against them 
 by a commandant who feared to give Wayne a 
 pretext to begin hostilities. Wayne put to the 
 torch the Indian villages and the houses of the 
 British traders around the fort, reconnoitering in- 
 solently under its very guns. The Indians knew 
 nothing of the diplomatic limitations on the com- 
 mandant and disillusioned and discouraged, saw 
 themselves deserted by their British father in the 
 hour of need, and his strength flouted by the com- 
 mon enemy. The news of Jay's treaty with its 
 promised surrender of the western posts to the 
 Americans only deepened their sense of abandon- 
 ment by the British. Through that winter of 
 
76 The Story of Illinois 
 
 1795 the prestige of the British decayed as that 
 of Wayne, the American war chief who for good 
 or evil had kept his word with them, increased. 
 And when Wayne summoned the tribes to meet 
 him in council at Greenville in July of 1795 the 
 chiefs and the warriors flocked in. This would 
 be no treaty conducted with a handful in a corner. 
 Its results would be definitive and permanent. 
 
 As delegation after delegation trooped into the 
 post at Greenville they were greeted by Wayne 
 with the assumption of superiority and acquiesced 
 in it. When the moment for actual negotiation 
 came, he demanded of them the surrender of 
 everything southeast of a line across Northwestern 
 Ohio that stands as the basis of all future ne- 
 gotiations and Indian cessions. Further he ex- 
 acted the cession of small tracts at every 
 important post and portage in the West, the im- 
 portance of which in control of the trade the In- 
 dians themselves well understood. Among these 
 was the future site of Fort Dearborn at Chicago 
 and tracts at Peoria and the mouth of the Illinois 
 River. The tribes protested, but protested as 
 individuals and were easily overawed and sil- 
 enced; and when Wayne at the final session called 
 on each tribe individually to say if it acquiesced 
 none dared lift a voice against the treaty. 
 
 The treaty of Greenville and the surrender by 
 Great Britain in 1796 of the western posts of 
 
The Struggle for the Northwest 77 
 
 which Detroit and Mackinac were the most im- 
 portant, end the first chapter of the struggle of 
 the United States for the Northwest. It had ac- 
 quired an undisputed foothold for settlement and 
 military control of the whole area. It had yet to 
 learn, however, that trade did not follow the flag; 
 and for twenty years more it seemed to hold only 
 the outward symbols of power in a region where 
 influence with the Indians and profitable trade re- 
 mained with the British. 
 
 For Jay's treaty in spite of the surrender of 
 the posts had been a hard bargain. It had re- 
 affirmed the right of British subjects to navigate 
 the Mississippi freely even though it had been 
 ascertained since the Treaty of 1783 that the river 
 nowhere touched British soil; still worse, it ac- 
 corded to British traders the right to trade freely 
 in American territory; and the reciprocal provision 
 for the benefit of Americans — the territory of 
 the Hudson Bay Company being excepted from 
 it — was only a hollow mockery. These objec- 
 tions Madison had urged to Jay's Treaty as suf- 
 ficient ground for its rejection; but Congress had 
 concluded to shoulder the burden. 
 
 At this point it is necessary to consider in detail 
 the causes of the British monopoly of the North- 
 west fur trade. Since the year 1769 the trade 
 formerly enjoyed by the French south of the Hud- 
 son Bay trading region had passed into the hands 
 
78 The Story of Illinois 
 
 of Scotch traders and firms at Montreal. On the 
 one hand, they established connections with great 
 London firms who supplied the goods for the 
 trade and marketed the furs; on the other they 
 associated with themselves "wintering partners " 
 in the pays (Ten haut who supervised the buying 
 of furs from the Indians in their winter hunts. 
 Wintering partners, Montreal merchants, and 
 sometimes London merchants were continually 
 forming loose organizations or pools. Again and 
 again these pools broke down; and resulting trade 
 wars were waged in the West almost to the mouth 
 of the cannon. A pool of this kind existed in 
 1780 four years before the formation of the fa- 
 mous Northwest Company. From that company 
 or pool there were secessions in 1795, 1798, and 
 1800, the last year seeing the organization of a 
 New Northwest Company, to reunite with the 
 old after a short commercial war. A Michilli- 
 mackinac Company trading almost exclusively in 
 the territory of the United States appears in the 
 first years of the nineteenth century comprising 
 some of the firms already engaged in the North- 
 west Company. 
 
 The most natural routes for the trade skirted 
 the international boundary of 1783; its most con- 
 venient bases lay in American territory. The 
 easiest route to the Greater Canadian Northwest 
 ran along the channel of the Great Lakes through 
 
The Struggle for the Northwest 79 
 
 the Sault Ste. Marie to the Grand Portage on the 
 north shore of Lake Superior. The alternative 
 route through British territory by the Ottawa 
 River from Montreal to Lake Huron was more 
 expensive; even if one used it he had to pass 
 American territory at the Sault. From Grand 
 Portage the continent spread out before the 
 trader to the shores of the Arctic and the Pacific; 
 till 1796 it was the main depot of the trade to 
 the farther Northwest. After that year the 
 Northwest Company removed farther north on 
 the lake shore to the Kaministique route and 
 founded Fort William on British territory as a 
 new base. Mackinac Island in American territory 
 remained the best point for reprovisioning the 
 canoes en route to the farther Northwest. 
 
 Mackinac was equally important to the Mon- 
 treal groups that traded in the United States. 
 In 1799 this trade was estimated at $100,000 a 
 year, perhaps the major part of the whole trade. 
 A little of it on the shore of Lake Superior was 
 engrossed by the Northwest Company. But most 
 of it fell to the Mackinac groups. Till the be- 
 ginning of the nineteenth century this trade was 
 still in the hands of independent traders who in 
 1793 went as far down the Mississippi as the 
 mouth of the Illinois. Even Nashville brought 
 its supplies by way of the Cumberland from 
 Mackinac. Prairie du Chien was an important 
 
So The Story of Illinois 
 
 subsidiary to Mackinac where by 1812 as many 
 as 6,000 Indians gathered. 
 
 Mackinac Island at the opening of the nine- 
 teenth century was almost the trading center of 
 the continent. In the spring of the year from 
 out the rivers of the nearer Northwest came the 
 fur trading brigades picking up the members left 
 the preceding fall for the trade with their win- 
 ter's take of furs. Gaining in numbers with every 
 halt they finally pulled their heavy Mackinac 
 boats or canoes to the Island. Here they were 
 met by the Montreal merchants bringing out the 
 Indian goods to be used for the next year's trade; 
 here the picturesque boatmen and traders spent 
 a year's pay in a few weeks' jollity; here the af- 
 fairs of the pools were arranged and profits 
 divided. From the Island in the fall the mer- 
 chants set out for Montreal with the previous 
 year's haul of furs; and the fur trading brigades 
 loaded with Indian goods headed out in every 
 direction; dropping individual traders with goods 
 at likely places en route to trade and hibernate 
 till the brigade picked them up in the spring. Be- 
 fore 1796 it was said the trade at Mackinac called 
 in 800 persons. 
 
 " Its Geographical position," wrote Sir George 
 Prevost to Lord Bathurst in 18 14, u is admirable, 
 its influence extends, and is felt amongst the In- 
 dian Tribes at New Orleans and the Pacific 
 
The Struggle for the Northwest 81 
 
 Ocean, vast Tracts of Country look to it for pro- 
 tection and supplies; and it gives security to the 
 great Trading Establishments of the North West 
 and Hudson's Bay Companies; by supporting, the 
 Indians on the Mississippi; the only barrier which 
 interposes between them and the Enemy, and 
 which if once forced (an event that lately 
 appeared probable) their progress into the heart 
 of these companies Settlements by the Red River 
 is practicable, & would enable them to execute 
 their long formed project of monopolizing the 
 whole Fur Trade into their own hands — from 
 these observations Your Lordship will be en- 
 abled to judge how necessary the possession of 
 this valuable post, situated on the outskirts of 
 these extensive Provinces is daily becoming to 
 their future security and protection." 1 
 
 The fur trade of the Continent had long since 
 become in men's imaginations a world trade. 
 Soon after the Revolution the Massachusetts 
 sea captains debarred from their old trade with 
 the British West Indies had found their way 
 around the Horn and carried furs from the 
 Pacific Coast to China to be traded for silks, 
 china, and teas for the consumption of the settle- 
 ments on the Atlantic seaboard. One of the 
 pioneers, Captain Gray of Salem, in 1792 had 
 discovered the river he named for his ship, Co- 
 lumbia, giving the United States prior title to its 
 valley. George Mackenzie of the Northwest 
 
 1 Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, vol. 25, p. 585. 
 
82 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Company, exploring to the Arctic in 1789 and to 
 the Pacific overland in 1793 was moved by the 
 desire of forestalling the Americans on the Pa- 
 cific Coast. In 1802 he projected a trading or- 
 ganization that should span the continent from 
 Atlantic to Pacific and wrest the China trade in 
 furs from the Americans. But the East India 
 Company monopoly barred the way to a British 
 subject; and his scheme was taken up by an 
 American. 
 
 American statesmen recognized only too well 
 the fact that the little garrison at Mackinac up- 
 held the American flag over a post at which Brit- 
 ish capital monopolized a great American trade. 
 To remedy it by force was impossible and they 
 sought to alleviate it by economic counter organ- 
 ization or diplomatic finesse. In 1796 they had 
 begun a system of government houses for the In- 
 dian trade; and early in the nineteenth century 
 they began to establish these in the Northwest, at 
 Detroit and Fort Wayne before 1803, at the 
 mouth of the Missouri and at Fort Dearborn, on 
 the present site of Chicago in 1805; at Sandusky 
 in 1806, at Mackinac and Fort Madison on the 
 Mississippi in 1808. 
 
 The fur trading houses were latterly run at 
 a loss, and they served to degrade the United 
 States in the minds of the Indians to the position 
 of a trader; they therefore gave no return in 
 
The Struggle for the Northwest 83 
 
 counteracting the influence over the Indians of 
 British agents. 
 
 Diplomatic finesse and annoyances put in the 
 way of the British trader proved more effica- 
 cious. In 1798 British goods were still being 
 brought into the United States for Indian trade 
 without paying customs duties. But in 1802 the 
 New Northwest Company feared that United 
 States customs officials had seized at the Sault 
 Indian goods that had not been entered at Mack- 
 inac. In 1808 goods of the Michillimackinac 
 Company had been seized while passing Niagara 
 on the pretext that the embargo forbade all im- 
 ports to the United States. And even if eventu- 
 ally the United States was compelled by diplo- 
 matic means to recede from a seizure of this sort 
 the Indians had been left without goods and a 
 full year's trade had been lost. Thus the seizure 
 of 1808 had resulted in the dissolution of the 
 Michillimackinac Company in 1810. When the 
 United States acquired Louisiana, on the pretext 
 that it was territory not covered by the Treaty of 
 Paris and Jay's Treaty, all British traders were 
 excluded from a region where formerly the Span- 
 iards had allowed them to roam at will. By eco- 
 nomic artifice and diplomatic chicane American 
 diplomats worked unceasingly to sap the British 
 monopoly. 
 
 The British merchants themselves bore testi- 
 
8 4 The Story of Illinois 
 
 mony to the efficiency of the American policy. In 
 1808 they assured their government 
 
 That the Indian trade within the American 
 Limits must speedily be abandoned by British 
 subjects, if not protected against interruptions of 
 free navigation of the Lakes, fiscal extortions and 
 various other vexations : that if once abandoned, 
 it can never be regained and with its abandonment, 
 will finish British influence with the Indian 
 Nations residing within [without?] the limits of 
 Canada: that British Traders have materially 
 aided in preserving that influence hitherto, the 
 conviction of which is the strong motive with the 
 American Government for wishing, by every 
 means they can devise, to exclude such traders. 
 
 If therefore, the minds of Mis Majesty's 
 Ministers shall be made up to the loss of that 
 portion of Indian Trade carried on within the 
 American territory (which indeed is nearly the 
 whole, except the Northwest) and to the extinc- 
 tion of influence amongst the Indian Tribes 
 .* the American government might be 
 allowed to pursue its policy unchecked. 
 
 In the repeated negotiations of 1805-18 12 
 these points came up again and again. In 1809 
 British merchants urged on their government the 
 creation of a neutral zone in the West in which no 
 duties would be levied by either side. The bound- 
 ary they suggested was the Missouri River west 
 
 1 Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, vol. 25, p. 256. 
 Memorial of Oct. 20. 1808. 
 
The Struggle for the Northwest 85 
 
 of the Mississippi, the Illinois River and Lake 
 Michigan east of it. The United States must on 
 no account be allowed a foothold on the Columbia 
 River and the Pacific. On the other hand Amer- 
 ican secretaries of state were instructing negoti- 
 ators never to surrender the right to British trad- 
 ers to enter the Louisiana purchase. 
 
 At last American capital was working into the 
 interior fur trade on a sufficient scale to rival the 
 British. In 1807 Manuel Lisa of St. Louis in 
 association with Pierre Menard and William 
 Morrison of the Illinois country despatched an 
 expedition up the Missouri to trade. The next 
 year saw the incorporation by the three men of 
 the Missouri St. Louis Fur Company. It saw 
 also the incorporation of John Jacob Astor's 
 American Fur Company. For ten years he had 
 been known to the British. "A German person 
 Jacob Oster," the Canadian government had been 
 informed in a letter from New York of 1797, 
 " who frequently visits Canada, who deals largely 
 in Furs, and is at present ('tis said) in that coun- 
 try, has imported in the last ship from London 
 6,000 stand of arms and 100 casks of gunpowder 
 (the latter he has advertised for sale)." 1 Astor 
 was not merely importing arms which the Cana- 
 dian government suspected were to be used in a 
 French uprising. By buying furs in Montreal for 
 
 1 Canadian Archives, 1891, p. 155. 
 
86 The Story of Illinois 
 
 export, he learned the fur trade. His American 
 Fur Company was established in 1808 In partner- 
 ship with Canadian traders and planned on a 
 magnificent scale. His bases for trade were to 
 be Mackinac and Astoria on the Columbia; the 
 two were to be connected by an overland route, 
 and both with New York, by canoe through the 
 Great Lakes, and by ship through the two oceans. 
 
 While all these forces were at work sapping 
 the British control of the trade, the United States 
 was engaged in an Indian policy designed to get 
 rid as fast as possible of the tribes of the North- 
 west. President Jefferson planned to reduce their 
 possessions and by teaching them the arts of agri- 
 culture to change them from hunters to farmers ; 
 at the same time he and his governor of Indiana 
 Territory, William Henry Harrison, sought ces- 
 sion after cession. As the Indian tribes, corroded 
 like metal on the touch of the acid of the white 
 man's fire water, lost numbers, self reliance and 
 force, treaties were extracted from the wrecks of 
 the tribes. By 1809 Harrison had obtained 
 treaties surrendering practically all Ohio, eastern 
 Michigan, southern Indiana, and most of western 
 and southern Illinois. 
 
 In protest against this policy there rose per- 
 haps the ablest of all the Indian statesmen war- 
 riors who have sought to withstand the march 
 of the white man — Tecumseh. Working with 
 
The Struggle for the Northwest 87 
 
 the spiritual influence of his brother, the Shawnee 
 Prophet, he drew the Indians away from their 
 tribal chiefs and villages into communities from 
 which the white man, his goods and fire water 
 were barred. As the Northwest belonged to the 
 Indians in common — so he taught his converts — 
 there must be no more sales or cessions save by 
 common consent. Tecumseh, at first so weak that 
 a tomahawk blow inspired by a rival chieftain 
 might have ended him and his movement together, 
 by 181 1 had become a menace to American au- 
 thority; while he was absent from his villages in 
 the upper Wabash country engaged in cementing 
 a still wider league against the Americans, there 
 came Harrison's expedition against him of No- 
 vember, 181 1, and the barren victory of Tippe- 
 canoe which hardly scotched the influence of 
 Tecumseh and the Prophet. 
 
 In 181 1 the diplomacy of Madison appeared 
 to have reached an impasse; and the belief that 
 British aid to the Indians had rendered the Tip- 
 pecanoe campaign a necessity swept the West with 
 the war fever. Since 1807 the diplomatic difficul- 
 ties of Great Britain and the United States over 
 neutral trade had grown more and more acute; 
 and the British government, again compelled to 
 face the possibility of war on the Canadian fron- 
 tier, had newly enlarged its Indian department. 
 The frontiersmen believed British agents were 
 
88 The Story of Illinois 
 
 supplying Tecumseh and urging him on. It was 
 the hope of the conquest of Canada in a single 
 campaign and the ending of the British control 
 for all time that made such typical westerners as 
 Henry Clay of Kentucky demand war. British 
 officials on their side hoped to extort from the 
 United States by the treaty that the Indians 
 
 should retain possession of the lands they now 
 occupy and thereby form as long as we remain in 
 friendship with them a formidable barrier to any 
 future attempts of America against His Majesty's 
 possessions in that neighborhood. 1 
 
 Both sides looked with confidence to the War of 
 1 8 12 to settle in their favor the control of the 
 Northwest. 
 
 In calculating the advantages of the American 
 position on the Great Lakes, the Canadian mili- 
 tary authorities had not reckoned with the imbe- 
 cility of their first military opponents. The blame 
 for the disgraces of the War of 1812 has usually 
 been fastened on the militia and volunteer system, 
 but as one studies the army of the United States 
 under the regime of General James Wilkinson 
 from 1796 to 1 812, inefficiently managed, honey- 
 combed with intrigue and corruption, one won- 
 ders if a part of the blame should not be allotted 
 to it; and if a volunteer militia is not as good or 
 
 iPrevost to Bathurst, Oct. 5, 1812, Michigan Pioneer and 
 Historical Collections, vol. 25, p. 359. 
 
The Struggle for the Northwest 89 
 
 as bad as the regular army set to discipline it can 
 make it 
 
 The first campaign in the Northwest beyond all 
 expectations gave the British control of the upper 
 lakes. Madison had not reenforced Mackinac 
 before navigation closed; immediately on the out- 
 break of war it was attacked by a force of British 
 and Indians from St. Joseph and the commander 
 induced to surrender to avoid an Indian mas- 
 sacre. With Mackinac all the Indians of the 
 Northwest fell under British control; and again 
 at Detroit, August 16, General Hull was induced 
 to surrender by the representations of British of- 
 ficers that they could not hold their Indian allies 
 from massacre in case of victory. The day be- 
 fore the American garrison of Fort Dearborn at 
 Chicago retreating from the Fort were massacred 
 two miles away from it. 
 
 The British control of the West depended on 
 the naval control of Lakes Erie and Ontario. It 
 was almost impossible for them to transport sup- 
 plies overland to their western garrisons; and the 
 women and children as well as the warriors of 
 their savage allies must be fed, clothed, and sup- 
 plied with presents. As the Indian knew no 
 mean between gorging and starvation, his appe- 
 tite played havoc with ration tables. The neces- 
 sity of keeping open communications on Lake 
 Erie in 18 13 compelled Barclay, the British com- 
 
90 The Story of Illinois 
 
 mander, to offer battle to Perry's fleet; and 
 Perry's victory, brilliant and far reaching in re- 
 sults, compelled the British to abandon Detroit 
 and enabled General Harrison to pursue their 
 army into Canada and defeat it at the Thames. 
 
 Had the Americans used their advantage with 
 the proper efficiency they should have gained 
 permanent control of the upper lakes; but in 1814 
 the garrison at Mackinac beat off an American 
 attack and later actually succeeded in capturing 
 on Lake Huron the schooners it was made in. 
 In June, 18 13, General William Clark had oc- 
 cupied Prairie du Chien; and a force mainly of 
 Canadians was sent to recapture and hold it under 
 an able young officer, Lieutenant Bulger. They 
 not only kept the Indians of the region attached 
 to the British cause, but defeated two American 
 expeditions sent up to retake the post; the second 
 under Major Zachary Taylor. When the Oper- 
 ations of 18 14 closed both sides were making 
 great efforts to secure the naval control of the 
 lower lakes for the next year. 1 
 
 1 The territory of Illinois, which then included Wisconsin, 
 was an important field of military operations ; within the pres- 
 ent state little occurred. Governor Ninian Edwards of Illinois 
 territory waged a petty war of frontier forts and of raids on 
 Indian towns within his territory. In 1813 Illinois and Missouri 
 were placed under command of General Benjamin Howard of 
 Missouri, much to Edwards' disgust, who aspired to rival as 
 a soldier his neighbor Governor Harrison of Indiana. Under 
 Howard's orders ranger companies were raised on the frontier 
 and Fort Clark was established at Peoria. 
 
The Struggle for the Northwest 91 y 
 
 In the Treaty of Ghent American diplomacy 
 accomplished what American arms had been un- 
 able to effect. The British matched second rate 
 diplomats against the ablest that America could 
 produce; as a result they were defeated on their 
 claim for a buffer Indian state in the Northwest, 
 and the treaty did not repeat the clause of Jay's 
 Treaty giving British subjects freedom of trade. 
 It provided simply for the surrender of all con- 
 quests on both sides. 
 
 At resurrendering Mackinac with its control of 
 the trade to the Americans Lieutenant Colonel 
 McDonell, the British commandant at the post, 
 and the fur trading companies alike protested 
 bitterly. They enlarged on its importance to the 
 trade, on the necessity of keeping it at all costs 
 or at least keeping the Americans out of it; but 
 all to no purpose. Secretary of State James 
 Monroe knew its value as well as anyone and 
 demanded its immediate return, and it was sur- 
 rendered to the Americans July 18, 18 15. 
 
 There followed one of those brief periods 
 when the American government seems to act with 
 superhuman intelligence and energy to repair long 
 years of shortcoming. The Americans in the West 
 played with rare skill upon the fact that the In- 
 dians of the West felt themselves once more 
 abandoned by the British. They took advantage 
 of the British preoccupation with the Waterloo 
 
9 2 The Story of Illinois 
 
 campaign of 1815. Acting swiftly in the years 
 of 18 15 and 1 8 16 they prepared for the resto- 
 ration of the old posts at Fort Dearborn, and the 
 occupation of Prairie du Chien and Green Bay 
 to cut off all possible routes of approach to Can- 
 ada from the Indians west of Lake Michigan. 
 British officials protested that the building of new 
 posts in the Indian country was a violation of the 
 treaty, but to no purpose. In the course of 18 16 
 there were posts at Chicago, Prairie du Chien, 
 Green Bay, Warsaw on the Mississippi River, 
 Rock Island, and Peoria. In 18 16 an act of 
 Congress barred all aliens from the trade who 
 did not obtain permits from American Indian 
 agents. The British trader was finally excluded 
 from the region. Astor's American Fur Com- 
 pany took over the remaining posts of the North- 
 west Company. The future of the trade was in 
 American hands. 
 
 For the third time since 1782 the Indian had 
 a right to feel himself abandoned by his British 
 allies; and the Americans acquired an ascendency 
 they never again lost. New cession treaties were 
 extorted; from the Sac and Foxes one confirming 
 the St. Louis cession of 1804. With hard words 
 to the Indians the American officers boasted that 
 they had "thrown their British father on his 
 back" and that his Indian children were left at 
 the mercy of his enemies. 
 
The Struggle for the Northwest 93 
 
 " My father," complained an Indian chief at 
 Mackinac to the British, " I shall in the first place 
 tell you how the Chiefs I sent to St. Louis were 
 treated by the Big Knifes Chief (Governor 
 Clarke) on their arrival there being three Chiefs 
 and several soldiers, they were seated in the cir- 
 cle with the other Indians, the American Chief 
 in going around to shake hands, said that the men 
 I had sent were unfit to talk with him, and that 
 he must absolutely see me or my Head War Chief 
 The Black Hawk, he added to my Brother, you 
 must immediately send off messengers to tell 
 Lemoite and the Black Hawk to repair to this 
 place in the course of thirty days; // they do not, 
 I will ascend the Mississippi and find them; those 
 your nation who remain here will be guarded by 
 soldiers, till your Head Chiefs obey my summons. 
 If they are not here in thirty days their Blood 
 will be spilt for their disobedience. 
 
 "Then addressing the Kickapoos, You have a 
 choice, say you wish for war and we are ready, 
 say you wish for Peace, and it shall be so — Ye 
 Sauks, Kickapoos, Renards, Pottawattomies you 
 see what you must do, you must never expect to 
 see your English Father again, you have rendered 
 yourselves miserable by following his advice by 
 going to war with us. He did not this year ask 
 you to embark \n his Boats, to traverse the Lakes 
 — We are going to build Forts on the Mississippi, 
 we have driven your English Father from thence 
 and from Michillimackinac, you are miserable, 
 you will not have an English Trader amongst 
 you; how can they come? 
 
 "All this time and while the council lasted guns 
 
94 The Story of Illinois 
 
 were pointed at my chiefs (continued LeMoite) 
 and as often as the American chief the Red Head 
 (meaning Governor Clarke) spoke harsh to 
 them, several other tribes who were present would 
 yell with joy, which makes me much ashamed as 
 they were principally our Enemies from the 
 Misouri * 
 
 In his despatches of 1815 and 18 16 Lieutenant 
 Colonel McDonell interpreted the American 
 policy. He believed the Americans were trying 
 to provoke the Indians to hostilities that would 
 put them outside the treaty; for unsupplied with 
 powder they were at the mercy of their enemies. 
 
 "I have taken every precaution," he wrote, "to* 
 make known the news of Peace, & to put a stop to 
 that predatory mode of warfare, which they are 
 continually waging against the Americans. To 
 effect this entirely among so many tribes, having 
 such cause to hate that people, need not be ex- 
 pected. The Gov't of the United States there- 
 fore, will soon have a fair pretext to glut their 
 vengeance against them & gradually to root them 
 out. They will probably stop all Powder from 
 going to the Mississippi (when they get this 
 place) without which, these nations must perish 
 in the winter; the slow but sure poison of their 
 whisky stills, will effect the rest, and in fifty years 
 time, there perhaps will not be an Indian left be- 
 tween this and the Rocky Mountains, to plague 
 either party." 2 
 
 1 Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, vol. 16, p. 
 194 flf. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 104. McDonell to Foster, May 15, 1815. 
 
The Struggle for the Northwest 95 
 
 In these words Lieutenant Colonel McDonell 
 wrote the epitaph of the Indians of the North- 
 west. The British still tried to hold out a hand 
 to their old allies; General Lewis Cass had to 
 order tribesmen in Michigan to pull down British 
 flags from their lodges; Black Hawk and his 
 band continued to make pilgrimages to Maiden 
 for British presents and advice till their overthrow 
 in 1832; but these things could not even retard 
 the displacement of the Indian by the white. The 
 possession of the Northwest Territory and with 
 it of the Illinois had passed to the hands that had 
 held the title; its exploitation was destined to be 
 under American institutions. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS 
 
 FROM the passage of the Ordinance of 1787 
 Illinois had a definite political relation to 
 the United States in theory; and with the arrival 
 of Governor St. Clair of the Northwest Territory 
 at Kaskaskia March 5, 1790, the theory became 
 translated into fact; but for many years to come 
 the Illinois country was on the edge of the gov- 
 ernment thus created. Till 1800 it was a part of 
 the Northwest Territory; from 1800 to 1809 it 
 was a part of Indiana Territory; and only with 
 the creation of Illinois Territory in 1809 and 
 with subsequent statehood in 1818 did it recover 
 a measurable control of its destinies. Its politics 
 throughout the period seem petty factional and 
 personal quarrels; and the only distinguishable 
 motif that runs throughout is the slavery issue. 
 
 Slavery gives point to most of the politics of 
 the territory and state from 1787 to 1824. After 
 1787 the French inhabitants, alarmed by the re- 
 ports that the Ordinance had abolished slavery, 
 were moving with their slaves across the river to 
 Spanish territory, until they were reassured by St. 
 Clair's decision that the antislavery clause of the 
 
 96 
 
The Day of Small Things 97 
 
 Ordinance did not apply to slaves already held in 
 the territory. It was the desire to overturn the 
 Ordinance and introduce new slaves that led in 
 1809 to the division of Indiana Territory and the 
 setting off of Illinois. The first constitution of 
 Illinois, protecting the holding of indentured serv- 
 ants marks a compromise, a breathing space in 
 the struggle between slavery and freedom. Not 
 till 1824 did the six years of contest out of which 
 had emerged the statehood of Illinois and the 
 Missouri Compromise, bring forth the definitive 
 decision that thenceforth Illinois was to be free. 
 What little we know of Illinois from 1789 to 
 1800 is recorded in the history of government of 
 the Northwest Territory. April 27, 1790, St. 
 Clair set off the county of St. Clair with bound- 
 aries including all Illinois south of the Illinois 
 River and west of a line drawn from the mouth 
 of Mackinaw River to Fort Massiac on the Ohio. 
 Official records tell us that one of the judges of 
 the Northwest Territory, George Turner, took 
 part in the old controversy between Kaskaskia 
 and Cahokia, ordering the records of the local 
 court to be kept at Kaskaskia; to settle the dif- 
 ficulty in 1795 the county of Randolph was cre- 
 ated with Kaskaskia for its county seat. Till 
 1798 the Governor and the three federal judges 
 legislated for the Northwest Territory, sup- 
 posedly selecting laws from the codes of the older 
 
9 8 The Story of Illinois 
 
 states. When the territory passed to the second 
 state of territorial government and had a legis- 
 lature with an elected lower house, St. Clair 
 county sent the senior Shadrach Bond and Ran- 
 dolph county John Edgar to sit among the twenty- 
 three representatives. The laws passed by this 
 legislature in 1 799-1 800 reenacted by territorial 
 and state legislatures in Indiana and Illinois 
 formed the basis of the Illinois code for thirty 
 years to come; but one wonders how far some of 
 them were ever enforced. Laws for the settle- 
 ment of the poor which prohibited their free 
 movement; laws that unmarried insolvent debtors 
 must work out their debts in seven years' servitude 
 for their creditors, match strangely with a fron- 
 tier community on the edge of the wilderness. 
 
 It must not however be forgotten that the gov- 
 ernment over the Illinois in this period was more 
 aristocratic than it ever has been since. The of- 
 ficials sent out by Congress to govern successively 
 the Northwest, Indiana, and Illinois Territories 
 were accorded the position and consideration of 
 gentlemen. The men who led the opposition to 
 them claimed likewise to be gentlemen. And the 
 rank and file of the population of the territory 
 willingly conceded gentlemen the right of political 
 leadership. Under the Northwest Ordinance the 
 suffrage was restricted to the small group of free- 
 holders. While it was subsequently extended, not 
 
The Day of Small Things 99 
 
 until the Jacksonian revolution in Illinois was the 
 control of the aristocrats of the territorial period 
 finally discarded. 
 
 Of the actual life of the Illinois country when 
 it was a part of the Northwest Territory we know 
 little or nothing. The handful of French inhabi- 
 tants was being supplemented by a handful of 
 American frontiersmen. They lived a rude life 
 in picketed " stations " ; some of them forgot all 
 religious training, while others welcomed the first 
 volunteer Methodist and Baptist preachers who 
 came in. As early as 1787 the Baptist James 
 Smith preached in the Illinois. The first Baptist 
 church was founded at New Design in 1796. 
 The first Methodist preacher, Reverend Joseph 
 Lillard, appeared in 1793. In 1803 Benjamin 
 Young was assigned to ride the circuit in the Illi- 
 nois. Roman Catholic priests only occasionally 
 visited the land that had witnessed the labors of 
 Marquette, Allouez and Meurin. By 1800 there 
 were perhaps 2,500 souls almost evenly divided 
 between French and Americans within the present 
 state. In 1806 there were 4,300 in Illinois and 
 the present Wisconsin. In 18 12 there were 
 12,282. 
 
 Increase was doubtless retarded by the slow 
 evolution of the government's machinery for dis- 
 posing of the public lands. The Act of 1796, 
 providing for sales at two dollars an acre on a 
 
ioo The Story of Illinois 
 
 year's credit in tracts not less than 640 acres, 
 placed the land beyond the reach of the average 
 frontier farmer. In 1800 William Henry Har- 
 rison, as delegate to Congress from the North- 
 west Territory, had secured a more liberal meas- 
 ure which permitted sales in 320 acre tracts with 
 a credit extending over four years. In 1804 
 lands in Indiana Territory, of which Illinois was 
 a part, were sold in 160 acre tracts. 
 
 This legislation in practice did not help the 
 dwellers in the future state of Illinois because be- 
 fore the federal government could begin surveys 
 and sales of public land it had to determine what 
 claims to land under ancient French grants and 
 under its own promises of donations were actually 
 binding on it. In 1788 Congress had granted 
 400 acres to each French head of a family resi- 
 dent in 1783; in 1791 it had extended the grant 
 to all resident heads of families in 1783 and 
 added a grant of 100 acres to each militiaman 
 not benefited by other grants ; further, it had con- 
 firmed all holdings, no matter how shaky in title, 
 if they had been improved in good faith. In con- 
 firming titles by grants and donation rights Gov- 
 ernor St. Clair had been lavish and careless; 
 Governor Harrison of Indiana Territory for a 
 time was as bad. The greater part of the French 
 inhabitants had long since despaired of realizing 
 on Congress promises and had sold their rights 
 
The Day of Small Things 101 
 
 for a song to aggressive American speculators 
 like John Edgar and the Morrisons. Many 
 claims put forward by those and other men 
 seemed to require examination. 
 
 The investigation of a commission into the 
 mass of titles, confirmed and unconfirmed, pro- 
 duced startling results. Not only had the specu- 
 lators bought up numerous French claims good, 
 bad, and indifferent; they had actually manufac- 
 tured false headright and improvement claims, 
 basing them on affidavits sworn to wholesale by 
 bibulous Frenchmen under the influence of 
 brandy, and had transferred the claims to them- 
 selves by fraudulent conveyances. So complicated 
 was the problem, and so bitter the opposition to 
 investigation that it was not until 1809 that the 
 commission reported and not till 18 10 that the 
 acceptance of the report by Congress cleared the 
 way for the survey of townships and the sale of 
 quarter sections at the land offices of Shawnee- 
 town and Kaskaskia. 
 
 The investigations into land frauds probably 
 had their influence on the development of political 
 parties in the territory. The period, whether 
 blessed or not, in which Illinois had no history, 
 had passed. Barely had William Henry Har- 
 rison, now governor of Indiana Territory, ar- 
 rived at Vincennes on January 10, 1801, than the 
 contest between Harrison and anti-Harrison 
 
102 The Story of Illinois 
 
 parties opened. In the Illinois country, Edgar 
 and the Morrisons, the speculating interests, 
 ranged themselves against the governor. Among 
 the governor's friends were the Shadrach Bonds, 
 uncle and nephew, Dr. George Fisher, and Pierre 
 Menard, an able and benevolent Frenchman born 
 in Canada who had come to the territory in 1790. 
 Both factions in the beginning were proslavery as 
 was Harrison himself. They were reduced to 
 differing as to the method of overruling the pro- 
 hibition in the Northwest Ordinance, and intro- 
 ducing slaves. Harrison's following sponsored 
 petitions to Congress for the relaxation of the 
 ordinance; in 1796 and 1800 the Illinois country 
 had so petitioned without effect. In 1802 Har- 
 rison summoned a convention of the territory 
 which drew up a memorial to Congress asking 
 among other things admission of slaves for ten 
 years. A committee of Congress finally reported 
 favorably on it, but nothing was done. Mean- 
 while, in 1803 Harrison and the territorial judges 
 had adopted an indenture law allowing negroes 
 to be indentured and brought into the territory 
 to serve long terms of years. 
 
 The anti-Harrison element at first advocated 
 proceeding to the second stage of territorial gov- 
 ernment as a means of getting a delegate in Con- 
 gress to voice the plea for slavery. In 1804 Har- 
 rison swung around to support the proposal; and 
 
SHADRACK BOND 
 
 [Courtesy of Illinois State Historical Library] 
 (1773—1830) 
 
The Day of Small Things 103 
 
 his opponents, placing party before consistency, 
 changed their positions and opposed the measure 
 they had before advocated. Harrison's proposal 
 carried in a popular vote, and a pro-Harrison 
 lower house of the legislature was elected with 
 George Fisher, William Biggs, and Shadrach 
 Bond, members from the two Illinois counties. 
 In 1805 and in 1807 this body passed indenture 
 laws under which whole families of negroes down 
 to the babe at the breast were indentured to long 
 terms of servitude. The same years saw repeated 
 a series of petitions from the legislature and the 
 inhabitants of the Illinois for a modification of 
 the Ordinance to permit slavery. Congressional 
 committees reported them favorably but did no 
 more. 1 
 
 In 1807 the question approached the crisis. 
 The elevation of Bond and Fisher to the terri- 
 torial council had left their seats in the lower 
 house to be filled. The new members were John 
 Rice Jones and John Messenger, both of the anti- 
 Harrison faction. Indiana proper was no longer 
 agreed on the subject of slavery; men with anti- 
 slavery sentiments had begun to settle in Dear- 
 born county; in 1805 they had petitioned Congress 
 
 1 There is a tradition that they were blocked by Jefferson, who 
 twenty years before had dispatched James Lemen to the Illi- 
 nois making a secret compact with him that they would work 
 together to keep slavery out of the Northwest. The tradition 
 rests^ on documents of questionable authenticity and is belied 
 by signatures of James Lemen to certain proslavery memorials. 
 
104 The Story of Illinois 
 
 to be annexed to the free state of Ohio. They 
 hoped that if the proslavery bloc of the Illinois 
 country was detached from the territory that they 
 might be able to turn the balance in favor of free- 
 dom. The Edgar-Morrison group had for some 
 time been working for separation from Indiana; 
 in 1803 they sought to have the Illinois villages 
 annexed to the newly purchased Louisiana terri- 
 tory across the Mississippi; in 1805, 1806, and 
 1808, they had petitioned for the erection of a 
 separate territory in Illinois; the last of the three 
 petitions being opposed in a counter petition of 
 the Harrison group. 
 
 The session of 1808 saw a political bargain for 
 the election of Jesse B. Thomas, the Dearborn 
 county member as territorial delegate to Con- 
 gress, under pledge to work for the division of 
 the territory. As Thomas was a slippery poli- 
 tician the Illinois members took his bond for spe- 
 cific performance of the bargain. All worked out 
 as expected. February 9, 1809, Congress set off 
 Illinois Territory, including the present state of 
 Wisconsin. As a fitting commentary on the fac- 
 tional strife that led up to the division, Rice 
 Jones, the younger, was assassinated on the street 
 of Kaskaskia, and the anti-Harrison speculating 
 group tried to fix complicity in the murder on 
 their enemy, Michael Jones, the land commis- 
 sioner. 
 
The Day of Small Things 105 
 
 Fortunately, the organization of the new Illi- 
 nois Territory was with one exception entrusted 
 to new men. Jesse B. Thomas came back as ter- 
 ritorial judge, but his colleagues, Alexander Stu- 
 art and Obediah Jones, soon replaced by Stanley 
 Griswold were strangers. So was the secretary, 
 Nathaniel Pope, and his relative the new gover- 
 nor, Ninian Edwards of Kentucky. Edwards 
 adroitly refused to take sides with either faction, 
 and based his appointments to office so far as he 
 could on popular referenda. In 18 12 the terri- 
 tory voted almost unanimously to proceed to the 
 second grade of territorial government; and Con- 
 gress in 1 8 12 extended the suffrage to all adult 
 males resident a year and paying taxes; for the 
 older freehold requirement would have barred the 
 majority of the population. In October of 18 12 
 the junior Shadrach Bond was elected delegate to 
 Congress and a territorial legislature was chosen. 
 
 The only measure at issue in the local politics 
 of Illinois Territory concerned the legislature's 
 attempt to regulate the terms of court held by 
 the federal judges ; ultimately it gave up the strug- 
 gle and created courts independent of those pro- 
 vided by the federal government. But the history 
 of Indiana Territory repeated itself in the forma- 
 tion of political factions for and against the gov- 
 ernor. Some men such as Pierre Menard and the 
 Bonds were neutral. Young men like Elias Kent 
 
io6 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Kane and John McLean, who came to the terri- 
 tory to seek their fortunes, joined the opposition; 
 others like Pope's relative, Daniel Pope Cook, 
 gathered round Edwards. 
 
 The close of the War of 1812 saw a rapid de- 
 velopment in Illinois. Harbingers of civilized 
 community life such as newspapers appeared. In 
 1 8 14 the Illinois Herald was founded at Kaskas- 
 kia, continuing under several changes of name. 
 In 18 18 at Shawneetown, now the natural gate- 
 way to Illinois from the east, Peter Kimmel 
 founded the Illinois Emigrant. Population 
 flooded into the territory. By 1818 it seemed 
 quite possible that statehood was attainable. 
 Daniel Pope Cook in 18 17 began a campaign for 
 it in the Western Intelligencer as the Illinois 
 Herald was then called. Opinion seemed to 
 favor the measure and in Congress Nathaniel 
 Pope as territorial delegate introduced a bill for 
 an enabling act. 
 
 The result is a high tribute to Pope's political 
 skill. He managed to maneuver the bill through 
 both houses; the best testimony to his address is 
 the fact that a similar bill concerning Missouri 
 was introduced too late and failed of passage. 
 The terms obtained for Illinois were most liberal: 
 of the proceeds of government sales of land within 
 her borders Illinois was to have 3 per cent for 
 education and 2 per cent to be expended by Con- 
 
The Day of Small Things 107 
 
 gress for roads leading to the state. In addition 
 she received section 16 in each township for 
 schools, a whole township for a seminary of 
 learning, and all salt licks. Her northern bound- 
 ary instead of being the east and west line through 
 the foot of Lake Michigan, as the Northwest 
 Ordinance prescribed, was set as it now stands, 
 some sixty miles farther north. Pope in advocat- 
 ing the change in the terms of the ordinance em- 
 phasized the importance of giving the new state 
 a footing on the Great Lakes and territorial pro- 
 pinquity to both north and south. At present the 
 importance of the change secured by Pope is best 
 measured by the fact that 55 per cent of Illinois 
 population lies in the territory he secured. In 
 the days of the slavery struggle the voters of the 
 section turned the tide for the election of 
 Lincoln. 1 
 
 The enabling act once passed, a Constitutional 
 Convention was speedily elected. It began its 
 labors August 3 and concluded them 23 days 
 after. With but little difficulty it framed a very 
 rudimentary government in which practically all 
 of the legislative and most of the appointive 
 power was placed in the General Assembly. Ter- 
 ritorial experience with governors and judiciaries 
 united with current political theory to leave the 
 
 1 Lincoln carried the state in i860 by 12,000 votes plurality. 
 His plurality in the district must have been over 25,000. 
 
108 The Story of Illinois 
 
 judiciary subject to the regulation of the legis- 
 lature, and to intrust to the governor and judges 
 sitting as a Council of Revision only a veto power 
 that could be and usually was overriden by a ma- 
 jority of members elected to the legislature. 
 
 Again the slavery question was the burning 
 one. Slavery and antislavery had been the issue 
 in the elections to the convention; both sides had 
 filled the newspapers with their articles. The 
 antislavery party lost the elections, but prudence 
 lest Congress refuse to accept the constitution 
 made its provisions on slavery nondescript. It con- 
 firmed the territorial indentures but prohibited 
 the further introduction of slavery. Without sub- 
 mission to a popular vote the constitution came 
 before Congress. There, with the Missouri 
 struggle impending, northern men challenged the 
 Illinois constitution as a violation of the ordi- 
 nance; but on December 3, 1818, Illinois was 
 formally admitted to the Union. 
 
 For six years more in the state slavery re- 
 mained the great political issue. The Missouri 
 struggle that began in the very session in which 
 the Illinois representatives first took their seats 
 riveted men's attention to the course of their 
 representatives on the question. John McLean, 
 the state's first congressman, was defeated for re- 
 election by Cook on the issue of McLean's vote 
 for the admission of Missouri as a slave state. 
 
MRS. SHADRACK BOND 
 
 Courtesy of Illinois State Historical Library] 
 
The Day of Small Things 109 
 
 Ninian Edwards and Jesse B. Thomas were the 
 state's senators, and both were on the side of 
 slavery. To Thomas was entrusted the introduc- 
 tion in the senate of the famous amendment em- 
 bodying the Missouri Compromise providing for 
 the admission of Missouri as a slave state on con- 
 dition that slavery be barred from the rest of the 
 Louisiana Territory north of thirty-six degrees 
 and thirty minutes. A strong opposition to both 
 men developed because of their proslavery 
 attitude. 
 
 The victory of the slavery forces on the Mis- 
 souri question apparently encouraged the advo- 
 cates of slavery in Illinois. Repeatedly it had 
 been said in debate that the Northwest Ordinance 
 prohibition of slavery could not bind a sovereign 
 state after its admission to the Union. A slave 
 state across the river from Illinois, already domi- 
 nating Illinois trade from its metropolis of St. 
 Louis, would attract away the well-to-do southern 
 emigrants so long as Illinois remained free. 
 Young men of means in a frontier community re- 
 sented the fact that their wives for want of do- 
 mestic help had to toil at household tasks and 
 hoped for a state of things in which house maids 
 would be a purchasable commodity. Missourians, 
 indignant that antislavery sentiment in Illinois 
 had meddled with their domestic concern of slav- 
 ery, planned to retaliate. The Shawneetown 
 
no The Story of Illinois 
 
 saline required labor to build fires and carry 
 water; and Adolphus F. Hubbard reminded the 
 Illinois legislature that these were duties for 
 which divine providence had pointed out the ne- 
 gro. A campaign for the amendment of the Illi- 
 nois constitution to admit slavery was soon under 
 way. 
 
 Much turned on the election for governor in 
 1822. Four candidates were in the field. Of 
 them Judge Joseph Phillips was proslavery, 
 James B. Moore perhaps antislavery, Thomas C. 
 Browne, nondescript, and Edward Coles, a stiff 
 Virginian of the Jeffersonian school, lately come 
 to Illinois, avowedly antislavery; by a narrow 
 margin Coles was elected. 
 
 A resolution submitting to the people the call- 
 ing of a convention to amend the constitution 
 came up in the General Assembly of 1822-23. In 
 the Senate the proslavery forces had the necessary 
 two-thirds majority. In the House at first they 
 lacked it by one vote. There was, however, a 
 contested election in Pike county between John 
 Shaw and Nicholas Hansen; the technical merits 
 of the contest are in doubt. But Hansen was 
 seated early in the session, apparently to get a 
 vote against Ninian Edwards for United States 
 Senator. When Hansen voted against the con- 
 vention resolution, the House by a majority vote 
 reopened the question of his election, reversed 
 
The Day of Small Things 1 1 1 
 
 its former decision, seated John Shaw in his 
 stead, and with Shaw's vote passed the resolution. 
 
 A two years' campaign before the people began 
 at once. Coles by his position the leader of the 
 anticonvention forces, drew to his aid Morris 
 Birkbeck, the English radical, who had sought in 
 Illinois a refuge from the aristocratic control of 
 English politics, and had been one of the founders 
 of the English settlement in Edwards county. 
 Other antislavery men rallied to them. The Ed- 
 wardsville Spectator, although its editor, Hooper 
 Warren, was personally hostile to Coles, became 
 the antislavery organ; soon the antislavery men 
 gained control of the Illinois Intelligencer. East- 
 ern Quakers contributed antislavery pamphlets 
 for distribution. In newspapers and public meet- 
 ings two years' incessant argument ran on. The 
 Jonathan Freeman letters of Birkbeck are the 
 ablest contribution to the controversy; they were 
 intended to drive home to the small farmer the 
 fact that the presence of slaves in the community 
 would be a degradation of the dignity of labor 
 and of the man who worked with his hands. On 
 religious, on economic, on moral grounds the ar- 
 gument was waged for and against; in the elec- 
 tion of 1824 the people registered their verdict 
 against the calling of a convention by a vote of 
 6,640 to 4,972. 
 
 With 1824 the slavery issue disappeared from 
 
H2 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Illinois politics so completely that in future years 
 the advocates of a convention like Kane, Kinney, 
 and McLean fared far better in politics than the 
 men like Coles and Birkbeck who opposed it. 
 The search for a reason for this last fact brings 
 us to the exigencies of factional politics in the 
 state. The Edwards and anti-Edwards factions 
 as such had not taken sides in the convention 
 struggle; and factional alliances were in the twen- 
 ties the most potent factors in making or marring 
 men's political fortunes. 
 
 For about ten years after the admission of Illi- 
 nois to the Union the Edwards and anti-Edwards 
 factions had contested the control of the state. 
 In 1 81 8 they seem to have reached a tacit agree- 
 ment on a division of the offices. Bond and Me- 
 nard at that time allied with neither group became 
 governor and lieutenant-governor; indeed with 
 such a disposal of offices in view the constitutional 
 convention had for Menard's special benefit modi- 
 fied the citizenship qualification for lieutenant- 
 governor. Of the anti-Edwards faction, Kane 
 became secretary of state and Thomas senator; 
 of the Edwards group Edwards was elected sen- 
 ator and Pope was appointed federal judge. In 
 the only contest of anti-Edwards and Edwards 
 men McLean beat Cook for Congress. 
 
 The party contests between the factions do not 
 seem usually to have been carried into elections 
 
The Day of Small Things 113 
 
 for the state legislature; there the personal popu- 
 larity of the candidates, save when the slavery 
 issue was introduced, determined the result. The 
 main contests between the factions before the peo- 
 ple came in the successive elections for Congress 
 in which year by year Cook defeated one after 
 another the strongest candidates of the anti-Ed- 
 wards group; McLean in 1820, Kane in 1822, 
 Bond in 1824. 
 
 Meanwhile in the Senate Edwards, now Cook's 
 father-in-law, was engaged in a bitter quarrel with 
 Jesse B. Thomas, partly at least over patronage. 
 The presidential question also entered in. Ever 
 since 18 17 the candidates had been groomed for 
 the succession to Monroe in 1824. Henry Clay 
 of Kentucky, William H. Crawford of Georgia, 
 John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, John C. 
 Calhoun of South Carolina, De Witt Clinton of 
 New York, and Andrew Jackson of Tennessee 
 stood out as candidates, dividing the Illinois state 
 factions into partisan groups. Of the two sen- 
 ators Thomas was for Crawford and Edwards 
 for Calhoun. Edwards, throwing himself too 
 hotly into the war on Crawford, was caught con- 
 tributing to a Washington paper anonymous 
 articles signed "A. B." attacking Crawford's re- 
 lations as secretary of the treasury with western 
 banks; he resigned from the senate in 1824 under 
 a cloud. 
 
H4 The Story of Illinois 
 
 The presidential election of 1824 was hotly 
 contested in Illinois. That of 1820, the first in 
 which the state had taken part, had been a fore- 
 gone conclusion for Monroe, and had excited no 
 interest save among candidates for elector to vote 
 for Monroe. Now, Jackson, Clay, Adams, and 
 Crawford all had their candidates for elector in 
 the field in the three electoral districts into which 
 the state was then divided. The result was close, 
 and marked by sharp jockeying on all sides. Jack- 
 son electors were chosen in two districts, an 
 Adams elector in the third. Cook, however, be- 
 lieved he had received a mandate for no candidate 
 and when as sole congressman for Illinois he had 
 to cast her vote in the House of Representatives 
 voting by states, he cast it for John Quincy Adams 
 — an act that was to plague him thereafter. 
 
 In 1826 Ninian Edwards determined to seek 
 rehabilitation for his part in the A. B. scandal by 
 seeking election as governor. At the same time 
 his son-in-law, Cook, was running for a fourth 
 successive term in Congress, under the supposed 
 handicap of having disregarded the expressed will 
 of his constituents in casting the vote of Illinois 
 for Adams rather than for Jackson. But heavier 
 than this weighed upon both father-in-law and 
 son-in-law their relationship and the fact that they 
 avowedly stood forth as leaders and candidates 
 of a faction. They were opposed by two young 
 
The Day of Small Things 115 
 
 men late comers to the state and not in the popu- 
 lar mind connected with either faction, though 
 both doubtless had the full support of the anti- 
 Edwards group. In the event Edwards beat 
 Thomas Sloo, Jr., by but a few hundred votes, and 
 Cook was defeated by Joseph Duncan, a young 
 Kentucky veteran of the War of 1812. Cook did 
 not survive his defeat a year. 
 
 With this election the first era of Illinois poli- 
 tics comes to an end. The slavery question for 
 over a generation had been the one real issue; for 
 almost a generation men had acquiesced in seeing 
 the spoils of office contended for by political fac- 
 tions aristocratic in their leadership based frankly 
 on family alliances and personal likes and dislikes. 
 In one form or another these factions had influ- 
 enced Illinois elections for the first eight years of 
 statehood, and at length people were weary of 
 them. In the defeat of Cook and the unexpect- 
 edly close election of Edwards they showed their 
 disgust. 
 
 A new system of politics was slowly emerging, 
 a system in which national issues and national 
 parties would divide the voters and make the 
 Illinois whig nearer akin to the New England 
 one than to the Illinois democrat. The period of 
 close party organization and of loyalty to nation- 
 al parties was at hand. In these years the sense 
 was developing that it was for the people to de- 
 
IJ 6 The Story of Illinois 
 
 cide on political questions, to elect their party 
 leaders, and to control their party machinery. 
 All this was the antithesis of the system of 
 aristocratic political factions represented by 
 Edwards and Cook. In 1826 the voters of 
 the state registered their disapproval, but eight 
 years were to elapse before the old factions had 
 completely disintegrated and the new democratic 
 and whig parties had come in their stead. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE FRONTIER 
 
 BETWEEN the establishment of the first 
 English trading posts to the west of the 
 Alleghanies about the year 1740 and the formal 
 announcement of the United States Census Bu- 
 reau in 1890 that the frontier had disappeared 
 we count a century and a half. In it a mighty 
 flood of population recruited from the older 
 America and from most of Europe had spread 
 over an area of three million square miles of 
 swamp, prairie, oak barren, forest, mountain, 
 desert and plain, had laid hold of whatever land 
 was immediately fitted for the use of man, and 
 had established upon it thirty-one commonwealths, 
 fused into one great nation. Such an achievement 
 the world has not before recorded. Part and 
 parcel of it, representing a certain stage of prog- 
 ress in it, in some details resembling the rest of 
 the movement, in others unique is the founding 
 and development of Illinois. 
 
 In the first half of the eighteenth century the in- 
 terior valleys of the Alleghanies were a seething 
 trough in which was forming a mixture of Anglo 
 Saxons, Scotchmen for a few generations resident 
 
 117 
 
11 8 The Story of Illinois 
 
 in Ireland but not of it, and Germans driven from 
 their homes by the wars and persecutions of the 
 eighteenth century. From New York and Penn- 
 sylvania and the colonies farther south the human 
 elements poured in, tending ever westward and 
 southward. The chance of travel might separate 
 members of the same family by a thousand miles 
 till of the stock that entered the valley at the north 
 in 1740 a half century later traces might be found 
 all the way to Georgia. By 1740 the flood was 
 already surging up the western barrier of the 
 Alleghanies. The Seven Years War — the 
 French and Indian War as America named it — 
 for a time restrained it; the Proclamation of 1763 
 and the British ministerial prohibition restrained 
 it a little longer; but by 1774 the trickles of popu- 
 lation running out into Kentucky were becoming 
 torrents. By the time of the adoption of the 
 Federal Constitution fifteen years later Kentucky 
 was already a populous state. Tennessee was 
 ready for admission to the union in 1796. Six 
 years later Ohio was admitted. The western tide 
 flowed on, more slowly till after the War of 18 12, 
 then with a rush which within five years of the 
 Treaty of Ghent brought five new western states 
 into the union: Indiana, Mississippi, Alabama, 
 Missouri, and Illinois. It is at this stage and for 
 the succeeding generation that the human tor- 
 rent engages our especial interest. It defies de- 
 
The Frontier 119 
 
 scription. Eddying in it were specimens of dis- 
 tinct social strata, distinct modes of life, thought 
 and opinions; from year to year, from district 
 to district, its outward appearance varied. But 
 some generalization about it and the economic, 
 social and political organizations it developed in 
 Illinois, inevitably inaccurate, must be attempted. 
 Long before 1818 new settlers were converg- 
 ing on Illinois from different directions. They 
 came from North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, 
 Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, 
 even from New England. At this period, how- 
 ever, the Ohio was the main highway to the state 
 and Shawneetown its gateway. Drifting down 
 the Ohio on flat boats large enough to house a 
 settler's horses and cattle, before 1796 equipped 
 with log breastworks against the lurking Indians; 
 steered down in later years in keel boat or steam- 
 boat the emigrants came. A few of them found 
 their way across the Wabash from Indiana, a 
 few came by the roads or rivers of western Ken- 
 tucky converging on the Ohio and merely crossed 
 it to reach the state; but the main travel in the 
 early years was by the Ohio. Later, the rivers 
 were supplemented by the Cumberland Road, the 
 great national highway from Wheeling on the 
 Ohio across the states of Ohio and Indiana, and 
 by other land routes. Along them passed the 
 emigrant wagons loaded with the "plunder" of 
 
120 The Story of Illinois 
 
 the newcomers, their horses and their cattle. 
 
 The classes that traveled the routes to the West 
 were diverse as might be. The first comer was 
 the typical outlier of civilization, imbued with the 
 love for the wilderness; a lone wolf, often scarce- 
 ly more than a savage, with a savage's cruelty, 
 ignorance and superstition. Men of this type 
 flitted before the advancing tide of settlement. 
 After them came the squatter, stopping a year or 
 five years in a place to build a cabin, and clear 
 a few acres of corn for his family to supplement 
 the spoils of his rifle, until he sold his improve- 
 ments to a more permanent settler and moved on. 
 Sometimes he was shiftless and indolent, some- 
 times he was merely cursed with a poverty that 
 would not permit him to buy land of his own. A 
 fortunate sale of his improvements, a year or two 
 of lucrative wages paid him by a wealthier settler 
 and he might succeed in entering a tract of land 
 and become a solid member of the community. 
 
 After the squatter came the farmer, the man 
 with stock or capital who did not settle on any 
 land save what he owned or expected to be able 
 to buy. Primitive in his first living arrangements 
 on the frontier, he kept in his mind the ideal of 
 approximating as soon as possible to the comforts 
 of his old home back East. Like the squatter his 
 household arrangements in the West might begin 
 with a half faced camp of logs rolled up to afford 
 
The Frontier 121 
 
 shelter on three sides with an open fire on the 
 fourth to which the sleeping family stretched its 
 feet for warmth; but this was speedily to be suc- 
 ceeded with the farmer by the single or double 
 log cabin, with puncheoned floors, chinked walls, 
 and finally, efficient doors and windows. The 
 small caliber rifle, the spinning wheel, wool cards, 
 and heavy plow were the essential adjuncts. A 
 few bits of finer portable furniture might recall 
 the comforts of the old home. The clock was a 
 sufficiently important adjunct to erect clock ped- 
 dling into a separate calling, recognized by Illinois 
 law. The farmer of the type outlined was the 
 backbone of the new community. 
 
 Rising above him in gentility of birth and breed- 
 ing, in good social position, in education were the 
 young men who came to the frontier to seek a 
 fortune. Notable examples were Ninian Ed- 
 wards who abandoned a Kentucky judgeship in 
 1809 to take the governorship of Illinois Terri- 
 tory and make a fortune in land and trade, and 
 Elias Kent Kane of a good New York family, 
 a Yale graduate, who came on a similar errand 
 and at length became the Jacksonian leader in the 
 state. 
 
 In the little frontier towns all these elements 
 rubbed elbows. Such places as Shawneetown, 
 Kaskaskia, Edwardsville were little communities 
 with a few brick and many more log buildings, 
 
122 The Story of Illinois 
 
 set in streets of bottomless mud where lawless 
 backwoodsmen and keelboatmen turned Sunday 
 into a day of revelry. Yet in their streets the 
 fine lady might encounter the squatter's wife, and 
 the lone wolf trapper the young college graduate 
 alert for a land speculation. 
 
 The stores of these villages advertised not 
 only the hardware, rifles, powder, blankets, rough 
 stuffs and calicoes demanded by the frontiersman, 
 and the squatter and his wife, but the fine wines, 
 brandies, cigars, lemons, spices, boxed sweet- 
 meats, the silver tea services, and jewelry, the 
 broadcloths, linens, silks, and laces to which the 
 more aristocratic classes were accustomed. The 
 advertisements of the stores are an index to the 
 diverse standards of life of the frontier commu- 
 nity. 
 
 The towns such as these were the centers of 
 the little commercial life of the early twenties. 
 Their stores sold wholesale to storekeepers in 
 the little outlying hamlets, Golconda, Carmi, 
 Vienna. Of local customers they took produce 
 in exchange for goods — furs, skins, honey, corn, 
 whisky, venison hams, barrelled beef and pork, 
 and shipped the produce to New Orleans by flat- 
 boat, keelboat or steamboat on their own account. 
 Often farmers would consign produce to them on 
 commission. Sometimes a farmer would build a 
 flatboat, freight it with his produce and with a 
 
The Frontier 123 
 
 neighbor's boy or two to man it float down the 
 Wabash or Illinois to the market at New Orleans. 
 The merchant's notions of merchandising were 
 not modem. Apparently a man pricing goods 
 was expected to buy. The glass of whisky sealed 
 every trade even to the smallest, and a dram shop 
 was called a grocery. In the Lincoln-Douglas 
 debates Lincoln thought it necessary to deny 
 Douglas' description of him as a prominent 
 grocery keeper of the earlier day. Sales were on 
 long credits, and newspapers were filled with ad- 
 vertisements calling on delinquent debtors to 
 settle at once. The storekeeper in turn bought 
 on long credit in Baltimore, Norfolk or Phila- 
 delphia; in the thirties New York merchants sent 
 out traveling salesmen to the west; occasionally 
 merchants in places convenient to Lake Michigan 
 made the trip to New York to select their stocks, 
 and gathered tales to relate at home of the 
 theaters, the beauties, the dandies, and the fast 
 trotting horses of Broadway. 
 
 This trade meager as it was was carried on in 
 spite of a circulating medium rather than with 
 it. The twenties were cursed with a financial 
 problem that was never solved partly because it 
 was never understood. Illinois in the days of 
 early statehood suffered like every other young 
 community for lack of capital. Money was 
 needed to buy from the East the hardware and 
 
124 The Story of Illinois 
 
 the other goods necessary to establish civilization 
 in the West. What good money there was 
 drained speedily out of the country to pay debts 
 owed to the East or by way of the government 
 land offices to the eastern branches of the Bank 
 of the United States. Against its additional debts 
 to the East incurred for goods brought at ruinous 
 transportation charges across the mountains and 
 down the Ohio, it could set only the credits due 
 it for produce shipped to New Orleans. But the 
 produce that the West poured down the Mis- 
 sissippi was more than New Orleans could use or 
 export: surplus foodstuffs piled on its wharves; 
 beef and pork salted with the cheap western salt 
 instead of the fine imported article spoiled in the 
 sun. Above all, the exchange mechanism fur- 
 nished the country by the Second Bank of the 
 United States and its branches did not enable the 
 credits accumulated by the West at New Orleans 
 to be set off against the debts it owed to the East. 
 Financial ruin stared the West in the face. 
 
 It is difficult by mere description to make clear 
 how bad was the currency situation in the West. 
 There banks had sprung up, good, bad, and in- 
 different in response to the crying need of the 
 country for capital, misunderstood as a need for 
 more money. Money these banks provided in 
 the form of bank notes and credits; the former 
 mingled with the flood of notes from eastern 
 
The Frontier 125 
 
 banks of all the reverse degrees of excellence cir- 
 culating to deceive the ignorant at twenty different 
 discounts. In those days counterfeiting was mere- 
 ly an offense against state law. There was no 
 federal secret service to track down counterfeit- 
 ers, and counterfeit notes of genuine banks, notes 
 of imaginary banks, genuine notes of failed banks 
 all added to the confusion. Many of the state 
 banks established in the Northwest states were 
 badly managed; sometimes they persuaded farm- 
 ers and merchants to take loans they never could 
 hope to repay in order to take possession of their 
 lands and business by foreclosure. The Second 
 Bank of the United States and its branches were 
 in this respect as great offenders as any. They 
 sought first to harass the state banks by present- 
 ing their notes for specie redemption; after June, 
 1 818, the Bank of the United States refused to 
 accept the notes of western banks deposited with 
 it by government land office receivers except for 
 collection. 
 
 Secretary of the Treasury Crawford had 
 labored at the problem with a patience and wis- 
 dom for which he has not been given due credit. 
 Confronted by the refusal of the United States 
 Bank to function as fiscal agent in the West, 
 Crawford sought to keep the machinery of finance 
 running by selecting western banks of fair repute 
 as government depositories, requiring them to 
 
I2 6 The Story of Illinois 
 
 transmit at par to the East the notes of such 
 western banks as they should notify the land 
 officers they would accept. Crawford was accused 
 by his foes, perhaps with truth, of granting favors 
 in this way to his political allies. He was ac- 
 cused also of having lost some money in govern- 
 ment deposits in failed banks; but it is a question 
 whether he did not save in this way government 
 funds not otherwise recoverable, and give some 
 alleviation to the hardships of the West. 
 
 Unfortunately by 1822 the whole scheme was 
 dropped. Meanwhile Illinois had sought relief 
 for the inability of her citizens to get advances to 
 repay their loans and for the general shortage 
 of money by the creation of a state bank. The 
 legislature in 18 19 authorized one by an act which 
 failed to go into effect. In 1821 it created an- 
 other with branches, ostensibly to loan money to 
 citizens who needed it! The unconstitutionality 
 of the bank under the clause of the Federal con- 
 stitution forbidding a state to issue bills of credit 
 was so patent that the bank dared not sue to 
 collect from its debtors. Its notes depreciated, 
 the legislature tried to maintain them by making 
 them receivable for taxes and the state suffered 
 heavy financial loss before it finally got rid of 
 them. Of the earlier state chartered banks the 
 bank at Edwardsville had failed and the Bank 
 of Illinois at Shawneetown had suspended busi- 
 
The Frontier 127 
 
 ness. The whole experience of the twenties left 
 a latent distrust of paper money and a latent im- 
 pression that banks were leeches to suck the blood 
 of the farmer. In local trade barter replaced 
 the use of money of any kind. All these things 
 were to play their part in the support accorded 
 Jackson in his war on the United States Bank, 
 and the movement of the forties against banks 
 and "bank rags" in general. 
 
 The commerce, trade and finance of the new 
 state were, however, slight things beside the ex- 
 ploitation of its land and the making of farms 
 and homes upon it. To understand this a brief 
 consideration of the federal land laws is neces- 
 sary. Since 18 12 lands had been purchased at 
 government land offices in Illinois, first at Shaw- 
 neetown and Kaskaskia, later at Edwardsville 
 also, in tracts of 160 acres at a minimum rate of 
 two dollars an acre, of which amount one-fourth 
 was payable down and the rest in payments ex- 
 tending over four years. The theory on which 
 this policy had been adopted in a series of federal 
 acts beginning with 1800 was that the farmer 
 could thus pay for his land out of the first four 
 crops. Actually such a thing was almost impos- 
 sible. Farmers had taken advantage of the act 
 to get farms; but speculators also had used it to 
 acquire options on choice tracts at 50 cents an 
 acre on the chance of selling at a profit before 
 
128 The Story of Illinois 
 
 further payments were due. Disappointed hopes 
 filled the West with debtors to the government 
 who could not and would not pay and who were 
 too numerous to be dispossessed. In 1820 Con- 
 gress, in spite of the protests of speculators, 
 abolished the whole credit system and provided 
 for cash sales at one dollar and a quarter an acre, 
 after each tract had been put up at auction. Very 
 little land was bought in Illinois for ten years 
 thereafter. Meanwhile the government in a 
 series of relief acts offered to the delinquent pur- 
 chasers full title to an amount of land equivalent 
 to the sums they had actually paid in. 
 
 The land speculator was at work in Illinois 
 from the beginning. Young men came to seek 
 their fortunes in the territory, with money to 
 invest by entering fertile tracts, mill seats or 
 possible town sites. Town sites especially offered 
 on every side-; advertisements in every newspaper 
 detailed the advantages of these future emporiums 
 of trade. The competition between town site 
 speculators when the convention of 18 18 was in 
 session in Illinois led the convention to locate the 
 state's second capital at Vandalia in the wilder- 
 ness where the state might reap the profit from 
 the sale of town lots. Eastern speculators worked 
 through Western agents or bought up claims of 
 veterans of the War of 18 12 to tracts of 160 
 acres in what is known as the Military Tract — 
 
The Frontier 129 
 
 the section between the Illinois and Mississippi 
 Rivers. 
 
 Speculation in agricultural land of course was 
 determined by the lands considered most desir- 
 able; and here the choice was a strange one. Es- 
 chewing the broad prairies except for grazing, 
 men chose uplands heavily timbered with hard 
 wood. This has been ascribed to the following 
 syllogism; if land that will support the heavy 
 growth of hardwood timber is better than scrub 
 oak barren, scrub oak barren in turn must be 
 better than land that grows no trees at all. The 
 more likely reason is, paradoxical as it may seem, 
 that a man by ax, by fire, and by neighborly 
 assistance in a log rolling, by girdling trees and 
 planting corn among the decaying stumps could 
 accomplish more than he could on prairie land 
 without a team of heavy oxen to turn the first 
 tough sod. From 18 18 Morris Birkbeck, the 
 founder of the English settlement in Edwards 
 county, Edward Coles, and others labored to 
 teach their fellow citizens ways of dealing with 
 the problem of the prairies. 
 
 Even, in the thirties, however, when population 
 was sweeping over the prairies of Northwestern 
 Illinois, there was still a problem. Breaking 
 prairie cost several dollars an acre, splitting rails 
 and putting up rail fences cost several dollars 
 additional, more still if the necessary timber was 
 
13° The Story of Illinois 
 
 not close at hand. Even then, when men were 
 locating farms on the prairie they took care to 
 locate their homes on elevated ground near good 
 water, and to take a part of the farm in timber. 
 A man who located his entire farm on the prairie 
 had to steal his timber for building and fencing 
 from government land or the land of a nonresi- 
 dent. Speculators were able to keep control of 
 great tracts by locating the fractional sections that 
 covered timbered land along the water courses. 
 
 The attitude of men toward the land system 
 varied from decade to decade. For ten years 
 after 1820 little land was entered in southern 
 Illinois. What few sales were made were in the 
 central part of the state. Men either acquired 
 title from speculators, or squatted on unsold 
 government lands. In 1828 William Lee D. 
 Ewing, the receiver of the Vandalia Land Dis- 
 trict, reported 11 00 legal electors in the district 
 and total sales since the beginning of 17,586 acres 
 of land. 
 
 "The citizens of this country," he wrote, u are 
 all aware of the discussions that have httn had in 
 Congress on the subject of the reduction of the 
 price of those lands. They believe (which is very 
 natural for them to do) that the price should be 
 reduced; and finding, too, that they are supported 
 in this opinion by many of our most enlightened 
 legislators, and believing that efforts will again 
 and again be made until the object be either 
 
The Frontier 131 
 
 effected or totally defeated, they will not enter 
 their lands, except in particular instances where 
 places are found to possess some peculiar advan- 
 tages; but will continue (as they have long done) 
 to cultivate a still stronger faith in an under- 
 standing among themselves not to enter each 
 other's improvements, nor to let any one else do 
 it, until government affords them some relief in 
 the shape of the reduction of the price of its 
 lands. 
 
 This position may be more satisfactorily illus- 
 trated by the following facts : 
 
 In the county of Clay there are about one 
 hundred voting inhabitants, of whom there are 
 not more than twenty freeholders." * 
 
 The land policy appealing to western men as 
 the ideal one was the policy advocated by Sen- 
 ator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, known 
 as graduation — the reduction year by year of 
 the price of lands remaining unsold until finally 
 having reached a price of twenty-five cents an 
 acre they should be donated to the states. Joined 
 with this was the right of actual settlers to pre- 
 emption — the right to buy the lands on which 
 they had settled at the minimum price. Of such a 
 policy there was no chance so long as the East 
 had the majority in Congress. It was twenty 
 years before the Federal government permanent- 
 ly recognized the principle of preemption, ten 
 more before it applied that of graduation on 
 
 1 American State Papers, Public Lands, vol. 5, p. 556. 
 
I3 2 The Story of Illinois 
 
 unsold lands, and ten more before it adopted 
 the homestead principle. 
 
 In Congress the West had to wage a long battle 
 against New England and other sections that 
 opposed western settlement, lest their population 
 be drawn off, their lands depreciate in value and 
 their manufacturers lack cheap lands. Western 
 representatives, therefore, had to bargain for 
 support where they could find it. For Southern 
 support of a reasonably liberal land and Indian 
 policy they had to sacrifice other things. The 
 building of roads and canals and the improvement 
 of rivers at government expense appealed to the 
 westerners who desired better routes to carry 
 their produce to market; similarly they desired a 
 protective tariff to foster the household industries 
 of nail making and weaving. Both these things 
 could have been had by alliance with New Eng- 
 land and the Northeast; both had to be sacrificed 
 to conciliate the South. 
 
 In studying the intellectual and moral forces 
 that played upon pioneer Illinois the striking thing 
 is that the Illinoisan developed and improved for 
 himself on his former habits. In the back coun- 
 try religion and religious organization, education 
 and schools, politics and strong government did 
 not follow close on the pioneer; he had to learn 
 the need of them and to evolve them out of his 
 past experience with a little assistance from organ- 
 
The Frontier 133 
 
 izations back East: of such organizations he was 
 essentially suspicious and borrowed as few as 
 possible of their ideas. 
 
 As to religion, the first westward push outran 
 it. Away from ministers and services, men for- 
 got church and Sunday observance. The deism 
 of the eighteenth century, denying the supernat- 
 ural and indeed all save the moral teachings of 
 Christianity, had shot through American life and 
 thought. In the West it very often took the form 
 of a sort of diabolism that rejected and opposed 
 all organized religion as hypocritical and super- 
 stitious. Against it the churches had to contend 
 for very life. 
 
 The Baptists were the first in the field. The 
 Baptist church order, essentially congregational, 
 made the organization of churches an easy affair. 
 Every zealous lay preacher, no matter how igno- 
 rant, who migrated to the West, was the possible 
 seed of a little Baptist church. The first in Illi- 
 nois, at New Design, dates from 1796. Similar 
 churches sprang up everywhere with little denom- 
 inational connection, individually marked by 
 strange and unorthodox beliefs — such a one as 
 that of the anti-Mission Baptists who held at- 
 tempts to convert men a rebellion against divine 
 predestination that had decreed from the begin- 
 ning the lost and the saved. The elements of 
 order, coherence, and unity were first brought 
 
134 The Story of Illinois. 
 
 among the scattered Baptist churches by such 
 missionaries as John Mason Peck of Connecticut, 
 founder of churches, Sunday schools, temperance 
 societies, newspapers, of Shurtleft College at 
 Alton, who labored some forty years slowly over- 
 coming narrowness and distrust in the order. 
 
 Of the Protestant denominations the Metho- 
 dists were next on the ground about the year 1 80 1 , 
 but Methodism implied organization. Organized 
 into circuits the Methodist church was an aristoc- 
 racy presided over by bishops, ruled by the circuit 
 riders who retained their voice in affairs so long 
 as their devotion and their bodily strength en- 
 abled them to ride the bottomless roads, swim the 
 rivers and preach with all the power of a rough 
 oratory and a deep-seated conviction to the vast 
 camp meeting audiences that gathered from near 
 and far. Great natural orators like James Axley 
 and Peter Cartwwght when God's gifts were 
 strong in them could sway multitudes like fields 
 of grain in the wind till sinners by hundreds with 
 shouts and cries were torn by spiritual agony to 
 find at length spiritual peace. 
 
 Beneath the circuit riders were the settled, or 
 superannuated ministers, and class leaders, with- 
 out voice in the government of the church, but 
 continually teaching and fortifying the converts 
 and the faithful generally. Methodism in its 
 earlier years preached simplicity in apparel and 
 
The Frontier 135 
 
 life, the abandonment of dancing, card playing, 
 and other frivolous amusements; its preachers 
 withstood to the face the vice of drinking and 
 the sin of slaveholding; in later years as Metho- 
 dists waxed in wealth pioneers like Cartwright 
 bewailed their growing laxity. 
 
 Presbyterianism was in Illinois at an early day, 
 but as in the West, generally it increased slowly, 
 mainly because of its insistence on an educated 
 ministry to teach the Calvinist theology. By a 
 bargain of 1800 with the Congregationalists 
 known as the Plan of Union, the Presbyterians 
 refrained from pushing their organization further 
 in New England, and Congregationalists agreed 
 that the two denominations should unite their 
 missionary activities in the West and that Presby- 
 terianism should be the form of organization 
 there. Their set missionary activity aroused 
 western distrust; their insistence on a learned 
 ministry alarmed the simple Methodist and Bap- 
 tist preachers; but they pushed on. Determined 
 on having their educated preachers they dotted 
 the West with their colleges such as Illinois Col- 
 lege, Knox and Blackburn. 
 
 Congregationalism, however, had begun to 
 creep in in defiance of the Plan of Union as New 
 England emigrants accustomed to that form of 
 church government came in the thirties. The 
 stricter Presbyterians believed that the great Con- 
 
136 The Story of Illinois 
 
 gregational elements already absorbed by the Plan 
 of Union did not take the Presbyterian discipline 
 with due seriousness. Yale theology came to be 
 in bad repute; finally in 1837 the conservative 
 Princeton theologians, attracting the South to 
 their support, drove the lax Presbyterians of the 
 West out of the church. In Illinois and elsewhere 
 the church divided into old school and new school, 
 the New England and other theologically liberal 
 elements either falling into the new school Presby- 
 terian organization or becoming Congregation- 
 alist. The Plan of Union so far as it hindered the 
 establishment of Congregational churches was 
 abandoned; and Presbyterians and Congregation- 
 alists quarreled over colleges like Knox which 
 they had formerly combined to establish. 
 
 Other denominations were active; the Disci- 
 ples or Christians, made up of offshoots from the 
 Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist orders, tak- 
 ing the Bible as their sole guide; the Cumberland 
 Presbyterians, an offset from Presbyterianism in 
 the great revivals at the beginning of the nine- 
 teenth century; and various others. 
 
 Roman Catholicism slowly made its way again 
 into the land consecrated by the devotion of Mar- 
 quette. In the last years of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury and the first of the nineteenth there is no 
 record of a priest in the Illinois. In the year 
 1809 the Trappist Fathers established themselves 
 
The Frontier 137 
 
 on the great mound of Cahokia. 1 With the 
 founding of the diocese of Bardstown, Kentucky, 
 in 1808 priests again began their labors. Illinois 
 was a part of Bardstown and of dioceses succes- 
 sively set off from it, Vincennes, St. Louis and 
 Chicago, founded in 1844. The bishops strug- 
 gled with the problem of finding competent priests 
 to take charge of the scattered but growing flocks. 
 The Irish who came to Illinois to labor on the 
 works of internal improvement increased the 
 number of the church; but its real development 
 necessarily came with the great European migra- 
 tion after 1870. 
 
 As an intellectual force organized religion was 
 relatively more important in the pioneer com- 
 munity than in the later day. The sermon, save 
 for the political speech, was for the great mass of 
 the population the only intellectual and emotional 
 stimulus, the only example of creative art. West- 
 ern Christianity developed certain characteristics 
 all its own. Thrown into a wilderness, compelled 
 to do battle with openly hostile deism and unbe- 
 lief, it became strenuous, vigorous, even violent. 
 No Methodist circuit rider could hold a camp 
 meeting unless by force of address he could cow 
 the bullies who sought to break it up. Mocking a 
 preacher on the road was good sport for ungodly 
 
 1 This fact gives rise to the name of Monks Mound by which 
 it is sometimes known. 
 
138 The Story of Illinois 
 
 young people. Theological belief and religious 
 convictions had to be backed by one's fists on occa- 
 sion. The church had none of the protection af- 
 forded it by the conventions of polite society. 
 Compelled to fight for life it fought to destroy 
 its adversary. Intolerance was the fruit of the 
 contest between religion and irreligion where the 
 stakes were life and death. 
 
 The pioneer outran education also in his move- 
 ment to the West, but this was not a serious 
 matter. The English organization of society had 
 long taken it for granted that the church was the 
 means of education for the masses. In the south- 
 ern states, from which the mass of Illinois' earlier 
 population was drawn, there were no public school 
 systems, and a large proportion of emigrants to 
 the state were illiterate. The western states, how- 
 ever, were accorded one section in each township 
 in their bounds for local schools; and in addition 
 Illinois had a percentage from government land 
 sales and a township of land for a seminary. Her 
 pioneers came with divers opinions on the subject 
 of the employment of this endowment. Some be- 
 lieved the lands should be sold at once that the 
 present generation might be educated. Others 
 thought they should be held as a great fund for 
 the future. Southerners were averse to taxing 
 rich men to educate poor men's sons, and only 
 gradually as the northern elements came in was 
 
The Frontier 139 
 
 school taxation established. A law of 1825 allow- 
 ing localities to lay school taxes was repealed. 
 Another such was not passed till 1845. The state 
 appropriated the three per cent fund for other 
 uses, paying interest on it to the schools; local 
 land grants were rented and the rents used for 
 local schools. 
 
 The earliest schools were most casual affairs. 
 They were kept by drunkards, by men with the 
 barest smattering of knowledge, unfitted for other 
 purposes by physical or moral defects. Pupils 
 studied whatever text books their families pos- 
 sessed and were taught out of them by primitive 
 and brutal methods in which flogging played an 
 important part. Schoolmasters ruled only by 
 superior force. The barring out was a favorite 
 custom, the pupils some day attempting to keep 
 the master out until he capitulated and provided a 
 treat in which whisky played an important part. 
 
 In the late thirties, however, teachers began to 
 be paid from local and state funds according to 
 the number of their pupils and the number of days 
 they attended school. The grade of teachers im- 
 proved; young men on their way through college 
 to a career in law or politics would teach school 
 to gtt a start. By the forties thinking men were 
 thoroughly imbued with the necessity of an organ- 
 ized and standardized system, and around the 
 new office of Superintendent of Public Instruction 
 
14° The Story of Illinois 
 
 one began to be evolved. The newspapers began 
 to discuss educational systems, the Prussian, the 
 New England. 
 
 Higher education from the earliest years of 
 statehood had been available for those able to pay 
 for it. Peck's Rock Spring Seminary was soon 
 duplicated by many another high school teaching 
 more or less successfully Latin and other academic 
 subjects. Select girl schools began to develop 
 both in Illinois and across the river in Missouri. 
 Above all rose the college. 
 
 College education came primarily from the 
 churches' realization of the need of college trained 
 ministers. Colleges were at first definitely denom- 
 inational; the Illinois legislature, suspicious of re- 
 ligious connection with politics, refused for a time 
 to incorporate theological institutions to grant 
 degrees. In the thirties Shurtleff for the Baptists, 
 the outgrowth of Peck's seminary, McKendree 
 for the Methodists, Knox and Blackburn for the 
 Presbyterians all developed. Before either of 
 these came Illinois College, the fruit of the am- 
 bition of a group of Yale men — Theron Bald- 
 win, Edward Beecher, Julian M. Sturtevant, Jona- 
 than B. Turner — to build a greater Yale on the 
 Illinois prairies. Their college they had designed 
 as the center of a great educational system; as 
 such their dream was never realized. 
 
 Newspapers one naturally includes among in- 
 
• 
 
 
The Frontier 14* 
 
 tellectual forces; but the newspapers of the twen- 
 ties were comparatively slight and unimportant; 
 by the end of the decade they hardly exceeded a 
 dozen in number, each with but a few hundreds of 
 circulation. They were small weekly sheets of 
 four pages mostly filled with advertisements and 
 official publications, laws, etc. Their remaining 
 space was taken up with news anecdotes, and 
 scientific scraps clipped from eastern papers, with 
 occasional " communications " by local talent, 
 literary, political, satirical in prose and verse of 
 no very high order. So far as the editors had any 
 policy it was dictated by the factional leaders 
 whose henchmen they were, and revealed itself in 
 feeble attacks on chiefs of the rival factions. 
 Save for James Hall, at one time editor of the 
 Illinois Gazette, none of the pioneer editors 
 showed even mediocre literary ability. The in- 
 fluence of their papers was correspondingly slight. 
 The awakened democracy of the thirties and 
 forties gave life to the newspapers. Enlarged in 
 size, with editors if not able at least vigorous, con- 
 tending with each other on measures of state and 
 questions of principle, they reflect the life and 
 thought of their time as the artificial little papers 
 of the decade of 1820 do not. 
 
 Government in the primitive commonwealth 
 was a simple affair. The state government was 
 no more than a legislature meeting biennially* 
 
I4 2 The Story of Illinois 
 
 three or four administrative officials doing their 
 work at first almost without clerks, and a supreme 
 court. Local government was essentially county 
 government — County Commissioners Courts to 
 manage local finances, circuit and probate courts, 
 and justices of the peace to judge locally, and 
 sheriffs to maintain order. Roads in theory were 
 created by action of the General Assembly or of 
 the County Commissioners and maintained by a 
 labor tax; in practice they were usually bottom- 
 less seas of mud till the twentieth century. Town 
 governments for many years after 1 8 1 8 were rudi- 
 mentary. Police forces were nonexistent. The 
 only laws that could be enforced were laws the 
 local community would enforce itself. When 
 public opinion was slack, bands of robbers on 
 rivers or prairie robbed and terrorized at will 
 till the community was roused to the point of sup- 
 pressing them by main force. 
 
 The social life of the frontier can be described 
 more voluminously than accurately. Recollec- 
 tions of such merry-makings as the corn-husking, 
 the log rolling, the cabin raising, abound; but 
 contemporary descriptions and allusions are in- 
 frequent; in the contemporary newspapers they 
 are scarcely mentioned; one wonders whether 
 reminiscence, enforced by the earlier published ac- 
 counts of frontier life, did not assign them undue 
 importance, or a general one instead of one con- 
 
The Frontier 143 
 
 fined to certain localities and periods of the fron- 
 tier movement. At all events they are depicted for 
 us as meeting places, evidences of neighborly help- 
 fulness, concluded by jollity, dancing and whisky. 
 The wedding celebration and the dance offered 
 additional opportunity for frontier merry-making. 
 They were marked, one judges, often enough by 
 coarseness, but rarely by anything worse ; but the 
 Methodists labored to substitute for them the 
 emotional joys of religion. 
 
 Certain other opportunities for meeting were 
 afforded by official duties. The periodical meet- 
 ing of the circuit courts called into the county seats 
 suitors and jurymen, who learned the news of the 
 outside world from the judge and lawyers riding 
 the circuit, were regaled with speeches by political 
 aspirants, and sat down to dinner in the local 
 tavern all at the same table. The periodical 
 musters and trainings of the militia offered other 
 opportunities for escaping the loneliness of fron- 
 tier life ; but by the forties the militia had become 
 a mere source of military titles. 
 
 The conquest of the frontier and the clearing 
 of the land took its tolls in health and life alike. 
 As forest was cleared away or prairie sod broken, 
 vast masses of decaying vegetable matter were 
 exposed to the sun — underbrush, decaying logs, 
 the debris of centuries, from these and from the 
 stagnant pools and swamps came wasting diseases. 
 
144 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Intermittent fever and ague wrecked the health 
 of strong men ; and women and children succumbed 
 pitifully to hardships and disease. The genera- 
 tion that began the founding of Illinois was a 
 stalwart one. The men of the second generation 
 were connoisseurs in ill health and medicines. 
 Calomel and whisky was the most common dose; 
 but the newspapers were filled with glowing adver- 
 tisements of elixirs and patent medicines war- 
 ranted to cure all known ills from tuberculosis to 
 warts. Ill health in the forties and fifties became 
 fashionable in the United States; the pale and 
 sickly interesting young man, the fragile girl dy- 
 ing of consumption are the romantic figures of 
 the period. 
 
 The gloom of sickness and death hung over the 
 lives of the people. They did not know the cheer- 
 ful light-hearted merriment of the French peas- 
 ant : Their wit was keen, their humor boisterous, 
 their laugh a guffaw put on over sickness and 
 gloom. The man typical of the wit of the fron- 
 tier at times masked with a seemingly inexhaustible 
 fund of droll stories a gloom that made him fear 
 to carry any weapon with which he might attempt 
 his life. A literary master has hit off the spirit 
 of the Illinois of the pioneer period in the phrase, 
 " a valley of shadows." 
 
 But mingled with the gloom there was a great 
 and inordinate pride. The conquerors of the 
 
The Frontier 145 
 
 wilderness were their own men. The same im- 
 pulse had moved them to the West, that restless 
 spirit of adventure, the search for better things 
 beyond the horizon; but they had obeyed it as 
 individuals. They needed not to bow their heads 
 to any man for meat. So long as the wilderness 
 stretched before them and their hearts were whole 
 to attempt it, they need be no man's servants. 
 They obeyed no laws save those the community 
 public opinion enforced by the threat of lynch law. 
 They cringed to no public official. They were 
 not like the peasantries of Europe, humble in the 
 mighty presence of the land, that great mother 
 that for twenty generations had moulded them in 
 her bosom. The wilderness to the American 
 pioneer was no mother, but a terrible foe; yet 
 one that encountered with fire, axe, a brain and a 
 stout heart could be transmuted into a little corn- 
 field, a farm and a home. Man knew that if he 
 would he might be greater than his environment 
 and remake it to his use ; and the thought ennobled 
 him. 
 
 The pride of the frontier becomes most visible 
 when it takes the form of patriotism. Even the 
 most ignorant rejoiced in the heritage of freedom 
 given him in trust for the world's benefit and 
 looked down with contempt on the slaves of des- 
 potic government in Europe. He was firmly con- 
 vinced that his military powers as a freeman 
 
146 The Story of Illinois 
 
 could bid defiance to the world. Angered at the 
 thought of the galling defeats of the War of 18 12 
 that seemed to contradict his heroism, he was 
 prone to ascribe them not to his undisciplined law- 
 lessness in the day of battle, but to his feeble and 
 intriguing leaders at Washington. His eye turned 
 more and more to the figure of one man; a back- 
 woodsman violent, irascible, chivalrous to women 
 beyond the chivalry of romance, true to a friend, 
 stern to a mortal foe, a man who accomplished 
 what he set out to accomplish whether it was 
 bringing a mutinous army to subjection by sheer 
 will power, crushing hostile Indian nations, sav- 
 ing the outlet of the Great Valley from the in- 
 vader, or teaching a foreign power it could not 
 afford immunity to the violators of American soil. 
 Winged by the news of the great victory at New 
 Orleans, there drifted over the whole west the 
 report of a character inaccurate in details but 
 true in essentials, the very incarnation of the fron- 
 tier — Andrew Jackson. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY 
 
 THE first quarter century after the admission 
 of Illinois to the union saw a revolution in 
 the nation's political life. The people of the 
 United States as a political entity came into being 
 and consciousness. Tired of having their presi- 
 dent selected for them by conclaves of congress- 
 men in caucus at Washington, they democratized 
 party machinery to nominate and elect him them- 
 selves; they devised the democratic organization 
 of nationally organized political parties to support 
 him in carrying out the will of the people in office. 
 In the political history of that quarter century, 
 the outstanding figure is the man who instinctively 
 grasped the direction in which the spirit of the 
 times was turning and who as president made 
 himself the incarnation of the people's will — 
 Andrew Jackson. No Illinois citizen was so vital 
 an element in the Illinois of his day as he. 
 
 When first a candidate for president in 1824 
 Jackson was fifty-seven ; at the time he retired from 
 office he was sixty-nine. As a mere boy the savag- 
 ery of the revolution in the Carolina up-country 
 in which he had taken an active part and had 
 
 147 
 
148 'The Story of Illinois 
 
 lost by untimely death his whole family made him 
 a good hater; twenty-five years in Nashville on 
 the frontier of Tennessee had made him more 
 western than the West itself, the truest of friends, 
 the fiercest of foes, duellist, horse racer, cock 
 fighter, Indian hater, hero of hair breadth escapes 
 that related in sober truth sound like the episodes 
 of a dime novel. Nature had made him a leader 
 among leaders, a man who in the War of 1812 
 led armies of lawless frontiersmen trained to obey 
 only such orders as they liked, ruling them by 
 sheer force of will; a general who won such vic- 
 tories as that of New Orleans by the light of 
 natural military genius; a man whose spirit burned 
 like fire and was not consumed. That figure 
 would have been a significant one wherever placed 
 in the world's history; in the America of 18 15 it 
 was the apotheosis of the frontier. 
 
 The politics of the United States of the early 
 nineteenth century were not organized to promote 
 the elevation of such a figure to the presidency. 
 It was traditional that the nomination of presi- 
 dential candidates lay with the leaders of the 
 parties. Since 1796 the candidate of the Repub- 
 lican party for the presidency had been designated 
 by the Republican members of Congress meeting 
 in caucus at Washington. From 1800 to 1824 
 the nomination of the Republican caucus had been 
 equivalent to election. Men justified the system 
 
Jacksonian Democracy 149 
 
 by saying that only so could the party be united 
 on a candidate; that otherwise candidates would 
 spring up in the various states and sections of the 
 nation, no man could have a majority of the elec- 
 toral votes, and the House of Representatives 
 voting by states would have to choose among the 
 highest. In caucus or in the House Congress 
 must choose the president; and its choice fell 
 naturally on the political leaders it knew; men 
 from their youth up expert in politics and state- 
 craft. 
 
 For twenty years the United States had ac- 
 quiesced in this arrangement. But transportation 
 was improving; men were traveling from state to 
 state more than formerly; the age of national 
 conventions was on the horizon. The western 
 states were entering the Union with constitutional 
 provision for manhood suffrage. The older 
 states were casting aside the property qualifica- 
 tions for the ballot that had survived the Revolu- 
 tion. In state after state the system of choosing 
 presidential electors by the state legislature was 
 being abandoned, and their choice by popular 
 vote substituted. The nation, retrieved to a new 
 life by the favorable termination of the War of 
 1 8 12 felt itself conscious of a new unity and a 
 new strength, of freedom from the chariot wheels 
 of European politics, freedom on the broad con- 
 tinent that stretched to the west to work out its 
 
150 The Story of Illinois 
 
 own destiny. The people reached out for the 
 tools of democracy and began to prove them. 
 
 The presidential election of 1824 was the first 
 opportunity for their national use. When Mon- 
 roe had been elected president in 181 6, everyone 
 had taken his reelection in 1820 as an accom- 
 plished fact; and almost disregarding the aged 
 president, half a dozen younger men of ambition 
 stretched out their hands toward the prize of 
 1824. There was John Quincy Adams of Massa- 
 chusetts, secretary of state, a liberal and a for- 
 ward looking man; secretary of war John C. Cal- 
 houn of South Carolina, still a nationalist; Wil- 
 liam H. Crawford of Georgia, secretary of the 
 treasury, representative of the old strict con- 
 structionist Republicans. These men had their 
 eye on the honor and were on the ground at 
 Washington to pursue it; and they disregarded 
 such competitors from the outside as De Witt 
 Clinton, maker of New York's Erie Canal, but 
 not on good terms with Martin Van Buren and 
 the state machine, or General Andrew Jackson. 
 The popular appeal of Jackson all of them at first 
 disregarded. But the attempt in Congress and 
 the Cabinet to censure him because, set to stop 
 the raids of the Seminoles on the United States 
 from Spanish Florida, he had done it in his own 
 way without regard to the letter of his orders, the 
 immunity of British subjects, or the amour propre 
 
Jacksonian Democracy 151 
 
 of Spanish officials, had disclosed the fact that 
 very many of his fellow countrymen admired him 
 intensely for these very headstrong acts. He 
 stood forth, after his vindication by Congress as 
 a national candidate for the presidency. 
 
 "And for our next President," wrote Patchett 
 of Pittsburg to his friend James Hall in Illinois in 
 1823, "General And w - Jackson has the full & free 
 voice of the Citizens of Pennsylvania. We some- 
 time since had a meeting in the Courthouse where 
 about 800 of the citizens were present; the names 
 of the several candidates were placed on the nomi- 
 nation list. Calhoun was first balloted for, & had 
 four or five votes; Clay next had five, Adams six; 
 Crawford one; Clinton twelve, or upwards; 
 Jackson was finally brought forth, and in a voice 
 of thunder the Courthouse rung, for the Hero 
 of New Orleans. Jimmy my son, you have been 
 an officer in the last war, your sword was then 
 drawn in defence of your Country — and now let 
 you your pen in time's of peace be wielded in vin- 
 dicating the just claims of your old General, as 
 old Hickory is the best hoop for national Safety. 
 
 " But still I am well aware — there will be many 
 objections setup against General Jackson, both by 
 the Governmental Editors, and the office holders ; 
 1st because he hath not been schooled, educated 
 and brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, in the 
 Presidential Academy in the City of Washington; 
 2d Because he hath never drank deep that foun- 
 tain of Political intrigue & corruption, and were 
 he elected President might take away the Loaves 
 
i^ 2 The Story of Illinois 
 
 and the fishes from Bladensburgh cowards, and 
 feed the poor starving officers & soldiers who 
 fough[t] our battles during the last war at New 
 Orleans 3 d Because he is a man of prompt, ener- 
 getic mind and would as soon put a rascal to 
 death as he would an Indian or an Ambrister, 4 th 
 objection, altho' he has made the best General in 
 the known world, yet we are afraid to trust him 
 for our President, yet the people may answer — 
 Washington was the greatest General in the 
 world, and made the best President; never the 
 less we can gull the ignorant, and palm a coward 
 on them, for what right have the swinish multi- 
 tude to interfere in making a President. It shall 
 be done by Legislative Caucus, according to law, 
 5th & last great objection He might do us a great 
 deal of injury as he is so fond of fighting, who 
 knows but what he might declare war against the 
 world and bring down the vengeance of the 
 allied Sovereigns on our heads; and to a moral 
 certainty he would disperse our political nest at 
 Washington City, break up our Presidential 
 Academy, where the great Crawford, Clay, Cal- 
 houn & Adams have received that omnipotent nos- 
 trum, of political slang. Thus Jimmy my son, 
 you must be prepared to ward off the blows, for 
 all these obstructions and a great many more will 
 be cast in the way of the worthy Chieftain to the 
 Presidential chair; but let us go to work like true 
 Pioneers and clear off the rubbish — we will have 
 a host on our side, we will have all the true 
 Soldiers and all who are true and faithful free- 
 men to rally round the standard of Jackson and 
 Liberty, as none but trembling cowards — office 
 
Jacksonian Democracy 153 
 
 holders and office hunters will vote against him. 
 But where Jackson was, let a grateful 
 nation answer by their votes at our next Presi- 
 dential Election, for he hath earned them at the 
 mouth of a British Cannon." x 
 
 The nomination of Crawford by the Congres- 
 sional caucus was a foregone conclusion. The 
 friends of the other candidates at once began an 
 outcry against caucus nominations that found a 
 popular response. In one way or another the 
 candidates were got before the people and a real 
 campaign was on. Illinois had cast in 1820 but 
 1443 votes for her electors to go through the 
 empty form of voting for Monroe; now she could 
 choose between three or four candidates. After 
 hot contests in her districts she chose two Jackson 
 electors and one Adams elector. The result in 
 the nation was to give no candidate a majority, 
 and to send Jackson with 99 votes, Adams with 
 84 votes, and Crawford with 41 votes to be voted 
 on by the House of Representatives voting by 
 states. 
 
 There Illinois was ro play a great part. In 
 the House the sole representative of Illinois, 
 Daniel Pope Cook, could cast a vote as potent as 
 that of the whole delegations of New York, Penn- 
 sylvania or Virginia. The local factions in Illi- 
 nois politics had not divided on the presidency. 
 
 1 Eddy Manuscripts, University of Illinois. 
 
154 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Cook was left to estimate from the vote for the 
 electors throughout the state which candidate had 
 the plurality in the state's choice. If one elector 
 run under the "Jackson or Clay" label was 
 counted for Jackson, Jackson would have the 
 plurality. Were he counted for Crawford, the 
 probable source of his vote, Adams would have 
 it. 1 Cook was persuaded by his own partiality to 
 Adams to decide in his favor, and cast the vote 
 of Illinois to elect him. 
 
 The charge, probably false, broke forth 
 throughout Illinois and the nation as well, that 
 Adams was elected by a corrupt bargain in which 
 Clay bribed by the office of the Secretary of State 
 had swung his strength to elect Adams. It stirred 
 up a deep feeling of moral indignation, that the old 
 soldier, the hero of New Orleans, the first choice 
 of the people for the presidency was pushed aside 
 for a politician and closet statesman. That indig- 
 nation did not die away, but grew deeper and 
 deeper during Adams' ill-starred term. It was 
 fanned by politicians, especially those of the 
 Crawford following who in Illinois and elsewhere 
 when their chief withdrew from politics, went 
 over to Jackson. It was given validity by the 
 fact that the alliance of West and South on the 
 basis of free trade, no internal improvements, a 
 liberal public land policy, and a white man's In- 
 
 1 See table, p. 369. 
 
Jacksonian Democracy 155 
 
 dian policy, naturally cemented itself around a 
 man like Jackson both Western and Southern. 
 But when all is said it was deep anger that the 
 people's will had been disregarded by the people's 
 servants that gave Jackson the vote of Illinois in 
 1828 two to one and swept the Old Hero into the 
 presidential chair on the first of American land- 
 slides. The elder statesmen might well shake 
 their heads and repeat the axiom that a president 
 chosen by a great popular majority would be a 
 dangerous one. Such a one had been called by 
 the people and he knew his call. 
 
 The Jackson enthusiasm in Illinois was 
 destined to destroy the older factional politics. 
 Probably it was discontent with his factional affil- 
 iations, rather than with Cook's vote for Adams 
 that caused his defeat for Congress in 1826; but 
 three years later politicians looking back in the 
 light of Jackson's meteoric course in Illinois 
 naturally ascribed it to Cook's defiance of the 
 people's will. Sensing the fact that the day of 
 factional politics was past, the Crawford element 
 in the anti-Edwards following became Jacksonian, 
 and more exuberantly Jacksonian than the Jack- 
 sonians of 1824. After 1828 no man might be 
 elected to an office by the general vote of Illinois 
 unless he professed himself a supporter of Jack- 
 son. Ninian Edwards hesitated between Jackson 
 and the Adams-Clay group, clinging to both. He 
 
156 The Story of Illinois 
 
 sought the support of Adams men to stay up his 
 disintegrating personal faction, and on that ac- 
 count was condemned by Jackson and his support- 
 ers whose ear at Washington former Crawford 
 men like Kane and Kinney had obtained. True, 
 John Reynolds, professing to be a good Jackson 
 man and at the same time quietly bargaining for 
 Adams votes that could be delivered unobtrusive- 
 ly, with Edwards' support slipped into the gover- 
 norship in 1830, defeating the " whole hog" 
 Jackson candidate, William Kinney. Again in 
 1834 Reynolds was elected to Congress by Adams 
 votes. But this time he promptly repudiated his 
 Adams following as soon as elected and thence- 
 forth marched under the Jackson banner only. 
 
 The rise to prominence of men like Kinney and 
 Reynolds is in itself an indication of the demo- 
 cratic revolution in politics. Both had arisen 
 from the ranks of Illinois frontiersmen. William 
 Kinney was a storekeeper, a Baptist preacher by 
 avocation, so far illiterate that it is almost im- 
 possible to disentangle the sense of his letters 
 from the handwriting, spelling and grammar in 
 which they are couched. He was nevertheless an 
 outspoken man of keen mother wit always ex- 
 pressing itself in homely epigrams. John Reyn- 
 olds, in later years the historian of pioneer Illinois 
 in volumes that are literary curiosities had 
 a smattering of education which he strove to 
 
Jacksonian Democracy 157 
 
 stretch to the appearance of erudition. Always 
 an office seeker, always searching for the popular 
 side of every issue, fawning on his friends when 
 he needed them and discarding them when they 
 could no longer serve him, he shuffled his way 
 through Illinois politics from 1 8 1 8 to the days of 
 the Civil War. That such a man could become 
 governor and congressman is proof that the day 
 of aristocratic dignity in Illinois politics had 
 passed. 
 
 The years from 1828 until 1834 when the 
 democratic and whig parties fully separate out 
 of the amorphous political mass are years of con- 
 fusion. To begin with the Jackson movement of 
 1828 had been one mainly of sentiment and per- 
 sonal attraction. But Jackson's political ideas 
 developed fast after his election. They de- 
 veloped on such questions as internal improve- 
 ments and tariff in the direction of the limited 
 construction of the powers of the federal govern- 
 ment that had characterized the republicans of 
 1798 and the former Crawford men. When in 
 1832 the issue of the recharter of the Bank of 
 the United States was forced on Jackson by the 
 Clay-Adams group, he seized on it to rally his 
 western and southern constituencies "where hatred 
 of banks and above all of the Bank was rife. He 
 vetoed the renewal of the Bank's charter, and, 
 succeeding in the presidential election of 1832, 
 
158 The Story of Illinois 
 
 withdrew the government's funds from the " mon- 
 ster " and put them in the hands of the state banks. 
 Moreover, his removals from office hardly coin- 
 cided with his non-partisan and reform attitude 
 of 1 817 and 1823. In all these directions his 
 policy alienated in Illinois and elsewhere many 
 men who had been his ardent followers in 1824 
 and 1828. 
 
 As a result there was from 1830 to 1834 a 
 steady secession of Jackson men to the ranks of 
 the Clay-Adams opposition; and many men who 
 continued to call themselves Jackson men and to 
 run for office as Jackson men opposed again and 
 again the Jackson measures in Congress. For 
 instance, Joseph Duncan, sole Congressman 
 from Illinois from 1826 to 1833 did this until 
 1834. Then he ran for governor of the state 
 against a field of William Kinney and Robert K. 
 McLaughlin, out and out Jackson men, and James 
 Adams, whig. Duncan did not repudiate the 
 Jackson name until after the canvass, and was 
 easily elected. In that same year six candidates 
 opposed each other in the three congressional dis- 
 tricts of the state, all six declaring themselves 
 Jackson men, but some of them endorsing a 
 United States Bank. 
 
 In order to strip malcontent Jacksonians of the 
 party name and force them to support the meas- 
 ures of the party or to leave it, the democratic 
 
Jacksonian Democracy 159 
 
 party was formed in Illinois between 1834-36, its 
 party chiefs evolving the ideas of party regularity 
 and the convention system. Briefly stated, these 
 are that no man may run for office as a Jack- 
 sonian or a democrat — a term one may at length 
 use — unless he supports the measures of Jackson 
 as set forth in party platforms. In order to se- 
 cure the election of loyal democrats, all democrats 
 must give up the former right of appearing as 
 candidates for office whenever they wish; they 
 must submit their claims to conventions held in 
 the district in which they are to run, and must 
 agree to support loyally the candidate chosen by 
 the convention as the party standard bearer. 
 Otherwise the party vote may be divided, and the 
 opposition triumph. 
 
 Over the party machinery thus devised, a fierce 
 controversy waged within and without the party. 
 Resolutions denouncing the convention system 
 were introduced in the Illinois legislature in 1835 
 and bitterly contested. On one side it was alleged 
 that the convention system was democratic, that 
 it enabled the poor but upright young man of 
 ability to run for office with united party support, 
 and deprived the man of prestige, wealth and 
 social position of the advantage those gifts would 
 give him in the race were he free to enter when- 
 ever he saw fit. This undoubtedly was one reason 
 why men of this latter sort gravitated to the 
 
160 The Story of Illinois 
 
 whig party. On the other hand conventions were 
 denounced as subject to fraud and manipulation, 
 dens in which wily politicians could defeat the 
 will of the voters; no doubt too often was this 
 the case. 
 
 The convention system, however, adopted in 
 Illinois some years after the Jackson party in 
 both Ohio and Indiana had adopted it, was to 
 have a rare record of efficiency in the state. In 
 1838 and 1842 it enabled the democrats to sub- 
 stitute one candidate for another in the midst of 
 the race for the governorship. In 1838 their 
 first choice, James W. Stephenson, was proved a 
 defaulter; Thomas Carlin was substituted for him 
 and elected over Cyrus Edwards, the whig candi- 
 date, brother of Ninian Edwards. In 1842 
 Adam W. Snyder died during the canvass and 
 Thomas Ford was put in his place and beat hand- 
 ily Governor Duncan. 
 
 The system had its real test in the democratic 
 party in the troublous years 1 837-1 842. Those 
 years began with the great panic of 1837 caused 
 by inflation of credit through the lavish issue of 
 bank notes and deposits by state banks enjoying 
 government deposits. To repair the evil Van 
 Buren, now President of the United States, pro- 
 posed the sub-treasury system: the divorce of the 
 government from all dealings with banks, the col* 
 lection of government dues in specie, their deposit 
 
£ 3 
 
 < a 
 U .2 
 
 S a 
 
 «■■« 
 
Jacksonian Democracy 161 
 
 in strong rooms or subtreasuries under care of 
 government officials, and the making of all dis- 
 bursements in specie likewise. 
 
 It was only after a desperate struggle that the 
 democratic party in Illinois was brought in line 
 for this policy. The senators, R. M. Young and 
 John M. Robinson, both comparatively obscure 
 men, were in favor of it. All three congressmen, 
 Zadoc Casey, from the Southeast, Adam W. 
 Snyder from the Southwest, and William L. 
 May from the North were elected as democrats; 
 all three opposed the subtreasury. The demo- 
 cratic papers of the state, generally in favor of 
 the measure, declared war on the congressmen. 
 Zadoc Casey was in a district where the democrats 
 were not yet in favor of conventions; his personal 
 popularity secured his reelection in 1838 and 
 1 84 1. Then in 1843 in a redistricted constituency 
 he was badly beaten. But Adam W. Snyder was 
 compelled to decline a reelection; and in the 
 northern district in 1838 Stephen A. Douglas was 
 substituted for May as the democratic candidate 
 by a convention; and was beaten only by a hair's 
 breadth by John T. Stuart, whig. Douglas in 
 especial prided himself on his share in introducing 
 the convention in Illinois politics; by 1843 lt was 
 in full use by the democrats throughout the state 
 in both state and local elections. 
 
 Douglas' rise in Illinois politics had been me- 
 
1 62 The Story of Illinois 
 
 teoric. Born in Vermont in 18 13, he had come 
 to Illinois penniless at the age of twenty, and had 
 settled in Jacksonville. He attached himself to 
 the democratic party and rose from office to office 
 
 — public prosecutor in 1835, state representative 
 in 1836, register of the United States land office 
 at Springfield in 1837, secretary of state in 1840, 
 judge of the state supreme court in the same year, 
 congressman in 1843, United States senator from 
 1847 t0 ms death in 186 1. As great a dema- 
 gogue as John Reynolds himself, ability, magnet- 
 ism, frank lack of scruple in political methods, 
 and equally frank devotion to the ideals of de- 
 mocracy and the Union made him the worshiped 
 leader of voters who had speedily fathomed Rey- 
 nold's shallow cajoleries. 
 
 The whigs were slower in adopting close or- 
 ganization. This was inevitable, as at first they 
 were in considerable degree but a congeries of 
 elements thrown off from the original Jacksonian 
 group as the democratic party was crystallizing 
 out of it. A personal grudge, dislike of Jackson's 
 Bank policy, of his removals from office, of his 
 opposition to the tariff or internal improvements 
 
 — any one or all of these might have determined 
 the secession of a man or a group from the Jack- 
 son party. In 1832 a certain group had tried to 
 run electors for Jackson and R. M. Johnson in- 
 stead of Jackson and Van Buren. Some of the 
 
Jacksonian Democracy 163 
 
 group ended as undoubted democrats, some as 
 whigs; and besides there were of course the Anti- 
 Masonic and Clay tickets supported by open op- 
 ponents of Jackson. In 1836 also the whig policy 
 was divide and conquer. In Illinois an electoral 
 ticket was run pledged to vote for either the 
 liberal William Henry Harrison or the conserva- 
 tive Hugh White for president, whichever had 
 the better chance; and apparently the elements 
 supporting the two candidates were not in perfect 
 harmony. 
 
 The campaign of 1840 is illustrative of the 
 same tendency. The whigs nationally nominated 
 the liberal William Henry Harrison for Presi- 
 dent and an extreme statesrights man, John Tyler, 
 for Vice President, without a platform. By the 
 use of frontier symbols and appeals to mob psy- 
 chology they sought to reawaken for their candi- 
 date the genuine enthusiasm for the Jackson of 
 1828. So monster mass meetings were held, at- 
 tended by thousands of people, marching by dele- 
 gations from all parts of the state to Springfield, 
 bringing floats of log cabins with coon skins nailed 
 to the door, latch strings out, and barrels of hard 
 cider at the door, all to prove that Harrison was 
 a man of the frontier, simple, hospitable, a brave 
 general, charitable to old soldiers. A sort of 
 feast of tabernacles, it was as though commemo- 
 rative of the hardships of the pioneer days al- 
 
164 The Story of Illinois 
 
 ready passing away; and when in the midst of 
 cities of the East, bankers, merchants, and me- 
 chanics met around log cabins to pledge each 
 other in tin mugs of hard cider they sought to im- 
 press on men that the golden days of the past 
 with their imagined simplicity and democracy 
 would return with the election of Harrison. 
 
 Harrison swept the nation. He lost Illinois be- 
 cause the democratic organization was too strong; 
 also because the whigs had been placed in the po- 
 sition of seeming to deny to unnaturalized aliens 
 the right to vote in state elections. Moreover, in 
 supporting a whig, Alexander P. Field, in his at- 
 tempt to hold the office of secretary of state 
 against Governor Carlin's attempt to remove him, 
 they seemed to advocate the undemocratic posi- 
 tion of unlimited tenure of office. The rest of 
 the nation, for all the fruits of their victory the 
 whigs were destined to reap, might as well have 
 followed the example of Illinois. Harrison died 
 a month after his inauguration, and John Tyler, 
 bound by no platform, vetoed the Bank Bills and 
 other whig measures. Full of wrath the whigs 
 deserted Tyler, save a few like Daniel Webster, 
 who served him two years more as secretary of 
 state. In Illinois as elsewhere Tyler's strength 
 was but a "corporal's guard" recruited from 
 both whigs and democrats, plus those men willing 
 for the sake of offices to be all things to all men. 
 
Jacksonian Democracy 165 
 
 Naturally the whigs did not repeat their mis- 
 take. In 1844 they ran undoubted whig candi- 
 dates for President and Vice President on a party 
 platform. But many of the Illinois whigs still 
 shrank from adopting in state politics the demo- 
 cratic system of party organization. In 1842 no 
 convention to nominate a whig candidate for gov- 
 ernor was held; the party newspapers persuaded 
 all the whigs who put themselves forward except 
 Joseph Duncan to withdraw. In 1846 it was seri- 
 ously proposed that the central committee nomi- 
 nate the candidates for state offices, as in effect 
 had been done in 1838; and the convention of 
 1846 was hardly more than one in name. In a 
 famous manifesto published in 1843 Lincoln with 
 two other whigs laid to the lack of conventions 
 the defeat of the party in the elections of 1842; 
 in answer Governor Duncan preached the older 
 whig doctrine of the iniquity of conventions. 
 
 The control of the democratic party in the 
 state after 1843 seemed to rest in the six demo- 
 cratic congressmen elected in that year. As a re- 
 sult of the redistricting of 1843 tne whigs could 
 count on but one seat in Congress, that in the 
 seventh or central district contended for by John 
 J. Hardin, E. D. Baker, and Abraham Lincoln, 
 among the most prominent of the younger whigs 
 of the state. The six democratic congressmen, 
 led by John Wentworth of the Chicago district, 
 
*66 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Stephen A. Douglas, and John A. McClernand, 
 controlled the federal patronage, governed the 
 party in the state, elected Douglas senator, and 
 silenced the Illinois State Register at Springfield, 
 the state Democratic organ, when it dared raise 
 its voice in protest. 
 
 The opinions and characteristics of the two 
 parties deserve a word in closing. The whigs in 
 national politics were supporters of the Bank of 
 the United States and after 1837 opposers of the 
 sub-treasury; they were favorers of protective 
 tariff and internal improvements at national ex- 
 pense. Their public land policy was Clay's dis- 
 tribution bill, and they had to prove as best they 
 might that the doles of money Illinois would re- 
 ceive under it would counter-balance the indefinite 
 continuance of the price of one dollar and twenty- 
 five cents per acre. More generally they were a 
 party of the middle classes, sentimental, reading 
 sentimental papers, appealing to sentiment in elec- 
 tions as in 1840. Their party name of whig re- 
 called the days of the English revolution of the 
 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and indi- 
 cated their stand for the independence of the 
 legislative as against the executive. 
 
 The whig politician of Illinois typical of the 
 party was Orville H. Browning. He had come 
 to Quincy in 1831, a young lawyer educated at 
 Augusta College, Kentucky. He became equally 
 
Jacksonian Democracy 167 
 
 famous in the tax title litigation so important in 
 the Military Tract and in defenses of criminals 
 that moved jury and audience to tears. As a 
 politician he was a skilled debater, a suave and 
 'florid orator, but a man with a personal fastidi- 
 ousness, elegance and self conceit that contrasted 
 with the democratic exterior affected by his rivals, 
 Douglas and Richardson. In his later years he 
 was to be senator, and secretary of the interior 
 in Johnson's cabinet; now he doubtless considered 
 himself in ability and in grace the superior of his 
 whig associates, Hardin, Baker, and Lincoln. 
 
 The principles of the democratic party began 
 with the motto which Blair set at the head of the 
 party organ, the Washington Globe, u The, world 
 is too much governed. " Their policy was strict 
 construction of the constitution with respect to 
 internal improvements and the chartering of cor- 
 porations like the United States Bank. At the 
 same time the Illinois that had applauded Jack- 
 son's vigorous onset on nullification by South 
 Carolina, saw nothing in strict construction incon- 
 gruous with the most outspoken nationalism. 
 That the government of the United States was a 
 government of limited powers did not mean that 
 the United States was not a nation. The western 
 democrats sought to enforce on their party a 
 public land policy that would give the actual set- 
 tler his choice of a farm at a nominal charge or 
 
1 68 The Story of Illinois 
 
 none at all. Some of them had a hankering after 
 national internal improvements in spite of the de- 
 clared party policy on it. The more radical group 
 in the democratic party, the so-called Locofoco 
 element in New York City and the great masses 
 of the party in Illinois represented by John Went- 
 worth's Chicago Democrat and the Illinois State 
 Register, were in favor of human rights as against 
 property rights. East and west as time went on 
 an element increasingly apparent opposed all 
 banks, state or federal, and preached an agrarian 
 democracy. 
 
 In the democratic party thus developed in the 
 Illinois of the middle forties the democratic ele- 
 ments of the frontier had found full expression. 
 The one ominous thing was the unnatural alliance 
 in the same party of the western farmer, believing 
 in the dignity of labor and the rights of man, with 
 the great mass of southern slave holders. From 
 the middle forties the democracy of northern Illi- 
 nois increasingly chafed against the predominance 
 of the slavery element in the councils of the party. 
 The wave of frontier enthusiasm for Andrew 
 Jackson had developed into a party of demo- 
 cratic name and in part of democratic ideals; but 
 as the increasing importance of slavery in the 
 lower South divided that section's interests from 
 those of the Northwest a fissure on the surface of 
 the party became more and more apparent. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE EXPANSION OF THE FRONTIER COMMON- 
 WEALTH I 83O-I 846 
 
 THE twenties had seen the population of 
 Illinois overleap the inferior lands between 
 the Wabash and the Mississippi in the southern 
 part of the state and attain the rich Sangamon 
 River country. It had crossed the Illinois River 
 into the present counties of Calhoun and Pike and 
 began to press northward in the military tract. 
 In the thirties new tides of population pouring 
 in from the South or by way of Chicago, the 
 Great Lakes and the Erie Canal from New York 
 and New England were to flood over into all the 
 country north and west of the Illinois and Kan- 
 kakee Rivers. By individual settlers, by colonies, 
 the flood seeped in. Farms and towns developed 
 over night. Speculation in real estate ran riot, 
 and men began to dream of great transportation 
 systems to create a great economic empire in the 
 valley; their dreams for the moment were unat* 
 tainable, but they only faintly foreshadowed the 
 development a half century was to make in 
 northern and northwestern Illinois. 
 
 The early thirties saw the disappearance of the 
 169 
 
170 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Indians from the prairies. The relics of the Illi- 
 nois, the Kickapoo, the Shawnee had all been re- 
 moved by treaty beyond the Mississippi. The 
 Winnebago of northern Illinois and Wisconsin, 
 responsible for the little flurry of 1827 character- 
 ized in Illinois history as the Winnebago War fol- 
 lowed in 1832, after the Black Hawk War. The 
 Pottawattoniie of Lake Michigan made their last 
 cession in the state at Chicago in 1833. Two 
 years later they came for the last payments on 
 this country under the treaty; as they held their 
 last dance on their old assembly ground at the 
 Chicago River they were in the midst of the 
 streets of the new village of Chicago. Fort Dear- 
 born, garrisoned two years longer, was swallowed 
 up by 1858 in a bustling city. Within a young 
 man's memory the modern metropolis had re- 
 placed the frontier trading post. 
 
 The Sac and Foxes who still dwelt to the east 
 of the Mississippi were not easily got rid of. In 
 1804 they had made their first cession good or bad 
 at St. Louis; the Treaty of 18 16 after the British 
 desertion of the Indians had compelled them to 
 ratify the earlier treaty. A group from the two 
 tribes under the malcontent war chief, Black 
 Hawk, adhered still to the British, made pilgrim- 
 ages year by year to Maiden for the presents and 
 advice of their British father and clung to their 
 corn fields and the graves of their ancestors at 
 
Expansion of Frontier Commonwealth*! i 
 
 Rock Island, which by treaty they were privileged 
 to occupy until it should be sold by the United 
 States. The frontiersmen could not wait in def- 
 erence to Indian sentiment. They began to oc- 
 cupy and improve the site of Black Hawk's vil- 
 lage. The Indians resented it, and, forced across 
 the Mississippi, Black Hawk began a last, piti- 
 fully hopeless war against the white men. 
 
 For a time in 1832 northwestern Illinois was 
 kept in terror by Indian raids and murders; the 
 incidents of frontier Kentucky, the gathering of 
 settlers in blockhouses, attacks on small parties of 
 militia were repeated from time to time. Black 
 Hawk was soon chased into the unknown wilder- 
 ness of southern Wisconsin. The regular infan- 
 try of the United States army was at a disadvan- 
 tage in a war with mobile mounted savages, and 
 the mounted militia and volunteers mustered from 
 Illinois and from Wisconsin Territory were a bet- 
 ter reliance. One volunteer soldier of skill Illi- 
 nois produced, General James D. Henry. A 
 blacksmith by calling, Henry delighted in the 
 reading of military books. Nature had given 
 him the ability to lead undisciplined men and an 
 instinct for tactics and strategy that led him right 
 where men with better systematic training went 
 wrong. His claims to the honors of the Black 
 Hawk War were disputed by the Dodges of Wis- 
 consin and by regular officers; but any careful 
 
17 2 The Story of Illinois 
 
 student must concede to Henry much of the credit 
 for the battles of the Wisconsin and the Bad Axe, 
 which reduced Black Hawk and his band to ab- 
 ject submission. Black Hawk was held a pris- 
 oner, his Indians removed across the Missis- 
 sippi. A century and a half after Marquette 
 had first met the Indian in the Illinois country the 
 white man had finally expelled him from it. 
 
 The Black Hawk War has an especial interest 
 to Illinois history for the reason that many a 
 promising young politician with a career before 
 him answered the call of duty and marched with 
 the militia to put down Black Hawk. Most of 
 the Illinois statesmen of later days who were in 
 the state at the time entered in their records the 
 campaign of 1832. Abraham Lincoln served as 
 a captain of militia in it, and accepted a land 
 bounty for his service, which he later immortal- 
 ized in a richly humorous comparison of its blood- 
 lessness with the military record of General Lewis 
 Cass. 
 
 With the passing of the Indian there was noth- 
 ing to impede the advance of the white man. 
 Everywhere farms were carved out of the wilder- 
 ness before the government had opened it for 
 sale. As tract after tract was put up for sale in 
 the new land offices opened at Galena, Chicago, 
 Quincy, and Danville, settlers who already had 
 fenced and broken tracts of land and put up cab- 
 
BLACK HAWK 
 
 (1768 - 1838) 
 From an Old Portrait 
 
Expansion of Frontier Commonwealth 173 
 
 ins or had bought the improvements of earlier 
 squatters thronged to the sales to buy the tracts 
 on which they had already established their 
 homes. At times in the thirties temporary pre- 
 emption acts protected them. When they did not 
 the settlers protected themselves. In land dis- 
 tricts before lands were put on sale the settlers 
 formed settlers' committees which first adjusted 
 disputes between actual settlers as to overlapping 
 claims and then attended sales in force to overawe 
 any speculator who dared to bid on a settler's im- 
 provement. 
 
 The methods of the war with the soil were 
 changing. Men had conquered their dread of 
 the prairies; but they took care usually to enter 
 sections that included a bit of wood land for 
 cabin, fence rails, and fire wood. If they did not 
 they had to borrow those necessary articles from 
 the lands of nonresidents or if the settler had a 
 New England conscience, from the land still be- 
 longing to the United States. Good springs and 
 healthful home sites were other things to look 
 for. The men who came to this district in the 
 thirties had money to spend; and definite rates 
 for service established themselves, two dollars 
 and fifty cents an acre for breaking prairie, 
 two dollars a hundred for cutting rails, hauling 
 them and building a rail fence. Often the claim 
 and improvements of a squatter without his one 
 
174 The Story of Illinois 
 
 dollar and twenty-five cents per acre to pay in at 
 the land office were for sale and made that much 
 easier the establishment of a new home. Squat- 
 ters and day laborers could and did by industry 
 earn the money to enter quarter sections of their 
 own. The day of promise seemed fully dawned 
 for every man able and willing to work. 
 
 Everywhere through the district was to be 
 found the track of the speculator. For years 
 eastern speculators had been buying up choice 
 tracts in the so-called military tract west of the 
 Illinois River; for many a veteran of the War 
 of 1 8 12 parted with his bounty land in Illinois for 
 a song. Now they were busy in the new reaches 
 opened up for sale in northwestern Illinois. A 
 favorite trick was to buy up the quarter sections 
 of woodland along the rivers and resell at a hand- 
 some profit to the heedless man who located his 
 tract entirely on the adjoining prairies. But the 
 town sites offered even better picking. As county 
 seats in the new counties springing up, as com- 
 mercial centers, old forts, trading posts and fords 
 were developing into towns, Warsaw, Oquawka, 
 Savanna, Rock Island on the Mississippi, Peoria, 
 Rockford, in the interior and above all Chicago. 1 
 
 1 The following advertisement may serve as a specimen of 
 the speculative towns of the day. 
 
 PUBLIC SALE OF LOTS IN THE TOWN OF HURON 
 On Monday 21st of August next, will be sold on the premises 
 to the highest bidder, ioo Town Lots in Gay's addition to the 
 
Expansion of Frontier Commonwealth 17 5 
 
 Chicago in the middle thirties was the happy 
 hunting ground of the speculator. Into the Chi- 
 cago River crowded schooners and steamers ex- 
 peditiously bringing emigrants and their house- 
 town of Huron, Sangamon county, Illinois. Huron is situated 
 on the south bank of Sangamon River, at the point before 
 known as Miller's Ferry, about 30 miles from Beardstown, 30 
 miles from Jacksonville, 30 miles from Freemont and Pekin, 30 
 miles from Springfield, the seat of government of the State — 
 also at a point where the canal from Beardstown must intersect 
 the Sangamon River, (by an act of the Legislature) which has 
 already been surveyed. It is likewise about the geographical 
 center of that part of the Territory of Sangamon county, which 
 by general consent, it is conceded, must in a short time become 
 a new county — is surrounded by fertile and healthy country, 
 now containing a large and industrious population, and which 
 is constantly and rapidly increasing. It must command a large 
 portion of the trade of Pecan bottom, a tract unrivaled in fer- 
 tility and beauty by any in the State, as well as a large extent 
 of rich and fertile country adjacent. And in the event of the 
 construction of the canal (which from the nature of the river, 
 precluding almost the possibility of its ever becoming navi- 
 gable) which the interests of the country and of the stockholders 
 require, Huron will possess the advantages of an immense water 
 power, that cannot fail to build it up at once into a flourishing 
 and populous town. There is one saw and grist mill now in 
 operation about 4 miles from Huron, and two more building 
 within six miles. The water is of the first quality. There are 
 two state roads running through Huron at right angles, and 
 the principal part of the travel to the upper part of the Military 
 Tract is thro this place. The town lies on the second table, and 
 principally about 30 feet above high water mark. Should the 
 State take a fancy to make the Sangamon River navigable, 
 (which might be done by digging a channel 150 or 200 miles) 
 then Huron possesses the advantage of being one of the most 
 prominent points of the river. 
 
 We say that Huron possessing all these advantages must be- 
 come an important place, and is worthy the attention of 
 persons who wish to make good investments, or who seek favor- 
 able locations for business. 
 
 Terms — Six and twelve months credit. 
 Huron, July 7, 1837 G. W. Gay, Agent. 
 
 Sangamo Journal, Aug. 5, 1837. 297 ts. 
 
176 The Story of Illinois 
 
 hold goods, merchants and their stores from the 
 head of Lake Erie where De Witt Clinton's Erie 
 canal opened up the way from New York and 
 New England. Some of the newcomers swarmed 
 out into the rich lands of northern Illinois; but 
 many stayed in Chicago. The city grew rapidly 
 year by year in population. In 1837 it was in- 
 corporated. Town lots sold for one hundred 
 dollars a front foot; speculators made fortunes 
 in the city's real estate. 
 
 Speculation was not merely local to Illinois. 
 In those years it ran throughout the Union and 
 throughout the West in particular. The deposit 
 of federal funds in state banks had given the 
 banks great assets on which they were eager to 
 reap profits. They would readily lend to the 
 speculator the precious bank notes that would buy 
 at the land office the sections and quarter sections 
 of rich western land. The attention of the specu- 
 lators fluctuated from state to state; Indiana this 
 year, Mississippi that, Illinois another led the 
 sales of lands in terms of millions of acres where 
 a decade before barely hundreds of thousands 
 were sold. Till Jackson checked the mania by 
 prescribing that only gold and silver be received 
 for public lands speculating was easy and sure 
 wealth. 
 
 Throughout the states of the northwest men's 
 imaginations ran riot. They were fired by the 
 
Expansion of Frontier Commonwealth 177 
 
 matchless beauty of the untouched prairies with 
 their lavish succession of flowers from the spring 
 violet and grass flower, the pink, the crimson 
 phlox, the physostegia, the purple liatris, to the 
 blue and gold of the fall aster and the golden rod. 
 Their cupidity was quickened by the promise of 
 the rich farms that lay beneath; by brisk and 
 thriving villages grown over night, by commercial 
 metropolises whose buildings in sober reality 
 grew as through a mirage. The promise of 
 wealth nature stretched out to them on every side 
 with lavish hands. Only adequate means of 
 transportation and capital seemed needed to en- 
 joy it at the fullest; and with optimism run wild 
 men in the middle thirties set about securing both 
 these things. 
 
 The general assembly caught the contagion and 
 once more began to think in terms of millions. 
 It had about 1830 painfully wound up the affairs 
 of the State Bank of Illinois; it had seen the Bank 
 of Edwardsville fail and the Bank of Illinois at 
 Shawneetown while solvent suspend business. It 
 had despised not the day of small things and had 
 debated with praiseworthy economy of the peo- 
 ple's money appropriations of hundreds or thou- 
 sands of dollars, and with republican virtue had 
 looked closely to its own small per diem. But 
 the boom times of the thirties awoke it anew. It 
 began once more the chartering of banks. The 
 
178 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Bank of Illinois in 1835 was rechartered for a 
 capital of a million. The new State Bank of 
 Illinois was created in the same year to have 
 branches and a capital of $1,500,000. 
 
 These friendly institutions would doubtless sup- 
 ply to a growing and progressive country the 
 money it needed but how was the state to obtain 
 the transportation required to pour into the 
 world's markets the produce of the Illinois 
 prairies? True there was the grant of Federal 
 land obtained for the Illinois and Michigan Canal 
 in 1827 by Daniel Pope Cook — his last service 
 to the state. Alternate tracts to a depth of five 
 sections along the route were much. Illinois had 
 discussed various projects, had debated the advis- 
 ability of canal or railroad, and finally in spite 
 of engineering difficulties decided on a canal. In 
 1836 the state finally concluded to undertake the 
 work of funds raised on credit, trusting to the sale 
 of canal lands and the tolls of the canal to pay 
 the debt. That same session of the legislature 
 saw the passage of a flood of bills for private 
 corporations to construct railroads, canals, turn- 
 pike roads with powers stated in all degrees of 
 looseness. In view of Marshall's decision in the 
 Dartmouth College case that a state may not 
 change corporate powers it has granted, one shud- 
 ders at the thought of what an ungovernable 
 transportation system Illinois would have endured 
 
Expansion of Frontier Commonwealth 179 
 
 had these bills been anything but a pleasant 
 mirage. 
 
 The excitement was satirized most ably by Wil- 
 liam Kinney, in a speech that may serve as a speci- 
 men of his style: 
 
 Mr. Cheerman — The gentleman what has 
 just taken his seat says, he is decidedly in favor 
 of railroads, and that upon the joint stock 
 principle, the state subscribing one third and 
 individuals the residue; a railroad should be con- 
 structed from the city of New Jerusalem, about 
 to be built on the Rocky Mountains, through 
 Peoria to the City of New York — For he says, 
 there are actually people now residing at Peoria ! 
 And report says there are even some (besides 
 Indians) beyond there. — He knows every inch 
 of ground in the whole state of Illinois — and 
 has surveyed the same from the center to the 
 circumference — and Peoria is exactly three miles, 
 twenty three chains, eleven and eleven sixteenths 
 links from the geographical center; and in all 
 respects the most suitable and practicable location 
 for a seat of government in the universe; and is 
 in fact the only place under the sun where all the 
 turnpikes, railroads, highways, canals and water 
 courses, both natural and artificial, must eventual- 
 ly terminate. 
 
 The gentleman in flights of fancy has disdained 
 to confine himself to this little dirty planet, 
 earth — in his vast and fertile imagination he has 
 constructed a double track railroad to the moon, 
 and traveled thither on a locomotive at the rate 
 
180 The Story of Illinois 
 
 of 75,000 miles per hour — thence he has thrown 
 a summerset and landed straddle of the north 
 pole — then vaulted into the regions of eternal 
 space, and there with a dead rest and unerring 
 aim, has shot at eternity. 
 
 Some men are born poets, and all women are 
 born singers, but as to that air critter what has 
 just taken his seat, any body can see Natur has 
 made him an Orator! 1 
 
 But now southern Illinois had caught the in- 
 ternal improvement fever. The oldest settled 
 part of the state, she had seen the rich lands of 
 the north fill up while her own counties remained 
 unpeopled. A great transportation system might 
 redress the balance. Accordingly in the session 
 of 1836-7 the legislature set enthusiastically to 
 work out a great system of internal improvements 
 to be constructed on the credit of the state. The 
 Wabash, Illinois, Kaskaskia and Rock Rivers 
 were to be improved. There was to be an Illinois 
 Central railroad from the terminus of the Illinois 
 and Michigan Canal to the mouth of the Ohio 
 River at Cairo, two east and west lines, the 
 Southern Cross and the Northern Cross railroads, 
 the former from Alton to Mt. CarmeJ, the latter 
 via Quincy and Springfield to the Indiana state 
 line, and divers other enterprises. All this was 
 supported on the most enthusiastic calculations of 
 
 Belleville Advocate, Dec. 9, 1841. 
 
Expansion of Frontier Commonwealth 181 
 
 profits from the work and the distribution to the 
 states of the surplus federal revenue. The Coun- 
 cil of Revision consisting of Governor Duncan 
 and the justices of the Supreme Court vetoed the 
 bill, but it passed over the veto. 
 
 The Internal Improvement System had been 
 adopted because at the same session the question 
 had come up of a relocation of the state capital. 
 The capital had been located for twenty years at 
 Vandalia merely as a speculation in town lots by 
 the state. Now as the twenty years neared its 
 end Alton, Jacksonville, Peoria, and Springfield 
 were all aspiring to the dignity. The Springfield 
 delegation in the legislative session of 1837, the 
 famous Long Nine — headed by Abraham Lin- 
 coln — traded their votes on the internal improve- 
 ment system for the location of the capital at 
 Springfield. 
 
 As Abraham Lincoln was one of the leaders 
 in the internal improvement, movement, and in his 
 earlier life typified the ambition for material prog- 
 ress that characterized it, it is fitting here to 
 recall to the reader the main facts of his earlier 
 career. He was born in central Kentucky in 1809. 
 His father was of the squatter type? and drifted 
 with the advancing frontier, first to southern In- 
 diana, and then, in 1830, to eastern Illinois, to 
 Decatur, and to Coles County. Abraham Lincoln 
 now of age struck out for himself, settling at New 
 
1 82 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Salem, then included in Sangamon County. His 
 physical strength and his wit made him a leader 
 and he went into politics, running a close race for 
 the General Assembly in 1832 and being elected in 
 1834, 1836, 1838, and 1840. He soon was 
 counted among the younger leaders of the whig 
 party in the state. First an unsuccessful store- 
 keeper in New Salem, he took up the study of law 
 by himself and in 1836 was admitted to the bar. 
 He removed to Springfield in 1837, marrying 
 Mary Todd, daughter of an aristocratic Kentucky 
 family, five years later. With the exception of a 
 term in Congress, 1847 to ^49, ne devoted him- 
 self to the practice of law at Springfield and on 
 the Eastern Illinois circuit till the repeal of the 
 Missouri Compromise in 1854. To his contempo- 
 raries he as yet seemed little more than a good 
 jury lawyer who sought the law of his cases by 
 intuition rather than study, a clever and honest 
 politician, and a companion whose wit made him 
 the life of his company. 
 
 When the system went into effect, in accordance 
 with the law construction was begun simultane- 
 ously at many different points. The panic of 
 1837 cut off the bonus of federal money. The 
 State Bank to which the state had subscribed 
 paper capital expecting to receive huge specie 
 profits was deep in difficulties. The legislature 
 of 1839 a t tne behest of the South laid a heavy 
 
Expansion of Frontier Commonwealth^^ 
 
 tax compared to what the state had hitherto 
 known; twenty cents on the one hundred dollars 
 was an argument to use in approaching English 
 bankers for a loan. Opposition to the system had 
 already been gathering; and this tax turned the 
 scale. Demands for a classification or a repeal of 
 the system began to spread. 
 
 Meanwhile the Fund Commissioners of the 
 state floated what bonds they could in New York, 
 and then turned to the firm of John Wright in 
 London. Commissioners for the canal bonds and 
 the internal improvement bonds were soon com- 
 peting in the market. Blocks of bonds from the 
 hands of bankrupts began to come in the market 
 and depress it. Governor Carlin considered for 
 a time the contract with Wright illegal, held it 
 up long enough to cause the failure of Wright's 
 house and then ratified it. Work on the system 
 stopped in 1840. By 1841 the state could no 
 longer pay the interest on its bonds, its work 
 stopped and the whole system came crashing 
 down. The banks had suspended specie pay- 
 ments; the State Bank had speculated wildly, its 
 notes circulated at an increasing discount and ruin 
 w r as everywhere. A member of the general as- 
 sembly stated that in his district constables and 
 magistrates were the only business men. 
 
 The roseate hues of speculation and optimism 
 no longer colored life. Northern Illinois dis- 
 
184 The Story of Illinois 
 
 trustful of the imperial destiny of the state began 
 to look longingly toward debt free Wisconsin 
 Territory and many men proposed that the 
 Northwest ordinance be obeyed and the northern 
 boundary of the state be the line through the foot 
 of Lake Michigan. Trade had degenerated into 
 barter. It is of these days that old residents of 
 Chicago used to delight in telling how they had 
 refused an offer of the site of Marshall Field's 
 retail store for an old set of harness. Certainly 
 one hundred dollar a foot values were no longer 
 in evidence. 
 
 The solution of the state's difficulty was 
 achieved in 1842 in the election of Governor 
 Thomas Ford. His opponent in the election, 
 former Governor Joseph Duncan, had rather 
 looked to the tariff of a whig national administra- 
 tion in 1845 and money doles to the state from 
 the federal government to extricate it. Ford's 
 scheme compelled the state to rely on itself. The 
 winding up of the state bank, and an agreement 
 by which the state's creditors should advance 
 funds for the completion of the canal on a pledge 
 of its lands and tolls was the solution finally 
 adopted and adhered to by both sides. Popula- 
 tion and business now flowed to Illinois and the 
 debt of fifteen millions no longer seemed a serious 
 matter. Illinois had extricated herself by her 
 own efforts from the effects of her folly. She 
 
[Plate owned by Illinois State Historical Library] 
 
 (?— 1850) 
 
Expansion of Frontier Commonwealth 185 
 
 had been too optimistic of the future in 1837, but 
 her destiny was unfolding rapidly. The railroads 
 came fifteen years later than she looked for them ; 
 but the material progress they brought outran 
 the wildest dreams of 1837. 
 
 The state, however, owed her immediate 
 rescue to a man of the age that was passing. 
 Poverty had beset Thomas Ford throughout his 
 life. It had condemned him as a young man to a 
 role in politics below his abilities, and in his mid- 
 dle years to the meager pay of a circuit judge. 
 In the vain hope it might be a legacy for his chil- 
 dren, he left at his death a History of Illinois 
 that is a remarkable work. Approaching the 
 period of the state's history through which he had 
 lived as an example of the futility of American 
 politics he dissected with a merciless scalpel both 
 politicians and political methods. John Reynolds 
 in particular writhed in agony at the acid recount- 
 ing of stories revealing his littleness at which the 
 bar at its circuit dinners had doubtless roared 
 many a time. The future careers of Douglas, 
 Trumbull and Lincoln were of course beyond 
 Ford's knowledge ; and he drew all his characters 
 on the same scale. To him the period was one of 
 little measures and little men. The pessimism with 
 which one of the keenest commentators on Amer- 
 ican political life regarded it is more in the fash- 
 ion of the present age than of his own. 
 
1 86 The Story of Illinois 
 
 In the face of the great change that was to 
 come over Illinois in the decade of the fifties, we 
 may consider two incidents typical of the frontier 
 period of the state on the eve of its passage. Only 
 in the frontier stage of development could the 
 dual tragedy of the Mormon settlement and the 
 Mormon war have been staged. Mormonism, ac- 
 cording to the Mormons, began in 1827, when 
 the Angel of the Lord surrendered to Joseph 
 Smith miraculous golden plates that had been 
 buried for some fifteen centuries on the hill at 
 Palmyra, New York; marvelous plates that told 
 long histories of emigrations to America in days 
 before Christ and in the early Christian era, of 
 the preaching of the gospel, and the founding of 
 churches here, of wars and the wiping out by bar- 
 barians of all trace of the divine message. These 
 plates translated by Smith through miraculous in- 
 terposition into the dull and not too grammatical 
 book of Mormon laid the foundation of the Lat- 
 ter Day Saints, a religious group moulded into a 
 community economically and politically servile to 
 Joseph Smith and his family and a few other 
 leaders. 
 
 The Latter Day Saints moved from place to 
 place and always persecution followed, once in 
 Ohio, twice in Missouri. The last persecution by 
 the Gentiles in Missouri was the bitterest and 
 about 1840 the Saints sought refuge at Nauvoo 
 
Expansion of Frontier Commonwealth 187 
 
 in Hancock county on the Mississippi. Here the 
 faithful began to gather together, some converts 
 by Mormon elders in the East, more from Eng- 
 land and Europe. A city of perhaps 20,000, the 
 largest in the state grew up in a few years. Mor- 
 mons scattered into the outlying districts, but 
 even so Nauvoo had hard work in finding enter- 
 prises to keep her impecunious thousands in food. 
 
 From the beginning Smith had sought to trade 
 off the thousands of votes he controlled for po- 
 litical privileges. He obtained a charter for Nau- 
 voo that gave it an independent militia organiza- 
 tion and local legislative power concurrent with 
 that of the General Assembly. In 1840 his fol- 
 lowers voted for Harrison, in 1842 for Ford 
 and the democrats; but in 1844 Smith aspired 
 himself to be a presidential candidate. 
 
 Meanwhile ugly rumors about Nauvoo and the 
 Mormons began to circulate. Scabrous recruits 
 to the colony like John C. Bennett, when expelled 
 from it, began to tell scabrous stories of debauch- 
 ery and plural marriage that went on in it. Re- 
 ports that it was a refuge of horse thieves an- 
 tagonized the local farmers. In 1844 the city 
 government under the Smiths forcibly suppressed 
 the Nauvoo Expositor, a newspaper that began 
 to attack their management and morality. A few 
 weeks later the Smiths going to Carthage, the 
 county seat, in obedience to legal process were 
 
1 88 The Story of Illinois 
 
 murdered by a mob in the Carthage jail. 
 
 Thereafter the Gentiles of the surrounding 
 country took up arms again and again to force the 
 withdrawal of the Mormons from the state. 
 Nauvoo was twice attacked by military forces 
 from surrounding counties; once the governor 
 mustered the power of the state to protect it. 
 But Brigham Young, stronger and abler than ever 
 the Smiths were, had seized control of Mormon- 
 dom, expelled all hostile elements and prepared 
 to lead the colony to the far West where his 
 power would be absolute. In 1846 the last of 
 the Mormons had left the state on their way to 
 Salt Lake. The well-built houses, many of them 
 brick, that had sheltered a population of thou- 
 sands, the church buildings, and above all the 
 great temple completed before the Mormons left, 
 found no successive tenants to use them and have 
 long since fallen into ruin; a sleepy little village 
 of a few hundred, nestles in what was a religious 
 colony. 
 
 Much may justly be said in condemnation of 
 the violence that drove the Mormons out of the 
 state at the point of the rifle; much more of the 
 murder of the Smiths. But it must not be for- 
 gotten that the Mormon cancer was growing with 
 frightful rapidity, and that it had fastened itself 
 in a body politic so rudimentary that the tissues 
 could not of themselves expel the intruder. The 
 
Expansion of Frontier Commonwealth 189 
 
 knife of mob violence was the only thing that 
 could do it. Smith had striven to set his com- 
 munity outside the law of the state; by political 
 bargaining he had nearly accomplished it. The 
 state had no police force adequate to deal with 
 the menace of autocratic government and defiance 
 of law and morals at Nauvoo. The frontiersmen 
 took the law in their own hands when the simple 
 government they had erected in the state for their 
 simple needs proved inadequate. In the frontier 
 stage that was passing in the forties action was 
 necessary that in the more advanced state of a 
 decade later would have been inexcusable. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE COMING OF THE RAILROADS 
 
 THE years in which Illinois was called to 
 the foremost place in the nation's councils 
 in deciding the great questions of slavery expan- 
 sion, war and reconstruction were also years in 
 which she was in the throes of a mighty rebirth. 
 Between 1850 and 1870 she was transformed 
 from a simple frontier rural community to an in- 
 dustrial state, with large cities growing into 
 mighty ones as cities had never grown before in 
 the world's history. Suddenly she was compelled 
 to meet the problems of a social, economic and 
 political life made many times more complex. 
 Many factors worked in the accomplishment of 
 the change but the greatest of them was the rail- 
 roads. 
 
 The railroad era represents one of a series of 
 mighty strides forward that the modern world 
 was taking. In the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- 
 turies if one had been asked what the civilized 
 world in material achievement had added to the 
 heritage of Greece and Rome, he could only have 
 mentioned the mariner's compass, the application 
 of gunpowder to war, and the application of the 
 
 190 
 
The Coming of the Railroads 191 
 
 printing press to the rapid spread of the written 
 word among men. By the end of the eighteenth 
 century he would have had to add that the ap- 
 plication of steam to manufacturing had made 
 possible the increased machine production of the 
 industrial age. After 1830 he would have seen 
 the remaking of the farm and the multiplication 
 of the crop that could be reaped by a single man 
 by the harvester and other agricultural machin- 
 ery; he would have seen the revolutionizing of 
 transportation, the binding of city to city, state 
 to state, nation to nation, by the ocean steamship, 
 the telegraph, and the railroad in a degree that 
 transcended the imagination of the most gifted 
 tale tellers of the past. 
 
 The railroads of the thirties had failed because 
 the state had embarked on an over-ambitious 
 scheme dictated by political alliances and roseate 
 hopes rather than sound economic considerations, 
 and for the funds to attempt its construction had 
 pledged her credit to credulous financiers ignorant 
 of local conditions. How capital had accumu- 
 lated in the eastern United States ; how, why and 
 in what combinations it began to look to Illinois 
 railroads for investments are questions that can- 
 not be answered until the economic history of the 
 United States is adequately written. But by the 
 late forties capitalists were beginning to bid for 
 charters that would carry railroads across the 
 
19 2 The Story of Illinois 
 
 state to St. Louis or at least to Chicago at the 
 terminus of the Illinois and Michigan canal. 
 That canal, opened in 1848, was already pouring 
 the grain of the Illinois River country and even 
 of the Mississippi away from St. Louis to Chi- 
 cago, en route for eastern ports by the Great 
 Lakes. The old cry of federal aid for internal 
 improvements reechoed, and though such things 
 had no part in the program of the democratic 
 party, western-minded democrats like Douglas 
 and Wentworth set about to get them. Douglas 
 believed that funds to make navigable the rivers 
 of the state could be obtained by the imposition 
 of state tonnage duties. For the construction of 
 a railroad in the state to link Lake Michigan and 
 the Ohio in 1850 he secured a federal land grant. 
 For years before Senator Sidney Breese had 
 been working for federal aid to the Illinois Cen- 
 tral Railroad projected in 1836-7; Douglas took 
 up the scheme, satisfied states rights democrats 
 by making it a donation to the state for the con- 
 struction of the road; and bore back in triumph 
 a federal land grant along the lines of the pro- 
 jected road — a Y connecting Galena and Chi- 
 cago with Cairo — that was to net the Illinois 
 Central Railroad Company two million five hun- 
 dred thousand acres. A set of eastern capitalists 
 promptly undertook the work; and eastern Illi- 
 nois, then almost a desert, blossomed as the rose 
 
The Coming of the Railroads 193 
 
 with towns and farms. 
 
 Meanwhile the state legislature was besieged 
 with requests for charters for lines to cross the 
 state and connect the Mississippi with eastern- 
 trunk lines. Here local interests contended ob- 
 scurely with each other. Each locality of course 
 opposed the railroad schemes designed to help its 
 rivals; but Alton especially in the name of "state 
 policy" sought to prevent its rival, St. Louis, 
 from being the terminus of any line crossing the 
 state. In spite of the fact that Governor French 
 and some of the most prominent democratic poli- 
 ticians w r ere in favor of a St. Louis terminus, the 
 advocates of " state policy " in a called session of 
 1849, passed a general railroad law with a pro- 
 vision that the General Assembly must approve 
 routes and termini. In 1851 the Assembly ap- 
 proved the routing of the Ohio and Mississippi 
 railroad from Vincennes to Illinoistown opposite 
 St. Louis. The Terre Haute and Alton project, 
 however, aided by the Ohio and Mississippi road, 
 till 1854 blocked the chartering of the Atlantic 
 and Mississippi — a connection between Terre 
 Haute and Illinoistown. Bribery of the legisla- 
 ture was freely charged on both sides. The At- 
 lantic and Mississippi was not undertaken till 
 1865; but Lieutenant Governor Koerner by in- 
 serting a joker in a local railroad bill, secured a 
 connection between Alton and Illinoistown that 
 
194 The Story of Illinois 
 
 made Alton only a way station on a route from 
 Terre Haute to St. Louis. 
 
 Meanwhile other roads had appeared with 
 magical haste. The Galena and Chicago Union, 
 later part of the Northwestern system, incorpo- 
 rated in 1847, na d fourteen miles in operation in 
 1849, an d reached Freeport in 1853. It soon 
 added an air line west from Chicago to Fulton. 
 In the same years a network of roads in north- 
 ern Illinois and southern Wisconsin developed, 
 ultimately to be combined in the Northwestern 
 system. Between 1851 and 1854 the Chicago 
 and Rock Island was constructed; and by 1854 
 the Chicago and Alton. Within a year or two 
 separate roads from Quincy to Galesburg, from 
 Galesburg to Mendota, Galesburg to Burlington, 
 and from Aurora to Chicago, were united into 
 the nucleus of the Chicago, Burlington and 
 Quincy. 
 
 Connections with the East had already devel- 
 oped. In 1850 the Michigan Southern and the 
 Michigan Central, built by rival capitalist groups, 
 were seeking to block each other out of Indiana 
 and Illinois. Ultimately they entered the state 
 over spurs, built under state charters for the 
 Michigan Central by the Illinois Central, and for 
 the Michigan Southern by the Rock Island. Chi- 
 cago interests feared a junction outside Chicago 
 from Joliet to La Porte, and felt that a union of 
 
The Coming of the Railroads 195 
 
 eastern and western lines even five miles out of 
 the city would ruin its prosperity. 
 
 This was of course but the outline of the Illi- 
 nois railroad net of the present. Year by year 
 new roads and connections developed, a dozen 
 projects dying ingloriously for every one that 
 came to fruition. More than one relic of the 
 mania of 1837 was galvanized into a hectic life. 
 
 " I was creditably informed," wrote J. C. Allen 
 to Governor French, December 9, 1851, "A few 
 days since, that General Pickering, the indefati- 
 gable proprietor of the Mt. Carmel and Alton 
 Rail Road, in his zeal for the completion of his 
 favorite work, has actually hired an Irishman and 
 set him to work on it, he (the Genl) acting as 
 Superintendent." 1 
 
 Men learned to use the railroads as soon as 
 they came. By 1853 the State Register noted the 
 discontinuance of the last of the lines of stages 
 for which Springfield had been noted. The bar, 
 riding the circuits through the state, speedily 
 learned to abandon the buggy, the wagon or the 
 stage, and to pick its way even by roundabout 
 routes from one railroad line to the next. Com- 
 plaints of crowded cars occur before 1854. The 
 next year the Illinois Central introduced sleeping 
 cars. In 1857 tne ^ rst through Chicago-St. Louis 
 sleeper was put in operation. The coal burning 
 
 1 French Manuscripts, University of Illinois. 
 
196 The Story of Illinois 
 
 locomotive came in to take the place of the wood 
 burning. Accidents began to happen. The super- 
 intendent of the Chicago & Alton issued an order 
 in 1853 that an hour before evening trains were 
 due section masters should pass over their sections 
 on hand cars to drive all cows off the track. Un- 
 fenced right of way had their dangers and the 
 companies set to fencing them as speedily as they 
 could. 
 
 In the years between 1849 and 1856 the popu- 
 lation of the state was changing rapidly. The 
 restless frontier elements of pioneer Illinois were 
 flowing out to the newer West. Migration to 
 California in 1849-50 caught the popular imagi- 
 nation. 
 
 "Our town," said the Ottawa Free Trader, 
 March 23, 1850, u has for the past week been 
 every evening so crowded with California teams 
 and emigrants, that the hotels have not been able 
 to accommodate all. We can scarcely look out of 
 the windows but we see California teams, some 
 drawn by oxen, some by horses, some by ponies, 
 some by mules — every species of conveyance 
 seems to have been brought into requisition and 
 every known contrivance to get through. On Fox 
 River we are credibly informed, the migration 
 will average one out of every six able bodied men 
 . . . . while in our own County, although 
 not as large as this, the proportion is yet fear- 
 fully large. You can scarce pass a wagon, wrote 
 
The Coming of the Railroads 197 
 
 an Illinois emigrant, but tis the common inquiry 
 of 'Where do you hail from?' the certain re- 
 sponse is 'from Illinois;' 'what county?' and 
 you may have an answer from every county of the 
 state." 1 
 
 Similar banded migration to Kansas and Ne- 
 braska from 1853 on, and to Pike's Peak in 1859 
 attracted attention. The steady drift of the rest- 
 less to other parts of the newer West, revealed 
 by the census of i860, passed without comment. 
 
 Population poured in far more rapidly than it 
 poured out. Eastern Illinois between 1850 and 
 1856 settled as if by enchantment. The Illinois 
 Central Railroad held its lands as high as fifteen 
 dollars an acre. Speculators like Governor 
 French hastened to make locations along it in cen- 
 tral and southern Illinois on government lands 
 that still sold as low as twelve and one-half cents. 
 Men, and even neighborhoods in "Egypt" that 
 had improved farms on government land without 
 troubling to enter it, trusting to the rifle to protect 
 them against intruders, were threatened with loss 
 of their lives' earnings of $4,000 or $5,ooo. 2 In 
 1849, almost fifteen million government acres, or 
 two-fifths the area of the state remained unsold. 
 In 1857 there were but 294,149 acres left. In 
 
 1 State Register, May 31, 1849. 
 
 2 Both the United States and the Illinois Central granted 
 liberal terras to such squatters. 
 
198 The Story of Illinois 
 
 four years the railroad changed Jonesboro from 
 a village of fifty log huts to a town of two thou- 
 sand population. A man who in traveling over 
 the Illinois Central from Mattoon to Odin in 
 1857 had only the conductor and brakeman in 
 the car with him, in 1864 passed through thriving 
 villages every six miles, where formerly there 
 were but open prairies or bare station houses. 
 Between 1850 and i860 the population of the 
 forty-nine counties through which the Illinois 
 Central ran was said to have increased from 335,- 
 598 to 814,891. Similar results appeared in the 
 military tract and to a less degree in most other 
 parts of the state. 
 
 Southern and eastern Illinois at last were set- 
 tled. The population that came in came from 
 New England; it came also from Germany in the 
 shape of political idealists, seeking a land of lib- 
 erty after the disaster of 1848; and from Europe 
 generally, There were colonies of Frenchmen 
 as at Nauvoo, of French Canadians in the Kanka- 
 kee country, of Swedes as at Bishop Hill. Nor- 
 wegians pressed into the state. The foreign born 
 population tended toward towns; by i860 Chi- 
 cago had more foreign born than native born 
 population. 
 
 At the coming of the railroads the McCormick 
 harvester and the many other makes of reaper, 
 had already foreshadowed the revolutionizing of 
 
The Coming of the Railroads 199 
 
 Illinois agriculture. In the Civil War young men 
 by hundreds of thousands could leave the farms 
 of Illinois for the battlefield, secure that the 
 reaper could gather crops that would feed the 
 United States and Europe as well. No longer 
 was a man's planting limited by the amount he 
 could reap by the scythe in a harvest season. In 
 the middle fifties, the tedder, the steam plow, 
 were taking their place beside the reaper. Skilled 
 farmers who had been in Illinois since it was a 
 state had been eager to teach their fellows all the 
 scientific agriculture known in their day. Now 
 the instruction was enforced at first hand by the 
 great cattle feeding ranches, the great farms, the 
 great fruit orchards that stood as incentives to 
 the ambitious pioneer farmer. Agricultural so- 
 cieties and agricultural papers spread the informa- 
 tion how the excellency of these things might be 
 copied. The shiftless farmer and the dilapidated 
 farmhouse were migrating or amending. The 
 Illinois farm, the basis of the state's prosperity, 
 was already being revolutionized before 1848 or 
 1850. The railroad accentuated the progress. 
 
 One of the most striking characteristics of the 
 period was the development of Chicago. By 1859 
 men mentioned with pride that Cyrus H. Mc- 
 Cormick's reaper works gave support to 250 
 families; but manufacturing was the least of her 
 achievements. The completion of the Illinois and 
 
200 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Michigan Canal had resulted in the shipping by 
 Chicago and the Great Lakes of great amounts of 
 grain, that formerly found its way by the Illinois 
 to St. Louis and the east. Holding that her lake 
 route to the east was her greatest commercial 
 asset she feared lest railroad cut-offs to the east 
 should deflect trade from her by rail, unconscious 
 of the bounty the railroads were to fling in her 
 lap. The New Orleans outlet of St. Louis for 
 produce was inferior to that of Chicago on the 
 Atlantic seaboard. The Alton and the Illinois 
 Central contributed their share to bringing prod- 
 uce into Chicago and distributing merchandise 
 from her. The roads that in the fifties reached 
 out from her to the Mississippi and to the 
 Greater Northwest beyond diverted great masses 
 of freight that formerly had followed the Mis- 
 sissippi to St. Louis. For instance, receipts of 
 lead there between 1851 and 1857 declined from 
 503,751 to 200,402 pigs; and on the ground of 
 obstruction to river traffic St. Louis vainly made 
 war legal and illegal against the Rock Island 
 bridge across the Mississippi, the symbol of the 
 ruin of her commercial empire in the north. 
 
 Chicago business became hectic as today, as a 
 description of the Chicago grain dealers of 1859 
 may show: 
 
 They get up at sunrise, bolt their steak and 
 rolls, and rush down town to the " first board," 
 
J*^ 
 
 I 
 
 (1809-1859) V^ 
 
 [From painting in the McCormick Agricultural Library, Chicago] 
 
The Coming of the Railroads 201 
 
 which meets at a well known corner between eight 
 and eleven o'clock. There they buy and sell — 
 till it is time to attend the " second board/' at the 
 Board of Trade rooms. There they investigate 
 the bulletin boards, note the receipts and the ship- 
 ments. — Half-past eleven o'clock comes, and all 
 eyes* are turned towards the telegraph office across 
 the way. The New York dispatches are ex- 
 pected; and nothing can be done till they arrive. 
 
 The "third board" has met — on the corner 
 before mentioned (some call it Gambler's Cor- 
 ner), and the same operations described on 
 'Change are repeated — only with more reckless- 
 ness And thus it goes till six 
 
 o'clock 
 
 . . . . What ! go home at six o'clock, and 
 not return to the city again ! The steamer might 
 come in with a decline, and thus thousands of 
 dollars would be lost — or not won — which is 
 
 all the same No; they must attend 
 
 the "fourth board" at the Tremont House — or 
 rather on the sidewalk opposite the Tremont. 
 . . . . It meets at 7 o'clock P. M. 1 
 
 Chicago in population increased from 29,963 in 
 1850 to 80,000 in 1855, 109,000 in i860, and 
 298,977 in 1870. The other towns of the state 
 increased also. The little trading centers of the 
 forties numbering two, three, four or, as at Chi- 
 cago, eight or ten thousand began to grow in 
 earnest. In 1850 Springfield, Alton, Peoria, 
 
 1 Chicago Press and Tribune, July 4, 1859. 
 
202 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Cairo, Quincy, Belleville, Beardstown and Ottawa 
 were all thriving towns. By i860 the largest of 
 them, Peoria and Quincy, exceeded twenty thou- 
 sand. 
 
 Naturally such municipalities had their prob- 
 lems. Before 1850 the Illinois municipal law, 
 applicable to little towns of a few hundreds, was 
 highly rudimentary. Now with the gathering of 
 population together regulation became essential. 
 Boards sinking in abysses of mud could not take 
 the place of sidewalks. Hogs wallowing in 
 muddy streets and cows chewing their cuds in re- 
 pose across footways sorted ill with the ambitions 
 of young metropolises; and one after another in 
 the fifties the Illinois cities from Chicago down 
 wrestled with the problem as to whether hogs and 
 cows should be barred from the public streets. 
 Once that was done there arose the problem of 
 the garbage formerly piled high in the gutters 
 for hogs to remove, of drains in the open street, 
 of polluted water supplies; and while the towns 
 toiled over their A. B. C.'s of sanitation, epidem- 
 ics of cholera swept them as in 1848, 1850 and 
 1851. 
 
 On such matters no city could be the first to cast 
 a stone at a rival. 
 
 "Our city Hogs," said the Springfield Journal, 
 September 7, 1853, "are a very industrious and 
 
The Coming of the Railroads 203 
 
 refined race as evidenced by their labors and 
 amusements. They are now in the enjoyment of 
 the city, find plenty of "grub" every where, and 
 feel no anxiety for the coming morrow. 
 The peach stones found about the streets and 
 cracked by the swinish herd, are used as a dessert. 
 They amuse themselves by digging holes in the 
 gutters, some of them at the corners of the streets 
 — some several feet deep — the one at the cor- 
 ner near the State House is probably three feet 
 deep — into these they collect all the moisture in 
 the neighborhood and stir up a most beautiful 
 batter. It is about the consistency of cream or 
 perhaps mush. Now, every thing ready, his swine- 
 ship takes a walk about the city. He notices, 
 especially, all newly painted fences and houses 
 within his reach." .... 
 
 Thirteen years later even a worse story could 
 be told of Chicago. 
 
 Men had to learn that living so closely together 
 they must do many things jointly that before they 
 had done each for himself. In 1850 Chicago was 
 preparing to install gas lighting, a sewage system, 
 and a water system. In 1853 Quincy and Peoria 
 put in gas plants; in 1855 Springfield and Quincy 
 had water works. The presence of many little 
 children in cities too dense to allow of family 
 cows created the necessity of dairies; and till men 
 learned to regulate these, the innocents were mas- 
 sacred by milk from cows fed with distillery mash. 
 Busses appeared in Chicago in 1850, street cars in 
 
204 The Story of Illinois 
 
 1859; an d till the coming of the automobile set 
 individuals once more at liberty from the mass, 
 men in cities used public utilities and traveled and 
 lived together in ever increasing degree. 
 
 Some of the problems of the age were not so 
 easily settled. The descendant of the New Eng- 
 land Puritan, the zealous Methodist, had modes 
 of life quite different from those of the German 
 or Irish emigrant; and with his greater political 
 experience and skill set about enforcing his own 
 theories of sobriety and decency upon them. No 
 question existed that the doggery, grocery or 
 saloon, where whiskey was dispensed freely, was 
 a bad thing; at its worst along the line of the 
 canal where a whiskey was sold the " canal Irish " 
 consisting of a concentrated extract diluted with 
 water; and the Puritan set about reforming it al- 
 together. In Chicago the elements accustomed to 
 the use of beer and wines on the Sabbath suc- 
 ceeded in defeating everything but a high license 
 system; but in one down state town after another 
 prohibition was tried in the middle fifties and 
 then abandoned. Between 1851 and 1853 a law, 
 practically a dead letter, prescribed that liquors 
 should not be retailed in less quantities than one 
 quart; on its repeal the temperance advocates 
 began to press for a "Maine law" prohibition; 
 but the slavery question pushed temperance in the 
 background for two generations; and Illinois 
 
The Coming of the Railroads 205 
 
 saloons continued to reflect the lawlessness of 
 pioneer days till our own times have seen the 
 desperate device of barring the use of alcoholic 
 beverages. The New Englander fought with the 
 German and Irishman over Sunday observance 
 also; but on this question for the time being the 
 Puritan sabbath came off second best. 
 
 Some of the problems lay deeper yet in the 
 future. The very massing of population in the 
 cities was a sign that the day of opportunity for 
 the landless man to become landed was passing. 
 As early as 1852 the grant to the Illinois Central 
 and the seizing on the public lands by speculators 
 had produced an anti-land monopoly agitation. 
 In the middle thirties a man of strength, sobriety 
 and industry in the Northwest could earn in a year 
 or two the one hundred dollars that was the price 
 of a half quarter section of government land. 
 Now, on wages of seventy-five cents to one dol- 
 lar a day in cities where rents were high there 
 was no such chance. Men worked ten and twelve 
 hour days and found when wheat was one dollar 
 and forty cents a bushel they could not feed or 
 clothe their families; the hard winters of 1854 
 and 1857 brought suffering. The democracy of 
 Wentworth and Douglas had sought to relieve 
 these men by a homestead act, but that act passed 
 in 1862 was to be the work of the republicans. 
 Meanwhile, the high prices of the Civil War 
 
206 The Story of Illinois 
 
 finally brought trades unionism to Chicago, strikes 
 and the modern phase of the struggle of labor 
 and capital. 
 
 Other problems were on their way. The simple 
 rural democracy of the forties had regarded banks 
 as the work of the evil one. Beaten in the election 
 for the constitutional convention of 1847, while 
 they had excluded a banking clause from their 
 constitution they had admitted a proviso that a 
 system of state banking with notes secured by 
 bonds might be submitted to popular vote. The 
 constant demand of the new industrial order for 
 banking facilities was too strong. Men like 
 George Smith of the Wisconsin Fire and Marine 
 Insurance Company did a prosperous business in 
 note issue at Chicago in defiance of law. In 1851 
 the state legislature over the governor's veto sub- 
 mitted to the people of the state a banking law 
 allowing institutions to incorporate and to issue 
 notes secured by Federal or state bonds. The 
 passage of the measure by a vote of 37,650 to 
 31,413 was one more sign that the old order was 
 changing. 
 
 The system for some years worked with fair 
 success. Some banks fell by the wayside in panics 
 of 1854 and 1857; but the great majority stood 
 till the secession of the Southern states depreci- 
 ated the value of their bonds. Then bank after 
 bank gave up the struggle. In May, 1861, notes 
 
The Coming of the Railroads 207 
 
 of fifteen banks were depreciated to fifty cents, 
 fifty-three went from sixty to ninety cents on the 
 dollar, and only six at par. The issue of the 
 greenbacks, the National Banking Act, and its 
 tax on the notes of state banks, left the surviving 
 banks to carry on a strict banking business without 
 issue until the system of state supervised banking 
 was adopted in 1887. 
 
 The railroads themselves brought the worst 
 problem of all on the unsuspecting community 
 that welcomed them so innocently. From the be- 
 ginning the eastern capitalists who in most cases 
 had subscribed the majority of the capital assumed 
 control. The representatives of the minority 
 holdings in Illinois, and of subscriptions by towns 
 and counties were powerless. Even in the fifties 
 rates were manipulated to favor certain locali- 
 ties. After 1 86 1 the Mississippi competition was 
 shut off by the Civil War, and the railroads pro- 
 ceeded to send their rates for passengers and 
 freight up to unheard-of figures. This, with dis- 
 crimination in favor of long hauls over short, 
 ownership and monopoly by railroads of grain 
 elevators, added to the difficulty in ways but too 
 familiar. Men proposed additional canals to 
 offer competition; canals from the Illinois to 
 Rock Island, a ship canal along the Illinois and 
 Michigan Canal. Failing these things they sought 
 to establish competing lines. In 1868 the Paxton 
 
20 8 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Record protested that at railroad rates wheat 
 could be teamed to Chicago at a profit. The regu- 
 lation of the railroad by state or nation was for 
 the future. This was its day of power to be 
 arrogantly used. 
 
 The solution of the problems of the fifties was 
 made more difficult by the change that had come 
 over Illinois politics; the day of small things had 
 passed. Eastern capitalists had much to seek at 
 the hands of the state government; the calling of 
 special sessions of the assembly, railroad and cor- 
 poration charters; favors in the funding or ac- 
 knowledgment of the state's indebtedness; and 
 certain groups were ready to check each other's 
 schemes by means none too scrupulous. Stories 
 of bribery and counter bribery of state executives 
 and state legislatures circulated freely; with how 
 much truth it is impossible to say. 
 
 Beyond question, however, a new type of men 
 were coming to the front in politics; men who as 
 financial associates or legal advisers had private 
 relations with interests with which they might 
 have to have public dealings. Governor French, 
 1 846-1 852, though opposed to banks, was an in- 
 veterate speculator in lands enhanced in value by 
 railroads, and in his official position had to favor 
 by his acts one or the other of rival railroad in- 
 terests; Governor Bissell had been a railroad at- 
 torney and was accused of formerly driving sharp 
 
The Coming of the Railroads 209 
 
 bargains for his clients with the state. 
 
 Most significant is the career of Governor Joel 
 A. Matteson, elected governor in 1852 as a 
 supporter of the banking system. He had made 
 a speculative fortune from small beginnings, was 
 interested financially and as an official in both the 
 Illinois Central and Alton Railroads, was accused 
 of using money and the influence of those roads 
 and of colonizing voters to aid Douglas in 1858 
 and i860; was caught in 1859 defrauding the 
 state in the refunding of its indebtedness and com- 
 pelled ultimately to reimburse the state. Though 
 his case was an extreme one the taint of corrup- 
 tion hangs on much of the politics of the period. 
 Even where no actual corruption existed, politics 
 and business alike seem often leavened by sharp 
 practice that steered close to fraud and dishonesty. 
 The nature of men was no more debased than 
 formerly, but temptations were greater. 
 
 The problems that arose in the era of the rail- 
 roads had almost swamped the available govern- 
 mental machinery. At the outset of the period 
 Illinois had adopted the new constitution of 1848. 
 That of 181 8 had placed practically all the legis- 
 lative power, and very much of the appointive 
 power, in the hands of the legislature; had left 
 the supreme judiciary of 1824 practically to hold 
 for life or good behavior; and had assigned to the 
 executive but a shadow of authority. 
 
210 The Story of Illinois 
 
 The constitution of 1848 was the work of an 
 age suspicious of government. It provided that 
 practically all elections, even judicial ones, were 
 to be made by the people. It left the governor a 
 veto that could be overridden by a majority vote, 
 but by a great enumeration of prohibitions sought 
 to bind the hands of the state legislature. It pro- 
 vided for popular referendum on certain subjects 
 of policy and by limiting salaries of officials and 
 the pay and length of sessions of the General As- 
 semblies sought to enforce a Jeffersonian sim- 
 plicity. 
 
 The framers of the constitution had their eyes 
 on the age that was passing and not on that which 
 was entering. Barely was their work adopted be- 
 fore its defects began to appear. Officials were 
 insufficiently paid; General Assemblies in sessions 
 limited to a few weeks had to deal with floods of 
 private incorporation acts full of jokers and out- 
 rageous provisions, passed literally in batches, so 
 that they could be neither checked nor amended. 
 
 All through the fifties a new constitution was 
 confidently awaited; when a convention met in 
 1862 it was unfortunately in the height of the ex- 
 citement of the Civil War. The convention was 
 overwhelmingly democratic. The constitution it 
 drew up prohibited private acts of incorporation, 
 provided that all future charters be subject to 
 amendment and repeal, prohibited new banks, and 
 
The Coming of the Railroads 211 
 
 the circulation of bank notes after 1866. In 
 homestead exemption and mechanics lien clauses 
 it sought to appeal to the poorer classes. Popu- 
 lar excitement was raised against it, because of 
 the partisan character of apportionment in it and 
 it was rejected by a popular majority of 16,051. 
 
 The last years of the old constitution were by 
 far the worst. The legislative session of 1867, 
 marked by an appropriation of $3,000,000 for a 
 new state capitol, the establishment of a peni- 
 tentiary in southern Illinois, and the location of 
 the state university at Urbana, was an orgy of 
 log rolling with charges of corruption freely 
 passed on all sides. The financial interests that 
 could gain or lose in the new Illinois by franchises 
 in the gift of the legislature were too powerful 
 to be bridled. 
 
 Private bill legislation swelled the statute books 
 of the sixties to huge proportions. Corporations 
 of any and every sort could and did buy them- 
 selves charters. Governors like Palmer in vain 
 interposed the veto to check the orgy. 
 
 Threats of railroad regulation became merely 
 a means of blackmail. 
 
 Early in the session the old schemers, anxious 
 to replenish a depleted exchequer, introduced in 
 the senate a bill for an act to regulate the pas- 
 senger and freight tariff on railroads, and today 
 it passed that august body. Contrary to their 
 
212 The Story of Illinois 
 
 expectations, the railroads did not imitate Zacche- 
 us and come down, but they could not recede from 
 their position. It is a matter of grave doubt 
 whether the legislature can place restrictions upon 
 those companies already incorporated; in fact, I 
 believe it is generally conceded that the only appli- 
 cation the proposed law can have is to the com- 
 panies hereafter incorporated. To Southern 
 Illinois this is a most unjust and iniquitous meas- 
 
 Decorum passed along with decency. 
 
 " Dignity in our Senate, " said the Aurora Bea- 
 con, March 21,1867, "is thrown to the dogs. A 
 spirit of innocent playfulness pervades that insti- 
 tution, that is like Artemus Ward's Kangaroo, 
 'highly amoosin.' In the first place the Speaker 
 is a very interesting animal. He handles himself 
 with a great deal of grace and agility. The way 
 he uses the gavel would do credit to a stone cutter; 
 and the way he don't preserve order would 
 
 astonish a country school master 
 
 The twenty-five senators are a very nice body of 
 men. They have a free and easy way with them 
 that is decidedly refreshing. In order to dispatch 
 business as rapidly as possible, and save the State 
 expense, they usually omit the useless ceremony 
 of addressing the Speaker, and ordinarily from 
 six to ten of them have the floor, and all speak 
 at once Those who are not en- 
 gaged in making speeches, usually employ their 
 massive talents in manufacturing paper balls and 
 
 1 Cairo Evening Bulletin, January 16, 1869. 
 
The Coming of the Railroads 213 
 
 throwing them at each other, or in occasionally 
 varying the proceedings by hurling books at the 
 speaker's or some Senator's head." .... 
 
 Under the conditions of the new era the Consti- 
 tution of 1848 had broken down; once the issues 
 of the Civil War were settled a new Constitution 
 was inevitable. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE SLAVERY ISSUE, I 837- 
 
 1856 
 
 SO TERRIBLY was the generation that fol- 
 lowed the Civil War, impressed by the 
 mighty storm that shook the foundations of the 
 Union that in writing the history of the years 
 before i860 they made the slavery question a 
 cloud menacing ever since the Compromise of 
 1820. In doing so they unwittingly distorted the 
 facts. The slavery question in the thirties was a 
 cloud no larger than a man's hand and went al- 
 most unnoticed in the Illinois politics of the 
 period; not till the forties did it become a danger 
 to be reckoned with; not until the repeal of the 
 Missouri Compromise in 1854 had led to a split 
 in the democratic party and its defeat in the state 
 it had controlled for a quarter of a century, did 
 men dream of the terror of the years, 185 8-1 865. 
 The defeat by popular vote in 1824 of the pro- 
 posal to call a constitutional convention that might 
 introduce slavery into Illinois was followed by 
 years of profound quiet on the slavery issue. 
 Kidnapping of free negroes resident in the state 
 attracted little attention; the free negro, most men 
 
 214 
 
The Beginnings of the Slavery Issue 215 
 
 agreed, was a nuisance. The supreme court of 
 the state slowly defined the rights or lack of rights 
 of the negro and the servant indentured under the 
 old territorial laws of 1807 and 181 2. The ver- 
 dict in general was that whatever validity the 
 indenture system had was given it by the constitu- 
 tion of 18 1 8. Time did its work. By the fifties 
 the last traces of slavery among the French in- 
 habitants and the indentures of the territorial 
 period had disappeared. 
 
 The slavery question first excited passing atten- 
 tion with the rise of Garrisonian Abolitionism 
 and the question of excluding abolition news- 
 papers from the mails and the gagging in Con- 
 gress of abolition petitions. The Illinois 
 congressmen on these points were generally ortho- 
 dox. The state legislature in 1837 delivered 
 itself of its opinion on the subject in forcible terms 
 in a set of resolutions. Only seven votes were 
 cast against it; two of the voters, Dan Stone and 
 Abraham Lincoln, spread on the journals of the 
 House a moderate protest. From the beginning 
 Lincoln was a hater of slavery. 
 
 Abolitionism, however, had already reached 
 Illinois. Elijah P. Lovejoy, a young New 
 England Presbyterian minister, in 1833, had 
 begun editing a denominational paper in St. Louis. 
 Driven to the Illinois side of the river by mob 
 violence, he set up at Alton the Alton Observer 
 
216 The Story of Illinois 
 
 assailing in Miltonic invective with the biting 
 scorn of the Puritan every vice and sin. Inevit- 
 ably he turned to the subject of slavery. In the 
 thirties northern men, however much they might 
 disapprove it in the abstract, believed the criticism 
 of the peculiar institution of the south fraught 
 with danger to the union and therefore to be dis- 
 countenanced. Lovejoy could be discountenanced 
 neither by rebuke nor by threats of violence. Two 
 of his presses were destroyed by mobs. The fear 
 of personal violence for him drove his wife to 
 the verge of insanity. His death he knew would 
 leave his family destitute. Yet driven by a force 
 stronger than himself he went on. He procured 
 still a third press, and while defending it against 
 a mob he fell, November 7, 1837, rifle in hand. 
 
 The news of the tragedy rang through the 
 union, binding the name of Lovejoy forever to 
 the name of Alton. New Englanders believed in 
 later years the town was accursed for Lovejoy's 
 blood. In Illinois, however, though men were in- 
 dignant at the violence by which Lovejoy had met 
 his end, the vast majority disapproved of the 
 course that had brought him to it. His slayers 
 went unpunished; the men associated with him in 
 the defense of his press were indicted, " for unlaw- 
 fully defending a certain warehouse." And the 
 Baptist organizer, John Mason Peck, himself a 
 New Englander, who had hated the uncompromis- 
 
The Beginnings of the Slavery Issue 217 
 
 ing young Presbyterian, believed that by refrain- 
 ing from public denunciation of the murder he 
 had brought about a blessed outpouring of divine 
 spirit in the form of a gracious revival. 
 
 The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the 
 church. Lovejoy had taken the new school side 
 in the Presbyterian schism, from distaste of the 
 proslavery alliance of the old school. The eve 
 of his death had seen at Alton the organization of 
 a state antislavery society. As the standard fell 
 from Lovejoy's hand it was caught up by the old 
 antislavery editor, Benjamin Lundy, who published 
 at Hennepin the Genius of Universal Emancipa- 
 tion. Lundy, that he might write as he thought, 
 cultivated a little farm. A wheat harvest in 1839 
 taxed his strength overmuch and a fever silenced 
 his journal forever. But a year later the Lowell 
 Genius of Liberty replaced it; within three years, 
 its name changed to the Western Citizen, it was 
 removed to Chicago, flinging defiantly to the wind 
 on its headline the haughty challenge by which 
 the Puritan in age aft.er age has made weak things 
 to confound the mighty " The Supremacy of God 
 and the Equality of Man." 
 
 The antislavery movement grew fast in north- 
 ern Illinois. Antislavery societies spread, Con- 
 gregational churches wrote the doctrine in their 
 confessions of faith, and the Liberty party was 
 organized in Illinois in 1840. Garrisonian aboli- 
 
2i 8 The Story of Illinois 
 
 tion had demanded the centering of attention on 
 the crime of slavery, and passive resistance to it; 
 Garrison himself ■ decried all participation in 
 politics. The liberty group on the other hand 
 prepared to fight the evil with the citizen's weap- 
 on, the ballot. Many men in it looked on the 
 contest with slavery as but one phase of a con- 
 test for human rights and liberty for all men. 
 Intellectually such men were not far removed 
 from democrats like John Wentworth, who, in- 
 terested in human rights as against property 
 rights, believed they could only be maintained by 
 the alliance with the democracy of the South. 
 Meanwhile Wentworth recognized that the ideas 
 of the Liberty party were working through New 
 Englanders both democrats and whigs, and fore- 
 bore to antagonize it. By 1846 the Liberty party 
 held the balance of power in thirteen counties of 
 northern Illinois. 
 
 The slavery issue entered national politics in 
 the question of territorial expansion. Dema- 
 gogues like John Reynolds sensed the popular en- 
 thusiasm in Illinois at the prospect of expansion 
 and of war with the old enemy. 
 
 " Mr. President," said he in a speech built 
 around the twin ideas of the Annexation of Cuba 
 and war with Great Britain, " as Hannibal swore 
 eternal hostility to the Romans, so I swear eternal 
 hostility to monarchies, especially to them that 
 
The Beginnings of the Slavery Issue 219 
 
 dont let us alone. I have nothing to say against 
 the English people but to their cursed government 
 I have sworn war. It is generally the case, Mr. 
 President, that when a man is cavorting against 
 another; that the cavorter is wrong and the cavor- 
 tee is right, but when I am cavorting against the 
 English government I am not cavorting for noth- 
 ing. I have heard my father tell of their oppres- 
 sion and tyranny. I know of the sufferings of the 
 Irish under their persecution — I have read of 
 their butcheries in China and other parts of Asia. 
 I have read of their paying savages in the revolu- 
 tion for the scalps of our men, women and chil- 
 dren " . . . - 1 and so ad nauseam! 
 
 The democratic platform of 1844 demanding 
 the reannexation of Texas and the reoccupation 
 of Oregon voiced Illinois sentiment. True, there 
 was a gasp of disappointment traceable in the 
 state newspapers when Polk instead of Van Buren 
 was the democratic nominee; but they loyally set 
 themselves to elect him. Then came the disap- 
 pointments in his policy. He vetoed river and 
 harbor improvement bills of vital importance to 
 northern Illinois; he proposed a tax on tea and 
 coffee, the luxuries of the white laborer. Worst of 
 all, he compromised with Great Britain for a half 
 of Oregon, while he drew the sword on Mexico 
 in behalf of the extreme boundary claims of 
 Texas. To avoid war with the ancient enemy he 
 
 1 Illinois State Register, Jan. 17, 1846. 
 
220 The Story of Illinois 
 
 sacrificed territory destined to be the abode of 
 freedom, while he shed American blood to spread 
 more slave plantations over the free soil of Mexi- 
 co. Northern democrats like Wentworth be- 
 lieved that southern slavery dictated Polk's 
 foreign policy, and reared in the party harness. 
 
 In the Mexican War, Illinois had her full share. 
 Of her regiments the First and Second under Col- 
 onels Hardin and Bissell fought at Buena Vista, 
 where Hardin — "our best whig man" Lincoln 
 called him, fell at the head of his regiment. The 
 Third and Fourth regiments served under Scott 
 with James Shields as their brigadier at Vera 
 Cruz and Cerro Gordo. Two more regiments 
 served in Texas and on the Santa Fe expedition. 
 Illinois soldiers were magnificently brave and mag- 
 nificently undisciplined. General Wool said to 
 Hardin, "I will take away your commission, sir.' , 
 " By God, you can't do it, sir," said Hardin. 1 
 
 Popular enthusiasm for the war compelled the 
 whigs in Illinois to disguise their dislike of the 
 grounds on which it was made. Lincoln had in- 
 troduced in Congress resolutions expressing a 
 doubt as to whether the first American blood had 
 not been shed on a spot beyond the American 
 border; and the nickname of " Spot " Lincoln was 
 fastened on him by the democrats to imply that 
 he had refused to vote supplies for the army. 
 
 1 Pease, Frontier State, p. 402. 
 
The Beginnings of the Slavery Issue 221 
 
 Another Illinois whig in words later famous, 
 cynically remarked that he had ruined himself 
 politically by opposing the War of 1812; and 
 that thereafter he was for "war, pestilence and 
 famine." 
 
 The immediate answer on the part of the north 
 to Polk's war in Mexico was the Wilmot Proviso 
 — that in any territory acquired from Mexico 
 slavery should be prohibited. Wentworth en- 
 dorsed it; so did the northern democrats of Illi- 
 nois generally. A River and Harbor Convention 
 held in Chicago in 1847 in the interests of forc- 
 ing adequate federal appropriations to river and 
 harbor improvement, marked how close Went- 
 worth was to rebellion against his party. Lincoln 
 was made authority for the statement that the 
 administration had issued orders to defeat him 
 even though a whig should be elected. Went- 
 worth stopped at the brink of party revolt. He 
 professed to believe that the nomination of Lewis 
 Cass for the Presidency, even on a platform with- 
 out the Proviso or river and harbor improvement 
 would set all straight. But 1848 was the year 
 of the Free Soil revolt in the democratic party 
 and the Free Soil independent candidacy of Mar- 
 tin Van Buren. Cass went down in defeat before 
 General Zachary Taylor, hero of the Mexican 
 War, slaveholder, and whig nominee for the 
 Presidency. Illinois remained democratic, but the 
 
222 The Story of Illinois 
 
 party in the Chicago district especially was 
 splintered by the Free Soil defection. 
 
 The Presidential election of 1848 settled noth- 
 ing of the slavery difficulty. The question of the 
 disposition of the spoils of Mexico : whether Cali- 
 fornia should be received in the Union as a free 
 state; whether the territories to be organized in 
 the southwest should be free or slave threatened 
 to disrupt the Union. Southerners like Calhoun 
 were calculating the value of the union to the 
 South, talking secession, and affirming that slavery 
 could constitutionally be excluded from not an 
 inch of the territory of the United States. North- 
 ern men were insisting that there be no further 
 compromises with slavery; that the peculiar insti- 
 tution might be tolerated where it was already 
 but not elsewhere. 
 
 To settle this question Henry Clay proposed 
 the compromise of 1850; admission of California 
 as a free state, organization of Utah and New 
 Mexico without mention of slavery, and a fugi- 
 tive slave law. When the compromise first offered 
 by Clay in the form of a single measure had failed, 
 Stephen A. Douglas succeeded in getting the pro- 
 visions adopted in the Senate one by one. The 
 Illinois delegation in the House, Richardson and 
 McClernand in particular, assisted in the passage 
 of the compromise. The Illinois senators, Doug- 
 las and Shields, were compelled by instruction of 
 
The Beginnings of the Slavery Issue 223 
 
 the state legislature to vote for the Wilmot Pro- 
 viso; Wentworth and E. D. Baker alone of the 
 Illinois delegation did so in the house. The final 
 passage of the compromise set Illinois forward 
 as the savior of the Union; and Stephen A. Doug- 
 las, her brilliant young senior senator, stood forth 
 as the representative of the union sentiment of 
 the West. 
 
 In northern Illinois sentiment had been divided 
 between sentiment for the Proviso and sentiment 
 for the Union. The dread of danger to the Union 
 prevailed. Douglas, returning from Washington 
 to Chicago on one of the great triumphs of his 
 career, October 23, won over a hostile meeting to 
 resolutions in support of the compromise as neces- 
 sary to the Union. The Free Soil strength passed 
 as suddenly as it arose; and the great majority of 
 party men in Illinois accepted the compromise; 
 but the democrats found it expedient to nominate 
 for governor in 1852, Joel A. Matteson, a pro- 
 tege of Wentworth, at this time supposed to be 
 so decidedly anti-slavery that a radical like Jona- 
 than B. Turner was ready to vote for him. 
 
 In 1852 Illinois offered a candidate for the 
 national democratic nomination in Douglas, the 
 champion of the Union and the savior of the com- 
 promise of 1850. He was a young man's candi- 
 date; but The Democratic Review, his national 
 organ, was too outspoken against "old-fogyism" 
 
224 The Story of Illinois 
 
 in the party; and the old fogies had their revenge 
 in the nomination of Franklin Pierce. Pierce 
 easily carried Illinois, but discontent in the north- 
 ern districts with the proslavery attitude of his 
 party elected to congress three whigs pledged to 
 free soil, and again elected John Wentworth in 
 the Chicago district in spite of the fact that his 
 opposition to the democratic platform on the 
 point of slavery was well known. The passage 
 by the General Assembly in 1853, in accord with 
 the state constitution, of an act 1 allowing free 
 blacks who entered the state to be sold into terms 
 of servitude aroused indignation among democrats 
 and whigs alike. It was said less than half a 
 dozen papers in the state openly approved the law. 
 With the inauguration of Pierce in 1853, the 
 old issues of politics seemed worn out. Regular 
 democrats wished to keep away from the issues 
 of the compromise of 1850. Bank, tariff and sub- 
 treasury seemed dead. Douglas and the western 
 democrats were pushing a graduation act actually 
 passed in 1854 selling unsold lands for as little 
 as twelve and one-half cents an acre; they were 
 advocates of a homestead measure; but they could 
 hardly commit their party to it. Douglas was en- 
 deavoring to get rid of the river and harbor issue 
 that was perplexing the party in Illinois by pro- 
 posing the levy of tonnage duties for local internal 
 
 1 Drawn by John A. Logan, Chicago Tribune, Jan. 16, 1865. 
 
The Beginnings of the Slavery Issue 225 
 
 improvements at the place of collection; above all 
 he was for expansion; for a Pacific railroad for 
 the extension of white settlement to the regions 
 of the Upper Missouri. This led him to the fatal 
 Kansas Nebraska Bill and to the repeal of the 
 Missouri Compromise that split his party and the 
 union. 
 
 The motives of the man responsible for the 
 Kansas Nebraska Act and the repeal of the Mis- 
 souri Compromise have been speculated over by 
 historians for almost three-quarters of a century; 
 and historians have as yet come to no agreement. 
 Was it a damnable betrayal of the interests of 
 the free North, opening the Great Plains, north of 
 the 1820 line of 36 30' to slavery, and designed 
 to purchase the vote of the slave-holding south 
 for the Presidency? Was it a bargain in which 
 the North got the undoubted advantage of the lo- 
 cation of a railroad to the Pacific with its ter- 
 minals in the North, in return for the concession to 
 the South of the empty right to carry slaves to a 
 territory where nature had decreed that slavery 
 could not thrive? Was the repeal of the com- 
 promise of 1820 the fruit of factional warfare in 
 Missouri? Did Douglas sacrifice it on the altar 
 of opening the territories to settlement? Or did 
 Douglas really believe that the doctrine of popu- 
 lar sovereignty — that right of the people of the 
 territory to determine untrammeled by congres- 
 
226 The Story of Illinois 
 
 sional action p # ast or present the conditions of 
 their life — was a carrying to new heights of the 
 old frontier democracy of Jackson? Mortal man 
 can only surmise. 
 
 At all events late in 1853 Douglas introduced 
 in the senate his bill for the organization of Kan- 
 sas and Nebraska Territories, with its provision 
 for popular choice in the territory in the terri- 
 torial stage between freedom and slavery. Later 
 he admitted the amendment, repealing the part 
 of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 that forever 
 prohibited slavery in the Louisiana purchase 
 above 36 30'. Despite opposition from north- 
 ern whigs and some northern democrats, he and 
 his chief lieutenant in the house, William A. Rich- 
 ardson, congressman from the Quincy district and 
 chairman of the House committee on territories, 
 drove the Kansas Nebraska act through. His 
 colleague in the senate, Shields, supported him; 
 but in the house the four whig congressmen, with 
 two democrats, John Wentworth and William 
 H. Bissell, a majority of the delegation opposed 
 it. By the time the measure had finally passed 
 the Northwest was all in a flame. 
 
 The Republican party had its beginning in these 
 days in the coalescence of whigs and anti-slavery 
 or anti-Nebraska democrats with more radical 
 anti-slavery groups into a new party based on 
 opposition to slavery in the territories. In the 
 
The Beginnings of the Slavery Issue 227 
 
 states surrounding Illinois the reaction was almost 
 instantaneous. In Illinois it took a year or two. 
 The whigs generally opposed the repeal of the 
 Missouri Compromise from the first; so did the 
 anti-Nebraska democrats; but both held aloof 
 from the comparatively insignificant republican 
 party, which was at first made up largely of the 
 more extreme free soil or abolitionist elements. 
 In 1856 the extreme abolitionist elements with- 
 drew; a great part of the anti-Nebraska demo- 
 crats entered it, and most of the whigs, save the 
 group that rallied round the anti-Catholic anti- 
 foreign element to form the Know Nothing party 
 and those who sought refuge in the democratic 
 ranks. 
 
 At the beginning the leadership of the Illinois 
 democratic party was against Douglas. Even old 
 wheel horses whose political careers were mainly 
 in the past, like Sidney Breese and John Reynolds, 
 were anti-Nebraska, perhaps because they hoped 
 for a return to power from Douglas' overthrow. 
 But the ablesj: men of Douglas' own political gen- 
 eration, John Wentworth, John A. McClernand, 
 William H. Bissell, Lyman Trumbull, and the 
 best of the younger men, such as John M. Palmer, 
 were also in the opposition. September first 
 Douglas tried for hours to defend the bill before 
 a howling Chicago mob, finally shouting, " It is 
 now Sunday morning — I'll go to church, and you 
 
228 The Story of Illinois 
 
 may go to Hell ! " * Newspapers, public meetings 
 without regard to party, protested. It was small 
 satisfaction under the circumstances that county 
 conventions in central and southern Illinois gener- 
 ally endorsed the Nebraska doctrine. 
 
 As early as March 18, i854> at Rockford a 
 mass meeting resolved that "The free States 
 should now blot out all former political distinc- 
 tions by uniting themselves into one great North- 
 ern Party." 2 The movement was slow in de- 
 veloping. The anti-Nebraska democrats hoped 
 to control their party on the issue and not divide 
 it. The whigs tried to maintain their distinct 
 organization on anti-Nebraska lines and capital- 
 ize the issue to carry the state they had been seek- 
 ing in vain for twenty years to win. At Ottawa 
 on August i the extreme antislavery elements in 
 imitation of those in Wisconsin and Michigan 
 first assumed the name republican, but when a 
 republican convention was held at Springfield 
 October 4 and 5, it was distinctly of a free soil 
 cast. Lincoln with his eyes on the senatorship at 
 whig hands adroitly stayed away and failed to act 
 on a state committee to which the convention ap- 
 pointed him. 
 
 With the anti-Nebraska elements holding aloof 
 from each other the congressional elections of 
 
 iCole, Era of the Civil War, p. 132. 
 2 Rock River Democrat, March 28, 1854. 
 
The Beginnings of the Slavery Issue 229 
 
 1854 were a strange affair. In the Chicago dis- 
 trict there was a four-cornered race between an 
 anti-Nebraska democrat endorsed by Wentworth, 
 a Nebraska democrat, a whig and a republican, 
 James H. Woodworth, the republican, winning. 
 Elihu B. Washburne and Jesse O. Norton, anti- 
 Nebraska whigs, were endorsed by the republi- 
 cans and elected in the first and third districts. In 
 the Alton district Lyman Trumbull, running as an 
 anti-Nebraska democrat with whig support beat 
 Foulke, convention nominee and a Nebraska 
 democrat. James Knox was reelected in the Pe- 
 oria district. But in the Springfield, Quincy, De- 
 catur, and Cairo districts Douglas or Nebraska 
 democrats were successful. The general assem- 
 bly elected in the fall was anti-Nebraska, and it 
 had to elect a senator. Lincoln nearly succeeded. 
 He had the votes of the members of the whig 
 antecedents, but could not gain the necessary anti- 
 Nebraska democrats, and finally, rather than see 
 Matteson elected, he threw the whig strength to 
 the anti-Nebraska democrat, Lyman Trumbull. 
 
 The election of 1854 had made evident a sharp 
 sectional division in the state. 
 
 " In the Northern half of Illinois" said the 
 Chicago Weekly Democrat, December 2, 1854, 
 "not a Congressman nor member of the Legisla- 
 ture, nor a county officer friendly to the Nebraska 
 bill, or opposed to Harbor and River Improve- 
 
230 The Story of Illinois 
 
 ments, has been elected to any office this year — 
 Whilst in the southern half, all of two-thirds of 
 the men elected are of opposite sentiments ! 
 
 " This is accounted for in the fact that the 
 northern half of Illinois is settled generally by 
 emigrants from the free states, whilst the southern 
 half is settled by those from the slave states." 
 
 For a year or two there was political chaos; 
 and it was the opportunity of the native Amer- 
 icans or Know Nothings. They represented the 
 old anti-foreign and anti-Catholic prejudices of 
 the whigs and offered a shelter for members of 
 that group hard pressed to decide between the 
 anti-slavery and democratic groupings. The ex- 
 istence of this group temporarily helped to check 
 a movement of the anti-slavery foreign groups 
 such as the Germans from the democratic party 
 because it was represented to them that the anti- 
 Nebraska men must be nativists. Further, they 
 distrusted the New England republicans in north- 
 ern Illinois as " Maine Law men" or prohibition- 
 ists. In the course of 1855 schism developed 
 even in the fraternal ranks of the Know Nothings, 
 a more liberal group known by the cant term of 
 "Jonathan" being anti-slavery and merely anti- 
 Catholic as distinguished from " Sam," who was 
 inclined to be Nebraska and anti-foreign general- 
 ly. Representing a prejudice rather than a prin- 
 ciple there was little stability in the Know Noth- 
 
The Beginnings of the Slavery Issue 231 
 
 ing group. 
 
 The approach of the presidential year com- 
 pelled the anti-Nebraska democrats to choose 
 finally between their principles and their party. 
 In convention at Decatur the anti-Nebraska edi- 
 tors of the state reached harmony in the winter of 
 1856. At a convention held at Bloomington, 
 May 29, the republican party was formed. Whigs 
 like Orville H. Browning imparted a tone of con- 
 servatism to its platform. The brains and con- 
 science of the democratic party, Wentworth, Koer- 
 ner, Bissell, Trumbull, John M. Palmer, threw in 
 their lot with the new party. Breese, Reynolds, 
 McClernand fell back into the old line. Save for 
 the American group the whigs disappeared. Some 
 of them, such as E. B. Webb, their candidate for 
 Governor in 1852, J. W. Singleton, and R. S. 
 Blackwell, joined the democrats. At last the lines 
 were clearly drawn. 
 
 The Presidential election of 1856 was hotly 
 fought. Buchanan in Illinois was barely success- 
 ful over Fremont. But four republican and four 
 democratic congressmen were elected, and the 
 state ticket headed by William H. Bissell was 
 victorious over Richardson and the democrats. 
 For the first time since party lines had been sharp- 
 ly drawn in Illinois the democrats had been de- 
 feated in a state election. Sectional parties had 
 been formed in the union, and had taken root in 
 
232 The Story of Illinois 
 
 the state also. A sharp geographical line divided 
 republicans and democrats. It followed the 
 southern boundaries of Henderson, Warren, 
 Knox, Stark, Marshall counties, and swung to the 
 south to include McLean, Logan, Piatt and Coles. 
 Tazewell, Macon and Edgar were debatable; re- 
 publican outposts in the south lay in Edwards, 
 Madison, Bond and St. Clair. The citadels of 
 the two parties lay respectively in a group of 
 northern counties stretching diagonally northeast 
 from Henry to Du Page and Lake and in the 
 old democratic bloc between the Mississippi and 
 Wabash Rivers. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE CLIMAX OF THE SLAVERY STRUGGLE 1856- 
 
 1865 
 
 OUT of the Kansas Nebraska Act came the 
 formation of the republican party; on the 
 heels of the Dred Scott Decision and the Lecomp- 
 ton Constitution followed the Civil War. Doug- 
 las in the repeal of the Missouri Compromise had 
 lightly unchained the demon of sectional strife 
 over the territories; and the demon's first 
 act had been to tear from Douglas' hand the best 
 of the democracy of the North. The appetite of 
 the slaveholding South for territorial expansion 
 had been roused; and vainly did Douglas try to 
 appease it with what the remnant of his northern 
 following would suffer him to allow it. Trying 
 desperately to keep together the democrats of 
 North and South by some possible compromise, 
 both to favor his own ambitions and to save the 
 party, he fought his losing battle magnificently, 
 unscrupulously, heroically. In the end he saw 
 the prize he had followed so long escape him, 
 and fall into the hands of his old opponent, Abra- 
 ham Lincoln. Sinking his personal ambitions in 
 his love for the Union on the eve of a civil war 
 
 133 
 
234 The Story of Illinois 
 
 such as the world had never seen he atoned for 
 much of the sin that had caused it. 
 
 Barely had Buchanan been inaugurated in 1857 
 when the supreme court of the United States 
 handed down the medley of divergent opinions 
 known in our history as the Dred Scott Decision. 
 Starting with the simple question as to whether a 
 slave carried to a free state and to a territory 
 made free by the Missouri Compromise was 
 thereby enfranchised Chief Justice Taney — ap- 
 parently with a majority of the court behind him 
 — laid down among other dicta, the saying that 
 the Missouri Compromise was unlawful and that 
 there was no power in Congress to pass a law for 
 any territory which forbade a master to carry 
 his slave there and hold him in bondage. But if 
 this were true, could a territorial legislature, 
 created by Congress do what Congress could not 
 do? And if so what became of popular sov- 
 ereignty, the right of the people of a territory to 
 decide for themselves whether they would have 
 freedom or slavery? 
 
 The democrats of Illinois hesitated for a little 
 as to what course they would pursue. Then 
 Douglas came back from Washington and taught 
 his followers the comforting doctrine that the 
 Decision buttressed popular sovereignty; for 
 without the positive police protection that a terri- 
 torial legislature might give or deny the peculiar 
 
The Climax of the Slavery Struggle 235 
 
 institution, slavery could not exist. The republi- 
 cans were in a more immediate quandary, if not 
 so deep a one. Their principle of Free Soil had 
 been swept away by the work of the aged chief 
 justice. They must gainsay the highest court of 
 the land, or admit their most precious principle 
 was unconstitutional. Lincoln in answering 
 Douglas at Springfield, June 26, 1857, promised 
 for his, party acquiescence for the time being in 
 the decision, but also an unalterable resolve that 
 some day that decision should be reversed by the 
 court itself. Both parties waited upon the turn 
 of events in Kansas, and the decision of the 
 voters of Illinois, 
 
 Douglas speedily found himself bearing the 
 burden of obloquy earned for him by southern 
 fire eaters determined to win Kansas for slavery 
 by fraud or force. In 1857 the infamous Lecomp- 
 ton Constitution, drawn by a pro-slavery packed 
 convention, was presented to Congress, the voters 
 having been allowed to decide only whether they 
 would have the constitution drawn in every line 
 to protect slavery, u with slavery" or "without 
 slavery." Such a travesty on popular sovereignty 
 Douglas knew would alienate the majority of his 
 democratic following in Illinois. Anxious for his 
 reelection as senator by the General Assembly to 
 be selected in 1858, he appeared at the state fair 
 in the fall of 1857 to sound public sentiment. At 
 
236 The Story of Illinois 
 
 the next session of Congress he broke with Bu- 
 chanan's administration and opposed the passage 
 of the Lecompton Constitution. 
 
 " Mr. Douglas," said the President rising to his 
 feet excitedly — so Douglas told the story of their 
 final break — "I desire you to remember that no 
 Democrat ever yet differed from an administra- 
 tion of his own choice without being crushed. Be- 
 ware of the fate of Tallmadge and Rives." " Mr. 
 President," rejoined Douglas also rising, " I wish 
 you to remember that General Jackson is dead." x 
 
 Perhaps Buchanan may have remembered the 
 days of 1838-9 when the party lash drove the 
 Illinois Congressmen into line for the subtreasury, 
 and have hoped to repeat the triumph. But as 
 Douglas had reminded him, General Jackson was 
 dead. Eastern republicans, believing Douglas 
 would carry with him but a handful of revolters, 
 prepared to welcome him into the republican 
 ranks. Horace Greeley sent E. B. Washburne 
 to Illinois to announce that Lincoln must not be 
 run against Douglas for the senatorship. But 
 Western republicans knew better. The "Little 
 Giant's" stand had awakened the enthusiasm of 
 the remaining democrats of Illinois save for a 
 corporal's guard of office holders. Every demo- 
 cratic paper in the state approved his course. 
 Buchanan, to defeat Douglas, mustered his little 
 
 1 Allen Johnson, Douglas, p. 328. 
 
Jv* 
 
 
 !^W 
 
 
 /A ^. 
 
 ^0 %.t$'\ "* 
 
 
 fP.+Z 
 
 
 
 : f 
 
 *\"\ 
 
 4k, 
 
 * ud 
 
 w. 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 si 
 
 Ph e 
 
The Climax of the Slavery Struggle 237 
 
 group of Lecompton office holders and subsidized 
 presses, strong in federal patronage and little else, 
 led by worn out politicians like John Reynolds 
 and Sidney Breese, cringing from forty years of 
 political meannesses. In moral stature and politi- 
 cal honesty Douglas exceeded such men even 
 more than he war. exceeded in conscience by such 
 republican leaders as Wentworth, Palmer, Trum- 
 bull and Lincoln. 
 
 Ostensibly the political contest of 1858 turned 
 on the election of a state general assembly to 
 choose a senator. Breese, the Buchanan or 
 " Danite" candidate, had no chance of success, his 
 only hope being to revenge Buchanan on Douglas 
 for his revolt against the administration. Avow- 
 edly they planned to elect Lincoln rather than 
 Douglas. "He [Dougherty] told Lincoln that 
 the National Democracy intended i to run in every 
 county and District a National Democrat for each 
 and every office'" — Lincoln replied to this by 
 saying: "If you do this the thing is settled — the 
 battle is fought." * Between Douglas and Lin- 
 coln was the race, the issues being which one 
 was to speak Illinois' repudiation of the adminis- 
 tration and the crime against Kansas, and whether 
 that rebuke was to be couched in terms of modera- 
 tion or of free soil. Both men were put forward 
 
 1 Trumbull Ms9., Library of Congress; Herndon to Trumbull^ 
 July 8, 1858. 
 
238 The Story of Illinois 
 
 by party conventions, the republican convention 
 declaring Lincoln its "first and only choice." In 
 the famous " House divided against itself Speech " 
 delivered the evening of his nomination, Lincoln 
 indicated the principle of his campaign; that to 
 oppose the proslavery excesses of the administra- 
 tion in Kansas as Douglas purposed was merely 
 to apply palliatives to the evil; instead once and 
 for all it must be decided whether slavery was 
 to spread and strike new runners in free soil 
 everywhere or whether, cut back stiffly to its 
 present bounds, it was to exhaust the soil on which 
 it grew, dwindle,, and finally decay. 
 
 In the old frontier fashion Lincoln set out to 
 ride the political circuit after Douglas. Finding 
 himself reduced often to serve as a sort of anti- 
 climax to audiences gathered for the "Little 
 Giant," he challenged Douglas to a joint debate. 
 Douglas agreed to debate with him once in each of 
 the seven congressional districts he had yet to 
 visit, at Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, 
 Galesburg, Quincy, and Alton. Into the resulting 
 debate was poured all the skill in handling, hold- 
 ing, and winning vast outdoor audiences de- 
 veloped in forty years of frontier stump speak- 
 ing, exemplified by two of its greatest masters. 
 At the end neither could claim the victory. 
 
 The moral victory in the debate lay with Lin- 
 coln. Douglas defending the principles of the 
 
The Climax of the Slavery Struggle 239 
 
 old democracy, was compelled to expound them 
 as ensuring liberties to the white man only. The 
 solution of the territorial difficulty he offered was 
 necessarily based on expediency and on fine drawn 
 constitutional quibbles. Trumbull, assisting Lin- 
 coln, had shown that Douglas in 1856 had cut 
 out of a bill for the admission of Kansas a clause 
 allowing a popular vote on the future state Con- 
 stitution. The commentary on popular sovereign- 
 ty was an unpleasant one. At Freeport Lincoln 
 forced his opponent once more to a restatement 
 of the doctrine that! unfriendly legislation by a 
 territorial legislature was a legal and sufficient 
 means to keep slavery out of the territory, the 
 famous Freeport Heresy. Lincoln rose to greater 
 heights than pinning his shifty antagonist on a 
 legal quibble that would gain him no favor at the 
 South. In a moment of vision he announced the 
 whole question as essentially a moral issue, the 
 issue of the right or wrong of the oppression and 
 exploitation of labor whether slave or free. The 
 former whig had ascended to the heights of the 
 old democratic doctrine. 
 
 That is the real issue. That is the issue that 
 will continue in this country when these poor 
 tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be 
 silent. It is the eternal struggle between these 
 two principles — right and wrong — throughout 
 the world. They are the two principles that have 
 
24° The Story of Illinois 
 
 stood face to face from the beginning of time, 
 and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the 
 common right of humanity, and the other the 
 " divine right of kings. " It is the same principle 
 in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the 
 same spirit that says, "You work and toil and 
 earn bread, and I'll eat it." No matter in what 
 shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a 
 king who seeks to bestride the people of his own 
 nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from 
 one race of men as an apology for enslaving an- 
 other race, it is the same tyrannical principle. 1 
 
 The moral victory was with Lincoln, but the 
 senatorship fell to Douglas. Both Douglas and 
 Lincoln had struggled for the old whig vote in 
 central Illinois, each claiming to be the true suc- 
 cessor of Henry Clay; and Lincoln's success had 
 been but partial. " Before us lies the field 
 . . . ." wrote Herndon in 1858 after Lin- 
 coln's defeat. "It is in Sangamon — Morgan — 
 Madison — Logan — Mason; in short it is a 
 circle of counties reaching not more than 80 miles 
 from the capitol. The people that live in that 
 area must be somehow reached; and now. Sec- 
 ondly who are these people; they are from Ken- 
 tucky, Tennessee, Virginia &c; and generally they 
 are "old-line" whigs — timid — shrinking, but 
 good, men." 2 In the popular vote Lincoln car- 
 
 1 Alton Debate — Lincoln Douglas Debates. Sparks Ed. p. 485. 
 
 2 Trumbull Mss., Library of Congress ; Herndon to Trumbull, 
 Nov. 30, 1858. 
 
The Climax of the Slavery Struggle 241 
 
 ried through to victory the republican state candi- 
 dates for Treasurer and Superintendent of 
 Public Instruction. But since the state had been 
 districted northern population had been pouring 
 into Illinois. The "unterrified" democracy of 
 Egypt elected more than its proportion of legis- 
 lators and in spite of the Danites or Buchanan 
 men, Douglas was reelected by 54 votes to 41. 
 
 The election meant that the pivotal state of 
 the Northwest, formerly its democratic strong- 
 hold, had returned Douglas in spite of adminis- 
 tration intrigues and republican strength, as a 
 rebuke to Buchanan. The victory designated 
 Douglas as the presidential candidate for whom 
 the remaining democrats of the Northwest would 
 vote in i860. But by that law of mass that 
 teaches the tactician to oppose his main force to 
 the main force of the enemy, the victory had desig- 
 nated also Abraham Lincoln as Douglas' oppo- 
 nent. November 1, 1858, the Olney Tfm^putthe 
 name of Lincoln at the head of its columns for 
 president. By the next summer Lincoln was 
 sweeping on in Illinois and his strength was be- 
 ginning to develop in surrounding states of the 
 northwest. His famous Cooper Union speech of 
 February, i860, introduced him to the East as 
 well. 
 
 Many factors contributed to his progress. The 
 outstanding republican candidate was William H. 
 
242 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Seward. But Illinois republicans remembered 
 that he and Greeley had tried to side track Lin- 
 coln for Douglas in 1858. 
 
 "Now that Seward, Greeley & Co. have con- 
 tributed so much to our defeat," wrote Ebenezer 
 Peck to Trumbull, November 30, 1858, u they 
 may expect us in the true christian spirit to return 
 good for evil — but in this I fear they will find 
 themselves mistaken. If the vote of Illinois can 
 nominate another than Seward — I hope it will 
 be so cast. The coals of fire I would administer, 
 will be designed to raise a severe blister." 1 
 
 Seward's doctrine that there was a higher law 
 than the constitution injured him with the conser- 
 vative republicans. Of other candidates, Edward 
 Bates of Missouri, favored by Browning because 
 he could get old whig votes that Lincoln could 
 not, was displeasing to the Germans. The re- 
 publican state convention instructed the Illinois 
 delegation for Lincoln. 
 
 Tremendously in Lincoln's favor was the fact 
 that the national republican convention was to 
 be held in Chicago in the famous wigwam on 
 Lake Street. The local atmosphere was cleverly 
 manipulated by Illinois republican leaders, and 
 delegation after delegation by addresses, by per- 
 suasion, by bargains was won over to favor Lin- 
 coln's candidacy. The wigwam packed with Lin- 
 
 1 Trumbull Mss., Library of Congress. 
 
The Climax of the Slavery Struggle 243 
 
 coin supporters, in the galleries, at the name of 
 Lincoln gave a "yawp" that put to shame the 
 followers of Seward. The swing of anti-Seward 
 votes to the candidate who seemed to have the 
 best chance to defeat the New Yorker, nominated 
 Lincoln on the third ballot. In outward harmony 
 the republicans adjourned. 
 
 With the democrats it was otherwise. After 
 his reelection in 1859 Douglas had turned now 
 this way, now that, seeking to conciliate both 
 North and South. In spite of his concessions, in 
 spite of his attempts to win Southern sentiment 
 and at the same time obtain a platform that would 
 save the North, his party split. In the democratic 
 convention at Charleston, South Carolina, the 
 Douglas men voted down resolutions which stated 
 in Calhoun's old uncompromising style the right 
 of slavery in the territories as a national institu- 
 tion; they offered the subservient platform of 
 1856 and acquiescence in the Dred Scott De- 
 cision, but all to no purpose. The irreconcilables 
 withdrew; and when Douglas was finally nom- 
 inated at Richmond, John C. Breckenridge was 
 set up by the Southern democrats to run against 
 him, and John Bell, of Tennessee, appeared for 
 a little whig remnant known as the Constitutional 
 Unionists. 
 
 The campaign in Illinois was between Douglas 
 and Lincoln, republican and regular democrat. 
 
244 The Story of Illinois 
 
 The vote for Bell and Breckenridge was insignifi- 
 cant. Douglas threw himself desperately into 
 the campaign, in defiance of precedent himself 
 taking the stump. When the loss of Pennsylvania 
 in October told him all hope was gone, he went 
 South on a speaking tour, this time to endeavor 
 to prevent the worst consequences. On the Illi- 
 nois state ticket for the republicans Richard Yates 
 had obtained the nomination for governor over 
 the better known N. B. Judd. His democratic 
 opponent, James C. Allen was nominated late, by 
 a party jaded by the long struggle over Douglas' 
 nomination. John T. Stuart, run by the Consti- 
 tutional Union element, offered but little opposi- 
 tion. The republicans carried the state by 12,000. 
 In those critical days of December, i860, and 
 January, 1861, the future chief magistrate of the 
 nation was in the state capital of Illinois. The 
 situation made Governor-elect Richard Yates in 
 a sense the spokesman of the new national ad- 
 ministration when in his inaugural he stood against 
 any concession or compromise with the South. 
 The democrats holding a convention at Springfield 
 professed themselves loyal to the Union, but also 
 in favor of attempts at compromise with the 
 South. To a great extent public opinion was still 
 with them on this, and reluctantly Lincoln and 
 Yates sent an Illinois delegation to the Peace 
 convention called by Virginia at Washington. 
 
The Climax of the Slavery Struggle 245 
 
 State politics, too, were at cross purposes. The 
 General Assembly of 1859 na cl tried to gerry- 
 mander the state to continue the control of the 
 legislature to the democrats. Governor Bissell 
 had vetoed the bill and the republicans, absenting 
 themselves to break up a quorum, had prevented 
 the passage of the gerrymander, but also the pas- 
 sage of the appropriation bills. The General 
 Assembly of 1861 passed an act districting the 
 state on republican lines and as a sop to the 
 democrats an act calling a constitutional conven- 
 tion. A bill for the reorganization of the state 
 militia the democrats would not submit to and it 
 was put aside at the end of the session. 
 
 The actual military participation of Illinois in 
 the war will be taken up in a later chapter. Here 
 the discussion of the attitude of the people to the 
 administration, to the rebellion, and to slavery 
 will be concluded. 
 
 The news of the firing on Fort Sumter and the 
 vigorous measures by which Lincoln meant to 
 deal with the rebellion threatened for the moment 
 to break the commonwealth of Illinois into its 
 component substances. Southern Illinois at first 
 blazed with sympathy for the confederacy. At 
 Marion in Williamson county a meeting of south- 
 ern Illinois men was held intended to be prepar- 
 atory to setting up Egypt as a separate state and 
 allying with the confederacy. The evidence is 
 
246 The Story of Illinois 
 
 debatable, but it points strongly to the fact that 
 John A. Logan at the first leaned toward the 
 South. The least danger to be feared was that 
 southern Illinois might be a recruiting ground for 
 the confederacy. Douglas flung himself into the 
 breach. In Illinois he spent his last strength urg- 
 ing democrats to put the nation before the party 
 and to hold up the hands of the Black Republican 
 president while he labored for the perpetuation 
 of the Union. Speaking before the special ses- 
 sion of the Illinois legislature, he urged on both 
 parties the subordination of partisanship to pa- 
 triotism. A life of political combat, the last 
 seven years of it desperately fought, had sapped 
 his vitality and he died June 9, 1861. He had 
 been the unconscious instrument to let loose the 
 flood of civil war; but by his desperate efforts to 
 stop it he had atoned for the error. 
 
 Douglas had won over most of the democrats 
 of southern Illinois. Logan and McClernand, 
 the latter always a union democrat, led their sec- 
 tion to the support of Yates' war policy and led 
 the fighting men of their section to the battle 
 field. Southern Illinois was even to exceed the 
 North in its quota of soldiers. Enthusiasm for 
 the Union swept the whole state and put the seal 
 of approval on the militia act, and the other vig- 
 orous war measures of the special session of the 
 legislature. 
 
The Climax of the Slavery Struggle 247 
 
 But difference of opinion still lay deep in the 
 heterogeneous population of Illinois. Douglas 
 had brought the mass of the democracy to sup- 
 port loyally the war for the Union; he had not 
 tried to convert them to the republican free soil 
 doctrine and thereby to stultify the record of his 
 party for the last ten years. On the other hand 
 zealous republicans preached a crusade against 
 slavery and chafed bitterly at Lincoln's slowness 
 to proclaim it. When General Fremont issued 
 his proclamation, as commander of Missouri, 
 freeing the slaves of rebels, and Lincoln disal- 
 lowed it, there was deep discontent. When Lin- 
 coln removed him in November there was an out- 
 cry, and a bitter one. " The repudiation by Mr. 
 Lincoln of Fremont's Proclamation manumitting 
 the slaves of Missouri rebels, gave more 'aid and 
 comfort to the enemy* in that state than if he had 
 made the rebel commander, Sterling Price, a pres- 
 ent of fifty pieces of rifled cannon." * 
 
 The much tried president meanwhile was strug- 
 gling with the problem of steering a course that 
 would keep the support of the loyal men of the 
 North. With radicals like Trumbull pressing for 
 extreme measures, and conservatives like Senator 
 Orville H. Browning striving to confirm him in the 
 paths of moderation he was torn between forces 
 
 1 Trumbull Mss., Library of Congress; John Russell to Trum- 
 bull, Bluffdale, Dec. 17, 1861. 
 
248 The Story of Illinois 
 
 diametrically opposed. When Trumbull pressed 
 the drastic second confiscation act on him in 1862, 
 Browning warned him that he stood at the part- 
 ing of the ways and that signing it he walked with 
 the radicals to ruin. When Lincoln, at last believ- 
 ing that slavery should be cauterized, issued 
 the First Emancipation Proclamation, Browning 
 mourned over him. When he issued the second, 
 Browning gave him up in despair. 
 
 The impossibility of Lincoln's waging the war 
 to please both antislavery republicans and union 
 democrats for a time threw the state into the 
 hands of the democrats. In the constitutional 
 convention elected in the fall of 1861 the demo- 
 crats outnumbered the republicans two to one. In 
 spite of the fact that Yates believed it honey- 
 combed with secession, it contented itself with 
 drawing up a constitution that sought to restore 
 the old simple bankless rural Illinois that had 
 passed never to return. Wentworth supported it, 
 but it was beaten at the polls by a majority of 
 16,051. 
 
 The emancipation proclamation, and arbitrary 
 arrests for disloyal utterances in 1862, so Brown- 
 ing believed, turned the state over to a rabidly 
 democratic legislature, that elected William A. 
 Richardson to succeed him in the senate. 1 The 
 
 1 He had been appointed by Yates to fill out Douglas' term 
 until an election by the General Assembly could take place. 
 
The Climax of the Slavery Struggle 249 
 
 democrats in defending the Black Laws of 1853 
 urged their necessity to save white labor in the 
 state from competition from free negroes. The 
 flood of " contrabands" pouring in by way of 
 Cairo gave point to their argument. They passed 
 in the house resolutions for an armistice and a 
 peace convention at Louisville; their apportion- 
 ment bill was vetoed by Yates, and before they 
 could pass it over his veto the governor prorogued 
 the legislature. 
 
 June 17, a democratic mass convention of 
 40,000 denounced the arbitrary use of war powers 
 and called for a national convention to nego- 
 tiate peace. In local copperhead movements, 
 in the Chicago Times suppressed for a day 
 for disloyalty, the dissatisfaction with the war 
 powers found vent. A plot was unearthed 
 in November, 1864, to release the confed- 
 erate prisoners at Camp Douglas located in what 
 is now the heart of the south side of Chicago. 
 
 Meanwhile the time approached for another 
 presidential election. Lincoln in his middle 
 course was still too timid and conservative for 
 the radicals, too radical for the conservatives in 
 his own party. For a time there was a real en- 
 thusiasm for Fremont among the out and outers, 
 especially among the German republicans. The 
 party necessity for standing by the record, as em- 
 bodied in the president, compelled the renomina- 
 
250 The Story of Illinois 
 
 tion of Lincoln; but Fremont was nominated in- 
 dependently. 
 
 The democrats meanwhile were in a position 
 less difficult at first sight, but still quite perplexing. 
 They could not well denounce the war as a fail- 
 ure without alienating thousands of loyal war 
 democrats; of that General McClellan, their 
 presidential candidate, was the first to remind 
 them. Still their position even on the platform 
 that the war was a failure was a strong one. But 
 the military events of the fall of 1864 disproved 
 their case. Farragut at Mobile, Sherman at At- 
 lanta, Sheridan in the Shenandoah, were demon- 
 strating that the war was not a failure, that the 
 confederacy was doomed. Fremont withdrew 
 from the race. Logan aroused Illinois for Lin- 
 coln and the election resulted in a majority for 
 him of 30,736. Not three months later, February 
 1, 1865, the republican general assembly ratified 
 the thirteenth amendment forever abolishing slav- 
 ery. At the same session the Black Laws were 
 finally wiped off the Illinois statute book. 
 
 Hardly eleven years had passed since Douglas 
 had reopened the slavery question in the repeal of 
 the Missouri Compromise. Since then the whig 
 party had disappeared, and the democratic party 
 had been torn by the secession of its best men. 
 By 1864 it had sunk definitely in the state it had 
 ruled for a generation to a minority party good 
 
The Climax of the Slavery Struggle 251 
 
 for little but an agency of rebuke to the republic- 
 ans. The republican party had taken its place; 
 for a time taking over the old democratic doc- 
 trines of the rights of men, but now seeking to 
 combine them with the old whig care for capital 
 and vested interests. In the days of confusion 
 men had changed sides fast. Old time whigs like 
 Browning had become republicans, and in dislike 
 of the radical policies of Lincoln shifted to the 
 democratic party. Zealous anti-Nebraska demo- 
 crats of 1854 like John Reynolds had in the days 
 of the war walked very close to the edge of dis- 
 loyalty. Democrats like John A. Logan, accused 
 of advising men in 1861 to enlist in the southern 
 army, were to become the highest prophets of 
 republicanism. Democrats like John M. Palmer 
 led by principles rather than party allegiance, had 
 been led by them to the republican party in 1856 
 and ultimately were to follow them back to the 
 democratic group. Leaders and groups winnowed 
 vigorously by the great days of 1 854-1 865 were 
 at length to find their places again in the republic- 
 an and democratic ranks, but in arrangements 
 hardly to be foreseen from their nrevious asso- 
 ciations. 
 
 The spring of 1865 came, and the Civil War 
 was over; the United States flag was dramatically 
 unfurled over Fort Sumpter on the day five years 
 before on which Major Anderson had lowered it. 
 
252 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Then came the assassination of Lincoln and the 
 bearing back of his body to its rest till eternity 
 at Springfield. In his tomb was buried the enmity 
 of those who had opposed him in life. Even the 
 Chicago Times, his savage critic, added its 
 tribute : 
 
 It is hard to conceive of the occurrence of any 
 event which would be so shocking to the sensibili- 
 ties of the country, occasion sorrow so profound, 
 and create apprehensions and forebodings so pain- 
 ful, as the event which today absorbs all minds 
 and agitates the public heart to its lowest depths. 
 Since the 4th of March last a higher estimate has 
 been put upon Mr. Lincoln's life, and more voices 
 have ascended to Heaven that it might be spared, 
 than before. Since that time all men have real- 
 ized something of the magnitude of the concerns 
 involved in his lease of existence, and have 
 shuddered at the thought of the possibility of his 
 death. It is not chiefly the manner of his death — 
 awful as that was — that so moves the national 
 mind. It is not this, but it is that at this present 
 crisis of the country — more important and criti- 
 cal than any through which it has passed — the 
 presidential mantle falls upon the shoulders of a 
 man in whom nobody feels confidence 
 
 There are not on this day mourners more sin- 
 cere than the democracy of these northern states. 
 Widely as they have differed with Mr. Lincoln — 
 greatly as their confidence in him had been shaken 
 — they yet saw in the indications of the last few 
 days of his life that he might command their 
 
STATUE OF LINCOLN 
 
 Lincoln Park, Chicago 
 
The Climax of the Slavery Struggle 253 
 
 support in the close of the war, as he did in the 
 beginning * 
 
 Rare instances were reported of individuals who 
 exulted at his death; on almost every case they 
 met with private condemnation of public prosecu- 
 tion. The apotheosis of Lincoln was at hand. 
 
 Long since it has come to pass that the counsel 
 of Abraham Lincoln is as if one enquired of the 
 oracle of God. His writings are searched for 
 sayings that may be used on either side of every 
 question of public policy in the present day. As 
 the historian, discarding present day tradition 
 studies in the light of Lincoln's own day that char- 
 acter that has been accepted as the incarnation of 
 democracy in peoples and nations of which he 
 never heard, it becomes strangely complex. At 
 first sight Lincoln appears an astute politician 
 seeking by honorable means the advancement of 
 his party and his individual welfare, in ways he 
 thinks for his country's good. By the time he has 
 reached the presidency he has learned to measure 
 his course by the will of the people. While still 
 he seeks that will his contemporaries call him 
 timorous and cowardly; when once he has found 
 and executes it they condemn him as ruthless ; with 
 small effect on him in either case. At times the 
 politician and statesman seems possessed with a 
 
 1 Chicago Times, Apr. 17, 1866. 
 
254 The Story of Illinois 
 
 spirit, an oracle of the Divine will; and there fall 
 from his lips sayings of superhuman wisdom, of 
 liberty, of democracy, of the dignity of labor, of 
 the brotherhood of man, of mercy to the van- 
 quished; and politician and statesman are alike 
 forgotten in the god. 
 
 The death of Lincoln marked the end of the 
 heroic age of Illinois history. In the great strug- 
 gle as to whether the United States for the sake 
 of union and democracy should temporize with 
 slavery or should cast it out altogether, Illinois 
 had furnished leaders and ideals in the persons of 
 Douglas and Lincoln; in support of the man who 
 with his policy she had chosen, she had borne her 
 full share in a mighty war that had taken terrible 
 toll of her best. The enthusiasm for the ideal 
 was to pass because human nature cannot as yet 
 long sustain the ideal; and to it were to succeed 
 the ages of bronze and of iron. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE CIVIL WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH, l86l-68 
 
 IT IS inevitable for one in this generation 
 writing of Illinois' part in the Civil War to 
 compare it with her part in the World War. The 
 Civil War was a far simpler affair; not a tithe, 
 perhaps not a hundredth, of the expenditure in 
 ordnance, ammunition and equipment of 191 7-1 8 
 was required to furnish forth the armies of 
 1861-65 for the battle field. Illinois was just be- 
 coming industrial at the outbreak of the war; 
 hence the burdens laid on her industry were trivial 
 by comparison with those of 19 18. In 1 861-2 
 her wheat fields were important as contributing a 
 share of the grain that Europe needed to supple- 
 ment her crop failures and must secure from the 
 United States at the price of neutrality; but the 
 problem of helping to feed half embattled Europe 
 in 191 8 was a far greater one. In man power, 
 however, her Civil War offering was far greater 
 by proportion than that of the World War. 
 Counting enlistments of all lengths and reenlist- 
 ments, her total lay somewhere about 250,000. 
 Of these 5,857 were killed in action, 3,051 died 
 of wounds and 19,934 of disease. The number 
 
 255 
 
256 The Story of Illinois 
 
 came near that which she supplied from a far 
 greater population in 191 7-1 8; the number of cas- 
 ualties was far greater. 
 
 The troops for two years poured in by volun- 
 teering; but 3,538 men entered the service by the 
 draft. Had the recruiting enthusiasm of the ear- 
 lier years been left unchecked even that small num- 
 ber might have been reduced. For it was the un- 
 fortunate policy of the War Department to dis- 
 courage recruiting in earlier years and then have 
 recourse to the draft. Illinois, too, made her mis- 
 take in not adopting a replacement system such as 
 that 1 of Wisconsin. She raised regiment after 
 regiment by volunteering to the number of one 
 hundred and fifty infantry, and seventeen cavalry 
 regiments, and thirty-three batteries; in most 
 cases these units were sent under fire untrained, 
 suffered heavy casualties, and then instead of be- 
 ing filled up by recruits who would learn to be 
 soldiers and acquire esprit de corps from the vet- 
 erans, were kept as weak organizations, while 
 new volunteer regiments were raised to afford 
 commissions to inexperienced but ambitious of- 
 ficers. The toll in lives paid by this policy was a 
 heavy one. 
 
 The share of Lincoln's first call of 75,000 al- 
 lotted to the state was overfilled by five days vol- 
 unteering with six regiments. The legislature, 
 meeting in special session, appropriated to equip 
 
The Civil War and Its Aftermath 257 
 
 ten new regiments of infantry, one of cavalry and 
 four batteries. By June all were accepted by the 
 government. Four additional cavalry regiments 
 were raised before the disaster at Bull Run, six- 
 teen more regiments after it. Recruiting was at 
 flood tide. The War Department could not be 
 induced to accept over a fourth of the companies 
 offered; men enlisted in Missouri regiments. By 
 October Illinois had more regiments in the service 
 than New York. In December she had 60,000 
 men in the army. During 1862 under the pres- 
 sure of a state enrollment she more than doubled 
 the number. It was perhaps unfortunate; for a 
 system of enrollment and draft could have been 
 used to fill old organizations ; volunteering merely 
 multiplied companies and regiments. 
 
 March 3, 1863, Senator Trumbull's conscrip- 
 tion act went into effect; but through 1863 volun- 
 teering went on so rapidly that January 1, 1864, 
 Illinois was far in excess of her quota of 145,000. 
 In the summer of 1864 she was still in excess, and 
 in many districts of the state a draft wheel never 
 turned. The draft would undoubtedly have fur- 
 nished a more efficient army; and there were un- 
 pleasant aspects to the workings of the system 
 that actually obtained. The volunteering by com- 
 panies which kept the state's quota ahead of the 
 drafts often traded on the personal popularity of 
 would-be officers totally unfit to command men in 
 
258 The Story of Illinois 
 
 action; such companies were raised often by most 
 liberal bounties and bonuses. In 1864 volunteers 
 in Rockford received as high a bounty as $400. 
 Substitutes could be furnished for the draft; and 
 at first exemption could be purchased for a pay- 
 ment of $300. Substitute brokers did their un- 
 savory business in the West; and the man who 
 enlisted as a substitute was quite likely to desert 
 and earn another substituting fee. There were 
 local insurance associations to insure men drafted 
 of exemption through purchase of substitutes. 
 
 But the sordid nature of the service of a few 
 men cannot detract from the devotion of hun- 
 dreds of thousands. Illinois not only did her full 
 duty in sending troops; she showed herself true 
 in her historical mission as a political bond of 
 union to men of divers sections and divers races. 
 From the old South, from Kentucky and Tennes- 
 see had come very many of her first settlers in 
 the southern counties; and after their first reac- 
 tion of sympathy with the South had passed their 
 devotion to the Union put the Northern elements 
 in the state to shame. October 1, 1863, the ten 
 southern counties were credited with an excess of 
 fifty per cent over their quota. Union county in 
 eighteen months had furnished nineteen com- 
 panies out of a voting population of 2,030, includ- 
 ing but 157 republicans; allowing as much as pos- 
 sible for the enlistment of boys under twenty-one, 
 
The Civil War and Its Aftermath 259 
 
 one wonders how many able bodied men under 
 forty-five were left in the county. Throughout 
 the state there was many an old man who per- 
 jured himself in swearing to his age on enlistment. 
 The foreign elements were no less loyal than 
 the democrats of "Egypt." Germans organized 
 regiment after regiment officered by veterans of 
 the " 1848." There were Irish regiments, Scotch 
 regiments; a regiment of school teachers mus- 
 tered by President Hovey of Illinois State Nor- 
 mal; even an infantry company of young minis- 
 ters. 
 
 The careers of the individual Illinois units it 
 is impossible to follow in detail. In general, how- 
 ever, though they were found in every theater of 
 the war, their main service was done in the West; 
 for at the outbreak of hostilities the Mississippi 
 and Ohio River boundaries of Illinois were in the 
 zone of outposts. Southern Illinois, western Ken- 
 tucky, and Missouri were factors in one military 
 equation that would be solved according as they 
 arrayed themselves for the Union or the Con- 
 federacy. 
 
 In the first days of the war a secession move- 
 ment in southern Illinois was a danger to be reck- 
 oned with. The occupation of Cairo by Confed- 
 erate forces would have made it infinitely greater; 
 and Illinois' first duty was to garrison Cairo in 
 sufficient strength. The next step was to throw 
 
260 The Story of Illinois 
 
 her weight into the balance against secession in 
 Missouri. The campaign of 1861 in Missouri 
 was a haphazard affair of regiments operating in- 
 dependently. In spite of his poor leadership Fre- 
 mont during the period of his command in Mis- 
 souri, touched Illinois' imagination; and she 
 groaned in spirit when he was removed. By his 
 action at Belmont, in November, 1861, disastrous 
 as it seemed, Grant prevented military cooper- 
 ation between the Kentucky and Missouri con- 
 federate forces. After 1861 Missouri was safe 
 for the Union and became a less important field 
 of action. 
 
 The military strength of Illinois was next 
 turned upon the Confederates in western Ken- 
 tucky. The confederate defensive line resting 
 on Forts Henry and Donelson on the Tennessee 
 and Cumberland Rivers was within a few miles of 
 the Illinois border. Its reduction under General 
 Grant largely with Illinois troops in February of 
 1862 assured the Union military control of west- 
 ern Kentucky. In establishing the allegiance of 
 the border states to the Union the influence of 
 Illinois was paramount. It is so easily taken for 
 granted that we usually ignore the other possi- 
 bility of 1 861 that secessionists in Kentucky and 
 Missouri might have made southern Illinois a 
 seat of war. 
 
 Though after 1861 war never even approached 
 
The Civil War and Its Aftermath 261 
 
 Illinois save in the form of guerilla raids, her 
 military contributions to victory on more distant 
 fields were great. At Shiloh, at Vicksburg, at 
 Chattanooga, Illinois troops were a decisive fac- 
 tor. Seventy Illinois regiments were in the army 
 with which Sherman made the Georgia campaign 
 of 1864. In the western armies the Illinois 
 troops had their most important part; but in all 
 the great battles of the east they were present. 
 
 Among many brilliant feats of arms of Illinois 
 regiments one stands out to be admired so long 
 as cavalry is used in war; the exploit of the Sixth 
 and Seventh Illinois and the Second Iowa Cav- 
 alry, known as Grierson's Raid. Riding night 
 and day, dodging or baffling pursuing confederate 
 cavalry, destroying bridges, remounting from 
 horses commandeered or captured enroute, Grier- 
 son's brigade rode through the western confeder- 
 ate lines, entering them in Tennessee and coming 
 out at the federal outposts at Baton Rouge above 
 New Orleans. The raid destroyed needed con- 
 federate supplies and communications; above all 
 it blinded the confederates as to the first moves of 
 Grant's Vicksburg campaign. 1 
 
 The war produced for Illinois a generation of 
 statesman-generals. The little regular army of 
 
 1 For a brilliantly written account of the raid by a participant, 
 Prof. Stephen A. Forbes, see Transactions of Illinois State His- 
 torical Society, 1907, pp. 99-130. 
 
262 The Story of Illinois 
 
 the United States of 1861 was for its size an 
 admirable force, but its officers, however well 
 they might understand their duties and the art 
 of war in its tactical phases, could not supply 
 enough men with the natural ability to control 
 large affairs, or the knowledge of human nature 
 outside the few special types that enlisted in the 
 old army necessary to lead great masses of men 
 fresh from civil life, who came ready to sacri- 
 fice themselves for an ideal. So long as Amer- 
 ican life remains what it is, great citizen armies 
 drawn from civilian life must be treated differ- 
 ently from small professional armies; and en- 
 thusiasm, genuine natural ability, and sound com- 
 mon sense in an amateur officer can often atone 
 for much lack of information about the fine points 
 of formal guard mounting, or court martial pro- 
 cedure. It was not surprising that the period 
 should have looked to its political leaders to sup- 
 ply men with the intelligence and leadership 
 needed to lead the new armies; and the results 
 were probably as good as could have been ob- 
 tained by men drawn from any other walk of 
 life, including the regular army. 
 
 Of the numerous generals credited to Illinois 
 the service of a few is especially typical. General 
 McCIernand was in the actions of Belmont, Fort 
 Donelson, Shiloh and Vicksburg, and later served 
 in Louisiana and Texas. John M. Palmer served 
 
The Civil War and Its Aftermath 263 
 
 in Missouri in 1861, at New Madrid, at Corinth, 
 at Stone's River and Chickamauga, and in Sher- 
 man's Atlanta campaign, latterly in command of 
 the Fourteenth Army Corps. Later he served 
 as Department Commander in Kentucky. Gen- 
 eral John Pope earned at New Madrid and Cor- 
 inth the reputation which gave him the command 
 of the Army of the Potomac in 1862. His de- 
 feat at the Second Bull Run ended his active 
 career. Stephen A. Hurlbut fought as a brigadier 
 at Shiloh and as a major general commanded at 
 Memphis and in the Department of the Gulf. 
 Elon H. Farnsworth rose to be a brigadier gen- 
 eral June 29, 1863. Four days later he fell in 
 a desperate cavalry charge at Gettysburg. Rich- 
 ard Oglesby fought at Donelson and at Corinth, 
 rising to the rank of Major General. He was 
 severely wounded at Corinth and in 1864 re- 
 signed to seek the governorship on the Union 
 ticket. 
 
 Major General John A. Logan well earned the 
 title of the typical volunteer soldier and general 
 of the war. At Belmont, at Donelson, where he 
 was wounded, at Vicksburg and Resaca, at Dallas, 
 where he was wounded again he fought gallantly 
 and commanded skillfully. On the death of Gen- 
 eral McPherson he succeeded to the command of 
 the Army of the Tennessee. On account of Gen- 
 eral George H. Thomas' dislike for Logan, 
 
264 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Thomas being the commander of the Army of 
 the Cumberland, Sherman feared the two men 
 could not cooperate and replaced Logan by 
 Howard in command of the Army of the Ten- 
 nessee. Without complaint Logan asked only to 
 return to the command of his Fifteenth Army 
 Corps in the campaign before Atlanta. Later 
 despatched by Sherman to relieve Thomas in com- 
 mand at Nashville he generously allowed Thomas 
 to retain the command and to fight the battle that 
 annihilated Hood's army. It is easy to under- 
 stand why in later years with his old soldiers 
 Logan's military career cloaked any and every 
 defect in his civil record. 
 
 One man whom Illinois claims as her contri- 
 bution to the Civil War was to go farther than 
 any of these men in military success and political 
 rewards. Ulysses S. Grant had entered West 
 Point from Ohio, had fought in the Mexican War 
 with a good record, had left the service under a 
 cloud as the result of intemperance in a lonely sta- 
 tion on the Pacific Coast, and had lived for some 
 years in a cabin on the outskirts of St. Louis, cast 
 off by his father's family, supporting his wife and 
 children by hauling cord wood into town. For- 
 given by his father and taken into the leather 
 business with him at Galena in Illinois, soon after 
 the outbreak of war he had found his way to 
 Springfield, where his knowledge of the forms 
 
The Civil War and Its Aftermath 265 
 
 of the old regular army made him valuable to the 
 military amateurs around Governor Yates en- 
 gaged in mustering the State forces. Put in com- 
 mand of an undisciplined regiment, he had speed- 
 ily reduced it to order. His record around Cairo 
 in the fall of 1861 ensured his command of the 
 army that captured Forts Henry and Donelson, 
 and launched him in his career. The unraveling 
 of the riddle of his military success; whether it 
 was genius, stolidity in the face of reverses, abil- 
 ity to gain the confidence of his men, or the guid- 
 ance of some clever staff officer, is a question for 
 the historian of the Civil War rather than of 
 Illinois. 
 
 Of the other military leaders of the war, Mc- 
 Clernand's race in politics was run. John Pope 
 was not to be a major figure in Illinois politics. 
 John A. Logan, his flirting with secession in 1861 
 condoned or forgotten, was to stand as the beau 
 ideal of the Grand Army of the Republic for long 
 years of political service. Oglesby, returning 
 wounded, to be elected governor in 1864, was 
 thenceforth the darling of Illinois politics. 
 Palmer was later to be governor, senator, and 
 candidate for the presidency, a man whose career 
 rings true on the note not of party, but of 
 principle. Among civilians Richard Yates was 
 endeared to future generations as the war gov- 
 ernor of the state. He had stood for the utmost 
 
266 The Story of Illinois 
 
 effort in the carrying on of the war, had loyally 
 supported the administration throughout, and 
 after Fort Donelson in 1862 had organized the 
 Illinois Sanitary Commission which thereafter 
 functioned as the Red Cross did in the World 
 War. He shared the popularity of the veteran 
 generals, Logan, Oglesby and Palmer, and was 
 to be their competitor for high office. 
 
 The first issues that these men and that Illi- 
 nois had to meet in succeeding years were the na- 
 tional issues of reconstruction. What was the 
 constitutional status of the former confederate 
 states? Conquered provinces; or states whose 
 lawful governments had been temporarily un- 
 seated by the rebellious confederacy? Did they 
 have rights that they could demand under the 
 constitution ; or was it for the loyal states to dic- 
 tate the terms of their forgiveness; what were 
 those terms to be; and how far was it just, how 
 far expedient to grant the negroes citizenship in 
 the seceded states, and exclude ex-confederates 
 from it? 
 
 At the first, many radicals convinced that Abra- 
 ham Lincoln would be too merciful to rebels, re- 
 garded as a dispensation of Providence his taking 
 off, and the succession to the presidency of An- 
 drew Johnson, the Vice President, a Tennessee 
 democrat, illiterate, plebeian, but loving the 
 Union and hating the aristocratic southern planter 
 
The Civil War and Its Aftermath 267 
 
 rebels. If Lincoln had been unwilling to chastise 
 the rebels with whips surely Johnson would chas- 
 tise them with scorpions. When Johnson in De- 
 cember of 1865 announced a liberal presidential 
 policy of reconstruction, they were undeceived; 
 and radical men in Congress set themselves to 
 wrest out of the President's hand the power of 
 reconstructing the southern states and to do it 
 themselves by limiting southern representation to 
 voting population, organizing the negroes into a 
 republican political machine, and setting up mili- 
 tary rule over defiant southern majorities. 
 
 As late as December of 1865, however, the 
 republicans of Illinois were still not definitely de- 
 cided to drop Johnson, and the democrats re- 
 solved to take him up. However, his veto of the 
 civil rights and Freedman's Bureau Bills of Sen- 
 ator Trumbull embodying the congressional re- 
 construction policy, made his conduct an issue in 
 the campaign of 1866. Some former Illinois re- 
 publicans like O. H. Browning, soon to be his 
 secretary of the interior, gathered around him. 
 The democratic state convention of 1866 adopted 
 Johnson and his measures and nominated a ticket 
 of war democrats including Colonel T. Lyle 
 Dickey for congressman at large. The republi- 
 cans had previously nominated a ticket largely 
 made up of war veterans headed by John A. Lo- 
 gan. The contest between Logan and Dickey 
 
268 The Story of Illinois 
 
 was a savage one. Logan's doubtful course in 
 1861 was dragged to the light; but all in vain. 
 The reconstruction issue was the main one; and 
 Illinois, led by her military heroes, her voting list 
 filled with veterans of the war, was in no mood 
 to listen to the expediency of mercy to the south. 
 The eight hour day and greenback issues ad- 
 vanced by the democrats could not counteract the 
 other issue; and Logan was elected by a majority 
 of 50,000. 
 
 The General Assembly of 1867 had the task 
 of electing a senator. Palmer with the support of 
 Logan and Oglesby, contested Trumbull's reelec- 
 tion. But Trumbull's record from the outset of 
 the war v/as the exemplification of what the re- 
 publicans had stood for in the election of 1866. 
 After the state had at their behest rebuked John- 
 son for vetoing the Civil Rights and Freedmen's 
 Bureau Bills, they could not turn away from the 
 author of these measures; and Trumbull was re- 
 elected. 
 
 This was, however, the closing triumph of 
 Trumbull's career. When Johnson's opposition 
 to the congressional policy of construction led in 
 1868 to the attempt to impeach him, Trumbull 
 voted for his acquittal. With the republican 
 party united on the congressional reconstruction 
 policy and the democrats hopelessly in the minor- 
 ity there was no place for him in Illinois politics; 
 
STATUE OF STEPHEN DOUGLAS 
 
 [Courtesy of Illinois State Historical Library] 
 
The Civil War and Its Aftermath 269 
 
 and the official career of Trumbull, second in im- 
 portance in the critical years only to those of 
 Lincoln and Douglas, came to an honorable end. 
 
 Apart from the issue of reconstruction the is- 
 sues that came to the front in Illinois in 1868 
 were protection and the currency. Illinois was 
 still predominantly rural, and opposed continued 
 protection by the high revenue tariffs of the Civil 
 War. The failure of the republicans to put a tar- 
 iff clause in the platform helped them in the state. 
 There was something inviting, on the other hand, 
 in the " Ohio idea " of Pendleton, espoused by 
 the Illinois democrats, that the way to get rid of 
 the war debts and supply the scarcity of cur- 
 rency in the West was to pay the bonds off in 
 greenbacks. In spite of the fact that the demo- 
 cratic national convention had nominated Horatio 
 Seymour, a hard money man, the Illinois demo- 
 crats made the best of the greenback clause in 
 the platform. 
 
 The issues of the war, however, could not be 
 put aside. 
 
 In the present contest, the Republicans unite in 
 demanding peace upon the basis of accomplished 
 facts, and in consonance with lawfully-enacted 
 statutes, and in requiring the payment of the 
 public debt with 'the utmost good faith 1 to all: 
 while the Democracy sound the tocsin of insurrec- 
 tion and threaten repudiation in one form or 
 
2 7° The Story of Illinois 
 
 another.^ He who prefers a pacific and an honor- 
 able national policy will vote for Grant and Col- 
 fax: he who prefers internecine war and 
 bankruptcy will vote for Seymour and Blair. 1 
 
 A national ticket headed by General Grant and 
 a state ticket by John M. Palmer, could not be 
 opposed by Horatio Seymour and John R. Eden. 
 Again by a majority of 50,000 the republicans 
 were successful. The men of the Civil War had 
 entered finally into their own. 
 
 1 Chicago Tribune, August 4, 1868. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL READJUSTMENT, 1870- 
 
 189O 
 
 THE rural prairie commonwealth between 
 1870 and 1893 underwent changes that 
 dwarf those of the preceding twenty years. Popu- 
 lation and industry developed according to the 
 trend taken in 1850 it is true but at an accelerated 
 rate. From early periods of her statehood con- 
 tinental European races had found their way to 
 Illinois as the land of promise; but now their 
 coming was to be measured not in thousands, but 
 in a thousand thousands; and not only the old 
 races, but others whose habitat was as strange to 
 the provincial westerner as their tongues. The 
 first feeble beginnings of manufactures developed 
 by the demands of the Civil War were turning 
 into mightier and mightier industries; for some 
 products Illinois was becoming a world source of 
 supply. The farmer, even though learning new 
 methods, was to find himself distanced in the race 
 for production by the newer lands to the west. 
 As Illinois strode toward supremacy in industry 
 she saw a competitor or two overtake her in 
 agriculture. New population, the necessity of ad- 
 
 271 
 
272 The Story of Illinois 
 
 justing the new industrial world to labor, the 
 farmer's aspirations toward better things; all con- 
 tributed to make the period of mighty change and 
 profound unrest, which last the party politicians 
 intent on their old game of politics sought to 
 temporize with or turn to their own account. 
 
 A part of the change in population in the sev- 
 enties and eighties was the old phenomenon of 
 native population drifting in during one genera- 
 tion and out in the next. In 1870 41.7% of the 
 native born in Illinois came from other states, 
 31.5% in 1880, 25.7% in 1890. In 1870 one- 
 fifth of the persons born in Illinois lived outside 
 the state, in 1880 one-fourth, in 1890 a little 
 more. The same period in terms of rural and 
 urban populations saw a drift to Chicago. In 
 1870 11.6% of the state's population lived in 
 Chicago, in 1880, 16.3%, in 1890, 28.7%. 
 Meanwhile the per cent of population in smaller 
 places above 2,500 in size grew from 13.5% to 
 18.6%, the distinctively rural population falling 
 from 76.6% to 55.3%. Nor is this true in per- 
 centages only. Since 1870 more and more the 
 distinctively rural counties of the state have 
 tended to lose population. This has continued 
 until between 1900 and 19 10 one-half the coun- 
 ties of Illinois showed a decline in population. 
 Kendall was the only one to do so before 1870, 
 but before 1880 there were nine and before 1890 
 
Economic and Social Readjustment 273 
 
 twenty-eight that had done likewise:,. 
 
 The foreign born population of Illinois showed 
 the most remarkable development. In 1870 there 
 were 515,198 foreign born in the state of whom 
 almost 225,000 had been British subjects; 203,- 
 000 Germans, 45,000 Scandinavians, 4,180 Hol- 
 landers, and 8,980 Swiss, were of Germanic 
 blood. By 1890 the British element, including 
 Irish, had grown only to 260,000, the German 
 element had increased to 338,000, the Scandi- 
 navian to 126,000. There were now 26,627 Bo- 
 hemians, 3,126 Hungarians, 8,407 Russians, 28,- 
 878 Poles in the grand total of 842,347. The 
 absolute population of the state had measurably 
 increased from 2,539,891 to 3,826,352. 
 
 The problem of course is only partially stated 
 in the figures. The second generation of these 
 races was often as deeply inlaid with distinctive 
 characteristics as the first. Held aloof by the 
 barrier of language they clung together and were 
 easily exploited by demagogues of their own race. 
 In the seventies native Americans protested that 
 the Chicago city offices were apportioned among 
 the foreign groups. Some of them had brought 
 with them not merely their language but doctrines 
 of working class solidarity, communism, social- 
 ism, anarchism; and in hard times they were not 
 slow in teaching these to American fellow labor- 
 ers. Skilled workmen, many of them, in contra- 
 
274 The Story of Illinois 
 
 distinction to American born labor, they early 
 established trade unions and engaged in indus- 
 trial war to gain their share of the profits of the 
 period of industrial development. 
 
 That industrial development was a most amaz- 
 ing thing. The Civil War had given some en- 
 couragement to manufacture; in 1870 there were 
 in the state thirty-four distinct industries, the an- 
 nual value of whose products was over $1,000,- 
 000. The seven with output above $5,000,000 
 are significant, flour and grist mill, meat packing, 
 agricultural implements, distilled liquors, planed 
 lumber, carriages and wagons, clothing. With 
 one exception they either prepared the products 
 of the forest and farm for their first use, or were 
 subservient to agriculture. 
 
 The succeeding period saw other great indus- 
 tries develop — iron and steel, brick and clay 
 products, cement, the production of coal. The 
 last named on the large scale was an affair only 
 of the seventies in Illinois. Discovered at first 
 on the edges of the Illinois basin or where rivers 
 cut it, it was only slowly that coal came to be 
 taken from the great interior fields of the basin. 
 The Franklin and Williamson county fields have 
 been developed since 1890. 
 
 The Illinois census of 1890 showed thirty-four 
 industries with products of above $5,000,000. 
 By far the greatest was the packing industry; next 
 
Economic and Social Readjustment 275 
 
 after it followed distilled liquors, foundry and 
 machine products, flour and grist mill, iron and 
 steel, men's clothing, agricultural implements, 
 lumber and carpentering all above $20,000,000. 
 Cars, printing, furniture, malt liquors followed. 
 Since 1870 the average number of hands per 
 establishment had increased from 6.$ to 15, the 
 number of establishments from 12,597 to 20,482, 
 the number of wage earners from 82,979, to 312- 
 198, the net value of manufactured products from 
 $78,020,595 to $379,621,191. 
 
 Statistics only unsatisfactorily convey the huge 
 growth of the period. The little packing houses, 
 the little blacksmith shops, the carriage shops, the 
 grist mills of the frontier community were being 
 replaced by modern factories, where the employer 
 was no longer master, teacher and leader, but 
 lord of hundreds of hands, with problems of 
 labor, wages, strikes, railroad rates, rebates, bank 
 credits all to consider as factors of success or 
 failure. 
 
 First of all came the labor problem. The 
 manufacturer of the seventies and eighties was 
 probably no harder in pushing wages down as 
 low as possible, making labor take its share 
 promptly of losses in a poor market, and exacting 
 long hours of work, than the employer of a past 
 generation had been. But then there had been 
 the land to act as a safety valve for the enter- 
 
276 The Story of Illinois 
 
 prising, and there had been few laborers in a 
 trade. Now with labor clustered in large cities, 
 with the golden promise of the boundless con- 
 tinent already passing, above all with thousands 
 of German and Scandinavian skilled workingmen, 
 suspicious, restless, filled with the ideals of 
 La Salle and Karl Marx, conflict developed when 
 wages were lowered by stress of hard times. 
 
 The change was first apparent in Chicago when 
 the boom years of the Civil War period slumped 
 into the panic of 1873 and men were out of work. 
 The red flag appeared on the streets; in January 
 of 1874 the workingmen's party of Illinois was 
 launched; its demands at first were studiously 
 moderate in hope of gaining the support of the 
 farmers — the eight hour day, no child labor, no 
 prison labor save on public works, compulsory 
 education, state management of means of trans- 
 portation and saving banks, direct taxes, recall 
 of public officers; but behind those demands was 
 the extreme ideal of the communist state. 
 
 The continual reduction of wages all through 
 the period of 1873-77 only added fuel to the fire 
 already kindled. In 1877 a strike of Michigan 
 Central switchmen threatened to become a gen- 
 eral strike. Nineteen men were killed in contests 
 with the police. Defeat in the strike caused the 
 radical element to turn again to political action; 
 under the name of the socialist labor party they 
 
Economic and Social Readjustment 277 
 
 elected two aldermen in Chicago in the spring of 
 1878, and four members of the General Assembly 
 in the fall. The movement had long since de- 
 veloped its newspapers, most of them in German. 
 In the movement the German element seemed 
 generally to stand for direct action and commu- 
 nism in contrast to the more opportunist native 
 Americans. 
 
 Meanwhile trade unionism proper had been de- 
 veloping; its first form was that of craft unions 
 among the skilled foreign workers who led the 
 way in this sort of organization. In 1877 Albert 
 A. Parsons had been elected first president of the 
 group of crafts unions that was finally to develop 
 into the American Federation of Labor. By 1877 
 also the Knights of Labor had established their 
 first locals in Illinois. A secret organization of 
 the labor union type, its demands were the eight 
 hour day, weekly pay, mechanics lien laws, arbi- 
 tration, limitation of child labor and prison labor, 
 equal pay for both sexes, and Greenbackism. Like 
 most labor unions of the type it attracted the less 
 skilled class of labor. 
 
 The trade union movement soon became in- 
 volved with anarchism. New economic and po- 
 litical doctrines, far removed from those the 
 pioneer state had learned at the feet of John 
 Adams and Thomas Jefferson, were being brought 
 to her borders by her new citizens. In 1881 there 
 
27 8 The Story of Illinois 
 
 was organized the International Working Peo- 
 ple's Association, a branch of a London anarchist 
 organization. It drew to itself more radical ele- 
 ments, aiming at the establishment by force of 
 the ideal federation of producing communities. 
 Its members used older associations for military 
 drill as an army; its newspaper began to print 
 articles on the use of dynamite. Chicago had the 
 dubious honor of being the center of the radical 
 labor movement in the United States. 
 
 Between 1879 and 1882 a series of strikes for 
 higher wages had taken place. The packers had 
 struck in 1880 for recognition of their organiza- 
 tion, had been beaten and not taken back. In 
 February, 1886, a struggle began at the McCor- 
 mick works in Chicago over the principle of the 
 closed shop. McCormick locked out his work- 
 ingmen. The press, formerly inclined to favor 
 the eight hour day, now turned as the radical in- 
 tent of the movement developed under the preach- 
 ing of such papers as the ArbeitcrZeitung. There 
 was a great riot at the McCormick plant May 3, 
 Hatred of the police and the Pinkerton detectives 
 was at fever heat; and the Haymarket riot was 
 the result. A great meeting had been held in the 
 old Haymarket of Chicago, where formerly the 
 statue of a policeman, now in Union Park, com- 
 memorated the tragedy. A meeting addressed by 
 Parsons and others was outwardly quiet. The 
 
Economic and Social Readjustment 279 
 
 police attempted to disperse it and a bomb was 
 thrown in their ranks causing heavy loss of life. 
 
 The horror of the community at the outrage 
 condoned measures against the anarchist leaders 
 that overstepped the bounds of Anglo Saxon lib- 
 erty. For the eight men sentenced for the crime 
 no direct connection with the throwing of the 
 bomb or direct advice of its use could be estab- 
 lished. All that could be proved was that their 
 utterances were such as might be supposed to pro- 
 voke violence. Parsons and three other men went 
 to the gallows; three other men sentenced to im- 
 prisonment were pardoned by Governor Altgeld. 
 
 The labor problem nevertheless had passed the 
 worst stage. The development of the nineties 
 was twofold. In the one direction moved the ad- 
 vocates of political action, the adherents of the 
 various labor and socialist parties, and such labor 
 unions as the present Industrial Workers of the 
 World; on the other hand the skilled crafts, af- 
 filiated through national trades unions with the 
 American Federation of Labor, generally es- 
 chewed political action save to obtain the modi- 
 fication of laws and decisions calculated to pre- 
 vent their use of the strike and the boycott to ob- 
 tain shorter hours, higher wages, and better work- 
 ing conditions ; avowedly their goal is now " more, 
 more, more." However, the Chicago Federation 
 of Labor has always tended to be somewhat more 
 
280 The Story of Illinois 
 
 radical than the national federation. Most of the 
 demands that seemed extreme in the seventies and 
 eighties have long since been adopted by the com- 
 munity by acquiescence or legislation. 
 
 The generation had its financial problem as 
 well as its labor problem. The old state banking 
 system, based on note issues secured by bonds, had 
 passed away in the time of the Civil War. Its 
 place had been taken partly by the new national 
 banking system, partly by specially chartered 
 banks and private banking corporations. The na- 
 tional system was under a certain degree of super- 
 vision, but not the state or private banks. Fail- 
 ures were numerous. Both national and state 
 banks went down in the panic of 1873. Four 
 years later a group of savings banks failed through 
 incompetence or fraud. In 1887 tne state finally 
 adopted a general banking law, and forced the 
 state banks in existence to accept its provisions; 
 but a savings bank act passed in the same year 
 was declared unconstitutional because it was not 
 submitted to a vote of the people. 
 
 Among the poorer classes generally there was 
 much distrust of banks, much belief that the issue 
 of bank note currency was a profitable business 
 that the government should take over itself by the 
 issue of greenbacks. Accompanying the period 
 of high prices there had been currency expansion 
 by greenbacks in the days of the Civil War. Men 
 
Economic and Social Readjustment 281 
 
 looked back to it with regret in the period of fall- 
 ing prices after 1873. They ascribed them to the 
 contraction of the currency at the behest of Wall 
 Street financiers and eastern creditors, undertaken 
 that the government and their western debtors 
 might be compelled to pay in dollars growing 
 dearer and dearer in purchasing power; accord- 
 ingly the debtors clamored for more money and 
 cheaper money; the reversal of "the crime of 
 '73 " by which the silver dollar was alleged to 
 have been demonetized; the issue of more green- 
 backs. Both demands appear in many reform 
 and radical programs of the day. 
 
 Even more pressing than the problem of the 
 banks and the currency was that of the railroads. 
 The manufacturer who ordered his raw materials 
 and delivered his products over them, the farmer 
 who shipped his grain and hogs, the passenger 
 who rode on them, the local tax payer whose 
 county had subscribed to their bonds, each and 
 all had grievances, and sought in one way or an- 
 other to redress them. 
 
 Decade after decade had seen the railroad net 
 woven closer across the state. From 1879 to 
 1884 it increased from 7578 to 8904 miles. By 
 1893 no land in the state was so much as twenty 
 miles from a railroad; 85% of the land was 
 within four miles of one. From the beginning 
 the cooperation of local communities had been 
 
282 The Story of Illinois 
 
 enlisted in the building of railroads. This had 
 been stimulated by the "tax grab" act of 1869, 
 which allowed counties to deduct from the in- 
 creased revenue from increased land values the 
 interest due on their bond subsidies to the 
 railroads that had presumably caused the in- 
 crease. Probably $20,000,000 in such bonds 
 were out. Many of them had fallen into 
 the hands of speculators rather than railroad 
 builders, and when in 1874 the law was declared 
 unconstitutional the burden of the bonds fell on 
 the communities that issued them. The roads had 
 some fine palace, dining, sleeping, and chair cars 
 for display; but at the beginning of the period 
 we are considering unvestibuled trains light 
 enough in tonnage to run over unballasted mud 
 road beds on iron T rails were the usual thing. 
 The state railroad and warehouse commission 
 established by the act of 1871 — the first com- 
 mission in the United States established to 
 regulate warehouses, and the first after Massachu- 
 setts to regulate railroads — for years strove for 
 ballasted tracks laid with steel rails, guarded 
 crossings, flag men, gates, and vestibule trains. 
 By 1885 in these respects it had gained its ends. 
 Otherwise it had been less successful. Rates 
 for passengers and freight were what the traffic 
 would bear and no less. To competing points 
 freight receipts were pooled. In 1876 a pool 
 
Economic and Social Readjustment 283 
 
 of lines to the East charged heavier rates from 
 Chicago to the East than from Quincy, and Wis- 
 consin and Minnesota points. The Wabash, Chi- 
 cago and Alton, and Illinois Central had another 
 pool for all competing points in the state. Other 
 points paid enough to compensate. The railroads 
 openly defied the rate regulations of the commis- 
 sion; carloads of farmers, paying only the legal 
 fare, were cut out of trains and left on sidings; 
 sometimes the farmers drew revolvers and knives 
 on the train men. More than to passenger fares 
 of course they objected to the charges for hauling 
 produce. In 1873, C. B. Lawrence of the Illinois 
 Supreme Court on a rate regulation case declared 
 the act of 1871 contrary to the state Constitution. 
 The legislature reenacted it; and the farmers aris- 
 ing in wrath deposed Judge Lawrence at the next 
 election. The crux of the problem, however, was 
 not the intrastate but the interstate rate; and 
 that remained untouched till the federal interstate 
 commerce act of 1887. 
 
 The public turned to water competition to 
 regulate railroad rates, but had only partial suc- 
 cess. Traffic on the Mississippi declined before 
 railroad competition. In the seventies and 
 eighties men looked to the Illinois and Michigan 
 Canal and the Illinois River route as a possible 
 means of keeping down railroad rates. To a cer- 
 tain extent it succeeded in doing so; but after 
 
284 The Story of Illinois 
 
 1880 the canal was run at a loss; the Illinois River 
 traffic steadily declined. The Hennepin Canal un- 
 dertaken in this period to connect the Illinois at 
 Hennepin with the Mississippi River, when final- 
 ly opened in 1907, was practically worthless. 
 The Great Lakes offered more competition. 
 True the railroads secured most of the flour ship- 
 ments to the East but from 1870 to 1889 an in- 
 creasing amount of wheat and corn was sent east 
 from Chicago by boat. For many years the lum- 
 ber schooner maintained her place on the lake; 
 but as we shall see before the end of the period 
 Chicago had yielded her supremacy as a market 
 and shipping point for both grain and lumber. 
 
 The warehouse offered still another type of 
 problem. The warehouse men charged excessive 
 rates for warehousing and were suspected of 
 fraud in grading and weighing grain. The con- 
 stitutionality of the state statute and of the 
 regulations of the Railroad and Warehouse Com- 
 mission was finally upheld in Munn vs. Illinois, in 
 the United States Supreme Court, 1876; the 
 leader of the so-called Granger cases. The name 
 may serve to introduce a study of farms and farm- 
 ers in the state leading up to the state grange and 
 cognate farmers' organizations. 
 
 The period has already been characterized as 
 one in which the industry of the state was rising 
 to the first rank in the Union and its agriculture 
 
SktTCH MAI' OF ILLINOIS 
 
Economic and Social Readjustment 205 
 
 slipping back from it. In 1870 more than one- 
 half the employed population of the state was en- 
 gaged in agriculture, in 1890 less than one-third, 
 and this even though the farm area and the 
 amount of cereals raised actually increased. In 
 absolute amount, however, Illinois was compelled 
 to yield the palm to the Dakotas, Nebraska and 
 Kansas; and her production declined after 1881. 
 Illinois' farming, however, improved. The prim- 
 itive farm of the backwoods, distanced long since 
 by competition, was beginning to develop. The 
 farmer was buying machinery; he was demanding 
 opportunities to market his produce that would 
 give him his fair share of the comforts of life. 
 The reaper, the binder, the hay tedder, the grain 
 drill were all increasing the production of Illinois 
 farms, even though the proportion of labor was 
 declining. Better brands of dairy cattle, of beef 
 cattle, of hogs were being used; sheep had reached 
 their maximum number in the state in 1865 — 
 3,000,000. 
 
 Tenant farming was on the increase, an omi- 
 nous sign. In 1880, 31.4% of Illinois farms were 
 operated by tenants, in 1890, 34% ; the possession 
 of 211,000 acres of such farms by a British sub- 
 ject, William Scully, who introduced Irish 
 methods of absentee landlordism and rack renting 
 was responsible for the law of 1887 against alien 
 land ownership. 
 
286 The Story of Illinois 
 
 The dissatisfaction and unrest among farmers 
 in the age of transition and change is illustrated 
 by the formation of farmers' associations of one 
 sort or another. Already the organization of the 
 farmers of the state had been used by Jonathan B. 
 Turner to secure the foundation of the agricul- 
 tural colleges for their benefit under the Morrill 
 act. In 1867 at Washington, D. C, the organi- 
 zation known as the Patrons of Husbandry was 
 formed. Organized into state and local granges, 
 with degrees for both men and women, it came 
 to Illinois in 1868, and flourished between 1872 
 and 1874. One of its purposes was to buy agri- 
 cultural machinery for members at a discount. 
 Montgomery Ward and Company of Chicago, 
 establishing a Grange supply house, was the first 
 of the long line of mail order houses. The well- 
 to-do elements of the rural community were in- 
 clined to look on the grangers with contempt; but 
 the grangers persisted. Naturally the farmers in 
 their war on railroads and warehouses upheld the 
 hands of the state railroad and warehouse com- 
 mission. In 1874 they defeated the judges who 
 threw out the commission's suits; in that same 
 year an antimonopolist movement begun among 
 them under the leadership of Turner and John 
 M. Palmer elected a fusion superintendent of 
 public instruction and nine independents to the 
 legislature. 
 
Economic and Social Readjustment 287 
 
 This marked for a time the high water mark of 
 farmer activity. For a time thereafter the farm- 
 ers realigned themselves in republican, democratic 
 and greenback camps; but they had found a 
 weapon and could use it again. In 1 890 the Farm- 
 ers Mutual Benefit Association elected fifty farm- 
 er assemblymen, both republican and democratic. 
 Operating within the old parties it could make its 
 demands effective. 
 
 These were but a few of the greater problems 
 of the period; at every point the amazing develop- 
 ment and change of the new commonwealth pre- 
 sented its problems to be mastered. Ever since 
 the forties the state's educational system had been 
 broadening. To the little colleges of the pioneer 
 period Northwestern University had been added 
 in 1855, and the old University of Chicago in 
 1857. In the same years Jonathan B. Turner 
 was gaining popular support for his ideal of an 
 industrial university, where youth might secure 
 technical and scientific training to turn to account 
 in the development of agriculture and industry. 
 The idea finally bore fruit in the Morrill Land 
 Grant Act of 1862 which granted to each state 
 lands in proportion to its representation in Con- 
 gress for colleges of agriculture and the mechanic 
 arts. The Illinois denominational colleges sought 
 to divide the largess among themselves, but 
 Turner won his fight for the endowment of a new 
 
288 The Story of Illinois 
 
 institution. The Illinois Industrial University 
 chartered by the legislature in 1867 was located 
 at Urbana, thanks to adroit political manipulation 
 on the part of the local assemblyman. Before 
 1870 its first regent, John Milton Gregory, had 
 laid the foundation not merely of a technical 
 school, but of a college of liberal arts as well. 
 
 The Illinois Industrial University at first passed 
 through troublous times. Its revenues were small; 
 it was criticised keenly by the interests it was 
 supposed to serve; it was almost overshadowed by 
 some of the older denominational institutions such 
 as Northwestern, Knox, and Illinois College. The 
 change of name to the University of Illinois in 
 1885 seemed to help little. Not until the nineties 
 did the series of state appropriations begin that 
 has lifted the institution to the foremost rank 
 of the western universities. 
 
 In primary and secondary school education 
 progress from 1850 to 1893 was continuous. By 
 the former year, men had come to regard as in- 
 adequate the old schools held a few weeks, taught 
 by men fitted for nothing else, out of any and all 
 books available, and enforcing their precepts with 
 the rod. In the cities at least the little red school 
 house was being replaced by the more modern 
 school building and the haphazard teacher by the 
 trained professional. School societies, school 
 magazines appeared, pleading the cause of uni- 
 
Economic and Social Readjustment 289 
 
 form and standardized education. The designat- 
 ing of the Secretary of State as Superintendent 
 of Public Instruction in 1845 and the creation of 
 an independent officer in 1854 had been earnests 
 that a state system would soon come. The first 
 superintendent, Ninian W. Edwards, drew up a 
 comprehensive free school bill providing for the 
 support of schools by state wide taxation. It 
 passed in 1855. The normal school appeared in 
 1857. By 1870 the first public high schools could 
 stand comparison with the best private academies. 
 Their opponents in vain raised the cry of extrava- 
 gance and the education of a select few at public 
 expense. 
 
 The school problems of the seventies and 
 eighties revolved around the question of the paro- 
 chial school. The convention of 1 869-1 870 had 
 omitted from the new constitution provisions for 
 the reading of the bible and religious instruction 
 in the public schools of the state; it had expressly 
 forbidden the deflection to parochial schools of a 
 part of the school funds. This last, however, 
 was urged as an act of justice to those who paid 
 school tax but whose consciences compelled them 
 to send their children to schools where religious 
 instruction was given. The idea of the public 
 non-religious school prevailed, however. In 1883 
 and 1887 were passed the state's first compulsory 
 education laws. 
 
290 The Story of Illinois 
 
 In the seventies and eighties Chicago and to 
 a lesser extent the rest of the state was develop- 
 ing new means of recreation and enjoyment. 
 Since 1865 it had had intermittent Grand Opera; 
 its musical organizations such as the Apollo Club, 
 and its recital halls and theaters multiplied. There 
 were more obvious kinds of amusement. In 1878 
 horse racing began on an organized scale. Base- 
 ball was still older and was passing through phases 
 more recently familiar. The Chicago Tribune, 
 November 3, 1877, said: 
 
 The disclosures contained in our columns this 
 morning, of the rascality practiced by prominent 
 members of some of the leading base-ball nines 
 of the country can be accepted as unfailing evi- 
 dence that the game of base-ball which for nearly 
 ten years has enjoyed a remarkable popularity has 
 virtually collapsed, so far as the maintenance of 
 paid professional clubs is concerned. The Louis- 
 ville and St. Louis Clubs are presumably not the 
 only ones which have been corrupted by the 
 gamblers into machines for swindling, and now 
 that investigations are the order of the day they 
 should not stop until a general exposure is brought 
 about. If the dead game is to be buried in dis- 
 grace let all the assassins be buried with it. 
 
 Yet four years later August 28, 1881, the 
 Tribune had to admit that Chicago is the principal 
 supporter of the ball game; the clubs from other 
 places come here in order to share the receipts, or 
 
£j-zoha^c$>j 
 
 (1775-1833) 
 [From original painting owned by Chicago Historical Society] 
 
Economic and Social Readjustment 291 
 
 the " gate-money," and from their earnings here 
 eke out the scant receipts at the other towns. It 
 is not an unusual thing to have 4,000 to 6,000 
 idlers at a game in Chicago; the number has 
 reached 8,000, and rarely even less than 2,000 or 
 3,000. At other places the number of visitors 
 ranges from 300, to 1,000, the latter being a fair 
 maximum outside of Chicago. 
 
 The period of the seventies was ushered in by 
 the Great Fire of 1871. The Chicago of that 
 year was a timber built city, dried by the hot 
 prairie winds of summer to a tinder box. Octo- 
 ber 9, 1 87 1, a fire starting on the old west side 
 carried by a high wind laid all the central portion 
 of the city in ashes, killing 250 people, leaving 
 92,000 homeless, destroying $187,929,000 prop- 
 erty. Other cities looked forward to profiting. 
 Quincy, under the call of Orville H. Browning, 
 held a meeting to consider attracting part of Chi- 
 cago's trade. But the city was rebuilt more solid- 
 ly than before; the indomitable spirit of the men 
 of the day carried all before it. " I have seen 
 men who have lost their millions" wrote an ob- 
 server, u but not one who sat down and wept." In 
 the same spirit with which Chicago met the dis- 
 aster of 1 87 1, the commonwealth of which she 
 was the center, met the perplexing problems 
 caused by the new growth of the generation; with 
 courage and an ever increasing intelligence. 
 
292 The Story of Illinois 
 
 If the Great Fire ushered in the period with a 
 challenge to Chicago's courage, the World's Fair 
 of 1893 closed it with an appeal to her finer per- 
 ceptions. For eight years Chicago organizations 
 devoted themselves to the project of a Fair to 
 celebrate the four-hundredth anniversary of the 
 landing of Columbus. Congressional support had 
 to be engaged and other cities aspiring to hold 
 the Exposition had to be maneuvered out of the 
 running. A city subscription of $10,000,000 as- 
 sured her triumph. The fair was postponed to 
 1893, and then opened, a series of dazzling white 
 buildings with a few more somber and solid 
 scattered amidst the lawns and lagoons of Jack- 
 son Park by the waters of the lake. In its scope, 
 in the area it covered, in the volume of exhibits, 
 in the number of visitors it set new standards. 
 More important still in the achievement of beauty 
 in its outward form, an achievement still to be 
 sensed in the decaying classic loveliness of the old 
 Field Museum in Jackson Park, it promised a 
 new era for city, state and nation alike in which 
 material accomplishment should be expressed in 
 outward grace. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 TWO DECADES OF PARTY POLITICS 
 
 THE politics of 1870-90 seem remote from 
 the real questions of the period. While 
 the state was struggling with a series of problems 
 caused by its growth the state parties were con- 
 tending on issues of the Civil War and reconstruc- 
 tion, appealing to old partisan loyalties, parading 
 enthusiasm to certain striking personalities, and 
 using the vital state issues only as stalking horses. 
 Only occasionally does a man like Palmer appear, 
 with an appreciation of the deeper questions of 
 the time; and necessarily he walks athwart regular 
 party lines in his course. 
 
 The republican party of 1870 was not by any 
 means the republican party of 1854, of 1856, or 
 even of i860. Democratic converts like Logan 
 had entered it to outdo in vehemence the founders 
 and make them feel out of place. Because a man 
 had the type of mind that sensed danger from an 
 aggressive slave power in 1856, he was not neces- 
 sarily disposed in 1870, not to let the beaten South 
 escape until it had paid the uttermost farthing. 
 Such men could see too many unclean spirits 
 that had fattened off the blood of the men who 
 
 293 
 
294 The Story of Illinois 
 
 had given their lives to the Union, clustering 
 around the party for protection. Tariff protected 
 manufacturers, financial manipulators who had 
 grown rich during the Civil War were shouting 
 the most lustily for the ideals of i860 although 
 when those ideals had been at stake other men 
 had struggled and sacrificed for them. The liberal 
 republican movement represented a protest for 
 cleaner politics and the freeing the party from 
 the big business men and protectionists who dom- 
 inated it. 
 
 The election of 1870 passed without much com- 
 ment. The disaffected republicans supported the 
 democrat, S. S. Hayes, for congressman at large 
 against John L. Beveridge; but Beveridge won 
 handily by 20,000. The senatorial election of 
 1870 resolved itself into a contest between two 
 Civil War heroes, popular, lovable and beloved 
 men both, Richard J. Oglesby and John A. Logan, 
 in which Logan was successful. Logan, the 
 "black eagle," had atoned for his earlier democ- 
 racy and copperheadism by his gallantry in the 
 war; he was the ideal of the old soldier. To be 
 told that John A. Logan needed his vote would 
 bring a negro or old soldier voter out under any 
 circumstance. That Logan was accused of spoils 
 politics, and was vehement rather than statesman- 
 like made no difference to his admirers. 
 
 There were men in his party who saw him in 
 
Two Decades of Party Politics 295 
 
 a different and less favorable light. "Logan," 
 the Chicago Tribune, quoted January 22, 1879: 
 
 Is a sort of Republican Voorhees. A dema- 
 gogue originally of the same breezy, primitive 
 Western type, though by reason of being a Re- 
 publican demagogue under the restraint of the 
 somewhat more intelligent opinion of his party, 
 in a section which it must be confessed is not dis- 
 tinguished among the nations of the earth by a 
 high grade of popular intelligence, with the 
 physical traits and bearing which romancers are 
 fond of attributing to their heroes, the swarthy, 
 long-haired, and black-eyed political General and 
 martial politician — who still carries on the War 
 against the Rebellion in full regimentals at the 
 head of his corps in the politics of Illinois — im- 
 presses the popular imagination of the Suckers 
 more as a fine martial figure sustaining intimate 
 and patriotic relations with the American Eagle 
 than by his intellectual qualities or his value as a 
 political leader. He is a half-educated, distin- 
 guished-looking humbug, with a gift of meretri- 
 cious glibness on the stump, whose smooth and so- 
 norous inconsequences pass for eloquence and wis- 
 dom with the popular audiences 
 
 There was widespread dissatisfaction with the 
 national administration under Grant, the gold 
 ring, the whisky ring, the various other scandals 
 developing, the appointments of members of 
 Grant's family to office, the abrogation of the 
 civil service principle. Even the Chicago Tribune 
 
296 The Story of Illinois 
 
 became independent. A general revolt against 
 the Grant administration impended, led by John 
 M. Palmer, Lyman Trumbull, John Wentworth, 
 Jesse W. Fell, and Judge David Davis. Palmer 
 had already crossed blades with Grant in behalf 
 of the dignity of the state when the president at 
 the time of the Chicago fire had sent troops to 
 Chicago without their being requested by the 
 governor. At the Cincinnati Liberal Republican 
 convention Davis and Trumbull both claimed the 
 support of the Illinois delegation. The delegation 
 split its vote between them; then, because it 
 hesitated too long in turning to Charles Francis 
 Adams of Massachusetts, the nomination fell to 
 Horace Greeley. There was little chance of 
 carrying the republicans of the West, dissatisfied 
 with republican high tariffs, for an ardent protec- 
 tionist like Greeley. The democrats in Illinois as 
 elsewhere endorsed the ticket in spite of Greeley's 
 long whig and republican record; but without en- 
 thusiasm. 
 
 In the state race Oglesby and Beveridge ran 
 on the republican ticket for Governor and Lieu- 
 tenant Governor. To oppose Oglesby liberal 
 republican and democratic conventions meeting in 
 Springfield and working in harmony nominated 
 Gustavus Koerner. This placated the Germans; 
 but the farmers, the discontented element in which 
 alone lay the chance of liberal republican success 
 
Two Decades of Party Politics 297 
 
 did not expect more of their desired legislation 
 from democrats than from republicans; and the 
 convention platform evaded the tariff issue. Ogles- 
 by won on the state and Grant on the national 
 ticket, Grant's vote running 241,936 to 184,884, 
 The result showed the state was still republican, 
 tariff and all. 
 
 Oglesby in 1873 accepted election to the senate, 
 leaving Beveridge to fill out his term as governor; 
 "the quiet-mannered and wonderfully astute gray- 
 beard now rattling around in the Governor's 
 chair," the Cairo Bulletin called him. In 1876, 
 however, Beveridge lost the nomination for gover- 
 nor to Shelby M. Cullom. The democrats en- 
 dorsed the Greenback candidates for governor 
 and auditor, Lewis Steward and John Hise, and 
 nominated their own men for other offices; Green- 
 backism was the thing they had to trust now to 
 break the republican strength as they had trusted 
 liberal republicanism four years before. The 
 Greenback movement offered a strong appeal to 
 the state. Farmers, vainly seeking loans, pressed 
 to find interest to pay on mortgages, easily lis- 
 tened to charges that there was not enough money 
 in the country. Wage earners, counting their few 
 dollars pay were reminded of the flush days of the 
 sixties when greenbacks flourished and apparently 
 wages were high. So strong was the demand for 
 inflation, that democrats began to have hope of 
 
298 The Story of Illinois 
 
 success, especially with an anti-temperance cam- 
 paign to draw the German vote from the republi- 
 cans. 
 
 In the end Cullom and Hayes carried the state 
 by a narrow margin. Cullom had but 7,000 ma- 
 jority, not an eighth of what Grant had four years 
 before. In the Illinois legislature the Greenback 
 group held the balance of power. Palmer and 
 Logan contested the senatorship; but eventually 
 the democrats turned to David Davis, electing 
 him with the help of the independents. Mean- 
 while Illinois, like the nation, during the contested 
 election between Hayes and Tilden had reached 
 a pitch of political excitement that almost threat- 
 ened civil war. That the democrats acquiesced in 
 the decisions of the electoral commission, in spite 
 of the fact that those decisions are now questioned 
 by impartial students, was a triumph for orderly 
 government. 
 
 In the years that followed 1876 the democrats 
 forgot their new found affection for the Green- 
 back movement — the "rag baby" of republican 
 orators. With the Greenbackers drifting off 
 toward the Knights of Labor and more radical 
 labor reform, the democrats were willing to make 
 a place for both Greenback and anti-Greenback 
 men in their ranks. Both parties were inclined 
 to sneer at the demands of the labor enthusiasts 
 for the eight hour day and the abolition of child 
 
Two Decades of Party Politics 299 
 
 labor. And to satisfy the cry of the workingman 
 and farmer for cheap money a new and more re- 
 spectable Inflationist scheme had arisen; the re- 
 monetization of silver. 
 
 For sixty years before 1853 the United States 
 had been trying to keep silver and gold on such a 
 ratio to each other in the coinage that both would 
 stay in circulation. First one and then the other 
 felt the unfavorable ratios and dropped out. 
 From 1853 the United States had tacitly dropped 
 the attempt at bimetallism, the holding of silver 
 equal with gold as the standard. In 1873 a coin- 
 age act had omitted the silver dollar from the list 
 of coins to be struck — the famous "crime of 
 1873." ^ or a generation free silver orators ex- 
 patiated qji the plot of British capital to subject 
 the United States to slavery to British gold, or 
 told the man of religion that Congress had wicked- 
 ly defied God by reducing from the coinage a 
 metal mentioned in His holy word. The silver 
 mine owner added his enthusiasm; and in the west 
 at first practically all men, republican and demo- 
 cratic alike, favored the Bland- Allison silver meas- 
 ure of 1878. Not until the nineties did the west- 
 ern republicans develop a change of heart on the 
 subject of free silver. 
 
 Meanwhile Logan, defying protests against 
 boss rule was supreme in the republican party. 
 In 1879 a republican legislature elected him sen- 
 
3°° The Story of Illinois 
 
 ator over Oglesby who came up for reelection. 
 Logan especially lent his influence to the move- 
 ment to nominate Grant for a third term in 1880. 
 In spite of republican protests at Logan's domina- 
 tion the Grant men controlled the state convention 
 and instructed the delegation for him. In the 
 Chicago republican convention, however, Garfield 
 was unexpectedly put on as a compromise candi- 
 date, running against Weaver for the Greenbacks 
 and Hancock for the democrats. Hancock's dec- 
 laration that the tariff was a local issue took the 
 heart out of the democrats who might still have 
 capitalized the state's dislike of protection. Cul- 
 lom, the republican nominee for reelection as 
 governor, was easily successful over Lyman Trum- 
 bull, the democratic candidate — the Greenback 
 candidate holding the balance between them. In 
 1882 Cullom in his turn left the Governor's chair 
 to accept a senatorship, and his thirty years service 
 in the senate began. The Lieutenant Governor 
 John M. Hamilton took his place. 
 
 Eighteen eighty-four was a democratic year in 
 the nation. In Illinois, Oglesby was nominated 
 for governor over Hamilton to contest the elec- 
 tion with the elder Career Harrison, the famous 
 mayor of Chicago. Both sides had now endorsed 
 the demands of labor, the democrats declaring 
 for the eight hour day and the right of labor to 
 organize. Logan was endorsed by the state con- 
 
Two Decades of Party Politics 301 
 
 vention for the Presidency, but ultimately had to 
 accept the vice presidential nomination on the 
 ticket with Blaine. The republicans, though suc- 
 cessful in the state, lost the national election. The 
 Illinois legislature was closely divided and one of 
 the most thrilling political contests in the state's 
 history began. 
 
 The senate of the general assembly that con- 
 vened at Springfield in January 1885 consisted 
 of twenty-six republicans and twenty-five demo- 
 crats including one Greenbacker. The House con- 
 tained seventy-six republicans and seventy-seven 
 democrats including an "independent," E. M. 
 Haines of Lake county. First came the difficulty 
 of organization. Haines was chosen temporary 
 speaker as a compliment. He then blandly with 
 the help of his friend Sittig, a republican, at- 
 tempted to retain the office on the ground that 
 the constitution of the state knew but one speaker, 
 the permanent one. After much disorder the 
 democrats gave way and elected him speaker. 
 Even more serious was the contest over the sen- 
 atorship; for the sum of the members of the 
 houses on joint ballot including one doubtful vote 
 on each side was 102 democrats and 102 republi- 
 cans. The republicans selected Logan as their 
 candidate, agreeing to support him to the end. 
 The democrats, divided between William R. 
 Morrison and Carter Harrison, finally adopted 
 
302 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Morrison, and the long contest began. Perhaps 
 either side, certainly the democrats, might time 
 after time have secured the needed additional vote 
 to elect a compromise candidate; but they held 
 out. The session dragged on indefinitely; the 
 people of the state became indignant at the farce 
 of the seemingly interminable party struggle. 
 
 Twice during the earlier part of the session 
 members had died. On both occasions the mem- 
 bers had been replaced by others of similar poli- 
 tics; and on the death of Representative Shaw of 
 the thirtieth senatorial district — the counties of 
 Cass, Mason, Schuyler and Menard — it seemed 
 certain that the same thing would happen, for the 
 district was democratic by 1800 or 2000 majority. 
 To a certain Henry Craske, however, occurred 
 the idea of a "gumshoe" campaign to get the 
 republican vote out without alarming the demo- 
 crats till too late. Logan gave his consent though 
 skeptical of success. The republicans put for- 
 ward no candidate, but a secret campaign through 
 the district warned the republican voters to turn 
 out to the polls late on the day of the election. 
 Two days before election, men posing as cattle 
 buyers, etc., passed through the district distribut- 
 ing to the precincts republican ballots for William 
 H. Weaver for assemblyman. The democrats 
 were not alarmed till too late to get out their vote 
 and Weaver won by a few hundred. He was im- 
 
(1847—1902) 
 
Two Decades of Party Politics 3°3 
 
 mediately seated and Logan was elected to the 
 senate. 
 
 The state election of 1888 resolved itself into 
 a contest between "Private Joe" Fifer, the re- 
 publican candidate, an old soldier who, in an age 
 of political generals, enjoyed the distinction indi- 
 cated by his nickname, and John M. Palmer. 
 Palmer once more took a decidedly pro-labor 
 point of view. He had the clear sightedness to 
 lay a part of the trouble of 1886 in Chicago to 
 the Pinkertons and the police. But Illinois was 
 now a normally republican state and Fifer as well 
 as Benjamin Harrison on the national ticket was 
 duly elected; two years later, however, the fifty 
 farmer members elected by the Farmers' Mutual 
 Benefit Association held the balance of power in 
 the house, and in a three-cornered battle for the 
 senatorship between Palmer and republican and 
 farmer candidates, Palmer wa9 elected March 12, 
 1891. 
 
 In 1892 Fifer was again the logical candidate 
 of the republicans; his democratic opponent was 
 the remarkable John P. Altgeld, German by birth, 
 a rich man by his own exertions, social and polit- 
 ical reformer, labor sympathizer, and radical by 
 nature, whose motives were pronounced by his 
 best friends a strange medley of high ideals and 
 personal prejudices, a man in whom intellect and 
 emotion were strangely mixed. As Palmer had 
 
3°4 The Story of Illinois 
 
 done in 1888, Altgeld strove to keep out of Illi- 
 nois gubernatorial elections the old republican 
 issues of Civil War and Reconstruction, and to 
 pin the canvas to the questions of legislative and 
 social reform that directly concerned the state. 
 He adopted the public and parochial school issue 
 as his main platform; both the state and national 
 democratic candidates were successful. With Alt- 
 geld's election an era of social reform legislation 
 ibegan. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 RECENT POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 IN DEALING with recent history such as that 
 since 1893 in which persons now living were 
 actively engaged, the historian's method must be 
 modified. He can no longer study frankly the 
 interplay of personality with events and no longer 
 show how the weakness and foibles of the in- 
 dividual weave into the web of history. He must 
 limit himself to bare statements of fact regarding 
 elections and political contests of individuals and 
 the growth of institutions. 
 
 With 1893 opened the first democratic state 
 administration since the Civil War under Gover- 
 nor Altgeld. A tremendous dissatisfaction with 
 the republican party had carried into power a 
 political idealist. But the reaction from discon- 
 tent came; men grew tired of the high hopes of 
 the idealist. These hopes hardly comported with 
 defalcations that took place under him, and in 
 1896 the democrats went out of office to stay out 
 for four terms. Bryan then in the first flush of 
 youthful enthusiasm was preaching the cause of 
 the masses against the classes on the old issue of 
 cheap money, this time in the form of free silver. 
 
 305 
 
306 The Story of Illinois 
 
 In 1896 and again in 1900 on this issue he lost 
 the state to McKinley. In those years respective- 
 ly John A. Tanner and Richard Yates, son of the 
 war governor, were elected governors over Alt- 
 geld and Samuel Alschuler, respectively. The re- 
 publican vote mounted, Alschuler, the most suc- 
 cessful of the democrats falling 60,000 behind his 
 opponent. In 1904 the republican majority for 
 president and governor rose to 300,000. It was 
 the "Roosevelt" year when Charles S. Deneen, 
 nominated for governor after a hard convention 
 struggle, ran against Lawrence B. Stringer. In 
 1908, however, with Deneen running against 
 Adlai E. Stevenson former vice president with 
 Cleveland, this majority was cut to 23,000; but 
 Taft beat Bryan in the state by 179,000. 
 
 In these years the political composition of the 
 Congressional delegation had fluctuated. For the 
 congress elected in 1890 under dissatisfaction with 
 the McKinley tariff it numbered six republicans 
 and fourteen democrats. In 1892 the democrats 
 had to be content with one-half the delegation. 
 In 1896 they could elect but four out of twenty- 
 two. In 1894 they had not a single member. 
 After the Roosevelt landslide of 1904 they had 
 but one. 
 
 The general assemblies showed smaller fluctu- 
 ations; the principle of minority representation 
 assured the minority party a respectable strength 
 
Recent Political Development 3°7 
 
 in the House, however weak they might be in 
 the Senate. 
 
 At this time we are too close to it to analyze 
 the motives and intentions of the progressive 
 movement of 19 12. Liberals of all shades from 
 Theodore Roosevelt to Miss Jane Addams met in 
 harmony, ignoring the fundamental difference of 
 their views of the universe to push a program of 
 liberal reform, political, legal, and social. The 
 term social justice was vague and meant many 
 different things; but the enthusiasm of a crusade 
 for righteousness swept through the country and 
 Illinois as well. Point had been given to it in 
 Illinois by the unseating of William Lorimer in 
 19 1 2 by the United States Senate on the ground 
 that corrupt interests had brought about his elec- 
 tion through bribery of the state legislature in 
 1909. 
 
 It was at Chicago in the republican national 
 convention that the progressive movement began. 
 The contest between Taft and Roosevelt for the 
 control of the convention and the nomination had 
 led to a series of contesting delegations; alleging 
 votes were unjustly taken from Roosevelt by the 
 national committee, the revolting Roosevelt forces 
 refused to vote on the nomination, assailing the 
 presiding officer with jeers when their delegations 
 were called. After the convention had renominated 
 Taft and adjourned, the Roosevelt forces met at 
 
3°8 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Orchestra Hall to launch the movement that be- 
 came the progressive party and put Roosevelt in 
 the field as a third candidate against Taft and 
 Wilson. For a time there was doubt as to 
 whether a candidate for governor should be run 
 against Deneen, who had supported Roosevelt up 
 to the point of revolting from the party; the de- 
 cision was made, however, to run Frank Funk. 
 With the state republican party divided on both 
 governor and president, the election of Woodrow 
 Wilson, liberal enough to hold the democrats in 
 line, and of Judge Edward F. Dunne as governor 
 was assured. In the general assembly elected 
 in 19 1 2 the democrats had ninety-six votes in 
 joint ballot, the republicans seventy-seven and the 
 progressives twenty-eight. A coalition of demo- 
 crats and republicans elected L. Y. Sherman, re- 
 publican, and James Hamilton Lewis, democrat, 
 United States senators. 
 
 In Illinois the progressive movement sank away 
 little more slowly than it arose. The liberalism 
 of Wilson's administration carried away some of 
 it, the rest under the issues of the war was reab- 
 sorbed in the republican party by the election of 
 1916. In that year the normal republican ma- 
 jority in Illinois reasserted itself and Frank O. 
 Lowden was elected governor over Dunne, the 
 state electoral vote going to Hughes as against 
 Wilson. In 1920 the republicans swept the state 
 
Recent Political Development 3°9 
 
 for both governor and president, in spite of the 
 fact that the nomination of their candidate, Len 
 Small, had come about after a bitter contest with 
 the faction headed by Lowden; the two groups 
 warred on each other savagely during the whole 
 course of Small's administration. 
 
 The Spanish American War fell in the period 
 we are considering. Save for the wave of patri- 
 otic enthusiasm it called out it did not affect Illi- 
 nois deeply. Nine regiments of infantry, one of 
 cavalry, and a battery of artillery were the state's 
 quota. Of these the First Infantry served in the 
 Santiago campaign, the Third and the battery in 
 Porto Rico, the Sixth in Cuba and Porto Rico, and 
 the Eighth and Ninth in Cuba. 
 
 From the point of view of government the his- 
 tory of the period is better studied with regard 
 to certain movements for change in its organiza- 
 tion. Chief among these is the demand for con- 
 stitutional amendment or revision. The Constitu- 
 tion of 1870 ably framed for the Illinois of its 
 day, an agricultural community with a large city 
 in it, is quite inadequate for a commonwealth as 
 much interested in manufacture and commerce as 
 agriculture and containing a world metropolis. 
 The framers of the constitution satisfied to have 
 established the work of their hands upon them 
 had made amendment difficult; an amendment 
 must be submitted by two-thirds of each house of 
 
3 l ° The Story of Illinois 
 
 the general assembly, and ratified by a majority 
 of those voting at the next election; amendments 
 could be submitted to but one article at a time; 
 and no two for the same article within four years. 
 Before the state ballot act of 1891 amendment 
 was easier; because in the ballots furnished by 
 political parties before that year, amendments 
 were usually submitted as affirmative proposi- 
 tions, and all votes not cast specifically against 
 them were counted for them ; but after that year 
 unless a voter on the official ballot expressed his 
 opinion specifically for the proposition his vote 
 was counted against it. Lack of interest on the 
 part of voters thenceforth would insure the de- 
 feat of an amendment. 
 
 After 1 89 1, too, it became increasingly difficult 
 to secure a two-thirds majority of the legislature 
 for any proposed amendment. Sectional inter- 
 ests, Chicago versus down state, financial inter- 
 ests, privileged interests generally were likely to 
 be engaged pro or con on any given amendment; 
 and it was not difficult in a legislature with houses 
 chosen on fundamentally different principles to 
 secure a dissenting one-third in one or the other 
 house. Worse than this, rival amendments con- 
 tended at session after session to be the one the 
 assembly was permitted to submit ; and the groups 
 supporting them worked each for its own and 
 against the others. The so-called u gateway " 
 
Recent Political Development 3 11 
 
 amendment to amend the amending clause offered 
 session after session was always sidetracked in 
 the assembly or defeated at the polls. Three 
 times in thirty years attempts were made to call 
 a constitutional convention to frame a new con- 
 stitution; in 1893, and in 1901, resolutions were 
 voted down in the Assembly. In 19 17, however, 
 a convention resolution passed the assembly and 
 eighteen months later was adopted by the voters. 
 The convention met in 1920, carried on its work 
 intermittently for two years and finally submitted 
 a complete constitution to the people. Much 
 could be said against it on various points and 
 strong groups and classes of the electorate were 
 mustered against it; it was overwhelmingly 
 defeated. 
 
 The defects in the constitution of 1870 as it 
 stands are numerous. Many technical objections 
 can be alleged to the judicial clauses. Its revenue 
 article providing for a uniform tax on all prop- 
 erty, fair enough in the agricultural common- 
 wealth of 1870, now allows vast amounts of in- 
 tangible personal property to escape. Its restric- 
 tions on municipalities and their debts prevents a 
 thoroughgoing development of Chicago. The 
 system of minority representation permits each 
 voter to cast three votes for members of the 
 House of Representatives of the General Assem- 
 bly for one, two, or three candidates. Accord- 
 
3 12 The Story of Illinois 
 
 ingly, under any circumstances one-third the vot- 
 ers may insure the election of one assemblyman. 
 In practice a much smaller fraction may often do 
 it. The system is one of vicious minority over- 
 representation. The constitution leaves no open- 
 ing for improvements on republican government 
 such as the initiative and referendum. It relies 
 for democracy on letting the people elect to one 
 office after another purely administrative in func- 
 tion, and sets voters every four years to pass on 
 the qualifications of a secretary of state with 
 whose office they have come in contact merely to 
 apply for automobile licenses and an auditor of 
 public accounts with whose office they have prob- 
 ably not come in contact at all. 
 
 Meanwhile for forty-seven years after the con- 
 stitution of 1870 was adopted the administrative 
 system of the state grew more and more cumber- 
 some. The constitution provided a simple list of 
 administrative officers, governor, lieutenant gov- 
 ernor, secretary of state, auditor of public ac- 
 counts, treasurer, superintendent of public instruc- 
 tion, attorney general. But as one private activ- 
 ity after another required regulation, one profes- 
 sion or occupation after another had to be 
 licensed, one special industry or public utility after 
 another supervised, special officers, boards, etc., 
 paid and unpaid, were heaped up till the number 
 reached over a hundred. Every regulating stat- 
 
Recent Political Development 3 J 3 
 
 ute created its board to administer it. 
 
 The situation came to a head in the report of 
 the Efficiency and Economy Commission of 
 1913-15. In large measure based on this report 
 was the Consolidation Act of 19 17. This act 
 leaving untouched the older constitutional offices 
 — secretary of state, auditor, superintendent of 
 public instruction, attorney general — till a con- 
 stitutional convention could deal with them, set 
 beside them new departments, the heads to hold 
 office for four years by appointment of governor 
 and senate. Of these departments that of finance 
 was entrusted with a state budget; agriculture, 
 labor, mines and minerals, trade and commerce, 
 public health, had the functions implied by their 
 names. Registration and education took, over the 
 license examinations for physicians, barbers, etc., 
 and a general supervision of the normal schools, 
 etc. Public works had control not merely of 
 building, but state printing, etc. Public welfare 
 took over the control of all the public charitable 
 and penal institutions of the state. Under these 
 departments were grouped the few surviving 
 separate boards in more or less dependent rela- 
 tions. The act was a long step toward a modern 
 scientific state government, but unfortunately the 
 constitutional convention failed to adjust it to the 
 older offices, leaving them side by side with it as 
 before. 
 
3 J 4 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Before the passage of the act, even, the state 
 had made long advances in dealing with the prob- 
 lem of administration. Since 1869 there had 
 been a state board of charities with purely super- 
 visory control over the charitable institutions of 
 the state. In 1909 a state board of administra- 
 tion replaced all the local boards of the various 
 asylums, etc. A state charities commission with 
 powers of visitation was established beside it. In 
 19 1 7 the penal institutions of the state were 
 added to the charitable and the whole placed un-< 
 der the control of the department of public wel- 
 fare. 
 
 Illinois has finally attained to a good state civil 
 service organization. The history of civil service re- 
 form in Illinois begins with the act of 1895 allow- 
 ing the adoption of the system in cities. It was so 
 adopted by Chicago, Evanston, Springfield, and 
 Waukegan. Naturally the system was most im- 
 portant with respect to Chicago. There it has 
 been in a precarious situation, continually invali- 
 dated by the use of sixty day permits to keep in 
 office persons without due qualifications. In 1901 
 the Cook County civil service commission was 
 convicted of malfeasance in office. In 191 1 the 
 Cook County civil service system was extended 
 to all county employees ; but the act was declared 
 unconstitutional as unduly passed. State civil serv- 
 ice has come more slowly, but surely. In 1905 
 
Recent Political Development 315 
 
 it was applied to all charitable institutions. In 
 
 1 9 10 the question of a statewide civil service was 
 carried in a popular public policy vote; and in 
 
 191 1 an act was passed. It secured their posi- 
 tions to all incumbents, but provided for com- 
 petitive examinations which in the case of certain 
 scientific posts are "unassembled," consisting of 
 questions as to training and experience. For the 
 first six years of the act employees could be re- 
 moved only by charges and trial. After 19 17 the 
 appointing authority could remove, subject to ap- 
 peal that the removal was due to religious, racial, 
 or political reasons. 
 
 The suffrage of the state has been revolution- 
 ized in the last thirty years. Before the Austral- 
 ian Ballot Act of 1 89 1, parties supplied their own 
 ballots and made nominations independent of any 
 legal control. With 1891 the state began to 
 recognize in law the party system that had existed 
 since 1834 in practice. An official ballot was pro- 
 vided on which candidates were to be listed under 
 their party labels; and a system of nominating 
 conventions was prescribed. 
 
 The defects of the nominating convention and 
 the possibility of packing it caused an agitation 
 for direct primaries to choose party tickets. Pri- 
 mary acts passed in 1905, 1906, 1908, and 1919 
 were declared unconstitutional by the supreme 
 court. One of 19 10 stood the test; but it cannot 
 
3 J 6 The Story of Illinois 
 
 be applied to a judicial nomination which, with 
 the drawing up of party platforms is still per- 
 formed by nominating conventions. In 1 90 1 pro- 
 vision was made for the submission to the voters, 
 on petition of ten per cent of the voters of the 
 state or twenty-five per cent of those of any dis- 
 trict, questions of public policy not more than 
 three in number on a ballot; but there is no com- 
 pulsion on the legislature to pass measures cor- 
 responding in case of an affirmative vote. 
 
 The period saw the establishment of woman 
 suffrage. In 1891 women were allowed to vote 
 in school elections. In 1909 they were permitted 
 to be candidates for all school offices from which 
 they were not barred by constitutional provision. 
 In 1 9 13 they were allowed to vote for all political 
 offices not constitutional in their origin, the most 
 important being presidential elector. Since the 
 ratification of the 19th amendment to the federal 
 constitution they have been permitted to vote for 
 all offices. 
 
 One effect of their vote was to extend the pro- 
 hibition area over the state. In 1907 a law per- 
 mitting votes on local option in villages, towns, 
 etc., was passed; dry areas spread steadily, in- 
 creasing greatly in the election of 19 13 with the 
 women voting for the first time. Since then the 
 Volstead act and a state enforcement act almost 
 as rigid have made the sale or manufacture for 
 
Recent Political Development 317 
 
 consumption of alcoholic liquors generally unlaw- 
 ful. Wet and dry has been one of the most savage 
 dividing issues in Illinois politics. For years the 
 state anti-saloon league campaigned for the defeat 
 of wet and the election of dry candidates; and in 
 the state general assembly the designation of wet 
 and dry even now cuts across parties and factions 
 alike. 
 
 In some respects the most remarkable part of 
 Illinois legislative record during the period is in 
 labor legislation. The beginnings of it go 
 farther back. The first regulation of mines and 
 mining, early recognized as a dangerous occupa- 
 tion, was by act of 1872. In 1883 a board of ex- 
 aminers of mining and state mining inspectors 
 was established. In 1899, 19 10, and 19 13 the 
 law was further expanded and codified. In 1891 
 the state's first child labor law was passed, setting 
 the age limit at thirteen; it remained a dead letter, 
 but by act of 1893 a department of factories and 
 workshops was created to enforce it; the age limit 
 was raised to fourteen, with supervision of chil- 
 dren fourteen to sixteen. In 1903 the act was 
 made still more stringent, limiting employment 
 during school sessions and in certain places and 
 occupations. In 1904 child labor in Illinois mines 
 came to an end. 
 
 An eight hour clause for women in the act of 
 1893 was declared unconstitutional, but ten hour 
 
3 X 8 The Story of Illinois 
 
 laws for women were passed in 1909 and 191 1. 
 A law providing all possible safeguards against 
 occupational diseases passed in 191 1, and work- 
 men's compensation laws in 191 1, 19 13 and 19 17. 
 Even earlier, in 1899 free state employment 
 agencies had been created. Generally Illinois 
 stands high among the states in its labor legisla- 
 tion. 
 
 The thirty years since 1893 have seen great 
 masses of legislation passed compared with the 
 meager output or 1872-93. This has mostly been 
 done in the comparatively narrow biennial legis- 
 lative sessions between the first week in January 
 and the last week in June. Necessarily the influ- 
 ence of individual members on legislation has de- 
 clined, as that of committees and of the steering 
 organizations of the house and senate has in- 
 creased. Occasionally in the rush at the last 
 minute, laws have been passed inconsistent and ill 
 advised; and excessive appropriations have been 
 made. But generally considered the results have 
 not been as bad as might have been expected. 
 
 Two outside influences have had increasing 
 weight in legislation. The supreme court, as will 
 appear by the foregoing narrative, has exercised 
 freely its power of declaring laws unconstitutional. 
 Between 1870 and 19 13 it decided against the 
 constitutionality of laws in 257 out of 789 cases. 
 The governor, too, since 1884 possessed of the 
 
Recent Political Development 319 
 
 power to veto separate items of appropriation, 
 has exercised an increasing influence. By reason 
 of the fact that so much legislation is passed so 
 late in the session as to make it impossible to pass 
 it over his veto, his power of veto has become 
 almost absolute. That, coupled with his powers 
 of appointment gives him a strong influence over 
 the assembly whenever he cares to use it. At the 
 close of the first hundred years of its statehood 
 the Illinois General Assembly was in a state of 
 relative subordination to governor and supreme 
 court almost the reverse of its commanding posi- 
 tion in 18 18. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE WORLD WAR 
 
 THERE can be no question but that the de- 
 ciding factor of the World War of 19 14-18 
 was the weight in soldiers, munitions, money, food- 
 stuffs, and above all in intelligence and moral en- 
 thusiasm contributed by the United States in 
 1917-18. In this contribution the state of Illinois 
 was of supreme importance, far greater than her 
 relative mass in the nation would indicate. Situ- 
 ated as she was at the heart of the Mississippi 
 Valley, almost the first in the Union in agricul- 
 ture, third in manufacturing, with one of the larg- 
 est foreign and especially German populations, 
 everything depended on her attitude. Were she 
 to " fight backwardly" as Kentucky and Mary- 
 land had done in 1861-65, were her allegiance 
 divided, the resources of the nation would be dis- 
 astrously crippled at the start. Possibly a part 
 of those resources would have to be diverted to 
 hold her neuter in the struggle. When she out- 
 did herself in contribution victory was assured. 
 The way of her contribution and the measure of 
 it are here to be told. 
 
 The moral issues involved in the World War 
 320 
 
The World War 2>2i 
 
 cannot be adequately appraised till future histori- 
 ans have duly weighed and valued the causes that 
 in August, 19 14, sent three hundred and fifty mil- 
 lion Europeans at each other's throats and eventu- 
 ally drew into the whirlpool wellnigh all the 
 peoples of the earth save Spanish South America 
 and a few of the lesser states of Europe. But 
 the people of Illinois and the Union from the first 
 passed moral judgments as to the origin of the 
 conflict; they were far from unanimous in them. 
 The mass of the people of Illinois condemned 
 Germany from the beginning for the violation of 
 Belgium, for the lurid tales of atrocities inflicted 
 deliberately 6n civilian populations, and for the 
 schemes of world conquest ascribed to the Ger- 
 man militarists. 
 
 The Americans of German extraction on the 
 other hand insisted bitterly that the Fatherland 
 was striving desperately to free itself from the 
 insidious encircling web of diplomacy woven by 
 Isvolsky, Poincare, and Sir Edward Grey; they 
 decried the tales of atrocity, and maintained the 
 invasion of Belgium to have been a commonplace 
 of European military theory for twenty years. 
 The difference passed beyond argument to emo- 
 tion. On the one hand, were those of German 
 blood, on the other those whose racial antecedents 
 led to England, Italy, Russia and the subject peo- 
 ples of the dual monarchy. 
 
3 22 The Story of Illinois 
 
 The weapons of war employed by Germany 
 only deepened the hostility of her American op- 
 ponents. The introduction of poison gas and 
 of submarine attacks on merchant vessels seemed 
 brutal, lawless, and violent compared with Great 
 Britain's aggressions on neutral commerce, and 
 her blockade of neutral continental ports. The 
 sinking of the Lusitania in 19 15 and the loss of 
 American citizens on board swept the country to 
 the verge of war. The President attempted by 
 diplomatic means to obtain reparation and secu- 
 rity for the future. A pledge was finally obtained 
 in 19 16. But the conviction that all government 
 in Germany was subordinated to a ruthless, head- 
 strong, military group gained headway when the 
 limitations on submarine warfare were denounced 
 by Germany in January, 19 17. In spite of the 
 fact that in 19 16 Woodrow Wilson had been re- 
 elected on the slogan "He kept us out of war," 
 the President could no longer hold back the tide 
 that was sweeping us in. 
 
 The greater part of the American people would 
 doubtless have been content to air their moral 
 condemnation of Germany without actual resort 
 to war. Most intelligent people regarded the 
 declaration of war of April 6, 191 7, as merely a 
 gesture of support for the winning side, till the 
 allied missions revealed the fact that the sub- 
 marine blockade was fearfully effective, that 
 
The World War 323 
 
 Russia, beaten again and again in the field, had 
 at last disintegrated in a radical revolution, and 
 that the whole strength of the United States was 
 required to avert a crushing defeat. 
 
 The necessities now seemed clear. There 
 could be no question that the triumph of Germany 
 would leave a militarist clique in charge of the 
 destinies of Europe. In Germany there seemed 
 to be no hands able to hold them back if they 
 won. Wilson therefore sounded in his war mes- 
 sage and in other state papers the call to a cru- 
 sade for democracy against militarism, the war 
 to end war. Assured that Armageddon was at 
 hand the American people rallied at his call for 
 the conflict. 
 
 There was a minority of opposition stronger in 
 Illinois than elsewhere to this program. Five of 
 the fifty congressmen who voted against war were 
 from Illinois. The vast mass of Germans by 
 birth and descent acquiesced loyally in the war; 
 but a small minority took up the trade of the 
 spy and sower of sedition. Many genuine paci- 
 fists like Jane Addams, and Jenkin Lloyd Jones, 
 himself a veteran of the Civil War, believed the 
 war unnecessary. The socialists opposed it, as 
 did the Industrial Workers of the World, the 
 radical labor group whose national headquarters 
 were in Chicago. The then mayor of Chicago 
 was reluctant, doubtful alike of the draft and of 
 
3 2 4 The Story of Illinois 
 
 the despatch of American troops to Europe. And 
 the meeting of the People's Council in Chicago in 
 September, 191 7, to insist on a statement of terms 
 of peace, dissolved only under a threat of military 
 action by the governor. 
 
 These elements of dissent were silenced sooner 
 or later. The American Protective League, a 
 volunteer secret service organization, originated 
 in Chicago and at one time had thirteen thousand 
 operatives in the city who ran down one hundred 
 thousand cases of suspects for disloyalty, and 
 draft evasion. German aliens were registered Feb- 
 ruary 4 and June 17, 191 8, and were barred from 
 certain zones save with special permit. A wide- 
 spread refusal to register for the draft at Rock- 
 ford was dealt with by prosecutions. The De- 
 partment of Justice from July to September, 1917, 
 checked the activities of the socialists, suppressing 
 their newspaper; the headquarters of the I. W. 
 W. were raided in September, 1917; and in 191 8 
 numerous convictions of radical leaders were ob- 
 tained on indictments for disloyalty. In some of 
 these proceedings there is no question that judicial 
 agencies overstepped the bounds of free speech 
 and freedom of the press; but in modern war all 
 are combatants; and among civilians and soldiers 
 alike uniformity of thought on the war becomes 
 a military necessity. Practical unanimity of ex- 
 pression in the form of support of the war was 
 
The World War 3*5 
 
 one way or another attained. 
 
 A very important part in the organization of 
 Illinois for war was played by Governor Frank 
 O. Lowden. When early in February diplomatic 
 relations with Germany were broken, he appeared 
 before the General Assembly to urge united sup- 
 port of the President. In large measure he was 
 responsible for the creation of the State Council 
 of Defense by act approved May 2, 191 7. The 
 Council so created consisted of fifteen members, 
 representing capital, labor and all the large in- 
 terests of the state and itself organized all the 
 state's resources for victory. Under it functioned 
 the whole improvised civilian war organization of 
 the state. It had to complain that federal 
 agencies instead of using the organization sought 
 to supersede it; but that was remedied by execu- 
 tive order in August, 19 18. 
 
 It would require a volume to cover adequately 
 the manifold activities in which the State Council 
 of Defense engaged or the organizations created 
 by it or affiliated to it to carry on its work. It 
 cooperated with the Red Cross, the American 
 Protective League, the Federal Food and Fuel 
 Administration, the National Security League, a 
 u preparedness " organization antedating the war, 
 and the Four Minute Men, the last being an or- 
 ganization of four minute speakers at theaters, 
 churches, and lodges, who week by week explained 
 
3 2 & The Story of Illinois 
 
 the government policy and invoked support of 
 enlistment, liberty loans, Red Cross, and other 
 war activities. The State Council of Defense 
 created county auxiliary committees to function 
 as its executives throughout the counties. 
 Affiliated with it was a woman's committee whose 
 activities may be measured by its sub-committees 
 of allied relief, Americanization, child welfare, 
 training women for special work, food conserva- 
 tion, publicity, speakers, war information, women 
 and children in, industry. September 2-15, 1918, 
 the State Council of Defense held a great war 
 government exposition at Chicago, the proceeds 
 of which went into the pockets of the federal de- 
 partment of publicity. 
 
 Among the first problems that confronted it 
 were those of food and fuel. War industries were 
 sure to demand vast amounts of coal; the rail- 
 roads crippled in equipment and burdened with 
 extraordinary demands for transportation, fore- 
 saw difficulty in the winter. Coal prices went up. 
 The operators, anxious to keep them up, repudi- 
 ated an agreement to arbitrate them, hoping for 
 higher prices from the federal fuel administra- 
 tion, and the governor considered taking over the 
 mines in the state as a war measure. A confer- 
 ence of councils of defence of the 13 northwestern 
 states interested in the western coal fields was held 
 to concert action, abandoning it only on learning 
 
The World War 3 2 7 
 
 that a federal fuel administration was installed. 
 Thenceforth in Illinois as elsewhere coal of va- 
 rious grades was rationed at fixed prices accord- 
 ing to the relative importance of the industries 
 that used it. Even thus there w.ere fuel shortage 
 and suffering, lightless nights and heatless days 
 during the winter of 191 8. 
 
 Food was an even more serious problem. Food 
 production in the allied and neutral countries of 
 Europe had been falling short. Crops of 191 7 
 were below average, and the United States was 
 confronted with the problem of feeding Europe 
 at the same time that it drew great armies from 
 the harvest fields. The problem presented itself 
 from two different angles, conservation and econ- 
 omy in the use of foods, especially wheat?, sugar, 
 beef and pork, and the production of more. 
 
 To economize the use of food a direct cam- 
 paign was launched at the housewife, teaching her 
 the necessity of avoiding waste and using substi- 
 tutes for the crucial foods. That such an appeal 
 would have the success that it did would have 
 seemed almost unbelievable before 19 17. In no 
 European country would it have succeeded. 
 Eight hundred fifty thousand pledge cards were 
 signed in Illinois guaranteeing cooperation with 
 the Federal Food Administration. Wheatless 
 days and meatless days were thus enforced in 
 restaurant and home alike. The Federal Food 
 
3 2 8 The Story of Illinois 
 
 Administration in Illinois were further engaged 
 in rationing to dealers wheat flours and sugar, 
 and proceeding against violators of the regula- 
 tions in this class. 
 
 More important than this was the positive cam- 
 paign for the increase of food production. Even 
 with the lure of high prices, the mighty shift by 
 which Illinois in a year changed her main crop 
 from corn to wheat is an amazing example of the 
 triumph of organization and propaganda. The 
 wheat crop of Illinois increased 100% from 19 17 
 to 191 8, while its corn crop fell off from 418,- 
 000,000 to 344,350,000 bushels. The steering 
 of a course between producer and consumer in 
 regulating prices was not always easy, and the 
 producers complained of a disposition to recede 
 from prices fairly fixed; but even at that the re- 
 sults in increase of food production would be- 
 fore the war have seemed impossible. 
 
 This was done, too, in the face of the with- 
 drawal of labor for the armies. The draft regu- 
 lations, it is true, granted deferred classification 
 to those engaged in agriculture; but they were 
 not always enforced, and at the best subtracted 
 much labor. Some of this was accounted for by 
 putting city boys to work on the farms, as a 
 patriotic duty; a woman's land movement was 
 little more than a gesture, and the greatest part 
 of the result was ascribable to the more efficient 
 
The World War 3 2 9 
 
 manipulation of experienced labor already avail- 
 able. 
 
 The State Council of Defense was responsible 
 in March, 191 8, for initiating a movement to 
 direct to western factories a part of the vast flood 
 of government war contracts. Already before 
 19 1 7 allied nations had placed contracts in Illi- 
 nois for wheeled transportation, shell cases, shell 
 forgings, cartridges, etc. Now a flood of govern- 
 ment orders of all imaginable sorts taxed fac- 
 tories to their capacities. In some cases the gov- 
 ernment itself provided firms with additional 
 factory and housing space to deal with its orders. 
 Statistics are fragmentary, but of orders exceeding 
 $100,000 in amount $890,000,000 was placed in 
 Illinois by the war department exclusive of $26,- 
 000,000 spent in camp construction. The navy 
 alone expended $20,000,000 on additional con- 
 struction in the state. 
 
 An important phase of the state's war activity 
 was the floating in it of the five Liberty Loans. 
 The organizations for these were developed on 
 the basis of the two Federal Reserve districts, 
 the seventh, or Chicago, and the eighth, or St. 
 Louis, within which the state lies. Within each 
 of these the ramifications reached down to the 
 county organizations, which attempted to equal 
 or exceed set quotas based on population, wealth, 
 banking assets, and other criteria. Starting with 
 
33° The Story of Illinois 
 
 a rudimentary organization for the first loan, the 
 organization became more and more elaborate 
 for successive loans as the quotas increased. It 
 became advisable to get as many purchasers as 
 possible in order to encourage thrift and to pre- 
 vent demands for luxuries from diverting indus- 
 try from the filling of government war contracts. 
 
 To this end campaigns were launched with 
 posters, competitions, speaking, every imaginable 
 advertising device to force the duty of purchas- 
 ing home on the individual. In many places indi- 
 vidual quotas were set and the individual expected 
 to subscribe accordingly. The banks made ar- 
 rangements to carry purchasers on partial pay- 
 ments. The result is told by the figures. In the 
 northern part of the state, included in the seventh 
 district, the sales run from $195,685,200 in the 
 first loan subscribed by 280,000 persons, to $250,- 
 000,000 on the second and 661,104 subscribers, 
 $247,662,250 on the third with 1,417,131 sub- 
 scribers, $424,112,000 on the fourth from 1,866,- 
 064 subscribers, and $332,323,200 on the fifth 
 from 1,130,854 subscribers. Not all these sums 
 were actually allotted. 
 
 The eighth district with the southern counties 
 of the state was more slowly stirred, due perhaps 
 to a less efficient organization. It fell short in 
 its quota on the first, but subscribed to the remain- 
 ing four a total of some $130,000,000. The 
 
The World War 33 [ 
 
 number of subscribers increased from 54,125 in 
 the second to 190,430 in the third, 258,282 on 
 the fourth, and 73,768 on the fifth. 
 
 As a further incentive to economy, War Sav- 
 ings Stamps were put on sale in December, 19 17; 
 by appeals at restaurants, stores, etc., to buy 
 stamps, winged by all sorts of poster advertising, 
 clubs, and opportunities to sign pledges of sup- 
 port to Pershing, $73,000,000 were sold in the 
 state. 
 
 To the colorful civilian Illinois of the war days, 
 noisy with bands, eloquent with four-minute and 
 noon-day speakers urging this and that cause or 
 conservation, glowing with posters adjuring to 
 every patriotic duty from enlistment to buying 
 War Savings Stamps, the organization charged 
 with the welfare of our own fighting forces and 
 those of the allies added their appeal. The 
 Red Cross in membership campaigns of Decem- 
 ber, 19 1 7, and 191 8, gained paid annual member- 
 ships of 1,298,111, and 1,194,472 respectively. 
 In drives for funds in June of 19 17 and May of 
 1918 it acquired $5,638,074 and $10,524,422. 
 Its functions in Illinois included relief to soldiers' 
 families, instruction clinics, preparation of dress- 
 ings, garments for refugees, and so on, and the 
 enrollment of trained nurses. 
 
 The Young Men's Christian Association took 
 over light-heartedly the maintenance of canteen 
 
33 2 The Story of Illinois 
 
 ————— 
 
 service and recreation and amusement at the 
 Great Lakes Naval Station, Camp Grant, Fort 
 Sheridan, etc. The Knights of Columbus, the 
 Jewish Welfare Board, and the Salvation Army- 
 carried on similar duties on a smaller scale. The 
 Young Woman's Christian Association main- 
 tained Hostess Houses at the camps and looked 
 after women engaged in war work. The Ameri- 
 can Library Association collected and bought 
 books and provided libraries for the books in 
 this country and in France. These organizations 
 combined in the latter part of 191 8 to raise 
 money in a United War Work campaign, to be 
 divided pro rata among their organizations. The 
 quota of Illinois was $12,719,700, collection on 
 it $13,250,364, and this in spite of the fact that 
 the armistice shut off enthusiasm. Besides these, 
 dozens of organizations devoted to relief to one 
 or another of the allies functioned in smaller 
 groups, collecting money and needed supplies. 
 
 The Illinois citizen at the climax of the war in 
 November, 19 18, had been made a peculiarly 
 useful cog in a war machine. Elaborate organ- 
 izations and methods of propaganda existed to 
 tell him what was expected of him in subscrip- 
 tions, work, etc., to spur him on to accomplish 
 them, and to key up his loyalty to the govern- 
 ment. That a reaction came from the mood of 
 exaltation so produced was not surprising. 
 
The World War 333 
 
 A consideration of the military activity of Illi- 
 nois has been left to the last. In view of the 
 numerous slogans such as " Food will win the 
 war," the reminder of Theodore Roosevelt that 
 while such things might help to win the war it 
 would be won as wars in the past, by fighting men, 
 was timely. The military participation of the state 
 is hard to define in terms of battles. Reacting 
 from the civil war methods ©f regiments organ- 
 ized from neighborhoods, the war department 
 used a replacement system that shuffled men from 
 localities and states. Even National Guard com- 
 panies raised in a single town in 19 16-19 17, by 
 March, 19 19, could show representatives of forty 
 different states. Comparatively few units that 
 saw actual fighting can be classified as predom- 
 inently of Illinois men. 
 
 The selective service system was the method by 
 which most Illinois citizens entered the service. 
 In the three respective registrations of June 5, 
 191 7 (men 21-30), June 5 and August 4, 191 8 
 (men 21 since the first registration), and Sep- 
 tember 12, 191 8 (men 18-45), Illinois registered 
 653*587, 54,375, and 866,915, respectively. The 
 determining of eligibility from the first was placed 
 in the hands of local boards, of which there were 
 227. Eight district boards in the state acted upon 
 appeals for exemption or deferred classification. 
 After December 15, 19 17, a system of classifica- 
 
334 The Story of Illinois 
 
 tion was adopted as to eligibility to service. The 
 Illinois figures are class I, 397,171, classes II-IV, 
 534,4^5, V, 252,033, not classified (men 37"45)> 
 391,208. There were numerous delinquents in 
 registration as might have been expected in a float- 
 ing population : 40,000 were rounded up in Chi- 
 cago in July, 191 8. The total number inducted 
 by draft during the war was 193,338. 
 
 The draft, while the largest, was not the most 
 effective source of man power. In the year end- 
 ing June 30, 1917, there were 30,000 applicants 
 for enlistment in the army, of whom 16,000 were 
 accepted. The precise number of Illinoisans who 
 enlisted first and last is not yet known. The 
 Navy, in 19 17-18, enlisted 9,600 out of 31,000 
 applicants. Between August 5-1 1, 19 17, the 
 whole national guard of the state was federalized 
 with a strength of 590 officers and 18,029 en " 
 listed men. Its place was taken by a supplemen- 
 tary state militia. The naval militia of the state, 
 40 officers and 600 men, were inducted into the 
 naval service. There were in addition, 25,638 
 enlistments in the United States Naval Reserve 
 Force. 
 
 The actual service and participation of Illinois 
 men in the fighting is hard to estimate. Of the 
 many Illinois men to go to France but a minority 
 were in organizations in which Illinois men pre- 
 dominated. The honors and service of some who 
 
The World War 335 
 
 served and merited best are merged in units not 
 classified as belonging to Illinois. Of the Na- 
 tional Army Divisions in which Illinois men were 
 an important factor, the 84th, trained at Camp 
 Taylor, Kentucky, was mainly used for replace- 
 ments on its arrival in France, September-Octo- 
 ber, 19 1 8. The 86th Division, trained at Camp 
 Grant, after losing thousands in replacements, 
 arrived in France, September 21-October 9. All 
 the units except the Field Artillery Brigade were 
 broken up for replacements, and that was under 
 training at the armistice. The 88th Division, 
 trained at Camp Dodge, Iowa, contained several 
 units in which Illinois men predominated. It ar- 
 rived in France August-September, 191 8, and was 
 used on the front line in the Alsace sector. 
 
 The 13th regiment of Railroad Engineers, en- 
 listed in May, 191 7, sailed for France in July and 
 was used in the operation of railroads behind the 
 lines. The 370th Infantry, the old 8th Infantry 
 of the Illinois National Guard, served with 
 French units in the Oise-Aisne offensive of 191 8. 
 
 The state's most distinctive unit was the 33rd 
 Division, made up of its National Guard units 
 excepting the 8th Infantry, 1st Field Artillery, 
 and the bands of the 5th and 7th Infantry Regi- 
 ments. It was sent to Camp Logan, Texas, for 
 training. There it suffered delays and setbacks 
 due to shortage of equipment and delay in send- 
 
33& The Story of Illinois 
 
 ing supplemental drafts of national army men to 
 fill its ranks. It sailed for France May 8 to 
 June 4 and on arrival except for the artillery was 
 assigned to the British for training. While with 
 them detachments of two of its regiments were 
 embodied in Australian companies in a minor 
 operation at Hamel July 4, that resulted in a 
 gain of more than a mile. The 131st Regiment 
 assisted in the British offensive at Chipilly 
 August 9, 191 8; members of the division were 
 decorated by the king of Great Britain for their 
 service. The division was then transferred to 
 the Meuse sector where it took part in the offen- 
 sive of September 26, clearing the left bank of 
 the Meuse. It was next used in a flanking attack 
 across the Meuse and saw some hard fighting in 
 the struggle to clear the heights to the east of the 
 river. Finally it was relieved and transferred to 
 the Troyon sector, where it was advancing at the 
 Armistice. 
 
 The 33rd enjoys the distinction of being the 
 only American division to serve under British, 
 French, and American command. It suffered 
 8,279 casualties of whom 785 were killed in ac- 
 tion. It captured 3,987 prisoners, was fourth 
 among the divisions of the American Expedition- 
 ary Forces in prisoners taken, ninth in the number 
 of kilometers advanced, twelfth in number of 
 casualties, and twentieth in number killed in 
 
The World War 337 
 
 action. After the Armistice it was held in Luxem- 
 burg until its return to the United States in May, 
 1919. 
 
 The Illinois unit with the most brilliant mili- 
 tary record is the 149th Field Artillery, of the 
 42nd or Rainbow Division, so called because it 
 was made of select units from the National Guard 
 of twenty-six states. The Illinois First Field 
 Artillery was mustered into service July 20, 19 17, 
 and after a brief training at Fort Sheridan was 
 sent to France arriving October 31, 19 17. After 
 a long period of training it occupied the Luneville 
 sector, February 21 — March 23, 19 18, the Bac- 
 carat sector, March 31 — June 21, the Esperance 
 Souain sector, July 4-14. It took part in what 
 is officially known as the Champagne — Marne 
 Defensive, July 15-17, helping to smother Luden- 
 dorff's last offensive. It served brilliantly in the 
 Aisne-Marne Offensive that swept the Germans 
 out of the Chateau Thierry pocket, July 25 — 
 August 6, 19 1 8. It served in the St. Mihiel 
 Offensive, the first undertaken by the American 
 army, September 12-16, and is credited with occu- 
 pation of the Essey Pannes sector, September 
 17-30. It took part twice in the Meuse-Argonne 
 Offensive, October 7 — November 1, and No- 
 vember 5 — November 9. It formed a part of 
 the Army of Occupation, being stationed on the 
 left bank of the Rhine, returned to the United 
 
33 8 The Story of Illinois 
 
 States and was mustered out in May, 1919. 
 
 The recognition by the state of the services of 
 its soldiers was generously given. Special ar- 
 rangements for the welcome of the returning 
 units were made, most of the 33rd Division 
 units being greeted by the Governor on their ar- 
 rival in New York and parading in Chicago 
 before discharge at Camp Grant. Special civil 
 service privileges were awarded all veterans of 
 the war; distinctive medals were authorized. A 
 history of the 33rd Division was published by the 
 state and distributed to members of the division. 
 In 1 92 1 the General Assembly passed an act for 
 a service compensation to soldiers and sailors 
 with a maximum of $300. The necessary bond 
 issue was approved by the voters in 1922, de- 
 clared constitutional by the supreme court of the 
 state, and the payment of claims begun in July, 
 1923. 
 
 Certain military and naval posts in the state 
 were important factors in training the enlarged 
 war forces of the nation. Great Lakes Naval 
 Training Station established on the lake shore 
 thirty miles north of Chicago had been founded 
 in 1904 for training naval recruits. It was en- 
 larged repeatedly after 19 17 to take care of the 
 war enlistments and drafts. During the war it 
 sent out 71,440 trained men. Its schools trained 
 seamen, petty, warrant, and commissioned officers, 
 
The World War 339 
 
 actively cooperating with training ships and 
 schools at Chicago. 
 
 Fort Sheridan, since 1893 a regular army post, 
 was used in 19 17 for two successive three months 
 officers training camps. The first camp included 
 men from Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois, and 
 the second those from other states of the farther 
 West as well. Four thousand officers were com- 
 missioned in the first camp and 3,000 in the sec- 
 ond. In 191 8 Fort Sheridan was turned into a 
 rehabilitation hospital, but has recently been re- 
 turned to a regular army post. Two flying fields 
 were established in Illinois in June and July of 
 19 17, Scott Field near Belleville and Chanute 
 Field at Rantoul, the latter cooperating with the 
 School for Military Aeronautics at Urbana from 
 which 2,691 men were graduated. 
 
 A post for the training of a National Army 
 Division was built at Rockford June-December, 
 191 7, and named Camp Grant. It was the place 
 of training of the 86th or Black Hawk Division, 
 but was also used as depot and remount station. 
 In 192 1 it was abandoned as a post. 
 
 In this connection should be mentioned the 
 units of the Student Army Training Corps estab- 
 lished in colleges and technical schools of the 
 state to take advantage of their facilities for 
 training officers, noncommissioned officers and 
 specialists. All told there were thirty such units 
 
34° The Story of Illinois 
 
 in Illinois, the most important being those at the 
 University of Illinois with 3,000, Northwestern 
 with 1,839, and the University of Chicago with 
 1,500. This was only a part of the service ren- 
 dered by the specialists of those universities in all 
 capacities from increasing the yield of the state's 
 corn fields to advising on the terms of the peace. 
 If the citizens of Illinois showed themselves 
 appreciative of the service of their men in the 
 war, their reaction to the war as a whole was 
 more mixed. The last act of the war, the Treaty 
 of Versailles, came to the people tired with the 
 strain of moral exaltation and self-sacrifice, and 
 weary of being urged on grounds of patriotism to 
 submit to every piece of bureaucratic inefficiency 
 that emanated from Washington. The treaty 
 and the league of nations seemed to commit the 
 United States to expend her blood and treasure in 
 European quarrels, yet unforeseen, and at the 
 bidding of others. Half sensed was the looming 
 danger of militarism in France and Japan only 
 less dangerous than that crushed in Germany. 
 To reason was added the instinctive disgust with 
 the party that while in control of the war gov- 
 ernment had had to serve as a hard taskmaster. 
 And in the election of 1920 the governed took 
 their revenge on their government. By a vote 
 of 1,420,480 to 534,395 Illinois repudiated in a 
 measure the policies, but still more the govern- 
 
The World War 341 
 
 ment of Wilson. The new policy of the United 
 States was to be felt out by opportunists and not 
 imagined by a theorist. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE ILLINOIS OF THE PRESENT 
 
 IN ITS externals the life of the commonwealth 
 of Illinois in the generation that followed 
 1893 underwent a far reaching change. Forces 
 already at work, industrialism, the coming of for- 
 eign elements, transmuted the nature of the state. 
 Chicago from a great city became a world 
 metropolis, and as its life grew more complex its 
 problems multiplied. A series of inventions, the 
 telephone, the electric car and the interurban rail- 
 road, the automobile, and especially the cheap 
 car, the moving picture, the radio changed the 
 means of amusement and social habits of every 
 class of the community above abject poverty. The 
 ultimate results of these things still lie in the 
 future but their present influence is apparent on 
 every hand. 
 
 The transformation of the face of things has 
 come most rapidly, of course, in the larger cities 
 and especially Chicago. Since 1893 a lake shore 
 of dumps and mud flats has developed the splen- 
 did sweep of Michigan Avenue, Grant Park and 
 the Lake Shore Drive. Vast as are the areas of 
 open prairie long since covered with apartments, 
 
 342 
 
The Illinois of the Present 343 
 
 the apartment building is continually pushing out 
 not only the little houses, frame or brick, but the 
 stately mansions with their lawns and their sta- 
 bles. Elements with lower standards of life have 
 invaded one after another the older fashionable 
 sections of the city; Ashland Boulevard, Jackson 
 Boulevard, Washington Boulevard, Drexel Boule- 
 vard, South Michigan Avenue, the old north side. 
 Only on Lake Shore Drive has the aristocratic 
 mansion held its own. The city whose trans- 
 portation needs were accounted for by jingling 
 horse cars, the less sedate cable, and the reckless 
 single-truck trolley car, now finds electric car and 
 elevated railroad and omnibusses, even when sup- 
 plemented by autos, numbered by the hundred 
 thousand insufficient for her needs, and demands 
 subways. While the lumber schooner has van- 
 ished from the river and only occasionally does 
 a freighter "bridge" traffic, great freight yards 
 and belt systems scores of miles out in the coun- 
 try handle her ever increasing freights. Gas 
 light and flickering arc lamps have yielded to the 
 incandescent lamp; gas is now a fuel rather than 
 an illuminant, and electricity is everywhere and 
 used for every household need. The wooden 
 block pavement has changed first to macadam and 
 then to asphalt; cement has replaced the wooden 
 sidewalk. 
 
 The changes in the small amrtwns are of the 
 
344 The Story of Illinois 
 
 same nature, but have come more slowly. And 
 the electric light, the telephone, and the radio are 
 finding their way to farm houses in the wake of 
 the gasoline engine. The hard road and the auto 
 are just beginning the revolution of rural life; 
 the effect they will have on the small village or 
 cross roads store, once the limit to which the fam- 
 ily nag could haul a buggy through a road of 
 Illinois mud, remains to be seen. 
 
 Yet the externals that have been changing so 
 rapidly should not blind us to the factors beneath 
 the surface that change more slowly. The essen- 
 tials of the attitude of man toward man, economic 
 relations, political methods and ideas have altered 
 little in rural Illinois. A traveler on the high 
 road is as likely to be proffered a lift from a Ford 
 as ever he was from a buggy or wagon. Munic- 
 ipal, life in Chicago, it is true, has led to greater 
 sophistication. Yet even there the ideas that 
 guide the more solid citizen in his relation to the 
 state and to his neighbor are essentially the her- 
 itage of the older commonwealth. With these 
 things in view we can approach the actual changes 
 that have come. 
 
 The population of Illinois in the period in- 
 creased to six and a half millions, increasing 
 roughly 850,000 from 19 10 and 1,660,000 from 
 1890. Its population is a little less than one- 
 sixteenth that of the United States. It has been 
 
The Illinois of the Present 345 
 
 growing in the last decade more slowly than 
 either Michigan or Ohio, and in density of pop- 
 ulation is now exceeded by eight states, Ohio, 
 New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, 
 Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. 
 The increase has come in the urban population. 
 The population classed as rural in 1920, 2,082,- 
 127 was some eighty thousand less than ten years 
 before. In the same ten years the population of 
 Chicago had grown about 520,000 to 2,701,705. 
 Thepopulation of the socalied metropolitan area 
 of Chicago had increased from 2,455,942 to 
 3,178,924. The increase in this area accounts 
 therefore for all save about a hundred thousand 
 of the increase in Illinois population. Popula- 
 tion is increasing also in the other Illinois cities 
 and in the mining districts. 
 
 The rural counties of the state are declining in 
 population. In 1920 fifty-six counties showed a 
 decline, in 19 10, fifty, in 1900, but six. In 1920 
 but nine of the counties showing a decrease had 
 towns of 2,500 or over, in 19 10, but six. Mean- 
 while the development of the smaller towns is 
 assuming importance. In 1920 Illinois had sev- 
 enteen towns of 25,000 or over as against seven 
 in 1900; twenty-seven towns of 10,000 to 25,000 
 as against ten in 1900; forty-seven towns of 5,000 
 to 10,000 as against twelve in 1900; eighty towns 
 of 2,500 to 5,000 as against thirty-one in 1900, 
 
346 The Story of Illinois 
 
 or sixty places above 2,500 in 1900 and 171 in 
 1920. 
 
 Of the foreign elements now in the population 
 the most important is the German with about 
 one-sixth the total, or 205,49^ (251*948 if 
 Austria proper is added) ; next in order come 
 Poles (162,405), Russians (117,899), Swedes 
 (105,579), and Italians (94,407). Others above 
 50,000 in order are Irish, Bohemians, English. 
 Two-thirds of the whole foreign element is in 
 Chicago. The elements with strongest repre- 
 sentation down state are the English, German, 
 Italian, and Swedish. The problems that develop 
 out of the foreign element and the urban popula- 
 tion generally will have to be dealt with later. 
 
 The question of Illinois agriculture is a com- 
 plicated one. The balance of interest in the state 
 is shifting to manufacturing. Thus the value set 
 on all farm property in the state including land 
 in 1920 was $6,666,767,235, about a billion dol- 
 lars more than the value of all manufactured 
 products in the state in 19 19. If the investment 
 in agricultural land be deducted, the value of 
 farm property in the state is but $i,4i6,47 2 >483- 
 Yet Illinois under the stimulus of the war had 
 increased its crops amazingly. From 1909 to 
 19 19 the harvest of corn had fallen off 2,000,000 
 acres and that of wheat had increased as much. 
 In 1920 it had on its farms 1,296,852 horses, 
 
The Illinois of the Present 347 
 
 168,274 mules, 1,283,178 beef cattle, 1,505,060 
 dairy cattle, 637,685 sheep, 4,639,182 swine. 
 This may serve to outline roughly the character 
 of Illinois farming — wheat growing, corn grow- 
 ing and stock feeding, dairying, hog raising. In 
 1920 and 19 10 it was exceeded only by Iowa and 
 Texas in the value of the live stock on its farms, 
 only by the same states in 19 19 in the value of 
 its crops, where it ranked first in the union ten 
 years before. Illinois agriculture has gained ab- 
 solutely, has fallen relatively behind two other 
 states, and relatively far behind manufacturing 
 at home. 
 
 Yet this is only a mass consideration. More 
 important than absolute product from the social 
 point of view is the way the land is farmed and 
 held and the prosperity of those who farm it. 
 Much has been written about the increase of ten- 
 ant farming in Illinois, and the growth of the 
 class of retired farmers in the little towns. The 
 per cent of farms held by tenants has increased 
 from thirty-four per cent in 1890 to forty-two 
 and seven-tenths per cent in 1920, but the rate of 
 increase has been steadily less; in the last ten 
 years but one and three-tenths per cent. Mean- 
 while the number of farms is declining, from 
 251,872 in 1910 to 237,181 in 1920. The acre- 
 age of land in farms is declining also — eighty- 
 nine and one-tenth per cent of the state's area in 
 
34-8 The Story of Illinois 
 
 1920, ninety and seven-tenths per cent in 19 10. 
 These figures, however, have fluctuated for the 
 last fifty years in such a way that no lesson is to 
 be drawn from them. More significant is the 
 fact that while both the bonanza wheat or cattle 
 ranch and the small farm holdings are declining 
 in numbers, the farms of 100 to 499 acres in 
 size are increasing in number. 
 
 Illinois agriculture would then seem at present 
 to be tending to a status in which farming is done 
 neither by intensive " spade husbandry" or by 
 large-scale managed enterprises — but by the di- 
 rection of one man, the owner or tenant super- 
 vising a small group of labor with which he is 
 in close and immediate touch; economically this 
 is probably preferable to the small holding; so- 
 cially it is far preferable to the great ranch in 
 developing a rural citizenry. Tenant farming 
 generally, unless the tenant has the prospect of 
 ownership, seems from the angle of efficient farm- 
 ing, from the angle of the immediate social and 
 economic welfare of the tenant or the ultimate 
 welfare of the owner, undesirable. That its in- 
 crease has slackened seems likely. Tenancy has 
 increased fastest in the cereal growing parts of 
 the state and not on the diversified farm. 
 
 In the state at large prosperity in the nineties 
 has revolutionized the agricultural regions; the 
 cabin and the wretched pioneer farm house have 
 
The Illinois of the Present 349 
 
 been replaced by neat frame structures; the tele- 
 phone has linked rural communities together and 
 given lonely housewives the feeling of nearness 
 of neighborly assistance and gossip. The Ford 
 and the hard road and the interurban have helped 
 to unite the farm house with the town; and im- 
 proved agricultural machinery has revolutionized 
 farming and allowed the steady release of rural 
 population to the large cities. 
 
 Manufacturing in Illinois has grown past all 
 telling in the last generation. The number of 
 persons employed has grown from 561,044 in 
 1909 to 804,805 in 19 19. Some 160 industries 
 in the state had products of over $3,000,000 in 
 value beginning with slaughtering and packing, 
 foundry and machine shop products, men's cloth- 
 ing, iron and steel, agricultural implements, rail- 
 road cars, electrical machinery, flour, printing 
 and publishing, car repairs. Of the manufac- 
 tures of the state 67.4% in 19 19 were in Chicago, 
 11% in other cities above 25,000, 5.9% in cities 
 of 10,000 to 25,000. If similar figures were 
 available for the so-called Chicago metropolitan 
 area it would show even more strikingly how 
 manufacture centers in Chicago. 
 
 The description of manufacture must be left to 
 the reader's imagination to dress in their true 
 life the facts concealed in the dry government 
 statistical formula. The outpour of products of 
 
35° The Story of Illinois 
 
 almost all imaginable things; the ceaseless play 
 of inventions and of new methods of manufac- 
 ture, the devising of new goods; the grouping into 
 manufacturing districts of hundreds of thousands 
 of wage earners, the mingling of thousands of 
 diverse sexes, ages, races, moral and intellectual 
 habits in great factories; the even closer influence 
 and intercourse possible in smaller ones — here 
 you have forces that by intermarriages, by inter- 
 change of ideas and standards can profoundly 
 influence the future of the commonwealth on its 
 intellectual and social side. Unless the employ- 
 ment of women and the young is closely watched, 
 the physical effects may be altogether bad. State 
 factory inspections, welfare work by the state, by 
 the charitable organizations, by enterprises them- 
 selves, all show recognition of the importance of 
 a solution of the problem in the interests of all. 
 Immediately with a view to dealing with work- 
 ing conditions and wages have come organized 
 labor and trade unions. The centrifugal forces 
 of labor organization in Illinois have been less 
 violent than elsewhere of late years. There have 
 been great strikes it is true: in 1894 a railroad 
 strike in Chicago led President Cleveland in de- 
 fiance of Governor Altgeld to send federal 
 troops; the strike was led by Eugene V. Debs 
 who in a resulting term in Federal prison turned 
 socialist. Street car strikes, packers' strikes, 
 
The Illinois of the Present 351 
 
 above all building trades strikes have come with 
 threatened disorder in their train. True in the 
 conservative trades organization the American 
 Federation of Labor, the Chicago Federation of 
 Labor has long been regarded as comparatively 
 radical in tone, but syndicalism, or the control of 
 industry by the workers brought about by vio- 
 lence and revolution, and the Industrial Workers 
 of the World, with its methods of sabotage have 
 had comparatively little weight. Corruption there 
 undoubtedly has been in trades unionism in Illi- 
 nois as in many other organizations. Trade 
 union officials have maintained their position in 
 their unions by violence and have used their posi- 
 tions to extort bribes from employers or have en- 
 tered into corrupt understandings with them. 
 There is no doubt that in insisting on increased 
 wages the American Federation trades unions in- 
 sist also on lessened production; there is no doubt 
 that the grading down of standards and rates of 
 production have taken away from the skilled 
 workman the incentive to surpass the unskilled; 
 there is no doubt that by limitation of union mem- 
 bership and apprenticeship, unions are tending to 
 become monopolies. Yet with all the drag the 
 unions have put on production, there is no ques- 
 tion that they have raised to a comfortable liv- 
 ing wage vast masses previously on the edge of 
 poverty. 
 
35 2 The Story of Illinois 
 
 This has been done somewhat at the expense 
 of unskilled labor, somewhat at the expense of 
 the profits of capital but most at the expense of 
 the unorganized middle class. Whether it is pos- 
 sible in the long run for these things to continue ; 
 whether the trades unions will not have to revise 
 their attitude toward individual initiative in pro- 
 duction if the United States is to continue to sell 
 in the world markets is a question that the future 
 can answer; but with all the violence, extortion, 
 and inefficiency that have arisen in its wake in 
 terms of social welfare the balance is decidedly 
 in favor of trade unionism. It has postponed 
 the sharp development of self conscious economic 
 classes politically organized in the state; and that 
 for the solution of Illinois' problem of unity is 
 itself an advantage. 
 
 Consolidation has come in industry; sometimes 
 it has reversed itself. The International Har- 
 vester Company, formed in 1902, represents a 
 merger of the interests in Chicago's oldest line 
 of manufacturing. The steel and iron consolida- 
 tions of 1 899-1902 have been permanent but not 
 all embracing ; the Pullman Company under vari- 
 ous changes of name has moved toward control 
 of its industry; but George Pullman's experimen- 
 tal model town of Pullman stands today a dreary 
 red brick monument to the taste in architecture 
 of the eighties. The packing merger brought 
 
The Illinois of the Present 353 
 
 about in 1903 was dissolved in 191 2; but con- 
 solidation has gradually continued since. In cer- 
 tain lines Chicago has to admit the growth of 
 rivals; her packing industry has not grown as 
 fast as it might have but for Kansas City and 
 Omaha; Peoria has become a distributing center 
 for agricultural machinery; and much grain that 
 formerly was warehoused at Chicago now is 
 shipped through to the coast. 
 
 Commensurate with the increase in both manu- 
 facturing and agriculture has come increase in 
 commerce, finance and exchange mechanisms. 
 The financing of business and agricultural enter- 
 prises has multiplied banks, national and state 
 and private, until the state act of 19 19 put the 
 private banks out of business. It has multiplied 
 still more the whole business mechanism, jobbing, 
 wholesaling, commission handling, advertising. 
 Chicago originated the mail order business and 
 from the catalogues of its houses, bulky as city 
 directories, pickled pork and phonographs, am- 
 munition and cosmetics, watches and farm ma- 
 chinery, are sold from end to end of the nation. 
 The office buildings of the Chicago loop are the 
 testimony to commercial development. Figures 
 and statistics of this development are hard to find; 
 it is too evanescent to yield to the statistical test. 
 Whether the tendency is a healthy one or not 
 may well be questioned. Great numbers of per- 
 
354 The Story of Illinois 
 
 sons employing themselves as middle men exact 
 middle men's toll of the product of industry be- 
 fore it passes to the consumer; and the waste of 
 the system may easily overcome its economies. 
 
 The period, especially the last ten years of it 
 saw the rounding out of the state's banking sys- 
 tem. The banks organized under the National 
 Banking Act of 1863 had furnished an element 
 of stability. The state banks surviving the Bank- 
 ing Act of 1 85 1 were supplemented by another 
 group created under the State Act of 1887 pro- 
 viding for supervision of state banks by the au- 
 ditor of public accounts. Under the Federal 
 Reserve Act of 19 13 Northern Illinois was in- 
 cluded in the Seventh Federal Reserve District 
 and Southern Illinois in the Eighth. The private 
 banks that had flourished beside the national and 
 state banks were ended by Acts of 19 17 and 
 19 1 9 which required all such banks to take out 
 state charters or go out of business. So little 
 was known of these banks that their number, 
 something under 600 in 191 5, was matter of 
 guess work. There had been frequent failures 
 among them. In 1920 the 484 Illinois National 
 Banks had aggregate capital of $92,561,000 and 
 surplus of $64,020,000. The 1,018 state banks 
 had an aggregate capital of $116,879,205. The 
 combined resources of national and state banks 
 reached the huge sum of $3,500,000,000. 
 
The Illinois of the Present 355 
 
 The transportation system of the state centers 
 more and more on the railroad. The Illinois and 
 Michigan Canal fell into disuse. The Hennepin 
 Canal connecting the Illinois and the Mississippi 
 opened in 1907 was never used. The Chicago 
 Drainage Canal opened in 1900 was used but oc- 
 casionally and for barge traffic. In spite of this 
 the deep waterway idea persisted. In 1908 a 
 bond issue to carry the canal to Utica was au- 
 thorized; nothing was done. In 191 5 an eight 
 foot channel canal was projected in an act of the 
 legislature; it has yet to be built. Lake traffic 
 has fallen off rapidly. The port of Chicago has 
 become inaccessible for the largest freight steam- 
 ers. Fifty-five per cent of grain and flour moved 
 east by boat in 1894, twenty per cent in 191 5. 
 Iron ore is the most important commodity of lake 
 traffic now. The varied traffic of the Ohio and 
 Mississippi as a result of railroad rate discrim- 
 ination is the shadow of its former importance. 
 
 The railroad expanded to its full use in the 
 period and saw the beginning of its decline. Its 
 competition and discriminating rates had driven 
 traffic off the rivers. Railroads owned lines of 
 lake steamers till the Interstate Commerce Com- 
 mission compelled their sale. Improving their 
 facilities, adding to their equipment, extending 
 their lines, the railroads had reached the limit of 
 their powers by 1900. Then hostile legislation 
 
35 6 The Story of Illinois 
 
 began to have its effect. There was rigorous 
 regulation of rates and passes by the Interstate 
 Commerce Commission, and the imposition of a 
 two cent a mile fare by Illinois in 1907. It was 
 in chastened mood with old equipment and de- 
 teriorated road beds that they approached the 
 war in 19 1 7. At the end of it, relieved by the 
 Interstate Commerce Commission of the two cent 
 fare, charging high rates for freight and pas- 
 sengers alike, they stood ready for the future; 
 what it holds cannot be told. 
 
 There is no doubt, however, that competition 
 is falling on them savagely from several direc- 
 tions. They had met occasional competition in 
 short hauls of freight and passengers from the 
 interurbans that sprang up in the last twenty 
 years. These had increased in mileage, single 
 systems reaching to 350 miles; but both interur- 
 ban and railroad are being superseded on this 
 sort of business by the hard road and the auto- 
 mobile. How far truck fleets will cut into short 
 haul freight in this section can hardly be told till 
 the state hard roads are in working order. 
 
 The movement to pull Illinois out of the mud 
 is hardly of age. The legislatures of the forma- 
 tive period of the state had sought to make roads 
 by legislative fiat. For two generations the leg- 
 islature had tinkered the general road law appar- 
 ently in search of the magic word that would turn 
 
The Illinois of the Present 357 
 
 rich prairie mud into stone and gravel. Agita- 
 tion for hard roads at a commensurate outlay be- 
 gan about the year 1896. The farmers for years 
 were skeptical, fearing lest they pay the cost for 
 the city man's pleasure ways. In 1905 a state 
 highway commission was authorized, and it or- 
 ganized in 1906. Next year counties were au- 
 thorized to put out bond issues to build hard 
 roads. In 19 14 Cook and Vermilion counties 
 took advantage of it. In 19 13 the Tice road law 
 appropriated $1,300,000 for roads. A congres- 
 sional subvention of 19 16 amounted to $3,000,- 
 000. In 191 8 a road bond issue of $60,000,000 
 was authorized. Under it roads are everywhere 
 reaching completion at present. A new bond 
 issue of $100,000,000 was authorized by the leg- 
 islature of 1923. It has yet to be passed on by 
 the electorate. 
 
 Education in Illinois has changed very rapidly 
 in the cities, less rapidly in the country. Thirty 
 years ago in either one the subjects taught were 
 much the same; the three R's, geography, his- 
 tory, grammar. The city school has long since 
 added dozens of additional graces — music; sci- 
 ences; it has sought from the normal schools 
 teachers with new theories as to the methods of 
 teaching. 
 
 The city high schools have developed, till in 
 the subjects they attempt, the equipment with 
 
35 8 The Story of Illinois 
 
 which they attempt them, and the community life 
 they seek to foster, they rival the colleges of for- 
 mer generations. Some of them are essentially 
 free technical schools or junior colleges. Mean- 
 while, over the face of the country have arisen 
 hundreds of township high schools, bringing the 
 aspiration for high school education to thousands 
 upon thousands of students who formerly never 
 dared to hope for it. The burden of primary 
 and secondary school education grows heavier and 
 heavier, till men are found to exclaim that the 
 burden of universal education is too heavy for 
 the state to bear. That the state shows any sign 
 of withdrawing from the ideal set high in her 
 first basic law the Northwest Ordinance, is not 
 apparent. Education may become more efficient; 
 there is certainly no orospect of its being re- 
 stricted. 
 
 As feeders of teachers to the secondary schools 
 of the state, new normal schools have developed. 
 To the original one at Normal, dating from 1857, 
 and the southern at Carbondale in 1869, have 
 been lately added three more at Charleston, 
 DeKalb and Macomb. Technical schools have 
 been founded, Armour Institute in 1893, Lewis 
 Institute in 1896, Bradley Polytechnic in 1897. 
 
 Above all, the generation has seen the found- 
 ing of one great university in the state and the 
 expansion of two colleges to universities. Chi- 
 
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The Illinois of the Present 359 
 
 cago, which first opened its doors in 1892 under 
 the leadership of William Rainey Harper, set as 
 its ideal the union of collegiate life with graduate 
 instruction then to be found in but one or two 
 other institutions of the country; since its found- 
 ing, graduate schools have grown up in the 
 United States by the dozen; but Chicago in spite 
 of the donations it has drawn from Chicago citi- 
 zens is to be ranked as essentially a national in- 
 stitution rather than a municipal or a state uni- 
 versity. 
 
 The career or the University of Illinois has 
 been different. While its work in department 
 after department has set standards of scholarship 
 and research for the United States and Europe, 
 it has always to remember that it is essentially the 
 servant of the state of Illinois. In many ways 
 it has an old established record of service. For 
 over fifty years on its experimental plots a dif- 
 ference of a foot in the growth of corn has 
 preached to the farmer the value of fertilization 
 and crop rotation ; in every branch of agriculture, 
 in ceramics, in mining, in the various branches 
 of engineering, in chemistry, its experimental sta- 
 tions have stood ready to guide the industries of 
 the state and teach them scientific methods. Its 
 undergraduate and graduate schools have trained 
 and sent forth public servants, engineers, farmers, 
 teachers, doctors by the tens of thousands. 
 
3^° The Story of Illinois 
 
 Northwestern University, though it has its 
 graduate school, and affiliated colleges of law, 
 medicine, dentistry, commerce, and journalism, is 
 still essentially a great undergraduate institution 
 offering general training in the arts and sciences. 
 The colleges of the state older, many of them, 
 than its three universities have advanced more 
 slowly and steadily. The social training afforded 
 by the small colleges in close contact of teacher 
 and pupil has its recognized value; and Knox, 
 Illinois, Rockford, Millikin, to mention only a 
 few of many institutions have been furnishing it 
 with thorough instruction. 
 
 Other institutions of general culture that seek 
 to hold it at high levels must be considered. In 
 addition to the libraries of the universities of the 
 state, and the Chicago Public Library, Chicago 
 possesses two admirable scholars' libraries, the 
 John Crerar, specializing in the sciences, and the 
 Newberry, with its works in the arts, literature 
 and history, collected in Europe thirty-five years 
 ago and long since irreplacahle. In 19 17 the two 
 libraries together with the University of Chicago 
 offered to scholars in Chicago a million and a 
 half of books. 
 
 The Field Columbian Museum, housed for 
 twenty-five years in one of the loveliest buildings 
 of the World's Fair in Jackson Park, was 
 moved to a new building on the lake front, where 
 
The Illinois of the Present 361 
 
 it houses impressive scientific collections in pale- 
 ontology, ethnology, and allied sciences. The 
 Art Institute based in 1879 on tne °ld Academy 
 of Fine Arts of Chicago has housed in its build- 
 ing in Grant Park a collection steadily increasing 
 in size and excellence. Especially impressive are 
 its collections of Inness, of the late French 
 schools, and of the primitives. Its art school is 
 one of the oldest and largest in the United States. 
 The Chicago Historical Society founded in 1857 
 has replaced the priceless collection it lost in the 
 fire of 1 87 1 with one equally priceless. 
 
 The symphony orchestra begun by Theodore 
 Thomas in 1869 has become long since one of 
 the musical institutions of the United States; Chi- 
 cago Grand Opera has had a meteoric if irregu- 
 lar career; musical organizations such as the 
 Apollo Club chorus have sprung up. Chicago 
 theaters have increased in number, even if they 
 have tended more and more to fall into a sub- 
 ordinate role to New York as the dramatic cen- 
 ter of the country. In outlining these develop- 
 ments especial attention has been paid to Chicago; 
 but at Peoria, at Springfield, at a dozen Illinois 
 cities similar, if less striking, developments could 
 be noted; municipal galleries of art, municipal 
 choirs, municipal libraries. 
 
 Yet significant as is all this the critic may say 
 that Illinois has been content to absorb with her 
 
3^ 2 The Story of Illinois 
 
 wealth the art of past ages and to hoard it rather 
 than to appreciate it or to use it as a starting 
 point of aspiration for something better. Her 
 attitude has not been perhaps that of that hard 
 headed Roman general, beau ideal of Philistin- 
 ism in all ages, who in removing the artistic spoils 
 of the golden age of Greece to Rome specified 
 with the contractors that pieces lost should be re- 
 placed by others of equal value; but it has been 
 conformable. 
 
 Perhaps in poetry Illinois has come closest to 
 striking an original note. At Springfield Nicho- 
 las Vachel Lindsay writes songs for democracy 
 that democracy obstinately refuses to sing; Edgar 
 Lee Masters once of Lewistown, carefully 
 searches out and records the decadent in the Illi- 
 nois generation that followed the pioneers; like 
 the unhistorical minded in all generations he in- 
 nocently contrasts with the sordidness of army 
 life in the Spanish-American war the idealism of 
 the revolutionary soldier and the frontiersman. 
 Carl Sandburg in patched and striped verse dis- 
 sects Chicago and its life for the delight of the 
 radical. 
 
 Yet as far as wide popular appeal goes, these 
 poets are all exotic; the means of culture already 
 enumerated are equally exotic. The culture they 
 exhale is rising more and more above the head 
 even of the average undergraduate. Between 
 
The Illinois of the Present 3^3 
 
 the heights of the state's borrowed culture and 
 the tastes of its masses there is a great gulf; what 
 is the reason? 
 
 As a matter of fact a culture arising from the 
 tastes of the masses in Illinois as elsewhere is 
 rapidly levelling all classes to a plane, low as 
 compared with that of the "high brow" but still 
 to be termed culture. The life of the people of 
 Chicago, of the smaller cities, even of the small 
 towns, has strangely humanized in the last thirty 
 years. Where children formerly sat disconso- 
 lately on iron benches in parks bristling with 
 "keep off the grass" signs, or on granite sea 
 walls overlooking the lake, there now stretch 
 miles of lawns free to all, and miles of bathing 
 beaches where babies are taught by their mothers 
 to swim almost as soon as to walk. Playgrounds 
 have sprung up by the hundreds and parks have 
 multiplied; not only Chicago, but Springfield, Al- 
 ton, Peoria, Quincy, have their park systems on 
 a generous scale. Golf links and tennis courts 
 are everywhere to be used by anyone with energy 
 to seek them out. In imitation of the country 
 clubs of the millionaire, country clubs within the 
 reach of moderate incomes multiply by dozens 
 around Chicago, and appear in smaller cities; 
 and above all the new roads stretch as invitingly 
 away before the second hand Ford car as before 
 the Rolls Royce. Everywhere the tourist will 
 
3^4 The Story of Illinois 
 
 find camp grounds to learn the lesson of mutual 
 consideration in keeping them sanitary. The out 
 of doors no longer belongs to the rich only. And 
 in the motor and its cult they have a community 
 of interest with the poor. 
 
 They are gaining a similar unity of interest 
 more and more in their reading and dramatic en- 
 tertainments. Whereas the magazines of a gen- 
 eration ago are barely holding their own, story 
 magazines by the hundred have sprung up be- 
 side them usually offering the crudest of mental 
 stimulus. The u movies" offer fundamentally the 
 same sort of entertainment, the same acting, the 
 same action, the same story, the same moral out- 
 look, the same hero and heroine to the dime of 
 the poor child and the dollar of the well-to-do. 
 The amusements of the vast masses of Illinois 
 citizens, therefore, are more and more offering a 
 common basis of unity. Class warfare between 
 representatives of labor and capital is less likely 
 so long as they have the same intellectual stand- 
 ards. Community of amusements is the single 
 common factor that unites all racial stocks within 
 the state. The narrowness, the intolerance, the 
 self satisfaction with its cultural standards of the 
 middle western village and city have been set 
 forth in masterly literary caricature. But Sin- 
 clair Lewis will not laugh Illinois standards of 
 amusements down as Cervantes laughed away 
 
The Illinois of the Present 365 
 
 Spanish chivalry. Inasmuch as the enjoyment of 
 these media of expression is becoming common 
 to vast masses of population, it is possible that 
 they may become the outlet for the artistic im- 
 pulses of a future generation. There is more 
 hope in them than in the borrowings of exotic 
 cultures of former ages, for they represent an 
 innate and not an acquired taste, and are capable 
 of growth. 
 
 Perhaps they may be a means to an end. The 
 world in some twenty thousand years of its artistic 
 history has seen few periods of real original ex- 
 pression; the cave paintings of the Cro-Magnon 
 man, the art of ancient Egypt, and Assyria, the 
 art of the ancient Greece, the art of the Gothic 
 Cathedral. For the development of a new cul- 
 tural expression Illinois and the America of the 
 twentieth century may be ready. 
 
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VOTE OF ILLINOIS FOR THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 No. of 
 
 electoral 
 
 votes cast 
 
 1820 James Monroe 3 
 
 1824 Andrew Jackson 2 
 
 John Quincy Adams 1 
 
 a 828 Andrew Jackson 3 
 
 1832 Andrew Jackson 5 
 
 1836 Martin Van Buren, Democrat 5 
 
 1840 Martin Van Buren, Democrat 5 
 
 1 844 James K. Polk, Democrat 9 
 
 1 848 Lewis Cass, Democrat 9 
 
 1852 Franklin Pierce, Democrat 11 
 
 1856 James Buchanan, Democrat 11 
 
 i860 Abraham Lincoln, Republican 11 
 
 1864 Abraham Lincoln, Union 16 
 
 1868 Ulysses S. Grant, Republican 16 
 
 1872 Ulysses S. Grant, Republican 21 
 
 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes, Republican 21 
 
 1880 James A. Garfield, Republican 21 
 
 1884 James G. Blaine, Republican 22 
 
 1888 Benjamin Harrison, Republican 22 
 
 1892 Grover Cleveland, Democrat 24 
 
 1896 William McKinley, Republican 24 
 
 1900 William McKinley, Republican 24 
 
 1904 Theodore Roosevelt, Republican „ . . . . 27 
 
 1908 William H. Taft, Republican 27 
 
 191 2 Woodrow Wilson, Democrat 29 
 
 19 16 Charles E. Hughes, Republican 29 
 
 1920 Warren G. Harding, Republican 29 
 
 372 
 
VOTE FOR GOVERNOR FROM 1818 TO 1920 
 
 1818 
 Shadrach Bond, elected without opposition. 
 
 1822 
 
 Thomas C. Browne 2,443 
 
 Joseph Phillips 2,687 
 
 James B. Moore 622 
 
 Edward Coles 2,854 
 
 1826 
 
 Ninian Edwards 6,280 
 
 Thomas Sloo, Jr 5,833 
 
 Adolphus F. Hubbard 580 
 
 1830 
 
 John Reynolds 12,837 
 
 William Kinney 8,938 
 
 John Tillson, Jr 1 
 
 1834 
 
 Joseph Duncan 17,330 
 
 William Kinney 10,224 
 
 Robert K. McLaughlin 4,315 
 
 James Adams 887 
 
 Scattering 15 
 
 1838 
 
 Thomas Carlin, Democrat 30,648 
 
 Cyrus Edwards, Whig 29,722 
 
 373 
 
374 The Story of Illinois 
 
 1842 
 
 Thomas Ford, Democrat 46,507 
 
 Joseph Duncan, Whig 39,020 
 
 Charles M. Hunter, Liberty 913 
 
 1846 
 
 Augustus C. French, Democrat. 58,656 
 
 Thomas M. Kilpatrick, Whig 37,033 
 
 Richard Eels, Liberty 5,157 
 
 1848 
 
 Augustus C. French, Democrat 67,828 
 
 Charles V. Dyer, Free Soil 4,692 
 
 W. L. D. Morrison, Whig 5,659 
 
 1852 
 
 Joel A. Matteson, Democrat 1 80,789 
 
 E. B. Webb, Whig 64,408 
 
 D. A. Knowlton, Free Soil 9,024 
 
 1856 
 
 Wm. H. Bissell, Republican 1 1 1,466 
 
 Wm. A. Richardson, Democrat 106,679 
 
 Buckner S. Morris, American 19,088 
 
 i860 
 
 Richard Yates, Republican 172,196 
 
 James C. Allen, Democrat. 159,253 
 
 J. W. Checkering, Breckenridge Democrat. ... 1,148 
 
 John T. Stuart, Constitutional Union 1,626 
 
 John Hassock ,. 46 
 
 Wm. Brown , 68 
 
 Scattering 17 
 
Appendix 375 
 
 1864 
 
 Richard J. Oglesby, Union .... 190,376 
 
 James C. Robinson, Democrat 158,701 
 
 1868 
 
 John M. Palmer, Republican 249,912 
 
 John R. Eden, Democrat I99>8i3 
 
 1872 
 
 Richard J. Oglesby, Republican 237,774 
 
 Gustave Koerner, Democrat 197,084 
 
 B. G. Wright, Prohibition 2,185 
 
 1876 
 
 Shelby M. Cullom, Republican 279,263 
 
 Lewis Steward, Democrat 272,465 
 
 James F. Simpson 181 
 
 Samuel B. Allen , . 184 
 
 1880 
 
 Shelby M. Cullom, Republican 3H>565 
 
 Lyman Trumbull, Democrat. . 277,532 
 
 IA. J. Streeter, Greenback 28,898 
 
 Uriah Copp, Jr., Prohibition 122 
 
 1884 
 
 Richard J. Oglesby, Republican 334,234 
 
 Carter H. Harrison, Democrat 319,635 
 
 Jesse Harper, Greenback 8,605 
 
 James B. Hobbs, Prohibition 10,905 
 
 Scattering 10 
 
376 The Story o f Illinois 
 
 1888 
 
 Joseph W. Fifer, Republican 367,860 
 
 John M. Palmer, Democrat 355,313 
 
 David H. Harts, Prohibition 18,874 
 
 Willis W. Jones, Labor 6,394 
 
 Scattering 6 
 
 1892 
 
 John W. Fifer, Republican 402,686 
 
 John P. Altgeld, Democrat 425,558 
 
 Robert R. Link, Prohibition 24,808 
 
 Nathan M. Barnett, Peoples 20,103 
 
 1896 
 
 John P. Altgeld, Democrat 474,256 
 
 John R. Tanner, Republican 587,637 
 
 George W. Gere, Prohibition 1 4,5 59 
 
 Charles A. Baustian, National 985 
 
 Isaac W. Higgs, Socialist Labor 7 2 3 
 
 William S. Forman, Independent Democrat.. 8,102 
 
 Scattering xo 
 
 1900 
 
 Richard Yates, Republican 580,199 
 
 Samuel Alschuler, Democrat 518,966 
 
 Visscher V. Barnes, Prohibition 1 5,643 
 
 A. C. Vantine, Peoples 1,106 
 
 Louis P. Hoffman, Socialist Labor 1,31 9 
 
 Herman C. Perry, Socialist Democrat 8,611 
 
 John Cordingly, United Christian 334 
 
 Lloyd G. Spencer, Union Reform 650 
 
 1904 
 
 Charles S. Deneen, Republican 634,029 
 
 Lawrence B. Stringer, Democrat 334,$8o 
 
Appendix 377 
 
 Robert H. Patton, Prohibition 35,44-0 
 
 John Collins, Socialist 59,062 
 
 Philip Veal, Socialist Labor , 4,379 
 
 James Hogan, Peoples 4,364 
 
 lAndrew G. Specht, Continental 780 
 
 1908 
 
 Charles S. Deneen, Republican 550,076 
 
 Adlai E. Stevenson, Democrat 526,912 
 
 Daniel R. Sheen, Prohibition 33,922 
 
 James H. Brower, Socialist 31,293 
 
 George W. McCaskrin, Independence 10,883 
 
 Gustav A. Jennings, Socialist Labor 1,526 
 
 1912 
 
 Edward F. Dunne, Democrat 443,120 
 
 Charles S. Deneen, Republican 318,469 
 
 Frank H. Funk, Progressive 303,401 
 
 John C. Kennedy, Socialist 78,679 
 
 Edwin R. Worrell, Prohibition 15,231 
 
 John M. Francis, Socialist Labor 3,980 
 
 1916 
 
 Edward F. Dunne, Democrat 556,654 
 
 Frank O. Lowden, Republican 696,535 
 
 Seymour Stedman, Socialist 52,316 
 
 John R. Golden, Prohibition 15,309 
 
 John M. Francis, Socialist Labor. 1,739 
 
 1920 
 
 Len Small, Republican 1,243,148 
 
 James Hamilton Lewis, Democrat 73i,55i 
 
 Andrew Lafin, Socialist 58,998 
 
 James H. Woertendyke, Prohibition . 9,876 
 
37 8 The Story of Illinois 
 
 John H. Walker, Farmer Labor 56,480 
 
 Lewis D. Spaulding, Single Tax 930 
 
 John M. Francis, Socialist Labor 3,020 
 
 John Maynard Harlan, Harding-Coolidge Re- 
 publican , 5,985 
 
 Harrison Parker, Cooperative 1,260 
 
 Parke Longworth, Liberal 357 
 
 POPULATION OF ILLINOIS EACH CENSUS, 
 1 790- 1 920 
 
 1790 
 
 1 800 
 
 1810 12,282 
 
 1820 55>i62 
 
 1830 157,445 
 
 1840 476,183 
 
 1850 851,470 
 
 i860 1,711,951 
 
 1870 2,539,891 
 
 1880 3,077,871 
 
 1890 3,826,351 
 
 1900 4,821,550 
 
 1910 5,638,591 
 
 1920 6,485,280 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 Adams, Charles Francis, 296. 
 Adams, John Quincy, 113, 114, 
 
 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 156, 
 
 158, 277. 
 Addams, Jane, 307, 323. 
 Aisne-Marne Offensive, 1918, 
 
 337- 
 Alabama, 118. 
 Albany, 9, 20. 
 Allen, J. C, 195. 
 Allouez, Father Claude, 13, 99. 
 Alschuler, Samuel, 306. 
 Altgeld, John P., 279, 303, 304, 
 
 305, 35o. 
 
 Alton, 134, 180, 181, 193, 194, 
 2 38, 363 ; antislavery society 
 organized at, 217; Lovejoy 
 seeks refuge in, 215-216. 
 
 Alton Observer, 215. 
 
 American Library Association, 
 
 332- 
 American Protective League, 
 
 325. 
 
 American Revolution, 23, 24, 
 62; close of the, 51, 65, 81; 
 on the frontier, 46-56. 
 
 Anderson, Major, 251. 
 
 Antislavery movement, in Illi- 
 nois, 215-218. 
 
 Arbeiter Zeitung, 278. 
 
 Arkansas, country of, 5, 15, 20. 
 
 Armour Institute, 358. 
 
 Army of Occupation, 337. 
 
 Art Institute of Chicago, 361. 
 
 Astor, John Jacob, 85, 86. 
 
 Astoria, 86. 
 
 Astor's American Fur Com- 
 pany, 85, 86, 92. 
 
 Atlanta, 250, 263, 264. 
 
 Aurora, 194. 
 
 Aurora Beacon, 212. 
 
 Australian Ballot Act, 1891, 
 315. 
 
 Axley, James, 134. 
 
 Baccarat sector, 337. 
 
 Baker, E. D., 165, 167, 223. 
 
 Baldwin, Theron, 140. 
 
 Baltimore, 123. 
 
 Banking system, in the West, 
 124-126; in Illinois, 126-127, 
 177-178, 206-207, 353, 354- 
 
 Baptist Church, in the Illinois, 
 
 99, 133- 
 
 Bardstown, Kentucky, 137. 
 
 Bates, Edward, 242. 
 
 Bathurst, Lord, 80. 
 
 Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 261. 
 
 Batts, Virginia explorer, 19. 
 
 Baude, Governor Louis de, 
 Comte de Frontenac, 5, 8, 10. 
 
 Baynton, Wharton and Mor- 
 gan, 36, 43. 
 
 Beardstown, 202. 
 
 Bedford, Duke of, 30. 
 
 Beecher, Edward, 140. 
 
 Belgium, 321. 
 
 Bell, John, 243, 244. 
 
 Bellefontaine, 56, 59. 
 
 Belleville, 202, 339. 
 
 Belmont, 260, 262, 263. 
 
 Bennett, John C, 187. 
 
 38i 
 
382 
 
 Index 
 
 Bentley, Thomas, 50, 57. 
 Benton, Thomas Hart, 131. 
 Beveridge, Governor, 297. 
 Biggs, William, 103. 
 Biloxi, Mississippi, 13. 
 Birkbeck, Morris, in, 112, 
 
 129. 
 Bishop Hill, 198. 
 Bissell, William H., 208, 220, 
 
 226, 227, 231, 245. 
 Blackburn College, 135, 140. 
 Black Hawk, Indian Chief, 95, 
 
 170, 171, 172. 
 Black Hawk War, 170, 171, 
 
 172. 
 Black Laws of 1853, 249, 250. 
 BJackweJl, R. S., 231. 
 Blaine, James G., 301. 
 Blainville, Celeron de, 20. 
 Bloomington, 231. 
 Bloiiin, Daniel, 37, 40. 
 Bond, Shadrach, Jr., 56, 102, 
 
 105, 112, 113. 
 Bond, Shadrach, Sr., 98, 102, 
 
 103. 
 Boone, Daniel, 37. 
 Boston Tea Party, 1773, 43. 
 Bouquet, Colonel, 75. 
 Bowman, Colonel John, 54. 
 Bradley Polytechnic School, 
 
 358. 
 Breckenridge, John C, 243, 
 
 244. 
 Breese, Sidney, 192, 227, 231, 
 
 237- 
 Briand, Monseigneur Jean 
 
 Olivier, Bishop of Quebec, 
 
 39, 40, 52. 
 Browne, Thomas C, no. 
 Browning, Orville H., 166-167, 
 
 241-248, 251, 267. 
 
 Bryan, William Jennings, 305, 
 306. 
 
 Buchanan, James, 231, 234, 
 236, 237, 241. 
 
 Buena Vista, 220. 
 
 Bulger, Lieutenant, 90. 
 
 Bull Run, battle of, 257; sec- 
 ond battle of, 263. 
 
 Burlington, 194. 
 
 Byrd, William, 19. 
 
 Cahokia, 13, 16, 38, 41, 53, 55, 
 
 56, 59, 97, 137- 
 Cairo, 14, 180, 192, 202, 229, 
 
 249, 259. 
 Cain Bulletin, 297. 
 Calhoun, John C., 113, 150, 
 
 151, 152. 
 California, 60, 196, 222. 
 Camp Dodge, 335. 
 Camp Douglas, 249. 
 Camp Grant, 332, 335, 338, 
 
 339. 
 Camp Logan, 335. 
 Camp Taylor, 335. 
 Canada, 5, 10, 17, 20, 27, 28, 
 
 29, 43, 48, 60, 63, 69, 84, 85, 
 
 88, 90, 92, 102. 
 Carbondale, 358. 
 Carlin, Thomas, 160, 164, 183. 
 Carmi, 122. 
 Carthage, 187, 188. 
 Cartwright, Peter, 134, 135. 
 Casey, Zadoc, 161. 
 Cass, General Lewis, 95, 172, 
 
 221. 
 
 Catholic Church, in the Illi- 
 nois, 136, 137; in the West, 
 6. 
 
 Cerre, French settler, 50, 52, 
 58. 
 
 Cerro Gordo, 220. 
 
Index 
 
 383 
 
 Cession Treaties with Sac and 
 
 Fox Indians, 92, 93. 
 Champagne-Marne Defensive, 
 
 1918, 337- 
 Chanute Field, 339. 
 Charleston, Illinois, 238, 358. 
 Charleston, South Carolina, 
 
 243. 
 Charleston, West Virginia, 47. 
 Chateau Thierry, 337. 
 Chattanooga, 261. 
 Chicago, 76, 82, 89, 92, 137, 
 165, 167, 170, 172, 174, r 75> 
 176, 184, 192, 194, J 98, i99> 
 200, 202, 203, 204, 206, 208, 
 217, 222, 223, 224, 225, 228, 
 229, 242, 249, 273, 277, 283, 
 284, 286, 300, 303, 307, 3 IO > 
 311, 362; civil service sys- 
 tem in, 314; cultural institu- 
 tions of, 360-361 ; destroyed 
 by fire of 1871, 291, 292; de- 
 velopment of, 342-344* 3 53 j 
 354; during World war, 323, 
 324, 326, 329, 339; during 
 World's Fair, 1893, 292; 
 Haymarket riot in, 276-279; 
 labor situation in, 350-351; 
 manufacturing in, 349; mis- 
 sion at, 13; population of, 
 201; post at, 11; recreation 
 facilities of, 290, 363-364; 
 return of Thirty-third Divi- 
 sion to, 338. 
 
 Chicago Democrat, 168. 
 
 Chicago Historical Society, 
 361. 
 
 Chicago Public Library, 360. 
 
 Chicago River, 5, 20, 170, 175- 
 
 Chicago Times, 249, 252. 
 
 Chicago Tribune, 290. 
 
 Chicago Weekly Democrat, 
 229. 
 
 Chickamauga, 263. 
 
 Chickasaw Bluffs, 16. 
 
 Chipilly, offensive at, 336. 
 
 Civil Rights Bill, 1865, 267, 
 268. 
 
 Civil War, 157, 199, 205, 207, 
 210, 213, 214, 233, 274, 276, 
 280, 293, 294, 304, 305, 323 ; 
 aftermath of the, 266-270, 
 271 ; Illinois in the, 255-266. 
 
 Clark, General William, 70. 
 
 Clark, George Rogers, char- 
 acter of, 51; conquest of 
 Illinois by, 46, 49, 51, 52- 
 56, 62; reverses suffered by, 
 
 54- 
 
 Clay, Henry, 88, 113, si4> I5 1 * 
 152, 222, 240. 
 
 Cleveland, Grover, 306, 350. 
 
 Clinton, De Witt, 113, 150, 
 151, 176. 
 
 Colbert, French minister of 
 finance, 5. 
 
 Cole, Edward, Indian commis- 
 sary, 32. 
 
 Coles, Edward, no, in, 112, 
 129. 
 
 Columbia River, 85, 86. 
 
 Columbia, 81. 
 
 Columbus, Christopher, 2. 
 
 Compromise of 1820, see Mis- 
 souri Compromise. 
 
 Compromise of 1850, 222. 
 
 Congregationalism, in Illinois, 
 135-136. 
 
 Connelly, Dr. John, 47, 48. 
 
 Connecticut, 26, 33, 40, 61, 134, 
 
 345- 
 Consolidation Act of 1917, 313. 
 
384 
 
 Index 
 
 Constitution, of 1848, 210, 213; 
 
 of 1870, 309, 312. 
 Constitutional Convention of 
 
 18 18, 107. 
 Convention System, evolution 
 
 of the, 160, 161. 
 Cook, Daniel Pope, 106, ic8, 
 
 112, 113, 114, n 5 , 116, 153, 
 
 *54, 155, 178. 
 Corinth, 263. 
 Craske, Henry, 302. 
 Crawford, William H., 113, 
 
 114, 125, 150, 151, 152, 153, 
 
 154, *55- 
 Crerar Library, 360. 
 Croghan, George, 32. 
 Cuba, 218, 309. 
 Cullom, Shelby M., 297, 298, 
 
 300. 
 Cumberland River, 57, 79, 260. 
 Cutler, Manasseh, 65, 66. 
 
 Dallas, 263. 
 Danville, 172. 
 
 Dartaguiette, Pierre, 16, 22. 
 Davis, Judge David, 296, 298. 
 Debs, Eugene V., 350. 
 Decatur, 181, 229, 231. 
 De Kalb, 358. 
 Delaware, 61, 62. 
 Democratic party, 116, 158- 
 
 159, 161, 162, 163, 164, 230; 
 
 disaffection in the, 250; 
 
 principles of the, 167; revolt 
 
 in the, 221. 
 Democratic Review, The, 223. 
 Deneen, Charles S., 306, 308. 
 Detroit, 29, 44, 47, 48, 53, 54, 
 
 55, 69, 70, 71, 73, 77, 82, 89. 
 Dickey, Colonel T. Lyle, 267- 
 
 268. 
 Dodge, John, 57, 58, 59. 
 
 Douglas, Stephen A., 123, 161, 
 166, 167, 185, 192, 205, 238, 
 239, 242, 246, 252, 269; ac- 
 complishment of, 247; aided 
 by Matteson, 209; advocates 
 Homestead measure, 224; 
 assists in passage of Com- 
 promise of 1850, 222; breaks 
 with President Buchanan, 
 236; character of, 237; final 
 struggle of, 233-234; forces 
 passage of Kansas Nebraska 
 Act, 225-226 ; nominee for 
 president, 223 ; opposition in 
 Illinois to leadership of, 
 227; presidential candidate, 
 243, 244; re-elected United 
 States senator, 241 ; rise in 
 politics of the, 161-162; wins 
 United States senatorship, 
 240. 
 
 Dred Scott Decision, 233, 234, 
 243. 
 
 Duncan, Joseph, 115, 158, 160, 
 165, 181, 184. 
 
 Dunmore, Lord, royal gover- 
 nor of Virginia, 43, 47. 
 
 Dunmore's War, 46, 47, 51. 
 
 Dunne, Edward F., 308. 
 
 Eden, John R., 270. 
 Edgar, John, 59, 98, 101, 102. 
 Edwards, Cyrus, 160. 
 Edwards, Ninian, 105, 106, 
 
 109, no, 113, 114, 115, 116, 
 
 121, 155, 160, 289. 
 Edwardsville, 121, 126, 127, 
 
 177. 
 Edwardsville Spectator, in. 
 Egypt, section of Illinois, 245, 
 
 249. 
 Eighty-eighth Division, 335. 
 
Index 
 
 85 
 
 Eighty- fourth Division, 335. 
 Eighty-sixth Division, 335, 
 
 339- 
 
 England, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 31, 
 
 33, 44, 60, 63, 321. 
 Esperance Souain Sector, 337. 
 Essey Panne3 Sector, 337. 
 Europe, 1, 4, 117, *99> 255, 321, 
 
 323, 324, 359- 
 Evanston, 314. 
 Ewing, William Lee D., 130. 
 
 Fallarn, Virginia explorer, 19. 
 
 Farmar, Major Robert, 35. 
 
 Farnsworth, Elon H., 263. 
 
 Farragut, Admiral, 250. 
 
 Federal Constitution, 118. 
 
 Federal Food and Fuel Ad- 
 ministration, 325, 326, 327- 
 328. 
 
 Fell, Jesse W., 296. 
 
 Field, Alexander P., 164. 
 
 Field Columbian Museum, 360, 
 361. 
 
 Fifer, "Private Joe," 303. 
 
 First Emancipation Proclama- 
 tion, 248. 
 
 Fisher, Dr. George, 102, 103. 
 
 Florida, 26, 29, 49, 60, 150. 
 
 Forbes, Captain Hugh, 35. 
 
 Ford, Thomas, 160, 184, 185, 
 187. 
 
 Fort Crevecoeur, 9, 10. 
 
 Fort Dearborn, 76, 82, 92, 170; 
 massacre at, 89. 
 
 Fort de Chartres, 15, 16, 21, 
 
 32, 42, 49- 
 Fort Donelson, 260, 262, 263, 
 
 265, 266. 
 Fort Frontenac, 8. 
 Fort Gage, 21, 42. 
 Fort Harmar, 71. 
 
 Fort Henry, 260, 265. 
 Fort Jefferson, 54. 
 Fort Madison, 82. 
 Fort Massiac, 21, 52, 97. 
 Fort Pitt, 29, 32, 47, 48. 
 Fort Sackville, 54. 
 Fort St. Louis, 10, 11. 
 Fort Sheridan, 332, 337, 339. 
 Fort Sumter, 245, 251. 
 Fort Wayne, 82. 
 Fort William, 79. 
 Fox River, 11. 
 Fox Indians, 15, 92, 93, 170. 
 France, 5, 10, 15, 18, 19, 21, 
 22, 23, 44, 60, 61, 63, 71, 334, 
 
 335, 336, 34*>- 
 Freedman's Bureau Bill, 267, 
 
 268. 
 Freeport, 194, 238, 239. 
 Fremont, General, 231, 247, 
 
 249, 250. 
 French and Indian War, 21, 
 
 26, 118. 
 French, Governor, 195, 197, 
 
 208. 
 Frontenac, Governor, see 
 
 Baude, Louis de. 
 Fulton, 194. 
 Funk, Frank, 308. 
 
 Galena, 172, 192, 264. 
 
 Galesburg, 194, 238. 
 
 Garfield, James A., 300. 
 
 Garrison, Abolitionist, 218. 
 
 Genius of Liberty, 217. 
 
 Genius of Universal Emanci- 
 pation, 217. 
 
 Georgia, 19, 113, "8, 150, 261. 
 
 Germany, 198, 321, 322, 323, 
 325, 340. 
 
 Gettysburg, 263. 
 
386 
 
 Ind 
 
 ex 
 
 Gibault, Father Pierre, 39, 40, 
 
 52, 58. 
 Gibraltar, 60. 
 Girtvs, British refugees, 47, 
 
 48. 
 Golconda, settlement in the 
 
 Illinois, 122. 
 Gordon, Captain, 33. 
 Grafton, Duke of, 35. 
 Grand Ruisseau, settlement at, 
 
 57, 59- 
 Grant, Ulysses S., 260, 261, 
 
 300; career of, 264-265; 
 
 presidential administration 
 
 of, 295, 296 ; re-elected 
 
 president, 297. 
 Gravier, Father Jacques, 13. 
 Gray, Captain, 81, 
 Great Britain, 18, 23, 28, 60, 
 
 63, 68, 70, 71, 76, 87, 218, 
 
 219, 322, 326. 
 Great Lakes Naval Training 
 
 Station, 332, 338. 
 Great Miami River, 72. 
 Greeley, Horace, 236, 242, 296. 
 Green Bay, 4, 92. 
 Grey, Sir Edward, 321. 
 Grierson's Raid, exploit dur- 
 ing Civil War, 261. 
 Griffon, 9. 
 
 Griswold, Stanley, 105. 
 Groseiliiers, early explorer, 4, 
 
 18. 
 Guadeloupe, 27. 
 Gulf of Mexico, 5. 
 
 Haines, E. M., 301. 
 Hall, James, 141, 151. 
 Hamel, battle at, 336. 
 Hamilton, Henry, 48, 53, 54. 
 Hamilton, John M., 300. 
 Hansen, Nicholas, no. 
 
 Hardin, John J., 165, 167, 220. 
 Harmar, General, 58, 72. 
 Harper, William Rainey, 359. 
 Harrison, Benjamin, 303. 
 Harrison, Carter, 300, 301. 
 Harrison, William Henry, 86, 
 
 87, 90, 100, 101, 102, 103, 
 
 163, 164, 187. 
 Hayes, Rutherford B., 298. 
 Hayes, S. S., 294, 298. 
 Haymarket riot, The, 276-279. 
 Helm, Captain, 53. 
 Henderson, Fachard, 43. 
 Hennepin, 217, 284. 
 Henry, General James D., 171. 
 Hillsborough, Earl of, 29, 35, 
 
 41, 42, 43. 
 Hise, John, 297. 
 Hovey, president of Illinois 
 
 State Normal, 259. 
 Hubbard, Adolphus F., no. 
 Hudson Bay, 19, 77. 
 Hughes, Charles H., 308. 
 Hull, General, 89. 
 Hulbut, Stephen A., 263. 
 Huron Indians, 3. 
 
 Iberville River, 41. 
 Iberville, Sieur d', 13. 
 Illinois College, 135, 140, 288, 
 
 360. 
 Illinois Emigrant, 106. 
 Illinois Gazette, 141. 
 Illinois Herald, 106. 
 Illinois Indians, 9, 13, 170. 
 Illinois Industrial University, 
 
 288. 
 Illinois Intellige?uer, 111. 
 Illinois River, 6, 10, 11, 41, 43, 
 
 76, 85, 97, 123, 129, 169, 174, 
 
 180, 192, 200, 283, 284. 
 Illinois State Register, 166, 168. 
 
Index 
 
 337 
 
 Illinois Territory, 96, 98, 104, 
 105, 121. 
 
 Illinoistown, 193. 
 
 Indiana, 15, 64, 85, 104, 118, 
 119, 176, 180, 181, 194- 
 
 Indiana Territory, 86, 96, 97, 
 98, 100, 101, 105. 
 
 Internal Improvement System, 
 of Illinois, 181-182. 
 
 Invitation Serieuse aux Habi- 
 tants des Illinois, 4°- 
 
 Iowa, 335- 
 
 Ireland, 24, 26, 118. 
 
 Iroquois Indians, 3, 5, 9, 10 > 
 20, 42, 61, 71. 
 
 Italy, 321. 
 
 Jackson, Andrew, 113, "4* 
 146, 147. *S°, *$h *5 2 , *53, 
 154, 155, 156, iS7, 159, 162, 
 163, 167, 168, 176, 226, 236. 
 
 Jacksonville, Illinois, 162, 181. 
 
 Japan, 340. 
 
 Jay's Treaty, 75, 77, 83, 9*- 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, 52, 64, 66 y 
 67, 86, 277. 
 
 Jesuits, the, in the Illinois, 3, 4, 
 5, 7, 11, 12, 13, 16, 18, 38, 
 
 39- 
 Jewish Welfare Board, 332. 
 Joliet, 194. 
 Joliet, Louis, 5, 6. 
 Jones, Jenkin Lloyd, 323. 
 Jones, John Rice, 103. 
 Jones, Michael, 104. 
 Jones, Obediah, 105. 
 Jones, Rice, 104. 
 Jonesboro, 198, 238. 
 Johnson, Andrew, 266, 267, 
 
 268. 
 Johnson, A. M., 162. 
 
 Johnson, Sir William, 30, 32, 
 
 42. 
 Judd, N. B., 244. 
 
 Kane, Elias Kent, 105-106, 
 
 112, 113, 121, 156. 
 Kankakee River, 169. 
 Kansas, 197, 235, 237, 238, 239, 
 
 285. 
 Kansas City, 353. 
 Kansas Nebraska Act, 225, 
 
 226, 233. 
 Kansas Territory, 226. 
 Kaskaskia, 13, 16, 21, 42, 49, 
 
 52, 53, 56, 57, 58, 59, 96, 97, 
 
 101, 104, 106, 121, 127. 
 Kaskaskia River, 180. 
 Kentucky, 37, 42, 43, 48, 51, 
 
 62, 64, 70, 88, 105, 113, 118, 
 
 119, 121, 137, 166, 171, l8l, 
 240, 258, 259, 260, 263, 320, 
 335- 
 
 Kickapoo Indians, 93, 170. 
 
 Kimmel, Peter, 106. 
 
 King George's War, 2744- 
 1748, 20. 
 
 Kinney, William, 112, 156, 
 158, 179. 
 
 Knights of Columbus, 332. 
 
 Know Nothing party, char- 
 acter of the, 230-231 ; forma- 
 tion of the, 227. 
 
 Knox College, 13s, 136, 140, 
 288, 360. 
 
 Knox, James, 229. 
 
 Koerner, Gustavus, 193, 231, 
 296. 
 
 La Balme, French officer, 55, 
 60. 
 
 La Barre, Governor of Can- 
 ada, 10. 
 
Index 
 
 La Clede, Pierre, 33. 
 
 La Forest, follower of La 
 
 Salle, 11, 12. 
 Lafayette, Indiana, 15. 
 La Grange, early settler, 38. 
 Lake Champlain, 70. 
 Lake Erie, 5, 20, 49, 63, 89, 
 
 176. 
 Lake Huron, 63, 79, 90. 
 Lake Michigan, 8, 20, 85, 92, 
 
 107, 123, 170, 184, 192. 
 Lake of the Woods, 69. 
 Lake Ontario, 8, 49, 63, 70, 
 
 87, 89- m 
 
 Lake Peoria, 9, 11. 
 
 Lake Superior, 4, 63, 69, 79. 
 
 Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 37. 
 
 La Pointe, settlement at, 4. 
 
 La Porte, 194. 
 
 La Salle, Sieur Robert Cava- 
 lier de, 12, 13, 22; explora- 
 tions of, 7-10; death of, 11. 
 
 Latter Day Saints, 186. 
 
 Laurence, C. B., 283. 
 
 Law, John, 14-15. 
 
 Lecompton Constitution, 233, 
 235, 236. 
 
 Lewis Institute, 358. 
 
 Lewis, James Hamilton, 308. 
 
 Lewis, Sinclair, 364. 
 
 Lewistown, 362. 
 
 Liberty Loans, 329-331. 
 
 liberty party, formation of 
 the, 217; strength of, 218. 
 
 Lillard, Joseph, 99. 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, 107, 123, 
 165, 167, 185, 215, 221, 229, 
 233, 236, 237, 239, 241, 244, 
 247, 248, 250, 254, 256, 266, 
 267, 269 ; achievements of, 
 253; assassination of, 252; 
 
 attitude toward Mexican 
 War, 220; candidate for re- 
 election to the presidency, 
 250; the presidency, 242- 
 243 ; United States senate, 
 238-240; conservatism of, 
 249; deals with Rebellion, 
 245; early career of, 181; 
 policies of, 251; serves in 
 Black Hawk War, 172. 
 
 Lincoln-Douglas debates, 123, 
 235, 238, 240. 
 
 Lindsay, Nicholas Vachel, 362. 
 
 Lisa, Manuel, 85. 
 
 Logan, John A., 246, 250, 251, 
 265, 266, 298; candidate for 
 United States senate, 301, 
 302; character of, 295; 
 Civil War, Record of, 263; 
 elected: Congressman, 267- 
 268; United States senator, 
 2 94> 303 ; policies of, 293 ; 
 supremacy in Republican 
 party, 299-300. 
 
 London, 28, 78, 85, 183, 278. 
 
 Lord, Captain Hugh, 49, 50. 
 
 Lorimer, William, 307. 
 
 Louis XIV, 5, 10, 12. 
 
 Louisbourg, 14, 21. 
 
 Louisiana, 262. 
 
 Louisiana Territory, 13, 15, 16, 
 71, 83, 85,104, 109, 226. 
 
 Louisville, Kentucky, 52, 249. 
 
 Lovejoy, Elijah P., influence 
 of, 215-217; murder of, 216. 
 
 Lowden, Frank O., 308, 309, 
 325. 
 
 Lundy, Benjamin, 217. 
 
 Lunevi!!c: sector, 337. 
 
 Lusitania, 322. 
 
 Luxemburg, 337. 
 
Index 
 
 389 
 
 McClellan, General, 250. 
 
 McClernand, John A., 166, 
 222, 231, 246, 262, 265. 
 
 McCormick, Cyrus H., 199. 
 
 McCormick harvester, revolu- 
 tionizes agriculture in Illi- 
 nois, 198. 
 
 McDonell, Lieutenant Colonel, 
 
 9*t 94, 95- 
 McKee, Alexander, 47. 
 McKendree College, 140. 
 Mackenzie, George, 81. 
 Mackinac, 7, 20, 50, 71, 77, 79, 
 
 80, 82, 89, 90, 91, 93. 
 Mackinaw River, 97. 
 McKinley, William, 306. 
 McLean, John, 106, 108, 112, 
 
 113. 
 McPherson, General, 2-63. 
 Macomb, 358. 
 Madison, James, 77, 87, 89. 
 Maine, 65. 
 
 Maintenon, Madame de, 12. 
 Merrimec, post at, 11. 
 Marion, 245. 
 Marquette, Father Jacques, 5, 
 
 6, 7, *3> 19, 22, 99, 136, 172. 
 Marquette River, 7. 
 Marx, Karl, 276. 
 Maryland, 61, 62, 119, 320, 345. 
 Massachusetts, 26, 61, 113, 282, 
 
 345- 
 Masters, Edgar Lee, 362. 
 Matagorda Bay, 11. 
 Matteson, Joel A., 209, 223, 
 
 229. 
 Mattoon, 198. 
 
 Maumee River, 20, 72, 73, 74. 
 May, William L., 161. 
 Memphis, 263. 
 Menard, Pierre, 85, 102, 105, 
 
 IZ2. 
 
 Mendota, 194. 
 
 Methodism, in Illinois, 99, 134- 
 
 *35 : 
 Meurin, Father, 35, 39, 40, 99. 
 Meuse-Argonne Offensive, 
 
 1918, 337- 
 Meuse sector, 336. 
 Mexico, 219, 220, 222. 
 Mexican War, 220, 221, 264. 
 Michigan, 64, 86, 95, 228, 339, 
 
 345- 
 
 Michillimackinac, 93. 
 
 Military Tract, 128, 167. 
 
 Milliken University, 360. 
 
 Minnesota, 283. 
 
 Mississippi, 118, 176. 
 
 Mississippi River, 3, 5, 8, 9, 
 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 
 23, 33, 37, 38, 41, 48, 49, 52, 
 54, 57, 7i, 77, 79, 82, 85, 92, 
 93, 104, 124, 129, 169, 170, 
 171, 172, 174, 187, 192, 193, 
 200, 207, 232, 259, 283, 284. 
 
 Missouri, 106, 108, 118, 131, 
 
 186, 242, 247, 257, 260, 263. 
 Missouri Compromise, 1820, 
 
 97, 109, 182, 214, 225, 226, 
 
 227, 233, 234, 250. 
 Missouri River, 13, 16, 17, 82, 
 
 84, 225. 
 Mobile, Alabama, 12, 250. 
 Monbreun, Sieur Timothe de, 
 
 57- 
 Monroe, James, 64, 91, 113, 
 
 114, 150, 153. 
 Montreal, 5, 7, 12, 14, 27, 44, 
 
 48, 69, 78, 79, 80, 85. 
 Moore, James B., 56, no. 
 Morgan, George, 36, 37, 38, 
 
 48, 49. 
 Mormonism, in Illinois, 186, 
 
 187, 188. 
 
390 
 
 Index 
 
 Morrison, William B., 85, 301, 
 
 302. 
 Movill Land Grant Act, 1862, 
 
 287. 
 Mt. Carmel, 180. 
 Murray, William, 37, 43, 50. 
 Muskingum River, 65, 74. 
 
 Nashville, Tennessee, 57, 79, 
 148, 264. 
 
 National Guard, units of, 333. 
 
 National Security League, 325. 
 
 Nauvoo, 186, 187, 189, 198. 
 
 Nawvoo Expositor, 187. 
 
 Nebraska, 197, 285. 
 
 Nebraska Territory, 226. 
 
 Newberry Library, 360. 
 
 New Design, 99, 133. 
 
 New England, 65, 66, 119, 132, 
 135, 136, 140, 169, 176, 198, 
 320. 
 
 New France, 3, 7. 
 
 New Jersey, 61, 345. 
 
 New Madrid, 263. 
 
 New Mexico, 222. 
 
 New Orleans, 16, 20, 21, 33, 
 36, 39, 41, 48, 49, 51, 52, 55, 
 80, 122, 123, 124, 146, 148, 
 152, 154, 200, 261. 
 
 New River, 19. 
 
 New Salem, 181-182. 
 
 New York, city of, 66, 85, 86, 
 113, n8 s 119, 123, 168, 179, 
 183, 201, 257, 338, 361; state 
 of, 61, 62, 153, 163, 176, 345. 
 
 Niagara, 29, 70, 71, 83. 
 
 Nicolet, Jean, 2, 3. 
 
 Norfolk, 123. 
 
 North, Lord, 63. 
 
 North Carolina, 43, 61, 119. 
 
 North Sea, 25. 
 
 Northwest Ordinance, 1787, 34, 
 56, 58, 64, 66, 67, 96, 97, 98, 
 102, 107, 109, 184, 219, 358. 
 
 Northwest Territory, 59, 68, 
 96, 97, 98, 99, 100. ^ 
 
 Northwestern University, 287, 
 288, 340, 360. 
 
 Norton, Jesse O., 229. 
 
 Nova Scotia, 29. 
 
 Odin, 198. 
 
 Oglesby, Richard J., 56, 263, 
 265, 266, 268, 294*; candidate 
 for governor, 296, 300; 
 elected governor, 297. 
 
 Ohio, 118, 186, 264, 345. 
 
 Ohio River, 16, 20, 26, 32, 36, 
 43, 5i, 52, 54, 64, 65, 68, 70, 
 72, 74, 97, "9, 180, 192, 259. 
 
 Ohio Territory, 20, 71, 72, 86, 
 104, 118- 
 
 Oise-Aisn« Offensive, 1918, 
 
 335- 
 Old Whigs, English political 
 
 party, 28, 31. 
 Olney Times, 241. 
 Omaha, 253. 
 One Hundred and Fcrty-ninth 
 
 Field Artillerj'-, 337-338. 
 One Hundred and Thirty-first 
 
 Infantry, 336. 
 Oquawka, 174. 
 Ottawa, 202, 228, 238. 
 Ottawa Free Trader, 196. 
 Ottawa River, 79. 
 Ouiatenon, 15, 44. 
 
 Palmer, John M., 211, 227, 231, 
 237, 251, 262, 265, 266, 268, 
 270, 286, 293, 296, 298, 303. 
 
 Palmyra New York, 186. 
 
 Paraguay, 3. 
 
Index 
 
 39i 
 
 Paris, 14. 
 
 Parsons, Albert A., 277, 278. 
 
 Paxton Record, 207-208. 
 
 Peck, Ebenezer, 242. 
 
 Peck, John Mason, 134, 216. 
 
 Pecks, Rock Spring Seminary, 
 
 140. 
 Pennsylvania, 2«6, 33, 36, 37, 
 
 45, 118, 119, 151, 153, 244, 
 
 345- 
 Peoria, 76, 92, 174, 179, 181, 
 
 203, 229, 353, 3^1, 363. 
 Philadelphia, 35, 37, 123. 
 Phillipps, Joseph, no. 
 Pickering, General, 195. 
 Pierce, Franklin, 224. 
 Pike's Peak, 197. 
 Pittsburg, 36. 
 Pitt, William, 31, 34"35- 
 Poincare, President of France, 
 
 321. 
 Polk, James K., 219, 220, 221. 
 Pollock, Oliver, 52-53, 55. 
 Pontiac, Indian Chief, 21, 28, 
 
 29, 41. 
 Pope, General John, 2*63, 265. 
 Pope, Nathaniel, 105, 106, 107. 
 Population, in Illinois, 272- 
 
 273, 344-345- 
 Potomac, Army of the, 263. 
 Porto Rico, 309. 
 Pottawattomies, Indians, 93, 
 
 170. 
 Prairie du Chien, 79, 90, 92. 
 Prairie du Rocher, 16. 
 Presbyterianism, in Illinois, 
 
 135- 
 Preston, William, 47. 
 Prevost, Sir George, 80. 
 Price, Sterling, 247. 
 Proclamation of 1763, 29, 32, 
 
 34, 118. 
 
 Pullman, George, 352. 
 Putnam, General Rufus, 65. 
 
 Quebec, 2, 29, 39, 44, 48, 69, 
 
 70. 
 Quebec, Act of 1774, 43, 44, 
 
 49. 
 Quincy, 166, 172, 180, 194, 
 
 202, 203, 226, 229, 238, 283, 
 
 291, 363. 
 
 Radisson, early explorer, 4, 18. 
 
 Railroads, era of the, o i8o, 190- 
 198; expansion of the, 355- 
 356; problems of the, 281- 
 283. 
 
 Rainbow Division, 337. 
 
 Rantoul, 339. 
 
 Red Cross, 325, 326, 331. 
 
 Reed, Lieutenant Colonel John, 
 35, 36. 
 
 Reynard Indians, 93. 
 
 Renault, Philippe, 15. 
 
 Republican party, 299; begin- 
 nings of the, 226; dissatis- 
 faction with, 305 ; formation 
 of the, 231, 233; in 1870, 
 293; rise of the, 251. 
 
 Resaca, 263. 
 
 Reynolds, John, 156, 162, 185, 
 218, 227, 231, 237, 251. 
 
 Rhine River, 337. 
 
 Rhode Island, 345. 
 
 Richardson, William A., 167, 
 222, 226, 231, 248. 
 
 Richmond, Virginia, 243. 
 
 Robinson, John M., 161. 
 
 Rocheblave, Philippe de, 50, 
 52. 
 
 Rockford, 174, 228, 258, 339. 
 
 Rockford College, 360. 
 
 Rock Island, 92, 171, 174, 207. 
 
392 
 
 Index 
 
 Rock River, 180. 
 
 Roosevelt, Theodore, 306, 307, 
 
 308, 333. 
 Rumsey, James, 37. 
 Russia, 4, 321, 323. 
 
 Sac Indians, 92, 170. 
 
 St. Clair, General Arthur, 49, 
 
 59, 72, 73, 96, 97, 100. 
 Ste. Genevieve, 32, 50. 
 St. Joseph, fort at, 55. 
 St. Joseph River, 8-9, 20. 
 St. Louis, 32, 33, 55, 85, 92, 
 
 93, 109, 137, !7o, 192, 193, 
 194, 200, 215, 264, 329. 
 
 St. Lusson, French explorer, 5, 
 19. 
 
 St. Mihiel Offensive, 1918, 337. 
 
 St. Philips, 16. 
 
 Salem, Massachusetts, 81. 
 
 Salvation Army, 334. 
 
 Sandburg, Carl, 362. 
 
 Sandusky, 82. 
 
 Sangamon River, 169. 
 
 Santa Fe, 220. 
 
 Sault Ste. Marie, 5, 19, 79. 
 
 Savanna, 174. 
 
 Scott Field, 339. 
 
 Scully, William, 285. 
 
 Seminole Indians, 150. 
 
 Seven Years War, 31, 118. 
 
 Seward, William H., 241-242, 
 
 243. 
 Seymour, Horatio, 269, 270. 
 Shaw, John, no, in. 
 Shawnee Indians, 170. 
 Shawneetown, 101, 106, 109, 
 
 119, 121, 126, 127, 177. 
 Shelburne, Earl of, 28, 29, 32, 
 
 33, 34, 42, 44, 63. 
 Shenandoah Valley, 250. 
 Sheridan, General, 250. 
 
 Sherman, General, 250, 261, 
 263, 264. 
 
 Sherman, L. Y., 308. 
 
 Shields, James, 220, 222, 226. 
 
 Shiloh, 261, 262, 263. 
 
 Shurtleff College, 134, 140. 
 
 Singleton, J. W., 231. 
 
 Slavery issue, 168, 190; begin- 
 nings of the, 215-232; cli- 
 max of the, 233-254; during 
 early statehood, 108, in, 
 113, 115; importance of the, 
 96 ; in Northwest Territory, 
 64, 67. 
 
 Sloo, Thomas, Jr., 115. 
 
 Smith, Captain John, 2. 
 
 Small, Len, 308. 
 
 Smith, George, 206. 
 
 Smith, James, 99. 
 
 Smith, Joseph, 186, 187, 189. 
 
 Snyder, Adam W., 160, 161. 
 
 South America, 321. 
 
 South Carolina, 113, 143, 167. 
 
 Spain, 60, 62, 63, 71. 
 
 Spanish-American War, 309, 
 362. 
 
 Springfield, 162, 163, 164, 180, 
 181, 182, 195, 202, 203, 228, 
 229, 235, 244, 252, 264, 301, 
 314, 361, 362, 363. 
 
 Starved Rock, 10. 
 
 State Council of Defense, 325, 
 326, 329. 
 
 State Register, 195. 
 
 Stephenson, James W., 160. 
 
 Stevenson, Adlai E., 306. 
 
 Steward, Lewis, 297. 
 
 Stirling, Captain Thomas, 32, 
 
 35, 38. 
 Stone, Dan, 215. 
 Stone's River, 263. 
 Stringer, Lawrence B., 306. 
 
Index 
 
 393 
 
 Stuart, Alexander, 105. 
 Stuart, John, 42, 161, 244. 
 Student Array Training Corps, 
 
 339- 
 Sturtevant, Julian M., 140. 
 
 Taft, William H., 306, 308. 
 
 Talon, Jean, 5. 
 
 Taraawa Indians, 9, 13. 
 
 Taney, Chief Justice, 234. 
 
 Tanner, John A., 306. 
 
 Taylor, Zachary, 50, 221. 
 
 Tecumseh, Indian Chief, 86, 
 87, 88. 
 
 Tennessee, 64, 113, 118, 119, 
 148, 240, 243, 258, 261. 
 
 Tennessee River, 13, 19, 21, 
 57, 260. 
 
 Terre Haute, 193, 194. 
 
 Texas, 219, 220, 262, 335; 
 colony of, 11. 
 
 Thames River, Canada, 90. 
 
 Thirteenth Regiment of Rail- 
 road Engineers, 335. 
 
 Thirty-third Division, 335-337, 
 
 338. 
 Thomas, General George H., 
 
 263, 264. 
 Thomas, Jesse B., 104, 105, 
 
 109, ii2, 113. 
 Thomas, Theodore, 361. 
 Three Hundred and Seventieth 
 
 Infantry, 335. 
 Todd, John, 53, 56. 
 Todd, Mary, 182. 
 Tonti, Henri de, 9, 10, 11, 12, 
 
 22. 
 Treaty of 1783, 46, 72, 77. 
 Treaty of 18 1 6, 170. 
 Treaty of Fort Stanwix, 1768, 
 
 42, 74. 
 Treaty of Ghent, 91, 118. 
 
 Treaty of Greenville, 76. 
 Treaty of Paris, 1763, 21, 30, 
 
 83. 
 Treaty of Utrecht, 1713, 19. 
 Treaty of Versailles, 340. 
 Troyon sector, 336. 
 Trumbull, Lyman, 185, 227, 
 
 229, 231, 237, 239, 242, 247, 
 
 248, 257, 268, 269, 296, 300. 
 Turner, George, 97. 
 Turner, Jonathan B., 140, 223, 
 
 286, 287. 
 Tyler, John, 163, 164. 
 
 United States, 34, 48, 51, 60, 
 61, 62, 63, 64, 67, 68-95, 96, 
 147, 148, 149, 150, 167, 171, 
 173, 191, 199, 222, 234, 251, 
 254, 255, 262, 282, 299, 320, 
 323, 337, 340, 34i, 352, 359, 
 361. 
 
 University of Chicago, 287, 
 340, 358-359, 360. 
 
 University of Illinois, 288, 340, 
 359- 
 
 Urbana, 211, 339. 
 
 Utah, 222. 
 
 Utica, 9. 
 
 Van Buren, Martin, 150, 160, 
 
 162, 219, 221. 
 Vandalia, 43, 128, 181. 
 Vandalia Land District, 130. 
 Vasco da Gama, 2. 
 Vera Cruz, 220. 
 Vermont, 70, 162. 
 Versailles, 17, 45. 
 Vicksburg, 261, 262, 263. 
 Vienna, settlement at, 122. 
 Vincennes, 15, 39, 44, 49, 52, 
 
 53, 54, 56, 101, 137, 193. 
 
394 
 
 Index 
 
 Virginia, 2, 19, 26, 33, 37, 43, 
 4-5, 5i, 52, 53, 61, 119, 153, 
 240. 
 
 Viviat, French settler, 50. 
 
 Volstead Act, 316. 
 
 Wabash River, 20, 38, 41, 43, 
 
 54, 72, 87, 119, 123, 169, 
 
 180, 232. 
 Warsaw, settlement at, 92, 174. 
 War of 1812, 88, 106, 118, 128, 
 
 146, 148, 149, 174. 221. 
 War of Spanish Succession, 
 
 1702-1713, 14- 
 Warren, Hooper, 111. 
 W r ashburn, Elihu B., 229, 236. 
 Washington, D. C, 146, i47> 
 
 148, 150, 151, 156, 223, 234, 
 
 286, 340. 
 Washington, George, 21, 51, 
 
 65, 152. 
 
 Washington Globe, 167. 
 
 Waukegan, 314. 
 
 Wayne, Major General An- 
 thony, 74, 75, 76. 
 
 Weaver, William H., 302. 
 
 Webb, E. B., 231. 
 
 Webster, Daniel, 164. 
 
 Wentworth, John, 165, 168, 
 192, 205, 218, 220, 221, 223, 
 224, 226, 227, 229, 231, 237, 
 248, 296. 
 
 Western Citizen, 217. 
 
 Western Intelligencer, 106. 
 
 West Indies, 27. 
 
 West Virginia, 47. 
 
 Wharton, Samuel, 43. 
 
 Whig party, disappearance of 
 the, 231, 250; in Illinois, 
 115, 116, 160, 162, 163, 164, 
 165, 166, 182, 218, 220, 227, 
 228. 
 
 White, Hugh, 163. 
 
 Wilkinson, General James, 88. 
 
 Willing, Captain George, 48. 
 
 Wilkins, Lieutenant Colonel 
 John, 35, 37, 38. 
 
 Wilmot Proviso, 221, 223. 
 
 Wilson, Woodrow., 308, 322, 
 
 323, 34i- 
 Winnebago Indians, 170. 
 Winnebago War, 170. 
 Winston, Richard, 56, 57. 
 Wisconsin, 64, 99, 104, 171, 
 
 194, 228, 256, 283, 339- 
 Wisconsin Territory, 171, 184. 
 Woodworth, James H., 229. 
 Wood, General, 220. 
 World War, 255, 266; Illinois 
 
 in the, 320-341. 
 Wright, John, 183. 
 
 Yates, Richard, 244, 248, 249, 
 265. 
 
 Yorktown, victory of, 63. 
 
 Young, Brigham, 188. 
 
 Young Men's Christian Asso- 
 ciation, 331-332. 
 
 Young Woman's Christian As- 
 sociation, 332. 
 
 Young, R. M., 161.