m

m

Given in Memory of
Coral Windsor Barnes (1900-!
M.A. '33, a descendar>tAJSr
central Illinois pioneers,

his son
A. Barnes,

University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign

ILLINOIS HISTORICAL SURV

sf~ /,'

,

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS, '

CONTAININQ A

FULL ACCOUNT OF THE BLACK HAWK WAR, THE RISE, PROGRESS,

AND FALL OF MORMONISM, THE ALTON AND LOVEJOY RIOTS,

AND OTHER IMPORTANT AND INTERESING EVENTS.

BY THE LATE

GOV. THOMAS FORD.

CHICAGO :
PUBLISHED BY S. C. GRIGGS & CO.,

Ill LAKE STREET.

NEW YORK: IVISON & PHINNEY.
1854.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by

S. C. GRIGGS & CO.,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Northern District of
New York.

STEREOTYPED BT PRINTED BT

THOMAS B. SMITH, JOHN F. TROW,

216 William St. 49 Ann St.

7/7. .5 J.U.. HIST-

F75h ^WP

BY QEN. JAMES SHIELDS.

IN 1850, while the author of this work was on his
death-bed, he placed in my hands a manuscript, with
the contents of which I was then wholly unacquainted,
with the injunction that after his decease I should have
it published for the benefit of his family. He soon after
departed this life, leaving his orphan children in a des-
titute condition.

In compliance with his dying request, I made re-
peated efforts to have the work published on terms that
might secure some percentage to the orphans, but until
my arrangements with the present publishers, all these
efforts proved unsuccessful. By this arrangement the
children will receive a liberal percentage on the sales of
the work.

The author, during his whole life, had very favorable
opportunities for observing events and collecting infor-
mation connected with the history of his State. He
was yet a child when his parents emigrated to Illinois.
On arriving at maturity he was there admitted to the
bar, and practised his profession for many years with

vi INTRODUCTION.

very considerable success. He was afterwards elected
an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the State,
and discharged the duties of that responsible station
with distinguished ability. Subsequently he was chosen
Governor of the State, which was the last public office
he held. From this office he retired to private life, and
during his retirement prepared this history for publica-
tion. His opinions of men and measures are very freely
and unreservedly expressed ; but they may be regarded as
the opinions of a man of strong feelings, who took such
an active part in many of the scenes which he repre-
sents, that it was impossible for him to describe them
with ordinary moderation.

I regret the severity of some of the author's judg-
ments, and the censure with which he assails the char-
acter of some of our public men, who are both my per-
sonal and political friends ; but I feel it to be incumbent
upon me, by the very nature and circumstances of the
trust, not only to have the work published according to
his injunction, for the purpose intended by him, but
also to abstain from making any alteration in the text.
I therefore give it to the public just as I received it
from the hands of the author, and with the sincere
hope, for the sake of his destitute children, that it may
meet with an indulgent and generous reception.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3d, 1854.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

Petition of the Territorial Legislature to Congress to be admitted into the Union Bill
reported by Judge Pope, the territorial Delegate Amendments proposed by him
Boundaries of the State enlarged Ordinances of 1787 Claim of Wisconsin to the
fourteen northern counties Reasons for extending the boundaries Call of a Con-
vention Constitution adopted E. K. Kane Petition of the Covenanters Organi-
zation of the State Government Gov. Bond recommends the Canal to Lake Mich-
iganJudge Foster Judge Thomas Legislature of 1819 Code of laws Removal
of the Seat of Government to Vaudalia Origin of the name Vandalia Charac-
ter of the people Notice of the French villages and of the early American set-
tlers Schools, learned professions The early preachers Pursuits and business of
the people Their ingenuity Anecdote of James Lemon Commerce Money
Speculation Banks in Ohio and Kentucky General indebtedness Money crisis
Creation of the State Bank of 1821 Its history Col. Menard John M'Lean
Judge Young First duel Judge Lockwood 19

CHAPTER H.

Gov. Coles, Judges Philips and Brown, and Gen. Moore The question of Slavery
The Missouri question Immigrants from the Slave States to Missouri Growing
desire for the introduction of Slavery The Slavery party Effort for a Convention
to amend the Constitution Hanson and Shaw Resolution for a Convention pass-
ed The riotous conduct of the Slave party The free State party rally Contest be-
tween them in the election of 1824 Principal men of each party The Convention
defeated Character of early political contests No measures ;" and no parties of
Whig or Democrat, Federalist or Republican Effect of regular political parties
Reorganization of the Judiciary Circuit Courts established First case of pro-
scription Causes the repeal of the Circuit Courts Road law and School law pro-
viding for a tax ; operated well, but were repealed Hatred of taxation School
law of 1840; of 1845 Wm. Thomas, H. M. Wood, John S. Wright, and Thomp-
son Campbell Present state of Schools Revision of the laws by Judges Lock-
wood and Smith Gov. Edwards Mr. Sloe Lieut. Gov. Hubbard His speech,
aa a candidate for Governor His speech about Wolf scalps The old State Bank
again Effort to investigate its management Resisted by the Bank officers Gov.
Edwards' messages A packed committee report against the Governor Power of
a broken Bank Combinations to commit crime or resist law Daniel P. Cook
Gov. Duncan Change of political parties Gen. Jackson's defeat, aud subsequent
election Influence of this upon parties Gov. Duncan's change Winnebago War
Galena" Suckers"" Pukes" The chief, Red Bird Gov. Edwards' claim to
the public lands Sale of School lands Borrowing of the School fund 50

CHAPTER HI.

Review Election of State Treasurer in 1827 Election and defalcation of Sherifls
Courts Judges Sentence of Green Instructions to juries The hung jury Law
of 1846 Eminent lawyers Character of litigation Election by ballot The keep-
dark system The " butcher-knife boys" Influences in the Legislature Greasing

V1U CONTENTS.

Pior

and swallowing, &.c Aims of politicians and of the people Anecdote of Senator
Crozier Good and bad self-government Rule to test the capacity of the people
for either Educated ministers of the Gospel Ill-will towards them of some of
the old ministers Room enough for both Benevolent institutions and education
--Colleges Change of dress among young people Regrets of the old folks Ef-
fects of attending church on Sundays Effects of not attending church on Sundays
upon young people Progress in cpmmerce-j-Character of first merchants Sell-
Ing for money supplied by emigration Nothing raised for or shipped to foreign
markets Flat-boats Farmers taking their own crops to market, and bad effects
of it Foreign markets Steamboats and high rates of exchange encourage the
merchants to become exporters Bad effects of farmers holding their produce from
market, expecting a higher price This practice contrasted with the New England
practice of selling at the market price Good effects of this practice Prosperity
of northern Illinois in a great measure owing to this 81

CHAPTER IV.

Extent of settlements in 1830 Election for Governor that year Judge John Rey-
noldsWilliam Kinney Further development of party Description of an elec-
tion of contest Reynolds elected by Jackson and anti-Jackson men Legislature
of 1831 bound to redeem the notes of the old State bank Horror of increasing
taxes Fears of the Legislature The Wiggins' loan All the members broke down
The little bull law Penitentiary punishments Curious contest for State Treas-
urer Indian disturbances-^-Treaties with the Indians Black Hawk's account of
them His character He invades the Rock river country Call for volunteers
March to Rock Island Escape of the Indians New treaty with them Next year
Black Hawk returns Volunteers again called for March of Gov. Reynolds and
Gen. Whiteside Burning of Prophet's town Arrival at Dixon Majors Stillman
and Bailey Route at Stillman's run Account of it by a volunteer Colonel Coun-
cil of war Gen. Whiteside marches in pursuit of the Indians Massacre of In-
dian Creek Two young ladies captured and restored Gen. Whiteside buries the
dead and marches back to Dixon Meets Gen. Atkinson Dissatisfaction of the
men Marches to Ottawa Army discharged New call for volunteers Volunteer
regiment left as a guard of the frontiers Col. Jacob Fry Capt. Snyder Battle
with the Indians Bravery of Gen. Whiteside Gen. Semple and Capt. Snyder
Indian murders St. Vrain and others Siege of Apple-river Fort Col. Strode
Galena Martial law there Gen. Dodge's successful attack Capt. Stephenson
Martial spirit of the Indians Major Dement Defence of Kellogg's Grove Gen.
Posey's march Gen. Alexander Gen. Atkinson Gen. Henry March up Rock
river Turtle village Burnt village Lake Keshkonong Search for the Indians
Two regular soldiers Bred on Expedition to the "trembling lands" Army dis-
persed in search of provisions 102

CHAPTER V.

Gen. Posey marches to Fort Hamilton Gens. Henry and Alexander, and Major Dodge,
to Fort Winnebago Gen. Atkinson remained behind to build a fort Description of
the country and the rivers at Fort Winnebago Gen. Henry informed as to the posi-
tion of Black Hawk Council of war Agreement to violate orders and march after
the Indians Alexander's men refuse to march Dodge's horses broke down Ar-
rival of Craig's company Protest of officers and signs of mutiny Put down by
Gen. Henry His character as a military man March for Rock river Description
of Rock river March for Cranberry lake Express to Gen. Atkinson Discovery
of the retreat of Black Hawk to the Wisconsin Confession of the Winnebagoes
March for the Wisconsin Thunder storm Privations of the men Arrival at
the four lakes False alarm Description of the four lakes Gen. Ewing and the
spies Major Dodge Ardor of the men Come close upon the Indians Battle of
the Wisconsin heights Defeat of the Indians Their retreat across the river
Reasons why Gen. Henry and the Illinois volunteers never received credit abroad
for what they deserved Gen. Henry's death His singular modesty Return of
the troops to the Blue Mounds Bad treatment of Henry and his brigade by Gen.

CONTENTS. ix

, . 1. PAGE

Atkinson Gen. Atkinson pursues the Indians across the Wisconsin Order of
march Henry's men put in charge of the baggage They resent, but submit
Gen. Atkinson in front decoyed by the Indians Drawn off on a false scent Henry
advances on the main trail Comes upon the main body of the Indians, and again
defeats them before Gen. Atkinson arrived with the rest of the army Retreat of
Black Hawk Indians Sent in pursuit of him The one-eyed Decori Capture of
Black Hawk and the Prophet Description of the Prophet Indian speeches
Gen. Scott Discharge of the volunteers Treaty of peace Black Hawk and other
prisoners taken to Washington Makes the tour of the Union, and are returned to
their own country, west of the Mississippi 136

CHAPTER VI.

First efforts for a Railroad system Central Railroad Impeachment of Judge Smith
Benjamin Mills Other efforts to impeach judges Effect on the public mind
Election of Governor Gov. Duncan Creation of a new State Bank Conrad Will
Means of passing its charter Road tax Hooking timber Preachers employed
to preach against trespasses Veto power Banking in Illinois Increase of the
Bank Stock Stock readily taken Intrigues of the subscribers State Bank goes
into the hands of Thomas Mather and his friends Effort to build up Alton The
Lead trade ^Unfortunate speculations Real estate fund Hostility of the Demo-
cratsIllinois and Michigan canal George Forquer's report Bill to borrow mo-
ney Passed with an amendment to borrow on the credit of canal lands Great
speculation in 1835-'6 Internal Improvement system Means of passing it Cal-
culations of its funds Election of Board of Public Works Bank suspensions, ne-
gotiationsElection of Governor in 1838 Thomas Corlin Cyrus Edwards Max-
im of politicians Explosion of the Internal Improvement system Presidential
election of 1840 Further history of parties Work on the canal Payment of in-
terest Mr. Cavarly's bill 166

CHAPTER VII.

Reform of the Supreme Court Chief Justice Wilson Justices Lockwood and Brown
Secretary of State and alien questions Alexander P. Field John A. McClernand
Decision of the Supreme Court Popular excitement Decision of a Circuit Judge
on the alien question Commotion among the Democrats Suspicions of the Su-
preme Court Mode of deciding political questions Mode of reforming the Court
Violence of the measure Reluctance of some Democrats Obstinacy of others
How a polilician must work in a party Judge Douglass' speech in the lobby
Evasive decision of the Court Judge Smith's intrigues and character Passage of
the bill Motives of both parties Prejudice against the Supreme Court Moral
power with the people of the Judges of the Supreme and Circuit Courts Break-
ing of the banks Causes which lead to it Bank suspensions Power of the State
Bank over the Legislature Special session Struggle to forfeit the Bank Charters
Whigs secede Call of the House Jumping out of the windows Democratic
victory Thrown away before the end of the session New suspensions Small bills
Fierceness of parties against each other Views of both parties concerning bank-
ing, and of each other

CHAPTER VHI.

Progress of settlements Colleges Education Society Religion Literature John
M. Peck James Hall John Russell Newspapers Effects of speculation Plenty
of money Credit Debts Usury High rates of interest History of mobs Alton
Mob Lovejoy Abolitionists Mobs in Pope county Mobs in the north Ogle
county mob Cause of mobs in free countries Joe Smith Origin of the Mormons
Their settlement iu Missouri Troubles there Settlemnnt in Ohio Kirtland

* ^t

L CONTENTS.

PAGE

Bank Mormons return to Missouri Mormon war there Expulsion from Mis-
souriSettlement of the Mormons in Illinois Politics of the Mormons Martin
Van Buren Henry Clay John J. Stuart Dr. Bennett Senator Little Stephen
A. Douglass Mormon Charters Nauvoo Legion Popular clamor against the
Mormons Arrest of Joe Smith Trial before Judge Douglass Nomination of Mr.
Snyder as the democratic candidate for Governor Go v. Duncan again a candidate
The Mormons declare for the Democrats Gov. Duucan attacks the Mormons
and the Mormon Charters Death of Snyder His character Nomination of the
author in his place Reasons for this nomination Further examination into the
practical operations of government Election of the author The Governor, Audi-
tor, and Treasurer forbid the receipt of Bank paper for Taxes Condition of the
State in 184-2 228

CHAPTER IX.

Character of the people North and South Causes of discord Principle upon which
elections were made Character of candidates Reasons for preference Further
maxims of politicians John Grammar Want of unity in the democratic party
Want of great leaders Members of the Legislature Legislative elections Neg-
lect of other business Love of popularity Account of lobby members Their
motives and influence Professional politicians Ultraists and " Milk and water
men" tending to repudiation Plans for public relief Illinois Canal Justus But-
terfleld Michael Ryan Arthur Bronson Compromise with the Banks Proposed
repeal of their Charters Gov. Carlin's message Arguments for compromise and
for repeal Ayes and Noes in the House^ John A. McClernand Lyman Trumbull
James Shields Feuds among politicians growing out of the appointment of
Secretary of State Amalgamation of the co-ordinate branches of government
Opposition to the Compromise Bill in the Senate Character of the leader of this
opposition Removal of Trumbull from the office of Secretary of State Humbug
set off against humbug Improvement of public affairs Execution laws ; debtor
and creditor 259

CHAPTER X.

Mormons New warrant for the arrest of Joe Smith Tried before Judge Pope In-
trigues of the Whigs The Mormons determine to vote for Whig candidates for
Congress Cyrus Walker Joseph P. Hoge Dr. Bennett Prejudices against the
Mormons New demand for the arrest of Joe Smith Arrest and discharge by the
Municipal Court Walker's speech Walker's and Hoge's opinion Mormons al-
ways prefer bad advice Demand for a call of the Militia Reasons for not calling
the'm Intrigues of the Democrats Backinstos Hiram Smith William Law
Revelation in favor of Hoge Joe Smith's speech Hoge elected Indignation of
the Whigs Determination to expel the Mormons Stephen A. Douglass City or-
dinancesInsolence of the Mormons Joe Smith a candidate for President Con-
ceives the idea of making himself a Prince Danite band Spiritual wives At-
tempt on William Law's wife Tyranny of Joe Smith Opposition to him" Nau-
voo Expositor" Trial of the press as a nuisance Its destruction Secession of the
refractory Mormons Warrant for Joe Smith and Common Council Their arrest
and discharge by the Municipal Court Committee of anti-Mormons Journey to
Carthage Militia assembled Complaints against the Mormons Cause of popular
fury False reports and camp news Pledge of the troops to protect the prisoners
Martial law Conduct of a Constable and Civil Posse Council of officers The
great flood of 1841 Surrender of Joe Smith and the Common Council Warrant
for treason Commitment of Joe and Hiram Smith Preparations to march into
Nauvoo Council of officers Militia disbanded Journey to Nauvoo Guard left
for the protection of the prisoners Further precautions The leading anti-Mor-
mons by false reports undermine the Governor's influence Governor's speech in
Nauvoo Vole ot the Mormons News of the death of the Smiths Preparation
for defence of the country Mischievous influence of the press 313

CONTENTS. XI

CHAPTER XI.

PAGE

Account of the assassination of the Smiths Done by the forces at AVaraw Treach-
ery of the Carthage Greys Franklin A. Worrell Attack on the Jail Murder of
Joe and Hiram Smith Character of Joe Smith Character of the leading Mormons
Character of the Mormon people Affairs of the Church Sidney Rigdon's proph-
eciesThe Twelve Apostles Triumph of the Twelve Increase of Mormonism
Causes of it Gov. Ford and Herod and Pilate The Mormons quit preaching to
the Gentiles Character of their preaching Increased hostility of the " Saints"
Determination to expel the Mormons Both parties ready to set aside free govern-
mentNatural inclination to despotism Presidential election of 1844 Infatuation
of the people State election Col. Taylor's visit to the Mormons induces them to
vote the democratic ticket The fault laid on the Governor Fresh determination
to expel the Mormons Conduct of the Whig press Pusillanimity of politicians
Gen. Hardin Col. Baker Col. Wealherford Col. Merriman Anti-Mormon wolf-
hunt Military expedition to Hancock Militia infected with an'i-Mormonism
Surrender of two persons accused of the Murder Terms of surrender arranged by
Col. Baker Incompetency of a Mililia force in such cases Prosecution of the mur-
derers Riotous trials Constitution in relation to changes of venue Trial of the
Mormons for destroying the press Both parlies get a Jury to suit them All ac-
quitted Anarchy in Hancock 353

CHAPTER XII.

Canal Negotiations Appointment of Oakley and Ryan to go tf Europe-^Factious-
ness of the letter-writers and newspapers Proceedings of ihe Commissioners-
David Leavitt Meeting of American Bond-hoklers Journey to Europe Condi-
tional agreement there Appointment of Gov. Davis and Capt. Swift to examine
and report on the Canal Gov. Davis attacked by the Globe newspaper Ryan's
answer and attack on the Globe Favorable Report Ryan's second trip to Europe
Gov. Davis sent for Failure of the negotiation Ryan's attack on Gov. Davis
Letter from Baring, Brothers & Oo. to Ryan Letter of Wm. S. Wait, Esq., against
taxation Answer thereto Visit of Mr. Leavitt and Col. Oakley to Europe New
negotiations successful Opposition to the Governor likely to defeat the Canal
Nature of this opposition How to get up an opposition to any Administration
Scandalous conduct of a Committee of Investigation Trumbull and others Con-
duct of the opposition All their projects defeated Visit of Gov. Davis and Mr.
Leavitt to Springfield Jealousy of the Legislature against monied men and foreign
influence They are well received Propositions of the public creditors Opposi-
tion arrayed Miserable intrigues of George T. M. Davis and other Whigs Patri-
otic conduct of Judge Logan and other Whigs North and South again Messrs.
Strong, Adams, Janney, and Dunlap The Canal Bill defeated in the Senate Talk
of bribery Vote reconsidered and divided Good management of Senator Kil-
patrick The Canal Bill passed The money for the Canal obtained Election and
organization of the Board of Trustees Rate of Interest reduced to six per cent.
Repeal of the Mormon Charters Resolution calling on the Governor and Judges
to relinquish their Salaries The Governor's answer Mistaken notions of Econo-
my Buncomb resolutions and speeches on this subject Shawneetown Bank-
Conditional contract with that Institution Dr. Anderson The true art of riding
hobbies 370

CHAPTER XIII.

The city of Nauroo The Temple New causes of quarrel The " Oneness' 1 '' Anti-
Mormon meeting fired at by themselves Character of the anti-Mormons New
mobs House burning Sheriff's posse Backinstus Plundering McBratney
Death of Worrell Danbeneyer Durfee Trial of the Sheriff for murder Gen.
Hardiu sent over with 500 men Stops the disorders on both sides Autl Mormon
Convention The Mormons agree to leave the State Maj. Warren with two com-
panies left as a Guard Good conduct of Major Warren Indictments against the

Xll CONTENTS.

PAGI

Twelve Apostles for counterfeiting Exodus of the Mormons Anti-Mormons anx-
ious to expel the few that were left Cause of a new quarrel Writs sworn out
Old trick of calling the posse The matter adjusted Mormon vote in 1846 New
excitements New writs sworn out The posse again The new citizens petition
for protection Order to Major ParkerOrder to Mr. Brayman Treaty between
the parlies Not agreed to by the Anti-Mormons Mr. Brayman's letter James
W. Singleton Thomas S. Brockman Order to Major Flood His proceedings
under it Numbers of each party Battles Not many hurt The Mormons sur-
. render the City Triumphant entry of the anti-Mormons Their brutal conduct
Sufferings of the Mormons Excitement against the anti-Mormons Moderate men
not to be relied on in times of excitement Difficulties of the Executive Expedi-
tion to Nauvoo The anti-Mormon posse dispersed Violence of the anti-Mormons
against the Governor Anti-Mormon meetings Their resolutions Anti-Mormon
Committee of rogues and blackguards The Irish Justice and Constable Capt. Al-
len's expedition to Carthage Major Webber Attempts to arrest a Spy Writs
sworn out to arrest him and Capt. Allen The old trick of the posse again Insta-
bility of popular feeling No disposition anywhere to assist, but a disposition
everywhere to censure government, for not performing impossibilities Popular
notions of Martial Law Like master like man Anarchy and despotism Lib-
erty and slavery 403

CHAPTER XIV.

Riots in Massac county in 1846 Robbery in Pope county The regulators Their pro-
ceedingsArrests made by them^The torture and confession of their prisoners
The rogues vote for the county officers of Massac in 1846 Extorted and bribed
evidence to implicate the sheriff and others, by the opposing candidates The sher-
iff and others ordered to leave the county Many whipped, tarred and feathered,
and some drowned Arrest of the rioters They" are rescued by the regulators-
Judge Scales' charge to the grand jury Indictments against the regulators
Threats to lynch the judge and the grand jury Order to Dr. Gibbs, and reason
for such an order His proceedings under it The Militia refuse to turn out In-
efficiency of well-disposed moderate men in such times A few bold, violent men
can govern a county, and how they do it The reasons why the Militia would not
turn out Attack on old Mathis, his wife shot, he is carried away, supposed to
have been murdered The regulators arrested, given up by tb sheriff, prisoners
taken to Kentucky Some of them drowned Proceedings of the new Governor
and the Legislature, then in session District Courts provided to evade the Consti-
tution against changes of the venue in criminal cases The disturbances die away
of themselves The situation in 1842 compared with its condition in December,
1846.... .437

I

TO THE PUBLIC,

THE author of this history has lived in Illinois from
the year 1804 up to this time ; he attended the first ses-
sion of the Legislature under the State government, at
Kaskaskia, in 18 18-' 19 ; and has heen present at every
session from 1825 up to 1847. He has not only had the
means of becoming acquainted with events and results,
but with the characters and motives of those who were
the most active in bringing them about, which is the
hidden soul and most instructive part of history. The
events of such a government as that of Illinois, and the
men of its history, must necessarily be matters of small
interest in themselves. But the author has been encour-
aged to give some account of them by remembering
that history is only philosophy teaching by examples ;
and may, possibly, teach by small as well as large ones.
Observation of the curious habits of small insects has
thrown its light upon science, as much as the dissection
of the elephant. Therefore, if any one is curious to see
what very great things may be illustrated by very small
matters, this book will give him some aid.

TO THE PUBLIC.

The author has written about small events and little
men for two reasons : first, there was nothing else in the
history of Illinois to write about ; secondly, these small
matters seemed besfc calculated to illustrate what he
wanted to promulgate to the people. The historical
events and personages herein recorded and described, are
related and delineated gravely and truthfully ; and by
no means in a style of exaggeration, caricature, or ro-
mance, after the fashion of Knickerbocker's amusing
history of New York ; but like a tale of romance, they
are merely made a kind of thread upon which to string
the author's speculations ; being his real, true, and genu-
ine views, entertained as a man, not as a politician, con-
cerning the practical operation of republican government
and the machinery party, in the new States of the West.
He has not ventured to call his book a history, for the
reason that much heavy lumbering matter, necessary to
constitute it a complete history, but of no interest to the
general reader, has been omitted. Indeed, every history
is apt to contain much matter not only tiresome to read,
but mischievous to be remembered ; and it is often the
unprofitable task of the antiquarian to busy himself in
raking and carefully saving from oblivion some stupid
or mischievous piece of knowledge, which the good
sense of the cotemporary generation of mankind had
made them forget.

TO THE PUBLIC. XV

The account of our very unimportant mobs and wars,
and particularly the Mormon wars, in which the au-
thor had the misfortune to figure in a small way him-
self, is here introduced, with the single remark, that
little events are recorded with a minuteness and particu-
larity which, it is hoped, will not tire, but will certainly
astonish the reader, until he sees the great principles
which they illustrate. The author has earnestly endeav-
ored to be as faithful and impartial as he well could,
considering that he was himself an actor in some of the
scenes described. For the history of the last four years,
embracing the term of his own administration of the
State government, the most difficult period of our his-
tory, he must bespeak some forbearance. The internal
improvement system, the banks, the great plenty of
money, had made every one morally drunk. The fail-
ure of all these brought about a sobering process, which
just began when the author came into office. The dif-
ferent modes of relief for unparalleled calamity, brought
about by unparalleled folly, which were proposed ; the
hideous doctrine of repudiation, and its apposite of in-
creasing the taxes to pay our just debts ; the everlasting
intrigues of politicians with the Mormons ; the serious
disturbances and mobs which these lead to ; and the
strife between the north and the south about the canal,
and their contests for power, were difficult subjects to

XVI TO THE PUBLIC.

f*

deal with. The author aimed to act positively, and not
negatively, in all these matters, which brought him into
fierce collision with many prominent men. He will go
down to the grave satisfied, in his own mind, that he
was right, and they wrong ; and therefore it may be,
that he has not spoken so flatteringly of some of them
as they may have wished. But he has set nothing
down in malice. It is believed that many public men
in Illinois aim to succeed only for the present, and have
acted their parts, with no idea of being responsible to
history ; and of course they have acted much worse than
they would have done, had they dreamed that history
some time or other would record their selfish projects,
and hand them down to another age. They were en-
couraged, by their insignificance, to hope for oblivion ;
and it is, perhaps, after all, not very fair to take them
by surprise, by recording their miserable conduct, giving
a small immortality to their littleness.

In all those matters in which the author has figured
personally, it will be some relief to the reader to find,
that he has not attempted to blow himself up into a
great man. He has no vanity of that sort ; and no one
thinks more humbly of him than he does of himself.
If he has been solicitous about anything concerning
himself, it has been to be considered " a well-meaning
sort of person ;" though he knows that this, of all oth-

TO THE PUBLIC. XVU.

A

ers, is the most uncommon character in public life, and

is the most despised by your men of rampant ambition.
Insignificant as he may be, yet, during his public life,
many volumes of billingsgate, in the newspaper style,
have been written against him ; but he has all the time
had the satisfaction of knowing his own errors and im-
perfections better than did his revilers. And, like an
Indian warrior about to be tortured, he could have point-
ed out vulnerable places and modes of infliction which
even the active, keen eye of malice itself failed to dis-
cover. He has effectually abandoned all aim to succeed
in public life in the future, having learned by long ex-
perience that in the pursuit of public honors " the play
is not worth the candle." He will therefore but little
regard malicious criticisms which may be the effect of
the remains of bad feelings excited by former contests ;
being assured that no such criticisms can in any wise
affect injuriously any of his plans for the future.

THE AUTHOR.
PBOEIA, Illinois, April 12, 1847.

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

CHAPTER I.

Petition of the Territorial Legislature to Congress to be admitted into the Union Bill
reported by Judge Pope, the territorial Delegate Amendments proposed by him
Boundaries of the State enlarged Ordinance of 1787 Claim of Wisconsin to the
fourteen northern counties Reasons for extending the boundaries Call of a Con-
vention Constitution adopted E. K. Kane Petition of the Covenanters Organi-
zation of the State Government Governor Bond recommends the Canal to Lake
Michigan Judge Foster Judge Thomas Legislature of 1819 Code of laws B^-
moval of the Seat of Government to Vandalia Origin of the name Vandalia Char-
acter of the people Notice of the French villages and of the early American set-
tlersSchools, learned professions The early preachers Pursuits and business of
the people Their ingenuity Anecdote of James Lemon Commerce Money
Speculation Banks in Ohio and Kentucky General indebtedness Money crisis
Creation of the State Bank of 1821 Its history Ool. Menard John M'Lean Judge
Young First duel Judge Lockwood.

IN the month of January, 1818, a petition was received from
the territorial Legislature of Illinois by Nathaniel Pope, the
delegate in Congress, (now district judge,) praying for the ad-
mission of the territory into the Union as an independent State.
Judge Pope immediately brought the subject before Congress ;
and at an early day thereafter was instructed, by the proper
committee, to report a bill in pursuance of the petition. Ow-
ing to the great amount of business which had matured, this
bill was not acted on until the month of April, when it became
a law, with certain amendments proposed by Judge Pope.
The amendments were, 1st, to extend the northern boundary of
the new State to the parallel of 42 30' north latitude ; and,

20 KtSTOBY OF ILLINOIS.

2d, to apply the three per cent, fund, arising from the sales of
the public lands, to the encouragement of learning, instead of
the making of roads leading to the State, as had been the case
' on the admission of Ohio and Indiana. These important changes
were proposed and carried through both houses of Congress
by Judge Pope, upon his own responsibility. The territorial
Legislature had not petitioned for them ; no one at that time
having suggested or requested the making of them ; but they
met the unqualified approbation of the people of Illinois.

By the Ordinance of 1787, there were to be not less than
three, nor more than five States in the territory north-west of
the Ohio river. The boundaries of these States were defined
by that law. The three States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois
were to include the whole territory, and were to be bounded by
the British possessions in Canada on the north. But Congress
reserved the power, if they thereafter should find it expedient,
to form one or two States in that part of the territory which
lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly
bend of Lake Michigan. That line, it was generally supposed,
was to be the north boundary of Illinois. Judge Pope, seeing
that the port of Chicago was north of that line, and would be
excluded by it from the State ; and that the Illinois and Michi-
gan canal (which was then contemplated) would issue from
Chicago, to connect the great northern lakes with the Missis-
sippi, and thus be partly within and partly without the State of
Dlinois, was thereby led to a critical examination of the Ordi-
nance, which resulted in a clear and satisfactory conviction,
that it was competent for Congress to extend the boundaries
of the new State as far north as they pleased ; and he found
no difficulty in convincing others of the correctness of his views.

As it is now understood that the new State of Wisconsin
puts in a claim under the Ordinance to the fourteen northern
counties in Illinois, embracing the richest and most populous
part of the State, it may be worth while to examine a little

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS. 21

whether Judge Pope and the Congress of 1818 were right in
their conclusions.

It appears that Congress retained the power, under the Ordi-
nance, if they should thereafter deem it expedient, to establish -
a State north of Illinois, in that part of the north-western ter-
ritory which lies north of the parallel running through the
southern bend of the Lake. Upon this provision is founded
the claim of Wisconsin. But there is nothing in the Ordinance
requiring such additional State to be formed of the territory
north of that line. Another State might be formed in that dis-
trict of country, but not o/it ; it need not necessarily include
the whole. By extending the limits of Illinois north of the
disputed line, Congress still had the power to make a new State
in that district of country north of it, not including the portion
given to Illinois. But the fallacy of the claim for Wisconsin
is further apparent from the facts, that the Ordinance establish-
ed the northern limits of Illinois to extend to the British pos-
sessions in Canada, in other words, to the northern boundary
of the United States ; that the creation of a new State north
of it, was made to depend upon the subsequent discretion of
Congress, and upon their .ideas of expediency. Undoubtedly,
Illinois could have been limited to the southern bend of Lake
Michigan. But Congress has never, as yet, established that line ;
but, on the contrary, has established one upwards of fifty
miles north of it, which line so established by Congress, the
people of Wisconsin say is void, as being against the Ordi-
nance. If we take the ground assumed by Wisconsin as the
true one, and admit that the line of 42 30' is void, as being
against the Ordinance, then it is plain that there is no northern
limit to Illinois, except the British possessions in Canada ; thus
making Illinois include all Wisconsin. If the people of Wis-
consin can show that the line of 42 30' is void, they do not es-
tablish any other ; their line was not established by the Ordi-
nance ; that law merely authorized Congress to establish it if

22 HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

they saw proper and deemed it expedient. But Congress has
never deemed it expedient to establish it. If, therefore, the
only line which Congress ever did establish is void, then Dli-
nois cannot be limited by a line which has never been establish-
ed, but must extend to the northern boundary of the Union, in-
cluding all Wisconsin. Premises from which such arguments
can fairly be drawn, must necessarily be suicidal to the claim
of the new State of Wisconsin, as they inevitably result in its
annihilation, and in extending the jurisdiction of Illinois over
the whole of its territory.

But there were other and much more weighty reasons for
this change of boundary, which were ably and successfully urged
by Judge Pope upon the attention of Congress. It was known
that in all confederated republics there was danger of dissolu-
tion. The great valley of the Mississippi was filling up with a
numerous people; the original confederacy had already ad-
vanced westward a thousand miles, across the chain of moun-
tains skirting the Atlantic ; the adjoining States in the western
country were watered by rivers running from every point of
the compass, converging to a focus at the confluence of the
Ohio and Mississippi at Cairo ; the waters of the Ohio, Cum-
berland and Tennessee rivers, carried much of the commerce
of Alabama and Tennessee, all of Kentucky, considerable por-
tions of that of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York, and the
greater portion of the commerce of Ohio and Indiana, down by
the Point at Cairo, (situate in the extreme south of Illinois,)
where it would be met by the commerce to and from the lower
Mississippi with all the States and territories to be formed in
the immense country on the Missouri, and extending to the
head waters of the Mississippi. Illinois had a coast of 1 50 miles
on the Ohio river, and nearly as much on the Wabash ; the
Mississippi was its western boundary for the whole length of
the State ; the commerce of all the western country was to pass
by its shores, and would necessarily come to a focus at the

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS. 23

mouth of the Ohio, at a point within this State, and within the
control of Illinois, if, the Union being dissolved, she should see
proper to control it. It was foreseen that none of the great
States in the west could venture to aid in dissolving the Union,
without cultivating a State situate in such a central and com-
manding position.

What then was the duty of the national government ? Illi-
nois was certain to be a great State, with any boundaries which
that government could give. Its great extent of territory, its
unrivalled fertility of soil, and capacity for sustaining a dense
population, together with its commanding position, would in
course of time give the new 'State a very controlling influence
with her sister States situate upon the western rivers, either in
sustaining the federal union as it is, or in dissolving it, and es-
tablishing new governments. If left entirely upon the waters
of these great rivers, it was plain that, in case of threatened
disruption, the interest of the new State would be to join a
southern and western confederacy. But if a large portion of
it could be made dependent upon the commerce and navigation
of the great northern lakes, connected as they are with the eastern
States, a rival interest would be created, to check the wish for
a western and southern confederacy.

It therefore became the duty of the national government, not
only to make Illinois strong, but to raise an interest inclining
and binding her to the eastern and northern portions of the
Union. This could be done only through an interest in the
lakes. At that time the commerce on the lakes was small, but
its increase was confidently expected, and indeed it has exceeded
all anticipations, and is yet only in its infancy. To accomplish
this object effectually, it was not only necessary to give to Il-
linois the port of Chicago and a route for the canal, but a con-
siderable coast on Lake Michigan, with a country back of it
sufficiently extensive to contain a population capable of exer-
cising a decided influence upon the councils of the State.

24 HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

There would, therefore, be a large commerce of the north,
western, and central portions of the State afloat on the lakes,
for it was then foreseen that the canal would be made ; and
this alone would be like turning one of the many mouths of
the Mississippi into Lake Michigan at Chicago. A very large
commerce of the centre and south would be found, both upon
the lakes and the rivers. Associations hi business, in interest,
and of friendship would be formed, both with the north and
the south. A State thus situated, having such a decided in-
terest in the commerce, and in the preservation of the whole
confederacy, can never consent to disunion ; for the Union can-
not be dissolved without a division and disruption of the State
itself. These views, urged by Judge Pope, obtained the un-
qualified assent of the statesmen of 1818 ; and this feature of
the bill, for the admission of Illinois into the Union, met the
unanimous approbation of both houses of Congress.

These facts and views are worthy to be recorded in history,
as a standing and perpetual call upon Illinoisians of every age
to remember the great trust which has been reposed in them,
as the peculiar champions and guardians of the Union, by the
great men and patriot sages who adorned and governed this
country in the earlier and better days of the^republic.

In pursuance of this Act of Congress, a Convention was called
hi Illinois, in the summer of 1818, which formed our present
Constitution. The principal member of it was Elias K. Kane,
late a senator in Congress and now deceased, to whose talents
we are mostly indebted for the peculiar features of the Con-
stitution. Mr. Kane was born in the State of New York, and
was bred to the profession of the law. He removed in early
youth to Tennessee, where he rambled about for some time,
and finally settled in the ancient village of Kaskaskia, in Dlinois,
about the year 1815, when he was about twenty years of age.
His talents were both solid and brilliant. After being appointed
Secretary of State under the new government, he was elected

HISTORY OF ILLIKOIS. 25

to the Legislature, from which he was elected and again re-elect-
ed to the United States Senate. He died a member of that body,
in the autumn of 1835 ; and in memory of him the County of
Kane, on Fox river, was named, as was also the County of
Pope, on the Ohio river, in honor of Judge Pope, the able and
faithful delegate in Congress from the Illinois territory. Dur-
ing the sitting of the Convention of 1818, the Keverend Mr.
Wiley and his congregation, of a sect called Covenanters, in
Randolph county, sent in their petition, asking that body to
declare in the Constitution about to be made, that "Jesus
Christ was the head of the government, and that the Holy
Scriptures were the only rule of faith and practice." It does
not appear by the journals of the Convention that this petition
was treated with any attention ; wherefore the Covenanters have
never yet fully recognized the State government. They have
looked upon it as " an heathen and unbaptized government"
which denies Christ ; for which reason they have constantly re-
fused to work the roads under the laws, serve on juries, hold
any office, or do any other act showing that they recognize the
government. For a long time they refused to vote at the elec-
tions ; and never did vote until the election in 1824, when the
question was, whether Illinois should be made a slave State,
when they voted for the first time, and unanimously against
slavery. In the election of members to the Convention, the
only questions made before the people were, the right of the
constituent to instruct his representative, and the introduction
of slavery, which were debated with great earnestness during
the canvass.

The Constitution, as formed, required the Governor and
Lieutenant Governor to have been citizens of the United States
for thirty years before their election. It also gave power to the
governor to nominate, and the Senate to confirm, all officers
whose appointments were not otherwise provided for by the
Constitution ; the only exceptions to this rule being the judges

26 HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

of the supreme and inferior courts, State treasurer, and public
printer. But motives of favor to particular persons, who were
looked to to hold office under the new government, induced the
Convention to make exceptions in both these cases, which in
the case of appointments to office in the hands of the legislature,
became the general rule.

Col. Pierre Menard, a Frenchman, and an old settler in the
country, was generally looked to to fill the office of lieutenant
governor ; but as he had not been naturalized until a year or
so before, the Convention declared in a schedule to the Consti-
tution, that any citizen of the United States who had resided in
the State for two years might be eligible to this office.

It was expected that Shadrach Bond would be the first gov-
ernor ; and the Convention wished to have Elijah C. Berry for
the first auditor of public accounts, but as it was believed that
Governor Bond would not appoint him to the office, the Con-
vention again declared in the schedule that " an auditor of pub-
lic accounts, an attorney general, and such other officers of the
State as may be necessary, may be appointed by the General
Assembly." The Constitution, as it stood, vested a very large
appointing power in the governor ; but for the purpose of get-
ting one man into office, a total change was made, and the
power vested in the legislature. It was for many years a ques-
tion, what was an " officer of the State." Were States' attor-
neys of the circuits ? Were the canal commissioners officers
for the State ? The legislature afterwards decided that all these
were State offices, and passed laws from time to time, vesting
in their own body all the appointing powers they could lay
their hands on. In this mode they appointed canal commis-
sioners, fund commissioners, commissioners of the board of
public works, bank directors for the principal banks and branch-
es, canal agents, States' attorneys, and all sorts of agencies
which seemed to be necessary. Sometimes such agents were
appointed by election, then again the legislature would pass a

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS. 27

law enacting them into office by name and surname. They
contrived to strip the governor of all patronage not positively
secured to him by the Constitution ; such as the appointment
of a secretary of State, and the filling of vacancies during the
recess of their sessions. At first the legislature contented them-
selves with the power to elect an auditor and attorney general.
The governor appointed all the States' attorneys, the recorders
of counties, all State officers and agents occasionally needed,
and many minor county officers. But in the administration of
Governor Duncan he was finally stripped of all patronage, ex-
cept the appointment of notaries public and public administra-
tors. Sometimes one legislature, feeling pleased with the gov-
ernor, would give him some appointing power, whiclt their
successors would take away, if they happened to quarrel with
him. This constant changing and shifting of powers, from one
co-ordinate branch of the government to another, which rendered
it impossible for the people to foresee exactly for what purpose
either the governor or legislature were elected, was one of the
worst features of the government. It led to innumerable in-
trigues and corruptions, and for a long time destroyed the har-
mony between the executive and legislative departments.
And all this was caused by the Convention of 1818, in the at-
tempt to get one man into an office of no very considerable
importance.

According to general expectation, Shadrach-Bond was elected
the first governor, and commenced his term of four years in
October, 1818. Governor Bond was a native of Maryland,
was bred a farmer, and was a very early settler amongst the
pioneers of the Illinois territory. He settled on a farm in the
American Bottom, in Monroe County, near the Eagle Creek.
He was several times elected to the territorial legislature, and
once a delegate to represent the territory in Congress. He was
also receiver of public moneys at Kaskaskia, but was never
elected or appointed to any other office after his term as gov-

28 HISTORY OP ILLINOIS.

ernor. Indeed, of the seven first governors of Illinois only one
has ever held any office since the expiration of their respective
terms of service ; though I believe they have all, except myself,
tried to obtain some other office. Governor Bond was a sub-
stantial, farmer-like man, of strong, plain common sense, with
but little pretensions to learning or general information. He
was a well-made, well-set, sturdy gentleman, and what is re-
markable at this day, his first message to the legislature con-
tains a strong recommendation in favor of the Illinois and
Michigan canal. At that early day the people north of Kas-
kaskia, then the seat of government, were northern people, and
in favor of northern interests. The inhabited parts of the State
then extended north, a little above Alton ; and at that time the
people of Randolph, Monroe, St. Clair and Madison, then north-
ern but now southern counties, were as anxious for the canal as
the people of Lasalle have been since. In like manner when
the seat of government was removed, first to Vandalia, and
afterwards to Springfield, the people north of those places, re-
spectively, whilst the seat of government remained at them,
were in favor of the canal and northern interests ; but when re-
moved from Vandalia to Springfield, the northern men between
Springfield and Vandalia were immediately converted into
Southerners, and most of them ever afterwards opposed the
canal. It seems that an imaginary east and west line will, in
the imagination of politicians, be drawn through the seat of
government, and all north of it will be north, and all south of
it will be south, with some trifling exceptions. Governor Bond
died about the year 1834 ; and for him was named the county
of Bond, lying on the waters of Shoal Creek.

The legislature was convened at Kaskaskia in October, 1818,
and organized the government by the election of Joseph Phil-
ips to be chief justice, Thomas C. Brown and John Reynolds,
and William P. Foster associate justices of the Supreme Court.
Judges Brown and Reynolds will be spoken of hereafter. Phil-

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS. 29

ips had been a captain in the regular army, and was afterwards
appointed secretary of State of the territory ; and, being a
lawyer and a man of high order of talent, was therefore elected
chief justice. Being afterwards a candidate for governor and
defeated, he left the State in such disgust as defeat is apt to
inspire, and went to reside in Tennessee, where he is yet alive.
Foster, who was elected one of the judges, was almost a total
stranger in the country. He was a great rascal, but no one
knew it then, he having been a citizen of the State only for
about three weeks before he was elected. He was no lawyer,
never having either studied or practised law ; but he was a man
of winning, polished manners, and was withal a very gentle-
manly swindler, from some part of Virginia. It might be said
of him, as it was of Lambro, " he was the mildest mannered
man that ever scuttled ship or cut a throat, with such true
breeding of a gentleman, that you never could divine his real
thought." He was believed to be a clever fellow, in the
American sense of the phrase, and a good-hearted soul. He
was assigned to hold courts in the circuit on the Wabash;
but being fearful of exposing his utter incompetency, he never
went near any of them. In the course of one year he resigned
his high office, but took care first to pocket his salary, and
then removed out of the State. He afterwards became a noted
swindler, moving from city to city, and living by swindling
strangers, and prostituting his daughters, who were very beau-
tiful.

Ninian Edwards, now no more, and Jesse B. Thomas, who
at this time resides in the State of Ohio, were elected our first
senators in Congress. Elias K. Kane was appointed secretary
of State, Daniel P. Cook was elected the first attorney general,
Elijah C. Berry auditor of public accounts, and John Thomas
State treasurer. Under the auspices and guidance of these
names, was Illinois launched on her career of administration,
as an independent State of the American Union. Among these

30 HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

gentlemen, I will at this time speak of Judge Thomas only.
He is first distinctly known when he resided in the territory
of Indiana, and was a member of the territorial legislature at
the time Indiana territory included all the Illinois country.
William Biggs and John Messenger, of St. Clair county, rep-
resented the Illinois country in that legislature, and were de-
sirous to obtain a division of that territory, and to erect a
separate territorial government for Illinois. The Indiana leg-
islature then met at Vincennes, a town on the Wabash, for
which reason it was long afterwards, by the vulgar, known by
the name of the " Vinsan kgislater ;" and the laws of the ter-
ritory during that period were called the laws of the " Vinsan
legislater." The Illinoisians wanted a legislature of their own
to meet at Kaskaskia, then vulgarly known by the name of
" Kusky," a corruption and contraction of the real name.
Whether the territory could be divided or not, depended upon
the election of a delegate to Congress. The Illinoisians were
anxious to elect one favorable to a division, and they selected
Mr. Thomas for this purpose. But being determined not to
be cheated, they made him give his bond to be in favor of a
division. With the aid of the Illinois vote and his own, Mr.
Thomas had a bare majority, and was elected. True to his
pledges and his bond, Mr. Thomas procured a division of the
territory, the erection of a separate territorial government for
Illinois, and came home with the appointment of one of the
judgeships of the supreme court of the new territory for him-
self. Judge Thomas then removed to Illinois, where he con-
tinued to be one of the judges during the existence of the ter-
ritory. He was elected from St. Clair county a member of the
Convention which formed the Constitution, and had the honor
to be chosen president of that body. He was twice elected to
the United States Senate, and hi the year 1827 left the State
to reside in Ohio. During his senatorial career, he was a great
favorite with William H. Crawford, the secretary of the treas-

HISTOKY OF ILLINOIS. 31

my, and was a warm advocate of Mr. Crawford's election to
the presidency ; but after Mr. Adams was declared to be elected
by the House of Representatives, he came over to the support
of Mr. Adams' administration. He was a large, affable, good-
looking man, with no talents as a public speaker ; but he was
a man of tact, an adroit and winning manager. It was a maxim
with him, that no man could be talked down with loud and bold
words, " but any one might be whispered to death."

It appears by the journals of this first legislature that a
committee was appointed to contract for stationery, who re-
ported that they had purchased a sufficient stock at the cost of
$13 50. For every dollar then paid, we now pay hundreds
for the same articles ; but this was in the days of real frugality
and economy, and before any of the members had learned the
gentlemanly art of laying in, from the public stock, a year or
two's supply at home. The assembly having organized the
State government and put it in motion, adjourned, to meet again
in the winter of 181 8-' 19. At this adjourned session a code
of statute law was passed, mostly borrowed from the statutes
of Kentucky and Virginia. Upon examining the laws of that
day, it will be seen that they are generally better drawn up
than those which were passed at a later and more enlightened
period. The members were mostly ignorant and unpretending
men ; there was then some reverence for men of real knowl-
edge and real abilities ; the world was not then filled with au-
dacious and ignorant pretenders ; and the sensible and unpre-
tending members were content to look to men of real talents
and learning to draw their bills. But in these days of empir-
icism and quackery in all things, when every ignorant pretender
who has the luck to " break" into the legislature imagines him-
self to be a Lycurgus or a Mpses, very few good laws have been
made ; and those which have, were drawn by men of talents
who were not members, for the most part.

But this code, as a whole, did not stand long. For many

82 HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

sessions afterwards, in fact until the new revision in 1827, all
the standard laws were regularly changed and altered every two
years, to suit the taste and whim of every new legislature. For
a long time the rage for amending and altering was so great,
that it was said to be a good thing that the Holy Scriptures did
not have to come before the Legislature ; for that body would
be certain to alter and amend them, so that no one could tell
what was or was not the word of God, any more than could
be told what was or was not the law of the State. A session
of the legislature was like a great fire in the boundless prairies
of the State ; it consumed everything. And again, it was like
the genial breath of spring, making all things new.

One of the most remarkable laws of this first code was the
act concerning negroes and mulattoes. It is to be observed
that the ordinance of Congress of the year 1787, and the deed
of cession of the country from Virginia, were interpreted so as
to secure the French settlers in a right to their slaves, and
the legislatures of the Indiana and Illinois territories had passed
laws allowing a qualified introduction of slavery. For instance,
it had been enacted that emigrants to the country might bring
their slaves with them, and if the slaves, being of lawful age
to consent, would go before the clerk of a county, and volun-
tarily sign an indenture to serve their master for a term of
years, they should be held to a specific performance of their
contracts. If they refused to give such consent, their masters
might remove them out of the territory in sixty days. The
children of such slaves, being under the age of consent, might
be taken before an officer and registered ; and then they were
bound by those laws to serve their masters until they were
thirty-two years old. Such slaves were then called indentured
and registered servants ; the French negroes were called slaves.
Many servants and slaves were held under these laws, but
the number of negroes was very small, compared with the num-
ber of the white inhabitants. Nevertheless, this first legislature

HISTOEY OF ILLINOIS. 83

re-enacted in Illinois all the severe and stringent laws to be
found in a slave State, where the number of negroes was equal
to, or greater than the number of white people, and where such
severity might be necessary to prevent rebellion and servile
war. For instance, it was enacted that no negro or mulatto
should reside in the State until he had produced a certificate of
freedom, and given bond, with security, for good behavior, and
not to become a county charge. No person was to harbor or
hire a negro or mulatto who had not complied with the law,
under the penalty of five hundred dollars fine. All such free
negroes were to cause their families to be registered. Every
negro or mulatto not having a certificate of freedom, was to
be deemed a runaway slave ; was liable to be taken up by any
inhabitant ; committed by a justice of the peace ; imprisoned
by the sheriff; advertised ; sold for one year ; and, if not
claimed within that time, was to be considered a free man, un-
less his master should afterwards reclaim him. Any person
bringing a negro into the State, to set him free, was liable to a
fine of two hundred dollars. Kiots, routs, unlawful assemblies,
and seditious speeches of slaves, were to be punished with
stripes, not exceeding thirty-nine, at the discretion of any jus-
tice of the peace ; also, slaves were to be punished with thirty-
five lashes for being found ten miles from home without a pass
from their master ; also, it was made lawful for the owner of
any dwelling or plantation to give, or order to be given, to
any slave or servant coming upon his plantation, ten lashes upon
his bare back ; and persons who should permit slaves and ser-
vants to assemble for dancing or revelling, by night or day.
were to be fined twenty dollars. It was made the duty of all
sheriffs, coroners, judges, and justices of the peace, on view of
such an assemblage, to commit the slaves to jail, and to order
each one of them to be whipped, not exceeding thirty-nine
stripes, on the bare back, to be inflicted the next day, unless
the same should be Sunday, and then on the next day after.

2*

34 HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

In all cases where free persons were punishable by fine under
the criminal laws of the State, servants were to be punished by
whipping, at the rate of twenty lashes for every eight dollars
fine. No person was to buy of, sell to, or trade with a slave or
servant, without the consent of his master ; and for so doing,
was to forfeit four times the value of the article bought, sold,
or traded. Lazy and disorderly servants were to be corrected
by stripes, on the order of a justice of the peace.

These provisions have been continued in all the revisions of
the law since made, and are now the law of the land. It was
partly the object of these laws to prevent free negroes from be-
coming numerous in the State, by discouraging their settlement
here, and discouraging runaway slaves from coming to Illinois,
to become free ; and when we consider the importance, for the
purposes of harmony and good government, of preserving a
homogeneous character amongst the people, such an object was
a wise one. But for what purpose such severities were de-
nounced against slaves and servants, when their numbers were
so few that they could not be dangerous, can only be conjec-
tured. The most plausible account of the matter may be, that
as the early legislators were from the slave States ; they im-
ported this law, as they did others, without considering its want
of application to the condition of the country. In the same
manner, we find early laws imported from the slave States for
the inspection of hemp and tobacco, when there was neither
hemp nor tobacco raised in the country. And no doubt the
feeling and habit of domination over the slave acquired in a
slave State, and brought by the settlers into a free one, had its
full share of influence. These laws would have been modified
or repealed long ere this, if it had not been for the abolition
excitement of modern times, which has made it dangerous to
the popularity of politicians to propose their repeal, since such
a proposition might indicate a leaning to that unpopular party.
But as it is, the severe points of them are now, and for a long

HISTORY OP ILLINOIS. 35

time past have been, a dead letter upon the pages of the statute
book, there being no instance, within the memory of the pres-
ent generation, of putting them in force.

This legislature also provided for the removal of the seat of gov-
ernment from the town of Kaskaskia, the ancient seat of empire
for more than one hundred and fifty years, both for the French
and American inhabitants. Commissioners were appointed to
select a new site, who made choice of a place, then in the midst
of the wilderness, on the Kaskaskia river, north-east of the set-
tlements, which they called " Vandalia." After the place had
been selected, it became a matter of great interest to give it
a good sounding name, one which would please the ear, and at
the same time have the classic merit of perpetuating the mem-
ory of the ancient race of Indians by whom the country had
first been inhabited. Tradition says that a wag who was pres-
ent, suggested to the commissioners that the " Vandals" were
a powerful nation of Indians, who once inhabited the banks of
the Kaskaskia river, and that " Vandalia," formed from their
name, would perpetuate the memory of that extinct but re-
nowned people. The suggestion pleased the commissioners,
the name was adopted, and they thus proved that the name of
their new city (if they were fit representatives of their con-
stituents) would better' illustrate the character of the modern
than the ancient inhabitants of the country.

In the year 1818, the whole people numbered about forty-
five thousand souls. Some two thousand of these were the
descendants of the old French settlers in the villages of Kaskas-
kia, Prairie Du Rocher, Prairie Du Pont, Cahokia, Peoria, and
Chicago. These people had fields in common for farming, and
farmed, built houses, and lived in the style of the peasantry in
old France an hundred and fifty years ago. They had made
no improvements in anything, nor had they adopted any of
the improvements made by others. They were the descend-
ants of those French people who had first settled the country,

36 HISTOEY OF ILLINOIS.

more than a hundred and fifty years before, under Lasalle, Ib-
berville, and the priests Alvarez, Rasles, Gravier, Pinet, Marest,
and others, and such as subsequently joined them from New
Orleans and Canada ; and they now formed all that remained of
the once proud empire which Louis XIV., king of France, and
the regent Duke of Orleans, had intended to plant in the Illi-
nois country. The original settlers had many of them inter-
married with the native Indians, and some of the descendants
of these partook of the wild, roving disposition of the savage,
united to the politeness and courtesy of the Frenchman. In
the year 1818, and for many years before, the crews of keel
boats on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers were furnished from
the Frenchmen of this stock. Many of them spent a great part
of their time, in the spring and fall seasons, in paddling their
canoes up and down the rivers and lakes in the river bottoms,
on hunting excursions, in pursuit of deer, fur, and wild fowl,
and generally returned home well loaded with skins, fur, and
feathers, which were with them the great staples of trade.
Those who stayed at home, contented themselves with culti-
vating a few acres of Indian corn, in their common fields, for
bread, and providing a supply of prairie hay for their cattle
and horses. No genuine Frenchman, in those days, ever wore
a hat, cap, or coat. The heads of both men and women were
covered with Madras cotton handkerchiefs, which were tied
around, in the fashion of night-caps. For an upper covering
of the body the men wore a blanket garment, called a " capot,"
(pronounced cappo) with a cap to it at the back of the neck,
to be drawn over the head for a protection in cold weather, or
in warm weather to be thrown back upon the shoulders in the
fashion of a cape. Notwithstanding this people had been so
long separated by an immense wilderness from civilized so-
ciety, they still retained all the suavity and politeness of their
race. And it is a remarkable fact, that the roughest hunter and
boatman amongst them could at any time appear in a ball-

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS. 37

room, or other polite and gay assembly, with the carriage and
behavior of a well-bred gentleman. The French women were
remarkable for the sprightliness of their conversation and the
grace and elegance of their manners. And the whole popula-
tion lived lives of alternate toil, pleasure, innocent amusement,
and gaiety.

Their horses and cattle, for want of proper care and food
for many generations, had degenerated in size, but had acquired
additional vigor and toughness ; so that a French pony was a
proverb for strength and endurance. These ponies were made
to draw, sometimes one alone, sometimes two together, one
hitched before the other, to the plough, or to carts made en-
tirely of wood, the bodies of which held about double the con-
tents of the body of a common large wheel-barrow. The oxen
were yoked by the horns instead of the neck, and in this mode
were made to draw the plough and cart. Nothing like reins
were ever used in driving ; the whip of the driver, with a han-
dle about two feet, and a lash two yards long, stopped or guided
the horse as effectually as the strongest reins.

The French houses were mostly built of hewn timber, set
upright in the ground, or upon plates laid upon a wall, the in-
tervals between the upright pieces being filled with stone and
mortar. Scarcely any of them were more than one story high,
with a porch on one or two sides, and sometimes all around,
with low roofs extending with slopes of different steepness from
the comb in the centre to the lowest part of the porch. These
houses were generally placed in gardens, surrounded by fruit-
trees of apples, pears, cherries, and peaches ; and in the villages
each enclosure for a house and garden occupied a whole block
or square, or the greater part of one. Each village had its
Catholic church and priest. The church was the great place
of gay resort on Sundays and holidays, and the priest was the
adviser and director and companion of all his flock. The peo-
ple looked up to him with affection and reverence, and he upon

88 HISTOEY OF ILLINOIS.

them with compassion and tenderness. He was ever ready to
sympathize with them in all their sorrows, enter into all their
joys, and counsel them in all their perplexities. Many good
Protestant ministers, who stoutly believed these Catholic priests
to be the emissaries of Satan, would have done well to imitate
their simple-hearted goodness to the members of their flocks.

The American inhabitants were chiefly from Kentucky, Vir-
ginia, and Pennsylvania. Some of them had been the officers
and soldiers under General George Rogers Clark, who conquer-
ed the country from the British in 1778, and they, with others
who afterwards followed them, maintained their position in
the country during the Indian wars in Ohio and Indiana in the
times of Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne. This handful of peo-
ple, being increased in the whole to about twelve thousand
souls, by subsequent emigration, with the aid of one company
of regular soldiers, defended themselves and their settlements,
during the war of 1812, against the then numerous and power-
ful nations of the Kickapoos, Sacs, and Foxes, Pottawattomies
and Shawnees, and even made hostile expeditions into the heart
of their territories, burning their villages, and defeating and
driving them from the country. In the year 1818, the settled
part of the State extended a little north of Edwardsville and
Alton ; south, along the Mississippi to the mouth of the Ohio ;
east, in the direction of Carlysle to the Wabash ; and down the
Wabash and the Ohio, to the mouth of the last-named river.
But there was yet a very large unsettled wilderness tract of
country, within these boundaries, lying between the Kaskaskia
river and the Wabash ; and between the Kaskaskia and the
Ohio, of three days' journey across it. There were no schools
in the county, except for reading, writing, and arithmetic, and
one school for surveying and book-keeping. The lawyers and
professional men came from abroad. Preachers of the gospel
frequently sprung up from the body of the people at home,
without previous training, except in religious exercises and in

HISTOEY OF ILLINOIS. 39

the study of the Holy Scriptures. In those primitive times it
was not thought to be necessary that a teacher of religion
should be a scholar. It was thought to be his business to preach
from a knowledge of the Scriptures alone, to make appeals warm
from the heart, to paint heaven and hell to the imagination of
the sinner, to terrify him with the one, and to promise the
other as a reward for a life of righteousness. However igno-
rant these first preachers may have been, they could be at no
loss to find congregations still more ignorant, so that they were
still capable of instructing some one. Many of them added to
their knowledge of the Bible, a diligent perusal of Young's
Night Thoughts, Watts' hymns, Milton's Paradise Lost, and
Hervey's Meditations, a knowledge of which gave more com-
pass to their thoughts, to be expressed in a profuse, flowery lan-
guage, and raised their feelings to the utmost height of poetical
enthusiasm.

Sometimes their sermons turned upon matters of controver-
sy ; unlearned arguments on the subject of free grace, baptism,
free will, election, faith, good works, justification, sanctification,
and the final perseverance of the saints. But that in which they
excelled, was the earnestness of their words and manner, leav-
ing no doubt of the strongest conviction in their own minds,
and in the vividness of the pictures which they drew of the in-
effable blessedness of heaven, and the awful torments of the
wicked in the fire and brimstone appointed for eternal punish-
ment. These, with the love of God to sinful men, the sufferings
of the Saviour, the dangerous apathy of sinners, and exhorta-
tions to repentance, furnished themes for the most vehement
and passionate declamations. But above all, they continually
inculcated the great principles of justice and sound morality.

As many of these preachers were nearly destitute of learning
and knowledge, they made up in loud hallooing and violent ac-
tion what they lacked in information. And it was a matter of
astonishment to what length they could spin out a sermon em-

40 HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

bracing only a few ideas. The merit of a sermon was meas-
ured somewhat by the length of it, by the flowery language of
the speaker, and by his vociferation and violent gestures. Nev-
ertheless, these first preachers were of incalculable benefit to
the country. They inculcated justice and morality, and to the
sanction of the highest human motives to regard them, added
those which arise from a belief of the greatest conceivable
amount of future rewards and punishments. They were truly
patriotic also ; for at a time when the country was so poor
that no other kind of ministry could have been maintained in
it, they preached without charge to the people, working week
days to aid the scanty charities of their flocks, in furnishing
themselves with a scantier living. They believed with a posi-
tive certainty that they saw the souls of men rushing to per-
dition ; and they stepped forward to warn and to save, with
all the enthusiasm and self-devotion of a generous man who
risks his own life to save his neighbor from drowning. And
to them are we indebted for the first Christian character of the
Protestant portion of this people.

The long, loud, and violent declamations of these early
preachers, seemed to be well adapted to the taste of the in-
habitants. In course of time their style became the standard
of popular eloquence. It was adopted by lawyers at the bar,
and by politicians in their public harangues ; and to this day,
in some of the old settled parts of the State, no one is accounted
an orator unless he can somewhat imitate thunder in his style
of public speaking. From hence, also, comes the vulgar notion
that any bellowing fellow, with a profusion of flowery bombast,
is a " smart man," a man of talents, fit to make laws, govern
the country, and originate its policy. The public exercises in
religion were greatly aided by the loud and wild music made
by the singing of untutored voices. He was considered the
best singer, who could wake up the echoes to his voice from
the greatest distance, in the deep woods around ; so that in pro-

,

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS. 41

cess of time, when the New England singing masters began to
establish singing schools, many people looked upon their scien-
tific and chastened performances with perfect scorn. One of
these itinerant teachers of music called his scholars together,
they being large, loud-voiced young men and women, trained
to sing at camp meetings. As he stood out in their midst, and
began a tune in a low, melodious voice, sawing the air with his
hand, to beat the time, sliding gracefully about the room, after
the fashion of a singing master, his scholars lifted up their loud
voices, and struck into the tune before him, overwhelming him
with a horrible din of sound, such as he had never heard be-
fore, drowning his feeble voice and his fine music, both together.
The scholars were vastly pleased with their own performance,
and held that of their teacher in utter contempt. Whereupon,
they all concluded with one accord, that each one of them was
already far superior to his teacher, and the school broke up.

The pursuits of the people were agricultural. A very few
merchants supplied them with the few necessaries which could
not be produced or manufactured at home. The farmer raised
his own provisions ; tea and coffee were scarcely used, except
on some grand occasions. The farmer's sheep furnished wool
for his winter clothing ; he raised cotton and flax for his sum-
mer clothing. His wife and daughters spun, wove, and made
it into garments. A little copperas and indigo, with the bark
of trees, furnished dye stuffs for coloring. The fur of the rac-
coon, made him a hat or a cap. The skins of deer or of his
cattle, tanned at a neighboring tan-yard, or dressed by himself,
made him shoes or moccasins. Boots were rarely seen, even
in the towns. And a log cabin, made entirely of wood, with-
out glass, nails, hinges, or locks, furnished the residence of many
a contented and happy family. The people were quick and in-
genious to supply by invention, and with their own hands, the
lack of mechanics and artificers. Each farmer, as a general
thing, built his own house, made his own ploughs and harness,

42 HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

bedsteads, chairs, stools, cupboards, and tables. The carts and
wagons for hauling, were generally made without iron, without
tires, or boxes, and were run without tar, and might be heard
creaking as they lumbered along the roads, for the distance of
a mile or more.

As an example of the talents of this people to supply all de-
ficiencies, and provide against accidents by a ready invention,
the following anecdote is related of James Lemon, one of the
old sort of baptist preachers, formerly of Monroe county, but
now deceased. Mr. Lemon was a farmer, and made all his own
harness. The collars for his horses were made of straw or corn
husks, plaited and sewed together by himself. Being engaged
in breaking a piece of stubble ground, and having turned out
for dinner, he left his harness on the beam of his plough. His
son, a wild youth, who was employed with a pitchfork to clear
the plough of the accumulating stubble, staid behind, and hid
one of the horse collars. This he did that he might rest whilst
his father made a new collar. But the old man, returning in
the afternoon and missing his collar, mused for a few minutes,
and then, very much to the disappointment of his truant son,
he deliberately pulled off his leather breeches, stuffed the legs
of them with stubble, straddled them across the neck of his
horse for a collar, and ploughed the remainder of the day, as
bare-legged as he came into the world. In a more civilized
country, where the people are better acquainted with the great
laws which control the division of labor, a half day would have
been lost in providing for such a mishap.

Such a thing as regular commerce was nearly unknown.
Until 1817, everything of foreign growth or manufacture had
been brought from New Orleans in keel boats, towed with ropes
or pushed with poles, by the hardy race of boatmen of that
day, up the current of the Mississippi ; or else wagoned across
the mountains from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and from thence
floated down the Ohio to its mouth in keel boats ; and from

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS. 43

there shoved, pushed, and towed up the Mississippi, as from
New Orleans. Upon the conclusion of the war of 1812 the
people from the old States began to come in, and settle in the
country. They brought some money and property with them,
and introduced some changes in the customs and modes of liv-
ing. Before the war, such a thing as money was scarcely ever
seen in the country, the skins of the deer and raccoon supplying
the place of a circulating medium. The money which was now
brought in, and which had before been paid by the United
States to the militia during the war, turned the heads of all the
people, and gave them new ideas and aspirations ; so that by
1819 the whole country was in a rage for speculating in lands
and town lots. The States of Ohio and Kentucky, a little be-
fore, had each incorporated a batch of about forty independent
banks. The Illinois territory had incorporated two at home,
one at Edwardsville and the other at Shawneetown ; and the
territory of Missouri added two more, at St. Louis. These
banks made money very plenty ; emigrants brought it to the
State in great abundance. The owners of it had to use it in
some way ; and as it could not be used in legitimate commerce
in a State where the material for commerce did not exist, the
most of it was used to build houses in towns which the limited
business of the country did not require, and to purchase land
which the labor of the country was not sufficient to cultivate.
This was called " developing the infant resources of a new
country."

The United States government was then selling land at two
dollars per acre ; eighty dollars on the quarter section to be
paid down on the purchase, with a credit of five years for the
residue. For nearly every sum of eighty dollars there was in
the country, a quarter section of land was purchased ; for in
those days there were no specie circulars to restrain unwar-
rantable speculations ; but, on the contrary, the notes of most
of the numerous banks in existence, were good in the public

44 HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

land offices. The amount of land thus purchased, was increased
by the general expectation that the rapid settlement of the
country would enable the speculator to sell it for a high price,
before the expiration of the credit. This great abundance of
money also, about this time, made a vast increase in the amount
of merchandise brought into the State. When money is plenty
every man's credit is good. The people dealt largely with the
stores on credit, and drew upon a certain fortune in prospect
for payment. Every one was to get rich out of the future
emigrant. The speculator was to sell him houses and lands ;
and the farmer was to sell him everything he wanted to begin
with and to live upon, until he could supply himself. Towns
were laid out all over the country, and lots were purchased by
every one on a credit ; the town maker received no money for
his lots, but he received notes of hand, which he considered to be
as good as cash; and he lived and embarked in other ventures,
as if they had been cash in truth. In this mode, by the year
1820, nearly the whole people were irrecoverably involved in
debt. The banks in Ohio and Kentucky broke, one after an-
other, leaving the people of those States covered with indebted-
ness, and without the means of extrication. The banks at home
and in St. Louis ceased business. The great tide of immigrants
from abroad, which had been looked for by every one, failed to
come. Real estate was unsaleable ; the lands purchased of the
United States were unpaid for, and likely to be forfeited. Bank
notes had driven out specie, and when these notes became
worthless, there was no money of any description left in the
country. And there was absolutely no commerce by means
of which a currency could be restored. For in those days we
exported nothing ; and if there had been any property fit for
exportation, there was no market for it abroad, and if there had
been a market, there was no capital with which to purchase it
and take it to market. The people began to sue one another
for their debts ; and as there was absolutely no money in the

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS. 45

country, it was evident that scarcely any amount of property
would pay the indebtedness.

To remedy these evils, the legislature of 1821 created a
State Bank. It was founded without money, and wholly on
the credit of the State. Tt was authorized to issue one, two,
three, five, ten and twenty dollar notes, in the likeness of bank
bills, bearing two per cent, annual interest, and payable by the
State in ten years. A principal bank was established at Van-
dalia, and four or five branches in other places ; the legislature
elected all the directors and officers ; a large number of whom
were members of the legislature, and all of them professional
politicians. The bank was directed by law to lend its bills to
the people, to the amount of one hundred dollars, on personal
security ; and upon the security of mortgages upon land for a
greater sum. These bills were to be receivable in payment of
all State and county taxes, and for all costs and fees, and sala-
ries of public officers; and if a creditor refused to endorse on
his execution his willingness to receive them in payment of
debt, the debtor could replevy or stay its collection for three
years, by giving personal security. So infatuated were this
legislature with this absurd bank project, that the members
firmly believed that the notes of this bank would remain at par
with gold and silver ; and they could readily prove their be-
lief to be well-founded; for the most difficult argument to an-
swer is one founded partly upon fact, but mostly upon guess
work and conjecture. As an evidence of the belief of the legis-
lature to this effect, the journals show that a resolution was
passed, requesting the secretary of the treasury of the United
States, to receive these notes into the land offices in payment
for the public lands. When this resolution was put to the vote
in the Senate, the old French lieutenant-governor, Col. Menard,
presiding over that body, did up the business as follows : " Gen-
tlemen of de Senate, it is moved and seconded dat de notes of
dis bank be made land office money. All in favor of dat mo-

46 HISTORY OP ILLINOIS.

tion, say aye ; all against it, say no. It is decided in de affirm-
ative. And now, gentlemen, / bet you one hundred dollar he
never be made land office money.' 1 '' The county of Menard, on.
the Sangamon river, was named in honor of him; and the
name could not have been more worthily bestowed.

John McLean, of Shawneetown, was then the speaker of the
House of Representatives. He was opposed to this bank, and
was possessed of a fertility of genius, and an overpowering
eloquence, of which the bank party were justly afraid. For
this reason, that party being in the majority in the House, re-
fused to go into committee of the whole, so as to allow Mr.
McLean to participate in the debate. Mr. McLean, indignant
at such treatment, resigned his office of speaker, and in a speech
remarkable for its ability and eloquence, predicted all the evil
consequences which resulted from the bank, and put in motion
an opposition to the prevailing policy of crippling creditors in
the collection of their debts, which thereafter prevented the
repetition of such measures during that generation. But the
majority were for the bill. The governor and judges, acting
as a council of revisidh, objected to it as being unconstitutional
and inexpedient, but it was afterwards repassed through both
houses, by the constitutional majorities. It was passed in the
spirit of brute force triumphing over the power of intellect.
The Supreme Court of the United States afterwards decided, in
the case of Craig against the State of Missouri, that the bills
payable at a future day of all such banks representing a State
only, were bills of credit, and prohibited by the constitution.

The most distinguished advocate for the creation of this bank,
amongst the members of the House of Representatives, was
Judge Richard M. Young, who has since been so prominent in
Illinois ; and who is one of the very many examples in our
history of the forgiving disposition of the people, to such of
their public servants as have been so unfortunate as to be in
favor of bad measures, or opposed to good ones. Mr. McLean

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS. 47

was also afterwards, as long as he lived, very prominent in the
politics of Illinois. He was several times elected to the legis-
lature, once elected to the lower house of Congress, and twice
to the United States Senate, and died a member of the Senate
in 1830. He was naturally a great, magnanimous man, and
a leader of men. The county of McLean was named in honor
of him.

In the summer of 1821, the new bank went into operation.
Every man who could get an endorser borrowed his hundred
dollars. The directors, it is believed, were all politicians ; and
either were then, or expected to be, candidates for office. Lend-
ing to everybody, and refusing none, was the surest road to
popularity. Accordingly, three hundred thousand dollars of
the new money was ' soon lent without much attention to secu-
rity or care for eventual payment. It first fell twenty-five
cents, then fifty, and then seventy cents below par. And as
the bills of the Ohio and Kentucky banks had driven all other
money out of the State, so this new issue effectually kept it out.
Such a total absence was there of the silver coins, that it be-
came utterly impossible, in the course of trade, to make small
change. The people, from necessity, were compelled to cut
the new bills into two pieces, so as to make two halves of a
dollar. This again further aided to keep out even the smallest
silver coins, for the people must know that good money is a
very proud thing, and will not circulate, stay, or go where bad
money is treated with as much respect as the good. For about
four years there was no other kind of money but this uncur-
rent State bank paper. In the meantime, very few persons
pretended to pay their debts to the bank. More than half of
those who had borrowed, considered what they had gotten from
it as so much clear gain, and never intended to pay it from
the first.

By the year 1824, it became impossible to carry on the State
government with such money as the bills of this bank. The

48 HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

State revenue varied from twenty-five to thirty thousand dol-
lars per annum, which was raised almost exclusively by a tax
on lands, then owned by non-residents, in the military tract
lying north-west of the Illinois river. The resident land tax in
other parts of the State, was paid into the county treasuries.
The annual expenditures of the State government were about
equal to the annual revenues ; and as the taxes were collected
in the bills of the State bank, the legislature, to carry on the
government, were compelled to provide for their own pay, and
that of all the public officers, and the expenses of the govern-
ment, by taking and giving enough of the depreciated bills to
equal in value the sums required to be paid. So that each
member, instead of receiving three dollars per day, received
nine dollars per day. The salaries of the governor and judges,
and all other expenses, were paid in the same way. So that
if $30,000 were required to pay the expenses of government
for a year, under this system it took $90,000 to do it. And
thus, by the financial aid of an insolvent bank, the legislature
managed to treble the public expenses, without increasing the
revenues or amount of service to the State. In fact, this State
lost two-thirds of its revenue, and expended three times the
amount necessary to carry on the government. In the course
of ten years, it must have lost more than $150,000 by receiving
a depreciated currency, $150,000 more by paying it out, and
$100,000 of the loans, which were never repaid by the borrow-
ers, and which the State had to make good, by receiving the
bills of the bank for taxes, by funding some at six per cent, in-
terest, and paying a part in cash in the year 1831.

The year 1820 was signalized by the first and last duel
which was ever fought in Illinois. This took place in Belleville,
St. Clair county, between Alphonso Stewart and William Ben-
nett, two obscure men. The seconds had made it up to be a
sham duel, to throw ridicule upon Bennett, the challenging par-
ty. Stewart was in the secret ; but Bennett, his adversary,

HISTOEY OF ILLINOIS. 49

was left to believe it a reality. They were to fight with rifles ;
the guns were loaded with blank cartridges ; and Bennett some-
what suspecting a trick, rolled a ball into his gun, without the
knowledge of the seconds, or of the other party. The word to
fire was given, and Stewart fell mortally wounded. Bennett
made his escape, but two years afterwards he was captured in
Arkansas, brought back to the State, indicted, tried and convict-
ed of murder. A great effort was made to procure him a par-
don ; but Governor Bond would yield to no entreaties in his
favor ; and Bennett suffered the extreme penalty of the law, by
hanging, in the presence of a great multitude of people. This
was the first and last duel ever fought in the State by any of its
citizens. The hanging of Bennett made duelling discreditable
and unpopular, and laid the foundation for that abhorrence of
the practice which has ever since been felt and expressed by
the people of Illinois. The present Judge Lockwood was then
the Attorney General of the State, and prosecuted in this case.
To his talents and success as a prosecutor, the people are in-
debted for this early precedent and example, which did more
than is generally known, to prevent the barbarous practice of
duelling from being introduced into this State.

3

CHAPTER II.

Governor Coles, Judges Philips and Brown, and General Moore The question of Slave-
ry The Missouri question Immigrants from the Slave States to Missouri Growing
desire for the introduction of Slavery The Slavery party Effort for a Convention
to amend the Constitution Hanson and Shaw Resolution for a Convention passed
The riotous conduct of the Slave party The free State party rally ; contest be-
tween them in the election of 1824 Principal men of each party The Convention
defeated Character of early political contests No measures ; and no parties of
Whig or Democrat, Federalist or Republican Effect of regular political parties
Reorganization of the Judiciary Circuit Courts established First case of proscrip-
tionCauses the repeal of the Circuit Courts Road law and School law providing
for a tax, operated well but were repealed Hatred of taxation School law of
1840; of 1845; William Thomas, H. M. Wood, John S. Wright, and Thompson
Campbell Present state of Schools Revision of the laws by Judges Lockwood and
Smith Governor Edwards, Mr. Sloe, Lieutenant Governor Hubbard His speech,
as a candidate for Governor His speech about Wolf scalps. The old State Bank
again Effort to investigate its management Resisted by the Bank officers Gov-
ernor Edwards' messages A packed committee report against the Governor Power
of a broken Bank Combinations to commit crime or resist law Daniel P. Cook
Governor Duncan Change of political parties General Jackson's defeat, and sub-
sequent election Influence of this upon parties Governor Duncan's change Win-
nebago War Galena " Suckers" " Pukes" The chief, Red Bird Governor Ed-
wards' claim to the public lands Sale of School lands Borrowing of the School
fund.

IN the year 1822, another Governor was elected, and this re-
sulted in again agitating the question of the introduction of
slavery. There were four candidates for the office, Joseph
Philips, the chief Justice ; Thomas C. Brown, one of the judges
of the Supreme Court ; Major-General James B. Moore, and
Edward Coles, who was at that time Register of the Land office
at Edwardsville. Mr. Gales was a Virginian, had been private
secretary to Mr. Madison, had travelled in Europe, was well
informed, well bred, and valuable in conversation ; had emanci-
pated his slaves in Virginia, was appointed to a land office in

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS. 61

Illinois, through the influence of Mr. Crawford, the Secretary of
the Treasury, had brought his slaves -with him to Illinois, and
settled them on farms, and was a thorough opponent of slavery.
At that early day, Mr. Crawford and John C. Calhoun, of South
Carolina, and others, were looking forward as candidates for the
Presidency. Ninians Edwards, one of our Senators, favored
Mr. Calhoun ; and Jesse B. Thomas, our other Senator, was in
favor of Mr. Crawford. To counteract the influence of Edwards,
Mr. Coles was sent out to Illinois. Philips and Brown were
from the slave States, and were in favor of slavery. General
Moore run also, as an opponent to slavery. Mr. Coles was
elected by a mere plurality vote over Philips, his highest com-
petitor ; and, of course, was so unfortunate as to have a majority
of the legislature against him during his whole term of service.
This election took place not long after the settlement of the
great Missouri question ; a question which convulsed the whole
nation, and came near dissolving the Union. The Illinois Sen-
ators in Congress had voted for the admission of Missouri into
the Union as a slave State, without restriction, whilst Mr. Cook,
then our only representative in the lower House, voted against
it. This all helped to keep alive some questions for or against
the introduction of slavery. About this time, also, a tide of im-
migrants was pouring into Missouri through Illinois, from Vir-
ginia and Kentucky. In the fall of the year, every great road
was crowded and full of them, all bound to Missouri, with their
money, and long trains of teams and negroes. These were the
most wealthy and best-educated immigrants from the slave States.
Many of our people who had land and farms to sell, looked
upon the good fortune of Missouri with envy ; whilst the lordly
immigrant, as he passed along with his money and droves of ne-
groes, took a malicious .pleasure in increasing it, by pretending
to regret the short-sighted policy of Illinois, which excluded him
from settlement amongst us ; and from purchasing the lands of
our people. In this mode, a desire to make Illinois a slave

52 HISTOKY OF ILLINOIS.

State, became quite prevalent. Many persons had voted for
Brown or Philips with this view ; whilst the friends of a free
State had rallied almost in a body for Coles.

Notwithstanding the defeat of the party at this election, they
were not annihilated. They had only been beaten for Governor
by a division in their own ranks ; whilst they had elected a
large majority in each house of the Assembly, and were now
determined to make a vigorous effort to carry their measure,
at the session of the legislature to be held in 1822-3. Gov-
ernor Coles, in his first message, recommended the emancipa-
tion of the French slaves. This served as the spark to kindle
into activity all the elements in favor of slavery.

Slavery could not be introduced, nor was it believed that the
French slaves could be emancipated, without an amendment of
the constitution ; the constitution could not be amended with-
out a new convention ; to obtain which, two-thirds of each
branch of the legislature had to concur in recommending it to
the people ; and the voters, at the next election, had to sanction
it by a majority of all the votes given for members of the leg-
islature. When the legislature assembled, it was found that
the Senate contained the requisite two-thirds majority ; but in
the House of Representatives, by deciding a contested election
in favor of one of the candidates, the slave party would have
one more than two-thirds ; but by deciding in favor of the other,
they would lack one vote of having that majority. These two
candidates were John Shaw and Nicholas Hanson, who claimed
to represent the county of Pike, which then included all the
military tracts, and all the country north of the Dlinois river
to the northern limits of the State.

The leaders of the slave party were anxious to re-elect Jesse
B. Thomas to the United States Senate. Hanson would vote
for him, but Shaw would not ; Shaw would vote for the Con-
vention, but Hanson would not. The party had use for both
of them, and they determined to use them both, one after the

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS. 53

other. For this purpose, they first decided in favor of Han-
son, admitted him to a seat, and with his vote elected their
United States Senator ; and then, towards the close of the ses-
sion, with mere brute force, and in the most barefaced manner,
they reconsidered their former vote, turned Hanson out of his
seat, and decided in favor of Shaw, and with his vote carried
their resolution for a convention.

The night after this resolution passed, the convention party
assembled to triumph in a great carousal. They formed them-
selves into a noisy, disorderly, and tumultuous procession,
headed by Judge Philips, Judge Smith, Judge Thomas Eey-
nolds, late governor of Missouri, and Lieutenant Governor Kin-
ney, followed by the majority of the legislature, and the hang-
ers-on and rabble about the seat of government ; and they
marched, with the blowing of tin horns and the beating of
drums and tin pans, to the residence of Governor Coles, and to
the boarding houses of their principal opponents, towards whom
they manifested their contempt and displeasure by a confused
medley of groans, wailings, and lamentations. Their object
was to intimidate, and crush all opposition at once.

But they were mistaken : the anti-convention party took new
courage, and rallied to a man. They established newspapers to
oppose the convention ; one at Shawneetown, edited by Henry
Eddy ; one at Edwardsville, edited by Hooper Warren, with
Gov. Coles, Thomas Lippincott, George Churchill, and Judge
Lockwood, for its principal contributors ; and finally, one at
Vandalia, edited by David Blackwell, the secretary of State.
The slave party had established a newspaper at Kaskaskia, un-
der the direction of Mr. Kane and Chief Justice Reynolds ; and
one at Edwardsville, edited by Judge Smith ; and both parties
prepared to appeal to the interests, the passions, and the intel-
ligence of the people. The contest was mixed up with much
personal abuse ; and now was poured forth a perfect lava of
detraction, which, if it were not for the knowledge of the peo-

54 HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

pie that such matters are generally false or greatly exaggerated,
would have overwhelmed and consumed all men's reputations.
Morris Birkbeck, an Englishman, who settled an English colony
in Edwards' county, Gov. Coles, David Blackwell, George
Churchill, and Thomas Lippincott, wrote fiery hand-bills and
pamphlets, and the old preachers preached against a convention
and slavery. Elias K. Kane, Judge Thomas Eeynolds, Judge
Samuel M'Roberts, Judge Smith, and others, wrote hand-bills
and pamphlets in its favor. These missive weapons of a fiery
contest were eagerly read by the people. The State was al-
most covered with them ; they flew everywhere, and everywhere
they scorched and scathed as they flew. This was a long, ex-
cited, angry, bitter, and indignant contest. It was to last from
the spring of 1823 until the August election of 1824 ; the rank
and file of the people were no less excited than their political
leaders. Almost every stump in every county had its bellow-
ing, indignant orator, on one side or the other ; and the whole
people, for the space of eighteen months, did scarcely anything
but read newspapers, hand-bills, and pamphlets, quarrel, argue,
and wrangle with each other whenever they met, and meet to-
gether to hear the violent harangues of their orators.

The principal partisans in favor of a convention, were Judges
Philips, Brown, and John Reynolds, Jesse B. Thomas and Gov. '
Edwards, our senators in Congress, Lieut. Gov. Kinney, Judge
Smith, Chief Justice Thomas Reynolds, John M'Lean, Elias
K. Kane, Judge M'Roberts, and Gov. Bond. And the princi-
pal men opposed to a convention and slavery, were Morris
Birkbeck, Gov. Coles, Daniel P. Cook, our member of Congress,
David Blackwell, George Churchill, Samuel D. Lockwood,
Thomas Lippincott, Hooper Warren, George Forquer, Thomas
Mather, and Henry Eddy. The odds in the array of great
names seemed to be in favor of the convention party. The
question of slavery was thoroughly discussed. The people took
an undivided and absorbing interest in it ;- they were made to

HISTOEY OF ILLINOIS. 55

understand it completely ;. and as this was long before the
abolition excitement of modern times, the introduction of slavery
was resisted, not so much upon the ground of opposition to
it in general, as simply upon the grounds of policy and expe-
diency. The people decided, by about two thousand majority,
in favor of a free State. Thus, after one of the most bitter,
prolonged, and memorable contests which ever convulsed the
politics of this State, the question of making Illinois a slave
State was put to rest, as it is hoped, forever.

Nothing of any interest occurred after this struggle until
the session of the legislature in 1824-'5. The people had been
so long under the influence of an intense excitement, that they
required rest. And as a general thing, they had not then be-
come inured to a political warfare, which has latterly become
interminable. The contests in those days were of short dura-
tion, and were scarcely ever repeated on the same grounds or
questions. There were no parties of Whig and Democrat,
Federalist and Eepublican. The contests were mostly personal,
and for men. As for principles and measures, with the excep-
tion of the convention question, there were none to contend
for. Every election turned upon the fitness and unfitness, the
good and bad qualities of the candidates. The only mode of
electioneering for a friend then known, was to praise one set
of men, and blacken the characters of the other. The candi-
dates were not announced until within a few weeks of the elec-
tion; the contest was soon over, and then peace and quiet
reigned until the next election, two years afterwards.

There are those who are apt to believe that this mode of
conducting elections is likely to result in the choice of the best
materials for administering government. But experience did
not prove the fact to be so. The idea of electing men for
their merit has an attractive charm in it to generous minds ;
but in our history it has been as full of delusion as it has
been attractive. Nor has the organization of regular parties,

56 HISTOKY OF ILLINOIS.

and the introduction of the new principle in elections of
" measures not men," fully answered the expectation of its
friends. But if the introduction of such parties, supposed to
be founded on a difference in principles, has done no other good,
it has greatly softened and abated the personal rancor and as-
perity of political contests, though it has made such contests
increasing and eternal. It is to be regretted, however, if there
be evils attending the contests of party, that society cannot re-
ceive the full benefit from them by the total extinction of all
mere personal considerations, personal quarrels, and personal
crimination, not necessary to exhibit the genius and tendency
of a party as to measures, and which are merely incidental to
contests for office. The present doctrine of parties is measures,
not men, which if truly carried out would lead to a discussion
of measures only. But parties are not yet sufficiently organ-
ized for this ; and, accordingly, we find at every election much
personal bitterness and invective mingled with the supposed
contests for principle. The political world is still full of those
men who believe, and perhaps believe correctly, that the at-
tachment to principle is not yet so general and perfect as to de-
stroy all chance of overthrowing the principles of a candidate
by overwhelming his reputation with falsehood. Perhaps the
time may come when all these personal contests will be con-
fined to the bosom of one party, in selecting the best candidates
to carry out its principles.

At the session of 1824-'5, the legislature, under the provis-
ions of the Constitution, re-organized the judiciary, by creating
five circuit court judges, who were to hold all the circuit courts
in the State ; and the supreme court, composed of four judges,
was to be held twice a year at the seat of government. Wil-
liam Wilson was elected chief justice ; Thomas C. Brown, Sam-
uel D. Lockwood, and Theophilus W. Smith were elected asso-
ciate judges of the supreme court ; John York Sawyer, Samuel
M'Roberts, Richard M. Young, James Hall, and James O.

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS. 57

Wattles, were elected judges of the circuits ; and James Tur-
ney to be attorney general. Of these ten great officers, it is
believed that Wilson, Brown, Smith, Sawyer, M'Roberts,
Young, Hall, and Turney, had belonged to the convention
party ; but such was the nature of party, at that day, that they
had not lost their popularity even with the party opposed to
them. The anti-convention party had a large majority in this
legislature ; but upon the principle of men, not measures, they
put their opponents into office.

Proscription for opinion's sake was then but little known.
The first instance of it was shortly afterwards put in practice by
one of the circuit judges. Judge M'Roberts removed Joseph
Conway, an opponent, and appointed Emanuel J. West, a friend
of his own, to be clerk of the circuit court of Madison county.
Mr. Conway was well known, and popular in several of the
adjacent counties. The people of his own county elected him
to the Senate without opposition, and kept him there, by re-
election, for eight years. A great outcry was raised against
the extravagance of the judiciary system, the prodigal waste of
the public money to pension unnecessary life officers upon the
people ; and a talented young lawyer, of stirring eloquence in
the southern part of the State, a man possessing many qualities
which admirably fitted him for a demagogue of the highest
order, mounted the hobby, and rode it in a storm of passion
through several counties in the south. The legislature of 1826-'7
repealed the circuit system, turned the circuit judges out of
office, and required the judges of the 'supreme court to hold
the circuit courts. The chief reasons for the repeal of the
system, were its cost and the proscription of a popular clerk.
It was thought to be the height of extravagance to maintain
nine judges, though the salaries of all of them together amounted
only to six thousand two hundred dollars. The salary of a
judge of the supreme court was eight hundred dollars, and that
of a circuit judge was six hundred dollars. Such were then the

3*

58 HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

popular notions of economy and extravagance in public expen-
ditures.

The effort to repeal the circuit judges out of office was aided
by a decision of Judge M'Eoberts on the circuit. It has been
said before that Gov. Coles had emancipated his negroes. The
law required him to give a bond for their good behavior, and
that they should not become a county charge. This he omitted
to do, and thereby subjected himself to a penalty of two hun-
dred dollars for each negro, to be sued for by the county in
which they were set free. The county commissioners of Madi-
son county, during the convention contest, were instigated to
bring a suit against him* for this penalty, and obtained the ver-
dict of a jury in the suit for two thousand dollars ; but before
any judgment was rendered, the legislature, by law, released
him from the penalty. At the next term of the court, Gov.
Coles, in pursuance of the act of the legislature for his relief,
plead it in bar of a judgment on the verdict. But Judge
M'Roberts, being under the erroneous belief that the legal doc-
trine of vested rights was applicable to municipal corporations
created solely for purposes of government, decided that the law
was unconstitutional and void. The decision made a great noise
at the time, as it naturally would directly after a fierce contest
about slavery. It was taken to the supreme court and reversed,
as a matter of course.

At the session of 1825, also, William S. Hamilton introduced
a new road law, which passed the legislature. Hitherto the
law had required every able-bodied man to work on the roads
five days in the year. The new law levied a tax in proportion
to property, to be applied in money or labor to the construc-
tion and repair of roads. Gov. Duncan, then a member of the
Senate, introduced a bill which became a law, for the support
of schools by a public tax. Both of these laws worked ad-
mirably well. The roads were nevci', before nor since, in such
good repair, and schools flourished in almost every neighbor-

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS. 59

hood. But it appears that these valuable laws were in advance
of the civilization of the times. They were the subject of much
clamorous opposition. The very idea of a tax, though to be
paid in labor as before, was so hateful, that even the poorest
men preferred to work five days in the year on the roads
rather than to pay a tax of twenty-five cents, or even no tax
at all. For the 'same reason, they preferred to pay all that was
necessary for the tuition of their children, or to keep them in
ignorance, rather than submit to the mere name of a tax by
which their wealthier neighbors bore the brunt of the expense
of their education. Both of these laws were repealed and the
old systems restored, by the legislature of 1826-'7. Since
then, the legislature has been constantly engaged in making and
amending laws for roads and schools, but there has been no
good system of either. Each subsequent attempt has been only
a vain effort to accomplish its purpose by inadequate means.
To come forward a little, in 1840 Judge William Thomas, of
Jacksonville, prepared a school bill which became a law, but
for want of the taxing power, which the legislature refused to
grant, it had but little effect. In the summer of 1844, John
S. Wright, of Chicago, H. M. Weed, of Lewiston, Thomas M.
Kilpatrick, of Winchester, and others, got up a common school
convention at Peoria, which prepared a very enlightened memo-
rial to the legislature in favor of common schools ; and as a
means of furthering the common object, the governor, at the
session of 1844, recommended the appointment of a superin-
tendent of common schools, to stir up the people and to col-
lect information for the use of the legislature. The whole re-
sulted in a new school law, making the secretary of State ex
officio the superintendent of common schools, and authorizing
a school tax to be levied in each district. Mr. Thompson
Campbell, the secretary of State, made an able report to the
legislature of 1846-'7, from which it appears that information
had been collected from fifty-seven counties only, out of the

60 HISTORY OP ILLINOIS.

ninety-nine in the State, and that, with the exception of Chicago
and some other places, the common schools were nowhere in a
very flourishing condition. The school commissioners and other
agents of schools in the counties, receiving no compensation
for their services, were generally negligent of their duties, or
not qualified to perform them. Almost everywhere the people
had refused to tax themselves under the law ; and in almost
all the south part of the State there were complaints that the
legal standard of qualifications for teachers was too high, the
law requiring a knowledge of reading, writing, and arithmetic,
English grammar, geography, and history ; and the people,
being scarce of materials for such learned teachers, were de-
sirous of getting back to the old standard of reading, writing,
and ciphering, to the rule of three, or at farthest through the
arithmetic.

And now to go back again ; at the session of 1824-'5, the
judges of the supreme court were appointed to prepare a re-
vision of the laws, and present it at the next session. At the
session of 1826-'7, Judges Lock wood and Smith presented the
result of their labor, which was adopted, and the laws then
presented by them, have been standard laws in every revision
since. It is believed that they were the authors of the laws in
the revised code, under the titles Abatement, Account, Amend-
ments and Jeofails, Apprentices, Attachments, Attorneys, Bail,
Bills of Exchange, Chancery, Conveyances, Courts, Criminal
Code, Depositions, Detinue, Dower, Evidence, Forcible Entry
and Detainer, Fugitives from Justice, Habeas Corpus, Jails
and Jailors, Limitations, Mandamus, Minors and Orphans, Ne
Exeat and Injunctions, Oaths and Affirmations, Practice, Prom-
issory Notes, Replevin, Right of Property, and Sheriffs and
Coroners. Judge M'Roberts prepared the act concerning
frauds and perjuries; Judge Sawyer, the act concerning in-
solvent debtors; Judge Young, the act concerning wills and
testaments ; and Henry Starr, Esq., now of Cincinnati, pre-

*

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS. 61

pared the act concerning judgments and executions. It is most
probable that all these laws were more perfect when they came
from the hands of their authors, than after they were amended,
somewhat out of shape and system, by the legislature.

A new election for governor took place in 1826, for which
office there were three candidates Thomas C. Sloe, now of
New Orleans, was one of them. He was a well-informed mer-
chant, and a man of good character and strong sense, and
withal was a well-bred, courteous gentleman. Ninian Ed-
wards, and the then lieutenant-governor, Adolphus Frederick
Hubbard, were the other two candidates. As a part of a pic-
ture of the times, and as illustrative of what a candidate for
governor thought of himself and the people, I preserve a few
words of one of Mr. Hubbard's public addresses during the
canvass. In his speeches he said : " Fellow-citizens, I offer my-
self as a candidate before you, for the office of governor. I do
not pretend to be a man of extraordinary talents ; nor do I
claim to be equal to Julius Caesar or Napoleon Bonaparte, nor
yet to be as great a man as my opponent, Governor Edwards.
Nevertheless, I think I can govern you pretty well. I do not
think that it will require a very extraordinary smart man to
govern you ; for to tell you the truth, fellow-citizens, I do not
think you will be very hard to govern, no how." Mr. Hub-
bard could not have made this last assertion with much show
of truth, for several years part.

This gentleman had made himself famous for a number of
odd sayings, and by a speech in the legislature on a bill to pay
a bounty on wolf-scalps. Tradition has preserved this speech
as follows : " Mr. Speaker, I rise before the question is put on
this bill, to say a word for my constituents. Mr. Speaker, I
have never seen a wolf. I cannot say that I am very well ac-
quainted with the nature and habits of wolves. Mr. Speaker,
I have said that I had never seen a wolf. But now I remem-
ber that once on a time, as Judge Brown and I were riding

62 HISTOEY OF ILLINOIS.

across the Bonpas prairie, we looked over the prairie about
three miles, and Judge Brown said, Hubbard ! look ! there
goes a wolf ! And I looked, and I looked, and I looked, and I
said, Judge, where ? And he said there ; and I looked again,
and this time, in the edge of a hazle thicket, about three miles
across the prairie, I think I saw the wolf's tail. Mr. Speaker,
if I did not see a wolf this time, I think I never saw one. But
I have heard much and read more about this animal. I have
studied his natural history. By-the-bye, history is divided
into two parts ; there is, first, the history of the fabulous, and
secondly, of the non-fabulous, or unknown ages. Mr. Speaker,
from all these sources of information, I learn that the wolf is a
very noxious animal ; that he goes prowling about, seeking
something to devour ; that he rises up in the dead and secret
hours of the night, when all nature reposes in silent oblivion,
and then commits the most terrible devastations upon the rising
generation of hogs and sheep. Mr. Speaker, I have done, and
return my thanks to the house for their kind attention to my
remarks." These speeches are truly characteristic of the man ;
and they are given as being illustrative of the state of civiliza-
tion which existed, when such a man could be elected to the
office of lieutenant-governor, and gain such popularity in his
office as to be encouraged to become a candidate for governor.
Ninian Edwards, the other candidate at this election, was
born in Maryland and brought up in Kentucky. He was bred
to the legal profession, and became attorney-general of Ken-
tucky at an early age. At the age of twenty-eight, he was ap-
pointed chief justice of the High Court of Appeals. He held
this office when the late Chief Justice Boyle, of Kentucky, was
appointed the first governor of the Illinois territory in 1809.
Mr. Edwards preferred to be governor of the territory, and
Mr. Boyle preferred to be chief justice ; so in the end they ex-
changed offices. Edwards was sent out to Illinois by the pres-
ident as first governor of the territory, and Boyle was made

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS. 63

chief justice by the Governor of Kentucky. Edwards was a
large, well-made man, with a noble, princely appearance, which
was a circumstance greatly in his favor, as governor over a rude
people, of whom it may be said, that the animal greatly predom-
inated over the intellectual man. In fact, it may well be ques-
tioned whether mankind ever will become so intellectual and

^B

spiritual, that mere size, vigor of muscle, and consequent ani-
mal spirits, will cease to have more influence with the multi-
tude than mere intellect, unaided by these fleshly advantages.
Gov. Edwards had been governor of the Illinois territory for
nine years, and was then elected to the United States Senate.
In this office he showed an extensive knowledge of public affairs,
and became distinguished as a man of fine talents throughout
the Union. Whilst in the Senate, he was appointed by Mr.
Monroe to be minister to Mexico, and shortly after this ap-
pointment, whilst on his way home to Illinois, to prepare for
his mission, he wrote out and sent back to the House of Rep-
resentatives in Congress, various charges against William H.
Crawford, secretary of the treasury, accusing him of a corrupt
administration of the treasury department, in aid of his election
to the presidency. A committee of investigation was appointed,
a messenger of the House was sent after Mr. Edwards, with
whom he was required to return to Washington. Mr. Edwards
failed to make good his charges to the satisfaction of the com-
mittee, and as this happened just before the presidential election
of 1824, when the whole country was convulsed with excitement,
it resulted in prostrating his character abroad, and very much
affected his standing at home. Public opinion was so much
against him in the nation, that he resigned his mission to Mex-
ico. Gov. Edwards has often informed me himself, that he
made the charges against Mr. Crawford under a promise of
support from President Monroe, Gen. Jackson, John C. Cal-
noun, and John Quincy Adams. I merely give his words,
without pretending to know whether he spoke the truth or not.

64 HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

But one thing makes his statement the more probable. Mr.
Crawford had been nominated for the presidency by a caucus
of fifty or sixty of the republican members of Congress. Before
that time, this had been the usage of the republican party. But
Gen. Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and Henry Clay, were in-
dependent candidates, John C. Calhoun had been one and de-
clined ; and many people believing caucus nominations by
members of Congress to be utterly corrupt and corrupting, a
powerful party was formed to break up the usage. Upon this
principle all the other candidates and their friends were rallied
against Mr. Crawford.

This defeat very much injured the influence of Gov. Edwards,
and now, when, as a candidate for Governor he attacked the finan-
cial system which had hitherto prevailed ; and committed him-
self to press an investigation into the corruptions of the old
State bank, he was not listened to, or confided in to the extent
required by a reformer, in the work of reforming public abuses.
He was opposed by all the old members of the legislature,
who had supported the many unwise measures of finance, and
by the whole bank influence, from the Presidents down to the
lowest agents, who had in anywise cause to fear an investiga-
tion. But his great talents and fine personal appearance en-
abled him to triumph over his adversaries. He was elected by
a mere plurality vote over Mr. Sloe, his principal opponent.
It is worthy of remark here, that he never condescended to the
common low arts of electioneering. Whenever he went out
among the people, he arrayed himself in the style of a gentle-
man of the olden times, dressed in fine broadcloth, with short
breeches, long stockings, and high, fair-topped boots ; was drawn
in a fine carriage, driven by a negro ; and for success he relied
upon his speeches, which were delivered with great pomp, and
in a style of diffuse and florid eloquence.

When he was inaugurated in 1826, he appeared before the
General Assembly wearing a gold-laced cloak, and with great

HISTORY OP ILLINOIS. 65

pomp he pronounced his first message to the two houses of
the legislature. In this address he merely repeated the grounds
which he had taken as a candidate. But in several messages
afterwards, he pointed out to the House of Representatives
specific acts of mismanagement and corruption on the part of
the officers of the old bank. A committee of investigation was
appointed. The bank directors and officers, new and old, were
sent for from every quarter. The charges of corruption were
directed more particularly against Judge Smith, who, as cashier,
had administered the Edwardsville branch. Smith was a saga-
cious, active and blustering politician, and managed to make all
persons who had been connected with the bank, believe that
they were all involved in a common danger. A powerful com-
bination of influential men was thus formed to thwart the in-
vestigation, and ensure their common safety from impeachment.
And now commenced such a running to and fro, about the seat
of government by day and night, as can only be equaled by
a swarm of bees when rudely attacked in their hive. The Gov-
ernor was openly and boldly charged with base motives ; and
that kind of stigma was attempted to be cast on him, which is
apt to fix itself upon a common informer. His charges against
Mr. Crawford were remembered ; and he was now charged with
being influenced by hostility towards Judge Smith, who had
been a friend to Mr. Crawford's election. Judge Smith, with
others involved in the charges, as a sure mode of defence raised
a cry of persecution, and alleged that the whole weight of the
executive power and influence, directed by the spirit of revenge,
had been pointed to overwhelm them. Without pronouncing
here upon either the guilt or innocence of the accused, it may
be remarked that it is no uncommon thing