Centennial history of Illinois

T-I B R.AFLY

OF THE

UNIVERSITY
Of ILLINOIS

9773

1922.

Return this book on or before the
Latest Date stamped below.

University of Illinois Library

APR131

J»*» * -

VC19

DEC 01

NOV 0 3

Sllmois Centennial ^publications

PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY

OF THE
ILLINOIS CENTENNIAL COMMISSION

THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF ILLINOIS

CLARENCE WALWORTH ALVORD

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

VOLUME II

ILLINOIS CENTENNIAL COMMISSION

OTTO LEOPOLD SCHMIDT, Chairman
JESSIE PALMER WEBER, Secretary

EDWARD BOWE EVARTS BOUTELL GREENE

JOHN J. BROWN GEORGE PASFIELD, JR.

JOHN W. BUNN WILLIAM NELSON PELOUZE

WILLIAM BUTTERWORTH ANDREW JACKSON POORMAN, JR.

LEONARD ALLAN COLP THOMAS F. SCULLY

ROYAL WESLEY ENNIS FREDERIC SIEDENBURG
EDMUND JANES JAMES

COMMITTEE ON CENTENNIAL PUBLICATIONS

EVARTS BOUTELL GREENE, Chairman

ROYAL WESLEY ENNIS OTTO LEOPOLD SCHMIDT

EDMUND JANES JAMES FREDERIC SIEDENBURG

THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF ILLINOIS
VOLUME TWO

THE FRONTIER STATE

1818-1848

BY

THEODORE CALVIN PEASE

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

CHICAGO

A. C. McCLURG & CO.

1922

COPYRIGHT, 1918

BY THE
ILLINOIS CENTENNIAL COMMISSION

V.ci

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE ........ i

II. THE NEW STATE GOVERNMENT, 1818-1828 ... 33

III. TEN YEARS OF STATE FINANCE ....... 52

IV. THE CONVENTION STRUGGLE ........ 70

V. THE WAR ON NINIAN EDWARDS ....... 92

VI. THE RISE OF JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY . . . . 114

VII. STATE POLITICS, 1830-1834 ......... 136

VIII. THE LAST OF THE INDIANS ......... 150

IX. THE SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTH ....... 173

X. THE INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM ..... 194

XI. THE WRECK OF THE INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT

SYSTEM, 1837-1842 ........... 216

XII. THE STRUGGLE FOR PARTY REGULARITY, 1834-1838 . 236

XIII. THE WHIG AND DEMOCRATIC PARTIES; THE CON-

VENTION SYSTEM ............ 251

XIV. THE PASSING OF THE OLD DEMOCRACY ..... 265
XV. STATE POLITICS, 1840-1847 ......... 278

XVI. STATE AND PRIVATE BANKING, 1830-1845 .... 303

XVII. THE INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM: THE

SOLUTION .............. 316

XVIII. THE SPLIT OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, 1846-1848 . 327

XIX. THE MORMON WAR ............ 340

XX. THE SLAVERY QUESTION .......... 363

XXI. ILLINOIS IN FERMENT ........... 383

XXII. SOCIAL, EDUCATIONAL, AND RELIGIOUS ADVANCE,

1830-1848 .............. 410

BIBLIOGRAPHY .............. 443

INDEX ................ 455

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

STUMP SPEAKING Frontispiece

POPULATION OF ILLINOIS IN 1820 4

EDWARD COLES 76

ELIAS KENT KANE 94

POPULATION OF ILLINOIS IN 1830 174

CHICAGO IN 1843 192

THE CAPITOL AT VANDALIA 204

THOMAS FORD 290

POPULATION OF ILLINOIS IN 1840 384

PECK-MESSENGER MAP, 1835 412

PREFACE

THE time available for the writing of this volume was
necessarily shortened by the entrance of the United States
into the European war and my consequent decision to apply
for admittance to a Reserve Officers' Training Camp. The
final revision was done during the short interval between the
time when I was awarded my commission and the time of my
reporting for duty. Much of the work of revision, therefore,
that I should under normal conditions have done, I have of
necessity intrusted to others. When I entered the training
camp two chapters ( 8 and 21) were unwritten. Miss Agnes
Wright, my assistant, has supplied these and, in addition, has
given valuable assistance during the preparation of the manu-
script of the entire volume. My brother, Albert A. Pease, has
carefully read the volume in manuscript and has suggested
many improvements in the text. The editor-in-chief of the
series, Clarence W. Alvord, has very kindly added to the
customary duties of an editor a care for details which of right
falls to the author. I congratulate myself that in the emer-
gency I have been able to draw on my friends for competent
assistance ungrudgingly given.

It is a pleasant duty to acknowledge my indebtedness to
individuals not connected with the work of the Centennial
Commission. I am under obligation to Mr. Milo M. Quaife
for several important suggestions and for permission to repro-
duce the copy of the Peck-Messenger map in the Wisconsin
History Society's library. Mrs. J. B. Dyche has assisted me
with material of various sorts. The Chicago Historical Society
through its librarian, Miss Caroline M. Mcllvaine, has
accorded me every imaginable assistance and privilege in
connection with the prosecution of the work in Chicago.

THE FRONTIER STATE

Among those immediately connected with the enterprise I
must particularly mention Dr. Otto L. Schmidt and Mr. Evarts
B. Greene of the Centennial Commission, who officially and
unofficially have afforded me every possible assistance. A
third member of the Commission, Mrs. Jessie Palmer Weber,
in her capacity of librarian of the State Historical Library,
has given me the privilege of working there during the col-
lection of material at Springfield and has assumed responsi-
bility for the correctness of many quoted passages. My special
obligations to the editor-in-chief I have already mentioned. At
every stage he has done everything in his power to facilitate
the work.

THEODORE CALVIN PEASE.
Somewhere in France.

THE FRONTIER STATE

1818-1848

I. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

task of reconstructing for the student of history the
JL politics, manners, and customs of a frontier community
such as the Illinois of the first decade of statehood is not an easy
one. The newspapers of that day only dimly reflect the life
about them and contain no information whatever about the
phases of it which their readers took for granted. The contem-
porary traveler too often saw only a small part, and that inac-
curately, detached from its surroundings save in so far as the
inhabitants condescended to explain them to him, while too
often his prepossessions in favor of the land of political liberty
or his disgust at the impossibility of continuing his accustomed
habits of life lent a roseate or a dingy hue to his picture. The
reminiscences of the pioneer, set down long after the occurrence
of the events he tried to describe, are generally open to the
suspicion that they have been unconsciously foreshortened so
that the descriptions of the rapidly changing life and conditions
of the frontier are focused at but one point and that perhaps
not the most important. Under such limitations of information
the picture of Illinois a hundred years ago, if it is to be accurate,
must be somewhat indistinct.

Change and evolution sound the keynote of frontier Illinois.
For the first thirty years of statehood its politicians sprang up,
flourished, changed sides, and left the state to seek new careers
with a rapidity that is the despair of the chronicler. Pioneers
passed over its territory in waves with varying manners, ideals,
and habits of life. Civilization first of simple, then of more
complex, gradations sprang up with amazing rapidity behind
and among the frontiersmen. The half savage frontiersman
and the college-bred lawyer, the woman of the backwoods and

2 THE FRONTIER STATE

the fine lady rubbed elbows in the little village where the frame
house was rapidly replacing the log cabin. Into communities
without religion came numerous denominations striving to
supply the lack of spiritual life. Churches were organized,
were torn by quarrels and secessions, and yet reached out for
better education. Above all, this community ready and eager
to go up and possess the land continually had to fight politically
in the hope of obtaining from its landlord, the federal govern-
ment, better and better terms for the acquisition of its land.
In the beginning was the land ; the vast stretch of diversified
hill and plain, forest and prairie, scrub oak, barren, and swamp
stretched before the people. Shutting off the greater part of it
from them were the intangible but nevertheless annoying restric-
tions of the United States government, and the more concrete
barriers of Indian tribes, jealous of the presence of the white
settlers among them, and of the wilderness itself, untraversed
by roads and locking from the settler with its standing timber
and tough sod the cornfields of the future. The story of the
acquisition of this domain, of how the little community of fron-
tiersmen waxed to conquer its lands to cultivation, of how suc-
cessfully or unsuccessfully they sought to drive through it lines
of transport which might connect them commercially with the
outside world, and of how they wrestled politically with their
brethren of the eastern states for a freer hand at its legal
conquest is the material side of the history of provincial Illinois.
On the day when Illinois was both territory and state its
population of some 35,000 lay in two columns on opposite sides
of the state, resting on the connection with the outside world
furnished by the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Wabash rivers
respectively. The population clustered in the rich river bottom,
gift of the Mississippi, where Illinois history began, and in the
neighborhood of the United States saline in Gallatin county.
It tended always to make settlements on water courses for the
sake of securing timber, water, and easy communication. Away
from the rivers lay an unpopulated region in the interior of

southern Illinois, where the traveler to St. Louis or Kaskaskia

C

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 3

who preferred to cut across by road from Vincennes or Shaw-
neetown rather than pole up the Mississippi, could still stage
tales of robbers, murders, and hairbreadth escapes. On the
east population had crept north, clinging closely to the Wabash,
as far as the present Edgar county. On the west settlements
had reached the southern part of Calhoun county and were
pushing up the creeks into Greene and Macoupin; they had also
followed the Kaskaskia and its south-flowing tributaries, so that
settlements lay in Bond, Clinton, and Washington counties.
Elsewhere there was wilderness.

To the north of the area of settlement lay another world
distinct and independent from that to the south. The Kickapoo
Indians still inhabited central Illinois, and the Sauk and Foxes,
chastised in the War of 1812, but still morose, occupied a little
of the territory northwest of the Illinois river — the Military
Bounty Tract — though this had for some time been surveyed
and allotted in military bounties to soldiers of the War of 1812.
The main strength of the Sauk and Foxes in Illinois, however,
lay in the territory near the junction of the Rock and the Mis-
sissippi, where Fort Armstrong on Rock Island had lately risen
to overawe them. In the territory east of them lay villages of
Winnebago and Potawatomi. Among them in northern
Illinois and on the Illinois and the Wabash rivers wandered
the fur traders of the American Fur Company; these came
south down the lake in their Mackinaw boats each fall, dragged
their boats over the Chicago portage to the Des Plaines river,
went into winter trading posts along the Illinois from which
trading expeditions were sent out during the winter, and carried
their harvest of furs to Mackinac in the spring. Besides Fort
Armstrong there lay in this district Fort Edwards on the Mis-
sissippi, Fort Clark at the present site of Peoria, and Fort
Dearborn ; though as Indian dangers waned and Indian cessions
were consummated, the forts were successively abandoned.

The terms upon which the United States government dis-
posed of its domain in Illinois materially affected settlement in
the state. From an early period in the history of the United

4 THE FRONTIER STATE

States land policy the method of regular surveys had obtained.
The face of the country was surveyed into rectangular town-
ships approximately six miles square. These were defined by
their number north or south of a line called the base line and
in ranges east and west of a principal meridian. Each township
was divided into thirty-six sections, each containing 640 acres
and capable of division into quarters and similar subdivisions.

In the method of disposing of these the federal government
had grown more and more liberal as the years passed. Starting
from the concept that the lands were a fund for the payment
of the national debt, it had gradually offered better and better
terms to the small purchaser. In 1 8 1 8 the system of sale was
as follows: Lands put on sale for the first time were set up at
auction at the land office in the district containing them. In
Illinois in 1818 there were but three offices — Kaskaskia,
Edwardsville, and Shawneetown — soon to be increased con-
siderably in number. If not bid in at auction for two dollars
an acre or more, lands might be bought at any time thereafter
at private sale, the terms being two dollars an acre, payable in
four annual installments. In 1820, however, in spite of stren-
uous opposition from the western representatives, the credit
system was abolished, and the land after having been put up
at auction sold at one dollar and twenty-five cents cash per acre.

The first result of the measure was to cut down sharply
purchases from the government. Great amounts of land in
southern Illinois had already passed out of the hands of the
government, partly as gifts to the old French inhabitants and
partly by speculative entries under the credit system. Numbers
of speculators as well as settlers had been lured by the low
initial payment into contracting for more land than they could
pay for; and it took act after act permitting the application of a
first installment on a large piece of land to apply as payment in
full on a smaller before they were extricated from their diffi-
culty. Meanwhile sales of the great body of land that remained
were slow. In 1822 sales were as low as 27,000 odd acres; in
1826 they were some 80,000, the next year they fell off to

Population of Illinois
per Square Mile in
1820

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 5

50,000, and not till 1829 did they pass the hundred thousand
mark. From 1820 to 1828 the equivalent of twenty townships
was sold. Of this the greater part lay in the Springfield land
office district, sales in the Edwardsville and Palestine districts
coming next in amount. In the Kaskaskia, Vandalia, and
Shawneetown districts, which served southern Illinois, the sales
were insignificant; in 1821 the three offices sold some 14,000
acres, but in 1822 they sold 5,916; in 1823, 2,636; in 1824,
4,160; in 1825, 2,963; in 1826, 5,4595 in l827» 7>3395 and in
1828, 11,518. The significance of this situation is that the
course of settlement by men with money had shifted from the
south and had passed on to the Sangamon country and northern
Illinois. In the south settlers were squatting on the public land.
In 1828 W. L. D. Ewing estimated that in the counties of Clay,
Marion, Shelby, Tazewell, and Fayette there were 1,230
voters of whom 217 were freeholders.1 The large sales under
the credit system with the great numbers of Military Bounty
tracts thrown on the market had created such a glut that men
with cash to pay for land would buy only the land of their
choice. Otherwise the newcomers to the state held their land
by squatters' right, and by the force of public opinion they were
able to maintain themselves against those who would buy the
improvements over their heads. The west was ripe for agita-
tion for new legislation in favor of the squatters — legislation
which directly or indirectly would be opposed by men with
heavy landholdings.

In the Illinois of 1 8 1 8 the French. hahltan^^t^ mustered
strong in numbers in the villages of the American Bottom,
though with a few exceptions, such as the Menards, the well-
to-do and better educated of their race were to be found across
the Mississippi. Their economic and social life has been the
subject of the preceding volume of this series and furthermore
requires no special attention here, since the influence of the
French upon the development of Illinois in the nineteenth
century was negligible.

1 American State Papers, Public Lands, 5:554-556.

6 THE FRONTIER STATE

It is not easy to describe, or even to divide into classes, the
newcomers who were sweeping over the land of Illinois. On
the outskirts of settlement was a fringe of hunters leading a
half savage life in the forests, supporting their families by the
products of the hunt and by the produce of a few acres of corn-
land planted among the girdled forest trees. Their life was
a series of retreats before the advance of civilization, and they
were ever ready to sell their improvements to a newcomer and
to push out one stage further into the wilderness.2

It is possible to differentiate this first class from later
comers only in degree, since the men of the whole frontier were
more or less migrating. The men who succeeded the hunters
came also from the south for the most part, yet they were in va-
rious degrees more civilized in their habits, laid less emphasis on
hunting and more on building, making improvements, and clear-
ing land for the cornfields. They very often possessed hogs
and cattle which furnished to the little towns a continually
increasing amount of raw products to be traded for store goods
and to be freighted in flatboats or keel-boats down the Ohio
and Mississippi as articles of commerce. This produce of the
farm was not only corn, ginseng, beeswax, salted pork, tallow,
hides, and beef, the last named sometimes bought by the store-
keepers on the hoof and slaughtered for market, but also vari-
ous rough wool and flax fabrics. Important in the frontier
market were such items as deer skins and venison hams,
distinctly the products of the rifle rather than of the hoe.3

The habit of some writers to classify these southern meYi
as hunter pioneers and to contrast them with the New England
and northern farmers who settled the prairies of the north is
misleading unless the contrast is carefully limited and defined.
The settlers of the south hunted, as did white men everywhere
in the wilderness where there were no game laws. JThey
enlarged their cornlands by clearing the forest instead of cul-
tivating the prairies because, in the decade in which they settled

2 Fordham, Personal Narrative, 125-126; Flower, History of the English
Settlement, 129.

8 Fordham, Personal Narrative, 181 ; Birkbeck, Notes on a Journey, 155.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 7

the state, farmers preferred such lands, chiefly because the
forested lands offered greater accessibility to wood and water,
partly because they lacked the capital necessary for breaking
up and fencing the prairie, and partly because the scarcity of
markets offered no temptation to raise grain that could not be
sold. Without a heavy ox team breaking the prairie was almost
impossible, and without improved transportation produce could
not be carried to market.

There has grown up a traditional interpretation of events
sanctioned now by age, that would explain the stoppage of the
northern thrust of the southern pioneers by the downpouring
of immigrants from the northeast into the valleys of the upper
Illinois river. There is little in the sources of information that
gives warrant for interpreting the encounter as a meeting of
opposing forces. It is true that the immigration of the north-
erners followed closely on the heels of the backwoods hunters,
but this relation in the time of the two movements has only
apparently justified the interpretation, for to all appearances
the two peoples settled down side by side in peace and concord
throughout the state, the southern element naturally enough
preponderating in the southern counties and the "Yankee"
element in the northern.

Besides this class of so-called hunter pioneers the commu-
nity had a set of young men of education, of legal training, and
of good address, who aspired to the leadership of the com-
munity. Frequently they had a few hundreds or thousands
to invest in land speculations. Some of them married into the
well-to-do French families. They were men of more finished
manner than the average pioneer, and their wives and daughters
speedily gave the community a touch of sophistication. Doubt-
less it was for this class the stores advertised the finer goods
such as silks, crepes, and other fabrics of similar character, and
kept the choicer wines, liquors, and groceries.4

The conditions in the towns are more or less truthfully

4 In this chapter I have made much use of an unpublished monograph by
my assistant Miss Agnes Wright on the subject of social conditions in early
Illinois.

8 THE FRONTIER STATE

mirrored in the contemporary newspapers. In the towns, when
the state was young, the rising brick and frame houses con-
trasted sharply with the log cabins of the territorial days; yet
the stage of civilization must not be overestimated, for even
in 1821 Shawneetown had no courthouse, jail, church, or school.
The towns were disorderly places at best, a Shawneetown
Sunday being a byword. Frequently they were rendered
unhealthy by pools of stagnant water and by the lack of all
sanitation. In 1822 the trustees of Shawneetown had to pass
an ordinance providing for the removal of dead animals and
for the laying of sidewalks. Town government in so far as
it was distinct from other local government was rudimentary.
Towns were incorporated by individual acts which gave the
trustees power to legislate for the order of the town and to levy
taxes on town lots.5

The towns of the early days could boast of only the most
rudimentary manufactures. The newspapers contain numer-
ous advertisements of grist mills, steam distilleries, log stills,
sawmills, etc. In 1817 Jesse B. Thomas set up a carding
machine in Cahokia, which was managed by Adam W. Snyder.
Promoters of towns were continually offering special induce-
ments to mechanics and skilled workmen to settle within their
communities in order that the simplest needs of the inhabitants
might be supplied, and the advertisements in the newspapers
show the presence of coopers, tanners, clock and watchmakers,
hatters, and milliners. There is some evidence, however, that
the economic position of such artisans was not altogether pros-
perous; at least the Illinois Gaz-ette in 1820 complained that
high rents had driven the mechanics from Shawneetown.6

The most important function which the towns performed
was that of furnishing a buying and shipping point for country

8 Illinois Gazette, May 19, December 8, 1821, May 25, November 30, 1822;
Tillson, Reminiscences, 35 8. ; Laius of 1819, p. 249,259; Laivs of 1821, p. 160,176.

6 Illinois Gazette, March 30, July i, 8, 1820, April 10, 1824; Ediuardsville
Spectator, May 23, 1820, May 4, 1822; Illinois Intelligencer, February 17, De-
cember 15, 1819, September 9, 1820; Snyder, Adam W. Snyder, 28. A manufac-
turing company in Bond county was incorporated. There was also a general
incorporation law. Laius of 1825, p. 113.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 9

produce and a distributing point for store goods. Stores were
ordinarily kept by men of considerable means. They adver-
tised in the local papers alluring lists of goods "just in" and
offered to dispose of them " cheaply for cash, for produce, or
on terms." Shawneetown, Edwardsville, and Carmi appar-
ently did a wholesale trade as well. Moreover, some store-
keepers at Edwardsville and one at Shawneetown regularly
advertised semiweekly auctions of goods. Occasionally mer-
chants employed peddlers to go through the country to sell their
merchandise. The Illinois Gazette contains an indignant adver-
tisement for a runaway peddler " from Connecticut, and is no
doubt a perfect chip of the old block 1 " One notices frequent
insistent advertisements calling on delinquent debtors to
settle.7

In the Illinois of 1818 Shawneetown seemed to hold a
favorable position as the gateway, a fact which had been recog-
nized by the United States government by the designation of
the town as a port of entry. It was the natural Illinois entre-
pot for the eastern part of the state and for the country up the
tributaries of the Wabash. One rival to its trade near at hand,
however, was the New Harmony settlement of Frederick Rapp,
which in 1823 maintained a store in Shawneetown for the sale
of its goods, woolen cloths, cottons, hats, shoes, stockings,
leather, flour, wine, whisky, brandy, beer, etc., as well as a line
of eastern goods from Philadelphia. Rapp's failure to buy as
well as sell made him unpopular, however, with the resident
merchants.8

On the west side of the state St. Louis had the position of
dominance. It held western Illinois subject to it commercially,
despite the attempts at Alton and at Cairo to build up rivals
on Illinois soil. Its merchants advertised in western Illinois
papers, and they were even able to regulate the discount at
which Illinois bank notes should pass; indeed, they exercised
some influence on the politics of the state.

7 Frequently merchants bought and sold goods on commission, see Illinois
Gazette, September 9, 1820. See also ibid., October 9, December 4, 1819.

8 Ibid., November 8, 1823.

io THE FRONTIER STATE

In the Illinois of 1818-1828 transportation was a serious
problem, and the means available for it necessarily influenced
the state's contact commercially and intellectually with the out-
side world. Transportation overland was an extremely diffi-
cult matter. The so-called roads of southern Illinois were of
but little account and transportation facilities were meager.
Not till 1819 was a stage line from Kaskaskia to St. Louis in
operation. In the summer of that year a second line from
Shawneetown to St. Louis was projected. In 1822 a stage
wagon was advertised to run from Springfield to St. Louis once
in two weeks, taking two days for the trip.9

The state's main reliance had to be on river transporta-
tion^ At the time of the admission of Illinois to the union the
steamboat was just replacing the flatboat and keel-boat. The
keel-boat or flatboat was often of considerable size, nineteen
and even twenty-seven tons. The farmer who chose to eschew
steamer transportation to his market either himself navigated
a flatboat or keel-boat with his produce 10 or intrusted it to the
tender mercies of the river boatmen, hard drinking, desperate
men who terrorized the villages along the river, governing
themselves by a rough and ready code of their own in which
stealing under certain circumstances was permissible and mur-
der an ordinary matter. Year by year their importance was
destined to wane as law and order grew stronger in the river
towns and the steamboats multiplied in number. Sweeping
down the river to the tune of such doggerel boat songs as
" Hard upon the beach oar ! She moves too slow ; All the way
to Shawneetown, Long time ago," they lent to the frontier
a touch of the picturesque and romantic peculiarly grateful to
the literature of the next generation.

The river steamer, which was ultimately to displace these
men's monopoly, had its difficulties with the Ohio river. Feb-
ruary io, 1820, the Illinois Gazette noted the passage up the
river to Louisville of six or seven steamboats, delayed since

9 Illinois Intelligencer, January 20, 1819, July 5, 1823; Edwardsville Spec-
tator, August 7, 1819, April 27, 1822.

10 Illinois Gazette, December 15, 1822; Illinois Intelligencer, May 31, 1820.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE n

June by low water. The previous spring, on the other hand,
high water had cut Shawneetown off from the outside world.11
During the twenties the navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi
were improved by the federal government to the extent of the
removal of obstructions, the channeling of sand bars, and the
grubbing out of " snags " and " sawyers."

Even with improvement in the navigation of the Mississippi
river the problem of transportation was still a serious one.
The inevitable tendency of trade in the west until the coming
of the railroad was toward water routes. Down every Illinois
creek or river, produce naturally poured to the Ohio and Mis-
sissippi, thence to pile up on the wharves of New Orleans.
Manufactured goods had to come from the east whether they
were shipped by sea from Philadelphia and Baltimore to New
Orleans and thence brought up the Mississippi, or whether they
followed the stream down from Pittsburg. The balancing
of credits was an exchange problem that the age was not able
to solve ; and with her credits receivable at New Orleans and
her debits due in the east, Illinois was facing an impossible
situation that drained her scanty currency in remittances and
lent a specious excuse for the founding of unstable banks.12.

Some, foreseeing that Illinois could never prosper without
new outlets for its commerce, turned to the hope of internal
improvements. In 1824 George E. McDuffie pronounced in
congress that if the west's relations were to continue solely
with New Orleans, the union could not last fifty years. It was
said that the produce of the west was floated down the Missis-
sippi at high water to pile up at New Orleans in the unhealthy
season; that Illinois beef and pork which was not put up with
imported salt spoiled in the New Orleans market; that in the
last five years one-sixth of the flour unloaded there had spoiled;
and that even then the trade route to Europe was too long.
Thomas Hart Benton, in debate on " Foot's Resolution," laid
down a counter-proposition that internal improvements over

11 Illinois Gazette, March 27, April 3, 1819.

12 In 1821 a firm tried to devise an exchange of produce for goods at New
Orleans. Ibid., December 15, 1821; Edwardsville Spectator, June 18, 1820.

12 THE FRONTIER STATE

the mountains were useless to the west, and that she must still
find her market at New Orleans; but every year was to add
fresh demonstration that Benton's proposition was fallacious.
The Illinois-Michigan canal whereby the Illinois river might
be made tributary to a transportation system which would lead
over the Great Lakes to the Erie canal and the east was the
measure which to Daniel Pope Cook and to an increasing num-
ber of Illinoisans appeared the best remedy.13

The history of the development of Illinois between 1818
and 1822 would be incomplete without mention of a concerted
scheme of colonization that, running in channels completely
different from those which carried the ordinary course of set-
tlement, was to influence the development of the state out of all
proportion to the numbers engaged in it. This enterprise was
the settlement of English Prairie in Edwards county by Morris
Birkbeck and the Flowers. At its inception the motive force
in the movement was the discontent with economic and political
conditions in England that affected men of the comparatively
affluent classes. For example, Morris Birkbeck by his industry
and ability had raised himself to the position of a tenant farmer,
farming on long lease a holding of 1,500 acres in the hamlet of
Wanborough; yet he was not a freeholder and therefore not
entitled to the vote; he chafed at the social and political inferi-
ority which thus marked him, as well as at the heavy taxes and
tithes levied on him by the parliament in which he had no voice
and by the church in which he was not a communicant.14 He
aspired, to use his own words, to leave his children citizens of
" a flourishing, public-spirited, energetic community, where the
insolence of wealth, and the servility of pauperism, between
which, in England, there is scarcely an interval remaining, are
alike unknown."15 The United States seemed to him the real-
ization of his political ideals; and except for his detestation
of slavery he looked on its institutions and the assumed polit-
ical and social virtues of its republic and citizens through glasses

13 Illinois Intelligencer, February 8, 1823.

14 Birkbeck, Notes on a Journey, 8-9; Birkbeck, Letters from Illinois, 28.

15 Birkbeck, Notes on a Journey, 10.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 13

of rose tint. No less attractive perhaps was the opportunity /
it afforded him of becoming a freeholder at a rate comparable
to English rental values. George Flower, son of Birkbeck'j
friend, Richard Flower, who had been sent to the United State
in search of land, had conceived a romantic affection for th
prairies of which he had read in Imlay's Topographical
Description of the Western Territory of North America.
When at last he and Birkbeck crossed the Wabash into Illinois
and attained the Boltonhouse prairie, depressed as they had
been by the mighty forests through which they had journeyed,
the broad expanse of meadow stretching for miles embayed in
the surrounding timber seemed to them the manor park that
they coveted, and they hastened to acquire as much of it as
their funds would permit.16

In presenting their design of a colony to the English public
by the publication of Birkbeck's letters, the promoters strove
to induce men of their own social status — tenant farmers pos-
sessed of capital and desirous of becoming landholders — to
take up land from them or in their vicinity. As a complement
this necessarily required the establishment of a class comparable
to English agricultural laborers or cottagers; and in fact the
enemies of the enterprise later insinuated that while holding
great tracts for wealthy emigrants who never came, the pro-
moters refused to sell smaller tracts to poorer men. The accu-
sation was made that they had founded a rich man's
settlement. The first settlers to come, however, were mechan- }
ics and laborers, who had not been concerned in the original:
enterprise but who were attracted by Birkbeck's books.17

Birkbeck, who remained on the ground over winter with
the uncertain labor obtainable from the backwoodsmen — half /
hunters, half farmers — who surrounded him, was not able to

18 Birkbeck, Notes on a Journey, 16 ff., 37, 57, 58, 98, 107, 113; Birkbeck,
Letters from Illinois, 28-29, 4* > Flower, History of the English Settlement, 64;
Flower, Letters from Lexington and the Illinois, 102-103 ; Faux, Memorable
Days in America, 254-255.

17 Birkbeck, Notes on a Journey, 132-133, 141-163; Birkbeck, Letters from
Illinois, ip, 18-19, 755 Faux, Memorable Days in America, 235, 238-239, 244;
Flower, History of the English Settlement, 96.

I4 THE FRONTIER STATE

; get accommodations completed for newcomers. Food for the
first year had largely to be procured from the nearby Rapp
/ community at New Harmony in Indiana. The newcomers and
| such wealthier immigrants as followed fared well or ill, accord-
ing to their ability to work for themselves and to make the best
of backwoods conditions. Men without large capital or enter-
prise missed the agricultural laboring class of England and the
presence of women servants, and they were described by per-
sons not well disposed to the enterprise as for the time reduced
to squalid wretchedness. Attacks inspired by the "borough
managers," so the leaders believed, and by men interested in
eastern lands who enlisted in their behalf the sharp pen of
Cobbett — sometimes known as Porcupine Cobbett — spread
the tales of the wretchedness and woe existing at English
Prairie. They made the most of expressions of pleasure by
Birkbeck at the absence of all religious observance on the fron-
tier and used them to brand the enterprise as irreligious; this
accusation was met by the building of churches, in one of which
Unitarian and in the other Episcopal services were installed by
Flower and Birkbeck, respectively.18

To add to the difficulties of the settlement a feud broke out
between Birkbeck and George and Richard Flower. The
causes of it undoubtedly were connected with the marriage,
during the exploratory trip, of George Flower to Miss
Andrews;19 but whether Birkbeck's anger was the jealousy of
a rejected suitor or the just resentment of a man who had
unconsciously been made a party to an impropriety in offense
of good taste, if not of good morals, it is not necessary to decide.
On George Flower's return Birkbeck refused to have any deal-
ings with him, and he was left to establish a home for his
father's family as best he might. The settlement clustered in
two groups, one centering in Wanborough, the town founded

18 See the descriptions of the various families in Faux, Memorable Days in
America, 252-273. Fordham, Personal Narrative, 216, 227 ff. ; Birkbeck, Letters
from Illinois, 23 ff. ; Flower, Letters from Illinois, 124, 129, 131-132, 144-145.

10 Faux, Memorable Days in America, 271 ff. Contrast this gossip with the
discreet silence of Woods, T<wo Years' Residence, 348-349.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 15

by Birkbeck in August, 1818, the other in Albion, the town
some two miles to the east laid out by George Flower with
Elias Pym Fordham and others two months later. In the
course of two or three years the men who were determined
on success had made headway. By 1819 there were 400 Eng- J
lish and 700 Americans in the settlement. They had estab-/
lished comfortable homes and large farm structures, had disi
covered the futility, in default of labor, of extensive grair
farming, were turning their attention to the raising of cattle
sheep, and hogs, and were making progress. Practical farm-
ers with money and industry were doing well, and good laborers
imported by the leaders were acquiring lands of their own.20^
The leaders had perhaps totally abandoned their desire of a
cluster of manors in southeastern Illinois, as they discovered
that the English agricultural laborers they imported also caught
the land fever. Men of narrower views believed they saw in
the lack of labor a justification of negro slavery and a necessity
for it. Men like Birkbeck were able to accept the facts as they
were and at the same time to foresee an Illinois of free farmers,
neither masters nor servants.

The enterprise had done much for Illinois. It had brought
the prairie into notice if not into vogue. Against the agriculture
necessarily practiced by the farmer of small means — a corn-
patch among trees girdled by the ax, growing larger year by
year — it had set the utility of prairie land either for grazing
or for grain when broken as it could be by men able to afford
a six-ox team. Through the numerous books of Birkbeck, the
Flowers, and others, it had brought Illinois into notice not only
in England but in the eastern United States and in continental
Europe as well. More important stillLit had in Morris Birk.-__
beck brought to the state a leader whose services in the struggle
with slavery werqpast all estimate.

Almost equally important was Birkbeck' s influence in thel
advancement of scientific agriculture. The call for the forma-

20 Flower, History of the English Settlement, 130; Flower, Letters from Lex-
ington and the Illinois, 104, 157-142; Woods, Two Years' Residence, 258-259, 339.

16 THE FRONTIER STATE

tion of an agricultural society appeared October 8, 1819, in
the Edwardsville Spectator. It was signed "A Farmer of
Madison" and hence may very possibly have originated with
Edward Coles. At the meeting for organization held on No-
vember 10, the society elected Birkbeck president and Coles
first vice president, and it speedily drew the support of the
prominent men of the state. It offered premiums not only for
wheat, corn, hay, and fine livestock, but also for hemp, flax, cot-
ton, homespun cloth — the premium for this last was in 1823
awarded to Governor Bond — tobacco, castor oil, wool, malt
liquor, salt, and cheese. Agricultural societies, with some
emphasis on the policy of non-importation due to the hardness
of the times, were founded in Madison and Bond counties; and
these were affiliated with the state society. In 1825, however,
the society disbanded, turning over its funds to Sunday
schools.21

The most interesting work of this society was the series of
proposals for better agriculture that emanated from its mem-
bers. Birkbeck's suggestions are of most interest. He repeat-
edly urged on the society the importance of turning a large
share of attention to grazing and dairying, insisting on the
need of growing finer grasses before fine wool could be hoped
for, and insisting on the need of stringent measures against
wolves, as a prerequisite to successful sheep raising.22 In 1820
he voiced a prophetic warning against the danger of skinning
the soil, a practice already too prevalent in the older states.
He suggested various devices for successful prairie farming,
recommending also in an article in the Illinois Gazette the use
of ditches for prairie fencing. Coles came forward with a
method which he thought would reduce the expense of breaking
prairies, a second surface plowing followed by harrowing.23

21 Illinois Intelligencer, January 19, 1822, December 13, 1823, January 25,
1826; Illinois Gazette, March i, 1823.

22 In 1823 the legislature offered a premium of $200 for the greatest number
of wolves above sixty killed in the state, and a premium of $40 for the greatest
number killed above ten in each county. In 1825 they substituted a general
bounty of one dollar per head. See also Illinois Intelligencer, May 13, 1820.

23 Illinois Gazette, May 5, 1821, January 5, 1822.

I?

One point of especial interest treated by the society was
the need of improving the health of the country by draining
standing and stagnant waters. These conditions were often
perpetuated in the small running streams of Illinois by mill dams
designed to afford pressure for water mills. In 1821 the Agri-
cultural Society announced a premium for an essay on the sub-
ject which detailed the foregoing objections to water power and
proposed animal power in its place.

If it is difficult to describe frontier Illinois in its physical
aspects since it is impossible to describe it in its mental and spirit-
ual; the evidence is even more fragmentary and more subject to
bias in the observers. Again, it is to be regretted that the news-
papers which might seemingly furnish unconscious evidence on
this subject do not reflect the mental attitude of great parts of
the population, since their circulation was very limited. One
wonders often how far. the traditional shibboleths of frontier
Illinois are humorous exaggerations ; for instance, how far was
the oft-cited prejudice against Yankees based on a piece of pop-
ular humor comparable to the mother-in-law joke?

Some general characteristics can be positively described.
English observers, friendly or hostile, commented on the open
and unabashed manner of the people. In the Illinois frontiers-
man there was none of the self-conscious awkward rusticity of
the English peasant. The instillation of the doctrine of liberty
and equality undoubtedly had so far borne fruit as to make
the conviction of his own dignity apparent in the conversation
of every man. The interpretation put upon this attitude
and the form it took naturally varied with the attitude of the
observer. If he expected his money to buy him obsequiousness
he was disappointed and had to complain often of a positive
bad faith and trickiness which at times may well have been a
desperate attempt on the part of the native to vindicate an
affront to his dignity. If the traveler met all men with an
open friendliness, he generally encountered in return a real
kindliness and courtesy. If the frontiersman was appealed to
as a man for help and sympathy he usually responded in liberal

18 THE FRONTIER STATE

measure. If he was hired as a servant, little good could be
expected from him.24

Probably the jarring with backwoodsmen and accusations
of bad faith and trickiness in bargains made against them fre-
quently arose from the fact that on the frontier specific per-
formance of contract had hardly come to be regarded as the
touchstone of honesty. In a wild country where natural ele-
ments continually intervene to prevent the performance of a
set duty at the proper time, it is an easy and natural step to
regard personal convenience or even personal whims as worthy
to be taken into account. In Illinois men from older settled
communities might fume in vain, if they had not tact to wheedle
a performance of contract out of the party bound.

Probably this furnishes a clue to the reason for the dislike
of the Yankee so far as it was not a half humorous attitude.
Even in a moderately well-to-do settlement of southern men,
the Yankee's insistence on writings, mortgages, bonds, and the
like, and his superstitious observance of days and times con-
tributed to render him unpopular as being unneighborly. To
ask a man on the frontier to hire out his oxen rather than to
lend them was thought to imply a belief that he would " act like
a Yankee." Furthermore, the frontiersman divined the prim
New Englander's suppressed feeling of criticism for all the
shiftless, easy-going habits of frontier life. Taking thought
for the morrow and multiplying mechanical devices to meet
it were considered especially " Yankee;" and Mrs. John Tillson
found her clothespins looked upon as the latest Yankee notion.
In spite of the prejudice against Yankees, they were repeatedly,
as in Tillson's case, placed in situations of importance, often
probably because their education and disciplined attention to
business rendered them indispensable for many duties.25

How far social distinctions divided the frontier state into

24 Fearon, Sketches of America, 398, 437 passim; Birkbeck, Notes on a
Journey, 107; Fordham, Personal Narrative, 196.

25 Woods, T<wo Years' Residence, 261, 317; Buck, "The New England Ele-
ment in Illinois Politics before 1833," Mississippi Valley Historical Associa-
tion, Proceedings, 6:49-61.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 19

classes, it is difficult to say. Most observers remarked that,
the backwoods pioneer being omitted, the various classes did
not vary nearly so much in intellectual grasp as in England.
" In this remote part of America, judges, generals of militia,
colonels, captains, and esquires, are not generally men of prop-
erty or education ; and it is usual to see them employed in any
common kind of labour. Yet I have seen men among them that
possess very good abilities; far from ignorant, and much better
informed than could be expected from their appearance."26 So
far as wealth and its means of display were concerned, however,
the basis for social distinction existed. When Shawneetown
was a village of one brick and several frame houses amid a
cluster of log cabins, it boasted one jewelry store which at
least advertised a surprisingly wide selection. Advertisements
of silks, satins, broadcloths, muslins, cambrics, and silk gloves,
among plaids and cheap stuffs and offerings of fine groceries
and Madeira wine as well as of whisky by the barrel prove the
existence of such distinctions. To take action against the im-
portation of such luxuries, societies were formed between the
years 1819 and 1821. The political aspirations of the well-to-
do men doubtless induced them, especially at elections, to keep
such distinctions in the background. Nevertheless the society
of afternoon teas and great dinners must have lived side by
side with the simple society whose social events were the dance
after the corn husking or barn raising and the gathering at the
county seat on court day or at the camp meeting, the last two
probably partaken of by rich as well as by poor. Woods
mentions husking, raising, reaping, rolling, picking, sewing, and
quilting frolics ; and they were much more common than their
mention in the contemporary literature of the frontier might
lead one to suppose.27

Patriotism of a higher or lower type flourished in pioneer
Illinois. In the frontiersman, according to Fordham, it might
be described best as a belief that Americans, especially the

26 Woods, Two Years' Residence, 346.

27 Fordham, Personal Narrative, 210; Woods, Two Years' Residence, 300.

20 THE FRONTIER STATE

people of his own state, were the best soldiers in the world.
In the class reached by the newspaper, it took a finer form.
At the Fourth of July dinners so often noted in the papers
" The memory of Washington " usually was drunk in silence,
and there was almost always a toast to the heroes of the Revo-
lution, both toasts indicating a pride in what rapidly was coming
to be hallowed by distance as a great and glorious past. The
valor of the frontiersman and of the jack tar in the War of
1812 offered a new stimulus to national pride. Further, as the
newspaper reported for its readers, the monarchical weaknesses
of the old world, the contemptible foibles of the libertine
George IV and his immodest queen, the stirrings of revolution
and liberty in Europe and South America under the influence
and example of republican America made the nation seem
destined to an even nobler and more significant future as the
standard bearer of republican principles. Adherence to these
principles as yet seemed a bond of political unity beside which
considerations of dynastic allegiance or racial ties seemed
frivolous. In 1820 men were well content to ask no other
unity for the American nation. The doubts and fears that
beset the whigs in later days as to the influence of the foreigner
and the rabble on the future of the republic were thus far
characteristic only of the despised federalist minority.

The part which the newspaper played in the community is
an interesting one. The present day definition of news was
unknown to editors who thought it their duty to keep from their
readers anything that might be considered contrary to good
manners and morals; an editor might even rebuke as mere idle
curiosity the desire for the details of murders and steamboat
explosions. ' The paper's main function was to furnish a
medium of polite communications from the editor to his
patrons. Usually he regaled them with foreign news, accounts
of the proceedings of congress, and the state general assembly,
with occasional speeches made in congress, political articles,
and forecasts, accounts of improvements in agriculture or manu-
factures, and moral anecdotes in the manner of Franklin,

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 21

interspersed with jokes about the sea serpent — matter nearly
all obtained by clipping from papers nearer the center of the
great world or of the United States. In times of election,
however, politics displaced all else.

The scissors usually supplied the literature, which was
sentimental in imitation of Goldsmith, humorous after the
manner of Sterne, or romantic in the fashion of the author of
Waverley — in any case distinctly exotic in character. This
was supplemented by local contributions, political, controver-
sial, and humorous, though the point of many a satire, doubtless
keen enough in its hour, has long since rusted away completely.
On the whole the newspaper was much less a suggestive index
to the intellectual habits and tastes of the country than it was
ten years later.

The economic status of the newspaper was usually based
on the possession of state or national printing contracts or on
the desire for them. The printing week by week in their
columns of national laws and treaties or the issuing of laws and
journals of the state general assembly made the newspaper
business profitable. Editors were, in many cases, itinerant —
editors partly by grace of their editorial capacity, partly by their
knowledge of printing. Such men were free lances willing to
enter the pay of any aspiring politician who was ready to pro-
vide a press and type, usually veterans of former wars, to loan
a few hundred dollars, and to drum up a small subscription list.
Without the bounty of public printing, newspapers could not
live save by subsidy. Four hundred was a very good list of
subscribers; and subscriptions often ran unpaid for years de-
spite the pleadings, threats, and blacklisting resorted to by the
editor. There are traces of other intellectual influences. Lists
of books advertised for sale are short but contain the titles of
some good books ; and no doubt the few persons with genuine
tastes for good reading could satisfy them as well as if they
lived in the east. There were literary and debating societies in
Fayette and in two neighboring counties. There was even a
Handel-Haydn society. That an outlet to spiritual aspirations

22 THE FRONTIER STATE

was doubtless offered by Masonry is indicated by the St John's
Day orations published from time to time, though apparently
Masonry met disapproval from a section of the clergy.28

Such systematic education as the state afforded was supplied
by private schools and for a price, for the state during the first
decade made scarcely any use of its endowment from the federal
government. Some of the schools were of about the grade of
grammar schools; and girls' schools where needlework, paint-
ing, and similar subjects were taught for an extra charge were
not uncommon. Frequently board was offered also. Charges
for tuition varied from three dollars and fifty cents to seven
dollars a quarter, according to subjects taught, needlework in
girls' schools usually being an extra.

There were not wanting, however, more ambitious estab-
lishments. One at Salu was kept by a New England
schoolma'am. The Reverend Mr. Desmoulin had a school in
Kaskaskia in which he taught Latin and French. At Ebenezer
they advertised for a preceptor who was qualified to teach
Greek, Latin, and the higher mathematics. At Galena in 1829
a school (Aratus Kent's) purported to teach Latin and Greek.
One public school at Alton was free to the children of parents
residing in the corporation, for Alton had been incorporated
with an endowment of one hundred lots for religious and educa-
tional purposes.29

The foundations of collegiate education were laid before
the end of the period. In 1827 the indefatigable John Mason
Peck opened a seminary at Rock Spring as a theological training
school, equipping it with the books and other property that he
had collected in the east. It was intended primarily for the
education of ministers, but in addition it offered courses in
literature and tne sciences. At a meeting at Rock Spring,
January i, 1827, Peck was appointed superintendent and agent
to obtain funds. It was decided that a farm for student labor
be operated and that subscriptions be solicited for buildings

28 Illinois Gazette, January i, December 2, 1820; Illinois Intelligencer, May
15, 1821 ; Edtvardsville Spectator, July 3, 1821.

29 Illinois Intelligencer, April 7, 1819.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 23

payable in provisions, cattle, labor, books, or building materials.
Contribution entitled a subscriber to send his children or wards
without charge for rent or for the use of the library. The
school was to have a theological professor and one for mathe-
matics, natural philosophy, and languages.30

Religion came to be the most universally pervasive intellec-
tual force of the frontier. As might be expected, on the frontier
the first tendency was toward a disregard of religious
observances. The emigrant from the older settled regions left
behind him the machinery and the establishment of sectarian
religion. Until that machinery could be set up again on the
frontier he lived without formal worship and often for the
time at least the sense of the need of it passed out of his life.
In cases where observance had been due to social convention
there was no doubt a welcome feeling of freedom and restraint.

Normally the frontiersman was unreligious. Birkbeck
noted with relish the absence of ceremony at baptism or funeral
and the tolerance of all backwoods preachers alike, whether
they raved or reasoned. Sunday was a day for riot and dis-
order. Other observers looked with horror on such a state of
things, did their best to set up at least stated regular worship,
and noted an improvement in morals as a result.31 Yet for
years the riot and license of a Shawneetown Sabbath was a
shocking thing to a prim New England bride. Further, if one
may believe the early preachers of both Baptists and Metho-
dists, deistic and atheistic belief flourished on the frontier
among even the better classes. Evidence is not lacking to cor-
roborate the frequency of this attitude of mind, which
accentuated the sharp line drawn among men between the re-
ligious and the irreligious, the good and the wicked. The
latter term connoted those who did not fall in with the beliefs
and practices of the denominationally pious. The idea of the
sheep and goats divided by observances and beliefs, possibly

30 Ediuardsville Spectator, February 19, 1820; Illinois Intelligencer, March
24, 1824; Babcock, Memoir of John Mason Peck, 225-228.

31 Birkbeck, Letters from Illinois, 24-25 ; Flower, Letters from Illinois, 124-
125.

24 THE FRONTIER STATE

also by such habits as profane swearing and drinking, persists
in the pioneer narratives. "A man of good character," wrote
Fordham, "is an acquisition; not that there is a small propor-
tion of such men, but because the bad are as undisguisedly bad,
as their opposites are professedly good. This is not the land
of Hypocrisy. It would not here have its reward. Religion
is not the road to wordly respectability, nor a possession of it
the cloak of immorality." 32

Into this western wilderness containing many who had
grown accustomed to the lack of religious food, many who
openly professed diabolism, and many who yearned for re-
ligious observances, the organizations of the Protestant
denominations threw themselves.

At every point the Methodist order was best equipped for
waging a systematic and thorough campaign against the in-
different and hostile. Its organization was ideal for such a
purpose. In effect, under the executive leadership of the
bishops of the church, elected by delegates from local confer-
ences to the general conference, but holding for life, it was a
self-perpetuating aristocracy of the traveling elders organized
in their various conferences; while in its quarterly meetings,
love feasts, class meetings, and the like, it gave opportunity for
lesser officers, local preachers, and class leaders, and even the
rank and file to bear their share in their local government under
the guidance of the traveling eldership. For a man to be
"settled" was to lose his place in the government; he could
hold his position in this aristocracy with its ridiculously meager
stipend only by continuing itinerant until under burdens that
equalled St. Paul's his strength gave out.

The whole organization was an elastic one, capable of
adaptation to the changing march of the frontier and yet always
ready to respond to the touch of the executive officers. The
best men, transferred from circuit to circuit year by year, could
be thrown at one community after another until vast numbers
of people at some time had come under the influence of their

32 Fordham, Personal Narrative, 128.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 25

preaching. The faith and theology of the Methodist rejected
the stern predestinarian doctrine of Calvin and proclaimed a
divine grace freely offered. They looked toward the sudden
working of the grace of God in the hearts of great audiences
gathered to hear impassioned preaching. The great Methodist
preachers of the backwoods were men with a tremendous gift
of eloquence which could sway congregations back and forth
like fields of waving grain while sinners by the hundreds " fell
slain," as the preachers said, and were led to the mourners'
bench to be exhorted and prayed with till the divine ecstasy took
the form of rapture and peace. This power the ministers com-
monly used and struggled for, and they were depressed when
they could not exercise it. Its importance in the development
of the church was tremendous. Once the preaching of Peter
Cartwright or James Axley had wrought this experience in a
man the local organization of exhorters, preachers, and class
leaders was at hand to lead and instruct him.

The men who were the most successful in the struggle for
the conquest of the frontier to Christ were a distinct type, un-
learned, well-nigh unschooled, only a stage or two above
illiteracy. They had a strong contempt for college-bred
ministers as unfit to follow in their footsteps, unable with their
written sermons to get the effects that the native eloquence of
the pioneer attained. Men who had spent four years in rubbing
their backs against the walls of a college33 were not the men to
ride wretched roads week in and week out, swim their horses
over creeks, and by address, by stratagem, or by force of su-
perior muscle defeat the efforts of the rowdies to break up
camp meetings. The pioneer preached a Christianity emotional
rather than intellectual. His exegesis was often astonishing.
In the sermon attributed to Axley preached from the text
"Alexander the Coppersmith did me much evil," Alexander
figures as a reformed still-maker who turned class leader, but
who under the influence of a heavy peach crop, backslid, and
made stills for the brethren to the destruction of sobriety in

33 Sturtevant, Autobiography, 162.

26 THE FRONTIER STATE

the neighborhood Yet the pioneer preachers worked a revo-
lution in the moral life of the communities they served.
Methodists for many years were known by a plainness of dress.
Wherever they were, Axley and Cartwright on all occasions
struck straight from the shoulder at the vice of liquor drinking
and the sin of slaveholding.

The Baptist polity, on the other hand, represented the
natural centrifugal tendency of the frontier. The wilderness
congregations united by loose associational ties tended to split
or to divide. The application of the faulty logic of untrained
minds to the interpretation of the doubtful things of scripture
was continually resulting in the production of strange and weird
doctrines; and since there was lacking the organization by
which the Methodist church secured uniformity, the Baptists
were in their remote congregations likely to become far sepa-
rated from each other in matters of belief and practice.

Among the various denominations in Illinois — Baptist,
Methodist, and Presbyterian — differences of opinion arose in
general upon the various doctrines of predestination and of
baptism. These, however, were only the starting points for
subdivision. Thus the Cumberland Presbyterians in their prac-
tice came somewhat near to Methodism, while they were
scarcely Calvinistic in their beliefs. The Campbellites, on the
other hand, were non-Calvinistic Baptists.

When Illinois became a state, Methodism had long been
established in it. At that time the district of Illinois was united
with the Missouri conference, and there were a presiding elder
and seven circuit preachers. The church had a membership of
1,435 whites and 17 blacks. In 1824 a separate Illinois con-
ference including a part of Indiana was formed. Illinois itself
had a presiding elder and nine circuits with eleven preachers.
At that time the membership had increased to 3,705 whites and

27 colored. Jesse Walker, the indefatigable preacher who had
first worked in Illinois in 1806, was assigned as missionary in
the settlements between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers and
Fort Clark. There he formed the first class at Peoria. In

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 27

1825 he was assigned as missionary to the Potawatomi located
on the Fox river above the Illinois. The expense of the enter-
prise was $1,000 a year. In 1829, however, when their lands
were sold, the mission among the Potawatomi was abandoned,
and missions at Galena and Fox River were opened.34

The only other denomination of comparable strength in
the state was the Baptist. In 1825 the Baptists were estimated
to have fifty-eight preachers and exhorters, and the Emanci-
pating Brethren and the Christian Body had thirteen each.35
In the midst of the individualism characteristic of the denomina-
tion there stands out the figure of one man, John Mason Peck.
Peck was born in 1789 in the Congregational atmosphere of
Connecticut. The birth of his first child in 1 8 10 first discovered
to Peck his disbelief in efficacy of pedobaptism. Becoming at
length a Baptist by conviction, he began to preach a little and
in 1813 was ordained. In 1816, to prepare himself for a mis-
sionary career, he studied in Philadelphia, gaining some
knowledge of Hebrew and a greater mastery of Latin and
Greek, as well as some acquaintance with medicine. In 1817
he was dispatched by the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions
as missionary to the west, where he settled himself for the time
at St. Louis. His duties soon carried him to the Illinois side of
the river. In 1820 the board abandoned the St. Louis mission.
In 1822 the Massachusetts Missionary Society appointed Peck
a missionary; and in April of that year he removed to Illinois,
still keeping an eye to the maintenance of his hard-won foothold
in St. Louis.

Peck's activity was tireless. From the time of his coming
to the west he rode circuit as assiduously as a traveling Metho-
dist elder, braving the dangers and hardships of the wilderness.
With indefatigable Yankee energy he was ever founding,
establishing, and sustaining Sunday schools, Bible societies,
missionary societies, and their auxiliaries, laboring for better
schools, striving with the perversions and oddities of doctrine

3* Lcaton, Methodism in Illinois, 48, 151-152, 213.
35 Edtuardsville Spectator, October 22, 1825.

28 THE FRONTIER STATE

ithat had grown up in the wilderness. He was not successful in
avoiding the excitement of enmity among the Baptists, partly
as the result of the jealousy of local illiterate preachers who
feared that the better educated missionary preacher might
lessen their prestige among the people, partly from a distrust
that the mission system was an approximation to Methodism
and that the organization of general societies was an encroach-
ment on the autonomy of the individual church governments.
Peck soon had a growing opposition to contend with in Illinois.
His opponents in clumsy satires made light of educated minis-
ters. They opposed all concerted denominational methods,
such as the establishment of Bible societies, missionary societies,
and Sunday schools. This opposition they justified partly, one
would judge, on predestinarian grounds, considering that such
aids to salvation were flying in the face of divine election. A
further development of this opposition was the "two seed"
doctrine of Daniel Parker, at one time Illinois senator, which
predicated the fact that the seed of the woman and the seed of
the serpent were fixed to all eternity, declining any attempts of
the missionary methods to change the one to the other.36

Sometimes the opposition took unusual or interesting forms.
In Sangamon county in 1823 an association debarred from
membership any Baptist holding membership in a missionary
society. In the legislature in 1828 Cartwright and James
Lemen sponsored a bill for the prevention of vice and im-
morality, and a member proceeded to amend the clause
prohibiting the disturbing of congregations in this fashion:
" that if any person on the Sabbath or first .day of the week,
should attempt to disturb the peace or good order of any con-
gregation or body of people gathered together for the purpose
of worshiping Almighty God, by offering to sell pamphlets or
books of any description whatever; or by begging money, or

36 Babcock, Memoir of John Mason Peck, 12-14, 30, 106-110, 172. See Illi-
nois Intelligencer, December 7, 1822, for a letter by Parker, declaring a Baptist
paper was full of philosophy and enticing words of men's wisdom. Training
preachers he pronounced a mark of the beast. His declaration that not one. as-
sociation in five in the west corresponded with the Board of Missions is inter-
esting.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 29

any other thing for the support of Missionary Societies, Bible
Societies, or Sunday Schools, shall be fined any sum not more
than $15, nor less than $5." 37 Strangely enough twelve votes
were mustered in the house of representatives for this amend-
ment. Occasionally a charge of attempts to unite church and
state was used against some particular candidate. It was
undoubtedly true that appeals were occasionally made to re-
ligious people to vote against " an enemy to religion." John
Russell was several times attacked on charges that he wished to
set up Presbyterianism as the state religion and the same
charge was frequently brought against S. H. Thompson with
reference to his Methodist connections. The supporters of a
convention in 1824 attempted to argue that the Methodists
were trying to run the state.38

Other denominations in Illinois were of minor importance.
In 1825 it was said that there were fourteen Cumberland
Presbyterian ministers and two Presbyterian, with one each for
the Covenanters, Dunkards, and Independents. In Bond
county in 1824 it was said that the Methodists, Presbyterians,
and Cumberland Presbyterians would frequently unite in
services.39 There was enough Universalism to cause much an-
noyance to the orthodox ministers. Catholic activity, at first
confined to a few French parishes and missions in the southern
part of the state, was, in the late twenties and early thirties,
beginning to follow the thickening population into central and
northern Illinois.

As a corollary to the efforts of distinctly denominational
religion on the frontier must be noted the activities resulting in
the spread of Sunday schools and Bible societies. It is said
that the first Sunday school in Illinois was established at Alton
in May of 1819. In 1821 a female society at Edwardsville
had been in operation over a year. In 1822 the ladies and gen-
tlemen of Vandalia were asked to meet to form a Sunday
school. In 1824 societies to promote the formation of Sunday

37 H ouse Journal, 1828-1829, i session, 78.

38 Illinois Intelligencer, July 27, 1822, December 9, 1825.

39 Ibid., November 12, 1824.

30 THE FRONTIER STATE

schools were established in Greene, Madison, Sangamon, Mor-
gan, and St. Clair counties, as well as in a few others. The total
number of schools was thirty-five with 1,047 scholars, who had
recited according to report, 82,441 verses, the Bible verses
memorized being the important quantitative unit of measure.
The purpose of the schools was to furnish a little education in
communities that could not sustain ordinary schools, to teach
reading, instill moral habits, induce a due observance of the
Sabbath, but chiefly to commit scripture to memory. In 1826 a
general Sunday School Union for Illinois and Missouri was
formed, which in its second annual report, claimed 77 schools,
340 teachers and superintendents, and 2,546 scholars in Illinois.
It planned to establish depositories of books at Kaskaskia,
Shawneetown, Vandalia, and Springfield. Its appeal was to
all denominations. Apparently both the county and the state
societies were founded under Peck's leadership in the hope of
checking the anti-mission movement. In December of 1823,
perhaps under his guidance also, Bible societies were formed in
Greene and Madison counties; in 1824 one was also formed in
Bond county. In 1825 there were said to be twenty-two auxil-
iaries and branch Bible societies in the state.40 These societies
appear to have encountered opposition from the same source
as that to missions, even in such an important task as the distri-
bution of Bibles. In 1826 it was estimated that in Madison
county there were 720 families in which were 3,237 persons
able to read and 27 families in which no one could read. There
were 79 families in which some person could read and which
had no Bibles. In 1828 a state Bible society, on the call of the
Bond county society, was formed at Shoal Creek.

With a purpose closely akin to these the American Tract
Society depository was founded in Greenville in 1824 and 1825
with William M. Stewart as agent; Bond county, it may be
noted, seemed to take a prominent part in many enterprises of
the sort. In November of 1824 a temperance society was

40 Edwardsville Spectator, October 22, 1825; Babcock, Memoir of John
Mason Peck, 185, 192; Illinois Intelligencer, August 28, 1821.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 31

formed there which a year later served as the nucleus of a state
society; the members pledged themselves to abstain from offer-
ing liquor at house raisings, a habit apparently already frowned
upon in the county. They attacked the use of liquor upon the
ground, familiar enough nowadays, that it was the fruitful
source of idleness, profanity, and crime, depicting drunkenness
as a vice that produced tenfold more misery than stealing or
dueling, caused 10,000 deaths a year in the United States, and
wasted $12,000,000 directly for spirits and $60,000,000 in-
directly through its use. The society, however, did not insist
upon prohibition but rather upon the barring from public office
all those addicted to strong drink.41

Crude and artificial as often were the forces promoting a
higher culture on the frontier, one feels as he takes his leave of
the period no reason to regret their work. The virtues of man
living in the state of nature are alluring, but an analysis of the
social life of the frontier discloses nothing of good that
necessarily must be lost in a change to a higher civilization and
much that might well be replaced by something better. The
neighborliness that found expression in the barn raising does
not seem so great when compared with the every day acts of
kindness that flourish in a rural community today, when the
comparative value of time and labor in the one and the other
case is considered. Side by side with the honesty and open-
hearted hospitality existed the villainy of the scoundrel who had
fled to the backwoods to evade the law. The summary punish-
ment inflicted on the outlaw by the backwoodsman was well
replaced by the due forms of law. The squalid surroundings
of the backwoods cabin happily disappeared before the trim
farmhouse. And even the emotionalism or dogmatism of the
early preacher compared favorably with the intellectual dark-
ness of the years before Peck and Cartwright, or the intellectual
self-complacency of the shallow freethinker. A young Eng-
lishman at first fired with enthusiasm for the free life of the
frontier finally came to see in the freedom little but lawless-

41 Illinois Intelligencer, November 13, 1824, April 21, 1827.

32 THE FRONTIER STATE

ness. On the page after that on which he records the killing
of six Indians, men and women, on English Prairie in the spring
of 1817, he wrote "Instead of being more virtuous, as he is
less refined, I am inclined to think that man's virtues are like
the fruits of the earth, only excellent when subjected to culture.
The force of this simile you will never feel, until you ride in
these woods over wild strawberries, which die your horse's
fetlocks like blood yet are insipid in flavour; till you have seen
waggon loads of grapes, choked by the bramble and the
poisonous vine; till you find peaches, tasteless as a turnip, and
roses throwing their leaves of every shade upon the winds,
with scarcely a scent upon them. Tis the hand of man that
makes the wilderness shine. His footsteps must be found in
the scene that is supremely & lastingly beautiful." 42

*2 Fordham, Personal Narrative, 225.

II. THE NEW STATE GOVERNMENT,
1818-1828

THE constitution of 1818 and the laws under which the
people of the state lived for the first ten years of its
existence afford an interesting elaboration and commentary on
certain phases of the general life of the people already de-
scribed. Such material, of course, has to be used cautiously;
the passage of a law by no means implies that the condition
toward which it is apparently directed prevailed to any con-
siderable extent. Without some such study, however, the
picture of early Illinois would be incomplete. Reserving the
financial legislation to a later chapter, the important elements
in Illinois' early legal history will be next considered.

The government of Illinois in its constitution and in its
tendency for the first fifteen or twenty years after 1818 was a
government by the legislature. The observer is impressed not
only by the extent of the power exercised by the general
assembly in comparison with that exercised by the judiciary and
the executive, but by its assumption of the choice of local officers
which are now by almost universal practice chosen by individual
communities.

The legislature by the terms of the constitution was to meet
biennially; there were to be between one-third and one-half as
many senators as representatives. In practice the first and
second general assemblies consisted of fourteen senators and
twenty-nine representatives; there was a slight increase there-
after until 1 83 1.1 The representatives were elected annually
for each assembly and the senators for terms of four years,
half of the senate retiring every two years. In addition to its

1 Up to that time the senate regularly had eighteen members excepting the
fourth with nineteen. The house was composed of thirty-six increasing to
thirty-seven in the third and forty in the fourth.

33

34 THE FRONTIER STATE

powers of legislation the assembly enjoyed the usual powers
in impeachment, counted the votes in gubernatorial elections,
elected members of the supreme court, appointed the auditor,
attorney-general, state treasurer, state printer, and other
necessary state officers. By a two-thirds vote it could submit
to the voters the question of calling a convention to amend the
constitution. The senate could pass on the governor's nominee
for secretary of state and had a similar voice in the selection of
other officers created by the constitution without a specific pro-
vision for their election.

On the legislative department the constitution grafted a
very curious body, almost indeed a third house — the council
of revision. The origin of this institution was generally traced
to a similar one in New York, and when it became unpopular
Elias Kent Kane was usually charged by his enemies with re-
sponsibility for it. The council was composed of the governor
and the justices of the supreme court; its duty was to examine
all laws passed by the house and senate and to return such as it
disapproved, which last could be passed over its veto by a
majority of the members in each house. In practice the insti-
tution prevented some useless legislation by calling to the atten-
tion of the legislature technical defects in laws passed; but the
council's vetoes of laws on grounds of public policy or of
unconstitutionality were apt to be futile or merely irritating,
because legislators in early Illinois were rarely absent during
the session and the majority of members elected in each house
required to pass a bill over the veto of the council was usually
only one or two greater than the vote by which it originally
passed. Furthermore, the supreme court in deciding cases in-
volving the constitutionality of state laws was continually
embarrassed by the fact that the justices in the council of re-
vision had already passed on them. This function of the
justices undoubtedly heightened the political character, already
too apparent, of the early Illinois judiciary.

The powers of the executive of the state were defined by the
constitution within narrow limits. The governor could pardon

THE NEW STATE GOVERNMENT 35

and reprieve and could nominate to the senate for appointment
all officers whose choice was not otherwise prescribed by the
constitution or whose functions were not exclusively local. He
was commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the state and
of the militia. In case of his impeachment, resignation, or
absence from the state he was to be succeeded by the lieutenant
governor, who normally presided over the senate. The veto
power, however, which has come to be an important function
of the governorship, he could exercise only by his single vote
in the council of revision.

The judiciary was only sketched in by the constitution. In-
ferior courts could be established and their judges appointed
by the legislature and removed by it on the formal application
of two-thirds of each house. The supreme court till 1824 was
to consist of four justices chosen by joint ballot of the assembly,
and charged with both circuit and supreme court duties. At the
end of that period the legislature might remodel the supreme
and circuit courts and elect judges who were to hold office during
good behavior. As might have been foreseen this gave a
political cast to the first supreme bench; and it is not surprising
that in 1822 two justices should have been openly candidates
for governor and a third a potential candidate for either the
governorship or the senate.

The court as first constituted consisted of Joseph Phillips,
Thomas C. Browne, William P. Foster, and John Reynolds.
Of these men Foster never acted and was succeeded by William
Wilson ; Phillips resigned in 1822 and was replaced by Thomas
Reynolds. In 1825 the legislature reconstituted the court with
a chief justice, three associate justices, and five circuit judges.
The justices elected under this law, however — Samuel D.
Lockwood, Theophilus W. Smith, Thomas C. Browne, and
William Wilson — by an act of 1827, were compelled to return
to circuit duties; and the circuit judges were legislated out of
office.2

2 In this and in following chapters when the date of a law is given in the
text, no further reference is made.

36 THE FRONTIER STATE

The displaced circuit judges drew up a communication to
the senate protesting against the act as calculated to displace
the balance of the three divisions of government and leave the
tenure of the judiciary at the whim of the legislature. This
was the main argument advanced by their supporters; while
those who favored the abolition of their offices urged economy
and the advantage of keeping the supreme justices fresh in the
law by service in the circuits, instead of leaving them to be in
session twenty-eight days in a year and a half to decide sixty-
three cases. They discounted the argument that the benefit of
appeal would be destroyed by referring to the supposedly
similar experience of Great Britain, the United States and New
York state. On one ground or another probably the majority
of the people were in favor of the repeal.3

Local government in Illinois for its first decade was as rudi-
mentary as the state government. The constitution had little
to say on the subject. It provided that three county commis-
sioners be elected in each county to transact all county business
but left their duties and term of service to be regulated by law.
The first general assembly expanded the constitutional pro-
vision regarding county commissioners by defining their duties
as follows : " That said court in each county, shall have juris-
diction in all matters and things concerning the county revenue,
and regulating and imposing the county tax, and shall have
power to grant license for ferries and for taverns, and all other
licenses and things that may bring in a county revenue; and
shall have jurisdiction in all cases of public roads, canals, turn-
pike roads, and toll bridges, where the law does not prohibit
the said jurisdiction of said courts ; and shall have power and
jurisdiction to issue all kinds of writs, warrants, process, and
proceedings, by the clerk throughout the state, to the necessary
execution of the power and jurisdiction with which this court
is or may be vested by law." The court, it was expressly
stated, had no legal jurisdiction in the ordinary sense, "but

3 Illinois Intelligencer, January 6, 27, 18*7; Ed<wards<ville Spectator, Feb-
ruary 25, September 29, 1826; Illinois Gazette, October 14, December 2, 16, 1826.

THE NEW STATE GOVERNMENT 37

said court shall have jurisdiction in all cases where the matter
or thing brought before the said court, relates to the public
concerns of the county, collectively, and all county business."
The function of the court was clearly designed to be adminis-
trative.4 This act, however, did not specify the term of office
of the members and indeed none did until 1829.

Of other county offices the sheriffs and coroners were by
constitutional provision to be elected biennially. Notaries
public, public administrators, and recorders were appointed by
the governor and senate, surveyors by nomination of the house
of representatives to the senate. The first general assembly
assigned probate functions to the county commissioners; the
third to a probate judge who was to hold office till the end of
the next general assembly. In 1825 the assembly installed new
probate judges elected by the legislature on joint ballot. The
county commissioners and the circuit judge both appointed
their own clerks. In most cases the returns from fees were
small and the county offices themselves were held as minor
prizes and rewards in the political game. Very often, especially
in the case of a new county, several of these offices were held
by the same man. " The offices in a new county " was a not un-
common political proffer or request. In such cases through
long tenure county clerkships sometimes became almost private
political freeholds especially in view of the fact that the law
recognized little or no responsibility on the part of the county
to provide clerks with offices or equipment. It will be seen
that the legislature allowed to the people of the counties a voice
in the selection of few of their officers.5

As defined by the constitution and the earlier statutes there
was nothing unusual in the duties of the Illinois justices of the
peace. By the act of 1 8 19 they were to be elected by the senate
on the nomination of the house of representatives; constables
were to be appointed annually by the county commissioners'

4 Laws of 1819, p. 175.

5 Laws of 1819, p. 18, 31; Laws of 1821, p. 62; Laws of 1823, p. 87,132; Laws
of 1825, p. 70; Washburne, Edwards Papers, 397-398; Reynolds to Grant, 1830,
in Eddy manuscripts.

38 THE FRONTIER STATE

courts. In 1827, however, the law was changed to provide for
their election by districts. The jurisdiction of the justice as
first defined extended to civil matters not exceeding one hundred
dollars, with appeal in all cases in which over four dollars was
at stake. The act of 1819 gave him general powers in criminal
cases to commit for all offenses and to free on recognizance in
minor cases. He was also given a rather vague jurisdiction in
criminal matters, which later acts rendered more specific. He
could commit vagrants and could discharge apprentices from
their masters, subject to appeal, or could correct them for mis-
behavior.6

One minor function of local government may here be dis-
cussed. Poor relief was provided for by a statute of 1819
which called for the annual appointment of overseers of the
poor in each township by the county commissioners. They
were directed to farm out the poor and to apprentice poor chil-
dren, and they might in behalf of the poor administer bequests
not aggregating in yearly value $1,200. There were added
elaborate provisions as to how a person might obtain a settle-
ment in the district and penalties for being without one, which
sound strangely on the frontier. Indeed the whole matter was
one of form only and Governor Coles, in answering a query
from New York regarding the Illinois poor system, was happy
to be able to remark that in no county had the poor been suffi-
cient in numbers to exercise the statutes.7

The constitution had left the appointment or election of
many officers now chosen by popular vote in the hands of the
governor and the general assembly. For the limited number
left to the popular choice any male white inhabitant above the
age of twenty-one residing in the state six months was entitled
to vote. For members of the general assembly the constitution
prescribed the payment of a state or county tax and United
States citizenship and for the governor United States citizen-
ship for thirty years. The specific laws relating to elections

6 Laws of 1819, p. 5, 88, 162, 186-195.

1 Ibid., p. 127-139; Laivs of 1827, p. 309-310; Greene and Alvord,
Governors' Letter-Books, 1818-1834, p. 51.

THE NEW STATE GOVERNMENT 39

were altered rapidly by the various general assemblies. The
successive laws provided for the division of the counties into
election districts with judges chosen by the county commis-
sioners' court. In 1819 and 1823, provision was made for vote
by ballot, in 1821 and 1829, by viva voce. All the acts after
1823 allowed the voter to cast his vote at any polling place in
the district in which an office for which he had the franchise
was to be filled.

The question between viva voce and ballot voting gave rise
to some interesting political discussion. In 1819 there seemed
to be a tendency to defend viva voce voting as a necessary
complement to the hustings, where the candidate appeared, to
be interrogated or pledged by the voter if he wished. Vote by
ballot, on the other hand, was held to imply some form of
previous nomination; and a nomination by clique or meeting
enabled a man to stand aloof and unpledged and be elected by
his friends.8 Whatever force this theory may have possessed
disappeared with the multiplication of polling places. One
has more sympathy with the attacks made in 1821 on viva voce
voting as a relic of British tyranny which admitted of overawing
voters. The general assembly was attacked for ordaining
viva voce vote in popular elections and for conducting its own
by ballot; and as a result of this criticism the assembly in 1829
provided by law that its own elections should be viva voce.9

At first the quinquennial state census was apparently designed
as an aid to apportionment. The laws of 1819 prescribed only
returns of heads of families, free white males of twenty-one
years, other free whites, free people of color and slaves. The
laws of 1829, however, contained additional provisions for
returning the number of persons of both sexes and colors in
ten-year age periods, the number of males eighteen to forty-five
subject to militia duty, and the number of factories, machines,
distilleries, etc.

In the legislation of Illinois during the period of its first

8 Illinois Intelligencer, March 17, June 9, 1819.

8 Ibid., January 16, July 31, 1821; Senate Journal, 1821, i session, 68.

40 THE FRONTIER STATE

constitution the militia occupies a much more prominent place
than a legislature of this day would assign it. Indications are
not wanting that its importance was much less than the bulk
of legislation would imply. The constitution defined the militia
as all free white males from eighteen to forty-five except those
exempted; it provided for the exemption of conscientious ob-
jectors, it prescribed the election of company and regimental
officers by the whole of their respective commands, and election
of general officers by the officers of the commands in question.
The legislature provided for conscientious objectors by allow-
ing them to obtain release from drill, not from active service,
by payments for flags and martial musical instruments or for
the poor of the county, or by additional road service.

The militia was organized on a territorial basis ; its unit was
the company whose captain was to enroll in a specific district all
those liable for duty; the regiment represented a county, and
the brigades and divisions, groups of counties. The men were
brought together in company, battalion, or regiment for drill
several days in each year. The officers formed regimental
courts-martial which assessed petty fines for nonattendance at
musters or for improper equipment.10

In spite of elaborate militia statutes, notices in newspapers
of militia elections, and even store advertisements of martial
trappings, one doubts if the militia service was a very important
one in men's minds, or even if the musters gained in the social
life of communities such a place as that held by the circuit court
days. Coles in reporting to the war department in 1826 ex-
pressed the belief that a volunteer corps would be far more
valuable. He thought that the musters were productive of
little military knowledge and that their effect on society was bad.
He believed one muster a year for companies and regiments
would be enough, though he thought the officers would need
additional training in "the duties of the field and camp."
" The Militia," he said, " as now organized is a mere school of

10 Laws of 1819, p. 13-14, 270-296; Laws of 1821, p. 13, 106-112; Laws
of 1823, p. 40; Laws of 1827, p. 296; Laws of 1829, p. 107-108.

THE NEW STATE GOVERNMENT 41

titles where honors are conferred more from a momentary
impulse of personal kindness than from a sense of the qualifi-
cations of the individuals."11 This criticism was amply justified
in the course of time, for when in 1861 the call came for six
regiments of militia, there were " no available, efficient, armed
and organized militia companies in the State, and it is doubted
whether there were thirty companies with any regular organ-
ization."12

The problem of transportation in pioneer Illinois was a most
important one. By general acts, by special licenses to individuals
and corporations, by state aid, successive legislatures labored at
the problem, and none too successfully. The general acts left
the handling of this problem in its primary sense of good local
roads under the charge of the county commissioners' courts.
In local districts in their counties these courts were required
annually to appoint supervisors of highways who were empow-
ered to call on the people of their districts for specific amounts
of labor or for money commutation in lieu of them which might
be expended for hiring extra labor and teams and buying
scrapers or materials. These acts generally laid the burden of
labor on the highways on all males of from eighteen to fifty
years, but the act of 1825 allowed in addition a levy of one-half
per cent on all taxable property to be collected in labor or
money. The provision was repealed in 1827. In this provi-
sion lay a direct issue as to whether good roads were to be con-
sidered so universal a benefit that the poll tax principle was
properly applicable, or whether the benefit to property was
sufficiently great to warrant its taxation. The debate assumed
a class character; and while in Illinois legislation the poll tax
principle prevailed, it may be questioned if it was a triumph of
justice.13

In dealing with tne problem of long distance transportation
the legislature was inclined to rely on private enterprise. In

11 Greene and Alvord, Governors' Letter-Books, 1818-1834, p. no.

12 Reports General Assembly, 1863, 1:467.

13 Laws of 1825, p. 130, 135; Laws of 1827, p. 340, 346; Ediuardsville Spec-
tator, May 9, 1820, January 15, 1826.

42 THE FRONTIER STATE

1819 it allowed county commissioners' courts to authorize the
establishment of ferries and to fix rates for fares, which rates
the owners apparently sometimes tried to alter at pleasure. It
further authorized by similar means the construction of toll
bridges and turnpikes. In addition the legislature was free
with special acts allowing individuals to erect toll bridges or
build turnpike roads, sometimes with a provision allowing
county purchase after a term of years. Sometimes a lottery was
authorized for some such purpose as improving the Grand
Rapids of the Wabash or draining the American Bottom. In
1825 the county commissioners of Sangamon county were
allowed to receive subscriptions and to levy a tax for the im-
provement of the Sangamon river.

Sometimes the state legislature made grants in aid. Thus
in 1823 it provided for the laying out of a series of roads radi-
ating from Vandalia and appropriated $8,000 to build them in
Fayette county. Frequently it passed acts appointing com-
missioners to lay out specified roads. "Vast sums from the
public Treasury," protested the council of revision in 1827,
"have been thrown away on commissioners to view and mark
out roads, which have never been and never will be opened." 14

In 1827 and 1829 the legislature set about appropriating the
proceeds from the sale of the surplus saline land which had
been authorized by congress. The act of 1827 provided for its
use in improving Saline creek, for a local road, and for a canal
on the Little Wabash, allotting the proceeds from the Vermilion
saline to the improvement of the Great Wabash. In 1829 it
distributed all the proceeds above $10,000 to various counties
for miscellaneous public works. This was apparently the
triumph of a scheme of legislative logrolling in which amend-
ments and additions without number were proposed for the
benefit of various localities and vain appeals made for economy
or for reimbursing the school fund instead. Two broad pro-
jects of internal improvement by federal activity or federal
aid — the Cumberland road and the Illinois and Michigan

14 Senate Journal, 1826-1827, i session, 126.

THE NEW STATE GOVERNMENT 43

canal — though projected in this period, were not undertaken
till later and may most appropriately be considered elsewhere.

From the first session of the general assembly the question
of the establishment of an adequate code of statute law came
up repeatedly. The first legislature was criticized sharply
for repealing the territorial code and for the alleged discrep-
ancies and omissions in the laws with which they sought to
replace it. In the session of 1823 a joint committee of the
general assembly decided against revision of the laws until a
permanent judiciary could be established, possibly intending
to postpone consideration till the question of a revised consti-
tution was settled also. That question settled, the legislature
of 1825 required the justices of the supreme court to digest the
statutes and report discrepancies to the general assembly for
adjustment. They were also directed to consider the expedi-
ency of printing with the statutes the English statutes in force
in the state, a reminiscence of the act of the first general assem-
bly which had made the rule of decision, subject to legislative
alteration, the common law of England and all statutes with
certain exceptions made in aid of it before i6o6.15

In reporting to the general assembly of 1827 the justices
excused themselves for not undertaking the prescribed research
in early English laws on the plea that many of the statutes were
barbarous, long since obsolete and at variance with free insti-
tutions, as well as by the fact that there was no set of the Acts
of Parliament in the state. They had further decided it would
be inexpedient to prepare a digest since a permanent statutory
code was designed. Meanwhile they wished to examine the
new Louisiana code and, if they might take the time necessary,
the new New York code. Their uncertainty as to the sense of
the legislature on the revenue and execution laws, they con-
cluded, prevented them from having the work completed. The
legislature appointed a joint committee of fourteen which set
to work on the judges' recommendation. Their work, though

18 Illinois Intelligencer, May 25, 1819; Edwardsville Spectator, December
27, 1819; Senate Journal, 1822-1823, i session, 77; Laivs of tStQ, p. 3.

44 THE FRONTIER STATE

partly enacted into law in the form of statutes, was not finished
until the session of 1829.

The early criminal codes of Illinois were influenced in their
tenor by the impossibility of providing for punishment by im-
prisonment. In spite of repeated statutes requiring county
commissioners to provide strong jails, there were probably even
as late as 1829 many counties without them. A state peniten-
tiary did not exist, and the expense of keeping malefactors to
serve out prison terms was a burden which counties were unwill-
ing to assume. Accordingly, when fines could not be collected,
the most feasible method of punishment for the more serious
offenses appeared to be whipping. In spite of such traces of
savagery as the fact that an act providing for punishment by
extreme mutilation was lost in the Illinois house in 1823 by a
vote of but fourteen to eighteen, it is probable that tender-
hearted juries often neglected to apply the punishment of whip-
ping. None the less, the early codes have on their face savage
penalties in which the whipping post and even the brand play a
part.16

By the criminal act of 1819 only four offenses were pun-
ishable by death. From this list the code of 1827 subtracted
assault and arson, unless a life were lost in the fire, while adding
two corollary offenses. As to punishments by whipping, the
code of 1827, while applying it to nine offenses including crimes
of violence, forgery, counterfeiting, and altering marks and
brands, cut down the number of lashes; in certain cases the
code of 1819 prescribed five hundred lashes, but the later code
in no case exceeded a hundred. The large number of addi-
tional offenses created by the act of 1827 were punished by fine
or by civil disability.

Some of the offenses specified in the early act are interesting
commentaries on the economic conditions of the day. In the
act of 1819 were penalties for hog stealing, altering marks —
punished by a fine of fifty to one hundred dollars and from
twenty-five to thirty-nine lashes — and for defacing brands —

19 House Journal, 1826, 2 session, 58; ibid., 1828-1829, i session, 7.

THE NEW STATE GOVERNMENT 45

punished by a fine of five dollars plus the value of the animal
and forty lashes if a first offense and by branding for a second.
Persons killing cattle or hogs in a wood were required to show
the head, ears, and hide to the next magistrate under penalty
of ten dollars. Every person owning livestock was required
to record his brand or earmark with the county commissioners'
clerk, and a person buying neat cattle must within eight months
brand them with his own brand before two credible witnesses.
Any man bringing earless hogs to a house was to be judged a
hog stealer. The act is strangely reminiscent of the custom of
the Anglo-Saxon frontier a thousand years earlier.

Certain interesting aspects of social life are touched in the
various Illinois codes. In 1819 and 1827 acts were passed
against dueling, the first of them limiting the death penalty to
the principal, and the second making any participation in a
fatal duel murder. Both acts punished anyone concerned in
the formalities of a duel with civil disability. There was
repeated legislation from 1819 against gambling. In 1825 the
purchase or importation of packs of cards or other gambling
devices was punished by a fine. In 1 827 a curious provision was
enacted making payments of gambling debts recoverable at
law at treble value by the loser or, if he did not act, by any
other person. There was a severe penalty prescribed against
tavern keepers who tolerated gambling or who kept open on
Sunday. The term tavern was given a definition by an act of
1823 which had forbidden county commissioners to grant
"grocery" licenses unless the applicant gave security to pro-
vide lodging for four persons besides his family. The code of
1827 continued the penalty against tavern keepers who toler-
ated gambling; further it provided a fine for tavern keepers
who sold liquor without a license or sold it to a slave without
his master's consent. There was a general penalty for keeping
a tippling house open on Sunday or for keeping a gambling or
disorderly house.

Most curious of all, both for the spirit that prompted them
and for the spirit which they were intended to combat, were

46 THE FRONTIER STATE

the Sunday laws. The act of 1819 assessed a fine of two dol-
lars on persons fighting, working, shooting, or hunting on
Sunday. Further it assessed swearing of oaths at from fifty
cents to two dollars. Persons swearing or behaving in a dis-
orderly manner before a court or a congregation were fined
from three to fifty dollars. No provisions on the subject appear
in the code of 1 827, but in 1 829 an act provided that any person
disturbing Sunday by work be fined not to exceed five dollars,
and anyone disturbing a congregation be fined not to exceed
fifty dollars.

Acts of 1819, 1825, and 1827 provided for divorces to be
granted by circuit courts. The act of 1825 allowed divorce
from bed and board for cruelty or for habitual intoxication.
Otherwise only impotence, adultery, and the existence of a
previous spouse were recognized as valid reasons. In spite
of these provisions, the legislature was repeatedly appealed to
for special divorces and was usually in the throes of contest
over the principle of granting them. A limited right of impris-
onment for debt was granted by the act of 1823, but it applied
only in case of an affidavit that the debtor was on the point of
absconding and lasted only till security was given or an oath of
insolvency taken.

It is comparatively difficult to determine the character and
the amount of crime that flourished in the Illinois of the first
decade of statehood. In default of searching court records
one is thrown back on the newspaper accounts, which of course
are far from complete and indeed difficult to estimate. Crimes
of violence exclusive of those resulting from mere affrays like
that one at Vandalia when James Kelley, cashier of the state
bank, was killed in the act of cowhiding his assassin, found
their most fruitful source in the gangs of desperadoes, half
counterfeiters and horse thieves, half robbers and murderers,
such as the one which infested southeastern Illinois in the early
years of statehood. These gangs, having their rendezvous at
taverns where they trapped unwary travelers well supplied with
money, often mustered sufficient strength to make open war

THE NEW STATE GOVERNMENT 47

on the posses sent out against them. Occasionally the inhabi-
tants in desperation enforced a lynch law of their own, as for
instance when in Hamilton county in 1823 two persons were
acquitted of the death of a bad character whose house they had
gone to search.17

Among lesser crimes counterfeiting and horse stealing throve
exceedingly. The temptation to the former was irresistible
when the large number of banks of issue and the comparative
ignorance of the people is considered, and the plates once made
the business could be conducted as well in the seclusion of the
woods as in cities. Horse stealing was so prevalent in Madison
county in the first years of statehood that Mrs. Ninian Edwards
was compelled to lead the family horses through the house into
the yard every night.

From the beginning. Illinois had a savage black code. By
jact of {he firsf legislature all Efagipoes and mulattoes settling in
the state must produce a certificate of freedom to be recorded
by the clerk of the circuit court. Any person bringing in Negroes
to be emancipated must give bond of one thousand dollars for
each. All resident blacks must enter their names and evidence
of their"lfre"edbm with the circuit clerk, and no one was to hire
them unless they produced the clerk's certificate to their free-
dom. Harboring runaway slaves, like receiving stolen goods,
was felony. Blacks without certificates were to be advertised
in the papers and hired out for a year. If no owner appeared
within that time the black was given a certificate of freedom.
No Negro might be a witness, except against a Negro, a mulatto,
or an Indian. The code of 1827 stated that justices of the
peace had jurisdiction over free Negroes, indentured servants,
or slaves in cases of larceny and with the verdict of a jury might
condemn them to stripes. The act of 1819 had also left to
justices power of inflicting similar punishment on insubordinate
servants. The law of 1829 provided that no black or mulatto,
not a citizen of one of the United States, was to enter the state
unless he gave bond of a thousand dollars and exhibited a cer-

17 Illinois Gazette, July 19, 1823.

48 THE FRONTIER STATE

tificate of freedom. This law was ushered in by a report by
Joseph Kitchell which pronounced the presence of negroes
with masters a moral and political evil and their presence with-
out them a greater one, especially as they could never be citi-
zens. This measure passed the house by a vote of twenty-five
to eleven and probably represents the sentiment of the day.

The clause of the act of 1819 which penalized the bringing
in of servants without giving bond caught at least one illus-
trious victim in Edward Coles, who had brought in his slaves
a month after the passage of the act but five months before it
was published and had, through ignorance, neglected to comply
with its provisions. He was sued on behalf of Madison county
late in 1823 or early in 1824, and a verdict for $2,000 was
given against him. The next legislature passed an act releasing
all penalties, judgments, or verdicts under the provision of the
law of 1819, as Coles' enemies alleged at his special instance.
Samuel McRoberts, however, who was now the presiding judge,
overruled a plea to set aside the judgment and verdict, arguing
that the legislature could not legally revoke the penalty. His
decision was reversed by the supreme court in 1826. Mean-
while it gave rise to a long newspaper controversy between
Coles and McRoberts.18

With the presence of free blacks in the state the kidnapping
of them into slavery in the south was all too common, especially
in the decades 1820-1840. For instance in 1823 certain
freedmen from Vincennes were kidnapped and carried off
through Shawneetown in spite of the fact that a son of William
Henry Harrison endeavored to raise a pursuit.19 There were
repeated laws on kidnapping. The act of 1819 penalized it by
a fine of one thousand dollars. The act of 1825 made it a fel-
ony punishable by twenty-five to one hundred stripes, by two to
four hours in the pillory, and by a fine of one thousand dollars.
It was much more closely drawn than its predecessor and in-
cluded the case of kidnapping from one county of the state to

18 Ed<wards<ville Spectator, April 12, 26, 1825.

19 Illinois Gazette, August 2, 1823.

THE NEW STATE GOVERNMENT 49

another and prohibited the selling of indentured servants out of
the state. The code of 1827 had somewhat similar provisions.
The act of 1829 prohibited marriage between the races under
penalty of stripes, fine, and imprisonment. Jacob Ogle in 1823
was not permitted by the legislature to introduce a petition
from persons of color begging for the suffrage. When Flower
sent some freed Negroes from Illinois to Haiti, they were
stopped in Shawneetown under suspicion of being fugitive
slaves. It was intimated that the men in charge of them might
design to sell them at New Orleans. The prevailing attitude]
toward the Negro or his friends was distinctly one of distrust
and dislike.20

There were Negroes other than freedmen in Illinois not
only the slaves of the old French inhabitants supposedly guar-
anteed them by the Virginia act of cession but numerous inden-
tured servants as well, held on long terms that made them
slaves in all but name. Exactly what the economic status of
these indentured servants was is hard to say. The indenture
records kept in various counties, however, afford some light on
the problem. Sometimes a cash consideration as high as $500
is named, but probably in such cases the sum was paid to the
former owner of the slave in or out of Illinois. Oftener the
consideration was a suit of clothes, a blanket, or something of
the sort. The term of service varied widely, but the normal
period usually was one that terminated at the slave's sixtieth
year. Sometimes whole families down to the babe at the breast
were indentured, but more frequently the indentures represent
the acquisition of an adult slave. Except near the saline at
least as many women as men were indentured. Undoubtedly
this points to the presence of southern women unable to handle
alone the task of housewifery or to procure white help. The
need of servants in his own home doubtless caused many a
young man, who was making his way to prosperity without
being able to give his wife the benefits of it, to favor slavery.

The indenturing of new servants ceased of course with

20 House Journal, 1822-1823, i session, 36; Illinois Gazette, April 3, 1829.

50 THE FRONTIER STATE

the new state constitution. A rush to indenture servants is
especially noticeable in White and Gallatin counties at the time
when the first draft of the new constitution would have reached
them, about August 25, 1818. After the admission of the
state there was open trading in French slaves and in indentures
with varying terms to run. Slavery was not to be pronounced
legally at an end in Illinois for a quarter of a century thereafter.
Upon the first legislature the duty of providing a new capi-
tal had been laid, not by popular demand, but by the influence
of speculators in the constitutional convention. Kaskaskia, for
a hundred and fifty years the seat of empire in the central west,
was still by post road, by water, and by commercial connection,
the most important city of the state; a change from this logical
capital was premature and unnecessary. But in a day when the
projection of a new town was the favorite get-rich-quick scheme,
speculators were not likely to let slip so fat an opportunity as
the promotion of a new capital. The question was brought
before the convention by the introduction of three written pro-
posals from proprietors of sites on the Kaskaskia river north
of the government surveys, offering to donate land to the state
for a capital site. At once the convention took issue. A bitter
wrangle ensued with the outcome a draw, for the resolution
finally adopted, though it made a change necessary, was de-
signed to remove the transaction from the field of private
speculation. As incorporated in the constitution, it provided
that the first legislature should petition congress for four
sections of land for a capital site " on the Kaskaskia river, and
as near as may be, east of the third principal meridian;" if
the petition was granted commissioners were to be appointed
to select and lay out a town site to be the seat of government
for twenty years. In case the petition was refused, the general
assembly was to fix the capital where it thought best. By
requiring that the site be located east of the third meridian
where no individuals had land claims, it was thought that the
state, and not private enterprise, would profit from the sale
of lots. The gains from this source were practically the only

THE NEW STATE GOVERNMENT 51

advantage reasonably to be expected from the change, and to
many minds they seemed trifling indeed as compared to the sac-
rifices entailed.

In spite of some such protests, the legislature, when it con-
vened, proceeded as directed by the constitution. Its petition
was granted by congress and five commissioners selected as the
new site for the capital Reeve's Bluff, a beautiful spot in the
midst of an unsettled wilderness eighty miles to the northeast
of Kaskaskia.

The legislative ruling that only one hundred and fifty lots
of the new site were to be put on sale caused such absurdly
high prices to be bid for them that on paper the state realized
over $35,000. Only a small portion of this sum was paid in
cash, however, and it became impossible to exact full payment
when in a short time the dream of a swift-growing city was seen
to be chimerical. This uninhabited spot was christened Van-
dalia ;21 having thus been chosen as the repository of the state
archives, these were bundled into a small wagon and carried
through the forest to the temporary building erected for them.

21 The name was probably taken from the name of the proposed colony of
Vandalia that was an issue in British politics and later American during the
last quarter of the eighteenth century.

III. TEN YEARS OF STATE FINANCE

THE public finance of early Illinois introduces the student
to a strange world, in which currency normally circulates
at a score of different discounts from par, in which banks are
organized to loan money on the state's credit to hard-pressed
citizens, and in which the state derives but a small portion of
its little revenue from the taxation of its own citizens. Illinois
state finances, while not expressed in sufficiently great sums to
be impressive, are sufficiently bizarre to be interesting.

As an introduction to the public finance of the state it will
be necessary first to consider the currency and private finance.
The currency in circulation in Illinois for the first years of ks
majority was emphatically of an opera bouffe character. Not
merely did the notes composing it pass at a discount ; they passed
at forty different discounts, varying with the reputation, of the
banks from which they issued or purported to issue. Some were
issued by solvent banks, some by specie paying banks, some were
issued by banks that had failed, some were counterfeit notes
of existing banks and others of purely fictitious ones. Of the
notes in circulation, a few were issued by New England banks,
a few came from western New York, more came from Pennsyl-
vania and the District of Columbia, still more from thf banks
of Ohio and of the south, in particular Tennessee and Ken-
tucky. Local notes composed but a small fraction of the total,
and notes of the Bank of the United States were very rare.

In great measure the uncertainty of the note issues in cir-
culation was due to the course of western trade. Illinois was
poor ; her agricultural products were her main source of wealth ;
and these, poured down the Mississippi in such quantities as
to glut the markets of New Orleans, afforded meager returns.
Furthermore, New Orleans was not able to act as the source

52

TEN YEARS OF STATE FINANCE 53

of supply for the needs of the state; and the manufactured lux-
uries and necessaries that Illinois drew from older communities
came from the northeast, notably from Philadelphia and Pitts-
burg. Means of making payments in the eastern cities were
scanty in the extreme. The good eastern money brought in by
immigrants found its way to the land offices and from them it
was drawn into the government treasury to be spent in the
east. The west was accordingly compelled to drain out the
dregs of its good money to pay its eastern debts. The one
means of relief would have been a commercial or exchange
organization capable of setting off credits at New Orleans
against debits in the east, but no such organization existed.
The Bank of the United States had hoped to establish a uniform
currency by making notes issued at one branch redeemable at
all others; but the western branches had issued such floods of
notes to be applied in local improvements or land speculation
that the United States Bank was threatened by the drain of
its specie in the east. The fact that it was compelled to receive
for the government the notes of any bank at all prevented it
from circulating its own notes locally in the west and providing
a different system of exchange; and it refrained for some years
from any issue of notes whatever in the west.

Under these circumstances the question, whether or not the
government land offices would accept the uncertain currency of
the west was vital to the people of the state. William H. Craw-
ford, secretary of the treasury, undertook the task of devising
a means whereby the government might accept the better notes
current in the west and convert them into eastern funds. The
Bank of the United States had at first agreed in localities where
it had no branches to designate local banks to receive the
public money from land offices. It soon discovered that in
spite of the treasury limitations as to notes which were land
office money, it was becoming responsible for vast sums of
paper it could not convert into current funds without delay and
loss by exchange. In June, 1818, therefore, it announced that
it would henceforth be responsible only for the transmission

'54 THE FRONTIER STATE

of legal currency of the United States or of funds convertible
into it. Crawford then undertook to use state banks in the
west as deposit agencies, requiring them to transmit the gov-
ernment funds in their possession by degrees to the United
States Bank; and in 1819 he granted them fixed government
deposit balances. At the same time he required them to be
responsible for the transmission without depreciation of bank
notes deposited by land offices, but allowed them to discon-
tinue receiving notes of any particular bank on due notice to
the receiver of the depositing land office.1 In 1820 he entered
into arrangements by which the depository banks were to re-
ceive and remit at par notes of certain eastern banks and of
specie paying banks in their own community. This was a
distinctly able measure toward building up sound local cur-
rencies.

Undoubtedly this policy saved the west from much hard-
ship. Had it not been entered into, the government could have
received only specie, United States Bank notes, and good east-
ern notes, all of which were rare in the west. Undoubtedly as
Crawford's enemy, Ninian Edwards, later charged some gov-
ernment money was lost in transactions with fraudulently con-
ducted banks; possibly also Crawford used the measure to
favor his political friends ; but when all has been said the policy
was essentially statesmanlike in character and was executed,
if one can judge from the State Papers, with much skill.

The Bank of Missouri served the longest as a depository
bank for Illinois. Crawford had designated it first as the de-
pository for the Illinois receivers. In 1819 he allowed it a
fixed government deposit of $175,000. At one time it held as
much as $600,000 of government funds awaiting transmission,
much of it in such notes as the United States Bank would not
accept, and much of it of uncertain value from any standpoint.
Yet only $152,000 was caught in the bank when it finally sus-
pended; and part of that may have been in uncurrent notes
received before the bank had a right of veto on the paper it

1 American State Papers, Finance, 3:725, 741, 747-750, 4:583, 587, 844, 853.

TEN YEARS OF STATE FINANCE 55

received.2 It suffered heavy drains of specie to pay accounts
for which exchange could not be procured — $90,000 in a year;
in June, 1821, it appealed to Crawford for an additional de-
posit of $50,000 and in August suspended. It had loaned
nearly the full amount of its paid-in capital, $210,000, over
half the sum going to the directors, who had in addition bor-
rowed $80,000 on mortgage, $60,000 on personal security, and
$37,000 as indorsers. The reason for its downfall is obvious,
but considering conditions in the west it had served with fair
efficiency as the government's fiscal agent.

Needless to say, there was from the beginning jealousy in
Illinois at the preference accorded to the bank across the river
in receiving deposits from United States land offices. At the
time of admission Illinois had two banks in operation, the
Bank of Edwardsville and the Bank of Illinois at Shawnee-
town; the banks of Cairo and Kaskaskia, though chartered,
were not in operation. The Bank of Illinois numbered among
its officers many of the most substantial men of Shawnee-
town — John Marshall, Leonard White, Samuel and John
Caldwell, John McLean, Michael Jones. Through the earlier
part of its career it was distinctly well managed. The Bank
of Edwardsville, though displaying on its list of sponsors the
great name of Ninian Edwards, had men in its directorate
whose financial stability was seriously questioned. The bank
was backed by Richard M. and James Johnson and General
Duval Payne of Kentucky. In 1819, $214,250 of its stock
was held in Kentucky, $18,000 in St. Louis, and $66,750 in
Illinois. Only a tenth of this was paid in. Both the Bank of
Illinois and the Bank of Edwardsville were made government
depositories late in i8i8.3

The career of the Bank of Edwardsville as a government
agent was short and troublous. Its ownership apparently
involved it in a series of associations with several other banking
enterprises of uncertain character and in resulting rivalries

2 American State Papers, Finance, 3:753, 758.

3 House Journal, 1819, 2 session, 107; American State Papers, Finance, 3 : 741.

56 THE FRONTIER STATE

with other banks. It was connected with the Bank of St. Louis,
a rival to the Bank of Missouri, which finally failed. Crawford
was continually assailed by recriminations from the two rival
banks, the Edwardsville institution accusing the Bank of Mis-
souri of robbing it of specie through presenting its notes re-
ceived in land office deposits. The Bank of Edwardsville was
never allowed to decide what notes it should accept. It was in
continual difficulty with the government over failures to make
remittances, for which it excused itself by the plea that eastern
funds could not be procured in the state and that it was impos-
sible to ship specie. Benjamin Stephenson, the president, in
his capacity as receiver of the land office, failed to make deposits
regularly. Ninian Edwards cautiously disclaimed responsi-
bility for the institution in 1819, and in 1821 it failed, carrying
a heavy government deposit with it.

The Bank of Illinois had a better record than its rival in
its career as a government agent. It made its remittances
with comparative regularity and in good funds. Its notes
passed at par in Illinois in 1822. In 1824 it declared a seven
per cent dividend. Its sound condition undoubtedly was due
to the fact that late in 1819 it voted for the future to discount
bills of lading only; thus it practically confined its discount
business to the equivalent of good commercial paper, repre-
senting bona fide transactions. Eventually it abandoned busi-
ness, only to resume it ten years later at the time of the internal
improvement excitement.4

The first general assembly under the provision of the state
constitution attempted to contribute to the financial world of
Illinois a state bank with a capital of $4,000,000 half sub-
scribed by the state and half by private persons. Of the
capital only one-fifth was to be paid in during the first six months.
The bank's notes were to be receivable for state dues at par so
long as they were payable on demand and were to draw twelve
per cent interest a year when they were not so payable. The

* American State Papers, Finance, 4:956; Illinois Intelligencer, June 15,
1822, July 17, 1824; Illinois Gazette, December n, 1819.

TEN YEARS OF STATE FINANCE 57

enterprise from the first encountered the bitter hostility of the
Illinois Emigrant which claimed that it was the work of a
Kaskaskia clique. The Intelligencer retorted that the Emi-
grants hostility was due to the solicitude of the Shawneetown
newspaper for the welfare of the Bank of Illinois. The debate,
however, was futile as the bank never went into operation.5

Undeterred by the fiasco the second general assembly of
1 8 20— 1 821 proceeded with a scheme for another bank. It was
to be administered by a head office and four branches, each with
a local directorate. Its capital was to be $500,000, and it
might issue $300,000 in notes bearing two per cent interest
which were to be loaned among the counties, each citizen being
entitled to a total discount not in excess of $1,000. Loans
in excess of $100 were to be secured on real estate. The faith
of the general assembly was pledged to the redemption of these
precious notes in ten years, one-tenth of them each year.
Against money received from the United States government
by the state treasurer which was to be deposited in the bank,
demand notes to the amount of twice the sums deposited were
to be issued and loaned in sums not exceeding $300 at six per
cent. A replevin law, applicable for three years to all execu-
tions in satisfaction of which state notes were not accepted,
indicates the purpose of the whole act. Times were hard and
money scarce, and a benevolent state accordingly issued money
in plenty to loan its citizens and protected their debts in case
these could not be satisfied in it.

Men were not wanting in the legislature to point out the
obvious arguments against the plan. Wickliffe Kitchell and
three others protested in the house, holding that the operations
of the bank would be a palpable evasion of the constitutional
provision against state emissions of bills of credit. Further
they held that the bank would encourage speculators and make
bankruptcy easy. Joseph Kitchell in the senate had previously
offered a resolution denouncing the establishment of a bank

5 Illinois Intelligencer, March 17, April 21, May 19, 1819; Illinois Emigrant,
April 17, June 5, 12, 1819.

58 THE FRONTIER STATE

without specie capital with which to redeem its paper on de-
mand. The council of revision objected to the bill on the
"bills of credit" ground and provoked only an overruling
which was preceded by a peevish report adducing among other
arguments for the bill that as the notes would not be accepted
outside the state they would remain at home for the use of
the citizens of Illinois ! In spite of the opposition of McLean,
the speaker of the house, the bill became a law.6

The measure once passed, the Illinois Gazette, while de-
ploring it, was inclined to make the best of it and even attacked
the Shawneetown merchants for receiving state bank paper
only at a fifty per cent discount. The Edwardsville Spectator
approved the measure from the first. Some of the bank's
opponents, such as Joseph Kitchell, were apparently conciliated
by offices in the bank. The notes were speedily disposed of at
a fifty per cent discount. A further issue of notes proposed
in January of 1823 was fortunately voted down.7

The state bank indeed is not to be judged and condemned
by the ordinary principles of banking, for this most extraordi-
nary bank was, if its officials may be believed, almost philan-
thropic in purpose. " When it is recollected," said a document
of 1827, "that the establishment of the State Bank was a
MEASURE of RELIEF — that its object was not to loan money
on usury to the wealthy, for the purpose of gain, but to lighten
the burthens of our indigent and embarrassed citizens — and
that, therefore, if any preference was to be shewn among appli-
cants for loans, it was to be exercised in favor of those who
were encumbered by debt — the only real matter of surprise
is that loans made under provisions so liberal, would have been
reduced with so much promptitude, and so little loss." 8 On
reading this statement the professed economist will cheerfully
resign the subject, although colorably pertaining to him, to
the historian.

6 House Journal, 1820-1821, i session, 145-227.

7 Illinois Gazette, July 8, 1821.

8 Replication of William Kinney, Abraham Prickctt, and Joseph A. Beaird
to Edwards' charges, Illinois Intelligencer, February 3, 1827.

TEN YEARS OF STATE FINANCE 59

The capital was divided, $83,516.86^ to the Edwards-
ville branch, $48,834 to Brownsville, $84,685 to Shawneetown,
$47,265.02 to Palmyra, and $35,699.11^ to the head office
at Vandalia. The capital of the Edwardsville and Shawnee-
town branches was practically loaned out a few months after
the banks went into operation. The Illinois Gazette sarcas-
tically suggested that the only way one could obtain a loan from
the bank was by being indebted to a director. This suggestion
may explain the attitude of a storekeeper like William Kinney
connected with the Edwardsville branch who accepted the notes
in satisfaction of specie claims of $20,000. The reader may
wonder whether the claims were good or bad. There is not
very much doubt that the Edwardsville branch loaned some
money for political reasons, some for the establishment of a
proslavery press. Loans were frequently made on real estate
of value insufficient to cover them. To add to the opera boufe
character of the situation the justices of the supreme court
declared that in their opinion the act establishing the bank was
unconstitutional and their opinion made the directors chary
of legal proceedings to enforce collections from debtors.9

The situation was brought to the attention of the legislature
in 1823 by the auditor, who in his report pointed out that the
notes were circulating at fifty per cent discount, thereby taxing
unduly state officers who were paid in them at par, and giving
an advantage to nonresidents who paid their taxes at par in
the depreciated paper. He offered the wise suggestion that
while the measure was one of relief and had been salutary,
the time had now come to press the liquidation of the bank as
the law prescribed. A legislative committee suggested a repeal
of the replevin provision in the law, and the legislature voted
an increase of fifty per cent in the salaries of state officers;
but the main difficulty in the application of any adequate reform
measure was found to be the lack of reports from which the
conditions of the branches could be learned.10

9 Illinois Intelligencer, December 23, 1826, February 3, 1827; Ed<wardsville
Spectator, December n, 1821; Illinois Gazette, July 28, 1821.

10 Illinois Intelligencer, January n, 1823; Laics of 1823, p. 131, 181.

60 THE FRONTIER STATE

The legislature of 1825, after an investigation, found the
condition of the bank hopeless. Except at Edwardsville and
Palmyra the expenses of the institution had exceeded its profits
from discounting. The books of the Shawneetown branch were
in hopeless disorder and those at Brownsville little better. Leg-
islation was needed to force the Shawneetown branch to turn
over to the head office the funds necessary to advance the work
of liquidation. The assembly reenforced the legal provision
requiring the cashiers to retire annually ten per cent of the
notes and provided that cancelled notes be burned or, if re-
issued, be stamped so as not to draw interest. It put an end
to the business of the branches except as collecting agencies.
By one act, however, it fatally involved the state finances with
those of the bank since it provided that auditor's warrants for
appropriations made in terms of "state paper" should issue
at its current value to be determined by state officers ; the law
recognized the current value as thirty-three and one-third
cents on the dollar. Probably this was due to a desire to issue
in auditor's warrants a currency in which debtors could pay
their debts; but the effect on state finances was disastrous.11

The auditor's report for 1826-1827 summarized the result
of this policy. The value of state paper rose to seventy cents
on the dollar, approximately one-half the warrants being issued
at or above fifty. About one-third of the state paper had been
retired and destroyed. The house in 1825-1826 was inclined
to oppose further relief and passed a measure that warrants
be issued at specie value and be payable in state paper at fifty
per cent discount; but the friends of relief were strong in the
senate and secured the retention of the old system. Edwards
in his campaign for the governorship in that year criticized
acutely the fatuous policy of the legislature. He pointed out
that in the first place the issue of auditor's warrants was made
necessary by the fact that nonresidents were required to pay
taxes only biennially. The debased warrants could then be
used by nonresidents to pay their taxes at their face value and

11 Laws of 1825, p. 16, 82, 182; Illinois Intelligencer, August 3, 1826.

TEN YEARS OF STATE FINANCE 61

must themselves ultimately be paid at par. If yearly settle-
ments of taxes were required, he declared, the notes would rise
in value because of the need of a medium in which to pay.12

As governor, Edwards hampered himself by his own actions
from carrying through a wiser policy. The legislature enacted
a law for a gradual scaling up of the rate of discount at which
warrants were to issue which would carry them to par by
November 29, 1830. But Edwards frittered away his influ-
ence by violent attacks on his political enemies which brought
him no advantage. He attacked James M. Duncan, cashier
at the head office of the state bank, for failures in duty which
certainly did not amount to malfeasances and of which a legis-
lative committee acquitted him. He attacked T. W. Smith,
Kinney, and the other directors and cashiers of the Edwards-
ville bank. There can be little doubt that they were guilty at
least of improper conduct but the legislature in Smith's case
took refuge behind the fact that his charges against the bank
for services were a proper matter for judicial determination;
and the men accused were cleared.13

The intent and purpose of the act in the first instance
had been that the bank should by gradually retiring its notes
automatically liquidate as its loans were paid. A series of acts
reduced the organization of the bank to a collecting agency.
Thus in 1829 the position of cashier of the head office was
abolished, the auditor and treasurer performing his duties.
The collections came slowly. There was the troublesome ques-
tion of constitutionality already adverted to; and further there
can be little doubt that the directors and presidents used to the
fullest extent the borrowing privilege which the original law
granted them. In 1827 a statement of the Brownsville branch
showed that William M. Alexander had borrowed $1,900.83 ;
Abner Field, $1,700; William McFatridge, $750; Joseph
Duncan, $2,000, and Edward Cowles, a well-known merchant
of Kaskaskia, $1,750. Of these, Cowles had paid in full,

12 Illinois Intelligencer, August 3, 1826.

13 Laws of 1827, p. 81; Illinois Intelligencer, January 20, February 3, 10,
17, 1827.

62 THE FRONTIER STATE

Field had paid $922, and Duncan $275. The statement speaks
for itself. With such influential debtors the cry for leniency
in dealing with bank debtors was soon raised. In his farewell
message Governor Coles had deprecated the extension of
inducements to debtors to pay up. Meanwhile he urged as
the true remedy as simple an administration of bank affairs as
possible. A contrary point of view was set forth in a house
resolution offered by John Reynolds, January 19, which urged
that inducements to secure immediate payments would save
the expense of administration. An act was passed allowing
debtors on paying up past due installments to renew their notes.
Two years later they were allowed to pay up in three annual
installments with interest. The bank lingered as a problem
after the passage of the first decade of state history.14

Some of the complications in the revenue of Illinois intro-
duced by the currency and the banks have been already hinted
at. A clearer understanding of the problem may be obtained
by an analysis of the source from which the state's revenue
was derived. In 1821-1822 it received but $7,121.09 from
resident taxpayers and $38,437.75 from nonresidents owning
land in the state ; in its capacity as landed proprietor the state
received $10,563.09 from the rental of the salines and in its
capacity of land speculator, $5,659.86 from the sale of Van-
dalia lots.

The importance in the state finances of the method of taxing
nonresidents is self-evident. The enabling act had prohibited
the state from taxing nonresidents at a higher rate than resi-
dents, from taxing land within five years from the time of pat-
enting, or taxing the bounty lands remaining with the patentees
for three years after the date of the patent. The state's
dealings with nonresident landholders under these provisions
are interesting. The first revenue act of 1819, while prescrib-
ing a triple tax on landholders who did not schedule their lands
and bank stock before a certain day, left nonresidents too short
a time to comply and caused them to believe the state was

14 Greene and Alvord, Governors' Letter-Books, 1818-1834, p. 132.

TEN YEARS OF STATE FINANCE 63

swindling them out of their lands. The second general assem-
bly allowed those subject to triple tax till January i, 1822, to
redeem for a single tax plus interest and provided for the adver-
tising in the eastern cities of lands on which taxes were unpaid.
The auditor even under the circumstances thought it unwise
actually to force a sale and contented himself with an advertise-
ment as a threat to secure payment of delinquent taxes. The
act of 1825 gave nonresidents till January i, 1826, to redeem
for a single tax and interest all lands stricken off to the state
under the act of 1819 and 1823; it further allowed a period
of two years in the future during which land could be redeemed
for one hundred per cent penalty. The legislature of 1826 pro-
vided that sales for taxes of lands owned by nonresidents
thenceforth be held once a year instead of biennially. A further
provision designed to prevent nonresidents from taking advan-
tage of their virtual monopoly of state paper by allowing resi-
dents only to pay in specie and at the prevailing premium was
dropped at the suggestion of the council of revision.15

The nonresidents, however, were not without their revenge
for the treatment which the laws clumsily accorded them. Time
and again, as nearly as one can judge, they forced the state to
terms by refusing to pay the excessive penalties laid for failure
to pay taxes. It was believed also that the nonresident tax-
payers in the east had bought up the notes of the state banks
at a discount to use them at par in paying their taxes. Thus they
deprived the people of the use of the notes as a medium of
exchange and taxed them the amount of the depreciation.
Edwards claimed for himself at least part of the credit for the
attempt to obviate this situation by forcing annual sales of
nonresidents' lands.16

Administratively the state's first revenue law was as bad as
it well could be and it was only gradually that the defects in it
were remedied. It was questionable if, in dividing lands into
three classes and setting an arbitrary value on each, the law of

15 Laws of 1825, p. 106.

16 About 6,000 tracts were sold in 1827, most of them for the whole tract.
Few were stricken off to the state. Illinois Intelligencer, January 27, 1827.

64 THE FRONTIER STATE

1819 did not violate the constitutional provision that all prop-
erty be taxed according to value. Taxation was made on the
basis of lists turned in by the taxpayers, resident and nonresi-
dent. Furthermore, while the auditor was authorized to obtain
from land offices abstracts of lands entered, it must have been
impossible for county assessors to know surely whether land
was listed or entered; and the auditor had no check as to the
amount of tax he was entitled to receive from the sheriff. The
auditor gave as a reason for not selling lands for taxes in 1822
that the validity of both the tax law and the law allowing state
sales for nonpayment of taxes was seriously questioned. The
auditor's report of that year is important because of its sugges-
tion that local taxation records be based on lists sent to the
counties by the auditor showing lands entered in the county
according to the United States land office records. A further
suggestion that the auditor be allowed to fix the necessary tax
rate was premature.

The most important part of the local machinery of taxation
perhaps is the dividing by whatever method of state from county
revenues. The act of 1819 retained for the state the tax on
bank stock, on nonresidents' land, and two-thirds the tax on
residents' land, giving the county the tax of one-half per cent
on slaves and servants and permitting it to levy an additional
tax of one-half per cent on personal property. The act of 1821,
when the state revenue seemed likely to be superabundant,
assigned the county two-thirds of the residents' land tax. In
1827 in answer to an urgent need of more county revenue the
county was allowed all the land tax paid by its residents. The
counties in the Military Tract were dealt with in a somewhat
different fashion. A subsidy of $750 was granted to Pike
county in 1821. In 1823 this grant was continued and Fulton
county received $450. In 1827 this was altered to a gift of
$275 to each Military Tract county, in return for which the
state took all the land tax.17

17 The grand jury of Madison county represented the county revenue as
inadequate. Ed<wardsville Spectator, September 27, 1823.

TEN YEARS OF STATE FINANCE 65

By virtue of the enabling act the state came into possession
of the salines including the reservations made to supply fire-
wood for salt boiling. The state thus had the regulation of a
large landed estate that normally would have furnished no
inconsiderable portion of the revenue. In 1823 Thomas
Mather estimated the income from the saline as one-seventh
of the state revenue. The state, however, was to learn by
experience the difficulty of making this estate productive.18

The difficulty was the securing of punctual payments of rent
from the persons to whom the saline was leased. At the state's
admission the saline, of course, was in the hands of private
lessees holding under leases from the United States govern-
ment. They asked for a renewal of their leases and offered
$8,000 a year if they were permitted to sell salt at $1.25 a
bushel and $10,000 if they could sell at $1.50. The legislature
at its first session rejected both propositions. At the second
session the legislature leased the saline to the former lessees,
probably on the basis of salt at seventy-five cents a bushel and
a rent payable in salt. In the carrying out of the leases there
was continual difficulty. The lessees refused to pay over to the
state the salt due on the unexpired portion of the 1818 rent;
and by March, 1820, some were still delinquent.19

The assembly of 1821 created the office of superintendent
of the saline and charged it with the duty of taking possession
of establishments which had forfeited their leases. In practice,
however, it proved difficult to make the agent answerable to the
auditor; and in 1823 the assembly had to pass an act requiring
reports of leases not yet entered to the auditor and accounts
regularly kept with him.

As a matter of practice the state found it impossible to col-
lect from the lessees of the saline the rents which they had
agreed to pay; and the legislature of 1823 began the practice
of condoning the nonpayment of them by releasing the securities
of one of the lessees from liability for a balance of $1,511.11

18 House Journal, 1822-1823, i session, 157.

19 Greene and Alvord, Governors' Letter-Books, 1818-1834, p. 16, 19, 23,
26, 27.

66 THE FRONTIER STATE

due the state. In great measure the loss was probably due to
the fact that the salt spring gave too weak a solution to furnish
a commercial product that could compete in price with Kanawha
salt. Much of the legislation of relief was directed to the pur-
pose of encouraging the lessees to search for springs of a
greater strength. Thus in 1823 it offered to those lessees who
had paid up their rent an extension of their leases for ten years
in case they found salt water stronger by a third than that pre-
viously used. In 1825 certain of the Shawneetown lessees were
excused from paying the state arrears of rent in case they
expended them in searching for stronger salt water. In 1822
the Illinois Gazette had announced that the discovery of a
new salt spring had cut the price of salt to fifty cents a bushel.20
Governor Coles, who during his term had taken much interest
in the problem of the saline and had inquired particularly into
the practice of older states in managing theirs, in his farewell
message advocated that a tax per manufactured bushel be sub-
stituted for the fixed rents, which indeed had been calculated
upon the basis of a much higher price for salt than could be
obtained in the face of the competition from Kanawha and
imported salt. The inferior quality of the salt rendered it unfit
for salting provisions for the southern market, which was the
most important commercial use for it The legislature in 1827
passed an act leasing the saline until 1836 to two lessees at a
price proportioned to the strength of the water they should find.
The surplus land attached to the saline and to the Vermilion
saline was sold under the authority of successive acts of the
federal government.

The state of Illinois started on its career with an endowment
for schools from which much more might have been expected
than actually was obtained. The state received section sixteen
in each township for the benefit of its schools, two townships of
thirty-six sections each for a seminary, and three per cent on net
proceeds from the sale of lands in the state. Of this amount
one-sixth was for a college or university.

20 Illinois Gazette, February n, 1822.

TEN YEARS OF STATE FINANCE 67

Legislation on the subject of the school land was at first
limited to a provision authorizing local renting of it for the
benefit of schools and preventing waste on it.21 The school act
of 1825 was more general in scope and was really an able
attempt to establish at any cost a good system of primary
education at public expense. The act made provision for the
creation by local initiative of school districts containing not less
than fifteen families which might levy taxes on themselves for
the support of schools, provided they did not exceed one-
half per cent or ten dollars a person. It provided also in the
interest of the district schools for the regulation of the share of
school land pertaining to each district and for state aid to the
amount of the state's school fund and of a fiftieth of its revenue
in addition. The law, which was defended because it taxed
rich and poor alike for schools, was attacked as a " Yankee
device " and was repealed by the next general assembly, which
left the payment of the tax purely optional with the payer; it
retained, however, the provision for the apportionment of the
section sixteen lands among the school districts interested in
them. In 1829 an act, passed subject to the assent of congress,
allowed the sale of school lands at a minimum of a dollar and
twenty-five cents an acre and the investment of the proceeds
in mortgages. The same legislature passed an act for the sale
of the seminary lands.

Meanwhile there had already begun the process by which
the school fund of the state arising from the three per cent of
the sales of public lands was diverted to other uses. The act
of 1821 had required the treasurer to pay into the state bank
the payments made by the federal government for the fund.
These payments as being made in good funds were made the
basis for the issue of bank notes to double their amount payable
on demand in specie. The legislature of 1825 in spite of its
excellent school law was guilty of directing the use of the school
fund to redeem state bank notes, auditor's receipts payable in
legal United States currency being placed in the fund. In 1829

21 Laics of iSiff, p. 107, 260 ; Laws of 1821, p. 60.

68 THE FRONTIER STATE

the fund was invaded not for an emergency but to supply the
ordinary expenses of the government. The governor was
authorized to borrow all the specie in it and in the seminary
fund at six per cent interest and to use it in paying warrants
drawn at their specie value. The fact that this was the device
used to get the state warrants back on a specie basis cannot
excuse the act.

Considered as a whole, the administration of the state's
finances during the first decade of statehood cannot be com-
mended. The state in 1 8 1 8 had found it necessary to authorize
a loan of $25,000 to pay the territorial debt and to meet the
expenses of the first year of statehood. In 1820 Bond had
been able to report that the territorial debt had been extin-
guished and that the treasury was in a flourishing condition. In
1823 the auditor's report showed receipts of $79,946.83
against warrants of $46,285.72 leaving a net balance of about
$33,661.11. The items comprised are of interest. The gen-
eral assembly cost $14,966.18, the judiciary, $7,932.33. Sala-
ries of state officials amounted to $8,470.74 and the printing
of the laws and journals cost $2,976.22. The device intro-
duced by the legislature of 1825 of issuing warrants at three
for one soon changed the aspect of the finances of the state.
The auditor's report for 1826 showed a total fund of $132,000
to meet warrants amounting to $154,000; but as $29,000 of
these were in the school fund, representing sums extracted from
it for state expenses, the state was practically solvent It had
due from nonresidents $26,000 in taxes and from the saline
lessees $24,000, which on account of the exemption from rent
of the lessees in return for boring for salt water could not be
collected.22

In short, the history of the first ten years of Illinois finance,
public and private, is the story of the struggle of men with con-
ditions which they did not understand and which they had not
the courage to meet, even according to the intellectual light that
they possessed. In the beginning they had sought to establish

22 Senate Journal, 1818, i session, 7.

TEN YEARS OF STATE FINANCE 69

banks, public and private, in order to remedy by abundant
issues of notes the dearth of money in the country or to relieve
the financial distress of hard-pressed individuals. In the case
of one bank, good management made it efficient and safe ; in the
case of the other bad management led to complete failure. The
state bank, begun as a measure of relief, threw the expense of
the relief that it afforded to individuals upon the people of the
state at large. Because the legislatures did not have the cour-
age to pay for liquidating it, they diverted to this end the trust
fund of the schools and borrowed of the future by warrants
issued at triple the value of the service for which they paid. In
part the obliquity exhibited in Illinois finance may be attributed
to the fact that so little of the state's revenue was actually
drawn from its citizens. The state wisely parted with its poten-
tial revenue as owner of the saline in order to reduce if possible
the price of salt; but it relied for years on possible speculative
returns from Vandalia lots and developed its system of taxation
with an eye to the fact that much of it was paid by nonresidents.
Among the evils of absentee landlordism in Illinois was the fact
that the state was slow to attain the sense of sobriety and
responsibility arising in a state of things in which the voter
realizes that his demands on his government in the way of
service must be reimbursed by him in his capacity of taxpayer.

IV. THE CONVENTION STRUGGLE

THE union into which Illinois entered on the third of
December, 1818, was a union already at the verge of
sectional strife on the issue of slavery. The session of congress
in which the first Illinois representatives took their seats saw
the beginning of the struggle as to whether Missouri was to be
slave or free; and the last aftermath of that struggle was not
gleaned till in the summer of 1824 the people of Illinois finally
registered their resolution that their constitution should not be
altered to admit slavery. For the first six years of Illinois'
[ existence as a state, the question of slavery hung like a threaten-
ing storm over her politics.

Distrust of the effectiveness of the more or less ambiguous
antislavery clause in her constitution led the opponents of
slavery in congress to cloud the title of Illinois to statehood.
John McLean, the first representative from Illinois, appeared
in the house Tuesday, November 19, after the session had
begun. The house decided, however, that he should not be
admitted till it was satisfied that the constitution of Illinois
corresponded to the enabling act. When the resolution for ad-
mission came up for third reading four days later, opposition,
hitherto in the interest of orderly procedure, was now directed
against the constitutional provisions allowing indentured
< service and limited slavery. James Tallmadge of New York,
; later famous for his part in the Missouri struggle, declared
that in these provisions the Illinois constitution contravened the
Ordinance of 1787. Richard C. Anderson of Kentucky replied
that the ordinance was not a compact either with Virginia or
with the people of the territory, and that Virginia by her deed
of cession had protected the right of the French inhabitants
to their slaves. William Henry Harrison of Ohio defiantly

70

THE CONVENTION STRUGGLE 71

assured Tallmadge that the people of Ohio would never come
to congress or to New York for permission in case they desired
to repeal their constitutional prohibition of slavery. Finally,
only thirty-four representatives in a house of one hundred and
fifty-one followed Tallmadge in voting against the admission
of the new state ; and Illinois took its place in the union.

The validity of the northwest ordinance again came into
discussion during the Missouri debate which followed hard on
that over the admission of Illinois. If the slavery restriction
in that ordinance were a valid limitation on the states that had
grown up under it, these latter could hardly be considered on
an equality in all respects with the older states, which could
lawfully admit or exclude slavery. The supporters of the
slavery restriction pointed to the ordinance as a proof that the
new states need not necessarily be on a complete equality with
the old; the supporters of the Missouri constitution naturally
argued that in view of the federal constitution's guarantee of
equality, the ordinance could not prohibit slavery to the states
that had been under it. The representatives from the north-
west, among them Daniel Pope Cook of Illinois who had suc-
ceeded McLean, generally maintained the validity and the
sacredness of the ordinance. "This ordinance," said Benja-
min Ruggles of Ohio, " has been to the people of the North-
western territory a rule of action — a guide to direct their
course — ' a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night.' " l On
the other hand representatives from the south argued that in
spite of the ordinance the people of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois
might alter their governments as they saw fit. John S. Bar-
bour of Virginia was inclined to argue that the Virginia cession
required that the new states must be as sovereign as the old.
In view of such doctrine the slavery leaders in Illinois may
well have wondered if the decision of 1818 need be regarded
as final.

The votes of the Illinois delegation in congress were not

1 Annals of Congress, 16 congress, i session, 281; see also ibid., 15 congress,
2 session, 1170 if., 1411 ff.

72 THE FRONTIER STATE

calculated to inspire in the foes of slavery a conviction that the
new state would make an unflinching resistance to the intro-

duction of that institution. The two Illinois senators. Ninian

— - ~~** ---

Edwards and Jesse B. Thomag, consistently supported the
~Cause uf Missuurir Their votes in no instance would have
altered the result; but McLean, voting in the house on one
crucial roll call with the majority of one, may possibly have
turned the tide.2 Daniel Pe.-Cook^ .who

in the session of 1819-1820, voted against the Missouri Com-
promise; but he was not above countenancing the use of the
popularity Edwards had gained in Missouri to endeavor to
secure the election of his brother John Cook as senator from
that state.

It was on the Missouri question, however, that Cook beat
McLean in the Illinois congressional election of 1819.
McLean defended his vote on the ground that the attempted
dictation to Missouri of an antislavery proviso was a violation
of state sovereignty. He attempted to evade Cook's assaults
by accusing the latter of being really proslavery and of con-
cealing his belief as a matter of policy. Cook's friends insisted
that he had always been the unflinching foe of slavery. They
accused McLean of having made in the former canvass anti-
slavery pledges which he had violated. Worse still they alleged
he was the tool of John Scott, the Missouri territorial delegate;
Missouri when admitted a slave state as McLean wished would
give the slave states control of the senate. " McLean," said
one writer, "will vote us under the feet of slaves."3 Cook's
supporters in their publications usually assumed that the people
of Illinois were generally opposed to slavery — three- fourths
of them according to one writer — and that her representatives
had misrepresented and disgraced her.

The congressional election of 1820 indicated in its course
the possible relation between the triumph of slavery in Missouri
and its adoption in Illinois. Early in July the Edwardsville

z Annals of Congress, 15 congress, 2 session, 1273.

3 Edivardsville Spectator, June 19, 1819; Illinois Intelligencer, June 30,
July 14, 1819.

THE CONVENTION STRUGGLE 73

Spectator, edited in Edwards' interest by Hooper Warren, 1
charged Kane who was Cook's opponent with a share in a
deliberate plot to amend the constitution to introduce slavery.
Kane was to be put forward for congress to test the strength
of the party; control of the Illinois Gazette and of the Illinois
Intelligencer was to be secured; and a third proslavery press
was to be established at Edwardsville. Cook's friends took up
the cry, recalling that in the midst of the Missouri debate
Missouri slaveholders had talked of setting up at Edwardsville
a press to advocate the extension of slavery in Illinois in order
to keep the people of Illinois busy at home. Denials appeared
speedily from Kane and from the various persons accused in the
plot. Kane insisted that Edwards was responsible for the attack
on him and that it was made to aid Cook's cause. With some
pertinence he adverted to Edwards' twenty-two slaves and to
the fact that Edwards had voted on the same side with McLean,
who had been defeated the year before. Edwards retorted
with a denial.4 If the plot actually existed, however, the defeat
of Kane in the election shortly afterward checked it for the
time being.

That same year saw an open proposal for amending the
constitution to admit slavery, which emanated from a new
quarter and from a man who strangely enough has frequently
been set down as an anti-convention man, Henry Eddy. In
offering himself as a candidate for the legislature in 1820, he
addressed the voters of Gallatin county as follows: "With
regard to the Saline, then, I am clear for extending to it, for
another term of years, the privilege which it now enjoys of
hiring and indenturing servants for the purpose of working
the same. And being of this opinion, I am, of course, in favour
of a convention, for that object can only be effected through
the means of another convention, our present constitution
having limited the time during which that privilege may be

4 Edwardsville Spectator, July 4, n, 25, August i, 1820; Illinois Gazette,
August 5, 1820. Much of the material for the remainder of the chapter is found
in contemporary numbers of the Illinois Intelligencer and Edwardsville Spec-
tator,

74 THE FRONTIER STATE

claimed to the year i825."5 He alleged as reasons for
speedy action the fact that the salines in the neighborhood
kept money in circulation, and business good, and the time
when western Illinois was still dependent on Illinois salt
was, he thought, the favorable moment to strike. The
economic interest of eastern Illinois in the call of a conven-
tion is obvious. Eddy was elected and duly introduced into
the Illinois general assembly resolutions corresponding to his
proposal.

Widespread financial distress in Illinois in the years im-
mediately following 1820 insured a favorable hearing to advo-
cates of a fundamental change in the economic order. The act
of 1820 abolishing credit sales and lowering the price of public
lands to a dollar and a quarter necessarily caused financial
embarrassment and reduced the value of lands in private
hands.6 It was a period of hard times which in 1821 prompted
the establishment of a state bank distinctly as an institution to
afford relief. It was not surprising that many should have
listened to the assertions of the slavery party that the admission
of the institution would bring in planters with ready money who
would spend it freely and who would especially use it in buying
up at good prices the farms of those anxious to leave the state.
Many a man naturally opposed to slavery may well have
wished for the institution that he might sell his property and flee
from the wrath to come.

/ The canvass for governor in 1822 turned frankly on the
question of slavery. Joseph B. Phillips, who announced his
candidacy February 20, 1821, was soon accused by letters in
the Spectator of designing to introduce limited slavery and thus
pave the way for a complete extension of the institution to the
state. At first Phillips' friends denied the charge; but July 3
the Intelligencer published a letter which admitted Phillips'
proslavery_leanings, assured the proslavery forces in the~state
that they had a majority, and called on them to rally for the

5 Illinois Gazette, July 8, 1820.
* Ibid., July 31, 1824.

THE CONVENTION STRUGGLE 75

cause and no longer to be withheld by mere sentiment from pur-
suing the true interests of the state.7

Curiously enough such announcements did not seem to
cause excitement The Intelligencer began publishing a series
of scriptural parodies which touched on Phillips' alleged con-
version from slavery advocacy on a former occasion for the
sake of a seat in the supreme court. The Spectator contented
itself with pronouncing the scheme chimerical and with warning
the voters to beware of the many wealthy men who wished to
own slaves and to use care in selecting their representatives.
Instead of pressing the proslavery charge against Phillips it
printed letters depicting the evil results of the activity of judges
in politics and accusing Phillips of blasphemy, irreligion, and
gambling.8

Edward Coles who announced his candidacy October 30,
182!, might have been expected to find greater favor in the
sight of an antislavery man like Hooper Warren. Coles was
a Virginian of the planter class who had served as private
secretary to Madison and who had been sent on a special
mission to Russia. By inheritance a slave owner, he had emi-
grated to Illinois that he might free his Negroes and establish
them on land of their own in a free state. It is significant of a
certain feeling for the dramatic in the man that he reserved
the announcement of their freedom to his slaves to a beautiful
morning in April as his boats were gliding down the Ohio
below Pittsburg. Principle was the food on which his soul
was nourished; in their cooler moments even his bitter enemies
were compelled to admit his untarnished integrity. Withal
there was about him a certain stiffness, a certain consciousness
of his own virtue, possibly a tendency to pose. For some
reason his personality seemed to grate on Hooper Warren,
who consistently assailed him in the Spectator with a studied
malice that was so obvious as to defeat its own end. He made
clumsy mockery of Coles' somewhat awkward attempts to

7 Edtvardsville Spectator, April 10, 1821; Illinois Intelligencer, July 3, 1821.

8 Ed<wards<ville Spectator, May 22, November 6, 27, 1821; Illinois Intelli-
gencer, July 31, 1821.

76 THE FRONTIER STATE

mingle familiarly with men. On the ground that Coles was
register of the Edwardsville land office, Warren represented
him as a federal appointee from without the state. He even
juestioned the sincerity of Coles' opposition to a convention
md tried to fix on him the stigma of holding slaves in
[issouri.9

The Edwards faction, unable to agree on a candidate of its
'own for governor, was apparently hostile not only to its old
enemy, Phillips, but also to Coles and to a third candidate,
James B. Moore. In the case of Coles at least the hostility was
natural as Coles was a supporter of Edwards' enemy, Secretary
William H. Crawford. Pope and other members of the faction
endeavored to persuade Edwards to run ; when he refused they
considered John Reynolds. Finally Pope, having come to a
decision in favor of some candidate, tried, much to Edwards'
displeasure, to bind the party to his choice. Probably this
candidate was Thomas C. Browne of the supreme court, who
had been quietly making ready for some time but who
announced his candidacy only at the end of the campaign. He
did not gain the full support of the Edwards party, Edwards
flatly refusing to take any part in the contest.10

4 Coles was elected by a narrow margin. He received 2,854
tes^tcnZj'S^yTor ?hillips, 2,443 f°r Browne, and 622 for
oore. Certainly the Edwards faction had not efficiently
' exerted itself for any candidate; and while there is little evi-
dence in regard to the activity of their opponents it seems
unlikely that the selection turned in any decisive fashion on
factional alignments. Apparently the personality and opinions
of the candidates played a controlling part.

Coles, evidently concluding that the bold course was the
safe one, determined to force the fighting on the slavery issue.
In his message to the assembly in December he pointed out
the fact that slavery, contrary to the spirit of the northwest

9 Edtoardsvllle Spectator, April 9, 1822.

10 Washburne, Edwards Papers, 190-192. This is a draft letter of Edwards
which Washburne surmised was written to Governor Bond. Internal evidence
shows without doubt it was to Pope.

[From original owned by Chicago Historical Society]

77]

ordinance, existed in the state and concluded that the provision
of the act of cession protecting the French inhabitants could be
regarded as having expired after the passage of forty years;
he suggested the abolition of the institution, the repeal of the
black code, and the passage of effectual laws against the kid-
napping of free blacks. A majority of the senate committee
to which the antislavery recommendations of the governor
were referred — Risdon Moore and John Emmet — submitted
a favorable report. The minority member, Conrad Will, dis-
sented. The house committee returned an unfavorable report.
Both these dissenting reports declared the abolition of the
slavery existing in the state to be beyond the power of the
legislature. The senate report argued that the convention of
1 8 1 8 had been hampered by the provisions of the Ordinance of
1787 but that as a sovereign state Illinois could deal with the
whole question in a new constitutional convention. This, the
senate report concluded with clumsy irony, was the only way
of settling the question that the governor had at heart.

The slavery advocates now openly set about submitting the
question of a convention to popular vote. The senate off
but little opposition. There, on February 10, 1823, the resolu-
tion passed twelve to six. The canal bill was before the senate
at the same time with the resolution for a convention, indeed
it was passed with a negative vote of only three immediately
after the passage of the convention resolution. In both houses
the pro-convention group captured some votes by threatening
the canal bill with destruction unless the convention resolution
went through. They brought into play every form of petty
politics. Sometimes they brought pressure on individual mem-
bers by introducing bills that would if passed irritate their
constituents. Sometimes they resorted to bargains on the
location of county seats and the creation of new counties.
Sometimes they drummed up among a recalcitrant member's
constituents instructions in favor of a convention.

In the house the convention party tried ftfrgst vote on \
January 27 and found twenty-two affirmative and fourteen /

78 THE FRONTIER STATE

negative votes, the latter including William McFatridge and
Thomas Rattan who finally voted for the convention. It was
evident that the vote would be a close one, and on January 29
a resolution formerly presented by A. P. Field to the effect
that the two-thirds vote requisite to pass the resolution was a
two-thirds vote of both houses sitting together was reconsid-
ered and passed. This device, however, can have been in-
tended to serve only as a last resort

The pro-convention leaders were suspicious, with good
/reason as it proved, of the loyalty of some who had hitherto
/voted with them, notably of Nicholas Hansen, the member
s from the Military Tract. Hansen they apparently hoped to
keep in line, however, by threatening him with bills which
would injure his district and through the fact that his name
was on the list of commissioners in the canal bill. When the
vote in the house of representatives was taken February 1 1
on the senate resolution for a convention, Hansen deserted;
and the vote stood twenty-three to thirteen. Dumbfounded
apparently by the reverse, the convention party moved to recon-
sider; but a vote of nineteen to sixteen sustained the chair in
the obvious decision that on a vote lost for want of two-thirds,
the motion to reconsider must come from a member of the
minority. James Turney moved that the senate be requested
to state the number voting for and against the resolution in
that house, obviously an attempt to enforce the interpretation
that two-thirds of both houses together would suffice. The
legislature adjourned in confusion. That night a mob of legis-
lators headed by a justice of the supreme court, furious at their
defeat, groaned under the window of one of the anti-conven-
tion leaders, George Churchill, and burned Hansen in effigy.11
The convention leaders probably decided over night on the
means to retrieve their defeat — the unseating of Hansen. At
the beginning of the session Hansen's seat had been contested
by John Shaw. Elections in Shaw's " Kingdom of Pike " were
strange matters; in this particular one a dispute about the

11 Edivardsville Spectator, February 15, March 29, 1823.

THE CONVENTION STRUGGLE 79

judges of election in one precinct had resulted in eighty-three
votes for Shaw in a polling place set up by the electors and of
twelve votes for Hansen in another one presided over by the
regular judges of election. The returns for Shaw were thrown
out; he filed notice of a contest but at Hansen's request he let
it be held over for a few days and did not file it again until the
legal time for filing had expired. The house committee on
elections seated Hansen, very possibly because he was a bitter
enemy of Edwards and could therefore be trusted to vote for
Thomas for senator. Certainly inasmuch as they threw out
Shaw's contest on the ground that it had been filed too late;
and, since the delay occurred at Hansen's request and for his
benefit, the equity of their procedure is not very clear. The
seating of Hansen, however, as compared with his unseating
on February 12 was the quintessence of justice and orderly
procedure.12

On the twelfth of February, a day by a curious coincidence
commemorative of a greater struggle with slavery, the general
assembly convened for as strange a day's work as ever was done
by an Anglo-Saxon parliament. The house by a division of
twenty-one to thirteen ordered a reconsideration of the report,
accepted two months before, that Hansen was entitled to a
seat; it considered certain documents laid before it, notably an
affidavit that to the affiants' belief a majority of the votes were
cast for Shaw; and the conventionist members offered what
reasons they could for the course they were about to take. By
a vote of twenty-oneVo fourteen the name of Shaw was substi-
tuted for that of Hansen in the report. Shaw now took his

seat, and Turney moved to reconsider an appeal from the
decision of the chair on a motion for a reconsideration of the
convention resolution. The decision was reversed, the recon-
sideration ordered; and the resolution for the conventioi
passed twenty-four to twelve. It only remained to chastise

12 Stevens, " The Shaw-Hansen Election Contest," in Illinois State Historical
Society, Journal, 7:389 ff. ; Edwardsville Spectator, February 15, March 9, 1823.
I believe the evidence to the effect that Hansen was originally seated to gain
his vote for Thomas is better than Mr. Stevens judges it.

80 THE FRONTIER STATE

Hansen; and his name, on Field's motion, was stricken out of
the list of canal commissioners.13

Conventionists and anti-conventionists began immediately
to organize for the eighteen months campaign before the people
on the acceptance or rejection of the proposed call for a con-
vention. The advocates of a convention held a meeting at
Vandalia February 15 and appointed a committee to prepare
an address and resolutions which defended the call of a conven-
tion on various grounds not connected with the slavery issue.
On February 18, fifteen of the eighteen members of the
I assembly who voted against the convention held a meeting and
1 adopted an address arraigning the methods of the majority
I and exposing their design of introducing slavery. The persons
J present agreed to subscribe each for a given number of copies
of the Spectator provided Warren's loyalty to the cause were

assured.14
i

The opponents of a convention pushed the work of local
organization. On March 22 the "St. Clair Society for the
prevention of slavery in the state of Illinois" was organized
for the purpose of " disseminating light and knowledge on the
subject of slavery, by cool and dispassionate reasoning, by
circulating pamphlets, handbills, and other publications." A
similar society was formed May 9 in Monroe possibly with
but a small membership. In the next month an organization
similar to that of St. Clair was formed in Edwardsville, though
it did not specify the nature of the propaganda to be under-
taken. On the fourth of July citizens of Morgan established
a more elaborate organization apparently designed to support
antislavery candidates for office.15

As the day of the election approached, the opponents of
slavery held caucuses or conventions to nominate anti-conven-

13 That Coles, as Hooper Warren insinuated, had bought Hansen over by a
promise of the recordership of Fulton county is unlikely. The bargain could not
possibly have been consummated after the consideration had been earned. Ed-
ivardsville Spectator, February 15, 1823.

14 Ibid., March i, 1823.

15 Ibid., April 12, July 12, September 20, 1823; Illinois Intelligencer, July
26, 1823.

THE CONVENTION STRUGGLE 81

tion candidates. They drew the issue even in contests for
local offices ; and naturally in legislative elections they concerted
measures to prevent divisions of the anti-conventionist forces
and a possible recurrence of the events of 1823. In St. Clair
county a convention made up of delegates elected in each
township was called to nominate county and legislative candi-
dates. A similar call was issued in Bond, Fayette, and
Montgomery for the choice of a candidate for senator. All
this the convention party denounced as caucus methods.

From the sources of information available the convention-
ists appear to have been slower in organizing than their
opponents. In August a meeting in Madison county recom-
mended the appointment of township committees to promote
the cause of the convention; in October, 1823, and March,
1824, township party organization was adopted in White and
Wayne counties. The anti-conventionists averred that on
December 3, 1823, a convention meeting at Vandalia adopted
a state organization consisting of a central committee of ten,
and committees of five in each county, and of three in each,
township.16

The conventionists complained of the influence of the clergy
which was generally thrown on the antislavery side. The
Christian church conference located on the Wabash and a
Baptist sect, the Friends of Humanity, both denounced slavery
as a sin. The Methodist circuit riders and preachers assailed
slavery and slaveholders to the point of provoking bitter
retorts. Conventionists accused them of denouncing slavery
in Illinois and stopping at the houses of slaveholders in Mis-
souri and pronounced their real dislike of a convention due to
the fear that it might exclude them from the legislature. The
Illinois Republican was so prolific in abuse of this sort that
Warren took occasion to brand it as hostile to the Methodists
as a body. He believed further, he said, that the clergy of all
denominations were zealous in opposition to the convention.

18 Edwardsvillt Spectator, January 27, February 17, April 13, 1824; Illinois
Intelligencer, November i, December 6, 1823 ; Illinois Gazette, April 10, 1824.

82 THE FRONTIER STATE

Illinois tradition affirms that John Mason Peck labored assidu-
ously against a convention though no contemporary evidence
of his activity appears.17

In newspaper publicity the resources of the two parties
were more evenly divided. For Henry Eddy's Illinois Gazette
the politic course was proslavery, and while the paper admitted
articles on both sides its guarded expressions of sympathy were
for the convention. Coles at the beginning of the struggle
suggested that Morris Birkbeck and Richard Flower establish
an anti-convention newspaper for eastern Illinois at Albion,
but the suggestion was never carried out Coles had hopes
of the support of the Kaskaskia Republican Advocate till April
of 1823; but finally under the editorship of R. K. Fleming it
supported the convention, as did the Illinois Republican at
Edwardsville.18

The editors of the Illinois Intelligencer, William H. Brown
and William Berry, disagreed on the issue involved in the con-
vention struggle. In order to force out the anti-conventionist
Brown, the assembly before adjournment voted the public
printing to Berry and Robert Blackwell. Under the new pub-
lishers the newspaper at once took up the cause of the
convention. A year later, however, with its purchase by Coles
and a coterie of anti-conventionists, David Blackwell replaced
his brother as editor; and the Intelligencer became an open
opponent of slavery.19 The Edwardsville Spectator at the
beginning of the struggle pursued an anomalous course. Its
strictures on the Shaw-Hansen scandal were those rather of
an enemy of Edward Coles and Nicholas Hansen than of an
opponent of the convention. T. W. Smith hoped for a time
to win Warren over; but the anti-convention forces by promises
of financial support assured the newspaper's loyalty to the side
of freedom.

Coles further sought support from outside the state. His

17 Ediuardsville Spectator, May 24, August 2, November i, 22, 1823 ; Illinois
Intelligencer, May 17, July 5, August 23, 1823, May 17, 1824.
18Washburne, Edward Coles, 178.
id., 167.

THE CONVENTION STRUGGLE 83

friendship with Nicholas Biddle introduced him to certain
Philadelphia Quakers who supplied him with antislavery tracts
for distribution by the thousand. These were forwarded to
St. Louis merchants along with their goods and were thence
forwarded to Coles. Their source apparently was never
learned by the conventionists. Had it been there would doubt-
less have arisen a tremendous outcry against the interference
of citizens of other states in the affairs of Illinois.20

The conventionists entered the controversy with their
opponents under one serious handicap. They apparently
judged it unwise to take an irrevocable position that the con-
vention was designed to introduce slavery; yet they did not
positively deny that some alteration in that direction was
intended. There was an undercurrent of slavery sentiment
noticeable in all their manifestoes. At the beginning, however,
they emphasized the anti-conventionist opposition to submitting
the question of a convention to the people, representing it as ;
denial of the popular right to alter and remodel the governmen
at will. The anti-conventionists, they said, were unwilling tc
trust the people; they were contemners of instructions from
their constituents; they were even federalists. On the other
hand the anti-convention party argued that the convention
which would be called would not carry out the will of the
people. They pointed to the fact that under the existing
system of representation, eight northern counties would have
eight members in a convention and nine southern and eastern
ones, with substantially the same number of voters, fifteen.
Once the southern counties on indifferent grounds had secured
a convention, their delegates in it could decide as they would
the question of slavery and freedom.21

Meanwhile the conventionists were all things to all men.
"They avow the object to be," said one writer, "to amendi
the particular defect which you may imagine the constitution/
to have. Thus if you should be in favor of removing the seat

20Washburne, Edward Coles, 154-164.

21 Illinois Intelligencer, March 8, 29, May 31, 1823; Edviardsville Spectator,
March i, April 12, 1823 ; Kaskaskia Republican, April 20, 1824.

84 THE FRONTIER STATE

of government to Alton or to Carmi, to Edwardsville or to
Palestine, Kaskaskia, Covington or [MS. torn] [be] assured
that his particular wish will be effected by having a convention.
If you have no other objection to the constitution but the county
commissioners court and the council of revision, then these are
the only alterations that will be made to it. If one is in favor
of altering the constitution and appointing the judges for a
term of years, he is assured that that is one of the principal
objects to be effected; if on the other hand another should be
opposed to it he will be assured there is no danger of such an
alteration being adopted. If one is opposed to the extension
of Slavery, he will be told that it is not contemplated, and that
if it were to be attempted, it could not be effected. If on the
other hand he should be in favor of making this a slave holding
state, he is assured that that is the great and chief object in
view."22 Such were the types of argument employed. The
antislavery party answered them by pointing out for instance
that the constitutional provision regulating county commis-
sioners was so elastic that it said nothing of the duties or pay
of the commissioners, or by stating that Elias K. Kane of the
.convention party had himself been the sponsor for the council
of revision.23

Where slavery, limited or unlimited, was the avowed

motive for the convention, the arguments varied. In the

-. neighborhood of the Gallatin saline, the Illinois Gazette printed

\ articles dwelling on the advantage to accrue from the renewal

I of the supply of indentured Negroes, which otherwise under

the existing constitution would be cut off in 1825. Starting

from the propositions that it was vain to expect a sufficient

supply of white labor to man the salt works, since not even

enough to supply the saline with agricultural produce was

forthcoming, and that the work in so warm a climate could be

I performed only by Negroes, they concluded that the welfare

of the saline was bound up in slave labor, and that the pros-

22 Edwards-wile Spectator, May 25, 1824.

23 Ibid., March 2, April 13, 1824.

THE CONVENTION STRUGGLE 85

parity of the whole district depended on the salines. Such
arguments were used to persuade the people of Gallatin that
slavery was an object well worth buying at the expense of
support to the canal, even though the latter would diminish the
importance of their county as the gateway to Illinois.24

So far as the conventionists undertook to justify slavery in
the abstract they relied on the current method of reasoning of
the day — what may be called the diffusion argument. Admit-
ting that the presence of slavery in America was a thing bitterly
to be deplored, they proposed so far as was possible to amelio-
rate the situation by extending as widely as possible the area
in which slaves were to be found. This would not only improve
the material condition of the slaves by enabling their masters
to keep them in a country where food was cheap but in the long
run would tend to bring about their emancipation. "Usually
the conventionists claimed that their intention was at most only
to introduce a limited slavery which in time would abolish itself.
Sometimes they suggested provisions by which a man might
hold a limited number of slaves for a term of years, the
offspring of the slaves to be free at a certain age. Lest the
state be overrun with free blacks, the freedmen were to be sent
to Africa by that fashionable slavery specific, the Colonization
Society.25

For this policy advantages both moral and material were
claimed. Many slaveholders, it was said, who disapproved of
the institution would be glad to avail themselves of so excellent
a scheme. It would extend Christianity among the Negroes,
supply labor of a type adapted to clear the soil without suffering
the sickness that impaired the strength of the white settlers and
suited to the menial tasks of drawing water and making fires
in the salt works, which Adolphus Frederick Hubbard had
singled out as the duties prescribed to Negroes by the laws of
nature. In the background of the minds of advocates of this

34 Illinois Intelligencer, June 28, July 5, 1823; Illinois Gazette, July 5, 1823,
January 10, 1824.

25 Kaskaskia Republican, March 30, 1824; Illinois Gazette, October n, De-
cember 20, 1823, January 10, April 17, 1824; Illinois Intelligencer, November
22. 1823.

86 THE FRONTIER STATE

benevolent scheme was often the idea that the philanthropic
slaveholders who entered the state would buy lands and
improvements from the pioneers then in possession and would
with their wealth form a welcome addition to the upper classes
of the population. The complacent smugness of such argu-
ments which passed current in the Gazette particularly prompts
a savage desire to let a sentence which was written in all
seriousness stand as a caricature of them. After commenting
on the fact that the great men of the state were all slaveholders
the writer added: "Other strong inducements I have for the
introduction of slavery into this state are, that in the sickly
season, the sick could have more attention paid them — the
community would flourish, our state would be more republican,
and more populous — the condition of the slaves much amelio-
rated, and the several churches of Christ would be considerably
enlarged."26

The antislavery writers in their range of arguments well-
nigh ran the gamut. There is hardly a line of argument used
by the abolitionists of later days but has its prototype in this
period. The question of the validity of the slavery prohibition
in the Ordinance of 1787 and of the guarantee in the Virginia
deed of cession was debated at length.27 The pretense of
biblical authority for the institution was exposed by a keen
, analysis of the limited slavery of the Jewish law as revealed in
the books of Moses. Slavery in itself was denounced as a sin
and the parent of vices and sins; it was declared contrary to
the fundamental principle enunciated by the Declaration of
Independence that all men are created equal. Sketches descrip-
tive of the misery of the slave appeared set in language
appealing to the emotions as frankly as did Uncle Tom's
Cabin. Above all the antislavery pamphleteers insisted that
slavery was a moral issue and this more than a quarter century
before the Lincoln-Douglas debates.28 The following passage

26 Illinois Intelligencer, April 26, 1823.

27 See above p. 47-50.

28 Edwardsvllle Spectator, July 12, August 16, 1823; Illinois Gazette, Novem-
ber 8, 1823.

THE CONVENTION STRUGGLE 87

is a startling analogy to a well-known memorandum of Lin-
coln's " Is it not quite as unjust, because some men are black,
to say there is a natural distinction as to them ; and that black
men, because they are black, ought to be slaves ... is it not
the hight [sic] of arrogance to allege that because we have
strong feelings and cultivated minds it would be great cru[el]ty
to make slaves of us; but that because they are yet ignorant and
uncultivated, it is no injury at all to them? Such a principle
once admitted lays the foundation of a tyranny and injuce[jfc]
that have no end."29

On material grounds the opponents of slavery pointed out
the flaws in the diffusion argument. The history of mankind
and of the slave trade from Africa and from the old south was
cited to show that no matter how great the drain from it a
reservoir of population always filled again to its ancient level.
Slavery in Illinois it was said would only increase the demand
for slaves and provoke anew kidnapping and the slave trade.
Nay furthermore as the cool climate of Illinois unfitted it for
the slave crops but adapted it as a home for men, the state
would be degraded to a breeding ground of slaves for the
southern market!

To the man of today, however, the most powerfully con-
vincing arguments against slavery were those which warned
the free farmer of Illinois of the ruin that the introduction of
the institution would bring upon him. Here the slavery penmen
were face to face with overwhelming odds in the character of
the combatants who opposed them. Confronting them was
Morris Birkbeck, a man trained in the principles of human
liberty, intellectually the descendant of well-nigh six generations
of radicals who had labored for the people's freedom. The
conventionists who opposed the petty tricks of political election-
eering or addresses smacking of the college debating hall to
the writings of Birkbeck were holding up a lath sword against
the hammer of Thor. With a greater cause than Swift's to
inspire him the author of the earlier letters of "Jonathan '

29 Illinois Intelligencer, May 21, 1824.

88 THE FRONTIER STATE

Freeman " may claim a comparison not discreditable with " the
Drapier's" letters. Birkbeck, knowing how to make a phrase
of homely English do the work of a highly polished paragraph,
in his "Jonathan Freeman" letters strove in simple language
to inspire the small farmer who was dispirited by hard times
to renew his faith in his ability to subdue the land and possess
it without calling in slaveholders.

" I am a poor man, that is to say, I have no money — but I
have a house to cover me and the rest of us, a stable for my
horses, and a little barn, on a quarter of good land, paid up at
the land office, with a middling fine clearing upon it. ... We
help our neighbors, who are generally as poor as ourselves; —
some that are new-comers are not so well fixed. They help us
in turn, and as it is the fashion to be industrious, I discover that
we are all by degrees growing wealthy — not in money, to be
sure, but in truck.

"There is a great stir among the landjobbers and politi-
cians to get slaves into the country, because, as they say,
we are in great distress; and I have been thinking pretty
much about how it would act with me and my neighbors. . . .

" I have lately seen people from Kentucky . . . are as bad
off for money as we — some say worse. . . . As money seems
to be all we want, and they want it just as much as we do, I
don't see how those Slave Gentry are to make it plenty." He
believed that farmers wanting to sell out would not be able to
sell their improvements to slaveholders, for "they can get
Congress land at a dollar and a quarter an acre. It is men who
come from free states with money in their pockets, and no
work-hands about them, that buy improvements."30 As for
the saline, white workmen would flock to it once the Negroes
were excluded. The scarcity of which the farmers complained
was not a scarcity of the essentials of a healthy robust life, but
merely a scarcity of the money to purchase luxuries. Instead
of repining because their produce brought little in the New

30 Edwards® ille Spectator, November i, 1823. The slaveholder was an em-
ployer of Negro, not of white labor, and his money would be spent not in the
state but in the east for luxuries.

THE CONVENTION STRUGGLE 89

Orleans market, they should learn to produce at home the
articles of manufacture they required. In the wilderness they
enjoyed plenty and liberty, and with that they should be
content.

With equal effect Birkbeck pointed out the loss of social
solidarity that would result if the slaveholder came in. " The
planters are great men, and will ride about, mighty grand, with
their umbrellas over their heads, when I and my boys are
working, perhaps bare-headed, in the hot sun. Neighbors
indeed! they would have all their own way, and rule over us
like little kings: . . . but if we lacked to raise a building — or
a dollar — the d — 1 a bit would they help us." 31 Freemen
came from slave states because " it is impossible for free men
to thrive by honest labor among slaveholders and slaves."
The planter would not tax himself for free schools; but the
farmer must suffer from the pilfering of negroes and ride
patrol all night while his women shared with the planter's wife
the dread of a slave insurrection. In a word Birkbeck suc-
ceeded in fitting the argument against slavery squarely to Illi-
nois conditions.

In the election the proslavery men were routed. The vote
was 4,972 for a convention and 6,640 against it. The con-
ventionists polled their majorities in the counties of the south.
Gallatin gave them 82 per cent, Pope, 69, Alexander, 60,
Jackson, 66, Hamilton, 67, Jefferson, 70, Franklin, 60. They
carried Wayne with 63 per cent of the votes, and Randolph
with 55 per cent. On the other hand they either lost or won
by insignificant margins in such counties as Union, Johnson, and
White of the south, while the north central counties were decid-
edly against them by fair majorities and the northern counties
by overwhelming ones. In Pike the anti-conventionists got
90 per cent, in Fulton, 92, in Morgan, 91, in Sangamon, 83,
in Clark, 79, in Edgar, 99. In the group of eleven counties
bordered on the north by St. Clair, Washington, Marion,
Wayne, and White, casting 3,788 votes, 62 per cent of the

31 Edwardsville Spectator, November i, 1823.

90 THE FRONTIER STATE

vote was for slavery. In the nineteen counties to the north of
this, out of 7,814 votes cast only 33 per cent was for slavery,
and these figures are increased by the 5 1 per cent and 45 per
cent cast in Fayette and Montgomery respectively.

It is unlikely that the two factions32 that divided state
politics were definitely aligned in the contest. The leaders of
the anti-Edwards faction were actively for the convention. On
the other side Cook was definitely aligned against it though he
took no very active part in opposition, and Edwards, while
remaining publicly noncommittal, privately confided to a few
friends his opposition to the measure. Yet many loyal lieu-
tenants of Edwards such as Henry Eddy and Leonard White
were active conventionists. In view of the rapid changes of
affiliation and the lack of data as to the factional alignments
at different times it is impossible to say definitely how many of
the conventionists or anti-conventionists were at the time active
in either faction. After the election many anti-conventionists
were found in Edwards ranks but many conventionists as well.
As Peck remarked, after the election the question of the intro-
duction of slavery in Illinois was at an end politically, though
Edwards was not above trying to revive it for political effect.
Future political movements and alliances had no relation to
the position of parties in the convention struggle.

The two men who had been most closely associated in the
struggle, Coles and Birkbeck, made no political advantage out
of the triumph of their cause. Coles as a candidate for the
senatorship in 1824 joined the coalition against Edwards only
to see the prize fall to Elias Kent Kane, a proslavery man.
Several of Coles' nominations to office were rejected by the
senate, notably that of Birkbeck to be secretary of state, an
office he had held in the interim. In his messages of 1824 and
1826 Coles reiterated his suggestion that the assembly provide
by law for the abrogation of the remnants of slavery in the
state and the repeal of the black code and adopt effective meas-
ures against kidnapping; but in spite of the antislavery attitude

32 For discussion of these two political factions see below, p. 92 ff.

THE CONVENTION STRUGGLE 91

of the state long years passed before this was done. Coles'
work in Illinois was finished. He wished to run for congress
in 1828 and did run in 1830; but both times his ambition was
disappointed. He left the state and its politics for a long,
happy, and apparently uneventful life at Philadelphia.

The end of Birkbeck's career was a tragedy. The country
of the Illinois had but poorly recompensed his high hopes. It
had brought him financial losses, galling criticism, disappoint-
ment in love, and estrangement from his friends. He had
performed with high efficiency the duties of secretary of state,
but the enemies he had made by his war on slavery sought to
wound him so far as they could by rejecting his nomination for
the office. A few months later while swimming his horse over
a swollen creek he was swept away to his death. Long since
those most directly interested in preserving his memory have
left the state, and his name has been practically forgotten in
the commonwealth he served so well.

V. THE WAR ON NINIAN EDWARDS

HE question of slavery apart, Illinois politics for the first
JL twelve years of statehood consisted of a struggle between
personal factions. Till the rise of Jacksonian democracy
national parties in the modern sense of the word were nonexist-
ent; and in Illinois the divisions and disputes over the presi-
dential aspirations of Crawford, Adams, Clay, Calhoun, and
Jackson were secondary in interest to the contests between the
state factions and at best served only to intensify their strife
or to create cross divisional lines. At first sight political con-
tests within the state are a maze of personal and factional
rivalries. The clue lies in the existence of two factions, the
Edwards and anti-Edwards, each a rather loose group of
personal followings, in which disaftections, mutinies, and
changes of side occurred with confusing rapidity.

In the case of the Edwards faction at least the bond of
union was partly common business interests. During the con-
stitutional convention in 1818 the attempts of Nathaniel Pope,
Benjamin Stephenson, and others of the Edwards faction to
secure the location of the state capital on one of their town
sites reacted against Governor Ninian Edwards when he was
candidate for the senate in I8I9.1 Stephenson, Edwards, and
Theophilus W. Smith in 1820 were concerned in promoting an
addition to Edwardsville. Both Stephenson and Edwards,
along with William Kinney, and with Richard M. and James
Johnson of Kentucky were interested in the Bank of Edwards-
ville. Thomas Hart Benton bitterly attacked the institution in
the St. Louis newspapers; and, when in 1822 he assailed the
national policy of leasing the lead mines to the Johnsons and
others, it was Edwards who came to their support. The con-

1 Buck, Illinois in 1818, p. 286-292.

92

WAR ON NINIAN EDWARDS 93

duct of the Bank of Missouri toward the banks of Edwards-
ville and Shawneetown created a common bond of financial
interest between Edwards and John Marshall and John Cald-
well of the Shawneetown bank; and both men politically were
his friends and supporters.2

The central figure in this party was the stately Ninian
Edwards, already a politician of note in Kentucky when in
1809 he was appointed governor of Illinois territory. Kindly,
charitable, generous, and at the same time pompous, overbear-
ing, and affected, he had many warm friends, many enemies
too, and perhaps many associates who humored his foibles
so long as doing so would promote their own advantage. The
quality of mental balance was almost completely lacking in,
Edwards. By turns he was bold and overcautious, headstrong
and vacillating, now plunging rashly into an enterprise such as
the attack on Crawford, of which he had not counted the cost,
now hestitating between two courses and striving to follow both
when an irrevocable decision between them had to be made.
A mental shiftiness sometimes led him into equivocal positions
which he could justify only by elaborate explanations. Notably
in the Crawford imbroglio by piling up card houses of circum-
stantial evidence to prove his innocence of charges which he
should have been able to ignore or to deny flatly, he frittered
away his fair fame. His contemporaries, like students in these
latter days, doubtless grew weary of reiterations and of elab-
orate proofs of his abilities and integrity. Finally, trying to
hit on a course that would throw away none of his claims on
the various presidential candidates, he was swept away in the
flood of intolerant Jacksonism.

Aligned with the Edwards faction were Nathaniel Pope,
formerly delegate in congress and at the beginning of the state
period a federal judge, Daniel Pope Cook, his nephew, in a
year or two to become Edwards' son-in-law, Thomas C.
Browne, a justice of the state supreme court, and Leonard

~ Annals of Congress, 17 congress, i session, 465-470; Washburne, Edwards
Papers, 156, 158.

94 THE FRONTIER STATE

White of Gallatin county. Of the lesser men William Kinney,
Theophilus W. Smith, and E. J. West were soon to desert
the faction and ultimately to become leaders of the opposi-
tion.

Comparatively little of the methods and purposes of the
opposition party is known except from its opponents. Of its
leaders, Jesse B. Thomas had begun his career with the bargain
of the Illinois country delegates that had led to the division of
Indiana territory. John McLean from the eastern side of the
state was a man of considerable ability but with an irascible
temper which led him to bitter and vindictive outbursts against
enemies or false friends. Joseph B. Phillips, till his removal
from the state after his defeat for governor, was another
member of the party; Shadrach Bond, a man of no great spirit
or ability, was soon by Kane's influence drawn from a position
of neutrality into the faction.3

Elias Kent Kane, who was apparently till his death in
December, 1835, the chief of the faction whenever he chose
to exert his influence, is the enigma of early Illinois politics.
In the case of every other man of prominence, the man, his
friends, or his enemies have left materials for a sketch or a
caricature of him. Kane is a man in a mask. Letters to and
from him, even from father and friends, newspaper puffs, the
epithets of enemies, a school boy's letter about him, survive;
but among them can be found not one human touch, not one
phrase that can endow the man with a living personality. No
anecdotes that would characterize him have survived. Cata-
logs of his political abilities, virtues, and vices can be found;
again and again is seen his influence at work; but from all these
can be drawn no picture of Kane himself. It is known that he
was of a decayed aristocratic New York family, a graduate
of Yale who came to Illinois to seek his fortune. Yet strangely
he seems to have taken no interest in the great enterprise that
in the days of his highest power Yale men undertook at Illinois
College. The distinctive gift of his alma mater to her sons

3 Washburne, Edwards Papers, 150.

[From original owned by Illinois State Historical Library]

WAR ON NINIAN EDWARDS 95

has sometimes been said to be a certain reserve and convention
of manner; and at the last one is compelled to dismiss Kane
as so far typically a Yale man.

At the time of the institution of state government the two
factions appear to have reached a compromise as to the dispo-
sition of offices. Shadrach Bond, who had belonged to neither
faction, was elected governor without opposition; both sides
had been anxious that he should withdraw from the congres-
sional race in which McLean beat Cook by fourteen votes.
In the legislature, Cook was elected attorney-general, and
Thomas C. Browne and Joseph B. Phillips, judges of the su-
preme court by decisive majorities. Ninian Edwards was
similarly elected to one senatorship, receiving thirty-two votes
out of forty cast. Jesse B. Thomas of the opposite faction was
elected to the other seat on the fourth ballot, by a majority of
three over Leonard White, an Edwards man. In this election
a bargain apparently had failed, and in the congressional elec-
tion none can have existed. The fact, however, that Edwards,
who drew the short term expiring in 1819, hesitated about
announcing his candidacy for reelection led to an attempt to
defeat him by arousing jealousy among eastern Illinois mem-
bers on the score that both senators were from the western part
of the state. He was finally elected by a vote of twenty-three
to nineteen.4

Edwards and Thomas carried their factional rivalries to
the senate. They were soon at outs on the question of federal
appointments in the state. Edwards, who fared the worse
in the contest for registerships and receiverships, rather injured
his standing by the energy of his protests. Jealous of interfer-
ence with his power of appointment, President Monroe refused
to entertain Edwards' proposal that he and Thomas be per-
mitted each to select two of four officers for the new land offices.
The president and the more staid part of official Washington
appear to have been surprised and puzzled at the bitterness of

* Senate Journal, 1818, i session, 16, 28; Washburne, Edwards Papers, 149-
150, 154.

96 THE FRONTIER STATE

the contest between the two factions.6 ;< The local parties, in
which you appear to have lived," wrote William Wirt to
Edwards, "have kept you in a constant state of partisan war-
fare— which, of all conditions of human life, is best calculated
to sharpen the observation of character, to whet the sagacity
in the detection of hostile movements, even at a distance, and
to fructify the invention in the adoption of countervailing
manoeuvres. But when a man rises, as you have risen, above
the horizon of this petty warfare, he ought to forget all local
feuds. . . ."6 Such was the counsel of a friend who had
attained a mental poise such as Edwards never achieved. The
advice was calculated to conditions of the political age that
was passing rather than of that which was coming in; but
Edwards might well have taken it to heart.

The rivalry between Edwards and Thomas was soon inten-
sified by their affiliations in the presidential conflict. Thomas
together with Thomas Hart Benton, whom Edwards had
sought to defeat for the Missouri senatorship by running
Cook's brother against him, espoused the cause of William H.
Crawford. Daniel Pope Cook, who, as has been seen, had in
1819 and 1820 been elected to congress over the anti-Edwards
leaders, McLean and Kane, apparently was inclined to favor
Adams. Edwards was at first inclined in the same direction,
but by his own account seeing that Calhoun had a better chance
against Crawford, he transferred his allegiance to the war
department.7 Soon he and Cook were carrying on a dangerous
and daring warfare against the redoubtable Crawford.

In the session of congress of 1821-1822 Cook began a
vigorous attack on Crawford, the secretary of the treasury,
for appointing Jesse B. Thomas to the lucrative task of exam-
ining western land offices. He pursued this in the house with
a persistency that probably detracted from its effect, persevering
even after a committee report exonerated Thomas and Craw-

5 Crawford to Edwards, January 10, 1821, in Chicago Historical Society
manuscripts; Washburne, Edwards Papers, 167, 181, 185.
"Washburne, Edwards Papers, 188-189.
7 Adams, Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, 5: 304, 525.

WAR ON NINIAN EDWARDS 97

ford of unconstitutional or improper conduct8 The attack
was doubtless for the moment against Thomas rather than
Crawford. The Calhoun leaders were anxious to see Thomas
as a Crawford partisan defeated for reelection to the senate;
and Edwards was urged directly by Calhoun to secure his
defeat even by a bargain. "The reelection of Thomas," he
wrote, " would have a very bad effect. You must run but one,
and if necessary you ought to come to an understanding."9
The Illinois papers of the Edwards faction attacked Thomas
during the course of 1822, accusing him of trying to buy his
election by promises of offices and charging that he was in
opposition to Monroe and in alliance with Crawford.

The Edwards faction was not under strict enough disci-
pline to agree on any one candidate to oppose Thomas. Pope,
perhaps in the earlier part of the year, had endeavored to
pledge the Edwards support to John Reynolds. Edwards was
incensed that this should have been done without his knowledge ;
very likely at this time he had none too good an opinion of
Reynolds' ability and integrity; and he was piqued at being
pledged without his knowledge to support another Edwards'
faction aspirant for the senatorship whom Pope proposed to
get out of the way by that means. At the meeting of the
assembly, Lockwood, White, and John Reynolds were all can-
didates on the Edwards side.10 Reynolds tried to postpone
the election in the hope that the charges brought against
Thomas might gain weight or that the various persons to
whom he was reported to have promised the same offices might
grow suspicious. He also appealed to Edwards for unity in
the faction and for efficient use of the patronage to fix wavering
supporters, but with no result. Thomas, Kane, Bond, Joseph
Kitchell, and McLean were united; and January 9, 1823,

8 Annals of Congress, 17 congress, i session, 635-637, 829-831, 876, 897-898,
912-916; Illinois Intelligencer, May 4, 1822; Ed<wards<ville Spectator, February
5, 1822.

9 Edwards, History of Illinois, 493.

10 Washburne, Edwards Papers, 192-203. This is a draft without an address.
Washburne believed it was written to Bond, but a careful study of its contents
leaves no doubt that it was to Pope.

98 THE FRONTIER STATE

Thomas was reflected, receiving a majority of six over Reyn-
olds, White, and Lockwood.

Meanwhile, Edwards and Cook had become directly in-
volved in a contest with the secretary of the treasury. Craw-
ford's financial policy toward the western states has been con-
sidered in a preceding chapter.11 Here it may be recalled that
he had undertaken to use the unstable banks of the west in col-
lecting the revenue from the public lands in the more than
unstable bank note currencies of that region. Statesmanlike
as the measure was, it had resulted in losses to the govern-
ment; and no doubt a politician so active as Crawford had not
failed, where he could, to advance his political fortunes by
his financial favors. On specific points this policy was attacked
by Edwards and Cook, the latter securing in the house of repre-
sentatives repeated calls on Crawford for the production of
great masses of correspondence with agent banks. Edwards,
by the use he endeavored to make of this material against
Crawford, involved himself in what became known as the
A. B. plot.

The A. B. plot had developed in 1823, when there appeared
in the Republican, the Calhoun organ at Washington, a series
of articles under the signature A. B. which not only attacked
Crawford for malfeasance in his official relations with banks
but further insinuated that, under a call made by the house the
year before for correspondence relating to banks, certain letters
had been withheld and crucial parts of another marked for
omission when the correspondence should be printed. To
weigh the testimony fully would require a chapter by itself;
here it may be said that at best the evidence was far from prov-
ing conclusively bad faith on the part of anyone concerned and
that the details alleged to have been suppressed were of no
great importance. John Quincy Adams, by no means likely
to be prejudiced in favor of Crawford, believed the design
of the A. B. letters was to remove Joseph Gales and William W.
Seaton, Crawford supporters, from their post of public print-

11 See above, p. 53 ff.

WAR ON NINIAN EDWARDS 99

ers.12 An investigation, perhaps of a somewhat partisan
cast, finally exonerated all accused in the A. B. letters. It was
generally understood that Edwards was the author of the
letters; and the fact that he had used information obtained in
a semiofficial capacity as a basis for anonymous attacks on
his political enemies seriously impaired his prestige with men
like Adams and Monroe and was sedulously used against him
by the partisans of Crawford.

Edwards' senatorial career indeed had not been especially
gratifying or profitable to him. His financial interests had
suffered by his absence from Illinois. His reputation for so-
briety of judgment had been impaired not only by his supposed
leadership in the A. B. plot, but possibly also by an occasional
vehemence such as marked his attempt in 1820 to amend the
land bill in the senate, an attempt which some senators con-
sidered indecorous. He had seen Thomas outstrip him in the
race for preferment when in 1820 the latter received an
appointment on the senate committee on the public lands. Per-
haps on account of his ill health he was not active in the senate
during the 1822-1823 session, frequently failing to answer to
his name and presenting almost no memorials and petitions;
in this session he was on no standing committee. During his
term he had repeatedly considered resigning, for the first time
in 1819, then in 1821 when in a huff at his discomfiture over
appointments, again in 1822 when he resented Pope's attempts
to dissuade him from resignation, and finally in 1823 when
Calhoun entreated him to remain.13 Early in 1824, however,
he sought from Monroe the nomination as minister to Mexico.
Monroe was at first inclined to refuse to consider him because
of the A. B. affair. Cook was earnest in his efforts with Adams
in behalf of his father-in-law, and Edwards obtained the nomi-
nation. For some time it seemed that the senate might reject
it for the same reasons that had influenced Monroe in his

12 Adams, Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, 6:227-228, 296-297, 370-372.
is Washburne, Edwards Papers, 202-203; Edwards, History of Illinois, 496;
Annals of Congress, 16 congress, i session, 9, 26.

ioo THE FRONTIER STATE

opposition, but finally it confirmed the appointment. Edwards,
however, was destined never to set out on the mission. A new
outbreak of his feud with Crawford brought both men to a
death grapple.

Edwards in his arraignment of Crawford for depositing
the public money in banks where it proved a total loss had had
to encounter the uncomfortable fact that he himself had been
instrumental in securing a deposit for one of the defaulting
institutions, the Bank of Edwardsville. He had asserted, how-
ever, that in the fall of 1819 he had disclaimed further respon-
sibility for the bank in a newspaper publication, a copy of which
he had sent to Crawford, and that further he had induced Ben-
jamin Stephenson, in his capacity as receiver at Edwardsville,
to write Crawford suggesting that for the present he had better
not deposit further with himself as bank president. So Edwards
had testified before a house committee in February of 1823.
In view of the attacks previously made on him, it is not sur-
prising that Crawford, in sending to congress a report contain-
ing a last installment of the correspondence demanded by the
various calls, should have concluded with the statement that no
such letter as Edwards described was to be found in the
treasury files.

Edwards, on the point of departure from Washington when
this report appeared, regarded it as an attempt to ruin his
good name. Continuing on his journey toward Illinois, he sent
to the house of representatives a communication with accom-
panying documents, recapitulating several of his former charges
against Crawford and reiterating his statement as to the exist-
ence of the letter. At the Edwardsville land office he procured
a copy of the rough draft of the letter in question and of another
which referred to it. The house of representatives promptly
recalled him to testify in an investigation. It seemed at the
time that the presidential race was likely to be run with Craw-
ford against the field ; and his partisans realizing that Edwards'
charges against him, if established, would ruin his chances,
rallied around him. Edwards' old associates, on the other

WAR ON NINIAN EDWARDS 101

hand, hesitated to imperil themselves by defending him too
openly; and he was left to fight almost single-handed against
his enemies.

In this situation Edwards found himself committed to
charges which were not susceptible of plain demonstration.
The death of Stephenson had left no direct witness to the
writing of the letter save Edwards. The existence of the draft
letter in the Edwardsville oJffice indorsed by Stephenson, but
as it developed written in Edwards' own hand, was no positive
proof that Stephenson had actually sent a letter casting doubts
on the solvency of his bank, or that Crawford had received it.
Edwards tried to meet the difficulty by deducing from the later
letters by Crawford a fine-spun thread of proof that the letter
had actually been received. Crawford's counsel before the
committee were able to advance an interpretation at least as
plausible in favor of their client; what was more important, by
a comparison of dates and of the time taken by the mails they
showed that it was impossible that the letter could have been
taken into account in a letter which Edwards argued was a fur-
tive answer to it. Edwards was reduced to the position of
impeaching Crawford's veracity on his own word, plus a tenu-
ous line of circumstantial evidence.

On the other specifications of his charge Edwards was
equally unfortunate. In general they depended for proof on
elaborate arguments drawn from intricate bodies of evidence,
the sifting of which is wearisome to the scholar and inex-
pressibly dull to the lay reader. Edwards' proofs were suf-
ficient to convince Crawford's enemies but not to silence his
friends. Further Crawford's counsel by various witnesses,
notably Senator James Noble of Indiana, sought to discredit
Edwards' veracity by proving that when he feared that his
nomination would be rejected by the senate he had denied to
several persons the authorship of the A. B. letters. The stroke
from the politicians' point of view was a masterly one. Instead
of being content merely with turning aside Edwards' charges
by controverting evidence and interpretation, they impugned

102 THE FRONTIER STATE

the veracity of the man on whose unsupported evidence much
of the charge was based.

In meeting this counter attack Edwards' intellectual habits
betrayed him into his supreme error. Instead of taking the
stand and denying on his oath the testimony against him, he
devoted himself to building up by a long series of witnesses,
letters, and affidavits a structure of circumstantial evidence
designed to show that it was impossible that such conversations
should have taken place, but in each instance falling a little
short of demonstration. The committee, though made up in
Crawford's interest, in exonerating him left a serious blemish
on Edwards' reputation.

It is impossible to decide whether Edwards or Crawford
had the major part of truth on his side. In view of Crawford's
political situation it is impossible to accept implicitly the con-
clusion of a committee numbering several of his friends and
allies. It is as easy to explain the facts regarding Stephenson's
letters by supposing them to have been suppressed in Craw-
ford's office as to explain them by supposing that Stephenson
wrote the first letter to please Edwards, and the second to
convince him the first had been sent, and actually forwarded
neither. It is easy to believe that Crawford in his dealings
with banks had shown political friends "undue favors," such
as Edwards alleged. There are certain grave discrepancies in
the testimony designed to fix on Edwards the denial of the
A. B. letters. Finally one must remember that by their enemies
at least many of Crawford's followers were accounted des-
perate and unscrupulous politicians.

On the other hand certain facts of Edwards' conduct point
toward what was at least a moral obliquity in his character.
Occasionally he seemed to attempt a suppression of facts. The
affidavit which he secured to describe the draft of Stephenson's
letter specifies that the draft was indorsed in Stephenson's
hand but not that it was written in Edwards'. In the whole
course of his narratives Edwards overemphasized the warning
Crawford might have taken from his publication and from

WAR ON NINIAN EDWARDS 103

Stephenson's letter, for both publication and letter were labori-
ous in their attempts to shift responsibility without giving cause
for real alarm. Edwards' conduct in the A. B. affair had not
seemed to dissentients or even to friendly onlookers overscru-
pulous on the point of honor; further, several of his attacks
on Crawford's dealing with specific banks were trivial and
unfair. To dismiss Edwards with a clear character and to give
him the verdict against Crawford is impossible.

Whatever be the conclusion as to Edwards' deserts there
can be no doubt that for the time being he was brought to the
verge of financial ruin. He had of course resigned his senator-
ship before accepting the Mexican appointment; and his deten-
tion to testify as to his charges against Crawford compelled
him to resign that also. He was obliged to refund the portion
of his salary which had been advanced him; and the sum he
had already invested in his outfit proved almost a dead loss.
He was prepared to dispose of his speculative landholdings at
a heavy sacrifice, and he even professed himself willing to
accept a county clerkship to support his family.14

Meanwhile Cook had upheld the political fortunes of the
Edwards faction in Illinois against the ablest and most popu-
lar leaders of the opposition. In 1819 and 1822 he defeated
McLean; in 1820, Kane; and in 1824, Bond; all by decisive
pluralities. His tremendous personal popularity was the prin-
cipal cause of his success. In 1819 and 1820, it was true, he
had triumphed on the antislavery principle ; but his opponents
seemed able to devise no issue that would enable them to over-
come his popularity. Charges that he had been guilty of
improper use of his frank and of associating politically with
federalists were of no avail. In 1822 James Hall, under the
signature of Brutus attacked him in the Illinois Gazette, accus-
ing him of assailing Crawford for bank policies that had helped
the west in its need, but to no purpose. In 1824 the attempt
on the part of Bond's friends to identify Cook with the anti-

14 Washburne, Edwards Papers, 225-229, 230-231, 429; Adams, Memoirs of
John Quincy Adams, 6:374-375.

io4 THE FRONTIER STATE

convention party led the Gazette to remark that half the con-
ventionists in eastern Illinois were for Cook and that for Bond
to create a coalition between Cook's friends and the anti-
convention party was suicidal. It is much more significant to
find attacks circulating which represented Cook and Edwards
as members of a reigning family.15 In years to come such
charges had their effect.

One issue, however, had been raised against both Cook
and Edwards as early as 1820 and was destined to annoy them
both so long as they remained in politics. The accusation was
made that from self-interest they had voted against a reduction
of the price of public land in 1820. Edwards and Cook both
declared that they had voted against the bill which reduced
the price of public land from $2 to $1.25 an acre, because it
also oppressed the west by abolishing the credit sales system.
Edwards pointed to the fact that in the senate he had repeatedly
endeavored to lower the price still more and to secure preemp-
tions to actual settlers, pressing his amendments with such
vehemence that at last he had fallen in a swoon on the floor
of the senate. Edwards must have known the futility of offer-
ing for the approval of eastern senators such radical price
amendments as he did; the whole series that he proposed has
a touch of buncombe to it. No doubt the reduction in price
operated disastrously on men like Cook and Edwards with
heavy speculative holdings, and it was said on fair authority
that Edwards had written to his associate in speculation express-
ing his fear lest the measure pass. Of a piece with this charge
was one brought against Cook in 1822 to the effect that he had
opposed the creation of a new land office and of preemption
rights in the Sangamon country with a view to the possibility
of his own family's monopolizing the land in case it were
sold at Edwardsville.18 This charge was, however, effectively
denied.

10 Illinois Gazette, June 29, July 6, 1822; Ediuardsville Spectator, July 18,
1820, July 27, 1822; Illinois Intelligencer, July 22, 1820, July 27, 1822; Kaskas-
kia Republican, April 20, 1824.

16 Illinois Gazette, June 29, July 27, August 3, 1822; Illinois Intelligencer,
July 27, 1822; Edwards, History of Illinois, 510, 517, 518.

WAR ON NINIAN EDWARDS 105

Local issues, or local applications of national issues, pre-
dominated in congressional elections. Thus in his address to
his constituents in 1824, Cook found but little room and no
important place for the Monroe Doctrine and the slave trade.
Instead he stressed the feasibility of an Illinois-Michigan
canal, appropriations for the improvement of the Ohio and
the Mississippi, the extension of the Cumberland road, a pos-
sible system of national internal improvements, a more liberal
policy of relief to purchasers of public land and finally and
most important the tariff. The tariff by virtue of the home
market argument was made an important political issue in the
west in the early twenties. Thus in 1824 Bond's avowed policy
of encouragement of agriculture was set down in his party as
opposition to protected manufactures.17 Crawford was at-
tacked in Illinois as hostile to internal improvements and pro-
tection, and it is not clear that as yet his friends ventured to
join issue on the question. The appearance of the tariff as a
sectional issue must be noted in this connection. About 1820,
because of its interest in a protective tariff, the east was assailed
for hostility to the west. In view of the future trend of poli-
tics toward a low tariff alliance between west and south, it is
interesting to note the declarations of southern members that
if oppressed by a high tariff the south could no longer afford
to furnish the principal market for the livestock of the west.
As yet, however, in the limited materials for Illinois history
available, no answering echo can be detected.18

The presidential question was before the people of Illinois
for nearly three years before the election of 1824. For some
time, as nearly as one can determine, predilections of individ-
uals often expressed by Fourth of July toasts in favor of one
candidate or another determined their respective allegiances.
As the election drew near, however, the field narrowed. Cal-

17 Illinois Gazette, April 24, July 17, 1824. Cook on the tariff of 1824 voted
generally for protection, dnnals of Congress, 18 congress, i session, 1545, 2236,
2289-2294, 2310-2316, 2327-2330, 2337, 2338, 2627-2629.

IK Illinois Gazette, June 3, 1820; Annals of Congress, 18 congress, i session,
1677.

io6 THE FRONTIER STATE

houn withdrew from the race. Clay and Crawford, in spite
of the fact that factional considerations would suggest Craw-
ford's support by the anti-Edwards men, were believed to have
little strength in one or another of the three electoral districts
in which the state was divided. Later it was said that Kinney,
Kane, McLean, and others of the anti-Edwards faction had
favored Crawford. Accordingly the presidential election,
though attracting fewer voters than the congressional election,
became complicated by coalition candidates, trades, and rumors
of trades.

In the third district, comprising southwestern Illinois, noth-
ing remarkable occurred. In the first district a delegate
convention nominated James Turney as a candidate for elector
pledged to vote for either Jackson or Clay according to the
turn of events. The Intelligencer, which favored Clay, warned
his supporters not to be deceived as Clay actually was stronger
than Jackson or Crawford, whom it regarded as the probable
beneficiary of the movement. Finally Jackson, Adams, Clay,
and Crawford electors were all run.19

In the second district a different set of problems presented
themselves. The chief of them was the danger lest the Jackson
vote be split among several electors and an Adams man be
chosen. Henry Eddy was nominated as Jackson elector by a
public meeting which his enemies stigmatized as a caucus. This
and the statement that Eddy secretly favored Adams led
Joseph M. Street to offer himself as elector pledged to vote
for Jackson for president and some republican for vice
president. The suspicion was openly expressed that he was a
stalking horse to divide the Jackson vote and secure the election
of a nominal Clay elector who would vote for Crawford. Both
Jackson and Adams men denounced this scheme; and in parody
of Street, an Adams man, A. G. S. Wight, offered himself as
elector for " Crawford for President, and Joseph M. Street,
or some well known Republican for Vice President."20

19 Illinois Intelligencer, September 24, October 22, 1824.
ao Illinois Gazette, October 16, 1824.

WAR ON NINIAN EDWARDS 107

In view of the interpretations later put upon Cook's pledge
to vote in the house for the man who had a majority of the
vote in Illinois it is important to note the results. An Adams
elector was chosen in the first district, and Jackson electors in
the other two. In no case had the presence of two electors
for the same candidate caused a serious split in the vote. In
the state at large Adams had 1,542 votes; Jackson, 1,272;
Clay, 1,047; and Crawford, 219. This estimate, however,
does not include 629 votes cast in the first district for Turney,
the Jackson and Clay elector. His vote given to either Jackson
or Clay would have given either a plurality over Adams. On
the other hand the Edwardsmlle Spectator in its abstract of
the votes lists Turney's under " Crawford," and this undoubt-
edly represents the source of a portion of the vote. It is not
surprising that Cook apparently considered that he had received
no popular mandate and was at liberty to follow his personal
inclinations which led him in the house of representatives to
cast the vote of Illinois for Adams.

Six months later, and almost a year before the congressional
election of 1826, Joseph Duncan offered himself as a rival can-
didate to Cook. Duncan had played a minor part in state poli-
tics for several years, serving as a senator in the legislature
of 1824-1826; he can scarcely be classed with anti-Edwards
faction. Intellectually he was by no means the peer of Cook,
nor did his followers claim it; and it is not surprising that
Cook and his friends hardly took his candidacy seriously.
Duncan, however, had a fair military record. As a boy of
seventeen serving as ensign it had fallen to him to be the first
to give his vote in council of war for the defense of Fort
Stephenson, one of the military successes of the War of 1812,
whose memory was still green in the west. His military service
and the fact that he was a farmer were made to contrast favor-
ably with Cook's long career in public office; he had the hearty
support of the anti-Edwards faction; and to improve his
position, immediately after the adjournment of the legislature
in 1826, he began a thorough canvass of the state.

108 THE FRONTIER STATE

It soon became apparent that the campaign against Cook
was to be carried on by negation rather than assertion. Mut-
terings of discontent with his vote for Adams had appeared
a full year before Duncan was held up to the people as
" a citizen who has been weighed in the balance and not found
wanting." Cook's friends soon concluded that this vote was
a vulnerable point which must be defended. Sometimes they
endeavored to explain Cook's conduct as according with his
pledges. Sometimes they appealed to the voters to remember
that Cook had dLfered with them but this once in six years.
As a motive to forgiveness of this offense, if offense it were,
they pleaded the influential position Cook had attained in
congress and the great services that in virtue of it he had ren-
dered and could still render to his constituents, notably on
behalf of the canal. ,

A second vulnerable point in Cook's position was reached
by the cry that the Edwards-Cook connection formed a reigning
family. ' The public land vote of 1820 was brought out for use
against both Cook and his father-in-law. To this charge
Cook's supporters replied by attempting to demonstrate in the
family relations of James M. and Joseph Duncan, their uncle
R. K. McLaughlin, and David Blackwell a family dynasty
similar to the Cook-Edwards-Pope alliance ; but the attack was
hardly as successful as that of their opponents, who could point
to the fact as a graphic demonstration of their charge that
while Cook was running for congress, Edwards was running
for governor.21

Edwards had embarked on the campaign for the governor-
ship in the hope of receiving a popular vindication from the
charges made against him in his controversy with Crawford.
In the 1824 legislature he had stood for reelection to the
senate and had been defeated for the unexpired term by John
McLean who, in his turn, was beaten for the full term by Elias
Kent Kane. In spite of the fact that the election left his enemies

21 Edivardsville Spectator, May 27, June 30, July 7, 28, August 4, 1826;
Illinois Intelligencer, January 25, June 29, August 3, 1826; Illinois Gazette, April
*8, 1836.

WAR ON NINIAN EDWARDS 109

quarrelling among themselves and that Lockwood and Browne
of his faction were reelected to the supreme court, the rebuff
was a hard one ; and he naturally listened to those of his friends
who assured him that the people were anxious to prove their
confidence in him by giving him an overwhelming vote for gov-
ernor. R. M. Young assured him of a vote of five or more to
one in the southwestern counties where the Jackson men were
anxious to rebuke Crawford. Till the campaign of 1826 was
near its climax Edwards retained his confidence that his vindi-
cation was to be by a flood of popular votes and could not
understand why his opponent Thomas Sloo did not give up
the contest unless he trusted to some bit of eleventh-hour chi-
canery.22

Edwards set forth on a state wide personal campaign.
Everywhere his main theme was an arraignment of the financial
mismanagement of the state in recent years. He assailed the
legislature for paying out state paper at a third its face value
and for issuing auditor's warrants at a similar depreciation.
He took credit to himself for having secured annual sales for
taxes of nonresidents' land as well as residents'; under the
former system he averred nonresidents had deprived the people
of Illinois of a currency by hoarding depreciated state paper to
use in paying their taxes. " Such impositions as these," so
ran his drafted speech, "upon a free, high-minded and inde-
pendent people, I boldly assert have no parallels in the annals
of free government, and they are only to be borne by that
Christian charity. . . ,"23 One writer not disposed to be
unfriendly to Edwards stated that sometimes his denunciations
traveled even farther and covered the whole course of govern-
ment from the halcyon days of his territorial role and
" arraigned and charged at the bar of public opinion every
man who has shared with yourself the confidence of the people."
Edwards, it may be noted, denied this charge in its terms rather
than in its spirit.24 It would not be surprising if in oratorical

22 Washburne, Ediuards Papers, 237-239.

23 Edwards, History of Illinois, 203-206, 213-214.

24 Illinois Intelligencer, July 6, 1826.

no THE FRONTIER STATE

enthusiasm he sometimes transgressed the bounds of his manu-
script speech. Whether, as his opponents suggested, in each
county he expressly exempted its delegations from his censures
cannot be known.

Edwards' attacks on the legislature drew forth a retort
which contributed powerfully to Cook's defeat and to the nar-
rowness of his own plurality. Strangely enough it came from
George Forquer, a man hitherto, and later, hand-in-glove with
Edwards politically and even then inclined to favor him as
against his opponent. Forquer was a man of hot and suspicious
temper, quick to suspect and resent treachery on the part of a
political associate; and possibly in a moment of irritation at
Edwards' attacks on the legislature of which he had been a
member and of distrust of Edwards' good faith toward himself,
he published in the Illinois Intelligencer of July 6 an article
signed "Tyro." In spite of the signature the blow was sped
by the hand of a master of controversy, and it reached not only
Edwards but the whole system of factional strife in politics
which he personified.

"Tyro" pronounced that the attacks of Edwards on the
legislature as a body merely to pave his own way to political
power were enough to alienate all thinking men from him.
Though politically able, he was by no means infallible ; instead
of seeking the office as a vindication he was pursuing it madly
through ex-cathedra denunciations of measures and men. He
should remember, " Tyro " added, that the days when the
factional strife of the territorial parties could keep men in
political subjection had departed. "The sycophants of terri-
torial bondage have lost their influence and dwindled into con-
tempt. The dazzling halo, with which the former exercise of
lordly power, occasioned the ignorant to associate your name,
is broken, and you now stand before them as an object of
political charity — a naked, crumbling monument of a morbid
ambition. A race of men, honorable in their views, pure in
their feelings, with talents hereafter to be felt, are now in
political embryo, who have not been tamed or degraded under

WAR ON NINIAN EDWARDS in

the banners of either of the old parties that originated the
territorial feuds, and which have ever since harassed the coun-
try with the most intolerant proscription." Forquer had dis-
cerned the fallacy that underlay the whole factional system —
it imbued its adherents with the idea that the open and avowed
end of politics was the gratification of a personal ambition.
Under "Tyro's" analysis the absurdity of Edwards' seeking
a public office to salve his honor of a thrust received in factional
warfare is self-evident.

" On the first appearance of Tyro" wrote John Marshall
after the election, " I anticipated the storm that was to follow.
... I was not mistaken, it was a fatal storm. You must be
aware now that the freedom with which you commented on the
management of the finances, State Bank, &c., however just was
nevertheless very impolitick. It arrayed almost every man that
had been in the Legislature since 1821 and all the Bank and
Circuit Court interest against you, which, by a little manage-
ment aided by the cry of 'a family of rulers' was unfortun-
ately brought to bear on Mr. Cook." 25

The attempt to turn the politics of a state to the advantage
of a personal faction had resulted fatally to the faction whose
work first was made apparent to the people. Edwards was
elected by a vote that considering the weakness of his opponent
and the great expectations with which he had begun the contest
was in itself a disgrace. He could muster but 6,280 votes
against 5,833 for Sloo and 580 for Adolphus F. Hubbard, the
butt and jest of Illinois politics. Joseph Duncan defeated Cook
by a vote of 6,322 to 5,619 excluding 824 votes cast for James
Turney.

Cook's defeat has usually been laid to popular resentment
at his vote for Adams. But while the issue was raised in the
campaign and while outside the state Cook's defeat was re-
peatedly assigned to it, the evidence that it was the deciding
factor is by no means conclusive. Edwards asserted that it
had not been, though his statement may be assigned to an

28 Washburne, Edwards Papers, 255.

ii2 THE FRONTIER STATE

anxiety to convince Clay that he held the balance between the
Jackson and administration forces in the state. Duncan, how-
ever, did not run as a Jackson man. Further, in 1826 Cook lost
decisively but few Jackson counties on which his hold had not
been precarious before, though in many instances he lost them
by increased majorities. Not one of the Jackson counties that
he lost in 1826 did he carry both in 1822 and 1824. Further
he obtained decisive votes in several strong Jackson counties
such as Pope, Gallatin, Edgar, Morgan, Greene, and Alexan-
der. Pope county he carried by an increased majority and
Gallatin and Alexander he had lost in 1824. Marshall's letter
already cited is evidence against the accuracy of the assertion.
Further the story that Cook's vote was the cause of his defeat
tended to establish itself in Illinois history, since in 1830 the
supporters of Kinney were anxious to prove Reynolds' apos-
tasy to Jackson ; and they argued that he had supported Cook
in 1826, representing Cook as at that time defeated on the
Jackson issue.

The explanations offered by friends who were in close touch
with the situation were Cook's inability to stump the state, the
reiterations of the old public land charge, and the use of the
fact that father-in-law and son-in-law were at the same time
running for the two highest offices in the gift of the people of
Illinois.28 Yet the historian may speculate whether in view of
the letter of Marshall and the article by "Tyro" the causes
mentioned were not symptoms of a cause rather than causes
themselves. Their gravamen after all lies in the assump-
tion that Edwards and Cook in their political course had been
moved by their pecuniary interests and their personal ambi-
tions. It was that against which "Tyro" had really pro-
tested, the governing of the state for the benefit of the leaders
of a personal clique.

Finally one may note that Edwards and Cook assumed
toward their constituents an attitude characteristic of the past

18 Edwards, History of Illinois, 451 ; Washburne, Edivards Paptrs, 260-
261 ; Edtvardsville Spectator, July 7, September 29, 1826.

WAR ON NINIAN EDWARDS 113

rather than the future. Edwards had pompously asserted that
he was a candidate for office by the call of the people, and that
anyone contesting with him must do so for sinister motives.27
Cook's friends repeatedly urged the grants he had obtained at
Washington and the further benefits that he as a member of
ability and a friend to the administration could procure for the
state. Yet in spite of apostrophes to the paramount abilities of
Edwards and of promises of canal lands to be procured by
Cook, the people of Illinois had voted in great numbers for
men admittedly of narrow abilities who could promise little
in the way of public services. The older political order was
fading away, and Jacksonian democracy was on the horizon.

27 Illinois Intelligencer, August 3, 1826.

VI. THE RISE OF JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY

first waves of the rising tide of westernism which
JL found its expression in Jacksonian democracy had helped
to undermine Cook's popularity in 1826. As year after year
the tide rose the old factions of Illinois politics were to take
note of it and to seek to turn it to their own political advantage
or else to endeavor to evade its full force without traveling
with it; but in the end the whole factional system of state
politics was to be swept away by the flood tide of the new
democracy. To understood fully the character and ideals of
the movement on which Jackson rode triumphant through the
latter part of his political career is to understand the history
of the United States for two decades. Such an understanding
is not easy to attain. Sometimes nearer, sometimes farther,
from the heart of the movement was the chicanery and man-
agement of crafty politicians. The personnel changes: old
leaders go over into opposition, and late converts take their
places. Intellectually the movement develops and evolves so
that the radical ideals of 1837 and 1840 to the Jackson men of
1824 would have appeared outlandish. Any estimate of Jack-
sonism must take careful account of the fact that it was an
idea intensely alive and therefore intensely variable.

Perhaps the surest guide to the underlying elements of
Jacksonism that persisted throughout the movement is the
character of Jackson himself. That his character could divide
men into worshippers and bitter critics was shown in the con-
gressional investigation of the Seminole campaign during the
session of 1818-1819, the first in which the state of Illinois
had a voice. To men of one type of mind the raid into Spanish
territory, the execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister, and above
all, Jackson's deliberate disregard of his orders in raising a

"4

RISE OF JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY 115

company of Tennessee riflemen and mustering them into
United States service, instead of calling on neighboring states
for militia as he had been instructed, were alike characteristic
of a "military chieftain" ruthless and lawless, the very coun-
terpart of the men who have in Europe and South America
made republican government a travesty on liberty.

On the other hand in the defenses of Jackson's character
and conduct one catches an echo of the spirit of the American
frontier — its directness and its disregard of all theories of
action not corresponding with the facts of life. Jackson had
been set the task of defending the frontier. He had taken the
shortest and most direct way to do it, using the forces best
suited to it, and not refraining from regard to the sensibilities
of men who actually sympathized with the Indians. The means
he had taken were neither humanitarian nor constitutional, but
they were effective. Such a man to a west that had seen the
doubts, hesitations, and failures of the Jeffersonian school
seemed formed more nearly in the image of Washington and
the revolutionary heroes.

The men who urged Jackson's claims to the presidential
succession contrasted the claims of the man who had served
his country in the field with the claims of those who had served
her in congress or in the cabinet. They felt that the closet
statesmen at Washington had disregarded Jackson's just claims
because he was not one of themselves and had not been initiated
into their methods of political finesse. The caucus which nomi-
nated Crawford must have seemed the very embodiment of
such methods. The feeling culminated in 1825 when John
Quincy Adams was elected president by the house of representa-
tives, in spite of the fact that Jackson, of the four candidates,
had received a plurality of electoral and possibly of popular
votes. That the wirepullers should triumph over the plain
soldier aroused intense indignation.1 The cause of Jackson
was associated by his friends with the broader cause of democ-
racy. In the session of 1825-1826 a constitutional amendment

1 Annals of Congress, 15 congress, 2 session, 256, 517, 529, 656, 689.

n6 THE FRONTIER STATE

introduced in congress providing for a direct popular vote on
the presidency put on record in the debate those who were will-
ing to trust the people and those who were not. On one side
were men who averred that the constitution of the United
States did not permit of democracy and that a legislative train-
ing in statesmanship was an implied requisite for a holder of
high office ; men who defended the caucus because they believed
that, if the congress did not eliminate a plurality of candidates
before the election, the house or the senate would have to
choose between them in the end ; and finally, men who used the
states' rights argument.2 Everett stated bluntly what was per-
haps in the minds of many, when he declared that a president
elected by an overwhelming majority would be a dangerous
one.

On the other side were those who believed that the people
should nominate and elect the president directly, that he should
be dependent on them for office and responsible to them for
his acts.3 This was the theory which was later to be so boldly
asserted by Jackson in his claim to represent the popular will
and which was exemplified by him in his war on the senate.

In Illinois the Jackson campaign of 1828 began December
9, 1826, when in the house of representatives A. P. Field offered
a resolution indorsing Jackson and asserting that the election
of Adams was by bargain and sale and contrary to the will of
the majority. Three days later a motion to lay on the table
till July 4, the usual way of killing a measure, was lost by a
vote of 1 6 to 20. The counter-argument, as expounded by
Alfred W. Cavarly, was that such action would prejudice the
land grants for which the people of Illinois were petitioning
congress, that it was unusual and could not be supported by any
valid proof of the charges made. A compromise amendment
offered by Thomas Reynolds which merely expressed confidence
in Jackson was lost 18 to 18. Field finally moved to make the
matter a mere nomination of Jackson, but his motion was

2 Storrs, Archer, Stevenson, Ingersoll, and Mitchell of Tennessee.
3Saunders, Cambreleng, Drayton, Polk, Isacks, Lecompte, and Mitchell of
South Carolina.

defeated 19 to 17. January 8, 1827, a motion to take up the
resolution was lost 1 8 to 1 8 by a slightly different alignment
of votes. On the last day of the session, with five Adams men
and one Jackson supporter absent, a resolution declaring for
Jackson passed 19 to 1 1. Such was the alignment of the house.
Although no vote directly indicating the alignment was taken
in the senate there was said to be an administration ma-
jority of 2.

Outside the legislature the movement in favor of Jackson
was continued through the agency of county meetings. One
was held at Belleville on March 8, which recommended Jack-
son as a candidate and urged the holding of similar meetings
to take measures for his election. "They hope," was the
comment of the administration organ, the Intelligencer, "by
this mean, not only to discover their own strength but to give
tone to public feeling; and if possible, induce a belief that
Jackson is the strong candidate."4 In May, Kinney, West,
T. W. Smith, and Kane were busy with a project to publish a
Jackson newspaper in the state; and the next fall Fleming
began printing the Illinois Corrector at Edwardsville. In the
late fall and winter under the tutelage of the leaders district
conventions to nominate electors were held; and in these as
well as in the county meetings which elected delegates to them,
resolutions were adopted denouncing Adams and praising Jack-
son. The Illinois Gazette asserted that the county meetings
rarely consisted of over twelve or fifteen persons and that they
were drummed up in county after county by political circuit
riders like A. P. Field. Undoubtedly there was machinery at
work, but in view of the results there must have been something
more.5

In the political comment of the Illinois administration
papers one notes surprise or even alarm at the lengths to which
the Jackson enthusiasm was going. The Intelligencer com-

* Illinois Intelligencer, March 24, 1827.

5 Kinney to Kane, May 12, 1827, in Kane manuscripts; Illinois Intelligencer,
October 12, 1827, January 5, March i, 29, May 10, June 21, 1828; Illinois
Gazette, May 3, 17, 1828.

n8 THE FRONTIER STATE

mented sarcastically on such ebullitions of enthusiasm as public
meetings in which the planting of hickory trees was an impor-
tant part of the exercises. It complained that New York had
been lost to Adams by the votes of the riffraff. One Fourth
of July orator of the preceding year had reminded his hearers
that popular rights was the favorite theme of demagogues and
that the fathers of the republic had equally opposed the des-
potism of a monarch and the licentiousness of the mob.6 The
Intelligencer clipped from Niles Weekly Register an editorial
speculating as to why the election of a president should be
fraught with so much more violence than the elections of sena-
tors, especially in view of the fact that the senate with its
power of trial in cases of impeachments was by so much the
more important branch of government! The enthusiasm for
Jackson presaged to men of conservative mind the end of a
stable and balanced political universe, in which sobriety, stand-
ing, and solid talents had governed.

Either side in the campaign freely barbed its arguments
with abuse of the opposing candidate. For the Jackson forces
the "corrupt bargain" between Clay and Adams by which
Clay in return for the secretaryship of state was alleged to
have thrown his forces to Adams did full duty in spite of the
numerous refutations that were published. The South Ameri-
can policy of Adams and the alleged loss of the West India
trade were duly considered, together with such matters as his
lavish furnishing of the east room of the White House and his
purchase of a billiard table — a' piece of furniture that in the
Illinois statutes figured only as a gaming device. In view of
Clay's duel with Randolph, the accusation was made that the
government at Washington was a " duelling administration ! "7

For the reason that files of two Illinois administration
newspapers have been preserved and almost no Jackson papers
have been handed down, it is easier to outline the attack on
Jackson than to state his defense. Efforts were made to prove

6 Leonard Ross at Atlas. Illinois Intelligencer, August 4, 1827.
''Ibid., November 4, 1826, August n, September 8, 15, 1827.

RISE OF JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY 119

that the real attempt at bargain and intrigue in 1825 had been
in his favor. The statement that Jackson was a federalist in
disguise was supported by the publication of his letter to
Monroe in 1817 urging the latter to appoint federalists to
office. Jackson himself was represented as a rowdy, a cock-
fighter, a gambler, and a devotee of the code of honor.8
Toward the end of the campaign his opponents fell back on
such charges as that he was a Negro trader and a ferreter out
of flaws in land titles.

Naturally in this campaign also Jackson was represented
as a "Military Chieftain." A remark of Jefferson to Coles
to the effect that the heavy popular vote for Jackson made
him doubt the stability of free institutions was made to do
duty in Illinois. His arbitrary conduct when New Orleans
was under martial law was represented as an instance of his
military violation of civil power. The incident most relied
on, however, was his execution of six militiamen for what was
represented as at the most a technical desertion after their term
of service had expired.9 For many a long year of his service
in the democratic party Sidney Breese writhed under the charge
that he had distributed " coffin handbills," with the coffins of
the six depicted at the top and subscribed with doleful verse :

He ordered Harris out to die,

And five poor fellows more !
Young gallant men in prime of life,

To welter in their gore

'T was all in vain, John Harris prayed,

'T is past the soul's belief.
Hard as a flint was Jackson's heart,

He would not grant relief

8 Illinois Gazette, June 7, 1828; Illinois Intelligencer, August 4, October 13,
November 17, 1827, April 5, May 24, 1828.

9 Ibid., August 4, December i, 1827.

120 THE FRONTIER STATE

Sure he will spare ! Sure Jackson yet

Will all reprieve but one —
Oh hark ! those shrieks ! that cry of death !

The dreadful deed is done !10

Besides all the personal issues there were issues of national
policy at question in the election. The administration news-
papers represented that the Adams policy of internal improve-
ments and protection to manufactures was the policy pre-
eminently adapted to the needs of the west. ' The insufficient
market for western produce at New Orleans was a graphic
argument for a system that would both enable manufactures
to spring up on the soil of Illinois and furnish her with outlets
to additional markets. Many of the Jackson men were dis-
posed to agree with this estimate of the true interest of the
west and to insist that Jackson also favored the policy. The
administration papers forced the fighting on the tariff issue,
a live national issue even at this early date, accusing the
Corrector of hedging and vacillating on it.

The Adams internal improvement policy offered an issue
even more vital to Illinois.11 Edwards as early as 1825 had
pointed out to Clay the strength that the administration would
gain by the announcement of a project for a connection between
western waters, the lakes, and the Atlantic. In the meetings in
northern Illinois held to celebrate the passage of the canal bill
of 1827 there were resolutions and speeches full of gratitude
to Edwards, Cook, Adams, Clay, and the internal improvement
policy. Calhoun's casting vote against the measure in 1826
and the unfriendliness to it of Jackson's friends were supposed
to have seriously imperiled Jackson's chances. Consequently
the Intelligencer laid its greatest emphasis on the importance
of the internal improvement policy to Illinois. Toward the

10 Chicago Democrat, April 29, 1840.

^Illinois Intelligencer, April 21, 1827; Illinois Gazette, February 23, 1828;
Kimmel to Eddy, November 7, 1827, in Eddy manuscripts. The Jackson con-
vention at Springfield resolved that it was convinced that its candidate, Andrew
Jackson, was for protection and internal improvement. Illinois Intelligencer,
May 10, 1828.

RISE OF JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY 121

end of the campaign in an attempt to stir up sectional prejudice
the administration papers represented anti-tariff and anti-
internal improvement as policies dictated by the slave states.12
The supporters of Jackson endeavored to demonstrate
Adams' hostility to western interests on another issue, that of
the public lands. Ever since the spring of 1824 Benton had
been urging a measure designed to remove the complaint that
the United States arrested the development of the western
states by disposing of its lands on terms too unfavorable to
the purchasers. His graduation bill embodied the principle
that the unsold public lands be each year reduced in price
twenty-five cents an acre till they reached twenty-five cents,
when if they did not find purchasers they should be ceded to
the states. The measures also provided that when the price
of public lands had reached fifty cents an acre, they should be
donated to actual settlers in eighty acre tracts. Benton intro-
duced this bill year by year, but it was not till 1826 that he
was permitted even to speak on it. In that year, when in a
propaganda for the measure he had secured a memorial from
the Missouri legislature indorsing it, it was taken under the
wing of the Jackson party in the state. In congress it received
the support of Kane and Duncan, but roused the opposition of
such men as Benton's colleague and rival, David Barton, who
insisted it was an attempt to carry on the movement, frustrated
in 1820, which had been throwing the public domain into the
hands of speculators. It was defeated in 1828 in the senate,
eleven Jackson senators, as the administration men pointed
out, voting among the twenty-five opponents of the measure.
The Jackson men, however, turned to Richard Rush's last
report as secretary of the treasury in which he injudiciously
urged protection to manufactures on the ground that it would
keep population in the east where it could accumulate capital
instead of spreading it thinly over the lands of the west. His
further argument that the low price of the public lands acted

12 Washburne, Edwards Papers, 240; Illinois Gazette, June 28, 1828;
Illinois Intelligencer, March 17, August 4, November 3, 1827, July 5, 1828.

122 THE FRONTIER STATE

as a bounty on agriculture which should be supplemented by
one on manufactures was, if anything, still more unfortunate.
Both were used by the opposition to prove the sinister aspect
of the whole Adams policy toward the west.18

The question of the public lands in Illinois politics followed
a rather unusual course. First it must be noted that side by
side with Benton's scheme in congress appeared the suggestions
on the part of certain members that congress might well cede
the public lands to the states in which they lay. This plan was
usually based on an extreme theory of state sovereignty which
proclaimed that, as the new states were admitted into congress
on an equal footing with the old in all respects, it was prepos-
terous that the federal government should control the soil in
them, and accordingly declared that all compacts recognizing
such a right were null and void. Benton had disclaimed any
such implication in his measure ; but the theory was enunciated
by several westerners, such as Hendricks, who were well dis-
posed to it. Tazewell indeed had in 1826 proposed a corre-
sponding measure.14 Other senators had favored the principle.
But in Illinois, Edwards, who had declared in his message of
1826 that if the state did not receive the cession it must have
classification and who in 1828 supported Forquer's rival pro-
posal for a graduation based on a classification by value, came
out in his 1828 message with a tedioo and labored defense of
the right of the states to the public lands based on doctrines
of state sovereignty. This measure may have been an attempt
to outbid his old enemies, Benton, Kane, and Duncan for
popular support or it may have been, as his enemies suggested,
designed in the interest of his own landholdings to stir up such
animosity in the east as would ruin the chances of the gradu-
ation bill. Possibly, as Duff Green suggested, he hoped that
the measure would be the basis of a coalition between the west
and his old friends of Calhoun's party in the south. On pub-
lic lands, tariff, and internal improvements in 1828-1829 it

13 Congressional Debates, 1827-1828, p. 483-521, 614-629, 678, 2832 ff.

14 Ibid., 1827-1828, 152 ff., 625-629; ibid., 1825-1826, p. 782.

RISE OF JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY 123

was a question of alliances : would the west accept tariff and
internal improvements and yield up the public lands policy
to the jealousy of her growth harbored in the east, or would
she ally herself with the south in return for free trade and a
favorable land policy? The alternative was not clearly per-
ceived in 1828 ; nor was it definitely recognized for some years;
but in the large, so far as Illinois was concerned, the decision
had been made.

The graduation policy as presented by Benton was a meas-
ure democratic in its intent. In spite of what was said by
Barton and others one cannot help feeling that Benton was
right in holding that speculation on a large scale in unim-
proved land was a hazardous business so long as so much wild
land was still in government hands and that hitherto specu-
lators had burnt their fingers in handling both public lands
and military bounty lands.15 Benton argued that the measure
would give to the poor the opportunity by which they might
rise to the position of useful citizens; he even argued that it
was the duty of the government to settle the wild lands as
expeditiously as might be, since men naturally had a right to
the soil.

The tide flowed toward Jackson. Although the final vote
— 9,582 to 4,662 — was overwhelmingly in Jackson's favor,
the change in sentiment was by no means immediate or general
throughout the state. On May 16, 1827, Joseph M. Street
reported to Edwards from Shawneetown that the old Clay,
Adams, and Crawford men were nearly all supporting the ad-
ministration; and early in the next month he ascribed the
weakness of Jackson to the bitter factional feeling in that
section against Kinney and Smith. In a later letter he reported
McLean much cooler toward Jackson. As late as August 15,
1827, one of Kane's correspondents believed that, while at
that time Jackson had a majority in the state, in the end Adams
would run very well. By February 22, 1828, Smith estimated
that the Adams men had given up Illinois.

15 Congressional Debates, 1825-1826, p. 720.

i24 THE FRONTIER STATE

While the political issues of the future were brewing in the
real Jackson movement, the leaders of the faction were watch-
ing events and planning that their personal interests should
not suffer. Such old Crawford men as Kinney, Kane, T. W.
Smith, Bond, and McLean had gone over to Jackson. By
1828-1829 the fervency and zeal of these converts for party
regularity and proscription of their opponents was viewed
by the older Jackson men, such as S. H. Kimmel and A. P.
Field, with ill-concealed impatience.

On the other side Edwards was balancing on the political
fence which divided the Jackson forces and the administration.
On the one hand Duff Green was assuring him of Jackson's
regard, his disposition to condone Cook's vote for Adams, and
the certainty of Edwards' triumph if he only would come out
for the constitutional amendment, which was the Jacksonian
profession of faith. On the other hand, Edwards after his
election took an independent if friendly tone toward Clay.
While he did not hesitate to speak plainly on attacks against
himself originating in administration sources, he declared that
he could not, in view of the attitude of Jackson's friends
toward the canal, expect the Jackson interest to predominate
in Illinois. He explained the small plurality by which he had
been elected by saying that he had made exertions to throw all
his opponents on the Jackson side, so that he might eventually
turn the balance either way. The hint to the administration
was obvious. Edwards was supposed in 1827 to have come
out for Jackson, but he supported a declared Adams man for
congress in 1828, so that his position remained more or less
equivocal.16

In state politics Edwards gathered what hope he could
from the fact that the ranks of his opponents were disinte-
grating. The two senate rships to be filled in 1824 had sown
discord. In the spring of that year Kane, Kinney, Sloo, and
Kitchell all had their eyes on the prizes. McLean and Coles
also stood forth as candidates. Kane apparently succeeded in

16 Washburne, Edwards Papers, 256, 259.

RISE OF JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY 125

combining the forces in support of McLean in order to beat
Edwards who was hoping for a vindication by reelection.
On the third ballot McLean had thirty-one votes to nineteen
for Edwards and two for Pope. A week later Kane was
elected for the long term, beating Lockwood, McLean, Coles,
and Sloo. McLean, who believed he had been tricked into
entering the contest only to be humiliated, was furious and
refused to be soothed by asservations that he had been
reserved to cap the triumph of the coalition by beating Cook
for congress. Another member of the coalition had to com-
plain of similar treatment. In the election of justices of the
supreme courtr, Wilson and Browne were confirmed, Lockwood
and T. W. Smith elected, and John Reynolds frozen out.
Exactly how the justices of the Edwards faction were elected
is a problem. Reynolds very probably had been displaced by
T. W. Smith's intrigues, and he did not hesitate to say that
he had been the "whetstone" in the affair.17

The effect on the make-up of the factions of this intriguing
is admirably described by a political observer of 1827 whose
statements are corroborated by such independent evidences as
exist "Smith, Kinney, and West, are about to set up a News-
paper at Edwardsville — ostensibly for Jackson, but in fact to
operate in State politics. Smith and Kinney want to be Senator
and Governor. They go against Edwards, Thomas, but most
especially and bitterly against McLean. Party No. 8 consists
of John Reynolds and Tom Reynolds the Beairs, etc., Jno
Reynolds wants to be Senator — is inveterate against Smith,
Edwards, Thomas and dont much like McLean. Party No.
5 consists of Jesse B. Thomas Solus — the privates and officers
yet to be enlisted. The Honorable Jesse is very bitter against
Smith and Co., but more against McLean. He swears that
McLean is a dishonest man and a dishonest politician — that
he cant, and by G he shant be elected !

"I do not see how the above named men can ever again

17 Kinney to Kane, April 10, 1824, in Kane manuscripts; McLean to Sloo,
January 16, 1825, in Illinois State Historical Society, Transactions, 1911, p. 39;
Reynolds to Cook, December 30, 1824, 'n Edwards manuscripts.

ii6 THE FRONTIER STATE

imaigamate, at any rate they will not join with Party No. 4
which consists of Jno McLean and his friends — Nor with
Party No. 5 which is composed of Edwards & Co.

"Depend upon it, my dear Sir," he continued, "these com-
binations which are going on in our State will ruin every man
who is engaged in them. The people are beginning to com-
plain loudly. Kinney is sinking faster than I ever saw any
man, his violence disgusts even his friends. Thomas and
Edwards are gone. Smith is universally feared, his ambition
and his intriguing spirit alarm friends and foes. Lockwood
and Wilson are greatly depreciated. All of these men must
go down. McLean stands best, but his prospects are very
doubtful. . . ,"18

Other evidence attests the precarious condition of Edwards
and his faction. It did not have control of the legislature
chosen in 1826, and thereby all Edwards' assaults on the admin-
istration of the bank and finances were frustrated. In the leg-
islative elections he was beaten. By the death of Cook in 1827
he lost a man of popularity and of recognized ability and what
was worse a loyal comrade. There were none too many such
left among Edwards' followers. Still he patiently worked
away, seeking once more to attain victory by the old methods.

The senatorial election of 1828 was the point toward which
all eyes turned. Thomas, who had not followed his old asso-
ciates into the Jackson ranks, was out of it. His one hope had
been a close contest with many candidates. By 1828 Edwards
believed that Kane would succeed in bringing Reynolds, Bond,
and Kinney to a bargain by which Smith would obtain the
honor. Meanwhile Edwards, though not himself avowedly
a candidate, kept himself informed of the probable disposition
of candidates for the legislature in certain districts. Street
believed Lockwood the only available candidate. Pope was
anxious to run, being privately told by Smith and his followers
that he was their second choice; but Edwards was provoked

18 Hall to Sloo, June 3, 1827, in Illinois State Historical Society, Transac-
tions, 1911, p. 41-42.

RISE OF IACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY 127

because Pope was not supporting Forquer against Duncan for
congress. Accordingly he secretly appealed to McLean, sug-
gesting that he support Forquer, promising in turn to support
him for the senate even as against Pope and warning him that
the combination behind Smith was planning to drive him out
of state politics. McLean, however, apparently felt sure of
his election and made no particular response to Edwards'
overture, except by answering in a friendly tone after Forquer's
defeat. He was elected senator unanimously, but his election
redounded in the end to the benefit of the Kane group. Two
years later Forquer lamented the fact that Kane by playing
on McLean's violent likes and dislikes was able politically to
do with the latter as he would.19

Meanwhile in a conference of his political associates at
Vandalia Forquer late in 1827 had been put forward as a
candidate for congress against Joseph Duncan. Breese and
Coles had hoped for such indorsement from the group and
each was correspondingly disappointed. On the other side,
Kinney, Kane, West, Smith, and Reynolds supported Duncan
as the Jackson candidate against Forquer, who was avowedly
an Adams man. Forquer's friends tried to make the contest
a personal comparison between the candidates, criticizing Dun-
can for various alleged oversights, blunders, and neglects that
had hindered the state's interests. Further they tried to draw
an issue between Benton's graduation scheme, reported to the
house by Duncan, and a measure devised by Forquer for classi-
fying public lands according to value, at one dollar, seventy-
five cents, and fifty cents an acre with cession of all lands below
the latter value to the state and immediate donations to actual
settlers as compared with the eight years, during which they
would have to wait under Benton's bill, after the land was
brought into market. The expense of valuing the land was
the obvious objection to this measure which Forquer's friends
tried to explain away.20

19 Washburne, Edwards Papers, 343, 353, 358, 360, 477.

20 Illinois Intelligencer, July 5, 12, 26, 1828; Illinois Gazette, July 19, 1828;
Forquer to Eddy, December 15, 1827, in Eddy manuscripts.

ii8 THE FRONTIER STATE

As contrasted with Edwards' and Cook's campaign of two
years before, it is interesting to note the democratic and popu-
lar appeal made by Forquer. Against his opponent's claim
to be a simple farmer whose shortcomings should be on that
account condoned he set up the fact that he himself had been
a mechanic. " Forquer, having been a mechanic," wrote
Edwards to Eddy, "operates like a charm. . . . Our tickets
should be ... headed with the figure of a plow & plane,
&c, ' For the peoples friend, who, like them, knows what it is
to get his living by the sweat of his brow.' "21 Forquer's handi-
caps in other directions, however, were too many to be over-
come thus even in the year of Jackson's election. The admin-
istration party was badly split between Edwards and anti-
Edwards men, who had introduced their factional discords
even in the chaos of Adams' election. Forquer lost many
administration votes and by his own account received no real
support from the great semi-independent feudatories of the
Edwards group; and the fact that he was for Adams was used
to turn the Jackson vote against him. In his defeat by a vote
of 10,398 to 6, 1 66 Edwards had suffered still another humili-
ating reverse.

The revolution of factions and Edwards' own restless
political ambitions were next to bring him into alliance with
John Reynolds, a man for whom he had hitherto scarcely con-
cealed his contempt. Since Edwards had rebuffed Reynolds'
senatorial aspirations in 1822-1823, the latter had gone over
to the opposition, had in some way lost their support for
reelection to the supreme bench in 1824-1825, and had in 1826
supported Cook. In 1828, as has been seen, he was a satellite
in the Kane constellation and had exchanged several broad-
sides of abuse with Edwards. During the following session
he had endeavored to strike some bargain in regard to the
senatorship with both Kinney and Smith in return for support
for governor. Disappointed here he had turned to the

21 Edwards to Eddy, Election, August, 1828, in Eddy manuscripts; Illinois
Intelligencer, July 12, 1828.

Edwards group, and in spite of the intention of the Jackson
following to proscribe all Adams men, he had assisted together
with McLean in electing Forquer attorney-general over
McRoberts.22

Immediately after the legislative session he began his cam-
paign. " I must stir or git beat. The people is with me," he
wrote to Grant, February 7, 1829. Artfully emphasizing his
Jackson affiliations he was nominated later in the fall by Jack-
son meetings. His circular set him forth as a child of the
people, pitiful to the poor who suffered from taxation, and a
friend to internal improvements and to a speedy distribution of
the school fund for the benefit of the children then growing up
in ignorance. So large were his promises that one irrev-
erent critic suggested that, after promising internal improve-
ments and lighter taxation to boot, it only remained to engage
that the Mississippi run upstream one half the year and
downstream the other for the special benefit of the river
trade.23

By this time Reynolds had made his formal peace with
Edwards, predicating his overtures on the practical ground
that they had many friends in common and on the ideal one
that it was necessary to unite to procure the good of the people.
He again offered the senatorship bargain in general terms.
Edwards in reply somewhat condescendingly accepted his
overtures, stipulating that he have an authoritative voice in
drawing the plan of the gubernatorial campaign — apparently
planning to bring in his public land doctrines on Reynolds'
shoulders to prepare for his own future political success with
them.

The characters of John Reynolds and William Kinney, the
two men who confronted each other as rivals in the race for
the governorship, are an interesting contrast. John Reynolds,
by virtue of a certain kindliness of spirit and a degree of cun-

22 Illinois Intelligencer, January 9, February 20, June 12, July 10, 24, 1830;
Illinois Gazette, January 17, December 12, 1829.

23 Galena Advertiser, November 9, 30, December 28, 1829, January n,
February 15, 1830.

130 THE FRONTIER STATE

ning, was to shuffle his way through Illinois politics, getting
much of what he wanted. He had been brought up in pioneer
Illinois, had seen some ranger service in the War of 1812,
and apparently in imitation of Edwards had adopted as a
political asset the sobriquet of " The Old Ranger." He had
had a narrow schooling in a primitive Tennessee academy
termed by courtesy a college and had acquired some small
classical learning which in certain circles he took care to dis-
play. Toward the end of his life he tried to carry on a learned
correspondence with Joseph Gillespie, and at the end of a
sophomoric composition on the traitor Count Julian and the
ruin of the Visigothic kingdom, he begs his correspondent to
write him his views on the pyramids of Egypt! The books
which he wrote in the latter part of his life confirm the con-
temporary tradition of his mental slovenliness. His discourse
couched in the shambling phrases of the pliant demagogue,
while not ungrammatical, is strikingly unidiomatic. When he
endeavored to cover his meanness of spirit with dignified or
distant phrases, he is a pantaloon peeping from behind his
mask. In politics, even in his seeking for office, he affected a
transparent reserve. " I am in the hands of my friends," was
his favorite phrase. Aided by his ability to avoid committing
himself he pushed his way by means of factional politics,
never hesitating to abandon old friends whom he no longer
needed till at length in an age of sharply defined parties he
discovered that the older political methods would no longer
serve.

Kinney was the antithesis of Reynolds. He too was a
product of frontier Illinois and had attained prosperity as a
storekeeper. In that day his business did not seem incongruous
with his calling as a Baptist minister. Hot-tempered,
vehement, a good hater, a keen and open seeker for office, he
exhibited in politics few of the conventional ministerial traits.
He was far more straightforward, far more loyal to his
friends than Reynolds. He was almost completely illiterate,
but except in having his political addresses written for him,

RISE OF JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY 131

he made no effort to conceal the fact. His keen mother-wit
was the source of a long series of shrewd characterizations of
men and events, couched in rustic metaphor which often rises
to the height of epigram. Genuinely trained in the world's
culture he would have been the most remarkable man in the
Illinois of his day.

Reynolds' plan of campaign was what might have been
expected. He urged his friends to emphasize the contrast
marked by his service as a ranger while Kinney stayed at home
and speculated, until it was discovered that such comparisons
called out derogatory comments on his own military services.
In the neighborhood of the saline he saw to it that his policy
of low saline rents to encourage large production was empha-
sized. He suggested that Kinney and the Reverend Zadoc
Casey, candidate for lieutenant governor, be decried as minis-
ters of the gospel who meddled with politics; he repeated the
story that Jackson, solicited by Kinney for an office, told the
latter that as a preacher he had an employment higher than
any the president could confer and one which should demand
his full attention. The tale was made to do duty in spite of
Kinney's denial of its truth. In the attacks on Kinney directed
by Edwards, Kinney's record on the state bank received impor-
tant attention ; and toward the end of the campaign Edwards
insisted that it was necessary to inject the subject of the public
lands more forcibly into the contest. Finally, as a last resort
to remedy a " strange defection " among the Methodists,
Edwards played on their old distrust of Kinney as a slavery
advocate.24

The contest witnessed a use of the press by both sides to an
extent previously unknown in state politics. Of the older
papers, the Illinois Intelligencer under James Hall's editorship
was frankly for Kinney on personal grounds, as Hall was an
Adams man of 1828. Hall accordingly drew on himself much

** Reynolds to Eddy, July 13, 1830, Reynolds to Grant, June i, 1830, in
Eddy manuscripts; Illinois Intelligencer, April 3, 10, 17, 1830; Illinois Gazette,
March 6, April 17, 1830; Edwards to Cyrus and B. F. Edwards, July 15, 1830,
in Edwards manuscripts.

132 THE FRONTIER STATE

abuse ranging from charges that he was a bankrupt and a
defaulter to ridicule of his publication, the Western Souvenir**

The Illinois Gazette edited by A. F. Grant supported
Reynolds; R. K. Fleming, who had edited a Jackson paper in
1828 but had been defeated for election as state printer, was
employed under Breese's direction to print a Reynolds paper,
the Western or Kaskaskia Democrat. Hooper Warren who
had edited the Sangamo Spectator in Edwards' interest at
Springfield moved to Galena and on July 20, 1829, began the
publication of the Galena Advertiser. The Miner's Journal
already in existence there finally threw its support to Kinney.
At Springfield, S. C. Meredith in 1829 set up a Kinney paper
directed by McRoberts, which Forquer vainly tried to capture
under the noses of the opposition by inducements to Meredith.
In the winter of the same year Forquer established the Courier
there, ostensibly as a Jackson paper.26

That an Adams man should edit even secretly in Reynolds'
interest a Jackson paper was an illustration of the anarchy,
from the view of national politics, implicit in the factional
alliance between the friends of Reynolds and Edwards. Old
Jackson men in the Reynolds ranks, like S. H. Kimmel,
McLean, and even Reynolds himself, had to urge the Adams
men in the Edwards group either to refrain from attacks on
Jackson or to say openly as little as might be on behalf of
Reynolds. The Jackson contingent in the Reynolds party took
the position that they were good Jackson men, often older and
truer supporters of the Old Hero than were the new converts,
and in no wise worthy of being read out of the party because
they deprecated the proscription of Adams men in state politics
or because they had not, like Kinney, been fortunate enough to
gain the president's ear by misrepresentation.27

25 Illinois Intelligencer, January 9, 1830; Galena Advertiser, July 27, 1829,
January 25, March 29, 1830.

26 Illinois Intelligencer, February 6, 20, April 3, September 29, 1830; Flem-
ing to Kane, September 29, 1828, in Kane manuscripts; Washburne, Edwards
Papers, 467.

2T Kimmel to Grant, October 29, 1829, McLean to Grant, December 18,
1829, in Eddy manuscripts; Washburne, Edwards Papers, 432; Illinois Gazette,

The attitude of the two opposing camps is better under-
stood in view of the fact that during 1829 a hot struggle for
recognition and support from Washington had gone on
between the two factions. Edwards through his brother-in-
law, Duff Green, was in touch with the Calhoun party there;
and apparently he was inclined for a time to speculate on par-
ticipating, four years after 1828, in a contest in which Calhoun
and Van Buren would be the contestants; but Duff Green
warned him that Jackson would almost certainly be a candidate
for reelection. In May Green assured him that Jackson at
length understood the state of parties in Illinois and was
resolved to sustain Edwards and his friends. With this proof
of Jackson's friendship to Edwards it is interesting to compare
a letter of Hooper Warren of July 6, asking Edwards whether
he wished the Advertiser to support Jackson in the new views
of proscription and of opposition to the American system that
had developed since Warren's last conference with Edwards.
In Washington, Kinney with the aid of Kane and Duncan suc-
ceeded during the summer in persuading Jackson to recognize
them in appointments. For the time Edwards' representative,
Duff Green, believed that he had undeceived Jackson; but in
November he had to admit that Duncan's influence with
Samuel D. Ingham had prevailed against Edwards' candidates.
Three months before Ingham had warned S. H. Kimmel that
the administration would recognize no Jackson faction that
had formed a coalition with Adams men. For the time Kinney
appeared to have the indorsement of Washington.28

In the background of the Kinney-Reynolds contest were
Edwards' perennial ambitions for election to the senate.
Green had already pointed out to him that, if he came into
the senate on his doctrine of the right of the state to the public
lands, it might well be the ground of an alliance of the west

February 16, 1828, December 5, 26, 1829, April 3, 1830; Illinois Intelligencer,
May 17, October 4, 1828. To impeach Reynolds' Jacksonism, the point was
raised that Cook, whom he had supported in 1826, had been beaten because of
his Adams vote. Illinois Intelligencer, May 22, 1830.

28Washburne, Edwards Papers, 379, 399, 427, 450; Ingham to Kinney,
August i, 1829, in Eddy manuscripts.

i34 THE FRONTIER STATE

and Calhoun's friends in the south against the east. Toward
the end of the campaign Edwards brought the land issue into
the gubernatorial election. The opposition had already
revived the old story of Edwards' land speculations, and now
they opened up on him in full cry, maintaining that his measure
was designed to advance his own pecuniary interest by frus-
trating the west's hope of obtaining by moderate demands a
reasonable measure of relief. Kinney pronounced against
state ownership on the ground that the legislation would allow
the public domain to fall into the hands of wealthy specu-
lators.29

Forquer was afraid that the intrusion of Edwards' sena-
torial ambitions into the election would result in Reynolds'
defeat. He impressed upon Edwards his belief that if he
appeared as an open contestant the forces of Kane, Duncan,
and Kinney would coalesce and bring about Reynolds' over-
throw and that the opposition was trying to drag Edwards into
the campaign with that end in view. Edwards' friends had
met the charges of a bargain with Reynolds by assertions that
Edwards was not a candidate for the senatorship; but
Edwards, stung by an anonymous attack by Kane, prepared an
address to the people expressing a willingness to enter into a
contest with his antagonist. Forquer advised against its pub-
lication, however, until Edwards should have been openly
attacked by J. M. Duncan, lest its premature appearance would
mean defeat for both Reynolds and Edwards.

But the chief political factor in the campaign proved to
be Reynolds' own personality; his election was a triumph for
his policy of cautious campaigning designed to alienate as few
voters as possible. Further, it meant a passing triumph of
the older factional school of politics over the tendency to wage
local elections on national issues. After his election, the
governor prepared for publication in the newspapers an
unsigned leader announcing that his policy would be one of

29 Washburne, Edwards Papers, 379, 427, 494; Illinois Intelligencer, June
12, 1830; Illinois Gazette, June 12, 1830; Jones to Browne, June 25, 1830, in
Eddy manuscripts.

RISE OF JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY 135

moderation and not proscription. Reynolds, temporizing suc-
cessfully with Jacksonism, had gained the full advantage to be
derived both from anti-Jackson voters and from factional
alliances. The conquest of Illinois politics by the Jackson
party was delayed, but it was inevitable.

VII. STATE POLITICS, 1830-1834

THE course of Illinois politics between the years 1818
and 1836 may stand as a warning to the superficial his-
torian of the danger which attends an attempt to describe and
classify political parties at different periods by the same terms
or under the same categories. Not only is there danger of falling
into the comparatively obvious error of using at too early a stage
the terms whig and democrat but also the danger, less appar-
ent, of attempting to explain state politics exclusively in terms
of national issues and leaders. The cautious student must
recognize the fact that state factions differed from period to
period, not only in alignment and personnel but in degrees of
unity and cohesiveness. Thus till 1826 it is easiest to explain
Illinois politics in terms of two local factions. By 1830 it
becomes difficult to use this classification and after 1830 it is
impossible. For three or four years after that date it is neces-
sary to describe politics in terms of individual cliques and
followings, which at first used Jackson's name and then his
measures as issues with which to embarrass their opponents.
Only by degrees did the outlines of what are truly national
parties emerge from the confusion.

The decay of the factional system in Illinois politics is illus-
trated in a series of letters from George Forquer in 1830
which when analyzed are an illuminating commentary on the
political conditions of the time. To Forquer the successful
management of a campaign meant the bringing to bear in favor
of his candidate all influences and groups in any way obligated
to him and the keeping neutral of as many other groups and
influences as possible. "We must make Wilson and Lock-
wood and their friends fight with us. They shall not be indif-
ferent any longer, and hold themselves like Pope, ready to dine

136

STATE POLITICS, 1830—1834 137

with our enemies whilst our slain carcasses are yet bleeding.
Embroil every man of them in the contest. . . . Could you
write without attacking Kane, would it not be better? If you
can whip his forces by killing off his generals, is it not the
safest way to whip him too ? Fix it so as to force him to attack
as Duncan has done. They intend to have him in the scales.
Give him no excuse to say he has been dragged into it. They
will drag him in."1 In urging Edwards against openly chal-
lenging Kane to a contest for the senate, he wrote "Every
man here when pushed for his real sentiments believes that
Kinney is quite enough for us at one time. All agree that Kane
and him at once against you and Reynolds and we are gone."2

The conditions in the Edwards faction made apparent by
these letters were significant of the change that was taking
place in it. The minor cliques of the older party, surrounding
Samuel D. Lockwood, Thomas Mather, and William Wilson,
secure in the spoils of past contests were slow to risk themselves
in battle at the call of their old leader. T. W. Smith and
Breese soon drifted away into independence. Outside the old
Edwards ranks, Kane, Kinney, the Duncans, and Reynolds had
each his little following, or rather a circle on which he was able
to exert influence. The practical politicians counted on com-
binations of these cliques and influences rather than on the
shadows of the two old factions. The times were ripe for the
intrusion into politics of new rallying cries of wider appeal
than personal popularity and for the creation of new parties.
These came to pass through the introduction of national issues
into state politics and of resulting national party divisions.

The disintegration of both factions is strikingly illustrated
in the senatorial election of 1830. Kane and Kinney probably
maintained something more than a benevolent neutrality
toward each other on the governorship and senatorship. The
death of McLean, however, left both senatorships vacant and
caused Wilson, T. W. Smith, R. M. Young, and others to
enter the field each with his personal following. Reynolds was

1 Washburne, Edwards Papers, 519-520. -Ibid., 516-517.

138 THE FRONTIER STATE

thought to favor a coalition between Wilson and Young. Wil-
liam L. May, a member of the Springfield clique, suggested a
coalition between Kane and Smith. The final result was the
choice of Kane and John M. Robinson, a man from eastern
Illinois of whom little is known at this time except that he was
probably opposed to Kane. But while William C. Greenup
gleefully announced to Kane that the Edwards forces were
disintegrating so fast that both Edwards and Reynolds had
offered to sign a recommendation for Kinney to be governor
of Huron territory, Kane was apparently meditating a realign-
ment D. J. Baker believed that he had made tentative ad-
vances through him to Edwards. In January, 1831, Kane
offered to support Edwards for congress in preference to
Duncan. Duff Green through whom the offer was made be-
lieved that Edwards might in this way attain the leadership of
the Illinois delegation.3

The secret of Kane's vacillation is perhaps to be found in
the situation in national politics. As it reacted on the state it
appeared primarily as a sheaf of personal rivalries. The
Jackson party was split up into cliques. The power of Cal-
houn and of his mouthpiece, Duff Green of the Telegraph —
still the official newspaper of the party — was waning. Cal-
houn was not the only aspirant for the power of Jackson when
the Old Hero should be ready to relinquish it. Those who had
formerly supported Crawford were now wavering between
their allegiance to their former leader or to Van Buren. Kane's
position was still uncertain, and even in 1831 Duff Green be-
lieved that Edwards might influence the whole Illinois delega-
tion for Calhoun.4

3Rountree to Kane, February 15, 1830, Prentice to Kane, January 31,
1830, James M. Duncan to Kane, February 25, 1830, McRoberts to Kane,
March 12, 1830, Greenup to Kane, November 3, 1830, May to Kane, October
21, 1830, D. Turney to Kane, October 15, 1830, in Kane manuscripts; Eddy to
Grant, December 9-10, 1830, Breese to Browne, September 14, 1830, in Eddy
manuscripts; Washburne, Edioards Papers, 557, 569.

* Edwards' information came partly through Duff Green, who believed
Jackson would not run. Washburne, Edwards Papers, 488-489. Green wrote
that he believed Kane, as soon as he thought it safe, would turn on him in Van
Buren's interest. Ibid., 552-554, 570.

STATE POLITICS, 1830—1834 139

Edwards was anxiously scanning the situation in Illinois
which had become for a man of his type extremely difficult.
His position was hard to maintain. For his strength he still
had to rely in a measure on Adams and Clay men. Yet to
oppose the cause of Jackson openly in a state wide canvass was
to insure defeat. Edwards, still loyal to Calhoun, privately
assured Jackson of his good will and desire for his reelection,
protesting bitterly, however, against the deciding voice that
Kane and Kinney had in Illinois appointments. He assured
Jackson that they were old Crawford men, that they were dis-
tributing offices among totally unworthy men of the same clique
and were proscribing the original Jackson men. He even tried
to inspire Jackson with the fear that they were plotting the
union of diverse elements on Crawford against him, should he
stand for a reelection.

In 1831 at the last state wide election for a member of
congress, Edwards had refused to run; and Duncan had won
easily over Field and Breese, the one an avowed Jackson man
and an opponent of Edwards' land policy, the other a sup-
porter of that policy, constructively a Jacksonian if his land-
bill past were forgotten, but otherwise with a whiggish
tendency.

Edwards was near the end of his career. In 1832 with
the state divided into congressional districts he entered the
race in the first district at a late hour. Charles Dunn and
Breese, the latter not without a trace of bad faith, were already
in it along with Charles Slade. Edwards' belated entrance
prevented him from stumping the district. Mather deserted
his old leader, and the Adams and Clay men abandoned him
because he was supporting Jackson. With a divided vote,
Edwards was defeated by Slade.

As a matter of fact the opposition to Van Buren, disap-
pointed in Calhoun, took up Richard M. Johnson for the vice
presidency. As a western man, he was a candidate who could
be favorably contrasted with Van Buren; and his candidacy
could be made to take the form of a popular protest against

140 THE FRONTIER STATE

the political management for which Van Buren had become
notorious, especially as it was exemplified in the Baltimore
convention, which it was claimed was a device to force on the
country the candidate of a clique. The issue was sharply joined
at a Jackson meeting held at Vandalia, January 2 and 3, 1832.
McRoberts and Ewing after a vain attempt to adjourn the
meeting sine die withdrew with their followers; and Field,
John Dement, and Duncan remained to direct the Johnson
men. An address was drawn up indorsing Johnson and pro-
testing against appointing uninstructed delegates to Baltimore.
Reynolds and Edwards lent the movement their support. On
March 26, in spite of the protests of the Illinois Advocate tKat
a Johnson indorsement would result in throwing the vote
of the state to Clay, a Johnson convention met at Vandalia
to appoint electors pledged to Jackson and Johnson. The
personnel of the convention is most interesting. Some of
the men in it, as James W. Stephenson, J. S. Hacker, and
Dr. Early, emerged sound democrats. Others ended as
whigs.5

The movement as might have been expected was unsuccess-
ful. The nomination of Van Buren at Baltimore compelled a
reasonable party regularity. Of the Johnson electors, three
refused to serve, but before the election an attempt to reinstate
the ticket was made. From the first the victory of Jackson
and Van Buren in Illinois was assured. Even the whigs, while
believing Illinois ready for a movement against Jackson and
Van Buren, felt that Clay's land bill was too heavy a load for
him to carry in Illinois and professed it wiser to support Wirt
or McLean, whom it was thought Edwards would support.

With 1832 a new element of complexity appeared in the
Illinois political situation which finally in connection with the
older factional alignments and the personal issues of 1829-
1832 caused the redistribution of partisans into whigs and
democrats. Until that year, as nearly as one can judge, if a

5 Illinois Intelligencer, January 21, 1832. John M. Robinson was for
Johnson, Robinson to Grant, February 9, 1832, in Eddy manuscripts; Wash-
burne, Edwards Papers, 579-580.

STATE POLITICS, 1830—1834 141

candidate was personally loyal to Jackson the voters were
inclined to permit him considerable freedom of belief on what
they considered the minor issues. Tests of party faith other
than adherence to Jackson had not yet been devised. Thus in
1831 Duncan could avow his freedom from partisanship on
political measures and still be supported by Jackson men.6
But with 1832 and the years following, the demand that not
only Jackson's name but also Jackson's measures be adopted
caused a realignment among the factions.

Till 1832 national issues in general did not take a strong
hold on the people or influence seriously the alignment of fac-
tions. With the Jacksonian policy of the removal of the
Indians from the neighborhood of the settlements the west
was heartily in sympathy, but no one was inclined to court
defeat by opposing it. Edwards' public land policy was, of
course, a prominent issue in 1830, 1831, and 1832; but it was
hardly so expressed as to come into collision with any nation-
ally proposed* measure. When Clay prepared his distribution
measure in 1832 even his friends were inclined to regard it as
indefensible in Illinois.

On the tariff and internal improvements issues, the Clay-
Adams men, if Breese is any criterion, were inclined to push
the fighting. Breese came out boldly for protection and
internal improvements and endeavored to force that issue
against his rival, Coles. The year before he had suggested to
Judge Thomas C. Browne that the Gazette publish an attack
on Kane for his support of the president's internal improve-
ments veto and possibly as a result had drawn from Kane a
letter hedging on both the tariff and internal improvements,
but indicating his opposition to a recharter. The newspapers
occasionally raised the tariff question. These issues, however,
till 1832 seemed not only to create little division among the
factions but also to have aroused little interest among the
people.7

9 Illinois Intelligencer, July 16, 1831.

''Ibid., December 4, 1830, May 21, September 16, 1831; Breese to Grant,
June 22, 1831, and Breese to Browne, September 14, 1830, in/ Eddy manuscripts.

i42 THE FRONTIER STATE

The election of 1832 saw a sharply drawn party division at
least so far as the Clay element was concerned. Specifically
they assailed Jackson for his policy against internal improve-
ments and a protective tariff and for the danger to the country
and especially to the currency of Illinois involved in his refusal
to recharter the Bank of the United States. Indeed they ap-
parently thought their best chance was to divide the Jackson
men by supporting candidates favorable to their doctrinal
position. The Jackson forces were none too well united on
points of doctrine. The republican Jackson meeting at Van-
dalia, December 14, 1831, took no definite stand on the tariff
question but laid the emphasis on Jackson's opposition to the
"aristocratic doctrine" of vested interest in office, and his
distinctly western attitude as friend to the settler and advocate
of Indian removals.8

The issues steadily increased in national importance in
the years following 1832. On the question of nullification
Illinois had no doubts whatever. The senate spread Jackson's
proclamation against the nullifiers on its journals and ordered
3,000 copies of it printed. Both houses joined in a resolution
against the nullifiers. The removal of the bank deposits
seemed at the outset to arouse no excitement in Illinois. The
Sangamo Journal indeed avowed its belief that the people of
southern Illinois gave themselves little concern about it and
would not approve the call of a special session to charter a
bank. It avowed also that the destruction of the bank had
been the issue in 1832 and that Jackson was acting under a
mandate from the people, however ill-considered a one it might
be. Not till the spring of 1834 did the calling of meetings to
approve or to protest begin.9

8 Sangamo Journal, December 8, 15, 22, 1831, January 5, August 2, Sep-
tember 22, October 27, 1832; for meeting at Vandaha see Illinois Intelligencer,
February 18, 1832, and see also December 24, 1831. The Vandalia Whig and
Illinois Intelligencer in its prospectus advocated Jackson's reelection but pro-
nounced for the whig measures. Illinois Intelligencer, March 3, 1832.

•The only votes against the first resolution were cast by Davidson, Forquer,
Mather, and Snyder; against the second were William B. Archer and David-
son. Senate Journal, 1832-1833, i session, 70; Sangamo Journal, October 26,
November 2, 9, 1833. See protest of Gallatin in Vandalia Whig, April 3, 1834,

STATE POLITICS, 1830—1834 143

The two new elements described above, the personal rival-
ries between Jackson's would-be successors and the growing
importance of national issues based on his measures, completed
the breakdown of the older system of politics predicated on
personal loyalty to Jackson and the older factional system.
The flux was not fully completed for some years; not till 1836
can the rearrangements be regarded as the secessions of indi-
viduals and groups from one party to the other rather than as
changes in the alignment of factions.

The best known change, that of Joseph Duncan, came with
a certain dramatic quality and may be stated in detail both as
typifying the forces at work and as being the pivot on which
numerous other changes occurred. Duncan was certainly con-
sulted by Kinney and Kane about the appointments by which
they raised to power in Illinois their friends of the Crawford
following. He had relied for his influence on his close accord
with Secretary Samuel D. Ingham, a Calhoun man who fell in
the cabinet reorganization. In 1830 the Kane followers sus-
pected Duncan's loyalty to their chief in the senatorial contest,
and Kane early in 1831 proposed to throw Duncan over and
support Edwards. It is doubtful if the breach between them
was ever closed. Personal ties doubtless were drawing Duncan
away from his earlier alliance. Further he had maintained a
policy of independence toward Jackson's measures for which
in 1831 he had been criticized at home. He voted to pass the
Mayville turnpike bill over Jackson's veto. Jackson's veto of
the Wabash internal improvement measure doubtless irritated
him more than his temperately worded letters indicate. Re-
peatedly in the session of 1833-1834 he voted against
administration measures.10

Very possibly by 1 833 he realized that he could no longer
hope for national patronage and accordingly prepared to
relinquish his seat in congress to seek a position of importance
in state politics. Everything impelled him toward a change

and approval, of Hillsboro and Danville in ibid., February 27, June 12, April
13, 1834.

10 Congressional Debates, 1833-1834, p. 2182, 2207, 2375, 2627, 2739.

144 THE FRONTIER STATE

of camps, and by 1833 the opposition to the administration in
Illinois was prepared to accord him enthusiastic support. His
candidacy for governor was announced early in 1833 by the
Vandalia Whig, and the whig papers began a policy of keeping
him before the public. " By keeping him constantly before
them as an old public servant, against whom nothing is as yet
alleged, and confirming by an occasional commendation in the
newspapers the favorable standing he now occupies, they will
be prepared for a formal annunciation when his friends think
the proper time has come for it." u The Jackson-Van Buren
party promptly prepared for war. They sent an agent into the
state, if Duncan is to be believed, under pretext of examining
land offices to stir up opposition to him. The Advocate at
once declared war on him, and indicated the council of revision
as the source of his candidacy. The council was at that time
made up of Reynolds, Wilson, Lockwood, and T. W. Smith,
most of them till recently Edwards' partisans.12 The Jackson-
Van Buren party began to canvass the list of available men to
oppose him. First Berry was suggested, then Ewing; finally,
November 27, the name of R. K. McLaughlin, Duncan's uncle,
was proposed by a Coles county convention. A month later a
Belleville meeting brought out Kinney — and on him the sup-
port of the Jacksonian or Van Buren party finally centered.13
Duncan by no means received the undivided support of the
whig papers. For some reason the Sangamo Journal opposed
his candidacy with asperity. It was accused by the Shawnee-
town Journal of having been bought up by Slade and Kane
with the federal printing to support Van Buren and oppose
Duncan.14 The Sangamo Journal had previously denounced

11 Grant to Dement, June 26, 1833, in Eddy manuscripts; Sangamo Journal,
February 9, 1833 ; Illinois Advocate, February 2, 1833.

12 In February it was supposed that A. P. Field was grooming Richard M.
Young for the race. Grant to Reynolds, February 6, 1834 and Reynolds to
Grant, February 10, 1834, in Eddy manuscripts.

13 The Sangamo Journal, March 30, 1833, denied Swing's candidacy, and in
the January 25, 1834 issue, expressed the opinion that Duncan would not run
against his uncle. See also Illinois Advocate, December 7, 1833.

14 Shavmeeto<um Journal clipping in Vandalia Whig, April 3, 1834. The
Alton American was inclined to believe the charge, see issue of April 14, 1834.

STATE POLITICS, 1830—1834 145

the Banner and the Patriot of Jacksonville for having per-
mitted themselves to be influenced to suppress charges against
Duncan's financial integrity. It charged the existence of a
Jacksonville regency headed by Duncan which sheltered itself
under Jackson's name though it was opposed to his principles.
It countered the charges of the Vandalia Whig by the insinua-
tion that Duncan had bought it to his support with a promise
of the state printing, and by slurs on its opposition to Jackson.
Certainly its opposition could not have taken a form more em-
barrassing to Duncan.16

In the spring of 1834 the Sangamo Journal gave enthusi-
astic support to the candidacy of General James D. Henry,
the Illinois hero of the Black Hawk War. It is difficult to
estimate exactly what was behind this movement. Henry was
extolled as a man independent of party and as a mechanic; he
was nominated by a series of county meetings, but the hopes
of his supporters were destroyed by his sickness and death in
the spring of 1834. Thereafter the Sangamo Journal inclined
to the support of R. K. McLaughlin.

Of the four candidates McLaughlin offered his record as
state treasurer and his former unflinching opposition to the
state bank. James Adams' position in the campaign is not so
clear; he was perennially a candidate and always an unsuccess-
ful one. In spite of his later democratic affiliations the Chicago
Democrat affected to believe that General Adams would be
elected by the votes of the old Adams men, the stalwart Jackson
votes being split between Kinney and McLaughlin and the
"milk and cider" votes going to Duncan. Kinney based his
hopes of office on his personality, his friends alleging that his
errors were of the head and not of the heart. He was senti-
mentally pictured as a farmer and as a democrat in personal
habits. The attacks he found it necessary to meet were mostly
on his opposition to the canal and on his connection with the
state bank. To the first charge the answer of his followers
was a straight denial ; to the second the claim that the Edwards-

18 Sangamo Journal, February i, April 19, 1834.

146 THE FRONTIER STATE

ville branch of the state bank with which he had been connected
had really given relief to the public and had lost the state
nothing. For the rest he relied on his undoubted allegiance
to Jacksonism.16

Duncan of course had to stand or fall by his congressional
record, so far as the voters understood it. The Chicago Demo-
crat and the Illinois Advocate, assailing him as a deserter from
Jacksonism, singled out his proposal for a bank and his other
anti-administration votes. The Alton Spectator answered that
he had stood firmly for his principles from the beginning on
both internal improvements and the bank — it was Jackson
who had departed from his. At a later time Duncan claimed
that he had never, since 1830, used Jackson's name to carry
his elections, being convinced that Jackson, his mind weakened
by grief at the death of his wife, had been persuaded to drop
his own principles and adopt Van Buren's.17 Considering the
political conditions in 1834 it is hard to see how any but the
ignorant could have failed to see that Duncan was no longer
in harmony with the federal administration. Possibly the lack
of a specific renunciation of Jacksonism caused it to be taken for
granted that he still made formal profession of faith. In 1834
that was still considered sufficient.

After the election, however, in spite of a few attempts by
Jackson papers to regard his election as a Jackson success,
there could be no doubt of his position. The Sangamo Journal
judging him on his congressional record pronounced him an
opposition man; an anti-administration toast proposed by him
at a dinner after his election should have left no doubt of it;
and the Jackson papers generally took the fact of his apostasy
for granted.18

18 Alton American, April 14, June 2, 1834; Chicago Democrat, July 23,
1834; Illinois Advocate, April 19, 1834; Alton Spectator, February n, April
17, 1834. The Alton Spectator pointed out that both Kinney and Van Buren
were hostile to the canal, June 5, 1834.

17 Chicago Democrat, March 4, May 21, July 2, 23, 1834; Alton Spectator,
July i, 1834; letter in the Sangamo Journal, February 4, 1837.

18 Chicago Democrat, August 27, September 17, November 12, 1834; San-
gamo Journal, August 30, October 4, 18, December 6, 1834.

STATE POLITICS, 1830—1834 147

The story is told on doubtful authority that as Duncan was
proceeding to Illinois to take his place as governor, he met
Reynolds, then newly elected to congress ; and after comment-
ing on their exchange of offices, he was told by Reynolds that
they were likewise changing political alignment, Duncan going
over to the whig opposition while he himself had elected to
stay by Old Hickory. Whether authentic or not^the story
shows an acute grasp of the political situation of the day.
Duncan was passing through the zone of doubt in the direc-
tion of the opposition while Reynolds was traversing it in
the opposite direction to a place in the Jackson-Van Buren
ranks.

In 1834 in neither the congressional race of the third dis-
trict between William L. May and Benjamin Mills nor in that
of the second between Casey and William H. Davidson was the
anti-Jackson line sharply drawn. Mills was in favor of R. M.
Johnson for the succession as against May who advocated
leaving the choice to a convention; but both made profession
of faith in Jackson and both were supposed to be at the same
time in favor of a bank. Similarly in the second district,
Davidson while opposing the removal of the deposits from the
bank and favoring its recharter was occasionally at least repre-
sented as pro-Jackson.19 But in the first district Reynolds,
while running as avowedly a Jackson man, courted the aid of
the same knot of opposition men who were supporting Duncan
for the governorship.

Reynolds claimed the support of A. F. Grant and Eddy at
Shawneetown. A newspaper edited by R. W. Clarke was
established there to support both Reynolds and Duncan.
Friends of both men supported the enterprise by their subscrip-
tions. The race began as a three-cornered one between Slade,
Reynolds, and Adam W. Snyder, a partisan of Kinney. Slade
had voted both for a recharter and against a restoration of
deposits, votes which he had been able to reconcile to his own

19 Chicago Democrat, May 7, 1834; Alton American, January 30, 1834;
S any a mo Journal, February 8, June 7, 1834.

i48 THE FRONTIER STATE

satisfaction by a process of casuistry but for which he was held
up to derision as a wobbler. In the election, however, he was
set down by his opponents as opposed to a bank. The death
of Slade left the decision between Reynolds and Snyder. Both
men, of course, were avowed Jackson men, but Snyder was in
favor of a United States Bank. His candidacy was under
especial patronage of the St. Clair Gazette. Reynolds pro-
posed a bizarre scheme for a new bank and also a temporary
recharter of the old bank.20 His expressed ideal was a modi-
fied United States Bank, " so that all parties will be satisfied."21
Reynolds was elected. As the death of Slade and the resigna-
tion of Duncan made necessary special elections to fill out their
unexpired terms, Reynolds and May each in his district offered
themselves for these also on the ground that the additional
terms would give them needed experience and acquaintance.
Reynolds delayed his announcement until he was sure that men
to whom he was under obligation did not offer themselves and
then pulled the wires necessary to make audible the voice of
public opinion soliciting him to become a candidate. Pierre
Menard became a candidate for the unexpired term in
Reynolds' district, and Pope appealed for support for him on
the ground of his benevolence and also because in spite of his
national republican affiliations his name had never been in-
volved in the Jackson and anti-Jackson war.22 Reynolds pro-
tested that the only result of Menard's entrance would be that
a Kinney partisan would beat him. He accused Pope of
already having gone over to Kinney. This was true in so far,
at least, that Pope had declined supporting him and had taken
up Snyder on the ground that Reynolds was " playing for all
the pockets," an art which indeed was the alpha and omega of
the politics of "John of Cahokia." Again he asked the help
of his Shawneetown friends, but not long after his election

20 Alton Spectator, April 24, May 25, July 15, 1834; Shawneetoiun Journal
clipping in Vandalia Whig, April 24, 1834; Eddy to Clarke, April 26, 1834, in
Eddy manuscripts.

21 Reynolds to Eddy, February 17, 1834, in Eddy manuscripts.

22 " It is hoped that his name is a Talisman to neutralise the senseless noise
about Jackson-ism." Pope to Eddy, August 7, 1834, 'n Eddy manuscripts.

STATE POLITICS, 1830—1834 149

perceived the truth of Pope's warning that Reynolds was now
" Ultra-Jackson and Anti-Bank."23

The process of political disintegration in Illinois had
reached its height. Personal jealousies and factional rivalries,
personal adherences to Jackson, Van Buren, Johnson, and dif-
ferences over administration measures had thrown politics
into confusion. The changes that had in four years taken
place in the " Springfield clique " on account of the dominant
Jacksonian powers in the state can be traced and are doubtless
significant of what was passing elsewhere. In 1830 Forquer
found that there was opposed to the Edwards faction in Sanga-
mon county a knot of men probably headed by May, including
A. G. Herndon, E. D. Taylor, and James Adams. About 1 832,
probably disgusted with the failure of the Edwards faction to
follow their leader, Forquer accepted the support of the clique
for the state senate. Two years later he succeeded May as
register at Springfield when the latter resigned that office, to
which he had been appointed through Kane's influence, to enter
congress. It was later charged by the whigs that this was all a
deliberate bargain, by which Forquer had sold himself; and
it was also said that Peter Cartwright had made a bargain
to support Duncan, the report alleging that John Calhoun,
said to be another old opposition man, had bought him up by
the promise of a surveyor generalship. In 1837-1838 the
clique, headed as it was supposed by Forquer, read May but
of the party altogether. Herndon, in 1835, disappointed of
an office, was said to have joined the opposition.24 Out of
such personal rivalries and alliances cemented by national issues
and national party allegiances was to arise a new political
organization in Illinois based on broad and fundamental
differences.

23 Pope to Eddy, September 23, 1834, in Eddy manuscripts.

24 Sangamo Journal, May 2, 1835, February 6, 13, June 18, July 16, 30,
1836; Chicago Democrat, August 12, 1835. Apparently a letter from May to
Duncan existed as proof of the charge that Cartwright had made a bargain
to support Duncan.

VIII. THE LAST OF THE INDIANS

ILLINOIS in 1830 presented that sharp dualism of devel-
opment common to frontier societies. A small group of
talented lawyers and jurists questing fortune in the west had
brought with them the intellectual outlook of eastern cities;
the towns of Illinois buzzed with political life. Affairs of
state and nation, however, came only as whispers from afar
off to the pioneer who, pushing out farther and farther from
the tiny urban centers of the state, must single-handed win a
home from forest wilds. He had, by this time, satisfied his
most primitive wants. The replacement of the coonskin cap
and leather breeches by store hat and homespun suit indicated
the degree to which all material comforts had advanced ; cabins
were more substantial, clearings a little more extensive, settle-
ments larger and closer together. Opportunities for mental
and social development were still excessively meager. This
poverty the pioneer felt keenly, if inarticulately; but at best he
could enrich his life very slightly. A political campaign —
with its sharp personal interests, its clashes, its victories, its
eager seeking and jovial solicitation of the voter — formed a
spot of vivid color in the drab months of the year. For the
rest, the annual wolf-hunt, the house raising, the revival meet-
ing must afford stimulus and diversion. Any news, any excite-
ment, was welcomed. A wedding was an event seized upon
and celebrated by the countryside for twenty-four hours; the
report of a murder, the trial of a criminal was sufficient to
draw an avid audience fifty miles.1 Events like these broke, for
a little, the isolation of the frontiersman's clearing — the clear-
ing that was but a hole he himself had painfully cut out of the
malaria infested forest.

1 Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, 1:39-41.

150

THE LAST OF THE INDIANS 151

It was the forest, moreover, that concealed somewhere in
its depths Indians — the great menace of the pioneer. To be
sure, this menace was connected only remotely in his mind with
the particular redskin who came begging at his door, whom
he chased out of his cornfields or pursued after a raid on his
hog pen; the latter was a creature to be dealt with good-
naturedly, summarily, or sternly. One could usually drive a
good bargain with him where peltries and a little whisky were
concerned. When " Injuns " was whispered, however, its
black magic called up not the image of these improvident, good-
natured creatures, but that of a mounted gang of demons, who
with wild whoops rode down upon a cabin "to imbrue their
hands in the blood of innocent women and children."

This fear had not for many years been fed by direct expe-
rience. As settlements had thickened in the land, contact with
the whites had broken down the independence of savagery
and had robbed the Indian of the virility that had once made
him a foe to be dreaded. Except on the outer fringes of set-
tlement, knowledge of the Indian was identical with the legacy
of horror tales treasured in each family. Combined with this
fear, however, was hate, engendered by the War of 1812, that
many settlers had brought with them when they emigrated to
Illinois at the close of that conflict. Young, enterprising men,
who in the campaigns of the preceding years had felt the lure
of the untouched solitudes along the Mississippi, came pouring
west to find a home on land that they felt should now be torn
from the hostile Indian. It was this great increase in race
hostility that brought about a new interpretation of Indian
removal.2 In response to it, Illinois extinguished Indian land

2 Abel, " History of Indian Consolidation West of the Mississippi," in
Annual Report of the American Historical Association, 1906, 1:233-412. Indian
removal, when reduced to its simplest terms, was the exchange of tribal hold-
ings within a state for unoccupied federal land in the far west. Originated by
President Jefferson, the policy had had a vacillating and uncertain career under
succeeding administrations. Indian removal was at times a method of lenient
dealing, at times a means of harsh treatment of the aborigines. Gradually it
became identified with democratic measures, as involving the doctrine of states
rights, with an economic appeal to south and west alike. Jackson, with a
westerner's hate of the Indian, had influenced Indian affairs since Monroe's
administration; his own inauguration left no doubt of the future meaning of

152

titles with astonishing rapidity; small nomadic tribes made it
easy for a man with the zeal of Ninian Edwards to render
vast tracts clear of Indians far in advance of white popula-
tion. To the pioneer, as well as to the politician and land
speculator, Jackson's federal policy of removal of the Indians
to some trans-Mississippi territory was a confirmation of their
own conviction that the land belonged to the white man; they
welcomed the means it supplied of ridding the country of the
redskin.

Except for the episode of the so-called Winnebago War
in 1827 which lasted only long enough to send panic through
the frontier, most Illinoisans of the thirties had had no oppor-
tunity to express the peculiar complex of emotions that made
up their feeling toward the aborigines. The Indians were
far to the north and west of the settlements; for, although
the population had by 1830 grown to over 157,000, it was
confined to the south and central portions of the state along the
wooded rivers and streams. The prairie country was still
almost superstitiously avoided, and it was only the discovery
of lead at Galena which caused a sudden spurt of immigration
to cross the transverse barrier of the Illinois river. The
whole of the north country was a trackless wilderness except
to the fur trader and Indian; even to them much of it was
unknown.

Practically all this land north of the Illinois had been
ceded by the Sauk and Foxes to the federal government in
1804. In November of this year five of their chiefs and
headmen had gone to St. Louis to endeavor to secure the
release of a tribesman held there for the murder of a white
man. It is possible that in the council preceding their depar-
ture, some instruction was given as to the sale of land. The
Sauk and Foxes, small tribes, held much more land than they
used, and they were envious of those tribes near them who
were enjoying annuities from the government.3 It is, however,

Indian removal. With the passage of the " force bill" in May, 1830, he
committed the government to forcible removal of the Indian to the west.
3 Drake, Life and Adventures of Black Haivk, 60.

THE LAST OF THE INDIANS 153

a matter of conjecture only, as to whether the tribe had
instructed a sale of some sort; but it is certain that the United
States government has usually misapprehended the nature of
the power exercised by the Indian headmen. They repre-
sented in no sense a centralized or autocratic power; what
obedience they secured in civil matters was obtained through
tact and persuasion, and the proved wisdom of their advice.
Individual liberty was paramount in the Indians' scheme of
things ; coercion was unknown among them. A majority never
bound the minority, however small, to regard its decision. In
an evolved Indian government even Jeffersonian democracy
would have been felt an irksome restraint. When this funda-
mental attitude of the Indian is borne in mind the difficulty of
making and keeping any treaty is evident. In this instance the
treaty was negotiated by William Henry Harrison who became
popular with westerners for his success in securing land ces-
sions; it was his custom to deal with factions and isolated bands
by methods somewhat unscrupulous, though the practice
was an invariable trouble breeder.4 In this transaction he
treated with five chiefs, away from home, on a mission which
was, at least primarily, for a different purpose; while these
headmen were befuddled by fire water, he concluded a treaty
which, in return for an annuity of one thousand dollars, stripped
the Sauk and Foxes of fifty million acres of land. This land,
though overlapping into Wisconsin and Missouri, formed in
Illinois the great triangular wedge between the Mississippi and
Illinois river systems. By the terms of the treaty, however,
the Sauk and Foxes were allowed to live and hunt upon the
land so long as it was the property of the federal government.5

4Abel, " History of Indian Consolidation West of the Mississippi," in
Annual Report of the American Historical Association, 1906, 1:267. Jefferson
strongly disapproved of such methods and in May, 1805, he ordered Harrison
to make explanations to certain threatening chiefs and to "counteract the
effect of his own questionable methods."

5 Thomas Forsythe, agent for the Sauk and Foxes, and for this reason
knowing them better than any other white man, in 1832 wrote of this episode:
"The Sauk and Fox nations were never consulted, nor had any hand in this
treaty, nor knew anything about it. It was made and signed by two Sauk
chiefs, one Fox chief and one warrior.

154 THE FRONTIER STATE

In 1816, 1822, and 1825 the Sauk of the Rock river coun-
try, without making any specific reference to its substance,
unconditionally assented to and confirmed the treaty of i8o4.6
Black Hawk, a war chief who fought with the British in the
War of 1812, acknowledged the land cession when he finally
signed a treaty of peace in 1816, athough he later claimed
that he was ignorant of its conditions.7

The great village which had for a hundred years been the
principal seat and burying ground of the Sauk was on the
north side of Rock river near Rock Island, with that of the
Foxes three miles away on the Mississippi.8 Here they lived
during the spring and summer months, while the women culti-
vated the great fertile cornfields, lying parallel with the
Mississippi. The crops from these fields never failed; year
after year they supplied the Indians bountifully with corn,
beans, pumpkins, and squashes. The island across from them
was a garden filled with strawberries, blackberries, plums,
apples, and nuts; and the river abounded in fine fish. The
uncultivated land about the villages afforded rich pasturage

_"When the annuities were delivered to the Sauk and Fox nations of
Indians, according to the treaty above referred to (amounting to $1000 per
annum), the Indians always thought they were presents (as the annuity for the
first twenty years was always paid in goods . . . ), until I, as their Agent,
convinced them of the contrary, in the summer of 1818. When the Indians
heard that the goods delivered to them were annuities for land sold by them
to the United States, they were astonished, and refused to accept of the goods,
denying that they ever sold the lands as stated by me, their Agent. The Black
Hawk in particular, who was present at the time, made a great noise about this
land, and would never receive any part of the annuities from that time forward.
He always denied the authority of Quash-quame and others to sell any part of
their lands, and told the Indians not to receive any presents or annuities from
any American — otherwise their lands would be claimed at some future day."
Printed as appendix to Mrs. J. H. Kinzie, Wau-Eun, 383; RoyceM Indian Land
Cessions in the United States, 666 and map 16.

0 Ibid., 680.

7 He says of the transaction, "Here, for the first time, I touched the goose
quill to the treaty — not knowing, however, that by that act, I consented to give
away my village. Had that been explained to me, I should have opposed it,
and never would have signed their treaty.

"What do we know of the manner of the laws and customs of the white
people? They might buy our bodies for dissection, and we would touch the
goose quill to confirm it, without knowing what we are doing. This was the
case with myself and people in touching the goose quill the first time." Black
Hawk, Autobiography, 69.

8 The Sauk had about eight hundred acres under cultivation.

THE LAST OF THE INDIANS 155

for their horses, while hunting grounds and lead mines lay
not far away.

Miners on their way to Galena observed this chosen spot,
and about 1823, although the far fringe of settlements was
still fifty miles away, squatters appeared to give the Indians
their first experience of the white man as a neighbor. Appar-
ently at the mercy of the red men, these daring forerunners
were quite untouched by fear; in violation of both federal law
and the provisions of the treaty of 1804, they at once began
to take possession of the Indian cornfields. Of all the vast
domain ceded to the whites, this particular region was the
only part actually used by the Indians; but the newcomers,
feeling that the land by right belonged to the white man, and
relying on the support of both public and official opinion,
worried themselves not at all over fine discriminations. They
wanted the fields. They took them.

The Sauk and Foxes, though a spirited people, had killed
no white man since the treaty of 1816; their meekness under
the treatment of these whites is surprising. Each year the
squatters encroached further upon their fields, continually
fencing in greater portions. Indian women and children were
severely whipped for venturing beyond the limits thus set, and
boys and men were summarily chastised when the temper of
the newcomers was aroused.9

The proximity of the whites quickly had its effect on the
social organization of the red men. " Many of our people,
instead of going to their old hunting grounds, where game was
plenty, would go near to the settlements to hunt — and, instead
of saving their skins to pay the trader for goods furnished
them in the fall, would sell them to the settlers for whiskey!
and return in the spring with their families, almost naked.
. . ."10 Each year only increased this unhappy condition. The
most important Sauk chief, Keokuk, an able, eloquent, and

9 Black Hawk was himself severely beaten on the suspicion of hog-stealing,
an affront to his dignity that he never forgave. Black Hawk, Autobiography,
83-84.

10 Ibid., Si.

156 THE FRONTIER STATE

sagacious man, felt the futility of protesting at the advance
of the whites. He decided, upon the advice of the Indian
agent at Rock Island, that his people had better remove to
their lands across the Mississippi, and all his influence was
used to bring about the migration.

Black Hawk, a fighter from his youth, now an old war
chief over sixty years of age, was by nature an active protes-
tant. Having had but slight contact with the Americans, and
that, unfortunately, of an untoward nature, he was quite
frankly no friend of theirs. The British, however, had long
ago secured and thereafter retained his friendship. He and
his band made frequent trips to Canadian Maiden, an unfailing
source of presents and flattering words. This old man, his
resentment easily roused and slowly quieted, disdained the
counsel of Keokuk. His reaction in this matter may have been
influenced by the fact that his own power waxed only in days
of war; he was clearly jealous of Keokuk and the latter's sway
over the people, and Keokuk's talk of removing roused the old
warrior's contempt for his supineness. The faction opposing
Keokuk's plan found a ready champion in Black Hawk, who
at one stroke thus divided Keokuk's power and increased his
own, and in addition opened a possibility of the Indians' stand-
ing their ground against the arrogant white neighbors to the
end of retaining the beloved homeland. The struggle between
the chiefs lasted two seasons ; when Keokuk's eloquence finally
persuaded the majority of the tribe to cross the river, Black
Hawk and his band remained staunchly at their village.

In spite of his warlike nature, up to this time the old chief
had in advice and action shown a paradoxical meekness and
forbearance in dealing with the white intruders. For a long
time he was concerned only with being allowed peaceably to
remain in his village. These settlers, however, were bringing
a biting realization of the full meaning of federal claims, and
with the sharp goad of mistreatment he had become convinced
that the treaty to which the whites so constantly referred was
a fraud. Even to Black Hawk's simple standard, the thousand

THE LAST OF THE INDIANS 157

dollars annuity was too greatly disproportionate to the land
involved. The only living signer of the treaty had always
vigorously denied that he had ever so much as considered
the sale of land north of Rock, river, much less consented to
it in a signed treaty. When Black Hawk told his story to the
British agent at Maiden, and later to General Cass, they
affirmed that if it was true the whites could not remove him;
and Black Hawk determined now to employ different tactics
with the intruders. Almost simultaneously with his decision,
however, the squatters, who for seven years had with increas-
ing self-assurance been encroaching more and more daringly
upon his homeland, took out preemption rights over a few
quarter sections of land which included most of the village, the
graves, and the cornlands that time out of mind had belonged
to the Sauks; the force of the provision in the treaty of 1804
that guaranteed the right of the Indians to live and hunt upon
the land as long as it remained the property of the United
States was thus cleverly evaded.

The squatters, now squatters no longer, but preemptioners
with legal property rights over part of the disputed land, at
once ordered the Indians to remove — not from the land actu-
ally sold, but to the west side of the Mississippi. To their
astonishment, fortified by advice of friends that the land had
never been legally ceded, Black Hawk turned upon them and
indignantly ordered them to leave the country. Strangers
appropriating their fields, strangers plowing up the graves of
their fathers, strangers in the homeland regarding the Sauk
as intruders — these burning realities were dire fulfillment of
the fear of white rapacity that had come upon him when first
he learned that the yearly presents his people had been receiv-
ing were in reality payment for tribal lands. To Black Hawk
it ^appeared incomprehensible that the Great Father should
wink at the forcible seizure of this one small point of land
when the whites had gained from his people such quantities
beside. If such was the case, however, he proposed a stand
against the aliens.

158 THE FRONTIER STATE

At this unexpected change of front the settlers fled in panic.
In April, eight of them sent a memorial to Governor Reynolds
setting forth their grievous wrongs at the hands of the Indians.
It appeared that the Sauk on the Rock river had " threatened
to kill them; that they acted in a most outrageous manner;
threw down their fences, turned horses into their corn-fields,
stole their potatoes, saying the land was theirs and that they
had not sold it, . . . levelled deadly weapons at the citizens,"
and as a final outrage these Indians had gone "to a house,
rolled out a barrel of whiskey, and destroyed it."11 On April
30, thirty-seven settlers again asked protection from the Sauk,
who it was claimed were acting in " an outrageous and men-
acing manner," and in May, receiving no reply, sent a personal
delegation to the executive.

Governor Reynolds, from memorials, letters, and rumors
was convinced of the imminent danger of an Indian war; in
fact, he proclaimed Illinois in a state of "actual invasion"
and called for volunteers.12

By June there were six hundred volunteers and ten com-
panies of regulars in the field under General Edmund P.
Gaines, marching across the northern wilderness. They were
a comforting array to the terrified inhabitants. The Indians,
dismayed by this menacing reply to their crude effort to secure
justice, watched the demonstration of the assembled troops
in front of their village on June 25 ; and during the night the
whole band quietly withdrew to their lands in Iowa, so that
the next day the troops entered an empty village. On June
30, 1831, General Gaines and Governor Reynolds were able
to negotiate a treaty of capitulation and peace by which the
Indians not only confirmed the ancient cession of 1804 but
solemnly agreed never to cross to the eastern side of the

11 Drake, Life and Adventures of Black Hawk, 100 ; Stevens, Black Haivk
War, 80-85. Black Hawk avers that he pleaded with the whites to cease selling
whisky, but that one man in particular persisted until he went with a party
of Indians, rolled out a barrel and destroyed the liquor. " I did this for fear
some of the whites might be killed by my people when drunk." Black Hawk,
Autobiography, 89.

12 Sangamo Journal, April 26, 1832.

THE LAST OF THE INDIANS 159

Mississippi except by permission of the United States gov-
ernment.

The Indians, however, had left their growing crops in
Illinois, and it was too late to plant anew in Iowa. By autumn
they were out of provisions. One night a little company of
their young men crossed the river to steal roasting ears from
the crops they had left on their old lands. The whites fired
upon them and complained loudly of the double offense of
thieving and of violating the treaty. Much more startling
was the daring of an expedition of Foxes, who went up the
Mississippi to avenge upon the Menominee warriors the mur-
der of eight Fox chiefs the previous year.13 They fell upon
a party of twenty-eight drunken braves encamped on an island
opposite the fort at Prairie du Chien, and scalped and muti-
lated the whole band. This to the Indian code was only just
reprisal; Black Hawk indignantly refused to deliver up any of
his band for trial, especially since no such demand had been
made of the Menominee the year before.

During this episode famine conditions continued. At the
invitation of the Prophet, Black Hawk determined to cross
the Mississippi the following spring and raise a crop with his
friends, the Winnebago. He had a childlike conviction that
so long as he showed no warlike inclinations and was not enter-
ing his old village, the government would not molest him.
After his people had been strengthened by a year's plenty, he
hoped to perfect the rosy, if somewhat nebulous, plans that
he had formed from reports brought to him by Indian runners.
They assured him that a powerful coalition of British, Winne-
bago, Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi stood ready to aid
the Sauk and Foxes not only in regaining their village but in
repaying the humiliation and injustice they had suffered from
the Americans. The supreme importance of filling the stomachs
of his band made the present consideration of war impossible.
With naive security in the thought of his present peaceful
intentions, he with his four hundred warriors took their

*sSattffamo Journal, May 3, 1832.

160 THE FRONTIER STATE

women, children, and belongings and in full view of Fort
Armstrong, crossed the Mississippi in April, 1832, and started
up Rock river toward the Winnebago country.14

General Henry Atkinson with a small company of regulars
had recently been stationed at Fort Armstrong to enforce the
demand of the Indian department for the Fox murderers of
the Menominee. Upon news of the invasion, he sent an
express ordering the band to return. Black Hawk, affronted
at his preemptory tone and protesting his peaceful mission of
making corn, refused and continued to refuse when threatened
with force.

Meanwhile, the news had spread, and Illinois was ablaze
with excitement. Conditions in the state were ripe for an
Indian war; a month after Governor Reynolds' fiery appeal,
sixteen hundred volunteers rendezvoused at Beardstown. They
were backwoodsmen, hardy, courageous, excellent marksmen
and horsemen, who had progressed across a continent by the
aid of rifle and ax — with an appeal to fisticuffs in case of
personal difficulties. Their independence, their isolation, their
whole habit of life, built on a proud consciousness of Anglo-
Saxon and Jeffersonian tradition, produced the sharpest indi-
vidualism. These men, starving for incident, heard in the call
to arms a promise of a frolic more venturesome than a wolf
hunt; it involved an appeal to the spirit of public service to
hunt down and destroy a pest more deadly than wolves.15
They themselves were unconscious of the tremendous psychic
hold the savage had established over them in the form of a
fear, which in the face of a threatened reverse would stampede
them in frantic hysteria.

The troops had been gathered in from the fields. Will-
ingly, even in the face of two successive bad seasons, they left

14 « When the Black Hawk and party re-crossed to the east side of the
Mississippi River in 1832, they numbered three hundred and sixty-eight men.
They were hampered with many women and children, and had no intention to
make war." Printed as appendix to Mrs. J. H. Kinzie, Wau-Eun, 385; Thwaites,
"The Story of the Black Hawk War," Wisconsin Historical Collections, 12:230.

15 In 1814 the territorial legislature offered fifty dollars to any citizen killing
or taking a depredating Indian, while only two dollars was given for a wolf.

THE LAST OF THE INDIANS 161

their plows, grabbed their rifles, and rode away to form them-
selves democratically into companies at the nearest crossroads.
They chose their officers as children form for a tug of war, by
standing in line behind the man of their choice. Then, whoop-
ing, yelling, firing their guns in the air, they raced off to war.16
That such troops would be able to understand or submit
readily to discipline was not possible. Allow the man whom
they had recently honored by electing captain — a man whom
they knew thoroughly as no better than themselves — allow
such a one to take advantage of his position to direct an action
undesirable to them? Incomprehensible! To the recently
elected captain this point of view seemed entirely reasonable.
With an active sense of political favors to come, he was not
the one to insist when thoroughly convinced that such insistence
would effect nothing but his own unpopularity.

The rollicking volunteers, divided into four regiments,
a spy battalion, and two odd battalions, marched to Fort Arm-
strong where, on the seventh of May, General Atkinson
assumed command. It was at once agreed that General Samuel
Whiteside with the recruits should proceed about fifty miles
up Rock river to Prophetstown, there to rest until the ten
companies of infantry regulars from the fort with provisions
could follow in keel-boats. The troops, arrived at Prophets-
town, burned the vacant village by way of pastime and marched
on toward Dixon, with splendid improvidence abandoning
baggage trains and provisions in order to make better time.
Upon their arrival they found two independent battalions of
mounted volunteers under Major Isaiah Stillman, itching to
get into a scrimmage and display their prowess. Accordingly,
Whiteside sent them to spy out the land farther up Rock river
and, if possible, to find the Indians. On the fourteenth of
May, Stillman, with his men on the alert for a chance to scalp
a savage, encamped in a small grove of scrub oak completely
surrounded by open, undulating prairie.

leWakefield, History of the Black Haivk War, 154; Nicolay and Hay,
Abraham Lincoln, 1:89.

i6i THE FRONTIER STATE

The Indians were not far away. For a week Black Hawk
had been in council with the Prophet and the Winnebago; and
to his dismay he was learning that the fair promises of British
and Indian aid awaiting him when he should require were
empty. Hospitality even was not of the warmest. Black
Hawk, himself an unsophisticated old fellow, was often the
dupe of the wily and mischievous who had persuaded him into
believing that which he secretly desired. Added to his own
growing fear that his hopes were groundless came the sharper
one that his people should discover the fruitlessness of their
quest. Disturbing rumors of war preparations among the
whites were brought him. With gathering apprehension he
pushed on to Sycamore creek in the hope that his council there
with the Potawatomi might bring forth something more hope-
ful. But the advice of Shabonee, the friend of the whites, was
well heeded; Black Hawk could effect little. The Potawatomi
were politely aloof; they had no corn to share, much less had
they men. Only a handful of hotheads and jingoes listened
to Black Hawk. The day of a sharp repulse to white aggres-
sion would never dawn; the story of British aid was false;
and the Indians were now too well acquainted with buttered
bread to risk plainer fare.

For Black Hawk the bubble had burst; he was defeated;
he was now ready to return and make corn in Iowa. On the
heels of his resolution came the news of an encampment of
three hundred and forty soldiers only eight miles away. Here
was a chance, with not too great a loss of dignity, to accede
to the whites, and he immediately sent three young men under
a flag of truce to arrange a council at one of the other camps.
The Indians rode to Stillman's eager men, who, toward sunset,
saw the approaching trucebearers nearly a mile away; await-
ing no orders, many jumped upon their horses and ran the
Indians in amid yells and imprecations. While their mission
was being explained five other Indians whom Black Hawk
had sent to watch the effect of his message were observed on
a knoll about three-quarters of a mile away. The excitement

THE LAST OF THE INDIANS 163

in camp increased; first twenty men, then others, dashed away
to bring in the newcomers. The Indians, seeing the headlong
approach, wheeled to ride away. The whites fired; two of the
Indians were killed; and when the camp heard the shots, one
of the Indians who had accompanied the flag of truce was shot
down in cold blood.17

With the shooting, it became impossible for the officers
to exert any control over the raw and independent men. Here
was the fun they had left home to find. Little groups continued
to gallop away in an irregular stream over the darkening
prairie to join their comrades who had been so fortunate as
to be first in an Indian fracas.

In the bedlam of the camp, the two remaining Indians
escaped; three of the party of five hurried to Black Hawk
with the news of the reception given his flag of truce. Black
Hawk was astounded. He had with him forty warriors only;
but, seeing the pursuing riders approaching, he formed his
men behind a clump of chaparral with a stirring appeal dearly
to sell their lives in avenging their wantonly murdered com-
rades. When the foremost of Stillman's men was all but upon
them the Indians burst from cover with a crackle of rifles —
whooping, yelling, and dashing madly into the midst of the
advance guard. That squad in one blinding flash realized its
temerity; imagination peopled thickly the early darkness with
blood-thirsty savages. With a yell of " Injuns ! Injuns ! " the
troops wheeled and fled headlong toward camp — the whole
force in a very madness of fear.18

The astonished Indians pursued, but it was impossible to
come up with the flying foe. They had to satisfy themselves
with dispatching those unfortunates who fell behind. The
men did not stop when they reached camp but abandoning
everything rushed on through toward Dixon. All night and
the next day exhausted men came straggling into Atkinson's
camp with fearful and wonderful tales of the fifteen hundred or

17 Stevens, Black Hawk War, 132-133; Sangamo Journal, October 6, 1832.

18 Captain Adams and a handful of men made a brave stand and fought
till they fell. Stevens, Black Hawk War, 134.

164 THE FRONTIER STATE

two thousand Indians deployed about with diabolical military
genius by General Black Hawk ! 19 Each was convinced that
the slaughter had been tremendous — that any not yet arrived
in camp were slain. The actual loss in fact was only eleven
men, but the immediate effect on Indians and whites was tre-
mendous. Black Hawk, feeling that he had been precipitated
into certain war, was elated by his success; the capture of pre-
cious provisions, blankets, saddlebags, and camp equipage
now made it possible for him to think of carrying on hostilities.
Sending out scouting parties to watch the movements of the
whites, he removed his women and children to the swampy
fastnesses of Lake Koshkonong, near the headwaters of Rock
river in Wisconsin. Leaving them here, he and his braves,
with parties of recruits from the Winnebago and Potawatomi,
descended on terrified northern Illinois to harass it with border
warfare.

The panic that had arisen in Illinois at news of the Indians'
first coming was as nothing compared to that which now swept
over the state. Everywhere on the frontier homes were hur-
riedly deserted, while families and whole settlements scuttled
to forts.20 The frontier shivered with an apprehension which
feverishly increased as stories of bushwhacking warfare began
to come in.

Governor Reynolds at once issued a fresh levy for two
thousand men. This was necessary as the troops, completely
disheartened by Stillman's disaster, clamored to be discharged.
Many had enlisted for a few weeks only; though there was
now direct need of their services a storm of protest arose from
them in which the bad weather, the neglected fields, the lack
of provisions, and the futility of further pursuit, all played
a part as reasons for abandoning the enterprise. The impos-
sibility of carrying on a war with an unwilling militia as
soldiery was only too apparent; late in May the governor
mustered them out of service. Three hundred rangers ree'n-

19 Sangamo Journal, May 3, 14, 24, 1832.

20 Ibid., May 31, June 21, 1832.

THE LAST OF THE INDIANS 165

listed at once so that the frontier might have some protection
while a new army was being raised.21

During this interval, an irregular border warfare was
carried on in which two hundred whites and about as many
Indians lost their lives. News of the massacre at Indian creek
where fifteen men, women, and children were slaughtered,22
of the sharp skirmish on the Pecatonica where Major Henry
Dodge and a gallant handful avenged five murdered whites,
and of the desperate attack on Apple river fort hurried the
army into service. In less than three weeks after Stillman's
defeat thirty-two hundred mounted militiamen took the field
under Atkinson. This force was divided into three brigades,
with Generals Alexander Posey, Milton K. Alexander, and
James D. Henry in command. Colonel Jacob Fry's rangers,
Dodge's Michigan rangers, and the regular infantry completed
the fighting force of four thousand men, or ten to one of the
Indian strength.23

The real problem that faced these commanders was that
of bringing to the consciousness of the unruly men under them
a realizing sense of the necessity of obedience. Neither the
disciplined companies of infantry under Atkinson nor the thou-
sand regulars being rushed from the seaboard under General
Winfield Scott could win the war against a mounted enemy,
unwilling to make a stand. But a militia, however well-
mounted and however intrepid, which refused to submit itself
to discipline, would convert the war into a series of Still-
man's runs.

In General James D. Henry, Illinois found the man for
such troops. A blacksmith in civil life, his avocation had been
the study of military tactics and memoirs. The narrow limits
of the incident called the Black Hawk War afforded him the

^•Sangamo Journal, May 24, 31, 1832; Galenian, June 13, 1832; Stevens,
Black Hawk War, 141.

22 Sangamo Journal, May 31, 1832.

28 Thwaites, "Story of the Black Hawk War," in Wisconsin Historical
Collections, 12:246. It is to be remembered that the description of the Wis-
consin country is drawn from contemporary accounts of men suffering from the
hardships of marches through a wilderness.

166 THE FRONTIER STATE

opportunity to display an alert tactical sense, a military judg-
ment far above that of his colleagues, and, most important, a
power in handling men that in a few weeks turned obstinate
material into a trained army.

For some weeks, however, it was not evident that the
second campaign would be more fruitful than the first. Though
all advantages were with the whites, the army seemed unable
to apprehend how weak an enemy they were pursuing. Black
Hawk had no army — only a band of warriors heavily encum-
bered with the unaccustomed responsibility of women and
children. For more than a year they had been ill nourished,
and they had now been reduced to a literally starving condi-
tion. The rugged country through which they fled was quite
unknown to them; their guides, as ill-fortune pressed close,
deserted them. Though it was midsummer, these dreary
wastes of bogs, morasses, lakes, and pine forests yielded
neither game, fruit, nor fish. They lived on the bark of trees,
roots, and horseflesh.24 Black Hawk had selected this deso-
late country in the belief that the whites could not follow into
its fastnesses; but when Atkinson with the main army pursued
him to the headwaters of Rock river at Lake Koshkonong, he
was forced to flee onward, west and north in the hope that he
and his starving band might reach and cross the Mississippi
to safety.

The army, after the hopeful rush on the warm trail to
Koshkonong, only to find a hastily deserted camp, began to
flounder about in aimless marches and unsatisfactory explora-
tions. Spirits rapidly sank. Men grumbled that they could
wander forever in that hateful northern country and the In-
dians could remain that long a will o' the wisp. Sleeping
uneasily on their arms in fear of a night attack, being short
rationed for days at a time, wading hip deep through water
and mud, marching toward nothing but long stoppages — all
this they were enduring with never a sight of a hostile Indian !

2* Drake, Life and Adventures of Black Hawk, 152; Black Hawk, Auto-
biography, 130.

THE LAST OF THE INDIANS 167

The whole thing seemed ridiculously futile; Governor Rey-
nolds and his staff with other prominent Illinoisians having
had sufficient experience of war left for home. By the middle
of July the volunteer force had been reduced one-half. Fatigue,
delay, hardship, privation were not the frolic for which they
had enlisted.25

Under these circumstances Atkinson fell back to Fort Kosh-
konong to await the return of Henry, Alexander, and Dodge
who with their commands had been sent to Fort Winnebago
for supplies. While there, these officers were positively
assured that Black Hawk was encamped about thirty-five miles
north of Atkinson. Elated at his proximity, they agreed to
disobey orders and to march directly toward Black Hawk.
Alexander, however, almost at once reported that his men
refused to go. Henry, of different stuff, quelled a threatened
mutiny among his officers and with Major Dodge started on
a three days forced march over miles of treacherous swamps.
Then, unexpectedly, they struck the broad, fresh trail of Black
Hawk trying to escape by way of Four Lakes and the Wis-
consin.

The men were rejuvenated. Tents, baggage, blankets,
and even clothing were dumped in a pile in the wilderness;
and the forced march continued. Here at last was a chance
for real fighting and a speedy end to the war; there was no
grumbling even when a terrific rain storm forced the men to
travel over a hundred miles with nothing in their stomachs
but a little wet flour and raw meat. They were hot on the
trail, with the rear guard of the Indians only two or three miles
in advance. Pots and kettles and all manner of Indian camp
equipment lined the way. Exhausted old men, too ill to keep
up with their flying bands, fell behind to disclose by their weak-
ness the straits to which Black Hawk was reduced.26

25 Reynolds, My Own Times, 251-252; Ford, History of Illinois, 132-135.

26 Ford, History of Illinois, 139-146. Some half dozen of these old creatures,
blind and infirm, were promptly shot and scalped by the whites. Thwaites,
"Story of the Black Hawk War," in Wisconsin Historical Collections, 12:253;
Wakefield, History of the Black Hawk War, 109-110.

i68 THE FRONTIER STATE

Late in the afternoon of July twenty-first, the Indians
came within a mile and a half of the Wisconsin river. To
protect the crossing of the main body, a chosen war party
of about fifty braves, directed by Black Hawk, made a stand
on the bluffs. After a wild charge, the Indians fought lying
down in the tall grass. The whites left their horses behind
and, "with the most terrific yells that ever came from the
head of mortals, except from the savages themselves," charged
the position again and again with a heavy fire.27 The fighting
continued for a half hour with casualties about even, when
the Indians began to retreat slowly toward the river. Henry,
instead of following up this seeming advantage, did not pursue
them into the unknown, marshy ground ahead. He knew that
disaster would have met his men in the darkness, though the
engagement itself had cost them only one life and eight
wounded. There are varying accounts of the Indian loss, but
this valiant stand of the weakened warriors accomplished its
end; it kept the superior force of the whites at bay until the
band crossed the Wisconsin.28

For the Indians, ugly misfortune was biting close; they
realized it keenly. Just before the dawn of the day following
the battle of Wisconsin Heights, the troops encamped on the
battlefield were terrified to hear the shrill, eager tones of an
Indian in a long harangue, which they supposed was addressed
to a war party. The Indian guides and interpreters had left
the army after the battle, and no one in camp understood the
oration. Henry felt it necessary to quell the rising fear of
his men by an address reminding them of their dauntlessness
on the previous day, of the diabolical wickedness of the enemy,
appealing to them to stand firm, and prophesying that they
would again be successful. That the Indian's oration was a
speech of surrender in which he confessed their starving condi-
tion, their inability to fight when encumbered by women and
children, and their anxiety to be permitted peaceably to pass

27 Wakefield, History of the Black Hawk War, in.

28 Sangamo Journal, September i, 1832.

THE LAST OF THE INDIANS 169

over the Mississippi, to do no more mischief, was not learned
till after the annihilation of the band at Bad Axe.29

A large party of women, children, and old men begged
canoes and rafts from the Winnebago and floated down the
Wisconsin, trusting that as noncombatants the garrison at
Fort Crawford would allow them to escape. But a party of
regulars from Prairie du Chien attacked them, capturing
thirty-two women and children; the rest of the party were
killed or drowned during the onslaught; and those who escaped
into the woods perished with hunger or were there massacred
by a band of three hundred Menominee allies under a staff of
white officers.30

Those of the Sauk who had no means of descending the
Wisconsin started out over the densely wooded hills and inter-
vening black swamps toward the Mississippi. "Many of our
people were compelled to go on foot, for want of horses,
which, in consequence of their having had nothing to eat for
a long time, caused our march to be very slow. At length we
arrived at the Mississippi, having lost some of our old men
and little children, who perished on the way from hunger."31

On the afternoon of the same day the steamboat Warrior
was seen approaching under the command of John Throck-
morton. Black Hawk, eager that no more of his miserable
band should die, told his braves not to shoot, hoisted a white
flag, and called out in the Winnebago tongue to send a little
canoe that he might go aboard and give himself up.32 The
captain, though the message was translated to him, affected to
believe that the flag was a decoy and ordered them to send a
boat on board. This was impossible, because every boat the
Indians could secure was being used to carry a load across the

29 Ford, History of Illinois, 146; Wakefield, History of the Black Hawk
War, 115-116, 134.

30 Thwaites, "Story of the Black Hawk War," in Wisconsin Historical
Collections, 12:255; Black Hawk, Autobiography, 132.

31 Ibid., 133. Twenty-five warriors, wounded at Wisconsin Heights, also
died and marked the trail for the whites. Ford, History of Illinois, 146.

32 Sangamo Journal, October 6, 1832.

170 THE FRONTIER STATE

Mississippi and all were far beyond call. The captain in
writing an account of the incident, August 3, 1832, continues:
"After about fifteen minutes delay, giving them time to remove
a few of their women and children, we let slip a six-pounder,
loaded with canister, followed by a severe fire of musketry;
and if ever you saw straight blankets, you would have seen
them there. . . . We fought them for about an hour or more
until our wood began to fail. . . . This little fight cost them
twenty-three killed, and of course a great many wounded.
We never lost a man. . . ." 33

Such was the reception of Black Hawk's last chance at
surrender, for the army bringing destruction was close upon
him. Following the battle of Wisconsin Heights Henry's
command, in need of provisions, fell back to Blue Mounds
whence the whole force under the command of Atkinson started
in pursuit of the Indians. No effort was spared to make time
over the toilsome way and the army was only twenty-four hours
behind Black Hawk in reaching the river. Upon their ap-
proach, the Indians, in order to gain time for crossing, sent
back about twenty men to intercept the army within a few
miles of their camp. This party was to commence an attack
and then retreat to the river three miles above the Indians.
The ruse succeeded. The attacking party fired and then fell
back before the charge of the whites; the army immediately
began a hot pursuit.

Henry was bringing up the rear with the baggage; Atkin-
son, jealous that the Illinois militia and its commander rather
than the regulars with their chief should have discovered the
enemy and won a victory, had placed the recently victorious
brigade in the rear and had left it without orders. Reaching
the point of attack, Henry plainly saw the main trail leading
lower down. His three hundred men were formed on foot
and advanced upon the main body of three hundred Indians,
who were taken completely by surprise. They fought des-

33 Drake, Life and Adventures of Black Haiok, 153-154; Ford, History of
Illinois, 156-157.

THE LAST OF THE INDIANS 171

desperately; but in their famished condition they were no match
for their opponents, who with bayonets fiercely forced them
back from tree to tree toward the river. Women, with children
clinging around their necks, plunged desperately into the river
to be almost instantly drowned or picked off by sharpshoot-
ers.34 Atkinson, hearing the din behind, returned a half hour
later, and the slaughter proceeded more fiercely than ever.
The steamboat Warrior came back to rake with canister the
islands that some of the Indians had reached. Old men,
women, and children alike were slain. "It was a horrid sight,"
wrote a participant, " to witness little children, wounded and
suffering the most excruciating pain, although they were of the
savage enemy, and the common enemy of the country." 35

The massacre of the Bad Axe continued three hours. One
hundred and fifty Indians were killed outright and as many
more lost their lives by drowning. About fifty, mostly women
and children, were taken prisoners. Three hundred Sauk
succeeded, either before or during the battle, in reaching the
Iowa side, to be there set upon by one hundred Sioux, sent out
by General Atkinson; half of them were slain, and many
others died of exhaustion and wounds before they could reach
their friends in Keokuk's village. Thus by the second of
August not more than one hundred and fifty of the band of
nearly a thousand which crossed the Mississippi in April, lived
to return to their lands in Iowa.

On August 7, 1832, General Winfield Scott, who had been
delayed by the outbreak of cholera among his troops, arrived
to assume command.36 The following day he mustered the

34 Sangamo Journal, October 6, 1832, September 7, 1833.

35 He piously reflected, however, that " the Ruler of the Universe, He who
takes vengeance on the guilty, did not design those guilty wretches to escape
His vengeance for the horrid deeds they had done, which were of the most
appalling nature. He here took just retribution for the many innocent lives
those cruel savages had taken on our northern frontiers." Wakefield, History
of the Black Ha<wk War, 132-133.

30 Sangamo Journal, August 2, 1832. The asiatic cholera first reached this
country in June, 1832, and broke out among Scott's detachment of troops while
they were passing up the Great Lakes. It was so virulent that two of the four
vessels proceeded no farther than Fort Gratiot; the others, after a period of
delay reached Chicago in July. Fort Dearborn was converted into a hospital,

172 THE FRONTIER STATE

volunteers out of service. Black Hawk, with several of his
prominent men, was taken prisoner and held as hostage for
some months, during which time he was taken through the
eastern states so that the white man's power might be fully
impressed upon him. In June, 1833, he was released, and
shorn of all power the old chief returned to the remnant of
his people in Iowa. "Rock river," he said, "was a beautiful
country. I loved my towns, my cornfields, and the home of
my people. I fought for it. It is now yours. Keep it as we
did."37

He was conquered; no other Indian in Illinois questioned
the dominance of the white race. The north country was now
ready for white possession.

where the pestilence raged violently for several days; checked there in August,
it again broke out among the troops at Rock Island, to be finally arrested by
removing the men to small camps on the Iowa side of the Mississippi. Quaife,
Chicago and the Old Northwest, 328-337; Stevens, Black Hawk War, 242-249.
37 Ibid., 271 ; Quaife, Chicago and the Old Northwest, 337. Thwaites,
"Story of the Black Hawk War," in Wisconsin Historical Collections, 12:264-
265.

IX. THE SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTH

EVEN before the Indians had retreated from northern
Illinois, the advance of settlers into that region began.
This advance of population northward is one of the most sig-
nificant facts in the history of the decade from 1830—1840. It
influenced not only the character of the population through
the type of immigrants who poured in, but also the demands
of the state for public land legislation and the consequent
course of political events. Further by making evident the
need of better transportation the immigration provoked the
internal improvement mania of 1837. The land speculator,
as elsewhere in Illinois, seeing a future metropolis in his town
site, turned to a railroad as the quickest means of realizing his
vision; and what was of greater consequence of persuading
others that it was a reality.

By 1830 it was evident that the tide of immigration was
passing by the vacant lands of southern Illinois and turning
to the north. Already in the rich bottoms of the Sangamon
the pioneer stage had passed, and settlement was thickening in
Sangamon and Morgan counties at a rate that was provoking
the jealousy even of Madison and Greene, to say nothing of
the counties to the south.1 Throughout the Military Tract
the population was beginning to spread; the southern end of
the tract had been settled ever since the days when Shaw and
Hansen had contested the throne of the kingdom of Pike; but
now pioneers were moving north. Peoria on the Illinois river
was laid out in 1826. In the same year an Ohio speculator
plotted Lacon under the name of Columbia. When in 1826
a pioneer from Bond county settled near Magnolia his nearest

1 Alton Spectator, November 23, June 25, 1833 ; Sangamo Journal, January
19, February 2, July 12, 1833.

173

i74 THE FRONTIER STATE

neighbors were fur traders at Hennepin. In 1835 he sold out
his holdings for $4,200 only to lose his profits in town lot specu-
lation. In 1830 the county of Putnam, then including Bureau,
Marshall, and most of Stark, had 700 inhabitants.2 The town
plots of Macomb and Monmouth dated from 1831. Rush-
ville, in 1829 a hamlet of seven cabins, was incorporated in
1831 with 1 80 inhabitants.

The spread of population tells a part of the story.3 In 1831
there were some ten thousand people in the southeastern part
of the tract — Calhoun, Pike, Adams, Schuyler, and Fulton —
and the increase of population to this day has necessitated the
formation of but one additional county in that region. Else-
where in the tract there were some two thousand inhabitants,
most of them in Hancock, Knox, and Henry; north of them
there was a straggling population. The Indian traders,
Colonel George Davenport and Russell Farnham at the Sauk
village, were the leaders of a few squatters, whose settlement
later became Rock Island; and at Dixon's Ferry where the
Peoria-Galena trail crossed the Rock there was a little settle-
ment with a few others along the trail above it. By 1840 Knox
county alone had seven thousand inhabitants, while the four
counties just north and west, Jo Daviess, Whiteside, Carroll,
and Rock Island, had together a population of some nine
thousand persons.4

Another interesting means of visualizing the settlement of
the north is found in the record of the public land sales, though
one must be careful to make the proper allowance for the
activity of the speculator. Illinois land sales for the period
were very speculative in character, varying more from year to
year than those in Missouri ; in all the west the prevailing rule
was large sales in one state in one year and in another the
next. Thus in 1834 less land was sold in Illinois than in Ohio,
Indiana, Alabama, Mississippi, or Michigan. In 1835 the

2 Peoria Register, April i, 1837, May 5, August 25, September 8, 1838;
Pooley, Settlement of Illinois, 380, 381.

3 Ibid., 559.

4 Sixth Census of the United States, 376.

^HANCOCK kDONOUoJ-''L)LTON-^

Population of Illinois

per Square Mile in

1833

SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTH 175

sales leaped from 354,013 acres to 2,096,623, outstripping
Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Alabama. Illinois did not dis-
tance Mississippi till 1836. Again in 1836 Indiana outran
Illinois.5 As passing events drew the attention of the specu-
lator now to this state, now to that, the sales rose to high
figures, then fell to comparatively low ones. A glance at the
table of sales reveals the fact that the boom of 1835-1837
was most evident in the western and central Illinois offices —
Edwardsville, Springfield, and Quincy — and at Chicago. In
the other Illinois offices the increase was more uniform, show-
ing least in the ill-starred Vandalia district. In all the offices
the sales reached their height in 1836, then showed a rapid
decline and a more moderate rate of sales thereafter.

Before examining in detail the settlement of northern
Illinois it is necessary to consider for a moment the unusual
speculative conditions which existed in the Military Tract.
This territory lying between the Illinois and the Mississippi
rivers had been set aside for the location of military land war-
rants issued to soldiers in the War of 1812. By 1837, 17,075
patents had been issued for 2,831,840 acres of land.6 This
by no means included the whole which contained 3,500,000
acres. Further, all tracts much in excess of, or much less than,
1 60 acres had been excluded from selection. Accordingly the
government still had considerable desirable land in the region.
The greater part of the lands, however, passed into the hands
of speculators. Some of it, forfeited for nonpayment of taxes,
was snapped up by such Illinois magnates as Ninian Edwards.
The general policy of speculators was to hold out for high
prices. Romulus Riggs of Philadelphia, who affected a senti-
mental interest in the state and named his daughter for it,
offered in 1837 two hundred and sixty-six quarter sections for
sale at prices which S. H. Davis supposed would run from five
to forty dollars an acre.7 Davis pointed out that it was foolish

5 Executive Documents, 24 congress, 2 session, number 6, p. 8, n; Senate
Documents, 25 congress, 3 session, number n, p. 12, 16.

6 Executive Documents, 25 congress, 2 session, number 83.

7 Peoria Register, October 14, April 8, July 8, 1837.

i76

THE FRONTIER STATE

to pay such prices when federal land of good quality could still
be had for $1.25 an acre, especially in Peoria and Knox
counties.8

During the same period the prices of town lots also showed
the influence of the speculators' activity. In 1836 lots in
Quincy sold as high as seventy-eight dollars a front foot. In
April, 1837, desirable town lots in Monmouth were worth
one thousand dollars. Less desirable ones were selling at the
rate of seventy-five to one hundred dollars. In Peoria at the

A TABLE or

1820

1821

1822

1823

1824

1825

1826

1827

1828

1829

Shawneetown

2,392

3,329

2,050

1,253

2.278

1.357

2.086

3.340

4,512

8,143

Kaskaskia

1,658

1,627

1.661

793

1.278

711

1,901

2.256

3.415

6,380

Edwardsville

2,649

35.243

5.373

11.223

5,541

5.748

6,584

8.398

18,829

28.602

Vandalia

9,227

2,205

640

614

895

1,472

1,743

3.591

19.405

Palestine

954

16,474

7.903

11.936

10.323

12,915

9,466

20.537

47.221

Springfield

38,720

22,339

26 767

56,122

33,398

45,206

86,492

Danville

Galena

Chicago

Totals

6,699

50 380

27 763

60 532

43 986

45 801

80 080

58 601

96,090

196.243

This table Is compiled from the following sources : Executive Documents, 21 con-
gress, 2 session, number 2, p. 57 ; ibid., 23 congress, 2 session, number 3, p. 92 :
ibid., 24 congress, 1 session, number 5, p. 10 ; ibid., 24 congress, 2 session, number 6,
p. 8 ; ibid., 26 congress, 2 session, number 38, p. 10 ; Senate Documents, 23 congress,
1 session, number 9, p. 62 ; ibid., 25 congress, 2 session, number 11, p. 13 ; ibid.,
25 congress, 3 session, number 17, p. 8 ; ibid., 26 congress, 1 session, number 21,
p. 13.

same time the best lots sold for one hundred dollars a front
foot;9 and in March, 1837, there were twelve or fourteen
houses within sight on Kickapoo prairie when nine months
before there was not a house.

In the Rock river country the effects of the boom of 1836—
1837 were more apparent. On the way to Savanna in Carroll
county, Dayton, Cleveland, Portland, Lyndon, and Union
Grove had all been laid out in 1836, most of them then having
from three to twelve houses, with lots selling at from ten to
one hundred and twenty-five dollars. On the road to Galena,

8 By 1838 land near Peoria cost from ten to thirty dollars an acre; land in
the tract could then be had for three to five dollars an acre. Peoria Register,
October 20, December 8, 1838.

9 Ibid., April i, 1837.

SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTH 177

Grand Detour and Dixon had been laid out in 1836. In 1839
they were towns of fifty houses, and the most desirable lots in
them and in Oregon were held at from four hundred to six
hundred dollars.10

It was in the northeast, however, that the records of land
sales indicate the highest prices and most rampant speculation.
The price of unimproved land in the vicinity of Ottawa had
in 1838 increased to three dollars an acre. In the years 1835—
1837 land speculation was focused at Chicago. June 18, 1834,

ND SALES

830

1831

1832

1833

1834

1835

1836

1837

1838

1839

7.720

20,523

17.624

28.936

6.904

10,299

160.430

100.977

54.102

97.858

5.000

11.186

17.417

29.235

15.196

19.870

156.738

105.405

90.303

149.108

30.020

100.350

80.713

92.261

124,302

345,794

503,572

111.823

42.789

58.904

15.362

43.174

8.021

21.615

20.207

29.165

127.345

183.891

109.516

178.239

36.413

54.872

23.773

22.043

22.135

38,376

285,025

144.744

106.547

143,123

)1.933

99,496

59.996

109.642

66.804

478.976

480,837

104,388

68.835

29.999

160

1.118

29.604

36.131

367.337

r.69,37(?

142,909

165.243

50.776

9,647

13.710

26.901

62.331

155.784

277.023

67.323

35.690

35.240

280.979

202.365

35,764

87.891

229.471

370.043

436.992

15,618

17.640

160.154

T6.448

339.408

122.372

360.237

354.010

2,096.623

3,199,703

1,012,842

778,556

1.132.872

the Democrat remarked the fact that seventy-five buildings
had been erected in Chicago since spring. By December the
city had a population of 3,279. Next year strangers were
crowding in so fast that for want of accommodation they were
sleeping on floors. Provisions were scarce, and flour sold at
twenty dollars a barrel. It became necessary to meet the
criticism of the envious east with assertions that prices of one
hundred and fifty-five dollars a foot for town lots were based
not on speculation but on the exigency of the business situation.
Lots, that in the spring of 1835 sold for nine thousand dollars,
by the end of the year were held at twenty-five thousand dol-
lars; and rents were correspondingly exorbitant.11

The same effects of feverish speculation and settlement
were to be seen to the south of the Illinois river. In the nar-
rative of a journey to the northeast of Springfield in 1837,
Bloomington was noted as a town with six or eight stores,

10Peoria Register, May 25, June i, 1839.

11 Chicago American, August 15, 1835, January 2, July 9, 1836.

178 THE FRONTIER STATE

separated from Decatur by an almost unsettled country.
Mackinaw had drawn together twenty-four houses and five
stores, the existence of five or six mill " seats " within two or
three miles being an attraction. Speculative town sites were
scattered far and wide. Washington in Tazewell county, with
three or four hundred inhabitants, had four stores, two black-
smith shops, one cabinet shop, a steam mill, four schools, and
six liquor-selling establishments designated under various
names.12 The nucleus of a town was a mill to grind grain, a
store to supply dry goods and hardware for the sustenance of
the family and the supply of the farm, and a grocery or public
house to supply wet goods for the comfort of the inner man.
A special feature of the settlement of the north was the
coming of settlers in colonies or organized groups. As early
as October, 1832, Simeon Francis, who was inclined to depre-
cate the tendency to form colonies, noted wagon trains passing
through to Fulton county from Ohio and another company of
emigrants from Vermont, which led him to comment on the
advantages for the settler of prairie and timber country.
Sometimes there was more of the speculative than of the group
spirit in the movement, as when in 1839 it was rumored that
six eastern capitalists were about to offer for sale to actual
settlers forty thousand acres near Mt. Auburn in Christian
county. This, however, was not a typical case. La Grange
in Henry county was settled by a colony from New York and
New England that bought twenty thousand acres, setting apart
a quarter section for a town site.13 In 1833 a caravan of
fifty-two people from Vermont, New Hampshire, and northern
New York, led by the Lyman brothers, came by wagon to
settle in Sangamon county, the country having been previously
explored by two of their number. A Connecticut colony estab-
lished Rockwell in LaSalle county. In 1836 three colonies
were located, one at Tremont in Tazewell, one in Knox county,

12 Sangamo Journal, June 10, September 9, 1837.

13 1 bid., October n, 20, 1832. As early as 1834 there was a society in
Massachusetts, the Old Colony Brotherhood, to promote emigration to Illinois.
Chicago Democrat, November 12, 1834.

SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTH 179

and one somewhere near Varna called Lyons. The founding
of Weathersfield in Henry county by a colony from the Con-
necticut town of that name is of interest. The first settler
came out to the purchase in October, 1836; in the next year,
sixteen men were there, six with their families; by July of
1839 there was a population of one hundred. Each colonist
had a quarter section of prairie, twenty acres of timber, and a
village lot. In 1836 a New York colony settled at Galesburg
on sixteen sections of which one thousand and four acres were
reserved for a college. The purchaser of each eighty acres
was allowed the free tuition of a youth at any time within the
limit of twenty-five years in the institution which is now known
as Knox College. In 1839 a Catholic colony was projected at
Postville in Logan county.14

It remains to consider the broader economic principles
underlying the progress of the individual settlers in the north.
These are not so obscure as those effecting the settlement of
southern and central Illinois in the preceding decade. In fact
it is possible to describe the processes of home-making from
abundant data collected almost on the spot by careful observers
in so many specific instances as to make generalization possible.

The problem of the settler in this decade was to sustain
himself on the land while he broke and fenced enough prairie
to farm successfully. Instead of grubbing up the underbrush
and planting his corn in the shadow of girdled trees as the
earlier pioneer did, the later settler added to his field by break-
ing each year a little more of the tough prairie sod. When he
himself did not own the oxen necessary for the work, he was
able to hire it done at a fairly well-established price of $2.50
an acre. Similarly there were standard prices for fencing —
usually $1.25 to $2.00 a hundred rails, a rate increasing with
the distance it was necessary to haul them. At every turn
whether for breaking prairie or hauling rails, the use of oxen
was necessary and the man who located his farm on heavy

14 Peorla Register, July 8, 1837, May 12, June 30, 1838, July 6, 1839; San-
gamo Journal, January 23, 1836; Gale, Brief History of Knox College, passim;
Chicago Democrat, May 22, 1839.

i8o THE FRONTIER STATE

prairie at a distance from timber found himself penalized for
his choice in dollars and cents.

The generally established principle for the location of a
farm was that it must contain both prairie and timber, usually
in a ratio of two to one. A man could, it is true, avoid the
necessity of having timber of his own by helping himself from
timber lots still belonging to the federal government or owned
by nonresidents, but to some New England consciences the
latter method if not the former seemed unethical. For the
future development of a farm, however, the wise man held to
the proper proportion of timber and prairie as essential. The
speculator accordingly made haste where he could to seize on
the timber at the edges of the great prairies, secure in his
knowledge that those who were foolhardy enough to enter the
adjacent untimbered land would in the end have to buy from
him at his price.

Still, as the decade passed, men began to assume such risks.
An observer in Tazewell county in 1837 noted with surprise
that settlers had pushed out four or five miles into the prairie.
Repeatedly it was proposed to plant timber on the prairies, or
to use "stone coal" for fuel and to substitute sod fences or
white thorn hedges for the usual rail fence. In 1 839 the cost
of putting a rail fence around a "forty" was from two to
three hundred dollars, a rate which seemed to call for a more
economical system of fencing. It was this need that caused
the popularity of the Osage orange hedge which was advocated
by Jonathan B. Turner. In the minds of most settlers, how-
ever, proximity to timber as to water was still essential.15

His selection of land once made, the settler's method of
conquering it depended on whether or not he had money. If he
had financial resources, he built a cabin for his family, bought
or hired several yoke of oxen, and set to breaking prairie at a
rate of twenty to forty acres a year, meanwhile buying grain
to sustain his family and his oxen. His sod corn, however,

16 Sangamo Journal, February 2, 1832; Peoria Register, August n, 1838;
Chicago Democrat, March 25, 1834.

SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTH 181

raised on the newly broken prairie, unless the hogs got into it
while it was still unfenced, produced perhaps fifty bushels an
acre. Sometimes he came out alone in the spring to plant the
first crop and brought his family in the fall. If on the other
hand he had merely his own labor and a yoke of oxen, he
easily found enough work to support his family, while in his
spare moments he improved his own land. If he was a skilled
carpenter or millwright, he was sure of good wages and he
might rent a farm while waiting to develop his own claim. If
the owner stocked his leasehold for him, the rent was half or
two-thirds of the produce. If he stocked it himself, it was
one-third. Meanwhile his wages, if he was industrious, at
length enabled him to buy a claim and usually to enter it at
government price when the land was put on sale.16

An integral part of this system was, as may be imagined,
a recognition of the binding force of squatters' right. Long
before the country was put on sale by the federal land officers,
squatters had established claims on the most desirable combi-
nations of timber, prairie, springs, and healthful sites. Such
claims the rough and ready custom of the frontier accepted as
valid, and another settler coming on the land was forced by
public opinion to recognize the claim by buying off the occupy-
ing claimant. Except where extensive improvements had been
made, the prices of such claims were not high; but the business
was moderately profitable, and many pioneers made and sold
one claim after another in their progress toward the sunset.
This perennial squatter, so obnoxious to the eastern congress-
man, was defended by the westerner, because he was aiding in
the development of the country by enabling the permanent
settler to purchase even in the wilds a little grain, a few broken
acres, and a cabin that, until other itinerant squatters had
helped him to raise a better one, would shelter his family.17

Property rights so acquired and transferred were real
bases of land titles and wealth, and there were exact rules to

1B Peoria Register, July i, 1837, April 7, September i, 29, 1838, June 15,
1839.

17 Ibid., August 25, 1838.

i8z THE FRONTIER STATE

govern them. Thus in the early days of the settlement of the
north, laying four logs for the foundation of a cabin estab-
lished a claim for the duration of a year. In order to keep off
the claim jumper, it was necessary in 1837 to build a cabin
sixteen or eighteen feet square or to break five acres of land.
These improvements served to hold the claim for six months.
In the Military Tract the usual claim was one hundred sixty
to two hundred forty acres, but in the north three thousand
acres could be so held, and even town sites were said to have
been located on such claims.18

In the face of legislation and executive rulings framed by
indignant eastern statesmen, such claims were maintained by
force of public opinion, usually manifested in the settlers'
meetings, which before each district was put on sale bound all
settlers to hold together in support of each other's claims
against outside bidders and sometimes even established boards
of arbitration to decide disputes between claimants. Some-
times, in case settlement had preceded survey, these boards
devised ways by which each man might make secure his im-
provements by a common bargain. Having once reached an
agreement among themselves, the settlers attended sales in a
body to exercise moral suasion on any rash outsider who dared
to bid over the minimum for an "improvement." Under
such circumstances scarcely a tract of land was struck off at
ordinary sale at more than $1.25 an acre.19

The settlers were not able in the same way to guard them-
selves against usurious interest charges in case they had to
borrow money to buy their claims. Frequently a sale was set
at a time that seemed almost designed to give the money lender
his opportunity, before crops were harvested or shortly after
money had been put into improvements on assurances that the
sales would not take place for a year. At such times short
term loans brought ten per cent a month, thirty to fifty per
cent a year, and thirty to forty per cent for two years. A

16Peoria Register, July i, 1837, Ju'y 28» l838-

19 Chicago American, January 14, 1837; Chicago Democrat, March 9, May
4, July 20, 1836; Executive Documents, 25 congress, 3 session, number 241.

SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTH 183

lesser annoyance was the seeming caprice of land office receiv-
ers in the designation of the bank notes which they would
accept. Frequently it was charged that, by refusing to take
the money brought to them, the receivers compelled the buyers
to pay a brokerage of from two to five per cent to have it
"shaved" by some local financier. Land office officials were
often charged with trickery and with speculation in this and
other ways.20

As has been said before the determination of the national
public land policy turned on the fact that the economic interests
of east and west and their theories of the purpose of the public
domain were fundamentally different. To the easterner the
public land was the heritage of the states, bought by the blood
of their sons in the Revolution, and the pledge of national
unity and good faith. To him as to Alexander Hamilton it
was the source of a fund for public finance, not the future
home of a great part of the American people.21 Indeed as the
easterner saw settlers flocking into the new lands of the west
draining eastern towns of labor and leaving the farms in the
old cradles of liberty to revert to wilderness, he sometimes did
not attempt to conceal his dislike of western settlement and his
desire to retard its progress. To the westerner who com-
plained that settlement was too slow and who called for legis-
lation to accelerate it, he listened with ill-concealed derision.

Against the squatter, that typical western figure, the
easterner's wrath was especially aroused. He considered him
a worthless trespasser on the public property, whose trespasses
had repeatedly to be condoned by preemption acts. Said
Samuel A. Foot : " The disposal of the public lands has been,
in this way, absolutely wrested from the Government, and
monopolized by speculators and squatters; land system is vir-
tually broken down, and we are gravely told, * it is best for us

20 Pe or'ta Register, August 4, September 29, November 17, 1838; Chicago
American, October 7, 18, 26, November i, 1839; Sangamo Journal, June 25,
July 30, 1836.

21 Congressional Debates, 1830-1831, p. 471. Ohio was passing out of the
ranks of the public land states. Ibid., 1831-1832, p. 1452.

184 THE FRONTIER STATE

it should be so,' and nothing remains for us but to give the
squatters preemption rights; and, instead of legislating for
them, we are to legislate after them, in full pursuit to the Rocky
Mountains, or to the Pacific Ocean." 22 In the mind of the
easterner the squatter was a prolific source of trouble with the
Indians, equally galling to the humanitarian sentimentalists
from districts that had not heard the war whoop since Queen
Anne's War and to the thrifty public financiers. Of the squat-
ter's lauded services as a pioneer of settlement, the eastern
congressman was frankly skeptical.

On the other hand, to the westerner from the public land
state the vacant national domain appeared as the source of
freeholds for uncounted thousands, the basis of the majesty
and power of great commonwealths. Only let the govern-
ment unbar the gate and all this dream would speedily be real-
ized. Meanwhile, so long as men without money had to squat
without title upon the public domain and men with money had
to limit the extent of their exploitation by the high government
price of wild land, all these advantages were postponed. States
sat with the greater portion of their lands under the control of
a landlord who elected to keep it desert, yielding no revenue
to the state, adding nothing to its population and wealth. The
public land policy, that in the opinion of the easterner was
draining the older states of population, to the mind of the
westerner was locking up the west from settlement. The one
trembled at the rapidity of change and development, the other
fretted because he saw how much more rapid settlement might
become under more liberal land laws.

The debate on Foot's resolution, which was designed to
limit the sale of public lands by forcing the sale of those already
on the market, apart from its significance in constitutional his-
tory, places the two points of view in sharp contrast. To the
westerner it appeared that the Connecticut senator's inquiry,
by stopping surveys, would leave only undesirable and picked
over lands in the west, would cut off emigration to states like

22 Congressional Debates, 1829-1830, p. 443.

SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTH 185

Illinois, and would close for many years to come the northern
half of its domain.23 Robert Y. Hayne had been quick to
point out to the west that its true friends lived in the south and
the debate resolved itself in its earlier phases into an argument
between Webster and Benton as to whether or not the tradi-
tional New England policy was to hamper the west. Benton,
eschewing the internal improvements that the east proffered
the west through the American system, elected to stand fast
with the south in an alliance based on free trade and liberal
public land policy; and in its broader outlines that alliance
comprehends the history of the older democracy until the dis-
aster of 1840.

The western land policy generally supported in congress
was that of Thomas Hart Benton. It is true that in Illinois
politics Edwards' doctrine of the state's right to the public
lands persisted till 1833, and its revival in congress by a Mis-
souri representative in 1839 merely embarrassed Benton and
the advocates of his policy by serving as a red rag to arouse
the east. Clay cleverly sought to connect Edwards' policy
with Benton's.24 "The Senator," he said, "modestly claimed
only an old smoked, rejected joint; but the stomach of his
Excellency yearned after the whole hog!"25 The outlines of
Benton's policy of graduation, the scaling down year by year
of the price of unsold land, and preemption, the allowing of
special purchase privileges to actual settlers, has already been
outlined. In general it may be said that preemption measures
were intended to enable the small buyer to earn on the public
land enough to acquire title to a farm; graduation measures
by successive reductions of price were designed to bring onto
the market parts of the older west, such as southern Illinois,
that still were thinly settled.26

The east and the whig party, as the diminution of the

23 Congressional Debates, 1829-1830, p. 4, n, 23, 44, 6p, 96.

24 Illinois Intelligencer, April 16, May 21, 1831; Illinois Advocate, Janu-
ary 26, 1833; Sangamo Journal, April 19, 1823.

25 Congressional Debates, 1831-1832, p. 1102.

26 Ibid., 1829-1830, p. 8.

186 THE FRONTIER STATE

public debt seemed about to force a new disposal of the public
land revenue allotted to its discharge, were obliged to find a
rival public land policy. They found it in the distribution
measure first proposed in 1832 by Henry Clay, a westerner,
but not a citizen of a public land state. Clay's policy proposed
the distribution among the states of the revenue from the sale
of the public land, with especially favorable consideration to
western states. The measure was adroitly conceived that the
west might be conciliated by the offered sop of hard cash. The
east, its framers hoped, would welcome a measure which would
postpone the necessity for reducing the price of the public
lands and would prevent the immediate drain of factory
operatives to cheap lands in the west. The supporters of the
policy designed to enlist the aid of the old advocates of the
American system by laying stress on the state works of internal
improvement which the distributed funds might initiate.
Above all, the measure was in their intent one step in the
direction of federalization of power.

Distribution remained a standing whig policy for years to
come, and Benton accepted its challenge. He avowed openly
that distribution must be defeated before his measures could
be adopted, and he once more summoned the south to an
alliance with the west. A distribution measure was passed in
1833, however, but was vetoed by the president. Meanwhile
there was passed a series of acts granting preemptions for
short terms of years — in 1830 for two years, in 1833 and in
i834.27

In 1835—1836 a further development in what may be called
the western land policy took place under the initiative of Sena-
tor Robert J. Walker of Mississippi, a state still as much
western as southern. The tremendous sales of 1834 and 1835
in Illinois had provoked the fear that the public domain would
pass into the hands of speculators, and Walker to prevent it
proposed a preemption and graduation measure designed to

27 Congressional Debates, 1829-1830, p. n, 44; ibid., 1831-1832, p. 785, 903,
1148, 1167; ibid., 1836-1837, p. 789.

SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTH 187

limit sales to actual settlers in quantities not exceeding a sec-
tion. Emphatically this would have benefited the small farmer
of the north rather than the planter of the south. Concerning
this measure, Clay prophesied that if it were passed the public
domain was gone. Even some of the western senators opposed
it. Calhoun's alternative measure, which proposed to cede
the lands to the several states for one-third their proceeds,
procured him some passing popularity in the west.28

Distribution in the form of deposit with the states suc-
ceeded in congress in 1836, after it was apparent that a pure
distribution measure could not be passed over Jackson's veto.
Meanwhile the land speculator was becoming a more and more
disturbing problem, and his ubiquity is revealed by his figuring
as a type character in the newspapers of that day. Walker
designed his suppression, as has been seen, through preemption.
Benton characteristically aimed at the same result by a proposal
that only gold and silver be received in payment for lands; and
this proposal was finally embodied in Jackson's specie circular,
which, Benton pronounced, had itself served as a preemption
act.29

In Illinois as elsewhere the whigs and democrats took
ground on the rival land policies, and Illinois elected to adopt
the democratic policy. Benton's policy, in 1831 and 1832,
found indorsement by the Illinois legislature and in public
meetings.30 Preemption in 1834 was a popular measure.
Duncan, however, voted for the distribution act of 1833, which
met the opposition of the Illinois Jackson papers and politi-
cians; the Sangamo Journal favored it. The issue was also
drawn in the presidential campaign of 1836, the whigs advo-
cating distribution as a measure which would give the state a
fund for internal improvements. In 1837 the Illinois senate
approved Walker's measure. Van Buren's first message,
deprecating temporary preemption acts as inducing a disregard

28 Congressional Debates, 1835-1836, p. 1028, ibid., 1836-1837, p. 663, 733;
Congressional Globe, 25 congress, 3 session, appendix, 44 ff.

29 Ibid., 25 congress, 2 session, appendix, 291 ff.

30 House Journal, 1832-1833, i session, 740.

i88 THE FRONTIER STATE

for law, advocated graduation by quality; but the Illinois
papers pointed out that this proposal showed no more friend-
ship for the west than Clay's plan. Clay indeed, no longer
"Harry of the West," suffered the consequences of his con-
temptuous remarks on squatters which were noted down by R.
M. Young for use against him in Illinois.31

In the end, the public land policy acted upon by these two
opposing forces remained stationary. On the one side the
whigs were never able to secure a full measure of distribution ;
on the other, while the democrats in 1841 secured a permanent
preemption measure, they never achieved graduation. Yet the
democrats throughout had stood more or less consistently for
the interests of the western settler and in their policy was the
germ of the homestead legislation, that prevented the total
eclipse of the small freehold domain in the west. Whether
graduation would have assisted the penniless farm laborer, or
whether it would only have depreciated the holdings of those
who had already bought for the benefit of the new land specu-
lators cannot be said. The democratic party, however, es-
poused the policy that looked particularly to the development
of the west; and it is significant that Illinois, generally indorse-
ing that policy, gave its votes to the party that maintained it.
On public lands, as on other matters, the party of Andrew
Jackson was still the party of the west.

After a digression, in which has been noticed the influence
of the settlement of northern and central Illinois on the state's
political course, a return may be made to the consideration of
a more obvious result from settlement — development of com-
merce and the consequent demand for more adequate
transportation. Indeed the great speculative public land sales
of 1834-1837 may be regarded as the decisive cause of the
more than speculative internal improvement scheme on which

31 Illinois Advocate, October 5, 1833; Alton Spectator, December 28, 1833;
Alton American, January 3, 1834; Sangamo Journal, August 10, 1833, March 12,
April 2, June 25, July 2, July 16, 1836, May 10, 1838; Chicago American, Janu-
ary 30, 1836; Illinois State Register, June 24, August 19, 1836; Senate Journal,
1835-1836, i session, 80, 85; Congressional Globe, 25 congress, 3 session, ap-
pendix, 225.

SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTH 189

the state embarked in 1837. That system and the state's later
attempts to extricate itself from the ruin it brought divides the
pioneer period of the state's history from the era of transition.

Some notice has already been paid to the meteoric rise of
Chicago in the commercial field; but the city which showed the
steadiest commercial development in the decade was Alton.
Alton had been hampered at the beginning of its career by liti-
gation over the title to its site, and its aspirations to rival St.
Louis had led it into a long drawn out and fruitless struggle to
procure the passage of the Cumberland road through it rather
than through St. Louis. It had been some time before Alton
succeeded in enlisting the full strength of Illinois on its side.
By 1831, however, the city was making rapid progress in im-
portance as a produce market. New England capital came to
its support. Griggs, Manning, and Company offered St. Louis
prices for produce, calling for forty thousand bushels of wheat
and offering to execute commissions in the east at a charge of
two and one-half per cent.32 By 1835 there were at least three
firms of commission and forwarding merchants in business in
the city; beef, pork, lard, whisky, furs, flour, lead were coming
in for export from Quincy and Galena as well as from Alton's
natural hinterland. Apparently tributary to Alton were num-
erous small towns where storekeepers bought of its whole-
sale merchants and forwarded local produce to its market.

Business methods in Illinois were from the modern point of
view somewhat rudimentary. Alton merchants sold old stocks
of goods at auction to country merchants on long credit. Col-
lections everywhere were slow, a favorite business principle
being that in hard times one did better by not driving his debtor
to extremities. Newspapers, it is true, preached the modern
gospel that true advertising consists in setting forth your wares
in such fashion as to create a desire for them; and they laid
down the rule that the true index of a town's business was the
newspaper advertising of its merchants. Yet even while they

32 Alton Spectator, May 14, October 23, 1832, January 22, 27, 1833, Decem-
ber 31, 1835.

i9o THE FRONTIER STATE

urged this precocious wisdom on their patrons, they felt it
necessary to advise them to show civility and courtesy to their
customers and to warn them to beware of expecting every man
who was shown goods to purchase.33

Galena in 1830 was a typical mining town which had
grown up between 1823 and 1829 with the rise of lead produc-
tion from 335,130 pounds to 13,343,150. The population
was migratory, the miners coming to work in the lead mines
in summer and most of them returning south in winter. It was
a typical bonanza town with wages as high as twenty-five dol-
lars a month and speculatively high rents, until the fall in the
price of lead in 1829 produced genuine hard times. Even in
1837 a two-story frame store rented for eight hundred dollars
a year, and lots were held at two hundred dollars a foot. The
federal government in 1829 was still the landlord, leasing the
lead mines on shares which were hard to collect. In 1829 it
provided for a sale of town lots to holders, which curiously
enough aroused some local opposition. In the thirties a doc-
trine, which had considerable vogue, that the federal govern-
ment could not constitutionally lease its land made the collection
of rents almost impossible ; and the commissioner of the general
land office as well as the state legislature urged the sale of the
mineral lands to private holders.34

The most significant natural development in transportation
between 1830 and 1840 was the establishment of a network of
communication lines radiating from Chicago. Chicago's
career began as a distributing point for merchandise brought
by the Great Lakes route. In 1831 Enoch C. March imported
goods to St. Louis via Chicago at one-third less cost than by
way of New Orleans. In 1833 O. Newberry shipped several
hundred barrels of beef from Chicago to New York via Albany
at a cost of only thirteen dollars a ton. In 1834 weekly ar-

33 Alton American, December 13, 1833; Galena Advertiser, August 31,
1829; Peoria Register, May 26, 1838; Sangamo Journal, July 13, 1833.

34 Galena Advertiser, July 20, August 3, September 14, November 9, 1829,
February 8, 15, 1830; Peoria Register, October 21, 1837; Illinois Intelligencer,
October 7, 1831; Miner's Journal, July 22, September 20, 1828; Senate Docu-
ments, 25 congress, 2 session, number 131.

SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTH 191

rivals of steamers from Buffalo were advertised. In 1835,
255 sailing ships arrived at Chicago; in 1836, 49 steamboats
and 383 sailing ships. By 1839 there was a full-fledged steam-
boat pool which divided profits according to tonnage. Chicago
merchants, not content with three weeks time and aspiring for
even quicker and cheaper transportation, hoped that the New
York and Erie railroad would enable freight to be shipped
through as early as March 10 while the Erie canal was still
frozen. Once this railroad and those across Michigan were
in operation, it was said New York and Chicago would be only
seventy-four hours apart.35 Even with the twelve to fourteen
days which was the minimum time required for freight between
Chicago and the east in 1839, there were great possibilities in
supplying other Illinois markets; thus it was believed that
Galena could get goods two months quicker and much cheaper
by way of Chicago. For penetrating the central part of the
state, there was the Illinois river which was navigable as far
up as Peoria or even Ottawa. The bad roads above Peru,
however, were a serious difficulty, in rendering it a route of
commerce tributary to Chicago.

Indeed the Illinois river for a time seemed more likely to
become the trunk line of a considerable transportation system
tributary to the Mississippi. In 1828 steamers went up to
Naples, in 1829 to Pekin, in 1830 to Peoria. In 1831 there
were 186 steamer arrivals at Naples, 32 at Beardstown, and
17 at Peoria. In 1837 the Peoria Register advertised seven
packets to ply between Peoria and St. Louis and one between
Peoria and Pittsburg. Nevertheless there were serious diffi-
culties. The bar at Beardstown was a particularly obstinate
handicap. In even the most favorable seasons navigation was
practically at an end in September. Even thus, Naples,
Beardstown, and Peoria enjoyed direct commercial relations
with the outside world at Pittsburg and New Orleans. In
1838 Peoria had a daily stage to Springfield which linked it

35 Illinois Advocate, October 21, November n, 1831; Chicago Democrat,
June 4, 1834; Alton Spectator, July 9, 1833; Chicago American, September 26,
November 21, December 5, 1835.

i92 THE FRONTIER STATE

with Terre Haute and St. Louis, as well as triweekly stages to
Galena, Ottawa, and Rushville and semiweekly ones to
Oquawka.86

Even from the earlier settlements the smaller rivers of
Illinois had served for the transportation of freight. The
Talisman's trip up the Sangamon is well known. As early as
1829 flatboats with cargoes of lead descended the Pecatonica
and the Rock. In 1836 a steamer ascended the Rock as far as
Dixon and in 1838 as far as Rockford. In 1839 there was a
St. Louis and Rock river packet.

The Mississippi, however, remained the state's most im-
portant transportation route, and the ease of its navigation
brought prosperity to the towns along its banks. In 1839
Savanna, a town of two hundred fifty inhabitants, was sending
four hundred tons of freight a year to Oregon, Rockford,
Freeport, Beloit, and Elkhorn. In 1837 Monmouth imported
from St. Louis through Oquawka. Alton and Galena have
already been mentioned; Warsaw and Nauvoo belong to a
later period.87

In the midst of wild land speculations, it was inevitable
that calculations of the cost of bringing produce to market
from some " Stone's Landing," portentously rechristened
" Napoleon," should have an important part. Already fair
transportation routes were in existence; the question was how
to improve them. The federal government would improve
the Mississippi; in a liberal mood it had already endowed the
Illinois and Michigan water route that would allow Chicago
merchants to take their toll of what passed in and out by the
lakes. To improve such rivers as the Illinois and the Rock
by state enterprise was feasible. Men were not content, how-
ever, with these comparatively modest improvements. Not
only were the "Goose Runs" of Illinois to be improved into

Register, July i, 1837, April 7, September 15, December 8, 1838,
July 27, August 17, 1839; Chicago American, July 6, August 31, 1839; Chi-
cago Democrat, February 10, 1836; Sangamo Journal, February 9, 1832; Illinois
Intelligencer, November 19, 1831.

87 Sangamo Journal, November 28, 1835; Peoria Register, April i, 1837,
April 27, May 12, 1838, October 12, 1839.

^ u

go

< a
U o

£ 1

w

SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTH 193

" Columbus Rivers," but scarcely five years had passed since
the railroad had demonstrated its practicability, before
dreamers in Illinois were devising routes by which the new
discovery might give fabulous values to the lands away from
the water routes. A state wide mania for improved transpor-
tation ended in logrollings and bargains which initiated a state
system of internal improvements based on calculations imperial
enough to have originated in the brain of Beriah Sellers
himself.

X. THE INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM

THE internal improvement scheme of 1837 is not only
the opening of a new era in the state's history; it is also
the climax of the former one. The various threads of the
state's political and economic interests — the desire of southern
Illinois for an equivalent to the Illinois and Michigan canal,
the local rivalries over the location of the state capital, the
aspirations of land speculators — all were woven together to
produce the fabric of the internal improvement system. It
can indeed be most easily explained if each thread be fol-
lowed separately to the point where it intertwines with the
others.

The problem of connecting the waters of the Great Lakes
at Chicago with the Illinois river seemed enticingly simple.
The Des Plaines branch of the Illinois flows south parallel to
the lake shore and sometimes not ten miles away from it.
Moreover the two branches of the Chicago river, uniting from
north and south to flow into the lake, contribute to lessen even
that distance. Between the south branch and the Des Plaines
lay in dry weather a portage of no longer than three miles, and
in the wet season a lake or slough five miles long and six to
forty yards wide through which Mackinaw boats of six and
eight tons could pass into the Illinois without a portage. So
nearly even were the levels of the two rivers that the change
of the breeze would float objects from the " lake " now into
Lake Michigan, now into the Des Plaines. This route, unim-
proved as it was, was regularly followed by the fur traders of
Mackinac.1

The engineering problem, though simple in appearance,
was in reality extremely difficult. Since the bed of the Des
Plaines was in 1819 estimated to be some two feet higher than

1 American State Papers, Miscellaneous, 2: 555.

194

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM 195

the lake, a bed channel would simply have turned the waters of
the river into the lake. To correct this difficulty2 Major
Stephen Long recommended the construction of two locks at
the two ends of the slough ; but the opinion was generally held
that in the dry season there would not be enough water to
operate them and that it would be necessary to construct the
canal to a lower point, somewhere near the falls of the Des
Plaines. There was of course also the possibility of using some
other portage, for instance that to the Kankakee, or that from
the St. Joseph or Maumee to the Wabash, all of which were
enumerated in the engineers' report of 1819.

At the beginning Illinois was concerned rather with obtain-
ing means to construct the canal than with the engineering
problem involved. After some differences both houses of the
second general assembly concurred in a resolution directing the
congressional delegates to work for a grant of the two per cent
fund reserved for roads and of a strip of land a section wide
along the canal route to the Illinois river. At the next session
of congress in accordance with a resolution offered by Cook,
an act was passed granting a strip ninety feet wide on each
side of the canal and reserving from sale the adjoining sections.

Meanwhile, the canal had become a subject of newspaper
discussion apparently both as a political question and as a
matter of sectional rivalry. In 1822 articles began to point
out the importance of a route to market other than that through
New Orleans.3 For this very reason it was generally supposed
that southeastern Illinois would be opposed to a project that
would tax that region to destroy its monopoly of the route to
market via the Mississippi. Opposition developed a second
time in the general assembly of 1822—1823, when A. P. Field
proposed once more to memoralize congress to apply the two
per cent fund to digging the canal. A canal bill after vicissi-
tudes apparently promoted by members representing constitu-

2 American State Papers, Miscellaneous, 2:555. Since the foregoing was
written the full account of the Illinois and Michigan canal by J. W. Putnam
has appeared. See also Annals of Congress, 17 congress, i session, 2586.

3 Illinois Intelligencer, November 30, 1822.

i96 THE FRONTIER STATE

encies of the Ohio and the Wabash rivers was finally passed,
February 10, 1823. Curiously enough it was finally reported
back to the house the same day with the convention resolutions,
probably both as parts of the same bargain.4

As finally passed, the bill provided for five commissioners
to lay out a route for a canal and to calculate its cost; it
directed them further to bring to the attention of the governors
of Indiana and Ohio the desirability of improving the Wabash
and the Maumee rivers.5 The commissioners tried in vain to
get the services of New York canal engineers, but finally were
content with Justus Post to whom later they added Rene Paul.

The legislature of 1825 determined to turn the enterprise
over to a private corporation which it created, consisting of
Coles, Bond, Post, Erasmus Brown, W. S. Hamilton, Joseph
Duncan, and John Warnock, who were to receive all canal
grants and complete a canal in ten years ; they were permitted
to charge a toll of one-half cent per ton per mile on tonnage of
boats through it, three cents on Illinois produce or merchandise,
six cents on foreign merchandise, and eight cents on all else.
In fifty years the state might buy the canal for cost plus six per
cent interest.

Congressman Cook could hardly have been expected to
approve this scheme. His political opponents were in control
of it; it was contrary to the solution at which he himself had
been working — a generous congressional land grant. During
the session of 1823—1824, he had attempted to unite the inter-
ests of the enterprise with those of similar ones in which other
states might join and to secure a grant to the state of lands
along the canal reserved from sale by the federal government.6
In November of 1825, therefore, he published an address
urging a repeal of the canal act. In part his argument was
that the sum of money which it would finally be necessary
to raise to purchase the canal would be huge. He, therefore,
advised borrowing on the credit of the school lands and the

4 House Journal, 1822-1823, 1 session, 262.

5 Laws of 1823, p. 151.

eAnnals of Congress, 18 congress, i session, 873, 1914.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM 197

three per cent school fund, or better still seeking aid from the
government ; in the latter case he possibly intended to combine
the project with one for an armory on the Illinois or Fox river.
By an optimistic calculation he sought to show that the probable
increase of Illinois population and of traffic would enable the
state to finance the canal from the tolls. He was on safer
ground when he pointed out the danger to the state of placing
such a transportation monopoly in private hands and of the
chance that it would control the politics of the state. Cook's
figures were attacked, but his argument against the monopoly
was not destroyed. As the Edwardsville Spectator pointed
out, his opponents had to admit that the terms of the act were
too unfavorable to the state ; yet it was impossible to interest
investors on less favorable terms. The legislature, meeting
in special session January, 1826, to redistrict the state, repealed
the act, the senate voting fourteen to three.7

In congress a bill for a canal grant had been brought up in
the session of 1825 and again in 1826. The Intelligencer
alleged that it suffered from the jealousy of Mississippi and
Louisiana members, who feared that trade would be deflected
from New Orleans. Finally in 1827, the act was passed. It
granted the state one-half the land to a depth of five sections
on each side of the canal, reserving for the benefit of the United
States all alternate sections; the canal was to be toll free to
the United States government and was to be begun in five
years and completed in twenty. The act may perhaps be
regarded as a last triumph of the liberal internal improvement
policy of the administration; it was certainly regarded as a
triumph in Illinois.8

Two successive Illinois assemblies undertook to utilize
the grant thus obtained. An act was passed in 1829 which
provided for the biennial appointment by governor and senate
of three commissioners, one of whom was to act as treasurer.

7 Illinois Intelligencer, November 25, 1825; Edwardsville Spectator, Decem-
ber 3, 1825; Senate Journal, 1826, 2 session, 58.

8 Illinois Intelligencer, March 25, 1825, April 21, 1827; Congressional
Debates, 1826-1827, appendix, xviii.

198 THE FRONTIER STATE

They were to survey a route, to select the land granted by
the United States, and to sell it in tracts or in town lots. They
were to use the funds obtained as soon as practicable for the
construction of a canal, four feet deep and forty feet wide at
the surface. This act, which as can be seen was very loosely
drawn, was amended in 1831 so as to increase the efficiency
of the board.9 It raised the question of the practicability of
improving the navigation on the Illinois river below the Fox
in lieu of the lower route of the canal, and also the question
of the use of the Calumet as a feeder below the Chicago and
the Des Plaines; but of greater importance it raised the more
fundamental question whether a railroad might not serve the
state better than a canal. The commissioners, in their report
of November 22, 1831, recommended on professional advice
the construction of a railroad instead of a canal. During the
winter of 1832 they made inquiries in New York as to possible
financial supplies but without eliciting any offer which the state
could accept.

The canal project, after a period of quiescence during
1833, became a political issue of importance in 1834; and
candidates for office gave the matter much attention. Some
merely declared for the measure. Of those who were more
specific, some advised the completion of the enterprise by a
private company; others specifically declared against taxation
for it. In the south there was some attempt to move for the
construction of a canal from the Wabash to Alton as more
advantageous; this proposition of course called forth angry
protests from the north.10

There was much dissent from the current opinion that
expense must be avoided at all hazards. The Chicago Demo-
crat denounced the proposal to endow a New York company

9 La<w s of 1829, p. 14; Laws of 1831, p. 39.

10 Alexander M. Jenkins, Alton American, June 2, 1834; Benjamin Roberts,
Illinois Advocate, July 5, 1834; James Evans, Sangamo Journal, July 5, 1834;
James Shepherd and James Adams, ibid., July 12, 1834; William Alvey, ibid.,
July 19, 1834; R. K. McLaughlin, ibid., July 26, 1834; William B. Archer, ibid.,
August 2, 1834; George Forquer, ibid., June 25, 1834. Forquer's proposal com-
prised a scheme for purchase in ten years for cost less the value of canal lands.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM 199

with the canal lands and to allow it to construct a railroad
instead of a canal. Would the people, it asked, in order to
keep the state's skirts free of debt, hand over canal lands that
in five years would be worth two millions?11 It disagreed
with the findings of James M. Bucklin, an engineer of promi-
nence, who had been consulted by the commissioners in 1831
as to the relative desirability of a railroad, concluding that
he had overestimated the cost of a canal. Governor Duncan
clung obstinately to the idea of a canal planned on an elaborate
scale. In his inaugural he urged that the state proceed boldly
with the enterprise relying on additional federal grants. He
presented the stock arguments for canals as against rail-
roads — permanency and freedom from repair costs. They
furnished avenues of trade, so he pointed out, by which farmers
in defiance of monopoly might carry their own produce to
market. With a view of future developments imperial in its
scope he suggested at the outset a cut sufficiently wide for a
steamboat canal, except on the summit level where the cut
could later be widened; and since the tolls would yield, in his
estimation, a revenue out of proportion to any sum the work
could possibly cost, he urged the state to undertake the work
on its own account. A similar light-hearted optimism had
marked his attitude toward the project, when it was discussed
in congress.12

In the legislative session of 1834—1835 the debates on the
canal act turned on the question as to whether the faith of the
state or merely the canal land and its resources were to be
pledged to the enterprise. The argument of the opponents of
state credit was that if the lands were as valuable as they
appeared to be they should be sufficient to attract capital; but
the proposers of the measure argued that capitalists were
ignorant of the value of the lands. As the act was finally

Democrat, April 30, November 19, December 17, 1834; Sangamo
Journal, June 21, 1834,

12 House Journal, 1834-1835, i session, 25; Chicago Democrat, December
17, 1834, January 21, 1835, indorsed Duncan's policy. Sangamo Journal, July
26, 1834.

200 THE FRONTIER STATE

passed, the credit of the state was not pledged. The division
on the roll call was sharply north and south, giving some color
to the charge of the Chicago Democrat that the southern part
of the state was trying to retard the progress of the northern.13

The act of 1835 authorized the governor to negotiate a
loan not to exceed $500,000 on the canal lands and toll for the
construction of the canal. He was to appoint with the advice
of the senate a canal board of five, distinctly an executive tool
of the governor, to construct a canal forty-five feet wide and
four deep. The method of construction was not prescribed.
Ex-Governor Edward Coles found in the east that the funda-
mental objection of the capitalists to this loan was the failure
to pledge the faith of the state for the payment of principal
and interest. It was pointed out that interest would have to
be paid either out of the loan or from sales of town lots, the
sale of which was purely discretionary with the authorities ; and
that it would not be possible, in case of default, to take pos-
session of the canal. Capitalists regarded the transaction as
based too much on the pleasing prospect of a further federal
grant which might not be forthcoming. The character of the
security behind the loan made it impossible to float it in
Europe, where five per cent loans had ultimately to find a
market. The northern friends of the enterprise, accepting
Coles' conclusions, declared for a special session to formulate
a proposition more acceptable from the financial point of
view.

Primarily for purposes of apportionment a special session
of the legislature was held. Duncan was optimistic as usual
in his message. He predicted that the sale of United States
lands at Chicago showed that the lands and town lots owned
by the state, not counting the additional grants that might be
relied on from congress, were even then worth from one to
three millions. " It is now no longer to be dreaded," pro-

13 Chicago Democrat, December 24, 1834; Illinois Advocate, February 4,
n, 1835; House Journal, 1834-1835, i session, 459. In advancing to the third
reading, it was then amended by striking out the credit of the state and passed
40 to 12, p. 503. See also ibid., 470, 472, 501.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM 201

ceeded Duncan, " that any reasonable sum of money borrowed
for the purpose of constructing this canal, will become a charge
on the State Treasury." He therefore advised a loan and the
sale of lots at Chicago from time to time to pay the interest.14
He still insisted on a steamboat canal.

The canal bill was drawn up by its supporters in Chicago
and altered and corrected by George Forquer. According to
whig accounts it was endangered and nearly defeated by the
partisan efforts of the democrats to provide for the appoint-
ment of commissioners. The act as it was finally passed,
largely through the influence of the whigs, provided for the
negotiation by the governor of a loan on the credit of the state
for $500,000, issuing for it a six per cent stock redeemable
after 1860, with a provision that it should not be sold for less
than par. The governor and senate were to appoint three
commissioners, removable for cause, to hold office until Janu-
ary, 1837, after which they were to be appointed biennally as
the legislature should direct.

The canal was to be of boat size and supplied with water
from Lake Michigan and such other sources as the commis-
sioners might decide. The commissioners were instructed to
sell lots in Chicago and Ottawa on annual installments. The
canal was to begin at or near Chicago on canal lands and ter-
minate near the mouth of the little Vermilion on land owned
by the state. The needed legislation had been obtained; but,
as events showed, the difficulties had only begun. The fate of
the various projects in the public improvement system began to
be vitally connected with the interests of the various aspirants
in the impending contest over the location of the state capital ;
and in the trades and bargains, by which local projects of one
kind and the other were advanced, local and sectional interests
were predominant. The state capital was originally located
in the wilderness at Vandalia with the intent that the state and
not private speculators should profit from the exploitation of

14 Coles to Duncan, April 28, 1835 in House Journal, 1835-1836, 2 session,
14; Delafield to Coles, April 20, 1835 in ibid., 19 ff . ; ibid., 8.

202 THE FRONTIER STATE

town lots ; but population had not followed the seat of govern-
ment. The town lot speculation had been a failure ; the town
was supposedly unhealthy, and its boarding houses were reputed
expensive and poor. An agitation begun, as it was claimed,
by legislative candidates from Sangamon and Morgan counties
in 1832 looked toward a settlement of the question of the loca-
tion of the capital, after the allotted twenty years at Vandalia
had expired. As soon as this subject was broached in the
legislature, complicated sectional alignments appeared. By
clever maneuvering the Madison county members, it was
claimed, defeated a proposal for a location by a board of
commissioners and substituted one providing for a popular
referendum on Jacksonville, Springfield, Alton, Vandalia,
Peoria, and a town to be located at the geographical center
of the state.15

As it was passed, the act was by no means to the taste of
the people of Springfield. The amended bill had been carefully
devised to break up the phalanx of the north. It was evident
that with Peoria, Jacksonville, and the geographical center all
to contend with, the chances of either Alton or Vandalia were
brighter than Springfield's. The Sangamo Journal bewailed
the fact that the choice must be a minority one. It protested
that no one could determine where the geographical center
was or what was its fitness; it depicted the reputed unhealthi-
ness and the liability to summer malaria of Alton.16 The
Alton Spectator advised it to look at the matter philosophi-
cally, remembering that if any town had been left out, Spring-
field might well have been it.

In December the idea of a convention to overcome the
effect of the act by uniting the northern politicians on some
one location was discussed. A meeting at Springfield on
January 4, 1834, called such a convention to meet at Rushville

15 Illinois Advocate, October 29, 1834; Alton American, May 12, 1834;
House Journal, 1832-1833, i session, 271 ; Senate Journal, 1832-1833, i ses-
sion, 290.

10 Sangamo Journal, May 9, June i, July 20, 27, 1833. The Journal was
especially angry with the grasping spirit of Alton, ibid., January u, 1834.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM 203

the first Monday in April. The meeting duly convened on
April 7 with delegates present from Knox, McDonough, San-
gamon, Hancock, Morgan, Macon, Tazewell, Adams, Warren,
Putnam, Schuyler, Peoria, and Cook counties. An attempt
was made by a Schuyler delegate to recommend a repeal of
the law and the selection of Springfield by popular vote. A
postponement was moved and the adoption of an address
protesting against the multiplication of northern aspirants and
recommending Springfield was secured by an overwhelming
majority. The minority, however, from Peoria, Putnam,
Tazewell, Knox, and Cook complained that the convention had
organized at an unduly early hour, before all the delegates
had arrived. They believed that designating any one northern
place would unite the whole southern part of the state; rather
than have that happen, they preferred that the act should be
repealed.17

With a view to the vote, all the aspirants put forth their
arguments for themselves and against their neighbors. A
Vandalia meeting, July 3, protested against the unfairness of
deciding the question six years before the expiration of the
allotted time, as Vandalia was just beginning to develop and
urged the unconstitutionality of the law. The board of trade
of Alton, June 16, issued an address calling attention to that
city's well-nigh year-round water communication which made
it accessible from various parts of the state. The location
of the capital there they urged would insure the location of
the Cumberland road as the state wished it. It would enable
Alton to rival St. Louis in earnest, for " the great city of the
Northwest is yet to be reared on the banks of the Mississippi."
Jacksonville could argue a large population, a college, and a
reputation for culture; Springfield could claim a location near
the center of the state. Peoria urged its facilities for manu-
facture, its location on the main routes of travel between
Galena, Chicago, St. Louis, and the south, and its water con-

17 Sangamo Journal, January n, April 19, November 15, 1834; Chicago
Democrat, April 23, 1834; Illinois Advocate, July 19, 1834; Alton Spectator,
April 17, 24, 1834.

204 THE FRONTIER STATE

nection.18 Against Jacksonville and Springfield was alleged
their distance from navigable rivers. In the referendum vote
Alton was successful but by a narrow margin only.

The decisive struggle came in 1837. In Sangamon county
the legislative elections had resulted in the choice of nine
staunch whigs — the famous "Long Nine." They stood for
the unity of the county and a common effort to promote its
interests. In revenge for this complete overthrow the demo-
cratic -opponents, John Calhoun and his friends, attempted to
defeat the Springfield project, some of them lobbying for
Peoria and some for Illiopolis, a town set near the center of
the state in which Duncan was said to be interested. In May
of 1837, Simeon Francis of the Sangamo Journal sardonically
noted that the town was represented only by a wolf trap, a fit
symbol of those trapped there.19 The measure for which the
Sangamon county members determined to work was a vote by
the general assembly — thus they could ultimately hope to
eliminate rivals that divided their vote. By a narrow margin
they carried their new act. On the vote that followed, Spring-
field was successful on the fourth ballot; and Vandalia at the
next session sought in vain to secure the repeal of the act. On
June 20, 1839, Governor Carlin issued his proclamation re-
moving the capital to Springfield on or before July 4.

The means by which the Sangamon delegation achieved
their triumph were probably maneuvering and trading of the
frankest sort. Orville H. Browning in his somewhat pompous
way at a dinner in Springfield gave all praise to the delegation,
pronouncing that it was their "judicious management, their
ability, their gentlemanly deportment, their unassuming man-
ners, their constant and untiring labor for your interests," 20
that had won Springfield her triumph. Stephen A. Douglas
more bluntly denying that he had traded his vote to the dele-

18 Sangamo Journal, July 27, 1833, June 21, 1834; Alton Spectator, July i,
1834; Chicago Democrat, April i, 1834.

19 Sangamo Journal, May 13, July i, 1837; House Journal, 1836-1837, i
session, 610, 613, 663, 702.

20 Sangamo Journal, July 29, 1837.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM 205

gation for a land office — and indeed he voted for Jacksonville
to the last — declared the delegation had traded everything
to obtain the capital. Peter Green of Clay county denied that
the trade had been made of votes for the capital at Springfield
for votes for a system of internal improvements for the south.
But later when it was proposed to repeal the internal improve-
ment system, Lincoln indignantly declared that a bargain had
been made between the friends of the system and the friends
of Springfield and that it was irrepealable. A casual examina-
tion of the legislative journals shows the Sangamon men always
working for everyone's interest, voting for all additions to
the system proposed, and splitting on motions to substitute
one thing for another. Thus the sectional contest over the
capital location led to the triumph of local interests in public
improvement legislation.21

Meanwhile between 1829 and 1836 various local projects
for internal improvements had been broached, discussed,
expanded, all of them being based on more and more extrava-
gant calculations of profits. The time was ripe for their
friends to unite, and by bargains of one sort or another to com-
mit the state to putting under construction a wild and fantastic
system of internal improvements. At first such proposals had
attracted but passing notice. Thus in 1829 the Galena Adver-
tiser clipped an account of a projected railroad from Pittsburg
to the head of steamboat navigation on the Illinois and thence
to the Mississippi. In 1831 one or two meetings were held to
urge a railroad from Lake Erie to the Mississippi. On Decem-
ber 28, 1832, a Jacksonville meeting, while indorsing the broad
project, added a suggestion for a railroad from Jacksonville
to the Illinois river. Abraham Lincoln in offering himself for
the general assembly in 1832 suggested such a railroad with
an extension to Springfield but concluded that the estimated
cost, $290,000, was prohibitory. He judged it better to
improve the navigation of the Sangamon, making it available
for boats of twenty-five to thirty tons, and reenforced his

21 Illinois State Register, July 20, 1838; Sangamo Journal, April 22, 1837.

2o6 THE FRONTIER STATE

statement with arguments based on his flatboat trip down the
river.22

In 1834 the project took a form which provoked the hos-
tility of the friends of the Illinois and Michigan canal. As
then framed the transverse project involved a canal from the
Wabash to the Mississippi to connect to the eastward with
the projected series of canals to Lake Erie and Buffalo. In
support of such a project it was argued that Lake Erie would
be open much earlier. in the spring than Huron and Michigan
and that a circuit would be thereby avoided.23 Forquer in
1834 did not by any means reject the plan of an Illinois and
Michigan canal. Instead of the transverse canal, he sug-
gested a railroad via Danville, Decatur, Springfield, Beards-
town, Rushville, and Quincy.24 The Alton Spectator sarcas-
tically pronounced that Forquer's scheme had special reference
to Springfield's ambitions for success in the capital election.
The Sangamo Journal in turn pronounced that the thing that
would really insure the position of Alton would be a railroad
which would make it the depot and market of the Sangamon
country.25

This last project gained favor in Springfield during 1835.
In a meeting on May 25, Forquer elaborated the possible
advantages to be gained from a vigorous enlistment of local
support for the enterprise. He regarded such a railroad as
only a step in the completion of a line to the Wabash and Erie
canal, which should be accompanied by one to the Illinois and
Mississippi rivers. He computed the total cost at $1,248,000

22 Galena Advertiser, September 14, 1829; Sangamo Journal, January 5,
March 15, 1832.

23 Sangamo Journal, April 19, 1834. It stated the Alton Spectator and
Beardstown Chronicle were favorable to the project. See Alton Spectator,
April 24, 1834.

24 Sangamo Journal, June 28, 1834. James Adams in his canvass for gov-
ernor advocated a canal or railroad from the Wabash to the Mississippi. Ibid.,
July 12, 1834. Representatives from Adams and Schuyler counties met on
December 7, 1835, and urged a railroad from the Erie and Wabash canal to
Quincy via Springfield and Jacksonville and also suggested a railroad to the
Ohio via Vandalia. Ibid., December 19, 1835. There was a meeting at Macki-
naw to urge a railroad from the Wabash to the Illinois. Ibid. Ewing proposed
this in his message of 1834. House Journal, 1834-1835, i session, 16.

25 Sangamo Journal, April 25, 1835; Alton Spectator, August 26, 1834.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM 207

and estimated the tonnage as 45,000 annually, yielding $675,-
ooo in freights. The return from the bonanza he calculated
at eighteen per cent, and he believed the farmers perfectly
warranted in pledging their farms for stock. Once these roads
and the Charleston-Memphis line, together with the Wabash-
Erie and Illinois-Michigan canals were completed, Springfield
would sit enthroned with markets on three distant seaboards
as her vassals. A railroad convention of delegates from San-
gamon, Macon, Madison, and Macoupin was held a few weeks
later to push the Springfield-Alton railroad scheme.26 The
cost of the Springfield and Alton railroad was estimated at
$500,000. But it was also estimated that the country would
provide for it 37,346 tons of freight a year — assuming that
each of 3,000 farms exported annually 100 bushels of wheat,
200 of corn, and 100 of oats, 12 hogs, and 5 cattle. Imports
would be 1 2,500 tons annually. The gross receipts from Sanga-
mon county alone would yield $172,050 revenue annually, not
counting that of the three other favored counties. The mania
for calculations of imperial commercial enterprises was in
men's blood and had to run its course.

One section of the state began to vie with another in pur-
suing bubbles. In the fall of 1835 the project of the central
railroad began to take form. On October 28 the Chicago
Democrat printed a letter from Sidney Breese suggesting the
construction of a railroad from the junction of the canal with
the Illinois river to the mouth of the Ohio. Meetings in
support of such a project were held in Shelby county, October
19 and 20, and November 18; at Vandalia, October 26; and
at Decatur, November n. A meeting in Jackson county,
December 2, deplored the comparative apathy of southern
Illinois in pushing her interests and warned her that by stand-
ing still she was losing position. It demanded support from
southern members to the central railroad project.27 An act
for a two and a half million dollar corporation with a long

28 Chicago Democrat, June 10, 1835; Sangamo Journal, April 25, May
22, 1835.

27 Illinois Advocate, October 21, 28, December 17, 1835.

208 THE FRONTIER STATE

and impressive list of incorporators passed the assembly
in 1836.

Several schemes, as might be imagined, centered on Chi-
cago. One that attracted some interest in 1835 was for a
railroad from Chicago to Vincennes. A federal land grant
was asked for it, and the company was incorporated with three
millions of capital to construct a railroad via Danville, Paris,
and Palestine, to be begun in three years and completed in
eight. There was provision for territorial location of direc-
tors and the road might be operated by steam or animal power.
Next summer stock subscription books were opened.28 In
1837 T. W. Smith and others petitioned congress for a right
of way and a right to preempt in a ten-year credit a section
on each side of the road. In return, they made the offer to
carry the mails daily. At the time it was said that a million
dollars of stock had been subscribed.

Inevitably various localities of the state came each to the
conviction of the advisability of pooling local interests in inter-
nal improvements in a common stock. As early as 1830, Coles
had prepared for the historical society of the state an excellent
account of the state's physiography with reference to naviga-
tion and internal improvements; but such considerations were
not to have the decisive voice in the laying out of public works.
On November 2, 1833, the Sangamo Journal noticed the state-
ment of a London paper that fifty million dollars of English
capital could be lent to states desiring internal improvements
or state banks. In 1834 several candidates garnished their
announcements with statements for or against internal improve-
ment systems.29 Duncan in his inaugural message proposed
the future improvement of the Illinois and Wabash channels
on some such fashion, but like a good whig he looked for a
possible change of heart on Jackson's part which would bring

28 House Journal, 1834-1835, I session, 141; Laws of 1835, p. 88; Chicago
American, September 26, 1835.

29 Illinois Intelligencer, January 16, 1830; Illinois Advocate, June 26, July
5, 1834. Easton Whitten and Benjamin Roberts offer for the senate in Bond
county against internal improvements in state money. James Evans offers for
the governor. Sangamo Journal, July 5, 1834 declares for the system.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM 209

federal aid. The Chicago Democrat, clipping the Peoria
Champion, on December 3, 1834, proposed as business for
the legislature the following railroads, Chicago to the Wabash,
Chicago to Galena, and Terre Haute to Quincy. In that
session, however, internal improvements were regarded as
possible rivals to the canal and as such for the moment to be
discouraged.30

In 1835 the movement gained fresh impetus. Forquer's
speech, already cited, bears its testimony to the fact. On Octo-
ber 1 6, Sidney Breese31 pointed out a possible combination
of internal improvement schemes which he thought might
supply transportation both to the south and west. The scheme
included a railroad on the route of the Illinois Central, for
which the credit of the state might be pledged. From it,
branches might radiate to the Wabash and the upper Mis-
sissippi. This prospect of juncture of the canal and the central
railroad was considered by some as stretching the credit of the
state too far. A member professed that in the next session
he voted against the canal, not because he thought there was
any danger in pledging the bulk of the stock for the canal, but
because of a scheme to couple canal and railroad and borrow
four millions for them.32 Such a combination was proposed
by a meeting at Ottawa, November 18.

Breese's plan was indorsed by a letter in the Sangamo
Journal of November 28, 1835, which proposed also a rail-
road from Alton to Shawneetown to intersect the railroad
from Louisville to New Orleans as well as a railroad from
the Wabash and Erie canal to Quincy and from Springfield to

30 Henry reported in the house, January 10, 1835, that it was necessary to
put the whole energy of the state in the canal, and accordingly he moved the
rejection of the petition for the improvement of the Illinois river. House
Journal, 1834-1835, i session, 264. William J. Gatewood argued similarly on
the incorporation of a railroad from Logansport to Quincy. Forquer argued
on the other side that after all the south had gained from salines, the north
might be entitled at least to an incorporation. The difficulty was caused by a
squabble as to the terminus at Alton or Quincy. Sangamo Journal, January
17, 1835.

31 Sangamon Journal, October 31, 1835.

82 Illinois Advocate, December 2, 1835, January 16, 1836.

210 THE FRONTIER STATE

Alton. By way of financing these projects the author suggested
a combination of land and stock aid and a private company.
The editor of the paper commented that the novelty lay in the
setting forth of a system for the whole state.

In the Illinois senate in the session of 1835—1836, Edwards
offered a set of internal improvement resolutions in which he
proposed that, to limit the impending multiplication of ineli-
gible routes, the committee on internal improvements should
report bills incorporating companies for railroads from the
state line toward the Wabash and Erie canal through Danville,
Decatur, and Springfield to Quincy; from the termination of
the Illinois and Michigan canal through Bloomington to Deca-
tur; and from Alton through Edwardsville and Equality to
Shawneetown. He proposed state loans to these enterprises
and a state subscription of one-third the capital stock in case
the stockholders of a company had subscribed two-thirds. The
right to buy out the company on terms was reserved to the
state. A week later, he amended the resolution by providing
that the line to Bloomington and Decatur serve to connect
the canal with the Wabash and Mississippi and the Alton and
Springfield railroads. His intention was to extend the road
at a future time from Decatur via Springfield to Vandalia
where it would connect with the Kaskaskia river which was
to be made navigable, if it was possible to do so, by the use
of future appropriations.33 Edwards saw far enough into
the defects, such as they were, of the haphazard system of
granting charters that obtained in the 1836 session; but his
positive argument for the concerted system which he outlined
was singularly wanting in insight. The plan he proposed was
merely building the railroads to connect the navigable rivers
and to furnish communication between the small cities of
that day.

Taken collectively the charters of 1836, which were passed
at haphazard and usually with no opposition, are rather inter-
esting. First it may be said that they varied widely in their

33 Senate Journal, 1835-1836, 2 session, 154, 198.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM 211

provisions, probably in accord with the preconceptions of the
lawyers who drew them up. Some of them contained provi-
sions by which the state might take the properties over after
a term of years, either at an appraised value, or at the original
cost plus a fixed yearly interest, or for cost plus cumulative
interest. Several contained provisions allowing the legislature
to regulate rates, if after a, term of years the profits of the
company exceeded a certain percentage. There were charters,
however, which lacked one or many of these provisions. Most
of them contained a forfeiture clause in the event the road was
not duly begun, and some specified elaborately the rate at
which construction must progress. Sometimes the charters
were for limited periods; in other cases the only limitation was
a power of legislative purchase in a term of years; sometimes
there was not even that.84 The Illinois Central was granted
a monopoly limited by regulation of tolls and a right of pur-
chase after twenty-five years.35 On stock issues, the limita-
tions devised often seemed rather intended to secure a wide
distribution of stock than any other purpose. Sometimes the
capital was specified in the charter, sometimes a specified
increase was allowed, and sometimes a limit was placed upon
the income. The sole limitation on the Mississippi, Spring-
field, and Carrollton railroad was that ten per cent of the
stock be paid in. The Warsaw, Peoria, and Wabash was
under practically no limitation whatever.36 Some charters
included provisions for reports to the -legislature and others
did not. Had the hopes of 1836 ever reached fruition, Illinois
would have been covered with a railway system almost defying
regulation.

The details of the various evanescent charters of the 1836
session are of comparatively little interest. They suggest in

34 Charters of Mt. Carmel and Alton; Pekin, Bloomington, and Wabash;
Belleville; Alton, Wabash and Erie; Rushville; Wabash and Mississippi;
Central Branch Wabash; Wabash and Mississippi Union; Pekin and Tremont;
and Mississippi, Springfield, and Carrollton railroads in Laws of 1836, p. 8, 12,
16, 18, 20, 21, 23, 36, 54, 63, 65, 89, 90.

33 Ibid., p. 129.

36 Ibid., p. 12, 76.

212 THE FRONTIER STATE

no great degree the railroads of the present This is true in
the main probably because they were centered commonly at
Alton rather than at St. Louis. Of the projected lines, the
Galena and Chicago Union, the Illinois Central line from
LaSalle to Cairo, and one from Danville to Meredosia sug-
gesting the line of the Wabash are the only extensive lines
which still persist.

The fateful legislative session of 1836—1837 was the logi-
cal result of the charters of 1836. With so many enterprises in
the field, the feeble resources that would scarcely have suf-
ficed a single enterprise were diffused among many. It is
difficult in the case of most of the enterprises projected during
1836 to trace any successful prosecution of the task of organ-
izing them. In the fall, Gallatin, Wayne, Sangamon, and
probably other counties appointed delegates to a convention
at Vandalia to decide what parts of the various lines had better
be supported.37

In the Illinois legislative session of 1836-1837 the internal
improvement system began with Douglas' resolutions. They
specified the Illinois and Michigan canal, a railroad from the
terminus of the canal to the mouth of the Ohio, a railroad
from Quincy to the Wabash and Erie canal, the improvement
of the Illinois and Wabash rivers, and surveys of other works.
These were to be constructed at the state's expense on a loan
of [blank in resolution] on the state's credit, and the debt
was to be floated by sales from the lands of the Illinois and
Michigan canal, that enterprise being compelled to forego its
I ' r_ privileged position and take its chance with the other works.
Three days later in the senate, Edwards proposed a joint
inquiry by the internal improvement committee of the two
houses as to the expediency of devising a system for the whole
state, the interest on the loan to be paid from a part of the
distribution fund. He left open the question of construction
by chartered companies. Full reports were made, and in con-

37 Sangamo Journal, February 13, August 27, November 26, 1836; Illinois
State Register, December 8, 1836.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM 213

sequence both houses passed resolutions begging shamelessly
for federal land grants.38 The house internal improvement
committee reported on January 9. It began with the usual
appeal to the brilliant prospects of New York and the even
greater opportunity before Illinois. It fortified itself by the
fact that in the internal improvement convention the people
had been represented and had spoken their mind. It offered
a plan more conservative than the conventions — certainly in
view of the huge sale of lands in the previous year and the
oncoming flood of immigration none too radical. It cheerfully
dispensed with inquiry into costs with the fact that the cost
of constructing railways in Illinois was capable of exact esti-
mate and that if the routes were surveyed first, the state could
not hope to buy adjacent lands at the federal price.

Descending to particulars, it recommended a loan of eight
millions in the hands of a board of fund commissioners. To
meet this debt the state might count on twelve million acres
of taxable land by 1842. The railroads were to be begun at
intersections with navigable streams and important towns and
to be extended in both directions from them. It estimated
the cost of railroads at $8,000 a mile or less and it recom-
mended the expenditure of $100,000 each on the Great
Wabash, and the Illinois and Rock, $50,000 on the Kaskaskia
and Little Wabash, $100,000 on the Great Western Mail
route, $3,500,000 on the Illinois Central, $1,600,000 on the
Southern Cross railroad, and $1,850,000 on the Northern
Cross.39 As finally passed the act added $150,000 to the
appropriation for the Western Mail route, and added to the
act provisions for a railroad, Bloomington to Mackinaw
involving an expenditure of $350,000; one from Belleville to
intersect the Alton and Mt. Carmel at $150,000; one from
Lower Alton via Hillsboro to the Illinois Central railroad at
$600,000; one from Peoria to Warsaw to cost $700,000; and
a branch of the Illinois Central railroad from the point where

38 Senate Journal, 1836-1837, i session, 87, 89, 127; House Journal, 1836-
1837, i session, 36.

39 Ibid., 1836-1837, i session, 202.

2i4 THE FRONTIER STATE

a line from Hillsboro to Shelbyville would intersect it to the
Indiana state line. In addition, $200,000 was divided between
the unfortunate counties which obtained no other appro-
priations.

The procedure by which these amendments were added is
difficult to trace. The bill was reported to the house along
with the report; it was reported back on January 23. Several
attempted amendments were defeated, the Sangamon members
usually voting for additions. An attempt to condemn the whole
system by resolution was lost by a vote of 9 to 70, most of the
opposition being from Greene, the lower Military Tract, and
Egypt. A second attempt to obtain a referendum on it at the
next election was lost 20 to 59, the opposition again coming
from the Military Tract and from Egypt. The amendments
usually were supported by the members interested in the addi-
tion, the members from Sangamon and Morgan and the
irreconcilables who wished to kill the bill. The bill passed
January 31, by a vote of 61 to 25.40

February 16 the senate committee reported the bill with
amendments. In the senate two additions were voted down.
The Bloomington and Mackinaw railroad was added. William
O'Rear's proposal for a popular vote was lost 20 to 20. The
amendment for $200,000 to the counties not otherwise favored
was added here also and adopted 31 to 9. The third reading
was carried, 25 to 15 and the passage by a similar vote.41
The representatives of White county in the house February 23
spread on the journal of the house a protest against the meas-
ure as designed to do nothing but raise the value of town lots
in certain favored spots ; and as saddling the state with a debt
the interest on which was ten times the ordinary revenue. It
pointed out that the locations of the railroad lines were made
not by any settled plan but rather as a result of logrolling. The
protesters pointed out especially the disaster that might result
from the method of financing by bank capital.42

40 House Journal, 1836-1837, i session, 363, 366, 443.

41 Senate Journal, 1836-1837, i session, 445, 452, 466, 474, 475, 487.

42 House Journal, 1836-1837, i session, 680.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM 215

Two days later the council of revision returned the bill
with objections. Judges Browne and Lockwood objected to
certain mere technical provisions which could be easily altered.
Smith in concurring especially declined any expression of
opinion on the question of expediency which he left to the
general assembly. Duncan took issue on the ground that such
roads could be made in a free government only by citizens or
corporations. He pointed out the danger of interference in
elections of those in power over the system. The objections
of Browne and Lockwood were at once obviated and the bill
passed 53 to 20. On February 27 the senate adopted the
house amendment and passed the bill 23 to I3.43 The state
had embarked on its mad speculation in haste; it was to have
full seven years in which to repent at its leisure.

48 Senate Journal, 1836-1837, i session, 529, 531.

XL THE WRECK OF THE INTERNAL IMPROVE-
MENT SYSTEM, 1837-1842

AS SOON as the internal improvement system had been
adopted by the legislature, the board prepared to begin
construction with all possible speed. It divided the state into
three districts each with a principal engineer. As the law pre-
scribed the policy of working on the enterprises simultaneously
in proportionate amounts, construction was allotted among
them. Accordingly 105 miles were put under contract on the
Northern Cross, 69^ miles on the Illinois Central, 24 on the
Peoria and Warsaw, 15 on the Alton and Shawneetown, 38
on the Alton and Mt. Carmel, 33 on the Alton and Shelbyville,
and 9^4 on the Bloomington and Pekin. The board estimated
the mileage of the roads at 1,341 24 and their total cost at
$11,470,444.50. It pointed out that this sum exceeded the
original figure set because the roads were found to be longer
than they had been estimated. By December of 1838 the
commissioners of public works had drawn on the fund com-
missioners for $1,142,027.00.

There was needed no acute observer to predict from the
manner of its inception the ill success of the internal improve-
ment system. Not only were some of the commissioners guilty
at least of neglect and mismanagement, if not of positive mal-
versation, but the enterprises were from the first befogged
in the atmosphere of logrolling and bargain, under which the
system had been initiated by the legislature. This condition
necessitated an equal attention to all the localities benefiting by
the improvements and contributing their share to the bargain
by which it was pushed into operation. Accordingly the pro-
vision requiring simultaneous construction on all the roads
prevented the concentrating of effort to complete any one and

216

WRECK OF THE SYSTEM 217

install it as a revenue producer. Out of a piece of newspaper
pseudoscience Governor Kinney evolved a phrase to describe
the situation. Writing to the citizens of Peoria who had asked
that part of the projected railroad in their vicinity should
be put under contract, he expressed the following opinion:
"Respecting the 25th section of the Internal Improvement
Law, to which you refer me, it is idle to say that there is any
thing therein contained as a positive injunction upon the Com-
missioners' that they should commence on each side of every
navigable stream, and progress each way at the same time,
and also at each principal town. You know that every town,
in the eyes of them that inhabit it, is a principal one. Such a
course of proceeding would cut upon the whole system of rail
roads into so many parts, disjointed and disconnected one
from the other for the time being, that it would appear in the
attitude of a 'jointed snake,' which had been whipped into so
many pieces that some of them would be decayed and rendered
useless before they could crawl to each other's relief, and
therefore bring the whole into disrepute at once." The jointed
snake was a good analogy for the internal improvement
system.1

The mania for internal improvement was not satisfied even
by the system itself. Private enterprises flourished side by
side with it. Thus at the time when the system was beginning
its journey through the general assembly, there appeared in
the Sangamo Journal the prospectus of the Beardstown and
Sangamon canal. The thirty mile cut from Beardstown to
Huron would at a cost of six thousand dollars a mile take the
place of a river route of one hundred miles. A possible con-
nection with the Wabash canal was set forth and the prospects
of the vast quantities of produce from the Sangamon country
and of deflected trade from the Ohio were held out to
investors. The state was to be asked to subscribe one-third
of the capital. Among the other projects was one for a
railroad from Rock Island to Bloomington by way of Henne-

1 Sangamo Journal, March 17, 1838.

ai8 THE FRONTIER STATE

pin. Inside and outside the system men were living in a
gilded age.2

In a very especial sense, as has been seen, the internal
improvement system was the offspring of southern Illinois,
which hoped to regain the ground that it had lost to the north-
ern portion of the state during the preceding fifteen years.
The men of Egypt hoped that the numerous railroads pro-
jected might turn back the tide of emigration which had flowed
either along the Great Lakes or through southern Indiana to
the head waters of the Illinois river. The traveler in 1839
commented on the backwardness of the region between Mt.
Vernon and Equality, where the old settlers were still living in
their rude cabins with very few improvements; but he added
that the internal improvement system had drawn new attention
to the south. Middle Illinois in view of the interest of the
south in the internal improvement system was inclined to be
somewhat sarcastic about it. In the assembly of 1837 there
was an amusing passage at arms between Peter Green of Clay
county and William Lane of Greene. Mr. Green advocated
a bill authorizing a state bounty on wolf scalps, only to be
told by Mr. Lane that his earnestness was due to the large
proportion of wolves to human beings in his county, especially
in comparison with Greene. Lane assured him, however, that
when the various railroads projected in Clay had been con-
structed the ringing of the engine bells would scare all the
wolves into Greene county, where, no railroads having been
projected, they might live in peace.3

The faith of southern Illinois was pinned especially to the
Illinois Central railroad. Not only was it the center of the
system, having as tributaries the various crossroads and
branches, but it served to connect the outlet of the Illinois and
Michigan canal with year-round river transportation on the
Mississippi. What the central railroad was to the system
in the mind of the south, Cairo was to the central railroad.

2 Illinois State Register, September 15, 1837; Sangamo Journal, January 6,
1837, January 28, 1838; Alton Telegraph, May 9, December 8, 1838.

3 Sangamo Journal, February 25, 1837.

WRECK OF THE SYSTEM 219

Men foresaw the development of Cairo into a commercial
metropolis central to all the union; for was it not possible that
the great Charleston railroad might terminate, if not at Shaw-
neetown, at least at Cairo, thus uniting the junction of the Ohio
and Mississippi with the southern Atlantic seaboard? John
Logan of Jackson county, in the Illinois legislature, painted an
inspiring word picture of ocean going ships laden with the
produce of the West Indies discharging their cargoes at the
wharves of Cairo. Meanwhile, with just scorn he repelled
the possibility that the rival village of Caledonia, a little further
up the Ohio might hope to rival Cairo as the Venice of the
New World.4

But while southern Illinois and other parts of the state
especially interested were enthusiastic over the system, the
program of improvements had met consistent opposition from
the first. It had been a political issue in the campaign of 1 838,
the democrats claiming that the whig nominees, Edwards espe-
cially, were then, or had been, hostile to the system. The whigs
it is true endeavored to disprove the assertion that Edwards
had opposed improvements, but admitted that he preferred
that they should be constructed by private enterprise rather
than by the state. Thomas Carlin, the democratic nominee,
declared in favor of the system, though he later believed its
scope was out of all proportion to the resources available for
its construction.5

Joseph Duncan, of course, was the most inveterate oppo-
nent of the whole program ; and the tendency of the whigs, as a
party, especially in view of the fact that their political oppon-
ents upheld the system, was toward opposition. The Fandalia
Free Press, for instance, declared that, while it was not opposed
to a judicious employment of internal improvements, it con-
sidered that the system as it had developed had been rashly
and unwisely adopted and that with the cessation of federal

4 Illinois Slate Register, December 22, 1837, December 13, 1838, March 8,
15, 1839.

'"Ibid., February 9, March 9, July 13, 1838; Alton Telegraph, March 7,
1838.

220 THE FRONTIER STATE

deposits with the state, it was a difficult problem to obtain
the money with which to carry it out. The Sangamo Journal
pointed out the hindrance that a currency of gold and silver,
limited in amount, would impose upon the financing of such a
scheme. In the summer the Peoria Register began the publi-
cation of a series of bitter attacks written by a certain E.
Harkness. Harkness declared that all the enterprises could
not yield a revenue equivalent to the yearly interest on the
money expended. He maintained that in reality the state had
little surplus produce to export, not enough indeed to supply
the laborers on the works. Where, he asked, were the reasons
for the railroads to Cairo? What was the use of a railroad
beginning and ending on the Mississippi? Galena was the
only town upon its route that was not a mere name. Harkness
finally called upon the people to express immediately their
disapprobation of the system and of the men who had
framed it.6

Until the arguments of the opponents of the system were
reenforced by actual failure of the state finances, they did not
become effective. The clue to the legislation of the session of
1839 is suggested in a New York letter published in the Peoria
Register January 19, 1839, in which the correspondent stated
that while London was flooded with state stocks, the preference
was given to those of free states engaged in internal improve-
ment. If Illinois would face the question of direct taxation,
she might with profit send a commission to London to borrow.
Of course, the prospect of taxation caused a recurrence of
attacks on the system. Defending it against O. H. Browning,
W. J. Gatewood of Gallatin warned him that, if its progress
was checked, southern Illinois would retaliate on the canal
which in earlier years it had sustained. He urged that the
statesmanlike attitude toward the question was not a calculation
of profits and losses in money but rather a consideration of the
matter in the broader aspect of the development of the state.

6 Illinois State Register, July 14, 1837; Alton Telegraph, March 14, Septem-
ber 22, 1838; Sangamo Journal, October 21, 1837; Peoria Register, August 25,
September 8, 22, 29, October 27, November 2, 1838.

WRECK OF THE SYSTEM 221

Abraham Lincoln suggested, in lieu of taxation, financing the
proposed improvements by a speculation in the unsold land of
the federal government.7

The net result of the legislative session was an enlargement
of the system rather than its curtailment. In an amendatory
law certain further expenditures for additional work were
allowed. For the rest, a general taxation law was passed. It
levied twenty cents on each one hundred dollars of property
in the state. Needless to say this provoked opposition of the
bitterest sort. At first, the State Register was disposed to de-
fend the act. It pointed out that the law really was a poor
man's tax law, as it compelled speculators to list land at its true
value and carried no poll tax provision. It defended the
obnoxious provision requiring the filing under oath of one's
statement as being optional with the assessor to require or not
and insisted that the law was not passed necessarily to support
the internal improvement system, and hence could not be
directly connected with it. The state, it was said, had never
taxed itself hitherto and as a result had been led into uncertain
financial devices such as plundering the school fund and the
making of the Wiggins' loan.8

The text of the foregoing comment was the proceedings
of a meeting in Bond county which attacked both the internal
improvement system and the revenue law. The report of the
meeting, rather able in its way, mercilessly cut to pieces the
specious promises and calculations of profit on which the sys-
tem had originally been founded. It stated that to pay interest
on the cost of the railroads centering at Alton, sixteen thousand
wagonloads of freight must pass in and out of the city in each
month. The Register, coming to see light by April, had ceased
to defend the revenue law and was inclined to leave it to the
people for their acceptance or rejection. The meeting in Bond
county was followed by one in Hillsboro, at which A. P. Field
was present. It urged a special session of the general assembly

7 Alton Telegraph, January 26, 1839; Illinois State Register, February 19,
March 15, 1839.

8 Ibid., March 29, 1839.

222 THE FRONTIER STATE

for the purpose of repealing the system. The Register depre-
cated the demand on the ground that the cry for a special ses-
sion was a whig device to break up the system and incidentally
to elect a whig to the United States senate.9

The opposition to the law spread fast. In Bond county it
was proposed that the revenue law be defeated by the appoint-
ment of assessors who would refuse to serve. In one county
after another, resolutions attacking the system were passed,
frequently calling for a special session to curtail or classify it.
The revenue law, too, was often included in such denunciation.
Furthermore the enterprise was often arraigned as a white ele-
phant foisted on the state by bargain and corruption, sure to
involve the state in hopeless debt. Only occasionally was a
voice lifted in behalf of the system as it then stood.10

The whigs were generally in favor of calling a special
session. So far as parties were aligned on the question, the
democrats were at first opposed to it, alleging their fear that
the whigs might take advantage of it to repeal the revenue law
or to engineer a coup d'etat respecting the secretaryship of state
-and the senatorship. The whigs denied that they had any
such intention. In the spring their papers were flatly for a
classification of the system, by which work would be continued
only on a part of it. They pointed out that the democrats
were inconsistent in favoring classification of the system and
opposing a special session, for if a change were to be of any
avail whatever it must come immediately. The democrats,
however, were by no means completely in favor of an alteration
of the system at this time. Thus on June 2 1 the State Register
pronounced against classification reporting a scheme by which
the people might yearly decide what sum they must spend upon
improvements. It pointed out the difficulty of satisfying by a
classification the jarring local interests and of deciding which

9 Alton Telegraph, March 24, April 13, May 24, 1839; Illinois State Register,
May 29, 1835, April 5, 19, 1839.

10 Alton Telegraph, May ir, 18, 1839; Illinois State Register, June 14, 1839;
Vandal'ia Whig, June 7, 1839; Peoria Register, June 15, July 6, 1839; Sangamo
Journal, June 28, July 26, 1839.

WRECK OF THE SYSTEM 223

locality must suffer the abandonment of its pet enterprise. The
same issue contained an illustration in point in the action of a
meeting in Edgar county which would not consent to the classi-
fication if its own route was omitted.11

During the summer the two parties shifted their position on
the question of a special session. In July, Carlin had offered
as excuse for not calling one the fear that it might, like the
previous session, extend the system instead of curtailing it.
In September, the whig newspapers professed that in the pres-
ent situation they could see no need for a special session, though
they still inclined to favor classification. By November
democratic meetings were declaring against the internal im-
provement system or urging its classification. When Carlin
finally called a special session to meet on December 9 the State
Register took to task the Chicago Democrat for opposing his
action, adducing as reasons for the call the fact that the plans,
even if they were not too extensive for 1837, were certainly
too ambitious for 1839, and that the people generally desired
a reduction of the system to a size proportionable to the state's
hope of completing it. Possibly in this argument there was
the desire ascribed to the Register by the Journal of embarrass-
ing the " Long Nine " of Sangamon county by compelling them
either to abandon their pledges or to oppose the will of their
constituents. It was said at the beginning of the special session
that Carlin was coming to the capital late so that his message
might not be revised by the party leaders as it had been in
1838, when a proposal for classification had been omitted at
the behest of the locofoco leaders. The democratic leaders at
the beginning of the session were reported to have disclaimed
any responsibility for the call of the assembly, and they left
Carlin to state the reasons for it and to bear the brunt of the
consequences of having called it.12

11 Chicago American, May 29, September 5, October 2, 1839; Sangamo
Journal, May 17, 24, June 14, July 19, 1839.

12 Illinois State Register, November 9, 16, 1839; Sangamo Journal, Decem-
ber 16, 1838, May 24, July 19, September 23, November 15, 1839; Alton Tele-
graph, December 14, 1839.

224 THE FRONTIER STATE

In his message to the general assembly Carlin pronounced
in favor of a classification of the internal improvement system
and of the adoption of a more economical method of carrying it
into effect. He ascribed the system in the first place to the
spirit of speculation, " the natural offspring of an inflated paper
circulating medium," that had affected not only individuals but
even such conservative bodies as the general assembly. In
spite of the fact that it was well understood that the system was
the result of mutual concession and compromise and that its
advantages were to be dispensed as equally as possible through-
out the state, it was necessary to classify immediately. The
localities with favorite improvements, which should be elimi-
nated by the scheme of classification, must bear their loss with
patriotism for the common good. The message detailed the
progress of the financial negotiations in London for funds to
support the system, which will be considered later. The session
finally provided for the cessation of work upon the system and
in effect by so doing brought about its permanent abandonment.
Thenceforth the state was confronted with the problem of
paying for the extravagance into which it had entered and from
which it withdrew too early to obtain any considerable advan-
tages.13

The attempt to obtain in exchange for state bonds the
funds with which to carry on the internal improvement enter-
prise had begun in 1837, when Mather and Oakley, the fund
commissioners, endeavored to negotiate a loan in New York.
Finding no success there, they turned to the State Bank and to
the Bank of Illinois. The State Bank agreed to take seventeen
hundred and sixty-five bonds of one thousand dollars each and
the Bank of Illinois nine hundred similar bonds. A second
appeal to the New York market was more successful than the
first. The commissioners sold a million dollars in state internal
improvement stock to Nicholas Biddle, a similar amount to J.
Irvine, and three or four blocks of one hundred thousand each

18 Illinois State Register, January 4, 1840; Alton Telegraph, January 25,
February 8, 1840; governor's message to legislature, January 8, 1845, in House
Journal, 1839-1840, 2 session, 14.

WRECK OF THE SYSTEM 225

to other capitalists. May 7, 1839, the fund commissioners,
M. M. Rawlings and Charles Oakley, sold to John Delafield
$283,000 in state bonds, interest on the bonds beginning May
7, 1839. Delafield, by the terms of the contract, was to pay
for the bonds in five installments of fifty thousand dollars each
on the first of December, February, March, April, and May,
and one of thirty-three thousand dollars on June i. The con-
tract certainly was not favorable to the state. The committee
also made some sales of bonds in smaller amounts to eastern
banks and one more considerable to the contractor for the
Northern Cross railway.

Having exhausted the possibilities of the New York money
market the Illinois agents turned to London. On August 22,
1839, Rawlings and Oakley made a contract with John Wright
and Company of London. By this contract, which was rather
elaborately drawn, the Illinois agents agreed to turn over to
Wright for sale $1,500,000 in state bonds in return for two
advances and gave him the option on the flotation of a further
sum to the amount of $4,000,000. The borrowers on behalf
of the Illinois and Michigan canal, who had been working
independently, had now reached the same point in their pursuit
of money. Although the commissioners had disposed of a con-
siderable number of bonds to federal and state banks, to pri-
vate banks and investors, the terms were not advantageous to
the state ; and they too were obliged to seek money in London.
On October 30, 1839, Reynolds and Young made an agreement
with Wright and Company for the sale of a million dollars in
canal bonds.14

No sooner had this series of loans been consummated than
the whole financial house of cards began to fall. First the
stages of the negotiations with the Wrights may be followed.
There was a fatal difference of opinion as to the interpretation
of the law prescribing that the Illinois bonds be sold at not less
than par. The contract for a million in sterling bonds of the
state had required Wright to advance but $250,000, and in

14 Reports General Assembly, 1839-1840, house, 393.

226 THE FRONTIER STATE

return for this he was to be the state selling agent, deducting
his commission from the proceeds. Further, the bonds were
drawn at the face value of £225 but were to yield only $1,000
in the United States, although the exchange between London
and Illinois might be as high as fourteen per cent In remitting
for interest and for final payment, therefore, the state would
remit far more than the par value of the amounts due trans-
lated into American currency in Illinois. A senate committee
declared the contract null and void, insisting that Wright was
no better than a financial shark. The report was drawn in
O. H. Browning's somewhat flowery style. "Well may we
say of London," exclaimed he, " ' the shark is there, and the
shark's prey, — the spendthrift and the leech that sucks
him.' " 15 Hacker retorted with a report from the committee
of the senate on internal improvement, indulging in some
rather cleverly put personal allusions derogatory to Brown-
ing.16 The majority and minority of the house committee dif-
fered as to the legality of the sale of canal bonds, which Wright
had been permitted to sell at 91 or over in London, retaining
for himself any excess between 91 and 95 and above 95 divid-
ing his profits with the state. A joint judiciary committee re-
ported against the legality of the sale.17

Naturally such action by the Illinois general assembly did
no good to the financial interests of the state in London.
Whether Wright had intentionally misled the representatives
of the state or whether he had merely been too sanguine in
interpreting the contract and laws which they brought with
them, it is not necessary to state. But the report of the Illinois
committee compelled him for a time to cease his operations,
even though the general assembly did not adopt the report
recommending the disavowal of the contract. Carlin, under
the circumstances, could not in February of 1840 see his way
clear to continue the contract with Wright. The contractors
on the canal, however, proposed to proceed with the work, if

15 Senate Journal, 1839-1840, special session, 140.

16 Reports General Assembly, 1839-1840, senate, 209.

17 Ibid., 1839-1840, house, 123, 149, 393.

WRECK OF THE SYSTEM 227

they might receive canal bonds in payment which they could
hypothecate with Wright, according to the terms of the con-
tract which the legislature had not indorsed. Young, mean-
while, did not cease to urge on Carlin that the state contract
with Wright be carried out. Finally, on May i, Carlin
yielded and confirmed the sale of the million canal bonds.
Characteristically he protested to the last that it was not a sale
at par within the meaning of the act.18 But Carlin's hesitation
and the attitude of the general assembly had done their work.
It was too late to save Wright's position in London. Over-
loaded with the state's bonds and possibly suffering from
the malignity of other houses opposed to dealing with
Americans and the American states, in November of 1840
Wright became bankrupt. William F. Thornton, president
of the board of commissioners, had previously on July 20
agreed to sell at a rate of 83 to Magniac, Smiths and Com-
pany £225,000 sterling in bonds belonging to the contractors,19
and for a time that firm attended to the financial interests of
the state.

In apportioning blame for the disaster to the Wrights it is
impossible to avoid the conclusion that in a certain degree their
misfortune was their own fault. The interpretation which they
gave to the term " par " was certainly a forced one, and while
in all probability in view of the way Illinois securities were
marketed no better rates could have been obtained, they should
have been more cautious; and even in spite of any representa-
tion made to them, they should have recognized the fact that
they should have trusted their own judgment as to the terms
of the loan rather than the judgment of such men as Young and
Reynolds. At the same time the vacillation of Carlin and the
general assembly at the critical moment undoubtedly con-
tributed to rendering the financial position of the Wrights
critical.

It was in the United States that the effect of the fund com-

18 Reports General Assembly, 1840-1841, senate, 360, 362, 363, 364, 373, 374.

19 Ibid., 1840-1841, senate, 30 ff., 393.

228 THE FRONTIER STATE

missioners' policy was most apparent. The Atlantic Bank
which had bought the public improvement bonds broke before
the Illinois bonds had passed out of its hands, and these were
ordered returned to the state's order. John Tillson and the
other two fund commissioners worked at cross-purposes, and
Tillson was accused of malfeasance. It is not easy to deter-
mine whether or not he was guilty, but certainly he was
hoodwinked in at least one negotiation with the result that the
security for fifty bonds sold became worthless. He had also
private dealings with Delafield which may have affected his
course as a public officer. The state's contract with Delafield
soon led to a lawsuit devised to prevent him from disposing to
innocent third parties of the state bonds of which he had gained
possession. Governor Carlin had protested and rightly against
the terms of Reynolds' contract with the United States Bank
by which the state was compelled to pay principal and interest
in London, thereby giving the bank at home a premium based
on exchange. Furthermore, the use of various agencies for
marketing the state bonds made it impossible for any financial
house to deal in them successfully or to hold them for a favor-
able turn of the market. Again and again large customers
of the state, like the Wrights, had to complain that parcels
of bonds that had come on the market for small pur-
chasers were being passed about at rates which spoiled the
sale of larger holdings. In 1839 the canal commissioners
began the issuance of checks to pay contractors on the
canal; and by fall this method of financing was completely
out of control.20

The problem of providing for interest on the state loan
was becoming increasingly difficult. An act of the session of
1839—1840 provided for the payment of interest on canal
bonds out of sales of canal lands.21 The interest on state bonds
held in London due in July, 1840, was paid out of £20,000
received from John Wright; and for the payment of interest

20 Reports General Assembly, 1839-1840, senate, 370; house, 55; ibid., 1840-
1841, senate, 68.

21 Laws of 1840, p. 80.

WRECK OF THE SYSTEM 229

in the United States, Thornton borrowed $5,000 at home.
Far more difficult was the problem of providing interest in
January, 1841. In December the legislature passed an act
allowing the hypothecation of bonds. But even with this
proviso it was only by desperate effort that R. F. Barrett, the
fund commissioner, succeeded in obtaining the money necessary
for the interest. At the beginning of the session the assembly
adopted a law levying a tax of ten cents on the hundred dollars
for the interest on the loan and allowing the hypothecation of
bonds to anticipate it, in spite of the protests of certain demo-
crats at allowing banks to dictate the policy of the state in this
particular. The interest far July, 1841, was obtained by John
D. Whiteside as fund commissioner in return for the hypothe-
cation with Charles Macalister and Henry Stebbins of 804
bonds, a proceeding which saddled the state for years to come
with a dispute involving the question of the disposal of bonds
to innocent third parties.22

Upon the abandonment of the internal improvement system
the vital question was how the state might pay what it had al-
ready borrowed to construct that system rather than how the
state might obtain funds to complete it. Interest in the ques-
tion of internal improvement shifted to the attempt of persons
interested in the Illinois and Michigan canal to engage the state
to find the funds necessary to proceed with that work. In
Cook county the canal question was an extremely important
one in local politics. Thus in the summer of 1840, partly as a
result of a disagreement in the democratic convention, it was
urged, especially by the Chicago American, that the democratic
ticket was anti-canal; and a canal ticket was nominated. The
whigs nominated no candidates against them and apparently
the ticket drew a good share of the whig support, the canal
laborers alone being held responsible for the defeat of the canal
ticket. John Pearson was elected senator over James Turney;
Ebenezer Peck, Albert G. Leary, and Richard Murphy repre-

22 Reports General Assembly, 1840-1841, senate, 327; ibid., 1842-1843, senate,
75; Laws of 1841, p. 167; Illinois State Register, December 18, 23, 1840.

23o THE FRONTIER STATE

sentatives over W. B. Ogden, John M. Wilson, and G. A. O.
Beaumont.23

The canal ticket, though defeated, had its revenge, for the
canal delegation, as it was called, had no success in its attempt
to push the interests of the canal in the legislature. The whig
papers stated that the partisanship of the canal members alien-
ated the friends of the canal in the general assembly and
frustrated their attempts to secure a measure for its continu-
ation. Pearson especially was accused of committing the
unpardonable sin of interfering with the local measures of his
fellow senators, and the fact that the Cook county delegation,
worked for the election of a partisan canal commissioner dis-
gusted the whigs, who would otherwise have been disposed to
favor the canal. Whatever may have been the cause, the legis-
lature finally adjourned without making any provision for the
continuance of the work.24 According to the Alton Telegraph,
the canal members discovered that their party would not sup-
port them in behalf of the canal, and their partisanship drove
away whig support in the senate. The vote on the question
bears out this statement fairly well.25

Certainly, whether or not the canal delegation could have
guided their enterprise more skillfully, there was great wrath
in the north among both whigs and democrats. As the San-
gamo Journal put it in commenting on the result of the session
of 1840—1841, the delegation had upset the judiciary, turned
out Thornton, the canal commissioner, elected Peck to an office,
and as a result had stopped work on the canal by antagonizing
its friends. The State Register had to take the Chicago Demo-
crat to task for its attacks upon the legislature. The political

23 Belleville Advocate, August 23, 1840; Chicago American, June 26, July
27, 30, August 5, 1840.

24 Alton Telegraph, February 13, 1841; Chicago American, January 14,
February 15, March 18, 1841; the contractors had proposed forming a corpora-
tion to contract with the canal commissioners for the completion of the canal.
According to the American it appealed to the canal members to give this project
a chance at success by refusing to caucus for the appointment of canal commis-
sioners, warning them if they did so they would prejudice the whigs against the
measure.

25 Alton Telegraph, April 10, 1841.

WRECK OF THE SYSTEM 231

careers of all members of the delegation except those already
ensconced in office were at an end, an effect which possibly
" Long John " Wentworth, whose views may be found in the
Chicago Democrat, did not deplore. Certainly neither Leary,
Murphy, Pearson, nor Peck ever again interfered with his
political ambitions in the north.26

The canal region did its best to undo the fatal work of its
delegation. Meetings were held in the north demanding a
special session to devise a means for the continuance of work
on the canal. The newspapers issued similar appeals and de-
mands for the resignation of the canal members in the hope
that more efficient ones might figure in the special session.
Carlin, though he did not call a special session, was induced to
make promises of issuance of state bonds for the continuation
of work on the canal. The Sangamo Journal protested that
the issue of bonds was impossible, declaring that the only relief
would be by reverting to the method of a chartered company.
Being on the line of the canal the Chicago American was of
course in favor of Carlin's plan, but generally throughout the
state the whigs opposed the hypothecation of bonds for the
benefit of the canal or for any other purpose whatever. The
reason is to be found perhaps in clippings from the New York
Herald to the effect that the hypothecation of bonds to Macal-
ister and Stebbins had ruined the credit of the state. The
Sangamo Journal was inclined to think that, while the state
would not repudiate and would ultimately pay all, the bond-
holders must be resigned to wait for a few years without
interest until the restoration of prosperity under a whig admin-
istration in the nation would make it possible for Illinois to
pay off her seventeen millions of debt.27

Eventually the hard times, the overwhelming debt, the
difficulty of meeting even such taxes as were laid, produced
throughout the state a cry for repudiation. In the general
assembly of 1841 one member, describing conditions in his

28 Sangamo Journal, March 26, 1841; Illinois State Register, March 19, 1841.
27 Sangamo Journal, September 10, October 22, November 19, December 3,
17, 1841; Alton Telegraph, November 13, December n, 1841.

232 THE FRONTIER STATE

neighborhood, declared that magistrates and constables were
the only business men. In Bond county, a meeting to protest
against additional taxation laid down the doctrine that the
state was not morally bound to pay its debts. In Montgomery
a nonpartisan meeting called for frugality in government, de-
nounced the baleful results of government debts, and advanced
the doctrine that there must be no taxation to pay principal or
interest on debt except in so far as the people had received
some return for it. In Scott county it was said that the bonds
were bills of credit and as such unconstitutional and not binding
upon the state.

Both whig and democratic papers denounced the doctrine
of repudiation as stated by such extremists, but there was some
sparring between the two parties in attempting each to force
the other to a definite stand. First the Sangamo Journal de-
clared that a proposed anti-repudiation article in the democratic
state platform of 1841 had been tabled. On the other hand
the Register declared that the Journal had come out for repudi-
ation or for taxation sufficient to pay the debt; and the Register
pronounced the people too honest for the one and too poor for
the other. On December 16, the Alton Telegraph declared
the Battle Axe to be the only paper in the state in favor of
repudiation; but by November 13, it had declared that the
payment of interest should stop unless the bondholders would
take still more bonds at par. It pointed out truly enough the
fact that Illinois bonds had been hypothecated at thirty-three
cents on the dollar, while Indiana bonds on which the interest
even was not paid were sold at a higher rate. It believed that
the legislature, refusing longer to issue state bonds unless
creditors would take them at par, should levy as heavy a tax as
possible for their ultimate payment.28

The payment of the July, 1841, interest was the last
attempt to keep the state's finances solvent. From that time
the state defaulted on her interest, and her bonds fell far below

28 Illinois State Register, October 29, November 5, 1841; Sangamo Journal,
December 24, 1841.

WRECK OF THE SYSTEM 233

par. The financial situation sank into deeper and deeper con-
fusion. No proper accounts were kept, and the progress of
the various fund commissioners in settling with the state's
debtors, such as Delafield and the New York banks, multiplied
the intricacy of the situation. The party jealousies which had
hampered and biased the work of the state's financial officers
from the beginning continued in political squabbles, such as
that one on the canal route between the friends of Thornton
and of Isaac N. Morris. The taxation law of 1841 was used
by surrounding states as an argument by which to attract emi-
grants from Illinois to their own borders. The oft repeated
statement that Illinois was a ruined state was heard on every
hand. The railroad lines which had been intended to make
her the commercial center of the union were abandoned, finding
employment only where thrifty farmers used their rights of
way to grow beans.29

In the maze of proposals, or appeals for relief, that came
from all sides, not much can be seen in 1842 but the claims of
personal, factional, sectional, or party interest. In 1842 there
was a recrudescence of repudiation sentiment which was, how-
ever, generally frowned upon. County meetings here and there
demanded strict economy in the legislature in the way of sala-
ries and the elimination of such time-wasting devices as
committees of the whole and allowing members to speak more
than one hour on a question. From the line of the canal ema-
nated various proposals for continuing that work, which still
went on. Sometimes these implied obtaining a larger federal
land grant, the sale of canal lots and lands, or the use of the
distribution fund. The people of southern Illinois rather be-
lieved that the distribution fund should go to rehabilitate the
school fund. Various schemes for the system as a whole were
proposed. The Chicago American of May 1 1, 1 842, published
a plan calling for drastic economy, a revision of local govern-
ment in the interest of economical administration, and taxation

29 Alton Telegraph, August 27, 1842; Illinois State Register, February 4,
August 26, 1842; Chicago American, June 14, July 27, 1842.

234 THE FRONTIER STATE

to pay the interest on the bonds; for the property itself the
newspaper went back to the old idea of 1836 of construction
by chartered companies, to whose stock the state should sub-
scribe. The State Register on behalf of Gatewood contended
with the Telegraph for the honor of the authorship of a scheme,
the crux of which was to dispose of the state lands at the gen-
erous estimate of $20 an acre. The Telegraph and the
Register were unable also to agree as to the amount of the debt,
the Register insisting that for practical purposes the bonds
sold by the bank, the appropriated school fund, the federal
deposit, and all bonds irregularly issued should be deducted to
the amount of six million. Another proposal was that the state
sell its property for bonds and scrip; the distribution fund
according to this proposal was to go to the school fund. The
Sangamo Journal published a letter which offered the solution
of a tax of thirty cents on the hundred to be directed to payment
of the state debt, using the proceeds of state lands and the dis-
tribution fund for expenses of government. This letter further
suggested dividing the debt pro rata to real and personal
property throughout the state and exempting from its shares
of the debt each tract which paid the share thus alloted to it.30
The very extravagance of these schemes is eloquent of the
hopelessness of the situation, as it appeared to men of the time.
As the political situation stood at the outset of the guberna-
torial campaign of 1842, it was to Joseph Duncan that the
question naturally presented itself for decision. He had op-
posed the system in the beginning, and now running for office
as an elder statesman it was for him to find the state a solution.
But Duncan's mind could supply him with nothing but nega-
tives. He would not issue more bonds or hypothecate them,
and he would seek additional land grants for the canal, but
beyond that apparently he could not go. He proposed to sell
off all state properties and bank stock, taking state indebtedness
in return. Like most whigs, he apparently thought the only

30 Sangamo Journal, March 25, April i, 1842; Alton Telegraph, January 8,
29, August 13, 1842; Chicago American, December i, 1841; Illinois State Regis-
ter, February 25, March 25, May 27, 1842.

WRECK OF THE SYSTEM 235

possible solution was the return of his party to power and an
enlargement under their direction of the field of the federal
government. He relied on federal measures, banks, tariffs,
distribution, and the resulting prosperity. To face the prob-
lem as one for the state to solve by application to it of her own
abilities and of her own slender resources was a step beyond
Duncan. The answer of Illinois had to be made in other terms
than advocacy of federal legislation, and it was to be made
through a man of very different type from Duncan.31

*lSangamo Journal, March 4, July 22, 1842; Alton Telegraph, July 2, 1842.

XII. THE STRUGGLE FOR PARTY REGULARITY,

1834-1838

OUT of the presidential contest in Illinois in 1835-1836,
emerged the forms of the whig and democratic parties;
out of the struggle over the subtreasury and the specie circular
in 1837—1839 came a close alignment of the parties on party
measures. Between 1835 and 1839 the doctrine of the neces-
sity of party regularity was forced on the democratic party,
and that party became a closely organized body with accepted
principles. No longer could a man be saved politically by the
name of Jackson unless he did the works of Jackson.

Nationally Van Buren was the candidate of the followers
of Jackson who were beginning to term themselves democrats.
The old Clay-Adams men mustered around candidates with a
local appeal such as Webster or William Henry Harrison,
hoping thus to beat the Van Buren forces in detail and throw
the election into the house of representatives. The followers
of Hugh Lawson White of Tennessee occupied a somewhat
different position. Practically, they were allies of the opposi-
tion to Van Buren. They professed, however, that they were
really Jackson men, loyal to their past professions of faith, but
unable to swallow the personality and methods of Van Buren;
and they were inclined to repel indignantly the charges of their
opponents that they were deserters to the Clay-Adams party
of 1828 and 1832.

The contest for the presidency in Illinois seemed at the
outset of the campaign to be between Van Buren and White,
and the supporters of each sought for all the aid they might
derive from the great name of Jackson. There could be no
doubt of Jackson's support of Van Buren; and accordingly the
followers of White in their claims were compelled to argue

236

STRUGGLE FOR PARTY REGULARITY 237

that they were the true original Jackson men and that they held
fast to the principles that Jackson had held and abandoned.
Behind this willingness of even his opponents to trade on the
traditions of Jacksonism there was, of course, an intention to
play over the game that had elected Duncan governor in 1834
and to consolidate the anti- Jackson vote on an ostensibly Jack-
son candidate. This purpose the Sangamo Journal unwittingly
revealed by its remark that Van Buren would run no stronger
in Illinois than Kinney, for his party was Kinney's.

The Van Buren men naturally argued that White was a
renegade from Jackson and his principles and a nullifier,
seduced by Clay to follow out the scheme of splitting the nation
between various candidates only to elect a whig in the house or
senate. Accordingly they insisted on the need of conventions
to insure party unity and on the necessity of party regularity.
The Van Buren men, notably the congressmen, sought to bring
this about, as the whigs claimed, by using national patronage
to build up an Albany regency in Illinois. The Sangamo Jour-
nal pronounced that this was the intent of every appointment
made during the past six months. It repeatedly accused the
Springfield clique, May, Forquer, Calhoun, and Cartwright,
some of them late converts to Jacksonism, of seeking to read
out of the party on account of their loyalty to White such old
time Jackson men as Bowling Green and A. G. Herndon. This
in a nutshell was the White argument.

The number of Jackson leaders who supported White may
be roughly estimated by a consideration of certain votes in the
Illinois assembly on political resolutions in 1835—1836. On
December 19, 1835, by a vote of thirteen to twelve the senate
passed resolutions attacking Van Buren as an old federalist
and a former opposer of Jackson, and nominating White with
a disclaimer of the intervention of caucus or convention. On
January 15, eleven members spread on the journal a protest
against the truth of the resolutions and the expediency of
bringing them forward.1 The fact that on December 12 a

1 Senate Journal, 1835-1836, 2 session, 76, 256.

238 THE FRONTIER STATE

resolution instructing the state's senators to vote to expunge
the censure of Jackson passed by a vote of fifteen to ten affords
an opportunity to gauge the amount of Jackson strength for
White. Benjamin Bond, Levin Lane, and James A. White-
side voted both for expunging and for the White resolution;
and they may be set down as the measure of the Jackson- White
strength.2 Applying a similar test of the house, only three men
who voted for expunging voted for a resolution deprecating
conventions. Only four, Peter Butler, Thomas Hunt, Thomas
Trower, and Milton Carpenter voted for expunging and
against a preamble attacking White's supporters as nullifiers
and federalists. Whatever may have been the alignment of
the rank and file the leaders were certainly not seriously
divided.

The opposition had to learn that it was not always possible
in a national election to play the same game that had elected
Duncan in 1834 — running a candidate who could be posed as
a Jackson man and at the same time receive a solid whig vote.
Their electoral ticket was assailed by the enemy on the ground
that it was hand-picked and that too in Sangamon county.3 As
a partial concession to the complaints of friends in the north
that the Military Tract was unrepresented, Bowling Green, a
Jackson man of 1832, resigned; and to succeed him Colonel A.
G. S. Wight was named. By whom was he nominated, the
democrats asked at once.4 The remainder of the ticket was
composed of James A. Whiteside, Benjamin Bond, and Levin
Lane, the three men who had voted for both the expunging
and the White resolutions; the fifth man, John Henry, had
stood firmly against both expunging and against the convention
system.5

2 Senate Journal, 1835-1836, 2 session, 30, 78; House Journal, 1835-1836, 2
session, 63, 211, 233, 235.

8 Chicago Democrat, January 20, February 17, 24, 1836. The Galena
Gazette and the Jacksonville Nevis condemned the ticket as hand-picked in
Sangamon.

4 Sangamo Journal, March 26, April 16, 1836; Chicago Democrat, May
4, 1836.

8 He repeatedly introduced anti-convention resolutions. House Journal,
1835-1836, 2 session, 27, 63, 234.

STRUGGLE FOR PARTY REGULARITY 239

But even if Jackson men could support White, who had
apostasized only on the bank question and by his attempt to
rescind rather than to expunge, it was not to be expected that
they could with equal facility support Harrison who had
scarcely a tinge of Jacksonism. The democrats can hardly be
blamed for regarding the question as to whether the White
electors should vote for Harrison if Van Buren could so be
defeated as one which would strip the White electors who con-
sented to do this of even the pretense to Jacksonism. Bond,
however, pledged himself to vote for Harrison in such a con-
tingency, and the Sangamo Journal professed to be satisfied
that the others would do the same.6

The Harrison movement appeared to gain ground as the
campaign went on. There had always been an undercurrent of
sentiment in Illinois in his favor. The Mt. Carmel Sentinel
had favored him at first, though it had forsaken him for White
without insisting on a convention. The Chicago American in
1835 had leaned toward him. In the fall of 1836, the
American and the Sentinel were supporting him and the Tele-
graph was friendly to his candidacy. The democrats had
perhaps foreseen this, as ever since February their newspapers
had been firing occasional shots aimed in Harrison's direction.
The first Harrison meeting in the state, according to the Regis-
ter, was held in Madison county on August 13, 1836.
Harrison was set forward as the friend of the west, the friend
of the small farmer, the first to propose the sale of public lands
in small tracts. As a western candidate he aroused enthusiasm
such as could not be called forth by White who was accused of
being the candidate of the nullifiers and the cloak for Calhoun's
desire to organize the south on a sectional basis. Their alleged
purposes seemed the logical fulfillment not merely of the
Sangamo Journal's sneers at Carpenter, a legislative candidate,
as an advocate of Negro suffrage, but also of the attacks on
Van Buren for support of a similar measure in the New York

6 Chicago American, September 17, 1836; Sangamo Journal, October 8,
15, 1836.

24o THE FRONTIER STATE

convention and on Richard M. Johnson, the vice presidential
candidate, as an " amalgamator." White whiggism in Illinois
wore a distinctly southern and proslavery cast. At this stage
indeed the Journal distinctly criticized John Quincy Adams.
It is therefore not surprising to find Lincoln and Dan Stone,
the two signers of the memorable antislavery protest of 1837,
participants in a meeting to celebrate the anniversary of the
battle of the Thames.7

The democratic attacks on Harrison followed the same
line as in 1840 — criticism of his military career and services
especially as compared with those of Johnson, the slayer of
Tecumseh, of his civil and military incompetence, of his fed-
eralism, of his vote to sell men out to service in satisfaction of
fines. The story that the women of Chillicothe, in derogation
of his military qualities, presented him with a petticoat was
dragged out, not for the last time.8

The democrats in Illinois found Van Buren a rather heavy
load to carry. It is significant that they rarely attempted an
appeal to the personality or measures of the man himself.
Instead they preached assiduously the necessity of union against
the measures to divide the party and by that division secure the
triumph of the "monster" and of its tool, the usurping senate.
Especially before the Baltimore convention, which the opposi-
tion declared a political trick to foist Van Buren on the country,
they emphasized the necessity for unity in the party and for
the support of measures rather than of men.9 " Resolved,"
ran one set of resolutions, "That the cry of 'no party' 'pro-
scription' 'Office holders' 'Kitchen Cabinet' and 'Magician'
are terms ' invented by knaves, and made current among
fools.'"10

''Chicago American, October 24, 1835, September 10, November 5, 1836;
Sangamo Journal, April 16, May 28, July 9, October 8, 22, 29, 1836; Alton Tele-
graph, April 6, 1836; Chicago Democrat, February 24, April 20, July 27, 1836;
Illinois State Register, June 3, September 2, 1836; Illinois Advocate, May 27,
June 3, 1835.

8 Chicago Democrat, July 27, October 26, 1836.

9 Illinois Advocate, May 6, June 3, 1835.

10 Meeting at Danville, May 16, in Illinois Advocate, June 10, 1835.

STRUGGLE FOR PARTY REGULARITY 241

In general the democrats were glad to fall back on Jackson
and use his mantle to cover the man professing to be his suc-
cessor. The story told by a whig editor that a man of some
intelligence from central Illinois had been convinced by demo-
cratic asseverations that Jackson had reared Van Buren from
a youth in Tennessee to succeed him is doubtless exaggerated,
but there is an element of truth in the situation it suggests. At
best the democrats were able to do no more to make their
candidate lifelike than to paint his countenance into the portrait
of the conventional statesman of the day.

The whigs, however, in the twelve years between 1832 and
1844 when they had Van Buren for an opponent, sketched,
deepened, retouched, and fixed a portrait that was as vivid as
it was unflattering. Under their brush "little Matty" stood
forth, outwardly a foppish, simpering, snobbish dandy, the
antithesis of everything virile, the opponent of every measure
desired by the west, and withal a tricky, shrewd political
intriguer who had gained the ear of the great Jackson in his
decay and had won his support to measures alien to the prin-
ciples of the days of his strength, and all to satisfy
Machiavellian ambitions that in the ordinary course of events
would have been chimerical and preposterous.11

In this portrait there was most obvious justification so far
as Van Buren's attitude toward the west was concerned. He
had voted against western internal improvements, against the
Cumberland road, the Illinois and Michigan canal grant, and
the reduction of the price of the public lands. Here the con-
trast of his record with Harrison's was marked.12 Against
Van Buren there were brought other charges. There were
stories that he was in friendly communication with the pope,
that he was lending the public money to speculators, that he
had opposed the War of 1812, had opposed white manhood
suffrage, and advocated Negro suffrage in the New York

11 Sangamo Journal, January 12, 1832, said that Jackson was formerly for
internal improvements and tariff, and Van Buren had won him from them.

12 Chicago American, November 5, 1836; Sangamo Journal, October 15, 1836.

242 THE FRONTIER STATE

convention. He was twitted with his Crawford connections
and his attacks on Jackson in i824.13

The whigs attempted to make Van Buren's personality the
issue and they were rather inclined to avoid any other. Of
course, they ventured occasional attacks on the bank policy of
the administration; the Alton Telegraph believed that the
specie circular would turn the hearts of Illinois away from
Jackson. But usually they declined meeting the democrats on
the issues of Jackson's administration. The senate whig reso-
lutions of 1836 deal with a theory of the federalist origin of
the democratic party rather than with real political issues.14

One exception there is. The whigs stood firmly as the
opponents of the convention, the caucus, and party regularity.
It was on these issues that John Henry forced the fighting on
the house resolutions. At this point a plausible attack was
made on the convention system as Van Buren's own system of
fraud, trickery, and deceit by which the despicable Amos Ken-
dall had brought about his nomination. The whigs insisted
that from the Baltimore convention down to the lowest county
caucus such bodies were packed with officeholders for a selfish
and corrupt purpose.15 In spite of all the efforts of the sup-
porters of White and the whigs, Van Buren in 1836 was
successful in both state and nation.

The final flux in the casting of the democratic party was
the currency and banking question which was at its crisis in the
years 1837—1840. Under the older system, the regulation
of the note issue of state banks, the regulation of exchange, the
care of all government funds were intrusted to the United
States Bank. That bank Jackson had instinctively distrusted
as the self-appointed regulator of the currency of the country,

18 Chicago American, July 23, 30, November 5, 1836; Sangamo Journal,
June 4, July 16, 30, 1836.

14 Senate Journal, 1835-1836, 2 session, 76. Alton Telegraph, November 16,
1836; Illinois Advocate, May 6, 1835, gives address of democratic convention
rehearsing and indorsing Jackson's measures, and proving Van Buren a sup-
porter of them.

18 Chicago American, June 20, 1835; Sangamo Journal, June 13, September
19, 1835, February 20, 1836.

STRUGGLE FOR PARTY REGULARITY 243

a private institution powerful enough to dictate to the govern-
ment. In the name of the people he had made war on the
"monster," had refused it a recharter, and had removed the
government deposits from its keeping. In spite of the protest
of the financial interests of the country, exemplified in the
censure spread on the journal of the senate in 1834 and
expunged in 1836 at the behest of Jackson and Benton, Jackson
had continued on his course and, abandoning the use of a
national fiscal agent, had deposited the funds of the govern-
ment in selected state banks throughout the union. Despite
the attacks of the opposition on the pet banks, as unsafe deposi-
tories chosen by favor, Jackson pressed on in his course, the
democrats loyally following after him. They accused the
United States Bank of using its power to oppress the state
banks and by first expanding and then sharply contracting its
credits of making financial stringencies in which a public
clamoring for relief might be led to demand its recharter. In
1835 the democratic convention declared that two years experi-
ence with state banks showed them to be as useful to the
government as the United States Bank had been.16

The situation, however, when viewed otherwise than
through political spectacles was far from encouraging. By
legislation in 1834 against small bank notes, repeated by
proclamation in 1835, the general government sought to force
specie into circulation as the customary medium of small trans-
actions. Moreover, by 1836, the issues of state bank notes, no
longer controlled by the United States Bank and encouraged
by the deposits of government funds, were reaching startling
figures — more startling still was their apparent tendency not
to find a place in the commercial business of the country, but
instead to be used for purchases of the public lands. Credit
by means of bank notes had been expanded far beyond the
needs of the legitimate transactions of business, simply because
these fruits of overexpansion could be used to procure public
lands. To save the public lands of the nation from passing

18 Illinois Advocate, May 6, 1835; Chicago American, April 23, 1836.

244 THE FRONTIER STATE

into the hands of speculators Jackson issued the much criticized
specie circular, forbidding the reception of anything but specie
and notes of specie paying banks, immediately in the case of
large purchases and in the near future in the case of small ones.
Jackson's last official act in 1837 was to pocket an act repealing
the circular, which the whig papers duly catalogued as one
final example of the president's willingness to subordinate
to his whim the welfare of the country. As the panic of
1837 gathered force they characterized the circular as the
gambler's throw on which the outgoing administration
depended for resources to keep it until Van Buren could
take office.17

The panic of 1837 dashed to fragments the system of state
banks which had replaced the United States Bank and which
Jackson had sought to control by the specie circular. The
roots of that panic perhaps lay partly in the accordance by
English banks and exporters of excessive credits to our mer-
chants; partly no doubt, in the era of unrestricted banking that
followed the war on the United States Bank. The democrats
insisted on the first reason, and asked if Jackson was respon-
sible for the panic in Europe as well as for that in the United
States. But the whigs laid the whole at the door of Jackson's
financial policy. In his message addressed to the special session
of the legislature of 1837 Duncan denounced the whole panic
as due to the destruction of the United States Bank, the creation
of state banks, and the attempt of the executive to bolster up
his mistake by a cry for an exclusively specie currency. Duncan
only gave official expression to what had filled the whig papers
for months; the whigs gleefully professed their belief that
Van Buren's party was ruined never to rise again.18

The Illinois State Register loyally stood to its guns, but
as the whigs sarcastically pointed out it was for some time at a
loss as to what it should profess as the true democratic creed.
In June it came forth with a declaration that the true remedy

"Alton Telegraph, March 22, April 26, 1837.

18 Senate Journal, 1837, special session, 7; Illinois State Register, July 15,
1837; Sanaamo Journal, June 3, 1837.

STRUGGLE FOR PARTY REGULARITY 245

was a control by the government of its funds through its own
officers and a divorce from all banks, and to this issue it clung
and tried to hold the whigs. The Sangamo Journal on the con-
trary amused itself by listing the democratic papers that
disclaimed any intention of establishing an exclusively metallic
currency and rather sought to force that issue. It argued that
the establishment of the Madisonian at Washington under
William Allen's editorship implied Van Buren's desire for sup-
port in abandoning the kitchen cabinet, the locofocos, and the
Jackson financial policy.19

If the democratic doctrine was fixed, its acceptance by con-
gress was less certain. The Journal rejoiced and the Register
raged over the election of Allen as public printer in preference
to Francis P. Blair of the Globe. When it became apparent
even to the Register that Casey, May, and Snyder, the Illinois
representatives, had all voted for Allen, it could no longer
apologize for their vote to table the subtreasury bill on the
ground that they were waiting to know the will of their con-
stituents. As early as October 6, it had had its doubts of May
and Snyder; and now it denounced all three on the ground that
their delay to seek the will of their constituents was all a fraud ;
and it branded them as members of the little knot of twelve
Jackson men who had betrayed the cause of democracy at the
very moment when the issue was self-government or govern-
ment by banks.20

Judging by the attitude of its representatives in congress
Illinois democracy was divided on the financial measures.
Richard M. Young and John M. Robinson, the senators, who
had both been of suspected orthodoxy in the past, were staunch

10 Illinois State Register, May 20, June 2, 10, August 25, September i, 1837;
it claimed in the last named issue that the Jacksonville Patriot, Sangamo Journal,
and Alton Telegraph were opposing the divorce. Sangamo Journal, July 29,
August 19, 1837; the latter issue enumerated the Globe, Alton Spectator, Quincy
Argus, Jacksonville News, Danville Enquirer, and Chicago Democrat.

20 Illinois State Register, September 22, October 27, November 4, 10, 17,
1837; Sangamo Journal, September 25, October 7, 1837; Congressional Globe,
25 congress, i session, 73, 96, 103, 117. For the resolution that it was inexpe-
dient to charter a United States Bank, May voted in the negative; Robinson and
Young both voted for the subtreasury.

246 THE FRONTIER STATE

supporters of the administration's policy; Zadoc Casey and
Adam W. Snyder though supposedly orthodox were undecided;
and William L. May, hitherto the democratic, even the Van
Buren leader in the state, was openly opposed to the whole
fiscal program. The newspapers of Illinois, however, were
generally locofoco, as the whigs would have said, and sup-
ported the subtreasury; and public meetings, probably under
the spur of the party management, were beginning to in-
dorse it.21

As an interlude in the struggle for party regularity on the
fiscal issue came an attempt to use the issue to drive May out
of the party. May and Forquer, whose janglings and jeal-
ousies had repeatedly been satirized by the Sangamo Journal,
had finally broken company late in 1836. Forquer, so the
Journal declared, deserted the Van Buren candidates, May,
McRoberts, and Ewing, and threw his support to Richard M.
Young, whose past was strongly tinged to say the least with
whiggism and who had courted and obtained whig support
by professing himself to be a Jackson man for prudential rea-
sons only. Young on his part accused May of promising sup-
port for congress to both George W. P. Maxwell and Douglas
in return for aid in sending him to the senate. As early as
April, 1 837, the Journal predicted that May would be read out
of the party by the Springfield junto. In July the Illinois Re-
publican was attacking May for his votes in the last session on
the distribution of the surplus and the repeal of the specie circu-
lar. The Journal believed that Forquer was planning the ruin
of Casey and Reynolds as well as of May.22

Others than Forquer, however, were destined to reap the
reward of the plot, if plot there was. At the time when his
control of the party was apparently the strongest, he disap-
peared from Illinois politics; in another year he died of
consumption. Douglas and Young, however, continued their

21 Illinois State Register, October 20, November 10, December 9, 1837.

22 Sangamo Journal, November 5, 19, December 17, 24, 1836, April 22,
May 27, July 8, 15, 29, August 5, November 5, 1837; Illinois State Register,
August 4, 1837; Chicago Democrat, August 16, 1837.

STRUGGLE FOR PARTY REGULARITY 247

war upon May. Douglas devoted himself to drumming up
delegates to a convention at Peoria to nominate himself for
May's place; and the Chicago Democrat, scenting a plot for
Douglas' personal aggrandizement, began to shift its ground
a little. The Journal praised May's course in congress but
advised him not to be a candidate again, thus leaving the field
clear for a whig to beat the nominee of the Peoria convention
on the issue of radicalism and conservatism.23

The factional disorder in the democratic party for the
moment offered a magnificent chance for the whigs to disrupt
it. May drew up a powerful defense of his course in congress,
pronouncing that against the subtreasury initiated three years
before by an obscure congressman the authority of the sages of
the past was for the use of banks as depositories for the gov-
ernment funds. He denounced the measures of the specie
circular as calculated to retard the growth of the west and as
having been three times rejected by congress. While justifying
the old war on the bank because of its known interference in
politics, he admitted that Jackson's party had not given the
country a currency as good as that of the old bank. He
defended his vote for Allen on the old ground of his Jackson-
ism. May thus took a strong position on which an attack
might once again split the party. The whigs were eager to
complete the work. The Journal praised all three of the
representatives for their stand against locofocoism. A. P.
Field begged the whigs to support Snyder if the democrats
tried to beat him with a convention nominee. The democrats
had the difficult task of attacking May for his financial votes
without driving Snyder and Casey and their following out of
the party with him. The whigs prophesied that the locofoco
anti-bank doctrines would disgust true Jackson men. Kinney
and Reynolds were believed to be unorthodox on the bank
and subtreasury. It might well be regarded as doubtful if
the " conservatives," like May, might not succeed in establish-

23 Sangamo Journal, October 14, December 2, 1837; Chicago Democrat,
August 16, 1837.

248 THE FRONTIER STATE

ing themselves as a party in Illinois even if they did not wrest
from their opponents control of the older organization.24

Unfortunately for the conservatives the locofocos con-
trolled all the orthodox democratic newspapers in Illinois
except May's Backwoodsman and the Shawneetown Voice and
Journal. Thus they were handicapped by having their day in
court in the columns of the whig papers. The radical demo-
crats with an instinctive political wisdom which they frequently
displayed in Illinois politics took issue frankly on the subtreas-
ury, despite the whig cry of "purse and sword," and their
accusation that the administration's doctrine was to be forced
on Illinois by the influence of officeholders. The Register on
the other hand discreetly indorsed the repeal of the specie cir-
cular on the ground that the measure had after all fulfilled its
usefulness and that it was now a discrimination in favor of
the east against the west. Slowly the party in Illinois was
forced into line. Snyder between March and June of 1838
turned to support the subtreasury, discreetly declining a reelec-
tion. Some of the whigs even advocated supporting him for
governor in preference to Edwards, if he cared to run.25

It was harder for the democrats to deal with Casey than
with Snyder. June I, 1838, the Register attempted an apology
for Casey's irregular course on the old ground of awaiting
instructions. It professed that it had suggested a convention
in his district only for fear that a Van Buren man would run
against him and thereby elect a whig. It admitted the validity
of Casey's reason for refusing to submit to a convention —
that his candidacy was announced before a convention had been
projected. It came to the conclusion, humiliating for the party
of conventions, that conventions were new things in Illinois,
that one might injure the party, and that, since Casey had
the administration's indorsement, perhaps a convention would

2*Sanaamo Journal, .November 18, December 2, 1837, January 20, 1838;
Alton Telegraph, December 20, 1837.

25 Sang am o Journal, April 21, May 19, June 30, July 14, 20; Congressional
Globe, 25 congress, 2 session, 213; Illinois Slate Register, February 9, 1838,
June i, 29, 1838.

STRUGGLE FOR PARTY REGULARITY 249

be inexpedient after all.26 The secret was that Casey's strength
in his district was so great that neither McRoberts nor Breese
dared to run against him.

After Casey's vote against the subtreasury in 1838, how-
ever, the Register was forced to denounce him for his duplicity
in deceiving the party on his position, and in selling himself
to the bank. It attempted in vain to induce McRoberts to run
against him and on Casey's reelection it had to admit him as
a democrat, sound on all points except the subtreasury and
entitled to credit for having at last deserted the Madisonian.2"*

It was only, however, by means of extraordinary personal
popularity such as Casey's that one could defy the mandate of
the party. The use of the convention as a means of enforcing
regularity and submission to the will of the party had really
been eminently successful in its purpose, even though it meant
submission to the will of the master manipulators like Douglas.
Its value became strikingly apparent in the campaign for the
governorship in 1838. Late in 1837 a party convention had
nominated for governor J. W. Stephenson, and for lieutenant
governor, J. S. Hacker. The whigs claimed that Stephenson
had been nominated only because Reynolds, Kinney, Casey,
and Snyder, the best men of the party, were all under suspicion
of heterodoxy. The choice could not have been more unfortu-
nate. "Stephenson is a defaulter to the amount of 40,000,"
wrote Field to Eddy. " Say nothing about it to nobody. We
will modestly set on foot an inquiry by our papers. They
will of course deny it & then May has the Documents to prove
the facts." In fact, May's Backwoodsman was the first to
open fire, whig papers at first affecting to believe that the story
was a democratic trick. The democratic newspapers were soon
divided into contending camps, mainly on the question whether
Stephenson's alleged default was not a load too heavy for his
party to carry. The Register, the Chicago, the Galena, and
Ottawa Democrats, and the Shawneetown Voice Jtood by him.

26 Illinois State Register, June i, 1838.

27 Ibid., July 13, 27, August 3, 31, 1838.

250 THE FRONTIER STATE

The Belleville News, Quincy Argus, Alton Spectator, and Illi-
nois Standard approved him, while the Illinois Republican
remained on the fence. According to the Journal, however, a
caucus at Springfield decided that he must be dropped as too
heavy a load for Douglas to carry in the congressional race.-8
A new convention assembled and chose Thomas Carlin of
Quincy as the candidate for governor. He was a man of
honesty, but ignorant, and his choice seemed to point to a
compromise in the ranks of the party. He was probably ortho-
dox on the bank question, but he had been friendly to May
after the attack on him had begun; and he was supported by
the Backwoodsman.-9 His opponent in the convention was
Breese, who apparently was one of the leaders of the faction
attacking May.30 The Belleville group, Reynolds, Gustave
Koerner, W. C. Kinney, and Shields united in supporting
Snyder. It was claimed that Carlin's victory was due to a
bargain with McRoberts, and that the representation at the
convention was small — three counties in the north, five in
the center, nine in the south, and two in the east.31 The nomi-
nation, however, was carried successfully into an election.
The convention system of party organization, though sorely
tried, had produced a degree of unity in the party that could
hardly have been attained otherwise. It is little wonder that
clever whig politicians like Lincoln, who were not too much
wedded to the traditions of the past, came to look on the
system with envy and to press its adoption in their own ranks.

28 Sangamo Journal, January 20, 22, March 3, May 12, 1838 ; Illinois State
Register, May n, 1838, stated that Hacker resigned. Field to Eddy, January
22, 1838, in Eddy manuscripts.

29 Sangamo Journal, May 12, July 28, 1838.

30 Field to Eddy, January 22, 1838, in Eddy manuscripts; he was said to be
back of the movement to run against Snyder.

31 Illinois Slate Register, June 8, 1838; Sangamo Journal, June 16, 1838.

XIII. THE WHIG AND DEMOCRATIC PARTIES;
THE CONVENTION SYSTEM

IN THE decade between 1830 and 1840 the democratic
party developed the idea of party regularity and devised
the convention as a means of attaining it. To comprehend
the character of this innovation one must first contrast it with
the system it displaced. At the time of the admission of Illi-
nois to the union the complete triumph of the republican party
had for the time put an end to bipartisan politics; the political
game turned around the ambitions of political leaders, the
rivalries of political cliques, and the adaptation of political
measures to the supposed interests of various sections of the
nation. With the rise of Andrew Jackson, there came out
of the confusion a party which obligated its members to
loyalty to Jackson, the vindicator of the popular will. But
as the "Old Hero" took his self-willed course in politics
and expected those who professed to be his friends to supr
port him in one measure after another, his partisans soon
came to amplify the obligations of personal loyalty until it
included support of Jackson's measures as well; and this new
test they added as a sequel to the old shibboleth of personal
allegiance.

So long as the political methods of the older day remained
it was difficult to enforce any such test. The idea that one
man should stand forth as a party candidate for an office
was as unfamiliar to the politicians of the twenties as was the
existence of national parties themselves. It often happened
that a man was persuaded not to run for an office lest he jeop-
ardize the chances of a friend who was also a candidate; but
except where personal or factional considerations intervened,
men felt free to present themselves as candidates for office as

251

252 THE FRONTIER STATE

they would. Sometimes various polite devices intervened to
bring the candidate and the people together. It often hap-
pened that a few voters, actuated by friendship, or by unwill-
ingness to offend a rich man or a notorious bully, signed a
newspaper notice or attended a public meeting summoning a
coy politician to permit the use of his name.1 The politicians
of the day were expert in the arts of aiding a candidacy by
putting forward or withholding other candidates and by form-
ing elaborate combinations to sap the strength of a dangerous
rival. Under such a system it was so difficult for the people
to express clearly by their votes support or disapproval of the
acts or political opinions of candidates that a bare profession
of Jacksonism carried Duncan through election after election,
whether in congress the Jackson measures enjoyed his sup-
port or not.

To combat such situations, the ideas of party regularity
and of the use of the convention were worked out in the
democratic party. As the theory was stated after 1835 in set
after set of resolutions, politics in the United States was
based on differences of principle as to government. The tri-
umph of principles, rather than the triumph of any particular
leader, was the end to be sought. "Without a frequent
interchange of political sentiment, expressed by the people,
and repeated by their delegates, properly authorized, the
democracy cannot insure that success in their elections,
which the purity and integrity of their principles, entitle them
to claim." 2 The democrats saw that victory for their
principles could be won only by centering the vote of the
party on one man pledged to their support and by frowning
on the candidacy of any rivals, as likely to divide the vote
of the party and allow a minority in opposition united on
one candidate to win. The means to this end was the con-
vention; whether district, county, state, or national, it could
state the principles of the party, choose a candidate to exem-

1 Illinois Advocate, November u, 1835; Chicago Democrat, February
25, 1834.

2 Illinois Advocate, December 17, 1835.

WHIG AND DEMOCRATIC PARTIES 253

plify them, and call upon the rank and file of the party to
support him loyally.3

Its originators adduced many a truth in favor of the system.
Not only did it tend to the triumph of just principles of gov-
ernment, but it was essentially democratic. Theoretically at
least, it rested on a series of representations of the people,
from the primary meeting in the district up to the national con-
vention. Applied to national nominations, the convention was
insurance against choice by a caucus or by the house voting by
states — the dilemma of the statesman of 1824—1825.
Further, since the representative assemblages were made up of
incorruptible patriots, wealth and influence could have no part
in their actions as they could under the old system of private
nominations.4 Under the convention system, in theory at
least, the nomination sought the patriot purest in political life
and most orthodox in principle.

Of course the practice in many cases scarcely corresponded
to the theory. In the case of the Baltimore convention that
nominated Van Buren for the presidency, the intention obvi-
ously was to rally the whole strength of the party to a man
who unquestionably was not the choice of a large part of it.
In that convention the vote of Illinois and Kentucky was cast
by a man who had no authorization from the party in either
state to represent it. If the convention lessened the influence
of the man of wealth, it increased the influence of the man
clever in political manipulation. Under the convention system
poor young men who were at the same time shrewd politicians
frequently rose to power. The political career of Stephen A.
Douglas who boasted that he had introduced the convention
system in Illinois was a typical example of such political shrewd-
ness.5 Yet even from such a result democracy may have been
the gainer.

The adoption of the convention system in Illinois was not

3 Illinois Advocate, April 15, 22, June 3, November 18, December 17, 1835;
Chicago Democrat, May 27, 1835.

4 Illinois Advocate, September 2, 1835; Chicago Democrat, July 15, 1835.

5 Sangamo Journal, May 16, June 13, July n, 1835, May 7, 1836.

254 THE FRONTIER STATE

the work of a day even in the democratic party. Thus in 1832
the cry that Johnson's claims to the vice presidency be sub-
mitted to the national convention was met by the nomination
of electors pledged to Jackson and Johnson. In 1835 the
alleged lack of time was set forth as a reason why Illinois
should content itself with county meetings indorsing in advance
the work to be done by the Baltimore convention. Neverthe-
less a democratic state convention was held which nominated
delegates instructed for Van Buren and Johnson, and a long
series of county meetings was induced to indorse the work of
the convention.

Opposition was naturally aroused. A legislative nominat-
ing convention, held at Ottawa in the northern district in 1834,
drew forth protests against it as a snap convention and caused
the nomination of rival candidates. In the fall of 1835 Eben-
ezer Peck's proposal to nominate state officers in a convention
called to nominate electors and his advocacy of extending
throughout the state " the wholesome system of conventions "
aroused protests. W. J. Gatewood strenuously opposed the
system. The Greene county convention in 1836 resolved to let
all who wished run for county offices. Southern Illinois was
slow to adopt the idea of the convention as an enforcer of
party regularity.6

The whigs at first criticized the convention system for what
often enough it undoubtedly was, a devise of political manipu-
lators to kill off candidates opposed to them. John Henry
in the legislative session of 1835—1836 offered resolutions
which declared that the application of the convention system to
state and county offices was anti-republican. He drew an
illuminating contrast between the new conventions, managed
to whip the party into line in the interest of such cliques as the
Albany regency, and the older public nomination meetings.7

8 Sangamo Journal, March i, April 5, 1832, April 18, May 2, 1835, February
6, 13, March 26, 1836; Illinois Advocate, March 9, 23, 1832, April i, 15, 22,
May 6, 1835; Chicago Democrat, March 4, 18, 21, May 21, 28, June 25, 1834.

7 House Journal, 1835-1836, 2 session, 27; Sangamo Journal, January
30, 1836.

WHIG AND DEMOCRATIC PARTIES 255

The principle of exclusion and regularity was the crux of the
distinction between the older and newer system.

Some of the proceedings of early conventions afforded the
whigs legitimate material for their satire. The Chicago
Democrat one year argued for conventions, and the next, dis-
gruntled at the local nominee for the legislature, refused to
be bound by a convention nomination on the ground that as
the convention had not harmonized public sentiment, its deci-
sion was not binding on the party. William L. May was
nominated for congress in 1836 by a state convention at Peoria,
consisting, as the Sangamo Journal averred, of twelve persons
representing five out of twenty-three counties, chosen in pri-
mary meetings aggregating some twenty persons. Next year,
with Douglas in control, conditions were changed; and a con-
vention dominated by an over-representation, so it was said,
of Sangamon and Morgan delegates nominated Douglas at
Peoria. May protested that where a plurality of popular votes
would elect, the action of a convention was not binding. The
Sangamo Journal believed the affair had made the Military
Tract ready to give up conventions and declared they were in
such bad odor that Casey and Ewing would not consent to be
nominated by them.8

Still the convention idea spread and with it went the organ-
ization of counties and districts by committees to call meetings
and to correspond.9 The system was applied to nominations
in both county and state. Conventions of all grades adopted
resolutions and addresses defining the path of the party. With
all its faults, with all its abuses, the convention did its work
well for the democratic party. It brought unity; it ended the
possibility of such campaigns as Duncan's in 1834; and at
least twice, in 1838 and 1842, it enabled the party to perform

8 Sangamo Journal, April 30, May 14, July 2, 1836, September 2, October
21, November 25, December 9, 1837, January 13, August 4, 1838; Chicago
American, July 4, August i, 1835, July 23, 30, 1836; Chicago Democrat, July
8, 1835, July 20, 1836.

9 Illinois Advocate, June 3, September 16, 30, December 2, 1835; Chicago
Democrat, June 10, 1835, February 24, 1836; Illinois State Register, July 22,
1837, May 18, 1838.

256 THE FRONTIER STATE

the delicate maneuver of replacing one candidate with another
under the enemies' fire without throwing the ranks into con-
fusion.

The whigs made no use of the convention corresponding
to that of their opponents. They scarcely used it except for
such matters as the nomination of electors. They drew their
skirts carefully aside from the defilement of anything like
caucus dictation. They came in time to use conventions for
congressional and legislative nominations, but they shrank
from a broader application of the system. There was always
trepidation in the ranks when a convention seemed to be neces-
sary to decide between state candidates and a feeling of relief
when by the adjuration of newspapers and other persuaders, all
but one withdrew, doubtless often leaving as much ill-feeling
as a hard-fought convention battle would have left.10

Because the convention system proved satisfactory to the
democratic party it does not follow that the whigs could have
used it with equal success. The difference between whig and
democrat was more than a mere difference in name and more
than a difference of opinion on important questions of public
policy. The difference was fundamental, it came from the
inmost nature and marked diametrically opposite viewpoints.
Barring accident and self-seeking a whig was a whig and a
democrat a democrat because he had a certain well-defined
attitude toward the world outside himself.

" I have been seeking and obtaining information upon the
subject of your Bank Directory at this place," wrote William
Thomas from Jacksonville to Henry Eddy in I838,11 "we
can furnish as good a Directory as can be found in Illinois
but we cannot divide the power between parties as is desirable,
because all of our solvent business men in Town are opposed

10 Sangamo Journal, September i, 22, 29, 1832, February 20, 1836, Decem-
ber 23, 1837; Alton Telegraph, June 28, July 5, 1837, March 28, 1838; Chicago
American, July 26, 31, August 2, 22, 1839; Peoria Register, December 9, 1837.

"William Thomas to Eddy, January 4, 1838, in Eddy manuscripts; see
also Chicago Democrat, August 16, 1837. I* remarked that of the emigration
to northern Illinois the laborers were democrats and the speculators and claim
jumpers whigs.

WHIG AND DEMOCRATIC PARTIES 257

to the Administration. We have but two solvent merchants
in Town as exceptions; they are doing small business." Gen-
erally speaking the foregoing passage may serve as a guide in
a rough and ready division of political Illinois between the
whigs and the democrats. The development of the actual
alignment of individual politicians, the shifting and alteration
of personal factions cannot so be generalized. The important
fact to keep in mind is that in the decade between 1830 and
1840 two distinct groups of ideas developed into opposing
political platforms and philosophies; and the passage quoted at
the head of this paragraph may serve as a useful criterion to
determine the location of the line of demarcation. It must be
remembered that both these schools of political thought devel-
oped gradually and that while the turn and emphasis given their
various doctrines were governed by local conditions in Illinois,
the doctrines themselves came from without, growing in impor-
tance as they found a response in the minds of the natives.

Of these, the whig political philosophy is hardest to derive
from the utterances of its Illinois exponents. Unlike their
democratic opponents, they were not given to stating broad
principles. In their case it is necessary to presuppose a rarely
expressed affection and prejudice for the stability and perma-
nence of the political institutions as they supposedly had existed
and operated in the days of the fathers. Looking toward the
past as they did, they were sentimentalists rather than idealists;
their first great political victory was won on a sentimental
appeal for a return to the measures and the political purity of
the past and for the election of a man who seemed one of the
last links to the days of the Revolutionary heroes.

The presence of this atmosphere of sentiment and conser-
vatism would imply to the European student of politics a
bourgeois party constituency. Paradoxical as the idea may
seem, the business man, accustomed to do his work through
a complex of human relationships is, however cynical, a good
deal of a sentimentalist. Certainly the whig party in its specific
measures appeared as a business man's party. In a fit of frank

258 THE FRONTIER STATE

analysis of political parties in Illinois in 1839, the Sangamo
Journal,1- a whig organ, averred that among the whigs were
to be found a "large proportion of the mercantile class —
the shifting, bustling, speculating class whose wealth and for-
tunes enable them to court pleasure or enjoyment, or repose."
It admitted that this class, comprising as it did bank directors
and borrowers at banks, would find a common interest in
the welfare of banking institutions. In its measures — banks,
protection, internal improvements — the whig party was the
party of the business classes and of those within their sphere
of influence.13

Since the storm of innovation that was breaking on the
country was forced on congress by the overpowering influence
of the executive supported by a strongly organized party
machine, the principles of the whigs naturally opposed the use
of executive power and patronage for party purposes and sus-
tained the legislature in its old standing and power against the
assaults of the executive branch. It was for this reason that
the whigs fought desperately the expunging resolution as cal-
culated to destroy the independence of the senate. " Destroy
public confidence in the Senate," wrote Governor Duncan in
transmitting to the Illinois senators their legislative instruc-
tions to vote for the expunging resolution, "let the Legisla-
ture rebuke them for warning the people, that a new, dangerous
and unconstitutional power had been asserted by a co-ordinate
and powerful branch of the government — let the right be
fully established that any power or person, except the imme-
diate constituents of each separate member of Congress, shall
have authority to call their acts in question — or that a man
at the head of our government, at whose command six thousand
bayonets will bristle in an instant, surrounded immediately and
remotely, by one hundred thousand organized office holders,
and numerous partisan office seekers, ready to obey his will —
shall have authority to protest against, interrupt or question

12 Sangamo Journal, February 16, 1839.

18 In another light this appears in the complaint of democratic papers, that
whig merchants would not advertise in them.

WHIG AND DEMOCRATIC PARTIES 259

any of the acts of the peoples' Representatives, who are sitting
in the presence of this mighty power, unarmed and unprotected,
and who should look alone to the approbation of their constitu-
ents and the ballot box for all favor and all rebukes; in a
word, let the Senate of the United States lose its independence
by the loss of public confidence . . . and you must perceive
that all power will soon be centered in one man; and that our
march to despotism is inevitable." 14 With a somewhat similar
feeling the whigs were occasionally disposed to question the
right of instruction, arguing it as absurd that a legislature con-
stitutionally empowered to elect senators every six years should
by this device elect them whenever it would.15 Senators took
an oath to maintain the constitution, not to obey their constitu-
ents. It was precisely on this article in the whig creed, the
guarantee of constitutional stability through the independence
of the legislature, that the democratic attack began. Thus in
1835 the democrats branded the avowed attempt of the whigs
to throw the election into the house of representatives as an
endeavor to defeat the will of the nation.16 They quoted, too,
the alleged remarks of Tristram Burgess that he wished all
future presidential elections might take place in the house of
representatives so that no candidate could ride in on a wave
of popularity and unseat republican institutions.17 Exagger-
ated charges of the same sort accused the whigs of desiring
a property qualification for voters and a president elected for
life. Democratic papers fed their readers with clippings accus-
ing the United States Bank of buying up newspapers, and
portraying the rowdyism and violence of whigs in the east. As
indicated elsewhere the reputed hostility of eastern whigs to

™Sangamo Journal, March 5, 1836.

15Alton Telegraph, April 6, 1836. This theory of the independence of the
legislature is probably the abstract expression of the impatience of many con-
gressmen personally strong in their districts at attempts to dragoon them into
party ranks by stirring up trouble for them at home. A favorite cry of the
whigs was election of men on their merits, not for their party affiliations. For
example see Chicago American, June 20, 1835.

16 Illinois State Register, November 9, 1838. The whigs it was said, like
English lories, scorned instructions, Illinois Advocate, December 23, 1835.

17 Ibid., May 20, 1835.

260 THE FRONTIER STATE

removal of the Indians, to graduation, to preemption, and to
squatters was a heavy load for their party in the west to bear.
More generally of course, they had to bear the imputation of
aristocracy and of being friends to the rich. The democrats
labored to show that the whigs were the spiritual descendants
of the federalist party, just as the whigs labored to enumerate
the many federalists who had been baptised democrats in
good standing. Challenged to define federalism, one demo-
cratic editor strung together the following familiar political
catch phrases of the day — believes in the Bank of the United
States, that no vulgar democrat is fit for office, talks of the
huge paws of the farmers, is for Daniel Webster or any other
available candidate, fills people with Jack Downing froth and
lies instead of facts relating to the prosperity of the country.
The sketch of the whig, as the locofoco affected to see him,
could not be improved on.18

Among the whigs there was always a strong undercurrent
of native American sentiment which the democrats, intent on
securing the foreign vote, were not slow to bring to the surface.
In most instances where it appeared overtly in Illinois this
sentiment was expressed in the very judicious question as to
whether newly arrived immigrants to the United States should
be permitted to vote. The conservative Backwoodsman, proba-
bly under May's tutelage, in 1838 denounced the practice of
allowing the " Irish of the canal zone " who had been six
months in Illinois to vote whether naturalized or not. It pro-
nounced that if foreigners were not to rule the United States,
the question of foreign votes must be decided. By 1839 the
native born democrats of Joliet had been forced to join the
whigs against the Irish. At the same time the Irish vote in
Cook county was said to be a half of the total.19

18 Chicago American, April 22, 1837, advocated a property qualification and
barring out foreign voters. Sangamo Journal, February 2, 1839, on behalf of
the whigs disclaimed a similar belief. Illinois State Register May 25, 1838,
Chicago Democrat, May 21, November 5, 1834, January 15, 1838; Illinois Advo-
cate, July 29, 1835.

19 Peoria Register, October 20, 1838; Chicago American, July u, 1835,
August 3, 12, 1839; Sangamo Journal, September i, 1838, January 5, 1839, clips

WHIG AND DEMOCRATIC PARTIES 261

This issue leads to another one on which whigs and demo-
crats joined battle, that of religious observances. The whigs
as the party of conservatism were naturally sticklers for observ-
ance of religious forms. The tendency, of course, does not
appear strongly in their own prints, though the Chicago Ameri-
can did clip an article accusing Tammany Hall of atheism.
But the Chicago Democrat complained that the American was
charging it with deistical opinions in order to secure the sub-
scriptions and the advertising of the pious. The whigs were
inclined to be emphatically Protestant and were accused, in
connection with Nativist attacks, of being anti-Catholic. Most
interesting of all, toward the end of 1833, an attack was made
on Duncan, then on the verge of turning whig, alleging that
he had come to represent the interests of the bank aristocracy
and the national church aristocracy, especially of the Presby-
terian church and the clique centering around Illinois College.20

So far as in this period the whigs succeeded in basing their
opposition to the administration on fundamental political prin-
ciples they did it by pointing out the danger to free institutions
of the growth of the executive power. The lines on which this
attack was developed have already been indicated. In its
milder forms it appeared as a suggestion that Van Buren was
planning to found a dynasty — clipped Out of the whole cloth
of a silly article in a London paper. The people were reminded
of the rarity with which earlier presidents had used the veto.

the Backwoodsman. This material appeared at the time the whigs were much
exercised at the canal vote being thrown to Douglas against Stuart. The Quincy
Argus declared the whole difficulty was that they had not voted whig; clipping
in Illinois State Register, September 28, 1838. At this time the German vote in
contradistinction to the Irish was said to be whig, ibid., October 19, 1838. Gus-
tave Koerner on behalf of his German fellow-citizens addressed an inquiry as
to the belief in native Americanism. It was answered with a letter favoring
a liberal encouragement to immigration, ibid., July 6, 1838. During the summer
of 1835 the Chicago American evinced a sharp hostility to immigrant voters,
especially in its clips, July u, August 8; it attacked Van Buren because of his
supposed willingness ^to let immigrants vote, June 20, 1835.

20 Chicago American, June 20, July n, 1835; Chicago Democrat, extra,
March 25, 1835; Illinois Advocate, December 28, 1833, November n, 1835. A
basis of the charge was the fact that Duncan had refused to vote for R. M.
Johnson's Sunday mail report. A resolution approving it had passed the Illi-
nois senate unanimously January 17, 1831, Senate Journal, 1830-1831, i ses-
sion, 262.

262 THE FRONTIER STATE

After 1832 they excused the defection of old-time Jackson
men by claiming that Jackson himself had abandoned his prin-
ciples, on the use of the patronage, on internal improvements,
and on the independence of the judiciary and of the senate. In
1839 the Alton Telegraph characterized the modern democrat
as a man willing to bolt his principles to order and who thus
had come to swallow the whole Hartford convention.21

There was much truth in the whig strictures for democratic
principles were in a continual process of evolution, in the course
of which reversals were frequent. Jackson had come into
power as supposedly the friend of tariff and internal improve-
ments, the foe of a second presidential term, and of the use
of political patronage, yet on all these points the vigorous old
man had seen or been made to see new light. But he had also
come in as a protest against the refusal of the house of repre-
sentatives, in exercising its constitutional right of election, to
regard the expression of the popular will. That he was the
vindicator of that will Andrew Jackson never forgot. He was
the first of American presidents to grasp the fact that he might
make himself the representative of the people. It was in the
name of the people of the United States that he made war
on the bank. Beyond any other in American history his figure,
aged, but not senile, vibrant, passionate, masterful, has the
eternal vigor of the will of the people.

There were men in America able to catch the inspiration
and to enumerate the principles of a new democracy, the mov-
ing force in the war of the people against the moneyed interests.
Illinois newspapers copied into their columns George Ban-
croft's address to democratic men of Massachusetts, claiming
that the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people was opposed
to the doctrine of the whigs which in its defiance of the populace
and its faith in special privileges, harks back to the principles
of their predecessors, the whigs of 1688. Coupled with this
doctrine of the sovereignty of the people necessarily went a

21 Sangamo Journal, December 18, 1831, October 20, 1832; Alton Telegraph,
April 6, August 10, 1839.

WHIG AND DEMOCRATIC PARTIES 263

limitation of what their servants in congress could do, a denial
of the power of congress to grant special privileges to corpora-
tions, or by tariff or internal improvement to confer on any
section of the country benefits in which the whole was not a
sharer. Hence strict constitutional construction; "The world
is too much governed" was the motto which the Globe set
at the head of its column. It was accompanied by a repudiation
of the doctrine that corporate rights are irrepealable. The
whigs believed that these principles of the democrats were
anarchistic, and they summarized their opponents' general
principles as agrarianism, Fanny Wrightism (free love), and
finally the supreme term of abuse, locofocoism.22

These were the fundamental principles of the democratic
party. Whoever attempts to discover that they were consist-
ently carried out, that they were in many, very many, cases
more than stalking horses for coming politicians, whoever
seeks to find in many of their caucuses and conventions anything
but knavery and sharp politics will be disappointed. But the
ideal was always there ; the principle that the democrats stood
for the rights of the many against the few, for the rights of
man against the rights of property remained to mold into a
different and more ideal frame the principles of some, at least,
of those who professed them.23

Their translation into measures of interest in Illinois inter-
nal affairs indicates why the practical interests of Illinois would
tend to bring the state to the support of the democrats. To
Illinois, protection for its almost purely agricultural products
was unnecessary. The United States Bank and its place in
the financial life of the country was a thing capable of being
visualized only by a few. And when panic descended on the
country the people of Illinois, the rank and file not being hard
hit, accepted the theory that the bank had deliberately brought

22 Illinois Advocate, November 25, 1835; Chicago Democrat, June 3, 1835,
May 4, 18, i8?6; Sangamo Journal, December 16, 1837. The whigs argued that
the credit sysv m was really the democratic system, as it enabled the man with
little money to get ahead.

23 See the resolutions readopted at the state convention of 1838, Illinois
State Register, June 8, 1838.

264 THE FRONTIER STATE

it on. The issue of internal improvements by federal aid was
more tempting; but the canal grant was assured; in the thirties
the democratic principles were still liberal enough to authorize
grants for the improvements of the great rivers ; and the only
whig proposal, the distribution bill, was ominous of an eastern
public land policy. To the west the vital questions were as yet
those of the Indians and the public lands — and on both of
these questions they naturally accepted the leadership of the
men with western vision, Jackson and Benton.

XIV. THE PASSING OF THE OLD DEMOCRACY

THE democratic party in Illinois had scarcely completed
its physical growth before its deterioration began. It
had achieved unity and coherence and had become a distinct
entity; but meanwhile in the union at large the party was
rapidly changing; old rallying cries were forgotten, and others
hitherto comparatively unimportant were stressed. The bank
and the tariff sank to subordinate places, and slavery and its
protection became the exemplification and end of states rights
doctrine. The party was becoming less and less western and
more and more southern. Its members in Illinois, rallying
behind the old party name, were slow to see that nationally in
its ideals and ends the party was not what it had been. The
overthrow of the party in the election of 1840 marked the
beginning of the end of the old democracy in the nation; and
though they were still victorious in Illinois the democrats were
soon to perceive that a change in their national relations had
taken place.

The campaign in which Harrison was elected over Van
Buren was one of the strangest in American politics. A party
presenting an essentially sound financial policy exemplified in
its recent record was swept away by opponents who scarcely
joined issue with it save to caricature its views and who placed
their chief reliance on a pageantry and enthusiasm essentially
sentimental in their appeal. Not only was the contest and its
aftermath one of the most picturesque in American annals, but
it was with reference to the political habits of the parties and
the nation one of the most significant.

On issues the position of the democratic party in 1840
should have been strong. Van Buren by the boldest and most
statesmanlike measure of his career had brought his party

265

266 THE FRONTIER STATE

finally to accept the subtreasury as against any bank. The
county meetings and conventions in 1839-1840 generally
declared for the subtreasury and the divorce of banks and
government, often with a fling at banks in general as founded
on special privilege, often with a reference to the danger of
moneyed oligarchies and paper money mills and sometimes
with an indorsement of Benton's specie currency policy.1 With
similar unanimity they attacked the whig bills barring office-
holders from participation in elections and approved the repeal
of the salt tax. Again they recurred to their old doctrine that
the whigs were really federalists in the hope of placing on them
the stigma of an unpatriotic past.

The whigs, on the other hand, attacked the subtreasury
with a vehemence that as their opponents complained occa-
sionally ignored the nature of the institution. It is true that
they frequently argued for the necessity of a bank, a paper
currency, and a credit system, maintaining that the prevailing
hard times were due to the destruction of the paper circulating
medium of the country; they argued with some plausibility
that the credit system instead of being aristocratic in essence
was really democratic inasmuch as it enabled the man without
capital of his own to get a start in life on borrowed money.
But they also argued that the democratic ideal was to reduce
the wages of labor and the price of staple commodities to star-
vation rates — eleven pence a day wages and sixteen cents a
bushel for wheat; they even went so far as to draw conclusions
from the supposed fact that the subtreasury was the institution
of the autocratic countries of Europe and hence unsuited to
the free air of America. They raked up a scheme for a terri-
torial army proposed by Joel R. Poinsett, the secretary of war,
and prophesied the direst consequences to American freedom
when by its adoption and by the institution of the subtreasury
both the purse and the sword would rest in the hands of one
man. They condemned the subtreasury as a fertile source of

1 Illinois State Register, August 31, November 9, 16, 23, 30, December 7,
21, 1839, January 4, April 3, 1840.

PASSING OF THE OLD DEMOCRACY 267

defalcations on the part of the various officers with public
money in their charge. "The Saviour of the world," said
Abraham Lincoln, "chose twelve disciples, and even one of
that small number, selected by superhuman wisdom, turned out
a traitor and a devil. And, it may not be improper here to
add, that Judas carried the bag — was the Sub Treasurer of
the Saviour and his disciples." 2

However, in the heat of the campaign the fiercest fighting
centered about the personality of the rival candidates. The
whigs assailed Van Buren for having forced the subtreasury
scheme through after repeated rejections by congress, recalling
the fact that Jackson had never favored it. In this as in his
candidacy for a second term, they declared, Van Bur'en had
departed from the principles espoused by Jackson in the days
of his strength. In the wake of the democratic policy they pre-
dicted the advent of free trade and as its corollary, direct
taxation, the rising power of the president fortified by the
use of the patronage, the army, the funds of the subtreasury,
and the general perversion of the ways of the fathers. It
would have been well had their attack gone no further. The
old charges of 1836, however, accusing Van Buren of foppery,
of voting for a limited franchise, and for allowing the vote to
free negroes also appeared. Congressman Charles Ogle
gained much temporary fame by a speech widely circulated in
different versions, in which he commented on the luxurious fur-
nishings provided for the president's house at the public
expense and made rather clever demagogic use of French
menus and bills written in French for the materials for certain
pieces of furniture such as taborets, which he pointed out had
their place in the ceremonial of European courts. Occasionally
a paper deemed worthy of circulation an absurd story from an
absurd London newspaper to the effect that Van Buren was
planning to establish a dynasty on the throne of the United
States. Under these circumstances the visit of " Prince John "

2 Sangamo Journal, March 6, 20, April 3, 10, May 29, July 10, October 30,
1840; Chicago American, May 29, July i, 10, August 20, 1840; Alton Telegraph,
February 8, September 5, 1840.

268 THE FRONTIER STATE

Van Buren to the court of England was a portent fraught with
dire meaning.3

In Illinois especially the old theme of Van Buren's hostility
to the west was made to do duty, reenforced in this instance by
Van Buren's refusal to support schemes for internal improve-
ment in the west, the abandonment of work on the Cumberland
road and the lake harbors, and the sale of the machinery per-
taining to them. This it was said by the whigs was the price
that Van Buren was paying for Calhoun's support. In con-
tradistinction to such policies the whig papers cited Clay's
last distribution bill, which they calculated would have aided
the state's credit in a marked degree.4

The democrats tried in vain to counter with effect on the
character of Harrison. They rang the charges on the fact
that as a young man he had joined what was called an abolition
society; they used once more the old charge that he had voted
to sell white men into slavery. They twisted his words to
make it apparent that in 1798 he had been a black cockade
federalist of the Adams school. They assailed his military
career at its most vulnerable points. They maintained with
some truth that he was a manufactured candidate designed to
catch the votes of the west. They told again and again the
story that a committee at his home at North Bend had him in
charge and that he was kept in a cage ; a charge which the whigs
insisted in interpreting in a more or less literal sense and in
repelling with scorn.5

The fatal blunder of the democrats in scornfully referring
to Harrison as a log cabin and hard cider candidate gave the
whig leaders their inspiration. By the rarest stroke of political

8 Sangamo Journal, April 10, July 3, August 2, 21, 1840; Chicago American,
April 20, May 2, 8, July 16, August 18, September 23, 1840; Illinois State Regis-
ter, September 25, October 2, 1840; Belleville Advocate, September 5, 1840.

4 Sangamo Journal, October 12, 1839, January 24, July 10, October 16,
1840; Chicago American, April 17, August 13, September 24, October 28, Decem-
ber 29, 1840.

6 Illinois State Register, January 21, February 21, March 6, 13, April 17,
May 8, 22, 29, September 28, 1840; Sangamo Journal, January 28, March 13,
1840; Belleville Advocate, April 4, n, 18, May 2, August 29, September 12,
October 10, 1840; Chicago American, June 10, October 15, 1840; Chicago Demo-
crat, April 13, 25, 1840.

PASSING OF THE OLD DEMOCRACY 269

genius they took Harrison, a man, good, pious, well-meaning,
but one who had never displayed brilliant ability either in
politics or in war and represented him as a man of a stature
comparable to the heroes of the Revolution, a man whose
political virtues would bring back the golden age of the past.
The veteran of the Revolution was told that Harrison had re-
ceived his first commission from the hands of George Washing-
ton. The farmer of the west was reminded that in a double
sense he owed his farm to the man who had at once secured
the passage of the law for the sale of small tracts and had
protected the frontier from the Indians. As monster rallies
were held on the old battlefields of the west, now centers of
a teeming population, the sentimental appeal for the man
whose active life had spanned this marvellous progress, who
had represented the whole Northwest Territory in congress
and who had been the backwoods governor of what were now
three prosperous states was well-nigh irresistible.

The sentiment found expression in political pageantry on a
scale hitherto undreamed of. There was rough horseplay
enough in the manner of college freshmen; as for instance
when a delegation from Chicago setting out to a monster whig
rally at Springfield captured an enemy banner in the form of
the derisive petticoat and bore its trophy with it in triumph.
There was much carolling of whig songs, which seemed to
the democrats the only answers their opponents made to chal-
lenges on the serious issues of the campaign. The whigs,
abandoning all discussion, swung along in unreasoning sub-
jection to the refrain

Without a why or a wherefore
We'll go for Harrison therefore.

Yet there was a deeper meaning to all this seeming frivolity.
In the delegations that set out to the monster whig rallies,
camping out at night on their way in the log cabins set up in
the cities long past the pioneer stage, in which banker, mer-
chant, and mechanic toasted Harrison in mugs of hard cider,

270 THE FRONTIER STATE

one catches the spirit of a sort of national feast of tabernacles,
a commemoration of the hardships and privations by which the
west had been won. East and west alike at outs with the
administration, but unable to agree on any set of measures,
found common cause in the sentimental dream that with the
election of Harrison the political virtues of the fathers and
the golden age might come once more.

With the whigs one monster rally followed another. At
one in McDonough there were said to have been present 2,500
men anjd 500 women; at Galena 2,486 men and 340 women;
at Carlinville 3,000 persons.6 The greatest of all was reported
to have been that at Springfield which called together some
fifteen thousand attendants who paraded by county delegations
with banners and special floats. In reply the democrats could
only allege that these were drunken and disorderly meetings,
but they protested with more truth that the whigs were making
an appeal frankly to the passions. The whigs retorted that
the personal weakness of Van Buren in the state necessitated
using the great name of Jackson at every turn in an appeal
essentially perhaps as sentimental as their own. The whigs
wisely refrained from attacking Jackson, rather professing a
belief that the old Jackson men would vote for Harrison.7

In spite of all, however, the whigs did not carry Illinois.
They attributed their vote, a little short of a majority, to the
fraudulent ballots cast along the line of the canal; but the
democrats were as quick to respond with countercharges of
fraud and wholesale colonization. The whigs were able to
rejoice, however, over a series of victories from the carry-
ing of Maine to the final success, which was celebrated with
firing of cannon for the Harrison states. Chicago celebrated
with a barbecue at "Walter Newberry's enclosed lot, corner
of Clarke and North Water."8

6 Sangamo Journal, July 17, August 2, 1840.

7 Sangamo Journal, January 10, June 5, 1840; Chicago American, June 10,
1840; Chicago Democrat, April 29, May 20, 1840.

8 Illinois State Register, October 16, 23, 1840; Alton Telegraph, October 31,
1840; Chicago American, September 18, November 23, 25, December 4, 1840.

PASSING OF THE OLD DEMOCRACY 271

With that election much passed out of American politics.
It was the last on which the shadow of the aggression of slave
power in the west did not fall heavily. It saw the overthrow
of the older democratic party. That party under an uninspir-
ing leader had ranged itself for battle behind measures
following naturally from the principles of democracy that it
professed and it had been smitten hip and thigh. The sober
second thought to which the democrats appealed turned the
tide in their favor at the next election, but thenceforth it became
increasingly apparent that southern politicians had taken the
party out of pawn and that the vigor of its creed had departed.

The whigs did well to rejoice while they might for one of
the most ironical instances of retributive justice in politics that
history affords was about to overtake them. They had by the
nomination of Harrison and Tyler sought to gather together
the various elements that had in ten years past split off from
the Jacksonian party. They had, therefore, made no attempt
to formulate a national platform of principles which would
have to hold bank and tariff whigs side by side with Virginia
abstractionists like Tyler who prided themselves on their votes
for the force bill. When the aged Harrison sank into the
grave a month after inauguration, almost with his last breath,
so the democrats believed, protesting against the policy of
removals forced upon him in violation of his pledges, the whigs
were face to face with a man on whose loyalty they had no hold.
The party platform had been indefinite on the political issues.
True in Illinois, they had argued for a national bank, but they
did not stand firmly arrayed for it, contenting themselves with
finding fault with their opponents rather than proposing meas-
ures of their own. Therefore they could not justly hold Tyler
bound to the execution of their program.

Previously the whigs had been in high feather. They had
occasionally warned the people that too much in the way of a
revival of business must not be expected until whig measures
could be inaugurated, but they gloated over the prospect of a
United States Bank and of a retaliation on the democrats by

272 THE FRONTIER STATE

a policy of removals that ostensibly sparing the worthy among
their opponents in office would in effect spare few or none. It
was true, that the democrats complained that Harrison's
inaugural address was no more specific on bank or tariff than
previous party pronouncements had been but the whig papers
asserted that his sentiments on the supremacy of the legislature,
the veto, and officeholders' interference in politics would
restore the halcyon days of Washington.9

It was not at first apparent that the death of Harrison and
the accession of Tyler had brought about any marked change.
Democratic papers set about appropriating for their own use
the last of the sentiment and glamour that had enveloped Har-
rison by insinuating that the importunity of whig office seekers
for removals had hastened his death and that the last words
of his delirium, " Sir, I wish you to understand the true prin-
ciples of the Constitution. I wish them carried out. I ask
nothing more," represented a last appeal against the force that
was driving him to the violation of his preelection pledges.
Indeed Tyler's early removals caused renewed wails from the
democrats. The Belleville Advocate expressed a lingering
hope that Tyler might be consistent with his strict construction-
ist principles and oppose a bank; but the State Register
pronounced his message a jumble of federalism, democracy,
whiggery, and locofocoism.10

The successive bank vetoes at the special session of con-
gress sent politics spinning like a teetotum. The Alton Tele-
graph, while deprecating the burning of the president in effigy
by indignant whigs at Jacksonville, was disposed to call for
instructions to Tyler to resign. The Sangamo Journal was at
best inclined to say little, and when it spoke, spoke in sorrow
rather than anger. It protested that it could see no cause for
locofoco rejoicing, for Tyler had approved the repeal of the
subtreasury and the loan, bankrupt, and distribution bills.
How could even locofocos take pleasure in the ruin of their

9 Chicago American, December 14, 1840, February 27, March 16, 1841.

10 Illinois State Register, May 19, 1841; Belleville Advocate, April 23, May
15, 29, June 26, 1841.

PASSING OF THE OLD DEMOCRACY 273

country? " The Log Cabins had been blown up," true enough,
and pork and beef were selling at two cents a pound! The
democratic papers triumphantly proclaimed that Tyler had
followed his conscience. The State Register defended his
integrity, averring that while the whigs had made the bank an
issue in Illinois and had been beaten on it they had not made
it so throughout the nation. The democratic county meetings
throughout the state in the fall of 1841, while condemning the
whig repeal of the subtreasury, tariff, and distribution meas-
ures and occasionally censuring Tyler for his share in them,
were disposed to give the president full praise for his veto of
the bank.11

The whigs, unable like the democrats to wait for action on
the part of their opponents, rallied slowly. On the bank
scheme proposed in Tyler's fall message, the whig papers were
not enthusiastic. The general consensus of their opinion as
collected by the Sangamo Journal was " half a loaf is better
than no bread." The Sangamo Journal, inspired, as William
Walters of the State Register insinuated, by hopes of obtaining
the post-office printing, was inclined to be friendly to the ad-
ministration. The whigs attempted to attribute the hard times
to the specie standard. In the winter of 1842 they wished
to revive the tariff issue. In part their propaganda, founded
as it was on the danger of competition to southern cotton in
British markets by East Indian cotton, was manifestly designed
to win the south to the whigs. Most of the arguments seemed
hardly adapted to western consumption with the possible excep-
tion of the home market argument and the fact that American
wheat was taxed in England. They taunted the democrats
with fearing to join issue on the question, and in fact the demo-
cratic papers had little to say till after Tyler's veto.12

11 Alton Telegraph, August 28, September 4, 25, 1841 ; Illinois State Register,
September 3, October r, 1841; Sangamo Journal, September 3, 17, 24, October
29, 1841; Belleville Advocate, September 3, November n, 25, 1841.

12 Sangamo Journal, January 6, February 4, April 8, 15, December 22,
1842; Chicago American, January 14, 21, February u, 26, April 20, September
16, 1842; Illinois State Register, January 14, October 7, 1842; Belleville Advo-
cate, December 23, 1841, August 18, October 13, 1842.

274 THE FRONTIER STATE

In the midst of the confusion, party lines for a time were
almost erased. Clay and his friends had in the name of the
whigs excommunicated John Tyler, but for a time the mighty
Webster remained in Tyler's cabinet. Tyler was able to count
on many former democrats as well who rallied for a time to
his standard. Charles Prentice persuaded William Walters
of the Illinois State Register by dreams of controlling the pat-
ronage in the state to make overtures to Tyler, which Prentice
used to persuade Tyler of his control of the party in Illinois.
A longing for the patronage caused many whigs and democrats
to come as near to Tyler as their consciences would permit.13

In the whig party the Clay men were the irreconcilables.
The attitude which the party assumed toward Webster is
instructive. Immediately after the vetoes, the Telegraph was
inclined to criticize him for not resigning and the Journal to
palliate his remaining in office. By the fall of 1842, however,
whig papers were generally attacking him openly. The demo-
cratic papers during the congressional campaign of 1843 were
inclined to diagnose the situation as Clay with his measures of
assumption, bank, distribution, and tariff, as against Tyler and
Webster, again the old Webster of 1818, the opponent of
bank, tariff, and the American system. The Telegraph served
notice on Webster that to run against Clay would insure his
defeat and political ruin. By December the Register had
decided that the Clay plan was to use Webster to elect Clay
and then drop him, and that accordingly the Illinois whig
leaders had ceased to attack him. Thus the question of the
assumption of state debts by the national government, mani-
festly Clay's American system under another form, was
advanced by the whigs late in 1842 for the congressional cam-
paign, the Telegraph coming out for it openly, and the
American at first hanging back. The Register pronounced it
the plan of J. Horsley Palmer of Palmer, Dent, and McKillop,
the great London financiers. In the fall of 1843 tne whig state

18 Alton Telegraph, October 2, 9, 1841; Belleville Advocate, December i,
1841; Chicago American, March 29, December 20, 1841, March 12, 16, October
4, 12, 1842; Sangamo Journal, October i, 1841.

convention pronounced the issues to be protection, distribution,
and a bank, and declared the party was united behind Clay.1'

The possibility of an independent Tyler movement in the
campaign of 1844 was not disposed of till the opening of the
campaign. In 1843 Tyler had attempted to rally the office-
holders to the Madisonian. In April the Register had assailed
Isaac Hill for going over to Tyler, declaring that as a third
candidate Tyler could not get thirty votes in Illinois and pro-
nouncing his best course to be to seek to unite his former
political associates. But at the same time Walters through
Prentice was cooperating with Tyler to get whig officeholders
replaced by democrats. In the spring of 1 844, A. G. Herndon,
Archibald Job, G. Elkin, and S. R. Rowan were active for
Tyler on the Texas issue, but finally the issue was transferred
to the Polk armory.15 Ebenezer Peck represented it as the last
attempt of the desperate Tyler men to get away from the tariff
and currency issues.

The democrats had been at a loss as to their candidate.
James Buchanan, Lewis Cass, and Thomas Benton had been
suggested at different times. In August of 1842 the Chicago
American thought they were about to take up Calhoun. In
the summer of 1842 when Van Buren came to Chicago on
what the American considered an electioneering visit, it urged
the whigs to refrain from all but the ordinary civilities to him;
Judge Henry Brown, who was given to reminiscences of New
York, gave a picture of him lounging in dandified fashion
about Albany. Some one placed a barrel of stale cabbage in
the public square in possible reference to Van Buren's Dutch
ancestry, but no further unpleasantness occurred.16

For a time there was a boom of moderate proportions for
R. M. Johnson. The Belleville Advocate, Reynolds' paper,

14 Illinois State Register, March 3, June 2, 16, 23, December 8, 1843; Alton
Telegraph, November 12, 1842, April 15, December 23, 1843; Chicago American,
March 15, July 21, 1842.

15 Alton Telegraph, April 22, 1843; Sangamo Journal, January 25, April
n, May 30, June 13, July 14, 1844; Illinois State Register, April 7, 1843.

16 Chicago American, December n, 1841, March 18, June 23, 24, July 8,
August 6, 1842.

276 THE FRONTIER STATE

came out for him in 1841 as the friend of the west and the
advocate of reduction of the price of public lands. In May
of 1843 he visited Belleville where the Advocate had not
ceased to work for him. It insisted that he would get five
votes in Illinois to one for any other democratic candidate.
Only the Galena Sentinel, however, came to the support of the
Advocate. Johnson's candidacy, however, was thought to be
linked by Reynolds with his own as the anti-convention candi-
date for congress against Lyman Trumbull, Shields, or
Koerner. The Advocate complained that the county conven-
tions were packed against Johnson resolutions, and in Illinois
his candidacy was practically at an end.17

By the late fall of 1843 tne opinion of the state had crystal-
lized in favor of Van Buren. The Register came out for him,
September 22, the Democrat, December 20; and a series of
county meetings had previously declared for him. The Regis-
ter was accused of supporting Van Buren after having been
bought off by Benton from its previous support of Johnson.
Possibly too the Register had a slight inclination toward
Calhoun.18

The democrats at the beginning of the campaign, began
their restatements of principles in such form as has already
been indicated. They began too a series of bitter attacks on
Clay for his insolent reference in 1820 to the workers of the
north as white slaves, for his contemptuous remarks about
squatters and his opposition to liberal land policies. His part
in the Graves-Cilley duel and his general violence of character
were all brought out, even to the alleged " corrupt bargain."
The party made the bank and the tariff its more serious issues.
The whigs in their pre-convention campaign assailed Van Buren
on the old issues of 1836 and 1840 — his hostility to the west,
the standing army of 1839. The issues made by their conven-
tions were usually protection, distribution, a bank, one term.

17 Belleville Advocate, September 17, 1841, May 18, 23, December 21, 28,
1843; Alton Telegraph, September 9, 1843.

18 Illinois State Register, April 28, June 16, November 24, December i,
1843, February 16, 1844; Belleville Advocate, November 2, 30, 1843.

PASSING OF THE OLD DEMOCRACY 277

The democrats contended they were trying for a hurrah cam-
paign like that of 1840, and evidenced their use of shingles for
purpose of applause.19

A first result of the nomination of Polk instead of Van
Buren at Baltimore was to overset all the whig preparations.
The whigs had to change their position in the face of the enemy,
hastily alleging against Polk his vote against the Cumberland
road and his descent from tories, and finally using such stories
as the famous Roorback. This last consisted in an incident of
Featherstonhaugh's travels which was revamped into a
description of a gang of slaves being marched south to be sold,
each branded " J. K. P." This thrilling tale professed to be
extracted from the travels of the Baron von Roorback, a
mythical German nobleman whose name has found immortality
as an American political catchword.

Otherwise the issues were narrowed to banks, a tariff, and
the annexation of Texas; and in all these the democrats had
the superior position.20 Polk was easily successful in Illinois
and successful by a narrow margin in the nation.

Yet the party was actually far from unanimous. The
democratic papers had been quick to recover from their invol-
untary start of surprise at Folk's nomination and to multiply
virtues in him and arguments for his election. Yet the Register
lately alleged that a faction in Illinois guided by Benton had
fought desperately against him. Once his course on the Texas
and Oregon questions and on river and harbor improvement
had become clear, that same faction in the democracy repudi-
ated him and the newer southern democracy he represented.

19 Illinois State Register, December 8, 1843, April 5, May 10, 31, 1844;
Belleville Advocate, May 2, 9, 1844; Chicago Democrat, March 27, May i, 15,
1844; Sangamo Journal, March 7, April n, 1844.

20 Alton Telegraph, October 5, 26, 1844; Vandalia Free Press, July 20,
1844; Chicago Democrat, August 28, October 16, 1844.

XV. STATE POLITICS, 1840-1847

SETTING aside national politics and party maneuverings
for advantage on the issues arising from the internal
improvement system, the springs of political life between 1839
and 1846 are to be found in a series of political quarrels and
rivalries ending in the expulsion from active politics one after
another of the older political leaders. True enough there were
state issues proper in 1839—1840; but these speedily became
incrusted with personal and factional rivalries. To trace this
whole series of squabbles would be insufferably tedious. If the
events be studied, however, as clashes between certain striking
characters — Ebenezer Peck, T. W. Smith, William Walters,
John Reynolds, and John Wentworth — they may engage the
reader's attention.

The fact that the whigs were in an unfortunate situation
on two state issues explains their failure to carry Illinois for
Harrison in 1840. One of these issues arose from the so-called
" life office " controversy in which they were on the unpopular
side of a question that might be treated as one of fundamental
political principle. The office of secretary of state had been
held by A. P. Field since his appointment by Governor
Edwards in the days when he was an " original Jackson man."
The passage of time, however, had wrought miracles in party
alignments, and in 1838 Field was a whig too inveterate for
the democrats to endure in office. When Governor Carlin
attempted, however, to choose a secretary of state more con-
genial politically to his associates, Field, always of a
pugnacious disposition, refused to be ousted, pointing out that
the constitution of the state failed to specify the term for which
the secretary of state was to be chosen. Accordingly the whig
senate, with the assistance of a few democrats, supported him

278

STATE POLITICS 279

in standing upon his so-called rights. The governor's nomina-
tions were rejected; but after the legislature had adjourned,
the governor's appointee, John A. McClernand, sued for the
office. Two justices of the supreme court, Samuel D. Lock-
wood and William Wilson, held that while the term of the
office was not for life the tenure under the constitution, until
the senate should alter it, was dependent only on good behavior.
Thomas C. Browne, a third justice, because he was related to
McClernand did not give his opinion, and Theophilus W.
Smith dissented.

Politicians were quick to take advantage of the issue. The
democratic papers argued that it was beyond the constitutional
power of the legislature to fix the term of an officer appointed
by the governor and accordingly removable by him with the
consent of the body that concurred in the appointment.1 They
recalled the story that on a former occasion Elias Kent Kane,
the virtual author of the constitution, had declared it the inten-
tion of the convention that the governor should have power to
remove. The state democratic convention accused the whigs
of favoring a life tenure of office, adding to the accusation an
attack on the "federalist" judges and senate. The topic was
prescribed to the local conventions by a democratic circular
issued by the state committee, October 10, 1839 ; and it figured
duly in their resolutions.2 The final result was that no law was
passed and that the right of governor and senate to remove
was vindicated.

Before the life office question had been settled, another
politico-constitutional question had been injected into state
politics; and, though the democrats were far from being in so
favorable a position on it, in the end it gave the whigs no real
advantage. A test case as to the right of aliens to vote, which
Governor Ford declared to have been made up by two whigs
and which the court itself at one time believed to be fictitious,

1 Illinois State Register, August 17, 24, 31, September 28, December 14,
25, 1839.

-Ibid., November 2, 9, 23, 30, December 7, 21, 1839, April 3, 1840.

28o THE FRONTIER STATE

appeared on the calendar of the circuit court at Galena. It
was there decided on the principle that the provision of the
constitution giving the franchise to free male inhabitants of
specified age and color did not serve to include unnaturalized
aliens even though they had fulfilled the time required for resi-
dence. The case was carried up to the supreme court in 1839
and argued in December. It came up again in June when
according to Ford, Judge Smith privately suggested to the
lawyers for the alien side a flaw in the record, which postponed
the decision until after the election of 1840. Meanwhile the
democratic leaders in the general assembly had planned such a
legislative reorganization of the judiciary as might for the
future at least secure them from any partisan decisions favor-
ing the whigs.

The justices of the supreme court took the alarm and
handed down this decision on the case at the December term,
1840. Judge Smith in the longest opinion decided the case
squarely on the question of the right of the alien to vote
whether naturalized or not. Judges Lockwood and Wilson
in their decisions were more obscure. They concurred in the
reversal of the lower court's decision but solely, as nearly as
one can judge, on the ground that the law left the clerk no
power to inquire whether the voter were an alien or not.

The assembly did not wait for the supreme court. On
December 10, 1840, Snyder introduced into the senate a bill
for the reorganization of the judiciary. After a prolonged
debate the bill passed the senate by a vote of twenty-two to
seventeen. On February i the house adopted it by a vote of
forty-five to forty. In neither the house nor the senate were
the democrats able to cast their full party vote for the
measure.

As passed the measure provided for the appointment of
five additional justices of the supreme court who with the four
judges already sitting were to perform the duties of the nine
circuits of the state and incidentally insure a democratic major-
ity in the court. On February 8 the council of revision returned

STATE POLITICS 281

the measure with its objections signed only by the members of
the supreme court. The three whig members instanced the
terms of the measure and the fact that the circuit judges would
be so overworked that cases would accumulate on the dockets.
Smith dissented on the ground that the act was unconstitutional
as retroactive and that it was subversive of private right as
well as of public faith to the displaced circuit judges. On the
reconsideration of the bill in the senate, E. D. Baker attempted,
as nearly as one can determine, to start a filibuster, but was
promptly declared out of order when he attempted to read
documents or to have them read by the clerk and finally gave
up. The bill passed the same day twenty-three to sixteen.3
In the house the whigs, as they had done before, tried to obtain
a popular referendum on the question, but failed. On the
same day, the bill repassed by a vote of forty-six to forty-
three.

The judiciary bill had far reaching effects on the democratic
party. McClernand and Trumbull made the measure a test
of party faith and bitterly denounced such men as S. G. Hicks
and A. C. Leary of Cook who voted against it. The political
ruin which the measure indirectly brought upon that insatiable
Tammany politician, Theophilus W. Smith, is a better story.
Smith had originally suggested to the democratic lawyers the
flaw in the record which they had been able to use to postpone
the decision of the alien case till after they had used the alien
votes in the presidential election of the same year. At that
time he had told the democrats that the whig justices were
about to decide the case on constitutional grounds that would
bar aliens from the right to vote. But in February of 1841 he
issued with the other three justices a statement denying that
the decision given out in December differed from that which
they had reached in June. The various democratic leaders
thereupon published their assertions that Smith had assured
them to the contrary in June, and there is no particular reason
to doubt their testimony. Smith, who in spite of his denial

3 Illinois State Register, February 12, 1841.

282 THE FRONTIER STATE

probably had senatorial aspirations in the summer of 1840,
had been disappointed in the election of McRoberts as sena-
tor,4 and his wrath against his old associates was bitter. It was
reported a year later that he had engaged to fight a duel with
McClernand. The State Register declared that Smith was
planning to establish at Springfield a newspaper, The Jefferson-
ian Democrat, ostensibly democratic but whose true object was
to wreck the party. The Register charged that the paper
would profess democracy but advocate whig measures and,
while supporting the presidential candidate of the party, would
oppose its nominee for governor. In August of 1842 the
Register published a long attack on Smith, accusing him of
heading a riot in Chicago during the election of 1840, of drunk-
enness, of nepotism, and of harassing the politicians who had
favored the judiciary bill. The Register which published the
article and the Chicago Democrat which clipped it were made
defendants in libel suits by Smith on some of the charges in
this attack. Smith's erratic conduct led some to believe that his
mind was affected. Under a cloud mostly of his own raising,
he resigned in December, 1842, from the supreme court and
ended his long political career.5

Similarly the judiciary bill resulted in a turn in the political
fortunes of another democratic politician, Ebenezer Peck.
Peck was one of the ablest and at the same time one of the
most abused of the democratic party leaders. The whigs were
never tired of recalling the fact that while an American citizen
he had gone to Canada, had become a king's counselor, and
had, if report was true, done work for the government in the
suppression of revolt and discontent before he came to Illinois
about 1835 to preach the pure doctrine of democracy, conven-
tional, undefiled, and regular. He had done yeoman service
in the election of 1840 and now perhaps was claiming his
reward. As a result, the whigs insinuated, of his conversion

4 Chicago American, September 15, 1840, February 6, June 6, 1841; Illinois
State Register, February 5, 1841; Alton Telegraph, June 26, 1841.

5 Illinois State Register, March 12, 1841, August 26, December 2, 1842;
Chicago American, March n, 1841; Chicago Democrat, November 30, 1842.

STATE POLITICS 283

to the support of the judiciary bill, for which, however, he had
uniformly voted, the new supreme court, consisting, beside the
former justices, of Sidney Breese, Thomas Ford, W. B. Scates,
S. H. Treat, and S. A. Douglas, elected him clerk of the
supreme court in the place of J. M. Duncan. There were but
five justices present at the election and four of them voted for
Peck. Even many of the democratic papers had nothing good
to say of the appointment of the " midnight clerk," and Peck
with his friends of the State Register and the Springfield clique
found enemies ready to assail them on all sides.6

Notable among the enemies whom the Springfield clique
had to encounter was " Long John " Wentworth, editor of the
Chicago Democrat and for many years the leader of his
party in the city. He had come to the state to seek his
political fortune in 1836, and if Peck is to be believed had
begun his career with Peck's financial support and patronage.
Peck professed a very poor opinion of him; if it was real, like
many others he understood Wentworth's political ability too
late. Throughout 1842 Wentworth with the Ottawa Free
Trader and Carrolton Advocate, waged open war on Peck,
the Register, and the clique. For a time he hoped to secure
in the legislature the defeat of Walters for public printer. In
the legislature the clique was triumphant in the elections of
1842-1843. It defeated R. M. Young for senator, Walters
alleging that he had Tyler leanings and was of doubtful ortho-
doxy, and elected Sidney Breese as a result, it was claimed, of
a bargain by which the latter had withdrawn from the guber-
natorial race of i842.7

Walters was elected public printer, and for the three vacant
seats in the supreme court left by the resignations of Ford,
Breese, and Theophilus W. Smith there were chosen Young in

6 Sangamo Journal, August 7, 1840, March 19, 26, 1841; Chicago American,
June 27, July 14, 18, 24, September 18, 1840, March 17, 1841 ; Illinois State
Register, May 7, July 16, 1841.

''Alton Telegraph, October i, December 24, 1842; Sangamo Journal, Novem-
ber n, 1842; Illinois State Register, November 4, 1842; Chicago Democrat,
October 5, 19, November 30, December 14, 1842; Belleville Advocate, Novem-
ber 17, 1842.

284 THE FRONTIER STATE

the northern circuit, James Semple, and J. M. Robinson.
Wentworth was much aggrieved at the placing of southern
men in positions in the northern part of the state, asserting that
the south would not permit a similar proceeding.

The rise to political prominence of such men as Wentworth
had been preceded by the elimination of the politicians of the
past decade. The congressional elections of 1841 especially
had marked the end of an era. Of the three successful candi-
dates the career of each had run its course with his election in
this year. In the looseness of their party affiliations they
typified the passing democratic regime in Illinois. In the first
district that old political war horse John Reynolds had little
difficulty in beating Henry L. Webb. Webb was a man of little
ability and his candidacy was supported by the Alton Telegraph
only after it felt assured that no stronger whig could be induced
to run. Stephen R. Rowan had offered himself as a kind of
independent candidate appealing especially to whig votes.
Reynolds attacked him in spite of his three votes for Jackson
and two for Van Buren as being for a bank, distribution, and
the repeal of the subtreasury. The Alton Telegraph on the
other side refused to consider Rowan's professions genuine in
view of his political past; and finally, after in vain trying to
bring Reynolds' blunders as financial agent for the state into
the campaign, he did actually withdraw in favor of Webb. On
the day of election Reynolds received 8,046 votes to 4,829 for
Webb and 171 for Rowan.8

In the second district Zadoc Casey with a very nondescript
record in congress was barely successful over Stinson H. Ander-
son, receiving 7,121 votes to 6,949 for his opponent. Casey
had finally been read out of the party by the State Register
which pronounced him no better than a whig, evidencing his
declaration for a United States Bank, his course on the sub-
treasury, and his somewhat underhanded attempt to secure
the speakership of the house. The whigs were disposed to give

8Alton Telegraph, April 17, May 15, 22, June 14, July 10, 17, 31, 1841;
Belleville Advocate, April 17, July 3, 23, 1841 ; Illinois State Register, May 28,
1841 ; Sangamo Journal, June 4, 1841.

STATE POLITICS 285

him support on the ground assigned by the Sangamo Journal
that he was sound on at least one whig measure.9

In the north, John T. Stuart made his last successful run
for congress. The democrats, according to their opponents,
made a desperate attempt to defeat him by inducing some whig
to run against him. The Alton Telegraph indeed felt it neces-
sary to threaten R. F. Barrett with an exposure in case he
ventured to fulfill the desire of the democrats by running
against Stuart James H. Ralston opposed him as the demo-
cratic candidate. The State Register reproved the Chicago
Democrat for lukewarmness in his behalf, alleging that Went-
worth had opposed the holding of a congressional convention
in the district and had to the last endeavored to bring about
the nomination of some favorite of his own. Wentworth pro-
fessed to believe that anyone of half a dozen men might have
successfully run against Stuart and concluded that it might have
been better after all to have held a convention. At an earlier
time, Thomas Ford had been considered as a possible candi-
date in the district. Stuart's victory was not imposing, for he
received but 21,698 votes as against 19,553 f°r Ralston and
470 for Frederick Collins.10

Before the congressional race was over, the contest for the
governorship had begun. At the end of 1840 O. H. Fellows,
Edwards, Lincoln, Browning, Eddy, William Fithian, W. F.
Thornton, and Joseph Duncan were all mentioned for the whig
nomination. At the meeting of the legislature, however, the
whig members reached a practical conclusion to run Duncan
on his past record on the bank, internal improvements, and the
canal. The question whether a state convention was necessary
to reach an agreement as to the candidate, or whether the old
method of compromise and of bringing influence to bear to
induce rival candidates to withdraw might not be successfully

9 Illinois State Register, June u, July 9, 23, November 12, 1841; Sangamo
Journal, May 21, August 20, 1841.

l°Alton Telegraph, June 19, 1841; Sangamo Journal, May 7, June 4, August
20, 1841; Chicago American, January 29, 1841; Illinois State Register, August
13, 1841; Chicago Democrat, September n, 1841.

286 THE FRONTIER STATE

applied, arose as soon as it appeared the party was not unani-
mous for him. The Peoria Register and the Chicago American
had favored the candidacy of Thornton; and the Shawneetown
Republican and the Kaskaskia Republican were for William H.
Davidson, a candidate who on account of his anticanal record
was not acceptable to the northern part of the state. Toward
the end of the summer the Fulton Telegraph suggested the
name of Abraham Lincoln, but the Sangamo Journal did not
believe that Lincoln desired the office, since it would take four
of the best years of his life from his practice and he had already
been noted for the sacrifices he had made for party principles.
The whigs issued a call for a convention to meet the third
Monday in December, signed by J. F. Speed, A. G. Henry,
Lincoln, E. D. Baker, and May. Early in November, David-
son withdrew from the contest for the nomination, and the
whigs at once entertained hopes that this move might render a
convention unnecessary. The dislike of southern Illinois for
conventions was advanced as a reason why it was especially
desirable to avoid holding one if possible. The whig central
committee accordingly withdrew the call for the convention,
the democratic papers insinuating that it was at the command
of the Springfield junto.11 If one can judge by the later com-
ments on the campaign by such whigs as Lincoln the harmony
in the party in favor of Duncan was mainly on the surface.

While Duncan was being chosen by the whig members of
the state legislature, Adam W. Snyder was being selected by
the democrats. An opposition to him developed, partly based
on the fact of his uncertain course on the measures that were
the tests of party faith in 1837. A. G. Herndon wrote letters
to the State Register signed "A Slashergaff," in which Robin-
son was in this particular favorably contrasted with Snyder;
and in the fall Robinson was informally suggested as a candi-
date. Then, too, there was real hostility to Snyder exhibited,
so the State Register claimed, by the Chicago Democrat on the

11 Chicago American, January 13, 1841; Alton Telegraph, February 13,
July 3, 10, 31, November 13, December n, 1841; Illinois State Register, February
19, 1841; Sangamo Journal, October 15, 22, 29, November 26, 1841.

STATE POLITICS 287

ground of his supposed attitude toward the canal. Utterances
came emphatically from northern Illinois that it would support
no man who was not unqualifiedly in favor of the completion of
the canal. Finally Snyder, albeit in somewhat uncertain and
equivocal fashion, declared in favor of the canal; and as the
time of the convention approached, opposition to him died
away. He was nominated on the first ballot, receiving 148
votes to 1 1 cast for M. K. Alexander, who had not, however,
been put in nomination. According to the whigs the inner circle
of the democratic party had decided that William A. Richard-
son should be run for lieutenant governor; it took four ballots
in the convention, however, before John Moore was finally
nominated. The Quincy Herald was rather loath to accept
Snyder, apparently in view of his declaration for the canal;
but there was no help for it.12

In Snyder southern Illinois had imposed on the party its
gubernatorial candidate, but the chances of life and death were
to render frustrate its advantage. As early as February re-
ports of Snyder's serious illness began to circulate. By the end
of April it was known that he was too ill to take the stump as
the democratic papers were demanding, and on May 14 he
was dead. Immediately the southern democrats began to
move to secure the appointment of a man from that section as
his successor. Reynolds was mentioned, but the telegraph had
not yet revolutionized convention and nomination methods,
and it was doubtful if his assent to a candidacy for the nomi-
nation could have been obtained in time to enable him to return
from Washington for an effective campaign. Even so, his
friends manufactured some support for him in Scott, Shelby,
Williamson, and Gallatin counties.

The movement in favor of Breese was much stronger than
that for Reynolds and developed much earlier. He was nomi-
nated by a meeting at Vandalia, and by the Belleville Advocate
and by the Illinois Sentinel. It was said that the whole of the

12 Illinois State Register, July 16, October 15, 22, 29, December 17, 29, 31,
1841; Alton Telegraph, January 22, 1842; Sangamo Journal, November 12,
December 17, 1841; Belleville Advocate, October 15, 21, November, passim.

288 THE FRONTIER STATE

Wabash country was in favor of his candidacy, the W abash
Republican, the Mt. Carmel Republican, and a meeting in
Effingham county all declaring for him. Breese expressed his
willingness to run, provided it was possible to concentrate the
approval of the party by county nominations and the support
of democratic papers. Finally he withdrew in favor of Ford.13

Meanwhile northern Illinois with the assistance of the
State Register had secured the acceptance of Thomas Ford as
the candidate of the party, disregarding the claim of the south
for a southern man. The Register on May 27 declared its
belief that Ford was as good a candidate as could be selected
and might as well be accepted in view of the fact that there
was not time to hold another convention and that the consent
of Reynolds could not be obtained in time. The Chicago
Democrat also favored Ford's nomination. The Chicago
American declared that a meeting at Springfield which for-
mally assumed to nominate him was a packed one, only four
counties out of the twenty represented in it lying below Van-
dalia. In the face of the Chicago Democrat's denials it insisted
that the nomination of Ford had been arranged before Snyder's
death by a clique of northern officeholders and office seekers,
without allowing the southern part of the state any voice in
the matter.14

As in 1838, the whigs were now to find that their intro-
ductory campaign work was almost worthless. Snyder's record
was well known and offered openings to attack from various
angles. Putting aside his supposed reliance on Mormon votes
and his somewhat uncertain attitude on the canal, his opponents
could say that he had tried to evade payment of a debt owed
to the first state bank on the plea that the bank was unconstitu-
tional and hence could have no existence sufficient to collect
debts due to it. His course in congress in the critical years,

13 Chicago American, February 17, April 29, May n, 23, June 6, 7, 15,
18, July 14, 1842; Illinois State Register, May 27, July 8, 1842; Belleville Advo-
cate, May 26, June 2, 9, 1842.

14 Illinois State Register, May 27, 1842; Chicago American, June 2, 14,
30, 1842.

STATE POLITICS 289

1 837-1 839, could be made to appear equivocal and had so been
branded by such democrats as McRoberts and A. G. Herndon.
The Chicago American indeed, on April 4, had remarked that
democrats of the old school would support Duncan rather
than Snyder.15

All efforts at collecting evidence against Snyder had been
thrown away. The whigs had now on short notice to find
material with which to assail Ford, and they made hard work
or it. The best they could do was to denominate him a judge
who had used his position to make political capital. The Chi-
cago Democrat ran a cut of a dolefully long face representing
Duncan when he heard that Ford had consented to run. The
Chicago American, which had praised Ford's efficiency and
integrity as a judge before it contemplated his entrance into
politics, was now compelled to have recourse to hints of dan-
gerous ambition on his part. His past as an Adams man was
of course dragged out against him with the old charge of
circulating coffin handbills. Whig papers remarked with
great glee on what they alleged were Ford's discomfitures on
the stump at the hands of Duncan. They tried in northern
Illinois also to identify Duncan as the canal candidate, claiming
that at Mt. Carmel Ford had declared that he was opposed to
involving the credit of the state one cent more for the benefit
of the enterprise; further that he had repeatedly tried in the
southern part of the state to represent Duncan as the canal
candidate to the latter's discredit.16

More worthy of note was the attempt to use against Ford
the widespread movement in northern Illinois for union with
the territory of Wisconsin in accord with the original plan for
the division of the northwest territory. This agitation was
probably due to despair at the overwhelming weight of debt
that the state internal improvement system had apparently
irrevocably imposed on Illinois. During 1842, and even

15 Chicago Democrat, February 9, 1842; Chicago American, January n,
28, 29, March 2, April 4, u, 13, May 9, u, 1842.

16 Chicago Democrat, June 8, 1842; Chicago American, June 30, July 2, 16,
22, 25, 26, 27, August i, 1842; Illinois State Register, July 29, 1842.

29o THE FRONTIER STATE

before that, meetings were held in one after another of the
northern counties involved. Ogle, Stephcnson, Jo Daviess
declared for the union with Wisconsin by overwhelming major-
ities; in Stephenson it was said to be five hundred to one. In
1840 there had been in several counties a movement for a con-
vention to consider sending delegates to sit in union with the
people of Wisconsin. In 1842 Governor Doty warned Gov-
ernor Carlin against making any selections of land on what,
according to the people of Wisconsin, was the soil of their
territory and under the jurisdiction of Illinois only from acci-
dental and temporary conditions. The fact that Ford in
southern Illinois opposed annexation was used duly against
him in the north by the Chicago American, which professed
to believe that the people of the north would sooner vote for
an opponent like Duncan than for a traitor to their interests
like Ford.17

For the rest the campaign centered on Joseph Duncan, as
was inevitable in view of his long and checkered career in
Illinois politics. The whigs were able once more to exhibit
the finer points of his record — the boyish enthusiasm of the
young officer of seventeen, the piety of the mature man, the
long political career in congress and in the state, at least out-
wardly statesmanlike. On the other hand, all the devious
things so readily to be found in the career of any man who has
striven to become rich by means of speculation, were mercilessly
pointed out by the democrats. Whether their case was good
in all instances — in many it certainly was not — the explanation
of many a shift and device of such a record, if not disgraceful,
was sure to be embarrassing. The Chicago Democrat did not
stop with advising Duncan to campaign with a plat of Illiopolis,
the town site that had once aspired to be the capital of the state.
Discarding such stories as the one that he had extorted from
the people of Meredosia a part of their town site in return for
his services to them in congress, and that he had negotiated for

^Chicago American, June 25, 1840, June 24, July 9, 18, 19, 23, 28, 1842;
Sangamo Journal, February 4, 1842; Alton Telegraph, June 25, 1842; Chicago
Democrat, March 23, 1840, August 10, 1842.

[Plate owned by Illinois State Historical Library]

STATE POLITICS 291

the location of an internal improvement railroad thither —
stories the latter of which at least is disproved by Duncan's
assertion that in spite of his opposition to the whole scheme of
internal improvements, that system, touching town after town
in which he was interested, seemed almost designed to buy his
support — still other matters remained. He had certainly
borrowed heavily from the State Bank, even though no proof
except assertion existed that his borrowing had influenced his
official conduct toward it. Finally there was the matter of the
defalcation of his brother-in-law, William J. Linn, receiver at
Vandalia ; Duncan had been a surety for Linn, and if Walters
of the State Register may be believed — though Ford was
inclined to doubt the hypothesis — Duncan had procured from
Linn for his own security a mortgage on all his property, leav-
ing the other bondsmen helpless. Walters was ready to avow
graver charges against Duncan to the effect that the fruits of
Linn's defalcations had assisted in Duncan's speculations in
Illiopolis and Michigan City. There is far from enough evi-
dence to convict Duncan of trickery or dishonesty, but the
whole situation was one that to a man of a delicate sense of
honor would have been intolerable.18

Although the democrats were unsuccessful in fixing upon
Duncan the responsibility for the State Bank failure and for
the collapse of the internal improvement system, so far as the
bank was concerned they could state truthfully that he had at
least called a special session of the legislature in. 1837 to
authorize its suspension and that his alternative to the internal
improvement system — construction by chartered companies
to the stock of which the state should subscribe — might have
been even more disastrous to the state than the system finally
inaugurated, since in that case the state would have given up
any chance for profits.19

18 Chicago American, March 14, 28, April 26, June 10, July 22, 1842; Illinois
State Register, May 13, June 17, July i, 8, 22, 1842; Alton Telegraph, April 2,
May 14, June n, 1842.

19 Belleville Advocate, May 5, 12, 1842; Sangamo Journal, April 15, 1842;
Illinois State Register, April 8, 29, 1842; Chicago American, February 19, April
7, May 7, 18, 19, July 18, 1842.

292 THE FRONTIER STATE

Finally the democrats were prepared to take more decisive
positions on national issues than their opponents. The whigs
in vain protested against having the campaign fought on the
national issues rather than on that of democratic misrule in
the state; in vain they protested at having the hard times so
evident within the state contrasted with their promises in 1840.
Moreover Duncan, not realizing, as indeed he never did real-
ize, that the school of politics founded on faction and personal
influence in which he had grown up had, with the newer political
order, gone, never to return, attempted to avoid taking a hard
and fast stand on national issues; in a day when the worship of
Jackson had passed even among the democrats he persisted in
representing himself as a Jackson man, thereby only causing
democrats to produce the caustic attacks on Jackson from some
of his messages as governor, and northern whigs to refuse to
support a renegade. After the election indeed the whigs
attempted to explain their defeat by saying that the whig vote
had not turned out, that in certain counties no attempt had been
made to get it out. This attitude is an amazing contrast to the
appeals for union on party lines and the warnings of the danger
of split tickets that emanated to the democratic party from the
Chicago Democrat and the Belleville Advocate.20

Evidence is not wanting to indicate that the weakness of
Duncan's showing — he received but 39,020 votes, to 46,507
for Ford — was due to the fact that the party had never fairly
united on him. The statement already cited21 shows that such
was the case even among men who called themselves whigs and
adds as one reason for the lack of unity that Duncan had been
nominated by the Telegraph and Journal without consulting the
whigs of the northern part of the state. This is borne out in
the implied comment on the conduct of the affair in the mani-
festo for party organization promulgated later by Lincoln,

20 Belleville Advocate, June 30, 1842, July 14, 1843; Chicago American,
May 26, July 14, 25, 26, August 30, 1842; Illinois State Register, May 20, 1842;
Chicago Democrat, March 16, June 8, August 3, 1842; Chicago Daily Journal,
January 20, 1845 ; Sangamo Journal, August 12, 1842.

21 Chicago Daily Journal, January 20, 1845, and Alton Telegraph, May 13,
1843.

STATE POLITICS 293

S. T. Logan, and Blackwell. Duncan's answer was the answer
of the man dwelling to the last in the political atmosphere of
his youth in which close party alignment had been well-nigh the
mark of the beast. Once again he reiterated the political ideas
of his younger days as the only means of safety and honor for
the whigs; but to the new practical politicians like Lincoln,
quick to perceive the advantage of the democratic party dis-
cipline and party unity, that course led only to defeat.

The new complications introduced into state politics by the
redistricting of the state in 1843 f°r tne seven congressional
seats to which it was entitled contributed still more to bring
forward new men. Walters in the State Register opposed the
scheme of apportionment finally agreed on, arguing that on
the basis of the vote of 1 840 it made three districts safely whig;
and he advocated the election of congressmen by the state at
large instead of by districts, arguing that such a scheme would
make for party unity. Possibly Walters foresaw what actually
was the result, that the localizing tendency in the distribution
of political power was to make it less easy to exercise control
from the center.22

The democrats set about their work in the congressional
districts eager for victory. In the seventh district, centering
at Springfield and strongly whig, they nerved themselves with
the cry that the district, formerly democratic, had been lost
through the breaking of the ranks in the White movement of
1836. The democrats urged the use of the convention system
as the device which had rescued northern Illinois from the
whigs in 1841. The main interest, however, lay in the three-
cornered struggle for the whig nomination between John J.
Hardin, Edward D. Baker, and Lincoln. According to the
State Register, in the contest at the whig mass meeting at
Springfield between Baker and Lincoln, Baker polled his votes
early, obtained the lead, and then called on Lincoln to with-
draw, which the latter did. Later the Register declared that

22 Illinois State Register, February 3, March 17, 1843; Alton Telegraph,
January 28, 1842.

294 THE FRONTIER STATE

Sangamo'n county was kept in the whig column by the manipu-
lations of the whigs who kept careful lists of the voters, knew
how they voted, and brought influence to bear accordingly.
Hardin, according to the Register, in spite of the attempts of
the whigs of the junto at Springfield to sidetrack him, was the
candidate and won handily, polling 6,230 votes to James A.
McDougall's 5,357-23

Elsewhere the democrats were successful. In the fifth dis-
trict which included the Military Tract, Douglas defeated
Orville H. Browning by a vote of 8,641 to 8,180. In the
fourth or Chicago district, Wentworth beat his opponents by
a comfortable margin, polling 7,552 votes to 5,931 for Giles
Spring and 1,167 f°r J°hn Henderson. In the sixth, north-
western Illinois, Hoge beat Walker 7,706 votes to 7,222, the
scale being tipped by the vote in Hancock, where Hoge polled
2,088 votes to Walker's 733. In the third district in eastern
Illinois the democratic congressional committee addressed
queries to the various democratic candidates as to their views
and their readiness to submit to a convention. Of the candi-
dates answering, Berry, Wickliffe Kitchell, and Orlando B.
Ficklin all showed themselves reasonably orthodox, though
Ficklin was inclined to dodge the question of the subtreasury.
This apparently did not hinder his nomination on the fifth bal-
lot. Ficklin beat Justin Harlan 6,425 to 5,528.

In the second district McClernand as convention nominee
beat Zadoc Casey 6,364 to 3,629. Casey was still trying to
play between whigs and democrats, and both expressed pleasure
at his defeat. "Zadoc Casey," was Wentworth's comment,
" the democrat, the whig, the conservative, the all-things-to-all
men, is now beaten for the first time in his life and badly
beaten too." 24

In the first district the election was marked by the beginning

23 Illinois State Register, March 24, April 14, June 9, 16, August 18, 1843.

24 Ibid., April 28, May 12, June 2, July 14, 21, 1843 ; Belleville Advocate,
April 6, May 4, 1843. The Belleville Advocate had declared, April 6, that it
believed the race lay between Berry, Forman, and Kitchell, with French and
Ficklin as possibilities. See also Chicago Democrat, August 23, 1843 ; Alton
Telegraph, August 26, 1843.

STATE POLITICS 295

of an open feud in the democratic party that was to last with
the utmost bitterness through three elections and end in the
political overthrow of John Reynolds, the oldest and shiftiest
politician in the state. John of Cahokia was a candidate for
renomination, arguing to his constituents that, taken in its
strictest sense, the doctrine of rotation in office did not compel
them to abandon a candidate who had served them well. The
position of parties as it disclosed itself in the campaign for the
nomination was as follows. On one side were Reynolds and
Trumbull who on account of Trumbull's difficulty with Ford
were both bitterly hostile to the governor and the so-called
Springfield clique. On the other was the triumvirate of
Shields, Koerner, and William H. Bissell, all destined to
achieve prominence in national politics. There was a warm
contest for delegates to the congressional district convention,
complicated by factional differences of opinion as to the proper
methods of apportionment — differences too nice to dwell upon
here, but responsible for the turning of the majority in a closely
divided convention of some twenty odd delegates. As a result
Reynolds and Trumbull, if one accepts the account of their
friends, feeling that they had no chance before the convention
as it was organized, withdrew or declined to allow their names
to be presented. Accordingly on the first ballot, Robert Smith
was nominated, receiving fourteen votes to eleven for Shields
and two for Reynolds. In spite of the fact that Shields was
apparently inclined to sulk and that the Repository, a sup-
posedly democratic newspaper, kept up a hot fire on Reynolds
during the campaign, and in spite of the fact that the whigs
continually assailed Smith as a shifty Yankee speculator, the
latter was elected. The Alton Telegraph attributed the result
to a whig convention which had divided rather than united the
party.25

The congressmen elected in 1843 naturally came up for a
reelection in 1844. In most of the districts there was no

25 Belleville Advocate, March 30, June 8, 29, 1843; Alton Telegraph, July
15, August 26, 1843; Farmers and Mechanics Repository, July 15, 22, 1843.

296 THE FRONTIER STATE

change. Baker in the seventh district was nominated by a con-
vention in place of Hardin who, according to the Sangamo
Journal, declined a reelection. The most interesting struggle,
however, came in the first district where a second campaign in
the war of John Reynolds against his foes was about to open.
During the past year Reynolds' Belleville Advocate had waged
relentless war on Walters, Ford, and the clique. Reynolds
insisted that Smith had pledged himself in 1843 not to be a
candidate for reelection and, after a series of more or less
veiled depreciations of conventions and attacks on the conven-
tion system, prepared to run independently. The old party
quarrels broke forth again. The Springfield Times was
declared by the Sangamo Journal to represent the southern
Illinois end of the party as against Ford and the northern; and
along with the Kaskaskla Republican, it took Reynolds' side
against his opponents. The Belleville Advocate declared that
the Register had conspired with the Telegraph and the San-
gamo Journal to beat Reynolds and Trumbull and to rally a
conservative party. The Register declared early in January
that the Times apparently intended to support Reynolds and
the whigs; by July, however, the Belleville Advocate was de-
manding that the Times keep out of the congressional fight
and its attitude is impossible of diagnosis.26

Reynolds meanwhile struggled on. He repelled the
declarations of his opponents that he was a whig insisting that
he was against whig measures and only opposed assailing the
whigs themselves with reproaches. He appealed to the voters
on the ground of his long residence in the state, claiming that
he was " acting democratic" before many of his present oppo-
nents were born. He asked them if the new settlers should be
permitted to drive off the old settlers, and why, other things
being equal, an old resident should not be preferred, once more
bringing to notice that he had been a "ranger" thirty years
before. All was to no purpose. The attacks of his opponents

26 Chicago Democrat, May 28, 1845; Belleville Advocate, January i, 18, 25,
February i, April 25, May 2, 9, 16, 30, June 6, July 4, 1844; Illinois State
Register, December 8, 1843; Sangamo Journal, February 6, May 16, 1844.

STATE POLITICS 297

and especially those of Koerner and W. C. Kinney in the St.
Clair Banner did not relax. Reynolds after a long life of
political shiftiness was at last pinned squarely on the point of
party organization. He had run his last political race. He
did not poll even five thousand votes out of 13,091 cast; and
he carried only one county, Pulaski.27

Convention or no convention, Reynolds' day was done. In
1846 there was a new dispute as to the apportionment in a dis-
trict convention, which after Smith's name had been withdrawn
nominated Reynolds' ally, TrumBull, for congress. Smith was
not to be beaten, however, as he had beaten Reynolds. County
meetings began to call on him to run and to repudiate Trum-
bull. Smith finally issued an address to his constituents in a
somewhat humble tone appealing to them not to stigmatize
him alone among the delegation and pointing out his oppor-
tunities to be of more service than a new member. The whigs
when he declared his intention to run independently decided
apparently to support him, the Journal advising it, and the
Telegraph favoring him decidedly in its news columns. Prob-
ably this was the result of a belief that Smith was not so
extreme in his views as Trumbull, though as the Advocate
suggested, it may have been the result of a bargain. The State
Register was inclined at this time to take Trumbull's side and
to plead for party regularity; the fact that the Advocate
claimed that Ford and the clique were supporting Trumbull
may indicate that the Register was no longer with the so-called
clique. Smith beat Trumbull by two thousand votes.28

The next victim to the partisanship that obtained in the
democratic politics in Illinois was Walters of the State Regis-
ter, who with that more or less vague body defined as the
" Springfield clique " challenged the congressional delegation
and went down in the fight. The congressional delegation in
the matter of patronage speedily reached the habit of acting

27 Belleville Advocate, June 6, 27, August i, 8, 1844.

28 Alton Telegraph, May 2, June 13, 27, July 25, 1846; Belleville Advocate,
May 7, 14, 28, June 18, 25, July 2, 9, 16, 29, 1846; Sangamo Journal, July 16,
1846; Illinois State Register, May 8, June 19, July 17, 1846.

298 THE FRONTIER STATE

together. According to Wentworth in 1845 tne Springfield
group, including members of the legislature then in session,
had apportioned the good things among themselves and had
then written letters of recommendation for applicants with the
greatest freedom. According to him, further, the men at
Springfield in order to facilitate the multiplication of promises
were in the habit of sending the letter of recommendation to
the applicant instead of the president. Finally President Polk
insisted that the congressional delegation should agree on all
offices before appointments were made. The State Register
began a war on the delegation pointing out the danger of the
concentration of political power in their hands in case the rule
laid down by Polk were to be established. In part this discord
arose over a new attempt, in the last session of the legislature,
by John S. Zieber, Louis M. Booth of the Qulncy Herald, and
Kinney to oust Walters from the public printing office. The
Register was speedily at swords' points with several of the most
prominent democratic papers of the state. The Quincy Her-
ald, the St. Clair Banner, the Randolph County Record, Peoria
Free Press, Illinois Gazette, Warsaw Signal, and Chicago
Democrat all set upon it. At Chicago, Walters could count
on help against Wentworth from the Chicago Democrat Advo-
cate, apparently controlled by I. N. Arnold who was aggrieved
at the appointment of Mark Skinner as United States district
attorney for Illinois. In the war on the congressmen, the
Register had at first tried to draw Douglas in against them;
but Douglas sharply declined to be separated from his col-
leagues and repelled the attacks against their efficiency and
ability, notably for the loss of the school fund, which the Regis-
ter was sending out against them. Walters was soon as bitter
against Douglas as he had been against the others.29

The whigs insinuated their belief that the attempt to set
Douglas against the rest of the delegation was an attempt to

29 Chicago Democrat, January i, 8, 22, February 19, April 2, September 24,
1845; Illinois State Register, April 4, May 2, June 6, July ir, 18, August 9, 22,
November 7, 1845; Sangamo Journal, April 10, August 21, 1845; Alton Tele-
graph, January 18, May 10, 1845; Chicago Daily Journal, January 19, 1846.

STATE POLITICS 299

weaken him so that he might be out of Ford's way in the race
for the senate. Ford denied any such attempt, however, and
the Chicago Democrat and other papers disclaimed any inten-
tion of being so easily lured into a quarrel with Ford. The
situation cleared up slowly. In the fall the attack on Ford was
continued by the Jackson Standard, edited at Jacksonville by
J. S. Roberts, which accused Ford of using his office to elevate
himself to the senate and to secure a governor favorable to
his pretensions. Ford came out with an absolute denial, calling
on his appointees to state if there had been a bargain in the case
of any one of them. This attack as it seemed to the State
Register was the result of a bargain between Douglas, McCler-
nand, and Wentworth by which the two men first named were
to be senators in order, Trumbull, governor, as an especial
rebuke to Ford, and Lewis W. Ross of Fulton, lieutenant
governor, to clear Richardson's way toward Douglas' seat in
congress. In January the Register was compelled to admit
that in view of a letter from Douglas to E. D. Taylor the
charge of a bargain was groundless.30

Walters' career as a free lance had impaired the influence
of his paper and ruined him politically. The winter had seen
more bickering on his part with the delegation.31 George R.
Weber, his junior partner on the Register, had withdrawn
in the preceding August. In June, 1846, Charles H. Lanphier
assumed the duties of editor, Walters having volunteered for
the Mexican War. A month later Walters died at St. Louis
at the age of forty-four. His career was typical of many an
Illinois journalist. He had been in his youth editor of the
IV 'timing tonian in Delaware, had then been one of Duff Green's
subordinates in Washington, and had taken part in a kind
of labor demonstration against Green, whom he afterwards
claimed was in a plot to control the newspapers of the country
financially, running them by his apprentices. He had then come

30 Chicago Democrat, July 9, 23, October 8, 21, 1845; Alton Telegraph, July
19, October 18, 1845; Sangamo Journal, August 7, 1845; Illinois State Register,
October 17, 31, November 7, 1845, January 23, 1846.

31 Illinois State Register, February 20, March 13, 20, 1846.

300 THE FRONTIER STATE

to Illinois where he had preached democratic principles with
some ability; he had become hopelessly involved financially by
his liability on Linn's bond, had intrigued for the public print-
ing, played partisan politics, and bandied back and forth coarse
accusations of drunkenness with his rival, Simeon Francis of
the Sangamo Journal. There was nothing extraordinary in
the course of his life and just enough promise of something
better in it to lend a touch of pathos to its end.

Another political journalist affords an instructive contrast
with Walters. The early part of John Wentworth's career has
already been sketched. It was, and continued to be, a series
of quarrels with political rivals in the Chicago district in which
Wentworth demonstrated an amazing capacity at retaining
an unbreakable hold on the voters. In the campaign of 1846
Wentworth had against him in Lake county a paper edited by
Aristides B. Wynkoop, a democrat with abolitionist tendencies,
which did not belie its name. The Little Fort Porcupine began
a series of attacks on the democratic clique in Lake county
allied with and dependent on Wentworth, accusing them of
spoils politics, and malfeasance in office. Its animus against
Wentworth was open and apparent in every number, but the
Democrat gave it comparatively little attention. The Chicago
Journal, June 13, 1846, remarked that so long as it advanced
Wentworth's financial interests in Little Fort he cared little
for its attacks.32

Specifically, however, it assailed Wentworth with a number
of charges which the whig papers were not slow to use against
him. It called him to account for alleged shortcomings in
securing good things for the district in the way of harbor
improvements, his vote for Texas without an equivalent for
the north, and held him up to execration as a laughingstock in
Washington and an intriguer at home. Wentworth was accused
not merely of such venial sins in pursuit of votes as riding
the circuit under pretense of practicing law to keep his fences

32 Little Fort Porcupine, 1845, 1846, passim; Chicago Democrat, June 30,
July 28, 1846.

STATE POLITICS 301

in repair, of flooding the district with franked documents, and
of using the Chicago Democrat to puff him shamelessly, but
also of prowling around the haunts of vice and immorality.
He was accused of using conventions to cement his power,
packing them with officeholders and then preaching party regu-
larity. He was accused even of the worse political vice of
disloyalty, of beating men for appointments and then none the
less asking and securing their political support.33 The political
ghosts of Peck, of Leary, of Murphy, of Arnold, all sometime
prominent in the district, were raised to accuse him of ingrati-
tude. Such attacks recurred in campaign after campaign
against the editor of the Democrat.

In return Wentworth usually warned his supporters to
beware of split tickets and of alleged democratic tickets from
which his name had been omitted. He retailed as former roor-
backs told against him that he had fallen from his horse and
been killed and that while still unmarried he beat his wife and
child. He made merry about alleged democratic handbills
appearing against him.34 Hard hitting, astute, sometimes
cynically frank, he held absolute sway in the northern district.

In spite of the acrimonious prelude, the gubernatorial con-
test of 1846 was a comparatively quiet affair. Among the
democrats there were numerous pronouncements against banks
without any very obvious statements to the contrary for them
to combat. Trumbull, Scates, Cavarly, and McConnell were
all proposed for the office, but finally the choice of the conven-
tion fell on'Augustus C. French, an eastern Illinois man. The
gossip had been that the Springfield clique had favored Cal-
houn as against Trumbull, and the nomination of French was
represented as a compromise of good omen for the party.85

The only hope of the whigs had been apparently that
Hardin, or possibly Lincoln, might be willing to run for gov«

33 Chicago Dally Journal, March 4, 6, 8, 13, May 5, June 23, July 29, 30,
1846.

34 Chicago Democrat, July 28, August 4, September 8, 1846.

35 Illinois State Register, August 22, October 3, September 26, 1845, January
30,1846; Belleville Advocate, March 14, 1846; Chicago Dally Journal, Decem-
ber 19, 1845, January 29, 1846.

302 THE FRONTIER STATE

ernor. When Hardin declined they were generally unenthu-
siastic. In April the Telegraph talked for a while of the need
of a close and compact whig organization, recognizing that
organization and not numbers was the true strength of the
democrats; and it urged a state convention; on a convention
the Sangamo Journal was not inclined to be enthusiastic, hoping
the whigs could agree without one. The Telegraph was
inclined to think the convention unimportant providing that
unity in that or in some other way was assured, even the sug-
gestion was put forward by the Sangamo Journal that a nomi-
nation be made by a central committee on the basis of letters
written to it by whigs. George T. M. Davis of the Telegraph,
disagreed with this policy of his senior editor, claiming that at
Springfield in the winter the whigs had concluded to run no
one and to let the democrats for want of opposition quarrel
among themselves. Finally when the nominations were made
by a meeting at Peoria, the Chicago Journal put them at the
head of its columns but refused to consider their strength or
failure any criterion of the democratic strength in the state.
The State Register insinuated that the whigs were only nomi-
nating to keep up the organization. With the exception of a
few slurs at French as "Mrs. French's husband," a medi-
ocre man with a taste for drawing the long bow in accounts
of his exploits, the whigs did but little.36 At the close of the
period of the first constitution the party that still called itself
democratic controlled Illinois.

36 Belleville Advocate, June 31, 1846; Alton Telegraph, July 26, August 9,
December 27, 1845, April 18, 25, May 2, 9, 16, 30, 1846; Sangamo Journal,
November 6, 1845, April 23, 1846; Chicago Daily Journal, March 24, December
13, 1845, April 20, July 15, 1846; Illinois State Register, June 16, 1846.

XVI. STATE AND PRIVATE BANKING,
1830-1845

IN SPITE of the fiasco of the first State Bank ten years had
not passed since that institution had reached the height of
its career when a new State Bank was created which had a
history at least as unfortunate as that of the old bank. The
state's second venture into the field of banking, like everything
else in the political and economic life of the state in the period,
was in the end connected intimately with internal improve-
ment plans, although for years before the adoption of the
internal improvement system, the establishment of a new State
Bank had been urged on grounds both financial and political.
The beginnings of agitation for a State Bank may be
traced to the belief that since the nation by the mouth of
Andrew Jackson had rejected a national bank, state banks
must arise to supply its place. In 1830-1831 and 1832-1833
bills for the establishment of a bank had been introduced into
the general assembly. In the winter of 1832 a movement in
Springfield for a bank to be run on capital borrowed by the
state was sanctioned by so good a Jackson man as May; and
in the senate of that year, when the bank bill was defeated by
one vote, such democrats as Ewing, John Grammar, and Will
voted in the affirmative.1 In the fall of 1833 the Illinois State
Register suggested a bank with capital to be paid in specie so
as to escape dependence upon the note issues of banks of
other states. The Alton Spectator believed, however, that
before granting a charter it was necessary to allay the popular
prejudices attaching to the idea of a State Bank. On March
1 8, 1834, it pronounced against a State Bank. The Alton
American had on the day before declared for the bank on the

1 Sangamo Journal, November 23, 1832, February 9, 1833; Senate Journal,
1832-1833, i session, 579.

303

304 THE FRONTIER STATE

ground of its possible assistance to business. The Sangamo
Journal declared that the winding up of affairs of the United
States Bank made necessary the establishment of an institution
to supply currency in the place of that withdrawn from circu-
lation, if the state were not to be overrun with the paper of
other states.2

The session of 1834-1835 saw the inauguration of the new
bank. W. L. D. Ewing, acting governor for the last part of
Reynold's term, in his message to the legislature advocated a
bank for the reason given by the Sangamo Journal; but Dun-
can, the new governor, was disposed to deprecate such a
measure. The legislature set about putting the suggestions
into law. By a margin of one vote in the house a measure was
passed creating a bank with a capital of $1,500,000, of which
$100,000 might be subscribed by the state and the remainder
by individuals, preference over nonresidents and corpora-
tions being given to residents and small subscribers. The act
required ten per cent of the capital to be paid in specie. When
$250,000 in specie had been obtained from payments for stock
or by borrowing, the bank was authorized to begin business.
There were provisions which required the bank to liquidate,
if for a period of ten days it refused to pay specie for its notes,
and which imposed a ten per cent penalty for the time during
which payment was deferred.3

The stock of the new bank being several times oversub-
scribed, the commissioners in charge of the subscription lists
met in May to prorate the stock. Governor Ford relates
that in spite of precaution taken to prevent such a contin-
gency, Godfrey, Gilman and Company, John Tillson, Thomas
Mather, T. W. Smith, and Samuel Wiggins succeeded in plac-
ing large blocks of the stock in the hands of eastern capitalists
by using the names of Illinois citizens on subscription blanks
for small amounts. In the meeting there was a sharp contest

2 Illinois State Register, November 30, 1833; Illinois Advocate, December
30, 1833; Alton Spectator, December 7, 1833; Alton American, April 4, 1834;
Sangamo Journal, December 13, 1834.

3 House Journal, 1834-1835, i session, 14-15, 33, 510.

STATE AND PRIVATE BANKING 305

whether or not an attempt should be made to go behind the
records of the subscription books. Finally, after much jockey-
ing and maneuvering for position they decided by a vote of
eight to seven not to go behind the books. Benjamin Godfrey,
W. S. Gilman, Mather, and Tillson voted in the majority.
Subscriptions standing in the names of foreigners and corpora-
tions were stricken off the list, and subscriptions of residents
were cut to one thousand dollars and then prorated. Ford
seems incorrectly to ascribe a share in these proceedings to
Smith. When finally the bank was organized, Griggs, Weld
and Company, Wiggins, Gilman, and M. J. Williams owned
7,539 shares, and eleven other persons 3,948 shares, an over-
whelming majority of the stock.

The bank opened under the presidency of Mather; and,
beside the head office at Springfield, branches were established
at Vandalia, Galena, Jacksonville, Alton, and Chicago. Under
the laws of 1836 additional branches were opened at Danville,
Quincy, Belleville, and- Mt. Carmel. In 1836, in return for
a supplementary act which interpreted a provision in the first
charter allowing an issue of an additional million of capital
by the bank and extended to sixty days the term for which the
bank could suspend payment on notes without invalidating its
charter, the bank agreed to take over the payment of the
famous Wiggins' loan. A large block of the additional shares
issued came into Wiggins' hands.4

The State Bank meanwhile had been maneuvering to be
chosen as United States depository, but it had encountered
political difficulties. The sponsors for the bank had sought in
vain to induce Reuben M. Whitney, the special examiner of
depositories, to use his influence in their behalf. Secretary of
the Treasury Lev! Woodbury hesitated. He was informed
that the bank was in the control of whigs and that to recognize
it would give a check to the loyal friends of the administration
in Illinois. Woodbury finally indicated his unfavorable atti-

4 Dowrie, Development of Banking in Illinois, 65-67, 71 ; Illinois Advocate,
June 10, 1835.

306 THE FRONTIER STATE

tude toward the application, specifying as reasons for the
unfair allotment of stock the alleged unconstitutionally of the
bank as being a State Bank only in name and its custom of not
redeeming the notes of one branch at every other.5 In all
these charges there was much of truth.

Meanwhile 1837, the year of the internal improvement
mania, drew on. In view of the liberal dividends paid by the
State Bank it appeared to the advocates of internal improve-
ment an ideal means of financing their ambitious project without
subjecting themselves to the unpopularity sure to arise from
an application of increased taxation. Accordingly the stock
of the State Bank was increased by a $2,000,000 state sub-
scription, which was to be paid for by an issue of state bonds
at not less than par. Of these enough were to be sold to make
the necessary cash payment on the stock. The state placed
five additional directors of its own on the board, which hith-
erto had consisted of nine members.6

Meanwhile a similar subscription for a million was made
to the old Bank of Illinois at Shawneetown, which had been
revived in 1835. The bank had remained quiescent since its
suspension in 1823, had started into life again in 1834, and in
1835 had had its charter extended to 1857. A committee in
1837 reported that the bank was well managed and that prac-
tically all its notes had been redeemed when it had ceased to
discount in 1822-1823. It was in 1837 doing a legitimate
business in buying bills of exchange on New Orleans issued
against shipments of produce at one per cent discount and in
selling exchange on Philadelphia and New Orleans at one per
cent premium.7

The panic of 1837, which had such disastrous effects on
the internal improvement system, began by putting into dif-
ficulties the banks upon which the system was based. Late in

5 Dowrie, Development of Banking in Illinois, 72-73, 75 -passim; Sangamo
Journal, January 23, 1836.

GLaivs of 1837, p. 1 8.

7 Dowrie, Development of Banking in Illinois, 64; Senate Journal, 1836-
1837, i session, 356.

STATE AND PRIVATE BANKING 307

May the banks suspended payments. Governor Duncan was
persuaded to call a special session of the assembly to legalize
the suspension of payments by the State Bank and to prevent
the consequent forfeiture of its charter. This the assembly
proceeded to do with certain limitations upon the business
which the bank might perform during the period of suspen-
sion. It provided for relief to the bank's debtors during the
time of suspension and limited to the amount of the capital
paid in the amount of notes that the bank might issue. Finally,
it prohibited dividends until payments were resumed.8

Partly perhaps as a result of local dissatisfaction with the
banks' curtailment, partly with a view to the national political
situation, almost immediately on the suspension of payments
a hostility to all banks became vocal in the democratic party.
For instance, some ten votes in the senate were cast against
the bank's suspension measure. The Sangamo Journal, which
justified the suspension on account of the financial relations
of state and banks, was quick to mark this hostility and to call
attention to its inconsistency with the democrats' responsibility
for the creation and use of the banks; it proclaimed that the
democrats were now declaring for a metallic currency. Shields
used similar arguments against the antibank men in the demo-
cratic party, declaring that the men who had formerly employed
the bank stock speculation to avoid the necessity of taxation
for internal improvements were now claiming to be opposed
to the bank on principle. He urged the necessity of giving
the bank time in order to avoid involving the state and its
citizens in ruin and declared that the ultras in his party were
playing into the hands of the whigs. "The ultra democrats,"
he said, "are opposed to state institutions, they want specie.
The ultra whigs are opposed to state institutions, they want
a National Bank." 9

The opposition to the bank in the democratic party was
not convinced. Semple, for instance, who claimed he had

8 2 Laius of 1837, p. 6.

9 Senate Journal, 1837, special session, 71; Illinois State Register, August
4,

3o8 THE FRONTIER STATE

always been opposed to banking institutions denounced banks
as enabling the rich to grow richer by issuing three dollars in
notes for one in specie and by enjoying corporate privileges.
Jackson, he said, whatever might be said or inferred to the
contrary, had never recommended the establishment of a bank.
The Sangamo Journal, October 28, declared its belief that
Kinney, Reynolds, Ewing, Shields, and Wyatt were against
the locofoco doctrine of the Chicago Democrat and the Jack-
sonville News — the destruction of all banks. Resolutions
denouncing banks that did not pay specie and urging the over-
throw of all banks began at this time to make their appearance
in the proceedings of county meetings.10

For a year and a half, however, the banks drew compara-
tively little attention. Nevertheless the clouds were thickening
about the State Bank. In May of 1839 the Chicago Democrat
published an article accusing it of financing pork and land specu-
lations through the relatives and friends of its directors, as
well as heavy lead speculation at Galena. The Sangamo
Journal defended the bank, arguing that it had brought into
the state a considerable amount of foreign capital which it
would have held there but for the undeveloped resources of
Illinois and the baleful effects of that democratic whimsy of
specie currency.11

In the democratic county conventions held in the fall of
1839, perhaps in response to the pulling of wires at Spring-
field, resolution after resolution was passed demanding the
divorce of state and bank and the reducing of the banks to a
proper subordination to the will of the people. These resolu-
tions warned the public against the danger of monied oligar-
chies, going so far as to declare against all banks, and pointed
with alarm to bank influence in the government of the state.
The Bank of Illinois, for its abstention from speculation and
its endeavor to serve the people, had found favor in the eyes

10 Sangamo Journal, October 28, November 18, December 9, 1837; Illinois
State Register, August 14, December i, 1837; Chicago Democrat, August 16, 1837.

^Sangamo Journal, August 23, September 6, 1839; Chicago Democrat,
May i, 1839.

STATE AND PRIVATE BANKING 309

of the Register at least; but R. F. Barrett, himself accused of
speculation with funds of the State Bank, declined an appoint-
ment as state director in it on the ground that no system of
management could restore the credit of the bank and regain
the support of the public.12

In his message to the special session called to consider what
was to be done with the internal improvement system, Gov-
ernor Carlin was very severe upon banks in general and the
State Bank in particular. He pronounced the incorporation
of fiscal institutions to regulate the finances of the country
contrary to the genius of a free people; he declared that the
channels of business ought not to be filled up and controlled
by a circulating medium susceptible of expansion and contrac-
tion at the pleasure of a few. He pointed to the danger of
inflation and the resulting high prices and to the distress
caused by the pressure of the bank on its creditors. He
denounced the suspension whether legalized or not. Finally
he invited a legislative investigation as to whether the bank
legitimately tried to serve the business and public interests of
the state or whether it had been of service solely to specu-
lators.13

The legislative investigation forced even the friends of the
bank to admit that a sorry condition of affairs existed. It was
found that Wiggins had been allowed to use his bank stock
as collateral for a loan with which to meet the payments due
on it; it was found that the cashier of the Chicago branch had
loaned considerable sums to pork speculators while accommo-
dation was denied to others. Moreover it was discovered that
the bank had lent its aid to ambitious schemes for building up
in Illinois a commercial metropolis to rival St. Louis.

The commercial aspirations of Alton have already been
noticed. They centered in the activities of firms of New
England men, such as Godfrey, Gilman and Company, and of
New England houses like Griggs, Weld and Company of

12 Illinois State Register, September 28, November 23, 30, December 25,
1839; Sangamo Journal, December 10, 1839, January 21, 1840.

13 Senate Journal, 1839-1840, special session, 17.

3io THE FRONTIER STATE

Boston. Godfrey and Gilman, by virtue of their influence as
large stockholders in the bank had secured discounts and loans
in one form or another to the amount of some $800,000. They
had used these sums largely in attempts to turn the lead trade
of the upper Mississippi from St. Louis to Alton. They had
endeavored to operate a corner in lead as well as to make
extensive purchases of smelters. The bank through other
agencies too had come very near to buying and selling lead
speculatively. Much of this speculative business not even the
friends of the bank could condone.14

For a time the whig newspapers informed their readers
that the locofocos designed to destroy the State Bank and to
establish in its stead a political one guided by Ebenezer Peck
and Theophilus W. Smith. Soon, however, they came to
believe that the locofocos, finding that the whigs would not
interfere to arrest their affected fury against the bank, were
taking more moderate counsel rather than shoulder the respon-
sibility of its destruction. The Register especially printed
articles urging moderate courses, lest for the sake of antibank
principles the country be ruined. Finally the legislature
allowed the bank to continue its suspension, until the close of
the next session of the legislature, under certain limitations in-
cluding the obligations to accept its notes in payment of all
debts due it.15

The wording of this grace was such as to enable the oppo-
nents of the bank to curtail the benefits which the institution
might legitimately have expected from it. In order if possible
to meet the problem of providing for the interest on the state
debt, Governor Carlin in the fall of 1840 summoned the new
general assembly in special session two weeks before the regu-
lar day of meeting. The democrats elected to believe that this
special session must necessarily terminate before the day on
which the regular session would begin. Accordingly the end
of the next session of the legislature would fall not in February

14Dowrie, Development of Banking in Illinois, 90 ff.

13 Sangamo Journal, January 7, 21, 1840; Illinois State Register, December
25. 1839; Alton Telegraph, December 28, 1839.

STATE AND PRIVATE BANKING 311

as might have been expected, but in December. A resolution
was pushed through both houses of the legislature for sine die
adjournment, as the whigs claimed from the malevolence of
Theophilus W. Smith. The whigs in the house strove to pre-
vent adjournment by absenting themselves in such number as
to prevent a quorum. As a laot desperate resort, Abraham
Lincoln, Joseph Gillespie, and Asahel Gridley inscribed a defen-
estration on the annals of Illinois by jumping out of the state-
house window, an expedient worthy of better things than the
twitting Hardin later gave Lincoln on the subject.16 The
assembly adjourned. The legislators considered themselves
ill used when the governor declined to waste a second message
on them in their new session. The State Bank resumed pay-
ments, hoping that other banks would live up to an agreement
to resume on the fifteenth of January.17

The democrats, in spite of the whig charge that a clique
among them desired the destruction of the bank that there
might be reared a structure of six millions in its stead,
affected — at least some of them — to claim that the bank had
been frightened by false fire and that adjournment had been
taken on the grounds of purest constitutional practice with no
reference to the bank whatever. The bank's refusal to finance
the state further or to cash salary warrants soon caused the
democrats to look with sympathy on its plight; and they ulti-
mately legalized its suspension till other banks in the south
and west should resume and even allowed it to issue notes of
one dollar, two dollars, and three dollars. A minority of some
fourteen democrats in the house, and ten in the senate served
to pass the bill.18

The State Bank under the suspension act went on its way;
it increased instead of reducing its note issue; it made loans
to directors and began work on an expensive banking house.

16 Illinois State Register, December 18, 1840.

17 Dowrie, Development of Banking in Illinois, 97-98 ; Illinois State Register,
December n, 1840, January i, 1841; Chicago Amtncan, December 10, 1840;
Belleville Advocate, December 12, 1840.

18 Chicago American, December 10, 12, 26, 1840; Illinois State Register,
December u, 1840, January i, 1841; Sangamo Journal, December n, 1840.

3i2 THE FRONTIER STATE

Throughout 1841 and the earlier months of 1842 democratic
attacks on the bank redoubled. Suspensions, nonliability of
stockholders, the unholy alliance of bank and state were all
attacked in heated resolutions. The State Register the week
after praising the Bank of Illinois for its judicious course
declared against all banks. The Belleville Advocate repeatedly
urged farmers to take only gold and silver in payment for
their produce. The whigs, affecting to resign themselves to
the fate of the State Bank, devoted themselves to fixing on
their opponents the responsibility for its crimes and misman-
agement, looking only to a national bank for relief. At times
the Chicago American was as keenly critical as the Democrat,
which had to explain the defects of the bank management under
democratic administration as the fault of easy virtued demo-
crats who were sufficient in numbers when allied with the whigs
to give the bank control in the legislature. By the early sum-
mer both whigs and democrats agreed on the general proposi-
tion that the banks must resume or forfeit their charters.
The stock of the State Bank a year before had fallen to thirty-
seven cents on the dollar. In February of 1842 the credit of
its notes in Illinois declined, and in April they fell to forty-
four cents on the dollar.19

Meanwhile it was thought that the Shawneetown bank
might extricate itself from its difficulties and resume; but it
passed the day set for resumption, June 15, 1842, and its notes,
which on May 14 had been within six or seven per cent of par
at Chicago, were a month later at ten per cent discount. John
Marshall, who as president had conducted the bank's affairs
with skill, refused a reelection in January, 1843. The notes
of the Bank of Cairo, representing another revival of a terri-
torial charter which had furnished in 1840 a very large share
of the small note currency and which apparently was then on

19 Chicago Democrat, February 9, June 8, October 19, 1842; Belleville Advo-
cate, January 27, March 3, 10, April 28, September 22, 1842; Illinois State
Register, April 8, May 6, 13, 1842; Chicago American, March 10, 19, April 2,
7, 13, 25, 1842; Alton Telegraph, July 16, 1842; Dowrie, Development of Bank-
ing in Illinois, 99, 101.

STATE AND PRIVATE BANKING 313

a sound basis, by 1841 had begun to depreciate; and by Decem-
ber, apparently after it had been rumored that the Wrights
were interested in the bank, the notes were unsalable in both
Chicago and St. Louis. The charter was repealed in 1843,
but the bank was not liquidated for twenty years thereafter.20

The fate of the State Bank and Bank of Illinois was ren-
dered inevitable by the fact that they were linked with the
disastrous state internal improvement system. Compelled to
pay dividends on stock paid for by bonds selling in 1840 and
1841 at all manner of discounts, their burden was a heavy one.
Bad banking only hastened the inevitable result.

With the fall of the banks the currency of the state, which
had hitherto consisted largely of bank notes, fell into appar-
ently hopeless confusion. In the fall of 1842, state offices
finally refused to accept State Bank paper for taxes. In
July, it was said business was very near a specie basis in both
Chicago and St. Louis. In September the American declared
that at Chicago little was in circulation beside specie and notes
of the State Bank of Indiana and the Wisconsin Marine and
Fire Insurance Company. The latter concern, whose guiding
spirit was George Smith, a canny Scotchman, for many years
gave Chicago a sound paper currency almost in defiance of
the law.21

When the State Bank came up for final judgment in the
assembly of 1842—1843, two different points of view were
evident. There were certain radicals who were opposed to
all banks and all corporate privileges on principle and
advocated repeal of the bank charter. The radicals won over
Governor Carlin to their side and induced him to recommend
the repeal in his last message. This action seriously hampered
his successor, Ford, who rejected the proposal on grounds both
of the state's financial advantage and of the bad effect on

20 Chicago American, September n, 1840, January 13, December 10, 1841,
March 22, April 19, May 4, 14, 18, June 29, 1842; Dowrie, Development of
Banking in Illinois, 126-128.

21 Chicago American, July 12, 27, August 27, 1842; Dowrie, Development of
Banking in Illinois, 129.

3i4 THE FRONTIER STATE

European capitalists that such a violation of vested right would
produce. Instead he proposed a compromise by which the state
bonds should be withdrawn dollar for dollar in return for the
surrender of the state's stock.22 Governor Ford with the sup-
port of McClernand and Douglas forced a bill through the
house of representatives adopting the project, by a vote of one
hundred and seven to four. Peck and Trumbull — in the hope
of receiverships if the bank were smashed, according to the Al-
ton Telegraph — demanded more violent measures; but their
agitation merely served to draw on Trumbull the fire of Mc-
Clernand at its hottest. They made Ralston their agent in the
senate to oppose the bill; but the only result was to give the
latter the opportunity to sit for his portrait in Ford's history,
the governor drawing the picture with his pen dipped in the
sharpest caustic. The act passed, and the bank began what
was to be a long period of liquidation. The bonds of the
state, turned over almost immediately, were burned by the
governor before the statehouse, as a symbol of the state's
decision. But this was only the beginning of a process the end
of which lies far outside the period of this volume.23

The Bank of Illinois was compelled to accept liquidation
of a similar sort, but it was allowed a year to pay up the
second half of the million of indebtedness to the state in
exchange for state stock. In the second payment, it attempted
to include certain of the bonds hypothecated to Macalister and
Stebbins; this resulted in a controversy and finally the accep-
tance of the bonds by the state at forty-eight cents on the dollar.
Ultimately the only creditors to suffer a total loss were the
private stockholders in the bank.24

Thereafter at least until the close of the period, the doc-

22 On Investigation it was found that the State Bank held $2,103,000 in
state bonds which could be set off against a sum some fifty thousand dollars
larger, made up of the following items: bonds $1,686,000, scrip $17,534.50,
advance for current expenses $292,373.17, advance for fund commissioners $156,-
496.42.

28 Alton Telegraph, December 31, 1842; Dowrie, Development of Banking
in Illinois, 13, 166 ff. ; Ford, History of Illinois, 307 passim; Illinois State Reg-
ister, January 6, 1843; Sangamo Journal, February 2, 1843.

24 Dowrie, Development of Banking in Illinois, 124-126.

trine of the democratic party was against further incorporation
of state banks, against the connection of state or nation with
a bank, and, as phrased by certain ultra-radicals, against any-
thing but a gold and silver currency. Antibank utterances were
bandied back and forth in the party meeting and journals with
a view, as Ford sarcastically remarked, to the obtaining of
personal popularity at a cheap rate. Nevertheless in the party
there was a tendency on the part of more moderate men to
recognize the inevitableness of some form of banking institu-
tion. The State Register had occasionally to meet charges
that it secretly desired the establishment of banks. And there
was in the democratic party, as the constitutional convention of
1847 was to demonstrate, a strong element inclined to temper
its utterances regarding the iniquities of all banks. The next
chapter of banking in the state, however, remains to be written
in the succeeding volume.25

25 Illinois State Register, February 3, August 18, 1843, February 9, October
n, 1844; Belleville Advocate, August i, 16, 1843, January i, 1844, November
29, 1845; Chicago Democrat, July 10, 1844, February 23, 1846; Ford, History
of Illinois, 297.

XVII. THE INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM:
THE SOLUTION

TO COMPLETE the story of the internal improvement
system so rashly inaugurated by the state of Illinois in
1837 it remains to give an account of the means by which the
state was finally extricated from the seemingly hopeless posi-
tion into which its general assembly had thrown it. With the
story of the salvation of the state is inseparably connected the
name of Thomas Ford. Thomas Ford, seventh elected gov-
ernor of Illinois, had had an obscure political career until the
time he was elected to the position of chief executive. Poverty
had hampered him in his political ambitions as it had hampered
his half-brother, George Forquer, compelling them both to
serve for years as stout henchmen to other leaders. Forquer
had been embittered by his overlong apprenticeship in politics,
and Ford probably suffered from a similar cause. He was a
lawyer of no mean ability and had served with honor as circuit
judge before he became governor. At the end of his term as
governor he set himself to write a history of Illinois, one of
the two or three remarkable books written in the state during
the formative period. Ford undertook the task of explaining
the political tendencies and habits of the Illinois of his day, in
particular, of explaining for the benefit of future generations
the seemingly inexplicable devotion of the people of the state
to the kind of partisan politics exemplified by Peck. With
this ideal before him, Ford produced a book that only the dis-
illusioned cynicism with which it is written has held back from
recognition as one of the clearest and most subtle analyses of
American politics. Being one of the earliest of books on the
philosophy of American history, it should no longer be neg-
lected and dismissed as merely an old book of state history.

316

THE SOLUTION 317

• At Ford's inauguration the state stood at the point where
a decision must be made with reference to internal improve-
ments. Carlin, passing off the stage as governor, sent a
farewell message to the general assembly that is no more than
a sigh of " 'Tis a' a muddle." Like the good locofoco he
was he attributed the whole internal improvement scheme to
the baleful effect of paper money. He detailed in meager,
bewildered paragraphs the steps of the state's downfall; he
told the legislature that their duty was to provide for the pay-
ment of the interest on eleven millions of debt, some $670,000.
He denounced as impracticable the raising of any money from
the sale of state lands; and as arguments against taxation to
discharge the interest he pleaded a declining tax roll, a disap-
pearing circulating medium and popular disapproval. Thus
abandoning all hope of paying the interest on the debt, he told
the general assembly that it must plan to reduce the principle
by surrendering the state lands to the bondholders in case they
cared to take them. He recommended the rejection of the
state's share of the distribution fund on grounds of principle
and stammered his way to the close alike of his message and
of his official career.

No stronger contrast to this message can be imagined than
the inaugural of Ford. By the openness and sincerity with
which it discussed the state's plight it carried conviction of
the honesty of its statements and proposals. The frankness
with which it coupled the admission of the justness of the
state debt with the need for patience on the part of the credi-
tors, if the state ever were to be able to pay all, showed that
the backwoods judge had found instinctively the method of
address that wins the confidence and support of men of affairs.

"The whole amount of the State debt," wrote Ford,
" excluding interest now due, may be put down at the sum of
fifteen millions one hundred and eighty-seven thousand three
hundred and forty-eight dollars and seventy-one cents; which
sum, from the best information which I can obtain, appears
to be composed of the following items:

3i8 THE FRONTIER STATE

Bonds negotiated on account of the Canal $3,747,000.00

Scrip and certificates of indebtedness issued to contractors by the

Canal Board 689,408.00

Bonds negotiated on account of the system of internal improvements. 5,085,444.00

Scrip issued to contractors on account of internal improvements 929.305.53

Bonds issued to and purchased by the State Bank on account of State

stock 1,765,000.00

Bonds issued to and purchased by the Bank of Illinois on account of

State stock 900,000.00

Bonds issued on account of the State House at Springfield 121,000.00

Due the government of the United States, when called for, on account

of surplus revenue deposited in the State Treasury 477,919.00

A portion of this sum, by act of the General Assembly, was added
to the school fund, and consequently, by our present law, we
are indebted to the school fund on that account in the sum of . . . 335,592.00
Due the school, college and seminary funds for money borrowed by
act of the General Assembly, to assist in paying the current ex-
penses of the State 472,492.18

Due the State Bank of Illinois for paying Auditor's warrants and

interest on the same 294,190.00

To the Bank of Illinois at Shawneetown on settlement 369,998.00

" Upon the whole of this sum, except so much as is due to
the school, college and seminary funds, and so much as is due
to the United States on account of surplus revenue deposited,
interest is now due from the first day of July, 1841. It has
hitherto been supposed, that the profits of the State stock in
the two banks would be amply sufficient to pay interest, not
only on the sum paid in bonds, amounting to two million six
hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars, but also on the further
sum of three hundred thirty-five thousand and five-hundred
ninety-two dollars, part of the surplus revenue, first added to
the school fund and then converted into bank stock. But the fail-
ure of those banks, and their present precarious situation, ren-
ders it almost certain that if we continue our connection with
them the amount of bonds paid in will be nearly a total loss,
and consequently that sum will form one of the demands upon
which interest will have to be provided in future. Those banks
have not for a long time past, as far as I am informed, de-
clared or paid any dividends in favor of the State; conse-
quently, the interest provided by law to be paid to the several
counties on the sum of $335,592, part of the surplus revenue
added to the school fund, has formed a demand on the State
Treasury and has been paid out of the ordinary revenues de-

THE SOLUTION 319

rived from taxes. I cannot believe that it was the intention of
former legislatures to make this a permanent demand upon the
treasury, to be raised by taxation. It must undoubtedly have
been supposed by our predecessors that the profits of banking
would be fully sufficient to meet the appropriation. I, there-
fore, submit to the General Assembly whether the State is any
longer bound to pay interest on that sum, unless it can be
derived from the profits of the investment.

" Many persons suppose, and I think with great proba-
bility, that an arrangement can be made with the two banks,
by which the State can get back the two million six hundred and
sixty-five thousand dollars in bonds, which have been issued to
them."1

At the outset Ford declared that the people of Illinois did
not believe in repudiation. He pointed out that even in 1841
they had in good faith done their best through their general
assembly to raise a sufficient fund for interest. He dismissed
as impossible the sale of state lands and property or the tax
of one and one-half cents on the dollar necessary to meet
the interest on the state's debt. "The main thing with which
the world can justly reproach us is, that we were visionary
and reckless; that without sober deliberation, we jumped head-
long into ambitious schemes of public aggrandizement, which
were not justifiable by our resources. Nor are our original
creditors free from reproach, on the same account.

"They as men of intelligence, sufficient for the proper
management of large capital, ought as well as ourselves, to
have forseen our future want of ability, and the constant
catastrophe which our common error has produced." He
pointed out that while a single year's tax at a rate sufficing to
pay the interest might be raised, that it could not be repeated,
and that the creditors would be left if they insisted upon such
a measure, to deal with a depopulated and ruined state. "If
our creditors are ever to be paid, it will not be by the mere

1 House Journal, 1842-1843, i session, 39-51; Senate Journal, 1842-1843, i
•ession, 33-44.

320 THE FRONTIER STATE

territory composing the State, nor by the abstract thing called
State sovereignty, but by the people who may be here, the
inhabitants of the land; and how are they to be paid if we
depopulate our country?"

Having thus stated to the creditors the argument against
taxation to the hilt, Ford stated the true remedy. "Let it
be known in the first place that no oppressive and exterminat-
ing taxation is to be resorted to ; in the second, we must convince
our creditors and the world, that the disgrace of repudiation
is not countenanced. ... I would, therefore, recommend to
the General Assembly to speak on this subject in the most
decisive manner, so as to give every assurance that in due
time, we will tax ourselves according to our ability, to pay our
debts. The consequence will be, that our creditors, who are
persons of power and influence, instead of reproaching us and
getting up a moral crusade against us, as against a confederated
band of unprincipled swindlers, with a view to coerce us to
our duty, will be directly interested in doing us all the good
in their power." Wiser words had not been spoken since the
system began.

Ford suggested that immediately the creditors be offered
at a fair valuation all the landed property of the state to dimin-
ish the debt by so much. Meanwhile he urged the completion
of the canal as sure to enhance greatly the value of a portion
of the state land. He recommended that the canal, now five-
eighths completed be pushed to completion as a lock canal.
With a series of sound recommendations for state finance
the document concluded. In its twelve pages Ford had carried
conviction to his hearers.

Inaugurated by such a message the work of the general
assembly was fruitful. It passed acts for the winding up of
the State Bank and of the Bank of Illinois, providing in each
case for the surrender to the state of the bonds which they
held in exchange for the surrender of the stock in the institu-
tion owned by the state. The general assembly further pro-
vided for the sale of all state lands and property acquired in

THE SOLUTION 321

connection with the internal improvement system to be paid
for in evidences of state indebtedness or in gold and silver
with the intention that a part of the state indebtedness might
thus be liquidated. Unfortunately the assembly reduced the
tax rate to twenty cents on the hundred; further it provided
for the issue of warrants in return for the surrender of the
Macalister and Stebbins bonds, but years passed before this
act resulted in the final settlement of the controversy. Further
the legislature passed a resolution disclaiming any intention
of repudiation. Most Important, however, it passed an act
for the completion of the Illinois and Michigan canal. By
it the governor was authorized to negotiate on the credit of
the canal and its appurtenances a loan of $1,600,000 from
holders of canal bonds or from others. The canal property
was to be made over to trustees elected by the subscribers as
security for the payment of the loan and bonds, with the pro-
viso that bonds were not to be sold till after the completion
of the canal which would be within three years after the act
went into operation. Meanwhile, the trustees were to operate
it for the benefit of the subscribers and other bondholders
until the indebtedness to them was fully paid. The governor
was authorized to negotiate the terms except that he might
not pledge the state's faith for the payment of the bonds.

In his history of Illinois 2 Ford gives the credit for devis-
ing originally the scheme of completing the canal to Justin
Butterfield of Chicago, who in the summer of 1842 had suc-
ceeded in interesting several of the large capitalists among
the state's eastern creditors in the device which was proposed.
Undoubtedly, however, Ford must be given the credit for
adopting the scheme and for stating it officially in the clearest
possible manner as he presented it in his first message.8

These measures did not pass without sectional and partisan
opposition. Southern members like McClernand denounced
the measures as calculated to tax southern Illinois for the

2 Ford, History of Illinois, 295.

3 Laws of 1843, p. 21, 30, 54, 191, 231 ff.

322

THE FRONTIER STATE

benefit of the northern counties; Ficklin protested against the
payment of the Macalister and Stebbins debt by taxation. It
was the Alton Telegraph that kept up the most consistent,
concerted, and malevolent attack on the program by which
Ford sought to rescue the state finances. It declared that it
was criminal for Illinois to borrow another dollar until her
debts were reduced. It served notice that it would expose any
garbled statement of state finances, naturally thereby doing
what it could to diminish the confidence of the foreign investors
whose aid was so necessary for the initiation of the schemes.
It showed the cloven hoof by declaring in the end for assump-
tion of state debts by the national government as the only
means out of the difficulty. It asked if Oakley and Ryan, on
their pilgrimage to the English bondholders, would tell them
that the democrats had repudiated the Macalister and Stebbins
bonds and repealed the charter of the Bank of Illinois. It
declared frankly that foreign capitalists were justified in hesi-
tating to lend the state more money. Similar statements came
from the east; the democrats might well wonder if the opposi-
tion to the measure was not further inspired by a desire to
induce the state in desperation to adopt federal assumption
and distribution and with these measures the political party
that favored them.4

In pursuance of the act for the completion of the canal
Ford appointed Oakley and Ryan commissioners of the state
to the bondholders. They found themselves much hampered
by the reduction in the rate of taxation by the legislature at
the last session, finding it difficult to give the bondholders satis-
factory assurance in view of it that the state could from that
time be trusted to fulfill its obligations. They procured a con-
siderable subscription, however, amounting to a million and
a half in the United States and sold about two millions of the
bonds in England at rates of thirty-two to forty per cent, on
the terms that twelve and a half per cent be paid at once and

* Chicago Democrat, March 21, October n, 1843; Illinois State Register,
March 17, 24, 1843; Alton Telegraph, February 4, 1843.

THE SOLUTION 323

that the remainder should be forthcoming only in case the
next legislature provided for the future payment of a part of
the accruing interest and a gradual payment of the arrears
the terms that twelve and a half per cent be paid at once and
of it. The subscription, however, could not be completed and
accordingly was not binding. Baring Brothers and Magniac,
Jardine and Company, in London, interested themselves in
behalf of the state's proposal.5 They requested Abbott Law-
rence, W. Sturgis, and T. W. Ward of Boston to choose agents
to examine into the canal situation in Illinois and in the United
States and to report to them as to the feasibility and security
of the whole scheme. Perhaps unfortunately they chose as
commissioners Captain William H. Swift and John Davis, the
latter a whig politician of Massachusetts who boasted the
sobriquet of " honest."

Davis and Swift visited Illinois in the late fall of 1843
and produced a long report, somewhat prosy reading, in which
after professing extreme caution on every point they inclined
to favor the proposition ; and so they reported to the English
bondholders. Unfortunately the suspicion of political motives
entered here. Probably at the suggestion of Abbott Lawrence,
Davis was summoned to England by the English bankers inter-
ested; and the subscription to the loan was delayed. The
democrats, including Michael Ryan, one of the commissioners,
were inclined to believe that it was a piece of politics to attempt
to frustrate the settlement of the debts of Illinois in order
that in the presidential election of 1844 tne whigs might have
one more argument for assumption of state debts. The Eng-
lish bankers concerned denied any such motive, without doubt
sincerely; but it is far from clear that some of the wealthy
whigs of New England who were their trusted advisers on
American affairs were equally innocent.6 Whatever may have
been the reason the negotiations hung fire until the legislative

5 Reports General Assembly, 1844-1845, senate, 90 ff., 129 ff.

6 Chicago Democrat, November 27, December 25, 1844, September 24, 1845;
the charge appeared originally in the Ne<w York Journal of Commerce. Re-
ports General Assembly, 1844-1845, senate, 133.

324 THE FRONTIER STATE

session of 1844-1845. There the crucial question was as to
whether the state would comply with the demand of the bond-
holders for additional taxation.

Once more the word repudiation was current and perhaps
somewhat less generally in men's minds. Various measures
were suggested in the course of the session. Orval Sexton of
Gallatin proposed that the canal law of 1843 be repealed and
work on the canal be stopped, and that for the payment of
the debt the state rely on a sinking fund. He proposed a pro-
viso to the interest bill allowing the legislature to repeal
it at will terming the act "real cane break, hunting shirt"
democracy.7 There were on various hands complaints of the
dictation of the bondholders and statements that their demand
for the levy of an insignificant tax out of all proportion to the
$1,600,000 loan was absurd. In addition there were expres-
sions of dread at the danger to Illinois of her entanglement in
a perpetual monopoly. Alfred W. Cavarly was for complet-
ing the canal by taxation and by the issue of scrip due in three
years. Richard Yates declared for refunding the internal
improvement and statehouse debt at three per cent, for relying
on taxation to raise the interest and for the use of any surplus
for a sinking fund. There were counsels even more eloquent
of blank despair. Fithian proposed turning over to the state's
creditors its property and one or two millions more in bonds
on which the interest was actually to be paid. George H.
Hanson of Coles was firm in the belief that further taxation
would ruin the state past all repair and that it would never be
able to pay.8

The measure which was finally passed provided for a mill
tax in 1845 increasing in 1846 to a mill and a half and there-
after remaining at that figure, which was to be sacredly devoted
to the payment of the interest on the debts of the state except-
ing that on the bonds hypothecated with Macalister and
Stebbins. A new canal act repeating the provisions of that of

7 Sangamo Journal, February 27, 1845; Alton Telegraph, January 25, 1845.

8 Sangamo Journal, March 6, 13, 1845; Belleville Advocate, January 16,
23, 1845; Chicago Daily Journal, January 13, 16, 1845.

THE SOLUTION 325

the previous session completed the necessary legislation.
Northern Illinois was wild with joy; public meetings thanked
the various men concerned, Oakley, Ryan, Davis, Leavitt, and
the governor. The Chicago Journal headed the news with
" Joyful News ! ! ! Get out your Spades and Go to Digging ! ! "
The vote on the interest bill had been twenty-one to twenty in
the senate and in the house sixty-six to thirty-nine on a test
vote.9

At one time the democratic papers of the north were
inclined to attempt to set the whigs down as repudiators. In
general the whigs were nearer the mark in declaring that the
true enemies of the state's rehabilitation were the southern
democrats, though Davis of the Alton Telegraph now as here-
tofore was inclined to criticize viciously.10 It was probably
true, however, that some of the whig papers were inclined to
believe that in the failure of their proposal, the distribution
act, the democratic measure was fair game.11 As a matter of
fact proportionately more whigs than democrats voted for the
measure in both houses. The real significance of the vote is to
be sought from another angle. If we except a little block of
votes in Hancock and Adams and a few scattered votes in the
south, the vote on the measure was sectional. The valleys of
the Illinois and the Rock were for the measure, and southern
and eastern Illinois against it.

Here ends the internal improvement question as an issue
vital to the life of the state. There were still to be squabbles
between the trustees appointed by the state and the trustees
appointed by the bondholders. Whig papers claimed that the
price of Augustus C. French's nomination as governor had
been the removal of Jacob Fry as trustee, and they denounced
savagely his appointment of Oakley. Oakley soon became
involved in an open quarrel with the other trustees whom he

9 Chicago Dally Journal, March 3, 7, 1845; Laws of 1845, p. 31, 44; Senate
Journal, 1844-1845, i session, 400; House Journal, 1844-1845, i session, 577.

10 Illinois State Register, March 14, 1845; Alton Telegraph, February 8,
22, 1845; Chicago Daily Journal, January 25, March 8, 12, 22, 1845; Chicago
Democrat, February 5, 1845.

11 Sangamo Journal, January 2, 1845.

326 THE FRONTIER STATE

accused of incompetence, nonresidence, and the taking of exces-
sive salaries. An attempt on his part to get William Gooding
removed as engineer failed in a bondholders' meeting.12 The
session of the legislature of 1847 saw a series of laws designed
to complete the refunding of the state debt. One authorized
the issue of new bonds in exchange for the old, as well as of
certificates for the payment of interest then in arrears, the cer-
tificates to bear interest after 1856 and to be redeemable after
1876. A second act authorized a settlement with Macalister
and Stebbins. A third provided for the issue in exchange for
canal scrip of Illinois and Michigan canal bonds and for the
accrued interest of certificates of indebtedness of noninterest-
bearing certificates receivable for canal lots and lands hitherto
sold.

Here may be concluded the tedious story of the financial
devices and arrangements by which Illinois in sober earnest
succeeded in extricating itself from its financial embarrassment.
The tale of such devices cannot be made so interesting to the
reader of history as can the account of the party alliances and
the bargaining mania by which the state at first plunged itself
into the internal improvement system. Yet, for the student
of the politics of the state the contrast between the two is in-
structive. Between the Illinois of 1837 and the Illinois of
1847—1848 there was all the difference between light-hearted
reckless youth and sober responsible manhood. The state by
democratic machinery of government had chosen a man to extri-
cate it from the result of its errors and headlong extravagance.
In doing so Illinois had learned and learned much, and had
acquired poise and balance. Undertaking in the end the pay-
ment of her debt the state acquired the respect of the world
and acquired also political experience and judgment which
were to fit it for active and efficient participation in the great
affairs of the union during the next twenty years.

12 Chicago Dally Journal, December 19, 1846, January 25, February 2, 8,
September 20, 1847; Chicago Democrat, July 20, November 19, 1847; Illinois
State Register, June 17, 1847.

XVIII.

THE events of President Folk's administration made it
plain that the old Jacksonian democracy had disap-
peared, and that in the party that ostensibly represented it, the
interests of the south appeared to dictate the decision on every
issue. Texas and Oregon had been coupled in the expansionist
democratic platform of 1844. But no sooner was Polk in the
saddle than excellent reasons were found for compromising
the north's controversy with Great Britain over Oregon and
pressing the south's interest in Texas to the extreme of war
with Mexico. Finally the doctrine of strict construction was
so applied to appropriations for river and harbor improve-
ments that the outraged north found itself cut off from the
fruits of federal bounty apparently at least essential to its
very commercial existence. So at least the north argued. The
student of history would hardly admit, in toto, the north's
indictment of the motives of the southern statesmen in the
party; but the fact remains that northern democrats believed
or professed to believe them and that the Oregon and river
and harbor questions were sufficient to cause in the democratic
party in Illinois and in the nation a division having a slavery
and antislavery cast.

In its propaganda for the annexation of Texas the south
since 1843 had been able to count on support in southern
Illinois. John Reynolds especially had taken Texas under his
tutelage, arguing that it would be a necessary counterset to
Iowa and Wisconsin, and the southern Illinois democratic
papers followed him in advocating annexation frankly on pro-
slavery grounds. The division on the question in the state
was as much sectional as political, the Chicago Democrat hav-

327

328 THE FRONTIER STATE

ing little to say on the question, the whig papers, such as the
Telegraph and the Chicago Journal, handling it severely as an
iniquitous southern scheme and a sop to the slave power.1
After the presidential election was decided and during the
1844—1845 session of congress the various papers maintained
their former attitudes toward the measure, the Belleville Advo-
cate enthusiastically approving, the Chicago Journal bitterly
hostile, and the others saying as little as possible. Actual hos-
tilities within the state, however, began only when 1845—1846
saw the administration's surrender of the alleged rights of the
north in Oregon.

Illinois' interest in Oregon, like that of its neighbor state,
Missouri, and of the latter's political prophet, Thomas Hart
Benton, was on account of its geographical outlook most lively.
Semple claimed that the first all-Oregon meeting held in the
United States had been held under his promotion at Alton in
1842. Anger over England's bullying attitude on the McLeod
affair and the Maine boundary added fuel to the flame. The
whig papers, though some of them, such as the Telegraph,
were outspoken, occasionally entered a mild dissent against too
violent a policy. When in the presidential contest of 1 844 the
cry of "54° 40' or fight" had triumphed, the Illinois demo-
crats affected to fear lest before they could take office their
opponents would compromise the rights of the United States —
for had it not been such secretaries of state as Adams, Clay,
and Webster who had yielded the rights of the United States
on Texas, Maine, and on Oregon itself?2

In Illinois the democrats were vociferous in their resolution
that, if needs must, 54° 40' be submitted to the arbitrament of
the sword. Both whigs and democrats made a possible naval
war on the lakes an argument for the construction of a ship
canal at the Illinois-Michigan portage as an essential measure

1 Belleville Advocate, November 9, 1843, May 16, 1844; Illinois State Regis-
ter, May 24, 31, June 14, 1844; Alton Telegraph, August 31, October 12, 1844;
Chicago Journal, July 27, 1844.

2 Belleville Advocate, February 27, November 4, 1841, December 29, 1842,
January 9, 1845; Chicago American, April 25, 1842; Alton Telegraph, Novem-
ber 12, 1842; Illinois State Register, February 17. March 24, April 14, 1843.

SPLIT OF DEMOCRATIC PARTY 329

of preparedness, and writings of Lieutenant Maury on the sub-
ject under the name of " Harry Bluff " were widely copied and
commented on.3 By fall however, the whig papers declared
their belief that the democratic administration in the end would
back down — a forecast verified by Folk's first offer of a com-
promise on the 49° line.

Folk's withdrawal from 54° 40' threw into a quandary
Illinois democrats with northern sympathies who wished to
remain loyal to the party. John Wentworth, the Chicago con-
gressman, was especially hard beset. Along with Stephen A.
Douglas, Joseph P. Hoge, John A. McClernand, and Robert
Smith of Illinois he voted among the " immortal ten " who
declared that the Oregon question was no longer a subject for
compromise. In debate Wentworth, Ficklin, and Douglas
insisted that Oregon and Texas had been linked by the Balti-
more convention and that the faith of the party was pledged
to achieve both. In the state the county meetings held in the
early winter, while not taking direct issue with Polk, urged the
maintenance of a claim to all Oregon, and the state convention
resolved that since the proffered compromise of 49° had been
rejected, congress should dissolve joint occupancy.

The senate's delay in adopting the resolution giving notice
for termination of the joint occupancy added new fuel to the
fire. The State Register was confounded, solemnly warning
the southern democrats that this offense would never be for-
given by the west. A meeting of voters in St. Clair county
resolved that they would not support for office anyone who
submitted to a compromise on 49°. They proposed William
Allen of Ohio as the next president. Wentworth warned
the southern democrats that their course on the Texas and
Oregon question was fatally weakening the party in the
north.4

In March and early April, 1846, the democrats still clung

3 Belleville Advocate, April 17, May 22, 1845; Little Fort Porcupine, May
21, 1845; Chicago Democrat, October 18, 1845.

4 Illinois State Register, January 30, 1846; Belleville Advocate, April u,
1846; Chicago Democrat, April 3, 1846.

THE FRONTIER STATE

to the hope that 49° had been offered for the last time and that
thenceforth the nation would stand firm on the 54° 40' line.
Both whigs and democrats for the moment believed war immi-
nent. The county meetings and conventions held in McLean,
Livingston, Vermilion, Lake, De Kalb, and Champaign, while
not censuring Polk and while even praising him, insisted on 54°
40'. On April I, however, the Chicago Democrat printed a
letter from Wentworth admitting the 49° men controlled the
senate. The State Register was very bitter in its comment.
The Galena Jeffersonian, the Chicago Journal remarked, had
read Polk out of the party on the subject, but predicted that
the 54° 40' men in Egypt would soon tack. The whigs, while
far from united on the question, had avoided committing them-
selves unfavorably.5 In the democratic party, on the other
hand, the question had created a bitter feeling between the
northern and southern wings of the party.

The ill-feeling aroused by the prospective settlement of
Oregon on the basis of 49° was stirred up to fever heat by the
violation of northern interests caused by Polk's veto of the
river and harbor bill, and here too the measure divided the
party in the state against itself. For years democrats inter-
ested in federal internal improvements had had to steer a care-
ful course to avoid the implications of the growing strict
construction doctrines of the party. In Illinois the difficulty
was complicated by the fact that the interests of the various
parts of the state were diverse and even conflicting. While
Wentworth was interested primarily in the lakes, Ficklin and
Robert Smith were anxious for the continuance of the Cumber-
land road, and McClernand and Smith for the improvement of
navigation on the Ohio and Mississippi; and on grounds of
principle they voted repeatedly against bills for the improve-
ment of the lake harbors. From lack of unity, the seven Illinois
congressmen that took their seats for the first time in 1843—
1 844 were not able to achieve the results that might have been

5 Chicago Dally Journal, April 5, July 6, 18, 1846; Belleville Advocate,
March 14, April 4, 25, May 21, August 6, 1846; Illinois State Register, March
27, 1846; Chicago Democrat, May 26, June 16, 1846.

SPLIT OF DEMOCRATIC PARTY 331

expected and in the end only produced jealousies and divisions
in the party through the state.

In session after session the same divergencies of interest
divided the Illinois members. Thus in 1844 Wentworth and
Douglas labored hard to prove constitutional in the western
river and harbor bill the Illinois river appropriation — a cru-
cial item from the strict constructionist viewpoint. Finally
McClernand, Robert Smith, and Ficklin voted against the bill,
the two former alleging constitutional grounds and meager
appropriations for the Ohio. This vote drew down on
Smith the censure of the Belleville Advocate. Wentworth too
was much exercised that Ficklin, Hoge, McClernand, and
Smith voted against the eastern harbor bill; he believed com-
plaisance in that direction to be a fertile source of votes for
western measures. He feared that Tyler's veto of the eastern
bill would cause retaliation on the west, believing the veto to
be the work of men who desired to divide east and west.6

When in the 1844—1845 session a similar sectional war in
congress ended in the pocketing of the river and harbor bill,
the western internal improvement men sought to persuade the
south of its community of interest with the west in internal
improvement. The Memphis convention, largely attended by
Illinois whigs and democrats, represented an attempt to bring
about such a union, on the policy of the improvement of north
and south transportation routes through the great valley for
needs of peace or of war. The west, from the fact that its
commerce passed out through the Gulf of Mexico, was
reminded of the value of coast defenses and lighthouses in
Florida as well as of similar improvements on the lakes. The
convention urged the ship canal from Lake Michigan to the
Illinois river, the completion of the Cumberland road to Fort
Smith, Arkansas, improvement of lakes, harbors, and northern
rivers, a military road from Memphis to Texas, and an armory

0 Congressional Globe, 28 congress, i session, 568 ; Belleville Advocate,
May 16, June 6, July 18, 1846; Chicago Democrat, August 14, 1844, declared the
exertion of Wentworth among others induced Tyler not to veto the "western
harbor bill;" ibid., October 21, 1845.

332 THE FRONTIER STATE

at Fort Massac. The campaign for these and for the ship
canal was committed to the charge of committees of Illinois
men, whigs and democrats. McClernand thought the move-
ment calculated especially to give southern Illinois the impetus
for the lack of which its growth had been retarded.7 If ques-
tion of constitutional principle did not again intervene, the
democratic party saw an opportunity once more to be in
complete accord.

The session of congress of 1845—1846 presented to the
democratic party the crucial test of its newly found unity. The
Cumberland road project was again brought forward by
Ficklin. Breese, however, opposed land donations for it; and
the measure, to the wrath of the Sangamo Journal was killed
by constitutional arguments despite the attempt of its friends
to demonstrate it as an implied compact between the federal
government and the new states.8 Meanwhile Wentworth
devoted himself especially to the river and harbor bill. He
was afraid that amendments might be added that would tran-
scend Folk's conservative constitutional scruples. One of the
items that he feared was the Cumberland road, another the
Louisville and Portland canal and still another the ship canal
to the Illinois river.9 The latter project was in danger con-
tinually because according to Wentworth the Indiana delegation
was determined that any communication of the sort must come
through their state. Whenever the Illinois river was inserted
in the bill, they at once added the Wabash. Wentworth com-
plained that its enemies always sought to kill the bill by
dragging in rivers and harbors of their own or by including
such projects as that of the Tennessee river, sure to be vetoed.

It was on the east emphatically that Wentworth placed his
reliance for the securing of the appropriations. He hoped to

7 Alton Telegraph, June 21, 28, 1845; Chicago Democrat, June 25, July 23,
1845; Belleville Advocate, October n, December 6, 1845; Illinois State Register,
June 20, September 5, October 21, 1845.

8 Congressional Globe, 29 congress, i session, 84, 195, 383, 600, 615, 622;
Alton Telegraph, January 31, April 18, 1846; Sangamo Journal, April 23, 1846.

9 Congressional Globe, 29 congress, i session, 354; Alton Telegraph, March
21, 1846.

SPLIT OF DEMOCRATIC PARTY 333

unite the Illinois and Indiana members to vote for an appropri-
ation for Lake Champlain to conciliate the New Yorkers,
whom he presumed were the friends of western internal im-
provements. As always he insisted that the opponents of better
lake harbors resided in the west and south, not in the east.
Late in February he hoped that the bill would have clear sailing,
but then came the attacks on strict construction grounds from
such men as R. Barnwell Rhett. In April the Chicago Demo-
crat despondingly remarked that the improvement of the lakes
would be defeated between the whigs, who would vote for any-
thing to revive Clay's old system, and the southern men who,
to kill the bill, would vote for any amendment.10

The whig papers of Illinois were inclined to regard the
affair as none of theirs. They predicted the veto of the meas-
ure, saying that Polk as a result of the party straddle on
interstate improvements had not been pledged. The Tele-
graph gave Wentworth full credit for his efforts for the
measure, especially his success in retaining the St. Louis
harbor, while declaring that an appropriation for the Cum-
berland road or the Illinois river would defeat the bill. The
Chicago Journal, nearer home, declared that Wentworth
had done his best but was devoid of influence; and after the
veto of the measure the whig newspapers joined in denouncing
Polk.11

In addition to his troubles in Washington, Wentworth
again had the handicap of a divided congressional delegation
and a divided party at home. When Polk vetoed the bill on
constitutional grounds, McClernand was one of his confidants;
and both he and Ficklin voted against it. The State Register
was unsympathetic; as early as April 3, in 1846, it regretted
that the Mississippi appropriations were in a bill with so many
unsound items; and it approved Polk's veto saying that if he

10 Chicago Democrat, February 23, March u, 30, 1846; Alton Telegraph,
March 14, 1846; Congressional Globe, 29 congress, i session, 438, 479, 485, 493,
496, 506, 516, 522, 527.

11 Chicago Daily Journal, March 19, 28, May 26, 1846; Alton Telegraph,
April 4, 1846.

334 THE FRONTIER STATE

erred, he erred on the side of safety. In various sections of
the state the party presses took the same ground. In the Mili-
tary Tract the Pike County Sentinel and the Quincy Herald
approved the veto. The Charleston Globe, in eastern Illinois,
and the W abash Democrat, at Shawneetown, opposed a river
and harbor convention. On this movement, the Register was
inclined to look askance and the Washington Union, whether
from personal spite at Wentworth, from sectional jealousy, or
from disdain of logrolling, openly attacked it.12 Polk could
count on support for his act in a state whose material interests
he had injured.

The veto made Wentworth's position as a good party man
extremely difficult. To his constituents he had to admit that it
was of no avail during the remainder of Folk's term to hope
for river and harbor appropriations. Henceforth he said if
the people wanted harbors they must elect "northern" men to
congress. The whig papers went further in expressing popular
disgust. They denounced Polk as a traitor to his party on the
tariff, Oregon, and the river and harbor bill. The Chicago
Journal commented sarcastically on the sale of the harbor
machinery at Chicago, denouncing Polk's treachery and his
economizing at the expense of human lives. The ships in the
harbor half-masted their colors when the news arrived. In the
river counties the cant term for snags became Polk stalks, and
a sandbar at the mouth of the Chicago harbor was named
Mount Polk.13

Out of the indignation in the sections and parties interested
in internal improvements came an extra-partisan movement of
protest culminating in the river and harbor convention of 1847.
Loose construction in the direction of internal improvements

12 Congressional Globe, 29 congress, i session, 530; Illinois State Register,
April 3, August 21, September 4, October 9, 1846; Chicago Dally Journal, Oc-
tober 14, 1846; Chicago Democrat, July 2, 1847; Little Fort Porcupine, November
3, 1846.

13 Chicago Democrat, April 18, 1846; Chicago Dally Journal, August 10, n,
12, 19, November 17, 1846, May 13, 1847; Sangamo Journal, August 20, 1846;
Alton Telegraph, August 28, November 6, 1846. The Chicago Democrat, Novem-
ber 13, 1846, professed to see in the veto the cause of inroads made by the
whigs on the democratic strength in the lake congressional districts.

SPLIT OF DEMOCRATIC PARTY 335

emphatically was good whig doctrine, and domestic indignation
in the localities affected chimed in with whig principles. The
first call for a convention by the Buffalo Commercial was wel-
comed by whig papers and by the democratic ones concerned
by their local interests. The Chicago Journal, September 15,
suggested that it be held July 4, 1847, at Chicago. The Chi-
cago Democrat hesitated for several weeks and finally
pronounced for it. The convention, held at Chicago, de-
cided that both whigs and democrats should apply to every
candidate the test of loyalty to river and harbor appropria-
tions.14

Wentworth, however deeply provoked as he was, was not
yet ready to abandon the party. Again and again he protested
that river and harbor appropriations were good democratic
doctrines despite Polk and grandfather Ritchie, the " Nous
Verrons" of the Washington Union.15 Wentworth had led
an assault in congress the previous session on the tea and coffee
taxes proposed by the administration; and he and Douglas,
who certainly was not warm in the fight on rivers and harbors,
joined in a bitter war on Thomas Ritchie, the editor of the
"organ." In the face of the south Wentworth flaunted the
doctrine of the Wilmot proviso — yet at the same time he
professed his willingness to support the nominee of the Balti-
more convention. Wentworth manifestly, even while making
war on the administration, was determined not to break with
his party.

Undoubtedly, however, by his repeated assaults upon the
administration and its policies he was wreaking a vengeance on
the leaders of his party past his power to undo. Through the
patient work of years in the columns of the Chicago Democrat
he had acquired personal influence over the farmers of northern''
Illinois that one rival after another had tried in vain to shake.
Yet the men whom year in and year out he had trained in the
democratic principles of the older school were not men to

14 Chicago Daily Journal, September 9, 15, 24, 1846; Chicago Democrat,
September 29, 1846, July 13, 1847.

15 Ibid., July 30, 1847.

336 THE FRONTIER STATE

forget; they refused to follow Wentworth when he pronounced
the nomination of northern men like Cass sufficient of a solace
for the wrongs of the north on Oregon and Texas, on river and
harbor vetoes, and on the aggressions of the slave power that
the older democracy had tolerated, half conscious that it vio-
lated its principles. Abolition had gained ground rapidly in
the north during late years, and the time was inevitably coming
when the cumulative effort of southern aggressions would open
the eyes of the northwest to the fact that " democrat" no longer
meant what it had in the thirties. It was Wentworth's part in
politics to state the premises, but only at the last to accept the
inevitable conclusions that flowed from them. In 1847 ne nad
denounced the policies that to the end of the " Old South " were
to dominate the democratic party, but till 1856 he called him-
self a democrat.

At the outset of the campaign of 1848 the whigs at every
point had the tactical advantage. The public land question
during the administration of Tyler and Polk, so far as Illinois
was concerned, had been burning itself out. In the spring of
1841 whigs and democrats in the state set off against each
other the distribution bill of the whigs and the land cession
scheme of Calhoun. The democratic papers, of course,
opposed the whig distribution bill which passed through con-
gress in the special session of 1841. The bill itself, however,
contained a provision suspending its operation while import
duties in excess of twenty cents on the dollar were in existence.
A bill repealing this proviso was pocketed by Tyler in 1 842, so
that for all practical purposes the bill was a dead letter except
in the preemption provisions about which the whigs cared the
least. Land cession measures were intermittently brought for-
ward by Illinois congressmen in 1844 and 1845—1846. In
1846 a graduation measure was brought forward, argued at
great length with little originality and finally defeated on a
petition by eastern members who voted to lay it on the table in
retaliation for the votes of western congressmen against the
eastern harbor bill. A graduation bill was introduced at the

SPLIT OF DEMOCRATIC PARTY 337

next session but came to nothing.16 With lands being sold off
rapidly Illinois was fast ceasing to be a public land state, and
her interest in a liberal land policy and in the party that had
promoted it was becoming correspondingly less.

The war with Mexico, too, was far more advantageous
from the point of view of party politics to the whigs than to
the democrats. At the outset the best the Register could do
was to attempt to fix on various whigs and whig organs the
charge of opposition to the war carried to unpatriotic extremes,
but the attempt was not very successful. It early expressed the
desire of a speedy peace with Mexico in which Mexico might
under the guise of a sale compound her debts to the United
States by the cession of territory in a moderate amount. It
assailed the whigs severely for trying to make the war out to
be a war of conquest, although at other times it preached the
doctrine of manifest destiny for the extension ultimately of the
territory of the United States not merely to California but to
Darien and the Canadas. The obstinacy of the Mexicans in
refusing to admit that they had succumbed to the manifest
destiny of Anglo-Saxonism compelled the democrats to look
forward to a long and obstinate war to bring them to terms ;
and such abortive measures as Polk's safe-conduct to Santa
Anna into Mexico, which only permitted him to become the
arch leader of the opposition there, were much better cam-
paign material for the whigs than for the democrats. By the
summer of 1847 tne Belleville Advocate was compelled to
admit that an occupation of extensive territory was necessary
for an indefinite period before it might be hoped that Mexico
would listen to reason. A war with no apparent end is not an
attractive plank in the platform of an American party.17

16 Sangamo Journal, May 21, 28, September 17, 1841 ; Alton Telegraph,
April 24, 1841 ; Illinois State Register, August 27, 1841 ; Belleville Advocate,
October 8, 1841 ; Congressional Globe, 28 congress, i session, 443, 28 congress, 2
session, 66, 29 congress, i session, 172, 29 congress, 2 session, 41, 200, 528 ; Chi-
cago Democrat, July 21, August 18, 1846.

17 Illinois State Register, June 26, July 10, 24, 31, August 14, November 6,
1846; Belleville Advocate, October 29, December 31, 1846, June 3, October 14,
November 4, December 2, 1847.

338 THE FRONTIER STATE

It was with every tactical advantage that the whigs
approached the election of 1848. As the Alton Telegraph
outlined the situation, the administration had tried to cover up
its retreat on the Oregon question with a " little war " only to
find Mexico unexplainably obstinate, and further had made the
mistake of not drawing generously enough on the enthusiasm
and patriotism of the country to strike a decisive blow. On
larger issues the paper a year before had pointed out that at
the time the democrats were committed by their acts to the ultra
stand on the tariff and slavery and must expect the defection to
the whigs from their own or from third party banners of tariff
democrats, native Americans, and abolitionists. The cry of
democracy and the name of Jackson would no longer serve to
hold the true democrats in line, and the locofocos would find
themselves left alone. The whigs need only take issue fairly
on the tariff and the subtreasury.18

Curiously the whigs at first were inclined to pass over the
advantage they might enjoy in running the hero of Buena
Vista as their candidate. In the summer of 1847 the Chicago
Journal seemed to incline strongly in the direction of Henry
Clay as the old and trusted exponent of whig principles who
alone could rescue the nation from the crisis to which the policy
of the administration both foreign and domestic had brought
it. G. T. M. Davis, one of the two editors of the Alton Tele-
graph, took a similar stand late in 1847, claiming that Zachary
Taylor in view of his treatment of the volunteers was not
entitled to the support of the whigs, and further that they were
on the verge of a mistake such as that of 1840. John Bail-
hache, the other editor, was inclined to agree with his colleague
in regard to Clay, though fearing that his speech against the
war and conquest had lessened his chances in the west. The
Telegraph, however, took exception to the action of an unin-
structed high convention in nominating Taylor, professing that
he had lost very much in popularity in the last six months

18 Alton Telegraph, September n, November 20, 1846, October 15, 1847;
Sangamo Journal, May 7, 1846.

339

by his refusal to accept a party nomination and by the luster
of Scott's triumphs; but Bailhache professed his willingness to
support Taylor. The Taylor movement indeed was one that
had begun in the preceding spring. The Sangamo Journal had
come out for him on April 8, 1847. The Quincy Whig and
the Morgan Journal had both declared for him a few days later.
The Chicago Journal and the Alton Telegraph during the
spring had both praised Taylor to the skies without coming out
specifically in his favor.19 By the fall the democratic papers
were predicting that Taylor would be eliminated in favor of
Clay or some similar candidate, but finally they inclined to the
belief that the Illinois whigs would acquiesce in his choice.

With a military hero as a candidate, with the favorable
position on every issue, with their opponents torn by personal
and sectional feuds as well as divided on political principle,
the triumph of the whigs in the nation in 1848 was assured. In
Illinois they were not successful. So strongly cemented was
the fabric of the democratic party, so great was the power of
the democratic name that the destruction of the party suprem-
acy there had to be the work of years. That supremacy was
not to be ended by any defection to the old rival parties. The
whig name and organization had first to disappear. Yet the
forces in the democratic party that ultimately were to end the
day of its power were, by 1 847, plainly apparent to the student.
In the study of the political as of the animal organism the first
detection of a morbid condition is more significant than the
following out of its development to the inevitable result.

19 Chicago Daily Journal, April 8, 28, 29, May 8, 27, 29, September 16, 1847:
Alton Telegraph, April 30, December 10, 31, 1847; Belleville Advocate, October
7, December 9, 1847, February 2, 1848.

XIX. THE MORMON WAR

OF ALL the settlements inspired by peculiar ideas or
beliefs that grew up on the fertile soil of the Military
Tract, the most ambitious, the most tragic, the one most abid1
ing in its effects on the nation, if not on the state, was the
community of Latter Day Saints or Mormons at Nauvoo.
The religion revealed by Joseph Smith drew converts from the
old and new world until almost in a night a city of perhaps
fifteen thousand people grew up in Illinois as the capital of an
even larger community, and after thus overtopping Alton, and
for a time even Chicago, passed away as suddenly as it rose.
Today only a village of scarce a thousand can recall to the
student of the past the passions, the ambitions, and the
tragedies of the holy city of the Mormons in Illinois.

Of the Mormon belief itself it is difficult to write with the
balanced detachment of the historical student. The story of
the miraculous golden plates, protected by the direct interven-
tion of angels from improper approach in their hiding place on
the hill at Palmyra, New York, which had seen the overthrow
of the Nephites by the barbarian invaders,1 is too much for
this age of incredulity to accept; the evidence of the eleven wit-
nesses who testified to the existence of the plates would hardly
survive the cross-examination of a court of law. The Book of
Mormon, which Smith claimed he had translated from the
plates by direct divine assistance, is a book of tedious histories,
each of which seems to the careless reader much like the rest.
It contains blunders in grammar which, if we accept Joseph
Smith's account of the translation, must be laid to the charge
of the divine power that word by word gave him the English
equivalents of the characters on the plates. The evidence that

1 Times and Seasons, April 15, 1841.

340

THE MORMON WAR 341

the book is really an historical novel written by the Reverend
Solomon Spaulding is unsatisfactory; in any case from a liter-
ary point of view the book is incapable of conferring honor on
its author. Had Mormonism begun and ended with the book
on the golden plates, it would have made little noise in the
world.

Doctrinally Mormonism has little that is distinctive. Its
theology is usually referred to Sidney Rigdon, a Campbellite
preacher, who, as an early convert, may have devised its creed.
Mormonism based itself on a literal interpretation of the word
of God; it adopted from the Old Testament what is least
spiritual in the stories of the patriarchs and neglected what
is finest in the New. The problem of how God can be man
that perplexed early Christian theology and that was but
partially solved by the doctrine of the two natures, Mor-
monism met in easier fashion — its God was a God with
passions like men, with physical parts, the God who turned his
.hinder parts to Moses, a God who might delight in blood, a
God from whom frail men might expect not mercy but sym-
pathy. In place of the authority of an infallible church,
speaking with the weight of eighteen Christian centuries, or by
the application to a holy book of reason sent from God, Mor-
monism substituted a religion of revelation to Joseph Smith by
a God who could announce the names of the trustees of the
Nauvoo House and prescribe that his servant Joseph Smith
and his seed should forever receive free board there.

To the revelation Smith ever turned to keep his followers
in order. There were revelations commanding that this man
should tarry here and that man should go there, revelations
admonishing, reproving, and praising his followers by name.
By revelation God commanded the building of the Temple,
and by revelation he ordained also the discipline of the Mor-
mon faith. By revelation Smith held under control the fol-
lowers who had swallowed greedily the marvel of the dead
races of the past and of the golden plates. The church serv-
ices were ceremonious; the sacraments were rites to preserve

342 THE FRONTIER STATE

the faithful from the devil and to comfort their souls with the
assurance of salvation for some specific performance. Mor-
monism, always prefacing its teaching with a reflection on the
dissensions and differences of opinion on matters of faith of
the Christian denominations, proffered a certainty and counted
its converts by ten thousands.

The influence of Smith's character on the development of
Mormonism cannot be overestimated. Though educated only
by his own efforts and not highly intellectual, he was possessed
of a vigorous will in a powerful body; and he ruled his fol-
lowers with absolute sway. He had efficient adjuncts in his
brothers, notably Hyrum Smith, and in his father and mother.
The family traced its descent from a long line of Puritan ances-
tors and pointed with pride to its record in Indian wars and the
Revolution; although in its New York home its reputation
had not been of special distinction, on the larger stage on which
it was called to play it seconded with reasonably good sup-
port Joseph Smith's performance in the role of p/ophet.la

But although he was able to gather to the standard of his
religion a hundred thousand converts, at first chiefly New Eng-
landers and New Yorkers already having strong religious
traditions, Smith had certain limitations in his character that
fatally hindered him from organizing them into an irresistible
phalanx. He could dominate his humbler followers, but there
his power stopped. He had not the imagination necessary to
comprehend or to harmonize with the men outside his faith with
whom he had to deal; neither was he a judge of the character
and ability of the men that he gathered around him. Hence,
perhaps because of the moral weaknesses of his religious dis-
pensations— though Smith to the last retained his grasp on the
church — the history of Mormonism is the history of the seces-
sion of one trusted leader after another; and Smith, not under-
standing or grasping the forces of the American frontier, led

10 Salisbury, "The Mormon War in Hancock County," Illinois State His-
torical Society, Journal, 8:281 ff. ; Berry, "The Mormon Settlements in Illinois,"
Illinois State Historical Society, Transactions, 1906, 88 ff.

THE MORMON WAR 343

his followers repeatedly to failure and death in his effort to
build up a theocracy in the American backwoods. In so doing
he arrayed against himself and his followers all the strongest
elements in every community where he sought to establish him-
self. The Christian churches were outraged by his denuncia-
tion of them; the powerful proslavery party and its sym-
pathizers were incensed at his antislavery teaching; and the
democracy of the frontier was alarmed at his autocracy and at
his insidious interference in local politics. The opposition was
intensified by the provincialism of the frontier, impatient of
anything different from itself and ready to enforce conformity
even outside the law.

Joseph Smith was eighteen years old when in 1823 celestial
visitants first announced his mission to him and showed him
the plates, and twenty-two when the golden plates were finally
given to him. On the sixth of April, 1830, the church was
founded. Then followed a series of persecutions, the church
seeking a home now at Kirtland, Ohio, now in Missouri.
Whether the fault was theirs or their opponents', whether the
causes of their unpopularity were their antislavery sympathies,
their clannish proclivities, their denunciation of the churches,
or their belief that the wealth of the gentiles belonged to the
Saints, they finally in 1838 were driven out of Missouri, with
the loss of their property and of many lives, and took refuge
in Illinois.2

In Illinois they encountered a favorable reception. Their
doctrines had previously awakened passing curiosity, and their
earlier persecution at the hands of the people of Missouri had
called forth occasional comments from the newspapers. The
outburst of 1839 provoked indignant comment from the Illinois
papers, especially those of whig political affiliations, possibly
with a view to attracting to the whig standard a considerable
body of voters.3

- Times and Seasons, March i, April i, 1842.

^Chicago Democrat, December 3, 17, 1833, June 18, 1834; Chicago American,
July 23, October 3, 1839, June 1J. *842; Peoria Register, May 18, July 27, 1839;
Sangamo Journal, January 19, 1839; Illinois State Register, November 9, 1838.

344 THE FRONTIER STATE

Mormonism at first throve in Illinois. On October 5,
1839, Commerce, the site of Nauvoo, was adopted as a
" stake " of the church. The plat of the city, it was said later,
was bought of a Connecticut firm for $53,500, on long time.
^A remarkable charter was secured from the legislature with
little trouble, the member reporting it merely saying that the
document had an extraordinary militia clause which he believed
harmless. At Nauvoo a stringent temperance ordinance was
passed, if not enforced, and a university was founded, which
had sufficient vitality at least to bestow the honorary degree of
Doctor of Laws on James Gordon Bennett, editor of the New
York Herald. Missionaries were sent far and wide in the old
as well as in the new world and communities of Saints grew up
in other places than Nauvoo; though even as early as 1841, it
is ominous to notice the appearance against them of charges
of immorality, polygamy, and of harboring thieves.4

The beginning of the troubles of the Mormons in Illinois
was their interference as a body in politics. Both parties had
courted them, the whigs more openly than the democrats. In
the presidential election of 1840, the Mormons voted for all
the Harrison electors except Abraham Lincoln, substituting
the name of one democratic elector for his, as they alleged out
of complacency to the democrats. Lincoln was too good a
politician, however, not to congratulate the Mormons warmly
on the passage of their charters which apparently neither party
opposed.5

Though the Mormons voted for Stuart in 1841, the demo-
crats, for some reason, won the race for the favor of the
prophet On January I, 1842, Times and Seasons, the official
newspaper of the Mormons, published a proclamation declar-
ing that the Mormons had voted for Harrison as a gallant

*Times and Seasons, December 30, 1839, November 15, 1840, March i, April
i, November i, December 15, 184.1, January i, 1842; Chicago American, July 29,
1842; Warsaw Signal, February 10, 1845. Bennett's paper was indicated as
worthy of the patronage of the Saints, its attitude toward them being distinctly
friendly.

KTimes and Seasons, January i, 1841; Chicago American, November 16, 26,
December 26, 1840, June 8, 1842.

THE MORMON WAR 345

soldier but that he was now dead and there was no obligation
on them to support his friends. u Douglass," Smith said, " is a
Master Spirit, and his friends are our friends — we are willing
to cast our banners on the air, and fight by his side in the cause
of humanity, and equal rights — the cause of liberty and the
law. Snyder, and Moore, are his friends — they are ours."
The Sangamo Journal commented that if this pronunciamento
did not set the citizens of the state to thinking it did not know
what would. The democratic papers were taken a little back
at this zealous missionary work for their candidate, the Regis-
ter refraining from publishing the address in full.6

With Smith thus openly arrayed on the side of his oppo-
nent, Duncan in the campaign of 1842 for the governorship
naturally took an anti-Mormon stand. He attacked the loose
provisions of the Mormon charters, which, by allowing laws
to be passed so long as they were not counter to the state or
federal constitutions, permitted the city council a power of
legislation almost concurrent with that of the state. He pointed
out the evil legislation which had been passed under this
arrangement, such as the ordinance providing heavy fine and
imprisonment for any person speaking lightly of the estab-
lished religion. He called attention to the violence of the
Mormons in Missouri and to the charge that they were
more or less openly engaged in plots against their old
enemies there.7 Suddenly a series of exposures by a man
hitherto among the most prominent of the Mormon leaders
threw the whole state into excitement and centered the climax
of the campaign on the Mormon issue.

General John C. Bennett, after a more or less checkered
career in the west, had joined the Mormons at about the time
of their arrival in Illinois. Educated in medicine, he had
become, for some reason, quartermaster-general of Illinois
militia; and it soon became generally understood among the

6 Ford, History of Illinois, 262; Times and Seasons, January i, 1842; San-
gamo Journal, January 21, February n, 1842; Illinois State Register, January
14, 1842.

7 Sangamt Journal, May 14, June 10, 1842; Alton Telegraph, May 14, 1842.

346 THE FRONTIER STATE

Mormons that he was a military genius of the first rank. He
had had a large share in the political negotiations by which the
Nauvoo charter was secured, and he was generally believed to
have acted as a political go-between on other occasions. He
commanded the "Nauvoo Legion" into which the militia of
the city was organized and wrote communications to the Times
and Seasons signed "Joab." For some reason he quarreled
with Smith and was cast out of the church in 1842, the Mor-
mons discovering that his character was scabrous in the extreme.
The tone of his exposures indicates that there was nothing
inherently improbable in the charge, though it is a little strange
that his iniquity was not sooner found out.8

Undoubtedly Bennett was able to tell many things regard-
ing the aims, methods, and morals of the Mormon leaders;
but his exposures appear unreliable. It is possible that men like
the Smiths, who were prone to use their spiritual authority for
their pecuniary advantage, did not refrain from using it to
win over women devotees who took their fancy; but it is dif-
ficult to believe that the elaborate societies and orders for
debauchery which Bennett detailed existed outside his own
evil imagination. It is doubtful if the doctrine of " spir-
itual wifery" existed at so early a date; indeed, the Mormons
claimed that the doctrine was Bennett's own invention. Too
much weight, however, should not be given to the denials of
Bennett's charges as to the injuries inflicted or attempted to
be inflicted on Orson Pratt, Sidney Rigdon, and Nancy Rigdon.
Certainly in spite of the Mormon denials there was a Danite
band with which Bennett had been threatened; but as a whole,
except where Bennett's charges can be verified from other
sources, they are to be discounted, if for no other reason
because he claimed that he had originally joined the Mormons
in order to expose them.9

8 Times and Seasons, January i, June i, 1841, August i, 1842, November 15,
1844; Wasp, October i, 1842.

9 Times and Seasons, April 15, August i, September 15, 1842; Wasp,
September 3, 1842; Chicago American, July 7, 1842; Bennett, History of the
Saints, 5.

THE MORMON WAR 347

The charges of Bennett, especially the commentary on the
danger to the state from the Mormon scheme supported by
Mormon militia with state arms in their hands and the accusa-
tion of attempts on the life of Governor Boggs of Missouri
by Mormons, rang through the whig papers in the last weeks
of the campaign; but the Mormon vote was cast solidly for
Ford; and he was elected by a safe majority. The Telegraph
was inclined to believe that the charges because of apparent
improbability might actually have injured the cause of the
whigs.10

In his message of 1842 Ford stated that the people of the
state desired that the Mormon charters be modified so as to
allow the people of Nauvoo no greater privileges than were
enjoyed by their fellow citizens; but the suggestion was not
followed out by the legislature, since both parties hesitated to
take a decided stand. The old doctrine of vested rights was
invoked in behalf of the charters, and the friends of the
Mormons were always ready with a suggestion to repeal all
municipal charters in case that of Nauvoo were touched.11 In
the congressional campaign of 1843 tne Mormon votes were
apparently thrown for Hoge, the democrat, against Cyrus
Walker, in spite of what the Mormons alleged were attempts
on the part of the whigs to win them over. The democrats
declared that in the fifth district the Mormons under the
orders of the prophet voted for Orville H. Browning against
Douglas.12

An important factor in the conduct of the Mormon leaders
was their constant dread of extradition to Missouri. On Sep-
tember 15, 1840, Governor Boggs issued a requisition on
Illinois for the surrender of Smith, Rigdon, and others as fugi-
tives from justice. The warrants were not executed; but in

10 Alton Telegraph, August 13, 1842.

11 Sangamo Journal, December 15, 1842, January 19, 1843; Alton Telegraph,
December 17, 24, 1842; Illinois State Register, March 31, 1843; House Journal,
1842-1843, i session, 50.

12 Chicago Democrat, August 23, 1843; Nauvoo Neighbor, August 2, Sep-
tember 27, 1843; Illinois State Register, July 7, September 22, 1843; Ford, His-
tory of Illinois, 317.

348 THE FRONTIER STATE

the next June, Smith was arrested at Carlin's direction. Doug-
las in the Warren county court on June 10 decided the writ was
not good. In August Smith and Rockwell, the latter Smith's
alleged tool in his attempt on Governor Boggs, were again
arrested, charged with the attempted murder; but they eluded
arrest; and on the accession of Ford, Smith asked to have
the validity of the writ tested. Justin Butterfield argued
Smith's case before Judge Pope in the United States court and
secured his discharge. Rockwell was finally taken to Missouri,
but no evidence could be found against him sufficient to hold
him, and he was released.13

Nauvoo meanwhile was growing rapidly. How prosperous
the enterprise was so far as the rank and file are concerned
cannot be known certainly. Taking the accounts of the Mor-
mons themselves, and even of some travelers, one gets the
impression that the city was marked by a prosperity in which
all citizens alike shared. They commented on the industry
of the inhabitants, the fine brick houses rising in considerable
numbers, the stately public structures such as the Nauvoo
House and the Temple. Yet as one studies the newspapers of
the town, it is hard to find any evidences of business activity.
There are few or no advertisements of commission houses,
few advertisements of stores. On one or two occasions delib-
erate attempts were made to keep money at home and to preach
abstinence from purchasing goods made outside the town.
That was hardly the policy which a town aspiring to be the
commercial metropolis of any important district would pursue;
and the town of Nauvoo with a population twice as numerous
as that of either Chicago or Alton had an agricultural hinter-
land depending on it less important than that of either of its
rivals. From the point of view of the economist one wonders
how such a population without extensive manufacturing could
sustain itself.

Indications are not lacking that the leaders of the Saints

18 Smith, History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 524-
525; Nauvoo Neighbor, January 10, 1844.

THE MORMON WAR 349

realized this difficulty and that they made repeated efforts to
attract capital which might furnish employment to the floods
of mechanics who, bringing little more than their strength and
their skill, flocked in as a result of the preaching of the faith
in the Old World and in the eastern cities of the United States.
Skilled labor for varieties of industries was ready at hand; and
Joseph Smith and his successors issued appeal after appeal to
Latter Day Saints living elsewhere who possessed a few thou-
sand dollars to come to Nauvoo and invest it in manufacturing
that would supply an economic basis for the vast political and
theocratic structure that Smith aspired to build up in Illinois.
Repeated warnings against the immediate immigration of per-
sons without capital had to be issued. One or two communi-
cations to the Mormon papers rebuking English immigrants
for grumbling indicated that some of the newcomers did not
find Nauvoo a land flowing with milk and honey and that they
were inclined to denounce as oppressors the little group of
well-to-do men in the community whose capital was so precious
to Smith.

There was more than one possible solution to the problem.
In spite of the fact that much of the work on the Temple and
the other public structures was done by men donating their
labor one day in every ten, there are indications that the work
was used to feed and clothe the men employed on it. Farmers
of the Mormon faith around Nauvoo were urged in payment
of tithes to bring produce for the support of the men laboring
on the Temple; and the sisters were urged to prepare articles
of clothing for the persons engaged on it. On several occa-
sions payment of the tithes was demanded in produce, money,
or building material; and guns and old watches were pro-
nounced unacceptable. Possibly in this way materials and sub-
sistence for the workers on the Temple were obtained, and a
certain amount of unemployment taken care of.

A precocious trade organization in the city that grew up
may have been one result of this. The shoemakers planned
at one time to have a common shop supplied by their work;

350 THE FRONTIER STATE

associations of carriage builders announced themselves ready
to receive orders; at one time a trades council was held to
consider the building of a factory on a mutual stock subscrip-
tion. But many of the Mormon men who emigrated to the
city of promise scattered to the nearby towns and to gentile
farms to find work, while Mormon girls proved a blessing to
overworked housewives of the Military Tract or in some
instances met an evil fate in the little river towns. To this
necessary scattering of their coreligionists some Mormons
were inclined to lay the fact that the church was not strong
enough to withstand the assaults of its foes. Had certain
well-to-do men in the east, it was said, come to Nauvoo with
their money as they had been adjured to do, there would have
been sufficient numbers of the people in the town and the county
to have defied all enemies and to have controlled the state
politically.

It was not surprising that aside from any partisan motives
for wishing ill to the Mormons the fact that this predominance
in the state was the ideal of the Saints was enough to stir up
against them a local opposition that deepened and became more
bitter till the final expulsion of the Mormons. In part this
antagonism may be ascribed to the jealousy of Warsaw at the
development of its rival up the river; but the causes of it were
more deep rooted; and by 1843 hostility to the Mormons in
the state was open enough to have become a serious issue. On
August 19, 1843, an anti-Mormon meeting held at Carthage
adopted resolutions condemning in vigorous language the
regime at Nauvoo, and denouncing the violence, the defiance
of law, and the thievery that flourished there and pledged the
convention to offer resistance. Furthermore, Missouri was
assured that if another warrant was issued against Smith the
people of Carthage would do all in their power to see it
executed.14

Events moved rapidly. For some reason, instead of throw-
ing his support to one presidential candidate or the other in

14 Alton Telegraph, September 23, 1843;

THE MORMON WAR 351

1844, Smith decided to announce himself as a candidate. What
he can possibly have hoped to gain from his candidacy is hard
to see, unless it was to demonstrate that he held the balance
of power in the nation as he already held it in the state. At
all events he began newspaper agitation in support of his aspi-
rations and sent out Mormon emissaries to electioneer for him.

Meanwhile another secession from the church was immi-
nent. On June 7, 1844, there appeared at Nauvoo the first
number of the Expositor, a paper supported by a group of
men of whom the most prominent were William and Wilson
Law, F. M. and C. L. Higbee, and Robert D. and Charles
A. Foster. The Laws and Robert Foster had been cut off from
the church in the preceding April.15 The Nauvoo Neighbor
promptly found a string of accusations to bring against the
various members of the group; but in view of the fact that the
Laws were well-to-do members of the community, the defec-
tion was, to say the least, a serious one.16 The Expositor in
the single number that was permitted to issue went straight to
the mark. It accused the Smiths of embezzling church funds,
of enticing immigrants too hastily in order to sell them prop-
erty at exorbitant prices and of then leaving others to provide
them with work to support themselves. It denounced the activ-
ity of the church in politics and the high-handed procedures in
freeing by writs of habeas corpus, issuing from the municipal
court, persons arrested by the United States marshal. More
damaging still, it again accused the Smiths of the deliberate
seduction of women and the secret practice of plural marriage.
The authorities at Nauvoo to meet the attack had no other
recourse than a council order to suppress the paper as a nui-
sance, and accordingly the press was totally destroyed.

The crisis was at hand. The anti-Mormons gathered at
Warsaw and passed resolutions for the extermination of the
Mormon leaders. They resolved that if the governor would
not order out the militia to secure the execution of a warrant

ir> Times and Seasons, April 15, 1843.
16 Nauvoo Neighbor, June 26, 1844.

352 THE FRONTIER STATE

they would rely on the rallying of the posse comitatus with
assistance from other counties and from Missouri and Iowa.
Throughout the county and in neighboring districts in Illinois,
Iowa, and Missouri, men were gathering under arms. A bolder
man than Joseph Smith might have lost his nerve in the emer-
gency. For a time he appears to have thought of fleeing to
the wilderness. From this resolution he was dissuaded; and
with Hyrum, he surrendered to arrest at Carthage, June 24,
on a charge of rioting. Next day a warrant charging them
with treason was prepared and served.17 Leaving the Smiths
in the jail at Carthage, Governor Ford, who had arrived on
the scene with state troops and taken command of the militia
that had mustered, disbanded all the forces brt three com-
panies and, leaving two at Carthage, marched with the third
to Nauvoo to urge a surrender of the state arms still there.
Meanwhile, on June 27, the Smiths were set upon and mur-
dered in the Carthage jail.18 Ford, who returned from Nau-
voo before the news of the murder reached that place, inclined
to believe that it was a plot to procure his own assassination
there, as a preliminary to a state war on the Mormons. Feel-
ing he could trust neither Mormon nor anti-Mormon, he
returned to Quincy to watch the excitement gradually quiet
itself.

So perished Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, at the
hands of a mob, which was too panic-stricken at the Mormons'
theocratic schemes to show mercy or allow fair fight. By this
shedding of blood the anti-Mormons probably believed the
freedom of Illinois and the dissolution of the dangerous power
had been purchased. The Alton Telegraph commenting two
years before on a keen analysis of Mormonism by that insa-
tiable student of ideas, Jonathan Baldwin Turner, had pro-
nounced the opinion that Smith's empire would not long survive
him. But from among all the hands stretched out to grasp
at a fraction of the sway enjoyed by Smith one man seized

17 Times and Seasons, August i, 1845; Nauvoo Neighbor, June 26, 1844.

18 Times and Seasons, July i, 1844.

THE MORMON WAR 353

the reins more firmly than Smith himself had ever held them,
proving that while he lacked the qualities of imagination and
boldness needed to found a new religion, he had the strength
of will and ruthlessness of purpose to dominate it for his own
uses.

At the time of his death Smith governed the church as a
member of the first presidency, of which Hyrum and Sidney
Rigdon were the other members. Rigdon at once hastened
from Pittsburg to Nauvoo to endeavor to assert his constitu-
tional right as surviving member of the first presidency to lead
the church. But he was not the man to obtain power that Brig-
ham Young had marked out for himself. Violent in speech,
irresolute in action, continually grasping at an authority denied
him by the stronger willed men who surrounded him, he stood
helpless, while Young, controlling the people like a second
Joseph, carried through a complete usurpation in the name of
another part of the hierarchy — that of the "Twelve."

Secession movements from all sides had first to be checked.
James J. Strang professed to have received from Smith a reve-
lation June 1 8, commanding him to establish a "stake" at
Voree ; and he was promptly cut off from the church, a number
of followers going with him. According to other accounts
William Law attempted to establish a Mormon settlement at
Rock Island.19 The return of the "Twelve" and the personal
influence of Young finally brought unity out of confusion.

On August 8 a meeting of the church was held. Young
put the question to the people whether they wished a guardian,
a prophet, a spokesman; but no one answered. Young then
defined the position of the " Twelve," claiming for them the
power to regulate the church. Amasa Lyman and Sidney
Rigdon, he admitted, had been councilors in the first presidency,
but if either wished to act as spokesman for Joseph, he must
go behind the veil where Joseph was. Doubtless the double
entendre was not lost on the men to whom it was addressed.

19 Chicago Democrat, September 18, 1844; Times and Seasons, September
2, 1844.

354 THE FRONTIER STATE

Rigdon refused to have his name voted for as spokesman or
guardian, and all voted to sustain the "Twelve." Notice of
this decision was duly published with the remark that " the
elders abroad will best exhibit their wisdom to all men by
remaining silent on those things they are ignorant of." The
presence of a firm hand had been apparent in the proclamation
already issued by Young to the effect that the branches abroad
must be tithed as soon as organized. A day of closer organ-
ization of the church was at hand.20

Rigdon could not refrain from one more snatch at the
power passing from his grasp. It was said that Joseph Smith
before his death had received a revelation designating Rigdon
as a prophet, seer, and revelator. On the night of the second
of September, according to his enemies, claiming to have the
"keys" above the "Twelve," he ordained certain men to be
prophets, priests, and kings. His enemies heard of his pro-
ceeding almost at once and acted promptly. First they appar-
ently bullied him into surrender with threats of physical vio-
lence and on September 8 called a meeting to try him. Young
adjured those who were for Joseph and Hyrum Smith, the
Book of Mormon, the Temple, and the " Twelve " to stand
forth ; those who were for Rigdon or Lyman Wight or James
Emmett might also stand forth, for they were known. William
Marks bravely defended the right of Rigdon as a member of
the first presidency to receive the oracles from Smith and to
give them to the church. Rigdon was overwhelmed by his
enemies with ridicule and invective, however, and he and his
followers were cast out.21

Further opposition had to be met from the Smith family.
For the time Young quieted Mother Smith's insistence on the
rights of the young son of the prophet by promises that in due
time his rights would be recognized, but that for the present
she must remember that by pushing his claim she would expose
him to danger. William Smith, the younger brother of the

20 Times and Seasons, August 15, September 2, 1844.

21 Alton Telegraph, September 21, 1844.; Times and Seasons, September 15,
1844; Nauvoo Neighbor, October 2, December 15, 1844,

THE MORMON WAR 355

prophet, was persistent in his protest; and, after it became
apparent that he could not be kept quiet, he was ridiculed in the
Mormon papers and finally bullied into keeping silence while
he was at Nauvoo. In the autumn of 1 845 he was cut off from
the church.22 He openly charged that the "Twelve" were
leading the church out into the wilderness to have the absolute
sway of it, that they disregarded the claims of the Smiths and
of the infant Joseph and even treated them with derision; he
laid the spiritual wife doctrine to the charge of Young and
the "Twelve," claiming that they had first taught it at Boston.
A conference in Cincinnati in January of 1846 reiterated Wil-
liam Smith's attacks on the " Twelve," and pronounced in favor
of the right of little Joseph. Thus the schism began among
the Mormons that has continued to our own day.23

Meanwhile the necessity of removal from Illinois was
doubtless becoming increasingly apparent to the leaders of the
party at Nauvoo. The legislature of 1845 had repealed their
charter, leaving them without any government adequate for the
city. In these circumstances for the purpose of keeping stran-
gers in order they had to take up certain uncouth practices of
which the mildest was "whittling out of town."24

The fetish of the "Twelve" was the completion of the
Temple at Nauvoo. Probably this policy was dictated partly
by the fact that according to them, Sidney Rigdon had tried
to draw the people away to Pittsburg and to scatter the church,
prophesying that the Temple would never be completed. To
save their faces the Nauvoo Mormons were compelled to
wait until the Temple was completed so that the people could
receive in it their promised endowments. On May 28, 1845,
the Nauvoo Neighbor announced that the capstone was in
place. In April of 1846 the Temple was dedicated, admission
to the ceremony costing one dollar.

22 Times and Seasons, November i, 1845; Nauvoo Neighbor, June n, 1845;
Warsaw Sianal, October 29, 1845; see also Lee, The Mormon Menace, 207.

23 Warsaw Signal, October 29, 1845 ; broadside in Chicago Historical
Society.

24 Lee, The Mormon Menace, 213.

356 THE FRONTIER STATE

Since early in 1845 the leaders had been considering the
idea of removal to some more remote site where the church
could be governed without exciting the hostility of the gentiles.
The pine region, Wisconsin, Texas, the country west of Mis-
souri, and Oregon were mentioned as possible locations.25 The
delay of departure caused in a year and a half two armed
conflicts between the Mormons and their opponents that have
gone down in the history of the state as the " Mormon Wars."

Early in the spring of 1845 attacks on the Mormons and
on the dangerous political tendency of their settlement at Nau-
voo, controlled in its voting strength by the will of a few men,
began to appear in such papers as the Warsaw Signal. The
anti-Mormons denied apparently with some truth that their
propaganda was a whig device to control the district by driving
out the Mormon allies of the democrats; on the contrary, they
alleged that the movement comprised the old settlers in Han-
cock of both parties. The old charges against the Mormons
of harboring thieves, of counterfeiting, and of general law-
lessness were reiterated.26 But the Nauvoo Neighbor of Janu-
ary 22, 1845, declared that the thievery was that of a gang in
Iowa, unconnected with the Mormons, who carried their
stolen property through Nauvoo.

In the fall of 1845 tne anti-Mormons initiated a regular
campaign designed to drive the Mormons out of the county.
Early in September a mob one or two hundred strong began
burning the houses of Mormons in the country, requiring them
to move their household goods to Nauvoo. Jacob B. Back-
enstos, the sheriff of the county, was a Mormon sympathizer,
or what at the time was called a "jack-Mormon," a man put
in office by Mormon votes. In the spring the feeling against
him in the county had run high because of a speech he was
alleged to have made in the legislature; and the Carthage
Grays had ordered him out of the county, charging among

28 Times and Seasons, September 15, 1844; Hancock Eagle, AprH 24, 1846;
Nauvoo Neighbor, February 15, 26, 1845.

** Warsaw Signal, January 15, May 14, 1845; Alton Telegraph, June
21, 1845.

THE MORMON WAR 357

other things against him that he had engineered the deal to
cast the Mormon vote for Hoge in the congressional election
of 1843; indeed, it was said that Hoge's recent defeat for a
renomination had been due to public dissatisfaction with the
appointment of Backenstos, at his instance, as superintendent
of the lead mines. Whatever his political affiliations were,
there can be no doubt that Backenstos did his duty in the riots
of the fall of 1845, even though the motive from which he did
it may not have been disinterested.27

When apprised of the activity of the rioters, Backenstos
on September 13 attempted to raise a posse at Warsaw for
the purpose of stopping the disorder. Failing to get any assist-
ance from the old settlers, he ordered the Mormons in Nauvoo
to hold themselves in readiness; in a second proclamation of
September 16 he stated that Colonel Levi Williams, the leader
of the rioters, had called out the militia of Hancock, McDon-
ough, and Schuyler counties, and he warned men against obey-
ing the call. On the same day he called out a force of mounted
men to rescue his own family and others from the territory
terrorized by the mob. Proceeding against the mob, he encoun-
tered them at their work of burning houses and put them to rout
with the loss of two of their number killed and others wounded.
The Mormons in their turn fell to plundering, and a state force
under Hardin had to be sent to disperse them.28

Meanwhile meetings held in nearby counties, notably at
Quincy, at Mendon, and an important one held on October
i at Carthage, at which eight or nine counties were represented,
resolved that the only solution was the breaking up of the Mor-
mon settlement in Hancock. The Nauvoo common council
offered to remove in the spring in case the gentiles would assist
them in selling or renting their property and would refrain
from vexatious lawsuits. These terms were accepted by the

2T Illinois State Register, April 24, 1845 ! Sangamo Journal, April i, 17,
1845; Nauvoo Neighbor, April 23, September 24, 1845; Warsaw Signal, Sep-
tember 17, 1845.

28 Nauvoo Neighbor, September 17, 1845; Warsaw Signal, September
17, 1845.

358 THE FRONTIER STATE

anti-Mormons on condition that an armed force should occupy
Nauvoo during the winter to prevent continuance of the alleged
depredations of the Mormons on the property of the old set-
tlers.29 The Mormons at the time were said to be almost
in military control of the county and were accused of driving
away the cattle and harvesting the crops of their opponents.
It was the uncompromising attitude of the people of the neigh-
boring counties that compelled them to give way.30 The next
session of the circuit court found several true bills against
Mormons, but all except one against Backenstos for a murder
connected with the reducing of the county to order were nol-
prossed. On this remaining bill Backenstos was acquitted.31
Meanwhile attempts to serve warrants in Nauvoo as late as
October 25 had been defeated by a show of force on the part of
the Mormons. The Mormon county commissioners, accord-
ing to their opponents, attempted to have the expenses of Back-
enstos' posse charged to the county exchequer.32

The Mormons feared a renewal of disorder when the mili-
tia guard under Major Warren stationed in Nauvoo during the
winter was withdrawn the first of May. In answer to protests
against its withdrawal Ford answered that the force was an
expense to the state and was not large enough to prevent vio-
lence if either side were inclined to use it. The Mormons,
whose progress in removing was not so great as it should have
been at the time, were warned that it was out of the power of
the governor to protect them at Nauvoo, since the people of
the state would not fight for them. Although Ford disclaimed
any responsibility on the part of himself or the state for the
agreement made the preceding fall by which the Mormons had
promised to emigrate, he told them plainly that there was noth-
ing else for them to do. The Mormons asserted that they
were departing as fast as possible and that the only cause of

29 Qulncy Whig, October i, 1845; Sangamo Journal, October 2, 1845;
Nauvoo Neighbor, October 29, 1845.

30 Chicago Democrat, October 4, 6, 1845.

31 Nauvoo Neighbor, October 29, 1845; Illinois State Register, December
19, 1845.

32 Warsaw Signal, October 29, 1845, January 8, 1846.

THE MORMON WAR 359

the uproar against them was the fear on the part of the whigs
that they might cast a few votes. They asserted that at a
meeting they had declared their intention not to vote again in
Illinois. On May 15 the Hancock Eagle, ostensibly a "new
citizen" paper, though Mormon in sympathy, declared that
about fourteen hundred teams had crossed the river and that
about twelve thousand souls had already left the state. Major
Warren, who had received orders the day after his men dis-
banded to muster them in again, assured the anti-Mormons that
the Mormons were leaving as fast as possible and that regula-
tions were in force sufficient to guard against any disorder on
their part.33

Within a few days, however, bands of anti-Mormons were
again at work driving isolated Mormons in the county off their
property. Early in June the anti-Mormons, alleging that the
Mormons to the number of several hundred were planning to
stay at Nauvoo, using it as a base from which to commit depre-
dation on the old settlers, proposed to march a force to Nauvoo
as a demonstration ; to this end they applied for aid to the coun-
ties represented in the Carthage convention. The result,
according to the new settlers in Nauvoo, was a desperate rush
on the part of the few remaining Mormons to get over the
river. The new citizens who were already moving in had held
a public meeting on May 29 to determine the question of
establishing a city government. The anti-Mormons, however,
affected to believe that the Mormon leaders were still domi-
nating the policy of the town. They affirmed that the com-
mittee of new citizens had been put down by Backenstos, who
had raised a force of five hundred men. On June 9 the new
citizens, according to the Hancock Eagle, passed conciliatory
resolutions; but the advance of the hostile army next day led
the opinion to be expressed that the prosperity of the town was
what was really aimed at. By June 13 an anti-Mormon force
of about four hundred was encamped before the town, and

33 Alton Telegraph, May 2, 9, 1846; Hancock Eagle, April 10, 17, May 8,
15, 1846.

360 THE FRONTIER STATE

about three hundred new citizens were mustered to defend it
The anti-Mormons insisted that they be admitted to the town to
force the remaining Mormons to leave, but the new citizens re-
pulsed them, and forced them to retreat. By the middle of July
the Warsaw Signal declared that an open state of war between
Mormon and anti-Mormon forces existed in the county.34

In the summer the trouble broke forth with redoubled
force. The anti-Mormons assembled in arms with the inten-
tion, as the Hancock Eagle professed to believe, of plundering
Nauvoo and the new citizens and of murdering those who had
been forward in the suppression of lawlessness. The Nauvoo
party, whether directed by Mormons or new citizens, late in
August summoned a posse to serve warrants against members
of the opposite party accused of acts of violence. A few days
earlier a similar posse was summoned to serve writs in Na-uvoo.
The anti-Mormons professed to believe that the Mormons
were actually in control in Nauvoo directing the policy of
its newspaper and that with three thousand Mormons in town
and three thousand more within easy reach in Iowa they con-
trolled and terrorized the new citizens, while they sent out
parties to stir up confusion in the county by deeds of vio-
lence.35

The anti-Mormon army once more marched on Nauvoo
to force the withdrawal of the Mormons. They were intoler-
ant in the terms of departure that they insisted on ; they rejected
terms negotiated by James W. Singleton, one of their officers,
who thereupon resigned his command. After several other
attempts at negotiation, in which the anti-Mormons insisted on
unconditional surrender, they undertook to force their way in.
A battle occurred which resolved itself into an artillery engage-
ment without decisive result, from which the anti-Mormons
withdrew to await an additional supply of cannon balls, with

34 Hancock Eagle, May 25, June 5, 19, July 13, 1846; Warsaw Signal, June
14, July 16, extra, 1846; broadside of the New Settlers' committee, June 15, 1846,
in Chicago Historical Society.

38 Belleville Advocate, August 27, 1846; Hancock Eagle, extra, August 21,
1846; broadside of August 29, 1846*. io Chicago Historical Society.

THE MORMON WAR 361

seven men wounded and their supply of ammunition
exhausted.36

Meanwhile the two parties entered into negotiations
through the intervention of a committee of citizens from
Quincy. The anti-Mormons tried to secure the surrender to
civil authority of all who had resisted them, but finally were
content with the withdrawal of the Mormons from the city
and their agreement to surrender their arms to the Quincy
committee, to be returned to them after they had crossed the
river. Five of the Mormons were to be allowed to remain to
dispose of the church property. On marching into Nauvoo on
these terms, Thomas S. Brockman, the commander of the
county forces, at once gave the Mormons five days to leave, re-
quiring the "jack-Mormons," such as Backenstos and William
Pickett, to leave at once. In addition Brockman forced a num-
ber of the new citizens, estimated by the Warsaw Signal,
October 20, as not over thirty families, to leave Nauvoo. Un-
friendly papers such as the State Register asserted that a reign
of terror marked by plunder and violence was proceeding in
Nauvoo.37

The opinion even of democrats in Illinois was turned
against the anti-Mormons on account of their high-handed
proceedings in Nauvoo, whig papers like the Chicago Journal
and democratic papers like the State Register similarly con-
demning them. Ford once more marched with militia into the
county, only to find that anti-Mormon opinion was strongly
against him. The local papers treated with derision the march-
ing and counter-marching of his forces; and the anti-Mormon
women presented him with a petticoat, which his loyal troops
decreed should be carried outside the camp and burned by
three Negroes.38

36 Quincy Whig, September 12, December 2, 1846; Warsaw Signal, extra,
September 14, 1846; circular to the public by James W. Singleton, September,
1846, in Chicago Historical Society.

*"* Warsaw Signal, October 27, 1846; Quincy Herald, October 16, 1846;
Quincy Whig, September 23, 1846.

88 Chicago Journal, September 30, 1846; Quincy Whig, November 4, 1846;
Warsaw Signal, November 14, 1846.

362 THE FRONTIER STATE

From first to last the party rivalries of whigs and democrats
had complicated the problem of the Mormon disorders. Thus
in 1844 despite Ford's denials the whigs insisted that his course
toward the rioters was designed to curry favor with the Mor-
mons and to secure their votes for the democratic candidates.
In reply the democratic papers accused the whigs of trying to
stir up a civil war in the state, although themselves welcoming
the Mormon support.39 In 1845 tne Sangamo Journal affected
to believe that the State Register was attempting to combine
the Mormon vote with that of northern Illinois to outbalance
the south.40 Even in 1846 the democrats were charged with
encouraging the retention of enough Mormon votes in the
county to secure the triumph of the democratic candidates,41
though the democrats denied that the Mormon vote had been
necessary for the triumph of their candidate.

So after having for six years played a leading role in the
life of Illinois, the Mormons disappeared from its history
save as the state in future years had to bear its part in the solu-
tion of the problem of Mormonism in Utah.42 After full
allowance is made for the violence and perhaps the greed of
the opponents of the Mormons in Illinois, it must be admitted
that they saw clearly how terrible an excrescence on the politi-
cal life of the state the Mormon community would be, once it
had attained full growth. Because legal means would not
protect them from the danger they used violence. The ma-
chinery of state government was then, it must be remembered,
but a slight affair; and to enforce the will of public opinion,
the resort to private war, though to be deplored, was inevitable.

39 Sangamo Journal, August 22, 1844; Alton Telegraph, August 24, 1844;
Illinois State Register, October 4, n, November 8, 1844; Chicago Democrat,
August 28, 1844.

40 April 17, July 24, 1845.

41 Sangamo Journal, January i, March 12, 1846.

42 A few members, many of them relatives of Joseph Smith, refused to follow
Young and remained in Illinois where their descendants are still to be found in
Hancock county. Here they continue to worship in the Reorganized Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

XX. THE SLAVERY QUESTION

THE slavery question in Illinois remained in a state of
quiescence for at least a decade after the decision of the
convention struggle. The black laws remained and even in-
creased in severity; the shameful kidnapping of free blacks out
of the state went on in defiance of legislation, aided in some
sections by a proslavery public opinion which was prone to
sooth itself with the excuse of the kidnappers that they recov-
ered runaway slaves for their masters and therefore were
merely vindicators of a just property right. On the other hand
the underground railroad had its obscure beginnings as the
escaping Negroes found sympathy and assistance at an increas-
ing number of doors; there were always communities in the
state where the slave was safe from his hunters. Little interest
in the antislavery movement was publicly evidenced. In 1831
a Presbyterian layman of Bond county — that source of much
propaganda in early Illinois — William M. Stewart by name,
put forth a vigorous protest against the toleration of slavery
by the churches. On January 9, 1831, an antislavery meeting
at Shoal Creek, Bond county, made a vigorous protest against
buying, selling, or holding slaves, declaring that the participa-
tion of its members in these things was a disgrace to the Presby-
terian church. Along with the protest came the establishment
of a local colonization society.1

During the next year or two the colonization movement
attracted more notice, especially as it came to be contrasted
favorably with abolition. The increased activity of the abo-
litionists and the gag rules began to bring the subject of sla-
very under wider discussion. The Sangamo Journal, Alton
Spectator, and Chicago American were all strongly anti-aboli-

1 Illinois Intelligencer, February 19, March 12, 19, May 7, 1831.

363

364 THE FRONTIER STATE

tion in their utterances. The Alton Telegraph, on the other
hand, denounced the gag and interference with the right of
petition in round terms.2 It is rather hard to define the atti-
tude of the Illinois representatives in the national house of
representatives on the subject. They voted for the gag resolu-
tion designed to cut off abolition petitions in 1836; but on
motions and petitions involved in Adams' diplomatic fencing
with his adversaries, the delegation, Zadoc Casey particularly,
occasionally voted with him. In Illinois the general assembly
in the session of 1837 passed some violent anti-abolition resolu-
tions. These passed the senate unanimously; but in the house,
Abraham Lincoln, Andrew McCormick, Gideon Minor, John
H. Murphy, Parven Paullin, and Dan Stone cast their votes in
the negative. Before the end of the session, Abraham Lincoln
and Dan Stone recorded on the Journals of the house their
formal protest against the resolutions. Declaring their belief
that abolition agitation tended to increase rather than diminish
the evils of slavery, they pronounced the peculiar institution
founded on injustice and bad policy; and they based their dis-
sent to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, not
on the lack of power on the part of congress to do away with
slavery there, but on the fact that congress should act only on
the petition of the people of the district. In view of the in-
creasing rage against abolitionism rising in the state and even
more in the country at large, the men who signed this document
took their political futures in their hands.3

In originating abolition propaganda in Illinois even the
bold act of the man destined to be the freer of the slaves takes
for the time second place to that of the martyr of abolitionism,
Elijah Parish Lovejoy. At the time of his death, Lovejoy had
just attained the age of thirty-five. years. He was born in

2 Sangamo Journal, November 3, 1832, May n, September 21, 1833, August
6, 1836; Illinois Advocate, January 19, 1833; Alton Spectator, November 19,
1835, February 19, 1836; Alton Telegraph, February 17, 1836; Chicago American,
September 5, 1835.

8 Congressional Debates, 1834-1835, p. 1141; 1835-1836, p. 2535, 2608,
2660, 2662, 2779, 4051; House Journal, 1837, i session, 311; Senate Journal,
1837, i session, 297.

THE SLAVERY QUESTION 365

Maine, the son of a Presbyterian clergyman. He had gradu-
ated from Waterville College and at the age of twenty-five set
out to seek his fortune in the west, becoming first school teacher
and then newspaper editor in St. Louis. In 1832 he entered the
ministry and in 1833 graduated from Princeton Theological
Seminary and returned to St. Louis to edit a religious paper,
the St. Louis Observer. Lovejoy's fearlessness of speech in
an intolerant community soon led him into a series of difficul-
ties. His paper manfully denounced the mob rule and disorder
that arose in St. Louis. When it struck straight from the
shoulder in denouncing the burning of a Negro by a St. Louis
mob in April, 1836, and expressed its indignation at the opin-
ion of a judge, appropriately named Lawless, to the effect that
what was a crime when committed by one person was not such
when committed by a mob, the printing office was repeatedly
attacked and damaged. Lovejoy then moved his press to
Alton where the presence of a group of New England business
men, favorably known for piety and charity, seemed to offer it
a better field. It was destroyed presumably by a St. Louis mob
immediately after it was landed, but indignation in Alton found
expression in a public meeting which promised funds for a new
press. The meeting denounced abolition in vigorous terms;
and Lovejoy, while declaring his antislavery principles and his
determination to publish what he pleased in his paper, declared
he was not an abolitionist.

It is doubtful if Henrik Ibsen ever saw the newspaper
materials in which lie hidden the outlines of the story of the
tragedy staged at Alton, but the tragedy of Lovejoy is the
tragedy of Brand in real life almost to the letter. Lovejoy
mentally and spiritually was a Puritan of the Puritans. His
paper in every issue reveals the sharp, unflinching New Eng-
land view of life. There are no sentimental and emotional
tales or religious appeals; Lovejoy was content with preaching
obedience to the law of God rather than ravishing his hearers
with the divine love. His temperance preaching was not the
usual sentimental appeal for the drunkard's wife and children

366 THE FRONTIER STATE

but hard common sense or biting contempt. There was much
politics, much practical agriculture, clipped into the paper. In
fact it might have been framed for entrance to a balanced,
regulated, disciplined New England home.

Lovejoy's denunciations of vice were sharp and hard.
He referred to a French dancer, then the rage in New York,
as " Celeste, the obscene and lascivious danceress (danseuse she
calls herself)." "This," he continued, "is no longer the
country of the Pilgrims. Parisian courtesans are paid $26,000
per quarter for the indecent exposure of their persons in pub-
lic." 4 The popularity of the dancer he believed but one more
instance of the luxury and licentiousness, the apologizing for
slavery, the sabbath breaking that had accompanied the specu-
lative rage and money madness of the last few years. This
attitude inevitably irritated the free and easy westerner, and to
this irritation the character of the well-to-do New England
merchants prominent among Lovejoy's supporters must have
added. "Although," said the proceedings of an anti-abolition
meeting of July, "the combination of wealth, interest, and
moral power were assiduously brought to bear upon the com-
munity in order to deter them from such a course — yet like
men born to live and die untrammeled by party, — by mercenary
motives, they met as freemen."5 Further, John Mason Peck,
who was already editing the Western Pioneer at Alton, had for
some time looked on Lovejoy and his methods with ill-con-
cealed dislike.6 Peck could not indorse Lovejoy's statement
that the way to stop mobs was to hang a few mobbers; Peck,
while a New Englander, was not a Puritan.

In this situation events were drawing Lovejoy's attention
irresistibly to the subject of slavery. He believed that the old
and new school split in the Presbyterian church was caused by
slavery, and during the first half of the year 1 837 he was draw-
ing nearer and nearer to abolition. On June 8, he urged the

* Alton Observer, May 25, 1837.

5 Alton Telegraph, July 19, 1837.

6 Western Pioneer, July 29, 1836, March 29, October 27, 1837.

THE SLAVERY QUESTION 367

formation of an antislavery church in St. Louis; and, on July
6, he called for the organization of a state antislavery society.
The charge began to spread that Lovejoy had violated a sup-
posed pledge not to publish an antislavery newspaper. He was
threatened with violence, and on the night of August 21 his
press was destroyed. The Telegraph (August 23) termed the
act an outrage. A second press was obtained and destroyed
on September 21. Still a third press was ordered, and mean-
while Lovejoy was subjected to continual threat of mob vio-
lence. At St. Charles, Missouri, only the bravery of his wife
saved him from a mob.7

In the hope of finding some way to restore order and peace
at Alton public meetings were held in the first days of Novem-
ber. Lovejoy stood out for his right to be heard. He deliv-
ered an eloquent and impressive but uncompromising defense
of his course. It might have had its effect had not Usher F.
Linder's insane desire to exhibit oratory of a type more pleas-
ing to western audiences caused him to take the floor after
Lovejoy and destroy the effect of the latter's words. The Pio-
neer hoped that the meeting of the colonization society, the
invariable counter-irritant to abolition, might set things on the
right path even though " a very few restless spirits will be disap-
pointed, vexed, mortified, and may struggle for a little time to
enjoy notoriety" only to find that "the benevolent and real
friends to humanity will co-operate to benefit the oppressed in
a way consistent with the peace of our Union and the happiness
and rights of all concerned." 8

For a time Lovejoy may have hesitated. The story is well
authenticated that he handed to the Telegraph editor a note
resigning as editor of the Observer. A friend of Lovejoy's
asked to borrow it, and it was never returned. Lovejoy had
finally resolved, if indeed he had ever faltered, to force the
issue then and there. A third press was landed at Alton and

''Alton Observer, June and July, December 28, 1837; Western Pioneer,
July 29, 1836; Alton Telegraph, September 27, October 4, 1837; Harris, History
of Negro Slavery in Illinois, 80 ff . ; Illinois State Register, October 6, 1837.

8 Western Pioneer, October 27, 1837.

368 THE FRONTIER STATE

stored in the warehouse of Godfrey, Oilman, and Company.
A few men under the command of Enoch Long undertook to
guard it there. On the night of November 7 a mob attacked
the warehouse. In the first assault one of the attackers was
mortally wounded. In a second, they attempted to fire the
wooden roof of the warehouse. Lovejoy and a few more
sallied out to prevent it. A first volley drove the attackers
away from their ladder. A second sortie was made for the
same purpose, and Lovejoy fell mortally wounded. The be-
sieged gave up the fight and fled; the mob broke into the ware-
house and threw the press into the river.

The murder of Lovejoy was a thing not done in a corner;
it trumpeted the ill-fame of Alton to the ends of the United
States and placed on the name of the city that aspired for com-
mercial prominence a brand that has scarcely been removed
even up to the present time. Probably to most of the people
of the United States the word which associates itself intuitively
with the name of Alton is Lovejoy. The papers of the north,
and many in the south, some nearby like the Peoria Register
spoke out manfully in condemnation of this assault on the free-
dom of the press and of speech even while they condemned
abolition. In later days the abolitionists took pleasure in be-
lieving that the curse of God had fallen upon the city.9

Alton was not convinced. The defenders of the warehouse
were indicted for "resisting an attack made by certain persons
unknown to destroy a printing press" and "unlawfully defend-
ing a certain ware-house." In spite of the fact that Linder
prosecuted, the defenders were acquitted, as were the assail-
ants. The Telegraph was thoroughly cowed and protested it
was best to say nothing which would stir up further ill-feeling.
Peck's Pioneer at the time expressed its opinion that denuncia-
tion would do no good.10 Six months after the Lovejoy affair

9 Peoria Register, November 18, 1837; Illinois State Register, November
24, 1837; Western Citizen, May 18, 1843, April 20, 1847; Alton Telegraph, June
28, 1845.

10 Western Pioneer, May n, 1838; Alton Telegraph, November 15, 29, 1837,
June 24, 1838.

THE SLAVERY QUESTION 369

was over, it undertook to justify its course in allaying excite-
ment among an exasperated people. "But they (the editors
of the Pioneer) believed in gospel expediency. They had not
discarded the old fashioned virtue of prudence, and a due
regard to consequences. And they have not the least occa-
sion to regret their course. . . . An entire revolution has
been produced. Moral influence, religion, temperance,
order, respect for law, a better understanding of each other's
rights, have all been gainers. A revival of religion in most
of the congregations in that city, and the conversion of more
than one hundred souls — the progress of the temperance
cause, — of sound morality — of quiet and good order,
of a spirit of kind feeling amongst all parties are the
proofs."11

Doubtless long and tedious wars with " two seed Baptists "
and similar opponents had blunted the edge of Peck's New
England conscience to accord with the dictates of expediency
and prudence that he so blandly preached over the corpse of the
man he had disliked in life. Because Peck had learned the
lesson of prudence he had twenty years more of a peaceful and
useful career to round out. Because the high temper of Love-
joy's Puritanism would not let him repress an iota of what
he conceived it his duty to say, because he would not spare a
word or swerve an inch from his path, he died at thirty-five
leaving a nerve-wrecked and destitute wife. Yet his career
and death had not, as Peck easily supposed, merely caused
an awakened revival of formal religion. The shadow of
the Puritan had fallen across the page of Illinois history, not
to recede.

For Illinois Lovejoy was the protomartyr of a movement
already under way — the organization of the antislavery forces
in Illinois. On July 4, 1836, an antislavery society in Putnam
county held its second semiannual meeting. Early in 1837 an
antislavery society was organized in Will county, and one was
meeting in Bureau county, one in Jersey and one in Adams

11 Western Pioneer, June i, 1838.

370 THE FRONTIER STATE

(formed in 1836) , and one in Macoupin. On July 6, Lovejoy
had issued a call for the formation of a state antislavery
society. Delegates met at Alton, October 27, but Linder with
others got possession of the meeting and passed anti-abolition
resolutions. Next evening, however, the antislavery men or-
ganized by themselves.12 There was the usual attempt in vari-
ous parts of the state to apply the counter-irritant of coloniza-
tion to these ebullitions of abolitionism.

Though Lovejoy was gone there were men left to take up
his work. On April 2, 1838, a meeting at Princeton resolved
that an antislavery newspaper should again be established at
Alton, but in September a meeting at Hennepin resolved to
support Benjamin Lundy, who had grown old in the editing of
abolition papers, with the Genius of Universal Emancipation
at Hennepin, Illinois. The paper first appeared late in 1838,
being actually printed at Lowell nearby, though dated at Hen-
nepin. The issue of February 26 recorded the meeting of the
Illinois antislavery society, and through its columns there be-
gan to pass the resolutions of the county societies denouncing
slavery as contrary to the law of God and to natural right.
Lundy showed a fine reasonableness, as for instance when he
refused to attack an old antislavery warrior like John Quincy
Adams because he was not an abolitionist. He was inclined to
disapprove the uncompromising attitude of Garrison as tend-
ing to divide supporters of the cause by his vagaries. But
Lundy's long warfare was at an end. On July 19, 1839, he
apologized for missing a week's issue; a small wheat harvest
had required the editor's care. If, he wrote gallantly, some
country editors would farm a little they might write more inde-
pendently. Next week he had to apologize for a lack of edi-
torial matter because of a light fever which had yielded to treat-
ment. On August 23, a paper with head line dated the six-
teenth announced that he had died of a bilious fever on Au-

12 Chicago American, August 6, 1836, April i, 1837; Harris, History of
Negro Slavery in Illinois, 82, 87, 125; Alton Observer, June 15, July 13, August
3, 17, 1837; Alton Telegraph, November i, 1837; Illinois State Register, Sep-
tember 15, October 13, 1837.

THE SLAVERY QUESTION 371

gust 22. 13 The last number of the paper appeared on Septem-
ber 13, 1839.

A new paper, the Lowell Genius of Liberty, was begun
December 19, 1840, by Zebina Eastman, a former associate of
Lundy, and by Hooper Warren. Warren edited it with acid
reminiscences of the old struggle of 1 822-1 824 in which he had
participated. In 1842 the paper, transferred to Chicago under
Eastman's editorship, became the Western Citizen. Its circu-
lation, which soon entitled it to claim patronage as an advertis-
ing medium, was an indication that the movement was gaining
fast.14

Meanwhile the work of agitation and organization in the
state had advanced. In 1838, Reverend Chauncey Cook was
chosen traveling agent of the state society, and he also labored
with effect in enrolling members and forming new societies.
For a time Cook and Reverend W. T. Allen, the traveling
agents, had to support themselves by collections. In southern
Illinois they encountered mobs and refusals of churches in
which to hold meetings. In 1843-1844 they again invaded the
south, but with not dissimilar results.15

The antislavery men in Illinois had launched their cause
in politics; in 1840 they cast one hundred votes for James G.
Birney for president. Next year at a state society meeting, de-
spite opposition from many who opposed political action of
any sort, partly on the ground of the iniquity of acting under
a United States constitution which supported slavery, it was
resolved that no antislavery man should vote for any pro-
slavery candidates. A convention in the third district nomi-
nated Frederick Collins for congress, and he obtained 527
votes. In 1842, at the call of a state correspondence commit-

13 Peoria Register, April 14, October 6, 1838; Harris, History of Negro
Slavery in Illinois, 126 ; Genius of Universal Emancipation, March 8, 29, June
28, July 26, August 25, 1839.

14 Harris, History of Negro Slavery in Illinois, 135; Western Citizen, Sep-
tember 7, 14, 1843, March 21, 1844, August 28, 1845, June 3, 1846.

15 Harris, History of Negro Slavery in Illinois, 129, 131; Genius of Uni-
versal Emancipation, July 5, 1834, January 30, April 24, June 5, 1841 ; Western
Citizen, August 3, November 9, 1843, April 5, June 20, July 23, 1844.

372 THE FRONTIER STATE

tee, a liberty convention was held at Chicago which nominated
a candidate for governor and urged in its resolutions nomina-
tions for all local offices. It defined its position as resistance
to the advance of the slave power rather than unconstitutional
opposition to it. It savagely arraigned the national losses and
misfortunes of the last few years as the work of the southern
slavocracy, and for the state it demanded the repeal of the
black laws. In 1844, the party put a presidential electoral
ticket in the field which received 3,469 votes. In 1846 it
adopted an elaborate plan of organization, reaching down even
to the school districts for the gubernatorial campaign.16 It
declared alike against the annexation of Texas, the black laws,
and Garrisonism. Its vote for governor ran up to 5,147, and
in the fourth district Owen Lovejoy received 3,531 votes for
congress.

Antislavery in Illinois in the forties was the center of a
whirlpool of new ideas in politics and in life that is the delight
of the student of human belief. When men are thinking in-
tensely on one ideal, others group around it. Thus in 1839 a
peace society at Mission Institute near Quincy adopted resolu-
tions declaring that wars promoted for the glory of rulers were
paid for by their subjects. Women participated on an equality
with men in antislavery societies, despite the sneers of whig
editors; and this participation led to discussion of woman's
rights. The new wine of Garrisonian abolition, however, was
a little too strong to be safely introduced into the bottles of
Illinois antislavery effort; a nonresistance and the alleged in-
fidelity of Garrison were usually eschewed as stumblingblocks
to antislavery men in southern Illinois.17 There were, how-
ever, denunciations of holding communion with churches or
mission boards that tolerated slavery and declarations that

16 Harris, History of Negro Slavery in Illinois, 146, 147, 155; Western
Citizen, July 26, 1842, April 6, 1843, June 3, 10, 1846; Genius of Universal
Emancipation, February 6, 27, May 29, June 19, 1841; Genius of Liberty, Jan-
uary i, 1842.

17 Genius of Universal Emancipation, August 30, 1839; Western Citizen,
November 2, 1843, May 2, June 20, September 7, 1844, September 22, October
13, 1846, February 23, 1847.

THE SLAVERY QUESTION 373

agnostics who were liberty men were better than christians
who were not.

The theoretical antislavery argument is a magnificent thing
to the student of ideas. On the one hand it begins with the
statement that to justify slavery it is necessary to twist and
alter the principles of the American Revolution and of the Dec-
laration of Independence. On the other it built its foundation
on the old Puritan concept, in which seventeenth century Eng-
lishmen had sought their guidance, of the law of God. The
Puritan in Illinois in 1840 walked as genuinely as his English
predecessor had done two centuries before in the faith that the
law of God remained binding upon rulers and people and that
any enactment or practice contrary to it was null and void.
This to them was not an abrogation of human law but rather
its fulfillment, for only where the divine law ruled could there
be perfect liberty. To the antislavery men the law of nature
and the common law of the land were alike in accord with
the law of God in opposition to slavery. How could a slave
father train up his child in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord as the divine law bade him ? Owen Lovejoy went back to
Coke to find the law of nature in opposition to slavery.18 And
when James Wallace of Hill Prairie, Randolph county, sat
down to write against slavery under the haughty caption of the
old Puritan challenge: "The supremacy of God and the
equality of man," Puritans reached over two centuries to guide
his pen, so that one might almost swear his discourses were
plagiarized from forgotten pamphlets written in the seven-
teenth century by such champions of freedom as Lilburne and
Overton. The leaven of Puritanism remained unchanged.

On the political side, it was inevitable that antislavery
propaganda should deal with economic conditions. The temp-
tation to blame slavery for hard times was too great. Thus in
1 843 Alvan Stewart attributed hard times to the fact that in the
south but one person in five was a laborer, that therefore for

18 Western Citizen, November 20, 1842, March 30, April 20, July 27, Sep-
tember 14, 1843, March 28, 1844, November 3, 1846, February 9, 23, June
22, 1847.

374 THE FRONTIER STATE

sustenance the south had borrowed three hundred millions of
northern labor and then had failed. More significant by far
was the idea advocated by William Goodell, which spread as
far as Illinois, that the true course of the party was to stand for
the right of the white as well as for the colored laborer and to
advocate free trade and direct taxation. The repeal of the
English corn laws seemed destined to let the product of the
free laborer of the north into England as well as that of the
slave laborers of the south. In 1847 Goodell, issuing a call for
a national convention of the free-trade wing of the liberty
party, based it on the highest and best ideals of democracy —
the inalienable rights of men to trade freely and to use the earth
freely — therefore, no tariffs, no laws permitting land monop-
oly, and no laws permitting slavery. An Illinois man, G. T.
Gaston, wrote to the Western Citizen urging similar doctrine,
on the ground that if the liberty party were to be a well-rounded
party, it must have a complete policy.19

One wonders what might have chanced, had the liberty men
in 1847, perhaps on a less radical platform, been able to unite
with what was best in the democratic party and set forth on a
crusade for the liberty of labor of whatever color the laborer
might be. Wentworth for years had preached genuine democ-
racy to the people of northern Illinois, except for the inevitable
concession to the south in the matter of slavery. In 1847 tne
rejection of river and harbor improvement by southern votes
had driven him and many another northern democratic poli-
tician to the point of revolt against slavery. It was one of these
rare moments when the faces of men seemed turned directly
toward the millennium.

It was not to be. The sins of the southern aristocracy
were not yet full. The policy of "one-idealism" — of confin-
ing the party to the antislavery issue — triumphed in the liberty
party. The Western Citizen preached it assiduously, perhaps
from dread of Wentworth's skill in pilfering votes from abo-

19 Western Citizen, April 27, 1843, July 7, September i, 1846, January 19,
May 25, October 12, 1847.

THE SLAVERY QUESTION 375

litionists.20 Wentworth professed himself satisfied with the
nomination of Cass and fell back into his party, though always
a disturbing element in it because of his championship of justice
and common sense. When a great antislavery party arose, it
was to draw its principles except on slavery from the whigs
rather than from the democrats ; and fifty years of wandering in
the wilderness have been necessary to make the American peo-
ple realize as a nation that while rejecting slavery, they ac-
cepted the principles that their forefathers rejected when
offered to them by Clay and Webster.

In the attitude of the Illinois churches on slavery one has a
study of interest, fascinating because of its vagaries and incon-
sistencies. There was for instance the little Reformed Presby-
terian group at Sparta and Eden who on occasion went so far
as to pronounce the dissolution of a union tainted with slavery
as not the worst misfortune that might befall. The church at
Hill Prairie in 1843 sent to congress a strenuous antislavery
petition. In northern Illinois the Presbyterian churches and
synods gave repeated testimony against the sin of slaveholding
and repeated declarations that they would have no fellowship
with slaveholders. On the other hand, the Alton Presbytery
discreetly smothered such a resolution in 1844. A northern
Congregational church occasionally hedged on similar tests, but
generally the churches of this communion were outspoken in
favor of antislavery.21

Methodism hardly gave so many evidences of protest
against the general proslavery attitude of the order as did
Presbyterianism. The antislavery leaders came to expect op-
position from the Methodists. One finds appeals to the Illi-
nois conferences to take a decisive stand against the institution.
In 1844 a " Wesleyan " circuit was formed on Fox river on the
principle of " no fellowship with slavery." There were about

20 July 7, September 8, 15, 1846, January 5, May 18, July 27, 1847.

21 Western Citizen, July 26, 1842, January 25, May 2, July 4, 25, 1844;
Belleville Advocate, October 25, November i, 1845; Presbytery of Ottawa, Min-
utes, May 25, 1843; Synod of Peoria, Minutes, December 7, 1843, December n,
1845; Genius of Liberty, September 18, 1841.

376 THE FRONTIER STATE

eleven churches on it and twenty appointments. There was a
hot antislavery protest from Methodists at Florid as early
as 1839. In 1845, however, in connection with the case of
Bishop Andrews, antislavery pronouncements began to appear
in the ranks of the Methodists proper. Still, next year the
Western Citizen complained that the Rock River conference
had done nothing but denounce abolitionists in its last meet-
ings.22 A year later the Visitor accused it of trying to cover up
attacks on its members for holding and selling slaves.

The Baptists dealt more in accord with their inherent cen-
trifugal qualities. In 1843 the Citizen complained that in
Shurtleff College free speech on slavery was gagged. The
Northwest Baptist Association, it was complained, defeated by
trickery in 1844 a non-fellowship pronouncement. In the same
year an antislavery mass meeting of all the Baptist churches
in Illinois was called to meet at Warrenville. This meeting
called for the establishment of an antislavery newspaper and
accordingly on January 16, 1845, tne Elgin Western Christian
began publication under the direction of the Northwestern
Baptist Antislavery Convention. In its first number it ex*-
plained its appearance by the disappearance of the Northwest
Baptist, as a result, it claimed, of an attempt to remain neutral
on the slavery issue. It attacked in the course of the year the
Quincy and Illinois river associations for not standing up to the
issue. The paper was not abolitionist, but it was outspoken
against slavery, and it maintained a war on the Baptist Helmet
for printing advertisements of Negroes committed to jail. The
Universalists were frankly antislavery, but the Episcopalian
bishop, Philander Chase of Jubilee College, was repeatedly
attacked for hedging.23 With Chase the needs of his dear col-
lege swallowed up all other considerations.

^ 22 Genius of Liberty, March 29, 1839, July 10, November 27, 1841 ; Western
Citizen, July 26, 1842, August 3, 1843, March 21, 1844, February 13, 1845, Sep-
tember 15, 1846; Sangamo Journal, June 5, 1845.

23 Western Citizen, April 27, December 14, 1843, October 31, December
26, 1844, September 15, October 20, 1846; Western Christian, August 14, 22,
1845; Baptist Helmet, July 16, August 13, 1845; in 1844 the Quincy association
voted down an antislavery resolution and Elgin did the same on September
19, 1844.

THE SLAVERY QUESTION 377

In considering the existence of slavery in Illinois, it is neces-
sary to review a line of supreme court decisions which defined
its nominal status, remembering always that, since the slave or
Negro was less capable than his owner of defending his alleged
rights, the probability is that much illegal servitude existed.
Legally whatever servitude there was had to be based on the
territorial act of September 17, 1807, as adopted by the Illinois
legislature on December 13, 1812. This act allowed the bring-
ing into Illinois of Negroes above fifteen years of age owing
service or labor and the indenturing them for terms of years;
Negroes so brought in under the age of fifteen could be held,
the males till thirty-five years old and the females till thirty-
two. Children born of them were to serve, the males until the
age of thirty and the females until the age of twenty-eight.
Further the act provided for the registration of Negroes
brought into the territory, who might lawfully be held till
thirty-five or thirty-two years old. Between these two classes
of registered and indentured Negroes, as will be seen, the
courts were later to distinguish. The state constitution pro-
hibited the further introduction of slavery except for the in-
denturing of persons of age while at perfect freedom. It re-
quired, however, that all persons indentured without fraud or
collusion should serve out the terms of their indentures and
that registered Negroes should serve out their appointed times ;
and it provided that children born of them thereafter should
become free, males at twenty-one, females at eighteen.

In the twenties the state supreme court decided that inden-
tures to be valid must correspond with the form prescribed by
the act of 1807 and that registered Negroes might be sold like
other property.24 But in Phoebe v. Jay in the December term
of 1828, Justice Lockwood undertook an analysis of the whole
legal support of existing slavery in Illinois. He pronounced
the act of 1807 in contravention of the Ordinance of 1787 and
therefore per se void. Whatever validity it had arose from

24 Cornelius v. Cohen, I Illinois (Breese), 131; see also Choisser <v. Har-
grave, 2 Illinois (l Scammon), 317 (318) ; Nance v. Howard, / Illinois (Breese),
242 ; Phoebe <v. Jay, i Illinois (Breese), 268.

378 THE FRONTIER STATE

the constitutional confirmation of indentures and property
rights arising from it. Indeed he pronounced that nothing less
than the voice of the people in their sovereign capacity could
have rendered such contracts of effect. A legislative reenforce-
ment would have been of no avail. The Ordinance of 1787,
he believed, had been so far abrogated by the implied assent
of the people of the state and of congress in framing the con-
stitution and in accepting it.

In 1836 the legal basis for existing slavery was sharply re-
duced by the decision in Boon v. Juliet. Speaking for the court,
Judge T. W. Smith pronounced it illegal to hold to service the
child of a servant registered under the act of 1 807. He argued
that the constitutional allowance of service from children of
registered Negroes was based on a misapprehension of the in-
tent of the act of 1807 and as designed to limit that act could
not be interpreted to confer a right not granted by it. It had
in no way affected the rights of the children of registered
Negroes ; and, anything in the constitution to the contrary there-
fore, they remained free. In 1840 and 1841 the court empha-
sized the fact that the freedom of a Negro must be assumed
unless proof of his being legally held to servitude by indenture
or otherwise was forthcoming.25

In 1843 Andrew Borders, a slaveholder of Randolph
county, was involved in a suit designed to test once more the
validity of the act of 1807 as it concerned indentured servants.
For the slave, Trumbull and Koerner argued that the Ordi-
nance of 1787 was still binding in every respect and would be
until every state of the original thirteen consented to abrogate
it,26 and that as the territorial indenture laws were nullities no
constitutional provision could be construed to give them effect.
Judge Scates, however, went back to the old reasoning in his
decision. The old law remained,27 though in the case of Jarrot

25 Kinney <v. Cook, 4. Illinois (3 Scammon), 232; Bailey v. Cromwell et al.,
4 Illinois (3 Scammon), 71.

26 Borders v. Borders, 5 Illinois (4. Scammon), 341.

27 Jarrot v. Jarrot, 7 Illinois (2 Gilman), i. I can not see that this nec-
essarily ended holding by indenture as is usually supposed.

THE SLAVERY QUESTION 379

v. Jarrot, the court decided that in view of the prohibition of
1787, slavery could not exist in the state even in the case of a
Negro descended from the slave of a French habitant of the
days before George Rogers Clark. To the end the best legal
opinion of the state laid upon the state's own constituent assem-
bly and the state's own conscience the sole responsibility for
the continuance of slavery in its borders.

Several decisions were needed to define exactly the right of
masters to bring their slaves into or through the state and as to
the rights of free Negroes within it. In 1842 Judge Treat in
the circuit court of Sangamon county had decided the law of
1829 allowing the taking up and selling of the blacks without
freedom papers to be unconstitutional. In 1 843 John D. Caton
in a decision in the circuit court of Bureau county laid down
the principle that a slave voluntarily brought to the state was
thereby freed.28 That same year, however, in Willard v.
People, Scates laid down the principle that the slave of a mas-
ter passing through the state was not therefore freed.

Fine legal distinctions and principles apart, slavery and
antislavery men in Illinois contended as light and darkness.
Kidnapping on a wholesale scale went on in the south; at Shaw-
neetown an attempt was made to sell south sixty free blacks on
the pretext of flaws in their papers of manumission. On the
other side there was as much assiduity and as much provoking
defiance in the attitude of those who sought to help runaways to
escape. In 1844, Gross was in jail for seeking to help run-
aways to escape. The year before Owen Lovejoy was indicted
in Bureau county for helping two Negro women — the occasion
of Caton's decision. In 1843 too> Dr. Richard Eells of
Quincy was, in the circuit court under Stephen A. Douglas,
fined $400 for aiding a fugitive slave, a decision later sustained
by Judge Shields of the Illinois supreme court. On the
strength of the notoriety gained in this case Eells was elected
president of the Illinois Antislavery Society in 1843 ar|d
nominated as the liberty party candidate for governor in 1846.

28 Harris, History of Negro Slavery in Illinois, 109, 112.

38o THE FRONTIER STATE

Chicago was a dramatic center of activity. In 1 846 a mob of
some two thousand assisted in spiriting away two fugitive
slaves under the very nose of a justice of the peace. At Chi-
cago and in Kendall county, Negroes put up to sale were
hired out for twenty-five cents and similar sums. Slaveholders
were served notice by the Western Citizen that if their slaves
ever reached northern Illinois their chance of recovering them
was slim, and a Kane county convention in the same year re-
solved that Kane county was as safe for runaways as Canada.
In its issue of July 13, 1844, the Western Citizen printed a car-
toon of the underground railway that is perhaps Illinois' first
political newspaper cartoon. Missouri slave hunters on the
other hand threatened and perhaps did commit arson in revenge
and offered rewards for the delivery across the river of promi-
nent officials of the underground railway. In the Illinois legis-
lature petitions began to appear against the black code, with
whig as well as abolitionist support; and on the other side
measures were passed penalizing the assisting of fugitive
slaves.29

The slavery conflict too had its reflection more and more
in national politics within the state. The Chicago American
was disposed to praise John Quincy Adams' stand on the right
of petition. In 1 842—1 843 all the Illinois representatives voted
against abolition petitions. In 1843-1844 all the representa-
tives but Hardin voted for the gag resolutions; but the next
year the abolition vote had perhaps caused Wentworth to see
the light, and he had voted with Hardin against the gag. In
the election of 1844 the whigs had been inclined to play for
abolition votes, and such papers as the Citizen endeavored to
head them off by attacks on Clay. After the election they
attempted to lay on the shoulders of the abolitionists the blame
for the admission of Texas to the union by the proslavery

29 Sangamo Journal, December 5, 1844, January 16, April 3, 1845; Western
Citizen, November 18, 1842, January 13, March 23, 30, November 2, 1843, Jan-
uary ii, July 18, August 3, December n, 1844, February 20, March 6, 1845,
June 23, October 27, November 5, 17, 1846; Chicago American, April 25, 1842;
Illinois State Register, January 24, 1845; Belleville Advocate, May 6, 1845;
Chicago Daily Journal, January 9, 28, March 12, 1845.

THE SLAVERY QUESTION 381

democrats of the south. They affected to believe that at Chi-
cago the Democrat and the Citizen were trying to break up
the whig party and to divide it on the issues of abolitionism
and nativism.30 And they entreated the southern whigs not
to be misled by such attempts.

It was the democratic party, however, that was destined
to be broken by the slavery issue. Wentworth, in his opposi-
tion to the southern leaders of his party on rivers and harbors
and the tea and coffee tax, moved toward antislavery in poli-
tics so far as the Wilmot proviso. This action the Western
Citizen ascribed to the influence of Lewis Cass. Wentworth
nevertheless was the only Illinois member who supported the
Wilmot proviso in 1846, Douglas, Ficklin, Hoge, and McCler-
nand voting to lay it on the table and Baker and Smith not
voting. The whig papers in Illinois, while continuing to berate
the abolitionists severely, especially for opposing the Mexican
War, were inclined to be antislavery in their attitude. In the
next session Wentworth's opposition to the south and to south-
ern measures was as strongly marked as ever, but Hoge was
the only other Illinois member he could draw with him on the
vote for the proviso. In the coming election Wentworth
affected to believe that it would be a northern democrat against
a slaveholder such as Taylor; and he naturally denounced as
mere pretense the whig antislavery attitude, in view of their
prospective candidate. He was disposed to have the demo-
crats stand against slavery and for free trade on necessities
not provided by American labor.31

A little more than two decades since the decision of the
state on the exclusion of slavery had seen the question develop

30 Chicago American, March 16, 1842, December n, 1844, March 31, 1845;
Congressional Globe, 27 congress, 3 session, 31, 106, 28 congress, i session,
56, 133, 28 congress, 2 session, 7. Western Citizen, December 21, 1843, March
28, May 23, June 27, July 18, 1844; Illinois State Register, April 26, 1844; Chicago
Democrat, April 28, 1844; Chicago Dally Journal, March n, 15, 21, 184$;
Alton Telegraph, March 22, 1845.

31 Chicago Democrat, February 2, 23, March 2, June 30, 1846, February 9,
March 2, 30, April 27, May u, 25, 1847; Western Citizen, July 28, 1846; Con-
gressional Globe, 29 congress, i session 1217, 29 congress, 2 session, 425;
Chicago Dally Journal, March 17, June 13, August 26, 1846; Sangamo Journal,
September 17, 1846.

382 THE FRONTIER STATE

in unexpected ways. A process of legal limitation on the tol-
eration of slavery and indenture was to have been expected.
But otherwise as against the lawless kidnapping of free blacks
always prevalent, there had arisen on the antislavery side an
elastic organization for the assistance of runaway slaves.
Garrisonian abolitionism arose in the east and spread to Illi-
nois, quickening the minds of intelligent men whether they
approved or disapproved. Antislavery sentiment waxed till
once more it could support newspapers and muster respectable
votes for its candidates. Thirty years after the admission of
Illinois to the union, the United States was once more riven
on the question of slavery; and the two great political parties
that had meanwhile developed on other issues were, as against
the abolition and liberty parties, seeking their advantage in it.

XXI. ILLINOIS IN FERMENT

THE closing years of the period under review witnessed
the eager efforts of Illinois to find itself economically.
From 1830 to 1840 the population had grown from 157,000
to 476,000; and still growing, the state was trying to give
expression to the pent-up energy within it. Experiments
flourished; the inhabitants of Illinois, conscious of hidden
riches, sought by means of a diversity of crops, a multiplica-
tion of towns, and sectional divisions to discover the key
which would unlock the treasure and open the way to high
reward.

Farmers began to grope somewhat uncertainly for better
methods in securing the bounty of the rich prairie soil. In
the late thirties and early forties the dwellers in the Illinois
river counties led in the formation of county agricultural soci-
eties for the discussion of farm problems. In 1841 the Union
Agricultural Society began publishing the Union Agriculturist
and Western Prairie Farmer, which two years later became
the Prairie Farmer, a newspaper that in time both directed and
reflected the agricultural activities of the state.1 Experiment
followed experiment; flax, mustard seed, cotton, and tobacco,
the cultivation of hemp, of the castor bean, and of the mul-
berry tree were in turn get-rich-quick crazes of the day. At
one time a nursery in Peoria had 200,000 mulberries and
100,000 cuttings for sale; with every purchase of trees, silk-
worm eggs were furnished free. In 1841 agricultural societies
were awarding prizes for the best cocoons.2 The great staple
crop still remained wheat; in 1833 the Illinois crop was esti-

1 Scott, Newspapers and Periodicals of Illinois, 53.

2Bateman and Selby, Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, 2:243-244; His-
tory of Winnebago County, 303-304.

383

384 THE FRONTIER STATE

mated at 1,500,000 bushels, and farmers were urged to plant
more of it.3

There could be no great expansion in agricultural activi-
ties, however, without even greater improvements in imple-
ments. Throughout the thirties there was still in use the
most primitive bar-share plows, which made no pretense of
"scouring." In an effort to improve these, moldboards of
cast-iron were first substituted, in turn to give way to those
of polished steel. Necessity was, indeed, the mother of inven-
tion, and every blacksmith with a knack of "tinkering" was
trying his hand at a plow. There was the early " Clark,"
then the " Diamond," the "Tobey and Anderson," the "Gary,"
the "Jewitt," with rivals not so well known in every county,
all warranted to " scour." 4

Efforts to improve or invent farm machinery were not
confined to one form of labor-saving device. Cotton gins,
headers, self-rakes, corn planters were tried out with varying
success. An advertisement in the Illinois Advocate in 1835
declared that a machine had been invented that successfully
performed the five operations of harrowing, opening the fur-
row, dropping and covering the seed corn, and finally, remov-
ing all clods not broken by the harrow. A letter to the Alton
Spectator as early as 1833, while urging the farmers to clean
their wheat better, suggested the use of the threshing machine ;
and this continued to be discussed until in 1846 and 1847 the
reaping machines of Bachus and Fitch of Brochport and of
Cyrus McCormick absorbed interest.5 To the farmer on the
treeless prairies of northern Illinois fencing was a problem —
a very serious one. The earliest substitutes for rails were sod
ditches or embankments; in 1839 thorn hedges began to be
suggested; and by 1847 Jonathan Baldwin Turner had paused
from his other interests to experiment with the possibilities

3 Illinois Advocate, June 22, 1833.

4 Belleville Advocate, March 10, 1842; Hicks, History of Kendall County,
400; Ballance, History of Peoria, 124-125; Rice, Peoria, 1:284.

5 Alton Spectator, April 23, 1833; Alton Telegraph, August 21, 1841, August
9, 1845; Chicago Daily Journal, June 12, July 2, 24, 28, 1846.

Population of Illinois
per Square Mile in
1840

ILLINOIS IN FERMENT 385

of the Osage orange which was to be popular until the advent
of modern wire fencing.6

Throughout this period the handling of livestock in Illi-
nois was, with a few rare exceptions, unscientific, inefficient,
and haphazard. In the northern part of the state there was
the very practical difficulty of housing and feeding during the
severe winters. In 1836 Dr. J. W. S. Mitchell of Champaign
county believed he had demonstrated that his herd of blooded
shorthorn Durhams could be wintered as well as ordinary
stock; a year later, however, he sold out.

Aside from these practical considerations stock improve-
ment met a curious and unintelligent opposition from the
small farmers. Among the influential the necessity of devel-
oping better herds was so clear that "the legislature passed
a law," writes Governor Ford, " for the improvement of the
breed of cattle, by which small bulls were prohibited, under
severe penalties, from running at large. On this last occasion
no one dreamed that a hurricane of popular indignation was
about to be raised, but so it was: the people took sides with
the little bulls. The law was denounced as being aristocratic,
and intended to favor the rich, who, by their money, had be-
come possessed of large bulls, and were to make a profit by
the destruction of the small ones."8

Leading stock growers of the day, notably Richard Flower,
were as much interested in the raising of sheep as of cattle.
Attempts were made to improve the breeds of sheep and to
foster wool growing. Interest spread to such an extent that
in 1842 wool in considerable quantities was brought to the
Chicago market.9

Marketing of farm produce wove itself deeply into the
business life of the state. Trade had many centers — every
thriving village hoped to become an Alton. Belleville was

8 Sangamo Journal, July 26, 1839, November 19, 1841; Belleville Advocate,
October 7, 1847.

7 Western Citizen, April 13, 1836.

8 Ford, History of Illinois, 107-108.

9 Sangamo Journal, December 17, 1841, October 23, 1842; Chicago American,
June 27, 1842; Alton Telegraph, July 26, 1845.

386 THE FRONTIER STATE

boosted in season and out by a group -of citizens headed by
John Reynolds. The Belleville Advocate was eager that
Belleville, closely allied to St. Louis in trade, should grow as
its greater neighbor grew but pointed out the danger of being
engulfed in the prosperity of that city. Farmers of the vicin-
ity were urged to avail themselves of the advantages to be
derived from marketing their goods at Belleville instead of
at the larger place. It was pointed out that they avoided
thereby the bad roads, inclement weather, the mishaps of the
long trip, and the crossing of the Mississippi river, at times
so dangerous, with the uncertainty of the market price at the
end. In Belleville was a ready market for wheat and hogs
at cash.10

Belleville papers were quick to resent the " cracking up "
of the northern part of the state at the expense of the southern.
They repudiated the idea that their section was made up of
"swamps," and "low, flat, inundated prairies," that its popu-
lation was "thriftless," or its seasons "sickly;" they stated
that " notwithstanding the depression of all kinds of business,
embarrassment from debt, and the number of emigrants that
have left this part of the State within half-a-dozen years, the
increase of the population in the counties south of a line drawn
across the State from Alton by Vandalia to Palestine, from
September, 1840, to September, 1845, by the State census, has
been 48,574 in 32 counties . . . a gain of 31 per cent."11
The Belleville Advocate for January 20, 1842, set forth how
Illinois could be " disenthralled from her present prostrate
condition. . . . The important object is to discover the
central river port . . . whence the whole State might be
recruited and resuscitated and which might be employed as the
commercial fulcrum, moving either end of the State by its
power of centrality — and where is this central point if not
opposite to St. Louis? ... If the State has now small
means, the only rational plan is to select a spot where small

10 Belleville Advocate, December 30, 1841, December 10, 1846.

11 Ibid., July 2, 1846.

ILLINOIS IN FERMENT 387

means will produce the greatest amount of effect, and where
is this . . . but opposite St. Louis?"

In spite of jealous assertions that the population of Alton
was declining and its population withdrawing, that city still
held its commanding position as the market of the state. Its
newspapers bitterly protested at the absurdity of irreverent leg-
islators declaring that its market was glutted by one keg of
butter and two dozen chickens. It pointed out its very real
advantage over Chicago, where lake navigation was suspended
by ice when Alton's port was still open. The Telegraph in
1847 declared that the older business houses had been swept
away in the panic of 1837—1838, scarcely two or three out of
forty or fifty surviving and that only a few of the former citi-
zens remained. The ultimate consequences, however, were
beneficial; business was on a better and more healthy basis;
there was less selling to retailers on long credits, goods being
sold for cash or produce. In the fall the Telegraph regularly
celebrated the huge pork packing business done; it commented
on the fact that more beef and pork packers were attracted to
Alton year by year; and it assured the farmers that they could
get the best prices there — better than at St. Louis or New
Orleans, since Alton pork packers, in return for offal, paid ten
cents for slaughtering. In 1843 farmers were bringing beeves
to Alton to be slaughtered instead of selling them, as hitherto,
to drovers to be driven to the eastern markets. The Telegraph
was similarly loyal in its insistence that Alton was destined to
be the grain market of the west.12

So strove the southern cities, while in the northern corner
of the state, close to the lake it was rapidly controlling, Chi-
cago waxed mighty. A shift in the avenue of trade assisted
its growth. Ever since 1763 Philadelphia, and later Baltimore,
had monopolized the trade in Illinois by way of the Ohio
river. But clever advertising, offers of long credit, the build-
ing of the Erie canal had rapidly shifted this commerce from

12 Alton Telegraph, January 4, March 21, 1840, June 23, November 13, 20,
1841, August 27, November 12, 1842, January 7, October 14, 21, 1843, October 19,
1844, October n, 18, 1845.

388 THE FRONTIER STATE

Philadelphia and Baltimore to New York; and Chicago was
the child of the new alliance.18 In 1832 it had been a tiny
market with two stores, and when incorporated the following
year it had but little more than one hundred and fifty in-
habitants. Then within the next few years there sprang up
such an incredible mushroom growth as would seem to belie
stability. In May of 1833 a newcomer saw a few houses
huddled upon the shore of a great lake; by September he
records "the extraordinary growth of Chicago which only a
little while ago was nothing but a small village. Now there is
a street a mile long, and soon there will be two others of the
same length." When the town was a year old there were " two
thousand inhabitants . . . and every day you see vessels
and steam boats put in here from the lake crowded with
families who come to settle in Chicago. Every day new houses
may be seen going up on all sides." 14 Its wide streets were
constantly filled with a bustling, busy throng; in August
of 1835 immigration was so considerable, that with flour sell-
ing at $20 a barrel, there was fear of a famine. When the
city was four years old it had a population of about 8,000 ; and
one hundred and twenty stores, twenty of which were whole-
sale, were required to transact its business.15 The immediate
result of this immigration was to make Chicago a large import-
ing center; in 1833 only two boats had visited her port; but,
during the season of 1836, 456 entries were made, bringing in
goods worth $325,203; the exports they carried away were

13 Though Chicago papers did not ignore the packing industry, in 1847
" Long John " Wentworth described a Chicago packing house which had insti-
tuted marvelous economies by utilization of waste parts, had a daily capacity of
one hundred and thirty head of cattle, and exported its products mainly to the
English market. Western Citizen, December 23, 1842; Chicago American, Decem-
ber 29, 1840, December 14, 1842; Chicago Democrat, October 18, 1845, October
1 6, 1847.

14 Father St. Cyr to Bishop Rosati, Chicago, September 16, 1833, and June
n, 1834, quoted by Garraghan, "Early Catholicity in Chicago, 1673-1843," in
Illinois Catholic Historical Journal, volume i, number i ; Quaif e, Chicago and
the Old Northwest, 349.

15 For much of the material on the commercial growth in Chicago credit is
due to Judson Fiske Lee, " Transportation. A Factor in the Development of
Northern Illinois Previous to 1860," in Illinois State Historical Society, Journal,
10: 17-18.

ILLINOIS IN FERMENT 389

valued at only a thousand dollars. Though Chicago used
much of this incoming merchandise, a great deal was destined
for inland towns that had discovered the cheaper northern
route. But an economical route for imports would present
similar gainful inducements to exports, and the fast settling
north country began hauling its grain to Chicago, and within
the next two years the prices this central market was able to
offer brought wheat pouring into the city. Throughout the
season of 1841 when places in southern, central, and northern
Illinois offered but fifty cents for wheat, Chicago paid an aver-
age of eighty-seven cents; the day that the Peoria market
bought wheat at forty cents, Chicago paid one dollar.
Farmers, singly or in groups, and throngs of teamsters for
inland merchant middlemen, hauled wheat to Chicago, some-
times from 250 miles away.16 Lines of thirteen, twenty, or
even eighty wagons loaded with wheat were to be seen en
route for that city. Though 150 vessels a month docked at
Chicago in the season of 1841, they were insufficient to carry
away the grain. In 1842 there were 705 arrivals with a ton-
nage of 117,711, and 586,907 bushels of grain were sent from
the port. In that year imports were valued at $664,347 and
exports at $659,305, for Chicago had become the market for
" about one-half the State of Illinois, a large portion of Indi-
ana, and a very considerable part of Wisconsin." 17 Until
1848 the volume of wheat exported continued to increase and
Chicago's strength to arise from its preeminence as a grain
market.

A prevalent opinion among the farmers of the day was
that dealers and commission men cheated them on the market
price, an idea that Wentworth in his editorials was ready to
foster. Year after year he claimed that dealers and whig
papers — despite the angry denials from both — were in league'
to cheat the producer; and in the face of the great warehouses
Chicago dealers were continually building, came Wentworth's

16 At Ottawa one firm alone, in 1842, advertised for fifty teams to haul
wheat to Chicago. Ibid., 23.

17 Ibid., 24.

390 THE FRONTIER STATE

warning that the usage farmers received in Chicago would
force them to seek Illinois river markets. In 1846 the remedy
for poor prices advocated by the Prairie Farmer was the
stacking of wheat until a larger return could be obtained, but
the Chicago Journal believed that in the climate of Illinois it
would not keep without injury. So keen a contemporary ob-
server as Thomas Ford, however, regarded the practice of
hoarding produce as one of the formidable difficulties of the
day. " Let the price be what it might, many would hold up
their commodity a whole year, expecting a rise in the mar-
ket. ... I have known whole stacks of wheat and whole
fields of corn to rot, or to be dribbled out and wasted to no
purpose; and whole droves of hogs to run wild in the woods
so as never to be reclaimed, whilst the owner was saving
them for a higher price. ... By holding back for a
higher price, he suffered loss by the natural waste of his
property, by laying out of the use of his money, by losing
the many good bargains he could have made with it in the
meantime, and by being compelled to purchase dear on a
credit, and pay a high interest on the debt if not paid when
due.

"This practice of holding up property from the market
unless the owner can receive more than the market price, still
[1847] prevails extensively in the southern and some of the
eastern parts of the State, and fully accounts for much of the
difference in the degree of prosperity which is found there, and
in the middle and northern part of the State." 18

Economic conditions were, of course, profoundly affected
by a new factor that was just beginning in this period the im-
portant role it later played in Illinois life — the coming of the
foreigner and his assumption of citizenship. Up to this time
settlers had come from sister states and, like all Americans,

18 Ford, History of Illinois, 99-10x5. The large barns characteristic of
northern farming — it was said that in the north a farmer frequently spent $250
on his house and $1,000 on his barn — helped no doubt to enable them to take
such advice without the losses pictured by Ford, though he asserted that "the
New England population make it a rule to sell all their marketable property
as soon as it becomes fit for market, and at the market price. " Ibid., 100.

ILLINOIS IN FERMENT 391

were of many parentages — English, Irish, Scotch, and Scotch-
Irish, with some Pennsylvania Dutch; but all had been in the
new country long enough to have become essentially American.
In the thirties, however, conditions in most of the northern
countries of Europe were such as to make emigration impera-
tive. Illinois, with vast fertile prairies, easy of access, drew
more than its quota of the newcomers. I

From Germany there came such numbers that the admix-
ture of Teutonic blood in the people of Illinois was to furnish
much of the bone and sinew of the state. At the close of the
Napoleonic wars political, religious, and economic conditions
in Germany were distinctly bad; crop failures, over-popula-
tion and production with the resulting dire poverty, were evils
from which thousands of peasants, laborers, tradesmen, stu-
dents, and professional men were eager to escape by emigra-
tion.

At just this time was published Gottfried Duden's Bericht
tiber eine Reise nach den westlichen Staaten Nordamerlka's.
In 1824 Duden, a graduate in law and medicine, had gone to
the Mississippi valley and bought a fertile tract of land in
Missouri. He was a man of means; and, while his land was
being cleared, he occupied himself in writing a romantic ac-
count of his " Garden of Eden," as his plantation came to be
known. Imagination colored his experiences; he exaggerated
the freedom and blessings of the country and minimized its
hardships.10 To many Germans the book was like an answer
to prayer; they read it daily, regarded it as an infallible guide,
and under its sway thousands emigrated to Missouri. The
only other influence directing settlement to the middle west
which compared with this book in strength was that of the
"Giessener Gesellschaft." This was an immigration com-
pany— the practical vehicle by which the dream of founding
a German state within the United States was to be realized;
in it the oppressed, the exploited, the idealistic, were to find a
refuge and there rear a model society. The company finally

19Koerner, Memoirs, 1:325-326.

392 THE FRONTIER STATE

chose Missouri as the destination for the thousands who re-
sponded to the plan.

This wave of immigration was increased by the failure of
the revolution of 1830 in Germany; many highly educated
Germans, leaders in their own country, left the fatherland for
America; and, since the stream of immigration had started
toward the Mississippi valley, it was natural that large num-
bers of them turned their footsteps in the same direction.
Preferring a free to a slave state, however, the leaders deter-
mined to settle within the regions of Illinois. St. Clair and
Madison counties, having already a sprinkling of German set-
tlers, were chosen with Belleville as the center of the first im-
portant German settlement of the state.20 Friends in univer-
sity days, fellow members of the " Burschenschaften," the Ger-
man student fraternities of a political cast, here began together
a new life in a new country. Conspicuous among them were
Gustave Koerner, Theodor Hilgard, George Bunsen, and
George Englemann. It was this group who became known as
the "Latin farmers" of Belleville, for they knew more of
Latin than of land. Most of them had no agricultural expe-
rience, and their wives were unaccustomed to doing their own
housework. On the prairies, however, were to be found neither
workmen nor housemaids, so that these people, accustomed
to the luxuries of Europe, were obliged to suffer the privations
and hardships of frontier life. Some succeeded and some
failed. But they brought to Illinois an element of culture and
education that was in the long run to affect the life of the
community. From the first they made no effort to isolate them-
selves from that life; though they furnished themselves with
new and better houses, flowers and fruit trees, books and
music, they at the same time adapted themselves to the simpler
social standards of the people about them and thereby grad-
ually elevated the ideals of western life. Their influence was

20 In Madison county Highland became the home of an important German-
Swiss colony, led by the families of Kopfli and Suppiger. Faust, German Ele-
ment In the United States, i: 460; Koerner, Memoirs, i: 327.

ILLINOIS IN FERMENT 393

felt in farming, in commerce, in journalism, science, art, and
government.

They were all men of books, and it is therefore not surpris-
ing to find that in 1836 they formed a " Deutsche Bibliotheks-
Gesellschaft," and started a library in Belleville, which was
one of the first important libraries in the state; in it were
found Latin books, Greek books, books on philosophy, books
on subjects of which the pioneer community scarcely knew the
name.21 From the first they manifested their interest in edu-
cation and gave their support to the public schools. During
the first winter a schoolhouse was erected, and Koerner ap-
pointed schoolmaster. Their genuine love of music modified
and cultivated the crude singing of the frontier, and the first
music school of any moment owed its origin to their initia-
tive.22

In 1850 there were thirty-eight thousand foreign born Ger-
mans in Illinois.23 From Belleville they had pushed out over
the whole state, but particularly into that region opened up by
the Black Hawk War. By 1847 several German newspapers
had been organized.24 Gustave Koerner had become the
accepted leader in politics and he soon established himself as

21 The first public library was founded at Albion in1 1818 and a year later
Edwardsville had a subscription library. Buck, Illinois in 1818, p. 169-170.

22 Beinlich, " Latin Immigration in Illinois," Illinois State Historical Society,
Transactions, 1909, p. 213. Ferdinand Ernst had brought over a colony of
Germans to Vandalia in 1820 and 1821. When he died in 1822 his personal
property was listed for public sale in the Illinois Intelligencer, October 5, 1822;
besides German carriages, fine broadcloth coats, and pantaloons, elegant table
linen and glassware, looking-glasses, clocks and watches, thermometers, hy-
drometers, and spy glasses, there were: "one elegant wing piano forte;
one small do, one elegant steel musical instrument; clarionetts, flutes; french
horns, bassoons ; contra bass ; bass, tenor & Common fiddles &c. with a large
and elegant assortment of music."

23 It must be remembered that the census figures connote "foreign born"
alone. They do not take into account the second generation, which, though
native born were " German " to their neighbors, nor does it indicate German
emigrants from other states. In the thirties a stock company of Cincinnati
Germans formed a settlement at Teutopolis in Effingham county; Germans from
St. Louis and Cincinnati had settlements at Havana and Bath, Mason county,
Perry in Pike county, with other considerable colonies in Woodford and La Salle
counties. Pooley, Settlement of Illinois, 495-496.

24 Der Freiheitsbote fur Illinois, 1840; Adler des Westens, 1844; Stern des
Westens, 1845; Chicago Volksfreund, 1845; Illinois Staats-Zeitung, 1847;
Koerner, Das Deutsche Element, 268, 276-278.

394 THE FRONTIER STATE

one of the powerful figures in Illinois through the influence
which he exercised over his countrymen.25 The Germans, in
no sense susceptible to the sway of a political "boss," could,
however, be molded into agreeing with their public men by
rational means.26 Koerner, a thoroughly trained and capable
lawyer, early perceived that in this country law and politics
went hand in hand. He acquainted himself with the language,
customs, public policies, and opinions of his new home and used
his knowledge to bridge the gap that its absence caused be-
tween Germans and natives. He wrote a legal treatise in
German to inform the former of the laws of the state, and that
they might learn of politics he published a paper and wrote its
editorials to supplement his activities as a public speaker.

In spite of the fact that leading Germans had shown
marked public spirit, and that the majority were for some
years too much occupied with the economic struggle to avail
themselves of political privileges, the Germans aroused the
antagonism of the " native Americans." German solidarity,
the idealistic project of the " Giessener Gesellschaft," and the
violent criticism of American institutions and customs by a
few of their number aroused a resentment and fear that about
1838 stimulated the formation of nativistic American socie-
ties. The Germans, affronted at this misunderstanding of
them as a group, drew closer together; they vented their anger
at the nativists' propaganda in most outspoken communications
to the German newspapers. Koerner translated some of the
strongest and most exhaustive of these articles and carried them
to the democratic newspapers, which up to this time had been
only lukewarm in their attitude toward the foreigners. Faced
now by a definite issue, the press was afraid to alienate so
numerous a body of voters who had shown a preference for
democratic party principles. They took the leap, published
Koerner's translations, and thus the democratic party became
the official and powerful sponsor for the aliens. This action

25 For the political phase of German life in this period I have drawn largely
upon an unpublished monograph by Miss Jessie J. Kile.

26 Koerner, Memoirs, i : 427.

ILLINOIS IN FERMENT 395

was sufficient to cement the imminent alliance between demo-
crats and Germans ; at the same time nothing could have more
impressed the state with the strength of the newcomers. It
"made the American people and particularly American poli-
ticians aware that there was a large population among them
who knew their rights and were willing to maintain them and
that they had to be taken into account."27 Still "native born
citizens" continued throughout the forties to raise the cry
against aliens, in spite of the spirit that the Germans often
expressed.28

The feeling of the Germans toward their adopted state
is illustrated by the following resolution of thanks to Koerner
for his stand on the canal bill and stay law: " Resolved, That
the German citizens of Chicago and Cook county feel pride
and gratification that one of their countrymen was in a position
to repay to some extent, by useful action as a public servant,
the obligations we all feel to the State of Illinois for the
liberality towards us in providing us a haven in a land of
freedom and extending to us the privileges of native born
citizens."29

German antagonism to those who persistently misunder-
stood them never abated, and they joined the nativist issue
with vigor. It was the big plank in Koerner's campaign for
the legislature in i842;30 and his election served, not only to
please the Germans, but to allay in them all suspicion of nativ-
ism in democratic ranks. He was the first German legislator;
and in fact his political prominence continued conspicuous,
since, in spite of the respect that politicians paid the German
vote, the aspirations of these new citizens were modest, and
they seldom in this period held office. In 1846 a meeting of
Chicago Germans recommended the appointment of one of
their number as deputy sheriff, and the following year only one

27 Koerner, Memoirs, 1:424.

28 It was sometimes suspected that the democrats used the cry of " nativism "
to keep the Germans from joining the whigs.

2a Chicago Democrat, March 21, 1843.
30 Koerner, Memoirs, i : 464-469.

396 THE FRONTIER STATE

German was elected as delegate to the constitutional conven-
tion.

Although the German element in Illinois was by far the
most numerous and powerful of foreign groups, yet other na-
tionalities were making significant contributions. Illinois had
long felt the influence of the coming of individual Irishmen —
such men as John Reynolds, Thomas Carlin, and James Shields.
But in the thirties general conditions in Ireland, religious,
political, and economic, with the terrible famines of 1845 and
1846 as a climax to misery, led all who could to flee from the
country. Irish experience in agriculture was not conducive to
a desire for further knowledge of it even in a new environ-
ment, and the Irish tended to remain in the large cities as day
laborers or factory employees. In Illinois the great need of
canal labor and the promise of good wages and steady em-
ployment drew thousands of this class to the state. They
settled in large groups all along the line of the canal — at
Joliet, Peru, LaSalle, and over the adjacent counties.

For ten years the work on the canal dragged on, but the
financial embarrassments of the state operated to change
many Irish laborers into Irish farmers. Canal scrip could
often be redeemed only in canal land. Moreover, when in the
early forties work on the canal was abandoned altogether for
a time, the laborers went into neighboring counties and took up
sections of land. As a result the farming population along
the line of the canal, and that from Peoria northward along
the Illinois river was largely Irish. But whenever possible
their gregariousness and their fondness for politics and ex-
citement induced them to remain in the cities, or to return as
soon as the outside demand for their labor declined; Chicago
continued their favorite residence.31

In 1850 there were twenty-eight thousand Irish in Illinois;
their Celtic adaptability, facility, and enthusiasm tended to-
ward their rapid assimilation into the general population. At
the same time a certain hot and aggressive loyalty to all things

31 Pooley, Settlement of Illinois, 499-501.

ILLINOIS IN FERMENT 397

Irish, together with the bristling qualities of their primitive
Celtic temperaments, drew a sharp line of antagonism between
them and their Anglo-Saxon neighbors.

English emigration to Illinois was led by Morris Birk-
beck and the Flowers into Edwards county in the early days
of statehood, and from that time many isolated English fami-
lies continued to make their way to the Illinois prairies. In
the thirties, however, agricultural and industrial conditions
in England were similar to those throughout northern Europe ;
they fell with crushing weight on the small tenant farmers
and were scarcely to be borne even by the more fortunate
classes. Wages were low, tithes and taxes exorbitant.
" Clergymen urged their parishioners to emigrate to America
where wages were good. The London Roman Catholic
Emigration Society hastened to complete preparations where-
by various parties, each with its clergyman at its head might
find new homes in America." 32 Farmers, trade-unionists, day
laborers, and professional men left the country.33 From 1845
to 1847 emigration to the United States doubled, and by
1850 there were 18,600 English settlers in Illinois. They
were not the most happy and successful settlers. Adaptation
to life on the prairies was difficult. "Their minds were
hampered with prejudices in favor of the customs and
habits of the mother country, which, combined with the lack
of those qualities that make good pioneers, kept the Eng-
lish from being classed with the successful settlers of the new
country." 34

The Scotch, on the other hand, upon whom economic dis-
tress had also forced immigration, were markedly successful.
About 1834 they began to form settlements in Illinois and by
1850 there were forty-six hundred settled chiefly in the north-
western part of the state. Their frugality, industry, and so-

32 Pooley, Settlement of Illinois, 502.

33 Mormon missionaries sent to England were there singularly successful in
making converts. In 1840 the first band was brought over and by 1844 it was
estimated that of the sixteen thousand Saints at Nauvoo ten thousand were
English. Ibid., 503.

34 Ibid.

398 THE FRONTIER STATE

briety, together with their high rank as agriculturists, made
them a valuable asset to the state.

It was a religious rather than an economic or political mo-
tive that first brought Norwegians to America; in 1825 a band
of fifty persecuted Quakers, under the leadership of Kleng
Peerson, came to New York, and ten years later, still under his
guidance, most of them moved to the more promising Illinois
country. They settled along the Fox river in La Salle county,
and, after a preliminary year or so of hardship, prospered.
Their glowing accounts were sent back to friends suffering
from hard times, scarcity of money, and shortage of crops;
to tell such people about " rich, rolling prairies stretching away
miles upon miles, about land which was neither rocky, nor
swampy, nor pure sand, nor set up at an angle of forty-five
degrees, about land which could be had almost for the asking
in fee simple and not by semi-manorial title," was to fire their
imaginations with "America fever." 35 Of this country many
had never before heard the name, and now came these fabulous
tales, first from letters, copied by hundreds and circulated from
parish to parish, and then from Ansted Nattestad, who in the
spring of 1838 came from the far land to visit relatives in
Norway. Eager inquirers sometimes traveled one hundred and
forty miles to see him and learn the facts concerning America
and Illinois. Nattestad brought with him the manuscript of
Ole Rynning's "True Account of America for the Instruction
and Use of the Peasants and Common People," in which the
author, a man of education and sympathy, answered the ques-
tions that he and many less informed than himself had asked
about America. Hardly any Norwegian publication has been
purchased and read with the avidity of the "American-book,"
which was packed with information and advice that reached
many a circumscribed parish and sent adventuring spirits to
the new land.36

35 Babcock, The Scandinavian Element, 28, 8x.

88 Rynning was the leading spirit of the ill-starred Beaver creek colony —
a party of fifty Norwegians who first intended to join the Fox river settlement.
They chose their site in the late summer of 1837 when its grassy verdure gave no

ILLINOIS IN FERMENT 399

It was natural that these parties of emigrants should seek
the Illinois settlements; the towns of Mission, Miller, Rut-
land, Norway, Leland, Lisbon, Morris, and Ottawa sprang
up and grew rapidly at their coming. About 1840, however,
the principal stream of Norwegian immigration was deflected
into Wisconsin, just when Swedish settlers began pouring into
Illinois. Swedish emigration, instigated at the outset almost
entirely by economic motives, was early directed to this state
through the influence of the brothers Hedstrom. Olaf Hed-
strom, who was one of a handful of Swedes emigrating as early
as 1825, had been converted to ardent Methodism, and in 1 845
was put in charge of a New York mission where he accom-
plished a unique work among the incoming Swedes. His
brother Jonas had settled in Knox county, and it was to this
region as well as to Andover and Chicago that the fatherly
missionary sent the multitudes dependent upon him for advice
and direction.37

In 1 846 the persecuted religious sect of Jansonists founded
the first Swedish settlement of considerable size at Bishop
Hill in Henry county. A year later the thriving communistic
and religious colony numbered four hundred settlers, and five
years after their coming they had grown to eleven hundred
members or almost one-third the population of Henry
county.38

By 1850 Scandinavian immigration had added to the state
thirty-five hundred thrifty, industrious, and intensely Protestant
citizens. Though chiefly agriculturists, concerned with win-
ning a freehold for themselves and founding an honorable
family competence, they held a high educational standard and
were remarkable for their loyalty to the public school system.

hint of the swamps that in the spring made cultivation impossible nor of the
unhealthfulness that during the summer caused the death of two-thirds of the
company. Rynning, who in the winter had employed the leisure of illness by
writing his Account, was one of the victims of the depopulating malaria the fol-
lowing summer. Babcock, The Scandinavian Element, 28-31; Blegen, " Q\P
Rynning's True Account of America," in Minnesota History Bulletin, 2:221-232

37 Babcock, The Scandinavian Element, 54.

38 Ibid., 56-60.

400 THE FRONTIER STATE

So rapidly did this large body of recently foreign citizens
take their place in the body politic, that when the national
issue of the Mexican War arose, no cleavage in the state
occurred. Such companies as that of Captain James F. Eagan,
who organized the Ottawa Irish Volunteers with one hundred
and forty-eight on the roll,39 and that of Captain Julius C.
Raith made up of young Germans from St. Clair and Monroe
counties were among the first to volunteer.40

The war had come at a time to make it extremely popular
throughout Illinois. The people were suffering from the most
stringent "hard times:" money, except that of broken banks,
was not to be had; repeated failure met any attempt at com-
mercial or industrial enterprise; farmers, unable to market
their abundant crops, used what they could and left the rest
to waste in the field. Suddenly, to the pent-up energy of the
state and to the spirit of adventure, came the call to arms.
Causes and issues were hardly considered; party lines were
swept aside in the response that, swift and enthusiastic, came
from the people.41

A favorite employment of the young men of the state had
been the organization of rifle companies which drilled and
marched and displayed themselves in full regalia in Fourth
of July parades and at patriotic meetings. Now these compa-
nies saw a chance for real service and at once offered them-
selves. The quota which Governor Ford had been asked to
furnish from Illinois was three brigades of infantry. His call
went out May 25, 1845; ten days later thirty-five companies
or four thousand men reported to the governor. Eager cap-
tains of hurriedly mustered companies rode posthaste to the
governor with letters certifying the worth of their men; he
who first arrived was accepted, though a shift was sometimes

39 Alton Telegraph and Democratic Review, July 18, 1846.

40 Koerner, Memoirs, 1:495-496; Faust, German Element, 1:459.

41 Enthusiasm, however, was keener in the southern and central parts of the
state than farther north where the New England element was stronger. Koerner
remarked on the lack of ardor in Stark and especially in the more northern
counties as contrasted with that in St. Clair and Madison. Koerner, Memoirs,
i : 501.

ILLINOIS IN FERMENT 401

made when the credentials of another indicated that his men
were more desirable. There was much jealousy and rivalry,
and the four thousand who had not been in time to be accepted
loudly complained.42

The colonels of the first three regiments, enlisted for twelve
months, were John J. Hardin, William H. Bissell, and Ferris
Forman. E. D. Baker, authorized to raise an additional regi-
ment, had only to select the required number of companies
from those already tendered. When a second call for troops
was made in April, 1847, two additional regiments enlisted
for the duration of the war and went out under Colonels W. B.
Newby and James Collins. Besides these six regiments, four
independent mounted companies were accepted; and one hun-
dred and fifty Illinoisians enlisted in the regular army.

The troops composed chiefly of " the well taught youths of
our farming communities, and our quiet, moral country
towns,"43 started south with an enthusiasm only equaled by
that at home which sped them on their way.44 Companies
rivaled each other in the assiduity with which they drilled,
marched, and perfected their organization. They furnished
themselves with new uniforms; that of one company, for in-
stance, consisted of a grey forage cap, a gray frock coat
trimmed with black, and black pantaloons; and in addition to
their rifles this company was armed with artillery swords, two
feet long, two inches broad, and double edged — a formidable
addition to their offensive at close quarters.45

The trip down the Mississippi, across the gulf to Texas,
and the march into Mexico was an education to these provincial
lads. Plantations, sugar cane, cypress trees, Spanish moss,
levees, seasickness, drill, march, discipline, prickly pear, chap-
arral, tarantulas, and Texans were words that appeared in

42 Alton Telegraph and Democratic Review, July 18, 1846.

*3 Belleville Advocate, August 12, 1847.

44 Citizens voluntarily furnished provisions, blankets, provisional uniforms,
and flags to the departing boys. Koerner, Memoirs, 1:495.

^45 Everett, "Narrative of Military Experience," Illinois State Historical
Society, Transactions, 1905, p. 195, 196. Although percussion rifles had been
invented some years before, the war with Mexico was fought with flint locks.

402 THE FRONTIER STATE

letters home and indicated a wealth of new experience. In
spite of the hot, steamy climate, the dust, poor roads, and fre-
quent sicknesses, the men made the most of this trip. As
venison and wild grapes varied their diet of salt pork and
beans, so did the sight of a new vegetation, architecture, and
people vary and add interest to the monotony of long marches
under trying conditions.

General John A. Wool, U. S. A., and other officers of the
regular army had a merry time in impressing the men with
the serious necessity of discipline, for an artless insubordina-
tion pervaded both volunteers and officers. Colonel Forman
at one time threatened to walk his men home, and when Colo-
nel Hardin landed he did not march his men directly to camp.
" I will take away your commission, sir," said Wool. " By
God, you can't do it, sir," Hardin hotly replied. Wool, ad-
mitted by the volunteers as a splendid soldier and first rate
disciplinarian, was still thought to possess " too much regular
contempt for volunteers." 46

At home, the doings of the boys at the front were eagerly
followed. The spirit of democratic papers throughout the
state did not flag. The State Register praised the legislature
for passing unanimously instructions to members of congress
to do their utmost for the vigorous prosecution of the war
and for its memorial asking bounty lands for those that serve.47
A meeting of democrats in St. Clair county late in November,
1847, appointed a committee consisting of Gustave Koerner,
John Reynolds, William H. Bissell, Lyman Trumbull, and
William C. Kinney to express the sense of the meeting in a se-
ries of resolutions. They declared that the object of the war
was to force Mexico to relinquish her claims, that the invasion
of Mexico had not made it an offensive war, but that indemnity
in land or money had become a legitimate object of the United
States. They repudiated the idea that any portion of the peo-
ple of the United States wished to conquer territory for slavery

46 Belleville Advocate, September 3, 1846.

47 Illinois State Register, February 5, 1847.

ILLINOIS IN FERMENT 403

extension, but they asserted that the United States had a right
to govern provisionally the conquered territory until the con-
clusion of peace; they claimed that no declaration of congress
as to the cause of war should have any weight, but that all
citizens should support the government in attaining indemnity
in land or money. The Register was strongly in favor of
the tea and coffee tax for it supplied the money necessary to
prosecute the war, and the state submitted gladly to it for
that reason.48

Although the outbreak of the war had been hailed with
enthusiasm by the people of the state, the whig press at best
had merely acquiesced in the war and became gradually more
and more outspoken in its condemnation of the national aims.
In September, 1847, the State Register charged the whigs with
being traitors to the country and devoted three columns to
quotations from party organs in which they were giving " aid
and comfort" to the enemy. Whig opposition to territorial
extension was in democratic eyes analogous to the opposition
of federalists to the Louisiana purchase. At the same time
the democrats declared it a political move to deprive their
party of the glory of adding territory to the country, while
forced to bear the responsibility for a heavy war expenditure.49
Whig papers in turn charged that democratic members "think
it a cardinal quality of national greatness that we are able to
trounce and conquer a weaker one, and in justification of our
course with Mexico," lay down " the supposition that because
we have driven out the Indians from their ancient homes, and
the deed being just and humane, the people of New Mexico
and California, being in a more degraded condition, deserve
the same treatment.50 They pointed out the dangers, respon-
sibilities, and resulting evils from annexation that the war-
loving portion of the people seemed light-heartedly to desire.
The State Register clung staunchly to its position that national

48 Illinois State Register, January 29, December 10, 1847.
4Q Ibid., September 24, October i, November 5, 26, 1847.
50 Roc kford Forum, April 26, 1848.

4o4 THE FRONTIER STATE

prestige required the war to be carried to a successful close;
readiness to avenge insult of national honor, it regarded as a
protection; the whigs on the other hand cried for "peace,
commerce and honest friendship with all nations," and a
" speedy close of the bloody tragedy, too long enacted at our
expense, on the soil of another Republic." 51

Democratic condemnation of individuals who opposed the
war was severe. In particular Abraham Lincoln, whig repre-
sentative in congress, drew this fire. Lincoln in speech and by
consistent vote had stigmatized the war as one of " rapine
and murder," " robbery and dishonor." He felt that Illinois
had sent her men to Mexico " to record their infamy and shame
in the blood of poor, innocent unoffending people, whose only
crime was weakness."52 On December 22, 1847, he pre-
sented in the house the famous " spotty resolutions " in which
he challenged the president's statement that Mexico had " in-
volved the two countries in war, by invading the territory of
the State of Texas, striking the first blow, and shedding the
blood of our citizens on our own soil;" he pointed out that
the particular spot on which the first blood was shed was
Mexican soil, from which the citizens fled at the approach of
the United States troops; and that it was the blood of our
"armed officers and soldiers," whose blood was first shed.53
To Lincoln, the facts admitted no other interpretation than
that the war was "unnecessarily and unconstitutionally com-
menced by the President."

In a speech before the house, January 12, 1848, he de-
clared that President Polk " is deeply conscious of being in the
wrong; that he feels the blood of this war, like the blood of
Abel, is crying to heaven against him; that originally having
some strong motive ... to involve the two countries in
a war, and trusting to escape scrutiny by fixing the public gaze
upon the exceeding brightness of military glory, — that attrac-

slRockford Forum, March 22, 1848; Illinois Stale Register, November 5,
1847.

52 Belleville Advocate, March 2, 1848.

53 Writings of Abraham Lincoln, 2:20-22.

ILLINOIS IN FERMENT 405

tive rainbow that raises in showers of blood, that serpent's eye
that charms to destroy, — he plunged into it, and was swept
on and on till, disappointed in his calculation of the ease with
which Mexico might be subdued, he now finds himself he
knows not where. How like the half-insane mumbling of a
fever dream is the whole war part of his late message ! " 54

Though Lincoln's charges may have borne some little fruit
in enlightening public opinion and though such papers as the
Rockford Forum gave Lincoln unqualified support, the great
majority of the press and the people were uninterested in hear-
ing whys and wherefores; to them this was an attack direct on
their dearest enthusiam. Newspapers and public meetings,
flaunting their own patriotism, declared Lincoln a second Bene-
dict Arnold.55 At a meeting without distinction of party held
in Clark county, the following resolution was adopted:

"Resolved, That Abe Lincoln, the author of the 'spotty'
resolutions in Congress, against his own country, may they
long be remembered by his constituents, but may they cease to
remember him, except to rebuke him — they have done much
for him, but he has done nothing for them, save the stain he
inflicted on their proud names of patriotism and glory, in the
part they have taken in their country's cause." 56

The fact that the conduct of the Illinois troops had been
especially valorous made enthusiastic supporters more bitterly
resent any criticism of the war. Illinoisians had markedly dis-
tinguished themselves at the battle of Buena Vista, February
23, 1847. General Zachary Taylor commended their services
as follows: "The First and Second Illinois, and the Ken-
tucky regiments . . . engaged the enemy in the morn-
ing, restored confidence to that part of the field, while the list
of casualties will show how much these three regiments suf-
fered in sustaining the heavy charge of the enemy in the after-
noon. In this last conflict we had the misfortune to sustain a

54 Writings of Abraham Lincoln, 2:38-39.

55 Illinois State Register, March 10, May 26, 1848.

56 Belleville Advocate, March 2, 1848.

4o6 THE FRONTIER STATE

very heavy loss. Colonels Hardin, McKee, and Lieut-Colonel
Clay fell at this time, while gallantly leading their commands.
. . . Col. Bissell, the only surviving colonel of the three
regiments, merits notice for his coolness and bravery on this
occasion." 57

When Colonel Hardin fell while recklessly leading his regi-
ment in a desperate charge, Illinois lost a popular hero. A
man without much outward balance — crude, artless, almost
stammering in speech — he had become the leading whig of
the state, being a member of three general assemblies, and a
representative in congress, 1843-1845. Handsome, impulsive,
ingenuous, his very handicaps attracted warm friends.

The Third and Fourth Regiments distinguished themselves
in the campaign against the city of Mexico and in the battle of
Cerro Gordo, April 18, 1847, while the Fifth and Sixth, though
they lost severely through sickness and exposure, arrived too
late for active service.

Illinois treated the returning volunteers as heroes, every
one. Not only were such men as William H. Bissell, John A.
Logan, Richard J. Oglesby, James Shields, Benjamin M.
Prentiss, and James D. Morgan rewarded with high places
in the state, but in their home communities humbler men were
recognized with county and township offices. In Menard
county, for instance, five returned volunteers were elected in
August of 1847 to the county offices of judge of probate, clerk
of the county commissioners' court, assessor, treasurer, and
recorder. Towns and counties gave public dinners, barbecues,
and Fourth of July celebrations to welcome the returning vol-
unteers. Addresses, speeches, brass bands, fireworks, cannon
salutes, and enormous crowds of enthusiastic people graced
these occasions. Five thousand people gathered in Spring-
field while an equal number sat at the public board in Belleville
at the barbecue.58

Throughout this busy period Illinois had so grown and de-

57 Moses, Illinois, 1:495-496.

58 Illinois State Register, July 9, August 13, 1847.

ILLINOIS IN FERMENT 407

veloped that the old constitution, designed for a frontier
community, was felt as a hampering restraint. Never en-
tirely satisfactory, twenty years' experience demanded a
change. Popular opinion, newspapers, whigs, and democrats
condemned the old constitution and urged drastic modifica-
tion. The question of revision was narrowly defeated in 1842 :
four years later the answer came strongly in the affirmative.
One hundred and sixty-two delegates were elected who met
in Springfield in June, 1847, to begin what proved to be the
work of drawing up a new constitution. Of this body, large
and unwieldy, a majority were democrats though it was claimed
the proceedings were carried forward in a strictly nonpartisan
spirit. The convention was representative of western democ-
racy in the fact that contrary to custom, there were only fifty-
four lawyers to seventy-six farmers in the body. The debates
which the newspapers anxiously watched were heated and long
drawn out. After a three months' session the convention fin-
ished its work on August 31 and presented for the considera-
tion of the people a new body of fundamental law.

A mongrel affair — the natural result of trying to meet the
demands of all — the document throughout its detailed length
made a valiant effort to render impossible to the future the
unhappy experiences of the past. Stupendous debts, reckless
banking, extravagant legislation, "life" offices — these were
to be eliminated together with the particular aversions of each
party; above all the will of the people was to be consulted
and heeded in new places and to a much greater extent than
formerly.59 During the six months that intervened before the
referendum the newspapers never allowed the issue to languish.
The united support of the organs of each party, as a result of
the compromises with which the new document bristled, was
given with a sort of careful lack of enthusiasm; each, jealous
of the victories gained by the other side, was accused of rais-
ing the cry of a "party constitution;" yet each was solicitous

59 Quincy Whig, March i, 1848; Sangamo Journal, April i, 1847; Illinois
State Register, February 26, 1847.

4o8 THE FRONTIER STATE

that party bickering should not alienate the final support of the
people. It was said that only six papers within the state
consistently opposed the constitution and were alone upheld
in their opposition by the judges, their political appendages,
and the small fry politicians.60 The German was the one other
element of opposition to be really feared. The whigs had in-
sisted upon the limitation of the franchise: could the Germans
swallow so bitter a pill? Although suffrage was to be guar-
anteed to all adult males residing in the state at the time of
adoption of the constitution, would they suffer the substitution
of naturalization and a year's residence for the six months'
residence alone required before? With Koerner combating
ratification, it remained a question whether the gains in other
reforms would lead the Germans to overlook the measure that
had won unqualified whig support.61

For this victory of their opponents the disgruntled demo-
crats found some compensation in the heads of the obnoxious
supreme court judges, whose duties were now divorced from
the circuit, and who, along with all other state and county offi-
cers, were made elective by the people.62

To meet the insistent demand for retrenchment and at the
same time to clip the wings of the distrusted legislature, the
number of representatives and state officers was reduced and
all salaries were fixed at absurdly low sums; moreover, the
session of the legislative body was practically limited to forty-
two days, for any time in excess of that period was paid at just
one-half the regular stipend of two dollars a day.63 With the
keen remembrance of internal improvement bills still heavy,
the state was forbidden to contract any debt exceeding fifty
thousand dollars — and that was "to meet casual deficits or
failures in revenue;" nor was the credit of the state "in any
manner to be given to, nor in aid of, any individual associa-

60 Qulncy Whig, February 23, 1848; Illinois State Register, August 6, 1847.

61 Belleville Advocate, February 10, 1848; Koerner, Memoirs, 1:523.

62 Chicago Democrat, January 14, 1848.

63 Illinois State Register, January 22, 1847; Belleville Advocate, January 20,
1848; Quincy Whig, February 2, 1848.

ILLINOIS IN FERMENT 409

tion or corporation." Neither the charter of the State Bank,
or any bank hitherto existing was to be revived though new
banks could be established by the sanction of a popular refer-
endum.

The cry for economy did not, however, prevent the taking
of an important stand on state indebtedness; the fund arising
from a two mill tax was to be devoted exclusively to debts other
than school and canal indebtedness; advocates of repudiation
were thus rendered entirely powerless.

The council of revision with its unwholesome effect on
legislation was lopped off, while the governor, his term and
eligibility remaining unchanged, was invested with a veto which
might, however, be overridden by the same majority that origi-
nally passed the bill.

An agitation for the granting of civil rights to Negroes met
so prompt and spirited an opposition that it resulted in a fun-
damental strengthening of the black code. An article was in-
troduced to "effectually prohibit free persons of color from
immigrating to and settling in this State; and to effectually
prevent the owners of slaves from bringing them into this State
for the purpose of setting them free." 64

The newspaper campaign of judicious enthusiasm contin-
ued throughout the winter. It was generally conceded that
"the new Constitution is not perfect, for it is the work of
fallible men. Critics and hypercritics, many good men, and
some who might be suspected of sinister motives, may con-
demn it; but it is, on the whole, a good Constitution — a repub-
lican one — and an immense improvement upon the old in-
strument."63 Such support won the day; in March, 1848,
the people of the state ratified the new constitution with the
large majority of 49,060 to 20,883, and on April i, 1848,
it went into effect.

82 Constitution, 1848, article XIV.

•3 Aurora Beacon, February 10, 1848.

XXII. SOCIAL, EDUCATIONAL, AND RELIGIOUS
ADVANCE, 1830-1848

COMPARED with the Illinois of 1818, the Illinois of
1848 was a community quickened into mental life and
independence. On its accession to statehood, Illinois was in-
tellectually provincial; its leaders came from .older states,
bringing with them tastes already established; and mental cul-
ture was the possession and badge of a social class. In 1848
this was in a measure still true ; but Illinois colleges and schools
had begun the work of democratizing education. Moreover,
Illinois numbered among its citizens men like J. B. Turner
and Thomas Ford whose thought, keen and original, was
molded by the environment the state afforded them. Eastern-
ers came to quicken the life of the state, and their own intel-
lectual life affected by the freedom of their new surroundings
ceased to be purely eastern.

The cities growing up in the state were superimposing
new and more complex social conditions on the older rural
communities.1 The old-time Fourth of July celebration con-
tinued in vogue though sometimes under temperance or Sun-
day school auspices. As early as 1845, however, newspapers
were descanting on the number of accidents during such cele-
brations and were calling for -a sane Fourth. Chicago had
queens of the May on May day and kept the old-fashioned
New Year's custom of calls and refreshments. There were
donation parties and church fairs. There were traveling cir-
cuses to carry amusement to the village, though these were
condemned by the fastidious as indecent. There was dancing.
There were theatricals in Chicago and other cities, amateur
and professional, the latter becoming from the critic's point

1 Chicago Dally Journal, October 9, 1846.

410

SOCIAL ADVANCE 411

of view, increasingly valid. Among sports there were horse
races which at least in Chicago were sometimes scenes of dis-
order. Of course there was hunting, sometimes in the form
of community wolf drives. At Chicago there was a boxing
academy in 1845. ^n ^40 there was even a cricket match be-
tween Chicago and Auplaine.2

Chicago was growing up; by 1842 it recognized a need of
shade trees, deprecated its ineffective system of checking the
frequent fires, and dilated on the route northward it offered
southern travelers. Moreover, it was acquiring, as had for-
merly Little Fort and even forgotten Salem, a reputation for
bad morals; in 1842 women of evil fame scandalously ac-
cused pious men before grand juries. The advantages which
Chicago offered as a market for products and the frequency
with which the farmer availed himself of them, made it ap-
propriate for the newspapers to offer advice concerning his
conduct in town. He must beware of taverns that assign him
to garret rooms and set before him shinbone steak. He must
never go to a house merely because a runner recommends it.
He must be sure on the register to bracket his name with that
of the bedfellow he chooses and to bespeak a room when he
first enters.3

Any attempt to reconstruct the cultural life of the state
must leave out of account the great circles of ignorance and
illiteracy; they have passed leaving no record. For the rest,
the newspapers afford perhaps the best criterion, although,
with the exception of such a sheet as J. B. Turner's Illinois
Statesman, they fell below the plane of the best in the state.
It was the papers which encouraged the lyceums that came

2 Chicago American, May 2, July 8, September 21, 25, 1840, December 31,

1841, February i, April i, May 31, 1842; Chicago Democrat, January 3, 1844,
July 9, October 28, 1845; Belleville Advocate, August 22, 1840, May 23, 1841,
June n, 18, July 16, 1846, April 8, 1847; Alton Telegraph, August 2, 1845;
Little Fort Porcupine, September 19, 1845, June 23, 1846; Chicago Daily
Journal, January 16, March 3, 1845.

3 Chicago American, December 28, 1840, February 10, March 31, 1842,
February 15, 1847; Alton Telegraph, October 19, 1844; Illinois Journal, No-
vember n, 1847; Chicago Democrat, September 15, 1841, June 28, December 14,

1842, June 25, October 28, 1845; Little Fort Porcupine, April 30, May 28, 1845;
Sangarno Journal, May 13, 1847.

412 THE FRONTIER STATE

intermittently to the towns to afford training in debate, to offer
lectures on science, literature, and phrenology, and to urge the
preservation of the history of the state; as early as 1831 a
state lyceum projected an elaborate writing up of the history
and curiosities of Illinois. The newspapers, moreover, for-
warded this interest in history directly by publishing in their
pages numerous discussions of past events, often written by
men who had participated in them. More ambitious was the
scheme of a meeting at Vandalia in 1837, which deputed Peck
to write a complete history of the state. Two years later a
Peoria Scientific and Historical Society was organized, and in
1843 tne Illinois Literary and Historical Society was at work.
The following year the latter issued an appeal for books and
manuscripts calculated to throw light on the history of the
state; and three years later it was still working with some
measure of success. Into these historical activities, it is to be
marked, contemporary politicians threw themselves with en-
thusiasm. Sidney Breese, William H. Brown, Thomas Ford,
and John Reynolds all have left their interpretation of the
state's past; to an amazing degree they have shaped the tradi-
tion of Illinois history.4

Book advertisements did not indicate the existence of a
more cultivated literary taste than that which the clippings in
newspapers satisfied. These clippings were marked by an
affected romanticism, though for some reason, the democratic
papers published less sentimental stuff than the whig; little
of the "literary" material, which filled such papers as the
Sangamo Journal and the Alton Telegraph, even approached
good melodrama or romance. It was a farrago of tales of the
American bourgeoisie : the marriages of merchants' daughters
to poor but virtuous clerks, the connubial felicities resulting,
and the final relenting of the hard-hearted father when, as was

4 Belleville Advocate, March 25, 1841, November 3, 1842; Chicago American,
January 7, 1837, June 26, July 15, 1839, December 2, 23, 1841, February 15, 1842;
Sangamo Journal, April 29, 1837, November 15, 1839; Peoria Register, Feb-
ruary 9, July 6, 1839; Alton Telegraph, September 2, 1843, August 31, 1844,
September 3, 1847.

J

PECK-MESSENGER MAP, 1835

First sectional map of the state

[From original owned by Wisconsin Historical Society]

SOCIAL ADVANCE 413

the usual denouement, hard times had swept away his fortune.
Or, in the time of the excitement stimulated by the Washing-
tonians, one gets tragic sentiment on the woes of drunkards'
wives, of starved children fading under neglect, and similar
tales, ad nauseam. In these, however, democratic papers also
occasionally indulged. One is hardly surprised when the
Belleville Advocate pronounces "To Lucasta on Going to the
Wars" to be lacking in simplicity and fit only for corrupted
tastes.6

There were, however, occasional indications of discrimina-
tion. Now and then there are reprints of such tales as that
which is the basis-of William Morris' " Written on the Image "
or an imitation of Poe's " The Cask of Amontillado." 6 Poe's
"Gold Bug" appeared in the Alton Telegraph of August 19,
1 843, in the midst of a mass of sentimental and romantic trash.
In the Chicago Democrat of 1845 N. P. Willis' "Letters
from London" are a welcome relief. The one great excep-
tion to a deprecatory classification, however, is found in the
enthusiastic cult of Dickens which existed before his strictures
on America and especially on Illinois had turned popular feel-
ing against him.7 Wellerisms were common in the papers —
even rivaling the Negro joke, which playing on the misuse
of long words was the principal form of humor.

The attitude of the whig newspapers toward morals and
manners is, to say the least, generally disappointing. The
Chicago American within a few months managed to comment
on the morals of Fanny Ellsler and of Dionysius Lardner, to
remark on the relative beauties of the Venus of Canova and
the Venus de Medici and withal to comment much on crimes
of sex. Comparing favorably with this policy is the frank
broadness of several of the democratic papers whose stories
represented the naivete of rural Illinois.8

5 April 25, 1840.

0 Belleville Advocate, April 17, 1841.

7 Chicago American, November 23, 1841, January 19, 1842; Belleville Advo-
cate, April ii, 21, November 29, December 22, 1842.

8 Chicago American, December 2, 1841, June 4, 1842; Belleville Advocate,
September 30, 1847.

4i4 THE FRONTIER STATE

The medical profession showed evidence of a growing
social consciousness in the change from early individual efforts
at medicine and hygiene to the organization in the thirties of
medical societies and sodalities.9 In 1837 Rush Medical Col-
lege was incorporated — at that time no such institution was
to be found west of Cincinnati and Lexington.10 The trustees
did not, however, effect an organization until 1843 when the
first course of lectures was given by four instructors to twenty-
two students; the following year the first college building was
erected. In 1846 a medical library of six hundred volumes
and improved apparatus for study were added for students
and a free dispensary and operating clinic opened to the public.
By 1848 the school enrolled one hundred and forty students,
and that year graduated thirty-three physicians.

The faculty of the institution not only contributed their
services but kept up all expenses of maintenance and alter-
ation of the college, the only donation either to its establish-
ment or support being the lot upon which the college was orig-
inally erected. To Dr. Daniel Brainard is due chief credit
for the founding and directing in its early years of this first
institution of science, which made Chicago a recognized center
of medical instruction.11

The life of the people of the early state found its most typ-
ical expression in their churches. They offered an immediate
escape from the unending struggle with physical forces, a
promise of future compensation for the privations that now
pressed hard, and furnished a social center of varied and
exciting interest.

For the religious denominations already strongly estab-
lished in Illinois, the period from 1830 to 1848 was one of
more or less steady growth. The Methodists, who in 1830
numbered about six thousand communicants, were just enter-
ing on a decade of tremendous growth; in the next five years

9 The first meeting of the Cook County Medical Society was on October 3,
1836.

10 Chicago American, March 25, 1837.

11 Andreas, History of Chicago, 464-466.

SOCIAL ADVANCE 415

they increased to fifteen thousand, and that number was dou-
bled by 1840. The growth of the next eight years, while not
so remarkable, was still sufficient to insure this denomination
with over forty thousand members first place in numerical
strength.12

The Baptists had grown from thirty-six hundred to twelve
thousand in the decade between 1830 and 1840; in the follow-
ing ten years, increasing absolutely as much as the Methodists
during the same time, they almost doubled their membership
with twenty-two thousand communicants in 1850. Their annals
throughout this period, however, had not been peaceful. The
" anti-mission " Baptists, later confused with the " two seed "
Baptists, strove against John Mason Peck and the supporters
of the "religious institutions falsely so-called" which taught
young men to preach and sent them forth under perpetual pay
to displace the old Baptist preachers; their associations dis-
fellowshipped those who had to do with missions.

In spite of opposition the main currents of opinion ran in
the channels in which Peck would have had them, and the
aid of the Baptist Home Mission Society in sustaining the min-
istry in the state was gratefully acknowledged by the Edwards-
ville association in 1836. That same year saw the formation
of the Illinois Baptist Education Society designed to aid candi-
dates for the ministry. Peck in defending the movement argued
that the educated minister would not drive out the old illiterate
preacher simply because of his illiteracy. If he was so narrow
as to stand in the way of others, he deserved it; but a minister
hearty in the cause would find .no one inclined to take notice
of slips in grammar.

The Illinois Baptist Convention, in connection with the
Home Mission Society, had their traveling missionaries wholly
or partly supported in the work of building up churches. Be-
tween April, 1836, and January, 1837, Moses Lemen traveled
a distance of 2,100 miles, visited fourteen churches, and gave

12 Minutes of the Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
2:46; 3:90, 99, 297, 399, 513; 4:79, 261, 281.

4i6 THE FRONTIER STATE

one hundred and five religious discourses. In a similar period
of time his brother James had traveled 1,595 miles and
preached ninety-six sermons. In 1837 the Illinois Baptist
Convention agreed to assume one-third the expense of the Bap-
tist missionaries. The indefatigable Peck was appointed
general agent to visit the churches, to stir them to renewed
activity, to seek out students, and to look after the interests of
Shurtleff College and of the societies. Already for some years
he had edited the Western Pioneer, a Baptist paper; and he
was now urged to prepare sketches of religious history in the
west. A Baptist leader such as Peck had to be a man of tact;
not only was his attitude toward slavery under scrutiny but
a sharp lookout had to be kept lest such matters as the informal
shedding of a heavy coat in warm weather should offend the
sensibilities of a visiting eastern brother.13

The slavery crisis of 1845, resulting from the refusal of
the Baptist board to allow slaveholding missionaries, ended
in the promotion of an independent Northwest Baptist Asso-
ciation including northern Illinois and finally in its dissolution
and the promotion of an entirely new Baptist central body, the
Baptist General Association of Illinois. The Western Chris-
tian was the supporter of the new body in contradistinction to
the Helmet which was inclined in the slavery direction.14

The most significant event in the religious history of the
period 1830—1840 is the rise of Presbyterianism and Congre-
gationalism in Illinois. The two denominations working to-
gether in the west under the plan of union undertook, in the
belief that Congregationalism of the Yankee type was exotic
in the latitude of Illinois, to win the state to a modified Pres-
byterianism. Eventually, however, the compromise was de-
nounced on the one hand by Presbyterians who claimed that
Congregational influence was demoralizing the discipline of

18 Hicks, Outline of Baptist History, n; Illinois Advocate, December 9,
1831; Western Pioneer, June 30, September 2, November 25, December 16, 1836,
March 29, April 14, May 5, September 22, October 27, 1837, February 9, 1838.

** Western Christian, June 14, 28, October 23, November 6, 13, 1845;
Baptist Helmet, April 24, May 22, 1845.

SOCIAL ADVANCE 417

the church, and on the other by Congregationalists who claimed
that Congregational brains and money had been used by Pres-
byterians to establish themselves in the west. In the annals
of the two denominations the same men and enterprises are
described as Congregational or Presbyterian according to the
writer's point of view, and it is difficult to find the real truth.

Illinois Presbyterianism which in 1830 had but four hun-
dred and ninety-two members established in the one " Presby-
tery of the Centre of Illinois " had expanded to twenty-three
hundred communicants in eight presbyteries by the end of the
decade, and had with eleven presbyteries and two synods more
than doubled their numerical strength by i848.15 Through-
out this period, however, their chief energy was devoted to
educational and mission society effort; the supporters of the
movement had to be on the alert lest they arouse western
pride by a too frank declaration of their belief that the west
was a moral desert16 The Reverend John Milcot Ellis, when
soliciting money for Illinois College, was embarrassed by the
charge of having acquiesced in such malignant eastern state-
ments. As a fitting retaliation to former aspersions, in 1833
the Alton Spectator called on the citizens to meet " in the
splendid Cong. ch. soon to be built " to consider means of sav-
ing the east from its moral degradation.

Jealous opposition met the sedulous Presbyterian activities.
In 1834 Peter Cartwright, on behalf of the Methodist preach-
ers who had borne the heat of the pioneer day, testified against
non-sectarian societies on the ground that they were controlled
by "new school" presbyteries and that they paid money to
agents who really worked for their own denominations and
against the Methodists, breaking up Methodist Sunday
schools and establishing their own. Had not an agent, lately
sent east to procure some thousands for Illinois College, said:
" give me this sum and the Mississippi Valley is ours?"

Illinois Presbyterianism felt the effects of the split of 1837

15 Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, 1830, p.
116-117; 1840, p. 58; 1849, P- 273-

16 Illinois Intelligencer, January 23, 1830.

4i8 THE FRONTIER STATE

between the new and old school. In the national general as-
sembly of 1837, the old school forces — gaining control, their
opponents declared, by a bargain with the south on the subject
of slavery — abrogated the plan of union of 1801; they cut
off from the churches all synods believed to be tainted with
lax discipline and new school, or " New Haven," theology which
was regarded as not quite severe enough in its phrasing of the
predestination doctrine ; they denounced the activity of non-
sectarian boards and established for their denomination its
own particular missionary societies. Their act was interpreted
rightly as the earnest of their determination to drive the new
school element out of the church.

At this time it is possible to strike the balance with some
fairness between the parties. Ostensibly at least the old school
forces had certain grievances that may justify their course.17
They were convinced that the union had brought into the
church Congregationalists who were not only lax in doctrine
but also disinclined to take seriously the exact and elaborate
organization of their church. It has been well said that the
essence of Presbyterianism is discipline; and the old school
men, while the violence of their proceedings may be condemned,
may be forgiven for thinking that without the full discipline
Presbyterianism would not be Presbyterianism.

As might be inferred the split had a peculiar effect in Illi-
nois, because there the new school forces had nourished Pres-
byterianism. Thus the synod of Illinois in 1836 had denounced
ministers who bought or sold slaves or approved such actions.
The synod by a small vote refused to condemn the abolitionist
doctrine, that all slaveholding is sin; instead, it merely declared
immediate emancipation inexpedient and prescribed a sermon
on slavery at each annual meeting. This policy satisfied even
Elijah P. Lovejoy, not yet an abolitionist. In April of 1837
the Alton presbytery appointed a committee to draft a memo-

17 For an account of the assembly from an Illinois new school source, see
Alton Observer, June 8, 15, 22, 29, July 6, 20, 1837. Lovejoy believed that
slavery was at the bottom of it, Princeton catering to the south, which formerly
had been new school. Ibid., June 29, 1837; Peoria Register, July i, 1837.

SOCIAL ADVANCE 419

rial to the synod against receiving into communion persons
from the south who had sold their slaves instead of freeing
them. In the convention of old school men which preceded
the general assembly of 1837 there were many complaints of
Illinois Presbyterianism. Ministers in the Schuyler presbytery
denied with impunity the doctrine of imputation; the Alton
Observer denied that all sinned and fell in Adam ; three-fourths
of the ministers were said to be New Haven men, brought in
by the Home Missionary Society. Worst of all a Presbyterian
minister, a professor of Illinois College, had said "What
New Haven is in Connecticut I would make Jacksonville in
Illinois." The general assembly of the church enjoined the
Illinois synod to purge itself from errors in church order
and doctrine. When the Illinois synod met in 1838 there
seceded from it all the delegates from the Kaskaskia presby-
tery, three out of four ministers and one out of four elders
from Sangamon; five ministers out of fifteen and seven elders
out of fourteen from Schuyler, and one elder from Peoria.
Those who remained condemned in a resolution the action of
the general assembly and declared it the duty of ministers to
preach against slavery as counter to the law of God. The
year before there had been several appeals to the new school
Presbyterians to organize before they were borne down by the
old school power. A loose synodical organization was sug-
gested in which they could continue to cooperate with New
England associations and with the Congregationalists.18

Congregationalism in Illinois as an organization began
in 1833. Up to that time the communion of Congregational
churches through the arrangement with the Presbyterians con-
tributed money, brains, labor, and members to the establish-
ment of another denomination and had continued to do so even
after it was realized that the arrangement was having such
an unequal result. Presbyterian churches had been founded,
sustained by Congregationalists in New England, and made

18 Alton Observer, October 27, December 15, 1836, April 20, June 8, July 6,
13, 27, 1837, April 19, 1838; Peoria Register, October 27, 1838.

420 THE FRONTIER STATE

up in Illinois largely of emigrated New England Congrega-
tionalists. In that year, however, the first three Congregational
churches were established, and by 1835 seven more had been
added. In 1836 the first meeting of the Illinois Congrega-
tional Association was held, churches at Jacksonville, Quincy,
Fairfield, Pond Prairie, St. Mary, Griggsville, and Long
Grove being represented.19 A general association was founded
in 1844 with two local associations embracing sixty-four
churches, forty-eight ministers, and 2,432 members.

The pioneering Congregational missionaries were usually
men of thorough collegiate and theological training and were
of indomitable energy though they showed varied talents
and adaptation for pioneer work. The Reverend Nathaniel
C. Clark, for example, founded the first Congregational church
in northern Illinois — that near Naperville — in 1833 and
afterwards organized thirty-seven churches in the Fox river
valley.

A great part of their energy, however, was given to the
planting and nourishing of educational institutions. Here
again it was not only their own denominational schools that were
aided, but the heartiest cooperation was extended to others.
Illinois, Knox, and Beloit colleges, Whipple, Dover, Prince-
ton, and other academies, Monticello, Jacksonville, Rockford,
and Galesburg female seminaries were all the fruit of their
inspiration, planning, or labor. Nearly every one of the
founders, presidents, and early professors of Illinois colleges,
nominally Presbyterian, were Congregational ministers.

From the beginning Congregationalists were inflexibly
opposed to slavery. The state association in 1844 made a
standing rule to which its members must assent: "No one
shall be admitted to membership in this body who does not
regard slaveholding as a sin condemned by God." For this

19 In 1833 the first Presbyterian church of Chicago was founded, made up of
New England Congregationalists: " In fact, Philo Carpenter is said to have been
the only one . . . who had always been a Presbyterian." Moses and Kirk-
land, History of Chicago, 331, 375. There was no Congregational church in
Chicago until 1851. See also Alton Observer, January 26, 1837, March 22, 1838.

SOCIAL ADVANCE 421

united and outspoken stand, and for the equally bold advocacy
of temperance reform, Congregationalists for a long time
aroused the abhorrence of conventional religionists.20

One of the most interesting religious developments of
the period was that of the Christians or Disciples of Christ.
They had a few scattered churches before 1830, but it was
that decade which saw the organization of many churches,
particularly in the southern and central parts of the state.
Settlers from Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia, already
imbued with the western spirit, found in this movement for
the restoration of apostolic Christianity a religion most suited
to their needs. The freedom and simplicity of a church that
refused to be limited by human creeds, that admitted to mem-
bership all who, after a scriptural confession of faith, were
baptized by immersion was too inherently western not to make
a strong appeal to the hardy, independent spirits of a develop-
ing frontier. The fact that they as a body incurred the most
spirited and bitter antagonism from other established denom-
inations21 could not prevail over the warmth, good fellow-
ship, and simplicity of their religion; by 1840 they had sixty
churches, twenty-seven ministers, and four thousand members;
the next ten years they more than doubled their strength having
in 1850 one hundred and twenty-five churches, sixty ministers,
and ten thousand communicants.22

In 1834 three Episcopal churches were organized in Illi-
nois; and a year later the first annual convention of this body
was held, seven ministers being present. By 1845 there were

20 Savage, Pioneer Congregational Ministers in Illinois, passim,

21 Sturtevant, Autobiography, 246, gives the following striking example of
the attitude toward this body in their early history. He had been asked to
preach to a congregation of Disciples and at its close he said: "I could
say with Peter, ' I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.' God taught me
that day to beware how I called any body of professed Christians ' common or
unclean.'

" The report of my doings in that Sabbath startled the community, the story
could not have been circulated with greater rapidity or repeated with more
emphasis had I committed an infamous crime.- A few defended my action, but
most of my good neighbors were shocked."

22 Thrapp, " Early Religious Beginnings in Illinois," in Illinois State His-
torical Society, Journal, 4:311; Moses, Illinois, 1077.

422 THE FRONTIER STATE

twenty-five clergymen in twenty-eight parishes, with over five
hundred members; by 1848 the number of communicants had
grown to over a thousand.23 The interest in the denomina-
tion centers around the figure of the missionary bishop, Phi-
lander Chase, who came to Illinois in 1833. One knows more
about Chase than about most men in Illinois of that day
because he was continually breaking into print with pamphlets
appealing for support for his pet, Jubilee College, or protest-
ing against attacks on the college or on himself. His attempts
to be discreet on the question of slavery brought him wordy
wars with the abolitionists.

In the earlier years of statehood Illinois comprised a part of
the Roman Catholic diocese of Bardstown, Kentucky, though
it was administered by Bishop Joseph Rosati at St. Louis, who
acted as vicar-general.23* During this time there were a few
scattered congregations, mostly French, in southern Illinois;
in 1826 there were, according to Bishop Rosati's report, twenty
missions, whose needs were supplied by missionaries sent out
from St. Louis. But beginning slowly in the thirties and in-
creasing rapidly in the forties came that tide of Catholic immi-
grants, predominantly Irish and German, who, settling in great
numbers in the northern section of the country, shifted ecclesias-
tical emphasis to the north and made Catholicism an important
factor in state development.

When Chicago was incorporated in 1833 the Catholics
there numbered 130, or ninety per cent of the population; they
were largely French, or French and Indian — the latter includ-
ing the half-breed Potawatomi chiefs, Billy Caldwell and Alex-
ander Robinson.23b In April of 1833 these Catholics sent a

23 Alton Telegraph, July 26, 1845; Journal of Annual Conventions of Epis-
copalian Church of Illinois, 1843-1857.

23a For the great part of the material here used on the Catholics of Illinois
I am indebted to the proof of Gilbert J. Garraghan's article, " Early Catholicity
in Chicago, 1673-1843," which is to appear in the Illinois Catholic Historical
Journal, volume i, number i.

23b These were the chiefs so widely and favorably known as friends of the
whites; it was their influence which saved the Kinzies and others from the fury
of the Indians when the former arrived on the scene the day following the Fort
Dearborn massacre; both were later instrumental in preventing the Potawatomi
from participation in the Winnebago and Black Hawk wars.

SOCIAL ADVANCE 423

petition for a resident pastor to Bishop Rosati, who, less than
a month later, was able to comply with their request in the per-
son of a zealous and intelligent young French priest, Irenaeus
Mary St. Cyr. He at once began his duties, saying mass in a
laborer's cabin given him by the hotel keeper Mark Beaubien,
until the first Catholic church of Chicago could be erected.
This, a small, unplastered, unpainted chapel, on the south side
of Lake street, was completed in October, 1 833 ; and the follow-
ing day the first mass was said in St. Mary's to a visiting band
of three hundred Indians.

Father St. Cyr ministered to Indians, French, Canadians,
Germans, Irish, and Americans, who, notwithstanding the
priest's poor English, did u not fail to come in crowds to our
church every Sunday."230 In the spring of 1835 there was a
Catholic population of four hundred in Chicago, and Catholics
were thickening throughout the state. Galena had a resident
pastor, Father McMahon, in 1833, and at his death Father
Charles Fitzmaurice, a native of Ireland, was sent out from St.
Louis as his successor. Missions were established at Bour-
bonnais Grove, Joliet, in Lake and LaSalle counties; in the
central part of the state, Father Van Quickenborne was, in
1832, ministering to Springfield and other localities in Sanga-
mon county; while Catholics near Peoria and Quincy were need-
ing pastors. To meet these fast changing conditions Rome,
when erecting the see of Vincennes in 1834, divided the state
longitudinally; the western half, according to a suggestion of
Bishop Rosati, was attached "not only de facto but de jure"
to the see of St. Louis, while the eastern half, including Chi-
cago,23*1 became a part of the see of Vincennes under Bishop

23c In 1836 Father Bernard Schaeffer, a native of Strassburg in Alsace, ar-
rived in Chicago to care for the German speaking Catholics; at his death the
following year he was succeeded by Father Francis Fischer. Father St. Cyr
was removed to Quincy in the spring of 1837, anc^ tnat summer Father Bernard
O'Meara succeeded to the pastorate of St. Mary's. Father Maurice St. Palais,
the future Bishop of Vincennes, came to Chicago in 1838 [ ?] ; at the coming of
Bishop Quarter in May, 1844, Fathers Fischer and St. Palais were the only priests
in the city — as was the enlarged St. Mary's the only church, the new church of
brick begun by Father St. Palais at the southwest corner of Wabash avenue and
Madison street being then unfinished.

23d By Special arrangement Chicago, in the pastorate of Father St. Cyr,

424 THE FRONTIER STATE

Simon Gabriel Brute; such remained the status of Illinois dur-
ing the next nine years of tremendous expansion and growth.
A petition from Chicago Catholics in 1837 states that "we
have in this town two thousand and perhaps more Catholics as
there are a large number of Catholic families in the adjacent
country particularly on the line of the Chicago and Illinois
canal. . . ." The Catholic population continued to grow
with the city, until on November 28, 1843, tne diocese of Chi-
cago, consolidating the entire state of Illinois, was canonically
established by Pope Gregory XVI. The following spring the
Right Reverend William Quarter, a native of Ireland, arrived
in Chicago as its first bishop. During his service of four years,
he founded the University of St. Mary's of the Lake, built
thirty churches, ordained twenty-nine priests, and left forty
clergymen and twenty ecclesiastical students in the diocese.

The influx of German and Scandinavian immigration in
the forties brought many Lutherans into the state. In 1846
the first German Lutheran church was founded in Chicago;
in 1847 the Norwegian Lutherans there organized themselves
into a church. The first meeting of the Evangelical Lutheran
synod of Illinois was called at Hillsboro, October, 1846, and
reported seven ministers, fifteen congregations and six hundred
and eighty-five communicants. The Illinois synod, German, was
organized in 1848, and with the steady increase of German
and Scandinavian immigration the Lutheran church grew with
great rapidity.24

The work of Bible societies, Sunday school societies, and
similar institutions in Illinois was actively continued. In 1836
the Illinois Bible Society employed a general agent who the fol-
lowing year reported that in forty-seven out of seventy-one
counties one or more Bible societies had been established. He

remained for a year longer under Bishop Rosati at St. Louis. In the preceding
year it would appear that Chicago was in the see of Detroit, the original south-
ern line of that diocese, as erected in 1833, having run from the Maumee west
to the Mississippi.

24 Moses and Kirkland, History of Chicago, 356, 358; Moses, Illinois, 1075;
Neve, Brief History of the Lutheran Church in America, 93.

SOCIAL ADVANCE 425

estimated that two-thirds of the Bibles in the state were there
as a result of the societies' operations. Like the Bible society
the Sunday school union was an interdenominational affair
with the support of at least the more liberal members of the
various Protestant denominations. Such men as Kinney and
Cartwright, believing that the movement was designed by the
hated Yankees to civilize the valley, felt a natural jealousy
that held them aloof from the enterprise. Indeed local utter-
ances indorsing such a design were not wanting on the part
of the American Sunday School Union, whose agents from this
time were active in the state. The underlying purpose of the
movement was variously defined; sometimes, in default of
ordinary schools, to afford education that might train for
intelligent citizenship; sometimes, to prepare the young for
church membership. One of the reports for 1836 made by the
three organizing agents of the Illinois Sunday School Union
was rather diverting; among other things it was stated that
there was no Sunday school in Johnson county, and it was not
possible to establish any; in one place only two families wanted
one, since the experience with a singing school which had bro-
ken up in a stabbing row had rendered the inhabitants fearful
of any further educational projects. In general a slowly wan-
ing opposition to Sunday schools, especially on the part of
the Baptists was reported, as was also the fact that no more
day schools than Sunday schools existed. Multitudes of young
men were growing up unable to read, and the state was slow
in supplying the greatly needed schools.25

The general effect of religious propaganda in the state
can be set down as nothing but good. It is true there were
occasional complaints of lukewarmness or hypocrisy on the
part of the church members, complaints that people went to
church to show fine clothing or to indulge the newfangled habit
of munching candy in church. Sabbath breaking persisted,

25 Alton Observer, December 8, 1836, April 20, 1837; Western Pioneer, June
30, July 22, August 5, 1836, December 8, 1837; Illinois Intelligencer, July 3,
August 21, September 18, 1830, February 26, April 2, 1831; Galena Advertiser,
April 26, 1830.

426 THE FRONTIER STATE

the old habits of carrying produce to market and starting a
journey on Sunday continuing as before. This disregard of the
Sabbath was constantly noticed by visitors from the east. In
1847 a convention was held at Belleville to promote better
Sunday observance. There were the old complaints that the
people who in the east professed religion became irreligious
in the west. In 1838, however, the Peoria Register affirmed
that not a settler in the Military Tract but was within ten or
twelve miles of divine service on Sunday.26

In the cause of temperance during the early thirties there
were occasional bursts of activity throughout Illinois, notably
at Alton. In 1836 a state temperance agent was appointed,
and in the fall of that year the Illinois State Temperance Soci-
ety celebrated its third anniversary at Alton. Timothy
Turner, its agent, reported the organization of fifteen societies
and the taking of twenty-five hundred pledges as a result of
one hundred and twenty addresses in thirty-three counties. By
the end of 1837 there were two hundred and fifty local societies
in the state.27

Prohibitory legislation followed in the wake of organiza-
tion. In 1838 Alton prohibited the selling of spirituous liquors
producing thereby much excited language. At Peoria the
question was brought up coupled with the direction of attention
to the number of " doggeries " kept by aliens and with a sug-
gested appeal to the state legislature to prohibit retailing of
spirituous liquor in Illinois. In January there were petitions
for and against the granting of liquor licenses in the town.
In Henry county it was said no license had ever been granted.
In 1837, owing to the refusal of the county commissioners to
license, there was not a grocery in the county of Wabash.

28 Illinois State Register, July 9, 1841; Chicago American, September 26,
1839; Alton Telegraph, June n, 1847; Western Citizen, April 18, 1844; Baptist
Helmet, April 24, 1835; Belleville Advocate, April 29, 1847; Western Pioneer,
April 7, 1837, February 18, 1845; Peoria Register, September i, 1838.

27 Illinois Intelligencer, October 29, 1831; Alton Telegraph, September 26,
1833, March 16, 1836; Alton American, January 3, 1834; Alton Spectator, Janu-
ary 4, 1834; Alton Observer, December 8, 1836; Chicago Democrat, February 4,
1834; Western Pioneer, December 8, 1837.

SOCIAL ADVANCE 427

Monmouth was a dry town in 1839, and Peoria, Knoxville, and
Oquawka all had temperance hotels.28

The difficulty in dealing with the problems was the all
pervasive character of the traffic. It wound itself into almost
every phase of life. The bargain or the store trade was not
complete without the glass of whisky; it was a political expedi-
ent used on every hand. Drinking, and hard drinking, was
everywhere prevalent. Men delighted to number and classify
in routine the various potations of a day and to give each
its own name — eye opener, phlegm cutter, stomach cleaner,
fogmatic, anti-fogmatic and so on.29 To wean men from so
constant an attendant as John Barleycorn more was required
than legislation or temperance organizations of the old type.

The Washingtonian movement took root in Illinois toward
the end of 1841 and gave a completely different trend to the
temperance propaganda in the state. It differed from the
earlier temperance agitation in that the latter was closely
guided by ministers and paid agents, suspected of fanaticism,
and that it was designed to save the temperate man \vhile
leaving the drunkard to his fate. The Washingtonian move-
ment on the other hand, frankly emotional, appealed to the
drunkard through the mouth of the converted drunkard.30
Here there was no chance of raising the cry of church and
state. The signing of a pledge to abstinence set in motion a
psychological force sure to have some effect. The excitement
died down somewhat after the first burst of enthusiasm of
1842, but thereafter the Washingtonian interest can be traced
from time to time.

The crimes of the day were more numerous than those of
the earlier period though in both instances they arose from
the contact of the wilderness with the property rights of civi-
lization. Robberies, at times involving large sums, were not

28 Alton Telegraph, May 23, September 12, 1838; Peoria Register, December
29, 1838, January 19, May 25, July 20, August 3, 1839; Western Pioneer, October
27, 1837.

29 Chicago American, January n, 27, 1842.

30 Sangamo Journal, December 17, 31, 1841, January 21, March 26, 1842;
Chicago American, January 13, 1842.

428 THE FRONTIER STATE

infrequent. There was an occasional murder not the work
of a gang; one notes but few cases of crimes of sex. Counter-
feiting and forgery, especially of land titles, were prevalent.
Gangs frequently combined several activities, making and cir-
culating counterfeits, horse stealing, and occasional murder.
The large scale operation and organization of these gangs,
especially such a one as the banditti of the prairies in north-
ern Illinois, went far beyond the ability of the slight legal
machinery of the county to compass.31

This being the case the citizens had occasional recourse to
extraordinary means. Sometimes a mob would wreck a little
hamlet, the resort of crime of all sorts, sometimes it would
break up a gambling booth at a race course. Sometimes soci-
eties would be formed to put down horse stealing. Occasion-
ally a man of doubtful life in a community who had excited
the wrath of his neighbors might be visited with the extreme
penalty of mob violence.32

In southern Illinois, Massac and Pope counties had for
years been terrorized by a powerful gang of horse thieves,
counterfeiters, and robbers until in 1846 the honest portion
of the citizens formed themselves into a band of regulators
to torture and harass the rascals into leaving the state. Sus-
pected persons were taken to the Ohio and held under water
until willing to confess; "others had ropes tied around their
bodies over their arms, and a stick twisted into the ropes until
their ribs and sides were crushed in by force of the pressure " 33
in order that information of their confederates might be
gained. Such methods did not settle the matter, however, for
the " Flatheads," as the outlaws were called, were, too numer-

31 Alton Telegraph, September 25, October 23, December n, 1841, January
i, 1842, January 15, 1847; Chicago Democrat, June 25, July 6, 16, 23, August 9, 27,
September 24, October 8, 15, 21, November 5, n, 1845, July 21, 1846, September 28,
1847; Belleville Advocate, September 24, 1836, January 21, 1847; Illinois State
Register, March 23, 1838, October 15, 1841 ; Sanaamo Journal, September 14, 1833,
January 18, 1834; Chicago American, February 18, 1837, Ju'v 15> J839, Septem-
ber 5, 1840.

32 Belleville Advocate, July 30, 1841, July 23, 1846, September 9, 1847;
Sanaamo Journal, October u, 1834; Alton Telegraph, November i, 1837; Chi-
cago American, June 22, 1839.

33 Ford, History of Illinois, 438.

SOCIAL ADVANCE 429

ous and had been powerful for too long a period to be sum-
marily disposed of. In Massac they gained the control of the
county offices and in August made application to the governor
for a militia force to sustain the authority of the law. " This
disturbance," writes Governor Ford, "being at a distance of
two hundred and fifty miles from the seat of government, and
in a part of the country between which and the seat of govern-
ment there was but very little communication, the facts con-
cerning it were but imperfectly known to the governor." 84 In
the interval of inquiry that ensued, disturbances broke out more
violently than ever. Regulators from Pope county and from
Kentucky joined their fellows in Massac, drove out the offi-
cers, and defied the judgments of the circuit court — forcibly
liberating those of their number who were arrested; they
became so sweepingly tyrannical that the counties were almost
as terrorized as under the outlaws. The militia, however,
refused to turn out to protect officials in league with horse
thieves. Thus the regulators were left undisputed masters
of the county; they whipped, tarred and feathered, and
drove out of the country both rascals and honest opponents.
Conditions became somewhat quieter that winter through
state intervention; special legislation was passed creating a
court to try offenders and at the same time vesting the gov-
ernor with additional powers in that region. Notwithstand-
ing all efforts, however, spasmodic outbursts continued for
years.35

The struggle of the state to master its problem of educa-
tion, despite its rich endowment, was marked with only a
measured success. The main reliance for the education of
the young was still on private schools. A report to the legis-
lature of 1832 frankly admitted that the state policy must
be one of grants in aid rather than one of forming by enact-

34 Ford, History of Illinois, 439.

35 In August, 1849, a civil war was anticipated. The "Flatheads," who had
killed a regulator informer by tying him naked to a tree in a mosquito infested
district, barricaded themselves with ammunition and two cannon taken from the
regulators, who, determined to arrest the murderers, sent for cannon and aid
from their friends in Kentucky. Western Citizen, August 14, 1849.

430 THE FRONTIER STATE

ment a complete system. In Illinois finance the school, col-
lege, and seminary funds went into the state treasury to pay
state expenses, the state holding itself responsible for the pay-
ment of interest for school purposes to teachers presenting
proper schedules of teaching.36

The absence of anything like uniformity or organization
in the state's primary school system was keenly felt by those
intimately connected with it. Teachers complained that par-
ents afforded them no moral support in disciplining their chil-
dren, that neighborhoods by preference employed the lowest
bidders and therefore had the worst teachers. They com-
plained of cold ill-ventilated schoolrooms, of the thousand
and one different methods of teaching, use of books, and of
other difficulties. The actual workings of the Illinois system
under moderately favorable conditions may be gathered from
the report of a school township secretary in Peoria county.
His fund was $6,455.96 all loaned at ten to twelve per cent.
Of the accrued interest, however, only $178.96 was collected;
and this with $184.42 from the state school fund was paid to
five teachers in amounts varying from $24.75 to $118.79.
The schools, with two hundred and fifty pupils ran two, four,
six, eight, and eleven and one-half months respectively. With
this may be compared the account of a school teacher in Taze-
well, in whose school one hundred and ten scholars were regis-
tered with a maximum attendance on any day of fifty-eight.
In addition to the " common school branches" this man taught
astronomy, philosophy, chemistry, surveying, algebra, and
bookkeeping.37

Nevertheless in the thirties there was real and sometimes
intelligent interest in educational problems. The demonstra-
tion of a new method of teaching English grammar by lectures
would be the occasion of a newspaper invitation to the public
to attend the meeting. In 1832-1833 the formation of an
Illinois institute of education was undertaken to deal on the

36 Sangamo Journal, March 2, 1833; Laws of 1836, p. 249.

37 Alton Telegraph, June n, 1837; Sangamo Journal, July 22, 1837; Peoria
Register, January 26, September 21, 1839.

SOCIAL ADVANCE 431

basis of educational statistics with the difficult problems of
education in the state. In 1834 delegates to a state educational
convention were chosen. That convention recommended the
establishment of school districts by voluntary action but mainly
devoted itself to recommendations regarding seminary and
college funds. As early as 1837 one finds an appeal for the
establishment of the office of superintendent of public instruc-
tion. Interest began to be directed in particular toward two
different methods of school management and teaching — the
New England system and the Prussian.38

With the forties, however, the state moved on toward a
unified system. Attention was called to the fact that one hun-
dred thousand children in Illinois were said to be out of school
and that 28,780 adults were accounted illiterate. The act of
1841 provided for township administration of school lands
in the familiar way with an added provision that congressional
townships might on vote of the people be incorporated for
school purposes. The Belleville Advocate urged a similar
organization in St. Clair county. An attempt in 1843 to secure
an act allowing the taxation for schools by local vote called
out a flash of the same opposition to taxation for education
that had defeated the school law of 1825. O. H. Browning
pleaded for it referring to what Connecticut's school system
had done for that state, to which Orlando B. Ficklin retorted
that taxing one class for the benefit of another was unjust —
witness the fact that Connecticut had inundated the west with
clockpeddlers and men who lived by their wits. In 1845 an
act was passed incorporating all congressional townships as
school townships and allowing voters in school districts to
levy a special tax for the support of the schools. More than
this, the school system of the state for the first time was
given unity by the designation of the secretary of state
as state superintendent of public schools. An attempt was

38 Sangamo Journal, November 10, 1831, March 2, 1833, November 15, 22, 29,
1834, January 24, 1835, September 3, 1837; Alton Telegraph, June n, 1837;
Alton Observer, January, March, 1838; Chicago Tribune, July, 1840; Chicago
American, September 17, 1836.

432 THE FRONTIER STATE

made to secure state recognition of German schools, but in
vain.39

The last years of the old constitution were marked on the
part of educators by a renewed interest and hopefulness in
their profession. A teachers' convention called at Jacksonville
in 1845 set itself to discuss education for professional, agri-
cultural, mechanical, and commercial pursuits, differentiation
of education for the sexes, the possibility of an efficient school
system without a complete township system, and possible state
aid to colleges and seminaries in training teachers.40 A teach-
ers' convention at Belvidere that same year considered the
possibility of a normal school that appears to have been near
akin to the teachers' institute.

The broadening interest in education perceived the possi-
bility, and consequent necessity of teaching the blind and deaf.
The bill for the establishment of the deaf and dumb asylum
was passed in 1839, but because of insufficient funds, the build-
ing contract was not let until 1 843 ; three years later the school
opened with thirteen pupils. In 1847 a blind man had under-
taken, at the expense of private charity in Jacksonville, the
instruction of six blind children. The success of the experi-
ment was instrumental two years later in the passage of " an
act to establish the Illinois Institution for the Education of
the Blind." Through the influence of the "Jacksonville
crowd," that city, after much bickering in the legislature, se-
cured both schools.41

If Illinois lacked for a unified school system, it did not
lack for much private effort in behalf of schools, seminaries,
and colleges, a surprisingly large number of which struggled
on. As early as 1830 one notes high schools and academies,
sometimes free to subscribers' children, sometimes combined
with a young ladies' school to teach the polite accomplishments

89 Alton Telegraph, April 17, 1841, February n, 25, 1843, March 22, 1845;
Chicago American, November 10, 1841; Belleville Advocate, December 30, 1841;
Sangamo Journal, February 2, 1843; Laws of 184.1, p. 259; Laws of 184.5, P- 51-

40 Sangamo Journal, June 5, 1845.

41 Through the same influence Jacksonville was named as the site of the
Illinois State Hospital for the Insane, in an act passed in March, 1847.

SOCIAL ADVANCE 433

of that day. In 1833 the Convent of the Ladies of Visitation
was established in connection with Menard Academy at Kas-
kaskia which three years later opened a commodious building
to pupils. By 1842 eighteen sisters had the care of seventy
pupils, twelve of whom were orphans taught free of charge.
Tuition for the curriculum of literature, music, and arithmetic
was one hundred and twenty-five dollars a year for boarding
pupils, and twenty-five dollars for day students. In 1844
the school building was practically destroyed by the Missis-
sippi flood, and this academy was removed to St. Louis; but
Catholic day schools were maintained at Cahokia, La Salle,
and other places in this state.42

Every denomination was concerned with similar efforts
to provide instruction for its children. Cartwright advertised
a school at Pleasant Plains that began with the three R's and
ended with natural and moral philosophy and Latin and Greek,
with promise of other sciences and " female accomplishments "
as soon as suitable teachers could be found. Meanwhile, com-
mon branches were taught at the rate of five dollars for a five
months' session and one might board with Cartwright for one
dollar a week if paid in advance, otherwise the rate was a
dollar and a quarter.43

In 1835 the Jacksonville Female Academy was incorpo-
rated by the legislature, a majority voting to apply the stern
republican principle of making trustees liable for debts con-
tracted in their corporate capacity. The year 1836 saw a
much larger crop of school corporations, a favorite type being
the "manual labor" seminary in which the students were re-
quired to labor with their hands partly to lessen the cost of
their education, partly for their health's sake. Session after
session of the legislature added to the number of these schools,
many of which had real life and energy. They offered studies
similar to those in Cartwright's curriculum.44

42 Salzbacher, Melne Reise nach Nord-Amerika im Jahre 1842, p. 227.

43 Illinois Intelligencer, February 6, November 27, 1830; Galenian, May 16,
1832; Alton Spectator, August 28, 1832, April 2, 1833.

44 Laws of 1835, p. 192; Laws of 1836, p. 154, 158, 160, 163, 167, 170, 182;

434 THE FRONTIER STATE

For children of well-to-do parents, however, outside schools
held greater attractions. The Menard children went to
Georgetown University or to Missouri schools. One school
at Linden Wood, St. Louis, which asked two dollars and a half
a week for plain tuition and board, prescribed a uniform that
speaks a certain degree of luxury. Sabbath uniform dresses
for summer were white dress, pink sash, handkerchief, straw
bonnet trimmed with light blue ribbon, white cape, and black
silk apron; for winter a crimson dress of English merino, white
collar, black silk apron, and dark green cloak.45

The legislature had never evidenced any intention of using
immediately the college and seminary funds for establishing
the schools for which they had been set aside. Popular opinion
did not greatly protest. In 1840 the Chicago Weekly Tribune
believed the time not yet ripe for a state college or university,
though it did insist that the state should have a competent sys-
tem of high schools and a school of education.46 In such a sit-
uation it was perhaps inevitable that, though deprecated
by some, collegiate education would develop along sec-
tarian lines. In 1835 an act incorporating four colleges,
specified that no particular Christian faith be held or taught
in any, but the prohibition prevented only for the moment
theological seminary training for it was soon evaded. In 1840
the state had twelve colleges, though Illinois College was the
only one granting degrees.

The foundations of certain of these colleges had been laid
before 1830. Shurtleff grew out of Peck's seminary at Rock
Spring, which in 1831—1832 had been removed to Alton and
opened there as Alton Seminary. It rejected in 1833 a char-
ter which forbade the teaching of theology by any professor;
but in 1835 a somewhat objectionable compromise was ac-

2 Laws of 1837, p. 43, 87; Laws of 1841, p. i, 5; Peoria Register, June 22, 1838;
Alton Telegraph, October 10, 1838; February 22, 1840; Belleville Advocate,
August 20, 1841, June 5, 1843; Chicago American, April 6, 1841.

4S Alton Observer, May 25, 1837.

*a Sangamo Journal, December 8, 1834, August 22, 1835; Senate Journal,
1833, i session, 538; Lotus of 1835, p. 177; Chicago Weekly Tribune, July n,
1840.

SOCIAL ADVANCE 435

cepted, a seminary being conducted side by side with the col-
lege until 1841, when the restriction was repealed. In 1836
the name of the college, in recognition of the donations of Dr.
Benjamin Shurtleff, was changed to Shurtleff College.47

For a time men cherished great dreams of what might be
done with it. In 1840 the trustees projected a school of dig-
nified agriculture, designed to teach the farmer his profession
scientifically. The project as it took shape in their minds
seemed to be to give the farmer a better intellectual back-
ground; labor on the farm and in the workshop was to be com-
bined with study. A few days later the Telegraph printed a
letter purporting to come from a farmer, praising the scheme,
and enlarging upon it. He denounced the Latin and Greek
colleges that gave only a smattering to their students, leaving
them ignorant of their mother tongue, and praised the plan
for a professorship of English. For an agricultural depart-
ment he suggested courses in horticulture, lower mathematics,
natural philosophy, chemistry, mineralogy, botany, compara-
tive anatomy, physiology, with the cause and cure of animal
and vegetable diseases. More broadly he urged an education
to obliterate the line between gentlemen and laborers. This
idea was a full quarter century ahead of its time. The college
continued to develop; in 1841 it had thirty-one preparatory
and collegiate and four theological students. In 1841-1842
the opening of a medical school was announced. In the later
years of the period the more radical Baptists attacked the col-
lege on account of its proslavery views, and the founder was
denounced as "one of the greatest proslavery men in the
state."48

McKendree College, a Methodist institution, developed
from Lebanon Seminary founded in 1828. At first there was
strong opposition in the board of trustees itself both to aboli-
tion and to the establishment of a school of theology. The
institution emphasized the manual training principle and

47 Jubilee Memorial of Shurtleff College, passim.

48 Western Christian, June 28, 1848; see also Alton Telegraph, March 4,
April 4, 1840, August 14, 1841, January 22, 1842.

436 THE FRONTIER STATE

boasted a female department. Students' board bills were pay-
able two-thirds in produce, one-third in good bacon, pickled
pork, beef, flour, or milch cows with young calves ; tuition for a
five months' term in the higher branches was eight dollars.
The school was taken successively under the patronage of the
Missouri and the Illinois conferences, and in gratitude for a
donation from Bishop William McKendree it was renamed,
first, McKendreean College, then, McKendree. It was incor-
porated with other colleges in 1835. The college had to sus-
pend in 1845 but reopened in the next year with three pro-
fessors and a principal for the preparatory department49

In 1835—1836 Bishop Philander Chase collected funds in
England for an Episcopal college in Illinois; the corner stone
of Jubilee College was laid in 1839 at Robins Nest, Peoria
county, but a charter was not secured until i847.50

In 1837 the Presbyterians and Congregationalists laid the
foundations for two small colleges. Through the Reverend
Gideon Blackburn funds were obtained for a theological insti-
tution at Carlinville. He entered lands for eastern investors
at two dollars an acre, keeping twenty-five cents of the surplus
over government price for himself and appropriating the re-
mainder to the purchase of lands for the college. In 1837 the
future Blackburn University had in trust an endowment of sev-
enteen thousand acres; the enterprise, however, lay dormant
for twenty years, when in 1857 the college was formally incor-
porated.

The Reverend George W. Gale, a new school Presbyterian
of New York, was responsible for the inception of the other
educational venture. In order to combine study with whole-
some physical labor for students he conceived the idea of buy-
ing at government prices a township of fertile western land,
reserving a town site and large farm for the use of a college,

49 Catalogue of McKendree College, 1916-1917, p. 90; Sangamo Journal,
September 13, 1834; Western Pioneer, February 8, 1838; Alton Telegraph,
December 6, 1845; Belleville Advocate, April n, 1846.

50 Sangamo Journal, February 13, 1836; Peoria Register, December 22, 1838,
April 6, 1839; Illinois Advocate, December 16, 1835.

SOCIAL ADVANCE 437

and selling the remainder which carried tuition rights in the
college at five dollars an acre; the surplus would endow the
college. The project met with favor; in 1835 a committee
inspected and purchased land in Knox county, and forty-six
colonists there undertook to carry out the plan. In 1837
Knox Manual Labor College was incorporated, and a year
later forty students were enrolled at the formal opening of the
academy. By 1842 there were one hundred and forty-seven
preparatory students, and the collegiate department had been
opened with ten freshmen.61

Illinois College, the greatest educational venture of the
Presbyterians and Congregationalists in Illinois, was the fruit,
but a partial fruit indeed, of the imperial dream of a group of
young students, the famous "Yale band." In Yale Theolog-
ical Seminary, Theron Baldwin, John F. Brooks, Mason Gros-
venor, Elisha Jenner, William Kirby, J. M. Sturtevant, and
Asa Turner, with the magnificent enthusiasm of youth planned
to be workers in an enterprise, both educational and religious,
to raise the west out of intellectual darkness. Some of them
were to serve as settled ministers or missionaries, some of them
to give their time to seminaries and to a college that was to
crown the whole educational system.52 At the time that this
idea was taking form the Reverend J. M. Ellis, a Presbyterian
missionary in Illinois since 1826, was busy with the scheme of
a college in the state of Illinois at Jacksonville; and the little
group, accepting it as the center of their enterprise — the seat
of a new and greater Yale to be reared on the western prairies
— enlisted the American Home Missionary Association in its
support. Illinois College opened in January of 1830 with
Julian Sturtevant as teacher in it; during the year the Reverend
Edward Beecher came to be president; three years later, a
brother of Asa Turner, Jonathan Baldwin Turner, arrived and
began his connection with the state. In 1835—1836 there were

51 Alton Observer, October 27, 1836, June 15, 1837; Catalog of Knox College,
1914-1915, p. 52.

52 Sturtevant, Sketch of Theron Baldwin, passim; Sturtevant, Autobiography,
passim.

438 THE FRONTIER STATE

four seniors, seven juniors, thirteen sophomores, sixteen fresh-
men, and forty preparatory students. In 1839 the preparatory
department was abandoned as tending to lower the tone of the
college.53 Meanwhile in 1837, Baldwin, who had served as a
pastor and as editor of the Common School Advocate, became
principal of the Monticello Female Seminary. The college
had to meet the question of finance. Its founders were able to
supplement local resources with contributions from the treas-
uries of the society in the east. A subscription of seventy-five
thousand dollars was lost in the panic of 1837. Finally in
1843 tne Society for Promoting Collegiate and Theological
Education at the West, with Theron Baldwin as its secretary
and financial agent, took Illinois College over together with
Western Reserve, Wabash, Marietta, and Lane colleges. In
1846 Sturtevant urged that the property of the college be sold
for Illinois bonds than at a heavy discount, but the scheme was
too visionary for the trustees, and they preferred to sell for
cash.54

From a larger point of view the college never met the ideal
of its founders, but by no fault of theirs. To begin with the
scheme excited jealousy both from rival denominations and
from those who believed New England was plotting to federal-
ize the west. Hardly had Sturtevant arrived when Peter Cart-
wright delivered himself of a sermon, anathematizing and
caricaturing Presbyterian doctrine and ridiculing learned min-
isters; and Sturtevant, at the time just painfully learning to
preach without reading his sermon, was at a disadvantage.
Further the jealousy between old school and new school, and
new school and Congregational was to do its work. The
"Yale band" had imbibed at their alma mater the theology of
N. W. Taylor which was anathema to the strict Presbyterian.55
In 1833 Edward Beecher, Julian Sturtevant, and William
Kirby were accused of heresy in the presbytery at Jacksonville ;
but subsequently they were acquitted. In 1839, despite previ-

53 Alton Spectator, February 12, 1836; Peoria Register, October 6, 1839.

54 Sturtevant, Autobiography, 268.

65 Ibid., 125-132, 161 ; Galena Advertiser, November 30, 1839.

SOCIAL ADVANCE 439

ous attempts on the part of Beecher and Sturtevant to prevent
it, a Congregational church was organized at Jacksonville.
Sturtevant later gave some countenance to it; and as the tide
of New Englanders sweeping into the north disregarded the
plan of union and organized churches of their own, distrust
and suspicion deepened. The antislavery views of men like
Beecher and Sturtevant were an added difficulty. Finally, in
1844, Beecher resigned, possibly from necessity. Turner fol-
lowed him a few years later; but Sturtevant remained to round
out a long career at Jacksonville.

The story of Illinois College leads naturally to the con-
sideration of one of the most remarkable men intellectually
in the state of that day — Jonathan Baldwin Turner. The
fact that of what he offered her, his country, and especially
his adopted state, cared to take only the Osage orange hedge
and the agricultural college, should not blind the student to
the fact that Turner's intellectual interests were far broader
than either scientific agriculture or highly technical education.
In 1843—1844 for example, he edited at Jacksonville the
Illinois Statesman; and that paper to the student of ideas is a
land flowing with milk and honey in a desert otherwise relieved
only by half-arid oases. From other papers one can learn only
by indirection of the intellectual life of Illinois of that day;
from Turner one gets the comment on it of a powerful and
keenly interested mind.

It was not to be expected that Turner would compromise
with the public tastes of his day. Sensational news had so
little interest to him that he would not vex himself to give it to
his readers. Under the head of "Crimes and Casualties" he
printed: "Our paper is small, and if our readers will for the
present just have the goodness to imagine a certain due pro-
portion of fires, tornadoes, murders, thefts, robberies and bully
fights, from week to week, it will do just as well, for we can
assure them they actually take place."56 The man who, when
the thunders of denominational denunciation were rolling forth

58 Scott, Newspapers and Periodicals of Illinois, Ixxiv.

440 THE FRONTIER STATE

against Mormonism, was moved to analyze the sect as a fas-
cinating study in comparative religion was not likely to blind
his eyes to the violence of the deeds and plans of the anti-Mor-
mons. He urged the people of the Military Tract to abide by
the law and to have pity on the helpless at Nauvoo. What
would Europe think of the state, if one year she granted Smith
lawmaking powers and the next made open war on him?57

Because of Turner's keen, trenchant comment on politics
the Illinoisan made fierce war on the " crack-brained, gaping,
half-witted theorist Yankee," who cheerfully replied in abusive
rhetoric that Milton himself might have envied. Turner's
paper reflected a popular disgust with political partisanship
and party manipulation on either side, declaring that the poli-
ticians on both sides were usually men who could not be trusted
with any of the ordinary concerns of life. Turner was dis-
gusted with Van Buren as a political manipulator and hoped
for a time that Calhoun might lead the party to a higher
plane of statesmanship, until he saw the latter's slavery drift.
At the same time he regarded the possible defeat of Clay, the
duelist and gambler, as a moral triumph. Further he tore to
pieces mercilessly the whigs' argument for protection and other
of their pet doctrines. He was keen enough to see that the
democrats really stood in theory at least for certain funda-
mental truths as well as for certain very important measures.
To the whigs he was willing to ascribe the conservative func-
tion, that of promoting steadiness and stability of progress,
remarking that they necessarily had to show greater states-
manship than their opponents for this very reason.58

In his consideration of the slavery question Turner steered
as original a course as he did elsewhere. He was not an out
and out abolitionist, and he occasionally deprecated the vio-
lence of referring to all slaveholders as kidnappers and man-
stealers. As to runaways he was disposed to think the proper
course somewhere midway between turning all the people of

57 Illinois Statesman, September 18, 25, 1843.

58 Illinoisan, November 17, 1843; Illinois Statesman, July 17, August 14, 28,
October 2, 16, November 27, December 4, 1843, February 19, March n, 27, 1844.

SOCIAL ADVANCE 441

Illinois into slavecatchers and enticing slaves away. As a
result he had one or two tifts with the Western Citizen. He
denounced slavery bitterly enough in his own way, as an in-
stitution in monstrous contrast with the nation's principles of
political liberty, or an imposition on a majorty of the whites
for the benefit of an aristocratic ruling-class minority. He
professed, however, that he could not support the liberty party
on the ground that he could not vote for a man like James G.
Birney who was not a tried statesman.59 On the exclusion from
church membership of slaveholders he remarked with a full
vision of the essential barrenness of "one idealism" that "no
one conformity or non-conformity can make a man good or
bad."60 His final comment, however, on the intellectual fer-
ment that followed on the train of abolitionism in the east
was, " there is always some good in all protestantism."

Religiously that was Turner's ideal. His creed was simply
Christianity, including belief in the atonement and in the Ser-
mon on the Mount as containing all the doctrine necessary to
man's salvation. It had, however, no place in it for heresy
hunting and little for denominational organization. Baptism
to him was a rite which any minister without regard to church
bounds was entitled to perform for all believers. His notion
of church membership ended with the association of men into
voluntary societies having no control of baptism or of the
Lord's Supper. He was Congregational in his belief solely
from a pragmatic view of the essential flexibility of that sys-
tem.61 There was to him no halfway house between the entire
independency of the local church and the centralization of
government under the Vatican at Rome.

Turner emphatically was the critic rather than the expo-
nent of the Illinois of his day. Yet he introduced into the in-
tellectual life of the state a freshness of view, a cosmopolitan-
ism that by the very fact that it jars no more sharply upon its

59 Illinois Statesman, November 27, 1843, February 19, 23, 26, March 4, May
27, 1844.

™Ibld., February 26, 1844.
81 Ibid., April 29, 1844.

442 THE FRONTIER STATE

surroundings shows how Illinois had traveled since the early
days of statehood. Society in the state, conventionalized and
stiff, posing in every intellectual attitude, original in nothing,
had had a change worked in it. Men had come to think broadly
in terms of general political principles; they had come to think
more independently on the set forms of law, of slavery, and,
as Turner exemplified, of the set dogmas and forms of church
doctrine and discipline. The Illinois of 1818 like the nation
it existed in was dreaming dreams and interpreting the future
in terms of the past; in the Illinois of 1848, there were many
men of vigorous mind who had visions of the future.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
I

MANUSCRIPTS

Eddy manuscripts, Shawneetown, Illinois. Transcripts in Illinois His-
torical Survey, University of Illinois, Urbana.
Edwards papers in Chicago Historical Society manuscripts.
Kane manuscripts in Chicago Historical Society manuscripts.

II

NEWSPAPERS

Newspapers form a source of inestimable value in writing Illinois history
of this period. Indeed, for any approximately full or continuous
record, it is only through them that the pioneer state may be pieced
together ; economically, socially, and in especial politically, they pre-
serve, for the critical student, a reflection of early Illinois.

For a complete bibliography of Illinois newspapers, as well as for
additional data on those here listed, see : Scott, Franklin W., News-
papers and Periodicals of Illinois, 1814-1879 (Springfield, 1910)
[Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, volume 6].
Files in the Chicago Historical, Springfield State, and University of
Illinois libraries have been utilized where possible, but files of papers
at Belleville have supplemented these.

Alton American, 1833-1834, Alton, Illinois.

Alton Observer, 1836-1837, Alton, Illinois.

Alton Spectator, 1832-1839, Alton, Illinois.

Alton Telegraph, 1836-1848, Alton, Illinois.

Aurora Beacon, 1847-1849, Aurora, Illinois.

Baptist Helmet, 1844-1845, Vandalia, Illinois.

Belleville Advocate, 1839-1848, Belleville, Illinois.

Chicago American, 1835-1839, Chicago, Illinois [continued as Daily
American}.

Chicago Daily Journal, 1844-1848, Chicago, Illinois.

Chicago Democrat, 1833-1848, Chicago, Illinois.

Chicago (Weekly) Tribune, 1840-1841, Chicago, Illinois.

Congressional Globe, see in the division of federal and state documents.

Edivardsville Spectator, 1819-1826, Edwardsville, Illinois.

Farmers and Mechanics Repository, 1842-1843, Belleville, Illinois.

443

444 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Galena Advertiser, 1829-1830, Galena, Illinois.

Galenian, 1832-1836, Galena, Illinois.

Genius of Liberty, 1840-1842, Lowell, Illinois [continued as Western

Citizen}.

Genius of Universal Emancipation, 1838-1839, Hennepin, Illinois.
Hancock Eagle, 4-1845-1846-)-, Nauvoo, Illinois.
Illinois Advocate, 1831-1832, Edwardsville, Illinois, and 1832-1833,

Vandalia, Illinois. Its title was changed to Illinois Advocate and

State Register, 1833-1835, then to Illinois Advocate, 1835-1836,

then to Illinois State Register and Illinois Advocate, 1836, and to

Illinois State Register and People's Advocate, 1836-1839.
Illinois Emigrant, 1818-1819, Shawneetown, Illinois [continued as the

Illinois Gazette, 1819-1830].

Illinois Gazette, 1819-1830, Shawneetown, Illinois.
Illinois Intelligencer, 1818-1820, Kaskaskia, Illinois, and 1820-1832,

Vandalia, Illinois [then combined with Illinois Whig}.
Illinois Journal, 1847-1848, Springfield, Illinois.
Illinois State Register and People's Advocate, 1836-1839, Springfield,

Illinois [became Illinois State Register in 1839].
Illinois Statesman, 1843-1844, Jacksonville, Illinois.
Illinoisan, 1837-1844, Jacksonville, Illinois.
Kaskaskia Republican, 1824-1825, Kaskaskia, Illinois.
Little Fort Porcupine and Democratic Banner, 1845-1847, Little Fort

and Waukegan, Illinois.

Miner's Journal, 1826-1832, Galena, Illinois.
Nauvoo Neighbor, 1843-1845, Nauvoo, Illinois [continued as Hancock

Eagle}.

Peoria Register and Northwestern Gazetteer, 1837-1842, Peoria, Illinois.
Peoria Register, 1842-1845, Peoria, Illinois [had been Peoria Register

and Northwestern Gazetteer, 1837-1842, Peoria, Illinois].
Quincy Whig, 1838-1848, Quincy, Illinois.
Rock ford Forum, 1844-1848, Rockford, Illinois.
Sangamo Journal, 1831-1847, Springfield, Illinois. It was called the

Sangamon Journal until 1832; in 1847 the name was changed to

Illinois Journal.

Times and Seasons, 1839-1846, Nauvoo, Illinois.
Vandalia Free Press, 1836-1837, Vandalia, Illinois [continued as Free

Press and Illinois Whig, 1837-1841 ; continued as Vandalia Free

Press, 1843-1844].

Vandalia Whig and Illinois Intelligencer, 1832-1834, Vandalia, Illinois.
Warsaw Signal, 1841-1843, Warsaw, Illinois.
Wasp, 1842-1843, Nauvoo, Illinois [continued as Nauvoo Neighbor].

BIBLIOGRAPHY 445

Western Christian, 1845-1848, Elgin, Illinois.

Western Citizen, 1842-1848+, Chicago, Illinois.

Western Monthly Magazine, a continuation of the Illinois Monthly

Magazine, Cincinnati, 1833-1835.
Western Pioneer and Baptist Standard Bearer, 1836-1837, Alton, Illinois

[continued as Western Pioneer, 1837-1838].

Ill

FEDERAL AND STATE DOCUMENTS
ILLINOIS

Bluebook. Compiled by the secretary of state (printed by authority of
the state of Illinois).

Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Illinois, 1818-
1847 (published at the state capitols, 1819-1847).

Journal of the Senate of the State of Illinois, 1818-1847 (published at
the state capitols, 1819-1848).

[Law] Reports. Reports of Cases at Common Law and in Chancery,
argued and determined in the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois,
from its first Organization in 1819, to the end of December term,
1831. Volume i by Sidney Breese (Chicago, 1877), volume 2, 3, 4,
5 by J. Young Scammon (Chicago, 1886, 1887, 1880, 1886), vol-
ume 7, by Charles Oilman (Chicago, 1888).

Laws, 1819-1847 (published at the state capitols, 1819-1847).

Reports made to the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of
Illinois, volumes 1839-1845, 1863, volume I (Springfield, 1840-
1846, 1863) [Cited as Reports General Assembly].

UNITED STATES

American State Papers, 38 volumes (Washington, 1832-1861).

Annals of Congress, 42 volumes (Washington, 1834-1856).

Congressional Globe . . . containing sketches of the debates and pro-
ceedings of . . . congress, 17 volumes (Washington, 1835-1848).

Executive Documents of the House of Representatives (Washington,
1831-1846).

Journal of the Convention, assembled at Springfield, June J, i847,
. . . for the purpose of altering, amending, or revising the Consti-
tution of the State of Illinois (Springfield, 1847).

Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States (Wash-
ington, 1818-1848).

446 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Journal of the Senate of the United States of America (Washington,

1818-1849).

Kappler, Charles J., (ed.) Indian Affairs, Laws, and Treaties. Com-
piled to December I, 1902 (Washington, 1903) [Senate Docu-
ments, volume 34, 57 congress, I session, number 452],

Register of Debates in Congress, . . . important State Papers and Pub-
lic Documents, and the Laws, of a public nature, enacted during the
session, 1 8 volumes (Washington, 1824-1837) [Cited as Congres-
sional Debates} .

Senate Documents (Washington, 1818-1847).

Sixth Census or Enumeration of the Inhabitants of the United States, as
corrected at the Department of State in 1840 (Washington, 1841).

IV
CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS

Bennett, John C., The History of the Saints; or, an expose of Joe Smith
and M or monism (Boston, 1842).

Birkbeck, Morris, Letters from Illinois (London, 1818).

Birkbeck, Morris, Notes on a journey in America, from the coast of Vir-
ginia to the territory of Illinois (London, 1818).

Blair, Emma H., (ed.) The Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi Val-
ley and Region of the Great Lakes, as described by Nicolas Perrot,
French commandant in the Northwest; Bacqueville de la Potherie,
French Royal Commissioner to Canada; Morrel Marston, Amer-
ican army officer; and Thomas Forsyth, United States agent at Fort
Armstrong (Cleveland, 1912).

Blane, William Newnham, An excursion through the United States and
Canada during the years 1822-1823 by an English gentleman (Lon-
don, 1824).

Broadsides in Chicago Historical Society.

Caswall, Henry, The Prophet of the Nineteenth Century: or the rise,
progress, and present state of the Mormons, or latter day Saints: to
which is appended, an analysis of the book of Mormon (London,

1843).

Circular to the public by James W. Singleton, September, 1846, in Chi-
cago Historical Society.

Cobbett, William, A Year's residence in the United States of America.
Treating of the face of the country, the climate, the soil, the prod-
ucts, the mode of cultivating the land, the prices of land, of labor, of
food, of rainment; of the expenses of house-keeping, and of the usual

BIBLIOGRAPHY 447

manner of living; of the manners and customs of the people; and of
the institutions of the country, civil, political, and religious. In
three parts (London, 1822).

Coles, Edward, to Joseph Duncan, April 28, 1835, in House Journal,
1835-1836, 2 session (Vandalia, 1835).

Delafield, John, to Edward Coles, April 20, 1835, in House Journal,
1835-1836, 2 session (Vandalia, 1835).

Duden, Gottfried, Bericht iiber eine Reise nach den westlichen Staaten
N ordamerika' s und einem mehrjdhrigen Aufenthalt am Missouri
. . . (Elberfeld, 1829).

Edwards, Ninian, The Edwards Papers; Being a portion of the Collec-
tion of the Letters, Papers, and Manuscripts of Ninian Edwards
. . . edited by E. B. Washburne (Chicago, 1884) [Chicago
Historical Society's Collection, volume 3].

Expedition against the Sauk and Fox Indians, 1832. Narrative of the
Expedition against the Sauk and Fox Indians, furnished to the Mili-
tary and Naval Magazine, by an Officer who served in General At-
kinson's Brigade (New York, 1914) [Reprinted from the Military
and Naval Magazine of the United States of August, 1833].

Faux, William, Memorable Days in America: being a Journal of a tour
to the United States . . . (London, 1823) [Reprinted in Thwaites,
Reuben G., Early Western Travels, volume II, Cleveland, 1905].

Fear«n, Henry B., Sketches of America. A Narrative of a Journey of
Five Thousand Miles through the Eastern and Western States of
America: . . . with remarks oh Mr. Birkbeck's "Notes" and
"Letters" (London, 1819).

Flower, George, History of the English Settlement in Edwards County,
Illinois, founded in 1817 and 1818 by Morris Birkbeck and George
Flower. Edited by E. B. Washburne (Chicago, 1882) [Chicago
Historical Society's Collection, volume i],

Fl«wer, Richard, Letters from Lexington and the Illinois, containing a
brief Account of the English Settlement in the latter Territory and
a Refutation of the Misrepresentations of Mr. Cobbett (London,
1819) [Reprinted in Thwaites, Reuben G., Early Western Travels,
volume 10, Cleveland, 1904).

Fl«wer, Richard, Letters from the Illinois, 1820, 1821; containing an
Account of the English Settlement at Albion and its vicinity, and a
Refutation of the various Misrepresentations, those more particu-
larly of Mr. Cobbett (London, 1822) [Reprinted in Thwaites,
Early Western Travels, volume IO, Cleveland, 1904].

F«rd, Thomas, A History of Illinois from its commencement as a state
in i8i8to 1847 (Chicago, 1854).

448 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fordham, Elias Pym, Personal Narrative of Travels in Virginia, Mary-
land, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky; and of a Residence in
the Illinois Territory: 1817-1818. Edited by Frederic A. Ogg
(Cleveland, 1906).

Forsyth, Thomas, "Manuscript account of the causes of the Black Hawk
War written in 1832" printed as appendix to Wau-Bun — the early
Day in the Northwest. By Mrs. John Kinzie (Philadelphia, 1873).

Gale, George W., History of Knox College and Galesburgh, Illinois
(Cincinnati, 1845).

Greene, Evarts B., and Clarence W. Alvord (ed.), Governors' Letter
Books, 1818-1834 (Springfield, 1909) [Collections of the Illinois
State Historical Library, volume 4] .

Harris, William T., Remarks made during a Tour through the United
States of America in the years 1817, 1818, and 1819 (London,
1821).

Hulme, Thomas, Journal of a Tour In the Western Countries of Amer-
ica, September 30, i8i8-August 8, 1819 (New York, 1818) [Re-
printed in Thwaites, Reuben G., Early Western Travels, volume
10, Cleveland, 1904].

Journal of the Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in
the Diocese of Illinois, 1843-1857 (Peoria, 1843, 1845, Alton, 1846,
Jubilee College, 1847-1853, Chicago, 1856, 1857).

Lee, John D., The Mormon Menace. Being the confession of John
Doyle Lee, Danite, an official assassin of the Mormon Church under
the late Brigham Young. Introduction by Alfred Henry Lewis
(New York, 1905).

Lincoln, Abraham, The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, federal edition.
Edited by Arthur B. Lapsley, volume 2, 1843-1858 (New York,
1905).

Minutes of the Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
volumes 2, 3, 4 (New York, 1829-1837).

Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, in the
United States of America (Philadelphia, 1826-1831, 1840-1851).

Parker, Amos A., Trip to the West and Texas. Comprising a Journey of
eight thousand Miles through New York, Michigan, Illinois, Mis-
souri, Louisiana, and Texas, in the autumn and winter of 1834-1835
(Concord, N. H., 1835).

Peck, John M., A gazetteer of Illinois, in three parts: containing a gen-
eral view of the state, a general view of each county, and a particu-
lar description of each town, settlement, stream, prairie, bottom,
bluff, etc., alphabetically arranged (Jacksonville, 1834).

BIBLIOGRAPHY 449

Presbytery of Ottawa, Minutes of the Presbytery of Ottawa (Ottawa,

1843).

Salzbacher, Joseph, Meine Reise nach Nord-Amerika im Jahre 1842
(Vienna, Austria, 1845).

Sparks, Edwin E., (ed.) The English Settlement in the Illinois. Re-
prints of three rare tracts on the Illinois country. With maps and a
view of a British colony house at Albion (London and Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, 1907).

Synod of Peoria, Minutes of the . . . Annual Session of the Synod of
Peoria of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of Amer-
ica (Peoria, 1844, 1846).

Wakefield, John A., History of the Black Hawk War (Jacksonville,
1834) [Reprinted by Frank E. Stevens, Chicago, 1908].

Whittlesey, Charles, "Recollections of a Tour through Wisconsin in
1832," Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin,
volume I (Madison, Wisconsin, 1855).

Woods, John, Two Years' Residence in the Settlement on the English
Prairie, in the Illinois Country, United States, with an account of its
Animal and Vegetable Production, Agriculture, &c., &c., A descrip-
tion of the Principal towns, villages, &c., &c., with the habits and
customs of the back-woodsman (London, 1822) [Reprinted in
Thwaites, Reuben G., Early Western Travels, volume 10, Cleve-
land, 1904].

V

BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCE

Adams, John Quincy, Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, comprising por-
tions of his diary from 1795 to 1848. Edited by Charles Francis
Adams, 12 volumes (Philadelphia, 1874-1877).

Black Hawk, Autobiography: life of Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kick, or Black
Hawk. With an account of the Cause and general History of the
late War, his Surrender and Confinement at Jefferson Barracks, and
Travels through the United States. Dictated by himself. Edited
by J. B. Patterson (Boston, 1834).

Cartwright, Peter, Autobiography of Peter Cartwright, the backwoods
preacher. Edited by W. P. Strickland (Cincinnati, 1856).

Clark, John, "Father Clark," or the Pioneer Preacher. Sketches and
Incidents of Rev. John Clark. By an old pioneer (New York,
1855).

450 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Clark, Satterlee, "Early Times at Fort Winnebago, and Black Hawk
War Reminiscences," Report and Collections of the State Historical
Society of Wisconsin, 1877, 1878, and 1879, volume 8 (Madison,
Wisconsin, 1879).

Drake, Benjamin, The Life and Adventures of Black Hawk. With
sketches of Keokuck, the Sac and Fox Indians, and the late Black
Hawk War (Cincinnati, 1838).

Edwards, Ninian, History of Illinois from 1778 to 1833; and life and
times of Ninian Edwards (Springfield, 1870).

Hubbard, Guidon S., Incidents and Events in the life of Gurdon Salton-
stall Hubbard. Collected from personal narrations and other sources
and arranged by his nephew, Henry E. Hamilton (Chicago, 1888).

Johnson, Allen, Stephen A. Douglas. A Study in American Politics
(New York, 1908).

Koerner, Gustave, Memoirs of Gustave Koerner, 1809-1896. Life
sketches written at the suggestion of his children. Edited by Thomas
J. McCormack, volume i (Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1909).

Nicolay, John G., and John Hay, Abraham Lincoln, a history, volume
i (New York, 1890).

Peck, John M., Memoir of John Mason Peck. [Forty Years of Pioneer
Life.} Edited from his journals and correspondence by Rufus Bab-
cock (Philadelphia, 1864).

Reynolds, John, My own Times, embracing also the History of my
Life (Belleville, 1855).

Snyder, John F., Adam W. Snyder and his Period in Illinois History,
1817-1842 (Virginia, Illinois, 1906).

Sturtevant, Julian M., Julian M. Sturtevant: An Autobiography. Edited
by J. M. Sturtevant, Jr. (New York, 1896).

Sturtevant, Julian M., Sketch of Theron Baldwin (Boston, 1875)
[Reprinted from Congregational Quarterly, April and July, 1875].

Tillson, Christiana H., Reminiscences of early life in Illinois by out-
mother (Amherst, Mass. [?], 1873).

Washburne, Elihu B., Sketch of Edward Coles, second governor of Illi-
nois and of the slavery struggle of 1823-1824 (Chicago, 1882).

VI

MONOGRAPHS AND SPECIAL WORKS

Abel, Annie H., "The History of Events resulting in Indian Consolida-
tion West of the Mississippi," Annual Report of the American His-
torical Association, 1906, volume i (Washington, 1908).

BIBLIOGRAPHY 451

Andreas, A. T., History of Chicago from the earliest Period to the present
Time, 3 volumes (Chicago, 1884-1886).

Babcock, Kendric C., The Scandinavian Element in the United States
(Urbana, 1914) [University of Illinois Studies in the Social
Sciences, volume 3 ] .

Bancroft, Hubert H., History of Utah (San Francisco, 1889) [Works
of Hubert Howe Bancroft, volume 26],

Beinlich, B. A., "The Latin Immigration in Illinois," Illinois State
Historical Society, Transactions, 1909.

Berry, Orville F., "The Mormon Settlements in Illinois," Illinois State
Historical Society, Transactions, 1906.

Ballance, Charles, The History of Peoria, Illinois (Peoria, 1870).

Bateman, Newton, and Paul Selby, (ed.) Historical Encyclopedia of
Illinois, volume 2, History of Peoria County. Edited by David Mc-
Culloch, 2 volumes (Chicago and Peoria, 1902).

Blegen, Theodore C., "Ole Rynning's True Account of America," Min-
nesota History Bulletin, volume 2, November, 1917 (Saint Paul,
1917).

Boggess, Arthur C., The Settlement of Illinois, 1778-1830 (Chicago,
1908) [Chicago Historical Society's Collection, volume 5].

Breese, Sidney, The Early history of Illinois from its discovery by the
French, in 1673, until its cession to Great Britain in 1763 . . .
Edited by Thomas Hoyne (Chicago, 1884).

Brown, William H., An Historical Sketch of the early Movement in
Illinois for the legalization of slavery (Chicago, 1876).

Buck, Solon J., Illinois in 1818 (Springfield, 1917) [Illinois Centennial
Publications, introductory volume].

Buck, Solon J., "The New England Element in Illinois Politics before
1833," Mississippi Valley Historical Association, Proceedings, vol-
ume 6 (Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1913).

Catalog of Knox College, 1914-1915 (Galesburg, Illinois, 1915).

Catalogue of McKendree College (Lebanon, Illinois, 1912).

County histories have in general been found useful for local informa-
tion. For complete bibliography of Illinois counties see: Buck,
Solon J., Travel and Description 1765-1865 together with a List of
County Histories, Atlases, and Biographical Collections and a List
of territorial and state Laws (Springfield, 1914) [Collections of the
Illinois State Historical Library, volume 9].

Dowrie, George W., The Development of Banking in Illinois, 1817-1863
(Urbana, 1913) [University of Illinois Studies in the Social
Sciences, volume 2].

452 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Elliot, Isaac H., (ed.) Record of the services of Illinois Soldiers in the
Black Hawk War, 1831-1832, and in the Mexican War, 184.6-
1848. Prepared and published by authority of the thirty-second
General Assembly (Springfield, 1902).

Everett, Edward, "Narrative of Military Experience in Several Capac-
ities," Illinois State Historical Society, Transactions, 1905 (Spring-
field, 1906).

Fairlie, John A., County and Town Government in Illinois [Reprinted
from the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social
Science, Philadelphia, May, 1913].

Faust, Albert B., The German Element in the United States, with spe-
cial Reference to its political, moral, social, and educational Influence
(Boston, 1909).

Garraghan, Gilbert J., "Early Catholicity in Chicago, 1673-1843," Illi-
nois Catholic Historical Journal, volume I, number I (Chicago,
1918).

Harris, Norman D., History of Negro Slavery in Illinois and of the
Slavery Agitation in that State (Chicago, 1906).

Hicks, E. W., Outline of Illinois Baptist History (Toulon, Illinois).

Hicks, E. W., History of Kendall County, Illinois, from the earliest dis-
coveries to the present time (Aurora, Illinois, 1877);

History of Winnebago County, Illinois, its Past and Present (Chicago,

1877).
Jubilee Memorial of Shurtleff College, Upper Alton, Illinois (Alton,

1877).

Koerner, Gustave P., Das deutsche element in den Vereinigten Staaten
von Nordamerika, 1818-1848 (Cincinnati, 1880).

Kofoid, Carrie P., "Puritan Influences in the Formative Years of Illinois
History," Illinois State Historical Society, Transactions, 1905.

Leaton, James, History of Methodism in Illinois, from 1793 to 1832
(Cincinnati, 1883).

Lee, Judson Fiske, "Transportation. A Factor in the Development of
Northern Illinois previous to 1860," Illinois State Historical So-
ciety, Journal, volume 10.

Lockwood, James H., "Early Times and Events in Wisconsin," Second
Annual Report and Collections of the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin, 1855, volume 2 (Madison, 1856).

Moses, John, Illinois, Historical and Statistical, comprising the Essen-
tial Facts of its Planting and Growth as a Province, County, Terri-
tory and State, 2 volumes (Chicago, 1889).

Moses, John, and Joseph Kirkland, History of Chicago, Illinois (Chi-
cago, 1895).

BIBLIOGRAPHY 453

Neve, J. L., A Brief History of the Lutheran Church in America (Bur-
lington, Iowa, 1916).

Pease, Theodore C., The County Archives of the State of Illinois
(Springfield, 1915) [Collections of the Illinois State Historical
Library, volume 12].

Pooley, William V., Settlement of Illinois, 1830-1850 (Madison, 1908)
[Reprinted from Bulletin of University of Wisconsin, history series,
volume i].

Putnam, James W., Illinois and Michigan Canal. A study in economic
history (Chicago, 1917) [Chicago Historical Society's Collection,
volume 10],

Quaife, Milo M., Chicago and the Old Northwest, 1673-1835. A study
of the evolution of the northwestern frontier, together with a his-
tory of Fort Dearborn (Chicago, 1913).

Rice, James M., Peoria, City and County, Illinois; a Record of Settle-
ment, Organization, Progress and Achievement (Chicago, 1912).

Royce, Charles C., (ed.) Indian Land Cessions in the United States
(Washington, 1899) [Bureau of American Ethnology, Eighteenth
Annual Report, 1896-1897, part 2. In House Documents, volume
1 1 8, 56 congress, I session, document 736].

Salisbury, Herbert S., "The Mormon War in Hancock County," Illinois
State Historical Society, Journal, volume 8.

Savage, G. S. F., Pioneer Congregational Ministers in Illinois (Chicago).

Smith, Joseph and Herman C., History of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints, 1836-1844, 1844-1872, volumes 2 and 3
(Laomi, Iowa, 1908).

Stevens, Frank E., The Black Hawk War, including a Review of Black
Hawk's Life (Chicago, 1903).

Stevens, Wayne E., "The Shaw-Hanson Election Contest," Illinois
State Historical Society, Journal, volume 7.

Thompson, Charles M., The Illinois Whigs before 1846 (Urbana, 1915)
[University of Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences, volume 4].

Thrapp, Russel F., "Early Religious Beginnings in Illinois," Illinois
State Historical Society, Journal, volume 4.

Thwaites, Reuben G., The Story of the Black Hawk War (Madison,
1892) [Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin,
volume 12].

Treat, Payson J., The National Land System, 1785-1820 (New York.

1910).
Wisconsin Historical Collections, volumes I-I2 (Madison, 1855-1892).

INDEX

A. B. plot, 98, 99, 101, 102, 103

Adams, James, 149; gubernatorial can-
didate, 145, 20611

Adams, Captain John G., i6$n

Adams, John Quincy, 92, 240, 268, 289,
328, 364, 370, 380; charges against in
campaign 1828, 116, 117, 118, 120,
121, 122 ; Cook supported, 96, 107,
1 08, 111-112; Edwards lost favor
with, 98-99; elected president, 115;
influence of, in local politics, 123,
124, 127, 128, 129, 131, 132, 133, 139,
141, 145 ; one founder of whig party,
236; presidential chances of, 106

Adams county, 174, 203, 2o6n, 325, 369

Africa, 85, 87

Agriculture, 122; abundant crops, 400;
among Mormons, 348, 349; Birk-
beck's influence on, and founding of
society, 15-17; Bond encouraged,
105; crops, 383; estimated output of
farms, 207; extent, 6-7, 15; German
influence on, 393 ; improvements in,
383-385; Irish undertake, 396; meth-
ods of, and kind of land for, 179-181 ;
products shipped to New Orleans,
52; Scandinavian interest in, 399;
Scotch influence on, 398; slave labor
and, 88-89 ; Turner's contribution to,

439

Alabama, 174-175

Albany, 190, 237, 254, 275

Albion, 82; Flower founded, 15; library
at, 393n

Alexander county, 89, 112

Alexander, General Milton K., 287; in
Black Hawk War, 165, 167

Alexander, William M., 61

Allen, W. T., organized antislavery so-
cieties, 371

Allen, William, 247; editor of Madi-
sonian, 245 ; proposed for president,
329

Alsace, 423

Alton, 9, 84, 192, 198, 206, 209, 210, 340,
348, 375i 385, 386; all-Oregon meet-
ing at, 328 ; anti-abolition resolutions
passed at, 370; branch bank at, 305;
commercial importance of, 189, 212,
221, 309-310, 387; Lovejoy killed in,

365-368; Peck edited paper in, 366;
prohibition at, 426 ; proposed capital
site at, 202, 203 ; school at, 22 ; Sun-
day school established at, 29

Alton and Mt. Carmel railroad, see
transportation

Alton and Shawneetown railroad, see
transportation

Alton and Shelbyville railroad, see
transportation

Alton and Springfield railroad, see
transportation

Alton Seminary, see education

Alton, Wabash, and Erie railroad, see
transportation

Ambrister, Robert C., 114

American Bottom, 5, 42

American Fur Company, 3

Amusements, 150, 410-413

Anderson, Richard C., 70

Anderson, Stinson H., 284

Andover, 399

Andrews, Eliza Julia, 14

Andrews, Bishop James Osgood, 376

Anti-Edwards faction, see politics

Apple river, 165

Arbuthnot, Alexander, 114

Archer, William B., n6n, i42n

Arkansas, 331

Armstrong, Fort, 3, 160, 161

Arnold, Benedict, 405

Arnold, Isaac N., 298, 301

Atkinson, General Henry, commanded
forces against Black Hawk, 160, 161,
163, 165, 166, 167, 170-171

Atlantic Bank, see banking

Atlantic ocean, 120, 219

Auplaine, 411

Axley, James, 25-26

Bachus and Fitch, 384

Backenstos, Jacob B., attempted to stop

anti-Mormon riots, 356-357, 358, 359,

361

Bad Axe, battle at, 169-171
Bailhache, John, 338, 339
Baker, David J., 138
Baker, Edward D., 281, 286, 293, 296,

381, 401
Baldwin, Theron, 437, 438

455

456

INDEX

Baltimore, n, 140, 240, 242, 253, 277,

329» 335, 387, 388

Bancroft, George, 262

Banking, 261, 284; Atlantic Bank, 228;
Bank of Cairo, 312; Bank of Ed-
wardsville, 55-56, 92-93, 100-101 ;
Bank of Illinois, 55, 56, 93, 224, 306,
308, 312, 313, 314, 318, 320, 322;
Bank of Missouri, 54-55, 93; Bank
of St. Louis, 56; Bank of United
States, 52, 53-55, 242-244, 259, 260,
263, 271, 284, 304; career of new
state bank, 303-315; Crawford's pol-
icy, 53-55, 98, ioo, 102, 103; defeat
of Edwards' policy, 126; democrats
divided on policy, 245-249 ; Duncan's
policy, 285; early attempts at, 52-69;
Edwards faction interested in, 93 ;
failure of, 400; issues on, in congres-
sional campaign of 1834, 147-148;
Jackson's policy, 242-244, 262; new
constitution revived in charters, 409 ;
State Bank, 56-62, 74, in, 131, 142,
145-146, 224, 242-244, 291, 303-315,
318, 320; State Bank of Indiana, 313 ;
summary of, 68-69 » Tyler's policy,
272-274; Van Buren's policy, 265-
266 ; whig attitude toward, 258. See
currency and finance

Baptist church, 369; attitude toward
slavery, 81, 376 ; Kinney minister in,
130; organization and influence of,
26, 27-29

Baptists, attitude toward Sunday
schools, 425; growth of, 415-416;
school of, 434-435

Barbour, John S., 71

Bardstown, 422

Baring Brothers, 323

Barrett, Robert F., 229, 285, 309

Barton, David, 121, 123

Bath, 393n

Beardstown, 160, 191, 206, 217

Beaubien, Mark, 423

Beaumont, George A. O., 230

Beecher, Edward, 437, 438, 439

Belleville, 213, 250, 276, 426; branch
bank at, 305 ; center of German set-
tlement, 392; chose Kinney guberna-
torial candidate, 144; greets Mexican
War veterans, 406 ; Jackson support-
ers in, 117; library at, 393; market
at, 385-386

Belleville railroad, see transportation

Beloit, 192

Beloit College, see education

Belvidere, 432

Bennett, James Gordon, 344

Bennett, John C., 345-347

Benton, Thomas Hart, 243, 264, 266,
276, 277; attacked Bank of Edwards-
vi'Je, 92; Duncan supported, 127; in-
terested in Oregon, 328 ; presidential
candidate, 275 ; public lands policy,
121-123, 185-188; quoted, 11-12; sup-
ported Crawford, 96

Berry, William, 82, 144, 294

Biddle, Nicholas, 83, 224

Birkbeck, Morris, 23 ; antislavery writ-
ings of, 87-89; death of, 90-91; Eng-
lish immigrant, 397; enterprise and
influence of, 12-15; influences agri-
culture, 15-17; urged to start anti-
convention press, 82

Birney, James G., antislavery presi-
dential candidate, 371, 441

Bishop Hill, 399

Bissell, William H., 295, 401, 402, 406

Blackburn, Gideon, 436

Blackburn University, see education

Black Hawk, beaten for stealing, issn;
first resistance of, 156-159; signed
treaty of 1816, 154; war of, 159-172

Black Hawk War, 145, 159-172, 393,
422

Blackwell, David, 108

Blackwell, Robert, 82, 293

Blair, Francis, P., 245

Bloomington, 177, 210, 217

Bloomington and Mackinaw railroad,
see transportation

Bloomington and Pekin railroad, see
transportation

Bloomington, Wabash and Pekin rail-
road, see transportation

Blue Mounds, 170

Boggs, Lilburn W., 347-348

Boltonhouse prairie, 13

Bond, Benjamin, 238, 239

Bond, Shadrach, 16, 76n, 97, 104, 126;
became Jackson supporter, 124; Cook
defeated, 103 ; elected governor, 95 ;
encouraged agriculture, 105 ; in canal
corporation, 196 ; member of anti-
Edwards faction, 94; reported on
state finances, 68

Bond county, 29, 2o8n, 221, 232; agri-
cultural society in, 16; Bible society
in, 30; anti-conventionists organized
in, 81; antislavery meeting in, 363;
manufacturing company in, 8n ; set-
tlement in, 3, 173

Booth, Louis M., 298

Borders, Andrew, 378

Boston, 310, 323, 355

Bourbonnais Grove, 423

INDEX

457

Brainard, Dr. Daniel, 414

Breese, Sidney, 119, 137, 249, 332; con-
gressional aspirant, 127, 139; guber-
natorial candidate, 250, 287-288 ; in-
fluence on state history, 412; justice
of supreme court, 283 ; policies of,
141; proposed Illinois Central, 207,
209; supported Reynolds, 132

British, see English

Brochport, 384

Brockman, Thomas S., 361

Brooks, John F., 437

Brown', Erasmus, 196

Brown, Henry, 275

Brown, William H., forced out of In-
telligencer, 82; influence on state
history, 412

Browne, Thomas C, 141, 215, 279; con-
firmed justice, 125; elected judge,
95; gubernatorial candidate, 76;
justice, 35; member of Edwards fac-
tion, 93 ; member of supreme court,
35; reflected to supreme court, 109

Browning, Orville H., 204, 220, 226,
285, 294, 347, 431

Brownsville, 59, 60, 61-62

Brute, Bishop Simon Gabriel, 423-424

Brutus, see Hall

Buchanan, James, 275

Bucklin, James M., 199

Buena Vista, 338, 405

Buffalo, 191, 206

Bunsen, George, 392

Bureau county, 174, 369, 379

Burgess, Tristram, 259

Butler, Peter, 238

Butterfield, Justin, 321, 348

Cahokia, 8, 295, 433

Cairo, 9, 212, 220; bank chartered at,
55; commercial importance of, 218-
219. See banking

Caldwell, Billy, 422

Caldwell, John, 55, 93

Caldwell, Samuel, 55

Caledonia, 219

Calhoun, John C, 92, 99, 120, 133, 134,
149, 204, 237, 239, 268, 275, 276, 301 ;
Edwards supported, 96-97, 139; land
policy of, 187, 336; Republican sup-
ported, 98 ; seek Jackson's power,
138; Turner's attitude toward, 440;
withdrew from presidential race,
105-106

Calhoun county, 3, 174

California, 337, 403

Calumet river, 198

Calvin, John, 25

Cambreleng, Churchill C., n6n

Campbellites, 26, 341

Canada, 282, 337, 380

Canadians, Catholics, 423

Canal, see transportation

Carlin, Thomas, 204, 226, 228, 290,
310, 313; appoints new secretary of
state, 278; bank policy, 309; calls
special session, 223 ; elected gover-
nor, 250; farewell message of, 317;
Irish immigrant, 396; ordered Smith
arrested, 348; policy toward inter-
nal improvements, 219, 224, 231

Carlinville, 270, 436

Carmi, 9, 84

Carpenter, Milton, 238, 239

Carpenter, Philo, 4200

Carroll county, 174, 176

Carrollton, Mississippi, and Springfield
railroad, see transportation

Carthage, 359; anti-Mormon meeting
at> 35°> 357! Smiths murdered in,
352

Cartwright, Peter, 149, 237; influence
of, 25-26, 31; opposed Baptists, 28-
29; opposed Presbyterians, 417, 438;
opposed Sunday school union, 425 ;
school of, 433

Casey, Zadoc, 131, 147, 255, 294, 364;
congressman, 284-285; financial pol-
icy of, 245, 246, 247, 248; strength
of, 249

Cass, Lewis, 157, 336, 375, 381; presi-
dential candidate, 275

Catholics, 29, 261; colony of, 179;
growth of, 422-424; schools of, 433

Caton, John D., 379

Cavarly, Alfred W., 116, 301, 324

Central Branch Wabash railroad, see
transportation

Cerro Gordo, 406

Champaign county, 330, 385

Champlain, Lake, 333

Charleston - Memphis railroad, see
transportation

Charleston railroad, see transporta-
tion

Chase, Philander, 376, 422, 436

Chicago, 194, 269, 270, 275, 282, 294,
298, 300, 312, 321, 329, 334, 340, 348,
3^1, 395, 42011; amusements in, 410;
antislavery convention at, 372;
branch bank at, 305, 309; growth
and commercial importance of, 189,
190-191, 192, 203, 208, 209, 313, 385,
387-390, 411; Irish in, 396; land
sales at, 175, 176, 177; number of
Catholics in, 422-424; river and har-

458

INDEX

bor convention at, 335; Rush Medi-
cal College founded in, 414; sale of
lots in, to pay for canal, 200-201 ;
slaves aided in, 380; Swedish set-
tlement in, 399

Chicago and Galena Union railroad,
see transportation

Chicago river, 194, 198

Chillicothe, 240

Chippewa, 159

Christian church, 27, 81, 421

Christian county, 178

Churchill, George, 78

Cilley, Jonathan, 276

Cincinnati, 355; 393^ 414

Clark county, 89, 405

Clark, Fort, 3, 26

Clark, George Rogers, 379

Clark, Nathaniel C., work of, 420

Clarke, R. Williams, 147

Clay, Henry, 92, 112, 118, 120, 123, 139,
140, 141, 142, 187, 237, 268, 276, 328,
333, 338, 339, 375, 380, 440; Edwards
friendly toward, 124; following in
whig party, 274; one founder of
whig party, 236 ; presidential chances
for, 106; public land policy of, 185-
186, 188; votes cast for, 107

Clay, Henry, Jr., killed in Mexican
War, 406

Clay county, 5, 205, 218

Cleveland, 176

Clinton county, 3

Cobbett, William, 14

Coke, Sir Edward, 373

Coles, Edward, 62, 119, 141, 200, 208;
bought Intelligencer for antislavery
paper, 82; characterization and his-
tory of, 75-76 ; congressional as-
pirant, 127; distributed antislavery
tracts, 82-83 ; effect of antislavery
recommendations, 76-77 ; elected
governor 1822, 76; in canal corpora-
tion, 196; interested in salt works,
66; last years of political life, 90-91 ;
quoted, 38, 40; senatorial candidate
1824, 124-125; vice president of ag-
ricultural society, 16; violated slave
law of 1819, 48

Coles county, 144, 324

Colleges, see education

Collins, Frederick, 285, 371

Collins, Colonel James, 401

Columbia, 173

Commerce, Mormon settlement at, 344

Congregationalists, attitude toward
slavery, 375 ; growth of and connec-

tion with Presbyterians, 419-421;
schools of, 436-439
Connecticut, 9, 27, 178, 179, 184, 344,

4*9, 43i

Constitution, see government

Cook, Chauncey, 371

Cook, Daniel Pope, 120, 124, 125, 128,
i33n; attacks upon, 103-104, 107-108;
canal policies of, 12, 195, 196-197;
death of, 126; elected attorney-gen-
eral, 95 ; member of Edwards fac-
tion, 93 ; opinion on validity of Or-
dinance of 1787, 71 ; opposed conven-
tion, 90; opposed slavery, 72-73;
reasons for defeat of, no, 111-113,
114; secured Edwards' appointment
to Mexico, 99 ; successes of, 103 ;
supported Adams and opposed Craw-
ford, 96-98, 103 ; voted for Adams,
107

Cook, John, 72, 96

Cook county, 203, 230, 260, 281, 395,

Covenanters, 29

Covington, 84

Cowles, Edward, 61

Crawford, William H., 92, 109, 115,
123, 124, 138, 139, 143; attacked in
Illinois, 105 ; bank policy of, 53-55 ;
Coles supported, 76; Edwards' con-
troversy with, 96-103 ; presidential
chances for, 106 ; votes cast for, 107

Crawford, Fort, 169

Cross, Mr., 379

Culture, advance of, 1830-1848, 410-
414; crime, 427-429; extent of in
1818, 7, 8, 17-31; in 1830, 150; laws
touching upon social life, 44-47; of
Belleville Germans, 392; religious
influence on, 425-426; temperance,
23, 30, 426-427. See education and
religion

Cumberland Presbyterian church, 29

Cumberland road, see transportation

Currency, condition of, 313, 314; early
unstable, 9, 52-62; kind paid for
land, 183, 187; kind paid for taxes,
62-63; lack of, 400; limited amount
of gold and silver, 220; policy of
democratic party toward, 242-245,
247; salines promoted circulation of,
74; school funds used to redeem
State Bank notes, 67-68 ; whigs fa-
vored paper, 266. See banking and
finance

Danville, i43n, 176, 206, 208, 210, 212,
305

INDEX

459

Darien, 337

Davenport, Colonel George, 174

Davidson, William H., 14211, 147, 286

Davis, George T. M., 302, 338

Davis, John, 323

Davis, S. H., 175

Dayton, 176

Dearborn, Fort, 3, 1710, 422n

Decatur, 178, 206, 207, 210

Declaration of Independence, 86, 373

De Kalb county, 330

Delafield, John, 225, 228, 233

Delaware, 299

Dement, John, 140

Democratic party, see politics

Desmoulin, Mr., had a school at Kas-
kaskia, 22

DCS Plaines river, 3, 194-195, 198

Detroit, 424n

Dickens, Charles, 413

Disciples of Christ, see Christians

District of Columbia, 52, 364

Dixon, 161, 163, 177, 192

Dixon's Ferry, 174

Dodge, Major Henry, 165, 167

Doty, James Duane, 290

Douglas, Stephen A., 204, 246, 250,
253, 26in, 298, 299, 314, 335, 347,
348, 379 ; congressional nominee, 255 ;
elected to congress, 294; internal
improvement interests of, 331; in-
ternal improvement proposals of,
212; justice of supreme court, 283;
Mormons friendly to, 345; on Ore-
gon question, 329; on Wilmot pro-
viso, 381; power of, in party, 249;
seeking favor, 247

Dover Academy, see education

Downing, Jack, 260

Drayton, William, u6n

Duden, Gottfried, 391

Duncan, James M., 108; attacked as
cashier of bank, 61; influence of,

»37

Duncan, Joseph, 61, 62, 133, 134, 140,
149, 187, 204, 215, 237, 238, 252, 255,
261, 283, 307; attitude toward Jack-
son's banking policy, 244; candidate
for governor 1833, 144-145; candi-
date for governor 1842, 234-235, 285-
286, 289, 290-292; deserts Jackson,
143-147; elected governor, 146-147,
148; elected to congress, 107-108, in,
127-128, 139; in canal corporation,
196; influence of, 137; internal im-
provement policy, 199, 200-201, 208,
219; opposed bank, 304; opposed
Mormonism, 345; quoted, 258-259;

supported Benton's bill, 121, 122
Dunkards, 29
Dunn, Charles, 139
Dutch, 275

Eagan, James F., 400

Early, Dr., 140

East India, 273

Eastman, Zebina, 371

Ebenezer, 22

Economic conditions, affected by immi-
gration, 390; among Germans, 392-
393 ; among Mormons, 348 ; Birk-
beck's opinion on, 88-89 » conditions
in 1818, 7-9; distress of, in 1820,
74; in England, 12; in English set-
tlement, 13-15; in Germany, 391; in
Ireland, 396; in northern settlements,
177, 178, 179-181, 189-193; in Swe-
den, 399; in 1830, 150; of Scotch,
397; slavery and, 373.

Eddy, Henry, 128, 147, 249, 256, 285;
favored convention, 82, 90; Jackson
elector, 106 ; proposed admission of
slavery, 73-74

Eden, 375

Edgar county, 3, 89, 112, 223

Education, advance of medical, 414;
Alton Seminary, 434; Beloit College,
420; Blackburn University, 436;
Convent of the Ladies of Visitation,
433; discussion of, 22-23; Dover
Academy, 420; early efforts at pub-
lic, 429-432, 434; effect of Sunday
schools upon, 30, 424-425; founding
of denominational schools, 416-425 ;
frontiersmen's attitude toward, 28 ;
funds for and legislation affecting,
66-68; Galesburg Female Seminary,
420; Georgetown University, 434;
growth of private schools, 432-439 ;
Illinois College, 94, 203, 261, 417,

419, 434, 437-439; in Shawneetown,
8 ; Jacksonville Female Seminary,

420, 433; Jubilee College, 376, 422,
436; Knox College, 179, 420, 427;
Lebanon Seminary, 435; McKendree
College, 435-436; Menard Academy,
433; Monticello Female Seminary,
420, 438; Mormon school, 344; of
blind and deaf, 432; Princeton
Academy, 420; Reynolds promised
fund for, 129; Rockford Female
Seminary, 420; Rush Medical Col-
lege, 414; Scandinavian interest in,
399; school fund, 196, 233, 318, 409;
schools in Washington, 178; Shurt-
leff College, 376, 416, 434-435; Uni-

460

INDEX

versity of St. Mary's of the Lake,
424; Whipple Academy, 420

Edwards, Ninian, 54, 123, 141, 143, 144,
248, 278, 285; ambiguous party af-
filiation 1828-1829, 124; appointed
minister to Mexico, 99-100, 103; at-
tacked Crawford, 96-103 ; attacks
upon, 104-105; campaigned in 1826,
109-110; candidate for governor,
108; characterization of, 93, 112-113 ;
condition in faction of, 137, 138;
Cook son-in-law of, 93 ; defeated for
congress 1832, 139; defeated for
senate 1824, 125; description of fac-
tion about, 92-94; elected governor,
in; elected senator, 95; Hanson
enemy of, 79; hostile to Crawford,
93; Indian policy of, 152; internal
improvement policy, 120, 210, 212,
219; lack of influence of in 1828, 126;
land of, in Military Tract, 175; land
policy, 122, 185; opinion of, on
Cook's defeat, in; opposed conven-
tion, 90; policy of, toward bank, 60-
61 ; proslavery interests of, 73 ;
quoted, 128; recommended Kinney
governor of Huron territory, 138;
refused to be candidate for gover-
nor, 76; senatorial aspirant 1830,
133-134; strife between Thomas and,
95-98 ; supported cause of Missouri,
72; supported Johnson, 140; sup-
ported Reynolds for governor, 128,
129, 131, 132-134; withdrew from
Bank of Edwardsville, 55-56

Edwards, Mrs. Ninian, 47

Edwards county, 12

Edwards faction, see politics

Edwards, Fort, 3

Edwardsville, Bank of, see banking

Edwardsville, 29, 61, 73, 82, 84, 100,
145, 210, 415; antislavery society
formed in, 80; Coles register of land
office at, 76; Edward's land monop-
oly in, 104; history of bank at, 55-60;
Illinois Corrector printed at, 117;
interest of Edwards faction in, 92;
land office at, 4-5, 175, 176; library
at, 393n; trade at, 9

Eells, Dr. Richard, 379

Effingham county, 288, 393n

Egypt, 214, 218, 330

Elgin, 376

Elkhorn, 192

Elkin, G., 275

Ellis, John Milcot, 417, 437

Emancipating Brethren, 27

Emmet, John, 77

Emmett, James, 354

England, 19, 29, 36, 43, 268, 273, 323,
327, 374; and Oregon, 328; condi-
tions in, leading to immigration, 12-

13, 397

Englemann, George, 392

English, 43, 154, 156, 157, 159, 162,
208, 244, 259n, 273, 322, 373, 388n,
391 ; comment on manners of Illi-
noisians, 17; interested in canal pro-
ject, 323; settlement of, 12-15, 397.
See population

English Prairie, 12-15, 32

Equality, 210, 218

Erie, Alton and Wabash railroad, see
transportation

Erie canal, see transportation

Erie, Lake, 205, 206

Erie railroad, see transportation

Ernst, Ferdinand, 393n

Episcopalian church, attitude of bishop
of, 376; established, 14; growth of,
421-422; school of, 436

Europe, u, 15, 20, 115, 200, 244, 266,
267, 39*. 392, 397, 440

Evans, James, 2o8n

Everett, Edward, 116

Ewing, William, L. D., 5, 140, 2o6n,
246, 255, 303, 304, 308; suggested for
governor, 144

Fairfield, 420

Farnham, Russell, 174

Fayette county, anti-conventionists or-
ganized in, 81; freeholders in, 5;
literary societies in, 21 ; proposed
roads in, 42; voted against conven-
tion, 90

Fellows, O. H., 285

Ficklin, Orlando B., 322, 329; elected
to congress, 294; internal improve-
ment interests of, 330, 331, 332, 333;
on school system, 431; on Wilmot
proviso, 381

Field, Abner, 61, 62

Field, Alexander Pope, 78, 80, 140,
14411, 195, 221, 247, 249; and life
office issue, 278-279; congressional
aspirant, 139; Jackson man, 124;
supported Jackson, 116, 117

Finance, affected by slavery issue, 74,
86; and Illinois and Michigan canal,
225-231; and internal improvement
scheme, 216-225; and railroads, 205-
214; and the canal, 195-201; attack
on Crawford's policy toward, 98-
103; chaotic condition of, 232-234;
condition of, 1830-1845, 303-315;

INDEX

461

Crawford's policy, 53-55; Edwards
attacked, in; Edwards' policy to-
ward, defeated, 126 ; Ford's meas-
ures concerning, 317-326; importance
of western lands to, 183 ; provisions
of general assemblies for, 56-57; 59-
61, 68-69; source of revenue, 62-68;
subtreasury, 338; use of school
funds, 66-69, 43°

Fischer, Father Francis, 423

Fithian, William, 285, 324.

Fitzmaurice, Father Charles, 423

Fleming, Robert K., 82, 132

Florid, 376

Florida, 331

Flower, George, English immigrant,
397; established English settlement,
12-15; feud between Birkbeck and,
14-15; sent freed Negroes to Haiti,

49

Flower, Richard, English immigrant,
397; interested in sheep, 385; inter-
est of, in English settlement, 12-13;
urged to start anti-convention press,
82

Foot, Samuel A., attitude toward pub-
lic lands, 183-184

Ford, Thomas, 279, 285, 291, 295, 296,
297, 304, 305, 3i5, 348, 410; attacks
upon, 299; bank policy of, 313-314;
calls for volunteers, 400 ; elected gov-
ernor, 292 ; influence on state history,
412; history of, 316; justice of su-
preme court, 283 ; measures against
Mormons, 352, 358, 361, 362; meas-
ures concerning internal improve-
ments, 317-326; Mormons voted for,
347; nominated for governor, 288-
290; on practice of hoarding pro-
duce, 390; quoted, 385,429

Fordham, Elias Pym, 15, 19, 24

Forman, Colonel Ferris, 29411, 401, 402

Forquer, George, 122, I42n, 237, 316;
advised against Edwards' senatorial
ambitions in 1830, 134; altered canal
bill, 201 ; attacked Edwards under
name of "Tyro," IIO-IH, 112; be-
came leader of Springfield clique,
149; canal proposal of, 1980; death
of, 246; defeated for congress, 1828,
127-128 ; elected attorney-general,
129; established Jackson paper, 132;
hostile to May, 246 ; method of man-
aging a campaign, 136-137; pro-
posed classification of public lands
by, 127; railroad scheme, 206-207,
209

Forsythe, Thomas, 1530

Foster, Charles A., 351
Foster, Robert D., 351
Foster, William P., member of su-
preme court, 35
Four Lakes, 167
Fox, see Sauk and Fox
Fox river, 27, 197, 198, 375, 398, 420
Francis, Simeon, 178, 204, 300
Franklin, Benjamin, 20
Franklin county, voted for convention,

89
Freeman, Jonathan, Birkbeck wrote

under name of, 87-88
Freeport, 192
French, 7, 267; Catholics, 422, 423;

influence of, 5; slave rights of, 70,

77; slaves of, 49, 50, 379
French, Augustus C., 29411; elected

governor, 301-302; nominated for

governor, 325
Friends of Humanity, opposed slavery,

81
Fry, Colonel Jacob, 325; in Black

Hawk War, 165
Fulton county, Son, 299; settlement in,

174, 178; taxation in, 64; voted

against convention, 89

Gaines, General Edmund P., 158

Gale, George W., 436-437

Galena, 132, 189, 191, 192, 203, 209,
220, 270, 280, 423 ; branch bank at,
305; Catholic paper of, 29; commer-
cial importance, 190; land sales in,
176; lead mines at, 152, 155, 308;
mission opened at, 27; school at, 22.
See Peoria

Galena and Chicago Union railroad,
see transportation

Gales, Joseph, 98

Galesburg, settlement at, 179

Galesburg Female Seminary, see edu-
cation

Gallatin, Albert, 1420

Gallatin county, 50, 73, 94, 112, 212,
220, 287, 324; attitude toward slav-
ery in, 85-86; settlement in, 2; voted
for convention, 89

Gallatin saline, 84

Garrison, William Lloyd, 370, 372, 382

Gaston, G. T., 374

Gatewood, William J., 2O9n, 220, 234,

254

George IV, 20

Georgetown University, see education
Germans, 26m; antagonism of, 394-
395; attitude toward new constitu-
tion, 408 ; Catholics, 422, 423 ; ex-

462

INDEX

tensive settlement of, 391-396; in
Mexican War, 400; Lutherans, 424.
See population

German-Swiss, 392n. See population

Germany, 391

Gillespie, Joseph, 130, 311

Gilman, Winthrop S., 305

Godfrey, Benjamin, 305

Godfrey, Gilman and Company, 304,
309-310, 368

Goldsmith, Oliver, 21

Goodell, William, 374

Gooding, William, 326

Government, description and discus-
sion of, 33-51 ; German influence on,
393 ; legislation affecting finance,
52-69; the new constitution, 1847,
407-409.

Grammar, John, 303

Grand Detour, 177

Grand Rapids, 42

Grant, Alexander F., 129, 132, 147

Gratiot, Fort, i7in

Graves, William, 276

Graves-Cilley duel, 276

Great Britain, see England

Great Lakes, see transportation

Great Wabash river, 42, 213

Great Western Mail railroad, see
transportation

Green, Bowling, 238

Green, Duff, 122, 124, 133, 138, 299

Green, Peter, 205, 218

Greene county, 3, 30, 112, 173, 214,
218, 254

Greenup, William C., 138

Greenville, 30

Gregory XVI, Pope, 424

Gridley, Asahel, 311

Griggs, Manning, and Company, 189

Griggs, Weld and Company, 305, 309

Griggsville, 420

Grosvenor, Mason, 437

Gulf of Mexico, 331, 401

Hacker, John S., 140, 226, 249

Haiti, 49

Hall, James, 103, 131

Hamilton, Alexander, 183

Hamilton, William S., 196

Hamilton county, 47, 89

Hancock county, 203, 294, 325, 356,
357; settlement in, 174; Smith's de-
scendants in, 3620

Hansen, Nicholas, deposed by Shaw,
78-80, 173 ; Warren enemy of, 82

Hanson, George H., 324

Hardin, John J., 301, 302, 311, 380,
402; colonel in Mexican War, 401;
congressional candidate, 293, 294;
killed in Mexican War, 406; sent to
disperse Mormon plunderers, 357

Harkness, E., 220

Harlan, Justin, 294

Harris, John, 119

Harrison, William Henry, 48, 70, 278 ;
death of, 271 ; elected president, 270;
inaugural address of, 272; Mormons
supported, 344; presidential cam-
paign 1836, 236, 239-241; presiden-
tial campaign 1840, 265-270; treaty
of, with Sauk and Fox, 153

Hartford, 262

Havana, 393n

Hayne, Robert, 185

Hedstrom, Jonas, 399

Hedstrom, Olaf, 399

Henderson, John, 294

Hendricks, William, 122

Hennepin, 174, 217, 370

Henry, John, 2O9n

Henry, A. G., 286

Henry, General James D., guberna-
torial candidate, 145 ; in Black Hawk
War, 165-166, 167, 168, 170

Henry, John, 238, 242, 254

Henry county, settlement in, 174, 178,
179; Swedish settlement in, 399;
temperance in, 426

Herndon, Archer G., 149, 275, 286, 289

Hicks, Stephen G., 281

Higbee, Chauncey L., 351

Higbee, Francis M., 351

Hilgard, Theodor, 392

Hill, Isaac, 275

Hill Prairie, 373, 375

Hillsboro, i43n, 213, 214, 221, 424

Hoge, Joseph P., 294, 329, 331; Mor-
mons voted for, 347, 357; on Wil-
mot proviso, 381

Hubbard, Adolphus, defeated for gov-
ernor, ii i ; quoted on slave labor,
85-86

Hunt, Thomas, 238

Huron, 217

Huron, Lake, 206

Huron territory, 138

Illinois and Michigan canal, see trans-
portation

Illinois, Bank of, see banking

Illinois Central railroad, see trans-
portation

Illinois College, see education

INDEX

463

Illinois river, 26, 153, 173, 197, 205,
3*5i 376, 396; commercial impor-
tance of, 12, 191; fur trade on, 3;
immigration across, 152; improve-
ment of, 175, 192, 194, 198, 206, 207,
208, 209n, 212, 331, 322; railroad on,
213; settlement south of, 177-178

Illiopolis, 204, 290, 291

Immigration, 53, 218, 233, 25611, 260,
26in; affected by land policy, 184-
185; English, 12-15; extent of for-
eign, 386, 390-400; from eastern
states, 178-179; general movement in
state, 173-178; northern and southern
movement of, 7 ; to Chicago, 388

Indenture, see slavery

Independents, 29

Indiana, 14, 26, 71, 101, 196, 232, 332,
333; Chicago market for, 389; land
sales in, 174-175

Indiana, State Bank of, see banking

Indiana territory, 94

Indian creek, 165

Indians, 2, 32, 184, 264, 269; Black
Hawk War, 158-172; Catholics, 422,
423; Jackson's policy toward, 115,
141, 142; location of in 1818, 3; re-
moved from their lands, 172; settle-
ment in lands of, 151-157, 173;
Walker missionary to, 27; whigs'
policy toward, 260

Ingersoll, Ralph I., n6n

Ingham, Samuel D., favored Kinney,
133

Internal improvements, see transpor-
tation

Iowa, 327; Black Hawk ready to re-
turn to, 162; hostile to Mormons,
352; Sauk removed to, 158, 159;
Sauk return to, 171, 172

Ireland, 396, 423, 424

Irish, 391; Catholics, 422, 423; in
Mexican War, 400; settlement of,
396-397; size of vote of, 260. See
population

Irvine, J., 224

Isacks, Jacob C., n6n

Jackson, Andrew, 92, 109, 112, 187, 207,
208, 254, 264, 267, 270, 278, 284, 292,
327i 338; accused of deserting prin-
ciples, 262; attitude toward internal
improvements and tariff, 24in; bank
policy, 242-245, 303, 308 ; characteri-
zation of, 114-115, 262; Edwards
supported, 139; elected president in
1828, 123; followers of, 236-247;
founder of democratic party, 251-

252; Indian policy of, 1510, 152; in-
fluence of in local politics, 124-135,
*36» J39» 14°> I47~I49; issues in cam-
paign 1828, 116-123; opposed Dun-
can 1833, 144-145; party of, split into
cliques, 138; policies of, 141-143;
presidential chances for, 106; re-
ceived plurality vote in 1825, 115;
strength of, 188 ; Van Buren's al-
leged influence over, 146; votes cast
for, 107

Jackson county, 89, 219

Jacksonian democracy, see politics

Jacksonville, 145, 20611, 256, 272, 419,
420, 438, 439; branch bank at, 305;
proposed capital site, 202, 203, 204,
205 ; school for blind at, 432 ; teach-
ers' convention at, 432

Jacksonville Female Seminary, see
education

Jansonists, see Swedes

Jefferson, Thomas, 115, 119, 151, I53n,
1 60

Jefferson county, 89

Jenner, Elisha, 437

Jersey county, 369

Job, Archibald, 275

Jo Daviess county, 174, 290

Johnson, Richard M., 240

Johnson, James, connected with Bank
of Edwardsville, 55; member of Ed-
wards faction, 92

Johnson, Richard M., 147, 149, 26in;
candidate for vice president, 139-
140, 240, 254; connected with Bank
of Edwardsville, 55; member of Ed-
wards faction, 92 ; presidential can-
didate, 275-276

Johnson county, 89, 425

Joliet, 260, 396, 422

Jones, Michael, 55

Jubilee College, see education

Kanawha, 66

Kane, Elias Kent, 34, 84, 96, 97, 123,
128, 133, 134, 139, 143, 144, 149, 279;
became Jackson supporter, 124; char-
acterization and history of, 94-95 ;
Cook defeated, 103 ; defeated for
congress on slavery issue, 93 ; de-
feated McLean, 108; elected senator,
90; elected senator 1824, 124-125;
favored Crawford, 106; influence of,
137; influence over McLean, 126-127;
intersted in Jackson press, 117; mem-
ber of anti-Edwards faction, 94; po-
sition on tariff, 141 ; senatorial can-
didate 1830, 137-138; sought align-

464

INDEX

ment with Edwards, 138; supported
Benton's bill, 121, 122; supported
Duncan, 127

Kane county, 380

Kankakee river, 195

Kaskaskia, 2, 30, 57, 61, 82, 84, 419;
bank chartered at, 55; land office
at, 4; land sales in, 5, 176; Menard
Academy at, 433; proposed as state
capital, 50-51; school at, 22; stage
line to, 10

Kaskaskia river, 3, 50, 210, 213

Kelley, James, 46

Kendall, Amos, 242

Kendall county, 380

Kent, Aratus, 22

Kentucky, 70, 88, 92, 253, 405, 421, 422,
429; circulation of bank notes from,
52; Edwards politician in, 93; stock
in Bank of Edwardsville, 55

Keokuk, 155-156, 171

Kickapoo, 3

Kickapoo prairie, 176

Kimmel, Singleton H., Jackson man,
124, 132, 133

Kinney, William C., 59, 112, 123, 125,
126, 128, 139, 143, 147, J48, 237, 247.
249, 250, 297, 298, 308, 402; became
Jackson supporter, 124; candidate
for governor 1833, 144, 145-146;
characterization and history of, 130-
131; deserted Edwards faction, 94;
favored Crawford, 106 ; guberna-
torial campaign of 1830, 129, 130-
134; hostile to canal, i46n; influence
of, 137; interested in Jackson press,
117; member of Edwards faction,
92; opinion on railroads, ^217; op-
posed Sunday school union, 425;
recommended governor of Huron
territory, 138 ; relation of, with bank,
61; senatorial candidate 1824, 124-
125; supported Duncan, 127

Kinzie, John H., 422n

Kirby, William, 437, 438

Kirtland, Ohio, Mormons in, 343

Kitchell, Joseph, 48, 97, 294; opposed
State Bank, 57-58; senatorial candi-
date, 124-125

Kitchell, Wickliffe, 57, 294

Knox county, 176, 203 ; college in, 437;
settlement in, 174, 178; Swedish set-
tlement in, 399

Knox Manual Labor College, see edu-
cation

Knoxville, 427

Koerner, Gustave, 250, 26in, 276, 295,
297, 378, 4oon, 402, 408 ; elected to

legislature, 395; German immigrant,
392; leader of Germans, 393-395

Kopfli, 392n

Koshkonong, Fort, 167

Koshkonong, Lake, 164, 166

Labor, Birkbeck's opinion on slavery
and, 88-89; large number of Irish
laborers, 396 ; need of slave labor,
73-74, 84-85; scarcity of, 15

Lacon, 173

Ladies of Visitation, Convent of, see
education

La Grange, 178

Lake county, 300, 330, 423

Land, see public lands

Lane, Levin, 238

Lane, William, 218

Lane College, 438

Lanphier, Charles H., 299

La Salle, 212; Catholic schools in, 433 ;
Irish settlement at, 396

La Salle county, Catholic mission in,
423; Germans in, 393n; Norwegian
settlement in, 398 ; settlement in, 178

" Latin farmers," of Belleville, 392-393

Latter Day Saints, see Mormons

Law, William, 351, 353

Law, Wilson, 351

Lawless, Luke Edward, 365

Lawrence, Abbott, 323

Leary, Albert G., 229, 231, 281, 301

Leavitt, David, 325

Lebanon Seminary, see education

Lecompte, Joseph, n6n

Leland, 399

Lemen, James, 28, 29, 416

Lemen, Moses, 415

Lexington, 414

Lilburne, John, 373

Lincoln, Abraham, 87, 221, 240, 267,
285, 286, 292, 293, 301, 311, 344; at-
titude toward Mexican War, 404-
405 ; congressional candidate, 293 ;
opinion on projected railroad, 205-
206 ; realizes advantage of party or-
ganization, 250; voted against anti-
abolition resolutions, 364

Lincoln-Douglas debates, 86

Linden Wood, 434

Linder, Usher F., 367, 368, 370

Linn, William J., 291, 300

Lisbon, 399

Little Fort, 300, 411

Little Wabash river, proposed canal
on, 42; railroad on, 213

Livingston county, 330

INDEX

465

Lockwood, Samuel D., 126, 136, 137,
144, 215, 279, 280; defeated for sen-
ate 1824, I25; justice, 35, 109, 125;
opinion on slavery, 377-378 ; sena-
torial candidate, 1822, 97; senatorial
candidate 1828, 126

Logan, John A., 219, 406

Logan, Stephen T., 293

Logan county, 179

Logansport, 2O9n

London, 220, 224, 225, 226, 261, 267,

274, 323

Long, Enoch, 368

Long, Major Stephen, 195

Long Grove, 420

Louisiana, 43, 197

Louisiana purchase, 403

Louisville, 10, 209

Louisville and Portland canal, see
transportation

Lovejoy, Elijah Parish, 418; anti-
slavery activities of, 364-370; killed,
368

Lovejoy, Owen, 372, 373, 379

Lowell, 370, 371

Lower Alton, 213

Lundy, Benjamin, 370-371

Lutherans, 424

Lyman, Alvan, 178

Lyman, Amasa, 353

Lyman, Ezra, 178

Lyndon, 176

Lyons, 179

Macalister, Charles, 229, 231, 314, 321,
322, 324, 326

Mackinaw, 3, 178, 194, 2o6n

Mackinaw and Bloomington railroad,
see transportation

Macomb, 174

Macon county, 203, 207

Macoupin county, 3, 207, 370

Madison, James, 75

Madison county, 47, 173, 207, 239, 4oon ;
agricultural society in, 16; Coles
sued on behalf of, 48 ; conventionists
organized in, 81; German settlement
in, 392; German-Swiss colony in,
392n ; Sunday schools in, 30

Magniac, Jardine and Company, 323

Magnolia, 173

Maine, 270, 328, 365

Maiden, 156, 157

Manufactures, difficulties of transport-
ing, ii ; extent of, 8; issue of protec-
tion of in 1828, 120; lack of, among
Mormons, 348-349 ; Peoria's resources
for, 203; relation of agriculture to,

105; Rush's views on, 121-122;
slavery influenced output of, 89

March, Enoch C., 190

Marietta College, 438

Marion county, 5, 89

Marks, William, 354

Marshall, John, 55, 93, HI, 112, 312

Marshall county, 174

Mason county, 393n

Masonry, 22

Massac county, 428-429

Massac, Fort, 332

Massachusetts, 27, i78n, 262, 323

Mather, Thomas, 65, 137, 139, i42n,
224, 304, 305

Maumee river, 195, 196, 424n

Maury, Lieutenant, 329

Maxwell, George W. P., 246

May, William L., 138, 147, 148, 149,
237, 249, 250, 260, 286, 303 ; attempt
to drive out of democratic party,
246-248 ; congressional nomination
of, 255; financial policy of, 245-246

McClernand, John A., 281, 282, 299,
314, 321, 329; elected to congress,
294; internal improvement interests
or> 33°. 331* 332» 333. °n Wilmot
proviso, 381 ; sued for office of secre-
tary of state, 279

McConnell, Murray, 301

McCormick, Andrew, 364

McCormick, Cyrus, 384

McDonough, 270

McDonough county, 203, 357

McDougall, James A., 294

McDuffie, George E., n

McFatridge, William, 61, 78

McKee, William R., 406

McKendree, Bishop William, 436

McKendree College, see education

McLaughlin, Robert K., 108, 144, 145

McLean, John, 96, 97, 123, 126, 129,
140; became Jackson supporter, 124;
connected with Bank of Illinois, 55;
Cook defeated, 103 ; Cook succeeded,
71; death of, 137; defeated by Kane,
108 ; elected representative, 95;
elected senator 1828, 127; favored
Crawford, 106 ; first representative,
70; Jackson man, 132; member of
anti-Edwards faction, 94; opposed
State Bank of 1821, 58; senatorial
candidate 1824, 124-125; voted for
Missouri compromise, 72, 73

McLean county, 330

McLeod, Alexander, 328

McMahon, Father, 423

INDEX

McRoberts, Samuel, 48, 129, 132, 140,
246, 249, 250, 282, 289

Memphis, 331

Memphis - Charleston railroad, see
transportation

Menard, Pierre, 5, 148, 434

Menard Academy, see education

Menard county, 406

Mendon, 357

Menominee, 159, 160, 169

Meredith, Samuel C., 132

Meredosia, 212, 290

Methodist church, 29, 131, 399; atti-
tude toward slavery, 81, 375-376;
growth of, 414-415, 417; organiza-
tion and influence of, 23-27; school
of, 435-436

Mexico, Edwards appointed minister
to, 99, 103

Mexican War, 299, 327, 337, 338, 381,
400-406

Michigan, 165, 174-175, 191

Michigan City, 291

Michigan, Lake, 194, 201, 206, 331

Military Bounty tract, 5, 214, 238, 255,
294» 334> 426, 44° 5 Hansen and
Shaw from, 78 ; Indians in, 3 ; Mor-
mons in, 340; settlement in, 173-174;
size of claim in, 182; speculation in,
175-176; taxation in, 64

Miller, 399

Mills, Benjamin, 147

Mining, lead, 92, 152, 155, 190, 308,
310, 357

Minor, Gideon, 364

Mission, 399

Mission Institute, 372

Mississippi, 174-175, 186, 197

Mississippi and Wabash railroad, see
transportation

Mississippi and Wabash Union rail-
road, see transportation

Mississippi river, 5, 26, 129, 151, 153,
166, 169, 170, i72n, 175, 203, 359, 401,
417, 42411, 433; Black Hawk willing
to cross, 162, 169; commercial im-
portance of, 6, n, 52, 105, 191, 192,
195, 205, 206, 209, 210, 218, 219, 220,
310, 333; Fox lived on, 154; German
immigration to, 391, 392; Indian re-
moval across, 152, 156, 157, 158, 171;
settlement along, 2-3

Mississippi, Springfield and Carrollton,
see transportation

Missouri, 26, 30, 81, 96, 121, 185, 328,
380, 434, 436; Coles held slaves in,
76; connection of slavery with ad-
mission of, 70, 71, 72, 73 ; Germans

settled in, 391, 392; land cessions in,
153; land sales in, 174; Lovejoy ad-
vocated antislavery society in, 367 ;
Mormons driven from, 343, 345, 347-
348, 350, 352

Missouri, Bank of, see banking

Missouri compromise, see Missouri

Missouri river, 356

Mitchell, James C. (of Tennessee),
n6n

Mitchell, Thomas R. (of South Caro:
lina), n6n

Mitchell, Dr. J. W. S., 385

Monmouth, 174, 176, 192, 427

Monroe, James, 95, 99, 119, 1510

Monroe county, 80, 400

Monroe Doctrine, 105

Montgomery county, 81, 90, 232

Monticello Female Seminary, see edu-
cation

Moore, James B., 345

Moore, James H., 76

Moore, John, 287

Moore, Risdon, 77

Morgan, James D., 406

Morgan county, 30, 80, 89, 112, 173,
202, 203, 214, 255

Mormons, 288 ; Bennett's charges
against, 345-347 ; doctrine of, 341 ;
English converts of, 397n; hostility
toward, 350, 351-352; remove to
Utah, 362; Smith leader of, 341-343;
split in church of, 351; Turner op-
posed, 440; war upon, 355-361;
Young becomes leader of, 353-355

Morris, Isaac N., 233

Morris, William, 413

Morris, 399

Mt. Auburn, 178

Mt. Carmel, 289, 305

Mt. Carmel and Alton railroad, set
transportation

Mt. Vernon, 218

Murphy, John H., 364

Murphy, Richard, 229, 231, 301

Naperville, 420

Naples, 191

Nattestad, Ansted, 398

Nauvoo, 192, 440; anti-Mormons
marched on, 360, 361; English at,
397°; growth of, 348-350; militia
guard in, 358; Mormon settlement
at, 340-362; secession in, 351

Newberry, Oliver, 190

Newberry, Walter, 270

Newby, Colonel W. B., 401

INDEX

467

New England, 22, 185, 189, 309, 323,

365, 366, 369, 390, 4con, 419, 420,
431, 438, 439; circulation of bank
notes from, 52; immigration from,
178; Mormon converts from, 342;
status of Yankees from, 18

New Hampshire, 178

New Harmony, 9, 14

New Haven, 418, 419

New Mexico, 403

New Orleans, 49 ; commercial impor-
tance of, ii-i2, 89, 120, 190, 191, 195,
197, 209, 306, 387; importance of, in
state finance, 52-53 ; Jackson exe-
cuted militiamen at, 119-120

Newspapers, i, 17, 92, 147; advertise-
ments in, 189-190; alignment in
presidential campaign of 1836, 237,
239 ; alignment on bank policies, 244-
246, 248 ; attack on Crawford in, 98 ;
attitude toward internal improve-
ment scheme, 223 ; attitude toward
Lincoln, 405 ; attitude toward Steph-
enson, 249-250; bank's influence
over, 259 ; contents and circulation
of, 20-21; discuss canal project, 195;
discuss new constitution, 407-408,
409; discuss repudiation, 232; dis-
cuss tariff question, 120; discuss
tariff, 141 ; economic conditions re-
vealed by, 8-9; enthusiasm for Jack-
son in, 117-118; fight against Regis-
ter, 298; Germans established, 393,
394; in congressional election of
1844, 296; influence of, in elections,
256; influence of, in gubernatorial
election 1830, 131-132; influence of,
on slavery and convention issue, 73,
74-75, .80, 81, 82, 84-85, 86; issue of
canal in, 230-231; Jackson press es-
tablished, 117; on slavery issue, 363-
364, 367-368, 370, 371, 381, 382; pro-
posals of, for rehabilitation, 233-234;
Reynolds' policy announced in, 134;
support of, for Duncan, 144-148;
Turner's, 439-441; type of, 411-413

New York, 34, 36, 38, 43, 52, 70, 71, 94,

Il8, 178, 179, 196, 198, 213, 220, 233,
239, 241, 275, 333, 340, 342

New York and Erie railroad, see trans-
portation

New York City, 190, 191, 224, 225,

366, 388, 398, 399, 436
Noble, James, 101
North Bend, 268

Northern Cross railroad, see transpor-
tation

Northwest ordinance, see Ordinance of
1787

Northwest Territory, 269

Norway, Illinois, Norwegian settle-
ment in, 399

Norway, religious persecution in, 398

Norwegians, Lutherans, 424; settle-
ment of, 398-399. See population

Oakley, Charles, 224, 225, 322, 325

Ogden, William B., 230

Ogle, Charles, 267

Ogle, Jacob, advocated suffrage for
Negroes, 49

Ogle county, 290

Oglesby, Richard J., 406

Ohio, 70, 71, 173, 196, 329, 421 ; circu-
lation of bank notes from, 52 ; immi-
gration from, 178 ; land sales in, 174-
175; Mormons in, 343

Ohio river, 75, 196, 428; commercial
importance of, 6, 10-11, 2o6n, 207,
212, 217, 219, 330, 331, 387; Cook
suggested improvement of, 105 ; set-
tlement along, 2

Old Colony Brotherhood, i78n

O'Meara, Father Bernard, 423n

Oquawka, 192, 427

O'Rear, William, 214

Ordinance of 1787, discussion over
slavery provisions in, 70, 71, 76-77,
86, 377, 378

Oregon, 177, 192, 277; boundary, 327-
33°, 334, 336, 338; possible Mormon
location in, 356

Ottawa, 159, 177, 191, 192, 201, 209,
254, 389, .399, 400

Overton, Richard, 373

Pacific ocean, 184

Palestine, 5, 84, 176, 208, 386

Palmer, Dent, and McKillop, 274

Palmer, J. Horsley, 274

Palmyra, 59, 60

Palmyra, New York, 340

Paris, 208

Parker, Daniel, 28

Paullin, Parven, 364

Paul, Rene, 196

Payne, General Duval, 55

Pearson, John, 229, 230, 231

Pecatonica river, 165, 192

Peck, Ebenezer, 230, 231, 275, 278, 301,
310, 314, 316; elected justice of su-
preme court, 283 ; favored conven-
tion system, 254; history of, 282-283;
representative, 229

468

INDEX

Peck, John Mason, accused of anti-con-
vention support, 82 ; activity and in-
fluence of, 27-28, 31; authorized to
write history of state, 412 ; Baptist
leader, 415, 416; disliked Lovejoy,
366, 368-369; quoted, 90; seminary
of, 22, 434; societies founded by, 30

Peerson, Kleng, 398

Pekin, 191

Pekin and Bloomington railroad, see
transportation

Pekin and Tremont railroad, see trans-
portation

Pekin, Bloomington, and Wabash rail-
road, see transportation

Pennsylvania, 52

Pennsylvania Dutch, 391

Peoria, 3, 191, 217, 247, 255, 302, 383,
389, 419; Catholics in, 423; Irish in,
396; laid out, 173; mission at, 26;
proposed capital site at, 202, 203,
204; Scientific and Historical Soci-
ety at, 412 ; temperance in, 426, 427

Peoria county, 176, 203, 430, 436

Peoria-Galena trail, 174

Peoria, Wabash and Warsaw railroad,
see transportation

Perry, 393n

Peru, 191, 396

Philadelphia, 175 ; antislavery tracts
from, 83; Peck studied in, 27; trade
with, 9, ii, 53, 306, 387, 388

Phillips, Joseph B., elected judge, 95;
member of anti-Edwards faction, 94;
member of supreme court, 35; pro-
slavery candidate for governor, 74-

75, 76

Pickett, William, 361

Pike county, 78, 173 ; Germans in, 393n;
settlement in, 174; taxation in, 64;
voted against convention, 89

Pittsburg, ii, 53, 75, 191, 205, 353, 355

Pleasant Plains, 433

Poe, Edgar Allan, 413

Poinsett, Joel R., 266

Politics, i ; alignments in gubernatorial
election 1830, 128-135; alignment of
factions in senatorial election 1824,
124-126 ; alignment of factions for
senatorial election 1828, 126-127;
alignment of factions in congression-
al election 1828, 127-128; amendment
to change method of presidential vot-
ing, 115-116; and internal improve-
ments, 198, 201, 205, 212, 215, 216-
224; and Mexican War, 337-338, 402,
403-404; and new bank, 303, 305,
307-308, 310-312, 313-315; and re-

moval of capital to Springfield, 201-
205 ; beginnings of whig and demo-
cratic parties, 136, 137, 140-143;
canal issue in 1834, 198-202; canal
issue in 1840-1841, 229-231; congres-
sional elections 1834, 147-149; con-
gressional elections 1841, 284-285;
congressional elections 1843 and
1844, 293-297; convention struggle of
1823 due to slavery issue, 77-91 ; de-
mand for repudiation, 232-233 ; demo-
crats seek German vote, 394-395; de-
scription and members of anti-Ed-
wards faction, 92, 94-95 ; description
and members of Edwards faction, 92-
94; discussion of whig and demo-
cratic parties, 256-264; disintegration
of faction 1830-1834, 137-149; dissat-
isfaction in whig ranks, 271-274;
elections in 1818, 95; existence of
two factions, 92 ; factions not united
on convention measure, 90; fear of
canal controlling, 197; gubernatorial
election 1822, 74-76; gubernatorial
election 1834, 143-147; gubernatorial
election 1838, 249-250; gubernatorial
campaign 1841, 285-293; guberna-
torial campaign 1846, 301 ; influence
of factions in local elections, 107-
113; influence of Illinois factions in
presidential campaign 1824, 97-107;
influence of Jacksonian democracy in
local elections, 114-135; interest in,
in 1830, 150; Irish interest in, 396;
issue over alien vote, 26o-26in, 279-
282; Jackson's campaign 1828, 116-
123; judiciary bill, 280-283; Koerner
German leader in, 393-394; lack of
interest in public lands, 336; life
office issue, 278-279; Mormon
strength in, 343, 344-345, 346, 347,
351, 356, 359, 361-362; organization
of democratic party and convention
system, 251-256; parties bicker over
new constitution, 407-408 ; party
alignment in presidential election
1832, 139-140; party feeling over
river and harbor bill, 330-336; presi-
dential election 1840, 265-270; presi-
dential election 1844, 275-277; presi-
dential election 1848, 336, 338-339;
resume of factional alignment 1818-
1834, 136; senatorial election 1830,
137-138; senatorial election 1832,
139; situation at beginning of guber-
natorial campaign 1842, 233-235;
slavery issue and, 371-372, 374-375,
380-382; slavery issue in congres-

INDEX

469

sional election 1820, 70-74; split in
democratic party on Texas and Ore-
gon question, 327-330; Springfield
clique, 237, 246, 283, 286, 295, 296,
297, 298, 301, 302; success of conven-
tion system of democratic party, 249-
250; tariff begins to figure in, 105;
Turner's views on, 440-441 ; war
upon Walters and Wentworth, 298-
301 ; whigs and democrats divide on
land policy, 183-188; whigs and
democrats in election 1836, 236-242;
whig opposition to Ford's canal
measures, 321-326

Polk, James K., n6n, 298, 336, 337,
404; administration, 327, 329, 330,
332» 335! elected, 277; nominated
president, 275-277; vetoed river and
harbor bill, 333-334

Pond Prairie, 420

Pope, Nathaniel, 99, 108, 136, 148, 348;
active member of Edwards faction,
92, 93 ; Browne chosen candidate by,
76; defeated for senate 1824, 125;
proposed Reynolds as opponent to
Thomas, 97; senatorial candidate in
1828, 126

Pope county, 89, 112, 428, 429

Population, 197; affected by immigra-
tion, 390-400; description of, 6-7;
effect of land legislation upon, 3-5;
English, 397; from 183010 1840, 383;
Galena, 190; growth of, 173-179,
188-193; in English settlement, 15;
Irish, 396; number in 1830, 152;
number of Germans, 393 ; Scandi-
navian, 399; Scotch, 397; size and
location of in 1818, 2-3; consult dif-
ferent nationalities

Potawatomi, 159, 162, 164; Catholic
chiefs of, 422 ; location of, 3 ; Walker
missionary to, 27

Portland, 176

Portland and Louisville canal, see
transportation

Posey, General Alexander, 165

Post, Justus, 196

Postville, 179

Prairie du Chien, 159, 169

Pratt, Orson, 346

Prentice, Charles, 274, 275

Prentiss, Benjamin, 406

Presbyterian church, 26, 29, 261 ; atti-
tude toward slavery, 363, 375;
growth of and connection with Con-
gregationalists, 419-420; Lovejoy
member of, 365; schools of, 436-439

Princeton, 370, 4i8n

Princeton Academy, see education

Princeton Theological Seminary, 365

Prophetstown, 161

Protestants, 261

Public lands, amount of sale of, 174-
179; Benton's policy toward, 121-123,
127, 185-188, 264; Calhoun's policy
toward, 187, 336; Clay's policy
toward, 186-187, 2*>8 ; Crawford's
policy toward, 53-54, 56, 98; Ed-
wards' policy toward, 104, 133-134,
141, 185; Harrison's attitude toward,
239, 269; Jackson's policy toward,
188, 243-244, 264; Lincoln's sugges-
tion for unsold, 221 ; measures con-
cerning 1841-1848, 336-337; method
of sale of, 3-5, 180-184, 320-321;
price of, 74, 88, 179, 182; Reynolds'
policy toward, 276; speculation, 50-
51, 53, 69, 104, 134, 173, 174-179, 186,
187, 188, 192, 194, 201-102, 244;
Tyler's policy toward 272; Van
Buren's policy toward, 187-188, 241,
276 ; whig's policy toward, 260

Pulaski county, 297

Putnam county, 174, 203, 369

Quakers, antislavery tracts from, 83 ;
settlement of Norwegian, 398

Quarter, Bishop William, of Chicago,
423n, 424

Quash-quame, i54n

Queen Anne's War, 184

Quincy, 189, 206, 209, 210, 212, 250, 352,
361, 372, 376, 379, 420; anti-Mormon
meeting at, 357; branch bank at,
305 ; Catholics in, 423 ; land sales at,
175, 176

Railroads, see transportation

Raith, Julius C., 400

Ralston, James H., 285, 314

Randolph, John, 118

Randolph county, 89, 373, 378

Rapp, Frederick, 9, 14

Rattan, Thomas, 78

Rawlings, M. M., 225

Reeve's Bluff, 51

Religion, 2; antislavery influence of
clergy, 81-82; discussion of, 23-31;
growth of denominations 1830-1848,
414-425; in English settlement, 14;
influence of, 425-426; Mormon sect,
340-361 ; persecution of Norwegian
Quakers, 398; politics and, 261;
Turner's, 441 ; consult various de-
nominations

Revolutions, the, 20, 1831, 269, 342, 373

Reynolds, John, 62, 112, 126, 144, 225,

470

INDEX

228, 246, 247, 249, 250, 275, 276, 278,

287, 288, 304, 308, 402 ; approved an-
nexation of Texas, 327; boosted
Belleville, 386; characterization and
history of, 128, 129-130; congress-
man, 284; defeated as justice, 125;
elected governor, 134; elected to con-
gress, 147, 148 ; gubernatorial can-
didate 1830, 128-135; influence of,
137; influence on state history, 412;
Irish immigrant, 396; member of
supreme court, 35; policies of, in con-
gressional race 1834, 147-149; politi-
cal overthrow of, 295, 296-297 ; pro-
posed as gubernatorial candidate
1822, 76; proposed as opponent to
Thomas, 97, 98 ; raised army for In-
dian campaign, 158, 160, 164, 167;
supported Duncan, 127; supported
Johnson, 140

Reynolds, Thomas, 116, 125; member
of supreme court, 35

Rhett, R. Barnwell, 333

Richardson, William A., 287, 299

Rigdon, Nancy, 346

Rigdon, Sidney, 346, 355; arrested,
347; attempted to become Mormon
leader, 353, 354; connection with
Mormonism, 341

Riggs, Romulus, 175

Ritchie, Thomas, 335

Roberts, Benjamin, 2080

Roberts, John S., 299

Robins Nest, 436

Robinson, Alexander, 422

Robinson, John M., 286; elected to
supreme court, 283 ; financial policy
of, 245; senatorial aspirant, 138;
supported Johnson, i4on

Rockford, 192

Rockford Female Seminary, see edu-
cation

Rock Island, 3, 154, 156, i72n, 174, 217,
353

Rock Island county, 174

Rock river, 161, 192, 325, 376; rail-
road on, 213; sale of land about,
176-177; Sauk and Fox on, 3, 154,
158, 160, 164, 166, 172

Rock Spring, 22, 434

Rockwell, Orrin P., 348

Rockwell, 178

Rocky Mountains, 184

Rome, 423, 441

Rosati, Bishop, 422, 423, 4240

Ross, Lewis W., 299

Rowan, Stephen R., 275, 284

Ruggles, Benjamin, 71

Rush, Richard, 121

Rush Medical College, see education

Rushville, 174, 192, 202, 206

Rushville railroad, see transportation

Russell, John, 29

Russia, 75

Rutland, 399

Ryan, Michael, 322, 323, 325

Rynning, Ole, 398

Salem, 411

Saline, see salt works

Saline creek, 42

Salt works, need of slave labor in, 73-
74, 84-85, 88 ; revenue from, 62, 65-
66, 68 ; Reynolds' proposed policy
toward, 131; settlement near, 2

Salu, 22

Sangamon county, 42, 104, 149, 202,

203, 207, 212, 214, 217, 223, 238, 255,

294» 379. .419; Catholics in, 423; op-
position in, to Baptists, 28 ; settle-
ment in, 5, 173, 178; secured loca-
tion of capital, 204-205 ; Sunday
school in, 30; voted against conven-
tion, 89

Sangamon river, 42, 173

Santa Anna, 337

Sauk and Fox, 174; aggression into
land of, 155-157; Black Hawk War,
159-172; land treaties with, 152-154;
location of, 3 ; move across Missis-
sippi, 158; return to Illinois, 159

Saunders, Romulus M., n6n

Savanna, 176, 192

Scales, Judge Walter B., 283, 301, 378,
379

Schaeffer, Father Bernard, 423n

Schools, see education

Schuyler county, 174, 203, 2o6n, 357,
419

Scotch, 391, 397. See population

Scotch-Irish, 391. See population

Scott, John, 72

Scott, General Winfield, in Black
Hawk War, 165, 171-172, 339

Scott county, 232, 287

Seaton, William W., 98

Seminole War, 114-115

Semple, James, 328 ; attitude toward
banks, 307; elected to supreme court,
283

Sexton, Orval, 324

Shabonee, 162

Shaw, John, 78, 82, 173

Shawneetown, 30, 57, 58, 123, 147,
148, 248, 334; communication with,
3, 9, 10, u, 209, 210, 219; culture in,

INDEX

19, 23 ; economic conditions in, 7-8 ;
history of bank at, 55, 56, 59, 60;
kidnapping of slaves in, 48, 49, 379;
land office at, 4; land sales in, 5,
176; salt works at, 66. See Bank of
Illinois

Shawneetown and Alton railroad, see
transportation

Shelby county, 207, 287

Shelbyville, 214

Shelbyville and Alton railroad, see
transportation

Shields, James, 250, 276, 295, 308, 379,
396, 406

Shoal creek, 30, 363

Shurtleff, Dr. Benjamin, 435

Shurtleff College, see education

Singleton, James W., 360

Skinner, Mark, 298

Slade, Charles, 144; elected to congress
1832, 139; policies of, in congres-
sional race 1834, 147-148

Slavery, 105, 240, 265, 268; antislavery
argument, 373 ; attitude of new con-
stitution toward, 409; Birkbeck's at-
titude toward, 12, 15; Chase's atti-
tude toward, 422 ; churches' attitude
toward, 363, 375-376, 416, 418-421,
435 ; Coles' recommendations against,
76-77; connection of, with Mexican
War, 402; contest affected canal bill,
77; court decisions on status of, 377-
380; convention struggle over consti-
tutional article on, 77-91 ; democratic
party beginning to be split by, 327,
336; Eddy's proposal to admit, 73-
74; German attitude toward, 392;
influence of, in congressional elec-
tions, 70-73 ; issue of, in election for
governor in 1822, 75-77; issue of, in
local politics, 371-372, 380-381; issue
of, on parties, 374-375, 380-382;
Kinney supposed to support, 131;
laws and practices affecting, 47-50;
Lovejoy's press against, 364-370;
money loaned for press to advocate,
59; newspapers published against,
370-371 ; politics and, 70-91 ; rela-
tion of, to tariff, 121 ; Smith preached
against, 343; tax collected on slaves,
64; Turner's attitude toward, 440-
441

Sloo, Thomas, defeated for governor,
in; opponent of Edwards, 109;
senatorial candidate, 124-125

Smith, George, 313

Smith, Hyrum, 342, 346, 352, 353, 354

Smith, Joseph, 440; arrested on Mis-
souri warrant, 347-348, 350; descen-
dants of, live in Illinois, 362n;
founder and leader of Mormonism,
340-343, 346, 353, 354; Mormon
charges against, 351; murdered in
Carthage, 352; presidential candi-
date, 351

Smith, Robert, 329 ; elected to congress,
295, 296, 297; internal improvement
interests of, 330, 331; on Wilmot
proviso, 381

Smith, Theophilus W., 123, 128, 144,
215, 278, 279, 304, 305, 310, 311; be-
came Jackson supporter, 124; candi-
date for senate 1828, 126; deserted
Edwards faction, 94; elected justice,
125; interested in Jackson press, 117;
interested in railroad, 208; justice
of supreme court, 35 ; member of Ed-
wards faction, 92 ; opinion on alien
vote, 280, 281-282; opinion on slav-
ery, 378; relation of with bank, 6r;
resigned from supreme court, 282;
senatorial aspirant 1830, 137-138;
supported Duncan, 127; unable to
gain Warren's support, 82

Smith, William, attempted to become
Mormon leader, 354-355

Smith, Fort, 331

Snyder, Adam W., i42n, 249, 345 ;
death of, 287; financial policy of,
245, 246, 247, 248 ; gubernatorial
candidate 1838, 250; managed card-
ing machine, 8 ; nominated for gov-
ernor, 286-289; policies of in con-
gressional race 1834, I47"I48; pre-
sented bill for reorganization of the
judiciary, 280

Society, see culture

South America, 20, 115, 118

South Carolina, n6n

Southern Cross railroad, see transpor-
tation

Sparta, 375

Spaulding, Solomon, 341

Speculation, see public lands

Speed, Joshua Fry, 286

Springfield, 30, i2on, 132, 138, 149, 177,
191, 206, 207, 209, 210, 250, 269, 282,
303, 318; Baker elected to congress
from, 293, 294; Catholics in, 423;
constitutional convention met in, 407;
greets Mexican War heroes, 406;
head office of bank at, 305 ; land
sales in, 5, 175, 176; made state cap-
ital, 204; proposed capital site, 202,
203 ; stage line to, 10

472

INDEX

Springfield-Alton railroad, see trans-
portation

Springfield clique, see politics
Springfield, Mississippi and Carrollton

railroad, see transportation
Spring, Giles, 294
Stark county, 174, 4000
State Bank, see banking
St Charles, 367
St. Clair county, 89, 329, 402, 431;

anti-conventionists organized in, 81 ;

antislavery society formed in, 80;

Germans in, 392, 400; Sunday

schools in, 30
St. Cyr, Irenaeus Mary, priest sent to

Chicago, 423
Stebbins, Henry, 229, 231, 314, 321,

322, 324, 326
Stephenson, Benjamin, controversy

over letter from, 100-101, 102, 103 ;

member of Edwards faction, 92;

president of Bank of Edwardsville,

56

Stephenson, James W., became a demo-
crat, 140; candidate for governor,
249

Stephenson county, 290

Stephenson, Fort, 107

Sterne, Laurence, 21

Stevenson, n6n

Stewart, Alvan, 373

Stewart, William M., antislavery pro-
test of, 363 ; founded American Tract
Society, 30

Stillman, Major Isaiah, in Black Hawk
War, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165

St. Joseph river, 195

St. Louis, 2, 92, 152, 299, 393n, 422, 423,
424n, 433, 434; antislavery tracts for-
warded from, 83 ; commercial im-
portance of, 9, 189, 190, 191, 192, 203,
212, 309, 310, 313, 333, 386, 387;
Lovejoy advocated antislavery soci-
ety in, 367; Lovejoy edited paper in,
365; Peck located in, 27; stage line
to, 10; stock in Bank of Edwards-
ville, 55

St. Mary, 420

St. Mary's of the Lake, University
of, see education

Storrs, Henry Randolph, n6n

St. Palais, Father Maurice, 4230

Strang, James J., 353

Strassburg, 423

Street, Joseph M., 106, 123, 126

Stone, Dan, 240, 364

Stuart, John T., 26in; congressman,
285; Mormons voted for, 344

Sturgis, William, 323

Sturtevant, Julian M., 437, 438, 439

Sunday School Union, formation of, 30

Suppiger, 392n

Swedes, Lutherans, 424; settlement of,

399. See population
Swift, Jonathan, 87
Swift, Captain William H., 323
Swiss-German, 392
Sycamore creek, 162

Tallmadge, James, 70, 71

Tammany Hall, 261

Tariff, 263, 265, 273, 274, 334, 338,
374; agitation of, in 1828, 120-121,
122-123 ; Breese supported, 141 ; dis-
cussion of, 105 ; Jackson's policy
toward, 142, 24111, 262; whig atti-
tude toward, 258

Taylor, Edmund D., 149

Taylor, Nathaniel W., 438

Taylor, Zachary, 381; commends 1115-
noisians' services, 405-406 ; nomi-
nated for president, 338-339

Tazewell, Littleton W., 122

Tazewell county, 5, 178, 180, 203, 430

Tecumseh, 240

Tennessee, 52, 115, u6n, 130, 236, 241

Tennessee river, 332

Terre Haute, 192, 209

Teutopolis, 393n

Texas, 300, 331, 380, 401, 404; annexa-
tion of, 275, 277, 327, 328, 329, 336,
372; possible Mormon location in,
356

Thames, 240

Thomas, Jesse B., 79, 125, 126; ap-
pointed on committee on public lands,
99; elected senator, 95; member of
anti-Edwards faction, 94; set up
carding machine, 8 ; strife between
Edwards and, 95-98; supported
cause of Missouri, 72 ; supported
Crawford, 96

Thomas, William, 256

Thompson, S. H., 29

Thornton, William F., 229, 230, 233,
285, 286

Throckmorton, John, 169

Tillson, John, 228, 304, 305

Tillson, Mrs. John, 18

Transportation, act to complete canal,
321-326; Alton and Shawneetown
railroad 216; Alton and Shelbyville
railroad, 216; Alton, Wabash, and
Erie railroad, 2iin; Belleville rail-
road, 21 in; Bloomington and Macki-
naw railroad, 213, 214; Blooming-

INDEX

473

ton and Pekin railroad, 216; canal
bill affected by slavery contest, 77;
canal bill passed in 1827, 120; Cen-
tral Branch Wabash railroad, 21 in;
Charleston and Memphis railroad,
207; Charleston railroad, 219; con-
ditions of, 9-12; Cumberland road,
42, 105, 189, 203, 241, 268, 277, 330,
331, S32, 3335 development of, 188-
193 ; Duncan's policy in internal im-
provements, 285; Edwards' propo-
sals for, 120; Erie canal, 12, 191,
387; failure of system of internal
improvements, 216-235; Ford's meas-
ures concerning internal improve-
ments, 317-320; Galena and Chicago
Union railroad, 209, 212; Great
Lakes, 12, 190-191, 194; Great West-
ern Mail railroad, 213; Illinois
Central, 207, 209, 211, 212, 213, 216,
218-219; Illinois and Michigan canal,
12, 42-43, 105, 194-201, 206, 207, 210,
218, 220, 225-235, 241, 264, 285, 287,
288, 289, 318, 320, 321-326, 331, 332,
396, 409; Jackson's policy toward in-
ternal improvements, 24in, 262 ;
Kinney opposed canal, 145 ; legisla-
tion concerning, 41-43; Louisville
and Portland canal, 332; Mississippi,
Springfield, and Carrollton railroad,
211 ; Mt. Carmel and Alton, 2iin,
213, 216; new bank and internal im-
provements, 306, 307 ; New York and
Erie railroad, 191 ; Northern Cross
railroad, 213, 216, 225; on Ohio and
Mississippi, 6 ; Pekin and Tremont
railroad, 21 in; Pekin, Bloomington,
and Wabash railroad, 21 in; popu-
lation related to, 2-3 ; production
affected by, 7; projected railroads,
205-212; railroads, n; railroad leg-
islation 1836-1837, 212-215; railroad
schemes, 216-219; railroads v. canal,
199, 205-206; Reynolds' promises for
improved, 129; river and harbor
bill, 333, 334, 335, 33^, 374, 381;
river and harbor improvements, 327,
330, 331, 332-333; Rushville railroad,
2iin; Southern Cross railroad, 213;
Springfield and Alton railroad, 207;
usefulness of, 173, 193; Van Buren's
policy toward internal improvements,
241, 268; Wabash and Erie canal,
206, 207, 209, 210, 212, 217; Wabash
and Mississippi railroad, 210, 2iin;
Wabash and Mississippi Union rail-
road, 21 in; Wabash railroad, 212;

Warsaw, Peoria, and Wabash rail-
road, 211, 213, 216; whig attitude
toward internal improvements, 258

Treat, Samuel H., justice of supreme
court, 283, 379

Tremont, 178

Tremont and Pekin railroad, see trans-
portation

Trower, Thomas, 238

Trumbull, Lyman, 276, 281, 295, 296,
297, 299, 301, 314, 378, 402

Turner, Asa, 437

Turner, Jonathan Baldwin, 180, 352,
384, 410, 437 ; editor of newspaper,
411; wide influence of, 439-442

Turner, Timothy, 426

Turney, James, 78, 79, 106, 107, HI,
229

Tyler, John, 271, 283, 331, 336; poli-
cies of, 272-275

" Tyro," see Forquer

Union county, 89

Union Grove, 176

Unitarian church, 14

United States, Bank of, set banking

Universalist church, 29, 376

Utah, 362

Van Buren, Martin, 133, 149, 244, 245,
246, 248, 261, 284; alleged influence
over Jackson, 146; candidate for
vice presidency, 139-140; elected
president, 242 ; growing importance
of, 138; hostile to canal, i46n; land
policy, 187-188; opposed Duncan
1833, 144; presidential, campaign,
183^6, 236-242, 253; presidential cam-
paign 1840, 265-270; presidential
candidate 1844, 275, 276-277; Turner
opposed, 440

Vandalia, 29, 30, 46, 127, 142, 2o6n,
207, 210, 212, 287, 288, 291, 386,
393n, 412; branch bank at, 305; cap-
ital of State Bank at, 59; conven-
tionists and anti-conventionists met
at, 80-81; Jackson and Johnson
meetings at, 140, land sales in, 5,
62, 69, 175, 176; made state capital,
50-51; proposed roads from, 42;
removal of capital from, 201-204

Van Quickenborne, Father, 423

Varna, 179

Vermilion county, 330

Vermilion river, 201

Vermilion saline, 42, 66

Vermont, 178

Vincennes, 3, 48, 208, 423

474

INDEX

Virginia, 49, 75, 271 ; discussion over
slavery provision in deed of cession,
?o, 7*» 77, 86

Voree, 353

Wabash and Erie canal, see transpor-
tation

Wabash and Mississippi railroad, see
transportation

Wabash and Mississippi Union rail-
road, see transportation

Wabash college, 438

Wabash county, 288, 426

Wabash, Erie and Alton railroad, see
transportation

Wabash, Pekin, and Bloomington rail-
road, see transportation

Wabash railroad, see transportation

Wabash river, 2, 3, 9, 13, 42, 81, 143,
195, 196, 198, 206, 208, 209, 210, 212,
332

Wabash, Warsaw and Peoria railroad,
see transportation

Walker, Cyrus, 294, 347

Walker, Jesse, 26-27

Walker, Robert J., 186-187

Wallace, James, 373

Walters, William, 273, 274, 275, 278,
283, 291, 293, 296, 297-300

Wanborough, Birkbeck founded, 14-15

Wanborough, England, Birkbeck from,

Ward, T. W., 323

Warnock, John, 196

War of 1812, 3, 20, 107, 130, 151, 154,

i75, 241
Warren, Hooper, 73, 75, 80, 81, 82,

132, 133, 37i

Warren, Major William B., 358-359

Warren county, 203, 348

Warrenville, 376

Warsaw, 192, 350, 357

Warsaw, Peoria, and Wabash rail-
road, see transportation

Washington, George, 20, 115, 269, 272

Washington, size of, 178

Washington county, settlement in, 3, 89

Washington, D. C., 95, 98, 100, 113,
115, 118, 133, 245, 287, 299, 300, 333

Washingtonian movement, 413, 427

Waterville College, 365

Wayne county, 81, 89, 212

Weathersfield, 179

Webb, Henry L., 284

Weber, George R., 299

Webster, Daniel, 185, 236, 260, 274,
328, 375

Wentworth, John, 231, 278, 283, 284,
285, 299, 380; described Chicago
packing house, 388n; editorials on
trade, 389; elected to congress, 294;
influence of, 300-301, 335-336; in-
ternal improvement interests of,
33°~335» on Oregon question, 329,
330; opinion on Springfield clique,
298 ; opposed slavery, 374-375 ; op-
posed southern democrats, 381

West, Emanuel J., deserted Edwards
faction, 94, 117, 125, 127

Western Reserve College, 438

West Indies, 118, 219

West Virginia, 421

Whig party, see politics

Whipple Academy, see education

White, Hugh Lawson, 236-240, 293

White, Leonard, connected with Bank
of Illinois, 55; defeated for senate,
95; favored convention, 90; member
of Edwards faction, 94; senatorial
candidate, 97

White county, 50, 81, 89, 214

Whiteside, James, 238

Whiteside, John D., 229

Whiteside, General Samuel, 161

Whiteside county, 174

Whitney, Reuben M., 305

Whitten, Easton, 2o8n

Wiggins, Samuel, 304, 309

Wight, Colonel A. G. S., 106, 238

Wight, Lyman, 354

Will, Conrad, 77, 303

Will county, 369

Williams, Levi, 357

Williams, M. J., 305

Williamson county, 287

Willis, N. P., 413

Wilmot proviso, 335, 381

Wilson, John M., 230

Wilson, William, 126, 136, 144, 279,
280; confirmed justice, 125; member
of supreme court, 35; senatorial
aspirant, 137-138

Winnebago, 164, 169; Black Hawk ex-
pected aid from, 159, 162; location
of, 3

Winnebago, Fort, 167

Winnebago War, 152, 422n

Wirt, William, 96, 140

Wisconsin, 164, 167, 168, 327; Chicago
market for, 389; land cessions in,
153; Norwegian settlement in, 399;
possible Mormon location in, 356;
proposed union with Illinois, 289-290

Wisconsin Heights, 168, i69n, 170

INDEX 475

Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance Yale, Kane from, 94, 95, 437-439

Company, 313 Yates, Richard, 324

Wisconsin river, 168, 169 Young, Brigham, 353-355

Woodbury, Levi, 305 Young, Richard M., 109, 14411, 188, 225,

Woodford county, 393 246, 283 ; elected to supreme court,

Wool, General John A., 402 283; financial policy of, 245; sena-

Wright, John, and Company, 225-229, torial aspirant, 137-138

313

Wyatt, John, 308 Zieber, John S., 298
Wynkoop, Aristides B., 300