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ILLINOIS 
 
 THE HEART OF THE NATION 
 
 BY 
 
 HON. EDWARD F. DUNNE 
 
 FORMER JUDGE, MAYOR, AND GOVERNOR 
 
 Author and Editor 
 
 ILLINOIS BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Gratuitously Published 
 By Special Staff of Writers 
 
 Issued in Five Volumes 
 VOLUME I 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 
 1933 
 
Copyright, 1933 
 The Lewis Publishing Company 
 

 FOREWORD 
 
 Since my retirement from public office in 1917 it has been 
 frequently suggested to me that a book containing a record of 
 my personal reminiscences and contacts while in public life 
 would be interesting to many people. I had given the suggestion 
 favorable consideration and was about to respond to the sug- 
 gestion by recording my personal experience and contacts in a 
 book which I vaguely determined to entitle The Last Half Cen- 
 tury in Chicago, At this juncture, in the spring of 1929, the 
 Lewis Publishing Company suggested that I undertake for it the 
 writing of a history of Illinois. This furnished me the opportun- 
 ity of undertaking a work of wider scope and extent. As I had 
 been chief executive of the great State of Illinois as well as chief 
 executive of the great City of Chicago, I had made personal con- 
 tacts with men and measures throughout the state as well as in 
 the City of Chicago ; it did not seem inappropriate for me to take 
 upon myself the writing of a history in which I could incorporate 
 my personal experiences and contacts in both of these exalted 
 offices. Under contract with this publishing firm I undertook 
 the work which has occupied my time for nearly eighteen 
 months, and which I now submit to the people of Illinois for 
 their kindly (I hope) consideration. I am much indebted in the 
 preparation for and the writing of this work to the Newberry 
 Library for the many courtesies extended to me by its competent 
 officials. I am also indebted to the Secretary of State of Illinois 
 and his predecessor, Governor Emmerson for the blue books of 
 Illinois and other books placed at my disposal by them. Hon- 
 orable Fred J. Kern, of Belleville, a great bibliophile and stu- 
 dent of Illinois history, has also earned my gratitude by both 
 books and suggestions. I am above all indebted to my friend, 
 William L. Sullivan, Esq., for the valuable assistance he has 
 given me in compiling these volumes. He was my trusted 
 stenographer when I was mayor of Chicago and my official secre- 
 tary when' governor, and his wonderfully acute memory and his 
 
 iii 
 
iv FOREWORD 
 
 indefatigable industry have been of vital assistance to me in 
 my historical labors. 
 
 I have devoted myself in composing this work principally 
 to the political history of the state rather than its industrial, 
 agricultural and mechanical development, which latter features 
 are so well known as to dispense with recapitulation by figures. 
 I have been more familiar with the political life of the state 
 than with its industrial or educational life, and other writers 
 have treated the industrial, educational and agricultural life 
 of the state with much more thoroughness than I could. 
 
 When I have stated facts and events I have tried to be ac- 
 curate and truthful. When I have expressed opinions they are 
 my own. The publishers have placed no restrictions of any 
 character upon my writings. I am indebted to them for their 
 courteous and honorable dealings with me during the writing 
 of this history and for the prompt and cordial approval of my 
 work. 
 
 Edward F. Dunne. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 VOLUME I 
 
 I 
 El Dorado — A Wondrous Location for a New Common- 
 wealth 1 
 
 II 
 The One Hundred Percent American In His Happy 
 Hunting Ground and His Passing 10 
 
 III 
 
 The French Discoverers and Settlers 21 
 
 IV 
 
 Marquette and Joliet Discover the Mississippi 26 
 
 V 
 
 The French Missionaries 36 
 
 VI 
 Character and Customs of the French Habitants in 
 the Country of the Illinois 47 
 
 VII 
 
 La Salle, the Daring and Unfortunate 55 
 
 VIII 
 Final Results of the Struggle Between the British 
 and French for the Mississippi Valley 85 
 
 IX 
 Illinois Under the British Flag 96 
 
 X 
 
 Part Played By Illinois In the Revolutionary War 107 
 
 XI 
 
 George Rogers Clark Captures Kaskaskia and Vin- 
 cennes 116 
 
 XII 
 Illinois County, Virginia, Under the Rule of the Old 
 Dominion 134 
 
 XIII 
 Anarchy In Illinois 143 
 
 XIV 
 
 Struggle In Congress Over Western Land Titles 152 
 
 v 
 
vi CONTENTS 
 
 XV 
 
 The U. S. Ordinance of 1787 Creating the Northwest 
 Territory 160 
 
 XVI 
 The Law's Delay and Struggle for Land 166 
 
 XVII 
 Illinois Under Northwest Territorial Government 173 
 
 XVIII 
 Slavery and Indentured Servants — Territory of Illi- 
 nois Created 188 
 
 XIX 
 
 Illinois Territory First Class 197 
 
 XX 
 
 Tecumseh and Tippecanoe 203 
 
 XXI 
 
 The Decline and Ultimate Disposition of the Fur 
 Trade 209 
 
 XXII 
 Illinois In the War of 1812 212 
 
 XXIII 
 
 Illinois a Territory of the Second Class — and Soon 
 Becomes a State 227 
 
 XXIV 
 
 A Picture of the Infant State In 1818 242 
 
 XXV 
 
 The Fight For Slavery 259 
 
 XXVI 
 
 The Rapid Development of the New State 283 
 
 XXVII 
 
 Politics In Illinois During the First Decade 290 
 
 XXVIII 
 
 National Politics Enters Illinois 303 
 
 XXIX 
 
 The Administration of John Reynolds As Governor 316 
 
 XXX 
 
 Black Hawk and the Last Stand of the Indians 320 
 
 XXXI 
 
 Administration of Joseph Duncan As Governor 344 
 
CONTENTS vii 
 
 XXXII 
 
 Springfield Becomes the State Capital and Lincoln 
 and Douglas Appear In Public Life 354 
 
 XXXIII 
 The Illinois and Michigan Canal 362 
 
 XXXIV 
 Thomas Carlin, Governor 375 
 
 XXXV 
 
 Politics On the Bench 380 
 
 XXXVI 
 
 Governor Thomas Ford___ 386 
 
 XXXVII 
 
 The State Adopts a New Constitution In 1848 408 
 
 XXXVIII 
 
 Administration of Governor French 412 
 
 XXXIX 
 
 Illinois Becomes Prominent In the Politics of the 
 Nation 415 
 
 XL 
 The Constitution and Laws of the U. S. On Slavery 
 When Douglas Became Senator In 1847 421 
 
 XLI 
 Douglas, the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas- 
 Nebraska Law 431 
 
 XLII 
 Douglas Breaks With the Democratic Party and Presi- 
 dent, and Opposes the Lecompton Constitution In 
 
 Kansas 446 
 
 XLIII 
 
 Governor Matteson's Administration 454 
 
 XLIV 
 Administration of Governor Bissell 456 
 
 XLV 
 The Birth of the Republican Party In Illinois 459 
 
 XLVI 
 Douglas Opens His Campaign for Reelection To the 
 Senate 465 
 
 XLVII 
 The Lincoln-Douglas Joint Debate 481 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abbott, Katherine L., Ill, 403 
 
 Abels, Henry, V, 107 
 
 Abingdon Public Library, V, 247 
 
 Abolitionists, I, 440 
 
 Academy of Our Lady, Peoria, III, 73 
 
 Acker, John, III, 142 
 
 Acorn, Henry O., IV, 132 
 
 Adair, J. Leroy, V, 141 
 
 Adamkiewicz, Stanley, III, 445 
 
 Adams, Alfred, V, 188 
 
 Adams, Francis, II, 203 
 
 Adams, Glenn R., V, 412 
 
 Adams, Minnie F., V, 189 
 
 Addams, Jane, II, 293, 501; III, 8 
 
 Adkins, John, V, 219 
 
 Adkins, Walter, V, 220 
 
 Administration Building, Century of 
 Progress, II, 551 
 
 Aeby, Richard, V, 379 
 
 Agriculture, in French regime, I, 49 
 
 Akin, Guy W., V, 401 
 
 Alba, Chester N., V, 366 
 
 Albright, Charles H., IV, 458 
 
 Aldis, Arthur T., Ill, 47 
 
 Aldstadt, David A., Ill, 173 
 
 Alexander, Alonzo M., V, 360 
 
 Alexander, John W., Ill, 159 
 
 Alexander, Samuel, I, 366 
 
 Algonquin race of Indians, I, 12 
 
 Allegretti, Francis B., IV, 494 
 
 Allen, Frank G., V, 78 
 
 Allen, Frank O., V, 346 
 
 Allen, James C, II, 47, 83 
 
 Allen, Lawrence T., V, 393 
 
 Allen, William J., II, 83; V, 485 
 
 Allen & Dalbey, IV, 462 
 
 Allen law, II, 221 
 
 Allerton, Robert, V, 481 
 
 Allerton, Samuel W., V, 481 
 
 Allerton Public Library, Monticello, V, 
 368 
 
 Allison, Robert H., IV, 247 
 
 Allouez, Father, I, 24, 37 
 
 Allstorm, Oliver, V, 380 
 
 Allstrand, H. P., IV, 196 
 
 "Alma Mater," University of Illinois, 
 II, 465 
 
 Alpeter, John J., I, 373 
 
 Alschuler, Samuel, II, 192, 312, 461; 
 IV, 9 
 
 Altgeld, John P., elected governor, II, 
 136, 137; career of, 138; and an- 
 archists, 141 ; after anarchists pardon, 
 144; protest against Federal troops 
 in Illinois, 148, 156; silver question, 
 160, 192; administration, and ninety- 
 nine year franchises, 213; V, 25 
 
 Altgeld and Yerkes' bills, II, 146 
 Alto Pass Community High School, V, 
 
 222 
 Alton, I, 253, 351; railway center, 357, 
 
 405; II, 56 
 Alton Schools, IV, 306 
 Alton State Hospital, II, 351, 359 
 Alvarez, Russell J., IV, 257 
 Amell, J. Bruce, III, 453 
 American Legion, Emery Whistler Post 
 
 No. 607, V, 257 
 American Bottom, I, 3, 49 
 American Bottom and Old French Vil- 
 lages, map, I, 86 
 American Fur Company, I, 211 
 American Protective League, II, 400 
 Americans, native, in 1830, I, 251 
 Anarchist case, II, 97; and Governor 
 
 Altgeld, 140 
 Anarchist, trial of, II, 520 
 Andersen, Arthur E., IV, 170 
 Anderson, Albert C, IV, 70 
 Anderson, Benjamin F. (Charleston), 
 
 IV, 70 
 Anderson, Benjamin F. (Golconda), V, 
 
 319 
 Anderson, Cyrus H., Ill, 211 
 Anderson, Gustaf A., V, 398 
 Anderson, Herbert S., IV, 71 
 Anderson, Joe E., IV, 406 
 Anderson, John O., IV, 266 
 Anderson, Joseph M., V, 321 
 Anderson, Norman K., V, 334 
 Anderson, Sumner S., V, 5 
 Andrew, John E., V, 79 
 Angsten, Peter J., IV, 208 
 Anna-Jonesboro Community High School 
 
 III, 451 
 Anna State Hospital for Insane, II, 
 
 360; V, 206 
 Anthony, Elliott, II, 83; V, 462 
 Anti-Monopolist party, II, 90, 130, 136 
 Apt, Christian S., IV, 159 
 Arbogast, Kenneth G., Ill, 421 
 Arch, Henry C, V, 229 
 Archer, William R., II, 83 
 Armour, J. Ogden, II, 391 
 Armour, Philip D., II, 73; III, 19 
 Armour family, II, 549 
 Armstrong, James W., IV, 460 
 Arnold, Bion J., Ill, 43 
 Arnold, Isaac N., II, 51; V, 9 
 Arnold, James, V, 455 
 Arnold, Jennie, V, 456 
 Arnold, J. Ross, III, 196 
 Arnston, Otto A., Ill, 433 
 Aronson, J. Henry, V, 62 
 
 IX 
 
INDEX 
 
 Arp, A. Henry, IV, 377 
 
 Arp, Louis C, IV, 377 
 
 Arthur, Delia, V, 432 
 
 Arthur, Hildreth, V, 432 
 
 Arthur, John J., 14, 118 
 
 Arthur, Joseph, V, 432 
 
 Articles of Confederation, I, 152 
 
 Arzinger, Katharine L., IV, 398 
 
 Ash, Harry A., IV, 162 
 
 Astor, John Jacob, I, 209 
 
 Atkinson, Henry, I, 328, 342 
 
 Augusta Public Library, V, 38 
 
 Austin, Edwin C, IV, 270 
 
 Australian ballot law, II, 109 
 
 Automobile tax, II, 331 
 
 Avery, Sewell L., Ill, 10 
 
 Axley, James, I, 254 
 
 Aye, Vintcen, IV, 72 
 
 Ayer, Edward E., V, 40 
 
 Ayer Public Library, Delavan, III, 194 
 
 Ayers, Frank D., Ill, 490 
 
 Babb, John H., IV, 492 
 
 Babcock, F. D. E., V, 356 
 
 Baber, Fred, V, 92 
 
 Baccus, Clyde F., Ill, 86 
 
 Bacon, Asa S., Ill, 493 
 
 Badgley, John A., IV, 182 
 
 Bagnall, Loyal B., Ill, 440 
 
 Bailee, Harry L., IV, 256 
 
 Bailey, Albert E., IV, 191 
 
 Bailey, Richard H., V, 182 
 
 Baird, Waldo B., IV, 314 
 
 Baker, David J., Ill, 25 
 
 Baker, Edward D., I, 405; V, 27 
 
 Baker, Harold G., V, 152 
 
 Baker, Jehu, I, 459; III, 492 
 
 Baker, L. E., IV, 97 
 
 Baker, Monroe S., IV, 384 
 
 Baker, Ralph N., Jr., IV, 100 
 
 Baldridge, Balcolm C, V, 292 
 
 Baldridge, Roy T., V, 282 
 
 Baldwin, Eugene F., Ill, 70 
 
 Balliet, Josiah R., V, 105 
 
 Balsinger, William E., Ill, 503 
 
 Baltz, Harold, V, 167 
 
 Baltz, William N., IV, 242 
 
 Bank of Illinois, I, 314 
 
 Banking currency, I, 286 
 
 Banks, in 1818, I, 255; State, 284; 
 growth of State, 291; early, 307, 346; 
 in 1842, 386; private, abolished, II, 402 
 
 Baptist church, I, 255 
 
 Barbau, Jean Baptiste, lieutenant-gov- 
 ernor, I, 148 
 
 Barber, Harry H., V, 402 
 
 Bareis, Edward F., IV, 244 
 
 Bargh, George H., V, 281 
 
 Bargren, August E., Ill, 108 
 
 Barnes, Carey E., IV, 185 
 
 Barnes, Clifford W., V, 42 
 
 Barnes, John S., Ill, 108 
 
 Barnes, Roy R., V, 302 
 
 Barnett, Calvin O., IV, 348 
 
 Barr, George A., II, 426 
 
 Barr, Oliver M., V, 180 
 
 Barr, Richard J., II, 373 
 
 Barrett, John E., V, 335 
 
 Bartelmay, Robert A., Ill, 368 
 
 Bartelme, Mary M., V, 44 
 
 Bartholf, Herbert B., V, 125 
 
 Bartlett, Paul, II, 521 
 
 Barton, James M., Ill, 67 
 
 Basinski, Stanislaus E., IV, 345 
 
 Bass, Mrs. George, II, 432 
 
 Bassett, Jane W., IV, 215 
 
 Bastian, Frederick K., V, 61 
 
 Batavia Herald, IV, 405 
 
 Batavia Fublic Library, III, 444 
 
 Bateman, Newton, II, 78; V, 477 
 
 Bathrick, Donald U., Ill, 485 
 
 Bauer, John T., Ill, 208 
 
 Baum, Martin J., V, 115 
 
 Baum, Nettie R., V, 115 
 
 Baxter, George E., IV, 268 
 
 Beall, Charles W., Ill, 287 
 
 Beall, E. H., IV, 305 
 
 Beardstown Public Library, V, 200 
 
 Beasley, Louis, V, 421 
 
 Beatty, Henry G., V, 358 
 
 Beatty, Hobert R., V, 358 
 
 Beatty, H. G. & Company, V, 359 
 
 Beatty, Samuel F., V, 316 
 
 Beauchamp, Virgil G., Ill, 168 
 
 Beauty spots in Illinois, II, 212, 425, 
 
 437 
 Becker, Albert V., Ill, 320 
 Becker, Arthur C, III, 381 
 Becker, A. G., Ill, 170 
 Becker, Benjamin V., IV, 203 
 Becker, James H., Ill, 170 
 Becker, Oscar L., V, 164 
 Beckers, John H., V, 350 
 Beckett, Catherine M., IV, 138 
 Beckett, John B., IV, 137 
 Beckman, William F., IV, 393 
 Beckman, William H., IV, 85 
 Beckwith, Hiram W., IV, 488 
 Bedel, Anselm L., V, 365 
 Bedel, John A., V, 364 
 Bederman, Edwin B., Ill, 55 
 Beecher, Leon F., Ill, 195 
 Beedy, M. Elizabeth, III, 301 
 Beedy, Verner E., Ill, 300 
 Beggs, Charles E., V, 149 
 Beggs, Nelle, V, 149 
 Beilschmidt, Henry W., Ill, 168 
 Bell, Benjamin S., Ill, 206 
 Bell, George, II, 389 
 Bellefontaine, I, 146, 212 
 Belleville, I, 8, 250; Old Mansion House, 
 
 II, 186 
 Belleville Public Library, IV, 240 
 Belleville Township High School, V, 269 
 Belt, Rufus F., IV, 360 
 Bendix, Vincent, V, 41 
 Benedict, George M., II, 183 
 Benedict, Joseph, IV, 158 
 Beneze, Henry P., IV, 234 
 Benjamin, Reuben M., II, 83, 87 
 
INDEX 
 
 XI 
 
 Benner, William J., IV, 301 
 
 Bennett, Henry S., Ill, 209 
 
 Bennett, John C, I, 378 
 
 Benninger, Fred, IV, 165 
 
 Benson, Arnold P., IV, 405 
 
 Benson, Charles, V, 488 
 
 Benson, Emil J., V, 389 
 
 Bentley, Arthur A., IV, 108 
 
 Bentley, Richard, IV, 171 
 
 Berbling, Peyton, V, 195 
 
 Best, Charles L., V, 127 
 
 Best, J. Donald, IV, 448 
 
 Bestold, Fred, III, 444 
 
 Bevan, Arthur D., Ill, 11 
 
 Beveridge, John L., as governor, II, 90, 
 91; V, 25 
 
 Beynon, William J., IV, 142 
 
 Bicek, Frank H., V, 77 
 
 Biggs, William, I, 187 
 
 Bill of Rights, in 1787, I, 162 
 
 Billings, Frank, III, 14 
 
 Bird, Lewis E., V, 129 
 
 Birkbeck, Morris, I, 250, 264, 274, 282; 
 V, 4 
 
 Birks, Abraham C, IV, 131 
 
 Bishopp, Olive B., V, 474 
 
 Bishopp, William F., V, 473 
 
 Bissell, William H., I, 405; first Re- 
 publican governor, 456, 457; V, 28 
 
 Bjorseth, Conrad M., V, 467 
 
 Black, John C, II, 104 
 
 Black, W. P., II, 104 
 
 Black Hawk, Chief, I, 321 
 
 Black Hawk Trail, near Dixon, II, 428 
 
 Black Hawk War, I, 307, 310, 320; first 
 stepping stone for eminent careers, 
 342 
 
 Black Partridge, Chief, I, 219 
 
 Blackman, Lee R., Ill, 206 
 
 Blackstone, Timothy B., V, 27 
 
 Blackwell, David, I, 274 
 
 Blair, Chauncey B., V, 15 
 
 Blair, Francis G., IV, 13 
 
 Blair, Henry A., V, 51 
 
 Blakemore, Fannie, III, 326 
 
 Bland, Eugene, IV, 67 
 
 Blaney, James V., V, 36 
 
 Blatchford, Carter, III, 222 
 
 Blatt, Maurice L., IV, 273 
 
 Bliss, Charles W., Ill, 279 
 
 Blodgett, Pliny R., V, 490 
 
 Bloompott, Dietrick J., Ill, 190 
 
 Bloomquist, Ernest C, III, 285 
 
 Bloxam, Arthur M., IV, 96 
 
 Board of Education, Chicago, II, 293, 
 304, 472 
 
 Board of Health, II, 95 
 
 Board of Pharmacy, II, 95 
 
 Boddy, John, III, 158 
 
 Boeschenstein, Charles, V, 420 
 
 Boggs, Berthold L., V, 278 
 
 Bohmker, John C, IV, 404 
 
 Bohn, John C, III, 418 
 
 Bohrer, Florence F., Ill, 457 
 
 Boisbriant, Lieutenant, IV, 45 
 
 Boldenweck, William, I, 373 
 
 Bolin, Paul L., Ill, 184 
 
 Bond, Shadrach, I, 185, 187, 190, 229, 
 232, 241, 243, 262, 273, 294; adminis- 
 tration, 301; IV, 25 
 
 Bond County, I, 233 
 
 Bonfield, "Black Jack," II, 101 
 
 Bonfield, Paul H., Ill, 175 
 
 Bonk, Harry A., Ill, 180 
 
 Bonk, John, IV, 484 
 
 Booth, Alfred, V, 124 
 
 Bootleggers, II, 526 
 
 Borders, Grover C, IV, 249 
 
 Borders, William F., V, 159 
 
 Bourland, Robert C, III, 360 
 
 Boutell, Francis L., IV, 75 
 
 Bovik, Leslie E., Ill, 442 
 
 Bowden, George K., IV, 467 
 
 Bowen, Esco N., V, 319 
 
 Bowen, Mrs. F. P., IV, 380 
 
 Bowerman, H. E., Ill, 400 
 
 Bowler, James B., IV, 494 
 
 Bowley, William, III, 103 
 
 Bowton, Anne, V, 248 
 
 Bowton, William W., Ill, 368 
 
 Boyer, Lewis L., IV, 358 
 
 Boyes, Walter F., Ill, 370 
 
 Boyle, George M., Ill, 428 
 
 Boyles, John L., IV, 425 
 
 Braddock's defeat, I, 90 
 
 Bradford Public Library, III, 450 
 
 Bradley Polytechnic Institute, III, 64 
 
 Bradt, Samuel E., Ill, 398 
 
 Bragg, Lena, V, 368 
 
 Bragg, Thomas, V, 140 
 
 Brainard, Daniel, V, 36 
 
 Brake, Buell, IV, 71 
 
 Brandenburger, Edward C, IV, 146 
 
 Brandon, Rodney H., II, 426; IV, 25 
 
 Bratton, Luther B., V, 395 
 
 Braun, Joseph H., Ill, 439 
 
 Breakstone, Benjamin H., Ill, 340 
 
 Breed, Donald L., Ill, 92 
 
 Breen, James W., V, 159 
 
 Breese, Sidney, I, 342, 385, 414, 440, 
 459, 471; III, 29 
 
 Bremer, Jesse C, III, 329 
 
 Brennan, George E., II, 420, 427, 464, 
 490, 491, 510 
 
 Brennan, John, II, 506 
 
 Brentano, Theodore, III, 47 
 
 Brian, Floid B., IV, 419 
 
 Brick-making, I, 252 
 
 Brickey, Emily J., Ill, 310 
 
 Brickey, Franklin M., Ill, 309 
 
 Bridgeport High School, IV, 298 
 
 Bridges, Harry T., Ill, 351 
 
 Briggs, Clare A., II, 191 
 
 Brinkerhoff, George M., V, 102 
 
 Brinkerhoff, John H., V, 102 
 
 Briszko, Anthony, III, 425 
 
 British expedition, of 1686, I, 83 
 
 British law, I, 143 
 
 Britt, Hugh F., V, 214 
 
 Britton, Ernest R., IV, 336 
 
 Britton, J. Hays, III, 216 
 
 Brockman, George, IV, 359 
 
Xll 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Brooks, Edwin B., V, 228 
 
 Brooks, Hiram A., V, 128 
 
 Brooks, Oscar E., Ill, 497 
 
 Brown, Carl, III, 186 
 
 Brown, Erastus, I, 366 
 
 Brown, George W., IV, 474 
 
 Brown, Grover C., Ill, 300 
 
 Brown, Harold, IV, 314 
 
 Brown, Harry E., IV, 255 
 
 Brown, John J., Ill, 365 
 
 Brown, Louis W., V, 222 
 
 Brown, Martha D., IV, 256 
 
 Brown, Phillip M., Ill, 382 
 
 Brown, Scott, III, 441 
 
 Brown, Thomas C., I, 232, 266, 294 
 
 Brown, William D., V, 350 
 
 Brown, William H., I, 275 
 
 Brown's Business College, IV, 229 
 
 Browne, Ada S., IV, 355 
 
 Browne, H. Kingsbury, V, 160 
 
 Browne, Thomas C, V, 11 
 
 Browning, Earl W., Ill, 67 
 
 Browning, Orville H., I, 342; II, 12, 83; 
 
 V, 27 
 Browning, Robert M., Ill, 131 
 Brownsville, Old, Last house in, I, 384 
 Brubaker, Benjamin F., Ill, 393 
 Brundage, Edward J., II, 404, 479; IV, 
 
 45 
 Bruning, Ralph H., IV, 84 
 Brust, Edmund G., V, 486 
 Bryan, Annie C, V, 134 
 Bryan, Silas L., II, 83 
 Bryan, Thomas B., II, 520 
 Bryan, William J., career of, II, 156; 
 
 committed to free silver, 162, 165; 
 
 cross of gold speech, 166, 511 
 Bryant family, V, 419 
 Buchanan, Mary R., Ill, 263 
 Buchanan, Nettie J., Ill, 263 
 Buchanan, Robert O., Ill, 263 
 Buckingham, George T., V, 307 
 Buckles, Derias, IV, 141 
 Buckley, Homer J., Ill, 133 
 Buckley, Jeremiah J., V, 313 
 Budd, Britton I., V, 477 
 Budd, Harry R., Ill, 375 
 Budget, State, II, 339 
 Buechler, Joseph N., V, 156 
 Buehler,Ernest, IV, 383 
 Buffington, Eugene J., V, 37 
 Buford, Napoleon B., II, 39 
 Bugele, Guy G., V, 193 
 Building laws, enforcement of, II, 292 
 Building stone, I, 9 
 Bukowski, Peter I., IV, 363 
 Bulpitt, B. Earl, IV, 106 
 Bunch, Lawrence D., V, 176 
 Bunker, Elizabeth J., Ill, 307 
 Bunker, Francis M., Ill, 306 
 Bunn, Jacob, Jr., V, 41 
 Bunn, Mildred J., V, 41 
 Bureau of Labor Statistics, II, 95, 334 
 Burgess, Hampton S., IV, 306 
 Burgess, Kenneth F., IV, 490 
 Burgess, Lucian A., IV, 148 
 
 Burke, Edmund, III, 240 
 
 Burke, John, V, 134 
 
 Burke, Robert E., II, 517 
 
 Burnham, Daniel H., II, 520; III, 34 
 
 Burnham plan, II, 522 
 
 Burns, Robert F., V, 484 
 
 Burris, John R., Ill, 466 
 
 Burry, William, IV, 213 
 
 Burst, Edward M., Ill, 53 
 
 Burtle, Edward A., V, 399 
 
 Burton, Charles S., Ill, 401 
 
 Burton, Frank W., IV, 451 
 
 Busse, Fred A., II, 298, 306, 478 
 
 Butler, Edward B., II, 520 
 
 Butler, Rush C, V, 184 
 
 Butterfield, Justin, I, 389 
 
 Byrne, John M., V, 279 
 
 Cable cars, II, 203 
 
 Cable, Ransom R., IV, 478 
 
 Cadwell, George, I, 192 
 
 Cahokia, missions at, I, 40, 108, 113; 
 
 capture of, 124; defeat of British in 
 
 1780, 137, 149; self government, 150, 
 
 181, 182 
 Cahokia Courthouse, I, 210 
 Cahokia tribe, I, 18 
 Cahokias, I, 12 
 Cain, Noble, V, 461 
 Cairo Bank at Kaskaskia, I, 306 
 Cairo- Vandalia Highway near Cobden, 
 
 II, 412 
 Caldwell, Ben F., II, 312 
 Caldwell, Clifford D., IV, 192 
 Calhoun, Emery E., V, 277 
 Calhoun, William J., V, 15 
 Califf, J. Paul, III, 244 
 Callahan, George B., Ill, 424 
 Callahan, Martin L., Ill, 140 
 Cameron, John M., Ill, 329 
 Camp, Harold M., Ill, 437 
 Camp, Lester M., IV, 357 
 Camp Butler, II, 56 
 
 Camp Douglas, II, 54; conspiracy, 56 
 Camp Grant, Rockford, II, 391 
 Camp Logan, II, 389 
 Campbell, Bruce A., V, 376 
 Campbell, Charles O., IV, 174 
 Campbell, Herbert J., V, 100 
 Campbell, J. A., Ill, 279 
 Canaday, Stephen D., II, 374 
 Canal, sanitary, I, 372 
 Canal commissioners, I, 366 
 Canal Scrip Bill, I, 416 
 Canals, I, 357 
 Cannon, H. Floyd, IV, 420 
 Cannon, John H., IV, 447 
 Cannon, Joseph G., II, 181 
 Cantrall, Carlyle A., Ill, 131 
 CanWell, Robert E., Jr., Ill, 244 
 Canty, Thomas A., IV, 402 
 Caplan, Oscar S., IV, 371 
 Caplinger, Benjamin F., Ill, 217 
 Capraro, Alexander V., V, 89 
 Caraker, Oscar, IV, 305 
 Carey, Peter B., IV, 379 
 
INDEX 
 
 xm 
 
 Carey, Raymond A., V, 460 
 
 Carlin, John H., Ill, 152 
 
 Carlin, Thomas, Governor, I, 342, 375, 
 376; V, 16 
 
 Carlin, William L., V, 93 
 
 Carlin, William P., II, 39 
 
 Carlisle, Jonas W., V, 225 
 
 Carlisle, Vera, V, 228 
 
 Carlson, Oscar E., II, 426 
 
 Carlstrom, Oscar E., V, 484 
 
 Carmody, Edward J., Ill, 500 
 
 Carpenter, Benjamin, III, 36 
 
 Carpenter, George B., Ill, 36 
 
 Carpenter, John A., Ill, 36 
 
 Carpenter, Richard V., IV, 287 
 
 Carpentier, Charles F., V, 109 
 
 Carr, Robert F., V, 293 
 
 Carr, Wilton A., Ill, 261 
 
 Carriel, Henry F., IV, 490 
 
 Carrier, Lee W., IV, 52 
 
 Carrington, John W., V, 171 
 
 Carrington, Orville F., Ill, 432 
 
 Carrington, William E., V, 333 
 
 Carroll, John E., Ill, 356 
 
 Carroll, William M., V, 123 
 
 Carson, Oliver E., IV, 310 
 
 Carter, Carl W., Ill, 176 
 
 Carter, Charles D., IV, 187 
 
 Carter, Charles E., Ill, 363 
 
 Carter, Garrett P., Ill, 176 
 
 Carter, Orrin N., I, 372; II, 426 
 
 Carter, Ralph R., Ill, 363 
 
 Cartwright, Peter, I, 192, 254, 342; V, 
 486 
 
 Cary, Norman J., V, 361 
 
 Case, Charles C, III, 165 
 
 Casey, Charles P., IV, 211 
 
 Casey, Zadoc, I, 318, 343, 411; IV, 44 
 
 Cassels, Edwin H., Ill, 278 
 
 Cassidy, Holland M., V, 61 
 
 Casteel, Lowry M., IV, 361 
 
 Castetter, Luther L., V, 344 
 
 Castle, Charles S., Ill, 253 
 
 Castle, John B., Ill, 51 
 
 Castle, Mollie L., Ill, 51 
 
 Castruccio, Giuseppe, III, 413 
 
 Catholic church, I, 255 
 
 Caton, John D., V, 27 
 
 Caughlan, C. W., V, 71 
 
 Caulfield, Bernard, II, 474 
 
 Caylor, August C, V, 147 
 
 Celeron expedition, I, 88 
 
 Cement, I, 9 
 
 Census, first State, I, 263 
 
 Centennial Memorial Building, Spring- 
 field, II, 394 
 
 Century of Progress Exposition, II, 512 
 
 Cepak, A. William, V, 482 
 
 Cermak, Anton J., II, 516, 525; V, 11 
 
 Cerny, Joseph G., IV, 460 
 
 Cerre, Gabriel, I, 145 
 
 Cervenka, John A., V, 336 
 
 Chamberlain, Henry T., V, 412 
 
 Chamberlin, Henry B., Ill, 272 
 
 Champaign, first schoolhouse, I, 426 
 
 Champaign County, I, 311 
 
 Champlain, (Gov. of New France), I, 
 
 22 
 Champion, Julia E., Ill, 180 
 Champion, Merle C, V, 386 
 Chancellor, Justus, V, 49 
 Chapel, University of Chicago, II, 523 
 Chapman, William D., V, 331 
 Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary, II, 
 
 351 
 Charitable institutions, humanization of, 
 
 II, 349 
 Chase, Harry W., Ill, 16 
 Chase, Philander, III, 501 
 Chatfield, Edwin K., IV, 353 
 Chesnut, Mrs. Garnet D., IV, 87 
 Chester, penitentiary, II, 356 
 Chester State Hospital, IV, 373 
 Chicago, incorporated, I, 310, 339; in 
 1831, 363; in 1836, 367; Sanitary Dis- 
 trict canal, 372, 454; Lake Front, II, 
 72; Constitution of 1870, 87; storm 
 center of labor discontent, 99; Yerkes 
 deals, 146; police force, 172; consoli- 
 dation of offices, 173; reforms during 
 Deneen administration, 179; Mayor 
 Dunne's administration, 188; in 1863, 
 199; Humphrey bills, 219; municipal 
 ownership issue, 224; election of 1904, 
 246; mayoralty campaign of 1905, 
 256; election of 1905, 266; gas and 
 electric light rates, 290; police and 
 fire departments, 291; home rule for, 
 322; park consolidation, 348; German 
 population in 1916, 386; central mar- 
 ket, 392; during World War, 395; 
 Constitution of 1922, 430; under 
 Mayor Dever, 463; the Wonder City, 
 469; in 1830, 470; in 1833, 470; mul- 
 tiform governments, 472; political 
 parties, 473; mayors, 474; Columbian 
 Exposition, 476; Thompson regime, 
 483; crime wave of 1928, 485; expert 
 fees, 489; development of light and 
 power companies, 493; its non-official 
 leaders, 498; influence of Press, 518; 
 its good and ill repute, 519; fire of 
 1871, 519; architecture, 520; parks and 
 boulevards, 524; spiritual and moral 
 history, 526; public debt, 528; re- 
 view of transportation problem, 532; 
 manufacturing city, 550 
 Chicago Bar Association, III, 270 
 Chicago Board of Trade, II, 392 
 Chicago Federation of Labor, II, 429 
 Chicago fire, of 1871, II, 75, 519 
 Chicago Heights Star, V, 381 
 Chicago Law Institute, V, 444 
 Chicago newspapers, attitude of, II, 298 
 Chicago plan, II, 521 
 Chicago Plan Commission, II, 522 
 Chicago portage, I, 32 
 Chicago River, mission at, I, 39; II, 525 
 Chicago State Hospital, II, 360 
 Chicago street railway companies, 
 record of, II, 195 
 
XIV 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Chicago Teachers' Federation, II, 499 
 
 Chicago Temple, II, 507 
 
 Chicago Times, II, 50 
 
 Chicago traction companies, II, 419 
 
 Chicago Transit Acts, II, 530 
 
 Chicago Tribune, II, 304, 404; suit 
 
 against Thompson, 486 
 Chicago Union Traction Company, II, 
 
 223 
 Child labor, II, 136 
 Childers, Raymond F., V, 221 
 Chippewa Indians, I, 11 
 Chones, Isaac B., IV, 194 
 Chones, William, IV, 194 
 Christy, William H., I, 459 
 Chritton, George A., Ill, 322 
 Church, in politics, I, 318 
 Church, Friend L., IV, 209 
 Church, Thomas, V, 11 
 Church, William T., IV, 200 
 Churches, pioneer, I, 253 
 Churchill, George, I, 274 
 Cirese, Helen M., IV, 364 
 Civil service laws, II, 179, 293; state, 361 
 Civil War, secession of South, II, 22; 
 
 arbitrary arrests, 50; draft act, 53 
 Clark, David W., IV, 344 
 Clark, Fannie M., Ill, 372 
 Clark, George Rogers, expedition of 1778, 
 
 I, 115, 116, 117; after conquest, 134; 
 
 campaign of 1780, 137, 142, 143; expe- 
 dition of 1787, I, 148, 238 
 Clark, John S., Ill, 496 
 Clark, Lincoln R., Ill, 318 
 Clark, Roy, III, 345 
 Clark, William, I, 222 
 Clarke, Philip R., V, 468 
 Clarke, Robert, V, 436 
 Clarke, William F., Ill, 397 
 Clarkson, E. Belle, IV, 332 
 Clarkson, H. S., IV, 332 
 Clausen, Morton, III, 107 
 Clavin, Alva M., Ill, 129 
 Clay, Henry, I, 291, 434 
 Clay products, I, 8 
 Clayton, Bert A., IV, 332 
 Clayton, E. P., IV, 289 
 Clayton, J. Paul, V, 15 
 Cleaveland, Harry H., V, 279 
 Clear, James W., Ill, 469 
 Cleland, McKenzie, II, 432 
 Clemensen, Peter C., V, 441 
 Clendenin, George M., V, 264 
 Clendenin, Henry W., V, 262 
 Cleveland, Chester E., II, 432 
 Climate, I, 5 
 
 Clinch, Duncan L., V, 337 
 Clinch, Richard F., V, 337 
 Clinnin, John B., II, 402 
 Coal, beds, I, 5; early mining, 8, 251; 
 
 production, II, 136; mines, legislation, 
 
 336 
 Coale, John W., IV, 106 
 Coburn, John J., V, 201 
 Cochran, Oscar F., V, 139 
 
 Cochran, William G., V, 139 
 
 Cochrane, David K., V, 76 
 
 Code, Julia F., Ill, 450 
 
 Coffey, Daniel D., Ill, 308 
 
 Cohen, Archie H., Ill, 81 
 
 Cohen, Barney, IV, 175 
 
 Cohlmeyer, Ada A., V, 459 
 
 Cohlmeyer, Augustus H., V, 459 
 
 Coinage of silver, free, II, 111 
 
 Cole, Hermon H., V, 173 
 
 Cole, Philip E., Ill, 482 
 
 Coleman, John, V, 308 
 
 Coles, Edward, I, 262; and slavery, 266, 
 267, 273, 282; administration, 301; V, 9 
 
 Collins, Dennis J., IV, 129 
 
 Collinsville, II, 400 
 
 Collinsville Memorial Library, IV, 246 
 
 Collinsville Township High School, IV, 
 244 
 
 Colony for Epileptics, II, 351 
 
 Columbian Exposition, II, 474, 519, 520 
 
 Combs, Cornelia E., IV, 309 
 
 Combs, Thornton, IV, 309 
 
 Comiskey, Charles A., Ill, 501 
 
 Comiskey, J. Louis, III, 502 
 
 Commerce, in 1818, I, 246 
 
 Commonwealth Edison Company, II, 497 
 
 Compensation Law for Accidental In- 
 juries, II, 332 
 
 Compromise of 1850, I, 431, 439 
 
 Compton, Edward F., Ill, 331 
 
 Compton, Levi, IV, 38 
 
 Compulsory education act, II, 140 
 
 Conard, Solon E., IV, 58 
 
 Condon, James G., Ill, 35 
 
 Conerton, Edward P., IV, 315 
 
 Conklin, Grace A., V, 440 
 
 Conklin, Jay B., V, 439 
 
 Conklin, Winfred E., IV, 240 
 
 Conkling, James C, V, 134 
 
 Connelly, Bernard D., V, 384 
 
 Connery, John T., II, 306 
 
 Connett, Ada P., IV, 264 
 
 Connett, James E., IV, 263 
 
 Connolly, Philip M., IV, 96 
 
 Connor, Charles M., V, 347 
 
 Connor, Victor O., V, 228 
 
 Constitution of 1818, I, 239; framers of, 
 241; facsimile of, 261; defects and lim- 
 itations, 408 
 
 Constitution of 1848, I, 408; II, 65, 80 
 
 Constitution of 1870, II, 80; framers of, 
 83, 424 
 
 Constitutional convention of 1869, I, 368; 
 of 1862, II, 82; of 1920, 426 
 
 Constitutional convention of 1862, II, 82; 
 of 1869, I, 368; of 1920, II, 468 
 
 Convention system, I, 311 
 
 Cook, Burton C, II, 29; V, 25 
 
 Cook, Daniel Pope, I, 231, 274, 280, 294, 
 297, 304; IV, 49 
 
 Cook, Francis M., V, 345 
 
 Cook, Ralph, IV, 250 
 
 Cook, Rex H., V, 270 
 
 Cook, Samantha, V, 345 
 
INDEX 
 
 xv 
 
 Cook County, I, 311; tax muddle, II, 415; 
 
 in Constitution of 1922, 427; in 1830, 
 
 470; disfranchised in Legislature, 546; 
 
 apportionment, 555 
 Cook County Courthouse, Second, II, 24 
 Cooke, George A., Ill, 148 
 Cooke, John D., IV, 351 
 Cooley, George H., IV, 378 
 Cooley, Lyman E., I, 373; II, 458 
 Coolidge, Walter F., V, 181 
 Coolley, Elmer B., IV, 439 
 Copley, Ira C, IV, 337 
 Copp, Herbert G., V, 199 
 Copp, Louisa, V, 200 
 "Copperheads," II, 51 
 Corcoran, Francis V., V, 437 
 Corporation acts in 1865, II, 65 
 Corporations, II, 88 
 Correll, Charles D., Ill, 103 
 Correll, Violet J., Ill, 104 
 Corrupt practices act, II, 348 
 Costabile, Michael, IV, 415 
 Cottingham, Mark L., V, 151 
 Couch, Gilbert S., V, 298 
 Coughlin, John, II, 506 
 Counties, in 1818, I, 233, 249; II, 88 
 County Hospital, Chicago, II, 472 
 County officials, under Constitution of 
 
 1848, II, 82 
 Coureurs de bois, I, 36, 46, 48 
 Courier Herald Company, IV, 253 
 Courter, Edward H., Ill, 371 
 Courter, Lucy K., Ill, 371 
 Courts, and laws of Northwest Territory, 
 
 I, 173; territorial, 181; justice, system 
 
 abolished, II, 179 
 Coventry, Sarah, IV, 225 
 Covey, Frank R., Ill, 307 
 Cowdin, Frederick P., V, 117 
 Cowdrey, Elmer E., V, 491 
 Cozby, Harry G., IV, 349 
 Craig, Alfred M., II, 83, 130 
 Crain, Berdie F., V, 273 
 Crane, Richard T., V, 5 
 Crapo, Charles H., IV, 491 
 Cratz, Bert A., Ill, 159 
 Crawford, Charles C, V, 414 
 Crawford, Harry A., Ill, 426 
 Crawford, Sadie M., IV, 222 
 Crawford County, I, 233 
 Creamer, Ben M., Ill, 273 
 Cregier, DeWitte C, II, 474 
 Creole, French, I, 246 
 Crerar, John, V, 31 
 Cress, Jeannette, V, 241 
 Crews, Halbert O., Ill, 229 
 Crimes, I, 244 
 
 Criminal code, in 1827, I, 300 
 Criminal statistics, II, 526 
 Croghan, George, I, 102 
 Cromley, Roy D., Ill, 471 
 Cronson, Berthold A., V, 76 
 Crowder, J. R. Stanley, IV, 67 
 Crowe, Robert E., II, 484, 485; III, 237 
 Crowley, Joseph B., V, 16 
 Cruzat, Roscoe M., IV, 298 
 
 Cudahy, Edward A., V, 42 
 
 Cudahy, Edward A., Jr., V, 43 
 
 Cudahy family, II, 549 
 
 Culhane, Andrew B., Ill, 93 
 
 Culhane, Thomas H., Ill, 104 
 
 Cullin, Faith P., Ill, 205 
 
 Cullom, Shelby M., II, 92; as governor, 
 
 93, 94, 133, 366; IV, 39 
 Cultra, A. J., IV, 383 
 Cultra, Harry B., IV, 382 
 Culver, Rollin P., IV, 179 
 Cummings, Walter J., Ill, 324 
 Cummings, William C, II, 183 
 Cummins, George F., Ill, 348 
 Cummins, Oscar O., V, 266 
 Currency reform, in 1876, II, 132 
 Curry, Elizabeth, IV, 233 
 Curtis, Chester E., IV, 164 
 Curtis, Edward C, II, 409; III, 296 
 Curtis, Harry K., IV, 266 
 Curtis, Hugh E., IV, 395 
 Curtis, Vernon, II, 409 
 Curtis, Wilbur R., IV, 306 
 Cussen, Joseph F., Ill, 485 
 Cuthbertson, Andrew S., Ill, 299 
 Cutler, Henry E., V, 187 
 Cutler, Manassa, I, 157 
 Cutting, Charles S., II, 426; III, 20 
 Czarnecki, Anthony, II, 57 
 
 Dadant, C. P., V, 240 
 
 Dady, Ralph J., Ill, 458 
 
 Dahlberg, Gotthard A., Ill, 209 
 
 Dahn, Herman, IV, 351 
 
 Dailey, Oscar S., Ill, 335 
 
 Dalbey, Everett L., IV, 462 
 
 Dale, Alonzo S., IV, 357 
 
 Daley, Edward A., Jr., IV, 247 
 
 Daley, Edward A., Sr., IV, 246 
 
 Dallas City Enterprise, III, 353 
 
 Dalrymple, Roy M., V, 233 
 
 Dames, Gerald S., Ill, 390 
 
 Darche, Harrison A., V, 374 
 
 Darrow, Clarence S., II, 143, 192, 266, 
 
 278, 292, 427, 432, 464, 476, 504; III, 
 
 40 
 Dauberman, Clarence L., IV, 392 
 Dauberman, George T., IV, 398 
 Dauberman, John W., IV, 416 
 Davenport, Oliver F., Ill, 249 
 David, Lawrence, IV, 281 
 Davidson, Charles E., Ill, 332 
 Davidson, Henry B., V, 121 
 Davis, Abel, II, 426, 517 
 Davis, Anna L., Ill, 327 
 Davis, Charles G., IV, 321 
 Davis, Cyrus M., IV, 290 
 Davis, David, I, 411; II, 12, 124; IV, 42 
 Davis, Emil C, V, 424 
 Davis, Jefferson, I, 342 
 Davis, Levi, IV, 47 
 Davis, Nathan S., Ill, 302 
 Davis, Nathan S. Ill, III, 303 
 Davis, Philip R., V, 65 
 Davis, Ralph E., IV, 169 
 Davis, R. E., Ill, 467 
 
XVI 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Davis, Thomas B., IV, 3 
 
 Davison, Charles, V, 289 
 
 Dawes, Charles G., II, 402, 511; III, 11 
 
 Dawes, Henry M., V, 187 
 
 Dawes, Rufus C, II, 426; III, 19 
 
 Dawes, William R., II, 513; III, 21 
 
 Dawson, John, I, 357 
 
 Day, Leslie D., IV, 311 
 
 Day, Owen L., Ill, 360 
 
 Day, Stephen A., V, 435 
 
 Day, Walter A., IV, 311 
 
 Dean, John, V, 75 
 
 Debs, Eugene, II, 148; injunction against, 
 150 
 
 Debts, repudiation of, I, 387 
 
 Declaration of Independence, I, 108 
 
 Deere, John, V, 31 
 
 Defrees, Donald, III, 277 
 
 Defrees, Joseph H., Ill, 276 
 
 De La Salle, Sieur, I, 26 
 
 De La Salle institute, IV, 281 
 
 De Laval, Bishop, I, 23 
 
 Dell 'Era, Joseph L., V, 369 
 
 De Luca, Alphonse, V, 447 
 
 Dement, John, I, 411; II, 83; III, 505 
 
 DeMoro, Alfred P., V, 426 
 
 Democratic convention of 1856, I, 463 
 
 Democratic convention, of 1896, II, 160 
 
 Democratic National Convention of 1876, 
 II, 133; of 3896, 161 
 
 Democratic party (see also Politics), I, 
 311; and aliens, 383; in 1859, 516; con- 
 ventions of 1860, II, 14; in Civil war, 
 48; in 1864, 63; 1872-92, 113; in 1868, 
 120; farmers' movement, 129; in Chi- 
 cago, 477 
 
 Democratic platform of 1905, II, 256 
 
 Democrats, Anti-Nebraska, I, 459 
 
 Deneen, Charles S., I, 374; elected Gov- 
 ernor, II, 176, 177, 191, 308, 422, 478, 
 479, 485; V, 456 
 
 Denkmann, Anna C, IV, 6 
 
 Denkmann, Frederick C, IV, 6 
 
 Denkmann, Frederick C. A., IV, 5 
 
 Dennison, Franklin A., II, 402 
 
 Dent, Louis L., Ill, 61 
 
 Denton, Helen G., Ill, 346 
 
 Denton, R. D., Ill, 117 
 
 Department of Agriculture, II, 402 
 
 Department of Factory Inspection, II, 
 335 
 
 Department of Finance, II, 402 
 
 Department of Labor, II, 402 
 
 Department of Mines, II, 402 
 
 Department of Public Health, II, 402 
 
 Department of Public Welfare, II, 402 
 
 Department of Public Works and Build- 
 ings, II, 402 
 
 Department of Registration and Educa- 
 tion, II, 402 
 
 Department of Trade and Commerce, II, 
 402 
 
 DePaul University, IV, 228 
 
 De Rosa, Rocco, V, 241 
 
 Derr, Charles E., Ill, 426 
 
 Desplaines River, I, 2 
 
 de Tissandier, Leon, III, 80 
 
 Deuell, Howard L., Ill, 241 
 
 Dever, William E., mayor, II, 463, 490, 
 545 
 
 Dever Traction Ordinance of 1925, II, 
 463 
 
 DeVera, Isidoro L. P., IV, 78 
 
 De Villard, Jean P., V, 390 
 
 de Villiers, Neyon, I, 101 
 
 Devine, Edward P., V, 99 
 
 Devine, Miles J., V, 65 
 
 Dewey, George F., Ill, 293 
 
 DeYoung, Frederick R., II, 426 
 
 Dickinson, William F., IV, 280 
 
 Dickson, Frank S., II, 362, 389, 396; III, 
 51 
 
 Diel, Homer F., Ill, 291 
 
 Dienst, R. Carl, IV, 487 
 
 Dieterich, William H., Ill, 4 
 
 Diffenderfer, Ralph E., V, 388 
 
 Dignan, John F., Ill, 116 
 
 Dignan, Mary, III, 117 
 
 Dillman, Howard B., V, 286 
 
 Dillon, Owen O., V, 180 
 
 Dimick, Fred G., Ill, 226 
 
 Dixon, I, 329 
 
 Dixon, Arthur, II, 520; III, 25 
 
 Dixon, George W., Ill, 26 
 
 Dixon, Louis M., V, 108 
 
 Dixon, Robert, I, 219 
 
 Dixon, Winfield S., V, 324 
 
 Doak, John W., IV, 54 
 
 Doak, Nelle M., IV, 54 
 
 Dobbs, Thomas W., Ill, 185 
 
 Doberstein, Stanislaus M., Ill, 473 
 
 Docks and terminal facilities, II, 179 
 
 Dodd, Walter F., Ill, 53 
 
 Dodge, John, tyrant of Kaskaskia, I, 146 
 
 Dolder, Fred D., IV, 111 
 
 Dolder, Helena U., IV, 111 
 
 Doman, Louis A., V, 453 
 
 Dombrowski, Edward F., IV, 427 
 
 Donavan, Robert J., IV, 90 
 
 Dondanville, Martin S., Ill, 210 
 
 Donley, Walter W., Jr., Ill, 249 
 
 Donovan, John H., V, 51 
 
 Donovan, Raymond, III, 443 
 
 Donovan, Thomas P., IV, 476 
 
 Doty, Elmer, V, 359 
 
 Dougherty, Thomas S., IV, 76 
 
 Douglas, Stephen A., early career, I. 
 354, 359, 385, 415, 420; as senator, 
 421, 431; spokesman of the West, 
 434; political career of, 435; framer 
 of Territorial bills, 438; Kansas - 
 Nebraska bill, 440; breaks with 
 Democratic party, 446; on Lecompton 
 Constitution,. 450; campaign of 1858, 
 465; Bloomington speech, 476; early 
 life, 489, 494; birthplace of, 500; 
 elected senator in 1859, 515; in 1858, 
 II, 5; and custom of candidates not 
 making campaign speeches, 19; against 
 secession, 29; death of, 33 
 
 Dowdall, Ray L., IV, 265 
 
INDEX 
 
 xvi 1 
 
 Downing, Earl E., Ill, 225 
 
 Doyle, Michael, III, 456 
 
 Doyle, William A., IV, 210 
 
 Draft, in Civil War, II, 53 
 
 Drainage Canal, II, 552 
 
 Drake, Tracy C, III, 21 
 
 Drallmeier, W. H., IV, 253 
 
 Dred Scott decision, I, 470 
 
 Drexler, Mrs. Louis, IV, 262 
 
 Drzewiecki, John, IV, 449 
 
 DuBois, Jesse K., II, 12, 78 
 
 Duer, William, I, 158 
 
 Duffy, Hugh J., V, 421 
 
 Dugan, Richard D., V, 179 
 
 Dugger, Jesse W., V, 120 
 
 Dumoulin, Jean, I, 186 
 
 Duncan, Joseph, I, 294, 299, 342; gov- 
 ernor, 344, 348; IV, 481 
 
 Duncan, Robert C, V, 423 
 
 Dunham, Robert J., IV, 495 
 
 Dunn, Charles, I, 366 
 
 Dunn, Frank K., IV, 328 
 
 Dunne, Edmund M., Ill, 284 
 
 Dunne, Edward F., candidate for mayor, 
 I, 265; elected mayor, II, 188; Tulley's 
 letter, 247; reply to, 255; elected 
 mayor, 266; plans for traction settle- 
 ment, 268; misrepresentation of, 274; 
 Werno letter, 278; candidate for sec- 
 ond term as mayor, 280; veto of trac- 
 tion settlement ordinances, 281; de- 
 feated in 1907, 295; candidate for 
 governor, 308; and family, at time 
 of inauguration as governor, 310; 
 and Woodrow Wilson, on campaign 
 tour, 313; candidate for second term 
 as governor, 368; relations with 
 legislature, 371, 432; views on traction 
 settlement, 539; V, 492 
 
 Dunne, Peter Finley, II, 130 
 
 Dupo Community High School, IV, 242 
 
 Duquesne, Governor, I, 89 
 
 Durso, Michael R., V, 351 
 
 Dutton, George E., IV, 15 
 
 Dutton, Harry A. R., IV, 56 
 
 Dutton, Jane W., IV, 16 
 
 Dvorak, Frank, III, 431 
 
 Dyer, Arthur E., V, 457 
 
 Dyroff, Louis J., Ill, 283 
 
 Eagleton, Leander O., Ill, 73 
 
 Earlville Community High School, III, 
 
 153 
 East Peoria Community High School, V, 
 
 75 
 East Peoria Public Schools, III, 184 
 East St. Louis High School, IV, 245 
 East St. Louis Public Library, IV, 249 
 Easter, Irving H., Ill, 292 
 Eastern Illinois State Normal School, II, 
 
 360 
 Eastman, Sam G., Ill, 102 
 Easton, Edward, IV, 473 
 Easton Community High School, IV, 96 
 Eaton, Clyde D., IV, 87 
 Eberly, Wade L., IV, 264 
 
 Echols, Mrs. Webster, IV, 246 
 
 Eckert, Robert P., Ill, 115 
 
 Eckert, Walter H., IV, 435 
 
 Eckhardt, B. A., I, 373 
 
 Eddy, Henry, I, 275, 342 
 
 Eden, John R., II, 70; V, 24 
 
 Edgar, John, I, 148, 176, 185, 198; IV, 7 
 
 Edgar, Louis L., V, 420 
 
 Edler, George, III, 105 
 
 Edmondson, Edward E., V, 309 
 
 Education, I, 237; in frontier State, 252, 
 
 318; compulsory, II, 109, 358 
 Edwards, Arthur, III, 500 
 Edwards, Claire C, V, 413 
 Edwards, Cyrus, IV, 491 
 Edwards, Ninian, Territorial governor, 
 
 I, 197, 223, 232, 257, 265; political ca- 
 reer, 292, 299; administration, 302, 
 357; IV, 43 
 
 Edwards, Richard, III, 487 
 
 Edwards County, I, 233 
 
 Edwardsville, I, 255 
 
 Edwardsville Bank, I, 296 
 
 Edwardsville Free Public Library, IV, 
 
 223 
 Edwardsville Schools, IV, 221 
 Eekhoff, Andrew J., V, 287 
 Efficiency and Economy Commission, II, 
 
 337 
 Eggleston, Edgar A., V, 81 
 Egolf, John F., IV, 457 
 Ehrler, John, III, 136 
 Eighteenth amendment, II, 504, 526 
 "Eight-hour" day, II, 99, 104, 136 
 Eilers, Gabriel, IV, 411 
 Eisenbacher, George, IV, 275 
 Eisenmayer, Herman A., V, 44 
 Ekman, Carl J., V, 417 
 Eldred, Charles D., Ill, 373 
 Election, of 1804, I, 186; of 1818, 295; of 
 
 1824, 297; of 1826, 299; of 1830, 305; 
 
 of 1834, 344; of 1840, 355; of 1854, 
 
 462; of 1856, 463; of 1860, II, 21; of 
 
 1862, 35, 47; of 1864, 64; of 1872, 78; 
 
 of 1876, 93; of 1888, 106; of 1890, 111; 
 
 of 1867, 119; of 1872, 126; of 1873, 
 
 130; of 1890, 138; of 1892, 139; of 
 
 1930, 175; mayoralty in 1905, 266; 
 
 of 1907, 288; primary, in 1912, 314; 
 
 of 1912, 316; of 1916, 368, 380; of 
 
 1920, 404; of 1928, 530 
 Election laws, reform in, II, 109 
 Elections, popular, I, 410; primary, II, 
 
 178; cost of, 556 
 Elective franchise, II, 84 
 Electric light and power, development, 
 
 II, 493 
 
 Electric light rates, II, 291 
 Elevation, above sea level, I, 3 
 Elgin Academy, III, 412 
 Elgin-Courier-News Publishing Company, 
 
 V, 376 
 Elimination of corrupt lobby, II, 340 
 Elkin, W. F., I, 357 
 Elkins, Homer J., IV, 317 
 Ellis & Ellis, V, 203 
 
XV111 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Ellis, Ira W., V, 202 
 
 Ellis, John W., V, 57 
 
 Elwood, Erwin P., V, 74 
 
 Emancipation Proclamation, II, 35 
 
 Emerson, Frank N., Ill, 81 
 
 Emerson, Ralph, V, 8 
 
 Emery Whisler Post No. 607, American 
 Legion, V, 257 
 
 Emigh, Dwight K., V, 404 
 
 Emmerson, Louis L., II, 485; as gov- 
 ernor, 530, 531, 547; III, 18 
 
 Emmit, John, I, 268 
 
 Employees' compensation act, II, 332 
 
 Employers' liability, II, 136 
 
 Enabling act, I, 237 
 
 England, Lewis A., IV, 88 
 
 English colonist, character of, I, 85 
 
 English, immigrants, I, 250 
 
 Engstrand, Juanita, III, 76 
 
 Epstein, Benjamin P., V, 103 
 
 Erdmann, Arthur G., V, 492 
 
 Erickson, Erick T., V, 297 
 
 Ericsson, John E., IV, 89 
 
 Essington, Arthur V., Ill, 78 
 
 Essington, Thurlow G., IV, 21 
 
 Etherton, Lewis E., V, 196 
 
 Ettelson, Samuel, II, 484, 491, 496, 510 
 
 Etter, Samuel M., II, 90, 131 
 
 Evans, Emmet A., V, 405 
 
 Evans, Evan, V, 337 
 
 Evans, Frank N., V, 106 
 
 Evans, Michael P., V, 404 
 
 Evans, Woodford W., Ill, 389 
 
 Everett, Samuel J. T., V, 86 
 
 Everhart, Arthur M., IV, 461 
 
 Eversull, Frank L., IV, 245 
 
 Ewers, Joseph D., Ill, 410 
 
 Ewing, Clinton L., IV, 158 
 
 Ewing, T. N., II, 378 
 
 Ewing, William L. D., lieutenant-gov- 
 ernor, I, 315, 342; governor, 345; III, 
 497 
 
 Executive Mansion, Springfield, I, 460 
 
 Factory inspection, II, 136, 140 
 
 Fager, Emma C, IV, 90 
 
 Faherty, Michael J., II, 486 
 
 Fairbank, Nathaniel K., V, 14 
 
 Fairhall, Joseph, Jr., IV, 464 
 
 Falder, Everett L., Ill, 120 
 
 Faletti, Anthony L., Ill, 437 
 
 Faletti, Michael J., Ill, 137 
 
 Faltz, Charles, IV, 329 
 
 Fanyo, Archie H., IV, 430 
 
 Fardy, James F., IV, 487 
 
 Farmer, Allen R., Ill, 181 
 
 Farmer, William M., Ill, 413 
 
 Farmers, and tariff, II, 106 
 
 Farmers' Alliance, II, 111, 136 
 
 Farmers' movement, II, 130, 134 
 
 Farmers' Mutual Benefit Association, II, 
 
 111 
 Farming, by French, I, 49, 251 
 Farnsworth, John F., V, 12 
 Farnsworth, Ward, V, 64 
 Farrar, Eugene H., Ill, 281 
 
 Farrell, Clayton S., Ill, 372 
 
 Farris, George K., Ill, 414 
 
 Farwell, Charles B., II, 111 
 
 Farwell, John V., V, 19 
 
 Farwell, John V., Jr., II, 522 
 
 Farwell family, II, 550 
 
 Faulkin, Fredreka, III, 222 
 
 Faulkner, Charles J., Jr., IV, 9 
 
 Faulkner, George E., IV, 384 
 
 Fay, Herbert W., V, 475 
 
 Federal Building, Chicago, II, 488 
 
 Federal power, broadening of, I, 284 
 
 Fedou, R. Eaton, V, 376 
 
 Feehan, Patrick A., IV, 492 
 
 Fekete, Thomas L., V, 177 
 
 Fell, Jesse W., II, 11 
 
 Felt, Anna E., Ill, 130 
 
 Fenwick, Herbert F., Ill, 389 
 
 Fergus, John B., II, 546 
 
 Ferguson, Charles W., Ill, 77 
 
 Ferguson, Fred D., Ill, 235 
 
 Ferrara, Vincent E., IV, 198 
 
 Ferris, Henry L., V, 371 
 
 Festin, Carl, IV, 150 
 
 Ficklin, Joseph C, IV, 119 
 
 Ficklin, Orlando B., Ill, 496 
 
 Fidelity Life Association, IV, 108 
 
 Field, A. P., I, 380 
 
 Field, Eugene, V, 24 
 
 Field, Marshall, II, 68, 498, 520; V, 18 
 
 Field family, II, 549 
 
 Fifer, Joseph W., as Governor, II, 106, 
 
 107, 426; III, 456 
 Fine Arts Building, World's Columbian 
 
 Exposition, II, 190 
 Finn, Walter L., V, 300 
 Finney, May B., Ill, 70 
 Fiore, Joseph M., V, 63 
 Fire department, Chicago, II, 291 
 Fire of 1871, II, 519 
 First, Warren R., Ill, 333 
 First log courthouse, Quincy, I, 350 
 First schoolhouse in Champaign, I, 426 
 Fischer, Oscar H., V, 175 
 Fiscus, Albert T., IV, 466 
 Fish, J. F., Ill, 166 
 Fisher, A. M., IV, 433 
 Fisher, George, I, 187, 227; IV, 40 
 Fisher, Harry M., Ill, 499 
 Fisher, Walter L., II, 278 
 Fish and Game Department, II, 339 
 Fishing industry, II, 340 
 Fishwick, Harry, IV, 177 
 Fitch, William E., Ill, 185 
 FitzGerald, Bert L., IV, 452 
 Fitzgerald, Edwin W., Ill, 246 
 Fitzpatrick, John, II, 505 
 Fitzsimmons, Frank T., II, 432 
 FitzSimmons, Michael J., V, 236 
 Flanagan, John J., V, 356 
 Fleming, Joseph B., V, 55 
 Fletcher, Job, I, 357 
 Fletcher, Robert V., V, 17 
 Flick, Pius P., IV, 192 
 Flint, Oliver, V, 403 
 Flint, Theodore, V, 378 
 
INDEX 
 
 xix 
 
 Floods, in 1913, II, 363 
 Flora, Ray W., V, 340 
 Flower, George, I, 250 
 Fluorspar, I, 9 
 •Flynn, Michael J., V, 320 
 Fogg, Raymond W., IV, 455 
 Foley, John D., IV, 431 
 Foley, Julia, V, 86 
 Foley, Maurice V., V, 315 
 Foley, William M., Ill, 269 
 Folsom, Richard S., V, 50 
 Foltz, Ira W., IV, 224 
 Food administration, United States, II, 
 
 393 
 Food conservation, World War, II, 393 
 Foot and mouth disease, II, 364 
 Foote, Peter, II, 543 
 Ford, Charles F., IV, 221 
 Ford, Frank L., IV, 219 
 Ford, Thomas. I, 342, 385; as governor, 
 
 386, 388 
 Fordyce, Alexander W., IV, 423 
 Foreman, Ferris, I, 405 
 Foreman, Milton J., II, 402, 517; III, 23 
 Forest preserves, II, 525 
 Forestry in Illinois, II, 445, 457 
 Forests, I, 3, 9 
 Forman, Leslie H., Ill, 259 
 Forquer, George, I, 232, 275; III, 30 
 Fort, Greenbury L., Ill, 491 
 Fort Armstrong, I, 248, 328, 340 
 Fort de Chartres, I, 41, 94; occupied by 
 
 British, 99; powder magazine of, 101, 
 
 113 
 Fort Clark, I, 147, 222, 248 
 Fort Creve-Couer, I, 65; destroyed, 66, 75 
 Fort Dearborn, I, 213; replica of, 215; 
 
 massacre, 216, 248, 339; II, 470 
 Fort Duquesne, I, 90 
 Fort Edwards, I, 222, 248 
 Fort LaMotte, I, 212 
 Fort Massac, I, 123, 212 
 Fort Russell, I, 212, 220 
 Fort Sackville, capture of, I, 130 
 Fort St. Louis, I, 75; siege of, 78; after 
 
 La Salle's death, 82 
 Fort Sheridan, II, 75, 391 
 Fort, in War of 1812, I, 212 
 Foss, George E., II, 180, 401; IV, 254 
 Foss, Josephus F., Ill, 428 
 Foster, John Q., Ill, 107 
 Foster, Roy B., Ill, 169 
 Foutch, William W., Ill, 441 
 Fowler, Henry, III, 402 
 Fraga, Sam, IV, 212 
 Franchise extension ordinances, defeated, 
 
 II, 277 
 Franchises, street railway, II, 199 
 Franciscan Fathers, III, 284 
 Frank, Jacob, II, 363; IV, 373 
 Frankel, Harry A., Ill, 85 
 Franklin County, I, 233 
 Frazier, Donald P., IV, 470 
 Freeh, William, V, 176 
 Frederickson, Frederick O., V, 465 
 Free employment offices, II, 333 
 
 Free silver movement, II, 154 
 
 Free speech, right of, II, 400 
 
 Freedom of press, II, 193 
 
 Freeland, John E., IV, 421 
 
 Freeman, Thomas O., IV, 59 
 
 Freeport Public Library, IV, 289 
 
 Freeport Public Schools, III, 95 
 
 Freeto, George L., IV, 144 
 
 Fremont, John C, II, 44, 61 
 
 French, Augustus C, administration of, 
 
 I, 412,413; V, 23 
 French, Daniel C, II, 521 
 French and Indian War, I, 90 
 French colonist, character of, I, 85 
 French discoveries, I, 21 
 French habitants in Illinois, I, 47: after 
 
 1765, 103, 245, 253 
 French land claims, I, 199 
 French law, I, 143 
 French missionaries, I, 36 
 Frick, Grant M., IV, 325 
 Friedman, Herbert J., II, 432 
 Friel, Thomas F., Ill, 457 
 Friend, Hugo, II, 486 
 Frontenac, Count de, I, 43 
 Frontier line, in 1812, I, 214 
 Frye, Fred S., Ill, 220 
 Fucik, E. James, III, 218 
 Fucik, Frank, III, 218 
 Fuel Administration, World War, II, 395 
 Fugitive slave law, I, 439 
 Fullenwider, H. Ernest, IV, 173 
 Fullenwider, W. Truman, IV, 145 
 Fuller, Melville W., II, 115; V, 23 
 Fuller, Miles A., II, 83 
 Fullerton, Leslie F., V, 57 
 Fullerton, Ray A., IV, 59 
 Fulton, William J., IV, 221 
 Funk, Clarence S., II, 183 
 Funk, Frank H., II, 316, 329 
 Funk, Isaac, V, 20 
 Funk, Joseph M., V, 142 
 Fuqua, Okel S., IV, 433 
 Fur-bearing animals, I, 3 
 Fur trade, I, 87, 181; decline of, 209, 
 
 242 
 Fur traders, I, 42 
 Fur trading privileges, I, 45 
 Furch, Frank, IV, 489 
 Furrer, Earl V., IV, 92 
 Fyffe, Colvin C. H., II, 432 
 Fyke, Edgar E., II, 426 
 
 Gabbrants, John, III, 222 
 
 Gabriel, James Z., IV, 209 
 
 Gaffner, Charles P., Ill, 461 
 
 Gage, Albert E., V, 135 
 
 Gage, Lyman J., II, 520; V, 32 
 
 Gahagan, Henry J., V, 428 
 
 Gahlman, F., Ill, 239 
 
 Gail Borden Public Library, Elgin, III, 
 
 403 
 Gaines, Duane, IV, 341 
 Galena, I, 253, 311; site of Old Palisade 
 
 Fort, 371; Grant's home before the 
 
 War, II, 36 
 
XX 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Galena levee, 1844, I, 396 
 
 Galena Public Library, III, 130 
 
 Galesburg Public Library, IV, 403 
 
 Galesburg Young Men's Christian Asso- 
 ciation, IV, 152 
 
 Galvin, Lester J., IV, 408 
 
 Gamble, George W., Ill, 198 
 
 Game and Fish Conservation Depart- 
 ment, II, 340 
 
 Gano, Henry A., V, 101 
 
 Gard, Jed, V, 362 
 
 Gardner, Roy F., IV, 94 
 
 Garland, James M., Ill, 255 
 
 Garrett, John E., IV, 352 
 
 Garrison, Don, V, 103 
 
 Garrity, J. A., Ill, 355 
 
 Garvey, Harold T., V, 242 
 
 Garwood, Frank S., IV, 444 
 
 Gary, Elbert H., I, 272; V, 4 
 
 Gary, Joseph E., in anarchist trial, II, 
 102, 513; V, 4 
 
 Gas and electricity rates, II, 179 
 
 Gas companies, consolidation of, II, 191 
 
 Gas rates, II, 290 
 
 Gash, Abram D., II, 331; IV, 29 
 
 Gasoline tax, II, 414 
 
 Gaston, Percy D., Ill, 139 
 
 Gault, Robert H., V, 474 
 
 Gauschon, William, II, 426 
 
 Gauss, Louis J., Ill, 69 
 
 Gaw, George D., V, 21 
 
 Gaylord, Aymer F., V, 187 
 
 Geier, George C, V, 372 
 
 Gemmill, William N., Ill, 24 
 
 Geneseo Township Public Library, IV, 
 398 
 
 Geography, I, 1 
 
 Geology, I, 4 
 
 German, Thomas P., V, 321 
 
 Germans, colonists, I, 250; and Kansas- 
 Nebraska bill, 444; in Civil War, II, 
 40; population, in 1910, 386 
 
 Gettys, Arthur L., IV, 257 
 
 Getz, Jacob H., Ill, 193 
 
 Gibault, Father, I, 124, 125; memorial of, 
 177 
 
 Giberson, Oria O., IV, 271 
 
 Gilbert, Allan T., Ill, 314 
 
 Gilbert, Fred, III, 155 
 
 Gilbert, Miles S., Ill, 305 
 
 Gilbreath, Frank A., Ill, 378 
 
 Gill, Ralph W., IV, 99 
 
 Gillan, Walter H., Ill, 201 
 
 Gillespie, George B., V, 249 
 
 Gillespie, Joseph, III, 32 
 
 Gillham, Daniel B., Ill, 482 
 
 Gillham, John F., IV, 215 
 
 Gillis, Hudson B., Ill, 286 
 
 Gilman, Harold B., IV, 141 
 
 Gilmore, P., I, 373 
 
 Glacial age, I, 6 
 
 Glackin, Anna F., Ill, 32 
 
 Glackin, Edward J., Ill, 31 
 
 Gladhill, Mary E., V, 201 
 
 Gleason, William, V, 85 
 
 Glenn, Lawrence A., V, 201 
 
 Glenn, Otis F., Ill, 5 
 
 Glessner, John J., IV, 46 
 
 Goff, Edwin C, IV, 359 
 
 Gold, George, III, 500 
 
 Gold standard, II, 155 
 
 Goldenstein, Tonyes J., V, 252 
 
 Golding, William L., Ill, 164 
 
 Good, John L., V, 267 
 
 Goodell, William S., V, 469 
 
 Goodknecht, Albert, V, 411 
 
 Goodman, George A., V, 77 
 
 Goodspeed, Charles T. B., Ill, 143 
 
 Goodwin, Clarence N., Ill, 62 
 
 Gordon, Harold H., V, 218 
 
 Gordon, James W., Ill, 83 
 
 Gore, David, II, 90 
 
 Gore, Ed B., V, 209 
 
 Gorham, Sidney S., Ill, 61 
 
 Governor, office of, I, 240; time of elec- 
 tion, 414 
 
 Graham, Andrew J., II, 506 
 
 Graham, Paul J., IV, 192 
 
 Graham, Ray, IV, 105 
 
 Graham, Richey V., V, 236 
 
 Graham, William H., V, 385 
 
 Grammar, John, I, 268 
 
 Grand Chain Schools, III, 345 
 
 Granger movement, II, 111, 126; organ- 
 ization of, 127, 136 
 
 Granite City High School, V, 181 
 
 Granite City Public Library, IV, 228 
 
 Grant, Elizabeth R., V, 98 
 
 Grant, U. S., in 1861, II, 34; home before 
 the War, Galena, 36, 38, 41, 42, 45; 
 Lieutenant-General, 61, 67; martial 
 law at Chicago, 75, 119, 135 
 
 Graves, Mrs. L. D., Ill, 429 
 
 Graves, William C, III, 491 
 
 Gravier, Father, I, 39 
 
 Gray, Frank S., Ill, 348 
 
 Gray, Howard E., Ill, 450 
 
 Gray, Maud, V, 341 
 
 Great Lakes Naval Training Station, II, 
 391 
 
 Great Lakes, navies on, I, 225 
 
 Green, Dwight H., V, 383 
 
 Green, Dwight P., V, 261 
 
 Green, Henry L, II, 426 
 
 Green, William H., IV, 451 
 
 Green Valley Community High School, 
 III, 185 
 
 Greenback party, II, 90, 131, 136 
 
 Greenbacks, II, 154 
 
 Greene, William B., V, 375 
 
 Greenview High School, IV, 92 
 
 Greenville College, Bond County, V, 248 
 
 Greenville treaty, I, 199 
 
 Greenwood, Charles H., IV, 350 
 
 Gregg, Howard, III, 199 
 
 Gregory, Clifford V., Ill, 49 
 
 Gregory. Stephen S., II, 476; IV, 401 
 
 Gregory, Tappan, IV, 401 
 
 Gresham, Walter Q., IV, 49 
 
 Grieve, Ivan J., V, 170 
 
 Griffin, Emmett P., Ill, 265 
 
 Griffith, Cora B., Ill, 127 
 
INDEX 
 
 xxi 
 
 Griffith. William M., Ill, 127 
 Grimm, William, III, 200 
 Grinnell, Julius S., II, 517 
 Grochowski, Leon, IV, 189 
 Grossberg, Jacob G., IV, 65 
 Grosscup, Peter S., II, 226 
 Grossmann, Edgar C., V, 158 
 Groves, John L., IV, 414 
 Groves, William H., Ill, 466 
 Gruey, Constant I., V, 367 
 Gruey Memorial Library, V, 368 
 Grundy, Harry B., IV, 316 
 Gualano, Alberto N., Ill, 237 
 Guerin, John, II, 293 
 Guilliams, John R., V, 197 
 Guinn, Francis M., IV, 294 
 Gulick, Bernard M., IV, 112 
 Gulick, Frank 0., IV, 111 
 Gullett, Wesley C., V, 85 
 Gullion, C. H., IV, 238 
 Gumbart, L. F., Ill, 122 
 Gund, Joseph A., Ill, 96 
 Gunning, Thomas P., IV, 459 
 Gunter, George T., II, 378 
 Gustin, Robert V., Ill, 391 
 Gutknecht, John, IV, 16 
 
 Haag, Albert R., Ill, 66 
 
 Haag, George A., Ill, 66 
 
 Haag Brothers Co., Ill, 66 
 
 Haagenson, Helmer T., IV, 77 
 
 Haas, Joseph, II, 478 
 
 Hackman, Edward G., IV, 287 
 
 Hackman, Elizabeth, IV, 287 
 
 Hagan, Henry M„ IV, 333 
 
 Hagebush, Oscar J., V, 206 
 
 Hager, George C, IV, 262 
 
 Hahn, John F., V, 457 
 
 Hale, Raleigh, IV, 181 
 
 Haley, Margaret, II, 499 
 
 Hall, Albert L., V, 402 
 
 Hall, Alonzo J., Ill, 353 
 
 Hall, Charles E„ V, 257 
 
 Hall, Edred B., V, 224 
 
 Hall, Hal O., Jr., IV, 92 
 
 Hall, James W., IV, 198 
 
 Hall, Thomas W., V, 298 
 
 Hall, Wendell W., Ill, 484 
 
 Hall of Science, Century of Progress 
 
 Exposition, II, 553 
 Hallett, Hiram D., V, 447 
 Hallgren, Carl A., V, 357 
 Hallstrom, John H., V, 111 
 Hamann, Fred, V, 148 
 Hamblin, Henry W., IV, 334 
 Hamill, Charles H., II, 426 
 Hamilton, John M., lieutenant-governor, 
 
 II, 95, 96; III, 490 
 Hamilton, John R., IV, 65 
 Hamilton, Richard J., V, 491 
 Hamilton, William S., V, 32 
 Hamilton Public Library, V, 241 
 Hammer, A. Howard, III, 171 
 Hammer, George T., V, 461 
 Hamrick, Daniel F., V, 341 
 Hancock, John L., IV, 11 
 
 Hancock, Joseph L., IV, 12 
 
 Hancock County, I, 400 
 
 Handlin, John H., Ill, 256 
 
 Handy, Moses P., Ill, 488 
 
 Hanecy, Elbridge, II, 191 
 
 Haney, Eugene T., Ill, 294 
 
 Hanks, John I., Ill, 254 
 
 Hanks, Martha G., IV, 122 
 
 Hanks, Samuel J., IV, 122 
 
 Hanlon, Samuel F., V, 449 
 
 Hanna, Reuben S., Ill, 251 
 
 Hannah, Harry I., Ill, 392 
 
 Hansen, Nicholas, I, 269 
 
 Hanson, Harry C, III, 402 
 
 Hanson, Martin W., IV, 79 
 
 Hardesty, Paul L., V, 256 
 
 Hardin, John, V, 24 
 
 Harding, George F., II, 486, 492 
 
 Harding, John P., IV, 16 
 
 Hardinger, Ralph W., Ill, 219 
 
 Hardisty, Guy, III, 126 
 
 Harlan, John M., II, 221, 256, 298, 502 
 
 Harlan report, II, 221 
 
 Harmel, Estella L., IV, 243 
 
 Harmon, Charles F., Ill, 264 
 
 Harms, Frank R., Ill, 106 
 
 Harnit, Abbie D., V, 407 
 
 Harnit, Samuel L., V, 407 
 
 Harper, Alfred J., Ill, 380 
 
 Harper, Francis A., V, 451 
 
 Harper, William R., IV, 48 
 
 Harrington, Cornelius J., IV, 69 
 
 Harris, Clifford M., V, 170 
 
 Harris, Evan, III, 471 
 
 Harris, Thomas L., I, 461 
 
 Harrison, Carter H., elder, II, 101, 203; 
 message of 1883, 204, 474; assassina- 
 tion of, 476 
 
 Harrison, Carter H., younger, II, 179, 
 221, 280, 480, 543, 545; III, 48 
 
 Harrison, Edith O., Ill, 48 
 
 Harrison, Guy R., IV, 113 
 
 Harrison, John Q., V, 137 
 
 Harrison, William Henry, I, 184 
 
 Harsin, John J., I, 405 
 
 Hart, Cora O., Ill, 447 
 
 Hart, Dwight, V, 452 
 
 Hart, Eugene E., Ill, 447 
 
 Hart, Lester L., V, 143 
 
 Hart, Ezra, V, 272 
 
 Hart, Green B., V, 272 
 
 Hart, Thomas B., Ill, 462 
 
 Hartley, Arthur J., Ill, 72 
 
 Hartman, Stanley, III, 449 
 
 Hartman, William, V, 174 
 
 Hartsell, William W., IV, 300 
 
 Harvey, Beauchamp A., Ill, 349 
 
 Harvey, George C, III, 350 
 
 Harvey, John P., IV, 468 
 
 Harwood, Clarence H., IV, 63 
 
 Hastings, J. Barnard, IV, 307 
 
 Hastings, Samuel M., IV, 56 
 
 Hatcher, Carrie E. B., Ill, 183 
 
 Hatcher, Charles C, III, 182 
 
 Hattan, Albert H., Ill, 415 
 
 Haughton, Edward J., Ill, 213 
 
XX11 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Havana, II, 552 
 Havill, Rene, III, 345 
 Hawkins, John J., Ill, 470 
 Hawkins, William B., Ill, 464 
 Hawthorn, Paul D., IV, 91 
 Hay, John, I, 187; IV, 48 
 Hay, Logan, III, 256 
 Hay, Marion L., Ill, 341 
 Hay, Milton, II, 83 
 Hayes, Lambert K., V, 433 
 Hayes, S. Snowden, II, 83 
 Haymarket riot, II, 97, 101, 140, 519 
 Hayner Library, IV, 214 
 Hays, Frank, IV, 114 
 Hays, George R., V, 164 
 Head, Franklin H., Ill, 487 
 Headley, Stephen L, IV, 55 
 Headrick, Samuel P., V, 126 
 Heald, Captain, I, 216 
 Heald, Jesse M., Ill, 468 
 Healey, Frank F., V, 314 
 Healy, John J., II, 304, 478 
 Heard, Oscar E., IV, 13 
 Hearst, William R,, II, 191 
 Heath, Lawrence S., V, 294 
 Heath, Monroe, II, 474 
 Heckel, Irven J., IV, 140 
 Heckel, Roy A., Ill, 416 
 Heckman, George A., V, 395 
 Hefferan, William H., V, 300 
 Hegeler, Edward C., V, 450 
 Hegeler, Julius W., V, 450 
 Heilig, George N., IV, 321 
 Heintz, Edward L., IV, 229 
 Heinz, Nicholas G., Ill, 395 
 Heirich, Bruneau E., Ill, 145 
 Heiser, Daniel C., IV, 288 
 Heiser, Elton R., IV, 288 
 Hemenway, William F., IV, 184 
 Hemmer, Nicholas, V, 161 
 Hendee, Lew A., IV, 428 
 Henderson, Euell B., IV, 298 
 Henderson, James P., V, 311 
 Henderson, Thomas J., Ill, 487 
 Hendricks, Raymond B., V, 169 
 Henkel, Leo P., IV, 57 
 Hennepin, Louis, I, 65 
 Henry, Patrick, first governor of Illi- 
 nois, I, 134 
 Henry, William S., V, 220 
 Hensley, William S., V, 137 
 Hereford, Arthur L„ IV, 98 
 Herman, John E., V, 213 
 Herndon, Archer G., I, 357 
 Herndon, William H., II, 12; V, 23 
 Herr, Vincent A., Ill, 260 
 Herrick, G. Wirt, III, 383 
 Herrick, Lott R., V, 363 
 Herron, Simon A., Ill, 125 
 Herten, Arthur D., IV, 143 
 Hertz, Benjamin F., Ill, 355 
 Hertz, Henry, II, 478 
 Hertz, John D., V, 43 
 Hetherington, B. William, IV, 8 
 Hetler, Harry, IV, 469 
 Hetman, Wencel F., IV, 493 
 
 Hextell, Martin N., IV, 408 
 Heydecker, Coral T., IV, 409 
 Heywood, Oliver C, V, 63 
 Hicks, Girth N., V, 389 
 Hieronymus, Robert E., Ill, 13 
 Higdon, W. D., V, 365 
 Highland High School, IV, 222 
 Highways (see Roads), II, 316 
 Higinbotham, Harlow N., II, 520; IV, 
 
 44 
 Hildrup, Jesse S., II, 83 
 Hileman, Philetus E., IV, 311 
 Hill, Louis D., V, 304 
 Hilliev, Albert W., V, 113 
 Hillmer, Henry A., Ill, 115 
 Hillsboro Public Library, III, 330 
 Hinchliff, Ralph, V, 9 
 Hinchliff, William E., V, 6 
 Hines, Edward, II, 183 
 Hinkle, Charles M., Ill, 121 
 Hinton, Ralph T., V, 374 
 Hinze, William J., IV, 381 
 Hirsch, Emil G., II, 517 
 Hirschi, Christian G., Ill, 377 
 Hitchcock, Charles, II, 83 
 Hitchings, Robert C, V, 338 
 Hoadley, Clara, IV, 163 
 Hobart, Karl E., V, 330 
 Hoechster, Harold J., IV, 325 
 Hoeltmann, Louis T., Ill, 269 
 Hoffman, Francis, I, 444 
 Hoffmeier, Fred L., V, 212 
 Hoffstadt, John P., IV, 445 
 Hogendobler, Ernest C, V, 215 
 Hogland, Frank G., IV, 175 
 Holabird, William, II, 520 
 Holabird and Roche, II, 521 
 Holahan, Jerome T., IV, 154 
 Holden, Charles R., II, 192; IV, 272 
 Hole, Berton W., V, 122 
 Holladay, William T., IV, 470 
 Hollinger, Albert L., IV, 223 
 Holly, William H., II, 432 
 Holmes, Charles M., Ill, 483 
 Holmes, Grover E., Ill, 421 
 Holmes, Maurice F., Ill, 222 
 Holmes, Nellie F., V, 71 
 Holmes, Zealy M., V, 71 
 Holten, Julius A., V, 166 
 Holy Family Parish, IV, 489 
 Holz, Charles, III, 369 
 Home Insurance Building, II, 520 
 Home rule for Chicago, II, 322 
 Honey, Victor H., V, 183 
 Hood, James J., Ill, 240 
 Hooper, Frank L., V, 422 
 Hoover, Walter K., IV, 73 
 Hopkins, Albert J., II, 180, 480, 482 
 Hopkins, John P., II, 159, 478 
 Horner, Henry, III, 3 
 "Horse and Dummy Act," II, 202 
 Horwitz, Sandor, III, 272 
 Hostettler, Tony C, V, 230 
 Hotz, Joseph, IV, 216 
 Hough, Charles F., V, 327 
 House of Correction, Chicago, II, 472 
 
INDEX 
 
 xxm 
 
 Houser, Edwin J., Ill, 252 
 Houston, Mrs. D. E., V, 81 
 Hovey, Charles E., II, 39; III, 498 
 Howard, Benjamin, I, 222 
 Howell, Albert S., IV, 459 
 Howell, Fred W., IV, 209 
 Howk, Lewis, III, 140 
 Hoyne, Thomas, II, 471; IV, 39 
 Hruby, Allan J., IV, 400 
 Hubbard, Adolphus F., IV, 48 
 Hubbard, Gordon, I, 343 
 Hubbard, Warren, IV, 179 
 Hubeny, Maximilian J., V, 313 
 Huber, Albert, III, 213 
 Huff, Thomas D., V, 13 
 Huggett, William W., IV, 35 
 Hughart, Samuel A., IV, 64 
 Hughes, Caroline B., IV, 288 
 Hughes, Pingree C, V, 440 
 Hughes, Ruth P., IV, 289 
 Hughitt, Marvin, V, 27 
 Hulett, E. Lee, IV, 81 
 Hulick, Charles H., Ill, 157 
 Hull, Morton D., II, 426 
 Hull, William, I, 214 
 Hull, William E., Ill, 28 
 Hullinger, Will, IV, 163 
 Hulse, Minard E., V, 481 
 Humphrey bills, II, 219 
 Hunter, David, Jr., Ill, 448 
 Hunziker, Otto F., Ill, 242 
 Hurd, Harry B., Ill, 241 
 Hurlburt, Stephen A., Ill, 507 
 Hurley, Edward N., Ill, 32 
 Hurst, William C, IV, 167 
 Hurt, Emil B., Ill, 438 
 Huschle, Rudolph H., IV, 361 
 Huskinson, George, V, 354 
 Huskinson, William, V, 352 
 Hussey, Jerry E., V, 451 
 Hutchings, John A., Ill, 228 
 Hutchins, Robert M., Ill, 17 
 Hutchins, Harry, III, 411 
 Hutchinson, Luzetta, III, 397 
 Hutton, John W., V, 228 
 Huxley, Henry M., Ill, 234 
 Hyland, James, IV, 422 
 Hylton, Walker L., V, 143 
 Hynes, William J., I, 385 
 
 Ickes, Harold L., II, 432, 508, 543; V, 35 
 
 Ida Public Library, IV, 288 
 
 Igoe, Michael L., II, 347, 460; IV, 22 
 
 lies, Elijah, V, 33 
 
 Illinois, French habitants, I, 47; in strug- 
 gle between the British and French, 
 85; results of French and Indian War, 
 92; ceded to England, 94; under 
 the British flag, 96; in Revolu- 
 tionary War, 107; Quebec Act, 109 
 code of laws, 111; first governor, 134 
 Spanish expedition of 1781, 139 
 Treaty of 1783, 140; anarchy after 
 1763, 143; Virginia sovereignty and 
 law, 150; struggle over land titles, 
 166; under Northwest Territorial gov- 
 
 ernment, 173; in 1790, 176; territorial 
 judges, 181; in 1798, 182; in 1800, 
 186; rise of slavery issue, 188; terri- 
 tory created, 194; boundaries, 197; 
 laws of Territory, 198; Territory of 
 second class, 202, 227; in war of 
 1812, 212; northern boundary, 
 233; in 1812, map, 234; consti- 
 tution of 1818, 239; in 1818, 242; in 
 1818, map, 247; racial origins, 250; 
 fight for slavery, 259; a free State, 
 277; slavery in, 278; development after 
 1818, 283; State politics in first dec- 
 ade, 290; and National politics, 303; 
 economic conditions in 1830, 307; Dun- 
 can administration, 344; capital at 
 Springfield, 354; internal improve- 
 ments in 1837, 357; Carlin adminis- 
 tration, 375; Supreme Court and poli- 
 tics, 380; Ford administration, 386; 
 in War with Mexico, 402; Constitu- 
 tion of 1848, 408; under Governor 
 French, 412; in politics of the Nation, 
 415; slavery issue in 1847, 421; 1853- 
 57, 454; Bissell administration, 456; 
 organization of Republican party, 459; 
 Lincoln's nomination for president, II, 
 5; military record, 38; in Civil War, 
 27; women in Civil War, 40; cam- 
 paign of 1864, 58; Oglesby adminis- 
 tration, 65; Palmer's administration, 
 70; Constitution of 1870, 80; map 
 showing organization and population 
 of counties, 86; Cullom administra- 
 tion, 93; Oglesby's third administra- 
 tion, 97; Fifer's administration, 106; 
 Third parties, 113; an industrial state, 
 136; strikes of 1894, 148; in Free Sil- 
 ver movement, 154; Tanner adminis- 
 tration, 170; in administration of Gov. 
 Yates the younger, 173; Governor 
 Deneen's administration, 176; political 
 conditions in 1912, 308; legislation, 
 1913-17, 318; roads in 1913, 331; mo- 
 bilization for Mexican border, 363; 
 Lowden administration, 380; in the 
 World War, 380; financial contribu- 
 tions to World War, 401; departmental 
 reorganization, 402; Small administra- 
 tion, 404; Constitution of 1922, 424; 
 development of public utilities, 493; 
 Emmerson's administration, 530; de- 
 mand for reapportionment, 546; prog- 
 ress and prospects, 549 
 
 Illinois and Michigan Canal, I, 318, 360; 
 history of, 362; in Constitution of 
 1870, 370, 386; II, 83, 455, 470 
 
 Illinois and Wabash Land Company, I, 
 158 
 
 Illinois bar, eminent members, II, 81 
 
 Illinois Bottom, I, 47 
 
 Illinois Central Railroad, land grant, I, 
 414; II, 87 
 
 Illinois College, II, 537 
 
 Illinois Commerce Commission, II, 419; 
 496 
 
XXIV 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Illinois Country, without law, I, 103; in 
 closing- years of Revolution, 138; land 
 titles in, 152 
 
 Illinois County, Virginia, created, I, 127, 
 134, 150 
 
 Illinois Free Employment offices, II, 334 
 
 Illinois Historical Library, IV, 94 
 
 Illinois Indians, I, 17; work of mission- 
 aries, 41; in French regime, 52 
 
 Illinois missions, I, 37 
 
 Illinois monuments, II, 49 
 
 Illinois National Guard, II, 362, 389 
 
 Illinois Naval Battalion, World War, II, 
 389 
 
 Illinois Odd Fellows Orphans Home, V, 
 84 
 
 Illinois River, I, 1; Marquette and Joliet 
 on, 32; view from Prospect Heights, 
 Peoria, II, 198; in waterway scheme, 
 458 
 
 Illinois State Farmers Association, II, 
 128 
 
 Illinois State Journal, IV, 337 
 
 Illinois State Normal University, II, 360 
 
 Illinois State School for the Blind, II, 
 360 
 
 Illinois State Labor Association, II, 108 
 
 Illinois State Register, V, 262 
 
 Illinois State Soldiers' and Sailors' 
 Home, II, 360 
 
 Illinois tribe, Iroquois massacres, I, 69 
 
 Illinois Valley expeditions, War of 1812, 
 I, 221 
 
 Illinois waterway, I, 374; II, 455, 554 
 
 Illinois Waterway Commission, II, 461 
 
 Immigration, I, 250 
 
 Impeachment, I, 240 
 
 Income tax, II, 111, 442 
 
 Independent Order Odd Fellows Orphans 
 Home, V, 84 
 
 Indian allies, at Starved Rock, I, 77 
 
 Indian lands, cession of, I, 159 
 
 Indian mounds, I, 18 
 
 Indian titles, I, 171 
 
 Indian treaties, after War of 1812, I, 201 
 
 Indian villages, I, 325 
 
 Indian warfare, in War of Revolution, I, 
 118 
 
 Indiana Territory created, I, 185 
 
 Indians of Illinois (see also tribal 
 names), I, 10; at home and at war, 
 15; religious ceremonies, 16; evils of 
 liquor trade, 45 ; organized by La Salle, 
 71; under British regime, 96; title to 
 land, 166; rights to land, 179; land 
 cessions, 198; proposed buffer state, 
 224, 248; last stand, 320 
 
 Industrial welfare laws, II, 336 
 
 Ingersoll, Robert G., II, 141; V, 18 
 
 Initiative and referendum, II, 342 
 
 Insane, care of, II, 179 
 
 Insull, Samuel, II, 391, 421, 493, 509, 
 545; IV, 478 
 
 Insull corporations, II, 494 
 
 Internal improvement craze, I, 375 
 
 International Association of Lions Clubs, 
 
 V, 387 
 Intoxicating liquor (see liquor), I, 254 
 Irish settlers, I, 250; in Civil War, II, 
 
 40 
 Iroquois invasion, I, 69 
 Iroquois tribe, I, 12, 14 
 Irwin, Harry C, III, 460 
 Isaacs, Alfred A., V, 291 
 Isaacs, Thomas R., IV, 83 
 Isley, Albert E., V, 301 
 Isley, William E., V, 302 
 
 Jack, Charles E., V, 49 
 
 Jackpot government, II, 309 
 
 "Jack Pot Legislature," II, 187 
 
 Jackson, Andrew, character of, I, 304 
 
 Jackson, Charles A., V, 192 
 
 Jackson, James R., Sr., V. 255 
 
 Jackson, Lewis L., V, 205 
 
 Jackson, William A., IV, 368 
 
 Jackson County, I, 233 
 
 Jacksonian Democracy, I, 305 
 
 Jacksonville State Hospital, II, 360 
 
 Jacobs, Robert H., Ill, 323 
 
 Jacobsen, Lars P., IV, 274 
 
 Jacobson, Don L., Ill, 487 
 
 James, William R., Ill, 453 
 
 Janda, Joseph J., IV, 277 
 
 Jarecki, Edmund K., II, 517; III, 25 
 
 Jarman, Lewis A., II, 426 
 
 Jarroh, Nicholas, I, 186 
 
 Jarvin, John H., V, 261 
 
 Jasper, Frank A., V, 149 
 
 Jay Treaty, I, 180 
 
 Jayne, Gershon, I, 366 
 
 Jeffers, James E., Ill, 249 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, I, 156 
 
 Jenkins, Alexander M., IV, 483 
 
 Jenning, G. A., Ill, 365 
 
 Jennings, Everett, V, 245 
 
 Jennings, George T., V, 434 
 
 Jennings, Grattan G., IV, 338 
 
 Jennings, John W., Jr., V. 274 
 
 Jenny, W. L. B., II, 520 
 
 Jensen, Anker C, III, 396 
 
 Jesuit missionaries, I, 22 
 
 Jesuit priests, in Illinois country, I, 39 
 
 Jesuits, and New France, I, 44 
 
 Jeter, Charles E., V, 398 
 
 Jimison, William H., V, 360 
 
 Jirka, Harold W., IV, 335 
 
 Joannides, Minas, IV, 271 
 
 Job, Joseph A., IV, 411 
 
 Johns, Charles E., V, 258 
 
 Johns, Robert E., V, 165 
 
 Johnson, Abraham, III, 172 
 
 Johnson, Bert R., V, 211 
 
 Johnson, George W., IV, 14 
 
 Johnson, Gustaf J., IV, 471 
 
 Johnson, Jean T., V, 211 
 
 Johnson, L. Ross, III, 194 
 
 Johnson, Robert W., V, 104 
 
 Johnson, Roy H., V, 84 
 
 Johnson, T. Arthur, V, 115 
 
 Johnson, William A., V, 401 
 
INDEX 
 
 XXV 
 
 Johnson, William R., IV, 17 
 
 Johnston, Albert Sidney, I, 342 
 
 Johnston, Joseph E., I, 342 
 
 Johnston, Thomas R., V, 370 
 
 Joliet, Louis, I, 16, 26, 27, 28 
 
 Joliet penitentiary, II, 356 
 
 Jonas, Edgar A., II, 432 
 
 Jones, Alfred H., V, 290 
 
 Jones, George H., Ill, 58 
 
 Jones, Harry P., V, 111 
 
 Jones, James B., V, 212 
 
 Jones, John Rice, I, 148, 191, 193; IV, 33 
 
 Jones, J. Edward, V, 257 
 
 Jones, Melvin, V, 387 
 
 Jones, Michael, I, 232 
 
 Jones, Norman L., II, 404 
 
 Jones, Obadiah, I, 197 
 
 Jones, Paul F., IV, 417 
 
 Jones, Vernie A., V, 235 
 
 Jones, Walter C, II, 312 
 
 Jones, William C, IV, 376 
 
 Jones, W. W., II, 108 
 
 Joppa Community High School, III, 400 
 
 Jordan, Myron, II, 432 
 
 Jorgensen, Frederick A., IV, 438 
 
 Judd, Norman B., II, 12; V, 20 
 
 Judge, Thomas F., I, 372 
 
 Judges, selection of, after 1848, I, 410 
 
 Judiciary, in Chicago and Cook County, 
 
 I, 87; Municipal courts, II, 179 
 Juengel, Oscar H., V, 179 
 Justice courts, system abolished, II, 179 
 
 Kabella, Edward C, III, 499 
 
 Kaburick, Edward C, V, 259 
 
 Kalb, Charles E., V, 118 
 
 Kankakee Daily Republican, IV, 418 
 
 Kane, Elias Kent, I, 232, 272, 282, 294; 
 
 V, 5 
 Kankakee Republican-News, IV, 418 
 Kankakee River, I, 2 
 Kankakee State Hospital, II, 360 
 Kansas-Nebraska Law, I, 431 
 Karnak Community High School, IV, 
 
 307 
 Karch, Charles A., IV, 318 
 Karns, John M., IV, 293 
 Karzas, Andrew, V, 467 
 Kaskaskia, I, 104, 108, 113; captured by 
 
 General Clark, 123, 143; without court 
 
 of law, 146; lawlessness in, 149; 181, 
 
 182; land offices, 229, 253 
 Kaskaskia Indians, I, 12, 18, 198 
 Kaskaskia Mission, I, 39 
 Kasper, Frank J., V, 470 
 Kauffman, Harlan B., IV, 435 
 Kavanagh, Marcus A., Ill, 27 
 Kavanagh, Maurice F., V, 466 
 Kay, Wendell P., IV, 437 
 Keating, Henry E., Ill, 482 
 Keehn, Roy D, III, 87 
 Keeler, Fred C, III, 94 
 Keeler, Leonarde, V, 479 
 Kehoe, Francis B., IV, 233 
 Keiser, Frank M., V, 265 
 Kelker, Rudolph F., Jr., V, 275 
 
 Keller, Nicholas M., Ill, 481 
 
 Kelley, Florence, II, 140 
 
 Kelley, Robert M., Ill, 401 
 
 Kelley, William C, IV, 150 
 
 Kellogg Grove Monument, Black Hawk 
 
 War, I, 337 
 Kelly, Edward A., IV, 22 
 Kelly, Edward J., II, 458, 461; III, 295 
 Kelly, Thomas, I, 373 
 Kemp, George W., V, 62 
 Kendall, A. Fred, V, 373 
 Kenna, Hinky Dink, II, 506 
 Kennedy, Archie G., IV, 53 
 Kennedy, George L., Ill, 143 
 Kennedy, Millard B., Ill, 156 
 Kent, Laurence E., IV, 157 
 Kenworthy, Samuel R., Ill, 214 
 Kentucky settlements, in Revolutionary 
 
 War, I, 119 
 Keokuk, Chief, I, 323 
 Kern, Fred. J., (Foreword), I, 305; II, 
 
 349, 432, 454; III, 38 
 Kern, Jacob J., II, 477, 478 
 Kerner, Otto, IV, 286 
 Kewanee Boiler Company, IV, 236 
 Kewanee Public Library, IV, 233 
 Kickapoo Indians, I, 11, 246 
 Kilpatrick, Harry M., V, 53 
 Kilpatrick, S. Elizabeth, V, 54 
 Kilpatrick, Thomas L., I, 412 
 Kimbark, John R., Ill, 399 
 Kinahan, Simon P., V, 125 
 Kincaid, John T., IV, 68 
 King, Erman A., Ill, 335 
 King, John E., IV, 304 
 King, John H. (Allendale), III, 372 
 King, John H. (Edinburg), III, 459 
 King, Roy L., Ill, 176 
 Kinley, David, III, 40 
 Kinney, William, I, 232, 273, 295, 311, 
 
 316 
 Kinsella, William J., V, 47 
 Kinzie, John, I, 217 
 Kiolbassa, Peter, II, 517 
 Kirby, James J., IV, 268 
 Kirkland, Weymouth, III, 318 
 Klein, William P., V, 162 
 Klenha, Joseph Z., V, 56 
 Klimes, Frank E., Ill, 312 
 Kline, Edward C, IV, 164 
 Kline, Eugene P., V, 162 
 Klonowski, Louis J., Ill, 140 
 Knapp, Kemper K., V, 205 
 Knaus, Vincent L., Ill, 454 
 Knight, William D., IV, 343 
 Knights of Labor, II, 111 
 Knights of the Golden Circle, II, 54 
 Know Nothing party, I, 462 
 Know Nothing riots, I, 483 
 Koch, Louis, IV, 216 
 Koeper, John J., IV, 258 
 Koepke, Charles A., IV, 147 
 Koerner, Gustavus, I, 444; II, 12, 29, 59, 
 
 78* V 19 
 Kohlbeck, Valentine, IV, 441 
 Kohlsaat, Christian C, III, 419 
 
XXVI 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Kohlsaat, Edward C, III, 420 
 Kohlsaat, Herman H., II, 182; V, 432 
 Rokenes, Peter G., IV, 195 
 Koonce, Ivan E., V, 371 
 Rosier, Albert H., IV, 472 
 Rough, Benjamin J., V, 73 
 Rrahl, William F., IV, 475 
 Rral, Joseph S., IV, 207 
 Rramer, Dale D., Ill, 427 
 Rramer, Verle V., Ill, 352 
 Rraus, Adolf, II, 192 
 Rrause, Harry R., Ill, 233 
 Rrebs, Wilbur E., V, 167 
 Rreiling, Christian H., IV, 107 
 Rreitner, Eugene W., IV, 363 
 Rrempp, John, Jr., Ill, 231 
 Rreshel, Julius J., IV, 223 
 Rreuscher, Philip H., Ill, 492 
 Rroehler, Clarence B., V, 347 
 Rruse, Robert I., V, 473 
 Ruechler, Frederick W., V, 234 
 
 Labor, convict, II, 173 
 
 Labor agitation, II, 106 
 
 Labor organizations, II, 99 
 
 Labor party, II, 108 
 
 Labor troubles, II, 97; in 1894, 148 
 
 LaBuy, Joseph S., V, 227 
 
 Lackey, Edward J., IV, 313 
 
 Lackey, George W., IV, 291 
 
 La Clede, Pierre, I, 104 
 
 Laflin, Matthew, IV, 43 
 
 Lake, Lewis F., Ill, 311 
 
 Lake Chicago, I, 6 
 
 Lake Michigan, I, 1; Illinois River 
 
 waterway, 35 
 Lake Peoria, I, 11 
 Lakes to Gulf waterways, I, 370; II, 180, 
 
 414, 455 
 Lalumier, Edward L., V, 488 
 Lamborn, Josiah, IV, 50 
 Lamkin, James A., Ill, 343 
 Lamont, Robert P., Ill, 18 
 Land cessions by Indians, I, 203 
 Land office, I, 199; Raskaskia, Shawnee- 
 
 town, 229, 249 
 Land sales, I, 198, 249 
 Land speculators, I, 171 
 Land survey plans, I, 158; 170 
 Land titles, I, 166, 178 
 Lands, surveys and titles, I, 248; saline, 
 
 300; squatter and preemption rights, 
 
 324 
 Landis, Renesaw M., Ill, 504 
 Landis, Reed G., IV, 56 
 Landise, Thomas H., Ill, 141 
 Landmesser, Frank H., V, 243 
 Lane, Josiah B., IV, 63 
 Langner, Henry, III, 320 
 Lansden, Halac, IV, 147 
 Lantry, Thomas B., Ill, 82 
 LaPorte, Charles W., Ill, 75 
 Larkin, Daniel H., Ill, 228 
 Larson, John A., Ill, 486 
 Larson, Jonas W., Ill, 187 
 
 La Salle, Sieur de, I, 26; career of, 55, 
 56; grant of authority over New 
 France 58, 59; on Illinois River, 62, 64; 
 on Lower Mississippi, 71, 76; death of, 
 79; monument to, 81 
 
 LaSalle, II, 552 (City) 
 
 LaSalle County, I, 311; first Catholic 
 Church in, 432 
 
 Lasker, Albert D., Ill, 35 
 
 Lathrop, Bryan, IV, 43 
 
 Lathrop, Julia C, V, 40 
 
 Latimer, Marion M., V, 265 
 
 Latter, Cameron, V, 453 
 
 Lauder, John E., IV, 458 
 
 Laughlin, Edward E., Ill, 114 
 
 Lauher, Paul B., V, 10 
 
 Law, Daniel, V, 320 
 
 Law, after Clark's conquest, I, 150 
 
 Law department, Chicago, II, 292 
 
 Lawler, Joseph B., Ill, 334 
 
 Lawler, Michael R., II, 39 
 
 Lawrence, Charles B., II, 128 
 
 Lawrence, Randal L., Ill, 337 
 
 Laws, first code in Northwest Territory, 
 I, 173; private, II, 82 
 
 Lawson, Victor F., I, 373; V, 28 
 
 Lecompton constitution, I, 449 
 
 Lee, Charles C, IV, 259 
 
 Lee, Fred A., Ill, 113 
 
 Lee, Otis H., Ill, 135 
 
 Lee, Robert H., Ill, 259 
 
 Legge, Alexander, V, 33 
 
 Legislative corruption, II, 65, 72 
 
 Legislative Reference Bureau, II, 338 
 
 Legislature, of 1812, I, 227; in 1836, 
 355; of 1865, II, 65; and corrupt lob- 
 byist, 341; special session, 1928, 420; 
 session of 1930, 547 
 
 Lehr, William V., V, 141 
 
 Leighty, Mack, IV, 301 
 
 Leiser, William H., IV, 78 
 
 Leitch, Olive A., Ill, 230 
 
 Leiter, Levi Z., IV, 44 
 
 Lelivelt, Joseph J., Ill, 238 
 
 Lenington, Norman G., Ill, 238 
 
 Leonard, Charles L., Ill, 93 
 
 Leonard, James G., IV, 127 
 
 Lesch, Roy, IV, 375 
 
 Lesemann, Ralph F., V, 153 
 
 Lewe, John C, III, 334 
 
 Lewis, Aquilla C, III, 434 
 
 Lewis, A. Austin, IV, 328 
 
 Lewis, Byron R., Ill, 474 
 
 Lewis, C. M., Ill, 474 
 
 Lewis, Hugo S., Ill, 473 
 
 Lewis, James Hamilton, II, 266, 278, 
 292; elected senator, 366, 395, 464, 503; 
 III, 3 
 
 Lewis Institute, V, 328 
 
 L'Hote, Eugene, III, 357 
 
 "Liberal Republican" party, II, 78 
 
 Liberal-Republican revolt, II, 122 
 
 Liberty bonds, II, 391 
 
 Libonati, Elliodor M., Ill, 64 
 
 Libonati, Roland V., Ill, 63 
 
INDEX 
 
 XXVll 
 
 Licht, Fred W., Ill, 324 
 
 Lieb, Charles, I, 468 
 
 Ligman, Thadeus S., Ill, 438 
 
 Lill, Arlington E., IV, 360 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, I, 342; early careers, 
 354, 357; facsimile of bill in handwrit- 
 ing of, 403; 420; as a Whig, 437; let- 
 ter, 462; senatorial candidate, 466; 
 criticism of U. S. Supreme Court, 470; 
 Tremont Hotel speech, 472; on Su- 
 preme Court conspiracy, 478; bio- 
 graphies of, 481; "lost speech," 484; 
 aspirations for the Presidency, 502; re- 
 sults of joint debates, 518; frontis- 
 piece nominated and elected president, 
 II, 5; speeches in East, 9; Cooper In- 
 stitute speech, 11; facsimile of letter to 
 Yates, 31; emancipation of slaves, 45; 
 war policy criticised, 47; reelected in 
 1864, 58 
 
 Lincoln, Nancy Hanks, grave of, I, 503 
 
 Lincoln-Douglas, campaign of 1858, I, 
 468; joint debates, 479, 481; at Otta- 
 wa, 493; at Freeport, 499; at Gales- 
 burg, 514 
 
 Lincoln Evening Courier, IV, 253 
 
 Lincoln High School, East St. Louis, V, 
 168 
 
 Lincoln Home at Springfield, II, 10 
 
 Lincoln Park, Chicago, II, 524 
 
 Lincoln Park Board, Chicago, II, 472 
 
 Lincoln State School, II, 361 
 
 Lincoln telegram, "You are Nominated," 
 II, 20 
 
 Lincoln Tomb, Springfield, II, 121 
 
 Linder, Usher F., V, 25 
 
 Lindheimer, Benjamin F., V, 488 
 
 Lindley, Fleetwood H., V, 307 
 
 Lindley, Cicero J., II, 426 
 
 Lindner, F. George, III, 175 
 
 Lindsay, Edward E., IV, 345 
 
 Lindsey, Albert, III, 118 
 
 Lingle, Willis E., V, 204 ■ 
 
 Link, Joseph J., Ill, 262 
 
 Linscott, Charles H., Ill, 85 
 
 Lions International, V, 387 
 
 Lippert, Fred, V, 173 
 
 Lippincott, Thomas, I, 274 
 
 Lipshulch, George U., V, 439 
 
 Lipsky, Harry A., IV, 411 
 
 Liquor, intoxicating, in early Illinois, I, 
 254 
 
 Liquor law, of 1855, I, 454 
 
 Litchfield Carnegie Public Library, III, 
 326 
 
 Litsinger, Edward R., II, 490 
 
 Little, George E., V, 280 
 
 Little, Richard H., V, 333 
 
 "Little Bull Law," I, 319 
 
 Lloyd, F. E. J., V, 29 
 
 Locke, George D., IV, 488 
 
 Lockie, George D., V, 112 
 
 Lockport Township Public Library, IV, 
 355 
 
 Lockwood, Samuel D., I, 274, 411; V, 14 
 
 Loeffler, William, II, 295 
 
 Lofgren, Emil, IV, 372 
 
 Logan, Frank G., IV, 10 
 
 Logan, Dr. John, II, 39 
 
 Logan, John A., I, 342; II, 38; Civil War 
 record, 39; 52; home in Benton, Frank- 
 lin County, 55; 119; V, 29 
 
 Logan, John J., V, 90 
 
 Logan, Stephen T., I, 411; II, 29; III, 
 501 
 
 Lohmann, Martin B., Ill, 172 
 
 Londrigan, Joseph A., IV, 193 
 
 Lonergan, Joseph M., Ill, 119 
 
 Long, John W., V, 292 
 
 "Long Knives," I, 135 
 
 Longcor, Willard H., IV, 429 
 
 Lorenzen, Anton F., IV, 211 
 
 Lorimer, William, elected senator, II, 
 181; investigation, 182, 478, 479; III, 
 36 
 
 Louisiana Purchase, I, 193 
 
 Love, Guy N., V, 364 
 
 Love, Mason, V, 265 
 
 Lovejoy, Elijah P., assassination of, I, 
 351; IV, 30 
 
 Lovejoy, Owen, I, 409; IV, 30 
 
 Lovejoy School, St. Clair County, V, 246 
 
 Lovett, Robert M., II, 397 
 
 Lowden, Frank O., II, 375; administra- 
 tion of, 380, 381; candidate for presi- 
 dent, 398; III, 27 
 
 Lowe, Leo H., IV, 160 
 
 Lowe, Walter H., Ill, 310 
 
 Loy, Ealem S., Ill, 197 
 
 Loyda, Fred J., IV, 166 
 
 Loyola University, Michael Cudahy Sci- 
 ence Hall, II, 248; V, 486 
 
 Lucas, Peter P., V, 449 
 
 Lucey, Patrick J., Ill, 223 
 
 Lucia, M., IV, 355 
 
 Lueder, Arthur C, V, 480 
 
 Luedke, Bert P., V, 130 
 
 Luker, George H., Ill, 326 
 
 Lunde, Theodore, II, 396 
 
 Luster, Max, IV, 82 
 
 Lustfield, Joseph, V, 58 
 
 Lutz, Cora C, III, 245 
 
 Lutz, John, III, 245 
 
 Lyerla, Lois, III, 330 
 
 Lyford, Will H., Ill, 137 
 
 Lyman, J. Frank, III, 13 
 
 Lyman, William H., Ill, 13 
 
 Lyman ordinance, II, 223 
 
 Lynch, John A., Ill, 340 
 
 Lynch, John I., IV, 346 
 
 Lynch, William J., IV, 76 
 
 Lyon, John B., Ill, 317 
 
 Lyon, Vernon, III, 183 
 
 Lyons, James H., IV, 391 
 
 Lytton, George, III, 313 
 
 Lytton, Henry C, IV, 18 
 
 MacChesney, Nathan W., IV, 19 
 Macomb Public Library, III, 121 
 MacDonald, Robert B., V, 72 
 Mackey, Albert N., Ill, 95 
 Mackey, Ralph A., Ill, 90 
 
XXV111 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Mackinaw Township High School, III, 
 
 198 
 MacLeish, Andrew, V, 43 
 MacMonnies, Frederick, II, 521 
 MacVeagh, Franklin, II, 520; III, 16 
 Madden, Claude P., V, 406 
 Madding, Jasper D., IV, 284 
 Madison Public Library, IV, 222 
 Madlener, Albert F., V, 320 
 Magill, Hugh S., II, 421; IV, 205 
 Maguire, Albert E., Ill, 120 
 Maguire, Thomas A., V, 97 
 Maher, Edward, V, 445 
 "Maine law," I, 454, 483 
 Major, James E., V, 397 
 Malcor, Gustave C, III, 416 
 Malloy, Charles F., V, 316 
 Malloy, John "Mique," IV, 403 
 Maloney, David B., V, 76 
 Malson, Edward J., V, 452 
 Mamer, Christopher, II, 478 
 Mandel family, II, 549 
 Mangam, Edward M., IV, 378 
 Mangum, Ray J., IV, 341 
 Manierre, George, II, 475; V, 28 
 Mann, Louis L., Ill, 16 
 Mann, Oliver D., Ill, 422 
 Manny, Walter I., II, 338 
 Manufacturing, I, 252; II, 108, 550 
 Markham, Charles H., V, 425 
 Markman, Samuel K., Ill, 334 
 Marquard Henry F., Ill, 232 
 Marquette, Father James, I, 24, 26, 27, 
 
 28; at Chicago, 32, 33; death of, 34, 
 
 36; and Indian Chief, 38 
 Marshall, John R., V, 485 
 Marshall, Robert B., Ill, 154 
 Marshall, Robert F., V, 485 
 Marshall, Samuel S., IV, 493 
 Marshall, William H., IV, 446 
 Marstiller, Francis M., Ill, 465 
 Marston, Leslie R., V, 249 
 Martin, Alice, III, 150 
 Martin, Charles H., IV, 304 
 Martin, Mellen C, V, 237 
 Martin, Ralph H., IV, 174 
 Marysvale, excitement over discovery of 
 
 copper ore, I, 437 
 Mascoutah Community High School, IV, 
 
 297 
 Mason, Edward G., Ill, 499 
 Mason, Orris W., Ill, 155 
 Mason, Parker N., Ill, 156 
 Mason, William E., II, 180, 395, 396 
 Mason City Community High School, IV, 
 
 85 
 Mason City Library, IV, 86 
 Masonic Temple, II, 521 
 Massacre, at Fort Dearborn, I, 216 
 Massman, Frederick H., V, 442 
 Matheny, W. R., V, 60 
 Mather, Archie J., IV, 232 
 Mather, Thomas, I, 274 
 Matter, Michael, IV, 222 
 Matteson, Joel A., as governor, I, 454, 
 
 455; III, 502 
 
 Mattheessen, Rudolph J., Ill, 178 
 
 Matthews, Stewart B., V, 59 
 
 Maxon, Jesse G., Ill, 91 
 
 Maxwell, Thomas R., V, 132 
 
 May, Sheffie R., IV, 129 
 
 Mayer, Levy, II, 426 
 
 Mayer, Oscar F., Ill, 330 
 
 Mayhew, John A., V, 350 
 
 Mayoralty campaign of 1903, II, 225 
 
 Mayoralty campaign of 1907, Chicago, 
 
 II, 306 
 McAdams, Mary C, III, 431 
 McAllister, William K., II, 513 
 McAndrews, James, V, 437 
 McCahey, James B., V, 243 
 McCauley, William R., IV, 296 
 McClain, Burnie, III, 147 
 McCarty, Chevalier, I, 92, 100 
 McClernand, John A., I, 342, 380, 459; 
 
 II, 39; V, 21 
 McCloskey, Robert E., IV, 294 
 McClure, Donald C, IV, 220 
 McConachie, John, V, 198 
 McConihe Family, III, 163 
 McConnell, Murray, I, 342 
 McConnell, Samuel P., II, 143, 147 
 McCord, Thomas C, IV, 241 
 McCormick, Andrew, I, 357 
 McCormick, Cyrus H., I, 448; V, 36 
 McCormick, James I., IV, 274 
 McCormick, John V., V, 64 
 McCormick, Medill, II, 395, 401 
 McCormick, Robert P., Ill, 288 
 McCormick, Ruth Hanna, II, 175, 504 
 McCormick, R. R., V, 424 
 McCormick Family, II, 549 
 McCormick Reaper Company, II, 100 
 McCorvie, Archie E., IV, 146 
 McCoy, John H., Ill, 448 
 McCrary, William M., Ill, 465 
 McCreery, W. Harold, IV, 109 
 McCulloch, Catharine W., V, 34 
 McDermaid, William H., Ill, 111 
 McDowell, Mary E., IV, 23 
 McElvain, Robert J., Ill, 387 
 McEwen, Harry W., V, 185 
 McGah, William J., V, 99 
 McGarry, John A., V, 215 
 McGaughey, John E., IV, 296 
 McGinnis, Edwin, V, 354 
 McGinnis, John P., Jr., IV, 312 
 McGlynn, Dan, IV, 279 
 McGlynn, Daniel F., IV, 280 
 McGlynn, Joseph B., IV, 279 
 McGlynn, Patterson S., IV, 178 
 McGlynn, Robert E., IV, 280 
 McGlynn & McGlynn, IV, 279 
 McGrath, Arthur R., Ill, 321 
 McGrath, James W., V, 417 
 McGregor, James, V, 284 
 McHose, Helen, III, 196 
 McHose, James D., Ill, 195 
 Mcintosh, Loy N., V, 480 
 McKeague, Robert I., Ill, 167 
 McKee, Grace, V, 110 
 McKendree, William, V, 491 
 
INDEX 
 
 XXIX 
 
 McKendree College, I, 382 
 
 McKenna, James J., IV, 415 
 
 McKenzie, Edgar A., V, 197 
 
 McKinley, William, II, 317, 371 
 
 McKinley, William B., II, 420 
 
 McKinnon, Earl, III, 136 
 
 McKnight, Clark W., IV, 260 
 
 McLean, John, I, 232, 241, 273, 294; IV, 
 9 
 
 McMahon, John J., V, 104 
 
 McNemer, George H., Ill, 442 
 
 McNulty, Thomas J., IV, 66 
 
 McRoberts, Samuel, V, 15 
 
 McShane, James C, V, 375 
 
 McWilliams, Seymour, III, 283 
 
 Meccia, John B., V, 77 
 
 Mecherle, George J., IV, 436 
 
 Medical practice, laws regulation, II, 95 
 
 Medill, Joseph, I, 492; II, 12, 78, 83, 122; 
 V, 36 
 
 Mehan, Thomas N., Ill, 199 
 
 Meier, David E., Ill, 336 
 
 Melahn, Frank, V, 387 
 
 Melton, Lloyd H., V, 318 
 
 Memorial Stadium, University of Illi- 
 nois, II, 418 
 
 Menard, Pierre, I, 186, 187, 190, 227, 
 232, 241; IV, 22 
 
 Mendota Reporter, IV, 78 
 
 Merrier, Father, I, 40 
 
 Mercy Hospital, Chicago, V, 188 
 
 Merit system, II, 362 
 
 Merkle, John L., IV, 356 
 
 Merkle Broom Company, IV, 356 
 
 Merriam, Charles E., II, 432, 506, 543 
 
 Merriam, Henry M., V, 144 
 
 Merriman, Arthur K., IV, 71 
 
 Merritt, Wesley, III, 503 
 
 Messer, Adelbert B., IV, 324 
 
 Metcalf, Howard L., V, 97 
 
 Methodist church, in 1824, I, 254 
 
 Metropolis Community High School, III, 
 341 
 
 Meurin, Father, I, 36 
 
 Mexican War, I, 402 
 
 Mexican War soldier, I, 441 
 
 Meyer, Carrie B., Ill, 172 
 
 Meyer, George L., Ill, 328 
 
 Meyer, Henry A., Ill, 327 
 
 Meyer, John G., Ill, 91 
 
 Meyer, John W. H., Ill, 171 
 
 Meyer, Walter W. L., V, 466 
 
 Meyercord, George R., IV, 101 
 
 Meyers, Joseph L., V, 383 
 
 Miami tribe, I, 11 
 
 Michael, Oscar J., IV, 394 
 
 Michael, William H., V, 276 
 
 Michalopoulos, Demetrios G., Ill, 235 
 
 Michigameas, I, 12, 18 
 
 Michigan Boulevard, II, 500 
 
 Mikes, James, IV, 370 
 
 Milar, Karl A., IV, 423 
 
 Miley, George M., V, 269 
 
 Milford Township High School, V, 349 
 
 Miller, Amos C, IV, 97 
 
 Miller, Andrew D., Ill, 177 
 
 Miller, Benjamin H., IV, 429 
 
 Miller, Carl S., V, 217 
 
 Miller, Charles A., IV, 137 
 
 Miller, Clarence E., IV, 312 
 
 Miller, Frank T., Ill, 67 
 
 Miller, George W., Ill, 178 
 
 Miller, Henry L., IV, 432 
 
 Miller, Herbert L., V, 384 
 
 Miller, Hobart G., Ill, 248 
 
 Miller, James A., V, 448 
 
 Miller, John H., IV, 124 
 
 Miller, John S., Ill, 461 
 
 Miller, Theodore W., IV, 421 
 
 Miller, Thomas W., IV, 275 
 
 Miller, Victor C, IV, 69 
 
 Millhouse, John G., Ill, 248 
 
 Mills, Edgar W., IV, 414 
 
 Mills, Louis S., Ill, 71 
 
 Mills, Luther L., V, 30 
 
 Mills, Wiley W., II, 293, 543 
 
 Milnes, William D., IV, 121 
 
 Mine Examining Board Law, II, 336 
 
 Minier Community High School, V, 230 
 
 Mining disaster, Braidwood, II, 95 
 
 Mink, William J., V, 260 
 
 Minor, F. Grant, III, 88 
 
 Minority representation, II, 85 
 
 Minton, James I., Ill, 386 
 
 Mississippi, discovery of, I, 26 
 
 Mississippi Valley in 1801, map, I, 189 
 
 Missouri Compromise, I, 431 
 
 Mitchell, James E., V, 306 
 
 Mitchell, John M., Ill, 339 
 
 Mitchell, William H., V, 12 
 
 Moberg, Vern H., Ill, 125 
 
 Modern Woodmen of America, III, 361 
 
 Moinguenas, I, 12 
 
 Mollman, Arthur J., V, 153 
 
 Monbreun, Sieur de, I, 147 
 
 Money, in 1818, I, 257 
 
 Moneypenny, David T., IV, 277 
 
 Monroe, James O., IV, 289 
 
 Monroe County, I, 233 
 
 Montgomery, Ettie M., V, 110 
 
 Montgomery, Harry C, V, 79 
 
 Montgomery, William M., V, 110 
 
 Monticello Bulletin, III, 427; V, 366 
 
 Moody, Dwight L., V, 186 
 
 Moody, Lloyd C, IV, 93 
 
 Moody, Walter D., II, 522 
 
 Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, V, 
 
 186 
 Moore, Asa B., V, 129 
 Moore, Byron R., V, 75 
 Moore, Daniel B., V, 157 
 Moore, Ella A. D., V, 193 
 Moore, Enoch, IV, 9 
 Moore, George H., Ill, 128 
 Moore, Hiram C, III, 390 
 Moore, James B., I, 266 
 Moore, Jesse C, III, 192 
 Moore, Michael F., IV, 236 
 Moore, Pearl L., IV, 358 
 Moore, Risdon, I, 268 
 Moore, Theodore C, V, 256 
 Mooseheart, III, 429 
 
XXX 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Moran, Frank T., Ill, 300 
 
 Moran, Thomas A., II, 513 
 
 Morford, Marcus L., IV, 340 
 
 Morgan, Ambert D., Ill, 395 
 
 Morgan, Howe V., V, 195 
 
 Morgan, James D., II, 38 
 
 Morische, Frank, V, 316 
 
 Mormon Church, in Illinois, I, 401 
 
 Mormon Temple, Nauvoo, I, 391 
 
 Mormon War, I, 377, 390 
 
 Mormons, exodus, I, 401 
 
 Moroney, Edward J., V, 427 
 
 Morris, David J., V, 399 
 
 Morris, Edward H., II, 426 
 
 Morris, Freeman P., Ill, 376 
 
 Morris, Lyell H., Ill, 469 
 
 Morris (City), I, 2 
 
 Morris Daily Herald, V, 408 
 
 Morris Public Library, The, III, 397 
 
 Morrison, James L. D., V, 484 
 
 Morrison, Joseph P., V, 382 
 
 Morrison, Robert, I, 190 
 
 Morrison, William, IV, 46 
 
 Morrison, W. P., II, 39 
 
 Morton, Joy, V, 3 
 
 Morton, Sterling, IV, 12 
 
 Morton Public Library, IV, 262 
 
 Morton Township High School, III, 193 
 
 Moseley, Douglas, V, 351 
 
 Moseley, Louise J., V, 352 
 
 Moss, Harry C, V, 276 
 
 Mossberger, Charles H., IV, 303 
 
 Motsinger, Ernest L., IV, 340 
 
 Moulton, Benjamin W., IV, 347 
 
 Mound City Community High Schools, 
 IV, 336 
 
 Mount Vernon, Old Supreme Court 
 Building, I, 422 
 
 Mounted rangers, in War of 1812, I, 222 
 
 Mounts, William L., Ill, 505 
 
 Mowat, Robert A., V, 328 
 
 Mud Lake, I, 362 
 
 Mudd, Ray F., IV, 492 
 
 Mueller law, II, 173, 225, 241; vote on 
 adoption, 246; certificates, 277 
 
 Mulac, Louis E., IV, 194 
 
 Mullen, Timothy F., Ill, 497 
 
 Mulligan, James A., II, 40; III, 503 
 
 Mummart, Cletus B., IV, 347 
 
 Mundelein, George W., Ill, 17 
 
 Municipal courts, II, 179 
 
 Municipal harbors, II, 179 
 
 Municipal ownership, of street railways, 
 II, 173, 224; of public utilities, 227; 
 Dunne's views, 227; plans for secur- 
 ing, 268; hostility of city council, 273; 
 vote on, 277, 463, 518, 545 
 
 Municipal Railway Board, I, 466 
 
 Munn, Loyal L,, IV, 424 
 
 Murdock, John, I, 190 
 
 Murphy, Daniel F., Ill, 221 
 
 Murphy, John B., V, 30 
 
 Murphysboro, following tornado of 1925, 
 II, 359 
 
 Murphysboro Township Union High 
 School, V, 279 
 
 Musselman, James T., IV, 237 
 Meyer, Samuel I., Ill, 325 
 Myers, Leonard F., Ill, 271 
 Myers, Walter O., Ill, 86 
 Myers, William H., V 312 
 
 Nabholz, Otto C, IV, 371 
 
 Naghten, James I., V, 330 
 
 Nash, Patrick A., Ill, 501 
 
 Nash, William H., Ill, 129 
 
 National Security League, II, 401 
 
 Naumer, Oliver V., Ill, 315 
 
 Nauvoo, I, 377 
 
 Nauvoo Charter, I, 392 
 
 Neary, Michael J., V, 430 
 
 Neddermann, John E., Ill, 189 
 
 Needham, Lewis H., V, 209 
 
 Neely, Robert E., Ill, 479 
 
 Nelson, Edward A., Ill, 452 
 
 Nelson Frithiof, III, 144 
 
 Nelson, Oscar, IV, 312 
 
 Nelson, Oscar F., II, 335, 505; III, 233 
 
 Nelson, Oscar W., IV, 183 
 
 Nelson, Permil, IV, 164 
 
 Nelson, Victor W., Ill, 483 
 
 Nelson, William L., IV, 320 
 
 Nesbit, Calvin, V, 155 
 
 Nesbitt, George W., IV, 190 
 
 Nestor, Agnes, II, 505 
 
 Nettelhorst, Louis, IV, 251 
 
 New Design, I, 212 
 
 New France, Illinois in, I, 43 
 
 Newberry, Walter L., V, 37 
 
 Newberry Library, IV, 362 
 
 Newcomer, Rosa A., Ill, 423 
 
 Newlin, E. E., V, 231 
 
 Newlin, Thomas J., V, 231 
 
 Newspapers, in Civil War, II, 50 
 
 Newton Community High School, V, 
 238 
 
 Nicholas, Albert, V, 279 
 
 Nicolay, John G., V, 458 
 
 Ninety-nine year act, II, 200, 226; Su- 
 preme Court decision, 277 
 
 Ninety-nine year grant, II, 482 
 
 Nisbet, George W., Ill, 164 
 
 Nisley, George W., V, 91 
 
 Nixon, William P., V, 45 
 
 Noble, Charles F., IV, 327 
 
 Nockles, Ed, II, 505 
 
 Noonan, Edward J., IV, 217 
 
 Noonan, Herbert C, IV, 490 
 
 Nordmeyer, Martin W., Ill, 373 
 
 Normal School, first building, Normal, 
 II, 129 
 
 Norrix, Loy, III, 450 
 
 Northern Illinois Normal School, II, 360 
 
 Northup, John E., V, 25 
 
 Northwest Territory, I, 154; plans for 
 organization, 156; map, 163; boun- 
 daries after War of 1812, 224 
 
 Northwestern University, Buildings on 
 McKinlock Campus, II, 299; IV, 386 
 
 Norton, Jesse O., IV, 495 
 
 Nortrup, Emil, III, 286 
 
 Notre Dame Church, Chicago, IV, 452 
 
INDEX 
 
 XXXI 
 
 Nott, Fred A., V, 409 
 Novak, Charles W., IV, 266 
 Novak, Frank J., V, 427 
 Novotny, Frank, IV, 481 
 Nyden, John A., V, 483 
 
 Oakes, Lannes P., Ill, 400 
 
 O'Brien, Frank J., V, 58 
 
 O'Brien, John J., IV, 74 
 
 O'Brien, L. Frederick, IV, 153 
 
 O'Brien, Martin J., II, 426, 427 
 
 O'Brien, Quin, II, 266, 517 
 
 Obrock, Clarence C, III, 423 
 
 O'Bryan, Edward M., V, 336 
 
 Ochsner, Emil A., Ill, 105 
 
 Ochsner, Ernest E., Ill, 89 
 
 O'Connell, William L., II, 293, 316, 328, 
 
 432, 501; V, 180 
 O'Connor, Charles A., Ill, 414 
 O'Connor, Jeffrey, III, 508 
 O'Connor, Thomas, III, 278 
 Octigan, Thomes P., Ill, 271 
 Odell, Valentine, V, 343 
 O'Donnell, John S., V, 110 
 O'Donnell, Patrick H., Ill, 101 
 Oekel, Alvin S., V, 322 
 Oekel, Fred, V, 322 
 Officers training camps, World War, II, 
 
 391 
 Ogden, William B., V, 13 
 Ogden Gas Bill ordinance, II, 478 
 Oglesby, John G., II, 69 
 Oglesby, Richard J., II, 34, 38; elected 
 
 governor, 65, 66 ; three times governor, 
 
 69; third administration, 97, 201, 545; 
 
 IV, 31. 
 O'Hair, Frank T., Ill, 147 
 O'Hair, Karl R., IV, 139 
 O'Hara, Daniel, II, 78 
 Ohio Company, I, 88 
 Ohio Company of Associates, I, 157 
 Ohio Land Company, I, 110 
 Ohio Valley, English in, I, 88 
 Ohlweiler, Oscar, IV, 180 
 Ohnemus, C. T., V, 147 
 Olander, Victor, II, 391, 432, 505 
 Old Brownsville, I, 384 
 Old Kelly Tavern, St. Joseph, I, 516 
 Old New Salem, Where Lincoln clerked, 
 
 I, 356 
 Old State House, Springfield, II, 6 
 Olejniczak, John J., Ill, 406 
 Olsen, Thomas F., V, 181 
 Olson, Harry, II, 478, 483 
 O'Meara, Thomas J., IV, 61 
 O'Melveny, Samuel, I, 250 
 O'Neill, Schaefer, IV, 306 
 Orators, great, I, 385 
 Ordinance of 1784, I, 170 
 Ordinance of 1787, I, 157; provisions of, 
 
 160; on slavery, 188 
 O'Reilly, Charles A., IV, 223 
 O'Reilly, Patrick J., IV, 232 
 Orr, Pence B., V, 416 
 Orvis, Elmer V., Ill, 476 
 
 Osborne, Georgia L., IV, 94 
 O'Shaughnessy, Francis, II, 266 
 Ostermeier, John H. F., IV, 139 
 Otis, Frank J., Ill, 203 
 Otis, Joseph E., Ill, 451 
 O'Toole, William R., Ill, 323 
 Ottawa, I, 367; II, 552 
 Ottawa Indians, I, 11 
 Otten, Harry, IV, 97 
 Outten, George C, IV, 135 
 Ovitz, John W., IV, 183 
 Ozark Mountains, I, 3 
 
 Pace, Vincent P., Ill, 238 
 
 Pacifists, II, 395 
 
 Packard, George, V, 68 
 
 Padden, Frank M., V, 394 
 
 Page, Joseph M., IV, 200 
 
 Palmer, Ernest, IV, 257 
 
 Palmer, John M., I, 411 459; II, 12, 38; 
 
 elected as governor, 70; 71; protests 
 
 martial law in Chicago, 75; record of, 
 
 79; in 1888 campaign, 108; elected 
 
 senator, 112; III, 27 
 Palmer, Potter, II, 68; V, 453 
 Palmer, Roy A., IV, 135 
 Palmer, William C, IV, 203 
 Palmer family, II, 550 
 Panic of 1819, I, 285 
 Panic of 1837, I, 351 
 Panic of 1873, II, 92 
 Panic of 1893, II, 159 
 Pantelis, Athanasius A., IV, 264 
 Park, Harriet, II, 396 
 Park systems, in Dunne administration, 
 
 II, 349 
 Parker, Harry S., V, 294 
 Parker, Joseph, I, 148 
 Parkinson, Etta C, IV, 284 
 Parkinson, Francis B., IV, 282 
 Parkinson, Laura V., IV 282 
 Parkinson, Robert, IV, 283 
 Parkman, L. Macy, IV, 188 
 Parks, Lawson A., V, 35 
 Parks, Samuel C, II, 83 
 Parlier, John W., IV, 118 
 Parlin Public Library, V, 80 
 Parrish, Bruce D., Ill, 301 
 Parrish, John R., V, 273 
 Patterson, George J., V, 91 
 Patterson Joseph Medill, II, 266, 292; 
 
 as Commissioner of Public Works, 
 
 300, 502 
 Patton, Robert H., V, 95 
 Paul, Daniel F., Ill, 216 
 Paxton, J. Hays, IV, 77 
 Payne, James, III, 472 
 Peabody, F. Stuyvesant, V, 32 
 Peabody family, II, 550 
 Peak, George J., IV, 429 
 Pearson, Irving F., Ill, 82 
 Pearson, Richard, V, 222 
 Pearsons Daniel K., Ill, 481 
 Peck, Ferd W., I, 520 
 Peck, John Mason, I, 253, 255, 274; V, 6 
 Peek, Burton F., V, 429 
 
XXX11 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Peel, Charles E., V, 400 
 
 Peers, George W., V, 119 
 
 Pefferle, Leslie G., Ill, 246 
 
 Peffers, John M., IV, 404 
 
 Pegram, Natalie H., IV, 62 
 
 Pekin, II, 552 
 
 Pekin Public Library, III, 76 
 
 Pelletier, Alphonse, IV, 453 
 
 Peltz, Ralph C, III, 385 
 
 Penal reforms, II, 352 
 
 Penewitt, Alexander H., V, 113 
 
 Penitentiary, first, Alton, I, 207; estab- 
 lishment of, 300, 318; II, 61; at Ches- 
 ter, 95; convict labor, 173; 353; re- 
 forms, 356 
 
 Pennock, Irving D., IV, 153 
 
 Peona, John, V, 393 
 
 "People's Council," II, 396 
 
 Peoples Gas Light and Coke Company, 
 II, 191 
 
 People's party, II, 161 
 
 People's Protective League, address of, 
 II, 432 
 
 Peoria, I, 32, 39; LaSalle at, 63; fur 
 trading center, 211; in 1812, 221; 249, 
 311; II, 552 
 
 Peoria Journal-Transcript, III, 68 
 
 Peoria Public Library, III, 66 
 
 Peoria Star, The, III, 70 
 
 Peoria Star Company, III, 70 
 
 Peoria State Hospital, II, 360 
 
 Peorias, I, 11, 12 
 
 Perkins, Charles M., Ill, 374 
 
 Perkins, Harry M., Ill, 110 
 
 Perkins, Joseph B., V, 120 
 
 Perrey, Jean Francois, I, 186, 190 
 
 Perrin, J. Nick, IV, 248 
 
 Perrin, Laura J., V, 390 
 
 Perrin, Levi, V, 390 
 
 Perrow, Arthur, V, 66 
 
 Perry, Joseph S., Ill, 488 
 
 Peschel, Joseph F., V, 477 
 
 Peters, Anna M., Ill, 472 
 
 Peterson, Charles S., IV, 286 
 
 Peterson, G. Leander, V, 296 
 
 Peterson, John W., Ill, 384 
 
 Peterson, Roy G., IV, 238 
 
 Peterson, Waino M., V, 415 
 
 Petrie, Claude L., III, 477 
 
 Petrie, Marion J., Ill, 478 
 
 Petroleum deposits, I, 8 
 
 Pfeiffenberger, Mather, IV, 308 
 
 Pfeiler, Raymond P., IV, 166 
 
 Phelps, Harvey J., Ill, 181 
 
 Phillips, David L., II, 78; V, 114 
 
 Phillips, Jesse J., Ill, 485 
 
 Phillips, Joseph, I, 266, 273; V, 13 
 
 Phoenix, Henry L., Ill, 229 
 
 Piasa Rock, I, 31 
 
 Piggott, James, I, 176 
 Pindell, Henry M., Ill, 68 
 Pine, Harry E., Ill, 296 
 Pinkerton, Harry B., Ill, 77 
 "Pinkertons," II, 108 
 Pintozzi, Carmen J., V, 207 
 Pioneer Quincy home, II, 103 
 
 Pittsfield Public Library, V, 69 
 
 Pittsford, Edith M., Ill, 194 
 
 Plamondon, Charles A., II, 382 
 
 Pleasant View Luther College, IV, 77 
 
 Plemon, Thomas H., II, V, 216 
 
 Plumb, Glenn E., II, 292 
 
 Plunkett, William J., Ill, 498 
 
 Police and fire departments, Chicago, 
 II, 291 
 
 Polish National Catholic Church, IV, 
 188 
 
 Political parties, first, I, 294 ; in Chi- 
 cago, II, 473 
 
 Politics, during the first decade, I, 290; 
 National issues, 303 ; beginning of con- 
 vention system, 311; Whig Party, 311; 
 Democratic party, 311; and public im- 
 provements, 359; in Sanitary Canal, 
 373; on the Bench, 380; in 1850, 415; 
 beginning of Republican party, 459; 
 convention of 1862, II, 35; corruption 
 in Grant administration, 77; in 1874, 
 90; in 1876, 93; campaign of 1888, 
 108; third parties, 113; free silver, 
 158; conditions in 1912, 308; in Chi- 
 cago, 528 
 
 Poll tax, I, 230 
 
 Pond, William L., Ill, 298 
 
 Pontiac, I, 98 
 
 Pontiac Reformatory, II, 353 
 
 Pontiac's war, I, 97 
 
 Pontius, Miller H., V, 52 
 
 Poorman, Andrew J., IV, 309 
 
 Pope, Nathaniel, I, 197; and statehood, 
 233; and Northern boundary, 238; 
 293, 294; IV, 14 
 
 Popular government in 1818, I, 283 
 
 Population, in 1805, I, 187; in 1810, 195; 
 in 1810, 230; in 1820, 230; 236; in 
 1820, 250; in 1840, 289; in 1850, 408; 
 in 1930, II, 547; 549 
 
 Porikos, George S., Ill, 52 
 
 Porter, Chauncey H., IV, 62 
 
 Porter, Harry H., V, 260 
 
 Porter, May, V, 355 
 
 Post, Frank M., IV, 442 
 
 Post, Louis F., II, 266 
 
 Poston, Emmett V., V, 110 
 
 Posvick, Frank, V, 51 
 
 Pottawatomies, I, 11, 248; treaty of 
 1816, 365 
 
 Potter, H. Melville, IV, 486 
 
 Pourre, Eugenio, I, 139 
 
 Poust, Cassius, IV, 186 
 
 Powers, Elmer W., IV, 412 
 
 Praeger, Robert P., II, 400 
 
 Prairie du Rocher, I, 108, 181 
 
 Prairie Farmer, II, 127; III, 49 
 
 Prairies, I, 3 
 
 Prante, Gilbert L., V, 288 
 
 Pratt, Thurlow H., Ill, 158 
 
 Preemption, I, 32 i 
 
 Preemption law, of 1813, I, 229 
 
 Preihs, Carl H., IV, 114 
 
 Prendergast, Richard, I, 372; II, 477 
 
 Prentice, Henry W., IV, 172 
 
INDEX 
 
 XXXlll 
 
 Prentiss, Benjamin M., Ill, 480 
 Presbyterian church, I, 255 
 Presbyterian Hospital, Chicago, III, 494 
 Press, freedom of, II, 193 
 Preston, S. P., IV, 434 
 Price, Sharon H., Ill, 347 
 Primary, preferential, II, 314 
 Primary election law, direct, II, 178 
 Prime, George H., V, 234 
 Primitive grain mill, I, 174 
 Primm, Howard B., IV, 210 
 Prindable, Dennis A., V, 160 
 Prindiville, Edward A., V, 487 
 Prison administration, II, 352 
 Process Verbal, at mouth of Mississippi, 
 
 I, 72 
 Proclamation Line of 1763, I, 111 
 Progressive party, II, 316 (see also 
 
 politics) 
 Prophetstown, I, 329 
 Propper, William F., IV, 115 
 Protective tariff, I, 287 
 Protective tariff policy, I, 291 
 Public Library Board. Chicago, II, 472 
 Public officials, salaries of, I, 411 
 Public ownership act, II, 330 
 Public policy act, II, 224 
 Public utility act, II, 318 
 Public Utility Commission, II, 495 
 Public utility corporations, regulation 
 
 of, II, 87 
 Public Utility Law, II, 129 
 Public works department, II, 293 
 Puente, Julius L, IV, 457 
 Pugh, Jonathan H., I, 275 
 Pullman, George M., II, 159; IV, 31 
 Pullman Company, strike of 1894, II, 
 
 148 
 Purcell, Theodore V., V, 317 
 Purl, Ruthford K., IV, 242 
 Pusey, William A., V, 470 
 Puterbaugh, Sabin D., V, 17 
 Putnam County, I, 311 
 
 Quan, James E., II, 328 
 
 Quebec Act, I, 109, 113 
 
 Querrey, Eri, IV, 116 
 
 Quincy, pioneer home, II, 103 
 
 Quincy House, II, 98 
 
 Quincy No. 1, Rough and Ready, I, 232 
 
 Quinlan, George A., Ill, 332 
 
 Quinn, Frank J., Ill, 69 
 
 Quinn, James R., V, 375 
 
 Racketeers, II, 485 
 
 Rail fence, I, 436 
 
 Railroad Act of 1871, II, 128 
 
 Railroad and Warehouse Commission, 
 II, 128 
 
 Railroad corporations, II, 72 
 
 Railroad law of 1873, JI, 129 
 
 Railroads, I, 357; original system 
 planned, 358; building in '50s, 454; 
 in Constitution of 1870, II, 85; legis- 
 lation of 1871, 95; and farmers, 126; 
 
 control of rates, 127; abolition of 
 passes, 128; safety legislation, 337; 
 and waterways, 455 
 
 Railway strike, 1871, II, 99 
 
 Radeke, August C, III, 358 
 
 Ralston, Harris P., Ill, 56 
 
 Rambo, Manuel G., Ill, 126 
 
 Rammelkamp, Charles H., Ill, 14 
 
 Randolph, Isham, II, 517 
 
 Randolph, James M., I, 459 
 
 Randolph County, I, 182 
 
 Rantoul, II, 391 
 
 Rathbun, Charles F., V, 340 
 
 Raum, John, I, 342 
 
 Rawlins, John A., IV, 47 
 
 Ray, Edward J., Ill, 265 
 
 Ray, Joseph G., Ill, 362 
 
 Raymond, Charles W., Ill, 425 
 
 Read, Francis A, III, 100 
 
 Reapportionment, of senatorial and con- 
 gressional districts, II, 348; demand 
 for, 546 
 
 Red Cross, II, 391 
 
 Red Light district, II, 292 
 
 Redell, John M., Ill, 446 
 
 Redman, Benjamin H., IV, 61 
 
 Redpath, Robert W., V, 174 
 
 Reed, Clark S., V, 88 
 
 Reeda, William, III, 455 
 
 Reedy, William H., I, 7 
 
 Rees, Thomas, I, 390; V, 262 
 
 Reese, Leal W., IV, 110 
 
 Reeve, Austin B., Ill, 160 
 
 Reeve, Sarah L. B., Ill, 160 
 
 Reeve Family, III, 160 
 
 Reeves, Walter, IV, 40 
 
 Reformatories, changes in management 
 of, II, 353 
 
 Reichert, Edwin F., Ill, 152 
 
 Reilly, Thomas P., V, 172 
 
 Reisner, Farrish A., V, 271 
 
 Religion, in frontier state, I, 252 
 
 Religious fanaticism, I, 399; II, 483 
 
 Rennick, Frederick W., V, 227 
 
 Rennick, Percival G., Ill, 64 
 
 Rentner, Otto C, IV, 207 
 
 Republican League, National Progress- 
 ive, II, 308 
 
 Republican National Convention, of 
 1860, II, 12; of 1912, 315; in 1920, 398 
 
 Republican party, (See also Politics), I, 
 456; birth of, 459; in 1871, II, 77; 
 1872-92, 113; in 1868, 119; Liberal, 
 in 1872, 126; and farmers' alliance, 
 129; and free silver, 159; in Chicago, 
 478 
 
 Repudiation of debts, I, 387 
 
 Resa, Alexander J., IV, 125 
 
 Reuling, Clarence W., Ill, 74 
 
 Reum, Reinhold F., Ill, 113 
 
 Revell, A. H., II, 520 
 
 Revenue reform, II, 346 
 
 Revenues, in 1850, I, 414 
 
 Revolutionary War, conquest of North- 
 west, I, 108 
 
XXXIV 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Reynolds, George M., V, 146 
 
 Reynolds, John, I, 8; quoted, 52, 176, 221, 
 273, 295; elected governor, 305; ad- 
 ministration of, 316, 317, 342; IV, 35 
 
 Reynolds, Myron B., IV, 368 
 
 Reynolds, Robert, I, 190 
 
 Reynolds, Thomas, I, 273, 295 
 
 Rhymer, Lloyd S., IV, 342 
 
 Rhymer, Wesley J., V, 210 
 
 Rice, Edward Y., II, 83 
 
 Rice, Lawrence A., IV, 76 
 
 Richards, James R., V, 169 
 
 Richardson, Tyrrell A., V, 460 
 
 Richardson, William A., I, 456; II, 48; 
 V, 35 
 
 Richberg, Donald, II, 543 
 
 Richert, John C, V, 233 
 
 Rickelman, Harry J., IV, 333 
 
 Riddle, Henry C, V, 117 
 
 Riegel, Ralph C, V, 268 
 
 Riffey, James H., IV, 448 
 
 Rigdon, Sidney, I, 399 
 
 Riley, Jesse, IV, 117 
 
 Ripley, Edward P., V, 24 
 
 Risinger, C. Frederick, V. 304 
 
 Risley, Harry R., Ill, 338 
 
 Risley, Theodore G., IV, 330 
 
 Ritter, Emil W., IV, 218 
 
 River Forest, I, 7 
 
 Rivers, I, 1 
 
 Road building, progress, to October, 
 1921, II, 388; $60,000,000 bond issue 
 authorized, 402; progress of, 410; 
 $100,000,000 bond issue, 411 
 
 Road camps, II, 356 
 
 Road improvement, in Dunne admini- 
 stration, II, 330 
 
 Roads, I, 237, in 1912, II, 316; convict 
 labor, 356 
 
 Robbins, Chauncey W., IV, 388 
 
 Robbins, Henry S., IV, 226 
 
 Roberts, Charlotte W., Ill, 338 
 
 Roberts, Dewey M., IV, 220 
 
 Roberts, Edward, I, 366 
 
 Roberts, Harry C, IV, 332 
 
 Roberts, Harry E., IV, 133 
 
 Roberts, Philip F., Ill, 337 
 
 Roberts, Robert M., Ill, 141 
 
 Roberts, Robert P., Ill, 379 
 
 Roberts, Thomas E., Ill, 263 
 
 Roberts, Warren R., Ill, 507 
 
 Roberts, William J., V. 419 
 
 Robertson, Alexander P., IV, 267 
 
 Robertson, John D., V, 33 
 
 Robertson, Thomas S., V, 34 
 
 Robins, Raymond, II, 293, 368, 502 
 
 Robinson, Edward H., Ill, 454 
 
 Robinson, Emma F., Ill, 404 
 
 Robinson, George W., Ill, 404 
 
 Robinson, Harrison, V, 361 
 
 Robinson, James C., Ill, 35 
 
 Robinson, John M., V, 35 
 
 Robinson, Luther F., Ill, 409 
 
 Robinson Carnegie Public Library, V, 
 227 
 
 Roche, John A., II, 474 
 
 Roche, John P., V, 68 
 
 Roche, Patrick F., IV, 495 
 
 Rock, David L, V, 409 
 
 Rock Island, battle at, I, 222, 248; II, 56 
 
 Rock Island County, I, 311 
 
 Rock Island Public Library, IV, 268 
 
 Rock River, I, 320 
 
 Rock Springs Seminary, I, 287 
 
 Rockford, Camp Grant, II, 391 
 
 Rogers, Egbert I., V, 169 
 
 Rogers, Frank D., V, 430 
 
 Rogers, George T., V, 391 
 
 Rogers, John, I, 138 
 
 Rogers, John G., II, 474 
 
 Romberg, Edwin, III, 139 
 
 Rominger, William E., IV, 322 
 
 Roodhouse Public Library, V, 256 
 
 Rooney, George A., V, 95 
 
 Root, Charles B., Ill, 224 
 
 Rork, Curtis W., V, 413 
 
 Roselle, Ernest N., Ill, 430 
 
 Rosenfield, Walter A., Ill, 221 
 
 Rosenheim, David, II, 266, 543 
 
 Rosenwald, Julius, II, 514; III, 12 
 
 Rosenwald, Lessing J., Ill, 13 
 
 Ross, Lewis W., II, 83 
 
 Ross, Walter, V, 195 
 
 Ross Family, Cass County, V, 195 
 
 Rosson, James K., IV, 329 
 
 Rostenkowski, Joseph P., IV, 253 
 
 Rotermann, Bernard, Jr., IV, 252 
 
 Roth, Jesse H., V, 346 
 
 Rouland, Adolph E., V, 100 
 
 Ruegg, William A., Ill, 244 
 
 Rummel, Edward, II, 78 
 
 Runion, Osborne A., V, 238 
 
 Runyard, Eugene M., IV, 434 
 
 Rushville, I, 311 
 
 Russell, Paul S., V, 259 
 
 Russell, William H., I, 373 
 
 Ryan, Andrew J., Ill, 62 
 
 Ryan, Frank, V, 478 
 
 Ryan, Michael F., IV, 178 
 
 Ryan, O'Neill, Jr., Ill, 478 
 
 Ryden, Otto G., IV, 393 
 
 Ryder, William, V, 138 
 
 Sabath, A. J., II, 517 
 
 Sackett, Loren B., V, 408 
 
 Sadler, Lena K., Ill, 30 
 
 Sadler, William S., Ill, 30 
 
 Safety devises, II, 136 
 
 St. Angela's Academy, Morris, IV, 354 
 
 St. Anthony's Church, Rockford, V, 356 
 
 St. Augustine Parish and High School, 
 V, 468 
 
 St. Charles School for Boys, II, 361 
 
 St. Clair, Arthur, first governor of 
 Northwest Territory, I, 159; 161; ad- 
 ministration of, 176; defeat, 179; on 
 slavery, 190 
 
 St. Clair County, I, 176, 181 
 
 St. Gaudens, Augustus, II, 521 
 
 St. Ignatius College, Chicago, III, 354; 
 IV, 490 
 
 St. John, Elzer, IV, 274 
 
INDEX 
 
 XXXV 
 
 St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Peoria, III, 
 
 239 
 St. Lawrence waterway, II, 554 
 St. Mary of the Angels Parish, Chicago, 
 
 III, 438 
 St. Michael Parish and High School, 
 
 Chicago, IV, 364 
 St. Philip Neri Parish, V, 47 
 St. Procopius College, IV, 441 
 St. Vitus Parish, Chicago, III, 266 
 St. Xavier's College for Women, IV, 278 
 Salaries of public officials, I, 411 
 Saloon licenses, increase of, II, 277; 291 
 Salt-making, I, 252 
 Salt mines, I, 198 
 Salzenstein, Emanuel, III, 309 
 Samios, Harry, IV, 332 
 Sanborn, Joseph B., II, 402 
 Sanders, Tom, V, 308 
 Sangamon County, I, 250 
 Sanitary District of Chicago, I, 372; II, 
 
 462, 472 
 San Jose High School, IV, 162 
 Sappington, Clarence 0., V, 472 
 Sargent, Fred W., Ill, 12 
 Sauk and Fox Indians, I, 11, 198, 248 
 Saukenuk, I, 327 
 Sault Ste. Marie, I, 28 
 Saunders, Eugene, III, 112 
 Saunders, Neill M., V, 87 
 Savage, Joseph P., IV, 399 
 Savanna Public Library, IV, 380 
 Sawbridge, Arthur U., Ill, 481 
 Sawmills, I, 9, 251 
 Sawyer, William I., IV, 467 
 Scammon, J. Young, II, 481; V, 87 
 Scanlon, William M., II, 426 
 Scarborough, Henry F., V, 283 
 Scates, Walter B., I, 385, 411; V, 30 
 Schaefer, Edwin M., Ill, 386 
 Schafer, L. A., IV, 297 
 Scharton, John F., IV, 454 
 Scheffler, Edward S., Ill, 502 
 Schilling, Henry, III, 304 
 Schlaeger, Edward, I, 444 
 Schlaeger, Victor L., Ill, 480 
 Schlueter, Charles, V, 469 
 Schmidt, Anthony J., IV, 52 
 Schmidt, Henry G., V, 268 
 Schmidt, Herman, III, 463 
 Schmidt, Oscar W., Ill, 166 
 Schmidt, Otto L., Ill, 15 
 Schmulbach, Sam C, III, 319 
 Schneider, Frederick F., Ill, 418 
 Schneider, George, I, 444 
 Schneider, George A., IV, 276 
 Schoeneweiss, William F., V, 163 
 Schofield, John, II, 83 
 Schofield, John M., IV, 50 
 School lands, I, 199 
 School law, Free, of 1855, I, 454 
 Schools, in 1818, I, 244; pioneer, 252; 
 
 free, 298; laws, 109; reading of the 
 
 Bible, II, 88; laws, 139 
 Schoonover, Herbert E., Ill, 29 
 Schott, Albert H., V, 178 
 
 Schott, Charles, IV, 226 
 
 Schriver, Harry M., V, 252 
 
 Schroeder, Werner W., V, 67 
 
 Schroeppel, G. H. R., IV, 452 
 
 Schuler, George T., V, 216 
 
 Schupp, Robert W., V, 333 
 
 Schuwerk, William M., V, 203 
 
 Schwab, Charles H., II, 520 
 
 Schwartz, Charles K., Ill, 481 
 
 Schwartz, Charles P., Ill, 385 
 
 Schwartz, William A., V, 325 
 
 Schwarz, B. Leo, III, 220 
 
 Schweitzer, Edmund O., IV, 485 
 
 Scofield, Charles J. (Carthage), III, 21 
 
 Scofield, Charles J. (Chicago), V, 472 
 
 Scofield, Rose S., Ill, 23 
 
 Scofield, Timothy J., V, 471 
 
 Scollin, Walter J., Ill, 455 
 
 Scolnik, Avern B., IV, 171 
 
 Scott, Frank H., IV, 162 
 
 Scott, Frederick D., IV, 295 
 
 Scott, George C, V, 410 
 
 Scott, Gerry D., V, 379 
 
 Scott, Hale C, V, 89 
 
 Scott, Hugh, IV, 390 
 
 Scott, John M., IV, 32 
 
 Scott, Melvin O., Ill, 260 
 
 Scott, Winneld, I, 339, 342; III, 493 
 
 Scott Field, II, 391 
 
 Scranton, Harry R., Ill, 79 
 
 Scranton, Hiram L., Ill, 163 
 
 Scrimger, Schuyler C, III, 179 
 
 Scroggin, Carter R., IV, 128 
 
 Scroggin, Nancy, IV, 128 
 
 Seaman, George G., IV, 102 
 
 Searle, Charles J., IV, 24 
 
 Searle, J. Clinton, IV, 456 
 
 Seaton, Gordon E., Ill, 458 
 
 Second Cook County Courthouse, II, 24 
 
 Secretary of State, I, 241 
 
 Seever, Charles W., Ill, 388 
 
 Selby, Paul, I, 486; III, 40 
 
 Semple, James, I, 342; V, 32 
 
 Senatorial and congressional districts, 
 
 reapportionment, II, 348 
 Senatorial deadlock, of 1909, II, 180; of 
 
 1913, 366 
 Sentel, George A., IV, 33 
 Sergei, Charles H., II, 432 
 Sewell, John S., IV, 197 
 Seymour, Henry M., V, 82 
 Shabbona, Chief, I, 330 
 Shadel, Helen S., V, 69 
 Shafer, Benjamin F., Ill, 95 
 Shaffer, William C, V, 124 
 Shallberg, Gustavus A., IV, 187 
 Shanahan, David E., II, 371, 375, 391, 
 
 426; V, 458 
 Shannon, Frederick F., Ill, 31 
 Shantz, Joseph E., IV, 34 
 Shaw, Benjamin F., V, 407 
 Shaw, George B., V, 407 
 Shaw, Walter A., II, 328, 458; III, 316 
 Shawnees, I, 12 
 
 tiawneetown, 1; 
 
 marshal's residence, 378 
 
XXXVI 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Shea, Francis J., IV, 453 
 
 Shedd, John G., V, 30 
 
 Sheehe, Norman L., Ill, 84 
 
 Sheets, Robert W., IV, 143 
 
 Sheets Company, The, IV, 143 
 
 Sheldon, Salmon M., IV, 443 
 
 Sheldon, Warren M., IV, 443 
 
 Shelton, Roy, IV, 307 
 
 Shepherd, Eber D., IV, 75 
 
 Sheridan, Philip, II, 75 
 
 Sherman, Lawrence Y., elected senator, 
 II, 366, 368 
 
 Sherman, LeRoy K., II, 458; IV, 227 
 
 Sherman, Robert T., V, 72 
 
 Sherman law, of 1890, II, 158 
 
 Sherwood, Charles S., IV, 391 
 
 Shields. Balford Q., IV, 57 
 
 Shields; James, I, 406, 414, 423, 482; IV, 
 41 
 
 Shipton, A. W., IV, 338 
 
 Shirley, Eliza J., IV, 476 
 
 Shirley, George B., IV, 476 
 
 Shoop, Frederick W., Ill, 241 
 
 Shope, Simeon F., II, 192 
 
 Short, William T., Ill, 459 
 
 Siebel, August F. W., IV, 196 
 
 Siedenburg, Frederic, IV, 37 
 
 Sihler, George A., V, 286 
 
 Silver (See Free Silver), II, 154 
 
 Silverman, Lazarus, III, 138 
 
 Simonds, William E., IV, 402 
 
 Simons, J. W., Ill, 479 
 
 Simpson, James, III, 15 
 
 Sims, Delbert E., Ill, 331 
 
 Sims, Ira W., Ill, 253 
 
 Singleton, James W., I, 459; III, 505 
 
 Sinnett, Thomas P., Ill, 207 
 
 Sisters of Mercy, Chicago, V, 188 
 
 Skarda, Edward, V, 405 
 
 Skinner, Charles P., Ill, 212 
 
 Skinner, Charles S., Ill, 145 
 
 Skinner, Mark, IV, 40 
 
 Skinner, Onias C, II, 83 
 
 Slade, Charles, I, 319; V, 487 
 
 Sladek, Edward, III, 266 
 
 Slane, Carl P., Ill, 69 
 
 Slane, Merle, III, 69 
 
 Slattery, Patrick J., IV, 250 
 
 Slavery, and indentured servants, I, 188; 
 convention of 1802, 190; in 1817, 232; 
 240; issue, 259; convention struggle, 
 272; question in 1850, 415; in Consti- 
 tution and laws, 421; as Civil War is- 
 sue, II, 43 
 
 Slavery article in Ordinance of 1787, I, 
 186 
 
 Sleezer, Gladys, III, 405 
 
 Sloo, Thomas, I, 366 
 
 Small, Len, II, 312; administration of, 
 404, 405; III, 33 
 
 Small, Leslie C, IV, 418 
 
 Smietanka, A. M., Ill, 55 
 
 Smietanka, Julius, II, 517 
 
 Smith, Adna J., Ill, 462 
 
 Smith, Alfred R., IV, 86 
 
 Smith, Arthur M., II, 426; III, 134 
 
 Smith, Ben L., Ill, 174 
 
 Smith, Buren H., Ill, 341 
 
 Smith, Cecil C, IV, 213 
 
 Smith, Clayton F., Ill, 435 
 
 Smith, Clement L., Ill, 336 
 
 Smith, Elbert S., IV, 157 
 
 Smith, Frank L., elected as U. S. Sena- 
 tor, II, 420; 495, 510 
 
 Smith, Fred A., Ill, 88 
 
 Smith, George P., IV, 355 
 
 Smith, George W., IV, 473 
 
 Smith, Horace G., Ill, 31 
 
 Smith, John T., V, 226 
 
 Smith, Joseph, I, 390; martyrdom of, 395 
 
 Smith, Orson, V, 31 
 
 Smith, Sidney, II, 517 
 
 Smith, Theophilus W., I, 273, 366; III, 25 
 
 Smoke nuisance, II, 293 
 
 Smull, Oscar, III, 432 
 
 Smulski, John F., II, 508, 517 
 
 Sneed, William J., II, 426 
 
 Snethen, Edwin S., Ill, 417 
 
 Snively, John R., IV, 334 
 
 Snodgrass, J. F., IV, 244 
 
 Snook, Albert M., Ill, 448 
 
 Snyder, Adam W., I, 342, 387; V, 40 
 
 Snyder, Ralph M., V, 251 
 
 Snyder, William H., II, 83 
 
 Social conditions, in 1818, I, 245 
 
 Soderlin, Carl W., Ill, 325 
 
 Soderstrom, Ruben G., V, 10 
 
 Sohner, Ezra H., Ill, 214 
 
 Soil, I, 1 
 
 Sommer, William H., Ill, 275 
 
 Sons of Liberty, II, 54 
 
 Sonsteby, John J., II, 293; V, 191 
 
 Souders, John C, V, 192 
 
 Soule, Earle A., V, 489 
 
 South Park Board, Chicago, II, 472 
 
 Southern Illinois Penitentiary, V, 190 
 
 Southern Illinois State Normal School, 
 II, 359 
 
 Soverhill, Wilber R., V, 223 
 
 Sowers, Charles M., V, 237 
 
 Spaeth, Alonzo M., Ill, 342 
 
 Spalding, Albert G., V, 28 
 
 Spalding Institute, IV, 223 
 
 Spanish-American War, II, 170 
 
 Sparr, H. A., Ill, 332 
 
 Spaulding, John L., Ill, 284 
 
 Spaulding, Willis J., II, 432 
 
 Speakman, John W., IV, 416 
 
 Speaks, Pearly E., V, 283 
 
 Speer, John M., Ill, 135 
 
 Spencer, Charles C, V, 243 
 
 Spiller, Edward M., Ill, 436 
 
 Spitler, George B., IV, 134 
 
 Spitler, Ida B., IV, 134 
 
 Sponsler, William A., IV, 136 
 
 Sprague, Albert A., Ill, 5 
 
 Spreckelmeyer, Arthur L., IV, 124 
 
 Springer, William M., V, 21 
 
 Springfield, becomes State capital, I, 354 
 
 "Squatter" claims, I, 229 
 
 "Squatter sovereignty," I, 447 
 
 "Squatters," I, 323 
 
INDEX 
 
 XXXVll 
 
 Stagg, Amos A., IV, 384 
 
 Staley, Edward E., V, 116 
 
 Stallings, Olive B., IV, 228 
 
 Staples, Joseph W., Ill, 227 
 
 Starkes, James L., V, 213 
 
 Starved Rock, I, 13-62; fortified, 67, 75; 
 
 lock and dam, II, 413 
 State Administrative code, II, 338 
 State bank, I, 302, 308, 410 
 State bank law, I, 346 
 State Board of Administration, II, 349 
 State Board of Equalization, II, 346; 
 
 abolished, 403 
 State bonds, for system of public im- 
 provements, I, 358 
 State budget, II, 339 
 State Bureau of Labor, II, 334 
 State Capitol at Vandalia, I, 256 
 State Capitol, Springfield, II, 74; remod- 
 eling of 361 
 State civil service law, II, 361 
 State Colony for Epileptics, II, 359 
 State Council of Defense, II, 391 
 State debt, I, 360, 386; limitation of, 
 
 410; debt, funded, 412 
 State Factory Inspector, II, 335 
 State Federation of Labor, II, 454 
 State Highway Commission, II, 331 
 State Highway Department, II, 332 
 State House at Kaskaskia, I, 196 
 
 State house, II, 67 
 State Institutions, reforms, II, 349 
 State militia, in 1861, II, 29 
 State Public Utilities Act, first commis- 
 sioners, II, 328 
 State Public Utilities Commission, II, 322 
 State Register, V, 262 
 State Soldiers' Orphans' Home, II, 360 
 State Tax Commission, Cook County re- 
 assessment, 415 
 
 State treasurer, responsibilities and du- 
 ties of, II, 406 
 
 Statehood, agitation for, I, 231 
 
 Staunton Public Library, III, 332 
 
 Staver, Elery H., Ill, 133 
 
 Stead, William T., II, 317 
 
 Steamboats, I, 230, 242, 284 
 
 Steck, Mae C, III, 409 
 
 Steck, Stephen A., Ill, 409 
 
 Stedman, Seymour, II, 396, 397, 432 
 
 Steele, Charles N. Ill, 473 
 
 Steele, Roy F., V, 349 
 
 Steidley, Arthur J., Sr., Ill, 282 
 
 Stelzer, Erwin, V, 178 
 
 Stephens, Cassie W., Ill, 444 
 
 Stephenson, Benjamin, IV, 42 
 
 Stepina, James F., II, 432 
 
 Sterling, Fred E., IV, 26 
 
 Sterling, Thomas, I, 103 
 
 Steuernagel, Bella, IV, 240 
 
 Stevens, Frank E., Ill, 367 
 
 Stevens, Riley E., IV, 418 
 
 Stevens Family, III, 161 
 
 Stevenson, Adlai E., Vice President U. S., 
 II, 151; III, 59 
 
 Stevenson, Adlai E., Jr., Ill, 60 
 
 Steward, Lewis, II, 133 
 
 Stewart, George B., Ill, 132 
 
 Stewart, L. J., Ill, 158 
 
 Stewart, William W., Ill, 223 
 
 Stickelmaier, Henry C, V, 443 
 
 Stiehl, Clarence G., V, 158 
 
 Stierwalt, Paris A., IV, 310 
 
 Stillman, Isaiah, I, 329; defeat of, 330 
 
 "Stillman's Run," I, 332 
 
 Stock, Frederick A., V, 42 
 
 Stockyards strike, 1880, II, 99 
 
 Stoll, John O., V, 281 
 
 Stolle, Erwin F., V, 62 
 
 Stone, Claudius U., Ill, 227 
 
 Stone, Dan, I, 357 
 
 Stone, George L., Ill, 331 
 
 Stone, Melville E., I, 372 
 
 Stookey, Marshall C, IV, 126 
 
 Storey, Wilbur F., V, 49 
 
 Storm, Arthur B., V, 52 
 
 Storm, Isaac S., IV, 149 
 
 Storrs, Emery A., great orator, I, 385; 
 
 V, 32 
 Stotts, Arthur F., V, 325 
 Stouffer, Karl J., Ill, 412 
 Stout, Ray D., Ill, 117 
 Strain, Ross H., Ill, 88 
 Strange, Alexander T., V, 244 
 Strawn, Silas H., II, 517; III, 19 
 Streator Public Library, IV, 163 
 Streator Township High School, IV, 161 
 Street car companies, record of, II, 195 
 Street car franchises, II, 195 
 Street car strike, 1885, II, 99 
 Street car system, under Yerkes, II, 211; 
 
 defects of, 267 
 Street railways, municipal ownership of, 
 
 II, 173 
 Streeter, A. J., II, 112 
 Strever, Horatio M., Ill, 258 
 Strike of teamsters, II, 268 
 Stringer, Lawrence B., II, 176; III, 250 
 Strotz, Harold C, III, 152 
 Strotz, Sidney N., IV, 49 
 Struble, Henry, III, 321 
 Stuart, Alexander, I, 197 
 Stuart, Graeme, II, 225 
 Stuart, John T., I, 343, 377; III, 33 
 Stubblefield, Frank A., IV, 372 
 Studebaker, Oscar W., IV, 323 
 Stump, Walter E., V, 260 
 Sturgis, Isaac A., V, 208 
 Sturtevant, Julian M., V, 50 
 Sturtz, Charles E., IV, 444 
 Suffrage, territorial qualifications, I, 230; 
 
 right of aliens, 381; II, 82, 84; for 
 
 women, 337 
 Sullivan, Boetius H., Ill, 275 
 Sullivan, Harold P., V, 386 
 Sullivan, Henry D., Jr., IV, 455 
 Sullivan, Louis H., V, 36 
 Sullivan, Roger C, II, 159, 367, 477, 482, 
 
 510; III, 274 
 Sullivan, Thomas J., V, 232 
 Sullivan, William L. (Foreword) 
 
XXXV111 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Sullivan, William P., V, 121 
 
 Summers, Pauline D., IV, 285 
 
 Supreme Court, judges of, I, 241 ; in 1840, 
 
 381; bill for reorganization of, 383; 
 
 Lincoln's criticism of, 470; decision on 
 
 Small case, II, 409, 435 
 Supreme Court Building, II, 408 
 Supreme Court Building, Old, Mount 
 
 Vernon, I, 422 
 Sutherland, T. M., IV, 320 
 Suverkrup, Bernard, IV, 222 
 Swan, Dot D., V, 69 
 Swanson, Ann E., V., 38 
 Swanson, David I., Ill, 157 
 Swanson, H. G., V, 329 
 Swanson, John A., II, 460, 485 
 Swanson, Luella A., V, 38 
 Swanson, Minnie M., V, 38 
 Swanson, Swan G., V, 37 
 Sweatshop law, II, 140 
 Sweet, B. J., II, 56 
 Sweitzer, Robert M., II, 483; IV, 29 
 Swett, Leonard, IV, 38 
 Swift, Hardy M., Ill, 463 
 Swift, Louis F., V, 39 
 Swift family, II, 549 
 Swinney, John J., V, 342 
 Swope, Willis G., IV, 229 
 Symonds, Nathaniel G., V, 54 
 Szymczak, M. S., V, 239 
 
 Tacoma Building, II, 521 
 
 Taft, Justin, V, 133 
 
 Taft, Lorado, II, 521 
 
 Taft, Richard H., V, 128 
 
 Tamaroas, I, 12-18 
 
 Tambling, Emma E. S., IV, 231 
 
 Tamblmg, Myron E., IV, 231 
 
 Tanner, John R., II, 160; Governor, 170, 
 
 171; V, 48 
 Taphorn, Henry, V, 295 
 Tariff laws, I, 286; and labor, II, 108; 
 
 protective, 126 
 Tarrent, Michael A., Ill, 493 
 Tax commission, II, 346, 403 
 Tax revenues, I, 307 
 Tax revolt, II, 485 
 Taxable values, in 1850, I, 414 
 Taxation, Territorial, I, 228; equitable, 
 
 II, 88; inequality of, 414; and revenue, 
 
 in proposed Constitution, 440; burdens, 
 
 548; 556 
 Taylor, Albert C, IV, 230 
 Taylor, Albert J., V, 136 
 Taylor, Benjamin F., V, 31 
 Taylor, Clarence C, III, 136 
 Taylor, Edward Henson, V, 433 
 Taylor, Edward Hyde, V, 136 
 Taylor, Ella H., IV, 447 
 Taylor, Elmer A., Ill, 433 
 Taylor, E. D., I, 459 
 Taylor, Frank G., Ill, 153 
 Taylor, Harry O., V, 208 
 Taylor, Percy L., V, 108 
 Taylor, Ralph, V, 303 
 
 Taylor, Richard F., IV, 323 
 
 Taylor, Warren E., Ill, 215 
 
 Taylor, Will, V, 167 
 
 Taylor, William L., IV, 338 
 
 Taylor, Zachary, I, 222, 342; III, 34 
 
 Taylorville Public Library, III, 205 
 
 Tebeau, Lewis, III, 374 
 
 Teachers' Federation, Chicago, II, 454 
 
 Tecumseh, I, 201; and Tippecanoe, 203; 
 204; death of, 207 
 
 Teed, Frank B., IV, 207 
 
 Telephone service rates, II, 291 
 
 Telford, Elbridge W., V, 189 
 
 Terdina, Frank, III, 344 
 
 Terminal facilities, II, 179 
 
 Terra cotta, I, 9 
 
 Terrell, Thomas J., Ill, 402 
 
 Terrell, William J., Ill, 236 
 
 Territorial government, classes of I, 183 
 
 Teter, Lucius, V, 42 
 
 Thady, Emory, III, 151 
 
 Thielen, Frank, V, 443 
 
 Thirteenth amendment, II, 65 
 
 Thirty-Third Division, World War, II, 
 389 
 
 Thomas, Charles B., Ill, 257 
 
 Thomas, Edward B., V, 410 
 
 Thomas, Jesse B., I, 194, 197, 232, 273, 
 294; IV, 34 
 
 Thomas, John T., V, 106 
 
 Thomason, Allison, IV, 252 
 
 Thomason, Chester A., IV, 253 
 
 Thompson, Charles W., IV, 316 
 
 Thompson, Alice H., II, 432 
 
 Thompson, Carl, II, 543 
 
 Thompson, Floyd E., II, 530; III, 224 
 
 Thompson, John R., II, 508; III, 41 
 
 Thompson, J. M., II, 111 
 
 Thompson, Owen P., II, 328 
 
 Thompson, Theodore, IV, 73 
 
 Thompson, William Hale, II, 395; candi- 
 date for U. S. Senator, 401; 480; 
 elected mayor, 483; 490, 496, 538, 545 
 
 Thompson, William O., II, 192 
 
 Thompson machine, II, 484 
 
 Thompson Republicans, II 398 
 
 Thomson, Norman B., V, 438 
 
 Thomson, Thomas L., V, 175 
 
 Thornton, Anthony, I, 411; IV, 482 
 
 Thornton, Charles S., IV, 479 
 
 Thornton, Earl L., IV, 269 
 
 Thorp, Boyd, V, 275 
 
 Throop, Addison J., Ill, 287 
 
 Tice Road Law, II, 331, 410 
 
 Tiernan, Robert W., V, 166 
 
 Tierney, Joseph, IV, 468 
 
 Tiffany, Lester, IV, 426 
 
 Tilden, Edward, II, 183 
 
 Tilley, Ronald U., III, 99 
 
 Tippecanoe, battle of, I, 207 
 
 Tipsword, Miles A., V, 131 
 
 Titcomb, Kate, IV, 369 
 
 Tivnen, Bryan R., Ill, 304 
 
 Tobin, Patrick J., Ill, 188 
 
 Todd, Harry M., Ill, 357 
 
INDEX 
 
 XXXIX 
 
 Todd, John, lieutenant governor of Illi- 
 nois County, I, 132; 139; resigns, 145 
 
 Tohill, Noah M., IV, 292 
 
 Tolman, Edgar B., II, 391, 505 
 
 Toman, John, V, 324 
 
 Tomkins, William J., V, 285 
 
 Tonti, Henry de, I, 61; experiences of, 
 67, 68; at Fort St. Louis, 81 
 
 Topography, I, 2 
 
 Township High School Building, typical, 
 II, 399 
 
 Traction history, II, 195; companies, un- 
 der Allen law, 222; situation in 1905, 
 257; settlement ordinances, vetoed, 
 280; question in 1907, 294; settlement 
 ordinances, approved, 295; fares in 
 Chicago, 419; Dever administration, 
 463; during Harrison regime, 482; 
 question in 1928, 491; settlement of 
 1930, 492; settlement of 1930, 530 
 
 Traeger, John E., II, 266, 398, 426 
 
 Trager, John W., Ill, 229 
 
 Trainer, J. Milton, III, 489 
 
 Trainer, William O., V, 471 
 
 Trainor, Mary A. R., (Mrs. Charles J.,) 
 IV, 72 
 
 Transportation, pioneer, I, 188 
 
 Traub, William F., IV, 82 
 
 Travel and Transport Building, Century 
 of Progress Exposition, II, 544 
 
 Traylor, Melvin A., II, 517; III, 7 
 
 Treat, Samuel H., I, 385; II, 54; V, 29 
 
 Treaty of Greenville, I, 180 
 
 Treaty of 1783, I, 140 
 
 Trego, Solomon H., Ill, 122 
 
 Tripp, Ernest, V, 246 
 
 Trumbull, Lyman, I, 440, 459, 461; Sena- 
 tor, 462; 467; II, 44, 78, 124; vote in 
 President Johnson impeachment, 118; 
 IV, 38 
 
 Tucker, Irwin S., II, 396 
 
 Tuley, Murray F., II, 191; proposes 
 Judge Dunne for mayor, 247; 513 
 
 Tuohy, William J., V, 41 
 
 Turnbaugh, John D., Ill, 124 
 
 Turner, Jonathan B., II, 145; V, 479 
 
 Turner, Oliver S., V, 54 
 
 Turner, Thomas, II, 29 
 
 Turner, Judge, resigns, I, 182 
 
 Tweed, Moses H., Ill, 128 
 
 Tygett, Glenn J., IV, 51 
 
 Tym, Charles F., Ill, 146 
 
 Ubben, Louis, IV, 485 
 
 Ubben, Sarah, IV, 485 
 
 Ubben, Theodore H., IV, 484 
 
 Ubben, Ubbo A., IV, 483 
 
 Underwood, George W., V, 445 
 
 Underwood, Scott, IV, 26 
 
 Underwood, William H., II, 83 
 
 Union County, I, 233 
 
 Union Depot, Chicago, II, 525 
 
 Union Traction Company receivership, 
 
 II, 226 
 United States Bank, I, 284, 291 
 
 United States senators, direct election 
 of, II, 365; cost of election, 556 
 
 University Club of Chicago, V, 445 
 
 University of Chicago, Chapel, II, 523 
 
 University of Illinois, II, 67, 140, 358, 
 360; "Alma Mater," 465 
 
 Upham, Fred W., II, 391 
 
 Uran, Benjamin F., IV, 369 
 
 Urbana, hotel where Lincoln stopped, I, 
 509; big elm where Lincoln made fa- 
 mous speech, 513 
 
 Urch, Leslie L., V, 448 
 
 Utica, I, 32, 67 
 
 Utley, George B., IV, 362 
 
 Utz, John V., V, 154 
 
 Valentine, Leslie K., V, 96 
 
 Van Doren, Ray N., V, 55 
 
 Van Hoe, Albert A., IV, 212 
 
 Van Sellar, Frank C, IV, 51 
 
 Vance, Stanley M., Ill, 98 
 
 Vandalia, State Capitol at, I, 256, 301, 
 
 357 
 Vanderhorst, Arie, V, 299 
 Vaughan, Edward D., IV, 344 
 Vaughn, John B., IV, 204 
 Vawter, J. H., V, 289 
 Veech, Everett R., Ill, 476 
 Veech, Gaines R., IV, 405 
 Veech, Otis, III, 408 
 Venice High School, IV, 328 
 Verbrugghen, Adrian, V, 462 
 Versluis, Gaston, III, 295 
 Vertrees, Herbert H., Ill, 149 
 Vickers, Samuel L., IV, 52 
 Vien, H. Grady, IV, 349 
 Vigo, Francis, I, 128, 144, 145, 242 
 Vincennes, Clark's expedition against, I, 
 
 128 
 Violet, Charles A., Ill, 304 
 Virgin, John W., V, 145 
 Virginia, and Western Lands, I, 154 
 Virnich, Peter J., Ill, 351 
 Viterna, Jerry J., Ill, 357 
 Vittum, Harriet E., II, 432 
 Voegtle, Henry C, IV, 222 
 Vogelpohl, George T., V., 174 
 Vogelsang, Clifford J., IV, 98 
 Vogt, H. E. ("Stony"), V, 296 
 Volini, Italo F., IV, 263 
 Volk, Leonard W., V, 455 
 Volunteer enlistments, in World War, II, 
 
 390 
 Vopicka, Charles J., II, 517; III, 445 
 Voter, qualifications of, I, 227 
 Voyageurs, I, 46 
 Vrooman, Carl S., II, 432 
 Vuc, John, IV, 412 
 
 Wacker, Charles H., II, 391, 520, 522; 
 
 IV, 27 
 Wacker, Frederick G., IV, 29 
 Wage loan corporations, II, 336 
 Wagner, Arthur, IV, 356 
 Walden, Charles, V, 315 
 
xl 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Waldrip, William D., IV, 161 
 
 Wales, Henry W., V, 156 
 
 Wales, Henry W., Sr., V, 155 
 
 Walker, Charles L., Ill, 102 
 
 Walker, Edwin K., Ill, 317 
 
 Walker, Francis W., II, 477, 517 
 
 Walker, Frank, III, 202 
 
 Walker, Harry A., IV, 354 
 
 Walker, Jesse, I, 254 
 
 Walker, John H., II, 391 
 
 Wallace, James W., Ill, 126 
 
 Wallace, Ross S., IV, 318 
 
 Wallace, W. H. L., II, 38 
 
 Walley, Edwin C, III, 460 
 
 Walsh, Edward J., Ill, 135 
 
 Walter, John E., IV, 420 
 
 Walter, William E., V, 168 
 
 Walters, Arthur E., V, 119 
 
 Wanless, Fred W., Ill, 443 
 
 War of 1812, I, 201; Illinois Valley expe- 
 ditions, 221 
 
 Ward, Clifton T., Ill, 291 
 
 Ward, Delos E., Ill, 57 
 
 Ward, Frank N., IV, 319 
 
 Ward, Mary E., Ill, 98 
 
 Wardein, Vincent, IV, 214 
 
 Warehouse Law, II, 335 
 
 Warnock, William W., Ill, 123 
 
 Warren, Franklin, III, 177 
 
 Warren, Hooper, I, 274; III, 500 
 
 Warterfield, J. Soule, IV, 41 
 
 Washburne, Elihu B., IV, 50 
 
 Washburn, William E., IV, 235 
 
 Washington County, I, 233 
 
 Water power, I, 252 
 
 Water service, reorganized, II, 290 
 
 Water transportation, I, 242 
 
 Waters, Philip S., IV, 60 
 
 Watertown State Hospital, II, 360 
 
 Waterway, Lockport and Utica, II, 402 
 
 Waterway bond issue, II, 180, 456 
 
 Waterway construction, II, 413 
 
 Waterway development, early, I, 362 
 
 Waterways, I, 235 
 
 Watseka Community High School, IV, 
 412 
 
 Watson, Robert L., IV, 160 
 
 Watson, Royal L., Ill, 382 
 
 Watterson, Walter H., IV, 36 
 
 Wayman, John E. W., II, 312 
 
 Wayne, Anthony, campaign of 1795, I, 
 179, 200 
 
 Wear, James M., Ill, 123 
 
 Weber, Anne L., V, 253 
 
 Weber, Evelyn E., Ill, 424 
 
 Webster, W. G., II, 180 
 
 Wedig, J. Harrison, V, 254 
 
 Weeks, Glenn W., V. 93 
 
 Wegener, Edward H., V, 184 
 
 Weil, Joseph A., Ill, 239 
 
 Weiller, Jean J. Rene, V, 452 
 
 Weiss, John W., IV, 151 
 
 Welch, Gilford N., V, 280 
 
 Welch, Ninian H., IV, 208 
 
 Welch, Thomas J., IV, 234 
 
 Weldon, Lawrence, II, 78; V, 466 
 
 Wells, E. Roy, V, 431 
 
 Wells, Franklin N., V, 73 
 
 Wells, Henry W., II, 83 
 
 Wells, William, I, 218 
 
 Welsch, Robert T., V, 396 
 
 Welsh, Vernon M., V, 474 
 
 Wendt Brothers, V, 339 
 
 Wendt, Chris C, III, 406 
 
 Wendt, Earl E., V, 339 
 
 Wendt, Robert H., V, 339 
 
 Wengierski, A. S., IV, 272 
 
 Wenter, Frank, I, 372, 373 
 
 Wentworth, Edward N., V, 45 
 
 Wentworth, John, I, 438, 440, 459, 462, 
 
 477; II, 78, 125; V, 12 
 Werckle, Augustus C, V, 133 
 Wermuth, William C, IV, 109 
 "Werno letter," II, 278 
 Wernsing, Harry J., Ill, 359 
 Wert, Martha L., IV, 123 
 Wert, Jacob, IV, 123 
 Wessel, Perry H., IV, 176 
 West, Arthur D., Ill, 207 
 West, Emanuel J., I, 366 
 West, John G., V, 485 
 West, Roy O., II, 510 
 West, W. J., IV, 442 
 West Park Board, Chicago, II, 472 
 Westerman, Emil H., Ill, 191 
 Western Illinois State Normal School, 
 
 II, 360 
 Western Intelligencer, I, 231 
 Westervelt, O. Palmer, IV, 235 
 Weston, Hugh S., Ill, 71 
 Whalen, Homer, V, 83 
 Wheelan, Charles W., Ill, 268 
 Wheelan Funeral Home, Inc., Ill, 268 
 Wheeland, Cyrus E., IV, 138 
 Wheeland, Olive B., IV, 139 
 Wheeler, Charles C, IV, 144 
 Wheeler, Charles N., IV, 477 
 Wheeler, Frederick K., V, 218 
 Whig party (see also Politics), I, 311; 
 
 and Mormons, 377; in 1852, 440 
 Whipple, Walter B., Ill, 237 
 Whipple, Warner F., V, 94 
 White, Horace, II, 78, 122; V, 492 
 White, James A., V, 190 
 White, John C, IV, 104 
 White, Mark H., Ill, 405 
 White, Milburn J., V, 224 
 White County, I, 233 
 Whiteside, Samuel, I, 329, 342 
 Whiteman, John Y., Ill, 127 
 Whiting, Edward S., IV, 237 
 Whiting, Fred T., Ill, 324 
 Whiting, Morse C, V, 198 
 Whitley, Homer, IV, 218 
 Whitmore, George E., IV, 87 
 Whitney, Fred B., Ill, 407 
 Wick, Paul R., Ill, 52 
 "Wiggins' Loan," I, 319 
 Wigmore, John H., V, 39 
 Wigwam, The, II, 13, 15 
 Wild game, I, 4 
 
INDEX 
 
 xli 
 
 Wiles, Russell, V, 322 
 
 Wilcox, Harry L., Ill, 281 
 
 Wilkey, Adam H., Ill, 97 
 
 Will, Conrad, IV, 33 
 
 Willard, Frances E., II, 110; IV, 36 
 
 Willey, Frank, Jr., V, 446 
 
 Williams, Charles A., II, 432 
 
 Williams, Dixon C, III, 289 
 
 Williams, Gaar, V, 442 
 
 Williams, King, V, 382 
 
 Williams, Luella A., IV, 92 
 
 Williams, Ralph C, IV, 434 
 
 Williams, Thomas P., V, 378 
 
 Williams, Walter W., V, 150 
 
 Williams, William E., V, 381 
 
 Williamson, Kenney E., Ill, 74 
 
 Williamson, William S., IV, 199 
 
 Williamson County, vendetta war, II, 90 
 
 Willis, Omer M., Ill, 333 
 
 Willock, Ray A., IV, 100 
 
 Wilmot proviso, I, 439 
 
 Wilson, Frank B., V, 463 
 
 Wilson, Glenn, IV, 290 
 
 Wilson, Harrison, I, 342 
 
 Wilson, James P., V, 463 
 
 Wilson, Jay P., V, 464 
 
 Wilson, J. Emmett, V, 144 
 
 Wilson, Louis A., IV, 189 
 
 Wilson, Rayburn H., Ill, 435 
 
 Wilson, Robert J., Ill, 344 
 
 Wilson, Robert L,, I, 357 
 
 Wilson, Robert T., Ill, 231 
 
 Wilson, William, IV, 212 
 
 Wilson, William W., V, 305 
 
 Wiltse, Charles, III, 305 
 
 Wiman, Charles D., Ill, 364 
 
 Windsor, Byron L., Ill, 204 
 
 Wineland, Ben F., V, 287 
 
 Winnebago Indians, I, 11, 14, 248 
 
 Winnemac, Chief, I, 217 
 
 Winstanley, Thomas, I, 250 
 
 Winston, Fred E., Ill, 285 
 
 Winston, Richard, successor to Gov. 
 
 Todd, I, 136, 146 
 Winters, Claude, V, 226 
 Wirz, Adolph G., Ill, 403 
 Wise, Lewis W., V, 369 
 Witte, Albert, V, 303 
 Witte, Edward W., Ill, 169 
 Witte, Henry F., Ill, 168 
 Witte, William H., Jr., Ill, 154 
 Woelfle, James E., V. 204 
 Woiciechowski, Martin, V, 183 
 Wolf, George D., V, 332 
 Wolf, Harry H., IV, 394 
 Wolff, Oscar, II, 426 
 Wolschlag, Stephen, III, 226 
 Woman's Suffrage Act, II, 337 
 Women, eight hour day, II, 140 
 Women's Societies, in Civil War, II, 40 
 Womick, William H., V, 206 
 
 Wood, John, I, 342; Lieutenant-gover- 
 nor, 458, 491; II, 29; V, 19 
 
 Wood, John H., V, 222 
 
 Woodmansee, Robert E., Ill, 247 
 
 Woodruff, Edward N., Ill, 62 
 
 Woodruff, J. Lyon, IV, 249 
 
 Woodruff, Sam, IV, 361 
 
 Woods, Edward G., IV, 463 
 
 Woods, Elisha, V, 207 
 
 Woods, William F., IV, 465 
 
 Woodward, Cornelius C, IV, 353 
 
 Woodworth, James H., I, 461 
 
 Woolley, Dale A., Ill, 468 
 
 World War, II, 380, 385; Illinois enlist- 
 ments, 390; price fixing, 392; lynch 
 law, 400 
 
 World's Columbian Exposition, II, 474 
 
 Worrell, Charles C, V, 482 
 
 Worrell, Francis E., V, 206 
 
 Wright, Burton, IV, 299 
 
 Wright, Clark C, IV, 389 
 
 Wright, Hulda C, IV, 300 
 
 Wright, Jeannette S., Ill, 396 
 
 Wright, Rodney A., IV, 181 
 
 Wright, Warren, III, 79 
 
 Wrigley Building, Chicago, II, 515 
 
 Wyatt, Raleigh E., V, 247 
 
 Wylie, Arthur J., V, 148 
 
 Wynant, Wilbur, III, 452 
 
 Wyoming Public Library, III, 429 
 
 Wys, Godfrey, V, 81 
 
 Wys, Mary M., V, 82 
 
 Yardley, Oscar R., IV, 79 
 
 Yates, Richard, Sr., I, 461; II, 12; war 
 governor, 27; 28 
 
 Yates, Richard, the Second, administra- 
 tion of, II, 173, 174, 312, 329; III, 37 
 
 Yerkes, Charles T., II, 146; arrives in 
 Chicago, 210; 514, 520 
 
 Yerkes, monopoly bills, II, 170 
 
 Yetter, Jacob J., Ill, 427 
 
 York, Frederick W., Jr., IV, 239 
 
 Young, Brigham, I, 399 
 
 Young, Richard M., I, 273; IV, 9 
 
 Young, Wayne E., V, 281 
 
 Younker, R. Earl, IV, 449 
 
 Yount, Lozier D., IV, 298 
 
 Yunker, Stanley O., Ill, 236 
 
 ) : 
 
 Zane, John M., IV, 155 
 Zeigler, W. K., IV, 443 
 Zellers, Frank W., IV, 414 
 Zeuch, Lucius H., Ill, 391 
 Zibble, Walter H., IV, 407 
 Zimmer, Michael, IV, 45 
 Zimmerman, Edward A., Ill, 347 
 Zink, Samuel H., V, 392 
 Zintak, Frank V., IV, 275 
 Zweig, Fred, III, 297 
 
History of Illinois 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 EL DORADO— A WONDROUS LOCATION FOR A NEW 
 
 COMMONWEALTH 
 
 If in the latter part of the seventeenth century, a committee 
 of the Caucasian race were searching- the world for a location 
 within which to lay the foundations of a young commonwealth 
 of white men, no place on earth could have been found more 
 suitable for that foundation than that territory of land now 
 known as the State of Illinois. 
 
 Take a map of the United States and lay it before you. 
 Note, that almost in the center of the Mississippi Valley (now 
 concededly the richest valley in the world), the waters of three 
 mighty rivers, the Missouri, Mississippi and Ohio, meet at the 
 City of Cairo, the extreme southern tip of the State of Illinois. 
 Down these three mighty rivers there had been washed for cen- 
 turies the silt and alluvial soil of that great fertile valley. 
 
 For almost 700 miles of the total 1,160 miles boundaries of 
 the state, these mighty rivers had been dashing their waters and 
 depositing their drifting silt and soil against lands of Illinois 
 bordering on these rivers, making the bottom lands along the 
 rivers as fertile as those in the far-famed Valley of the Nile. 
 
 At the northeast corner of the state and bordering the state 
 for fifty-one miles, was and is the great inland fresh-water sea, 
 Lake Michigan. That lake, strange to say, is shaped like a 
 great index finger, the top of the finger resting, where now is 
 located the fourth greatest city in the world. The march of 
 years have proved it was a finger of destiny. 
 
 Across the breast of that state, there flowed then, as now, 
 diagonally from the northeast to southwest, like a cordon of the 
 Legion of Honor, the great Illinois River. 
 
2 ILLINOIS 
 
 Then as now, in its upper course, near what is now the City 
 of Morris, the Illinois River is forked, the upper tine of which 
 (the Desplaines River) lies to the north a few miles west of 
 Chicago. The other tine of this fork (the Kankakee) trends 
 to the north and east toward the St. Joe River in the State of 
 Michigan. 
 
 Then as now, the sources of the Desplaines River and the 
 Kankakee were but a few miles from Lake Michigan. Then 
 as now, a slight elevation of ground or ridge located within a 
 few miles of Lake Michigan constituted the dividing line between 
 the St. Lawrence Basin and the Mississippi Valley, whose waters 
 empty in the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 In and north of the Village of Ridgeland, in Oak Park, about 
 seven miles west of Chicago, that ridge or elevation is only about 
 twenty feet above the water level of Lake Michigan, and there 
 are houses in that village where rain drops falling on the west 
 eave of the roofs ultimately reach the Gulf of Mexico through 
 the Des Plaines, Illinois, and Mississippi, while the rain drops 
 falling on the east eaves of the roofs ultimately reach the Gulf 
 of St. Lawrence through the Great Lakes. The importance of 
 this slight elevation dividing the basins of the Gulf of Mexico 
 and the Gulf of St. Lawrence will be developed and dwelt upon 
 in later chapters of this history. 
 
 Then as now, the slope of the surface of the soil of the 
 present State of Illinois was from a height of about 800 feet 
 above sea-level in the northern portion of the state and around 
 Chicago, to about 300 feet above sea-level at Cairo. The grade 
 of descent from about 800 feet to about 300 feet being gradual 
 most of the way. The Illinois River then, as now, was navigable 
 for light draft vessels from its mouth to what is now Utica. 
 At that place there exists a strata of rocks between Utica and 
 what is now Lockport. This rocky formation renders the Illinois 
 unnavigable for about sixty miles. The fall in the river between 
 Lockport and Utica is about 132 feet. Not only was the north- 
 eastern, central and central western portions of this territory 
 copiously watered and fertilized by the broad Illinois River, but 
 the western portion was equally blessed with the waters of the 
 Fox and Rock rivers. The southeastern portion was well cared 
 
ILLINOIS 3 
 
 for in like manner by the Wabash, Little Wabash, Saline, Embar- 
 rass and their tributaries. The extreme south of the state was 
 equally fortunate in having its soil copiously watered by the 
 converging of the mighty streams, the Mississippi and Ohio, 
 and by the Kaskaskia, Vermilion, Big Muddy, Saline, Little 
 Wabash and their tributaries. 
 
 The whole of this splendid rich territory consisted of rich 
 rolling prairie land, such as we know and so highly valued 
 today, except the portions of the same close to the rivers, which 
 were covered, then as now, with forests and undergrowth valu- 
 able for fuel and housebuilding and furniture, and also excepting 
 the rocky ridge crossing the Illinois River between Lockport 
 and Utica and also excepting a spur of the Ozark Mountains, 
 lowering these mountains of Missouri into hills of considerable 
 size in the present State of Illinois. The rocky untillable portion 
 of the surface of the soil constituted but an inconsiderable part 
 of the whole territory. 
 
 The Illinois plain is, in fact, the bottom of a huge basin 
 composed of the states of Indiana, whose elevation is 700 feet 
 above sea-level, Michigan, 900 feet above sea-level, Wisconsin 
 1,050 feet above sea-level, Iowa 1,100 feet above, and Missouri 
 800 feet above. The mean level of Illinois is about 600 feet 
 above sea-level. 
 
 The richest and most productive soil first discovered was 
 located along the American Bottom or low lands along the 
 banks of the Mississippi between the mouth of the Kaskaskia 
 River and what is now St. Louis. 
 
 Beaver and other valuable fur and meat producing wild 
 animals were abundant all over the territory, and edible fish 
 were plentiful in all the rivers of the state. For man in a 
 state of nature, ignorant of the arts and weapons of civilized 
 man, this territory at that time was an Elysium. 
 
 All he needed was to chip an arrow head or a spear head 
 from a stone, cut a hickory tree for a bow, string it with 
 untanned hide, fashion his arrow from a twig, his spear from 
 a bough, attach his chipped stone heads, and kill his game from 
 among the wild animals that roved in great numbers all around 
 him. 
 
4 ILLINOIS 
 
 It was such a huuting ground as the untutored savage pic- 
 tured to himself in his dreams of his future heaven. 
 
 Deer, elk, bears, wolves, foxes, opossums, racoons, squirrels 
 and rabbits were plentiful not only then, but for years after 
 the white man had dispossessed the Indians. Wild turkeys and 
 prairie chickens and quail were very plentiful. 
 
 Prodigious flocks of wild geese, herons and swans haunted 
 the headwaters of the Illinois and the small lakes. The lakes 
 and rivers were alive with edible fish, such as black bass, pickerel, 
 muskalonge, lake trout, white fish, cat fish and red horse. 
 
 High bearded grass covered most of the open prairies, 
 through which grew most luxuriantly wild flowers such as sun 
 flowers, daffodils, prairie dock, ox eye, iron-weed, asters, milk 
 weed, orange lilies, and wild roses. Blue phlox and blue bells 
 were to be found in moist ground. Wild garlic was also abun- 
 dant. Wild strawberries and blackberries and wild grapes were 
 also very plentiful, and fields often glowed with the glory of 
 golden rod. 
 
 The spiritual beauties of natural scenery were thus added 
 to the material riches of wild animals, wild birds, and swift 
 swimming fishes, to attract a proposed settler, and those material 
 and spiritual attractions could not be long resisted by the white 
 man. 
 
 The gradual slope of the surface of the soil from 800 feet 
 above sea level in the northern part of the state to about 300 feet 
 in the south of the state, is accounted for by Alvord in his 
 splendid Volume I. of the Centennial History of Illinois, from 
 which I quote pp. 17 et seq. 
 
 During this period of the formation of the known rock 
 layers of Illinois, was created the state's wealth in minerals, 
 the most important of which deserves mention, if for no 
 other reason than to bring forcibly to the mind the long 
 reaches of time hurriedly passed in review. During one 
 or more of the geologic periods, Illinois changed repeatedly 
 from a coastal swamp to a shallow sea, depending on the 
 unwarping and sinking of the plane. The flora of this 
 swamp land was luxuriant, its forms unlike those of today ; 
 there flourished huge fern trees fifty feet high, softwood 
 evergreens, tall and slender, and among these were smaller 
 
ILLINOIS 5 
 
 rank-growing plants. The dominant color of these forests 
 was green, unbroken by bright flowers. Such forests grew 
 to maturity, died and were changed by chemical and other 
 forces into peat and then into coal. It is estimated that 
 the territory of the state during this coal making period 
 passed through this sequence of processes, turning forests 
 into coal, at least six different times. 
 
 After the coal beds had been formed, the territory 
 of the state experienced one of those continually recurring 
 internal disturbances, that on this occasion raised the whole 
 surface and warped the edges, the southern portion in 
 particular being radically changed. Here rocks were cracked 
 and pushed or pressed upward, forming the Ozark dome 
 that stretches through southern Missouri. Since then, the 
 surface of the state has never been inundated by the sea, 
 but for an indefinitely long period, the rock layers were 
 subjected to the persistent forces of erosion. The winds, 
 the frost, and the rain crumbled their surfaces, cutting 
 down the warped edges and carving the Ozark hills into 
 their present shape. The rivers wore their way through 
 the stony beds ; and out of the debris of erosion was formed 
 a new soil, wherein trees and plants took root. 
 
 The resulting territory, warped by pressure from 
 beneath and eroded by wind and water, resembled the 
 bowl of a shallow spoon, or rather of a series of spoons 
 placed one on the other, each representing a stratified 
 layer of rock that during some previous eon had been 
 deposited in the form of particles and transformed into 
 stone. 
 
 Since the erosion was greater at the edges, the lower 
 layers extended beyond those above. Over all, there lay 
 strewn a soil of decayed stone, similar in kind to that of 
 present-day New England. On the whole, the landscape 
 was not so very strange, though the surface was more 
 broken by hills than it is today; the Mississippi rolled 
 placidly, probably more placidly than it does now, along 
 its course, and its branches, such as the Illinois, occupied 
 approximately the same positions in the water system of 
 the great valley that they do at the present time. The 
 northern part of the state was, however, almost unrecog- 
 nizable. There were no Great Lakes. 
 
 The climate throughout the early geologic periods was 
 generally mild, even warmer than it is today, for palms 
 grew here, and evidences of an early coral reef have been 
 found near Chicago. The trees, shrubs and plants presented 
 
6 ILLINOIS 
 
 an unfamiliar scene, wherein unrecognizable species pre- 
 dominated. The earliest forms have long since become 
 extinct, but as the modern era approached, the flora 
 assumed a more present-day aspect 
 
 The surface of the Illinois country was destined to 
 undergo one more radical change before it should be the 
 scene of human activities. All forms of life were for a 
 long period of time to be driven from its surface. From 
 causes not satisfactorily explained, there took place a change 
 of temperature. The mild, almost tropical climate of the 
 previous ages gave way to one of an extreme cold. From 
 Labrador as a center, there slowly traveled, moving a few 
 feet a day, great ice sheets, so thick that mountains delayed, 
 but did not stop their progress. Four or five of these massive 
 visitants in succession reached the territory of the state; 
 one that covered its entire area, except the extreme south 
 and northwest, has been named in its honor, "Illinoians." 
 
 In their passage, the glaciers deposited over almost 
 all the surface a layer of drift or boulder clay from five 
 to five hundred feet thick, composed of soil, gravel and 
 boulders. In many places where the edge of the glaciers 
 remained practically stationary due to an equilibrium 
 between movement and melting, they formed those low, 
 rolling hills or moraines so conspicuous in the northern 
 part of the state 
 
 By the advent of the glaciers, valleys that had been 
 conspicuous landmarks during the older geologic time, were 
 blotted out, smaller rivers were forced to change their 
 beds and courses, and even the "Father of Waters" was 
 obliged in places to yield to the power of these northern 
 invaders. 
 
 The topography of the northern part of Illinois under- 
 went the most important changes. As the glaciers receded, 
 their progress merged the bodies of water that in time 
 developed into the Great Lakes. First there appeared the 
 parent of Lake Michigan, called by geologists Lake Chicago. 
 It was a large sheet, pouring its water through an outlet 
 into the Illinois River. Only in the post glacial period 
 was this outlet closed; the level of the lake was lowered 
 by drainage on the east, and the shores of the present lake 
 were built up by the slow process of the depositing of 
 sand. 
 
 These visitants from the north left to the state a price- 
 less gift, a most fertile soil. In most places, the glacial 
 drift has been covered by a layer of loess, varying from 
 
ILLINOIS 7 
 
 two feet to one hundred, blown by the wind or carried by 
 water since the recession of the glaciers, and over this, 
 in turn, decaying vegetable matter has laid a surface cover- 
 ing of black earth. Beneath these and over the pre-glacial 
 rocks lie the deposit of the glaciers, the boulder clay a 
 respository of plant food unsurpassed in the world. In 
 the southern part of the state, the Illinoian glacier alone 
 has been responsible for this subsoil, but in the northern 
 counties there may be distinguished layer upon layer of 
 drift deposited by a succession of ice fields. 
 
 Continuing further, Alvord states that, 
 
 The climax of the Illinoian glacier, which covered most 
 of the state, occurred somewhere between 70,000 and 540,- 
 000 years ago. 
 
 Alvord backs up these statements by referring to Flagg, 
 The Far West in Thwaite's Early Western Travels; Leverett, 
 The Illinois Glacial Lobe; Hopkins and Pettitt, The Fertility 
 in Illinois Soils; Chamberlain and Salisbury, Geology. 
 
 Little as I know of geology, I can only say that I have found, 
 and the reader can find, in the many boulders composed of 
 material altogether different from the surrounding soil, that 
 we still find on the surface of Illinois lands, some evidence that 
 these great glacial periods may have existed and probably did 
 exist in the State of Illinois. I know of personal knowledge 
 that a friend of mine 1 collected enough of these boulders in the 
 vicinity of River Forest, a short distance west of Chicago, to 
 build him a beautiful home in that suburb of Chicago. How 
 these boulders, some of them of immense size, could have been so 
 generously distributed over the surface of Illinois lands, unless 
 it was by glaciers, I cannot understand. 
 
 If such glacial inundation did occur, as described by Alvord, 
 it would have undoubtedly have done what he claims it has 
 done — enormously enriched the soil of Illinois. 
 
 So much for the surface soil of this wondrous land, and of 
 the flora and fauna that were found above it and upon it. These 
 were but a part of the abundance of wealth with which a 
 bountiful Creator richly endowed it. 
 
 i William H. Reedy, Esq., of River Forest, Illinois. 
 
8 ILLINOIS 
 
 The sub-soil of this land now demands some attention. In 
 searching for copper and silver mines along the banks of the 
 Illinois River, the Italian-French explorer, Tonti, ran into a 
 vein of rich bituminous coal, near Peoria. When a boy in 
 Peoria, I saw a vein of such coal outcropping on the side of a 
 hill south of that city. 
 
 At the present time, we know that rich bituminous coal de- 
 posits underlie in the neighborhood of two-thirds of the surface 
 soil of the State of Illinois in seams of from ten to twelve in 
 number at varying depths from the surface, ranging from a 
 few feet to several hundred feet. These seams are not of uni- 
 form thickness, but vary in some places from a few inches to 
 other places where these veins are eight or nine feet in width. 
 
 The French settlers seem not to have availed themselves of 
 these coal mine discoveries, but early in the nineteenth century, 
 the English or American settlers began to open them and work 
 them commercially with rich results. The Mount Carmel Coal 
 Company was chartered by the Legislature in 1835. This mine 
 was located on the Big Muddy in the southern part of the state. 
 Shortly thereafter, Governor John Reynolds developed a mine 
 near Belleville, building a railroad from the mine at Belleville 
 to the Mississippi just below East St. Louis of about seven or 
 eight miles in length, the roadbed of which is still in use. 
 
 The development of coal has grown from these small begin- 
 nings to a point where the production of coal in the state an- 
 nually is approximately one hundred million tons. 
 
 It was found early in the twentieth century that there were 
 also valuable petroleum deposits in the southeastern part of 
 the state. In 1917, the State of Illinois produced eighteen mil- 
 lion barrels, valued at $2 a barrel. 
 
 Clay products of much value are also found under the soil 
 of this state, the most important being found in Union County, 
 called kaolin, which is formed from the decomposition of 
 feldspar. 
 
 Fire clay in the state has also been found in plentiful quan- 
 tities, likewise clay suitable for drain tile and for sewer pipe. 
 Clay for pottery has also been found in extensive quantities. 
 In many portions of the state, the common clay, from which 
 
ILLINOIS 9 
 
 building brick is manufactured, can be found in almost inex- 
 haustible quantities. Terra cotta is also manufactured from 
 deposits found in the soil in the northern part of the state. 
 
 Large quantities of building stone are found in the Illinois 
 soil. The lime stones, however, are not of a very high quality 
 for building purposes, but still great quantities are utilized for 
 road making, for concrete work, and for energizing the acid 
 condition of the soil. Cement is manufactured from a kind of 
 shale and limestone found in the state. Millions of barrels of 
 cement are manufactured every year in the State of Illinois. In 
 the matter of road-building, the State of Illinois has an un- 
 limited amount of materials suitable for cement road work. 
 
 About three-fourths of all of the fluorspar produced in the 
 United States comes from the State of Illinois. 
 
 At the time of the French discoveries, nearly one-fourth of 
 the surface of the state was covered with forests, particularly 
 the southern part of the state, and along the water ways of the 
 state. The pioneer farmers of the state, however, were almost 
 criminally reckless in their treatment of these timbered areas. 
 A survey of the forests of the state made about 1880 disclosed 
 the fact that only 15 per cent of the state was at that time cov- 
 ered with timber. These pioneers established sawmills near 
 all these woodlands, and cut up and sawed for firewood fine 
 oaks, hickories, maples, walnuts, ash, and other less important 
 woods. Other settlers in the lowlands made a practice of cutting 
 deep rings around the trunks of large trees with axes, and allow- 
 ing them to die. This was done generally for the purpose of 
 clearing the woodland and enabling it to be cultivated for corn. 
 
 It goes without saying that these large resources, heretofore 
 referred to on the surface and under the surface, vegetable, 
 animal and mineral, were of enormous value, and made this 
 country when it was first discovered by the French pioneers, 
 one of the most attractive, if not the most attractive strip of 
 land in the whole Mississippi Valley. The rivers were alive 
 with fish, and the land was covered with wild game of all 
 descriptions. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE ONE HUNDRED PER CENT AMERICAN IN HIS 
 HAPPY HUNTING GROUND AND HIS PASSING 
 
 Upon the rich rolling prairies and along the mighty rivers 
 described in the last chapter, there dwelt and ranged and hunted 
 in perfect happiness and contentment in 1673 and for centuries 
 before that, the real one-hundred-per-cent American, the North 
 American Indian. 
 
 His occupancy of this land flowing with wild "milk and 
 honey" for centuries, has never been questioned. How these 
 red-skinned descendants of Adam and Eve reached these happy 
 hunting grounds, we may never know. They never made a 
 written record of their origin, or their antecedents or progen- 
 itors in history, song or story. 
 
 Whether the Almighty created, unknown to the writers of 
 Biblical history and profane history, a red skinned Adam and 
 Eve in the Western Continent, or whether the ancestors of these 
 vigorous men and women were the descendants of the Biblical 
 Adam and Eve, we may never know. We do not know now after 
 three centuries of investigation and theorizing. Brave and 
 crafty in physical conflict, they never seem to have been en- 
 dowed with mental strength or shrewdness. 
 
 They have never shown in North America any capacity for 
 coordination or concert of action. So far as I have read, they 
 had not intelligence enough to create an alphabet as the basis 
 of a written language. This is true not only of the tribes who 
 occupied the Territory of Illinois, but is also true of all North 
 American Indians. When hunting was rich and productive, 
 when they had food sufficient to satisfy their animal appetites 
 from game and fish, and clothing enough from the skins of wild 
 animals, to keep warm, they were contented and had no desire 
 for the luxuries created by civilization. 
 
 10 
 
ILLINOIS 11 
 
 Their women at times tilled the soil, in a scratchily hap- 
 hazard manner, to coax from it a little more of the wild grain 
 and fruit that grew wildly around them. 
 
 They formed among themselves families and clans of kin- 
 dred blood that sometimes grew into tribes, but nationhood, as 
 known to the white, brown and yellow races, was beyond their 
 conception and accomplishment. The so-called "Confederation 
 of Five Nations" was never more than a more or less temporary 
 confederation of the five tribes. The combinations effected by 
 Pontiac and Tecumseh were temporary and ineffective. They 
 were a brave but primitive people, utterly unable to deal intel- 
 ligently or capably with men of the white race. 
 
 In 1673 when the first white men set foot on the soil of 
 Illinois, several tribes were in occupancy of different portions 
 of the future state. 
 
 In the center and southwest portion of the state was located 
 the "Illinois," of which the Peorias and the Kickapoos were 
 branches or first cousins. I lived in Peoria in my boyhood and 
 know that it gets its name from the tribe or sub-tribe that dwelt 
 on the banks of the Illinois at Lake Peoria. I know further 
 that the Kickapoo Creek near Peoria, in which I often bathed 
 when a boy, gets its name from the Indian tribe or sub-tribe 
 that dwelt along its banks in 1673. 
 
 The Miami tribe occupied at the same time the eastern por- 
 tion of Illinois and the western part of Indiana along the 
 Wabash River. 
 
 The Pottawatomies occupied the northeastern portion of the 
 state along Lake Michigan from Southern Wisconsin to North- 
 ern Indiana. 
 
 The Sauk and Fox, Winnebago, Ottawa and Chippewa were 
 also frequently found fighting and marauding in the northern 
 part of the state. Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois 
 seemed to be their favorite hunting grounds. There was not, 
 however, any close and lasting confederation or concert of action 
 between these different tribes, and often they or some of them 
 were found in conflict with each other. The Winnebago and 
 the Illinois carried on a bitter war for a time, the former having 
 entrapped and killed five hundred of the foe. The Illinois re- 
 
12 ILLINOIS 
 
 taliated and almost totally destroyed the Winnebago, reducing 
 150 of the survivors to slavery. 
 
 All these tribes were descendants of the super-tribe or race 
 known as the Algonquin. This super-tribe, the Algonquin, prob- 
 ably had its origin in the North Atlantic region. Its subsidiary 
 tribes located themselves all the way from Canada, from Hud- 
 son Bay to Alberta on the west, into the United States, from 
 Maine to North Carolina, from the Upper Great Lakes through 
 the states of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. 
 
 The most formidable foe of this Algonquin super-tribe were 
 the Iroquois tribe, located around Lake Ontario and Lake Erie 
 in the Mohawk Valley. 
 
 The most southerly of these sub-tribes of the Algonquin race 
 were the Shawnees, who were located in Kentucky and Ten- 
 nessee. The Shawnees were probably the vanguard of the Al- 
 gonquin tribe in the incursions of that tribe into Illinois and 
 the states south of the Great Lakes. 
 
 Belonging to the Algonquin tribe were also the Sauks, Foxes, 
 Winnebagoes, Pottawatomi, Kickapoos, Mascoutans, Miami, and 
 the Illinois. At the time of the discovery of the state by the 
 French explorers, the Illinois were first in importance and power, 
 although at the time they were visited by Marquette and Joliet, 
 they had probably passed the zenith of their strength. They 
 formed at first one great tribe. As their numbers increased, 
 subdivisions or sub-tribes were given more particular names. 
 To the great Illinois tribe belonged the Kaskaskias, Peorias, 
 Cahokias, Tamaroas, Moinguenas and Michigameas. These dif- 
 ferent bands of the Illinois tribe for some time continued to act 
 in coordination against their common enemies, that alliance 
 based on kinship rather than any formal treaty. The Illinois 
 tribe occupied most of Illinois and the southern parts of Wis- 
 consin and Iowa. The main body of the Illinois tribe for some 
 years were located in the Valley of the Illinois River, and along 
 its banks had been their principal villages prior to the seven- 
 teenth century. 
 
 The Miami tribe was located in Western Indiana and East- 
 ern Illinois, and was of near kin to the Illinois. Rumors reached 
 the early French settlers in 1657, or thereabout, that they had 
 
Starved Rock 
 
14 ILLINOIS 
 
 sixty villages in Central Illinois, and a population of 20,000 
 human beings, though this is no doubt an exaggeration. 
 
 The Illinois tribes were not, even before the advent of the 
 Pale Face, permitted to enjoy without disturbance the large, 
 rich hunting grounds occupied by them. A belligerent tribe lo- 
 cated to the west in Southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa, 
 known as the Sioux, were always more or less in conflict with 
 the Illinois. The Winnebagoes, a branch of the Sioux tribe, were 
 guilty of a great act of treachery in murdering many warriors 
 of the Illinois tribe who had been sent to them with peaceable 
 intentions. While the Illinois tribe was engaged in dancing, the 
 Winnebago cut the bow strings of their bows, flung themselves 
 upon the Illinois men and massacred them, not sparing a man, 
 in retaliation for which the Illinois attacked the Winnebago, 
 surrounding them and putting most of them to death. 
 
 Nor were the Illinois tribe free from assaults from the east. 
 Five great Iroquois tribes, the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondages, 
 Cayugas and Senecas were at all times hostile to the Algonquin 
 race. These five tribes, sometimes called the Five Nations, en- 
 tered into a confederation among themselves, attacked the Miami 
 tribe, drove them westward and northward into the region of 
 modern Wisconsin, and in 1655 a band of these Five Nations 
 attacked the villages of the Illinois and killed many women and 
 children. This war, commenced in 1655, lasted until 1667, and 
 during the war the Illinois tribe was so weakened that they 
 were obliged to abandon their ancient locations along the Illinois 
 River and seek safety west of the Mississippi. Surrounded as 
 they were by the profusion of nature, the abundance of game 
 and fish in the rivers, the Illinois Indians were rather disposed 
 to indolence. They relied for sustenance almost exclusively 
 upon hunting and fishing. What little maize, or corn, was raised 
 by them was the result of the labor of their squaws, who culti- 
 vated crudely and unscientifically some little corn, beans and 
 other vegetables. In summertime, after their little crops were 
 planted, and in winter after they had stored the proceeds of 
 their planting and hunting, the whole group would move to a 
 wilder part of the country and set up a hunting camp. 
 
ILLINOIS 15 
 
 Their weapons were very crude, a bow and arrow, clubs and 
 knives made of flint or bone, or sometimes of the shank of a 
 deer. 
 
 In their permanent villages, they built substantial oblong 
 cabins, sufficient to house from six to twelve families each, the 
 framework being made by saplings bent together and latched at 
 the top, which were then covered with layers of mats or woven 
 rushes. These cabins had a door at each end, and an open 
 place in the roof for the escape of smoke. The earth floor was 
 sometimes covered with mats. As many as fifty or sixty human 
 beings often occupied these cabins. 
 
 The men of the tribe owned as their exclusive property their 
 hunting implements and weapons of warfare. The women 
 claimed as their own the household equipment and any imple- 
 ments that they had used in tilling the soil. There was no such 
 thing as individual ownership of land. Land occupied by them 
 in and around their villages was regarded as the property of 
 the tribe. They believed that the tribe owned the land, and 
 that the tribe only could part with title to the same. The In- 
 dian tribe was, in fact, but a large family made up of relatives 
 tracing descent from a common ancestor. Marriage was not 
 permitted within their own clan. Matters relating to the fam- 
 ily were settled in family councils. Matters relating to the clan 
 were settled by a council of all the families within the group, 
 and tribal matters were decided in a council attended by the 
 heads of the different clans, Declarations of war, strange to 
 say, however, were not always made upon conference between 
 the friendly tribes. A single warrior having some grievance 
 against a warrior of another tribe could declare war himself 
 and gather around him such allies as were willing to join in 
 the fight. Extensive campaigns were an exception in Indian 
 warfare. An early Jesuit writer states, 
 
 Ordinarily their party consists of only twenty, thirty, 
 or forty men; sometimes these parties are of only six or 
 seven persons, and these are most to be feared. As their 
 entire skill lies in surprising their enemy, the small num- 
 ber facilitates the pains that they take to conceal them- 
 selves in order that they may more securely strike the 
 
16 ILLINOIS 
 
 blow which they are planning Their method is to 
 
 follow on the trail of their enemy and to kill some one of 
 them while he is asleep, — or rather to lie in ambush in the 
 vicinity of the villages and to split the head of the first one 
 who comes forth, and taking off his scalp, to display it as a 
 trophy among their countrymen. 
 
 The first Indians met by Joliet and Pere Marquette were 
 rather of a peace-loving character, as testified to by these French 
 explorers. The French missionaries believed that their success 
 in converting the Indians to Christianity rose out of the fact that 
 the Indians believed in a Great Manitou or Great Spirit. Father 
 Allouez in 1665 wrote, 
 
 I have learned that the Illinouck, the Outagami, 
 (Foxes) and other savages toward the south, hold that 
 there is a great and excellent genius, master of all the rest, 
 who made heaven and earth, and who dwells, they say, in 
 the east towards the country of the French. 
 
 Most important of their religious ceremonies was the Calu- 
 met dance, performed sometimes to strengthen peace or to unite 
 themselves for some great war, at other times for public rejoic- 
 ing or to honor a visitor. The Calumet was a ceremonial tobacco 
 pipe of polished red stone, fitted into a stem or stick about two 
 feet long, and bored through the middle. 
 
 "Less honor," says Marquette, "is paid to the crowns 
 and scepters of kings, than the savages bestow on this. 
 It seems to be the God of peace or war, the arbiter of life 
 and of death. It has but to be carried upon one's person 
 and displayed, to enable one to walk safely through the 
 midst of enemies, who in the hottest of the fight lay down 
 their arms when it is shown. There is a calumet for peace, 
 and one for war, which are distinguished solely by the 
 color of the feathers with which they are adorned. Red is 
 the sign of war. They also use it to put an end to disputes, 
 to strengthen their alliances, and to speak to strangers. 
 They have a great regard for it, because they look upon 
 it as the calumet of the sun, and in fact, they offer it to 
 the latter to smoke when they wish to obtain calm or rain 
 or fine weather." 
 
ILLINOIS 17 
 
 The Illinois, like other Algonquin tribes, believed in an after- 
 world. They were very poorly advanced in art, not as far ad- 
 vanced as their predecessors, the southern tribes. Most of their 
 bowls were made of wood, which accounts for the very few 
 which have survived in museums. They made cups and spoons 
 and scrapers also out of fresh water shells. According to the 
 Jesuit Fathers, the women always dressed modestly, but the 
 men went entirely nude, save for a breech cloth. In summing 
 up their mode of life, Alvord, in his excellent history, declares, 
 
 Hard as their life seems to have been, viewed by mod- 
 ern eyes, the Illinois fared better than many of their race, 
 and were by no means wholly without leisure and means 
 of recreation. Between the strenuous demands of hunting 
 and fighting, the men relaxed completely and spent their 
 time in a great variety of games of skill, such as ball, or 
 guessing games or games of chance played with instru- 
 ments comparable to dice. Even with their more contin- 
 uous labor, the women found opportunity to gossip among 
 themselves and to play games. Like most Indians, the 
 Illinois were inveterate gamblers, and men and women alike 
 would often stake everything they owned on a throw of the 
 dice. Many of the games had a religious significance and 
 were played only in connection with some formal ceremony. 
 Socially, they were talkative, good natured, and fond of a 
 joke, although their extreme dignity of bearing on public 
 occasions often gave observers the impression that they 
 were morose and silent by nature. The ease and persist- 
 ency with which the French came to intermarry with them, 
 certainly suggests that both in disposition and mode of life, 
 there was no wide gulf between the two races, at least as 
 they encountered each other in seventeenth century Illi- 
 nois. 
 
 On the whole, the Illinois tribe of Indians were a brave but 
 simple people. They lacked shrewdness in dealing as individ- 
 uals or as tribes. They were over-reached on every occasion 
 that they attempted to bargain with the white man, whether 
 that white man was French, British or American. As a result 
 of their guileless nature and lack of organizing intelligence, the 
 great Illinois tribe, which, it was said, at one time counted 
 twenty thousand souls along the Illinois River, is today prac- 
 
18 ILLINOIS 
 
 tically extinct, and in the state named after them not a single 
 living Illinois Indian now survives. 
 
 What was the ultimate history, so far as known, of the sev- 
 eral tribes comprising the super-tribe of Indians known as the 
 Illinois ? They were located, at or about the time of the advent 
 of Joliet and Pere Marquette, on the Illinois River at or near 
 what is now known as Starved Rock, by the Indians called 
 Kaskaskia and afterwards called the Mission of the Immaculate 
 Conception. About the year 1700, the branch of the Kaskaskia 
 Indians migrated down the Illinois River and down the Missis- 
 sippi to the mouth of the Kaskaskia River. They remained at 
 the latter place for a century or more, and were then placed 
 upon a reservation on the Big Muddy, from which they were 
 removed to the Indian Territory on or before 1860. 
 
 The Cahokia tribe was located in Illinois almost opposite 
 the present City of St. Louis. Their principal village became 
 the county seat of the first county organized in Illinois. They 
 rapidly decreased in numbers, however, and the remnant eventu- 
 ally amalgamated with the Kaskaskia. 
 
 The Michigameas, who gave their name to Lake Michigan, 
 were located on the borders of that lake. From thence they 
 were driven south by the Iroquois. This tribe was afterward 
 annihilated by their enemies from the north. 
 
 The Tamaroas, when first found, lived on the upper Illinois, 
 and afterward moved to St. Clair County, where they were 
 closely associated with the Cahokias. About 1680, while at war 
 with the Iroquois, seven hundred of them were killed or carried 
 into captivity. They were finally exterminated by the Shawnees. 
 
 When Marquette and Joliet passed up the Illinois River in 
 1673, the Peorias were located near the present site of the City 
 of Peoria. They were afterward driven to the south and joined 
 the Kaskaskias, in the latter part of the eighteenth century. 
 
 In connection with these Indians found in the latter part 
 of the seventeenth century on the banks of the Illinois, the 
 Missouri and other rivers in and around the State of Illinois, 
 it may be well to discuss briefly the origin and existence of 
 certain peculiar Indian mounds found in the State of Illinois. 
 It was contended by some theorists for a time that these mounds 
 
ILLINOIS 19 
 
 were evidence that the Indians found by the French discoverers 
 were not the first race of Indians that dwelt where these mounds 
 were erected; that a race of very different character and of 
 great genius and ability occupied the prairies of Illinois and 
 constructed, in their day, these strange artificial earth mounds. 
 Some excavations have been made in these mounds, but it is 
 not believed that in any of these excavations any satisfactory 
 proof has been found that these mounds were created by a dif- 
 ferent race than the tribes discovered and dealt with in 1673. 
 Indeed, mounds in the course of construction have been seen 
 by European explorers and in some of them they have found 
 products of European manufacture, which would seem to dis- 
 pose of effectually the theory that these mounds were created 
 by a superior, or more intelligent race. 
 
 There are quite a number of these mounds in the lower 
 valley of the Illinois River and along the lowlands of the Missis- 
 sippi. Some are in pyramidal shape, square or circular. Some 
 of them are very small, while the Cahokia mound rises to a 
 height of 100 feet and covers an area of probably seventeen 
 acres. 
 
 So far, the building of these mounds has not been conclu- 
 sively shown to have been the work of any prehistoric race of 
 Indians. The implements found in them are generally hoes and 
 implements shaped out of flint or other hard stone, and some 
 pottery, the latter being similar to the pottery unearthed from 
 mounds among the Natchez tribes of Indians. 
 
 Whoever built these mounds certainly did not leave within 
 these tumuli any evidence that the builders were of superior 
 intelligence or marked intellectual ability. The mounds were 
 probably used as the Egyptians used their pyramids, for the 
 deposit of the bodies of the important dead. 
 
 A great change came over the Indians as the result of the 
 advent of the white trader, not only in his, the Indian's, habits, 
 but also, to a degree in his character. Before the coming of 
 the white trader, he had been by training and his experiences 
 with the wild animals and wild men, self-reliant in his struggle 
 for a livelihood. The wild animals of the woods and prairies 
 furnished him both food and raiment. The fish in the lakes 
 
20 ILLINOIS 
 
 and rivers were abundant as were the beasts in the forest. The 
 flesh of these were supplemented at times with wild maize, wild 
 berries, and wild vegetables, and grains scantily wrung from 
 the soil by the labor of their squaws. 
 
 To secure his food and clothing, the primitive, untutored 
 Indian relied upon his flint-headed arrows and spears and his 
 rude traps and seines, but mainly he relied upon his own courage 
 and cunning to wring from nature a continuance of life. With 
 the coming of the white trader, this self-reliance ceased. 
 
 The trader had far-reaching, accurate firing guns and ex- 
 plosive ammunition, steel knives and other steel weapons for 
 hunting and for warfare. With such implements and weapons 
 in his possession, the Indian knew he could hunt, trap and fish 
 with much less risk and labor and with much greater profit. 
 When he saw and once used these modern weapons, the Indian 
 lost his spirit of self-reliance and independence. In procuring 
 these implements, he became the serf of the trader. For a little 
 rum and a rifle, the poor Indian was ready to sell his soul. The 
 white traders, hundreds of miles away from governmental su- 
 pervision, were the only persons who could supply these weapons, 
 powder, bullets, pots, pans, blankets and other necessities of life 
 to the Indians. Traders, under such circumstances became rob- 
 bers without violence. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 THE FRENCH DISCOVERERS AND SETTLERS 
 
 No white man disturbed the Indian tribes in Illinois or con- 
 tested their right to use that territory for their hunting grounds 
 until the latter part of the seventeenth century. Disputes as 
 to the rights of occupancy of these hunting grounds did arise 
 between the different tribes, as we have seen, but these disputes 
 were settled Indian fashion with the tomahawk and scalping 
 knife. 
 
 Rum and written treaties had not as yet been introduced 
 into negotiations by the pale face. 
 
 The Spaniard Hernando de Soto had sailed up the Mississippi, 
 but never reached the Illinois country. 
 
 For over one hundred years after De Soto's discovery of 
 the Mississippi, neither the French nor English made any per- 
 manent settlements in America. 
 
 The French settlements were in Canada and Acadia, now 
 called Nova Scotia. The English settlements were mainly in 
 Massachusetts and Virginia. All these settlements were on the 
 Atlantic sea coast. For a long time the advance inward from 
 the English settlements was retarded by the Appalachian moun- 
 tains and the formidable barrier made by the Iroquois confed- 
 eracy of Indians. 
 
 It is quite certain that no Englishman put foot upon the 
 territory of Illinois before the eighteenth century, because of 
 the dangers and difficulties of travel westward from the English 
 settlements. 
 
 The French pioneers in Canada were much better situated 
 for travel inward from the Atlantic than the English. The St. 
 Lawrence River, the Great Lakes and their tributary and con- 
 necting rivers furnished easy water transportation with few 
 portages to the Mississippi. The English settlements, however, 
 
 21 
 
22 ILLINOIS 
 
 were all along the seashore and east of the Alleghany Moun- 
 tains, over which, at that time, there were no trails that were 
 not extremely hazardous. The occupation of the Mississippi 
 Valley by the French started a century earlier, and was much 
 more rapid than the westward trek of the English over the 
 mountains. Three great incentives moved the French hunters, 
 explorers and missionaries. The northern regions of the west 
 about the Great Lakes abounded in valuable fur-bearing ani- 
 mals, beaver, minks, lynxes, muskrats, foxes and other animals 
 of that character. The acquisition of these furs from the In- 
 dians at low prices and the selling of them in Europe at high 
 prices, was a great incentive to the French traders and hunters. 
 This was the lure of wealth. Missionary zeal was another great 
 incentive. Never was the cause of Christianity served with 
 greater zeal and devotion and fearlessness than by Marquette 
 and the other disciples of Ignatius Loyola in the Mississippi 
 Valley. They endured untold hardships in their work among 
 the Indians, not only without complaint, but with enjoyment, and 
 seemed ever ready to suffer cruel torture and even death rather 
 than to abandon the work that they had devoted themselves to. 
 The third motive actuating these Frenchmen was love of coun- 
 try, and the desire to spread throughout the western hemisphere 
 the glory and material advancement of the French kingdom. 
 At that period Louis XIV, the grand monarch, was on the throne 
 of the French, and the fame of France among Christian nations 
 was at its peak. Every Frenchman detailed by that great mon- 
 arch to represent him on the western continent was aflame 
 with the desire of spreading the fame of France throughout 
 North America. The first westward movement was inaugurated 
 by Champlain, the governor of New France, who was intensely 
 interested in the exploration of the western country. He, him- 
 self, went as far as Lake Huron, and he placed young French- 
 men in the Indian villages to learn their languages. At the 
 inception of their efforts of exploration in the west, he was for 
 some time obstructed by the hostilities of the Iroquois Confed- 
 eracy, who were at all times inimical to the French, because of 
 the belief of these Indians that the French were allied with 
 
ILLINOIS 23 
 
 their enemies, the Algonquin tribe. These hostilities between 
 the French and Iroquois Confederacy continued down to 1667. 
 
 Although the French pioneers had discovered Newfoundland 
 and the St. Lawrence River and made settlements and estab- 
 lished fisheries in their neighborhood as early as 1504, no seri- 
 ous attempt was made by the French discoverers permanently to 
 locate under the flag of the French king any territory in Illinois, 
 or immediately surrounding it, until the latter part of the seven- 
 teenth century. 
 
 Champlain was made governor of New France, being the 
 title by which the French possessions in America were then 
 known, and held this position until he died in 1635. During 
 the seven years that he acted as governor, he was consistently 
 furthering the interests of his monarch and the Catholic re- 
 ligion. Reports coming to him of a great river in the West and 
 of regions rich with fur-bearing animals, he sent to the West 
 as explorers and for the purpose of laying claim to the country 
 several young Frenchmen and among them a young friend, 
 named Jean Nicollett, who had lived with the Indians, and be- 
 came acquainted with their language and acted as an interpreter. 
 Nicollett discovered Lake Michigan in 1634, and visited the 
 Indians at Green Bay. Two Jesuit missionaries visited the 
 River St. Mary on the south side of Lake Superior about 1634, 
 and the following year as many as fifteen Jesuit priests were in 
 the region of the Great Lakes. Their movements were watched 
 and bitterly opposed by the Iroquois Indians, who refused to 
 allow them to make use of the St. Lawrence or Lake Ontario 
 and Lake Erie. In 1655, however, a sort of peace was agreed 
 upon between the French and the Iroquois, and after this the 
 French pushed their explorations both west and southwest. 
 
 In 1659 the first Bishop of New France, Francis Xavier De 
 Laval, landed at Montreal from France, bringing more clergy- 
 men with him devoted to the propagation of the Catholic faith. 
 Most of these early clergymen were of the Franciscan order, 
 but ultimately were supplanted by the Jesuits, who were the 
 main supports of the Church in the new world. 
 
 In 1664, the Valley of the Hudson became British property 
 by transfer from the Dutch, and this ended any influence for 
 
24 ILLINOIS 
 
 peace that the French had with the Iroquois. The Algonquin 
 of the West were always at war with the Iroquois, and they then 
 sought to ally themselves with the French, a power which 
 seemed to be growing rapidly in the new world. 
 
 In 1660, three hundred Algonquin in sixty canoes, loaded 
 with furs, accompanied the French traders on their return to 
 Quebec from the West, and this deputation of Algonquins made 
 clear to the French authorities the necessity of an alliance be- 
 tween the French and the Indians of the West. 
 
 In 1669, Father Allouez, S. J., after spending two years on 
 the south shore of Lake Superior, returned to Quebec and urged 
 upon the governor the necessity of establishing permanent mis- 
 sions and trading stations in the West. 
 
 About this time, Father James Marquette, S. J., recently 
 arrived from France, visited Quebec and was detailed, with 
 Father Dablau to found a mission at Sault Ste. Marie. During 
 his travels, Father Marquette heard wonderful stories of the 
 Mississippi River, and in 1669 he began to study the Illinois 
 language. Up to that time, the French government itself had 
 done but little to establish missions, forts or trading stations in 
 the West. As the Algonquin tribes and the French became more 
 friendly and as commercial intercourse between them in the 
 way of purchase and sale of furs developed, it finally became 
 interesting to the French government, and Colbert, minister of 
 finance of France, became much interested in extending the 
 power of France westward in America. Under his inspiration, 
 Simon Francois Daumont Sieur de St. Lusson was authorized 
 to hold a congress of the Indian tribes at St. Mary's at the out- 
 let of Lake Superior in the summer of 1671. The government 
 of France sent into the region about St. Mary, Nicholas Pierrot, 
 to invite the Indian tribes to assemble at St. Mary's for the 
 proposed congress, and fourteen tribes responded to the invita- 
 tion. On June 4, 1671, St. Lusson, with Father Allouez, and 
 surrounded by a retinue of French officers, opened the congress 
 and brought it out to the assembled Indian delegates that it was 
 the purpose of the great king of France to take the tribes in the 
 western part of New France under his care. The assembled 
 Indians were much impressed with the display of power and 
 
ILLINOIS 25 
 
 authority, and reached the conclusion that the French govern- 
 ment and its soldiers were the only power to protect them from 
 the persecutions and calamities that they had hitherto suffered 
 from the Iroquois. At the conclusion of the ceremony, a great 
 cedar cross was erected on the banks of the great Lake Superior, 
 and by the side of the cross, another cedar column was erected, 
 which bore the lilies of France. From this time on, the French 
 government began to display some interest in the settlement 
 of the far West. 
 
 About this time, Father James Marquette, heretofore men- 
 tioned, had gathered about him the remnants of an Indian tribe 
 and founded a mission near what is now known as the Strait 
 of Mackinac. His mission was called St. Ignace, in honor of 
 St. Ignatius, the Jesuit. There he preached the Gospel to the 
 Hurons and members of other tribes, and while there, he heard 
 of the great river in the West. I quote his own language : 
 
 When the Illinois come to the point (St. Esprit), they 
 pass a great river which is almost a league in width. It 
 flows from north to south, and to so great a distance that 
 the Illinois, who know nothing of the use of the canoe, have 
 never as yet heard of its mouth. 
 
 He then ventured the hope that means would be found to 
 "visit the nations who dwell along its shores in order to open 
 the way to the many of our fathers who were awaiting so great 
 an opportunity." 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 MARQUETTE AND JOLIET DISCOVER THE MISSISSIPPI 
 
 The first serious attempt made by the French monarchy to 
 colonize its discoveries in New France was made by Jean Bap- 
 tiste Colbert, the greatest of French ministers under Louis XIV, 
 the grand monarch of France. His first venture was pater- 
 nalistic and monopolistic. He had created a great corporation, 
 the West India Company, to which was given wide monopolistic 
 power of trading and development in and over all the over-sea 
 territory of France in America. Although governmentally aided 
 and fostered, wars and financial catastrophes, caused its col- 
 lapse and in 1672 it had ceased to function. 
 
 Canada then became a royal province. For some eight or 
 ten years prior to this date, a real beginning of exploration 
 of the West occurred. A complete civil government had been 
 established in New France. Jean Talon was then the intendant, 
 one of the ablest if not the greatest of France's civil officials 
 ever stationed in New France. Talon and Colbert, the great 
 French minister, had identical views with reference to the estab- 
 lishment of a great French empire in America. Soon after his 
 appearance in Canada, Talon organized expeditions to discover 
 the territory which might become a Greater France. In 1669, 
 he had sent an expedition to Lake Superior under the leader- 
 ship of Louis Joliet, who made a successful mission to Lake 
 Superior and returned by the route of Lake Erie. He was 
 probably the first white discoverer of that lake. During the fol- 
 lowing year, at the instigation of Talon, Robert Cavalier Sieur 
 de La Salle made another exploration south of the Lakes. An- 
 other expedition was undertaken by Simon Francois Daumont 
 Sieur de St. Luson to the same lakes region. Luson had been 
 delegated by the French government to bring about an immense 
 meeting with the Indian tribes and to carry out the significant 
 
 26 
 
Marquette 
 
 />; 
 
 JOLIET 
 
28 ILLINOIS 
 
 ceremony at Sault Ste. Marie. This place was selected because 
 of its convenient location, uniting the territory around Lake 
 Superior and Lake Winnebago with the territory around Lake 
 Michigan and the Mississippi Valley. In June, 1671, repre- 
 sentatives of fourteen Indian tribes met at Sault Ste. Marie as 
 hereinbefore stated, and witnessed a ceremony of great pomp, 
 both religious and nationalistic. Father Calude Ailouez in a 
 stately address pointed out to the Indians the power of the 
 great French king, and declared that all of the country sur- 
 rounding Sault Ste. Marie was then in the possession of the 
 Great Monarch Louis XIV, and that all nations must forbear 
 from trespassing upon its confines. At the conclusion of the 
 ceremony, they erected a great cross, and a pillar to which the 
 arms of France were attached, with great solemnity. 
 
 The incentive to this solemn ceremony and the further de- 
 velopment of the territory around the Great Lakes and to the 
 West was the desire to explore and discover if the Indian's ac- 
 counts relating to a great western river which flowed to the 
 sea, were authentic. Talon had made up his mind to find this 
 river and to discover its outlet to salt water. He aimed to 
 select for this mission a competent and experienced man, and 
 finally selected Louis Joliet, who was not only an experienced 
 explorer, but a capable and successful leader of men. He showed 
 great sagacity in his selection. Joliet was born in Quebec on 
 or about 1645, and was educated in a Jesuit school in the village 
 in which he was born. He remained in the school until he was 
 educated in the higher branches, including surveying and map- 
 making. He was by birth a natural musician, and often played 
 the organ of the Cathedral of Quebec. He intended to become 
 a priest, but finally concluded to abandon that calling and to 
 follow the life of a fur trader and explorer. In his youth he 
 was friendly with the Jesuits, and that friendship continued 
 throughout his whole life. The Jesuits on their part were al- 
 ways friendly with him, and regarded him as their representa- 
 tive in his trips of discovery. Before he was selected to under- 
 take the discovery of the Mississippi, he had twice visited Sault 
 Ste. Marie, and had earned not only the confidence of his civilian 
 
ILLINOIS 29 
 
 superiors, but that of the Jesuits and Indians with whom he 
 came in contact. 
 
 It was the policy of the French authorities then and before 
 that time, to attach to any mission of discovery which they or- 
 ganized a French missionary, preferably a Jesuit, because of 
 the fact that these missionaries had been successful in obtaining 
 the confidence of the Indians and had secured their friendship 
 wherever they met. Accordingly, Talon and the leaders of the 
 Jesuit order conferred with reference to the selection of a Jesuit 
 missionary to accompany Joliet in his quest for the wonderful 
 river of the West. Both finally agreed upon the selection of 
 Jacques Marquette of the Jesuit order. In 1673, Father Mar- 
 quette was about thirty-six years of age. His birthplace was 
 Laon, France. He entered the Jesuit order in 1654 and arrived 
 in Canada in 1666. He succeeded Father Allouez in the mission 
 of Chequamegon Bay, and about 1671 he built the mission of 
 St. Ignace at Mackinac. At the time of his selection as the com- 
 panion of Joliet, he was quietly and unostentatiously performing 
 his sacred duties in a little chapel that he had built at St. Ignace, 
 surrounded by a few poor savages and a few French fur traders. 
 
 In his dreams for several years, this quiet, patient, saintly 
 man had been dreaming of just such a mission, excited thereto 
 by the tales that he had heard from the Indians, of the wonder- 
 ful river of the West. His ambition in life was to gather into 
 the fold of the true believers in the divinity of Jesus Christ, the 
 simple, untutored red-skinned inhabitants of the western prai- 
 ries, who had never heard of the Son of God and His gospels 
 of love. 
 
 Talon had arranged for this mission of discovery by Joliet 
 and Pere Marquette, but it did not fall to his lot to give the 
 final commission into their hands. Comte de Frontenac came 
 to Canada as Governor in 1672. He adopted the program pre- 
 pared by Talon, made no change in the personnel of the leaders 
 of this mission of discovery, and finally authorized Joliet and 
 Marquette to start upon their undertaking. 
 
 In the winter of 1672-73, at Mackinac on the Point St. Ig- 
 nace, which is in its immediate neighborhood, Louis Joliet and 
 Pere Marquette made their preparations for their mission. It 
 
30 ILLINOIS 
 
 is astounding how simple these arrangements were. Although 
 they contemplated a journey by land and water which would 
 cover hundreds of miles in the wilderness, and might cover a 
 thousand miles in their wanderings, the only provision made for 
 this extraordinary exploration was a small stock of Indian corn 
 and smoked meat. They had ascertained from the Indians the 
 general direction of their route, and had traced out, upon such 
 information, tentative maps, of where they intended to go. With 
 their guns and this small stock of food, they started on May 17, 
 1673 with five men and two canoes for this long voyage of mys- 
 terious end. 
 
 Keeping to the west shore of Lake Michigan from Mackinac 
 to Green Bay, they entered the Bay and paddled their canoes 
 down the same until they reached the Fox River. Up to this 
 point, they were familiar with the route. Beyond that point, 
 the route was a mystery. The Indians on the banks of the Fox 
 River attempted to dissuade them from further adventure. They 
 pictured to Joliet and Pere Marquette a country beyond, filled 
 with Indians of a merciless disposition, and described the river 
 as dangerous of ascent or descent. None the less, the discoverers 
 remained steadfast to their original aim, and shortly thereafter 
 crossed the portage between the upper Fox River and the Wis- 
 consin River, guided by Miami Indians. 
 
 On June 17th, just one month after leaving Mackinac, they 
 entered the Mississippi River. En route from Lake Michigan 
 to the Wisconsin River, they had come across a great cross 
 erected evidently by white men at or near the portage between 
 the Fox River and the Wisconsin River, but thereafter neither 
 down the Wisconsin nor down the Mississippi did they discover 
 any evidence that a white man had ever traveled upon the water 
 of these rivers, until they reached the mouth of the Arkansas 
 River. 
 
 Marquette is quoted as saying, 
 
 I put the expedition under the protection of the Blessed 
 Virgin Immaculate, promising her that if she did us the 
 grace to discover the great river, I would give it the name 
 of 'Conception/ and I also would give that name to the 
 first mission among these new nations, as I have actually 
 
ILLINOIS 31 
 
 done among the Illinois. (Smith's History of Illinois, 
 p. 73.) 
 
 A few days after embarking upon the Mississippi River 
 after leaving the Wisconsin River, they discovered footprints 
 in the vicinity of what is now the City of Keokuk, Iowa. Fol- 
 lowing these footprints, Marquette and Joliet, leaving their 
 canoes, went into the prairie and soon came in contact with a 
 village of Indians. These Indians, carrying tobacco pipes, came 
 out to welcome them. Marquette, who spoke several Indian 
 dialects, addressed them and they told him that they were Illi- 
 nois, and presented the pipe of peace. These Illinois Indians 
 gave them a feast of which both Marquette and Joliet partook, 
 save and except a dish which consisted of dog meat. At the 
 invitation of these Illinois Indians, they remained overnight, 
 and on the following day were accompanied to their boats by 
 a crowd of Indians, who wished them good luck. 
 
 After leaving these Indians, Marquette and Joliet continued 
 on their journey down the Mississippi, passing the mysterious 
 Piasa Rock and the mouth of the Ohio. They kept on their 
 journey to about the latitude of the Arkansas River. At this 
 point, they met some Indians, who had guns and axes, hoes and 
 other modern implements. Although Father Marquette spoke 
 six Indian dialects, he did not understand what any of them 
 said, until an old man who spoke a little of the Illinois language 
 was found, and through him, Marquette was able to understand 
 a little of what he said. These Indians were located in the neigh- 
 borhood of the mouth of the Arkansas River. All these different 
 Indians had so far treated them kindly. At this point, Mar- 
 quette and Joliet had a conference, and determined that the 
 Mississippi River did not empty into the Pacific nor into the 
 Atlantic, but that it flowed southward to the Gulf of Mexico. 
 They also reached the conclusion that there would be danger 
 of meeting warlike Indians further south, and made up their 
 minds to return northward along the Mississippi River. 
 
 The journey homeward commenced on the 17th of July, two 
 months, exactly, from the date that they had departed from 
 St. Ignace. They found the northward journey much more 
 
32 ILLINOIS 
 
 difficult, and when near the mouth of the Illinois River, were 
 informed that the distance to Lake Michigan was much shorter 
 by the Illinois River than by the Wisconsin and Fox rivers. 
 Relying upon this information, they started northeasterly from 
 the Mississippi through the Illinois River. At a point along 
 this river where the city of Peoria is now located, they went 
 ashore and found a village of Illinois Indians. They were kindly 
 received, and spent several days with these Indians, during 
 which Father Marquette preached to the Indians in the town. 
 After leaving Peoria, they came to a village of Kaskaskia Indi- 
 ans, located at what is now known as Utica. In this village 
 there were seventy-four cabins, and as the Indians frequently 
 housed six families in each cabin, and as the Indian family 
 usually averaged five, there must have been quite an Indian 
 population at this point. These Indians also received Father 
 Marquette and his party in a friendly, generous way. They 
 listened to his preaching and became interested in his story 
 of the Gospel. They exacted from him his promise to return 
 and preach to them at greater length, and furnished an escort 
 of a chief and several young men to accompany Father Marquette 
 and his party when they were leaving, which guard accompanied 
 them to the Chicago portage. 
 
 From Chicago, they made their way in a leisurely manner 
 to the mission of Green Bay, arriving there in September, 1673. 
 Father Marquette and Joliet spent the winter of 1673-74 and 
 the summer of 1674 at the mission of St. Francis Xavier at 
 the head of Green Bay. Late in the summer of 1674, Joliet 
 left the mission of St. Francis, and in August reported to the 
 governor of New France at Quebec, verbally. He traveled by 
 water, and unfortunately when near Quebec, his boat was upset 
 and he lost his maps, notes and specimens taken on the voyage 
 of discovery. Only the maps left in the West remained. These 
 were afterward identified. After reporting to the governor 
 of New France, Joliet sailed to France, where he was received 
 with great honor and afterward sent on a mission to Central 
 America. 
 
 Father Marquette, in the fall of 1674, remembering his 
 promise to the Kaskaskia Indians to return and preach to them 
 
ILLINOIS 33 
 
 again about the Savior of Mankind, started on his journey to 
 Kaskaskia, and on October 27, 1674 with two French laymen 
 he left the mission of St. Francis Xavier and journeyed south- 
 ward towards the Kaskaskia Village. On November 21, 1674, 
 Father Marquette was taken sick, it being a return of an old 
 malady, dysentery. Notwithstanding his sickness, he reached 
 Chicago on December 4, 1674. There his companions built 
 some rude cabins and attempted to make him comfortable. 
 That winter in Chicago was a long, severe, cold winter and 
 he suffered extremely from exposure and improper food and 
 lack of nursing care, although his attendants did everything 
 that was possible in their rude way for his comfort. Many 
 Indians called upon him, and some few Frenchmen paid him 
 comforting visits. He then heard that the Indians at Kaskaskia 
 were on the point of starvation on account of the severe winter. 
 A French physician visited him about this time and brought 
 food and otherwise administered to him. 
 
 On February 9th, 1675 Father Marquette wrote that he 
 was feeling better and expected to complete his journey to 
 the Kaskaskia Indians when the weather improved. On March 
 30th, the ice began to break and on or about this day Marquette 
 and a little band of companions started for the Kaskaskia 
 village. Their route was up the southern branch of the Chicago 
 River, across the portage sometimes known as Mud Lake to 
 the Des Plaines River. On March 30th they crossed the portage, 
 and reached the village on April 8, 1675. The Indians at Kas- 
 kaskia were as overjoyed upon his return as if an angel from 
 heaven had visited them. The chiefs and elders of the tribe 
 surrounded him in a circle, and in the inner and outer circle 
 there were at least fifteen hundred men, women and children. 
 He preached with intense religious feeling, and seemed to be 
 extremely happy. On the 11th of April, he established a mission 
 there, and gave it the name of the Immaculate Conception of 
 the Blessed Virgin. 
 
 After remaining a few days at Kaskaskia, he started back 
 with the expectation of reaching St. Ignace. A large number 
 of chiefs and couriers of the Kaskaskia tribe accompanied him to 
 the Chicago Portage and to Lake Michigan, carrying his baggage 
 
34 ILLINOIS 
 
 and rendering him every possible assistance. It was the intention 
 of Father Marquette on leaving Chicago, en route to St. Ignace, 
 to travel by canoe along the southerly shore of Lake Michigan 
 and along its easterly side. He started upon this trip upon 
 Lake Michigan accompanied only by two Frenchmen, Pierre 
 and Jacques. His strength failing him, he begged these two 
 young men to carry him ashore, that he might die quietly on 
 land and escape the great storm then gathering on the lake. 
 The exact spot where this occurred is disputed, but the best 
 evidence is that it was near the City of Ludington on an inlet 
 from Lake Michigan known as Pere Marquette Lake. Following 
 Father Marquette's instructions, the two young Frenchmen 
 buried him at this spot, and after erecting a cross over his 
 grave, they continued their journey to St. Ignace, and there 
 gave the sad news of the death of its beloved founder. 
 
 Joliet christened the great river that he and Father Mar- 
 quette had discovered "Buade," this being the family name 
 of the Count de Frontenac, and later on re-christened it the 
 "Colbert" after the great French minister. On the other hand, 
 Father Marquette in his devotion to the Virgin Mother of God, 
 named it in commemoration of the Immaculate Conception; but 
 nonetheless, the name by which the Indians christened this 
 great stream, "The Mississippi" is still the name by which it 
 is now known, and will be known in the centuries yet to come. 
 One translation of the Indian name, "Mississippi" is The Great 
 Water. Another writer claims that the name is derived from 
 "Mechah" (Big) and "Seebee" (River) in the Ojibwa language. 
 
 Joliet, the seasoned traveler in the wilderness, the trained 
 explorer of lakes and rivers, was more than delighted when 
 he crossed the portage from the Des Plaines River to the southern 
 branch of the Chicago River, to discover the ease of navigation 
 from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi. He saw in this ease 
 of transfer from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi the realiza- 
 tion of his dream of a great prosperous colony. 
 
 "A bark," said he, "could be sailed from Lake Erie 
 through the lakes to Lake Michigan, where a canal through 
 half a league of prairie would admit the vessel to the water 
 system of the great valley." (Alvord, P. 65). 
 
ILLINOIS 35 
 
 This vision of Joliet has been since his day the vision of 
 every great statesman in Illinois down to the present day, but 
 to Joliet belongs the unquestioned honor of first proposing it 
 and originating the project of a waterway connecting Lake 
 Michigan and the Illinois River. It was my ambition and 
 hope, when I was governor, to be able to open the gates that 
 would pour navigable waters from Lake Michigan into the 
 Illinois River. But, sad to relate, that ambition was not 
 achieved, and as I write, the Illinois waterway is still unopened 
 for commerce. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 THE FRENCH MISSIONARIES 
 
 The hardy and adventurous coureurs de bois of Canada were 
 undoubtedly the first white men to plant their feet on the 
 western territory now comprising the states of Ohio, Indiana, 
 Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. They were the 
 first to learn that this territory was rich in fur bearing wild 
 animals and that their skins could be purchased cheaply from 
 the Indian hunters and sold at great profit. They were illiterate 
 men who left no record of their wanderings or discoveries. They 
 undoubtedly preceded the Jesuits around Lake Superior and 
 were found at Green Bay by the first missionary that visited 
 that body of water. Father Marquette found them on the upper 
 Illinois River in 1674. 
 
 But the zealous French missionaries were not long behind 
 them. In 1669, Father Claude Jean Allouez visited Green Bay, 
 and on Lake Ontario, the Sulpician missionaries from Montreal 
 established a mission and sent two of their number up the 
 Detroit River to explore Lake Erie. From that time down to 
 the day when the French flag was lowered over Fort Chartres 
 and Kaskaskia, these zealous, devoted men were always found 
 on the outskirts of civilization, preaching to the Red Men and 
 French Traders the doctrines of Jesus Christ, visiting and 
 consoling the sick, giving spiritual consolation to the dying, 
 enduring untold hardships, sickness and even death with a 
 courage that was never surpassed in the field of battle. 
 
 Alvord in his history The Illinois Country, 1673-1818 in 
 writing of these devoted men declares, Page 102 : 
 
 From the first one, Father Marquette, to the last, 
 Father Meurin, these learned men of religion, with little 
 thought of worldly wealth or desire of self-advancement, 
 
 36 
 
ILLINOIS 37 
 
 gave the best of their lives to the conversion of the Illinois 
 Indians. 
 
 As we have heretofore seen, the gentle souled Pere Marquette 
 was the first of these holy men who came in contact with the 
 Indians of Illinois. He so impressed them, as he addressed 
 them in their Indian dialect, that, on his departure from them, 
 after a short stay in 1673, they escorted him to Chicago and 
 secured from him a promise to return to them for future instruc- 
 tion. That promise Marquette redeemed at the cost of his life. 
 His delicate physical frame gave way on the return from that 
 trip and he died a martyr to his zeal for conversions to 
 Christianity. 
 
 Father Claude Jean Allouez, S. J., was his immediate suc- 
 cessor in the Illinois mission. Prior to his arrival in Illinois, 
 Father Allouez had been at a mission on the shore of Lake 
 Superior and there met some Illinois Indians who visited that 
 mission. Soon after associating himself with the Illinois, he 
 wrote an account of them which was the first written document 
 on that subject. For twenty-four years he was actively engaged 
 in founding and maintaining missions among the Indians of the 
 Northwest. 
 
 After Marquette's death, Father Allouez appeared as his 
 successor at the Illinois mission. On the approach of La Salle, 
 however, he deemed it prudent to retire from that mission, 
 there being a feeling of hostility towards the Jesuits on the 
 part of La Salle and his followers. In 1684, however, he was 
 again acting as Marquette's successor at the Illinois missions, 
 and was not disturbed in any wise by Tonti, who was La Salle's 
 lieutenant. His death took place in 1689. Kellogg, in his Early 
 Narrative of the Northwest, page 96, as quoted by Alvord, 
 page 103, states: 
 
 In 1689 this devoted servant of the Cross (Allouez) 
 died at the Miami village on the St. Joseph River. A second 
 St. Francis Xavier, Allouez is said during his twenty-four 
 years of service to have instructed 120,000 Western savages 
 and baptized at least 10,000. 
 

 Marquette and Indian Chief 
 
ILLINOIS 39 
 
 Following Allouez came Father Jacques Gravier. He acted 
 as missionary priest to the Illinois until 1705, when Tonti and 
 Le Forest left Fort St. Louis at Starved Rock to go to Peoria. 
 Father Gravier followed them and built a new church near the 
 new fort. He is reported to have converted the chief of the 
 Peoria tribe, and thereafter his influence among the Peoria and 
 Kaskaskia Indians was greatly increased. Later on, Father 
 Pinet came to the Illinois tribe from Mackinac, where he had 
 been serving as a missionary for two years. Father Pinet 
 founded the mission of the Guardian Angel near the mouth of 
 the Chicago River among the Wea tribe, a branch of the Miamis. 
 His conduct in so doing gave affront to Governor Frontenac, 
 who ordered the mission closed in 1697. Against the governor's 
 conduct, Father Gravier protested in a strong letter written to 
 the Bishop of Quebec. The Bishop took the matter up with 
 the authorities in Quebec and succeeded in re-establishing the 
 mission, but for some reason or other the mission was again 
 closed or abandoned in 1700. 
 
 A little church had been erected by the Jesuits in the Village 
 of the Kaskaskia early in the century, but in 1753 this building 
 which had been rather hastily and rudely constructed, was 
 replaced by a church which is said to have been 104 feet long 
 and 40 feet wide. This new church was erected by the efforts 
 of three successive priests attached to the Kaskaskia mission, 
 Father Tartarin, Father Watrin and Father Aubert. They 
 succeeded in erecting this new church out of contributions made 
 by the parishioners and their own fees and offerings. A com- 
 plete list of the Jesuit priests who served in the Illinois country 
 contains the names of the following clergymen: 
 
 Marquette, Father Jacques (James), 1673-1675. 
 
 Allouez, Father Claude Jean, 1674-1688. 
 
 Gravier, Father Jacques, 1688-1695, 1698-1706. 
 
 Rale, Father Sebastian, 1691-1693. 
 
 Binneteau, Father Julien, 1696-1699. 
 
 Pinet, Father Pierre Francois, 1696-1697, 1700-1704. 
 
 Marest, Father Pierre Gabriel, 1698-1714. 
 
 Alexandre, Brother, 1699. 
 
 Limoges, Father Joseph de, 1699-1700. 
 
 Gillet, Brother, 1702. 
 
40 ILLINOIS 
 
 Guibert, Brother Jean Francois, 1702-1712. 
 Le Boullenger, Father Jean Antoine (Jean Baptiste), 1703- 
 1741. 
 
 Mermet, Father Jean, 1704-1716. 
 
 Ville, Father Jean Marie de, 1707-1720. 
 
 Guymonneau, Father Jean Charles (Gabriel), 1716-1736. 
 
 Beaubois, Father Nicholas Ignace de, 1720-1724. 
 
 Kereben, Father Joseph Francois de, 1725-1728. 
 
 Dumas, Father Jean, 1727-1740. 
 
 Outreleau, Father Etienne d', 1727-1728. 
 
 Tartarin, Father Rene, 1727-1730. 
 
 Senat, Father Antoine, 1734-1756. 
 
 Meurin, Father Sebastian Louis, 1742-1763, 1763-1777. 
 
 Magendie, Brother Charles, 1747-1756. 
 
 Watrin, Father Philibert, 1747-1764. 
 
 Fourre, Father Joseph Julien, 1749-1756. 
 
 Guyenne, Father Alexis (Alexandre) Xavier de, 1732-1756. 
 
 Vivier, Father Louis, 1739-1753. 
 
 Pernelle, Brother Julien, 1755-1764. 
 
 La Mornnie, Father Jean Baptiste de, 1760 (or 1761-) 1764. 
 
 Salleneuve, Father Jean Baptiste (Francois) de, 1761-1764. 
 
 Duvernai, Father Julien, 1763-1764. 
 
 With reference to the conduct of these priests, Alvord states 
 in his history, page 198, 
 
 In all accounts that have been preserved, the praise 
 of the Jesuits and the performance of their duties to their 
 parishioners is almost universal, only an occasional voice 
 being raised against their strictness. Besides the regularly 
 recurring functions of their calling, the Fathers gave daily 
 instructions, for the most part religious, to the French 
 settlers, thus becoming the first school teachers of the 
 Illinois country. 
 
 There were other missionaries, however, than the Jesuits. 
 At Cahokia, the Seminary of Foreign Missions stationed one of 
 their clergymen, by name Father Dominique Marie Varlet, who 
 administered to the French inhabitants and the Indians around 
 Cahokia from 1712 to 1718. He was succeeded in the same 
 place by three other members of the same order, Father Thau- 
 man de La Source, Father Calvarin, and Father Mercier. Father 
 Mercier had quite a long career at Cahokia, where he died 
 March 30, 1753. It is said that he passed forty-five years in 
 missionary work, and was always respected by the Indians with 
 
ILLINOIS 41 
 
 whom he came in contact. The Seminary priests also sent out 
 a missionary to the Missouri Indians, and served the church 
 of St. Anne, at Fort de Chartres, which provoked a short but 
 well tempered dispute between the Seminary priests and the 
 Jesuits. 
 
 These missionary priests were supposed to have received 
 salaries from the Provincial Government. The Company of the 
 West Indies paid 600 livres a year to each of the Jesuits, and 
 200 livres extra for five years to cover the expenses of installing 
 a new mission. A livre was worth about twenty cents. The 
 government continued paying these salaries until the parishes 
 grew in prosperity, and then their payment ceased. The sal- 
 aries of these missionary clergymen were often unpaid. The 
 religious bodies, however, sometimes received grants of land 
 from the government. The Jesuits received a large grant in 
 Kaskaskia as early as 1716, and the Seminary of Foreign Mis- 
 sions received a cession of four leagues square at or near the 
 village of Cahokia. The Jesuit missionaries were quite san- 
 guine about the result of their work as missionaries among the 
 Illinois Indians, who were a friendly and gentle race and listened 
 gratefully to the teachings of the priests. By 1712 it was as- 
 serted by the missionaries and other persons who were cognizant 
 of the facts ; that all of the Illinois Indians had accepted Chris- 
 tianity. This was sometimes disputed by others, but it is un- 
 questioned that they attended mass and vespers regularly and 
 seemed to enjoy the religious services. They joined in the 
 hymns with the French, the Illinois Indians singing a couplet 
 of a psalm or hymn in their own language, and the French 
 following it in the Latin services of the church. It is said that 
 they were so fond of instruction and confession that they wearied 
 the Fathers with their insistence. Their habits were altered 
 in many ways as the result of the instruction that they received 
 from those priests. Most of the Indian medicine men were 
 driven out of the tribe by the Kaskaskias and Cahokias. They 
 abandoned torture in warfare. Under the instruction of the 
 priests, they learned the use of the plow, and the women learned 
 to make cloth from the hair of the buffalo. The Indian women 
 dressed modestly. They had dressing gowns which reached to 
 
42 ILLINOIS 
 
 the neck, upon which they sewed a cap or a hat. Underneath the 
 gown, they wore a petticoat and a bodice. They covered their 
 bosoms with deer skin. The men, however, wore only girdles, 
 the rest of their body being wholly bare. 
 
 The association of the Jesuits and the daring, hardy fur 
 traders doing business on an individualistic basis, free from 
 monopolistic control, at the start was mutually advantageous. 
 
 The missionary priests had secured the good will of the In- 
 dian tribes both by their gentle humanizing conduct and by their 
 preaching of the pure unselfish doctrines of the Christian 
 Church. To their missions wherever established the Indians 
 flocked in great numbers. Around these missions surmounted 
 by the cross, the Indians erected their tepees and cabins. Nat- 
 urally, these were the places where the coureurs-de-bois and 
 the fur traders would most easily come in contact with the 
 Indian hunters returning with their skins from the hunting 
 grounds. The traders, naturally, would help the missionaries 
 in the erection of their chapels, and homes, and in the acquisi- 
 tion of food, clothing and the other necessities and comforts of 
 life in the wilderness. Naturally, the missionaries, in return, 
 would help these traders as interpreters and otherwise. Cheat- 
 ing and over-reaching of the Indians by the traders, however, 
 frequently occurred; as in most of the dealings between white 
 men of all nationalities and the Indian. Because of these oc- 
 currences, to the credit of the Jesuit missionaries, be it said, 
 they, the missionaries, "worked persistently for an order from 
 the court prohibiting fur traders from going to the West." 
 (Alvord, Vol. I, Centennial History of Illinois, p. 70.) "They, 
 the Jesuits, protested ever more strenuously against the sale of 
 liquor to the Indians." (Idem.) 
 
 These fur traders, while allowed to wander at will, could 
 and did frequently close an unfair trade with the simple-minded 
 Indian not under the eye of a French official or missionary 
 priest, but in the secrecy usual in dishonest transactions. 
 
 The missionaries in the remote western settlements were 
 of the opinion that the traders should be prevented from enter- 
 ing the territory, and that for the purpose of trade, the Indians 
 
ILLINOIS 43 
 
 would transport their furs to the white settlements, where op- 
 portunity would be given to supervise all transactions. 
 
 The leaders of the Jesuit order had a more ambitious pro- 
 gram. It was the establishment in the heart of the Mississippi 
 Valley of a great Christian state in which the red man, con- 
 verted to Christianity, would retain his hunting grounds under 
 the tutelage of the Jesuits, free from the cupidity and avarice 
 of the dishonest trader. Neither the views of the resident mis- 
 sionaries nor the aspirations of the Jesuit leaders were ever 
 realized. 
 
 At this juncture, Frontenac appears upon the scene; the 
 man who was to establish the future policy of the dealings of 
 the Frenchman with the Aborigine ; but who was also to initiate 
 and press to the front with vigor the magnificent program of 
 welding together the Province of Canada with the Province of 
 Louisiana, — both held by the French, by building French forts 
 and establishing French garrisons and settlements across the 
 present states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, 
 Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana and laying the foundations 
 of a New France in America which in time would be greater, 
 richer, and more powerful than the mother country. 
 
 Louis Baude, Comte de Frontenac, was appointed governor 
 of New France about 1674 after Joliet and Pere Marquette had 
 discovered the Mississippi. The white skinned population of 
 New France at that time was less than seven thousand. With 
 consummate enterprise and daring, Frontenac embarked upon 
 the gigantic scheme of occupying the whole Mississippi Valley 
 north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi River and below 
 the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi, with French forts and 
 settlements. He seemed to be the first of the governors of New 
 France who had the breadth of vision to foresee that the nation 
 that was in actual formidable possession of this rich territory 
 with sufficient strength to establish continuous contact of forts 
 and settlements could unite New France and Louisiana and lay 
 the foundation for a great white skinned nation in the Missis- 
 sippi Valley. 
 
 His ambition in this direction was actuated not only by 
 patriotic love for France and her aggrandizement, but by a 
 
44 ILLINOIS 
 
 selfish motive. He saw in the rich fur trade of that territory 
 financial riches for himself and his intimates. If he or his 
 friends could procure from the French sovereign a monopoly of 
 this trade, his fortune was made, while his country was being 
 aggrandized. 
 
 Before the arrival of Frontenac in New France, the Jesuits 
 had been granted special rights in the conduct of missions among 
 the Indians around the Great Lakes and the only missions then 
 in existence were those established by the Jesuits. These mis- 
 sions around which the Indians gathered became magnets for 
 the assemblage of the fur traders, and particularly for those 
 traders that were or could become on friendly terms with the 
 missionaries. 
 
 Friendship between these traders and the missionaries in 
 these outskirts of civilization sprang up naturally. It was for 
 the mutual advantage of both. Behind these traders and the 
 missionaries in these outposts on the frontier of the new world, 
 were many of the leading merchants of New France. These 
 leading merchants were doubtless the brokers and financial sup- 
 porters of the traders in the outposts and missions. These 
 great merchants and financiers were as desirous of monopolizing 
 the trading privileges as were Frontenac and his friends. 
 
 When Frontenac disclosed his gigantic scheme of uniting 
 New France with Louisiana by a string of forts and missions 
 from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi and down the Missis- 
 sippi to the Gulf of Mexico, with monopoly rights of fur trading 
 in Frontenac and his friends, bitter opposition developed be- 
 tween the established traders on the one side and Frontenac 
 and his friends on the other side. The Jesuits, naturally, sided 
 with their friends and intimates, the traders, as against the 
 ambitions of the proposed new monopoly. 
 
 Both the traders and the priests hoped and wished to broaden 
 their operations around the lakes and to extend the rights and 
 privileges which they had been enjoying in the North to the 
 rich country north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi, 
 which extended to the Mississippi over what is now Ohio, Indi- 
 ana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin, and down the Missis- 
 sippi to New Orleans. 
 
ILLINOIS 45 
 
 With that end in view, Joliet (probably aided by the Jesuits) 
 petitioned the French authorities for the right to found a colony 
 of twenty in the Illinois country as the first step in that direc- 
 tion. Governor Frontenac saw in the scheme a plan to deprive 
 his friends of a coveted monopoly, and reported that "it was 
 necessary to multiply the inhabitants of Canada before thinking 
 of other lands," and the petition of Joliet was rejected. 
 
 The main object of the priests, as shown by their zeal for 
 religion and the endurance of all kinds of privations, was the 
 spread of the Gospel of Christ; but the plain object of the 
 merchants was the exclusive enjoyment of the profits of the fur 
 trade and both objects ran upon parallel lines, so that the sup- 
 port of either helped to obtain the aims of both. 
 
 When the missionaries pointed to the demoralizing effects 
 of French brandy, the governor's party, seeking the monopoly 
 of trade, answered that French brandy was no more demoraliz- 
 ing than English rum, obtainable at Albany from the British 
 traders. That intoxicating liquor was conducive toward the 
 quick and often scandalously unfair consummation of trade be- 
 tween the white man and the red man, whether the white man 
 spoke English, French, Dutch or Spanish, seems to have been 
 an undeniable fact. It facilitated trade and robbed the red 
 man. Alvord in his history cites a case where an Indian sold 
 three thousand dollars worth of skins to a white man for a cask 
 of brandy worth forty dollars. (P. 72, Alvord.) 
 
 The French authorities exercising supervision over the In- 
 dians and white colonists, sought to correct these evils. In 
 1673, white men were prohibited from going into the woods for 
 over twenty-four hours without a special permit. Shortly after- 
 ward, all permits to trade were prohibited by the governor. 
 The result of these prohibitions was the driving of the French 
 traders and coureurs de bois from Montreal and Fort Frontenac 
 to Albany for all purchases and sales. It made outlaws out of 
 these Frenchmen, and made them expedite barters with the 
 Indians with British rum instead of French brandy. 
 
 Abolition of all rights of barter having failed, the French 
 authorities then tried a limitation of all trading permits to 
 twenty-five royal conges or trading permits. These conges were 
 
46 ILLINOIS 
 
 issued only to members of noble families or persons to whom the 
 government was desirous of granting special consideration. 
 This plan, however, failed, as did all the other plans devised 
 for the purpose of putting a stop to unconscionable trading. 
 The voyageurs and coureurs de bois or runners in the woods 
 who were engaged in fur trading with the Indians, were a hardy, 
 happy-go-lucky, rule-defying lot. 
 
 In the early spring and early fall of each year, they were 
 wont to leave Montreal in large fleets of canoes with their guns, 
 scanty subsistence and trading goods, including French brandy 
 for the Great Lakes. With three men in a canoe, they relied 
 upon their guns and Ashing tackle almost solely for food. They 
 endured all kinds of risks and hardships while paddling their 
 canoes in the lakes and rivers and carrying them over the port- 
 ages in the wilderness. At the Great Lakes they separated, each 
 following the trail with which they were familiar, until they 
 reached the Indian settlements. There in the solitude of the 
 woods, far from the eye and arm of the government, they did 
 their trading with the simple Indian upon such terms as they 
 believed would be a recompense for risks and dangers and ardu- 
 ous labor they had endured. Rules and regulations of a mighty 
 monarch of France were to them, under the circumstances sur- 
 rounding them, only so many jokes. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 CHARACTER AND CUSTOMS OF THE FRENCH HAB- 
 ITANTS IN THE COUNTRY OF THE ILLINOIS 
 
 The country of the Illinois as frequently mentioned in this 
 narrative, and in all the French documents between 1673 when 
 Marquette and Joliet discovered the Mississippi and 1763 when 
 by the Treaty of Paris the British obtained sovereignty of the 
 French possessions in the North American continent, was by 
 no means co-terminous with the present State of Illinois. The 
 term Illinois Country, as used by the French officials, extended 
 from Western New York, north of the Ohio River to Eastern 
 Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, although the Spanish govern- 
 ment claimed title to all that portion of the same west of the 
 Mississippi River. The French coureurs de bois and traders 
 in their travels cared not for the claims of far distant kings 
 in the hunt for furs. These happy-go-lucky traders were found 
 wherever there was trade in the territory we have set out 
 above. 
 
 In all this wide expanse of territory, there were no English 
 colonists who tilled the soil, no Spanish except around St. Louis, 
 and but few French colonists who had established permanent 
 homes and relied upon agriculture for a living. The French 
 habitants, except along the Illinois Bottom for about seventy 
 miles between Kaskaskia and East St. Louis, were either 
 coureurs de bois, traders, or French soldiers, and naval and 
 military officers stationed in and around the forts or posts at 
 Frontenac, Mackinac, Green Bay, Fort Miami, Peoria, Vin- 
 cennes and Chicago and Detroit. French tillers of the soil were 
 few and far between, except in the Illinois Bottom, whose great 
 fertility attracted many of them and made them permanent 
 colonists. Outside of the French settlers gathered around De- 
 
 47 
 
P.N^tl*' 
 
 Le Coureur de Bois 
 
ILLINOIS 49 
 
 troit and Fort Frontenac, there were probably not over three 
 thousand Frenchmen who were actual colonists in all this ex- 
 tensive territory, and about two thousand of these were located 
 in the Illinois Bottom. Many writers have discussed the habits 
 and characteristics of the French settlers in the Illinois Bot- 
 tom, and if we gather from them a knowledge of these men and 
 their families in that locality, we can get a fair idea of the habits 
 of the French Colonial settlers, sparsely scattered over this 
 extensive territory. 
 
 In the American Bottom, the French inhabitants consisted 
 of two classes. One well born, of fairly comfortable circum- 
 stances who in Great Britain would be called the gentry. These 
 were comparatively few and comprised the officers of the gar- 
 rison and the rich merchants and land-holders. The others, 
 a more numerous class, called habitants, were small holders of 
 land, small merchants, small traders, coureurs de bois, servants 
 and laborers. 
 
 The holders of small tracts of land took title and cultivated 
 their small holdings in a manner peculiar to the French in their 
 native land. The American farmer, as we all know, as a rule 
 takes title to and cultivates a farm in square lots of ten, forty, 
 one hundred and sixty, or six hundred and forty acres. The 
 French settler in the American Bottom used a large unfenced 
 common open to all for grazing purposes, and for tillage took 
 title to, and plowed long strips of sometimes a mile in length 
 but very narrow in width. No fence or barrier separated these 
 separate holdings from each other, but a common fence or bar- 
 rier enclosed the ends of these long strips of land and the 
 owner of each strip was required to maintain that portion of 
 the end fence which was opposite his own strip of land. They 
 did not live, or build their houses on these strips of land which 
 they cultivated, but in a village close by their plantings, where 
 they could live in more intimate contact with each other. 
 
 It had one advantage over the modern farming methods. 
 There was not such isolation of farming families as made the 
 American farmer's life, before the coming of the auto, radio and 
 telephone, almost unendurable. They were a pleasure loving, 
 good natured lot, fond of frolics, dancing and card playing, as are 
 
50 ILLINOIS 
 
 most illiterate and many well educated people. As a rule, they 
 seemed more concerned about having a happy, rather than a 
 luxurious life. They drank as a rule with moderation, but on 
 occasions went too far, as most frontiersmen of other national- 
 ities were wont to do. So far as the records show, they were 
 singularly free from felonious crimes, and settled most of their 
 disputes by referring them to the civil or military authorities, 
 and in many cases by submitting them to their clergymen. 
 
 Concubinage with squaws, and marriage to squaws, were 
 quite common. The latter was urged by the priests in substitu- 
 tion of concubinage, although these marriages were frowned 
 on by the civil authorities ; because of the belief that such mar- 
 riages degraded the white man to the level of the savage and 
 produced a progeny that had the vices of both races. At times, 
 these marriages were absolutely interdicted by the civil au- 
 thorities. 
 
 On Sundays and holidays, after attending church, they in- 
 dulged themselves in games and other recreations, after the 
 manner of most European countries. 
 
 Mardi Gras and New Year's day were celebrated with en- 
 thusiasm. Good natured charivaris and pancake flappings were 
 frequent, and dancing was at all times considered the height of 
 enjoyment. 
 
 Their social intercourse with the Indians was on the whole 
 much more friendly than the association of the English settler 
 with the red man. The English settler made no disguise of the 
 fact that he wanted the land upon which the Indian hunted, and 
 frequently appropriated to himself that land by force; without 
 attempting to acquire the tribal rights of the Indian to the same. 
 The French settler was more concerned in acquiring the furs 
 of the hunter, which he was willing to buy, and when he did 
 acquire the land itself, it was obtained in some peaceful method 
 rather than by force of arms. 
 
 Under the French system, theoretically, the French inhab- 
 itant had no voice in the laws or ordinances, by which he was 
 governed. There was no law governing him, except such laws 
 and rules as were proclaimed by the King of France and by the 
 governor of New France under royal authority. The New 
 
ILLINOIS 51 
 
 England township government was unknown. The French sub- 
 jects in New France were never consulted about the laws and 
 rules proclaimed. These laws and rules were handed to them 
 ready made, and had to be obeyed. None the less, these little 
 villages like Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and New Chartres did of 
 their own volition establish certain customs that by unanimous 
 agreement were treated, obeyed and binding upon their in- 
 habitants. 
 
 Assemblies of the people were held after mass in front of 
 the church. Syndics or quasi-mayors were there elected. When 
 matters relating to the church arose, the priest presided. When 
 civil or commercial matters were under consideration, the syndic 
 took charge. 
 
 Auctions were held there. The times of plowing or harvest- 
 ing were settled. Repairs on churches, roads or public build- 
 ings were determined there. Records were kept by the judge 
 or a clerk, or notary, of all transactions at said assemblies, and 
 the syndic of the village was required to see that all orders 
 made at such meetings were duly carried out. 
 
 Military duty was compulsory upon all male inhabitants of 
 these French villages, for the purpose of protecting them from 
 Indian aggression or other disorder. The captain of the com- 
 pany, in each village, was selected by the French mayor or com- 
 mandant to organize the company and control it thereafter. 
 
 The captain of the militia in each village was a citizen of 
 much importance. He represented the major commandant and 
 represented the royal government in all work performed by the 
 villagers for the government, or on the roads. He represented 
 the judge, and carried out and put into execution his judgments. 
 He was to all intents and purposes a man clothed with the au- 
 thority and performing the function of an English justice of 
 the peace. At times disputes arose between the villagers and 
 the Indians, which the captain of the militia took charge of 
 and assuaged or settled in some manner. When the white men 
 first settled among these Indians, there were no disputes as to 
 titles to the land. Both the Indians and the white men were 
 interested in hunting and in the fur trade, rather than in the 
 soil, but as the settlers began to show a disposition to possess 
 
 LIBRART 
 
 UNIVERSmr OF «LUN0» 
 
52 ILLINOIS 
 
 themselves of land, then trouble arose between them and the 
 Indians. 
 
 The close association of these inhabitants and the Indians 
 was probably disadvantageous to both. Intoxicating liquor and 
 disease spread rapidly among the Indians, and these Illinois 
 Indians that were formerly able to hold their own even against 
 the ferocious Iroquois tribes, became degenerate, and their 
 tribes were reduced in number to between three to three thou- 
 sand five hundred men, women and children, the males of which 
 seemed to have degenerated from fearless warriors into lazy 
 and indolent idlers. 
 
 They rapidly became converts and responded to the teach- 
 ings of the missionaries. They attended church with great 
 regularity and participated in all the ceremonies of the Catholic 
 religion. John Reynolds, who was elected governor in 1830, 
 lived among the French habitants for many years and had prob- 
 ably the best opportunity of any English writer to become ac- 
 quainted with their character and customs and in his history 
 of Illinois entitled My Own Times, 1 he describes them in the fol- 
 lowing language: 
 
 The immigrants of the French villages being from 
 different sections of the continent, made some difference 
 in the population. Kaskaskia and Prairie du Rocher were 
 mostly colonized from Mobile and New Orleans, and Caho- 
 kia from Canada. The language possessed a shade of dif- 
 ference, as well as their habits. In the first-named village, 
 the inhabitants partook of the Sunny South, more than 
 those who settled in Cakohia from Canada. A shade more 
 of relaxation, gaiety, hilarity, and dancing, prevailed in 
 Kaskaskia and Prairie du Rocher than in Cahokia. It may 
 be, the immigrants from France to the north and south of 
 the continent of North America, may have been from 
 different provinces of the mother-country, which made the 
 difference above mentioned in the early French pioneers 
 of Illinois. 
 
 The masses of the French were an innocent and happy 
 people. They were devoutly attached to the Roman Cath- 
 
 i Reynolds (My Own Times), first and second sections, p. 37, and 
 second section, p. 38 and last three sections, p. 39. 
 
ILLINOIS 53 
 
 olic Church, and had lived for many generations in strict 
 obedience to the Christian principles taught by that church. 
 They were removed from the corruption of large cities, and 
 enjoyed an isolated position in the interior of North 
 America. In a century before 1800, they were enabled to 
 solve the problem: that neither wealth, nor splendid pos- 
 sessions, nor an extraordinary degree of ambition, nor 
 energy, ever made a people happy. These people resided 
 more than a thousand miles from any other colony, and 
 were strangers to wealth or poverty; but the Christian 
 virtues governed their hearts, and they were happy. One 
 virtue among others was held in high estimation, and re- 
 ligiously observed. Chastity with the Creoles was a sine 
 quo non, and a spurious offspring was almost unknown 
 among them. It is the immutable decree to man from the 
 Throne itself, that in proportion to the introduction of sin 
 and guilt into the heart, in the same proportion happiness 
 abandons the person. 
 
 "The French generally, and the early Creoles particu- 
 larly, were passionately fond of dancing. The gay and 
 merry disposition of the French, adopted the mode of so- 
 cial amusement. To enjoy the dancing-salon was almost 
 a passion among the French, and for the enjoyment of 
 which they made many efforts. No people ever conducted 
 the ballroom with more propriety than they did. Decorum 
 and punctilious manners were enforced by public opinion. 
 No liquor, cigars, or loud blustering remarks were tolerated 
 in their dancing assemblies. All classes, ages, and degrees 
 assembled together, and made one large family in these 
 ballrooms. The aged would at times dance; but they per- 
 formed a higher duty. The discreet and aged females 
 kept an eye sharp and searching over the giddy youth. 
 Frequently the priest attended the early part of the evening 
 in the balls, and saw that the innocent and proper observ- 
 ance of just principles be the order of the party. 
 
 "The habits of labor and energy with the French were 
 moderate. Their energy or ambition never urged them to 
 more than an humble and competent support. To hoard 
 up wealth was not found written in their hearts, and very 
 few practiced it. They were a temperate, moral people. 
 They very seldom indulged in drinking liquor. They were 
 at times rather intemperate in smoking and dancing; but 
 seldom indulged in either to excess at the same time or 
 place. 
 
54 ILLINOIS 
 
 "All classes observed a strict morality against hunting 
 or fishing on the Sabbath ; but they played cards for amuse- 
 ment often on the Sabbath. This they considered one of 
 the innocent pastimes that was not prohibited to a Chris- 
 tian. 
 
 "They had no taste for either horse-racing or foot- 
 racing, wrestling, jumping, or the like; and did not often 
 indulge in these sports. Shooting fowls on the wing, and 
 breaking wild horses afforded the French considerable 
 amusement." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 LA SALLE, THE DARING AND UNFORTUNATE 
 
 The most picturesque and romantic figure among the French 
 explorers was Robert Cavalier Sieur de La Salle. Brave, in- 
 domitably persevering, brilliant in conception and vigorous in 
 execution, he attained more for France, and less for himself 
 than any of the men connected with the settlement of New 
 France and the Illinois Country, excepting Frontenac who vi- 
 sioned what La Salle nearly succeeded in accomplishing, — the 
 creation of a great empire under the standard of the lilies of 
 France, extending from Quebec to New Orleans. 
 
 He was a member of an aristocratic family located near 
 Rouen, France, was born in that city November 22, 1643, and 
 received an excellent education in a Jesuit school in which he 
 remained until he was twenty-three years of age. He probably 
 originally intended to become a member of that order, but 
 changed his mind at the age just mentioned. When he left the 
 Jesuits in 1666, he had a brother, Abbe Jean Cavalier, living in 
 Montreal and left France to meet his brother in the new world. 
 On arriving in Montreal, he started into the business of trading 
 in furs, and acquired a small estate called Lachine. 
 
 By reason of his excellent family connections and his own 
 dignified bearing and superior education, he secured the confi- 
 dence and respect of Jean Talon, the French intendant, who 
 was at that time setting on foot exploring expeditions into the 
 western country. 
 
 Before receiving any official recognition from Talon, he had 
 started exploring on his own account. His brother was a Sul- 
 pician priest, and through him La Salle had come in contact 
 with two other members of the Sulpician order, the Abbes Gal- 
 lince and Casson who were about to go to the southerly shore 
 of Lake Ontario with the design of establishing religious mis- 
 
 55 
 
56 ILLINOIS 
 
 sions. La Salle accompanied them, but for some reason they 
 separated and La Salle returned without making any progress 
 or gaining any prestige. 
 
 Talon the next year after his return gave him official recog- 
 nition and commissioned him to explore, over the same territory. 
 As no records seem to have been preserved, it was probably 
 abortive of results. These trips of La Salle, however, were 
 utilized by Talon and his friends, when properly exaggerated, 
 
 Kobert Cavalier Sieur de LaSalle 
 
 to give prestige to La Salle when he became an applicant for 
 royal authority to explore and colonize the West. 
 
 At this stage of the history, it becomes manifest both by his 
 association with the Sulpicians, and his intimacy with, and rec- 
 ognition by, Talon that La Salle had severed his affiliations with 
 his former teachers, the Jesuits, and allied himself with the 
 intendant Talon and the governor, Frontenac, who were then 
 seeking a monopoly of the fur trade and exclusive control of 
 the location of the religious missions. The struggle was on 
 between the Jesuits who were then in control of the missions 
 and the Frontenac-Talon-La Salle interests who desired to sup- 
 plant them. 
 
ILLINOIS 57 
 
 Under then existing conditions, the individual fur trader 
 could make his own living and his own profit. Under the newly- 
 proposed monopoly, backed by the governor and intendant, he, 
 the trader, must work for the monopoly, on monopoly's terms. 
 
 The success of Marquette and Joliet in discovering the Mis- 
 sissippi, and the success of the Jesuit missionaries in estab- 
 lishing relations of confidence and friendship with the Indians 
 at their numerous missions were a matter of chagrin to the 
 Frontenac-Talon party, who were backing La Salle. To counter- 
 balance these successes, the friends of La Salle resorted to 
 every possible expedient to exaggerate the exploits of La Salle 
 at Court in France. La Salle's excursions among the Indians 
 did enable him to learn the Iroquois language, and acquire a 
 thorough knowledge of their habits of life and inured him to the 
 labors and fatigues and dangers of a life of exploration. He 
 had a fine physical presence, a vigorous constitution, and great 
 charm of manner which could and did captivate even a royal 
 court. 
 
 On or about 1673, the then governor of New France, Fron- 
 tenac, had constructed, at his own expense a hastily constructed 
 wooden fort at a point where Lake Ontario poured its waters 
 into the St. Lawrence River, a site now occupied by the modern 
 City of Kingston. This fort had been constructed without the 
 authority of the French court. Frontenac realized the strategic 
 strength of the place, and knew it to be a point from which he 
 could control the western fur trade, and from which he could 
 rule over all, and keep in control the Iroquois confederacy to 
 the south. This confederacy had been the connecting link be- 
 tween the western Indians and the British traders at Albany. 
 The government in France had raised objections to these pre- 
 mature acts of Frontenac. 
 
 By this time La Salle, who had become thoroughly conversant 
 with the Iroquois language and who had, in his intercourse with 
 the Iroquois gained their confidence and respect, was sent by 
 Frontenac to France to lay the case of the governor before 
 Colbert, the minister of Louis XIV. Alvord in his history 
 quotes the letter from Frontenac to Colbert as follows : 
 
58 ILLINOIS 
 
 I cannot but recommend to you Msr. Sieur de La Salle, 
 who is about to go to France and who is a man of intelli- 
 gence and ability, the most competent of anyone I know 
 here to accomplish every enterprise and discovery which 
 may be entrusted to him, as he has the most perfect knowl- 
 edge of the state of the country, as you will see if you are 
 disposed to give him a few moments audience. 
 
 Notwithstanding the objection of the Jesuit party, La Salle 
 was well received at court. He petitioned that court for a 
 patent of nobility and for the seigniory of Fort Frontenac, prom- 
 ising to build a fort of stone and develop a village around it at 
 considerable expense; to repay Count Frontenac for the cost 
 of the fort, and to make grants of land to the settlers who came 
 there to live, to attract the Indians to his place and grant them 
 lands and instruct them in trades and labor, and to build a church 
 and maintain priests to administer the same. With his patent 
 of nobility and this grant, he returned promptly to New France, 
 where he built the fort, made grants to the Indians, and reared 
 great flocks and herds, and resumed his relations with the 
 Iroquois tribe. 
 
 While La Salle was at Frontenac engaged in this work, the 
 explorer Joliet on his return from the Mississippi River dropped 
 in at Fort Frontenac, visited La Salle and doubtless made a full 
 report of his discovery. The Iroquois warriors made the same 
 reports with relation to the existence of the Mississippi. Upon 
 hearing said reports, La Salle decided to make a journey into 
 the Illinois country and place the flag of France over the terri- 
 tory between the Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. He designed 
 a scheme of building a chain of forts reaching from St. Louis 
 to the mouth of the Mississippi. In pursuance of this design, 
 in 1678 he again went to France, having behind him Courselles, 
 the then governor, and Talon. He had no trouble in securing an 
 audience with Colbert at the French court, and on the 12th of 
 May, 1678, procured Letters Patent, which I quote from Smith's 
 History of Illinois, Vol. I, page 83, as follows : 
 
 Letters Patent 
 
 "Granted by the King of France to the Sieur de La Salle 
 on the 12th of May, 1678." 
 
60 ILLINOIS 
 
 Translation 
 
 "Louis, by the grace of God, King of France and of 
 Navarre. To our dear and well-beloved Robert Cavalier, 
 Sieur de La Salle, greeting. 
 
 "We have received with favor the very humble petition, 
 which has been presented to us in your name, to permit 
 you to endeavor to discover the Western part of our coun- 
 try of New France ; and we have consented to this proposal 
 the more willingly, because there is nothing we have more 
 at heart than the discovery of this country, through which 
 it is probable that a passage may be found to Mexico ; and 
 because your diligence in clearing the lands which we 
 granted to you by decree of our council of the 13th of May, 
 1675, and, by Letters Patent of the same date, to form 
 habitations upon the said lands, and to put Fort Frontenac 
 in good state of defense, the seigniory and Government 
 whereof we likewise granted to you, affords us every rea- 
 son to hope that you will succeed to our satisfaction, and 
 to the advantage of our subjects of said country. 
 
 "For these reasons, and others thereunto moving us, 
 we have permitted, and do hereby permit you, by these 
 presents, signed by our hand, to endeavor to discover the 
 Western part of our country of New France, and for the 
 execution of this enterprise, to construct forts wherever 
 you shall deem it necessary; which it is our will you shall 
 hold on the same terms and conditions as Fort Frontenac, 
 agreeably and conformably to our said Letters Patent of 
 the 13th of May, 1675, which we have confirmed, as far as 
 is needful, and hereby confirm by these presents. And it 
 is our pleasure that they be executed according to their 
 form and tenor. 
 
 "To accomplish this, and everything above mentioned, 
 we give you full powers; on condition, however, that you 
 shall finish this enterprise within five years, in default of 
 which these presents shall be void and of none effect; that 
 you carry on no trade whatever with the savages called 
 Outauoacs, and others who bring their beaver skins and 
 other peltries to Montreal ; and that the whole shall be done 
 at your expense, and that of your company, to which we 
 have granted the privilege of trade in buffalo-skins. And 
 we call on Sieur de Frontenac, our governor and lieutenant 
 general, and on the Sieur de Chesneau, intendant of justice, 
 police and finance, and on the officers who compose the su- 
 preme council in the said country, to affix their signatures 
 
ILLINOIS 61 
 
 to these presents; for such is our pleasure. Given at St. 
 Germain en Laye, this 12th day of May, 1678, and of our 
 reign the thirty-fifth. 
 
 "(Signed) Louis." 
 And lower down, by the king. 
 And sealed with the great seal of yellow wax, Colbert. 
 
 Having secured this patent, which gave him tremendous 
 prestige and absolute authority in the western portion of New 
 France covering the Illinois district, La Salle undertook to raise 
 finances for the purpose of carrying out this great enterprise. 
 By strenuous exertion, he succeeded in raising from his friends 
 and relatives the sum of 500,000 livres, or about $100,000. In 
 this enterprise he was assisted by Colbert, whose friendship he 
 secured, and Colbert's son, Marquis Seignley, and the Prince 
 de Conte, prominent in military circles in France. Among oth- 
 ers that he met in France at this time was Henry de Tonti, an 
 Italian officer who was an intimate of the Prince de Conte. 
 He induced de Tonti to join him in his enterprise, and with his 
 assistance they gathered in France, carpenters, shipwrights, 
 sailors, blacksmiths and common laborers, and purchased ma- 
 terial for the construction of ships. With Tonti and his party, 
 La Salle sailed from Rochelle July 15, 1678, and reached Quebec 
 the September following. After paying his respects to Gov- 
 ernor Frontenac, La Salle and his expedition a few days there- 
 after sailed from Quebec to Fort Frontenac. Within a few days 
 afterwards, they proceeded to Niagara Falls, hoping to secure 
 a suitable location for the building of a boat to sail on the upper 
 lakes. They finally selected Tonawanda Creek near Niagara 
 Falls, and built a ship of sixty-two tons burden, which he chris- 
 tened The Griffon. During the construction of the ship, La Salle 
 had sent some of his adherents to Mackinac with money and 
 goods manufactured in Europe, with orders to purchase furs 
 from the Indians and have them ready when the ship should 
 reach Mackinac. The vessel arrived at Mackinac on the 27th 
 of August, having taken on board Tonti as they passed Detroit. 
 When they arrived at this point, La Salle discovered that some 
 of his men who had been sent forward to purchase furs, had been 
 dissuaded from the work which they had been commissioned to 
 
62 ILLINOIS 
 
 do. Tonti was immediately sent by La Salle to hunt these men 
 up and secure their return, and La Salle himself with the Griffon 
 went on to Green Bay, arriving there on the 10th of September. 
 Here he disposed of large quantities of his trading goods in 
 exchange for furs, at a large profit. The ship, with its cargo 
 of furs, was sent back to Niagara, while La Salle himself and 
 fourteen of the company proceeded southward in small boats 
 to the St. Joe River, which they reached on November 1, 1679. 
 Here it was agreed between Tonti and La Salle that Tonti should 
 report to La Salle concerning the deserters. Twenty days there- 
 after Tonti appeared with some, but with not all of these de- 
 serters. Tonti failed to secure the return of all of these men, 
 but joined La Salle and ascended the St. Joe River to the Kan- 
 kakee portage. Before leaving St. Joe and the ascent of that 
 river, La Salle caused a storehouse to be built at St. Joe, in the 
 expectation that the Griffon, after it discharged its load at Ni- 
 agara, would return with goods and supplies from Niagara. 
 The fort that he constructed at St. Joe he called Fort Miami. 
 
 With a company of thirty-eight in eight canoes, he left Fort 
 Miami on the 3rd of December, rowing up the St. Joe River to 
 the portage between the St. Joe River and the Kankakee, which 
 was located somewhere in the neighborhood of South Bend, 
 Indiana. The portage was five miles wide, and the ground 
 around it very swampy. They soon, however, came to a current 
 flowing westerly, and soon thereafter reached the Illinois River. 
 Going down the Illinois, they found game very abundant, and 
 passed the site of the present city of Ottawa and Buffalo Rock 
 on the right. On the left bank of the river they passed the now 
 famous Starved Rock. Opposite Starved Rock was an Indian 
 village occupied by the Kaskaskias, near the present site of Utica. 
 This was where Marquette had preached to the Indians on his 
 return from the Mississippi and where Marquette reported that 
 the number of Indian cabins was seventy-four. In 1677 Father 
 Allouez visited this same place after Marquette had established 
 a mission there, and he reports that there were then four hun- 
 dred and fifty lodges. When La Salle and his company reached 
 this point on the Illinois River, they were practically out of food 
 and game was scarce. They found a cache of corn in a sort of 
 
ILLINOIS 63 
 
 cellar left there by the Indians who were away on a winter hunt. 
 Driven by necessity, La Salle was compelled to appropriate some 
 of this corn, as there was no one from whom he could purchase. 
 He knew that according to the Indian custom, it was a great 
 crime to take these supplies without the consent of the owner, 
 but he determined in the interests of the lives of his company, 
 to take the chance of taking it in the absence of the Indians 
 and pay for it thereafter. 
 
 A few days afterwards in sailing down the Illinois, they 
 reached a place where now is located the City of Peoria, where 
 they discovered the smoke of numerous camp fires arising from 
 the Indian camps which were on both sides of the river. Their 
 appearance caused great consternation at first, but one of the 
 Indian chiefs having produced a peace pipe, a conference was 
 arranged and confidence was soon restored. Fathers Membre 
 and Hennepin were in La Salle's party and went among the 
 people and explained fully the cause of their coming. At the 
 request of La Salle, the Indians called a conference, and La 
 Salle, after making them presents of tobacco and hatchets, ex- 
 plained that he was compelled to take their corn at the Kas- 
 kaskia village, and was willing to restore it all, or pay for it 
 as the Indians desired. The Indians answered that he was wel- 
 come to what he had, and they offered him more in addition. 
 Friendly relations were soon established between the Indians 
 and La Salle's party. He told them that if he was to remain 
 with them, he must be permitted to build a fort; that he could 
 not join them in an attack upon the Iroquois, since they, the 
 Iroquois, were subject to the king of France. He assured them, 
 however, that if the Iroquois attacked them, the Illinois Indians 
 then at Peoria, he would defend them and render them every 
 possible assistance. He spoke to them further of his desire 
 of exploring the Mississippi and ascertaining into what body of 
 water the Mississippi emptied. During his stay at Peoria, six 
 of his band deserted, and it is said that an effort was made to 
 poison him by giving him poisoned food. 
 
 In the middle of January, 1680, when the ice in the Illinois 
 River loosened, La Salle selected near Peoria and about two 
 miles below the Indian village, a place for the erection of a fort. 
 
f 
 
 
 
 
 ct 
 
 
 V-' 
 
 De La Salle on the Illinois River 
 
ILLINOIS 65 
 
 It was a hill two hundred yards from the bank of the river, 
 with a ravine on each side and low marshy ground in front. On 
 the other side they dug a trench, surrounding the fort with 
 water. Around this they built a palisade, which they believed 
 would be secure against any Indian attack either from the 
 Illinois or the Iroquois. The name he gave it was the Fort of 
 Creve-Couer, or Broken-Heart, which name was probably sug- 
 gested to him by his recent misfortunes. 
 
 La Salle at this point had been expecting a return of the 
 Griffon from Niagara with supplies and necessities. He ex- 
 pected that she would bring him implements with which to 
 construct a ship to sail on the Illinois and lower Mississippi to 
 the Gulf of Mexico. Such materials he had left at Fort Fron- 
 tenac. It was then four months since he had dispatched the 
 Griffon from Green Bay to Niagara. He felt certain that the 
 ship was lost, which it was, in fact, whether by accident or 
 treachery, we do not know. The fact that he had named the 
 fort Creve-Couer indicates the desperate condition of his mind. 
 Here he was in the West, with some of his followers already 
 deserters, a thousand miles from Quebec, surrounded by Indian 
 tribes upon whose friendship he could not rely, and having 
 with him only Tonti and a few more loyal white men; but he 
 was possessed of an indomitable spirit and in the depth of his 
 misfortunes at Creve-Couer, he began to construct a boat of 
 considerable size for the trip on the Mississippi and to the Gulf 
 of Mexico. It was forty-two feet long and twelve feet wide, 
 built of lumber which was sawed from the trees which grew 
 around. He lacked, however, cordage and sails and certain 
 pieces of iron necessary for the completion of the boat, and he 
 finally determined to go back to Fort Frontenac to secure these 
 necessary supplies. Before leaving, however, he arranged to 
 send a delegation up the Mississippi River, and selected Father 
 Louis Hennepin and two Frenchmen, Michael Acco and An- 
 toine Anguel to accompany him. He furnished the party with 
 a few articles of European manufacture with which they could 
 trade with the Indians. Father Hennepin and his companions 
 left Fort Creve-Couer on the 29th of February, 1680, and 
 reached the mouth of the Illinois River on the 8th of March, 
 
66 ILLINOIS 
 
 and then proceeded up the Mississippi to the Falls of St. An- 
 thony, now located between Minneapolis and St. Paul. Here 
 Father Hennepin erected a cross and the arms of France. A 
 few days later, on the 10th of April, they were captured by 
 some Sioux Indians, who robbed the Frenchmen and kept them 
 prisoners during the summer. Daniel Gray Solon due L'hut, a 
 French trader, rescued them in the fall. Father Hennepin in 
 due day returned and gave a long account of his experiences 
 on the trip. 
 
 After dispatching Father Hennepin up the Mississippi, La 
 Salle on the very next day, March 1st, 1680, started from Fort 
 Creve-Couer to New France, with six of his best French fol- 
 lowers in two birchbark canoes which were loaded with blankets, 
 clothing, gunpowder, lead, skins, and moccasins. A Mohegan 
 hunter accompanied them as their guide. He left Tonti in 
 charge of Fort Creve-Coeur, giving him full instructions as to 
 the course to pursue. 
 
 The Illinois River at this time was full of ice, and La Salle 
 and his companions suffered fearfully from cold weather. They 
 were compelled to pull their boats on sledges for miles and 
 miles. On the 10th of March, they reached the Kaskaskia vil- 
 lage where they had taken the corn a few months before. They 
 were visited here by one of the chiefs of the Illinois Indians, 
 named Chassogoac (Chicago), who became very friendly with 
 La Salle and furnished him a canoe full of corn. He eventually, 
 after suffering many hardships, reached Fort Frontenac for the 
 purpose of securing supplies and settling his financial affairs 
 which were then in great distress. The sinking of the Griffon 
 had caused La Salle the loss of forty thousand livres, and his 
 finances were in a desperate condition. 
 
 On the point of returning to the Illinois country from Fort 
 Frontenac, additional bad news reached him from the Illinois 
 country. On July 22nd, two messengers from Fort Creve-Couer 
 reached Fort Frontenac, and informed La Salle that while Tonti 
 with a small party of his followers were inspecting Starved 
 Rock as a possible location for a fort, that all the other men 
 left by Tonti at Fort Creve-Couer had plundered and destroyed 
 the fort and deserted, and that they had also robbed the fort 
 
ILLINOIS 67 
 
 at St. Joe and that at Niagara. "Unmerciful disaster followed 
 fast and followed faster." Another man would have sunk be- 
 neath these loads of misfortune. Not so with La Salle. Pos- 
 sessed of an indomitable spirit, he took steps at once to emerge 
 from these monstrous troubles. 
 
 Quickly collecting his equipment, on August 1, 1680, La Salle 
 started westward to rescue Tonti, and the few faithful adher- 
 ents who still remained loyal to him. His party consisted of 
 twenty-five men and his lieutenant, Le Forest, most of them 
 being artisans. On November 4th he had reached the mouth 
 of the St. Joe River, pushed over the portage from the St. Joe 
 to the Kaskaskia with only six Frenchmen and an Indian. When 
 he reached the old Kaskaskia near the site of modern Utica, he 
 was shocked to find that the village had been destroyed and the 
 fields laid waste, and he found the corpses of men lying about 
 that had been murdered by the Iroquois Indians. No trace was 
 found here of Tonti. 
 
 Leaving three men behind him to warn the rest of his party 
 to follow, he and a few men paddled their canoes down the 
 Illinois River, seeing in many places indications of the flight 
 of the Illinois before their implacable foes, the Iroquois. He 
 continued down the Illinois until he reached the Mississippi, 
 with no trace of Tonti. He then returned, canoeing northward 
 to the Des Plaines River, ascended the Des Plaines a short dis- 
 tance and found evidence of the passage of white men. He 
 finally reached Fort Miami on the St. Joe River, where they 
 found the rest of his party under LeForest. 
 
 Here is what happened to Tonti. Both at Mackinac in Au- 
 gust, 1678, and at Fort Miami (St. Joseph) afterward, many 
 of La Salle's followers had shown an insubordinate disposition, 
 and some of them had deserted. This feeling of dissatisfaction 
 still rankled in the minds of those who had been left with Tonti 
 at Creve-Couer when La Salle left them to get supplies at Ni- 
 agara and Fort Frontenac. 
 
 Shortly after La Salle left Creve-Coeur for Frontenac, he 
 dispatched a letter to Tonti from Fort Miami by the hands of 
 two Frenchmen, La Chapelle and Leblanc, instructing Tonti to 
 fortify Starved Rock near the Kaskaskia village. Following 
 
68 ILLINOIS 
 
 instructions, the ever faithful Tonti took four men from the 
 Creve-Coeur garrison of fifteen men and canoed up the Illinois 
 River to Starved Rock and started upon the fortification of 
 the rock. Within a few days after he left Creve-Coeur, all ex- 
 cept two of the Frenchmen remaining in Creve-Coeur revolted, 
 looted the fort and started back to Canada. The only two men 
 who remained faithful, at Creve-Coeur promptly left that fort, 
 and reported to Tonti at Starved Rock what had taken place at 
 Creve-Coeur. 
 
 Tonti 
 
 It appears that the two messengers sent by La Salle from 
 Miami to Creve-Coeur with a letter of instructions to Tonti, 
 told the men in the garrison that the Griffon had been lost and 
 that La Salle was bankrupt. The garrison had not been paid 
 for some time and this discouraging news was the cause of the 
 desertion of the men and the looting of the fort in Tonti's ab- 
 sence at Starved Rock. 
 
 However, Tonti's misery and misfortunes were just begin- 
 ning. He promptly dispatched two of the six men then with 
 him from Starved Rock to La Salle, informing him of the col- 
 lapse of affairs at Creve-Coeur, ana turned to face a greater 
 
ILLINOIS 69 
 
 disaster. As we have heretofore seen in this narrative, the 
 Algonquin and Iroquois tribes were deadly enemies. They had 
 been sanguinary foes since before the advent of the white man, 
 by reason of each of these tribes trespassing upon the hunting 
 grounds claimed by the other. The arrival of the white man 
 had simply intensified their enmities. The white men began 
 buying their pelts and sold them guns, ammunition, blankets, 
 iron, implements, rum and brandy. The Iroquois claimed that 
 all the territory south of the Great Lakes rightfully belonged 
 to them and that the Algonquins of the North (to which the 
 Illinois Indians belonged) were trespassers on their demesne. 
 La Salle, owing to the fact that the Jesuits in New France as 
 well as the mother country were opposed to monopolization of 
 the trading by the Frontenac-Talon-La Salle syndicate, believed 
 that the Jesuits were instigating the Iroquois to attack the west- 
 ern tribes in the Illinois country. The fact was that it was 
 ordinary commercialism that caused the incursions of the Iro- 
 quois Indians into the Illinois territory. They were business 
 rivals in the killing of fur-bearing animals and the sale of their 
 skins. A careful reading of history covering the relations be- 
 tween the western Indians and the Jesuits, particularly the 
 Indians at Kaskaskia, shows that the Jesuits were on such inti- 
 mate friendly terms with the Illinois Indians as to make it in- 
 credible that the Jesuits would compass the Indians' destruction. 
 
 The Iroquois believed that the French government, through 
 Frontenac and La Salle, had entered into a combination with the 
 Algonquin Indians dwelling in the Illinois country, to deprive 
 them of their rightfully owned hunting grounds south of the 
 Great Lakes and the profits resulting therefrom, and because 
 of this they attacked the Illinois Indians at Kaskaskia while 
 Tonti was at Kaskaskia living with that tribe. 
 
 Five hundred Iroquois, assisted by some renegade Miami, 
 were reported to the Kaskaskias to be within a few miles of the 
 Kaskaskia village. Scouts sent out by the Kaskaskias reported 
 that a Frenchman was with the Iroquois. A suspicion devel- 
 oped among the Kaskaskias that the Frenchman was, in fact, 
 La Salle himself, and that Tonti and his French companions in 
 the village were traitors and in league with the Iroquois. Only 
 
70 ILLINOIS 
 
 by the exercise of the utmost tact and diplomacy was Tonti able 
 to convince them to the contrary. The women and children 
 were hastily removed from the village down the river before 
 the battle began, but the Iroquois at the outset of the conflict 
 sacked and destroyed the Kaskaskia village. 
 
 The Kaskaskias succeeded for a time in keeping the Iro- 
 quois on the other side of the river, but the Iroquois attacks 
 continued. The Kaskaskia warriors soon began to lose heart 
 and scattered, and the Iroquois overtook women and children 
 and slaughtered seven hundred of them near the mouth of 
 the Illinois. The surviving Kaskaskia warriors abandoned their 
 old home on the Illinois some time afterwards and located near 
 the mouth of the Kaskaskia River in Southwestern Illinois. 
 
 Tonti, Father Membre and a few other Frenchmen managed 
 in the face of almost insuperable obstacles to escape and took 
 shelter with the Pottawatomi tribe near the shore of Lake 
 Michigan. 
 
 When La Salle returned from Frontenac in the fall of 1680, 
 this was the desperate state of affairs that he found in the 
 Illinois country. Any other man would have abandoned the en- 
 terprise in despair. Harrassed by his creditors in Canada, de- 
 serted by most of his followers, surrounded by savage Indian 
 enemies, his loyal chief of staff, Tonti, either dead or in cap- 
 tivity, opposed at every turn by the Jesuits both in France and 
 at the missions, with his fortunes at the lowest ebb, his situation 
 at this stage seemed hopeless. Here, however, is where his 
 full stature as a great man became manifest, and enabled him 
 to leave a name imperishable in American history. Up to this 
 time, La Salle had been endeavoring to keep on good terms with 
 the Iroquois tribes. He had spent considerable time among 
 them and had learned their language. His aim had been to 
 develop the remunerative fur trade, not only with the Algon- 
 quins north of the Great Lakes and in the Illinois valley, but 
 also with the Iroquois. He now found this to be impossible, 
 owing to the enmity of the Iroquois toward the Illinois tribes 
 which they believed were trespassers upon their (the Iroquois') 
 hunting grounds. 
 
ILLINOIS 71 
 
 The massacre of the Kaskaskias by the Iroquois along the 
 Illinois River determined his future course. Undaunted by re- 
 cent disasters, he began to organize a confederacy of the western 
 Algonquin tribes to oppose and overcome the Iroquois. Before 
 the following spring, he had accomplished his purpose. With 
 wonderful activity and the keenest diplomacy, he and his agents 
 succeeded in confederating the Illinois, Miami, Shawnee, Abucki 
 and Mohegan tribes into one group where the sole aim was to 
 overcome and if possible destroy the Iroquois. 
 
 Emboldened by this success, La Salle conceived and promptly 
 embarked upon a greater project than the immediate acquisi- 
 tion of a monopoly of the fur trade. The commercial aims 
 could be delayed until the greater project was achieved, and 
 would inevitably follow the success of the greater achievement. 
 
 Joliet and the gentle Marquette had, it is true, discovered 
 and traveled up the great Mississippi and had reported their 
 success. In La Salle's view, that discovery was half-baked and 
 unfinished. They had never found the mouth of that great 
 water course. No one knew whether it emptied into the At- 
 lantic or Pacific. Above all, Joliet and La Salle had personal 
 not national missions. Joliet was developing the fur trade. Mar- 
 quette was attempting to Christianize the savage. Neither 
 was speading the power and glory of La Belle France. He, La 
 Salle, would complete the unfinished work, trace this river to its 
 mouth, and in the most solemn and impressive manner dedi- 
 cate this great stream and the rich country through which it 
 flowed to the honor and glory of France and emblazon her rich 
 acquisition of territory to the whole world. 
 
 After being apprised by Tonti's message from Kaskaskia of 
 the disaster at Creve-Coeur and Kaskaskia, La Salle, undaunted, 
 hurried back to Fort Frontenac and nothwithstanding the fact 
 that his bills for rebuilding that fort were still unpaid, with 
 the assistance of Governor Frontenac and by pledging part of 
 his monopoly rights, he succeeded in getting together and fit- 
 ting out a rather impressive expedition for the realization of 
 his glorious dream of exploring the Mississippi to its mouth 
 and solemnly dedicating the great western country along its 
 banks from the Great Lakes to the ocean as a colony of the 
 
72 ILLINOIS 
 
 French monarchy. Getting together twenty-three Frenchmen 
 and eighteen warriors of the Abuaki and Mohegan tribes with 
 ten squaws and some children, he made his way from Mackinac 
 to Fort Miami. The ever faithful Tonti, having given the Pot- 
 tawatomi the slip, joined him at Mackinac and went with him 
 to Fort Miami. From there in canoes they paddled the way 
 to Chicago in the depth of winter. From Chicago, probably 
 because of the Chicago and Des Plaines rivers being frozen 
 over, they journeyed overland to the Illinois River. Having 
 reached the Illinois River, they again took to their canoes and 
 floated down that river to the Mississippi. 
 
 Among the Frenchmen gathered by La Salle at Fort Fronte- 
 nac for this expedition was one selected for a specific purpose. 
 Jacques De La Metairie was a notary holding a commission 
 from the French government. He was selected by La Salle to 
 record the events that occurred and the acts that were done on 
 this expedition and certify as a public official the correctness 
 thereof. De La Metairie performed this duty punctiliously. 
 
 La Salle and his companions made the journey down the 
 Mississippi from the Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico safely and 
 on April 9th, 1682, La Salle, at or near one of the mouths of 
 the great river collected his companions around him on a high 
 bank and erected a column. To this he solemnly attached the 
 Royal Arms of France made from a copper kettle and this in- 
 scription, Loyis Le Grand Roy de France et de Navarre le Neu~ 
 Heme le que April 1682, and with much solemnity declared that 
 he took possession of the river and all the land that it drained in 
 the name of the King of France. Nor was the religious cere- 
 mony lacking. A large cross was attached to one of the trees 
 and at the foot of the tree was buried a leaden plate on which 
 was inscribed in Latin a short account of the discovery of the 
 river to its mouth by La Salle and his company as the first 
 white men to do so. 
 
 After these preliminaries, De La Metairie, the notary, pro- 
 duced a document called the Process Verbal, signed by himself, 
 La Salle, Tonti, Father Zenobe, the surgeon Jean Michael, and 
 nine others, which written document translated from the French 
 reads as follows : 
 
ILLINOIS 73 
 
 i PROCESS VERBAL 
 
 "Of the taking possession of Louisiana, at the Mouth of the Missis- 
 sippi, by the Sieur De La Salle, on the 9th of April, 1682. 
 
 "Jacques De La Metairie, Notary of Fort Frontenac, in New France, 
 commissioned to exercise the said function of notary during the voyage 
 to Louisiana, in North America, by M. de la Salle, Governor of Fort 
 Frontenac for the King, and commandant of the said discovery by the 
 commission of his Majesty given at St. Germain, on the 12th day of 
 May, 1678. 
 
 "To all those to whom these presents shall come, greetings: Know, 
 that having been requested by the said Sieur de la Salle, to deliver to 
 him an act, signed by us and by the witnesses therein named, of posses- 
 sion by him taken of the country of Louisiana, near the three mouths of 
 the River Colbert, in the Gulf of Mexico, on the 9th of April, 1682. 
 
 "In the name of the most high, mighty, invincible and victorious 
 Prince, Louis, the Great, by the Grace of God, king of France and of 
 Navarre Fourteenth of that name, and of his heirs, and the successor of 
 his crown, we, the aforesaid notary, have delivered the said act to the 
 said Sieur de la Salle, the tenor whereof follows: 
 
 "We came to the Village of Maheouala, lately destroyed, and contain- 
 ing dead bodies and marks of blood. Two leagues below this place we 
 camped. We continued our voyage till the 6th, when we discovered three 
 channels by which the River Colbert discharges itself into the sea. We 
 landed on the bank of the most western channel, about three leagues from 
 its mouth. On the 7th, M. de la Salle went to reconnoitre the shores of 
 the neighboring sea, and M. de Tonti likewise examined the middle chan- 
 nel. They found these two outlets beautiful, large and deep. On the 8th, 
 we re-ascended the river, a little above its confluence with the sea, to find 
 a dry place, beyond the reach of inundations. The elevation of the north 
 Pole was here about 27 degrees. Here we prepared a column and a cross, 
 and to the said column were affixed the arms of France, with this inscrip- 
 tion: 
 
 " 'Louis Le Grand Roi De France Et De Navarre, Regne : Le Neu- 
 vieme, April 1682.' 
 
 "The whole party, under arms, chanted the Te Deum, the Exaudiat, 
 the Domine salvum fac Regem; and then after a salute of firearms and 
 cries of Vive Le Roi, the column was erected by M. de la Salle, who standing 
 near it said, with a loud voice, in French: 'In the name of the most high, 
 mighty, invincible, and victorious Prince, Louis the Great, by the Grace 
 of God, King of France and of Navarre, Fourteenth of that name, this 
 ninth day of April, one thousand six hundred and eighty two, I, in virtue 
 of the commission of his Majesty which I hold in my hand, and which 
 may be seen by all whom it may concern, have taken and do now take, in 
 the name of his Majesty and of his successors to the crown, possession of 
 this country of Louisiana, the seas, harbours, ports, bays, adjacent straits; 
 
74 ILLINOIS 
 
 and all the nations, people, provinces, cities, towns, villages, mines, min- 
 erals, fisheries, streams and rivers comprised in the extent of the said 
 Louisiana, from the mouth of the great river St. Louis on the eastern 
 side, otherwise called Ohio, Alighin, Sipore, or Chickachas, and this with 
 the consent of the Cahouanons, Chickachas and ot?ier people dwelling 
 therein, with whom we have made alliance; as also along the River Col- 
 bert, or Mississippi, and rivers which discharge themselves therein, from 
 its source beyond the country of the Kious or Nadauessious, and this with 
 their consent, and with the consent of the Motantees, Illinois, Mesigameas, 
 Natches, Koroas, which are the most considerable nations dwelling there- 
 in, with whom also we have made alliance, either by ourselves or by others 
 in our behalf; as far as its mouth at the sea, or Gulf of Mexico, about 
 the 27th degree of elevation of the North Pole, and also to the mouth of 
 the River of Palms; upon the assurance which we have received from 
 all these nations, that we are the first Europeans who have descended 
 or ascended the said River Colbert; hereby protesting against all those 
 who may in future undertake to invade any or all of these countries, 
 peoples or lands, above described, to the prejudice of the right of his 
 Majesty, acquired by the consent of the nations herein named. Of which, 
 and of all that can be needed, I hereby take to witness those who hear me, 
 and demand an act of the Notary, as required by law.' 
 
 "To which the whole assembly responded with shouts of Vive le Roi, 
 and with salutes of firearms. Moreover, the said Sieur de la Salle caused 
 to be buried at the foot of the tree, to which the cross was attached a 
 leaden plate, on one side of which were engraved the arms of France, and 
 latin inscription: 
 
 "After which the Sieur de la Salle said, that his Majesty, as eldest 
 son of the Church, would annex no country to his crown, without making 
 it his chief care to establish the Christian religion therein, and that its 
 symbol must now be planted; which was accordingly done at once by 
 erecting a cross, before which the Vexilla and the Domine salvum fac 
 Regem were sung. Whereupon the ceremony was concluded with cries 
 of Vive le Roi. 
 
 "Of all and every of the above, the said Sieur de la Salle having 
 required of us an instrument, we have delivered to him the same, signed 
 by us, and the undersigned witnesses, this ninth day of April, one thousand 
 six hundred and eighty-two. 
 
 "La Metairie, 
 
 "Notary. 
 
 "De La Salle "Jacques Cauchois 
 
 "P. Zenobe, Recollect Missionary "Pierre You 
 
 "Henry De Tonti "Gilles Meucret 
 
 "Francois de Boisrondet "Jean Michel, Surgeon 
 
 "Tonti "Jean Dulignon 
 
 "Jean Bourdon "Nocolas de la Salle." 
 "Sieur d'Autry 
 
ILLINOIS 75 
 
 After these solemn preliminaries, La Salle and his party- 
 prepared to return along the Mississippi to the North. La Salle, 
 accompanied by a few of the party, went ahead to be followed 
 by the remainder of the party. On reaching Fort Prudhomme 
 in the Chickasaw country, now in the State of Mississippi, he 
 was seized with a high fever, which compelled him to remain 
 for forty days at that fort. A surgeon was sent for, who was 
 in the second section of his companies and he hastened to apply 
 such remedies as he thought wise. La Salle was so seriously 
 ill, however, that it was determined that Tonti, with the greater 
 part of the company, should proceed to Mackinac, leaving La 
 Salle to be nursed to health at Fort Prudhomme. 
 
 Tonti arrived at Mackinac in July 1682, after overcoming 
 many obstacles on the journey. Father Zenobe and Membre 
 remained with La Salle and succeeded in bringing back some 
 little strength and health. With Father Membre, La Salle, after 
 a delay of forty days, left Fort Prudhomme and arrived at Fort 
 Creve-Coeur. Leaving some of his men to hold that place, he 
 arrived at Fort Miami some time in August, and shortly there- 
 after reached Mackinac. La Salle was more than anxious to 
 report in person to the King of France what he had succeeded 
 in doing, but owing to his weak state of health, he was unable 
 to do so. He, however, sent Father Membre to France, who 
 gave to the French authorities a full report of La Salle's 
 successes. 
 
 At this point in his career, La Salle seemed to be on the 
 verge of success. His colony in Illinois was established. The 
 Indian tribes had been confederated together by him, and he 
 had secured for the French government a southern port of entry, 
 perennially free from ice; which the government could fortify 
 and surround with colonists. He probably visioned himself at 
 this time, as the colonial governor of a mighty empire stretching 
 from what is now New Orleans to the Great Lakes. He next 
 proceeded promptly, to fortify the place, that he and Tonti had 
 selected for a fort at Starved Rock, which rises perpendicularly 
 from the waters of the Illinois River 125 feet. This fort he 
 called Fort St. Louis, and La Salle at once began to give grants 
 of land around this fort to several Frenchmen who had been 
 
Traditional Landing Place of La Salle 
 
ILLINOIS 77 
 
 living there for years. These grants caused some dissatisfaction, 
 for the grantees happened to be young Frenchmen who had 
 married Indian squaws and were taking life easy. After the 
 fort was completed on the top of Starved Rock, the Indian allies 
 that he had gotten together, began to gather. They included 
 the Illinois, the Wea tribe, the Piankashaw, Shawnee, Abnacki, 
 and Miami tribes to the number of 3,880 warriors, according 
 to data obtained from La Salle himself. As there were nearly 
 4,000 warriors, the Indian population probably amounted to 
 nearly 20,000. Notwithstanding the fact that he was a failure 
 in bringing about and preserving loyalty and obedience among 
 his white followers, he had remarkable success with the Indians. 
 Alvord in his excellent history declares that, "Few white men 
 have equaled his (La Salle's) success in the leadership of the 
 Aborigines of the American wilderness. ,, 
 
 To hasten the transportation of supplies from Canada to 
 Fort St. Louis, La Salle next sent two of his men to the Chicago 
 portage to build a smaller post. However, while La Salle was 
 engaged in these great undertakings, his enemies were not idle. 
 They succeeded by their manoeuvering in France in having 
 Governor Frontenac, La Salle's great and loyal friend, recalled. 
 His successor, Governor de La Barre, proved himself early 
 unfriendly to La Salle and his projects. He was opposed to 
 La Salle's monopoly. Calling upon de La Barre, La Salle pre- 
 sented his case forcefully to him; pointed out that his losses 
 amounted to 40,000 livres, but that he was now on the road 
 to success and would be able to pay his creditors. He reported 
 his great achievement in collecting the Indian tribes around 
 Fort St. Louis, and requested that his traders whom he was 
 then sending to Quebec for supplies should be fairly treated 
 and protected. Governor de La Barre, however, was surrounded 
 by merchant rivals of La Salle, who were anxious to supplant 
 him. The governor, influenced by these men, stated to La Salle 
 that his efforts were involving the Winnebago Indians in a 
 warfare with the Iroquois ; that the Iroquois would destroy them. 
 The governor made these representations to the French govern- 
 ment at Versailles, and succeeded in turning the French author- 
 ities against him. The governor probably had some basis for 
 
78 ILLINOIS 
 
 these fears ; for the Iroquois tribes, notwithstanding their success 
 against the Kaskaskia in 1680 were still bitterly hostile to the 
 Illinois tribes. They were still determined to crush these West- 
 ern tribes, and in that determination they were ably abetted 
 and seconded by the English and Dutch traders at Albany, and 
 by Col. Thomas Dongan, the British governor of New York. 
 Governor de La Barre, in the effort to avoid war between the 
 Iroquois and the Illinois Indians, arranged for a deputation of 
 Iroquois Indians to meet him at Montreal. Forty-three of them 
 attended and informed the governor that the Illinois Indians 
 must be exterminated; and made complaint to the governor 
 about La Salle's operations, referring, no doubt, to his confed- 
 eration of the Western tribes, De La Barre, weakly, promised 
 these Iroquois Indians to punish La Salle. 
 
 Finding that he could not obtain supplies from Canada, 
 La Salle was now threatened with ruin, and started for Quebec. 
 On the way he met Chevalier De Baugy, who had been deputized 
 by the governor to assume command of the Illinois Indians and 
 to summon La Salle to Quebec. La Salle promptly notified 
 Tonti, then in command at Fort St. Louis, to surrender the 
 fort to De Baugy. On taking possession of the fort, De Baugy 
 found himself facing trouble. A flotilla of canoes, licensed by 
 de La Barre to trade, was attacked and plundered by the Iroquois, 
 and De Baugy and Tonti in Fort St. Louis were besieged by 
 the same band of Indians from March 21st to March 27, 1684. 
 The fort, however, made a successful resistance. 
 
 Finding that he was without friendship or support in the 
 governor's council at Quebec, La Salle made up his mind to 
 return to France and present his case to the French court. 
 Upon his arrival there, he found that the report of his wonderful 
 discoveries and other acts had preceded him, and that he was 
 a famous man. That fame secured for him the honor of a 
 personal interview with the Grand Monarch, upon whom he 
 made a most favorable impression. At that time, France was 
 at war with Spain, and La Salle was able to convince both the 
 monarch and his ministers that a fort built at the mouth of the 
 Mississippi would make it possible to capture the Spanish pos- 
 
ILLINOIS 79 
 
 sessions on the Gulf of Mexico; and would promote French 
 trade in all that region and up and down the Mississippi. The 
 French government promptly ordered Governor de La Barre 
 to re-instate La Salle in all his possessions in New France. 
 
 When departing for France, Tonti was left in charge of 
 Fort St. Louis with twenty Frenchmen to whom La Salle had 
 granted lands. La Salle while in France succeeded in persuading 
 the French ministry to establish a fort at the mouth of the 
 Mississippi, and four vessels were loaded for the expedition. 
 One hundred soldiers were aboard, and a number of mechanics, 
 laborers, volunteers, and some gentlemen of distinction. Among 
 them were several married women, as also some young unmarried 
 women that had an eye upon matrimony. Three priests accom- 
 panied the expedition, and three recollects. One of the vessels 
 carried thirty-six guns, another six guns. Altogether there 
 were 400 men aboard these vessels. A naval commander, Beau- 
 jeu, accompanied La Salle upon this expedition. Unfortunately, 
 he and La Salle quarreled when these vessels were but a short 
 distance out of port; and that quarrel continued all the way 
 across the Atlantic. La Salle was taken sick with the old fever, 
 and while he was sick, the naval commander had things his own 
 way. They reached the Gulf of Mexico safely, but were unable, 
 for some reason, to find the mouth of the Mississippi, which they 
 passed by without recognizing it. They arrived at Matagorda 
 Bay, considerably west of the Mississippi, in the spring of 1685. 
 One ship was captured by the Spanish, and another wrecked 
 in the Bay. They landed, however, in Matagorda Bay, and 
 began to make a settlement. Fatal sickness, however, fell upon 
 the party, and before fall, thirty were dead. The Indians sur- 
 rounding them were exceedingly hostile. La Salle led many 
 exploring expeditions from Matagorda Bay, but having failed 
 to find the Mississippi River, he made up his mind to travel 
 overland to Canada. Taking sixteen men with him, he left the 
 remainder to keep the fort at Matagorda Bay, in the spring 
 of 1687. Shortly afterward, finding some difficulty in traveling, 
 insubordination arose among the men, and La Salle was assas- 
 sinated. The conspirators returned to the fort, over-awed the 
 garrison, and had things their own way. Some twenty of these 
 
80 ILLINOIS 
 
 people survived, some finding their way to France, and others 
 to the Illinois country. 
 
 Such was the ignominious end of a great man, the tragic 
 close of a romantic career. In the grandeur of his conceptions, 
 in the indomitable energy he displayed in attempting their 
 accomplishment, and in the heartbreaking obstacles he found 
 in his path, his career is without a parallel in French colonial 
 history. Even his failure was of enormous benefit to his country 
 and his King, for the time being, for it pointed out a way for 
 France to acquire an empire in the New World. If France 
 had supported his enterprising plans in his lifetime, or carried 
 them out after his death with men, money and colonists worthy 
 of the prize that La Salle was dangling before French statesmen 
 at the end of the seventeenth century; there was a possibility 
 that the tricolor of France might have been waving over the 
 Mississippi Valley in the twentieth century. The very hugeness 
 of the enterprise doomed it to failure, without adequate govern- 
 mental backing. This support La Salle never had. He did 
 have the steady, loyal and continuous aid of Frontenac, and 
 Talon in Canada, but they were the puppets of a vacillating 
 government in France, desperately impoverished by European 
 wars, which was free-handed with paper privileges and titles 
 of nobility, but with no disposition or power to back these paper 
 titles with men and cannon. 
 
 Like most great men, La Salle had his minor weaknesses 
 that to some degree contributed to his want of success. By 
 his lofty dignified presence and culture, he favorably impressed 
 both great and obscure men, with whom he but infrequently 
 came in contact. He so impressed the greatest monarch of 
 his time and his great ministers and also the simple untutored 
 red men in the wilderness. His success in confederating these 
 tribes around Starved Rock was marvelous. But with the humble 
 Frenchmen immediately under his orders, whom he met day 
 after day, he had no such success. Over and over again we 
 read of their insubordination and desertion at critical times. 
 Tonti, Le Forest and his own relatives were the only persons 
 with whom he was in daily contact who remained loyal to him 
 in his undertakings, and these were probably participants in 
 
ILLINOIS 81 
 
 the expected profits that were to be secured in the monopoly 
 granted them by the King. A high temper and quick and 
 emphatic manner of speech probably prevented his followers 
 from acquiring the love and loyalty that the faithful Tonti 
 always had for his chief. 
 
 La Salle has left an enduring impress upon the history of 
 Illinois and the Northwest. He has given his name to the Wall 
 Street of the West, to one of the richest counties in the state, 
 and to a beautiful city on the Illinois. Even the children of our 
 high schools can tell the inquirer who La Salle was and what 
 his accomplishments were. An artistic bronze monument in 
 Lincoln Park near one of our busiest thoroughfares, recalls to 
 us the glorious record of this man of mark in the seventeenth 
 century. 
 
 It will be remembered that when leaving for France, La Salle 
 left Tonti in charge of Fort St. Louis. While under De Baugy's 
 control, differences arose between the Illinois tribes and the 
 Miami. Tonti, by the exercise of utmost skill and tact, suc- 
 ceeded in settling these troubles at a cost, however, to himself 
 of a thousand dollars. In the fall of 1665 disturbing rumors 
 reached Tonti at Fort St. Louis relating to the fate of the expe- 
 dition from France to the mouth of the Mississippi. He went 
 immediately to Mackinac, hoping to obtain reliable information. 
 He learned at Mackinac that La Salle had sailed from France, 
 but he had no news of the outcome. He did, however, hear 
 that Governor de La Barre had been recalled and was to be 
 succeeded as governor by the Marquis de Nonville. He then 
 sent some Indians to the mouth of the Mississippi to ascertain 
 news of La Salle, but they returned in February 1686 with no 
 definite word about him. He then decided to go to the Gulf 
 of Mexico himself in search of his chief. He reached the mouth 
 of the Mississippi, but found no trace of La Salle, but did find 
 the column holding the Coat of Arms of France and another 
 column upon which a cross was placed, being the monuments 
 erected by La Salle when he first discovered the mouth of the 
 Mississippi. Returning from the Gulf of Mexico to Fort St. 
 Louis, he found arrangements being made for a joint attack 
 by the French and Indians upon the Iroquois. De Nonville, 
 
82 ILLINOIS 
 
 the new governor, agreed to furnish two to three thousand 
 soldiers, and called upon Tonti to join him with the warriors 
 around the fort. Tonti was able to enlist some four to five 
 hundred Indians, and other French volunteers, and Indians 
 came from Green Bay and Mackinac. These forces met on 
 Lake Ontario on July 10, 1687, their number amounting to 
 3,000 men. With this force, Tonti attacked the Senecas, drove 
 them from their homes and laid the surrounding territory waste. 
 
 Upon returning from this battle to Fort St. Louis about the 
 middle of September, Tonti met five men there who were sur- 
 vivors of the French expedition to the mouth of the Mississippi. 
 These men were Abbe Jean Cavelier, La Salle's brother, Father 
 Douay, his nephew, a Recollect, Tessier, a seaman and Henri J. 
 Joutel, historian. These were all that were left of the band 
 who escaped assassination at the hands of the conspirators who 
 had killed La Salle. They agreed among themselves that they 
 would not report the death of La Salle at Fort St. Louis, feeling 
 that the knowledge of his death might impair the property 
 rights of his estate. These five men spent the winter of 1687- 
 1688 with Tonti at Fort St. Louis, but kept secret the death of 
 La Salle. Cavelier was fearful lest the death of La Salle should 
 be known. Father Allouez was anxious to go to France. Late 
 in the fall of that year, Tonti finally learned of the death of 
 La Salle. He immediately started for Matagorda Bay in the 
 effort to rescue the remnant of La Salle's party. In an Indian 
 village somewhere in Louisiana, the native Indians told him 
 the true story of the death of La Salle at the hands of the 
 conspirators. They also told him that the conspirators them- 
 selves were killed by the Indians. Tonti then returned from 
 near the mouth of the river to Fort St. Louis. 
 
 The governor of Canada made unfavorable reports to 
 the king as to Tonti's claims to Fort St. Louis, but the 
 king in 1690 granted Fort St. Louis to Tonti and Le Forest, 
 formerly the lieutenant of La Salle. These two men carried 
 on a fur trade for several years, which at times was remuner- 
 ative. Le Forest carried on his operations at a place which is 
 now Chicago, while Tonti carried on his at the fort. Governor 
 de La Barre, shortly after his arrival in New France foolishly 
 
ILLINOIS 83 
 
 notified the British government at New York that he thought 
 it necessary to lead a punitive expedition against the Five 
 Nations. Governor Dongan, immediately upon receipt of this 
 information, strengthened his friendship with the Iroquois 
 Indians by informing them of the governor's intentions, and 
 promised the Iroquois Indians that he would assist them if they 
 were attacked. The French governor's expedition resulted in 
 a fiasco. He had assembled but few troops, and many of these 
 fell ill. He concluded a rather disgraceful treaty with the 
 Iroquois, which resulted in his being summoned home. He was 
 succeeded by the Marquis de Nonville, a much abler and more 
 forceful and vigorous man. De La Barre's blunders were the 
 main cause of the hostility of the Iroquois tribes toward both 
 the French and their Indian allies in the Illinois country. 
 
 Governor Dongan, the British governor of New York, was 
 much interested in furthering the Western fur trade through 
 the Iroquois Indians, and he caused to be sent eleven canoes 
 under the command of one Rooseboona into the lake regions 
 to trade. This was supposedly French territory. The expedition 
 was successful, both politically and financially. The French 
 government became very indignant, and sent troops to arrest 
 the British, but failed to find them. In the fall of 1686, however, 
 a much larger British expedition, consisting of 58 white men, 
 was organized by the Albany merchants and backed by Governor 
 Dongan. Again the French government sent troops to make 
 arrests, who were successful this time. Because of these incur- 
 sions, De Nonville in 1687 got ready to attack the Iroquois. 
 De Nonville led an army of 2,000 men to Fort Frontenac. 
 He learned that his three western lieutenants had gathered a 
 large army of coureurs de bois and Indians some of whom were 
 commanded by Tonti, and were coming to his aid. The first 
 success of the campaign was won by the Western troops, they 
 being the troops who captured the British traders sent out 
 from Albany. The whole army then advanced against the Sen- 
 ecas, where a battle was fought and won by the French. This 
 battle, however, seemed not to have utterly crushed the Iroquois 
 Indians, for shortly thereafter they massacred a number of 
 the French colonists in Lachine. Other incursions into Canada 
 
84 ILLINOIS 
 
 were made frequently by the Iroquois Indians, and finally De 
 Nonville ordered Fort Frontenac to be destroyed and abandoned, 
 and de Nonville was recalled to France. He was replaced by 
 the Comte de Frontenac, then in his seventieth year. 
 
 The situation of the French at this time was certainly crit- 
 ical. Many of the Indian tribes around the Great Lakes upon 
 the abandonment of the French forts by the French government 
 transferred their allegiance from the French to the Iroquois. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 FINAL RESULTS OF THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE 
 BRITISH AND FRENCH FOR THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 
 
 By the middle of the eighteenth century, it became apparent 
 that war between the French and English for the possession 
 of the Mississippi Valley would be inevitable. Although the 
 French settlements in Nova Scotia and Canada ante-dated the 
 English settlements at Jamestown and Plymouth Rock, the first 
 did not grow or develop with the rapidity that characterized 
 the English colonies. One reason for this probably was the 
 climate. Settlers in Massachusetts and Virginia found the soil 
 and climate more congenial to agriculture than were those of 
 the North. Moreover, the English settlers brought wives and 
 children, with the plain determination of remaining if the soil 
 was fertile. 
 
 The French colonist was more concerned with fishing and 
 hunting and trafficking in furs. The English colonist when he 
 found soil that suited him, began to dig, and plan and erect a 
 home. The Frenchman ranged the woods and fields for game, 
 paying little regard to the soil over which he ranged. As the 
 English settler soon found good soil, his numbers increased 
 rapidly, but the territory he occupied and farmed, widened 
 slowly. As the French hunter soon found abundant game and 
 more abundant the further he explored, his numbers increased 
 slowly, but the territory he covered in his search for game 
 spread rapidly. Thus the French colonists became the greater 
 explorers and discoverers, while the English became the better 
 and more successful tillers of the soil. Pursuing the policy of 
 exploration and discovery, the Frenchmen aided by the navigable 
 lakes and rivers that extended from Quebec to what is now 
 Duluth and Lake Superior and Chicago on Lake Michigan, and 
 
 85 
 
Map of American Bottom and Old French Villages 
 
ILLINOIS 87 
 
 by the Mississippi River from the Gulf of Mexico to St. Paul 
 and Minneapolis, explored the whole Mississippi Valley, and 
 erected forts or trading stations at Frontenac, Detroit, Green 
 Bay, Peoria, Chicago, Kaskaskia, Mackinac, Miami, Vincennes, 
 Prarie du Chien and other points on and near the Great Lakes 
 and on the Mississippi near the Arkansas River. They had also 
 built a formidable fort on the Ohio at what is now Pittsburg. 
 
 Thus in the first half of the eighteenth century, the French 
 through the daring of their traders, and the holy zeal of their 
 missionaries, for the conversion of the Indians to Christianity, 
 were in possession of a string of forts and small settlements 
 all the way from Quebec over the territory of the Illinois and 
 down the Mississippi to New Orleans. The British colonists 
 along the sea-board from Maine to Georgia, infected with land 
 hunger rather than fur fever, slowly but steadily pressed their 
 holdings from the sea westward to the mountains. They had 
 few streams to help them. They had to travel overland. It 
 took them many years to reach the Alleghanies that were almost 
 impassable. They had learned, however, of the fertility of the 
 great valley beyond the mountains and were quick to see that 
 investments in this western territory would rapidly increase 
 enormously in value. Toward the middle of the century, land 
 hunger and a craze for speculation impelled the English colonists 
 in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, the Carolinas and 
 Maryland to cross the mountains and stake out claims north 
 and south of the Ohio River. They cared not whether this was 
 French or English territory, and waited for no wars or treaties 
 to decide sovereignty. 
 
 The fur traders of New York had been for years attempting 
 to reach the Great Lakes through the Mohawk Valley in the 
 prosecution of their fur trade. The settlers in the Carolinas 
 in the South were also circling around the southern end of the 
 Appalachians, in the effort to drive the French from the southern 
 valley. Both the French and the English settlers, however, had 
 covetous eyes upon the Upper Ohio Valley. The western end 
 of this valley was occupied by the French with some forts and 
 settlements, but the eastern portion near Pittsburg was wholly 
 unoccupied by either the French or the British. The French 
 
88 ILLINOIS 
 
 claimed it all by virtue of previous discovery and partial occu- 
 pancy, and when the British settlers or colonists from across 
 the Alleghanies began to appear in the Ohio Valley, the French 
 government drove them out and gave them notice that they 
 were trespassers. Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Virginia 
 had charters under which they claimed title to the land from 
 the Atlantic to the Pacific and some of the colonies or the col- 
 onists had claims as a result of treaties with the Iroquois, but 
 none of them had made any actual effort to take possession until 
 about 1750. The first incomers into the Ohio Valley were from 
 the colonists of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland. The 
 colonists east of the Alleghanies, the English, Scotch, Irish and 
 Germans, had gradually forced their settlements westward to 
 the foot-hills of the Alleghanies. These lands had grown valu- 
 able, and the lands beyond and to the west of the mountains 
 began to look attractive to them. Speculation was widespread, 
 particularly in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. In 1744, 
 representatives from these three colonies met the chieftain of 
 the Iroquois tribes and obtained from them a cession of the 
 land extending from the banks of the Virginia to the Ohio 
 River. Afterward, the Ohio Company was organized, which 
 had among its members men of means and political strength 
 in England and America. That company ultimately received 
 a large grant of the Ohio Valley, upon terms requiring the 
 company to built a fort and establish a settlement. Other com- 
 panies followed their example. In 1750, the Ohio Company 
 sent a surveyor to survey their grant. This man made a favor- 
 able report and among other things stated that he found the 
 Indians well affected toward the English. These English adven- 
 turers established a trading post at Logstown on the Ohio, and 
 another at the Miami Town of Pickawillany. 
 
 Alarmed by these movements of the English colonists, the 
 French governor, Galissoniere, dispatched a force of French 
 troops under the command of Chevalier Louis Celeron de Blain- 
 ville to take possession of the Ohio Valley and to drive the British 
 traders both from Logstown and Pickawillany. Celeron was 
 successful in his mission. He spent the summer and fall in the 
 Mississippi Valley, notified the British to leave, and buried metal 
 
ILLINOIS 89 
 
 plates on which were inscribed notices that the territory was 
 French and that all trespassers would be removed. Celeron also 
 found upon his mission that the Indians were friendly disposed 
 towards the English and bitterly disposed towards the French. 
 The situation was getting critical for the French, and Governor 
 Galissoniere promptly notified the home government that there 
 would be danger to the French colonies if the British should 
 succeed in breaking into the Ohio Valley and cutting their com- 
 munications which had been established between the French 
 in Canada and the French in New Orleans. To this message, 
 however, the governor did not receive a heartening answer 
 from the French ministry. He was instructed from France 
 to defend the rights of the French king in the contested region, 
 if necessary by occupying it, but to keep the expenses down 
 as much as possible and avoid giving the British just reason 
 for complaint. Instead of following promptly the wise counsel 
 of the governor, the French ministry seemed at this time to 
 hesitate and falter. Later on, however, on May 15, 1752, he was 
 instructed by the French ministry as follows: 
 
 1. To make every possible effort to drive the English away 
 from our lands in that region, and to prevent their coming there 
 to trade by seizing their goods and destroying their posts. 
 
 2. To make our subjects understand at the same time that 
 we have nothing against them and that they are at liberty 
 to trade with them in the latter country, but we will not allow 
 them to receive them on our lands. 
 
 At this juncture, unfortunately for the French, the able 
 Galissoniere was removed from his position as governor. He 
 was succeeded by La Jonqueire, who was both inefficient and 
 dishonest, and afterwards by Vaudreuil, a weak man who was 
 transferred from Louisiana to Canada. Associated with these 
 men was Francois Bigot, who was willing to sell any power or 
 privilege or dignity under his control. Probably nothing con- 
 tributed so much at this time to the misfortunes which the 
 French government faced, as the removal of the honest and 
 efficient La Galissoniere and supplanting him with such weak 
 men as the men we have mentioned. Later on, a more efficient 
 and capable governor was appointed, Duquesne. This man, 
 
90 ILLINOIS 
 
 who was both vigorous and efficient, promptly after his appoint- 
 ment succeeded in expelling the British traders from Pickawil- 
 lany and making prisoners of the British traders captured at 
 that point. He then built Fort Presque Isle on Lake Erie, and 
 two other forts for the purpose of protecting the water route 
 to the Allegheney region from Lake Erie. When news of 
 Duquesne's activities in the Ohio country reached the British 
 colonies, it caused some excitement. Governor Dinwiddie of 
 Virginia and the Ohio Company insisted upon prompt action 
 to neutralize the French activities. Dinwiddie in 1752 appealed 
 to the British government for aid. He hoped to establish forts 
 on the Ohio River, an,d sent Col. William Trent with a company 
 of men to select a ground suitable for the location of a fort 
 near the juncture of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers. 
 They actually commenced to build a fort, but the French troops 
 appeared upon the schene, captured the unfinished fort and 
 replaced it by a French fort that they named Fort Duquesne. 
 Col. George Washington, afterward President of the United 
 States, was commissioned by the governor of Virginia to explore 
 the territory. British regulars finally appeared upon the scene 
 with General Braddock at their head, and together they marched 
 against Fort Duquesne then held by the French at the head 
 of the Ohio. Braddock crossed the mountains in June, his 
 force aggregating about 2,000 men, Colonel Washington being 
 his aide de camp. He was ambushed by 250 Frenchmen with 
 a large party of Indians, and after making an attempt to defend 
 himself, was totally routed. Braddock himself was killed in 
 this battle, and more than half of his troops were either killed 
 or wounded. Other expeditions planned by the British ministry 
 and the colonists had but little success, excepting the one against 
 Acadia, now Nova Scotia. That French colony was easily 
 reduced, and 7,000 of its inhabitants were placed upon ship- 
 board and transported to English colonies, where they were 
 treated as paupers. All of these skirmishes took place, however, 
 while the French and British were nominally at peace, but war 
 now become inevitable. 
 
 In December, 1752, Governor Dinwiddie, colonial governor 
 of Virginia, had appealed to the British government for assist- 
 
ILLINOIS 91 
 
 ance to enable him to establish forts on the Ohio River to protect 
 the Virginia colonists who were settling on that river from 
 French assaults. During the following year Dinwiddie had 
 sent Col. William Trent with a body of men to build a fort 
 at the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers. While 
 it was in course of construction, it was captured by the French, 
 much strengthened in its character, and renamed Fort Duquesne, 
 and kept well garrisoned and commissioned by the French so 
 as to dominate and control that portion of the Ohio Valley which 
 both the French and British were desirous of holding. 
 
 Even before war was formally declared, while Col. George 
 Washington was building a fort called by him Fort Necessity, 
 near Fort Duquesne, he and his party were attacked by the 
 French and compelled to surrender the fort and retreat. Even 
 before war was formally declared, General Braddock, command- 
 ing a formidable body of British and colonial troops, with George 
 Washington as his aide, while attempting to capture Fort 
 Duquesne, was surprised by a force of French and Indians and 
 completely routed with tremendous loss of life and equipment. 
 
 English and colonial land speculators kept constantly at work 
 along the territory claimed by the French, north of the Ohio, 
 between what is now Illinois and what is now the State of 
 New York, endeavoring to procure by hook or crook titles from 
 the Indian tribes and win them away from their friendly rela- 
 tions with the French. To expel these intruders, the governor 
 of Canada in 1749, as hereinbefore stated, sent Chevalier Louis 
 Celeron with a body of Canadian soldiers to nail the arms of 
 France to trees at what is now Pittsburgh, at the mouth of the 
 Muskingum River, at the great Kanawha and other streams. In 
 the previous year the Ohio Company, in which many men of 
 means in England and Virginia, including George Washington 
 and his two brothers, had obtained from the Crown a grant of 
 land of 500,000 acres in what is now West Virginia, was organ- 
 ized. Other land companies had also been formed which laid 
 claim to 3,000,000 acres of land claimed by the French under the 
 assertion of discovery and occupancy. Soon after Celeron's 
 expedition the French erected and garrisoned a fort at Presque 
 
92 ILLINOIS 
 
 Isle, now the City of Erie, Fort Loboeuf, twenty miles south of 
 Presque Isle, and at Fort Venango, near the head waters of 
 the Alleghany River, and planned another fort at French Creek, 
 on the Alleghany River. 
 
 After Washington's surrender at Fort Necessity, not a Brit- 
 ish flag waved west of the Alleghanies. In 1754, or thereabout, 
 war was formally declared between Great Britain and France. 
 In Europe it was known as the "Seven Years' War ;" in America 
 it was called the "French and Indian War." As between Great 
 Britain and France, it was the most important and decisive 
 war ever waged on the Western Continent. A full account 
 of this important conflict would and should occupy a great many 
 pages in any history of America, cover many glorious episodes 
 and encounters and a few disgraceful happenings such as the 
 abduction, deportation and practical extermination of the Aca- 
 dian people by the British and the massacre of the British pris- 
 oners by the Indian allies of the French under Montcalm. That 
 history belongs, however, to the history of the United States 
 rather than to the history of Illinois. In the limited space at 
 my disposal I have not room for a full review of that great and 
 momentous war. It can be found in any popular history of the 
 United States. 
 
 None of the conflicts of that great struggle took place on 
 what is now the soil of Illinois. The Chevalier McCarty, French 
 commandant at Kaskaskia, did despatch small bodies of French 
 troops from Kaskaskia and did despatch supplies and provisions 
 to Fort Duquesne to help the French garrison in that fort 
 when it was beleaguered by the British. We have adverted to 
 this elsewhere herein; but this was the only connection that 
 Illinois or its residents had with the war. I will content myself 
 with stating that during the first two years of the war the 
 British were worsted by the French at Fort Duquesne and Fort 
 Niagara, but succeeded in capturing Crown Point from the 
 French. Montcalm, the French commander, captured a British 
 fort at Oswago and 1,600 prisoners and 100 pieces of artillery. 
 In 1757 the British were less successful. General Loudon, the 
 British commander, attempted to reduce the French fort at 
 Louisburg, on Cape Breton Island, with 10,000 to 12,000 men 
 
ILLINOIS 93 
 
 and sixteen vessels, but abandoned the effort without show of 
 fight. Montcalm captured from the British Fort William Henry 
 and several hundred prisoners, some of whom were massacred 
 by the Indian allies of the French, in spite of the orders and 
 commands of Montcalm. Incapacity of leadership and general- 
 ship was now charged by the British people against both the 
 cabinet ministers and their generals in the field. Their cabinet 
 was ousted and William Pitt, the Great Commoner, was called 
 by the king to take the helm of the ship of state. An alliance 
 with the king of Prussia against France and Austria now kept 
 France busy in Europe and Pitt devoted his attention to the 
 conflict in America. He was the first Englishman to fully 
 appreciate the great value of the prize at stake in Canada 
 and the Mississippi Valley. He backed Frederick the Great, 
 the Prussian king, in Europe principally with money and supplies 
 and assistance on the high seas. Frederick began to win victory 
 after victory in Europe, and kept the French so engrossed that 
 they could not or did not give proper support to their gallant 
 and capable generals in America. Pitt now changed commanders 
 in America, and, recognizing that one of the richest empires 
 in the world lay in the Mississippi Valley and could be won 
 by an adequate supply of money, men and arms, devoted his 
 whole energy to achieving success in America. Men, money 
 and arms were soon forthcoming. Early in 1758 he sent a 
 fleet of forty vessels and 11,000 troops to capture Louisburg 
 under Admiral Boscawen. Two able generals, Jeffrey Amherst 
 and James Wolfe, commanded the troops. Early in June the 
 siege of the fort was commenced. Before the end of July the 
 most impregnable fortress in America surrendered to the Brit- 
 ish, with 5,700 prisoners, 240 cannon and a large quantity of 
 ammunition and stores. 
 
 The British were not so successful in their effort to capture 
 Fort Ticonderoga. It was defended by Montcalm and 4,000 
 Frenchmen, and attacked by 6,300 British regulars and 9,000 
 provincial troops under Abercrombie and Lord Howe. The 
 latter was killed in a preliminary skirmish. Abercrombie proved 
 to be most incapable of leadership, directed his operations from 
 a safe distance, left 2,000 of his troops dead or dying on the 
 
94 ILLINOIS 
 
 battlefield, and retreated southward from the fort with his 
 shattered army. From this time on, however, victory smiled 
 upon the British arms. They soon captured Oswego, Fort Fron- 
 tenac and Fort Duquesne. The last was abandoned by its fam- 
 ishing garrison without a struggle. 
 
 In 1758 the British were still more successful. Fort Niagara 
 fell early in the year, soon to be followed by the French forts 
 between Niagara and Pittsburgh. Ticonderoga was now the 
 only fort in what is now the United States still flying the French 
 flag. An army of 10,000 men flying the British flag soon 
 approached the fortress, only to find that it had been abandoned. 
 In 1759 fell Quebec. Both Montcalm, the French commander, 
 and Wolfe, the British commander, lost their lives in the des- 
 perate fighting on the "Plains of Abraham/' near the city. 
 This was the total collapse of French dominance on the American 
 continent. It but remained to draw up the treaty under the 
 terms of which the British flag would displace the French colors 
 wherever they had hitherto appeared on the North American 
 continent. In February, 1763, the famous and fateful Treaty 
 of Paris was signed, under the terms of which all Canada, Nova 
 Scotia, Cape Breton, the Ohio Valley and that part of Louisiana 
 east of the Mississippi and north of the River Iberville and 
 Lake Ponchartrain were ceded by France to Great Britain. In 
 exchange for the cession of Florida by Spain to Great Britain, 
 the latter nation restored to Spain Cuba and the Philippines, 
 which had been captured by the British during the war. 
 
 To compensate Spain for the loss of Florida, the French 
 ceded to her ally, Spain, what was left of Louisiana, which 
 was all of Louisiana west of the Mississippi and all of it south 
 of the River Iberville and east of the Mississippi, including 
 the Town of New Orleans. Thus ended for France her design 
 to colonize and hold under French dominion what is now the 
 Dominion of Canada and the Mississippi Valley, now teeming 
 with 50,000,000 inhabitants and containing untold agricultural, 
 mineral and manufacturing wealth. On October 10, 1765, over 
 two and one-half years after the Treaty of Paris was signed, 
 a British governor had finally arrived at Fort Chartres, the 
 last fort in America flying the French flag. The French gar- 
 
ILLINOIS 95 
 
 rison lowered the colors of France and the cross of St. George 
 was raised with due formality. The little French garrison 
 marched to St. Louis and the last vestige of French power and 
 authority disappeared from the North American continent. 
 
 Within a score of years however, France had her revenge. 
 In the darkest hour of the American Revolution, Franklin, the 
 American ambassador, applied to the French king for succor 
 and assistance. France placed at his disposal a powerful French 
 fleet and an army of trained soldiers and sailors who joined 
 Washington and the Revolutionary army and helped them most 
 materially to corner and subjugate Cornwallis and the British 
 army at Yorktown, compelled them to surrender and thus end 
 the Revolutionary war by a treaty which gave to the thirteen 
 Revolutionary colonies every foot of soil which the French were 
 compelled by the Treaty of Paris to cede to the British Crown. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 ILLINOIS UNDER THE BRITISH FLAG 
 
 The treaty of peace between Great Britain and France under 
 which France ceded to the former practically all her possessions 
 on the North American continent was signed February 10, 1763. 
 Within three months thereafter the Indian tribes belonging to 
 the Algonquin race were in open revolt, under the leadership 
 of Chief Pontiac, against British rule. 
 
 Resentment toward the British government and the English 
 speaking colonists had been developing among the Indians for 
 several years. This resentment was caused by the trickery, 
 dishonesty and, at times, by the high handed proceedings of 
 English speaking officials, traders and prospectors. 
 
 They not only resorted to trickery, fraud, and misrepre- 
 sentation to deprive the Indian of his property, but when these 
 failed, they seized their lands and pelts by main force. 
 
 The French trader was by no means an angel, and frequently 
 over reached the Indian and defrauded him when French officials 
 and the missionaries were absent ; but the French trader almost 
 invariably traded with the Indian, by actually or pretendedly, 
 recognizing that the red man had property rights in his furs 
 and hunting grounds. 
 
 Moreover, in nine cases out of ten the French trader was 
 after the Indian's furs and not his land while the English- 
 speaking trader wanted his land rather than his pelts. 
 
 Again the French trader placed himself more nearly on the 
 same plane of humanity as the Indian. He fraternized with 
 the Indian, took part in his games and frolics, and at times 
 took an Indian wife and raised a family of half breeds. The 
 English-speaking official or trader in comparison was cold, sel- 
 fish, insolent and dishonest. 
 
 96 
 
ILLINOIS 97 
 
 The Algonquin tribes had watched with misgivings and dread 
 the slow but steady advance westward along the south shore 
 of Lake Ontario and the Ohio River of the English-speaking 
 settler and speculator. They noted that he always seized and 
 held possession of any land he stepped upon, without bargaining 
 with the Indian or asking his consent. These abuses as well 
 as the flagrant use of intoxicating liquor in dealing with the 
 Indians, were notorious. Sir William Johnson, the Indian Com- 
 missioner, appointed by the British government had pointed 
 out these evils in his reports to his superiors, but no attempt 
 had been made to put an end to them. Thus Indian resentment 
 and hatred combined to fester and ferment through all of the 
 Algonquin tribes. 
 
 Dissatisfaction developed into revolt, and the revolt found 
 for its leader and mouthpiece — Pontiac. While the antipathy 
 against the British was wide-spread, it required concentration 
 and coordination. Both were given to it by the remarkably 
 able Indian who now took control of the revolt. During 1761 
 and 1762 he had been visiting and sending his messengers, to 
 all members of the Algonquin race and to the Senecas of the 
 Iroquois tribe, and had finally succeeded in getting them into 
 a grand confederacy of revolt. 
 
 Pontiac for years had been the absolute chief and master 
 of the Ottawa tribe and Pottawatomies, and was actuated in 
 this movement both by Indian patriotism and personal ambition. 
 He had noted for years the fruitless resistance offered by the 
 separate and disunited tribes to the aggressions of the white 
 man. He saw the white man gather his soldiers into compact 
 armies, well armed and equipped, and saw these compact bodies 
 overwhelm single Indian tribes and scatter them like leaves 
 before the wind. 
 
 Among the first of his race he concluded that the Indians 
 were doomed, unless united, and preached the gospel of unity 
 throughout the whole Indian population. He dreamed of and 
 sought to create a great Indian nation that would present a 
 united front to British invaders and secure to the Indian the 
 retention of part if not all of his hunting grounds, and per- 
 petuity as a nation, in the land of his ancestors. 
 
Pontiac, Ottawa Chief and Leader of Pontiac Conspiracy 
 
 of 1763 
 
ILLINOIS 99 
 
 Taking into consideration the known weaknesses of the Indian 
 character as shown in the past — jealousies and rivalries between 
 local tribes — Pontiac was wonderfully successful. With con- 
 summate skill he arranged for the almost simultaneous attack 
 by the Indians upon all the forts and ports held by the British 
 in what had been New France. 
 
 These attacks commenced in May 1763 and within the next 
 sixty days, the Indians had gained possession of St. Joe, Miami, 
 Mackinac, Sandusky, Ouiatenon and the small forts and ports. 
 All forts west of Detroit fell into the hands of the Indians. 
 The British retained only Detroit, Niagara and Fort Pitt, strong, 
 well garrisoned forts. 
 
 But the confederation even though it had able leadership 
 lacked the reserve forces of ammunition and deadly weapons 
 which civilization and the British soldiers always had in reserve. 
 During the war between the French and English in 1761 and 
 1762 Pontiac had doubtless been able to buy from the French 
 traders and French authorities, such ammunition as he desired, 
 but when peace was signed in February of 1763 this resource 
 was withdrawn. In vain did Pontiac appeal to Commandant 
 de Villiers at Kaskaskia for assistance. That French officer 
 refused to compromise his government, by assisting the Indian 
 revolt however much he might have been disposed to do so. . 
 
 Two formidable, well-equipped British expeditions were 
 organized in 1764 and sent into the heart of the disaffected 
 district. The first reached and reconditioned the British gar- 
 rison at Detroit. The second marched from Fort Pitt into Ohio, 
 engaged the Indians under Pontiac and thoroughly defeated 
 them. The Indians lacked ammunition. Bows and arrows as 
 against muskets and cannon had long become obsolete. 
 
 Pontiac's defeat practically ended the war although it was 
 months before the Indians made final admission of defeat. 
 Because of the fact that the Indian submission was not com- 
 plete or whole-hearted, it became important for the British 
 authorities to take possession of Fort Chartres near Kaskaskia. 
 When the treaty of Paris between the French and English was 
 signed that fort was occupied by a French garrison under a 
 French commandant and it remained under the French flag 
 
100 ILLINOIS 
 
 for about two years thereafter. The still existing Indian dis- 
 affection made it difficult for the British to send from Detroit or 
 Fort Pitt a garrison and take formal possession from the French 
 commandant. That officer's position was anything but an agree- 
 able one. The French flag floated above him and he was sur- 
 rounded by French inhabitants, half-breeds and Indians, all 
 of whom feared and hated the British. Across the Mississippi, 
 at St. Louis under the Spanish flag was La Clede and other 
 prosperous French merchants who were successfully developing 
 a fur trade on both sides of the river and selling their wares 
 to the French settlers at Kaskaskia, Cahokia and other settle- 
 ments. Pontiac and his followers were soliciting his aid and 
 the French traders were secretly helping the Indians. 
 
 De Villiers, the commandant, nevertheless remained stead- 
 fastly loyal to the terms of the treaty, but finally with the consent 
 of the government of Louisiana resigned his command in June 15, 
 1764 leaving only forty men in Fort Chartres under command 
 of Louis St. Ange de Bellerive who had been called from post 
 Vincennes to take command at Fort Chartres. The British 
 made several attempts to reach and take possession of Fort 
 Chartres which was at that time one of the most formidable, 
 well-constructed forts west of Detroit and Pittsburgh. 
 
 This fort was constructed under the supervision of a very 
 able and efficient French officer with a double-barrelled Irish 
 name, Chevalier de McCarty McTigue. He was a descendant 
 of one of the "Irish Wild Geese" who fled from Ireland to France 
 after the siege and capture of Limerick and had risen to the 
 rank of major of engineers in the French army. 
 
 With skillful French engineers between 1753 and 1760 he 
 had erected this fort across the river from, and near, Kaskaskia 
 in such a substantial manner as to resist attack both from 
 Indians and from European soldiers. It was capable of housing 
 400 soldiers. An English officer afterwards declared that "It 
 is generally allowed that this is the most commodious and well 
 built fort in North America." 
 
 From this fort between 1753 and 1758 McCarty (Makarty) 
 dispatched several expeditions with men and supplies to Fort 
 Duquesne, most of which were successful. One of these expe- 
 
ILLINOIS 
 
 101 
 
 ditions sent out by Major McCarty from Fort Chartres was 
 commanded by Capt. Neyon de Villiers, a gallant officer serving 
 under Major McCarty (Makarty) . He was one of three brothers 
 all of whom were in the French service in the New World. 
 One of them, Coulon de Villiers, was in command at Fort 
 Duquesne. He sent a detachment of French soldiers from Fort 
 Duquesne under command of his brother, Capt. Jumonville de 
 Villiers to meet Washington at Little Meadow where he was 
 killed. Coulon sent word of the death of his brother Jumonville 
 
 Powder Magazine of Old Fort Chartres 
 
 to his brother Neyon at Fort Chartres and at the request of 
 both living brothers Chevalier de McCarty despatched Captain 
 Neyon with his company from Fort Chartres to Fort Duquesne. 
 Upon arrival of Neyon and his company at the latter fort both 
 brothers and their commands attacked Colonel Washington at 
 Fort Necessity and compelled its surrender on July 5, 1754. 
 Thus both brothers avenged the death of their deceased brother 
 by capturing in battle the soldier who was responsible for that 
 death; and the man who afterwards became the first President 
 of the United States. 
 
 This same Neyon de Villiers afterwards commanded an escort 
 of provisions sent by Chevalier de McCarty to Fort Duquesne, 
 succeeded Major McCarty in command of Fort Chartres, crossed 
 
102 ILLINOIS 
 
 the Alleghanies with his company and captured Fort Granville 
 on the Juaniata. Captain Aubrey, another French officer, was 
 sent from Fort Chartres with 400 men to the assistance of 
 Fort Duquesne. 
 
 He and his men met the British commander Major Grant 
 and his highlanders and signally defeated them and surprised 
 an English camp some forty miles from Fort Duquesne, captured 
 a lot of horses and rode them back into the French fort. In 
 May 1760 the able French Irishman, McCarty, was called by 
 the French governor at New Orleans to assist him at that place. 
 He died in New Orleans in 1764. 
 
 Nine different attempts were made by the British to reach 
 and take formal possession of Fort Chartres after the treaty 
 of Paris signed in 1763 before they were successful. Seven 
 of them were made by commissioners or embassies unaccom- 
 panied by armed forces. Three of these embassies reached 
 Kaskaskia but were threatened by the Indians and though 
 protected by the French Commandant and even by Pontiac 
 accomplished nothing. By this time Chief Pontiac as the result 
 of the British successes in the field and the refusal of the French 
 Commandant at Fort Chartres and also the refusal of the French 
 government at New Orleans to give him aid had reached the 
 conclusion that the Indian struggle was hopeless and that his 
 followers must accept inevitable defeat. As he counseled sub- 
 mission, the time was ripe for negotiating for peace. Another 
 Irishman now appeared upon the scene, this time on the British 
 side. 
 
 George Croghan had been a successful trader. At this 
 juncture, 1765, Croghan was the British deputy agent under 
 Sir William Johnson. He was a genial, popular fellow and 
 described as a "born diplomat. ,, He was charged by his superiors 
 with the duty of meeting Pontiac and the Indian chiefs and 
 arranging terms of peace. 
 
 On May 15, 1765, with several white companies and some 
 Shawnee Indians he left Fort Pitt after sending messengers to 
 several of the Indian tribes to meet him at the mouth of the 
 Scioto River. The Indian tribes to whom the messages were 
 addressed complied and delivered into their hands several dis- 
 
ILLINOIS 103 
 
 affected French traders whom Croghan compelled to take the 
 oath of allegiance to King George or leave the country. 
 
 His company was attacked by the Mascoutens and Kickapoos 
 at the mouth of the Wabash and two of his white companions 
 and several Shawnee were killed. 
 
 The Indians afterwards explained that the attack was a 
 mistake but nevertheless they plundered his stock of supplies 
 and carried Croghan and his party to Vincennes. At this place 
 delegates of all the tribes surrounding that post waited upon 
 Croghan, asked for peace and offered to take him to the Illinois 
 country to meet Chief Pontiac. He accepted their offer and a 
 few days later started west to meet Pontiac under their escort. 
 Pontiac agreeably surprised him by meeting him half way. 
 With Pontiac he returned to the Fort Ouiatenon where a large 
 council of the Indians was assembled. There in the presence 
 of his allied chiefs the great heart-broken and humiliated chief 
 declared that he and his allies were willing to make a lasting 
 peace. Croghan therefore reported his success to Fort Pitt, 
 abandoned his journey to Fort Chartres, and hastened to Detroit 
 where he arranged for another conference at which a general 
 peace was consummated with all of the western tribes, thus 
 ending the Pontiac war. 
 
 Upon receiving word of Croghan's great successes at 
 Ouiatenon and Detroit, Capt. Thomas Sterling left Fort Pitt 
 with 100 men of the Black Watch on August 24, 1765 and arrived 
 at Fort Chartres on October 9. Next day St. Ange the French 
 commanding officer and his garrison were released from duty. 
 The French flag was lowered and the Cross of St. George was 
 raised for the first time over Fort Chartres. This was the 
 surrender of the last French fort in the West. 
 
 Upon surrender of the fort the French inhabitants of the 
 American Bottom found themselves in a strange predicament. 
 The French government having surrendered its sovereignty in 
 February 1763, there was no French law in existence for them. 
 The British government had enacted law for Canada promptly 
 after the French surrender but had failed to proclaim any kind 
 of civil or criminal law to govern the Illinois Country. 
 
104 ILLINOIS 
 
 They were in number less than 3,000 of whom 900 were 
 negroes, and in a state of nature, without any law or ordinances 
 of any character. Upon it becoming known to these French 
 inhabitants in 1763 and 1764 that New France had been ceded 
 to Great Britain, a general exodus of the most responsible of 
 these people took place, most of them crossing the Mississippi 
 to what is now St. Louis. Pierre La Clede had landed in Kas- 
 kaskia about that time with a large stock of trading goods from 
 New Orleans. He represented some rich merchants in the latter 
 city who intended opening up for them a large fur trading 
 establishment in Kaskaskia. After storing his goods in the 
 French fort, consulting with Neyon de Villiers, the commandant, 
 and looking the ground over, he concluded that it would be 
 unprofitable if not disastrous to attempt to do business under 
 the British flag. He therefore transferred his goods over the 
 Mississippi to St. Louis and built up a large and profitable 
 business from that point under the Spanish flag. Many others 
 followed his example. 
 
 While the French flag continued to wave over Fort Chartres 
 many of the inhabitants hesitated as to their course awaiting 
 results. 
 
 When Captain Sterling raised the British flag on October 
 10, 1765, he followed the ceremonial of flag raising by publishing 
 the following proclamation. 
 
 Whereas, by the peace concluded at Paris, the 10th 
 of February, 1763, the country of the Illinois has been 
 ceded to his Britannic Majesty, and the taking possession 
 of the said country of the Illinois, by the troops of his 
 Majesty, though delayed, has been determined upon; we 
 have found it good to make known to the inhabitants — 
 
 That his majesty grants to the inhabitants of the 
 Illinois, the liberty of the Catholic religion, as it has already 
 been granted to his subjects in Canada. He has conse- 
 quently given the most precise and effective orders, to 
 the end that his new Roman Catholic subjects of the Illinois 
 may exercise the worship of their religion, according to 
 the rites of the Romish church, in the same manner as in 
 Canada. 
 
ILLINOIS 105 
 
 That his majesty, moreover, agrees that the French 
 inhabitants or others, who have been subjects of the most 
 Christian King (the King of France), may retire in full 
 safety and freedom wherever they please, even to New 
 Orleans, or any other part of Louisiana ; although it should 
 happen that the Spaniards take possession of it in the 
 name of his Catholic majesty (the King of Spain), and 
 they may sell their estates, provided it be to subjects of 
 his majesty, and transport their effects as well as their 
 persons, without restraint upon their emigration, under any 
 pretense whatever, except in consequence of debts, or of 
 criminal processes. 
 
 That those who choose to retain their lands and become 
 subjects of his majesty shall enjoy the same rights and 
 privileges, the same security of their persons and effects, 
 and the liberty of trade, as the old subjects of the King. 
 
 That they are commanded by these presents, to take 
 the oath of fidelity and obedience to his majesty, in presence 
 of Sieur Stirling, captain of the Highland regiment, the 
 bearer hereof, and furnished with our full powers for this 
 purpose. 
 
 That they act in concert with his majesty's officers, 
 so that his troops may take peaceable possession of all the 
 forts, and order kept in the country. By this means alone 
 they will spare his majesty the necessity of recurring to 
 force of arms, and will find themselves saved from the 
 scourge of a bloody war, and all the evils which the march 
 of an enemy into their country would draw after it. 
 
 We direct that these presents be read, published, and 
 posted up in the usual places. 
 
 Done and given at headquarters. New York — signed 
 with our hand — sealed with our seal at arms, and counter- 
 signed by our secretary, this 30th day of December, 1764. 
 
 Thomas Gage. 
 
 After the publication of this proclamation St. Ange de Belle- 
 rive the French commandant with twenty-one faithful, sad faced 
 French soldiers marched out of Kaskaskia to a new village across 
 the Mississippi from Cahokia, now known by the name of St. 
 Louis. About one-third of the French population left Illinois 
 within a short time thereafter for St. Louis, St. Marys, Cape 
 Girardeau or New Orleans. 
 
106 ILLINOIS 
 
 Captain Neyon de Villiers, the last surviving of seven 
 brothers who had given their lives for France, had left for 
 New Orleans about a year before the English took possession. 
 Incidentally after the signing of the treaty of Paris in 1763 
 the British government was confronted with the problem of 
 how to manage and control its newly acquired property in the 
 Northwest or Mississippi Valley east of the great river. The 
 French had lost out in the game of war. The Indian tribes 
 were in possession of most of the western forts and trading 
 posts and besieging the three forts still garrisoned by British 
 troops; Virginia, Massachusetts and the English colonies were 
 claiming territorial rights to the western lands under their 
 original charters; and the colonists and speculators from New 
 York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and other colonies were crossing 
 the Alleghanies and reckless of the sovereign rights of nations 
 were claiming squatter rights, rights obtained from Indian 
 tribes and rights obtained from Colonial governors to the lands 
 north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 PART PLAYED BY ILLINOIS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY 
 
 WAR 
 
 It does not seem to be generally understood that Illinois 
 played quite an important part in bringing" about the War of 
 the Revolution, but also a very important part in framing the 
 terms of the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the 
 American colonies. By this I do not mean that the soldiers 
 of Illinois participated in the winning battles of the Revolution 
 or that the statesmen or diplomats of Illinois participated in 
 the conferences which framed the terms of the peace treaty. 
 I mean that the Illinois Country, by reason of its location, by 
 reason of its past association with New France or Canada and 
 Louisiana, by reason of the fact that its white inhabitants were 
 of French blood, by reason of the fact that these inhabitants 
 were bitterly opposed to British rule and on friendly terms with 
 the Indians who were also bitter enemies of the English, and 
 above all by reason of its laws and government or rather lack 
 of law and government, immediately before the outbreak of the 
 revolution, made it one of the causes of the Revolution and 
 made it one of the most material elements to be considered in 
 drawing up the terms of the treaty of peace. 
 
 Ask the ordinary American citizen today what brought about 
 the American revolt against British rule, and he will answer, 
 "Taxation without representation.'' The answer is correct, if 
 it be stated as the main cause. But it is incorrect if it be claimed 
 as the sole cause. If it was the sole cause, the triumphant col- 
 onists in framing the treaty of peace would have been concerned 
 only about themselves and their territory. The colonies held 
 no legal title to any land north of the Ohio and west of Penn- 
 sylvania. 
 
 France had held possession of, and according to international 
 policy had title to, all this territory by right of discovery and 
 
 107 
 
108 ILLINOIS 
 
 occupancy for over 100 years, until by the treaty of Paris in 
 1763, she ceded the same to Great Britain. The Declaration 
 of Independence itself recognizes that the country north of the 
 Ohio was a British province and makes no claim that it belonged 
 to the colonies, but complains that the British king was "abolish- 
 ing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, 
 establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging 
 its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit 
 instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these 
 colonies. " (Declaration of Independence, 1776.) The war at 
 its inception was a war for independence of the thirteen colonies, 
 and not a war of conquest. A remarkable occurrence which took 
 place in the French settlements in Illinois, two years after the 
 declaration of independence, changed the whole nature of the 
 war. It was an episode during the War of the Revolution par- 
 ticipated in by 153 men without firing a shot or shedding a drop 
 of blood, which at the time attracted little attention; but which 
 was pregnant with more tremendous results than most of the 
 great battles of history. Let us go back and examine the situ- 
 ation in Southern Illinois as it existed in the spring of 1778. 
 
 There were living at that time in the villages of Kaskaskia, 
 Cahokia, Prairie du Rocher, and a few smaller settlements, 
 between 2,000 and 3,000 men, women and children of French 
 parentage and language, of whom a considerable number were 
 the half breed children of a French father and an Indian mother. 
 French law which they understood and obeyed, had been abol- 
 ished with French sovereignty in 1763. British officers with 
 British garrisons in Fort Chartres and Fort Gage, without any 
 civil law being enacted or proclaimed, had for ten or twelve 
 years over-awed and abused them. They were without a remedy 
 for any injury done them. They had petitioned for the estab- 
 lishment of some sort of civil government and had sent delegates 
 to General Gage to secure same, without avail. The British 
 government had, after the treaty of Paris, when it took pos- 
 session of the French territory, created three provinces, one 
 called Quebec, covering Canada, and two others, covering East 
 and West Florida; and had formulated and proclaimed certain 
 laws and ordinances for those provinces. The French villages 
 
ILLINOIS 109 
 
 of Southern Illinois were so obscure, or deemed of so little 
 importance, that the lawmaking body of Great Britain failed 
 to enact or promulgate any kind of law, civil or criminal, to 
 govern these law-forgotten subjects of the British crown. This 
 was the situation down to 1774 or 1775 when the law makers 
 of Great Britain formulated and proclaimed, with other acts 
 relating to the American colonies, the so-called Quebec Act. 
 This act extended for the first time the laws governing the 
 Province of Quebec to the Illinois country and made that country 
 a part of the Province of Quebec. 
 
 The act governing Canada and the Illinois country, provided 
 among other things, that the governor should have a council 
 of not less than seventeen, nor more than twenty-three persons. 
 The governor and the council were the law-making power so 
 far as law-making was permitted. All laws or ordinances 
 passed by the governor and council had to be submitted to and 
 approved of by the king. This law making body was not per- 
 mitted to levy any taxes or make any law concerning religion. 
 The British government in the organic law establishing the 
 Province of Quebec had guaranteed the "enjoyment of the 
 Religion of the Church of Rome, subject to the King's Suprem- 
 acy^ and enacted that the British criminal law should be the 
 supreme law of the province. 
 
 The inhabitants who professed the Catholic religion, — as 
 nearly all of them did, — were not required to take the oath of 
 religious supremacy, but were required to swear allegiance to 
 the British king. Now the passage of some sort of British 
 law, or ordinance to govern, guide and protect these French 
 speaking subjects in the Illinois country, had been under con- 
 sideration by the British authorities in London for some years 
 prior to that time. 
 
 Whether the Royal territory north of the Ohio acquired 
 by the British crown from the French by the Treaty of Paris 
 in 1763 should; by reason of Indian hostilities displayed in the 
 Pontiac war, and the bitterness still rankling in Indian breasts, 
 be reserved in whole, or in part for Indian hunting grounds, 
 or be thrown open to settlers, or whether a mediary policy should 
 be adopted, reserving part for settlement and part for Indian 
 
110 ILLINOIS 
 
 occupation; with a no-mans-land between to keep the settlers 
 and savages apart, had never been definitely determined by the 
 law-making Moguls in London. 
 
 Many influential persons both in England and the colonies, 
 including the Earl of Dunmore, the last of the British governors 
 of Virginia, favored the throwing open of these rich lands to 
 settlers and speculators. Lord Dunmore had the temerity to 
 issue warrants granting lands north of the Ohio to certain 
 grantees without any authority from Great Britain so to do. 
 He was notoriously using his office unlawfully for self 
 enrichment. 
 
 As early as 1748, Thomas Lee, a member of the King's 
 Council in Virginia and a Mr. Hamburg, a rich and powerful 
 merchant in London, organized the Ohio Land Company, com- 
 posed of fourteen to sixteen persons including Governor Din- 
 widdie and Lawrence and Augustus Washington, brothers of 
 George Washington, and secured from the king a grant of half 
 a million acres along the Ohio, and the exclusive right of trading 
 with the Indians in the Ohio district. This company established 
 trading stations on the Alleghany, north of what is now Pitts- 
 burgh and Logstown on the Ohio, eighteen miles south of 
 Pittsburgh. 
 
 In 1750, Governor Hamilton of Pennsylvania received a letter 
 from Louis Celeron, agent of the Canadian governor dated from 
 "a camp on the river Ohio at an old Shawnee village" in which 
 he expressed his surprise, at finding English traders from Penn- 
 sylvania in a country to which England had never made any 
 claim, and requesting Governor Hamilton to advise his people 
 to refrain from trespassing on the territory of France. 
 
 About this time, the Canadian governor wrote letters to the 
 governors of New York and Pennsylvania, warning them that 
 English traders in the Ohio district would be arrested and held 
 as trespassers. Later on, after the English had taken possession 
 of the Ohio Valley from the French, the British king, George III., 
 himself took notice of the unlawful settlements in the valley 
 in a letter he wrote to John Penn, Lieutenant Governer of Penn- 
 sylvania, dated October 24, 1765, which reads as follows: 
 
ILLINOIS 111 
 
 Whereas it hath been represented unto us that several 
 persons from Pennsylvania and the back settlements of 
 Virginia have migrated westward of the Alleghany moun- 
 tains, and these have seated themselves on lands contiguous 
 to the River Ohio, in express disobedience to our Royal 
 Proclamation of October, 1763, it is therefore our will and 
 pleasure, and you are hereby strictly enjoined and required 
 to use your best endeavors to suppress such unwarrantable 
 proceedings, and to put a stop to these and other like 
 encroachments for the future, by causing all persons belong- 
 ing to the province under your government who have thus 
 irregularly seated themselves on lands to the westward of 
 the Alleghanies immediately to evacuate those settlements, 
 and that you do enforce as far as you are able, a more 
 strict obedience to our commands signified in Our Said 
 Royal Proclamation, and provide against any future viola- 
 tion thereof. 
 
 While many influential men and interests favored the throw- 
 ing open of these lands to settlers, other influential advisers of 
 the King favored appeasing and pacifying the Indians, by re- 
 serving part or all of the territory north of the Ohio and east 
 of the Mississippi as hunting grounds for the Indians, subject 
 to their tribal customs and regulations and the King's 
 sovereignty. As the result of these conflicting counsels, the law- 
 making powers of Great Britain arrived at no conclusion; and 
 proclaimed no law for this territory until 1774 or 1775, when 
 they passed the Quebec Act. This act gave the French settlers 
 in Southern Illinois the first code of laws that they had since 
 1763. This law was passed solely for the purpose of creating 
 some sort of a code of government and civil and criminal law 
 that would apply to these French residents of Illinois who were 
 living in a state of anarchy. 
 
 It neither expressly declared for Indian reservations, nor 
 for colonial settlement, leaving the matter open for future con- 
 sideration. But by passing any kind of a law for the territory, 
 it again affirmed the sovereignty of the Crown over the district. 
 But, unfortunately for the British crown, this rather anaemic 
 law was promulgated with, and about the same time that, four 
 other very tyrannical and unjust laws directly applicable to 
 
112 ILLINOIS 
 
 the thirteen colonies and Massachusetts in particular were pro- 
 claimed. 
 
 These four laws were popularly called : 
 
 1st. The Boston Port Bill. 
 2nd. The Regulating Act. 
 
 3rd. The Transportation Act. 
 
 4th. The Quartering Act. 
 
 A short statement of the effect of these laws will enable us 
 to understand why the American colonists were filled with rage 
 and indignation, and why the Quebec Act coming at the same 
 time was believed to be inspired by hatred of, and tyranny 
 towards, the colonists. 
 
 The Boston Port Bill closed the port of Boston to all com- 
 merce and removed the seat of government to Salem until that 
 city indemnified the owners for £15,000 worth of tea, thrown 
 overboard in Boston harbor, and indemnified the government 
 custom officials for damages done by mobs in 1773 and 1774. 
 It further made Marblehead the port of entry, in place of Boston. 
 
 The Regulating Act annulled the liberal charter then held 
 by Massachusetts and practically abolished self-government. It 
 provided that the executive council should be appointed by the 
 Crown instead of by the Assembly, empowered the governor 
 to appoint and remove all judges and administrative officers; 
 made the judges* salaries payable by the Crown instead of the 
 Legislature, prohibited all town meetings except those approved 
 by the governor and vested the selection of juries in sheriffs in- 
 stead of the people. 
 
 The Transportation Act provided for the removal to Eng- 
 land for trial of any case against a royal official (including 
 soldiers) charged with crime, which would have enabled any 
 British official to commit any crime, no matter how murderous, 
 and laugh at prosecution. 
 
 The Quartering Act made it obligatory upon Massachusetts 
 to furnish at all times quarters for British troops. 
 
 Upon the promulgation of these four acts, and the Quebec 
 Act, Boston was aflame and the fire soon spread to all the 
 thirteen colonies. 
 
ILLINOIS 113 
 
 Because it accompanied these other tyrannical acts, the peo- 
 ple argued it was but another act of like nature. It gave an 
 oligarchical, undemocratic law to a neighboring province and 
 it recognized and legalized the exercise of the Catholic religion. 
 Now, in and around Boston there were many descendants and 
 friends of the original Puritans who landed at Plymouth. Their 
 hardy ancestors regarded Catholics with hatred and contempt 
 and prohibited them from entering Massachusetts. The habits, 
 feelings and fanaticism of the sires, had descended to many 
 of their sons and grandsons. The official recognition in the 
 Quebec Act of the Roman Catholic religion was a shock to these 
 inherited antipathies. The tyrant George III, using this as a 
 precedent, they argued, might soon force toleration of Roman 
 Catholics upon them and their children. This interpretation 
 of the Quebec Act was soon spread abroad through the colony 
 and other colonies. The Quebec Act, though passed to affect 
 only persons outside of the thirteen colonies, was to be used as a 
 precedent for royal acts of tyranny against the American col- 
 onies. It might be used as a precedent for the toleration by law 
 of Catholics in colonies where they were not wanted. 
 
 In the Declaration of Independence, hereinbefore quoted, the 
 passage of the Quebec Act (not by name, but by inference) is 
 mentioned as one of the tyrannical acts of the British King 
 justifying revolt and the Declaration of Independence. 
 
 In other words, the promulgation of this act, which directly 
 affected only the French habitants in the French villages in 
 Southern Illinois and in the Illinois country in connection with 
 four other grossly tyrannical laws at an inopportune time, 
 caused it to be construed, — and it was so construed, — as a 
 ground for revolution. 
 
 Let us now see what effect, if any, the people in the Illinois 
 country had upon the terms of peace. 
 
 These French villages in southern Illinois were about half- 
 way on the route then traveled in going from Quebec to New 
 Orleans. Fort Chartres, near Kaskaskia, was about the middle 
 link in a chain of forts between these two cities, all in posses- 
 sion of British troops. Kaskaskia and Cahokia were the largest 
 and busiest settlements between Detroit and New Orleans. They 
 
114 ILLINOIS 
 
 were occupied almost exclusively by Frenchmen, their wives and 
 children. English speaking visitors were few and far between. 
 Traders from Philadelphia and the East occasionally dropped 
 in, but not to take permanent residence. They were sojourners 
 merely for business purposes. Whatever nation or power held 
 possession with military force of these villages and their pro- 
 tecting forts, Fort Chartres or Fort Gage, could prevent the 
 passage of both military and trading expeditions between Can- 
 ada and Louisiana. 
 
 Both troops and traders in that age used the waterways for 
 purposes of travel. With the exception of a portage at Niagara 
 and another at Chicago, there was a continuous waterway for the 
 canoes and barges then in use, from Quebec to the Gulf of 
 Mexico. There were no roadways or other thoroughfares 
 through the trackless woods and prairies. The era of paved 
 roads, autos, railroads and flying machines had not yet arrived. 
 All traffic had to and did take to the waterways. 
 
 Because of the existence of this splendid course of water- 
 ways covering approximately three thousand miles from Quebec 
 to New Orleans, the French had been able to discover, and dot 
 with little trading posts and forts all this Mississippi Valley for 
 over one hundred years before the English trod foot upon the 
 same. The colonists along the Atlantic had no waterway flow- 
 ing westward. Instead of favoring waterways, they found their 
 way towards the West blocked by formidable mountains. The 
 possession of these waterways made it easy for the French to 
 anticipate both the British government and the colonist in tak- 
 ing possession of the Mississippi Valley. Whichever party to 
 the struggle between Great Britain and the thirteen colonies 
 took possession of Kaskaskia and Cahokia and their protecting 
 forts, Fort Chartres and Fort Gage, and held them impregnably 
 against all attack until the end of the war, would be able, by 
 using the waterways northward and southward from Kaskaskia, 
 to attack and reduce hostile forces stationed anywhere along 
 these three thousand miles of waterways. Moreover, the party in 
 possession of these forts and villages at the end of the war 
 would be in a position to dictate the terms of permanent occu- 
 
ILLINOIS 115 
 
 pation and sovereignty of all the Mississippi Valley east of the 
 great river. 
 
 The first man to recognize the importance of the possession 
 of these French villages and forts in Southern Illinois and to 
 conceive a plan for securing their possession for the thirteen 
 colonies was a man then almost unknown to fame, but whose 
 daring accomplishment on July 4th, 1778 has made his name 
 imperishable in American history. 
 
 We will devote a separate chapter (the next) to a recital 
 of the dreams, trials, labors and glorious achievements of this 
 remarkably able and daring man, George Rogers Clark. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 GEORGE ROGERS CLARK CAPTURES KASKASKIA AND 
 
 VINCENNES 
 
 Some short time before the outbreak of the Revolutionary 
 war, many of the colonial settlers, particularly from Pennsyl- 
 vania and Virginia, had been scaling the Alleghany Mountains, 
 built up a village in what is now Pittsburgh, and pushed down 
 the Ohio River into Kentucky. For a time they paused at the 
 Great Kanawha, the limit to settlement set by orders from Lon- 
 don. But soon the barrier was overstepped, and by 1773 Ameri- 
 can settlements were springing up in Western Kentucky and 
 the ground platted for the future City of Louisville. These 
 settlements were largely prompted by land speculators claiming 
 under illegal grants from Lord Dunmore and Indian tribes. 
 
 Across the Ohio River from these Kentucky settlements was 
 the territory which by the Quebec Act was declared to be part 
 of the Quebec Province. The colonies could make no valid claim 
 to this territory, and but very few American colonists had set- 
 tled therein. 
 
 Without any disturbance from white settlers or speculators, 
 the Indian tribes roamed and hunted throughout these lands at 
 will, trading with French habitants at Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Peo- 
 ria, Mackinac and Detroit rather than with English speaking 
 traders at Pittsburgh. The flourishing Village of Detroit, how- 
 ever, was occupied by a formidable British garrison under the 
 command of Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton. From this 
 point, early in the Revolutionary war, a plan was seriously con- 
 sidered to attack with British troops and Indian allies, the 
 Americans at Pittsburgh, and if successful there, to join forces 
 with Lord Dunmore and his forces at Alexandria. This scheme 
 failed of accomplishment for lack of British troops in the West. 
 The Indians north of the Ohio, however, were greatly incensed 
 
 116 
 
General George Rogers Clark 
 
118 ILLINOIS 
 
 at the conduct of the American settlers in Kentucky south of 
 the Ohio. They saw these settlers in defiance of royal decrees 
 and the treaties made by the Indians with the British authori- 
 ties, appropriating the lands claimed by them, without leave 
 or license. 
 
 Lieutenant Governor Hamilton knew of these feelings of 
 resentment among the Indians. He nursed these bitter feelings, 
 loaded the Indian chiefs with presents, and incited them to 
 resent their wrongs by ambuscades and night attacks upon the 
 American settlements south of the Ohio, in the manner usual 
 to Indian warfare. He is charged, and probably truthfully, 
 with offering rewards to the Indians for the scalps of white 
 men brought to him in Detroit. His memory is perpetuated in 
 history under the name of "Hamilton, the hair-buyer." 
 
 Housed into action by the wrongs that they had been suffer- 
 ing at the hands of these American settlers in Kentucky, and 
 undoubtedly furnished with guns, ammunition, knives and other 
 implements of warfare by Hamilton, the Indians opened hostili- 
 ties south of the Ohio. The murder of a friendly Shawnee 
 chief named Cornstalk by some Kentucky settlers at Fort Ran- 
 dolph, was the immediate incentive to these attacks. The Shaw- 
 nee tribe, which up to that time was neutral, upon the murder 
 of their chief, led the assaults upon the white settlers, spreading 
 terror and bloodshed throughout Kentucky. 
 
 George Rogers Clark now appears upon the scene. At this 
 juncture, June, 1776, he was at Harrodsburg, Kentucky, in at- 
 tendance at a meeting of settlers called to organize the people 
 both for protection from exploitation by land adventurers and 
 assaults from the Indians. He was then about twenty-six years 
 of age, and was possessed of great courage and a commanding 
 presence. It is claimed that he bore a remarkable likeness to 
 George Washington and was very proud of the resemblance. 
 His portrait as painted by Jonett, a photograph of which is 
 published in Alvord's History of Illinois, page 324, bears out the 
 claim of resemblance between Washington and Clark. He had 
 been engaged in vigorous pioneering for some years prior to this 
 time, and had considerable experience as a surveyor. He had 
 explored the country as far west as the Great Kanawha in 1772, 
 
ILLINOIS 119 
 
 served in the war against the Shawnees, and in the Dunmore 
 war against the Iroquois. 
 
 At this Harrodsburg meeting, he was appointed one of the 
 two commissioners to present to the Virginia Legislature a peti- 
 tion from the Kentucky settlers for protection from the Indian 
 attacks. When he reached the Virginia State capitol, the Legis- 
 lature had adjourned. In no way discouraged, Clark found out 
 that the governor, Patrick Henry, was sick at home in Han- 
 over, and Clark sought out and secured an interview with him. 
 Governor Henry from his sick bed referred the matter to his 
 council, which ordered that five hundred pounds of powder be 
 sent by the State of Virginia to Fort Pitt and thence down the 
 Ohio to places convenient for the settlers in Kentucky. 
 
 When the Legislature re-convened, Clark and his colleague 
 attended same and were favorably treated by that body. The 
 Legislature, at their request, passed a law declaring Kentucky 
 to be a county of Virginia, and making provision for the govern- 
 ment of the County of Kentucky. 
 
 When Clark returned to Kentucky in the spring of 1776, he 
 was thoroughly convinced that the Indian assaults upon the 
 Kentucky settlers were instigated by the British commanders 
 in Detroit, Vincennes, Kaskaskia and other forts in the Quebec 
 Province. He had information to that effect from a man named 
 Bentley, living in Kaskaskia. To gain further reliable infor- 
 mation, he sent two men he trusted implicitly to Kaskaskia. 
 
 They promptly on their return reported to Clark, in the fall 
 of 1776, in substance as follows : 
 
 First. That the commanding officers of the British forts 
 in the Northwest were largely responsible for the Indian attacks 
 upon the people in Kentucky. 
 
 Second. That the French inhabitants of all the French vil- 
 lages were, on the whole, quite friendly and sympathetic with 
 the American cause. 
 
 Third. That in most of the French villages along the Wa- 
 bash and the Mississippi rivers, there were well organized and 
 well trained militiamen. 
 
 After hearing these reports confirming the information he 
 had obtained from Bentley, Clark left Kentucky to call upon 
 
120 ILLINOIS 
 
 the governor of Virginia. His design was to procure a com- 
 mission as an officer of the Virginia army and to organize an 
 army of several hundred men to invade the Illinois country 
 for the purpose of overcoming the British garrisons in Kas- 
 kaskia, Cahokia, Vincennes, and probably other English forts 
 in that territory. 
 
 He laid his plans before Governor Patrick Henry, who at 
 first was undecided. The governor finally authorized him, after 
 many secret conferences with his council, to raise and equip 
 seven companies of soldiers of fifty men in each company. The 
 conferences and the authorization were secret and were not 
 submitted to the Legislature for its approval, lest it should 
 become public. The governor and his council further agreed to 
 provide six thousand pounds British money for the financing 
 of the enterprise, and promised that the Legislature would after- 
 wards be asked to grant each soldier who volunteered and took 
 part in the campaign three hundred acres of land in the new 
 territory, and that the soldiers should receive even greater 
 compensation. In pursuance of this plan, the governor handed 
 to Clark two letters of authorization. One of these letters de- 
 clared that the purpose of the campaign was to provide for the 
 defense of the Kentucky people against Indian outrages. The 
 other letter, which was to be kept secret, showed the real pur- 
 pose of the campaign. The public letter, as contained in Smith's 
 very able and industrious history, is as follows: 
 
 Lieutenant Colonel George Rogers Clark: You are to 
 proceed, without loss of time, to enlist seven companies of 
 men, officered in the usual manner, to act as a militia under 
 your orders. They are to proceed to Kentucky, and there 
 to obey such orders and directions as you shall give them, 
 for three months after their arrival at that place; but to 
 receive pay, etc., in case they remain on duty a longer 
 time. 
 
 You are empowered to raise these men in any county 
 in the commonwealth; and the county lieutenants, respec- 
 tively, are requested to give you all possible assistance in 
 that business. 
 
 Given under my hand at Williamsburg, January 2nd, 
 1788. 
 
 P. Henry. 
 
ILLINOIS 121 
 
 Private Instructions. 
 
 Virginia in Council, Williamsburg, January 2d, 1778. 
 Lieutenant Colonel George Rogers Clark : You are to pro- 
 ceed with all convenient speed to raise seven companies of 
 soldiers, to consist of fifty men each, officered in the usual 
 manner, and armed most properly for the enterprise; and 
 with this force attack the British fort at Kaskaskia. 
 
 It is conjectured there are many pieces of cannon and 
 stores of considerable amount, at that place, the taking and 
 preservation of which would be a valuable acquisition to 
 the state. If you are so fortunate, therefore, as to succeed 
 in your expedition, you will take every possible measure 
 to secure the artillery and stores, and whatever may ad- 
 vantage the state. 
 
 For the transportation of the troops, provisions, etc., 
 down the Ohio, you are to apply to the commanding officer 
 at Fort Pitt for boats; and during the whole transaction 
 you are to take especial care to keep the true destination of 
 your force secret, — its success depends upon this. Orders 
 are therefore given to secure the two men from Kaskaskia. 
 Similar conduct will be proper in similar cases. 
 
 It is earnestly desired that you show humanity to such 
 British subjects and other persons as fall in your hands. 
 If the white inhabitants of that post and the neighborhood 
 will give undoubted evidence of their attachment to this 
 state (for it is certain they live within its limits), by 
 taking the test prescribed by law, and by every other way 
 and means in their power, let them be treated as fellow cit- 
 izens, and their person and property duly secured. Assist- 
 ance and protection against all enemies whatever, shall be 
 afforded them, and the Commonwealth of Virginia is 
 pledged to accomplish it. But if these people will not ac- 
 cede to these reasonable demands, they must feel the mis- 
 eries of war, under the direction of that humanity that has 
 hitherto distinguished Americans, and which it is expected 
 you will ever consider the rule of your conduct, and from 
 which you are in no instance to depart. 
 
 The corps you are to command are to receive the pay 
 and allowance of militia and to act under the laws and 
 regulations of this state now in force, as militia. The in- 
 habitants of this post will be informed by you, that in case 
 they acceded to the offers of becoming citizens of this 
 commonwealth, a proper garrison will be maintained among 
 them, and every attention bestowed to render their com- 
 
122 ILLINOIS 
 
 merce beneficial, the fairest prospects being opened to the 
 dominions of France and Spain. 
 
 It is in contemplation to establish a post near the 
 mouth of the Ohio. Cannon will be wanted to fortify it. 
 Part of those at Kaskaskia will be easily brought thither, 
 or otherwise secured, as circumstances will make necessary. 
 
 You are to apply to General Hand for powder and lead 
 necessary for this expedition. If he can't supply it, the 
 person who has that brought from Orleans can. Lead was 
 sent to Hampshire, by my orders, and that may be delivered 
 to you. 
 
 Wishing you succeed, 
 
 I am, Sir, 
 
 Your humble servant, 
 
 P. Henry. 
 
 Upon receipt of these two letters of authorization, Clark 
 proceeded to recruit his troops. Two officers that he appointed 
 were instructed to bring their recruits to Fort Pitt. Others 
 were directed to meet him on the Ohio River in Kentucky. Going 
 to Fort Pitt, he gathered together the men there assembled, and 
 obtained boats, provisions, ammunition and fire-arms. Finding 
 some opposition to his enterprise at that fort, he did not at- 
 tempt there to do more than secure the supplies which were 
 ordered to be given him by Governor Henry. He sent word 
 to all the recruits to meet him at Corn Island, opposite the 
 present City of Louisville. When the troops were gathered at 
 that place, a conference was held betwen himself and his officers, 
 and it was agreed that the settlements in Kentucky should not 
 be left unprotected and some of the troops were ordered to 
 return to these settlements to protect them. Finally, 153 men 
 were assembled, ready for the descent on the Ohio to Illinois. 
 
 Clark then explained to these men the final purpose of the 
 expedition. He appointed four captains, Bowman, Helm, Har- 
 rod and Montgomery, to take command of each of the four com- 
 panies. They left Corn Island on the 24th of June, 1778, and 
 were shortly afterward overtaken by a message from the com- 
 mander at Fort Pitt, who brought most agreeable news, to-wit, 
 that France had entered into a treaty of alliance with the 
 United States and had agreed to send money, men and ships 
 
ILLINOIS 123 
 
 to assist the colonists. At first Clark was undecided as to 
 whether he should attack the fort at Vincennes or Kaskaskia. 
 
 Vincennes was a larger fort and had more troops, which made 
 it more difficult of capture. In addition, if he were defeated, 
 he would have a hard time to retreat in safety. He finally 
 reached the conclusion that the Illinois settlements were more 
 scattered and could be overcome one at a time more easily, and 
 that in case of failure he would be able to retreat across the 
 Mississippi into Spanish territory in St. Louis. 
 
 At the mouth of the Tennessee River, Clark met a hunter 
 named John Duff, who reported to him that he had been re- 
 cently in Kaskaskia, and that there were no British soldiers at 
 either Kaskaskia or Vincennes. He further reported that a 
 Frenchman, Chevalier de Rocheblanc, was the commander at 
 Kaskaskia; that he had no troops excepting the militia. Duff 
 and his companions offered to accompany Clark and act as 
 guides. With these guides, Clark moved down the Ohio to Fort 
 Massac. Here he hid his boats and on June 29, 1778, began the 
 journey overland from that point one hundred and twenty miles 
 to Kaskaskia. His men carried four days' rations. On the morn- 
 ing of the 4th of July, they arrived at a point within twelve 
 miles of Kaskaskia. They were utterly without provisions, and 
 dared not kill game, lest they should be discovered. On the 
 4th of July at night they arrived within a few miles of Kas- 
 kaskia. There they learned that the residents a few days be- 
 fore were under arms but had disbanded; that the Indians had 
 left Kaskaskia and that all was quiet in the village. That night 
 Clark secured boats and transported his little army across the 
 Kaskaskia River to the west side of that river. Disembarking 
 on the west side of the river, he marched his little army to the 
 edge of the town, where he divided it into two parts. With 
 one, he marched to the south side of the town, where the com- 
 mander, Rocheblanc, was quartered. He was in a building 
 surrounded by a stockade, but it was in bad need of repairs 
 and the Kentuckians had no trouble in entering. After entering 
 the stockade, they seized Rocheblanc and the rest of the army 
 went into the streets and directed the townspeople to remain 
 within their homes. The next morning the people were dis- 
 
124 ILLINOIS 
 
 armed. Father Gibault, the Catholic priest in charge of the 
 villages at Kaskaskia and Vincennes, was left in Kaskaskia, and 
 with a few of the most prominent citizens of the town he called 
 upon Clark to ask if they might have religious services in the 
 church. Clark consented, and at the close of the services, Father 
 Gibault again called upon Clark and asked that the prisoners 
 might be treated leniently and allowed to retain their personal 
 belongings. To him Clark explained that the King of France 
 had entered into a treaty of alliance with the American colonies, 
 and that it would be entirely just and proper for the French 
 colonists in the Illinois country to ally themselves with the allies 
 of the French king. He further explained that in order to prove 
 that he was speaking the truth, that he would release all the 
 French prisoners, whereupon there was great demonstration of 
 joy and happiness among those who feared the worst. The 
 church bell was rung, and thanks were given to God for the 
 happy deliverance. 
 
 Clark then issued a proclamation which was to be read in 
 the village. Father Gibault was very instrumental in persuad- 
 ing the French inhabitants to become friendly to the American 
 cause. The commander, Rocheblanc, however, was made pris- 
 oner and sent to Williamsburg, Virginia, as a prisoner of war. 
 
 After administering the oath of allegiance to the inhab- 
 itants of Kaskaskia, Clark took steps to capture Cahokia. Many 
 French inhabitants of Kaskaskia volunteered to assist him, and 
 he ordered that the guns and ammunition should be returned 
 to the friendly French citizens. A company of French volun- 
 teers was organized, which was accepted by him as a part of 
 the force sent to capture Cahokia. On their arrival at Cahokia, 
 they found little trouble in persuading the French inhabitants 
 to become friendly to the American cause. The post surrendered 
 without a struggle, and the oath of allegiance to Virginia was 
 administered to all its citizens. 
 
 At the time that Clark took possession of Kaskaskia, the 
 wealthiest citizen was a Frenchman named Cere, who was sus- 
 pected of having assisted the English officers in instigating 
 the Indian attacks upon the Kentucky settlements. Cere was 
 at that time temporarily in St. Louis. However, he voluntarily 
 
Father Gibault 
 
 French priest at Kaskaskia and Vincennes at time of George Rogers Clark's 
 
 Conquest 
 
 From a crayon owned by Col. R. T. Durret, of Louisville 
 
126 ILLINOIS 
 
 crossed the river and had an interview with Colonel Clark, the 
 result of which was that Clark became convinced of his inno- 
 cence. Cere voluntarily became an American citizen, and took 
 the oath of allegiance and pledged loyalty to the American 
 cause. 
 
 After he had taken possession of Cahokia, Clark sent for 
 Father Gibault, and talked with him about the projected capture 
 of Vincennes. Father Gibault had recently been in Vincennes, 
 and knew the situation at that point. He explained to Clark 
 that Governor Abbott of Canada had left Vincennes, and that 
 there were no British troops there, and that only the local mi- 
 litia were in charge of the fort and its supplies. He, Father 
 Gibault, promised to go to Vincennes, and advise the citizens 
 to transfer their allegiance from the British government to 
 Virginia, whereupon Clark sent Father Gibault, accompanied 
 with two reliable friends of Clark, to Vincennes to ascertain 
 what could be done in the way of its capture. This was easily 
 accomplished. Father Gibault advised the French residents of 
 Vincennes to become American citizens, and to transfer their 
 allegiance from the British government to Virginia. Under his 
 persuasion, they all gathered in the village and the oath of al- 
 legiance to Virginia was administered to all the citizens. There- 
 upon the British flag was hauled down, and the flag of Virginia 
 hoisted in its place. The Indians were advised that the French 
 king had come back to life, and that he was advising his Indian 
 friends to be friendly to the Americans. 
 
 Up to this point, Colonel Clark had wonderful success, 
 largely through the friendship of the French habitants, but 
 now his troubles began. The volunteers recruited by him had 
 only enlisted for three months, and many of them sought to 
 return to their homes. Finally, he succeeded in getting a hun- 
 dred of the Kentuckians to re-enlist, and the rest were mustered 
 out. He then opened the enlistment to French citizens, many 
 of whom accepted the invitation, and these new recruits were 
 drilled and trained as American soldiers. Colonel Clark ap- 
 pointed over each French company French officers. He sta- 
 tioned Captain Bowman at Cahokia and Captain Williams at 
 Kaskaskia. Shortly thereafter, he arranged for conferences 
 
ILLINOIS 127 
 
 with Indians, and held counsel with them at Cahokia, where 
 the chiefs of many tribes appeared, smoked the pipe of peace, 
 and made treaties favorable to the Americans. 
 
 Shortly after his successes at Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Vin- 
 cennes, Clark reported the same to Governor Henry and the 
 Legislature, and the Legislature of that colony in October, 1778, 
 passed a law creating the County of Illinois in the State of 
 Virginia in the following language : 
 
 All of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia 
 who are already settled or who shall hereafter settle on 
 the western side of the Ohio, shall be included in a distinct 
 county which shall be called Illinois County; and the Gov- 
 ernor of this Commonwealth, with the advice of counsel, 
 may appoint a county-lieutenant or commander in chief, 
 during pleasure, who shall appoint and commission as many 
 deputy commandants, militia officers, and commissioners 
 as he shall think proper in the different districts, during 
 pleasure; all of whom, before they enter into office, shall 
 take the oath of fidelity to this commonwealth and the 
 oath of office, according to the form of their own religion. 
 
 And all civil officers to which the inhabitants have been 
 accustomed necessary for the preservation of the peace, 
 and the administration of justice, shall be chosen by a ma- 
 jority of the citizens in their respective districts to be 
 convened for that purpose by the county-lieutenant or com- 
 mandant, or his deputy, and shall be commissioned by the 
 said county-lieutenant or commander-in-chief. 
 
 At the same time, the House of Delegates expressed their 
 thanks to Clark and his companions for their wonderful success, 
 as follows : 
 
 In The House of Delegates 
 
 Monday the 23d, Nov., 1778. 
 
 Whereas authentic information has been received that 
 Lieut.-Col. George Rogers Clark, with a body of Virginia 
 militia, has reduced the British posts in the Western parts 
 of this commonwealth on the Mississippi and its branches, 
 whereby great advantage may accrue to the common cause 
 of America, as well as to this commonwealth in particular : 
 
 Resolved That the thanks of this House are justly due 
 to the said Colonel Clark and the brave officers and men 
 
128 ILLINOIS 
 
 under his command, for their extraordinary resolution and 
 perseverance in so hazardous an enterprise, and for their 
 important services to their country. 
 
 E. C. Randolph, 
 
 C. H. D. 
 
 But now Clark's troubles began to gather. Henry Ham- 
 ilton, governor of Detroit, upon learning that Clark had invaded 
 Illinois and was in possession of Fort Vincennes, raised a force 
 consisting of thirty regular troops, of fifty Canadians, and 500 
 Indians and started for headquarters on the Wabash. As he 
 neared the village of Vincennes, Captain Helm, who was in 
 charge of the fort, it is said, with only one assistant, a 
 soldier named Henry, decided upon a grotesque and daring 
 expedient to obtain terms of surrender. When Hamilton came 
 within hearing distance, Helm cried out, "Halt!" Hamilton 
 then demanded the surrender of the fort, to which Helm re- 
 plied, "No man shall enter until I know the terms." Governor 
 Hamilton then replied that the force in the fort should be 
 permitted to march out with the honors of war. These terms 
 were accepted by Helm, and he and Private Henry marched 
 out of the fort, Helm carrying the flag and Henry beating a 
 drum. However this may be, the fort in fact, was surrendered 
 to Governor Hamilton. 
 
 After the surrender of the fort to Lieutenant Governor Ham- 
 ilton, Captain Helm, who had surrendered, was unable to com- 
 municate from Vincennes with Colonel Clark at Kaskaskia, and 
 Clark for a long time was in ignorance of the capture. On 
 January 29, 1779, Col. Francis Vigo, an Italian friend of Clark's, 
 returned to Kaskaskia from Vincennes, and reported to him the 
 surrender of the fort to the British and the weakness of the 
 British garrison therein. He at once started to organize an 
 expedition for the recapture of the fort, and ordered Captain 
 Bowman to assist him in organizing the expedition. He first 
 ordered a galley built, which was to be sent down the Missis- 
 sippi and up the Ohio and the Wabash to await near Vincennes 
 the coming of other troops which would travel overland. Upon 
 this galley two four-pound guns were mounted, and four large 
 swivels, and provisions and ammunition were placed aboard the 
 
ILLINOIS 129 
 
 boat, which was under charge of Captain John Rogers, who 
 had forty-six men under his command. He left Kaskaskia on 
 the 4th of February, 1779. Captain Rogers then organized 
 two militia companies, one from Cahokia and the other from 
 Kaskaskia. The company from Cahokia was commanded by 
 Captain McCarthy, and the one from Kaskaskia by Captain 
 Charleville. In addition to these two companies of militia, he 
 had three companies of Americans commanded by Captains 
 Bowman, Williams and Worthington. In all, they mustered 
 170 men. After preparing for provisions and stores, the ex- 
 pedition was ready, and started on the 5th of February from 
 Kaskaskia after receiving absolution from Father Gibault. 
 
 The expedition experienced but little trouble until they 
 reached Zenia in Clay County, as they killed plenty of game 
 and had plenty of firewood. The rains were falling, however, 
 and the streams filled their banks. When they reached the 
 Little Wabash, they found the land between the Little Wabash 
 and the Big Muddy three miles east covered with water. Here 
 they built a boat for the purpose of carrying them over the 
 deeper parts. Pack horses were compelled to swim the river. 
 The men were compelled frequently to trudge across the ice 
 and water, where the water was from three to five feet deep. 
 They were compelled to carry guns with powder on top of 
 their heads to keep them dry. On the 18th, they reached the 
 Wabash, and spent three days building rafts and digging ca- 
 noes, and had nothing to eat for two days. It must be remem- 
 bered that this expedition was in the depth of winter in Feb- 
 ruary, and the hardships that the men were compelled to under- 
 go were frightful. When almost famished for want of food, 
 they spied a canoe in which were some Indian squaws and 
 forced it to land, and by the greatest of good luck, they found 
 in the canoe a fourth of a buffalo, some corn, tallow, kettles, etc. 
 Broth was made immediately, and served to the soldiers, some 
 of whom were so famished as to be unable to walk. 
 
 On reaching the immediate neighborhood of Vincennes, 
 Clark issued the following proclamation, which he had distrib- 
 uted among the inhabitants: 
 
130 ILLINOIS 
 
 To the Inhabitants of Post Vincennes: 
 
 Gentlemen : Being now within two miles of your village, 
 with my army, determined to take your fort this night, 
 and not being willing to surprise you, I take this method 
 to request such of you as are true citizens and willing to 
 enjoy the liberty I bring you, to remain still in your houses ; 
 and those, if any there be, that are friends to the king, 
 will instantly repair to the fort and join the hair-buyer 
 general, and fight like men. And if such as do not go to 
 the fort shall be discovered afterwards, they may depend 
 on severe punishment. On the contrary, those who are 
 true friends to liberty may depend on being well treated; 
 and I once more request them to keep out of the streets. 
 For every one I find in arms on my arrival, I shall treat 
 him as an enemy. 
 
 (Signed) G. K. Clark. 
 
 In the afternoon of the 23rd of February, 1779, Clark began 
 to march toward the village. He maneouvered his men behind 
 the cover of certain hills so as to make it appear to the village 
 and to those in the fort that his numbers were two or three times 
 as large as they really were. On reaching the village, he 
 promptly opened fire on the fort, which fire was vigorously 
 answered from the fort. Clark's forces were but scantily pro- 
 vided with ammunition, which was almost exhausted when the 
 residents of the town sent word that he could have their ammu- 
 nition. After receiving this welcome addition to his equipment, 
 he resumed the attack upon the fort. On the morning of the 
 24th, he demanded its surrender, on the following terms; 
 addressed to Colonel Hamilton: 
 
 Sir: In order to save yourself from the impending 
 storm that now threatens you, I order you immediately 
 to surrender yourself, with all your garrison, stores, etc., 
 etc. For if I am obliged to storm, you may depend on such 
 treatment as is justly due to a murderer. Beware of 
 destroying stores of any kind, or any papers or letters that 
 are in your possession, or hurting one house in town — for, 
 by Heavens ! if you do, there shall be no mercy shown you. 
 
 (Signed) G. R. Clark. 
 
ILLINOIS 131 
 
 To this haughty demand, Colonel Hamilton replied : 
 
 Lieutenant Governor Hamilton begs leave to acquaint 
 Colonel Clark, that he and his garrison are not disposed 
 to be awed into any action unworthy of British subjects. 
 
 After this exchange of compliments, the fighting was resumed 
 on both sides. Later in the day, however, Lieutenant Governor 
 Hamilton proposed a truce of three days, which Colonel Clark 
 refused. Later on, however, at a conference between Hamilton 
 and Clark, they agreed upon terms of surrender as follows : 
 
 1. Lieutenant Governor Hamilton engages to deliver up to 
 Colonel Clark, Fort Sackville, as it is at present, with all the 
 stores, etc. 
 
 2. The garrison are to deliver themselves as prisoners of 
 war ; and march out with their arms and accoutrements, etc. 
 
 3. The garrison to be delivered up at 10 o'clock tomorrow. 
 
 4. Three days time to be allowed the garrison to settle their 
 accounts with the inhabitants and traders of this place. 
 
 5. The officers of the garrison to be allowed their necessary 
 baggage, etc. 
 
 Signed at Post St. Vincent, 24th February, 1779. 
 Agreed for the following reasons: The remoteness from 
 succor; the state and quantity of provisions, etc.; unanimity of 
 officers and men in its expediency ; the honorable terms allowed ; 
 and lastly, the confidence in a generous enemy. 
 
 Henry Hamilton, 
 
 Lt. Gov. and Superintendent. 
 
 Three days thereafter, the boat Willing which had been sent 
 from Kaskaskia with supplies and men, arrived. Governor 
 Hamilton and Major Hay were sent to Williamsburg as prisoners 
 of war. The soldiers were detained for a time and then paroled. 
 
 Shortly after the surrender of Fort Sackville, Clark learned 
 that several canoes loaded with provisions and supplies intended 
 for the fort were on the way to Vincennes. He detailed a com- 
 pany of men under Captain Helm, and found the vessels con- 
 taining these provisions near the mouth of the Vermilion River. 
 All the boats were captured by Captain Helm, who returned to 
 
132 ILLINOIS 
 
 Vincennes with a large store of provisions to be used for the 
 soldiers. 
 
 We have seen that the territory north and west of the Ohio 
 was by the act of the Legislature of Virginia created a county 
 of Virginia. 
 
 The act provided that the governor of Virginia should appoint 
 county lieutenants, and that these officers shall appoint a com- 
 mission of deputy commandants, police officers, and other needed 
 assistants. It also provided that civil officers were to be elected 
 by the voters in their respective districts. In pursuance of this 
 law, Governor Henry of Virginia, after due and careful delib- 
 eration, selected John Todd, a judge of the Kentucky court at 
 Harrodsburg, as the lieutenant governor of the county. Todd 
 was a native of Pennsylvania, educated in Virginia, and had 
 moved into Kentucky in 1775. He was a member of the first 
 House of Delegates of Kentucky, and also a representative in 
 the Virginia Legislature. He was one of the men who accom- 
 panied Clark in the campaign for the capture of Kaskaskia, 
 and it is said that he was the first man to enter the building 
 where Rocheblanc was sleeping, and the man that arrested him 
 on the 4th of July, 1778. Upon his appointment, Governor 
 Henry wrote out himself the instructions to the county-lieuten- 
 ant, which are in words as follows: 
 
 The grand objects which are disclosed to the view of 
 your countrymen will prove beneficial, or otherwise, accord- 
 ing to the value and abilities of those who are called to 
 direct the affairs of that remote country. The present crisis 
 rendered favorable by the good disposition of the French 
 and Indians, may be improved to great purposes, but, if, 
 unhappily, it should be lost, a return of the same attach- 
 ments to us may never happen. Considering, therefore, that 
 early prejudices are so hard to wear out, you will take care 
 to cultivate and conciliate the affections of the French and 
 Indians. 
 
 Lieutenant Governor Todd was further instructed by the 
 governor to consult and advise with the most intelligent and 
 upright persons who might fall in his way. He was directed 
 also to cooperate with the military authorities; to take charge 
 of the militia, which should be placed under the control of the 
 
ILLINOIS 133 
 
 military only at the command of the civil authority. He was 
 ordered also to punish every attempt to violate the property 
 of the Indians, particularly their land, and cultivate friendly 
 relations with the Spanish commandant at St. Louis. 
 
 Todd appeared in Kaskaskia in May, 1779, and accepted 
 the office and trust imposed in him. The French inhabitants 
 and the officers and Indians gathered in front of the village on 
 the 12th of that month. Clark made a speech to those assembled, 
 praising the faithfulness of the people of Kaskaskia and the 
 neighboring villages, and asking their participation in civil 
 affairs in the republican form of government now to be estab- 
 lished in Illinois, and then introduced the county lieutenant, 
 John Todd. Mr. Todd then gave a short address, and the 
 assembled citizens voted for the election of judges, nine of 
 whom were selected from Kaskaskia. The military commissions 
 for the District of Kaskaskia were made out May 14, 1779. The 
 names of all the officers indicate that except Richard Winston, 
 the commandant, all were Frenchmen. 
 
 On June 15, 1779, Colonel Todd issued a proclamation, for- 
 bidding the further settling of the flat lands adjacent to the 
 Mississippi, Ohio, Illinois and Wabash rivers, and declaring 
 that in order to establish titles to lands claimed from grants 
 previously made by the governments in control of the region, 
 it would be necessary for any inhabitants who claimed lands, 
 to present for record the source of their present titles. 
 
 His career as a public officer, however, was very short. The 
 finances of the newly established county were at the lowest ebb. 
 Food was scarce, and what there was, was high priced. On 
 August 9th, he wrote a letter to the commandants at Ste. Gene- 
 vieve and St. Louis, offering help in case they were attacked 
 by the British, and on the 13th of August the same year he 
 condemned a vacant lot and proclaimed it to be the property of 
 the commonwealth. He was a delegate to the Virginia Legis- 
 lature in 1780, and married while in Williamsburg, Virginia, 
 and returned with his wife in 1781 to Lexington, Kentucky, so 
 that the chances are that Governor Todd must have left the 
 Illinois country and his official duties some time the latter part 
 of 1779 or in 1780. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 ILLINOIS COUNTY, VIRGINIA, UNDER THE RULE OF 
 THE OLD DOMINION 
 
 Back of the desk of the governor of Illinois, in his inner 
 office in the state capitol at Springfield, there hangs an oil paint- 
 ing of a distinguished looking man with a white "choker," 
 in a scarlet cloak with black velvet trimmings. When at Spring- 
 field I was often asked by my visitors, of whom that painting 
 was a portrait, and as often answered: "The first Governor 
 of Illinois." My answer to most of these inquiries seemed 
 unsatisfactory. Very few could tell the name of the first gov- 
 ernor of Illinois. Sic transit gloria mundi! But occasionally 
 a well-informed person would ask: "Ninian Edwards or Shad- 
 rach Bond?" When I told them it was a portrait of Patrick 
 Henry, the first governor of Illinois, they would argue that he 
 was governor of Virginia and not of Illinois. The Legislatures 
 and public officials of this state have recognized the right of 
 Patrick Henry to the title of first governor of Illinois by placing 
 his portrait first among all the portraits of the governors of 
 Illinois in the chief executive's office in the statehouse. That 
 he was the first de facto American governor of Illinois will be 
 conclusively shown by what follows. 
 
 Upon taking possession of Kaskaskia, Cahokia and the other 
 French settlements of Illinois and of the British fort at Vin- 
 cennes as heretofore narrated, George Rogers Clark promptly 
 notified Governor Henry of Virginia of his signal successes. 
 The news was received by Governor Henry with rapturous 
 delight, as he quickly recognized that the capture of these places 
 from the British, laid the foundation for claiming all of this 
 rich country in the final terms of the peace treaty when the 
 time came for drafting same. The governor communicated the 
 
 134 
 
ILLINOIS 135 
 
 good news to the Legislature, which quickly enacted the law 
 creating the Illinois country, a county of Virginia. Clark's 
 program, secretly backed by Governor Henry and his council, 
 was to gain possession of Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Vincennes and 
 as many more of the British forts and trading posts as possible 
 and hold possession of the same for the benefit of Virginia 
 until the end of the Revolutionary war. The first part of the 
 program as to these three posts had been carried out with bril- 
 liant success. The second and equally essential part of the pro- 
 gram — the retaining possession of the same — had now to be 
 faced by Clark, and he found this to be a more difficult matter. 
 As we have seen, the British Colonel Hamilton soon recaptured 
 Vincennes, and it was only by the exercise of extraordinary 
 daring, and the endurance of extreme suffering and almost 
 starvation on the part of Clark and his hardy followers; that 
 he forced the surrender of Hamilton and his British garrison, 
 in Fort Sackville, near Vincennes. 
 
 Clark now found himself without supplies and without money. 
 The support he expected from Virginia failed to arrive. The 
 continental money he had brought with him was negotiable 
 only at the rate of 12 cents on the dollar, and this depreciated 
 money was soon exhausted. Drafts drawn by Clark on the 
 agent of Virginia at New Orleans were dishonored. The friendly 
 feeling and harmony which prevailed between the French inhab- 
 itants and the "Long Knives," as Clark's soldiers were called, 
 immediately after the capture of Kaskaskia and Cahokia by 
 Clark, and at the time of the expedition against Vincennes and 
 at the inauguration of Governor Todd, soon began to disappear. 
 This was largely the result of violent and unjust actions of the 
 "Long Knives." These latter were rough, wild, bellicose pioneers 
 recruited from the outposts of civilization in Virginia and Ken- 
 tucky, hard-fighting and hard-drinking men, ready to settle all 
 disputes either with their fists or any other handy weapons, and 
 of many different nationalities. They were mostly of English, 
 Irish, German, Dutch and Scotch-Irish origin. Few were Cath- 
 olics in religion, while all of the French settlers professed that 
 faith. The latter lived on good terms with the Indians, while the 
 "Long Knives" and Indians were always at daggers-points. 
 
136 ILLINOIS 
 
 The French were, as a rule, respectful of law and obedient 
 toward their judges and other civil officers. The "Long Knives" 
 usually settled their disputes with both white men and Indians 
 without resort to the courts and in defiance of laws and 
 regulations. 
 
 The justices elected under the Todd civil administration in 
 a memorial to Governor Todd, May 24, 1779, complained that 
 the soldiers at Fort Clark killed their domestic animals, seized 
 supplies from them without payment, sold liquor to the Indians 
 and traded with the slaves. Clark shouldered these complaints 
 over to Governor Todd and the civil authorities. He was getting 
 no money or supplies from Virginia, and even when he was 
 attempting to organize an expedition for the capture of Detroit, 
 he was compelled to allow his unruly and hungry soldiers to 
 get their food in their own violent way. These soldiers and 
 other reckless settlers, in defiance of British law and the Vir- 
 ginia law which forbade all settlement north of the Ohio River, 
 entered lands after the "custom of the tomahawk claims," and 
 this outraged both the Indians and the French. Governor Todd 
 attempted to regulate these matters by proclamation, with but 
 little success. Affairs at this stage were rapidly developing 
 towards, and finally culminated into complete anarchy. Governor 
 Todd, evidently at his wits end and despairing of being able 
 to enforce respect for law, soon left the Illinois country after 
 appointing, with doubtful authority, Richard Winston, deputy 
 county lieutenant, to represent and enforce Virginia law. 
 
 Under Winston, matters continued to grow worse. He was 
 generally believed by all who knew him to be dishonest. Instead 
 of attempting to allay the bitterness between the French inhab- 
 itants and the Virginians, all his official acts tended to intensify 
 it. He antagonized most, if not all, of the French leaders and 
 many of those friendly to the American cause. 
 
 At this juncture, Clark found himself and his troops in a 
 desperate condition. He had been attempting to gather forces 
 in such number as would justify him in making an attack upon 
 the British fort at Detroit, but was unable to secure money, 
 supplies or troops from Virginia to augment his hungry and 
 ill-equipped forces at Kaskaskia. Virginia could give no aid 
 
ILLINOIS 137 
 
 because she herself was seriously threatened in the East by 
 British troops. The southern colonies along the sea-coast were 
 being successfully invaded by British armies who were threat- 
 ening to invade the Old Dominion. Word reached Clark that 
 Pittsburgh and the surrounding country were about to fall into 
 British hands as the result of treachery and intrigue. He could 
 secure no aid from that quarter. Finding himself unable in 
 this situation to assume an offensive, he abandoned his hopes 
 of attacking Detroit and took steps to prepare himself for 
 defense in anticipation of a British attack from that city. He 
 had not long to wait. While he was preparing to concentrate 
 his troops at Fort Jefferson, in Kentucky, a few miles south of 
 Cairo, withdrawing his troops from Vincennes and leaving but 
 small detachments at Kaskaskia and Cahokia, news reached 
 him that a formidable force of British soldiers and Indians 
 was marching towards the Illinois country. 
 
 Spain having joined France in war upon Great Britain, 
 orders were given the British generals to attack the Spanish 
 settlements along the Mississippi, both from the south and the 
 north, in order to cut off any assistance that these settlements 
 might give the colonies during the war. The British attack 
 from the south failed, owing to the skill and energy displayed 
 by the Spanish commander, Governor Bernado de Galvez of 
 New Orleans, who anticipated the British attack in that quarter 
 and successfully assailed all the British forts in the Gulf of 
 Mexico. The British attack from the north got under way in 
 February, 1780. It was surrounded with great secrecy, but 
 the Indians at Cahokia in some way got wind of the impending 
 danger and sent word to Clark, who was then at Fort Jefferson. 
 The Spanish commander at St. Louis and Captain Montgomery 
 at Kaskaskia both confirmed the Cahokia message and called 
 for assistance. Clark hastened to Cahokia and arrived just 
 in time to assist Montgomery in the defense of that village, 
 defeating the British there and also saving Kaskaskia. The 
 Spanish in St. Louis were equally successful. Clark owed his 
 success on this occasion as on previous occasions to the assist- 
 ance given him by the French inhabitants. The British forces 
 were compelled to retreat northward and were followed by Mont- 
 
138 ILLINOIS 
 
 gomery and his troops. The British succeeded in eluding Mont- 
 gomery, but he was successful with the assistance of the Spanish 
 and the French Militia in making reprisals from the Indians 
 allied with the British at Prairie du Chien and around Rock 
 River. This was the second if not the third occasion when 
 the French in Illinois enabled Clark with their assistance to 
 extricate himself and his troops from desperate situations. The 
 repulse of the British at Cahokia and St. Louis resulted, however, 
 in saving the Illinois country from British occupation and retain- 
 ing it by the Americans at a time when Clark was practically 
 at the end of his resources. It was a close call with mighty 
 consequences involved. 
 
 In the years 1779 and 1780 the cause of Virginia and the 
 colonies in the Illinois country, notwithstanding the brilliant 
 leadership of Clark, seemed in desperate shape. Its heartbeat 
 was at its lowest ebb. Because of the lack of food and clothing 
 the "Long Knives" were looting the French at Kaskaskia. In 
 despair, these unfortunates, to escape robbery and violence, 
 were fleeing across the river to St. Louis. The Indians were 
 constantly threatening the settlers in Kentucky as well as in 
 Illinois. During these two years Clark was contemplating the 
 withdrawal of the Virginia troops from Kaskaskia, Cahokia 
 and Vincennes for concentration at Fort Jefferson. This had 
 been interrupted by the British invasion from Detroit. This 
 danger having passed, in 1781 Clark carried out most of his 
 plan. The troops had already been taken from Vincennes, and 
 all the Virginians were taken from Kaskaskia and Cahokia 
 except a small body to act as an outpost at Kaskaskia under 
 Capt. John Rogers. Thus Rogers, as military commander and 
 Winston, as deputy lieutenant-governor of Illinois, continued 
 to represent Virginia in Illinois, while Clark himself represented 
 the Dominion at Fort Jefferson. 
 
 For four years Clark and his Virginians (recruited in 
 Virginia itself and in Kentucky) had managed to retain a 
 desperate hold upon the Illinois country. Even as late as Novem- 
 ber, 1782, Clark was compelled to wage war against the Indian 
 allies of the British to retain his hold in the country. In that 
 month the Indians north of the Ohio, in formidable numbers, 
 
ILLINOIS 139 
 
 raided the Kentucky settlements, and in the effort to expel them, 
 John Todd, the former lieutenant-governor of Illinois County, 
 appointed by Patrick Henry, was killed. General Clark mustered 
 his troops and quickly avenged his death by invading and laying 
 waste the Indian villages along the Miami River and slaying 
 many of these savages in battle. But the agony was soon to be 
 ended. While the Virginians under Clark and the British at 
 Detroit were exhausted and incapable of effective offensive war- 
 fare against each other, preliminary peace treaties were signed 
 by the combatants at Paris, November 30, 1782, while the 
 British were in control of Detroit and Canada, the Americans 
 in control of Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Vincennes, and the Span- 
 iards in control of the right bank of the Mississippi River and 
 New Orleans. Before the signing of this treaty, however, an 
 episode took place which should not be overlooked in any history 
 of Illinois. 
 
 A short way back in this narrative we noted an unsuccessful 
 attack of a British and Indian expedition from Detroit upon 
 the Spanish settlement at St. Louis. Shortly thereafter the 
 Spanish commander at St. Louis organized an expedition to 
 attack the British post at St. Joseph. Its commander was Don 
 Eugenio Pourre, and it consisted of sixty-five white soldiers 
 and sixty-five Indians. About half of the white men were 
 Frenchmen recruited at Cahokia. The party left St. Louis 
 early in January, 1781, and traveled across the prairies of 
 Illinois the 400 miles between St. Louis and St. Joseph in the 
 depth of winter, each of the men carrying his own provisions 
 and weapons. They gathered some additional Indian recruits 
 en route, and succeeded without much trouble in surprising and 
 capturing the fort at St. Joseph. The Spanish commander 
 ordered the lowering of the British flag, ran up the Spanish 
 flag, took possession of the country in the name of the Spanish 
 king, distributed the supplies in the fort among his friendly 
 Indians, wrapped up the British flag and brought it back in 
 triumph to St. Louis. 
 
 What was the real object and motive of this Spanish march 
 across the State of Illinois? Writers differ in their findings 
 of the motive. Some say, simply revenge for the attack on St. 
 
140 ILLINOIS 
 
 Louis. One writer, and a very painstaking one, argues that 
 the real cause was an order from the Spanish court. He points 
 out that Spain as well as England, was at that time an ambitious 
 colonizing nation; that in June, 1779, Spain allied herself with 
 France in war upon Great Britain; had taken steps to regain 
 East and West Florida, lost by her in a former war. He further 
 points out the capture of British forts in the Gulf of Mexico, 
 including Pensacola and Mobile, and the cooperation of Spanish 
 and Americans at St. Louis and Cahokia in repulsing the British ; 
 and argues from these facts that the order emanated from 
 Madrid. There seems to be some force in the argument. 
 
 With the signing of the preliminary treaty of peace, hos- 
 tilities in America ceased. Negotiations between the diplomats 
 and statesmen of the colonies, Great Britain, France and Spain 
 then commenced in the effort to fix the terms of the final treaty 
 of peace, which was finally signed September 3, 1783. What 
 actually took place in the par parlours and secret conferences 
 of the representatives can only be surmised and guessed at, on 
 the basis of information secretly given and not of record. Presi- 
 dent Wilson's ideal of above-board covenants openly arrived 
 at was not then in operation among diplomats, as it is not now, 
 and may never be. Negotiations between diplomats and treaty- 
 makers before consummation of compacts have always been 
 under cover, and many think always will be. What took place 
 in these secret conferences can only be intelligently surmised 
 from the terms of the final treaty. That instrument, after months 
 of diplomatic wrangling and controversy, handed over all of 
 the territory east of the Mississippi, with the exception of 
 New Orleans, to the American Colonies. Why? There are 
 many reasons which we can see nearly 150 years after the event 
 that forced this disposition of that great territory, and these 
 reasons existed then and must have influenced the very able 
 men who discussed the situation at the time and formulated 
 the terms of the final treaty. France could not with decency 
 claim, with a hope to acquire, this territory by the treaty. She 
 had discovered and held possession of the same for a century 
 and had failed to colonize it. By the terms of her treaty of 
 alliance with the colonies she bound herself not to claim this 
 
ILLINOIS 141 
 
 territory. While she held it there was a constant drain upon 
 the Royal treasury. The fur traders made money and the Royal 
 appointees of France in all probability participated secretly, 
 in the profits of the fur trade; but the Royal treasury always 
 showed a deficit rather than a profit from New France. More- 
 over, France was exhausted by reason of almost constant 
 European wars and the rumblings of the approaching "Reign 
 of Terror" were heard in the streets of Paris. She was not in 
 a position to regarrison and rebuild forts and trading posts 
 between 3,000 and 5,000 miles away, surrounded as they would 
 be by treacherous savages and menaced by the onward sweep 
 of civilization and settlement from the American colonies. 
 France at this time could not have accepted the Illinois country 
 as a gift. She probably would have preferred to have this great 
 territory handed over to Spain by the terms of the treaty, rather 
 than have it regained by Great Britain or secured by the thirteen 
 colonies. But Spain was in no better position to accept this 
 great trust, at that time, than was France. She had made some 
 settlements and built some forts at St. Augustine and Pensacola, 
 in Florida, and at Mobile, St. Louis and New Orleans, and had 
 been successful in the War of the Revolution in driving the 
 British army away from the same. But these settlements were 
 not thriving nor was their population increasing. They were 
 mere trading posts. A few adventurous French and Spanish 
 traders had ventured up along the Mississippi and established 
 locations at Natchez, Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis, but these 
 men were interested in the fur trade and not in the land and 
 were inconsiderable in numbers. They could not have maintained 
 themselves without assistance from Spain either as against 
 unfriendly Indians, or the surge of the advancing waves of 
 colonists crossing the Alleghanies from the seaboard. Spain, 
 since the destruction of the great Armada by Nelson, had become 
 a decaying power. She was a successful colonist in South 
 America, but a flat failure in the northern continent. Great 
 Britain was in no better position than France or Spain. With 
 the assistance of the two latter countries, the American colonists 
 had beaten her to her knees in America. Burgoyne had sur- 
 rendered at Saratoga and Cornwallis at Yorktown. France 
 
142 ILLINOIS 
 
 had secured her revenge for the loss of this land to Great Britain 
 in the treaty of Paris in 1763, but that revenge would not be 
 complete unless this great, rich territory was taken from Great 
 Britain and handed over to her ally, the Confederation of Amer- 
 ican Colonies. These colonies were in active possession of the 
 territory south of the Ohio, and as a result of the daring achieve- 
 ments of George Rogers Clark were in possession of most of 
 all the forts and settlements in the Northwest, excepting Detroit. 
 
 Moreover, the American commissioners negotiating for peace 
 terms, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and John Jay, were 
 not only men of sagacity and intelligence, but had come fresh 
 from that part of the world adjacent to the territory in question, 
 where the approaching value of this land was better understood 
 and appreciated than it was or could be by the commissioners 
 of the European nations. They knew that the inevitable march 
 of civilization westward would in a few years force the colonists 
 to absorb this territory by peaceful or forceful means, and that 
 then was the time, when all three of these nations were not in 
 a position to hold and defend it, to insist upon its immediate 
 surrender to the colonies. The logic of events was with the 
 Americans, and the able American commissioners, by argument, 
 persuasion and politely-phrased demands, succeeded in writing 
 into the final treaty terms that handed over to the American 
 colonies all the territory east of the Mississippi, excepting New 
 Orleans and the Floridas which were returned to Spain upon 
 the insistence of the French commissioners. 
 
 The dash of George Rogers Clark into the British Northwest 
 and the capture of Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Vincennes, was a 
 material factor in adding to the American commonwealth in 
 1783 the great Mississippi Valley, now teeming with millions 
 of prosperous American citizens, and of almost incomputable 
 wealth, but which at that time contained only a few thousand 
 souls who were suffering from both want of the necessities of 
 life and of civilized government. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 ANARCHY IN ILLINOIS 
 
 At the time of the surrender of French sovereignty to the 
 British in 1763, the French villages of Southern Illinois were 
 at the height of their prosperity. When it became known to 
 the French inhabitants that the territory had been ceded to the 
 British, a decline of prosperity, industry and population set in. 
 Pittman, who visited this part of the country in 1766, wrote 
 that there were over 2,000 white people in these Illinois settle- 
 ments, and this number kept rapidly falling. Shortly after the 
 British officers took control there were as many negroes as white 
 persons, but both were heavily outnumbered by the Indians. 
 In the absence of the priests who had for a time fled with the 
 more influential and financially responsible French leaders to 
 St. Louis, church attendance was neglected, and concubinage 
 without church sanction quite prevalent. Morality and society 
 had sunk to a low level. The situation was worse in Kaskaskia 
 than any other village. During the incumbency of the British 
 officials, French law, as we have heretofore shown, was abrogated 
 and British law had not been proclaimed until the Quebec Act 
 was promulgated in 1774. The arbitrary will of the British 
 commander, enforced at the point of a bayonet, was the sole 
 substitute for law and ordinances, and these arbitrary exercises 
 of power were invariably offensive to the French inhabitants 
 and deprived them of the rights and privileges they had enjoyed 
 under French rule. 
 
 With the advent of George Rogers Clark and the appointment 
 of John Todd as lieutenant-governor of the County of Illinois 
 by Virginia, hope succeeded despair. Among the French villages 
 the Virginians were acclaimed as the apostles of Liberty and 
 Democracy. The French hailed them as deliverers, organized 
 companies of militia, took the oath of allegiance to Virginia, 
 
 143 
 
Francis Vigo 
 
ILLINOIS 145 
 
 welcomed Governor Todd with enthusiasm and held elections 
 for their judges and officials as prescribed by the laws and 
 ordinances of Virginia. Further than that, they volunteered 
 to help him to take possession of Cahokia and Vincennes and 
 followed him in the depth of winter across the swamps and ice- 
 coated rivers of Illinois, helping him recapture Vincennes from 
 the British troops under Hamilton. Many of them, who had 
 fled from British misrule to St. Louis, including Gabriel Cerre, 
 the richest and ablest of the French settlers, came back to 
 Kaskaskia and advanced money and sold on credit to Clark 
 to enable him to feed and clothe his troops. Colonel Vigo, the 
 Italian, at this juncture advanced over $10,000 to Colonel Clark 
 for the same purpose. 
 
 Under the terms of the proclamation of Governor Todd, 
 framed by Patrick Henry, they were promised liberty, religious 
 equality, citizenship and full participation in a democracy 
 wherein the people elected their rulers and lawmakers. Great 
 was their joy, but that joy was short-lived. Governor Todd 
 arrived in Kaskaskia in May, 1779. He left Illinois and aban- 
 doned his charge and office within a few months after his inaugu- 
 ration, either in 1779 or 1780. Almost conclusive evidence points 
 to the year 1779. Smith, in his very valuable history, quotes 
 a letter from Todd to Governor Patrick Henry, dated August 
 18, 1779, as follows : 
 
 I expected to have been prepared to present to your 
 excellency some amendments upon the form of government 
 of Illinois, but the present will be attended with no great 
 inconvenience till the spring session, when I beg your per- 
 mission to attend and get a discharge from an office with 
 an unwholesome air, a distance from my connections, a 
 language not familiar to me, arid an impossibility of pro- 
 curing many of the conveniences of life suitable. 
 
 Again, on December 23, 1779, he wrote Thomas Jefferson 
 from the falls of the Ohio, stating his intention of resigning. 
 He was probably at that point, en route to the capital of Vir- 
 ginia for the purpose of presenting his resignation in person 
 to Jefferson, who was then governor of Virginia. He was a 
 
146 ILLINOIS 
 
 delegate to the Virginia Legislature in 1880, took to himself 
 a wife in the capital city, and is found with his wife in Lexington, 
 Kentucky, early in 1781. Before leaving Illinois, as we have 
 heretofore noted, he appointed Richard Winston his deputy and 
 sheriff of the county. This appointment was a most unfortunate 
 one, but what was worse, he, Winston, was left without means 
 to maintain his official position or enforce law and order. He 
 lacked tact and was frequently antagonizing not only the French 
 but the native Americans. Clark's troops were ill-clad, ill-fed 
 and without pay, and lived by pillaging and despoiling the 
 already impoverished French habitants. 
 
 While this situation existed and while the French were 
 highly incensed by their mistreatment, new complications for 
 Winston arose with the appearance of one John Dodge. A 
 colony of English-speaking Americans had settled in a village 
 near Kaskaskia called Bellefontaine. The inhabitants of this 
 village had by petition secured from the French-speaking judges 
 of the court established by Governor Todd, the right to elect 
 a Justice of the Peace. Not satisfied with this, the Bellefontaine 
 villagers held the French-speaking court and all the French 
 villages in contempt. They regarded the French as aliens and 
 their inferiors. Dodge made himself the leader and mouthpiece 
 of these malcontents in an effort to abolish the court established 
 under Virginia law by the Virginian, Lieutenant-Governor Todd. 
 The court thus attacked had, of course, to defend its rights. 
 It rallied to its support the great majority of French inhabitants 
 and nominally the support of Winston. Dodge, with consummate 
 audacity, sued out a writ from the court charging Winston, the 
 deputy lieutenant-governor and the highest representative of 
 the State of Virginia, with the utterance of "treasonable expres- 
 sions." The court, evidently in remembrance of some of Win- 
 ston's past official acts and omissions, refused him bail, kept 
 him in jail for sixteen days and then acquitted him. Winston, 
 after his acquittal, nursed his resentment towards the court 
 that had allowed his imprisonment, and waited until his authority 
 as deputy lieutenant-governor had been re-established, and then, 
 in November, 1782, issued an official order abolishing the court, 
 thus leaving the distracted citizens of Kaskaskia without any 
 
ILLINOIS 147 
 
 tribunal for the redress of grievances. That remained their 
 condition until the arrival of Governor St. Clair in 1790. Early 
 in 1783 Winston left Illinois for Virginia to collect loans that 
 he had made to Virginia in the effort to establish his authority. 
 He had impoverished himself in so doing, failed to collect in 
 Virginia, and died soon after in great poverty. Before leaving 
 Illinois he had attempted to transfer what little shred of author- 
 ity he had to another man, by appointing or attempting to 
 appoint a Frenchman named Jaques Timothy Boucher Sieur 
 de Monbreun as his successor. Monbreun was a man of good 
 standing, well born, and had the respect of his fellowmen, but 
 his lack of legal authority and the fact that there was no court 
 to decide disputed questions, and the further fact that he was 
 without means or soldiers to enforce his findings, led him to 
 temporize with all parties and satisfy none. He addressed a 
 memorial to Virginia explaining his predicament, which reads 
 as follows: 
 
 Without troops to oppose the hostile designs of the 
 savages, without any coercive means to keep under sub- 
 jection a country where a number of restless spirits were 
 exciting commotions and troubles, the greater circumspec- 
 tion and management became necessary, and the Command- 
 ant was induced to temporize with all parties in order to 
 preserve tranquility, peace and harmony in the Country. 
 
 Taking advantage of Monbreun's predicament, Dodge rallied 
 the English-speaking inhabitants and had the colossal impudence 
 to seize the old French fort in Kaskaskia and two cannon from 
 Fort Clark; fortified the old French fort, and set at defiance 
 all law and authority. By main force he ruled the village as 
 a tyrant. Anarchy was enthroned and Dodge was its mouthpiece. 
 The harrowed and insulted French sought to communicate their 
 woes to Congress and appointed a messenger to carry their 
 complaint, but this messenger, they claimed, was killed en route 
 by Dodge's order. His tyrannical acts over the cowed and 
 helpless French continued without cessation until 1786. During 
 that year, George Rogers Clark, who had been absent from Illi- 
 nois for some time, but who had acquainted himself with the 
 
148 ILLINOIS 
 
 wretched condition of the French under Dodge's tyrannical treat- 
 ment, advised the French inhabitants to reconstitute and reestab- 
 lish the French court created by Governor Todd. Joseph Parker, 
 a land speculator whose interests were antagonistic to Dodge and 
 the other land speculators headed by the latter, assisted the 
 harassed Frenchmen in getting a memorial from them pre- 
 sented to Congress when it was considering other appeals for 
 stable government. 
 
 Emboldened by the advice of Clark and the support of 
 Parker, the French finally started to display a spirit of rebellion 
 against Dodge and his crowd. They forced the resignation of 
 de Monbreun who was friendly to Dodge, and had a citizen of 
 St. Phillipe appointed civil and criminal judge, and Jean Bap- 
 tiste Barbau designated as deputy lieutenant-governor in place 
 of Monbreun. This occurred August 14, 1786, and in 1787 
 Parker returned from Virginia with a message of hope from 
 the Virginia Legislature. In the fall of the same year General 
 Clark, who still retained the respect and friendship of the French 
 inhabitants, marched a force of Kentucky militiamen into the 
 Illinois country to attack the marauding Indians. He began to 
 purchase provisions to enable him to garrison Vincennes. His 
 agent for that purpose, John Rice Jones, was well received at 
 Kaskaskia, and payment for the purchases he made there were 
 guaranteed by John Edgar, a prominent and wealthy American 
 merchant, who was on friendly terms with both Clark and the 
 French inhabitants. Now Clark in these military moves was act- 
 ing without any legal authority from Congress or Virginia. His 
 only justification was that of the Roman leader under like cir- 
 cumstances, Salus populi suprema lex est. The only safety for the 
 Kentuckians was war upon the Indians. Dodge, however, know- 
 ing that Clark was acting illegally, attempted to prevent Clark's 
 agent from collecting his provisions in Kaskaskia. It was a 
 case of outlaw against outlaw, and the outlaw with the largest 
 and heaviest club won. Dodge for a time stopped the delivery 
 of the supplies. Jones returned to Vincennes and brought back 
 with him to Kaskaskia a small force of Kentucky militiamen, 
 who took possession of the fort at Kaskaskia and collected the 
 supplies wanted by Clark. 
 
ILLINOIS 149 
 
 This ended Dodge's reign of terror. He soon collected all 
 of his property available for transportation and retired to St. 
 Louis. Still there was no form of legal government for the 
 unfortunate Kaskaskians. The chief anarchist had fled, but 
 anarchy remained. Congress failed in the way of establishing 
 American law and judication for the newly acquired territory 
 north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi, largely because of 
 the conflict of claims of Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut 
 and Virginia as to ownership of the land. These claims will 
 be discussed hereafter, but the final settlement thereof was not 
 effected until all of the claimants had transferred their claims to 
 the United States at the end of 1784, and the final ordinance 
 placing the territory under the law of the United States was not 
 passed until July, 1787. 
 
 This terrible condition of lawlessness in and around Kas- 
 kaskia naturally ruined the future prospects of that village. 
 It had been the largest and most prosperous village west of 
 Detroit under French rule, had deteriorated under British rule, 
 but sank to its lowest level under anarchy. When George Rogers 
 Clark occupied it in 1778 it had about 500 white inhabitants. 
 In 1790, when Governor St. Clair took office under the ordi- 
 nance of 1787, there were only forty-four heads of families in 
 the place. The population had decreased nearly eighty per cent. 
 All the influential people of substance had gone, and all those 
 that remained in all probability had not the means to enable 
 them to travel. A different picture, however, is presented when 
 we look at Cahokia. There the population was almost exclu- 
 sively French. They were at all times submissive to law from 
 whence-so-ever it came, and respectful to officials no matter 
 whence they derived their authority. Animosities did not arise 
 between the English-speaking Americans and French in Cahokia 
 as they did in Kaskaskia. The Virginia troops under Clark left 
 Cahokia in 1780. It is said that at that time there were only four 
 English-speaking men in Cahokia and three of them had married 
 French wives and spoke French fluently. A Frenchman was 
 the commander of the militia from 1778 to 1790. Their justices 
 were elected annually by the people pursuant to the regulations 
 established by Lieutenant-Governor Todd. When the ordinance 
 
150 ILLINOIS 
 
 of 1787 was passed they ceased holding these elections, await- 
 ing the coming of the United States officials, but allowed the 
 incumbents of these positions to hold over until that time ar- 
 rived. Cahokia furnishes us, a remarkable and unique example 
 in modern history of civilized white men, subject to no law that 
 was binding upon them, submitting themselves to and obeying 
 the orders of a committee of their own selection with the full 
 knowledge that the orders of that committee could not be legally 
 enforced and were in law null and void. French law ceased to 
 bind them after the treaty of Paris in 1763; British law was 
 never proclaimed over them, and British military officials van- 
 ished when George Rogers Clark captured Kaskaskia July 4, 
 1778. Although they cheerfully submitted to them, the laws 
 of Virginia were not binding upon them. Mere physical occu- 
 pation of territory in time of war and before treaties of peace 
 are signed under international comity, does not transfer sover- 
 eignty. Until the treaty of peace between Great Britain and 
 the American Confederation of Colonies was signed, the former 
 still retained sovereignty of this territory under international 
 polity. Moreover, the dubious title of Virginia ended January 5, 
 1782. The law of Virginia attempting to create the County 
 of Illinois was passed December 9, 1778, and was renewed in 
 May, 1780. The renewal act contained a provision that the law 
 should continue for one year and until the end of the next Legis- 
 lature, which ended January 5, 1782. Even Virginia itself 
 ceased to make any claim of sovereignty over the territory on 
 that date. 
 
 Upon this state of the record we have the right to conclude 
 that the Illinois district had no law or ordinance binding legally 
 its inhabitants from February 10, 1763, when the treaty of 
 peace was signed between France and Great Britain at Paris, 
 until 1775, when the Quebec Act was proclaimed; that this 
 latter act ceased to be physically enforceable July 4, 1778, when 
 George Rogers Clark captured Kaskaskia and Cahokia; that 
 from July 4, 1778, to December 9, 1778, when the Legislature 
 of Virginia asserted title, the only law was the law of the 
 bayonet and of physical occupation ; that from December 9, 1778, 
 to January 5, 1782, Virginia held only a dubious title acquired 
 
ILLINOIS 151 
 
 by capture in time of war, not cognizable by the unwritten polity 
 sometimes called the law of nations; and that thereafter there 
 was no law or ordinance enforceable upon its residents until 
 Governor St. Clair and the territorial officials created by the 
 ordinance of 1789 appeared in Illinois and proclaimed territorial 
 laws and regulations for the territory. 
 
 Yet during all this time the peaceful French in Cahokia 
 maintained to their lasting credit, peace and order, supported a 
 citizen militia, defended themselves against anarchy and Indians, 
 and gracefully and gladly submitted themselves to the laws of 
 the United States and to the rule of United States officials when 
 they presented themselves in 1790. 
 
 With the flags of three different nations floating from time to 
 time above them, but without valid laws binding them, for twenty- 
 seven years they maintained peace and order while anarchy was 
 rampant in a neighboring village, grew in numbers and pros- 
 perity and handed over a happy, prosperous and peaceful com- 
 munity to the Government of the United States in 1790. We 
 have had in the history of our country frequent instances of the 
 organization of vigilantes among our pioneer settlers provoked 
 by robberies and murders which but too often were followed 
 by lynch law, but in the case of Cahokia we read of no such 
 provocations or avenging crimes. There seemed to have been 
 no hot blood in the Cahokia settlement, but a cold-blooded de- 
 termination to live peacefully and honestly without the enforced 
 action of written law. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 STRUGGLE IN CONGRESS OVER WESTERN LAND 
 
 TITLES 
 
 All of the Illinois country was covered and included in the 
 grants by the British Crown made in 1609 while the French 
 were in actual occupation of that territory. As the war for inde- 
 pendence began to make successful progress towards independ- 
 ence, the states that had claims to western lands derived from 
 the British Crown and Parliament began to renew their claims 
 in Congress. They expected by so doing to be able to sell these 
 lands and reimburse themselves for the cost of the Revolutionary 
 war. The Articles of Confederation between the different col- 
 onies were presented to Congress in the summer of 1776, and 
 were finally endorsed by Congress in the fall of 1777. There- 
 upon they were sent to the different states for ratification. The 
 articles of confederation provided that they must be ratified 
 by all the colonies, before they could go into effect. In the 
 spring of 1781, all of the states had ratified excepting Maryland. 
 Maryland refused to ratify until some arrangement was made 
 between the different states as to the western lands. The rep- 
 resentatives of Maryland pointed out that the states without 
 claims for western lands were at a distinct disadvantage in the 
 way of paying their volunteer soldiers. They argued that all of 
 the soldiers of each and all of the colonies were fighting equally 
 for independence; that they were equally risking their lives 
 and their limbs and their futures, and that all of these soldiers 
 should be equally rewarded. Some of the states recognized the 
 justice of this claim put forward by Maryland, but others, being 
 those that had claim to western territory, were selfish and re- 
 fused to acknowledge the force of this contention. 
 
 152 
 
ILLINOIS 153 
 
 Finally all of the colonies, excepting Maryland, ratified the 
 Articles of Confederation, but Maryland still stoutly contended 
 that she would not do so until these western lands were ceded 
 to the Federal Government for the benefit of all. The latter 
 state, Maryland, on December 15, 1778, went of record by pass- 
 ing a resolution in her Legislature, refusing to enter the con- 
 federation unless "an article or articles be added thereto, giving 
 full power to the United States in Congress assembled to ascer- 
 tain and fix the western limits of the states claiming to extend 
 to the Mississippi or South Sea, and expressly reserving or 
 securing to the United States a right in common, in and to, 
 all the lands lying to the westward of the boundaries as afore- 
 said, not granted to, surveyed for or purchased by individuals 
 at the commencement of the present war in such manner that 
 the lands be sold out, or otherwise disposed of, for the common 
 benefit of all the states." 
 
 There were a number of prominent and influential men in 
 Maryland. Within a year afterwards, on December 14, 1779, 
 the Legislature of the State of Virginia passed a resolution 
 pointing out that in the previous May the Legislature of that 
 state had forbidden settlements north of the River Ohio, and 
 in the same resolution the State of Virginia protested against 
 the consideration by the Continental Congress of the claims of 
 land companies acquired in violation of this restriction. The 
 Legislature of Virginia also pointed out that the claims of the 
 Vandalia and Indiana land companies were contrary to Vir- 
 ginia's rights under the confederation, and that in the Illinois 
 and Wabash land company there were "several men of great 
 influence in some of the neighboring states." When the matter 
 was brought up in Congress, that body found itself somewhat 
 distressed by the stubborn attitude of the two leaders in the 
 fight, the State of Virginia and the State of Maryland. On 
 September 6, 1780, Congress determined "that it appears more 
 advisable to press upon those states which can remove the em- 
 barrassment respecting the western country, a liberal surrender 
 of a portion of their territorial claims, since they cannot be 
 preserved entirely without endangering the stability of the 
 general confederacy." 
 
154 ILLINOIS 
 
 New York readily gave up its claim. Virginia soon recog- 
 nized the strength of the opposition that was developing against 
 her effort to maintain her claim and received in rather a kindly 
 manner the intimation for the necessity of a settlement thrown 
 out by Congress. On January 2, 1781, the Virginia Legislature 
 adopted a resolution providing for the cession of its claims to 
 Congress, with eight conditions added to the terms of the ces- 
 sion, which eight conditions are about as follows : 
 
 1. That the territory should be formed into states, each 
 containing from 100 to 150 miles square. 
 
 2. That Virginia should be reimbursed for the expenses it 
 had incurred within the territory. 
 
 3. That the French and Canadian settlers should be pro- 
 tected in their persons and property. 
 
 4. That the promises of land conveyances made to George 
 Rogers Clark and his men should be fulfilled, and that in case 
 the land southeast of the Ohio reserved for the Virginia troops 
 should be insufficient, that enough land should be reserved on 
 the northwest side of the river to take care of these claims. 
 
 5. That the old Northwest Territory thus ceded to the 
 United States should be considered a common fund for the 
 nation. 
 
 6. That the territory remaining in Virginia should be guar- 
 anteed. 
 
 7. That all purchases made by private persons from the 
 Indians should be declared void. 
 
 With these concessions made by Virginia, Maryland felt 
 herself no longer to be justified in continuing the fight, lest 
 it should be construed that she was fighting for the land com- 
 panies and private interests. On February 2, 1781, the Legis- 
 lature of Maryland authorized its delegates to sign the articles. 
 This action of Virginia and Maryland ratified the confederation 
 of the states, but before the ceding of all of Virginia's rights to 
 the United States took place, there was still a struggle over the 
 reservations made by Virginia in the resolution passed by that 
 state on January 2, 1781. The fight over these reservations in 
 Congress was quite vigorous. The matter of the acceptance of 
 Virginia's cession coupled with the reservations was referred 
 
ILLINOIS 155 
 
 to the committee considering the cessions from Virginia, New 
 York and Connecticut. That committee declared on June 24, 
 1781, that it was inexpedient for Congress to accept any of the 
 state's cessions as they stood and containing the reservations as 
 stated. The committee recommended that Congress determine 
 the western limits beyond which it could not extend its guaranty 
 to the particular states, and recommended that when these had 
 been determined, that a committee be appointed to prepare a 
 plan for dividing and disposing of the territory in such a way 
 as to discharge the obligations of the United States. This 
 report of the committee on October 2, 1781, was referred to a 
 new committee composed of delegates from states with definite 
 western boundaries. That committee called upon Virginia to 
 defend the position of the commonwealth. The Virginia dele- 
 gates refused so to do, declaring that Congress had no juris- 
 diction in an issue between a commonwealth and private citi- 
 zens. The committee then recommended that the cession of New 
 York be accepted and that of Virginia rejected. That commit- 
 tee also reported on the claims of the different land companies 
 that had filed petitions in Congress, and denied the claims of the 
 Illinois and Wabash Land Company because of the fact that its 
 purchases had been made contrary to law. No action appears 
 to have been taken on this report, but on October 29, 1782, Con- 
 gress voted on the motion of Maryland to accept the cession 
 made by New York. The proposed cession of Virginia soon 
 thereafter was referred again to a committee composed of dif- 
 ferent members than the former committee. This committee 
 on June 20, 1783, made a report favoring acceptance of the pro- 
 posed Virginia cession, providing that certain conditions there- 
 in were modified. In particular it recommended that the clause 
 annulling the Indian purchases should not be insisted upon be- 
 cause it was covered by some of the other conditions. The report 
 was finally approved by Congress. The desired modifications 
 were made by the Legislature of Virginia in 1783, and the 
 cession of Virginia was completed on March 1, 1784. After the 
 approval of the Virginia cession, Massachusetts waived its claim. 
 In 1786, the cession of Connecticut reserving the territory 
 afterward known as the Western Reserve was completed, and 
 
156 ILLINOIS 
 
 by this act of Connecticut the whole Northwest Territory was 
 cleared of state claims, excepting the small reservation made 
 by Connecticut. Soon thereafter the Congress of the United 
 States appointed a committee for the purpose of preparing ordi- 
 nances for the government of this territory. Thomas Jefferson 
 was the chairman of this committee. He drew up an ordinance 
 providing for the division of the territory into sixteen states. 
 The plan, when submitted to Congress, was referred back to 
 the same committee for re-consideration. That committee re- 
 vised its plan and proposed the immediate formation of seven 
 states in the territory bounded by parallels of latitude and me- 
 ridian lines, but leaving the extreme Northwest undivided. 
 Under this plan, the government was to be organized by the 
 settlers themselves under the authority of Congress, and the 
 Territorial Government might adopt with alterations such laws 
 of other states as suited its purpose. It was provided that when 
 the population reached 20,000 the territory could establish a 
 permanent government upon republican principles, and that 
 when the population equaled that of the smallest of the original 
 states, it might apply to Congress for admission into the Union. 
 
 This act was passed April 23, 1784. It never went into 
 effect, however. The Indians were still in possession of the land 
 and there were practically no settlers in the territory to organize 
 the government except the French settlers in Illinois, who were 
 neither vigorous enough, nor numerous enough, to bring about 
 its organization. 
 
 About this time, Thomas Jefferson was sent to Paris, where 
 he remained several years, and his plan of organization was 
 not pushed forward for enforcement. James Monroe took his 
 place in Congress, and he made a visit to the Northwest Terri- 
 tory and became convinced that the limitation of the states to 
 an area of 150 miles square, which was provided in the cession 
 of Virginia, was impractical. Monroe recommended that Vir- 
 ginia revise her act of cession so as to provide that not more 
 than five nor less than three states should be formed out of the 
 territory of the old Northwest. Monroe's views prevailed, and 
 they resulted in a succession of reports and resolutions in the 
 Legislature of Virginia and in Congress between May 10, 1786, 
 
ILLINOIS 157 
 
 and April 26, 1787, when a new ordinance was formulated and 
 put up for passage. This act was the famous Ordinance of 
 April 26, 1787, providing for the creation of the Northwest 
 Territory. 
 
 From the foregoing statement we can learn why the North- 
 west Territory was unprovided with laws or ordinances from 
 the time of the signing of the treaty of peace in 1783 until the 
 year 1787. 
 
 Let us now discuss the conflicting claims between private 
 interests and public interests which occasioned most of this 
 delay. 
 
 The soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary war were not 
 given cash when they were paid off at the close of the war. 
 There was no cash with which to pay them. They received in- 
 stead of cash, paper money or "certificates of indebtedness." 
 These certificates of indebtedness were not legal tender, nor 
 could they be exchanged for cash except at a frightful discount. 
 As soon as the Ordinance of 1787 was adopted, the people began 
 to hear of the rich lands in the new Northwest Territory and 
 they saw a way to utilize these certificates of indebtedness of 
 the Continental Congress, and there was soon a demand for 
 these certificates, which could be utilized for the payment of the 
 small prices fixed upon the land when offered for sale by the 
 Federal Government. Many of the officers of the Revolutionary 
 army after their discharge became interested in acquiring these 
 certificates. Among these was Gen. Benjamin Tupper and Gen. 
 Samuel Holden Parsons. These officers associated themselves 
 with the other influential men and the Ohio Company of Asso- 
 ciates was formed, on March 3, 1786, in Boston. This company 
 acquired a very large amount of these soldiers' certificates, and 
 the directors of the company sent General Parsons to Congress 
 to propose the purchase of lands west of the Ohio for that com- 
 pany. The Rev. Manassa Cutler, a Congregational minister, also 
 became interested in the company. Doctor Cutler was a clergy- 
 man of considerable note, a scientist, and a man of great influ- 
 ence. Both General Parsons and Doctor Cutler visited Washing- 
 ton and called upon members of Congress for the purpose of 
 negotiating a purchase of a tract of land on the Ohio River for 
 
158 ILLINOIS 
 
 the Ohio Company of Associates. The company at that time 
 had on hand one million dollars worth of these certificates. 
 
 Prior to that time, another group of men had formed the 
 Indiana Land Company and the Vandalia Land Company, both 
 of which companies were composed of many men of political 
 strength and acumen. Another company, known as the Illinois 
 and Wabash Land Company was organized for the purpose of 
 acquiring lands in what are now Indiana and Illinois. All of 
 these companies now united in the effort to secure land in the 
 Northwest Territory. Thomas Jefferson in Congress and a 
 group of powerful leaders were opposed to the policy of granting 
 large concessions to incorporated companies, and held to the 
 belief that the land should be thrown open to actual settlers. They 
 had an ordinance passed, providing for the surveying of the lands 
 in rectangular sections, providing for townships, sections and 
 quarter sections of land, and they vigorously opposed the whole- 
 sale granting of enormous tracts to speculating companies, and 
 attempted in Congress to preserve these lands from sale except 
 as to actual settlers who would settle thereon and pay a nom- 
 inal price therefor. The leading spirits on behalf of the cor- 
 porations were Gen. Rufus Putnam, Gen. Samuel Parsons, Win- 
 throp Sargent and the Rev. Manassa Cutler representing the 
 Ohio Company; Col. William Duer representing the Sciota Com- 
 pany, John Cleve Symmes representing New Jersey interests. 
 In addition to these men representing these companies, two 
 men named Royal Flint and Joseph Parker on October 18, 1787, 
 filed a petition for a large tract of land between the Great and 
 Little Miami rivers. Another petition asking for leave to buy 
 land came from the New Jersey Land Company organized by 
 George Morgan, who asked for two million acres situated on the 
 Miami south of the Flint and Parker tracts. 
 
 All of these different interests finally gathered their influ- 
 ences together behind Col. William Duer, a very shrewd and 
 capable business man who had made considerable money through 
 contracts for furnishing the Revolutionary army during the war, 
 and by speculation in government securities. He was intimately 
 connected with most of the financial powers of the United States 
 and with many of those in Europe. Doctor Cutler had offered to 
 
ILLINOIS 159 
 
 buy a large tract of land to be immediately occupied by men 
 from the northern states, which had brought to the support of 
 these companies influential men from the North who had hith- 
 erto been lukewarm. 
 
 After the passage of the ordinance on July 13, 1787, the 
 sale of lands was next taken up for consideration. The first 
 terms of sale submitted to the Ohio company were not acceptable 
 to that company. Doctor Cutler, who represented the company, 
 was thereupon called upon by some of the leading speculators to 
 whom he had letters of introduction. The leader of this band 
 of speculators was Duer. Duer suggested the formation of an- 
 other and a larger company that would purchase through Cutler 
 and his associates 5,000,000 acres of land over and above the 
 million and a half sought by the Ohio Company. Colonel Duer 
 is stated by Alvord in his history to have been at that time secre- 
 tary of the Confederacy Board of Treasury, and had authority 
 to make sales of land. Doctor Cutler and Colonel Duer quickly 
 came to an agreement, one of the terms of which was that Gen. 
 Arthur St. Clair should be made the first governor of the North- 
 west Territory. Colonel Duer now organized the Sciota Com- 
 pany and began the struggle to secure land from the Government. 
 
 On October 23, 1787, a resolution was passed, authorizing 
 the Board of the Treasury to enter into contracts "in behalf of 
 the United States with any person or persons for any quantity 
 of land in the Northwest Territory, the Indian rights whereon 
 having been extinguished, not less than one million of acres in 
 one body, upon the same terms as respected price, payment and 
 surveying, with those directed in the contract with Mr. Cutler 
 and W. Sargent." Jefferson's effort to reserve all the land in 
 the Northwest Territory was in part defeated. These great 
 speculating companies had sufficient influence to secure a mod- 
 ification of the ordinance so as to permit purchases by them in 
 large quantities. Nonetheless, great tracts of fertile lands were 
 opened up to actual settlers who were already at the time of the 
 passage of the ordinance crossing the Alleghanies with the hon- 
 est desire of establishing homesteads in the great Northwest. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE UNITED STATES ORDINANCE OF 1787 CREATING 
 THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 
 
 The following in substance are the provisions of this famous 
 ordinance : 
 
 1. The territory northwest of the Ohio River shall for the 
 purposes of government be considered one district, but may be 
 divided into two if found expedient. 
 
 2. The estates of persons dying intestate shall descend to 
 the children of said person in equal parts. If there are no chil- 
 dren, then to nearest of kin. 
 
 3. Estates may be bequeathed by wills in writing, and real 
 estate may be transferred by deeds, signed, sealed, and delivered. 
 
 4. The laws for the descent of property in Kaskaskia, St. 
 Vincennes and other French villages shall remain unchanged 
 by this ordinance. 
 
 5. For purposes of government Congress shall from time 
 to time appoint a governor who shall serve three years and 
 shall reside in the said territory. There shall be a secretary 
 who shall serve four years ; he also must reside in the said terri- 
 tory. The duties of the secretary shall be such as devolve upon 
 similar officials in like situations. The Congress shall appoint 
 a court consisting of three judges who shall live in the territory. 
 Their appointments shall run during good behavior. 
 
 6. The governor and judges shall adopt and publish such 
 laws of the original states, criminal and civil, as may be neces- 
 sary and suited to the needs of the district. These laws must 
 be reported to Congress from time to time. 
 
 7. The governor shall be commander-in-chief of the militia, 
 appoint and commission all officers in the militia. 
 
 8. The governor for the time being shall appoint civil of- 
 ficers for the counties, townships, etc. 
 
 160 
 
(From portrait by Charles Willson Peak) 
 
 Arthur St. Clair 
 
 First Governor of Northwest Territory 
 
162 ILLINOIS 
 
 9. After territorial Legislatures are organized, these shall 
 make laws for appointments to civil offices in the counties, etc. 
 
 10. The laws adopted shall be in force in all parts of the 
 district. The governor shall lay out and organize counties for 
 the more convenient execution of law and the preservation of 
 order. 
 
 11. When the population has reached 5,000 free male in- 
 habitants twenty-one years of age, there shall be organized a 
 Territorial Legislature made up of representatives elected from 
 the several counties or other units. The appointment being one 
 representative for every 500 free male inhabitants. There were 
 property and residence qualifications for both electors and rep- 
 resentatives. Vacancies in the representation should be filled 
 by election. 
 
 12. There should be a legislative council made up of five 
 members holding office for five years. These five councilors 
 were to be selected by Congress from a list of ten nominated by 
 the Legislature. 
 
 13. The legislative functions of government shall be exer- 
 cised by the governor, the council and the representatives. Bills 
 passing both houses of the Legislature, and being signed by the 
 governor, become laws. The governor had the power to con- 
 vene, prorogue and dissolve the Legislature. 
 
 14. The two houses of the Legislature in joint session shall 
 elect a delegate to Congress who shall have all rights of members 
 except voting. 
 
 15. "For the purpose of extending the fundamental princi- 
 ples of civil and religious liberty which form the basis of these 
 republics; and to fix and establish those principles as the basis 
 of all laws, constitutions and governments which forever here- 
 after shall be formed in the said territory; to provide, also for 
 the establishment of states and permanent governments therein ; 
 and for their admission to a share in the federal councils on an 
 equal footing with the original states, Be it ordained, etc." 
 
 Following the foregoing provisions there were six articles 
 which constitute a sort of fundamental Bill of Rights such as 
 are found in the constitutions of most of the states today. The 
 ordinance of 1787 declared that the articles which are given 
 
Northwest Territory 
 
164 ILLINOIS 
 
 below were "articles of compact between the original states 
 and the people and states in the said territory, and forever re- 
 main unalterable unless by common consent." 
 Bill of Rights. 
 
 Art. 1. No person, demeaning himself in a peaceable and 
 orderly manner, shall ever be molested on account of his mode 
 of worship or religious sentiments, in the said territory. 
 
 Art. 2. The inhabitants shall always be entitled to the bene- 
 fits of the writ of habeas corpus, and of trial by jury. 
 
 They shall be entitled to proportionate representation in the 
 Legislature, and of judicial proceedings. 
 
 All persons shall be entitled to bail except in capital cases. 
 All fines shall be moderate, and cruel and unusual punishments 
 shall never be inflicted. 
 
 No man shall be deprived of his liberty or property, but by 
 the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land. 
 
 No law shall ever be made which shall interfere with con- 
 tracts previously entered into, if bona fide and without fraud. 
 
 Art. 3. Religion, morality and knowledge, being necessary 
 to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and 
 the means of education shall forever be encouraged. 
 
 Good faith towards the Indians shall be observed, and their 
 property rights and liberty shall not be invaded unless in just 
 wars authorized by Congress. 
 
 Art. 4. The said territory, and the states which may be 
 formed therein, shall forever remain a part of this confederacy 
 of the United States of America. 
 
 The inhabitants and settlers in said territory shall be subject 
 to pay a part of the Federal debt, contracted or to be contracted. 
 
 The legislatures of these districts, or new states, shall never 
 interfere with the primary disposal of the soil by the United 
 States in Congress assembled, nor with any regulations Congress 
 may find necessary for securing the title in such soil, to the bona 
 fide purchasers. 
 
 Art. 5. There shall be formed in the said territory not less 
 than three, nor more than five states, with boundaries as follows : 
 The state farthest west shall be bound by the Mississippi, the 
 Ohio, and the Wabash and the meridian of Vincennes, and on 
 
ILLINOIS 165 
 
 the north by Canada. The middle state by the meridian of 
 Vincennes, the Wabash, the Ohio and the meridian of the mouth 
 of the Great Miami River, and on the north by Canada. The 
 eastern state shall be bounded by the meridian on the mouth of 
 the Great Miami, the Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and on the north 
 by Canada. 
 
 But Congress may run an east and west line through the 
 southerly bend of Lake Michigan and form two states out of 
 the territory north of this line. 
 
 When any one of these states shall have 60,000 free inhab- 
 itants it may be admitted as a state into the Union, on equal 
 footing with the old thirteen states. 
 
 Art. 6. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall 
 exist in the said territory except as a punishment for crime, 
 whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. 
 
 Slaves or involuntary servants escaping into said territory 
 shall be delivered up to the ones to whom such labor, or service, 
 is due. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 THE LAW'S DELAY AND STRUGGLE FOR LAND 
 
 The treaty of Paris established the United States of America 
 as a nation September 3, 1783. It was nearly four years there- 
 after before the Congress of the United States passed the ordi- 
 nance of July, 1787, which finally went into effect and gave law 
 to the Illinois country. What were the causes that delayed 
 giving relief and lawful government to the people of the North- 
 west who were clamoring for the same ? There were two causes 
 which we will discuss at length: First — Conflict between New 
 York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Virginia and the United 
 States, and the conflict of these four states with each other and 
 the other states of the United States as to the ownership of the 
 territory; and second — a bitter contest between public and pri- 
 vate interests as to the terms of the fundamental law for the new 
 territory as it affected private ownership of the land. 
 
 We will now discuss the first cause of the delay or the con- 
 flict of the several states with each other and the United States, 
 as to the ownership of the land in the Northwest country ac- 
 quired from Great Britain by the treaty of Paris in 1783. 
 
 The real and best title to this territory was in the Indian 
 tribes that for over a century after its discovery by white men 
 had occupied it and claimed it as their hunting-grounds. These 
 tribes had in all probability been in ownership and occupation 
 of same for centuries before any European had set foot upon 
 the territory. The white man, however, whether he was French, 
 English, Spanish or American ; whether he was a coureur de hois, 
 a British trader or a Kentucky backwoodsman, a diplomat or a 
 statesman, knew that the half-naked, illiterate Indians, with 
 their tomahawks and bows and arrows, were helpless to main- 
 tain their titles either by diplomacy or by warfare. They knew 
 that in nearly every instance where, in the eastern colonies, the 
 
 166 
 
ILLINOIS 167 
 
 white man wanted possession of the Indian lands, he secured 
 them, either by over-reaching" or swindling the Indians in so- 
 called treaties, which were signed by the chiefs soaked in the 
 white man's rum and loaded with the white man's worthless 
 baubles ; or by open violence and the crack of rifles. They knew 
 that all Caucasian nations without exception had, in their deal- 
 ings with black, brown, yellow or red uncivilized men throughout 
 all past history, treated the titles of savage men to the lands they 
 occupied as a temporary obstacle to be removed by blandishment 
 or bloodshed. 
 
 The diplomats of Great Britain, France and the United 
 States, when they signed the Treaty of Peace in 1783, all acted 
 on this understanding and conveyed the land occupied and right- 
 fully-owned by the Algonquin tribes of Indians, which after- 
 wards became the Northwest Territory to the United States of 
 America, thus leaving the latter nation in a position in which 
 it could dispose of the Indian titles in the usual white man's 
 way. Let us then only discuss the title of the American nation 
 and of its several states to the land in question. 
 
 The title to all this land by discovery and occupation was 
 in France until she ceded her title to Great Britain by the 
 treaty of 1763. Under British law, which was also the law of 
 the British colonies, the title of all lands within the nation was 
 held by the Crown under the feudal system. All grants made 
 by the Crown reserved the fee simple title in the Crown, quali- 
 fied by the grants or concessions made to grantees by charter of 
 other royal instrument of conveyance. Often a nominal quit 
 rent was specified, but more often material returns of income 
 or service were required annually from the grantees. The title 
 in fee of the Crown to these lands .was never passed to any 
 chartered colony or any proprietor until it was conveyed abso- 
 lutely by the Treaty of Peace in 1763. To what nation or state 
 did the title pass by that treaty? There can be but little doubt 
 that the title of the British Crown passed to the United States 
 of America. The American commissioners appointed to settle 
 the terms of that treaty represented no single state separately, 
 but all of the thirteen states jointly. Great Britain would not 
 have recognized or dealt with them if they had not represented 
 
168 ILLINOIS 
 
 them jointly. So far as Great Britain was concerned, the United 
 States of America sprang into national life and became a sover- 
 eign nation for the first time when that treaty was signed. In 
 the eyes of Great Britain, before the signature of the treaty 
 they were only thirteen revolting colonies in America and not a 
 sovereign nation. 
 
 When the Congress of the United States took up for consid- 
 eration the question of establishing a government for the newly 
 acquired territory, it had the lawful right to it as a part of the 
 national domain and the right to legislate for its government, and 
 some of the states advocated this policy. But opposition 
 promptly arose as to the expediency of so doing, chiefly from 
 Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York. It was 
 vigorously claimed by the delegates from these states that they 
 had rights antedating the title of the United States and valid 
 under international comity. They pointed out that a resolution 
 of the Continental Congress, introduced by Richard Henry Lee, 
 and passed by that body in 1776, read as follows : 
 
 "Resolved, that these united colonies are and of right ought 
 to be free and independent states ;" that the same words appear 
 in the Declaration of Independence, of July 4, 1776, and that 
 these words are followed in that memorable document by the 
 following: ". . . . and that as free and independent states they 
 have full power to levy war, etc." These pregnant words in 
 this nation-erecting instrument, they argued, made each of the 
 separate states a sovereign state, and that each of these sover- 
 eign states became, by this Declaration of Independence and the 
 terms of the treaty of 1783, the owners of the land which each 
 colony claimed prior to the Declaration of Independence. All 
 the four states mentioned united in this contention, but differed 
 among themselves as to priority of their several respective 
 rights. 
 
 This requires us to consider the joint contention of the four 
 states and determine whether this contention had legal weight, 
 and then take up the question of priority rights as between the 
 four claimant states. Let us then consider the claims of each 
 and ascertain whether they were well founded, and if so, which 
 had priority rights. 
 
ILLINOIS 169 
 
 The claim of New York can be quickly disposed of. That 
 state did not claim under any charter or grant from the Crown. 
 It was based solely upon alleged treaty rights obtained from 
 the Iroquois tribe of Indians, or the so-called Five Nations. 
 These tribes were not in occupancy of this territory during the 
 120 years that it was claimed by France and Great Britain. 
 During the whole of that period it had been occupied by differ- 
 ent branches of the Algonquin race of Indians with whom the 
 Iroquois were often in deadly conflict. Occasionally the Iro- 
 quois made a foray into Algonquin territory as the Algonquins 
 made forays into Iroquois territory. But permanent Iroquois 
 occupancy of land was always confined within the limits of New 
 York State. The claim of New York was a mere shadow and 
 seems to have been recognized as such by its own delegates, for 
 their state was the first to surrender its claims and to convey 
 its interests to the nation. 
 
 The claim of Massachusetts was based upon a charter ob- 
 tained in 1628 or 1629 which comprised "a strip of territory 
 between the Merrimac and Charles rivers with three miles on the 
 farther side of each and extended westward to the Pacific 
 Ocean." This strip could have extended over the north portion 
 of the State of Illinois. 
 
 Connecticut claimed under a charter granted by Charles II, 
 in 1662, in which the colony was given all the land south of the 
 south line of Massachusetts reaching to the latitude of New York 
 and "westward to the South Sea." This would have crossed 
 the north portion of the present State of Illinois immediately 
 south of and adjoining the Massachusetts claim. 
 
 Virginia claimed under a charter of James I, dated 1607 and 
 amended in 1609, which granted land by two lines, one run- 
 ning west commencing 200 miles south of Old Point Comfort, 
 and one running northwest from a point 200 miles north of 
 Old Point Comfort. These claims had been made and discussed 
 even before the treaty of peace was signed in 1783. All these 
 claims, however, were, as we have seen, finally compromised 
 and settled by conveyance from all of the claimant states to the 
 United States. 
 
170 ILLINOIS 
 
 Some curious reader of history may inquire why it was that 
 the United States ordinance of April 23, 1784, creating the 
 Northwest Territory, did not go into effect. The ordinance un- 
 questionably was passed legally by Congress and became a part 
 of the law of the land; yet it was never proclaimed, nor were 
 any officers appointed by the President or Congress to put it 
 into execution. There are several reasons that will naturally 
 occur to an inquiring mind if it examines the ordinance itself 
 and the circumstances existing immediately before and after 
 its passage. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson, who framed the ordinance of 1784, left 
 America for France and remained abroad for several years 
 thereafter. He was compelled to leave his legislative child to 
 the care of Madison and others who lacked the keen interest of 
 paternity. In his desire to throw open the western lands to 
 actual settlers who would buy in small quantities and improve 
 the land with home and tillage, Jefferson had inserted in the 
 ordinance a provision for the immediate foundation of at least 
 seven small states, rectangular in shape. The survey ordinance 
 of May 20, 1785, then provided that each state should be subdi- 
 vided by survey into rectangular townships six miles square, 
 each township to contain thirty-six sections of land. The ordi- 
 nance of 1784 further provided that the government for these 
 states was to be organized by the settlers themselves under au- 
 thority of Congress, and that the territorial government, pending 
 the birth of the states, could adopt with or without alteration 
 such laws of the other states as suited its purpose. 
 
 In 1784 and 1785 the Indians were still in undisturbed pos- 
 session of these lands, excepting a few French settlements at 
 Detroit, Peoria, St. Joe, Vincennes, Mackinac and in Southern 
 Illinois, not numbering in all over 2,500 souls. These latter 
 were neither numerous enough nor sufficiently acquainted with 
 the English language, or self-assertive enough, to take a single 
 step towards the foundation of a territorial government. Ex- 
 cept the French, the few white men in the Northwest Territory 
 at that time were insignificant in number. 
 
 Another reason why there was no attempt to create a govern- 
 ment under the 1784 ordinance was that the United States Gov- 
 
ILLINOIS 171 
 
 ernment had made no provision for giving title of the land to 
 settlers. The Indian titles had not been procured and no price 
 had been fixed, or the terms of purchase provided for, by law 
 or ordinance. Moreover, there was no great inrush of actual 
 settlers yet in evidence north of the Ohio. The land speculator 
 had not yet gotten in his deadly work upon the unpaid dis- 
 charged soldiers of the Revolution, who had received with their 
 discharge papers not cash but "certificates of indebtedness of the 
 United States." The discharged veteran could not exchange 
 these certificates for cash, food or clothing, except at a heavy 
 discount. The land speculators soon saw their opportunity, but 
 it took a couple of years after peace was signed in 1783 to 
 organize, advertise and merchandise these certificates at a heavy 
 discount. When this work was done, the "Ohio Company of As- 
 sociates" became active and appeared before Congress March 
 3, 1786, having been organized at Boston for the purpose of 
 dealing in land. That company succeeded in buying 1,500,000 
 acres, and then came the Scioto Company asking 5,000,000 
 acres, and other companies asking other millions of acres, all 
 under the terms of sale given to the Ohio Company. 
 
 The resolution of Congress under which the large sales of 
 land in bulk were made was passed October 23, 1787, and au- 
 thorized the United States Board of Treasury to enter into con- 
 tracts "in behalf of the United States with any person or per- 
 sons for any quantity of land in the western territory, the In- 
 dian rights wherein have been extinguished, not less than one 
 million acres in one body, upon the same terms, as it respects 
 price, payment and surveying, with these directed in the con- 
 tract with M. Cutler and W. Sargent." The M. Cutler and W. 
 Sargent therein mentioned were undoubtedly the Rev. Manassa 
 Cutler and Winthrop Sargent, who were the leading spirits and 
 lobbyists of the Ohio Company of Associates, and who are men- 
 tioned in a former chapter. 
 
 A consideration of the above matters will explain why it 
 was no territorial government was proclaimed or officered under 
 the territorial ordinance of 1784 and 1785. The sales made 
 under the ordinance of 1787, at or about this time, however, 
 whether made in bulk or to actual settlers, did not affect the 
 
172 ILLINOIS 
 
 lands of the present State of Illinois. That ordinance did pro- 
 tect or attempt to protect the rights of the French settlers in 
 Illinois, but these simple people had in many cases bartered 
 away their rights for inadequate and often trifling considera- 
 tion to the ever-present crafty land speculator. The Indian 
 titles to land in Illinois were not extinguished until some years 
 afterwards, and the Illinois lands were not thrown open to 
 settlers for purchase until the Indian titles were by hook or 
 crook acquired. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 ILLINOIS UNDER NORTHWEST TERRITORIAL 
 GOVERNMENT 
 
 On October 5, 1787, Gen. Arthur St. Clair was selected as 
 governor of the Northwest Territory and Winthrop Sargent was 
 appointed secretary. Soon thereafter, James M. Varnum, Sam- 
 uel H. Parsons and John C. Symmes were appointed judges. 
 They were all prominent citizens and most of them were in- 
 terested in the large land grants heretofore mentioned. These 
 gentlemen, by virtue of the provisions of the 1787 ordinance, 
 became the law-making body of the territory and enacted a set 
 of laws, an abstract of which is, according to Dillon in his His- 
 toric Notes: 
 
 1. The first law was one providing for the establishment 
 of a militia system in the territory of the United States. 
 
 2. A law providing for Courts of Quarter Sessions, County 
 Courts of Common Pleas, and a law providing for the office of 
 sheriff, and for the appointment of sheriffs. 
 
 3. Another law providing for the establishment of court of 
 probate. 
 
 4. A law providing for the sitting of the general court in 
 the territory to hear general cases beyond the adjudication of 
 the courts of the counties. This court was to be held by the 
 three judges or by any two of them. They were to be held 
 four times a year in such counties as. suits the pleasure of the 
 judges. This general court shall have civil and criminal juris- 
 diction. The law provided for adjournment of sessions and for 
 continuance of processes. 
 
 5. A law was enacted providing for oaths of office for the 
 several officials in the several counties. 
 
 6. A law respecting crimes and the punishments thereof. 
 Treason, murder, and arson, if death results, are punishable by 
 
 173 
 
^ 
 
 Primitive Grain Mill 
 
ILLINOIS 175 
 
 death. Burglary and robbery, by whipping, fines and imprison- 
 ment. Minor offenses were punishable by fines, whippings, dis- 
 franchisement, or the pillory. Offenders who could not pay their 
 fines were sold by the sheriff for limited terms according to the 
 offense. 
 
 Children or servants who were disobedient to the commands 
 of their parents or masters might be sent to a house of correc- 
 tion by the courts. 
 
 Drunken persons were to be fined for the first offense five 
 dimes, for the second offense ten dimes and for the third they 
 could be sent to the stocks. 
 
 "Whereas, idle, vain and obscene conversation, profane curs- 
 ing and swearing, and more especially the irreverently mention, 
 ing, calling upon, or invoking the Sacred and Supreme Being, by 
 any of the divine characters in which he hath graciously conde- 
 scended to reveal his infinitely beneficent purposes to mankind, 
 are repugnant to every moral sentiment, subversive of every 
 civil obligation, inconsistent with the ornaments of polished life, 
 and abhorrent to the principles of the most benevolent religion. 
 It is expected, therefore, if crimes of this kind should exist, 
 they will not find encouragement, countenance, or approbation 
 in this territory. It is strictly enjoined upon all officers and 
 ministers of justice, upon parents and others, heads of fam- 
 ilies, and upon others of every description, that they abstain 
 from practices so vile and irrational; and that by example and 
 precept, to the utmost of their power they present the necessity 
 of adopting and publishing laws, with penalties upon their head. 
 And it is hereby declared that the Government will consider as 
 unworthy its confidence all those who may obstinately violate 
 these in junctions." 
 
 This quotation has been made at length to enable the reader 
 to obtain some insight into the notions that the people of that 
 time held relative to profanity. In an additional paragraph the 
 governor and judges lay down the rule governing labor and acts 
 of charity upon the Lord's day or the first day of the week. 
 
 7. A law regulating marriages. Marriage contracts cannot 
 be consummated unless the intention of the parties to the con- 
 tract is published at least fifteen days before the marriage. The 
 
176 ILLINOIS 
 
 means of publicity was announcement in the place of worship 
 three different Sundays or holy days, or by publishing through 
 a written statement acknowledged before a justice of the peace, 
 etc. 
 
 8. This was a supplementary law pertaining to Act 1 rela- 
 tive to the organization of the militia. 
 
 9. A law providing for the exercise of authority by the 
 coroner. 
 
 10. A limitation of the time of commencing civil and crim- 
 inal actions. 
 
 Governor St. Clair did not make his appearance in Illinois 
 until some time in March, 1790, when he visited Kaskaskia. 
 The white population then, in what is now the State of Illinois, 
 did not exceed 2,500. John Reynolds, afterwards governor, 
 who landed in Illinois in 1800, and who had an excellent oppor- 
 tunity of estimating the population at that time and before, 
 states that were there were only 2,000 white people in the state 
 in 1790, of whom 1,200 were French. He also states that in 
 1800 those who spoke English were between 800 and 1,000. It 
 is certain that the French population did not increase between 
 1790 and 1800. The discomforts and annoyances which they had 
 been suffering under American rule since Clark's invasion had 
 been reducing rather than increasing their numbers. The people 
 were poor and ignorant of American laws and customs. Their 
 holdings had never been surveyed or platted, but had been occu- 
 pied and utilized under unquestioned claims of ownership for 
 many years. 
 
 The governor promptly proceeded to lay off a county, and 
 with becoming modesty called it St. Clair. The Illinois and 
 Mississippi rivers were its western borders and the Ohio River 
 its southern boundary. The northeasterly boundary was a line 
 drawn from the Illinois River at the mouth of Mackinac Creek 
 to Fort Massac on the Ohio River. The governor then appointed 
 some twenty-eight county officials, twenty of whom were French. 
 The most important and capable of the new appointees were 
 John Edgar and James Piggott. The former of these was ap- 
 pointed to three offices, captain of militia, judge of Common 
 
ILLINOIS 177 
 
 Pleas and judge of Quarter Sessions. The latter was appointed 
 captain of militia and justice of the peace. 
 
 After appointing these officials, the governor issued a proc- 
 lamation requiring all persons claiming title to land to come to 
 his office and present their titles. Pursuant to this order, many 
 claimants proved up their titles, but as the governor also re- 
 quired them to have their lands surveyed, many of the poor 
 claimants were in such destitution that they were unable to 
 pay for surveys. The governor reported to Congress that many 
 surveys were made and recorded but that a part of the surveys 
 were not returned because the people objected to paying the 
 surveyor and that it was too true that they "are ill able to pay." 
 He further reported that the people in the settlements in Illi- 
 nois on the Wabash were in great distress and had been since 
 they came under the rule of General Clark. The people in Kas- 
 kaskia and other towns had furnished supplies to Clark's troops 
 and had given Clark everything they could spare, and had been 
 paid in Virginia certificates that were without value, and when 
 these certificates were presented to Virginia they were rejected. 
 
 In this plight and in fear of losing their properties held for 
 many years, the people appealed to Father Gibault, who prepared 
 a heart-moving memorial and gave it to the governor. It reads 
 as follows : 
 
 St Clair County, June 9th, 1790. 
 To His Excellency Arthur St. Clair, 
 Governor and Commander-in-chief, 
 
 Of the Territory of the United States 
 Northwest of the Kiver Ohio. 
 
 The memorial humbly showeth. that by an act of Con- 
 gress of June 20, 1788, it was declared that the lands here- 
 tofore possessed by the said inhabitants should be surveyed 
 at their expense; and that this cause appears to them 
 neither necessary nor adapted to quiet the minds of the 
 people. It does not appear necessary, because from the 
 establishment of the colony to this day, they have enjoyed 
 their property and possessions without disputes or lawsuits 
 on the subject of their limits; that the surveys of them 
 were made at the time the concessions were obtained from 
 their ancient Kings, Lords and Commandants; and each 
 
178 ILLINOIS 
 
 of them knew what belonged to him without attempting an 
 encroachment on his neighbor, or fearing that his neigh- 
 bor would encroach on him. It does not appear adapted 
 to pacify them, because, instead of assuring them the peace- 
 able possessions of their ancient inheritance, as they have 
 enjoyed it till now, that clause obliges them to bear expenses 
 which, in their present situation, they are absolutely in- 
 capable of paying, and for the failure of which they must 
 be deprived of their lands. 
 
 Your Excellency is an eye witness of the poverty to 
 which the inhabitants are reduced, and of the total want 
 of provision to subsist on. Not knowing where to find a 
 morsel of bread to nourish their families, by what means 
 can they support the expense of a survey which has not 
 been sought for on their parts, and for which, it is con- 
 ceived by them, there is no necessity ? Loaded with misery, 
 and groaning under the weight of misfortunes accumulated 
 since the Virginia troops entered their country, the un- 
 happy inhabitants throw themselves under the protection 
 of your Excellency, and take the liberty to solicit you to 
 lay their deplorable situation before the Congress; and, as 
 it may be interesting for the United States to know exactly 
 the extent and limits of their ancient possessions in order 
 to ascertain the lands which are yet at the disposal of Con- 
 gress, it appears to them, in their humble opinion, that the 
 expense of the survey ought more properly to be borne by 
 Congress, for whom alone it is useful, than by them who 
 do not feel the necessity of it. Besides, this is no object 
 for the United States, but it is great, too great, for a few 
 unhappy beings who, your Excellency sees yourself, are 
 scarcely able to support their pitiful existence. 
 
 Signed, Fr. P. Gibault, 
 and Eighty-seven Others. 
 
 Before leaving Kaskaskia Governor St. Clair deputized Win- 
 throp Sargent to complete the task of making records of titles 
 to lands on the Mississippi and Wabash rivers. Up to this time 
 (1790) so far as immigration was concerned, the situation in 
 Illinois was one of complete stagnation. Lack of laws under 
 which settlers could obtain title to land was one cause, but the 
 greater cause was the hostility and depredations of the Indians. 
 These red men had the audacity to insist that the white men of 
 America should observe and carry out the terms of a solemn 
 
ILLINOIS 179 
 
 treaty that the white men had made with them under British 
 rule. They pointed to the treaty of Fort Stanwix, signed in 
 1768, wherein the white men of Great Britain obligated their 
 country to respect the title of the Indians to all the land in the 
 Northwest which lay west of a line drawn from about where 
 the City of Lorain, Ohio, is located on the south shore of Lake 
 Erie, south to the mouth of the Great Kanawha River. With 
 both good logic and argument they contended that when the 
 United States of America acquired the British title in 1783, it 
 did so subject to the treaty rights of the Indians secured to them 
 by the treaty of Fort Stanwix. The contention would have been 
 good in any impartial-minded court. As usual in any contro- 
 versy between a Caucasian and a black, brown, yellow or red 
 man, the argument fell on deaf ears. War was the result. Bands 
 of Indians from the Muskingum to the Mississippi seized their 
 guns and went on the war-path. 
 
 President Washington ordered Governor St. Clair to gather 
 an army and attack the Indians. In the fall of 1791 the American 
 army under St. Clair was surprised as Braddock was surprised. 
 On the banks of the Wabash the Indians sprung their surprise 
 and administered the most humiliating and crushing defeats 
 suffered by white men from Indians in history. The command 
 of the American army was then given to "Mad Anthony" Wayne, 
 of Revolutionary fame. The Indians had been sympathized with 
 and encouraged, if not actually instigated, by the British officers 
 at Detroit. Anthony's first act after his appointment to the 
 command was a politic and peaceful one. He negotiated a peace 
 with the Pottawatomie tribe in Northern Illinois, and this de- 
 prived the fighting tribes in Indiana and Ohio of the assistance 
 and support they had been receiving from the tribes in the West. 
 He then began vigorously training the freshly-recruited troops 
 placed in his charge, and after they had been thoroughly disci- 
 plined he attacked the Indians at Fallen Timbers, where they 
 were encamped in the shadow of a British fort, and routed 
 them most thoroughly. The Indians were expecting British 
 support, but to their consternation and surprise this was not 
 forthcoming. The British commander of the fort even refused 
 them refuge when they were beaten, and they were compelled to 
 
180 ILLINOIS 
 
 scatter in all directions. This battle broke the Indian power 
 for the time being and enabled General Wayne to conclude the 
 treaty of Greenville on most favorable terms, August 4, 1795. 
 
 This treaty opened up for settlement the eastern and south- 
 ern parts of Ohio and provided that the United States might 
 hold reservations in Indian territory for forts, also establishing 
 a new Indian boundary line. Among the locations for forts were 
 three in the present State of Illinois, one at Chicago, one at 
 Peoria and one at the junction of the Illinois and Mississippi 
 rivers. Fifteen years of peace followed the signing of the treaty 
 of Greenville. That treaty established the policy of the United 
 States to be followed thereafter in dealing with Indian claims; 
 the policy of recognizing Indian titles and of acquiring same by 
 treaty. Pursuing that policy while the strength of the Indian 
 for resistance was constantly and rapidly diminishing, the 
 United States was enabled by successive treaties to divest the 
 Indians of all their titles in the Northwest Territory and then 
 offer the lands so acquired to settlers. That the consideration 
 paid to the Indians often was inconsiderable may be true, but 
 such is the lot of those who are vanquished in battle. Vae victis. 
 
 The officials of the United States at that time always con- 
 tended that the antagonism of the Indians to the Americans was 
 constantly fomented and encouraged by the British officials in 
 Canada. They did, undoubtedly, furnish the Indians with pow- 
 der, guns and other weapons, and encouraged them to exchange 
 their pelts for British merchandise. They openly sympathized 
 with the Indians, but probably were careful not to involve Great 
 Britain by overt acts of actual warfare. The British govern- 
 ment still maintained garrisons at Mackinac, Detroit and Buf- 
 falo. The treaty of 1783 left several issues undisposed of, which 
 the diplomats agreed could be settled in a future commercial 
 treaty between Great Britain and the United States. The re- 
 tention of British garrisons at the points above and the exist- 
 ence of trading posts in their vicinity where the Indians could 
 procure arms and ammunition was a source of much concern 
 to the Americans, and caused President Washington to send 
 John Jay to London to bring about a treaty that would compel 
 the British to remove their forts from American soil. Jay was 
 
ILLINOIS 181 
 
 successful and such a treaty was signed November 19, 1794, 
 and ratified by the Senate in 1795. Pursuant to the terms 
 thereof the British surrendered their forts and trading posts 
 on American soil to the United States. 
 
 The fur trade, then in the hands of the British traders, 
 was a very lucrative one, and when the British abandoned 
 American soil they transferred their trade to Maiden, at the 
 mouth of the Detroit River, and to St. Joseph's Island, in the 
 channel connecting Lake Superior with Lake Huron. There 
 they continued their trading with much success for years 
 afterward. 
 
 These Indian troubles to the east of what is now Illinois 
 seriously retarded settlements in Ohio and, in connection with 
 the unjust and unfortunate treatment which the French settle- 
 ments in Illinois had received for years from both British and 
 American officials, absolutely stagnated all increase of popula- 
 tion in the latter territory. A few Americans visited Kaskaskia, 
 but almost without exception they were land speculators and 
 not bona fide settlers. The delayed appearance of Governor 
 St. Clair and his establishment of American courts did but little 
 to improve the situation. He had divided the newly-created 
 St. Clair County into three districts, Cahokia, Kaskaskia and 
 Prairie du Rocher. In Cahokia the judges performed their 
 functions in a satisfactory manner, as they had always done 
 in the past, under all administrations; but in Kaskaskia and 
 Prairie du Rocher it was otherwise. After the brief and belated 
 visit of Governor St. Clair to Kaskaskia in 1790, he created 
 St. Clair County and appointed county officials, and then shook 
 the dust of Southern Illinois from his shoes and appointed and 
 sent Territorial Judge Turner to Illinois to administer justice 
 and straighten out its tangled affairs. 
 
 Governor St. Clair and the territorial judges who were the 
 law-making body of the new territory, in enacting and proclaim- 
 ing laws for the territory, had exceeded their powers in so doing. 
 They had framed and attempted to enact laws of their own 
 inspiration instead of adopting laws already in force in some 
 of the American states. The three judges assumed additional 
 functions and made the court one of both original and appellate 
 
182 ILLINOIS 
 
 jurisdiction from whose decisions there was no appeal. Nearly- 
 all of its sessions were held at Marietta or Cincinnati, Ohio. 
 No sessions had been held in Illinois from 1790 to 1794. The 
 Federal Government had rebuked the governor and judges for 
 blunders in law-making and the governor ordered the holding 
 of a court in Illinois. Acting under the governor's order, Judge 
 Turner reached Kaskaskia in October, 1794, and at once pro- 
 ceeded to act in an insolent and tyrannical manner. The records 
 of the county courts had been kept in Cahokia in the custody 
 of the prothonotary and clerk, William St. Clair, a relative 
 of Governor St. Clair. Judge Turner ordered them removed 
 to Kaskaskia and when the clerk protested the Judge took 
 forcible possession of them, whereupon St. Clair resigned. The 
 judge, by other violent and tactless proceedings, so enraged 
 the people of Kaskaskia and Cahokia that they prepared a 
 petition to Congress asking redress of their grievances. Rather 
 than face the issue thus raised, Judge Turner resigned or fled 
 the county to escape indictment or congressional investigation. 
 
 When Governor St. Clair heard of the conduct of Judge 
 Turner he sternly rebuked him, restored Clerk St. Clair to his 
 former position, and started for Kaskaskia with Territorial 
 Judge John C. Symmes. On arrival at his destination he found 
 that a bitter rivalry had been developed between Cahokia and 
 Kaskaskia which could not be assuaged. In order to remove 
 the bitterness or the dispute as to whether Cahokia or Kaskaskia 
 was the county seat, the governor created the new county of 
 Randolph, covering the south part of the present state, in which 
 Kaskaskia would be the principal town and county seat, but 
 leaving Cahokia in St. Clair County as its county* seat. The 
 governor's proclamation was issued October 5, 1795. 
 
 Let us now turn to the year 1798, when it was first ascer- 
 tained that the Northwest country had a population of something 
 over 5,000 white male inhabitants. This was fifteen years after 
 the territory had been ceded by Great Britain to the United 
 States, eleven years after it had been legally created a territory 
 by Congress and eleven years after a territorial government 
 had been installed. It took all these years to attract 2,500 white 
 men to settle in one of the most fertile valleys of the world. 
 
ILLINOIS 183 
 
 I say 2,500 and not 5,000, because there were 2,500 white men 
 in Illinois in and about the year 1750, and according to the 
 United States Census of 1800 there were about the same number 
 In the same territory. During the gfteen years which had elapsed 
 from the time it became American territory, white men had 
 been trickling into the region at the rate of only 166 men per 
 year. In these modern days when we read of thousands of 
 eager men massed in crowds awaiting the signal gun which 
 opens Government reservations to settlement, we cannot be 
 blamed for wondering at the hesitation and deliberation dis- 
 played by the inhabitants of the Eastern states in the latter 
 part of the eighteenth century. The 2,500 men that, during 
 these fifteen years did settle in the Northwest territory, did 
 not settle in Illinois. The Ohio Company, the Scioto Company 
 and the other colonizing companies had lands in Ohio and Indi- 
 ana, but none in Illinois. The few white settlers that did come 
 here did not add to its population. They merely replaced French 
 settlers who had become dissatisfied and left for St. Louis or 
 Canada. Illinois was static from 1763 until 1795. 
 
 In 1795 it was found that in the Northwest territory there 
 were between 5,000 and 6,000 white male inhabitants. The 
 ordinance of 1787, it will be recalled, made provision for two 
 classes of territorial government. In the initial or primary 
 territorial government, all executive, legislative and judicial 
 powers were exercised by Federal appointees. The secondary 
 form arose when the territory had a "population of 5,000 free 
 male inhabitants over twenty-one years of age." It provided 
 that a Legislature should then be elected, one representative for 
 each 500 free male inhabitants, that the Legislature so elected 
 should select ten names for members of the territorial council 
 from which Congress should elect five members of the council, 
 and that the governor, the council and the representatives should 
 become the law-making power of the territory with power to 
 make all civil appointments to office. 
 
 It having been duly ascertained that the territory had the 
 necessary population of 5,000, Governor St. Clair called the 
 election of representatives to meet in Cincinnati. The procla- 
 mation called for the election of twenty-two (some writers say 
 
William Henry Harrison 
 
 First Governor of Indiana Territory (including Illinois) 
 
ILLINOIS 185 
 
 twenty-three) representatives. There must have been a sudden 
 and very large influx of inhabitants between the time when it 
 was ascertained that there was a population of about 5,000 and 
 the issuance of the proclamation, or the discovery of the neces- 
 sary legal population was belated, or, further, that the governor 
 may have been guided by his conviction that before the election 
 the population would have increased to 11,000. The call for 
 the election of twenty-two representatives was based upon an 
 estimate of 11,000 inhabitants, because the ordinance provided 
 for one representative for each 500 inhabitants. If there was 
 a sudden increase in population it was in Ohio and not in 
 Illinois. 
 
 In the Legislature elected pursuant to the call of the governor 
 in 1799, Illinois had only two representatives, Shadrach Bond 
 from St. Clair County and John Edgar from Randolph County. 
 The residents of the western part of the territory and particu- 
 larly those in Illinois, were by no means satisfied with their lot 
 under the secondary form of territorial government. The Legis- 
 lature met at a remote distance from them, the judges held but 
 few and infrequent sessions of court in their vicinity, and the 
 expenses of the new government were largely increased. Their 
 representation in the Legislature, two for 2,500 inhabitants, 
 seemed clearly unfair. They saw, too, that the eastern portion of 
 the territory, which was constantly increasing in population, 
 would soon become a territory of the first class and eventually a 
 state. This would revert them into a territory of the first class. 
 To escape from the remoteness of government and the increased 
 expense of maintaining same, in 1800 they petitioned Congress 
 to separate them from the eastern population. 
 
 The committee in Congress to which this petition was referred 
 found that "in the western counties there has been but one 
 court having cognizance of crimes in five years/' and that the 
 immunity given to criminals by the want of such courts was 
 attracting criminals and deterring settlers from locating. Con- 
 gress acted promptly. On May 7, 1800, a law created the 
 Indiana Territory, bounded on the east by a line starting on 
 the Ohio opposite the Kentucky River and running north to 
 the Canadian border. William Henry Harrison was appointed 
 
186 ILLINOIS 
 
 governor and appeared at the capital of the new territory Jan- 
 uary 10, 1801. The newly-created Indiana Territory comprised 
 all of Illinois and most of the present State of Indiana and con- 
 tained a population of less than 6,000. All of Illinois except 
 the land on and surrounding the French villages owned and 
 occupied by the French, was an Indian reservation recognized 
 by American law. In Illinois at that time the white population 
 was about 2,500, of which 1,500 were French. Most of the 
 latter were wretchedly poor and ignorant and exerted but little 
 influence. There were, however, a few very able and financially 
 responsible leaders of that nationality, Pierre Menard, who held 
 many responsible offices in both territory and state and was 
 finally elected lieutenant-governor of Illinois; and Nicholas Jar- 
 roh, Jean Dumoulin and Jean Francois Perrey, all of whom 
 played an important part in the history of the state. 
 
 In 1801 most of the people of Illinois wanted to change 
 the form of their territorial government from the first to the 
 second class, but were opposed by Governor Harrison and his 
 appointees. They, the people, believed that the change would 
 enable them to have a voice in the making of their laws and 
 the selection of their officials. The change would also enable 
 them to send a delegate to Congress who could express their 
 views in that important body. One of the living issues of that 
 day was the modification of the sixth article in the ordinance 
 of 1787, which prohibited slavery in the territory. The governor, 
 who first opposed the change, finally consented to issue a call 
 for an election upon the question as to whether there should be 
 a change from first class to the second class. On August 4, 1804, 
 this call was issued, the governor directing that the election 
 should be held September 11, 1804 or on the thirty-eighth day 
 thereafter. In view of the limited means of conveying infor- 
 mation, and of travel existing at that time, the time given was 
 inadequate and unfair. Partly because of the brevity of the 
 notice and partly because of ignorance and indifference on the 
 part of the voters, only 360 voters cast their ballots, 260 of 
 which were for the change and 100 against it. Wayne County, 
 which then comprised what is now all of Southern Michigan, 
 did not hear of the call for election and did not cast a single 
 
ILLINOIS 187 
 
 vote. On December 5, 1804, the governor proclaimed that the 
 territory had "passed into the second or representative grade 
 of government." 
 
 At the election for representatives held in January, 1805, 
 Shadrach Bond and William Biggs were chosen by St. Clair 
 County and George Fisher by Randolph County. When the 
 elected representatives chose ten names for submission to the 
 President for members of the territorial council, he selected 
 John Hay from St. Clair County and Pierre Menard from 
 Randolph County. 
 
 At this time the population of Illinois proper was probably 
 between 6,000 and 7,000. According to the Federal Census of 
 1800 there were 5,641 people in the territory, divided as follows : 
 Indiana proper, 2517; Illinois proper, 2458; Michigan proper 
 551, and Wisconsin proper, 115. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 SLAVERY AND INDENTURED SERVANTS— TERRITORY 
 OF ILLINOIS CREATED 
 
 Early in the history of the Indiana Territory arose a question 
 which mightily absorbed the attention of the settlers and pioneers 
 then living in the territory, and which continued to excite and 
 keenly interest them and their descendants and subsequently 
 arriving settlers for many years thereafter. Article six of the 
 Bill of Rights contained in the ordinance of 1787 provided : 
 
 Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist 
 in the said territory except as a punishment for crime 
 whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. 
 
 At the time of the passage of the ordinance there were 
 slaves in Illinois. Under French rule early in the eighteenth 
 century slaves had been imported and held in bondage during 
 all the French, British and American administrations. Slavery 
 had been and was recognized and tolerated by the Federal 
 Constitution of the United States. The French habitants were 
 accustomed to it and acquiesced in it. The American settlers, 
 almost without exception, had come from Kentucky, Tennessee 
 or other slave-holding states, and some of these American set- 
 tlers had brought slaves into the territory from Southern states. 
 Public sentiment in Southern Illinois and Indiana was largely 
 favorable towards the retention of the system. The central 
 and northern part of the territory then had no white population. 
 Pioneer transportation was almost wholly by water, because 
 it was less arduous, less dangerous and cheaper than overland 
 travel through trackless forests and prairies. Waterway facili- 
 ties were at hand for the Kentuckians, Tennesseeans and Virgi- 
 nians, but not for the northern colonists, while the Great Lakes 
 
 188 
 
Mississippi Valley in 1801 
 
190 ILLINOIS 
 
 were in British or French control. Thus the early settlers were 
 from the South, where they had acquired pro-slavery convictions. 
 Such being the condition of public sentiment both among the 
 American and French settlers, they were speedily confronted 
 with the problem of what to do with reference to Article Six. 
 When Governor St. Clair arrived in Kaskaskia in 1790 he was 
 called upon to decide the question as to whether the slaves then 
 owned in the territory became freemen by virtue of the article 
 mentioned, or remained in slavery. In a public statement, after 
 giving careful consideration to the matter, he declared that the 
 ordinance did not free the slaves then in the territory, but that 
 it prohibited the bringing of other slaves into the territory. This 
 quieted the fears of the slave-owners for a time but did not 
 wholly satisfy the largely preponderant pro-slavery views of 
 the people. 
 
 A petition from Kaskaskia was presented to Congress, Janu- 
 ary 12, 1796, asking that body to repeal Article Six, but the 
 prayer of the petition was denied. Some old Revolutionary 
 soldiers in 1799 presented a petition to the territorial Legis- 
 lature, asking leave to bring their slaves with them, and per- 
 mission to live with their slaves on the military tract north 
 of the Ohio, reserved by Virginia. This was also denied because 
 the Legislature believed that it would conflict with the ordinance. 
 Another petition from Kaskaskia was presented to Congress 
 January 23, 1801, asking permission to introduce slavery into 
 Indiana Territory, containing a clause for gradual emancipation. 
 No disposition of this petition was ever made. Notwithstanding 
 all their failures to secure modification or repeal of Article Six, 
 another effort was made in 1802. 
 
 While Governor Harrison was on a visit to Kaskaskia in the 
 fall of that year, he was petitioned to call a convention for the 
 purpose of devising the best way to secure the admission of 
 slavery by law into the territory. This petition was granted 
 and the governor called the convention November 22, 1802, the 
 delegates elected from Illinois being Jean Francois Perrey, Shad- 
 rach Bond and John Murdock from St. Clair County and Pierre 
 Menard, Robert Morrison and Robert Reynolds from Randolph 
 County. The convention, which was presided over by Governor 
 
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ILLINOIS 193 
 
 Harrison, with John Rice Jones acting as secretary, prepared 
 a memorial to Congress reciting that many prospective settlers 
 were compelled to cross the Mississippi to Spanish territory 
 for final settlement because they feared to bring their slaves 
 into Illinois. The memorial concluded by asking Congress to 
 suspend the operation of Article Six for ten years within the 
 territory. This memorial met the same fate as all the previous 
 petitions, for the reason as stated in the committee's report 
 "that the labor of slaves is not necessary to promote the growth 
 and settlement of colonies in that region." But defeat and 
 disappointment seemed powerless to kill pro-slavery sentiment 
 in Southern Illinois. 
 
 The governor and the territorial judges were the law-making 
 power. In their legislative capacity they met in their second 
 session in the fall of 1803 and enacted a law that all persons 
 coming into the territory "under contract to serve another in 
 any trade or occupation shall be compelled to perform such 
 contract specifically during the term thereof." This law would 
 make contractual slavery lawful. All the owner of a law-made 
 slave had to do to secure him from loss of his slave property 
 was to order said slave to sign a contract for service for any 
 number of years. What slave in fear of the lash would fail 
 to obey? 
 
 The Louisiana Purchase from France was made in April, 
 1803. In the Louisiana tract, which included what is now Mis- 
 souri and Iowa, across the river from Illinois, slavery was per- 
 missible. The two Illinois counties petitioned to be made part 
 of that tract for three reasons. First, they wanted the right 
 to establish slavery. Second, they wanted immigration from 
 the South, which they believed would be fostered by slavery. 
 Third, they desired to get from under the arbitrary rule of 
 Governor Harrison and his appointees, who had become most 
 unpopular. This move failed of accomplishment, whereupon 
 agitation was commenced for a change in the form of territorial 
 government, which movement was successful as related in a 
 previous chapter. 
 
 The struggle between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery par- 
 tisans still continued and was carried on with much persistency 
 
194 ILLINOIS 
 
 and bitterness. A bill was introduced into the Territorial Legis- 
 lature in 1805, asking Congress to admit slavery into the terri- 
 tory, but it failed of passage in the lower House. Bitter oppo- 
 sition had developed in Illinois against Governor Harrison and 
 his friends and appointees. Having failed to escape his dom- 
 ination by being transferred into the Louisiana district, the 
 people of Illinois now commenced an agitation for separation 
 from Indiana and the creation of a new and separate territory 
 to be called the Territory of Illinois. A petition was forwarded 
 to Congress in 1806 to this effect, but the committee appointed 
 by Congress reported adversely. Other petitions of like import 
 were presented to the governor, and counter petitions protesting 
 against the division of the territory were also presented to 
 Congress. A special session of the Territorial Legislature was 
 held in 1806, at which the question of slavery or no slavery 
 in the territory was the principal subject of discussion. Peti- 
 tions and arguments (probably from both sides) were prepared 
 and forwarded to Congress, none of which produced any con- 
 gressional action at that time. On August 17, 1807, the Terri- 
 torial Legislature met for the second session. Jesse B. Thomas, 
 a member of this body from Dearborn County, was also a candi- 
 date for the position of delegate to Congress. For a time he 
 was non-committal on the subject of separation of the territory 
 and the creation of a new territory. Upon obtaining a pledge 
 from the separationists that they would support his candidacy 
 for congressional delegate upon certain conditions, he secretly 
 pledged himself to work and vote for separation in Congress, 
 and was elected. He promptly repaired to Washington, presented 
 his credentials, and was appointed chairman of the committee 
 in Congress which was to consider the petition relating to the 
 separation. The committee met promptly, considered all the 
 petitions and arguments and reported favorably to separation. 
 Thomas voted and argued very effectively and it was largely 
 through his efforts that the law of separation was passed and 
 subsequently signed by the President, February 3, 1809. It 
 was estimated at the time by the committee that there were 
 17,000 people east of the Wabash in Indiana and 11,000 west 
 of that river in Illinois. The law provided that all of Indiana 
 
ILLINOIS 195 
 
 Territory lying west of the Wabash River and a line running 
 due north from Vincennes to the Canadian border line, should 
 be incorporated into a separate territory to be known as the 
 Territory of Illinois. 
 
 By the passage of this law the Illinois Territory became a 
 territorial government of the primary class. The Federal Census 
 of the following year (1810) showed that it then had a popu- 
 lation of 12,282 inhabitants. 
 
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CHAPTER XIX 
 ILLINOIS TERRITORY FIRST CLASS 
 
 At last the people of Illinois, harrassed since 1763, when 
 the French monarchy ceded its rights over them to Great Britain, 
 by misgovernment, weak government and no government, saw 
 the prospect of home government in which the executive judicial 
 and legislative officials would be compelled to exercise their 
 functions in their midst. No more were they to be compelled 
 to travel to Cincinnati or Vincennes to make their complaints 
 or assert their rights. On February 3, 1809, Congress passed 
 an act establishing the Territory of Illinois. By the terms of 
 the act it comprised all of Indiana Territory lying "west of 
 the Wabash River and a direct line drawn from said Wabash 
 River at Post Vincennes due north to the territorial line between 
 the United States and Canada." 
 
 On April 28, 1809, Nathaniel Pope, who was appointed sec- 
 retary of Illinois Territory by President Madison, arrived at 
 Kaskaskia and issued the proclamation establishing the terri- 
 torial government. He was followed to Kaskaskia June 11, 1809 
 by Ninian Edwards, who had been appointed territorial governor. 
 At the time of his appointment Governor Edwards was chief 
 justice of the Court of Appeals and was a friend of Henry Clay 
 and Senator John Pope of Kentucky. Nathaniel Pope was a 
 younger brother to the latter and both officials probably owed 
 their appointment to the influence of Senator Pope and other 
 prominent men in Kentucky. The territorial judges appointed 
 were Jesse B. Thomas, who had worked so successfully for 
 the establishment of the separate Territory of Illinois ; Alexander 
 Stuart and Obadiah Jones. Among the emoluments of office at 
 that time were grants of land from the Federal Government, 
 and Governor Edwards received 1,000 acres, which he located 
 near Prairie du Rocher. Judge Thomas received 500 acres 
 
 197 
 
198 ILLINOIS 
 
 which he located near the same village. Governor Edwards 
 brought with him from Kentucky to Illinois his slaves and herds 
 of cattle, and was also appointed to the position of superin- 
 tendent of the salt mines near Equality. 
 
 The governor and the judges now became the law-making 
 power and the former the appointive power of the territory. 
 The laws of the Indiana Territory of which it had heretofore 
 been a part, were reenacted and adopted as the laws of the 
 Illinois Territory. In making appointments the governor found 
 himself immediately importuned, by the men who had favored 
 and brought about the separation of Illinois from the Indiana 
 Territory, for all the offices. John Edgar was the leader of 
 this party. The anti-separationists were equally insistent. Gov- 
 ernor Edwards solved the situation when he allowed the militia- 
 men to select their own officers, demanded popular elections 
 for county officers and made his appointments pursuant thereto. 
 
 Up to the year of 1809 the lands of Illinois had not been 
 opened up for sale and settlement. During his term as territorial 
 governor of the Territory of Indiana, Governor Harrison had 
 been appointed superintendent of Indian affairs. He understood 
 the eagerness of the westerners for the opening up of these 
 lands for purchase and labored diligently to secure the titles 
 of the Indians, which was an essential prerequisite. He con- 
 summated treaties of any and all kinds with isolated and 
 detached bodies of Indians, without waiting for action of tribes 
 or confederation of tribes. He was not concerned about the 
 justice of the treaty or the representative character of the 
 Indians who signed. In 1803 he made a treaty with the Kas- 
 kaskias under which the signers surrendered their claims to 
 land in Southern Illinois. In 1804 a few chiefs of the Sauks 
 and Foxes were wheedled into surrendering their titles to lands 
 lying west of the Illinois and Fox rivers, and in 1805 he secured 
 lands on the Wabash from the Piankashaws. Another treaty 
 was secured by him from other Indians at Fort Wayne in 1809. 
 These treaties secured for the United States from the Indians 
 what the lawyers might designate as color of title, even if the 
 color of some of them was either black or yellow. President 
 Jefferson was much concerned about the character of some of 
 
ILLINOIS 199 
 
 these treaties and is said to have rebuked Harrison for his 
 extreme aggressiveness. 
 
 As a result of these treaties, or some of them, a law was 
 passed by Congress in 1804, providing that land in the Indiana 
 Territory (then comprising Illinois) could be sold in quarter 
 sections and reserving the sixteenth section in every township 
 for school purposes. Under this law land offices were opened 
 up at Detroit, Vincennes and Kaskaskia, the registrars and 
 receivers were made land commissioners within their respective 
 districts, and provision was also made in this law for settling 
 the claims of those claiming under French and English grants. 
 In Kaskaskia great difficulties arose in settling some of the 
 French claims. Many of the original claimants to bounties or 
 settlements had died, moved to St. Louis, or, in despair, had 
 sold their claims for trifles. Cases were found where claims 
 of 400 acres had been sold for $30, and a 100-acre claim for 
 $14. Alvord states in his history that in Cahokia there had 
 been granted 400 head rights, which by November, 1798, had 
 passed into the hands of eighty-nine persons, only twelve of 
 whom were French. 
 
 When it was known that the Federal Government had 
 appointed these commissioners to unravel the tangled web of 
 these titles, speculation ran wild and often developed into dis- 
 honesty. Dead men were revived and fictitious deeds discovered. 
 Nearly the whole community became infected, and men who 
 at other times would have scorned to resort to duplicity or 
 mendacity became tainted. They seemed to consider that Uncle 
 Sam was the only sufferer and that robbing Uncle Sam of his 
 land was no crime. However, many of our wealthy citizens 
 of this later day seem to be of the same opinion when they 
 smuggle jewels and costly raiment through the custom house. 
 In perusing the early history of this state, one is amazed to 
 read how many officials in the early days had land hunger which 
 has at times thrown doubt on the impartiality of their official 
 acts and conduct. 
 
 The treaty that General Wayne made with the Indians at 
 Greenville, in August, 1795, was with eleven different and dis- 
 tinct tribes of the Northwest. By its terms the Indians parted 
 
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 Fighting general who conquered the Indians of the Northwest in 1795. 
 
ILLINOIS 201 
 
 with their title to the eastern and southern portion of Ohio, but 
 it established, as we have before said, a new Indian boundary 
 line recognizing the rights of the Indians to retain as their 
 hunting-grounds all of the territory west of that line, excepting 
 certain small reservations in Indiana and Illinois upon which 
 it was agreed that the United States might build and garrison 
 forts to preserve the peace. This treaty quieted the hostility 
 of the Indians for about fifteen years and little or no complaint 
 was heard from them that the treaty was invalid. 
 
 War between the United States and Great Britain ended 
 with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, October 18, 1814. By 
 that treaty the Indian tribes were placed in the condition that 
 they occupied in 1811 before the declaration of war. They were 
 now abandoned by their powerful allies, the British, and left 
 where they must fight it out with the young and powerful 
 American nation or sign such treaties as the Americans 
 demanded. To fight it out would have been suicidal. Their 
 great leader, Tecumseh, had fallen in battle. Their source of 
 supplies, for guns and ammunition, Canada, was taken from 
 them by the treaty. Their fighting spirit was broken by their 
 calamities. Early in 1815 the President appointed Governor 
 William Clark, Governor Ninian Edwards and Augusta Chouteau 
 commissioners to negotiate treaties with the principal tribes 
 that had been allied with the British in the War of 1812. These 
 commissioners arranged for a conference with the chiefs of 
 some of the warring tribes and with them settled upon a basis 
 for future treaties. The Indians at this time were in much 
 the same position as were the Germans in 1919 at Versailles. 
 They were compelled to consider and finally accept conditions 
 such as are often presented to the vanquished by the victors. 
 It was another case of Vae victis — Woe to the vanquished ! 
 
 In 1816 a treaty was signed by Indians representing the 
 Chippewas, Ottawas and Pottawatomies, and other treaties of 
 like character by the Peorias and Illinois. By these treaties 
 the Indians quitclaimed their rights to 1,418,400 acres of land, 
 most of which was in Illinois. In 1818 two other treaties were 
 signed by the terms of which 17,886,280 acres of land were 
 ceded by the Indians to the United States. 
 
202 ILLINOIS 
 
 Within one month before the declaration of war by the 
 United States against the British the Territory of Illinois had, 
 by the vote of its qualified electors, become a territory of the 
 second class. The act of Congress declaring it to be a territory 
 of the second class was passed May 21, 1812. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 TECUMSEH AND TIPPECANOE 
 
 Governor Harrison began negotiating treaties with small 
 groups of Indians about 1803 and between that year and 1809 
 had six different treaties signed by different chiefs and groups 
 of Indians against which there was a great outcry among the 
 Indians who claimed that they were signed without authority 
 and were illegal and invalid. Wayne's treaty and Harrison's 
 six treaties purported to convey a total of 40,000,000 acres of 
 land for a consideration of about three cents per acre. The 
 last of Harrison's six treaties was signed at Fort Wayne in 
 September, 1809, and purported to convey 3,000,000 acres of 
 the richest land in Indiana, east of the Wabash River and 
 containing some of the land claimed by Tecumseh's tribe as 
 their hunting-ground. The treaty was entered into by Indians 
 claiming to represent the Pottawatomies, Miamis, Kickapoos, 
 Weas and Eel River tribes. The Shawnees, to which tribe 
 Tecumseh belonged, did not become a party to this treaty and 
 when the news of its execution reached the great chief's ears 
 and was noised abroad among the Indian tribes of the North- 
 west, there was an outburst of rage and indignation among them. 
 The consideration given the Indians who signed the treaty was 
 $9,700 cash and about $3,000 in ammunition, or less than one- 
 half a cent an acre. 
 
 Tecumseh, the chief, and his brother, The Prophet, were 
 the two leading spirits of the Shawnee tribe. Both were men 
 of strong character and great native ability. The Prophet had 
 been preaching a new gospel among the Indians of the Shawnee 
 and neighboring tribes and had aroused among them a religious 
 frenzy against the contaminations of the white men. He preached 
 monogamy, abandonment of "fire water" and the clothes of 
 white men, and the cultivation of the land. His brother, the 
 
 203 
 
Tecumseh 
 
ILLINOIS 205 
 
 chief, gave their emotions thus aroused a more practical bent. 
 He pointed out to them the wrongs and injustices being per- 
 petrated upon them by the white men, and his, the white man's, 
 trickery, deceit and dishonesty. He exposed the character of 
 the Harrison treaties and argued that the hunting-grounds 
 belonged in common to all the Northwestern tribes of Indians 
 and not to any single Indian or group of Indians or to any 
 single tribe of Indians. He pointed out to them that a few 
 unauthorized Indians or a few weak chiefs bribed with a few 
 dollars, or a few baubles, or a supply of rum, had no moral 
 or legal right to barter away the hunting-grounds that the 
 Great Spirit had given their ancestors centuries before. He 
 argued that millions of acres had been practically stolen from 
 them and that unless these treaties were annulled and such 
 treaties prevented in the future, that they, the Indians, were 
 facing starvation and inevitable early extinction. To prevent 
 such a calamity he advised a confederation of all the Indian 
 tribes of the Northwest; that this confederation arm and act 
 in concert; that it demand a recision of all these treaties, and 
 in case of failure to obtain their recision that they wage war 
 in unison in defense of their property and lives against the 
 common enemy — the people of the United States. 
 
 Tecumseh had a wide acquaintance among the different tribes. 
 He had also a widespread reputation as a brave warrior chief 
 and sage counsellor. He had the foresight to recognize (as 
 Pontiac did before him) that the different tribes were helpless 
 unless united, and that his race was doomed unless the different 
 tribes were confederated and presented a united front in their 
 demand for fair treatment. He urged upon his fellow-Indians 
 that the hunting-grounds were the property of all the Northwest 
 tribes in common and not in severalty, and that no treaty was 
 valid unless signed by all the tribes. He was tireless in his 
 efforts to form this confederacy and his fiery eloquence and 
 vigorous action were fast bringing about the accomplishment 
 of his aims. He established as the headquarters of his propa- 
 ganda a village on Tippecanoe Creek, a tributary of the Wabash 
 River, and there gathered many of his most earnest converts. 
 He had been carrying on this movement for some time before 
 
206 ILLINOIS 
 
 the treaty of Fort Wayne was signed. When the news of the 
 event reached him he redoubled his efforts on both sides of the 
 Ohio River. 
 
 Meanwhile, his white protagonist, Governor Harrison, was 
 not idle. He had little sympathy with the red men and was 
 reckless of their rights as recognized by the treaties of Fort 
 Stanwix and Greenville. He believed that the Indian right to 
 retain the rich, fertile land for hunting purposes without utilizing 
 the soil for home building and tillage must and should give 
 way before the onward march of home-seekers and soil-tillers 
 who were advancing from the East. He knew that every paper 
 he could secure from the Indians purporting to cede their rights 
 to the United States which he dignified with the name of treaty 
 would be welcomed and ratified by the oncoming horde of settlers 
 and land speculators as well as by the white men living in the 
 territory as squatters or adventurers. He knew that every 
 such treaty procured by him by hook or crook was increasing 
 his popularity among the white men who had or soon would 
 have votes. In defiance of Tecumseh's assertion that the land 
 belonged to all the tribes and that all the tribes must sign any 
 valid treaty, he secured the Fort Wayne treaty and prepared 
 for war which he knew would be inevitable. 
 
 Without any formal declaration of war on either side, in 
 1810 the Indians began harrassing the white settlers. The 
 British authorities in Canada, who were manifestly in sympathy 
 with the Indians and antagonistic to the Americans, furnished 
 the Indians freely with guns and ammunition and urged them 
 to commit all kinds of depredations against the American set- 
 tlers. The hostility of the British was rapidly developing into 
 the war which broke out between the British and Americans in 
 1812. Many murders and atrocities against the whites occurred 
 in 1810 and 1811. In October, 1811, while Governor Harrison 
 was erecting a small fort in Indiana near the present site of 
 Terre Haute, one of the guards was killed by Indians, and this 
 and other recent atrocities by the red men enraged him and he 
 prepared for war. 
 
 Gathering together 250 United States Regulars, an army 
 of 800 white men mostly recruited in Indiana and Kentucky, 
 
ILLINOIS 207 
 
 and 500 friendly Indians, Governor Harrison marched them 
 against the Indian headquarters at Tippecanoe. When near 
 their encampment Harrison sent forward a messenger asking 
 for a conference with their chief. Tecumseh, accompanied by 
 twelve of his ablest and most trusty lieutenants, was then absent 
 in Kentucky engaged in his propaganda for confederation. Some 
 
 Battle of The Thames — Death of Tecumseh 
 
 (From Brackenridge's History of the Late War.) 
 
 other chief or representative of the Indians met Governor Har- 
 rison and arranged for a further conference on the following 
 day. On that following day, November 7, 1811, the Indians, 
 at 4 o'clock in the morning, attacked the Americans, who were 
 resting on their arms, and a bloody battle ensued. The American 
 losses were equal if not greater than those of the Indians, but 
 the Americans remained in possession of the battlefield, destroyed 
 the crops, burned the town and scattered the surviving Indians, 
 thus obliterating the headquarters of Tecumseh's confederation. 
 Upon returning from Kentucky and viewing with dismay 
 the ruins of his capital and headquarters, Tecumseh crossed 
 the border into Canada, where he joined the British forces in 
 the War of 1812 and died gallantly in battling the pale faces 
 
208 ILLINOIS 
 
 who he believed were despoiling his fellow-countrymen and 
 exterminating his race. He has an enviable place in history 
 as the gallant, wise and farseeing leader of a race doomed to 
 destruction in spite of sagacity in council and bravery in battle. 
 The battle of Tippecanoe was but the forerunner of greater 
 and officially declared warfare between the British and the 
 United States. Notwithstanding the treaty of peace of 1783 
 and the subsequent treaty between Great Britain and America 
 under which British troops and trading posts were removed 
 from American soil, ill feeling between the citizens and subjects 
 of both countries in the Northwest had not been allayed. Some 
 of the old wounds of the War of the Revolution had not healed. 
 The most potent cause of hostility and ill feeling was the struggle 
 for the control of the very valuable fur trade which had been 
 developed between the Indians and the whites. Notwithstanding 
 the removal of the British garrisons to British soil in Canada, 
 the English traders still managed to control most of that rich 
 traffic on the upper Mississippi and around the Great Lakes. 
 Their principal trading posts were at Mackinac and Prairie 
 du Chien. At the latter place in 1811 there were 100 Canadian 
 families, living on land that they had purchased and owned, 
 and there carried on trade with about 6,000 Indians who visited 
 the place every year. At Mackinac also a large traffic was 
 carried on by the British and Canadians with the Indians. 
 Although the Americans maintained a small garrison at Mack- 
 inac and a United States Indian agent at Prairie du Chien, they 
 seem to have made but little headway in securing trade. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE DECLINE AND ULTIMATE DISPOSITION OF THE 
 
 FUR TRADE 
 
 In this history we at frequent occasions referred to the 
 importance and value of the fur trade in the Northwest territory. 
 It was the emolument and profits that could be derived from 
 the purchase of furs from the Indians that lured the French 
 voyagers and the coureurs de bois from Canada all along the 
 Great Lakes and up and down the Mississippi and other rivers 
 of the West. It was the real commercial incentive to the dis- 
 coveries of these early French pioneers. The struggle of the 
 French monarchy to retain this land was principally based upon 
 the value of this fur trade to the French merchants in Canada. 
 It inspired Joliet, La Salle and Tonti, Frontenac and Talon, 
 and when the British overcame the French they regarded it 
 as the paramount method of rewarding the British officials and 
 enabling the British government to maintain its hold upon 
 the territory. When the Americans took possession of the 
 territory from the British, they regarded the fur trade of 
 considerable importance, and for some years attempted to con- 
 duct competition with the British authorities for the retention 
 of the same. The American Government, after taking possession 
 of the territory, passed certain laws which prevented traders 
 with the Indians from doing business in the way of purchasing 
 furs without a license from the American Government. At 
 that time most of the important posts of trading with the Indians 
 were still in the hands of the Canadian merchants of French 
 extraction. When the American Government passed laws pro- 
 hibiting foreigners from trading with the Indians, the French 
 traders entered into a compact with John Jacob Astor, who 
 was then engaged in the fur business in New York, principally 
 
 209 
 
tcsy ^•qpyg 
 
ILLINOIS 211 
 
 with the Iroquois tribes, under which they joined their trading 
 facilities by giving control thereof to the Astor interests. 
 
 The United States Government itself commenced in 1816 
 to establish fur trading posts in Mackinac, Chicago and Prairie 
 du Chien, and also one at Green Bay. Later on, a trading house 
 was established at Fort Edwards. The United States Govern- 
 ment stationed troops in the neighborhood of these posts, in 
 order to establish their standing and prestige, but these efforts 
 of the Government proved fruitless in competition with the 
 British traders. Private traders seemed to be more successful 
 than even the Government. The South West Company which 
 was trading in furs was controlled by John Jacob Astor, and 
 this company for a time was conducting a successful business. 
 Finally the French traders sold out all their interest in the 
 South West Company to Astor, and he organized a new company, 
 called the American Fur Company. This company retained 
 almost all of the French and English traders, boatmen, inter- 
 preters, etc., who had been working for the former companies, 
 but the officers of the company and all those holding responsible 
 positions were Americans. Gradually the British interests faded 
 before it. 
 
 In the Illinois territory, there were two main trading posts, 
 one at Prairie du Chien in the territory occupied by the Sauks, 
 the Foxes and the Winnebagoes, running up the Rock River 
 and down the Mississippi. The other post was in the Illinois 
 Valley at Peoria. 
 
 For a time a successful trade was carried on by the American 
 Fur Company until about the year 1810 when the United States 
 Government began making surveys of land. When these sur- 
 veys were perfected and when the land offices were opened at 
 Kaskaskia and Shawneetown for the sale of lands in 1818 or 
 thereabout, the fur trade gave way before the onward rush 
 of coming settlers, and thereafter we hear but little of the fur 
 trade in the territory of the State of Illinois. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 ILLINOIS IN THE WAR OF 1812 
 
 As we have heretofore noted, bitter feelings had arisen 
 between the white settlers and the Indians after the Fort Wayne 
 treaty of September, 1809. As a result of Tecumseh's appeals 
 to the Indians to confederate, and of certain atrocities committed 
 by the Indians in 1810 and 1811, the white settlers of Illinois 
 became greatly alarmed and began erecting block-house forts 
 in or near all the settlements. There were at this time only 
 about 12,000 to 14,000 white people in the state and they were 
 outnumbered by the Indians probably over ten to one. These 
 forts were rudely constructed of logs, built up eight to ten 
 feet high, with a low second story projecting over the lower 
 story. They had strong oaken doors with inside bars that 
 would withstand much violence, and had loop-holes through 
 which the inmates could fire their guns. Sometimes four log 
 houses were built on a square and these were connected by 
 strong palisades. Inside this large enclosure many persons and 
 their belongings could be grouped in case of an Indian raid. 
 The underbrush and trees would be cut down for some distance 
 from the buildings so that the Indians could not creep up on 
 them unawares. Such forts were constructed at this time at 
 or near most of the small settlements. More formidable places 
 of defense, however, were at Chicago, Fort Massac, Fort Russell 
 near Edwardsville and Fort LaMotte and Fort Vincennes on 
 the Wabash. There were also forts of some kind at New Design, 
 Bellefontaine and several other small places. 
 
 The Indians became very restive and belligerent and in small 
 parties began stealing the property of the whites and shooting 
 at, and even killing, white men and women. In these depredations 
 they were incited and encouraged by the British and Canadians, 
 
 212 
 
ILLINOIS 
 
 213 
 
 who furnished the Indians with guns and ammunition freely. 
 For a time the British assistance was given secretly and was dis- 
 guised, but as the ill feeling between Great Britain and the 
 United States developed, hardly any attempt was made at 
 secrecy. This was one of the causes of the War of 1812. The 
 President in his message to Congress gave as the causes of 
 
 Fort Dearborn Marker 
 
 war the impressment of American seamen; the patrolling of 
 our sea coast with armed vessels, interfering with our commerce, 
 and encouraging the Indians to attack our settlers in the West 
 and furnishing the savages with guns and supplies. While 
 this cause of war occupies the last place in the President's 
 message it proved to be the paramount one at the treaty of peace 
 afterwards, as we will see when we come to discuss the terms 
 of that treaty. 
 
214 ILLINOIS 
 
 Responsive to the President's message to Congress in June, 
 1812, the United States declared war against Great Britain. 
 Although this was the first recognition and declaration of war, 
 as a matter of fact, war had been carried on openly by the 
 Indians and secretly by the British garrisons in Canada for at 
 least a year before that time. Governor Edwards, without 
 Federal authority, had been encouraging the building of defens- 
 ive forts and blockhouses and the organization of State Militia. 
 Indeed voluntary military companies had been gotten together 
 by the frontier settlers even before the governor gave direct 
 authorization. The frontier line of settlements then extended 
 from the mouth of the Illinois River through Alton and Fort 
 Russell, Salem and Wayne County, thence northeast to the Indi- 
 ana state line near Terre Haute. The United States, although 
 full of warlike spirit at the time war was declared, was by no 
 means well prepared for aggressive action against the great 
 naval and military power of Great Britain, "the Mistress of the 
 Seas," and the formidable forces of Indian allies which Great 
 Britain summoned to her aid on the western prairies. Almost 
 without exception all these tribes, embittered as they were by the 
 St. Clair treaties and the dispossession of their hunting-grounds 
 by the Americans, rallied to the call of the British authorities 
 in Canada. 
 
 At the outbreak of the war the Regular Army of the United 
 States consisted of ten regiments aggregating 5,000 men, a large 
 portion of whom were stationed in small bodies in the different 
 forts of the United States. In Detroit Gen. William Hull was 
 in command of about 1,000 men, most of whom must have been 
 untrained militia judging from their inefficiency as later dis- 
 closed. General Hull was a Revolutionary soldier and was 
 then acting as territorial governor of Michigan. He was ordered 
 by his superior officers to cross the river at Detroit and capture 
 Fort Maiden, then cross the Canadian peninsula and meet other 
 invading American forces at Niagara, after which the combined 
 forces could overrun and reduce Canada. The plan was excel- 
 lent, but its execution was a lamentable fizzle. While Hull was 
 attempting to reduce Fort Maiden, the British General Brock, 
 commanding 1,000 British troops, crossed the river into Amer- 
 
Replica of Fort Dearborn 
 
 Constructed for the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition. 
 
 The photograph shows, left to right, the officers' barracks, a corner of the 
 blockhouse, the powder magazine, soldiers' barracks. 
 
216 ILLINOIS 
 
 ican territory and demanded the surrender of the American 
 fort at Detroit, the Town of Detroit, and all of the Territory 
 of Michigan. General Hull acceded to this arrogant demand 
 and without a struggle surrendered the fort, town and territory, 
 August 16, 1812. The American fort at Mackinac had also 
 surrendered July 17 previous. Hull attempted to excuse his 
 shameful conduct afterwards by saying that his supply of pro- 
 visions was limited, that Mackinac had surrendered, that there 
 was no hope of relief from Niagara and that the soldiers and 
 inhabitants of the Town of Detroit would be massacred by the 
 Indians if he did not surrender. The surrender of Detroit and 
 Mackinac placed the entire Territory of Michigan under British 
 control and exposed Illinois, Indiana and Ohio to attacks from 
 the triumphant British and Indians. 
 
 At this time the forces of United States Regulars stationed 
 in Illinois and near Illinois Territory were as follows: Fort 
 Massac on the Ohio, thirty-six men ; Fort Madison on the Missis- 
 sippi, forty-four men; Vincennes, 117, and Fort Dearborn, fifty- 
 three. These 250 men were confined in their duties to defending 
 these forts and the territory immediately surrounding them 
 and were not available for general open-country warfare. The 
 pioneers of the territories of Illinois and Indiana were therefore 
 left in the position of being compelled to defend their lives and 
 property without Federal aid and their Territorial officers were 
 compelled to devise such measures as they possibly could to 
 give them any kind of protection. 
 
 Governor Edwards energetically encouraged the formation 
 of military companies in the settlements and the erection of 
 block-house forts for defense. While he and his fellow-citizens 
 were thus engaged, the whole western country was shocked by 
 a bloody catastrophe, the massacre at Fort Dearborn, now Chi- 
 cago, and the shameful surrender of Detroit, both on the same 
 day, August 15, 1812. The craven-spirited General Hull had 
 learned in the latter part of July that Fort Mackinac had sur- 
 rendered to the British; and, fearing that the small garrison 
 of fifty-three men at Fort Dearborn would be next assailed and 
 could not successfully defend the fort, sent by a friendly Indian 
 an order to Captain Heald, then in command of Fort Dearborn, 
 
ILLINOIS 217 
 
 to evacuate the fort and retire to Fort Wayne. Historical 
 writers differ as to whether this order was for immediate evacu- 
 ation or whether it left some discretion in Captain Heald as 
 to when the evacuation should take place. Be that is it may 
 have been, Captain Heald regarded the order as being unwise 
 and procrastinated and delayed its execution for several days. 
 The order was delivered to him August 7 or 8 and the evacuation 
 did not take place until August 15. It is said that Captain 
 Heald called into consultation his subordinate officers and John 
 Kinzie, the Government Indian agent who was on friendly terms 
 with the Indians in the neighborhood, and that they advised 
 Heald not to evacuate the fort. It is said further that Winnemac 
 (Winnemeg), the Pottawatomie chief who had brought the 
 order of evacuation from General Hull, ascertained that the 
 Indians surrounding the fort, Winnebagoes and Pottawatomies, 
 were hostile and belligerent. He advised Heald that if he 
 intended to evacuate he should do so at once, but pointed out 
 to the captain that with the provisions and supplies that he 
 had in the fort, he could hold out against a six-month siege. 
 In the meantime the Indians had heard from Tecumseh that 
 Fort Mackinac had surrendered and that Hull had retreated 
 from Canada, and had orders from the chief to hold themselves 
 in readiness for immediate warfare. Heald still temporized and 
 held a conference with some of the Indian chiefs and some 
 prominent white men to devise a plan for the safe removal of 
 the garrison and the white men, women and children in and 
 around the fort to Fort Wayne. At this conference he told the 
 Indians present of his intention to evacuate and in order to 
 win their assistance and good will promised to leave the large 
 stock of Government supplies in the fort and the Government 
 warehouse for distribution among the Indians. The Indians 
 present promised him that they would furnish him an ample 
 escort of friendly Indians to ensure his safe departure. Among 
 the stores were large quantities of liquor, ammunition, food and 
 clothing, a fact that was well known to the Indians. Heald 
 acted as he did contrary to the wishes of Kinzie and his own 
 subordinate officers and soon realized he had made a fatal mis- 
 take. Overnight he changed his mind and carried out a part of 
 
218 ILLINOIS 
 
 his promise to the Indians and broke his promise as to the other 
 part. He ordered all the whiskey and powder poured into the 
 river and all the guns broken up and destroyed. When the 
 Indians found the next day that among the goods delivered to 
 them for distribution were neither guns, ammunition nor liquor, 
 their indignation knew no bounds. This breach of faith fanned 
 the smouldering embers of their enmity into a withering flame. 
 
 The cowardice of Hull and the indecisive and shilly-shallying 
 conduct of Heald in a nerve-trying crisis, together with the 
 hatred and ferocity of the Indian tribes, brought about the 
 shocking calamity. It might have been obviated if Heald had 
 acted firmly and promptly in obeying the order of his superior 
 officer. 
 
 On the 14th of August, Captain William Wells arrived at 
 Fort Dearborn with thirty friendly Miami Indians to assist 
 Captain Heald in exacuating the fort. He had come in great 
 haste from Fort Wayne, having heard that Captain Heald and 
 his company were in great distress. Their arrival was regarded 
 as a godsend, and preparations were made on the 14th of August 
 for a departure the following morning. In the meantime, the 
 Indians had become furious over their failure to receive from 
 Captain Heald the guns and ammunition in the fort. On August 
 15th at about nine o'clock in the morning, the evacuation com- 
 menced. Captain Wells with his band of Miami Indians were 
 in the vanguard. After them came twelve militiamen, and then 
 the regulars, immediately preceding the wagons which carried 
 camp equipage, women, children, and the sick. Behind them 
 marched other Miami Indians, escorting Mrs. Heald, the cap- 
 tain's wife, and Mrs. Helm. When they arrived at what is now 
 known as Fourteenth Street in the City of Chicago near the 
 Illinois Central tracks, Captain Wells noticed that the savages 
 to his right were making violent demonstrations and preparing 
 to attack. Captain Heald then marched his men to some sand 
 hills, where he came in sight of the hostile Indians, who attacked 
 them vigorously. The regulars under Captain Heald returned 
 the fire and caused the savages to retreat temporarily, but they 
 gradually surrounded the Fort Dearborn troops and within a 
 
ILLINOIS 219 
 
 very short time they had possession of the horses and wagons 
 attached to the American army. 
 
 The Miami Indians were thrown into dismay and fled. For 
 a time the regular troops under Captain Heald made a vigorous 
 defense, but before long were compelled to surrender. After 
 the surrender, the Indians attacked the women, the children 
 and the sick. When the awful massacre was over, it was found 
 that twenty-six of the regulars, twelve of the militia, two women 
 and twelve children were dead, also Ensign George Ronan, Dr. 
 Isaac V. Van Voorhis, and Captain William Wells died on the 
 battlefield. Lieutenant Helm, twenty-five regulars and eleven 
 women and children were taken prisoners. Many of these pris- 
 oners afterward died of wounds or were killed. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Kinzie escaped or were allowed to return to their home, Kinzie 
 and his wife having been on most friendly terms with the 
 Indians. 
 
 On the following day, the Indians set fire to the fort, and 
 then disappeared. Let it be said, however, to the credit of 
 Black Partridge, an Indian chief, that he did everything he 
 could to prevent the carnage. Learning of the hostility of the 
 other Indians, he came to the fort before the American soldiers 
 left it, saw Captain Heald, and delivered into his hands a medal 
 that he had received from the Americans, saying that he was 
 unworthy longer to bear it, as his fellow-tribesmen had made 
 up their minds to massacre the whites. He stated, "I cannot 
 restrain them, and I will not wear a token of peace while I 
 am compelled to act as an enemy." It was this same Black 
 Partridge who, during the massacre, saved the life of Mrs. 
 Helm and prevented her massacre. 
 
 The year 1812 was a most disastrous one for America and 
 the Northwest Territory. The surrender of Detroit and Mack- 
 inac and the destruction of Fort Dearborn encouraged British 
 soldiers to believe that they could again re-possess this country 
 and re-establish the British flag over the Northwest Territory. 
 The British officers had in their employ a man named Robert 
 Dixon, who was evidently popular among all the Indian tribes. 
 He was a very adroit and able man, and was able to muster and 
 bring to the support of the British authorities the strongest 
 
220 ILLINOIS 
 
 and most warlike of the Indian tribes of the Northwest. In 
 1813, he was found at Prairie du Chien, which was then regarded 
 as the most strategic military position on the Mississippi. This 
 place was made the most important post for trading with the 
 Indians by the British authorities. During 1812-13, Dixon 
 operated from this point among the Indians and succeeded in 
 getting many of the Indian tribes to travel east to assist the 
 British commanders around Detroit. If the British authorities 
 after the fall of Detroit, Mackinac and Fort Dearborn had fol- 
 lowed up these signal successes with attacks upon the American 
 forts in Indiana and Illinois, it would have produced disastrous 
 consequences for the American nation and American settlers. 
 The British officers, however, needed the assistance of these 
 Indians around Detroit, and because of their military necessities, 
 the Americans escaped what the Americans believed at the time 
 to be imminent disaster in the West. In Illinois and Indiana, 
 the American authorities believed that any day the British 
 forces with overwhelming Indian allies would be upon them. 
 Many of the settlers gathered in their own forts and around 
 the other forts occupied by American troops, and began to cry 
 loudly to the Federal authorities for assistance. During the 
 first year of the war, these Federal authorities had given them 
 no protection. Governor Edwards, the territorial governor, 
 had no Federal commission as military commander, and no 
 money had been appropriated for the raising of the militia. 
 Notwithstanding this awkward situation, Governor Edwards 
 proceeded to collect and organize several companies of mounted 
 militia, at his own expense. These mounted men patrolled the 
 border from the Mississippi River to the Wabash. He caused 
 to be erected a fort near what is now Edwardsville, which he 
 called Fort Russell. A short time afterward, a company of 
 regulars was attached to Camp Russell by the Federal Govern- 
 ment, this being the only step taken by the Federal Government 
 to protect the settlers in the Illinois territory in the years prior 
 to 1813. In that year, the Federal Government authorized the 
 recruiting of six companies of rangers for the protection of 
 the settlers. 
 
ILLINOIS 221 
 
 In 1812, Governor Edwards organized two expeditions for the 
 invasion of the Illinois River Valley. The information was that 
 at Peoria there was a large gathering of Pottawatomi, Miami 
 and Kickapoo Indians, and that these Indians were organizing 
 for assaults upon the frontier settlements to the south. The 
 first of these expeditions, composed of recruits raised in Illinois, 
 were accompanied by the governor himself, and in the ranks 
 there marched one John Reynolds, afterward a governor of 
 Illinois. On this expedition he was a buck private, and he 
 wrote a very interesting account of the Illinois expedition. On 
 the march from Fort Russell to Peoria, they encountered no 
 belligerent Indians until they arrived at within four or five 
 miles of an Indian village on Peoria Lake. Here they killed an 
 Indian whose arms were raised and who was asking to surrender, 
 and captured his squaw. Upon the arrival at the village itself, 
 they found the huts deserted, and the untrained militia plundered 
 and burned the village. This was the only achievement of the 
 campaign. 
 
 The second expedition organized by Governor Edwards trav- 
 eled by water to Peoria. Upon arrival at that point, they found 
 it deserted by practically all of its inhabitants, including the 
 United States Government agent, Forsyth, whereupon Captain 
 Craig began appropriating all of the property left by the desert- 
 ers. Upon Forsyth's coming into camp, however, he returned 
 some of it. For several days thereafter Captain Craig and For- 
 syth were on friendly terms, but one day Captain Craig's boats 
 were fired upon by some unknown person, whereupon Craig pro- 
 nounced the people of Peoria guilty of the offense committed by 
 the unknown party. He thereupon plundered and burned most of 
 the town and carried away forty of its inhabitants as prisoners. 
 Later on these prisoners were released by Governor Edwards. 
 To his credit be it said that he compensated them for their 
 losses out of Indian funds in his possession. Captain Craig's 
 conduct was bitterly condemned by many of his associates and 
 contemporaries. For a further and more interesting account 
 of these expeditions, I would respectfully refer the reader to 
 Reynold's account thereof in his "My Own Times." 
 
222 ILLINOIS 
 
 By reason of their misfortunes during the year 1812, the 
 Federal authorities finally became aroused to the necessity of 
 better organization and larger forces. On May 1, 1813, the 
 states of Kentucky and Ohio, and the territories of Indiana, 
 Wisconsin and Michigan were placed in one district under the 
 command of Major General Harrison, and a sub-district thereof 
 including Illinois and Missouri was created, with headquarters 
 at St. Louis under the command of Brig. Gen. Benjamin Howard. 
 The Federal authorities also effected an organization of ten 
 companies of mounted rangers, and placed four of them in 
 Indiana, and three each in Illinois and Missouri. These rangers 
 were all mounted men and proved very effective. They moved 
 rapidly and inspired the Indians with terror. General Howard 
 began to act with great vigor. With a force of rangers recruited 
 from Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri and Illinois, he pushed the 
 American frontier further northward and soon arrived at Peoria, 
 where he built a new fort, which he called Fort Clark and which 
 was thereafter garrisoned by regular troops until the end of 
 the war. 
 
 In June 1813, Gen. William Clark with 200 men succeeded 
 in capturing Prairie du Chien, in the absence from that place 
 of Dixon and the Indian tribes, which he had taken to Canada. 
 Clark left a small force there after its capture, but this garrison 
 was compelled to surrender to a large force of British and 
 Indians from Mackinac soon thereafter. Following its capture 
 by the British, two expeditions were sent up from St. Louis 
 to regain Prairie du Chien. Hearing of these expeditions, the 
 British authorities heavily reinforced the Sauk and Fox Indians 
 at Rock Island, and their combined forces prevented the first 
 expedition from going up the Mississippi beyond that point. 
 The second expedition set out with the same destination in 
 August 1814. It was commanded by Major Zachary Taylor, 
 afterward President of the United States. The British and 
 Indians met Taylor and his troops and inflicted heavy losses 
 upon them. Taylor was compelled to retreat with his troops 
 to Fort Edwards, a fort which was built near Warsaw, Illinois, 
 and which was held by the Americans until the end of the war. 
 The most northerly limits of the aggressive warfare on the part 
 
Ninian Edwards 
 
 Territorial Governor, and Governor of State, 1826-30. 
 
224 ILLINOIS 
 
 of the Americans was a line drawn from Peoria to Warsaw. 
 North of that, the Indians and British were triumphant. 
 
 Early in the year 1814, both of the warring nations began 
 to tire of the conflict. The British had been successful on the 
 eastern seacoast and in the Northwest, but had not been at all 
 effective in the central or southern portions of the United States. 
 Proposals of peace were made and accepted and peace commis- 
 sioners were detailed to meet at Ghent for direct negotiations. 
 During these negotiations, a peculiar situation developed. The 
 main cause of the war, to-wit the impressment of American 
 seamen by British vessels, seemed to have been forgotten. The 
 British commissioners stressed as the important issue to be 
 determined in the negotiations the question as to what should 
 become of the Northwest Territory. The result of the conflict 
 between the Americans and the British in that territory had 
 been disastrous to the Americans, and had left the British in 
 control of the Great Lakes in about the situation that existed 
 at the close of the Revolutionary war. The British commissioners 
 in their negotiations declared that an error had been made in 
 settling the boundary in 1783 and that that error should be 
 now corrected; that the whole region of the Great Lakes with 
 its valuable fur trade must now be annexed to Canada and 
 placed under the British flag. They made this claim not in so 
 many words, believing that such a demand would be promptly 
 rejected by the American commissioners, but they pointed out 
 to the American commissioners that the Indians had been their 
 allies and that they were independent nations and should be 
 included in the treaty and made parties to the same. They argued 
 that an independent nation of the Indians, with well defined 
 boundaries, should be created, wherein neither Great Britain 
 nor the United States would have any control or power to pur- 
 chase the lard. They pointed back to the Treaty of Greenville, 
 contracted in ^795, which created the eastern border of an Indian 
 reservation running south from what is now Lorain, Ohio. 
 This line would have thrown most of Ohio, and all of Indiana, 
 Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin and the territory west of 
 the Mississippi into a proposed buffer Indian state or a per- 
 petual hunting ground for the Indian tribes. The British com- 
 
ILLINOIS 225 
 
 missioners also intimated that they should be permitted to estab- 
 lish and maintain military and naval posts on the Great Lakes. 
 To these demands thus formulated, the answer of the American 
 commissioners was emphatic. If these conditions were pressed, 
 they would break off negotiations. The American commissioners 
 pointed out that the United States had followed the British 
 precedent in refusing to accord rights to the Indian tribes. 
 The American commission was composed of very able men, 
 among whom was John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and Albert 
 Gallatin. Intellectually and diplomatically they were more than 
 a match for the British commissioners. The controversy was 
 strenuous, but in the end the British commissioners gave way 
 and recognized the rights of the Americans to the disputed 
 territory by accepting a statement from the United States that 
 it would restore the rights and privileges held in the year 1811, 
 the year before the declaration of war. The commissioners of 
 the respective nations reached no agreement in relation to arma- 
 ments on the Lakes, and the treaty was decided December 24, 
 1814. 
 
 In the year 1817, the United States Government proposed 
 to Great Britain that both navies on the Great Lakes be reduced 
 to proportions which would render them useless in war. This 
 proposal was accepted by Great Britain, and since that time two 
 great nations have been enabled to live side by side with an 
 unguarded frontier of over 3,000 miles, without friction or blood- 
 shed. It is believed that this proposal was inspired by Benjamin 
 Franklin, a great lover of humanity, and accepted by Lord Shel- 
 burne, an English diplomat who was also a great lover of peace. 
 
 The Indian tribes were not made parties to these treaties, 
 and after the treaty was signed by Great Britain, they were 
 placed in a position of being compelled thereafter to treat with 
 a great and growing power whose citizens had suffered most 
 from their depredations and whose citizens in the natural march 
 of events would be insisting upon their government that the 
 great fertile lands of the Northwest should be utilized for agri- 
 culture instead of for hunting grounds. The rights which they 
 had in 1811 the United States agreed to recognize, but that 
 these rights then possessed must afterward be yielded by them 
 
226 ILLINOIS 
 
 before the onward march of civilization was plain to them as it 
 was to the white men whose nation had signed the treaty. The 
 Indian tribes knew that the great power upon which they re- 
 lied, the British government, had failed them in this emergency ; 
 that they never could hope for further assistance from that 
 great power; that thereafter they must treat with a young and 
 powerful nation whose constantly increasing population would 
 compel that government to acquire these hunting grounds by 
 force, if not by treaty. The Indians recognized the inevitable. 
 They became dispirited and down-hearted. Their great leader, 
 Tecumseh, had given up his life in a lost cause. The tribes 
 were ready to trade with the United States upon any terms that 
 might be insisted upon by that great nation. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 ILLINOIS A TERRITORY OF THE SECOND CLASS— 
 AND SOON BECOMES A STATE 
 
 The Ordinance of 1787 provided that one of the qualifica- 
 tions of a voter should be that he own "a freehold of fifty acres 
 of land in the district. ,, This qualification, probably more than 
 any other cause, explains the smallness of the vote cast on the 
 question of a change to a territory of the second class. Only 
 300 votes were counted, the great majority of which favored 
 the change. On May 21, 1812, Congress, pursuant to this vote, 
 declared the Illinois Territory raised to the second class. On 
 September 14 of the same year, Governor Edwards, in the midst 
 of his military activity, issued a proclamation creating the new 
 counties of Madison, Johnson and Gallatin, and another procla- 
 mation about the same time calling an election October 8, 1812, 
 for selecting members of a Legislature and a delegate to Con- 
 gress. 
 
 The newly-elected Legislature (being the first to meet in 
 Illinois) met at Kaskaskia November 25. Pierre Menard was 
 chosen as president of the council and Dr. George Fisher was 
 selected as speaker of the lower house. Governor Reynolds in 
 his history says that all twelve members of the Legislature 
 "boarded at the same house and slept in the same room." Much 
 of the time of the Legislature was taken up with laws creating 
 territorial courts and helping the governor organize and pro- 
 vision a militia to serve against the Indians. There was no 
 penitentiary in the Territory and practically no jails where 
 prisoners could be securely imprisoned. Hence the criminal 
 laws passed by the Legislature had few provisions for confine- 
 ment in prisons, but many other provisions for punishment that 
 were barbarous and cruel and would not now be tolerated in 
 
 227 
 
228 ILLINOIS 
 
 civilized states. Whipping on the bare back, with lashes from 
 ten to 500; confinement in stocks and pillories, and branding 
 with hot irons were some of the penalties set out in the criminal 
 code of that day. Arson, rape and murder were punished by 
 hanging. If a fine was not promptly paid the guilty man was 
 auctioned off to a purchaser of his labor who could compel him 
 to work out his fine at hard toil. 
 
 The maiden efforts of the first Territorial Legislature to 
 raise funds by taxation, for the support of the government, 
 furnish an amusing contrast to the methods of the legislation 
 of our day when hundreds of millions of dollars are readily 
 appropriated at each biennial session for the support of the 
 state government. The first Legislature in Illinois (territorial) 
 levied a tax on real estate of $1 on each 100 acres of land on 
 the bottoms along the rivers, and seventy-five cents on each 
 100 acres on the uplands for the support of the territorial gov- 
 ernment. The expenses of the counties were paid for, out of 
 personal taxes, which were collected from the following sources : 
 Each owner of $200 worth of personal property had to pay $1 
 poll tax and certain occupations and callings were licensed. 
 Smith in his history gives Struve as reporting that as a result 
 of the Legislature's efforts to raise funds to support the gov- 
 ernment of the territory, $4,875.45 was collected in three years. 
 At the present rate of wages this would not more than have 
 paid the salary of a single janitor in the State House for a period 
 of three years. How the governor, judges of the Supreme Court, 
 members of the Legislature and other officials managed to get 
 their meager salaries is a mystery that the ordinary man cannot 
 explain. Shadrach Bond, Jr., afterwards governor of Illinois, 
 was elected this year by the people as their delegate to Con- 
 gress. Up to this time (1812) there had been but little immi- 
 gration into Illinois. Fear of Indian atrocities was one cause, 
 but the greater and more far-reaching one was the inability of 
 settlers to gain legal title to the land upon which they located. 
 We have heretofore pointed out the difficulties which the old 
 French settlers encountered when they tried under American 
 law to have their titles ratified. 
 
ILLINOIS 229 
 
 In 1781 and later on, some of the soldiers who served under 
 George Rogers Clark took possession of certain lands as "squat- 
 ters'' and without any legal title made improvements upon them. 
 These men, as well as the French occupants of lands, had been 
 petitioning Congress for validation of the occupation and titles. 
 In 1791 Congress enacted a law providing that all Americans that 
 had occupied lands before 1783 should have their titles con- 
 firmed as to 400 acres each. Congress also provided a law con- 
 firming the French titles under certain conditions. Up to the 
 year 1800 no other titles to land in Illinois could be obtained 
 in tracts of less than 4,000 acres. 
 
 In 1804 the United States had opened up land offices in Kas- 
 kaskia and Shawneetown for the purpose of settling titles, and 
 quite a considerable number of settlers, upon learning of the 
 location of these offices, concluded that from them they could 
 procure title to land if they settled in Illinois, Up to 1812, 
 however, no land had been placed on the market for sale to 
 settlers who had come into the state between 1783 and 1813, and 
 these new settlers had merely "squatter" claims. In the hope 
 of obtaining good title by settlement, many of these "squatters" 
 had made valuable improvements, built houses and barns, dug 
 wells, cleared lands and enclosed them with fences. All of 
 these improvements would be lost to them unless preemption 
 laws were passed giving them relief. William Henry Harrison, 
 when a delegate to Congress from the Northwest Territory, had 
 recognized the necessity of enacting some law which would give 
 the poor settlers an opportunity to preempt and buy small 
 tracts of land at a moderate price. H$ succeeded in securing 
 a law which enabled a settler to preempt and purchase a half- 
 section of land at $2 per acre. 
 
 Shadrach Bond, upon his election as delegate to Congress 
 for Illinois Territory in 1812, exerted himself vigorously in se- 
 curing a preemption law that would enable a poor settler to 
 secure a quarter-section of land, and thus attract settlers to 
 the territory. He was a "dirt farmer" himself and an earnest, 
 honest, capable man who was afterwards elected the first gov- 
 ernor of Illinois on its admission to statehood. In Congress, 
 Bond vigorously and intelligently worked for the passage of a 
 
230 ILLINOIS 
 
 pre-emption law and according to Governor Reynolds in his 
 History of Illinois (p. 273) : "By his exertions .... the first 
 act of Congress was passed in 1813, to grant the citizens the 
 right of preemption to secure their improvements." Under 
 the provisions of this law the settler might select a quarter- 
 section of land, and if he made improvements on the same he 
 had the first right to buy at government sale. If the settler 
 did not exercise his option to buy, he still had a lien on the 
 property for the value of his improvements if bought by another. 
 
 The passage of this law, the ending of the war with Great 
 Britain, and the subsequent treaties of peace with the Indians 
 in 1815 under which they conveyed their titles to the United 
 States, opened wide the doors in Illinois for rapid settlement 
 and growth for the first time in its chequered history. From 
 now on the condition of Illinois ceased to be static and became 
 dynamic. Its population in 1810 was 12,282; in 1820 it was 
 55,162. Up to 1815 the increase of its population had been 
 stayed by Indian guerrilla warfare, the war with Great Britain, 
 difficulty of travel over mountains, through trackless forests 
 and over bridgeless rivers, and the failure of the law to secure 
 to settlers good title to the land upon which they located. 
 
 By the end of 1814 all wars had ceased, the British had re- 
 tired to Canada, the Indians had ceded their Illinois lands to 
 the United States, the steamboat had arrived, railroads were 
 being planned and the United States was selling its lands to 
 settlers at the very low price of $1.25 an acre. The dammed-up 
 waters of immigration and civilization had sapped and under- 
 mined the walls of war, isolation and law that had surrounded 
 Illinois, and the waves began to overflow the fertile prairies 
 of all the section. Riding on these waves came not only men and 
 women from the Southland, as heretofore, but from all over 
 America and from foreign lands. In May, 1812, Congress had 
 passed a law repealing the burdensome and unfair enactment 
 which compelled a citizen to own fifty acres of land before he 
 could vote; at a time, too, when it was almost impossible to get 
 title to any land. The new law threw open the voting right to 
 all "free white males of twenty-one years of age" who had paid 
 a territorial poll tax. This law gave the newcomers into Illinois 
 
ILLINOIS 231 
 
 from the North and East the same right to be heard at the 
 polls as the old settlers on all points of public interest. The 
 common people from the territory from this time on began to 
 be heard from at all elections. 
 
 Among these new arrivals was Daniel Pope Cook, whom 
 Commodore Vanderbilt would probably characterize as "one of 
 those damned literary fellers/' He first appeared in Kaskaskia 
 in 1814 as a law student under the tutelage of Judge Nathaniel 
 Pope, and was admitted to the bar in 1815 at the age of twenty- 
 two years. Before meeting Judge Pope he was poor, friendless 
 and in delicate health, but gifted with a brilliant mind and a 
 facile pen. He early displayed his natural bent toward news- 
 paperdom, took editorial charge of the Kaskaskia Herald and 
 changed its name to the Western Intelligencer, and in 1816 edi- 
 torials and articles signed "Aristides" appeared in the paper 
 advocating the admission of Illinois to statehood. They were so 
 vigorous and incisive that they attracted widespread attention 
 to a topic which up to that time had not been seriously consid- 
 ered by the public. While he was so doing he was appointed by 
 the President (probably through the recommendation of Con- 
 gressional Delegate Nathaniel Pope) as messenger to carry con- 
 fidential instructions to John Quincy Adams, then minister to 
 the Court of St. James, London. Upon his return to Kaskaskia 
 in 1817 he renewed in the Intelligencer his virile agitation for 
 statehood, his most potent arguments in favor thereof being 
 that under a State Constitution the following changes in gov- 
 ernment could be secured: First — The power of absolute veto, 
 then existing in the territorial governor and strongly resented 
 by the people, could be modified and restricted; second — that 
 the law-making power of the state relating to internal affairs 
 would be supreme ; and third — that the judiciary of the state in 
 all matters relating to the police power would be controlled and 
 regulated by) judges elected by the people. The territorial 
 judges appointed in Washington had been very remiss and in- 
 attentive to their judicial duties, and serious crimes had gone 
 unpunished because of their indifference and neglect. 
 
 At this time public sentiment had been controlled and guided 
 by a very few, able and forceful men, some of whom were 
 
232 ILLINOIS 
 
 affiliated with, and some opposed to Governor Edwards and his 
 policies. Those who favored him were Nathaniel Pope, terri- 
 torial delegate to Congress; Daniel Pope Cook, Thomas C. 
 Browne, George Forquer and Pierre Menard, while among those 
 of the opposition were Shadrach Bond, Jesse B. Thomas, Michael 
 Jones, John McLean, Elias Kent Kane and William Kinney. 
 So vigorous and convincing were the arguments that young 
 Cook fulminated from time to time in his paper that finally all 
 of these prominent men and the general public fell in with his 
 crusade and clamored for statehood. Nathaniel Pope, the friend 
 and patron of young Cook, as territorial delegate to Congress 
 pressed with great ability in that body the now popular demand. 
 One formidable obstacle in the way of statehood was the pro- 
 vision in the United States ordinance which required a popu- 
 lation of 60,000 as a pre-requisite for admission. It was found, 
 however, that when Ohio was admitted into the Union of states 
 her population was only 45,028, notwithstanding the 60,000 re- 
 quirement of the ordinance. Mr. Cook forcefully pointed to 
 the admission of Ohio, contrary to the strict letter of the ordi- 
 nance and argued that the admission of Illinois with less than 
 the prescribed number of inhabitants "would not be inconsistent 
 with the general interests of the confederacy. ,, Another argu- 
 ment in favor of the creation of a new State of Illinois, which 
 prevailed at the time and which probably was presented to 
 Congress was the following : The Ordinance of 1787 prohibited 
 slavery in the territory. Nonetheless slavery actually existed 
 therein and was tolerated and permitted by the territorial offi- 
 cials, some of whom owned slaves themselves. Slavery existed 
 in the territory under both French and British rule, and the 
 treaty of 1783 with Great Britain guaranteed to the inhabitants 
 all their possessions under American rule. The conflict between 
 the Ordinance of 1787 and the British-American treaty had 
 never been adjudicated in the courts. Consequently many slave- 
 holders refused to settle in Illinois lest their slaves might thereby 
 become free; and many anti-slavery immigrants also refused to 
 locate here lest they be compelled to witness slavery in all its 
 horrors. This anomalous condition of affairs prevented immi- 
 gration into the territory. 
 
ILLINOIS 233 
 
 At the same time a bill was pending in Congress for the 
 admission of Missouri to statehood and it was generally be- 
 lieved that it would be admitted as a slave state. The fear that 
 the Missourians would anticipate the men of Illinois in securing 
 admission of their state into the Union caused prompt action. 
 The anti-slavery element feared that if Missouri was admitted 
 as a slave state, that it would be used as a precedent for slavery 
 in Illinois. On the other hand, the pro-slavery element feared 
 the admission of Missouri to statehood before Illinois because, 
 as they believed, it would attract immigration from the South 
 and prevent settlers from coming into Illinois. It developed 
 that both discordant elements, from different motives and 
 activated by different fears, were united in favoring the admis- 
 sion of Illinois to statehood before the pro-slavery crowd in 
 Missouri could secure statehood from Congress. 
 
 In anticipation of the approaching statehood, the Legislature, 
 January 2, 1812, created the three new counties of Washington, 
 Franklin and Union. Between 1812 and 1817 seven other coun- 
 ties had been created and named respectively Edwards, White, 
 Monroe, Pope, Jackson, Bond and Crawford, thus making in 
 all fifteen counties in the projected state. Nathaniel Pope, the 
 territorial delegate, January 23, 1812, introduced in Congress the 
 bill for the admission of the territory as a state into the Union. 
 He was clever enough to have it referred to a committee of 
 five, of which he was chairman. Two of the other members 
 were from the northern states and the other two from the South. 
 With at least one of the two latter he was on terms of personal 
 friendship. As the bill was originally drawn it fixed the north- 
 ern boundary of the proposed state at a line drawn east and 
 west from a point drawn ten miles north of the most southerly 
 part of Lake Michigan in an attempt to approach compliance 
 with a provision of the Ordinance of 1787. Article V provided 
 that there should be formed in the Northwest Territory, not less 
 than three nor more than five states, with certain boundaries 
 for the three states, which might be formed "south of an east 
 and west line passing through the southerly bend of Lake Mich- 
 igan." Delegate Pope amended the bill while it was pending 
 before the committee so as to provide that the north line of 
 
Map of Illinois in 1812 
 
 Showing counties and location of Indian tribes. 
 
ILLINOIS 235 
 
 the proposed State of Illinois should be at north latitude 42° and 
 30' North. This latitude would place the north limit of the 
 state where it now is and forty-one miles further north than 
 the north boundary provided for in the original draft of the 
 bill. Both of the southern members of the committee, Claiborne, 
 of Tennessee and Johnson of Kentucky, were favorable to the 
 proposed amendment because Illinois would be a neighboring 
 state and they wanted it to be friendly and powerful. The 
 northern members, Spencer of New York and Whitman of Mas- 
 sachusetts, were soon persuaded by Pope that it would be to 
 the commercial and political advantage of the eastern states to 
 give Illinois facilities for commerce with the East. He pointed 
 out to them that the change would enable Illinois to establish 
 a lake port either at what is now Chicago or at what is now 
 South Chicago, or at both points, and that this would develop 
 a large water commerce with New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and 
 Indiana, all of which states had lake frontage and locations 
 suitable for the building of lake ports and harbors ; and that the 
 building of the Erie Canal from Buffalo through New York 
 State to the Hudson River was then in contemplation, which 
 would give continuous water communication between Illinois and 
 New York City. He further contended that the joining of 
 Illinois to these northern states by water routes would insure 
 the perpetuity of the Union. If Illinois had the opportunity to 
 develop extension of commercial relations with the eastern states 
 over the Great Lakes as well as having opportunities of devel- 
 oping commerce with the southern states via the Ohio and Mis- 
 sissippi rivers, these commercial connections with both the 
 north and eastern states as well as with the southern states, 
 would inevitably make the future State of Illinois a bond of 
 union between these different sections of the country, and that 
 the future state could always be relied upon to oppose any move 
 that in the future might be made to dis-sever the Union of the 
 States. He further argued with his fellow-members of the com- 
 mittee and to Congress, when it met in committee of the whole, 
 that every man who had passed over the narrow portage that 
 separated the Chicago River and the Desplaines River near 
 Chicago from Marquette and Joliet down to that day, had rec- 
 
236 ILLINOIS 
 
 ognized and declared that the construction of a canal between 
 Chicago and the Illinois River, thus opening up a waterway 
 between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico, was inevitable. 
 He showed that every man in public life who had given even the 
 most cursory examination of the project, had favored the build- 
 ing of such a canal. He then contended that its building was 
 feasible only by having its termini both in the same state ; that 
 the building and operation of a canal with one terminus in Illi- 
 nois and the other in another state would be absurd and im- 
 practical. As a final, clinching argument he suggested to the 
 members of Congress elected from the northern and eastern 
 states that if Illinois was denied the opportunity to establish 
 waterway commerce with the North and East, that all of her 
 future commerce would be down the Ohio and Mississippi, and 
 that her commercial relations would naturally develop into 
 friendship for the South and southern projects. These adroit 
 and able arguments quickly proved convincing. The commit- 
 tee unanimously approved the amendment, as did both House 
 and Senate shortly after the report of the committee. 
 
 The lack of the necessary population was still an obstacle 
 to the passage of the bill. The petition of the Territorial Legis- 
 lature claimed a population of 40,000, without presenting any 
 census or proof thereof. As a matter of fact the territory had 
 no such population when the petition was drafted. The mem- 
 bers of the Territorial Legislature, when in response to public 
 demand they drafted the petition, were indulging in the patriotic 
 guess-work, which we so often note in our own day. Have we 
 not, all of us, when on a visit to another city asked one of its 
 residents what was its population? Have we not invariably 
 been given a figure much larger than the last census and fre- 
 quently much larger than the next census taken thereafter? 
 The Territorial Legislature in this manner made a generous 
 and patriotic guess and fixed the figure at 40,000. 
 
 The bill as originally drafted required the United States 
 marshal to take a census and stated that the convention should 
 not take action until he had reported a population of 40,000. 
 The able and adroit delegate from Illinois Territory, Nathaniel 
 Pope, secured an amendment allowing the Territorial Legislature 
 
ILLINOIS 237 
 
 to take the census. The census taken in the spring of 1818 
 showed a population of 34,610. The Legislature had, however, 
 provided for a supplemental census of those who might come to 
 Illinois after the first census was taken, and when this supple- 
 mental action was accomplished, the Legislature considered 
 same and reported a population later in the year of 40,258. 
 
 Even before this finding by the Legislature, the governor 
 and the people of the territory proceeded on the assumption 
 that the Enabling Act would be passed, and called for elections 
 of delegates to a convention that would accept the provisions 
 of the Enabling Act, and if advisable adopt a constitution for 
 the newly created state. Too much credit cannot be given to 
 the sagacity and ability shown by Nathaniel Pope in advocating 
 and bringing about the congressional Enabling Act signed by 
 the President of the United States, permitting the Illinois Ter- 
 ritory to become a state. All of the amendments drafted and 
 advocated by Pope were of great importance. One of these 
 amendments provided for turning over to the state three-fifths 
 of the fund of 5 per cent, which the original draft of the En- 
 abling Bill provided should be used for improving roads, for 
 educational purposes. As originally drafted, 5 per cent of the 
 proceeds of the sale of public lands were required to be utilized 
 for the building of roads. Pope's amendment required three- 
 fifths of this fund to be applied for educational purposes. 
 
 As heretofore stated, the bill provided that a census should 
 be taken by the United States marshal, which might have de- 
 layed the going into operation of the Enabling Bill for some 
 years. Pope's amendment permitted the Territorial Legislature 
 to take the census and supplemental censuses. 
 
 The most material and important amendment, however, was 
 the amendment moving the northern line of the state forty-one 
 miles north. Pope's foresight and sagacity enabled him to see 
 the value of this amendment, but he surely could not have seen 
 at that time (1818) the tremendous consequences that resulted 
 from this amendment. Of course, he knew by the exercise of 
 his foresight that it would be a wise thing for the State of 
 Illinois to have a frontage on Lake Michigan which would en- 
 able it to establish one or more ports for commerce with other 
 
238 ILLINOIS 
 
 states. He also clearly understood that it would be necessary 
 to have both termini of the future canal connecting the Great 
 Lakes with the Illinois River and Mississippi River within the 
 limits of one state, but he never could have foreseen that the 
 effect of this amendment would be in the year 1930 to place 
 the State of Illinois in the third, if not the second position of 
 power and importance in population, industry and commerce 
 among all the states of the United States. 
 
 If the reader will draw a line from a point ten miles north 
 of the lowest bend of Lake Michigan westerly from a point in 
 the lowest bend of Lake Michigan due westerly to the Mississippi 
 River, he will find that north of that line lie the counties of Jo 
 Daviess, Stevenson, Winnebago, Boone, McHenry, Lake, Carroll, 
 Ogle, DeKalb and Kane as they now exist on the map of Illinois, 
 and most of Whiteside, Lee and Cook counties, and also part of 
 Kendall and Will counties as at present constituted. In that 
 territory there lies today considerably over fifty per cent of the 
 population of Illinois, and includes within its limits the cities 
 of Rockford, Galena, Freeport, Belvidere, Woodstock, Waukegan, 
 Dixon, Oregon, Sycamore, Aurora, Wheaton, Evanston, Oak 
 Park, South Chicago, Elgin, and above all, most of the great 
 metropolitan City of Chicago. If this amendment had not been 
 offered by Pope, approved by the committee and adopted by 
 Congress and approved by the President, Illinois, instead of 
 being today the third state in political, commercial, agricultural 
 and manufacturing power in the United States, with an oppor- 
 tunity of soon becoming the second great state in the United 
 States, would have been a state with a population of about three 
 and one-half million, which would make it rank as about the 
 ninth state in importance in the United States. 
 
 Somewhere I have read that the single fist of a human being 
 prevented a break in a great levee and prevented a deluge. We 
 have seen heretofore in this history how George Rogers Clark 
 with 153 volunteer militiamen, without firing a gun or shedding 
 a drop of blood, practically decided the ownership of the great 
 Mississippi Valley. In the same way, the forethought and sagac- 
 ity and intelligence displayed by Nathaniel Pope in 1818, re- 
 sulted in placing the present State of Illinois in the proud posi- 
 
ILLINOIS 239 
 
 tion which it now occupies among the states of the United States, 
 which it never would have occupied were it not for the sagacity 
 and forethought shown by him. 
 
 Following the election which took place pursuant to the call 
 heretofore mentioned, a convention met at Kaskaskia on August 
 3, 1818. By this time the additional census returns, with the 
 patriotic assistance of Illinois census takers, was brought up 
 to 40,258, and the convention without much hesitation or critical 
 investigation accepted the count and proceeded to draw up a 
 constitution for the new state. Within twenty-one days that 
 convention adopted the constitution of 1818. Considering the 
 time consumed by the convention and the inaptitude and lack of 
 experience which most of the members of the convention had in 
 the drafting of a constitution, it was a pretty fair attempt at 
 framing an instrument suitable to the times. 
 
 Article 1 provided for the separation of the powers of the 
 state into three distinct parts, executive, legislative and judicial. 
 
 Article 2 created as a legislative authority a General Assem- 
 bly consisting of two houses, a Senate and a House of Repre- 
 sentatives. 
 
 Article 3 placed the executive power in the hands of the 
 governor. 
 
 Article 4 vested the judicial power in a Supreme Court and 
 such inferior courts as the Legislature shall from time to time 
 create. 
 
 Article 5 created a militia for the state and provided for its 
 proper organization. 
 
 Article 6 declared, "There shall be neither slavery nor in- 
 voluntary servitude in this state, otherwise than for the punish- 
 ment of crime whereof the party shall have been convicted," etc. 
 In Section 3 of Article 6, however, there was a provision which 
 validated contracts of service made under territorial laws and 
 provided that children born of indentured parents shall be free, 
 males at twenty-one and females at eighteen years of age. 
 
 Article 7 provided for the amending of the constitution. 
 
 Article 8 contained in twenty-two sections the Bill of Rights. 
 
 The constitution enabled every white male inhabitant twenty- 
 one years of age, resident in the state for six months preceding 
 
240 ILLINOIS 
 
 the election, to vote at such election. It also authorized the 
 Legislature to have control of the appointment of all judges. 
 The constitution also provided that every sixteenth section of 
 each township of Federal lands was to be given over for the 
 use of schools, and that one entire township in the state should 
 be set aside for a seminary; that all of the United States lands 
 should be exempt from taxation for six years after the sale 
 thereof, and that military bounty lands were to be exempt from 
 taxation for three years if held by the patentees or their heirs. 
 
 The section of the constitution relative to slavery and pro- 
 hibiting it in the state, as amended and finally passed, was a 
 compromise between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery members 
 of the convention. In effect, it practically admitted that the 
 former indentured laws of the territory practically amounted 
 to slavery, but provided that the children of indentured per- 
 sons were to become free. Under that provision, no indentures 
 made outside of the state could be enforced within the state, 
 but the constitution failed to bind the state not to make a re- 
 vision of the constitution which would admit slavery. Notwith- 
 standing that the constitution failed to have any provision in 
 strict accordance with the Ordinance of 1787 relative to slavery, 
 it was accepted and approved by Congress, and the President 
 signed the same on December 3, 1818, and the State of Illinois 
 came into existence as one of the states of the Union. 
 
 The constitution of 1818 differs from the constitution adopted 
 in 1870 in several important particulars. Under the consti- 
 tution of 1818, a governor or judges might be impeached by 
 the Legislature if the lower house by a majority of those pres- 
 ent voted for the impeachment and if two-thirds of those present 
 in the Senate voted for conviction. Under the present consti- 
 tution, it requires a majority for conviction of all those elected, 
 and a two-thirds vote of the Senate to secure conviction. 
 
 Under the constitution of 1818, the governor was ineligible 
 for reelection within eight years. Under the present consti- 
 tution he is eligible for reelection ad infinitum. 
 
 Under the constitution of 1818, the governor and the Su- 
 preme judges were required to revise all proposed laws before 
 their adoption, and if they disapproved of same, the laws could 
 
ILLINOIS 241 
 
 not go into effect until they were again voted for by the Legis- 
 lature and received the majority in both houses. Under the 
 constitution of 1870, there is no such provision. 
 
 Under the provisions of 1818, the governor appointed the 
 secretary of state. Under the constitution of 1870, the secre- 
 tary of state is elected. In my humble opinion, the framers of 
 the constitution of 1818 in this particular acted more wisely 
 than did the framers of the constitution of 1870. 
 
 Under the constitution of 1818, judges of the Supreme Court 
 and other courts were elected by the joint act of both houses 
 of the Legislature and held their offices during good behavior. 
 Under the constitution of 1870, they are elected by the people 
 and hold their offices for definite fixed terms. 
 
 Before closing our consideration of the constitution, it might 
 be well to ascertain who were the framers of this important 
 document. In all there were thirty-three delegates elected to 
 this convention. The counties of St. Clair, Madison and Gal- 
 latin elected three and the others two delegates each, making 
 in all thirty-three. The leading and most important members 
 of the convention were : Judge Jesse B. Thomas, Elias K. Kane, 
 Joseph Kitchell, George Fisher, Conrad Will, James Lemen, Jr., 
 Samuel O'Melveny, Benjamin Stevenson, Michael Jones, John 
 Messinger, and Enoch Moore. There were six lawyers or judges 
 in the convention : Jesse B. Thomas, Elias K. Kane, James Hall, 
 Adolphus F. Hubbard, Joseph Kitchell. Five public officials: 
 Benjamin Stephenson, Michael Jones, Willis Hargrave, William 
 McHenry, Enoch Moore. Three doctors: Caldwell Cairns, 
 George Fisher, Conrad Will. Four manufacturers: Jesse B. 
 Thomas, Conrad Will, Thomas Kirkpatrick, Leonard White. 
 One minister: James Lemen, Jr. One merchant: Abraham 
 Prickett. The rest were all farmers, etc. 
 
 Elections for public offices were held at the same time as 
 the election for the delegates to the constitutional convention, 
 at which election Shadrach Bond was elected governor, Pierre 
 Menard lieutenant governor, and John McLean a representative 
 in Congress of the State of Illinois. With these gentlemen as its 
 first public officials and with the constitution of 1818 adopted, 
 the State of Illinois started upon its career as one of the states 
 of the United States of America. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 A PICTURE OF THE INFANT STATE IN 1818 
 
 To enable the student of Illinois history even faintly to 
 understand the course of events, the difficulties of its early 
 inhabitants, the struggles of its pioneers, the rapid changes in 
 its policies and government and its marvelous and swift develop- 
 ment in population, power and political importance among the 
 states, it is necessary that we picture to the student, insofar as 
 we are able, the actual condition of the young state in 1818. 
 
 At that time, socially, politically and commercially, it was 
 a weak infant. The first settlers, as we have heretofore seen, 
 were the French coureurs de bois and traders in furs. The men 
 of financial substance who were behind the fur trade and sus- 
 taining it financially dwelt in Canada or New York. Their 
 representatives in Illinois were merely salaried men, or men 
 working on commission, very few of whom had acquired a 
 competence. With the exception of Colonel Vigo, a Spaniard; 
 Pierre Menard, Cerra and a few others, shrewd and intelligent 
 and intellectually-gifted Frenchmen, the inhabitants of Illinois 
 before the advent of George Rogers Clark were poor but honest 
 men who exerted little influence in the framing of laws and 
 developing the agricultural richness of the state. The native 
 American or English-speaking settlers that followed the French 
 came almost exclusively from Kentucky, Tennessee and the 
 southern states. Illinois was easily accessible to the incomers 
 from the South who came up the Mississippi and down the Ohio 
 and its tributaries. Water transportation was the easier and 
 less laborious method of travel of that day. 
 
 The Alleghany and Appalachian mountains presented to the 
 man of the eastern and northern states almost insurmountable 
 obstacles to travel. Railroads were non-existent and automo- 
 biles undreamed of. Steamboats were just beginning to appear 
 
 242 
 
First Governor of Illinois 
 
 (Courtesy Illinois State Historical Library.) 
 
244 ILLINOIS 
 
 upon the western rivers. Shipping on the Great Lakes was 
 still in the hands of the fur traders, and so insignificant in 
 amount even up to the year 1830 as to be practically unmen- 
 tioned in the contemporary history of that day. With the ex- 
 ception of a few merchants from Philadelphia and a few agents 
 for eastern houses who were merely sojourners, the English- 
 speaking settlers were all from the South. A few of these were 
 men of education and ability, almost all of whom were Federal 
 officials or men with political ambitions who aspired to become 
 officials in the new territory. Some of them brought slaves and 
 other personal property into the territory, but men of financial 
 substance in the new state in 1818 were few and far between. 
 Of the 35,000 people within the state upon its admission to 
 statehood, there were probably not over thirty-five who could 
 draw a check for $10,000 that would be honored by any bank 
 in the United States. The great mass of the people in Illinois 
 in 1818 were poor, vigorous, self-reliant, courageous men, 
 women and children, who had braved the wilderness in the 
 hope of sustaining life with the rifle, the hoe, and the axe, until 
 they could wring from the soil and the forest a pre-empted or 
 "squatter" farm for themselves and their children. 
 
 They dressed in homespun or deerskins and were nourished 
 mainly on the meat of wild birds and wild animals and the fish 
 in the streams. They supplemented this food with a little corn, 
 roasted or roughly ground into meal, and vegetables grown 
 around their log cabins. Capital was exceedingly scarce in Illi- 
 nois in that day and indebtedness was almost universal. Lux- 
 uries were almost unknown and the necessities of life hardly 
 earned. There were no reformatories or penitentiaries and prac- 
 tically no jails; consequently no imprisonment for crime. Mur- 
 ders and arsons occasioning loss of life were punishable with 
 hanging. All other crimes were punishable with the lash, pillory 
 or the stocks. Brutal crimes less than the taking of life were 
 punished with as high as 500 stripes on the bare back, or brand- 
 ing with a hot iron. There were no public schools, and the few 
 private schools were illy equipped and the teachers as a rule 
 capable of imparting to their scholars but the simplest funda- 
 mentals of education. As to society, polish and refinement were 
 
ILLINOIS 245 
 
 unknown except in the homes of public officials and a few well- 
 to-do merchants. As a rule the French habitants were poor, vir- 
 tuous and happy. 
 
 These settlements in Illinois being so weak, and so far 
 removed from any civilized community, and amidst sav- 
 age nations of Indians, that the inhabitants were forced to 
 rely on each other for self preservation. This made them 
 kind and friendly to each other. 
 
 These virtues were cherished and cultivated for ages, 
 and transmitted through many generations; so that kind- 
 ness and generosity became a fixed character with the 
 Creole French. 
 
 They were ambitious for neither knowledge nor wealth, 
 and therefore possessed not much of either. That sleep- 
 less, ferocious ambition to acquire wealth and power which 
 seizes on so many people at this day, never was known 
 amongst the early settlers of Illinois. The French of these 
 twenty-two years had exactly, almost to a mathematical 
 certainty, a competency of "worldly gear." There is a 
 happy medium between the extremes of poverty and wealth, 
 if mankind could settle on it, that would render them the 
 most happy. These people had, at that day, in my opinion, 
 found the "philosophers' stone" of wealth and happiness. 
 They lived in that fortunate medium, which forced itself 
 on them than they on it. 1 
 
 The people being governed by the precepts of the gos- 
 pel enforced by the power and influence of the church 
 formed a pious and religious community, which was the 
 basis of the happiness of the Illinois people in the primitive 
 times. 
 
 This was the golden age of Illinois, and at no subse- 
 quent period will the people enjoy the same happiness. 
 Wealth and greatness do not necessarily make a community 
 happy. Christian virtues must govern the heart before a 
 people can be prosperous or happy. 2 
 
 In the ball room much order and decorum are observed. 
 Two aged discreet persons are chosen, who are called Pro- 
 vosts ; one to select the ladies for the dance, and the other 
 for the gentlemen, so that each one dances in proper turn. 
 It is in this manner that these innocent and merry people 
 spend much of their nights in the winter. The old people 
 
 1 Reynolds, Pioneer History of Illinois, page 37. 
 
 2 Reynolds, Pioneer History of Illinois, page 38. 
 
246 ILLINOIS 
 
 regulate all ; the time to retire and the time to meet again. 
 By this regulation, much of the excesses of dancing parties 
 are avoided. The young people are not so capable to judge 
 in these matters as the old. 
 
 The French, in the early settlement of the country, 
 turned their attention to the Indian trade, and to hunting, 
 in a great measure, for their support. Game was then 
 plenty. Buffalo and other wild animals were found in the 
 prairies between Kaskaskia and Vincennes, that served to 
 supply the inhabitants with food. The Indians called the 
 Kaskaskia "Raccoon River," for the number of those ani- 
 mals living on it. A great many of the inhabitants were 
 expert voyagers and hunters. These hunters and voyagers 
 were a hardy and energetic race of men. No hardships of 
 perils terrified them ; and this laborious and difficult service 
 was performed with pleasure, and freqeuntly with songs. 
 Often, these innocent and kind hearted men performed this 
 labor with scanty allowance of food, and at times without 
 anything, for day together, to eat. 
 
 These people solved the problem: that an honest and 
 virtuous people need no government. Nothing like a reg- 
 ular court of law ever existed in the country prior to the 
 English occupation of Illinois, in the year 1763. 3 
 
 This course of life of the Creole French, has secured 
 them from any infractions almost entirely of the penal laws 
 of the country. Very few, or none of the Creoles were ever 
 indicted for the crimes the law books style malum in se. 
 Not one, to my knowledge, was ever in the penitentiary for 
 a crime. I believe, the records of the courts in Illinois do 
 not exhibit an indictment against a Creole Frenchman, for 
 any crime higher than keeping his grocery open on a pro- 
 hibited day of the week. 4 
 
 Commercial business was largely confined to barter and ex- 
 change of commodities. The population of the state at that 
 time was confined to the southern twenty-four counties lying 
 along the banks of the Ohio, Wabash and Mississippi rivers. 
 The northern and central three-quarters of the state were prac- 
 tically uninhabited by white men. The Kickapoo Indians still 
 maintained their wigwams in the middle of the state and still 
 used that territory as their hunting-grounds. The northwestern 
 
 3 From page 53, Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois. 
 
 4 From page 101, Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois. 
 
Illinois in 1818 at the Time of Admission to Statehood 
 
248 ILLINOIS 
 
 portion of the state was still occupied by the Sauk and Foxes 
 under military supervision by American soldiers, at Fort Arm- 
 strong, near what is now Rock Island on the Mississippi River. 
 To the east of these two tribes lay the villages of the Winne- 
 bagoes and Pottawatomies. At Fort Edwards on the Missis- 
 sippi, near the mouth of the Illinois, at Fort Clark, the present 
 site of Peoria, and at Fort Dearborn, in what is now Chicago, 
 the Federal Government maintained garrisons of United States 
 Regulars. Outside of these troops and a few white hangers-on, 
 there were practically no white men in Northern or Central 
 Illinois except the French traders and the agents of the Ameri- 
 can Fur Company who were still trading with the Indians. 
 
 Fear of the Indians who were still resentful over the loss 
 of their lands, and the delay of the United States Government 
 in passing laws and establishing regulations under which set- 
 tlers could secure title to these lands, delayed the settlement of 
 the northern and central portions of the state for a few years 
 after the admission of the state into the Union. 
 
 Before patent titles could be given to settlers or purchasers, 
 it was necessary to survey the land so as to give a definite 
 description of same in the patents. The method of surveying 
 adopted by the Government was as follows: The face of the 
 county was surveyed due east and west, and due north and south, 
 into rectangular townships of six miles square. In each town- 
 ship there were set off thirty-six sections, each containing 640 
 acres of land and each section could be divided into four quarter- 
 sections of 160 acres each. On the assumption that these Gov- 
 ernment lands should be a means of paying the national debt, 
 they were first disposed of in large tracts of millions of acres 
 to large investment interests and corporations who claimed that 
 they were about to colonize same. In 1815, however, the Gov- 
 ernment began to place lands on sale in small lots at auction 
 at $2 per acre, payable in four annual installments. Many 
 purchasers on these terms defaulted on making their annual 
 payments, having bought only for speculation without intending 
 to settle on the lands or improve the same. The Government 
 therefore, in 1820, abandoned the program of selling on credit 
 and placed the unsold land on the market for $1.25 per acre 
 
ILLINOIS 249 
 
 cash. The immediate but temporary effect of this change was 
 to slow up purchases. The Government, before offering the 
 lands at $1.25 cash, had parted with a large amount of land to 
 the French occupants, on military warrants and to speculators, 
 who had paid only 50 cents per acre cash. These latter lands 
 were on the market for sale in competition with the unsold 
 Government lands and could be purchased on better terms than 
 those fixed by the Government. 
 
 This situation for a time retarded Government sales. In 
 1822 they had sunk to about 27,000 acres. In 1826 they in- 
 creased to about 80,000. In 1827 they fell to 50,000. Sales 
 of 100,000 acres per annum were not made by the Government 
 until 1829. The sales made in the land offices at Kaskaskia, 
 Vandalia and Shawneetown where lands in Southern Illinois 
 were offered for sale, were very small. These three land offices 
 combined were only able to sell in 1821 14,000 acres; in 1822, 
 about 6,000 acres; in 1823 about 2,600; in 1824, about 4,000; in 
 1825, about 3,000; in 1826, about 5,500; in 1827, about 7,400, 
 and in 1828 about 11,500 acres. Many old settlers in Southern 
 Illinois had only "squatter" rights to the lands they occupied 
 and public opinion against those who attempted to buy over 
 their heads was overwhelming, and made itself manifest in 
 Congress, where legislation was finally passed compelling all 
 purchasers at public sales to fully recompense the "squatter" 
 for all his labor and improvements before they could obtain good 
 title. 
 
 Between 1820 and 1831 inclusive, thirty-eight new counties 
 were created in the State of Illinois, most of which were laid 
 out on both sides of the Illinois River and its tributaries, and 
 adjoining or near to said river, and as far north as the present 
 City of Peoria, which plainly indicates that most of the land 
 purchases and settlements made in the '20s of the nineteenth 
 century were in Central Illinois. In the third and fourth decades 
 of the same century most of the new counties were created 
 in the northern and eastern portions of the state, indicating 
 just as plainly that the settlements made in those decades were 
 in those sections. It was in the early '20s of the nineteenth 
 century, soon after the land began to be offered to settlers at 
 
250 ILLINOIS 
 
 $1.25 per acre, that the real expansion in population began in 
 Illinois. In 1820 the population of the state was about 55,000, 
 and land purchases were at low ebb in Southern Illinois. In the 
 early '20s, however, purchases from the Government were in- 
 creasing in Central Illinois. By 1830 the population had in- 
 creased to 157,000 and by 1840 it leaped up to 476,000 in Central 
 and Northern Illinois. 
 
 George W. Smith, in his valuable history of Illinois, de- 
 clares that "in the summer of 1825 immigration revived con- 
 siderably. A great tide set in towards the center of the state. 
 Through Vandalia alone 250 wagons were counted in three weeks' 
 time, all going northward. Destined for Sangamon County 
 alone, eighty wagons and 400 people were counted in two weeks' 
 time. Sangamon County was at that time without doubt the 
 most populous county in the state." What was the racial origin 
 or nationality? 
 
 Up to 1818 we have seen most of the immigrants into Illinois 
 were from the South, but of different racial stocks. Governor 
 Reynolds says that the first colony of foreign immigrants from 
 the South were Irish. They arrived from Kentucky under the 
 leadership of Samuel O'Melveny in 1805. They settled on the 
 Ohio River in Illinois, about fifteen miles from Golconda, in 
 Pope County, and sent O'Melveny as a delegate to the Constitu- 
 tional Convention from Pope County in 1818. They grew rap- 
 idly in numbers, he says, and in 1830 there were seventy-five 
 families in the settlement. Another group of Irish settlers lo- 
 cated at Plum Creek, in Randolph County, near Kaskaskia, be- 
 fore 1810. A much larger settlement of English, immigrants 
 was made in Edwards County under the leadership of Morris 
 Birkbeck and George Flower, two intelligent and earnest Eng- 
 lishmen. In all, there were probably 300 families in this settle- 
 ment. Another group of English colonists settled in Monroe 
 County in 1817 under the leadership of Thomas Winstanley, 
 locating and building a Catholic Church at Prairie du Long 
 Creek. Quite a number of German colonists located in St. Clair 
 County between St. Louis and Belleville about 1815 and they 
 were followed by others who settled in the southeast portion of 
 the county near the Kaskaskia River and on Clear Creek near 
 
ILLINOIS 251 
 
 Jonesborough. The prominent leaders of these German colonists 
 were Germain and Markee. Ferdinand Emert, a German leader, 
 brought a colony of Germans from Hanover to the neighborhood 
 of Vandalia about the time that the capital was moved to that 
 place from Kaskaskia. According to Historian George W. 
 Smith, native Americans in 1830 outnumbered all foreign-born 
 settlers in Illinois about seven to one. The German-born were 
 the most numerous. The other foreign-born settlers ranked 
 according to their numbers as follows: English, Irish, Scotch, 
 French, Swiss, Welsh and Spanish. 
 
 The overwhelming majority of the 35,000 people in the state 
 when it was admitted to the Union came from the southern 
 states and were impregnated with southern ideas and habits. 
 They were either laborers, mechanics or small farmers in the 
 states from which they emigrated, or landless men with little 
 or no capital. Upon their arrival in Illinois they resorted to 
 hunting up locations for "squatter" rights, building rude cabins, 
 clearing the lumber lands, and fighting off hunger with their 
 rifles and fishing tackle. Tillage and hog and cattle raising 
 soon followed. Until 1830 farming and cattle raising were prac- 
 tically the sole occupations of the men of Illinois. 
 
 The enormous mining and manufacturing industries which 
 for many decades past have made Illinois one of the richest 
 and most productive states in America were then not only non- 
 existent but undreamed of. While outcroppings of coal had 
 been discovered before 1830, its use as a fuel was unappre- 
 ciated and unknown. A few sawmills were in. existence and 
 lumbering was practiced, but only for local and home consump- 
 tion. There was no demand for lumber outside of the local 
 settlements, and commerce in either coal or lumber was non- 
 existent. The lumber from their rude sawmills was used for 
 building purposes, and for making wagons, farming implements 
 and furniture for local use. These sawmills were mostly operated 
 by horse-power until the use of steam-power commenced about 
 1830, when steam sawmills were erected and utilized. 
 
 There were no railroads nor even decent wagon roads at 
 this time, and even if there had been a demand from outside of 
 the state for Illinois lumber or coal, that demand could not have 
 
252 ILLINOIS 
 
 been answered by Illinois. Coal had been used in small quanti- 
 ties about 1825 by settlers on the prairies where they had no 
 timber, but its use was exceedingly rare because of the difficulty 
 of transportation. In 1835 the Legislature gave a charter to 
 the Mount Carbon Coal Company, but it could not have been a 
 prosperous concern for its property was offered for sale in 1836. 
 
 The only other manufacturing industries carried on in the 
 new state were brick-making, milling and salt-making, and 
 these were only sufficient to supply local demands. Where water 
 fall of sufficient force existed, water-power wheels were used 
 both for sawing lumber and grinding grain, but only for the 
 purpose of supplying local demands, and not for general com- 
 mercial purposes. In 1817 Judge Jesse B. Thomas established 
 a carding machine at Cahokia, but it is undoubtedly the fact 
 that manufacturing in Illinois when it became a state was of 
 the most rudimentary and insignificant character. 
 
 In speaking of the American people of that day, Governor 
 Reynolds says : "Our name, blood and lineage are American and 
 not Anglo-Saxon. It is true that most of the Americans are 
 descendants of Europeans, but the preponderance of blood is 
 not of the Anglo-Saxon race. There are more of the descendants 
 of the Irish and Germans in the United States than of English. 
 In fact the American race at present is so compounded and im- 
 proved that we are a stock of our own." (P. 122, Reynolds' 
 History.) 
 
 Education and Religion. 
 
 Up to the date of its admission to statehood, little had been 
 done for education in the frontier state. There were no public 
 schools then nor for many years afterward. The little education 
 that was imparted was by private teachers for pay. This is 
 not to be wondered at. The prime necessity of the frontiers- 
 man was the preservation of his life and the lives of his depend- 
 ents. To preserve life he needed shelter, food and clothing. To 
 secure these he was compelled to give his whole time and energy. 
 He had to build his cabin and shelter for his live stock, to 
 watch the Indians, to track the wild game, and to make his 
 traps and fish nets in order by hook or crook to keep hunger 
 
ILLINOIS 253 
 
 from his door. He had no time for education or for following 
 the outward forms of religion. He built no schools or churches, 
 nor had he the means to pay others for so doing. 
 
 The French habitants in Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Prairie du 
 Rocher and other French settlements still had and maintained 
 the churches that they had erected during the French regime 
 and divine service was well attended in these up to and long 
 after Illinois became a state. Private instruction, both religious 
 and lay, was doubtless given in these churches and in their 
 Sunday schools in French by the French missionaries, some of 
 whom remained during the American administration. A French 
 clergyman named Des Moulin is mentioned by historian Pease 
 in the second volume of the Centennial History of Illinois as 
 conducting a French and Latin school at Kaskaskia. A New 
 England schoolma'am operated a private school at Lalu. These 
 private schools were generally of the grade of grammar schools. 
 Girl schools were also in evidence where needle-work, painting 
 and other specialties were taught. It was not until 1825, or 
 seven years after Illinois became a state, that the Legislature 
 took action in reference to the establishment of free public 
 schools. At this stage of public affairs, 1825, the hardy pio- 
 neers of the state had been somewhat relieved from the onerous 
 burdens of their early struggles to maintain their lives and 
 protect their growing properties and could give some attention 
 to the neglected education of their young, and from this time 
 forward the desire of the people for both primary and advanced 
 education in both public and private schools became widespread 
 and emphatic. But schools and churches were still woefully 
 lacking for the common people till about 1830. 
 
 At Galena, in 1829, Kent's school claimed that it taught 
 Latin and Greek. At Alton an endowed school offered free edu- 
 cation to all children residing within the corporation. In 1827 
 the Rev. John Mason Peck opened a theological seminary pri- 
 marily for the education of ministers, but offering instruction 
 to all in literature and the sciences. A desire for the spread of 
 both religion and education soon became apparent. 
 
 The first waves of pioneer settlers in the state naturally 
 by outward action showed but little evidence of the inner feel- 
 
254 ILLINOIS 
 
 ings of these hardy men towards religious ceremonies. The 
 clergymen and Sunday school teachers of their old homes had 
 not accompanied them into the wilderness. Except among 
 the French habitants there were no preachers, teachers or houses 
 of worship in the new land. Instead of hunting for churches 
 which were non-existent for non-Catholics, they acquired the 
 habit of hunting for game, which was abundant. This non- 
 attendance at religious meetings was not proof that they were 
 all irreligious. As soon as clergymen of their own respective 
 religious cults began to arrive and as soon as these reverend 
 men secured churches or even temporary houses of worship, 
 thousands of them felt and responded to the call to return to 
 the teachings of their youth and filled the churches with zealous 
 believers in the Christian faith. Most of these men from the 
 Southland had been raised in the faith of the Methodist, Bap- 
 tist or Presbyterian churches, and the ministers of these 
 churches soon began campaigns for the revival of religious order 
 among the pioneers around them in Illinois. Among the Meth- 
 odist clergy, Peter Cartwright, Jesse Walker and James Axley 
 were the most earnest, eloquent and successful. In 1824 the 
 Methodist Church in Illinois had a presiding elder, nine circuits 
 and eleven preachers, and a membership of 3,705 whites and 
 twenty-seven colored. 
 
 The sale and consumption of hard liquor in all frontier set- 
 tlements were almost universal and Illinois was no exception 
 to the general rule. No gathering of men for social, political 
 or commercial purposes was regarded as a success unless whis- 
 key, rum or brandy was furnished in liberal quantities to round 
 out and enliven the proceedings. Governmental officials charged 
 with the duties of securing treaties with the Indians had no 
 hesitation about smoothing out the negotiations with a liberal 
 supply of fire-water. Home- and barn-raisings, quilting par- 
 ties, horse-racing and political gatherings were enlivened in 
 the same manner. The Methodist ministers were among the 
 first to decry and inveigh against this almost universal custom. 
 If they did not succeed in eradicating the habit, they at least 
 limited its universality. Many Baptist clergymen and exhorters 
 appeared in Southern Illinois during the first decade of the 
 
ILLINOIS 255 
 
 state's history. That denomination claimed in 1825 to have 
 within the limits of the state fifty-eight preachers and exhorters. 
 The Christian cults known as the Emancipating Brethren and 
 the Christian Body had each thirteen preachers. The ablest and 
 most prominent of the Baptist preachers was John Mason Peck. 
 In 1817 he represented the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions 
 at St. Louis. In 1822 the Massachusetts Missionary Society 
 appointed him a missionary and he crossed the river from Mis- 
 souri into Illinois. His indefatigable zeal enabled him to estab- 
 lish and maintain Bible societies, Sunday schools and missionary 
 branches and bring many into the Baptist fold. His success, 
 however, created some jealousy among the pioneer preachers 
 of his own faith who were not so gifted or so well educated as 
 himself, but this in no way weakened his zeal or retarded his 
 success. After the Methodists and Baptists, the Presbyterians 
 were next in importance in numbers in the '20s. In 1825 the 
 Presbyterian preachers numbered sixteen. There were also a 
 few Universalists in the state, and the Dunkards, Covenanters 
 and Independents had each one preacher among them. Very 
 few Catholics had come in from the South excepting the few 
 Irish families who arrived with O'Melveny. They erected a 
 Catholic Church in their settlement and secured the occasional 
 services of a Catholic priest. The French steadfastly main- 
 tained Catholic services in all their settlements and as the north- 
 ern and central portions of their state began to be populated 
 from the East and from abroad, they began materially to in- 
 crease in numbers and commenced to erect churches and secure 
 the services of Catholic priests. Governor Reynolds, in his 
 history, locates three English-speaking Catholic (churches in 
 Illinois before the year 1830. 
 
 Banks and Currency, 
 
 When Illinois became a state there were only two banks in 
 existence within its territory, one the Bank of Illinois located 
 at Shawneetown, and one the Bank of Edwardsville located in 
 the city of that name. The officers of the former bank were all 
 substantial residents of Shawneetown and conducted its busi- 
 ness in an efficient manner and sustained its credit while doing 
 
O CO 
 <N CO 
 
 00 00 
 
 
 £ S 
 
 > 
 O 
 
ILLINOIS 257 
 
 business. This bank, however, ceased doing business a short 
 time after the state was admitted into the Union. The other 
 bank, at Edwardsville, although sponsored by Governor Ninian 
 Edwards, was backed by men of doubtful financial responsibility. 
 Most of its $300,000 stock was held by Kentuckians and only 
 one-tenth of its stock was paid into its treasury. In 1821 it 
 failed disastrously while largely in debt to the United Staes for 
 deposits made to the credit of the Federal treasury. 
 
 The currency in use in the fledgling state for all commercial 
 transactions was of a most grotesque and ridiculous character. 
 The notes of the Edwardsville Bank were regarded with well- 
 founded suspicion, and the notes of the Bank of Illinois were 
 limited in number and hard to And. All kinds of bank notes 
 from all kinds of banks were peddled about, at all kinds of dis- 
 counts. Some were issued by solvent banks, some by specie- 
 paying banks, some by banks that had already failed, some by 
 banks that were about to fail, some were counterfeits and some 
 were purported to be issued by banks that never existed. In 
 this situation the doors were thrown open for swindling and 
 deception. 
 
 In payment for the lands sold to settlers, the United States 
 would accept the notes only of solvent eastern banks or of the 
 United States Bank, so that all the bank notes of value were 
 drained into the United States Treasury. Nearly all the grain, 
 Mississippi to New Orleans and sold in a glutted market where 
 there was no facility for exchanging credits with the eastern 
 stock, and other products of the farms, were shipped down the 
 states. Clothes, shoes and house furnishings, all of which were 
 manufactured in the East, and all of which were needed by the 
 people in Illinois, could not be purchased because of the want 
 of a reliable currency and the almost universal indebtedness of 
 the Illinois settlers. 
 
 Such was the gloomy condition of financial affairs when the 
 young State of Illinois started on a financial career which has 
 recently landed her as the second richest state in the United 
 States. In June, 1929, the State of Illinois paid to the Federal 
 Government the second largest income tax paid by the states 
 of the Union. 
 
258 ILLINOIS 
 
 In the last few pages we have attempted to envisage social, 
 commercial, manufacturing and financial conditions of the young 
 state and its inhabitants at its birth. If strict truth be told, we 
 cannot boast that it was a lusty, vigorous infant. Its popula- 
 tion was in fact less than that required by the Federal ordi- 
 nances relating to the Northwest Territory. Its constitution was 
 rather restrictive of popular power and somewhat hazy and 
 cryptic with relation to human servitude. The great body of 
 the people, while brave, energetic and earnestly striving for the 
 opportunity to acquire land and build up homes, were as a rule 
 wretchedly poor and unused to the methods of self-government. 
 Education, except among a few who had acquired advanced 
 education in other states and countries, was often of the most 
 rudimentary character. Religion was at low ebb except among 
 the old French habitants. 
 
 And yet no young state was ever born in the United States 
 at a time and under circumstances so propitious for the rapid 
 growth and extraordinary development into a great common- 
 wealth, as we will be able to demonstrate in the next chapter. 
 Its location in the United States, with its waterway connections 
 both toward the North and East, as well as to the South and 
 West, made it the heart of the nation and the nerve-center of 
 the United States of America, soon to become the richest and 
 most powerful republic in the whole world. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 THE FIGHT FOR SLAVERY 
 
 To the student of history in the twentieth century, it seems 
 incredible that at any time in the history of Illinois a consid- 
 erable number of its citizens were in favor of establishing slav- 
 ery of human beings as a part of the policy and law of the 
 state ; and yet such is the historical fact. 
 
 It must be remembered that human slavery had been installed 
 within the borders of what is now Illinois by the early French 
 colonizers in the eighteenth century and that it had never been 
 legally abolished either under French, British or American ad- 
 ministrations. Indeed, under American territorial administra- 
 tion, slaves had been brought into Illinois by some of the most 
 prominent officials of the territory and state, and remained as 
 slaves in the territory until and after the admission of the state 
 into the Union. It also must be remembered that the great 
 majority of the residents of the state in 1818 had come from 
 the slave-holding states south of the Ohio River. They had 
 been accustomed to and were satisfied with the conditions of the 
 "institution," as it was called in the southern states. It gave 
 them no shock to find slaves in Illinois. There was no concerted 
 move to abolish slavery in Illinois before its admission as a 
 state. It was favored and encouraged by many and quietly 
 tolerated by others. It had not, during territorial days, become 
 a vital question or a subject for controversy. 
 
 When its people applied for admission as a state they were 
 confronted with the United States Ordinance of 1787, creating 
 the Northwest Territory, which read as follows : 
 
 The following articles shall be considered as articles of 
 compact between the original states and the people and 
 states in said territory and forever remain unalterable. 
 
 259 
 
260 ILLINOIS 
 
 Article 6: There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary 
 servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in punish- 
 ment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly 
 convicted. 
 
 The pro-slavery members of the constitutional convention 
 evidently were in control of the same and were as anxious for 
 creation of the state as those who were opposed to slavery. 
 All members favored statehood. Unless some declaration against 
 slavery were incorporated into the constitution, they knew the 
 proposed constitution would be rejected by Congress and state- 
 hood refused. In this extremity the pro-slavery people skil- 
 fully and adroitly drafted a provision against slavery which 
 satisfied the anti-slavery element in the convention and by its 
 weasel words finally secured the approval of Congress, while its 
 anti-slavery members were asleep or mystified by its language. 
 
 These were the words which were so cleverly inserted con- 
 cerning slavery in the first Constitution of Illinois: "Neither 
 slavery nor involuntary servitude shall hereafter be introduced 
 into this state otherwise than for the punishment of crimes/' 
 etc. Slavery had already been introduced into the state. Slaves 
 and indentured servants, who were in almost as abject a con- 
 dition of service as slaves, were numerous in Illinois at the 
 time this constitution was adopted and noting the word "here- 
 after" in the constitution there was a rush to have indentured 
 articles approved before the constitution went into effect. 
 
 In considering the peculiar phraseology of the constitutional 
 provisions of Illinois in 1818, let us compare it with the consti- 
 tutional provisions of the states of Ohio and Indiana, both of 
 which states were carved out of the same Northwest Territory 
 as was Illinois. All of these three states when admitted to 
 statehood were subject to the terms and conditions of the Ordi- 
 nance of 1787 which created the Northwest Territory. When 
 the State of Ohio adopted its constitution for admission to the 
 Union it prohibited slavery, but it did not pledge the state or its 
 people not to amend the constitution in the future, and its rep- 
 resentative in Congress, Mr. Harrison, claimed afterwards that 
 the state had a right to amend its constitution on the subject 
 
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 (From Illinois Blue Book.) 
 
262 ILLINOIS 
 
 of slavery at any time it saw fit to do so. The State of Indiana, 
 when it was admitted to the Union, adopted a constitutional 
 provision against slavery and bound its people for all time not 
 to amend its constitution so as to legalize or permit slavery 
 within its borders. The State of Illinois, it will be noted in the 
 provisions of its constitution, neither abolishes slavery at once 
 nor contains any pledge not to amend its constitution on that 
 subject at any time thereafter. Its failure to adopt the pro- 
 visions of either of the Ohio or Indiana constitutions on the 
 subject of slavery is specially significant in view of the fact 
 that both of these constitutions had been adopted by these states 
 before that of Illinois, and the members of the Illinois Consti- 
 tutional Convention must have had the constitutions of these 
 other states before them when they framed the Constitution of 
 Illinois. The inference is conclusive that the Constitution of 
 Illinois was drafted by pro-slavery penmen in the convention 
 deliberately, so as to preserve the rights of existing slave-holders 
 and those having indentured servants, and to permit the re- 
 opening of the issue of slavery after the admission of the state 
 into the Union by an amendment to the Constitution of 1818, or 
 by a new constitution thereafter to be adopted. To have framed 
 a constitution favoring slavery, or one making no declaration 
 on the subject, would have invited a denial by Congress of the 
 application for statehood. Therefore, some declaration against 
 slavery was necessary, and a cleverly-worded declaration against 
 slavery, but reserving a method of reopening the question, was 
 devised and carried in the convention, and secured both state- 
 hood and the opportunity of further discussion and amendment. 
 That opportunity soon arose and was promptly seized by the pro- 
 slavery element in the state. 
 
 Governor Shadrach Bond was elected in 1818; his term of 
 office expired in 1822. As under the constitution he was in- 
 eligible for reelection at that time. Edward Coles announced 
 his candidacy for governor in October, 1821. He was a cultured, 
 college-bred gentleman, the son of a colonel in the Revolutionary 
 war. His family was on terms of intimacy with Jefferson, Pat- 
 rick Henry, James Madison and other prominent men in Vir- 
 ginia. He became by heritage the owner of a considerable estate 
 
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264 ILLINOIS 
 
 and a score or more of slaves. He acted as private secretary to 
 President Madison from 1809 until 1815. In 1814 he addressed 
 a letter to ex-President Jefferson, asking the latter to exercise 
 his power as a statesman to bring about the emancipation of 
 the slaves of the United States, which evoked from that great 
 man the following response : "The hour of emancipation is ad- 
 vancing in the march of time. It will come. This enterprise 
 (emancipation) shall have all my prayers, and these are the 
 only weapons of an old man." Mr. Coles was appointed by 
 President Madison special ambassador to Russia and had trav- 
 eled extensively in Europe, visiting Russia, France and Great 
 Britain. He spent some time in France, where he met General 
 LaFayette and other distinguished Frenchmen. While travel- 
 ing through England he met Morris Birkbeck, a very intelligent 
 and successful tenant farmer in Wiltshire, near Oxford, and 
 told him of the very rich and undeveloped agricultural land in 
 Illinois. His description of the Illinois country so interested 
 Birkbeck that the latter soon afterward came to Illinois to inves- 
 tigate conditions. Birkbeck was so favorably impressed with 
 what he saw here that he speedily returned to England and 
 quickly organized a colony of English farmers and farm hands, 
 brought them to Illinois, and established a large and flourishing 
 colony of Englishmen at or near Albion, in Edwards County. 
 
 After his return from Europe, Coles again visited Illinois 
 in 1818 and was present in Kaskaskia when the first consti- 
 tutional convention was in session. He had then been offered 
 by President Madison the position of registrar of the land 
 office at Edwardsville. This position had a good salary attached 
 and moreover was a most advantageous one, in that it offered 
 a splendid opportunity for developing a wide acquaintance with 
 the general public. Coles was politically ambitious and clearly 
 saw the gates of future advancement opening before him. He 
 promptly selected Edwardsville as his future home, and, being 
 a man of some means, secured a considerable amount of land 
 there for his farm development. Returning to his Virginia 
 estate in 1819, Coles arranged for its future care, packed such 
 personal property as he needed in Illinois in wagons, and with 
 horses, wagons and about twenty slaves that he owned traveled 
 
ILLINOIS 265 
 
 overland and by water to Illinois. At Brownsville, Pennsylvania, 
 he secured two large flatboats and floated down to Pittsburgh 
 and thence down the Ohio. While on the Ohio one day he ordered 
 the boats pulled to shore, and after surrounding himself with 
 his slaves he announced their main mission. He then told 
 them he was going to locate in Illinois and described to them 
 its rich fields and their future opportunities if they would locate 
 with him. He promised them each emancipation from slavery, 
 and 160 acres of land and help for farming, and they, of course, 
 joyfully accepted their freedom and every one of them agreed 
 to accompany him to Edwardsville. Before landing in Illinois 
 Coles gave each of his slaves a written certificate of freedom 
 and all settled around his home near Edwardsville. Upon his 
 arrival there Coles commenced his work as land registrar and 
 rapidly made a wide acquaintance, and by his agreeable man- 
 ners made friends of these acquaintances. In October, 1821, 
 or about two years afterwards, he announced his candidacy 
 for governor and was elected to that office in 1822. 
 
 To move into a state a stranger and become its governor at 
 the very next election, and all within three years after appear- 
 ance in the state was an exhibition of what a politician of this 
 day would call "fast work/' which has not often been equalled. 
 I myself however unwittingly approximated 00168' record of 
 expedition in securing election to prominent office in 1905. For 
 several years before that year I had been living in River Forest 
 outside of Chicago's corporate limits in Cook County and sitting 
 as judge in the Circuit Court of Cook County. My family was 
 growing rapidly, my eleventh and twelfth children (twins) 
 being born in 1901. Our home in River Forest became too small 
 to accommodate our family and we sold that home in River 
 Forest in 1902. We found a residence in Chicago more suitable 
 to our family needs. Within three years thereafter I was 
 elected mayor of Chicago. When I made the move in 1902 I 
 had not the slightest idea of becoming a candidate for mayor 
 of Chicago. Only a citizen of Chicago was eligible for the posi- 
 tion. So far as we can learn there was not a single man in Illi- 
 nois of political prominence who backed his candidacy. Governor 
 Ninian Edwards, who was probably the most active politician 
 
266 ILLINOIS 
 
 and most indefatigable political writer of his day, does not in 
 any of his published letters mention Coles' name. Coles' com- 
 petitors in the race were three: Chief Justice Phillips of the 
 Supreme Bench, Associate Justice Thomas C. Brown of Shaw- 
 neetown and Gen. James B. Moore. Of the four candidates, 
 Coles and Moore were opposed to slavery, while Phillips and 
 Brown were known to be in favor thereof. The result of the 
 election must have been a surprise and keen disappointment 
 to the pro-slavery element, for, while it demonstrated that the 
 pro-slavery party had the most votes, the anti-slavery party 
 had more political sagacity and success. The vote according to 
 different accounts was as follows: Coles, 2810 or 2854; Phillips, 
 2760 or 2687; Brown, 2543 or 2443; Moore, 522 or 622. If 
 we add the votes cast for Phillips and Brown together we find 
 that the pro-slavery candidates had 5303 votes, while the anti- 
 slavery candidates, Coles and Moore, received only 3,332 votes 
 in the aggregate. In other words, the pro-slavery element 
 divided their votes almost equally between the two pro-slavery 
 candidates, while the anti-slavery element cast the immense 
 preponderance of their votes for Coles. A plurality of fifty 
 or 167 votes had elected an anti-slavery governor in what was 
 then a pro-slavery state! What a narrow escape had Illinois 
 from starting out on a career of advocacy of slavery in 1822! 
 
 Immediately after his inauguration as governor, Coles forced 
 the slavery issue to the front. In his inaugural address he dis- 
 cussed four subjects of prime public importance, — finances, agri- 
 culture, canal and slavery. The last of these subjects, however, 
 turned out to be the first in public interest. Governor Coles 
 recommended the emancipation of the slaves then in Illinois. 
 Now the question of slavery in Illinois was not a new one. It 
 had been discussed under British, French and American terri- 
 torial administrations in the past. There were many in the 
 community that favored the gradual extinction of slavery in 
 the future, but no one before Governor Coles had ever openly 
 advocated the instant abolition thereof and the immediate manu- 
 mission of slaves. This part of the governor's message acted 
 as a bomb-shell thrown into the Legislature with a lighted 
 fuse. 
 
Edward Coles, Governor 1822-26 
 
268 ILLINOIS 
 
 The governor's message was delivered before the joint assem- 
 bly of the Senate and House of Representatives and therefore 
 a joint committee of the Senate and House was appointed to 
 take action thereon. This committee was composed of eight 
 men, five from the Senate and three from the House. The 
 five senators were Beard, Boon, Kinney, Ladd and White and 
 the three representatives were Moore, Emmit and Will. The 
 report made by the senators was unanimous and read as follows : 
 "Your committee are clearly of the opinion that the people of 
 Illinois have now the same right to alter their constitution as 
 the people of Virginia, or any other of the original states, and 
 may make any disposition of negro slaves they choose without 
 breach of faith, or violation of compact, ordinance or act of 
 Congress. " This was the position taken by Harrison, the repre- 
 sentative of Ohio in Congress long before, and it was the 
 contention of all the pro-slavery people in Illinois. It was 
 generally understood at this time, both in the Legislature and 
 by the people that if a constitutional convention were called 
 to amend the constitution, that the pro-slavery sentiment was 
 so strong that it would force an amendment through that would 
 establish slavery in Illinois. This was the belief of the senate 
 committee, for after passing the resolution heretofore reported, 
 it adopted the following resolution : "Resolved, that the General 
 Assembly of the State of Illinois (two-thirds thereof concurring 
 therein) do recommend to the electors, at the next election 
 for members to the General Assembly, to vote for or against 
 a convention, agreeable to the Seventh Article of the Consti- 
 tution." 
 
 Risdon Moore and John Emmit of the House reported 
 adversely to the majority report and recommended the abolition 
 of slavery, but Moore was the only one of the eight who finally 
 voted against the convention. The pro-slavery people were in 
 a strong majority in both House and Senate, but a call for a 
 constitutional convention under the provisions of the funda- 
 mental law of the state required a two-thirds vote in both houses 
 of the Legislature. The pro-slavery members of the Senate 
 were two-thirds in number when all were present, but John 
 Grammar, one of their number, was absent, and they could not 
 
ILLINOIS 269 
 
 call for a vote until he returned. On February 7, 1823, Grammar 
 returned and a vote on the convention resolution was taken in 
 the Senate, February 10. The resolution passed, twelve to six, 
 and the Senate resolution was transmitted to the House. A 
 test vote had been taken on the same subject in the House a 
 few days before, resulting in a vote of twenty-two for the 
 convention and fourteen against. Two of the adverse votes 
 were cast by McFatridge and Rattan. McFatridge voted against 
 it from conviction; Rattan voted adversely so that he could 
 move afterward for a no-consideration. Subsequently, however, 
 McFatridge had been converted to vote for the convention by 
 promises made to him that the Legislature would pass a bill 
 changing the county seat in his county. When the Senate 
 resolution was voted upon in the House, February 11, all thirty- 
 six members of the House were present and voted, but on the 
 tally the vote was found to be twenty-three affirmed and thirteen 
 negative. Lacking one vote of a two-thirds majority, the reso- 
 lution was lost, and it was discovered that Nicholas Hansen, 
 the representative from Pike County, who had before that time 
 voted for the convention, had changed his mind, and on February 
 11 had voted against it. 
 
 Great was the excitement thereat! Hansen was denounced 
 as a traitor and a pledge-breaker and his life made boisterous 
 and unpleasant. That night a vociferous meeting was held 
 in the State House and various emphatic and uncomplimentary 
 remarks and views expressed about Hansen. After the meeting 
 tumultuous crowds with tin pans and horns visited the lodgings 
 of the anti-convention members and Hansen was hung in effigy. 
 Plans were made immediately for his political punishment. When 
 he first appeared in the Legislature his election had been con- 
 tested by John Shaw, his opponent in the election. The dispute 
 in the election arose out of the fact that in one precinct Shaw 
 had received eighty-three votes at a polling place set up by 
 the electors, while Hansen had received only twelve votes in a 
 polling place presided over by the regular judges of election. 
 The returns for Shaw had been rejected by the judges, but 
 Shaw had filed a notice of contest before the Legislature. At 
 Hansen's request Shaw let the matter lie over for a few days 
 
270 ILLINOIS 
 
 and did not refile the notice until the legal time had expired. 
 The house committee had seated Hansen, it is said, because it 
 was believed he would vote against Edwards and for Thomas 
 as United States Senator. The committee, however, threw out 
 Shaw's contest because it was filed too late, although the delay- 
 was caused at Hansen's request. The equity of the action is 
 doubtful. Hansen's betrayal of the conventionists, however, 
 changed the sentiments theretofore existing in his favor, and 
 the House proceeded in a high-handed manner to set aside 
 their formal disposal of the election contest. 
 
 On February 12 (Lincoln's birthday, afterward in Illinois 
 to be made a legal holiday and now observed as a day sacred 
 to human freedom) the House by a vote of twenty-one to 
 thirteen ordered a reconsideration of its action in the Shaw- 
 Hansen contest, considered certain documents and affidavits, 
 held a debate on the same, and finally, by a vote of twenty-one 
 to fourteen, the name of Shaw was substituted for the name 
 of Hansen as a sitting, legally-elected member of that body. 
 After the vote was declared Shaw took Hansen's seat as a 
 member of the House. Representative Turney then moved to 
 reconsider an appeal from the decision of the chair on a motion 
 for a reconsideration of the convention resolution. The decision 
 was reversed, the reconsideration was ordered, and the resolution 
 for the convention was then passed in the House by a vote of 
 twenty-four for and twelve against. 
 
 Further punishment for Hansen seemed necessary. On motion 
 of Representative Field, Hansen's name as one of the canal 
 commissioners was stricken from the list. The battle for and 
 against the convention was now on before the people and lasted 
 for eighteen months. It was prosecuted with great bitterness 
 and intensity on each side. On February 15 the pro-conven- 
 tionists met and appointed a committee to prepare an address 
 to the people, giving reasons why the convention should be 
 held and the constitution amended, but wholly ignoring the 
 slavery question. A few days later the anti-conventionists met 
 and adopted an address charging that the main object of the 
 conventionists was to establish and retain slavery in Illinois. 
 
ILLINOIS 271 
 
 This was probably the truth, but it was never openly admitted 
 by the conventionists. 
 
 Before the passage of the convention resolution in the Legis- 
 lature the sentiment in favor of slavery was largely prepon- 
 derant in Illinois. This assertion we can establish in several 
 ways. First, it was apparent from the anemic phraseology of 
 the article on slavery in the Constitution of 1818. The con- 
 vention that framed that article would have flatly favored slavery 
 if it had not feared that Congress would undoubtedly reject a 
 constitution of that character, flying in the face of the Ordinance 
 of 1787. That convention knew that some declaration against 
 slavery would have to be inserted in the constitution or Illinois 
 would not be admitted into the Union. The milk-and-water 
 article against slavery was therefore adopted to secure statehood 
 and it accomplished the purpose. Secondly, the election for 
 governor in 1822 showed that five-eighths of the voters cast their 
 ballots for pro-slavery candidates instead of the candidates who 
 were opposed to slavery. Thirdly, the composition of the Legis- 
 lature of 1822 showed that nearly, if not quite, two-thirds of 
 both houses were in favor of slavery. 
 
 While the pro-slavery sentiment of the people of the state 
 was largely preponderant when the resolution for the convention 
 was passed, that sentiment began to lose ground soon afterwards. 
 The high-handed, arbitrary and unfair methods pursued by the 
 House in evicting Hansen and securing thereby a two-thirds 
 vote for the convention, disgusted many fair-minded citizens 
 who had been tolerant of slavery. An unbiased reading of the 
 events of that day as commented upon by different writers of 
 history leads one to believe that the real object sought by the 
 proponents of the convention was the amendment of the consti- 
 tution of the state so as to legalize slavery. The conventionists 
 never openly admitted this and their lack of candor in this 
 regard must have prejudiced many fair-minded men. A masked 
 movement in political life is feared as much as a masked man 
 is dreaded in private life. The anti-conventionists, on the other 
 hand, kept pulling the masks off of their opponents and continued 
 to denounce the horrors of human slavery. Many good men and 
 women in Illinois had grown up from infancy in the slave states 
 
272 ILLINOIS 
 
 and had their consciences and sense of justice so benumbed by- 
 constant association with slavery, that they became tolerant 
 of it. And yet, when the anti-conventionists opened fire upon 
 slavery and kept pounding against the atrocity and inhumanity 
 of the thing, many of these benumbed people from the South 
 began to find that they had consciences that were troubling 
 them and began to regard slavery as a crime against both 
 God and man. 
 
 Early in the campaign, the anti-conventionists and anti- 
 slavery people, through fifteen of the eighteen men who in the 
 Legislature voted against the convention, issued an impassioned 
 appeal to the voters of the state, from which we quote : "Consider 
 the spectacle that would be presented to the civilized world, 
 of the people of Illinois, innocent of this great national sin, and 
 in the full enjoyment of all the blessings of free government, 
 sitting down in solemn convention to deliberate and determine 
 whether they should introduce among them a portion of their 
 fellow-beings, to be cut off from these blessings, to be loaded 
 with chains of bondage and unable to leave any other legacy to 
 their posterity than the inheritance of their own bondage. The 
 wise and the good of all nations would blush at our political 
 depravity." 
 
 Such appeals had their effect even among those who all their 
 lives had been surrounded by slaves. It is proper and interesting 
 to look back and consider the names and standing of the prom- 
 inent men of that day and ascertain how they stood in the 
 great crisis of the state's history and the national history. Those 
 favoring the convention were : 
 
 (1) Elias Kent Kane, one of the ablest men of that day, 
 who was a graduate of Yale and a successful lawyer. He had 
 been a member of the first Constitutional Convention, Secretary 
 of State under Governor Bond, United States Senator, and was 
 a member of an excellent family. He had also been a United 
 States Territorial Judge before the admission of the state to 
 the Union. During the campaign for the convention he managed 
 and controlled the Republican Advocate, which paper strongly 
 supported the conventionists. 
 
ILLINOIS 273 
 
 (2) Thomas Reynolds was a lawyer of considerable stand- 
 ing and was for a time chief justice of the Supreme Court of 
 Illinois and afterwards became governor of Missouri. He also 
 supported the conventionists and assisted Kane in managing 
 the Republican Advocate. 
 
 (3) Theophilus W. Smith had also been a member of the 
 Supreme Bench, was very prominent in politics and aggressively 
 supported the call for the convention. 
 
 (4) Shadrach Bond, the first governor of the State of 
 Illinois. 
 
 (5) Joseph Phillips, then Chief Justice of the Supreme 
 Court, who had been prior to that time Secretary of the Illinois 
 Territory when Illinois became a state. He was a pro-slavery 
 candidate for governor against Coles and received the second 
 highest vote for that office, and also was an ardent advocate 
 of the convention. Supporting these five prominent leaders in 
 politics were grouped, 
 
 (6) Richard M. Young, who had been a member of the 
 Second Assembly, a Judge and a Senator of the United States; 
 
 (7) John McLean, a fine orator, a Member of the Assembly, 
 who had been a Member of Congress from Illinois and in 1824 
 was elected United States Senator to succeed Ninian Edwards; 
 
 (8) Jesse B. Thomas, who had been a Territorial Judge, 
 president of the Constitutional Convention and one of the first 
 United States Senators from Illinois; 
 
 (9) John Reynolds, who had been on the Supreme Bench 
 of Illinois, a Member of the State Legislature and a Member 
 of Congress, and who was afterwards elected the fourth Governor 
 of Illinois ; and 
 
 (10) William Kinney, a Baptist preacher and politician, 
 an excellent public speaker and a member of the Legislature; 
 all actively and ardently supported the movement for the 
 convention. 
 
 The leaders of the opposition who worked and talked and 
 wrote against the holding of the convention were all ardent 
 anti-slavery men, and will now be enumerated: 
 
 (1) Edward Coles, then Governor, whose public career 
 has been heretofore summarized. 
 
274 ILLINOIS 
 
 (2) Morris Birkbeck, a very intelligent, well-educated Eng- 
 lish settler, who had established a large English colony at or 
 near Albion. Though not a public speaker he was a fluent 
 and able controversial writer. He was a vigorous assailant 
 of slavery and in the Illinois Gazette he published very able and 
 convincing arguments against slavery and the holding of the 
 convention. 
 
 (3) Daniel P. Cook, the son-in-law of Ninian Edwards, 
 who started the movement for the admission of Illinois to 
 statehood and was mainly instrumental in securing its success. 
 He was a brilliant writer and campaigner and an ardent enemy 
 of slavery, and part owner of the Illinois Intelligencer, in which 
 paper he fulminated most of his vigorous arguments against 
 slavery and the convention. He held many prominent positions, 
 including membership in Congress. 
 
 (4) David Blackwell, a lawyer, a member of the Legis- 
 lature, and, in 1823, secretary of state. He bought the Intelli- 
 gencer during the campaign while it was advocating a conven- 
 tion, and made it an anti-convention paper. 
 
 (5) Samuel D. Lockwood, attorney-general in 1821 and a 
 loyal supporter of Governor Coles and his policies. He was 
 afterwards placed upon the Supreme bench of Illinois. 
 
 (6) John M. Peck, a Baptist clergyman along missionary 
 lines, who in 1820 had settled at Rock Springs, near Belleville. 
 He organized an anti-convention society in St. Clair County 
 early in the campaign, and other societies in other counties 
 were organized on its inspiration. He was a very able organizer 
 and gave great strength to the anti-convention movement. In 
 1826 he founded the Rock Springs Seminary. 
 
 (7) Thomas Lippincott, a minister of the Gospel, who 
 also ably supported the anti-colivention movement. 
 
 (8) Thomas Mather, a prominent merchant. 
 
 (9) Hooper Warren, a journalist and newspaper owner, 
 who was a bitter opponent of slavery in any and every form. 
 In his paper, the Spectator, at Vandalia, he vigorously assailed 
 slavery and the conventionists. 
 
 (10) George Churchill, a journalist-farmer and a warm 
 friend of Hooper Warren, and a constant contributor to Warren's 
 
ILLINOIS 275 
 
 paper, the Spectator. He was a member of the Legislature 
 and highly esteemed by the men of his day. 
 
 (11) Jonathan H. Pugh, who was also a member of the 
 Legislature, from Bond County, and took an active part in 
 opposing the calling of the convention. 
 
 (12) George Forquer, a half-brother of Governor Ford, 
 was another prominent man who opposed the holding of the 
 convention. At different times he held the positions of secretary 
 of state, attorney-general, representative in the Legislature and 
 registrar of the land office at Springfield. 
 
 (13) William H. Brown was part-owner of the Intelligencer 
 during the unseating of Nicholas Hansen. He wrote a critical 
 editorial and gave a detailed account of that transaction in the 
 first issue of the paper published after the event. Whereupon 
 the Legislature, to punish Brown, gave the contract for public 
 printing to his partners, William Berry and Robert Blackwell. 
 This compelled Brown to surrender his partnership to Blackwell 
 and Berry, and Robert Blackwell made it a pro-convention paper 
 for a year until Governor Coles and his anti-convention friends 
 purchased the paper and placed David Blackwell, brother of 
 Robert, in charge as editor. The paper under the last manage- 
 ment became an open and earnest opponent of slavery. The 
 public printing at this time was often substantially the sole 
 source of a paper's revenue. Many newspapers then, as they 
 do now, allowed their advertisers to control their policies and 
 editorial columns. 
 
 The foregoing names were the names of the men most prom- 
 inent in Illinois at the time of the struggle for and against the 
 holding of the Constitutional Convention. So far as holding 
 official positions in public life is to be considered, the weight 
 of authority was with the pro-conventionists. The anti-conven- 
 tionists, however, had the governor and all of his friends with 
 them. Moreover, they had the better end of the argument and 
 the more righteous cause, and in the end righteousness and 
 liberty won and injustice and slavery went down to defeat. 
 
 Henry Eddy, editor of the Illinois Gazette, is claimed by 
 some writers to have been opposed to the convention. Others 
 claim he was not. While his paper threw its columns open to 
 
276 ILLINOIS 
 
 both sides, the better opinion seems to be that he quietly if not 
 violently, favored the convention. The Kaskaskia Republican- 
 Advocate and the Illinois Republican at Edwardsville supported 
 the convention. The Illinois Intelligencer, as we have seen, 
 wobbled and finally opposed the convention. The Edwardsville 
 Spectator also wobbled, but finally, by promises of financial 
 aid, was won over by the anti-con ventionists. The motives 
 that guided most of the newspaper owners of the day were 
 not of the most ideal character. They either favored slavery 
 or were induced to oppose it by financial rewards. 
 
 After a campaign of exceeding violence, lasting about eigh- 
 teen months, the people went to the polls and the pro-slavery 
 element found itself routed. The vote for the convention was 
 4,972; that opposed to the convention was 6,640. Most of the 
 southern counties voted majorities in favor of the convention 
 by large percentages, as follows: Gallatin 82 per cent, Pope 
 
 69 per cent, Alexander 60 per cent, Jackson 66 per cent, Jefferson 
 
 70 per cent, Hamilton 67 per cent and Franklin 60 per cent. 
 In the south the conventionists lost only one county, Union. 
 In the north central counties they were badly beaten by large 
 percentages. Pike County gave the anti-conventionists 90 per 
 cent, Fulton 92, Morgan 91, Sangamon 83, Clark 79 and Edgar 
 99. In the eleven counties south of St. Clair, Washington, 
 Marion, Wayne and White, 3,788 votes were cast, 62 per cent 
 of which were for the convention and slavery. In the nineteen 
 counties north of that line, 7,814 votes were cast, of which only 
 33 per cent were for the convention and slavery. 
 
 The full significance of this election and its importance 
 to the state and nation cannot be appreciated by the student of 
 history unless he widens his vision beyond the borders of Illinois 
 and casts his inquiring eyes over the whole of the United States. 
 At the time of the formation of the Republic of the United 
 States, it was composed, as we all know, of the thirteen original 
 states of the Union. In six of these states human slavery existed 
 as an institution, recognized by law. The laws of these states 
 made black human beings within their borders chattels that 
 could be bought and sold as cattle or sheep. These states were 
 Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland 
 
ILLINOIS 277 
 
 and Delaware. The other seven states, New Hampshire, Massa- 
 chusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey 
 and Pennsylvania, were free states. From the date of the 
 adoption of the Constitution by the original thirteen states and 
 the creation of the American Republic, slavery was a vital 
 question upon the admission of any new state into the Union 
 of States. Up to the beginning of the nineteenth century only 
 three new states had been admitted into the Union. Vermont, 
 Kentucky and Tennessee were admitted into the Union in the 
 eighteenth century. The last of these three states to be admitted 
 was Tennessee, in 1796. At the opening of the nineteenth 
 century the United States of America consisted of sixteen states, 
 eight of which were slave states and eight free states. In the 
 nineteenth century states were admitted to the Union in the 
 following order: 
 
 Ohio, in 1802, a free state; 
 
 Louisiana, in 1812, a slave state; 
 
 Indiana, in 1816, a free state; 
 
 Mississippi, in 1817, a slave state; 
 
 Illinois, in 1818, a free state; 
 
 Alabama, in 1819, a slave state; 
 
 Maine, in 1820, a free state; 
 
 Missouri, in 1821, a slave state. 
 
 At the time this heated campaign was being carried on in 
 Illinois for a constitutional convention in the years 1823 and 
 1824, there were twelve free states (inclusive of Illinois) and 
 twelve slave states. If Illinois had amended its constitution in 
 the proposed convention called to meet in 1824 and declared for 
 slavery, there would then have been in the Union thirteen slave 
 and only eleven free states. In other words, if Illinois amended 
 its constitution so as to favor slavery, it would have changed 
 its position from among twelve free states to a position among 
 thirteen slave states. As each state was entitled to two senators 
 in the United States Senate, the thirteen slave states would 
 have had twenty-six votes as against twenty-two senators from 
 the eleven free states and no law thereafter could have been 
 passed by Congress limiting or restricting slavery in the United 
 States. If any new territory, north or south, applied for admis- 
 
278 ILLINOIS 
 
 sion to the Union and presented a constitution to Congress pro- 
 hibiting slavery within its boundaries, the twenty-six senators 
 in the Senate could prevent its admission. If the conventionists 
 had succeeded at this election in calling the convention, they 
 undoubtedly would have been powerful enough to have amended 
 the constitution so as to provide for slavery in Illinois and the 
 effect upon the future of the United States would have been 
 tremendous. The thirteen slave-holding states would have been 
 all-powerful for a decade at least in permitting slave-holding 
 territories to be admitted to the Union and in denying state- 
 hood to free soil territories. Even if they were unable in the 
 lower house of Congress to pass laws extending slavery, they 
 could, by their decisive majority in the Senate, have prevented 
 the passage of any laws limiting or restricting slavery. 
 
 The call for the constitutional convention in 1824 in Illinois 
 brought on a great crisis in American history that affected both 
 the nation and the state. If Illinois had become a slave state 
 in 1824, the whole future history of the United States possibly 
 and probably would have been materially changed. And yet 
 the national aspect of the fight in Illinois does not seem to have 
 been stressed in the campaign. The first edition of Governor 
 Reynolds' history, published by N. A. Randall, at Belleville in 
 1852 (now exceedingly rare and valuable), makes no mention of 
 the national aspect of the campaign. In his history, "My Own 
 Times," published by the Chicago Historical Society in 1879, he 
 devotes two short chapters to slavery in Illinois. He was in the 
 midst of the struggle and his comments upon the same, years 
 afterwards, are worthy of consideration. Governor Reynolds 
 writes : 
 
 It is well known that the first introduction of slavery 
 into Illinois was by Philip Francis Renault, in the year 
 1720. On his passage from Europe to America he procured 
 from San Domingo five hundred slaves to work the mines 
 in Illinois, and these negroes are the ancestors of the 
 French slaves in this state. The descendants of those slaves, 
 who reside in Illinois, are now free, and are located mostly 
 in and around Prairie du Rocher, in Randolph County. 
 
 When Virginia conquered the country, and the same 
 was annexed to that State, the right of property to their 
 
ILLINOIS 279 
 
 slaves was guaranteed to the inhabitants, as well as their 
 other property. 
 
 In the act of cession of the country from Virginia to 
 the General Government, the right of property, slaves 
 among the rest, was secured to the inhabitants of Illinois. 
 
 The act of Congress known as the "Ordinance," which 
 was passed in the year 1787, and by which the North- 
 western Territory was organized as a government, pro- 
 hibited, positively, the introduction of slavery into the Ter- 
 ritory, and Illinois, at that time, formed a part of the 
 Territory. 
 
 This Ordinance was construed to operate prospectively, 
 and not to operate on the French slaves in the Territory at 
 the time. 
 
 This act of Congress was the great sheet-anchor that 
 secured the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois from 
 slavery. I never had any doubt but slavery would now 
 exist in Illinois if it had not been prevented by this famous 
 Ordinance. 
 
 Soon after the organization of the Indiana Territory, 
 of which Illinois formed a part, laws were enacted by the 
 Territorial legislature permitting slaves to be introduced as 
 "Indentured Servants;" and under this law many were 
 admitted into the Territory. 
 
 The owner might go with his slaves before the clerk of 
 the court of common pleas, and make an agreement with 
 his negroes to serve the master a certain number of years, 
 and then become free. The children were to serve their 
 masters — the males until they were thirty-five years old, 
 and the females to thirty-two years. This agreement was 
 to be done within thirty days after the slave entered the 
 Territory, and if the slaves would not consent tothe agree- 
 ment, they might be removed out of the Territory within 
 sixty days. This agreement was made a record binding on 
 the parties. 
 
 Although this proceeding was intended by the legis- 
 lature to introduce a species of slavery, yet I knew many 
 slaves and their families who were manumitted by the 
 operation, and are now free. This act of the legislature 
 operated as a kind of gradual emancipation of slavery in 
 the Territory. 
 
 Both constitutions of the State expressly prohibited 
 the introduction of slavery, the first had no intention to 
 manumit the French slaves, but the supreme court of the 
 State, in 1845, decided that slavery, French or any other, 
 
For Whom Cook County Was Named 
 
ILLINOIS 281 
 
 could not exist in the State. This decision liberated all the 
 French slaves in the country. 
 
 Public opinion, being strong in this State against 
 slavery, reached the bench, as well as it does every other 
 department of the government, and what was right twenty 
 years before was wrong in 1845, in relation to slavery. 
 
 In 1810, one hundred and sixty-eight slaves are said to 
 have been in the Territory. In 1820, they increased to nine 
 hundred and seventeen; and in 1830, they decreased to 
 seven hundred and forty-six. 
 
 The Missouri question, so called at that day, 1823, more 
 of a political character than the public lands, agitated little 
 Illinois to the very center. The State had then not many 
 more than fifty thousand inhabitants, but the subject of 
 slavery was discussed in the court yards, sometimes in the 
 pulpits, and at all gatherings of the people, as well as in the 
 presses, and on the stump throughout the State. In the 
 elections of this year, this question was the prominent ele- 
 ment. At that day, there was no question of Democracy 
 or Whiggery. John McLean, the member then in Congress, 
 voted on the Missouri side of the question, which beat him 
 at the election. Daniel P. Cook took the other side, and 
 was elected. 
 
 The discussion of this subject was bitter and acrimo- 
 nious. This subject has always engendered bitter feelings 
 among the people, and has a tendency to array one section 
 of the Union against the other. The people in Illinois, in 
 1820, were ready almost to commit violence on one another, 
 and in fact the whole Union was so agitated that, like an 
 earthquake, no one knew when it would subside, and all 
 friends of the integrity of the Union were alarmed and 
 shuddered at the fearful consequences of the agitation, and 
 the sectional feelings produced on the occasion. The public 
 agitation of the subject of slavery, and particularly in the 
 halls of Congress, should be avoided as much as possible. 
 
 Governor Reynolds' statement that the "whole Union was so 
 agitated" is the only reference to national interest in the elec- 
 tion that I can find in his writings. Governor Ford in his his- 
 tory published in 1854 in no place indicates that there was 
 national interest in the election at the time it was held. Smith 
 in his history, however, does state that "the press of the South 
 as well as the papers of St. Louis, which had a considerable 
 circulation in Illinois at that time, ably supported the conven- 
 
282 ILLINOIS 
 
 tion." He also states that Henry Biddle, Roberts Vaux and other 
 rich Quakers in Philadelphia aided the anti-conventionists, prin- 
 cipally with literature. Still, I do not find that the effect of the 
 election upon the nation at large was stressed at the time of the 
 contest by the speakers and writers engaged therein. 
 
 Before leaving this very interesting subject it is proper to 
 make comment upon the unfortunate and undeserved result of 
 this election upon the future prospects of the two most able 
 and devoted friends of human freedom. Governor Coles and 
 Morris Birkbeck did more than any other two men in the state 
 to prevent it becoming tainted with the curse of slavery. Gov- 
 ernor Coles' nominations to office were all rejected by the pro- 
 slavery Senate and his recommendations to the Legislature were 
 ignored. As a candidate for the United States Senate he was 
 defeated, the Legislature electing Elias Kent Kane over him. 
 Soon after he was sued by the State to recover $200 for each 
 slave that he brought into the state and freed without giving 
 bond of $200 for the good behavior of each freed slave. The 
 State actually recovered judgment against him for $2,000, which 
 hung over his head for some years. To add to his misfortunes 
 all of the buildings and improvements on his farm near Edwards- 
 ville were destroyed by an incendiary fire. 
 
 Birkbeck was nominated by Governor Coles as secretary of 
 state, but the nomination was rejected by the Senate. His farm- 
 ing investments brought but poor returns ; he lost many friends ; 
 was charged with being an infidel; was hanged in effigy and 
 forced to flee for his life and drowned while crossing a river. 
 The misfortunes suffered by these two able, upright and cou- 
 rageous men offer but another instance of the proverbial "in- 
 gratitude of republics." Well might Governor Coles have cried, 
 in the words of Cardinal Wolsey : 
 
 "Had I but served my God with half the zeal 
 I served my State, He would not in mine age 
 Have left me naked to my enemies." 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 THE RAPID DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW STATE 
 
 When Illinois became a state in the United States of America, 
 December 3, 1818, it did so under exceptionally fortunate cir- 
 cumstances for early growth and development of a democratic 
 form of government. Up to that date its inhabitants had little, 
 if any, experience in self-government. Such government as had 
 been imposed upon them during most of the time from the 
 French occupation in 1673 to 1763, when France surrendered to 
 Great Britain ; from 1763 under British domination until George 
 Rogers Clark's forceful invasion in 1778, and then down to Gov- 
 ernor St. Clair's appearance with United States credentials in 
 1790, was wholly autocratic or oligarchical. They were never 
 consulted as to its form or conditions, and never had an oppor- 
 tunity to voice their desires at the ballot box. Even under 
 United States Territorial rule from 1790 down to 1818, as part 
 of the Northwest Territory, the Indiana Territory or the Illinois 
 Territory, their participation in the making of laws or selecting 
 their own officials even when they were in territories of the 
 second class, was so limited by the qualifications thrown around 
 those who were entitled to vote, that self rule was a shadow or 
 a sham. They were so accustomed to oligarchical rule and so 
 timid in asserting state sovereignty when they framed the Con- 
 stitution of 1818, that in that instrument they provided that 
 the people could elect only the governor, lieutenant-governor, 
 sheriff, coroner and members of the Senate and House of Repre- 
 sentatives. Under that instrument all other officials, including 
 judges, were to be selected by the governor or the Legislature, 
 or both. A jump from absolute oligarchy to full democracy 
 seemed to the men of that day too hazardous a risk. The time 
 for development, however, political, industrial and commercial, 
 was propitious. 
 
 283 
 
284 ILLINOIS 
 
 The War of 1812 had settled forever all fear of British 
 aggression from Canada and had paralyzed the fighting spirit 
 of the Indians. The Government of the United States had 
 secured title to the Indian lands and was just beginning to 
 throw these lands upon the market. Steamboats were appear- 
 ing on the Ohio and Mississippi, displacing the keelboats and 
 flatboats hitherto used for navigation. The Erie Canal was 
 being dug between Albany and Buffalo, and financiers were 
 planning to construct another canal from the Delaware River 
 to the Ohio. Above all, the confederated states of the United 
 States had sensed their existence and power as a nation, both 
 internally and externally, in dealing with each other and with 
 foreign nations. 
 
 The Congress of the United States, in enacting laws, was 
 broadening the Federal power. The Supreme Court of the 
 United States was construing each stretch of Congress for 
 power as within its right; and the United States Government 
 was enacting laws which would develop its commerce on the 
 high seas, and into foreign lands, and limiting the importation 
 of foreign products into and through American ports. 
 
 Let us note a few of these matters, so that we can see their 
 importance in the development of the United States and the 
 newly-created State of Illinois. In 1816, on the recommendation 
 of President Madison, Congress chartered the second United 
 States Bank with a capital of $35,000,000, one-fifth of which 
 was contributed by the United States, the United States Govern- 
 ment electing one-fifth of its directors. At this time there were 
 about 300 state banks in existence, but very few of which were 
 on a specie payment basis. The law creating the United States 
 Bank required that after the creation of this bank, it would 
 become a depository of United States funds, and that any state 
 bank that did not operate on a specie paying basis could not 
 become a United States depository. This law was attacked by 
 the State of Maryland as unconstitutional, but the Supreme 
 Court of the United States declared through Chief Justice Mar- 
 shall that "a national bank is an appropriate means to carry 
 out some of the implied power conferred on the National Gov- 
 ernment by the Constitution. If the end is within the scope of 
 
ILLINOIS 285 
 
 the Constitution, all means which are adapted to that end, and 
 which are consistent with the spirit of the organic law, are con- 
 stitutional." 
 
 The epochal decision was rendered in 1819, during which 
 year a widespread financial panic swept over the country, caus- 
 ing the failure of many state banks and mercantile establish- 
 ments. The causes of this panic were several. During the 
 second administration of President Jefferson, 1804 to 1808, the 
 Napoleonic war between France and Great Britain was con- 
 ducted on the high seas with a total disregard of the rights of 
 neutral nations. American ships, which before the outbreak of 
 that war were carrying on a large and lucrative business, were 
 halted on the ocean by armored cruisers of both belligerents, 
 but mostly by the British, their cargoes seized, and their seamen 
 arrested, and impressed into the British service. These acts 
 practically destroyed American commerce and would have justi- 
 fied a declaration of war by the United States against either or 
 both of the belligerent nations. Jefferson, however, was averse 
 to war, and both he and his Secretary of State, Madison (after- 
 wards President), were lovers of peace. Instead of resorting 
 to war in a wholly unprepared condition for same, either from 
 a military or financial standpoint, Jefferson resorted to retalia- 
 tory legislation in Congress. At his request Congress enacted 
 a law ordering all British vessels out of American harbors ; and 
 another law, called the Embargo Act, compelling American 
 vessels to refrain from carrying on foreign commerce; and still 
 another non-intercourse act, prohibiting all commerce with 
 Great Britain. These laws, enacted for the purpose of crippling 
 the English, however, turned out to be more effective in destroy- 
 ing American commerce and paralyzing the shipping trade of 
 the United States. The continued confiscation of American 
 property and ships, and the impressment of American seamen 
 into the British service, however, so inflamed the American 
 people that finally in 1812, under President Madison, war was 
 declared by Congress against Great Britain. The destruction 
 of American shipping during the Napoleonic war, and the finan- 
 cial burdens imposed upon the young nation by the expense of 
 the war, was one of the causes of the panic of 1819. The war 
 
286 ILLINOIS 
 
 had cost the nation by 1814 over $100,000,000 and over 30,000 
 human lives and the destruction of the nation's trade and com- 
 merce. 
 
 Another cause of the financial panic of 1819 was the almost 
 total absence of reliable banking currency and bills of exchange. 
 The charter of the first United States Bank had expired in 1811. 
 It had furnished an excellent currency, which was now with- 
 drawn. Its place was taken in 1811 by state bank currency, 
 which proved disastrous. These state banks sprung into exist- 
 ence like mushrooms between 1811 and 1816. Some authorities 
 number them at 300; others between 250 and 300. Very few 
 of them where on a specie paying basis, and many of them could 
 be negotiated only at enormous discounts. How a war could be 
 carried on successfully with such a currency system in vogue was 
 a mystery. 
 
 By 1816 the Jeffersonian Republican party, then in power, 
 which had opposed the creation of the first United States Bank, 
 reversed its policy and declared in favor of the creation of the 
 second United States Bank. President Madison surmounted the 
 prejudices of a lifetime, it is said, and cheerfully signed the bill. 
 Henry Clay disregarded his former views of hostility towards 
 a national bank, and actively advocated and voted for the bill. 
 While the law creating the bank was enacted in 1816, the attack 
 upon its constitutionality by the State of Maryland delayed the 
 going into effect of its wholesome provisions until Chief Justice 
 Marshall declared it constitutional in 1819. The law creating 
 this bank compelled the state banks to become specie payment 
 banks or cease to become government depositories. This drove 
 the weak banks into liquidation, and created widespread distress 
 among the manufacturing interests, but in a few short years it 
 established a state currency, and restored public confidence and 
 encouraged trade and industry. 
 
 Another class of laws enacted by Congress about this time 
 which gave enormous impetus to the development of the nation 
 and its manufacturing interests were the protective tariff laws. 
 Great Britain had been furnishing the young republic, from the 
 day of its birth to the days of Madison, with all the manufac- 
 tured products in use among its people. The Embargo and 
 
ILLINOIS 
 
 287 
 
 Non-Intercourse policies of Jefferson and the decrees and orders 
 of the British Council had worked a change in the economic life 
 of the American people. When they were unable to procure 
 manufactured articles they needed from abroad, they began in 
 a crude but energetic way to manufacture substitutes therefor 
 in American shops and homes. These substitutes may not have 
 been as elegant and polished as the foreign articles, but they 
 were useful and in demand. When peace was declared in 1814, 
 
 Rock Springs Seminary 
 
 Built by the Rev. John Peck in 1826. 
 
 the foreign-made articles again appeared in the American mar- 
 ket, and as they were more finished in appearance and more 
 cheaply manufactured, they threatened the growth of American 
 manufactures. The infant industries of the Americans were 
 being impaired by foreign competition. This situation gave 
 birth to the American doctrine of a "protective tariff." 
 
 Prior to the Napoleonic war, the American people had been 
 content to ship abroad, and particularly to England, their raw 
 products, lumber, cotton, tobacco, fish, hides, wool, pig-iron and 
 cereals, and to purchase all manufactured articles, such as tools, 
 machinery, furniture, leather, woolens, cotton goods, clothing, 
 
288 ILLINOIS 
 
 iron and steel goods, jewelry, silks, coffees, teas, carpets and 
 other manufactured necessities and luxuries from England and 
 France. When trade in these articles was cut off by the Na- 
 poleonic wars, the British orders in Council and the American 
 Embargo and Non-Intercourse laws, the need of such manufac- 
 tured articles brought about the creation of the incipient manu- 
 facturers of America, and when these young industries were 
 threatened with extinction by foreign competition, Congress 
 acted promptly. In 1816 it passed a protective tariff law and 
 this law and other tariff laws of like character, subsequently 
 passed, saved the "infant industries" of the nation and started 
 the manufacturing industries of the United States on a career 
 which enables them today to sell their products in all the seven 
 seas of the world in competition with all the great manufactur- 
 ing countries on earth. Some of these "infant industries" in 
 modern times have grown so enormously that laws passed for 
 their further nourishment are and will be regarded as extor- 
 tionate rather than protective legislation. 
 
 From a consideration of the foregoing pregnant occurrences 
 which took place within a few years of the admission of Illinois 
 to the Union, it can be easily seen why the time was propitious 
 for an early and tremendous development of the nation and the 
 infant state. Let us summarize these occurrences chronologically : 
 In 1814 a treaty of peace had been signed with Great Britain 
 which ended a costly war forced upon the United States, when 
 it was poor and unprepared for war, by the arrogant and inde- 
 fensible conduct of Great Britain upon the high seas. Under 
 the terms of that treaty the British evacuated Detroit and other 
 posts in the United States held by them, and left the United 
 States free to deal with their Indian allies who were not made 
 parties to the treaty. This abandonment of their Indian allies 
 by Great Britain placed the Indian tribes at the mercy of the 
 Americans. In 1816 Congress commenced its policy of develop- 
 ing American manufactures, and weakening the sale of British 
 goods in America, by enacting protective tariff laws. In 1816 
 Congress established the United States Bank which would secure 
 to the people reliable currency and bills of exchange and restore 
 public confidence in the Government and in all commercial trans- 
 
ILLINOIS 289 
 
 actions. In 1818 Illinois was admitted to statehood. In 1819 
 the Supreme Court sustained the constitutionality of the United 
 States Bank law, thus confirming in the people the possession 
 and use of a currency system which was both reliable and im- 
 pregnable. The last of these occurrences took place at a time 
 when, owing to an absurd if not grotesque system of state banks 
 established under unscientific and inadequate state laws, had 
 created a financial panic throughout the nation. 
 
 Within a few short years after the passage of the foregoing 
 Federal laws, the nation had recovered from its financial dis- 
 tress, and the young State of Illinois began its march to great- 
 ness, but not until it, too, had suffered from the vagaries of 
 inefficient and unskilful banking laws. 
 
 As manufacturing began to develop in the North and East, 
 which occurred after the passage of protective tariff laws, the 
 demand for farm products in the West began to increase, and in 
 the '20s and '30s of the eighteenth century, immigrants began 
 to pour into Illinois. In 1830 the population had increased to 
 157,000, and in 1840 it was 476,000. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 POLITICS IN ILLINOIS DURING THE FIRST DECADE 
 
 When Illinois became a state, James Monroe was President 
 of the United States. Monroe was the successor of James 
 Madison, under whom he had served as Secretary of State, 
 just as Madison was the successor of and had been the Secretary 
 of State under Jefferson. Both had been trained in and were 
 devoted to the principles of Jeffersonian Democracy, which 
 had enunciated and upheld the following principles : 
 
 Equal and exact justice to all, peace and friendship with all 
 nations, alliances with none, the preservation of the rights of 
 the national government, free elections, free speech, free press, 
 reliance upon a disciplined militia, public economy, encourage- 
 ment to agriculture and commerce, trial by jury, the habeas 
 corpus and the exercise of persuasion before resorting to force. 
 
 Jefferson, Madison and Monroe all were members of the 
 party then called Republican. The Federalist party, that was 
 in the ascendancy under President John Adams, had been routed 
 and was in a hopeless condition of decline and public disfavor. 
 John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State under Monroe, had 
 abandoned the Federalist party of his father and joined the 
 Republicans, temporarily, at least. 
 
 The commerce and shipping of the Republic had been shot 
 to pieces by the Orders in Council of Great Britain, the Napole- 
 onic wars, and the Embargo acts of the American Congress 
 prior to and during the War of 1812 with Great Britain. During 
 the war, from 1812 until 1814, the country was compelled to 
 incur great indebtedness and its commerce was destroyed. When 
 the treaty of peace was signed in 1814, its business was pros- 
 trated, and in 1819 a financial panic swept the country largely 
 as a result of its destroyed business, its blunders in banking 
 
 290 
 
ILLINOIS 291 
 
 and its lack of a reliable medium of exchange, sometimes called 
 currency. 
 
 The charter of the United States Bank, created by Hamilton, 
 had expired in 1811. Its petition for a new charter had been 
 denied by a majority of one in the Senate and one in the House. 
 When its charter expired a mushroom growth of state banks 
 sprang into existence. In 1816 there were 246 of these state 
 banks. The deluge of bank notes put into circulation as the 
 result was disastrous. These notes could not be redeemed in 
 specie, and there were no legal remedies for the refusal to 
 redeem. Under the stress of the embargo and non-intercourse 
 policies pursued by Congress, and the constant refusal to redeem 
 in specie, these bank notes rapidly depreciated in value. During 
 the war most of the banks suspended specie payments, causing 
 great financial losses and general economic distress. 
 
 At this junction the Republicans, who in the past had opposed 
 granting an extension of the charter of the United States Bank, 
 recognized the dangerous condition of the finances and the 
 trade of the country, and changed their policy with reference 
 to the establishment of a United States Bank, whose paper 
 would pass current as redeemable in specie. In 1816 the United 
 States Bank was chartered by a Congress composed of members, 
 a great majority of whom were identified with the Republican 
 party. Henry Clay, who was largely instrumental in defeating 
 the recharter of the former United States Bank in 1811, left 
 the speaker's chair to advocate the passage of the law creating 
 the new bank in 1816, and President Madison signed the bill 
 cheerfully and promptly. It took some time, however, after the 
 creation of this Federal bank before specie payment was 
 resumed. The new bank was patterned along the same lines 
 as the old one, but the capital was $35,000,000, while that of 
 the old bank was only $10,000,000. The Government held one- 
 fifth of the stock and appointed five out of the twenty-five 
 directors. 
 
 Another new departure in politics occurred at this time in 
 the powerful Republican party which afterwards became known 
 as the protective tariff policy. Before the War of 1812 most 
 manufactured articles in common use among the people were 
 
292 ILLINOIS 
 
 imported from abroad, mostly from England. The war shut 
 off these importations and the Americans began in a feeble 
 and inexpert way to manufacture all the necessities and some 
 of the luxuries of modern life. After the treaty of peace was 
 signed in 1814, the country was soon flooded with British manu- 
 factured goods which could be made and sold much more cheaply 
 in the low-wage factories of England. They were underselling 
 and ruining American manufacturers. There were then in 
 truth and in fact many real "infant industries" that were 
 suffering from the competition, and the Republican party of 
 Jefferson, Madison and Monroe recognized the necessity of pro- 
 tecting these young industries by compelling foreign importers 
 to pay an import duty sufficiently high to enable the home indus- 
 tries to prosper and develop. The adoption of this policy and 
 the creation of a stable currency soon brought to the whole 
 country an era of prosperity. The Federal party disappeared. 
 Political animosities died out for a time and a situation developed 
 which was called at that date "The Era of Good Feeling." This 
 was the political situation from a national standpoint at the 
 time of the admission of Illinois into the Union and it continued 
 until the election of John Quincy Adams to the Presidency in 
 1825. There was no political difference on public questions in 
 Illinois up to that time except upon slavery. All other contests 
 were contests of personality. It was simply a succession of 
 struggles between men, as to whom should hold office until 
 Adams was chosen as President by Congress over Andrew 
 Jackson. 
 
 In this struggle of personalities for office in Illinois before 
 1825, one man was so pre-eminent, and for a time so dominant 
 and successful, as to give his name to one of these conflicting 
 forces. Ninian Edwards, before he moved to Illinois, was a 
 prominent and influential citizen of Kentucky, a member of the 
 Supreme Court of that state, and a cultured, well-educated gentle- 
 man. Through the influence of Henry Clay and other powerful 
 friends, he had been appointed Territorial Governor of Illinois 
 and had occupied that position for nine consecutive years. Upon 
 admission of Illinois into the Union he was promptly elected 
 to the United States Senate and remained in that exalted body 
 
Nathaniel Pope 
 
 Territorial Delegate to Congress in 1818. 
 
294 ILLINOIS 
 
 for six years. Afterwards, in December, 1826, he was inaugu- 
 rated governor of the State of Illinois. By reason of his high 
 character, his influential connections, his culture and his long 
 continuance in public office, he easily secured the leadership of 
 the office-seeking coterie which was called the "Edwards party." 
 Those who opposed him and his coterie of friends had no such 
 a pre-eminent leader as Edwards, although they did have among 
 their members some very able men. The opponents of the 
 name to their combination and consequently were known as 
 the "Anti-Edwards party." Attached to the Edwardsites were 
 the following men: Nathaniel Pope, former territorial delegate 
 from Illinois to Congress, who had succeeded in moving the 
 northern line of Illinois fifty-one miles northward and securing 
 the admission of Illinois to statehood. He had, however, been 
 made a Federal Judge, which prevented his open and active 
 participation in politics. He was a cousin of Edwards and 
 helped him in all his struggles. Another ardent supporter of 
 Edwards was Judge Pope's nephew, Daniel Pope Cook, a very 
 able and popular young man who married Governor Edwards' 
 daughter. Judge Thomas C. Brown, chosen for the Supreme 
 bench of Illinois, was also one of the Edwards party. Attached 
 to the Edwards' interests also were Benjamin Stephenson, Wil- 
 liam Kinney, Richard M. Johnson and James Johnson, all of 
 whom were interested financially with Governor Edwards in 
 the Edwardsville Bank and real estate ventures. Among the 
 prominent and influential men who formed the "anti-Edwards" 
 party may be mentioned the following: Elias Kent Kane was 
 the leading spirit in the first Constitutional Convention and 
 more actively participated in the writing of that instrument 
 than any other one man. He was elected to the United States 
 Senate from Illinois and served two terms in that body. John 
 McLean, who was defeated by Cook for Congress, but was 
 elected United States senator to succeed Governor Edwards. 
 Jesse B. Thomas, the leader of the anti-Edwards party. He 
 had been successively Territorial Judge, president of the Con- 
 stitutional Convention and United States Senator from 1818 
 until 1829. Shadrach Bond, the first state governor of Illinois, 
 was also a member of the anti-Edwards party. Joseph Duncan, 
 
ILLINOIS 295 
 
 originally not identified with either party, was taken up by 
 the anti-Edwards party and nominated by it for Congress against 
 Congressman David Pope Cook, theretofore unbeatable, and 
 succeeded in winning over that formidable antagonist. He was 
 afterwards elected governor of Illinois. John Reynolds was also 
 one of the anti-Edwards party. He had as a private served 
 in the War of 1812, and was elected judge of the Supreme Court 
 from 1818 to 1824. Towards the end of Governor Edwards' 
 term, however, Reynolds entered into an alliance with Governor 
 Edwards, and was himself elected governor of the state in 1830. 
 Governor Reynolds wrote an interesting history of the Territory 
 of Illinois up to its admission into the Union, which was pub- 
 lished in 1852, and another historical work entitled "My Own 
 Times," published (or republished) in 1879. He must be dis- 
 tinguished from Thomas Reynolds, his uncle, who was also a 
 distinguished citizen and official in early Illinois history. He, 
 Thomas, was a member of the Supreme Court at the same time 
 that his nephew, John Reynolds, was a member of that body. 
 Rev. William Kinney, a Baptist preacher, was originally one 
 of the anti-Edwards party, and was elected lieutenant-governor 
 over the Rev. S. M. Thompson, who was Edwards' running 
 mate in 1826. 
 
 At the first election for governor, in 1818, both factions 
 were agreed in supporting Shadrach Bond; but in the election 
 for senators, Edwards, while successful, was compelled to sit 
 in the Senate with his rival, Judge Jesse B. Thomas. The rivalry 
 and antagonism between these two able men widened and deep- 
 ened during their joint senatorial careers. Thomas succeeded 
 in procuring from William H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treas- 
 ury, the appointment of himself to the lucrative position of 
 United States examiner of western land offices. Cook, the 
 member of Congress from Illinois, and son-in-law of Edwards, 
 attacked Crawford vigorously and persistently for so doing, 
 charging improper conduct against both Crawford and Thomas, 
 but both were exonerated in the congressional committee report. 
 At this time both Crawford and John C. Calhoun were candidates 
 for the Presidency and Calhoun's friends in Congress doubtless 
 supported Cook in his charges against Crawford and Thomas, 
 
296 ILLINOIS 
 
 hoping thus to discredit Crawford and weaken his prospects 
 for a Presidential nomination. Edwards himself became badly 
 involved in the controversy. He attacked Crawford's policy 
 in reference to the western banks in the Senate, using certain 
 material which Cook had dug up in the House, in his demand 
 for the production of official documents in Crawford's office 
 which he believed would discredit Crawford. The latter retorted 
 by showing Edwards' connection with the Edwardsville Bank, 
 which had failed owing the United States Treasury some 
 $50,000. Both Edwards and his friends were stockholders in 
 this bank. Edwards rejoined that he, Edwards, had in a letter 
 warned the United States Treasury of the weak financial condi- 
 tion of the bank before it failed. This Crawford denied and 
 the controversy simmered down to a question of personal veracity 
 between Edwards and Crawford without sufficient corroboration 
 on Edwards' part, and Crawford secured a vindication from 
 Congress. The publication of letters attacking Crawford, signed 
 A. B., was traced to Edwards and his failure to maintain the 
 charges made therein brought discredit upon the writer and 
 discouragement to him and his friends at a time when they 
 were endeavoring to prevent Thomas' reelection to the Senate. 
 About the same time Edwards became badly embarrassed finan- 
 cially and weakened in health. During the senatorial session 
 of 1822-1823 he rarely appeared in his seat in the Senate and 
 finally sought from the President the appointment for himself 
 as minister to Mexico. Cook's energy and influence secured 
 this appointment, but when he failed to substantiate the charges 
 made by him against Crawford under the nom de plume of 
 "A. B." he was compelled to resign this appointment. Prior to so 
 doing, he had resigned his senatorship in order to accept the 
 Presidential appointment and he was thus returned for a time to 
 private life. His son-in-law, Cook, however, was still successful 
 in upholding the Edwards flag and in retaining his place in 
 Congress. He had defeated McLean in 1817 and 1822, Kane 
 in 1820 and Bond in 1824 when they sought election to Congress. 
 He had developed a tremendous personal popularity which car- 
 ried him again and again to success. His intimacy with Edwards 
 and his identification with him and his policies had not as yet 
 
ILLINOIS 297 
 
 weakened his hold on the people. A time was now approaching 
 when that popularity was to be put to the test with disastrous 
 results. 
 
 During the presidential election of 1824, Cook had pledged 
 himself to cast his vote in Congress, if the choice for President 
 came before that body, for the candidate whom a majority of 
 popular vote indicated to be the popular choice. There were 
 four candidates for the Presidency in the field, Jackson, Adams, 
 Clay and Crawford. In the state at large, Jackson received 
 1,272 votes ; Adams, 1,542 ; Clay, 1,047, and Crawford, 219. In 
 this computation, however, there were excluded 629 votes cast 
 for Turney as presidential elector. Turney had pledged himself 
 to vote for either Jackson or Clay. If the votes for Turney 
 were added to those given either to Jackson or to Clay, Jackson 
 would be credited with 1,901 or Clay would have been credited 
 with 1,676. In either event Jackson or Clay would have received 
 more votes than Adams. If given to Jackson he would have 
 had an enormous majority over Adams. 
 
 This was the situation when the election of the President 
 was thrown into the House of Representatives, by reason of 
 the fact that none of the four candidates had received a majority 
 of the electoral vote. That electoral vote had been cast as 
 follows: Jackson had received ninety-nine votes, Adams eighty- 
 four, Crawford forty-one and Clay thirty-seven. Jackson had 
 received a plurality of the popular vote. Under the Constitution 
 there was no election and the same Constitution required that 
 the House of Representatives should select the President from 
 among the three candidates that had received the largest number 
 of electoral votes. This eliminated Henry Clay, then Speaker 
 of the House. Crawford's chances of selection were shattered 
 by a stroke of paralysis, leaving only Jackson and Adams as 
 real contenders. In this junction, the situation in which Cook, 
 the Illinois Congressman, was placed was powerful as well as 
 critical. As the vote for the Presidency in the House was taken 
 by states and the successful candidate must secure a majority 
 of the states, a single congressman of the state which had only 
 one congressman, or a majority of the congressmen in a state, 
 could determine the vote of that state for the Presidency. Cook 
 
Providing for the' establishment -of Free Schools* 
 
 To enjoy our rights and liberties, we must understand them: their security and protectioa ought to be 
 % foe first object of a free people; and ft is a welle#al4ijd»ed,&^ 
 
 3 in the enjoyment of civil and political freedom, which w,as not both * irtuous and enlightened : and believ* 
 
 4 lag that the advancement of literature always has been, and ever will be,- the means of developing more; 
 
 5 fully the rights of manj that the mind of every citbsea in a republic is the common property of society, 
 u ami constitutes the basis of its strength and happinessr it is therefore considered the peculiar duty of a 
 
 7 free government like ours, to encourage and extend the improvement and cultivation of the intellectual 
 $ energies of -the whole; Therefore, 
 
 Sac. 1. Be it malted foj the People of ike SMe of JUlm>\$ represented in the General Jls$embhj, That 
 S there shall be established a common school or schools In each of the counties of this state, which shall 
 »: he of en and free to every class of white citizens between the ages of five aad eighteen years, 
 
 Szc, 2. Bi U further enacted, That the county commissioners' courts shall, from time to time, form 
 t school districts la their respective counties, whenever a petition may be presented for that purpose, by 
 
 5 a majority of the qualified voters resident within such contemplated district: Prottded, That ail Safeb 
 4 districts, when laid off, shall, respectively, contain not less tbaaiblr'ry families. 
 
 Sec. 3, Be U further mscttd, That the legal voters in each district to be established as aforesaid, 
 &'. may have a meeting at any time thereafter, by giving ten days previous notice of the time and place of 
 
 8 holding the same; at which meeting they may proceed by ballot to elect three trustees, one clerk, one 
 4 treasurer, one assessor, and.oae collector, who shall respectively take an oath of office faithfully to <lis* 
 
 6 charge their respective duties, 
 
 Sec. 4. Bi U farther enacted. That it shall be the duty of the trustees to superintend the schools 
 •3 within their respective districts, to examine and employ teachers, to lease all land belonging to the dhv* 
 
 3 twet, to call meetings of the voters whenever they shall deem it expedient, or at any time when reqses*- 
 
 4 ted so to do by.ftre legal voters, by giving to each one at least five days notice of the time and place of 
 
 5 holding the same, appointing one or more persons living within tha district -to serve the necessary 
 8 notice, fa make an annual report to the county commissioners* court of the proper county of the nam* 
 
 ' 7 ber of children living within the bounds of such district, between the ages of five and eighteen years, 
 
 8 and what number of them are actually sent to school, with a certificate of the time a school is actually 
 kept up iii the district, with the probable expense of the same. ♦ 
 
 •Sec, a. Be it further enacted, That each and cv&ry school district, when established and organised as 
 3 aforesaid) sisal! be, and they are'hweby, constituted a body politic and corporate, so far as to commence 
 
 9 and maintain actions on aey agreement made with any person or persons for the aoa-perfomaace 
 
 Facsimile of First Page of Original Bill Creating Free 
 Schools in Illinois, 1825 
 
 From Illinois Blue Book. 
 
ILLINOIS 299 
 
 was in that position and could determine the vote for Illinois. 
 He cast it for Adams and not for the candidate who had received 
 the plurality of both the electoral and popular vote, Andrew 
 Jackson. 
 
 In 1826, when he came up for reelection he was compelled 
 to face the charge that he had violated his own pledge to the 
 people in 1824, and the charge that he had defied the popular 
 demand not only in his own state, but in the nation. He was 
 further handicapped by the fact that his father-in-law, Edwards, 
 who had been defeated for reelection as United States Senator, 
 was running for governor of the state at the same time that he, 
 the son-in-law, was running for Congress. The resentment of 
 the people caused by his vote in Congress against the popular 
 hero, Jackson, and his connection with the Edwards family 
 oligarchy, proved too much to overcome. Joseph Duncan, a 
 modest newcomer into public life as state senator from 1824 
 to 1826, sensed the state of popular feeling correctly, and 
 although by no means as able a campaigner as Cook, offered 
 himself as candidate for Congress against Cook and beat him 
 decisively. It was the first occasion since the admission of 
 Illinois to statehood that Cook failed to receive popular approval 
 at the polls, although he had sought public office every two years 
 from 1818. His defeat was the beginning of the end of the 
 Edwards dynasty. 
 
 Strange to say, at the same election at which the popular 
 Cook went down to defeat, his father-in-law, Edwards, was 
 elected governor, although he had been beaten for United States 
 senator by John McLean only two years before. From 1809 
 down to 1824 he had been continuously in public office as Terri- 
 torial Governor and United States Senator, and in 1825 was 
 for the first time in sixteen years without public office. He 
 had also suffered serious financial reverses by reason of his 
 connection with an insolvent bank and rather questionable land 
 speculation. His success by a narrow majority over Sloo, his 
 principal opponent, was probably due to the weakness of that 
 opponent, who was not widely known nor possessed of a forceful 
 personality. Sympathy with the reduced fortunes of the former 
 governor and senator and remembrance of some of the many 
 
300 ILLINOIS 
 
 good things he did in public life may also have contributed 
 to his election. Although his popularity with the masses was 
 perceptibly fading, by this election Edwards had received a 
 qualified vindication, and at his inauguration as governor, in 
 December, 1826, he appeared before the Legislature with all 
 the pomp and glory of early days, costumed in knee-breeches, 
 silk stockings, ruffles and powdered hair. He had, however, an 
 unsympathetic Legislature that paid little attention to most of 
 his recommendations. 
 
 One of the good laws that was passed during Edwards' incum- 
 bency was that which made provision for the establishment of 
 a penitentiary. Up to that time no penitentiary for the punish- 
 ment of crime and no decent jails had been built in Illinois. 
 Because of the non-existence of such places practically no pris- 
 oners were sentenced to imprisonment. They were either sen- 
 tenced to whipping, branding, leased out to the highest bidder 
 for enforced labor, or hung. The criminal code of the state 
 tolerated all these atrocious penalties and was a disgrace to the 
 state. John Reynolds, who had been on the Supreme bench 
 and who was afterward to be elected governor, was the impelling 
 personality who secured the passage of the penitentiary law. 
 Having encountered on the bench the enormity of the criminal 
 code, he earnestly pressed home upon his fellow-legislators, that 
 the criminal code must be amended, and that before such an 
 amendment could be secured, there must be created a place where 
 imprisonment could be enforced and thus supplant legal bru- 
 tality. The finances of the state at the time, however, were in 
 such a frightfully depressed condition that money could not be 
 found to build the proposed penitentiary. Reynolds got around 
 this situation by getting the Legislature to pass a petition to 
 Congress to donate to the state the Saline lands reserved by 
 the United States for the manufacture of salt. The timber on 
 this land used for salt manufacture, had all been consumed and 
 the land had been practically worthless for salt manufacture 
 for some time. The petition was adopted by the Legislature 
 and granted by Congress. The state thus secured about 80,000 
 acres of land which it sold for farming and other purposes and 
 used part of the proceeds in building a penitentiary which was 
 
ILLINOIS 301 
 
 completed and further enlarged and developed by Reynolds 
 when he became governor. 
 
 The election of Governor Edwards by a reduced majority, 
 was the last success of the so-called Edwards party. Its popu- 
 larity had waned and its power greatly weakened by the defeat 
 of Cook. It went into a rapid decline during Edwards' admin- 
 istration and exerted no influence in the state thereafter. Jack- 
 sonian Democracy had appeared upon the scene and local squab- 
 bles for office gave way to national questions in political life. 
 
 A brief reference to the important occurrences and accom- 
 plishments of the three gubernatorial administrations of Gov- 
 ernors Bond, Coles and Edwards, the three first state governors 
 of Illinois, is appropriate before we leave this ten-year era. 
 
 After Nathaniel Pope, the territorial delegate, had succeeded 
 in amending the petition of the Illinois Territory for admission 
 to statehood so as to move the northern boundary of the state 
 fifty-one miles north of the most southerly point of Lake Michi- 
 gan; and securing the adoption of the amended petition by 
 Congress, the new state adopted a constitution and elected offi- 
 cials. Congress then approved the constitution so adopted and 
 formally admitted the State of Illinois into the Union. Shadrach 
 Bond, elected without opposition, was inaugurated governor, 
 October 6, 1818. About two years afterward the seat of govern- 
 ment was moved from Kaskaskia to Vandalia, this being the 
 outstanding event of the Bond administration. Edward Coles 
 was elected his successor and was inaugurated in 1822, The 
 fierce struggle for a new convention to amend the constitution 
 so as to make Illinois a slave state, which has heretofore been 
 commented upon, was the outstanding occurrence in the Coles' 
 administration. The governor bitterly and successfully opposed 
 the holding of this convention, and with the assistance of able 
 friends of human liberty heretofore mentioned, saved the young 
 state from obloquy and the disgrace of tolerating human slavery 
 within its borders. General Lafayette visited Illinois during the 
 Coles administration, and was received with all possible honor 
 and acclaim. The new State House at Vandalia was destroyed 
 by fire December 9, 1823, during Coles' administration, and was 
 rebuilt by the citizens of Vandalia at a cost of $15,000. This, 
 
302 ILLINOIS 
 
 however, proved an "Indian gift," as the citizens sought after- 
 wards and obtained reimbursement for the money subscribed 
 for the rebuilding. The first general school law was also passed 
 in 1825, during Coles' incumbency, at the instigation of Senator 
 Duncan, afterwards elected governor. 
 
 Ninian Edwards, formerly Territorial Governor and United 
 States Senator, succeeded Coles in 1826. During the Edwards 
 administration the Legislature, over the veto of the governor 
 and his Supreme Court advisory board, passed the grotesque 
 and dangerous law creating a State Bank with power to loan 
 money to insolvent debtors, elsewhere noted in these volumes. 
 The folly of this law, was demonstrated very soon, the bank 
 was closed, and its liabilities settled by the issue of state bonds 
 during the very next administration, that of Governor Reynolds. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 NATIONAL POLITICS ENTERS ILLINOIS 
 
 Up to the year 1828, as we have seen, all elections in Illinois 
 were simply struggles of individuals to obtain office. From 1818, 
 when Illinois became a state, until the election of John Quincy 
 Adams to the presidency by Congress in 1824, there was prac- 
 tically but one national party in politics, the Republican party 
 founded by Thomas Jefferson and perpetuated by him and his 
 successors, James Madison and James Monroe, from 1801 to 
 1825. In 1809 the Federalist party had been starved to death 
 from want of political nourishment, or, in other words, from 
 lack of votes at the polls. An "era of good feeling" had set in 
 and for twenty-four years the Republican party had practically 
 no opposition. In 1824 five different candidates sought the presi- 
 dency, all of them ostensibly members of the Republican party. 
 They were Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, Wil- 
 liam H. Crawford and John Quincy Adams. Crawford was Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury and Adams Secretary of State in Presi- 
 dent Monroe's cabinet. Both of them must have claimed to have 
 been members of the Republican party or they would not have 
 been chosen for such responsible positions in the cabinet of the 
 Republican President. None of the five candidates received a 
 majority in the electoral college, although Jackson had a large 
 plurality in the electoral college and a plurality in the popular 
 vote. 
 
 As we have heretofore seen, the election of the presidency 
 was thrown into the House of Representatives, where Adams 
 was elected President. The election of Adams caused a split in 
 the Republican party which widened and deepened until the 
 next presidential election. One element of the party called itself 
 the National Republican party and nominated Adams for the 
 presidency, while the other element nominated Andrew Jackson 
 as the candidate of the Democratic party. Thus came into being 
 
 303 
 
304 ILLINOIS 
 
 in American politics, both in the nation and state, the name and 
 party since known as the National Democratic party. 
 
 It will be remembered that at the election for the presidency 
 in the House of Representatives in 1824, Daniel Pope Cook, the 
 Illinois representative in that body, cast the vote of Illinois for 
 Adams and not for Jackson. In so doing, although he may have 
 acted with the best of motives and according to the dictates of 
 his own conscience and sense of patriotic duty, he committed a 
 political blunder which was the main cause of his defeat in 1826 
 and his elimination from public life until his death, which 
 occurred about 1830. In the minds of the common people in 
 Illinois and elsewhere, in 1825 and thereafter, Jackson had be- 
 come an idolized hero. Although he was known to be hot- 
 tempered and headstrong, his patriotism and devotion to the 
 well-being of the common people, his courage and sagacity as 
 a soldier and his glorious record on the battle-fields of the nation 
 had endeared him to the average run of humanity above all other 
 Americans of his day. His domestic life was clean, his integrity 
 universally conceded, his patriotism unquestioned, his energy 
 boundless and his intentions honorable and upright. As devoid 
 of early education as was Lincoln, he lacked the latter's thirst 
 for same. He was a doer of great deeds rather than a thinker 
 of great thoughts. Both on the battle-field and in the White 
 House he acted with dynamic force that carried all before it. 
 His vigorous, although at times hasty and explosive acts, en- 
 deared him to a people who were then, both in Illinois and 
 throughout the nation, becoming more and more democratized. 
 Up to the advent of Jackson the nation's executives and the 
 executives of Illinois had been taken from what was at that time 
 regarded as the cultured, well-born classes, and the elective fran- 
 chise in Illinois had been limited to property owners, as well as 
 in many other states. These restrictions on the right of voting 
 had recently been giving way before the popular demand for 
 manhood suffrage, and the poor and uneducated were beginning 
 to understand their power in participating in the machinery of 
 government. They were democratizing the nation in thought 
 and action. In Jackson, comparatively poor and uneducated, 
 who talked, lived and fought in democratic fashion, they recog- 
 
ILLINOIS 305 
 
 nized one of themselves, extraordinarily forceful, able and suc- 
 cessful. He thus became a popular idol and by reason of his 
 incorruptible integrity and exalted patriotism so remained until 
 his death and throughout history. 
 
 The casting of the vote of Illinois by Cook for Adams and 
 against Jackson, the popular idol, together with his close affilia- 
 tion both socially and politically with the "Edwards dynasty," 
 brought to a close Cook's splendid career in the history of Illi- 
 nois. His greatest reward (not then probably appreciated in its 
 full importance) was to have his name given to what is today 
 the most populous and powerful county in the Northwest, and 
 possibly in the Western Hemisphere. 
 
 From this time (1828) on for nearly thirty years, the test 
 applied to all candidates for state offices in Illinois was loyalty 
 to Jackson during his lifetime and to Jacksonian Democracy 
 after his death. John Reynolds, both of whose parents were 
 Irish-born rebels against British rule, was elected governor as 
 a conservative Jacksonian Democrat and inaugurated in 1830. 
 He had been a member of the Supreme Court from 1818 to 1824, 
 and was an early pioneer, having emigrated from Tennessee to 
 Illinois with his father's family in 1800 when a boy of twelve 
 years of age. He was a ranger in the private ranks in the War 
 of 1812 and when governor, 1830-1834, took the field as com- 
 mander of the Illinois troops in the Black Hawk war. He wrote 
 and published in 1852 a Pioneer History of Illinois to the Year 
 of 1818, which is not only intensely interesting, informative, and 
 at places amusing, but which because of the fact that he was 
 intimately acquainted with and an active participant in the 
 pioneer habits and social and political gatherings of the territory 
 under American rule, furnishes the student of Illinois history 
 with the most reliable picture of the pioneer life of the territory 
 before it became a state. Copies of this old history are rare 
 and valuable. I am one of the fortunate owners of one of these 
 rare histories, as a result of the generosity of that splendid 
 book-lover and very able journalist who still vigorously edits 
 the Belleville News-Democrat, Hon. Fred J. Kern, former con- 
 gressman from the Twenty-second Illinois Congressional Dis- 
 trict and president of the State Board of Administration from 
 
The Cairo Bank at Kaskaskia 
 
ILLINOIS 307 
 
 1913 to 1917. In 1879, under the auspices of the Chicago His- 
 torical Society, the Fergus Printing Company published a mod- 
 ern edition of Reynolds' History of Illinois, My Own Times, 
 which is a much larger and more comprehensive work than the 
 pioneer history published in 1852. Because of the destruction in 
 the Chicago fire of 1871 of most of Governor Reynolds' original 
 My Own Times, I have not been able to get a copy of the original 
 edition. 
 
 The Black Hawk war took place during Governor Reynolds' 
 term of office and as we shall later see in the account of 
 that war, he, Reynolds, acted with great intelligence, prompti- 
 tude and vigor in raising the volunteer troops in Illinois and 
 placing them at the disposal of the Federal commanders. He 
 accompanied the troops in person and did everything in his 
 power to uphold the dignity of the state and nation. Whatever 
 criticism there be over the origin and prosecution of that war, 
 it must be, if honest, directed at the Federal authorities. Gov- 
 ernor Reynolds, as we have heretofore noted, was the father 
 of the legislation providing for a state penitentiary and had 
 the satisfaction of being able, while governor, to see the fruits 
 of that legislation demonstrated by the actual building of the 
 first state penitentiary at Alton. 
 
 As illustrating from what small beginnings the great State 
 of Illinois has developed, I quote from Reynolds' My Own Times, 
 as follows : "The revenue imposed from taxes between November 
 1, 1811 and the eighth of the same month, 1814, was $4875.47. 
 Of this sum $2516.89 was paid into the Treasury and $2378.47 
 remained in the hands of the delinquent sheriffs to be paid over. 
 (Reynolds My Own Times, p. 105.) The appalling condition 
 of poverty among the people, the absence of a circulating medium 
 of exchange, and the grotesque, aye opera bouffe condition of 
 its banking laws between 1819 and 1831 are vividly illustrated 
 by another quotation from the same work, as follows: 
 
 A bank was chartered by the first General Assembly 
 in 1819, but it never went into existence. The country 
 was flooded with bank paper all over the Union after the 
 close of the war, but worthless paper of the Western States 
 went down, and left the country almost without any cur- 
 
308 ILLINOIS 
 
 rency towards the years of 1819, 1820, and 1821. The 
 pressure reached Illinois in its aggravated forms, and prop- 
 erty was down to nothing. Cows and calves sold for four 
 or five dollars, and wheat at thirty-five and forty cents 
 per bushel; corn was, in many places, down to ten cents. 
 The people, and the members of the General Assembly who 
 were elected in 1820, were enthusiastic for some relief, 
 but what kind of amelioration of "hard times" was not 
 considered or known. 
 
 The people had contracted large debts when the money 
 was plenty, and now, when it was so scarce, it was almost 
 impossible to pay these demands. These considerations 
 urged the people and the General Assembly to seek some 
 relief from this impending evil. 
 
 In the early part of the winter of 1821, the legislature 
 conceived the idea of creating a State Bank, formed wholly 
 for the time present, ON THE CREDIT OF THE STATE. 
 This bank was to have a capital of a half a million dollars, 
 and to issue in the beginning only three hundred thousand 
 dollars. The State, by its directors, was to manage the 
 mother bank and the branches, and the whole to remain 
 under the control of the General Assembly. Money was 
 to be loaned to no individual on personal security in sums 
 above one hundred dollars, and to be secured in real estate 
 at two-thirds the value. The notes were to draw an interest 
 of six per cent per annum, and the bank to exist for ten 
 years. 
 
 The worst feature yet to be told, was that if a creditor 
 did not take this paper for his debt at par the debt would 
 be replevied for three years. The paper was made receiv- 
 able for all taxes, State debts, and many others, which 
 the State had the power to control. As it has already been 
 stated, the council of revision had to pass on all bills and 
 approve or reject them. The bill was presented to the 
 council, and three of the five members vetoed it, and 
 returned it to the House of Representatives with their 
 objections. Governor Bond, Judge Philips, and myself, 
 disapproved of the measure, and Judge Wilson and Brown 
 consented to it. The General Assembly became excited 
 and passed the law by a constitutional majority, over the 
 objections of the council. This charter became the law 
 of the land, and the bank went into operation. The veto- 
 message of the council raised the objections to both its 
 constitutional errors and its policy. The paper of this 
 bank was floating through the atmosphere of Illinois for 
 
ILLINOIS 309 
 
 ten years, as a poisoning and pestilential vapor that with- 
 ered and blighted the country for that length of time. The 
 paper never was at par and sunk, at times, down to twenty- 
 five cents per dollar. 
 
 At almost every session of the General Assembly, during 
 the existence of the bank, either the bank or the bank 
 debtors prayed relief, which was a prolific source of 
 legislation. 
 
 The members of the legislature paid themselves, at times, 
 nine dollars per day, and the other officers of the State 
 were also paid in proportion to the depreciation of the 
 paper. 
 
 The "stay-laws" and "stop laws," as they were called, 
 operated a great injury to the people, not only for the 
 non-payment of all debts, but they encouraged a kind of 
 disregard for honesty and morality, which in all commu- 
 nities is essential to preserve. I always opposed all laws 
 that interposed any impediment between debtor and cred- 
 itor. This is a relation — debtor and creditor — existing 
 between free men, made by themselves, that the laws should 
 hold sacred and inviolable. The law in all well-regulated 
 communities should extend its efficient arm to the collection 
 of debts. I am opposed to imprisonment for debt, but it 
 is dishonest legislation to permit one individual to retain 
 the substance of another by law. 
 
 The old State Bank lingered out its miserable existence, 
 never observing its promises, or meeting the expectations 
 of its friends, and was wound up in 1831. I had been an 
 observer of its incapacity for the ten years of its existence, 
 and had suffered by its muddy water so much, that I was 
 determined to do all in my power to wind it up and rid 
 the country of its pollutions. In my first message to the 
 General Assembly, dated December 3d, 1820, I presented 
 the subject as follows: 
 
 "The subject of the State Bank, as connected with our 
 revenue, will, necessarily, occupy much of your time. The 
 true policy, in my opinion, is to close the business of the 
 bank as soon as a proper regard to the interests of the 
 State will permit. This, too, ought to be done with as little 
 oppression to the bank debtors as possible. 
 
 "Within a short time all the paper of the bank will 
 become payable. And although the bank policy has been 
 most ruinous to the State and many of its citizens, and 
 only benefited a few speculators, yet the State is in honor 
 and duty bound for its payment at the appointed time. The 
 
310 ILLINOIS 
 
 credit and character of the State are involved in the prompt 
 payment of this claim ; and I do most sincerely recommend 
 you to sustain that character, which no doubt you will 
 take pleasure in doing, by providing adequate means. The 
 warrants of the State ought not to be allowed to fall below 
 par." 
 
 In pursuance of the above recommendation a law was 
 passed, and a loan of one hundred thousand dollars was 
 made to enable the State to meet the claims against the 
 State Bank. The loan was effected and the bank wound 
 up. A good currency was introduced and much benefit 
 by the operation, yet in many sections of the State the 
 loan was unpopular, and it was said the State was sold 
 to Wiggins who made the loan to the State. Many of my 
 friends were prostrated a while for doing their duty in this 
 case, but at last the measure became popular. 
 
 These were the words of the man who, as one of the judges 
 of the Supreme Court, was on the advisory committee which 
 advised the governor (Bond) to veto the banking law and who 
 afterwards, when governor, succeeded in having the grotesque 
 bank wound up, its debts paid off and its life extinguished. 
 This wierd law was passed by ill-informed pioneer legislators, 
 ignorant of banking requirements and financial science, avowedly 
 and openly for the express purpose of loaning the state's credit 
 to insolvent debtors, in the vain hope that in some vague way 
 in the distant future, these insolvent debtors would become 
 solvent and remember to pay their debts to the state. It was 
 a financial joke but an historical one that must be recorded 
 in telling the history of Illinois. The result was inevitable. 
 The insolvents secured the state's bank notes in exchange for 
 their own, failed to pay their notes, and the state was compelled 
 to issue its bonds to pay its bank notes. 
 
 During the administration of Governor Reynolds occurred 
 the last war with the Indians in Illinois, known as the Black 
 Hawk war, which has been treated at some length elsewhere 
 in this work. It entailed the loss of about 200 American lives, 
 an almost complete extermination of the Sac tribe of Indians 
 at a cost to the state and nation of $2,000,000. During Reynolds' 
 administration the population of the central and northern por- 
 tion of the state increased immensely. Chicago was incorporated 
 
ILLINOIS 311 
 
 as a town in 1833. In 1830 the County of Putnam had 700 
 inhabitants. Rushville was incorporated in 1831 with 180 inhab- 
 itants. In 1831 there were 10,000 people in the counties of 
 Pike, Calhoun, Adams, Schuyler and Fulton, all north and west 
 of the Illinois River in the military tract. Peoria was laid 
 out in 1826 shortly before Reynolds became governor. As evi- 
 dencing the rapid growth of the population, we find that the 
 counties of Rock Island, LaSalle, Cook and Champaign were 
 all created in 1831 and 1833, during Reynolds' incumbency. 
 Prior to Reynolds' election in 1830, the population of Illinois 
 north of Peoria, excepting at the lead mines around Galena, 
 did not average two white human beings to the square mile. 
 
 Reynolds was elected as a Jacksonian Democrat. His oppo- 
 nent, William Kinney, a storekeeper, Baptist minister and sea- 
 soned politician, was of the same political party. The latter 
 was an ardent professor of that political faith, while Reynolds, 
 less ardent, was just as steadfast in his loyalty to Jackson. 
 No conventions were held up to that time to make nominations. 
 Both candidates announced their own candidacies, declaring 
 their loyalty to Jackson. The candidates, however, had different 
 temperaments and dispositions and conducted their campaigns 
 along different lines. Reynolds was the better educated, and 
 more suave and tactful in his public utterances. While pro- 
 claiming his loyalty to Jackson and Democracy, he was not 
 abusive of his political enemies, the Whigs. Instead of excoriat- 
 ing, he exhorted them to enter the Democratic fold. Kinney, 
 a much abler stump speaker, indulged in invective against 
 Adams, Clay and the whole Whig party. The result was that 
 the Jacksonian Democrats split their votes between the two 
 Jacksonian Democrats, while the Whigs who went to the polls 
 voted for Reynolds as the lesser of two evils, and Reynolds 
 was elected by a substantial majority. 
 
 This election and the succeeding election of Duncan over 
 Kinney for governor in 1834 gave birth to the convention system 
 of selecting candidates in the Democratic party in Illinois. 
 Duncan claimed while he was a candidate that he was a Jack- 
 sonian Democrat, although his loyalty to "Old Hickory" was 
 doubted by many. Kinney, his opponent, made the same pro- 
 
312 ILLINOIS 
 
 fession. The result was the same as when Reynolds was a 
 candidate. Duncan divided the Democratic vote with Kinney 
 and received nearly all of the Whig vote and was elected. To 
 prevent such situations in the future, the Democrats in the 
 nation, about 1835, adopted the convention system of electing 
 candidates for public office. They declared in set resolutions 
 that politics in the Republic was based upon differences of 
 principle as to government and that the triumph of principles, 
 rather than the triumph of leaders or a leader, was the aim to 
 be sought in politics. They declared that "without a frequent 
 interchange of political sentiment, expressed by the people, and 
 repeated by their delegates, properly authorized, the democracy 
 cannot insure that success in their elections which the purity 
 and integrity of their principles entitle them to claim. " 
 
 The Democrats had discovered that victory for their prin- 
 ciples and candidates could not be secured unless they consoli- 
 dated and centered the vote of their party upon one man pledged 
 to support their principles and eliminating the candidacy of 
 other rivals within the party, because these rivals would divide 
 the vote of the party and allow a minority in the opposing party, 
 consolidated on one candidate, to win over their majority. It 
 was decided that in each election district delegates should be 
 elected to the county, state or national conventions of the party, 
 where a declaration of principles should be adopted and a single 
 candidate for each office should be selected, pledged to support 
 that declaration of principle, and receive the undivided support 
 at the election of all members of that party. 
 
 This system adopted by the Democratic party about 1835 
 had much to commend it. By assembling its leaders and f ramers 
 of public principles in one place for conferences, consultation, 
 discussion and debate, it enables a party, after mature delibera- 
 tion, to promulgate a full-considered declaration of the policies 
 to be pursued by that party if placed in power, and enables the 
 party as one man to support the candidate who pledges himself 
 to carry out those policies when elected. The wisdom of the 
 plan has been demonstrated from the fact that from that time 
 down to the present, the same has been adhered to by the 
 Democratic party and that within a short time afterwards it 
 
ILLINOIS 313 
 
 was adopted by its great rival, the present Republican party. 
 The Whigs in Illinois did not adopt the convention system till 
 some time afterwards. It was derided, criticized and condemned 
 by them until they began to ascertain its effectiveness. Since 
 its adoption by both of the great political parties it has often 
 been criticized, as being in operation, capable of fraudulent 
 manipulation. That fraudulent acts in the election of delegates 
 and in the calling of conventions and recording their results 
 sometimes occur cannot be questioned, but I know of no business 
 calling, occupation or trade, and no meeting of men or women, 
 where fraud may not and does not at some time enter. Fraud 
 vitiates all things. Frauds occur under the direct primary 
 systems as they occur in conventions. Under either system care 
 must be taken to eliminate fraud. 
 
 Those voters in Illinois who had favored Adams or Clay 
 for the Presidency in preference to Andrew Jackson in 1828 
 and were therefore opposed to Jacksonian Democracy, were 
 dubbed as Whigs, which name they accepted without demur. 
 These Whigs for many years were in a hopeless minority. They 
 were timid about placing men in nomination for public offices 
 as Whigs. Few or none of the Whigs would announce their 
 voluntary candidacies as Whigs because they felt that such an 
 announcement would kill their chances of election. Between 
 1828 and 1848 no candidate avowedly opposed to Jackson or 
 Jacksonian Democracy could be, or was, elected to state or 
 national office in Illinois. The Whig voters in Illinois, except 
 on one occasion, either remained at home on election day, or 
 voted for that Jacksonian candidate that was the least offensive 
 to them of the candidates seeking election. On the one excep- 
 tional occasion, when Harrison was the National Republican- 
 Whig candidate for the presidency, they rallied in force at the 
 polls and cast a large but unsuccessful vote for Harrison in 
 Illinois. Harrison was beaten in this state, but won throughout 
 the nation. 
 
 In the gubernatorial election when Reynolds was successful 
 in 1830, and again when Duncan was elected, both of these 
 men received numbers of Whig votes because the Whigs regarded 
 these men as the least offensive Jacksonian Democrats at these 
 
314 ILLINOIS 
 
 two elections. The Democrats early recognized that the candi- 
 dacies of two or more men by individual announcements, pro- 
 fessing 1 themselves to be Democrats, would soon split the party 
 wide open and allow the Whigs, though in a minority, to win 
 at the polls, and they soon adopted the convention system to 
 avoid this disaster. The system, however, was not found at 
 the start to be simple or easy of adoption. It was often found 
 to be cumbersome and inconvenient to follow the evolution of 
 a national convention up from the precinct election through 
 all the civil voting units, to the choice of national delegates 
 to national conventions. The advisability, aye political necessity 
 of the consolidation of the vote of the party behind one set 
 of principles and one candidate, was to the Democratic mind 
 paramount over the inconveniences of the system. The Demo- 
 crats believed that the aims and wishes of the common people 
 under the convention system would be registered and systemat- 
 ically carried on and up from the simple gatherings of the 
 people in election or school districts, through the congressional 
 or judicial conventions to the national conventions. They con- 
 tended, too, that the system was democratic and prevented 
 wealth from determining the choice of candidates in caucuses 
 as had frequently happened in the past. 
 
 The Whigs, however, did not take kindly to the system. They 
 claimed that it prevented worthy and financially responsible 
 men from offering themselves as candidates for election. The 
 Whigs, however, had the reputation of having within their 
 ranks most if not all of the wealthy men and bankers in the 
 state; and, although in a minority, the Whigs had bought and 
 owned most of the stock in, and had organized, the State Bank 
 and the Bank of Illinois, in 1834, which institutions had become 
 quite unpopular. The majority of the Whigs were by no means 
 idealists, but were successful accumulators of wealth. The 
 Whigs reluctantly adopted the convention system in 1839, some 
 years after the Democrats. Prior to their so doing they had 
 bitterly criticized the system. It was forced upon them by its 
 apparent success in the Democratic party and not by any evo- 
 lution within the party. 
 
ILLINOIS 315 
 
 On November 17, 1834, Governor Reynolds resigned as gov- 
 ernor of Illinois, to become a member of Congress, and was 
 succeeded by Lieutenant-Governor William L. D. Ewing, who 
 held the office for fifteen days, or until Governor Duncan was 
 inaugurated. Ewing's term as governor was the shortest in the 
 history of Illinois. Reynolds was, under the Constitution of 
 1818, ineligible for reelection and had been during his term 
 as governor elected to Congress. This accounts for his resig- 
 nation as governor. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN REYNOLDS AS 
 
 GOVERNOR 
 
 John Reynolds, a pioneer who had entered Illinois from 
 Tennessee as a boy in 1800, the son of an Irish rebel against 
 British rule, was elected governor of Illinois in 1830. He had 
 been a ranger in the private ranks in the War of 1812, was 
 practicing law, and had served a term with his uncle, Thomas 
 Reynolds, on the Supreme bench of the state. At the time 
 he announced his candidacy for governor, he was a popular 
 member of the Lower House of the State Legislature and a 
 lawyer of good standing in active practice. In politics he was 
 a Jacksonian Democrat, but not in favor with the ultra or 
 radical element of his party. The Jacksonian Democrats of 
 that year, 1830, were divided into two camps — the ultras, who 
 advised persecution of their political enemies, the Whigs, because 
 of their political opinions, and the conservative Jacksonian Dem- 
 ocrats, who decried political proscription of the Whigs. Rey- 
 nolds announced his candidacy as a Jacksonian Democrat but 
 as opposed to proscribing any man because of his political 
 opinions. 
 
 His rival candidate, W. C. Kinney, was a Baptist minister, 
 a successful store-keeper, and at the time of his candidacy 
 was lieutenant-governor of Illinois. He was in politics also 
 a Jacksonian Democrat, but of the ultra type. It was alleged 
 in the heated campaign between him and Reynolds that Kinney 
 had declared that the Whigs "should be whipped out of office 
 like dogs out of a meathouse." Kinney claimed in the campaign 
 that he had the ear of President Jackson and could dictate the 
 Federal appointments in the state. Both candidates ardently 
 claimed to be Jacksonian Democrats. No man could be elected 
 
 316 
 
Governor 1830-34 
 
318 ILLINOIS 
 
 at that time who did not make such a profession of political 
 faith. 
 
 The candidate for lieutenant governor on the Kinney ticket 
 was Zadoc Casey, who was also a minister of the Gospel, and 
 Reynolds and his adherents made much of the fact in the cam- 
 paign and decried the injection of "the church into politics." 
 This was particularly effective against Kinney by reason of the 
 fact that both candidates were openly following the custom of 
 that time and treating their followers to liberal libations of 
 whiskey. As Reynolds describes in his My Own Times: "It 
 was the universal custom of the times to treat with liquor. We 
 both did it, but he was condemned more for it than myself by 
 the religious community, he being a preacher of the Gospel." 
 (My Own Times, p. 188.) Naturally, there would be much 
 more criticism of a minister of the Gospel buying whiskey for 
 electioneering purposes than of a layman doing the same. The 
 result of the election was that Reynolds received a large ma- 
 jority of the Jacksonian Democratic votes and nearly all of the 
 Whigs, and was elected by a large majority. 
 
 In his inaugural message, Reynolds advocated free popular 
 education, general internal public improvements, the comple- 
 tion of the Illinois and Michigan Canal and the improvement 
 of the Chicago harbor. He cleverly and adroitly dodged the 
 question of increasing the state taxation by the issuance of 
 state bonds for the making of these improvements; and en- 
 deavored in nearly every instance to throw the burden upon the 
 Federal Government. He did, however, recommend the com- 
 pletion of the first state penitentiary at Alton at the direct cost 
 of the state. Under his administration a law was passed refund- 
 ing the old State Bank paper which had the effect of putting the 
 state paper back at par value. 
 
 The Black Hawk war broke out in 1831 during Governor 
 Reynolds' administration and lasted for eighteen months. The 
 governor actively and energetically participated therein, as we 
 have shown in another chapter. In his My Own Times he de- 
 votes sixty-five pages to that interesting topic which are well 
 worth reading by any history-loving student. In that work 
 he treats his political rivals with much courtesy and apparently 
 
ILLINOIS 319 
 
 very fairly. It is a very interesting volume and I recommend 
 its perusal. 
 
 In the summer of 1834 Charles Slade, the member of Con- 
 gress from Reynolds' congressional district, died, leaving a 
 vacancy to which Reynolds was elected. This position he held 
 for three years thereafter. Under the Constitution of 1818 he 
 was ineligible to succeed himself as governor and this is prob- 
 ably the reason he sought election to Congress. To the credit 
 of Governor Reynolds and the Legislature who served under 
 him must be placed the law which upheld the financial honor 
 of the state in 1830. During the first session of this Legislature 
 it became its duty to make provision for the redemption of the 
 notes of the old State Bank which fell due during the next sum- 
 mer. Former Legislatures had feared to risk the popularity 
 of its members by the redemption of these notes by taxation 
 or otherwise. Something must now be done. At the insistence 
 of Governor Reynolds the Legislature authorized the making 
 of the "Wiggins' Loan" of $100,000. The money was obtained 
 by borrowing this sum, and with the money so obtained the 
 notes of the bank were redeemed and the honor of the state was 
 saved. This wise and manly act, however, recoiled upon the 
 legislators and but few of the men who voted for this loan found 
 favor in the sight of their constituents for many years there- 
 after. They became as unpopular as the legislators who shortly 
 afterwards voted for the "Little Bull Law." This "Little Bull 
 Law" was a wise law intended for the improvement of the breed 
 of cattle and prohibited small bulls of no pedigree from running 
 at large. Popular opinion was in favor of placing bulls and 
 human beings on the same level with reference to their wander- 
 ings. The public denounced the law as discriminatory and pro- 
 scriptive and vented its dissatisfaction upon all who voted for 
 it. Votes for the "Wiggins' Loan" and the "Little Bull Law" 
 retired many legislators to private life. 
 
CHAPTER XXX 
 
 BLACK HAWK AND THE LAST STAND OF THE INDIANS 
 
 We now come to an episode in the history of state and nation 
 which it is unpleasant to discuss, but as it was unquestionably 
 an important occurrence in the history of Illinois it must be 
 considered and frankly treated by anyone presuming to record 
 the facts of history. 
 
 Up to the year 1831 the last remnant of the confederated 
 Sac and Fox tribes, with the consent and approval of the Fed- 
 eral Government, had occupied two villages near what is now 
 Rock Island. The village possessed by the Sac tribe was on the 
 north side of the Rock River, near that city. The Fox village 
 was three miles away on the Mississippi. These villages for a 
 century had been the principal seats and burial grounds of these 
 tribes. In the year 1804 five of the chiefs or head men of these 
 tribes had gone to St. Louis to secure the release of one of 
 their tribe charged with the murder of a white man. It is 
 very questionable as to whether these five Indians had instruc- 
 tions from their tribes in any other matter. While in St. Louis 
 they were inveigled by William Henry Harrison (who was no- 
 torious for securing by unscrupulous methods unfair treaties 
 from the Indians) into signing a paper by the terms of which 
 their tribes conveyed to the United States 50,000,000 acres of 
 land in consideration of an annuity of $1,000. In describing 
 this transaction, Pease in his volume of the Centennial History 
 of Illinois uses the following language: "In this transaction 
 he (Harrison) treated with five chiefs, away from home, on a 
 mission which was, at least primarily, for a different purpose; 
 while these head men were befuddled by firewater he concluded 
 a treaty which, in return for an annuity of $1,000, stripped the 
 Sac and Foxes of 50,000,000 acres of land." P. 150, Pease. 
 
 320 
 
El 
 
 ' 
 
 Courtesy H. W. Fay, Springfield. 
 
 Black Hawk 
 
322 ILLINOIS 
 
 The territory purported to be conveyed by this document 
 covered all the land in Illinois north of the Illinois River and 
 east of the Mississippi in addition to large tracts in Wisconsin 
 and Indiana. Whiskey seems to have been an essential and ma- 
 terial concomitant of most of the Harrison treaties. President 
 Jefferson had occasion to strongly disapprove of Harrison's 
 methods in securing treaties, and in May, 1805, ordered Har- 
 rison to make explanations in order to "counteract the effect of 
 his own questionable methods." (Idem.) Thomas Forsythe, 
 agent for these two tribes, and knowing them better than any 
 other white man, in discussing this treaty in 1832, wrote : "The 
 Sac and Fox nations were never consulted nor had any hand in 
 the treaty, nor knew anything about it. It was made and signed 
 by two Sac chiefs, one Fox chief and one warrior." (Idem.) 
 By the terms of this alleged treaty, however, these two tribes 
 were allowed to live and hunt upon this land so long as it was the 
 property of the Federal Government. 
 
 Up to the year 1823 these tribes lived in peaceful and un- 
 molested possession of these villages, heretofore mentioned, and 
 the lands surrounding the same. The land around these villages 
 was very fertile, and every year the Indians planted it with corn 
 and other crops which never failed. Vegetables grew rapidly 
 and on the island near them strawberries, blackberries, plums, 
 apples and nuts grew in great profusion. The Government had 
 not parted with its title to these lands by patents to settlers. 
 About the year 1823 white men going to and from the lead mines 
 at Galena began to notice the fine crops produced upon their lands 
 by the Indian squaws. Acting on the principle that a red man 
 had no right to till or enjoy any land that a white man wanted, 
 these covetous white men "squatted" on these lands and drove 
 the Indian squaws and children off and into the villages. Nat- 
 urally, the Indians who had occupied and tilled these lands for 
 a century resented such treatment. The conduct of the white 
 "squatters" was in violation of the law and the terms of the 
 alleged treaty of 1804. Of all the immense domain claimed to 
 have been conveyed to the Government by that document, these 
 few and narrow fields around their village were the only por- 
 tions that were actually tilled and made productive by the In- 
 
ILLINOIS 323 
 
 dians, and it would have been not only decent and just, but good 
 policy, for the United States Government to have reserved this 
 land and allowed the Indians to cultivate it as their forefathers 
 had done for years past. 
 
 The "squatter," however, was not a man to consider justice 
 or decency as against an Indian, no matter how peaceful that 
 Indian might be. The "squatters" became insolent and violent. 
 The Indians became resentful and violent. Pontiac's war, the 
 War of 1812 and wars between these tribes and other Indians 
 had weakened the Sac and Fox not only in number of warriors 
 but in morale. They resisted the aggressiveness of the white 
 "squatters" for a time without shedding blood. Since the treaty 
 of 1816 these tribes had killed no white man and their forbear- 
 ance under the violent encroachments of the "squatters" was 
 amazing. Each and every year the "squatters" came closer 
 and fenced in the fields that the Indians had tilled. Keokuk, 
 the most important of the Sac chiefs, wise, able and eloquent, 
 recognizing the futility of warfare against the whites, gave up 
 the struggle in despair, and advised his fellow-Indians to aban- 
 don the homes and graves of their ancestors, and to cross the 
 Mississippi and establish new homes in Missouri. Under the 
 circumstances which confronted him and his people, this was 
 the weak, but wise, thing to do. The officials of the Federal 
 Government, instead of acting with justice and humanity, stood 
 idly by and, to the humiliation of the American sense of honor 
 and fair play, allowed these "squatters" to dispossess the In- 
 dians of their homes, their crops and the final resting-places of 
 their dead. They did this not only by inaction, but by affirma- 
 tive acts. 
 
 The "squatters," for over seven years, were allowed by Fed- 
 eral officials to encroach further and further into the lands 
 occupied and tilled by the Indians, and finally the registrars at 
 the United States Land Office allowed these "squatters" to file 
 preemption claims and accorded to them preemption rights 
 over certain quarter-sections of land, which included most of 
 one of their villages, their graves and the corn lands, which 
 for over a century had been occupied by the Sac and Foxes 
 and their ancestors. The American sense of justice and fair 
 
324 ILLINOIS 
 
 play had in the breasts of the persons charged with public duties 
 at that time (1830 and 1831) been benumbed or debauched by 
 the land-gluttony prevalent, and sad to say it was tolerated or 
 overlooked by those in high authority in the nation, and after- 
 wards enforced by bloody and shameful warfare. 
 
 Even the claim of right of preemption was illegal. Preemp- 
 tion presumes that the land preempted is peacefully occupied by 
 the preemptor. This land, for which preemption rights were ac- 
 corded to the "squatters," was land in open and notorious occupa- 
 tion by the Indians and had been so for years. The whole affair 
 was not only scandalously unjust but illegal in every respect. 
 Keokuk had been, as we have said, weak but wise, in advising his 
 people to succumb to brute force and retire from their ancestral 
 homes. There was another Indian chief on the scene, who was 
 neither weak nor wise. Although over sixty years of age he had 
 still retained the vigor and valour of Pontiac and Tecumseh, — 
 aye, and of Leonidas and Horatio. He regarded the advice of 
 Keokuk as weak and cowardly. Many of the warriors resented 
 the attitude of Keokuk and this faction found a ready and reso- 
 lute leader in Black Hawk, who was a co-leader and rival chief of 
 Keokuk. He was probably jealous of the prominence of the 
 latter, but he promptly advised his warrior friends to resist 
 the encroachments of the "squatters" and thus advanced his 
 own power and lessened the authority of his rival. The strug- 
 gle between these two chiefs continued for two crop seasons. 
 Keokuk finally succeeded in inducing the greater number of the 
 two confederated tribes to cross the Mississippi, surrender their 
 homes and graveyards and locate in Missouri. 
 
 Black Hawk and his followers tenaciously remained in their 
 village. For some time he advised against bloodshed and vio- 
 lence, being concerned only with peaceable but determined acts 
 of occupation and possession. When the preemption claims 
 of the "squatters" were brought forward and the claim made 
 that they had legal title and the right to dispossess the Indians, 
 he began to examine into the treaties and other legal questions 
 and discovered the terms of these documents. He ascertained 
 the circumstances under which Governor Harrison had wheedled 
 certain Indian chiefs into signing the treaty of 1804 while in- 
 
ILLINOIS 325 
 
 toxicated, and the fact that this treaty was confirmed by other 
 treaties in 1816, 1822 and 1825; which subsequent treaties, 
 however, made no specific reference to the substance of the 
 treaty of 1804. He discovered, too, that certain monies and 
 goods which had been given to the Sac and Fox tribes annually 
 by agents of the United States Government, which he and the 
 other Indians believed were gifts, were in fact paid over to the 
 Indians under the annuity provision of $1,000 to be paid an- 
 nually under the terms of the treaty of 1804. Upon making 
 these discoveries he promptly advised his Indian followers to 
 refuse thereafter to accept any such monies or provisions and 
 sought advice from his friends, the English officers at Maiden, 
 Canada, and from other Indian chiefs in other tribes. He told 
 the men the result of his investigation into the treaties and 
 the circumstances surrounding their signatures, and they ad- 
 vised him that if his statements to them were true the United 
 States could not, and would not, remove him and his tribes from 
 their village at Saukenuk, near Rock Island. 
 
 It is claimed, too, that General Cass was also consulted by 
 Black Hawk and that the general gave him the same advice. 
 The village (or villages) called Saukenuk, it must be borne in 
 mind, was not the ordinary Indian village which could be moved 
 from time to time without much inconvenience. It, or they, 
 (for they were practically one community) was as near an 
 approach to a modern permanent small city as we can find in 
 Indian history. There were 700 lodges constructed in the man- 
 ner of the "long houses" of the Mohawks which would accommo- 
 date and give shelter to from 6,000 to 7,000 Indians. Some of 
 them were 100 feet long and from twenty to thirty feet wide, 
 with their roofs and walls made weatherproof with thatch. 
 Many hundreds of acres around the village were cultivated and 
 tilled and had been for many years. 
 
 Acting upon the results of his investigation and the advice 
 he had been given by both white men and Indian chiefs, Black 
 Hawk now turned upon the "squatters" and preemptors, and 
 told them defiantly that the land had never been legally ceded, 
 and ordered them peremptorily to leave the country. It was 
 inconceivable to him that the Great Father of the United States 
 
326 ILLINOIS 
 
 would tolerate the forcible seizure of this small tract of land 
 upon which his people had lived for a century at least, and 
 where they had buried their dead, after his agents had cheated 
 them out of 50,000,000 acres with bribes and whiskey. When 
 Black Hawk defiantly ordered the settlers off of these lands and 
 threatened them with violence in case of refusal to leave, eight 
 of these settlers sent a memorial of their grievances to Governor 
 Reynolds in which they set out that the Sac Indians "had threat- 
 ened to kill them; that they acted in a most outrageous man- 
 ner; threw down their fences, turned horses into their corn- 
 fields, stole their potatoes, saying the land was theirs and that 
 they had not sold it, ... . leveled deadly weapons at the cit- 
 izens" and that these terrible Indians had entered "a home, 
 rolled out a barrel of whiskey, and destroyed it." A few days 
 afterward, April 30, 1831, thirty-seven settlers complained to 
 the governor that the Indians were acting in "an outrageous 
 and menacing manner." Receiving no reply thereto, a personal 
 delegation called upon the governor in the following month. 
 From letters, memorials, delegations and rumors, Governor 
 Reynolds reached the conclusion that an Indian war was immi- 
 nent, and issued a call for volunteer soldiers. 
 
 While I have written some strong words in criticism of the 
 Federal officers who acted or refused to act in the crisis that 
 led up to the so-called Black Hawk war, let it be understood 
 that I have no word of censure of the state officials of Illinois, 
 who, when hostilities broke out between the settlers and the 
 Indians, called for volunteers to suppress the hostilities and 
 restore peace. War is war; or, as Sherman is reputed to have 
 said: "War is hell!" It was the duty of the governor of Illi- 
 nois and the public officials of the state when war or organized 
 violence broke out within the confines of the state, such as riots, 
 rebellion or guerrilla warfare, to call to the colors the men of 
 the state to suppress disorder, prevent pillage and prevent blood- 
 shed. Calling for volunteer troops, in taking the field in person, 
 and placing himself and his troops at the disposition of the 
 Federal Government to enforce Federal law and Federal au- 
 thority when flouted, was the duty of each state official. 
 
ILLINOIS 327 
 
 In June, 1831, 600 volunteers had responded to the gov- 
 ernor's call for troops, and along with ten companies of United 
 States Regulars, these 600 men under command of Gen. E. P. 
 Gaines soon appeared before the Indian village at Saukenuk. 
 Dismayed at the show of overwhelming force, the Indians 
 watched the evolutions of the soldiers in front of their village 
 June 25, and during the following night the entire tribe vacated 
 their village and crossed the river into Iowa. The next day the 
 troops entered an empty village, and set fire to and destroyed 
 most of the lodges. It turned out that the purchaser of the land 
 under most, if not all, of the Indian village was Colonel Daven- 
 port, the United States Indian agent. This scandalous and dis- 
 loyal act infuriated Black Hawk and his followers to such a de- 
 gree that they contemplated killing him. Black Hawk, in his 
 autobiography, as quoted by Smith, says : 
 
 We concluded that if we were removed by force, the 
 trader, agent and others must be the cause, and that if they 
 were found guilty of having driven us from our village 
 they should be killed. The trader stood foremost on this 
 list. He (Colonel Davenport) had purchased the land on 
 which my lodge stood, and that of our graveyard also. We 
 therefore proposed to kill him and the agent, the interpre- 
 ter, the great chief at St. Louis, the war chiefs at Forts 
 Armstrong, Rock Island and Keokuk, these being the prin- 
 cipal persons to blame for endeavoring to remove us. 
 
 On June 30, 1831, Governor Reynolds and General Gaines 
 concluded a treaty with Black Hawk and his tribe under the 
 terms of which the Indians agreed to confirm the treaty of 
 1804 and bound themselves not to cross to the eastern side of 
 the Mississippi except by permission of the United States Gov- 
 ernment. This treaty was undoubtedly executed by the Indians 
 while they were in extremes and facing starvation, but this time 
 they knew and understood its terms. Up to this time they had 
 used no weapons or taken any lives in defense of their homes and 
 graves. The American authorities had acted ruthlessly and 
 by the display of overwhelming force had compelled the Indians 
 to sign a treaty which forever deprived them of visiting their 
 old home or crossing the great river. This last engagement 
 
328 ILLINOIS 
 
 they afterwards broke deliberately and openly and thus violated 
 the terms of the treaty. 
 
 Why were they so rash and foolish as to defy a great, power- 
 ful nation and within the territory of one of its states that had 
 a population of over 160,000 when the fighting- men of their 
 tribe did not exceed 500 warriors? Pease in his volume of the 
 Centennial History gives the two reasons: Starvation and the 
 desire to avenge the murder of eight of their tribe by the Me- 
 nominee Indians. Pease uses the following language in dis- 
 cussing this matter : 
 
 The Indians, however, had left their growing crops in 
 Illinois, and it was too late to plant anew in Iowa. By 
 autumn they were out of provisions. One night a little 
 company of their young men crossed the river to steal roast- 
 ing ears from the crops they had left on their old lands. 
 The whites fired upon them and complained loudly of the 
 double offense of thieving and of violating the treaty. Much 
 more startling was the daring of an expedition of Foxes, 
 who went up the Mississippi to avenge upon the Menomi- 
 nee warriors the murder of eight Fox chiefs the previous 
 year. They fell upon a party of twenty-eight drunken 
 braves encamped on an island opposite the fort at Prairie 
 du Chien, and scalped and mutilated the whole band. This 
 to the Indian code was only just reprisal; Black Hawk re- 
 luctantly refused to deliver up any of his band for trial, 
 especially since so much demand had been made of the Me- 
 nominee the year before. 
 
 During the episode famine conditions continued. At 
 the invitation of the Prophet, Black Hawk determined to 
 cross the Mississippi the following spring and raise a crop 
 with his friends, the Winnebago. He had a childlike con- 
 viction that so long as he showed no warlike inclinations 
 and was not entering his old village, the Government would 
 not molest him. 
 
 In April, 1832, with 400 warriors and their women and 
 children and personal belongings, Black Hawk crossed the Mis- 
 sissippi River in full view of Fort Armstrong and started up 
 the Rock River in the direction of his friends, the Winnebago 
 Indians. Gen. Henry Atkinson, then stationed at Fort Arm- 
 strong, sent an express agent after the Indians, ordering them 
 
ILLINOIS 329 
 
 to return to Iowa. Black Hawk answered that he was on a 
 peaceful mission to plant corn and secure food, and refused to 
 return. When threatened with force he persisted in his refusal. 
 It was for Black Hawk and his tribe a fateful blunder caused 
 by the hungry bellies of his tribe and himself. As soon as it 
 was noised abroad that Black Hawk and his tribe were back 
 in Illinois and foraging along the Rock River, the whole state 
 was ablaze with excitement. Notwithstanding Black Hawk's 
 protestations to General Atkinson that he was on a peaceful 
 mission to procure food for his starving people, the public was 
 convinced that the Indians were again on the war-path. Atroci- 
 ties on both sides had always been the characteristics of former 
 Indian wars, and the 160,000 white people of Illinois almost 
 unanimously determined that Indian warfares must come to an 
 end and that this was the opportunity of making this Indian 
 war the last one. 
 
 Governor Reynolds recalled the terms of the treaty that 
 Black Hawk and his fellows had signed only the June preced- 
 ing and was indignant that its terms should be so flagrantly 
 violated. He issued an impassioned and vigorous call for troops 
 and within thirty days 1,600 volunteers assembled at Beards- 
 town. They elected their own officers, and while there was 
 much fighting spirit, the discipline was rather loose. Divided 
 into four regiments, a spy battalion and two odd battalions, 
 they marched to Fort Armstrong early in May, and General 
 Atkinson of the United States Army at that point, took com- 
 mand. General Atkinson then placed Gen. Samuel Whiteside 
 in command of the recruits, and he was ordered to take them 
 fifty miles up the Rock River to Prophetstown, there to remain 
 until they could be joined by ten companies of United States 
 Infantry from Fort Armstrong, with provisions. When these 
 recruits reached Prophetstown they burnt the vacant village, by 
 way of diversion, and then marched on to Dixon, leaving their 
 baggage and provisions behind them in order to make better 
 time. Here they found two other independent battalions of 
 mounted volunteers commanded by Maj. Isaiah Stillman, full 
 of fight and thirsting for Indian blood. 
 
330 ILLINOIS 
 
 To appease their sanguinary desires, Whiteside detailed Still- 
 man and his men to go further up the Rock River and try to 
 find the whereabouts of Black Hawk and his warriors. Still- 
 man and his men started off with great enthusiasm upon this 
 mission. On May 14 they encamped in a small grove entirely 
 surrounded by an open prairie, impossible for ambuscade. Black 
 Hawk and his band of Indians, with their women and children, 
 were only a few miles away. The chief had been for a week 
 in conference with the Winnebagoes and the Prophet, and found 
 he could not secure any aid or assistance from them, from other 
 Indians or from his former English friends. Even the hospital- 
 ity of the Winnebagoes was lukewarm. He began to fear that 
 his own people would soon discover that he could get no assist- 
 ance. They were on the verge of starvation and he heard the 
 ominous news that the whites were gathering in huge armed 
 force around him. In this dilemma, he pushed on to Sycamore 
 Creek to have council with the Pottawatomies. Upon the advice 
 of Shabbona, their chief, this tribe refused him relief, even re- 
 fusing him corn for his starving people. After this last ex- 
 perience with the Pottawatomies Black Hawk gave up all hope 
 of aid and made up his mind to surrender. Stillman's troops, 
 he learned, were but eight miles away, 340 in number. Here 
 was a chance with some little dignity to raise the white flag and 
 save his band from death by starvation. He sent three young 
 warriors under a flag of truce to Stillman's camp to arrange 
 the surrender. Some of Stillman's men saw the three Indians 
 approaching at a distance of a mile away. Without awaiting 
 any order these men jumped on their horses and, surrounding 
 the three peaceful Indians, yelled and swore like madmen. While 
 the Indians were explaining to them their peaceful mission, the 
 soldiers in camp saw five other Indians, nearly a mile further 
 away, whom Black Hawk had sent to watch the treatment ac- 
 corded his three peace messengers. Twenty other soldiers from 
 the camp dashed out to meet the Indians and these twenty were 
 soon followed by other soldiers. The five Indians, seeing that 
 they would soon be surrounded by a large number of soldiers, 
 turned and attempted to flee. The whites fired and killed two of 
 them, and when the soldiers having the three peace messengers 
 
ILLINOIS 331 
 
 in charge heard the shots which killed the two fleeing Indians, 
 one of them deliberately shot and killed in cold blood one of the 
 three Indians who were under the flag of truce. The other two 
 peace-seeking Indians then took to their heels and during the 
 excitement in the camp managed to escape. It would seem that 
 there was little or no discipline in the camp, and each soldier 
 acted upon his own impulse, which eventually brought disgrace 
 and tragedy both to officers and men. 
 
 The escaping Indians returned to Black Hawk and reported 
 to him the infamous treatment accorded to the three Indians 
 who were his emissaries under the flag of truce and the death 
 of their comrades. They were followed by wild and disor- 
 ganized bodies of the Stillman battalions thirsting for more 
 Indian gore. Black Hawk, when informed of the outrageous 
 treatment, was first amazed and then infuriated. He had only 
 forty warriors accessible. When he saw the mounted American 
 soldiers approaching, he formed his forty warriors behind some 
 chaparral and ordered his men to sell their lives as dearly as 
 possible in avenging the deaths of their peace-seeking comrades. 
 The foremost line of Stillman's soldiers was hardly upon them 
 when Black Hawk's warriors rushed bravely into their first 
 rank with wild yells and war-whoops, firing their guns with 
 deadly effect. The blood-thirsty ardor of the Stillmanites was 
 soon chilled, and in the belief that the whole Indian tribe was 
 after them, they turned tail and raced madly for their own camp 
 yelling, "Injuns! Injuns!" So rapid and inglorious was their 
 retreat that the great body of them outdistanced the Indians and 
 escaped injury. But a few who were injured fell behind and 
 eleven were killed. 
 
 The affrighted Stillmanites did not stop when they reached 
 their own encampment, but raced on madly to Dixon. During 
 that night and the following day they kept streaming into Dixon 
 with Munchausen tales of being pursued by from 1,500 to 2,000 
 Indians under the fiendish and diabolical control of Black Hawk, 
 and of the terrific slaughter that resulted. Captain Adams and 
 a handful of men, however, made a brave stand and fought 
 until killed. The total loss to the American troops was eleven 
 men killed, but their camp was captured by Black Hawk's men, 
 
332 ILLINOIS 
 
 who found and confiscated a badly-needed lot of provisions, as 
 well as a goodly supply of blankets, saddle-bags and other camp 
 equipment. The fight was promptly and facetiously christened 
 "Stillman's Run" by Stillman's contemporaries and this name 
 still sticks to it in history. 
 
 The effect of this skirmish, for it was nothing else, was 
 prodigious. Although between four and five regiments of vol- 
 unteers were already in the field, together with ten companies 
 of United States Regulars, while Black Hawk at no time since 
 he crossed the Mississippi had 500 warriors, Governor Reynolds 
 immediately issued a call for 2,000 men. This was found to be 
 necessary, as many of the soldiers already in service, disheart- 
 ened by Stillman's escapade, were begging for discharge. The 
 officers began to find out that it was impossible to carry on an 
 effective campaign with unwilling and disheartened militiamen. 
 About the end of May they consented to their being mustered out 
 of service. Three hundred rangers, however, reenlisted imme- 
 diately. Their victory over Stillman had an altogether different 
 effect upon the Indians. They filled their half -starved stomachs 
 with the provisions they had found in Stillman's camp and ap- 
 propriated the camp equipment to their warlike needs. Black 
 Hawk sent out scouting parties to watch the movements of the 
 soldiers and then removed the women and children to the 
 swampy but secure retreats around the head of the Rock River 
 in Wisconsin. He then, with his unencumbered warriors and 
 Indian recruits that joined him from the Winnebago and Potta- 
 watomie tribes, left Wisconsin and began to harass Northern 
 Illinois with guerrilla warfare. Irregular border warfare was 
 now carried on by the Indians and whites in which about 200 
 white men lost their lives, the Indians suffering about the same 
 number of deaths. 
 
 Governor Reynolds' call for additional troops was answered 
 promptly. Within three weeks after Stillman's defeat, 3,200 
 mounted volunteers took the field under command of General 
 Atkinson. Together with the United States Regulars the full 
 number of men in the field numbered 4,000. The Indians num- 
 bered about 400 and were without a commissariat. After con- 
 suming the provisions found in Stillman's camp, they were 
 
ILLINOIS 333 
 
 compelled to live on the bark of trees, roots and horse-flesh. 
 The swamps into which they were compelled to retire for tem- 
 porary safety furnished them neither game nor fish. When 
 Atkinson with his superior forces drove them into the head- 
 waters of the Rock River, near Lake Koshkonong, where the 
 women and children had been left for safety, Black Hawk was 
 compelled to flee still further to the north and west, where he 
 hoped to cross the Mississippi with his starving band into Iowa. 
 When Atkinson's army, after wading this trackless marsh 
 country with water often up to their hips, reached Lake Kash- 
 konong, they found a deserted camp and not an Indian in sight. 
 The soldiers had beeen short-rationed and compelled to sleep 
 on their arms every night lest they be ambushed. Pursuing a 
 will-of-the-wisp enemy that they feared, and hated, but never 
 could see, they became discouraged and dissatisfied. Governor 
 Reynolds, who had accompanied the army thus far, became dis- 
 gusted with this type of military life and he and his entire staff 
 returned home. Towards the end of July Atkinson found his 
 forces reduced to one-half of their original number and fell back 
 from his pursuit of the fleeing Indians to Fort Koshkonong. He 
 then awaited the return of the troops under Generals Henry, 
 Alexander and Dodge, who had been detached to Fort Winne- 
 bago to secure supplies. While Atkinson with the main army 
 was awaiting the arrival of these troops, Henry, Alexander and 
 Dodge discovered that Black Hawk and his famishing tribe were 
 only thirty-five miles away. After a conference they all agreed 
 that they ought to disobey the order requiring them to return 
 to Fort Koshkonong, and attack the Indians directly and without 
 the orders of their superior, General Atkinson. Alexander, upon 
 consulting his inferior officers and men, found that they would 
 refuse to obey. Henry found much of the same insubordination 
 among his officers and men, but he promptly and decisively 
 quelled the mutiny, and with General Dodge commenced a three- 
 day forced march against Black Hawk through the swamps. 
 They soon found the fresh trail of the fleeing Indians leading 
 towards the Four Lakes and the Wisconsin River. Here at 
 last they had found the elusive enemy. They at once piled their 
 tents, blankets and baggage where they stood, and thus unen- 
 
334 ILLINOIS 
 
 cumbered hastened their pace until they were within two or 
 three miles of the Indians' rear guard. Cooking implements 
 abandoned by the Indians and finally old and exhausted Indians 
 lying helpless on the ground proved to them that the Indians 
 were almost within gun-shot. 
 
 By July 21 the Indians had reached the bluffs near the Wis- 
 consin River, but could go no further by reason of their extreme 
 exhaustion. To protect their crossing of the river in the night- 
 time, Black Hawk selected a picked body of fifty braves to make 
 a last stand. When the American soldiers finally came in sight 
 of the Indians they dismounted. Leaving the horses behind 
 them they charged the Indian line, yelling like madmen. The 
 Indians after one wild counter-charge, lay on the ground and 
 fired their guns again and again from this position. The fight 
 lasted about half an hour, with losses about even. But Black 
 Hawk had achieved his aim. Darkness came on and Henry 
 feared to push his men into marshy ground in the dark. During 
 the night Black Hawk managed to transport his famished war- 
 riors and their wives and children across the Wisconsin. 
 
 In this engagement the Indians had sixty-eight killed and 
 many were wounded. The American forces had but one killed 
 and eight wounded. This proves the immense superiority of 
 the American forces both in the number of fighting men and 
 in armament and ammunition. Black Hawk afterwards de- 
 clared that he would not have fought this fight if it had not been 
 that he desired time to get his women and children across the 
 river. Having rescued his women and children, Black Hawk 
 made up his mind that "the game was up," and that the only way 
 that he could save the remnant of his starving tribe was by 
 unconditional surrender. On the following day, before dawn, he 
 detailed a loud-voiced warrior to announce to the Americans 
 that his tribe was starving, that his warriors were unable to 
 fight longer and to ask the Americans to peacefully plan it, so 
 that he and his warriors could cross the Mississippi and cause 
 no more trouble. The Indian detailed for that purpose came 
 within sight and hearing of the American camp and made the 
 announcement in his Indian tongue. Unfortunately, however, 
 the interpreters had left the American camp the night before 
 
ILLINOIS 335 
 
 and no one in camp knew what the Indian brave was saying. 
 That he was offering on behalf of Black Hawk to surrender 
 was not known until after the fight or massacre at Bad Axe. 
 What followed here, after the fight at Wisconsin Heights, must 
 bring a flush of shame to the cheeks of every American who 
 reads it. 
 
 A large party of Black Hawk's tribe that he succeeded in 
 transporting across the Wisconsin at the cost of the lives of 
 sixty-eight warriors, consisting of old men, women and children, 
 had secured from the Winnebagoes some canoes and rafts and 
 started to float down the Wisconsin to the Mississippi. As non- 
 combatants they mistakenly believed that they would be safe 
 from attack. All civilized people refrain from so doing. At 
 Blue Mounds, on the Wisconsin River, these harmless, defense- 
 less refugees were attacked by United States Regulars from 
 Prairie du Chien, thirty-two women and children were captured, 
 and the rest of the party were killed or drowned in the attack, 
 or scattered to die in the woods of wounds or starvation. Some 
 of those that escaped into the woods were massacred while in a 
 dying condition by Menominee Indians officered by white men. 
 I regret that I have not the names of these white officers so 
 that I could hand them down to historic infamy. 
 
 The remainder of the starving tribe of Sac who had crossed 
 the Wisconsin River were not able to procure other canoes or 
 rafts and started overland through the woods and swamps to 
 the Mississippi. Twenty-five of the warriors wounded in the 
 Wisconsin Heights fight died on the way. Some traveled on 
 foot, some on horseback but all moving slowly in their impov- 
 erished condition, at length what was left of them reached the 
 great river. Some of the old men and children perished on the 
 way. On the afternoon of the day they reached the Mississippi, 
 the steamboat Warrior, loaded with soldiers, approached the 
 helpless Indians on the western shore of the river, under the 
 command of John Throckmorton. Black Hawk, fearing that 
 more of his band would be massacred, ordered his braves not 
 to shoot. He then raised a white flag and called out in the 
 Winnebago tongue to send a canoe so that he could go aboard 
 the steamer and surrender himself. The message was delivered 
 
336 ILLINOIS 
 
 and translated to Throckmorton, but he pretended to believe it 
 was a decoy and called to the Indians to send a boat aboard. 
 The Indians had no boat or canoe anywhere accessible and told 
 him so. Notwithstanding, the redoubtable captain opened fire 
 with a cannon on the unfortunate Indians, killing twenty-three 
 and wounding many more. Lest this statement be regarded as 
 incredible I quote Throckmorton's own language made in his 
 report of the occurrence. 
 
 The captain, under date of August 3, 1832, writes : 
 
 After about fifteen minutes delay, giving them time to 
 remove a few of their women and children, we let slip a 
 six-pounder, loaded with canister, followed by a severe fire 
 of musketry; and if you ever saw straight blankets, you 
 
 would have seen them there We fought them for 
 
 about an hour or more until our wood began to fail 
 
 This little fight cost them twenty-three killed, and of course 
 a great many wounded. We never lost a man. 
 
 At the time of this murderous attack of Throckmorton upon 
 Black Hawk and his immediate body-guard, the main body of 
 the retreating tribe had not yet reached the banks of the river, 
 after Black Hawk had offered to surrender. He (Black 
 Hawk) and the small body of warriors with him were at the 
 time engaged in the effort to transport some of their women 
 and children across the river into Iowa. The remainder of the 
 tribe, sore-footed, famished and weary, were approaching the 
 Mississippi. 
 
 The troops under Henry, after the fight at Wisconsin 
 Heights, were short of provisions and were unable to follow up 
 their success in pursuit of the fleeing Indians, and fell back to 
 Blue Mounds. In the meantime General Atkinson had assem- 
 bled the United States Regulars and about 2,000 volunteers at 
 Blue Mounds. He marched these troops and those of General 
 Henry to Helena, on the Wisconsin River. Crossing the Wis- 
 consin at this point, he soon found the trail of the retreating 
 Indians and ascertained that they were eating birds and the 
 bark of trees and the flesh of their ponies that had died on the 
 march. Atkinson, probably because he was jealous of Henry's 
 success in finding and vanquishing Black Hawk in his absence, 
 
Kellogg Grove Monument, Black Hawk War 
 
338 ILLINOIS 
 
 placed Henry and his troops in the rear of the pursuing army, 
 and in charge of the baggage, and pressed the rest of his troops 
 forward upon the Indian trail with great vigor. 
 
 When Atkinson and his army were almost upon them, the 
 Indians resorted to a ruse. Twenty or thirty of them marched 
 back upon the trail and boldly attacked the pursuing troops 
 with instructions to retreat promptly after the first atack 
 towards the Mississippi, but towards a point on the river three 
 miles away from the point where the main body would strike 
 the bank of the river. If the Atkinson troops followed them, 
 that would enable the rest of the band to reach and cross the 
 river. The ruse was partially successful. The troops in the 
 vanguard did follow the retreating Indians, but when the troops 
 in the rear under Henry came up, they discovered that the 
 main trail of the fleeing Indians led in a somewhat different 
 direction. Henry, in command of the rear-guard numbering 
 300 men, ordered his men to follow the main trail and shortly 
 thereafter fell upon the main body. In this body there were 
 probably 300 warriors, but they were exhausted, half famished 
 and illy supplied, and were burdened with women and children. 
 They fought desperately but without avail. Atkinson, hearing 
 the noise of conflict in his rear, ordered his troops to the scene 
 of battle. About the same time the steamboat Warrior again 
 appeared upon the scene and began to rake the islands to which 
 some of the Indians had fled, with canister. 
 
 The massacre (for such it was) of Bad Axe lasted for nearly 
 three hours and resulted in the killing of 150 Indians and the 
 drowning of the same number in their efforts to cross the river. 
 Governor Reynolds, in commenting upon this affair in his work 
 My Own Times, writes as follows: "Many of the Indians at- 
 tempted to swim the river and were shot in the water. Al- 
 though the warriors fought with courage and valor of despera- 
 tion, yet the conflict resembled more a carnage than a regular 
 battle. It is supposed that 150 Indians were killed in this en- 
 gagement and many drowned in attempting to swim the river. 
 Fifty, mostly squaws and children, were taken prisoners. Some 
 squaws were killed by mistake in battle. They were mixed 
 with the warriors and some dressed like males. ,, (Reynolds' 
 
ILLINOIS 339 
 
 My Own Times, p. 265.) The American loss was only seven- 
 teen killed and twelve wounded. Reynolds writes that Black 
 Hawk commanded and was with the twenty Indians who threw 
 Atkinson off the main trail. (P. 264.) 
 
 As a result of the massacre at Bad Axe, the Black Hawk 
 Sac were almost completely exterminated. Probably 1,000, in- 
 cluding women and children, crossed from Iowa into Illinois a 
 few months before under Black Hawk's leadership. Before or 
 during the fight at Bad Axe, only 300 had recrossed the river 
 back into Iowa. These were attacked by Sioux Indians by direc- 
 tion of General Atkinson and half of them were slain. It is 
 reputed that August 2, 1832, only 150 of the tribe could be 
 found alive, and most of these must have been women and 
 children. 
 
 On the night following the attack from the steamboat War- 
 rior upon Black Hawk and his body-guard, the old chieftain fled 
 into the woods just east of the scene of the slaughter, hoping 
 to find refuge with the Winnebagoes. General Street, the Indian 
 agent, detailed two Winnebago Indians to follow him, take him 
 prisoner and return with him to Street, at Prairie du Chien. 
 They were successful in their quest and delivered him to Gen- 
 eral Street, August 27, 1832. He was taken from Prairie du 
 Chien to St. Louis and kept in Jefferson Barracks during the 
 winter of 1832-33. He was afterwards taken to Washington, 
 D. C., at the request of President Jackson. After an interview 
 with the President he was confined for a short time in Fortress 
 Monroe and then released and allowed to spend the last few 
 years of his life with the little remnant of his tribe which had 
 survived war, famine and massacre. He died October 3, 1838. 
 
 While the so-called Black Hawk war was in progress, Presi- 
 dent Jackson had ordered Gen. Winfield Scott to assemble a 
 body of United States Regulars and proceed to the scene of the 
 trouble. Scott left Fort Monroe June 20 and reached Chicago 
 July 10. En route his troops were attacked by an acute type of 
 Asiatic cholera from which 300 died before he reached Chicago. 
 On arrival there, Fort Dearborn was turned into a hospital and 
 the garrison bivouacked on the open prairie. Ninety more of 
 his troops died at Fort Dearborn, the epidemic persisting until 
 
340 ILLINOIS 
 
 July 29. On that day General Scott left Chicago and arrived 
 at Prairie du Chien August 8 after the massacre of Bad Axe. 
 He had been authorized by the President, in association with 
 Governor Reynolds, to secure if possible a treaty with the Sac 
 and Fox tribes that would insure permanent peace. 
 
 Upon arrival at Prairie du Chien, Scott assumed command 
 of all the forces, both regulars and militia ; placed the few regu- 
 lars who had survived the ravages of the deadly cholera while 
 traveling from Detroit to Prairie du Chien under command 
 of Colonel Eustis, and ordered them to proceed to Fort Arm- 
 strong on Rock Island. After mustering out the volunteers, 
 Scott repaired to Fort Armstrong and ordered all the Sac and 
 Fox prisoners to meet him at the fort for conference and dis- 
 cussion about a treaty. At this juncture the cholera again 
 broke out amoung the troops in Fort Armstrong, resulting in 
 fifty more deaths and 300 attacks. This compelled him to dis- 
 miss the Indian prisoners with orders to await notice of further 
 assembly. On September 21, 1832, the ravages of the cholera 
 having finally ceased, the Indians were again assembled and 
 a treaty placed before them for signature. It was of course 
 signed. A refusal would have invited extinction or life im- 
 prisonment for the captives. Keokuk and eight others of the 
 Sac represented the Sac tribe and the Fox were represented 
 by twenty-four of that tribe. General Scott and Governor Reyn- 
 olds represented the United States Government. It should be 
 noted, however, that in this treaty, forced as it was upon a 
 defeated and decimated band of Indians by an overwhelmingly 
 powerful and victorious nation, that more consideration was 
 shown to the conquered than was shown to them by the Har- 
 rison treaty when they were unconquered in 1804. At the sign- 
 ing of the Harrison treaty, four or five whiskey-soaked war- 
 riors were wheedled into parting with 50,000,000 acres of rich 
 land for an annuity of $1,000. A stricken governmental con- 
 science in the breasts of General Scott and Governor Reynolds, 
 or a deep sympathy with the Indians in their misery, or a desire 
 on the part of Scott and Reynolds to undo some of the injustices 
 of the past, induced the American commissioners to allow the 
 Sac and Fox to retain a reservation of 400 square miles to be 
 
ILLINOIS 341 
 
 set aside for them by the President, and secured to the tribes 
 an annual annuity of $20,000 a year for thirty years. The treaty 
 further provided that the Indians should receive forty kegs of 
 tobacco and forty barrels of salt annually for thirty years, to 
 pay $40,000 of their debts and a large amount of provisions to 
 relieve their urgent poverty. There is quite a contrast betiveen 
 these provisions in favor of the Indians, and that provision in 
 the Harrison treaty of 180 % which gave them $1,000 a year for 
 50,000,000 acres of land. 
 
 A gigantic statue of Black Hawk and not of General Atkin- 
 son, nor any other American warrior, now overlooks with steady 
 but sorrowful gaze the beautiful Valley of the Rock River, the 
 lost home of his people. It was erected by patriotic Americans 
 whose love of country did not forbid them to sympathize with 
 the sufferings of rashly brave men who died in what they be- 
 lieved was a righteous defense of their homes and the graves 
 of their ancestors. Black Hawk was a brave, high-souled, in- 
 telligent man who was resentful of injuries done him and his 
 people, but he lacked both tact and judgment. After he and 
 his tribe had signed the treaty of June 30, 1831, under the terms 
 of which they retired across the Mississippi to Iowa and bound 
 themselves to remain there, they acted in a most foolhardy 
 manner in breaking the treaty and recrossing into Illinois in 
 the following year. It is probably true that his people were 
 starving in Iowa. But when Black Hawk and 500 warriors 
 and 1,500 women and children recrossed the river from Iowa 
 into Illinois in April, 1832, their former cornfields had been in 
 possession of the "squatters" and preemptors during the Winter 
 of 1831-32 and no food could have been found on these fields. 
 Black Hawk knew that the crossing of the river and violation 
 of the treaty would compel him and his 500 warriors to face 
 the armed forces of a nation of 15,000,000 of white men and 
 that such a conflict would be suicidal. He lacked the tact and 
 discretion of Keokuk. Instead of surrendering himself and his 
 starving people to the United States authorities in Iowa, or at 
 Fort Armstrong, and throwing upon them the responsibility of 
 starvation and famine, he provoked an inevitable conflict which 
 could have but one end. But it must be remembered in excuse 
 
342 ILLINOIS 
 
 of Black Hawk that in 1832 there was no telegraph or railroad 
 by which he could have reached the ear of the President at 
 Washington or Governor Reynolds in the State Capitol. His 
 former treatment by the United States agents at Fort Arm- 
 strong was such that he may have had no confidence in the 
 humanity or sense of justice in that quarter. Whatever may 
 have been his lack of tact or good judgment, it was not so 
 nearly worthy of criticism as the scandalously unfair treatment 
 that the United States authorities accorded to him and his tribe 
 in and before the year 1831. 
 
 The Black Hawk war gave an opportunity to a large num- 
 ber of young men to make their first appearance in the public 
 life of the nation. It was the first stepping-stone towards future 
 greatness for an extraordinary number of brilliant young men 
 who afterwards loomed large in the history of the United States. 
 Some of them were privates in the ranks of the volunteers and 
 some of them young lieutenants in the Regular Army fresh from 
 West Point. Among them were two who were afterward elected 
 Presidents of the United States, Zachary Taylor and Abraham 
 Lincoln ; one who was afterwards elected president of the South- 
 ern Confederacy during the Civil war, Jefferson Davis ; one who 
 was then governor of Illinois, John Reynolds; five who after- 
 wards became governors of the same state, Thomas Ford, 
 Thomas Carlin, William L. D. Ewing, Joseph Duncan and John 
 Wood ; four who afterwards became United States senators from 
 Illinois, Sidney Breese, 0. H. Browning, James Semple and 
 William L. D. Ewing; and several who became successful and 
 distinguished generals in the United States Army, among them 
 John A. Logan, John A. McClernand and Winfield S. Scott. Two 
 Confederate generals in the Civil war, Albert Sidney Johnston 
 and Joseph E. Johnston, were also among the young men who 
 participated in the Black Hawk war. Among others who vol- 
 unteered in this war and afterwards rose to distinction were 
 Peter Cartwright, a great camp-meeting preacher ; Gen. Samuel 
 Whiteside; Henry Atkinson; John Raum, father of Green B. 
 Raum and John M. Raum, United States generals in the Civil 
 war; Henry Eddy, of Shawneetown; Harrison Wilson; Murray 
 McConnell, and Adam W. Snyder, whose death after his nom- 
 
ILLINOIS 343 
 
 ination alone prevented his election as governor of Illinois; 
 Gordon Hubbard; Zadoc Casey and John T. Stuart, law part- 
 ner of Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln volunteered as a 
 private and was afterwards elected captain of his company in 
 the Black Hawk war. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI 
 ADMINISTRATION OF JOSEPH DUNCAN AS GOVERNOR 
 
 In December, 1834, Joseph Duncan was inducted into office 
 as governor of Illinois. He had for a number of years been 
 a member of Congress from Illinois and was the first man in 
 Illinois to succeed in beating Daniel Pope Cook at the polls. 
 During his incumbency in the office of congressman he was 
 always aligned with Jeffersonian Democracy, although during 
 the last two years of same he had shown some independence in 
 casting his votes in Congress, occasionally voting contrary to 
 Jackson's measures. 
 
 Nonetheless, he claimed to be a Jacksonian Democrat, ex- 
 plaining that where he had voted contrary to the Jackson pro- 
 gram, Jackson and not he, Duncan, had changed his position. 
 He was opposed by W. C. Kinney, the perennially unsuccessful 
 candidate for governor. During the campaign Duncan remained 
 in his seat at Washington and thus escaped the heckling and 
 questioning that he might have encountered if he were per- 
 sonally on the stump in Illinois. Kinney was no more successful 
 against Duncan than he was against John Reynolds four years 
 before. Duncan was elected with the help of Whig votes, and 
 in his inaugural message he disclosed his Whig proclivities and 
 advocated measures that Jacksonian Democrats regarded as 
 political heresies. He favored the establishment of state banks 
 in which the state would be financially interested. Only four 
 years before, the people had seen the collapse of a state bank, 
 leaving a state debt of $100,000, and the Legislature was not 
 ready to renew the experiment. Enough members, however, 
 were found to speak in favor of the governor's scheme to open 
 the subject for discussion, and work was energetically com- 
 menced to convince the opponents and doubters. 
 
 344 
 
Governor 1834 
 
 (Courtesy Illinois State Historical Library.) 
 
346 ILLINOIS 
 
 Ford, in his History of Illinois, gives a very vivid account 
 of the log-rolling and reprehensible methods pursued to obtain 
 votes for the establishment of the banks. (Pp. 170 to 175, in- 
 clusive.) The final result of these efforts was the enactment 
 of a law creating a banking corporation with a capital of $1,500,- 
 000, with the privilege of increasing the capital to $2,500,000. 
 The state received $100,000 worth of the stock for its own in- 
 vestment. The same Legislature at about the same time revived 
 the old charter of the Shawneetown bank, which had ceased to 
 do business twelve years before. Governor Ford, in his history 
 of Illinois (pp. 171 and 172) states that the bill creating the 
 state bank passed the lower house by a majority of one vote 
 and that one of the votes was obtained by promising the caster 
 of the vote an appointment as state's attorney. The head office 
 of the state bank created by this act was located at Springfield 
 and branches were established at Alton, Chicago, Galena, Jack- 
 sonville and Vandalia. The charter, in the effort to make the 
 state bank one to be controlled by residents of Illinois, gave 
 a preference in subscribing for stock to residents of Illinois 
 and required with the subscription for each share of stock a 
 deposit of five dollars. Immediately coteries of scheming cap- 
 italists, according to Ford, were organized to secure a majority 
 of stockholders and obtain control of this bank. Among these 
 capitalists were Theophilus W. Smith, then one of the judges 
 of the Supreme Court; John Tilson, Jr., Thomas Mather, God- 
 frey Gilman & Company of Alton, and Samuel Wiggins. Some 
 of these men had obtained large sums of money from New 
 York and Connecticut for use as subscriptions in the state bank. 
 As preference under the charter was given to residents of Illi- 
 nois and to small subscribers, these capitalists, or some of them, 
 secured the names of residents of Illinois, subscribed in their 
 names for the stock and obtained powers of attorney from all 
 such subscribers authorizing the payment for the same and 
 assignments of all their right as subscribers to these capitalists. 
 By using these instruments and other devious methods, five 
 men, with the connivance of the commission appointed to or- 
 ganize the bank, succeeded in having thirty-nine shares more 
 than one-half of the total subscriptions assigned to them. These 
 
ILLINOIS 347 
 
 five were Tilson, Mather, Wiggins and the members of God- 
 frey Gilman & Company. The state bank so organized went into 
 operation in 1835 under the presidency of Mather and a board 
 of directors controlled by the syndicate of five. Godfrey Gilman 
 & Company were prominent merchants at Alton, heavily inter- 
 ested in the lead mines of Galena, who controlled enough of the 
 stock to elect a majority of the board of nine directors. The 
 stock was over-subscribed and for a time was quoted at 113 on 
 the dollar. The Whigs were in complete control, although a 
 few Democrats were appointed officials for appearance sake. 
 At and before the creation of the bank there was great rivalry 
 between Alton and St. Louis. Godfrey Gilman & Company were 
 heavy backers of Alton and the most influential merchants of 
 that city. The great ambition of that firm was to control at 
 Alton the great commerce in lead, most of which had been going 
 from Galena to St. Louis. Having control of the new state 
 bank, this firm succeeded in negotiating a loan of $800,000, with 
 which it attempted to corner the lead market. For a time the 
 price of lead increased enormously, but within a few months 
 the corner collapsed and the firm found itself insolvent and 
 $1,000,000 was lost to the new state bank. Governor Reynolds 
 declares : "The bank must have lost by all its Alton operators 
 nearly $1,000,000, and was nearly insolvent before the second 
 year of its existence, though the fact was unknown to the 
 people." (P. 178.) This was the beginning of the end of this 
 state bank, although its final collapse occurred later on. 
 
 Governor Duncan was more responsible than any other man 
 for this and another disastrous banking law. Although the crea- 
 tion of a state bank was not an issue at the time of his election, 
 he, without any authority from the electorate, raised the ques- 
 tion, in his inaugural message and in 1835 advised the purchase 
 by the state of $100,000 worth of the reserved stock. Under 
 his administration again in 1837 the Legislature increased the 
 capital stock of the bank by $2,000,000, the whole of which was 
 to be subscribed for by the state. During his administration 
 in 1835 the old Shawneetown Bank, which had been dead for 
 years, was resuscitated with a capital of $300,000, and in 1837 
 this capital was increased by $1,400,000, of which $1,000,000 
 
M 
 
 ■^sisK Y' 1 ?-';:.. 
 
 ** wm- 
 
 Governor 1834-38 
 
 (Courtesy Illinois State Historical Library.) 
 
ILLINOIS 349 
 
 was to be subscribed for by the state. As a result of this rash 
 and reckless legislation, partially inspired by Governor Duncan 
 and wholly authorized by him, the State of Illinois became the 
 owner of more than $3,000,000 worth of stock out of a total of 
 $5,200,000 in two insolvent and ill-managed banks under the 
 control of private capitalists who deliberately looted one of them 
 in private speculation of a gambling character. These ill-advised 
 and misconceived laws creating these banks, and the wild and 
 visionary laws for general public improvements which were 
 forced upon the Legislature during Governor Duncan's admin- 
 istration by public hysteria, brought the State of Illinois to the 
 verge of bankruptcy within six or eight years. It is best de- 
 scribed and summarized by Governor Ford in his history, p. 278, 
 where he describes the situation in 1842 as follows : 
 
 To sum up, then, this was the condition of the state 
 when I came into office as governor. The domestic treas- 
 ury of the state was indebted for the ordinary expenses 
 of government to the amount of about $313,000. Auditor's 
 warrants on the treasury were selling at fifty per cent; 
 discount, and there was no money in the treasury what- 
 ever ; not even to pay postage on letters. The annual reve- 
 nues applicable to the payment of ordinary expenses, 
 amounted to about $130,000. The treasury was bank- 
 rupt; the revenues were insufficient; the people were un- 
 able and unwilling to pay high taxes; and the state had 
 borrowed itself out of all credit. A debt of near fourteen 
 millions of dollars had been contracted for the canal, rail- 
 roads and other purposes. The currency of the state had 
 been annihilated ; there was not over two or three hundred 
 thousand dollars in good money in the pockets of the whole 
 people, which occasioned a general inability to pay taxes. 
 The whole people were indebted to the merchants; nearly 
 all of whom were indebted to the banks, or to foreign mer- 
 chants; and the banks owed everybody; and none were 
 able to pay. 
 
 Governor Duncan was not chargeable with the demand for 
 general public improvements. That element was well nigh uni- 
 versal. But the demand for state banks founded principally 
 on state credit, but controlled by private capitalists, did not 
 originate with the people. To add to the misfortunes of the 
 
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ILLINOIS 351 
 
 banks and the state, the panic of 1837 now appeared. In May, 
 the two banks suspended payments. Governor Duncan called 
 a special session of the Legislature to legalize the suspension and 
 prevent the forfeiture of the state bank's charter. Subsequent 
 thereto, the Legislature proceeded to do so with certain limita- 
 tions. It limited the amount of notes which the bank might 
 issue to the amount of capital actually paid in, and prohibited 
 dividends until the bank resumed payments. 
 
 In the meantime the state bank had sought to be made a 
 depository of the United States. The secretary of the treasury, 
 a Democrat, finding it to be controlled by his political enemies, 
 the Whigs, and that they were hostile to the party in power at 
 Washington, refused to make it such a depository. The loans 
 to Godfrey Gilman & Company, and other acts of mismanage- 
 ment, were being whispered about and the Democrats in and 
 out of office began to declaim about its management and even 
 to demand the revocation of its charter. Governor Carlin, in 
 1839, denounced the bank for suspending payments and asked 
 the Legislature to appoint a committee of investigation. This 
 committee was appointed and found a sorry state of affairs in 
 the bank. It discovered that Wiggins, one of the directors, had 
 borrowed from the bank on his stock, which was unpaid for; 
 that the Chicago branch had through its cashier loaned large 
 sums to pork speculators and was denying accommodations to 
 others. It also discovered the scandalous loans made by the 
 bank in Alton. Governor Carlin, in 1842, recommended the 
 repeal of the bank charter. 
 
 During Governor Duncan's term of office occurred the shame- 
 ful and unjustifiable killing of Elijah P. Lovejoy in the streets 
 of Alton by a mob that was seeking to destroy his property, a 
 newspaper press then stored in a warehouse. Lovejoy was a 
 high-minded Presbyterian minister, chivalrous and determined 
 in character. He was ardently and pugnaciously a foe of human 
 slavery in any form. He believed it was a crime against both 
 God and man and had no hesitation in saying so and printing 
 it in his religious paper. Driven from St. Louis where he had 
 been publishing his paper, by the violence of pro-slavery senti- 
 ment in the State of Missouri, he came to Illinois because it was 
 
352 ILLINOIS 
 
 a free-soil state and started to publish his anti-slavery paper at 
 Alton. Because of the so-called "abolition" statements expressed 
 in his paper, his press was seized and destroyed by mobs on 
 three different occasions. Undaunted by these manifestations 
 of violent disapproval, he, with the assistance of friends, se- 
 cured a fourth press and had it safely stored in a warehouse at 
 Alton. He and his friends armed themselves to prevent its 
 destruction. A mob gathered in front of the warehouse in 
 which the press was stored and in which Lovejoy and his friends 
 were all well armed. The mob attempted to set fire to the ware- 
 house. A shot from the warehouse killed a man in the street. 
 The mob became furious and again attempted to set fire to the 
 building. To prevent this, Lovejoy and two companions with 
 arms came out of the warehouse and fired into the mob. While 
 so doing, Lovejoy was shot and killed and his two companions 
 were bady wounded by fire from the mob. 
 
 This shocking affair created a sensation throughout the 
 entire nation, and intensified the bitterness which had long ex- 
 isted between the enemies of slavery and the defenders of the 
 same. That Lovejoy had the legal right to denounce slavery 
 and defend his property cannot be questioned. Aye, he had the 
 legal right to advocate "abolition," unpopular though it was 
 at that time and at that place. So unpopular was Lovejoy at 
 Alton that as Smith declares in his history: "As the hearse" 
 (containing the body of Lovejoy) "passed through the streets 
 it was met by the hisses and scoffs of the men who were loafing 
 about the streets. There was no inquest and no funeral." (P. 
 184, Vol. II.) Yet unpopular as was the name of Lovejoy at 
 Alton in 1837, it became one idolized throughout the state and 
 nation within a few short years thereafter. Lovejoy, dead, ac- 
 complished much more for the cause of human freedom than 
 Lovejoy living. The "blood of the martyr is the seed" for his 
 cause. The echo of the shot that killed him rang 'round the 
 world. Love joy's death and Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin were the first skirmish-line shots in the great Civil 
 war of 1861. 
 
 Much of the enmity towards and unpopularity of Lovejoy 
 locally around Alton arose not from his opposition to slavery, 
 
ILLINOIS 353 
 
 for there were many of that view in the community. Much of 
 it developed because he failed to keep his pledges as to the 
 public, his insistence upon abolishing slavery by confiscatory 
 methods, and unjust and vituperative attacks upon all who did 
 not agree with him. He unjustly and untruthfully assailed 
 Christian men and women who did not belong to his own sect 
 of Christians, and by both tongue and pen in matters outside of 
 the controversy about slavery displayed a bitterness and fanati- 
 cism unworthy of a Christian minister of the Gospel. How- 
 ever, while his loss of local popularity may be traced to these 
 sources, his loss of life was caused by one cause alone, his heroic 
 defense of the right of free speech and a free press. In his 
 brave assertion of the right to champion the cause of human 
 liberty, he gave up his life as cheerfully and as gallantly as did 
 Robert Emmett or John Brown. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 SPRINGFIELD BECOMES THE STATE CAPITAL AND 
 LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS APPEAR IN PUBLIC LIFE 
 
 In the year 1837, Andrew Jackson then being President of 
 the United States and Joseph Duncan governor of Illinois, the 
 City of Springfield was selected by the Legislature as the per- 
 manent capital of the State of Illinois; and two young men 
 appeared on the political horizon as members of the Legislature 
 of 1836-37 whose names were to become famous, not only 
 through the state and nation, but throughout the civilized world 
 — Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. The former was 
 to be hailed afterwards as the "Great Emancipator" of over 
 3,000,000 human beings, then held in the bondage of slavery, 
 the savior of a nation threatened with annihilation by the most 
 formidable rebellion in history, and the greatest martyr to 
 human liberty on the rolls of time. The latter was to leave a 
 name not so imperishable in achievement as that of Lincoln, 
 but still a glorious one, that of having devoted his life to a 
 strenuous, continuous and nobly patriotic struggle, to prevent 
 the dismemberment of his native land and standing nobly behind 
 his political rival when rebellion raised its grizzly head, and 
 seconding every effort made by his political antagonist to con- 
 quer treason and save his country. 
 
 Laying aside for the present the consideration of their great 
 futures, let us endeavor to visualize the two men, their charac- 
 ters and surroundings as they appeared in 1836 when they 
 were both young members of the same Legislature — the one a 
 Whig, the other a Democrat. Both were ambitious young law- 
 yers of limited practice. A five-dollar retainer would have se- 
 cured the service of either of them in any honest, decent litiga- 
 tion. They were alike in many particulars. Both were born 
 
 354 
 
ILLINOIS 355 
 
 outside of Illinois, one in Kentucky, the other in Vermont. They 
 were both poor, both ambitious, both good debaters. Both had 
 already given evidence that they were to become leaders of 
 their respective political parties. Both quickly arrived at those 
 positions of leadership. Physically and temperamentally they 
 differed. Lincoln was tall, angular, very homely, with a sad and 
 melancholy face when in repose, self-conscious and awkward, 
 particularly when in the presence of women. In conversation 
 or debate he was far-seeing, argumentative, logical and quite 
 frequently humorous. His early life was shockingly poverty- 
 stricken and was sustained for years only by the coarsest man- 
 ual labor. He had little or no schooling, and what education he 
 acquired was self-taught and self-obtained by gluttonous reading. 
 Douglas in stature was short and thick-set. He was bright- 
 faced and rather good-looking. His manner was jovial, im- 
 pulsive and optimistic. He was a ready talker and very elo- 
 quent. His first appearance in Illinois was at Jacksonville in 
 1833, from which place he walked to Winchester to take a job 
 as clerk. He then taught a private school for forty dollars a 
 month, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1834. Lin- 
 coln and Douglas met each other in the practice of the law and 
 were friendly to each other. When they met as fellow-members 
 of the same Legislature in 1836, there were two widely an- 
 tagonistic parties in national politics, the Whigs and the Demo- 
 crats. The Whigs were led by Abraham Lincoln, John T. Stuart, 
 Ninian Edwards, John J. Harding, Jesse DuBois and 0. H. 
 Browning. The Democratic leaders were Stephen A. Douglas, 
 W. L. D. Ewing, James Shields, Ebenezer Peck, John C. Cal- 
 houn and William Thomas. By 1840 Lincoln was easily recog- 
 nized as head chief of the one and Douglas the high priest of 
 the other. 
 
 In 1839 the presidential election of the following year was 
 approaching. The administration of President Van Buren was 
 being assailed by the Whigs and was being defended by the 
 Democrats. A friendly debate was arranged that year by the 
 Whigs and Democrats, in which both Douglas and Lincoln en- 
 gaged, in the first of the many debates which were held between 
 these two great men. This was the first vigorous contest which 
 
Where Lincoln Clerked — Old New Salem 
 
ILLINOIS 357 
 
 the Democratic party had to face since the election of Jefferson. 
 It lost in the nation, but the Democrats carried Illinois for Van 
 Buren. 
 
 Before the year 1837 the state was wildly agitated on the 
 subject of making public improvements, such as railroads and 
 canals by appropriations, or the issuance of state bonds. San- 
 gamon County at that time, by virtue of an apportionment law 
 passed in 1835, had nine representatives in the Legislature, two 
 in the Senate and seven in the House. These representatives, 
 all of them Whigs, were instructed by their constituents in 
 Sangamon County to "vote for a general system of local improve- 
 ments" and "to bring to Springfield the capital of the state." 
 The persistency, sagacity and loyalty which they displayed 
 towards their constituents, and the remarkable success which 
 crowned their efforts, entitle them to have their names recorded 
 at length in any history of Illinois. The names of these gentle- 
 men were as follows: Senators Job Fletcher and Archer G. 
 Herndon and Representatives Abraham Lincoln, W. F. Elkin, 
 Ninian Edwards, Robert L. Wilson, John Dawson, Andrew 
 McCormick and Dan Stone. They were nearly all tall men, 
 the average being six feet. Because of their height they were 
 dubbed by their legislative comrades "The Long Nine," which 
 name has stuck to them historically. 
 
 The location of the state capital at Vandalia was understood 
 to be terminated in 1840. Alton had been favored for the state 
 capital by public referendum a short time before, but its citizens 
 had been carried away during the craze for the building of 
 railroads with state money from that aim, and had a glorious 
 vision of their city being made the terminal for several railroads 
 from the East which would make Alton a greater city than St. 
 Louis. The "Long Nine" adroitly assured the Altonites that 
 their dreams of a future railway center should come true. They 
 promised to vote for Alton as a railroad center if Alton would 
 vote for Springfield as state capital. Inasmuch as they had been 
 instructed to vote for "a general system of local improvements" 
 and "bring the capital to Springfield," the "Long Nine" felt 
 in duty bound to be as generous with their promises of support 
 of favors to other localities in the state upon the same terms 
 
358 ILLINOIS 
 
 that they made with Alton. Chicago, Ottawa, LaSalle, Joliet 
 and Peoria wanted support for the canal connecting them with 
 Lake Michigan, then under construction. Cairo and Galena 
 wanted a railroad connecting these two cities. Mount Carmel 
 wanted a railroad connecting it with Alton. Peoria wanted a 
 railroad to Warsaw, Belleville wanted one connecting it with 
 Mount Carmel and Bloomington wanted another. The counties 
 lying along the Wabash, Illinois and Rock rivers wanted 
 improved navigation on all these streams. Even those counties 
 that had no rivers or places for railroads wanted cash for wagon 
 roads. The "Long Nine" talked to all of them. They were 
 instructed to vote for "a system of general improvements." 
 These demands for canals, railroads and wagon roads, evidenced 
 a general system of demands for such improvements. The 
 "Long Nine" decided to be as genial and accommodating with 
 the other citizens of the state as they were with the Altonites. 
 They would vote for appropriations, or the issue of state bonds 
 to carry out the wishes of these different communities of the 
 state, if the representatives of these communities would do 
 the decent thing and make the charming and hospitable City 
 of Springfield the permanent capital of the state. The able 
 and adroit "Long Nine" found it easy to make such admirable 
 bargains with the representatives in the Legislature of these 
 cities and localities of the state along the line of voting for "a 
 general system of local improvements" and "making Springfield 
 the capital." The "Long Nine" and the representatives of all 
 these localities and interests found little trouble in getting 
 together, the result of which fraternal feeling was the passage 
 of two important, far-reaching laws. 
 
 The first of these laws was one which in substance provided 
 for the issuance of state bonds for the making of "a general 
 system of public improvements" as follows: 
 
 For Construction of railroad from Galena to 
 
 Cairo to cost $ 3,500,000 
 
 For Northern Cross Railroad through Spring- 
 field 1,800,000 
 
 For Alton & Mount Carmel Railway 1,600,000 
 
ILLINOIS 359 
 
 For Peoria & Warsaw Railway 700,000 
 
 For Branch of Central Road to Terre Haute 650,000 
 
 For Bloomington & Mackinac Railway 350,000 
 
 For Belleville & Mount Carmel Railway 150,000 
 
 For Improvement of Navigation Wabash, Illi- 
 nois and Rock Rivers 300,000 
 
 For Improvement of Little Wabash and Kas- 
 
 kaskia Rivers — 100,000 
 
 For Counties Having No Rivers and No Pro- 
 posed Railways for Their Wagon Roads 
 
 and Bridges 200,000 
 
 $10,200,000 
 
 The other law was the law to make Springfield the state 
 capital. 
 
 The members of the "Long Nine" were all Whigs, but it 
 must not be concluded from their success that this extraor- 
 dinarily generous disposal of the state's money or credit was 
 due to the Whigs alone. As a matter of fact, the votes for 
 the general improvement act came from Democrats as well as 
 Whigs. The demand for public improvements had swept the 
 state like a contagious epidemic. Canals were being built in 
 the eastern states. Railroads were projected and some actually 
 constructed in the old states. A great convention had been 
 called by the people to meet at Vandalia a few days before 
 the commencement of the session of the Legislature. It had 
 passed, enthusiastically, resolutions demanding that the Legis- 
 lature enact laws which would bring about the digging of canals, 
 and the building of railroads, and other improvements through- 
 out the state. The great majority of the people believed that 
 the state could, and should, be gridironed with railroads and 
 canals, and that the state and all its inhabitants would be 
 enriched thereby. The resolutions passed by the public improve- 
 ment convention were placed in the hands of a man friendly 
 to their cause, young Stephen A. Douglas, a Democratic leader, 
 who presented their plans to the Legislature. A lobbying com- 
 mittee was appointed by the convention to argue with the mem- 
 
360 ILLINOIS 
 
 bers of the Legislature and keep track of their votes. Under 
 such pressure, with the great majority of the people known 
 to favor the project, the passage of some form of legislation 
 providing for such improvement was inevitable. The only ques- 
 tion left for determination was as whether the improvements 
 contemplated should be made by private persons or corporations, 
 or by the state; whether by private capital or by the credit 
 of the state. The bill as drawn by the convention and as pre- 
 sented by Douglas called for the expenditure of $7,450,000 in 
 making the improvements, the money to be borrowed by the 
 issuance of state bonds to be sold at par. Some few members 
 were opposed to the measure as adopted, but they were unor- 
 ganized, and when they occasioned a delay in the passage of 
 the bill it resulted in an increase in the amount involved. 
 
 The governor and his advisory council vetoed the bill, but 
 the Legislature promptly passed the bill over the veto. Only 
 the year before, the Legislature had granted charters to private 
 companies authorizing the building of railroads in the state, 
 but as nothing had been done under these charters, the Legis- 
 lature must have concluded that if they relied upon private 
 capital for building the improvements, the delay would be vexa- 
 tious and unsatisfactory. The law making appropriations for 
 general public improvements turned out, however, to be only 
 "a noble experiment" which was soon found to be both unwork- 
 able and expensive. Within five years the grandiose improve- 
 ments contemplated by the act had to be abandoned when the 
 state had become possibly indebted to the amount of $15,657,950 
 and had little or nothing to show for it except the Illinois and 
 Michigan Canal, which alone of all the proposed improvements 
 turned out to be feasible, practical and an asset to the state. 
 
 It is a matter of interest to remember in this connection 
 that both Lincoln and Douglas at the beginning of their political 
 careers, impelled by popular demand and with the best of 
 motives, were mainly instrumental in having a law passed that 
 they believed was a "noble experiment" but which afterwards 
 proved to be disastrous to public interests. When Governor 
 Duncan was installed in December, 1834, the state was indebted 
 only to the amount of $217,276. As the result of the general 
 
ILLINOIS 361 
 
 system of public improvements law passed over his veto the 
 state was actually indebted in December, 1838, when he retired 
 and Governor Carlin was inaugurated, in the sum of $6,688,784, 
 itemized as follows: 
 
 Bonds Exchange for Bank Stock __ $2,665,000 
 
 Bonds for Internal Improvements 2,204,000 
 
 Bonds for Illinois and Michigan Canal 1,000,000 
 
 Borrowed from School & Seminary Fund 719,784 
 
 Wiggins Loan 100,000 
 
 Grand Total $6,688,784 
 
 Needless to say the "Long Nine" was successful in securing 
 a winning majority vote for Springfield as the state capital. 
 Springfield won handsomely and today still remains the capital 
 of the State of Illinois. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII 
 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL 
 
 The Illinois and Michigan Canal has played so continuous 
 and so important a part in the history of the state as to become 
 entitled to a separate and distinct chapter in any history of 
 Illinois. 
 
 The first white men that we have any authentic history of 
 that floated on the Illinois, Desplaines and Chicago rivers were 
 Pere Marquette and Louis Joliet. Paddling up the Illinois from 
 the Mississippi in 1673 they entered the Desplaines, and, fol- 
 lowing the course of that river, came to what in modern times 
 was called Mud Lake, a slough which in springtime floods gave 
 water connection between the Desplaines and the south branch 
 of the Chicago River. The Indians had used it as a portage 
 between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River from time 
 immemorial. It was the shortest and most natural water-course 
 to take, as they were headed for the missionary camp and 
 French trading post on Green Bay, whence they had started 
 out on their voyage of discovery, and they had with them Indian 
 guides from Kaskaskia on the Illinois River to guide them over 
 waters navigable for canoes and portages between streams. 
 
 The value and importance of every portage which is the 
 shortest cut between two navigable waters was known to every 
 trained French explorer and particularly to so highly experienced 
 an explorer as Joliet. That he and Marquette crossed the 
 portage at Mud Lake between the Desplaines River and the 
 south branch of the Chicago River cannot be doubted. Mar- 
 quette's own written statement on the matter is exceedingly 
 brief, but inferentially it amply sustains the contention that 
 he and Joliet passed then what is now Chicago on their return 
 from the Mississippi. 
 
 362 
 

 - 
 
 Chicago in 1831 — Showing Fort Dearborn 
 
364 ILLINOIS 
 
 "We found there (on the Illinois River) an Illinois town 
 called Kaskaskia, composed of seventy-four cabins ; they received 
 us well, and compelled me to promise to return and instruct 
 them. One of the chiefs of this tribe with his young men, 
 escorted us to the Illinois lake (either Mud Lake or Lake 
 Michigan) whence at last we returned in the close of September 
 to the bay of the Fetid (Green Bay) whence we had set out 
 in the beginning of June." (From Thwaites' Jesuit Relations, 
 Vol. 59.) If by the "Illinois Lake" he meant Mud Lake, he 
 must have crossed Mud Lake to get to Lake Michigan, as they 
 were traveling in canoes and this was the only portage from 
 the Desplaines to the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. 
 
 That Joliet and Marquette reported to Governor Frontenac 
 the existence of the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin 
 rivers in Wisconsin and between the Desplaines and Chicago 
 rivers at Chicago, and its adaptability for a canal cannot be 
 doubted. All of Joliet's notes and maps were lost by the upset- 
 ting of his canoe, but he afterwards drew a map from memory 
 and his letter to Frontenac declares : "I have the happiness today 
 to present you with this map which gives the position of the 
 lakes which one had to cross to reach Canada or North America, 
 which extends over 1,200 leagues from East to West." That 
 on this map he failed to make the course of his voyage of dis- 
 covery including the rivers and portages is incredible. Indeed 
 he is quoted by some writers as having declared in 1674 that 
 "it would only be necessary to make a canal by cutting through 
 a half a league of prairie." 
 
 From the very earliest times the importance of this portage 
 or slight elevation of land about six miles west of the courthouse 
 in Chicago, which divides the basin of the St. Lawrence from 
 the Mississippi basin, has been recognized and noted. Its slight 
 elevation and the ease with which a canal could be dug connecting 
 Lake Michigan and the Mississippi have been commented upon 
 by every writer and statesman anyway familiar with the North- 
 west. The existence of that portage or slight elevation of 
 ground so near to Lake Michigan caused the Congress of the 
 United States, at the instigation of Nathaniel Pope, to move 
 the northern boundary of Illinois fifty-one miles further north 
 
ILLINOIS 365 
 
 than originally designed in order to place the building of a 
 great canal between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River within 
 the boundary of one state, the State of Illinois. Joliet was 
 impressed with its value, as was the great LaSalle. All travelers 
 and missionaries were quick to see the need in the future of a 
 canal connecting Lake Michigan with the headwaters of the 
 Illinois. 
 
 In 1811, before Illinois became a state, a bill was introduced 
 in Congress asking for the construction of such a canal. In 
 1812 its value as a means for national defense was pointed out. 
 In 1814 President Madison, in a message to Congress, called 
 attention to the subject, and a committee was appointed to 
 investigate and it reported that it was "a great work of the 
 age" both for military and commercial purposes. In 1816 Gov- 
 ernor Edwards, William Clark and Auguste Chouteau, on behalf 
 of the United States, secured a treaty from the Pottawatomies, 
 Chippewas and Ottawas, under the terms of which these tribes 
 ceded to the United States a tract of land including Chicago 
 and a strip of land connecting Lake Michigan with the Illinois 
 River, upon the understanding with the Indians that the strip 
 would be utilized for the building of a canal which would be 
 of great value to the Indians as well as the whites. In 1817 
 Major Long reported to Congress that "a canal uniting the 
 waters of the Illinois River with those of Lake Michigan may 
 be considered the first of importance of any in this quarter 
 of the country, and the construction would be attended with 
 very little expense compared with the magnitude of the object." 
 
 In 1819 Calhoun, Secretary of War, directed the attention 
 of Congress to the proposed canal and its importance for military 
 purposes. The first governor of Illinois, Shadrach Bond, in his 
 first message to the first Legislature, recommended the building 
 of such a canal, and nearly every governor of the state has 
 favored and recommended the building of some character of a 
 canal connecting the same bodies of water or the greater devel- 
 opment of the same. In 1822 Congress made a grant of land 
 to the state for the purpose of building such a canal, the grant 
 being ninety feet in width on each side of the proposed canal. 
 In 1822-23 the Legislature passed a law providing for the ap- 
 
366 ILLINOIS 
 
 pointment of commissioners to make estimates and report in 
 reference to the building of the canal. 
 
 Five men, Emanuel J. West, Thomas Sloo, Erastus Brown, 
 Samuel Alexander and Theophilus W. Smith, were appointed 
 commissioners, and hired two engineers, Justin Post and Rene 
 Paul, who made preliminary surveys, and reported that the canal 
 would not cost to exceed $700,000. In 1824 the Legislature 
 chartered a corporation called the "Illinois and Michigan Canal 
 Association" which was empowered to dig the canal. The capital 
 stock of the corporation was $1,000,000. The charter provided 
 that "all cessions, grants and transfers made or that may here- 
 after be made, by the Government of the United States for the 
 purpose of promoting the completion of the canal, shall and 
 vest in said corporation/' 
 
 Congressman Daniel Pope Cook was quick to see that with 
 such a selfish and unconscionable charter in existence, Congress 
 would be exceedingly wary about making any other grants or 
 giving any more assistance in the way of bringing about the 
 completion of the canal. For the public good, Congress would 
 be liberal, but for private gain it would be exceedingly slow to 
 act favorably. He demanded the revocation of the charter in 
 1825. His demand was acceeded to and the charter was annulled. 
 In 1827 Cook, ably assisted by the United States Senators from 
 Illinois, Elias Kent Kane and Jesse B. Thomas, secured from 
 Congress a grant of land to the State of Illinois "for the purpose 
 of aiding her in opening a canal to connect the waters of the 
 Illinois River with those of Lake Michigan." The grant covered 
 224,322 acres in a strip ten miles wide between Ottawa and 
 Chicago, each alternate section being granted to the state. This 
 land was authorized to be sold and the proceeds used for the 
 construction of the canal. 
 
 In 1826 another board of canal commissioners was appointed, 
 composed of three members, Dr. Gershon Jayne, Edward Roberts 
 and Charles Dunn. They ordered a different survey, by a new 
 engineer, James M. Bucklin, who reported that the cost of 
 construction would be much greater than the former estimate. 
 In 1829 another act was passed giving the commission more 
 ample powers in supervising the sales of land along the proposed 
 
ILLINOIS 367 
 
 waterway. Under the powers given the commission under this 
 later act, the commission laid out the towns of Ottawa and 
 Chicago, at each end of the proposed canal. Bucklin's estimate 
 of the cost of the canal was $4,043,386. Somewhat later, at the 
 request of persons interested, he reported the cost of building 
 a railroad between Chicago and Ottawa to be $1,052,488. This 
 question of building a railroad instead of a canal between the 
 two towns was being seriously considered and a movement 
 started for that purpose. Congress was petitioned to permit 
 the state to substitute the railway for the canal and an act 
 authorizing the same was passed by Congress March 2, 1833. 
 Both schemes had their supporters and the matter halted until 
 1835 when the governor was authorized to borrow $5,000,000, 
 by mortgaging the canal lands. Attempts to float this loan 
 were unsuccessful. Money-loaners, evidently, had doubts as to 
 the value of these lands. Ex-Governor Coles, who had been 
 commissioned by the canal commissioners to negotiate such a 
 loan reported that he could not obtain such a loan in Philadelphia 
 because the full credit of the state was not pledged to pay the 
 proposed loan. 
 
 In January, 1836, the full credit of the state was pledged 
 by the Legislature to pay the bonds given for the loan. Bonds 
 were issued and accepted, and the loan was secured. The people 
 along the line of the proposed canal were immensely pleased, 
 particularly in Chicago, then rapidly growing in population 
 and importance, and on July 4, 1836, formal commencement 
 of construction was celebrated with much ceremony in that city, 
 at which Dr. William B. Egan, a prominent citizen of Chicago, 
 delivered an excellent congratulatory address. A new board of 
 canal commissioners was created to work under the direction 
 of the governor, which was required to make reports every three 
 months, and work was actually commenced in digging the canal. 
 A sale of canal lots and bonds was had June 30, 1836, both 
 at Chicago and Ottawa, and lots were sold for large sums of 
 money. It took twelve years to completely construct and fully 
 equip the canal, work commencing in 1836 and being finished 
 in 1848. The operation of the canal by state commissioners 
 commenced in the latter year and proved both useful and profit- 
 
368 ILLINOIS 
 
 able. By 1870 the profits under state ownership and operation 
 enabled the state to pay off the whole cost of $8,000,000, and 
 retain ownership clear of all liens. 
 
 The canal, however, was constructed at a time when all 
 canals were operated by animal power, was built with that power 
 in contemplation, and was so operated by the state. The depth 
 and width of the canal and its locks and banks were made to 
 accommodate animal power only. The use of electricity for 
 transportation was then unknown and not even remotely con- 
 ceived until the twentieth century. The use of steam power 
 was in its infancy and not applied to canals. It was the belief 
 that if such power were attempted that the agitation of the 
 waters of the canal by paddlewheels on the side or rear of the 
 boats would erode and destroy the banks of the stream. Steam- 
 power on canals was unknown and unused at the time of the 
 building of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. 
 
 Before 1870, however, it had become known that the canal 
 operated as it was by animal power could not continue to be 
 operated at a profit in competition with the railroads. These 
 latter were building and operating heavier and more powerful 
 locomotives and longer trains of cars at much reduced operating 
 costs. The laborer with the scythe cannot compete with the 
 reaping and binding harvester propelled by the tractor, or the 
 old-fashioned housewife's needle with the sewing-machines of 
 modern times. What to do with the old-fashioned animal-ope- 
 rated canal began to be discussed by politicians and people in 
 1868, when it was known that the old canal had outlived its 
 day and age and would soon become unremunerative. It had 
 paid for itself and owed the state nothing. In fact it was the 
 only one of the grandiose projects provided for in the "general 
 system of internal public improvements" in the Legislature in 
 1836 and 1837 which proved practical and which was carried 
 out and utilized by the people. 
 
 In 1867 the Legislature passed a resolution calling for a 
 popular vote on the question of holding a constitutional con- 
 vention. Pursuant to a small but favorable popular majority, 
 delegates to the constitution were elected and assembled Decem- 
 ber 13, 1869, and framed a new constitution which was approved 
 
ILLINOIS 369 
 
 by the people in 1870 and which is still the constitution of the 
 state. In that convention arose the question as to what should 
 be done with the old canal, which would soon become unremu- 
 nerative. The members from the southern part of the state 
 were in favor of selling the canal and placing the proceeds of 
 the sale into the public treasury, while the delegates from Chi- 
 cago and the northern part of the state strenuously opposed the 
 same. The canal had first been suggested by the French explorers 
 and missionaries, had been favored and fostered by the Federal 
 government, and had been advocated by every governor from 
 Bond to Duncan. No territorial or local jealously would have 
 developed if the other general improvements legislation in 1836- 
 37 had been carried out. The canal was the only one of the con- 
 templated "general improvements" that was carried out, and 
 it was successful. 
 
 The canal as constructed extended nearly 100 miles from 
 Lake Michigan into the interior of the state. It had developed 
 prosperous towns and cities along its course. Over it for twenty 
 years millions of dollars worth of wheat, oats, corn, butter and 
 other farm products had been floated into Chicago and the 
 manufactured articles made in that city were carried into Cen- 
 tral and Southern Illinois. All the towns and cities along the 
 canal and river were prosperous and growing in size and impor- 
 tance. The delegates from the southern counties viewed the 
 canal, as a good thing for Chicago and the waterway cities and 
 towns, but as of no use or benefit to them. The credit of the 
 whole state had been used to build the canal and it belonged 
 to the whole people of the state and not to Chicago and environs, 
 they argued. They demanded that the canal be sold and its 
 proceeds be placed in the public treasury, so that the southern 
 people of the state could share with the northern people the 
 proceeds of the sale. The northern people retorted that the 
 sale of the canal was inspired by the railroads, to cut off com- 
 petition and enable them to raise freight rates. 
 
 The issue thus framed in the constitutional convention was 
 referred to the committee on canals and canal lands, which 
 wisely found a compromise and reported a provision which was 
 
370 ILLINOIS 
 
 adopted by the convention. The provision is now a part of 
 the constitution of 1870 and reads as follows : 
 
 The Illinois and Michigan Canal .... shall never be 
 sold or leased until the specific proposition for the sale or 
 lease thereof shall first have been submitted to a vote of 
 the people of the state at a general election and have been 
 approved by a majority of all the votes polled at such 
 election. The General Assembly shall never loan the credit 
 of the state or make any appropriations from the treasury 
 thereof, in aid of railroads or canals; provided, that any 
 surplus earnings of any canal may be appropriated for its 
 enlargement or extension. 
 
 Soon after the adoption of the new constitution in 1870, 
 the old fossilized canal built between 1836 and 1848 for operation 
 by animal power and small canal boats of a size capable of being 
 pulled by horses or mules was found to be antiquated and unre- 
 munerative. It is as useless today for a commercial canal as 
 the domestic spinning-wheel of a century ago. The only use 
 to which it is now put, is to allow small launches and pleasure 
 craft of light draft to ply between the Illinois River and the 
 Sanitary District Canal and its locks are opened and shut for 
 this purpose. Its right of way between Chicago and Joliet is 
 valuable and it has been suggested that this right of way might 
 be used for double-decked highways between these cities when 
 it can be reconstructed for that purpose. 
 
 A demand for an adequate, up-to-date, modern canal began 
 to develop shortly after the old canal was found to be obsolete. 
 Proper facilities for the carrying of commerce between the 
 Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico have always been demanded 
 by an intelligent public and will be reiterated until such facilities 
 are furnished and in operation. 
 
 During the '70s and '80s of the nineteenth century the canal 
 was practically abandoned for commercial purposes, because 
 of its obsolete character and was derisively dubbed "the tadpole 
 ditch." Agitation developed during these decades for the build- 
 ing of a canal of such size and equipment as would be adapted 
 to, and capable of, caring for the commerce of the twentieth 
 century and all future developments in the Mississippi Valley. 
 
Present Building on Site of Old Palisade Fort, Galena 
 
 The foundation being part of the original construction. • 
 
372 ILLINOIS 
 
 The vision of Joliet, of Nathaniel Pope and of the many great 
 statesmen of state and nation during the past, of an enormous 
 water commerce between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of 
 Mexico, across the State of Illinois, had not faded from the 
 intelligent minds of the statesmen and people of Illinois. There 
 was an incessant and growing demand among manufacturers 
 and merchants for the building of such a canal to accommodate 
 such a commerce. The disposal of the sewage of the great 
 City of Chicago and its environs, whose population had enor- 
 mously increased and was continuing to increase by leaps and 
 bounds, was also demanding the attention of the public. 
 
 As a result of this agitation, the Legislature in 1889 incor- 
 porated the Sanitary District of Chicago, which was empowered 
 to dig "one or more main channels, drain ditches and outlets 
 for carrying off and disposing of the drainage, including the 
 sewage of such district." The law was so adroitly worded as 
 to evade that provision of the constitution of 1870 which declared 
 that "the General Assembly shall never loan the credit of the 
 state, or make appropriations from the treasury thereof, in aid 
 of railroads or canals." The word "canal" did not appear in 
 the law lest the law might be attacked as an indirect subterfuge 
 for building a canal by legislative authority, even though the 
 general credit of the state was not involved. While the main 
 purpose of the law was to give Chicago and its surrounding 
 towns and villages sanitation, it was generally understood by 
 those "in the know" at the time that the "channels" so con- 
 structed were to be of such great dimensions, that they or it 
 could and would form a link in a great canal connecting the 
 Great Lakes with the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 I was intimately acquainted at that time with Richard Pren- 
 dergast, who had recently retired from the County Court Bench 
 of Cook County, and also, although not so intimately, with 
 Frank Wenter, afterwards president of the Drainage District; 
 Melville E. Stone, treasurer of the District; E. H. Gary, county 
 judge of DuPage County and afterwards president of the United 
 States Steel Company; Orrin N. Carter, attorney for the Dis- 
 trict, afterwards judge of the Supreme Court; and Thomas F. 
 Judge, clerk of the Sanitary District, and learned from them 
 
ILLINOIS 373 
 
 and others that the "channel" would connect the south branch 
 of the Chicago River and the Desplaines River, and would be 
 a canal of enormous dimensions, sufficient to accommodate ves- 
 sels of about fourteen foot draft. 
 
 The election for the first board of trustees in or about 1889 
 was a most interesting one. The machine managers of the 
 Democratic and Republican parties had met and agreed upon 
 a slate upon which appeared the names of eight candidates, 
 (four Democrats and four Republicans). These eight names 
 appeared on both Democratic and Republican tickets, thus assur- 
 ing (as both machines figured) the election of these eight men. 
 Nine trustees were to be elected. Beside the eight names that 
 appeared on each ticket, each party placed in nomination one 
 other name ; the Democrats naming a Democrat and the Repub- 
 licans a Republican. It looked like what the politicians called 
 a "cinch" for the eight. There was great public dissatisfaction 
 therewith, and the papers denounced the plan as a bipartisan 
 political trick to place the expenditure of an enormous amount 
 of public money in a self-constituted political junta. Judge 
 Prendergast was outspoken in his denunciation of the bipartisan 
 scheme and called together a few men who felt as he did, among 
 them Democrats, Republicans and independents. They called 
 upon Melville E. Stone and Victor F. Lawson, of the Chicago 
 Daily News, which paper was denouncing the bipartisan deal. 
 As a result, a Citizens ticket was placed in the field, headed by 
 Prendergast and containing the names of John J. Alpeter, Wil- 
 liam Boldenweck, L. E. Cooley, B. A. Eckhardt, P. Gilmore, 
 Thomas Kelly, William H. Russell and Frank Wenter. Pren- 
 dergast, who was a brilliant orator, took the stump and roasted 
 the political machines until they became cinders, the News and 
 other papers helped in turn the spit, and to the amazement of 
 both machines their slated tickets were broken into fragments 
 and the whole Citizens ticket was elected. 
 
 The Sanitary District since its creation in 1889 has con- 
 structed a huge canal, the main and power channel being over 
 thirty-nine miles in length; and a river diversion channel of 
 thirteen miles with a depth of twenty-two feet, and a width 
 at the top varying from 198 to 225 feet and from 160 feet to 
 
374 ILLINOIS 
 
 202 feet at the bottom in the earth sections ; and with a width 
 at the top of 162 feet to 160 feet at the bottom in the solid 
 rock sections and a width of 200 feet in the river diversion. 
 This enormous work, calling for over 44,000,000 cubic yards 
 of excavation, had cost the citizens of the District about 
 $95,000,000 up to the year 1924. 
 
 The building of this great canal, so suitable for the navigation 
 of vessels of even heavy draft, further intensified the demand 
 of the people for the construction of a large commercial canal 
 between Lockport -and Utica which would enable vessels of 
 eight-foot draft to ply between Chicago and New Orleans. The 
 inhibition of .the constitution against loaning the state's credit 
 for the building of canals stood in the way of state aid. Chicago 
 and its environs had already spent nearly $100,000,000 on its 
 sanitary "channel," and by no possible pretence or subterfuge 
 could it claim that a canal between Lockport and Utica would 
 be a sanitary "channel." 
 
 At length, however, the demand for a "Lakes to the Gulf" 
 waterway grew so strong under the administration of Charles 
 S. Deneen as governor, that the Legislature in 1907 provided 
 for an amendment to the constitution authorizing the expendi- 
 ture of not to exceed $20,000,000 for the construction of the 
 waterway from Lockport to Utica. The amendment was approved 
 by the people in 1908 and proclaimed by Governor Deneen during 
 the same year. Further reference to the Illinois waterway 
 will be made when I come to discuss the administrations of 
 Governors Deneen, Dunne and Small. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV 
 THOMAS CARLIN, GOVERNOR 
 
 In the year 1838, Thomas Carlin, a Democrat, was elected 
 governor of Illinois over Colonel Edwards, his Whig opponent. 
 He was of Irish extraction, had been commander of a spy bat- 
 talion in the War of 1812, and his occupation was that of a 
 farmer. While not possessed of a college education he has been 
 described as a man of "good common sense, high moral standard, 
 great firmness of character and of unfailing courage." His 
 administration inherited two heavy loads to carry, the nation- 
 wide panic of 1837 and 1838 and the hysteria for "a general 
 system of public improvements in Illinois," both of which came 
 into being during the preceding administration of Governor 
 Duncan. Carlin had been infected with the craze during Dun- 
 can's administration, and had not recovered from its influence 
 when he was inaugurated governor. Among others who were 
 infected with the craze was nearly every prominent man in the 
 Legislature, both Democrats and Whigs. Among those favoring 
 the general improvement scheme were John Crain, John Dough- 
 erty, John Dawson, Stephen A. Douglas, Ninian Edwards, Wil- 
 liam F. Elkin, Augustus C. French, William H. Happy, John 
 Hogan, Abraham Lincoln, N. F. Linder, John A. McClernand, 
 John Moore, Joseph Naper, James H. Ralston, James Shields, 
 Robert Smith, Dan Stone and James Semple, the Speaker. In 
 the lower House sixty members favored the scheme and only 
 about twenty-four opposed it. Nearly all of those favoring 
 public improvements were afterwards elected to prominent and 
 responsible offices by the people. 
 
 In his inaugural message Governor Carlin urged the contin- 
 uance of the work on public improvements in a restricted and 
 modified way, but soon learned while in office the futility of its 
 
 375 
 
&~^^c<^t > 
 
 Governor 1838-42 
 
 (Courtesy Illinois State Historical Library.) 
 
ILLINOIS 377 
 
 further development. By the winter of 1839-40 he had reached 
 the conclusion that the works projected were too pretentious 
 and would prove too costly and that credit could not be obtained 
 for their further prosecution. He called a special session of 
 the Legislature to meet at Springfield (the new capital) Sep- 
 tember 9, 1839, to take action on the cessation of work on the 
 public improvements and the state indebtedness. In his message 
 he stated that "the ruinous policy of simultaneously commencing 
 all the works and constructing them in detached parcels was 
 alike at variance with the principles of sound economy, destruc- 
 tive to the interests of the state and to the system in all its 
 parts." The last part of Carlin's administration was devoted 
 to schemes for keeping up the payment of interest on the public 
 debt and trimming the sails and jettisoning the public improve- 
 ments cargo of the waterlogged ship of state. No doubt, Governor 
 Carlin surrendered the ship to his successor, Governor Ford, 
 with a sigh of relief in 1842 when the latter was inaugurated. 
 He managed, however, to keep the interest paid on all indebted- 
 ness of the state up to and including the year 1841. 
 
 During Carlin's administration in 1839 and 1840 the peculiar 
 and aggressive sect of religious fanatics known as the Mormons 
 moved into Illinois from Missouri. In the latter state they had 
 gotten into bitter controversies with their non-Mormon neigh- 
 bors, as well as with the state authorities, and were compelled 
 both by public sentiment and the action of the governor of 
 Missouri, and the threat of criminal proceedings in the courts 
 of that state, to move out of its territory and jurisdiction. They 
 chose Illinois as their place of refuge and many thousands of 
 them began the building up of a large city and the erection of 
 an impressive temple at Nauvoo, in Hancock County. 
 
 In Missouri the Mormons had been supporting the Democratic 
 party at all elections. But when a Democratic governor of that 
 Democratic state drove them out, they became embittered against 
 the Democrats and when they moved into Illinois began to 
 vote for and support the Whig party. Henry Clay and John 
 T. Stuart, a member of the House of Representatives of the 
 United States from Illinois, both of them Whigs, introduced 
 
378 
 
 ILLINOIS 
 
 in Congress and supported Mormon memorials protesting against 
 their treatment in Missouri. 
 
 According to Governor Ford's history, p. 262, "in August, 
 1840, they voted unanimously for the Whig candidates for the 
 Senate and Assembly. In the November following they voted 
 for the Whig candidate for President, and in August, 1841, 
 they voted for John T. Stuart, the Whig candidate for Congress 
 in their district." This alarmed the Democrats, as the Mormons 
 were rapidly increasing in members, and it seemed likely that 
 they would soon hold the balance of voting power in the state. 
 Both parties thereupon began to be solicitous over the Mormon 
 
 
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 vote, and sought to curry favor with the Mormon leaders. 
 At this juncture the Mormon leaders appeared before the Leg- 
 islature of 1840-41, seeking certain charters for the rapidly- 
 growing City of Nauvoo. Dr. John C. Bennett, their spokes- 
 man and main lobbyist, presented the draft of the proposed 
 charter to Mr. Little, the Whig senator from Hancock County 
 and to Mr. Douglas, the Democratic secretary of state. Both 
 of these gentlemen were anxious to do favors for the Mormons 
 with the view of securing the Mormon vote, and helped Bennett 
 
ILLINOIS 379 
 
 in getting the matter before the Legislature. Little, the Whig, 
 presented the Mormon bills in the Senate and had them referred 
 to the judiciary committee headed by Snyder, a Democrat. The 
 proposed charters were reported upon favorably and the bills 
 passed in the Senate without a protesting vote. In the same 
 way, shortly afterwards, the bills were passed in the House 
 without objection. Both parties were equally participants in 
 the passage of these laws, which were the basis of the Mormon 
 Rebellion, which occurred under Governor Ford and which 
 brought about the killing of the Mormon leaders and the expul- 
 sion of the cult from Illinois. 
 
CHAPTER XXXV 
 POLITICS ON THE BENCH 
 
 In the year 1838 Thomas Carlin, a Democrat, was as stated 
 in the last chapter inaugurated governor. He found in the 
 office of secretary of state, A. P. Field, who had been appointed 
 by Governor Edwards when he was an "original Jackson man" 
 and allowed to remain in office for ten years by two succeeding 
 Democratic governors. Field in the meantime had changed 
 his politics and for some time before 1838 had become an ardent 
 and aggressive Whig. He was not in sympathy with the Demo- 
 cratic state administration placed in power by popular vote 
 and attempted to obstruct its measures when he possibly could 
 do so. 
 
 The office of secretary of state was an appointive one, the 
 appointment being placed in the governor by the constitution. 
 Governor Carlin, desiring a secretary in sympathy with his 
 administration, appointed John A. McClernand secretary of 
 state. Field was of a pugnacious disposition and succeeded in 
 getting the Whig Senate to stand by him and refused to sur- 
 render his office to McClernand. After the adjournment of 
 the Legislature the governor again appointed McClernand to 
 the office and the latter demanded possession of Field. Field 
 again refused to surrender his office and McClernand appealed 
 to the Supreme Court for relief. Field's contention before that 
 court was that the constitution failed to fix the term of office 
 of secretary of state, and that a person once appointed to the 
 office held it without limit as to time unless removed for cause 
 upon trial. The McClernand contention was that the office, 
 being an appointive one and the appointment being vested in 
 the governor, that the governor alone had the right to determine 
 the length of tenure; that the power to appoint in the absence 
 
 380 
 
ILLINOIS 381 
 
 of a constitutional tenure carried the power to remove as a 
 necessary corollary. 
 
 The Supreme Court, as then constituted, was composed of 
 three Whigs, Wilson, Brown and Lockwood, and one Democrat, 
 Smith. Two of the Whigs on the bench, Wilson and Lockwood, 
 decided against McClernand. Smith, the Democrat, decided in 
 his favor. The other occupant of the bench, Brown, being related 
 to McClernand, with decent propriety refrained from rendering 
 any decision. The decisions of the two Whig judges, under the 
 circumstances, became the decision of the Court binding upon 
 the litigants. In effect the decision held that a constitution 
 which in no place expressly fixed the tenure of any office for 
 life or during good behavior inferentially by its failure to fix 
 a definite tenure for an appointive office, made that office one 
 for life or during good behavior, regardless of the wishes and 
 intent of the appointive power. So strained a construction of 
 the state constitution which would create offices for life shocked 
 the conscience of the community and roused the Legislature to 
 action. Another case decided by the same court about the same 
 time still further aroused the public and elicited widespread 
 criticism and doubts of the integrity of the court. 
 
 A test case made up (according to Governor Ford) by two 
 Whigs acting in collusion, was called for trial before a Whig 
 judge sitting in the Circuit Court, in the Galena district. It 
 involved the right of aliens to vote at elections in Illinois. The 
 constitution of 1818, then in force on this subject, declared: 
 "In all elections, all white male inhabitants above the age of 
 twenty-one years having resided in the state six months pre- 
 ceding the election shall enjoy the right of an elector." This 
 provision of the constitution was adopted by the pioneer con- 
 stitution builders with the express purpose of inducing immigra- 
 tion into the sparsely settled state and giving the new arrivals 
 into the state the right of participating promptly in the elec- 
 tions and governmental policies of the state. This right given 
 by the constitution to "inhabitants" for "six months" had been 
 exercised by the newcomers without question or objection for 
 over twenty years. When the state began to build the Illinois 
 and Michigan Canal in 1837 there was a great influx of laborers 
 
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ILLINOIS 383 
 
 from Europe, and particularly from Ireland, to Chicago and 
 along the canal to obtain employment. These laborers had 
 fled from tyrannical, monarchical rule and were naturally imbued 
 with a love of democracy. The name of the Democratic party 
 as well as the principles it at the time proclaimed attracted 
 them to the party. Overwhelming numbers of these laborers, 
 many of whom soon became farmers along the canal, voted the 
 Democratic ticket. The Galena collusive law suit was designed 
 to disfranchise these foreign-born "six months inhabitants" of 
 Illinois. The circuit judge at Galena promptly ruled that the 
 word "inhabitant" in the constitution did not mean ''inhabitant" 
 but "citizen," and the case was taken to the Supreme Court 
 on appeal. The Supreme Court was constituted as it was in 
 the McClernand case, three Whigs and one Democrat. The 
 Democrats, largely as the result of the McClernand decision, 
 were tremendously excited and alarmed. It was currently 
 reported upon respectable authority that the decision was to 
 be a three-to-one finding in favor of the Whig contention that 
 the six months inhabitants must be six months citizens. Through 
 a flaw in the record, Stephen A. Douglas and other Democratic 
 lawyers obtained continuances until December, 1840. In the 
 meantime, however, the Democrats in the Legislature, fully 
 convinced of the political bias of the court, and that it would 
 defy decency and fair construction of words in order to help 
 the Whig party, introduced in the State House, December 10, 
 1840, a bill for the reorganization of the judiciary. It passed 
 the Senate after a long and bitter debate by a vote of twenty 
 to seventeen, and was adopted by the House by a vote of forty- 
 five to forty, February 1, 1841. On February 8 the council of 
 revision (consisting of the governor and the judges of # the 
 Supreme Court) returned the bill with rejection, signed only 
 by members of the Supreme Court. The Whigs attempted a 
 fillibuster in the Senate but it failed and the bill passed over 
 the veto by a vote of twenty-three to sixteen in the Senate and 
 forty-six to forty-three in the House. 
 
 The law as passed, provided for the appointment of five 
 additional judges of the Supreme Court and required the newly- 
 appointed five and the four sitting judges to perform the duties 
 
384 ILLINOIS 
 
 of circuit judges in the nine circuits, and all as appellate judges 
 in the Supreme Court. The five new judges appointed were 
 all Democrats and thus the Democrats secured a majority on 
 the Supreme bench. The sitting judges took alarm at the intro- 
 duction of the bill December 10, 1840, and at the December 
 term handed down a decision reversing the Galena Circuit Court, 
 and Justice Smith's opinion squarely upheld the right of a six 
 
 . v? ' 
 
 The Last Remaining House in Old Brownsville 
 
 The first county seat of Jackson County. Built about 1830. 
 
 month's inhabitant to vote. The two Whig judges, Lockwood 
 and Wilson, concurred in the reversal, but rather obscurely, 
 on the ground that the clerk had no legal power to ask the 
 voter if he were an alien. The decision, however, settled the 
 right of resident aliens to vote until the adoption of the second 
 constitution of 1848. 
 
 The spectacle presented by these transactions in the Supreme 
 Court and in the Legislature is not one on which the state can 
 pride itself. That confidence in the fairness and integrity of 
 the highest judicial tribunal of the state should be so shattered 
 as it was in 1840, and that the highest legislative and executive 
 
ILLINOIS 385 
 
 bodies in the state should take such drastic action in reference 
 to its judiciary is not a pleasant chapter to read in considering 
 the history of any state. 
 
 The five men placed upon the Supreme bench pursuant to 
 the law reorganizing the courts were all Democrats. Their 
 names were Sidney Breese; Thomas Ford, afterwards governor 
 of Illinois ; Stephen A. Douglas, afterwards United States senator 
 and Democratic candidate for the Presidency; S. H. Treat and 
 Walter B. Scates. All were men of ability and of excellent 
 character. I became well acquainted with the last of these, 
 Scates. He was the senior member of the law firm of Scates, 
 Hynes & Dunne, of which I was the junior member when I 
 began practicing law at Chicago about the year 1880. He was 
 a fine old gentleman of the highest integrity, an excellent lawyer, 
 and was at that time carrying on a litigation for and advising 
 with some members of the old and at one time powerful tribe 
 of the Pottawatomie Indians. William J. Hynes, the other 
 member of the firm, had been a member of Congress and was 
 the ablest jury lawyer at the Chicago bar during the '80s and 
 '90s of the nineteenth century. I have listened to many eloquent 
 men in my day, and I doubt if I ever heard more eloquent 
 speeches than those that fell from the lips of William J. Hynes. 
 The four great orators of my time were Bourke Cochran, W. J. 
 Bryan, Emory A. Storrs and William J. Hynes, all of whom 
 have gone to their Great Reward. No orator now living, in my 
 judgment, could equal any one of these great masters of words 
 and emotions. Hynes, like Storrs, was as witty as he was 
 eloquent. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 GOVERNOR THOMAS FORD 
 
 He Completes the Illinois and Michigan Canal, Funds the 
 State's Indebtedness, Salvages the Credit of the 
 State, Prevents Repudiation and Becomes In- 
 volved in the Mormon and Mexican War 
 
 No governor of Illinois faced a more serious and critical 
 condition of state affairs than did Governor Thomas Ford in 
 1842 when he was inducted into office. According to Moses, 
 in his History of Illinois, the state at that time was indebted 
 as follows: 
 
 To Banks for Stock $ 2,665,000 
 
 For Internal Improvement Bonds 6,014,749 
 
 For Canal Debts (Bonds) 4,504,160 
 
 For State House at Springfield 121,000 
 
 To School, College and Seminary Fund Bor- 
 rowed by the State 808,084 
 
 To Banks (Borrowed) 664,188 
 
 To Interest Due January 1, 1843 880,769 
 
 Total Debt Due January 1, 1843 $15,657,950 
 
 Substantially the only valuable asset which the state could 
 show as against this enormous liability was the Illinois and 
 Michigan Canal, which in the end proved remunerative to the 
 state. The other projected internal improvements were known at 
 the time to be wild and visionary and conceded to be "upon the 
 rocks." The banks in which the state held stock to the extent of 
 $2,665,000 had suspended payment and were expected to be 
 wound up in the courts for insolvency or bankruptcy. The credit 
 
 386 
 
ILLINOIS 387 
 
 of the state had, for the time being, been ruined by its wild ad- 
 ventures into banking- and building enterprises, and no more 
 money could be borrowed. This is the financial situation that 
 Governor Ford was compelled to face. The cry of state repudia- 
 tion of its debts was being heard both in the Legislature and 
 among the people. 
 
 Now Governor Ford before his election as governor was not 
 prominently identified with the politics of the state. He was 
 not regarded as one of the eminent leaders of his party. When 
 selected by the Democratic party as its candidate for governor 
 he was a member of the Supreme Court and was holding Circuit 
 Court in the northern part of the state. He was regarded as an 
 upright, honorable, painstaking and just judge. He had the 
 esteem and respect of his fellow men in that position. His 
 selection as candidate was accidental and resulted from the 
 fact that the candidate for governor selected by the Democratic 
 party in convention assembled in December, 1841, Adam W. 
 Snyder, died during the campaign, in May, 1842. Compelled 
 by the circumstances to act quickly, the Democrats, looking 
 around for a new candidate, finally selected Ford, as a man of 
 clean character and an upright judge, and placed him before 
 the people as their candidate for the highest office in the state. 
 According to Governor Ford, the nomination was tendered him 
 without solicitation on his part. 
 
 When the new governor faced the gloomy financial situation 
 which he found after his inauguration, and sought its solution, 
 the choice his party and the people had made proved a most 
 admirable one. Although having had no great experience as 
 a banker or comptroller, he had the moral sense and courage 
 to recognize the folly and financial enormity of a great and 
 growing sovereign state repudiating its debts. His message 
 to the Legislature was a wise and able document. Its keynote 
 was framed in the following sentence: "Let it be known in 
 the first place that no oppressive or exterminating taxation 
 is to be resorted to ; in the second, we must convince our cred- 
 itors and the world that the disgrace of repudiation is not 
 countenanced among us, that we are honest and mean to pay 
 as soon as we are able." In the message he pointed out two 
 
Governor 1842-46 
 
 (Courtesy Illinois State Historical Library.) 
 
ILLINOIS 389 
 
 reasons why the state in recent years had not increased appre- 
 ciably in population. One reason was that the people of other 
 states and nations feared to settle in Illinois lest they be saddled 
 with exorbitant taxes to pay state debts. The other reason was 
 that people outside of Illinois had acquired a contempt for the 
 public men of Illinois, because of their lack of ability to conduct 
 public affairs wisely and economically, and feared that as the 
 result of reckless government the people would declare for 
 repudiation of public debts. 
 
 The first thing to demand Ford's attention was the completion 
 of the unfinished Illinois and Michigan Canal. This Ford wisely 
 determined must be completed, and, with the assistance of 
 Justin Butterfield, a Chicago lawyer, he succeeded in devising 
 a financial scheme under which the capitalists who held unpaid 
 canal bonds, would advance sufficient money to complete same, 
 provided the state would convey to them all the canal property 
 in trust to secure the new loan and all the old canal debt; and 
 would obligate the state to raise money by moderate taxation, 
 to liquidate gradually, but surely, the state's whole indebtedness. 
 In this way the money was raised to complete the canal and 
 it was put in operation in 1848. 
 
 Governor Ford next turned his attention to the banks in 
 which the state held stock which was quoted as worth about 
 50 cents on the dollar. He succeeded in arranging with these 
 banks the surrender of the state bonds which these banks held 
 in payment for the state's stock in exchange for the state stock 
 in the banks, dollar for dollar, and thus reduced the state's debts 
 over $3,000,000. He succeeded in getting the Legislature, which 
 was originally in favor of cancelling their charters and throwing 
 them into bankruptcy, to approve his scheme of surrendering 
 the state's stock in the two banks in exchange for the state's 
 bonds held by the banks. The bills providing for this exchange, 
 framed by the governor, finally passed the House by a vote of 
 107 to 4, and afterwards were passed by a decisive vote in 
 the Senate. By these two bills a debt of $2,306,000 of the state 
 was cancelled and the future credit of the state enormously 
 strengthened in the money marts of the world. 
 
390 ILLINOIS 
 
 Governor Ford was next called upon officially to dispose 
 of the bitter and bloody controversy that arose between the 
 Mormons at Nauvoo and the Christian Gentiles that surrounded 
 them in Hancock County and the western part of the state. 
 Thomas Rees, the able editor of the Springfield Register, has 
 recently published in the Journal of the Illinois Historical Soci- 
 ety, a review of this interesting affair, which is so lucid and 
 condensed that with his kind permission I will adopt and appro- 
 priate it as part of this history. Rees writes as follows : 
 
 Inception of the Mormon Movement. 
 
 Now let us consider the beginning and the progress 
 of the Mormon church as represented by these new arrivals 
 in Nauvoo. 
 
 Joseph Smith was born December 23, 1805, in Windsor, 
 Vermont, the son of a farmer. He moved with his family 
 when ten years of age to Palmyra, New York, and when 
 fourteen years old they moved to Manchester. He claimed 
 to have been converted at a revival. He determined, how- 
 ever, to investigate the subject of religion more fully. 
 
 He relates the following story: "I retired to a secret 
 place in a grove where I became enwrapped in a heavenly 
 vision and where I saw two glorious personages. They 
 warned me against the churches and I received a promise 
 that the true gospel should be revealed to me at a later 
 date." 
 
 When he was about eighteen years of age, he said, a 
 messenger visited him in another vision and proclaiming 
 himself as an angel of God informed him that he was 
 chosen to be an instrument in the hands of God to bring 
 about a glorious dispensation. He further said he was told 
 at that time of the location of a certain set of plates that 
 were buried in the ground. There were a thousand of these 
 plates and they seemed like gold and were of a thickness 
 equal to thin tin, each plate being beautifully engraved. 
 The plates were about 6x8 inches in size and the whole 
 package was about six inches in thickness. 
 
 Smith claimed that he showed these plates to ten men, 
 all of whom declared they had seen them and testified 
 positively as follows: "Joseph Smith showed the plates to 
 us, that we did handle them with our hands, that we saw 
 the engravings thereon, and that we had seen and 'hefted' 
 
ILLINOIS 
 
 391 
 
 them and that we knew of a surety that said Smith had 
 got the plates." 
 
 These plates were placed in the hands of one of these 
 men, Oliver Cowdery, who translated them, and the teach- 
 ings thereon as translated were used as the foundation 
 of the Mormon doctrine. 
 
 In 1830 the Mormon church was started in Fayette, 
 New York. Then Sidney Rigdon, one of Smith's principal 
 adherents, went over to Kirtland, Ohio, and after a great 
 
 Mormon Temple, Nauvoo 
 
 revival established the church there and then they began 
 the building of a temple there. In connection with this 
 religious movement Smith had organized a bank at Kirtland, 
 but the bank failed and Smith and his brother became very 
 unpopular. They were ridden on a rail through the town, 
 tarred and feathered and ordered to leave the community. 
 But they were not dismayed and removing the tar and 
 feathers they presented their doctrines at the same place 
 on Sunday, the day following. 
 
 Smith then claimed to have received a new revelation 
 to go to Independence, in Jackson County, Missouri, a 
 short distance east of Kansas City and there to establish 
 
392 ILLINOIS 
 
 a new Zion. So they moved again, the church continued 
 and the foundation for another temple was laid at 
 Independence. 
 
 The Mormons remained there until they were compelled 
 to evacuate and seek some other location. This brought 
 them up to the time of their removal to Quincy and their 
 arrival in Nauvoo 
 
 On their arrival in Nauvoo, in the winter of 1838 to '39, 
 Joseph Smith not only continued to hold the position of head 
 of the church, but after the city was organized he soon be- 
 came, either by his own appointment or election, the mayor 
 of Nauvoo. Immediately on their arrival in Illinois the 
 Mormons began to take an interest in politics and they soon 
 became a mighty political power. They elected their own 
 representatives to the Legislature. 
 
 From the liberal legislature of Illinois they demanded 
 much and received a great deal. They secured from the 
 legislature — through the efforts of their first representative, 
 one Dr. John C. Bennett — three of the most remarkable 
 charters ever granted by the State of Illinois to any 
 community 
 
 The three charters which they secured in the legislative 
 session of 1840-41 were: one for the incorporation of the 
 city of Nauvoo, one for the founding of the University of 
 Nauvoo, and the third for the organization of a military 
 legion. The success in securing these charters was made 
 easy by the fact that both political parties at that time 
 were vieing with each other for the good will and support 
 of the Mormons. 
 
 The three charters were all contained in one act of the 
 legislature and embraced among other provisions a city 
 council, a board of trustees and a court martial. Each of 
 these branches, supreme in their way, were invested with 
 legislative, judicial and executive powers. The rights were 
 to enact, establish, ordain any and enact all laws and ordi- 
 nances not in conflict with the constitution of the United 
 States or of the State of Illinois. There were no provisions, 
 however, in the act guarding against infringement of or 
 the ignoring of any or all the laws either of the State of 
 Illinois or of the United States. 
 
 The intention of the three charters seemed to be to 
 establish at Nauvoo a government of the Mormons, by the 
 Mormons and for the Mormons, independent of control 
 either by the state or the United States. The third charter 
 created a military legion, an army to uphold such acts or 
 
ILLINOIS 393 
 
 laws as the Mormons wished to enforce. It is said that 
 this military legion at one time numbered six thousand 
 men, and was entirely at the command of Joseph Smith 
 as lieutenant-general and as leader and prophet of the 
 Mormons. 
 
 In addition to this legion there was a sort of secret 
 organization known as the Danites or the sons of Dan, 
 whose work was done secretly and who could be depended 
 upon at any time under the directions of the prophet to 
 remove characters objectionable or obnoxious to the author- 
 ities of the church. 
 
 Joseph Smith being head of the church, mayor of Nau- 
 voo, and general-in-chief of the Nauvoo legion, his authority 
 was unquestioned. Not satified with being the head of 
 everything in his kingdom he even aspired to become presi- 
 dent of the United States. 
 
 On the third of February, 1841, the city of Nauvoo 
 was organized under its charter, with Dr. Bennett who 
 had secured the charter, as its first mayor, but he was soon 
 succeeded by Joseph Smith. The legion and the university 
 were organized about the same time but the university 
 never seemed to have made much progress. However, 
 Joseph Smith's big asset and office was lieutenant-general 
 of the legion. 
 
 One of the first acts of the city council was to pass a 
 vote of thanks to the state government for favors conferred, 
 and to the citizens of Quincy for the kindness shown them 
 when driven from Missouri and when they found refuge 
 in Illinois. This appears to be the only thanks ever extended 
 by the Mormons. 
 
 The legion was furnished with state arms through Gen- 
 eral Bennett, who had not only secured the charters alluded 
 to but who had also been appointed quartermaster-general 
 of Illinois one year before by Governor Carlin. 
 
 On May 24, 1841, Joseph Smith sent out a notice that 
 all Mormons in the state must locate in the county of 
 Hancock, in which the city of Nauvoo was situated, and 
 the one particular part of the county where he proposed 
 to reign supreme and govern all the people thereof in the 
 name of the Lord. 
 
 About this time as usual, Joseph Smith and the Mormon 
 church began to have all kinds of trouble, both internal and 
 external. Smith was arrested on several requisitions sent 
 over from Missouri for crimes said to have been committed 
 while he was there. But with the wonderful charters he 
 
394 ILLINOIS 
 
 possessed and his control of the courts, each time he was 
 promptly released by writs of habeas corpus or other means. 
 
 The progress of the Mormon church continued, however, 
 and on the 6th of April in the year 1841, the corner-stone 
 of the third Mormon temple was laid at Nauvoo. History 
 records that there were ten thousand people present at 
 this ceremony and the temple which was to be erected at 
 a cost of one million dollars — a good deal of money in those 
 days — was intended to be and when completed was, with- 
 out doubt, the finest structure of any kind in this western 
 country. 
 
 Notwithstanding the fact that Nauvoo, under Mormon 
 rule, had become a hotbed of crime and the hiding place 
 of criminals who sought and secured refuge there after 
 committing crimes in or near that section, the city as a 
 growing metropolis still seemed to be in a flourishing con- 
 dition. Both political parties, the Whigs and the Democrats, 
 were continually making overtures to the Mormons. Stephen 
 A. Douglas of the democratic party was popular with them, 
 while John T. Stuart, Lincoln's law instructor and after- 
 wards his first law partner, ran for congress on the Whig 
 ticket and secured almost the solid vote of the Mormons 
 in Hancock County. 
 
 The Mormons however were not the only people in 
 Nauvoo. Naturally such a flourishing city in the new west 
 attracted many people and of those who came there many 
 were just about as bad if not worse than the Mormons. 
 
 In addition to enmities existing between the Mormons 
 and other religious sects, the Mormons also differed among 
 themselves and a violent quarrel broke out between Joseph 
 Smith and his principal military aid, General Bennett. 
 
 The Fatal Tragedy, 
 
 New churches with regular or nondescript doctrines 
 were organized in Nauvoo and an anti-Mormon newspaper, 
 called the Expositor, was started in the city, but only one 
 edition thereof was ever issued. This paper was immedi- 
 ately suppressed by Joseph Smith, and by his orders the 
 press and material were immediately destroyed. This cre- 
 ated a great furore 
 
 The non-Mormons in Nauvoo met in convention and 
 passed resolutions demanding the immediate expulsion from 
 Illinois of Smith and his associates. Smith had not imagined 
 that the breaking up of this little printing office and the 
 suppression of this little newspaper would create so great 
 an excitement. 
 
ILLINOIS 395 
 
 Things became so threatening that he ordered out his 
 military legion to defend himself and save his church. In 
 the meantime the governor, recognizing the seriousness of 
 the situation, ordered out the militia of the several counties 
 in the vicinity of Nauvoo and started a march on the city. 
 He met the legion and engaged in battle at rather long 
 range. There were a few casualties, perhaps, but not many 
 fatalities. However, the cloud of war hung over the city. 
 
 An armistice was arranged and a compromise effected. 
 Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, agreed to surrender 
 themselves under a warrant that was issued against them, 
 and for their own safety and the good of the community 
 they agreed to be incarcerated in the jail at Carthage, the 
 county seat, twelve miles away. They were promised pro- 
 tection by Thomas Ford, who was then governor of Illinois. 
 In connection with this agreement the governor required 
 Joseph Smith to turn back to the state the arms, consisting 
 of guns and cannons, which had been placed in his custody 
 for the use of his legion. 
 
 Had the governor carried out his agreement and taken 
 the proper precautions to guard the Smiths in the jail, the 
 state of Illinois would have escaped a serious blot that has 
 rested upon its escutcheon ever since. Instead of fulfilling 
 the agreement, by inexcusable neglect he allowed a mob to 
 march on the jail, make an assault thereon and shoot and 
 kill Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, in cold blood. 
 Joseph Smith at the time he was killed was only 41 years 
 old, but in that short span had led a busy life. He was 
 survived by three sons. 
 
 Governor Ford, however, failed or was unable to keep his 
 part of the agreement after the Smiths had surrendered them- 
 selves into the custody of the state officials on the 23rd and 
 24th day of June, 1845. The Mormons had prior to that date 
 surrendered to the state authorities the three cannon and 220 
 stands of arms, out of the 250 stands that they had been fur- 
 nished by the state to equip their militia. On June 27, 1845, 
 when Governor Ford was in Nauvoo with some of the militia, 
 a mob composed of disbanded militiamen with blackened faces 
 made arrangement with eight men belonging to the militia com- 
 pany guarding the prisoners, called the Carthage Grays, to load 
 their guns with blank cartridges and fire these blank cartridges 
 
m 
 
 c3 
 
 C 
 
ILLINOIS 397 
 
 when the militiamen with blackened faces appeared to kill the 
 prisoners. Under this nefarious scheme the disbanding militia- 
 men broke into the jail and assassinated both Joseph Smith and 
 his brother in cold blood. It was the blackest and foulest crime 
 ever committed in Illinois and has brought more disgrace unto 
 the state and upon its officials than anything that has ever 
 occurred in the history of the state. Governor Ford and his 
 staff have been bitterly criticized for acts and omissions in 
 connection with the disgraceful affair. A state that will give 
 through its governor assurance of life and protection to a person 
 who surrenders himself to the governor of such a state upon 
 such an assurance and fails to keep its solemn pledge of safety 
 must necessarily fall very low in public estimation. Governor 
 Ford has left in his history his explanation of the matter which 
 is by no means a satisfactory one. He lays the blame upon his 
 treacherous and cowardly subordinates, but it shows lack of 
 firmness, decision and energy on his part. In justice to him who 
 did much good for the state in other matters, it is but just to 
 give his version of the matter, which extenuates but does not 
 wholly relieve him from all responsibility. 
 
 Governor Ford in his History gives in substance this version 
 of the unfortunate affair: On June 27, two or three days after 
 the surrender of the Smith brothers, Governor Ford attended 
 a council of war at Carthage to determine whether or not the 
 State Militia, numbering some 1,700 men under arms, should 
 march into the City of Nauvoo to search for counterfeit money 
 and to strike terror into the Mormons. The governor had 
 already agreed with his officers to take this course. He had 
 intended to take the prisoners along with him and his troops 
 into Nauvoo, but was dissuaded by his officers from so doing. 
 At the conference with his officers on the morning of June 27, 
 the governor had changed his mind with reference to march- 
 ing his troops into Nauvoo. He had only 1,700 men and only 
 two days' provisions and he was reliably informed that the 
 Mormons in Nauvoo could muster 2,000 well-armed men in case 
 of conflict. A majority of his officers at the conference on June 
 27 advised him to adhere to the original plan and march the 
 entire body of the state militia there assembled on to Nauvoo. 
 
398 ILLINOIS 
 
 The governor overruled them and as commander-in-chief or- 
 dered all the troops but three companies disbanded on that day. 
 He ordered two companies, one of them the Carthage Grays, 
 to remain on duty and guard the jail at Carthage where the 
 Smiths were confined, and the other company, commanded by 
 Captain Dunn he retained with him to escort him to Nauvoo. 
 He says: "Although I knew that the company (the Carthage 
 Grays) were the enemies of the Smiths, yet I had confidence 
 in their loyalty and integrity." (P. 343.) He also admits that 
 this company had been mutinous a few days before and "had 
 behaved badly towards the brigadier-general in command." 
 (Idem., p. 343.) 
 
 Leaving Brigadier Deming in charge of the two companies 
 at Carthage guarding the prisoners, and Captain Smith in 
 charge of the Carthage Grays, on June 27 Governor Ford, 
 escorted by Captain Dunn's dragoons, and by Colonel Buck- 
 master, quartermaster-general, left for Nauvoo. When only 
 four miles from Carthage, "Colonel Buckmaster intimated to 
 me a suspicion that an attack would be made upon the 
 jail." (Idem., p. 345.) Uninfluenced by this communication 
 the governor and his escort continued on the way to Nauvoo. A 
 contingent of the Warsaw militia, on the way to their appointed 
 rendezvous, received the governor's orders to disband. Disap- 
 pointed and enraged thereby, about 200 of these soldiers black- 
 ened their faces and started towards Carthage, where they en- 
 camped. Here they learned that one of the companies left in 
 Carthage to guard the prisoners had disbanded and returned 
 to their homes. The other company, the Carthage Grays, was 
 encamped on the public square of Carthage a few hundred 
 yards away from the jail. Only eight soldiers were left in or 
 about the jail to guard the prisoners. These eight were in a 
 conspiracy with the black-faced militiamen to permit the killing 
 of the prisoners by firing blank cartridges at the assailing mob. 
 As the result of cowardice or connivance, Brigadier-General 
 Dement was out of town, and Captain Smith of the Carthage 
 Grays nowhere to be found. 
 
 Governor Ford did much that entitles him to the gratitude 
 of the state in sustaining her honor and integrity in a great 
 
ILLINOIS 399 
 
 financial crisis, in averting from her the disgrace of repudiation 
 of her debts, and in dragging her out of the morass of weird 
 and wild speculative adventure, and in nobly responding to 
 the call of the nation in the Mexican war, but he lost much 
 prestige by his handling of the Mormon outbreak. He was sur- 
 rounded by traitors and incompetents and his personal presence 
 on the scene failed to instill into them any sense of duty to him 
 as their governor and leader, or of loyalty or respect for their 
 state. The only rational explanation of the whole disgraceful 
 affair is that the entire atmosphere of that part of the state 
 at that time was charged with the malignancy of religious 
 fanaticism and hatred, such as in other times and at other 
 places have disgraced some of the most progressive nations of 
 the world; such as recently brought humiliation and disgrace 
 upon Great Britain in Palestine ; and such as at times humiliate 
 the decent, fair-minded citizens of our own country when hooded 
 and masked men attempt by violence to deprive American cit- 
 izens of their lives and liberty or their constitutional and polit- 
 ical rights in the United States of America. 
 
 After the tragic death of Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith, 
 bitter controversy arose in the Mormon Church as to the lead- 
 ership of the cult. In the earliest days the church was under 
 the presidency of Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith and Sidney Rig- 
 don who controlled the management of the church. Joseph 
 Smith and Hyrum Smith being dead Rigdon proposed that the 
 church abandon Nauvoo and remove to Pittsburg. He par- 
 ticularly desired all the wealthy Mormons to move in that city 
 and claimed that he had a revelation to that effect and that it 
 must be obeyed. While he was making this contention apostles 
 engaged in missionary journeys in the different states and coun- 
 tries in the world began to return to Nauvoo and proposed that 
 the apostles from this time on should control the church as they 
 did after the death of Christ. 
 
 Brigham Young, one of the shrewdest and ablest of the 
 apostles, now put forth the claim that he was the Peter of the 
 twelve apostles. His contention prevailed and missionaries were 
 sent to the four corners of the world to tell of the death of the 
 martyred Joseph. They carried out this purpose with such 
 
400 ILLINOIS 
 
 zeal that it was shortly contended that there were between a 
 quarter and a half million people adhering to the Mormon faith. 
 
 While the conflict between Rigdon and his friends on one 
 side, and the twelve apostles upon the other side, was continued, 
 there was constant signs of disintegration. After Rigdon was 
 defeated by the apostles, the wife of Joseph made claims of 
 primacy in behalf of her young son, Joseph Smith, and her 
 claims were supported by William Smith, a younger brother 
 of the deceased prophet. Brigham Young and his friends, how- 
 ever, finally prevailed and William Smith was excluded from 
 membership in the church. 
 
 The question of removal from Illinois now arose among the 
 apostles, some favoring Texas, others Oregon and others the 
 borders of Mexico. The apostles now claimed that a revelation 
 had been made to them under which they were not permitted 
 to leave Nauvoo until the temple was completed. 
 
 The Gentiles of Hancock County and the surrounding terri- 
 tory, in the meantime, were becoming very impatient over the 
 dilatory movements of the Mormons. New converts began to 
 arrive in Nauvoo and the city had a population of from eighteen 
 to twenty thousand inhabitants. The Mormons appealed to the 
 governor to bring the murderers of the Smiths to trial. The 
 Gentiles kept clamoring for the expulsion of the Mormons. An 
 election took place in 1844 and the Mormons voted solidly for 
 the Democratic candidates. This greatly annoyed the Whigs 
 and the Whig leaders sent out an invitation to the militia cap- 
 tains of Hancock County and adjoining counties requesting them 
 to report in the neighborhood of Nauvoo to carry on a great 
 "wolf hunt." The wolf hunters began assembling in Hancock 
 County for the purpose of attacking the Mormon wolves and 
 the situation became critical. Governor Ford ordered Brigadier- 
 General Hardin, Colonel Baker, Merriman and Weatherford to 
 raise 500 troops and hold themselves in readiness to proceed to 
 Hancock County. The governor himself went into Hancock 
 County and took command, whereupon many of the anti-Mor- 
 mon wolf hunters, including the Carthage Grays, left Hancock 
 County. Some of those charged with the murder of the Smiths 
 returned to Hancock County and offered to stand trial. They 
 
ILLINOIS 401 
 
 were placed on trial but declared not guilty. The alleged trial 
 was a mere farce. All persons friendly to the Mormons were 
 excluded from the court and neighborhood. Several hundred 
 armed men filled the courtyard and the courtroom. The judge 
 and governor were both powerless to enforce the law. 
 
 In the fall of 1845 the homes of many Mormons in Han- 
 cock County were burned and the occupants forced from their 
 homes. The governor saw that it was impossible to execute 
 the law in Hancock County and knowing that the Mormons were 
 contemplating moving to a new location, advised the Mormon 
 leaders to act promptly and withdraw from the state. The gov- 
 ernor left General Hardin in Nauvoo as his representative and 
 he, General Hardin, finally reached an agreement with the Mor- 
 mons, which provided that the state would cease prosecutions 
 of the Mormons if the Mormons would leave the state on or 
 before the spring of 1846. 
 
 In February, 1846, between 2,000 or 3,000 crossed from 
 Nauvoo to the Iowa side of the Mississippi on the ice and started 
 westward. In the course of the following summer 16,000 had 
 crossed the Mississippi into Iowa. All of the Mormons had 
 departed except a thousand people who had come to Nauvoo 
 but recently who were not able to dispose of their property. Not 
 withholding this hegira an armed conflict between 250 Mormon 
 soldiers and 800 well armed citizens took place during the year 
 1846. The engagement, however, was by artillery at long 
 range, which continued for a day or two. 
 
 A compromise was finally reached under which the Mor- 
 mons agreed to lay down their arms and leave the city for the 
 Iowa side of the river. The temple was completed in the fall 
 of 1846. There had been some sort of a revelation that the 
 saints should not leave Nauvoo until the temple was completed. 
 It fell to the lot of a few Mormons under this alleged revelation 
 to hold at bay the belligerent Gentiles until the temple was 
 finished. 
 
 Thus came to an end the stormy political, religious and re- 
 bellious career of the Mormon Church in the State of Illinois. 
 While its claim for inspiration from on High through Joseph 
 Smith and its oft-asserted revelations from the Deity to Smith 
 
402 ILLINOIS 
 
 appeared to the ordinary, sane citizen not only improbable but 
 dishonest and self-serving; it nonetheless attracted the atten- 
 tion and secured the belief of many honest, hard-working men 
 and women who obeyed its sacerdotal orders implicitly. Its 
 management and discipline were of such a character, however, 
 as always to incur the dislike and ultimately the hatred of all 
 their Gentile neighbors. This was the case in Ohio, where they 
 first located ; in Missouri, where they settled after leaving Ohio ; 
 in Illinois during their stay in that state, and in Utah for a 
 considerable time after they located in that then-distant terri- 
 tory. 
 
 It was their aim in Illinois, as elsewhere, to establish within 
 its civil boundaries and civil and criminal law an Imperium in 
 imperio. Their ambition was to secure within the boundaries 
 of their own property and city "a law unto themselves. ,, It was 
 their aim to administer within their own territory all laws, 
 civil, criminal and ecclesiastical, not only as between members 
 of their church, but as between members of their church and 
 Gentiles, and as between Gentiles and other Gentiles residing 
 in a Mormon town or city; to elect their own judges, city offi- 
 cials, police and even their own militia. This necessarily and 
 inevitably brought on a contest with the laws of the state and 
 conflict with the officials of the state, and eventually resulted 
 in their expulsion from Illinois. Their experience in Ohio, Mis- 
 souri and Illinois induced them after leaving the last-named 
 state to abate most of their inordinate aims for civic sovereignty 
 and to become content to live and labor subject to the civil and 
 criminal laws of the state within which they wished to reside. 
 
 On May 11, 1846, during Governor Ford's administration, 
 the Congress of the United States, at the request of President 
 Polk, declared war on Mexico. The English-speaking people of 
 Texas in 1836, then a component part of the Republic of Mex- 
 ico, had revolted from Mexican rule, and by heroic fighting 
 against much more numerous armies of Mexicans in the battles 
 at Gonzales, San Antonio and San Jacinto had succeeded in 
 establishing the Republic of Texas. Shortly afterwards, the 
 inhabitants of this new republic agitated for the annexation of 
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404 ILLINOIS 
 
 overwhelming in Texas, but public opinion in the United States 
 was, for a time, divided upon the expediency thereof. The 
 Texans claimed the Rio Grande River as the southerly dividing 
 line between their country and Mexico, while Mexico claimed all 
 property south of the Nueces River. The Mexican government 
 by proclamation stated that it would regard the annexation of 
 Texas by the United States as an act of hostility. The Demo- 
 crats, particularly those in the South, were almost unanimous 
 for annexation. Polk, then candidate for the presidency in 1844, 
 having been successful over Clay, the Whig idol, and Tyler, the 
 Whig President whose term of office was about to expire, con- 
 strued the election as a popular mandate for annexation and 
 made haste to recommend to Congress that Texas be annexed 
 by a joint resolution of Congress or through a treaty. Con- 
 gress passed the joint resolution, but many senators expressed 
 their preference for a treaty and it was believed that Polk, when 
 inaugurated, would negotiate a treaty with Texas. President 
 Tyler, however, decided that his administration should not be 
 deprived of the honor of adding so great a territory to the 
 domain of the United States and before his term expired he 
 forwarded the joint resolution of Congress to the Congress of 
 Texas, which was promptly approved by the Texans and July 4, 
 1845 the Republic of Texas became a part of the United States. 
 Shortly after the adoption of the joint resolution by the 
 United States Congress, the Mexican minister demanded his 
 passports, and not long thereafter the American minister left 
 Mexico and war betwen the countries became inevitable. War 
 having been declared, Congress authorized the President (Polk) 
 to call for 50,000 volunteers and appropriated $10,000,000 for 
 the prosecution of the war. The 50,000 troops were apportioned 
 among the states, but were mostly drawn from the South and 
 West. Illinois was authorized to mobilize three regiments, or 
 3,000 men. Governor Ford issued his general order as com- 
 mander-in-chief in Illinois, calling for 3,000 volunteers. Dur- 
 ing the Mormon trouble the militia had become badly disor- 
 ganized. The governor directed the sheriffs to convene the old 
 militia organization in each county and add to the number those 
 who responded the names of all volunteers in each county, an- 
 
ILLINOIS 405 
 
 nouncing at the same time that the first companies assembling 
 eighty men to the company would be accepted and enrolled in 
 the order of their reports until the state's quota was completed. 
 Within ten days more than the state's quota reported to the 
 governor and by June 15 forty companies over the Illinois quota 
 were offered for enrollment. Alton was selected as the place of 
 rendezvous and all of the companies reported there for duty 
 and assignment. Three regiments were promptly organized, the 
 first commanded by Col. John J. Hardin, the second by Col. 
 William H. Bissell (afterwards governor of Illinois) and the 
 third by Col. Ferris Foreman. Although only three regiments 
 were called by the President from Illinois, a fourth was ready 
 and waiting for enrollment. Largely by the insistence of Con- 
 gressman Edward D. Baker, the fourth regiment was accepted 
 and enrolled, and he, Baker, was commissioned as its colonel. 
 
 The people of Illinois had become well acquainted with many 
 of the generals and other commanding officers who led them 
 during the war with Mexico, in the Black Hawk war. Among 
 them were Gen. Zachary Taylor, Col. Jefferson Davis, Gen. 
 W. S. Harney, General Twiggs, E. D. Baker, Albert Sidney 
 Johnston and Joseph E. Johnston. All of them had seen service 
 in the Black Hawk war, most of them as junior officers. The 
 First and Second regiments of Illinois troops left Alton July 17, 
 18 and 19 and reached San Antonio about August 23, where 
 they remained until September 26, under command of General 
 Wool. Later on they crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico and 
 reached Saltillo, Mexico, where they were joined by General 
 Taylor's army of 4,000 men. Near that point, at Buena Vista, 
 February 22, 1847, was fought the celebrated battle of that 
 name. The Americans engaged numbered about 5,000, while the 
 Mexicans were three or four times their number. The Illinois 
 troops, first and second regiments, distinguished themselves in 
 that battle and contributed most materially to the great Ameri- 
 can victory. The total loss on the American side was killed 
 264, wounded 482. The Mexican loss was about 2,500. The 
 first regiment lost, including Hardin, twenty-nine killed and 
 sixteen wounded; the second regiment lost in killed sixty-two, 
 and wounded sixty-nine. 
 
406 ILLINOIS 
 
 The Third and Fourth regiments of Illinois troops left in 
 July, and via New Orleans reached Camargo, on the Rio Grande, 
 in time to meet Gen. Winfield Scott and his army at that place. 
 Here the commanding general made the Third and Fourth Illi- 
 nois regiments and one New York regiment into a brigade and 
 placed Gen. James Shields of Illinois in command. 
 
 General Worth arrived at Cerro Gordo and joined the forces 
 under General Twiggs and General Patterson. At this place 
 they met General Santa Anna commanding 15,000 seasoned 
 troops who had arrived from Buena Vista. General Scott deemed 
 the position occupied by Santa Anna almost impregnable, and or- 
 dered a cutting of a road in the rear of the Mexican position. 
 This duty was assigned to the Illinois troops and the work was 
 accomplished with great skill. It required the carrying of 
 batteries across a deep chasm and the placing of these batteries 
 on hills commanding the enemy's position. The duty was as- 
 signed to Gen. James Shields' brigade composed of the Third Illi- 
 nois, Col. Ferris Foreman commanding, Fourth Illinois, Col. E. 
 D. Baker commanding, and a regiment from New York. Under 
 the direction of General Shields the brigade lowered the cannon 
 down on the rear side of the gorge by strong ropes and pulled 
 them up on the farther side. During the night time the Illinois 
 troops under Shields succeeded in placing the batteries in posi- 
 tion to command the rear of Santa Anna's entrenchments. On 
 the following day the battle was won and the Mexicans were 
 in full retreat. In the midst of the battle General Shields was 
 wounded with a grape-shot through his lungs. The wound was 
 so severe that he was reported dead and his obituary was printed 
 in several papers. Almost by a miracle he survived the serious 
 wound, to become afterwards judge of the Supreme Court of 
 Illinois and United States senator from three different states, 
 Illinois, Missouri and Minnesota. 
 
 The American loss in the battle of Cerro Gordo was 417, 64 
 being killed and 353 wounded. General Twiggs in his report of 
 the battle of Cerro Gordo declares: "The gallant troops of 
 Illinois shared to no inconsiderable extent in the dangers, toils, 
 and hardships as their large ratio of losses attest, and their 
 
ILLINOIS 407 
 
 heroic deeds have reflected imperishable honor and glory upon 
 our state." 
 
 The Fifth and Sixth regiments from Illinois were organized 
 and sent to the front but were unfortunate in not being able 
 to participate in any of the active battles of the campaign al- 
 though always ready and eager so to do. 
 
 In the Mexican war Illinois furnished 6,123 volunteers and 
 suffered a loss of 80 killed, 12 died of wounds and 160 wounded. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVII 
 
 THE STATE ADOPTS A NEW CONSTITUTION IN 1848 
 
 In the two decades between 1830 and 1850 the population 
 of Illinois was growing by leaps and bounds. In 1820 it had 
 within its borders only 55,162 souls. In 1830 it had 157,445, in 
 1840 it had 476,183 and in 1850, 851,470. With commensurate 
 rapidity it was developing its agriculture, commerce, industry 
 and education. Frontier life, with its homespun clothes and 
 home-made implements and vehicles, and its uneducated chil- 
 dren, was being replaced by a more comfortably-clothed and 
 better-equipped mode of life, where children were receiving at 
 least a rudimentary education. Thousands of well-educated 
 men and women were moving into the state and bringing with 
 them some of the comforts and atmosphere of civilized life. 
 
 The Constitution of 1818 was adopted hastily and hastily 
 approved by Congress, and without prescience of future growth 
 and requirements. It was not submitted to the people of the 
 territory for their approval. By 1840 its defects and limita- 
 tions began to be felt, and agitation started for a constitutional 
 convention which would frame a new fundamental law more in 
 accordance with the needs and requirements of the day. The 
 first effort to secure such a convention in 1842 was a failure, 
 the popular vote having failed to respond to the call. In 1846, 
 however, the public voted decisively for a new constitution and 
 elected 162 delegates to the same. By occupation these dele- 
 gates were fairly representative of the people of the state at that 
 time. Seventy-six of them were farmers, and strange to say 
 there were only fifty-four of them lawyers. Most of the dele- 
 gates were Democrats, but on the whole the constitution of 1848 
 was so free from political bias that it was supported at the 
 election called for adoption by the great body of the people, both 
 Whig and Democratic. Only six small and uninfluential papers 
 
 408 
 
Owen Lovejoy 
 
 Abolitionist leader and brother of the martyr, Elijah P. Lovejoy. 
 
410 ILLINOIS 
 
 in the state opposed the adoption of the proposed constitution 
 and these papers were supported only by the judges in office 
 and a few of their friends and appointees. The constitutional 
 convention was in session for about three months and the con- 
 stitution as framed was adopted by the people by an over- 
 whelming majority. Tried by experience, there were several 
 defects in the constitution of 1818 which inspired and brought 
 about the holding of a constitutional convention. One of these 
 defects was the method of the selection of the judges of the 
 state. Under the Constitution of 1818 the judges were selected 
 by the Legislature and not by the people. This method had, in 
 the judgment of the people, injected politics and political bias 
 into the decisions of the courts and in reprisal for same had 
 injected politics into the selection of judges into the Legislature. 
 The McClernand-Field case and the attempt of the Whig judges 
 to disfranchise legal voters were still fresh in the minds of the 
 people when they ordered a constitutional convention and their 
 delegates in that convention made the judiciary of the state 
 elective by popular vote so that in the future a judge evincing 
 political bias on the bench could be punished by the people by 
 driving him from the bench at the next election. The convention 
 went further to insure control of all officials by the people at 
 the ballot box. The new constitution made all state and county 
 officials elective by popular vote. Having before them the calam- 
 itous internal improvement and bank laws recently passed by 
 the Legislature, which had bogged the state in a morass of 
 enormous indebtedness, the constitutional convention prohib- 
 ited the state from incurring any indebtedness exceeding "$50,- 
 000 to meet casual deficits or failure in revenues." It pro- 
 vided further that all appropriations must be made by the Legis- 
 lature for the ordinary and contingent expenses — the aggre- 
 gate amount of which shall not exceed the amount of revenue 
 authorized by law to be raised during the period for which the 
 appropriations were made. To prevent the revival or extension 
 of the charter for the state bank or any other bank then in the 
 state, the constitution contained a provision expressly prohib- 
 iting same. To further clinch matters of that character the 
 constitution declared "the credit of the state shall not in any 
 
ILLINOIS 411 
 
 manner be given to or in aid of any individuals, association or 
 corporations. " 
 
 To prevent the raising of the cry of "repudiation" in the 
 future, the constitution provided for a two-mill tax, the proceeds 
 of which were to be used exclusively for the payment of the 
 state indebtedness. Appalled, evidently, by the enormous ex- 
 travagance of legislation in the past, the convention in its 
 strenuous urge for economy in the future went to a ridiculous 
 extreme in fixing the salaries of public officials. It fixed sal- 
 aries as follows: For the governor, $1,500 per annum; state 
 auditor, $1,000; state treasurer, $800; judges of the Supreme 
 Court, $1,200; and Circuit Court, $1,000. The number of the 
 members of the Legislature was cut to 100, or twenty-five sen- 
 ators and seventy-five representatives, who were to be paid $2 
 per day while in session for forty-two days and $1 per day if 
 the session lasted over forty-two days. How the State of Illinois 
 under the Constitution of 1848 was able to secure able and honest 
 public officials to accept office and perform intelligently and 
 effectively their official duties is a mystery. 
 
 The Constitution of 1848 was adopted by the people by a 
 vote of 49,060 affirmative against 20,883 negative. 
 
 The delegates to the Constitutional Convention numbered 
 162, of whom ninety-two were Democrats and seventy were 
 Whigs. The convention met at Springfield on. June 7, 1847. 
 Its most prominent members were : John M. Palmer, lawyer and 
 soldier, afterwards elected governor and United States senator 
 from Illinois; Zadoc Casey, afterwards elected lieutenant-gov- 
 ernor and member of Congress from Illinois; Walter B. Scates, 
 judge of the Circuit Court and the Supreme Court of Illinois; 
 David Davis, afterwards justice of the United States Supreme 
 Court and United States senator from Illinois; John Dement, 
 soldier in the Black Hawk war who served in three constitutional 
 conventions in 1847, 1862 and 1870; Anthony Thornton, after- 
 wards member of Congress and judge of the Supreme Court of 
 Illinois; Samuel D. Lockwood, attorney-general of Illinois and 
 member of the Supreme Court of the same state ; and Stephen T. 
 Logan, eminent lawyer and partner of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVIII 
 
 ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR FRENCH 
 
 Augustus C. French was elected governor on the Democratic 
 ticket in 1846 over his Whig competitor, Thomas L. Kilpatrick, 
 by a vote of 67,453 to 58,700 and gave a wise and business-like 
 administration to the state. He was a man of high character, 
 who was left an orphan before he was twenty years old, with 
 the responsibility of educating and caring for four younger 
 brothers, which burden he cheerfully assumed and splendidly 
 carried out. He was admitted to the bar and became a very 
 successful lawyer, served with credit in the Illinois Legislature, 
 and was appointed receiver of public monies by the Land Office 
 at Palestine. He enjoyed the friendship of Douglas, which 
 doubtless helped him to his nomination and election. Upon his 
 induction into office he found the state heavily indebted as a 
 result of the disastrous experiments with "general internal im- 
 provements" made by the Legislature during former adminis- 
 trations. This indebtedness amounted to many millions, and 
 four years' interest thereon, amounting to about another million 
 dollars. 
 
 Under his administration the new Constitution of 1848 was 
 adopted, and in this constitution there was a provision for the 
 levying of a two-mill tax to be applied to the principal of this 
 great debt. He wisely recommended to the Legislature the fund- 
 ing of the debt, and as there was a widespread belief that there 
 were many counterfeit bonds afloat, he recommended the calling 
 in and verification of all the state's bonds, their cancellation, and 
 the issuance of new bonds to replace those found to be valid. 
 The old bonds had not been registered and the new bonds were 
 registered and numbered. Both principal and accrued interest 
 on the old valid bonds were funded into the new issue. In 1850 
 
 412 
 
Courtesy H. W. Fay, Springfield. 
 
 Augustus C. French, Governor 1846-53 
 
414 ILLINOIS 
 
 Governor French stated that the total indebtedness was $16,627,- 
 509, and that most of it had then been funded. 
 
 The war with Mexico continued during Governor French's 
 term. With much energy and zeal he responded to the Govern- 
 ment's call for troops and forwarded the ardent volunteers to 
 the battle front with commendable celerity. So efficient and 
 satisfactory did Governor French's administration prove to be, 
 that when the provision of the new Constitution of 1848 legis- 
 lated him out of office, the people demanded his reelection. Prac- 
 tically without opposition, he was nominated and reelected for 
 a four-year term, commencing January, 1849, and ending Jan- 
 uary, 1853. 
 
 In 1849, under French's administration, Sidney Breese's 
 term in the United States Senate expired, and a contest arose 
 in the Legislature as to whom would succeed him. Breese was 
 a candidate for reelection. His competitors were John A. Mc- 
 Clernand and Gen. James Shields, the hero from Illinois des- 
 perately wounded in the Mexican war. Shields was successful 
 and elected by the Legislature, but a question arose as to his 
 eligibility because of his being a native of Ireland. A special 
 session of the Legislature was called and his ineligibility was 
 removed by law, and he was then again elected to the United 
 States Senate from Illinois. 
 
 In 1850 the revenues of the state for the first time in many 
 years exceeded the expenditures. This was the result of increase 
 in revenue from the two-mill tax under the new constitution, the 
 one and one-quarter-mill tax under the old constitution, legis- 
 lation in Congress making all lands in the state conveyed to 
 private owners amenable to state taxation, and the tremendous 
 increase of the value of land during the preceding five years. 
 The taxable value of property in the state in 1850 was over 
 $100,000,000. Under French's administration in 1850, the con- 
 gressional land grant to the Illinois Central Railroad was passed 
 and the railroad was incorporated, though it was not built until 
 six years afterwards. Governor French was the first governor 
 of the State of Illinois to succeed himself in that office. 
 
 Since the adoption of the Constitution of 1848 all governors 
 of Illinois have been elected in November and inaugurated in 
 January. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIX 
 
 ILLINOIS BECOMES PROMINENT IN THE POLITICS OF 
 
 THE NATION 
 
 In the history of Illinois we now come to the year 1850, a 
 year pregnant with a political issue which at first affrighted 
 the nation, but which was soon amicably disposed of, for a time 
 at least, by a compromise suggested by a great patriot and 
 revered leader of the Whig party, Henry Clay, heartily approved 
 of by the greatest statesman of his day, Daniel Webster, and 
 launched into law by the brilliant and patriotic leader of the 
 Democratic party, Stephen A. Douglas. From that year of 
 1850 and for ten years thereafter, Illinois furnished the stage 
 upon which the politics of the nation were enacted, and fur- 
 nished the two leading actors in the political drama of that 
 decade. The history of Illinois for the next ten to fifteen years 
 becomes the history of the United States. 
 
 The question of the extension or restriction of slavery ap- 
 peared in the United States in formidable and belligerent shape 
 in the year 1850, when California applied for admission to 
 statehood, and the people resident in the far Southwest applied 
 for the organization of Utah and New Mexico into United. States 
 territories. All of this wide domain had been acquired by 
 treaty from Mexico but recently, and its residents demanded 
 some sort of Federal law for their protection and government. 
 California was rich, prosperous and ready for statehood, and 
 part of California and New Mexico, and all of Utah, were north 
 of the Missouri Compromise parallel. When their applications 
 for membership came before Congress the representatives from 
 the Northern states demanded that any law admitting California 
 to statehood or organizing Utah and New Mexico into terri- 
 torial government should provide that slavery should never be 
 
 415 
 
416 
 
 ILLINOIS 
 
 permitted within their boundaries. Congressmen from South- 
 ern states forcibly protested, and thus, in 1850, the subject of 
 slavery was raised to exorcise and torment the nation and to 
 embitter the North and South against each other. 
 
 As we have heretofore seen, when the confederacy of the 
 thirteen colonies was formed to wage the War of the Revolu- 
 tion, slavery existed in more or less degree in all of them. The 
 slave trade was in full blast, under the approval of the British 
 king and was carried on between Africa and the colonies by 
 the vessels and mariners of New England, and was very profit- 
 able. When the confederation of colonies developed into the 
 
 A One Hundred Dollar Canal Scrip Bill 
 
 nation of the United States of America and adopted a constitu- 
 tion, six of the thirteen states had laws which recognized, en- 
 couraged and legalized slavery, and the Constitution of the 
 United States was so framed as to confirm these laws in these 
 states and in any other state that would enact slavery, and so 
 as to prevent the general Government from interfering with 
 these slave laws. When the confederacy of the colonies was 
 formed in 1778 and the constitution of the nation was adopted 
 in 1787 slavery had existed very generally throughout the civ- 
 ilized world and had flourished for two centuries in the New 
 World. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the slave 
 trade was carried on very extensively by British, French, Dutch, 
 Danish and Portuguese ship-owners. The Encyclopedia Bri- 
 tannica states that "about 1790, negro slaves were exported from 
 Africa annually as follows: By British, 38,000; by the French 
 
ILLINOIS 417 
 
 20,000 ; by the Dutch 4,000 ; by the Danes, 2,000 ; by the Portu- 
 guese 10,000; total 74,000. More than half the trade was in 
 British hands." Most of these slaves went to the American col- 
 onies and the West Indies. One-sixth of the population of the 
 colonies at the outbreak of the Revolutionary war was com- 
 posed of black slaves. In the eighteenth century "there grew 
 up a direct traffic from Africa to the North American colonies 
 in colonial vessels, chiefly owned in New England and New 
 York. Newport and Bristol, Rhode Island, were the noted cen- 
 ters of the trade." (Ency. America, Vol. XV, in chapter on 
 United States slavery.) Eleventh Edition, 1911. 
 
 In constructing a nation out of the confederated colonies, the 
 Revolutionary fathers and founders of the nation were com- 
 pelled to recognize that human slavery was in existence in most 
 of the thirteen colonies to a smaller or greater degree, and that 
 its perpetuation and preservation was demanded by at least six 
 of the thirteen colonies as one of the essential elements of the 
 nation's fundamental law. To the men and women of our day, 
 living in the atmosphere of the twentieth century, when human 
 slavery not only in the United States but in the whole civilized 
 world has been destroyed, and when it is regarded by all sane 
 men and women as shocking and a crime against both God and 
 man, it seems at first glance that these nation-builders of 1787 
 were lacking not only in the instincts of humanity and justice, 
 but in constructive skill and far-seeing wisdom, in consenting 
 to incorporate into the constitution of the nation, provision for 
 the perpetuation of slavery, which would inevitably, sooner or 
 later, sap its foundation and wreck the whole political structure. 
 That a nation so built could not for long endure, we know. Traf- 
 fic in human flesh and the ownership of human bodies could 
 not long withstand the savage onslaught of outraged thinkers 
 and humanitarians. 
 
 But the men who in 1787, were gathering together the weak, 
 war-worn and heavily indebted thirteen colonies, and attempt- 
 ing to unite them in one great nation, and were confronted by 
 facts and a situation which prevented them from building a po- 
 litical structure of white marble. Nearly one-half of their build- 
 ing stone was black, brown or yellow. The structure had to be 
 
418 ILLINOIS 
 
 built or the colonies would be homeless. So they took the mate- 
 rials they had and placed the black and off-colored stones in the 
 foundation, so that they would be out of sight. In phrasing the 
 constitution they perpetuated and preserved the institution of 
 slavery in the states, but soothed their qualms of conscience by 
 avoiding the use of the specific words "Slave" or "Slavery" in the 
 instrument. They placed the black and discolored stones in the 
 basement, where they soon began to rot and disintegrate. Re- 
 member, reader, when you attempt to criticise Washington, Jef- 
 ferson, Adams, Monroe, Hamilton, Franklin, Hancock and the 
 other great men of that day, who participated in, or were con- 
 sulted in, framing the Constitution of the United States, that 
 these men had been living all their lives in communities where 
 human slavery had existed legally for over two centuries, and at 
 a time when the most civilized and progressive nations in the 
 world were trafficking in human beings ; that they had just suc- 
 ceeded in extricating themselves from the tyranny of a king who 
 had forced the Southern colonies to invest their savings in human 
 beings ; and that no nation could be founded unless the property 
 rights so acquired by the colonists would be recognized and pro- 
 tected. The framers of the Constitution of 1787 were con- 
 fronted with this situation. The thirteen colonies could not con- 
 tinue to exist as thirteen separate nation entities. Most of 
 them were too weak in both population and resources. It re- 
 quired the united action of the thirteen, with the assistance of 
 France, then the most powerful rival of Great Britain, to achieve 
 their independence. Unless the thirteen could be united on some 
 basis, two confederations or nations on the North American con- 
 tinent were inevitable. The six colonies from Maryland to 
 Georgia, inclusive, whose wealth mainly consisted of human 
 beings in bondage, would form a confederation or nation which 
 would secure property rights in their slaves and thus perpetuate 
 slavery; and the other seven colonies, in some of which slavery 
 existed in slight form, might or might not confederate or become 
 a nation excluding slaves within their borders. 
 
 The statesmen of 1787 were philosophers and nation-builders, 
 and taking into consideration their surroundings and the stub- 
 born facts confronting them, they acted with great wisdom 
 
ILLINOIS 419 
 
 and patriotism, and built up the foundations for the greatest 
 and grandest republic yet seen in the world. Nonetheless the 
 nation so builded had in its fundamental law the seed of rebel- 
 lion or decay. With the march of modern progress and the 
 advancement of civilization, no nation could long maintain peace 
 within its borders while human beings within its laws had only 
 the legal status of hogs and horses. The revolt of most of man- 
 kind against human slavery had been slow in coming, but by 
 1830, had come fast and furious throughout the civilized world. 
 As early as 1462 the Papacy had denounced slavery as "a great 
 crime" (magnus scelus) and in 1815 Pius VII demanded of the 
 Congress of Vienna the suppression of the slave trade. In the 
 same year Napoleon, during the 100 days return from Elba, 
 abolished the slave trade by French vessels. The government 
 of Buenos Aires abolished slavery for all born after January, 
 1813, and the Republic of Colombia did the same thing in 1821. 
 The French Government, under the Restoration, June 1, 1819, 
 abolished slavery in the French colonies, the Swedish govern- 
 ment stopped the slave trade in 1813, and the Dutch in 1814. 
 In 1798 the Congress of the United States forbade the impor- 
 tation of slaves into the United States after 1808. Denmark 
 was the first European nation to abolish slavery. The royal 
 decree was issued in 1792 to take effect in 1802. In 1833, Great 
 Britain abolished slavery in its colonies and voted 20,000,000 
 pounds as compensation to the owners of the slaves. Many of 
 the Spanish-American republics upon achieving their independ- 
 ence abolished slavery within their territories. In 1850 x when 
 California applied for admission to the Union as a free state, 
 and Utah and New Mexico applied for organization into terri- 
 tories, most of the civilized nations of the world had either to- 
 tally abolished slavery or taken steps for its early extinction. 
 By this time the conscience of the civilized world, outside of the 
 United States, Brazil and a few other obscure countries, had 
 revolted against the further continuance or legal recognition of 
 human slavery, and in the United States the cry of the Aboli- 
 tionist was shrill, strident and far-reaching throughout the land. 
 At this juncture the State of Illinois appears upon the stage 
 of national politics and from thence on furnished to the nation, 
 
420 ILLINOIS 
 
 and to history, in the persons of her sons and statesmen two 
 of American history's most brilliant and powerful characters 
 from the year 1850 until the year 1865, Abraham Lincoln and 
 Stephen A. Douglas. The extension or restriction of slavery in 
 the United States was the issue and Lincoln and Douglas were 
 the leading characters who would discuss and settle for the 
 nation that great issue — Douglas in the Senate of the United 
 States, and Lincoln and Douglas upon the hustings of the great 
 State of Illinois. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION AND LAWS OF THE UNITED 
 
 STATES ON SLAVERY WHEN DOUGLAS 
 
 BECAME SENATOR IN 1847 
 
 When last we had to refer to Stephen A. Douglas as one of 
 the men engaged in making the history of Illinois, we found 
 him and his great compeer, Abraham Lincoln, in the Legislature 
 of the State of Illinois. Both of them were there engaged in re- 
 sponse to an almost unanimous popular demand in passing laws 
 providing for a general system of internal public improvements, 
 which involved the state to the extent of many millions of dollars 
 and which eventually proved disastrous to the Illinois Common- 
 wealth. All this occurred under the administration of Governor 
 Duncan. 
 
 Soon thereafter we find Douglas and Lincoln, when not at- 
 tending to their duties as members of the Legislature, both of 
 them engaged in a large and growing law practice. Douglas 
 conducted the litigation in the Supreme Court between McCler- 
 nand and Field relating to the right of the governor to appoint 
 a secretary of state and a representative of Illinois in the lower 
 house of Congress. He was an eloquent, forceful and per- 
 suasive pleader in the courts. Soon thereafter we find him upon 
 the Supreme bench of the state. In 1847 he was elected United 
 States senator for six years. In 1853 he was again elected to 
 the same honorable position. 
 
 While holding the position of United States senator in 1849 
 and 1850 a political question which not only concerned the people 
 of the State of Illinois, but the people of the whole United 
 States, arose for determination in the Congress of the United 
 States. The war with Mexico had been concluded and in 1848 
 a treaty of peace had been signed between the Republic of 
 
 421 
 
The Old Supreme Court Building in Mount Vernon 
 
ILLINOIS 423 
 
 Mexico and the United States of America under which enormous 
 territory, formerly a component part of the Mexican Republic, 
 including Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Cali- 
 fornia were transferred and surrendered to the United States 
 of America by the Mexican Republic. 
 
 Shortly after the signing of this treaty California applied 
 for admission to the Union as a state and the territories of 
 Mexico and Utah applied for organization into territories in 
 1849. At this juncture the people of the Northern states were 
 determined to prevent the spread of the hated institution of 
 slavery to any of the Western territory. The people of the 
 Southern states seemed desirous to insist upon the right of the 
 people of the Western territories to determine their status, if 
 admitted as states, on the question of slavery. Douglas was 
 then a senator of the United States. He and his Democratic 
 friend and admirer, Gen. James Shields, represented Illinois in 
 the United States Senate. 
 
 A bitter controversy arose on the question as to whether or 
 not slavery should be excluded from or tolerated in these West- 
 ern territories and Lincoln and Shields in the United States 
 Senate and McClernand in the lower house, all Democrats, were 
 called upon to act officially upon this momentous question. 
 
 Before discussing in detail the specific political questions 
 presented to Douglas and his colleagues and their action thereon 
 it will be necessary and appropriate to go back in history and 
 ascertain the status of slavery under the constitution and laws 
 of the United States of America. 
 
 At the outbreak of the Revolutionary war against Great 
 Britain negro slavery existed in all of the thirteen colonies, 
 there being comparatively few, however, of these unfortunates 
 in the Northern states. The negroes were illy adapted to the 
 rigors of the Northern climate and were intensely ignorant and 
 inefficient as laborers on small farms such as were cultivated 
 in the Northern states. In the South large plantations were 
 conducted where the staple crops were cotton, tobacco and rice. 
 In the North slave labor was less profitable and negroes were 
 not generally used except for domestic occupations. In the man- 
 ufacturing industries they were found to be unintelligent and 
 
424 ILLINOIS 
 
 inefficient. In the South, owing to the increase in large cotton 
 and sugar plantations their labor was quite profitable and was 
 regarded as an economic necessity. 
 
 In the Declaration of Independence, preceding the Revolu- 
 tionary war, certain enunciations were made with reference 
 to the rights of man and the equality of man under the law. 
 Men engaged in a life and death struggle for liberty, it was 
 generally understood, ought not deny to their fellow human 
 beings equality under the law because of the color of his skin. 
 The slave trade had been in existence for a number of years 
 prior to the Revolutionary war and over 300,000 black men and 
 women had been imported into the colonies. Before the Dec- 
 laration of Independence the black population constituted one- 
 fifth of the whole. The Continental Congress in 1774 took the 
 first step towards the extinction of slavery. It recommended 
 the non-importation of slaves thereafter into the thirteen col- 
 onies. Some years before the Revolution the colonies had mani- 
 fested a desire to prohibit the importation of negro slaves, but 
 they had been prevented from so doing by the greed of English 
 merchants and had been prevented from stopping the slave 
 trade by the avarice of the British sovereigns themselves, who 
 were stockholders in the Royal African Company, then engaged 
 in the slave trade in supplying negro slaves to the American 
 colonies. To prevent legislation in the colonies against the slave 
 trade a circular was addressed to the colonial governors, ap- 
 pointed by the Crown, warning them against presuming to 
 countenance legislation against the slave trade. 
 
 When Thomas Jefferson drew up his first draft of the Dec- 
 laration of Independence it contained this charge against the 
 King of England : "He has prostituted his negative for suppress- 
 ing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execra- 
 ble commerce and has waged cruel war against human nature 
 itself violating its most sacred rights in the person of a distant 
 people who had never offended him." This original draft was 
 afterwards stricken out at the request of some of the Southern 
 members of the convention and for the additional reason, as 
 Jefferson stated, that "our Northern brethren felt a little tender 
 under these censures, for, though their people had very few 
 
ILLINOIS 425 
 
 slaves themselves, yet they had been pretty considerable carriers 
 of them to others." 
 
 Shortly thereafter laws were passed by all the states, except 
 Georgia and South Carolina, either prohibiting the further im- 
 portation of negroes or discouraging the traffic by the imposition 
 of a heavy duty. The Northern states went further and passed 
 acts for the abolition or the gradual extinction of slavery. Mas- 
 sachusetts became the first free state of the confederation. Ver- 
 mont took like action and it was followed shortly thereafter by 
 New Hampshire in 1783 and Connecticut and Rhode Island in 
 1784. 
 
 At the time of the adoption of the Federal Constitution 
 slavery had been either abolished or put in a process of extinc- 
 tion in all of the Northern states excepting New York and New 
 Hampshire. The Southern states, however, took no legislative 
 action, although many of their eminent men expressed them- 
 selves personally as antagonistic to slavery. Jefferson declared 
 in 1774 that the "abolition of slavery is the great object of 
 desire in the colonies," and again in 1787 he declared, "I tremble 
 for my country when I reflect that God is just and that His 
 justice cannot sleep forever." 
 
 Washington in a letter to LaFayette in 1783 congratulated 
 him on purchasing an estate in Cayenne with a view to emanci- 
 pating the slaves on it, and said, "Would to God a like spirit 
 might diffuse itself in the minds of the people of this country." 
 
 Indeed, it is probable that even in the Southern states there 
 would have been a gradual emancipation of the slaves but for 
 the invention of the cotton gin. In 1793 this invention created 
 an industrial revolution in the South and made negro slavery 
 immensely profitable. Many in the South regarded slavery 
 thereafter as an economic necessity. The capacity of the slave 
 was by this invention increased one hundred fold. Within a 
 few years the exportation of cotton mounted from a few thou- 
 sand pounds to thirty-five million pounds. It made cotton the 
 chief industry of the South. Thereafter there was a demand 
 for more negro help and all thought of emancipation was for- 
 gotten. 
 
:■■ : '■■■■..■ 
 
 The First Schoolhouse in Champaign 
 
ILLINOIS 427 
 
 At the time of the adoption of the Constitution of the United 
 States, slavery existed pursuant to law in six Southern States 
 and slavery had been abolished and rendered illegal in seven 
 other states or colonies. Shortly thereafter Vermont was ad- 
 mitted to the Union as a free soil state. Kentucky and Tennessee 
 soon applied for admission to the Union and as these territories 
 before their admission to the Union were a component part of 
 Virginia and North Carolina and were ceded by these states to 
 the United States upon the understanding that slavery should 
 not be prohibited within their borders, these territories, to-wit: 
 Kentucky and Tennessee were admitted to the Union as slave 
 states. Upon their admission to the Union there were eight 
 free states and eight slave states, each entitled to two senators 
 in the Senate of the United States, and thereafter for many 
 years, the Southern states were able to prevent the admission 
 of any new territory into the Union as a state unless equality 
 was maintained on the question of slavery. That is, the South- 
 ern states had sufficient power, after they became equal in num- 
 ber to the free states, to prevent the admission of any territory 
 as a free state unless at the same time another territory was 
 admitted as a slave state. 
 
 About the admission of Vermont, Kentucky and Tennessee 
 to statehood, there was little or no conflict. However, before 
 the adoption of the Federal Constitution, the United States had 
 acquired a large domain of territory in the Northwest as a result 
 of cessions from states which had laid claim thereto, and when 
 Congress came to organize a government for this new territory, 
 it was agreed that negro slavery should not be permitted therein, 
 even the Southern members conceding that point. When Con- 
 gress was organizing the Northwest Territory the constitutional 
 convention sitting at Philadelphia was endeavoring to determine 
 the question of what recognition should be given to the institu- 
 tion of slavery in the organic law of the Republic. Southern and 
 Northern members both agreed that the slaves should not be 
 accorded any political rights but the Southern members insisted 
 that the slave should nevertheless be counted in determining 
 the distribution of representatives in Congress. A compromise 
 was finally adopted which gave the Southern states a substan- 
 
428 ILLINOIS 
 
 tial advantage in the form of increased representation based on 
 slavery. 
 
 The constitutional convention made another concession to 
 the slaveholders, in that it deprived Congress of the power to 
 interfere with the slave trade before the year 1808. A third 
 concession was given to the slaveholding states, in that it gave 
 slavery the stamp of a property right by requiring that persons 
 "held to labor or service" in any one state escaping from their 
 masters in any state, should upon demand be delivered up to 
 the person from whom they escaped. 
 
 Under this concession, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 was 
 passed, providing that any slaveholder might pursue his escap- 
 ing slave into any state in the Union, and upon making proof 
 of ownership, could reclaim and transport him to the state from 
 which he fled. 
 
 With these provisions in the constitution, the Republic of 
 the United States in 1789 entered upon the beginning of its 
 career as a nation. It had at that time a population of about 
 four million of which seven hundred thousand belonged to the 
 class described in the constitution as persons "held to service 
 or to labor.'' There were, however, not over fifty thousand of 
 this class in the Northern states. 
 
 In 1790 Congress accepted from the State of North Carolina 
 the cession of territory now embraced in Tennessee upon the 
 express agreement that slavery should not be forbidden therein 
 by Congress. In 1802 it accepted a cession embracing a large 
 part of what is now Mississippi and Alabama from Georgia, 
 under similar conditions. 
 
 In 1803 Louisiana was acquired from France by treaty. The 
 Territory of Louisiana almost doubled the area of the republic 
 and in it under French and Spanish rule slavery had existed. 
 When the United States organized a territorial government for 
 the southern portion of Louisiana it legalized slavery therein 
 and in 1812 admitted this territory to the Union as a state with 
 a constitution allowing slavery. The upper part of Louisiana 
 was organized shortly thereafter as the Territory of Missouri 
 and Congress authorized legalized slavery therein, and when the 
 Territory of Missouri applied for admission to the Union as a 
 
ILLINOIS 429 
 
 state in 1818, it had a constitution allowing slavery. This was 
 permitted by Congress, however, only after an acrimonious and 
 protracted debate. A compromise was agreed upon between 
 the friends and foes of slavery upon the admission of Missouri 
 as a state under which it was agreed that all of the territory of 
 the Louisiana Purchase lying to the north of thirty-six degree 
 thirty minutes, except Missouri, should be ever thereafter free 
 soil territory. 
 
 In 1848 after the Mexican war, a large amount of territory 
 was acquired by the treaty of peace from Mexico. The South- 
 erners by that time had reached the conclusion that unless 
 slavery was extended to the territories and new slave states 
 organized therefrom, the South would in time be left in the 
 minority and at the mercy of the North, which was already 
 showing a disposition to encroach upon the rights of slavehold- 
 ers in the South. The people of the Northern states, on the 
 other hand, had come to the conclusion that slavery was a na- 
 tional evil and should be restricted and that the only effective 
 way of restricting it was to prevent slavery in the territories, 
 thereby insuring the erection of free states therein. Up to 1820 
 it was generally conceded that the plenary power of Congress 
 to make rules and regulations for the government of the terri- 
 tories also included the power to define what should be consid- 
 ered private property within any territory. After the admission 
 of Missouri the Southerners contended that Congress had no 
 power to determine what should constitute private property in 
 the territories belonging to the United States and asserted that 
 it was the duty of Congress to protect slavery therein and all 
 slaves held as property. 
 
 The Southerners argued that the territories were the com- 
 mon possession of the people of all the states acquired by com- 
 mon sacrifices and common burdens and if the people of the 
 Southern states were denied the right to emigrate into these 
 territories with their slave property, it could be said that they 
 were deprived of equal participation with their brethren of the 
 North in the territorial benefits. 
 
 This is a fair statement of the controversy between the pro- 
 slavery people of the South and the anti-slavery people of the 
 
430 ILLINOIS 
 
 North when Douglas and Shields in the Senate of the United 
 States, representing the State of Illinois, were called upon to 
 speak, vote and act upon the admission of the Territory of Cali- 
 fornia to statehood, and the application of the territories of 
 Utah and New Mexico for organization into territories of the 
 Union. 
 
CHAPTER XLI 
 
 DOUGLAS, THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 AND THE 
 KANSAS-NEBRASKA LAW 
 
 When Stephen A. Douglas first took his seat in the Senate 
 of the United States from the State of Illinois in 1847; and 
 began his participation in the national affairs of the United 
 States, he was confronted with a conflict of several years' dura- 
 tion between the senators and representatives of the Southern 
 states and those from the Northern states on the question of the 
 extension of slavery into the territories of the nation. It devel- 
 oped for the first time prominently when the Territory of Mis- 
 souri was pressing its application for admission into the Union 
 as a state in 1819. The Southerners demanded that it be ad- 
 mitted as a state legally authorizing slavery within its borders. 
 The Northerners were equally insistent that it must not be 
 admitted unless it prohibited slavery. As a result Congress was 
 unable to take action on admission of the territory to statehood 
 until 1820, when the Territory of Maine applied for admission 
 as a free-soil state. The Southerners opposed this as the North- 
 erners opposed the admission of Missouri as a slave state, and 
 this forced a compromise under which it was agreed that Maine 
 would be admitted as a free-soil state and Missouri as a slave 
 state, upon the expressed agreement in the acts of admission 
 that in all the rest of the Louisiana territory acquired from 
 France north of the north parallel thirty-six degree, thirty min- 
 utes, on or about the south line of the State of Missouri, slavery 
 never should be permitted. 
 
 This solution, called the Missouri Compromise, had been 
 respected and carried out by both parties until Kansas and 
 Nebraska applied for admission in 1853. Bitterness had been 
 developing between the pro-slavery states of the South and the 
 
 431 
 
O 06 
 
ILLINOIS 433 
 
 anti-slavery states of the North in reference to the annexation 
 of the Republic of Texas in 1846. It was known that Texas, if 
 annexed, would be a slave state, but the southern states were 
 able to take advantage of the fever for territorial expansion and 
 annex the tremendous territory of that young republic to the 
 United States even though it involved the latter in a war with 
 Mexico. There was very strong and bitter opposition in the 
 North both to the annexation and to the war with Mexico. But 
 the war fever which makes the people of nearly every race or 
 nation at war declare "My country, right or wrong" prevailed 
 and as the result of the war territory vast in extent and enor- 
 mously rich, and adjoining the Southern states, became by treaty 
 with Mexico a part of the territory of the United States. The 
 acquisition of this immense territory, to the South, further ex- 
 cited the anti-slavery people of the North and rekindled the 
 embers of the fire that had been banked, but not extinguished, 
 by the Missouri Compromise. 
 
 After the conclusion of the peace with Mexico (or about 
 1849) California applied for admission as a state, and Oregon, 
 Utah and New Mexico for organization as territories. Because 
 of the fact that Oregon was north of the thirty-six degree thirty- 
 minute parallel of latitude, no trouble arose in Congress over 
 its organization as a free-soil territory. The votes of the Illinois 
 delegation in Congress were cast for its organization as a free- 
 soil territory because that delegation believed that they were 
 morally bound to do so by virtue of the Missouri Compromise. 
 The partisans of the North and the South, in the meantime, had 
 become more obstinate and belligerent in their attitude towards 
 each other ; while they were considering the cases of California, 
 Utah and New Mexico, all of whom were applying for admis- 
 sion as states or organization as territories. The Northerners 
 announced that not another inch of American soil would be 
 contaminated by the touch of slavery. The Southerners, believ- 
 ing that they were being pushed to the wall; and would lose 
 their equality of representation in the Senate, and thus their 
 power in the nation, announced defiantly, that if their claims 
 were denied they would withdraw from the Union and defend 
 their rights, if necessary, with the sword. The Illinois delega- 
 
434 ILLINOIS 
 
 tion and many others in Congress from the North, by reason of 
 these threats, became convinced that the South was seriously 
 considering dissolution of the Union. 
 
 At this juncture Henry Clay, recently elected to the Senate, 
 stood forth as peacemaker and savior of the Union. He had, 
 however, been out of active political life, but in his retirement 
 had retained the respect and admiration of the Whigs and con- 
 servative people of the country, who were convinced of his 
 patriotism, and ready to accept his advice on important matters 
 relating to the well-being of the nation. Clay consulted and 
 advised with the extremists on both sides of the controversy, 
 as well as with the moderates in both parties. As a result he 
 devised a compromise bill which, in one piece of legislation, 
 provided simultaneously, first for the admission of California 
 to statehood as a free-soil state; secondly, the creation of the 
 territories of Utah and New Mexico, without any reference 
 to slavery, so as to permit the people of these two territories 
 to determine the character of their government '(called at the 
 time "squatter sovereignty") ; third, the prohibition of the slave 
 trade in the District of Columbia; fourth, the enactment of a 
 more efficient fugitive slave law. Daniel Webster vigorously 
 advocated the adoption of the measure suggested by Clay. Presi- 
 dent Taylor was favorable, although inclined to defer acting 
 upon the matter until the people in the territories took action. 
 California had already acted and declared itself decisively to 
 be in favor of being a free-soil state. 
 
 Douglas and Gen. James Shields were then both sitting in 
 the Senate of the United States from the State of Illinois. 
 While the representatives in Congress from the South, on the 
 one side, and those from the northern and eastern states on the 
 other, were hurling invectives and threats against each other 
 and threatening dissolution of the Union, Douglas declared: 
 "There is a power in this nation greater than either the North 
 or South — that will be able to speak the law of this nation 
 and to execute the law as spoken. That power is the country 
 known as the Great West, the Valley of the Mississippi, one 
 and indivisible from the gulf to the Great Lakes, from the Alle- 
 ghanies to the Rocky Mountains. There, sir, is the hope of 
 
ILLINOIS 435 
 
 this nation, the resting-place of the power that is not only to 
 control, but to save the Union." No more prophetic words were 
 ever spoken. Were it not for the leaders and men, statesmen, 
 warriors and privates in the ranks that the Mississippi Valley 
 sent to the White House, Congress and the battlefields of the 
 great Civil war between 1861 and 1865, the nation might have 
 been split in twain and deprived of what it now holds — the 
 primacy among all the nations of the world. 
 
 The compromise bill of Clay, supported though it was by 
 the President, Webster and many other leaders both in the 
 Whig and Democratic parties, did not become a law as originally 
 framed. It consolidated too many problems in one instrument. 
 The pro-slavery people refused to vote for its anti-slavery pro- 
 visions and the anti-slavery people voted against its pro-slavery 
 sections. As it was a mosaic, its different pieces were badly 
 battered and the whole plate broken. When the Clay bill was 
 beaten, Douglas commended the patriotic course of Clay and 
 Webster and declared: "The Union will not be put in peril; 
 California will be admitted, governments for the territories 
 must be established, and thus controversy will end, and I trust 
 forever." He made this statement with the utmost confidence 
 immediately after the defeat of the Clay bill, because he believed 
 that he had found a solution of the slavery question which 
 would appeal to the sense of fair play, the good judgment and 
 the patriotism of the whole country. Part of his prophetic 
 statement proved to be well founded. California was admitted 
 and governments for the territories were established, but the 
 slavery controversy did not end. 
 
 Let us consider, now, Douglas the man, his history, his 
 surroundings and his career, when he made this important 
 declaration. We find the name of Stephen A. Douglas rising 
 above the political horizon under Governor Duncan's adminis- 
 tration (1837 to 1841.) He was then in the Legislature of 
 Illinois as a Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Democrat, engaged 
 with Abraham Lincoln in pushing forward the general system 
 of internal public improvements demanded almost unanimously 
 at that time by the people of Illinois. Both Douglas, aged twenty- 
 three, and Lincoln, aged twenty-seven, were then young and 
 
The Old Rail Fence 
 
ILLINOIS 437 
 
 ambitious lawyers with a successful and growing practice. Doug- 
 las was soon found conducting important cases in the Supreme 
 Court of Illinois, among them the McClernand-Field case and 
 the case involving the right of six-month residents to vote. 
 In 1841 he was selected as one of the judges of the Supreme 
 Court. In 1843 he was elected Congressman and in 1848 United 
 States Senator from the State of Illinois. His eloquence, tact 
 and able mentality had won for him a career of almost unparal- 
 leled success in political life. When first elected to the United 
 States Senate in 1847 he was a little over thirty years of age, 
 and he held that exalted position until his death. During this 
 period (1838 to 1847) his great political antagonist, Lincoln, 
 was laboriously serving as a member of the lower House of 
 the Illinois Legislature (1836 to 1842) and in the lower House 
 of Congress (1846 to 1848.) The party of Jefferson and Jackson 
 dominated the politics of Illinois from the time of its admission 
 to the Union in 1818 until the election of Bissell as governor, 
 a Republican but formerly a Democrat, in 1856. Even after 
 that, in 1858, the doctrines of the Democratic party as promul- 
 gated by Douglas prevailed in Illinois, and he was elected a 
 third time to the Senate in 1858. The dominance of his party 
 in Illinois without doubt contributed largely to the rapid advance- 
 ment of Douglas to his station in the councils of his state and 
 nation, as did the weakness of Lincoln's party (the Whig) 
 contribute to the tardiness of Lincoln's advancement in his 
 political career. Douglas' native ability and force of character, 
 however, did more to make him early in his career a national 
 character. 
 
 In 1849-50 the bills for the admission of California to state- 
 hood and the formation of territories for Utah and New Mexico 
 were pending before Congress, and it was then that Stephen 
 A. Douglas, now a commanding force in the Senate and a mag- 
 netic leader in the Democratic party, made the optimistic and 
 comforting statement that: "The Union will not be put in peril; 
 California will be admitted; governments for the territories 
 must be established, and thus the controversy will end, I trust 
 forever." He believed he had found a solution of the whole 
 exasperating and dangerous controversy. It was "popular sov- 
 
438 ILLINOIS 
 
 ereignty" both for the territories as well as for the states to 
 be admitted thereafter. He was on the ground in Washington 
 where he could and did interview all the leaders of divers dif- 
 ferent parties and policies. After the defeat of the Clay compro- 
 mise bill, he must have interviewed these different leaders, laid 
 before them his "popular sovereignty" program, and convinced 
 them of its logic and reasonableness. That he did so is shown 
 by the action of Congress in 1850 and 1854. He argued to the 
 men he approached along this line, the solution of the slavery 
 question must come from "the laws of nature, of climate and 
 production," recognized and ratified by the people of each terri- 
 tory and state and not by Congress. True democracy, he claimed, 
 was to allow each community to determine and regulate its own 
 local affairs in its own way. It must have been as a result of 
 these interviews in and around Congress in Washington, and 
 these arguments and the responses he received thereto, that he 
 made his confident announcement. 
 
 Five separate and distinct bills framed by Douglas along 
 the lines of the Clay bill were presented by him in the Senate 
 and by Congressman McClernand, a Democratic congressman 
 in the House. They were discussed seriatim and passed in both 
 House and Senate. The Utah bill was taken up first and passed. 
 Then came the New Mexico bill with the same result. The 
 California admission bill was enacted and then came the fugitive 
 slave bill and the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia 
 measure, all of which were enacted into laws in 1850. "The 
 Compromise of 1850" had been accomplished and Douglas and 
 Clay were hailed as the "saviors of the Union." The Illinois 
 representatives in Congress all voted for the California and 
 District slavery bills. "Long" John Wentworth, the Democratic 
 congressman from the Chicago district, and Congressman Baker 
 opposed the Utah, New Mexico and fugitive slave bills, but the 
 rest of the delegation supported them. Douglas and Shields 
 in the Senate voted for all of the bills, except the fugitive slave 
 bill. Both were absent when this bill came to a vote. The Whig 
 vote was divided, some favoring Clay's compromise and others 
 favoring no action. Douglas' statements as to the passage of 
 the bills proved accurate. His prediction that "the Union will 
 
ILLINOIS 439 
 
 not be put in peril" was also true for the time being. That 
 peril, however, was only postponed for eleven years. 
 
 The passage of these laws in 1850, however, effectually 
 disposed of the Wilmot proviso which had given rise to so many 
 bitter controversies since the Mexican war. Congressman Wilmot, 
 in 1848, had attached to the bill providing for an appropriation 
 to the President of $2,000,000 to enable him to negotiate a peace 
 with Mexico, which would provide for a cession to this country 
 of a large amount of territory then owned by Mexico, a proviso 
 that in the territory so acquired slavery should never be tol- 
 erated. Even the Whig party that had contended for this prin- 
 ciple seemed satisfied to abandon the claims of the Wilmot 
 proviso when the "Compromise of 1850" was crystallized into 
 law. 
 
 After the passage of the laws covering California, Utah, 
 New Mexico, the slave trade and fugitive slave laws, Douglas 
 returned to Illinois and became in this state the acclaimed 
 Democratic candidate for the Presidency. The Compromise 
 of 1850 seemed to grow in favor for some time and Douglas 
 grew in popular favor. Daniel Webster had opposed the annex- 
 ation of Texas and the Mexican war, but lent his powerful 
 aid to the adoption of the compromise. He declared that slave 
 labor would not be successful in New Mexico and that the anti- 
 slavery people need have no fears over the extension of slavery 
 to that territory. The laws of nature, he maintained, had 
 decreed against slavery. 
 
 The Illinois Legislature, which in 1849 had favored the 
 Wilmot proviso, repealed its resolution in 1851. The vote stood 
 in the Senate twenty-two for repeal and two against. In the 
 House the vote for repeal was forty-nine to eleven against. Party 
 lines between the Whigs and Democrats were broken down and 
 there seemed to be a "union of hearts" among the politicians 
 in Illinois and the nation. The Democrats nominated Franklin 
 Pierce for the Presidency in 1852 against Gen. Winfield Scott, 
 the Whig candidate, and carried the election handsomely both 
 in the State of Illinois and the nation. 
 
 The fourth of the laws passed as part of the Compromise 
 of 1850, the fugitive slave law, soon began to give trouble to 
 
440 ILLINOIS 
 
 the compromisers. It gave but little material aid to the slave- 
 holders, as a very small fraction of the slave population had 
 in the past been able to escape from bondage. On the other 
 hand, the passage of this law gave great offense to the many- 
 thousands of people who revolted against the idea of the nation 
 using its machinery to enforce human slavery, particularly in 
 the states which prohibited this infamy. Rumblings of dis- 
 content began to be heard in the North, not only from Whigs 
 and Abolitionists, but from men who had been voting the Demo- 
 cratic ticket all their lives. "Long" John Wentworth, Democratic 
 congressman and newspaper proprietor, and leader of that party 
 in and around Chicago, was one of these. So was Lyman 
 Trumbull and likewise Judge Sidney Breese. The Democrats 
 of Illinois, however, presented Douglas' name to the National 
 Democratic Convention of 1852 as their choice for the Presi- 
 dency. For a few ballots he led the field, but was finally beaten 
 by Pierce and took his defeat quite gracefully. After the Demo- 
 cratic triumph in 1852, Whiggery became anaemic and a break 
 in the solidity of the Democratic party began to develop. The 
 fraternization of the leaders of the Whig and Democratic parties 
 on the subject of slavery, resulting in the Compromise of 1850, 
 was not relished by many of the rank and file of both parties. 
 The fugitive slave law was the main cause of dissatisfaction 
 in the North, both among Whigs and many Democrats, although 
 both parties had through their leaders agreed upon the Com- 
 promise of 1850. 
 
 Into this atmosphere of party disorganization came the appli- 
 cation of Kansas and Nebraska to be opened up for settlement 
 and organization as territories, in 1853. Both of these territories 
 were north of the thirty-six degree thirty-minute line. To permit 
 by act of Congress slavery to exist in these territories would 
 violate the Missouri Compromise law of 1820. To make them 
 free-soil territories was impossible by reason of the stubborn 
 attitude of the representatives of the southern states. Douglas 
 was at this time chairman of the Senate committee on territories, 
 was the acknowledged father of the Compromise of 1850, was 
 the universally-accepted leader of his party in Illinois, and 
 frequently mentioned throughout the nation as a possible can- 
 
Mexican War Soldier 
 
 (Courtesy Chicago Historical Society.) 
 
442 ILLINOIS 
 
 didate for the Presidency. He was zealously advocating the 
 building of a trans-continental railway from coast to coast 
 and was desirous of having the lands to the west of Illinois, 
 Missouri and Iowa thrown open to settlement and railroad 
 development. 
 
 When the bills for the organization of Kansas and Nebraska 
 were referred to his committee he again brought forward his 
 plan of popular sovereignty as a solution of the whole problem 
 and had the bills so drafted as to permit the people in each 
 territory to decide for themselves the character of their govern- 
 ment on the subject of slavery. The Missouri Compromise of 
 1820, he contended, had been repealed by the Compromise of 
 1850 ; that the Utah and New Mexico laws had established prac- 
 tically by universal consent the principle of popular sovereignty, 
 and had established a precedent to be followed in the organization 
 of territories. Above all, he claimed and honestly believed that 
 "people's sovereignty" was the foundation of real democracy; 
 that the Revolutionary war was fought in assertion of that 
 principle; that that principle was conceded to the states in the 
 Federal Constitution, and that that principle should be conceded 
 to the people in each territory applying for admission to the 
 Union, as any state so admitted must have rights equal to the 
 original thirteen states of the Union. From the standpoint of 
 logic, law and constitutionality his argument was effective. The 
 bills were reported to the House and Senate in such form as 
 to establish the right of the people in each and both of these 
 territories to decide for themselves whether they should have 
 slavery or no slavery within their borders. In other words 
 the bills as framed and passed, recognized and established in 
 1854 the doctrine of government tritely and forcefully expressed 
 in popular vernacular as "squatter sovereignty." 
 
 The Kansas-Nebraska Bill became law May 29, 1854. It 
 proved to be not only a constitutional law of the United States 
 framed under a compromise between the Whig and Democratic 
 parties but a political bomb-shell which, when it fell among 
 the people, exploded and killed the Whig party and seriously 
 wounded the Democratic party. Hundreds of thousands, aye 
 millions, of good men and women in both the old parties had 
 
ILLINOIS 443 
 
 come to the conclusion that commercial traffic in human flesh 
 and blood was a crime against both God and man and that any 
 law which permitted its extension in the United States was a 
 lex infamis, and, more than that, a faex legis infamis. Not 
 only was it an infamous law, but one dragged out of the lowest 
 dregs of infamy. In a desire to avert secession and prevent 
 the dismemberment of the Union, Douglas and the other leaders 
 of the Democratic and Whig parties in Congress had failed to 
 appreciate and appraise at its proper strength the aversion to 
 slavery which had taken hold of the people of the northern and 
 eastern states. Douglas, in one of his speeches, declared that 
 the Kansas-Nebraska act would be "as popular at the North 
 as at the South, when its principles and provisions shall have 
 been fully developed and become well understood." (Congres- 
 sional Globe 33, Congress 1st Session, Appendix 338.) That 
 he was right from a constitutional and legal standpoint and 
 that his motives were inspired by the highest patriotism cannot 
 be doubted, but he and his followers, who framed and voted 
 for the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, failed to place themselves on 
 that high plane of morals and humanity which rises above all 
 laws which set morality and humanity at defiance. 
 
 Those who regarded slavery as a crime against both God 
 and man, and there were many thousands of these in both 
 parties, began to take steps towards the organization of a new 
 party. The former great leaders of the Whigs were superan- 
 nuated and retired, and the new leaders were spineless and tol- 
 erant of slavery. The Democratic leaders, being intimidated by 
 the slave-holders of the South, were giving way to the intolerable 
 demands of their Democratic colleagues from the South. A new 
 party was necessary to confront the "negro-hunters and enslavers 
 of the South." 
 
 In advocating the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 
 Douglas made a brilliant speech in which he courageously and 
 fairly answered all arguments that had been made by those 
 who opposed it and declared that the principle of popular sov- 
 ereignty enunciated in the bill was "the principle upon which 
 the Colonies separated from the Crown of Great Britain; the 
 principle upon which the battles of the Revolution were fought, 
 
444 ILLINOIS 
 
 and the principle upon which our republican system was 
 founded." He returned to Illinois after the passage of the 
 bill and with the same courage and ability defended the law 
 even before hostile audiences, and at times succeded in converting 
 a hostile crowd to his views. The Illinois State Register and 
 Quincy Herald promptly endorsed the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and 
 several other Democratic papers followed suit. The Chicago 
 Democrat, "Long" John Wentworth's paper, however, on March 
 11 declared that "the wall of compromises has been broken 
 down . . . ." "the wind has been sown" and "it may be that 
 the sowers shall reap the whirlwind." The Legislature of Illinois 
 was strongly Democratic in both houses and passed resolutions 
 endorsing the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, but with the loss of some 
 Democratic votes, among them those of James M. Campbell, 
 B. C. Cook, N. B. Judd, Uri Osgood and John M. Palmer. 
 
 Many of the Germans of Illinois who had been voting the 
 Democratic ticket broke out in open expressions of revolt, largely 
 because the Clayton amendment to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill 
 denied to foreigners all political rights in the new territories. 
 George Schneider, editor of the Illinois Staats Zeitung; Edward 
 Schlaeger, Francis Hoffman and Lieutenant-Governor Koerner 
 were among the most prominent of these men. Douglas promptly 
 and energetically traversed the state from city to city, explaining 
 to the people his doctrine of popular sovereignty and his efforts 
 to save the Union from the secession which was threatened by 
 the southern states, and from this time forward the eyes of 
 the whole nation were centered upon Douglas and the fight he 
 was making, using the slogans of "People's Sovereignty" and 
 "Save the Union." 
 
 Up to this time Douglas had been acting in harmony with 
 the Democratic President and the Democratic party. Now, 
 however, arose a situation which compelled Douglas, as an 
 honest, conscientious man, to take issue with President Pierce 
 and the great majority of the Democratic party. He had, by 
 the year 1856, convinced the people of his own state of the 
 patriotism and wisdom of his course in relation to the Com- 
 promise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska law, and was in a 
 fair way to convince the great majority of the voters of the 
 
ILLINOIS 445 
 
 nation to the same effect, when, in 1857, the poeple of Kansas 
 applied for admission to statehood in the Union after a pro- 
 slavery Legislature had adopted therein a constitution which 
 was popularly called the Lecompton Constitution. This name 
 had been given to it by reason of the fact that it was framed 
 in a town in Kansas so named. It had not been fairly submitted 
 to the people of Kansas for adoption or rejection by referendum 
 vote and its framers refused the demand of the free-soil voters 
 for an honest referendum. Douglas refused to favor or vote 
 for the admission of Kansas to statehood bound by such a con- 
 stitution, and thus broke with the President and the great major- 
 ity of the Democratic party. 
 
CHAPTER XLII 
 
 DOUGLAS BREAKS WITH THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND 
 
 . PRESIDENT, AND OPPOSES THE LECOMPTON 
 
 CONSTITUTION IN KANSAS 
 
 While Douglas was waging an apparently winning fight for 
 "people's sovereignty" and against the cry for dissolution being 
 made by the secessionists of the South and the rabid abolitionists 
 of the North, in Illinois, and with strong hopes of success 
 throughout the nation, in 1857 the people of Kansas applied for 
 admission to the Union as a state and presented to Congress for 
 consideration in connection with their application, a constitution 
 adopted by a convention claiming to have been legally called and 
 elected. This convention was almost composed of pro-slavery 
 men. After the constitution was framed a strong fight in the 
 convention was made for a provision requiring its submission to 
 the people for a referendum vote thereon. This proposal was de- 
 feated by one vote. (Beveridge Life of Lincoln, Vol. II, p. 528.) 
 Another bitter struggle then occurred and the convention adopted 
 a compromise measure by a majority of two votes. "By this 
 compromise the single question of slavery or no-slavery was to 
 be submitted to the people at an election to be held December 
 21, 1857; but on no other part of proposed constitution were 
 the people to vote. One clause thus kept from popular consid- 
 eration provided that the property rights of the few slave- 
 holders then in Kansas should not be taken away by any further 
 legislation of the new state." (Idem, same page.) 
 
 The constitutional convention which framed the document 
 which preserved forever the rights of the slaveholders in the 
 proposed state was elected under the following circumstances, 
 As soon as the Kansas-Nebraska Law was passed in 1854, a 
 horde of intending settlers which had camped on the western 
 
 446 
 
ILLINOIS 447 
 
 borders of Missouri and Iowa, rushed into the new territory- 
 opened up for settlement by the Kansas-Nebraska Law, to locate 
 homesteads and pre-emptions on the rich soil of this section 
 of the country. Many of these were actuated solely by economical 
 and not political motives. They yearned for the land with or 
 without slavery. However, as soon as it was learned that the 
 lands of Kansas and Nebraska were soon to be opened to settle- 
 ment under "squatter sovereignty," the politicians of the nation, 
 particularly those who felt intensely, pro or con, on the slavery 
 question, became active in encouraging settlement in the new 
 land by those who agreed with them on that question. Some 
 abolitionists in the East organized a $5,000,000 society to aid 
 and equip settlers from that section. They equipped and for- 
 warded long caravans of these settlers and armed them with 
 rifles and other deadly weapons, as well as furnishing them 
 with provisions and farming implements. A goodly company 
 of young Southerners was organized by a young slavery enthusi- 
 ast named Buford, who marched them from the Southland into 
 Kansas. The greatest number of those who came from Kansas, 
 however, came from Missouri, and most of these were ardent 
 pro-slavery men. It is claimed, and with much show of truth, 
 that some 5,000 men from Missouri crossed into Kansas a short 
 time before the holding of the constitutional convention and 
 voted at that election, and that many of them, soon after the 
 election, returned to Missouri. Because of this belief the free- 
 soil people of Kansas repudiated and denounced the constitutional 
 convention "and all its works and pomps." They refused to 
 vote on the question of "slave or free" submitted to popular vote 
 by this repudiated constitutional convention and allowed it to 
 be confirmed by those who voted for confirmation. Only two 
 weeks later, however, they elected a Legislature which was 
 strongly anti-slavery and thus assumed control of the law-making 
 power of the state. 
 
 When these facts became known to Douglas, and the appli- 
 cation for statehood with this constitution framed in this manner 
 was presented to the Senate, he called on President Pierce and 
 announced that his conscience and sense of duty to his country, 
 and his own self-respect, would prevent him from voting for 
 
Cyrus McCormick 
 
 Who perfected his first reaping machine in Virginia in 1831, and in 1847 
 moved his manufacturing and sales offices to Chicago. 
 
ILLINOIS 449 
 
 and advocating the admission of Kansas to the Union, burdened 
 with such a constitution framed under such circumstances of 
 fraud and imposture. The President was then nearly sixty-eight 
 years of age and had been aggravated and annoyed by the 
 frequent and violent controversies over the slavery question. 
 He wished to get rid of that troublesome question, and wanted 
 it settled forever during his administration so that he could 
 turn his attention to other domestic and foreign matters then 
 awaiting solution. As the constitutional convention in Kansas 
 had provided for the submission of that vexed question of free 
 soil or slavery to popular vote, he deemed that was and should 
 be the proper solution of the issue in Kansas. His cabinet agreed 
 with him unanimously and he concluded that he would endorse 
 the application of Kansas and the Lecompton Constitution and 
 make it a party measure of his administration. The President 
 and Douglas failed to agree upon this procedure and Douglas 
 informed him he would oppose the President's program on the 
 floor of the Senate. Just before the end of the interview the 
 President rose from his seat and said : "Now, Douglas, I desire 
 you to remember that no Democrat ever differed with an admin- 
 istration of his own choice without being crushed. Beware of 
 the fate of Talmadge and Rives," two men whom Jackson had 
 broken for party insurgency. To which Douglas answered: 
 "Mr. President, I wish you to understand that General Jackson 
 is dead." (Beveridge, Vol. II, p. 538.) 
 
 Shortly after this emphatic and belligerent interview with 
 President Pierce, Douglas courageously imperiled his political 
 life, when he arose in the Senate and assailed in eloquent and 
 vigorous language the Lecompton Constitution. He was impelled 
 thereto not only by the iniquity of the constitution itself; but 
 also by the violence and corruption of its conception. In the 
 bitterness of the conflict between the slavery and anti-slavery 
 parties in Kansas, both parties had armed themselves with rifles 
 and other deadly weapons. Formidable bodies of men so 
 equipped met and exchanged shots with deadly effect. Defense- 
 less men were often murdered in cold blood because of their 
 political affiliations. As the result "Bleeding Kansas" became 
 the shibboleth of the Free Soil party even though some of the 
 
450 ILLINOIS 
 
 blood-letting was done by the free-soilers themselves. Douglas 
 became convinced by reliable reports made to him by Democratic 
 friends located in the midst of this turmoil, among them notably 
 John Calhoun, the Democratic president of the constitutional 
 convention, that the Lecompton Constitution was secured by 
 a combination of violence, fraud and political corruption, and 
 that the real voice of the people had not been heard. He 
 believed that people's sovereignty had been outraged by the 
 events that led up to the formation of the constitution, and as 
 an honest advocate of popular sovereignty he refused to condone 
 the robbery. 
 
 On December 9, 1857, the President's message to the Senate 
 recommended the admittance of Kansas to the Union subject 
 to the conditions of the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution. 
 On the same day, taking his political life in his hands, Douglas 
 arose in the Senate and began his fight for political honesty 
 and decency and the preservation of real people's sovereignty. 
 Before an audience as great and as distinguished as ever greeted 
 Daniel Webster, he assailed the constitution both as to its form 
 at birth and as to the method of its conception. Under the 
 doctrine of popular sovereignty, which he again lauded and 
 proclaimed, the people had the irrevocable right to vote by 
 referendum upon each and every clause of the constitution. They 
 were denied that right. They were given the empty right to 
 vote for "the constitution with slavery or the constitution without 
 slavery," while the constitution itself had a clause therein recog- 
 nizing the rights of slaveholders to own slaves and prohibiting 
 forever the enactment of legislation interfering with such rights. 
 He argued that Congress had no right to force a slave state 
 constitution or a free-soil constitution upon the people of Kansas. 
 They alone had the right to determine the character of their 
 constitution at an honestly-conducted election. He finished one 
 of the most able and eloquent speeches of his life with these 
 brave and dramatic words: "Neither the frowns of power nor 
 the influence of patronage will change my action or drive me 
 from my principles. I prefer private life, preserving my own 
 self-respect and manhood, to abject and servile submission to 
 executive will." (Beveridge's Lincoln, Vol. II, p. 543.) 
 
ILLINOIS 451 
 
 At the time that Douglas made this manly and memorable 
 speech in the Senate of the United States he well knew what 
 would be the inevitable consequence — political ostracism by the 
 President of the United States and all of the other great leaders 
 of the party with which Douglas had affiliated all of his life 
 and which had elevated him to a position of almost unquestioned 
 leadership. At the time he made this statement of his position 
 to the Senate he knew that his name was on the tongues of 
 thousands of the most influential leaders of his party as "the 
 candidate" of the party for the Presidency, and that that party 
 was then dominant in the land. He knew, too, the peril of 
 party recreancy and insubordination. He had been, as we have 
 seen, warned by the President in person of what would follow. 
 He knew that but few of the Democratic Senators and Congress- 
 men would dare to risk their patronage and political lives by 
 following him into his war with the Democratic administration. 
 The course he was pursuing he knew could only give comfort 
 to the Abolitionists, Whigs, Know-Nothings and other enemies 
 of the Democratic party. Nothing but the noblest sense of 
 righteousness and public duty and self-respect could have 
 impelled him to take this perilous political course. It was one 
 of the finest exhibitions of moral courage in the history of the 
 United States. Up to this time, while still in the prime of life, 
 he had had unparalleled success in all his undertakings. His 
 rare combination of tact and talent enabled him to win in law, 
 love and statesmanship. His eloquence and mental agility made 
 him a successful lawyer at a bound. After a few years of 
 practice he was elected to the Supreme Court of Illinois, subse- 
 quently elected to Congress, and then to the Senate of the United 
 States when only thirty-three years of age. In 1857 he had 
 just married his second wife, a young and beautiful woman 
 who has often been described as "the reigning belle of Wash- 
 ington/' In the South he was the unquestioned leader of his 
 party and outside of the South he was the acclaimed orator and 
 leader of the same party. 
 
 In the midst of such unlimited success, in the hey-day of 
 such prosperity, only the urge of a noble conscience and the 
 
452 ILLINOIS 
 
 possession of the highest moral courage enabled him to take 
 this momentous step. 
 
 Douglas' onslaught on the Lecompton Constitution resulted 
 in killing the bill for the admission of Kansas as a slave state. 
 It failed to pass both houses and for a time Kansas was left 
 without statehood. The Senate and House being deadlocked, 
 the matter was referred to a committee of conference between 
 the two houses. Here a compromise was agreed upon and the 
 bill was offered to the House by William H. English of Indiana. 
 This bill, thereafter called the English Bill, provided that the 
 Lecompton Constitution should be again submitted to the whole 
 people of Kansas. If they ratified it the State of Kansas should 
 be at once admitted to the Union. If they rejected it Kansas 
 should not be admitted to statehood until her population entitled 
 her to one representative in Congress. Fervent and insistent 
 pleas were made to Douglas to accept and vote for the com- 
 promise. The President favored it. The outstanding majority 
 of the Democratic members of Congress wanted it. Even Doug- 
 las' ardent friends at Springfield in and among the Illinois 
 State Register office were anxious to have Douglas accept it. 
 But Douglas answered "No! The English Bill is a trick and 
 a fraud — sheer bribery in fact." Unless the people accepted 
 the constitution, they were to be kept out of the Union until 
 they became three times more numerous than they now were. 
 In the State of Kansas, a population big enough to make it a 
 slave state was big enough to make it a free state. (Beveridge's 
 Lincoln, Vol. II., p. 561.) 
 
 The defeat of the Kansas bill, however, left Douglas outside 
 the breastworks of the Democratic administration and compelled 
 him to fight against enormous odds the greatest battle of his 
 political life. In 1858 the election of members of the Legislature 
 of Illinois was approached. The hold-over members of the 
 Senate and the senators and representatives elected in November, 
 1858, would elect the United States senator who would succeed 
 Douglas, whose term expired in 1859. After the Kansas bill 
 was beaten in Congress, Douglas returned to Illinois to commence 
 his campaign for reelection to the Senate. A few high-minded 
 and courageous Democrats in both houses of Congress and 
 
ILLINOIS 453 
 
 throughout the nation had followed Douglas and approved his 
 course. Many Democrats in the northern states became his 
 ardent supporters and advocates. In the southern states he 
 at once lost caste and found but few and feeble defenders. Not 
 only did northern Democrats who were independent of political 
 patronage support him, but many free-soilers and Whigs began 
 to praise his patriotism and his devotion to a high sense of public 
 duty. Several Republican senators, such as Seward and Sumner, 
 spoke in praise of his conduct, as did Horace Greeley and the 
 New York Tribune. In Illinois, however, Douglas now found 
 he had "the fight of his life." Word came from the Democratic 
 administration at Washington that Douglas must be beaten. 
 Every federal office-holder in Illinois was ordered to line up 
 his friends against Douglas and those who refused were 
 discharged. 
 
 With his usual courage and energy Douglas promptly com- 
 menced his campaign for reelection to the Senate. 
 
CHAPTER XLIII 
 
 GOVERNOR MATTESON'S ADMINISTRATION— THE 
 DECADE OF WONDROUS GROWTH 
 
 Joel A. Matteson was elected governor of the state on the 
 Democratic ticket in 1852 and served efficiently in that position 
 for four years, from 1853 until 1857. During that four years 
 took place a tremendous development in the population, com- 
 merce, agriculture and manufacturing of the state. The popu- 
 lation of Chicago nearly doubled during the four years, and 
 its commerce increased four-fold. The population of the state 
 was doubled and passed the million mark. Illinois became the 
 fourth most populous state during this administration. It was 
 also a period of intense railroad building. Railroad mileage 
 during the quadrennial increased from about 400 miles to nearly 
 3,000 miles. 
 
 Before his election Matteson was a successful business man 
 and contractor, and he was naturally favorable to railway and 
 industrial expansion. The wealth of the state during his four 
 years' incumbency nearly trebled, increasing from about $138,- 
 000,000 in 1851 to $350,000,000 in 1856. Under his adminis- 
 tration an attempt was made to pass a prohibitory liquor law, 
 then called the "Maine law." The law was passed by the Legis- 
 lature in 1855, and was submitted to the people for a referendum 
 vote, but was decisively beaten by popular vote. 
 
 The indebtedness of the state was reduced under Governor 
 Matteson's administration from $17,398,985 to $12,843,144. Dur- 
 ing his administration, in 1855 was enacted a Free School law, 
 which contained most of the essential requirements of our pres- 
 ent Public School law. This law was found to be exceedingly 
 effective in reducing, if not abolishing entirely, illiteracy in 
 Illinois. 
 
 454 
 
Governor 1853-57 
 
 (Courtesy Illinois State Historical Library.) 
 
CHAPTER XLIV 
 ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR BISSELL 
 
 William H. Bissell, elected governor in 1856 over Col. William 
 A. Richardson, the Democratic nominee, leader of the Illinois 
 Democrats in Congress, and the friend and ardent supporter 
 of Stephen A. Douglas, has the honor of being the first Repub- 
 lican governor ever elected in the State of Illinois. Before his 
 nomination for governor he had been an ardent Jeffersonian 
 Democrat and had represented his party as Congressman from 
 the Alton district. Owing to the undisguised attempts of the 
 southern Democrats between 1850 and 1854 to extend slavery 
 into the territories of the North and the truculent threats of 
 these same men to dismember the Union, Colonel Bissell severed 
 his connection with the Democratic party and with Palmer, 
 Trumbull and other former Democrats allied himself with the 
 new-born Republican party. 
 
 While Buchanan, the Democratic candidate for the Presi- 
 dency, carried the State of Illinois in 1856, Bissell, for the first 
 time in history, carried the state by a plurality of about 5,000 
 and led his whole ticket. His courage in Congress when he baited 
 Jefferson Davis and accepted a challenge from that gentleman 
 which was only averted by the intervention of friends of both 
 parties, made him exceedingly popular. His determined oppo- 
 sition to the extension of slavery brought to his support (not- 
 withstanding he was a Catholic) even the nativists and the 
 Know-Nothings, as well as many thousands of his old Democratic 
 friends and admirers who agreed with his views and admired 
 his courage. When seated in the governor's chair he found 
 himself confronted with a Democratic Legislature opposed to 
 Republican policies. 
 
 He was elected on a platform which pledged him against 
 the extension of slavery and he determined to carry out that 
 
 456 
 
ILLINOIS 
 
 457 
 
 pledge. The Republican party had been charged during the 
 campaign as being tainted with Know-Nothingism and he decided 
 upon a liberal policy towards his naturalized fellow-citizens. 
 The redistricting of the state according to the population as 
 required by the Constitution had been ignored by the Legislature 
 
 Governor 1857-61 
 
 (Courtesy Illinois State Historical Library.) 
 
 and he determined to remind it of its constitutional duty. On 
 January 5, 1859, Governor Bissell sent a message to the Legis- 
 lature, reviewing the state affairs and requesting a reapportion- 
 ment of the legislative and congressional districts in accordance 
 with the actual population of the state. 
 
458 ILLINOIS 
 
 The Democrats were still in a majority in the Legislature, 
 and without conferring with the Republican members, the Demo- 
 crats drafted and presented a reapportionment bill, which the 
 Republicans pronounced a gerrymander which was unfair to 
 them. The Republican minority fought it savagely on the floor 
 of the House and Senate and resorted to every conceivable fili- 
 bustering device to prevent the passage of the bill. The Demo- 
 crats, however, succeeded in passing this reapportionment bill 
 in both houses notwithstanding the bitterness with which it 
 was fought. When the bill reached the governor he held it 
 for several days, during which he prepared a savage veto mes- 
 sage. After Governor Bissell vetoed the bill the Democrats 
 attempted to pass the bill over his veto, but the Republicans 
 induced enough of their members to absent themselves from 
 the sessions of both houses of the Legislature, so as to prevent 
 a quorum. The Republican members persisted in this rather 
 revolutionary course and the Democrats were unable to pass 
 the bill over the governor's veto and it failed to become a law. 
 The abstention of the Republicans from the legislative sittings 
 forced the adjournment of the session without action on many 
 appropriation bills and several hundred other bills pending 
 before the Legislature. 
 
 Governor Bissell died in March, 1860, during his incumbency 
 of the office of governor, and was succeeded in office by John 
 Wood, the lieutenant-governor of the state. It was during 
 Governor Bissell's term as governor of the state that the cele- 
 brated debates between Lincoln and Douglas took place, which 
 gained for Douglas his reelection to the Senate and for Lincoln 
 a place in the political life of the nation which entitled him and 
 eventually secured for him election to the highest position in 
 the gift of the nation — the Presidency of the United States. 
 
CHAPTER XLV 
 THE BIRTH OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN ILLINOIS 
 
 The Kansas-Nebraska Act produced great disorganization 
 in the Democratic ranks in the State of Illinois. Several of 
 the Democratic papers openly repudiated the action of Senator 
 Douglas and Congress in passing this law. The Rock River 
 Democrat declared: "We forbear an expression of our deep 
 indignation, and shall choke the utterance of our abhorrence 
 of the men who have insanely given us as a Democratic party 
 to the contempt of the world." 
 
 John Wentworth's paper — The Chicago Democrat, wrote 
 editorially "Throughout the North .... there is opposition to 
 a great measure which has just been consummated, the respon- 
 sibility of which the Democratic party of the nation will be 
 compelled to bear." Wentworth and his paper, however, were 
 not yet ready to abandon the Democratic party and afterwards 
 declared that "we must beat the enemy handsomely; carry the 
 State gloriously and thus continue the ascendancy of Democratic 
 principles in our councils." 
 
 The Anti-Nebraska Democrats pleaded against the adoption 
 by the Democratic convention of the new test of democracy to 
 wit: endorsement of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, but Douglas and 
 his followers were able to keep the Democratic county conven- 
 tions in line and have them endorse the Kansas-Nebraska Act. 
 The younger Democratic leaders, such as Lyman Trumbull, 
 John M. Palmer, Col. E. D. Taylor, John A. McClernand and 
 Jehu Baker took much offense at Douglas' conduct in securing 
 the passage of the act. Sidney Breese vigorously took the same 
 position. There was a division also in the Whig ranks. The 
 Whig assemblymen, James W. Singleton, William H. Christy 
 and James M. Randolph had voted for the Nebraska resolutions 
 
 459 
 
g 
 
 o 
 
 cq 
 
 m -5 
 
 u 
 
 Q 
 
 X 
 
ILLINOIS 461 
 
 and the Illinois Journal, the Whig organ, promptly read them 
 out of the Whig party and classed them with abolitionists, and 
 many of them left the Whig party to join the Douglas Democrats. 
 
 As early as March 28th, 1854 a mass meeting was held at 
 Rockford, which passed a resolution that 'The free states should 
 blot out all former distinction by uniting themselves into one 
 great Northern party." The Illinois Journal protested against 
 the Whigs abandoning their party to join any new anti-slavery 
 party. Later on conventions were held in LaSalle, Will, Putnam 
 and other counties under the name of Republicans. A Republican 
 state convention was called to meet in Springfield on the 4th 
 and 5th of October, 1854, but the Whigs failed to attend the 
 same. Some twenty-six anti-slavery men appeared in the con- 
 vention but they were all so-called Abolitionists, and Abraham 
 Lincoln failing to connect himself with that label ; adroitly 
 remained away from the meeting, although he made a vigorous 
 anti-Nebraska speech at Springfield about the time that the 
 convention was held. Although this convention was attended 
 by so few; a number of men all of whom were radicals on the 
 anti-slavery question, the convention adopted a platform. Lin- 
 coln, however, absented himself from the city in order not to 
 be identified with that element. Later on he repudiated the use 
 of his name by that gathering. The Democrats at the same time 
 were at each others throats in different parts of the state. 
 
 James H. Woodworth, a free soil Democrat, and former 
 mayor of Chicago, was nominated for Congress on the anti- 
 Kansas-Nebraska ticket and was elected. 
 
 In the Alton district there was also trouble for the Democrats. 
 Lyman Trumbull came out in bold defiance of Douglas and the 
 Kansas-Nebraska Act was nominated for Congress and won 
 out as against Philip B. Fouke, a Nebraska Democrat. 
 
 In the Springfield district Democrats nominated Thomas L. 
 Harris, a supporter of Douglas as against Richard Yates. Yates 
 was supported by the anti-Nebraska forces, both Whigs and 
 Democrats, and Harris won over Yates by a very narrow 
 majority. 
 
 I have a letter in my possession given to me by Former 
 Governor Richard Yates, the younger, written by Abraham 
 
462 ILLINOIS 
 
 Lincoln, giving advice in that campaign to Richard Yates, the 
 father of the younger Governor Yates, as to how to manage 
 the campaign, particularly with reference to the "Know nothing" 
 element in the district, on the back of which Governor Yates 
 endorsed the statement, that he had failed to follow Lincoln's 
 advice and lost his election by only 200 votes. He alleged also 
 in this endorsement that he was beaten because of a false affi- 
 davit charging him with having been seen in a "Know nothing" 
 lodge. Strange to say, the nativistic prejudice at that time was 
 against the English and Germans living in Illinois. 
 
 The election held in November, 1854 in the State of Illinois 
 resulted in a Democratic defeat. Members of the Legislature 
 then elected, showed a majority of anti-Nebraskites. The Con- 
 gressional elections also went against them; as they only were 
 able to elect four of the nine members of Congress. 
 
 Another blow was given to the Democratic party in 1854 
 when Shields' reelection to the Senate was at issue. Lyman 
 Trumbull, an anti-Nebraska Democrat, was placed in nomination 
 and was elected by the Legislature over Shields. The Know 
 Nothing party made its appearance during this campaign and 
 it is claimed that one of the reasons for Shields' defeat was that 
 he professed the Roman Catholic religion. The influence of 
 this element in Illinois politics, however, did not last very long. 
 Religious fanaticism did not seem to flourish for any length of 
 time on the prairies of Illinois. Shortly thereafter, William H. 
 Bissell in 1856, though a Roman Catholic, was nominated for 
 governor on the Republican ticket, and triumphantly elected to 
 that office. 
 
 In 1856, as another evidence of the weakening power of the 
 Democratic party in the Northern part of the state, John Went- 
 worth in his paper declared, "The North is all split to pieces 
 upon matters of minor moment compared with the great ques- 
 tion at issue. Now we think the North should unite as well as 
 the South. If slavery can unite the South, certainly freedom 
 should unite the North." 
 
 In that portion of the state there was a perfection of local 
 organizations under the name of "Republicans" during that 
 year, and they were quite successful in some of their local elec- 
 
ILLINOIS 463 
 
 tions. In the summer of that year Douglas took the platform 
 and appealed to his followers to rally for Democracy and to be- 
 ware of Know Nothingism and Maine-lawism lurking behind the 
 Republican party. 
 
 In 1856 the Republicans had carried elections in the neigh- 
 boring states of Michigan and Wisconsin and many Whigs, 
 Democrats and Know Nothings expressed their willingness to 
 unite under the name of the Republican party. Wentworth, 
 William H. Bissell, Gustave Koerner, Lyman Trumbull and many 
 other anti-Nebraska Democrats had not yet formally seceded 
 from the party, but had made up their mind that if the Demo- 
 cratic party in its convention, made a test of Democracy the 
 support of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, they would quit their for- 
 mer affiliations and join the new party. 
 
 The Democratic convention met on the first of July, 1856, 
 and rallying behind Douglas, adopted an aggressive Nebraska 
 platform as a test of party loyalty and nominated for governor, 
 Colonel Richardson, the Democratic congressman in the House, 
 who had ably assisted Douglas in procuring the passage of the 
 Kansas-Nebraska Act. This act of the Democratic convention 
 drove John M. Palmer, William H. Bissell, Gustave Koerner, 
 Lyman Trumbull and hundreds of other anti-Nebraska Demo- 
 crats out of the party. 
 
 From that time on, they enthusiastically supported the Re- 
 publican party which was born in Illinois in the month of July, 
 1856, after the adjournment of the Democratic convention, at 
 which William H. Bissell, a former prominent Democrat but a 
 bitter opponent of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, was nominated 
 for governor and triumphantly elected in the following Novem- 
 ber over Richardson, the Douglas Democratic candidate. 
 
 National conventions of both the Republican and Democratic 
 parties were held that year. The Republican party met at Phila- 
 delphia and nominated John C. Fremont for President and Wil- 
 liam L. Dayton as the anti-slavery candidates. Prior to that 
 time on June 2nd, the Democrats had placed in nomination for 
 President, James Buchanan on a "squatter sovereignty" plat- 
 form. This was the first year that a candidate labeled "Repub- 
 lican" was placed in nomination at a national convention for 
 
464 ILLINOIS 
 
 election as President of the United States. At this election 
 Trumbull, Koerner, Bissell, John Wentworth and John M. 
 Palmer voted for and advocated the election of a Republican 
 ticket, all of them having been former Democrats. They ap- 
 peared on the stump in this election with Lincoln, Owen Love- 
 joy and Richard Yates, former Whigs, all of them being now 
 labeled "Republicans." 
 
 Thus came into being in the year 1856 in the State of Illi- 
 nois the Republican party, which ever since that time, with 
 two quadrennial exceptions, has controlled and dominated poli- 
 tics of the State of Illinois. 
 
 The result of the presidential election in that year in the 
 State of Illinois was still favorable to the Democratic party. 
 Buchanan received the electoral vote of Illinois, but Colonel 
 Richardson, the Democratic candidate for governor, went down 
 before Bissell and his associates. Bissell developed remarkable 
 strength. He was found to be popular to an extraordinary de- 
 gree, both with his former Democratic associates and with the 
 Whigs, who had helped him to a seat in Congress in 1852. 
 Strange to say, he was also popular with the foreign voters and 
 with the nativists in spite of the fact that he was of the Roman 
 Catholic faith. 
 
 Upon assuming office as governor, however, he found him- 
 self confronted by a Democratic Legislature. He succeeded, 
 however, by pointing out the injustice of the existing electoral 
 districts to bring about a re-districting of the state in accord- 
 ance with the population shown by the census of 1855. 
 
CHAPTER XLVI 
 
 DOUGLAS OPENS HIS CAMPAIGN FOR REELECTION TO 
 
 THE SENATE 
 
 Early in the year 1858, Douglas returned to Illinois to open 
 his campaign for reelection to the United States Senate. He 
 found that the enmity and hostility of the Democratic adminis- 
 tration had preceded him. The postmaster at Chicago, who had 
 been appointed at the request of Douglas, had been removed 
 and his place given to a man who was a bitter enemy of Doug- 
 las, the removed postmaster having lost his position on charges 
 of defalcation. The new postmaster, Cook, and the United States 
 marshals in Illinois managed the war of the administration 
 Democrats against Douglas, and all of the Federal office-holders 
 in the state were massed in one solid league against him. Doug- 
 las soon found that he had to fight not only the Republican and 
 Free Soil parties, but all the Democratic office-holders in the 
 state. Conferences between the Republican managers and the 
 Democratic office-holding league were frequent and friendly. 
 On June 9, 1858, the administration Democrats held their state 
 convention at Springfield. Douglas was roundly denounced in 
 its resolutions and his defeat demanded. He and his followers 
 were called rebels and enemies of Democracy, and the President 
 lauded as able and patriotic. This convention also placed in 
 nomination for state offices men who were in opposition to those 
 nominated in the Douglas Democratic convention. 
 
 Never did a man in Illinois face a more formidable array of 
 bitter enemies and conspirators against his success than did 
 Stephen A. Douglas in that campaign. By his high-minded in- 
 sistence upon fair play by his party in Kansas, and by his cour- 
 ageous attack upon trickery which had been practiced by the 
 pro-slavery element of his party in framing the weasel-worded 
 
 465 
 
466 ILLINOIS 
 
 Lecompton Constitution and refusing to submit it to popular 
 referendum, he had brought upon himself and his candidacy 
 the bitter hostility of the Democratic President and all his ap- 
 pointees in Illinois. That his motives in so doing were actuated 
 by the purest patriotism and disregard of selfish aims cannot 
 be seriously questioned. He had nothing to gain and everything 
 to lose politically by doing things that would enable Kansas to 
 come into the Union as a free-soil state. Notwithstanding the 
 words of praise that were given him by Greeley and Seward, 
 Douglas had plenty of experience in the working of party poli- 
 tics and knew from that practical experience that no party in 
 politics would accept an insurrectionist from the opposite party 
 and give him its leadership. It might reward him with verbal 
 nosegays, or give him some subordinate job because of services 
 rendered, but nothing more. His own party had already placed 
 him in the highest position, short of the presidency, and at the 
 time of his break there was no man in the Democratic party 
 who was so likely as Douglas to be nominated and elected to 
 succeed the Democratic incumbent of the position. His only mo- 
 tive could have been, and was, to preserve his own self-respect 
 and sense of justice and fair play and establish a record of 
 honesty and consistency in public life. Above all he was actu- 
 ated by the patriotic desire to avert the dissolution of the Union 
 threatened by the fanatical slaveholders of the South and the 
 frenzied abolitionists of the North. Those of the North could 
 not bring it about, because they were in a small minority in that 
 section; while the extremists of the South were backed by the 
 almost unanimous views of that part of the United States. His 
 motto midst this tumult of treasonable threats was: Fiat jus- 
 ticia, ruat coelum. 
 
 When Lincoln's partner, Herndon, went from Springfield to 
 New York to remonstrate with Horace Greeley because of his 
 praise of Douglas and the course he was pursuing in the Kansas 
 case, the great Republican editor hotly answered : "Douglas 
 is a brave man. Forget the past and sustain the righteous." 
 Before leaving Washington for Illinois, Douglas was informed 
 that Lincoln had been nominated for the Senate by the Repub- 
 lican convention at Springfield, June 16, 1858. Speaking to 
 
•Lyman Trumbull 
 
468 ILLINOIS 
 
 his friend, John W. Forney, Douglas said: "I shall have my 
 hands full. He is the strong man of his party — full of wit, 
 facts, dates — and the best stump-speaker, with his droll ways 
 and dry jokes, in the West. He is as honest as he is shrewd, 
 and if I beat him my victory will be hardly won." He thus 
 realized the seriousness of the contest even before he found on 
 his return to Illinois the bitter opposition he was to encounter 
 in his own party. He had scarcely arrived in the state when he 
 discovered that James Ward, special United States agent of the 
 post office department and superintendent of mails, postmasters 
 and route agents in Illinois, had been removed by the President 
 because he would not desert Douglas in his fight ; and Dr. Charles 
 Lieb had been appointed in his place. Lieb promptly wired 
 the secretary of state of Illinois that he had been appointed. 
 Traveling on railroad passes, Lieb traversed the state, indus- 
 triously threatening removals of Democratic office-holders and 
 giving promises of appointments, and doing everything in his 
 power to win votes away from Douglas. He also acted as a 
 liaison officer between the so-called "regular" Democrats and 
 the Republican leaders and brought about co-ordination between 
 them to ruin Douglas. Commenting on this situation, the New 
 York Times of July 13, 1858, declared: "Mr. Douglas has tre- 
 mendous odds against him. If he shall succeed in detaching 
 from the administration Democrats enough to elect him, it will 
 be the most brilliant triumph of his life." His entry into Chi- 
 cago was a great triumph. So large was the crowd assembled 
 to meet him that he hardly could find room for his carriage to 
 move towards the hotel where he made his first speech July 9, 
 1858. 
 
 In this, the opening speech of this most remarkable cam- 
 paign, he first thanked his audience for their endorsement of 
 his course in relation to the Lecompton Constitution and the 
 situation in Kansas as evidenced by their turning out in such 
 tremendous numbers to greet him. He claimed that their pres- 
 ence in such huge numbers evidenced their "devotion to the great 
 principle of self-government to which my life for many years 
 past, and in the whole future will be devoted." He declared 
 that he had fought the Lecompton Constitution because it vio- 
 
ILLINOIS 469 
 
 lated that principle and with the assistance of others in Con- 
 gress had forced the resubmission of that instrument to the 
 people of Kansas to be voted on by them in the following August. 
 In the Senate he had fought for the principle of popular self- 
 government against opposition from the North and more re- 
 cently against opposition from the South. He had fought the 
 Lecompton Constitution because that document did not provide 
 for the submission of the whole instrument to the popular vote 
 of the people. "I deny," he declared, "the right of Congress to 
 enforce upon a people a code of laws they are unwilling to 
 receive." He then complimented Lincoln, who was present in 
 the hotel and within hearing, saying that he had known him for 
 about a quarter of a century and knew him to be a kind, amiable 
 and intelligent gentleman, a good citizen and an honorable 
 opponent, and that the issue between Lincoln and himself was 
 not in personalities but in principles. He then attacked Lin- 
 coln's assertion that "the nation could not endure half-slave 
 and half-free." That assertnon, Douglas declared, meant uni- 
 formity of local laws and domestic institutions of all the states. 
 This would invite ceaseless conflict until slavery was estab- 
 lished in all the states or abolished in all of them, a war of sec- 
 tions, a war of the North against the South, or the free states 
 against the slave states, a war of extermination until one or the 
 other of the combatants should be subdued. Such uniformity 
 was neither possible nor wise. The builders of the Constitution 
 foresaw that what policies, laws and legislation would suit one 
 state might not suit another and for this reason they wisely 
 provided in that instrument that each state should be sovereign 
 in its domestic affairs, and that the Federal Government should 
 exercise only such specific powers as were given it, and that 
 these were general and national in their character. Uniformity 
 of legislation in politics, in religion, in industry and in social 
 relations is the parent of despotism the world over. How 
 could such uniformity be had in the United States? he asked. 
 Only by merging the rights and sovereignty of the states into 
 one consolidated empire, and giving Congress the unlimited 
 power to enact all police regulations and domestic laws for the 
 whole republic whether they were suitable or unsuitable to local 
 
470 ILLINOIS 
 
 conditions and whether they were beneficial or injurious to cer- 
 tain localities. Variety in local regulations and domestic insti- 
 tutions was essential to liberty. The sovereignty of the states 
 in local matters and police regulations must be maintained if 
 freedom is to be preserved. 
 
 Douglas next criticized Lincoln for his attack upon the Su- 
 preme Court of the United States. That court had recently 
 decided the celebrated Dred Scott case, holding by a majority 
 of seven to two that a negro slave residing in free-soil territory 
 for some time, was not emancipated and did not become thereby 
 a citizen of the United States, and dismissed his case because 
 he was not a "citizen of the United States" and therefore the 
 court had no jurisdiction. The logic and merits of this notable 
 decision will be more fully discussed hereafter. It suffices now 
 to call attention to the fact that the decision had been but 
 recently rendered and that Lincoln, among others, had been 
 attacking the same. In discussing Lincoln's attack upon the 
 Dred Scott decision, Douglas declared that under the American 
 Constitution and system of government, it was the duty of the 
 court to expound and interpret the Constitution and construe the 
 laws and when the decision of a case was enunciated, all citizens 
 must yield to it. Upon that principle, he declared, all our rights, 
 our liberty and our property depend. No appeal lies from a 
 decision of a Supreme Court to a "noisy town meeting, or to a 
 Republican caucus sitting in the country." He concluded this 
 part of his speech by insisting that the people should and must 
 "maintain the Constitution, obey the laws and uphold the courts." 
 
 He next contended that the framers of the Constitution 
 never for a moment intended to place the black man on the 
 same plane as a white man ; that when that great document was 
 being devised and while its adoption was being considered with 
 great deliberation by the states, that hundreds of thousands of 
 black men were held in bondage in most of the states; that the 
 white men who discussed and framed the provisions of that in- 
 strument intended it to apply to white men alone and not to 
 negroes in chains or orientals. Members of inferior races, he 
 contended, ought to have all the rights they could use "consist- 
 ent with the safety of society," and that each state must decide 
 
By Courtesy c[ The Northwestern University School of Law, 
 
 First reporter of Illinois Supreme Court. Judge of Supreme Court, pro- 
 found jurist and no one did more to perfect the judicial system of Illinois. 
 
472 ILLINOIS 
 
 for itself the nature and extent of these rights. Illinois, he 
 said, had decided that negroes should be neither slaves nor 
 voters. Maine gave negroes the right to vote. Neither state has 
 the right to complain of the other. Virginia has the same right 
 to protect slavery that Illinois has to banish it from her borders. 
 "I do not concede that the states must all be free or must all 
 be slave. I do not acknowledge that the negro must have civil 
 and political rights everywhere or nowhere, or that California 
 must give the Chinese the same privileges that Illinois might 
 grant them. The issues between Mr. Lincoln and myself as 
 candidates for the United States are direct and irreconcilable. 
 He goes for uniformity in our domestic institutions, for a war 
 of sections until one or the other is subdued. I go for the prin- 
 ciple of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill — the right of the people to 
 decide for themselves. ,, 
 
 The following night, July 10, Abraham Lincoln addressed 
 an enormous audience at the same place, the Tremont Hotel, 
 Chicago. After thanking Douglas for procuring him a con- 
 venient and comfortable seat on the preceding night and for 
 his reference to him, Lincoln, as kind, amiable and intelligent, he 
 proceeded to discuss Douglas' pregnant reference to popular 
 sovereignty. "What is popular sovereignty? Why it is the 
 sovereignty of the people. But the Dred Scott decision said 
 that if a man took slaves to a territory, the people could not 
 keep them out. When they made a state constitution they could 
 exclude slavery, but during the preceding territorial govern- 
 ment slaves could be taken in. They would be there when the 
 territory became a state. Thus they would have to tolerate 
 slavery." There was nothing new, said Lincoln, in the state- 
 ment that the people could form a state constitution. That had 
 always been so. Nobody, certainly no Republican, opposed that. 
 ' 'Douglas thinks he has invented that idea. Douglas will soon 
 claim that he is the inventor of the idea that people should 
 govern themselves." After quoting that clause of the Declara- 
 tion of Independence on the equality of man, Lincoln said: 
 "There is the origin of popular sovereignty." Lincoln then 
 denied that Douglas deserved the credit of beating the Lecomp- 
 ton Constitution. "He did right in fighting it," he said, "but 
 
ILLINOIS 473 
 
 all the Republicans in the nation opposed it." He agreed with 
 Douglas that the defeat of the Lecompton Constitution was a 
 good thing and then asked: "Who defeated it?" The audience 
 answered: "Judge Douglas !" Lincoln went on to show that 
 Douglas only controlled three Democratic votes against that 
 constitution in the Senate and only twenty Democratic votes in 
 the House, while the Republicans gave twenty votes in the Sen- 
 ate and ninety in the House. He claimed that the Republican 
 party and not Douglas and his Democratic followers were en- 
 titled to claim the honor of beating the Lecompton Constitution. 
 He then asked again his audience: "Now, who was it that did 
 the work?" Again the response was: "Douglas!" Lincoln then 
 contended that Douglas should not be supported against him, 
 Lincoln, simply because he opposed the Lecompton Constitu- 
 tion, but the crowd in front of him interrupted him with cries 
 of "Who killed the bill? Douglas!" until Lincoln almost lost 
 his temper. 
 
 He was more fortunate in discussing his house-divided- 
 against-itself theory. While on this theme the audience cried: 
 "Good! Good!" Douglas had drawn wrong inferences from 
 his language on this matter. Lincoln had stated merely on that 
 subject what would happen, and not what he, Lincoln, thought 
 ought to happen. In that speech of his which Douglas so 
 strongly criticized, he did not say that he wished slavery to be 
 put in course of ultimate extinction. "I do say so now, however !" 
 he stated. He then admitted, as Douglas charged, that the 
 speech in which he used the words "a home divided against 
 itself must fall" was carefully prepared by him. "I am. not a 
 master of language," he said. "I have not a fine education, but 
 what I said will not bear any such construction as Douglas puts 
 upon it. At least I knew what I meant," said Lincoln. "Of 
 course the Government had endured eighty-two years half slave 
 and half free, but it had lasted so long because the public be- 
 lieved that slavery would finally die out." ("Good!" and ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 Lincoln then stated that he had always hated slavery but 
 had kept quiet about it until this new era of the introduction of 
 the Nebraska bill began. "I always believed," he said, "that 
 
474 ILLINOIS 
 
 everybody was against it and that it was in course of ultimate 
 extinction. So thought the framers of the Constitution when 
 they excluded slavery from new territory, where it had not 
 already gone, and when they put a period to the African slave 
 trade. People of the free states had no right to meddle with 
 slavery in the slave states and ought not to want to do it." He 
 had said that a hundred times. Douglas' charge that he wanted 
 to interfere with that institution where it existed, was unwar- 
 ranted. If he ever had said anything from which such an infer- 
 ence could be drawn, "I now correct it." 
 
 Lincoln then declared that he did not advocate "general con- 
 solidation of all the local institutions of the various states." He 
 was for the principle of local self-government, but Douglas mis- 
 applied it. Each state could do as it liked with all local matters 
 "that interfere with the right of no other state" and the gen- 
 eral Government could do nothing that did not "concern the 
 whole." But a "vast portion of the American people" did not 
 regard it as a trifling matter to be regulated under the police 
 power, but believed it to be "a vast moral evil." Nonetheless, 
 under the United States Constitution in the state where it exists 
 "we have no right to interfere with it." Lincoln then took up 
 and discussed the Dred Scott decision and said : "I do not resist 
 
 it All I am doing is refusing to obey it as a political 
 
 rule. If I were in Congress I would vote to prohibit slavery 
 in a new territory in spite of the Dred Scott decision. I sub- 
 mit to it as far as it concerns Dred Scott, but we mean to reverse 
 it peaceably. We mean to do what we can to have the court 
 hereafter decide the other way." The Dred Scott decision was 
 contrary to former decisions of the same court, was based upon 
 falsehood, and was a "new wonder of the world." Douglas had 
 approved the course of General Jackson when the latter declared 
 that the Supreme Court could not lay down a rule to govern 
 a coordinate branch of the Government. So "what has now 
 become of his tirade about resistance to the Supreme Court?" 
 
 In Douglas' speech delivered on the night preceding, he, 
 Douglas, had denounced the Republican leaders in Illinois for 
 entering into a conspiracy with the administration Democrats 
 to beat him as an unholy alliance and unworthy of men claim- 
 ing to be actuated only by high principles. Answering this 
 
ILLINOIS 475 
 
 charge, Lincoln denied that he or his friends had entered into 
 any such conspiracy and warned his Republican friends not to 
 be weaned from their loyalty to free-soil Republican principles 
 because of their commendation of Douglas' course in fighting 
 the Lecompton Constitution. Answering Douglas' argument that 
 the United States Constitution was drawn by white men for 
 white men and that they never intended that the black man 
 should be placed on an equality with white men politically and 
 otherwise, Lincoln declared that no one wanted to deny that the 
 Government was made for white men in the form that Douglas 
 put it, but Douglas "was again drawing inferences that are not 
 warranted." He said he never favored social equality between 
 the blacks and whites, and read from a speech he had made 
 a year before in which he had stated his position to that effect. 
 Lincoln then quoted from one of Douglas' speeches in which 
 while demanding the submission of the Lecompton Constitution 
 to popular vote he had said: "I don't care if slavery is voted 
 up or down." He rang the changes on these words over and 
 over again without giving the context and argued that the Re- 
 publicans should not vote for a man who did not care for free 
 soil in Kansas. 
 
 In closing his address, Lincoln said: "Let the principle 
 that all men were created equal be as nearly reached as we 
 can. If we cannot give freedom to every creature, let us do 
 nothing that will impose slavery upon any other creature. Let 
 us turn this Government back into the channel in which the 
 framers of the Constitution originally placed it. Douglas pro- 
 poses, not intentionally, working in the traces that tend to make 
 this one universal slave nation. As such I resist him." 
 
 The foregoing pages contain a condensed, but, I believe, a 
 fair summary of the opening speeches of these two great men in 
 the memorable campaign of 1858 for election in Illinois to the 
 United States Senate, and known in history as the Lincoln- 
 Douglas campaign. I have summarized their addresses so that 
 the reader may be able to understand the issues made in the 
 campaign by the able and eloquent men who were appealing to 
 the people of Illinois for their verdict. The issues made in 
 these speeches were not hastily drawn. While Douglas spoke 
 
476 ILLINOIS 
 
 ex tempore, he had, on the floor of the United States Senate, 
 been presenting them to that body and the nation in an able, 
 eloquent and elaborate form for several months before he ad- 
 dressed his Chicago audience. Lincoln had been reading, di- 
 gesting and analyzing Douglas' speeches in the Senate for at 
 least two years with great care. He had watched and noted 
 also Douglas' courageous stand on the Lecompton Constitution 
 which placed himself outside the trenches of his own party, and 
 was thoroughly prepared to meet Douglas upon the new situa- 
 tion, as well as his acts and utterances when he was in harmony 
 with his party. The issues made in these opening addresses 
 were the issues presented in all of their subsequent speeches 
 with more or less elaboration, variety of language and develop- 
 ment of theme. For a time thereafter they conducted their 
 campaigns and delivered their subsequent speeches from differ- 
 ent platforms and on different days. 
 
 In one respect, however, Lincoln departed from the method 
 of his first speech. It will be noted in the foregoing summaries 
 of their speeches that Lincoln assumed a defensive attitude. 
 Most of hi's speech was devoted to answering charges made by 
 Douglas against him. Judd, the Republican chairman of the 
 state, noticed this, and wrote to Senator Trumbull, July 16, 
 1858 : "Lincoln has commenced gallantly. The only trouble will 
 be (as I told him) he will allow Douglas to put him on the 
 defensive." (Trumbull Mss.) 
 
 Douglas made his next speech at Bloomington, where he de- 
 veloped one new point which he had forgotten or overlooked at 
 Chicago. It was a point that he had advanced many times dur- 
 ing the preceding ten years. The point that he formulated in 
 his Bloomington speech was that slavery could not exist in any 
 locality where the people did not want it. It was the creature 
 of municipal law and police regulations were essential for its 
 existence and protection. Even with police protection it could 
 not be forced upon an unwilling people. "Look at Kansas. 
 Under the laws of the 'bogus' Legislature slavery was well 
 guarded, but it had been decreasing there all the time." He 
 argued: "Let the principle of popular sovereignty be fairly 
 carried out and slavery shall never exist one day, or one hour, 
 
John Wentworth 
 
 Resident of Chicago 1836 to 1888. Editor and congressman, dominating 
 
 force in politics. 
 
478 ILLINOIS 
 
 in any territory, against the unfriendly legislation of an un- 
 friendly people." That was the practical result, he said, no 
 matter "how the Dred Scott decision may have settled the ab- 
 stract question." At Bloomington Douglas concluded his speech 
 by telling his hearers to vote for Lincoln if they thought he 
 could do more to promote the Union and advance the prosperity 
 and honor of Illinois than he, Douglas, could. Lincoln had been 
 given a seat on the platform where Douglas spoke, and when 
 called upon declined to speak because "the meeting was called 
 by the friends of Judge Douglas and it would be improper for 
 me to address it. He promised, however, soon to visit them and 
 make a speech. 
 
 Before the campaign had proceeded much further, Lincoln, 
 admonished by his partner, Herndon, and probably by Judd, the 
 chairman of the Republican State Committee, became less de- 
 fensive and more aggressive in his addresses. He took the 
 offensive in the Dred Scott decision and boldly charged that 
 that decision was the result of a conspiracy between the judges 
 of the Supreme Court, President Pierce, President Buchanan 
 and Douglas. He cited neither direct nor hearsay evidence of 
 this bold charge, but based it upon groupings and dates of the 
 parties charged, from which he argued ingeniously, but not 
 convincingly, that such a conspiracy existed and that these emi- 
 nent judges and public officials were the conspirators. 
 
 At first Douglas treated the charge with contempt, declaring 
 that if Mr. Lincoln "deems me a conspirator of that kind, all I 
 have to say is that / do not think so badly of the President of 
 of the United States and the Supreme Court of the United 
 States." Upon its repetition thereafter he denounced it 
 as an infamous falsehood. While the campaign was in prog- 
 ress the office-holding Democrats and their relatives and subor- 
 dinates were working vigorously against Douglas and in har- 
 mony with the Republican organization. The general manager 
 of the office-holders , brigade, Post Office Inspector Lieb, al- 
 though repudiated by Senator Trumbull, reported to him: "I 
 am in correspondence with a number of gentlemen who are 
 now openly with us, men who, like myself, will fight him (Doug- 
 las) to the bitter end." With the administration Democrats 
 
ILLINOIS 479 
 
 fighting him on one side and the Republicans assailing him on 
 the other, the conservative, well-informed New York papers 
 could see no hope for Douglas. The New York Herald of July 27, 
 1858, declared: "Had he (Douglas) sustained the President upon 
 that (the Kansas) issue, it would have placed him foremost 
 in the front rank of his party for the presidential succession. " 
 Greeley, in the New York Tribune of July 12, 1858, asserted that 
 since Douglas had made popular sovereignty his battle cry, "he 
 cannot fail to be beaten." Neither disheartened nor discouraged, 
 Douglas assumed the offensive and forced the fighting. Through 
 the chairman of his state campaign committee he made up a 
 schedule of speeches he intended to make throughout the state 
 and published it. This schedule covered a great part of the 
 state and included every day for many weeks ahead. Lincoln's 
 campaign manager thereupon made up a schedule for Lincoln, 
 covering the same territory, the same day and place in which 
 Douglas was to speak, and in other cases the day following. 
 Senator Trumbull, the Democratic colleague of Douglas in the 
 Senate, now entered the state and began his assault upon his 
 fellow-senator, and the Republican press in the East gave more 
 notice to Trumbull than to Lincoln, as Douglas in his latest 
 speeches was attacking Trumbull more vigorously than he was 
 Lincoln. Douglas was taking the initiative and waging offensive 
 war against both. Lincoln's adherents opposed the defensive 
 attitude of Lincoln and insisted that he be more vigorous and 
 challenge Douglas to a joint debate. This was first suggested 
 by Horace Greeley. This was forcibly seconded by the Chicago 
 Press and Tribune. "Let Mr. Douglas and Mr. Lincoln agree to 
 canvass the state together in the usual western style." Lincoln 
 went to Chicago and consulted with his newspaper friends and 
 managers, and finally, one week after Douglas' Springfield speech 
 heretofore mentioned, through Mr. Judd, his campaign com- 
 mittee chairman, he presented Douglas with a letter asking him : 
 "Will it be agreeable to you to make an arrangement for you and 
 myself to divide time and address the same audiences in the 
 present canvass?" Before answering same, Douglas said to a 
 confidential friend: "Between you and me, I do not feel that I 
 want to go into this debate. The whole country knows me and 
 
480 ILLINOIS 
 
 has me measured. Lincoln, as regards myself, is comparatively- 
 unknown, and if he gets the best of this debate — and he is the 
 ablest man the Republicans have got — I shall lose everything. 
 Should I win I shall gain but little." 
 
 Douglas soon answered. He pointed out that arrangements 
 had already been made and published for his meetings, at which 
 he and the Democratic candidates for state offices were to speak. 
 Still he would take responsibility so far as he could to accom- 
 modate Mr. Lincoln. So let a place in each congressional dis- 
 trict, except the two in which he and Lincoln had already spoken, 
 be agreed upon between them. Douglas suggested the following 
 places as most convenient : Freeport, Ottawa, Galesburg, Quincy, 
 Alton and Jonesboro. These suggestions made by Douglas were 
 agreed to by Lincoln shortly afterward, and the hours and divi- 
 sion of time at each place of speaking were arranged between 
 them. 
 
 Thus was initiated the celebrated campaign of joint debates 
 between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican leader, and Stephen 
 A. Douglas, the Democratic champion, which has gone down in 
 history as the most important and interesting oratorical duel in 
 American history. 
 
CHAPTER XLVII 
 THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS JOINT DEBATE 
 
 Before discusing the incidents, issues and surroundings of 
 the celebrated intellectual duel, let us consider the past history of 
 the two remarkable contestants. 
 
 More biographies, treatises and other literature of a his- 
 torical character have been written about and in reference to 
 Abraham Lincoln than any other man in American history, and 
 hardly a year passes but some new Life of Lincoln or brochure 
 upon his character and career appears. I have been told by a 
 well-informed bibliophile that Napoleon Bonaparte is the only 
 name in history that exceeds that of Lincoln in the number of 
 books that have been written about him. To incorporate in this 
 work even a brief biography of Lincoln worthy of this great 
 man is unnecessary. To my readers who may desire a more inti- 
 mate acquaintance with the details of his birth, early life, man- 
 hood struggles, disappointments, triumphs and martyr's death, 
 I recommend the splendid, painstaking, brilliantly-written and 
 impartial biography of Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1858, written by 
 Senator Albert J. Beveridge, and published in 1928. It is a 
 matter of widespread regret that this brilliant biographer of 
 Lincoln died in the midst of his labors on this great book and 
 that his untimely death has deprived the world of the fruit 
 which his brilliant brain would have garnered during the last 
 and most glorious years of Lincoln's life and the more glorious 
 but tragic hours of his death. 
 
 A few but brief references to Lincoln's life before he partici- 
 pated in the remarkable debate with Douglas are necessary, 
 however, to a full understanding of some of the features of that 
 contest. He was born February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, 
 Kentucky, of humble and obscure parentage. His mother was 
 of strong character and unusual industry. His father was an 
 
 481 
 
482 ILLINOIS 
 
 ignorant, shiftless man, classed by the Southerners as among 
 the "poor white trash." He gave his son no education and from 
 early boyhood Abraham was constantly engaged in the most 
 heart-breaking manual labor incident to a penniless pioneer 
 life. His entire schooling, stolen from hours of manual labor, 
 did not exceed six months. Between hours of labor or at night 
 he taught himself to read and then devoured every book he could 
 lay his hands upon. He once worked three days to pay for the 
 damage to a book he had borrowed and left out in the rain. 
 He hired himself out as a farm hand and a deck hand on a flat- 
 boat. About the time he became of age his father had located 
 with his family at or near Salem, a little town on the bank of the 
 Sangamon River, near Springfield. Here he helped his father 
 clear timber land for a farm, and split rails to fence it. Next he 
 became clerk in a general country store which sold dry goods, 
 wet goods and hardware, and established a reputation as a good 
 story-teller and an excellent boxer and wrestler. He never quite 
 overcame the manners, habits, language and methods of living 
 of those early rough-and-ready days. He was, however, an 
 incessant reader, and early in life manifested an ambition to rise 
 above his humble and coarse surroundings. At that time he in- 
 dulged in the dubious humor of lampooning his associates with 
 anonymous doggerel, which habit afterwards landed him into 
 an ugly controversy with Gen. James Shields, which was by no 
 means creditable to him. 
 
 About 1830 Lincoln volunteered in the Black Hawk war and 
 was elected captain of a company the following year. In 1834 
 he was elected to the Lower House of the Illinois Legislature as 
 a Whig from Sangamon County and was reelected in 1836 and 
 became a member of the "Long Nine" from that county. As a 
 member of that vigilant and efficient coterie he helped to locate 
 the capital of the state at Springfield. When twenty-eight he 
 moved to Springfield, which he had helped to make the capital, 
 and was again elected to the Legislature. In 1845 he was elected 
 to Congress as a Whig and served one term in that body. Dur- 
 ing that term he made a speech supporting a resolution he 
 offered, which denounced the Mexican war as unjust and un- 
 constitutional, afterwards called the "spot" speech, which greatly 
 
ILLINOIS 483 
 
 weakened him in public estimation and probably caused his 
 temporary retirement from public office. After the expiration 
 of his two-year term in Congress, he resumed his law practice, 
 which was laborious but not very remunerative. He remained 
 in political retirement until the agitation over the Kansas-Ne- 
 braska Bill became violent in 1854. In that year he reentered 
 politics when there was a split in the Democratic party over 
 the reelection of Senator James Shields to the United States 
 Senate, to become a candidate for that office. During all of his 
 life he had been affiliated with the Whig party up to 1856. In 
 1852, when he was a candidate for the United States Senate 
 to succeed Shields, he was still a Whig, having refused to join 
 the Republican party, and to support its presidential candidate. 
 In 1854, owing to the split in the Democratic party between the 
 Douglas Democrats and the Administration Democrats, Lincoln 
 hoped to be elected to the Senate to succeed Shields, but while 
 the Democrats were divided, largely owing to Know-Nothing 
 voters in that party who refused to vote for Shields because he 
 was Irish born and a Roman Catholic in religion, they would 
 not vote for a Whig and held out until Trumbull, a Democratic 
 enemy of Douglas, received enough votes to elect him. 
 
 After his defeat for the Senate in 1854, Lincoln again retired 
 to private life and resumed the practice of the law until May 
 29, 1856. By that time he had become convinced that the Whig 
 party was in a dying condition and that the only hope of suc- 
 cess against the Democratic party lay in the ranks of the newly- 
 formed Republican party, born in 1852, strong and rapidly devel- 
 oping in 1856 by the accession to its ranks of abolitionists, 
 Whigs, Know-Nothings and Prohibitionists and all other ele- 
 ments dissatisfied with the Democratic party. 
 
 In 1855 a bitter campaign was being waged in Illinois over 
 the question of prohibition and the enactment of the "Maine 
 Law" against the sale of intoxicating liquor. Lincoln never 
 opened his mouth upon the question. In the same year violent 
 Know-Nothing riots against Catholics were convulsing the coun- 
 try. Lincoln never uttered a word in condemnation or com- 
 mendation thereof. He was a private citizen in private life, 
 practicing law, and though fond of public speaking was shrewd 
 
484 ILLINOIS 
 
 and cautious not to make any public statement upon any ques- 
 tion until he sounded public sentiment thereon, and determined 
 for himself that public sentiment would be behind him in any 
 statement he might make. In 1856, however, the hour arrived 
 when Lincoln reached the conclusion that it would be safe and 
 propitious for him to take the platform, reenter politics and 
 discuss the vital issue of the day. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill had 
 reopened the question of slavery, supposed to have been settled 
 by the Compromise of 1850, agreed to by both great political 
 parties. Blood was flowing freely in Kansas. As that territory 
 was opened for settlement armed mobs of slavery men and free- 
 soilers were killing each other and destroying each other's prop- 
 erty. "Bleeding Kansas" and "the border ruffians" were the 
 subjects on nearly every tongue. The Lecompton Constitution 
 was framed and passed by the pro-slavery men in Kansas and 
 repudiated and scoffed at by the free-soilers. Senator Sumner 
 had been assaulted in the United States Senate by Brooks, a 
 pro-slavery congressman from South Carolina, because in a 
 free-soil speech he had insulted his relative, Senator Butler, and 
 the State of South Carolina. Condemnation of the assault had 
 been universal throughout the Northern states. 
 
 This was the situation when Abraham Lincoln, on May 29, 
 1856, arose to address a convention of anti-Douglas Democrats, 
 Whigs, Know-Nothings and Republicans who had not as yet 
 assumed the name of Republicans. Although he expected to 
 be called upon, he had not prepared, as he usually did, a written 
 speech. There was no stenographer present, and because of 
 that it has historically been referred to as Lincoln's "lost speech." 
 It was the speech, however, that "found" the man behind whom 
 the new Republican party could mass all the heterogeneous ele- 
 ments which now rushed to the standards of that party. The 
 man had struck the note and voiced the principle upon which 
 they all could agree — opposition to the further extension of 
 slavery within the United States and its territories. Lincoln, 
 in this great "lost speech," did not advocate the abolition of 
 slavery, yet he satisfied the Abolitionists in that convention and 
 throughout the nation. He did not advocate nor defend Know- 
 Nothingness, yet he satisfied the Know-Nothings. He did not 
 
ILLINOIS 485 
 
 advocate or oppose prohibition, and yet he satisfied the Prohi- 
 bitionists and the liberals opposed to slavery. Above all, he did 
 not have a kind word for any element of the Democratic party, 
 even the free-soil element, and yet he satisfied Trumbull, Palmer, 
 Bissell and a number of other old-line Democrats because he 
 struck the dominant keynote of opposition to the further exten- 
 sion of slavery to which they were opposed, in deadly earnest. 
 
 He had, he said in the famous speech, become impressed with 
 the wrongs done to the free-state men in Kansas, but "we must 
 not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform 
 what we cannot." The ballot was a better weapon than the 
 rifle. Public opinion must be enunciated promptly and em- 
 phatically. Unless a halt was called to what was taking place 
 in Kansas "blood will flow and brother's hand will be raised 
 against brother." A great principle was involved — that of the 
 extension of slavery. The Missouri Compromise must be re- 
 stored and thus Kansas will be free. "Let our practical work 
 here be limited to that one object." Lincoln then said that they 
 might differ on other matters, but they should all act on one 
 common ground, that slavery must be kept out of Kansas. Revo- 
 lutions, he declared, did not go backward. Jefferson had written 
 "all men were created equal." Douglas had injected the adjec- 
 tive "white" before the noun "men." Lincoln went on to de- 
 nounce the assault on Senator Sumner in Washington by a 
 Southern congressman. Said he: "The fearless Sumner was 
 beaten into insensibility and is now slowly dying, while senators 
 claiming to be gentlemen and Christians stood by countenancing 
 the act." Even Douglas saw it all and was within helping dis- 
 tance, yet did nothing to stop it. At the very time Sumner was 
 being murdered, the City of Lawrence was being destroyed for 
 the crime of Freedom. Slavery had been made legal in Kansas, 
 the same way that a gang of Missouri horse-thieves could come 
 into Illinois and declare horse stealing was legal in our state. 
 
 He then declared that the Anti-Nebraska men (the name 
 which the members of this convention called themselves instead 
 of Republicans) did not intend to interfere with slavery in the 
 slave states. Even the Republicans did not propose that. "Our 
 platform says just the contrary. That position is required by 
 
y 
 
 Paul Selby 
 
 Editor, one of founders of Republican party in Illinois. 
 (Courtesy Illinois State Historical Library.) 
 
ILLINOIS 487 
 
 the necessities of our Union. The South must have a reasonable 
 and efficient fugitive slave law." "No," cried someone in the 
 convention. "I say yes," answered Lincoln, "it is a part of the 
 bargain, but I go no further." (Cheers.) "The fathers of the 
 republic," said Lincoln, "agreed to slavery where it existed and 
 to a fugitive slave law. That contract must be kept. But they 
 were against extending slavery. It is wise and right to do just 
 as they did." "Our troubles," he said, "are all due to this man 
 Douglas." He was more guilty than the Joneses and String- 
 fellows — the violent leaders of the pro-slavery crowd. It was 
 folly, said Lincoln, to use force against violence, as so many 
 wished to do, at least now. The Government and, as yet, a 
 majority of the people, are still against us. He advised his 
 hearers not to insist upon extreme measures. Moderation would 
 make converts to their cause. The violence of the other side 
 would cause desertions from the Democratic ranks. Slavery was 
 wrong and although we were forced to temporize with it "as 
 sure as God reigns and school children read, that foul, black lie 
 can never be consecrated into God's hallowed truth." 
 
 "We see the fruits of the repeal of the sacred Missouri Com- 
 promise," he dramatically exclaimed, "in the dying bed of Sum- 
 ner ; the ruins of the Free State hotel ; in the smoking embers of 
 the Herald of Freedom; in the free-state governor of Kansas 
 chained to a stake on freedom's soil like a horse-thief, for the 
 cause of freedom. Nevertheless, retaliation in kind is not the 
 way to victory. Let the legions of slavery use bullets; let us 
 wait until November and fire ballots at them in return. It was 
 by this means that Illinois was made free and will ever remain 
 free. 
 
 "Those who deny freedom to others," he declared, "deserve 
 it not for themselves, and under a just God cannot long retain 
 it. If this thing (slavery in the territories) is allowed to con- 
 tinue, it will be but one step further to impress it upon Illinois." 
 "The time must come," said Lincoln, "when only local law instead 
 of the Constitution can shield a slave-holder." 
 
 Lincoln then took up the subject of disunion, threatened by 
 the extremists both of the North and the South, and denounced 
 the idea in unmeasured terms. He denied that the new party 
 
488 ILLINOIS 
 
 with which he was then affiliated favored sectionalism or that 
 it would endanger the integrity of the nation. Loyalty to the 
 Constitution and the Flag of the Union was vital, no matter 
 what might happen. Even if Kansas should come in as a slave 
 state, on the one hand, or the Missouri Compromise should be 
 restored, on the other hand, in either case "we will say to the 
 southern disunionists : 'We wont go out of the Union and you 
 shant!' Elect the gallant Bissell your governor, who bravely 
 defended the honor of his nation both on the battle-fields of 
 Mexico and in the halls of Congress and defied in the latter place 
 the Hotspur of the South (Jefferson Davis.) His election would 
 have a greater moral effect than all the border ruffians can 
 accomplish in all their raids in Kansas." 
 
 He concluded his able and remarkable speech by counseling 
 his hearers to make a calm and reasonable appeal to public 
 opinion. In all probability, he continued, such an appeal would 
 make a resort to force unnecessary. "Our moderation, then, 
 will stand us in good stead when, if ever, we must make an 
 appeal to battle and the God of Hosts.' ' 
 
 This was the substance and general trend of this remarkable 
 oration of Lincoln. It is essential for the reader to know the 
 trend of that speech and the time and circumstances of its 
 delivery to understand how it was that this somewhat obscure 
 and hitherto unsuccessful politician was able to mount from 
 political obscurity and ill success in the Whig party into such 
 a position of prominence as to suddenly become the candidate 
 of the Republican party two years after making this speech, 
 and a national figure throughout the land. This speech, made 
 May 29, 1856, to a collection of heterogenous elements which 
 had not as yet summoned up sufficient courage to call itself 
 "Republican/' raised the unsuccessful local leader of the Whig 
 party in Illinois within two years into the foremost place in 
 the young, vigorous and valiant Republican party in 1858 ; and 
 made him its candidate for the United States Senate against 
 the ablest and most successful Democrat in the nation. It did 
 more. The elaboration and further development of the utterances 
 and arguments of this speech, when reiterated in the joint 
 debate between him and Senator Douglas, made him first the 
 
ILLINOIS 489 
 
 candidate of the Republican party for President, and secondly- 
 elevated that hitherto unsuccessful local Whig leader to the 
 highest position in the nation, the Presidency of the American 
 Republic. 
 
 Let us now take up and consider for a time the man who 
 was to contest with Lincoln the race for the United States 
 Senate, his character, antecedents and surroundings. Stephen 
 A. Douglas was a son of Vermont, born at Brandon in that state, 
 April 23, 1813. He was the son of a doctor who died within a 
 few months after Stephen's birth, leaving his widow and child 
 in destitute circumstances. For a short time, at the age of 
 fifteen, he was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker, but his mother 
 having again married, he was able to secure a good education 
 at an excellent academy, and began the study of the law at 
 Canandaigua, New York. In 1833, when twenty years of age, 
 he left the latter city to seek a career in the West. He soon 
 appeared at Jacksonville, Illinois, without friends or money, 
 and there secured a position as clerk and school-teacher during 
 the winter months. In 1834 he was admitted to the Illinois 
 bar. Thenceforward his advancement in his profession and in 
 public affairs, was extraordinary and without precedent even 
 in the young West where opportunities for advancement were 
 many. He was small in body, but great and powerful in brain, 
 and possessed a charming personality, which attributes earned 
 for him the sobriquet of the "Little Giant," which clung to him 
 until his death. 
 
 In about a year after his arrival at Jacksonville, he became 
 prosecuting attorney. Within two years he was elected to the 
 Legislature, where he became a colleague of his great competitor, 
 Abraham Lincoln. In 1837, when only twenty-four years of 
 age, he was appointed United States Registrar of Public Lands 
 by President Pierce. He then moved to Springfield, and in 
 1838, when only twenty-five years of age, became Democratic 
 candidate for Congress in this strong Whig district and was 
 beaten by only five votes. In 1841 he was appointed judge of 
 the Illinois Supreme Court, but evidently that dignified but 
 somnolent place had no charms for his ambition and energetic 
 spirit. He resigned his position on the bench in 1843 and was 
 
490 ILLINOIS 
 
 elected to Congress when thirty years of age. He was again 
 elected to Congress two years afterwards and was made Chair- 
 man of the Committee on Territories, a position that brought 
 him into great prominence. In 1845 he was elected to the 
 United States Senate and occupied that eminent position unin- 
 terruptedly until his death, June 3, 1861. In the Senate his 
 tremendous intellectual force, his suavity, his genius for the 
 despatch of business and his extraordinary eloquence soon placed 
 him in the leadership of his party. Due to his Scottish-inherited 
 sagacity for business, he had acquired a respectable competence 
 for that day, and shortly before the great debate with Lincoln 
 had happily married a second time and secured for a wife a 
 beautiful, young and accomplished woman, who before her mar- 
 riage to Douglas was conceded to be the "Belle of Washington 
 society.' ' 
 
 Thus up to the year 1858, when the Lincoln-Douglas debates 
 were held, the career of Douglas in business affairs, love, law 
 and statesmanship had been one of uninterrupted and extraor- 
 dinary success. As Chairman of the Senate Committee on 
 Territories he had charge of the Kansas-Nebraska bills, and 
 before that, in 1850, the bills for the admission of California, 
 Oregon, Utah and Mexico. He had while in that position ably 
 seconded Henry Clay in advancing the Compromise of 1850, 
 and in harmony with the Democratic administration had man- 
 aged and put through the Senate all of the bills relating to these 
 territories, until he broke with Buchanan on the subject of 
 the Lecompton Constitution for Kansas. 
 
 The methods used by the pro-slavery party in Kansas and 
 Missouri in securing the formulation and alleged popular 
 endorsement of that dubious and much-discussed document, were 
 so violent and corrupt in his opinion that he courageously refused 
 to follow the leadership of the Democratic President and the 
 Democratic party in Congress. This course brought down on 
 him the bitter hostility of the President, nearly all of the impor- 
 tant men his own party, and the solid opposition of all the 
 Federal office-holders and their friends and retainers in the 
 State of Illinois, when he sought reelection to the United States 
 Senate against Lincoln in 1858. 
 
(?/£^ edfa 
 
 ^-zmL 
 
 Governor 1860-61 
 
 (Courtesy Illinois State Historical Library.) 
 
492 ILLINOIS 
 
 As we have seen heretofore, Douglas returned to Illinois 
 to open his campaign for reelection, had made a great speech 
 at Chicago advocating popular sovereignty, as a solution of 
 the slavery controversy in connection with the organization of 
 new territories, and had made another such speech at Bloom- 
 ington. He had then gone to Springfield and had arranged 
 and published a schedule of Democratic meetings throughout 
 the state. At this juncture Lincoln, following the advice of his 
 closest and most valued political counsellors, Joseph Medill of 
 the Chicago Tribune; Judd, the chairman of his campaign, and 
 probably Senator Trumbull, challenged Douglas to joint debate 
 as heretofore mentioned and the schedule of joint meetings 
 in seven different cities, was agreed upon. 
 
 To give in detail a full, fair summary of all these fourteen 
 addresses and detailed discussions of each of them, would be 
 beyond the compass of this history and involve useless reiteration 
 of both the arguments of the speakers and discussions thereon. 
 The points made and arguments advanced were repeated with 
 more or less elaboration in all these speeches. By most writers 
 the Freeport speeches have been deemed the most vital and 
 important, both intrinsically and in their influence and results. 
 
 The first of the joint debates was set for August 21, 1858, 
 at the City of Ottawa. Douglas, however, kept to the schedule 
 of the Democratic meetings which he had arranged before 
 accepting Lincoln's challenge. With characteristic courage and 
 vim, he had taken the offensive in his Chicago and Bloomington 
 speeches, and he determined to keep the Republicans and their 
 allies, the Buchanan Democrats, on the defensive during the 
 campaign. Lincoln and his managers, however, resolved to 
 checkmate his plan and immediately arranged a schedule of 
 meetings for Lincoln at every place where Douglas spoke, on 
 the evening of the same day or on the day following the Douglas 
 speeches. Douglas in all these speeches assailed Lincoln's asser- 
 tion that "a house divided against itself cannot stand — that the 
 nation half slave and half free could not endure." He pointed 
 out that the fathers had framed the structure half slave and 
 half free and that it had endured up to the present time; and 
 claimed that with the doctrine of popular sovereignty applied 
 to the new territories that it could and would endure. He boldly 
 charged as unholy the alliance between the Republican and 
 Buchanan Democratic parties, and charged that it was instigated 
 
ILLINOIS 493 
 
 and fostered by the Republicans to destroy the Democratic party 
 in Illinois and to overthrow the right of the people to select 
 their own form of Republican government. Lincoln kept fol- 
 lowing him assiduously from city to city answering all of his 
 arguments and often attending his meetings to keep informed 
 of his methods and speeches and noting the effect upon the audi- 
 ences. The prodigious amount of work done by Douglas in this 
 campaign is evidenced by the fact that he made fifty-nine set 
 speeches of from one to two hours in length in fifty-seven dif- 
 ferent counties ; made seventeen responses from twenty to forty 
 minutes each to serenades; and made thirty-seven replies to 
 addresses of welcome and congratulation. He traveled 5,227 
 miles in the state on highways and by rail and covered the whole 
 western border of the state by steamboats. 
 
 The first joint debate was held at Ottawa August 21. Douglas 
 had the opening and close, and with characteristic vim took 
 the offensive. He charged Lincoln with being a party to deal 
 with Senator Trumbull, a Democrat, in 1854 to dissolve the 
 Whig party, and split the Democratic party under which Trum- 
 bull was to succeed Shields, the Democratic United States Sen- 
 ator, and Lincoln was to succeed Douglas in the Senate. He 
 then read a platform which he said was adopted by the Repub- 
 lican party state convention in 1854. This platform pledged 
 the Republican party to a repeal of the fugitive slave law, to 
 the prevention of the admission of slave states to the Union, 
 and to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and 
 to prevent the acquisition of more territory unless slavery was 
 forever barred therein. Douglas then asked Lincoln seven ques- 
 tions, based upon the declarations made in this platform.. The 
 tenor of all of these questions was as to how Lincoln stood with 
 reference to these platform declarations today. Did Lincoln 
 today favor a repeal of the fugitive slave law? Would he today 
 vote against the admission of slave states into the Union? Did 
 he now favor the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia? 
 Did he now oppose the acquistion of any more territory by 
 the United States unless slavery was forever excluded therefrom ? 
 He meant nothing disrespectful to Lincoln, he said, in asking 
 these questions. He and Lincoln were long mutual acquaint- 
 ances. "I was a school-teacher at Winchester and he was a 
 
Stephen A. Douglas 
 
ILLINOIS 495 
 
 flourishing store-keeper (all grocery men then sold wet goods) 
 in Salem. We both went to the Legislature. He could ruin more 
 liquor than all the boys of the town together and the dignity 
 and impartiality with which he presided at a horse-race or a 
 fist-fight was the praise of everyone that was present." Douglas 
 then went on to tell how Lincoln had dropped out of sight after 
 he left the Legislature "until he turned up as a member of 
 Congress. In Congress he distinguished himself by opposing 
 the Mexican war and when he came back to his constituents 
 he found that their indignation followed him everywhere and 
 he was compelled to retire to private life and was forgotten. 
 He now emerges to help make the abolition platform." Douglas 
 then assailed Lincoln's "house-divided" speech in his usual vig- 
 orous style. 
 
 In his reply, Lincoln first denied that he and Senator Trum- 
 bull had made any deal. He then declared that he had nothing 
 to do with the Republican platform which Douglas had read. 
 "True, Lovejoy, who is here upon the stand, tried to get me 
 into it and I would not go in. I went away from Springfield 
 when the convention was in session." The remarkable and 
 laughable thing about the matter was that both Douglas and 
 Lincoln believed that the platform read by Douglas and re- 
 pudiated by Lincoln was the platform adopted by the Abolition 
 Convention attended by thirty-six men, held at Springfield in 
 1854. After the Ottawa meeting both Douglas and Lin- 
 coln discovered that the platform read by Douglas was 
 one adopted in Kane County, and not at Springfield, and by a 
 Republican County Committee and not by a State Committee. 
 Lincoln, in the belief that Douglas was reading (as Douglas 
 believed he was reading) the abolition platform adopted by 
 Lovejoy and his twenty-five associates at Springfield after listen- 
 ing to Lincoln's speech at Springfield before the adoption of 
 the platform, repudiated any connection with the platform, but 
 he did not that day answer the seven questions based upon the 
 declarations made in that platform, and Douglas in his closing 
 speech gleefully pointed out his failure so to do and charged 
 that Lincoln was afraid to answer them. 
 
496 ILLINOIS 
 
 Lincoln then took up that part of Douglas' speech charging 
 him with being an Abolitionist and favoring equality between 
 the black and white races. He quoted from his own speech made 
 at Peoria, in 1854, in which he clearly stated his position on 
 that subject. He was, he said, as much for white supremacy 
 as was Douglas, whenever the necessity of choice arose. "There 
 is a physical difference between the races, which in my judgment 
 will probably prevent them from living together on terms of 
 perfect equality." But the negro was entitled to the natural 
 rights stated in the Declaration of Independence. "He is not 
 my equal in many respects. But in the right to eat the bread, 
 without anyone's leave, which his own hands have earned, he 
 is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas." He then said that 
 Douglas was mistaken about his (Lincoln's) having been a 
 grocery-keeper. He never kept a grocery anywhere. It was 
 true that he, Lincoln, did work the latter part of one winter 
 in a little still-house up at the head of a hollow. (Great 
 laughter.) 
 
 With reference to the Mexican war, he said, he was an 
 old-time Whig and when the Democrats tried to get him to vote 
 that the war had been righteously commenced by the President, 
 he refused to do it; but when it came to vote for monies to 
 prosecute it, or for land warrants to pay the soldiers, he voted 
 just as Judge Douglas voted. He then answered Judge Douglas' 
 attacks upon his "house divided" statements. In his "house 
 divided" argument, he had no thought or aim to bring about 
 a war between the slave states and the free states. He, Lincoln, 
 had charged a conspiracy between the Democratic Presidents, 
 Pierce and Buchanan, the judges of the Supreme Court and the 
 Democratic leaders, including Douglas, to declare the Missouri 
 Compromise unconstitutional, in the decision of the Dred Scott 
 case; and if the evidence of that conspiracy presented by him, 
 Lincoln, proved the existence of that conspiracy "does his (Doug- 
 las') broad answer, denying all knowledge, information and 
 belief, disturb that fact? It only shows that he (Douglas) was 
 used by the conspirators, and was not a leader of them." "I 
 do not say that I know such a conspiracy to exist, but I believe 
 it." Lincoln then called attention to the fact that the admin- 
 
ILLINOIS 497 
 
 istration paper published in Washington had violently attacked 
 Douglas for opposing the Lecompton Constitution, and called 
 him a renegade, a deserter and a traitor; and that Douglas, in 
 answering the paper's attack upon him had quoted an editorial 
 in which the editor asserted that state laws prohibiting slavery- 
 were unconstitutional, and that Douglas in criticising the edi- 
 torial had declared that such a doctrine was a fatal blow to the 
 sovereignty of the states. Lincoln contended that Douglas in 
 making this charge against the official organ of the Democratic 
 administration at Washington was inferentially making the 
 same charge against the Democratic administration, that he, 
 Lincoln, had made against Douglas. This charge of Lincoln 
 against Douglas was very cleverly and adroitly made, because 
 at the time the administration Democrats in Illinois were bitterly 
 assailing Douglas, and the quoting of Douglas' attack upon the 
 administration would be likely to widen the breach between the 
 two Democratic factions and intensify the antagonism between 
 them. 
 
 Lincoln then took up the threats of Secession and resort 
 to the sword made by many southerners, and said there was 
 no danger to be apprehended of such, a war. He claimed that 
 Douglas by his course of action was preparing the people for 
 complete nationalization of slavery and for another Dred Scott 
 decision that would make it legal in all the states of the Union. 
 Lincoln did not consume the full time allotted to him in this 
 speech and finished fifteen minutes before his time was up. 
 
 The crowd at Ottawa, present at these addresses, was over- 
 whelmingly Republican, and largely and emphatically Aboli- 
 tionist. When Douglas arose to commence his speech of rejoinder, 
 he had much difficulty in getting a hearing; and when Douglas 
 commented upon the fact that Codding and many other aboli- 
 tionists were present when Lincoln delivered his speech at 
 Springfield on the day of the abolitionists held their convention 
 in that city, and that Codding at the end of Lincoln's speech 
 asked the audience to adjourn to the Senate chamber to hold 
 their convention, the crowd became unruly. The chairman of 
 the Republican committee and Lincoln himself felt called upon 
 to rebuke them. 
 
498 ILLINOIS 
 
 Douglas then charged that the set of resolutions that he 
 had read in his opening speech expressed Lincoln's sentiments. 
 This had been charged in the press against Lincoln, again and 
 again, and he, Lincoln, had never denied the charge. Lincoln's 
 denial that he had acted upon the committee that framed the 
 resolutions was a miserable quibble, to avoid the main issue, 
 declared Douglas. "He eludes the main question. I asked him 
 was he for the repeal of the fugitive slave law. He answerd: 
 'I was not on the committee that framed the resolution.' I 
 asked him if elected to the Senate would he vote against the 
 admission of a slave state? He answers: 'I was not on that 
 committee.' I asked him would he vote to abolish slavery in 
 the District of Columbia? He gives no answer. I asked him 
 would he vote against acquiring territory unless slavery were 
 excluded from it? He gives no answer. These are vital and 
 important questions relating to the issues of the day. He gives 
 no excuse for not answering these questions, and sat down 
 before his time was up." 
 
 Lincoln had charged corruption and conspiracy against him, 
 Douglas, the Supreme Court of the nation, and two Presidents 
 of the United States. This was a terrible charge. How does 
 Lincoln evade responsibility for making such a terrible accusa- 
 tion? By declaring that Douglas had not denied it. He admits 
 that he does not know that it was true, but that he believed it 
 to be true. Because he, Douglas, had not denied it, Lincoln 
 was ready to charge it to be a fact. In order that Lincoln would 
 have no excuse for repeating hereafter that terrible charge, 
 he, Douglas, would now denounce it "in all its bearings as an 
 infamous lie." ("Three cheers for Douglas," came from the 
 crowd.) "I know it to be false," said Douglas, "and nobody 
 
 else knows it to be true I will say that it is a lie, and 
 
 let him prove it to be true Mr. Lincoln has not character 
 
 enough for integrity and truth, merely on his own ipse dixit, 
 to arraign President Buchanan, President Pierce and nine judges 
 of the Supreme Court, not one of whom would be complimented 
 to be put on an equal plane with him." 
 
ILLINOIS 499 
 
 After explaining his reasons for voting against the Chase 
 amendment, the Kansas-Nebraska Law, because, as he claimed, 
 the Chase amendment was a redundancy and offered by Chase 
 not in good faith but as a political trick, Douglas next took up 
 Lincoln's house-divided doctrine, which he, Douglas, claimed 
 would inevitably bring about the dissolution of the Union, but 
 had to stop, in the middle of his argument because he had reached 
 the limit of his time. 
 
 Six days elapsed between the debate at Ottawa and the 
 next meeting betwen the debaters, which took place at Freeport. 
 It will be noted that Lincoln did not categorically answer at 
 Ottawa the questions put to him by Douglas. He contented 
 himself at Ottawa with denying that he participated in the 
 framing, or being bound by the platform or set of resolutions 
 read by Lincoln. His failure to answer directly the questions 
 asked him by Douglas had been noted and commented upon 
 even by some of his friends. Within the six days which elapsed 
 between the Ottawa and Freeport meetings, however, he carefully 
 and deliberately prepared written answers to Douglas' interro- 
 gations, and as we will soon see read his answers with much 
 impressiveness at Freeport. Lincoln had also made up his 
 mind during the same six-day interval to prepare and propound 
 certain counter questions which he would ask Douglas to answer. 
 
 Of these questions, so prepared by Lincoln, the most pregnant 
 and by far the most important, was the second : "Can the people 
 of a United States territory, in any lawful way, against any 
 citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits, 
 prior to the formation of a state constitution?" On the way 
 to the Freeport meeting Lincoln met Joseph Medill, his friend 
 and supporter and the editor of the ablest Republican paper 
 published in Chicago; and submitted these questions to him 
 for his consideration and advice. Medill advised against the 
 second question, claiming that it would let Douglas get out of 
 the tight place he was in on the slavery question. The Republican 
 state chairman, Norman B. Judd, and, it is said, Elihu B. Wash- 
 burne, the Republican candidate for Congress in the Freeport 
 district, also advised Lincoln not to propound this question. 
 But Lincoln was obdurate and insisted that the question should 
 
Birthplace of Stephen A. Douglas 
 
 (Courtesy Illinois State Historical Library.) 
 
ILLINOIS 501 
 
 be asked. Lincoln, as well as thousands of others, knew what 
 answer Douglas would make to this question. Douglas had 
 over and over again stated that as a practical matter slavery 
 could not exist in any territory where the local laws and police 
 regulations were unfriendly to the system. 
 
 At this time, however, the fire-eating southerners were loudly 
 proclaiming that local laws and regulations in any state or 
 territory were powerless to deprive the slaveholder of his prop- 
 erty or property rights. Lincoln knew that if Douglas answered 
 this question as he had frequently answered it before, that it 
 would further embitter the administration Democrats in Illinois 
 against him and still further imperil his chances of reelection 
 to the Senate and thus improve Lincoln's chances of election. 
 That this was the way in which Lincoln viewed the matter is 
 shown conclusively by Lincoln's letter to his friend, Henry 
 Asbury, written on the very day that he closed with Douglas 
 the arrangement for the debates, July 31, 1858. This letter 
 Senator Beveridge quotes in his Life of Lincoln, Vol. II, p. 657. 
 In it he writes to Asbury: "I think you labor under a mistake 
 when you say no one cares how he answers. This implies that 
 it is equal with him whether he is injured here or at the South. 
 He cares nothing for the South; he knows he is already dead 
 there. He only leans Southward more to keep the Buchanan 
 party from growing in Illinois. You will have hard work to 
 get him directly to the point, whether a territorial legislature 
 has or has not the power to exclude slavery. But if you succeed 
 in bringing him to it — though he will be compelled to say that 
 it has no such power — He will instantly take the ground that 
 slavery cannot actually exist in the territories unless the people 
 desire it and so give it protection by territorial legislation. If 
 this offends the South he will let it offend them, as at all events 
 
 he intends to hold on to his chances in Illinois Yours 
 
 Very Truly, A. Lincoln." 
 
 It has been contended by some writers of history that Lincoln, 
 in framing this question to Douglas and in his consideration 
 of the answer that Douglas would make thereto, had in mind 
 the effect of Douglas' answer to the question on the presidential 
 campaign of 1860 rather than its effect upon the senatorial 
 
502 ILLINOIS 
 
 contest between him and Douglas in 1858. They intimate that 
 he, Lincoln, was consciously and deliberately gunning for bigger 
 game for himself, to wit, the Presidency in 1861, rather than 
 the senatorship in 1859. As I read this letter of Lincoln's it 
 shows conclusively that Lincoln was looking to the effect of the 
 question and answer in the senatorial campaign, and not in 
 any future campaign. He believed that Douglas was "dead" 
 in the South and therefore unavailable as a Democratic candidate 
 for the Presidency; and the Democratic party in Illinois was 
 divided into two camps, one of which was backing Douglas 
 enthusiastically for reelection to the Senate; and the other of 
 which, comprising all of the Democrat officers of the state, was 
 bitterly opposing his reelection. He believed that the putting 
 of this question to Douglas and the answer he would give, would 
 further tear open the wounds in the party in the State of Illinois, 
 lose Douglas many old-time Democratic votes, and thus secure 
 his, Lincoln's, election to the Senate. That Lincoln at the time 
 he wrote the letter had even remote aspirations for the Presi- 
 dency, I do not believe. He had, we must remember, up to 1858 
 a rather unsuccessful political career. He was about four years 
 older than Douglas when they both first appeared in political 
 life in the lower house of the Illinois Legislature, in 1834-36. 
 He had been thrice reelected to that rather unimportant place, 
 but was defeated twice when a candidate for Speaker of the 
 House. In 1846 he was elected to Congress and made a speech 
 in that body on the Mexican war (dubbed the "Spot" speech) 
 which rendered him unpopular thereafter in his own district. 
 He sought no reelection to Congress and since 1849 had been 
 in private life, having been defeated as a candidate for the 
 United States Senate to succeed Gen. James Shields only two 
 years before his present campaign against Douglas. Before 
 the joint debates between him and Douglas he was politically 
 a novus homo outside of the State of Illinois. That he had any 
 aspirations for the Presidency at the time he wrote the letter 
 to Asbury, July 31, 1858, I do not believe. When he wrote this 
 letter he was gunning for the game in sight of his gun and not 
 for game that neither he nor anyone else could see at that time. 
 
Grave of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, Mother of Abraham 
 Lincoln, Spencer County, Indiana 
 
504 ILLINOIS 
 
 At the Freeport meeting, Lincoln had the opening and close. 
 In his opening he made answer to the questions Douglas had 
 asked him at Ottawa in writing. He was exceedingly cautious 
 and careful in so doing. He would read Douglas' questions first 
 and then read his answers prepared with great care and delib- 
 eration since the Ottawa meetings. In all of them but one (the 
 sixth) he answered he was not "pledged" to any course, and 
 then made further answer. As to the question about the fugitive 
 slave law, he answered that under the Constitution the southern 
 states are entitled to a fugitive slave law. The existing law 
 had some defects, but why talk about it? No one was urging 
 its amendment or repeal. As to the question about the admission 
 of more slave states, Lincoln said he would be exceedingly sorry 
 ever to be put in a position of having to pass upon that question ; 
 he would be "exceedingly glad" if none were ever brought into 
 the Union; but if slavery were kept out of a territory until 
 it applied for statehood, then if the people of that territory 
 should "do such an extraordinary thing as to adopt a slave 
 constitution, I see no alternative .... but to admit them into 
 the Union." As to the abolition of slavery in the District of 
 Columbia, he would be exceedingly glad to see it abolished 
 there, but within these conditions: First, the abolition should 
 be gradual; second, that it should be pursuant to a vote of a 
 majority of the qualified voters of the District; and third, that 
 compensation should be made to unwilling owners. This was 
 Lincoln's formula for the abolition of slavery in the District 
 when he was in Congress ten years before this date. It is 
 evidence of the care and caution which he always displayed in 
 making any announcement of his views on public questions and 
 of the tenacity with which he held to his position when he 
 believed he was right and made such an announcement. 
 
 With reference to the question of Douglas as to his, Lincoln's, 
 position on the abolition of the slave trade between different 
 states, he was equally cautious and conservative. "I am pledged 
 to nothing about it," he declared. "It is a subject to which I 
 have not given mature consideration." Even if he believed that 
 Congress had' the constitutional power to abolish it, he would 
 still not favor its exercise "unless upon sane conservative prin- 
 
ILLINOIS 505 
 
 ciples .... akin to what I have said in relation to its abolition 
 in the District of Columbia." He then declared he was for 
 the exclusion of slavery from all the territories. It was the 
 right and duty of Congress to prohibit it in them. In reference 
 to new territory "I am not generally opposed to the honest 
 acquisition of territory; and, in any given case, I would not 
 oppose such acquisition accordingly as I might think such acquisi- 
 tion would or would not aggravate the slavery question among 
 ourselves." 
 
 Having answered all of Douglas' questions to him, he now 
 asked Douglas his four counter questions. 
 
 (1) Would Douglas vote to admit Kansas, if its people 
 would adopt a state constitution before they were as numerous 
 as required by the English bill? 
 
 (2) The Question with reference to the right of the people 
 in a territory to exclude slavery before admission to statehood, 
 heretofore quoted verbatim. 
 
 (3) If the Supreme Court should decree that the states 
 themselves could not exclude slavery, would Douglas acquiesce 
 in such a decision as a rule of political action? 
 
 (4) Would Douglas favor acquisition of new territory 
 regardless of how it would affect the nation on the slavery 
 question ? 
 
 After propounding these questions to Douglas, Lincoln pro- 
 ceeded with much cleverness to expose the mistake which Douglas 
 had made in his Ottawa speech in quoting a platform or set 
 of resolutions as made by Republicans or Abolitionists in Spring- 
 field in 1854; when, in fact, the platform which he read was 
 adopted by a county convention (not a state convention) held 
 in Kane County. He pointed out that Douglas, a United States 
 senator for twelve years, "of world-wide renown," had made 
 a charge which "the slightest investigation would have shown 
 him to be wholly false." His exposure of Douglas' mistake 
 was greeted with roars of cheers and laughter. Douglas was 
 the man who had charged Trumbull and Lincoln with falsehood. 
 Could Douglas find in anything that Trumbull or Lincoln had 
 said "a justification at all compared with what we have in 
 this instance, for that sort of vulgarity?" 
 
506 ILLINOIS 
 
 Lincoln then reverted to his favorite and oft-repeated charge 
 that the Democrats in Congress, including Douglas, had voted 
 against the Chase amendment to leave room for the Dred Scott 
 decision. Douglas had denounced him, Lincoln, because Lincoln 
 had upon his own ipse dixit charged a conspiracy against two 
 Presidents, the Supreme Court and a majority of Congress, 
 and had dwelt upon the enormity of such a charge. Lincoln 
 declared that he had made this charge not upon his own ipse 
 dixit, but had marshalled or "arrayed the evidence to prove 
 it." He then asserted that Douglas had made the same charge 
 against the Democratic administration for supporting the 
 Lecompton Constitution, and while on this topic his time expired 
 and he stopped. 
 
 Douglas then addressed the audience. He was glad, he said, 
 that Lincoln had decided to answer his, Douglas', question. He 
 had not done so at Ottawa, although he had ample time to do so. 
 The questions put by him to Lincoln were based upon the 
 Republican platform. The questions put to him, Douglas, by 
 Lincoln had never received the sanction of the party "with 
 which I am acting." They are asked simply to satisfy Lincoln's 
 curiosity. But he would answer them. What would he do about 
 admitting Kansas with unsufficient population? Why, as Con- 
 gress seems to believe that Kansas has sufficient population 
 for admission as a slave state, "I answer as she (Kansas) has 
 population enough to constitute a slave state, she has people 
 enough for a free state." (Cheers.) Why did not Lincoln 
 say what he would do about Kansas with unsufficient population ? 
 Trumbull, Lincoln's ardent supporter, had voted against admit- 
 ting Oregon during the whole of the last session of Congress 
 because it had insufficient population. Was Lincoln fighting 
 his supporter on that issue? Next, Douglas took up Lincoln's 
 celebrated second question and made his equally celebrated reply. 
 "I answer emphatically as Lincoln has heard me answer a 
 hundred times from every stump in Illinois, that in my opinion 
 a people in a territory can, by lawful means, exclude slavery 
 from their limits prior to the formation of a state constitution. 
 (Great applause.) Mr. Lincoln knew that I had answered that 
 question over and over again .... he has no excuse for pre- 
 
ILLINOIS 507 
 
 tending to be in doubt as to my position on that question. It 
 matters not what way the Supreme Court may hereafter decide 
 as to the abstract question, whether slavery may or may not 
 go into a territory under the Constitution, the people have the 
 lawful means to introduce it or exclude it as they please, for 
 the reason that slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere, 
 unless it is supported by local police regulations. These police 
 regulations can only be established by the local legislature; and 
 if the people are opposed to slavery they will elect representatives 
 to that body who will by unfriendly legislation effectually pre- 
 vent the introduction of it into their midst .... Hence, no 
 matter what the decision of the Supreme Court may be on that 
 abstract question, still the right of the people to make a slave 
 territory or a free territory is perfect and complete under the 
 Nebraska bill." 
 
 Lincoln, in getting this answer from Douglas, succeeded 
 in accomplishing what he desired. He had again reopened the 
 wounds in the ranks of the divided Democrats which Douglas 
 had been endeavoring to heal. The administration Democrats 
 were again incited to war against Douglas. As to Lincoln's 
 third question, if the Supreme Court should decide that a state 
 could not exclude slavery within its own limits, would Douglas 
 submit to the decisions? Douglas declared that he was amazed 
 that Lincoln should ask such a question. Lincoln knew, he said, 
 that there was only one man in America claiming any degree 
 of intelligence or decency, who ever for one moment pretended 
 such a thing — the editor of the Washington Union. When 
 that man in his paper made that assertion, he, Douglas, had 
 promptly denounced it in the Senate, while Lincoln's friends, 
 Trumbull and Seward and the whole "Black Republican" side 
 of the Senate sat silent. Senator Toombs had at the same 
 time and place declared "that there was not one man, woman or 
 child south of the Potomac, in any slave state, who did not 
 repudiate any such pretention." "Lincoln might just as well 
 have asked me if he, Lincoln, stole a horse, would I sanction it?" 
 It was unthinkable ! He, Lincoln, discredits the Supreme Court 
 by imputing that it would violate the constitution of the United 
 States. "I tell Mr. Lincoln such a thing is impossible. It would 
 
508 ILLINOIS 
 
 be an act of moral treason for the Court to render any such 
 decision, and there is no man on that bench who would descend 
 to such an infamy. Douglas then took up Lincoln's last question 
 and said it was "ingeniously and cunningly put." Would Lincoln 
 oppose the acquistion of new territory under any circumstances? 
 The "Black Republican creed" made that pledge; did Lincoln 
 stand by that pledge? "Lincoln don't answer that question, but, 
 Yankee fashion, he asks me the same question in a different 
 form. But I won't dodge. I answer that when it becomes 
 necessary, in our growth and progress, to acquire more territory, 
 that I am in favor of it, without reference to the slavery ques- 
 tion; and when we have acquired it I will leave the people 
 free to do as they please, either to make it slave or free territory, 
 as they prefer. Douglas then made his oft-repeated and vig- 
 orous argument in favor of territorial expansion for the further 
 development of the nation. He then turned to Lincoln and asked 
 him facetiously if he had any more questions to ask him. "As 
 soon as he is able to hold council with his advisers, Lovejoy, 
 Farnsworth and Fred Douglass (all well-known abolitionists 
 and the last a negro) he will frame and ask other questions." 
 
 Here an episode took place showing how quick mentally 
 Douglas was while on his feet. In his speech he used the words 
 "Black Republican," which were greeted by abolition cries in 
 the crowd of "White! white!" Whereupon Douglas exclaimed: 
 "I have reason to recollect that some people in this country 
 think that Fred Douglass is a very good man. The last time 
 I came here to make a speech .... I saw a carriage — a mag- 
 nificent one — drive up and take up a position on the outside of 
 the crowd. A beautiful young lady was sitting on the box seat, 
 whilst Fred Douglass and her mother reclined inside and the 
 owner of the carriage acted as driver." (Cries of "right; what 
 have you to say against it?") Douglas again stated: "I saw 
 this in your own town." "What of it?" To which Douglas 
 retorted: "All I have to say is this; that if you 'Black Repub- 
 icans' think that the negroes ought to be on a social equality 
 with your wives and daughters and ride in a carriage with your 
 wife, whilst you drive the team, you have a perfect right to 
 do so." 
 
Hotel Where Lincoln Stopped in Urbana 
 
510 ILLINOIS 
 
 Douglas then took up the subject of the resolutions that he 
 had read at Ottawa the week before, and about which he had 
 asked Lincoln certain questions. He explained fully how he 
 had gotten possession of the resolutions and how he was 
 informed and believed that they were adopted by the Republican- 
 Abolition Convention which was held in Springfield on the same 
 day that Lincoln had made a speech in that city. He pointed 
 out that at Ottawa both Lincoln and himself believed that the 
 resolutions Douglas read were the ones adopted at Springfield 
 that day and that Lincoln's only disclaimer of responsibility 
 made at Ottawa was that he, Lincoln, did not attend the con- 
 vention after his speech, did not participate in drawing the 
 resolutions, and left Springfield before the resolutions were 
 adopted. Since the Ottawa meeting, Douglas argued, Lincoln 
 had found out that the resolutions in question were not adopted, 
 as both he and Douglas believed, at Springfield, but at a Repub- 
 lican convention held in another city of the state. He says nothing 
 about his own ignorance of the subject at Ottawa, but because 
 I was also ignorant on the subject at Ottawa, he charges me 
 with forgery. Lincoln claims the resolutions were not adopted 
 on the "right spot." Lincoln and his political friends are great 
 on "spots." When in Congress Lincoln declared the Mexican 
 war to be unjust because American blood was not shed on 
 American soil "in the right spot." Now he cannot answer the 
 questions I asked him in Ottawa because the resolutions I read 
 were not adopted on the "right spot." Douglas then declared 
 that these very resolutions were adopted in nearly all the north- 
 ern counties and congressional districts that gave Republican 
 majorities at the elections of that year. He then argued that 
 Lincoln, in declining to state whether or not he ratified or stood 
 by these resolutions wherever they were adopted, was quibbling 
 and evading the real issue. Douglas then read the resolutions 
 adopted by the Rockford Republican Convention (Freeport Dis- 
 trict) which nominated Washburne in 1854 which was almost 
 identical with the resolution he, Douglas, read at Ottawa, and 
 said: "When I get into the next district, I will show that the 
 same platform was adopted there, and so on through the state 
 
ILLINOIS 511 
 
 until I nail the responsibility of it upon the Black Republican 
 party throughout the state." 
 
 Here Thomas J. Turner, Speaker of the House when Trum- 
 bull was elected to the United States Senate over Lincoln, inter- 
 rupted Douglas and declared that he, Turner, had drawn the 
 Rockford resolutions. Then cried Douglas he, Turner, would 
 not deny that they were the Republican creed. Mr. Turner: 
 "They are our creed exactly." Mr. Douglas: "And yet Lincoln 
 denies that he stands on them." ("Good, good," and laughter.) 
 
 Douglas then took up the alliance between Senator Trumbull 
 and Lincoln in this campaign and charged that when Trumbull 
 (a former Democrat) was elected over Lincoln to succeed Sen- 
 ator Shields two years before, much bitterness had developed 
 between them and that this ill feeling had been patched up 
 by Trumbull and his friends, agreeing with Lincoln and his 
 friends to elect Lincoln this time to the Senate. "Lincoln 
 could be silenced in no other way." Douglas then read the 
 Republican resolutions offered by Lovejoy to the Legislature 
 the day before Trumbull was elected. These resolutions con- 
 tained the same propositions which were in the Aurora resolu- 
 tions read by Douglas in Ottawa. He then declared with a tri- 
 umphant gesture that every man in the Legislature but two, 
 who had voted for the Lovejoy resolutions, voted next day for 
 Lincoln for United States senator. Turning to Speaker Turner, 
 who was on the platform near him, who had voted for the 
 Lovejoy resolution and also for Lincoln, he asked him: "Did 
 you violate your pledge in voting for Lincoln, or did he commit 
 himself to your platform (the Lovejoy resolution) before you 
 cast your vote for him?" At this juncture Lincoln called to 
 Turner : "Don't answer, Turner. You have no right to answer." 
 Turner obeyed and did not answer Douglas' question. Douglas 
 then criticised the answers that Lincoln had made to his ques- 
 tions because of their vagueness and qualifications. Although 
 Lincoln believed that the admission of other slave states might 
 dissolve the Union, yet he would state that he would vote against 
 bringing another slave state into the Union. "Is that fair 
 dealing?" he asked. 
 
512 ILLINOIS 
 
 "Show me that it is my duty to do a particular act in order 
 to save the Union and I will do it, if the Constitution does not 
 prohibit it. Lincoln says that 'this Union cannot continue to 
 endure with slave states in it' and yet he will not state what 
 he would do about admitting more of them." He then took up 
 Lincoln's charge that he, Douglas, had assailed the organ of 
 the administration in Washington as corrupt and said : ' 'Suppose 
 I did, when it was true? Does that justify Lincoln in charging 
 two Presidents of the United States, the judges of the Supreme 
 Court and other with corruption, when it was false? Lincoln's 
 charge was historically false!" Before, during and after the 
 passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act, Buchanan was in London, 
 England, acting as minister to Great Britain, so it was impossible 
 for him to have been in Lincoln's ''imaginary conspiracy." The 
 Dred Scott case was not even on the docket of the Supreme 
 Court when the law was passed. The high character of Presi- 
 dent Pierce as a man of honor and integrity was enough to 
 vindicate him from such a foul charge. "As to myself, I pro- 
 nounce the charge an infamous lie whenever and wherever made 
 and by whomsoever made I brand it as it deserves." 
 
 Douglas then discussed Lincoln's tactics in endeavoring to 
 divide the Democratic vote. Why, he asked, was the attempt 
 being made to show that he, Douglas, was still at war with 
 President Buchanan. "When I differed with the President, 
 I spoke out so all of you could hear me." He would do it again 
 if it were necessary. The question between him and the Presi- 
 dent had "passed away" when the President in his message to 
 Congress stated that hereafter all state constitutions ought to 
 be submitted to the people. "I know Mr. Lincoln's object; he 
 wants to divide the Democrats, in order that he may defeat 
 me and get into the Senate." Here Douglas was told that his 
 time had expired and he ceased speaking. 
 
 When Lincoln arose to make his rejoinder, he was greeted 
 with great cheers. Adverting to Douglas' statement that the 
 crowd had interrupted him, Douglas, with vulgarity and black- 
 guardism, Lincoln said that he, Lincoln, had used no vulgarity 
 or blackguardism when the crowd was listening. He then 
 declared that the Republican resolutions of 1854, which Douglas 
 
Under Big Elm Tree, Urbana (East of Big Four Shops) 
 Lincoln Made Famous Speech 
 
514 ILLINOIS 
 
 had cited, were local and did not bind the party throughout 
 the state. "We at last met together in 1856 from all parts 
 of the state, and we agreed upon a common platform' 5 so all 
 the Republicans of the state were bound "as a party to that 
 platform." "If Douglas could find one member of the Legis- 
 lature that voted for him in 1855 who will tell him anything 
 inconsistent from what I say now .... I will retire from the 
 race and give him no more trouble." He, Lincoln, had made 
 no secret pledges and would say or do nothing in Washington 
 that he did not avow and declare on the stump. "I'll tell you 
 what he, Douglas, is afraid of. He is afraid we will all pull 
 together." He said he had answered Douglas' questions fully 
 and fairly. The admission of a single slave state would not 
 "permanently .... establish this as a universal slave nation." 
 Douglas' charge against the editor of the Washington Union 
 were really charges against the Democratic President, Lincoln 
 contended. "At that time," said Lincoln, "Douglas had an eye 
 further north than he has today, but now he is looking toward 
 the South. His hope is to make 'the great Black Republican 
 party' .... the tail to his new kite." But now he was crawling 
 back to his old camp and would soon be found in full fellowship 
 with those with whom he now pretended to be at variance. 
 
 The foregoing rather full summary of the speeches made 
 by Lincoln and Douglas in the cities of Ottawa and Freeport 
 during this campaign, memorable in American history, has been 
 given so that the reader may be fairly informed of the great 
 issues involved and get some insight into the methods and 
 characteristics of the two great debaters. It is not within the 
 scope of this history nor the opportunities of the writer to 
 follow in the same detail the other joint debates in which these 
 great men participated. In the subsequent debates the same 
 points were made and the same arguments brought by the 
 orators with more or less elaboration and dissertation. 
 
 In Galesburg, October 7, however, Lincoln presented one 
 new and powerful issue which he had overlooked or but faintly 
 referred to at Ottawa and Freeport. That issue was that slavery 
 was fundamentally wrong. To use his own language, slavery 
 was "a moral, social and political evil." With due regard to 
 
ILLINOIS 515 
 
 Constitutional limitations he demanded "a policy that looked 
 to the prevention of it as a wrong/' and looked forward to a 
 time "when as a wrong it may come to an end." He then 
 declared that "Douglas discards the idea that there is anything 
 wrong in slavery." To him there was no difference between 
 slavery and liberty. If Douglas believed there was any differ- 
 ence, he could not declare, as he had done, that he "don't care 
 whether slavery is voted up or down." This was the great 
 vital moral issue of the campaign and as presented by Lincoln 
 at Galesburg and elsewhere towards the end of the joint debates 
 would have won for him decisively in Illinois or in any northern 
 state in the latter half of the nineteenth century. On this great 
 moral issue, Douglas was placed in a most disadvantageous 
 position. His shibboleth of "Let the people rule," his doctrine 
 of popular sovereignty, while they were popular and appealing 
 to all men favoring a republican form of government, were not 
 a complete answer to Lincoln's claim that slavery was "morally 
 wrong" and that "a policy that looks to the prevention of it 
 as a wrong" must prevail. He could not and did not answer 
 that "the people could do no wrong" because the people of the 
 southern states had been doing "wrong" in maintaining and 
 fostering slavery for over a century. He wisely refrained from 
 claiming that the people of a state or county were always omnis- 
 cient, immaculate and incapable of injustice or misrule. 
 
 This great moral thrust of Lincoln pierced the shield of 
 Douglas and wounded him, but still left him fighting and vic- 
 torious in the struggle for the senatorial toga. Every school- 
 child in America knows the electoral result of that contest. 
 Enough Douglas Democrats were elected to the Legislature to 
 give Douglas, with the hold-over Democrats in the State Senate, 
 a large majority over Lincoln when the Legislature selected the 
 successor in the United States Senate. The vote in the Legis- 
 lature was: Douglas 54; Lincoln 41. At that time senators 
 were not elected by popular vote. The law providing for the 
 election of United States senators by popular vote was passed 
 in Illinois for the first time during my administration as governor 
 and at my special instance and request. 
 
516 
 
 ILLINOIS 
 
 This extraordinary series of debates between these two 
 remarkable men attracted the attention of every state in the 
 Union and made Illinois a pivotal state in the destinies of the 
 nation from that time to the present. From 1818, when Illinois 
 was admitted to statehood, down to 1858, it had cast its presi- 
 dential vote regularly for Democratic Presidents. At this election 
 it first gave substantial evidence that Illinois was prepared to 
 quit the Democratic ranks because of the policy of that party 
 
 
 Old Kelly Tavern, St. Joseph, One of Lincoln's Stopping 
 
 Places 
 
 in regard to slavery. The debates between Lincoln and Douglas 
 clearly disclosed to the voters of Illinois and the other northern 
 states that the Democratic party was willing to aid the slave- 
 holding states in permitting the spread of slavery into the 
 northern territory. They were further convinced that the 
 Buchanan or administration Democrats, along with all of the 
 Democrats in the slave states, were attempting by foul means 
 and unfair and corrupt elections to place Kansas and Nebraska 
 into the Union as slave states. They became satisfied that 
 Douglas and his followers would not tolerate corrupt measures, 
 or debauchery and violence at the polls in getting a vote favor- 
 able to slavery in their territories, but that even Douglas and 
 
ILLINOIS 517 
 
 the Douglas Democrats were willing to have slavery installed 
 in these northern territories, if the voters in these territories 
 desired it. To tolerate slavery in the states where the Consti- 
 tution of the United States authorized and secured it, was one 
 thing. To permit its extension into other territory of the United 
 States, was another thing. The people of Illinois and the other 
 northern states were waking up to the fact, that human slavery 
 was a great moral wrong or crime and that its further spread 
 into northern territories must be stopped at all hazards. If 
 the slave-holding states of the South had been content to rest 
 upon their constitutional rights to own and sell slaves within 
 their own borders; and refrained from endeavoring to spread 
 slavery into the northern territories and states, the Democratic 
 party might and probably would have retained its supremacy 
 in the nation for many years or decades. Its tenets, framed 
 by Thomas Jefferson, and sustained and carried out by every 
 Democratic national administration, were strongly favorable 
 to states rights in all police and social legislation and were 
 popular with the rank and file of the common people. Jeifer- 
 sonian and Jacksonian Democracy was uniformly triumphant 
 in Illinois down to the time of the passage of the Kansas- 
 Nebraska law. The method of the passage of the Lecompton 
 Constitution in Kansas revolted Douglas and a great mass of 
 the Democrats of Illinois. Douglas protested to Buchanan and 
 voted and spoke in the Senate against the administration policies 
 in connection with the Kansas-Nebraska bill ; and brought down 
 upon his head in the senatorial campaign the hatred and bitter 
 opposition of all the Federal appointees in Illinois and the 
 enmity of all the slave-holding states. His high-mindedness and 
 courage in so doing gained him universal respect and admiration 
 in the North; but lost him forever any prospect of being nom- 
 inated for the Presidency of the United States by a united 
 Democratic party. . The Democrats of the South were wedded 
 to the infamous "institution" and had the mistaken hardiness 
 to scheme for its introduction and spread into the North. Their 
 course in so doing brought to the ranks of the new-born Repub- 
 lican party, which Lincoln had but recently joined, not only the 
 old Whigs, Free-Soilers and Know-Nothings, but thousands of 
 
518 ILLINOIS 
 
 old-line Democrats in the northern states who refused to be a 
 party to the extension of slavery in the North. 
 
 In view of the fact that the influence of the whole Democratic 
 administration was thrown against him, and the further fact 
 that on the great moral issue of the campaign — the prevention 
 of the extension of slavery — he was on the wrong side of that 
 issue, the wonder is that Douglas succeeded against such obstacles 
 in winning the election and retaining his position in the United 
 States Senate. His personal magnetism, his winning ways, as 
 well as his eloquence and courage in the presentation of his 
 cause, enabled him to win over the keen, logical arguments of 
 his great high-minded competitor and overcome the superior 
 moral position held by his rival. 
 
 It was a defeat, however, in which both, strange to say, won 
 a victory. Douglas won his seat in the Senate, but Lincoln 
 won a world-wide reputation as the peerless champion of the 
 deliverance of the human race from the bondage that had dis- 
 graced the whole world from the beginning of time. Lincoln's 
 exposure of man's inhumanity towards his fellow man in the 
 black skin, was heard around the world. It sounded the death- 
 knell of human slavery in the near future and placed him in 
 such a position that his election to the Presidency of the United 
 States was almost certain. The care and caution he displayed 
 in keeping all his arguments within the limits of a constitution 
 which enthroned and preserved slavery in the slave states; and 
 with which he demonstrated that within the limits of that same 
 constitution it could be prevented entering new states and terri- 
 tories, gained for him the reputation not only of being a foe 
 to human slavery, but that of a shrewd constitutional lawyer, 
 who could if placed in executive position carry out a plan within 
 the constitution which would at once stop the spread of slavery 
 and ultimately bring about its abolition without confiscation 
 or injury to property rights, or without imperiling in any way 
 the perpetuity of the Union. 
 
 Lincoln was no wild-eyed impractical radical in his presen- 
 tation of his views on slavery. He repeatedly stated in public 
 that under the United States Constitution slaveholders had prop- 
 erty rights in their slaves, and that slaveholders were entitled 
 
ILLINOIS 519 
 
 to a fugitive slave law. He cautiously kept apart from the 
 Abolitionists and often asserted that black men were not and 
 should not be the equal of white men, socially or politically. 
 His aim was to stop the spread of slavery immediately and 
 abolish it eventually within the Constitution and without confis- 
 cation. His caution and conservatism eventually made him the 
 leader of his party and placed him in the Presidential chair. 
 
 While Seward of New York and Chase of Ohio were preach- 
 ing that there was "an irrepressible conflict" on hand which 
 meant war and a "higher law" above the Constitution, which 
 meant treason, Lincoln refused to become emotional and con- 
 stantly advised compliance with the laws and the Constitution. 
 Both Lincoln and Douglas were thoroughly honest men. Both 
 were patriots. Douglas feared dissolution of the Union unless 
 some compromise were made between the North and South 
 on the slavery question. Lincoln did not. Douglas rightly fore- 
 saw rebellion. Lincoln believed it inconceivable. When rebellion 
 came, however, both confronted it, side by side, Lincoln in the 
 White House, Douglas in the Senate. Douglas died in- the midst 
 of the conflict, but sustained his great Republican adversary 
 loyally to the end. What Lincoln did thereafter belongs to 
 another chapter. 
 
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