Cl56c1 
 
 HUMS nSTHKAL SMIW
 
 THE LiBifftiW 
 
 CF M
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN
 
 An 
 
 Autobiographical Sketch 
 
 of 
 
 My Life 
 
 And also 
 
 Some of the Addresses which I 
 have made on special occasions 
 and which are supposed to be 
 of local interest in the county 
 in which I have lived during all 
 the years of my manhood 
 
 By ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 
 
 PRINTED BY 
 
 THE ARGUS PRINTING HOUSE 
 
 Robinson. Illinois 
 
 1915
 
 C /!'& <- I 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 * ' As for man his days are as grass ; as a flower of the 
 field he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it and it 
 is not, and the place thereof shall know it no more." 
 
 No rational man or woman desires to pass away and 
 be soon forgotten by those who still live. Often living 
 men and women provide for the erection of monuments 
 to perpetuate their memory when they have ceased to 
 live. They also build monuments to perpetuate the 
 memory of those who have preceded them to the grave. 
 Biographical sketches and books are written and pub- 
 lished as a protest against an entrance into the shadows of 
 oblivion. Portraits are painted; likenesses are engraved 
 and printed. Photographs are taken and multiplied to 
 aid memory in holding back from the misty regions of 
 things forgotten, the history, the form and features, and 
 even the thought of those whose biographies are printed, 
 whose portraits are painted and whose photographic pic- 
 tures are taken. 
 
 Again, there are those who, realizing the uncertain- 
 ty, and unreliability of much of the biographical history 
 that is written, write for themselves an autobiography to 
 be left as a memorial of their life history. Of this num- 
 ber I am one. At the age of eighty-two I retired from 
 practice as a lawyer' that I might enjoy the rest and quiet 
 that I had fairly earned by more than half a century of 
 close application to the duties and obligations that came 
 to me as a lawyer and as a citizen. The autobiographical 
 sketch that I shall write will be a short one. It will be 
 supplemented with a few of my public addresses made on
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 special occasions during the course of my busy life. 
 There will be no connection of one with any other of 
 these addresses. Each one stands by itself and explains 
 the occasion that called it forth. The occasions were 
 mostly local and for that reason they have been sleeted 
 for publication. The publication of the autobiographical 
 sketch that I shall write, and the address that I shall se- 
 lect, in book form, is made for private circulation only. 
 
 X ETHELBERT CALLAHAN. X 
 Robinson, Illinois, December 17, A. D. 1915. 
 
 C- 
 
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 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL 
 
 My father was John Callahan, who was born near 
 Uniontown, Pennsylvania, on the twenty-fourth day of 
 November, A. D. 1801. His father was George Callahan, 
 who vas a soldier in the revolutionary war. After the 
 war he became a Methodist preacher, and while traveling 
 a circuit in the state of Virginia crossed the Ohio river 
 a short distance above Marietta, and preached the first 
 Methodist sermon in the State of Ohio. My father's 
 mother was Mary Wells, a daughter of General Wells of 
 Uniontown, Pennsylvania. 
 
 My mother was Margaret Brown, and was born near 
 Bowling Green, in the State of Kentucky, on the thirtieth 
 day of August, A. D. 1805. She was the daughter of 
 Nicholas Brown and Sarah Wlii taker Brown. 
 
 My father and mother were married in Licking 
 county, Ohio, on the twenty-fourth day of March, 1824, 
 and lived in that county until 1849, when they removed 
 to Illinois. Father entered two eighty-acre tracts of 
 heavily timbered land and built a log cabin on one of the 
 eighties. I have in my possession the patents issued to 
 him by the United States for these lands. One of them 
 has the personal signature of President John Quincy 
 Adams. The other has the personal signature of Presi- 
 dent Andrew Jackson. Until Jackson's second term the 
 Presidents signed all patents for land in person. In 
 Jackson's second term and ever thereafter they were 
 signed by the President's secretary. 
 
 I was born in Licking county, in the State of Ohio, 
 on the seventeenth day of December, A. D. 1829, in a
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 cabin built of unhewn logs, covered with clapboards and 
 floored with puncheons split from large oak logs and 
 surfaced with a broad axe. The wide fireplace was built 
 of puddled clay, and the chimney that rose above it was 
 made of split sticks and plastered with stiff clay. The 
 door was made of split boards and hung on wooden 
 hinges. Great forest trees stood like sentinels around the 
 cabin and their spreading, branches overshadowed it. In 
 my childhood days I saw these trees, one by one, fall be- 
 neath the ringing strokes of my father's axe. The area 
 of cleared land was slowly extended. Fields were laid out 
 and fenced with rails. In the first field an orchard was 
 planted and the apple trees grew amid the stumps and 
 corn until they yielded fruit, and gave joy to the family. 
 In a woods pasture a small flock of sheep was kept and 
 was brought into a close sheepfold each night to protect 
 the sheep from wolves that nightly prowled and howled 
 in the surrounding forests. My parents had but little 
 property besides the one hundred and sixty acres of land 
 which they had purchased with borrowed money. The 
 task of. clearing a farm and building a home, on heavily 
 timbered land is one that requires much hard labor and 
 many personal sacrifices. My parents and their children, 
 of whom I was the third, tasted the bitter cup of priva- 
 tion and hardship which necessity presses to the lips of 
 the pioneer. I was a small boy when I was drafted into 
 the ranks of the toilers who were engaged in the arduous 
 task of transforming a heavily timbered wilderness into 
 farms and homes. 
 
 The national road from Cumberland in the state of 
 Maryland westward through the states of Virginia, Ohio, 
 Indiana and Illinois had recently been built through Lick- 
 ing county on a line several miles south of our home, and 
 fhe canal from Cleveland on Lake Erie, to Portsmouth on 
 the Ohio river, crossed the national road at the Village of 
 Hebron. Along this road and canal the county was be-
 
 JOHN CALLAHAN.
 
 MRS. MARGARET BROWN CALLAHAN.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 
 
 ing rapidly improved, and business seemed to concentrate 
 about them. In order to get into this current of business 
 my father bought a farm on the national road near the 
 village of Kirkersville and moved to it in 1838. This 
 change of residence was the opening of a new world 
 to me. Within a few rods of our door was the wide 
 macadamized road with .its cut stone arches ; its cover- 
 ed bridges resting on cut stone piers, and milestones 
 telling the distance from Cumberland to Wheeling, 
 Zanesville, Columbus and intermediate villages and 
 cities. There was a daily pony express, and a line of 
 four horse stage coaches, carrying passengers and the 
 mails. The stage driver was a great man in my. 
 boyish eyes. Perched up on top of the coach he 
 held the lines, and wielded the lash that occasionally 
 touched up his leaders, as gracefully as if it had been a 
 royal scepter. One driver won my special admiration. All 
 drivers announced their approach to the station by blow- 
 ing a horn. This driver carried a key Jbugle and as the 
 announcement of his coming the soft clear notes of Lucy 
 Neal, or some other popular melody, were sent flying 
 through the air like birds of joy bearing tender mes- 
 sages of love and peace. 
 
 The doings at the stage station were to me a wonder 
 and a delight. As the coach came to the station another 
 team came from the stable harnessed and ready for the 
 run to the next station. The incoming team was hastily 
 unhitched and went to the stable. The fresh team was 
 put in place and the tugs hitched while the driver 
 climbed to his perch, and the lines tossed to him, and in a 
 moment the coach was rattling away over the stony 
 road. These drivers were a merry lot of fellows and 
 many jests and witty sayings were exchanged between 
 them while changing teams. 
 
 The best roadsters that could be found in the country 
 were bought for this service. The teams were often
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 matched in color. There were teams of roans, sorrels, 
 bays, blacks, grays and of mixed colors. I well remem- 
 ber one team that was always spoken of as "The Little 
 Bays. ' ' They came from the stable eager as race horses 
 and had to be held in place to be hitched. I have seen 
 a driver hold each restless nervous horse by the bit while 
 others hooked the tugs. The shout of the driver "let 
 them go," was the signal for the start, and it filled a 
 boy's soul with delight to see them go. 
 
 Four miles east at the village of Hebron the canal 
 crossed the national road. Along the canal the long low 
 boats were towed by horses walking along the towpath. 
 Lighter boats were towed by trotting horses and carried 
 mail and passengers. These were marvels of speed in 
 that slow moving period in the history of the state. 
 
 The merchandise retailed in all central Ohio was 
 principally brought from Philadelphia in wagons drawn 
 by four, six or eight horses. Every day I saw these 
 great wagons moving westward loaded with goods for lo- 
 cal merchants; and eastward loaded with western pro- 
 duce to be sold in the eastern markets. Their wagon 
 yards were usually by the wayside. The wagoner's sleep- 
 ing and dining room was in his wagon. Then there was 
 the never-ending train of emigrant wagons moving to- 
 wards Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. The road- 
 side camping places of these emigrants were very attrac- 
 tive. Supplies of food for men and animals were pur- 
 chased from the nearby farms. Acquaintance with them 
 was easily made. They were free to tell of the homes they 
 had left, and of the hopes they entertained of better times 
 and more prosperous conditions in the new country to 
 which they were going. My world was growing larger 
 and I began to dream of the possibilities of my own fu- 
 ture life. 
 
 Less than a mile from our home was the outer edge 
 of "Bloody Run Swamp,'' the greatest wild pigeon roost
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 
 
 in the United States. Evening and morning the sky 
 would be covered as far as the eye could reach with pig- 
 eons going into or out of the roost. In a still night the 
 chatter of the birds and the flutter of their wings could 
 be heard for miles around. During the roosting seasons 
 parties came from cities far and near and went into the 
 swamp after pigeons. These parties required guides. My 
 father was acquainted with the swamp and knew the 
 paths that could be traversed in and out of it, and fre- 
 quently accompanied visiting parties. I sometimes went 
 with him.. General Sherman said he had often been 10 
 this pigeon roost, and it is possible that I have been 
 with his party. 
 
 In the year 1839 a storm laid my father's wheat crop 
 flat on the ground when it was ripe for the harvest. For 
 this cause the entire crop was cut with hand sickles. The 
 harvesters were paid fifty cents per day. The thrashing 
 machine came to the farm that year. A four horse cog 
 wheel power a tumbling shaft connecting the power 
 with a rapidly revolving cylinder set thickly with iron 
 spikes for teeth. The straw band of each sheaf was cut 
 by hand; the straw shaken loosely apart and slowly fed 
 into the cylinder. Straw and grain came out together. 
 
 The straw was raked off with a hand rake and 
 stacked by hand. When chaff and grain accumulated in 
 front of the cylinder so -as to become an obstruction, the 
 machine was stopped and the grain and chaff raked up 
 into a rail pen prepared for that purpose. When the 
 thrashing machine departed the windmill came in and 
 blew the grain and the chaff apart from each other. 
 Tramping the straw stack and 'turning the crank of the 
 windmill were tasks usually turned over to the boys. Un- 
 less my memory is greatly at fault they were the most 
 wearying tasks in which I ever engaged. 
 
 The Presidential campaign of the year 1840 gave me 
 my first lesson in politics. It was a time of real business
 
 10 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 distress. The country was flooded with the currency of 
 banks existing by authority of state legislation. There 
 was no national currency. Many of the banks were irre- 
 sponsible and their notes were below par, or wholly ir- 
 redeemable. The effect of this bad money was to drive 
 that which was better out of circulation. The Whig party 
 with General William Henry Harrison as its candidate, 
 favored the establishment of a national bank, the issue 
 of national currency, and the passage of a tariff law that 
 would protect American industries. The democratic 
 party with Martin Van Buren as its candidate for re-elec- 
 tion opposed both of these measures. Great mass meet- 
 ings were held in Newark by both parties on the fourth of 
 July, 1840. Thomas Corwin was the principal speaker at 
 the Whig meeting and John Brough at the democratic 
 meeting. I was in the Whig crowd and listened attentive- 
 ly to Corwin 's argument in favor of money issued by 
 national authority. To me his argument was convincing. 
 I was then, and ever since then have been satisfied of the 
 superiority of a national currency over any currency that 
 has been, or can be, created by state authority. This 
 seems now to be settled beyond controversy. The same 
 democratic party that for more than half a century held 
 as one of its established " doctrines and traditions ' ' that a 
 national bank was unconstitutional, has in this present 
 year passed a national banking law that goes beydnd any- 
 thing advocated by either Federalists or Whigs. All par- 
 ties have become progressives. 
 
 The tariff presented a more difficult question. It is 1 
 not easily understood. So many business interests are af- 
 fected by tariff laws that they must of necessity be often 
 readjusted and changed. Free trade presents an attrac- 
 tive theory which has never been deemed practicable in 
 this country. A tariff for revenue only has been much ad- 
 vocated, but its advocates have never dared to apply it 
 pure and simple. They have always used an admixture of.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 11 
 
 protection: I have accepted the teaching of Henry Clay. 
 1 hold that the infant industries of the United States 
 have been rightfully protected. I hold that the giant in- 
 dustries of the present day have been unduly and unwise- 
 ly protected to the great injury of the American people. 
 
 Some- of the incidents of the mass meetings at New- 
 ark are recalled. Hon. David <Todd, democratic candi- 
 date for Governor, was charged with having said that he 
 would prefer pot metal dollars, to national bank notes. In 
 response to ttiis a furnace mounted* on wheels and drawn 
 by twenty-one horses, and a ragged btoy astride of, each 
 horse, passed along the principal streets casting pot metal 
 dollars and tossing l&eni into ; the streets, The Whigs 
 had numerous Buckeye; cabins on wfyeejs, with barrels of 
 cider aboard,, with^ gourds fqr drinking vessels. Live 
 coons climbed about some of^th^se cabins, and coon skins 
 were naile4 on the outer walls. The occasion was a gr,eat 
 one to me.' I returned home with, broader views of life. 
 New ambitions were budding. Dazzling expectations th-at 
 reached far out into the years of my coming manhooel 
 arose before me. 
 
 In 1841 the family residence was changed to a farm 
 on the Lancaster road south of Kirkersville. In 1845 an- 
 other change was made to a farm of three hundred and 
 twenty acres adjoining the village. A considerable part 
 of the land was heavily timbered. There was much log- 
 ging and heavy hauling to be done, and of this I had my 
 full share. The logging was done with cattle, and I be- 
 came an oxdriver and succeeded quite well without swear- 
 ing at the oxen. 
 
 Until the year 1845 the domestic economy of the fam- 
 ily included a yearly flax patch, arid the manufacture of 
 linen for domestic uses such as trousers, shirts, sheets, ta- 
 ble cloths and towels. I became practically familiar with 
 every process from the sowing of the seed to, but not in- 
 cluding, the spinning of the flax.and.tow into thread ready
 
 12 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 for the loom. When the time came that blue drilling for 
 trousers and coarse brown muslin for shirts could be 
 bought for twenty-five cents a yard, the flax business was 
 abandoned. 
 
 As a farmer my father was thrifty and successful. 
 In the purchase and sale of lands he had made very 
 handsome gains. His credit was good, and he main- 
 tained it by prompt payment of his personal obliga- 
 tions. But he had a friend whose business was the pur- 
 chase of horses in Ohio and their sale in eastern markets. 
 The man had a good reputation and the business seemed 
 to be profitable. Father habitually endorsed for him 
 and he made prompt payment until the last note which 
 was for ten thousand dollars. The horses were bought 
 and driven away. The man disappeared and if he was 
 ever heard of again by his relatives or acquaintances in 
 Ohio I have no knowledge of it. This and my father's 
 own debts swept away all that he had and left him a poor 
 man. The crash came in the winter of 1848 and 1849. 
 My brother, Nicholas, and myself took in the situation, 
 and in February, 1849, we joined the procession of west- 
 bound emigrants and started to Illinois with a two horse 
 team and wagon. 
 
 Turn back with me now to my school days, and learn 
 some of the difficulties that attended the education of 
 boys and girls when I was a boy. In the year 1836 I at- 
 tended a summer school taught by Miss Ann Green, the 
 daughter of a neighboring farmer. The school house 
 was a mile from my home. Half the way was a blazed 
 path through an unbroken forest. The school house 
 was near the center of a small cleared spot surrounded 
 by timber on every side. It was built of round logs with 
 the bark still on them. The roof was of clapboards held 
 on with weighting poles. The floor was of puncheons 
 split out of oak logs and hewed to an approximate level 
 on one side. The door in the east side was of split
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 13 
 
 boards nailed on battens and hung on wooden hinges 
 which were greased to keep them from squeaking. The 
 hearth, jambs and back wall of the wide fireplace were 
 made of stiff puddled clay. The chimney was of split 
 sticks built up like a trap and filled in and plastered with 
 stiff clay mortar. Out of the west side and south end a 
 log had been cut.. Into the space thus made split sticks 
 were placed perpendicularly. Over these sticks white 
 paper had been pasted and then greased to let in the 
 light. The benches were made by splitting round logs in- 
 to halves and dressing the flat sides with a broadaxe. 
 Legs to the benches were made by boring auger holes in 
 the round side and driving legs into the holes of such 
 lengths as seemed to correspond with the length of the 
 legs belonging to the girls and boys. There were no 
 backs to any of them. The writing desk was under the 
 greased paper window on the west side. It was made 
 by driving wooden pins into auger holes bored into the 
 log under the window, and laying a loose plank on the 
 pins. 
 
 The school house had been finished in the winter 
 and in obtaining unfrozen clay for the fireplace and 
 chimney and to "daub" the walls a wide deep hole had 
 been dug out under the floor. This was used by Miss 
 Green as a dungeon in which she sometimes imprisoned 
 pupils who were guilty of violating her rules. On one 
 occasion she sentenced a girl to the dungeon. The pun- 
 tiheon door was raised. The girl was stubborn and re- 
 fused to enter. Entreaty accompanied with force was 
 being used to make her take her punishment, when Lucy 
 Rolinson spoke up and said, "I seed a lizzard in there 
 yesterday. ' ' The culprit became frantic, and her 
 screams and struggles saved her and closed that prison 
 door for the term. 
 
 My one book in that school was a red backed Web- 
 ster's Elementary Spelling Book, and it was the pride
 
 14 
 
 of my life. I intended to keep it for life, and did keep 
 it for a number of years. My mother had taught me the- 
 alphabet and led me into words of two letters. In Miss 
 Green's school I learned to read the one syllable reading 
 lessons and the spelling lessons. I did not attend the suc- 
 ceeding winter school but was taught to spell and read 
 by my mother. The next summer school was taught by 
 Miss Khoda Green, who seemed to be in love with every 
 one of her pupils, and was leader of the school in both 
 work and play. She led me into the very depths of the 
 Elementary spelling book. I began to be proud of my 
 progress in learning: I was called a lazy boy in other 
 fields of industry, but I was not la^y in my school studies. 
 
 The winter 'following the school was taught by Dr. 
 Norris, a tall, black eyed man with long black hair and 
 a very prominent nose. He was kind and gentle but in- 
 exorable in government. He read most entertainingly and 
 taught reading and spelling in a way that would be a 
 marked improvement in many schools at this time. He 
 required each pupil in the large spelling class to give a 
 definition of each word spelled. An incorrect definition 
 was the same as a word mispelled. Each pupil was al- 
 lowed to ask him once for the definition of a word. His 
 answer came quick, clear and brief, and could be heard 
 by all in the room. I was in the little spelling class. 
 These definitions interested me. -I was a thoughtful list- 
 ener and profited much by them. 
 
 The Christmas treat given by the school master was 
 so unique that it lingers in my memory even unto this 
 day. In the morning a grain bag was standing in the 
 northeast corner of the school room. What it contained 
 remained a mystery until the hour of noon was approach- 
 ing. The great log fire had burned down into coals and 
 ashes. The master took up the wide long handled shovel 
 and scraped out the coals and ashes until he had a large 
 space cleaned down to the hot clay hearth. Then he re-
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 15 
 
 vealed the mystery of the grain bag by pouring from it 
 Into the cleared place a bushel of Keshanoch potatoes. 
 He covered them carefully with ashes and then with live 
 coals ., of fire. At noon the potatoes^ roasted to a turn, 
 were distributed and made a Christmas dinner that has 
 kept the little log school house, the kind-hearted school 
 master, his roasted potatoes and the dinner in perpetual 
 remembrance." 
 
 In the winter of 183&-1839 I was at the home of my 
 uncle, Eli Holmes, and attended school at the Refugee 
 school house in Fairfield county. Here I was advanced 
 to the first spelling class and made an earnest contest for 
 the premium awarded to the one who obtained the most 
 head marks. I did not win, but stood next to the girl 
 who did. I also received the only punishment that I ever 
 received in school. That it was unjust and inflicted by a 
 teacher whom I dearly loved, caused my wounded feel- 
 ings to suffer more than my body. The writing desk 
 was a shelf against the wall and the seat was not high 
 enough to get my arms comfortably up to it. I raised 
 myself by sitting on one of my feet with the other pro- 
 truding behind me. Without a word of reproof or warn- 
 ing he struck my protruding foot a severe lick with a 
 switch that seemed to lap clear around my foot and cut 
 wherever it touched. A man may forget such an act of 
 injustice, but a boy will remember it all his life. 
 
 The next two winters I attended school in the vil- 
 lage of Kirkersville. The school house had one room, 
 miserably furnished and always crowded in winter. The 
 school terms were short and I cannot say that I profited 
 much by these schools save only in learning to read. I 
 had been made to believe that I was a good reader when 
 I was in fact a poor one. A Mr. Brindly from Boston was 
 the teacher who discovered my mistake to me. I took my 
 place in a reading class and when my time to read came 
 I said the words of a paragraph. When I finished his
 
 16 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 blunt question was ''Do you call that reading? I do not 
 call that reading. Now listen while I read the para- 
 graph." I did listen and by listening I learned the dif- 
 ference between reading arid merely saying words. I 
 have never forgotten the lesson. Spelling schools and 
 spelling matches were then prevalent. I took great pride 
 in them and availed myself of every opportunity to join 
 in them. I became a champion speller and was the victor 
 in some hotly contested matches. 
 
 A sing-song method of teaching geography from 
 maps hung in sight of a whole class in night schools was 
 in vogue. I attended a session of one of these schools and 
 acquired a fairly good knowledge of the location and 
 boundaries of the several nations of the world, the loca- 
 tion and names of their capitals and principal cities, 
 lakes, and rivers. 
 
 I commenced the study of Kirkham's English Gram- 
 mar, but I obtained much more and better practical 
 knowledge of language from a series of lectures delivered 
 by Dr. Benjamin P. Furguson. He was a disciple of 
 Lindley Murray, an elegant public speaker and a most 
 successful instructor. From early spring until late in the 
 fall season I was at work on the farm, but kept up my 
 studies and reading. I availed myself of such opportun- 
 ities as came to me to obtain such knowledge as might 
 be useful, or bring satisfaction later in my life. 
 
 In the autumn of 1847 I entered the preparatory de- 
 partment of the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware 
 with the hope of obtaining a collegiate education. I went 
 home at the holiday vacation and never returned. My 
 school days were over and forever gone. My ambition to 
 obtain such an education as would enable me to enter up- 
 on a professional life was crushed. Hard labor under 
 most discouraging conditions was continued until I came 
 to Illinois in the spring of 1849. 
 
 Several years before that time a tide of emigration
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 17 
 
 had set in from Licking county, Ohio, to Crawford coun- 
 ty, Illinois, and it still continued. Letters from those 
 who had emigrated caused others to follow. Among 
 those who came before we came were some prominent 
 men. I readily recall the names of some of them. There 
 was John Vance, Isaac and Jacob Wilkin, Samuel and 
 James Lamb, Preston Coulter, Dr. Thomas H. Fidlar and 
 my uncles, Isaac Green and John Glaze. My brother, 
 Nicholas, was of age and owned a team and wagon. I 
 was under age and did not own any property. We con- 
 cluded to join the tide of emigrants, and try our fortunes 
 in the new country, and in the latter part of February, 
 with our younger brother, Rufus, and Noah Wilkin, a 
 neighbor, we started .west along the National road. All 
 along were road houses and wayside taverns where en- 
 tertainment could be had as cheap or as expensive as one 
 might choose. The season of emigration was the harvest 
 time of these places. There were also camping places 
 where the wagons of emigrants were parked at night. 
 Log fires w T ere built and meals cooked and eaten. In the 
 wagons, under the wagons and in such sheltered places as 
 could be found beds were made and families slept. It 
 was not unusual to see several families in the same camp. 
 After the evening meal the campers often visited, made 
 acquaintances and talked of their hope to find fortunes 
 more favorable in the new country to which they were 
 going than in the older one they had left behind. These 
 camping places had many attractions. An air of romance 
 and adventure pervaded them. They were also spectac- 
 ular. The glowing camp fires sent clouds of smoke and 
 showers of brilliant sparks up through the spreading 
 branches of the trees. Busy wives and daughters gliding 
 into the lights and into the darkness while cooking meals, 
 or preparing beds for the night's slumber and rest. Men 
 and boys caring for the tired horses and the family cow; 
 gathering fuel, or purchasing and bringing in supplies
 
 18 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 from the adjacent farm houses. The silence often broken 
 by a loud laugh, or a snatch of some popular melody 
 and again by a hymn or a prayer. Taken altogether an 
 emigrant camp has presented pictures of life that will 
 long live in the memory of those who have looked upon, 
 or have been a part of them. 
 
 When we started on our westward journey my fath- 
 er and mother requested us not to travel on Sunday. We 
 promised, but did not keep our promise. The first Sat- 
 urday evening that we were out was cold and stormy 
 and we turned in at a tavern in a small village intending 
 to remain until Monday. The public room of the tavern 
 had a bar. On Sunday morning the idlers of the village 
 begun to come in and patronize the bar. The fumes of 
 liquor, and language that would not bear printing per- 
 fumed the air and were offensive to the ear. The atmos- 
 phere, both physical and moral, was so uncongenial that 
 we took to the road and made a Sabbath day's journey. 
 We explained and were forgiven. 
 
 Two years later I traveled from Lexington, Ohio, to 
 Crawford county, Illinois, in company of a family of 
 relatives who were moving to Illinois. It was in the sum- 
 mertime and the tide of emigration was in full flow. The 
 party camped by the wayside each night. This out of 
 door life was romantic and I enjoyed it very much. Lat- 
 er the railroads came and furnished more rapid means of 
 transportation. Emigrant wagon trains disappeared. 
 The wayside camp fires ceased to glow. The sheltering 
 trees yielded to the woodman's axe and the camping 
 grounds became fields of rustling corn and waving wheat. 
 The National road ceased to be national and fell into dis- 
 use as a highway for the restless tide of emigration that 
 was flowing irresistibly westward. 
 
 On the eighth day of March, 1849, my brother and his 
 party arrived at the home of Hon. Isaac Wilkin, on 
 Mount Pleasant, where we received a very cordial wel- 

 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 19 
 
 come. It was the end of a long, toilsome journey, in the 
 inclement weather and over muddy roads. The accidents 
 and incidents of this journey, if written out in detail, 
 would be too lengthy for this sketch. I was now in a 
 new country and had my life and fortune before me. I 
 had no one to look to, or depend upon but myself. I had 
 remaining, a cash capital of seventy-five cents to begin 
 with. There was no time to loiter. I made my home 
 with my uncle Isaac Green. He wanted rails made and 
 land fenced. My brother and myself made about six 
 thousand rails, hauled them over three miles, and built 
 them into fences. The rails were made on congress 
 land. The best men to be found in that day were tim- 
 ber thieves. No settler's conscience seemed to be dis- 
 turbed by the knowledge that he was trespassing on 
 Government, in order to save the timber on the land the 
 Government had sold to him for one dollar and twenty- 
 five cents an acre. 
 
 My brother and myself rented a farm of Mr. James 
 Lamb and raised an extra good crop of corn and oats. 
 Mr. Lamb was an arbitrary and unreasonable landlord. 
 The controversies we had with him made me solemnly 
 promise myself never to cultivate any land on my own 
 account until I owned it. The ownership of land is a 
 condition precedent to independent and successful 
 farming. 
 
 In August of the same year my father and mother 
 and our remaining brothers and sisters came. A cabin 
 was hastily built in Bear Grove and the family occupied 
 it. This was about four miles from the crop we had 
 raised. Nicholas and myself shucked the corn and our 
 younger brothers, James and Rufus, hauled and cribbed 
 it at the Bear Grove residence. When not engaged with 
 our own work we found employment in the neighbor- 
 hood. In this manner the maintainence of the family 
 during the coming winter was provided for.
 
 20 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 In December I began to teach school at the Hamil- 
 ton school house, four miles west of Greenup. My con- 
 tract was for fifteen dollars per month and board around 
 at the homes of my pupils. This feature of the contract 
 was not pleasing to me, but I accepted it because I must 
 have a job. Mr. Hamilton proposed that if I would help 
 his older children, who were not to go to school, with 
 their studies at home, he would board me for seventy- 
 five cents a v eek. I accented his proposition and made 
 my home with the Hamilton's during the term: There 
 was one large room in which the family lived, and in 
 which Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton, their tv^o daup:hters, three 
 sons and myself slept. We were pioneers, living in pion- 
 eer times, and we understood the situation and conformed 
 to it. 
 
 The law required sixty days teaching in a three 
 months term. I taught six days in each week and so 
 completed the term in ten weeks. After paying my 
 board I had thirty-six dollars left. I was richer then 
 than I have ever been since. 
 
 I had in that school an enrollment of over eighty, 
 ?nd the daily attendance was quite full. Grades in 
 schools were then unknown, and owing to the diversity 
 of books, no classes other than the t\vo classes in spelling. 
 I made the entire school a class in geography, and taught 
 from maps hung against the wall. A map of the two 
 hemispheres was being used, and I asked how these two 
 flat pictures could be made to represent the earth that 
 was round like a ball. A small boy answered, "Turn 
 their backs together and stuff them." The principal 
 studies pursued were spelling, reading, writing, and 
 arithmetic. In writing, quill pens were used which the 
 "Master" must make and mend. This was my most 
 difficult task. Some pens were condemned because they 
 were too stiff, others because they were too limber, and 
 Rome because they would spatter. No series of school
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 21 
 
 books had ever appeared in that school. Each one se- 
 lected his or her own reading book. In arithmetic, I 
 found Adams, Daboll, Smith, Smiley, Stockton, Pike, and 
 Ray. Classification was an impossibility. Two young- 
 men came with Davies.' Elementary Geometry. I had 
 never studied geometry, and had no knowledge of it. I 
 borrowed one of the books and gave it a night of faithful 
 study. Thereafter I was prepared to teach geometry. 
 I kept in advance of them, and they never knew that I 
 was taking my first lesson as much as they were. 
 
 The summer following, I assisted my father on the 
 farm. A good corn crop was raised. Up to that time I 
 had seen no wheat grow on the clay prairie land, where 
 it was said that wheat. would not grow. Father believed 
 that it would grow and sowed some ten or twelve acres 
 on prairie sod broken during the summer. It produced 
 a good crop. That winter I taught school in a log school 
 house in the Wilkin neighborhood. My pupils consisted 
 largely of my younger brothers and sisters, cousins and 
 children of recent emigrants from Ohio. It was a pleas- 
 ant winter to me though crowded full of hard work. 
 
 In the spring of 1851 I began to teach a summer 
 school in the village of Hutsonville. The boys and girls 
 who came to that school appeared to have little idea 
 of discipline and order. Rules, to them, were things to 
 be broken. They learned to obey rules and keep order 
 in school before I quit them. 
 
 A committee of citizens came to the school house 
 one June day and asked me to make a speech at the then 
 coming Fourth of July celebration. I had never made 
 a public speech, but had cherished the thought that I 
 could. I accepted the invitation and a week before the 
 fourth I dismissed my school in order to prepare my 
 speech. I wrote it in full with all the adjectives that I 
 could crowd into it. Then I committed it to memory and 
 declaimed it to the winds several times by way of prac-
 
 22 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 tice. I made the speech and succeeded so well that I con- 
 tracted the habit of making speeches, and I have never 
 been either able or willing to quit the habit. That speech 
 ended my career as a school teacher. 
 
 It was at Hutsonville that I saw the first daguerrotype. 
 A Mr. Fuller was there practicing the new art of taking 
 pictures on silver plates. My vanity or curiosity, or 
 both, caused me to sit for a picture of myself which I 
 still have, and which has been copied for this publication. 
 
 After the celebration was over I took employment 
 with Preston Brothers, general merchants, and dealers 
 in all kinds of country produce, at Hutsonville, Illinois. 
 I had then given up all thought of making a lawyer out 
 of myself and concluded that I would be a merchant. I 
 then knew nothing about the business. My employers 
 conducted what is now known as a department store. 
 They sold everything that a farmer or mechanic could 
 possibly want. 
 
 At the end of my first day I determined to quit. I 
 told Mr. Preston that I had been kept the most of the day 
 in the ware house selling tar and whiskey and that I 
 was willing to do hard work and sell tar and everything 
 else they had to sell, but whiskey. I told him that upon 
 no possible condition would I sell or handle intoxicating 
 liquor. He said I need not, and I was not asked to sell 
 any more liquor during the year that I remained in their 
 employment. At the end of a year I quit. I wanted an 
 occupation in which I could be personally independent. 
 I went to my father's home, near Neoga, Illinois. I knew 
 farming and concluded to settle down to that. I went 
 to Vandalia and bought eighty acres of timber land. I 
 could not get the prairie eighty that I wanted. I was 
 not ready to do any work on the land I had bought. 
 Winter was coming on and the necessity of earning some- 
 thing was, on me. I returned to Hutsonville and took 
 employment with J. A. Merrick & Co., merchants, packers
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 23 
 
 and dealers in farm produce. This gave me work and 
 fair wages during the winter. 
 
 Caswell Jones and Liberty Murphy had established 
 a newspaper with Charles T. Cutler as editor and man- 
 ager. Cutler's management was not approved by Jones 
 and Murphy and he went away. The printing office was 
 then turned over to me and I became editor and man- 
 ager. I changed the name of the paper and called it 
 "'The Wabash Sentinel," and continued to edit and pub- 
 lish it until the spring of 1854, when I sold out to Knapp 
 Brothers, and went to Marshall to edit "The Marshall 
 Telegraph. ' ' At that time the messages of the President 
 were not printed and sent out in advance of their deliv- 
 ery, as they are now. President Pierce was inaugurated 
 on the fourth of March, 1853. James S. Wilhite was 
 telegraph operator at Hutsonville. He informed me that 
 the President 's inaugural address would be sent to Chi- 
 cago over his line and he could take it off for me if I 
 wanted it. Of course I wante4 it. When the reading 
 commenced in Washington, the telegraph commenced 
 its transmission. Mr. Wilhite took it and before night I 
 had it in print at Hutsonville. I sold papers on boats 
 that passed up and down the river and the next day the 
 Terre Haute and Vincennes papers copied it and gave 
 credit to the Sentinel. 
 
 On the twenty-seventh day of June, 1854, I married 
 Mrs. Mary Barlow Jones, of Hutsonville. Her son, Will- 
 iam, C., was then about six years old, and a bright promis- 
 ing boy. The apparent anxiety of some of my wife's 
 relatives for his welfare, and their fear that I would 
 abuse him and waste his property, were both provoking 
 and amusing to me. The clean life, high character and 
 honorable career of Judge William C. Jones, long ago 
 demonstrated that their fears were not well grounded. 
 
 Our daughter, Mary, now Mrs. Mary Callahan 
 Mercer, was born on the eighth day of April, 1861. She
 
 24 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 attended select and public schools in Robinson, and was 
 graduated at the Illinois Woman's College at Jackson- 
 ville, Illinois. She was appointed by Governor Joseph W. 
 Fifer as a commissioner for the state of Illinois at the 
 World 's Fair in Chicago in 1893, and was secretary of the 
 Board. The Illinois Board claims the distinction of being 
 the only board that paid all of its expenses and returned 
 a surplus of the money appropriated. 
 
 The year 1854 is memorable on account of the rise 
 and successful campaign of the Native American or 
 Know Nothing party. It was a protest against certain 
 foreign political and religious influences which were 
 deemed to have acquired an undue and dubious control in 
 certain departments of the government, both state aud 
 national. The nucleus of the party was a secret organ- 
 ization whose members when questioned in regard to its 
 aims, principles or purposes, uniformly answered, "I 
 don't know, do you.'-' The mystery of its doings was 
 attractive and many men. of all parties joined it. |The 
 Whig party was in a state of dissolution and many 
 Whigs took temporary political shelter in the Know 
 Nothing lodges. The race for Congress that year in our 
 district was intensely interesting. Hon\ James C. Allen 
 was the Democratic candidate, and Colonel William B. 
 Archer was the candidate of the new National American 
 party. The democrats made the usual political canvass 
 in the open. They had mass meetings, processions and 
 speeches. Their opponents concealed their operations 
 all that they could. There was no public mustering of 
 their forces. The returns of the election were slow in 
 coming in and for, probably a month, the result was in 
 doubt. ..finally it was announced that Allen had a major- 
 ity of one. On the day of the election a claim was made 
 that there was a miscount of the ballots cast at Livings- 
 ton, in Clark county. On this ground Archer contested 
 the election and the evidence taken in the contest sus-
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN, 1887
 
 MRS. MARY BARLOW CALLAHAN.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 25 
 
 tainecl the claim of a miscount and gave Archer a major- 
 ity of one vote over Allen. The contest lingered along 
 in Congress until the Philadelphia convention that nom- 
 inated John C. Freemont for President. Archer went to 
 the convention and was made one of its Vice-Presidents. 
 That cooked his goose. There were some Know Nothings 
 from southern states in Congress whose votes were neces- 
 sary to decide the contest in favor of Archer. They 
 would not vote to seat Allen or Archer. The seat was 
 declared to be vacant. Another election was held and 
 Allen was elected. Know Nothingism was on the wane. 
 
 The Whig party was then in the throes of its final 
 dissolution. I had been a whig because I believed in a 
 National Bank with a National Currency and the protec- 
 tion of American labor. The Democratic party dominat- 
 ed by the south, was grasping after territory out of which 
 to make more slave states. I had been educated to be- 
 lieve that slavery was morally wrong and ought not to be 
 extended. I was ripe for the organization of a political 
 party opposed to its further extension. I naturally en- 
 tered the Republican party as one of its charter members. 
 No party in the history of the United States has so grand 
 a record as the Republican party. In its later years, 
 practical politics has sometimes had the ascendancy over 
 fundamental principles and led the party into mistakes 
 and errors. But such errors have found protests within 
 the party strong enough to call it back to the line of pat- 
 riotic duty. 
 
 My desire to become a lawyer came to life again. 
 My association with some rather prominent Illinois law- 
 yers learned me that a classical education was not a pre- 
 requisite to success in the profession. I looked about me 
 in search of ways and means. I became a candidate for 
 Justice of the Peace in a precinct that had about one 
 hundred democratic majority when the Quakers did not 
 vote. They voted that year and I was elected by a ma-
 
 26 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 jority of one. I bought the last vote cast by promising 
 a young democrat to marry him without charge if I was 
 elected. I kept my promise. I qualified and begun to 
 hold court, and marry folks that asked me to marry them. 
 A presumption arose that I possesed an amount of 
 legal knowledge of which I had never before been sus- 
 pected. I began in dead earnest to read law so that the 
 presumption might be justified, and grow into fact. I be- 
 gan trying cases before other Justices, using what knowl- 
 edge of the law I had acquired and guessing where I did 
 not know. While I was at Marshall in 1854, 1 had formed 
 a close friendship with John Scholfield, who nad recently 
 been admitted to the bar and was now the State's Attor- 
 ney for this Judicial Circuit. Many of the cases I tried 
 before Justices of the Peace we're appealed to the Circuit 
 Court and I took in some original cases. All these I 
 turned over to Scholfield. At the September term of the 
 Circuit Court in 1858 he suggested that I would better 
 obtain a lawyer's license and attend to my own cases. I 
 did not believe that my legal knowledge was sufficient, 
 and told him so. He said "Get and send to me the cer- 
 tificate of moral character required by the statute." I 
 obtained and sent him the certificate and a few weeks 
 later received a letter informing me that on payment of 
 the clerk's fee, I would receive a license. John Schol- 
 field and Hon. James C. Eobinson had been appointed by 
 the court to examine me and upon their personal knowl- 
 edge, and acquaintance with me, made a favorable report 
 and I was, on the fifteenth day of January, A. D. 1859, 
 admitted to the bar of the State of Illinois. I knew bet- 
 ter than others my deficiency in legal knowledge and 
 determined to make good as soon as possible. I gave 
 day and night to reading and study. No case was so 
 small that I did not brief it so far as books of authority 
 were within my reach. In July, 1861, I moved my resi- 
 dence to Robinson and opened an office. I obtained bus-
 
 HON. WILLIAM C. JONES.
 
 MARY CALLAHAN, Jr.. 1892

 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 27 
 
 iness without delay and had a measure of success that 
 satisfied and encouraged me. I continued my practice 
 at Robinson until the first day of March, 1911, when I 
 retired from practice that I might enjoy the leisure that 
 I had earned by half a century of hard labor. 
 
 In 1861, when I came to Robinson, Franklin Robb 
 was at the head of the Crawford county bar. He had a 
 collegiate education and kept up his reading of classic 
 literature in the language of the original text as long as 
 he lived. He was a very learned lawyer and in his pub- 
 lic and private life absolutely clean. His law partner 
 was Hon. James C. Allen who resided at Palestine. 
 He was an eloquent speaker and a successful advocate 
 before either court or jury. 
 
 George W. Peck was a very promising young lawyer, 
 but had recently enlisted in the army and never returned. 
 Judge William H. Sterritt soon retired from practice on 
 account of ill health. James H. Steel, Edward S. Wilson 
 and George N. Parker were the remaining members of 
 the county bar. Wilson and Parker were young men 
 who have since then won success. I was appointed Mas- 
 ter in Chancery and found considerable unfinished busi- 
 ness ready for me. Clients came and my first year was 
 quite successful. A partnership with James H. Steel fol- 
 lowed and continued one year. I was without a partner 
 until my step-son, William C. Jones, was admitted to the 
 bar. A partnership with him continued for ten years 
 and was then dissolved by his election to the bench. 
 Then a partnership was formed with Alfred H. Jones 
 and John C. Maxwell. Maxwell retired and Jones re- 
 mained until 1888, when Ausby L. Lowe was 
 taken in and the firm of Callahan, Jones & Lowe was 
 formed and continued until I retired from practice in 
 1911. All of my partners except James H. Steel were 
 students in my office before their admission. 
 
 In the earlier years of my practice lawyers traveled
 
 28 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 around the circuit with the judge and circuit attorney. 
 I attended the courts of Clark, Cumberland, Jasper, Rich- 
 land, Lawrence and Crawford counties and had a remun- 
 erative business in each. I have been engaged in many 
 very important cases involving property, life, liberty, and 
 reputation and have had a measure of success sufficient 
 to gratify the reasonable ambition of any country law- 
 yer. I have defended many persons indicted for mur- 
 der, and prosecuted a few. In prosecutions where the 
 punishment might be death I never asked for a verdict 
 of murder, and in defense where a conviction was in- 
 evitable I sought, and in every instance obtained, a ver- 
 dict for man-slaughter only. I did not desire to be, in 
 any measure whatever, responsible for the taking of a 
 human life. 
 
 I became *a member of the State Bar Association at 
 its organization in 1877 and have continued my member- 
 ship. This brought me into close relationship with many 
 of the prominent and successful lawyers of the state. 
 This gave me many opportunities and advantages which 
 1 appreciated and improved. At the January meeting 
 in 1889 I was elected president of the association. Dur- 
 ing the year that I was president the American Bar Asso- 
 ciation met at Chicago and it devolved upon me to de- 
 liver an address of welcome, which would be responded 
 to by Hon. David Dudley Field, president of the Ameri- 
 can Bar Association. Mr. Field was a man of national 
 reputation and stood at the head of the American bar. 
 I approached this duty with fear and trembling. It 
 took about half of my lifetime to learn that no matter 
 how distinguished he may be, or how exalted his position 
 he is only my fellow-man. I prepared the little speech 
 that I was to make and carried it to Chicago. It was my 
 good fortune to meet Mr. Field at the Grand Pacific Ho- 
 tel the evening before the Association met. On his in- 
 vitation I passed the evening with him alone in his room.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 29 
 
 His cordial manner dispelled all my fears. I made my 
 speech without trepidation and received compliments 
 that were very pleasant to my ear. I had, for several 
 years been advocating the location of the supreme court 
 at Springfield. Its shifting about from place to place 
 was neither convenient or dignified. As president of the 
 State Bar Association I took a very positive stand in 
 favor of the location of the court. I secured papers 
 written by ex-judges of the court favoring the location 
 at one place. The sitting judges were shy on the ques- 
 tion and no expression of opinion could be obtained from 
 any of them. Ottawa and Mount Vernon confronted 
 them. The agitation of the question was not barren or 
 unfruitful. It would not down until final success was 
 achieved. 
 
 McKendree College conferred on me the degree of 
 Doctor of Laws. The honor was unsolicited and came to 
 me as a surprise and is for that reason more highly ap- 
 preciated. 
 
 The kindly relations existing between the members 
 of the Crawford County bar and myself is a ground of 
 pleasure to me. Both before and since my retirement 
 from practice my brethren of the bar have manifested 
 their friendship. When I had reached my four-score 
 years and was standing at the threshold of my eighty- 
 first year the entire bar and the county officers invaded 
 my house bearing with them a large mahogany rocking 
 chair which they presented to me with many words of 
 kindness. They presented me some flattering resolutions 
 signed by each of them and then retired. The chair is 
 elegant to the sight, comfortable and restful to sit in and 
 an ever present reminder of the friendship of the donors. 
 
 Five years mpre have passed away when a second 
 invasion by the bar occured and after an hour of friendly 
 talk I was informed that further proceedings were con- 
 templated. A banquet at which I should sit at the head
 
 30 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 of the table. This banquet was given on the thirtieth 
 day of December, 1914, in the dining room of the First M. 
 E. Church and was to me an occasion of great satisfac- 
 tion. This the last incident of the kind that will find 
 a place in this book and I will include some extracts from 
 it given by the Constitution newspaper. 
 
 "About thirty members of the Crawford county bar y 
 with their wives and best girls, assembled at the M. E. 
 church basement dining room Wednesday noon to enjoy 
 a banquet in honor of Hon. E. Callahan, dean of the 
 county bar, who celebrated his eighty-fifth anniversary 
 December 17. On that date the local members of the bar 
 called on Mr. Callahan at his home, and, after extending 
 greetings, requested the pleasure of the banquet which 
 was granted. 
 
 "The Ladies Aid of the M. E. church furnished the 
 spread, which consisted of roast turkey and all the us- 
 ual accessories. After assembling in the church parlors 
 and exchanging greetings the party repaired to the spa- 
 cious dining room where the feast was spread. Judge 
 E. E. Newlin was called, and invoked the divine blesr- 
 sing. 
 
 "After full justice had been done to a well cooked and 
 well served dinner, Hon. Geo. W. Jones made a short ad- 
 dress, couched in most eloquent language, reciting the 
 purpose of the occasion and expressing the pleasure af- 
 forded the members of the bar in giving so slight a token 
 of their esteem and respect for their veteran pro- 
 fessional brother. He well said that in endeavoring to 
 honor him they were doing honor unto themselves. That 
 the exemplary life led by the venerable pioneer of the bar 
 and the high standard of professional ethics he has al- 
 ways maintained has been a source of inspiration to all 
 members of the bar who have come after him, and will 
 be a beacon light for many years to come to guide their
 
 footsteps along the professional highway. He recounted 
 that it is much better and more appropriate that these, 
 expressions of love, appreciation, esteem and good will 
 be made during the life of the recipient than after he had 
 been called to the Great Beyond whither the rapid cycles 
 of time are carrying us all. Mr. Callahan was visibly af- 
 fected by the many expressions which all felt were so 
 ,uistly clue him and only slightly indexed our true feel- 
 ings. When called upon by Mr. Jones, who acted as 
 toast master, the venerable counsellor whose voice has 
 swayed courts and juries in this and adjoining counties 
 for more than half a century, could scarcely utter 
 the words which welled to his lips, for the full- 
 ness of his heart. After thanking the members 
 of the bar for the pleasure of the occasion, he gave 
 the formal address which had been assigned him on, 
 'Recollections of the Early Bench and Bar of Crawford 
 County,' which follows below, and will be read with in- 
 terest by all who care to look into the past. ' * 
 
 MY RESPONSE 
 Members of the County Bar: 
 
 This banquet tendered by you is extremely gratify- 
 ing to me. It tells me that though I am on the retired list, 
 I am not forgotten. It tells me that you who have long 
 and intimately known me, have kind memories of our 
 past association together, and that our present relations 
 are cordial and friendly. It strengthens my own love 
 for the profession to which I have given the greater part 
 of my life, and for my associates in that profession. I 
 thank you for the pleasure of this hour, and assure you 
 that I shall bear away a pleasant memory of the Craw- 
 ford County bar, and of its very kindness to me. 
 
 You have indicated your desire that for a few min- 
 utes I should give you my recollections of the early Bench 
 and Bar of Crawford county. The judicial history of the 
 county began with the territorial courts held by Judge
 
 32 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 Thomas Towles from 1815 to 1818. Nothing is now 
 known of Judge Towles beyond the few brief records 
 that he signed. In 1818 Illinois became a state and 
 .Judge Thomas C. Browne held the courts until 1824. By 
 a change of the circuits Judge Browne was removed from 
 Crawford county, but remained on the circuit bench, and 
 was a member of the Supreme Court for more than a 
 quarter of a century. Judge Caton writes of him that if 
 he ever read a law book it was so long ago that lie had 
 entirely forgotten it. He is credited with one written 
 opinion, and Judge Breese claimed to have written that 
 one. Judge Browne was succeeded by William Wilson 
 of White county. In 1825 James Wattles became judge, 
 and was legislated out of office in 1827. I have been un- 
 able to learn anything about him outside of the few re- 
 cords that he signed. 
 
 William Wilson succeeded Judge Wattles and held 
 the courts until 1835, when Justin Harlan of Clark county 
 became judge and held the courts until 1841, when Judge 
 Wilson returned to the bench and held the courts until 
 1849, when he was again succeeded by Judge Harlan, who 
 held the courts until 1859, when Alfred Kitchell of Rich- 
 land county was elected and held the courts until 1861, 
 when James C. Allen of Crawford county was elected. 
 In 1862 he was elected to Congress and resigned the 
 judgeship. 
 
 The vacancy was filled by the election of Aaron Shaw 
 of Richland county. In 1865 Hiram B. Decius of Cumber- 
 land county was elected judge and continued until 1873, 
 when he was succeeded by James C. Allen. The judi- 
 cial system and the circuits were so changed as to place 
 three judges in each circuit, and John H. Halley of Jas- 
 per county was elected as third judge in this circuit. 
 
 The judges that I have named have all closed the 
 record of their lives, and passed over to the Bar and 
 Bench beyond the clouds of time.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 33 
 
 My recollection of Judge Harlan began in the old 
 court house, A trial was progressing and the Judge 
 was busily whittling hooks, links and swivels out of a 
 pine board. A casual observer might well have doubted 
 whether he was giving the trial much attention. When 
 the evidence was all in and the arguments to the jury 
 concluded, he summed up the evidence, gave the name 
 of each witness and the substance of his testimony. If 
 he had doubt as to the credibility of any witness he found 
 a way to convey his doubt to the jury. His oral instruc- 
 tions were in effect a direction to the jury as to what ver- 
 dict they should find. He was fond of the chase, a good 
 teller of stories, and a just judge. 
 
 Judge Kitchell was a scholarly man and a good law- 
 yer. His manner was quiet and unpretentious. He was 
 a gentleman in the best sense of the word. I made 
 his acquaintance long before he came to the bench, and 
 our friendship continued during his life. 
 
 I first saw Judge Allen when he was a candidate 
 for the state legislature. He was making a speech in 
 favor of making the Embarras river navigable by means 
 of locks and dams. This fancy picture which he held 
 up before his audience has never materialized. As a 
 member of the legislature he led the battle that ended 
 the narrow state policy that denied charters to rail- 
 roads that were to terminate at East St. Louis. This 
 gave him a popularity that carried him to Congress. He 
 was too much in politics to be a profound lawyer. As a 
 judge his common sense often served him well in the 
 absence of technical legal knowledge. He was eloquent in 
 speech, a splendid singer of hymns and songs, and an in- 
 teresting teller of good stories. He was always a wel- 
 come guest and a pleasing companion. 
 
 Judge Shaw was a happy disappointment to me. 
 As a man he blustered and was free in the use of profane 
 language. On the bench he was polite and courteous
 
 34 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 to all. He was extremely careful in making the final de- 
 cisions in important cases and questions. He was care- 
 ful to preserve the dignity of the office. 
 
 When I became a member of the Crawford county 
 bar, the other members were Franklin Robb, James C. 
 Allen, Augustus C. French, James H. Steel, William H. 
 Sterrett, George W. Peck and James P. Barlow. 
 
 Mr. Eobb then, and during his life-time stood at the 
 head of the county bar. He was a graduate in both med- 
 icine and law. He was a good man and a good lawyer. 
 His standard of professional ethics was very high, and 
 he lived up to his standard. He was so careful to get 
 everything in that his pleadings were often open to the 
 charge of being prolix. He had a dry wit that sparkled 
 most when it was least expected. 
 
 William H. Sterrett was born in Canada and re- 
 tained many of his English habits and mannerisms. He 
 had good natural ability, and was shrewd and tactful in 
 the trial of cases. His practice extended over more than 
 twenty-five years, yet he never owned a law book. His 
 health failed and he returned to Canada, where he died. 
 
 James H. Steel had a large experience as clerk of 
 the courts before he entered upon the practice of law. 
 He investigated every case and question thoroughly, 
 and was inclined to doubt everything until it was demon- 
 strated. He was very technical in practice. He assumed 
 that the position and pleadings of his adversary were 
 wrong, and assailed them all along the line. Amendments 
 were not then allowed and the consequences of a mistake 
 in pleading were often serious. Mr. Steel was a good 
 counselor in all practical business matters. He soon re- 
 tired on account of failing health, and died several years 
 ago. 
 
 When I came to Illinois, Augustus C. French was 
 governor. He lived on his Maplewood farm, south of Pal- 
 estine. After his return from Springfield he did not ac-
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 35 
 
 tively engage in practice, and I never had an opportun- 
 ity to estimate his ability as a lawyer, though personally 
 well acquainted with him. He removed to Lebanon and 
 took charge of the law department of McKendree college. 
 He was well educated and was held in high esteem by 
 those who knew him best. 
 
 Mr. Peck was a young man who had recently come 
 from Indiana. He was a good practical lawyer, with 
 prospects of a succesful career before him. In 1861 he 
 volunteered, and became an officer in the 21st regiment 
 of Illinois volunteers. He was discharged on account of 
 failing health, and returned to his Indiana home and died. 
 
 Barlow was one of those pestiferous creatures who 
 lower the standard of the profession and injure its rep- 
 utation by their unprofessional conduct. A Pettifogger. 
 
 These men have all passed away, and I am the sole 
 survivor of the Crawford county bar of 1860. I was soon 
 followed by some strong young men who still survive, and 
 have been my associates until this present time. 
 
 The establishment of courts in this state and the 
 administration of law were migratory. The Supreme 
 Court migrated from one end of the state to the other. 
 It was only located after long and strenuous effort. The 
 Circuit Courts were made traveling concerns, and are 
 still wandering. It is to be hoped that the coming con- 
 stitutional convention will act wisely and locate them. 
 The early bar traveled with the judges, and the business 
 of some counties was principally done by non-resident 
 attorneys. A number of such non-resident attorneys were 
 regularly in attendance in this county. I joined this com- 
 pany of traveling lawyers, and for more than a quarter 
 of a century had a profitable practice in the adjoining 
 counties. 
 
 These old ways have passed and are forever gone. 
 I do not mourn because they are gone, and I would not 
 recall them if I could. There were many pleasant pas-
 
 36 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 sages in these old ways. There were also many hardships 
 and rough passages which you have escaped. 
 
 I have thrown off my working harness and voluntar- 
 ily surrendered to you the labor and the rewards of the 
 legal profession in Crawford county, and you have as- 
 sumed the obligation and duty of maintaining the honor 
 and dignity of our profession. 
 
 The pathway of the lawyer is beset with temptation. 
 It is both weakness and folly to yield to such tempta- 
 tions. There is no other profession or calling in which 
 uprightness and unswerving integrity are better busi- 
 ness capital. There is no other profession or calling in 
 which falsehood, deceit and dishonest practices more 
 certainly keep one away from the front rank and in the 
 end drive to sure failure. 
 
 MY POLITICS 
 
 I was a ready made republican when the party was 
 organized in 186f* I made the first republican speech 
 that was made in Crawford county, in the Quaker church 
 on Quaker Lane. This was in ISSG'Vhen John C. Free- 
 mont was the republican candidate for president. In 
 1860 I was very actively engaged in the campaign that 
 resulted in the election of Abraham Lincoln. I have 
 acted with the republican party and voted for every re- 
 publican candidate for president excepting Taft. The 
 reactionary course pursued by President Taft and cer- 
 tain leaders of the party with whom he affiliated and 
 their failure to keep the promises of the party to the peo- 
 ple had alienated the progressive element of the party to 
 such an extent that his re-election was an evident impossi- 
 bility. His nomination was forced by the national com- 
 mittee against the known wish of a majority of the party. 
 I voted the republican county and state tickets that had 
 been honestly nominated and fairly represented the par- 
 ty, and for the electors of the progressive party.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 37 
 
 OFFICES HELD 
 
 The only judicial office I ever held was justice of the 
 peace. The duties of the office were always interesting 
 and often very amusing. The same questions of law, and 
 principles of justice are presented and passed upon by 
 the justice of the peace as by the judges in the higher 
 courts. I was reading law and preparing myself to be- 
 come a lawyer. I kept this purpose constantly in mind. 
 I sought all the information that I could obtain in re- 
 gard to legal questions arising in the cases that I tried 
 and thus made the office a valuable aid in my progress to- 
 wards the bar. In 1861 1 was appointed Master in Chan- 
 cery and held the office two years. I was a member of the 
 first State Board of Equalization in the state. In this 
 board I found plenty of hard work. The returns of as- 
 sessments from different counties were so diverse and so 
 unequal that the necessity of some instrumentality by 
 which assessments and the burdens of taxation could be 
 made to approximate equality, was self-evident. 
 
 In 1875 I was a member of the 29th General Assem- 
 bly of the state, Hon. Elijah M. Haines was the speaker. 
 The balance of power between the republicans and demo- 
 crats was held by a small faction of so-called Independ- 
 ents, who combined with the democrats and elected 
 Haines their candidate, speaker, and giving the other of- 
 fices to the democrats. It was a turbulent noisy session 
 and was often derisively spoken of as "Haines' Circus." 
 It passed but few laws, and none that was really bad. I 
 was also a member of the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth and 
 fortieth General Assemblies. In these later sessions there 
 was more partisan politics, more bills with jobs concealed 
 under plausible phrases, and more jobs that were not con- 
 cealed. Some that met opposition and defeat, and some 
 that survived. If the advancement of special interest and 
 the promotion of selfish schemes could be eliminated, and 
 public interest alone kept in view as the sole objects of
 
 38 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 legislation the duties of the legislator would be very pleas- 
 ant. As a Presidential elector I vpted for Presidents Gar- 
 field and Harrison. I was President of the Electoral Col- 
 lege when the vote of Illinois was cast for President Har- 
 rison and messenger to carry the returns to Washington. 
 
 MX, RELIGION: 
 
 M^ paternal and maternal grandparents were all 
 Methodists and my father and 'mother followed in their 
 footsteps. They were Methodists and observed the rules 
 and followed the practices of the church. They attended 
 the prayer meetings, class meetings and the more public 
 worship of tlie church. Each morning a passage of scrip- 
 ture was read and followed by prayer. Each evening a 
 hymn was sung arid a prayer made. On Saturday prepar- 
 ations were made for a day of rest on Sunday when no 
 work was done save that which was actually necessary. 
 No business matter was discussed or transacted. Books of 
 a purely secular character were laid aside. The children 
 were given religious instruction. Such was the atmos- 
 phere in which I grew 1 into manhood. I do riot reiriember 
 a time when I was hot seriously inclined to be religious. 
 From my childhood it was my habit to repeat a prayer 
 upon retiring at night. I accepted what I knew of the 
 Christian religion with unwavering confidence, and tried 
 to live in conformity with its precepts. At the age of 
 twelve I felt that it was my duty to join the church. If 
 my dear father and mother and the pastor of the church 
 had been as wise as they were pious I would have been 
 saved from a bitter and disappointing experience. They 
 should have led me into the church kindly and intelli- 
 gently and counseled me to continue in the way in which 
 they had led me from my earliest years of responsibility. 
 Instead of this I was told that I must mourn over my 
 sins and feel a godly sorrow for them. I was not con- 
 scious of having ever done anything to feel deeply sorry
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 39 
 
 for. They said I must be converted. I must be pardoned 
 and obtain a peace that my innocent childhood had never 
 known. I sought earnestly for the sorrow it was said 
 I must. I sought to find and drink of the bitter waters of 
 penitence. I went to the mourners' bench often and be- 
 sought God to give me that which I had not found else- 
 where. In private prayer and the public congregations 
 I was an earnest seeker after the experience that I was 
 told I must have before I could truthfully call my- 
 self a Christian. If I was not already a Christian and en- 
 titled to membership in the church, Jesus, it seems to me, 
 was mistaken when he folded his arms tenderly about a 
 child and said "of such is the kingdom of heaven" and 
 he was never mistaken, 
 
 I joined the church 011 probation, and at the expir- 
 ation of six months was received into full membership. 
 I assented to and said I believed all the deep mysteries 
 condensed in what is called the Apostles Creed, when I 
 had little understanding of their import. A misapplica- 
 tion of an old testament scripture and a fallacious argu- 
 ment led me to believe that the ancient method of bap- 
 tism was by sprinkling or pouring water on the candi- 
 date and I accepted baptism in that way. 
 While it is my belief now that the mode of baptism is 
 not material if it is rightly accepted and the baptismal 
 covenants are thereafter kept, the evidence is over- 
 whelming that the mode practiced by the early Christian 
 was the immersion of the entire body in water. 
 
 In our Sunday Schools we call children "Little 
 Lambs of Jesus," and if they die we believe they are lov- 
 ingly taken to the mansions above. But when they seek to 
 join the church they are sent to a "mourner's bench" 
 or an anxious seat to shed penitential tears over sins they 
 had never committed. Children stand at the feet of 
 Christ and it is the duty of adult Christians to instruct 
 and so guide them that they will not wander away into
 
 40 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 paths of folly and sin as they grow into manhood and 
 womanhood. One who has committed gross conscious 
 sin has occasion to mourn and to shed bitter penitential 
 tears. 
 
 In the year 1872, 1 was a delegate from the Southern 
 Illinois Conference to the General Conference that met 
 in Brooklyn, New York. This was the first general con- 
 ference to which laymen were admitted as delegates. An 
 investigation of the business methods and management 
 of "The Book Concern" in the city of New York demon- 
 strated the wisdom of the church in providing for the ad- 
 mission of practical business men into that high tribunal 
 of the church. Irregularities were corrected and unbusi- 
 nesslike methods were changed. I have been, and I am 
 now a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. I do 
 not claim for my church any superiority over others. I 
 am in fellowship with all accepted Christianity as the 
 true religion and its founder as the Saviour of the world. 
 
 I am a member of Robinson Lodge Number 250 of 
 Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and of Chapter Num- 
 ber 225 Royal Arch Masons, and I am proud of my con- 
 nection with this ancient order which for centuries has 
 been a builder of civilization in the world. 
 
 I have borne my part in the development of Craw- 
 ford county since I became one of its citizens. Then 
 there were no means of carrying the produce of the 
 county to any market except the Wabash river, and that 
 led only toward such markets as could be found in the 
 South. The uncertainty of river navigation, and the diffi- 
 culty of reaching the river over the unimproved roads of 
 the county were calling imperatively for other means of 
 transportation, and access to other markets. To answer 
 this call a railroad from Vincennes, Indiana, to Paris, 
 Illinois, was projected in the early fifties. Its construc- 
 tion was undertaken by men living along the line with 
 the hope of getting it in such condition as to command
 
 41 
 
 foreign capital. Much work was done along the line. 
 But foreign capital was not obtained and the road was 
 not built. I was a stockholder and director in this com- 
 pany and lost what I had invested in it. The necessity of 
 a road down the Wabash valley was so evident that the 
 project was never wholly abandoned. Twenty years lat- 
 er the charter of the Paris & Danville Railroad Company 
 was amended so as to authorize an extension from Paris 
 to a point at or near Vincennes. Mr. A. P. Woodworth 
 and myself interested ourselves in this extension. We 
 became stockholders and directors in the company and 
 made ourselves personally liable for debts incurred in 
 the construction of the road. We became members of 
 the construction company that built the road from Paris 
 to Lawrenceville. In the action taken by Mr. Woodworth 
 and myself the construction of the road by the way of 
 Robinson was secured. A negotiation pending for cap- 
 ital to finish and equip the road failed by reason of a 
 financial panic that prevailed throughout the country. 
 While we succeeded in building the road we lost all that 
 we then owned and the county and the City of Robinson 
 received the'benefit of our efforts and losses. 
 
 Some years ago I became a volunteer advocate of the 
 construction of hard roads by special taxation. I wrote 
 many articles for the county papers and discussed the 
 matter with many citizens. I prepared the first petition 
 for hard roads that was presented in the county and ob- 
 tained an election in accordance with the prayers of the 
 petition. 
 
 I shared with many others in the movement that re- 
 sulted in the construction of the present court house. I 
 have always favored and contributed to the construction 
 of better school houses and churches. More than fifty 
 years ago I assisted in the organization of the Crawford 
 County Agricultural Society and was its secretary. I 
 maintained my interest until the agricultural features of
 
 42 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 its annual fairs faded out. When horse races; fakir 
 shows, gambling devices and other schemes to secure the 
 money of the farmer boy became its dominant character- 
 istics my interest in the county fair abated. 
 
 In the development of the state and county, and in 
 the various enterprises named I make no special claim 
 for myself either as a leader or otherwise. I only claim to 
 have been a co-laborer with many other citizens of the 
 county who were of the same spirit with myself. I only 
 claim that, as a citizen, I have not shirked duty or lagged 
 behind, but have marched in the front rank of the pro- 
 gressive army that has led the county up to its present 
 high state of improvement. In this sketch. I have not in- 
 dulged in the discussion of principles and policies, or in 
 the expression of opinion in regard to them. These 1 .will 
 find better expression in the addresses delivered by me 
 on special occasions during my active life, some of which 
 are published in this book. 
 
 I am now eighty-five years of age. I have put- off the 
 harness of labor and am taking the rest which I have fair- 
 ly earned. The record of my active business life is closed. 
 On this record I invoke the charitable judgment of my 
 fellow citizens who shall survive me. 
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 43 
 
 PUBLIC ADDRESSES 
 
 YE SHALL KNOW THEM BY THEIR FRUITS 
 
 MATTHEW *l , 
 
 ** The new law fasteth never, 
 
 Of \fheat-, or corn of tares; 
 The vine is known by its clusters, 
 The tree by the fruit it bears" 
 
 The law of creation from the beginning was, and still 
 is, that u Every seed shall bring forth fruit after its 
 kind." Men ever reap what they .sow. When man was 
 crowned with lordship ' ' over the fish of the sea, and over 
 the fowls of the air, and over the cattle,, and over all the 
 earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth on the 
 earth," he found his entire dominion under this law of 
 creation. All the ages that have passed have found this 
 law to be universal and irrevocable. Man himself from 
 the throne of his power and dominion over meaner things 
 bows to the authority of the same law, and, in his physi- 
 cal, moral, intellectual and spiritual being, reaps what 
 he sows. u For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt 
 fruit, neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 
 For every tree is known by its own fruit, foi* of thorns 
 men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they 
 grapes. A good man, out r of the good treasure of his 
 heart, bringeth forth that which is good, and an evil man 
 out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that 
 which is evil. For o? the abundance of the heart the 
 mouth speaketh." Paul wrote a letter to his Gallatian 
 brethren in which he said j'" Be not deceived. God is not 
 mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also 
 reap. For lie that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh 
 reap corruption, but he that soweth to the spirit shall of 
 the spirit reap life everlasting," and to his brethren at
 
 44 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 Rome he wrote l * Tribulation and anguish upon every soul 
 of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the 
 Gentile. But glory, honor and peace to every man that 
 worketh good, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. 
 For there is no respect of persons with God. ' ' 
 
 In obedience to the law that every seed brings forth 
 fruit of its kind, the farmer selects the best of his corn 
 for seed. He takes the best of his wheat and winnows out 
 defective grains and all seeds other than wheat, and sows 
 in hope. He selects the best of evrything for his planting. 
 He searches his own and foreign land for the best and 
 most productive varieties of everything that he plants 
 and cultivates. All this, and much more he does on ac- 
 count of his faith in the primal laws of creation. "Like 
 produces like " is an axiom beyond controversy in the ex- 
 perience of the human race. "Like priest like people" 
 has long since passed into a proverb that stands unques- 
 tioned in the religious world. 
 
 The literary character of a people is molded and de- 
 termined largely by the system of schools in which the 
 people are educated. The stream cannot rise higher than 
 the fountain from which it springs, and education cannot 
 rise above the school in which it is given. The pupil will 
 model after the teacher. 
 
 I am not saying that when perfect seed is planted, all 
 of the product will be perfect, but only that the species 
 will be the same, and the tendency towards perfection will 
 be greater than if the seed planted had been imperfect in 
 quality. "lake priest like people" does not mean that 
 the members of a religious congregation, will in all things 
 copy the minister and do just as he does, but only that his 
 character will be impressed upon them, and they will be 
 influenced by him until he becomes the representative of 
 the aggregate faith and practice of the congregation to 
 which he ministers. 
 
 I am not saying that every pupil in a school will be- 
 come an exact copy of the teacher from whom he receives
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 45 
 
 instruction, but only that his scholarship will be of the 
 same grade, and his thoughts on many subjects will be in- 
 clined in the same direction. 
 
 With these general truths universally accepted, and 
 acted upon by men in view, I turn directly to the subject 
 and lesson of the present hour. For more than a year past 
 the temperance reformation put in motion by Francis 
 Murphy has been sweeping over the land like a great tid- 
 al wave of cleansing and purification. In all the cities, 
 villages and towns, and in the open country, this gospel 
 of redemption from the slavery of appetite has been 
 preached by zealous men and women. The people have 
 heard it gladly and embraced it with an alacrity that 
 has astonished even the old cold water guard of the 
 Washingtonian reform that mustered its forces in the 
 field of temperance reform many years ago. This Mur- 
 phy movement started in the cry of a despairing man 
 for his life and the restoration of his manhood, and char- 
 acter, and all the gifts and graces of which strong drink 
 had robbed him. His cry found its most ready and earn- 
 est response among men who had themselves tasted the 
 bitter pain and misery of protracted intoxication. Oth- 
 ers of all classes joined in and pressed the reformation 
 onward. There is no reason why all should not join this 
 living army of reformation and push forward its con- 
 quests until the legalized traffic in intoxicating liquors 
 shall be unknown, and until the Murphy pledge of total 
 abstinence from all that intoxicates shall become a liv- 
 ing oracle in every house and home, and the victorious 
 banners of temperance shall wave wherever the sun 
 shines and the stars give their light. 
 
 But no cause however just and pure, or holy it may 
 be receives the support of all. This temperance reforma- 
 tion is no exception. It redeems men that are lost. It 
 rescues weak men enslaved by debased appetite. It 
 sends the sunshine of joy into thousands of homes. Yet 
 there are those who stand aloof, and others who actively 
 obstruct and openly oppose. The most effective oppo-
 
 sition comes from men who occupy a respectable position 
 in society. They are not drunkards, and consider them- 
 selves in no danger of becoming drunkards, while the 
 cry of the fallen and the song of the redeemed are car- 
 ried on the wings of the wind, and the public conscience 
 is awakened and troubled, these respectable men stand 
 coldly aloof. They listen with indifference to the con- 
 clusions of reason. They make no response to the wail of 
 broken hearts and crushed affections. They make no- 
 answer to the tender voice of charity which pleads with 
 them to join with this army of reform, and help turn 
 back the tide of waste and ruin which has so long swept 
 through the world, scourging it as with fire. These men, 
 some of them members of Christian churches, stand on 
 what they are pleased to call neutral ground; stand as 
 stumbling blocks at the very gates of perdition. All 
 good people should show pity for these respectable ene- 
 mies of reformation and pray for them. Pray that it may 
 not require a wrecked life or the cry of a perishing soul 
 to call them to duty, and to safety. I appeal to this class 
 of opposition today. I invoke to aid me every tongue 
 and voice with which humanity can plead with the er- 
 ring. I beg of such men to answer me, if they can, with 
 one single reason for their opposition or indifference. 
 For one such reason I will answer them with a thousand. 
 To all such I say the good work will go on without you r 
 but for the sake of yourselves, and those over whom you 
 have influence, cease your opposition, abandon your po- 
 sition of indifference. Come and go along with us, and 
 we will do you good, and many shall at last rise up and 
 call you blessed. 
 
 The seed of time of this reformation is now. The 
 harvest shall be hereafter. What shall the harvest be? 
 Heed the lesson of Him who taught from the open book 
 of the natural world. 
 
 1 'Behold there went out a sower to sow, and it came 
 to pass as he sowed some fell by the wayside and the
 
 TETHELBERT CALLAHAN 47 
 
 fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell 
 on stony ground where it had not much earth, and im- 
 mediately sprung up because it had no depth of earth. 
 But when the sun was up it was scorched and because 
 it had no root it withered away. And some fell among 
 thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it 
 yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground and did 
 yield fruit that sprang up and increased and brought 
 forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some a hundred. 
 
 And these are they by the wayside where the word is 
 sown, but when they have heard Satan commeth immed- 
 iately and taketh away the word that was sown in their 
 hearts. And these are they likewise which are sown 
 on stony ground, who, when they have heard the word, 
 immediately receive it with gladness, and have no root 
 in themselves and so endure but for a time. Afterwards 
 when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's 
 sake, immediately they are offended. And these are 
 they that were sown among thorns. Such as hear the 
 word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness 
 of riches, and the lust of other things entering in, choke 
 the word, and it becometh unfruitful. And these are 
 they which are sown on good ground, such as hear the 
 word and receive it and bring forth fruit, some thirty, 
 some sixty, and some a hundred. 
 
 This parable is a life picture of the Murphy temper- 
 ance reformation at the present hour. The gospel of a 
 sober life has been sown broadcast all over the land. 
 The sowers have been in every field and upon every high- 
 way. The precious truths they have scattered have 
 reached the minds and hearts of the people. The public 
 conscience has been aroused and quickened. Thousands 
 of drinking men have abandoned their cups and become 
 sober men. Thousands more have signed the pledge not 
 to drink and proudly wear the badge of total abstinence 
 from the use of all intoxicants. Now that the seed has 
 been widely sown, and the sowers are still in the field,
 
 48 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 the question again recurs, * * What shall the harvest be f ' * 
 That question is not answered by the work already done. 
 Much depends on the work of today, and of the future. 
 
 The farmer who should prepare his field for the 
 sowing with the utmost care, and in the most approved 
 manner, and sow it with the best variety and quality of 
 seed, and then give it no further care until the harvest 
 time, would be called improvident and foolish. A garden 
 planned and planted with the greatest degree of careful- 
 ness and skill, and then abandoned would produce no 
 fruit to satisfy hunger, or flowers to gratify taste for the 
 beautiful. It would become a barren, weedy and unsight- 
 ly waste. If the field or the garden is left uninclosed 
 and unguarded, it will be overrun by animals; if un- 
 cultivated, weeds and thorns will choke out every useful 
 plant. Each human life is a field or garden which de- 
 pends largely upon its individual possessor for the char- 
 acter and extent of the culture that it receives. With 
 the parable of the sower in mind, each one should take 
 a careflu look into his, or her, own heart as a field or gar- 
 den demanding personal care, supervision and culture. 
 What of the soil; what of the culture already given; what 
 of the present fruitage, and of the harvest in prospect f 
 Are our hearts like the beaten wayside in which the good 
 seed finds no lodgement, but lies wherever it may chance 
 to fall, exposed to destruction by the foul birds that 
 scavenger the highways? If so, the fault lies at your 
 own door. If men permit sill after sin, and bad habit 
 upon bad habit to place their feet upon their hearts and 
 consciences until hardness of heart and the want of a 
 living conscience takes from the present life its keenest 
 relish for happiness, and from the future life all the 
 bright hopes which make the contemplation of an immor- 
 tal life glorious, their life, to them, is a failure, and to 
 the community in which they live, a misfortune. Sins 
 and evil habits trample the minds and consciences of men
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 49 
 
 into the hardness of a moral wayside and makes them as 
 dead men in the fields of moral reformation. To make 
 such men alive to good works, the crusted soil of their 
 hearts must be broken up and mellowed by showers of 
 heavenly grace and tears of human sympathy and love, 
 and sown with the seed of truth and purity. This sowing 
 must be followed with a lifetime of culture, and will then 
 be remodeled with a harvest of success and glory. 
 
 Those who have not signed the pledge, no matter 
 from what cause, no matter with what arguments lust 
 or appetite has answered reason, no matter with what 
 sophistry conscience has been silenced, such are way- 
 side hearers over whose heads are hovering all birds of 
 evil omen waiting and watching to take up and destroy 
 every seed of truth and righteousness that may fall near 
 them. 
 
 The inquiry should be carried through the parable 
 and be made personal to every one. Are you a stony 
 ground hearer with a shallow surface of soil, in which 
 the truths of this wave of information have found suff- 
 ficient lodgement to induce you to sign the pledge? Is 
 the period of your emancipation to be but a brief one? 
 Is the joy of your friends to be turned into mourning 
 because of your relapse into the slavery of the past? I 
 beseech you to examine yourself with great care. See 
 how deeply rooted is your resolution to remain under the 
 obligation you have taken, for your whole lifetime. Test 
 their strength and know whether they will live when 
 touched by the withering breath of persecution. Will 
 it bear unmoved the ridicule of old companions? Will 
 it successfully resist the force of evil habits so long in- 
 dulged as to become imbedded into your life? If such 
 questions are answered by doubts, you are on dangerous 
 ground, and your ultimate safety calls for a daily renewal 
 of your pledge to abstain from all that intoxicates. Pray 
 earnestly to your Father in Heaven that the stony soil
 
 50 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 of your heart may be broken up more deeply by faith in 
 Him, warmed into new life by hope, and made perma- 
 nently fruitful by that broarl charity that includes all 
 mankind and reaches up to the throne of the universe. 
 
 - Or does your mind and heart represent a deep and 
 generous soil in which thorns have grown up? The good 
 seed of the sower sinks readily into the bosom and starts 
 a healthy growth. But the thorns grow faster and broad- 
 er and higher and choke out the plants that grew from the 
 seed of truth and righteousness. These moral thorns 
 which spring up and grow in the fields of human life 
 and conduct, are the deceitful illusions which allure men 
 into crooked ways, in the pursuit of wealth, and following 
 the lusts of other things which drown the souls of men 
 in sensuality and sin. You have signed the pledge, but 
 retain a 1 lingering doubt as to how its obligations shall 
 bind you. You dimly contemplate a time or an occassion 
 when it may be openly disregarded, or secretly violated. 
 You may have a thought that you may stand safely on the 
 borderland, between sobriety and intoxication; that you 
 may safely enter into temptation by visiting brothel 
 halls, pool rooms, gaming tables, or saloons, where in- 
 toxicating liquors are openly or secretly sold and drank, 
 If thought of this character enter your mind and find any 
 lodgment in your breast, take hasty alarm for your safe- 
 ty. They are thorns of sin, danger and ruin. You must 
 dig them out, root and branch or they will choke out of 
 your life temperance and all the plants of virtue that 
 adorn and beautify character, and in the years of your 
 after life the remembrance of your broken pledge and 
 the consequences which followed will add thorns of tor- 
 ture to the bitterness of your regret. You must banish 
 irresolution, and conclusively determine that no tempta- 
 tion, no burden of care, no pleasure, no evil habit, nor 
 any other person or they shall ever induce you to use any 
 intoxicating liquor as a beverage, and that your voice,
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 51 
 
 your vote and your influence shall always be against the 
 traffic in ardent spirits in every form. In this battle you 
 must "stand fast, be strong and quit you like men." 
 
 The last class of hearers mentioned in the parable are 
 those represented by good ground. Such as hear the 
 word and receive it and bring forth fruit, some thirty, 
 some sixty, and some a hundred fold. 
 
 Who can lay his hand upon his own heart and say 
 this is good ground and the harvest shall be, thirty, sixty 
 or an hundred fold! All must feel that their assurance 
 is not perfect. Culture and care must continue ' until 
 the harvest time comes. Until then, the duty is to watch, 
 work and wait. 
 
 Friends of the cause, let us have courage, and wills 
 to dare and do. Let us examine into our own mental 
 and moral condition. If we shall find that we are wrong 
 let us be willing to get right. If the soils of our hearts 
 has been beaten into wayside hardness by evil habits, 
 let us have it broken up, and mellowed, until seeds of 
 virtue, knowledge and temperance and brotherly love 
 can lodge and grow and bloom and bear fruit. If it is 
 stony, bring it by faith and prayer where the dews of 
 heavenly grace may distil upon it. In this atmosphere 
 the good seed will grow, and its root strike so deep, and 
 find such nourishment that the breath of persecution 
 shall not wither it. 
 
 If, upon an introspective view, we shall find thorns 
 shooting up, duty commands that we go to work with 
 honest zeal to destroy them. 
 
 The virtue of temperance connot live alone. There 
 are kindred virtues that must be planted, cultivated and 
 grow by its side, or it will perish. It cannot live in a 
 viscious atmosphere. It withers as if in the mouth of a 
 furnace when the foul breath of lust is breathed upon it. 
 
 You who have taken the pledge of abstinence from 
 the use of intoxicants as a beverage, have taken one grand
 
 52 
 
 step forward, which you cannot retrace without personal 
 dishonor. The banner of reform under which you have 
 enlisted is being carried forward and you cannot stand 
 still. You must move forward or fall out of line. The 
 forces of temperance reform and those of the legalized 
 rum traffic are mustering to the great battle of the world. 
 The bugle blasts of the opposing forces are ringing in 
 your ears and calling you to heroic action. 
 
 The culture of the mind is like soil culture in another 
 respect. It must be systematic, diligent and persistent. 
 Addressing some young Christians whose faith seemed 
 to be 'better taken than their practice, Saint Peter said to 
 them: "Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue know- 
 ledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance 
 patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness 
 brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity, 
 for if these things be upon and abound they make you 
 that you shall be neither barren or unfruitful in the 
 knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh 
 these things is blind and cannot see afar 'off, and hath 
 forgotten that he was purged of his old sins. Wherefore 
 brethren give diligence to make your calling and election 
 sure, for if you do these things you shall never fall." 
 
 Plant a single grain of corn alone, let the soil be good, 
 the season favorable and the cultivation perfect. The 
 stalk will grow and the blades will wave like royal ban- 
 ners in the sun. The ear will shoot up with its silken 
 crown and promise full corn in the ear. But it had not 
 the fructifying influences of association and contact with 
 other corn, and at gathering time it will be found substan- 
 tially barren. 
 
 The farmer cannot safely depend on the cultivation 
 of a single cereal. To secure the proper rewards of agri- 
 culture he must resort to variety of crops, and to avoid 
 the exhaustion of the fertility of his soil he must often 
 change the crops grown in the same fields. Singleness
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 53 
 
 and monotony are imcornpatible with utility or beauty. 
 So with character. No single vice can live and flourish 
 alone. It will have its brood of kindred vices or it will 
 perish. The same is true of the virtues which adorn 
 character and dignify humanity. 
 
 Many of you now stand where Peter's brethren stood. 
 A good beginning has been made. You have taken a 
 pledge to live sober lives. You have laid a good founda- 
 tion. Growth must follow. Let faith in all that ir right 
 and good and pure possess your souls. Acquire know- 
 ledge and patient diligence. The temperate use of food, 
 with total abstinence from all intoxicants, will give 
 strong bodies, clear minds and quick moral perceptions. 
 Cultivate brotherly kindness and charity, "For if ye do 
 these things you shall never fall. ' ' 
 
 In every reformation there are many enthusiasts. 
 They dream of acquiring wealth without labor. Of vic- 
 tory without battle. They look to see earth's mountain- 
 tops made golden, with the breaking light of millenial 
 glory. They seem to think that they are standing at the 
 threshold of a new era in which humanity will drift heav- 
 enward by its own impulses. These enthusiasts are use- 
 ful, but impractical, and unsafe guides. 
 
 Some of you have caught this spirit of enthusiasm. 
 You have thought the battle was over, and have sent your 
 shout of victory echoing down the lines. As one member 
 of the grand army of reform I rejoice with you in what 
 has been achieved and echo back the shout of triumph. 
 But I look forward to battles yet to be fought and to 
 greater victories yet to be won. 
 
 As Christians, and as citizens we are commanded to 
 occupy this land and hold it for God and humanity. This 
 temperance reform is one wing of the great army of occu- 
 pation, we are sentinels on duty guarding that which has 
 already been won. If the country is reconquered by King 
 Whiskey and his faithful ally, the Emperor Lager Beer,
 
 54 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 it will be because we sleep at our posts. If we are all 
 faithful, vigilant and brave, the temperance army will 
 continue to occupy the land and it will become for fruit- 
 fulness as the garden of the Lord, while this promise, and 
 this hope cheer us it must not be forgotten that tempta- 
 tions and conflicts be ahead of all. Temptations will come 
 from quarters where we had expected support; come in 
 disguises calculated to deceive. Many will fall whom we 
 had confidently hoped would stand. 
 
 Plato wept over one of his brightest and most promis- 
 ing students when he took to drink, and driving fast 
 horses. Jesus chose twelve men to be witnesses of his 
 ministry and teaching, and after they had followed him 
 and suffered privation and persecution tiiree years then 
 for His sake, he astonished them all when he said, * * Have 
 I not chosen you twelve and one of you hath a devil f " If 
 one possessed of an evil spirit could follow the paths of 
 self denial and suffering over which Jesus passed, and lis- 
 ten to the gracious words which proceeded from his 
 mouth, and still be evil, there is no place of sanctity and 
 safety where such evil men, and evil spirits may not be 
 present, to tempt, mislead and destroy. They assail men 
 at their weakest points, and most unguarded moments. 
 They come in every shape that can divest the tempter of 
 his repulsive features. Music and beauty lend their 
 charms to the wine cup when grosser assaults have failed. 
 They charm until the tempted one believes that if 
 
 "He kiss but its crystal mystic rim 
 
 Each shadow rends its flowery chain, 
 Springs in a babble from its brim 
 
 And walks the chambers of the brain. 
 Poor beauty; time and fortune's wrong 
 
 No form ar feature may withstand; 
 Thy wrecks are scattered all along 
 
 Like emptied sea shells on the sands." 
 
 You may still find lingering among men a few sur- 
 vivors of a generation that has almost passed away.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 55 
 
 Their religion and their politics have borne a slight odor 
 of strong drink. They have maintained a respectability, 
 which with the dignity of old age gives them an influence 
 over young men. They talk of the sacredness of liberty, 
 but claim that to restrain the appetite for intoxicants by 
 formal pledges or fixed rules of conduct is a violation of 
 liberty. They have many good qualities for which they 
 are held in esteem. But their example and influence on 
 the subject of intoxicating liquors upon their associates 
 are bad, and should be firmly resisted and opposed. An- 
 other class of tempters consist of men who live soberly at 
 home, but habitually travel with a "pocket companion." 
 You start with one of this class on a journey to a neigh- 
 boring town in a buggy. We all know the feeling of 
 companionship that springs up between men thus situ- 
 ated. Whether the weather be hot or cold, wet or dry, 
 it becomes the occasion for his solicitation that you share 
 with him the contents of his "Pocket Companion." The 
 moment is one of danger to you. Remember your pledge 
 and your plighted honor. The tempter beside you, with 
 the allurements of friendship, and the attractions of pres- 
 ent companionship, must be stoutly resisted, or he may 
 turn your feet into paths which lead down to destruction. 
 Look upward for the help of an arm that is able to rescue 
 and save you. 
 
 You will, on occasions, be thrown into convivial 
 groups where men of culture under the flush and excite- 
 ment of wine will cry. 
 
 "Come fill a fresh bumper for why should we go 
 While the nectar still reddens our cups ts they flow. 
 Pour out the rich juices still bright with the sun. 
 Till o'er the brimmed crystal the rubies shall run." 
 
 When temptation comes to you in this form, remem- 
 ber the counsel of the wise man who drank of every cup 
 of pleasure and at the end of his bitter experience said:
 
 56 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 4 ' Look not upon the wine when it is red r when it 
 giveth its color in the cup; when it moveth itself aright^ 
 for at last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an 
 adder. ' ' 
 
 You will, in your intercourse with business men 
 find lawyers and judges whose position gives them in- 
 fluence and power, whose theories and practices are ex- 
 amples of evil on the temperance question. Go not after 
 them, for they lead many into poverty, crime, disgrace 
 and death. 
 
 Science is also prostituted to the making of drunk- 
 ards. Physicians who well understand the pernicious 
 influence of intoxicating liquors on the human system 
 continue to prescribe whiskey to patients whose appetite 
 craves it. In almost every village you will find one foe 
 of humanity, masquerading under the title of a Doctor 
 who sells his prescriptions to patients who are not sick, 
 but only thirsty. Against such the battle should be 
 unto the death. 
 
 The worst enemy of the reformation, and the one 
 from which all the others gather their inspiration, is the 
 legalized "dram shop." It is the ugly, repulsive and dead- 
 ly demon of our civilization. There is no vlaid reason or 
 excuse for its existence. It confers no benefits, creates 
 no wealth. It sends out no ray of happiness. It mocks 
 men with a feeling of strength they do not possess. Mor- 
 ally, all its influences are evil. It takes life, overthrows 
 reason, ruins character, kills moral sentiment, fills 
 prisons, poor houses, insane asylums and grave yards. 
 It is an excresense upon the civilization and jurisprud- 
 ence of our age and country. The plain duty of the 
 present generation is to blot out the laws which permit 
 its existence. 
 
 In conclusion the question again recurs, What shall 
 the harvest be? It will be thousands of men redeemed 
 and saved, and thousands more started in the right way,
 
 5? 
 
 who will go through life sober, free men, a large increase 
 in human happiness, and a permanent elevation of public 
 opinion and sentiment on this question, that will find 
 expression in better laws. 
 
 Some who have enlisted in this army will fall, and 
 some will betray. This is a painful fact, but does not 
 justify discouragement. There are stragglers in every 
 army. Spies in every camp, and cowards in every battle. 
 But where the brave and the true predominate and com- 
 mand, the omens are always for victory. So let us be 
 with this temperance army. Let each be faithful, brave 
 and true, and feel "as if it were he, on whose sole arm 
 hung victory." 
 
 While we keep the battle front in solid array, let us 
 do what we may to win back the stragglers to loyalty 
 and duty, infuse courage into the hearts of the timid, 
 convert the spies into true men and then go on to fur- 
 ther conquests for that which is pure and of good report.
 
 SKETCH BY RALPH WILKIN 
 
 LIBRARIAN OF THE SUPREME COURT 
 Under Date of September IS, 1907 
 
 One afternoon some time ago, in the Supreme Court 
 Library, I was talking with Judge James Creighton. He 
 was in something of a reminiscent mood and was relating 
 anecdotes of the Bench and Bar of Southern Illinois, and 
 telling some of his experiences in traveling the circuit 
 in that part of the State. 
 
 I asked him if he was personally acquainted with 
 Hon. E. . Callahan of Crawford. He said, ' ' Yes, I know 
 Judge Callahan very welly and I recollect very distinctly 
 the circumstances under which I first met him. It was 
 at the Clay Circuit Court and but a few months after I 
 Was admitted to practice, it was my first term. Judge 
 Cailby of Richland was the presiding judge, Governor 
 Tanner was then clerk of the court and Judge Hoff, just 
 admitted to the Bar was acting- states' attorney, I think 
 by appointment, but it may have been he was elected to 
 that position. 
 
 II There were many non-resident lawyers in attend- 
 ance, and but one hotel in the town. We all put up at that 
 hotel, more from necessity than choice doubtless, but so 
 it was. This hotel was a long, low ceiling, ram shackling 
 old frame building, broad side to the street. There were 
 three rooms on the lower floor; one the middle room, 
 served for the office, sitting room and lobby; one for a 
 dining room and one was by courtesy called a parlor. 
 The three rooms stood in a row, connected by partition 
 doors and each had its own separate door, opening onto 
 the street.
 
 ETHEIBEKT CALLAHAN 59 
 
 ' ' After supper of the first day of the term and my first 
 day in the town, I spent the time till about eleven o 'clock 
 &t night in the office of the new states' attorney, at the 
 court house. Upon my return to the hotel I found the 
 judge and clerk of the Court, a number of resident law- 
 yers and what I then supposed to be all the non-resident 
 lawyers congregated in the middle room. The judge 
 was lying on a couch and the others were sitting and 
 standing around a long table. On this table was a two 
 gallon jug that had been full of whiskey, a pitcher with 
 some water in it, a bowl containing a little brown sugar> 
 one pewter spoon, one glass tumbler and two tin cups. 
 The room was lighted by a coal oil lamp hung in some 
 way against the wall. Among those present were Ex- 
 governor L. J. S. TuYney, Ex-Senator Hanna, and the 
 since Attorney General McCartney of Wayne, the then 
 presiding Judge Canby, and Ex- Judge Shaw of Eichland ; 
 Ex-Judge Decius of Cumberland, William B. Cooper of 
 Effingham, B. J. Eotan, H. H. Chesley, and the since 
 Governor Tanner of Clay. They constituted a jovial 
 crowd. Many of them we?e in high spirits. 
 
 * ' When I entered the room they told me to help my- 
 self, to drink hearty. I thanked them and said I did not 
 care to drink. One of them asked me if I never drank. I 
 replied that I had never tasted liquor. He said, * Gentle- 
 men, here is a young man trying to be a lawyer who says 
 he never tasted liquor, I say no man can be a successful 
 lawyer who has not been drunk at least once. I appeal to 
 you, Judge Canby, if that is not true.* Judge Canby 
 replied, ' I do not know, I never tried it. You will have 
 to call another witness.' They decided by a large ma- 
 jority that it was true, that then was my opportunity and 
 that I had to drink, filled the tumbler to the brim and 
 seized hold of me. Just at that moment a dignified gen- 
 tleman sober as a judge ought to be, entered the doorway 
 from the parlor and enquired the cause of the uproar.
 
 60 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 It was explained to him that I was trying to be a lawyer 
 and had never been drunk and that they were going to 
 make me drink. He said, ' Gentlemen, that's nonsense, 
 that's wrong. I am forty years old, never took a drink 
 of liquor in my life and am as good a lawyer as any of 
 you.' Turning to me he said, 'Young man, you don't 
 have to drink to be a lawyer and don't let them make 
 you drink.' The dignified gentleman that came to my 
 rescue was Judge Callahan of Crawford. We have been 
 good friends from that day to this." 
 
 RALPH WILKIN.
 
 ETHE'LTBEST CALLAHAN 61 
 
 ADDRESS AT THE COURT HOUSE 
 
 ROBINSON, ILLINOIS. APRIL, 1908 
 
 For fifty seven years I have been a voter in the State 
 *of Illinois. I have voted on many important questions, 
 but in my judgment none more important than the ques- 
 tion at issue on Tuesday of this week. In my boyhood I 
 unlisted in the Washingtonian temperance movement 
 which swept over the country like some great tidal wave, 
 and planted the Hag of reform on higher ground than it 
 liad ever Before that time occupied. 
 
 In my early manhood the Sons of Temperance mus- 
 tered some division of its army of reform in almost every 
 city, town and village of the Nation. It was an organised 
 force that held the field of moral conflict for many years, 
 and won great victories for the cause of temperance. 
 
 The Murphy pledge followed, and the arguments of 
 the zealous men and women who carried this pledge into 
 the churches, schools and homes of every State in the 
 Nation, secured another advance in the march of public 
 opinion on the temperance question. 
 
 The Womans Christian Temperance Union has, for 
 years now past been like the leaven in the meal. It has 
 been, and is, a moral force, keeping alive the spirit and 
 advantage of all those who preceeded it in this particular 
 field of reform. 
 
 It has been th'e good fortune of the Anti Saloon 
 League to adopt the plan and organize the forces that 
 will strike the key note of a great victory on next Tues- 
 day. Ignoring partisanship in politics, and sectarian 
 differences in religion, it has brought together all the 
 churches,, and good citizens outside of the churches, and
 
 62 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 concentrated their forces in an earnest crusade against 
 that plague spot of our modern civilization, the licensed 
 saloon. This force has found expression in a law that 
 permits the people of any city, village or town to deter- 
 mine the question for themselves whether the saloon shall 
 be excluded from such city, village or town, or not. The 
 responsibility of determining this question for the town 
 of Robinson is on us now, and our answer must be given 
 at the ballot box day after tomorrow. 
 
 It is right and proper to pray for success in this great 
 moral battle. Every human want calls for a prayer. 
 But let us be careful that we do not pray for that which 
 we ought to do ourselves. We do this sometimes. We 
 pray that God may guide us through the duties of life, 
 and tell us which way to go. We forget that in His 
 word he has charted every way in which we may right- 
 fully go. The way of duty is so plainly marked that the 
 wayfaring man though a fool need not err therein. The 
 directions are written so large and clear that he who 
 runs may read. 
 
 More than this, danger signals have been placed at 
 the entrance of every forbidden way. Every way that 
 leads to failure, to poverty and rags, to suffering, to 
 despair, to crime, to disgrace, to death. Whosoever en- 
 ters upon these forbidden ways of life has no excuse 
 that he had not been warned. In the quiet of his home 
 he may read the warning. Over the door of the saloon 
 and of the club house, before he enters he may read, at 
 the bar where he drinks, he may read, if he will. 
 
 Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and who- 
 soever is deceived thereby is not wise. 
 
 The drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, 
 and drowsiness shall clothe a man in rags. 
 
 Who hath woe! Who hath sorrow? Who hath 
 contentions! Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds 
 without cause? *
 
 EWfiLBERT CALLAHAtf 63 
 
 And the answer is given plain and clear "They that 
 tarry long at the wine.'* 
 
 In every home and in every banquet hall the pen of 
 inspiration has written, 
 
 "Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it 
 giveth its color to the cup, when it moveth itself aright; 
 at last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder* " 
 
 With the guides given us in regard to the right ways 
 Df life, that lead to success and happiness here and to 
 eternal life hereafter, and the danger signals set against 
 entering the forbidden ways that lead to failure, to un- 
 happiness, in this present life and to a future that is dark 
 and hopeless, we are left very much to our own choice 
 and cannot escape the responsibility of choosing that 
 which is right and which tends to our own good. 
 
 We are called upon, to use the powers that God has 
 iven Us. Especially is this true in a contest with the 
 forces of evil like that in which we are now engaged. 
 Inaction is sin. The sin of a soldier who skulks while the 
 battle is on. This is a time when duty cries aloud to 
 >l l stand fast, be strong and quit you like men. ' ' 
 
 The war cry of the saloons in this fight is "personal 
 liberty." Think just for a moment what this means. 
 The devils that went out of the hogs wanted personal 
 liberty. Every bad man, every criminal, every outlaw 
 is clamoring for personal liberty. People who have 
 thrown off the restraints of the moral law, also seek to 
 Ibe free from the restraints of all law. The saloon men 
 in this campaign have simply inscribed on their banners 
 the old time motto and universal creed of the criminal 
 world, "personal liberty," which to them means freedom 
 from all law*
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 AT ROBINSON. ILLINOIS, 1864 
 
 Fellow Citizen^: 
 
 In all the history of ihe world I have noi failed to* 
 recognize the guiding providence of Him who holds the 
 Nations in the hollow of his hand. My faith in that same 
 Providence is steadfast today. It is true that we are 
 tossed to and fro like the waves of the sea. It is true that 
 we are scourged with a desolating war which drapes the 
 homes of the nation in the habiliments of mourning and 
 Woe. It is true that calamities follow each other in quick 
 succession. But still His watchful eye is over us, 
 Though the waves dash high His footsteps are upon the 
 waters, and ere long His voice will be heard saying 
 ''peace, be still. " The night of toil may be long, dark and 
 weary. Our hearts may grow faint, but the harbor lies 
 just ahead, where we shall find rest, and where the white 
 winged angel of peace shall shower upon us all the bles- 
 sings that dwell in her beautiful presence. 
 
 It is very important that we have correct opinions of 
 the nature of our government: that we should understand 
 how it was framed, and the necessities out of which it 
 grew. "What were the grievances it was designed to re- 
 dress, and the ends bad in view by its framers. All the 
 disasters which have thus far befallen us have arisen 
 from erroneous opinions on these subjects. To one of 
 these errors, which is as old as the constitution itself, 
 may be directly traced the origion of the present rebel- 
 lion. If one error has been so fruitful of evil, how impor- 
 tant that we should always be right on these questions, 
 and in order to be right we should study with the most
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 65 
 
 attentive care the history of the settlement and growth 
 of our country, and especially its political history prior to 
 the revolution. We should acquaint ourselves with the 
 men who lived in our revolutionary era. We should 
 learn the lessons which they learned and adopt the 
 prrinciples which the adopted. We must not only 
 read of the history of the patriotic men who fought 
 the battles of the revolution, and whose political code 
 of principles was embodied in the declaration of in- 
 dependence, but we must turn to the darker shades 
 of the struggle, and study the more repulsive, but no less 
 real, character of that party which opposed the war and 
 cried for peace over the dead bodies of their slaughtered 
 countrymen. Wars are not mere contests of force with- 
 out ideas. They always originate in ideas tried out 
 by the terrible demonstrations of the battlefield. No 
 country has ever gone to war with the unanimous consent 
 of its people. No cause however holy has ever enlisted 
 the ideas of a whole people in its favor. Our Revolution 
 was no exception to this rule. While American waters 
 were covered with hostile fleets and the whole land was 
 bristling with bayonets, designed for the subjugation of 
 the colonies, there were men who made peace speeches. 
 There was a peace party that opposed every measure de- 
 signed to strengthen the colonies in their resistance to 
 England. This party denounced Washington as a man of 
 blood whose lust for power was filling the land with wid- 
 ows and orphans. It declaimed bitterly against our 
 Declaraction of Independence as a measure calculated to 
 divide the American people, exasperate England, and pro- 
 long the war. Eead the history farther and learn the fate 
 of this peace party. Where are the names and memories of 
 the men of '76 who clamored for peace while patriots 
 were dying on the battlefield. Embalmed as tories and 
 traitors history holds them up to the gaze of the world as 
 objects of universal execration. Let the peace party of
 
 66 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 today gather wisdom from the past, and by its proper ex- 
 ercise avoid a place in the future history of this country, 
 even more infamous than that accorded to their ancestor, 
 the peace party of the Revolution. 
 
 Go with me a little until we can read together a few 
 brief chapters of our earlier history, and then we can re- 
 turn to the active, solemn and awful scenes of our own 
 times which have not yet passed into history. It is well 
 to know the past that we may better understand our du- 
 ties in the present hour of our country's trial. Will you 
 keep this object steadily in view excluding every other. 
 What is my duty in the present hour? The necessity of 
 civil government is self evident. But a question as to 
 what is the measure of restraint which government 
 should throw around the actions of the citizen, or in 
 what manner such restraint should be created and en- 
 forced. In early times when there were but few families 
 in the world, fathers gave law to and governed their 
 families by consent. This vras csHed Patriarcaird govern- 
 ment, and answered well for the time in which it existed. 
 But men became more numerous. Larger communities 
 were created with common wants. Common wants and 
 common necessities and common interests, created the 
 necessity for a common government over them. This 
 government was usually committed to a single per- 
 son, sometimes chosen by the people, but in most 
 cases he reached his position of authority by force 
 of arms, and executed laws as his sword gave him 
 power. This form of government, sometimes abso- 
 lute and sometimes limited, still exists in almost every 
 considerable country in the old world. We call it des- 
 potism. Fostered and courted by governments like this, 
 and linked in a common destiny with them, the church be- 
 came a tyrant, and its spiritual government was charact- 
 erized with the most relentless cruelty. It was with refu- 
 gees from this political despotism and spiritual enslave-
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 
 
 ment of the old world governments, that our country was 
 settled, and by them were the foundation stones of the* re- 
 public laid. They were adventurers offering life for lib- 
 erty. They had well defined ideas of government, and 
 sought on the bleak coast of New England liberty to en- 
 act by their own free voices the laws by which they were 
 to be governed. Liberty to worship God as their own 
 consciences, taught of His word and spirit, should dictate. 
 
 When Patrick Henry said, "give me liberty or give 
 me death", he but re-echoed the watchword that was 
 whispered nightly on the deck of the Mayflower. At 
 first these American settlements were neglected and over- 
 looked or made subject to political merchandise. 
 
 Charters were granted to lords and noblemen who 
 came over with the most extravagant notions of dominion 
 and wealth to be. acquired in the new world. Royal gov- 
 ernors were sent over with high notions of their peroga- 
 tive power to govern. Between these governors and the 
 people there was constant controversy over such ques- 
 tions of policy as affected the rights of the citizen. Acts 
 of parliament were passed restraining commerce and 
 destroying manufactures in the colonies. Then taxation 
 without representation. Such measures were inconsist- 
 ent with the rights and liberties which the Americans 
 claimed and had hitherto enjoyed, and gave ground for 
 serious complaints which reached the ear of the British 
 Crown and people in the shape of prayers, petitions and 
 remonstrances, which were answered by the presence in 
 American waters, of hostile ships of war, and of hostile 
 troops in American towns and cities. 
 
 On the fifth day of March, 1770, Maverick, Gray, 
 Caldwell, Atticks and Carr were shot dead in the streets 
 of Boston by British soldiers. In April, 1775, Major Pit- 
 cairn destroyed the military stores of the Americans at 
 Concord, and fired on the militia at Lexington killing 
 eight and wounding many more. The militia rallied and
 
 68 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 punished the soldiers severely during their retreat to 
 Boston. This first battle of the Revolution aroused all 
 America, and in a few days Boston was besieged by twen- 
 ty thousand brave men. In June came the battle of 
 Bunker Hill where Warren fell. Washington was made 
 commander in chief and commenced the organization of 
 the army, and in March 1776 compelled the evacuation 
 of Boston by the British army. The people now began to 
 grasp the idea of independence. The question was dis- 
 cussed by the people. The patriots were for independ- 
 ence, and the peace men were against it. The patriots 
 prevailed, and on the fourth day of July, 1776, the Dec- 
 laration of Independence was adopted by the continental 
 congress. The people and the army ratified the action 
 of congress and maintained the declaration through all 
 the vicissitudes of the war that followed. Whether in 
 victory or in defeat, its great truths were a tower of 
 strength to the patriot soldier who toiled and suffered 
 and at last gave his life that the blessing of liberty might 
 rest on the land where his children should dwell when 
 he had returned to his final rest in the bosom of his moth- 
 er earth. 
 
 On the nineteenth day of October, 1781, the British 
 army surrendered at Yorktown. Thus ended a long and 
 arduous* conflict in which England lost a hundred thou- 
 sand men, and a hundred millions of treasure and won 
 nothing. America suffered much, endured much and lost 
 many precious lives and much treasure, but delivered 
 herself from foreign dominion, and gained an honorable 
 place among the nations of the earth. 
 
 Turn we now to the political organization of the 
 government. If we thoroughly understand that, the dif- 
 ficulties of our present situation will be greatly dimin- 
 ished. When did the union of the states begin to exist, 
 and through what gradations has it passtd to reach its 
 present form. This union existed before the revolution
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 69 
 
 in the hearts of the people, and had already been repre- 
 sented in several continental congresses. The articles of 
 confederation then did not create the Union, but were 
 only intended to modify and control the terms of its fu- 
 ture existence. The same may be said of the present 
 Constitution of the United States, which, in the name, 
 and by the authority of the people of the United States, 
 declares their object to be, not to create a new, but to 
 form a more perfect union. And in the attesting clause 
 with which they finish their work, they recite that the 
 constitution was made in the twelfth year of the inde- 
 pendence of the United States of America. The great 
 argument running through the articles written by Madi- 
 son, Hamilton, and Jay, in the Federalist, in favor of the 
 constitution, was the necessity of the adoption of the con- 
 stitution, for the preservation of the Union. No one of 
 the great instruments to which I have referred pretends 
 to create the Union. They all speak of it as already ex- 
 isting. From what period then, shall its origin date. 
 I answer that this union grew out of the common dangers 
 to which the colonists were exposed. They made com- 
 mon cause against the Indians. Their isolation from 
 other portions of the world gave them a common 
 name and destiny, and all unconsciously to themselves 
 the bonds of union grew and strengthened until all 
 that could be done was to recognize the fact and 
 give it shape and authority by the enactment of laws and 
 the adoption of constitutional restraints. The union ex- 
 isted while we were only colonies. The union raised the 
 army and appointed its officers, which fought the war of 
 independence. The union treated for the assistance 
 which France gave us in that war. The union appointed 
 the commissioners who received from England the 
 acknowledgment of our independence. The union per- 
 formed every act that separated America from England 
 and raised the colonies from mere dependencies to the
 
 70 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 dignity of a sovereign and independent nation. It is to 
 the union that we are indebted for everything that has 
 advanced our interests as a people. It is only as the 
 United States that we are kjiown and recognized, re- 
 spected and feared. It is under the flag of the union that 
 our commerce has traversed the high seas in security, 
 and returned to our own cities laden with the wealth of 
 every land beneath the sun. And in the preservation of 
 that union rests all our hopes for the future. Our liber- 
 ty, personal and national, is bound up in the union. It 
 is our only ark of safety and peace. If we surrender that 
 we have surrendered all. If this good ship of state is al- 
 lowed to wreck and go to pieces, some of us may ride the 
 billows a little while upon its drifting fragments, but 
 sooner or later all will be swallowed in the whirlpool of 
 anarchy, or dashed to pieces on the rocks and shoals of 
 despotism. We must realize the blessings which have re- 
 sulted to us and to the world from the union before we 
 can fully appreciate the awful consequences of its de- 
 struction. We must know and understand who are the 
 assailants of the union, and the coverts from beneath 
 which their assaults are made, before we are fully pre- 
 pared for its defense. It avails nothing to say that we 
 love the union if we stand idly by while its enemies are 
 battering it with cannon, and secret foes are sapping and 
 mining its foundations by a denial of the elemental prin-: 
 ciples on which its foundations rest. 
 
 A political party in this country has seemed to whol- 
 ly misapprehend the nature of the national government, 
 and has ever denied to it its rightful authority and 
 power. Under the specious pretext of " state sovereign- 
 ity" and "federal union" this party has labored to ex- 
 alt state, above national authority, holding that the 
 union was but a league formed by consent of the states 
 and from which a state might withdraw.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 71 
 
 In 1789 Virginia and Kentucky passed resolutions 
 embodying this doctrine and setting up the right of each 
 state to judge whether its rights were infracted by the 
 action of the general government, and to determine for 
 itself the mode and measure of redress for any infraction 
 which in its judgment might be made. 
 
 When southern politicians had become fixed in their 
 purpose to secede these resolutions were called into life 
 and a construction given to them, w T hich, if adopted, 
 would waste the union away as an iceberg would waste 
 beneath a tropical sun. What more could a secessionist 
 want? AVhat more could Calhoun or Jefferson Davis de- 
 sire than to be told that they were to be the judges as to 
 when their rights were imperiled by the action of the 
 federal government, and that to them, and to them alone 
 belongs the right to determine the mode and measure of 
 redress in such a case. How clearly it opens the road to 
 secession as the mode of redress. It was along this road 
 the politicians have led an excited and alarmed, but pat- 
 riotic, people until they were plunged into rebellion and 
 war. But for this political heresy there would have been 
 no rebellion. It is this heresy that sustains the confed- 
 eracy today and keeps its armies in the field and pro- 
 longs the war. It is this principle that is slaughtering 
 our countrymen, and it is high time that men who have 
 endorsed it, either directly or indirectly, should open 
 their eyes to the fearful consequences which have fol- 
 lowed like a demon in the footsteps of this fatal heresy. 
 Armed rebellion can be crushed out and driven from the 
 land, but this covert secession takes refuge behind the 
 bulwark of free speech and disseminates its treasonable 
 doctrines right under the flag of the union whose life 
 it designs to steal away. Friends of the union, be on 
 your guard, the battle is in Illinois as well as in Vir- 
 ginia. While Sheridan and his brave boys are raiding 
 around Richmond and cutting the highways that lead to
 
 72 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 that den of treason and rebellion, you must be plugging 
 the snakeholes of treason in Illinois. You must make a 
 war of extermination against every principle and every 
 policy which has any tendency to stimulate or encourage 
 those who are in arms against the government. You 
 must not surrender the state or national government into 
 the hands of men who would withdraw our armies and 
 compromise away all the fruits of these three long years 
 of sacrifice and toil. I do not address these words to you 
 as a partisan but as an American citizen possessing a 
 common interest with you in the glories of the American 
 name, and in the .rich treasures of American history. 
 
 This then is the great question with every one. What 
 is my present duty, and what measures now before the 
 country shall command my support. The question is a 
 practical one which all must answer. We cannot avoid 
 it if we were even disposed to avoid it. We are com- 
 pelled to choose between a vigorous prosecution of the 
 war on the one hand, and submission to the doctrines, 
 practice and results of secession on the other. I de- 
 sire to state the issue fairly. I wish to do no man or 
 party injustice. I desire to be guided by candor and 
 sound reason both in the statement and argument of my 
 propositions. I wish to look facts and the consequences 
 growing out of them squarely in the face. I do not desire 
 to evade responsibility. I am ready here and elsewhere 
 to assume my full share of it, and to stand or fall on the 
 merits of my position. With this responsibility resting 
 upon me, after a careful survey of the whole field, I can 
 see but two issues to the present war; but two lines of 
 policy that can be pursued; but two roads that can be 
 taken. One is the immediate cessation of hostilities, and 
 the acceptance of peace on such terms as can now be ob- 
 tained. The other is the prosecution of the war until the 
 National authorities can dictate the terms of the peace 
 which sooner or later must come. The adoption of the
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 73 
 
 first named policy would be an unmanly surrender of the 
 union and the constitution, and an abondonment of the 
 self evident truths of the declaration of independence as 
 the fundamental principles of good government. It 
 would be the beginning of a disintegration that would go 
 on until the United States would become petty provinces, 
 the easy prey of anarchy and despotism. It is vain to 
 talk about negotiation for the restoration of the union. 
 All talk of this character by men in the north is but an- 
 other name for surrender and submission. It holds out 
 hope to the rebels and encourages them to persevere in 
 their struggle for independence. They hold common 
 sentiments and advocate a common policy with the north- 
 ern peace man. They know; we know; and the world 
 knows that if they succeed it will not be by their 
 own strength and prowess, but through division and dis- 
 sention in the north. 
 
 Are we then prepared to adopt this policy? Are we 
 not the most recreant criminals if we do adopt it? Will 
 impartial history consign the advocates of this policy to 
 an eternity of infamy and shame ? Will they not call down 
 bolts of cursing rather than dews of blessing to rest on 
 their name and memory forever? 
 
 They will invite and receive the everlasting enmity 
 and hatred of the soldier, and of all true friends of 
 the soldier. The oppressed and yoke-weary masses of 
 the old world who have had hope in our nation, will ex- 
 ecrate them forever as the betrayers of liberty. 
 
 If then, this peace party is so fearfully wrong, what 
 other course is left than to prosecute the war and sustain 
 the army in the field. I know of none. Many are opposed 
 to the prosecution of the war under the present policy 
 They say they want it carried on under the constitution 
 without disturbing the local institutions of the states. 
 They profess to be alarmed about the sovereignty of the 
 states. I believe in the right of the states. I deny, reject
 
 74 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 and repudiate the doctrine of state suicide or any other 
 manner of state destruction. But I have no fears grow- 
 ing out of the invasion of a state wholly under the con- 
 trol of rebels. In extending protection to states I hold 
 that only loyal men should be taken into account. When 
 armed resistance shall cease I shall rejoice to see the gov- 
 ernment exercise a large and liberal magnanimity to such 
 of the people who have been in rebellion as shall merit 
 it by good behavior. If the people of the south did not 
 want to have their local institutions disturbed they 
 should not have disturbed national institutions. If they 
 desired that their state rights should be respected, they 
 should have respected the larger rights of the nation. 
 If they desired to be let alone they should have let the un- 
 ion alone. They should have let its money, its ships and 
 its guns alone. They begun the war and can end it. But 
 I am answered that to stop fighting 'now and submit to 
 the national authority would be humiliating to the 
 rebels. Well, frankly it would be humiliating. It 
 would be more humiliating for a proud nation to kneel 
 at the feet of an iniquitous rebellion and sue for a 
 peace which yielded up national existence. In every 
 war one party or the other submits to humiliation in the 
 end, and why these southern rebels should be excepted 
 from the general rule I can see no reason. They have 
 violated the laws of the land, torn down its flag and 
 trampled under foot its constitution. The law imposes 
 punishment on all who commit such lawless acts and 
 punishment always implies humiliation. Let us keep 
 our faith in the government of our fathers. Let us still 
 cling to the truths of the old declaration of independence. 
 Let us with the fathers still hold them to be self evident. 
 Let us in our hearts and in our lives adopt the words of 
 Adams, "Live or die, survive or perish, I am for this 
 declaration." Let party affiliations divide us ever so 
 much; let storms of predjudice and passion sweep over
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 75 
 
 us ever so bitterly; let sectional interests alienate us as 
 they may; no matter how madly fanaticism may rave; 
 whatever may betide; let us still be for this declaration, 
 and cling to it as the rock of refuge and safety. We may 
 differ in our application of its principles to the political 
 issues of the day, but let us not be carried away from the 
 principles themselves. Let us continue to read and pro- 
 claim them on each return of this national anniversary 
 until they shall obtain universal application throughout 
 the earth ; until the sun in his circuit through the heavens 
 s|all look down upon the world and bear witness that all 
 people of every land and nation, of every kindred and 
 tohgue are rejoicing in the sunlight of liberty and law. 
 
 While we meet to commemorate the great deeds of 
 our revolutionary ancestors; while memory revisits the 
 battlefields where they fought and fell; shall we forget 
 the no less glorious deeds of the heroes of our own times ? 
 Let the names of the soldiers of 1776 and 1861 go into 
 history and down to posterity together. Let the story of 
 independence be interwoven with the seige and surrender 
 of Vicksburg. While we rejoice in the triumphs of the 
 revolution, let us pray earnestly for the brave men who 
 are battling against treason under Sherman in Georgia, 
 and under Grant in Virginia. And when they return to us, 
 be ready to reward them with every honor a greatful 
 people can bestow. Let us now and hereafter stand by 
 the army, and do our whole duty to the country and all 
 will be well. The constitution will be preserved and the 
 union restored. The gentle dews of heaven will wash 
 from our battlefields the red stains of war, and the nation 
 renovated by fire will rise to a new life of glory, honor, 
 prosperity and power. The sacrifices we shall have made 
 will kififc our hearts together in a bond of closer and
 
 76 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 dearer love for the union. The angel with the olive 
 branch shall hover over us and we may at least witness- 
 the dawn of that bright morning of millennial glory when 
 God's holy angels shall proclaim throughout the world, 
 1 1 peace on earth and good will to men. ' '
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 7.7 
 
 IN MEMORY OF ZADOK A. PEARCE 
 
 DELIVERED AT OAK GROVE CEMETERY 
 OCTOBER 23, 1891 
 
 My acquaintance with Zadok A. Pierce began late in 
 the year of 1851 when he was a young man, just entering 
 on his business career. The life of his manhood was then 
 all before him. The hopes, plans, prospects and ambit- 
 ions which filled his heart and lured him onward, and in- 
 to the activities and business of life were then unrealized 
 and unfulfilled. He was unfit for a life of ease, tranquil- 
 ity or indifference. All the impulses, passions and prin- 
 ciples which made up his natural character were such 
 as would lead him into an active life, and direct his 
 thoughts towards fields of manly strife and combat. 
 These strong passions had their influence upon his af- 
 ter life, and at one time led him into paths of danger. 
 I dare not in the solemn presence of my dead friend; in 
 the presence of his bereaved wife and children; in the 
 presence of his neighbors who knew his incomings and 
 outgoings, say that he had no inclination to do any wrong, 
 or that he never swerved from the line of duty. He, him- 
 self made no claim to freedom from the infirmities and 
 weaknesses of human nature. He felt the power of temp- 
 tation, and suffered the penalty of transgression. He al- 
 so knew the joy that follows a great moral victory. I 
 know better than any one outside of his own family the 
 history of the bitter conflict with his own appetites and 
 passions; the battle unto death between the good that 
 sought to save him, and the evil that sought to destroy 
 him. I know also the splendid victory that he achieved 
 over appetite, passion, temper, habit, the influence of false 
 friends, and over his former self. You all know how well
 
 78 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 he kept and exhibited in his life and character, the fruits: 
 of that victory. 
 
 His strong, positive personal character he retained 
 to the end. His opinions on all questions were so fixed, 
 and his convictions so stoutly maintained, as to be some- 
 times mistaken for stubbornness. Reverses and losses 
 in business stimulated him to adopt new plans, and to put 
 forth more persistent efforts to carry them into execution. 
 A tree is judged by its fruit,and a man's life by its results. 
 Our friend can abide this judgement. He established and 
 maintained a prosperous and happy home for his family. 
 He educated his children and they have gone out from the 
 parental home into homes of their own which, in charac- 
 ter and respectability reflect honor upon him as a father. 
 His stirring active life, and his struggle for the right, 
 are worthy of consideration, as examples, by those who 
 follow after him. 
 
 During the late term of our Circuit Court he had 
 some business in the hands of my law firm which he in- 
 sisted must be settled, for said he, I shallnot live long. 
 I tried to call his mind away from the gloomy thought. 
 He shook his head ominously and refused to dismiss the 
 subject. He spoke to many others in the same strain. 
 Was there a shadow from the valley of death thrown over 
 him that the eyes of the soul alone could see? Did some 
 voice from the other shore speak to his spirit and tell 
 him the crossing was so near? But it is vain to ask such 
 questions. They find no answer here. He has carried the 
 mystery with him beyond the range of investigations. 
 
 One thing we do know. His earthly life is ended. 
 We shall never again meet or greet him in the paths of 
 this life. His physical form disappears from us forever. 
 From this day henceforth the manner of man that he was 
 is but a memory. His voice shall never again fall upon 
 our ears. His place is vacant. So far as this life is con-
 
 cerned, we speak the last farewell. The last goodbye to- 
 'day. 
 
 But is this all of life? Does death end all? If so, 
 the shadows around us would be dark indeed, and our 
 sorrow wonld be unilluminated by a single ray of light. 
 This is not all. Our Christian faith reveals to us, on the 
 other side of the river over which our friend has just 
 passed, and whither we must soon follow, the shores of a 
 country where sorrow never conies and where immor- 
 tality is the law of life. 
 
 What its scenes of beauty are we know not, for mor- 
 tal eye has never seen them; what are the melodies that 
 float upon the waves of its celestial atmosphere we cannot 
 tell, for mortal ear has never heard them. What are the 
 delightful pursuits of the dwellers in that country, and 
 the measure of their joy, we know not, "for it has never 
 entered into the heart of man to conceive them. It is 
 enough to know that they are provided by our Father, 
 and that we shall be satisfied with them. 
 
 Faith in the existence of this immortal country is the 
 only star of hope to the dying. It was this faith that en- 
 abled our friend to say to his loved wife, with her break- 
 ing heart; "it's only a little time this separation you 
 will come soon." It is this faith, and this hope that ling- 
 ers with his widow and children, leading them through 
 darkness and storm towards the bright land where the 
 husband and father has already gone. It is in the light of 
 this faith that I came here as the friend of the one that 
 is gone, and of those who survive, and speak these words 
 of friendship, and pay this tribute to the memory of him 
 who was so long my friend.
 
 80 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 IN MEMORY OF JUDGE JOHN SCHOLFIELD 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
 FEBRUARY 24. 1893 
 
 In the House on the 24th of February, 1893, resolu- 
 tions in respect to the death of Judge Scholfield came up 
 as a special order. Remarks in eulogy of the deceased 
 were made by Messrs. Callahan and others, and the reso- 
 lutions were adopted by a rising vote. 
 
 In speaking of the resolutions Mr. Callahan said: 
 
 Mr. Speaker: I move the adoption of the resolutions 
 read, by a standing vote. The citizen whose untimely 
 death we all deplore, and whose memory we honor and 
 perpetuate was exalted in his character, and so blameless 
 in his life that he lived in peace and friendship with all 
 men and died without an enemy. 
 
 The universal sorrow occasioned by the death of 
 Judge Scholfield is intensified by those that have so re- 
 cently proceeded it. The arrows of death have been fly- 
 ing thick and fast, and have touched many whose feet 
 have trod the heights of earthly fame. Butler the soldier 
 and lawyer; Phillips Brooks the preacher; Lamar from 
 the Supreme Bench; Hayes the ex-president; Elaine the 
 statesman and Scholfield the ideal judge, whose pathway 
 through life was above sect or party, have fallen close 
 together. They followed each the other in such close 
 succession that the dying notes of one funeral dirge have 
 blended with the opening notes of the one which followed 
 it. 
 
 In the year 1856 Scholfield was elected circuit at- 
 torney for the Fourth Judicial Circuit then containing 
 ten counties. It was during the term of office of circuit 
 attorney that he made his first acquaintance with the
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 81 
 
 public. His reputation as a lawyer rose rapidly. His 
 sturdy honesty commanded universal respect and admir- 
 ation, and gathered around him hosts of friends who 
 have never forsaken him. He believed that a vigorous 
 '.administration of the criminal law gave the largest 
 measure of security to those who do not break law, and 
 so made the law "a terror to evildoers." 
 
 I have heard Judge Scholfield described as a timid 
 man. It was my privilege to enjoy his intimate personal 
 friendship during his whole public career. He was mod- 
 est and unassuming but not timid. His moral courage 
 was of the highest order and his will was controlled by 
 his conscientious convictions of right and duty, and in its 
 deliberately formed purposes was immovably fixed. He 
 was not obtrusive or self assertive, but he had an abiding 
 confidence in his own power to discern an issue, and to 
 lead others to his own conclusions in regard to it. 
 
 He entered upon the trial of a great cause with the 
 most deliberate caution, after the most complete prepar- 
 ation possible. He had every available weapon, offen- 
 sive and defensive, at hand, and knew what use he could 
 make of them. Thus equipped doubt vanished, hesi- 
 tancy disappeared and the battle was fought to a finish, 
 without the slightest appearance of timidity or fear. In 
 the year 1873 he was elected to fill a vacancy on the Su- 
 preme Bench, occasioned by the resignation of Judge 
 Thornton. His ideal of the judicial office was a very ex- 
 alted one. It must be so high that the Judge could look 
 with impartiality upon all conditions of men, and all in- 
 terests of society. He must be free from all obligations 
 other than to do right and justice under the law. While 
 the Supreme Bench was the goal of his ambition, he re- 
 fused to accept a place upon it through the avenues, 
 and by all means, of party politics. He would only 
 have it as the gift of the people without distinction 
 of creed or party.
 
 82 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 In this he observed the letter, and honored the spirit 
 of the constitution of the state. He placed the standard 
 on the tallest pinnacle of the temple of judicial honor, 
 and died leaving it there. The question of the near fu- 
 ture is Shall it be lowered? 
 
 When Justice Walker died, Judge Scholfield drew 
 such a graphic picture of his own life and labor, that I 
 cannot do better than to reproduce it. He said: " There 
 is nothing in the character and duties of a judge to ex- 
 cite the enthusiastic admiration of the populace. A 
 judge wearing away his life in patient toil among records 
 and books a martyr to his sense of duty is not a spec- 
 tacle to enlist the applause of the multitude. Such a life 
 is too barren of tragic incidents, too unromantic for its 
 history to be embalmed in song or story, and yet to the 
 few who are capable of accurately appreciating such a 
 life, it is grand and heroic." 
 
 The fame of a judge rests upon his written opinions 
 in causes determined in the court of which he is a mem- 
 ber. While the judgment in the case is that of the court, 
 the characteristics of the judge, his tendency to enlarge 
 or to condense, his perspicuity or prolixity of statement, 
 his knowledge of principles and authorities, and the 
 trend of his thought will be manifest in the opinions writ- 
 ten by him. The members of the profession easily learn 
 who are the stronger members of the court. 
 
 Early in his judicial career, the ability of Judge 
 Scholfield was recognized and acknowledged. His terse 
 and vigorous style of writing, his clearness of statement, 
 his ready citation of authorities in support of his con- 
 clusions, his power of discriminaton, his familiarity with 
 elementary principles, combined with his sense of justice, 
 gave him a prominence in the court which increased until 
 his death. His opinions are rich in the literature of the 
 law, and alive with its spirit. They will remain as beacon 
 lights to illuminate the pathway of those who undertake
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 83 
 
 to explore the mysteries of the law in the future. Such 
 parts of them as are confined to local matters, or 
 questions of transient interest, will be lost sight of, but 
 wherein they discuss and determine constitutional and 
 other great fundamental questions, they will endure as 
 a monument to his great ability as a judge, more endur- 
 ing than granite. . 
 
 His life as a citizen was as lovable and exemplary as 
 his public life was exalted and unselfish. When 
 
 office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Unit- 
 ed States was within easy grasp, domestic obligations ' 
 and duties outweighed all the promptings of ambition,* 1 
 and all the allurements of honor, influence, and power 
 which are attendant upon the highest judicial office of the 6^t 
 nation. His love for home and the associations of home, 
 together with his sense of duty to his family were too 
 strong to be severed. His home was 
 "His golden milestone, 
 The central part from which he measured every 
 
 distance 
 
 Through the gateways of the world around 
 him." 
 
 Across the sacred threshold of that home we may 
 not pass today. 
 
 It is in the keeping of those he loved. It is the 
 sanctuary of their private grief and personal sorrow. It 
 is ours to lament the death of a distinguished citizen cut 
 off in the midst of his years, which were full of labor and 
 rich in honors gathered in fields of public and private 
 duty faithfully performed. 
 
 We speak our last farewell which falls on the "dull 
 cold Ear of Death." We listen, but no echo of voice or 
 footfall comes back from the land of spirits. Faith alone 
 spans the mysterious gulf that separates us from that 
 country where the tree of immortal life grows and 
 flourishes forever. The faith in immortality lifts the
 
 84 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 clouds of gloom and sorrow which cast their shadows 
 over us, and in the light of this faith we look beyond the 
 vicissitudes of the present time and say: 
 
 "Our stricken hearts, oh God to Thee 
 Beneath whose feet the stars are dust, 
 We bow, and ask that thou wilt be 
 Through every ill our stay and trust. ' ' 
 
 IN THE FEDERAL COURT, JUNE 9. 1903 
 
 In the Federal Court at Springfield, Illinois, June 9, 
 1893, was set apart for the presentation of resolutions and 
 memorial addresses in honor of Judge John Scholfield 
 deceased. Resolutions were presented by Hon. Samuel 
 P. Wheeler, who addressed the court, and moved the 
 adoption of the resolutions. 
 
 Judge Ethelbert Callahan followed in seconding the 
 motion of Judge Wheeler; he said: 
 
 There are passages in the journey of life which are 
 overhung with clouds of grief and sorrow. But, with 
 the faith of Christian men we enter these darkened ways 
 and pass under these shadows willingly. Our hearts do 
 not turn back in fear, but urge us forward with an in- 
 spiration of hope and courage. The sorrow laden air is 
 perfumed with the memory of those whom we have known 
 and loved. Our faith is that above the clouds which dark- 
 en our path with their shadows, beyond the valley of 
 tears through which we go far out in the boundless em- 
 pire of immortality our departed friends have found rest 
 and peace, and that we too shall soon pass through the 
 valley of the shadow of death and become citizens of that 
 celestial country to which our friends have preceeded us. 
 
 It is right and proper, in these darkened hours sacred 
 to memories that are softened by the touch of sorrow, 
 that we shall pause long enough to record in some endur- 
 ing manner, some memorial of the work and worth of our
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 85 
 
 friends who have taken their final departure into the land 
 of spirits some picture of what tney were. 
 
 The first picture which my memory recalls in the life 
 of Judge Scholfield is that of a young man who had not 
 yet entered fully into the race of life, though his profes- 
 sion was chosen. He was in training for the eminent 
 career that was to follow; a student bouyed up by allur- 
 ing visions of hope ; made cautious by distrust of his own 
 powers; modest and diffident, but withal he had that 
 steady purpose to do; that fixedness of thought and con- 
 sistency of action, that always attest the presence of great 
 moral courage, and give promise of high achievements 
 in the field of human action. 
 
 Later comes the picture of the man in action as the 
 ideal lawyer. His character had matured and strength- 
 ened. He had acquired confidence in himself, and won 
 the confidence of a large clientage. The management of 
 great causes was committed to him. His capacity for 
 work was enormous; his preparation of the trial of a 
 cause was exhaustive. In the contests of the court room 
 he was the embodiment of courtesy and courage; adroit 
 in the examination of witnesses; logical in the statement 
 of a case to court, or jury, and forceful in argument he 
 achieved a large measure of sucess and won a reputation 
 as a man and as a lawyer. This picture of an active pro- 
 fessional life is the one which may be most profitably 
 studied and copied by young men entering the profession. 
 It points the way of duty and success. 
 
 The last picture in the life of Judge Scholfield is the 
 picture by which the world knows and will remember him. 
 It is not in high color. It has not the rosy hues of youth, 
 nor the strong lights of earlier manhood. Its lights and 
 shades are blinded and mellowed by the touch of time. 
 Its color tone is of those milder tints with which the great 
 masters of art have touched the canvass" when they would 
 exalt and glorify humanity. It is the picture of the priest
 
 86 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 who reached the temple of fame, while not so much as 
 lifting his eyes towards its glittering towers. It is the 
 picture of a strong man for twenty long years, quietly 
 and unceasingly giving all his mental and physical 
 powers to the faithful keeping of a public trust. The pic- 
 ture of an unselfish subordination of all personal consid^ 
 eration to the demands of public duty. 
 
 In his life time we all know how faithful he was. 
 Since he is dead we review his labor and its results, and 
 realize how great he was. We realize how firmly his mind 
 grasped and held rich treasures of the law gathered from 
 the wisdom of the centuries ; we realize that in his written 
 opinions, public and private rights have found new de- 
 fenses, and new harmonies have been established between 
 law and liberty. 
 
 This graver picture from the life of the great lawyer 
 and judge, is the one that will live longest in my own 
 memory. It is the picture which rises before .me now, as 
 the culmination of forty years of personal friendship and 
 professional association, and to which I pay the tribute 
 of friendship, admiration and love.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 87 
 
 IN MEMORY OF HON. JAMES C. ALLEN 
 
 AT OLNEY, ILLINOIS, FEBRUARY 1, 1912 
 
 " Ladies and Gentlemen: We are here assembled 
 for the purpose of recalling and recording the prominent 
 acts in the long life of a distinguished fellow citizen who 
 was eminently useful and highly honorable as a patriot, 
 a Christian, a lawyer, and a judge. One who has left the 
 courts of earth where the imperfections, mistakes, and 
 controversies of human life and business are the sub- 
 jects of adjudication, and gone to that bench and bar be- 
 yond the clouds of time, where the law is perfect, the 
 testimony sure and the judgments 'true and righteous 
 altogether. ' 
 
 "Judge Allen was a man of rich and rare natural 
 gifts and graces. He was the servant to whom his lord 
 gave ten talents, and charged him with the improvement 
 and increase thereof. 
 
 "His physical organization was the best. Strength 
 and beauty were combined. His personal presence was 
 commanding. His voice was strong and equally musical 
 making a stump speech or a legal argument, telling a 
 story or singing a song, reading a sermon or leading 
 a congregation of worshippers in prayer. His social 
 qualities were of a very high order and made him a wel- 
 come guest in every circle in which he moved, from the 
 rude camp of the hunting party to the parlor of polite 
 society. His intellect was broad and comprehensive. He 
 gathered facts easily and rapidly and retained them 
 firmly.
 
 88 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 ' ' His mind was quick, logical and conclusive in oper- 
 ation. Right or wrong his conclusions came with little 
 hesitation, and generally action followed closely on the 
 heels of conclusion. In matters of religion he was rever- 
 ent and in business just and right in every aim and pur- 
 pose. 
 
 "My personal acquaintance with Judge Allen be- 
 gan in the late summer of ] 850 when he was a candidate 
 for the state legislature. He was making a speech in the 
 court house at Robinson. He promised that if he was 
 elected he would advocate the improvement of the Em- 
 barras river by locks and dams, and drew a picture of 
 the tide of commerce to be carried along the stream by 
 fleets of steamboats that would charm the most pessi- 
 mistic resident of the Dark Bend. That was in the days 
 when canals and water navigation were popular and the 
 state was pouring millions into the Illinois and Michigan 
 canal and the Illinois river. 
 
 "When state policy was denying charters to rail- 
 roads terminating at or near, the foreign city of St. 
 Louis, as a member of the legislature he advocated a 
 shackles with which narrow minded politics had hither- 
 pro vements; and did splendid service in breaking the 
 shackles wiht which narrow minded politics had hither- 
 to bound the state, and fettered the spirit of progress 
 which was then awaking among the people. 
 
 "A very strong speech of Judge Allen against this 
 narrow state policy was printed in the Illinois State 
 Democrat at Marshall and was extensively circulated in 
 Southern Illinois, and this speech largely influenced his 
 nomination and election to Congress in 1852. 
 
 X'ln 1862 he was the democratic candidate for gov- 
 ernor and made a canvas of the state that commanded 
 the admiration of both parties and gave him national 
 preeminence and reputation. 
 
 "In 1860 he was elected to Congress from the state
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 89 
 
 at large as a ''war democrat" over Eben C. Ingersoll, 
 republican. In 1861 he had drilled a company of militia 
 and encouraged enlistment in the army. His high char- 
 acter and recognized ability and the wide influence he 
 wielded caused Governor Yates and President Lincoln 
 to be very anxious to secure his active co-operation and 
 assistance in the prosecution of the war. They desired 
 him to take the stand taken by Douglas and the action 
 taken by Logan. The governor tendered him the com- 
 mand of a regiment. The president offered him com- 
 mand of the " Kentucky Brigade" but each offer was 
 declined on the ground that he had no military ex- 
 perience or training necessary to fit him for so respon- 
 sible a position. 
 
 "In Congress he voted for every appropriation of 
 men and money which was asked by the administration 
 for the prosecution of the war though he did not fully ap- 
 prove of them. There was a line that he never would 
 pass, and from which he later, retreated. If he had 
 crossed that line and given his full support to the admin- 
 istration of President Lincoln he might have won a sen- 
 atorial toga or seated himself in the gubernatorial chair. 
 This was the hour of his opportunity but it was allowed 
 to pass by. 
 
 " June 17th, 1863, he was a speaker at the conclave of 
 politicians at Springfield that resolved "That the fur- 
 ther offensive prosecution of the war tends to subvert the 
 constitution and the government and entail upon the na- 
 tion all the disastrous consequence of misrule and anar- 
 chy" and "earnestly requested the president to with- 
 draw the proclamation of emancipation." 
 
 "In 1869 he was elected without opposition a mem- 
 ber of the constitutional convention that formed the pres- 
 ent constitution of the state of Illinois. He was chair- 
 man of the committee on the Legislative Department and 
 was entitled to great credit for service wisely rendered in
 
 90 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 that capacity. He was one of the most prominent and 
 useful members of the convention. 
 
 "I now turn back in point of time to the judicial 
 services which he rendered and the judicial honors which 
 he justly earned and rightly held during his lifetime. 
 
 * ' In 1861 he was elected judge of the seventh circuit 
 and served as such until his election to Congress in 1862 
 and in June 1873 he was again elected judge of the cir- 
 cuit court in the second judicial circuit and served as 
 such judge until 1879. From 1877 to 1879 he was one of 
 the judges of the appellate court in the Fourth Appel- 
 late Court District. 
 
 "He was not a case lawyer or judge. He was too 
 much in political life to be what is called a close or criti- 
 cal lawyer. Cases and precedents were often ignored by 
 him, if indeed he knew them. Detail was often over- 
 looked or lost sight of in his reach for, and grasp of such 
 general principles of right and justice as constituted 
 proper limitations of .human action, and are necessary 
 for the protection and preservation of the rights of per- 
 son, reputation and property. 
 
 "When he came to the bench, the old books, Black- 
 stone and Chitty, Kent and Story, and a few others were 
 the authorities read by students and by which lawyers 
 and courts were guided. There were only a few supreme 
 court decisions, and no books on pleading and practice 
 within the state. Cases were argued and determined on 
 principle and not such so much as now on the citation of 
 cases. Judge Allen was well grounded in the fund- 
 amemental principles of the law which had been deduced 
 from the experience of ages and recorded in such books 
 as I have already mentioned. 
 
 " As a judge he used this knowledge to the best pos- 
 sible advantage. He was largely gifted with that brand 
 of common sence which enabled him to grasp readily, 
 and to decide correctly and justly the questions and con-
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 91 
 
 troversies which arise between citizens engaged in, or 
 transacting the ordinary business of life. He was al- 
 ways true to his own convictions as to what were the de- 
 mands of right and justice in every case decided by him. 
 This sense of justice and the fundamental principles of 
 the law were as lamps to his feet ; and his ability to grasp 
 questions and apply his knowledge to given cases made 
 him an eminently satisfactory judge. 
 
 "I had an extensive practice in his court during the 
 time of his judicial service, and had a good understand- 
 ing of his methods of reaching conclusions and deciding 
 cases, and many times felt the force of his influence in 
 cases where the weakness or mistake of the opposing 
 counsel seemed to endanger the rights of clients. When 
 I complained he justified by saying that it was necessary 
 in order that injustice might not be done. 
 
 "Judge Allen was a good trial lawyer. He quickly 
 apprehended the vital points in a case and would ignore 
 or brush aside unimportant questions or frivolities upon 
 which many lawyers waste time and which weaken rath- 
 er than give strength to their cases. He was concise and 
 forcible in the statement of a case. 
 
 "His examination of his witnesses was direct and 
 addressed to the matters in controversy. His method of 
 cross-examination was an adroit and skillful search after 
 facts, and to make a fair test of the veracity of witnesses 
 of whose entire truthfulness he entertained some doubt. 
 He was quick to avail himself of such points of advan- 
 tage, or of disadvantage as often arise in the progress 
 .of a trial. In argument to a court or jury he was forceful, 
 fluent and often eloquent. In a legal battle he used vig- 
 orously every weapon at his command that might be con- 
 sistently and honorably used. In the heat of argument 
 and while under high excitement he sometimes dealt 
 blows that seemed to be cruel and unnecessary, but his
 
 92 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 warm hearted generosity and kindly sympathy soon 
 soothed and healed the wound he had caused. 
 
 "When he was with me in a case I knew and felt 
 that I had a strong and resourceful associate. When he 
 opposed I knew that while the conflict might be intense 
 it would be from the front and fair and open. Judge 
 Allen deservedly held high rank as a member of the 
 Illinois bar. 
 
 ' t In politics Judge Allen was conscientously and con- 
 sistently a democratic partisan, and throughout his en- 
 tire life held the doctrines and traditions of the demo- 
 cratic party to be the only true political faith of the best 
 American citizenship. The storms of civil war that 
 swept over the country from '61 to '65 and the terrible 
 conflicts of the many stricken battlefields did not shake 
 his political faith, disturb his loyalty to his party or 
 make his partisanship less honest or less intense. 
 
 "He was a leader of men in whatever sphere he 
 moved, whether in the church, the political party, the 
 social circle or in the diversions for recreation and rest 
 in which he often indulged. The strong and positive 
 manifestation of his temperament and feeling while en- 
 gaged in different pursuits, occupations or diversions 
 led some to suspect that he was not entirely sincere in 
 his religious professions and service but those who so 
 suspected were grossly mistaken. To say that he was 
 always absolutely perfect and consistent would be to say 
 that he was not human. His faults were so trivial that 
 he might well challenge comparison with any who doubt- 
 ed his sincerity or criticized his conduct. 
 
 "When the subject of religion was under consider- 
 ation he was devout and reverential. Few men had the 
 courage to live up to their convictions of duty, and serve 
 the church more faithfully than he. His Christian faith 
 and service call upon us to write upon the tomb "The 
 Christian Lawyer."
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 93 
 
 "He was from his youth to his old age an honored 
 member and for many years an officer of the Presby- 
 terian church. In 1851 I attended the Presbyterian 
 church in Palestine, Illinois. In the absence of a minis- 
 ter Judge Allen took his place and conducted the 
 services. He was loyal to his church during his long 
 useful and honored life. He was a reader and student of 
 the Bible and often drew from it gems of thought and 
 beauties of language to adorn his public speeches and ar- 
 guments. To him Moses was the inspired lawgiver, and 
 the commands and prohibitions which were contained in 
 the Mosaic Code were the immovable foundations upon 
 which the temple of human justice must eternally stand. 
 Upon this sure foundation Judge Allen built his char- 
 acter as a man, a lawyer and a Christian. As the infirm- 
 ities of age lured his thought and his affection away, 
 from the business and affairs of life his interest in the 
 church and the religion which the church teaches in- 
 creased. His thought was more and more turned to the 
 consideration of things unseen and eternal. The love of 
 mortal life decreased and the desire for life eternal grew 
 brighter and stronger. It is a merciful provision by the 
 Author of all life that to those who have lived long and 
 well the love of mortal life is merged into a desire to de- 
 part and be at rest before the summons of departure 
 comes. 
 
 "The stalwart form of our friend is laid low. His 
 eloquence is silenced. No more at the bar, or on the 
 judgment seat shall we hear the music of his voice plead- 
 ing for the right, or pronouncing just judgments. But 
 we have his honorable and useful life as a lesson and as 
 an example. We lawyers here assembled honor his name 
 and memory and pray that his example may be an in- 
 spiration of love and loyalty to our profession, and of de- 
 votion to duty faithfully performed.
 
 94 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 ON LAYING CORNERSTONE OF COURT HOUSE 
 
 IN ROBINSON. OCTOBER 30, 1895 
 
 Grand Master and Fellow Citizens: 
 
 This is an auspicious occasion for Crawford county. 
 The committee of arrangements assigned to me the duty 
 of making an appropiate historical address. I am not to 
 discuss political, legal or social questions or theories, 
 but shall confine myself to such parts of the local history 
 of the county as appear to be appropriate to the pur- 
 poses of this assemblage. 
 
 The division of Kingdoms, Empires and States into 
 counties may be traced back through the annals of hist- 
 ory to the Roman Empire. Except in America counties 
 have integral parts of either royal or aristocratic gov- 
 ernments. The Count or Earl, who was the principal man 
 in the county, either inherited his title, dignity and auth 
 'ority from his ancestors, or derived them directly from 
 the Emperor or King. 
 
 In America the royal and aristocratic features have 
 been eliminated, and the county has become a prominent 
 feature of, and a principal instrumentality in the admin- 
 istration of a Democratic government, by the people and 
 for the people. The county itself is created, and its boun- 
 daries are defined by laws enacted in the name of, and by 
 authority of the people. All county officers, and all offi- 
 cers within the county, are chosen by the vote of the 
 people. The seat of justice, where the affairs and bus- 
 iness of the county are transacted, and the laws adminis- 
 tered is selected by the people. The American county,
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 95 
 
 in the highest, broadest and best sense of the word, is 
 Democratic, and the citizen of the county, without any 
 abatement of his state pride or national patriotism, feels 
 a special interest in, and love for, the county in which he 
 dwells. It concerns his daily life, and his material in- 
 terests are so interwoven with the affairs of the county 
 that he could not ignore them if he would. 
 
 It is in the light of, and with 'especial reference to 
 this personal and local interest that I address my fellow 
 citizens of Crawford county on this occasion. 
 
 Crawford county was created by an act of the Leg- 
 islature of the territory of Illinois passed in December, 
 A. D. 1816. Its boundaries were a little different from 
 what they are today. It commenced "at the mouth of the 
 Embarras river and running with said river to the inter- 
 section of the line dividing townships numbered three (3) 
 and forr (4) north of range eleven (11), west of the sec- 
 ond principal meridian; running thence west with said 
 township line to the meridian, and thence due north un- 
 til it strikes the line of r/pper Canada; thence east to the 
 line that separates the Illinois Territory from the state of 
 Indiana, and thence south with said division line to the 
 beginning, so that it contained more than one-third of 
 the state of Illinois, and the east half of the state of Wis- 
 consin. In this vast territory there was then less than 
 three thousand people. In fact, in 1820, when the census 
 was taken, it just came within one of being three thous- 
 and. There were no towns in it then that were rivals for 
 the county seat; no chance to stuff the ballot boxes in fav- 
 or of one town and against another as has since been done. 
 
 The county seat was located at the house of Edward 
 N. Cullom, without saying where the house of Edward N. 
 Cullom was. I understand that Edward N. Cullom then 
 owned half of the land where the village of Palestine now 
 stands, and that his house was a log cabin with a cat and
 
 96 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 clay cliimney and a puncheon floor, and that was the first 
 court house in the county of Crawford. 
 
 As population increased other counties were formed 
 out of this territory. Clark county in 1819, Lawrence 
 county in 1821, and Jasper county in 1831, fixed the pres- 
 ent limits of Crawford county. 
 
 The act creating the county appointed three com- 
 missioners to permanently locate the seat of justice. From 
 some cause or other these men failed to discharge that 
 duty; and by another act, passed December 24, 1817, Seth 
 Gard and Thomas Kean were appointed commissioners 
 to locate the seat of justice of the county. 
 
 On April 8th, 1818, these commissioners reported to 
 the county justice's court consisting of Samuel Harris, 
 George W. Kinkade, James Shaw, Smith Shaw and 
 Joseph Kitchell, that they had performed the duty as- 
 signed to them. The size of the location is not given. The 
 only point mentioned is the center of the public square, 
 which was eighty rods north of the southeast corner of 
 the southeast quarter of section 34, town 7, north of range 
 11, west of the second principal meridian. The center of 
 the public square to be on the line dividing sections 34 
 and 35 in the town and range aforesaid, and named the 
 said seat of justice Palestine. The report was accepted 
 and approved by the court and the seat of justice was re- 
 moved from the house of Mr. Cullom. 
 
 On the 5th day of August, 1818, at a term of the 
 justice 's court at which justices Smith Shaw, David Por- 
 ter and S. B. A. Carter were present, an order was en- 
 tered of record that a brick court house with stone foun- 
 dations should be built forty-four feet long and thirty- 
 six feet wide, the first story to be eighteen, and the second 
 story eight feet high. There were to be two doors four 
 feet wide and seven feet high, and ten windows of " a size 
 to allow forty-five panes of glass eight by ten;" "three 
 chimneys with fireplaces," and "the roof to be made
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 97 
 
 strong as is common for such buildings, neither too steep 
 nor too flat. ' ' 
 
 This court house was built by William Lindsay, of 
 Vincennes who disagreed with the county authorities 
 about the character of the,work. An arbitration was had 
 which resulted in favor of the contractor, who afterwards 
 sued the county in the Edwards Circuit Court and re- 
 covered a judgment for about eighteen hundred dollars. 
 At the December term 1819 of the county commissioners ' 
 court this court house was received, and the March term, 
 1820, of the circuit court was held in it. On the third day 
 of March an order was made by the county commissioners 
 "to stop up the windows with clapboards; also to dig 
 away the rubbish from the east side, six inches below the 
 brick. ' ' Other orders followed directing six of the win- 
 dows to be filled with brick ; and that the house be decor- 
 ated with * ' Venetian blinds and a cornice like that on the 
 steam saw-mill at Vincennes." But it was an ill-fated, 
 shortlived building. Lightning played ''pitch and toss" 
 with its bricks and timbers. The corroding tooth of time 
 gnawed at its foundations. The citizens carried away 
 its loose planks, the bats inhabited its desolate chambers. 
 It was a ruin, unfit for use and several terms of court 
 were held in private houses. 
 
 At the March term, 1832, of the County Commission- 
 ers Court, it was ordered that all persons who had ' ' taken 
 plank from the old court house, be requested to call on the 
 court, at its June term, and account for the same; other- 
 wise coercive measures will be taken against them." 
 
 It was at the same term ordered that a court house 
 be built on the southwest corner of the public square. 
 "To be a frame, thirty-six feet long and twenty-four 
 feet wide, two stories high," and the "foundations to be 
 set on good sawed blocks fifteen inches high, ' ' and to be 
 completed "on or before the 15th day of September 
 next. " It is said, though the records do not show it, that
 
 98 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 it was built by the seven Jesse Myerses, and that 
 on the night of completion it was burned up, 
 and it ought not to have a place in the Judicial his- 
 tory of the county court houses. 
 
 At the December term, 1832, of the Commissioners 
 Court it was ordered that another court house be built on 
 or near the same spot where the one recently burned 
 stood. The size and general description to be substan- 
 tially the same as the one burnt ; the foundation was to be 
 brick or stone in place of the "good sawed blocks" of its 
 predecessor. Presley O. Wilson and Sewell Goodrich built 
 this third public court house, and the courts of the county 
 were held in it until the removal of the county seat in 
 1843. After that time it was used for a school house until 
 it was consumed by fire. 
 
 At an election held in the year A. D. 1843, the people 
 of the county voted to remove the county seat from Pales- 
 tine to the site where the city of Robinson now stands. 
 The new county seat was named in honor of Judge John 
 M. Robinson, who had represented the State of Illinois 
 in the United States Senate, ?nd was at this time a Judge 
 of the Supreme Court of the State. This removal created 
 the necessity of another court house. 
 
 On the 29th day of December, 1843, the building of 
 a temporary court house was let to Abraham B. Jeffries 
 and Charles B. Shepherd for $350.00 payable in county 
 orders at par. At the June term, 1844, this temporary 
 court house was accepted and courts were held in it until 
 another was provided. It now stands on North Cross 
 street, north of John Olwin & Co., dry goods store. 
 
 At a special term of the County Commissioners court 
 held on the 4th day of October, 1844, an order was made 
 for the building of a court house on the present public 
 square. The records do not show any contract for the 
 building as a whole, nor do they disclose the cost to the 
 county. Brick was bought of one person, timber from
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 99 
 
 another, and other material from whoever had it for sale. 
 Courts were held in it sooner, but it was not completed 
 until after 1850, and there is no record to show that it 
 was ever formally received by the county. It was de- 
 signed without mechanical skill, constructed by piece 
 meal, required repair before it was finished, and was, in 
 plan and construction, inadequate to the requirements 
 of the business of the county. It gave no security to the 
 public records upon which rests the private rights of 
 the citizen. 
 
 Memory is forever turning towards the years that 
 have flown into the eternal silence of the past, and clam- 
 oring for their return. Let memory have its will for a 
 few moments. Let imagination go with memory to the 
 court held at the house of Edward N. Cullom, on the 7th 
 day of July, 1819, to try William Kilbuck, Captain Thom- 
 as and Big Panther for the murder of Thomas McCall. 
 M-cCall was a surveyor in the employ of the United States. 
 His camp had the usual supplies of a government survey- 
 or. The defendants were Delaware Indians and loved 
 "Fire Water." They went to McCall in the field and 
 asked him to write them an order to the man in charge 
 of the camp for whiskey. He pretended to comply with 
 their request, but gave the order not to let them have it. 
 For this deception they murdered him. 
 
 The Indians were indicted on Thursday, tried and 
 found guilty on Friday. On Saturday the court arrested 
 the judgement and quashed the indictment. Another in- 
 dictment was instantly turned against Killbuck, and he 
 was put upon trial and found guilty and sentenced to be 
 hanged on the next Wednesday. The other two were in- 
 dicted together and ordered to be held in custody until 
 the next term of court. 
 
 There were so few whites, and so many Indians, in 
 the county that it was not thought prudent to hang them, 
 and they were all allowed to escape.
 
 100 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 The year 1826, so far as the records show, was the 
 closing scene of slavery in this county. "Tony" (black) 
 and Amy (a black girl) sued for and were granted cer- 
 tificates of freedom. "Tony" was the property of the ven- 
 erable Quaker, Nathan Musgrave, and was given his free- 
 dom on the testimony of his master. "Amy" belonged 
 to Colonel John Houston whose name and memory are 
 venerated by all who knew him. 
 
 I hold in my hand an original indictment against 
 Cornelius Taylor for bringing home a hog without ears, 
 against the peace and dignity of the United States of 
 America, which was returned in the Territorial Court, 
 continued at all courts held at Cullom's and disposed of 
 at the first term held in the brick court house. The hon- 
 ors of this singular unique indictment must be shared, 
 first between the United States and the State of Illinois, 
 and secondly between "Cullom's house" and the brick 
 court house. 
 
 Listen for a moment, while this same Cornelius Tay- 
 lor and clivers other pioneers are tried and convicted for 
 selling whiskey to the Indians. 
 
 Look and listen another moment, while your fathers 
 and grandfathers are tried on indictments for T. A. B., 
 which being spelled out means; Trespass, Assault and 
 Battery. 
 
 Another memory of the brick court house is of May 
 9th, 1825. It is Robert Owen, philosopher, scientist and 
 social reformer, standing at the bar of the court, renounc- 
 ing his allegiance to the King and Kingdom of Great 
 Britain and swearing allegiance to the "Starry Flag" of 
 the American Republic. 
 
 I have many personal memories of the court house 
 of 1845. In it I tried my first law suit in a court of record. 
 Since then I have had many legal battles within its walls, 
 in which I have suffered many defeats and some victor- 
 ies. The older members of the bar, who were here when
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 101 
 
 I entered the profession, and some who were not older 
 than myself, have gone to the bar and bench beyond the 
 clouds of time. Harlan, Kitchell, Constable, Scholfield, 
 Deems and Shaw, from the bench ; Bowman, Linder, Har- 
 row, Ficklin, Alexander, Fletcher, Robinson, Olwin, Peck, 
 Steel and Robb, from the bar. I would love to stop long 
 enough to pay tribute to each of these friends and associ- 
 ates at the bar, and revive the memory of the sharp con- 
 tests and pleasant associations of our professional life, 
 but time forbids. I must turn to the duties of the pres- 
 ent hour. 
 
 It seems but a moment ago but a short time since 
 it was first announced that the old court house was in- 
 secure the old court house of 1845. When Judge Lan- 
 des came here on the fifth day of March, 1895, he caused 
 a committee of architects, consisting of Edward N. Otey, 
 Elisha Brubaker and Thomas C. Walter, to be appointed, 
 and directed them to examine the house and report to 
 him. These men, after a careful examination of the build- 
 ing, reported that it was unsafe and dangerous to human 
 life. Upon that report Judge Landes did right in entering 
 an order condemning the court house. He then adjourned 
 the court to the Opera House, where the courts have since 
 that time been held. 
 
 There was then a duty devolving upon the Board of 
 Supervisors. The law makes it a duty of the Board of 
 Supervisors to provide proper court houses and other 
 public buildings. They prepared and submitted to the 
 people a plan for issuing forty thousand dollars of the 
 bonds of the county for the erection of a court house. An 
 election was held on the second day of April, 1895, and 
 the proposition was defeated by a majority of 512 votes. 
 There was a good deal of difference of opinion among 
 the people as to what that vote meant. Some said that it 
 was against a new court house that the people did not 
 want a court house. But the sensible men of the County
 
 102 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH . 
 
 Board said: "It means no such thing. It means they do 
 not want it built that way, ' ' and a majority of that Board 
 feeling the responsibility, and desiring to discharge the 
 duty devolving upon them to provide proper places for 
 the safe keeping of the records and archives of the coun- 
 ty, upon which the safety of your property and mine 
 rests, resolved to take the course which other counties 
 have taken, and build a court house and pay for it with 
 interest bearing county warrants. Resolutions to that 
 effect were prepared and presented to the County Board. 
 H. L. Bovell, the Supervisor from this town, moved their 
 adoption; Mr. Smith seconded the motion, and by a two- 
 thirds vote the resolutions were passed, and the work 
 of building the court house was bravely and courageous- 
 ly undertaken by the Board of Supervisors. Mr. Mush- 
 rush, the chairman, appointed a building committee, con- 
 sisting of Hugh L. Bovell, Isaac P. Smith, George B. 
 Everingham, J. W. Weger, and of which Mr. Mushrush 
 was an ex-officio member. Mr. Bovell was made chair- 
 man of this committee, and I take occasion to say now, 
 to the citizens of this county that in the appointment of 
 that committee and in the selection of its chairman you 
 have been singularly fortunate, for it is the purpose of 
 that committee and of the County Board to build this 
 court house honestly and fairly, so that the people shall 
 have in it one hundred cents for every dollar they pay 
 for it. 
 
 Plans and specifications were furnished by Mr. Gad- 
 dis, of Vincennes, Indiana. I need not speak of these plans 
 for they have been so universally approved that the wis- 
 dom of the committee in adopting, and the wisdom of the 
 County Board in approving them, stands and will forever 
 stand before the people of this county unquestioned. 
 
 On the eighth day of August, 1895, the contract was 
 let to T. J. Morse & Son, of Indianapolis, Indiana, for 
 forty thousand dollars, to be paid in interest bearing
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 103 
 
 county warrants, and fifteen hundred dollars subscribed 
 by citizens of Robinson, the building to be completed by 
 August 1st, 1896. 
 
 I ought perhaps to close now, but I want to call your 
 attention, and the attention of each man and of each 
 woman present, to the fact that this is not a Robinson 
 court house. Though you may live in the farthest cor- 
 ner of the county you have as much interest in this build- 
 ing as the man who lives under the shadow of its walls. 
 I want to call your attention to an examination of the 
 work so far as it has proceeded, and I may safely chal- 
 lenge any criticism against the County Board, or its 
 v building committee, or against the contractors of this 
 work so far as it has gone. The old court house was ap- 
 parently built and planned without any artistic taste or 
 mechanical skill. 
 
 In the advancing state of civilization we build for a 
 longer time, for more people, and with greater resources 
 than our fathers did or could have built. 
 
 We have come together to-day and have with us 
 apprentices, crafts-men and master-workman of the order 
 in whose lodges is preserved, that knowledge and skill 
 which made the Temple on Mount Moriah the glory of 
 Jerusalem the sacred depository of the law, the delight of 
 the people, the pride of the world. They have this day, 
 so far as the work has progressed tested it by the instru- 
 ments of their craft and have pronounced^ in the presence 
 of this vast audience, that the foundations are level ; that 
 its walls are plumb and the work square; and they have 
 pointed out the moral significance of the level, plumb 
 and square aside from the architectural and mechanical 
 meaning of them. 
 
 Now what of the future? I appeal to the men of 
 the county to know what is the future of this building 
 dedicated to justice ; to the administration of the law and
 
 104 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 to the public use of the people of this county, and I ask 
 them to think what it means. 
 
 It means in this broad land of ours, where liberty, 
 bright, holy and beloved dwells in every home, that it is 
 still controlled by law; that the law is the corner-stone 
 upon which all things do and must rest. That the law 
 is the foundation upon which we and all of our rights and 
 interests stand. It is the one bulwark around and about 
 us, protecting us from oppression, domestic and foreign; 
 and protecting us from our own evil passions and erratic 
 judgements. It is the law which makes us all secure. It 
 is the law which makes the Declaration of Independence 
 so sweet and holy to us, and gives it practical application 
 to our property and to our rights and liberty. 
 
 Now let us think; let each man think; let each boy 
 reflect that this great government of ours, with all its 
 holy and precious rights and privileges, is constituted of 
 and takes character from the acts of single men, and 
 that there is a responsibility resting upon every man to 
 defend, under all circumstances, the legal rights of every 
 other man. Let us all feel like the Swiss soldier, when 
 he broke the ranks of the Austrian army by the sacri- 
 fice of his own life, that on his sole aim hangs victory and 
 sucess. 
 
 Fathers, and ye venerable men, take your children 
 into your confidence; teach them the sacredness of law; 
 teach them that it was our country that first brought 
 down the stars from heaven and placed them upon its 
 flag as an emblem of the divine origin of their rights; 
 teach them of the valorous deeds of our fathers, and to 
 strive in all things for the peace and prosperity of irhis 
 land of freedom, and that in this land there is no progress 
 without conflict; teach them that there is nothing worth 
 having that they must not battle for. I know not how it 
 is, but I know when I trace history back until it is lost in 
 tradition and myth, that no nation or people ever rose
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 105 
 
 to a higher plane of civilization except through bloodshed 
 and strife. 
 
 It seems strange, but he who sits upon the throiie 
 of the universe, and who gives the law to all people; He 
 whose fingers wrote upon tables of stone the Decalogue 
 which is the foundation of all law, does order that man 
 must battle and strive to win that which is worth having. 
 
 Now, in the hope that this court house may be com- 
 pleted as auspiciously as it has begun, that no murmur- 
 ing may arise among our people or have occasion to arise 
 for long years to come, when my head shall be laid low, 
 when the brown beards of the young men who witness 
 this ceremony shall become gray, that this court house 
 may stand, and in it, and on its bench there shall be men 
 of wisdom, who love justice and right; that the judge- 
 ments rendered shall be just, and that at its bar there 
 shall be men striving for that which is right and best, 
 and who shall always remember that a lawyer is more in 
 the public eye than other men; and that he, above all 
 other men, should be a lover and keeper of the law, and, 
 in the best sense of the word, a gentleman. 
 
 And now, Grand Master, fellow craftsmen and cit- 
 izens of Crawford county, rejoicing with you in this aus- 
 picious beginning and hoping for an ending equally suc- 
 cessful, when the last stone is placed, the stone which is 
 neither oblong or square, but the keystone of the arch; 
 when this building is finished and furnished, I hope to 
 meet you again and assist you in finally dedicating this 
 building to the administration of the law, to justice, and 
 to the rights and business of the people of this county.
 
 106 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 ADDRESS OF WELCOME 
 
 DEDICATION OF COURT HOUSE, MAY 1, 1897 
 
 Fellow Citizens: The program announces "An Ad- 
 dress of Welcome. ' ' Words of welcome touch the chords 
 of sympathy and love, from which arise the tenderest 
 notes, and which awaken the sweetest strains that swell 
 the human heart with joyful memories of the past, lift 
 the shadows of sorrow from the present hour, and fill 
 the future with stars of hope. 
 
 The pleasant duty has been assigned to me today, of 
 bidding the citizens of Crawford county welcome to the 
 portals of this, their own, Temple of Justice, dedicated 
 to the administration of the law, and the protection of 
 their public and private rights and liberties. Also to 
 those who were once citizens of the county, but who have 
 sought, in other places, a field of labor, and who have re- 
 turned today, to greet old friends, renew the associa- 
 tions of other years, and join with friends, old and new, 
 in these dedicatory services. Passing beyond these, I 
 am commissioned to give words of sincerest welcome to 
 those who are here from other counties and other states, 
 to testify their loyalty to the law, which gives every man 
 liberty, and commands that he shall so use the gift as not 
 to infringe upon the rights and liberties of others. And, if 
 there be any here not already included, I most earnestly 
 say to them also, welcome. And to all, thrice welcome 
 here today! 
 
 On laying the cornerstone of this edifice, I gave a 
 history of the court houses which have preceeded it in 
 this county. If you will refer to that, you will find that 
 the successive court houses have registered the mag-
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN ID? 
 
 nificent progress of the county in the march of Christian 
 civilization. 
 
 In music there is a keynote to which. all other notes 
 are bound by mystic chords of melody, and around which 
 they play, and into which they intertwine in harmony. 
 This keynote fixes the character of the music, and deter- 
 mines its influence upon the mind, or the passions of the 
 listener. 
 
 In painting, there is a tone color, into which every 
 light and shadow of the picture must blend in subordina- 
 tion. This tone color shines out through all others, and 
 in it you read the character of the artist, and fix the value 
 of his artistic production. 
 
 The houses and public buildings of a people are the 
 keynotes which indicate the grade of culture, and the 
 tone of public spirit existing among them. Every home 
 into which the spirit of the beautiful is infused is a rec- 
 ord of culture. Every new public building, educational, 
 legal or religious, is a manifestation of the public char- 
 acter and enterprise of the builders. The ear of the 
 stranger and the home seeker easily catches the music; 
 his eye readily grasps the picture, and he locates, or 
 passes on, as he is pleased, or displeased by them. 
 
 A county is a larger individual, consisting of the 
 entire aggregation of its people. It has its personality 
 and character as distinctly outlined as that of any one 
 of its citizens. It is progressive or conservative, careful 
 or negligent of its property and other interests. There 
 . are citizens who built houses, something about them un- 
 finished, or permit them at once to go into disrepair and 
 unsightliness. 
 
 I voice the sentiment of the people of Crawford coun- 
 ty in saying to the County Board, "You have done well 
 so far. You have constructed for use a safe, substan- 
 tial and elegant court house, and in doing so, you have 
 not wasted our money. Go on until it is finished. Leave
 
 108 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 nothing in or about it incomplete. Finish and then pre- 
 serve it from waste and from every kind of defacement 
 or injury." 
 
 It is forty years now since I was enrolled as a mem- 
 ber of the bar in this county. In that time the lawyers 
 that were then at the bar, and the judges that were then 
 on the bench, all save one, have passed beyond the juris- 
 diction of the tribunals of this world. Judge James C. 
 Allen alone remains, and it is no inconsiderable part of 
 the pleasure of this occasion that he is here today to res- 
 pond to what I am saying. He is no stranger in Crawford 
 county. He is surrounded by hundreds who are witnesses 
 to his long and honorable career as a lawyer, and to 
 his virtues and worth as a citizen of the county and state. 
 
 For almost fifty years I have been your fellow citizen, 
 and have participated in the affairs of the county. I have 
 been, and am, a witness of its progress, and the improved 
 condition and culture of its people. I have shared largely 
 in your confidence, and owe whatever of success I have 
 achieved to your favor. The shadows of life are length- 
 ening behind me. I am soon to surrender my place at 
 the bar to the stalwart young men who now constitute 
 the bar of Crawford county. I congratulate them upon 
 the favorable conditions that surround them, and the 
 honors and successes which lie before them. 
 
 I congratulate the people of the county on the fact 
 that their legal business in the future, will be in the hands 
 of men of such ability and professional integrity. 
 
 I again bid you all welcome, and indulge the hope 
 that each may go away impressed with love for, and loy- 
 alty to, law and order; and justly proud of the progress 
 of your county in such things as tend to the happiness 
 of its people.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 109 
 
 ON LAYING THE CORNERSTONE OF THE 
 METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
 
 ROBINSON, ILLINOIS, SEPTEMBER 2, 1899 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal Church is an organization 
 of people who believe in God, and serve and worship Him 
 tinder forms and with ceremonials which they believe 
 to be in accordance with the Divine Charter held by 
 the universal Christian church in the world. It recog- 
 nizes as belonging to the universal Christian church 
 members of all communions and organizations which 
 accept the philosophy of life embraced in the words of 
 Christ. Its accepted mission is the affirmation of the 
 faith and practice of the Christian religion in accordance 
 with certain standards. While it is aggressive against 
 wrong, and zealous in building its own walls, it does not, 
 and none of its members or agencies should antagonize 
 or discourage any work of other religious organizations 
 or communions, who, under other forms, with other cer- 
 emonials and in the use of other instrumentalities, are 
 co-laborers in the vineyard of a common Lord and Master. 
 It is high time that the cry of the heretic, as between 
 those who, under any form, bear the standard of faith 
 in the founder of Christianity should be hushed into a 
 silence so profound that it shall never be broken. 
 
 In all things that are believed to be mandatory, the 
 Methodist church is intensely conservative. In its whole 
 history it has, and still does, "contend earnestly for the 
 faith once delivered to the saints." In such things as 
 are believed to be directory or expedient only, it is care- 
 fully and judiciously progressive. Yielding to the prin-
 
 110 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 ciple of equality it conforms its policy to the represen- 
 tative features of the civil government of the country. 
 It now grants to its lay members representation in its 
 highest councils in equal numbers and on equal terms 
 with its clergy. 
 
 Mr. Wesley proclaimed that the world was his par- 
 ish. The church has not, and does not intend to abandon 
 the parish. In its methodical way it has covered the 
 civilized world with its circuits and stations. Its mis- 
 sionaries are whispering into the ears of barbarous na- 
 tions, and of savage tribes, the ever new story of Divine 
 love and eternal life contained in the Gospel of Christ. 
 The Methodist church is a pioneer in all lands, softening 
 the hardships of frontier life with the hope and consol- 
 ation which religion alone can bring to the care bur- 
 dened hearts of men. Before the school house was built 
 it erected its altars in the cabin homes of the early set- 
 tlers. Later the school houses became the sanctuaries, 
 and the forest groves the temples in which its greater 
 assemblies were held. 
 
 Early in the present century, while the advance 
 guard of civilization pressed its way from North Caro- 
 lina, Tennessee and Kentucky northward along the 
 banks of the Wabash, the Methodist itinerant with his 
 faithful horse, and his saddle bags of wholesome books, 
 if he did not head the column camped close on its rear, 
 and he was then, and his successors since then have been 
 and still are, important factors in the moral, mental, 
 material and religious progress which characterizes the 
 citizenship of this valley. 
 
 One of the pioneer preachers who deserves epecial 
 mention in this connection was James McCord. His 
 name and memory should in some appropriate manner 
 be perpetuated by the Methodists of Crawford county. 
 For many years, probably a third of a century he was a 
 welcome visitor and his name was a household word in
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 111 
 
 the homes of the county. Like St. Paul, he earned his 
 bread by the labor of his own hands during six days of 
 the week. On the Sabbath day, in some family home, 
 in some school house or grove, or in some primitive tern- 
 pie dedicated to the worship of God, he taught the people 
 and urged them to accept and practice the Divine pre- 
 cepts given to the world by the Galilean carpenter. He 
 rests from his labor in the cemetery at Wesley Chapel, but 
 his works do follow him for good, even unto this day. 
 
 When in 1843 the county seat was located at Robin- 
 son the Methodist church planted its standard here, and 
 assumed its share of responsibility for the moral and 
 religious state of the inhabitants of the future city. The 
 exact date and by whose hand is not definitely known, 
 but it is known that while the sound of the hammer and 
 saw were still heard on week days in the work of con- 
 struction, they were supplanted by the Methodist hymns 
 and sermons on the Sabbath day. 
 
 For more than twenty years the Methodists of Rob- 
 inson had no house of their own. Private houses, the 
 school house and the court house served by turns as a 
 place of worship. What is now called ' ' the old church ' ' 
 standing near the corner stone we now lay, was built in 
 1866. It was the centenary offering of the Methodists 
 in Robinson to the progress of their branch of the uni- 
 versal Christian church in America. In the erection 
 of that building was demonstrated the wide influence of 
 the church over those not of its own communion and their 
 friendship for its mission and work in the world. Such 
 was the liberality of the citizens of the then small village 
 of Robinson that it seemed almost selfish to call it an ex- 
 clusively Methodist church. We rejoice that the same 
 manifestations of friendship and friendly co-operation 
 exist today, and that we are surrounded by so many 
 citizens and members of other Christian families who re-
 
 112 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 joice with us and earnestly pray for our success in this 
 undertaking. 
 
 Since the dedication of "the old church" thirty- 
 three years have flown by and are now lost in the fathom- 
 less abyss of the past. The membership of the church 
 has so increased; the Sunday School has so grown; the 
 Epworth League and other societies auxiliary to the 
 church have come into existence demanding room, that 
 in the judgment of a majority of the members of the 
 church another building of greater size, with improved 
 facilities for carrying on the work of the church was re- 
 quired. The policy of our church is such that the judg-' 
 ment of the majority is the legal judgment of all. In 
 pursuance of such legal judgment the foundations of 
 this new church edifice have been laid broader and deep- 
 er than the foundations of its predecessor. The laying of 
 this cornerstone above the permanent foundations upon 
 which the finished edifice is to stand is purely ceremon- 
 ial. It is a formal approval of what has preceded it. It 
 is a visible, material, concrete expression of the purpose 
 of the builders. It is not expected that the contents of 
 the sealed box which we now place within the unrelax- 
 ing grasp of this stone will ever again come within range 
 of human vision. Yet in the years that may be measured 
 to us by the hand of time, our thoughts will penetrate the 
 dark recess wherein they lie; memory will recall this 
 occasion, and we shall read upon its tablets the thoughts 
 and impressions which occupy our minds and move our 
 hearts today. 
 
 I am not a dreamer. I am not looking for the dawn 
 of days of a kind other or different from the days in 
 which I have lived. I am not expecting the appearance 
 of a new heaven or a new earth. I am not gazing upward 
 or outward for the dawning light of a real or fancied mil- 
 lenium. I am a firm believer in the permanency of the 
 works of God and the reasonableness of His government
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 113 
 
 of the world. In this belief I join in this ceremonial and 
 the building of this church. In the work that shall be 
 done here in future years in the light that shall go out 
 from this sanctuary of religion to illuminate and bless 
 in the benificent work of the church that is to have its 
 home here I have an abiding faith, and an exalting hope 
 and an unshaken confidence. 
 
 I have no doubt or fear as to the future of the church 
 or the Christian religion. They are safe in the hands of 
 their Divine author. To the universal Christian church 
 built upon the eternal foundations of truth and justice, 
 overshadowed by righteousness and mercy, illuminated 
 by Divine love, shall stand during all time. The rains 
 may fall ; the floods may come ; the winds may blow and 
 beat upon it, the gates of hell may be opened against it, 
 and all the artillery of evil be turned loose upon its 
 battlements. None of these shall prevail. The church 
 will increase until its empire becomes universal, and 
 the will of Him who made the worlds shall find the same 
 obedience on earth as in heaven.
 
 114 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 ADDRESS ON STATUTORY REVISION 
 
 ILLINOIS STATE BAR ASSOCIATION. JANUARY 25, 1894 
 
 ME. PRESIDENT: 
 
 The subject of statutory revision is too large for a 
 single paper. A cursory view is all that can be taken. 
 If the few features and illustrations of the question that 
 I shall present, serve to elicit further discussion, or even 
 to provoke criticism, I shall be rewarded for the prepara- 
 tion of this paper. 
 
 The State of Illinois adopted the common law in the 
 beginning, and then began drifting toward a code ; and it 
 is' still drifting. The code, so far as it has been con- 
 structed, is embraced in Mr. Kurd's revision of 1893. It 
 has been growing in size, and in the diversity of the sub- 
 jects with which it deals, ever since the year 1818. Its 
 growth is unlike the growth of anything in nature it is 
 perpetual, yet subject to perpetual waste and destruc- 
 tion. It lives and dies at the same moment. It grows at 
 irregular and uncertain periods, and its growths attach 
 themselves to the living body of existing law, without 
 equality of distribution, and uncontrolled by any law of 
 symmetry or artistic beauty. It dies by piecemeal, and 
 the dead parcels often remain and seem to live, until the 
 Supreme Court, acting as legal coroner, finds them dead 
 and gives the cause of death ; or a committee on statutory 
 revision brushes them off and consigns them to the abyss 
 of oblivion. 
 
 We have been walking side by side with the law, 
 overshadowed by its beneficent protection, yet within 
 easy reach of the arm with which it punishes disobedi- 
 ence, and under the influence of a wholesome fear of its
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 115 
 
 power ever since we were born; and we follow the same 
 paths in which our fathers walked before us. We have 
 become so familiar with the forms and functions of the 
 law with its changing shapes and its capricious and 
 uncertain manifestations, its curious and irregular 
 growth and decay, its listless torpor, when quiescent, and 
 its terrible activity when aroused; its incongruities and 
 inconsistencies in practice; its beauty and deformity; its 
 strength and weakness, that we are loth to disturb them, 
 even when disturbance and change are laden with the 
 opening bud, the fragrant flower and the rich fruitage of 
 genuine reform. 
 
 The mystic spell -of that which is, is over us all. Its 
 conservative power is incalculable. It stops investiga- 
 tion, condems doubt and commands thought to be still. 
 Let the mystic spell be broken. Let doubt assert its 
 power to provoke the forces of reason into activity. Let 
 thought give foot and wing to investigation. Give free 
 course and rein to every faculty that would question that 
 which is. Then endless mazes of curious questioning and 
 doubt will invitingly open up before the inquirer. 
 Thought and memory thus set free, turn into the mazes 
 so opened, and wander far and wide. They linger long in 
 legislative halls when the State was young, and curious- 
 ly inquire whether the laws then made were really writ- 
 ten by the statesmen of that day, or were they scissored 
 from the Jaws of England and the codes of the older States 
 of the Union, and set into our code on the same principle 
 that a woman constructs a crazy quilt.- They scan the his- 
 tory and character of the early law makers with closest 
 scrutiny, in search of the luminous intellect that con- 
 ceived the plan of order and arrangement, which set 
 the chapters of the law in the statute book in the alpha- 
 betical order of the titles which chance, accident or de- 
 sign gave them.
 
 116 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 " Abatement" is chapter one, because it begins with 
 "A" and for no other reason whatever. Every one of its 
 twenty-six sections relates entirely to practice in civil ac- 
 tions. Section 23 of chapter 110 of Hurd's revision is of 
 later date, and so changes the rule in regard to amend- 
 ments, and the remedy in cases of misjoinder or non-join- 
 der of proper parties, that only a small part of chapter 1 
 remains of any practical use. The fragment that re- 
 mains should be placed in the practice act where the 
 whole originally belonged. 
 
 Chapter 7, entitled " Amendments and Jeofails," is 
 another alphabetical exotic an isolated fragment of the 
 practice act rounded into a chapter and thrust in be- 
 tween "Aliens" and " Animals," far removed from any 
 other subject with which it has any legal or logical con- 
 nection. It has been materially modified by amendments 
 to the practice act, and considerable portions of it re- 
 pealed by necessary implication. A proper revision will 
 strip it of its dead parts and transplant what remains to 
 its proper place in the practice act. 
 
 The provisions of the statute for taking bail in civil 
 actions, and processes of attachment and garnishment, 
 and the statute in relation to arbitrations and awards, are 
 purely practical, and naturally belong in the chapter reg- 
 ulating practice in civil actions. Instead of being so 
 placed, they have been constructed into fragmentary 
 chapters, and tossed into the statute book by the chances 
 of the alphabet, regardless of the subjects with which 
 they are connected, or from which they are disconnected. 
 
 " Animals" and "Fences" for the purpose of re- 
 straining them, and limiting their wanderings, have a 
 natural, necessary and inseparable connection each with 
 the other. The alphabet puts "Animals" in chapter 8, 
 and "Fences" in chapter 54; and save for judicial con- 
 struction, they would be total strangers and in irreconcil- 
 able conflict.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN lit 
 
 The common law of England, so far as the same was 
 applicable and of a general nature, and all statutes of the 
 British Parliament in aid thereof, and to supply the de- 
 fects of the common law, which were of a general nature 
 and not local to that kingdom, were adopted in Illinois, 
 to remain in full force till repealed by legislative au- 
 thority. 
 
 The common law did not require the owner of land 
 to inclose it with a fence to protect his crops from the 
 animals of his neighbors, but required the owner of ani- 
 mals to restrain them on his own premises at his peril. 
 It held the owner liable for all damages done by his ani- 
 mals on the premises of another, even though the prem- 
 ises were uninclosed. The Illinois legislature, without 
 repealing the common law, assumed that this require- 
 ment was local to the kingdom of Great Britain, and not 
 "applicable" to the State of Illinois, and passed laws 
 requiring the owner of land to surround it "with a good 
 and sufficient fence. ' ' The statute further provided that 
 the owner of animals should only be liable for damages 
 when his animals should break into an inclosure sur- 
 rounded "with a good and sufficient fence." Very com- 
 prehensive and exact provisions were made for the com- 
 struction and maintenance of division fences, at the joint 
 and equal expense of the proprietors of adjoining lands. 
 All these statutes still remain on the statute book with 
 every semblance of life and authority, though the most 
 of them have been dead since 1874. The legislative as- 
 sumption that the common law in relation to "animals" 
 and "fences" did not prevail in Illinois, was sustained 
 by the Supreme Court in Seely v. Peters, 5 Gilm. 130. 
 
 An act of the legislature approved January 13, 1872, 
 was the foundation of the present chapter on "Animals." 
 That act provided that it should be unlawful for the own- 
 ers of any domestic animals to suffer such animals to run 
 at large, except as thereafter provided. In the revision
 
 118 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 of 1874, this act was re- written and enlarged with pro- 
 visions for holding elections in counties, towns, cities, 
 villages and incorporated towns, on the question of ani- 
 mals running at large. Sections 20 and 21, in the chapter 
 on ''Fences," related to damages by trespassing animals, 
 and the right of the party trespassed upon to arrest and 
 detain them. In the revision of 1874, these two sections 
 were amended. Section 20 by adding the words "this 
 section shall not be construed to require such fence in or- 
 der to maintain an action for injuries done by animals 
 running at large contrary to law." Section 21 had in- 
 serted in it the words "or shall be wrongfully on the 
 premises of another. ' ' Both sections retained the ' ' good 
 and sufficient fence, ' ' without the disturbance of a rail, a 
 post or a wire. Every provision in regard to the con- 
 struction of fences was carefully preserved, and the con- 
 fusion between "Animals" and "Fences" was increased. 
 
 By an act approved June 16, 1891, animals were ab- 
 solutely prohibited from running "at laige within the 
 corporate limits of any incorporated city, village o|r 
 town." The law of 1874 providing for elections in "in- 
 corporated cities, villages or towns" on the question of 
 animals running at large, remained untouched, and the 
 municipal authorities continued "to regulate, restrain 
 and prohibit" the running at large of animals within 
 their incorporated limits, by ordinances that had no more 
 life than the veriest clod beneath our feet. In the revi- 
 sion now in use, this act of 1891 has found a curious set- 
 ting, namely, in the chapter in relation to ' * cities and vil- 
 lages." Its normal position was in the chapter on "Ani- 
 mals. ' ' 
 
 It also occasions no surprise that laymen, lawyers, 
 and courts were in doubt as to the effect of the legislation 
 of 1872 and 1874. Domestic animals continued to be pub- 
 lic marauders, and the citizen went on building fences to 
 protect the product of his labor in obedience to statutes
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 119 
 
 that seemed to live, but which had been dead since 1874, 
 according to the Supreme Court in Bulpit v. Matthews, 
 145 111. 345. In these nineteen years of uncertainty and 
 doubt as to whether the rule in Seely v. Peters, or the 
 rule in Bulpit v. Matthews was the law, the cost to the 
 people of building fences to restrain animals already re- 
 strained by law was enormous. All this might have been 
 avoided by pruning the old statute of its dead parts, and 
 giving a clear expression of the legislative will. 
 
 I most respectfully inquire whether any good and 
 sufficient reason can be given why these chapters, in the 
 light of the decisions of the Supreme Court, should not be 
 re-written in language so plain as to banish all doubt as 
 to their meaning, and then so grouped in the statute book 
 as to show their intimate relation to each other. 
 
 Statutes are often copied from the codes of other 
 states or countries, and it sometimes happens that such 
 transplantings do not fit their new setting. They may 
 contain some provision of local application utterly sense- 
 less and wholly unmeaning in their new situation. An in- 
 stance of this is found in section 8 of the Conveyance 
 Act. This section was originally part of a Recording Act 
 of the British Parliament, passed about 1707. With a litlte 
 pruning it was made an inset of the Pennsylvania code in 
 1715, in Ohio in 1795, in Indiana in 1807, and in Illinois 
 in 1819. In all its migrations and changes it carried the 
 following proviso: "Provided, always, that this law 
 shall not extend to leases at rack rent, or leases not ex- 
 ceeding one and twenty years, where the actual posses- 
 sion goes with the lease." It is said that this provision 
 had an application to certain titles in the county of York, 
 England, at the time it was passed. It never had any 
 meaning in America. Mr. Kawle has well said, that it 
 was awkwardly introduced into the English statute, and 
 had no particular connection with the section to which it 
 was attached, and would be insensible if it had. Yet this
 
 .120 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 awkward and insensible provision has been preserved 
 in the United States for a century and three-quarters, ap- 
 parently for no other reason than that it was a relic of 
 legal antiquity, and because those who had made and re- 
 vised the laws, had been so much under the spell of con- 
 servatism that they feared to lay it away with the rub- 
 bish of the ages. 
 
 It would be a reasonable presumption that all the 
 law in regard. to the execution of wills would be found in 
 "An act in regard to wills." Section 17 of that act pro- 
 vides that "no will, testament or codicil shall be revoked 
 otherwise than by burning, cancelling, tearing or obliter- 
 ating the same by the testator himself, or in his presence, 
 by his direction and consent, or by some other will, testa- 
 ment or codicil; and no words spoken shall revoke any 
 will, testament or codicil in writing, executed as afore- 
 said in due form of law. ' ' This enumeration of the meth- 
 ods by which a will may be revoked, appears to be ex- 
 haustive and to exclude all other methods ; but a will may 
 be otherwise revoked, and that, too, by an express statu- 
 tory provision. Section 10 of chapter 39, in relation to 
 "Descents," provides, that the birth of a child shall not 
 revoke a will, but the legacies in the will shall be abated 
 in equal proportions, to raise a portion for such after- 
 born child, and then abruptly terminates as follows: 
 "And a marriage shall be deemed a revocation of a prior 
 will." This provision for the revocation of a will natur- 
 ally belongs in section 17 of the chapter on wills. One 
 purpose of a revision of the laws should be, to take up 
 such disconnected, out of place fragments as this, and 
 place them in the statute-book properly. 
 
 The subject of appeals from inferior to superior 
 courts presents an interesting argument in favor of revi- 
 sion. The County Court is very properly growing in im- 
 portance and usefulness; but its judgments are not in- 
 fallible, and dissatisfied parties often desire to appeal
 
 ETHEUBERT CALLAHAN 121 
 
 from them. To what court shall the appeal go, is at times 
 a serious question. Paragraphs 212 and 213 of chapter 
 37 provide, that "appeals and writs of error may be 
 taken and prosecuted from the final orders, judgments 
 and decree's of the County Court, to the Supreme Court 
 ior Appellate Court, in proceedings for the confirmation 
 of special assessments, in proceedings for the sale of land 
 for taxes and special assessments, and in all common law 
 and attachment cases and cases of forcible entry and 
 forcible entry and detainer.^ In all other cases ''appeals 
 may be taken from the final orders, judgments and de- 
 crees of the County Courts to the Circuit Courts; upon 
 'such appeal the case shall be tried de novo." 
 
 In the act to establish Probate Courts, ' ' proceedings 
 on the application of executors, administrators, guard- 
 ians and conservators for the sale of real estate," are ex- 
 pressly excepted from the cases that may be taken by 
 appeal to the Circuit Court; and it is provided that they 
 shall go to the Supreme Court. The Appellate Court is 
 not mentioned. 
 
 Paragraph 133 of chapter 3, "An Act in Regard to 
 the Administration of Estates," which includes the sale 
 of lands to pay debts, is as follows: "Appeals shall be 
 allowed from all judgments, orders or decrees of the 
 .County Court in all matters arising under this act, to 
 the Circuit Court, in favor of any person who may con- 
 sider himself aggrieved by any judgment, order or de- 
 cree of such court, and from the Circuit Court to the Su- 
 preme Court, as in other ca'ses." 
 
 Paragraph 68 of the same chapter provides for ap- 
 peals from the County Court to the Circuit Court "in all 
 cases of the allowance or rejection of claims by the 
 court." 
 
 Chapter 64 is "An Act in Regard to Guardians and 
 wards," and authorizes the sale of lands by guardians 
 under an order of the County Court. Section 43 of this
 
 X22 
 
 chapter provides that, " appeals shall be allowed to the 
 Circuit Court from any order or judgment made or rend- 
 ered under this act. ' ' 
 
 Chapter 86 is "An Act to Revise the Law in Relation, 
 to Idiots, Lunatics and Spendthrifts," and authorizes the 
 sale of land by conservators under an order or decree 
 of the County Court. Section 40 of this chapter provides; 
 that "appeals shall be allowed to the Circuit Court from 
 any order or judgment made or rendered under this act.' r 
 
 In trials of the right of property in the County Court, 
 the appeal is to the Circuit Court "as in other cases." 
 What other cases ? 
 
 In section 17 of chapter 91 it is provided that, "upon 
 conviction of either of the offenses mentioned in this 
 act, ' ' either party may appeal in the same time and man 
 ner as appeals may be taken in other cases, except that 
 where an appeal is prayed on behalf of the people no ap- 
 peal bond shall be required. ' ' Again comes the question, 
 what other cases ? It may be noticed in passing, that the 
 provision for an appeal by the people, and a like provi- 
 sion in section 14 of chapter 56, are unconstitutional. 
 People vs. Miner, 144 111. 308. 
 
 Section 8 of the act creating the Appellate Court 
 gives that court " jurisdiction of all matters of appeals 
 and writs of error from the final judgments, orders and 
 decrees of County Courts in any suit or proceeding at 
 law or in chancery other than criminal cases, not misde- 
 meanors, and cases involving a franchise, a freehold or 
 the validity of a statue." 
 
 Section 88 of chapter 110 provides that, "appeals 
 from and writs of error to County Courts in all criminal 
 cases below the grade of felony, shall be taken directly to 
 the Appellate Court," and that "cases in which the con- 
 struction of the constitution is involved," and "cases re- 
 lating to the revenue, or in which the State is interested 
 as a party or otherwise, " " shall be taken directly to the
 
 ETHEL^ERT CALLAHAN 123 
 
 'Supreme Court." The act creating the Appellate Court 
 'gives it jurisdiction over the class of cases last enumer- 
 ated. 
 
 The County Court has exclusive jurisdiction in act- 
 tions of bastardy. No provision is made in the bastardy 
 act for an appeal from the County Court to any other 
 'court. If the right exists it must be found in some of the 
 provisions hereinbefore referred to. The profession 
 generally stumbled upon an appeal to the Circuit Court 
 and a trial de novo. The defendant got "the benefit of 
 the verdict of two juries." 
 
 The Supreme Court, }>y reading the 8th section of 
 the act creating the Appellate Court, and section 88 of 
 the practice act together, in Lee vs. People, 140 111. 536, 
 reached the conclusion that the appeal is to the Appellate 
 Court. This conclusion of the Supreme Court brought 
 grief to the hearts of many putative fathers whose cases 
 ^ere pending on appeal in the Circuit Courts. 
 
 The 8th section of the act creating the Appellate 
 Court provides that ** appeals and writs of error shall lie 
 from the final orders, judgments and decrees of the Cir- 
 cuit Courts and city courts, and from the Superior 
 Court of Cook County directly to the Supreme Court 
 in all criminal cases, and in cases involving a franchise 
 or freehold, or the validity of a statute.*' The same sec- 
 tion provides that the Appellate Court shall have juris- 
 diction in all "criminal cases not misdemeanors. >J 
 
 In the 88th section of the practice act, it is provided 
 that appeals and writs of error * ' in all criminal cases be- 
 low the grade of a felony, shall be taken directly to the 
 Appellate Court." 
 
 In section 8, that appeals and writs of error "in any 
 suit or proceeding at law or in chancery, ' *. other than in 
 cases involving "a franchise or freehold, or the validity 
 of a statute,'* lie to the Appellate Court. In section 88, 
 the exceptions are, "cases in which a franchise or free-
 
 124 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 hold, or the validity of a statute or construction of the 
 constitution, and all cases relating to the revenue, or in 
 which the State is interested as a party or otherwise."" 
 
 The first two sections of the practice act serve as il- 
 lustrations of clumsiness of expression long preserved. 
 Twenty-seven words may be erased from the first section 
 without changing the meaning to the extent of a shadow. 
 The second section begins with an awkward negation and 
 runs into an exception that is equally infelicitous, How 
 much clearer would be a section like this: 
 
 Transitory actions shall be brought in any county 
 where the defendant or defendants, or some one of them, 
 reside or may be found. 
 
 Local actions shall be brought in any county where 
 the subject-matter of the action, or some part thereof, is 
 situated. 
 
 These illustrations might be multiplied indefintely, 
 but time and space forbid. What I have given are suf- 
 ficient to satisfy those who are willing to be satisfied, 
 that a thorough revision of the statutes, and some provi- 
 sion for constant revision thereafter, is now a public ne- 
 cessity. 
 
 A revision of the statutes once in twenty years is the 
 story of the Augean stables over again. It is futile ef- 
 fort to purge the statute of its dead members and parts 
 of members, of its accumulated contradictions, repeti- 
 tions, rubbish and waste, in a single day. As in the olden 
 time, it brings controversy, strife, and the inevitable war- 
 fare that conservatism ever wages against progress. And 
 when such a revision is complete, it must, in the very na- 
 ture of things, be imperfect and unsatisfactory. 
 
 , The process of cutting away that which is dead or 
 obselete, will have left its scars. But neither the dead nor 
 the obsolete will be wholly removed. Large portions of 
 both are carried along through successive revisions simp- 
 ly because they are old. They are allowed to stand as
 
 CALLAHAN 125 
 
 jdumb monuments to the dead past. One of our greatest 
 literary men has said: "Stop and think and you will be 
 startled to think what slaves we are to by-gone times 
 to death. We live in dead men's houses. A dead man 
 sits on all our judgment seats, and living judges do but 
 search out and repeat his decisions. We read in dead 
 men's books, we laugh at dead men's jokes, and cry at 
 dead men's pathos. We are sick of dead men's diseases, 
 and die of the same remedies with which dead doctors 
 killed their patients. We worship the living Deity ac- 
 cording to dead men's forms and creeds. Whatever we 
 seek to do of OUT own free motion, a dead man's hand ob- 
 structs us; and we must be dead ourselves before we can 
 liave our proper influence on our world, which will then 
 be the world of another generation, with which we shall 
 have no shadow of right to interfere." 
 
 How shall we rid the living present of the dead past? 
 Laws die when the reason for their existence ceases. Un- 
 constitutional laws never die. They are bound to death 
 from the very beginning, yet they have a place on the 
 statute books, and by having the semblance of life they 
 deceive and mislead. 
 
 How shall the code of statute law be shaped into 
 symmetrical proportions, free from the superfluities and 
 ambiguous provisions which are unintelligible to the citi- 
 zen of ordinary understanding. The answer to these in- 
 quiries will be found: 
 
 1. In greater care in the preparation of bills before 
 thsy become laws. This was the thought of the framers 
 of the constitution of 1818, when they made the governor 
 and judges of the Supreme Court "a council of revision 
 to revise all bills about to be passed into laws by the 
 General Assembly." The provision that they should "not 
 receive any salary or consideration under any pretense 
 whatever" relegated the council of revision into the lim- 
 bo of -i-l- .
 
 1'26 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 2. In some provision for the constant and careful 
 revision of laws after they are passed. This policy also 
 dates back in the early history of the State. In the re- 
 vision of 1827, the 153d section of the criminal code was 
 as .follows: 
 
 "It shall, and is hereby declared to be, the duty of 
 the judges of the Supreme and Circuit Courts, to make 
 a special report biennially, to the legislature, of all such 
 defects, omissions or imperfections in this code as ex- 
 perience may suggest." 
 
 Mr. Brayman in his preface to the revision of 1845 
 says, that in 1841 the duty of revising the laws was im- 
 posed on the secretary of state and the attorney general. 
 In the revision of 1845 the 5th section of chapter 77 makes 
 it the duty of each justice of the Supreme Court, the at- 
 torney general, the clerk of the Supreme Court, each prose 
 cuting attorney, the secretary of state, the auditor of pub- 
 lic accounts, the state treasurer, the major, brigadier and 
 adjutant generals, to make a report of all apparent de- 
 fects, inconsistencies, unequal or oppressive laws, which 
 they should discover, to the speaker of the House of 
 Representatives, at the commencement of each session of 
 the General Assembly, for the purpose of enabling it to 
 make such amendments as would tend to perfect the code. 
 
 The recognition of the necessity of constant revision 
 of the statutes, and the same futile efforts to obtain it 
 without compensation, are contained in section 31 of art- 
 icle 6 of the present constitution, which provides that "all 
 judges of courts of record inferior to the Supreme Court, 
 shall, on or before the first day of June of each year, re- 
 port in writing to the judges of the Supreme Court such 
 defects and omissions in the laws as their experience may 
 suggest; and the judges of the Supreme Court shall, on 
 or before the first day of January of each year, report in 
 writing to the governor such defects and omissions in the 
 constitution and laws as they shall find to exist, together
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 12? 
 
 \vith appropriate forms of bills to teure such defects and 
 "omissions hi the laws. 
 
 It will be seen that th<e legislature has never ceased 
 to recognize the necessity of constant attention to the 
 form of the statute. It has never ceased to recognize the 
 fact that omissions and defects in the laws are the inevit- 
 able offspring of our method of legislation. It has aever 
 ceased to recognize the fact that some revising hand 
 should \>e constantly engaged in pruning off dead mat- 
 ter, striking out contradictions, supplying defects and se- 
 curing harmony of expression. It has sought in vain to 
 reach this end by imposing the performance of arduous 
 and responsible duties, upon officers elected to discharge 
 other duties, without any increase of their compensation. 
 
 Three-quarters of a Century of failure onght to be 
 sufficient to convince any people that some other method 
 should be resorted to. What shall it bet It must be some- 
 thing that is part and parcel of the law-making power. 
 It must be within the legislative department of the State 
 government. It should be a small body consisting of but 
 few persons. Both branches of the General Assembly 
 should be represented in it. It should be created and its 
 duties defined by law, and have perpetual existence. Its 
 work should not be conclusive until approved by the 
 General Assembly. It might consist of one senator and 
 two members of the House. 
 
 I submit this as a suggestion only. Others may show 
 a better way. If they should I will gladly enter upon it. 
 What I insist upon is, the necessity of constant, instead of 
 periodical, revisions. I insist upon it as the only method 
 of building np a code of statute law that shall be har- 
 monious, consistent and intelligible to the people as the 
 only way to obtain a code of law that will command the 
 respect and obedience of the citizen.
 
 128 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 ROBINSON. ILLINOIS, FEBRUARY 12. 1909 
 
 Throughout the United States, and throughout the 
 world, wherever liberty is loved, and the light of civiliza- 
 tion has dawned, assemblages like this are held today to- 
 commemorate the centennial of the birth of Abraham 
 Lincoln, and render tribute to his great character. 
 
 In regard to things that lie beyond the field of ordin- 
 ary thought and action, man is prone to overlook and dis- 
 regard that which is natural and real, and invest them 
 with 'attributes which are super-natural, unreal and il- 
 lusory. AVith a little light and an imperfect knowledge 
 he gropes his way through the mysteries of life, con- 
 stantly thirsting for something more than human life has 
 ever given, and seeks to penetrate the unknown and grasp 
 the unknowable. His bewildered imagination creates 
 worlds and peoples them with beings that are neither 
 gods nor men. Thus mythologies have been created 
 which attest the effort of the mind to link together the 
 finite and the infinite. All known theologies have some- 
 where, sometime been touched by the hand of a super- 
 natural mysticism, and all have been clouded by super- 
 stition. 
 
 Much of this superstition and many of its creations 
 have vanished before the light of a Christian civilization, 
 but many others linger and their shadows are still upon 
 all lands. Many of the great characters of history as they 
 are presented to the world today, are idealistic. Hero 
 worshippers are still in the world, and the heroes wor- 
 shipped by them, even though modern, are much more 
 ideal than real.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 129 
 
 American idealism is largely concentrated upon the 
 personality and character of Washington and his com- 
 patriots of the Revolutionary era. These men are so 
 idealized that if they should return to us now just as they 
 were when they lived and played their part in the drama 
 of life, we would give them but scant recognition. 
 
 To judge correctly the character of Abraham Lin- 
 coln, and assign him his proper place in history, and the 
 affectionate veneration and love of the world, all the de- 
 lusive lights and shadows that transform great men into 
 ideal heroes must be avoided. His character needs no gild- 
 ing, nor any glare of unearthly light to bring it into full 
 relief. Let him be known as he was in the common walks 
 of life before he attracted public attention, and before he 
 was suspected of those great qualities which have filled 
 the world with his fame. 
 
 The majority of his biographers have sought to make 
 his ancestry more lowly, and his early life more obscure 
 than they really were. His ancestors were early pioneers 
 in the state of Kentucky and inured to the hardships and 
 dangers of frontier life, where toil and privation sat at 
 every cabin door. Poverty and the pioneer always dwell 
 in the same land, and at the same time. In no place was the 
 contest between savagery and civilization more fierce or 
 more protracted than in Kentucky. In this contest Mr. 
 Lincoln's grandfather was shot and killed in his clearing 
 by an ambushed Indian in sight of his three boys, Mord- 
 ecai, Joseph and Thomas. Thomas, then six years old, 
 ran to his dying father heedless of danger. Joseph ran 
 to the neighboring fort for help. Mordecai ran to the 
 house for the ever ready rifle, with which he placed him- 
 self in ambush and waited for the Indian who stole out 
 from his hiding place to take the scalp of the father and 
 kill or capture the son. Mordecai and his rifle saved his 
 father's scalp and the life of Thomas and ended the war 
 so far as that Indian was concerned.
 
 130 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 As boy and man Thomas Lincoln was frank and open 
 hearted, with a keen sense of humor, a quaint turn of 
 speech, and an intense love of the songs, stories and 
 amusements which brought sunshine into the hard life of 
 the pioneer. 
 
 On the 12th day of June 1806 Thomas Lincoln and 
 Nancy Hanks were married. She was the daughter of an- 
 other pioneer family, and had grown up to womanhood 
 under like circumstances and surroundings as had he. 
 One who knew her personally said she was a handsome 
 woman, who read her Bible, delighted in singing hymns, 
 and owned a copy of Aesops Fables which, later, became 
 the cherished treasure of her illustrious son. They es- 
 tablished a home and built a cabin of round logs, clap- 
 board roof, puncheon floor and cat and clay chimney, on 
 the bank of Hodgens Creek among the Kentucky hills, 
 and there began the battle of life together. In that cabin 
 home, of this typical son and daughter of the pioneers 
 who came as the advance guard of civilization, on the 12th 
 of February, 1809. Abraham Lincoln was born,and here he 
 lived until he was seven years old. Vachel Hobbs, the 
 grand father of your townswoman, Mrs. S. D. Meserve, 
 taught school in the neighborhood and taught Abraham 
 his letters and to spell and read easy lessons of short 
 words. A son of the "old school master" told me of this 
 period of Lincoln's life. 
 
 In the autumn of 1816 Thomas Lincoln moved to 
 Southern Indiana where he hoped to lay the foundations 
 of a better and more successful fortune than he had been 
 able to secure in the state in which he had been born. In 
 establishing and building the new home Abraham assisted 
 his father as other sons of the early settlers assisted 
 their fathers, and shared in all other of the hard and com- 
 mon place pursuits and occupations of his father, as a 
 farmer and carpenter. He had a taste for books and 
 thoroughly read the few which he possessed or could
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 131 
 
 borrow. His mind thirsted for a general knowledge of 
 the world, and to know the reason of things. He read the 
 Bible and learned law from Moses; and that broad charity 
 which was the grace and strength of his great life from 
 the Sermon on the Mount. He learned literature and 
 language from Shakespeare, and the art of apt and home- 
 ly illustration from Aesops Fables; patriotism from the 
 Life of Washington; philosophy from the life of Franklin 
 and Poor Richard's Almanac, and lastly he kindled the 
 lights of his imagination in the dreamland of the Pilgrims 
 Progress. 
 
 In 181 8 the first great shadow of sorrow was cast over 
 him by the death of his mother. The very winds were 
 laden with the touch of disease before which thousands 
 perished while savage nature was being subdued, and the 
 wilderness was being changed into a garden. Nancy Lin- 
 coln was one of those whose lives were sacrificed on the 
 altar of a coming civilization. Her grave was made in 
 the forest 
 
 Where no proud column in the sun may glow, 
 To mock the heart that is resting below." 
 After the death of his mother he made a trip to New 
 Orleans as a flatboatman. In this southern city he visited 
 a slave market and saw men and women sold like cattle 
 to the highest bidder. The memory of what he saw there 
 was never effaced, but remained and gave color to his po- 
 litical convictions in the later years of his life. 
 
 Thomas Lincoln was not eminently successful in In- 
 diana and in 1830 another move was made. The family ef- 
 fects were loaded into a heavy wagon to which two yoke 
 of oxen were hitched, and with Abraham for driver the 
 long and toilsome journey to Macon County, Illinois was 
 made. Here another tract of wild land was transformed 
 into a home for the family. It was at this place that Mr. 
 Lincoln made the rails which thirty years later made him 
 the "Rail Splitter" candidate for President. Though he
 
 132 
 
 had attained his majority he remained with, and worked 
 for his father another year before beginning his own ca- 
 reer. For another year he was clerk in a store and mill, 
 and Postmaster at New Salem, Ills. Then came the 
 Black Hawk war and he was elected Captain of a com- 
 pany of Volunteers, and when, after Stillman's defeat 
 Oov. Reynolds discharged all volunteer organizations 
 he enlisted as a private soldier and served to the end of 
 the war. 
 
 He was elected to the legislature in 34-36-38-40 and 
 came to be recognized as the leader of the Whig party. 
 He studied law and practiced surveying which he learned 
 during the hours most men would have wasted in idleness. 
 
 As a member of the state legislature he favored a 
 system of internal improvements, secured the removal of 
 the state Capital from Vandalia to Springfield and when 
 the majority passed pro-slavery resolutions, entered his 
 protest upon the Journal "that the institution of slavery 
 was founded on injustice and bad policy. " 
 
 In 1846 he was elected to Congress and during a 
 single term acquired a national reputation. The Mexican 
 war was in progress and the President in his message to 
 Congress had said that "Mexico had invaded our terri- 
 tory and shed the blood of our citizens on our own soil." 
 Mr. Lincoln introduced resolutions asking the President 
 to designate the spot on our territory that had been in- 
 vaded by Mexico, and where the blood of our citizens had 
 been shed. He supported his resolutions by a speech in 
 which he demonstrated that the first blood shed in the war 
 was in disputed territory, and in a community that 
 acknowledged the authority of Mexico, and denied that of 
 the United States. His position was that the war had been 
 unlawfully and unconstitutionally commenced by the 
 President, but it was now the cause of the country, and he 
 voted for all measures proposed to carry on the war. In 
 reply to a charge that the Whigs did not support the war,
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 133 
 
 lie said ''You have had the services, the blood and the 
 lives of our political brethren in every trial, and on every 
 field. The beardless boy and the matured man, the hum- 
 ble and the distinguished, you have had them. Through 
 suffering and death, by disease -and battle they have en- 
 dured and fought and fallen with you. Clay and Web- 
 ster each gave a son never to be returned. From the state 
 of my own residence we sent Marshall, Morrison, Baker, 
 and Hardin; they all fought and one fell and in his fall we 
 lost our best Whig man. Nor were the Whigs few in num- 
 ber, or laggard in the day of danger. In the fearful, 
 bloody, breathless battle of Buena Vista, where each 
 man 's hard task was to beat back five foes or die himself, 
 of the five officers who perished, four were Whigs. 
 
 His resolutions in regard to the Mexican war were un- 
 popular and prevented his re-election to Congress and he 
 turned his attention to the practice of law. In this field 
 he won the most brilliant success and established an en- 
 viable reputation as an able, honest and conscientious 
 lawyer. He travelled the circuits extensively, and gained 
 character as a story teller as well as lawyer. His stories 
 were apt and illustrative of the matters under discussion 
 carried as arrows in a quiver, and used as weapons of 
 offense and defense in the legal political and other intel- 
 lectual contests in which he engaged. He had great skill 
 in their use, and those against whom they were used, 
 realized they were directed by the hand of a master. With 
 ready discernment of, and keen relish for the humorous 
 in all things he was still a thoughtful and serious man. 
 His wit was only the lightning flashes between the clouds 
 of labor, care, anxiety, sadness and sorrow that so often 
 darkened his sky. 
 
 When the slavery question was opened by the Kan- 
 sas-Nebraska Bill, and the Dred Scott decision, Mr. Lin- 
 coln re-entered the political arena to become the most 
 prominent actor therein during his life. In the white
 
 134 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 heat of the contest party lines melted away and an Anti- 
 Nebraska organization was formed, resting on the found- 
 ations of free speech, free labor, free territories and free 
 men. This organization elected a majority to the state 
 legislature. A United States senator was to be elected 
 and Mr. Lincoln was the choice of a large majority of 
 these Anti-Nebraska members. He had led the fight and 
 won the victory, and was entitled to the senatorship, but 
 there were a few members of Democratic antecedents who 
 could not forgive him the scars of former conflicts. Re- 
 garding the cause of country as higher than any personal 
 interests, he appealed to his friends to vote for Judge 
 Lyman Trumbull, and retired from the contest. This 
 generous action cemented the union of all elements that 
 were opposed to the extension of slavery into the terri- 
 tories, and 'consolidated the new organization into a 
 permanent political party. Mr. Lincoln incorporated 
 his political faith into the platform of this new party, 
 and became at once its foremost champion in the state of 
 Illinois, and one of its national leaders. 
 
 In 1858 one state convention indorsed Stephen A. 
 Douglass as its candidate for U. S. Senator, while the 
 other indorsed Mr. Lincoln. It was at this convention 
 that he made a speech in which he said ' l A house divided 
 against itself cannot stand. I believe this Government 
 cannot endure permanently half free, and half slave. I 
 do not expect the Government to be dissolved. I do not 
 expect the house to fall but I do expect that it will cease 
 to be divided. It will become all one thing, or the other." 
 Douglass was a recognized giant in debate but Mr. Lin- 
 coln proved to be his superior. Douglass won the senat- 
 orship Lincoln won the popular vote of the people and 
 in the end, the Presidency. 
 
 In 1860 he was elected President. The germs of se- 
 cession had been sown by the Virginia and Kentucky 
 resolution of 1789. The harvest was a political party
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 135 
 
 that denied the indissolubility of the Union. With this 
 partjr the states were held to be sovereignties, and the 
 National Union but a league of States bound together by 
 a rope of sand. The states under its control began at 
 once the work of destruction. Before the 4th of March 
 seven of these states had passed ordinances of secession. 
 President Buchanan deplored secession, but denied the 
 power of the national government to arrest its progress. 
 Cabinet officers gave material aid to the great conspiracy, 
 and the departments at Washington were honeycombed 
 with treason. Every sky was dark. Every sea swept by 
 storms. 
 
 ' ' With rudder foully broken, 
 And sails by traitors torn, 
 
 Our country on a midnight sea 
 Was waiting for the morn." 
 
 On the 4th of March, 1861, Mr. Lincoln was inaugur- 
 ated. His address on the occasion was a strong, pa- 
 thetic plea for peace, and the perpetuity of the Union. 
 It was full of assurances that every constitutional and 
 legal right of every citizen would be secure under his ad- 
 ministration. Its closing paragraph so fully exhibits the 
 greatness of the man, and the charitable spirit that ani- 
 mated him in the discharge of his duty, that I quote it. 
 
 "In your hands, my dissatisfied countrymen, and 
 not in mine is the momentous issue of Civil War. The 
 Government will not assail you. You can have no con- 
 flict without yourselves being the aggressors. You have 
 no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the Government; 
 while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, pro- 
 tect and defend it. I am loth to close. We are not en- 
 emies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though 
 passions may have strained, it must not break our bonds 
 of affection. 
 
 1 ' The mystic cords of memory stretching from every 
 battle field and patriot grave to every loving heart and
 
 136 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the 
 chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they 
 will be, by the better angels of our nature." 
 
 On the 22nd of September, 1862, he issued a procla- 
 mation that all persons held as slaves in any state or 
 designated part of a state, the people of which should be 
 in rebellion on the first of January, 1863, should then and 
 thenceforward and forever be free. In his annual mes- 
 sage of December, 1863, he again presented and argued his 
 favorite scheme of gradual compensated emancipation 
 and colonization. With the sword of emancipation flash- 
 ing in the air ready to strike the blow that should break 
 every yoke and let the oppressed go free ' ' he was still 
 pleading for a solution of the question that would com- 
 pensate every loyal owner for the slaves he should lose. 
 To him the solution of the question was " plain, peace- 
 ful, generous and just; a way which, if followed, the 
 world would forever applaud, and God must forever 
 bless." 
 
 This "plain, peaceful, generous and just" way was 
 not accepted and on the first of January, 1863, he issued 
 the proclamation which smote the shackles from the 
 limbs of four millions black men and women, and unfet- 
 ered the souls and intellect of the white citizens of the 
 United States, and was the birth song of universal free- 
 dom in America. The time had come when the nation 
 must be all slave or all free, and God in His providence 
 willed it should be all free. 
 
 In 1864 Mr. Lincoln was re-elected and inaugurated 
 in March, 1865. Using his own quaint language, the 
 people had concluded that it was not best to swap horses 
 while crossing the river, and that he was not so poor a 
 horse that they might not make a botch in trying to swap. 
 His election gave new courage and hope to the friends of 
 the Union, and brought corresponding depression to 
 those who sought its destruction. The national armies
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 137 
 
 .justified this renewed confidence of the people with a 
 series of victories that foretold the end of the war. 
 Hood 's army was broken in pieces at Nashville. Sherman 
 marched through Georgia to the sea. Grant won mater- 
 ial successes in Virginia and organized the campaign, that 
 Bended at Appomattox. 
 
 The second inaugural address is one of the most re- 
 markable state papers ever written. Remarkable for its 
 expression of unfaltering faith in the justice of God, and 
 <of submission to His Divine will; remarkable for its 
 charity for those who had so long and bitterly resisted 
 the National authority; remarkable for its absence of all 
 ^consideration for himself, and for its determination to 
 pursne the right as God should give him to see the right. 
 
 His last public address was on the llth of April 1865, 
 and was devoted very largely to the subject of re-con- 
 struction. He declined to discuss the question as to 
 whether the revolted states "were out of, or in the 
 Union". He said "let their practical relations to the 
 Union be restored, and finding themselves safely at 
 home it would be utterly immaterial whether they had 
 'ever been abroad." 
 
 On the evening of April 14, 1865, he was at Ford's 
 Theatre in Washington to see Laura Keene in "Our Amer- 
 ican Cousin. ' ' Wilkes Booth entered the box behind him, 
 and shot "him through the brain. He died the next morn- 
 ing. His honored dust rests in Oak Ridge Cemetery, 
 Springfield, Illinois, where the love of tKe American peo- 
 ple has builded a splendid monument to commemorate 
 his great life. 
 
 Throughout his entire public career, in which all his 
 purposes were honest and patriotic, and every path in 
 he walked was of unselfish duty, and every duty 
 performed with fidelity, courage and intelligence, 
 the storms of detraction and falsehood beat fiercely 
 against him. No man of his time was so much, or so ma-
 
 lignantly misrepresented. His majestic spirit rose above* 
 these hitter currents of opposition that were directed 
 against him by traitors, armed and unarmed. No words 
 of bitterness or railing were returned by him. He could 
 truly say that he had "Malice toward none and charity 
 for all. ' ' When treason did its worst and took his life, the- 
 great thought that filled his mind was, how to heal the 
 wounds of his bleeding country and bring back her erring: 
 sons without humiliation, but without sacrificing the in- 
 terests of right, justice and freedom. 
 
 It has been said and is still repeated, that Mr. Lin- 
 coln was a man without any belief in God. He stands to* 
 be judged in this respect as other men. No man can rise 
 above his obligations to his Creator or be excused if he 
 disregards them. Go and stand by the bedside of his dy- 
 ing mother while she lays her trembling hands on the 
 head of her nine year old boy and blesses him, saying 
 "I am going away from you Abraham, and I shall not re- 
 turn. I know that you will be a good boy; that you will be 
 kind to Sarah and your Father. I want you to live as I 
 have taught you, and love your Heavenly Father. ' ' 
 
 Long years afterwards, when in the strength of his 
 manhood, and the rugged battle of his life was on, from 
 out of its noise and tumult he sent to his dying father this 
 message of (hope and faith: "TellhimtocalLuponand con- 
 fide in our great and good and merciful Maker, who will 
 not turn away from him in any extremity; He notes the 
 sparrow's fall and numbers the hairs of our heads; and 
 He will not forget the dying man who puts his trust in 
 Him. That if it be his lot to go now he will soon have a 
 joyous meeting with many loved ones gone before, and 
 where the rest of us, through the help of God, hope ere 
 long to come." Go with me to Springfield in 1861 and 
 listen to his farewell words to his neighbors: "A duty de- 
 volves upon me which is perhaps greater than that which 
 lias devolved upon any other man since the days of Wash-
 
 OTHELBEET CALLAHAN 139 
 
 mgton. He never could have succeeded except for the aid 
 of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. 
 I feel that 1 cannot succeed without the same Divine aid 
 Avhich sustained him; and hi that same Almighty Being I 
 place my reliance for support; and I hope that you, my 
 friends, will pray that I may receive that Divine assist- 
 ance without which I cannot succeed, but with which suc- 
 cess is certain." 
 
 Follow him through the public utterances of the re- 
 maining years of his life, and in them you will find more 
 fervent and more frequent expressions of faith and trust 
 in (rod than in the utterances of any other of the Presi- 
 dents. He was no sectary. He had that faith that looks 
 beyond all creeds, and that charity that embraces all man- 
 kind. He believed that the justice of God would pursue, 
 overtake and punish those who offended against it, 
 Avhether the offender be a nation or an individual. 
 
 The first time that I saw Mr. Lincoln to know him 
 was in Springfield. Murdoch the great elocutionist gave 
 a Shakespearian reading one night. It was the custom 
 at that time for the artist to wish the audience a good 
 night at the close of the performance. As Murdoch came 
 forward Mr. Lincoln rose and expressed the satisfaction 
 of himself and others in the reading and asked if it would 
 be possible to give another reading the next evening. 
 After some hesitation it was arranged another reading 
 should be given. 
 
 From its birth I was an enthusiastic member of the 
 Eepublican party. I believed in its principles and ac- 
 cepted its policy. Mr. Lincoln's debate with Senator 
 Douglass and his speeches had impressed me with the 
 belief that he was a pure man, and a very great man. I 
 rejoiced in his nomination and participated actively in 
 the campaign for election. In the winter following his 
 election I was in Springfield and saw him on the street, 
 and also in the Hall of the House of Representatives
 
 140 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL 
 
 during the ballot to elect a U. S. Senator. I was a yonrrgr 
 man in years and a younger still in public life more of 
 an onlooker than anything- else. I was observing history 
 and learning. Mr. Lincoln was the center of observation; 
 The city was thronged with visiting politicians and 
 statesmen. It was current at the time that many of these- 
 visitors seemed to suppose themselves charged with the 
 duty of instructing Mr. Lincoln in regard to his duties 
 when he should become President. They had not taken: 
 the measure of the man. Some of them did before they 
 went away. During this time his manner was serious and 
 whatever he said or did -showed intense anxiety in regard 
 to the future. He then believed that war could be avert- 
 ed, but that the policy of President Buchanan was lead- 
 ing to inevitable war. It is true that he told stories to* 
 some who proffered unwelcome advice or asked imperti- 
 nent questions. 
 
 It is my judgment that as a rule those who have at- 
 tempted to describe Mr. Lincoln's personality have used 
 too much color. He was tall and bony but not more 80- 
 th an many others. He was not a dude in dress, neither 
 was he the sloven that he was alleged to be. He was a 
 teller of stories but many stories are attributed to him 
 which he never told and of which he probably never 
 heard. 
 
 Great men are regarded as gifts from God for the ac- 
 complishment of some great good in the world. Hence 
 the days of their birth are commemorated by those who 
 appreciate the good they have done. The purpose of these 
 occasions is to keep alive the memories of such men, that 
 they may be examples to those who follow after them : to 
 preserve the benefits they comf erred by their life and acts. 
 Lincoln gave to us our unbroken American Union and he 
 gave it to us free. 
 
 The preservation of the Union thus secured and 
 saved, is one of the duties to be inculcated by the observ-
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 141 
 
 ance of this day. We very properly turn back to the time 
 when our fathers laid the foundations, and erected the 
 strong pillars of a free constitutional government, and en- 
 dowed it with perpetuity. We comtemplate the security 
 and happiness that we enjoy under this government, 
 and look at it as the ark of our safety. We stand amazed 
 in the presence of the fact, that part of the people thus 
 protected, in an evil hour attempted to destroy this tem- 
 ple bnilt by our fathers. We take pride in and give 
 praise to those who resisted the attempt and saved the 
 temple from destruction. 
 
 The grand manner in which Mr. Lincoln performed 
 the public acts which have placed him on the mountain 
 tops of fame, and attracted the attention of the world to 
 his great character the simplicity and perfectness with 
 which he performed the plain duties which lay along the 
 ordinary paths of life the unflagging industry which 
 plucked wayside moments and opportunities and turned 
 them into the golden coin of success as boatman, clerk, 
 postmaster, soldier, legislator, lawyer, congressman, 
 politician, President and Commander in Chief of the 
 Armies of the Republic, be will stand forever as an ex- 
 ample worthy of universal imitation. 
 
 Above all things the life of our martyred President 
 "should teach us patriotism. It should inspire every 
 beart with new devotion to human liberty. It should 
 make each citizen a devotee at the altar of justice. It 
 should turn every eye to the flag that for more than a 
 hundred years has been the symbol of free government 
 among men, and it should nerve every heart and every 
 arm with courage to defend that flag on any field over 
 which it floats, whether in peace or in war. 
 
 On this the one hundredth anniversary of his birth, 
 memory recalls the conflict with which his life ended. 
 We stand again in the presence of the acts and actors in 
 that terrible test of the strength and durability of free
 
 142 
 
 government. We remember that his was the master 
 spirit of the hour, which never lost hope or courage, and 
 never faltered in the discharge of any duty. 
 
 With all these memories of his greatness, his good- 
 ness, his courage and patriotism clustering round us v;e 
 catch his spirit and recall his presence in all its rugged 
 beauty and honesty. 
 
 " slow to smite and swift to spare, 
 
 Gentle, merciful and just, 
 
 Who in the fear of God didst bear 
 
 The sword of power, a nation's trust.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 143 
 
 ST. PATRICK'S DAY IN THE EVENING, A. D. 1910 
 
 MR. CHAIRMAN: 
 
 In my heart, I appreciate the compliment of the in- 
 vitation given me to be present and join with you in the 
 commemoration of the life and labor of a man who rend- 
 ered great service in the Vineyard of our common Lord 
 and Master. 
 
 There are very few citizens of the United States who 
 do not trace their lineage to some country of the old 
 world, and claim kindred with the land from which their 
 ancestors came. We Americans are all exotic with tend- 
 rils reaching across the ocean, and still clinging to the soil 
 of some Fatherland. I am three generations away from 
 the Shamrock and the Blarney stone, but these three 
 generations are, to me, golden trails along which thought, 
 and memory, and affection traverse through the years 
 that have flown by since the emigration of my ancestors 
 from the Emerald Isle, to the history and traditions of 
 that marvelous country, and of its more marvelous people. 
 I may be pardoned for the well grounded pride I take in 
 the Irish blood that courses through my veins, and which 
 has had much influence in forming my character, de- 
 termining my course, and measuring my success in life. 
 
 I am not much given to the observation of days set 
 apart to the memory of those who have been canonized as 
 Saints, but I always make an exception in favor of Saint 
 Patrick and the day set apart to commemorate his life, 
 and his distinguished service to the Church, his country, 
 and to the world. 
 
 He was one of the world's great men, an honor to the 
 citizenship of the country in which he lived, and an orna-
 
 144 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 iiient to the Church to which he belonged, and to which life 
 gave a long life-time of eminently successful service. To 
 nira belongs the credit of transforming Ireland from the 
 darkness of heathenism, to the light of Christianity. 
 Christianity brought the light and life of a higher and 
 better civilization, and effected an elevation of the nation 
 al character. 
 
 The limits of this occasion forbid any attempt to de- 
 line or describe the peculiar traits of Irish character, or 
 the personal mention of distinguished men and women of 
 that nationality. I must be content to make brief mention 
 of the country and its people. The hisory of Ireland has 
 been one of stress and storm. Life there has not been 
 quiet or peaceful. It has been swept by cruel and op 
 pressive wars. The hand of the oppressor has rested 
 heavily upon it. The denial of civil, political and relig- 
 ions rights by the government, was the occasion for wide 
 spread, and almost universal discontent among the Irish 
 people. This discontent with conditions at home, caused 
 an emigration from Ireland to every known country of the 
 world: Irishmen readily become loyal citizens of the 
 countries into which they emigrate, but retain the char- 
 acteristics of their native land. They are born leaders, 
 and are to be found near the head of the class in all the 
 enterprises in which they engage. 
 
 On every battlefield where the determination of hu- 
 man rights have been referred to the dread arbitrament of 
 war, Irish valor has been conspicuous, and Irish blood has 
 been poured out freely as an offering in the cause of right, 
 'as the Irish soldier understood the right. 
 
 In every parliamentary body where the rights of men 
 or of Nations have been the subject of high debate, and 
 laws made for the protection and defense of such rights, 
 Irish eloquence has been heard pleading the cause of hu- 
 manity and liberty, and denouncing oppression and 
 wrong.
 
 EXHELBERT CALLAHAN 145 
 
 In the church Irish men have been sturdy and elo- 
 quent defenders of the faith once delivered to the saints 
 and which continues to be the light of the world. 
 
 At the Bar Irishmen have ever furnished illustrious 
 representatives of the legal profession, whose learning, 
 eloquence and zeal have made them leaders of men, and 
 given them great influence in moulding the institutions 
 of the countries in which they lived. 
 
 In every field of industry, no matter in what country 
 it lies, Irish brain and Irish brawn are prominent and 
 effective factors of success. 
 
 In every banquet hall, of the civilized world Irish wit 
 is the intellectual diamond which sparkles brighter than 
 all the other jewels that adorn the feast. 
 
 Irish Bulls stray through the literature of all lan- 
 guages, and give infinite delight, and a world of amuse- 
 ment to those who can appreciate the absurd, and laugh 
 at the ridiculous. 
 
 Irish poets have written songs of love, of religious 
 devotion, of lofty patriotism, as sweet and melodious as 
 the world 's minstrelsy ever heard, and Irish fingers have 
 struck from the strings of Lute and Harp notes as tender 
 and melodious as ever soothed a troubled spirit, or 
 poured the balm of consolation into a broken heart.
 
 146 ' AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 ON PRESENTATION OF A NATIONAL FLAG 
 
 TO THE ILLINOIS NATIONAL GUARD, MAY 30, 1880 
 
 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: 
 
 This old flag which the citizens of Crawford County 
 presented to the 21st Regiment nineteen years ago calls 
 up the memories of that time and of the eventful years 
 since then. The Regiment was commanded by Col. Grant 
 whose career during the four years of the war, and the 
 years of peace, that have followed the war, has made him 
 the most distinguished citizen of our country, and given 
 him a world wide fame. To write or speak in memory of 
 the soldier it is necessary to mention the men who were 
 conspicuous in the war. To omit these would be to omit 
 the material facts of history. This flag was borne by the 
 regiment to whom it was presented through many long 
 inarches and terrible battles, and is here today covered 
 with honor b> the heroic deeds of those who fell in its de- 
 fence, as well as those who survived. 
 
 Soldiers of the Illinois National Guard. The ladies 
 6f Robinson have this morning presented you a beautiful 
 flag with its stars all untarnished and bright, and its 
 stripes all unstained by the dust of battles. I charge you 
 to keep it and preserve it as faithfully as the men to 
 whom this old flag was given, kept and preserved it. I 
 trust that peace may reign as long as we shall live and 
 that you may never be called to carry this standard to 
 battle. But in times of peace the soldier may gather 
 honors as well as in times of war. By the faithful dis- 
 charge of duty and by soldierly and gentlemanly con- 
 duct under all circumstances you can honor the flag com- 
 mitted to your keeping, as much as the brave men of the
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 147 
 
 21st Regiment honored the one committed to them. 
 Peace hath her victories as well as war. The 30th day of 
 May has been set apart as a day of commemoration of the 
 dead soldiers of our late civil strife by decorating their 
 graves with flowers. By this ceremony of strewing 
 flowers upon the graves of a few only, of the many who 
 bleep in our village cemetery, we testify that there was 
 something in the lives of these few which we wish to keep 
 in grateful remembrance. All around them lie fathers 
 and mothers, husbands and wives, parents and children, 
 brothers and sisters, lover and beloved. Memory calls 
 them all to our hearts and we drop a tear upon the sod 
 which covers them. That is all for them today. But 
 over the few who were not of our family or kindred, not 
 bound to us by ties of blood, not welded to our hearts by 
 links of personal affection, we cover the ground with 
 flowers. And why? In the great struggle between the 
 disintegrating and destructive forces of separatism as 
 represented by the secession of 1861, and the conserva- 
 tive forces of national unity and sovereignty represented 
 by the Government and the authorities of the United 
 States, these whom we commemorate today bore an ac- 
 tive and heroic part. They gave their lives to preserve 
 the nation and overthrow its enemies. This is the fact 
 which brought us here today ' ' to clasp in our hearts these 
 dead heroes of ours and cover them over with beautiful 
 flowers." The government of the United States was the 
 offspring of a conflict of ideas which began among the 
 people in civil life and ended on the battle field of the 
 Revolution. After separation from England had been 
 accomplished and National independence established, 
 Washington had the sagacity to see clearly that as a Con- 
 federation of States the nation could not hold together. 
 He urged th'e necessity of a government superior to the 
 states with sovereign authority in all things of a national 
 character. The necessity was recognized and was met by
 
 148 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 the adoption Qf the constitution of the United States and 
 Washington was elected the first President under the 
 new form of government. His leading thought was the 
 political oneness of the American people. His leading 
 purpose was to consolidate the Union and make it per- 
 petual. To that end he foresaw that the national govern- 
 ment must have authority to declare war, and strength to 
 carry it on; that it must have the power to protect itself 
 from domestic disturbances and to suppress rebellion and 
 insurrection should any arise. While the President was 
 pursuing his patriotic purpose wisely and accomplishing 
 it well, there were partisans who charged him with am- 
 bitious designs against the liberties of the people. They 
 charged that he was assuming imperial power and grasp- 
 ing at an imperial crown. These zealots pursued him with 
 as much bitterness, and waged against him, a warfare as 
 malignant as any we have witnessed in our own time. The 
 people, always jealous of their personal, and local rights, 
 were told that the design of the national government was 
 to destroy the state governments entirely. It was insist- 
 ed with more zeal than wisdom, that the only way to se- 
 cure the liberties of the people was to hold in the several 
 states, and in each of them, the right and power, under 
 certain conditions, of which the states were to be the 
 judges, of resisting the national authority and disregard- 
 ing the national laws. 
 
 This opposition to Washington culminated in the 
 organization of the Republican party of 1801, which ob- 
 tained control of the government and retained it for a 
 long series of years. This doctrine that one state is su- 
 perior to all the states has been held by a large number 
 of people whose patriotism may be intense enough, but 
 it is too-narrow to embrace the whole country and is cir- 
 cumscribed by the boundaries of their particular state. 
 It has been the watchword of every secessionist from the 
 beginning until now. As long as those who hold this con-
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 149 
 
 federate theory of the government were in power they 
 had no occasion to practice their theory. 
 
 In 1 860 when the public conscience was aroused, and 
 the public judgment pronounced against the theory and 
 practice of the confederate party by the election of Mr. 
 Lincoln to the Presidency, it became apparent that the 
 idea of National sovereignty and perpetual union was 
 again in the ascendant. It was then that those who had 
 lost control of the government determined to destroy it 
 by putting in practice their confederate theory, and exer- 
 cising rights which they had always claimed to exist. 
 They passed ordinances declaring the secession of their 
 states from the Union, and assumed an attitude of hostil- 
 ity to the National government. If their theory of the or- 
 ganization of the government is correct, their ordinances 
 of secession were legal and they became foreign states. 
 If the union was but a confederation of sovereign states 
 the right of a state to secede existed and the exercise of 
 the right gave no occasion for any war against them, 
 By the law of nations there exists no right to coerce a 
 sovereign state. This was the view taken by the Presi- 
 dent of the United States at the time the secession began. 
 He was Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, yet 
 as state after state seceeded, he did nothing to prevent 
 them from doing so. For months the work of disintegra- 
 tion and destruction went on, not only unchecked, but ap- 
 parently encouraged by the President and those acting 
 under him. On the 4th day of March, 1861, Abraham Lin- 
 coln became President. He was of the political school of 
 Washington. He believed heartily that the constitution 
 of the United States and the laws made in pursuance 
 thereof were the supreme law of the land anything in the 
 constitution or laws of a state to the contrary notwith- 
 standing. He registered his solemn oath in Heaven to 
 preserve, protect and defend the government, and to take 
 care that the laws were faithfully executed. In the dis-
 
 150 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 charge of these high duties, on the 15th of April, 1861, he 
 called for seventy-five thousand volunteers to repossess 
 the forts, places and property of the United States, which 
 had been seized by the confederate authorities. 
 
 Illinois responded promptly to the call with her full 
 quota. In that quota was the 21st Regiment commanded 
 by Col. Grant then an unknown, unassuming, modest citi- 
 zen; now the foremost man of all. the world. With all his 
 honors his modesty is still preserved, his characteristics 
 as pure and his name as spotless as any that was ever in- 
 scribed on the scroll of fame. In Company I from this 
 county there were many who now repose in that slumber 
 which shall remain unbroken until the last reveille of 
 time shall beat, and the sea shall give up its dead, and 
 they that are in their graves shall come forth. What 
 shall I say of them? They stand before me today mir- 
 rored in memory. Time forbids me to name them all, but 
 a few I cannot pass by. Peck with his fine intellectual 
 face, the index of his cultured mind; his scholarly at- 
 tainments; his rare worth as a man and a lawyer; his 
 high hopes and strong probabilities of reaching emin- 
 ence and gathering honors in his opening professional 
 career, laid all these with his life on the altar of his im- 
 periled country. Lagow, as brave and chivalrous as any 
 cavalier who ever wielded a battle brand sleeps in the 
 cemetery at Palestine. Knight, the rare conversationalist 
 and charmed center of the social circle, after bearing 
 toils and fatigue and wounds yielded to wasting disease 
 and died in his early manhood. The next company from 
 the county was D. 30 Regiment Illinois Volunteers. It 
 was commanded by Capt. Thos. G. Markley of Hutson- 
 ville, than whom no man had a braver, truer heart. He 
 was a man who loved his friends with a constancy that 
 never wavered: his patriotism was pure and his courage 
 high. On the 7th day of November, 1861, he fell at Bel- 
 mont, the first soldier from this county killed in battle.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 151 
 
 At Champion Hills, May 16, 1863, Captain George E. 
 Meilly of the same company was killed in battle. A man 
 in all things faithful and in all things trusted. A patriot 
 without reserve he sleeps where he fell, but the flag of the 
 Union shadows his dust. Who of us does not remember 
 the manly form of Major Mumford of the 5th Cavalry. 
 His patriotism was higher and broader than his partisan- 
 ship and impelled him to give his life with all its grand 
 possibilities to the cause of the Union. Faithfully and 
 well he followed the flag which his heart loved most loy- 
 ally, until October 26, 1864, when he died at Springfield, 
 Illinois. There are other officers and soldiers who de- 
 serve honorable mention. I should love to call the roll of 
 all the patriot dead of the county and pay a personal trib- 
 ute to the patriotism of each but time and circumstances 
 forbid that I should do so. They fell on almost every 
 battlefield of the south. They died in hospitals and 
 some of them sleep in the graves of the unknown; un- 
 known to their families and personal friends; but known 
 to the country and to the world as part of the Grand 
 Army of the Union, whose stately tread unshackled the 
 slave and whose victories saved the government from de- 
 struction. In a few years more when comrades have de- 
 parted and tombstones have crumbled, one by one as the 
 years go by they all shall join the unknown. We can 
 point to the immediate resting place of but a few of the 
 Revolutionary soldiers. But we feel that the whole broad 
 land is their sepulchre and by their heroic action and 
 sleeping dust is consecrated to free government. So shall 
 it be with the soldiers whom we commemorate today. 
 Their names will be forgotten and their graves become 
 unmarked and unknown but the great army and its great 
 conflict shall be had in remembrance forever and the 
 continent baptized with their blood shall be sacred to 
 the rights and liberties of mankind.
 
 152 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 An address of this kind would be incomplete without 
 some tribute to the memory of Abraham Lincoln. In his 
 early life a child of poverty and toil he grew into physi- 
 cal, intellectual and political manhood with the growth of 
 the State of Illinois. His statesmanship was as broad as 
 her prairies and as pure as the winds that swept over 
 them. He always did the right as God gave him to see the 
 right. He was a man of strong religious faith. His creed 
 was, "without Divine assistance I cannot succeed, but 
 with it success is certain." And this in the face of a 
 powerful enemy standing against a storm of false and 
 malignant detraction as bitter as partisan hate could 
 make it he discharged his high duties faithfully and with 
 distinguished ability. In all his letters and speeches 
 there is not to be found a single sentence of hatred, nor a 
 word of bitterness. Charity for all was more than a senti- 
 ment: it was a living principle and a master motive of his 
 life. But his great character was no protection from the 
 deadly shafts of treason. On the 14th of April, 1865, at a 
 cabinet meeting the President manifested a great cheer- 
 fulness and high hopes of the future. He spoke with great 
 kindness of General Lee and appeared to feel that the 
 restoration of peace and the re-establishment of national 
 authority was an easy task. That same evening he was 
 assassinated and the stricken nation has mourned for him 
 since and well may it mourn. For among the many rich 
 gifts of Providence to our country none was richer than 
 the life of this grand man which shall be an example of 
 perfect manhood for all time to come. We cannot stand at 
 his tomb today, and crown his dust with flowers, but we 
 can give a brief space to the memory of his great life and 
 drink in the spirit of loyalty and liberty, and personal 
 and political purity which were the grand work and sub- 
 stance of his character. Memory loves to carry us back 
 to the conflicts of our war for independence ; to Lexington 
 where the first blood was shed; to Bunker Hill where
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 153 
 
 Warren died that the nation might be born; to Yorktown, 
 the scene of the final surrender. It loves to seek out every 
 battle field where a patriot sleeps and calls it holy ground. 
 It loves to call over the roll of those heroic men and write 
 their names in the book of memory there to remain until 
 memory itself shall die. A pleasant page in the history 
 of that time tells how beautiful girls strewed the high- 
 way with flowers so that Washington passed over a bed of 
 roses the fragrance of which arose as the incense of grat- 
 itude. The cause for which our soldiers fought was as 
 just as that of the Revolution. The patriotism that im- 
 pelled them was as pure, and their courage was as high. 
 The ground crimsoned with their blood and where their 
 rlust reposes is as sacred to liberty and right. We need 
 not return to the ages where history is lost in myth to find 
 heroism. Its best exhibition has been in our own time 
 and in our own land. We have personally known the 
 heroes and have pursued with them the common avoca- 
 tions of life. We have had a common citizenship with 
 them. When the Southern heart was fired, when the 
 Southern brain was frenzied, and Southern hands tore 
 down the flag of the Union and rail up the banner of 
 Reparation and disunion, we saw these quiet men; these 
 neighbors of ours go from us to battle and if need be to 
 die for the Union. We were spectators of their long toil- 
 some marches and terrible battles; we saw many of them 
 die on the bitter fields of conflict; others wasted a-vay in 
 hospitals: others still returned scarred, wounded and 
 maimed, or smitten with fatal disease. Many of these are 
 already dead, others live to remind us of what they have 
 done for us, for the nation, and for humanity. The Rev- 
 olution had its great leaders on whose arm the country 
 leaned for strength in time of war and for counsel in time 
 of peace. 
 
 In the greater conflict for the preservation of the 
 government, the people have a leader, wise in counsel
 
 154 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 and strong in war. A leader who never met defeat on 
 any fleld; we should emulate the children of the Revolu- 
 tion and strew his way through the world with flowers. 
 
 My Fellow Citizens. We honor the dead soldier by 
 covering his dust with flowers, let us remember that 
 they died that the flag of our country might be advanced 
 high above all others and that the authority which it 
 represents might be supreme over all others. Let us not 
 forget that our government is enthroned in the hearts of 
 the people and its fate depends on the integrity, pa- 
 triotism and courage of the people. The memories of the 
 past keep these alive. The 4th of July as a monumental 
 institution recalling each year the story of independence 
 has done more to keep alive the patriotism and courage 
 of the American people than all the constitutional argu- 
 ments that were ever written. In the flowers which we 
 today, scatter over the dust of the soldier, we kindle 
 the patriotic spirit and write anew upon our own hearts 
 the history of the confederate rebellion and of its over- 
 throw by the armies of the Union. 
 
 In this day of decoration we erect a monument more 
 enduring than granite ; more beautiful than marble ; more 
 majestic than the shaft on Bunker Hill. It requires no 
 pilgrimage to view it for whenever a flower blooms it 
 stands enduring, beautiful and majestic in the presence 
 of every citizen of the United States into whatsoever 
 state or clime or country he may journey. These floral 
 tributes fall upon the graves of the known and of the un- 
 known from one end of the land to the other today. The 
 flowers will wither and fade but not one single beauty 
 shall be lost. Their fragrance floats away on the breeze 
 but every tender tint and every breath of perfume shall 
 be gathered somehow and treasured somewhere and shall 
 reappear in equal beauty and fragrance hereafter. So 
 courage and patriotism and noble deeds of those who die 
 are not lost but are gathered and treasured from age to
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 155 
 
 age in the store house of history for the use of all men. 
 And so the world is led onward and upward to higher 
 and better planes of action and enjoyment and so it shall 
 be led until the breaking light of the millennial glory 
 shall meet its "enrapitured vision.
 
 156 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 ADDRESS AT NEWMAN, ILLINOIS 
 
 JULY 4, 1883 
 
 FELLOW CITIZENS: 
 
 I am glad to meet you here on this happy occasion, 
 Happy to us, and to all mankind. For unto those who are 
 still denied the enjoyment of their natural and inalienable 
 rights and liberties, the existence of this nation is both a 
 promise and prophecy of ultimate liberation from eo- 
 clesiasical and political oppression. I return you hearty 
 thanks for the kind invitation extended to me to be with 
 you to-day, and shall attempt to discharge the duty 
 which devolves upon me at this hour faithfully, exercis- 
 ing the rights, and bearing the responsibilities, of our 
 common citizenship. It is sometimes said that a Fourth 
 of July oration should consist of fine talk without ideas, 
 and without the discussion of any principles of govern- 
 ment. I hold that on this day set apart from all others, 
 as commemorative of the birth and continued existence of 
 our nation it is both right and entirely proper to consider 
 and discuss those cardinal political principles which un- 
 derlie our political institutions, and distinguish them 
 from the political institutions of other lands, and other 
 people. This discussion should be candid, manly and 
 fair, and should rise above the plane of mere partisan- 
 ship. There has been so much of the spirit of pure parti- 
 sanship infused into the political life of the people, and 
 we have all become so tainted with it, our judgments 
 have become so biased by it, and our political reasoning 
 has become so beclouded with the prejudices engendered 
 by our partisan contests, that is is somewhat difficult for 
 any citizen who mingles in these contests to rise into the 
 purer atmosphere of American citizenship and discuss
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 157 
 
 political questions in a purely national tone and spirit. 
 It may prove equally difficult to listen in the same tone 
 and spirit. Let us for a few moments retrace the course 
 of our national history and gather into our hearts and 
 memories the events which preceded and led, like the 
 finger of destiny, to American Independence and Nation- 
 ality, and which have made it one of the glorious facts of 
 history. We may thus catch a large measure of the spirit 
 of that lofty patriotism which rises above self and party 
 and takes shelter alone under the shield and banner of 
 American citizenship. It is a long way back into the 
 ages, to the springs from whence the idea of self govern- 
 ment came. We must go beyond Yorktown, beyond In- 
 dependence Hall, beyond Bunker Hill and Lexington and 
 Concord. We must cross the oceans, and in the mazes of 
 English and Continental history find the origin of our 
 own. The thirty years war between the Low countries 
 and Spain in the sixteenth century was as much a war for 
 .personal liberty as was our own revolution. The rise of 
 the Dutch Republic involved the same principles of human 
 rights and freedom of conscience that are formulated in 
 our Declaration of Independence, and interwoven into our 
 national constitution and laws, and the same spirit of re- 
 volt against the oppressive exercise of authority, attended 
 the separation of the English church from that of Rome, 
 and ran through all the controversies, political and re- 
 ligious, that preceded and followed the separation. For 
 centuries before the era of Independence, English liber- 
 alism had been making protests against the divine right 
 of Kings to rule, and wringing concessions from the 
 crown in favor ,of the jjeople. 
 
 Wherever the German language was spoken some 
 tongue had been babbling of a measure of freedom, for 
 which the heart sighed, but could not find, under the 
 shadows which a despotic government cast over all the 
 homes of the Fatherland. Ireland oppressed, desolated,
 
 158 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 impoverished and ruined by the hand of alien power, 
 was crying to Heaven and earth against the oppression 
 under which it languished, and for the freedom for which 
 it panted, and to find which its sons had become volun- 
 tar}- exiles in every land beneath the sun. In France, the 
 same spirit, like sightless Samson, had become a blind 
 fury, and in its mad attacks upon those who wielded 
 power in such a manner that the people were denied 
 their natural and inalienable rights, it desolated that 
 fair land with misguided and destructive revolutions. 
 Fearful crimes were committed in the scared name of 
 liberty, yet despite the crimes, humanity continued its 
 onward march toward the free civilization of the nine- 
 teenth century. 
 
 It was from this political ferment in the countries 
 of the old world ; from this ceaseless protest against des- 
 potic power; from armed contests between oppressor and 
 oppressed; from the agitation of radical thinkers who 
 concluded that, politically, man had a right to live, be 
 free, and to seek happiness in his own way, provided he 
 infringed upon the right of no other member of society, 
 and that, religiously, he had the right to worship God in 
 such manner as his own conscience might approve; that 
 a people was pre|>ared to plant a new form of govern- 
 ment, to be administered in a new spirit, upon the un- 
 peopled lands of America; and it was this people so pre- 
 pared, who, in toil and sacrifice, in struggle and conflict, 
 through battle and blood, laid broad and deep the foun- 
 dations upon which our political edifice has been reared. 
 This people was not homogeneous either in language > 
 politics, religion or civilization. It had within itself the 
 elements of future conflict, and these were intensified by 
 the circumstances attending its settlement in America. 
 England, France, Germany and Spain were all seeking 
 dominion in the New World. To secure it they each 
 planted colonies to which they encouraged emigration
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 159 
 
 by promises of wealth and a large measure of liberty. 
 Thither came adventurers, speculators, Lords and im- 
 pecunious Noblemen of all grades and from all nations. 
 Thither also came those who valued liberty and freedom 
 of conscience more than lands, gold or titles. Over these 
 colonies the home governments exercised proprietary 
 rights and authority. They followed them inter the wil- 
 derness with Royal Governors, Secretaries and Councils, 
 deriving their authority from an Emperor or a King who 
 knew next to nothing of the condition, wants and neces- 
 sities of the people to be governed. While the colonies 
 were weak the exercise of authority over them was usual- 
 ly mild and humane with a tendency to foster and en- 
 courage their growth and prosperity. The right to make 
 and keep them dependent upon the governing power was 
 always claimed, and such measures as tended ir. that di- 
 rection were often adopted. 
 
 The English colonies gathered strength and increased 
 in population and wealth faster than any others. They 
 absorbed the Dutch of New York and Pennsylvania, beat 
 back the French from the Atlantic coast and confined the 
 Spaniard to Florida. They were fast becoming an Em- 
 pire in themselves. They had grown to-be three millions 
 of people, largely of English and German origin. A ma- 
 jority of them had either emigrated, or were descendants 
 of those who had emigrated to America because of some 
 right denied them in the land of their nativity. They 
 professed loyalty to the Crown of England, but were in- 
 stinctively reaching out toward independence. Every 
 city built, every town laid out, every encroachment upon 
 the wilderness and every cabin on the frontier was a step 
 toward independence, never to be retraced. Every mill 
 or factory built in which to make their own clothing or 
 household goods, or the tools and implements with which 
 to prosecute their ever increasing and diversifying in- 
 dustries, was a milestone on the highway along which
 
 160 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 they were traveling toward an independent position 
 among the nations of the world. England, then as now, 
 was a manufacturing country, and its gains were largely 
 derived from its manufactured goods produced by skilled 
 labor at home, and sold in its dependencies abroad. 
 It was by this means that it sustained its dense popula- 
 tion. America promised a large market, and the policy 
 of the government was to preserve this market, by the 
 suppression of all colonial manufacturing industries. 
 The rapid march of the colonies toward independence 
 must be called to a halt, and the colonist must be made to 
 feel that he is dependent. 
 
 By acts of Parliament all manufacturing interests in 
 the colonies were burdened by taxes and duties, while 
 English goods were admitted free and sold at high prices 
 to the consumer. The most careful observer can discover 
 no difference in the relative interest of the two countries, 
 then and now. Before independence, England sought to 
 put out the furances and stop the whirling spindles of 
 America by acts of Parliament. It now seeks the same 
 end by the plausible fallacy of free trade and direct tax- 
 ation. 
 
 The attack upon the colonial manufacturing interest 
 had a tendency to consolidate the people of the colonies 
 into oneness. An interest common to all of them was en- 
 dangered, and they urged against that danger a common 
 defense. Then came ship loads of taxed tea which went 
 into Boston Harbor, and upon which the taxes were never 
 paid. Then the stamped paper which the people refused 
 to use because their common demand for representation 
 in the law-making branch of the government had been 
 denied them. Other acts followed which, in principle, 
 infringed their rights as freeman, and .reminded the 
 Americans of their dependent position. Then came sol- 
 diers for the purpose of teaching them by force the doc- 
 trine of submission. Closer and closer did these acts of
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 161 
 
 oppression bring and bind the people together. Colonial 
 committees of safety grew into a Continental Congress as 
 naturally as effect follows cause. After Lexington and 
 Concord the minute men and militia of the towns crystal- 
 lized into a continental army, and fought the battle of 
 Bunker Hill without any act of Congress or any other 
 law except that of the necessities and dangers which 
 menaced all alike. It was not the war of Massachusetts, 
 but the war of the people in defense of the people. 
 
 I know that in the Declaration of Independence it 
 is assumed that the colonies are and of right ought to be 
 sovereign and independent States. It was only an as- 
 sumption. It never was a fact. Not a single colony or 
 state ever was either sovereign or independent. The 
 people of all the States together were alone sovereign, 
 and the States each leaned upon all the others for its life 
 and being. I know that a great deal has been said by 
 politicians and statesmen, and even by jurists about 
 State sovereignty. Many good citizens have been mis- 
 led and confused by the use of the term. During the war 
 for independence articles of confederation were entered 
 into between the States, and this confederation has been 
 called the bond which held the Union together prior to the 
 constitution. It was a rope of sand which held nothing 
 together. The war of England was not made upon States. 
 It was waged against the American people and against 
 American nationality, and it w r as the people and their im- 
 periled nationality that carried on the defense, and made 
 the revolution successful. This was the bond of union 
 and the only one. After our nationality was acknowl- 
 edged, an effort was made to carry on the government on 
 the "sovereign and independent States" theory, which 
 resulted in failure. The whole structure seemed to be go- 
 ing to pieces, and some stronger bond must be found; 
 some more perfect union formed or all would soon be lost. 
 Eeserving to the States all of their just rights and declar-
 
 162 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 ing all sovereignty to be inherent in the people, the whole 
 people of the United States ordained a constitution, in 
 which, by virtue of their inherent sovereignty, they or- 
 dained that such constitution and the laws made in pursu- 
 ance thereof should be the supreme law of the land, any- 
 thing in the constitution or laws of a State, to the con- 
 trary notwithstanding. That constitution is the law of 
 the people and not of the States. It is the idea of national- 
 ity formulated. Not so clearly as it might have been done 
 but still clearly enough not to be mistaken, except by 
 those who are enemies to that strength of government 
 which nationality gives. In the settlement of the Eng- 
 lish colonies in America, two distinct and diverse civili- 
 zations may be easily traced. They may be represented 
 by Plymouth and Jamestown. Plymouth was that of a 
 pure Democracy in which every citizen had an equal vote 
 and voice with every other citizen, in the determination 
 of all public questions and business. Its two distinctive 
 features are the "Town Meeting" in which every one has 
 a voice, and the decision of the majority is the law to all, 
 and the common school in which every child of the State 
 has an equal chance to acquire an education that will en- 
 able it to become an intelligent and useful member of the 
 body politic. It has traveled westward almost on paral- 
 lels of latitude, and impressed itself as the controlling ele- 
 ment of society and politics in what were formerly called 
 the ' ' Free States. ' ' Its tone of equality made it the nat- 
 ural and irreconcilable enemy of human slavery. It was 
 a reformer, an agitator, a free talker, a free thinker and 
 a troubler of the waters generally. 
 
 Jamestown was undemocratic. It sought to transfer 
 English aristocracy to the forests of America. At the top 
 of its social and political existence were Lords Balti- 
 more. Fairfax, Berkley and Sir Walter Raleigh, with his 
 splendid schemes for imperial government in the Caro- 
 linas. At the bottom was the African slave and the poor
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 163 
 
 white man. It was strength and weakness, intelligence 
 and gross ignorance grouped in a single social structure. 
 Its westward progress was on parallels of latitude south 
 of Plymouth. In southern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and 
 northern Missouri the two civilizations flowed together 
 and created friction. Jamestown was crowding toward 
 the north and Plymouth toward the south. Each wanted 
 territory. Each wanted power. In 1820 they contended 
 for Missouri so earnestly as to threaten the existence of 
 the government. Jamestown won Missouri by an act of 
 Congress, which fixed a line of separation between the two 
 to the westward of Missouri. The Mexican war of 1847 
 ended in the acquisition of a large territory out of which 
 California was carved in 1850. California was the key 
 which gave possession to all the Pacific coast, and the con- 
 test as to which should have it was a very bitter one. The 
 people of California were permitted to determine the ques- 
 tion by ballot, and Plymouth won. From 1801 to 1860 
 Jamestown had substantial control of the national govern- 
 ment, and in 1854 by an act of Congress removed the line 
 of separation, which had been fixed west of Missouri in 
 1820. A struggle for the possession of Kansas and Ne- 
 braska followed, which baptized the soil of both these 
 new States in the blood of both civilizations. In the end 
 Plymouth won both States and dedicated them to free 
 labor, free speech and the equality of men. 
 
 In 1860, the civilization of Plymouth elected Abra- 
 ham Lincoln president. Then came the last and greatest 
 conflict which was to determine forever the question of 
 supremacy between the two civilizations in the whole 
 country. The civil war of 1861 was no sudden outburst 
 of passion. It was no quick flame of rebellion. It was a 
 war arising from causes adequate to produce war. It 
 had been long coming, but its coming was sure. Its foot 
 had been upon our soil for centuries, and every one of its 
 fields of conflict had been mapped out when the national
 
 164 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 constitution was adopted. Theoretically it could have 
 been avoided. If Jamestown had made all men equal, 
 and become as democratic as Plymouth the solution 
 might have been peaceful. This it could not, and would 
 not do, until it suffered defeat on the stricken field. 
 
 The southern civilization adhered to the colonial 
 theory of the independence and sovereignty of each 
 State, and that it had the power to determine for itself 
 when its rights were infringed or endangered by the 
 national government, and also the right to determine 
 for itself the measure and mode of redress in such a case. 
 This theory served as a cover under which to attack the 
 national authority, now placed by the people in other 
 hands. It was a lure by which the citizen was led to re- 
 nounce his allegiance to the nation, and follow the for- 
 tunes of his State in a desperate struggle for the preser- 
 vation of that form of society to which he was attached 
 by lifelong association and interest. It justifies tho acts 
 of secession by which State after State attempted to 
 withdraw from the Union. It justifies the levying of 
 actual war against the national authority. It was sin- 
 cerely believed in and sincerely acted upon. It was as 
 much the inspiring thought of one side of the war, as na- 
 tional unity was of the other side. But it went down in 
 the war which it began for its own aggrandizement, and 
 it is now conceded by all intelligent and fair men, out- 
 side the dominion of a very narrow partisanship, to be an 
 exploded heresy, which has no proper place in American 
 politics or statemanship. 
 
 Now turn we to the results of this effort at self- 
 government in America. A continent has been trans- 
 formed from a wilderness into a garden of plenty and 
 beauty. A savage population has retired from the At- 
 lantic coast until the remnant of it is shut up in the 
 mountain fastnesses of the west. Its retreating footsteps 
 have been followed everywhere by the advance of civili-
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 165 
 
 zation, and when the advance and the retreat have come 
 together there has been war. These frontier contests 
 have developed some of the strongest characters in our 
 history men whose courage is an example and an in- 
 spiration to courage in others, in all future time. With 
 the acquisition of independence, the power to legislate 
 in relation to manufactures was transferred from the 
 English Parliament to our own Congress and domestic 
 manufactures w r ere encouraged, promoted, and protected. 
 Tariffs were levied upon foreign imports which protected 
 the American manufacturer, and the laborer from ruin- 
 ous competition with foreign manufacturers and laborers. 
 American industries at once revived, and have increased 
 in importance from that day to the present. Manufactur- 
 ers have so increased and diversified, that we are abso- 
 lutely independent of any foreign country for manufac- 
 tured goods, while our own find a market in every civilized 
 country in the world. Factories are not confined to any 
 section. The busy wheels and spindles make music and 
 wealth in every city, county and village of the Union. 
 The labor of a people is its greatest wealth. It is all the 
 laborer has to sell, and that country which gives him the 
 best market for his labor is the best for him. This coun- 
 try leads the world's labor market. Here the laborer is 
 better paid, better fed, better clothed and housed than in 
 any other country, for the reason that labor is better pro- 
 tected by law. But I cannot argue or theorize; I point 
 to three facts and defy all theories. The first fact is pro- 
 tection. The second fact is the growth and condition of 
 American industries. The third fact is the liberal wages 
 paid to, and the prosperous condition of American labor. 
 The great waterways have been so improved as to 
 make navigation as safe as it can be, and the vessels 
 which navigate the lakes and rivers of the country are 
 numerous and capacious enough to answer all the de- 
 mands of our extensive commerce.
 
 166 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 Railroads belt the continent from ocean to ocean, 
 and reach out their long iron arms across the rivers, over 
 mountain ranges and under them; through valleys and 
 plains until every part of the country is linked and bound 
 together by them. Along these railways in all their course 
 are villages, towns and cities, like pearls strung on 
 threads of gold. Over them the great herds of the west 
 and cattle of a thousand hills are sent flying to market, 
 and the wheat and corn, rye and oats and barley, and 
 other products of a million fields flow like rivers of gold 
 and silver to every place where demand requires supply. 
 Raw material and manufactured goods are carried in the 
 same way with a speed and cheapness unknown in any 
 other age or country. Travel is easy and almost instant- 
 aneous and the intercourse thus brought about between 
 the different sections of the country, has broadened and 
 elevated the views of all. It destroys provincialism and 
 builds up nationality. IJuder its influence the "State 
 policy "which once controlled the State of Illinois has per- 
 ished, and the memory of it excites wonder that men 
 could live and breathe the air which sweeps across these 
 broad prairies, and yet entertain such contracted political 
 views. 
 
 The telegraph runs by the railroad and outstrips it. 
 Its wires checker the whole land and then do not stop. 
 They run upon a hidden path under the oceans, and on 
 the other shore spread out like the web of a giant spider, 
 over three continents. Over and along these wires the 
 busy lightning carries the thought and passing history of 
 the world. It carries messages of friendship, love, busi- 
 ness, and news from village to villa.ge, from city to city, 
 from State to State, from continent to continent. It fa- 
 cilitates and promotes the business of the world beyond 
 estimate. It is the lightning pony express of the nine- 
 teenth century.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 167 
 
 The telephone with its power to transmit the sound 
 of the human voice a thousand miles, follows in the foot- 
 steps of the telegraph. 
 
 Electric lights flash out like midnight suns in all the 
 principal cities of the country, and give promise of a rev- 
 olution in the matter of lighting the houses of the people. 
 
 The sickle and the scythe have been supplanted by 
 the Reaper and Mower which sweep over the field and the 
 meadow almost without the toil of man. 
 
 The flail and the tramping feet of horses and oxen 
 have gone forever from the " threshing floor" and the 
 Separator driven by steam, stands where they beat 
 their weary round, separating and cleaning a thousand 
 bushels a day. 
 
 The wooden plow of the fathers has departed, and 
 the farmer turns his furrows with shining steel. The bar 
 share, the bull tongue and single shovel are placed on the 
 retired list, to be replaced by double plows and culti- 
 vators that do double the work of their predecessors 
 and do it easier and better. 
 
 The hay fork man is generally a fraud, but the fork 
 that lifts a shock of hay to the top of a stack at one bite 
 is worthy to succeed the long handled back breaker, with 
 which our fathers used to pitch. 
 
 The sewing machine has come to the rescue of the 
 needle woman and does the work of a day in a single 
 hour. In every department of industry improvement 
 has kept pace with those which I have mentioned and no 
 where else on earth are the people so well equipped for 
 their labor as they are in the United States, and all their 
 equipments are the inventions of American brain and 
 the product of American industry. 
 
 s The people themselves in their homes and places of 
 business, in the enjoyment of their liberties, in the pur- 
 suit of that happiness which the human heart dreams 
 of and sighs for, present the grandest picture the human
 
 168 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 eye ever rested upon. They tread ten thousand paths of 
 honest industry, they plow a million fields and sail a 
 million ships. Their heavy tramp is heard in the streets 
 of magnificent cities, and of the villages which dot the 
 land from sea to sea and from the lakes to the gulf. 
 They fly with the speed of the wind along the railroads 
 to the east, west, north and south and to every point of 
 the compass between these cardinal ones. They worship 
 at ten thousand altars and from ten million family cir- 
 cles. Great cities and towns, where palaces, cottages 
 and tene?nent houses are crowded together, are full of 
 them. The sea shores and the lake shores and the river 
 shores, the hills, the mountains, the woodlands, and the 
 prairies are speckled over with their homes. Homes 
 where they make love and marry and are born and die. 
 Everywhere are the school houses where they are taught 
 and the churches in which they worship. Yet in all this 
 land over which our starry flag floats there is no law or 
 authority of the State compelling any one to perform 
 any religious rite or service whatever. But there is 
 everywhere law and authority of the State which pro- 
 tects every citizen in the exercise of his or her religion. 
 The State protects religion, but does not enforce it. 
 
 Again every man under the flag is politically the 
 equal of every other man. Every citizen stands at the 
 ballot box with equal power. The law comes near enough 
 to every citizen to protect his person, his property and 
 his reputation, and is far enough from him to leave all 
 his physical and mental powers free play. After more 
 than a century of independence, the personal rights and 
 liberties of the people stand on a broader basis of se- 
 curity than they did at the beginning. 
 
 Let me now close this address by calling your atten- 
 tion to the lesson and purpose of this anniversary. It is 
 the birthday of a nation, one hundred and seven years 
 old. The celebration of this day on each returning year
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 169 
 
 is a mounroent of that fact which stands forever in the 
 presence of every citizen wherever he may be. He must 
 go to Boston to see Bunker Hill, but this monument he 
 can. see beneatli any sky and under any flag. We do well 
 to celebrate the day. We do well to recall the men and 
 the history of the past. But we cannot live on the cour- 
 age, patriotism or glory of the past. Our fathers left us 
 a heritage and we must leave it again to others. If we 
 wish to leave it still richer in blessings than we received 
 it, we must cling closely to that primary truth that the 
 intelligently expressed will of the people is the only true 
 source of political power. No party is or can be strong 
 enough to suppress the voice of the people. The duty of 
 demanding a fair ascertainment of the will of the majori- 
 ty attaches both to parties and to persons. It begins in 
 tho home of the citizen and follows him through town 
 meetings, party conventions and in the discharge of every 
 other political duty. It is a duty that cannot be evaded. 
 Let us each strive faithfully and intelligently to dis- 
 charge the high duties which devolve upon us. Let ug obey 
 the laws, State and National ; support the constitution in 
 letter and spirit, and in peace or war follow the flag that 
 floats over the whole country, and protects in every land 
 and on everv sea.
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH" 
 
 ANNUAL ADDRESS AS PRESIDENT OF STATE: 
 BAR ASSOCIATION 
 
 MEMBERS OF THE ILLINOIS STATE BAR 
 
 CIATTON: 
 
 We are assembled for the purpose of discharging 
 the duties' which devolve upon us as officers ami members 
 of this association. The constitution requires of me an 
 address. Before entering upon the discharge of that du- 
 ty, allow me to return to you my sincere thanks for the 
 honor conferred upon me, in my absence, at your last 
 meeting: 
 
 This occasion does not demand of me an argument in 
 favor of civil government among men, or an essay upon 
 those elementary principles of law which form the foun- 
 dations of the jurisprudence of all civilized nations, what- 
 ever the form of their political government. The necessi- 
 ty of civil government is so evident, and has such abund- 
 ant demonstration in the history of the world, and in the 
 happy condition of the people of the United States, pro- 
 tected by constitutional limitations of power, and se- 
 cured by law in the enjoyment of all necessary civil and 
 political rights, that whoever questions it, should be 
 takeil care of as incompetent, or punished as a criminal, 
 
 The elementary and universal principles of law are 
 the first steps which the lawyer takes in his professional 
 career. They lie at the threshold of his professional 
 life. They are the corner stones upon which he must 
 build if he builds either safely or successfully. The books 
 which contain them are the first that he reads as a stu- 
 dent. They occupy the field which he first surveys and 
 explores. If these first principles have been neglected 
 by any of us, this is not the time or place to repair the ne-
 
 "ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 171 
 
 'gleet. These are paths along which it is presumed that we 
 have passed before reaching the duties of the present 
 hour. 
 
 Nor am I called upon to delve tediously in the vast 
 mines of ancient and modern legal literature which exist, 
 and are of unmeasured interest and worth to the student 
 of jurisprudence, for maxims and gems of the law, to be 
 strung and exhibited like the tawdry ornaments of an ab- 
 original chief. 
 
 T wish to discuss in a practical way some practical 
 questions which lie within the scope of the objects and 
 purposes of this association, as set forth in its constitu- 
 tion. This association ought to be of practical use to the 
 people of the State, in making good laws, and directing 
 wisely the growth of the system of jurisprudence under 
 which the people are to live, and by which the vast and 
 evor growing interests of this great State are to be con- 
 trolled, directed, protected and stimulated in their future 
 growth and development. 
 
 The constitution of this association declares that the 
 objects of its organization are: 
 
 First. To cultivate the science of jurisprudence. 
 
 Second. To promote reform in the law. 
 
 Third- To facilitate the administraton of justice. 
 
 Fourth. To elevate the standard of integrity, honor 
 and courtesy in the legal profession. 
 
 Fifth. To encourage a thorough and liberal legal 
 ed a cation. 
 
 Sixth. To cherish a spirit of brotherhood among 
 the members of the legal profession. 
 
 The science of jurisprudence comprehends a knowl- 
 edge of all the rules of order, or conduct, established by 
 authority of a community or State, for the control and 
 go xr ernmpnt of its inhabitants, and their application to 
 the controversies which arise in the transaction of busi- 
 ness, and the conduct of 'the individual citizen. It em-
 
 172 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 braces al! the legal relations which exist beween the citi- 
 zen and the community or State, and between one citizen 
 and each and every other citizen, whether such relations- 
 arise out of, or relate to, the personality of the citizen, 
 or the property, rights, or things which the citizens of a 
 community awn, use, and enjoy, either jointly or sever- 
 ally. It embraces all the political rights, duties, privil- 
 eges and obligations of the citizen, as they have been 
 established by constitutional provisions, fixed by statute, 
 or defined by jiidicial construction. These rules of hu- 
 man conduct, of which the science of jurisprudence takes 
 cognizance, permeate the entire body of society, and en- 
 twine themselves around the individual citizen in every 
 path he travels in pursuit of that happiness which all 
 hope sometime, and somewhere, to find. These rules are 
 supposed to originate in reason, and to have some correct 
 principle for a foundation. The science of jurisprudence 
 undertakes to trace them to the fountains of reason, from 
 which they flow, and to discover the foundations of prin- 
 ciple upon which they rest. 
 
 The student of this not very exact science has a limit- 
 less field for his investigations. The sources of that 
 knowledge which he seeks often lie far away or deeply 
 concealed. They extend through the entire domain of 
 history, philosophy, political economy and religion; but 
 if he has the spirit of a true lawyer, and is in love with 
 his chosen profession, and takes delight in the philosophy 
 of the law which he seeks to know, the distance or con- 
 cealment of these fountains of knowledge, and the wide 
 range of his explorations, will only add zest to his search 
 for them. The student who expects any considerable 
 measure of success and satisfaction in this pursuit will 
 be disappointed in his expectations if he turns aside to 
 drink at fountains of pleasure, or stops to dwell in castles 
 of indolence.
 
 ETHEtBERT CALLAHAN 17S 
 
 "The world is nothing but a mass of means* 
 We have but what we make. Every good 
 Is locked, Ijy nature, in a granite hand. 
 Sheer labor must unlock. The forests 
 Do not fall around us into builded homes 
 Without an axe or arm." 
 
 A knowledge of the general principles of the science 
 of jurisprudence should not be confined to such citizens 
 as manage causes in the courts. It should be part of that 
 elementary education which the community or State of- 
 fers to all its citizens in the public schools. The Legis- 
 lature of each State 'should, by law, require that in every 
 public school there shall be taught an outline of such laws 
 as relate to persons and propert}^ to public and private 
 rights and wrongs, and a knowledge of the organization 
 and jurisdiction of the courts by which the laws are ad- 
 ministered. Every college should include the science of 
 jurisprudence in the curriculum. Without this general 
 knowledge of the laws, the citizen is not fully prepared 
 to discharge the public duties which he owes to the 
 State, or to understand and maintain his private rights, 
 or to meet the obligations which rest upon him as a mem- 
 ber of society. The law conclusively presumes that every 
 citizen has a perfect knowledge of all the laws in force in 
 the jurisdiction in which he resides, and holds him re- 
 sponsible for the same measure of obedience as if this 
 knowledge of the law were a fact, and not a presumption 
 only. Whatever the State can do toward giving to the 
 people an actual knowledge of the laws, it should do. 
 
 It is the duty of the Legislature to express the public 
 laws in words that are clear in their meaning. The words 
 of a new statute should be very deliberately and carefully 
 selected. This is hardly possible under the present mode 
 of preparing, amending and passing bills. It not infre- 
 quently happens that the phraseology of a statute is so de- 
 fective or obscure as to defeat the clear intention of the
 
 174 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 Legislature. The recommendation of the American Bar 
 Association that each. Legislature appoint a committee 
 of Senators and Representatives "who shall, together r 
 constitute a joint standing committee for the revision of 
 bills, before their final passage," commends itself to my 
 judgment, and I recommend it to your favorable consider- 
 ation. It would most certainly prove a "material check 
 to a growing evil." 
 
 Another object of this association is to "promote re- 
 form in the law." 
 
 The law is never stationary. It is forever growing 
 and forever wasting. If it were reformed to-day until 
 the beauty of perfection should grace it, it would be im- 
 perfect to-morrow. A rule of law useful to-day would be 
 useless to-morrow; and a rule not required in the present, 
 may be needed to meet the demands of the future. This 
 necessity for change is often the cause of unnecessary 
 and mischievous changes. Especially is this true when 
 legislation is largely in the hands of men unskilled and in- 
 experienced in the science of jurisprudence. Change is 
 not necessarily reform. A new law should never be made 
 until after a careful consideration of its relation to, and 
 effect upon existing laws; nor unless it is intended to reach 
 some desirable end that cannot be reached without addi- 
 tional legislation. Nor should a law be repealed until it 
 has been tested in practice, and found to be productive of 
 no adequate public benefit. Too much change, too much 
 hasty and inconsiderate legislation is one of the most pro- 
 lific sources of bad laws. Solon bound the Athenians by 
 solemn oath to obey such laws as he should make for a 
 period of ten years. He gave them a code, and then trav- 
 eled in foreign countries for ten years, and thereby estab- 
 lished a world-wide reputation for wisdom. Modern leg- 
 islators might learn a lesson from the Athenian Lawgiver 
 without following too closely the precedent he established.
 
 ' ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 175 
 
 The ordinance of 1787 '"'For the government of the 
 Territory of the United States northwest of the River 
 Ohio, ' ' provided that judicial proceedings should be ac- 
 cording to the course of the common law. The Territorial 
 Legislature afterward enacted that the common law of 
 England, so far as the same was applicable and of a gener- 
 al nature, and certain English statutes made to supply 
 the defects of the common law, should be the rule of deci- 
 sion; and should be considered as of full force, until re- 
 pealed by legislative authority. After the admission of 
 Illinois into the Union, the same provision was re-enacted 
 by the State Legislature, and is still in force. At first, all 
 the courts were at sea in regard to what portions of the 
 common law were or were not locally inapplicable. Diffi- 
 cult questions arose, and naturally drifted into the Su- 
 preme Court, where the common law was pruned and 
 trimmed and molded by judicial construction. The Legis- 
 lature immediately commenced a process of patching the 
 common law by statutory enactments, which has contin- 
 ued to the present time. The ground work of the common 
 law remains, but it has been so often patched, and in so 
 many places, and so much modified by judicial construc- 
 tion, that it takes very careful examination and discrimi- 
 nation to determine which is original, what has been 
 added to, and what eliminated from it. 
 
 p]ncrland, from whence we transplanted the common 
 law, with its technical actions, and its courts of law and 
 chancery, administering justice on entirely different prin- 
 ciples, has outstripped us in the race of legal reform. It 
 lias recast its judicial system, abolishing the distinction 
 between courts of equity and of law, and providing that 
 the administration of justice in all courts shall be regu- 
 lated by the principles of equity. It is difficult to discover 
 a satisfactory reason why we in this country cling to the 
 technical common law actions, and the technical. rules at- 
 tached, and belonging to them, which England has, in sub-
 
 176~ AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 stance, thrown overboard. We have attempted to bend 
 the straight lines of these common law actions, and re- 
 lieve suitors from the hardships which arise out of their 
 technical application, by statutes allowing amendments in 
 matters of substance and form at any time before final 
 judgment. 
 
 This is a step forward. It is a concession of the neces- 
 sity of reform. It is an acknowledgment that these com- 
 mon-law actions came to us, surrounded with technicali- 
 ties that amounted to a denial of justice, when the wrong 
 form of action had been brought, or some technicality 
 overlooked in bringing, or in the progress of the right 
 form of action. It is a confession that such technicalities 
 have survived too long, and should now be modified, or 
 entirely swept away. But it is not the reform itself. 
 Something more is required. That distinguished Ameri- 
 can lawyer, Hon. David Dudley Field, in his address to the 
 American Bar Association at Chicago, in August last r 
 said: 
 
 "What is required, and what must, at some time or 
 other be undertaken, is a treble process the process of 
 elimination, the process of condensation and the process of 
 classification. 
 
 ' ' This performance would make a code,call it by what 
 ever other name you please. That such a work is the in- 
 evitable outcome of American institutions, I am confi- 
 dent, and I beg leave to commend it to your earnest at- 
 tention. Many lawyers are frightened by the idea of a 
 code, or rather, I should have said, by their idea of one. 
 They imagine it to be revolutionary; something that 
 would take away the substance of what they are accus- 
 tomed to, and force them to learn a new system. These 
 persons greatly err. It surely is not revolutionary to set 
 in writing what has already been decided, and of course 
 has been spoken or written by somebody somewhere. It 
 is not revolutionary to condense the utterances that have
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 177 
 
 been made from the bench in hundreds of years. It is not 
 revolutionary to arrange the several propositions thus 
 evolved. No spectre is here to frighten anybody." 
 
 During the century that has elapsed since our Rev- 
 olution, the laws of England, and of Amerca following 
 in the footsteps of England, have gradually gathered to 
 themselves fragments of many other laws, or have elabor- 
 ated many that are new, until at last we see spread be- 
 fore us the vast conglomerate of today. Let us collect 
 and bind together, in their appropriate places, what we 
 have, and then we can the better tell what more we need." 
 
 This treble process of elimination, condensation and 
 classification suggested by Mr. Field, is one of the urgent 
 demands of the present hour in the State of Illinois, even 
 though the present system of practice and pleading re- 
 mains. Many statutory definitions should be supplied. 
 A great deal of law that has been made by the courts, 
 under the stress of necessity, should be formulated and 
 condensed, and given legislative expression. Statutes 
 that are practically obsolete, and rules that practice has 
 demonstrated are hindrances to justice, should be elim- 
 inated by law, rather than frittered away by judicial con- 
 struction. An instance will serve to illustrate my mean- 
 ing. 
 
 The statute provides that " Jurors in all criminal 
 cases shall be judges of the law and the fact." This stat- 
 ute, in clear and unequivocal terms, places all questions 
 of law arising in every criminal trial in the hands of the 
 jury alone. Neither the profession nor the people have 
 ever been satisfied that the statutory rule was safe in 
 practice, and it has not been followed. It is universally 
 overridden by the court. Instructions have been asked 
 and given in criminal trials the same as in civil causes. 
 In Schiiier vs. People, 23d 111., 29, it is said, "It is proper 
 and usual, and even the duty of the court, if requested by 
 either party, or by the jury, to instruct them what the
 
 178 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 law is; but, it was the design of the statute that they 
 should not be absolutely bound by such instructions. If 
 they can say, upon their oaths, that they know the law 
 better than the court does, they have the right to do so. ' ' 
 
 In Davidson v. People, 90th 111., 232, it is said, "It 
 is not unreasonable to require the jury to say they know 
 the law better than the court, before they disregard its 
 instructions. ' ' 
 
 The courts accept and recognize the statutory right 
 of the jury to disregard the law as given by the courts, 
 but they have felt that it was necessary to warn the jury 
 that before doing so, it was their ' ' duty to reflect whether 
 from their habits of thought, their study and experience 
 they are better qualified to judge of the law than the 
 court. ' ' This is equivalent to saying to the jury that they 
 should not use the power which the statute has placed in 
 their hands without limitation or qualification. 
 Would it not be a real "reform in the law" to repeal the 
 statute and provide, by law, that the jury should try only 
 issues of fact, and the court determine all questions of 
 law? 
 
 The great inequality of punishment meted out to 
 offenders of the same class in different parts of the State, 
 under different circumstances, and surrounded by dif- 
 ferent influences, seriously raises the question whether 
 juries should ever be allowed to fix the punishment for 
 any crime. The result of my own experience and observa- 
 tion is- a very strong conviction that in all criminal trials 
 the jury should pass upon the question of innocence or 
 guilt alone, and that all punishment, following after a 
 verdict of guilty, should be left wholly with the court. 
 
 Whether it would be a change for the better to allow 
 less than all the members of a jury to return a verdict, is 
 still a question open for discussion. Every verdict is the 
 result of concession, if not of actual compromise. The 
 rule that requires entire unanimity, it is said, places it in
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 179 
 
 the power of one juror to defeat the judgment of eleven 
 others, and force them to a verdict which is unsatisfac- 
 tory to them, or to a disagreement. If ten jurors should 
 agree upon a verdict, is not that more likely to be a just 
 and true verdict than the verdict obtained by the dicta- 
 tion of one or two stubborn or corrupt jurors? On the 
 other hand, is it not true that sometimes a minority of 
 jurors alone are able to resist public clamor and popular 
 prejudice, and prevent their invasion of the jury box ? 
 
 I am not satisfied that the change would be beneficial 
 or even safe. Trial by jury is an old institution, and in- 
 novations upon it should be made with care, and then 
 only such as will tend to the more speedy and certain 
 administration of justice. I do not believe that the jury 
 system is so perfect that it can not be improved. I be- 
 lieve that means can be devised that will place more in- 
 telligence and more knowledge of business, and the law in 
 the jury box than is usually obtained under our present 
 system. If we were searching for inexperience in, and 
 ignorance of the duties of jurors, we could hardly hope to 
 find a better plan to secure them than we now have. It is 
 legal cause of challenge if one called as a juror has had 
 recent experience in the duties he is called to perform* 
 The jury lists, in the first instance, seldom contain the 
 names of active, successful business men. If called, men 
 of this character generally manage to get excused and 
 escape the service. They have too much personal busi- 
 ness, and too many private interests in hand. They have 
 not the time to spare. They leave jury service to men 
 whose more limited education and business ability have 
 placed them a little behind in the race of life, and then, 
 when juries, composed of men unskilled in the intricacies 
 of business, render unsatisfactory verdicts, they are loud 
 in their criticisms, and indulge in unreasonable denuncia- 
 tion of the trial by jury. What we want, and must have,
 
 180 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 is a more intelligent selection of jurors than can expected 
 to be made by the blind goddess of Chance. 
 
 The diversity of legislation in the different States 
 upon questions which affect the business and people of 
 the entire country, has given rise to many serious ques- 
 tions and inconveniences. It would seem that upon 
 all questions affecting commerce, and the agencies by 
 which it is carried on; questions of marriage and divorce; 
 the execution and acknowledgment of all instruments 
 conveying or creating liens on real estate; the attestation 
 and probate of wills, and others of this general nature, 
 uniformity of legislation is desirable throughout the 
 country. 
 
 One of the objects of the " American Bar Associa- 
 tion'.' is to secure, as far as possible, uniformity of legis- 
 lation upon such general subjects as I have indicated. 
 A distinguished member of that association is present, 
 by invitation, to represent and recommend its work, and 
 I bespeak for him a careful and considerate hearing, 
 while he presents the plea of the association which he 
 represents for reform in the law. 
 
 The " National Bar Association" is another organi- 
 zation, the object of which is to promote the unification 
 of the laws of the various States which relate to matters 
 in which the people of the United States have a common 
 interest. Its purposes, as declared in its constitution, 
 are in substance the same as those of the American Bar 
 Association. 
 
 By invitation from this association a member of the 
 National Association is here to speak for it, and to repre- 
 sent its purposes, and I know that the great importance 
 of the subject will command your attention. 
 
 These associations are each National in their organi- 
 zation and character, and, acting in conjunction with the 
 State bar associations and with local bar associations 
 within the States, they may accomplish much in securing
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 181 
 
 uniformity of legislation upon such questions as may be 
 proper subjects of unification. 
 
 Another object had in view in the formation of this 
 association was to "facilitate the administration of 
 justice. ' ' Mr. Field, in the address from which I have al- 
 ready quoted, said: 
 
 "We are a boastful people. We make no end of 
 saying what great things we have done, and are doing, 
 and yet behind these brilliant shows there stands a 
 spectre of halting justice, such as is to be seen in no other 
 part of Christendom. So far as I am aware, there is no 
 other country calling itself civilized, where it takes so 
 long to punish a criminal, and so many years to get a 
 final decision between man and man. Truly may we say 
 that justice passed through the land on leaden sandals. ' ' 
 
 It is not the severity of punishment that deters bad 
 men from criminal action so much as the certainty that 
 some punishment will follow swift on the heels of the 
 crime. In criminal prosecutions every delay increases 
 the chances that the guilty may escape, or adds to the 
 burdens which persons charged with crimes they have 
 not committed . must bear in defending themselves and 
 maintaining their innocence. 
 
 Litigation in civil actions is, or may be, so prolonged 
 and expensive as to amount to a denial of justice. 
 We concede this much when we undertake to "facilitate 
 the administration of justice." How shall the undertak- 
 ing be made a success? How shall the "leaden sandals" 
 be removed, and justice made surefooted and swift? 
 
 In mechanics, if a machine moves too slow, we look 
 out for means to accelerate its motion. The courts of 
 the State, in which all judicial power is vested, consti- 
 tute together a machine for the administration of civil 
 and criminal justice. We concede that it moves too slowly 
 It moves so slow that we undertake to "facilitate" its
 
 182 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 motion. Tbere must be friction or clumsy workmanship 
 somewhere in the machinery itself. If so, where is it? 
 
 Shall we examine it a moment ? Begin with the jus- 
 tice of the peace courts, where a large majority of the 
 small controversies arising between citizens of the State 
 originate and are determined. There is but little chance 
 for delay here. Court is always open. Return days are 
 short. Continuances are brief. Changes of venue 
 occasion but little suspense. In this court of the people, 
 the suit marches on in a plain, simple way from the time 
 it commences until it is ended. Appeals lie from the jus- 
 tice courts to the county and circuit courts. The terms of 
 these courts are usually six months apart. By selecting 
 the court to which his appeal is taken, the appellant ob- 
 tains six months* of delay, and twelve months if he can 
 obtain a single continuance. Appeals are often taken 
 for delay alone. Here justice puts on her "leaden san- 
 dals," and they will be removed only when appeals are 
 no longer the occasion of unnecessary and vexatious de- 
 lays. 
 
 The next piece of this judicial machinery to be ex- 
 amined is the county court, with * ' original jurisdiction in 
 all matters of probate, settlement of estates of deceased 
 persons, appointment of guardians and conservators, and 
 settlement of their accounts; in all matters relating to 
 apprentices, and proceedings for the collection of taxes 
 and assessments, and such other jurisdiction as may be 
 provided for by general law." 
 
 Jurisdiction has been provided by general law in 
 misdemeanors, and a large class of civil actions, but the 
 law terms at which this jurisdiction may be exercised are 
 limited in most counties to two in each year, so that when 
 an appeal comes up from an inferior court it usually re- 
 quires six months to bring it to trial. Every continuance 
 of any cause results in a delay of six months more.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 183 
 
 It would facilitate the administration of justice to 
 provide by general law that the civil and criminal juris- 
 diction of the county courts might be exercised in all 
 terms. It would facilitate it much more if the Legisla- 
 ture should provide by general law that the county courts 
 should be courts of general jurisdiction, and have con- 
 current jurisdiction with the circuit courts in all matters, 
 criminal and civil. Continuances would then be only 
 for such time as should be necessary, and changes of ven- 
 ue would send causes to a court that would be ready to 
 try them within a month at the farthest. All litigated 
 causes could be set for trial, and tried at the time set, 
 without the enormous expense of holding witnesses over 
 from day to day, as is now done in the circuit and county 
 courts. Jails would not fill up wih prisoners charged 
 with crime, to.be kept for months at the expense of the 
 county. Punishment would overtake the guilty, and 
 vindication be afforded to the innocent. Every person 
 could obtain "by law, right and justice, freely, com- 
 pletely and without denial, promptly and without delay. ' ' 
 If this were done, should the circuit courts be abolished ? 
 This is not at all necessary. Enough circuit judges should 
 be elected to constitute the four appellate courts, and to 
 hold circuits in the very few counties where the volume 
 of business is so great that the county court and the pro- 
 bate court provided for in the constitution can not take 
 care of it. The circuit courts, where the most vexatious 
 and expensive delays usually occur, would, except in a 
 few large cities and counties, be practically eliminated 
 from the judicial machinery, and a lawsuit, when com- 
 menced, would march continuously along to final judg- 
 ment, with only such rests as should be necessary to pre- 
 pare it for trial. The county courts would be elevated to 
 the present dignity of the circuit courts. Men of eminent 
 ability and legal learning would be placed on the county 
 bench. All records of judgments and decrees affecting
 
 J84 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 real estate would be found in one court instead of in two, 
 
 But little complaint has been made of delays in the 
 appellate courts, and I submit that with more frequent 
 sittings of these courts, and the entire relief of the judges 
 from circuit duty, there would be no delays that would 
 constitute any .just ground for complaint. 
 
 In the early history of the State, it was thought 
 proper to have the Supreme Court hold its sittings at Ot- 
 tawa, Springfield and Mount Vernon. There were rea- 
 sons that then seemed to justify this opinion, but in the 
 wonderful progress and changed condition of the State, 
 they have passed away, and there appears to be no longer 
 any reason why the migratory character of that court 
 should be maintained. If its sittings were in this city 
 alone, and salaries paid to the judges that would permit 
 them to reside here during their terms of office, the busi- 
 ness of the court would be more promptly transacted. 
 The ability of the judges to consult together at all times 
 would enable the court to reach conclusions promptly 
 and without delay. Opinions could be read, approved 
 and filed as soon as prepared. The court might be, for all 
 practical purposes, in perpetual session, and its work in 
 constant progress. Here again, by the change I have 
 suggested, the administration of justice might be facili- 
 tated. 
 
 I am aware that the positions here taken are open 
 to attack and subject to hostile criticism. I have pre- 
 pared no defense for them. I have said nothing intended 
 to disarm criticism. If they serve to provoke others to 
 show a better way to * 'facilitate the administration of 
 justice" they will have answered the purpose I have in 
 view in presenting them. 
 
 We have, in our constitution, said that another pur- 
 pose of this association is to elevate the standard of in- 
 tegrity, honor and courtesy in the legal profession. There 
 is certainly no profession in which the standard of these
 
 El'HELBERT CALLAHAN 
 
 sterling virtues, integrity and honor, should be more 
 elevated than in the legal profession. I believe that in 
 respect to these qualities of character the lawyers of the 
 United States may safely challenge comparison with any 
 and all other professions or callings. They are so much a 
 lawyer's capital in business that he can not dispense with 
 them. More trusts are committed to his keeping than to 
 that of any other member of society, and the betrayal of 
 a trust by an American lawyer is so rare as to be phe- 
 nomenal. Misfortune in all its forms, with all of its 
 tongues and voices of sorrow, pain and despair, pours 
 its confidences into our ears, and they are sacredly kept. 
 The oppressed come to us with the fitter story of their 
 wrong, and whether they bring us gold for a fee, or come 
 in the rags of penury, our services are faithfully given, 
 and they receive such redress as the laws award. The fu- 
 gitive from the 'fury of the mob seeks our counsel and 
 protection, and we stand between him and the red-hot 
 storm of evil and unreasoning passion by which he is pur- 
 sued, and save him by putting ourselves in peril. The 
 criminal, with the strong arm of the law reaching after 
 his estate to satisfy penalties, or thrusting him toward a 
 prison, where bolts and bars would separate him from 
 liberty, and where he would be clothed in the garb of dis- 
 grace and degradation, or threatening to lead him to a 
 gibbet, appeals to us and receives our assistance. How- 
 ever hot the 2eal of those who prosecute, we save him 
 from punishment beyond the measure of his crime, and 
 the judgment against him is tempered with mercy in- 
 stead of being embittered with malice or hatred. The 
 innocent, whom accident, adverse circumstances, or false- 
 hood has caused to be accused of criminal violations of 
 the law, bring to us their unfortunate surroundings, and 
 we listen patiently to their earnest but apparently uncor- 
 roborated protestations of innocence, and somehow, a 
 way is always opened for their escape and vindication.
 
 18* AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 In all the important business affairs of life men are lee! 
 by our counsel and act upon our advice. We write their 
 wills and distribute their estates when they are dead. 
 We drive away the pack of "wolves in sheeps' clothing, ' r 
 who, notwithstanding the homestead exemption laws r 
 "devour widow's houses." 
 
 While we take professional pride in the high standard 
 of integrity and honor of the bar, we are still painfully 
 conscious of the fact that a few members of the profes- 
 sion fall far below the high standard maintained by the 
 American Bar. Let such be only examples of warning,, 
 and not of limitation. 
 
 Courtesy is a prime virtue, and a strong weapon in 
 the quick, sharp contests of the lawyer's occupation. Its 
 possession upon all occasions marks the mastery of the 
 man over himself. To be genuine, it must be inborn. 
 Though inborn, it requires the most assiduous and pro- 
 tracted culture. Like the shield of the Roman soldier, it 
 should be borne into every conflict, no matter how sudden, 
 or how fierce. Among the most difficult places for the 
 lawyer to observe that high degree of courtesy which gen- 
 tlemen owe to each other on all occasions, is in the heated 
 discussions that take place in the trial of causes in courts. 
 Wrought up to that high tension which every lawyer 
 feels on such occasions; engaged in an intellectual duel 
 with an antagonist under like excitement, and inflamed 
 by like zeal; realizing that the issue of the duel is to be 
 then and there finally settled, he may allow an angry pas- 
 sion to usurp the place of an intellectual effort, and in 
 this moment of weakness an uncourteous word or phrase 
 leap from his tongue. Any one, when under no strain of 
 excitement, can select his words and moderate his tones 
 in courteous measure. It is the strong man only, who 
 in the whiteheat of controversy, when every passion, is 
 awake; when the eye flashes out the fires that burn in 
 the soul; when every power of the mind is aroused; when
 
 ETHELfcERT CALLAHAN 187 
 
 the. battle is on, and the contest presses hotly forward, 
 can thrust and parry, and parry and thrust, in courteous 
 phrases, and flash and cut like a blade of Damascus. In 
 all our forensic contests, thrusts and cuts must be re- 
 ceived as well as given. If received from the polished 
 shaft or blade of courteous though keen debate, they 
 heal by first intention, and leave no scars; if received 
 from the bludgeon of angry words, bitter epithet or 
 coarse personality, the wounds are contused. They heal 
 slowly, and leave ugly scai*s in memory. 
 
 There is nothing in the public life of the lawyer so 
 little understood by the laity as these public disputations 
 in the trial of causes in court. They appear to forget 
 that every cause has in fact two sides; that the reasons 
 which lie on the weaker side of a cause are just as legiti- 
 mate as those which lie on its stronger side; that in many 
 cases the reasons on either side are so evenly balanced 
 that the disputants themselves are unable to say which, 
 if either, is the stronger side;, that each lawyer is con- 
 fined in his employment and duty to one side of the case ; 
 that a like duty as to the other side of the case is upon 
 the other of the disputants; that these two, together, 
 carry on in a public way the same process of reasoning 
 which every man carries on in his own mind before acting 
 m any important matter connected with his own private 
 business. 
 
 These disputations are absolutely necessary, though 
 they may appear unseemly to those who do not under- 
 stand their office and use. They are the retorts in which 
 fraud, falsehood and oppression are consumed, and the 
 pure gold of right and truth and liberty is refined and 
 purified. They are trials by battle, presided over by the 
 genius of reason, and in which justice wins more and 
 brighter victories than upon any other field of human 
 action.
 
 188 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCff 
 
 Lastly, this association has undertaken to build up 
 and "cherish a spirit of brotherhood among the members, 
 of the legal profession," On its success in this undertak- 
 ing depends the life of this association, and its past and 
 future reputation. In a measure, every man is, and has- 
 the right to be, selfish in the objects of his business life. 
 He must be, and is, the center of his own personal world, 
 his home. From this center, all of his interests, duties, 
 obligations and affections radiate toward his household, 
 his kindred, his neighbors, his town, his country, State 
 and Nation. The lawyer is no exception to this rule, but 
 it is a very narrow view of his vocation that would allow 
 him to make the pursuit and practice of his profession, 
 wholly selfish. His duties lie farther out from his per- 
 sonal self than those of the citizen whose occupation is 
 purely private and personal. He professes a knowledge 
 of the laws which quite stand as sentinels at the side 
 of every citizen, to protect him in obedience to, and pun- 
 ish him in disobedience of the law r s. He holds himself 
 to the public as an arm of the law, to aid in holding even- 
 ly the scales of justice: The public accepts him on his 
 profession, and trusts him accordingly. 
 
 Knowing the law, he knows its imperff-ctness, and 
 when, arid where, and in what manner, the exigencies of 
 business, and the advance of civilization, require new 
 laws to be made, or old ones modified, amended or re- 
 pealed. This knowledge belongs to the public, and should 
 be utilized for its benefit. Every citizen owes to the com- 
 munity or State that quality of service that he, better 
 than others, is qualified to render. If the lawyer under- 
 stands the necessity of any reform in the law, end the 
 means by which such reform can be effected better than 
 other citizens whose knowlerl^o and skill lie in other di- 
 rections, he owes a corresponding duty to the public to 
 bring about the needed reform. Public measures looking 
 toward reforms can only be carried by combination and
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 189 
 
 <co-operation; by unity of purpose and unity of action 
 among many, or, as our constitution expresses it, by cher- 
 ishing a spirit of brotherhood. But it is well to remember 
 that the domain of a brotherhood which seeks to confer 
 public benefits, lies outside of, and beyond the central 
 world of self. The spirit of such a brotherhood may well 
 recognize that measure of selfishness by and through 
 which each one provides for his own; but it reaches out 
 beyond this, and still on, until a large number of men, 
 with like tastes, or pursuits, or interests, are united in 
 the bonds of brotherhood. This is the spirit which this 
 association has sought to evoke among the lawyers of 
 Illinois. It sought to bring them together to discuss the 
 reason and philosophy of the law, and compare notes as 
 to its practical operation in the administration of justice. 
 It has sought to lead the way in the growth and symmetri- 
 cal development of our system of jurisprudence. In this 
 work it has been at least partially successful. Many pa- 
 pers have been read here that were of profound interest 
 to those who heard, or have read them. 
 
 Questions of great public interest have been ably and 
 exhaustively .discussed before this association. These 
 discussions have tended to prepare the public mind for 
 the legal reforms which they foreshadow. But they have 
 not been as influential in that directon as they should 
 have been, and one reason is that we have not given them 
 as wide publication and circulation as was necessary to 
 secure their proper consideration by the general public. 
 Another reason is, that we have not been as aggressive in 
 presenting such measures as we approve and recommend, 
 to the Legislature, and urging their adoption. We have, 
 possibly, not been sufficiently specific in formulating the 
 legislation we have recommended. We have not taken 
 care to place in the Legislature men who are identified 
 with us, and imbued with the spirit of our work. 
 
 We must recognize the conservative forces of socie-
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 ty, which breed caution in regard to all proposed changes 
 of established customs or laws, and not expect results 
 without labor, persistent and continued. The fact that y 
 while this- association has met with neither discourage- 
 ment nor opposition from others, members of our own pro- 
 fession have been exceedingly reluctant to take part in 
 its deliberations, and in the discussion of legal proposi- 
 tions in which their private interests are in perfect har- 
 mony with their public duties, has given our executive 
 committee no little concern in regard to the ultimate suc- 
 cess and permanency of the organization. Some lawyers 
 who habitually complain of the decline of legal business, 
 when invited into this service have found the earnestly 
 desired excuse, in business engagements and want of 
 time. This has not been wise in them, even from the 
 standpoint of selfishness. It enters into the experience 
 of those who attended these annual meetings, and partic- 
 ipated in them, that they have returned to their offices 
 better equipped for the discharge of their professional 
 duties. The bonds of professional brotherhood have been 
 lengthened and strengthened by their enlarged acquaint- 
 ance with members of the profession in all parts of the 
 State. Their views of professional duty and obligation 
 have been improved. The standard of professional char- 
 acter has been elevated and dignified. 
 
 Especially is this so in the case of young men who 
 hope for much and expect much of the future. For them, 
 if they so will it, this organization has in store opportun- 
 ities, not found elsewhere, of improvement and promo- 
 tion. To the young lawyers of Illinois, whether here 
 present or elsewhere, I will say that this is the hour and 
 the occasion of great opportunity for you. You cannot 
 stand still. You must advance with the civilization that 
 surrounds you. Other professions are moving rapidly to 
 higher planes, and you must keep abreast with them. 
 You should lead them. All other professions have their
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 191 
 
 organized associations for mutual improvement and ad- 
 vantage, and you must have yours. Fill up the ranks 
 of this association and in the unity which it gives you, 
 you will find strength. Put the fresh warm blood and 
 active brains of your manhood into its service; cherish 
 and keep in your hearts the living spirit of a true brother- 
 hood. Look high for all your standards. Assiduously 
 cultivate the science of jurisprudence. Carefully, but 
 witli zeal and courage, promote every reform in the law 
 that promises good to the community or State. Use all 
 your professional skill and knowledge to "facilitate the 
 administration of justice." Demand of those who enter 
 the profession a "thorough and liberal legal education." 
 Bear aloft in public and private life the standard of spot- 
 less integrity, unsullied honor and knightly courtesy. 
 "Keep innocence^ and take heed to the thing that is right; 
 for that shall bring a man peace at last."
 
 192 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE AMER- 
 
 CAN BAR ASSOCIATION: 
 
 Your professional brethren of the State of Illinois- 
 are happy to meet you. They believe that you acted 
 wisely in coming west to hold this meeting, and they 
 earnestly hope that the occasion will be one of pleas- 
 ant memory to each of you when you shall have returned 
 to your respective homes. You are here as the recognized 
 representatives of the Bench and. Bar of the United 
 States. Your association is a voluntary one, resting 
 wholly upon your love for it, and devotion to, your chosen 
 profession. Your membership in this association, your 
 presence here, are evidence sufficient of your desire to 
 do whatever may be in your power to do "to advance the 
 science of jurisprudence, promote the administration of 
 justice and uniformity of legislation throughout the Un- 
 ion, uphold the honor of the profession of law, and en- 
 courage cordial intercourse among the members of the 
 Amorcan Bar.' With these high purposes of your asso- 
 ciation, all lawyers are in sympathy, and should be willing 
 to .unite in organized efforts for their accomplishment. 
 
 The Illinois Bar Association was "formed to promote 
 reform in the law, to facilitate the administration of jus- 
 tice, to elevate the standard of integrity, honor and cour- 
 tesy in the legal profession, to encourage a thorough and 
 liberal legal education, and to cherish a spirit of brother- 
 hood among the members thereof." To the accomplish- 
 ment of these ends all its efforts have been hitherto di- 
 rected. The objects and aims of your Association and ours 
 are, in substance and in spirit the same; ours confined to 
 Illinois, yours, in its broader scope, extending through-
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 193 
 
 out the nation. As a co-laborer with you, the Illinois 
 Bar Association is here to bid you a cordial welcome to 
 Illinois, and to the beautiful city which an American 
 poet has appropriately crowned " Queen of the North 
 and AVest." More then this, it is here to furnish you 
 whatever assistance it may in the prosecution of your la- 
 bors at the present meeting. It is here with its firm faith 
 in the ability of the American Bar of the present day to 
 reform the jurisprudence of the state and of the nation, 
 and make the laws of the future better than the laws of 
 the past or present. In this faith it looks hopefully to the 
 results of your deliberations at this meeting. It looks 
 hopefully forward to what you shall hereafter accomplish. 
 It hopes for the present advancement and final success of 
 every purpose of your association as declared in your con- 
 stitution. The science of jurisprudence cannot be classed 
 among the exact sciences. Its conclusions are not the re- 
 . suits of mathematical demonstration. It must of neces- 
 sity be progressive. It acquires and casts off at the same 
 time. Its conservatism preserves all the law that has 
 come down from the past that is justified by right and 
 reason, and may be wisely applied to the present stage 
 of our civilization. Its radicalism destroys rules of law 
 which no longer rest upon right or reason, or are no long- 
 er applicable to the present state of society. It requires 
 knowledge of the law and skill in its application to the 
 affairs of business men in civilized society to determine 
 what rules of the common law should be preserved and 
 what should be modified or repealed by legislation. With- 
 out such knowledge changes in the law do not necessarily 
 reform the law or advance the science of jurisprudence. 
 It is a well-known fact that one of the serious obstacles 
 in the way of legal reform in the states is the refusal of 
 prominent and successful members of our profession to 
 serve in the State Legislature. Successful manufactur- 
 ers, merchants, railroad men, farmers, and business men
 
 194 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 generally, in a like manner refuse, and state legislation 
 is given over to the control of men wlio are both unlearned 
 and unskilled in the science of jurisprudence. Lawyers 
 could do much towards removing this obstacle by con- 
 senting to render the state a service for which the mature 
 and experienced lawyer is better equipped than any other 
 member of society. 
 
 "In the old days (a custom laid aside, 
 With breeches and cocked hats) the people sent 
 Their wisest men to make the public laws. ' ' 
 If your Association shall be able to revive this cus- 
 tom, if you shall adopt some measure that will send into 
 the State Legislature men who know what the laws are, 
 whose knowledge of public affairs and business generally 
 qualifies them to say wherein the laws should be changed 
 to make them better, you will have discharged one of 
 the most important duties devolving upon this National 
 Bar Association, and upon associations of like character 
 in the several states. 
 
 I must resist the temptation to discuss or make fur- 
 ther mention of matters that are to be considered by you. 
 I concur with the thought expressed by one of your mem- 
 bers at your last meeting, that by putting the Association 
 'on wheels' and moving west you make it appear more 
 national in its character. You may not in Chicago have 
 the benefit of the healing waters of Saratoga, but you 
 will doubtless find beverages sufficiently refreshing to 
 sustain you during your labors here. Your ears may not 
 be regaled with the music of Saratoga's world-renowned 
 halls of pleasure, but, if you will listen, you can hear the 
 music of the grand march of the nineteenth century in 
 the glad notes of ten thousand industries flourishing in 
 the northwest, which the winds bring down from the 
 mountains, up from the valleys, across the prairies, and 
 over the lakes, and pour through the streets of Chicago, 
 like some grand melocty of the universe, breathing into
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 195 
 
 our national life a new measure of that spirit of enter- 
 prise and progress which has already placed this nation 
 in the front of the march of modern civilization. 
 
 It is in the new states of the northwest that legal re- 
 forms are most easily accomplished. They are not so 
 much bound by tradition and precedent. They are more 
 radical and less conservative. They are inclined to look 
 to the future more than to the past. They are interested 
 in new questions, and accept new ideals. They are in 
 their formation. They can build the new without tearing 
 down the old. Four new states have yet to lay the founda- 
 tions of their system of jurisprudence. In these states 
 the reforms advocated by your Association may be pre- 
 sented with high hopes of success. They will receive con- 
 siderate attention when presented. This meeting will 
 have a large audience among the people of the new states, 
 who look greatly to the press of this city for information 
 upon all public questions. The Chicago press ignores 
 nothing that is of public interest. It will fully and fairly 
 report your discussion, and record your proceedings. 
 Each morning, along the gleaming rails that lead out from 
 tliis great center of human activity, will go multiplied 
 thousands of the city papers. Thus will the objects of 
 your Association and the means adopted to secure their 
 accomplishment, be widely disseminated among an inter- 
 ested people, and an intelligent popular judgment pro- 
 nounced upon them. 
 
 Mr. President and gentlemen, earnestly desiring that 
 you shall have a pleasant meeting here, and that its re- 
 sults may fully justify the wisdom of those who are re- 
 sponsible for changing it from Saratoga to Chicago, the 
 Illinois Bar Association gives you its welcome, and 
 pledges you its co-operation.
 
 196 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 LOVEJOY MONUMENT ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN SUPPORT 
 OF A BILL TO ERECT A MONUMENT TO ELIJAH P. LOVEJOY 
 
 MB. SPEAKER: 
 
 I am not ordinarily a monument builder. I have 
 heretofore incured <the criticism of my political friends 
 by voting against appropriations of this character. As 
 I intend to vote for this bill I desire to give briefly some 
 of my reasons for so voting. Illinois has so many illus- 
 trious citizens whose deeds fill bright pages in its history 
 that it cannot undertake to commemorate their names 
 and fame by separate monuments. It is only when the 
 life and character of the citizen, or the circumstances of 
 his death are very unusual or peculiar, and some great 
 lesson of practical worth is to be preserved and taught, 
 that the building of a monument at public expense is 
 justifiable. The memory of a great statesman or soldier 
 is preserved in current history. The memory of a private 
 hero or martyr, must have other means of preservation. 
 Such is the case of Elijah P. Lovejoy. If he lived now, 
 neither his religion or his politics would attract attention, 
 for they are the accepted creed of the civilized world. 
 But he lived at a time when the thought of this nation 
 was in fetters, and its conscience was bound in a slumber 
 so profound that the hour of its awakening seemed to be 
 in the far away future. Lovejoy believed in the universal 
 brotherhood of men, and sought to incorporate his belief 
 into the politics of the state and nation. He believed the 
 word of inspiration, that God created of one blood all the 
 nations that dwell on the face of the earth, and believ- 
 ing this, he did not believe that one nation could buy and 
 sell the men and women of another nation, as the beasts
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 197 
 
 of the field are bought and sold, without committing mor- 
 tal sin. He believed in the truth of the Bible and of the 
 Declaration of Independence, and that human slavery as 
 it existed in the United States violated the precepts of 
 both, and would in the end bring political disaster, and 
 divine retribution. These beliefs of Lovejoy were not 
 popular at the time he lived, but he had the courage of 
 'his convictions and preached and published them while 
 storms of denunciation raged around him. He violated 
 no law; he invaded no right; he preached no new gospel. 
 He appealed to the very foundation stones of the republic 
 for his politics. Yet by the lawful preaching of the gos- 
 pel given to the world by the man of Nazareth, and by his 
 earnest appeals to the self-evident truths of the declara- 
 tion of independence he gave such offense to public senti- 
 ment, as it then existed, as to invoke every demon of law- 
 lessness, passion and prejudice, and turn them loose upon 
 himself. These found their storm center in a mob which 
 swept the streets of Alton and satiated its thirst for blood, 
 by the murder of this apostle of liberty, who from his 
 loftier height saw the breaking light of a better day, 
 which has since dawned, and proclaimed its coming. For 
 the murder of this good man, though his murderers were 
 well known, the arm of the law touched no man, because 
 those whose duty it was to administer the law were in 
 sympathy with the crime. 
 
 Society possesses the right of self-defense and may 
 use force in the execution of such right when it exists. 
 But this right arises only when the law is powerless to 
 protect or punish. In the presence of the law, or when its 
 powers can be invoked, society has no aggressive rights. 
 It can only pursue, arrest and punish offenders by, and 
 through the law and its instrumentalities. It cannot wreak 
 its vengeance, or manifest its indignation, no matter how 
 justly aroused, by doing violence to person or property. 
 Wherever and whenever this is done, rebellion against
 
 198 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 social order exists, law is outraged and life and liberty 
 imperiled. 
 
 A mob is never justifiable and can neither be excused 
 or defended. A mob is an armed rebellion against civil 
 government and high treason against the laws of God and 
 man. It is in no just sense of the word a tribunal. It 
 condemns and executes upon hue and cry, both the inno- 
 cent and the guilty. 
 
 The mob that murdered Love joy found its justifica- 
 tion and protection from punishment for its crime, in the 
 abnormal public sentiment then prevailing. Every mob 
 has the same justification and the same protection, and 
 none other. Wait for a calmer hour and a healthier 
 public sentiment. Wait till reason returns, and consci- 
 ence awakens, and then judge. 
 
 Mobs are the lingering plague spots of our civiliza- 
 tion the remnants of savagery without conscience or 
 reason. They are impersonal personalities with common 
 characteristics in all countries and in every grade of civil- 
 ization where they occur. Whether mobs expend their 
 force in killing a prophet, stoning an apostle, assassinat- 
 ing a ruler, shooting an evangel of freedom and free 
 speech, or hanging a malefactor, they are always and ever 
 the same incarnations of lawless action, criminal intent 
 and malevolent passions. The breath of a mob is deadly 
 poison to the social, civil and political atmosphere. It 
 blasts religious sentiment, loosens every restraint that 
 tends to keep men from wrong doing, and weakens every 
 tie and every obligation that would raise men higher or 
 make them better. 
 
 If, as I believe, the trend of human progress is on- 
 ward and upward if the hope for universal peace on 
 earth and good will among men is not an illusive dream, 
 this country is nearing a time when these lawless erup- 
 tions of latent savagery will cease, and the men of that 
 good era will look back to Lovejoy's time, and to our
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 199 
 
 time, with astonishment and shame because such things 
 were possible. 
 
 By all means build this monument. Build it where it 
 will overlook the city where the martyr died. Let its 
 polished shaft lift itself high in the free air. And in the 
 sunshine where the love and affection of a free people will 
 crown it with the virtues of him whose name it bears. 
 Let it be inscribed with the story of his life of patriotism 
 and courage. His tragic death will require neither line 
 nor letter to preserve its history. Tradition and memory 
 will embalm and preserve that, until the corroding tooth 
 of time shall have consumed the granite shaft you rear. 
 Build it as the memorial of a dark passage in the history 
 of human progress a memorial of the great battle for 
 free thought and free speech which wrought the emanci- 
 pation of both blacks and whites. It will, in all time, re-' 
 main a perpetual appeal to every citizen against the mob 
 and the spirit of which mobs are born a permanent ap- 
 peal for law, and for universal unquestioning obedience 
 to its mandates.
 
 200 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 INTRODUCING HENRY WATTERSON 
 
 On the evening of May llth, 1893, Hon. Henry Wat- 
 terson, under the auspices of the Legislature and local 
 Newspaper men in Springfield, delivered his lecture on 
 Morals and Money. He was introduced by Hon. E. Calla- 
 han, as follows : 
 MR. CHAIRMAN, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: 
 
 There are times in our lives when we seem to stand 
 on privileged heights, illumined with light more radiant 
 than that which beats on the ordinary paths of human 
 action. On such occasions thought soars on unfettered 
 "wings, and the horizons which bound our mental vision 
 lie far out along the vistas of the past, the present and 
 the future. On these mountains of opportunity in the 
 radiant light which touches and gilds their summits, we 
 feel the touch of a hand that transfigures and transforms. 
 There is an inspiration that elevates. The mind expands 
 and traces newer and better lines of thought, leading up- 
 vard to higher purpose and to nobler action. 
 
 It is ours to stand on such an eminence of privilege 
 and opportunity this evening. A very distinguished citi- 
 zen, whose mind has ranged the highest and widest fields 
 of thought, explored their deepest recesses, and grasped 
 their most profound mysteries is here to entertain us with 
 a collection of his best thoughts on the subject of money 
 and morals. What he may say of morals, or do with 
 money I do not know, nor can I even conjecture. All that 
 I now know is, that his name and his fame as a journalist 
 and an orator are an assurance within themselves; that 
 thoughts will be presented worthy to be preserved in 
 caskets where memory stores its choicest treasurers. In- 
 tensely interested, and earnestly engaged in the strife
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 201 
 
 and contest of partisan politics, and wielding an editorial 
 pen that is sometimes none too sweet, he has yet im- 
 pressed those who are not in accord with him in the strife, 
 with unwavering confidence in his honesty and integrity. 
 Fellow citizens of Illinois, at the request, and on be- 
 half of the legislative and local newspaper men now in 
 Springfield, I have the distinguished honor of presenting 
 to you the orator of the evening, the Honorable Henry 
 Watterson, a citizen of Kentucky, whose name is loving- 
 ly spoken throughout every State in the Union.
 
 202 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 ADDRESS AT HARVEST HOME PICNIC 
 
 WHEELER, ILLINOIS. AUGUST 24. 1893 
 
 FELLOW CITIZENS: 
 
 It is a genuine pleasure to be here today and join in 
 your words and songs of thanksgiving and joy, at this 
 feast of ingathering, or Harvest Home. 
 
 The saying of Jesus that "the foxes have holes and 
 the birds of the air have nests, ' ' was a poetic expression 
 of the universal law of nature, which inclines every liv- 
 ing thing towards some particular place as its natural or 
 selected home. This home feeling and home turning in 
 the lower animals and in the fowls of the air is instinctive 
 and unerring. They never wander beyond their natural 
 habitation, or stray from the paths that lead thitherward. 
 Birds of passage follow the same course through the un- 
 marked paths of the sky for centuries. In man this home 
 feeling is both instinctive and reasoning. The faculty of 
 reason carries with it the power of selection, and the 
 liability to commit error in the selection of a place of 
 habitation and in the construction of a home. Instinct 
 is the magnetic power in the man which ever carries his 
 thoughts, his affections and his memory towards the spot 
 where his reason and his will have located his home. Not- 
 withstanding this home feeling man is a wanderer in 
 every age and under almost every condition, but he sel- 
 dom wanders so widely, or far, that instinct and reason 
 do not twine themselves into an invisible cord, softer 
 than silk, and more tenacious than steel, binding him to 
 some spot, some land, or some country which his heart 
 calls home. This home land may be, and often is, changed 
 by emigration and the selection of a new home, but still 
 memory clings long to the old home. It broods over the
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 203 
 
 graves of ancestors, and of loved and lost companions 
 and kindred. It finds in the history of the Fatherland 
 something to feed upon. But time kindly severs these 
 ties one by one, and twines their severed ends into the 
 new home and around it, until it becomes the sole sanctu- 
 ary of the heart's love and affection, and the one spot to 
 which it turns for rest and peace in time of weariness or 
 trouble. What home is to man depends very much upon 
 where he is, and with what associations he is surrounded. 
 A citizen of any Christian nation, in the heart of Africa, 
 where ignorance is dense, where superstition and idolatry 
 rest like dark clouds over the land, and the spirit of 
 savagery pervades everything, would send his thought to 
 any and every land where the light of the Cross has 
 driven away the ignorance, the superstition, idolatry and 
 savagery which still liger in Africa, and his heart would 
 say, this land of light and civilization is my home. 
 
 A citizen of the United States traveling in any coun- 
 try of the old world, where the shadows of the darker 
 ages of despotism still linger, if asked to say where his 
 home is, takes into his thought the whole United -States, 
 and proudly says: 
 
 c ' My country, 'tis of thee, 
 Sweet land of liberty.'' 
 
 An Illinoisan, in any other State than his own, points 
 to the great Empire State of the West, and calls its vast 
 domain his home. Bring him within the State, and his 
 thought of home embraces a county, a city or a village. 
 Bring him within the county, city or village, and surround 
 him with his fellow-citizens, and he unites with them in 
 saying, "this is our home." 
 
 But the man is not yet at home in the sense that I 
 would have you think of home today. When the storm 
 spirit troubles the sky; when the ghostly fingers of disease 
 touch and threaten to storm or countermine the citadel of 
 life, a closer and more secure refuge is required than
 
 204 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 country, state, county, city or village, and the heart cries 
 out for an ark of greater safety, and a place of more ab- 
 solute security than these afford. When a man and a 
 woman, thrilling with the impulses of their young life, 
 ornate with the bud and bloom of manly and womanly 
 character, go out from the altar where they have pledged, 
 each to the other, love and trust in every way of life, 
 until one or the other shall enter the valley of the shadow 
 of death, they require a place more sacred, than the homes 
 erected by others can give them. They must build a new 
 home and found a new family in the community of homes 
 and families. That home must be an inner sanctuary 
 where the divinities of the hearthstone may be wor- 
 shipped without molestation or fear; where the soul can 
 drink in all the melody, and the ear delight itself to full- 
 ness with the music of "Home, Sweet Home." I have 
 said that human will and reason may make mistakes in 
 the selection of a habitation and the building of a home. 
 Sometimes such mistakes are unavoidable, but generally 
 they are accompanied with responsibility. This responsi- 
 bility is illustrated by the words of Jesus: "Whosoever 
 heareth these my words, and doeth them, shall be likened 
 to a wise man who built his house upon a rock, and the 
 rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and 
 they beat upon that house, and it fell not, because it was 
 founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these 
 my words, and doeth them not, shall be like a foolish 
 man who built his house upon the sand, and the rain fell 
 and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat up- 
 on that house arid it fell, and great was the fall thereof. ' ' 
 To build a perfect home is the grandest earthly con- 
 ception of the human mind, and the grandest work of 
 human hands. Neither man or woman alone, can either 
 conceive the plan, or execute the work. It requires the 
 high courage and the rugged strength of manhood, com- 
 bined with the intuitive knowledge and the delicate touch
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 205 
 
 of woman's hand. In order to achieve success, the minds 
 of the home builders must be educated, their hearts 
 purified and their souls elevated. An ignorant man a 
 vulgar man an irreverent man has not within himself 
 the conception of a perfect home, and he cannot produce 
 that which he never conceived. He may build magnifi- 
 cently upon plans designed by the skill of others, but he 
 cannot infuse into such creations the cheerful, restful, 
 intelligent spirit that prevades and beautifies a perfect 
 home. 
 
 An ideal home means a permanent abiding place, 
 where children are born and married, and where fathers 
 and mothers die. The primal thought of a home is the 
 place where it shall be, and the indisputable right to oc- 
 cupy it to the exclusion of all others. Its location and ex- 
 tent must be influenced largely by the means, but much 
 more by the culture, taste and enterprise of the home 
 builders. It should never be forgotten that the truest 
 loyalty and the most exalted patriotism are rooted and 
 grounded in ownership of the soil. Anarchy, socialism, 
 and the disturbing elements of society, are not anchored 
 in the soil, and they drift whithersoever the currents of 
 lawless discontent may "bear them. 
 
 The tenant farmer is neither an anarchist nor a so- 
 cialist, but he has no interest in, and does nothing in the 
 way of permanent improvements. He is wholly unac- 
 customed to this method of saving. He plants no trees, 
 either for fruit or adornment, and does little to protect 
 or preserve those planted by others. He is not so much 
 to blame. His term is too uncertain to justify the ex- 
 penditure of time or money in making inprovements 
 which he may not enjoy. A partial remedy for this evil 
 might be found in longer leases with compensation for 
 permanent betterments at the end of the term. The com- 
 plete remedy is in the ownership of a home by the farmer 
 or laborer, and this remedy lies within the reach of every
 
 206 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 one. It may consist of but a few acres, and may not be of 
 great monied value, but it feeds the home feeling in the 
 heart. It has the element of permanency and independ- 
 ence and the joy of ownership. 
 
 If eight men of small means should buy forty acres of 
 land and divide it into five acre lots they could pay for and 
 improve their respective lots in a very few years, merely 
 by employing the time which the average tenant farmer, 
 or farm laborer, under present conditions, is unemployed. 
 Other savings which would naturally accrue by reason of 
 the ownership of a home, would hasten the day of pay- 
 ment and improve the condition of the family. Employ- 
 ment could be had, and additional lands rented of the 
 neighboring farmers. Relations of mutual benefit would 
 be established and maintained. This five acre lot plan is 
 only given as an illustration of what may be done, and the 
 benefits to result from the ownership of the soil whereon 
 the home is built. 
 
 It is impossible to build a perfect farmer's home on 
 a starved soil. When a field gets hungry and poor the 
 highest wisdom is to stop and feed it. The greatest folly 
 is to ask it for more crops without feeding it. It is very 
 easy to feed the ground. Its mouth must first be opened 
 by deep plowing. When this is done give it red clover 
 seed with a half seeding of oats to shade the tender plants 
 of clover. Clover seed must be put into the ground to in- 
 sure success. The clover should not be cut or pastured 
 short, but plowed under as soon as the seed is ripe enough 
 to grow. Another plowing the next year turns up the 
 seed and gives another crop of clover. 
 
 Attention must be paid to the fluids as well as to the 
 solids with which the soil is nourished. We have no crops 
 that do well under water, or in a water-logged soil. Sur- 
 face and underground drainage must be provided. Nat- 
 ural channels should be first cleaned out, and, as far as 
 possible, straightened. Every farmer should attend to
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 207 
 
 this on his own farm. The larger streams will have to be 
 cleared of obstructions by some sort .of organization 
 which has not been provided for yet. 
 
 Underground or tile drainage is one of the greatest 
 wants of our clay soils. A well drained soil receives and 
 assimilates fertilizers readily. It withstands the ex- 
 tremes of drouth and flood better than an undrained soil. 
 The failures that have discouraged farmers in this part 
 of the State have mostly resulted from the use of tile so 
 small that they soon choke, and from the unscientific 
 methods of putting them in. Farmers of Illinois, you 
 have never realized the wealth and worth of your clay 
 soils, and you never will until you drain and feed them. 
 Give these soils proper drainage then after you have 
 turned under one good crop of clover, take two crops of 
 wheat, corn, rye or oats and then another of clover, and in 
 ten years you will have better land than you ever had, 
 and a better reward for your labor. 
 
 In home building on the farm there are intellectual 
 fields that are in danger of becoming impoverished also. 
 First, there is the farmer and the farmer's wife. They 
 are more outside of the currents of busy life than they 
 were before marriage, and more engrossed in their own 
 affairs. The libraries which a lifetime had collected at 
 the homes from which they came are not at hand to be 
 consulted, and other thoughts engage their minds. They 
 forget they are building a home for sons and daughters 
 upon whom they shall lean when time has enfeebled them. 
 They turn their thoughts too much to material things, 
 too little upon the duties that shall hereafter come to 
 them, and the preparation of their minds and hearts for 
 the discharge of such duties. A single partisan news- 
 paper is taken, and the farmer becomes more a lopsided 
 partisan than a patriotic citizen; a single church paper, 
 and the farmer and the farmer's wife become sectarians 
 rather than Christians. Books and better magazines are
 
 20S AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 unknown. Into this atmosphere of bias, prejudice and 
 narrowness the sons and daughters of the farmer are 
 born. It is" a starved soil in which their minds and souls 
 are dwarfed, or against which their young manhood and 
 womanhood rebels, and they go out from home into the 
 more active and intellectual, but more dangerous, atmo- 
 sphere of city life. Instruction, entertainment and amuse- 
 ment must be provided in the home of the farmer, or it 
 will lose the love that makes a home lovely. The duty to 
 furnish these devolves on the father and mother and can- 
 not be delegated to others. 
 
 A farmer's home, however elegant, has an unfinished 
 air about it unless there is a school house near by. An 
 empire, a kingdom or an aristocracy may survive without 
 the school house, but a republic cannot. But the school 
 house never finishes an education. It awakens thought 
 and teaches how to learn. It gives its pupils primary 
 lessons in history and sends them to the libraries, which 
 should be in their own homes, for the full story. They 
 read at the school house extracts from the leaders of 
 thought in all ages and countries, and should be supplied 
 with the books from which the extracts were taken. They 
 are entitled to the metropolitan newspapers and the 
 magazines in which the statesmen and scientists discuss 
 the living questions of the present time. 
 
 A farmer's home must have something of adorn- 
 ment or it presents a dreary picture to the passerby, 
 and more dreary still to those who occupy it. It costs 
 but little to surround the home with a grassy lawn, and 
 a little skill and industry will build walks of gravel, 
 stone, brick, plank or concrete through it. Only a little 
 time and attention are necessary to plant and cultivate 
 trees for shade, and to sprinkle the lawn with roses and 
 other flowering shrubs. Spare moments improved will 
 free the grounds of noxious weeds. A watchful eye will 
 keep things in order. If men and women only knew how
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 209 
 
 easily disorder and unsightliness could be driven away 
 from the homes, and order and beauty take their places, 
 they would make the exchange. The thought of the 
 farmer on this matter needs touching and quickening 
 into action. 
 
 Returning thanks for the abundance of the Harvest 
 season is part of the natural religion of the world. Cain 
 appears to have been the first to observe it when he 
 " offered of the fruits of the earth, gifts to the Lord." 
 When the Jews entered the promised land they were 
 commanded to "bring sheaves of ears, the first fruits 
 of your harvest to the priest, ' ' for an offering. The ears 
 that remained in the field were to be left for the poor 
 and the stranger. 
 
 In England the "Feast of Ingathering," or "Har- 
 vest Home," has been observed for many centuries. 
 Originally it consisted of rude ceremonies, accompanied 
 by feasting and drinking. In an old "Harvest Home" 
 poem I find the following description of the feast: 
 "You shall see the first large and cheefe 
 Foundation of your feast, fat beefe, 
 With upper stories, mutton, veale, 
 And bacon, which makes full the meal; 
 And several dishes standing by, 
 As here a custard, there a pie, 
 And here all tempting frumentie. 
 And for to make the merry cheere 
 If smirking wine be wanting here 
 There's that which drowns all care, stout beere, 
 Which freely drink to your lord's health." 
 In later years in England, and always in this coun- 
 try, when the feast is observed the ceremonies have been 
 more consistent with the Christian civilization of our age 
 and country. The pleasures of the occasion are not less 
 enjoyable and much more rational. It is a gathering of
 
 210 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 the people for social intercourse and rest from labors. 
 The occasion suggests thankfulness to Him who gave 
 the harvest, and from whose hand we receive every good 
 and perfect gift, and 
 
 * * "whose mercy set 
 The rainbow in the clouds, 
 
 To tell that seasons, heat and cold, 
 Fixed by his sovereign will, 
 
 Shall in their course, bid man behold 
 
 Seed time and harvest still. ' ' 
 
 This is a proper time to give special consideration to 
 your interests as farmers. The condition of your lands; 
 the quality of your domestic animals ; the planting, culti- 
 vation and rotation of your crops, and their results. It 
 will do no harm to look into and about your homes and 
 question yourselves as to your success or failure as home 
 builders. Bear in mind that improved lands make richer 
 harvests. Improved homes will make the feasts of in- 
 . gathering and thanksgiving richer and better in every 
 pleasure and every source of enjoyment that feeds the 
 mind and elevates the soul. The richer harvests of fertil- 
 ized soil suggest and furnish the means to supply new 
 attractions and additional pleasures. The attractions of 
 art: the delights of music; the treasures of literature, and 
 the perennial fountain of current news, and living thought 
 issuing from the press, may all be gathered about your 
 hearthstones. 
 
 The great mistake is trying to stand still while the 
 world is sweeping irresistibly onward in the orbit of its 
 progress and destiny. The farmer must move with the 
 procession. Agriculture must keep pace with other em- 
 ployments. 
 
 A hundred years ago a prophetic vision of the future 
 passed before the eye of an American poet and sage.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 211 
 
 It revealed to him a time far out on the vistas of the 
 
 future, when 
 
 Earth, alJ gardened, a tenfold burden brings 
 Her fruits, her odors, her salubrious springs 
 Swell, breathe and bubble from the soil thy grace, 
 String with strong nerves the renovating race. 
 Their numbers multiply in every land, 
 Their toils diminish and their powers expand; 
 And while she rears them with a statelier frame, 
 Their soul she kindles with diviner flame, 
 Leads their bright intellect with fervid glow 
 
 Through all the realm of things to know. 
 
 * # # * 
 
 From every shape that varying matter gives, 
 That rests or ripens, vegetates or lives, 
 High springs of health for mind and body trace, 
 Add force and beauty to the joyous race, 
 Arm with new engines his adventurous hand; 
 Stretch o'er the elements his wide command; 
 Lay the proud storm submisive at his feet ; 
 Change, temper, tame all subterranean heat, 
 Probe laboring earth and drag from her dark side 
 The young volcano ere his voice be tried; 
 Walk under ocean, ride the buoyant air, 
 Brew the soft shower, the labored land repair, 
 A fruitful soil o 'er sandy deserts spread 
 And clothe with culture every mountain's head. 
 If you will go to the White City, on Lake Michigan, 
 where the world has gathered specimens of its handiwork 
 and relics of its history, and where more tongues are 
 spoken than filled the air with confusion when the Tower 
 of Babel lifted its head towards the sky, you will realize 
 that the vision of the Poet and Sage has been more than 
 fulfilled as you gaze upon the splendid magnificence of 
 this city of the world, and wander through its treasure
 
 212 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 houses of wealth and beauty, your soul will catch the rays 
 of the millenial dawn; of that age of hope when 
 
 "War's hosted hounds shall vex the world no more," 
 and the angel of peace shall cover the earth with the 
 shadow of his wings.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 213 
 
 THE DOCTOR AND THE LAWYER 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE AESCULAPIAN SOCIETY OF THE WABASH 
 VALLEY. AT PARIS, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 28, 1907 
 
 In all the countries of earth under all the stars of 
 heaven the lawyer and the doctor live and work side 
 by side and are important factors in the social life and 
 political institutions of the people. They are ever yoke 
 fellows in the march of civilization. 
 
 The term doctor in this address has an eclectic 
 meaning. It embraces all who follow sharply in the wake 
 of scientific investigation and intelligently accept scien- 
 tific conclusions regardless of the effect on preconceived 
 opinions. It embraces all who boldly and persistently 
 struggle to know more in order to serve humanity better. 
 
 The term lawyer in the wider sense in which I must 
 use it embraces the legislator, the judge and the states- 
 man, in addition to the lawyer who tries law suits before 
 the judicial tribunals of the country. 
 
 In the field of political construction the lawyer goes 
 before the doctor, and his work and influence in that field 
 are dominant. The superstructure of all political govern- 
 ments is designed, constructed and put in place by the 
 skilled hand of the lawyer. The laborer may clear the 
 ground, the soldier may subdue enemies who would ob- 
 struct, all may carry brick and mortar and stone, but the 
 lawyer as master workman fashions and shapes and 
 builds. But the doctor is there all the time, caring for 
 the sick and the accidentally wounded, and when the 
 house is habitable he becomes a useful and important 
 factor in its control and management.
 
 214 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 In political governments two subjects very promi- 
 nently arid forcibly claim the attention of those who make 
 and administer the laws. These are crime and misfortune. 
 
 By crime is meant wilful wrong-doing with an under- 
 standing that the act done is unlawful. With reference 
 to this subject some laws are passed to prevent the com- 
 mission of crimes, others to punish crimes after their 
 commission, and others still to protect society from the 
 effects of criminal acts. 
 
 By misfortune is meant those accidents of birth and 
 of life after birth which withhold or take from the citizen 
 the power to win the necessities of his existence by his 
 own efforts. The law gives great considerations to these 
 misfortunes of life in which so many citizens become 
 so deeply involved as to be unable to supply their wants, 
 care for their persons or protect themselves from harm. 
 It organizes charities and builds hospitals and asylums 
 and thus provides a refuge from the worst consequences 
 of misfortune, either mental or physical. It seeks thus 
 to help and heal the maladies of both body and mind. In 
 the passage of all laws of this character the doctor is the 
 necessary and invaluable aid of the lawyer, and but of his 
 professional knowledge and its intelligent and sympathe- 
 tic application in the practical business of life have come 
 the best organized and most beneficent charities which 
 distinguish the civilization of our age and country. 
 
 In the administration of the criminal laws the doctor 
 often becomes the guide of the lawyer. In my judg- 
 ment his assistance should be sought oftener and in a 
 more reasonable way than it is. 
 
 It may be assumed that criminal action is conceived 
 in falsehood and that all the arts of deception will be re- 
 sorted to to conceal the crime. Disease is feigned with 
 such consummate skill that no one but the doctor can 
 discover the deception. Insanity is feigned and the law- 
 yer stands aghast at its manifestations, plausible yet
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 215 
 
 deceptive. He must have the aid of the doctor to lift the 
 veil of mystery and unmask the fraud. 
 
 Another difficulty arises when one who has com- 
 mitted a criminal act appears to lack full intelligence. 
 . One says, "His intelligence is of a low grade." An- 
 other calls him a "crank." Another speaks of him as 
 "peculiar," "morally insane" or a "monomaniac." 
 The lawyer who defends "him pleads insanity and calls 
 the doctor to prove the plea. , 
 
 If only those of sound mind shall be punished this 
 man should go acquit. Experience demonstrates that 
 under such a rule many dangerous criminals would es- 
 cape just punishment. The law has adopted a rule that 
 if the person who commits a criminal act has sufficient 
 intelligence to plan and execute the act, knowing at the 
 same time that it is wrong, he is legally sane and re- 
 sponsible. This rule is clear enough, but the difficulty 
 lies in its application to actual cases. Between the ex- 
 tremes of reason and unreason there lies a wide terri- 
 tory through which runs no distinct line of demarcation 
 separating the one from the other. Over a wide inter- 
 mediate belt of this territory the lights of reason and 
 the shades of unreason strongly blend and intermingle. 
 Through this region of intermingling light and shadow 
 lies the pathway from the cradle to the grave, of mil- 
 lions of men and women whom the law holds respon- 
 sible to its demands and commands. Close by He the 
 paths of other millions over which the shadows of un- 
 reason seem darker only by the shadow of a shade, yet 
 they are said to be within the region of unreason and of 
 legal irresponsibility. The doctor explores this middle 
 territory where reason and unreason contend against 
 each other and where responsibility and irresponsibili- 
 ty hang trembling in the balances. He turns upon its 
 tangles of mystery and doubts. the search lights of his 
 science, and aids the cause of justice and right in many
 
 216 
 
 cases where the lawyer doubts and the tribunals of law 
 hesitate to pronounce judgment or to execute sentence. 
 But the doctor alone is in danger from his own theo- 
 ries. He is in need of the lawyer as much as the lawyer 
 is in the need of him in the exploration of this territory 
 of doubt, in which his scientific knowledge is of so much 
 value. The tendency of the doctor is to attribute ment- 
 al aberrations and moral delinquencies to physical causes 
 existing in the man, or at the farthest, to tendencies in- 
 herited from his ancestors. He hesitates to recognize 
 a spirit of evil existing in the human breast indejjendent 
 from, and outside of physical disease. 
 
 The lawyer is less a materialist than the doctor. He 
 has learned much from the doctor. He attributes much 
 to the condition of the criminal classes. He traces the 
 source of many criminal acts to the principle of heredity. 
 But it is the habit of the lawyer to look for criminal mo- 
 tive outside the man and his physical condition. He 
 looks for it in the voluntary exercise of, or failure to re- 
 strain, and control the malevolent passions of the human 
 heart. He believes that criminals are moved and seduced 
 by the devil. 
 
 The safe ground lies beween these extremes, or rath 
 er in giving proper consideration to the theories, tend- 
 encies and conclusions of both lawyer and doctor. 
 
 The doctor would be a better aid to the lawyer if he 
 would be a little less theoretical than he sometimes is. 
 He should make himself familiar with the lawyer's defi- 
 nition of sanity and insanity. That is, if instead of draw- 
 ing his lines between absolute sanity and that which 
 falls below this, he would join the lawyer in his practical 
 search for the line between legal responsibility and legal 
 irresponsibility, he would accomplish more good than by 
 indulging in fine-spun theories as to how much or how 
 little mental disturbance will justify him in telling a 
 court or jury that a man is insane.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 217 
 
 It is not alone in the administration of the criminal 
 law that the doctor at times becomes the necessary assist- 
 ant and guide of the lawyer. In civil actions, both at 
 law and in equity, his professional opinion on questions 
 which lie outside of the field of the lawyer's ordinary 
 observation and experience, and peculiarly within that of 
 the doctor's, is often indispensable. The law allows 
 persons of ''sound mind and memory" to dispose of their 
 property and estate by will duly executed and attested. 
 It allows any person interested in the estate of the tes- 
 tator to contest any will by bill in chancery within two 
 years after the will is probated in county court. A great 
 many wills are executed by very old people whose mental 
 facilities are impaired by age. Many others are execut- 
 ed during the last sickness of the testator when the mind 
 is not in its normal condition. In these cases it can not 
 be truthfully said that either the mind or the memory 
 is absolutely sound, and yet such wills are upheld when 
 it appears that the testator at the time had sufficient mind 
 and memory to understand the nature and general effect 
 of the act he was performing. This modified definition of 
 what constitutes u sound mind and memory," in a legal 
 sense, is the result of judicial construction. It is intend- 
 ed to recognize and enforce a settled rule of property, 
 that whatever a man has acquired he may dispose of 
 in his own way and to whom he pleases, even though his 
 mental powers be somewhat impaired by age or disease, 
 if he still has sufficient intelligence to transact under- 
 standingly his ordinary business. 
 
 Probably the most common ground upon which wills 
 are contested in chancery is the want of "sound mind 
 and memory" 1 in the testator. My own experience has 
 been that such contests, lying almost wholly outside of the 
 domain of demonstrable fact and within that of opinion, 
 are among the most intricate and difficult that are en- 
 countered in practice. The presence of the doctor and the
 
 218 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 aid of his professional learning is never dispensed with 
 in these contests. It is in this field that the doctor often 
 receives censure for which the lawyer is more to blame 
 than the doctor. 
 
 When the doctor comes into court as a witness he is 
 largely under control of the lawyer. He testifies when 
 the lawyer calls him and answers only such questions as 
 the lawyer propounds. The lawyer is a professed part- 
 isan in the controversy and as such he desires to so use 
 the doctor that he shall subserve the partisan end of the 
 lawyer. The doctor who permits himself to be so used 
 plants hie, feet on dangerous ground and has no just cause 
 of complaint when he receives censure. 
 
 I believe that it only remains for the lawyer to so ar- 
 range the rules of practice in the courts that this ideal of 
 disinterested non-partisan professional medical expert 
 testimony shall become a practical realization. When 
 this consummation shall be reached the doctor will be re- 
 leased of many of the embarrassments that he now ex- 
 periences when called as a witness and the value of his 
 professional opinion will be enhanced an hundred fold. 
 
 The last quarter of the nineteenth century is already 
 an illustrious period in the history of medical science. 
 It is replete with triumphs which bring fresh honors to 
 the doctor and multiplied benefits to the people. 
 
 Throughout the civilized world laws have been 
 passed to secure more thorough preparation by the doc- 
 tor before he enters upon the practice of his profession 
 also for the suppression of empiricism and quackery. 
 Organization, association and investigation are leading 
 the doctor into broader fields of knowledge and to higher 
 planes of usefulness. Gentlemen of the ^Esculapian So- 
 iety of the Wabash Valley, recognizing you as one of the 
 active agencies in the advance movements of your pro- 
 fession, I bid you God-speed in your good work.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 219 
 
 ADDRESS DELIVERED AUGUST 15, 1912 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT, AND MEMBERS OF THE ASSO- 
 CIATION: 
 
 Last year when I engaged to make an address on this 
 occasion I had in mind to make it entirely historical ; but 
 when I undertook to condense a hundred years of history 
 into the limits of an hour's talk, it became too large and 
 unwieldly for use, and I have prepared an address of an- 
 other kind which, I hope will interest you. 
 
 We are all growing old, and are pressing upon the 
 outer boundaries of human life. Since pur last meeting 
 some of our members have been gathered home, like 
 wheat ripe for the harvest- Our lives have been pre- 
 served, and we have the high privilege of coming to- 
 gether in this annual meeting, and sharing with each 
 other the social and friendly pleasures of the occasion. 
 My own life began in a pioneer county in central 
 Ohio. From my infancy I tasted the bitter cup of priva- 
 tion and hardship which necessity presses to the lips of 
 the pioneer. I was born on a December day in a cabin 
 built of unhewn logs, covered with clapboards riven by 
 my father and floored with puncheons split and hewed 
 by him. The wide fire place was built up of dried clay, 
 and the chimney that rose above it of split sticks filled in 
 and plastered with stiff mortar. Great forest trees stood 
 as sentinels around, and their branches overhung and 
 shadowed it. In my boyhood days I saw these trees one 
 by one fall beneath the strokes of my father's axe. The 
 area of cleared land was slowly extended and fields were 
 marked out and fenced. In the first field an orchard was 
 planted and grew amid the stumps and the corn. In a
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 woods pasture there was a small flock of sheep that was 
 brought into a close fold each night to protect them, 
 from the wolves that prowled and howled in the sur- 
 rounding forest. I was not a very large boy when I was 
 drafted into the ranks of the toilers who were busily en- 
 gaged in the arduous task of transforming a timber land 
 wilderness into farms and homes. This transformation 
 was much more rapid than that which was at the same 
 time taking place along the western banks of the Wabash. 
 The blood which flowed into Ohio from the East had more 
 rapid and vigorous pulsations than that which flowed in- 
 to Illinois from the south, and improvements progressed 
 more rapidly there than here. They were also aided by 
 state and national enterprises. The opening of the Ohio 
 Canal from Cleveland to Porstmouth by the State, and 
 the National road from Cumberland in the State of Vir- 
 ginia through Ohio and on towards the setting sun, great- 
 ly accelerated the settlement and improvement of that 
 country; by opening up the northern, eastern and south- 
 ern markets to the products of the Ohio fanner, while 
 the farmers of the Wabash country were conliiifd to the 
 Southern markets alone. In noting the relative rate of 
 progress of improvement in different sections of the coun- 
 try advantages of this character should have serious con- 
 sideration. 
 
 I became a citizen of Crawford County on the eighth 
 day of March, 1849. I had entered upon the twentieth 
 year of iny life. The county was then thirty-three years 
 old, and the State of Illinois was thirty years old. The 
 county was organized in the year 1816 under an act of 
 the territorial Legislature, and embraced about one-third 
 of the State of Illinois and the eastern half of the State 
 of Wisconsin. The county seat was located at the house 
 of Edward N. Cullom without any designation as to its 
 location in the vast territory included in the county. It 
 was in fact at Palestine. The population of the County
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 221 
 
 and State was then very sparse and principally in the 
 southern part. As population increased and pressed 
 further north new counties were formed, and by this 
 process Crawford County has been reduced to its present 
 limits, and the county seat removed from Palestine to 
 Robinson when I became a citizen. In an address de- 
 livered at the dedication of the present court house I gave 
 a detailed history of the building of court houses in the 
 county, and in General Palmer's history of the Bench 
 and Bar of Illinois a chapter written by Hon. Wm. C 
 Jones and myself gives a history of the Bench and Bar of 
 Crawford county. To avoid repetition I refer you to 
 these authorities for full information in relation to courts 
 and court houses in the county. 
 
 The era of real pioneer life in Crawford county had 
 passed when I came. The men and women whose right 
 to the title of pioneers and old settlers must stand un- 
 challenged were here long before me, and had borne the 
 burdens and waged the hard battles that were inevitable 
 on the skirmish line of an advancing civilization. 
 
 The conquest and settlement of a new country, no 
 matter how rich its soil, or how fair its prairie fields or 
 forest ranges, is a hard battle with hostile forces and is 
 never won except through suffering, and the sacrifice of 
 human life. Crawford county has been no exception to 
 this law of suffering and sacrifice. Its soil was reddened 
 with the blood of the Hutson family and of McCall, the 
 surveyor, who perished at the hands of the retiring sav- 
 ages. The land was beautifully fair, and was spanned 
 with the rainbow of hope and promise, but its transfor- 
 mation from wild uncultivated savagery to full civiliza- 
 tion moved onward slowly and at high cost. Many 
 strong men fell, and many brave, true hearted women 
 sank under the burdens that seemed to be the necessary 
 incidents of their pioneer life. Infancy also paid a heavy 
 tribute to the cause. The record of those costly sacri-
 
 222 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 fices was written in unmarked mounds of earth, and the 
 frail monuments that stood for a time in private burial 
 places that still dotted the county when I came into it, 
 The most of these have since been obliterated, and noth- 
 ing remains to mark the place where the sleeping dust of 
 these early pioneers awaits the resurrection. 
 
 In the year 1849 a large part of the land in Crawford 
 county still belonged to the United States and was being- 
 sold at the land office at Palestine at one dollar and twen- 
 ty-five cents an acre. Judge James McLain was register, 
 and Hon. Jesse K. Dubois was receiver. Nothing but 
 silver and gold would buy land. "Land Office Money'' 
 was often very scarce, and so hard to obtain that it often 
 sold at a handsome premium. 
 
 The first settlers in the county located in the neigh- 
 borhood of Palestine. When the war of 1812 broke out 
 these settlers came together and built a wooden stock- 
 ade, which they called Fort LaMotte, and gathered into 
 it for protection from the hostile Indians who were still 
 roaming about the country. Some of the Batons went out 
 from Fort LaMotte and built a fort of their own and oc- 
 cupied it. Among these early settlers about Palestine 
 were some strong, well educated men who became promi- 
 nent in the history of the county and state. They left a 
 lasting impression on the social and business relations 
 of the county. Palestine became and long remained the 
 social and business center of Southeastern Illinois. 
 
 The first settlers clung very closely to the timber and 
 the water courses. The open prairies were avoided until 
 a later day. Before I came to Illinois and long after- 
 wards, I heard serious discussion as to whether or not the 
 great prairies could ever be settled. The objection was 
 urged with all seriousness that there was no timber with 
 which the land could be fenced. It seems never to have 
 dawned upon the minds of these early settlers, or of the 
 statesmen in charge of public affairs, that lands could be
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 
 
 cultivated, and crops raised and harvested 'without a 
 barricade of heavy oak rails. And the conscience of the 
 settler seems not to have been satisfied unless the rails 
 were made on ' ' Congress land. " In a few years congress 
 land was exhausted, and under compulsion the settler 
 resorted to his own land and timber for his rails. For 
 long years the toilsome and expensive process went on. 
 Rails continued to-be hauled long and weary miles to 
 fence new farms that were being pushed farther out into 
 the prairies. 
 
 In the meantime the question was being discussed 
 as to whether fields should be fenced or domestic animals 
 should be restrained. This question was carried to the 
 Supreme Court, and that high tribunal held the law to 
 "be that the fields must be surrounded with a fence suf- 
 ficient to turn the ordinary stock of the neighborhood, 
 though somewhat unruly. I joined the party that advo- 
 cated the restraint of the animals, and it is now one of the 
 agreeable memories of my life that as a citizen of the state 
 of Illinois, and as a member of its Legislature, I bore 
 an active and responsible part in the passage of law re- 
 quiring the owners of domestic animals to restrain then} 
 on their own premises and making such owners responsi- 
 ble for all damages done by their animals when not re- 
 strained according to law. 
 
 At the time I became a citizen of the county of Craw- 
 ford the conquest of civilization was far from complete. 
 The battle was still going on. The unbroken prairies 
 were still covered with the coarse wild grasses that had 
 waved over them for centuries past, and was the cause of 
 devastating fires in the spring and early summer time. 
 My memory recalls one of these fires. It was an evening 
 in April, 1849. Myself and two brothers were at the resi- 
 dence of my uncle Isaac Green in Hart's Grove. Uncle 
 and his four sons, and myself and brothers were together 
 in front of the house, when a Mr. Newlin rode up hastily
 
 224 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 and said the prairie was on fire down towards the Van- 
 dalia road. My uncle's fann extended half a mile south 
 in the paririe. Outside of the south fence there was a 
 new road that had been traveled enough to partially 
 kill the grass within its limits. All hands were hurried 
 to this road. The wind was from the south, and the 
 distant line of fire was advancing rapidly. The grass on 
 the south side of the road was set on fire, and those not en- 
 gaged in firing were set to work to whip out the fire and 
 prevent it from crossing the road into the farm. It was a 
 busy time for all of us. The fire was advancing from the 
 south by leaps and bounds. Its roaring and crackling 
 sounds were threats of destruction to whatever might be 
 in its way. Clouds of smoke arose above the flames that 
 lit the sky above them. The wings of hundreds of fright- 
 ened prairie hens beat the heated air, and made such 
 music as my ears had never before listened to. A brace 
 of deer passed our firing line in their flight. The wave of 
 flame reached the line of our back firing and sank down 
 exhausted. The livid tongues of fire grew pale and then 
 vanished into the darkness of night. The boastful voice 
 of the conflagration became silent. The clouds of smoke 
 lingered awhile over the burned and blackened land and 
 then melted away. The farms were saved by the back 
 firing, and darkness and silence covered the fire-swept 
 plain. 
 
 On account of their necessities the early pioneers 
 had built water mills on streams that have long since run 
 dry, and other mills that were moved by horse power, or 
 by the tramp of oxen on the great revolving wheel that 
 moved the machinery that ground the grain into coarse 
 meal or bad flour, or carded wool into rolls ready for the 
 spinning wheel that made music in almost every home in 
 the county. These crude monuments of the necessities 
 and privations of pioneer times were still here when I 
 came. The fluttering wheels of the Barlow mill on Hut-
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 225 
 
 son creek, Varner's rail! on "Willow Creek, Ream's mill 
 on North Fork, and the Shaker mill on the Embarras 
 were still belabored by the inconstant waters of these 
 streams. The oxen of Jo Starr, Nicholas Fesler and Dan- 
 iel Rumble were still making the wheels go around by 
 their wear} 7 " march on the tread wheel. At Eaton's horse 
 mill the man or boy with a grist might hitch and drive 
 his own team while a stream of coarse meal emerged so 
 tiny that it seemed to invite, rather than repel, the wolf 
 of hunger. 
 
 The Wabash river was the only line of travel, and of 
 commercial communication available to those who in- 
 habitated and cultivated the rich lands bordering upon 
 the river. Steam boats and "broad horns" carried the 
 products of the land to such markets as were to be found 
 on the Mississippi river, and to none other. The markets 
 of the East and North were as much closed to the inhabi- 
 tants of the Wabash valley as if they did not exist. 
 
 Local industry, and much of that very unskillful, 
 supplied farming utensils of a very inferior quality. 
 The music of the spinning wheel, the treadle of the flax 
 wheel, the snap of the reel, the revolutions of the wind- 
 ing blade, and the clang of the weaver's loom were still 
 telling the story of the clothing made and worn by pi- 
 oneers during the long and bitter campaign carried on 
 by them to conquer the land from savagery. 
 
 The tanyards of Martin at Palestine, of Barbee at 
 Robinson and Wood at Bell air were supplying semi-raw- 
 hide leather, out of which many were making the family 
 shoes on straight lasts. These straight shoes were worn 
 one foot one day and on the other foot the next day to 
 prevent them from wearino:, and running down sideways 
 and were liberally greased with lard or tallow to prevent 
 them from becoming unendurably hard and stiff. 
 
 Across the prairies oxen were slowly pulling the 
 great plows that broke and turned the tough sod that had
 
 226 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 been at rest for ages past. Clouds of miasmic vapors 
 arose from the decaying vegetation thus turned up to the 
 sun and air to die. That pestilent enemy of civilization, 
 torment of animals, and plague of mankind, the green- 
 head fly. swarmed over the prairies, invaded the fields 
 and infested the woods. Neither sunshine or rain, calm or 
 storm stayed his pestilent activity, and darkness was but 
 a cloud to conceal his malevolent means of disturbing 
 the peace of animals and men. 
 
 The hiss of the rattler often caused one to recoil in 
 fear and retire from the place whence the hiss came. 
 Out in a wide prairie I came across a large rattler that 
 manifested a disposition to dispute the right of way with 
 me. The curse of Eden was upon him, and the duty of 
 his destruction was upon me. But neither stick nor stone 
 could I find. The grass that would not down the boy that 
 stole the old man's apples could not prevail against this 
 saucy and venomous serpent. I was too fearful, and too 
 cautious for my own safety to bring my heel into requi- 
 sition in order to bruise his head. But the duty was upon 
 me. T unbuckled a saddle stirrup and with that as a 
 weapon I discharged my duty. 
 
 Log meeting houses were still in use, and such places 
 as Mount Zion and Canaan were hallowed grounds. Log 
 school houses, such as are described by Mr. 0. "W. Gogin 
 in "Country Jake" were scattered all over the county. 
 In 1850 one was built in the Wilkin neighborhood. I car- 
 ried up a corner at its building, and in the winter of 1850- 
 51 I taught school in it. My .pupils were all in the first 
 grade. Classes other than spelling classes were scarcely 
 known in country schools at that time. Instruction was 
 individual and personal. It had not then become the 
 fashion to put blockheads, niediocres and bright boys and 
 girls into one class, and put the whole party, the dull and 
 the witty, through the same paces and at the same gait. 
 The horse and the ox had sometimes been matched to
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 227 
 
 gether on the farm, but the example had not been carried 
 into the schools. 
 
 A large proportion of the farm dwelling houses 
 were built of hewed or round logs. The house builder 
 was the man with the broadaxe who could hew to the line. 
 I had a little experience when I came. My first days' 
 t work in Illinois was to assist in taking down and rebuild- 
 ing a cat and clay chimney, and this was followed by an- 
 other very much like it. 1 chinked and daubed a cabin 
 for Wellington Hill, and another for my uncle John Glaze. 
 I sometimes hear men and women talk of good old times. 
 I have been happy as year by year the old times have 
 yielded to the new, and I now rejoice that these old days 
 of hardship and privation are gone and can never return. 
 
 The roads were mere trails staked across the prairies 
 and blazed through the timber, and the underbrush and 
 a few saplings removed. There were but few bridges, 
 and these were hastily built of such material as chanced 
 to be available at the time. When the streams were 
 swollen journeys were delayed until the flood subsided. 
 
 W r hen I became a citizen of the county I joined the 
 procession and have marched in it with my face to the 
 front ever since. I have never opposed or voted against 
 any measure that had upon it the genuine label of im- 
 provement. While the development of southern Illinois 
 has been slow, it has been sure and reasonably satisfac- 
 tory. Great business changes have taken place. The 
 river has surrendered its commerce to the railroads that 
 have been built and which carry the products of the 
 country out to the markets of the world. 
 
 The crude and expensive manufactures which were 
 born of necessity have surrendered to the large factories 
 located in business centers and by the combination of 
 skilled labor and machinery produce better goods at less 
 cost than they could be made at home. This change has 
 lifted a burden off the women of the country so great that
 
 228 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 we look back now and wonder how our mothers, wives 
 and sisters endured the toil that was necessarily incident 
 to the duties they performed so well. 
 
 In the olden time the means of transporting the prod- 
 ucts of the farms to markets, and the privilege of pur- 
 chasing supplies in markets where the things needed 
 were abundant and could be purchased at reasonable 
 prices, were the great and keenly felt wants of the people. 
 Two railroads opened up the desired markets, gave a 
 lively impulse to business and largely increased the abil- 
 ity of the people to obtain the necessities, comforts and 
 luxuries desired in their homes. Robinson has grown in- 
 to a beautiful city, noted for its progressive and enter- 
 prising spirit. Its banks furnish, on easy terms, the 
 money by which business is conducted, and public and 
 private credit is sustained. Its large stocks of merchan- 
 dise supply whatever the citizen may need. Its mer- 
 chants have brought the long desired markets home to 
 the people. Its churches, schools and benevolent orders 
 testify to the intelligent, moral and religious character 
 of the community. They are all on a high plane. I 
 should regret to know that there now lived in the county 
 any citizen who felt no pride in the clean and beautiful 
 city that is the county seat of Crawford county. Oblong 
 has grown up like a lustrous gem in the prairie and has 
 fairly won its title as ' ' The Gem City. ' ' The spirit of im- 
 provement is alive and wide awake among its citizens. 
 The evidence of this fact is to be found in its churches, 
 schools, business houses, fine residences and paved streets. 
 
 Jones' Store has grown into one of the thriving vil- 
 lages of Southern Illinois, and by the name of Flat Rock 
 is well known on account of the intelligent and enterpris- 
 ing character and reputation of its business men. Re- 
 cently it was almost swept out of existence by a destruc- 
 tive fire. But it will rise again out of the ashes and be as 
 thrifty and attractive as it was before.
 
 ETHELRERT CALLAHAN 229 
 
 Annapolis has emerged from the obscurity of "Four 
 Corners ' ' and grown into a substantial village with good 
 business houses, and neat and comfortable homes that 
 give evidence of the thrift and refined taste of the resi- 
 dents of the village. A bank supplies such surplus money 
 as is needed to carry on the business of the village and 
 surrounding country. The school and church buildings 
 are a good index to .the high intellectual, moral and re- 
 ligious tone of the community. 
 
 West York is a new village sitting 3il;o a queen on 
 a hill overlooking the valley of the Wabash. Its resi- 
 dences, business houses, school and church buildings are 
 all good, and speak loudly in praise of the men and wom- 
 en who have built, and now manage the affairs of the 
 thrifty village. 
 
 Hutsonville is a pioneer Wabash river village. It 
 dates well back into the early days of the State and cOun- 
 ty. It .is the only village in the county situated directly 
 on the river. It early became, and still remains, an im- 
 portant trading point. Its growth as a village has been 
 slow, but it has never lost its place in the business, nor its 
 influence in the affairs of the county. It is well supplied 
 with church and school buildings. Its bank and the 
 large stocks of goods kept by its merchants keep it in 
 the procession of improvement that is moving on towards 
 better and happier conditions. 
 
 The village of Palestine came into existence with the 
 first settlement of the county. It appears to have been 
 born in Fort LaMotte, or in the house of Edward N. 
 Cullom. Perhaps the honor should be divided between 
 them. For about thirty years it had advantages over all 
 the other villages. The county seat was located there by 
 the act of territorial Legislature creating the territorial 
 period. The United States land office was .located there 
 and remained after the county seat was removed to Eob- 
 inson. It was, for many years, the political, business and
 
 230 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 social center for a large part of South Eastern Illinois. 
 With these advantages its growth and development, until 
 recent years, was slow. The building of two railroads 
 stirred its pulse to a quicker beat, and awoke it to a new- 
 life. Carried along by the current of progress the village 
 has grown rapidly in later years. Its business men are 
 wide awake to the growth and prosperity of the village 
 and surrounding country. 
 
 The progress that I have witnessed is not confined 
 to the villages. The highways of the county have been 
 cleared and graded, and many miles of them covered with 
 gravel and broken stone. 
 
 Nearly all of the creeks are spanned with substantial 
 bridges of iron, concrete or wood, and the work of mak- 
 ing hard roads is still in rapid progress. The hewed log 
 houses and scutched down cabins of pioneer times are re- 
 placed by neat, comfortable, and even elegant farm 
 houses, with green lawns and shady lanes, and many 
 other evidences of refinement and culture. The public 
 buildings of the county are equal to those of any of the 
 rural counties of the state. The court house and jail, the 
 churches, school houses and the homes of the benevolent 
 orders are all of a high type. The public buildings in a 
 county give the key note to the public spirit and enter- 
 prise of the inhabitants of the county. 
 
 The beauty of the county, outside of the villages, has 
 been seriously marred by the discovery and development 
 of the oil fields and the interests of agriculture have suf- 
 fered great loss thereby. Many farmers have left the cul- 
 ture of the soil and no longer depend on its production for 
 their subsistence. This will make little difference in the 
 progress and development of the county. The oil fever 
 is subsiding, dreams of sudden wealth and lives of lux- 
 urious idleness are being dissipated. Business is coming 
 down into ways that are marked out by reason and com- 
 mon sense, and these ways all lead back to the cultiva-
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 231 
 
 tion of the soil, as the great and original source from 
 which the wants and necessities of human life must be 
 met and suplied. 
 
 In the oil districts, that industry will be confined to 
 small portions of the farms, while the larger part will be 
 surrendered to agriculture. If the idle sons of the newly 
 rich farmer neglects or refuses to take up the burden, 
 there will be others to come into their places and reap the 
 harvest of benefits which the idler has turned down. 
 
 When the first pioneers took possession of the land 
 it was loaded with fatness that had accumulated for cen- 
 turies- It was fertile beyond his dreams and yielded 
 great crops almost without cultivation. 
 
 I have seen many fields of sod corn" where the seed 
 had been dropped into a cleft made in the upturned sod 
 with an axe, and then left until gathering time. Such a 
 crop met the necessities of the time. It could not be re- 
 peated on the same land. The necessity for it no longer 
 existed. 
 
 Every crop grown is a draft on the fertility of the 
 soil, and, seasons and culture being equal, each succeed- 
 ing crop decreases in proportion to the drafts that have 
 been made by the production of former crops. This pro- 
 cess of depletion was continued from year to year until 
 some began to talk of worn out land, as though such a 
 thing were possible. The lands were not worn out, but 
 only robbed of the elements of fertility until they were 
 so hungry and starved that they .could not produce 
 enough to repay the labor of cultivation. In the old world 
 countries, lands have been cultivated for thousands of 
 years and yet amply repay the farmer for his labor. Such 
 lands have been repaid the drafts made upon them by the 
 production of preceding crops. The American farmer 
 must profit by the experience of the farmers of the older 
 nations. Many Crawford county farmers have been tak- 
 ing lessons and are repaying to their farms that which
 
 232 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 successive cultivation without fertilization has taken 
 away. There is no question of politics, even in the in- 
 tensely exciting campaign of the present year, that so di- 
 rectly, or so largely concerns the citizens of Crawford 
 county, as how best and most effectively to conserve the 
 fertility of the soil. The usefulness of the County Farm- 
 ers' Institute would be increased a hundred fold if the 
 platform lecturers, with their sterotyped platitudes, were 
 dispensed with, and all the time and money available de- 
 voted to the collection and publication of the experiences 
 of Crawford county farmers in the preparation of the soil, 
 and the planting and cultivation of crops on their respec- 
 tive farms. To a very large extent practical and useful 
 knowledge of farming must be acquired by actual ex- 
 periment, and by careful observation of the experiments 
 of practical and successful farmers. Agricultural books 
 ,and papers, and the training given at agricultural col- 
 leges, are useful, but owing to the diversity of soils, va- 
 rieties of seeds, the change of seasons and climatic condi- 
 tions, they are of little value unless followed and tested 
 by actual experience on the farm. It is not safe to accept 
 the untested theories of men or books and blindly follow 
 them. They are sometimes right, but I have also found 
 them to be both expensive and unproductive. 
 
 The soil must be fed to pay the overdrafts that have 
 been made upon it. The important and pressing question 
 is, how and with what shall it be fed ? The farm does not 
 make enough manure to maintain its fertility. Commer- 
 cial fertilizers are too expensive for general use over the 
 farm. They may be used to advantage in the garden and 
 truck patch. The fields must rely on crops grown upon 
 them and plowed under. Clover, rye and field peas, may 
 be successfully used for this purpose. All these I have 
 tested. 
 
 It was one hundred years ago that the first footprints 
 of the white men were planted on the soil of Crawford
 
 ETHELBEKT CALL AH AN 233 
 
 county. A hundred years since a few white men came 
 together, threatened by a common danger, and built a log 
 fortess for the protection of themselves and their wives 
 and children from the bands of Indians who were still 
 Toaming about the country. This was Fort LaMotte, 
 where the village of Palestine now is. The Indian de- 
 parted and the white man remained in undisputed pos- 
 session of the land. The white man has built villages and 
 homes, and made farms, and into and about these he has 
 gathered and established the elements of a high type of 
 civilization. Let memory turn, for a moment, to the first 
 year of the white man's occupation, and compare it with 
 this present year, and behold the transformation. As 
 memory returns let it note the intervening years one by 
 one and contemplate the events which have marked the 
 coming and going of each, and the combined result of the 
 labor, toil and sacrifice of each and all of them. Abun- 
 dant occasion will be found to congratulate ourselves and 
 those who have gone before iis. The wilderness has be- 
 come a fruitful land. The trail of the savage and warrior 
 has been supplemented by highways, hedged about with 
 that security and safety that is born of Christian civili- 
 zation and law. The cabin of the pioneer has disap- 
 peared, and in its place stand homes where comfort 
 abounds, and luxury very often intrudes. The necessity 
 that made the home of each settler a manufactory for the 
 clothing of the family, and burdened mothers, wives and 
 sisters with hard and ceaseless labor, has passed away, 
 and leisure and reading and study and the indulgence of 
 social pleasures has come into these homes. The crude 
 garments in which necessity clothed the early settlers 
 have yielded to garments of better texture and more 
 comely patterns. Sewing machines have come to the re- 
 lief of the weary fingers of the needle woman. The organ, 
 piano, violin and other musical instruments charm away 
 dull hours, and soothe troubled spirits in homes all over
 
 234 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 the county. The daily mail with books, newspapers and 
 magazines, comes to every door, and the parcels post is 
 now in sight. The log built churches have moldered into 
 the earth, and in city, village and country are temples of 
 wood, brick and stone dedicated to the worship of Al- 
 mighty God. Neatly built, and well furnished school 
 houses, free to every child of school age, dot the county 
 over, and the high school affords opportunity to all who 
 desire a more thorough education than the graded school 
 supplies. 
 
 The sickle and the scythe and grain cradle, the flail, 
 the threshing floor and the fanning mill have disappeared 
 from the farms, and the mower and the reaper sweep over 
 the meadows and harvest fields. The steam threshes, 
 winnows, measures and loads the grain into wagons. 
 This change for the better runs through the entire list of 
 farm utensils and household goods. The work is better 
 done, and the burden of labor is made lighter. 
 
 By telegraph and telephone we are in daily com- 
 munication with the whole world. The stage coach of the 
 early years has gone and taken with it the slow, weari- 
 some and expensive mode of travel that prevailed during 
 the first half of our one hundred years of county history. 
 The automobile now speeds us on errands of business, 
 mercy and pleasure. Our two railroads bear us away on 
 our longer journeys, and give us easy access to the mark- 
 ets of the world. 
 
 The successors of Darius Green are making machines 
 that fly and bear burdens through the upper air. These 
 are now in the stage of experiment, and the experiment 
 is taking fearful toll of human life. But so much has 
 been accomplished that it would be a mistake to pro- 
 nounce aerial navigation a failure. It is pregnant with 
 hope and promise.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 235 
 
 We have caught the lightning and put it safely into 
 leading strings so that it submissively lights our homes, 
 our cities and villages, propels useful machinery and 
 drives railroad trains whithersoever we will that they 
 should go. 
 
 It would be vain to attempt a full enumeration of the 
 achievements of the one hundred years of our history. 
 They are too many and too important. They touch life 
 and living at every point and make its tasks easier, and 
 its joys sweeter than before they came. Comparing the 
 past with the present we join in the song of triumph that 
 
 1 ' It is ours to live in favored times, 
 When scenes of beauty rise, 
 
 Behold the mind transforming earth, 
 And ranging through the skies."
 
 236 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE HOME COMING 
 
 YALE, ILLINOIS, AUGUST 15, 1913 
 
 FELLOW CITIZENS: 
 
 I thank you for the privilege of joining, with you, in 
 the pleasures of this occasion. The first public speech 
 that I ever made in Jasper county, was in the village 
 of Yale, July 4, 1856. I have since then, addressed many 
 Jasper county audiences. As a lawyer I practiced for 
 many years in your courts. Tn this time I made many 
 acquaintances and friends. I am happy in having long 
 enjoyed the confidence and respect of the people of good 
 old Jasper county. As the burden of years came upon 
 me, I quit the courts of all the counties except the one in 
 which I live. I have now given up my law practice en- 
 tirely, that I might have the rest and quiet earned by 
 a life of labor, but labor that I loved while engaged in 
 it. In this period of rest, old time acquaintances and 
 friends become dearer to me and I seek their company 
 with more eager interest. I came here today hoping to 
 meet many old friends and make some new ones. 
 
 Your very kind letter of invitation informed me that 
 this meeting was an annual homecoming of neighbors, 
 kindred and friends: a return of sons and daughters to 
 the old homes where they were born, and from whence 
 they all went out into the world to make the battle of 
 life for themselves and for the children whom the provi- 
 dence of God might commit to their care. On this oc- 
 casion memory turns back and retraces the way of life 
 until it stands in the presence of the pioneer home build- 
 ers of the county. The way is not very long. It does not 
 span a century.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 237 
 
 One hundred years ago Jasper county was the hunting 
 ground of the Indian and the home of wild animals and 
 venomous reptiles. The foot of the white man had made 
 no tracks upon its soil. It was the smoke of the wig- 
 wam, and not of the cabin, that curled above its forests 
 and prairies. The spirit of change had never breathed 
 upon it. It was not stirred by any premonition of the tide 
 of civilization that was advancing upon it from the east 
 and south, to possess and transform it. It had not heard 
 the tramp of the pioneer, who with his ax and his rifle was 
 pushing his way toward it, in sep.rch of newer and wider 
 fields in which to build a home for himself and the brave 
 woman whose confidence and love his young manhood had 
 won to be his wife. At last the crisis came. The pioneer 
 arrived and others were close behind him. In the edge 
 of a forest that bordered the Embarrass, or some other 
 water course, the cabin of round logs was built. The 
 puncheon floor; the hearth of clay and the chimney of 
 sticks and clay; the clapboard roof held on with weight- 
 ing poles; the window of greased paper; a blanket for a 
 door. Such were some of the houses of our fathers and 
 mothers in pioneer days. These cabin homes increased 
 in number until neighborhoods were formed and social 
 relations were established. There were many hardships 
 and privations, but these were endured in the hope of 
 better things to come. The enterprise and public spirit 
 of the settlers prevailed over the obstacles and difficul- 
 ties of the hard situation. Public roads were opened. 
 Mills to grind grain and saw lumber were built. Churches 
 and school houses were erected and occupied. Post of- 
 fices -were established. Villages were laid out and built. 
 The county was organized and officered and the law gave 
 protection to property, reputation and life. The spirit 
 of progress was kept alive in the hearts and homes of 
 the people. As the farms yielded their increase better 
 houses were built, and more comforts came into the
 
 238 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 homes. Luxuries followed comforts. The standard of 
 living became higher and better. In these homes chil- 
 dren were born and grew to manhood and womanhood, 
 were married .and went out into the world to make the 
 battle of life for themselves. They went out on widely 
 divergent paths and with widely differing purposes in 
 view. The lure of gold led some to the Rocky Moun- 
 tains, to California and to Alaska. Some were attracted 
 to agriculture in the wild fields of the great west, from 
 the Dakotas to Mexico, while others have been content 
 with the fields and farms of Illinois and other nearby 
 states. 
 
 The flowers and fruits of Florida, the Pacific Coast 
 and the great plains lying between the western mountain 
 ranges attracted others who found pleasure and profit 
 in horticulture. Others engaged in the operation of rail- 
 roads, telegraphy and telephones, and still others found 
 employment in factories. Eminent physicians have gone 
 out from these Jasper county homes; and an army of 
 intelligent and successful teachers have done honor to 
 the homes from which they came. Others forsook the 
 farm for the counting house and store, and became fac- 
 tors in the commercial activities of the country. 
 
 Many rallied around the flag when the mad waves 
 of secession were beating against it, and offered their 
 lives to keep its stars proudly waving in the sky, untar- 
 nished and undiminished in number. These men, 
 whether living or dead, are crowned with imperishable 
 honor. Your pride in them will never die. Some of the 
 sons of these Jasper county homes have won success and 
 honor on the bench and at the bar. Neither has the 
 county been barren in the field of statesmanship. What 
 citizen of the county does not approve and applaud the 
 conduct of Senator Isley, when, in the State Senate he 
 stood squarely for honesty and decency in politics, and 
 fearlessly denounced dishonesty and corrupt practices
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 230 
 
 in the transaction of public, as well as in private busi- 
 ness. All have an honest and well-grounded pride in men 
 who execute public trusts faithfully. Such men reflect 
 lionor on the community and state in which they live. 
 The public career of 'Hon. George W. Fithian as your 
 representative in Congress, and as a citizen in the private 
 "business life to which he was retired, reflects honor upon 
 the county. 
 
 Another son of Jasper county, Hon. Lawrence Y. 
 Sherman, is wearing the toga of a United States Senator 
 won fairly and worn with the pride and dignity that be- 
 comes a senator. Men differ in their opinions and as to 
 the policies they approve, but above and beyond all such 
 differences there is a standard of manhood to which we 
 all take pleasure ni paying tribute. 
 
 Many sons and daughters who went out from these 
 old Jasper county homesteads have passed beyond the 
 clouds of time. We know not the limitations of the eter- 
 nal world or the boundaries thereof, beyond which its 
 inhabitants may not pass. May we not reasonably in- 
 'Hilge the thought that our departed kindred are minis- 
 tering spirits to us. Memory goes out to them and calls 
 them home to us. We feel that they answer the call, and 
 P. re here today whispering messages of peace and love 
 into our hearts. 
 
 Others are living, but conditions are such that they 
 are not permitted to be personally present, yet messages 
 of thought from you to them, and from them to you, are 
 even now playing like the shuttles of a weaver along the 
 invisible paths of the air. In spirit they are here and your 
 hearts are wide open to receive, caress and love them. 
 
 And now, you. returning sons and daughters; w r hat 
 are the gifts that you bring to this feast of memory? 
 You have not returned empty handed. You have brought 
 something of the treasures that the years have gathered 
 round you, in your nearby or far-away homes. Is it gold
 
 240 
 
 from the mines? Fruit from the groves of California or 
 Florida, the orchards of Oregon or the plains that nestle 
 among the mountain ranges of the great west? Is it 
 wheat from Dakota, rice from the plains of Texas, or 
 corn from the broad fields that cover half the Nation? 
 Is it gems from the jeweler, fine fabrics from the marts 
 of trade and commerce ? Have you gathered the rewards 
 of labor in any of the numerous fields of industry that 
 ever lie open to the honest, intelligent and interested 
 worker, and brought tithes of the reward so gathered? 
 Have you brought gifts like these to lay upop the altar 
 of your love and affection for the old home in which you 
 were born? Do you in this manner testify your gratitude 
 to those who protected your infancy and guided your 
 feet into the ways of honorable and respectable living? 
 Such gifts are right and entirely proper, and the more 
 abundant they are the more credit to the giver. 
 
 I trust that you have brought richer gifts than these. 
 The record of lives of honorable industry crowned with a 
 good measure of success, and adorned with charity and 
 good deeds. It is still true, and ever will be, that a good 
 name is rather to be chosen than riches, and the good 
 opinion of good men rather than silver and gold. Clean 
 lives and loving hearts are the richest treasure that you 
 can bring home to your fathers, mothers and kindred. 
 
 I need not tell you, for you know, that since the con- 
 quest of Illinois to the civilization of the white man, the 
 industrial world has been revolutionized. Bands of steel 
 now reach across the continent, binding together the 
 Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, and the great lakes of 
 the north to the Gulf of Mexico in the south. All alon-r 
 these steel girders of the continent the power of steam 
 carries currents of travel and commerce hitherto not 
 dreamed of. Immense ships cross the ocean in as many 
 days as the sailing vessels of the olden time required 
 weeks to make the passage. The great lakes are trav-
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 241 
 
 ersed by luxurious floating palaces, and the steamboat 
 has driven the flat-boat and the keel-boat from the rivers. 
 Automobiles out-speeding the swiftest horse, ond with 
 muscles and nerves that never tire", speed us on our er- 
 rands of business and our excursions of pleasure. The 
 aeroplane has conquered the air and sails through the 
 sky. The telegraph with its lightning motor and paths of 
 wire, carries its messages over all distances far and near 
 and ticks them into the ear of the operator. Leaping 
 away from the wires it now sends its messages a thous- 
 and miles through the trackless realms of the air. The 
 telegraph spans every ocean, and girdles the globe. 
 
 The telephone carries the living human voice along 
 its slender wires and we transact business, talk with 
 our neighbors, and hold instantaneous conversation 
 across a thousand intervening miles. Speech, song and 
 story are recorded, laid by, reproduced and repeated at 
 will. The sewing machine came into our homes and fac- 
 tories and gave relief to the weary fingers of the needle 
 woman and the tailor. The tallow dip candle is supplant- 
 ed by the coal oil and the gasoline lamp in the small 
 villages and the farm homes, while the. larger villages 
 and the cities are lighted by gas and electricity. Elec- 
 tricity, in metal harness, is a great and wonderful worker. 
 It bears many burdens, and accomplishes many useful 
 tasks in the service of humanity. 
 
 The beating flail and the treading horses have gone 
 from the threshing floor and in their stead came the ma- 
 chine that threshes, winnows and measures the grain and 
 stacks the straw. The hand-sickle is almost forgotten 
 and men no longer bend their backs to the swing of the 
 scythe and cradle. The mowing machine and the binder 
 sweep evenly over the meadows and harvest fields. I 
 can not enumerate. It is an impossibility to do 30. 
 
 On the farms, in the homes, in village and city, in 
 every industrial occupation, and in every line of business
 
 242 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 the progressive spirit has been awake and busy. Its ac- 
 complishments are our heritage. They are ours to pos- 
 sess, to use and to enjoy. 
 
 It is my wish and prayer that this home coming may 
 be filled with satisfaction to all who participate in it. 
 That friendship, love and truth may prevail, and that 
 when you have returned to your homes, whether they 
 be nearby or far away, pleasant memories of this meeting 
 may remain with you through life, and that the love and 
 peace of our Father in Heaven may be and remain with 
 you forever.
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 243 
 
 IN MEMORY OF JUDGE WILSON 
 
 ADDRESS AT PRESENTATION OF PORTRAIT, JULY 8. 1915 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: 
 
 I am here by invitation of the Lawrence County Bar 
 Association to participate in a ceremony that is of interest 
 to every citizen of the county. We are here to honor the 
 name, and perpetuate the memory of a distinguished 
 jurist, who was a familiar figure in the early history of the 
 state and county. I am grateful for the privilege of being 
 here. I have received many favors from the people of 
 this county and to be in this court room again, seems 
 like "tenting on the old camp ground." 
 
 William Wilson was born in Lowden county in the 
 state of Virginia in the year 1794. His father died when 
 he was quite young, and his mother placed him in a retail 
 store, intending to qualify him for a life of business. The 
 lure of books led him to neglect his duties in the store. 
 His mind was not satisfied, and was reaching out in an- 
 other direction. At the age of eighteen he entered the 
 law office of Hon. John Cook, who ranked high at the 
 Virginia Bar. At twenty-three he had finished his legal 
 studies and been admitted to practice. He came to Illi- 
 nois to find a home and a field for the exercise of his 
 chosen profession. 
 
 I came to Illinois about three months after Judge 
 Wilson retired to private life. I often heard him spoken 
 of by citizens of the county as a Judge and as a man, and 
 never heard a word to his discredit. All whom I heard 
 speak of him, praised him. My personal acquaintance 
 with him was brief and pleasant. In 1853 I was living at 
 a hotel in Hutsonville. One summer day an elderly gen-
 
 244 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 tleman stopped for dinner. I noticed him, and knew from 
 his dress and courtly manner, that he was more than an 
 ordinary man. At the dinner table we fell into a con- 
 versation in which he told me that he was Judge Wilson. 
 Our conversation had not ended when the dinner was 
 over, and we retired to the shade of the hotel and talked 
 away the afternoon. He was to me, a most charming 
 talker. He told me of the early history of the state, and 
 of the men who had been actors in making such history. 
 His word pictures of some of the men with whom he 
 had been- associated were intensely interesting. It was 
 a red letter day -to me and remains a pleasant memory. 
 
 The Constitution of 1818 vested "The judicial power 
 of the state in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior 
 Courts as the General Assembly shall ordain and estab- 
 lish." The Supreme Court to consist of one Chief Jus- 
 tice and three Associate Justices, with power to increase 
 the number of Associate Justices. All of the judges were 
 to be elected by the General Assembly, and to hold office 
 during good behavior, and until the end of the first ses- 
 sion of the General Assembly held after the first day of 
 January A. D. 1824. 
 
 In October, 1818, the General Assembly elected 
 Joseph Phillips, Chief Justice, and William P. Foster, 
 Thomas C. Browne and John Reynolds, Associate Jus- 
 tices. Foster resigned within a year, and William Wil- 
 son was elected to fill the vacancy created by Foster's 
 resignation. These judges were required, by the Con 
 stitution, to hold the circuit courts in the several counties 
 in such manner, and at such times as the General As 
 seinbly should by law prescribe. Until the year 1825, all 
 the circuit courts were held by the judges of the Supreme 
 Court. Judge Wilson held the first term of the circuit 
 court ever held in Lawrence county, at the house of 
 Toussaint Dubois, on the 4th day of June, 1821. He al- 
 so held most of the terms thereafter, up to, and includ-
 
 ETHELBERT CALLAHAN 245 
 
 ing the September term, 1848. He retired to private life 
 and died at his home near Carmi in the year 1857. 
 
 In 1825. the judicial system of the state was revised, 
 and the election of judges of the Circuit Court was pro- 
 vided for. Judge Wilson was then elected Chief Justice 
 of the Supreme Court, and Thomas C. Browne, Samuel 
 D. Lockwood and Theophilns W. Smith, Associate Jus- 
 tices. Judge Wilson continued to be Chief Justice until 
 1848, when the Constitution of 1847, went into effect and 
 legislated him out of office. Under the Constitution of 
 1818, the judges of the Supreme Court elected in 1825, 
 were not required to hold circuit courts "unless re- 
 quired by law." 
 
 By an act of General Assembly of January 12th, 
 1827, the judges of the Supreme Court were again re- 
 quired to hold circuit courts. Judge Wilson was as- 
 signed to the Fourth circuit, consisting of the counties 
 of Clay, Wayne, White, Edwards, Wabash, Lawrence 
 Crawford, Clark, Edgar and Ver million. This act was re- 
 pealed by an act of January 7th, 1835, in so far as it re- 
 quired the judges of the Supreme Court to hold circuit 
 courts. They were left to hold circuit courts or not to hold 
 them as the judges might elect. 
 
 Before 1825, the opinions of the Supreme Court, ex- 
 cept in a few cases, do not designate the judges by whom 
 they were written. These first are simply "opinion by 
 the Court. ' ' Later they appear as having been delivered 
 by the Chief Justice, excepting a few that were credited 
 to the Associate Justices. Only two appear as the 
 opinions of the Court by Judge Wilson and they are very 
 brief, and of little importance. After the reorganization 
 of the Court in 1825, the reports show by whom the opin- 
 ions were written. The first opinion by Judge Wilson 
 that arrests attention and demands consideration is the 
 case of Coles vs. Madison county, Breese 155. 
 
 Governor Edward Coles owned ten slaves in Vir-
 
 246 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 ginia. He gave them their freedom and brought them to 
 Illinois, but gave no bond as was required by an act of 
 the General Assembly passed in 1819. The penalty pro- 
 vided by the act was two hundred dollars for each slave 
 so set free. In 1325, the General Assembly passed an act 
 purporting to release all penalties incurred .for violation 
 of the act of 1819. Governor Coles had been prominent 
 in the then recent contest as to whether Illinois should be 
 a slave state or a free state. The feeling of the defeated 
 pro-slavery party was very bitter against him and took 
 shape in a suit for the penalties incurred for his alleged 
 violation of the act of 1819. The power of the General 
 Assembly to release such penalties was denied. A trial 
 in the Circuit Court resulted in a judgment of two thous- 
 and dollars against Coles. From this judgment he ap- 
 pealed to the Supreme Court where the judgment of the 
 Circuit Court was reversed. This opinion was written 
 by Judge Wilson and is a fine exposition of his learning 
 as a judge and his humanity as a man. The last opinion 
 filed by him was in the December term, 1847. 
 
 The published reports of the Supreme Court show 
 that he performed his full share of the labor and business 
 of the Court. His opinions are concise in the statement 
 of facts, logical in argument, sound in law and possess 
 the beauty of brevity. During his period of service the 
 court was laying the foundation of the system of juris- 
 prudence that now prevails in the state, and gives secur- 
 ity and protection to life, liberty, reputation and proper- 
 tv. This srreat work of the court was well and wisely 
 done, and it is meet and proper that the names and mem- 
 ories of those distinguished pioneer judges shall be 
 honored and perpetuated by those who have succeeded 
 them and now enjoy the rich fruitage of their labor. 
 
 Some of Judge Wilson's contemporaries have left on 
 the pages of recorded history their estimate of his ability 
 as a judge, and of his character as a man.
 
 ETHELBERT C ALLAH AN 247 
 
 Judge Elliott Anthony says " Wilson was a man of 
 considerable ability and proved to be a good judge and 
 commanded the respect of the Bar.'-' 
 
 Judge John Dean Caton says: "Wilson was a man of 
 good parts, a thorough gentleman, courteous and affable, 
 and of a very cheerful disposition. He was fond of a good 
 joke even at his own expense or that of his best friend. 
 He appreciated humor and told a story well. He was a 
 good lawyer but not a great lawyer. He comprehended 
 well a principle of law * * * an( ^ when a case was 
 cited in support of a proposition of law, he readily de- 
 termined whether it was applicable or not." 
 
 Judge John M. Scott says "He was a lawyer and 
 nothing else. In no sense was he a politician. During 
 his incumbency of his high office of Chief Justice he 
 seems to have discharged his duties with such faithful- 
 ness and ability as to receive popular approbation. ' ' 
 
 Governor John M. Palmer says : ' l Chief Justice Wil- 
 son was held in high regard by his contemporaries and 
 even now his opinions are admitted for their clearness 
 and precision of expression." 
 
 Hon. James C. Conkling says "As a writer his style 
 was clear and distinct. As a lawyer his judgment was 
 sound and discriminating." 
 
 No sane man desires to be forgotten as soon as he has 
 ceased to live. No man who has consciously performed 
 important public duties and thereby conferred benefit 
 upon society or the state desires to have his work over- 
 looked or forgotten by those who succeed him. Oblivion 
 is a dismal abyss from which all humanity recoils. There 
 is something in the constitution of man that reaches out 
 toward the future and seeks to explore the unknown. 
 It reaches from the scenes and memories of mortal life 
 that linger on the shores of time, to the realm of immor- 
 tality. Every book of biography or autobiography; 
 every picture of the human face or form; and every
 
 248 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 monumental stone is a protest against an entry into the 
 realms of the forgotten. This portrait of the disting- 
 uished jurist, who for twenty-nine years honored the 
 Bench of the Supreme Court of Illinois; who held the first 
 term of the Circuit Court ever held in the county of Law- 
 rence, and many of the succeeding terms, is presented to 
 the county by his granddaughter, Mrs. Alice Stuve Jar- 
 rett, and Hon. Lincoln DuBois, a grandson of Judge Wil- 
 son's intimate friend, Toussaint DuBois, and nephew of 
 Henri DuBois and Toussaint DuBois, Jr., the first sheriff 
 and first clerk of this county, at whose house the first 
 court was held, and it testifies to their desire that his un- 
 sullied name, and his distinguished service may be re- 
 membered and receive due honor in the place where his 
 service was given. It will be placed in the court room 
 where his successors in the judicial office sit to hold the 
 scales of justice in even balance, even as he ever held 
 them. It will awaken memories of the early years of the 
 state and of the county. It will recall the pioneer times 
 when the courts were held in private houses and juries 
 deliberated in some out house or in the shade of the forest 
 trees. When the judge and the lawyers travelled around 
 the circuit on horseback, often swimming the unbridged 
 streams. When lawyers were not limited as to time, or 
 confined strictly to the case on trial. When everybody 
 went to court to hear the lawyers tell stories, talk law and 
 discuss politics. 
 
 It will be an inspiration to the members of the Bar to 
 strive persistently for attainment to the loftiest standards 
 of the dignified, useful, honorable and responsible profes- 
 sion which they have chosen as their life work. 
 
 Mr. President of the Lawrence County Bar Associa- 
 tion, on behalf of the donors, Mrs Alice Jarrett and Hon. 
 Lincoln DuBois, I present to you and through you to the 
 County, this splendid portrait of Judge William Wilson.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Page Page 
 
 Introductory 3 to 5 
 
 Autobiographical 5 to 43 
 
 PUBLIC ADDRESSES 
 
 Ye Shall Know Them by Their Fruits 3 to 58 
 
 Sketch by Ralph Wilkin ,.58 to 61 
 
 Address at Court House , 61 to 64 
 
 Fourth of July Address at Robinson ! 64 to 77 
 
 In Memory of Zadok A. Pearce '. 77 to 80 
 
 In Memory of Judge John Scholfield 80 to 87 
 
 In Memory of Hon. James C. Allen 87 to 94 
 
 On Laying Corner Stone of Court House in 
 
 Robinson 94 to 106 
 
 Address of Welcome .' 106 to 109 
 
 On Laying the Corner Stone of the M. E. 
 
 Church 109 to 114 
 
 Address on Statutory Revision 114 to 128 
 
 Centenary of Lincoln's Birthday 128 to 143 
 
 St. Patrick's Day in the Evening, A. D. 1910 143 to 146 
 
 On Presentation of a National Flag '....146 to 156 
 
 Address at Newman, Illinois 156 to 170 
 
 Annual Address as President of State Bar 
 
 Association 170 to 192 
 
 Welcome to American Bar Association 192 to 196 
 
 Lovejoy Monument Address 196 to 200 
 
 Introducing Henry Watterson 200 to 202 
 
 Address at Harvest Home Picnic 202 to 213 
 
 The Doctor and the Lawyer :..213 to 219 
 
 Crawford County Pioneer Association 219 to 236 
 
 Address Delivered at the Home Coming 236 to 243 
 
 In Memory of Judge Wilson 243 to 248
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Page 
 
 John Callahan op. 6 
 
 Margaret Brown Callahan op. 6 
 
 Ethelbert Callahan '. op. 24 
 
 Mary Barlow Callahan op. 24 
 
 Hon. Wm. C. Jones op. 27 
 
 Mary Callahan, Jr. 1892... op. 27
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MY LIFE