LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Taken early in 1857 by Alex. Hesler, of Chicago. By permission and courtesy of 
 the S. S. McClure Company.
 
 TRANSACTIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 Tf>e 
 Historical Society 
 
 BLOOMINGTON, ILLINOIS. 
 
 Meeting of May 29, 1900 
 Commemorative of the 
 
 Convention of May 29, 1556 
 
 That Organized the Republican 
 Party in the State of Illinois 
 
 EDITED BY EZRA M. PRINCE 
 
 SECRETARY OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 VOL. III. 
 
 Pantagraph Printing and Stationery Co. 
 
 Bloomington, Illinois. 
 
 1900.
 
 COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION. 
 JOHN H. BUBNHAM. GEORGE P. DAVIS. EZRA M. PRINCE. 
 
 Copyrighted 1900.
 
 c y 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 -// A ti BRAHAM LINCOLN has become the civic ideal of 
 IOI 
 
 his native land, and is fast becoming the ideal of the 
 
 self-governing', the democracy of all lands, the in- 
 carnation in the political world of the highest ideals 
 of our common Christianity. The most momentous event 
 in his life was the convention at Major's hall, Blooming-ton, 
 111., May 29, 1856. There he formally, definitely broke with 
 the old order of things, and became the master spirit in a 
 new organization which was destined not only to destroy 
 slavery and remove that great obstacle to our national 
 progress, but, in other respects, to make a most profound 
 and lasting impress upon our state and national life. 
 
 The McLean County Historical Society is composed of 
 members of different political parties who naturally differ 
 as to the wisdom of the policies of the Republican party, 
 but their importance is questioned by no one. It is, there- 
 fore, a proper subject for historical research, and it is emi- 
 nently fit that the historical society of the county where 
 that convention was held, where its master spirit was so 
 well known and so loved, and whose citizens were so potent 
 a factor in his nomination for the presidency, should com- 
 memorate an event of such supreme public importance. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was the inspirer, the soul of this conven- 
 tion. On that occasion he delivered the great speech of 
 his life, not only rising to the loftiest heights of impas- 
 sioned eloquence, but with the prophetic insight of the seer
 
 forecasting" the great struggle with the slave power, and 
 predicting" the ultimate triumph of freedom. 
 
 In the interests of historical research and truth, this 
 meeting was called, and this book, its proceeding's, is pub- 
 lished. 
 
 In the arrangement of the program of the meeting the 
 speakers, as far as possible, were selected from the mem- 
 bers of the convention, and on account of their identifica- 
 tion with and special knowledge of the subject treated by 
 them. 
 
 The society is indebted to the S. S. McClure Company 
 and to the Century Company for the permission to use 
 several pictures of the participants in the convention, to 
 the New York Evening Post for copy of letter of John H. 
 Bryant, to the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society 
 for copy of telegrams, to the Chicago Historical Society 
 for the use of their newspaper files; also to Mr. D wight E. 
 Frink for a drawing of Major's hall,- and to the committee 
 of arrangements for the means with which to publish this 
 
 book. 
 
 E. M. PRINCE, Secretary. 
 
 GEORGE PERRIN DAVIS, 
 JOHN HOWARD BURNHAM, 
 EZRA MORTON PRINCE, 
 
 Committee on Publication.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Introductory Note, E. M. Prince, H 
 
 Introductory Address, George P. Davis, 25 
 
 Address of Welcome. Joseph W. Fifer, 26 
 
 Editorial Convention, February 22, 1856, Paul Selby, ... 30 
 
 Republican State Convention, October, 1854, Paul Selby, . . 43 
 
 The Germans and German Press, William Vocke, ... 48 
 
 Lovejoy, the Abolitionists, and Republican Party, Benj. F. Shaw, 59 
 
 Address, James M. Ruggles, 74 
 
 Lincoln and the Campaign of 1856, Thomas J. Henderson, . . 78 
 
 Lincoln and the Anti-Know-Nothing Resolutions, Geo. Schneider, 87 
 
 Address, J. O. Cunningham, . . 91 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, John G. Nicolay, 95 
 
 The Whigs and Whig Leaders, I. L. Morrison, .... 102 
 
 General Address, John M. Palmer. 113 
 
 Biographical Sketch of Governor Bissell, Frank M.Elliot, . . 124 
 
 Official Account of Convention, 148 
 
 Telegrams, 165 
 
 Unofficial Account of Convention, 166 
 
 The "Lost Speech," .... 180
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Lincoln, Frontispiece 
 
 Committee on Publication, 4 
 
 Major's Hall, 1856, 11 
 
 John M. Palmer, 13, 115 
 
 Eighth Judicial Circuit Illinois, Map, 17 
 
 David Davis, 19 
 
 Jesse W. Fell, 21 
 
 Leonard Swett, 23 
 
 Joseph W. Fifer, 27 
 
 Paul Selby, 31 
 
 William Vocke 49 
 
 Benjamin F. Shaw, 61 
 
 Isaac Funk, ; t55 
 
 Group of Delegates, 75 
 
 O. M. Hatch, 77 
 
 Thomas J. Henderson, 79 
 
 George Schneider, 89 
 
 John G. Nicolay. 97 
 
 Isaac L. Morrison, 103 
 
 William H. Bissell, 125 
 
 Richard Yates, 154 
 
 James Miller, 157 
 
 Richard J. Oglesby, 167 
 
 Frederick Hecker, 169 
 
 Pike House, 171 
 
 O. H. Browning. 173 
 
 Owen Lovejoy, . . . . . . . . . . 175
 
 Bloomington, 111., Newspaper Accounts of Meeting of May 29, 1900. 
 
 HISTORICAL SOCIETY CELEBRATES ANNIVERSARY OF FIRST 
 REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION. 
 
 Back through the changing years, delving in the records 
 of many decades, the McLean County Historical Society has 
 secured data of one of the most interesting events in the early 
 political history of Illinois. After months of research and 
 tireless endeavor, the results are seen in an anniversary cele- 
 bration today of the first state convention of the Republican 
 party in Illinois. Out of the agitation against slavery the 
 Republican party was born, gathering to its ranks men from 
 all parties who were moved by the single impulse, the freedom 
 of the black man. 
 
 It is the story of the events that led up to the first conven- 
 tion of the new party in Illinois and a recital of the proceed- 
 ings of that famous gathering held in May, 1856, in Major's 
 hall of this city. Then it was that the famous "Lost Speech" 
 of Abraham Lincoln was delivered, the speech which was so 
 enthralling in its eloquence that the reporters sat with pencils 
 in hand, forgetful of their duties, and failing to take notes. 
 
 But the speakers of the celebration can best tell the story 
 of that gathering. They met this afternoon in the Unitarian 
 church a little band of gray headed men, and an audience that 
 filled every seat, listened with the most intense interest to their 
 story of the days before the war. Passion ran high in those 
 days, and friends became enemies in arguing the momentous 
 question of slavery. Parties crumbled to dust in the mighty 
 crucible of public opinion. Neighbors became antagonized 
 and many were martyred on the anti-slavery cross. The feel- 
 ing grew hotter until cooled by the blood of the thousands in
 
 10 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 the great Civil War that followed. Every speaker told a tale 
 of thrilling interest and the student of early politics found a 
 mine rich in information. The pages of history could not be 
 made more attractive. Bulletin (Bloomington, 111.), May 29, 
 1900. 
 
 FOUNDING OF A PARTY. 
 
 The Major Hall Convention The Birth of the Republican Organization in This 
 City is Commemorated in a Fitting Manner Social Reunion of Dele- 
 gatesAssociates of Abraham Lincoln Review the Work of 
 a Political Gathering Held Forty-Four Years Ago. 
 
 Forty-four years ago yesterday was held in Blooming- 
 ton a convention that is not only historic, but which helped 
 to make the United States what it is today. At that time was 
 born the great Republican party in Illinois, the party that has 
 given a Lincoln, a Grant, a Logan, and a hundred other great 
 names to historvand to theworld; a party which has caused the 
 curse of slavery to be wiped off the face of our country and 
 which has scored its triumphs on every page of history for 
 nearly half a century. 
 
 It was in commemoration of this event that the Mc- 
 Lean County Historical Society decided to hold a special meet- 
 ing. Preparations have been going on for the past month 
 and the result was yesterday made public at a meeting at the 
 Unitarian church, which was attended by many of the dele- 
 gates to this old time convention. The attendance was quite 
 large, the majority being gray haired men and women, as was 
 natural considering that the event to be celebrated took place 
 forty-four years ago. 
 
 The building was well filled with people from abroad, 
 with Bloomingtonians and with those from the more immedi- 
 ate vicinity. Outside the rain fell, the lightning flashed and 
 the thunder's reverberations were often heard, but inside the 
 church the people sat with bated breath and noiseless atten- 
 tion, while they listened to the aged speakers as they told of the 
 trials and trouble of the beginning of the Republican party. 
 Pantograph (Bloomington, 111.), May 30, 1900.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 11
 
 12 A nti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 SOCIAL REUNION. 
 
 Perhaps the most interesting feature of the day was the 
 reunion held this morning in the lobby of the Windsor hotel. 
 Here the convention of 1856 was conducted again. Gen. John 
 M. Palmer who was the chairman of that body sat chatting 
 with George Schneider, Paul Selby, Benjamin F. Shaw, Gen. 
 Jas. M. Ruggles, Col. William Vocke, Gen. Thomas J. Hender- 
 son, David McWilliams, and other gray beards who are sur- 
 vivors of the convention of forty-four years ago today. In 
 that group were several who occupied chairs just across the 
 street in front of the old Pike House, now the Phoenix hotel, 
 May 29, 1856, and discussed the business of the Major's hall 
 convention. Little did they imagine what momentous conse- 
 quences were to result from the proceedings of Major's hall. 
 Lincoln, Oglesby, Wentworth, Yates and others who were 
 there have gone, but hallowed in grateful and tender remem- 
 brance, their memory lives on till time shall be no more. 
 
 Reverently the name of the martyred president was re- 
 called today. Incidents of his presence were told on every 
 hand. A treasured relic brought from Chicago by MT. Geo. 
 Schneider was the picture of Lincoln taken in a Chicago res- 
 taurant in 1854. He was taking dinner with Mr. Schneider 
 and while he was reading a copy of the Chicago Democrat, a 
 photographer stepped in and asked permission to take Lincoln's 
 picture and he consented. A copy of the photo was retained 
 by Mr. Schneider and was viewed with deepest interest today. 
 
 Another interesting relic was a picture of the Union de- 
 fense committee organized in Chicago just before the war to 
 equip Illinois regiments for the field. This picture shows 
 each member of the committee and was presented to the His- 
 torical Society by Mr. Schneider. There are but three mem- 
 bers of the original committee surviving. Mr. Schneider, 
 Thomas B. Bryan and A. H. Burley, all of Chicago. 
 
 It developed by comparing notes that the delegates 
 selected by the Bloomington convention of 1856 to the national 
 convention of Philadelphia, but two are living General 
 Palmer and George Schneider. Both were here todav and the
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 13 
 
 latter had in his possession the original ticket of admission. 
 He also had the ticket of admission to the national convention 
 of 1860. These relics were also viewed with great attention 
 and appealed strongly to the group of old gentlemen. 
 
 Of the group of Anti-Nebraska editors who met in con- 
 vention in Decatur in February, 1856, to issue the call for the 
 convention which met in Bloomington, the three survivors, 
 Paul Selby and George Schneider, of Chicago and Benjamin F. 
 Shaw, of Dixon, were here today. Selby at that time repre- 
 sented trie Jacksonville Journal, Schneider the Chicago Staats- 
 Zeitung and Shaw the Dixon Telegraph, with which he is still 
 connected. 
 
 GENERAL JOHN M. PALMER 
 From army photograph taken in 1863. By 
 permission and courtesy of the S. S. McClure 
 Co. 
 
 The oldest man in attendance at the anniversary is Gen- 
 eral Palmer. He is 82. He has been in poor health of late 
 and his paper will be read bv another.* He came very near 
 dying during the winter and looks far from well. His eyes 
 lit up with the old fire, however, as he recalled the old days 
 and there was enthusiasm in his voice as he told incidents of 
 Lincoln and the great men of the early days. Bulletin, May 
 
 29, 1900. 
 
 \ 
 
 *The paper was, however, read by Gen. Palmer.
 
 14 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 Introductory, 
 BY EZRA M. PRINCE, 
 
 Secretary of the McLean County Historical Society. 
 
 To make plain to those who did not take part in the great 
 anti-slavery contest this introductory note may not be in- 
 appropriate. 
 
 THE RISE OF THE SLAVERY QUESTION. 
 
 March 16, 1818, there was presented to the house of rep- 
 resentatives a petition from Missouri for permission to form a 
 state constitution. February 13, 1819, when the question 
 came up before the house, an amendment was offered to the 
 enabling act prohibiting the further introduction of slavery 
 and providing that all children of slaves, born within the state 
 after its admission should be free but might be held to service 
 until the age of 25 years. March 6, 1820, a compromise hav- 
 ing been affected under the leadership of Mr. Clay, the en- 
 abling act was passed without the anti-slavery restriction, but 
 with the following amendment : "That in all the territory 
 ceded by France to the United States under the name of Louis- 
 iana which lies north of 36 degrees and 30 minutes, north lati- 
 tude, excepting only such part thereof as is included within the 
 limits of the state contemplated by this act, slavery and in- 
 voluntary servitude otherwise than in the punishment of crime 
 whereof the party shall have been duly convicted shall be and 
 is hereby forever prohibited." This was known as the "Mis- 
 souri compromise." The principle of this compromise, the 
 supreme control of congress over the territory even in the 
 regulation or abolition of slavery remained unquestioned for 
 nearly thirty years and in popular estimation was held little 
 less sacred than the constitution itself. 
 
 June 3, 1849, California formed a state constitution ex- 
 pressly prohibiting slavery but the senate of the United States 
 refused to concur in the house bill providing for its admis- 
 sion into the Union. Mr. Clay again came forward with a
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 15 
 
 compromise, which in August and September, 1850, was 
 finally effected as follows : 
 
 First; the admission of California with its constitution 
 prohibiting slavery. 
 
 Second; organizing the territories of New Mexico and 
 Utah, without any anti-slavery restriction. 
 
 Third; a very drastic fugitive slave law. 
 
 Fourth; abolishing the slave trade in the District of 
 Columbia. 
 
 Fifth; the payment to Texas, of a large indemnity for 
 the relinquishment of her claims to New Mexico. 
 
 In 1853 a bill was introduced in congress to organize the 
 territory of Nebraska. January 16, 1854, Senator Dixon, of 
 Kentucky, having given notice of an amendment abolishing 
 the Missouri compromise in the case of Nebraska, the bill was 
 recommitted to the committee on territories and Stephen A. 
 Douglas, senator from Illinois, immediately reported a bill di- 
 viding the territory into two territories, the southern, adjoining 
 Missouri on the west, called Kansas and the northern, adjoining 
 Iowa on the west, called Nebraska and repealing the Missouri 
 compromise in regard to slavery. This precipitated the in- 
 evitable conflict between slavery and freedom. It practically 
 destroyed the Whig party. The anti-slavery sentiment of the 
 north had grown gradually and the conviction had became 
 general that there could be no lasting compromise with 
 slavery. In the south the more aggressive and radical pro- 
 slavery leaders gained control of the Democratic party and 
 through it the complete domination of the south. In the north 
 the repeal of the Missouri compromise caused great excite- 
 ment. In 1854 when Senator Douglas returned to Chicago 
 and attempted to justify his acts the people refused to hear 
 him but for four hours yelled and hissed him until he retired 
 from the meeting. In the condition of affairs here briefly 
 outlined the Major's Hall convention met. 
 
 The Major's Hall convention was substantially the first 
 state convention in Illinois in opposition to the repeal of the 
 Missouri compromise. In 1854 an attempt was made by the
 
 16 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 more advanced anti-slavery men of the state to organize a new 
 party to resist the encroachment of the slave power. "Sep- 
 tember 9, 1854, a Republican county convention of the voters 
 of McLean county was held at Bloomington to appoint dele- 
 gates to a state convention to be held at Springfield at which 
 the following were elected delegates to the state convention : 
 Dr. R. O. Warinner, Dr. J. R. Freeze, Oliver Graves, A. B. 
 Jves, N. N. Jones and W. F. M. Arny." 
 
 "The state convention to which these delegates were ap- 
 pointed, met at Springfield October 5, 1854. It was attended 
 by only twenty-six delegates who were mostly abolitionists, 
 Owen Love joy, Ichabod Codding and Erastus Wright having 
 been the moving spirits. On the 5th of October it nominated 
 John E. McClun, of McLean county, as candidate for state 
 treasurer. In a short time the name of James Miller, of Bloom- 
 ington, was substituted for that of Judge McClun." Burnham's 
 History of Bloomington and Normal, p. no. 
 
 The times were not yet ripe for a thorough organization 
 of the anti-slavery sentiment of the state. In 1855 there was 
 no state election in Illinois and of course no organization of 
 the state. It was left for the Major's Hall convention to do 
 that work. 
 
 THE EIGHTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT OF ILLINOIS CIRCUIT. 
 
 This circuit, organized in 1847, consisted of fourteen coun- 
 ties in the east half of the central portion of the state, Sanga- 
 mon, Tazewell, Woodforcl, McLean, Logan, DeWitt, Piatt, 
 Champaign, Vermilion, Edgar, Shelby, Moultrie, Macon, and 
 Christian. Session laws 1847, p. 31 The above is the eighth 
 circuit as known to Mr. Lincoln's friends. In 1853 the circuit 
 was reduced to Sangamon, Logan, McLean, Woodford, Taze- 
 well, DeWitt, Champaign, and Vermilion. Session laws 1853, 
 p. 63, and in 1857 it was still further reduced to DeWitt, 
 Logan, McLean, Champaign, and Vermilion. Session laws 
 1857, p. 12. In this central belt of the state the waves of 
 emigration from the north and south met and mingled. It was 
 the debatable ground between the friends of freedom and those 
 who were the friends of slavery or indifferent to its aggres-
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 17 
 
 sions. The northern part of the state was overwhelmingly 
 anti-slavery, the southern as bitterly opposed to them. Which 
 ever party won the center won the fight. 
 
 From its earliest history the bar of this circuit was ex- 
 ceptionally strong, in its earlier days including Edwin D. 
 Baker, afterwards senator from Oregon, James A. McDougal, 
 senator from California, Stephen A. Douglas, senator from 
 Illinois, General Asahel Gridley of Bloomington, and 
 Judge Stephen T. Logan of Springfield, whom Judge David 
 Davis after a service of ten years as circuit judge, fifteen years
 
 18 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 justice of the supreme court of the United States and six years 
 as United States senator pronounced the ablest lawyer he had 
 ever met. Many able lawyers from outside the circuit attended 
 the courts, including Norman H. Purple of Peoria, formerly 
 judge of the supreme court, T. L. Dickey of Ottawa, afterwards 
 judge of the supreme court, Voorhees, afterwards senator from 
 Indiana, and Usher, afterwards Secretary of the Interior, trom 
 Indiana. In every county were able, energetic young lawyers 
 who had "gone west" to make their fortunes, such men as Adlai 
 E. Stevenson, Richard J. Oglesby, Judges Lawrence Wei- 
 don, Anthony Thornton, Oliver L. Davis and John M. Scott. 
 In each county of this large circuit two terms of court were 
 held each year which Mr. Lincoln and the other leading lawyers 
 of the circuit, Baker, McDougal, John T. Stuart, Logan, 
 Leonard Swett and others regularly attended. Lincoln spent 
 substantially half of each year on the circuit. 
 
 After Sangamon, Mr. Lincoln's home county, was attach- 
 ed to a new circuit, he continued to attend the eighth circuit 
 up to the time of his nomination. He attended the spring 
 term, 1860, of the McLean circuit only a few weeks before his 
 nomination. 
 
 The relations between the court, lawyers, jurors and sena- 
 tors of the eighth circuit was peculiar, one that has long since 
 passed away. The court was rather a big family consultation 
 presided over by the judge than a modern court. Judge Davis 
 personally knew a large portion of the people in the circuit. 
 The jurors were then selected by the sheriff. In McLean and 
 probably in the other counties, substantially the same jurors ap- 
 peared from term to term, personal friends of Judge Davis, 
 men of intelligence, sound judgment and integrity whose ver- 
 dicts rarely had to be set aside. Court week was a holiday 
 for the people of the county, political years there was always 
 speaking at the court house, the parties using it on alternate 
 nights. The people attended court to get the news, hear the 
 speeches, listen to the exciting trials and do their trading. 
 The lawyers and many of the jurors, witnesses and suitors 
 stopped at the same tavern. There was a singular comrad-
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 19 
 
 DAVID DAVIS, Bloomington, 111. 
 
 Born in Maryland, March 9, 1815; died June 26. 1886, jurist, U. S. Senator. See 
 Volume I, Transactions McLean County Historical Society 320. 
 By permission and courtesy of the Century Co.
 
 20 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 ship of these attendants upon the court. \Yithout the court at 
 all losing its dignity, there was a freedom and familiarity as of 
 old friends and acquaintances meeting upon a public occasion 
 rather than the formality and dignity associated with the idea 
 of a modern court. Often the judge's room, which sometimes 
 was the only decent one in the tavern, was used evenings by the 
 lawyers in their consultations without regard to the presence 
 of the judge. 
 
 In several, perhaps all these counties, young lawyers who 
 desired to avail themselves of Mr. Lincoln's popularity and 
 who perhaps distrusted their own ability to prepare and try 
 cases in the circuit court, arranged with Mr. Lincoln to allow 
 them to advertise him as their partner. So there was Lincoln 
 & Jones in this county and Lincoln & Smith in that ; but the 
 partnership was limited simply to Lincoln trying Smith & 
 Jones cases, if they had any, and dividing fees with them, only 
 this and nothing more. The only law partners, in the proper 
 acceptance of that term, Mr. Lincoln ever had, were his Spring, 
 field partners, Col. John T. Stuart early in his legal career, and 
 later William H. Herndon. Stuart was a very accomplished 
 gentleman and lawyer, the chancery lawyer of the circuit, 
 whose courts he always attended. Mr. Herndon never travel- 
 ed the circuit. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was always a great favorite with the court, 
 lawyers and all attendants upon the court. The young and 
 inexperienced lawyers received from him wise and timely ad- 
 vice and aid in their cases. The trial of cases was conducted 
 almost entirely by these leaders of the cirrMit, Mr. Lincoln 
 being on one side or the other of nearly every case tried. /\ 
 crowd always gathered around him whether in court or else- 
 where, expecting the never failing "story." The evenings 
 were a contest of wits, for the pioneer lawyer always had a 
 good story ready. These customs of the circuit made its 
 leaders warm friends. 
 
 Around the eighth circuit grew up the influences that 
 made Abraham Lincoln president of the United States. 
 
 At Bloomington were three men destined to exert a wide 
 influence on Mr. Lincoln's career. Jesse W. Fell, Leonard
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 JESSE W. FELL, Normal, 111. 
 
 Born in Pennsylvania 1808; died February 25, 1887. See Volume I, Transactions 
 McLean County Historical Society, 338.
 
 22 Ant i- Nebraska Republican 
 
 Swett and David Davis, all Whigs by previous party affiliation. 
 Mr. Fell first seriously proposed Mr. Lincoln for president. 
 Born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, of Quaker parentage, 
 anti-slavery to the core, coming to McLean county in 1832, 
 a young lawyer, he early abandoned the law and engaged in 
 dealing in lands, entering 160 acres in Chicago and 320 in Mil- 
 waukee, one of the founders of the first newspaper and of the 
 first public library in Bloomington, a horticulturist and arbor- 
 culturist, planting 13,000 trees in Normal alone before a house 
 was built there, an unrivaled politician, but always refusing 
 office for himself. A lover of his fellow men, with a certain 
 disinterestedness that always made him friends and withal pos- 
 sessing a remarkable organizing capacity. By his skill and 
 unrivaled management he procured the location of the Normal 
 University and the Soldiers' Orphans' Home at Normal. An 
 idealist, yet a man of the greatest practical common sense. He 
 and Lincoln were kindred spirits. He was secretary of the 
 state Republican committee in 1858 during the memorable 
 campaign between Lincoln and Douglas. In 1856 when Mr. 
 Lincoln was obliged to decline the appointment of Illinois 
 member of the Kansas national committee he recommended 
 Mr. Fell to fill his place. He early conceived of Mr. Lincoln 
 as the proper candidate- f or the presidency in 1860 and entered 
 upon the accomplishment of that design with his usual energy 
 and persistence. To him Mr. Lincoln addressed in December. 
 1859, his brief autobiography. By personal address, by corres- 
 pondence and though the press at home and in other states he 
 was unceasing in his advocacy of Mr. Lincoln. Leonard 
 Swett, a native of the state of Maine, was the advocate of the 
 west, tall, swarthy, handsome, with the most melodious voice 
 man ever possessed. Mr. Fell by reason of his intelligence, 
 earnestness, persistence and disinterestedness was singularly 
 persuasive. Mr. Swett by the clearness of his mental concep- 
 tions, the melody of his voice, his geniality and eloquence 
 was equally influential. Last but not least was David Davis, 
 judge of the circuit court, a large and portly man of singular 
 physical and mental quickness and energy, a native of Mary-
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 23 
 
 Jand and by temperament and education a conservative, he was 
 profoundly attached to Mr. Lincoln and resisted all attempts 
 to detach him from the political fortunes of his friend. As 
 soon as he saw there was a possibility of Mr. Lincoln's nomi- 
 nation he threw himself into the movement with the whole 
 force and weight of a strong personality. Each of these three 
 men read their fellow men as they would read a book, instinc- 
 tively perceiving their character, the motives and influences that 
 would affect them. In the Chicago convention that nominated 
 
 LEONARD SWETT 
 
 Born at Turner, Maine in 1825. studied law, 
 came west, served in Mexican War, Whig 
 elector 1848, settled in Bloomington 1849 and 
 became one of the ablest lawyers in the 
 northwest, traveled the circuit with Mr. 
 Lincoln and was one of his most trusted ad- 
 visers during the Civil War. Died at Chica- 
 go, Illinois, June 8, 1889. 
 
 By permission and courtesy of the S. S. 
 McClure Co. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln in 1860 their influence was most potent. Judge 
 Davis by common consent took charge of the Lincoln forces. 
 Davis, Fell and Swett were incessant in their labors, addressing 
 delegations, laboring with individual delegates and caucusing 
 and directing the contest and with the aid of Palmer, Yates 
 and other earnest friends, won the victory. 
 
 The bar of the eighth circuit were hardworking men of the 
 highest integrity, character and ability. Their influence upon 
 Mr. Lincoln's career has never been properly recognized. We 
 hope some one may write a paper fully treating of this subject. 
 
 E. M. PRINCE
 
 24 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 MEETING 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MCLEAN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 UNITARIAN CHURCH 
 
 BLOOMINGTON, ILL . , MAY 29, 1900 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE OF THE CONVENTION 
 
 HELD AT 
 
 MAJOR'S HALL, BLOOMINGTON, ILL., MAY 29, 1856 
 
 THAT ORGANIZED 
 THE REPUBLICAN PARTY Itf ILLINOIS 
 
 PRESIDING: 
 GEORGE PERRIN DAVIS, President of the Historical Society. 
 
 SECRETARY: 
 EZRA M. PRINCE, Secretary of the Historical Society. 
 
 HONORARY VICE-PRESIDENTS: 
 
 E. W. BLAISDELL. GEORGE SCHNEIDER. 
 
 JOHN H. BRYANT. GEORGE W. STIPP, Jr. 
 
 DR. ROBERT BOAL. NATHANIEL NILES. 
 
 DR. WILLIAM JAYNE. JOHN W. WAUGHOP. 
 
 WILLIAM E. IVES. THOMAS J. HENDERSON. 
 
 J. M. RUGGLES. L. H. WALTERS. 
 
 W. P. KELLOGG. DAVID MCWILLIAMS. 
 
 J. E. WYNNE. Delegates to the Convention of May 29, 1856. 
 
 PROGRAM 
 
 9:00 A. M. WINDSOR HOTEL 
 
 Social Re-union of the Delegates to the Convention of May 29, 
 1856, and their friends. 
 
 2:00 P. M. AT UNITARIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Reading the call of the Convention of May 29, 1856. 
 
 Reading the roll of the Convention. 
 
 Welcome to the survivors of the Convention Ex-Governor Joseph 
 W. Fifer. 
 
 The Editoral Convention of February 22, 1856 Paul Selby, 
 Chicago. 
 
 The Germans and German Press Col. Wm. Vocke, Chicago. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln John G. Nicolay, Washington, D. C. 
 
 8:00 P. M. 
 
 Lovejoy the Constitutional Abolitionists and the Republican 
 Party Benj. F. Shaw, Dixon. 
 
 The Whigs and Whig Leaders I. L. Morrison, Jacksonville. 
 General Address Gen. John M. Palmer, Springfield.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 25 
 
 COMMITTZK OF ARRANGEMENTS 
 
 GEORGE P. DAVIS. J. W. FIPER. 
 
 D. M. FUNK. DR. J. L. WHITE. 
 
 H. H. GREEN. HENRY CAPEN. 
 
 A. B. HOBLIT. O. T. REEVES. 
 
 W. O. DAVIS. T. C. KERRICK. 
 
 SAIN WELTY. B. F. HOOPES. 
 
 C. P. SOPER. R. M. BENJAMIN. 
 
 LYMAN GRAHAM. PETER WHITMER. 
 
 T. F. TIPTON. HENRY BEHR. 
 
 GEORGE S. HANNA. W. T. M. MILLER. 
 L. H. KERRICK. 
 
 George Perrin Davis, president of the Historical So- 
 ciety, having" called the meeting 1 to order, said: 
 
 The McLean County Historical Society, knowing from their own 
 experience how fatal delay is to historical accuracy, felt it proper to 
 lay aside for the time being their labors on local affairs and bring 
 together the surviving members of the most momentous convention 
 ever held in this state, hoping, from the papers read and remarks of 
 the delegates, much of interest to the state and nation might be res- 
 cued from the memory of individuals and put in enduring form for our 
 descendants. The papers have all been prepared by men familiar 
 with the branch of the subject treated by them. 
 
 The secretary will read the call for the conyention of 
 May 29, 1856, which was read as follows: 
 
 ANTI-NEBRASKA STATE CONVENTION. 
 
 A state convention of the Anti-Nebraska party of Illinois will be 
 held in the city of Bloomington on Thursday, the 29th day of May T 
 1856, for the purpose of choosing candidates for state officers, appoint- 
 ing delegates to the national convention and transacting such other 
 business as may properly come before the body. The committee have 
 adopted as the basis of representation the ratio of one delegate to 
 every 6,000 inhabitants and one additional delegate for every frac- 
 tional number of 2,000 and over but counties that have less than 
 6,000 inhabitants are entitled to one delegate. W. B. Ogden, S. M. 
 Church, E. A. Dudley, Thomas J. Pickett, R. J. Oglesby, G. D. A. 
 Parks, Ira O. Wilkinson, W. H. Herndon, Joseph Gillespie, State Cen- 
 tral Committee. 
 
 The secretary then read the roll- of the delegates to 
 the convention of May 29, 1856, to which the following an- 
 swered present: 
 
 General John M. Palmer, Benjamin F. Shaw, Dr. William Jayne, 
 J. M. Ruggles, George Schneider, Thomas J. Henderson and David 
 McWilliams.
 
 26 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 Address of Welcome, 
 BY JOSEPH W. FIFER. 
 
 FELLOW CITIZENS : It is generally understood, I believe, 
 that this celebration is held under the auspices of the McLean 
 County Historical Society. Through the courtesy of the of- 
 ficers of that association, it becomes my gracious privilege to 
 say a few words of welcome upon this most interesting oc- 
 casion. 
 
 Friends, we are here to celebrate one of the most im- 
 portant events in history. Here in this city forty-four years 
 ago today, was held our first republican state convention. It 
 was the first organized opposition within the limits of our state 
 to the further spread of human slavery, and the cause of 
 liberty found here many of its ablest advocates, among whom 
 were David Davis, Jesse W. Fell and Isaac Funk. 
 
 In a short address of welcome I cannot of course, enter 
 upon any full discussion of the causes which led to that con- 
 vention ; nor will the proprieties of this occasion permit me to 
 speak at length of the historic events that soon followed. 
 
 In that assembly were gathered our ablest and most 
 conscientious statesmen. They came from all political par- 
 ties, and were united in the single purpose to resist at any cost 
 the further aggressions of slavery. It was not a time for the 
 success of busy little men, and therefore not a demagogue was 
 to be found in their midst. They were men of noble purpose 
 and high courage; men who believed that right makes might, 
 and consequently were not afraid to shake their fists in the 
 face of majorities. 
 
 The movement here inaugurated under the leadership of 
 Abraham Lincoln, Richard Yates, John M. Palmer, Benjamin 
 
 Joseph W. Fifer was born at Staunton, Va., Oct. 28, 1840; came to McLean Co., 
 111., 1857; enlisted private. Co. C, 33d 111. Vols. Aug. 15. 1861: severely wounded at 
 Jackson, Miss., July 13, 1863: discharged Oct. 11, 1864; entered Illinois Wesleyan Uni- 
 versity and graduated 1868; studied law and was successively city attorney of 
 Bloomington, state's attorney for McLean county, state senator, and governor of 
 Illinois, and is now member of interstate commerce commission.
 
 Convention May 29, 1856. 
 
 27 
 
 JOSEPH W. FIFER.
 
 28 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 Shaw and others, was not destined to have an easy or a bloodless 
 victory. In its cause we piled up a national debt of nearly 
 $3,000,000,000. In the bloody conflict that ensued five hun- 
 dred thousand American citizens laid down their lives count- 
 ing those on both sides. After this unparalleled sacrifice of blood 
 and treasure, the .doctrines here proclaimed finally triumphed 
 with Grant at Appomattox. The chains were all broken, the 
 auction block for the sale of human, beings, was forever ban- 
 ished from the land, and today, thank God, the foot of no slave 
 presses the soil of the continents discovered by Columbus. 
 
 No human sagacity could see the end from the beginning. 
 A movement undertaken for the purpose of enforcing wise re- 
 strictions against the spread of slavery, finally, through the 
 irresistible logic of events, resulted in the total removal of that 
 foul blot from our national escutcheon. 
 
 It is only just to say that this happy result was achieved, 
 not by the efforts of any single political party, for slavery was 
 abolished and the union preserved by the common patriotism 
 of the great American people; and men of all shades of politi- 
 cal belief now applaud the wisdom and courage of the conven- 
 tion held here near a half century ago. Instead of sectional 
 strife and discord, we now behold a nation of .70,000,000 of 
 people, with happy homes, and with a trade and commerce that 
 covers all the seas; a people, too, that are forever united in the 
 bonds of friendship under a single flag. And so the prophecy of 
 1 86 1 has been fulfilled. ''We are not enemies, but friends. We 
 must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, 
 it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords 
 of memory stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave 
 to every living heart and hearth-stone all over this broad land, 
 will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, 
 as surely they will be by the better angels of our nature." 
 
 Possibly most of the men who stood with Lincoln in that 
 historic convention, are now in their graves. Some are still 
 living, and some we have with us here today. We thank them 
 all, both the living and the dead for their patriotism, and for 
 their noble example of unselfish devotion to the cause of truth
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 29 
 
 and justice. One of their number was afterwards elected presi- 
 dent of the United States, and as he lay upon his bloody bier, 
 Secretary Stanton could point to him and truthfully say "there 
 lies the greatest leader of men that ever lived." Many others be- 
 came distinguished, both in civic and in military life, and ren- 
 dered honorable and conspicuous service to the nation. 
 
 The distinguished chairman of the convention, we are 
 glad to know, is present with us here today. Of his patriotic 
 services to his country in the darkest hour this nation ever 
 saw, time will not allow me to speak. In the cause of liberty 
 he was no laggard ; he early heard the call of duty and nobly 
 risked his life for the integrity of the Union and the glory and 
 honor of his country. The memory of his sacrifices will 
 remain fresh so long as patriotism and courage are appre- 
 ciated and admired by a grateful people. 
 
 My friends, the event you celebrate today is very close to 
 the hearts of our people. We appreciate your presence here, 
 and with the hope that your meeting may prove both pleasant 
 and profitable, I take great pleasure in extending to you on 
 behalf of the people of Bloomington and of McLean county, 
 a most sincere and cordial welcome.
 
 30 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 The Editorial Convention, February 22, 1856, 
 
 Pres. Davis: 
 
 One of the most important factors in establishing the Republican 
 party was the Anti-Nebraska press. The convention which we cele- 
 brate was called by a meeting of Anti-Nebraska editors held at Deca- 
 tur, February 22, 1856, presided over by Paul Selby, of the Morgan 
 Journal, of Jacksonville. He was also a member of the Anti-Nebraska 
 State Convention held in October, 1854, at Springfield. He has been 
 connected with many of the papers of this state, but mainly with the 
 State Journal of Springfield, for eighteen years. 
 
 He has held many offices of trust and profit, and for the past ten 
 years has lived in Chicago and been engaged in literary and histori- 
 cal work. 
 
 Our next paper is on "The Editorial Convention of February 22 r 
 1856." I have the pleasure of introducing Hon. Paul Selby. 
 
 PAUL SELBY, OP CHICAGO, 
 
 President of that Convention. 
 
 The task assigned me today is the presentation before 
 your society of the "inside history'' of the Convention of Anti- 
 Nebraska Editors held at Decatur, Illinois, February 22, 1856, 
 and this duty I shall endeavor to discharge with as much brev- 
 ity as circumstances will allow. The theme being strictly histor- 
 ical, you will expect no displays of either rhetoric or oratory, 
 but 1 shall confine myself to a narrative of facts, which I hope 
 may prove of value to your society and of interest to the in- 
 vestigators of history generally. 
 
 It is a fact well known to all familiar with the political 
 history of the time, that the decade following the year 1846 
 was one of intense political excitement and constantly increas- 
 ing agitation. Beginning with the annexation of Texas, 
 
 Paul Selby. editor, was born in Pickaway county, Ohio, July 20. 1825. In 1852 he 
 became the editor of the Morgan Journal, of Jacksonville, Illinois, with which he 
 remained until the fall of 1858. covering the period of the organization of the Re- 
 publican party in which the Journal took an active part. He was a member of the 
 republican Illinois State convention of 1854, was chairman of the Anti-Nebraska 
 Editorial convention of February 22, 1856. Was associate editor of Journal at Spring- 
 field, Illinois, from July 1862 to November 1865. Afterwards on the staff of the 
 Chicago Journal, also on the Republican from May 1868, to January 1874. Was edi- 
 tor of the Quincy Whig and in 1874 became editor of the Springfield Journal. Was 
 postmaster at Springfield from 1880 to 1886. With Newton Bateman as editor 
 of the Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 31
 
 32 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 which marked an immense expansion in the area of slave ter- 
 ritory, the growth of this excitement was temporarily checked 
 by the diversion of the popular mind from the great issue, by 
 the advent of the Mexican War on the one hand, and the admis- 
 sion of California as a free state on the other, with the virtual 
 exclusion of slavery from the territory acquired from Mexico 
 under operation of the compromise measures of 1850. But 
 even these were not sufficient to counterbalance the intense feel- 
 ing produced by the harsh features of the fugitive slave law. 
 which constituted a leading feature of that celebrated series 
 of acts the last compromise with which the name of Henry 
 Clay was associated. The hostility to this act, which mani- 
 fested itself in many sections of the north in open resistance to 
 the return of fugitive slaves to their southern masters, and sys- 
 tematic efforts made in certain northern states to neutralize 
 the law and thwart its enforcement by the enactment of state 
 laws, gave evidence of the constantly rising tide of public senti- 
 ment on this subject at this time. 
 
 The very climax of conditions tending to promote agi- 
 tation of the slavery question was reached in the approval, by 
 the president, on May 30, 1854, of the Kansas-Nebraska bill re- 
 pealing the Missouri Compromise and thereby removing the 
 restriction against the introduction of slavery into territory 
 north of the parallel of 36 degrees and 30 minutes. There 
 is a curious coincidence in the fact that, while one Illinois sen- 
 ator (Jesse B. Thomas) was accredited with the introduction, 
 in 1820, of the measure which took the name of the "Mis- 
 souri Compromise," as was then believed in the interest of 
 slavery, another Illinois senator (Stephen A. Douglas), 
 thirty-four years later, in compliance with the demands of the 
 friends of slavery, introduced, and pushed to a successful issue, 
 the act which accomplished the repeal of that measure. Yet 
 this was not accomplished until five years after the author of 
 the repealing measure had spoken of the act which he was 
 about to destroy, as having "an origin akin to that of the con- 
 stitution," and as having become "canonized in the hearts of 
 the American people as a sacred thing which no ruthless hand
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 33 
 
 would ever be reckless enough to disturb." And it fell to the 
 lot of another Illinoisan (Abraham Lincoln) not only to lead 
 the forces which put an effectual check upon the further spread 
 of slavery, but to give vitality to the act which was to wipe 
 the institution out of existence. 
 
 The condition of political affairs existing throughout the 
 nation between 1854 and 1856 was one of practical chaos. It 
 was a period of unrest and commotion such as the country had 
 not seen since the adoption of the constitution, and which was 
 only surpassed by the agitation which attended the outbreak 
 of the Civil War seven years later, of which it was the precursor. 
 Parties were disintegrating and their mutually repellant ele- 
 ments were seeking new associations. Anti-slavery Demo- 
 crats and anti-slavery Whigs were found in sympathy and al- 
 liance with each other, while the pro-slavery factions of both 
 parties were drifting in a similar manner towards a common 
 center. By "anti-slavery" in this connection I do not mean 
 those who had espoused the cause of practical "abolition,"or 
 even those who were known as "Free Soilers, " but those 
 who objected to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and 
 were opposed to the introduction of slavery in territory already 
 free, or which had been dedicated to freedom by that most 
 solemn of compacts. 
 
 Jn nearly every community during this period, especially 
 in the more densely populated portions of the northern states 
 and among the more intelligent classes, were groups of men 
 gathered from both of the old parties, as well as avowed Abo- 
 litionists and Free-Soilers, who were accustomed to meet and 
 anxiously confer together over the political situation. This 
 was especially the case in the citv of Jacksonville, my home at 
 that time a college town which embraced among its popula- 
 tion many familie's of eastern origin, or those from education, 
 association or natural impulse, in sympathy with the spirit of 
 freedom. Among those who held advanced views on the sub- 
 ject of slavery, I may mention the names of the late Prof. 
 Jonathan B. Turner, President Julian M. Sturtevant, of Illi- 
 nois college, Dr. Samuel Adams, of the same institution, Elihu
 
 34 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 Wolcott, Hon. Richard Yates, Prs. David Prince and Hiram 
 K. Jones (the latter still surviving and now a professor in Illi- 
 nois college), and among business men or those not engaged in 
 the professions, John Mathers, J. W. and J. O. King, J. H. 
 Bancroft, J. W. Lathrop, Peter Melendy, Anderson Foreman, 
 and many others. There was a widespread, an almost uni- 
 versal, demand among this class and their sympathizers 
 throughout the nation, for the organization of a new party 
 based upon resistance to the further extension of slavery, a 
 chief incentive being, found in the wrongs and outrages per- 
 petrated in the effort to plant that institution in Kansas, fol- 
 lowing immediately upon the congressional legislation of 1854. 
 It was my fortune at this time to be the editor of "The 
 Morgan (now Jacksonville) Journal," originally a Whig 
 paper, but which, on taking charge of it early in 1852 fore- 
 seeing, as I believed, the impending disruption of parties 
 had been made "independent." On the enactment of the Ne- 
 braska bill, however, it promptly took ground in opposition to 
 that measure. As the result of a conference with my partner, 
 Mr. Alvah C. Clayton for many years past the proprietor of 
 a printing house in St. Louis and now a resident of Webster 
 Groves, near that city about the holidays in December, 1855, 
 "The Journal" published an editorial suggesting a meeting of 
 the Anti-Nebraska Editors of the state for the purpose of 
 agreeing upon a line of policy to be pursued in the campaign 
 of the year then just opening. Owing to the destruction of 
 the files of "The Journal" of that period by fire, I am unable 
 to quote the article referred to, or even give its exact date. The 
 following quotation from the Chicago Tribune, published a 
 few weeks before the date of the convention, will indicate the 
 tenor of the article, as well as its origin : 
 
 "FREE-STATE EDITORIAL CONVENTION." 
 
 "It was moved by The Morgan Journal and seconded by 
 The Winchester Chronicle, that there be held a convention 
 of Free State Editors at Decatur .on the 22d of February. The 
 question has met the approval of the Pike County Free Press, 
 Decatur Chronicle and other papers. The Morgan Journal
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 35 
 
 calls on The Alton Courier, Democrat (of Chicago), Demo- 
 cratic Press, Tribune, Journal and Staah Zeitung, of Chicago ; 
 the Springfield Journal and the Belleville Advocate, and the 
 Anti-Nebraska press generally, from one end of the prairie 
 state to the other, to express their sentiments on the propriety 
 of the proposed convention." 
 
 Then follow quotations upon the subject from The 
 Pike County Free Press and The Morgan Journal, after which 
 the Tribune concludes its indorsement of the proposition as 
 follows : 
 
 "The reasons set forth by The Journal so clearly and well, 
 are sufficient. If it be the will of the Free State Editors of 
 Illinois to hold such a convention, the Tribune will be repre- 
 sented. We need only add that the proposition meets our cor- 
 dial approbation, and we hope a ready response will be heard 
 from every section of the great prairie state on the part of the 
 editorial corps not bound to swear in the words of Douglas and 
 slavery." 
 
 The Winchester Chronicle, which was the first to second 
 the proposition of The Morgan Journal, was, as I think, then 
 under the editorial charge of the late Judge John Moses, who 
 later was secretary for a number of years of the Chicago His- 
 torical Society and author of Moses' History of Illinois. The 
 Decatur Chronicle, then edited by W. J. Usrey, was an early 
 indorser of the movement, and, at its suggestion, Decatur was 
 named as the place of meeting, and accepted by common con- 
 sent. A call in the following form was printed in the papers 
 indorsing the proposition : 
 
 "EDITORIAL CONVENTION/' 
 
 "All editors in Illinois opposed to the Nebraska bill are re- 
 quested to meet in convention at Decatur, Illinois, on the 22d 
 of February next, for the purpose of making arrangements for 
 the organization of the Anti-Nebraska forces in this state for 
 the coming contest. All editors favoring the movement will 
 please forward a copy of their paper containing their approval 
 to the office of The Illinois State Chronicle, Decatur." 
 
 According to my best information, obtained by consulting 
 the files of papers which took part in the movement, it received 
 the formal indorsement of twenty-five, representing nearly the
 
 36 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 entire strength of the Anti-Nebraska press of the state at that 
 time. Those whose names were appended to the call as avowed 
 supporters of the proposition were: 
 
 The Morgan Journal, Jackson- The Fultonian, Vermont, Pulton 
 
 ville. County. 
 
 The Chronicle, Winchester. The Journal (German), Quincy. 
 
 The Illinois State Chronicle, De- The Beacon, Freeport. 
 
 catur. The Pantograph, Bloomington. 
 
 The Quincy Whig, Quincy. The Tme Democrat, Joliet. 
 
 The Pike County Free Press, Pitts- The Telegraph, Lockport. 
 
 field. The Gazette, Kankakee. 
 
 The Gazette, Lacon. The Guardian, Aurora. 
 
 The Tribune, Chicago. The Gazette, Waukegan. 
 
 The Staats Zeitung, Chicago. The Chronicle, Peru. 
 
 The Republican, Oquawka. The Advocate, Belleville. 
 
 The Republican, Peoria. The Journal, Chicago. 
 
 The Prairie State, Danville. Thi Journal, Sparta. 
 The Advertiser, Rock Island. 
 
 Others may have indorsed the movement, but their names 
 were not appended to the call as published up to the date of the 
 convention. The proposition was ignored by the Chicago 
 Democrat and the Democratic Press, though thev afterwards 
 indorsed the call for the Bloomington convention and sup- 
 ported its nominees. 
 
 The convention met at the time and place indicated in the 
 call, convening in the parlor of what was then the "Cassell 
 House" afterwards the "Oglesby House," but now known 
 as the "St. Nicholas Hotel." Of those who had indi- 
 cated their purpose to participate in the movement, a round 
 dozen put in an appearance and took part in the proceedings, 
 while two or three others arrived later in the day. A severe 
 snow storm, which fell the night before, blockaded many of 
 the railroads, especially in the northern part of the state, and 
 prevented the arrival of a number who had intended to be 
 present. The early arrivals included Dr. Charles H. Ray of 
 the Tribune, and George Schneider of the Staats Zeitung, Chi- 
 cago; V. Y. Ralston, of the Quincy U'hig; O. P. Wharton, 
 of the Rock Island Advertiser; T. J. Pickett, of the Peoria 
 Republican; E. C. Daugherty, of the Register and E. AY. 
 Blaisdell, of the Republican, Rockford : Charles Faxon, of the
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 37 
 
 Princeton Post; A. N. Ford, of the Lacon Gazette; B. F. Shaw, 
 of the Di.von Telegraph; W. J. Usrey, of the Decatur Chron- 
 icle and Paul Selby of the Morgan Journal. An organization 
 was effected with Paul Selby as chairman and Mr. Usrey as 
 secretary, while, according to the official report, Messrs. Ray, 
 Schneider, Ralston, Wharton, Daugherty and Pickett were 
 appointed a committee on resolutions, and Messrs. Faxon, 
 Ford and Shaw on credentials. 
 
 The most important work of the convention was transact- 
 ed through the medium of the committee on resolutions. Mr. 
 Lincoln came up from Springfield and was in conference with 
 the committee during the day, and there is reason to be- 
 lieve that the platform, reported by them through Dr. Ray as 
 their chairman, and adopted by the convention, bears the stamp 
 of his peculiar intellect. A copy of this document, embraced 
 in the official report of the proceedings of the convention, I 
 shall deposit with this paper for such use as your association 
 may see proper to make of it. 
 
 The platform, while disavowing any intention to interfere, 
 in the internal "affairs of any state in reference to slavery, re- 
 duced to its first elements, amounted to an emphatic protest 
 against the introduction of slavery into territory already 
 free, or its further extension; demanded the restoration of 
 the Missouri Compromise; insisted upon the maintenance of 
 the doctrine of the Declaration of Independence as essential 
 to freedom of speech and of the press, and that, under it, 
 "Freedom" should be regarded "as the rule and slavery the 
 exception, made and provided for as such and that it no- 
 where recognizes property in man as one of its principles ;" 
 declared in favor of the widest toleration in matters of religion 
 and for the protection of the common school system which 
 was a protest against "Know-Nothingism" which had swept 
 over the country within the preceding two years and con- 
 cluded with a demand for "reform in the administration of the 
 state government" as second only in importance to the slavery- 
 extension itself. This last declaration had an impressive sig- 
 nificance given to it, just three years later, in the exposure of
 
 38 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 the "canal scrip fraud" which furnished a scandalous sequel to 
 the administration of Gov. Matteson, then occupying the gu- 
 bernatorial chair. The platform, as a whole, amounted to a 
 declaration of the most conservative Republicanism, and the 
 foresight of its authors was indicated by the reiteration of 
 every feature of it, in subsequent years, in the utterances of 
 state and national conventions of the party. Without dis- 
 paragement to any, it is safe to say that Dr. Charles H. Ray 
 and Mr. George Schneider were controlling factors in framing 
 the platform the former in conjunction with Mr. Lincoln in 
 the clear enunciation of the principles of the new party on the 
 subject of slavery, and the latter as the faithful representative 
 of the German Anti-Nebraska element in his championship 
 of religious tolerance and the maintenance of the naturaliza- 
 tion laws as they were, as against the demand for the exclusion 
 of persons of foreign-birth from the rights of American citi- 
 zenship. 
 
 Not less important than the platform, and possibly even 
 more far-reaching in its effects, was the following, which was 
 adopted as an independent resolution : 
 
 ' 'Resolved, That this convention recommend a state dele- 
 gate convention to be held on Thursday, the 29th day of May 
 next, in the city of Bloomington, and that the state central 
 committee be requested to fix the ratio of representation for 
 that convention, and take such steps as may seem desirable to 
 bring about a full representation from the whole state." 
 
 The adoption of this resolution had been preceded by the 
 appointment of a state central committee embracing the fol- 
 lowing names : 
 
 First district, S. M. Church, Rockford. 
 
 Second district, W. B. Ogden, Chicago. 
 
 Third district, G. D. A. Parks, Joliet. 
 
 Fourth district, T. J. Pickett, Peoria. 
 
 Fifth district, Edward A. Dudley, Quincy. 
 
 Sixth district, W. H. Herndon, Springfield. 
 
 Seventh district, R. J. Oglesby, Decatur. 
 
 Eighth district, Joseph Gillespie, Edwardsville. 
 
 Ninth district, D. L. Phillips, Jonesboro.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 39 
 
 For the state-at-large : Gustavus Koerner, Belleville, and 
 Ira O. Wilkinson. Rock Island. 
 
 The day's proceedings ended with a banquet given in the 
 evening to the editors in attendance on the convention and a 
 number of invited guests, by the citizens of Decatur at the 
 Cassell House. By this time there had been two or three ar- 
 rivals of belated editors. Those whom I remember distinctly 
 were Simeon Whitely, of the Aurora Guardian, and Edward L. 
 Baker, of the State Journal, Springfield. The local committee 
 having the matter of the banquet in charge consisted of Capt. 
 Isaac C. Pugh, during the Civil War colonel of the Forty-first 
 Illinois volunteers ; Dr. H. C. Johns, who died at Decatur a few 
 weeks ago, and Major. E. O. Smith. Richard J. Oglesby, 
 then a young lawyer, presided and made the welcoming ad- 
 dress. Several of the editors made speeches, but, of course, 
 the principal speech of the evening was made by Mr. Lincoln. 
 In response to a suggestion, by one of the editors present, of 
 his name as a candidate for governor, Mr. Lincoln illustrated 
 his characteristic unselfishness and sagacity by advocating the 
 nomination of an Anti-Nebraska Democrat, on the ground that 
 such a nomination would be more available than that of an 
 old-line Whig like himself, finally naming Col. William H. 
 Bissell for the place a suggestion that was carried into ef- 
 fect at Bloomington in May, with the very result in November 
 following that he then predicted. 
 
 The men named upon the central committee all acted in 
 that capacity with three exceptions. These were W. B. Og- 
 den, who declined on account of the demands of business re- 
 quiring his absence from the state, his place being filled by Dr. 
 John Evans, who afterwards became the territorial governor 
 of Colorado by appointment of Mr. Lincoln; R. J. Oglesby 
 left the state for a tour through Europe and the Holy Land, 
 his place being filled by Col. I. C. Pugh, of Decatur, and Gov- 
 ernor Koerner (then serving as lieutenant governor under the 
 Democratic administration of Governor Matteson) doubted 
 whether the time had arrived for the organization of a new 
 party, and so declined, his place being left vacant. Thus
 
 40 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 changed, the committee issued its call for a "State Convention 
 of the Anti-Nebraska party of Illinois," naming May 29, as 
 the date and Bloomington as the place, as designated by the 
 convention at Decatur. 
 
 Thus it was that, on the I24th anniversary of the "Father 
 of His Country," with the aid and counsel of the man who was 
 to become its Preserver amid the greatest perils that had ever 
 assailed it from the foundation of the government, this little 
 band of Anti-Nebraska editors enunciated the doctrines which 
 were to be accepted as the foundation principles of the new 
 party, organized and manned the machinery, and set it in 
 motion in the direction of victory. And yet there was not a 
 man of them who felt he was domf more than any other mem- 
 ber of the incipient party was ready to do. The time was ripe 
 for the movement ; its spirit was in the minds of thousands, and 
 if that little gathering at Decatur had not taken the initiative, 
 others would have done so and the same result would have 
 been achieved at last. In the language of one of the naval 
 heroes of the Spanish-American War, there was "honor 
 enough for all." 
 
 A brief word as to the personal history of the members 
 of the Decatur convention: Ralston, of the Quincy Whig, 
 after serving as captain in an Illinois regiment and, later, in 
 an Iowa regiment, died in a hospital in St. Louis in 1864; Dr. 
 Charles H. Ray spent the last three years of his life as editor 
 of the Chicago Evening Post, dying in that city in 1870; T. J. 
 Pickett was engaged in newspaper work in Nebraska for a 
 number of years, dying at Ashland in that state in 1891; A. 
 N. Ford died at an advanced age at Lacon in 1892; W. J. 
 Usrey's life career was ended at Decatur in 1894; Daugherty 
 retired from business on account of declining health in 1865 
 and died not long after the exact date I am unable to give; 
 Faxon spent some time after the war in government employ- 
 ment in Washington City, dying, as I think, in that city, date 
 unknown; Whitely, after being employed in some govern- 
 ment position among the Indians, turned his attention to in- 
 surance business at Racine, Wisconsin, where he died about
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 41 
 
 1890; E. L. Baker served nearly twenty- four years as United 
 States consul at Buenos Ayres, dying there in 1897 as the re- 
 sult of injuries received in a railroad accident. So far as 
 known the following still survive : George Schneider, Chi- 
 cago; E. W. Blaisdell, Rockford; B. F. Shaw, of The Tele- 
 graph, Dixon ; O. P. Wharton, editor of The Daily Journal 
 and Local, of Sandusky, Ohio, and the author of this record. 
 
 There is a coincidence of no small interest in the fact 
 that, on the same day the conference of Anti- Nebraska editors 
 of Illinois was in progress at Decatur, a similar body of repre- 
 sentatives from the various states was in session at Pittsburg. 
 Pennsylvania, called together in a similar manner, ' 'for the pur- 
 pose of perfecting the national organization and providing 
 for a national delegate convention of the Republican party to 
 nominate candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency." 
 
 Among thosepresent at the Pittsburg meeting we find such 
 names as Francis P. Blair, of Maryland (its permanent presi- 
 dent) ; Gov. Edwin D. Morgan, Preston King and Horace 
 Greeley, of New York; Judge E. R. Hoar, of Massachusetts; 
 Oliver P. Morton and George W. Julian, of Indiana; Zach- 
 ariah Chandler, K. S. Bingham and Jacob M. Howard, of 
 Michigan; Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio; David Wilmot, of 
 Pennsylvania; Owen Lovejoy and J. C. Vaughan, of Illinois, 
 and many more of national reputation. Out of this latter 
 meeting came the call for the national convention at Phila- 
 delphia on the 1 7th of June, 1856, which put in nomination 
 John C. Fremont for the presidency. It will thus be seen that 
 the new party, which perfected its organization in this city 
 of Bloomington on the 29th day of May, 1856, started out 
 in its career abreast of the national organization itself. 
 
 The call for the Bloomington convention, as issued by the 
 state central committee appointed at Decatur, provided for a 
 total representation of 226 delegates, ranging from one for 
 each of the smaller counties, to seventeen from Cook. When 
 the convention came together, however, owing to the deep 
 interest manifested in some of the counties of the state re- 
 sulting in a large attendance of outsiders, and the unanimity
 
 42 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 which prevented the introduction of controversial issues, it 
 seems to have resolved itself into something like a "mass meet- 
 ing," and, although some thirty counties, chiefly in the south- 
 ern part of the state, were wholly unrepresented, the num- 
 ber of delegates whose names got upon the roll, as published 
 in the papers at the time, amounted to about 270. Of these 
 Lee county furnished 25, while the little county of Morgan 
 came next with 20. I was not present in the convention, al- 
 though appointed a delegate and entitled to be there. It will 
 be remembered that the popular argument of some of the most 
 zealous opponents of our new party organization, at that time, 
 was comprised in the bludgeon and the pistol. On the Mon- 
 day preceding the meeting of the convention, while on the 
 way from my office to the hotel at which I boarded, I was as- 
 saulted upon the street by a bevy of political enemies one of 
 them, whom I had no reason to suspect of personal hostility, 
 stealing behind to pinion my arms while his confederates closed 
 around me. The injuries which they were thus able to inflict 
 prevented my attendance upon the convention, but made no 
 converts for their cause. The country was even then ringing 
 with the report of the ruffianly assault upon Charles Sumner 
 in the senate chamber at Washington, which had occurred just 
 four days previous; but the name of Sumner lives in history 
 while that of his assailant has passed into practical oblivion. 
 
 And now, having, in compliance with the request made 
 of me, presented before you this plain unvarnished record; 
 having traced the genealogy of the Bloomington convention 
 of 18^6, and proved its legitimacy of descent from that little 
 editorial conference at Decatur on February 22, previous 
 having led you, so to speak, to the doors of the historic con- 
 vocation in this city I leave to others to admit you to its de- 
 liberations, to report upon its acts and portray the personal 
 characteristics of the men whose presence here marked an 
 era in your history and that of the state and the nation, and to 
 describe those great events which, through the agency of a 
 Lincoln, a Yates, a Lovejoy, a Grant and other Illinoisans, 
 many of whom participated in the deliberations of that assem-
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 43 
 
 blage and, acting in harmony and association with the pa- 
 triots and heroes of the whole Union, changed the destiny of 
 the Republic and made it the home of freemen instead of 
 "half slave and half free." In this result we see not only the 
 verification of the marvelous prediction of Abraham Lincoln 
 on the evening of June 17, 1858, but a vindication of the prin- 
 ciples enunciated and the policy indorsed in that little con- 
 vocation at Decatur, and incorporated in positive action by its 
 successor at Bloomington, on May 29, 1856. 
 
 Republican State Convention, Springfield, 111., October 4-5, 
 
 BY PAUL SELBY, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. 
 
 At the risk of going outside the record and digressing 
 from the strict purpose of this reunion, I ask your indulgence 
 while I make mention of the earliest attempt to organize a 
 party in this state on the basis which finally became the founda- 
 tion of the Republican party. I do this in no spirit of partisan- 
 ship, however, and with less compunction because it is a part 
 of the history of the times which we are here to commemorate, 
 and citizens of Bloomington were prominent figures in the 
 movement. This undertaking took the form of a "mass con- 
 vention," so-called, announced to be held in the city of Spring- 
 field, October 4, 1854, a few months after the passage of the 
 Nebraska bill by congress. The date and place were chosen 
 because the second annual fair of the Illinois State Agricultural 
 Society was to occur there during the same week, and the oc- 
 casion was deemed most favorable for securing a respectable 
 attendance. 
 
 It fell to my lot to be one of five delegates (I think) from 
 Morgan county, one of the others being Dr. Hiram K. Jones, 
 now a member of the faculty of Illinois College at Jacksonville. 
 When we came together we found that not only had no ar- 
 rangement been made for a place of meeting, but that the hall
 
 44 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 of representatives was occupied by Senator Douglas and others 
 in that memorable debate in which he first met Abraham Lin- 
 coln in the discussion of the principles of the Nebraska bill. 
 Among those who espoused Douglas' side of the question were 
 James W. Singleton and John Calhoun, the latter afterwards 
 known as "John Candle-box Calhoun," on account of his con- 
 nection with the alleged frauds in the attempt to impose the 
 Lecompton Constitution upon the people of Kansas. Lyman 
 Trumbull and Abraham Lincoln were Douglas' principal an- 
 tagonists, although Judge Sidney Breese and the late Col. E. 
 D. Taylor, of Chicago, took the same side, though later found 
 in cooperation with the Democratic party. This debate marked 
 the beginning of both Trumbull's and Lincoln's careers as lead- 
 ers of the new party, and ante-dated only a few months the con- 
 test for United States senatorship, which resulted in favor of 
 the former. 
 
 Between the debates of the afternoon, when Douglas and 
 Trumbull spoke, and the evening when Lincoln replied to the 
 former, we managed to get together long enough to effect a 
 temporary organization and appoint a committee on resolutions 
 when an adjournment was taken to the following day. The 
 late A. G. Throop, then of Chicago, but w r ho died a few years 
 since at Pasadena, California, was chosen chairman, while 
 Owen Lovejoy, Ichabod Codding and the late Gen. John F. 
 Farnsworth were leading spirits upon the floor. The committee 
 on resolutions consisted of N. C. Geer, of Lake county ; John T. 
 Morse, of Woodford; Erastus Wright, of Sangamon; Dr. 
 H. K. Jones, of Morgan; Bronson Murray, of LaSalle (for 
 many years past a resident of New York City) ; S. M. Coe, of 
 Whiteside; T. B. Hurlbut, of Madison; William Butler, of 
 Lee ; Jesse Penrose, of Whiteside , and Dr. Henry Wing, of 
 Madison. They met in the evening in the dingy office of 
 Erastus Wright, one of their number and a leading anti-slavery 
 man of Springfield, and transacted their business by the light 
 of one or two tallow candles. 
 
 A place of meeting was found for the convention on the 
 second day in the old senate chamber, and, although its num-
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 45 
 
 bers had been increased somewhat by new arrivals, the space 
 was ample. The committee reported a conservative platform, 
 one of its chief features being embraced in the two following 
 resolutions : 
 
 "Resolved, That, as freedom is national and slavery sec- 
 tional and local, the absence of all law upon the subject of 
 slavery presumes the existence of a state of freedom alone, 
 while slavery exists only by virtue of positive law." 
 
 "4. That slavery can exist in a Territory only by usurpa- 
 tion and in violation of law, and we believe that congress has 
 the right and should prohibit its extension into such Territory, 
 so long as it remains under the guardianship of the general 
 government." 
 
 The platform was adopted and the Hon. John E. McClun. 
 of Bloomington, was nominated for state treasurer, the only 
 office to be filled by election that year. Later Mr. McClun 
 gave place to James Miller, also of Bloomington, who had re- 
 ceived a nomination for the same office from a Whig convention, 
 and who came within less than 3,000 votes of election. His 
 successful opponent was Hon. John Moore, also a citizen of 
 Bloomington. Two years later Miller was the nominee of 
 both the Republican and the American parties and was elected 
 by over 20,000 majority. 
 
 The remaining principal business transacted by this con- 
 vention was the appointment of a state central committee, con- 
 sisting of David J. Baker, of Madison county, (father of the 
 late Justice D. J. Baker, of the supreme court) ; N. D. Coy. of 
 Knox; N. C. Geer, of Lake; A. G. Throop, of Cook; E. S. 
 Leland, of LaSalle; M. L. Dunlap, of Cook; Abraham Lin- 
 coln, of Sangamon ; H. M. Sheets, of Stephenson ; Zebina East- 
 man, of Cook; John F. Farnsworth, of Kane; J. B. Fairbanks, 
 of Morgan, and Ichabod Codding, of Cook. This committee 
 never formally organized and faded out of existence. Mr. 
 Lincoln took no part in the convention and, according to Hern- 
 don, absented himself from the city on the second day, going 
 to Tazewell county in order that he might not be identified with 
 it. He still had hope that the Clay- Whigs the party of his 
 first love would take ground against the Nebraska bill, and.
 
 46 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 when notified by Codding of his appointment on the state cen- 
 tral committee, declined to recognize the right of the conven- 
 tion to use his name in that connection. 
 
 The attempt has been made in some quarters to depreciate 
 the importance of this convention by minimizing the numbers 
 in attendance and representing that it was "called and managed 
 by extremists." While it is true that such men as Owen Love- 
 joy and Ichabod Codding known as uncompromising anti- 
 slavery men were leading spirits in the convention, the con- 
 servative character of the platform adopted is a conclusive an- 
 swer to the charge of fanaticism. This went no farther than 
 a distinct declaration of opposition to extension of slavery into 
 free territory, which became the essence of Republicanism two 
 years later. When, on the proposition to place the name of Mr. 
 Lincoln on the list of members of the state central committee, 
 the question was raised whether he was in sympathy with the 
 views maintained by the convention, I have a distinct recollection 
 that Owen Lovejoy, in emphatic terms, vouched for his fidel- 
 ity to the principles enunciated in our platform. And, while 
 Mr. Lincoln then cherished the hope that his beloved Whig 
 party would finally range itself in opposition to the repeal of 
 the Missouri Compromise and the principles of the Nebraska 
 bill, he and Lovejoy were found contending for the same prin- 
 ciple before the convention in this city in 1856, and, in the 
 presidential chair, he had no more zealous champion and loyal 
 supporter than the brother of the Alton martyr. 
 
 The Chicago Daily Democrat, edited by the late John 
 Wentworth, in its issue of November 2, 1860, four days be- 
 fore the election of Lincoln to the presidency, after giving the 
 history of this convention substantially as I have given it here, 
 says : 
 
 "Such was the birth of the Republican party in Illinois. 
 Such were the men who set the ball in motion which is now 
 rolling forward with irresistible force. Almost without ex- 
 ception they are men who loved liberty for itself and not for 
 office. They were the founders, and they have been the pi- 
 oneers and righting men of the party. They have fought its 
 battles, won its victories and have brought it to the threshold 
 of a great triumph."
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 47 
 
 Although the convention of 1854 failed of its object, so 
 far as perfecting the new party organization was concerned, 
 the platform there adopted not only enunciated the principles 
 accepted by the party two years later, but played a curious and 
 interesting part in the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858. This 
 grew out of the production by Senator Douglas before the 
 audience at the first debate held at Ottawa on August 21, of 
 that year, of a series of extremely radical resolutions, which 
 he said had been adopted at the Springfield meeting, of which 
 he represented that Mr. Lincoln had been a member, and of 
 which he became a representative by virtue of his appointment 
 to a membership on the state central committee. As to the 
 last it has already been shown that Mr. Douglas was in error, 
 as he also was in regard to the genuineness of the resolutions 
 themselves. These had, in fact, been adopted by a local con- 
 vention in the northern part of the state, in Aurora, I think, 
 but, whether innocently or intentionally, I will not presume to 
 say, had been incorrectly published by the State Register, a 
 few days after the Springfield convention of October 4 and 5, 
 1854, as the platform adopted there. At the next debate, 
 which occurred at Freeport, a week later, Mr. Lincoln was in a 
 position not only to vindicate himself from responsibility for 
 the Springfield meeting, but to expose Mr. Douglas' blunder. 
 Douglas excused himself on the ground that the resolutions 
 had been used in debate by Thomas L. Harris, then a member 
 of congress from the Springfield district, as those adopted at 
 the Springfield meeting, and that he had been assured by the 
 editor of the Register that this was correct. That Mr. Doug- 
 las was unconsciously led into an error by the misrepresenta- 
 tion of his own organ there is no doubt, but its effect was to 
 produce a recoil from his argument at Ottawa, which caused 
 him no little chagrin and mortification at the time, and from 
 which he did not fully escape during the remainder of the de- 
 bates. 
 
 I reiterate what I said at the beginning of this digression , 
 that I do not allude to this incident in any spirit of partisanship, 
 but simply as a part of the history of the times we are com- 
 memorating today.
 
 48 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 The Germans and the German Press. 
 Pres. Davis: 
 
 After the suppression of the Revolution of 1848, large numbers of 
 the liberty loving Germans came to this country. On the formation of 
 the Republican party the most of them came into its ranks, because 
 they considered it the only party of liberty. 
 
 Our speaker tonight is a native of Germany, an eminent lawyer, 
 an author of legal works, and a German poet, who will address us on 
 "The Germans and the German Press." 
 
 I have the pleasure of introducing Hon. William Vocke. 
 
 WILLIAM VOCKE, CHICAGO,, ILLINOIS. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : The last week of the month 
 of May, 1854, marks a most momentous epoch in the politi- 
 cal history of our country. After weeks of unparalleled 
 excitement reflected in the debates of congress, as well as 
 in all other agencies of public utterance throughout the 
 country, the federal house of representatives, on the 22d 
 day of said month, passed the Kansas-Nebraska bill by which 
 the time-honored Missouri Compromise between the free 
 states of the north and the southern slave states was repealed. 
 Three days later the senate concurred in the measure; on 
 the 3Oth of May it received the signature of the president, 
 whereby it became a law, and thus all the territories lying 
 north of 36 degrees, 30 minutes north latitude were exposed 
 to the inroads of the southern slave power. To the better 
 element of the northern people, recognizing as they did that 
 slavery was a frightful blot upon the civilization of the 
 nineteenth century, it was hardly conceivable that the 
 grandchildren of the patriots of the War of Independence 
 could so far forget themselves as to tear down the last bul- 
 wark which the wisdom of their freedom-loving fathers had 
 
 William Vocke was born at Minden, Germany, 1839: emigrated to United 
 States in 1856, and came to Chicago: studied law. captain in 24th 111. Vols.: 1870, 
 elected representative to General Assembly; attorney for the German consulate 
 at Chicago: a leading lawyer of Chicago and of high literary taste; member of the 
 Republican National Convention of 1872.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 49 
 
 HON. WILLIAM VOCKE.
 
 50 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 established against the curse, and while all the political or- 
 ganizations of the country, the Democrats, Whigs, Free- 
 Soilers and Know-Nothings, were alike thrown into a state 
 of disintegration, everywhere the germs sprang up for the 
 formation of a new party which should, upon strictly con- 
 stitutional grounds, distinctly mark the limits of the slave- 
 power. 
 
 Two months before the passage of the Kansas-Ne- 
 braska bill a number of Whigs, Free-Soilers and Democrats 
 met on several days in an humble school house of the modest 
 little town of Ripon, Wisconsin, to discuss the formation of 
 a new party, and on the 3Oth of March, 1854, it was sug- 
 gested that it be called the "Republican party" and a resolu- 
 tion was carried that its object should be to secure the con- 
 finement of slavery within its present limits. It does not 
 seem to be definitely established, whether or not to this ob- 
 scure spot in the then far west belongs the glory of having 
 given the first impetus to the organization that brought 
 about the memorable events to which our nation owes its 
 deliverance from the relic of crudest barbarism. 
 
 The day after the adoption of the Kansas-Nebraska bill 
 about thirty members of the federal house of representa- 
 tives met in conference to take the formation of the new 
 party in hand, because there was no longer any hope that 
 the old ones could successfully oppose the encroachments of 
 the slave-power. Here too the name "Republican party" 
 was proposed for the new organization. From that moment, 
 the agitation proceeded throughout the northern states until 
 the organization received definite shape at a convention of 
 delegates from various northern states held on Washington's 
 birthday in 1856 at Pittsburg, where it was resolved to call a 
 national convention for the nomination of candidates for the 
 presidency and vice-presidency. This convention was held 
 on the i /th of June, the anniversary of the battle of Bunker 
 Hill, at Philadelphia. Meanwhile the people were thoroughly 
 aroused, permanent organizations were formed everywhere, 
 nominating conventions were held in all the states throughout
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 51 
 
 the north, thus in this state the Bloomington convention on the 
 day we now celebrate, and the Republican party, having been 
 successfully launched, entered upon a career of triumph and 
 glory which has shed the greatest lustre upon the history of 
 our country. In sympathy with the widely expressed senti- 
 ments of the north the Philadelphia convention did not stop 
 with the demand that the former barriers against the exten- 
 sion of slavery should merely be restored, but it declared : 
 
 "We demand and shall attempt to secure the repeal of 
 all laws which allow the introduction of slavery into terri- 
 tories once consecrated to freedom, and will resist by every 
 constitutional means the existence of slavery in any of the 
 territories of the United States." 
 
 I have been invited to show on this occasion what part 
 the German element of the country took in the mighty move- 
 ment which led to the overthrow of the southern slave power 
 and the regeneration and securer establishment of our na- 
 tional Union. 
 
 The immigrants from Germany, who had become na- 
 turalized here, had, before the attitude of the two great par- 
 ties toward slavery became clearly defined, instinctively 
 drifted toward the Democratic party, not only because there 
 was a natural charm in the word "Democratic," but also be- 
 cause they found that the Know-Nothing party, which had 
 for a few years achieved phenomenal successes principally in 
 the northern states, had been most extensively recruited from 
 the old Whigs. But when the issue between free labor and ne- 
 gro slavery was once squarely presented, their education and 
 great good sense prompted them at once to take a firm stand 
 on the side of freedom. They had never been able to per- 
 ceive, why under a free government persons should be held 
 in slavery, the subject of barter and sale like cattle, because 
 their skin was black and their hair woolly. They keenly 
 recognized that labor was degraded by the slave holder at 
 the expense of the free man. As citizens of this republic, 
 which had become their and their children's fatherland, they 
 appreciated that they, with all the rest of the people, were
 
 52 Anti-Nebraska Republican, 
 
 responsible for its good government; but they did not busy 
 themselves with the niceties of the question of states' rights 
 or state sovereignty, because, in abjuring the allegiance they 
 formerly owed to another sovereign, they had not become 
 citizens of the particular state alone in which they had taken 
 up their abode, but Americans enjoying the protection of 
 that flag which waved over the entire country. It was also 
 clear to them that in the fundamental law of the Union no 
 guarantees were expressed either for the protection or ex- 
 tension of slavery, and hence they solved all doubts in their 
 minds as to the law of the case in favor of the inalienable 
 rights of man. Then again the Missouri Compromise had 
 for more than thirty years served as a bulwark against the 
 spread of slavery into the northern territories, and why 
 should this barrier now be ruthlessly broken/down in order to 
 admit a hideous institution which made every right-minded 
 man in the country blush with shame? From this mode of 
 reasoning the Germans neither took kindly to the notion of 
 squatter sovereignty, because they could not see why the 
 black blotch of slavery should be permitted to disfigure the 
 fair western domain, simply because it might be imported 
 through the back door by the border ruffians. The argu- 
 ments were few and simple, our German-American citizens, 
 acting independently everywhere, planted themselves firmly 
 on the side of freedom, and swelled the ranks of the Re- 
 publican party immensely, for it should not be forgotten that 
 in our western states in particular their number was great 
 enough to make them a powerful factor, when the destinies 
 of our country were finally decided at the ballot box. 
 
 The southern slaveholders viewed the position of the 
 Germans with the utmost bitterness and alarm, which came 
 to the surface not only in the bloody Know-Nothing riots 
 at Baltimore, Louisville and other southern cities, but also 
 in most violent public utterances of many of the foremost 
 men of the south. The Know-Nothings of the north were, 
 in their secret and mysterious efforts to disfranchise the 
 foreign element of our people, prompted chiefly by their
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 53 
 
 hatred of the Catholic church; the slaveholders' party, how- 
 ever, announced its ill-will against the Germans of the north 
 only for the stand they took against slavery and on that ac- 
 count they were pronounced to be the most un-American ele- 
 ment in the Union. The Kansas-Nebraska bill was first 
 introduced by Senator Douglas on the 23d of January, 1854. 
 Six days later a mass meeting of Germans was held in Chi- 
 cago under the leadership of Mr. George Schneider, the edi- 
 tor of the Illinois Staats-Zeitung and an honored member 
 of your convention, protesting against the passage of the bill, 
 and so far as I have been able to find, this was the first in- 
 dignation meeting directed against the repeal of the Missouri 
 Compromise in the country. Shortly after the passage of 
 the bill the Germans of Chicago held another rally called by 
 Edward Schlaeger, editor of a weekly German paper entitled 
 the German-American, Fritz Baumann and others, express- 
 ing their abhorrence at the measure. At this meeting its 
 author, Stephen A. Douglas, was burnt in effigy. This was 
 the signal for an outburst of bitter hatred against the Ger- 
 man element on the part of the southern oligarchs in con- 
 gress. Shortly after the convening of that body in Decem- 
 ber, 1854, Adams, of Mississippi, introduced a naturaliza- 
 tion bill under which foreigners should not be admitted to ' 
 citizenship until after a residence of twenty-one years, giving, 
 as he did, as a reason for this measure the fact that the wick- 
 ed Germans had sent in so many petitions against the Kan- 
 sas-Nebraska bill and declaring further : "When I learned 
 the indignity offered to Senator Douglas by a German mob, 
 I determined to introduce this bill." In their perverseness 
 other southern representatives boldly insisted that the atti- 
 tude of the Germans on the slavery question showed them 
 to be incapable of entering into the spirit of American life 
 and of assimilating with our people, and that hence the safest 
 and only way to bring about assimilation was to deprive 
 them of the right of suffrage. 
 
 Though it may be conceded that the desire of the 
 southern slaveholders to disfranchise the German element
 
 54 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 was from their view-point perfectly reasonable, it will never- 
 theless be seen that the arguments by which they sought to 
 carry it out were wholly worthless, and that nothing in the 
 whole range of political agitation could have afforded a more 
 striking proof of the fact, that the Germans were in the best 
 sense of the expression thoroughly Americanized, than their 
 opposition to slavery. 
 
 In that great movement the Germans were so resolute 
 and so united that from the very start they left no one in 
 doubt as to their position. At the second annual meeting 
 of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society held on 
 the loth of May, 1854, at the New York Tabernacle, the 
 following resolution was adopted : 
 
 "Resolved, That we rejoice in the great unanimity 
 manifested by the German presses, and our German fellow- 
 citizens throughout the country, in opposition to the Ne- 
 braska scheme, so inimical to their Democratic principles, 
 to their cherished hopes and to the renown of their adopted 
 country." 
 
 Shortly after the enactment of the infamous Nebraska 
 bill it was shown by the Cincinnati Gazette that in its pub- 
 lished list of eighty-eight German newspapers in this coun- 
 try there were eighty that had declared their firm opposition 
 to the measure, while only eight remained which were de- 
 based enough to defend it. 
 
 Thus from the very beginning the Germans proved to 
 be true not only to the noblest traditions of their race, which 
 has been the natural friend of an enlightened freedom the 
 world over, but also to the most vital interests of the new 
 country, in which they had found hospitable homes. Their 
 noble and God-fearing countryman Francis Daniel Pastorius, 
 who was at the head of the little band brought into Penn- 
 sylvania by William Penn in 1683, had been the first man 
 in this land who issued a public protest against the crime 
 of slavery in which he warningly exclaimed to the Ameri- 
 can colonists : "Have not these negroes as much right to 
 fight for their freedom as you have to keep them slaves?" 
 This same sentiment was theirs, because it was the true Ger-
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 55 
 
 man instinct, and with it they marched shoulder to shoulder 
 with their fellow-citizens of other nationalities, in order to 
 achieve for our country that universal freedom which our 
 revolutionary forefathers had in truth and in fact intended 
 to establish. 
 
 During the trying years which followed the repeal of 
 the Missouri Compromise our fellow-citizens of German 
 extraction never faltered in their attachment to the cause 
 of freedom. In 1860, their votes decided the election of 
 Abraham Lincoln, and hence the pure-minded Charles Sum- 
 ner might well say as he did on the 25th day of February, 
 1862 : "Our German fellow-citizens, throughout the long 
 contest with slavery, have not only been earnest and true, but 
 have always seen the great question in its just character and 
 importance. Without them our cause would not have tri- 
 umphed at the last presidential election. It is only natural, 
 therefore, that they should continue to guard and advance 
 this cause." And a little later the same illustrious champion 
 of freedom spoke the following words on the floor of the 
 senate : "The brave and pure German stock, which, even 
 from that early day, when first revealed to history in the 
 sharp and clean-cut style of Tacitus, has preserved its orig- 
 inal peculiarities untouched by change, showing that, though 
 the individual is mortal, the race is immortal. * * * We cannot 
 forget the fatherland which out of its abundance has given 
 to our republic so many good heads, so many strong arms, 
 with so much virtue and intelligence, rejoicing in freedom 
 and calling no man master." 
 
 It would be like an attempt to brighten the lustre of the 
 sun were we to cumulate further evidence showing the posi- 
 tion of the Germans and the German press on the slavery 
 issue. The facts stand out boldly on the pages of our his- 
 tory. Throughout the political contest, as well as in all the 
 gloomy hours of the Civil War, in which the blood of the 
 best men of the nation washed out the foul stain of slavery, 
 the position of our German-American citizens was consistent 
 and patriotic. But for the steadfast loyalty which the Ger-
 
 56 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 mans of St. Louis evinced at the outbreak of the war, Mis- 
 souri would have been taken out of the Union and the task 
 of our government to suppress the slaveholders' rebellion 
 would have been infinitely harder to accomplish. The ar- 
 chives of the war department at Washington show, that upon 
 the basis of the population of the loyal states, as ascertained 
 by the census of 1860, the German element of the country 
 furnished 60,000 more soldiers than, with reference to the 
 whole number of enlistments during the war, it would have 
 been obliged to furnish, had all the people of every other na- 
 tivity at that time represented here enlisted in the same ratio. 
 On every battlefield of the Union the loyalty and devotion 
 of that element for the country and the flag was most nobly 
 demonstrated. 
 
 But it should not be forgotten that the noble bearing of 
 our German- American citizens in the most sacred cause of the 
 country found at all times grateful recognition at the hands of 
 the Republican party in this state, and that the invaluable 
 services of the men who led them in the holy crusade against 
 slavery were always duly appreciated and honored. Thus 
 the patriotic Frederick Hecker, famous for his warm devotion 
 to the cause of human freedom in the Fatherland as well as 
 here, was as early as 1856 accorded the high honor of being 
 placed on the Republican ticket as a presidential elector at 
 large by the side of the immortal Lincoln. In 1860, the dis- 
 tinguished Francis A. Hoffmann, now a venerable patriarch, 
 devoting his life to most useful literary labors, was elected by 
 the Republican party lieutenant governor of the state. At 
 the same time the Republicans of Cook county elected A. C. 
 Hesing, another German leader of great strength, as sheriff of 
 Cook county. In 1861 the learned and accomplished Gustav 
 Koerner, of Belleville, was appointed by president Lincoln 
 minister at the Court of Spain, George Schneider, of Chicago, 
 who was an honored member of your convention, was in- 
 trusted with an important consulate in Europe, and Herman 
 Kreissmann of the same place was made secretary of legation 
 at Berlin.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 57 
 
 On the whole it must be conceded that no man in the na- 
 tion valued the inestimable services of the Germans in the 
 cause of the Republican party more highly than the sainted 
 Lincoln. Right after his inauguration, besides those already 
 named from this state, he appointed a number of other promi- 
 nent Germans from all over the country to important diplo- 
 matic and consular positions abroad, one a federal judge in 
 Missouri and a host of others to administrative offices of every 
 character. And this splendid example of the fair treatment 
 of an element which had given such noble proof of its keen ap- 
 preciation of the highest civic duties and its steadfast loyalty 
 to the same, found at all times proper emulation among the 
 Republicans of this state until recently. The Germans are 
 not mercenaries in politics, but they have a right to ask that 
 they be not excluded from public honors, because they not only 
 form, next to our native American voters, the strongest element 
 in the Republican party, as has been shown at the last as well 
 as at all previous presidential elections during the last forty 
 years, but such exclusion must necessarily have the effect of 
 stamping them as unworthy to hold office. 
 
 The invitation extended to me to explain on this oc- 
 casion the honorable part the Germans took in wiping out 
 from the proud escutcheon of our nation the stain of slavery, 
 shows the great good will cherished by the callers of this 
 meeting for the German element of this state and country. 
 It evinces the true spirit in which the different elements of 
 our people should approach each other and in which har- 
 mony among all can be best fostered. Let us for the com- 
 mon good of all assiduously cultivate this spirit of harmony 
 and with a heart rilled with enlightened toleration bear with 
 the legitimate peculiarities of all, no matter how widely 
 others may vary from our own. Let no German ever berate his 
 fellow-citizens of another race because of characteristics dis- 
 tinct from his. Let no other citizen look slightingly upon the 
 German because of his manners, or believe him to be less in- 
 telligent than his fellow-man of equal station in life, be- 
 cause, speaking a foreign tongue, he cannot express his
 
 58 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 thoughts in the language of the country as well as he who 
 has imbibed the English at his mother's breast. 
 
 Every nation is visited at times by movements which par- 
 take of the character of a craze, and though they cannot 
 lastingly divert it from its legitimate aspirations and normal 
 political development they may nevertheless for the time be- 
 ing work serious mischief. In this behalf it may be safely 
 said that no element of the American people has shown itself 
 to be better equipped to resist such crazes, whether they are 
 the outgrowth of our economic life or of our intercourse 
 with the outside world, than our German-American citizens. 
 We may, therefore, always rest assured that the honor, the 
 dignity, and the greatness of our common country will never 
 suffer at their hands. True, blind partisanship has some- 
 times stigmatized them as unreliable, but the dictates of 
 party are not always prompted by patriotism and good states- 
 manship, for it sometimes happens that, either from stupidity 
 or for the sake of office or pelf, the honor of the country is 
 placed in jeopardy by the very men who direct the policy of 
 a party. Although it may sound paradoxical, it is neverthe- 
 less true, as stated by one of the foremost writers of our his- 
 tory, that "one of the most powerful factors in the progress- 
 ive nationalization of the republic is its adopted citizens 
 who have come from all the countries of the earth." It was 
 largely clue to this fact that the Germans, at the time of our 
 country's greatest peril, rallied round the flag of liberty and 
 Union, and upon that rock alone they will always rest their 
 adherence to party.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 59 
 
 Owen Lovejoy, Constitutional Abolitionists and the Republican Party. 
 
 Pres. Davis: 
 
 Benjamin P. Shaw, for nearly half a century editor and proprietor 
 of the Dixon Telegraph, a delegate to the editorial convention of Feb- 
 ruary 22, 1856, that called the convention of May 29, and also a dele- 
 gate to that convention, has written a paper on "Lovejoy and the 
 Constitutional Abolitionists, and the Republican Party." , I have the 
 pleasure of introducing Mr. Benjamin F. Shaw, of Dixon. 
 
 BENJAMIN P. SHAW, OF DIXON, ILL. 
 
 The evangelist awakens interest in his cause by recalling 
 the suffering of Christ and His fellow-martyrs. On the Fourth 
 of July the American citizen renews his patriotism in recalling 
 Valley Forge and the "times that tried men's souls." Is it 
 not well that we, also, in our own day recall deeds of heroic 
 sacrifice rendered for our fellow men? I could not refuse a 
 request of the McLean County Historical Society, to tell in 
 my o\vn poor way, what I know about "Lovejoy, Constitution- 
 al Abolitionists and the Republican Party." They took up a 
 political contest that meant, in a goodly portion of the country, 
 social and political ostracism at that time; while the chances 
 were that the people they interceded for would never hear their 
 names mentioned. It was an unselfish and patriotic labor, for 
 the relief of a people ; and, indeed, a great nation. 
 
 It may not be gracious to compare matters political with 
 sacred history, still I shall urge that the party whose birth we 
 today celebrate, stands without a rival in the line of advancing 
 a great nation to a higher civilization. No human agency in 
 all the tide of times has accomplished more in modifying 
 
 B. F. Shaw was born in Waverly, New York, March 31, 1831, of American par- 
 ents. His father's mother was the last survivor, at her death, of the "Massacre 
 of Wyoming." Her father and two uncles were killed in the battle. His mother's 
 father, Major Zephon Flowers, was a Revolutionary soldier, and a descendant of 
 Governor Bradford, of Massachusetts, who kept the log of the Mayflower. 
 
 Mr. Shaw is now owner and proprietor of the Dixon Telegraph and has been for 
 many years. Was Washington correspondent of a leading Chicago paper in 1867 
 and 1868. He was two terms clerk of the circuit court and recorder of Lee county 
 and six years a canal commissioner of the state of Illinois. Has served one term 
 as postmaster at Dixon, Illinois, and is the present incumbent of that offlee. 
 
 He was a member of the Decatur convention February 22. 1856, that called the 
 Bloomington convention, which on May 29, 1856. nominated the first Republican 
 state ticket and a member of the convention of May 29.
 
 60 Anil- Nebraska Republican 
 
 "man's inhumanity to man, which makes countless thousands 
 mourn," than the Republican party. Its efforts have been in 
 a spirit of pure patriotism and the universal brotherhood of 
 man. 
 
 It turned a despotism, the worst the world had ever seen, 
 into a republic; transformed slavery into freedom. The first 
 act of the Republican party was that of giving a farm and a 
 home to every poor man who would accept. It gave, through 
 protection, to American industry, the laborer of this country 
 such wages as no nation before gave to the wage-earner. It has 
 always acted the part of the mighty philanthropist toward all 
 the people. Republicanism not only extended into the jungle 
 of ignorance in our own land, but it is now penetrating the 
 jungles of the far east, and its beacon light of civil and relig- 
 ious liberty is blessing the Orient; there to enlighten barbar- 
 ism. It is through Republicanism that this nation has be- 
 come the guiding star of liberty everywhere. 
 
 Lovejoy, Constitutional Abolitionists and the Republican 
 party, a host of heroes my theme, patriots who endured many 
 trials, a subject requiring volumes, to be condensed into a brief 
 essay my task is not easy. A talk on a mighty epoch in the 
 history of recent civilization condensed into a brief hour. A 
 brave and mighty host battling against slavery and depotism, 
 manfully as Greek at Marathon. Suffering as Christian mar- 
 tyrs suffered. If Paul fought with beasts at Ephesus, they 
 were not more beastly cruel than the men that the Lovejoy 
 brothers fought against at Alton in our own state. 
 The preliminary skirmish in the fight for liberty in this 
 land was begun by the Radical Abolitionist long before 
 the final battle. They were, it is true, but a mere handful; 
 but they were strong men, with brilliant intellects and brave 
 hearts, well fitted to bear the jeers of ignorant partisans. Both 
 Ihe great parties of the day were bitterly opposed to them. 
 Many churches were indifferent. I heard the great Frederick 
 Douglass state that while in slavery, the burden of the prayers 
 he heard were quotations from Scripture that servants should 
 obey their masters.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 61 
 
 BENJAMIN F. SHAW.
 
 62 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 In this day it sounds strange to say that a lecture on slav- 
 ery in a school house or church anywhere in the Free States 
 was liable to result in mob violence against the speaker. Henry 
 Wilson in his "Rise and Fall of the Slave Power" is authority 
 for the statement that Henry B. Stanton in lecturing upon the 
 subject of Emancipation, through the New England and mid- 
 dle states, though he always spoke in patriotic praise of the 
 constitution and the Union, was mobbed some two hundred 
 times, often at the imminent peril of his life. An advocate of 
 freedom was in the minds of the people at that time an in- 
 citer of riots. 
 
 The machinery of the church in many of their ramifica- 
 tions of literary and benevolent institutions, the preachers 
 and the press were opposed to anti-slavery agitation. But 
 the skirmish line, though thin, was bravely pushed on by 
 William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Gerritt Smith, 
 Theodore Parker and a few others. They were not Constitu- 
 tional Abolitionists. They took it for granted that the political 
 leaders of the Calhoun class were right in claiming that the con- 
 stitution recognized slavery, and so they proclaimed that the 
 much revered document was ' 'an agreement with hell and a cov- 
 enant with the devil." They were, however, followed by a class 
 known as the Constitutional Abolitionists ; equally bold and 
 brave, but more practical. It was the labor of the latter that 
 accomplished glorious results; fought the good battle to a 
 finish and destroyed the slave power. They were among the 
 organizers of the Republican party. I recall the names of 
 Owen Lovejoy, Greeley, Wade, Giddings, Fessenden, Chase, 
 Hale, Hamlin, Wilmot, Thaddeus Stephen, John Wentworth, 
 Seward, Baker, Bissell, Sumner, Washburne, and last but not 
 least, Lincoln. They held the constitution and the Union as 
 a sacred inheritence. In the minds of many statesmen of that 
 day, there was something of a struggle between hatred of 
 slavery and love for the constitution of the Union. Abhor- 
 rence of human bondage was neutralized by patriotic love of 
 country. The political leaders of both the great parties made 
 a great ado, (perhaps to excuse their objection to abolition agi-
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 63 
 
 tation,) over the claim that the constitution recognized slav- 
 ery. The Constitutional Abolitionists, even the rank and file 
 were forced to become accomplished students of the funda- 
 mental law of the land. They denied the claim of slavery- 
 recognition with such confidence, that copies of the revered 
 document were printed in condensed form to carry in the 
 pocket for ready reference; that it might be demonstrated that 
 it did not recognize slavery. 
 
 They contended that under the constitution slaves could 
 not be legally held in territory not organized into states. 
 
 Constitutional Abolitionists, Republicans, if you please, 
 believed that slavery was not recognized by the constitution, 
 save indirectly. They urged that slavery was a mere matter 
 of fact in the face of the national and state constitution. In 
 face of everything but a tyrannical public sentiment and a 
 diabolical practice, they argued that man cannot be prop- 
 erty. An auctioneer could not transmogrify a man with a soul 
 into a chattel. One man has no right to own another man. 
 If one man can be sold as property, every man can, and consti- 
 tutions made to protect human liberty are annulled if they 
 fail. There is no allusion to the right of one man to en- 
 slave another. Love of country and reverence for the consti- 
 tution, was used to advantage by the slave power and threats 
 of secession were frequent. Like a pall, fear of dissolution of 
 the Union hung over the American people during the many 
 years of slavery agitation. Threats of secession should the slave 
 power have its way were common. I remember one bright day 
 there came sensational dispatches from Washington announc- 
 ing that the stability of the Union of the states was in danger. 
 There was activity in the war and navy department. Battle- 
 ships were ordered to Boston, and the army and navy put on a 
 war footing, troops were mustered around the court house in 
 Boston. And what do you imagine was the cause of all this 
 fuss. The constitution was about to be shattered, the perpet- 
 uity of the nation was endangered, because, to use a phrase of 
 that day, a "nigger was loose." A man preferring liberty to 
 slavery had escaped from the south as a stowaway on a schoon-
 
 64 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 er and landed in Boston, where he was duly arrested. So it 
 would appear that a little carelessness on the part of a slave 
 holder, as regard to his favorite chattel, would endanger the 
 perpetuity of the Union, before Republicans took charge of 
 the nation. 
 
 The Constitutional Abolitionists bravely waged the war, 
 against the further extension of slavery; at the polls, and on 
 the floor of congress, enduring insults such as had been heap- 
 ed upon the most radical; threatened with assassination, a 
 learned senator beaten into insensibility on the floor of the 
 Senate. 
 
 It appears to have been willed that the battle of freedom 
 should be hot, in the fiery ordeal the heat might become suf- 
 ficiently intense to melt the shackles more completely trom en- 
 slaved limbs. A word against slavery was interpreted as a 
 blow at the constitution, a step towards disunion ; that grand 
 prophecy that this government could not remain half slave, 
 and half free, was charged up against Lincoln, as a most rank 
 disunion sentiment. The prejudice against Abolitionists, phil- 
 osophers tell us, resulted from a patriotic motive, love of coun- 
 try very properly classed in this day as a sophistical para- 
 dox, destruction of a school house in Connecticut where 
 colored girls were taught to read; mobbing of a colored 
 asylum, abolition persecutions, result of patriotic motives! 
 We are told that many great evils of the world have been com- 
 mitted by ignorant men of good intentions, material used in 
 paving the road to Hades. We have it in the history of relig- 
 ious persecutors, ignorant of truth, the ardor of their sincerity 
 warms them into persecution, brings fanaticism into deadly 
 activity, the evil they do is the result of misdirected virtue. 
 This may be applied to the mass of that day, but is not an ex- 
 cuse for the pro-slavery leaders and politicians. In our own 
 state there were many legislative struggles, indicative of slave 
 power enmity. I remember that your own city of Blooming- 
 ton furnished a backer for Governor Yates in troublous times 
 here; he was a man who did not fear to tell copperheads who en- 
 deavored to stop appropriation for supplies for our soldiers,
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 65 
 
 ISAAC FUNK, Funk's Grove, 111. 
 
 Born November 17, 1797. Kentucky; died January 29, 1865; stock raiser, land 
 owner; State Senator 1862 to 1865. See Good Old Times McLean County 580 and 
 Volume II, Transactions McLean County Historical Society.
 
 6t) Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 that they were traitors, and hurl back their insults so defiantly 
 that Lincoln gave him praise. The name of Isaac Funk 
 should have a place in this history. An all-wise Providence 
 has ways of his own in gathering his instrumentalities for the 
 purpose of purifying nations. Had the slave holder been 
 content to let slavery remain where it was, and not endeavor 
 by fraud and murder to extend it into the territories, how dif- 
 ferent might have been our history. "Whom the Gods would 
 destroy, they first make mad." I well remember that it was 
 the manner of forcing slavery into Kansas, by intimidation 
 and fraud, that caused universal indignation of fair-minded 
 men, quite as much so, as any anti-slavery sentiment that then 
 existed. There was a notion among the people that the bal- 
 lot box in its purity was the palladium of our liberty. The 
 Missouri Compromise, an agreement between the slave and 
 Free States, that slavery should not go into the territories 
 north of a certain line, 36 degrees, 30 minutes, was repealed 
 by congress. Senator Douglas, of our state, introduced the 
 measure, and it was passed in May, 1854. By him it was cun- 
 ningly worded. The law which had been revered a quarter of a 
 century as an agreement settling a controversy between the 
 states was, in the repealing act, declared inoperative, because "in- 
 consistent with the principle of non-intervention with slavery," 
 and ' 'did not permit people to regulate their own domestic insti- 
 tution." This act of repeal alarmed the nation. A sacred 
 trust had been broken. Douglas defended the repeal, 
 claiming that it was in the interest of self-government, and 
 called it "Squatter Sovereignty." "The people could decide 
 whether or not they would have slavery." It was soon dem- 
 onstrated that this was a trick. The people were not permitted 
 to decide the question, if a Democratic party then in power 
 could prevent it. It was soon apparent that the full power 
 of the government was to be used to force the people of Kan- 
 sas to adopt a slave constitution against their will. The hypo- 
 critical cant about the consent of the governed was not then 
 in use by Democratic statesmen. Emigrant Aid Societies 
 were organized to assist in settling Kansas with freedom lov-
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 67 
 
 ing settlers. They went from New England and other north- 
 ern states. 
 
 "They crossed the Prairie as of old 
 The Pilgrims crossed the Sea, 
 To make the West as they the East, 
 The homestead of the free." 
 
 I will not detain you with a repetition of that disgraceful 
 history. How the president with the army, militia from slave 
 states under pay of the government, swarms of border ruf- 
 fians overrunning that territory for the sole purpose of driv- 
 ing legal voters from the polls, failed in the effort to force 
 slavery upon an unwilling people. Homicide, underpay, and 
 murder by order from the White House at Washington; 
 brutality and hatred dressed in regimentals, malignity in 
 epaulets; bloody mania in support of human bondage. It 
 is strange that there were so few John Browns. A pro- 
 slavery Democratic legislature made up of people who went 
 there not as settlers, but to make it a slave state, passed laws 
 making the simple speaking to a slave a death penalty. Two 
 score of laws enforcing the death penalty for using words and 
 acts in opposition to slavery. 
 
 That was the reason a couple dozen editors gathered at 
 Decatur and called the Bloomington convention which we to- 
 day celebrate. Patriots everywhere were alarmed for the 
 liberty of the whites as well as the blacks. In the first Re- 
 publican convention of a national character, Owen Love joy 
 in an eloquent prayer did not ask an all-wise Providence to 
 abolish slavery, but he made an eloquent and earnest plea for 
 better politics in the party then in power. He hoped for fair 
 election in Kansas. Being a minister of the gospel Mr. Love- 
 joy had some sort of an idea that perhaps the Almighty might 
 have some sort of an influence with the people at the coming 
 election if not with a Democratic president and so he prayed, 
 to use the exact words, that the "Present wicked administration 
 might be removed from power and its unholy design on the 
 liberties of the people thwarted."
 
 68 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 On the day that Owen Lovejoy uttered that patriotic 
 prayer in Pittsburg, the editors of Illinois met at Decatur. 
 Though my friend, Mr. Selby, tells you of that meeting, and 
 General Palmer will well cover the subject, may I not digress 
 to recall a few incidents. I was one of the committee on reso- 
 lutions, and had the good fortune of being in consultation 
 with Abraham Lincoln, in forming the first Republican plat- 
 form in Illinois. At the banquet in the evening given by 
 the citizens of Decatur, I was informed that I would be called 
 upon for a toast, and so prepared one which was so compli- 
 mentary of Mr. Lincoln that when I saw that he was present, 
 I did not have the cheek to give voice to my admiration, and 
 changed my toast and spoke something about placing free bal- 
 lot boxes in the hands of freemen and meeting despots with 
 cartridge boxes. Mr. Lincoln was in a happy mood. I re- 
 member that apologetically, for being at a convention of edi- 
 tors, he called attention to what I have always imagined a 
 personal reminiscence. He stated that he believed he was a 
 sort of interloper there and was reminded of the incident of a 
 man not possessed of features the ladies would call hand- 
 some, while riding on horseback through the woods met an 
 equestrienne. He reined his horse to one side of the bridle path 
 and stopped, waiting for the woman to pass. She also check- 
 ed her horse to a stop and looked him over in a curious sort of a 
 way, finally broke out with, 
 
 ' 'Well, for land sake, you are the homeliest man I ever saw. " 
 
 "Yes, madam, but I can't help it." 
 
 "No, I suppose not," she said, "but you might stay at 
 home." 
 
 Lincoln urged that he felt as though he might have stayed 
 at home on that occasion. 
 
 In the line of thought regarding Constitutional Abolition- 
 ists, I recall an interview with Mr. Lincoln at his residence at 
 Springfield, that has not heretofore been made public. It oc- 
 curred a few weeks before his departure for Washington 
 to deliver his inaugural address, and take his seat as 
 president. I, with several Dixon citizens, among them
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 69 
 
 Col. John Dement, a leading Democrat in the state, who had 
 enjoyed an acquaintance with the president-elect in early days, 
 and was a comrade in the Black Hawk War, called to pay our 
 respects. When we arrived we were ushered into the parlor 
 where we found several gentlemen from Arkansas, and, I be- 
 lieve from other border states, as they were then called, who 
 had come as a sort of a committee to urge upon the president- 
 elect to issue some sort of a manifesto assuring the people of 
 the south that it was not his intention to liberate the slaves. 
 The committee was very urgent in the matter and seemed to 
 believe that such a precaution was necessary to prevent insur- 
 rection among the slaves, who were impatient regarding their 
 anticipated freedom. It was urged by the gentlemen from the 
 south that the slaves believed that Mr. Lincoln's election meant 
 their freedom. They had been told that they would be liber- 
 ated. They heard the people of the south talk about it and 
 were discontented. The committee understood very well that 
 Mr. Lincoln did not intend to abolish slavery. But the ne- 
 groes and the ignorant whites of the south did not so under- 
 stand it. The gentlemen believed that it was the duty of the 
 president-elect to at once undeceive them. Several members 
 of that committee of safety earnestly urged the importance of 
 some assurance from Lincoln to colored men and ignorant 
 people of the south, that an Emancipation Proclamation 
 would not be among his first official acts. He listened respect- 
 fully, and after the importance of a proclamation was fully 
 urged, he made a reply that was so masterful in logic; so 
 touching in kindness and yet so full of marvelous sarcasm 
 coupled with witticism showing the absurdity of the proposition 
 of the committee, that I shall never forget it. Mr. Lincoln open- 
 ed in answer by stating that such a manifesto would indicate fear 
 on his part and would be, by most of the citizens of the south, at- 
 tributed to cowardice, a charge freely made against the people 
 of the north generally. He believed that his inaugural address 
 which would in a few days be delivered from the steps of the 
 national capital, would be in ample time to undeceive people 
 having erroneous opinions upon the matters which troubled
 
 70 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 them. To anticipate his inaugural address, as requested, would 
 be unwise and lacking in dignity. He closed his remarks with 
 much earnestness and no little emphasis ; the words I remember 
 quite well : "In all my speeches," he said, "I have never uttered 
 a word indicating intention to interfere with slavery where it- 
 exists in states; Republican speakers and newspapers not only 
 never advocated abolition of slavery, but are constantly refut- 
 ing the charge that they are radical Abolitionists. Such utter- 
 ance has been one of the principal contentions of the campaign 
 just closed. So you see, gentlemen, if the colored people of 
 the south have heard that I intended to abolish slavery, they 
 received the idea from the lips of your own people; from their 
 masters at the dinner table, or heard it at your own political 
 meetings, and not from any Republican source; therefore it is 
 your duty to rectify the mistake. It is certainly not encum- 
 bent upon me to correct at this time the falsehoods of our op- 
 ponents." 
 
 As the people of the south were then threatening to de- 
 stroy the government and Civil War was inevitable, he re- 
 marked that the committee reminded him of the disadvan- 
 tageous excitement of the man whose house was on on fire, 
 who, in his efforts to save property, threw mirrors, pitchers 
 and valuable vases out of the second story window, and carried 
 flat-irons and bedding carefully down stairs in his arms. 
 
 The committee retired with the firm impression that Lin- 
 coln had a mind of his own, as one of them was heard to re- 
 mark. After they had departed, a man from central Illinois 
 placed in Mr. Lincoln's hands application papers*for a post- 
 office and remarked that the boys were ready to fight for him. 
 Mr. Lincoln turned to Colonel Dement, again shook him by 
 both hands cordially, and remarked that he did not enjoy the 
 talk about fighting for him. He was in the mood of Robert 
 Burns when he wrote 
 
 "The deities I adore 
 
 Are social peace and plenty, 
 I'm better pleased to add one more 
 
 Than be the death of twenty."
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 71 
 
 Meeting Mr. Lincoln the next day at the hotel I requested 
 permission to print that interview at his private residence in 
 my paper, he replied, "I'd a heap rather you had done it with- 
 out asking me." This was a characteristic precaution in Lin- 
 coln that his endorsement should not even by inference appear 
 to such an absurdity as the interview on the issuing of the 
 manifesto. So I never printed it. 
 
 Owen Love joy firmly believed that the constitution was 
 intended to protect human liberty and if rightly interpreted 
 would do away with slavery. He did not even favor an 
 amendment in that behalf, deeming it not necessary. I had 
 the pleasure of meeting Mr. Lovejoy a number of times. I 
 heard him deliver a speech at Amboy, Lee county, during a 
 presidential campaign, when he was assisting to elect the 
 Republican ticket. In that speech he urged the radical Aboli- 
 tionists to support Lincoln, they generally having refused to 
 do so, for the reason that the Republicans did not propose any 
 action leading to the abolition of slavery. He told them the 
 Republican party was going their way. To illustrate that 
 idea he said that if he were walking on the road to Chicago, 
 and a man passing in a wagon should ask him to ride, it would 
 not be good sense for him to refuse because the man was go- 
 ing only a few miles on his route. He would not refuse to 
 ride with the man because he was not going through to Chi- 
 cago. No, he would climb in and ride as far as he went his 
 way. So long as the Republicans are on their road he would 
 advise radical Abolitionists to get in and ride with them, in- 
 asmuch as they were both going in the same direction. 
 
 I again met Mr. Lovejoy on a train enroute for Freeport, 
 the day of Lincoln and Douglas' joint debate there. He was 
 not in a pleasant humor. At Ottawa a few days before 
 Douglas with a sneer had classed Lincoln as a Love- 
 joy Abolitionist in a manner intimating that the latter 
 was of the radical class, thus misrepresenting the gentle- 
 men from Princeton, much to his dislike. Remembering the 
 temper he was in, after arriving at Freeport, when the debate 
 was over, in the evening I suggested to a number of friends
 
 72 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 * 
 
 that Mr. Lovejoy was in a humor to make a speech, and we 
 would call him out. A dry goods box was improvised as a 
 platform in front of the Brewster House and he readily re- 
 sponded to the call. I shall never forget that speech and mag- 
 nificent appearance of the speaker ; a man of splendid physique, 
 Websterian mold of countenance, all aglow with flame of in- 
 tellectual genius, interested deeply in the cause of humanity. 
 Douglas had put the question to Lincoln, "Would he, if an 
 officer of the law, return a fugitive slave to his master?" 
 Lovejoy answered the interrogatory in scathing phillipics 
 against Douglas and all others who had voted for the Fugitive 
 Slave law. Taking the pythagorean idea of transmigration, 
 he had the soul of Douglas turned into a savage bloodhound 
 on the track of a slave escaping from bondage. A man in- 
 nocent of crime, only a polar star as a guide to a freedom 
 justly his, the man-greyhound in hot pursuit, lapping the mire 
 by the wayside to quench his hellish thirst for blood. The 
 cubless tigress raging in the jungle for her slaughtered off- 
 spring is touching sympathy compared with the man who 
 would hunt down an innocent being that he might enslave. 
 
 A gem was lost when that speech was not reported and 
 published. Douglas was a great leader-, at one time beloved 
 by the entire Democratic party. He lacked only one vote 
 and a half of becoming president. His repeal of the Mis- 
 souri Compromise proved his downfall. It caused great in- 
 dignation in the north, and when he saw a Democratic presi- 
 dent, a man of his own party, use all the influence and power 
 of government in forcing slavery upon the unwilling people 
 of Kansas where he had promised that people should be "free 
 to vote slavery up or clown," he was appalled at the diabolical 
 enormities committed in the name of Democracy. He rebelled 
 against the administration and then the southern leaders, here- 
 tofore friendly, whom he had always befriended, turned 
 against him. Abolitionists had not endured more bitter insult 
 than were heaped upon the senator from Illinois by southern- 
 ers whose cause he had so favored. Hosts of friends in the 
 north had ignominiously deserted him for the political acts
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 73 
 
 he had performed for the south. It was a monstrous ingrati- 
 tude by the southern leaders. In Douglas it was a "grievous 
 fault and grievously hath he answered it." His terrible plight 
 is described by the poet Byron : 
 
 "As the struck eagle, stretched upon the plain, 
 No more through rolling clouds to soar again, 
 Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart, 
 And winged the shaft that quivered in his heart, 
 Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel 
 He nursed the pinion that impelled the steel 
 While the same plumage that had warmed his nest, 
 Drank the last life-blood of his bleeding breast." 
 In a talk of Republicanism, in Illinois, we must needs 
 speak of Stephen A. Douglas, its greatest opponent until the 
 close of his life, when he became its warm supporter; an ac- 
 complished orator, \vonderful debater, beloved at one time by 
 millions of his countrymen. Small in stature and mighty in 
 intellect, he was known as the "Little Giant." But alas, his- 
 tory classes him in the vast list where 
 
 "Vaulting ambition o'er leaps itself." 
 
 My friend, John H. Bryant, of Princeton, who was to 
 speak today on the subject assigned me, but declined on ac- 
 count of ill health, in June, 1856, closed a letter to his brother, 
 the great poet, in regard to the Bloomington convention, and 
 especially politics in Illinois, with assurance that "She is solid 
 for Freedom and the Constitution, for Republicanism and 
 Right." 
 
 The words "Freedom and the Constitution" fully ex- 
 press the position of the Constitutional Abolitionists and 
 Republicans of that day.
 
 74 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 A Few Words for the Bloomington Commemoration Meeting, 
 BY GEN. JAMES M. RUGGLES. 
 
 It matters little that forty-four years ago, previous to the 
 time of the Bloomington convention, my name was the only 
 one prominent as the running mate of Governor Bissell for 
 lieutenant governor, that I was one of the vice-presidents of 
 that convention or that in February previously at a meeting 
 at the capital of Whigs and Free Soil Democrats who were 
 ready for the organization of a party more fully representing 
 the tide of advanced political principles, I was one of the com- 
 mittee associated with Abraham Lincoln and Ebenezer Peck, 
 and prepared the resolutions adopted at the meeting w r hich led 
 to the convention held on the 29th of May, 1856. 
 
 It matters much, however, that the convention was held 
 and that a portion of the leading men of both parties came to- 
 gether and took their places beside Abraham Lincoln on a plat- 
 form of expansion of free territory, enlarged human rights and 
 human liberty, and expanded patriotism, on which basis every 
 man nominated was elected and placed in office. 
 
 The time was auspicious. We were then under the last 
 of the old time Democratic governors in Illinois who had ap- 
 propriated to his own use about a quarter of a million dollars 
 in state bonds and left the state a ruined man and a political 
 party badly smirched. Since then we have had but one Dem- 
 ocratic governor and he has made all other governors quite 
 respectable comparatively ! 
 
 The nation was also in a turmoil over the slavery question. 
 Lincoln had not yet announced the problem that "the nation 
 could not long endure half slave and half free" but the events 
 then transpiring justified the assertion. Kansas was the the- 
 atre of operations of the Missouri Jay-hawkers, who without 
 restraintof the administration were madly rushing on to the de-
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 
 wq 
 enB 1 
 
 v
 
 76 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 struction of the government of the establishment of slavery up- 
 on the virgin soil of the territory. They had captured and im- 
 prisoned the governor of the territory to make place for one 
 in full sympathy with themselves. The governor's wife, a 
 most beautiful and interesting lady, had fled for life to Illinois 
 for protection and was on the train that carried the delegates 
 from Springfield to Bloomington her presence creating the 
 profoundest sympathy and the wildest enthusiasm. 
 
 Not all the Whigs and a lesser portion of the Democrats 
 joined in the movement. It was too radical for many who 
 had been leaders in the old political parties, and too conserva- 
 tive for the radical Abolitionist, but occupied safe ground upon 
 which to found a great political party which has for forty 
 years ruled the destines of the nation vastly expanding it in 
 population, education, wealth and territory, until at the present 
 time when it occupies the proud place of the most enlightened 
 and powerful nation on the globe. 
 
 The nominees at that convention, after faithfully serving 
 the people in the places assigned them, have long since laid 
 down their well spent lives leaving us to cherish their mem- 
 ories and emulate their official example. Of all the great and 
 good men that took part in that Bloomington meeting but few 
 are left. Lincoln led the convention and was the first to lay 
 down his life for the cause inaugurated there. Yates, Love- 
 joy, Browning, Washburn, Archibald Williams, Judd, Went- 
 worth, and a host of others have followed him to the grave. 
 Palmer, the honored president of that convention, I am glad 
 to know, still lives. 
 
 The nominees of the convention were; 
 
 Wm. H. Bissell, for governor. 
 
 O. M. Hatch, for secretary of state. 
 
 Jesse K. Dubois, for auditor of public accounts. 
 
 James Miller, for state treasurer. 
 
 \Vm. H. Powell, for superintendent of public instruction.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 77 
 
 OZIAS M. HATCH 
 
 Born in New Hampshire April 11,1814; died March 13.1893. merchant, banker: 
 Secretary of State 1857 to 1865. See Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery 
 Illinois Volume 1896, page 140.
 
 78 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 Remarks 
 
 Made at Bloomlngton, Illinois, May 29, 1900, at a Celebration of the 
 
 Forty-fourth Anniversary of the Bloomington Convention 
 
 held on May 29, 1856, at which the Republican 
 
 Party in Illinois was Organized. 
 
 BY GEN. THOMAS J. HENDERSON, OF PRINCETON, ILL. 
 
 -Mr. President and Members of the McLean County His- 
 torical Society., Ladies and Gentlemen : When invited to be 
 present at this anniversary meeting, or celebration, the sec- 
 retary of your society, kindly requested me to make some re- 
 marks on the campaign of 1856. But I declined to do so, for 
 several reasons. In the first place, it was not certain that 
 1 could be present at the meeting, and even if I could be, my 
 time was so occupied that I was not able to prepare any suit- 
 able remarks for an occasion of so much interest as this. And 
 I felt that without preparation, any speech I might attempt to 
 make would be rambling and of but little interest to those who 
 might hear it. 
 
 The convention of May 29, 1856, the forty- fourth anni- 
 versary of which we today celebrate, marked an era in the 
 political history of Illinois, and I may say, of the entire country. 
 And on such an occasion so many memories come crowding 
 upon us that it is difficult to control our thoughts and emotions, 
 and io pursue any connected line of thought or speech. As 
 we think of the many able, eloquent, earnest, patriotic men, 
 who were present and members of that convention, and who 
 participated in its proceedings, and of how many of them have 
 since passed away, after having rendered distinguished services 
 to the country, and what a small number still survive, we are 
 almost overwhelmed. And so, my friends, in attempting to 
 speak to you today, without preparation and with such a con- 
 Gen. Thomas J. Henderson was born at Brownsville, Tenn., November 19, 1824. 
 Came to Illinois in 1837. Admitted to the bar 1856. In 18i5-56 member of Illinois 
 House of Representatives and State Secretary 1856 to 1860. Delegate to the Ma- 
 jor's Hall convention May 29, 1856. In 1862 Col. 112 111. Vols. 1865 Brev. Brig. Gen. 
 Republican'presidential elector 1868. Representative in Congress, 1874 to 1895. Is 
 president of the board of management of the National Soldiers' Home.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 GEN. THOMAS J. HENDERSON.
 
 80 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 fusion of memories, I fear my remarks will be of but little in- 
 terest. But I am glad to be here to meet all who are present, 
 and especially to meet the old friends, survivors of the con- 
 vention of May 29, 1856. 
 
 The convention held at Major's Hall, in this city, in 1856, 
 was a great convention one of the most important and far- 
 reaching in its influence and in its results, that was ever held 
 in the state of Illinois, in my judgment. It had a deeper and 
 stronger influence upon the political action of the people of the 
 state, than any other convention ever held in the state. It 
 fairly revolutionized the old political parties of the state. 
 
 I have ahvays been proud of the fact that I was a member 
 of that convention and participated in its proceedings. I was 
 a delegate from Stark county and a member of the committee 
 on resolutions. Orville H. Browning, of Quincy, a native 
 of Kentucky, who had been a prominent Whig of the state, 
 was, as I remember, chairman of the committee, which pre- 
 pared the resolutions, or platform, adopted by the convention,, 
 and he made, on or after the presentation of the resolutions, 
 an able and eloquent speech. There were present at the con- 
 vention, either as members, or interested spectators, many of 
 the able and distinguished men of the state, from all parts of 
 the state. Men who had been leading, prominent members 
 of the old political parties : Abraham Lincoln, Archibald 
 Williams, Orville H. Browning, Richard Yates, Richard J. 
 Oglesby, and many other old W T higs were there. And 
 among the many old Democrats and Abolitionists were John 
 M. Palmer, John F. Farnsworth, Norman B. Judd, John 
 Wentworth, and Owen Lovejoy. All of them, including the 
 Whigs named, were strong, able, earnest men, and deeply in- 
 terested in the work of the convention. They were prominent 
 then in the politics of the state, and some of them in the ser- 
 vice of the country, and most of them afterwards distinguished 
 themselves as soldiers in the War of the Rebellion and in civil 
 life. 
 
 John M. Palmer, whom I am glad to see here today and 
 am always glad to see, was the president of the convention;
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 81 
 
 and he not only distinguished himself in the campaign which 
 followed the convention, as an able speaker and advocate of 
 freedom and free territory, but he has served the country 
 with great ability and distinction since, in both military and 
 civil life, as a general, governor, and United States senator. 
 He, also, made a strong and powerful speech at the conven- 
 tion in 1856. 
 
 But the great speech of that convention was the speech 
 made by Abraham Lincoln. His speech was of such wonderful 
 eloquence and power that it fairly electrified the members of 
 the convention and everybody who heard it. It was a great 
 speech in what he said , in the burning eloquence of his words, 
 and in the manner in which he delivered it. If ever a speech 
 was inspired in this world, it has always seemed to me, that 
 that speech of Mr. Lincoln's was. It aroused the convention, 
 and all who heard it, and sympathized with the speaker, to the 
 highest pitch of enthusiasm. I have never heard any other 
 speech that had such great power and influence over those to 
 whom it was addressed. I have always believed it to have 
 been the greatest speech Mr. Lincoln ever made, and the great- 
 est speech to which I ever listened. I can never forget that 
 speech, and especially that part of it where, after repelling with 
 great power and earnestness the charge of disunion made 
 against the Anti-Nebraska party, he stood as if on tip-toe, his 
 tall form erect, his long arms extended, his face fairly radiant 
 with the flush of excitement, and, as if addressing those pre- 
 ferring the charge of disunionism, he slowly, but earnestly 
 and impressively, said : 
 
 "We do not intend to dissolve the Union, nor do we in- 
 tend to let you dissolve it." 
 
 As he uttered these memorable and, I may say, prophetic 
 words, the members of the convention and everybody pres- 
 ent rose as one man to their feet, and there was a universal 
 bursUof applause, repeated over and over again, so that it was 
 some moments before Mr. Lincoln could proceed with his 
 speech. 
 
 John Cockle, of the city of New York, brother of Wash- 
 ington Cockle, a prominent citizen of Peoria, and a life-long
 
 82 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 Democrat, sat by my side during Mr. Lincoln's speech; and 
 was profoundly impressed by his wonderful eloquence. He 
 said to me he was greatly surprised to find that Illinois had 
 such a man as Abraham Lincoln, and that they knew nothing 
 about him in New York; that he had lived in New York all 
 his life and had heard most of the great men of the country 
 speak at one time or another in that city; that he had heard 
 Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, Martin Van 
 Buren, Levi Woodbury, Silas Wright, and others. But, he 
 said, he had never before heard from any one so great a speech 
 as the one just delivered by Mr. Lincoln. The speech con- 
 verted him, and he became, as I was informed afterwards, a 
 good Republican. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln's speech was delivered without manuscript, 
 and I think, without notes ; and no report of it was made. Nor 
 has it ever been published until within a few years when a re- 
 port of it written, as it is said, from notes taken at the time, 
 was published as the "Lost Speech." And I am forced to say 
 that I rather regret the publication, for I do not think it does 
 justice to the speech that Mr. Lincoln delivered. In fact, I 
 am strongly impressed with the belief, that no report could 
 have been made and published then or since, especially after 
 the lapse of so many years, which would give a just conception 
 of the great power and magnetic effect of that memorable 
 speech. 
 
 That speech, and the great debates between him and 
 Stephen A. Douglas in 1858, made Mr. Lincoln president of 
 the United States, and forever lost to Mr. Douglas the hope of 
 the presidency, which was without doubt the highest ambition 
 of his life. 
 
 But what can I say as to the campaign of 1856? I have 
 said the convention of 1856 was a memorable one, and so the 
 campaign that followed it was equally memorable. The cam- 
 paign was made by only two parties the Democratic or Ne- 
 braska party, struggling to maintain its supremacy, and the 
 Anti-Nebraska or Republican party, battling to resist the en- 
 croachments of the slave-power, to which the Democratic
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856, 83 
 
 party, through the influence of Mr. Douglas and other leading 
 Democrats, had yielded and seemingly given themselves up. 
 The bad faith shown in the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
 and the opening of the way for human slavery to go into terri- 
 tory from which, by solemn compact, it had been forever ex- 
 cluded, had excited an intense feeling in the minds of liberty- 
 loving Democrats, as well as Whigs and Abolitionists, in Illi- 
 nois, that the further aggressions of the slave-power must 
 cease or our freedom and free institutions would be over- 
 thrown. Hence the campaign of 1856 was a campaign of 
 conscience, of deep conviction, of earnest purpose. It was 
 the first political campaign in which I ever participated, ac- 
 tively as a speaker. I had made a few speeches in the campaign 
 of 1852 the last campaign in which the Whigs had a candi- 
 date for the presidency, advocating the election of Gen. Win- 
 field Scott and opposing that of Franklin Pierce. But in the 
 campaign of 1856, I made nearly a hundred speeches. The 
 Anti-Nebraska or Republican party, inspired by the action of the 
 great convention and the great speeches made in it, at Bloom- 
 ington, forty-four years ago today, started out to win, and 
 immense meetings, addressed by Lincoln, Palmer, Trumbull, 
 Farnsworth, Yates, Browning, Williams, Judd, Knox, Love- 
 joy, Codding, and other able and distinguished speakers, were 
 held all over the state. I can remember as if it was but yester- 
 day, how we spoke and sang at those great meetings for victory. 
 Do you not remember, all of you who are old enough, the rally- 
 mg-cry for "Free Soil; Free Speech; Free Press ; Fremont and 
 Victory?" And while we lost our presidential ticket in the 
 state and nation, we elected the gallant Bissell, governor, and 
 the whole state ticket, nominated in Major's Hall in this city, 
 by a majority, which surprised and overwhelmed the Demo- 
 crats of the state. And so earnest, energetic, and effective 
 was the work done in the campaign of 1856, that we have 
 never elected by one Democratic governor in the state since 
 and that was a great mistake. 
 
 The question is of ten asked, "Was Abraham Lincoln, at that 
 early date, regarded as a great man and a great leader?" I an-
 
 84 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 swer that he was; at least by those who knew him well. It was 
 my good fortune to have known Mr. Lincoln from my boyhood. 
 The first time I ever saw him was when I was 1 5 years of age. 
 It was at an immense Whig convention, held at Springfield 
 in June, 1840, in the Harrison and Van Buren campaign. This 
 was said, at the time, to have been the largest convention ever 
 held in the state. The Whigs came in large delegations from 
 all parts of the state. They came with music and banners, in 
 wagons and in carriages, on horseback and on foot. Log 
 cabins, with coon-skins and hard cider, were drawn by oxen 
 from distant parts of the state, and prominent Whigs were 
 there from almost every country. My father as a Whig, a 
 native of Kentucky, like Mr. Lincoln, and had served \vith 
 him in the Illinois legislature, and both were re-elected mem- 
 bers that year. And though my father lived more than a 
 hundred miles from Springfield, he and a number of other 
 Whigs in the vicinity of our home, were at the convention; 
 and my father took me along. So you see I became interested 
 in politics at an early age. 
 
 I remember that convention well, and the prominent 
 speakers, who made speeches on that occasion. Abraham 
 Lincoln and E. D. Baker, of Springfield; John J. Hardin, of 
 Jacksonville; John Hogan, then a Methodist preacher, of Al- 
 ton; Ben Bond, of Clinton county; Fletcher Webster, a son 
 of Daniel Webster, then living at Peru, in La Salle county, 
 and S. Lisle Smith, of Chicago, one of the most gifted and elo- 
 quent speakers in the state, were there. I remember them all. 
 and heard them all speak. My father introduced me to Mr. 
 Lincoln, and the impression made upon my mind at that time 
 by my father and others, was that Lincoln was one of the lead- 
 ing, prominent Whigs and able men of the state, and he was 
 then but 31 years of age. 
 
 I have thought it somewhat remarkable that four of those 
 distinguished speakers whom I heard speak at that conven- 
 tion, were afterwards killed in battle or in time of war, while 
 rendering distinguished services to the country. John J. Har- 
 din was colonel of an Illinois regiment and was killed in the
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856, 85 
 
 war with Mexico, at the battle of Buena Vista. Baker, the 
 eloquent orator and gallant officer and soldier, was killed at 
 Ball's Bluff, Virginia, in the war of the rebellion. Fletcher 
 Webster was also killed in battle in Virginia, in the same war ; 
 and Abraham Lincoln was assassinated while president of the 
 United States and commander in chief of the army and navy, 
 after rendering the most illustrious service to his country. 
 
 Again my father, having been re-elected as a member of 
 the state legislature, as I have said, took me with him to Spring- 
 field when the legislature assembled in November, 1840, and 
 I was in Springfield several weeks with him, during the 
 session, and saw much of Mr. Lincoln and heard him speak 
 a number of times. He was one of the prominent members of 
 the house, and was recognized as one of the able, if not the 
 ablest, of the Whig leaders and debaters in the house. And 
 there were many other able men, members of the house, who 
 were afterwards distinguished in the public service. William 
 H. Bissell, whom we elected governor in 1856; Lyman Trum- 
 bull, John Dougherty, Thomas Drummond, John J. Hardin, 
 John A. McClernand, John Logan, father of John A. ; ex- 
 Attorney-General Kitchell, and many others, were able and 
 prominent members, and Lincoln was, I think, as prominent as 
 any of those mentioned. 
 
 I may put a higher estimate on the ability and promi- 
 nence of Mr. Lincoln at that time, than some others do, and 
 it may be very natural that I should ; for I was a Whig, and 
 a little later, when I became a voter, and interested in politics, 
 I was associated with him, politically, and followed him as a 
 leader, and always regarded him as a strong and able man. 
 When a member of the legislature in 1855, I voted for him 
 nine times for United States senator, and on the tenth ballot 
 I changed my vote, somewhat unwillingly, and voted at Mr. 
 Lincoln's own request, for Lyman Trumbull. We could not 
 get our old friend, Senator Palmer, to vote for Lincoln, once 
 (Senator Palmer shook his head). But it is all right, sen- 
 ator; you came around all right afterwards, for Mr. Lincoln, 
 and the probabilities are that if we had elected Mr. Lincoln
 
 86 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 United States senator then he would not have been elected 
 president and if he had not been, what the condition of our 
 country would be today we cannot imagine. 
 
 No, my friends, Abraham Lincoln was always a great 
 man in my estimation, from my first acquaintance. He was 
 great in his boyhood, in the cabin homes of his father. He 
 was, I think, born great, and grew in greatness all his life. 
 
 A brother-in-law of mine, now dead, said to me a few 
 years since, when standing in Statuary Hall in the capitol at 
 Washington, and looking at the statue of Abraham Lincoln 
 by Vinnie Ream, "Thomas, the more I study the life and char- 
 acter of Lincoln, and compare him with the other great men of 
 history, the more I thjnk he is one of the most remarkable 
 men of all ages." And such, I think, as the ages go by, will 
 be the judgment of mankind. 
 
 But I have rambled long enough, and must close, with 
 many thanks for your kind attention.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 87 
 
 Address by Honorable George Schneider 
 
 OF CHICAGO. 
 
 Mr. Davis, the president of the Historical Society, intro- 
 duced Mr. Schneider, who spoke as follows : 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : I came here without any prep- 
 aration to address you on such an important subject as the 
 foundation of the Republican party in Illinois, and as I might 
 say, in the United States. Your president made the remark, 
 that the elements out of which the new party had been formed, 
 consisted of members of the old Whig party with anti- 
 slavery tendencies; of the Democratic party with even more 
 radical views, and represented by such men as my distinguish- 
 ed friend, General Palmer; the American or Know-Nothing 
 party; and the Germans, with the most advanced, anti-slav- 
 ery feelings of all of them. My friend, Mr. Paul Selby, gave 
 you the history of the Decatur convention where all these 
 factions were represented. 
 
 Here the most difficult task did fall to me as the editor 
 of a German paper and as a member of that convention. The 
 repeal of the Missouri Compromise created a storm in the 
 affairs of the country such as was never before witnessed 
 since the foundation of the republic. The south had been 
 made bold and defiant by the success in the affairs of the na- 
 tion since the adoption of the so-called 'compromise meas- 
 ures.' The attempt of the nationalization of the institution 
 of slavery, and of a most rigid Fugitive Slave law with all its 
 horrors, had aroused the sleeping conscience of the nation. 
 
 George Schneider was born at Pirmasens, Bavaria, December 13. 1823; liber- 
 ally educated; took part in German revolution, 1848; was condemned to death, 
 escaped to the United States: with his brother established an anti-slavery German 
 paper at St. Louis, Mo.; 1851. moved to Chicago and became the editor of the Staats- 
 Zeitung. which he made a daily and the leading German newspaper of the north- 
 west: called the first anti-Nebraska meeting in the United States; member of 
 editorial conven ion of February. 1856, and of the convention of May 29, 1856. and 
 of the national Republican conventions of 1856 and 1860; presidential "elector, 1880 ; 
 appointed by President Lincoln to confidential mission to Denmark and Germany, 
 1861; internal revenue collector, 1861 and 1865; member of Chicago Union Defense 
 Committee, 1861 and 1865: appointed minister to Switzerland, 1876: twenty-five years 
 engaged in banking in Chicago; the confidential adviser of every Republican presi- 
 dent, from Lincoln to McKinley. (See Biographical Die. and For. Gal., 111. Ed. p.30. )
 
 88 Anti-Nebraska Bepublican 
 
 When Senator Douglas introduced his bill to repeal the 
 Missouri Compromise, this was the signal for the volcanic 
 out-break of the pent up feelings, of the citizens of the Re- 
 public who had preserved their love of humanity, right and 
 justice. This was particularly the case with the adopted citi- 
 zens of the German nationality. 
 
 The revolution of 1848 and 1849 m Germany for the 
 unification of the Fatherland, and the failure of this great ef- 
 fort, sent thousands of the best men of Germany, men of 
 culture and strong will power, to this country, who were 
 placed at the head of many of the best newspapers printed in 
 the German language. From New York to the great west, 
 their influence was felt at once and a great revival began 
 amongst them. The principal places of this new uprising in 
 thought and action were New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, 
 Cincinnati and St. Louis. All the principal papers in these 
 cities opposed at once the extension of slavery in the new 
 territories, and in fact, slavery itself. 
 
 Our state was in advance of all of them and nearly 
 every paper published in the German language in the state 
 opposed the Nebraska bill. But here appeared most suddenly, 
 a black cloud on the political horizon which seemed to assume 
 such proportions and threatening form, as to not only dampen 
 the fire of the new movement against slavery, but to drive the 
 Germans from the ranks of the party to be formed. I refer 
 to the so-called American, or Know-Nothing party. Massa- 
 chusetts, Pennsylvania, Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode 
 Island, Maryland, and several other important states were 
 controlled by the new party, and this movement swept even 
 the shores of all the middle and northwestern states. The 
 Germans, who had just entered the new party with the only 
 desire to oppose slavery, were in a most unpleasant and critical 
 position, and their political future seemed dark. 
 
 I entered the Decatur convention with a resolution in 
 opposition to this movement and I had resolved to fight with 
 all my might and win or go down, and with me, perhaps the 
 new party. My friend, Paul Selby. who has appeared before
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 89 
 
 HON. GEORGE SCHNEIDER.
 
 90 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 you with his excellent and true historical address on the De- 
 catur convention, placed me on the committee of resolutions 
 and I had to help form a platform containing a paragraph 
 against the prescriptive doctrines of the so-called American 
 party. This portion of the platform raised a storm of opposi- 
 tion and in utter despair I proposed submitting it to Mr. Lin- 
 coln, who had appeared in the convention, and abide by his de- 
 cision. Mr. Lincoln, after carefully reading the paragraph, 
 made the following remark : 
 
 "Gentlemen: The resolution introduced by Mr. Schneider 
 is nothing new. It is already contained in the Declaration of 
 Independence and you cannot form a new party on prescriptive 
 principles.' 
 
 This declaration of Mr. Lincoln's saved the resolution 
 and in fact, helped to establish the new party on the most 
 liberal democratic basis. It was adopted at the Bloomington 
 convention and next, at the great, and the first, national Re- 
 publican convention at Philadelphia on the i8th of June, 1856. 
 And in connection with this I wish to say that the delegation 
 from Illinois followed the lead of General Palmer, the real 'grand 
 old man' from Illinois. He drew up the plan of operations ; he 
 had the negotiations with President Lane and secured the proper 
 committee on resolutions and the great success was due to his 
 fearless and at the same time prudent and statesman-like action. 
 The great majority of the Germans in all the states of the north, 
 and even in some portions of the south, entered the new party 
 that had made Lincoln president, and made it possible to carry 
 on the war with success against slavery, and create, in fact, 
 a new Union. The new light which appeared at Decatur and 
 Bloomington, spread its rays over the whole of the United 
 States, and so the regeneration of the Union and the down- 
 fall of slavery dated from Bloomington; and the convention 
 of which we hold today this memorial convocation of the few 
 survivors, makes one of the great epochs in the history of the 
 country ; and with all this we must think of the man who has 
 been sent by Providence to carry this nation through the agi-
 
 Convention, May W, 1856. 91 
 
 tation of war to its present high position, amongst the nations 
 of the earth, and I wish in conclusion to say of him ; he crys- 
 talized sentiment, gave it a focal point. Following his action 
 at Decatur, at Bloomington he made his wonderful speech 
 which certainly gave the party public form. I heard this 
 great speech of his. He was not great in rhetoric, but his 
 mode of speaking was new. He was full of philosophy and 
 got into the souls of men. He produced a new manner of 
 politics. He rose up as a prophet. That was his great force 
 and strength. He caught the wandering thoughts of troubled 
 men and gave them continuity, and for this he was in my 
 judgment the builder of the party in Illinois, the state in which 
 it first took shape and rose to national prominence. 
 
 Mr. J. O. Cunningham, of Urbana, being called upon 
 spoke as follows : 
 
 I was present at the convention on May 29, 1856, though 
 not as a delegate, but as an observer. I came here in the 
 company of Mr. Lincoln, who had been in attendance upon the 
 courts of Champaign and Vermilion counties during weeks 
 previous. At that time the only way of reaching Blooming- 
 ton from the eastern counties, by public conveyance, was by 
 way of the Wabash railroad to Decatur and by the Illinois 
 Central railroad to Bloomington. 
 
 A number of delegates and others from the eastern coun- 
 ties, mostly young men, happened on the Wabash train with 
 Mr. Lincoln and arrived at Decatur about the middle of the 
 afternoon. No train coming to Bloomington until the next 
 morning, made it necessary that we spend the afternoon and 
 night at Decatur. The afternoon was spent by Mr. Lincoln in 
 sauntering about the town and intalkingof his early experiences 
 there twenty-five years before. After a while he proposed 
 going to the woods then a little way south or southwest of the 
 village, in the Sangamon bottoms. His proposition was as- 
 sented to and all went to the timber. A convenient log by the 
 side of the road, in a patch of brush, afforded seats for the 
 company, where the time was spent listening to the playful 
 and familiar talks of Mr. Lincoln.
 
 92 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 We spent the night at the Oglesby House, at Decatur, and 
 early the next day a train took us to Bloomington. Mr. Lin- 
 coln was very solicitous to meet some of his old Whig friends 
 from southern Illinois, whom he hoped to enlist in the new 
 political movement, and searched the train to find such. He 
 was gratified in finding some one from the south and it is be- 
 lieved that Jesse K. Dubois, afterwards nominated as auditor 
 of public accounts, was the man. 
 
 Arriving at Bloomington many were found awaiting the 
 opening of the convention, largely from the northern coun- 
 ties, among whom there existed a most intense feeling upon 
 the situation in Kansas. Lawrence had been sacked but re- 
 cently by the ruffianly pro-slavery men and the greatest out- 
 rages perpetrated upon free state settlers. 
 
 The evening previous to the convention Governor Reeder 
 arrived in town, having been driven a fugitive from the terri- 
 tory he had been commissioned to govern, and spoke to a large 
 crowd of listeners in the street from an upper piazza. He 
 was moderate and not denunciatory in his address, only deline- 
 ating the violence he had witnessed and suffered. Dispatches 
 were received and often publicly read to the crowds at the hotels 
 and on the streets and excitement over the situation was in- 
 tense. No convention in Illinois ever assembled under circum- 
 stances of greater excitement. 
 
 One circumstance in the nomination of Colonel Bissell 
 was peculiar. Long before the day of the convention there ex- 
 isted no doubt as to the nominee for governor. Colonel 
 Bissell had earned a most enviable reputation as a gallant sol- 
 dier in the war with Mexico and as having backed Jefferson 
 Davis down in a dueling affair the latter had provoked with 
 Bissell, was outspoken upon the issues most prominent in polit- 
 ical discussions, and people had settled it before that he was 
 to be the standard bearer in the state campaign. The tempo- 
 rary organization had hardly been effected when Mr. Munsell. 
 a delegate from Edgar county, whose name has been read here 
 today as a delegate, sprang to his feet and nominated Colonel 
 Bissell for governor, regardless of the usage in such cases.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 93 
 
 The people having settled this part of the business in advance, 
 the nomination was confirmed with a yell, after which the 
 business of a permanent organization of the convention, with 
 General Palmer as permanent president, was proceeded with. 
 
 During the absence of the committees many speeches 
 were made. Lovejoy (and by the way Owen Lovejoy was the 
 greatest stump speaker I ever listened to,) Browning, Cook, Wil- 
 liams, Arnold and among them one Emory, a free state refugee 
 from Kansas, all made speeches. Owing to the inflamed con- 
 dition of public sentiment, the audience had become much 
 wrought up in feeling when it came the turn of Mr. Lincoln 
 to make his speech, the so-called "Lost Speech." I thought 
 it then a great speech and I now think it a great speech, one 
 of the greatest and certainly one of the wisest ever delivered 
 by him. Instead of adding, as he might have done, and as 
 most speakers would have done, to the bitterness and exasper- 
 ation his audience felt, as a manner of gaining control of the 
 audience, he mildly and kindly reproved the appeal to warlike 
 measures invoked by some who had spoken before him, and be- 
 fore entering upon the delivery of his great arraingnmentof the 
 slavery question and of the opposing party, he said : "I'll tell 
 you what we will do, we'll wait until November and then shoot 
 paper ballots at them." This expression, with his concilia- 
 tory and wise declarations greatly quieted the convention and 
 prepared the members for the well considered platform which 
 was afterwards presented and adopted. 
 
 This morning I received by mail from a friend what is 
 said to have been a contribution from the Mr. Emory to a Kan- 
 sas paper, giving his version of the convention and of the 
 speech of Mr. Lincoln. I am sure this meeting will be glad to 
 have it read here. 
 
 " I got off the cars May 28 at Bloomington. * * * I learned that 
 
 the Missouri river was shut up for free-state men and that there was to be the 
 next day a big gathering of the friends of freedom from all parts of Illinois. I 
 here met Governor Reeder who had got out of the territory in the disguise of an 
 Irish hod-carrier. My own home city had been sacked and our newspaper office 
 demolished and the types and printing-presses thrown into the raging Kaw. * 
 * * the morrow came in that Illinois town May 29, 1856. It was full of 
 excited men the very air \vas surcharged with disturbing forces; men of all 
 parties met face to face on the streets, in the overflowing hotels and about the
 
 94 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 depot platforms of the incoming trains. Anti-Nebraska. Democrats, Free-Soil 
 Whigs and Abolitionists were all there. There was Palmer and Lovejoy and 
 Browning, well known names whom I had often heard of before. * * * 
 
 The large hall Major's was crowded almost to suffocation as I took my seat on 
 one of the rear benches. John M. Palmer was chairman and made a speech that 
 took him out of the Democratic party for the time being. Browning was called 
 for and he enjoined upon us 'to ever remember that slavery itself was one of the 
 compromises of the constitution, and was sacredly protected by the supreme law.' 
 After this, rather a cold dose to be administered just at that time, Owen Lovejoy 
 appeared and carried the convention by a storm of eloquent invective and terrific 
 oratory. The committee on resolutions was then announced and while this was 
 being done I felt a touch on my shoulder when a young man said he was going to 
 call me out to talk while the committee was out, adding that I must stop when I 
 saw the committee come in, as it had been arranged to have "a fellow up here 
 from Springfield, Abe Lincoln, make a speech. He is the best stump-speaker in 
 Sangamon county.' This young man was Joseph Medill a reporter for the Chicago 
 Tribune, as I afterward learned. I had no thought of anything of this kind, but of 
 course I was prepared to tell the story of bleeding Kansas, there in the house of 
 her friends. But two things bothered me all the time I was speaking; one was, I 
 was trying to pick out Mr. Lincoln who was to follow me, for he was the best 
 stump-speaker in Sangamon county, as I had just been told and I had never heard 
 his name before. Added to this, was the watching I kept up at the hall doors of 
 the committee room to be sure to have a fitting end to my rather discursive talk 
 on that now notable occasion when the party standing for free-Kansas was born 
 in Illinois and when a great man appeared as the champion of the Kansas cause 
 * * * As I stepped aside, Mr. Lincoln was called for from all sides. I 
 then for the first time, and the last, fixed my eyes on the great president. I 
 thought he was not dressed very neatly, and that his gait in walking up to the 
 platform was sort of swinging. His hair was sort of rather rough and the stoop 
 of his shoulders was noticeable; but what took me most was his intense serious 
 look. He at once held his big audience and handled it like the master he was 
 before the people pleading in a great and just cause. Today, that 'Lost Speech' 
 looks quite conservative; his chief contention all through it was that Kansas 
 must come in free, not slave, he said he did not want to meddle with slavery 
 where it existed and that he was in favor of a reasonable fugitive slave law. I do 
 not now recall how long he spoke, none of us did, I judge. He was at his best and the 
 mad insolence of the slave power as at that time exhibited before the country 
 furnished plenty of material for his unsparing logic to effectively deal with before 
 a popular audience. Men that day hardly were able to take the true gauge of Mr. 
 Lincoln. He had not yet been recognized as a great man and so we were not a 
 little puzzled to know where his power came from. He was not eloquent, like 
 Phillips, nor could he electrify an audience like Lovejoy, but he could beat them 
 both in the deep and lasting convictions he left on the minds of all who chanced 
 as I did to listen to him in those dark days, now receding into the mystic past." 
 
 JAMES S. EMORY. 
 
 On the close of the afternoon exercises at the church the 
 photograph of the delegates present was taken which is here- 
 with published.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 95 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, 
 
 Pres. Davis: 
 
 One of the delegates from Pike county was John G. Nicolay, ed- 
 itor of the Pike County Free Press, afterwards private secretary to Mr. 
 Lincoln during his candidacy in ]860, and also private secretary to 
 the president until Mr. Lincoln's death. He was also author of a ten- 
 volume Life of Mr. Lincoln. 
 
 The paper on "Abraham Lincoln" has been prepared by Mr. 
 Nicolay, but owing to ill health he is unable to be with us. His paper 
 will be read by Mr. Prince, secretary of this society. 
 
 BY JOHN G. NICOLAY. 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C, May 19, 1900. 
 Ezra M. Prince, Esq., Secretary McLean County Historical 
 
 Society, Bloomington, Illinois. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR : I received with great pleasure your in- 
 vitation to address a meeting to be held in your city on the 29th 
 of May, in commemoration of the Bloomington convention 
 of 1856. I am deeply disappointed at finding myself unable 
 to respond in person to your flattering request, but my regret is 
 mitigated by your kind permission to send you some words of 
 greeting by mail. 
 
 In this, the closing year of the Nineteenth Century, the 
 anniversary celebration you have appointed, is most opportune 
 and most instructive. It will afford the occasion to recall and 
 record the conspicuous role which the state of Illinois was call- 
 ed upon to play in American politics nearly half a century ago; 
 to review the mighty changes in national thought, national 
 legislation, and national destiny which have occurred, and to 
 
 John G. Nicolay was born in Essingen, Bavaria. February 26, 1832. Came to 
 United States in 1838. At 16 entered the office of the Pike county, Illinois, Free 
 Press and while still in his minority became editor and proprietor of that paper. 
 In 1856 became assistant to O. M. Hatch. Secretary of State of Illinois. In 1860 be- 
 came private secretary of Mr. Lincoln and remained with him as his private sec- 
 retary until his assassination. United States Consul at Paris from 1865 to 1869. 
 Afterwards for sometime editor Chicago Republican. Marshal Supreme Court of 
 the United States from 1872 to 1887. Author, with John Hay of "Abraham Lin- 
 coln," a history of ten volumes, the Standard Life of Lincoln.
 
 96 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 honor the memory of the man upon whom fell the leading part 
 in that great transformation. 
 
 I had the good fortune to be one of the delegates from 
 Pike county in the Bloomington convention of 1856, and to 
 hear the inspiring address delivered by Abraham Lincoln at its 
 close, which held the audience in such rapt attention that the 
 reporters dropped their pencils and forgot their work. Never 
 did nobler seed fall upon more fruitful soil than his argument 
 and exhortation upon the minds and hearts of his enthusias- 
 tic listeners. The remembrance of that interesting occasion 
 calls up very vividly many other momentous and related events 
 it was my priviledge to witness during the stirring years that 
 succeeded. In the Representatives' Hall at Springfield I heard 
 him deliver the famous address in which he quoted the scrip- 
 tural maxim that "a house divided against itself cannot stand," 
 and declared his belief that the Union could not permanently 
 endure, half slave and half free. In the Wigwam at Chicago 
 I heard the roll call and the thunderous applause that decided 
 and greeted his first nomination for president. On the east 
 portico of the Capitol at Washington I heard him read his first 
 inaugural, in which he announced the Union to be perpetual. 
 In the White House I saw him sign the final Proclamation of 
 Emancipation. On the Battlefield of Gettysburg I heard him 
 pronounce his immortal Gettysburg address. I saw him sign 
 the joint resolution of congress which authorized the Thir- 
 teenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. 
 And once more on the east portico, I heard from his lips the 
 sublime words of the second inaugural. 
 
 These leading incidents are but a few of the monumental 
 mile stones that measure the career of this wonderful man. 
 Between them, through a period of ten years, runs an easily 
 traceable chain of cause and effect. But the chain of cause and 
 effect, which is so clear to the readers of history forty-four 
 years after the events, could not be seen by those of us who sat 
 in the Bloomington convention. It was hidden by that impen- 
 etrable veil which the future hangs between every sunset and
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 97 
 
 JOHN G. NICOLAY.
 
 98 Anti-Nebraska Bepublican 
 
 its succeeding sunrise; between the old year and the new; be- 
 tween the century that ends, and the century to come. 
 
 We who heard Lincoln's convention speech of 1856 could 
 not know neither could he himself know that it would be 
 followed by his House-divided-against-itself speech in 1858; 
 that the Lincoln-Douglas debates would elect him president in 
 1860, and that the resulting Civil War would usher in the 
 Thirteenth Amendment. The most that the Bloomington 
 resolutions dared to ask for was the restoration of the Mis- 
 souri Compromise, the prohibition of slavery in all the terri- 
 tories, and the immediate admission of Kansas as a free state. 
 Such was the bewilderment of public thought such the 
 party antagonisms of the past such the uncertainties of the 
 future, that the Bloomington convention only called itself an 
 Anti-Nebraska organization, and even the Philadelphia con- 
 vention which three weeks later nominated Fremont, did not 
 yet adopt the Republican name, either in its call or in its plat- 
 form. 
 
 Unfortunately the fifty speeches which Lincoln made in 
 the Fremont campaign were never put in print, and we there- 
 fore have no record of his observations on the weather-signs 
 of approaching politics, except that the election of Governor 
 Bissell rendered Illinois a prospective Republican state. It 
 required two years more to afford a clear outlook on the political 
 situation which was developed, first in the election of Buchan- 
 an, second in the reactionary dictum of theDred-Scott decision, 
 and third in the astounding contrivances of the Lecompton 
 Constitution. By these events, the slavery question revealed 
 itself in entirely new aspects, and Lincoln was the first and only 
 man in the United States who correctly discerned and ac- 
 curately defined its grave portents. In his house-divided- 
 against-itself speech he laid down what was at once the most 
 radical and the most conservative programme of action out- 
 lined by any American statesman, and which, though not em- 
 bodied in the phraseology of the republican platform, became 
 practically the basis of thought, of discussion, and of decision 
 by the whole body of American voters. Territorial prohibition or
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 99 
 
 popular sovereignty, the admission of Kansas, or the senate bal- 
 ance of power, were no longer vital problems. All the previous 
 four years' discussion, oral and printed, had become empty 
 breath and waste paper. The whole field of conflict was 
 changed. The fight was no longer to be waged in the halls of 
 congress, or on the plains of Kansas. There remained but two 
 real and authoritative contestants, one, the voice of the su- 
 preme court, the other, the voice of the people. Let the su- 
 preme court decide that the states were powerless to prohibit 
 slavery, and let public opinion accept the decision, and contro- 
 versy was necessarily at an end, and the nationalization of 
 slavery complete and final. 
 
 Against this consummation there was but one effectual 
 safeguard ; an appeal must be taken from the dictum of the su- 
 preme court to the conscience of the nation. Not alone must 
 the spread of slavery be arrested, but the public mind must be 
 restored to the belief that the institution was in course of ulti- 
 mate extinction. That was the starting point of the famous 
 Lincoln-Douglas debates, in which the discussion ranged over 
 a multitude of collateral points, with a skill in forensic battle 
 that has rarely, if ever, been equaled. But the very pith and 
 marrow of the debate was exceedingly simple. Douglas de- 
 voted all his ability to show that if the people of a territory or 
 state wanted slavery, they had a right to have it. Lincoln, on 
 the contrary, little by little forced the discussion to a demon- 
 stration that even if they did want slavery, they had no right 
 to have it, because slavery was wrong, and no people have a 
 right to do wrong. Upon this issue, though Douglas gained 
 the senatorship, Lincoln carried the popular vote, and made 
 Illinois a factor in the coming presidential campaign. 
 
 This, however, was only a local result. As a matter of 
 fact, these Lincoln-Douglas debates were widely printed and 
 read in the newspapers, and absorbed public attention in every 
 state in the Union to an extent never before accorded a merely 
 state election. The larger question of slavery, so unexpectedly 
 renewed in 1854, was gradually reaching its climax, and the 
 short axiomatic definitions with which Lincoln lifted the ar-
 
 100 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 gument from the level of political expediency to one of 
 moral resposibility were eagerly accepted and remembered in 
 the free states. 
 
 The debate indeed did not end with the senatorial con- 
 test. The doctrine of ''unfriendly legislation," to which Lin- 
 coln's searching questions had driven Douglas, created a 
 schism in the Democratic party, and the agitation went on in 
 various forms, until Lincoln, in his Cooper Institute speech 
 in New York once more clearly defined the pending issue : 
 
 "If slavery is right, all words, acts, laws, and constitu- 
 tions against it are themselves wrong, and should be silenced 
 and swept away. If it is right, we (the north) cannot justly 
 object to its nationality its universality; if it is wrong, they, 
 (the south) cannot justly insist upon its extension its en- 
 largement. All they ask, we could readily grant if we thought 
 slavery right; all we ask they could as readily grant if they 
 thought it wrong. Their thinking it right and our thinking 
 it wrong, is the precise fact upon which depends the whole 
 controversy. . * * * Wrong as we think slavery is, we 
 can yet afford to let it alone where it is, because that much is 
 due to the necessity arising from its actual presence in the na- 
 tion; but can we, while our votes will prevent it, allow it to 
 spread into the national territories, and to overrun us here in 
 these free states? If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us 
 stand by our duty fearlessly and effectively. * * * 
 Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let 
 us to the end dare do our duty as we understand it." 
 
 It was this clear analysis of the pending quarrel be- 
 tween the north and the south; this candid assertion that slav- 
 ery is wrong ; this firm declaration that public opinion must put 
 it in course of ultimate extinction, which caused the nomination 
 of Lincoln for president at Chicago, and induced the people 
 of the free states to elect him. 
 
 In the decisive majorities shown by that election the south- 
 ern leaders beheld the final verdict of public opinion. No 
 matter what compromises they might break ; no matter by what 
 force or fraud they might restore their senatorial balance of
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 101 
 
 power ; no matter how many Dred-Scott decisions they might 
 obtain; no matter how many John Browns they might hang; 
 their institution was doomed. The election declared with un- 
 mistakable emphasis that slavery was wrong and must be put 
 in course of ultimate extinction. In blind anger and desperate 
 defiance eleven southern states seceded and began Civil War, 
 and tried to justify their course by the candid declaration of 
 Alexander H. Stephens that their confederate government was 
 built on slavery as its corner-stone. Lincoln's Emancipation 
 Proclamation, with the irresistible fiat of war, and the thir- 
 teenth amendment, with the omnipotent voice of the people, 
 swept away that corner-stone, and the confederate government 
 fell. 
 
 If, in the Bloomington convention of 1856, we were called 
 upon to deplore that an eminent citizen and senator of Illinois 
 had so prominent a share in repealing the Missouri Compro- 
 mise, and renewing the slavery contest, we in this commemor- 
 ative meeting of 1900 may proudly rejoice that another emi- 
 nent Illinoisian, president of the United States, corrected the 
 error and brought the problem to a real and permanent fin- 
 ality. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 JNO. G. NICOLAY.
 
 102 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 The Whigs and Whig Leaders of Illinois. 
 
 Pres. Davis: 
 
 Two of the members of the convention were Dr. Thomas Worth- 
 ington, delegate from Pike county, and Isaac L. Morrison, delegate 
 from Morgan county. At the request of the committee Mr. Morrison 
 has prepared a paper on "The Whigs and Whig Leaders." Mr. Mor- 
 rison has prepared his paper, but on account of ill health is unable to 
 be present; but the son of Dr. Worthington, who is also the son-in-law 
 of Mr. Morrison, is present and will read Mr. Morrison's paper. 
 
 I introduce to you Hon. Thomas Worthington, of Jacksonville. 
 
 BY ISAAC L. MORRISON, JACKSONVILLE, ILL. 
 
 "The Whigs and Whig Leaders of Illinois" has been sug- 
 gested as a theme for consideration in connection with the 
 present occasion. To properly portray "The Whig Leaders 
 of Illinois" would require "the pen of a ready writer." I do 
 not pretend to have that power. 
 
 This assemblage has been convened for the purpose of 
 commemorating a political convention held in the city of 
 Bloomington forty-four years ago today. The two 'great 
 political parties existing in the United States had been known, 
 the one as the Democratic party, the other as the Whig party, 
 for about twenty-five years preceding that date. There were 
 distinctive principles of political economy, that of the Whig 
 party being in favor of the principal of protection, the Demo- 
 cratic party opposed ; and the ever present question of slavery 
 presented itself. 
 
 The Democratic party had been in control of the state 
 of Illinois for many years next preceding the holding of this 
 convention. The Whig party was a minority party in the 
 
 Isaac L. Morrison, lawyer and legislator, born in Barren county. Ky., 1826. 
 Was educated in the common schools and the Masonic Seminary of his native 
 state. Admitted to the bar and came to Illinois in 1851, locating at Jacksonville where 
 he became a leader of the bar and of the Republican party, which he assisted to 
 organize as a member of its first State convention at Bloomington, in 1856 He 
 was also a delegate to the Republican National convention of 1864 that nominated 
 Abraham Lincoln for the presidency a second time. Mr. Morrison was three 
 times elected to the lower house of the General Assembly (1876, '78 and '82) and by 
 his clear judgment and incisive powers as a public speaker, took a high rank as a 
 leader in that body. Of late years he has given his attention solely to the practice 
 of his profession in Jacksonville. Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois 386. 
 
 Mr. Morrison previous to the organization of the republican party was a Whig.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 103 
 
 ISAAC L. MORRISON.
 
 104 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 state, and, I might say, a minority party in the United States, 
 also. 
 
 The movement having in view the acquisition of Texas 
 was primarily a move by the Democratic party of the south 
 in order to acquire that territory and bring it into the Union 
 as a slave state, thereby giving to that party increased power 
 in the United States senate, Mr. Calhoun, while secretary of 
 state under Mr. Tyler, instructed our minister, Mr. King, rep- 
 resenting the United States at the Court of France, to ob- 
 tain the consent, if possible, of that power to the acquisition 
 of Texas by the United States, in the interest of slavery. 
 Mr. Glay, the great leader of the Whig party, was op- 
 posed to the project on the ground that it would increase the 
 slave territory of the Union. In his letter to the National 
 Intelligencer on the subject, in 1844, he expressed his opposi- 
 tion to the acquisition of Texas on that ground, claiming 
 that it would produce a war with Mexico, and that he was 
 opposed to the acquisition of any more slave territory. 
 
 Mr. Webster, in a speech delivered at Niblo's Garden, 
 elaborately argued the question to show that Texas ought 
 not to be admitted into the Union, because of the existence of 
 slavery within her boundaries. Mr. Van Buren, in his letter 
 to Mr. Hemmert, of Mississippi, declared himself opposed to 
 the acquisition of Texas at that time, and opposed to the ex- 
 tension of slavery. It was this letter, written and published 
 by him, which lost him the nomination by the Democratic party 
 in the convention of 1844. He had a majority of that conven- 
 tion in his favor, but was unable to obtain a two-thirds vote 
 under the rules of the Democratic party, and was, therefore, 
 defeated. Mr. Polk was an advocate of slavery and in favor 
 of admitting Texas into the Union as a slave state. He was 
 nominated by that party and elected to the presidency of the 
 United States. 
 
 The \Vhig party was then opposed to the extension of 
 slavery and all but three of the Whig senators in congress 
 from the "Free States" voted against the admission of Texas. 
 Texas, however, was admitted as a slave state.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 105 
 
 In 1848 Mr. Webster declared that the Whig party was 
 the "Free Soil" party of the Union. He objected to the 
 Whig party being absorbed by the "Barn burners' Party" of 
 New York, because, as he said, it would put Mr. Van Buren 
 at the head of the Whigs. 
 
 Mr. Seward, in a speech delivered in October, 1848, at 
 Cleveland, urged the Western Reserve people of Ohio to vote 
 for General Taylor on the ground that he represented the 
 "Free Soil" party. 
 
 The legislature of the state of Illinois in 1849 passed a 
 resolution instructing our senators and requesting our repre- 
 sentatives in congress to vote against any and all legislation 
 favorable to the introduction of slavery into any of the terri- 
 tory acquired from Mexico by the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidal- 
 go. Every Whig elected to that general assembly voted for 
 the passage of that joint resolution, and a sufficient number of 
 Democrats joined them in the vote to pass it. The Whigs of 
 Illinois were thereby committed to the doctrine of "Free Soil," 
 so far as a unanimous vote of their members of that general as- 
 sembly could commit them. Mr. Clay, in a speech in the United 
 States senate in March, 1850, defining the resolutions intro- 
 duced by him with a view to a compromise of the questions 
 then under consideration, declared that no power on earth 
 could compel him to vote to introduce or extend slavery into 
 territory then free. 
 
 The discovery of gold in California and the great rush of 
 people to that territory, soon increased its population to such 
 an extent as to give it a claim upon the United States govern- 
 ment for admission into the Union under a state organization. 
 A convention was assembled there, without an enabling act by 
 Congress, and a constitution was framed and adopted by the 
 people, representatives elected and senators appointed, and ap- 
 plication made to the Congress of the United States for ad- 
 mission. 
 
 By the admission of Texas, the slave power gained two 
 senators, but by the admission of California so soon there- 
 after, the power thus gained by the south was neutralized by
 
 106 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 senators from the "Free State." The Democratic party op- 
 posed the admission of California. The question was finally 
 settled for the time being by the admission of California as a 
 state, with a constitution prohibiting the introduction of slav- 
 ery, by the abolition of the slave trade within the District of 
 Columbia, and by the passage of the Fugitive Slave law. This 
 law, hateful in all its provisions, was demanded by those 
 interested in slave property, on the ground that the consti- 
 tution of the United States provided for such legislation. It 
 was very unpopular with the Whigs in the "Free States," and 
 was claimed to be unconstitutional because it provided that the 
 fugitive arrested might be taken back by his captor to the 
 state in which it was claimed he belonged, without the 
 formality of a trial by jury. The administration was demo- 
 cratic, the judges were appointed by a democratic president, 
 and the law was held constitutional. 
 
 This legislation had a very strong tendency to force the 
 Whigs in all the free states to a united opposition to the ex- 
 tension of slavery. Compromises are frequently said to be 
 objectionable as a confessed departure from principle; but it 
 may well be doubted whether it was not the part of wisdom 
 for the Whigs, under the leadership of Mr. Clay and others, 
 to concur in these measures ; because it is believed that had the 
 extreme southern element then made the attempt to bring about 
 the disruption of the Union, as had frequently been threatened, 
 it was extremely doubtful whether the sentiment in the Free 
 States could have been so far consolidated as to have successful- 
 ly resisted the attempt. At any rate after the passage of these 
 resolutions, the Democratic party in its platform of principles, 
 in 1852, declared explicitly that the compromise measures 
 finally settled the slave controversy. That platform was a 
 distinct pledge to the people of the Union that the agitation 
 of the slavery question was to cease. 
 
 The resolutions passed by the Whig convention of that 
 year were not sufficiently explicit in expression to satisfy 
 either wing of the party. They were a little too strong to suit 
 the Whig party in Kentucky and other southern states that had
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 107 
 
 before that time been controlled by the Whig party, and they 
 were not sufficiently strong and explicit to satisfy the Free Soil 
 Whigs of the Free States. The consequence was that they 
 did not attract to their support the people in either section. 
 General Pierce was elected by an overwhelming majority. The 
 people seemed to be inclined to accept the situation. They de- 
 sired rest and quiet. It was therefore apparently unexpected by 
 the public at large that the question of the claims of slavery 
 should be precipitated so soon thereafter. The introduction of 
 a bill into congress organizing the territory west of Missouri 
 and of Iowa into the territory of Nebraska, and that by a north- 
 ern senator, with the proposition to repeal the Missouri restric- 
 tion, produced a profound sensation. The Missouri Compro- 
 mise had been in force for about thirty-five years, and had been 
 regarded as an explicit and sufficient guarantee that it 
 was legally impossible ever after for one man to buy or sell 
 another within the territory belonging to the United States 
 lying north of 36 degrees, 30 minutes, and west of Missouri. 
 However, the majority in congress pushed the matter until the 
 bill, eventually taking the form of the organization of Kansas 
 into one territory and Nebraska into another, was passed, and 
 the Missouri restriction repealed. The doctrine had been ad- 
 vanced during the discussion of the compromise measures that 
 by the force of the constitution itself, slavery had the right to 
 enter any territory of the United States, and that congress had 
 no power to prohibit it ; and that therefore the Missouri Com- 
 promise was unconstitutional and void. The effect of this 
 legislation was to arouse in the Free States an anti-slavery 
 sentiment. The Whig party did not disorganize in Illinois in 
 the political campaign of 1854, although there were divisions 
 in its ranks in various localities. 
 
 The campaign of 1854 was conducted by the opponents 
 of the Democratic party as an Anti-Nebraska party; that is to 
 say, in opposition to the administration of President Pierce 
 and to the demands of the slave power. The election that fall re- 
 sulted in the choice of a majoritv of the members opposed to 
 the Kansas-Nebraska bill, opposed to the Democratic adminis-
 
 108 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 tration, and in favor of Free Soil. A great majority of the 
 Whig leaders in the state supported the Anti-Nebraska move- 
 ment. There were some leading Democrats, however, elected 
 to the general assembly, gentlemen who had stood high in the 
 counsels of the Democratic party, who were in sentiment 
 and principle opposed to the extension of slavery. Such were 
 John M. Palmer, Norman B. Judd, Burton C. Cook, senators, 
 besides some members of the house. 
 
 That legislature elected Lyman Trnmbull to the senate 
 of the United States. Mr. Trumbull had occupied a seat upon 
 the supreme bench of -the state ; he resigned his seat, became 
 an Anti-Nebraska candidate for congress in the Belleville dis- 
 trict, and was elected; but before the time arrived for him to 
 take his seat, he was elected to the senate of the United States. 
 
 The discussion of the slavery question continued to oc- 
 cupy public attention throughout the year 1855, and on Feb- 
 ruary 22, 1856, the Anti-Nebraska editors in the state met 
 at Decatur in convention, for the purpose of considering the 
 best mode of conducting the Anti-Nebraska campaign. That 
 convention was presided over by a Whig editor, Mr. Paul Sel- 
 by, then of Morgan county. Resolutions were adopted, a 
 central committee appointed, and it was recommended 
 that a convention be held on the 29th of May, 1856, for 
 the purpose of organizing all the forces of the state in op- 
 position to the Democratic party. On the same day a polit- 
 ical convention assembled at Pittsburg , Pennsylvania, com- 
 posed of men from the various states of theUnion who were 
 opposed to the policy of the administration of General Pierce 
 and opposed to the extension of slavery. We might refer to 
 some of the Whig leaders who were present in this convention; 
 in this city, or, if not present, cooperating with the movement. 
 There was E. B. Washburn, of Jo Daviess county, afterwards a 
 member of congress and still later minister to France ; Ira O. 
 Wilkinson, a native of Kentucky and a circuit judge from Rock 
 Island county; Wm P. Kellogg, of Peoria county, afterwards 
 a member of congress; Orville H. Browning, afterwards secre- 
 tary of the interior; N. Bushnell and Archibald Williams, of
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 109 
 
 Adams county ; Mr. Williams was the United States district at- 
 torney under Fillmore, and was appointed district judge in 
 Kansas by Mr. Lincoln; William Ross, William A. Grim- 
 shaw, Jackson Grimshaw, and Dr. Thomas Worthington, an 
 original anti-slavery Whig, of Pike county; also Ozias M. 
 Hatch, of that county, member of the lower house of the gen- 
 eral assembly and, nominated at this convention for secretary 
 of state; Francis Arenz, a learned German, and Henry E. 
 Dummer, afterwards member of the legislature, then from Cass 
 county ; Samuel D. Lockwood, who came to the state of Illinois 
 in 1818 and was on the supreme bench for nearly thirty years, 
 whose residence was injacksonville, Illinois, and afterwards at 
 Aurora in Kane county. He was also a member of the con- 
 stitutional convention of 1847. William Thomas, who set- 
 tled in Morgan county in 1826, a native of Kentucky, served in 
 the lower house and in the senate, and also in the constitutional 
 convention of 1847. There was also from Morgan county 
 Joseph J. and Martin H. Cassell, and Jonathan B. Turner, Rich- 
 ard Yates, David Davis, then on the circuit bench, and 
 afterwards elevated to the supreme bench by Mr. Lincoln, 
 Jesse Fell and Leonard Swett, of McLean county; C. H. 
 Moore, of DeWitt county; William G. Green, a native of 
 Tennessee from Menard county, and an intimate friend and 
 associate of Mr. Lincoln at New Salem; Richard J. Oglesby, 
 of Macon county ; James M. Ruggles, of Mason county ; Joseph 
 T. Eckles, of Montgomery county, a member of the constitu- 
 tional convention of 1847; Benjamin Bond, of Clinton county, 
 United States marshal under Fillmore's administration; 
 Thomas J. Henderson, of Bureau county, brigadier general in 
 the Union Army and a member of congress ; James C. Conk- 
 ling, Wm. H. Herndon, William Jayne, Wm. Butler, Milton 
 Hay, James N Brown, from Sangamon county; Shelby M. Cul- 
 lom, from Tazewell county, and afterwards of Sangamon 
 county. 
 
 Other Whig leaders did not follow or support the anti- 
 slavery movement of the Whig party generally. Of those 
 we might name Buckner S. Mbrris, of Cook county; Charles
 
 110 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 H. Constable, of Coles county; Anthony Thornton, of Shelby; 
 James L. D. Morrison, of St. Clair; David M. Woodson and 
 Charles D. Hodges, of Greene county, and John Todd Stuart 
 and Benjamin S. Edwards, of Sangamon county. Some of 
 these gentlemen last named joined the Democratic party on the 
 slavery question and some of them became extreme partisans 
 in that organization. 
 
 The convention assembled at Bloomington was composed 
 of earnest, determined, yet conservative men who had become 
 alarmed at the demands of the slave interest in the United 
 States, and who desired to form a compact, energetic and ag- 
 gressive political party in opposition to the extension of slav- 
 ery. It was not contemplated, so far as I know, nor was it claim- 
 ed by any one, that the constitutional power existed to inter- 
 fere with slavery in the states where it existed by force of local 
 and positive law; but it was the doctrine of that convention 
 that slavery was a cruel wrong and a mistaken policy, and 
 ought not to be permitted to extend into other territory. And 
 it was believed that to circumscribe it within the boundaries 
 where it then legally existed would have a direct and strong 
 tendency to ultimately overthrow it. There was no question 
 raised as to the name of the party at the time. That is to say, 
 the name "Republican" was not proposed, but the effort was 
 made to unite all earnest men who were willing to renounce 
 former political organizations and associations and unite in the 
 organization of a party having for its chief purpose the re- 
 striction of slavery to its then existing limitations. Colonel 
 Bissell, a Democrat, who had commanded the Second regi- 
 ment of Illinois volunteers in the Mexican War, and who had 
 justly gained renown for the achievements of that regiment, 
 and who had represented his state in the state legislature and 
 in congress, was nominated for governor without a dissenting 
 voice. General John M. Palmer, then Senator Palmer, was 
 elected to preside over the deliberations of the convention. 
 Francis A. Hoffman of Cook county, was nominated for the of- 
 fice of lieutenant governor, and he having been found to be in- 
 eligible, John Wood, of Adams county, was substituted. Ozias
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. Ill 
 
 M. Hatch, a Whig representative in the legislature, was nomin- 
 ated for secretary of state; Jesse K. Dubois, a life-long Whig, 
 was nominated for auditor of state. The ticket was a conces- 
 sion to the Whig element then forming or constituting the 
 largest part of, the convention. 
 
 It is not possible on this occasion to enumerate or mention 
 all the W r hig leaders who took part in the movement which 
 formed the Anti-Nebraska or anti-slavery party in Illinois. I 
 may only mention those above named and a few others. Many 
 of those leaders acquired national fame. Mr. Washburn as 
 a legislator and diplomat; Mr. Judd in the diplomatic ser- 
 vice; David Davis as a member of the supreme court, and 
 many others who acquired fame in the military service for 
 the preservation of the Union. Richard J. Oglesby, a gallant 
 private soldier in the war with Mexico and a brigadier general 
 of the Union Army, thrice elected governor of his state and 
 once elected to the United States senate; Shelby M. Cullom, 
 a native of Kentucky, who has served as speaker of the house of 
 representatives in the state legislature, who has twice been elect- 
 ed governor of his state; has served in the lower house of con- 
 gress and three times elected to the United States senate. 
 Richard Yates, who was one of the vice-presidents of this 
 convention, who served his county and district in the state 
 legislature and for four years in the house of representatives 
 in congress, who was elected governor of the state of Illinois 
 in 1860, and whose service as the chief executive of this state 
 in the organization of regiments sent into the field for the 
 preservation of the Union has not been surpassed by any citi- 
 zen or officer of the United States. He also served six years 
 in the United States senate. He sleeps in a cemetery near the 
 little city in which he spent his life from early youth. No stately 
 shaft of bronze or marble marks his grave. His monument 
 has been and is in the affections of more than 200,000 Illinois 
 soldiers whom he organized into regiments at the call of their 
 country, to uphold liberty, law and the Union. 
 
 Then there was over and above all the Whig leaders in the 
 state, Abraham Lincoln. He did more by his speeches, by his
 
 112 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 efforts in the promotion of the principles and interests of the 
 Whig party and in opposition to the extension of slavery than 
 any other member of it. His kindly sympathy for all living" 
 creatures, yet his comprehensive, steady judgment proved him 
 to be, above all others of his time, the greatest Whig, the great- 
 est anti-slavery advocate and the greatest man. 
 
 The party organized forty-four years ago today in the 
 state of Illinois as the Anti-Nebraska party, soon after took 
 the name of "Republican" party, which name it has ever since 
 retained. The achievements of that party have been mem- 
 orable in the history of the country. While it was made up 
 of a majority of Whigs, yet it included a strong element, and 
 many strong men, from the previously dominating party in 
 the Union Democracy. It had strength enough to over- 
 throw the Democratic party at the November election in 1856 
 in the state of Illinois. It did not succeed in electing the 
 Anti-Nebraska electoral ticket of that year, but it got pos- 
 session of the state government. It has retained possession 
 from that time to the present, forty-four years, with the ex- 
 ception of from January, 1893, to January, 1897, a period of 
 four years. 
 
 The Whig leaders not only achieved their purpose in 
 preventing the extension of African slavery, but they estab- 
 lished that other distinct principle belonging to the Whigs 
 the principle of protection, and, by its beneficient operation in 
 the management of the revenues of the nation, it has brought 
 the people of the United States into an elevated and advanced 
 position among the family of nations. The Whigs and the Whig 
 leaders of the state of Illinois are entitled to their full share 
 of the achievements which preserved the Union intact, crushed 
 out that infamous institution American slavery and placed 
 the whole people of the nation upon that broad and Catholic 
 principle "Liberty for all." The state of Illinois may well 
 be proud of the deeds performed by the Whigs and Whig lead- 
 ers of the state. 
 
 It required the signature of "A Whig Leader of Illinois," 
 as president of the United States, to perfect the Morrill Tariff
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 113 
 
 bill, thereby carrying into full effect the long cherished prin- 
 ciple of protection. Thus a policy was adopted which, with 
 only spasmodic exceptions, has continued since 1862, justify- 
 ing, in its results, the claims made by the Whigs for the prin- 
 ciple which they had so long and earnestly advocated. 
 
 ISAAC L. MORRISON. 
 
 Address of Gen. John M. Palmer. 
 Pres. Davis: 
 
 Our next speaker it is unnecessary to introduce. Major-general 
 in the War of the Rebellion, governor of this state, and senator in 
 the congress of the United States, he is a man whom we all delight to 
 honor. It is only necessary to further state that he was the president 
 of the convention of May 29, 1856. 
 
 I have the honor of introducing Gen. John M. Palmer. 
 
 Fellow Citizens: I know that some of those present at 
 the convention of 1856 (the forty- fourth anniversary of which 
 we celebrate today), still survive but they are few some of 
 the old friends preceded Mr. Lincoln into the "land of 
 shadows." Of the central figures in that convention one only, 
 Hoffman, is living; Bissell, Wood, Hatch, Dubois, Miller, 
 (your fellow citizen) and Powell, all are gone! 
 
 And those who issued the call for the convention William 
 B. Ogden, S. M. Church, G. D. A. Parks, T. J. Pickett, E. A. 
 Dudley, W. H. Herndon, R. J. Oglesby, Joseph Gillespie, D. 
 L. Phillips, Gustav Koerner and Ira O. Wilkinson and also 
 James C. Conkling, Asahel Gridley, Burton C. Cook, Charles 
 H. Ray, and N. B. Judd,the executive committee under whose 
 directions the campaign of 1856 was carried on, they too have 
 
 John McCauley Palmer, was born in Scott county, Ky., September 13, 1817. 
 Moved to Madison county, 111. Entered Shurtleff College, taught school, studied law, 
 1843 elected probate jud'ge of Macoupin county. Member of Constitutional con- 
 vention of 1847, elected to State Senate in 1852 and re-elected in 1854, as an Anti- 
 Nebraska Democrat, cast his vote for Lyman Trumbull for United States Senator, 
 was president of the Major's Hall convention, delegate to National convention 
 that nominated Fremont in 1856. Presidential elector in 1860. Member National 
 Peace Conference 1861. Col. 14111. Inf. Brig. Gen. November, 1861. Major General 
 in 1864, Commander 14 Army Corps. 1865 assigned by President Lincoln to com- 
 mand Military Department, Kentucky. In 1868 elected governor as Republican, 
 in 1872 supported Horace Greely for president. 1891 elected United States Senator 
 "by democrats. 1896 gold democrat candidate for president.
 
 114 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 gone! Others died under the flag, or in the hospitals during 
 the Civil War, whose coming that convention faintly indi- 
 cated. 
 
 The convention was created by the intense hostility of 
 the American people to the extension of human slavery into 
 free territories. 
 
 Both the great parties of the country had pledged them- 
 selves by the action of their national convention in 1852, to 
 maintain the compromise measures of 1850, as a final, and 
 satisfactory settlement of the slavery question in the United 
 States, but the permanent success of the Democratic party was 
 destroyed by an event which was intended to insure its predom- 
 inance. 
 
 In 1854 Mr. Douglas, then a senator from Illinois, re- 
 ported a bill from the committee on territories for the or- 
 ganization of the territory of Nebraska. In his report he said : 
 "The prominent amendments which your committee deemed 
 it their duty to commend to the favorable action of the senate 
 in a special report, are those in which the principles estab- 
 lished by the compromise measures of 1850, so far as they 
 are applicable to territorial organizations, are proposed to be 
 affirmed, and carried into practical operation within the limits 
 of the new territory with a view of conforming their action 
 to what they regard as the settled policy of the government, 
 sanctioned by the approving voice of the American people, 
 your committee had deemed it their duty to incorporate and 
 perpetuate in their territorial bill the principles and spirit of 
 those measures. If any other considerations were necessary 
 to render the propriety of this course imperative upon the 
 committee, they may be found in the fact that the Nebraska 
 country occupies the relative position to the slavery question 
 as did New Mexico and Utah when those territories were or- 
 ganized. It was a disputed point whether slavery was pro- 
 hibited by law in the country acquired from Mexico. 
 
 On the one hand it was contended as a legal proposition 
 that slaverv having been prohibited by the enactments of 
 Mexico, according to the law of nations, we received the
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 115 
 
 GEN. JOHN M. PALMER.
 
 116 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 country with all its laws and local institutions attached to the 
 soil, so far as they did not conflict with the constitution of the 
 United States ; and that a law, either protecting or prohibiting 
 slavery was not repugnant to that instrument, as was evi- 
 denced by the fact that one-half of the states of the Union 
 tolerated, while the other half prohibited the institution of 
 slavery. 
 
 On the other hand it was insisted that by virtue of the 
 constitution of the United States, everv citizen had a right to 
 remove to any territory of the Union and carry his property 
 with him under the protection of law, whether that property 
 consisted of persons or things. 
 
 The difficulties arising from this diversity of opinion 
 were greatly aggravated by the fact that there were many 
 persons on both sides of the legal controversy who were un- 
 willing to abide the decision of the courts on the legal matters 
 in dispute; thus among those who claimed that the Mexican 
 laws were still in force, and consequently, that slavery was 
 already prohibited in these territories by valid enactments, 
 there were many who insisted upon congress making the mat- 
 ter certain by enacting another prohibition. 
 
 In like manner some of those who argued that Mexican 
 law had ceased to have any binding force, and that the con- 
 stitution tolerated and protected slave property in those ter- 
 ritories, were unwilling to trust the decision of the court upon 
 the point, and insisted that congress should, by direct enact- 
 ment, remove all legal obstacles to the introduction of slaves 
 into the territories. 
 
 Your committee deem it fortunate for the peace of the 
 country and the security of the Union, that the controversy 
 then resulted in the adoption of the compromise measures, 
 which the two great political parties with singular unanimity 
 have affirmed as a cardinal article of their faith and proclaimed 
 to the world as a final settlement of the controversy and an end 
 of the agitation. 
 
 A due respect therefore for the avowed opinions of other 
 senators, as well as a proper sense of patriotic duty, enjoins
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 117 
 
 upon your committee the propriety and necessity of a strict 
 adherence to the principles and even a literal adoption of the 
 enactments of that adjustment, in all their territorial bills, so 
 far as the same are not locally inapplicable. 
 
 These enactments embrace, among other things less ma- 
 terial to the matters under consideration, the following pro- 
 visions : 
 
 When admitted as a state, the said territory, or any por- 
 tion of the same, shall be received into the Union, with or 
 without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at their 
 admission. 
 
 That the legislative power and authority of said terri- 
 tory shall be vested in the governor and a legislative assembly. 
 
 That the legislative power of said territory shall extend to 
 all rightful subjects of legislation consistent with the constitu- 
 tion of the United States and the provisions of this act ; but no 
 law shall be passed interfering with the primary disposal of 
 the soil; no taxes shall be imposed upon the property of the 
 United States, nor shall the land or property of non-residents 
 be taxed higher than the lands or other property of residents." 
 
 Mr. Douglas afterward offered an amendment to the bill 
 which referred to the Missouri Compromise, and declared 
 "which being inconsistent with the principle of non-interven- 
 tion by congress with slavery in the states and territories as 
 recognized by the legislation of 1850, commonly called the 
 compromise measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void, 
 it being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate 
 slavery into any state or territory nor exclude it therefrom, 
 but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to frame and 
 regulate their domestic institutions in their own way subject 
 only to the constitution of the United States." 
 
 The proposition to repeal the Missouri Compromise, or 
 declare it void, because of its opposition to the compromise 
 measures of 1850. was received with reluctance; the people 
 yielded to the Fugitive Slave law, only to discharge their 
 obligations under the constitution, but when it was proposed 
 to repeal the compromise of 1820, or to declare it inoperative
 
 118 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 because of its supposed conflict with the compromise of 1850, 
 they were astounded. They had accepted the compromise 
 measures of 1850 as a supplement to that provision of the com- 
 promise of 1820, which excluded slavery from the territories 
 of the United States north of 36 degrees, 30 seconds. No one 
 can doubt that Mr. Douglas in his action upon the Kansas-Ne- 
 braska bill, committed the tactical mistake of his life time. He 
 relied upon the strength of merely partisan organization. He 
 did not understand what he afterwards found to be true, that 
 the questions he had raised were of the most dangerous char- 
 acter and would destroy the Democratic party. 
 
 The language of his amendment to the Nebraska bill pre- 
 sented a conundrum of almost impossible solution. It de- 
 clared that it was not the intention of the act to introduce 
 slavery into any state or territory or to exclude it therefrom, 
 but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to regulate their 
 own institution in their own way, subject only to the constitu- 
 tion of the United States. 
 
 No man was more capable of defending this remarkable 
 provision than was Mr. Douglas. 
 
 There is no doubt but that the Dred-Scott decision, and 
 the assertion that congress had no right or authority to pro- 
 hibit slavery in the territories of Nebraska and Kansas, gave 
 birth to the Republican party. 
 
 It may be as well to give a few words, in explanation of 
 the position of the Anti-Nebraska-Democrats at that time, 
 especially as to their presence and action in the convention of 
 1856. 
 
 I was elected to the state senate in 1851, and attended a 
 called session in June 1852, and voted in caucus, as well as 
 in joint session of the two houses in 1853 for Stephen A. 
 Douglas, as senator of the United States. 
 
 In 1853 an act was introduced by John A. Logan, of 
 'Williamson county, "to prevent the immigration of negroes 
 into the state." See, acts of 1853, p. 57. 
 
 The subject of the action of congress on the Nebraska 
 bill was introduced into the senate by Mr. O'Melveny, senator
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 119 
 
 from the counties of Monroe and St. Clair. At the special 
 session of 1854, the governor had made no allusion to the sub- 
 ject in his message, which was devoted exclusively to state 
 affairs. The legislature had, in the early days of the republic 
 instructed the senators of the United States as to their votes 
 and duties, and though Mr. Douglas had acted independently 
 of Illinois it was thought best by his friends that he should 
 be endorsed by the legislature of his own state; accordingly 
 Mr. O'Melveny introduced on the Qth day of February, 1854, 
 the following resolutions : 
 
 Resolved, By the senate of Illinois, "that the bill to 
 form the Nebraska and Kansas territories, as presented and 
 advocated by our distinguished Senator Douglas at the pres- 
 ent session of congress, meets with our approbation, 
 
 Resolved, That we believe that the best interests of the 
 Union demands the passage of said bill, 
 
 Resolved, That we call upon all Union men throughout 
 the state to support said bill, 
 
 Resolved, That we will sustain Judge Douglas against all 
 Abolitionists and Free-Soilers in this state so far as the provi- 
 sions of his bill are concerned." 
 
 Thereupon, on the day following, I offered the following 
 concurrent resolutions as a substitute for the resolutions of 
 Mr. O'Melveny, 
 
 Resolved, That the Missouri Compromise, and the com- 
 promise measures of 1850, provide for a satisfactory and final 
 settlement of the subject of slavery, and the people of Illinois 
 in common with the citizens of all the states are pledged to 
 maintain the same and resist and discountenance all further 
 agitation of the question as tending to weaken the bonds of the 
 Union, and as threatening its perpetuity and peace. 
 
 Resolved, That the compromise measures of 1850 were 
 not intended by the framers, nor understood by the people of 
 the United States in any manner, in letter or spirit, to weaken 
 the prohibition of slavery in that portion of the territory of the 
 United States from which it was excluded by the terms of the 
 Missouri Compromise.
 
 120 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 Resolved, That the provisions of the bill for the organi- 
 zation of the Kansas and Nebraska territories, now pending" 
 in the congress of the United States, so far as the same pro- 
 poses to tolerate the introduction or existence of slavery in 
 said territory, or weakens or impairs the restrictions imposed 
 thereon by the Missouri Compromise, meets the unqualified 
 condemnation and opposition of this general assembly, as 
 directly exciting the elements of agitation and strife, so happily 
 allayed by the compromise aforesaid/' My resolutions were 
 defeated. 
 
 I was at that time sincerely in favor of the Missouri Com- 
 promise, which excluded slavery from the territory west of the 
 state of Missouri, north of the latitude of 36 degrees, 30 min- 
 utes, and I was equally sincere in my support of the com- 
 promise measure of 1850, and I felt indignant that an Illinois 
 senator should, from the committee on territories, make a re- 
 port and declare the Missouri act of 1820, void, on account of 
 its conflict with the measures of 1850. The house was in 
 favor of the Nebraska bill, and passed resolutions which were 
 introduced into the senate by Mr. Davis, of Hancock county, 
 committing the entire Democratic party to the passage of the 
 Nebraska bill. After the adjournment of the special session 
 of 1854, I was conscious that I had differed from my party 
 upon the subject of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and the repeal 
 of the Missouri Compromise, and had from that cause alien- 
 ated many of the ultra pro-slavery men of the Democratic 
 party, and I knew that I had given that class of men some evi- 
 dence which they used unsparingly to convict me of the polit- 
 ical offense called "Abolitionism" but I did not see, what I 
 afterwards discovered to be true, that the slavery question 
 would not cease to disturb the country, as long as that institu- 
 tion existed. I supposed that the Democratic party would 
 again unite upon other issues, and I was mainly anxious to 
 preserve my personal independence and the right inside the 
 party lines, to act according to the dictates of my own sense of 
 personal duty. Major Burke, who opposed me for a seat in 
 the state senate in 1854 was renominated in the summer of
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 121 
 
 1854, for a seat in the house, but he preferred to make a can- 
 vass for the senate. He was a popular man and after his 
 nomination for the senate, his course toward me was so per- 
 sonal, that I determined to become an independent Democratic 
 candidate. 
 
 In a discussion at Stanton, he claimed that the states of 
 the Union were equal and that the citizens of states, in which 
 slavery existed, had a right to remove into the territories with 
 their slaves and hold them, as slaves until the people, with the 
 sanction of congress, formed a state government, when slav- 
 ery might be tolerated, or excluded from the new state. 
 
 He attacked the "Popular Sovereignty" doctrine of 
 Douglas as "illogical and absurd," which it was. I had 
 trouble in defending myself for opposing the Nebraska bill : 
 At that time the prejudice against "Abolitionists" was bitter 
 and affected the minds of three-fourths of the voters. I was 
 only remotely influenced in my course by hostility to slavery, 
 although I avowed my opposition to the institution : I was 
 chiefly concerned by the fact that the repeal of the Missouri 
 Compromise re-opened the slavery question. In February. 
 1854, at the special session of the legislature, I had offered the 
 resolutions heretofore copied, which at once expressed my 
 opinions as well as my apprehensions. I reiterated the sub- 
 stances of these resolutions in all the speeches I made in the 
 district and assailed Major Burke for his opposition to the 
 compromise of 1850 and the result was, that I was elected by 
 about two hundred majority. 
 
 I have already expressed my great regard for Mr. Doug- 
 las, and up to the time to which I refer, I regarded him as 
 my friend two or three weeks before the election, he came 
 into the district and addressed the people of Greene county at 
 Carrollton, and from that place came to Carlinville, my home. 
 I came into Carlinville from Jerseyville, where I had attended 
 court after sundown on the same day and hearing that Judge 
 Douglas was at the hotel, I called upon him and we spent two 
 hours or more, in earnest conversation of the purport, that 
 Judge Douglas was anxious that the legislature would elect
 
 122 Anti-Nebraska Republican \ 
 
 a United States senator to succeed Gen. James Shields,! should 
 agree to attend the legislative caucus and vote for whoever 
 might be nominated as a candidate for senator. 
 
 On the other hand, I insisted that as I was an independ- 
 ent Democratic candidate for state senator, in opposition to 
 the Nebraska bill, and especially opposed to that measure as a 
 test of party orthodoxy, he ought to agree that the Democratic 
 caucus should pass no resolutions favoring that measure" Our 
 discussion was somewhat heated, both of us obstinate, and he 
 finally said to me "You may join the Abolitionists if you 
 choose to do so, but if you do, there are enough patriotic Whigs 
 to take your place and elect Shields," I answered, "I will beat 
 Burke in spite of all you can do against me. You will fix 
 the imputation of Abolitionism upon me and by that means try to 
 beat me. We have fought the Whigs together, you now prom- 
 ise yourself that they will take my place and help elect Shields, 
 I will fight you until you are defeated and have learned to 
 value your friends." I kept my word. I think Judge Douglas 
 had no more active, or earnest political enemy than I was from 
 that time until I met him in Washington in February, 1861. 
 
 After the November election in 1854, I saw Mr. Lincoln 
 frequently and told him that I was elected as an Anti-Nebraska 
 Democrat and could not vote for him but would be compelled 
 to vote for a Democrat. 
 
 When the legislature met in 1855, the Anti-Nebraska 
 Democrats were represented by Judd, Cook, Baker, Allen and 
 myself; we held a separate caucus. Among the names con- 
 sidered by us for United States senator were those of Under- 
 wood, Judd, Cook, Ogden, Williams and Trumbull, but we 
 finally selected Trumbull, and I placed him in nomination in 
 the joint session. He received but five votes on the first bal- 
 lot. After several ballots Mr. Lincoln came into the hall and 
 insisted that his name should be dropped and his friends 
 should vote for Trumbull. 
 
 All but fifteen did so, and the ballot stood, Lincoln 15 
 Trumbull 36 and Matteson, (who had taken the place of 
 Shields on the balloting,) 47.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 123 
 
 As the next ballot was called, Judge Stephen T. Logan, 
 Lincoln's close friend, arose and announced the purpose of 
 the remaining Whigs to vote for Trumbull, which they did, 
 he receiving fifty-one votes, just enough to elect him. General 
 Henderson did vote for Mr. Lincoln, "nine times" but at the 
 suggestion of Judge Logan, voted for Trumbull. 
 
 We kept our faith with Mr. Lincoln three years after- 
 wards, for when Elihu B. Washburn came to Springfield in 
 1858, as a messenger from Horace Greeley and proposed to 
 drop Mr. Lincoln and take up Mr. Douglas for senator, we, 
 the Anti-Nebraska Democrats opposed him and in June, 1858, 
 we concurred in the declaration that Mr. Lincoln was the 
 nominee of the Republican convention as its "first and only 
 candidate for senator." 
 
 There is no doubt that the Dred-Scott decision, and the 
 assertion that congress had no right to prohibit slavery in 
 the territories of Nebraska and Kansas, gave birth to the Re- 
 publican party. 
 
 The men who attended the convention of 1856 were 
 sincere and earnest in their opposition to the extension of slav- 
 ery into free territories. They were "anti-slavery men" but 
 they conceded the right to the states where slavery existed by 
 law, to maintain it. And such were the opinions of the Re- 
 publican party until Mr. Lincoln, in the exercise of the war 
 power proclaimed the Emancipation of the slaves in all but the 
 excepted states. And I had the satisfaction of "driving the last 
 nail into the coffin of slavery" while commanding the Depart- 
 ment of Kentucky in 1865-66. 
 
 The convention passed resolutions that,"Congress pos- 
 sessed the power to abolish slavery in the territories, and 
 should exercise that power to prevent its extension into terri- 
 tories heretofore free;" 
 
 "Opposition to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise," 
 and in "favor of making Kansas and Nebraska free states." 
 
 In the afternoon preceding the assemblage of the con- 
 vention, Gen. John T. Farnsworth and I delivered speeches
 
 124 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 from the steps of the Pike House; General Farnsworth had 
 been a Democrat. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln, who was a member of the committee to re- 
 port nominations to be ratified by the convention, made a 
 speech before the convention, which was of marvelous power 
 and force and fully vindicated the new movement in opposition 
 to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and then the con- 
 vention adjourned. 
 
 In 1860, we were true to Mr. Lincoln, and Mr. Judd was 
 chairman of his campaign committee in this state. 
 
 In securing Mr. Lincoln's nomination in 1860, three of 
 your fellow citizens, Judge David Davis, Jesse W. Fell and 
 Leonard Swett, were the recognized leaders of the Lincoln 
 forces, Judge Davis, by common consent, being the com- 
 mander-in-chief. 
 
 Gov. William H. Bissell. 
 
 Col. Bissell, the nominee for governor at this convention, 
 died a few weeks before the expiration of his term of office. 
 The great event of the war of the rebellion and the great names 
 of Lincoln, Grant, Palmer, Yates, Logan and the other Illinois 
 heroes of the war of the rebellion have overshadowed the fame 
 of one of the best and noblest of our Illinois governors of whom 
 we have only very meagre accounts. At the request of the His- 
 torical Society Mr. Frank Elliott, of Evanston, Illinois, has 
 prepared for this book the following sketch of Gov. Bissell. 
 
 WILLIAM H. BISSELL. 
 FRANK M. ELLIOTT, OF EVANSTON, ILL. 
 
 The name of Governor Bissell is not a familiar one to the 
 politician of today, but if any young student wishes to place 
 before him the conditions existing in the period just before 
 our Civil War; if he wishes to know of the intense hatred and 
 the political devotion to parties of those days, he will nowhere
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 125 
 
 Gov. WILLIAM H. BISSELL.
 
 126 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 find them more dramatically set forth than in the life of Gov- 
 ernor Bissell. Within this brief sketch there can only be an 
 outline of the principal events of the life; a life in which were 
 mingled thrilling deeds and the pathos of a long continued 
 illness. 
 
 In the days when he played his part in the political cam- 
 paigns of this state, there were few great newspapers and sten- 
 ographic reports of speeches were rarely made. Only the 
 briefest mention is found of current events. 
 
 There are no biographies of Governor Bissell and all the 
 sketches of his life are short and fragmentary. A few facts 
 only are dwelt upon and nothing like a full and careful re- 
 view of his life has been written. The information concern- 
 ing him is scattered and is mostly hidden away in the files of 
 old newspapers. There is a wealth of material in connection 
 with him that is worthy of "attention. 
 
 It is hoped there may be a renewed interest in the life of 
 this gifted man and that the fugitive information wherever it 
 may be found will be collected and form the basis of a biog- 
 raphy worthy of so distinguished a citizen and official of 
 Illinois. 
 
 William H. Bissell was born at Hartwick near Coopers- 
 town, New York, on April 25, 1811. His parents were poor 
 and he experienced many of the hardships and deprivations 
 which slender means imposed. Thus it was that he was denied 
 the usual educational advantages, except an occasional attend- 
 ance of a summer school. As soon as he was able he himself 
 became a teacher taking schools during the winter seasons. 
 His habits were ever studious and thoughtful from his youth 
 and every spare moment he utilized in reading and studying 
 such books as ke could lay hands on. His education was 
 largely self-imposed and acquired. The experience of these 
 early years laid the foundation and prepared him for the suc- 
 cess and trials which were in store for him in later life. His 
 industrious self-culture and life-long endeavor to enrich his 
 mind and improve his natural powers prepared him for every 
 opportunity that crossed his pathway.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 127 
 
 
 
 In selecting a profession he found that of a physician 
 most inviting, accordingly he bent his energies to the study of 
 medicine, soon finding it possible with what he had earn- 
 ed in teaching to attend the Philadelphia Medical College. 
 In 1835 he received a diploma from that institution. Re- 
 turning to that part of the country most familiar to him he 
 commenced the practice of medicine at Southport in Chemung 
 county, New York. After two years he removed to Painted 
 Post in Steuben county of the same state. But the desire to 
 go west came to him as it had come to many of the young men 
 of the east, and not having the money for such an extended 
 journey, he managed through a friend to borrow enough to 
 undertake it. Times must have been hard with him for not un- 
 til fifteen years later did he seek out his accommodating friend 
 and return the money together with the interest. This debt 
 of honor he gladly and voluntarily paid out of the first money 
 which he received from the government after his election to 
 congress. 
 
 In 1838 he came to Jefferson county, Illinois, but was 
 prostrated with illness shortly after his arrival and soon ex- 
 hausted his scanty means. Becoming discouraged he was 
 only saved from enlisting in the United States army as a private 
 soldier by his inability to pass the physical examination. Going 
 on to Monroe county, he found an influential friend in Col- 
 onel James, who secured him a position as school teacher. He 
 finally landed in Waterloo, where he commenced the practice 
 of medicine. While he was attentive to his duties as a phy- 
 sician he had time for the political questions of the day. He 
 displayed marked ability in this direction and was elected to the 
 legislature as a Democrat in 1840. Here he found an oppor- 
 tunity to exercise his talents as a speaker and it was not long 
 before he was considered the most eloquent and forcible de- 
 bater in the house. W T hile still a physician the desire to be 
 something more led him to attend the courts and to consider 
 the profession of law. Then he commenced legal studies and 
 attended lectures at law school at Lexington, Kentucky. In 
 a remarkable short time he was admitted to the bar. He form-
 
 Anti- Nebraslw Republican 
 
 ed a partnership with General Shields and moved to Belleville, 
 Illinois. This was to be the scene of his future work and the 
 making of a reputation that was to carry him forward to 
 places of honor. He remained a resident of Belleville until his 
 removal to Springfield to assume the duties of governor. 
 
 Being appointed prosecuting attorney, he filled the office 
 with great satisfaction to his constituents and with much per- 
 turbation to the criminals who were tried under his direction. 
 As if by magic he leaped into fame as a prosecutor. "He 
 seldom failed to convict." The Hon. Joe Gillespie said of Bis- 
 sell after hearing him in an impassioned speech at the close of 
 a murder trial : "I realized then to its fullest extent, the power 
 of language in the mouth of a master over the feelings of man- 
 kind. If that effort had been taken down and could be read 
 by us, of itself, it would have made the name of William H. 
 Bissell immortal." 
 
 When the Mexican War broke out, Bissell was one of the 
 first to enlist. He was elected colonel of the secoiTd Illinois 
 regiment. 
 
 The troops from Illinois started from Alton, July 17, 
 
 1846, and arrived at Mexico early in August. The first and 
 second regiments. Cols. John J. Hardin and Wm. H. Bissell 
 were attached to the army of the center under General Taylor 
 and participated in the battle of Buena Vista, February 23, 
 
 1847. It lasted all day. The Mexican army of 20,000 under 
 Santa Anna being opposed by only 4,500 Americans. General 
 Taylor in his report of the battle bears willing testimony to the 
 excellent conduct and the spirit and gallantry with which the 
 two Illinois and Kentucky regiments engaged the enemy and 
 restored confidence in that part of the field, adding : "Colonel 
 Bissell, the only surviving colonel of the three regiments merits 
 notice for his coolness and bravery on this occasion." The 
 .second regiment lost 62 kill and 69 wounded in this battle. 
 
 Colonel Bissell's address to his regiment on dress parade 
 a few days after was most pathetic and affecting. His talents 
 were highly appreciated by his fellow officers, both regular and 
 volunteer, and especially by General Wool, Major Washington
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 129 
 
 and Capt. Thomas F. Marshall. The regiment was mustered 
 out at Camargo, June u, 1847. 
 
 Upon his return home Colonel Bissell became an idolized 
 hero. His engaging manner, his eminence as a speaker and 
 his excellent war record combined to make him exceedingly 
 popular. He was immediately elected to the thirty-first con- 
 gress and took his seat in the house of representatives on De- 
 cember 3, 1849. 
 
 With the same facility with which he had earlier in life 
 mastered the subjects of medicine, law and military tactics, he 
 soon acquired the knowledge of the rules and customs that 
 governed the line of action in the house of representatives and 
 before the end of his first term in congress was regarded as 
 an authority on parliamentary proceedings. His first business 
 was to familiarize himself with his new position and prepare 
 for whatever conflict might arise in the future. This con- 
 flict came sooner than was expected to a new member. Before 
 he had been in the house three months the opportunity was pre- 
 sented, and Colonel Bissell was prepared. 
 
 When Calhoun promulgated the doctrine that slavery 
 must henceforth be the paramount issue and that the tariff 
 which had caused the defeat of his party should be subordi- 
 nated, there were few persons, not even Calhoun himself, who 
 fully realized the strain that would be put upon our constitu- 
 tion, and the tragic events that would follow before that issue 
 should be determined. It was a question how best to acquire 
 and maintain political ascendency. The leaders of the south 
 said it must come through slavery and this was the shibboleth 
 emblazoned on their banner. The history of this contest, the 
 greatest which this nation has undergone, is full of interest 
 and admonition, and one in which all theories and schemes of 
 peaceful adjustment were exploded and cast aside by the stern 
 discipline of experience. It was the contest whose decision fin- 
 ally rested on the force of arms, arraying one section against 
 another the south ever the aggressor, the north the defender. 
 
 Benton, in his "Thirty Years' View," cites a paragraph 
 written by one not without knowledge of what he was saying,
 
 130 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 which appeared in a leading South Carolina paper. "When 
 the future historian shall address himself to the task of por- 
 traying the rise, progress, and decline of the American Union, 
 the year 1850 will arrest his attention as denoting and pre- 
 senting the first marshaling and arraying of those hostile forces 
 and opposing elements, which resulted in dissolution; and the 
 world will have another illustration of the great truth that 
 forms and modes of government, however correct in theory, 
 are only valuable as they conduce to the great ends of all gov- 
 ernment the peace, quiet and conscious security of the gov- 
 erned." 
 
 "All that was said was attempted, and the catastrophe 
 alone was wanting to complete the task assigned to the future 
 historian." 
 
 It is not our purpose to enter this subject farther than to 
 offer a sufficient back-ground for the central figure of our 
 sketch. Colonel Bissell, was at this time in the prime of life 
 and in perfect health. He was about 39 years of age, tall and 
 of delicate appearance, and carried himself with a military air. 
 He had a clear, dark complexion, coal black hair and a modest 
 moustache. He had keen black eyes which seemed to penetrate 
 with deadly accuracy, and in animated conversation, or in a 
 heated debate his whole face would assume the expression best 
 fitted to his theme. He was not a talkative man, but when 
 he did speak his remarks were always pertinent. He \vas ex- 
 ceedingly modest. His taciturn habits which were acquired 
 when a country doctor, seemed always to have remained with 
 him. He possessed to a remarkable degree coolness and self- 
 possession, the characteristics of a man not easily intimidated. 
 Colonel Bissell was a gifted extemporaneous speaker, full of 
 honest common sense, who never spoke for effect, but always 
 from conviction. His speeches are said to have been most 
 effective in delivery. He possessed the magnetic gift of swaying- 
 his audience and of being able to carry it with him. He had 
 a keen appreciation of facts and an unusually strong poetical 
 imagination. He was largely dependent upon his audience for 
 inspiration, and when this was secured he spoke with a fluency 
 and passion that was truely wonderful.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 131 
 
 When Colonel Bissell entered congress, he found the 
 slave-holding element in power, and all legislation was being 
 directed for its perpetuation. He sat in his seat and listened 
 to the speeches which were made to fire the chivalry of the south 
 and which with innuendo and sarcasm taunted the north with 
 "injustice and aggression." He listened to the southerns' 
 threat to abandon the Union and establish a separate confeder- 
 acy, and was amazed. He had subscribed to the same oath of 
 office they had taken, to support and defend the constitution 
 and all the laws of the Union and it was incomprehensible to 
 him, a conscientious man, one who loved his country and his 
 flag, how these things could be. He resolved to make a reply. 
 On February 21, 1850, he delivered his speech on the slavery 
 question and it was regarded at the time as one of the ablest 
 given in congress. 
 
 In the introduction he expressed his reluctance to add to 
 the public anxiety which this discussion had already produced. 
 It was his "settled conviction that unless the representatives 
 who had assumed to speak for the slave-holding states have 
 greatly mistaken the purposes and intentions of the people of 
 those states, war and bloodshed consequent upon an attempt 
 to overthrow this government was inevitable." This declara- 
 tion he desired should go forth to the country and with it the 
 reasons upon which his opinion was based. He repelled the 
 charge that the north had been constantly aggressive on the 
 slavery question. 
 
 It was to Mr. Seddon, of Virginia, however, that Colonel 
 Bissell, stung by his utterances, paid particular attention in 
 the closing part of his speech. 
 
 Chittenden, in his "Recollections" has given a sketch of 
 Mr. Seddon as he saw him in the peace conference in 1860, 
 ten years after this debate with Colonel Bissell. "His personal 
 appearance was extraordinary. His frame was fleshless as 
 that of John Randolph and he was equally with that statesman, 
 intense in his hatred of all forms of northern life. The pallor 
 of his face, his narrow chest, sunken eyes and attenuated frame 
 indicated the last stages of consumption. His voice, husky
 
 132 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 at first, cleared with the excitement of debate in which he be- 
 came eloquent. Notwithstanding his spectral appearance he 
 survived to become secretary of war in the confederacy. He 
 was the most powerful debater of the conference; skillful, 
 adroit, cunning, the soul of the plot which the conference was 
 intended to execute." 
 
 This picture of Seddon will aid us in understanding him 
 as he spoke on the subject that aroused Colonel Bissell. Gen- 
 eral Taylor, although a Virginian and a slave-holder, proposed 
 to be president of the country, rather than of his party, and he 
 had determined to conduct his administration free from the in- 
 fluence of pro-slavery advocates. Mr. Seddon was making an 
 appeal, calling upon him to remember "the trials and triumphs, 
 he had shared with the gallant sons of the south, his fellow 
 soldiers and compatriots in the conflicts which so largely won 
 these acquisitions." Continuing, Mr. Seddon, said : 
 
 "In the bloody trenches of Monterey, in the midst of the 
 din and smoke of battle, again should he see valiant soldiers 
 of the south rush on to the cannon's mouth, and mount 'the 
 imminent deadly breach/ with their mangled bodies piling 
 high the pedestal of his fame. And on that memorable field 
 of Buena Vista, at that most critical juncture when all seemed 
 lost save honor, again should his heart bound with hope"as he 
 hailed the approach of the noble regiment of Mississippians, 
 and beheld them steady, undismayed, (through the very midst 
 of the brave but unfortunate troops of the north, then, through 
 a mistaken order discomfited and in rout) with souls untouched 
 by panic and nerved to do or die, march onward right on- 
 ward on the countless foe and with invincible prowess snatch 
 from the very jaws of death rescue and victory. 
 
 "By such proud memories bythe fame theyhavewon and 
 the meed of gratitude and honor they conferred, I would invoke 
 him to cast now the weight of his deserved influence and high 
 position on the side of the south, in the scale of right and 
 justice. Let him openly rebuke the mad fanaticism and grasp- 
 ing lust of power in the north. Let him, as when marching to 
 the relief of his comrades at Fort Brown, determine, let foes
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 133 
 
 come in what number they may, to encounter them and march 
 onward to the rescue of the south and her threatened institu- 
 tions." 
 
 Colonel Bissell in concluding his speech said : "I must 
 now refer to a subject which I would gladly have avoided. I 
 allude to the claim put forth for a southern regiment, by the 
 gentleman from Virginia (Seddon,) of having met and re- 
 pulsed the enemy on the field of Buena Vista, at that most 
 critical moment when the second Indiana regiment, through 
 an unfortunate order of their colonel gave way. Justice to the 
 living, as well as to those who fell on that occasion, demand of 
 me a prompt correction of this most erroneous statement. And 
 I affirm distinctly sir, and such is the fact, that at the time the 
 second Indiana regiment gave way, the Mississippi regiment, 
 for whom this claim is thus gratuitously set up, was not 
 within a mile and a half of the scene of action, nor 
 had it as yet fired a gun or drawn a trigger. I af- 
 firm further, sir, that the troops which at that time met 
 and resisted the enemy, and thus to use the gentle- 
 man's own language, 'snatched victory from the jaws of de- 
 feat,' were the second Kentucky, the second Illinois and a por- 
 tion of the first Illinois regiments. It gives me no pleasure sir, 
 to be compelled to allude to this subject, nor can I perceive the 
 necessity or propriety of its introduction into this debate. It 
 having been introduced, however, I could not sit in silence and 
 witness the infliction of such cruel injustice upon men, living 
 and dead, whose well earned fame I were a monster not to 
 protect. The true and brave hearts of many of them, alas, 
 have already mingled with a soil of a foreign country; but 
 their claims upon the justice of their countrymen can never 
 cease, nor can my obligations to them be ever forgotten or 
 disregarded. No, sir. the voice of Hardin, that voice 
 which has so often been heard in this hall as mine now is, 
 though far more eloquently, the voice of Hardin, aye, and of 
 McKee, and the accomplished Clay, each wrapped now in 
 his bloody shroud, therr voices would reproach me from the 
 grave, had I failed in this act of justice to them and the others 
 who fought and fell by my side.
 
 134 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 "You will suspect me, Mr. Chairman of having warm 
 feelings on this subject. So I have; and I have given them ut- 
 terance as a matter of duty. In all this, however, I by no 
 means detract from the gallant conduct and bearing of the Mis- 
 sissippi regiment. At other times and places on that bloody field, 
 they did all that their warmest admirers could have desired. 
 But, let me ask again, why was this subject introduced into this 
 debate? Why does the gentleman say 'the troops of the 
 north' gave way, when he means only a single regiment ? Why 
 is all this but for the purpose of disparaging the north for the 
 benefit of the south ? Why, but for the purpose of furnishing 
 materials for that ceaseless, never-ending eternal theme of 
 'Southern chivalry?' 
 
 "We are ready to meet you now on any fair grounds and 
 fight with you side by side for your rights and for ours ; and 
 defend those rights under the constitution from encroachment 
 in any quarter. But, sir, we want to hear no more about dis- 
 union. We are attached to the Union, aye, devotedly are we 
 attached to it. We regard it as the ark of safety for the Amer- 
 ican people. We know that the realization of the hopes for 
 human freedom throughout the world, depend upon its per- 
 petuity. And shall we ruthlessly crush these hopes forever? 
 Shall that beacon light which our fathers raised to cheer and 
 guide the friends of freedom be extinguished by us? Ex- 
 tinguish it if you will, but know, that w r hen you do it, the world 
 is enshrouded in darkness more frightful than Egyptian 
 night. 
 
 "I know the people of my state. I know the people of the 
 great west and northwest; and I know their devotion to the 
 American Union. And, I feel warranted in saying in my place 
 here, that when you talk to them of destroying this Union, 
 there is not a man throughout that vast region who will not 
 raise his hand and swear by the Eternal God, as I now do, it 
 shall never be done if our arms can save it. Illinois prof- 
 fered to the country nine regiments to aid in the vindication 
 of her rights in the war with Mexico. And should danger 
 threaten the Union from any source or in any quarter in the
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 135 
 
 north or in the south, she will be ready to furnish twice, thrice, 
 yes, four times that number, to march where that danger may 
 be, to return when it is passed, or return no more." 
 
 Every phase of Colonel Bissell's genius in this speech was 
 in evidence. He was keen, satirical, fervid and filled with in- 
 dignation at the injustice put upon his comrades and the people 
 of the north ; his voice rang out with no uncertain tone com- 
 manding attention and the deepest interest of the entire 
 house. The effect was something unparalleled. Colonel Bis- 
 sell, before its delivery, was unknown beyond the confines of 
 his own state; now he was known throughout the nation. 
 Those from the north rejoicing, and extolling his virtues; 
 those from the south denouncing him and giving vent to their 
 anger in banal epithets. 
 
 Not since the time of Adams had any one in the house 
 of representatives chosen to take up the gauntlet and with 
 reasoning, ridicule and sarcasm, such as Colonel Bissell em- 
 ployed bid defiance to the cause of slavery and secession. It 
 could not be permitted. The south had been insulted. The 
 north must be crushed. Its brilliant spokesman must be hu- 
 miliated. Every sentence of his speech was a fire-brand to 
 the minds of the leaders of the south. Its effect must be ex- 
 tinguished and that speedily. The reference, to the Mississippi 
 regiment was particularly offensive. Jefferson Davis, a mem- 
 ber of the senate and colonel of that regiment during the Mex- 
 ican War, took umbrage at what he considered an insult cast 
 upon his soldiers, and he forthwith sent a challenge to Colonel 
 Bissell, which was promptly accepted. The preliminaries 
 Avere left to be arranged by his friends, but under the laws of 
 the code, Colonel Bissell had the choice of weapons. He 
 designated the "common army musket to be loaded with a ball 
 and three buck-shot ; the combatants to be stationed forty paces 
 apart with liberty to advance to ten paces." This determin- 
 ation of Colonel Bissell to fight to the death was more than 
 was expected by the champions of southern chivalry. 
 
 The city of Washington, and in fact the whole country 
 was put in a fever of excitement over this anticipated duel.
 
 136 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 Those who had not known Colonel Bissell pressed forward 
 to congratulate him and speak a word of encouragement; but 
 he did not need encouragement. He was by nature a brave 
 man and when honor was at stake his best blood was at the 
 service of his country. 
 
 The story is told, that Daniel Webster hearing of the pro- 
 posed duel, desired to meet Colonel Bissell and as he expressed 
 it, "He wanted to look him in the eye." He went to the hall 
 of the house, and was introduced. The two grasped hands 
 heartily ; the one "caught the flash from under the thunderous 
 brow and saw a genial glow upon the face." What passed 
 between these two great men, one the champion of freedom in 
 the senate, and the other in the house, no one knows; but 
 shortly afterwards Webster returned to the senate chamber 
 and observed to one of the government officials, who knew the 
 object of his visit, "He will do, the south has mistaken its 
 man." 
 
 The time for the duel was set for the 28th, and as the law 
 prohibited dueling in the District of Columbia, arrangements 
 were made to have it elsewhere. But, this was not to be ; for 
 the friends of Davis being alarmed at the seriousness of the af- 
 fair were making strenuous efforts to patch up a peace. I. ate 
 in the evening before the day set for the duel. Colonel Bissell 
 was called upon at his rooms by President Taylor. The col- 
 onel was composed and in his usual good spirits. The presi- 
 dent was fortunately situated to interpose in this matter, for 
 Jefferson Davis was his son-in-law and Colonel Bissell had 
 been under his command in the Mexican War. The presi- 
 dent made known the object of his visit and asked Colonel Bis- 
 sell if it was not possible for him to modify the language used 
 by him at which Davis had taken offense. Colonel Bissell re- 
 plied, "that he had but done his duty in defending the Illinois 
 regiment from the aspersions with which Seddon had assailed 
 it, and had used only such language as expressed his honest in- 
 dignation thereat. He could not and would not modify one 
 word that he had spoken." The president sat with him in 
 conversation till 3 o'clock in the morning and then bade him a 
 solemn and affectionate farewell.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 187 
 
 An amicable understanding was afterwrrds reached 
 by which all of the original correspondence between the parties 
 was withdrawn, and letters of a more conciliatory nature with 
 modified statements were substituted. The letter of Colonel 
 Bissell, however, conformed strictly to the facts as stated in his 
 speech he neither retracted nor regretted what he had said, 
 but again emphasized his object to disprove the false state- 
 ments and to show the injustice done to his comrades in arms 
 by Mr. Seddon. 
 
 The spirit of this letter must have given cold comfort to 
 the redoubtable "Champion of Slavery." Senator Douglas 
 said, "There certainly would have been a fight, and one or 
 both of them killed, had it not been for General Taylor." Thus 
 was closed one of the scenes in that great political drama in 
 which was subsequently enacted with more fury and effect, the 
 villainous attack of Brooks on Charles Sumner in the senate, 
 felling him to the floor by repeated blows on the head with a 
 cane; and in which later on, were to come the direful tragedy 
 of the war between the north and south, which culminated in 
 the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. As we recall the 
 scenes and events which took place in that stupendous drama, 
 the men who dared in the early days to plead for the Union 
 and the freedom of its people, rise above their contemporaries 
 and will ever be regarded as the true patriots and heroes of our 
 country. 
 
 Extracts of Colonel Bissell's speech were printed in the 
 newspapers of the time, and its influence was felt through- 
 out the nation. In 1856, the same speech was printed 
 entire and used as a campaign document in this state. The 
 Republicans of New York during the convass of 1858 printed 
 large editions of Colonel Bissell's speech and scattered them 
 broad-cast over the state. Although it had been delivered 
 eight years before, it was still considered the best exposition 
 of the subject and the best answer that had been made to the 
 doctrine of secession. 
 
 This adventure of Colonel Bissell's aroused the patriotism 
 of the whole north. It has been said, that if Colonel Bissell
 
 138 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 had not been stricken by paralysis affecting the lower half 
 of his body he would have been the recipient of still greater 
 honors from the hands of a grateful people. 
 
 During the canvassing of names for the first Republican 
 candidate for president that of Colonel Bissell was frequently 
 mentioned. He was in hearty sympathy with the Republican 
 party from the first, and was a firm believer in the principles 
 upon which it was founded. His reputation as a speaker, his 
 war record, his bravery, his commanding presence were all 
 by recent events brought into full view of the Northern people, 
 and his exploits for campaign purposes would have been as 
 effective as those of Fremont, who became the nominee. 
 
 This line of thought is not introduced for the purpose of 
 speculating on what changes would have been made in the 
 history of those stirring or subsequent times, had Colonel 
 Bissell been nominated, but as evidence of the high esteem in 
 which he was held by many of his countrymen. Three times 
 he was sent to congress and during his second congressional 
 campaign, which followed the delivery of his speech on slav- 
 ery, he received what is seldom known to have occurred be- 
 fore or since in this country, the unanimous vote of his dis- 
 trict something over fifteen thousand votes. 
 
 When someone suggested to Lincoln that there was a 
 movement to have him nominated for governor, he replied, "I 
 wish to say why I should not be a candidate. If I should be 
 chosen the Democrats would say, 'it was nothing more than 
 an attempt to resurrect the dead body of the old Whig party.' 
 I would secure the vote of that party and no more and our de- 
 feat would follow as a matter of course. But, I can suggest 
 a name that will secure not only the old Whig vote, but 
 enough Anti-Nebraska Democrats to give us the victory. That 
 name is Col. William H. Bissell." This was before the con- 
 vention of editors held at Decatur, Illinois, February 22, 1856. 
 The political sagacity of Lincoln was never better illustrated 
 than in this selection of Colonel Bissell. The state had been 
 in the hands of the Democratic party since the time when Ed- 
 wards made his independent and successful campaign for gov-
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 139 
 
 ernor, nearly thirty years previous. The bitter rivalry ex- 
 isting between the Whig and Democratic parties would pre- 
 vent any accession of votes to the new party from the Demo- 
 crats unless a reformed Democrat, a Republican was nomi- 
 nated. 
 
 This suggestion of Lincoln's seems to have been accepted 
 by every one, for when the Republican convention met in 
 Bloomington on May 29, 1856, by unanimous consent Colonel 
 Bissell was nominated for governor. 
 
 Colonel Bissell had been an invalid for three years, al- 
 though from the nature of his disease no one had supposed he 
 would be unable to perform the duties of governor, if elected. 
 He was paralyzed in the lower portion of his body and was 
 obliged to move about with crutches or in a chair. At the 
 time of the notification of his nomination he frankly stated 
 to the committee that his health was such that he could not 
 promise to take an active part in the campaign. 
 
 The Democrats seized upon the report of his physical 
 condition as an objection to his election. Their newspapers 
 and public speakers emphasized and multiplied the rumors of 
 his malady. Exaggerated reports were made that his mind 
 as well as his body was seriously affected and that he had no 
 less trouble than softening of the brain. One can imagine the 
 prejudicial deductions which could be formed on information 
 of this kind. How could he perform the executive duties of 
 this high office? He would be a tool in the hands of unscrupu- 
 lous politicians. Certainly a sorry person to occupy the gu- 
 bernatorial chair. The campaign was one of the most ex- 
 citing that had ever taken place in this state, for in addition 
 to the local interests there was above all the Kansas-Nebraska 
 question, the key note of the national campaign. 
 
 The Republican managers became alarmed at these asser- 
 tions of the Democrats and they realized that there was great 
 danger of Bissell's defeat and of the defeat with him of the Re- 
 publican ticket in this state. If he could only be brought before 
 the people, it could be shown that his mind was as active and 
 as clear as in his palmiest days. It was remembered that two
 
 140 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 years before he had stumped his district delivering his speeches 
 seated in a chair or carriage and was elected to congress by a 
 large majority. But now he was too ill even to be present at 
 any of the political meetings. Time and time again it had 
 been advertised that he would be at the meetings and in every 
 instance he had been unable to attend. The Democrats took 
 advantage of these failures and emphasized the danger of elect- 
 ing a man who could not be depended upon. Something had 
 to be done. 
 
 There were long and anxious meetings of the Republi- 
 can managers. It was finally decided to have him make a 
 speech. This speech should then be dwelt upon by all the Re- 
 publican speakers through the state. This speech would treat 
 of the issues of the campaign in a lucid and commanding style, 
 showing that Colonel Bissell had lost none of his eloquence or 
 his ability to form stately periods. This, it was conjectured, 
 would be proof positive that though unable to perambulate he 
 was still in possession of his mental faculties, and that his 
 voice could ring out as clear and commanding as on the plains 
 of Mexico. The meeting was held at his home in Belleville. 
 There were speakers from other parts of the country. Colonel 
 Bissell reclined in a chair on a plaform surrounded by friends 
 and neighbors. There was much enthusiasm as he com-! 
 menced and this enthusiasm continued in one form or another 
 throughout the entire speech. There was so much of it, to- 
 gether with other noise and confusion that not many of the 
 audience could distinguish a word that was said. The Re- 
 publican speakers then went through the state and at every 
 opportunity spoke of this wonderful speech of Colonel Bis- 
 sell's ; that it took an hour to deliver, etc. Then followed the 
 significant and unanswerable argument that a man who could 
 make such a speech was certainly not afflicted with softening 
 of the brain, that the stories of his mental unbalance were 
 untrue and were maliciously circulated. In view of the state- 
 ments, made in his speech, logically and coherently put to- 
 gether, there was no doubt of Colonel BisselFs ability to per- 
 form the duties of governor should he be elected. This strata-
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 141 
 
 gem had the desired effect and completely silenced the attacks 
 of the Democrats on this point. It was the only speech made 
 by him during the campaign. 
 
 It was during this campaign that his, not altogether fort- 
 unate experience with Jefferson Davis in congress, was re- 
 vived and assumed an entirely different aspect. Under the 
 constitution of 1848, in addition to the customary oath the 
 following oath was required from all persons elected or ap- 
 pointed before entering upon their official duties : "I do 
 solemnly swear (or affirm as the case may be) that I have not 
 fought a duel, nor sent or accepted a challenge to fight a duel, 
 the probable issue of which might have been the death of either 
 party, nor been a second to either party, nor in any manner 
 aided or assisted in such duel, nor been knowingly the bearer 
 of such challenge or acceptance since the adoption of the con- 
 stitution, and that I will not be so engaged or concerned di- 
 rectly or indirectly in or about any such duel during my con- 
 tinuance in office, so help me God." Another section of the 
 constitution makes any person ineligible to any office of honor 
 or profit in this state who have fought a duel or who shall have 
 sent or accepted a challenge. 
 
 The pro-slavery papers made a terrible out-cry against 
 Bissell for having accepted a challenge from Davis. They 
 claimed that if he should be elected and took this oath of office 
 he would become a perjurer. He could not deny accepting the 
 challenge; he could not omit or modify the oath of office, and 
 it seemed as if the Democrats had made out a good case. But, 
 it w r as soon discovered that Colonel Richardson, who was run- 
 ning against Bissell on the Democratic ticket had been engaged 
 in a number of "affairs of honor" at Washington, acting as sec- 
 ond and in other ways was openly violating the prescribed oath. 
 Should he be elected, he too would become a perjurer after sub- 
 scribing to the oath. Notwithstanding this fact, the attacks on 
 Colonel Bissell were viciously and outrageously continued. Pa- 
 pers like the "Chicago Times," "Springfield Register," and 
 the "Quincy Herald" were relentless. Instigated by Douglas, 
 Don Morrison, Richardson and other Democratic leaders, they
 
 142 Anti-Nebraska Bepublican 
 
 employed every sort of political mud-slinging to besmirch, if 
 possible, the character of Bissell. When we read the accounts 
 of that canvass in the newspapers we shudder at the thought 
 that such methods of personal attack and villainy were ever 
 permitted. It expressed to a pitiful degree the intensity of 
 party feeling and strife in that campaign. However, with all 
 this abuse the people for the Union and for freedom remained 
 firm and loyal to their cause and carried Colonel Bissell with 
 the state ticket in office by nearly 5,000 majority. 
 
 Now, that Colonel Bissell was duly installed and had 
 taken the oath of office as governor another event occurred 
 which brought this duel again to notice. It seemed to pursue 
 him like an evil demon. 
 
 In the closing part of his inaugural message to the gen- 
 eral assembly he refers to the subject then uppermost in the 
 minds of the people as follows : 
 
 "The question of the extension of slavery into our new 
 national territory, although not forming any part of state 
 politics, was nevertheless so prominent a feature in the late 
 canvass as to create the expectation perhaps, that I should on 
 this occasion say something concerning it. 
 
 "Up to the time of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
 I had ever considered the existence of slavery with the United 
 States as an anomaly in our Republican system, tolerated by 
 necessity springing from the actual presence of the institution 
 among us when our constitution was adopted. 
 
 "The provisions in the constitution for a slave basis of 
 representation and for the reclamation of fugitives from labor, 
 I had supposed, and still suppose, were admitted there upon the 
 necessity and that such were also the views of a vast majority 
 of the American people both north and south, I had until the 
 introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, never doubted. 
 
 "But the introduction, progress and passage of that meas- 
 ure, together with the course of argument made to sustain it, 
 forced me reluctantly to the conclusion that if finally successful 
 slavery is no longer to be considered or treated as anomalous 
 in our system, but is rather thenceforward to be a leading and
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 143 
 
 favorite element of society, to be politically recognized as 
 such, and to which all else must bend and conform. 
 
 "This conclusion is strengthened not a little by the sub- 
 sequent administration of the measure in the same hands 
 which originated and matured it. Considering that we are an 
 intelligent people living in an enlightened age and professing 
 the peaceful doctrines of Christianity, and a love of liberty 
 above all things earthly, it may be well doubted whether when 
 the world's history shall have been written to its close, it will 
 contain a more extraordinary page than that which shall re- 
 cord the history of Kansas in 1855 and 1856. 
 
 "Forced to the conclusion stated a large portion of our 
 fellow-citizens, myself among them, have resisted the con- 
 summation as we best could; and believing that not the fate of 
 the negro alone, but the liberties of the white man, of all 
 men, are involved in the issue, we shall continue to resist ac- 
 cording to our best ability. 
 
 "In doing this we shall ever be careful neither to forget 
 or disregard the value of the Union, the obligations of the 
 constitution, nor even the courtesies due our brethren of the 
 south." 
 
 This extract from the message precipitated an acrimoni- 
 ous debate in the house, which continued for nearly seven 
 days. Following the usual precedents a motion was made to 
 print 20,000 copies, the same number voted for the message 
 of Governor Mattison, Governor Bissell's immediate prede- 
 cessor. The young man who was responsible for provoking 
 this discussion was known as the "Ajax of the Democracy." 
 He was earnest, honest, patriotic, unpolished, audacious, 
 plucky and ambitious. This was the fresh period of his politi- 
 cal life. He had a certain kind of coarse, angular ability 
 (often misdirected,) which only the rough usages of experi- 
 ence could, and did develop and refine. John A. Logan was 
 a member from Franklin county; he moved an amendment to 
 print 10,000 copies of the inaugural message. He occupied 
 much of the time in a fruitless and vain-glorious effort to 
 prove Governor Bissell's ineligibility to office and his quasi or 
 real perjury or perfidy in taking the necessary oath.
 
 144 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 All the stock arguments used in the recent campaign were 
 again ''threshed over" and were made to do service for both 
 parties. 
 
 Mr. Arnold made the principal speech in defence of Gov- 
 ernor Bissell. Rising above the personalities in which Logan 
 attempted to entangle him, in a dispassionate, dignified and 
 logical manner, he reviewed the arguments of the opposition. 
 He disposed of Mr. Logan in a brief sentence, he said, "Gov- 
 ernor Mattison shows that a man may be a party man without 
 ceasing to be a gentleman. Sir, I commend the example of 
 Governor Mattison to the consideration of the member from 
 Franklin." 
 
 Governor Bissell could not be justly charged with hav- 
 ing violated the spirit or strict interpretation of the constitu- 
 tion. His adventure with Jefferson Davis had taken place 
 outside of the state. 
 
 This fierce and long debate was finally terminated and the 
 Democrats being in the majority, the motion by Mr. Logan 
 by a strict party vote was carried. It was done for political 
 effect and Governor Bissell was duly installed in office and 
 could not be ousted; about the only gratification the Demo- 
 crats derived from the debate was the irritation and ill-feeling 
 engendered by it. Governor Bissell lost none of his popularity 
 by the calumnious assault, but on the contrary gained the sym- 
 pathy and esteem of many persons who believed he had been 
 unfairly and unjustly treated. 
 
 It has been said that the legislature met as a mob and 
 ended in a rout. The Democrats were in the majority and 
 everything that could be done, was clone to humiliate the ex- 
 ecutive, to deny to him the usual rights and privileges of his 
 office. An apportionment bill had been introduced by the Re- 
 publicans based on the census of 1855. The population of 
 Illinois had increased 447,781, nearly one-third of her entire 
 population in five years. This increase was largely in the 
 northern part of the state, where the Republicans were the 
 dominant party. This bill was most stubbornly resisted by the 
 Democrats who offered a substitute. The latter practically
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 145 
 
 disfranchised 70,000 voters of the state. The Democratic bill 
 was passed near the end of the session and was sent to the 
 governor for his signature. At the same time there were 
 many other bills sent to the executive for approval, among 
 which was the appropriation bill. It was the intention of 
 Governor Bissell to approve the latter and veto the apportion- 
 ment bill, but by an oversight the reverse took place. When 
 it is known how largewas the number of bills to be passed upon 
 toward the close of the session, no one will be surprised that 
 this accident should have occurred. 
 
 On February 16, 1857, there were 154 acts approved by 
 Governor Bissell, on February 17, 43 acts and on February 18. 
 149. 
 
 As soon as the mistake was discovered the governor re- 
 called the Apportionment bill and attempted to correct the error 
 by erasing his name ; this led to a determined fight which con- 
 tinued till the final adjournment of the legislature late in the 
 night. The Democrats carried this question by mandamus to 
 the supreme court to determine its validity. That tribunal 
 gave them an adverse opinion. The court held that while a 
 bill is in the possession and control of the executive within the 
 period limited by the constitution it has not the force of law, 
 and he may exercise a veto power and so return to the house 
 where it originated with his name erased, notwithstanding he 
 had once announced his approval of it. Governor Bissell was 
 thus vindicated although the result was accomplished by tre- 
 mendous anxiety and effort. 
 
 Lincoln once said, "that honest statesmanship was the em- 
 ployment of individual meannesses for the public good." It 
 was Governor Bissell's misfortune to demonstrate, that he was 
 according to this definition, an honest statesman; for of all 
 the legislatures that an executive in this state has had to cope 
 with, those of 1857 and 1859 were the meanest and most ex- 
 asperating. 
 
 "In the annals of this state no public man was ever sub- 
 jected to contumely so gross, abuse more harrowing, or pur- 
 sued with malice more vindictive; and that these cruelties 
 caused Governor Bissell many a heart pang, casting a shadow
 
 146 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 over his exalted position, is not a foreign inference." It was 
 his fate to be ever fighting with large odds against him. His 
 mind seemed to clear and to act with unerring judgment and 
 brilliancy in the midst of danger or exciting debate. A less 
 able or courageous person in like circumstances would become 
 disconcerted. Such situations, however, acted as a stimulant 
 to his mind and brought out the very best in him. In this 
 particular, more than in any other, reposed the elements of his 
 greatness. 
 
 He would not knowingly provoke a controversy except 
 to establish a principle An impartial and just consideration 
 of his life cannot fail to ascribe to him those superior virtues, 
 patience and kindness. "He forebore long ere he raised his 
 hand to parry an assault." Although suffering from a long 
 and incurable disease, he was never known to murmur or com- 
 plain. Heinrich Heine was paralyzed in much the same way 
 as Governor Bissell but the cause in his case lay in his own ex- 
 cess and evil habits. He, always despondent and complaining ; 
 full of remorse cried out in his despair; "That man was no 
 longer a two-legged god ; that he was no more a divine biped." 
 Governor Bissell on the contrary, conscious only of his affliction 
 the result of an accident when a boy, had none of that torture 
 of mind. With the same fortitude which characterized Gen- 
 eral Grant in his last memorable illness he worked on, perform- 
 ing the duties of his office with a composure and a grandeur 
 of character that was heroic. 
 
 "The man that makes character makes foes" and like all 
 statesmen Governor Bissell made enemies and created opposi- 
 tion by reason of his superior talents and the fearlessness 
 which brooked no shallowness or injustice. He was a poli- 
 tician and a statesman with enlarged views. Elevated on such 
 a plane he despised demagogism. In whatever occupation he 
 engaged he aspired by all honorable and just means to succeed, 
 and it is not recorded in any page of our history that he 
 failed. 
 
 In March, 1860, Governor Bissell contracted a severe cold 
 which soon developed into pneumonia. His constitution al- 
 ready weakened by illness since 1853, was unable to withstand
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 147 
 
 the assault of this new enemy, and in a few days, with his mind 
 unclouded to the last, his noble spirit passed away. He was 
 in his forty-eighth year and had he lived nine months longer 
 liis term of office would have expired. He is the only gov- 
 ernor of Illinois who has died while in office. 
 
 He died at a time when people were busy preparing for 
 the political canvass which was to make Abraham Lincoln 
 president, and which was soon to lead to the marshaling of 
 great armies for the impending conflict which he had so clearly 
 foreseen and foretold. The distinguished services which it 
 was Governor Bissell's privilege to render in behalf of his be- 
 loved state were not forgotten. In 1867, the general assembly 
 of Illinois in recognition of these services and as an expression 
 of the honor and esteem which the people of this great state de- 
 sired to bestow on his memory (a distinction unlike that ac- 
 cordecT to any other man in this state except Lincoln and 
 Logan) voted the sum of $s,ooo for his monument. 
 
 In accordance with the wish of his family and the act of 
 the legislature the remains of Governor Bissell and those of his 
 wife were to be transferred from the Hutchinson cemetery to 
 Oak Ridge cemetery at Springfield. In June, 1871, the mon- 
 ument was completed and its dedication, and the removal of 
 the honored dead, was made the occasion of an imposing cere- 
 mony in which all the officers and members of the state and 
 military departments participated. 
 
 Governor John M. Palmer who had known Governor Bis- 
 sell for many years and who had been intimately associated with 
 Tiim in the political campaigns of the state, was the orator. He 
 paid a high tribute to the character and great ability of Gov- 
 enor Bissell. He reviewed many of his political achievements 
 and accorded to him superior gifts as an orator, a patriot and 
 a statesman. Within the span of sixteen brief years he had 
 emerged from the obscure life of a country school teacher, 
 gradually advancing and mastering the subjects of medicine, 
 law, army codes and politics. In this time he had been hon- 
 ored by his state as prosecuting attorney, legislator, congress- 
 man and governor. Considering that all these things were 
 -acquired amid trials and much sickness; considering his hon-
 
 148 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 orable and blameless character; that he should have risen from 
 a position so humble by the unaided influence of his own power 
 to the conspicuous ones which he occupied, is at once a gratify- 
 ing tribute to his genius and a worthy example full of encour- 
 agement to American youth. 
 
 Speaking briefly of the Davis-Bissell episode Governor 
 Palmer said, "Whether the acceptance of the challenge was 
 justifiable, depends upon all the attending circumstances. The 
 challenge was not addressed alone to Bissell but to his state 
 and the whole north." 
 
 Official Record of Convention. 
 
 - 
 
 THE JOURNAL. 
 
 SPRINGFIELD, May 30, 1856. 
 
 , THE CONVENTION. 
 
 (Editorial). "The state Anti-Nebraska Convention 
 closed its labors last evening, its deliberations having been char- 
 acterized by the greatest harmony. We surrender a large por- 
 tion of our space today to an official report of the proceedings 
 which may be found elsewhere, and will claim the attention 
 of the reader. The ticket presented by the convention is one 
 that combines great strength, and which it will only require 
 an active and united effort to elect. The enthusiasm of those 
 in attendance at the convention, and the joy with which the re- 
 sult of its labors has been received, gives good assurance that 
 this effort will be put forth. We shall take early occasion to 
 refer to the ticket more at length, and in the meantime we cor- 
 dially commend it to all men opposed to the advancement of the 
 pro-slavery party now in power." 
 
 THE NEBRASKA STATE CONVENTION. 
 
 In pursuance of the public call, the Illinois "Anti-Nebras- 
 ka" state convention met in Major Hall, Bloomington, May 29,
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 149 
 
 1856, and was called to order by George T. Brown, of Madison 
 county, on whose motion Hon. Archibald Williams, of Adams 
 county, was chosen temporary chairman and Henry S. Baker, 
 of Madison county was appointed secretary. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Judd,of Cook county, George T. Brown, 
 of Madison county, was requested to assist the secretary in the 
 organization of the convention. 
 
 On motion the secretary was instructed to call the several 
 counties of the state, in their alphabetical order, which being 
 done, the following delegates appeared and presented their cre- 
 dentials, viz : 
 
 Adams, 8 delegates A. Williams, W. B. Powers, E. A. 
 Dudley, Jno. Tillson. A. G. Pearson, George W. Burns, James 
 E. Furness and O. H. Browning. 
 
 Bond, i. J. F. Alexander. 
 
 Boone, 2. Luther W. Lawrence and Ralph Roberts. 
 
 Bureau, 3. Charles C. Kelsey, George Radcliff and Geo. 
 W. Stipp, Jr. 
 
 Calhoun, i. F. W. Kersting. 
 
 Carroll, i. D. H. Wheeler. 
 
 Cass, i. B. R. Frohook. 
 
 Champaign. 2. J. W. Jaquith, Elisha Harkness. 
 
 Christian, i. W. G. Crosswaithe. 
 
 Coles, 4. T. A. Marshall, A. Compton, William Glas 
 gow and George C. Harding. 
 
 Cook, 17. G. Goodrich, F. C. Sherman, Wm. A. James, 
 A. H. Dolton, James McKie, Geo. Schneider, John Wentworth, 
 C. H. Ray, J.L. Scripps, C.L. Wilson, Samuel Hoard, A. Aikin, 
 H. H. Yates, I. N. Arnold, N. B. Judd, J. W. Waughop and 
 Mark Skinner. 
 
 DeKalb, 3. Wm. Patton, Wm. J. Hunt and James H. 
 Beveridge. 
 
 DeWitt, 2. S. F. Lewis and J. F. Lemon. 
 
 DuPage, 3. W. B. Blanchard, S. P. Sedgwick and J. W. 
 Smith. 
 
 Edgar, 2. L. Munsell and R. B. Southerland.
 
 150 Anti- Nebraska Convention 
 
 Edwards, i. Wm. Pickering. 
 
 Fulton, 5. W. P. Kellogg, Robert Carter, S. N. Breed, 
 T. N. Hassan and H. D. Phelps. 
 
 Greene, 2. Daniel Bowman and Joshua W. Armstrong. 
 
 Grundy, 2. Robert Longworth and William T. Hop- 
 kins. 
 
 Hancock, 4. John Rise, S. W. King, S. Worley and A. 
 Simpson. 
 
 Henderson, i. W. D. Henderson. 
 
 Henry, 2. J. H. Howe, J. Mi. Allen. 
 
 Iroquois, 3. W. P. Pearson, J. B. Joiner, I. Bennett. 
 
 Jersey, 2. Thomas Cummings, M. Corey. 
 
 Jo Daviess, 4. Adolph Meyer, T. B. Lewis, H. S. Town- 
 send, T. Spraggins. 
 
 Knox, 4. T. J. Hale, D. H. Frisbie, Jesse Perdue, C. J. 
 Sellon. 
 
 Kankakee, 2. A. W. Mack, Daniel Parker. 
 
 Kendall, 2. J. M. Crothers, J. B. Lowry. 
 
 Kane, 5. I. A. W. Buck, S. C. Morey, G. W. Waite, A. 
 Adams, W. R. Baker. 
 
 Lake, 3. E. P. Ferry, N. C. Geer, Wm. B. Dodge. 
 
 LaSalle, 6. D. L. Hough, J. A. McMillan, David 
 Strawn, Burton C. Cook, Elmer Baldwin, C. H. Gilman. 
 
 Lee, 2. E. M. Ingals, J. V. Eustace. 
 
 Livingston, 2. J. H. Dart, David McWilliams. 
 
 Logan, 2. J. L. Dugger, S. C. Parks. 
 
 McDonough, 2. L. H. Waters, J. E. Wyne. 
 
 McHenry, 6. S. P. Hegale, Anthony Woodspur, C. W. 
 Craig, \Vesley Diggins, Dr. Abularr, A. C. Joslyn. 
 
 McLean, 3. James Gilmore, Sr., Dr. Harrison Noble, 
 Wm. W. Orme, delegates, and A. T. Briscoe, Green B. Larri- 
 son, David Cheney, alternates. 
 
 Macon, 2. W. J. Usrey, I. C. Ptigh. 
 
 Macoupin, 4. (?) J. M. Palmer, John Logan, Samuel 
 Brown, Thomas B. Lofton, P. B. Solomon, J. D. Marshall, 
 James Wolfe.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 151 
 
 Madison, 8. F. S. Rutherford, H. King, George Smith, 
 M. G. Atwood, H. S. Baker, George T. Brown, John Trible, 
 Gershom Flagg.* 
 
 Marion, 3. D. K. Green, T. W. Jones, S. W. Cunning- 
 ham. 
 
 Marshall, 2. Robert Boal, J. C. Tozier. 
 
 Mason, 2. H. O'Neal, R. P. Gatton. 
 
 Menard, 2. M. T. Morris, George Collier. 
 
 Mercer, 2. John W. Miles. L. W. Myers. 
 
 Montgomery, 3. Wickliff Kitchell. J. W. Cassady, J. 
 T. Eccles. 
 
 Morgan, 20. R. Yates, J. W. King, M. H. Cassell, J. 
 B. Duncan, J. J. Cassell, R. McKee, M. J. Pond, A. P. Wood, 
 I. L. Morrison, James Green, William L. Sargeant, J. W. 
 Strong, James Langley, E. Lusk, B. F. Stevenson, J. N. D. 
 Stout, A. Bulkley, B. F. Ford, J. Metcalf, and J. Graham. 
 
 Moultrie, I. John A. Freeland. 
 
 Ogle, 3. Charles C. Royce, F. A. McMill, G. W. South- 
 wick. 
 
 Peoria, 5. J. D. Arnold, B. L. T. Bourland, R. Scholst, 
 George T. Harding, T. J. Pickett. 
 
 Piatt, i. P. K. Hall. 
 
 Pike, 10. John G. Nicolay, Wm. Ross, M. Ross, J. 
 Grimshaw, T. Worthington, W. E. Elder, J. Hall, M. J. 
 Noyes, D. H. Gilmer, O. M. Hatch. 
 
 Putnam, I. B. C. Lundy. 
 
 Randolph, 5. Thomas McClurken, Casper Horn, J. C. 
 Holbrook, F. B. Anderson, B. J. F. Hanna. 
 
 Rock Island, 3. N. C. Turrell, R. H. Andrews, John V. 
 Cook, Ira O. Wilkinson. 
 
 St. Clair.5. Dr. Charles Vincenz, J. B. Hoppe, Francis 
 Wenzell, N. Niles, F. A. Carpenter. 
 
 Sangamon, n. A. Lincoln, Wm. H. Herndon, J. C. 
 Conkling, J. B. Weber, Preston Breckenridge, Wm. Jayne, R. 
 H. Ballinger, Pascal P. Enos, Wm. H. Bailhache, E. L. Baker, 
 Peter Earnest. 
 
 *William C. Flagg, the son of Gershom Flagg, also attended the convention, and 
 m the proceedings seems to have acted as a member of it SKC'T HIST. Soc.
 
 152 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 Schuyler, 2. -John Clark, N. G. Wilcox. 
 
 Scott, 4. N. M. Knapp, John Moses, James B. Young, 
 M. James. 
 
 Stark, i. T. J. Henderson. 
 
 Stephenson, 4. M. P. Sweet, John H. Davis, George 
 Nolbrecht, H. N. Hibbard. 
 
 Tazewell, 5. D. Cheever, D. Kyes, H. Clark, George W. 
 Shaw, John M. Busch. 
 
 Union, i. D. L. Phillips. 
 
 Vermilion, 3. Joseph Peters, Martin Bourchall, A. T. 
 Harrison. 
 
 Warren, 2. A. C. Harding, E. A. Paine. 
 
 Washington, 2. J. Miller, D. Kennedy. 
 
 Whiteside, 2. William Manahan, William Prothrow, 
 
 Will, io. G. D. A. Parks, W. Wright, J. T. Daggett, 
 Wm. B. Hewitt, H. T. Logan, A. Mclntosh, S. Anderson, J. 
 O. Norton, Ichabod Codding, P. Stewart. 
 
 Winnebago, 4. F. Burnass, W. Lyman, S. M'. Church, 
 T. D. Robertson. 
 
 Woodford, 2. C. D. Banta, R. T. Cassell. 
 
 O. H. Browning, of Adams, offered the following resolu- 
 tion, which was unanimously adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That a committee of nine, consisting of one 
 from each congressional district be appointed to report officers 
 for the permanent organization of the convention. 
 
 Whereupon the chair appointed the following as the com- 
 mittee: First district, S. M. Church; second district, N. B. 
 Judd; third district, B. C. Cook; Fourth district, Robert Car- 
 ter; fifth district, O. H. Browning; sixth district, J. C. Conk- 
 ling; seventh district, S. C. Parks; eighth district, N. Niles; 
 ninth district, David L. Phillips. 
 
 On motion of Richard Yates, of Morgan the following 
 resolution was adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That all the delegates in attendance be permit- 
 ted to take their seats and act as members of this convention, 
 casting however one vote of their respective counties.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 153 
 
 The committee appointed to report permanent officers for 
 the convention, by Hon. O. H. Browning, its chairman, made 
 the following report : 
 
 FOR PRESIDENT. 
 
 John M. Palmer, of Macoupin. 
 
 FOR VICE-PRESIDENT. 
 
 J. A. Davis, of Stephenson. 
 William Ross, of Pike. 
 James McKie, of Cook. 
 J. H. Bryant, of Bureau. 
 
 A. C. Harding, of Warren. 
 Richard Yates, of Morgan. 
 H. C. Johns, of Platt. 
 George Smith, of Madison. 
 D. L. Phillips, of Union. 
 T. A. Marshall, of Coles. 
 
 J. M. Ruggles, of Mason. 
 G. D. A. Parks, of Will. 
 John Clark, of Schuyler. 
 
 FOR SECRETARIES. 
 
 H. S. Baker, of Madison. 
 C. L. Wilson, of Cook. 
 John Tillson, of Adams. 
 Washington Bushnell, of LaSalle. 
 
 B. J. F. Hanna, of Randolph. 
 
 Which report was received and unanimously adopted. 
 
 Hon. John M. Palmer, on taking the chair, thanked the 
 convention for the honor conferred on him in an elegant and 
 able address. 
 
 On motion of N. B. Judd, of Cook, it was 
 
 Resolved, That a committee of nine, consisting of one 
 from each congressional district, be appointed to report resolu- 
 tions for the action of this convention.
 
 154 
 
 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 Whereupon, the president appointed the following as that 
 committee : 
 
 First district, G. Walbrecht ; second district, N. B. Judd ; 
 third district, O. Lovejoy; fourth district, A. C. Harding; fifth 
 district, O. H. Browning; sixth district, Wickliff Kitchell; 
 seventh district, S. C. Parks; eighth district, Charles Vincenz; 
 ninth district, D. L. Phillips. 
 
 RICHARD YATES 
 
 Born in Kentucky January 18, 1818; died 
 November 27, 1873; moved to Illinois in 1831, 
 admitted to the bar, member legislature 1842 
 to 1849; 1850 elected to congress, Governor of 
 Illinois 1861 to 1865 and U. S. Senator 1865 to 
 1871. 
 
 By permission and courtesy of the Cen- 
 tury Co. 
 
 Leander Munsell, of Edgar, nominated W. H. BISSELL, 
 of St. Clair county, for governor. 
 
 Mr. Rutherford moved that no nomination be made, but 
 that this convention confirm the nomination of Colonel Bissell, 
 which the people have already made. 
 
 G. T. Brown, of Madison, desired before any action was 
 taken, to read to the convention a letter he had received from 
 Colonel Bissell, which he read as follows : 
 
 BELLEVILLE, ILL., May 24, 1856. 
 George T. Brown, Esq., Alton, III. 
 
 DEAR SIR : Having reason to apprehend that my name 
 may be presented to the convention as a candidate for governor, 
 I deem it proper to place in your hands, to be used there, should 
 occasion arise, a simple statement of the condition of my health,
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 155 
 
 in order that there may be no mistake or misapprehension in re- 
 gard to it. 
 
 The illness from which I have suffered for the last three 
 years has left me with impaired vigor in my lower limbs, so 
 that in walking I still require the use of a cane, and the aid of a 
 friendly arm. From this infirmity, however, I am slowly re- 
 covering, and have every reason to expect final and complete 
 restoration. My general health is perfectly good never was 
 better ; and my capacity for business not requiringmuch locomo- 
 tion, precisely what it ever was. But I cannot promise, in the 
 event of becoming a candidate, to take the stump, or address 
 the people of the state generally and this is a matter which I 
 trust you will consider. If I continue to improve, as I have 
 every reason to expect, I shall unquestionably make some 
 speeches, if desirable, but I cannot promise to perambulate the 
 state as some might wish. 
 
 If, in view of these facts, the convention deem it proper to 
 nominate me, I shall not decline the honor, though I say, in all 
 candor, I prefer that the nomination should fall on another in- 
 dividual ; and should that happen, you can rely upon my most 
 zealous and cheerful efforts in his behalf. Yours truly, 
 
 WM. H. BISSELL. 
 
 Whereupon the entire convention rose, and with nine long, 
 loud, and hearty cheers, declared that the nomination of COL. 
 WM. H. BISSELL, of St. Clair county, by the people of Illinois, 
 as their candidate for governor, was then and there unani- 
 mously confirmed. 
 
 On motion of N. Niles, Esq., of St. Clair county, it was 
 unanimously 
 
 "Resolved, That FRANCIS A. HOFFMAN, of DuPage 
 county, be declared the Anti-Nebraska candidate for the office 
 of lieutenant-governor of the state of Illinois, at the coming 
 election in November." 
 
 Which resolution was received by the entire convention 
 with long and loud cheering.
 
 156 Anti Nebraska Republican 
 
 On motion, it was 
 
 "Resolved, That a committee of nine, including one from 
 each congressional district, be appointed by the chair, to re- 
 port to the convention suitable candidates for the other state 
 offices." 
 
 Whereupon the chair appointed the following as such 
 committee : 
 
 First district, L. W. Lawrence; second district, Cyrus 
 Aldrich; third district, W. W. Orme; fourth district, J. D. 
 Arnold; fifth district, A. Williams; sixth district, A. Lincoln; 
 seventh district, T. A. Marshall ; eighth district, Thomas Mc- 
 Clurken; ninth district, Benjamin T. Wiley. 
 
 On motion of John Wentworth, of Cook, it was 
 "Resolved. That the delegates in attendance from the 
 several congressional districts be requested to suggest the name 
 of one person from each congressional district for presidential 
 elector, and three persons for delegates to the national conven- 
 tion to be held at Philadelphia on the i /th proximo ; and that a 
 committee of nine, consisting of one from each congressional 
 district, be appointed by the chair to recommend two suchelect- 
 ors and six such delegates for the state at large." 
 
 The chair appointed the following as said committee : 
 First district, W. Diggins ; second district, J. Wentworth ; 
 third district, J. Bennett; fourth district, T. J. Pickett; fifth 
 district, A. Williams; sixth district, S. T. Logan; seventh dis- 
 trict, J. L. Dugger; eighth district, J. Trible; ninth district, 
 D. L. Phillips. 
 
 The districts were then called, and the delegates suggested 
 names as requested, which reports were referred to the last 
 above named committee. 
 
 The committee appointed to recommend the names of suit- 
 able persons for candidates for the several state offices yet 
 vacant, submitted the following report : 
 
 For secretary of state OZIAS M : . HATCH, of Pike county. 
 
 For state treasurer JAMES MILLER, of McLean.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 157 
 
 JAMES MILLER, Bloomington, 111. 
 
 Born November 23, 1795. Virginia: died September 23. 1872, merchant, land 
 owner, State Treasurer 1836 to 1860; see GJOd Old Times McLean County 308 and 
 Volume II, Transactions McLean County Historical Society.
 
 158 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 For state auditor JESSE K. DUBOIS, of Lawrence. 
 For superintendent of common schools WM. H. POWELL, 
 of Peoria. 
 
 Which report was received by the convention, and unani- 
 mously adopted. 
 
 With this report the committee also laid before the con- 
 vention a letter from James Miller, Esq., of McLean county, 
 stating that he had not nor did he intend to accept the nomina- 
 tion recently tendered him for the office of state treasurer, by 
 the American party of Illinois ; that he never had, nor did he 
 now belong to that order. 
 
 The committee appointed to recommend the names of 
 suitable persons as presidential electors and delegates to the 
 national convention submitted the following report, which was 
 unanimously adopted 
 
 Electors for the state at large Abraham Lincoln, of 
 Sangamon; Frederick Hecker, of St. Clair. 
 
 First district, elector Elisha P. Ferry, of Lake. 
 
 Second district, elector Jerome J. Beardsley, of Rock 
 Island ; assistant elector, J. V. Eustace, of Lee. 
 
 Third district, elector William Fithian, of Vermilion; 
 assistant, - - Lundy. 
 
 Fourth district, elector T. Judson Hale, of Knox; assist- 
 ants, T. J. Pickett, of Peoria, andWm. P. Kellogg, of Fulton. 
 
 Fifth district, elector Abraham Jonas, of Adams; assist- 
 ants, James Stark and John C. Bagley. 
 
 Sixth district, elector Wm. H. Herndon, of Sangamon; 
 assistant, N. M. Knapp. 
 
 Seventh district, elector H. P. H. Bromwell, of Fayette ; 
 assistant S. C. Parks. 
 
 Eighth district, elector Friend S. Rutherford, of Madi- 
 son; assistant, Francis B. Anderson, of Randolph. 
 
 Ninth district, elector David L. Phillips, of Union.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 159 
 
 DELEGATES TO THE PHILADELPHIA CONVENTION. 
 
 For the State at Large. 
 
 George Schneider, of Cook; Thomas J. Turner, of 
 Stephenson; J. O. Norton, of Will; J. D. Arnold, of Peoria; 
 G. T. Brown, of Madison ; J. B. Tenny, of Logan. 
 
 First District. 
 
 M. T. Sweet, of Stephenson; S. M. Church, of Winneba- 
 go; W. A. Little, of Jo Daviess; alternates N. C. Geer, of 
 Lake; A. C. Fuller, of Boone; A. J. Joslyn, of McHenry. 
 
 Second District. 
 
 Cyrus Aldrich, E. R. Allen, N. B. Judd; alternates 
 George W. Waite, Miles S. Henry, Hugh T. Dickey. 
 
 Third District. 
 
 W. H. L. Wallace, A. W. Mack, Owen Lovejoy; alter- 
 nates B. C. Cook, Jesse Bennett, Elisha Harkness. 
 
 Fourth District. 
 
 T. J. Pickett, of Peoria; A. C. Harding, of Warren; W. P. 
 Myers, of Mercer; alternates Daniel Cheever, of Tazewell; 
 Silas Ramsey, of Marshall; J. H. Howe, of Henry; W. P. Kel- 
 logg, of Fulton; T. J. Henderson, of Stark; J. D. Arnold, of 
 Peoria. 
 
 Fifth District. 
 
 John Tillson, C. B. Lawrence, Wm. Ross; alternates C. 
 S. Cowan, W. B. Powers, N. G. Wilcox. 
 
 Si.vth District. 
 
 John M. Palmer, N. M. Knapp, A. Lincoln; alternates 
 P. P. Enos, W. H. Bailhache, M. Green, David Pierson, 
 Joseph Cassel. 
 
 Seventh District. 
 
 A. C.Johns, of Macon; Leander Munsell, of Edgar; A. 
 B. Archer, of Clark; alternates Anderson McPheeters, of 
 Moultrie; T. A. Marshall, of Coles; J. W. Clemens, of Macon.
 
 160 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 Eighth District. 
 
 M. G. Atwood, of Madison; Francis Grumm, of St. Clair; 
 D. K. Green, of Marion; alternates J. C. Holbrook, of Ran- 
 dolph, Dr. Carpenter, of St. Clair, Miller, of Washington. 
 
 Ninth District. 
 
 B. L. Wiley, of Union; Edward Holden, of Jackson; 
 John Olney, of Gallatin. 
 
 The committee appointed to prepare and report resolutions 
 expressive of the sense of this convention, submit the follow- 
 ing report, which was unanimously adopted. 
 
 WHEREAS, The present administration has prostituted its 
 powers, and devoted all its energies to the propagation of 
 slavery, and to its extension into territories heretofore dedi- 
 cated to freedom, against the known wishes of the people of 
 such territories, to the suppression of the freedom of speech, 
 and of the press ; and to the revival of the odious doctrine of 
 constructive treason, which has always been the resort of ty- 
 rants, and their most powerful engine of injustice and oppres- 
 sion ; and, 
 
 WHEREAS, We are convinced that an effort is making to 
 subvert the principles, and ultimately to change the form of 
 our government, and which it becomes all patriots, all who 
 love their country, and the cause of human freedom to resist; 
 therefore 
 
 Resolved, That foregoing all former differences of opin- 
 ion upon other questions, we pledge ourselves to unite in op- 
 position to the present administration, and to the party which 
 upholds and supports it, and to use all honorable and constitu- 
 tional means to wrest the government from the unworthy 
 hands which now control it, and bring it back in its adminis- 
 tration to the principles and practices of Washington, Jeffer- 
 son and their great and good compatriots of the revolution. 
 
 Resolved, That we hold, in accordance with the opinions 
 and practices of all the great statesmen of all parties, for the 
 first sixty years of the administration of the government, that, 
 under the constitution, congress possesses full power to pro-
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 161 
 
 hibit slavery in the territories ; and that whilst we will main- 
 tain all constitutional rights of the south, we also hold that jus- 
 tice, humanity, the principles of freedom as expressed in our 
 Declaration of Independence, and our national constitution 
 and the purity and perpetuity of our government, require that 
 power should be exerted to prevent the extension of slavery 
 into territories heretofore free. 
 
 Resolved, That the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
 was unwise, unjust and injurious; an open and aggravated 
 violation of the plighted faith of the states, and that the at- 
 tempt of the present administration to force slavery into Kansas 
 against the known wishes of the legal voters of that territory, 
 is an arbitrary and tyrannous violation of the rights of the peo- 
 ple to govern themselves, and that we will strive by all consti- 
 tutional means, to secure to Kansas and Nebraska the legal 
 guarantee against slavery of which they were deprived at the 
 cost of the violation of the plighted faith of the nation. 
 
 Resolved, That we are devoted to the Union, and will to 
 the last extremity, defend it against the efforts now being made 
 by the disunionists of the administration to compass its dis- 
 solution, and that we will support the constitution of the Uni- 
 ted States in all its provisions ; regarding" it as the sacred bond 
 of our Union, and the only safeguard for the preservation of 
 the rights of ourselves and our posterity. 
 
 Resolved, That we are in favor of the immediate admis- 
 sion of Kansas as a member of this confederacy, under the con- 
 stitution adopted by the people of said territory. 
 
 Resolved, That the spirit of our institutions, as well as 
 the constitution of our country guarantee the liberty of 
 conscience as well as political freedom, and that we will pro- 
 scribe no one. by legislation or otherwise, on account of re- 
 ligious opinions, or in consequence of place of birth. 
 
 Resolved, That in Lyman Trumbull, our distinguished 
 senator, the people of Illinois have an able and consistent ex- 
 ponent of their principles, and that his course in the senate 
 meets with our unqualified approbation. 
 
 Which report was received and unanimously adopted.
 
 162 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 Mr. Wentworth submitted the following resolution which 
 was unanimously adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That we are in favor of the strictest economy 
 in the administration of our state government and a faithful 
 application of all its revenues to the liquidation of our state 
 debt. And that the practice of using our state funds for the 
 purpose of private speculations, whereby a very large defalca- 
 tion has occurred in our state treasury, cannot be too severely 
 censured; and we therefore take issue with the resolution of 
 the recent convention at Springfield which endorsed the course 
 of our present governor. 
 
 Mr. Skinner offered the following resolution, which was 
 unanimously adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed to act as 
 a central committee for the purpose of calling future conven- 
 tions, and to fill vacancies in our nomination (in cases where 
 the nominations may become vacant, and it may be too late to 
 call a convention to fill the same,) and do such other business 
 as usually devolves upon central committees ; and also to act as 
 a disbursing committee of such funds as may come to their 
 hands. Whereupon the following committee was appointed : 
 
 CENTRAL COMMITTEE. 
 
 James C. Conkling, Sangamon county ;AsahelGridley, Mc- 
 Lean county; B. C. Cook, LaSalle county; Charles H. Ray, 
 Cook county; N. B. Judd, Cook county. 
 
 Mr. Wm. A. James, of Cook, offered the following reso- 
 lution, which was adopted. 
 
 Resolved, That this convention recommend every town 
 in every county in the state to form Anti-Nebraska clubs, for 
 the purpose of effecting a thorough organization of the party 
 prior to the ensuing election. 
 
 George T. Brown, of Madison, submitted the following 
 resolution, which was unanimously adopted, amid deafening 
 shouts, cheers and other manifestations of excited approbation.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 163 
 
 Resolved, That STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, having laid his 
 "ruthless hand" upon a sacred compact, which had "an origin 
 akin to that of the constitution," and which had "become 
 canonized in the hearts of the American people," has given 
 the lie to his past history, proved himself recreant to the free 
 principles of this government, violated the confidence of the 
 people of Illinois, and now holds his seat in the senate while he 
 misrepresents them. 
 
 Mr. Judd offered the following resolution, which was 
 adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of this convention are hereby 
 tendered to the citizens of Bloomington for their kind hospi- 
 talities, and also to the committee of arrangements for the sat- 
 isfactory manner in which they have discharged their self-im- 
 posed duties towards this body. 
 
 On motion of O. H. Browning : 
 
 Resolved, That the proceedings of this convention be 
 signed by the officers and published by all the Anti-Nebraska 
 papers in the state. 
 
 On motion of H. N. Hibbard : 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of this convention be tendered 
 to the presiding officers for the able and impartial manner in 
 which they have discharged their duties. 
 
 On motion the committee adjourned sine die. 
 
 John M. Palmer, president. 
 
 Vice-presidents J. A. Davis, Wm. Ross, James McKie, 
 J. H. Bryant, A. C. Harding, Richard Yates, H. C. Johns, D. 
 L. Phillips, George Smith, T. A. Marshall, J. M. Ruggles, G. 
 D. A. Parks, John Clark. 
 
 Secretaries H. T. Baker, C. L. Wilson, John Tillson, 
 W. Bushnell, B. J. F. Hanna. 
 
 A full, true and correct copy from the files of the ''Jour- 
 nal" of Springfield, 111., of May 30, 1856. 
 
 HENRY C. RANNEY, 
 
 Copyist.
 
 164 Anil- Nebraska Republican 
 
 The convention of May 29, ia?6, although called as a delegate conven- 
 tion, did not strictly preserve that character but rather resolved itself into a 
 mass convention, as in several instances parties acted as officers of the convention 
 whose names do not appear on the official roll as delegates at all. 
 
 In several counties the Chicago Press and also Chicago Democrat give additional 
 delegates to those given in the official list. We give below the delegates in these 
 counties as they appear in these papers: 
 
 Bureau County Charles C. Kelsey, George Radcliffe, George W. Stipp, jr., 
 John H. Bryant. 
 
 Lee County E. M. Ingals, J. V. Eustace, Dr. Charles Gardner, John Dixon, 
 Dr. Oliver Everett, George E. Haskell, Lorenzo Wood, Benjaman F. Shaw, Dr. 
 Adams, Thomas W. Eustace, Andrew McPherson, S. R. Upham, Cyrus Aldrich, 
 Joseph Crawford, James L. Camp, William E. Ives, Oziss Wheeler, Jerome Porter, 
 A. A. Benjamin, S. G. Patrick, S. ri. Williams, I. S. Boardman, David Welty. George 
 R. Linn, Benjamin Oilman. 
 
 McDonough County L. H. Walters, C. W. Craig, J. E. Wynne, S. P. Higbe, 
 Anthony Corker. 
 
 Ogle County Charles C. Royce, F. A. McNiff, G. W. Southwick. 
 
 Richland County Edward Kitchell. 
 
 La Salle County Washington Bushnell was one of the secretaries of the 
 convention although he does not appear on the official list of delegates. 
 
 In the official list of Mason county J. M. Ruggles does not appear as a dele- 
 gate but he acted as one of the vice-presidents of the convention and we have 
 added his name to the list. 
 
 In McLean county the official list gives the alternates as the attending dele- 
 gates. We have given the delegates and alternates as elected. The delegates 
 evidently attended, as Gen. W. W. Orme, one of them, was one of the officers of 
 the convention. 
 
 David McWilliams of Livingston county also attended as a delegate and we 
 have added his name to the official list. 
 
 Elisha Harkness of Champaign county was also elected and attended as a 
 delegate from that county and we have added his name to the official list. 
 
 The delegates and alternates elected from St. Clair county were as follows: 
 Delegates: Alternates: 
 
 Philip H. Eisenmayer, H. G. Harrison, 
 
 J. B. Hoppe, S. Anderson, 
 
 Dr. Charles Vincenz, Conrad Bowman, 
 
 Nathaniel Niies, Dr. F. A. Carpenter 
 
 J. Thomas. Edward Abend. 
 
 The delegates and alternates elected from Randolph county were: 
 Delegates: Alternates: 
 
 Thomas McClucken, B. J. F. Hanna, 
 
 Caspar Horn, R. J. Hanna, 
 
 We have taken great pains to obtain a correct roll of the delegates attending 
 the convention but in many instances it has been impossible to verify the list and 
 there doubtless still remains many errors in it. 
 
 The electoral ticket 'nominated at this convention was defeated by the 
 following vote: 
 
 Buchanan and Breckenridge, democrats 105,348 
 
 Fremont and Dayton, republicans , 96,189 
 
 Plurality for Buchanan and Breckenridge 9,159 
 
 Fillmore and Donaldson, American or Know-Nothing 37,444 
 
 Republican (96,189) and American (37,444) vote 133,633 
 
 Democratic vote 105,348 
 
 Majority of votes against democratic ticket 27,285 
 
 The state ticket nominated by this convention was elected as follows: 
 Gov. Bissell, rep. ...111,375 W. A. Richardson, dem., 106,643 Bissell's plur'lty 4,732 
 
 Lieut-Gov.,Wood,r 110,534 Hamilton, dem 106,297 Wood's 4,237 
 
 Sec. State, Hatch, r 115.538 Snyder, dem 106,610 Hatch's 8.928 
 
 Auditor, Dubois, r 199,234 Casey, dem 106,230 Dubois' 3,004 
 
 Supt. S., Powell, r 109,528 St. Mathews, dem 106,521 Powell's 3.007 
 
 Treasurer, Miller, r 128,430 Moore, dem 107,448 Miller's 20,982 
 
 Congressional Rep., 118,011; dem., 110,038; rep. plurality. 7,973. 
 
 Average American vote for governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of 
 state, auditor and superintendent of schools, was 18,530. Tribune Almanac, 1857. 
 
 James Miller, candidate for treasurer, was on both the republican and 
 American tickets. 
 
 E. M. PRINCE, Sec'y.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 165 
 
 NOTE. The Pantograph of Bloomington, Illinois, of May 14, 1856. published the 
 call for the convention of May 29 and beneath it published a call signed by John 
 M. Scott, W. C. Hobbs, J. H. Wickizer, L. Graves, J. E. McClun, L. Lawrence, 
 James Vandolah and Leonard Swell for a mass meeting of the voters of McLean 
 county, favorable to the Anti-Nebraska movement, to assemble in Bloomington, 
 on Saturday, the 17th inst. to select three delegates to the convention. At this 
 mass meeting Dr. W. C. Hobbs was elected chairman and W. W. Orme secretary. 
 James Gilmore, sr., Dr. Harrison Noble and William W. Orme, delegates to the 
 State convention and Green B. Larrison, David Cheney and A. T. Brfscoe, alter- 
 nates. Resolutions were adopted demanding that the friends of the Union forget 
 old party associations in opposition to the extension of Slavery over free terri- 
 tory, declaring slave labor and free labor are incompatible with each other, that 
 our constitution does not carry nor protect slavery, except in the States, thai its 
 f ramers did not intend to extend this institution, that the passage of the Kansas- 
 Nebraska act was a wilful violation of the plighted faith of the nation, an act in- 
 sulting to the Free States, and shamelessly in defiance of the public opinion of this 
 age and of all enlightened, unprejudicial people, that slavery is a creation of 
 municipal law and cannot exist one moment without it, that outside State juris- 
 diction the constitutional power of the Federal government should be exerted to 
 secure life, liberty and the happiness of all men, that there should be neither 
 slavery nor involuntary servitude except for the punishment of crimes, in any 
 of the territories of the United States. Pantograph, May 21, 1856. 
 
 Telegrams. 
 
 The Ohio Republican Convention was also in session 
 May 29. The late Jesse W. Fell and Judge Owen T. 
 Reeves, then a young lawyer recently from Ohio, prepared a 
 telegram to the Ohio convention, submitted it to General 
 Palmer who signed it and it was wired to Columbus. A re- 
 turn telegram was received and read amid great applause. 
 The Mrs. Robinson alluded to in the Bloomineton telegram 
 was the wife of the first state governor of Kansas. We are 
 indebted to the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society 
 for a copy of these telegrams. SEC'Y H i STORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 BLOOMINGTON, ILL., May 29, 1856. 
 
 To the President of the Ohio Republican Convention, Co- 
 lumbus. 
 
 The delegates of the free men of Illinois in convention 
 assembled send greeting to the free men of Ohio. William 
 H. Bissell is nominated for governor with the enthusiastic 
 acclaim by the most enthusiastic delegate convention ever 
 assembled in Illinois. Governor Reeder and Mrs. Robinson 
 are here. They have appeared before the public and been 
 greeted by the wildest applause. The excitement conse-, 
 quent upon the latest outrages at Lawrence, Kansas, is 
 sweeping like wildfire over the land. 
 
 JOHN M. PALMER.
 
 166 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 COLUMBUS, OHIO, May 29, 1856. 
 To the Republican Convention of Illinois, Bloomington : 
 
 Ohio and Illinois respond. The announcement of the 
 gallant Bissell's nomination was received with tumultuous 
 cheers. The names of Governor Reeder and Mrs. Robin- 
 son were greeted with three cheers from the thousands as- 
 sembled here. Judge Hunt and General Lane, of Kansas, 
 are here and speak this evening. All is enthusiasm. 
 
 OLIVER P. BROWN. 
 
 President. 
 
 (The "Democratic Press" of May 31, 1856, gives the fol- 
 lowing, which should be added to above) : 
 
 The convention was then addressed at length by Messrs. 
 Browning, Lovejoy, Lincoln and Cook, and adjourned with 
 nine cheers for the ticket and as many more for the nominees. 
 
 Chicago Democrat of June 7, 1856. 
 
 The Bloomington Convention. 
 
 ANTI-NEBRASKA STATE CONVENTION. 
 
 A state convention of the Anti-Nebraska party in Illinois 
 will be held in the city of Bloomington, on Thursday the 2Qth 
 day of May, 1856, for the purpose of choosing candidates for 
 state officers, appointing delegates to the national convention, 
 transacting such other business as may properly come before 
 the body. The committee have adopted as the basis of repre- 
 sentation the ratio of one delegate to every 6,000 inhabitants, 
 and an additional delegate for every fractional number of 2,- 
 ooo and over; but counties that contain less than 6,000 in- 
 habitants are entitled to one delegate. 
 
 Wm. B. Ogden, S. M. Church, 
 
 E. A. Dudley, Thos.J. Pickett, 
 
 R. J. Oglesby, G. D. A. Parks, 
 
 Ira O. Wilkinson, W. H. Herndon, 
 
 Joe Gillespie. D. L. Phillips,
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 167 
 
 We never met a more determined and encouraged body of 
 men than at the late Anti-Slavery Extension State Convention. 
 It is a remarkable fact, that a majority of the delegates voted 
 for General Pierce, as also did a majority of the nominees. 
 
 One of our candidates for elector, Mr. Ferry, was upon 
 the Pierce and King ticket. 
 
 Imitating the example of the slavery extension conven- 
 tion, the old party lines did not come up, and Mr. Lincoln, a 
 talented old line Whig, was placed upon the ticket as an offset 
 
 RICHARD J. OGLESBY 
 
 Born in Kentucky 1824, admitted to the 
 liar 1845, served in Mexican War. three years 
 mining in California, elected State Senator 
 in 1860, Colonel 8th. Illinois Volunteers 1861, 
 promoted Brigadier and afterwards Major 
 General, elected Governor of Illinois in 1864 
 1872 and 1884. 
 
 U. S. Senator 1873 to 1879. Died at Elkhart, 
 Illinois, April 24, 1899. 
 
 By permission and courtesy of the S. S 
 McClure Co. 
 
 -33)165- 
 
 to Mr. Constable, an old political associate of Mr. Lincoln, but 
 who now goes for slavery extension. 
 
 Mr. Hecker, of St. Clair, one of the electors at large, is 
 one of the most talented men in the United States. He was 
 a leader in the last German revolution, and was for many years 
 the radical leader in the German parliament. 
 
 The southern delegates gave the lie to the story so often 
 repeated by the slavery extensionists, viz., that all the old 
 Henry Clay Whigs were intending to vote the slavery exten- 
 sion ticket. The Henry Clay Whigs are divided at the south 
 exactly as they are every where else. Those who have an in- 
 terest in slavery, remote or direct, favor making Kansas a slave 
 state, and will vote for Richardson. The others will vote for 
 Bissell.
 
 168 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 Several young men in southern Illinois have been to Kan- 
 sas. Some have been massacred, and some have come home 
 to tell the story of their wrongs. The people there have been 
 much aroused by recent events, and will give a good account 
 of themselves in November. 
 
 Colonel Bissell is favorably known all through southern 
 Illinois, and his friends are confident that he will get a very 
 large vote there. 
 
 (From "Democratic Press" of May 30, 1856.) Editorial 
 correspondence. 
 
 THE ANTI-NEBRASKA CONVENTION. 
 
 PIKE HOUSE, BLOOMINGTON, 
 
 May 29, 9 a.m. 
 
 The train arrived here an hour ago. We found the city 
 full of people. The verandahs, halls and doorways of the 
 Pike House are crowded with a dense mass of delegates. Men 
 are here from all parts of the state. Egypt is in council with 
 us. It is a spontaneous outpouring of the people. 
 
 (jovernor Reeder came down with us from Chicago. His 
 arrival has added to the enthusiasm. He will address the peo- 
 ple some time today. 
 
 While I am writing speakers are addressing the people 
 from the portico of the Pike House. The feeling is intense, 
 and in every bosom beats the stern resolve to relieve our noble 
 state from the stigma under which it now rests. Illinois 
 furnished the "ruthless hand" which broke down the barrier 
 erected by our patriot fathers against the spread of slavery. 
 Her people must repudiate the act. They will do it. Mark 
 that. 
 
 Last evening, I am informed, speaking was kept up in 
 front of the hotel until a late hour. The venerable Colonel 
 Dixon, of Lee county, led off in a speech that produced a pow- 
 erful impression. He was followed by Messrs. Lincoln, 
 Palmer, Washburn, Doctor Schroeder, and others. 
 
 The feeling is strong for Bissell and Hoffman. Present 
 indications are that these gentlemen will be nominated by ac- 
 clamation.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 169 
 
 FREDERICK HECKEB 
 
 Born September 28, 1811, Baden, Germany; died 1881. General Revolutionary 
 Army, Germany 1848; Colonel 24th Illinois Volunteers, War of Kebellion. Nomi- 
 nated Elector at large convention May 29, 1856.
 
 170 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 * 
 
 12, m. The convention was called to order at 10 o'clock, 
 and organized temporarily by the appointment of Archibald 
 Williams, chairman, H. S. Baker and George F. Brown, sec- 
 retaries. 
 
 A committee of nine was appointed to nominate perma- 
 nent officers of the convention. While the committee were out 
 a stirring address was delivered by Mr. Emory, of Kansas. 
 Mr. Emory went to Kansas a Pierce man, but when the lead- 
 ers of the Pierce Democracy made the admission of slavery a 
 test of party fealty he left the party. Mr. Emory detailed the 
 past difficulties and present perils of the Free State party in 
 Kansas in a most graphic manner, eliciting feeling responses 
 from the audience. 
 
 In taking the chair the president delivered a neat and 
 appropriate address, thanking the convention for the honor 
 conferred, and expressing his readiness to co-operate with all 
 good men in meeting the issues that have been forced upon the 
 free north. 
 
 Mr. Munsell, of Edgar county, moved the nomination of 
 Colonel Bissell, for governor, by acclamation, which was re- 
 ceived with tremendous cheering. George T. Brown, Esq., 
 of Alton, asked permission to lay before the convention the 
 following letter from Colonel Bissell, before acting upon Mr. 
 Munsell's motion. 
 
 (For letter see "official" report.} 
 
 The reading of this letter was received with the unbound- 
 ed enthusiasm, and when the motion was put, the entire con- 
 vention rose to their feet, and ratified the nomination by cheer 
 after cheer. 
 
 When silence was again restored, Judge Xiles, of St. Clair, 
 moved the nomination of Francis A. Hoffman, of DuPage 
 county for lieutenant-governor, which motion was carried 
 unanimously by acclamation, amidst enthusiastic cheering. 
 
 A motion to adjourn was voted down, and Hon. Richard 
 Yates responded to a call of the audience in a stirring speech, 
 after which the convention adjourned till 2 p.m.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 171
 
 172 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 Committees were appointed on resolutions and nomina- 
 tions, which will report at the afternoon session. About one 
 thousand people were present at the sitting of the convention. 
 
 This evening Governor Reeder will address the people 
 in the court house square. Greater enthusiasm I have never 
 witnessed, and the most cheering accounts are brought in by 
 the delegates from the different portions of the state. Illinois 
 must be true to herself. The ticket put in nomination here to- 
 day must be elected. 
 
 From the 'Democratic Press/' May 31, 1856. Editorial 
 correspondence. 
 
 THE BLOOMINGTON CONVENTION. 
 
 BLOOMINGTON, May 29, 1 1 p.m. 
 
 The afternoon session of the convention was full of in- 
 terest. The reports of committees on nominations for re- 
 mainder of state ticket, electors, delegates, etc., were promptly 
 made and cordially accepted. 
 
 The commmitte on resolutions reported about 4 o'clock. 
 Each resolution was received with applause. They appeared to 
 meet the expectation and fill the desires of every delegate. A 
 single amendment was offered to the second resolution, but it 
 was withdrawn after a brief discussion, and the resolutions 
 were adopted without a dissenting voice. 
 
 Then commenced the speaking. O. H. Browning, of 
 Quincy, was first called to the stand. His remarks were ad- 
 dressed mainly to the old Clay- Whigs. He read extracts from 
 the speeches of Henry Clay from his first entrance upon public 
 life down to the close of his career, all of which proved him 
 to have been steadfastly and uniformly opposed to the spread 
 of slavery into free territory, and that had he still been upon the 
 stage of action when his great measures of pacification the 
 Missouri Compromise was ruthlessly violated, his voice and 
 vote would have been the same in 1854, that they were in 1820. 
 Mr. Browning's vindication of the character of Henry Clay 
 from the imputations cast upon it by the slavery extensionists 
 of the present day, who profess to find in his political life evi-
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 173 
 
 ORVILLE H. BROWNING 
 
 Born in Kentucky 1810,died at Quincy,Illinois,August 10,1881:admitted to the bar 
 and removed to Quincy, Illinois 1831; serred in Black Hawk War, State Senator 
 1836 to 1840 and House 1840 to 1843. Delegate to Republican National Convention 
 1860. U. S. Senator 1861 to 1863. Secretary Interior 1866 to 1869. 
 
 By permission and courtesy of the Century Co.
 
 174 Anti-Nebraska Republican 
 
 dence that, if living, he would now be ranged side by side with 
 them, was conclusive and triumphant. There were numbers 
 of the admirers and political adherents of the great Kentucky 
 statesman present, some of them southerners like himself, oth- 
 ers of northern origin, and not one of them but felt that the 
 truth of history had been successfully vindicated, and the char- 
 acter of their former chief placed beyond the aspersions of 
 those who are seeking to sanctify with his name a great crime 
 from which he should have shrunk as from dishonor. 
 
 Mr. Browning was followed by Owen Lovejoy, of Prince- 
 ton, in an eloquent and telling speech of half an hour. Mr. 
 Lovejoy stated that he had never proposed and never would 
 propose any political action by congress with respect to slavery 
 in the states where it now exists. He opposed its extension 
 that w r as all. He referred to the fact that his political oppon- 
 ents had always misrepresented him on this subject. Individ- 
 ually he did not care for that, but he was determined that the 
 cause with which he was identified should not be injured 
 through these misrepresentations. Many who heard Mr. 
 Lovejoy for the first time were agreeably disappointed by his 
 declaration of sentiments on the political aspect of the slavery 
 question, and his eloquent appeal in favor of the cause in 
 which they were embarked, as defined in the resolutions just 
 adopted by the convention, will not soon be forgotten by them. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, of Springfield, was next called out, 
 and made the speech of the occasion. Never has it 
 been our fortune to listen to a more eloquent and mas- 
 terly presentation of a subject. I shall not mar any 
 of its fine proportions or brilliant passages by attempt- 
 ing even a synopsis of it . Mr. Lincoln must write it out 
 and let it go before all the people. For an hour and a half he 
 held the assemblage spell bound by the power of his argument, 
 the intense irony of his invective, and the deep earnestness and 
 fervid brilliancy of his eloquence. When he concluded, the 
 audience sprang to their feet and cheer after cheer told how 
 deeply their hearts had been touched, and their souls warmed 
 up to a generous enthusiasm.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 
 
 175 
 
 It was now 7 o'clock, and the large hall was still densely 
 packed and the people refused to go. Burton C. Cook, of Ot- 
 tawa, was called to the stand. His speech was pointed and 
 effective. He alluded to the fact that not only the admirers 
 of the Sage of Ashland were called upon to repel attempts to 
 link the name of their departed chieftain with the great Amer- 
 ican crime of extending slavery into free territory. His own 
 political idol had also been invoked in aid of the same base 
 purpose. The Sage of Monticello, the author of the Declara- 
 tion of Independence, and of the ordinances of 1787 the im- 
 
 OWEN LOVEJOY 
 
 Born at Albion, Maine, January 6, 
 1811; died March 25, 1864; moved to Al- 
 ton, Illinois, and was present when his 
 brother Elijah was murdered; in 1838 
 he became minister of the Congrega- 
 tional church at Princeton, 111. , but de- 
 voted most of his time to anti-slayery 
 meetings; 1854 elected to the Legisla- 
 ture, 1856 to his death a member of 
 congress. A peerless, fearless anti- 
 slavery agitator. 
 
 By permission and courtesy of the 
 Century Co. 
 
 mortal Jefferson his name, too, had been desecrated by the 
 conspirators. But these attempts to falsifv history, and to 
 couple a heinous crime with our illustrious dead, would yet 
 react upon those who, by such means, endeavor to shield them- 
 selves from the indignation of an outraged people. Mr. Cook 
 in a very humorous way, illustrated the vacillating course of the 
 leaders of the Democratic party in Illinois, and concluded with 
 a glowing tribute to Colonel Bissell, and an appeal to those who 
 had enlisted under so gallant a leader to see to it that his ban- 
 ner is not permitted now for the first time to be trailed in the 
 dust.
 
 176 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 Then the convention adjourned sine die, with nine cheers 
 for the ticket, and as many more for the cause. 
 
 After supper from six to eight thousand persons assem- 
 bled in the court house square to hear Governor Reeder. I re- 
 gret my inability to report his speech. It occupied more than 
 three hours in the delivery, and was listended to with the most 
 intense interest by that vast multitude. Governor Reeder re- 
 counted in a plain, unvarnished manner, the series of outrages 
 to which the settlers in Kansas had been exposed,, and made 
 evident the complicity of the federal government in those out- 
 rages. He showed how Kansas had been subjugated by the 
 slave power of this country, partly through the connivance, 
 and partly through the direct agency of the general govern- 
 ment. The points made were clear and unanswerable. That 
 speech if delivered throughout the nation, would leave it with 
 but a single party, and a single purpose in it, so far as the 
 masses are concerned. It showed the existence of a despotism 
 with which there is nothing in the old world that will bear the 
 slightest comparison, a disregard of life and of property, and 
 of all the rights of individuals, the like of which, even in the 
 feeblest governments of the world, can nowhere else be found. 
 Occasionally, when describing the results of what now pre- 
 dominates on our frontier, or when contrasting the differences 
 between what Kansas and the whole national domain east of 
 the Pacific would be if consecrated to freedom, and what it 
 must become should the great conspiracy to make a slave state 
 of Kansas, prove successful. Governor Reeder's eloquence 
 assumed a high character, but he avoided everything like dec- 
 lamation throughout his speech. There was deep feeling 
 and strong passion aroused, and an irrepressible sympathy for 
 our fellow-citizens in Kansas who were the victims of the 
 wrongs and outrages recounted, but they were feelings and pas- 
 sions and sympathies awakened by the simple statement of 
 facts as they had occurred within the knowledge and under the 
 immediate observation of the speaker. 
 
 But I can say no more now. The up train by which I 
 design sending this will pass in a few moments, and I must
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 177 
 
 close it up. I am satisfied, let me say however, before closing, 
 that this day's deliberation have made an impress upon the 
 public mind and heart that will not fade out during the present 
 generation. The fire kindled here will spread throughout the 
 state, and when the ides of November shall have passed away, 
 Illinois will have entered a most emphatic protest against her 
 recreant senator, and against her other representatives whose 
 action has been instrumental in bringing the present perils upon 
 the country. 
 
 Nicolay & Hay's History of Abraham Lincoln, Vol., 2, 
 p. 27. 
 
 "There were stirring speeches by eloquent leaders, eagerly 
 listened to, and vociferously applauded; but scarcely a man 
 moved from his seat in the convention hall until Mr. Lincoln 
 had been heard. Every one felt the fitness of his making the 
 closing argument and exhortation, and right nobly did he 
 honor their demand. A silence full of emotion filled the as- 
 sembly, as for a moment before beginning, his tall form stood 
 in commanding attitude on the rostrum, the impressiveness of 
 his theme and the significance of the occasion reflected in his 
 thoughtful and earnest features. The spell of the hour was 
 visibly upon him, and holding his audience in rapt attention, 
 he closed in a brilliant peroration with an appeal to the people 
 to join the Republican standard, to 
 
 Come as the winds come, when forests are rended; 
 Come as the waves come, when navies are stranded. 
 
 The influence was irresistible; the audience rose and ac- 
 knowledged the speaker's power with cheer upon cheer. Un- 
 fortunately the speech was never reported; but its effect lives 
 vividly in the memory of all who heard it, and it crowned his 
 right to popular leadership in his own state which thereafter 
 was never disputed." 
 
 Letter of John H. Bryant, one of the vice-presidents of 
 the convention, to the Evening Post of New York City, of
 
 178 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 which his brother, the poet, William Cullen Bryant, was 
 editor. 
 
 PRINCETON, ILL., June 5, 1856. 
 
 You have some days since heard of our glorious conven- 
 tion at Bloomington on the 2Qth ult. It was indeed a glorious 
 meeting. All parts of the state were represented, and all 
 seem of one heart and one mind. There was no intriguing, no 
 log-rolling, to secure votes for this or that candidate. The 
 question, and the only question, seemed to be, who will best 
 represent our principles, and at the same time secure the votes 
 of the people. 
 
 Happily on this point there was but one opinion, and the 
 entire ticket was nominated and all the business of the con- 
 vention executed without a difference of opinion worth naming. 
 The convention was the largest, and contained more strong, 
 earnest, truth-loving men, than were ever assembled at once be- 
 fore in our state. Old Democrats, old Whigs, and old Liberty 
 men., who had never acted otherwise than with their respective 
 parties before, here acted shoulder to shoulder, united by a feel- 
 ing of common sympathy in devising means to save our heritage 
 of liberty from destruction, and to drive back the all-grasping 
 power of slavery, to its acknowledged bounds. I doubt if such 
 unity and enthusiasm, in so large a body \vho have never be- 
 fore acted together, was ever before witnessed. No well-in- 
 formed man has now any doubt as to the position Illinois will 
 occupy in November next. The ticket placed before the peo- 
 ple by the convention at Bloomington, with Bissell at its head, 
 will sweep the state by at least 20,000 majority. I know that 
 you eastern people have always put us down as a Nebraska 
 state, or, at best, doubtful. Illinois will cast her votes for the 
 candidates nominated at Philadelphia, and no mistake. Just 
 look at it. In 1852, General Pierce with a smooth sea and the 
 wind fair in his sail, only carried the state over Scott and Hale 
 by 6,000 votes. In 1854 after the passage of the Nebraska 
 bill, his party was beaten on congressional candidates by more 
 that 15,000. Now after two years of misrule after the burn- 
 ings and butcheries of Kansas have roused up the people to a
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 179 
 
 feeling of deeper indignation than was ever before known in 
 this country, with the most popular state ticket ever placed be- 
 fore them, is it unreasonable to suppose that we can carry the 
 state against Douglas and his followers? Besides all the 
 changes among our old settlers in our favor, and they may be 
 counted by thousands, even within the last three months, we 
 have gained other thousands by emigration, for the emigration 
 of the last two years has been largely in our favor. 
 
 Let our eastern friends then no longer despond or despair 
 in regard to Illinois. She is safe for freedom and the con- 
 stitution for republicanism and right. If you, of the Atlan- 
 tic states, can give us Pennsylvania, it is all we ask of you. 
 Give us Pennsylvania and we are safe. I hear of meetings, 
 large and enthusiastic, in all parts of the state, held to ratify 
 our state ticket, and give aid to the free state settlers of Kan- 
 sas. At these meetings many of the old Democrats renounce 
 their allegiance to their party, and declare in favor of ours. 
 If these things continue, we shall hardly have more than one 
 party by November. We are raising large amounts of money, 
 horses, cattle, wagons, and other articles, to send to Kansas to 
 sustain and encourage the free state settlers there. Almost every 
 county in northern Illinois has had, or will have its meetings 
 for this purpose, and the spirit and liberality manifested, shows 
 how deeply the people are excited and aroused. Many people 
 are going to Kansas from this vicinity to try their fortunes as 
 settlers. They will go in companies across Iowa, prepared to 
 defend themselves. There is no disposition here to give the 
 matter up, as long as there is any hope of making a free state 
 there. Still, the feeling is that the result of the presidential 
 election will decide the fate of our western territories, in regard 
 to freedom and slavery. If we cannot beat the slave power 
 at the polls, we certainly cannot defeat their designs in Kansas, 
 when they have the immense power of the general government 
 in their hands. J. H. B.
 
 180 Anti- Nebraska Republican 
 
 "The Lost Speech." 
 
 At the convention of 1856, enthused by the sympathy of 
 the audience and feeling- perhaps a prophetic insight into the 
 future. Mr. Lincoln made one of his great speeches, great 
 even for him in which he showed the sinfulness of slavery and 
 the need of a new party to curb the aggressions of the slave 
 power, and so preserve the Union from impending destruction. 
 
 His audience spell-bound by his eloquence and earnestness 
 listened only to applaud. The reporters, affected the same as 
 the other hearers, made no notes of the speech. This has been 
 called the "Lost Speech" of Mr. Lincoln. Since then portions 
 of this speech have lingered in men's minds like some half 
 forgotten music which one thinks he can recall, but regretfully 
 finds it an elusive dream. Lately there has been published a 
 "Lost Speech" made up from alleged notes. 
 
 The McLean County Historical Society does not think 
 it proper to send out a report of this re-union without stating 
 that in this community, where many now living heard the great 
 speech and where Mr. Lincoln was so well known and loved, 
 all of his friends consider the speech still lost. 
 
 The Historical Society had hoped to recover from the 
 memory of the still living hearers some portions of that speech 
 but found their efforts in vain.
 
 Convention, May 29, 1856. 181 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Bulletin Account of Meeting, May 29, 1900 9 
 
 Pantagrapfi Account of Meeting, May 29, 1900 . . . .10 
 
 Social Reunion, May 29, 1900 12 
 
 Schneider, George 12, 90 
 
 Palmer, John M 13 
 
 Introductory Note, E. M. Prince 14 
 
 Missouri Compromise. E. M. Prince 14 
 
 Compromise of 1850, E. M. Prince 14 
 
 Missouri Compromise, Repeal of, E. M. Prince .... 15 
 
 Republican Convention, 1854, E. M. Prince 16 
 
 Eighth Judicial Circuit, Illinois, E. Jf. Prince . . . .16 
 
 Fell, Jesse W., E. M. Prince 21 
 
 Swett, Leonard. E. M. Prince 22 
 
 Davis, David, E. M. Prince 23 
 
 Program of Meeting 24 
 
 Introductory Address, by President Davis 25 
 
 Call for Convention 25 
 
 Roll of Convention, Calling 25 
 
 Welcome, Address of, J. W. Fifer 26 
 
 Fifer, Joseph W., Address of Welcome, 26 
 
 Convention of May 29, 1856, Importance, J. W. Fifer ... 28 
 
 Selby, Paul, Editorial Convention February 29, 1856 ... 30 
 
 Selby, Paul, Republican State Convention of 1854 ... 43 
 
 Editorial Convention, February 22, 1856, Paul Selby ... 30 
 
 Missouri Compromise, Paul Selby ....... 31 
 
 Jacksonville Anti-Slavery Men, Paul Selby 33 
 
 Newspapers Participating in 36 
 
 Lincoln at Editorial Convention. Paul Selby 37 
 
 Ray, Charles H., Paul Selby 37 
 
 Schneider, George, Paul Selby 38 
 
 Platform Editorial Convention, Paul Selby 37 
 
 Pittsburg Convention, February 21, 1856 ..... 41 
 
 Republican State Convention, 1854, Paul Selby .... 43 
 Vocke, William, the Germans and German Press . . . .49 
 
 Germans, The, and German Press, William Vocke .... 49 
 
 Slavery, William Vocke 49 
 
 Republican Party, Origin of, William Vocke 50 
 
 Germans, Drifted to Democratic Party, William Vocke . . 51 
 
 Germans, Attitude Towards Slavery, William Vocke ... 51 
 
 Germans, Slaveholders hatred of, William Vocke .... 52
 
 182 Index. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Schneider, George, and Mass Meeting, William Vocke . . 53, 56 
 
 Douglas, Stephen A., burnt in effigy, William Vocke ... 53 
 
 German Press Opposed to Slavery, William Vocke .... 54 
 
 Germans, The, Charles Sumner ........ 55 
 
 Germans, The, Loyalty to Union, William Vocke .... 55 
 
 Palmer, John M 113, 114, 170 
 
 Douglas, Stephen A., Report on Repeal Missouri Compromise . 117 
 
 Douglas, Stephen A., Repeal Mo. Comp., John M. Palmer . . 118 
 
 Anti-Nebraska Democrats, Position of, John M. Palmer . . 119 
 
 Missouri Compromise, John M. Palmer ...... 120 
 
 Abolitionism, John M. Palmer 120 
 
 Douglas and Palmer, Interview, John M. Palmer .... 121 
 
 Trumbull Elected Senator . 122 
 
 Davis, Fell and Swett, John M. Palmer 124 
 
 Morrison, Isaac L. 102 
 
 The Whigs and Whig Leaders of Illinois, Isaac L. Morrison . 102 
 
 Texas, Annexation of, Isaac L. Morrison 104 
 
 Clay, Henry, Isaac L. Morrison 104 
 
 Webster, Daniel, Isaac L. Morrison 104 
 
 Illinois Legislature, Instructions 1849, Isaac L. Morrison . . 105 
 
 California, Admission of, Isaac L. Morrison 106 
 
 Compromise of 1850, Isaac L. Morrison 106 
 
 Fugitive Slave Law, Isaac L, Morrison 106 
 
 Compromise of 1850, Wisdom of, Isaac L. Morrison .... 106 
 
 Whig National Convention, 1852, Isaac L. Morrison . . . . 106 
 
 Missouri Compromise, Repeal of, Isaac L. Morrison . . . 107 
 
 Anti-Nebraska Party, Isaac L. Morrison 107 
 
 Trumbull, Lyman, Elected Senator, Isaac L. Morrison . . . 108 
 
 Whig Leaders Who Joined Republican Party, Isaac L. Morrison . 108 
 
 Whig Leaders Who Joined Democratic Party, Isaac L. Morrison . 109 
 
 Republican Party, Its Achievements, Isaac L. Morrison . . 112 
 
 Lincoln, Isaac L. Morrison 112 
 
 Shaw, Benjamin F 26, 59 
 
 Owen Lovejoy, Abolitionists and Republican Party, B. F. Shaw . 59 
 
 Republican Party, Achievements of, Benjamin F. Shaw . . 59 
 
 Abolitionists, Prejudice Against, Benjamin F. Shaw ... 60 
 
 Constitutional Abolitionists 62 
 
 Church, The, and Abolitionism, Benjamin F. Shaw ... 60 
 
 Funk, Isaac, Benjamin F. Shaw 66 
 
 Missouri Compromise, Repeal of, Benjamin F. Shaw ... 66 
 
 Kansas, Attempt to Force Slavery on, Benjamin F. Shaw . . 66 
 
 Lincoln at Editorial Convention, Story of, Benjamin F. Shavi . 68 
 
 Lincoln, Southerner Interview with, Benjamin F. Shaw . . 69 
 
 Lovejoy, Constitution to Protect Liberty, Benjamin F. Shaw . 71 
 
 Lovejoy, Address at Freeport. Benjamin F. Shaw .... 72 
 
 Douglas, Stephen A., Benjamin F. Shaiv 72 
 
 Official Record of Convention, May 29, 1856 148 
 
 Delegates to Convention of May 29, 1856 149
 
 Index. 183 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Bissell, W. H., Letter to Convention of May 29, 1856 . . .154 
 
 Bissell, W. H., Nominated for Governor 155 
 
 Hoffman, Francis A., Nominated for Lieutenant-Governor . . 155 
 
 Officers State, Others Nominated 156 
 
 Miller, James, Letter Repudiating- American Party . . . 158 
 
 Electors Nominated 158 
 
 Delegates to Philadelphia Convention Elected .... 159 
 
 Resolutions of Convention, May 29, 1856 160 
 
 Committee. Central 165 
 
 Telegram to Ohio Republican Convention 166 
 
 Telegram, Ohio Republican Convention to Illinois Rep. Con. . 165 
 McLean County Convention, Appointing Delegates to Conven- 
 tion May 29, 1856 166 
 
 Contemporaneous Accounts of Convention ..... 166 
 
 Democrat, Chicago, Account of Convention 166 
 
 Hecker, Frederick, Democrat 167 
 
 Whigs, Henry Clay, Democrat 167 
 
 Democratic Press 168 
 
 Reeder, Governor, Press 168 
 
 Pike House. Mass Meeting at, Press 168 
 
 Editorial Correspondence of Press 172 
 
 Browning, O. H., Address, Press 172 
 
 Lincoln, "Lost Speech," Press 174 
 
 Lovejoy, Owen, Address, Press ........ 174 
 
 Reeder, Governor, Address, Press 176 
 
 Nicolay & Hay on Convention 177 
 
 Cook, B. C., Address 175 
 
 Bryant, John H., Letter to New York Evening Post . . . 178 
 
 "Lost Speech, The," 174,180 
 
 James M. Ruggles, Address 74 
 
 Governor Matteson Defaulter, Ruggles 74 
 
 Republican Party, Ruggles 76 
 
 Henderson, Gen. Thomas J. 78 
 
 Campaign of 1856, Henderson 78 
 
 Convention of 1856, Importance of, Henderson .... 80 
 
 Palmer, John M., Henderson 80 
 
 "Lost Speech" of Lincoln, Henderson 81 
 
 Douglas and Lincoln Debates, 1858, Henderson .... 82 
 
 Lincoln, a Great Leader Then, Henderson 83 
 
 Whig Convention at Springfield, 1840, .Henderson .... 84 
 
 Nicolay, John G., 95 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, Nicolay 95 
 
 Campaign of 1856, Nicolay 96 
 
 The People and the Supreme Court, Nicolay 99 
 
 Lincoln Defines the Pending Issue, Nicolay 100 
 
 Slavery, Nicolay 100 
 
 Cunningham, J. O. 91 
 
 Going to the Convention, J. O. Cunningham 92
 
 184 Index. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 The "Lost Speech," J. O. Cunningham 93 
 
 Emery, James S., Letter of 93,170 
 
 Lincoln, Effect of His Address, James S. Emery ... 94, 170 
 Schneider, George .......... 87 
 
 Know-Nothings and Germans, George Schneider 87 
 
 Slavery, Attempted Nationalization of, George Schneider . . 87 
 Revolution, German of 1848-9, George Schneider . . . .88 
 
 Decatur Convention, George Schneider 88 
 
 Platform of Convention, George Schneider 89 
 
 Know-Nothing, Anti, Resolution, George Schneider . . .90 
 
 Lincoln and Know-Nothing Resolution, George Schneider . . 90 
 
 Lincoln as Prophet, George Schneider 91 
 
 Lincoln Gave the Philosophy of the Campaign, Geoi'ge Schneider . 91 
 
 Bissell, William H., Frank M. Elliott 93,124 
 
 Bissell, Early Struggles, Frank M. Elliott 124 
 
 Bissell and Mexican War, Frank M. Elliott 126 
 
 Bissell, Representative in Congress, Frank M. Elliott . . . 128 
 
 Bissell, Appearance, Frank M. Elliott 130 
 
 Bissell, On Slavery, Frank M. Elliott 131 
 
 Bissell and Seddon of Virginia 131 
 
 Bissell, Reply to Seddon 132 
 
 Illinois' Attachment to the Union, Bissell 134 
 
 Davis, Jefferson, Challenge to Bissell, Elliott 135 
 
 President Taylor Averts Duel, Elliott 136 
 
 Lincoln urged Bissell for Governor, Elliott 138 
 
 Bissell, Paralysis of, Elliott . 139 
 
 Bissell, Address at Belleville in 1856, Elliott 139 
 
 Bissell, Message to the Legislature, Elliott 142 
 
 Bissell, Last Sickness and Death, Elliott 146 
 
 Bissell, Monument to, Elliott 147 
 
 Miller, James 157 
 
 Funk, Isaac 26, 56 
 
 Hecker, Frederick 56, 167, 169 
 
 Yates, Richard .170 
 
 Browning, O. H , 172, 173 
 
 Davis, David 23 
 
 Swett, Leonard 22 
 
 Fell, Jesse W 22 
 
 Lovejoy, Owen 174 
 
 Election of 1856, Vote of Illinois 164 
 
 Hoffman, Francis A 56 
 
 Oglesby, Richard J 167