Full text of "Chicago: its history and its builders, a century of marvelous growth"

I/I B R.ARY

OF THE

UNIVERSITY
OF ILLINOIS

977.31

C93c
v.2

ILllHOiS HISTORICAL SURVEY

Chicago: Its History
and Its Builders

A CENTURY OF MARVELOUS GROWTH

J. SEYMOUR CURREY

Honorary Vice President Illinois State Historical Society, Vice Presi-
dent Cook County Historical Society, Member Chicago Histori-
cal Society, American Historical Association, Illinois
State Library Association, National Geograph-
ical Society, Chicago Geographic Society.

ILLUSTRATED

VOLUME II

1912

THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXI

DOUGLAS IN CHICAGO THE OLD UNIVERSITY

FOUR YEARS OF EXCITING EVENTS NORTH MARKET HALL MEETING IN 1854 MR.

BHOSS' ENCOUNTER WITH DOUGLAS SHEEHAN's ACCOUNT OF THE MEETING BROSs'

REVIEW EARLY PAVING AND GRADING RAISING THE TREMONT HOUSE TO NEW

GRADE AN ENTIRE BLOCK ON LAKE STREET RAISED POPULARITY OF THE NICHOL-
SON PAVEMENT GENERAL TRADE IN THE FIFTIES APPRECIATION OF REAL ESTATE

TRADE REVIEWS PROGRESS IN RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION PANIC CONDITIONS IN

1857 THE OLD CHICAGO UNIVERSITY INTEREST OF SENATOR DOUGLAS IN THE UNI-
VERSITY ATTENDANCE OF WOMEN STUDENTS FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES CESSA-
TION OF ACTIVITY TABLET PLACED IN HONOR OF DOUGLAS REMINISCENCES OF

THE OLD UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WHO AFTERWARDS BECAME EMINENT RIOTS OF

1 855 THE KNOW NOTHING PARTY 1

CHAPTER XXII

LINCOLN IN CHICAGO

FIRST APPEARANCE OF LINCOLN IN CHICAGO WASHBURNE's REMINISCENCES POLITICAL

ISSUES OF 1854- EDITORIAL CONVENTION AT DECATUR THE BLOOMINGTON CON-
VENTION- LINCOLN'S "LOST SPEECH" THE FREMONT CAMPAIGN LINCOLN AND

THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD M'cLELLAN's RECOLLECTIONS LINCOLN'S

FONDNESS FOR SHOWS- ARRIVAL OF SENATOR DOUGLAS IN CHICAGO, JULY, 1858

GRAND OVATION TO DOUGLAS LINCOLN'S TREMONT HOUSE SPEECH UNITED

STATES ZOUAVE CADETS TOUR OF THE ZOUAVES NAMES OF THE MEMBERS. ... 21

CHAPTER XXIII

THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE

DEBATES BETWEEN LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS LINCOLN'S CHALLENGE REPLY OF

DOUGLAS FIRST MEETING AT OTTAWA THE "PHONOGRAPHIC REPORT" OF THE

PRESS AND TRIBUNE HITT AND BINMORE THE SHORT HAND REPORTERS THE RE-

iii

iv CONTENTS

PORT OF THE CHICAGO TIMES HORACE WHITE'S LONG HAND REPORTS HITx's

ACCOUNT GIVEN IN 1901 REPUBLICAN VICTORIES IN THE FALL ELECTIONS

"HOLDOVERS" ELECT DOUGLAS TO SENATE ISAAC N. ARNOLD'S COMPARISON OF

THE DEBATERS GRIEHSON's DESCRIPTION LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS COMPARED

ADVANTAGES OF JOINT DEBATES REVIEW OP THE CAMPAIGN LINCOLN THE

ACKNOWLEDGED STANDARD BEARER INTENSE POPULAR INTEREST IN POLITICS

LONG SPEECHES OF CANDIDATES ANECDOTE OF LINCOLN LINCOLN COMPARES

HIMSELF WITH DOUGLAS 'LINCOLN'S GROWING PRESIDENTIAL PROSPECTS LINCOLN'S

AUTOBIOGRAPHY LINCOLN'S FINANCIAL CIRCUMSTANCES .36

CHAPTER XXIV

PUBLIC LIFE OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DOUGLAS BOYHOOD IN VERMONT JOURNEY TO THE WEST

ARRIVES IN ILLINOIS TEACHES A COUNTRY SCHOOL ENGAGES IN A POLITICAL

DEBATE- ENTERS UPON PRACTICE OF LAW APPOINTED STATE'S ATTORNEY

ELECTED TO THE LEGISLATURE HIS VOTE ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS JUDGE

CARTER'S ADDRESS ON DOUGLAS DOUGLAS APPOINTED TO THE SUPREME BENCH

HIS CAREER AS A SUPREME JUDGE DOUGLAS ELECTED TO CONGRESS BECOMES U.

s. SENATOR CAHR'S ESTIMATE OF DOUGLAS AMBITION TO BECOME PRESIDENT

HIS COURSE AFTER LINCOLN'S ELECTION HIS UNION SPEECH AT THE WIGWAM

COUNSELS RESISTANCE TO SECESSION CONDEMNS DISUNION THRILLING EFFECTS

OF THE SPEECH HIS DEATH AT THE TREMONT HOUSE JUDGE CARTER'S COMMENTS

ON DOUGLAS COMPARISON BETWEEN LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS MRS. DOUGLAS

DECLINES OFFER TO TAKE HER CHILDREN SOUTH LAST RESTING PLACE OP

DOUGLAS . . 53

CHAPTER XXV

EVENTS PRIOR TO LINCOLN'S NOMINATION

THE COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH QUOTATIONS FROM THE SPEECH COMMENTS OF

THE HEARERS LINCOLN'S LABOR IN PREPARING THE SPEECH LAST APPEARANCE

IN COURT AT CHICAGO THE "SAND BAR" CASE- LINCOLN'S VISIT TO WAUKEGAN

SPEECH INTERRUPTED BY A FIRE J. W. HULL'S ACCOUNT OF THE SPEECH

TABLETS PLACED IN MEMORY OF THE VISIT LINCOLN'S VISIT TO EVAN8TON

LEONARD W. VOLK*S RECOLLECTIONS HARVEY B. HURD's ACCOUNT RECEPTION AT

THE HOUSE OF JULIUS WHITE MEMORIES OF OLD EVANSTON RESIDENTS MAJOR

LUDLAM'S STORY INTERESTING SEQUEL OF THE EVANSTON VISIT SENTIMENT IN

FAVOR OF LINCOLN FOR PRESIDENT COMMENTS OF THE EASTERN PRESS ROBERT

LINCOLN'S LETTER OF INTRODUCTION UNFAVORABLE CONDITIONS AT CHICAGO
PREPARATIONS FOR THE APPROACHING CONVENTION HEADQUARTERS OF THE IL-

CONTENTS v

LINOIS DELEGATION AT THE TREMONT HOUSE STRONG FOLLOWING OF RIVAL CAN-
DIDATES LINCOLN'S MODESTY PROGRESS OF THE CITY ATTAINED IN 1860

INCIDENTS OF THE PANIC OF 1857 BEGINNING OF STREET CAR LINES OPENING

OF THE RAILROAD ERA FIRST LINES FROM THE EAST CHICAGO RAPIDLY BECOMES

A RAILROAD CENTER 70

CHAPTER XXVI

REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1860

EVENTS PRECEDING THE NOMINATION "RAIL SPLITTER*' CANDIDATE THE WIGWAM

DESCRIBED INTERIOR ARRANGEMENTS ACCOUNT OF THE PROCEEDINGS PROMI-
NENT MEN IN ATTENDANCE PLATFORM ADOPTED WILLIAM H. SEWARD's NAME

PROPOSED NORMAN B. JUDD PROPOSES THE "RAIL SPLITTER AND GIANT KILLER"

OP ILLINOIS NO LANGUAGE CAN DESCRIBE THE UPROAR STENTORIAN SHOUTERS

FOR LINCOLN CHORUS OF STEAM WHISTLES AND FIRING OF CANNON BALLOTING

FOR CANDIDATES LINCOLN CHOSEN ON THIRD BALLOT ANOTHER SCENE OF WILD

APPLAUSE EXTENDING OVER THE CITY "NEVER ANOTHER SUCH SCENE IN

AMERICA," SAID HORACE GREELEY SPEECH OF WILLIAM M. EVARTS RATIFICA-
TION MEETING IN THE WIGWAM ILLUMINATIONS AND PROCESSIONS WIDE AWAKE

CLUBS FORMED THE NEWS RECEIVED BY LINCOLN THE ELECTION IN NOVEMBER

LINCOLN'S VISIT TO CHICAGO AFTER ELECTION MEETS HANNIBAL HAMLIN AT
THE TREMONT HOUSE LINCOLN'S DEPARTURE FOR WASHINGTON 90

CHAPTER XXVII

CIVIL WAR MEMORIES

BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR THE PRESIDENT'S FJRST CALL FOR TROOPS ILLINOIS

ASKED TO FURNISH SIX REGIMENTS PROMPT RESPONSE BY CHICAGO CITIZENS

FIRST MILITARY OPERATIONS BATTERY A NINETEENTH ILLINOIS REGIMENT

THE FAMOUS CHARGE AT STONE RIVER ELLSWORTH'S ZOUAVES DEATH OF ELLS-
WORTH BOARD OF TRADE BATTERY JOHN A. BROSS HIS DEATH AT PETERSBURG

THIRTY-SEVENTH ILLINOIS THIRTY-NINTH ILLINOIS SEVENTY-SECOND ILLINOIS

REGIMENT GENERAL STOCKTON'S DIARY FRANK AND JULES LUMBARD AT VICKS-

BURG NEGRO REFUGEES THE IRISHMEN'S RESPONSE TO THE CALL COLONEL

JAMES A. MULLIGAN TWENTY-THIRD ILLINOIS REGIMENT MULLIGAN'S HEROIC

DEATH GERMAN REGIMENTS TWENTY-FOURTH ILLINOIS REGIMENT COLONEL

FREDERICK HECKER THE "HECKER SONG" SOUTHERN SYMPATHIZERS "COPPER-

IIEADS" CHICAGO TIMES ITS SUPPRESSION BY THE MILITARY AUTHORITIES ORDER

REVOKED WILBUR F. STOREY UNION LEAGUE OF AMERICA FREDERICK F. COOK*S

"BYGONE DAYS" , ..107

vi CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXVIII

CHICAGO IN WAR TIME

CAMP DOUGLAS ESTABLISHED BY GOVERNOR YATES FIRST USED FOR INSTRUCTION OF

RECRUITS BECOMES A MILITARY PRISON IN 1862 CAMP FRY ESTABLISHED THE

PRISONERS OF WAR AT CAMP DOUGLAS DISCIPLINE WITHIN THE CAMP UNION-
PAROLED PRISONERS AT THE CAMP NUMBER OF CONFEDERATE PRISONERS AT THE

CAMP EXPERIENCES OF A PRIVATE SOLDIER OCCUPATION OF THE PRISONERS

ATTEMPTS AT ESCAPE IN 1862 CONDUCT AND APPEARANCE OF THE PRISONERS

CONSPIRACY AMONG THE PRISONERS IN 1864 OTHER ATTEMPTS TO ESCAPE

THE MILITARY COMMISSION LAST YEAR OF THE PRISON CAMP MONUMENT AT

OAKWOODS CEMETERY FREDERICK F. COOK's ACCOUNT 128

CHAPTER XXIX

LATER EVENTS OF THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD

THE DRAFT OF 1864 THE LAST CALL FOR TROOPS LARGE BOUNTIES PAID FOR RECRUITS.

NUMBER OF TROOPS FURNISHED BY ILLINOIS NUMBER FURNISHED BY COOK

COUNTY WAR TIME TRANSPORTATION CONDITIONS IN THE NORTH CONTRASTED

WITH THOSE IN THE SOUTH THE DEATH OF LINCOLN THE FUNERAL JOURNEY

ARRIVAL OF THE REMAINS AT CHICAGO LYING IN STATE IN THE COURTHOUSE

ROTUNDA JOURNEY TO SPRINGFIELD GREELEY'S TRIBUTE TO LINCOLN WORK

OF THE SANITARY COMMISSION FIRST SANITARY FAIR THE ORIGINAL COPY OF

THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION -"OLD ABE," THE WAR EAGLE THE SECOND.

SANITARY FAIR SAMUEL BOWLES' VISIT JOHN L. SCRIPPS WRITES THE FIRST

AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF LINCOLN BECOMES POSTMASTER AT CHICAGO ANNI-
VERSARIES CELEBRATED IN 191 1 146:

CHAPTER XXX

DEEPENING THE CANAL

RAILROAD BUILDING PROPOSAL TO DEEPEN THE CANAL AID OF CONGRESS SOUGHT

FAILURE OF BILL IN CONGRESS THE PEOPLE OF CHICAGO UNDERTAKE THE

WORK PLANS FORMULATED CANAL CONVENTION OF 1863 NAMES OF PERSONS.

COMPOSING THE COMMITTEE RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED SANITATION INVOLVED WITH

THE DEEPENING OF THE CANAL THE WORK COMPLETED IN 1871 CANAL TRAFFIC

DECLINES IN SPITE OF DEEPENING ADVANTAGES POSSESSED BY THE RAILROADS'

THE STORY OF CROSBY'S OPERA HOUSE THE OPERA HOUSE OPENED IN 1865 FI-
NANCIAL DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED LOTTERY PROPOSED GREAT EXCITEMENT

AT THE DRAWING WINNER OF THE GRAND PRIZE VISIT OF ABRAHAM H. LEE TO.

CHICAGO- LATER FORTUNES OF THE OPERA HOUSE DONATl's COMET OF 1858

IIALLEY'S COMET HISTORIES AND HISTORIANS . 170

CONTENTS vii

CHAPTER XXXI

SEWERAGE PROBLEMS NEWSPAPERS, ETC.

EARLY FORMS OF SEWERAGE DIFFICULTIES OF LOW SITUATION CHESBROUGH's BEPORT

RELIEF SOUGHT BY DEEPENING THE CANAL CONSEQUENCES OF CANAL ENLARGE-
MENT THE OGDEN-WENTWORTH DITCH PUMPING AGAIN RESORTED TO IN-
ADEQUATE RESULTS LAKE LEVEL LOWERED FOR A TIME- FOREIGN VESSELS IN

CHICAGO HARBOR NEWSPAPERS OF THE WAR PERIOD INCREASED CIRCULATION

OF NEWSPAPERS "PATENT INSIDES" COME INTO USE THE CHICAGO "REPUBLICAN"

NEWSPAPER DISTRIBUTION FOUR DAYS WITHOUT NEWSPAPERS THE ASSOCIATED

PRESS ALEXANDER HESLER HIS REMARKABLE PORTRAITS AND VIEWS CHARLES

D. MOSHER AND HIS MEMORIAL PHOTOGRAPHS 190

CHAPTER XXXII

THE GREAT FIRE

CLIMATIC CONDITIONS IN OCTOBER, 1871 ORIGIN OF THE FIRE HEADWAY ATTAINED

BY THE FLAMES RAPID PROGRESS OF THE CONFLAGRATION EFFORTS MADE TO

CHECK THE FIRE INTENSE HEAT GENERATED ACCOUNTS OF EYE WITNESSES

THE FORCE OF THE GALE FLAMING BRANDS CARRIED FAR TRAGEDIES OF THE-

FIRE ACTIONS OF THE PEOPLE THE FIRE IN THE NORTH DIVISION THE ESCAPE

OF THE OGDEN HOUSE NORTHERN LIMIT OF THE FIRE RAIN QUENCHES THE

FLAMES FUGITIVES FR.OM THE FIRE THE "TRUE CHICAGO SPIRIT*' THE MAYOR'S

MESSAGES THE WORLD'S SYMPATHY AROUSED GENERAL SHERIDAN TAKES ACTION

MEASURES TO PRESERVE THE PEACE RELIEF MEASURES SHELTER FOR THE

HOMELESS PROVIDED CARE OF HOMELESS PEOPLE SUBSISTENCE AND CLOTHING

FURNISHED ENORMOUS QUANTITIES OF FOOD AND SUPPLIES RECEIVED CARE OF

SICK AND INFIRM HOUSES BUILT FOR DESTITUTE CONDITIONS GRADUALLY IM-
PROVED THE WORLD'S CHARITY 207

CHAPTER XXXIII

CHICAGO FIRE CONTINUED

THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF SYMPATHIZING FRIENDS EDWARD EVERETT HALE's APPEAL

STIRRING ALLUSIONS TO THE DISASTER NEWSPAPERS RESUME PUBLICATION PROP-
ERTY LOSSES LOSS OF LIFE DESTRUCTION OF LIBRARIES AND ART GALLERIES

DESTRUCTION OF CHURCHES SERVICES HELD IN THE OPEN AIR EFFECTS OF THE

FIRE OFFICIAL INVESTIGATION INTO ITS ORIGIN CONDITION OF THE FIRE DEPART-
MENT TRIBUNE'S REVIEW ONE YEAR LATER CHARACTER OF LOSSES CHICAGO'S

RECUPERATIVE POWER RECORDS OF LAND TITLES DESTROYED LEGAL REMEDIES BY

THE LEGISLATURE PROFESSOR SWING'S "MEMORIES OF THE CHICAGO FIRE"-

SWINC'S DESCRIPTION OF THE FIRE PERSONAL EXPERIENCES DEMEANOR OF

viii CONTENTS

THE PEOPLE INCIDENTS OF THE FIRE RETREAT AND FLIGHT ASPECTS OF THE

, CONFLAGRATION LOSS OF VALUABLES SAFETY UNDER THE OPEN SKY "ALL LOST,

BUT ALL HERE" THE WORLD'S CHARITY WHITTIER'S POEM ON THE CHICAGO
FIRE 228

CHAPTER XXXIV

THE UNIVERSITIES

BEGINNINGS OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY CONVENTION AT CHICAGO IN 1852 THE IN-
DUSTRIAL LEAGUE OF ILLINOIS CONGRESS PETITIONED FOR ASSISTANCE INDUSTRIAL

UNIVERSITY PLANNED LEGISLATURE TAKES ACTION LAND GRANT ACT OF 1862

IMMENSE RESULTS FLOWING FROM THIS ACT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS ESTAB-
LISHED IN 1867- PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS IN CHICAGO UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

OLD UNIVERSITY ESTABLISHED IN 1857 CARRIED DOWN BY DEBT IN 1886 NEW

START MADE IN 1890 LIBERAL BENEFACTIONS RECEIVED THE YERKES TELESCOPE

ROCKEFELLER'S LAST GIFT ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO NOTABLE GIFTS
TREASURES IN ITS POSSESSION ITS SPLENDID BUILDING THE FERGUSON BE-
QUEST 247

CHAPTER XXXV

FIRE DEPARTMENT AND FIRE LOSSES

FIRST FIRE ORDINANCES EARLY ORGANIZATION FIRE OF 1839 EARLY FIRE

CHIEFS FORMATION OF ENGINE COMPANIES FIRE OF 1857 FIRE DEPARTMENT

CRITICISED GREATER EFFICIENCY DEMANDED END OF VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPART-
MENT COMPANIES DISBANDED PAID FIRE DEPARTMENT ORGANIZED IN 1858

u. p. HARRIS' LONG SERVICE CONDITION OF DEPARTMENT IN 1871 DEPARTMENT'S

SERVICES IN THE GREAT FIRE DESTRUCTION OF APPARATUS WATER WORKS DE-
STROYED FIRE LOSSES AND ADJUSTMENTS R. S. CRITCHELL's NARRATIVE INSUR-
ANCE BUSINESS AFTER THE FIRE INCIDENTS OF ADJUSTMENTS FAILURES AMONG

INSURANCE COMPANIES SURVIVAL OF THE STAUNCH COMPANIES GREAT PROS-
PERITY OF THE SURVIVORS BOUNDARIES OF THE BURNED DISTRICT F,IRE OF

JULY, 1874 FIRE DEPARTMENT REORGANIZED GREAT ELEVATOR FIRE OF 1908

FIREBOATS FIREMEN'S BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION CHICAGO BOARD OF UNDER-
WRITERS FIRE INSURANCE IN THE SIXTIES DONALDSON AND GRIMWOOD's FATAL

BALLOON ASCENSION FINDING OF GRIMWOOD's BODY 268

CHAPTER XXXVI

RAILROAD RIOTS OF 1877

HARVEY D. COLVIX ELECTED MAYOR REFUSES TO YIELD OFFICE TO SUCCESSOR

HOYNE DE FACTO MAYOR MONROE HEATH ELECTED HARD TIMES OF THE MIDDLE

SEVENTIES PITTSBURGH STRIKES CONDITIONS AT CHICAGO MASS MEETING OF

CONTENTS . ix

WOHKINGMEN INCENDIARY SPEECHES STREETS THRONGED BY CROWDS AU-
THORITIES LOSE CONTROL OF SITUATION MENACING CONDUCT OF MOBS INADE-
QUATE POLICE FORCE VIGOROUS MEASURES RESORTED TO PROPOSED MEETING ON

WEDNESDAY EVENING PREVENTED BATTLE AT THE ROUND HOUSE VOLLEYS AND

CHARGES MOBS AT HALSTED STREET VIADUCT MASS MEETING OF CITIZENS CON-
FLICTS CONTINUED AT THE VIADUCT TURNER HALL ON TWELFTH STREET MOBS

GATHER IN THE STREET CHARGED BY THE POLICE REFUGE SOUGHT IN THE HALL

RIOTERS COMPLETELY ROUTED ARRIVAL OF UNITED STATES TROOPS STRIKE

ENDED AND ORDER RESTORED -WARM PRAISE FOR THE POLICE COMMERCIAL CLUB

OF CHICAGO LIST OF CHARTER MEMBERS MERCHANTS CLUB UNITES WITH THE

COMMERCIAL CLUB RECORD OF WORK DONE BY THE CLUB OLIVER WENDELL

HOLMES' POEM ON CHICAGO 293

; . CHAPTER XXXVII

THE NORTH SHORE

ABORIGINAL HISTORY OF THE NORTH SHORE VISIT OF THE FIRST WHITE MEN MIS-
SION OF THE GUARDIAN ANGEL ANTOINE OUILMETTE VILLAGE OF WILMETTE

PIONEERS OF EVANSTON COURSE OF IMMIGRATION STEPHEN J. SCOTT GROSS

POINT A STRANGE STORY EDWARD H. MULFORD ARRIVAL OF ARUNAH HILL

PIONEER SCENES ADVENTURES OF SETTLERS SOCIETY ACTIVITIES TAVERNS OF

THE NORTH SHORE OLD NAMES OF TOWNS PERILS OF THE LAKE CALIFORNIA

GOLD EXCITEMENT LARGE PARTY LEAVES EVANSTON JOURNEY ACROSS THE PLAINS

EXPERIENCES IN CALIFORNIA LOOKING FORWARD .TO RAILROADS 311

CHAPTER XXXVIII

EVANSTON

FOUNDING OF NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY- NAMING OF, EVANSTON SUBURBS OF

CHICAGO FOUR MILE LIMIT LIQUOR TRAFFIC FORBIDDEN FINANCIAL BEGIN-
NINGS OF THE UNIVERSITY EARLY BUILDINGS OF THE UNIVERSITY FIRST AR-
RIVALS AFTER LOCATING THE UNIVERSITY EARLY CHURCHES GARRETT BIBLICAL

INSTITUTE MRS. GARRETl's WILL HECK HALL DEDICATED OTHER BUILDINGS

ADDED NORTHWESTERN FEMALE COLLEGE -"LADY ELGIN*' DISASTER IN 1860

EVANSTON STUDENTS IN WORK OF RESCUE EDWARD W. SPENCER THE SCENE ON

THE SHORE THREE HUNDRED LIVES LOST AWAKENING OF THE WAR SPIRIT

DIFFERENCES OF SENTIMENT AMONG THE COMMUTERS EVANSTON MILITARY

RECORD DISTINGUISHED UNION LEADERS FROM EVANSTON NAMES OP MEN EN-
LISTED FROM EVANSTON TWO MEN JOIN CONFEDERATE ARMY FROM EVANSTON

THE EIGHTH ILLINOIS CAVALRY . .327

x CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXXIX

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES, ETC.

DR. HINMAN THE FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY HINMAN*S VALUABLE SERV-
ICES HIS UNTIMELY DEATH HENRY S. NOYES ORRINOTON LUNT FOUNDS LI-
BRARY UNIVERSITY HALL COMPLETED IN 1869 PRESIDENCY OF DR. FOWLER

DR. CUMMINGS" SERVICE OF NINE YEARS FINANCIAL PROSPECTS OF THE UNIVER-
SITY IMPROVED DR. HENRY WADE ROGERS THE HEAD FOR TEN YEARS GREAT

ADVANCE IN VALUES OF UNIVERSITY PROPERTY PURCHASE OF THE TREMONT

HOUSE PRESIDENT EDMUND J. JAMES DR. A. W. HARRIS ELECTED IN 1906 FINAN-
CIAL ASPECTS OF THE INSTITUTION- LIBRARIES OF EVANSTON ORRINGTON LUNT

LIBRARY THE EVANSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY MUSIC DEPARTMENT OF THE PUBLIC

LIBRARY INCORPORATION OF EVANSTON IN 1892 THE EVANSTON POSTOFFICE

LITERARY LIFE SOCIAL LIFE FRANCES WILLARD HER LIFE WORK REMARKABLE

SUCCESS OF THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT MISS WILLARD's STATUE IN WASHING-
TON HER ORATORICAL TRIUMPHS HER LITERARY WORK HER HOME IN EVAN-
STON HER DEATH IN 1898 WORLD WIDE TRIBUTES OF AFFECTION HER TOMB

AT ROSEHILL THE BURNING OF THE "SEA BIRD*' . .344

CHAPTER XL

SOCIALISM AND ANARCHISM IN CHICAGO

THE UTOPIAN BACKGROUND MARXIAN SOCIALISM FIGHTING FOR LINCOLN THE IN-
DUSTRIAL RENAISSANCE THE CHICAGO "SECTION" THE PANIC OF '73 ALFRED R.

PARSONS THE SOCIALIST PROBLEM SOCIALISM, ANARCHISM AND VIOLENCE PROPA-
GANDA IN CHICAGO THE STRIKE OF '77 THE STRIKE IN CHICAGO "STOP WORK"

PARSONS AND THE POLICE-^-THE STRIKE AND SOCIALISM THE STOLEN ELECTION

THE SOCIALIST DECLINE- THE SOCIALIST DECLINE IN CHICAGO THE TENDENCY

TOWARDS ANARCHISM JOHANN MOST ANARCHISM IN AMERICA ANARCHIST NEWS-
PAPERS LETTER TO TRAMPS THE ANARCHISTS OF CHICAGO RELATION BETWEEN

ANARCHIST AND SOCIALIST MOVEMENTS THE EIGHT-HOUR MOVEMENT POLICE BRU-
TALITY THE FIRST OF MAY THE HAYMARKET RIOT EVENTS PRECEDING THE TRIAL

POPULAR FEELING REGARDING THE ANARCHISTS THE TRIAL OF THE ACCUSED

ANARCHISTS RESULT OF THE TRIAL ANARCHISTS PARDONED BY GOVERNOR ALT-
GELD , ..361

Chicago: Its History
and Its Builders

CHAPTER XXI

DOUGLAS IN CHICAGO THE OLD UNIVERSITY

FOUR YEARS OF EXCITING EVENTS NORTH MARKET HALL MEETING IN 1854 MR.

BROSS' ENCOUNTER WITH DOUGLAS SHEEHAN's ACCOUNT OF THE MEETING BROSS*

REVIEW EARLY PAVING AND GRADING RAISING THE TREMONT HOUSE TO NEW

GRADE AN ENTIRE BLOCK ON LAKE STREET RAISED POPULARITY OF THE NICHOL-
SON PAVEMENT GENERAL TRADE IN THE FIFTIES APPRECIATION OF REAL ESTATE

TRADE REVIEWS PROGRESS IN RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION PANIC CONDITIONS IN

1 857 THE OLD CHICAGO UNIVERSITY INTEREST OF SENATOR DOUGLAS IN THE UNI-
VERSITY ATTENDANCE OF WOMEN STUDENTS FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES CESSA-
TION OF ACTIVITY TABLET PLACED IN HONOR OF DOUGLAS REMINISCENCES OF

THE OLD UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WHO AFTERWARDS BECAME EMINENT RIOTS OF

1855 THE KNOW NOTHING PARTY.

AN INTERVAL OF FOUR YEARS

HE four years following the events narrated in the last chapter of the pre-
ceding volume were years of intense political excitement. The deep
feeling of resentment prevailing throughout the North caused by the
enactment of the Fugitive Slave law was not allayed, but settled into a
permanent conviction that slavery must be exterminated. Even Lincoln
had at last awakened from his conservatism, and had declared that the country
could not continue to exist "half slave and half free." Talk of disunion among the
Southern statesmen already filled the air, and one of the remembered phrases of
Lincoln's "lost speech" was that memorable utterance, "We won't go out of the
Union, and you shan't."

Douglas had been the chief instrument in carrying through the bill organizing
the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, one clause of which repealed the Missouri
Compromise. This was May 30th, 185-1. The Missouri Compromise had for thirty-
four years been the main reliance of the conservative element in its efforts to quiet

2 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

the fears of further slavery extension. The repeal had once more brought tlu- slav-
ery question to the fore as the chief issue in the politics of the nation.

In the year 1854 the population of Chicago was nearly sixty-six thousand, hav-
ing more than doubled in the four years under review. The raising of the grades
in the streets, so marked a feature of city improvements in later years, had not yet
been attempted. The principal streets were dusty in dry periods and muddy in
wet, and were often almost impassable. Ineffectual attempts to better conditions
were resorted to by means of planking the streets, but the planking needed constant
repair and soon became useless. The city was then reached by a number of rail-
roads, the Galena and Chicago Union and the Chicago and Rock Island from the
west, the Chicago and Alton from the southwest, the Michigan Southern and North-
ern Indiana, and the Michigan Central, from the east. The Illinois Central and the
Chicago and Milwaukee railroads were not completed until the following year.

The newspaper press of the city was represented by the Chicago Democrat,
John Wentworth's paper, William Bross' paper, the Chicago Democratic Press,
the Chicago Journal and the Chicago Tribune. The telegraph had been in use for
some years.

THE NORTH MARKET HALL MEETING

In August, 1854, Senator Douglas arrived in Chicago from Washington, and soon
after he was asked to address the citizens on the questions of the day. The meet-
ing was to be held at North Market Hall, on the evening of the first of September.
William Bross was at this time editor of the Chicago Democratic Press, and though
bitterly opposed to Douglas on the question of the extension and perpetuation of
slavery, was extremely anxious that the senator should be heard, and an opportunity
given him to explain his position. There was a strong tendency among the people
of Chicago to break away from his leadership, and the growing anti-slavery ele-
ment were only too glad to have him among them so that he, as one of the most in-
fluential statesmen in the Democratic party, could be made aware in the most direct
manner of the sentiments of his constituents, on the burning issues of the time.

Mr. Bross in later years related in detail the particulars of this great meeting,
in an article printed in the Chicago Tribune, for August 25th, 1877. "Three or
four days before the meeting," wrote Governor Bross, "I called upon him [Doug-
las] at the Tremont House, and requested him to write out a copy of his speech for
me, and I would publish it in full. Though the Press had persistently opposed, and
perhaps denounced him bitterly at times, he received me with great courtesy and
politeness, . . . thanked me for my offer, but said he never wrote out his
speeches before delivery ; he let the reporters write them out, and then corrected
them where necessary." It was learned that the Democracy had determined to fill
North Market Hall at an early hour with their partisans, "thus preventing other
people from gaining admittance, pass resolutions strongly endorsing the repeal of
the Missouri Compromise and Senator Douglas, and have that go out as the opinion
of the people of Chicago."

MR. BROSS UNDERTAKES TO REPORT DOUGLAS* SPEECH

"The substantial and order-loving people were urged to turn out early." said
Governor Bross in the article referred to, "and thus defeat the schemes of the polit-

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 3

ical tricksters. The meeting was held in the open air on account of the hot weather,
and there was an immense gathering of people, perhaps the largest up to that
evening ever held in the city. We then had no shorthand reporters here, and un-
willing to trust any one else, I went there myself to report it. I was at once invited
upon the stage, perhaps by Mayor Milliken, who presided, and, receiving a pleasant
greeting from Senator Douglas, I sat down and composed myself for the work be-
fore me.

"The very first sentence he uttered was considered an insult to the people and
the press of the city. He charged them with not understanding so plain a proposi-
tion as the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the press with persistently mis-
representing and maligning him. The statement was received with groans and
hisses, and for perhaps two or three minutes nothing else could be heard. When
comparative quiet was restored, he spoke for perhaps eight or ten minutes, and then
the laughing and hooting were repeated. This thoroughly enraged the senator, and
his language and manner became exceedingly offensive.

"Finding no use for my pencil during the uproar, I slipped down from the
stage and circulated among the people, to see in what temper they were. This I
did several times, and always found them happy and in the best possible humor.
Never before or since have I seen a larger proportion of our solid, substantial, lead-
ing citizens at a public meeting. I knew as well as I could know without being told
it, there were more than a thousand revolvers in the crowd. All would laughingly
tell me, 'Bross, we shall have no mob.' And yet, I feared it, for had some Democrat
told one of our respectable citizens he lied, he would have instantly been knocked
down ; and when once a fuss began the pistols would have done their work fearfully.
I knew that the human mind is so constituted that the change from the best of humor
to the most intense anger requires but an instant.

TROUBLE ARISES BETWEEN DOUGLAS AND BROSS

"Little did I suppose that I was so soon to illustrate this principle myself, for
on returning from one of my short visits through the crowd, and while the hooting
and yelling were loud and long, Judge Douglas turned round, and paused for a
moment. Knowing he could not and would not be heard, with the best of motives
and the politest and most pleasant language I could command, I said, 'Judge,
would it not be best to print your speech? You cannot be heard; allow me to sug-
gest that you retire." With all the force and power he could command, he said:
'Mr. Bross, you see that your efforts in the Democratic Press to get up an armed
mob to put me down have been entirely successful.' In an instant, I sprang to my
feet and with very emphatic gestures, said, 'Judge Douglas, that's false every
word of it false, sir!' 'It will do very well,' he replied, 'for you, with vour
armed mob about you, to make an assertion like that.' 'It's false, sir not a word
of truth in it,' I replied ; and, a little quiet being restored, he turned to address
the people.

"I have often wondered at myself for the part I acted in this little drama.
There was not more than one or two besides myself on the stage who were not
warm personal friends of Judge Douglas, and to hurl the word 'false' at him
might have cost me my life; but I knew I had done all I could to give him a quiet

4 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

hearing, and I took not a moment's thought, and repelled the charge on the spot.
After continuing his efforts to be heard for half an hour longer, with no success,
his friends put him in a carriage, and he rode away amid the jeers of the crowd."

A DOUGLAS SYMPATHIZER'S ACCOUNT

The biographer of Douglas, James W. Sheahan, says in writing of the meet-
ing at the North Market: "We never saw such a scene before, and we hope never
to see the like again. Until ten o'clock he stood firm and unyielding, bidding the
mob defiance, and occasionally getting in a word or two upon the general subject.
. . . Had he exhibited fear, he would not have commanded respect; had he
been craven, and entreated, his party would in all probability, have been assaulted
with missiles, leading to violence in return. But, standing there before that vast
mob, presenting a determined front and unyielding purpose, he extorted an invol-
untary admiration from those of his enemies who had the courage to engage in a
personal encounter; and that admiration, while it could not overcome the purpose
of preventing his being heard, protected him from personal violence. The motive,
the great ruling reason, for refusing him the privilege of being heard, was that as
he had, in 1850, carried the judgment of the people captive into an endorsement of
the fugitive slave law, so, if allowed to speak in 1854, he would at least rally all
Democrats to his support by his defense of the Nebraska bill. The combined fa-
natics of Chicago feared the power and effect of his argument in the presence and
hearing of the people. They therefore resolved that he should not be heard. So
far as this occasion was concerned, the object was successfully attained, and if
there were any doubts as to the fact that the course agreed upon had been previ-
ously concerted, the experience of the following few weeks served to remove all
question on that head."

BROSS' REVIEW OF THE MEETING

In the next issue of the Democratic Press, Editor Bross stated that the people
present at the meeting "did not mob Judge Douglas," as it had been charged, that
"the people were noisy and refused to hear him, thereby resenting the imputations
he cast upon them," and that the fault lay with Douglas himself, who "lost his
balance and forgot that he was the representative of the people. . . . Mr.
Douglas came before his constituents rather as a master than as a servant. The
spirit of a dictator flashed out from his eyes, curled upon his lip, and mingled its
cold irony in every tone of his voice and every gesture of his body."

OTHER NEWSPAPER COMMENTS

The Illinois Journal, of Springfield, commenting on the meeting said, "We have
heard from private sources that there were ten thousand people present; and that
they evidently did not come there to get up a disturbance, but simply to demon-
strate to Senator Douglas their opinion of his treachery to his constituents. This
they did effectually, and Mr. Douglas now fully understands the estimate in which
his conduct is held by his townsmen at Chicago. It is said that Mr. Douglas felt
intensely the rebuke he had received."

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 5

The same paper gives a report of the speech, at least such portions as he was
able to deliver between the interruptions. It is interesting as a specimen of "stump
oratory," and as showing the excited state of public opinion on the burning ques-
tions of that day. "You have been told," said Douglass, "that the bill legislated
slavery into territory now free. It does no such thing. [Groans and hisses with
abortive efforts to cheer.] As most of you have never read that bill [groans], I
will read to you the fourteenth section. [Here he read the section referred to, long
since published and commented on in this paper.] It will be seen that the bill
leaves the people perfectly free. [Groans and some cheers.] It is perfectly
natural for those who have misrepresented and slandered me, to be unwilling to
hear me; I am here in my own home. [Tremendous groans, a voice 'that is, in
North Carolina' 'in Alabama' 'go there and talk,' etc.]

"I am in my own home, and have lived in Illinois long before you thought
of the state. I know my rights, and, though personal violence has been threatened
me, I am determined to maintain them. [Much noise and confusion.]" These
fragmentary remarks are continued to a considerable length in the report, which
is concluded as follows: "The questions now became more frequent and the peo-
ple more noisy. Judge Douglas became excited, and said many things not very
creditable to his position and character. The people as a consequence refused to
hear him further, and, although he kept the stand for a considerable time, he was
obliged at last to give way and retire to his lodgings at the Tremont House. The
people then separated quietly, and all, except the office-holders, in the greatest of
good humor."

In the store of splendid memories of the men and the movements of the war
period and of the period preceding the war, Mr. Carr recalls the following picture
of the great Senator: "The author of this work," he says, referring to his Life of
Douglas, "remembers Senator Douglas as what the politicians of to-day would call
a good mixer. There was no company in which he could not be a congenial com-
panion. In company of the great at Washington and in the cabin of the frontier,
with grave senators, with cabinet officials, and with the plain people farmers and
mechanics and laboring men he was equally at home. He was genial and cordial,
interested in everything that concerned those with whom he came in contact, to
such a degree as to make them feel that he was one of them.

"Genial as he was, cordial as he was, entering into and enjoying all the social
relations and sports of those early days, he was always dignified. While he was
amused at the vagaries and the excesses of those who took part in the social gath-
erings of the time, and their extravagant demonstrations, and enjoyed them, he
himself never gave way to them to such a degree as to be a leader in them. He
maintained such reserve as was becoming in one of such character and attainments.
He would enjoy and laugh at stories, but there is no record of his having told
one. He appreciated and enjoyed a pun, but he never made one."

EARLY PAVING AND GRADING

As the city emerged from primitive conditions, the increase of street traffic re-
quired improved roadways. The general level of the city's site was but a few feet
above the level of the lake and river, and in times of floods or even in ordinary wet

6 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

weather the soft and yielding soil was soon changed into quagmires, through which
it was difficult to drive a wagon or carriage. In Bross' History of Chicago, he says:

"We had no pavements in 1818. The streets were simply thrown up as country
roads are. In the spring, for weeks, portions of them would be impassable. I have, at
different times, seen empty wagons and drays fast in the mud on Lake Street and
Water Street on every block. . . . Of course there was little or no business
doing, for the people of the city could not get about much, and the people of the
country could not get in to do it. As the clerks had nothing to do, they would ex-
ercise their wits by putting boards from dry goods boxes in the holes where the last
dray was dug out, with significant signs, as 'Xo bottom here,' 'The shortest road
to China,' etc. Sometimes one board would be nailed across another, and an old
hat and coat fixed on it, with the notice, 'On his way to the lower regions.' In fact
there was no end to the fun; and the jokes of the boys of that day some were of
larger growth were without number."

A story is told of General Hart L. Stewart, a citizen of early Chicago. One
day as he was going along Lake street, his head and well known hat appeared above
the surface of the mud. Some one called out to him, "General, you seem to be in
pretty deep!" "Great Scott," he replied, "I've got a horse under me!"

The planking of Lake street was ordered by the Common Council January 22d^
18-19. The planked roadway was forty-eight feet wide. Even before that time it
Jiad been found utterly useless to lay a stone pavement, which would soon sink in
the yielding earth. The experiment of laying plank roadways had proven successful
in many places, arid the Common Council determined to plank the principal streets
of the city. In 18-19 and 1850 planking was laid down on Market, State, North
and South Clark, La Salle, Wells, East and West Madison, and West Randolph
streets, in all about three miles of planking, at a cost of thirty-one thousand dollars.
But the plank roadways were short-lived, and the street paving problem soon came
to be a leading public issue.

Intimately associated with the paving problem was that of the raising of the
grades of the streets; indeed, from the earliest days street paving, whenever there
was occasion to relay it, was usually accompanied by the raising of the level of the
surface. In 1855 the grade was raised sufficiently to cover sewers. Again in 1857
another elevation of the surface was found necessary. After much public discussion
it was decided to fill the streets to a height of ten feet above the lake or river level,
with some slope towards the water. Even so there was a strong sentiment in favor
of a still greater height, but it was supposed that difficulty would be experienced
in obtaining the requisite earth for the filling. As a matter of fact there has al-
ways been found in the subsequent building operations more earth from excavations
for foundations and basements than was necessary for street filling. This excess
has supplied much of the filling required for the lake front east of Michigan avenue.
The whole space between Michigan avenue and the piling upon which the Illinois
Central Railroad was carried from Twelfth street to the terminal station at the
foot of Lake street, a space of considerable width as all the old maps show, has been
gradually filled with surplus earth taken from the excavations for buildings. The
debris from the ruins of buildings after the great fire of 1871 also added largely to
the material used for filling the lake front.

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 7

Raising the grade of the streets was one of the remarkable features of the city's
growth,, this being a necessary step in drainage and for providing a firm foundation
for the pavements, but the process extended over many years, and was done in piece-
meal fashion, and at great inconvenience to business men. The Chicago Tribune of
April 9th, 1857, took up the subject vigorously. "What effect is this new grade
going to have on buildings already erected in this city?" it asked. "The streets and
sidewalks must be raised some seven feet above the natural surface level. In other
words, every house now built must be raised about the height of the Mayor above
its present foundation, or be entered through doors cut in its second story. [It will
be remembered that "Long John" Wentworth was the mayor at this time.] The
proposed grade would damage immensely all our citizens who have built those mag-
nificent brick and stone blocks within the past three years. These buildings have
been erected to correspond with the present grade. The grade would throw their
floors some four feet below the sidewalks, while their second floors would be five or
six feet above the street surface, and their cellars would become dark pits or dens
underground.

"It will be a costly job to raise all the streets and sidewalks of Chicago six to
eight feet within the space to be drained by sewers a space of more than twelve
hundred acres. Where are the millions of cubic yards of earth to come from to fill
them up to the second stories of the present buildings? And how many millions
of dollars is it going to cost the tax payers? What sort of 'up and down' sidewalk
will the establishment of this new 'thirteen or fourteen' foot grade create during
the next twenty years?"

RAISING HEAVY STRUCTURES

A prominent instance of the difficulties to be met with in raising the grade was
the new five story brick hotel, on the south east corner of Lake and Dearborn streets,
known as the Tremont House. At first it was built to the grade of the period, but
as there was now and then a new grade established it at last left the ground floor
of the hotel three or four feet below the surface of the street in front. About this
time there came to the city an enterprising young contractor who had had experience
in raising buildings in the east, by the name of George M. Pullman, and he became
actively engaged in the work of raising heavy buildings. Raising frame buildings
was a comparatively easy task, but it was considered a most remarkable feat to ac-
complish the raising of so heavy a building as the Tremont House ; it was success-
fully done, however, by young Pullman. It was the first brick building raised in
Chicago, and the raising cost the proprietors, Ira and James Couch, forty-five thous-
and dollars. It was raised without breaking a pane of glass, although the building
was one hundred and sixty by one hundred and eighty feet in size. Guests of the
hotel were not conscious of the slightest jar throughout the entire proceeding.

Afterwards an entire block on Lake street, between Clark and La Salle streets,
on the north side of the street, was raised at one time, business in the various stores
and offices proceeding as usual. The facility with' which buildings, light and heavy,
were raised to the grade established became the talk of the country, and the letters
of travelers and correspondents for newspapers abound with reference to the work
going on and the odd sensations of going up and down as one passed along the streets.

8 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

NICHOLSON PAVEMENT

During the month of July, 1857, there was completed the first piece of "Nichol-
son Pavement" that had been laid in Chicago, a kind of paving which afterwards
attained a remarkable vogue here. The Nicholson pavement was made by setting
up on end blocks of wood on a suitable foundation, usually of well packed earth,
covered with a layer of planking, between each row of which there was placed a
narrow strip of wood to keep one row apart from the other, and in the space thus
left a filling of tar and gravel was added to produce an even surface. The blocks
of wood were sections of three or four inch sawed planking, and when the pave-
ment was completed it presented a most pleasing appearance to the eye, and in-
deed seemed to promise a lasting service. The wearing quality of the Nichol-
son pavement, however, was not as great as had been anticipated, and although
extensively constructed it was gradually superseded by macadam or stone block
pavements. The latter in fact held the preference for a long term of years, and
was more extensively built than any other style of pavement in use.

On Lake street the Nicholson pavement could be seen in all its glory; there
were no car tracks on the street, and when the pavement was new, for it was re-
newed several times, it presented a most inviting appearance and was the es-
pecial pride of the Chicago people of that day. The attention of visitors was called to
the wonderful pavement as soon as they arrived, and it was considered, with the wa-
ter works and the grand view of the lake on Michigan avenue, one of the sights of
the city. Lake street was preferred above all other streets as the route of proces-
sions, which were much more numerous in those days than they are to-day. Lined
as it was with gorgeous retail establishments it was the busiest and most attractive
street in the city. During the war it was the favorite highway for passing troops,
and the citizens often saw marching regiments either starting for the war or re-
turning to their homes, the discharged troops usually reduced in numbers and sadly
lacking in the fresh and tidy appearance they bore at the time of their departure.

At the time of the Great Fire of 1871, the Nicholson pavement, which by that
time had been laid on many of the business and residence streets of the city, suf-
fered much injury from burning material from the adjacent buildings. Masses of
hot bricks and flaming woodwork falling upon it burned cavities in the surface, and
left the pavement charred and partially burned away in many places. This gave
rise to a report, frequently repeated by correspondents, that the street pavements
in Chicago took fire and were the means of carrying the flames across and along
the streets. But this was not the case, as the wooden blocks composing the pave-
ment were too deeply imbedded to become the means of spreading the conflagra-
tion.

GENERAL TRADE IN THE EARLY FIFTIES

Some consideration of the trade conditions existing in Chicago in the fifties is
appropriate in this place. When William Bross issued a thin volume in 1876, pub-
lished by Jansen, McClurg & Co., and called it a "History of Chicago," he crowded
within a limited space a great variety of interesting facts regarding the city's de-
velopment. Much of what he wrote was from his own knowledge and observation,

.1^-1
*r Y : 'f WT*_ ""T^ 1 - ' '

CLARK STRE3ET IX 1837 CHAXGIX<} OF SIDEWALK LEVEL

By courtesy of Chicago Historical Society

OLD FORT DEARBORN WITH SURROUNDINGS IN 1856

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 9

and written as the history is by a man of superior intelligence and possessed of a
fluent style, it has a special value for the historical investigator.

Bross came to Chicago in 1847, and writing of this period he says that "the
business of our merchants was confined mainly to the retail trade. The produce
that was shipped from this port was all brought to the city by teams. Some of
them would come one hundred and fifty miles. Farmers would bring in a load of
grain and take back supplies for themselves and their neighbors. Often has it hap-
pened that they would get 'sloughed,' or break their wagons; and between the ex-
pense of repairs and hotel charges, they would find themselves in debt when they
got home. During the 'business season' the city would be crowded with teams. We
have seen Water and Lake streets almost impassable for hours together.

"The opening of the canal, in 1848, made a considerable change in the ap-
pearance of the city, and when the Galena railroad was finished to Elgin, the dif-
ference was very striking. The most of those old familiar teams ceased to visit
us, and we heard some few merchants gravely express the opinion that the canal
and railroads would ruin the city. The difference they have made is simply that
between a small and a large business, between a retail and a wholesale trade.
One cf the jewelry establishments of the city, in 1845, did a business of three
thousand dollars; last year [1852] the same house sold goods to the amount of one
hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Drug stores, whose sales eight years ago
were from five to six thousand dollars, now do a business of from fifty to a hun-
dred thousand."

THE APPRECIATION IN REAL ESTATE

In a historical review written by Mr. Bross, in 1853, he makes some interesting
and startling comparisons between the values of lots between the time that the first
sale of lots took place in 1833, and those of the year under review. "Our citizens,"
he says, "have all noticed the splendid drug store of J. H. Reed & Co., No. 144
Lake Street. The day it was opened, October 28th, 1851, we stood in front of the
store, conversing with the owner of the building, Jeremiah Price, Esq. Pointing to
one of the elegant windows, said Mr. Price, 'I gave one hundred dollars in New
York for that center pane of French plate glass. That is exactly what I paid Mr.
J. Noble for this lot, eighty feet front, on a part of which the store stands, when
I purchased it in 1833.' That lot cannot now be bought for $64,000. Wolcott's
addition, on the North Side was bought in 1830 for one hundred and thirty dollars.
It is now worth considerably over one and a quarter millions of dollars.

"Walter L. Newberry bought the forty acres which forms his addition to Chi-
cago, of Thomas Hartzell, in 1833, for $1,062. It is now worth half a million of
dollars, and what is. fortunate for Mr. Newberry, he still owns by far the largest
part of the property. So late as 1834, one-half of Kinzie's addition, all of Wol-
cott's addition, and all of block one, original town, were sold for twenty thousand
dollars. They are now worth, at a low estimate, three millions of dollars. Any
number of similar instances might be given of the immense appreciation of real
estate in Chicago.

"From the great appreciation which these figures show, many may be led to
suppose that no more money can be made on real estate in Chicago. Exactly the

10 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

reverse is true. As compared with the original cost, lots near the center of the
city cannot be expected to appreciate so rapidly as in years past ; but that they
will steadily advance, there can scarcely be a doubt. Let any business man study
carefully the facts contained in these articles; let him remember that within the
lifetime of thousands who read these pages Chicago will contain her hundreds of
thousands of people ; and then let him calculate, if he has the courage, what real
estate then will be worth in the commercial center of the Mississippi valley."

INCREASE IN VALUATIONS, 1839 TO 1853

In a table included in the review above referred to, Mr. Bross shows the re-
markable advances each year from 1839 to 1853. The valuations include real es-
tate and personal property. The table, giving only round numbers, is as follows :

1839 $1,829,000

1840 1,864,000

1841 1,888,000

1842 2,325,000

1843 2,251,000

1844 3,167,000

1845 3,669,000

1846 5,071,000

1847 .. 6,189,000

1848 9,986,000

1849 7,617,000

1850 8,101,000

1851 9,432,000

1852 12,035,000

1853 22,930,000

TRADE REVIEWS IN THE DEMOCRATIC PRESS

By the end of the year 1854 Chicago had attained to the rank of the greatest
primary grain port in the world. This term is defined by J. L. Scripps, whose ar-
ticle in the Democratic Press is here referred to, as follows: "We say 'the largest
primary grain depot in the world,' because it cannot be denied that New York,
Liverpool, and some other great commercial centers, receive more breadstuffs than
Chicago does in the course of the year, but none of them will compare with her
in the amount collected from the hands of the producers."

During that year the shipments of grain from Chicago had reached the great
total of 15,804,423 bushels, nearly half of which was corn, while wheat and oats
constituted about one-fourth each of the total amount. It must^ be remembered that
it was during this year that the cholera prevailed to such an alarming extent that
the time is referred to as "the great cholera year." More extended mention of the
ravages of this dreadful visitation is made in another part of this history.

THE GREAT PROGRESS IN RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION

The rapid growth of railroads by the end of 1855 had riveted the attention and
interest of the Chicago people. There were nearly three thousand miles of railroads

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 11

in operation in the state of Illinois at that time. The list of the railroads including
their branches, and the number of miles operated by each of them, is given as follows:

MILES

Chicago & Milwaukee Railroad 131

Chicago, St. Paul & Fond du Lac Railroad 82

Galena & Chicago Union Railroad 326

Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad 310

Chicago & Rock Island Railroad 340

Chicago, Alton & St. Louis Railroad 260

Illinois Central Railroad 626

Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad 20

Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad 272

Michigan Central Railroad 282

New Albany & Salem Railroad . 28-1

Total 2933

This showing was dwelt upon by the writer in glowing terms, and after giving
a list of the receipts of the railroads centering in Chicago, the total of which to the
end of the year 1855 was over thirteen millions of dollars, he says that he thinks
this "will do very well for a citv which only four years ago had only forty miles of
railroad completed and in operation." It is added that there are ninety-six trains
arriving and departing daily, but "when the spring business opens" the number
will be increased to "about one hundred and ten."

At the end of the year 1856 the reviewer from whose work we have quoted above
found that four of the principal railroads had carried 639,666 passengers westward
from Chicago, and 532,013 passengers in the opposite direction, thus showing "that
these four railways alone have taken west 107,653 more passengers than they
brought back people enough to redeem another sovereign State from the dominion
of the panther and the savage, and to add another star to the banner of our glorious
Union."

INTERRUPTION TO PROSPEROUS CONDITIONS

With the close of the year 1857 the reviewer whom we have been following, in
spite of his usual optimism, recognizes the havoc and losses suffered during the
panic of 1 857. The business of the railroads, as that of every other branch of
industry, fell off, and the figures shown are materially less than for the previous
year. "Amid all the panic and disaster of the last year," says the writer, "with all
the Satanic efforts of certain journals in New York and other cities to destroy all
railway values, the earnings of twelve railroads centering in this city for 1857, fell
short of their aggregate earnings in 1856 $1,558,;50, which is ten per cent, less than
their receipts in a year of great prosperity and progress. In all the dark days
through which we have passed, the Daily Press has steadily labored to inspire con-
fidence and hope, and the result of careful comparisons in every department of busi-
ness show that our positions were correct. We have the satisfaction also of know-
ing that our reasonings have saved many of our readers from despair and utter
ruin."

12 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

It is also shown that at the end of the year 1857, despite the baneful effects of
the panic, the railroads of the state had increased their mileage, which now stood at
nearly four thousand miles of track, and the total earnings of the railroads amounted
to eighteen and a half millions of dollars. During that same eventful year the
number of bushels of wheat received was twelve and a half millions, of corn seven
million, four hundred and nine thousand bushels, of lumber four hundred and sixty
millions of feet, and of vessels arriving in port seven thousand, five hundred
and fifty-seven. "It is a source of great satisfaction that the tide of population
is largely and steadily westward," says the review writer. "The change will,
in almost every instance, secure for the people who emigrate a great increase
of property, and thereby afford them the means of greater physical comfort and a
more generous expenditure for their intellectual improvement and social elevation.
Who can estimate the influence which the two hundred thousand people who sought
homes west of the Lakes during the past year will have upon the social progress
and the physical development of the Mississippi?"

PANIC CONDITIONS OF 1857

Hopefulness and intelligent optimism was the key note of public sentiment in
those days, and combined with the great natural advantages possessed by Chicago
in an eminent degree, the consequences of the panic conditions were not so severely
felt as in many other parts of the country. "With a large surplus of last year's crop
still in hand," says the writer of the review, "the west is abundantly able to meet all
her liabilities, and have sufficient means to make large and substantial improvements
in the future. We are on the eve of a great, permanent and propitious social ad-
vancement, and let every western man summon all his energy to act his part wisely
and well."

But in Colbert's history, written many years later, the author records a much
more serious condition of affairs from the effect of the panic than is allowed by
the writers of the contemporary period. Colbert says that the effects of the panic
on the real-estate market "were fearful, and the building business suffered corres-
pondingly." The depreciation in prices of lots was great and continued during the
following two years. Buyers of real estate at the high prices prevailing before the
panic had depended upon a continuous advance in values to enable them to provide
for their deferred payments, but found that they could not sell even at a ruinous
sacrifice. "Great numbers of workers left the city for want of employment, and
those who remained were obliged to go into narrowed quarters to reduce expenses.
This caused a great many residences and stores to be vacated, and brought about a
reduction in rents on those still occupied."

PANIC OF 1857

The area of the city had been increased in 1856 to eighteen square miles by
the extension of the southern boundary to Thirty-fifth street. Land values had
increased to an excessive range of prices, caused by the prevailing mania for specu-
lation. The remoter causes of the general panic of 1857 were to be traced to the
business men of the East. While the panic of this year was not the worst ex-

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 13

perienced in the United States it was remarkable from the fact that it prevailed
in all the civilized countries of the world. A writer in Moody 's Magazine for
April, 1911, in reviewing this period says that the panic was both a financial and
a commercial disturbance. "It was world-wide in extent, but its effects were more
severely felt in the United States than elsewhere. It was due to speculation ex-
cesses, and, in America, was intensified by bad banking practices, a free com-
mercial morality, an inflated currency, and a sudden loss of commercial confidence
induced by the calling of loans and capital by European investors in American se-
curities."

There were many important events taking place in other parts of the world
during this period. The war in the Crimea was brought to a conclusion which re-
sulted in an extensive readjusting of the international relations of European na-
tions. The rebellion of the natives of India against British control added to the
disturbances of financial conditions abroad, and these events "widely influenced
subsequent American history and made the year 1857 memorable."

THE PANIC IN CHICAGO

The year of the panic during the fifties witnessed a serious check to the in-
dustrial development of Chicago, and indeed to the entire western country. It is
one of the most remarkable characteristics of this community that no matter what
check or disaster occurs the hopefulness and boundless energy of its people quickly
repair the deficiencies and they march resolutely on in their predestined course.

"The recent season of panic and revulsion through which we have passed,"
writes the reviewer of the commercial situation in the Democratic Press at the close
of the year 1857, "will prompt to greater caution, and therefore greater safety in
the future. With all its evil effects, it has clearly demonstrated that there is a
solid basis for the prosperity of our city and the West generally."

THE OLD UNIVERSITY

To Stephen A. Douglas is due the credit of founding the first University of
Chicago, now known as the Old University of Chicago. 1 In 1855 a number of
citizens visited Judge Douglas with plans for a university, and asked him for
help. H'e gave them ten acres of ground lying along Cottage Grove avenue, at
Thirty-fourth street, not far from the place where the Douglas monument now
stands. On these grounds was erected a white limestone building in 1857, and
here for seven years the work of the new institution was done. In 1865 another
large building was put up, and was called Douglas Hall, the older hall being
named Jones Hall, after William Jones, the father of the present Fernando Jones,
who had made generous gifts to the institution. Within three years of its open-
ing there were twenty students in the college, forty-eight in the law department
and one hundred and ten in the academy.

1 Kdgar J. Goodspeed, in Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Vol. Ill, No. ?

14 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

DOUGLAS AND THE UNIVERSITY

In Clark E. Carr's volume entitled "Stephen A. Douglas," the author pays this
deserved tribute to the memory of Douglas for his services in connection with the
University of Chicago in its formative period. "To the building of a great uni-
versity in Chicago Senator Douglas devoted much of his thought and energy from
1856 to the close of his illustrious career. He appreciated the value of learning
and gave a large portion of his property to place within the reach of the young of
Chicago and of the West the advantages of higher education. In the midst of great
political excitement at a time when in the political arena of the whole great nation
he was the central figure, midway between his repeal of the Missouri Compromise
and the great debates, he found time to establish what he hoped and intended
should be a great university. He was not satisfied with merely establishing such
an institution, but as a member of its Board of Trust and in other ways he con-
tributed to its success.

"He had a high conception of what an institution so situated and with such en-
vironment should be, and did everything in his power to bring it up to such a
standard of excellence as he hoped to see it attain. Had he survived to the al-
lotted years of man, no doubt much that he hoped for would have been attained by
the institution he founded. But he lived only five years after the institution he
founded was so established.

"It remained for wise, brave, able, and generous men, after the lapse of thirty
years, to take up the work Senator. Douglas so nobly attempted, and carry it for-
ward to the most complete and triumphant achievement that has ever been reached
by any institution of learning in so brief a period. In the University of Chicago,
the dream of the great Senator has been far more than realized. That he hoped
to see reared a great university upon the foundation he laid cannot be doubted, but
it is scarcely within the bounds of possibility that he could have had any idea of
the success to which the institution has attained. Familiar as we are with its his-
tory and appreciative as we are of its usefulness, we must revere the memory of
him in whose heart and brain it was conceived, and by whose initiative a University
of Chicago was first established."

When Douglas died in 1861, the university lost the president of the board of
trustees and its chief patron; both trustees and faculty showed their honor for him
by attending his funeral in a body. As his successor, William B. Ogden was
elected president of the board, and served until his death in 1877, when X. K.
Fairbank was elected to that office.

The Dearborn Observatory, containing at that time the largest refractor tele-
scope in the world, was given by Mr. J. Young Scammon, who was a regent of the
university. The observatory was named after Mr. Scammon's first wife, who was
a member of that family from whom Fort Dearborn and Dearborn street were
named. The group of three buildings, comprising Douglas Hall, with its lofty
tower, Jones Hall, and Dearborn Observatory, seemed very imposing to the citi-
zens of fifty years ago, and was visited in May, 1867, by the delegates and guests
of the meeting of the national missionary and publication societies of the Baptist
churches of the North, then holding their annual session in Chicago. Arranged in
a large group on the wooden sidewalk on Cottage Grove avenue, in front of the

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 15

University, the delegates and some of the citizens of Chicago were photographed
as we here see them.

From the opening of the university women had been allowed to attend the
classes, though without formal recognition or degree. In 1875 they were admitted
to the institution on an equality with men, with the same privileges and rewards.
In the same year Rush Medical College, the oldest medical school in the West,
was made a part of the university.

The management of the affairs of the University was in the hands of a board
of trustees, a board of regents and an executive board, while the law department
had its own board of counsellors. The law department became in 1873 the Union
College of Law, the Northwestern University sharing control over it. This is the
present law school of Northwestern University.

Ever since 1865 the university had struggled with financial difficulties, being
loaded with a debt incurred in building Douglas Hall ; to pay for this the whole
property had been heavily mortgaged. Finally in 1886 an insurance company
which had taken the property under a mortgage seized it for foreclosure, tore
down the buildings, and had a street cut through and residences erected on the
lots formed. The telescope was taken out to be used by Northwestern University
at Evanston.

In the building of the new University of Chicago, the early benefactors of the
former institution have been remembered. On the walls of Scammon Court and of
the cloister leading to Mandel Hall are placed bronze tablets. The Douglas tablet
boars a bas relief portrait of Senator Douglas and these words:

IN HONOR OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS
Who in 1855 Generously Contributed

To the Founding of
The First University Established

In Chicago, This Tablet Is

ERECTED IN JUNE, 1901, BY THE DECENNIAL

CLASS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

The memory of Mr. Scammon and his wife is perpetuated at the University not
only in Scammon Court, the large quadrangle of the School of Education, on the
walls of which there is a bronze memorial tablet, but in Scammon Garden, where
the home of Mr. and Mrs. Scammon used to stand. In this garden on summer
nights, among the trees and shrubbery in the midst of which the old house stood,
plays are given by the students with no scenery but the setting of greenwood and
lawn which they find there.

The Ogden Graduate School of Science, made possible by the terms of Mr.
, Ogden's will, is a magnificent memorial to one who did much for the early univer-
sity and, unknowing, provided a great foundation for the later one.

By a resolution adopted by the trustees of the University of Chicago the alumni
of the old institution are recognized as alumni of the present one, thus carrying on
in a vital way the traditions of the Old University of Chicago.

16 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

REMINISCENCES OF THE OLD UNIVERSITY

A former student of the old University of Chicago, of the class of 1868, supplies
some interesting details of life at that institution in the war period, which are in-
serted here, in his own words:

"The University of Chicago of 1910, with its line buildings, extensive grounds
and wealth, largely overshadows its predecessor, and being located in another part
of the city seems almost to be wholly disconnected with it save in name. One writer
says of it, 'The first University of Chicago ceased to exist in 1886; it had never been
a very vital force educationally.'

"The old university was situated on a ten-acre tract given by Stephen A. Doug-
las on the west side of Cottage Grove avenue, between Thirty-fourth and Thirty-
sixth streets, and in its day was an institution of which Chicago was very proud.
Among its students were the sons of many prominent men and members of wealthy
families of the state and city, and it bade fair to become one of the leading univer-
sities of the country. But bad judgment on the part of its financial agents loaded
it down with a large debt by building extravagantly, which embarrassed its friends
and was the source of some irritations and difficulties among its managers. This
resulted in the property being sold under a mortgage, its great telescope passing
to the Northwestern University at Evanston, and its beautiful and substantial build-
ings taken down, the grounds platted and sold for private residences, so that not
a vestige remained of the old university, nor a remnant to mark the spot where it
had been.

"During the Civil War the grounds of the University were hedged in on its
north and west sides by Camp Douglas with its high board fence, in which was con-
fined an army of Confederate prisoners, a constant reminder to the students of the
grim war then going on. That this undoubtedly had some influence upon the patri-
otic spirit of the boys one little event will show. It was in the fall of 1 863, political
feeling ran high, and one morning after the election of Brough as governor of Ohio
by a very large majority, the students were gathering in the chapel for prayers.
Whenever a student came in who was known to have decided views on political ques-
tions a round of applause would greet him. So enthusiastic became the crowd that
even due propriety during the prayer seemed for the time to be forgotten. Dr.
Burroughs was not present on the occasion, Professor A. J. Sawyer presiding in
his place. After the prayer had been concluded Professor Sawyer directed that
the students who took part in the unseemly disturbance should rise. For a mi
ment all was hushed, no one moved. Then James H. Shankland, a member of
sophomore class from Nashville, Tennessee, a hot bed of secession, though he hi
self was loyal to the Union, stood up to his full height, as sober and repentant a
parently as George Washington was when he cut down the cherry tree, and looked
the professor full in the face with an expression that Shankland could so well as-
sume. He seemed by his manner to beg pardon for his offense, but said not a word.
Upon this there broke out another outburst of applause that must have aroused the
occupants of Camp Douglas. Thereupon the professor announced that he had seen
some of the men join in this disturbance, and should give them two demerit mark
and one demerit mark to those who acknowledged their offense. This announcemen
was followed by general applause. There was a spirit of patriotism and loynlh
in the university that no number of demerit marks nor fear could suppress.

STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS

Photograph taken during his debates with
Lincoln in 1856

ROBERT MARTIN DOUGLAS

Eldest son of Stephen A. Douglas

CHICAGO UNIVERSITY

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 17

"The faculty at this time was composed of Rev. J. C. Burroughs, D. D., Presi-
dent, William Matthews, LL. D., Professor Mixer, Professor Joseph Breck, Pro-
fessor A. J. Sawyer, Professor Edward C. Johnson, Alonzo J. Howe, and tutor
George W. Thomas. Notwithstanding that the institution was open to both sexes,
there were no young women in attendance until a time subsequent to the war.
; Women in college and women employes in those days were almost unknown. There
was but one woman employed in the Treasury department of the United States dur-
ing the war. The equality of women in the institutions of learning and in business
offices was not a mooted question to any great extent. The question in those days
that was uppermost in men's minds was the war and its issues.

"There was a military company, wholly voluntary, connected with the Univer-
sity. Arms were provided for this company and it was fully organized and regularly
drilled. Charles Parker of the junior class, who had been an officer in the United
States service, was its captain, and he was an excellent drillmaster. Parker re-
turned to the army as a lieutenant, and James H. Roe of the sophomore class suc-
i ceeded him as captain of this company, in the spring of 1 864. In response to a
call for "one hundred day men," the 134th regiment of Illinois Volunteers was or-,
ganized, largely composed of Chicago men. Company G of this regiment practically
absorbed this company previously formed at the university. Joshua Pike of the
junior class was its captain, James H. Roe its second lieutenant. The sergeant-
major of the regiment was Charles D. Hancock of the Academic department. Among
others from the university who enlisted in this regiment were C. S. Hostetter, S.
E. Massey, Philip Dinkle, John A. Miller, Frederick A. Smith, and Edward P.
| Savage. The little that was left of the university was at the depot of the Illinois
I Central to witness the departure of the boys, and the college was lonely and 'stale,'
! after they had gone. The literary societies, the Atheneum and the Tri Kappa,
seemed lifeless affairs. The class room was not what it had been, the cream of the
university seemed merged in the departed regiment.

"It could hardly be expected that a University no older than this was would
, become 'a very vital force educationally.' Every large as well as every small edu-
1 cational institution has its small beginnings, the greater the struggle to get a start
and to keep it upon its feet the greater the credit to those who organize and stand
by it until it can stand alone. Few institutions of this kind can show a better be-
ginning than this one. It ceased its existence not for lack of students or from any
deficiency of its faculty, but because of bad management financially. Too much
money was spent in its buildings, and too much wrangling among those engaged in
the management of its affairs were the prime causes of its final dissolution.

"Among its students of the war times were the following whom we shall refer
to by their later titles and the stations in life filled by them: Rev. Henry C. Mabie,
D. D., Rev. William W. Everts, D. D., Rev. Joseph P. Phillips, Rev. E. O. Tay-
lor, a well known temperance lecturer, George R. Wendling, a widely known lec-
turer on religious questions, Rev. Edward P. Savage, now for over twenty years
the head of the Minnesota Children's Aid Society, Joseph F. Bonfield, Dorrance De
Bell, a judge in Will County. Henry A. Gardner, a lawyer of Chicago, Ferd W.
Peck. Philo A. Otis, well known in Chicago, Frederick A. Smith, judge of the Cir-
cuit court of Cook County, C. C. Kohlsaat. judge of the United States Circuit
Court, and James H. Shankland. a prominent lawyer of Los Angeles. California.

18 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

"This forms a very respectable list from a new college. Its department of law, i
the prime mover in the formation of which was Hon. Thomas Hoyne, was under the
charge of Judge John A. Jameson, Henry Booth, and Harvey B. Hurd. From the
class of 1866 in this department was graduated, among others, Frank G. Hoyne, I
Norman T. Cassette, General Joseph Smith Reynolds, and Robert T. Lincoln.
From the class of 1867 was graduated Hon. A. C. Bardwell, of Dixon, James H. ;
Gilbert, D. G. Hamilton, R. C. Givens, John C. Wallace, Judge Gwynne Garnett,
Judge E. H. Gary, Judge F. A. Smith, Colonel F. A. Riddle, Robert E. Jenkins, I
John A. Hunter, and others."

THE RIOTS OF 1855

Dr. Levi D. Boone was elected mayor of the city in the spring of 1855, on the
"Know Nothing" ticket, the only time that the party of that name ever won an
election in Chicago except in the case of some minor offices. During the period
when Dr. Boone was mayor party feeling ran high. "It was one of the hottest and
most unreasoning political periods in the history of the country," says the writer of
an article published in later years in the Chicago Times. "The temperance question
was alive ; the Catholic question almost precipitated a religious war, and Know-
Nothing-ism hung on the outer wall a banner inscribed, 'Put none but Americans on
guard.' " Each of these questions was well calculated to rouse fierce popular pas-
sions, and in fact a large and clamorous element became prominent in the public
affairs of the city and menaced its peace and welfare.

Almost immediately after Mayor Boone was inducted into office he was called
upon to exercise his authority in the suppression of a riot. During the preceding
winter the state legislature had passed a stringent temperance law, to be submitted
to the people for their approval or otherwise. Mayor Boone believed that the meas-j
ure would be ratified, and judged that it would render the transition easier from'
"wet" to "dry" if some of the liquor sellers and beer saloon proprietors could be
induced to quit the business before being compelled to do so. He therefore recom-J
mended to the City Council that the license fee be raised from fifty dollars perl
annum, as it then stood, to the rate of three hundred dollars; but that no license be
issued for a longer period than three months. By that time it was anticipated pro-
hibition would have been voted, and those few saloons which had survived the large
increase in the license fee could be easily dealt with. This he believed to be a wise
measure of precaution, since it would "root out" the lower classes of saloon-keepers,
leaving only the better men in the business.

The saloon-keepers throughout the city naturally regarded the measure, which
had been passed by the Council, as oppressive, and united their efforts to defeat
its object. The City government was at that time completely in the hands of the
"Native American party," that is, the "Know Nothing" party, and every man of
of the eighty or ninety patrolmen on the force was a native American. At the same
time that the enforcement of the ordinance was attempted there was discovered among
the municipal regulations a Sunday law, which had become a dead letter, but now it
was sought to enforce this regulation also. Most of the saloon-keepers were for-
eigners, and, in the temper the people were in at that time, no consideration was to
be shown to them. Some of the saloon men defied the authorities, which action on

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 19

their part resulted in a large number of arrests. It was agreed to try one case and
let the others be settled by the precedent thus established.

The case decided upon for the test was called on the 21st of April, before Squire
Henrv L. Rucker, who was Police Magistrate and held his court in the courthouse.
It will be remembered by old residents that a street was named in honor of Squire
Rucker which in later years was changed to Center avenue. Soon after the begin-
ning of the session of the court a great commotion ensued in the neighborhood. The
saloon interest had massed itself in a solid body on the North Side, and headed by a
fife and drum proceeded to the courthouse forming a noisy mob threatening to inter-
rupt the further course of the trial. The mob gathered in force at the intersection
of Clark and Randolph streets, and completely obstructed both thoroughfares op-
posite the Sherman House. Cyrus P. Bradley was the chief of police at that time,
and Luther Nichols captain of police. Darius Knights was the marshal. Mayor
Boone gave orders to "clear the streets and disperse the mob." This was done
without any serious consequences resulting except a few arrests.

In the afternoon of the same day another mob assembled on the North Side
with the declared intention of releasing the men who were -on trial. Meantime the
mayor strengthened his position by swearing into service a hundred and fifty extra
policemen, thus placing a force of about two hundred and fifty men at his com-
mand. The mob approached the north end of Clark street bridge, and a portion
got across thr river. The mayor sent word to the bridge-tender to swing the
bridge at this moment, thus dividing the mob into two parts. The police having
made suitable dispositions the bridge was opened again for passage, upon which
the remainder swarmed across the river and joined their fellows on the south side.
Here they were met by a solid phalanx of the police, but the leaders of the mob
urged the men on crying out, "Pick out the stars," "Shoot the police," which was
followed by a brisk fusillade of shots. "For a short time," says the account printed

i many years afterward in the Chicago Times, in a series of historical articles,
"things were exceedingly lively round the Sherman House. Quite a number of
rioters were seriously wounded, but so far as can be ascertained, only one was

' killed, though a few days later there were several mysterious funerals on the North
Side, and it was generally believed that the rioters gave certain victims secret
burial."

MILITARY COMPANIES CALLED OUT

This affair caused intense excitement throughout the city, and a call was made
upon several companies of the local militia to aid in preserving order. An Irish
company, known as the "Montgomery Guards," an American company known as
! the "Chicago Light Guards," and a battery of artillery consisting of two guns re-
, sponded to the call. The latter was in command of Richard K. Swift, the banker.
Mayor Boone asked Swift to protect the courthouse with the artillery, but, as
he was in doubt as to how the four sides could be protected with only two guns,
the warlike mayor drew a diagram showing him that by placing one gun at the
corner of La Salle and Washington streets, and the other at the corner of Randolph
and Clark streets, he would be able to command all the approaches to the square
in which the courthouse was situated. These measures were effectual and no fur-
ther collisions occurred. Much was due to the firmness and abilitv shown bv the

20 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

Mayor on this occasion. "Mayor Boone," says the account already quoted from,
"being a man of nerve and decision, took the riotous bull by the horns, the moment
he made his appearance, and knocked the brute insensible at the first blow."

The result of the referendum vote on the proposition to prohibit the sale of
liquors was voted on by the people throughout the state, as well as in the city of
Chicago. The result was adverse to the proposition, and the situation then re-
verted to its former state. Thus the "lager beer riots," as they were called,
passed into history.

THE KNOW NOTHING P.ARTY

An echo of the Know Nothing movement was found some years afterward in
the proclamation issued by Governor Letcher of Virginia soon after that state had
cast in its lot with the Southern Confederacy. On May 3d, 1861, Governor
Letcher, in his proclamation to the people of Virginia, said that the authorities at
Washington had used "every artifice" which "could inflame the people of the
northern states and misrepresent our purposes and wishes," that "these misrepre-
sentations have been carried to such an extent that foreigners and naturalized
citizens, who but a few years ago were denounced by the north and deprived of
essential rights, have now been induced to enlist into regiments for the purpose
of invading this state." This allusion to the old Know Nothing party shows how
weak were its principles, which within a few years after its collapse gave a weapon
into the hands of the Southern "Fire-eaters," when such an appeal as the proclama-
tion above quoted from was made to the southern people.

It was a fine response made by the men of foreign birth when the time of stress
and danger came, and, hearing the call for help, joined with all other defenders
of the Union. They hesitated not and allowed no former political differences and
enmities to stand in the way of a united effort. Thus they heaped coals of fire
on the heads of those who lately regarded them with feelings of enmity, but now
with relief and gratitude.

CHAPTER XXII

LINCOLN IN CHICAGO

FIRST APPEARANCE OF LINCOLN IN CHICAGO WASHBURNE's REMINISCENCES POLITICAL

ISSUES OF 1854 EDITORIAL CONVENTION AT DECATUR THE BLOOMINGTON CON-
VENTION- LINCOLN'S "LOST SPEECH" THE FREMONT CAMPAIGN LINCOLN AND

THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD M'CLELLAN's RECOLLECTIONS LINCOLN'S

FONDNESS FOR SHOWS ARRIVAL OF SENATOR DOUGLAS IN CHICAGO, JULY, 1858

GRAND OVATION TO DOUGLAS LINCOLN'S TREMONT HOUSE SPEECH UNITED

STATES ZOUAVE CADETS TOUR OF THE ZOUAVES NAMES OF THE MEMBERS.

LINCOLN'S FIRST APPEARANCE IN CHICAGO

'HILE Abraham Lincoln was a member of Congress from the Sangamon
district he made his first visit to Chicago. This was at the time of the
River and Harbor Convention in July, 1847. The Chicago Journal, in
its issue of July 6th, 1847, mentions, among those who were present at
the convention, the name of Abraham Lincoln, "the only Whig repre-
sentative to Congress from this state." "This is his first visit to the commercial
emporium of the state," says the Journal. It was while in attendance upon this
convention that he caught the observing eye of Horace Greeley, who was report-
ing the proceedings for the New York Tribune. David Dudley Field of New York
had addressed the convention in a speech which called out a sharp difference of
opinion among the delegates. "In the afternoon," writes Greeley, "Hon. Abraham
Lincoln, a tall specimen of an Illinoisan, just elected to Congress from the only
Whig district in the state, was called out, and spoke briefly and happily in reply
to Mr. Field." We make these quotations although they are given in another part
of this work, under the account of the River and Harbor Convention, as they have
a special interest in connection with Lincoln's earliest appearance in Chicago.

Henceforth Lincoln was a frequent visitor to the city, during the years of
his professional and political activities, and became intimate with many of its
leading citizens.

At one time he was offered, it is stated by Nicolay and Hay, in their work,
"a partnership on favorable terms by a lawyer in good practice in Chicago; but
he declined it on the ground that his health would not endure the close confine-
ment necessary in a city office."

WASHBURNE'S REMINISCENCES

Mr. E. B. Washburne, in a volume entitled "Reminiscences of Abraham Lin-
coln," edited by Allen Thorndike Rice, says, regarding his early acquaintance with

22 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

Mr. Lincoln, that he met him for the first time when he (Washburne) attended the
Supreme Court at Springfield in the winter of 1843 and 18-14. "The Supreme
Court library was in the courtroom, and there the lawyers would gather to look
up their authorities and prepare their cases. In the evening it was a sort of ren-
dezvous for general conversation, and I hardly ever knew of an evening to pass with-
out Mr. Lincoln putting in his appearance. He was a man of the most social dis-
position, and was never so happy as when surrounded by congenial friends. His
penchant for story-telling is well known, and he was more happy in that line than
any man I ever knew. But many stories have been invented and attributed to him
that he never heard of ... But his anecdotes were all so droll, so original,
so appropriate and so illustrative of passing incidents that one never wearied of
listening to him.

"Ceasing to attend the courts at Springfield," continues Mr. Washburne, "I
saw but little of Mr. Lincoln for a few years. We met at the celebrated River
and Harbor Convention at Chicago, held July 5th, 6th and 7th, 1847. He was
simply a looker on and took no leading part in the convention. His dress and
personal appearance on that occasion could not well be forgotten. It was then
for the first time I heard him called '0/d.Abe.' Old Abe, as applied to him, seems
strange enough, as he was then a young man, only thirty-eight years of age.

"One afternoon, several of us sat on the sidewalk under the balcony in front
of the Sherman House, and among the number the accomplished scholar and un-
rivaled orator, Lisle Smith. He suddenly interrupted the conversation by exclaim-
ing, 'There is Lincoln on the other side of the street. Just look at Old Abe,' and
from that time we all called him 'Old Abe.' No one who saw him can forget his per-
sonal appearance at that time. Tall, angular and awkward, he had on a short-
waisted, thin, swallow-tail coat, a short vest of the same material, thin pantaloons,
scarcely coming down to his ankles, a straw hat and a pair of brogans with woolen
socks. Mr. Lincoln was always a great favorite with young men, particularly with
the younger members of the bar. It was a popularity not run after, but whioh
followed. He never used the arts of the demagogue to ingratiate himself with any
person."

LINCOLN'S RETURN TO POLITICS

After his career in Congress had closed, in 1849, Mr. Lincoln devoted himself
to the pursuit of his profession, apparently having satisfied his ambition in the
political field. He had served several terms in the state legislature, and one term
in Congress. But the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1850 aroused him again,
and he became deeply interested in the progress of the warm controversies over
the extension of slavery. "He was generally on the Whig electoral tickets," says
Herndqn, "and made himself heard during each successive canvass." It is related
by John T. Stuart that he held a conversation with Lincoln in 1850, as follows:
"Lincoln, the time is coming when we shall have to be all either Abolitionists or
Democrats." Lincoln replied emphatically, "when that time comes my mind is
made up, for I believe the slavery question can never be successfully compromised."
But he was cautious in his relations with the "impetuous Abolitionists," and once
when Herndon, who was radical in his views, warned him against his conservatism,
he replied, "Billy, you're too rampant and spontaneous."

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 23

Again we find mention of Mr. Lincoln's presence in Chicago. "In April, 1854,"
says Andreas, "a meeting of prominent Chicago and state politicians, including
Democrats and Whigs who were opposed to the course of Stephen A. Douglas in

' the Senate, was held in Room four, Tremont House. There were present Abra-
ham Lincoln, Lyrnan Trumbull, Mark Skinner, Orville H. Browning, John E.

' Stewart, David Davis, Norman B. Judd, J. Young Scammon, Francis C. Sherman,
and others equally well known. Those present pledged themselves to the support
of an 'anti-Nebraska* party, and appointed a committee to agitate the subject.
This led to that fusion of sentiment that revolutionized the politics of the entire
northern part of the state."

CONTEMPORARY EVENTS

It was late in August of the same year (1854), that Senator Douglas arrived in
Chicago, and received so hostile a reception at North Market Hall, as previously
related. The furious denunciations of the Fugitive Slave law in 1850, and the tur-
bulent scenes at the North Market Hall meeting in 1854, had given evidence of the
intensity of public sentiment in Chicago, on the subject of slavery. The people of
Chicago had shown that they would not longer accept the leadership of Douglas,
and they were already beginning to look upon Lincoln as their favorite. But Lin-
coln had not yet emerged from his conservatism, environed as he was at Springfield
by moderate Whigs, of whom he was the principal spokesman. He was still the
disciple of Henry Clay, the "Great Compromiser," whom he greatly admired, and
whose views, even after the death of that statesman in 1852, he largely shared.
New situations, however, gradually presented themselves, and he began to give ex-
pression to strong anti-slavery views, though still unwilling to identify himself with
the Abolitionists.

THE ISSfES BRIEFLY STATED

In order to understand the numerous allusions to the burning questions of that
day, it may be well to state briefly the main issues. Nebraska sought territorial or-
ganization. By the Missouri Compromise of 1820, slavery was forbidden in that
section of the Union. Notwithstanding this plain prohibition, Senator Douglas
introduced a bill in Congress authorizing the formation of two territories, Nebraska
and Kansas, to which later he added an amendment "repealing the Missouri Com-
promise and permitting the people who should settle in the new territories to reject
or establish slavery as they should see fit." The bill was passed May 30th, 1854.
"It was the passage of this bill," says Miss Tarbell, "which brought Abraham Lin-
coln from the courtroom to the stump."

'Later in the season (1854), Mr. Lincoln determined to "try for the United
States Senatorship," as he expressed it. His friends and party sympathizers were
numerous enough in the legislature to give him the victory. However, Governor
Matteson announced himself as a candidate, and this divided the supporters of Mr.
Lincoln. On the other hand the governor was not able to obtain enough support
to gain the election, and Lyman Trumbull was chosen as a compromise. Lincoln
obtained forty-four votes on the first ballot, it being necessary to secure fifty to
elect. Lincoln, with some bitterness, explained the situation to Washburne after-

24 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

wards. "It was Governor Matteson's work," he said. "He has been secretly a
candidate ever since (before, even) the fall election."

The gratitude felt by Mr. Lincoln for the assistance and support he receive
from his friends in his campaign for the Senatorship in 1854, is acknowledged by
him in a letter written under date of February 21st, 1855, to Hon. W. H. Hender-
son. He says: "The election is over, the session is ended and I am not Senator.
I have to content myself with having been the first choice of a large majority of
the fifty-one members who finally made the election. My larger number of friends
had to surrender to TrumbulTs smaller number, in order to prevent the election of
Matteson, which would have been a Douglas victory. I started with 44 votes
T. with 5. It is rather hard for the 44 to have to surrender to the 5 and a less
good humored man than I, perhaps, would not have consented to it, and it would
not have been done without my consent. I could not, however, let the whole polit-
ical result go to ruin, on a point merely personal to myself. Your son [T. J. Hen-
derson, a member of the legislature] kindly and firmly stood by me from first to
last, for which he has my everlasting gratitude."

LINCOLN'S PROGRESSIVE VIEWS

As marking the progress Lincoln was making in the development of his views
a remark made by him to Judge T. Lyle Dickey is quoted by Miss Tarbell. "I tell
you," he said, "this nation cannot exist half slave and half free." The idea took
deeper root as time passed. In August, 1855, he wrote to a friend: "Our political
problem now is, Can we as a nation continue permanently forever half slave and
half free. The problem is too mighty for me. May God, in his mercy, superintend
the solution." He was already beginning to see that he might be obliged to abandon
the Whig party. "All his life," says Miss Tarbell, "he had been a loyal Henry
Clay Whig, ardent in his devotion to the party, sincerely attached to its principles."
He hardly knew what his position really was. "I think I am a Whig," he wrote to
his friend Speed, "but others say there are no Whigs and that I am an Abolitionist."

EDITORIAL CONVENTION AT DECATUR

In the following year a movement to organize all the various elements that made
up the opposition to slavery extension was inaugurated at a meeting held at Decatur.
The Morgan Journal, published at Jacksonville, of which Mr. Paul Selby was the
editor, proposed an "editorial convention." Many other papers throughout tne state
indorsed the suggestion and a. call was issued for a meeting at Decatur on Febru-
ary 22nd, 1856. Mr. Selby was made chairman of the convention, and resolutions
were adopted, as "a basis of common and concerted action," declaring that "Free-
dom is national and slavery sectional," that the extension of slavery "must be re-
sisted," and ended with a call for a State Convention to be held at Bloomington on
May 29th following. Those present from Chicago at this meeting were Dr. Charles
H. Ray, of the Tribune, and George Schneider, of the Staats Zeltuhg. "There was
just a round dozen of us who took part in the proceedings," said Mr. Selby, in con-
versation with the writer, "though others came later and were present at the banquet
given in the evening, which was presided over by Richard J. Oglesby, then a resi-
dent of Decatur."

Copyrighted 1804 by Dibble Publishing Company

Copyrighted 18D4 by Dibble Publishing Company

CHICAGO, LOOKING SOUTH, SOUTH- CHICAGO, LOOKING NORTH, NORTH-
EAST FROM THE COURTHOUSE, 1858 EAST FROM THE COURTHOUSE, 1858

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 25

A State Central Committee was appointed to take charge of the arrangements
for the forthcoming State Convention at Bloomington. The committee was composed
of eleven members, the first name being that of William B. Ogden of Chicago, al-
though Mr. Ogden was not present at the meeting which was composed of editors
exclusively. Ogden, however, did not serve on account of absence from the state.
Dr. John Evans, of Evanston, took Ogden's place on the committee and rendered
efficient service. Then and there was the beginning of the party organization of the
new Republican party in Illinois.

THE BLOOMINGTON CONVENTION

The State Convention assembled at Bloomington on May 29, 1856. The seven-
teen delegates from Cook County in attendance were: Grant Goodrich, Francis C.
Sherman, William A. James, Andrew H. Dolton, James McKee, George Schneider,
John Wentworth, Charles H. Ray, John L. Scripps, Charles L. Wilson, Samuel
Hoard, Andrew Aikin, Horace H. Yates, Isaac N. Arnold, Norman B. Judd, John
W. Waughop, and Mark Skinner. 1 Besides these, there were present from other
parts of the state, Richard Yates, O. H. Browning, Archibald Williams, John M.
Palmer, Burton C. Cook (then a resident of Ottawa), David Davis, Owen Lovejoy,
William H. Herndon, Abraham Lincoln, and many others.

The country was almost in a state of frenzy over the troubles in Kansas. The
newspapers were teeming with accounts of the attack on Sumner in the United
States Senate by Brooks. One of the men who was expected to be a leader in the
Bloomington Convention, Mr. Paul Selby, editor of the Morgan Journal of Jack-
sonville, (in later years an honored resident of Chicago), was lying at his home
prostrated by a cowardly blow from a political opponent.

"The convention," says Herndon, "adopted a platform ringing with strong
anti-Nebraska sentiments, and then and there gave the Republican party its official
christening." After the work of the convention had been concluded, Mr. Lincoln,
in response to repeated calls, came forward and made "a speech of such earnestness
and power that no one who heard it will ever forget the effect it produced." This
speech, Herndon considers, was the grand effort of his life. . "Heretofore, he had
simply argued the slavery question on grounds of policy, and the eternal right.
Now, he was newly baptized and freshly born ; he had the fervor of a new convert ;
the smothered flame broke out ; enthusiasm unusual to him blazed up ; his eyes were
aglow with an inspiration."

THE "LOST SPEECH"

Referring to the speech made by Mr. Lincoln, Miss Tarbell says: "So powerful
was his effect on his audience that men and women wept, and children there that
night remember the scene." The newspaper men present were likewise affected in
an extraordinary manner, and their efforts to report the speech were paralyzed.

"It was before the stenographer had become acclimated in Illinois, though long-
hand reports were regularly taken. Of course, all the leading papers of the state
leaning towards the new party, had reporters at the convention."

1 McLean County Historical Society Transactions, Vol. Ill, p. 149.

26 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

Mr. Joseph Medill of Chicago was present. "It was my journalistic duty," says ,
Mr. Medill, "though a delegate to the convention, to make a long-hand report of
the speeches delivered for the Chicago Tribune. I did make a few paragraphs of
what Lincoln said in the first eight or ten minutes, but I became so absorbed in his
magnetic oratory that I forgot myself and ceased to take notes; and joined with the
convention in cheering and stamping and clapping to the end of his speech." Others !
had the same experience. "I attempted for about fifteen minutes," says Herndon, I
Lincoln's law partner, "as usual with me then to take notes, but at the end of that
time I threw pen and paper away and lived only in the inspiration of the hour."
The result was that no reporter present had anything for his newspaper, and the
language of the speech has thus unfortunately not been preserved, and it is today
referred to by historians as "the lost speech."

One passage in the speech, however, has been preserved. Hon. J. O, Cunning-
ham, who heard the speech, in the course of an address on Lincoln, delivered before
the Firelands Pioneer Association, at Norwalk, Ohio, July 4th, 1907, said: "At
this period there was, as my older hearers will remember, much wild talk on the
part of many of the Southern politicians of disunion. To this kind" of talk Lincoln
turned his discourse for a time, and adopting, as was his frequent habit, the form
of speech made use of in his first inaugural ... he addressed his argument
to a supposititious audience of Southerners, urging the unwisdom of disunion, and
the direful consequences to the country of an attempt at it upon their part. He
assured his audience that Northern men had no desire for a separation and would
never consent to it. Warming up with his topic to vehemence, and still using the
pronoun in the second person, he closed this part of his speech with these remark-
able words: 'We won't go out of the Union, and you shan't.' "

THE FREMONT CAMPAIGN

The convention at Bloomington was followed, on June 17th of the same year
(1856), by the meeting of the first Republican National Convention of Anti-Slavery
Democrats and Whigs of the North, at Philadelphia. At this convention John C.
Fremont was nominated for the presidency. In the ensuing election, in November,
Fremont carried Chicago by a majority of six thousand, three hundred and seventy
votes, and Cook county by nine thousand and twenty. Thus the new Republican
party had, in four years, absorbed the Whig and Free Soil parties in Chicago, and
weakened the Democratic party fatally.

Lincoln took an active part in the campaign for Fremont, and made over fifty
speeches in Illinois and the neighboring states. One of these speeches was deliv-
ered at Princeton early in the campaign. It was "a fine example of political wis-
dom," says Miss Tarbell, "an historical argument admirably calculated to con-
vince his auditors that they were right in their opposition to slavery extension, but
so controlled and sane that it would stir no impulsive radical to violence." Lin-
coln knew well the virtues of restraint at a time when party passions ran high. The
Princeton address was moderate in tone, and among all the utterances of orators
in that campaign there was not probably "a cooler, more logical speech than this
by the man who, a month before, had driven a convention so nearly mad that the

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 27

vcrv reporters had forgotten to make notes." The temper of this Princeton speech
was kept by Lincoln throughout the remainder of the campaign.

Buchanan, as we know, was elected in spite of the ardent and valiant Repub-
licans. In Illinois they elected their candidate for governor, William H. Bissell,
the first Republican governor of Illinois. Fremont received nearly one hundred
thousand votes. Lincoln was not discouraged by the result. At a Republican ban-
quet in Chicago a few weeks after the election, he said: "All of us who did not
vote for Mr. Buchanan, taken together, are a majority of four hundred thousand.
[He referred to the combined vote of Fremont and Fillmore, as there were three
presidential candidates in the campaign of 1856]. But in the late contest we
were divided between Fremont and Fillmore. Can we not come together for the
future? Let every one who really believes and is resolved that free society is not
and shall not be a failure, and who can conscientiously declare that in the last
test he has done only what he thought best let every such one have charity to be-
lieve that every other one can say as much. Thus let bygones be bygones ; let past
differences as nothing be ; and with steady eye on the real issue let us reinaugurate
the good old 'central idea' of the republic. We can do it. The human heart is
with us ; God is with us. We shall again be able not to declare that 'all states as
states are equal,' nor yet that 'all citizens as citizens are equal,' but to renew the
broader, better declaration, including both these and much more, that 'all men are
created equal.' "

The banquet was given in December, 1856; Mr. J. Young Scammon presided on
that occasion.

MR. LINCOLN AND THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD

"Probably the most important lawsuit Lincoln and I conducted," says Hern-
don, "was one in which we defended the Illinois Central Railroad in an action
brought by McLean County, Illinois, in August, 1853, to recover taxes alleged to
be due the county from the road." The legislature had granted the road immunity
from taxation on condition that it pay perpetually into the state treasury seven per
cent of its gross earnings. This case was intended to test the constitutionality of
the law. The road sent a retainer fee of two hundred and fifty dollars. In the
lower court the case was decided in favor of the railroad. An appeal to the Su-
preme Court followed, and there it was argued twice, and finally decided in favor
of McLean County.

"This last decision was rendered some time in 1855. Mr. Lincoln soon went to
Chicago and presented our bill for legal services. We only asked two thousand
dollars more. The official to whom he was referred . . . looking at the bill,
expressed great surprise. 'Why, sir,' he exclaimed, 'This is as much as Daniel
Webster himself would have charged. We cannot allow such a claim.' Stung by
the rebuff, Lincoln withdrew the bill and started for home. On the way he stopped
at Bloomington. There he met Grant Goodrich, Archibald W r illiams, Norman B.
Judd. O. H. Browning, and other attorneys, who, on learning of his modest charge
for such valuable services rendered the railroad, induced him to increase the de-
mand to five thousand dollars and to bring suit for that sum. This was done at

28 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

once. On the trial six lawyers certified that the bill was reasonable and judg-
ment for that sum went by default. The judgment was promptly paid."

In Herndon's "Life of Lincoln," he says that the official of the Illinois Central
Railroad, to whom Mr. Lincoln was referred for payment of the bill, was "supposed
to have been the superintendent, George B. McClellan, who afterwards became the
eminent general." This, however, is a mistake. The incident referred to occurred
in 1855, and in that year Captain McClellan was absent in the Crimea as one of
a commission of three sent abroad to study the European military service as dis-
played in the Crimean War. "It was not till January, 1857," says Miss Ida M.
Tarbell in her "Life of Lincoln," "that McClellan resigned his commission in the
United States Army to become the Chief Engineer and afterwards vice-president
of the Illinois Central Railroad."

Mr. Lincoln, however, did not believe in suing for his fees. Mr. Herndon says
that he would consent to be swindled before he would contest a fee. The case
of the Illinois Centrail Railroad, however, was an exception to this rule. He held
positive views on the subject of fees, which are quoted by Miss Tarbell in her book.
"The matter of fees," wrote Mr. Lincoln in the "notes for a law lecture" which he
left among his papers, "is important, far beyond the mere question of bread and
butter involved. Properly attended to, fuller justice is done to both lawyer and
client. ... As a general rule never take your whole fee in advance, nor any
more than a small retainer. When fully paid beforehand, you are more than a
common mortal if you can feel the same interest in the case as if something was
in prospect for you as well as for your client."

M'CLELLAN'S RECOLLECTIONS OF LINCOLN

It was while he was an officer of the Illinois Central Railroad that McClellan
met Lincoln for the first time. "Long before the war," says McClellan, in the
work entitled "McClellan's Own Story," "when vice-president of the Illinois Cen- |
tral Railroad I knew Mr. Lincoln, for he was one of the counsel of the company.
More than once I have been with him in out-of-the-way county seats where some
important case was being tried, and in the lack of sleeping accommodations have
spent the night in front of a stove, listening to the unceasing flow of anecdotes
from his lips. He was never at a loss and I could never make up my mind how
many of them he had really heard before and how many he invented on the spur of
the moment."

LINCOLN'S FONDNESS FOR SHOWS

Mr. Lincoln had a boyish fondness for attending concerts and shows. Once
when he was traveling on the circuit, his friends missed him from the hotel he was
stopping at during the evening. When he returned some one asked him where he had
been. "Well," he said, "I have been to a little show up at the Academy." Mr.
H. C. Whitney, one of his old friends, was present and relates as follows: "He sat
before the fire and narrated all the sights of that most primitive of country shows,
given chiefly to school children. Next night he was missing again, the show was still
in town, and he stole in as before, and entertained us with a description of new sights
a magic lantern, electrical machine, etc. I told him I had seen all these sights at

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 29

school. 'Yes/ he said sadly, 'I now have an advantage over you, for the first time in
my life seeing these things which are, of course, common to those who had, what I
did not, a chance at an education when they were young.' " It was thus that at
forty years of age, and when regarded as the ablest politician in Illinois, he satis-
fied the longing, which every healthy nature feels, for the simple delights of youth.
When he was in Chicago he was eager to attend concerts and shows, and Hern-
don relates that on one occasion he and Mr. Lincoln were present at a negro min-
strel show where they heard "Dixie" sung, then an entirely new song, and which
pleased him greatly. Mr. Charles A. Rogers, a Board of Trade man, who came
to Chicago in 1854, said to the writer once that he remembered seeing Lincoln
and Trumbull together "sitting just behind him" at a minstrel show in Metro-
politan Hall.

The following incident was related by James W. Somers, a young lawyer of

; Urbana and quite a favorite with Mr. Lincoln, to Hon. J. O. Cunningham, who has

kindly placed it at the disposal of the writer for this work. "While I was in

! Chicago attending law lectures," said Mr. Somers, "in the spring of 1860, my

: friend, Henry C. Whitney, invited me to accompany him to a performance of

Rumsey & Newcomb's minstrels, to be given in Metropolitan Hall. He said

i Mr. Lincoln, who was in the city attending court, would go with us. I eagerly

accepted the invitation. We went early and were seated about the middle of the

hall, where we had a good view of the stage. I was then quite a young man from

, a rural village and to me the exhibition was novel and extremely amusing, but I

: am sure Mr. Lincoln enjoyed it as much as I did. He was in an especial good

humor and laughed heartily at the quips and quirks of the "middle" and "end" men,

and enjoyed the clog dancing. I recall that he was especially pleased with the

then new song 'Dixie,' which he heard for the first time. It seemed to wholly

carry him out of himself. Major Whitney relates what he said to Mr. Lincoln

that evening: 'Possibly in a few weeks you will be nominated for president right

here.' It was then thought the presidential national convention would be held in

Metropolitan Hall. Lincoln replied: 'It is honor enough for me to be talked

about for it.'

"When William N. Coler was leaving Springfield for Chicago, to attend the
convention, Lincoln said to him: 'I've a good notion to go up with you, Coler,
but I'm too much of a candidate to be there, I reckon, yet not enough of one to stay
away.' "

THE ARRIVAL OF SENATOR DOUGLAS IN CHICAGO

The accounts of the arrival of Senator Douglas at Chicago from Washington,
on the 9th of July, 1858, indicate that political excitement was at a high pitch.
The newspapers of that period could not find language strong enough either in
praise of their favorite statesmen or candidates, or in denunciation of those of the
opposite party. The Democratic press, therefore, described the scenes occurring
upon his arrival in glowing terms, and, indeed, it must have been an event long
to be remembered. The Chicago Times, the leading Democratic organ, then under
the editorial management of James W. Sheahan, published in its issue of July
10th the details of the latter part of Senator Douglas' journey.

At Michigan City, sixty miles distant from Chicago, the Senator's train was

30 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

met by a party who were to escort him the remainder of the way on a special train.
The demonstrations of welcome which had been arranged at that point were seri-
ously marred, however, because "some malicious person" had "secretly spiked the
only gun in the town," and the local democracy were obliged to utilize a large
anvil with which they "made the welkin echo with its repeated discharges." On
the locomotive was displayed the banner of the Young Men's Democratic Club.

The train arrived in the city about five o'clock in the afternoon, and as it
passed along Twelfth street to the depot, "crowds of ladies were assembled on the
doorsteps of the residences on Michigan avenue, waving banners and handker-
chiefs ; the lake shore was crowded by persons hastily proceeding to the depot.
Long before the train could enter the station house, thousands had crossed over the
breakwater, got upon the track, and climbed into the cars ; and when the latter
reached the depot they were literally crammed inside and covered on top by ardent
and enthusiastic friends and supporters of the illustrious Illinoisan."

Meantime all the available artillery was pressed into service and in Dear-
born Park a salute of one hundred and fifty guns was fired, "the booming of the
cannon alone rising above the cheering plaudits of the assembled multitude," says
the account. "The Adams House, near the Central depot, was most handsomely
decorated. The national flag, a banner bearing the motto, 'Douglas, the Champion
of Popular Sovereignty/ as well as numerous flags belonging to vessels in the har-
bor were suspended across the street, presenting a grand display. The doors,
windows, balconies, and roofs of the Adams House, as well as the private residences
in the neighborhood, and the large stores and warehouses along Lake street were
crowded with ladies and other persons all cheering and welcoming the Senator.
At the depot, a procession consisting of the 'Montgomery Guards,' Captain Gleason,
and the 'Emmet Guards,' Lieutenant Stuart commanding, acting as military escort,
was then formed. Judge Douglas was in an open barouche drawn by six horses,
and was followed by the committee of arrangements in other carriages. The pro-
cession proceeded up Lake street to Wabash avenue," and thence by a circuitous
route to its destination at the Tremont House.

"The omnibuses from Union Park, and from the southern and northern limits
of the city, were crowded with suburban residents, and people came on foot from
the remotest parts of the city, taking up eligible standing places around the hotel."
It was estimated by the writer of the account we have just quoted from that there
were "at the least calculation" thirty thousand people present. "Chicago has never
before witnessed such a sight," says the writer. "A field of human forms parted
with difficulty as the procession passed through, and closed instantly behind it,
with the surge and roar of the waters of a sea." A continuous torrent of "thrills"
characterizes the description throughout, reaching a climax when the writer seems
fairly to shout, "Over all the light of the illumination, and the glare and glitter of
the fireworks, spread an appearance which is indescribable !"

But in a land of free speech discordant sentiments are sure to find expression
even at a time of such apparently universal enthusiasm and joy. The Chicago
Daily Journal, published the same afternoon of the Senator's arrival, takes quite
another view of the proceedings. "The followers of Senator Douglas," it croaks,
"are straining their utmost powers to make the demonstration in behalf of their

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 31

champion on his return home, a great and glorious affair, this evening. If it does
not prove imposing, and if there is not a tremendous outward show of 'enthusiasm'
displayed on the occasion, it will not be for lack of effort on the part of the
Senator's more active worshipers to render so. They have been begging and
scraping together all the spare dollars, shillings, dimes and sixpences that could
be obtained, for the last few weeks, have bought powder enough to supply the
Utah war have expended large sums in getting up banners and devices and have
laid but not a small sum in hiring men and boys to make up a big procession and
make a big noise. Surely, after such extensive preparations, we have a right to
anticipate a great time, and shall expect to see the lionized Senator perfectly
emblazoned in the glory of triumphant honors."

In its next issue the Journal referred to the speech made by Mr. Douglas in
this cutting manner: "He spoke for an hour and a half, in his usual style-dis-
pensing 'soft soap' quite freely, setting himself forth as a hero of no common order,
and indulging even more than ordinarily in that inexorable habit of misrepresenta-
tion, and prevarication which appears in political matters to have become a sort
of second nature to him."

A newspaper published at Quincy, Illinois, the Daily Herald, comments upon
the change of sentiment towards Douglas as shown by his reception at Chicago,
and remarks : "Four years ago Senator Douglas returned to Chicago from Wash-
ington and attempted to speak to the people in justification of his course in the
United States Senate, but was denied a hearing. And, indeed, as most of our
readers will recollect, when he did make the effort he was assailed and driven
from the platform. The Chicago people would not listen to him; nor did they
permit him the right of speech at all, so incensed were they against him for his
support of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. Four years have elapsed since then and
the city which hunted, denounced and assailed the 'Little Giant,' makes the occa-
sion of his arrival a source of public rejoicing. In another place we have alluded
to his triumphant entry into the city on last Friday."

The Chicago Press and Tribune, in its issue of July 12th, gives an account of
the "Enthusiastic Reception of Mr. Lincoln by the Republicans of Chicago." The
Republicans of the city were not disposed to permit the Little Giant to monopolize
all the attention of the Chicago public, and when Mr. Lincoln arrived in the city
from Springfield his coming was chronicled, and soon after it was announced that
he would make a speech. Accordingly on the evening following that of the ovation
given to Senator Douglas Mr. Lincoln spoke from the balcony of the hotel, the
occasion being described as follows : "The audience assembled to hear Hon. Abra-
ham Lincoln on Saturday evening was, in point of numbers, about three-fourths as
large as that of the previous evening, when Douglas held forth ; and in point of
enthusiasm, about four times as great. The crowd extended from the corner of
Lake and Dearborn streets the whole length of the Tremont House, and as on
the evening previous, the balconies, windows and roofs of the adjoining buildings
were filled with attentive spectators ladies and gentlemen. The only advertise-
ment of the meeting consisted of a notice in the Saturday morning papers, and a
few handbills distributed during the day.

"The essential difference in the two demonstrations was simply that the Lin-
coln audience was enthusiastically for Lincoln, and the Douglas audience was not

32 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

in favor of anybody in particular. This will be admitted by any fair-minded man
who witnessed both demonstrations. The Douglas authorities estimate the crowd
of Friday evening at thirty thousand, or something more than the whole male adult
population of the city. We presume that twelve thousand is a liberal reckoning for
that evening, and that nine thousand would about cover the gathering of Saturday
night.

"During the progress of Mr. Lincoln's speech a procession of four hundred
men from the Seventh ward including the German Republican Club arrived on the
ground, preceded by a band of music, and carrying the Seventh Ward banner.
They were received with loud and continued cheers from the audience. Mr. Lincoln
was introduced by C. L. Wilson, Esq., and as he made his appearance he was
greeted with a perfect storm of applause. For some moments the enthusiasm con-
tinued unabated. At last, when by a wave of his hand partial silence was restored,
Mr. Lincoln spoke."

THE UNITED STATES ZOUAVE CADETS

On the 19th of March, 1856, there was a military company formed in Chi-
cago, called the "National Guard Cadets." The original officers were: Captain,
Joseph R. Scott; First lieutenant, W. W. Lawton; Second lieutenant, W. B.
Smith; Ensign, N. G. Vail. The discipline in this company was not maintained,
however, at a very high standard, and by the spring of 1859 it had so far relaxed
that it was threatened with dissolution.

At this time E. Elmer Ellsworth, then a young man but little past twenty-one
years of age, full of military ardor and possessed of excellent capacity for man-
agement and discipline, became the captain, and at once began a thorough reorgani-
zation of the company. Stringent rules were adopted, members were prohibited
from entering saloons or disreputable places while in uniform under penalty of
expulsion. A new uniform was adopted, consisting of light blue trousers with buff
stripes, dark blue frock coat with buff trimmings, cap of dark blue with red, white
and blue pompon, and white cross belts. A knapsack, with a red blanket rolled
and strapped on top, completed this attractive and brilliant outfit. The name of
the company was changed to the "United States Zouave Cadets." Quarters in the
old Garrett Block, at the southeast corner of Randolph and State streets, were
fitted up for an armory, and here drills were instituted, and an earnest and un-
remitting course of discipline practiced, which soon caused this organization to
be regarded as the model company of its kind in the country. Recruits were added
and representatives of Chicago's "best people" found places in the ranks.

FIRST PUBLIC APPEARANCE OF THE ZOUAVES

On the 4th of July in that year (1859), the company paraded the streets of
the city and gave an exhibition drill on Lake street, in front of the Tremont House.
This was the first public appearance of the company, and the "Zouave drill," with
its brilliant bayonet exercise, won a high degree of public admiration. Soon after,
the uniform was changed and made to correspond with the Zouave uniform of the
French army. The details of this uniform are worthy of description, as the wide-
spread attention given to the company's activities became the talk of the day, not

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 33

only in Chicago but in many other cities soon after to be visited. The new uniform
"consisted of a bright red chasseur cap with gold braid; light blue shirt with
moire antique facings; dark blue jacket with orange and red trimmings; brass bell
buttons, placed as close together as possible; a red sash and loose red trousers;
russet leather leggins, buttoned over the trousers, reaching from ankle half-way to
knee; and white waist belt. The jacket did not button, was cut low in the neck,
without collar. Easy-fitting, high-laced shoes, with thick, broad soles were worn,"
thus making up a remarkably brilliant as well as a comfortable uniform.

TOUR OF THE ZOUAVES

Early in the following year (1860), preparations for an extensive tour were
made. Redoubled exertions were now made to perfect the members of the com-
pany in the exercises of the various peculiar drills practiced. Drilling every even-
ing, except Sundays, from seven to eleven o'clock, was required, and attendance
was enforced under penalty of expulsion. Though the discipline and require-
ments were thus severe the membership was easily maintained up to the limit, for
there was no more popular organization among the Chicago young men of that
day, than the "Ellsworth's Zouaves." At all drills the uniform and knapsack
were worn, so that every man should become accustomed to them, as well as to
the handling of his rifle and bayonet.

The 2d of July (1860) was the day fixed for the departure of the Zouaves on
their eastern tour. Before leaving the armory Ellsworth addressed the company
warning the members that no infraction of their pledge to keep away from drink-
ing places and disreputable resorts would be tolerated. "The first man," he said,
"who violates his pledge while on the tour shall be expelled forthwith, stripped of
his uniform, and sent back to Chicago in disgrace." There was no relaxation in
the strict discipline exercised by the young commander in this regard, and the
appearance of the young men composing the troop was everywhere a credit to the
city from which they hailed, and the men were an example of good conduct and
order!}' behavior on all occasions.

POLITICAL EXCITEMENT IN 1860

It must be remembered that the country was at this time in the throes of a
"red-hot" political campaign. Lincoln had been nominated at the Republican
National Convention held at Chicago the previous May, and there was much polit-
ical excitement everywhere. It was beginning to be apparent to the people of the
nation that a collision with the southern states might occur in case the Republican
nominee should be elected in the following November, for there were many indica-
tions that such a result would not be acquiesced in by the Southerners. In such a
case an armed conflict was inevitable.

The interest, therefore, in military organizations was greatly heightened. Men's
minds were constantly turning to military matters, and an eagerness was shown
to be prepared for whatever might come. An appeal to arms seemed inevitable

34 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

in case of a Republican victory, and all signs pointed to it as almost a certainty.
The appearance of Ellsworth's Chicago Zouaves, giving exhibitions of drill and
military discipline, attracted the keenest interest of multitudes.

There was, too, another reason for the interest shown in the public appearance
of the Chicago Zouaves. They had come from a city, then fresh in the minds of
the people of the country, as the place where Lincoln had been nominated, and
as the chief city of the state from which Lincoln hailed. Chicago, in the view of
the people of the country, was of much more importance than was warranted
from its size merely. Its population at that time was about 110,000. Something
has always been happening at Chicago to attract the attention of the world some-
times great political events of far-reaching significance and importance, some-
times startling revelations of wonderful commercial and railroad development,
and sometimes great disasters. The mention of its name awakened an interest
at once. Everywhere the Zouaves appeared, giving exhibition drills, they met with
enthusiastic receptions, applause for their proficiency and approval of their strict
principles of morality and behavior.

NAMES OF THE ZOUAVES

So important an episode in the history of the city as that of the brief career
of the Zouaves would not be fully narrated without giving the names of the mem-
bers, names that became identified later with various military organizations which
took part in the Civil War. It is said that those of them, who afterwards joined
the armies of the Union, became officers and many of them reached high rank.
Many, indeed, gave up their lives on Southern battle fields, and all of them are
deserving of remembrance.

The company when it began its tour numbered fifty-one officers and men, the
"Light Guard Band," composed of fifteen men, and five servants. The names
of those who made the tour are as follows: E. Elmer Ellsworth, Commandant; H.
Dwight Laflin, Second Lieutenant; Charles A. DeVtllers, Surgeon; Joseph R.
Scott, Commissary; James B. Taylor, Paymaster; James R. Hayden, First Ser-
geant; Edward B. Knox, Second Sergeant; Robert W. Wetherell, Quartermaster-
Sergeant; Benjamin B. Botsford, Color Sergeant.

The men composing the rank and file were as follows: Fred J. Abbey, Gerritt
V. S. Aiken, Merritt P. Batchelor, John A. Baldwin, William Behrend, Augustus
A. Bice, Samuel S. Boone, Edwin L. Brand, Joseph C. Barclay, James A. Cly-
bourn, Harry H. Hall, George W. Fruin, Louis B. Hand, Charles H. Hosmer,
William Inness, Louis L. James, Ransom Kennicott, Lucius S. Larrabee, John C.
Long, Waters W. McChesney, Samuel J. Nathans, William M. Olcott, Charles C.
Phillips, Robert D. Ross, B. Frank Rogers, Clement Sutterly, Charles Scott, Jr.,
Charles W. Smith, Charles C. Smith, Edwin M. Coates, Freeman Conner, William
H. Cutler, William N. Danks, James M. De Witt, George H. Fergus, Charles H.
Shepley, Ira G. True, Evart Van Buren, Jr., Harry S. Wade, Sidney P. Walker,
Frank E. Yates, and Charles A. Bell.

There were one hundred and twenty members of the company, but those only
whose names appear in the above list made the tour.

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 35

THE ITINERARY OF THE ZOUAVES

The cities visited by Ellsworth and his company were Adrian (Michigan),
Detroit, Cleveland, Niagara Falls, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Troy, Albany, West
Point, New York, Boston, Salem, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Pittsburgh,
Cincinnati, St. Louis, Springfield, and thence returning to Chicago. Here the
Zouaves arrived on the 14th of August, having completed a tour of forty-three
days and having won unstinted praise and many trophies. The company was re-
garded as the best drilled military organization in the United States.

On their return the Zouaves were welcomed by a grand ovation, participated in
by all the local military organizations, the torch light clubs and the Fire depart-
ment. A reception at the Wigwam was held where Mayor Wentworth delivered a
congratulatory speech, and from there they proceeded to the Briggs House to par-
take of a banquet given in their honor.

Shortly after their return to Chicago the Zouaves gave an exhibition drill at
the Wigwam, for the benefit of the Home for the Friendless. This was their last
appearance as an organization, and in the following October the company disbanded.
Ellsworth went to Springfield where he became a law student in the office of Abra-
ham Lincoln and remained there up to the time of Lincoln's departure for Wash-
ington in the following February. Ellsworth accompanied Lincoln on this memo-
rable journey. The story of his later experiences and of his tragic death will be
told in the chapter treating of the Civil War.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE

DEBATES BETWEEN LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS LINCOLN'S CHALLENGE REPLY OF

DOUGLAS FIRST MEETING AT OTTAWA THE "PHONOGRAPHIC REPORT" OF THE

PRESS AND TRIBUNE HITT AND BINMORE THE SHORT HAND REPORTERS THE RE-
PORT OF THE CHICAGO TIMES HORACE WHITE'S LONG HAND REPORTS HITT's

ACCOUNT GIVEN IN 1904 REPUBLICAN VICTORIES IN THE FALL ELECTIONS

"HOLDOVERS" ELECT DOUGLAS TO SENATE ISAAC N. ARNOLD'S COMPARISON OF

THE DEBATERS GRIERSON's DESCRIPTION LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS COMPARED

ADVANTAGES OF JOINT DEBATES REVIEW OF THE CAMPAIGN LINCOLN THE

ACKNOWLEDGED STANDARD BEARER INTENSE POPULAR INTEREST IN POLITICS

LONG SPEECHES OF CANDIDATES ANECDOTE OF LINCOLN LINCOLN COMPARES

HIMSELF WITH DOUGLAS LINCOLN'S GROWING PRESIDENTIAL PROSPECTS -LINCOLN'S

AUTOBIOGRAPHY LINCOLN'S FINANCIAL CIRCUMSTANCES.

THE BEGINNING OF THE DEBATES

HE contest of 1858," said Horace White, in an address before the Illi-
nois State Historical Society, in 1908, "has been more talked about
and written about than any other intellectual encounter in our national
annals." The debates proper, that is as arranged between Mr. Lincoln
and Mr. Douglas, were comprised in a series of seven meetings, which
were held during the late summer and fall of 1858, as follows: August 21st,
at Ottawa; August 27th, at Freeport; September 15th, at Jones boro; September
18th, at Charleston; October 7th, at Galesburg; October 13th, at Quincy; and on
October 15th, at Alton.

The beginning of the debates, however, was regarded by Isaac N. Arnold as
taking place in Chicago in the previous July. "The first speech was made by
Douglas," says Arnold, "Lincoln being present at Chicago, on the evening of the
9th of July, 1858, from the balcony of the old Tremont House; Dearborn and Lake
streets being completely packed with citizens, and the hotel parlors and rotunda
filled with ladies and privileged guests. On the following evening Lincoln replied
from the same place to a crowd equally great. On the 16th of July Douglas spoke
again at Bloomington, Lincoln being present. On the 17th of July Douglas spoke
.at the Capitol in Springfield, and on the evening of the same day Lincoln replied."
But in the volume edited by Professor E. E. Sparks entitled the "Lincoln-Douglas
Debates," these speeches were merely regarded, he gives us to understand, as the
irregular beginning of the campaign, and it was not until Lincoln's challenge of
July 24th, and Douglas' acceptance of it on the same day, that the series were
definitely arranged for. The seven formal debates began with the one at Ottawa
on August 21st, and ended with the one at Alton, October 15th.

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 37

LINCOLN'S CHALLENGE

A challenge was sent by Mr. Lincoln to Judge Douglas to hold joint meetings.
The letter was dated at Chicago, July 2-tth, 1858; and was as follows: "Hon. S.
A. Douglas; My Dear Sir: Will it be agreeable to you to make an arrangement
for you and myself to divide time, and address the same audiences the present can-
vass? Mr. Judd, who will hand you this, is authorized to receive your answer;
and, if agreeable to you, to enter into the terms of such agreement."

Douglas' reply was quite lengthy. He said that "recent events had inter-
posed difficulties in the way of such an arrangement," that he had already "made
a list of appointments covering the entire period until late in October," that can-
didates for other offices on the Democratic ticket expected to be present at such
meetings, and that there would be no opportunity at the meetings "for other
speeches." "I cannot refrain from expressing my surprise," he continued, "if
it was your original intention to invite such an arrangement, that you should
have waited until after I had made my appointments, inasmuch as we were both
here in Chicago together for several days after my arrival, and again at Blooming-
ton, Atlanta, Lincoln, and Springfield, where it was well known I went for the
purpose of consulting with the State Central Committee, and agreeing upon the
plan of the campaign." However, he says, he will, "in order to accommodate you
as far as it is in my power to do so, take the responsibility of making an arrange-
ment with you for a discussion between us at one prominent point in each Con-
gressional district in the State, except the second and sixth districts, where we
have both spoken, and in each of which cases you had the concluding speech."
He then named the places which he considered the most suitable "at which we should
speak," the places being those where the meetings were afterward held.

THE FIRST JOINT MEETING AT OTTAWA

The people of Chicago were immensely interested in the debates, as appears in
the large space given to the speeches in the newspapers of the city. The Chicago
Press and Tribune, in its issue of August 21, 1858, announces the meeting at
Ottawa, as follows: "The gallant Lincoln will enter the lists at Ottawa today,
with Douglas. The meeting will be a memorable one, and the first of the present
campaign. A large delegation will be in attendance from this city, leaving here
by the 8 :00 a. m. train, on the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad, returning this
evening. Let there be a good attendance of our Republicans. The Press and
Tribune of Monday will contain a full Phonographic verbatim report of the
speeches of Lincoln and Douglas. Let all who can be present hear the champions,
and all who cannot should read and judge for themselves."

The reports of the speeches were accompanied, in all the newspapers which
printed them, with comments and descriptions, according to the political sympathies
of their editors. The Chicago Times, a Douglas partisan newspaper (this was
two years before Wilbur F. Storey became its editor), said: "When Douglas
had concluded, the shouts were tremendous; his excoriation of Lincoln was so
severe that the Republicans hung their heads in shame. The Democrats, however,
were loud in their vociferations. About two-thirds of the meeting at once stir-

38 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

rounded Douglas, and with music, cheers, and every demonstration of enthusiastic
admiration, they escorted him to his quarters at the hotel. . . . Lincoln, in
the meantime seemed to have been paralyzed. He stood upon the stage looking
wildly at the people as they surrounded the triumphant Douglas . . . and
he could not find a friend to say one word to him in his distress. It was a
delicate point for Republicans, who had witnessed his utter defeat, and who knew
how severely he felt it, to offer him condolence, or bid him hope for better success
again. The only thing they could say was that Lincoln ought not to travel round
with Douglas, and had better not meet him any more. When Douglas and the
Democrats had left the square, Lincoln essayed to descend from the stage, but
his limbs refused to do their office. ... In this extremity, the Republican
marshal called half a dozen men, who, lifting Lincoln in their arms, carried him
along. By some mismanagement the men selected for this office happened to be
very short in stature, and the consequence was that while Lincoln's head and
shoulders towered above theirs, his feet dragged on the ground. ... It
was one of the richest farces we have ever witnessed and provoked the laughter of
all Democrats and Republicans, who happened to see it."

The Chicago Journal, however, seemed not to have gathered such an impression,
and remarked as follows: "Since the flailing Senator Douglas received at Ottawa
on Saturday, we suggest that his friends hereafter address him as the late Mr.
Douglas."

In another part of its issue, the Journal gives this narrative of the occasion,
which differs materially from the Times account. "The Republicans were in their
glory at Ottawa on Saturday, the foolish statements and falsehoods of the Chicago
Times to the contrary notwithstanding. At least two-thirds of the vast assemblage,
that was attracted thither to listen to the Lincoln and Douglas debate, was composed
of Republicans, and every candid man present whom we have seen bears testimony
to the fact that Lincoln 'took down' Douglas most effectually, on every point of
the debate. The genuine enthusiasm of the occasion was all on the side of Lin-
coln, and so pleased were his friends with his strong and crushing reply to the mis-
representations and sophistications of Douglas, that when he concluded his speech
they rushed up to the stand, took him upon their shoulders and bore him in
triumphal procession to the house of Mayor Glover, where he stopped."

After one of the debates it was remarked by some one to Lincoln that he
looked tired. "Yes," he said, "I have been stoning Stephen." This allusion to
the death of Stephen, as related in the book of the "Acts of the Apostles," is an
excellent illustration of Mr. Lincoln's familiarity with the Scriptures.

REPORTING THE DEBATES

The man employed by the Chicago Press and Tribune to make the "Phonographic
verbatim report," mentioned in the announcement previously quoted, was Robert
R. Hitt, who later became assistant secretary of state under Blaine, and in 1882
was elected a member of Congress, an office which he continued to hold for twelve
consecutive terms. Horace White, who later became the editor of the Chicago
Tribune (from 1865 to 1874) was at that time one of the editorial writers of the
Press and Tribune, and was designated as chief correspondent to accompany Mr.

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 39

Lincoln on his campaign against Senator Douglas. The noteworthy features of
the great debates were given to the public through Mr. White's letter to his paper.
Mr. White has related the particulars of the reporting of the speeches, and from
his account the following is quoted:

"Senator Douglas had entered upon his campaign with two short-hand reporters,
James B. Sheridan and Henry Binmore, whose duty it was to 'write it up' in the
columns of the Chicago Times. The necessity of counteracting or matching that
force became apparent very soon, and I was chosen to write up Mr. Lincoln's
campaign. I was not a short-hand reporter. . . . The verbatim reporting
for the Press and Tribune in the joint debates was done by Mr. Robert R. Hitt,
late assistant Secretary of State. . . . Verbatim reporting was a new feature
in journalism in Chicago and Mr. Hitt was the pioneer thereof. The publication
of Senator Douglas' opening speech in that campaign, by the Press and Tribune
the next morning, was a feat hitherto unexampled in the West, and most mortifying
to the Democratic newspaper, the Times, and to Sheridan and Binmore, who, after
taking down the speech as carefully as Mr. Hitt had done, had gone to bed intend-
ing to write it out the next day, as was then customary.

"All of the seven joint debates were reported by Mr. Hitt for the Press and
Tribune, the manuscript passing through my hands before going to the printers,
but no changes were made by me except in a few cases where confusion on the
platform or the blowing of the wind had caused some slight hiatus or evident mis-
take in catching the speaker's words. I could not resist the temptation to italicise
a few passages in Mr. Lincoln's speeches, where his manner of delivery had been
especially emphatic."

Mr. Hitt, in an interview published many years later, said that Mr. Lincoln
never saw the written reports of any of the debates. "I mention this," he said "as
it was often charged at that time, in the fury of partisan warfare, that Mr. Lin-
coln's speeches were doctored and almost rewritten before they were printed; that
this was necessary because he was so petty a creature in ability, in thought, in
style, in speaking, when compared with the matchless Douglas." In a sketch
of Mr. Hitt, printed in the New York Herald in 1904, it is said that some of Air.
Lincoln's political enemies, who had brought an indictment of illiteracy against
the gaunt Illinois statesman, charged Mr. Hitt with "doctoring" the English of
the speech, but he denied that he had taken any liberties whatever with Lincoln's
phraseology.

CONCLUSION OF THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN

When the campaign was over it was found that the Republicans had a popular
majority in the state of four thousand and eighty-five votes, though they failed
to secure enough members in the legislature to elect a senator. A sufficient number
of Democrats in the upper house, elected two years before and still holding thr.ir
offices, although their districts had gone Republican, served to give the election
to Douglas, who was thus elected to the United States Senate for the third time.
The vote in the legislature stood forty-six Republican and fifty-four Democratic.

When asked by a friend how he felt over the result of the election, Lincoln re-
plied that he felt like the boy who had stubbed his toe, "too bad to laugh and too

40 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

big to cry." In a letter he wrote to Dr. A. G. Henry lie said, "I am glad I made
the late race. It gave me a hearing on the great and durable question of the age
which I would have had in no other way; and though I now sink out of view and
shall be forgotten. I believe I have made some marks which will tell for the cause
of civil liberty long after I am gone."

ISAAC N. ARNOLD'S DESCRIPTION AND ESTIMATE

The following quotation is made from a paper read by Hon. Isaac N. Arnold,
on Abraham Lincoln, before the Royal Historical Society, London, June 16, 1881:

"The great debate between Lincoln and Douglas, in 1858, was unquestionably,
both with reference to the ability of the speakers and its influence upon opinion
and events, the most important in American history. I do not think I do in-
justice to others, nor over-estimate their importance, when I say that the speeches
of Lincoln published, circulated, and read throughout the Free States, did more
than any other agency in creating the public opinion, which prepared the way for
the overthrow of slavery. The speeches of John Quincy Adams, and those of Senator .
Sumner, were more learned and scholarly, and those of Lovejoy and Wendell
Phillips were more vehement and impassioned; Senators Seward, Chase, and Hale
spoke from a more conspicuous forum, but Lincoln's speeches were as philosophic,
as able, as earnest as any, and his manner had a simplicity and directness, a clear-
ness of illustration, and his'language a plainness, a vigor, an Anglo-Saxon strength,
better adapted than any other to reach and influence the understanding and senti-
ment of the common people.

"At the time of this memorable discussion, both Lincoln and Douglas were in
the full maturity of their powers. Douglas being forty-five and Lincoln forty-nine
years old. Douglas had had a long training and experience as a popular speaker.
On the hustings ('stump,' as we say in America) and in Congress, and especially
in the United States Senate, he had been accustomed to meet the ablest debaters
of his State and of the Nation.

"His friends insisted that never, either in conflict with a single opponent, or
when repelling the assaults of a whole part}', had he been discomfited. His man-
ner was bold, vigorous, and aggressive. He was ready, fertile in resources, familiar
with political history, strong and severe in denunciation, and he handled with
skill all the weapons of the dialectician. His iron will, tireless energy, united with
physical and moral courage, and great personal magnetism, made him a natural
leader, and gave him personal popularity.

"Lincoln was also now a thoroughly trained speaker. He had contended suc-
cessfully at the bar, in the legislature, and before the people, with the ablest men
of the West, including Douglas, with whom he always rather sought than avoided
a discussion. But he was a courteous and generous opponent, as is illustrated by
the following beautiful allusion to his rival, made in 1856, in one of their joint
debates. 'Twenty years ago, Judge Douglas and I first became acquainted ; we
were both young then; he a trifle younger than I. Even then we were both am-
bitious, I, perhaps, quite as much as he. With me, the race of ambition has been
a flat failure. With him, it has been a splendid success. His name fills the Nation,
and it is not unknown in foreign lands. I affect no contempt for the high eminence
he has reached ; so reached, that the oppressed of my species might have shared

Q
O

ffl
S

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 41

with me in the elevation, I would rather stand on that eminence than wear the
richest crown that ever pressed a monarch's brow.'

"We know, and the world knows, that Lincoln did reach that high, nay, far
higher eminence, and that he did reach it in such a way that the 'oppressed' did
share with him in the elevation.

"Such were the champions who, in 1858, were to discuss, before the voters of
Illinois, and with the whole Nation as spectators, the political questions then pend-
ing, and especially the vital questions relating to slavery. It was not a single
combat, but extended through a whole campaign.

"On the return of Douglas from Washington to Illinois, in July, 1858, Lincoln
and Douglas being candidates for the senate, the former challenged his rival to a
series of joint debates, to be held at the principal towns in the state. The chal-
lenge was accepted, and it was agreed that each discussion should occupy three
hours ; that the speakers should alternate in the opening and the close the open-
ing speech to occupy one hour, the reply one hour and a-half, and the close half-an-
hour. The meetings were held in the open air, for no hall could hold the vast
crowds which attended.

"In addition to the immense mass of hearers, reporters from all the principal
newspapers in the country attended, so that the morning' after each debate the
speeches were published and eagerly read by a large part, perhaps a majority of
all the voters of the United States. The attention of the American people was thus
arrested, and they watched with intense interest, and devoured every argument of
the champions.

"Each of these great men, I doubt not, at that time sincerely believed he was
right. Douglas' ardor, while in such a conflict, would make him think, for the
time being, he was right, and I know that Lincoln argued for freedom against the
extension of slavery with the most profound conviction that on the result hung
the fate of his country. Lincoln had two advantages over Douglas; he had the
best side of the. question, and the best temper. He was always good-humored, al-
ways had an apt story for illustration, while Douglas sometimes, when hard pressed,
was irritable.

"Douglas carried away the most popular applause, but Lincoln made the
deeper and more lasting impression. Douglas did not disdain an immediate ad
captandum triumph, while Lincoln aimed at permanent conviction. Sometimes when
Lincoln's friends urged him to raise a storm of applause (which he could always
do by his happy illustrations and amusing stories), he refused, saying the occa-
sion was too serious, the issue too grave. 'I do not seek applause,' said he, 'nor
to amuse the people, I want to convince them.'

"It was often observed, during this canvass, that while Douglas was sometimes
greeted with the loudest cheers, when Lincoln closed, the people seemed solemn and
serious, and could be heard all through the crowd, gravely and anxiously discussing
the topics on which he had been speaking.

"Douglas secured the immediate object of the struggle, but the manly bearing,
the vigorous logic, the honesty and sincerity, the great intellectual powers exhibited
by Mr. Lincoln, prepared the way, and two years later, secured his nomination
and election to the presidency. It is a touching incident, illustrating the patriotism
of both these statesmen, that, widely as they differed, and keen as had been their

42 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

rivalry, just as soon as the life of the Republic was menaced by treason, they
joined hands to shield and save the country they loved."

GRIERSON'S DESCRIPTION

The popular designations often applied to Lincoln and Douglas were the "Rail
Splitter" for the one and the "Little Giant" for the other. The last debate in the
series took place at Alton in October, 1858, which has been described somewhat
graphically by Francis Grierson in his volume entitled, "The Vallev of Shadows,"
being the author's recollections of "the Lincoln country" in 1858-1863. Though
now residing in England Grierson as a lad lived with his parents on a farm in
Illinois, and his book contains many of his early recollections and impressions.
His statement of the political beliefs of the two men is this: "Douglas stood for
the doctrine that slavery was nationalized by the Constitution, that Congress had
no authority to prevent its introduction in the new Territories like Kansas and
Nebraska, and that the people of each State could alone decide whether they should
be slave State or free. Lincoln opposed the introduction of slavery into the new
Territories."

The debate at the Alton meeting, says Grierson, "resembled a duel between two
men-of-war facing each other in the open, the Little Giant hurling at his opponent,
from the flagship of slavery, the deadliest missiles, Lincoln calmly waiting to sink
his antagonist by a single broadside." In the earlier debates Douglas seemed to
have the advantage. "A past master in tact and audacity, skilled in the art of
rhetorical skirmishing, he had no equal on the 'stump/ while in the Senate he was
feared by the most brilliant debaters for his ready wit and his dashing eloquence.

"Regarded in the light of historical experience, reasoned about in the light
of spiritual reality, and from the point of view that nothing can happen by chance,
it seems as if Lincoln and Douglas were predestined to meet side by side in this
discussion, and unless I dwell in detail on the mental and physical contrast the
speakers presented it would be impossible to give an adequate idea of the startling
difference in the two temperaments: Douglas short, plump, and petulant; Lincoln
long, gaunt, and self-possessed; the one white-haired and florid, the other black-
haired and swarthy; the one educated and polished, the other unlettered and prim-
itive. Douglas had the assurance of a man of authority, Lincoln had moments
of deep mental depression, often bordering on melancholy, yet controlled by a
fixed, and, I may say, predestined will, for it can no longer be doubted that with-
out the marvellous blend of humor and stolid patience so conspicuous in his char-
acter, Lincoln's genius would have turned to madness after the defeat of the
Northern army at Bull Run, and the world would have had something like a repeti-
tion of Napoleon's fate after the burning of Moscow. Lincoln's humor was the
balance-pole of his genius that enabled him to cross the most giddy heights without
losing his head.

"Judge Douglas opened the debate in a sonorous voice plainly heard through-
out the assembly, and with a look of mingled defiance and confidence he marshalled
his facts and deduced his arguments. To the vigor of his attack there was added
the prestige of the Senate Chamber, and for some moments it looked as if he .would
carry the majority with him, a large portion of the crowd being Pro-Slavery men,

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 43

while many others were 'on the fence' waiting to be persuaded. At last, after a
great oratorical effort, he brought his speech to a close amidst the shouts and yells
of thousands of admirers."

LINCOLN'S APPEARANCE ON THE PLATFORM

"And now Abraham Lincoln . . . rose from his seat, stretched his long
bony limbs upward as if to get them into working order, and stood like some solitary
pine on a lonely summit, very tall, very dark, very gaunt, and very rugged, his
swarthy features stamped with a sad serenity; and the instant he began to speak
the ungainly mouth lost its heaviness, the half-listless eyes attained a wondrous
power, and the people stood bewildered and breathless under the natural magic of
the strangest, most original personality known to the English speaking world since
Robert Burns. There were other tall and dark men in the heterogeneous assembly,
but not one who resembled the speaker. Every movement of his long, muscular
frame denoted inflexible earnestness, and a something issued forth, elemental and
mystical, that told what the man had been, what he was, and what he would do in
the future. There were moments when he seemed all legs and feet, and again he
appeared all head and neck; yet every look of the deep-set eyes, every movement
of the prominent jaw, every wave of the hard-gripping hand, produced an im-
pression, and before he had spoken twenty minutes the conviction took possession
of thousands that here was the prophetic man of the present and the political
saviour of the future. Judges of human nature saw at a glance that a man so un-
gainly, so natural, so earnest, and so forcible, had no place in his mental economy
for the thing called vanity."

INDIVIDUAL TRAITS OF THE DEBATERS

"Douglas had been theatrical and scholarly, but this tall, homely man was creat-
ing by his very looks what the brilliant lawyer and experienced Senator had failed
to make people see and feel. The Little Giant had assumed striking attitudes,
played tricks with his flowing white hair, mimicking the airs of authority with
patronizing allusions, but these affectations, usually so effective when he addressed
an audience alone, went for nothing when brought face to face with realities.
Lincoln had no genius for gesture and no desire to produce a sensation. The fail-
ure of Senator Douglas to bring conviction to critical minds was caused by three
things: a lack of logical sequence in argument, a lack of intuitional judgment,
and a vanity that was caused by too much intellect and too little heart. Douglas
had been arrogant and vehement, Lincoln was now logical and penetrating. The
Little Giant was a living picture of ostentatious vanity ; from every feature of Lin-
coln's face there radiated the calm, inherent strength that always accompanies
power. He relied on no props. With a pride sufficient to protect his mind and a
will sufficient to defend his body, he drank water when Douglas, with all his wit
and rhetoric, could begin and end nothing without stimulants.

"Here, then, was one man out of all the millions who believed in himself, who
did not consult with others about what to say, who never for a moment respected
the opinion of men who preached a lie. My old friend, Don Piatt, in his personal

44 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

impressions of Lincoln, whom he knew well and greatly esteemed, declares him
to be the homeliest man he ever saw; but serene confidence and self-poise can
never be ugly. What thrilled the people who stood before Abraham Lincoln on
that day was the sight of a being who, in all his actions and habits, resembled them-
selves, gentle as he was strong, fearless as he was honest, who towered above them
all in that psychic radiance that penetrates in some mysterious way every fibre of
the hearer's consciousness.

"The enthusiasm created by Douglas was wrought out of smart epigram thrusts
and a facile superficial eloquence. He was a match for the politicians born within
the confines of his own intellectual circle; witty, brilliant, cunning and shallow,
his weight in the political balance was purely materialistic; his scales of justice
tipped to the side of cotton, slavery and popular passions, while the man who
faced him now brought to the assembly cold logic in place of wit, frankness in
place of cunning, reasoned will and judgment in place of chicanery and sophistry.
Lincoln's presence infused into the mixed and uncertain throng something spir-
itual and supernormal. His looks, his words, his voice, his attitude were like a
magical essence dropped into the seething cauldron of politics, reacting against
the foam, calming the surface and letting the people see to the bottom.

" 'Is it not false statesmanship,' he asked, 'that undertakes to build up a sys-
stem of policy upon the basis of caring nothing about the very thing that every-
body does, care the most about? Judge Douglas may say he cares not whether
slavery is voted up or down, but he must have a choice between a right thing and
a wrong thing. He contends that whatever community wants slaves has a right
to have them. So they have, if it is not wrong; but if it is a wrong he cannot
say people have a right to do wrong. He says that upon the score of equality
slaves should be allowed to go into a new Territory like other property. This is
strictly logical if there is no difference between it and other property. If it and
other property are equal his argument is entirely logical; but if you insist that
one is wrong and the other right there is no use to institute a comparison between
right and wrong.' . . .

"When Lincoln sat down Douglas made one last feeble attempt at an answer;
but Lincoln, in reply to a spectator who manifested some apprehension as to the
outcome, rose, and spreading out his great arms at full length, like a condor about
to take wing, exclaimed, with humorous indifference, 'Oh ! let him go it !' These
were the last words he uttered in the greatest debate of the ante bellum days."

ADVANTAGE OF JOINT DEBATES

"It would be an enormous advantage," observes George Haven Putnam in his
volume on Lincoln, "for the political education of candidates and for the educa-
tion of voters if such debates could become the routine in Congressional and Presi-
dential campaigns." As at present conducted a campaign of speech-making is made,
the principal features of which are meetings of sympathizers who approve the
utterances of the orator, and thus is lost the great advantage from the questionings
of opponents. An interruption of the speaker is considered to be a disturbance
of order, and a man who asks questions is regarded as an interloper. With a
system of joint debates, the speakers would be under a wholesome restraint regard-

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 45

ing their statements, which if incorrect or unreasonable would subject them to
prompt criticism by their opponents. Thus the men who were chosen to be speakers
would "have to possess some reasoning faculty as well as oratorical fluency." "I
can conceive," says Putnam, "of no better method for bringing representative gov-
ernment on to a higher plane, and for making an election what it ought to be,
a reasonable decision by reasoning voters, than the institution of joint debates."

REVIEW OF THE CAMPAIGN

"While the campaign was local in its inception," says Professor E. E. Sparks,
"it became national in its significance and results. The issues as brought out in
the debates, especially in the speech of Douglas at Freeport, widened, if they did
not open, the breach between him and the southern Democrats, made a split in
the (Democratic) convention of 1860 a foregone conclusion, and thereby paved
the way for Republican success and the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presi-
dency. The debate also marked the high-tide of the 'stump' method of campaign-
ing." The newspaper press throughout the country gave extensive space to reports
of the speeches, while the speeches themselves were "of a high order of debate
and of unusual import; those of Douglas set forth his untenable position and his
impossible theory in the clearest terms, those of Lincoln state the arguments of the
new Republican party as they had not been outlined before."

MR. LINCOLN CHOSEN THE STANDARD BEARER

Mr. Lincoln had been chosen as the standard bearer in the senatorial cam-
paign at the Republican State Convention held in Springfield, in June 1858. The
convention had endorsed him as its candidate, thus pledging the legislators elected
on its ticket to vote for him for senator in the joint session to be held during the
following winter. In the report of the proceedings it is stated that Charles L.
Wilson, of Cook County, submitted the following resolution, which was unanimously
adopted with shouts of applause: "Resolved, that Abraham Lincoln is the first
and only choice of the Republicans of Illinois for the United States Senate, as the
successor of Stephen A. Douglas." The delegates from Chicago had already pre-
pared a banner inscribed, "Cook County for Abram Lincoln for United States
Senator," but in the course of the proceedings a delegate waved a flag upon which
was printed the word "Illinois," and moved that it be placed over the words
"Cook County," and the motion was carried unanimously, so that the inscription
then read "Illinois for Abram Lincoln." At that period the proper spelling of
Mr. Lincoln's first name had not become fully established in the minds of the
people.

LIVELY PUBLIC INTEREST IN THE CAMPAIGN

The interest taken by the people in political discussions was of the most earn-
est description. "It is astonishing," said a correspondent of the New York Even-
ing Post, writing to his paper from Illinois during this famous campaign, "how
deep an interest in politics this people take. Over long weary miles of hot and
dusty prairie the processions of eager partisans come on foot, on horseback, in
wagons drawn by horses or mules ; men, women, and children, old and young ; the
half sick, just out of the last 'shake,' children in arms, infants at the maternal

46 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

fount, pushing on in clouds of dust and beneath the blazing sun; settling down at
the town where the meeting is, with hardly a chance for sitting, and even less oppor-
tunity for eating, waiting in anxious groups for hours at the places of speaking,
talking, discussing, litigious, vociferous, while the war artillery, the music of the
bands, the waving of banners, the huzzahs of the crowds, as delegation after
delegation appears; the cry of the peddlers vending all sorts of ware, from an
infallible cure of 'agur' to a monster watermelon in slices to suit purchasers com-
bine to render the occasion one scene of confusion and commotion.

"The hour of one arrives and a perfect rush is made for the grounds ; a column
of dust is rising to the heavens and fairly deluging those who are hurrying on
through it. Then the speakers come with flags, and banners, and music, surrounded
by cheering partisans. Their arrival at the ground and immediate approach to
the stand is the signal for shouts that rend the heavens. They are introduced to
the audience amidst prolonged and enthusiastic cheers ; they are interrupted In-
frequent applause ; and they sit down finally amid the same uproarious demon-
stration. The audiences sit or stand patiently throughout, and, as the last word
is spoken, make a break for their homes, first hunting up lost members of their
families, getting their scattered wagonloads together, and, as the daylight fades
away, entering again upon the broad prairies and slowly picking their way back
to the place of beginning."

In speaking of the pioneers of Illinois, Grierson in his book entitled "Valley
of Shadows," says: "It was a wonderful people, living in a second Canaan, in
an age of social change and upheaval, in a period of political and phenomenal
wonders."

LONG SPEECHES OF THE CANDIDATES

The patience of the audiences gathered to hear the speeches of candidates, finds
many illustrations. For example, at Peoria, in 1854, Senator Douglas had ad-
dressed a large audience at considerable length in the afternoon, and at the close
of the address the people began to call for Lincoln, as it was understood that
Lincoln was to make a speech in answer to that of Douglas. Mr. Lincoln then
took the platform and spoke as follows:

"I do not arise to speak now, if I can stipulate with the audience to meet me
here at half past six or at seven o'clock. It is now several minutes past five, and
Judge Douglas has spoken over three hours. If you hear me at all, I wish you
to hear me through. It will take me as long as it has taken him. That will carry
us beyond eight o'clock at night. Now every one of you who can remain that
long, can just as well get his supper, meet me at seven, and remain one hour or
two later. The judge has already informed you that he is to have an hour to
reply to me. I doubt not but you have been a little surprised to learn that I
have consented to give one of his high reputation and known ability this advantage
of me. Indeed, my consenting to it, though reluctant, was not wholly unselfish;
for I suspected if it were understood, that the Judge was entirely done, you demo-
crats would leave, and not hear me; but by giving him the close, I felt confident
that you would stay for the fun of hearing him skin me. The audience signified
their assent to the arrangement, and adjourned to 7 o'clock p. m., at which time
they re-assembled, and Mr. Lincoln spoke."

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 4?

An amusing story is told in Clark E. Carr's book on Douglas, showing Lin-
coln's ready wit. "When Senator Douglas made his first speech in Chicago," says
Carr, "in opening the great campaign in which Lincoln was pitted against him, Mr.
Lincoln was present and was invited to sit on the platform. On the evening be-
fore, the Common Council of Chicago had passed a resolution denouncing the 'Dred
Scott decision,' and Douglas called the Council to account for attempting to reverse
and override a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, saying that
it reminded him of the statement of an old friend who used to declare that if you
wish to get justice in a case you should take it to the Supreme Court of Illinois, and
from that court take an appeal to a Justice of the Peace. Lincoln's voice was
heard from behind the speaker, sotto voce, calling 'Judge! Judge! Judge!' The
Senator paused and turned around, and Lincoln said, 'Judge, that was when you
were on the Illinois Supreme bench.' So far from being put out by the interrup-
tion Judge Douglas repeated the joke of his 'friend Lincoln" to the audience."

JUDGE CARTER'S COMPARISON

A comparison between Lincoln and Douglas was made in an address by Judge
Carter in Evanston, May, 1911, which is a valuable contribution to this subject.
"Until the history-making debate of 1858," said Judge Carter, "Lincoln was little
known outside of this State, while Douglas was then the most prominent man in
either house of Congress. As Lincoln said in that debate, he was of world-wide
renown. His great reputation undoubtedly fixed the attention of the nation on that
extraordinary intellectual contest. At the opening of the debate Lincoln was
known and seen largely in the reflected light of his great rival. This debate,
however, made his candidacy for the presidency possible, and his own fame now
has almost completely eclipsed that of Douglas.

"The ordinary reader of history knows little of Douglas, except in association
with Lincoln as the latter's opponent in this great forensic contest, and as the
leading candidate against him for president. Considering the prominence and
brilliancy of Douglas during his life his place in history seems now almost pathetic.
These two men are most frequently compared, not so much because of their respec-
tive characters or ability, as from the fact that Lincoln was on the winning and
Douglas on the losing side of a great national struggle. While we all believe that
Lincoln was on the right side morally of the slavery question, it was most for-
tunate for his reputation and for the country that the time was then ripe for the
settlement of that problem. Douglas found himself with the receding tide, Lincoln
with the incoming. Without detracting in the slightest from the great ability and
ever growing and well deserved reputation of Lincoln a study of the lives of these
two men strongly emphasizes the truth of the old adage that 'Nothing succeeds
like success.' "

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS

Judge Carter, in the address just referred to, also remarked upon some personal
characteristics which will aid the reader to form a more complete and satisfactory
impression of these two great historical figures. "Both of these men in private life,"
said Judge Carter, "were above reproach; both of extraordinary ability, each very

48 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

different from the other. Lincoln was six feet four inches in height, weighed
about one hundred and eighty-three pounds, was well built in proportion, and
one of the strongest men physically of his time. Douglas was a trifle over five
feet four ; in his young manhood he weighed about one hundred pounds, but later in
life about one hundred and forty.

"Douglas was very popular, a 'hail fellow well met' with every one with whom
he associated. Doubtless in early life he was the more polished, as that term is
ordinarily used, of the two men. The statements, however, so often found that
Lincoln was awkward and ill at ease in society are largely exaggerations. Those
best qualified to judge state that he was at home wherever placed, whether in the
society of men or women ; that he was always the center of interest in any gathering.

"They were both self-made men, succeeding largely through their own unaided
exertions. Douglas had a little better opportunity for education, having gone prac-
tically through a high school course, while Lincoln's schooling was not more than
a year all told, and that taken at odd times. The practice of the legal profession
in their time was quite different from what it is now. There were but few libraries
of any size, either public or private, in the State. In Springfield there were not
over two or three that contained fifty volumes; in Chicago probably not more
than a half dozen that contained over one hundred volumes. The Revised Statutes
of Illinois, the Illinois Form Book, and a few elementary treatises constituted the
usual library of a lawyer in the smaller towns. Common sense, the gift of speech,
an aptitude for politics and regular attendance upon the courts in the circuit were
the chief requisites of success at the bar when Lincoln and Douglas began the
practice of law."

POLITICAL CONDITIONS

Briefly reviewing the political situation at this time the reader will recall that
Douglas was chosen Senator from Illinois for the first time in 1847, and was re-
elected in 1853. Thus his second term would expire in 1859, and he must seek a
new election from the Illinois legislature. While the state had been steadily Demo-
cratic up to this time, Douglas found himself obliged to enter the campaign of
1858 under peculiar and embarrassing circumstances. The plan for home rule in
Kansas, advocated by Douglas, was called by him, "Popular Sovereignty," and fre-
quently referred to by his opponents as "Squatter Sovereignty." While Kansas
was yet a territory, and seeking admission as a state, a so-called constitution was
adopted at Lecompton, but only pro-slavery men took part in its adoption. Al-
though this fact was known at Washington, President Buchanan had transmitted
it to Congress with his recommendation for its acceptance. Douglas, however, did
not coincide with the President, and plainly told him that the acceptance by Con-
gress of the "Lecompton Constitution" was not a fair test of popular sovereignty,
thus displaying a spirit of independence which was one of Douglas* traits of char-
acter, and goes far to redeem his otherwise pro-slavery predilections.

President Buchanan was much incensed with Senator Douglas on account of
the stand he had taken, and he warned him of his peril in adopting such a posi-
tion. Douglas replied, "Mr. President, Andrew Jackson is dead," implying that
the days of presidential dictation were past.

"The breach between Douglas and the administration," says Sparks, "was

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 49

reflected in the Democratic State Convention which met at Springfield, April 21,
1858. As soon as resolutions were introduced approving the course of Senator
Douglas, a considerable number of delegates withdrew from the convention and
formed a 'rump' assembly in another room. They were mostly from Chicago and
the northern part of the state. These 'bolters' called another convention which
met at Springfield, June 9th, nominated candidates, and adopted resolutions denounc-
ing Douglas and characterizing his opposition to the administration on the Le-
compton question as 'an act of overweening conceit.' "

The Chicago Times, in its issue of the 10th, said of this latter convention:
"It was a miserable farce." Out of one hundred counties there were forty-eight
represented, and "considering that the delegates were self-appointed, and that
offices under the federal government were promised to all who would attend, the
fact that in fifty-two counties there could not be found men mean enough to par-
ticipate in the proceedings, is a glorious tribute to the fidelity of the Democracy
of Illinois."

ADVANTAGES POSSESSED BY DOUGLAS

Although Douglas entered the canvass beset with difficulties, Lincoln was not
confident of placing the contest purely on the basis of merit. The federal patron-
age of the state was a weapon still in the hands of Douglas, and this advantage
was fully understood by his opponent. In one of his speeches Lincoln expressed
himself in these words: "Senator Douglas is of world-wide renown. All the anx-
ious politicians of his party, or who have been of his party for years past, have
been looking upon him as certainly, at no distant day, to be the president of the
United States. They have seen in his round, jolly, fruitful face, postoffices, land
offices, marshalships, and cabinet appointments, chargeships and foreign missions,
bursting and sprouting out in wonderful exuberance, ready to be laid hold of by
their greedy hands.

"And as they have been gazing upon this attractive picture so long, they can-
not, in the little distraction that has taken place in the party, bring themselves
to give up the charming hope; but with greedier anxiety they rush about him,
sustain him, and give him marches, triumphant entries, and receptions beyond
what even in the days of his highest prosperity they could have brought about in
his favor. On the contrary, nobody has ever expected me to be president. In my
poor, lean, lank face, nobody has ever seen that any cabbages were sprouting out.
These are disadvantages, all taken together, that the Republicans labor under.
We have to fight this battle upon principle, and upon principles alone."

POSSIBILITY OF OTHER CANDIDATES

There was a fear among the staunch friends of Lincoln that some other candi-
date might win recognition from the legislature, should it be found that the Repub-
licans had won the day in the fall elections. It was thought by many that some
man who had formerly been a Democrat, but had now joined the Republican party,
might be acceptable to a larger number of the members of the new legislature. Mr.
Lincoln, as was well known, was a "Henry Clay Whig" before he had become a
Republican. It was rumored that John Wentworth of Chicago was the real can-

50 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

didate in the minds of those Republicans who had formerly been Democrats, and
that Lincoln was to be used to lead the fight and make sure of the defeat of Doug-
las, upon which Wentworth could be taken up and elected to the Senatorship. A
St. Louis paper, as early as July, had mentioned the possibility, by drawing a
parallel between the present situation and that of two years before when Trum-
bull had been elected, for it had then been expected by Lincoln and his friends
that he would have been chosen.

Lincoln's prospects were further menaced by the danger, says Professor Sparks,
"that the Republicans of the state might deem it wise to lend their support to
Douglas, re-elect him to the Senate, and by his victory impair the chances of
Buchanan securing a second term. Greeley suggested that the Illinois senatorship
should be allowed to go to Douglas by default, and thus, by increasing the breach
between Douglas and Buchanan, prepare the way for the Republicans to carry the
state in 1860." But the enterprising men who composed the Cook County delega-
tion at the Springfield convention, supported as they were by the hearty and unani-
mous action of all the members of that convention, had put a quietus on any such
movement. The Republican enemies of "Long John" Wentworth apparently had
him in mind when they brought out the banner with the inscription referred to
above.

"The speech in which Lincoln acknowledged the courtesy of the convention,"
says Sparks, "was thought out in advance, and every sentence carefully weighed.
It marked the new lines upon which Lincoln proposed to argue the situation, and
which ultimately won success. Boldly casting aside the long prevalent idea that
the Union could be saved by compromise and by repressing agitation, Lincoln voiced
the new opinion in a slightly altered Scriptural quotation, 'A house divided .against
itself cannot stand.' (The exact language of the Bible is, 'And if a house be
divided against itself, that house cannot stand.') He declared that the government
could not endure permanently half slave and half free; it must become all one
thing or all the other."

Mr. Horace White was present when Mr. Lincoln delivered his famous speech
before the convention. In a letter quoted in Herndon's "Life of Lincoln," he
writes: "I was sent by my employers [the Chicago Press and Tribune] to Spring-
field to attend the Republican State Convention of that year. Again I sat at a
short distance from Mr. Lincoln when he delivered the 'House-divided-against-it-
self speech on the 17th of June. This was delivered from manuscript and was
the only one I ever heard him deliver in that way. When it was concluded he put
the manuscript in my hands, and asked me to go to the State Journal office and
read the proof of it. I think it had already been set in type. Before I had fin-
ished this task, Mr. Lincoln himself came into the composing room of the State
Journal and looked over the revised proofs. He said to me that he had taken a
great deal of pains with this speech, and that he wanted it to go before the people
just as he had prepared it. He added that some of his friends had scolded him
a good deal about the opening paragraph and the 'house divided against itself,'
and wanted him to change it or leave it out altogether, but that he believed lie
had studied this subject more deeply than they had. and that he was going to stick
to that text whatever happened."

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 51

EVENTS SUBSEQUENT TO THE DEBATES

While the debates were in progress Lincoln's friends began seriously to con-
sider him as an available candidate for the Presidency. Lincoln, however, dis-
couraged any such proposal, and said that he was not well enough known. "What
is the use of talking of me," he said, "whilst we have such men as Seward and
Chase, and everybody knows them, and scarcely anybody, outside of Illinois, knows
me? Besides, as a matter of justice, is it not due to them?"

A few days after the November election, the Chicago Democrat, of which "Long
John" Wentworth was the editor, came out strong in a eulogy of Lincoln, in an
editorial reviewing the work of the campaign. "His speeches," declared the Demo-
crat, "will be recognized for a long time to come as the standard authorities upon
those topics which overshadow all others in the political world of our day; and
oux children will read them and appreciate the great truths which they so forcibly
inculcate, with even a higher appreciation of their worth than their fathers pos-
sessed while listening to them.

"We, for our part, consider that it would be but a partial appreciation of his
services to our noble cause that our next State Republican Convention should
nominate him for governor as unanimously and enthusiastically as it did for senator.
With such a leader and with our just cause, we would sweep the state from end
to end, with a triumph so complete and perfect that there would be scarce enough
of the scattered and demoralized forces of the enemy left to tell the story of its
defeat. And this State should also present his name to the National Republican
Convention, first for President and next for Vice-President. We should then say
to the United States at large that in our opinion the Great Man of Illinois is
Abraham Lincoln, and none other than Abraham Lincoln."

A concerted plan was carefully laid out by the Republican State Committee
in the office of the Chicago Tribune, or as it. was at that time called, the Press and
Tribune. The country Republican papers were to propose Mr. Lincoln's name
for the presidential nomination, which was done. Early in 1860, the Press and
Tribune came out for Lincoln, which was followed by a letter from Mr. Joseph
Medill written from Washington, where he had spent some weeks "preaching Lin-
coln among the Congressmen." Medill wrote that he "heard Lincoln's name men-
tioned for President in Washington ten times as often as it was one month ago."
While Medill was writing thus Norman B. Judd, as a member of the Republican
National Committee, secured the convention for Chicago.

During the previous year Lincoln had quailed at the proposal of his name for
the presidency. He wrote one editor, "I must in all candor sajy I do not think
myself fit for the presidency." Late in 1859 and early in 1860, Lincoln became
convinced that whether he was fit or not he was in the field, and when asked for a
sketch of his life for the use of the Republican State Committee he complied by
sending a brief "Autobiography," with a few apologetic remarks. "There is not
much of it," he wrote, "for the reason, I suppose, that there is not much of me.
If anything be made out of it, I wish it to be modest, and not to go beyond the
material."

52 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

LINCOLN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY

A few quotations from the "Autobiography" referred to, which is contained
within the limits of one ordinary page of a printed volume, will be appropriate.
He says that he was born in Kentucky, from which state his father removed to
Indiana when he (Lincoln) was eight years old. Two years later his mother, whose
family name was Hanks, died. When twenty-one years of age young Lincoln came
to Illinois and took up his residence in Macon county. "When I came of age,"
he says, "I did not know much. Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher 'to
the rule of three,' but that was all. I have not been to school since. The little
advance I now have upon this store of education I have picked up from time to
time under the pressure of necessity."

He then gives a brief summary of his experience in the Black Hawk war, in
which he was a captain of volunteers, after which he became a member of the
Illinois legislature. "In 1846," he continues, "I was once elected to the lower
house of Congress. Was not a candidate for re-election. From 1849 to 1854,
both inclusive, practiced law more assiduously than ever before. Always s Whig
in politics ; and generally on the Whig electoral tickets, making active canvasses.
I was losing interest in politics when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused
me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known."

LINCOLN'S FINANCIAL CIRCUMSTANCES

After the Lincoln-Douglas debates had taken place the subject of expenses came
up in the Republican State Committee, and the chairman wrote to Mr. Lincoln
regarding them. His reply throws light on the state of his own affairs. "I have
been on expense so long, without earning anything," he writes, "that I am abso-
lutely without money now to pay for even household expenses. Still, if you can
put in two hundred and fifty dollars for me towards discharging the debt of the
Committee, I will allow it when you and I settle the private matter between us.
This, with what I have already paid with an outstanding note of mine, will exceed
my subscription of five hundred dollars. This, too, is exclusive of my ordinary
expenses during the campaign, all of which being added to my loss of time and
business, bears pretty heavily upon one no better off than. I am." This was ad-
dressed to Norman B. Judd.

At this time he owned the house and lot where he lived in Springfield, and his
income from his profession did not exceed three thousand dollars per year. Arnold
says "he was not then worth over ten or fifteen thousand dollars altogether."

While in New York during the day on the evening of which he made his ad-
dress at the Cooper Institute, he met an old acquaintance from Illinois, whom he
addressed with an inquiry as to how he had fared since leaving the West. "I
have made a hundred thousand dollars, and lost all," was the reply. He then
asked, "How is it with you, Mr. Lincoln?" "Oh, very well," said he, "I have
the cottage at Springfield, and about eight thousand dollars in money. If they
make me vice-president with Seward, as some say they will, I hope I shall be
able to increase it to twenty thousand; and that is as much as any man ought to
want."

CHAPTER XXIV

PUBLIC LIFE OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DOUGLAS BOYHOOD IN VERMONT JOURNEY TO THE WEST

ARRIVES IN ILLINOIS TEACHES A COUNTRY SCHOOL ENGAGES IN A POLITICAL,

DEBATE ENTERS UPON PRACTICE OF LAW APPOINTED STATED ATTORNEY

ELECTED TO THE LEGISLATURE HIS VOTE ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS JUDGE

CARTER'S ADDRESS ON DOUGLAS DOUGLAS APPOINTED TO THE SUPREME BENCH

HIS CAREER AS A SUPREME JUDGE DOUGLAS ELECTED TO CONGRESS BECOMES U.

s. SENATOR CARR'S ESTIMATE OF DOUGLAS AMBITION TO BECOME PRESIDENT

HIS COURSE AFTER LINCOLN'S ELECTION HIS UNION SPEECH AT THE WIGWAM

COUNSELS RESISTANCE TO SECESSION CONDEMNS DISUNION THRILLING EFFECTS

OF THE SPEECH HIS DEATH AT THE TREMONT HOUSE JUDGE CARTER'S COMMENTS

ON DOUGLAS COMPARISON BETWEEN LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS MRS. DOUGLAS DE-
CLINES OFFER TO TAKE HER CHILDREN SOUTH LAST RESTING PLACE OF DOUGLAS.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS

N a small blank book found among the private papers of Senator Douglas
was written an account of his own life. The oldest son of Mr. Douglas,
Judge Robert M. Douglas, of Greensboro, North Carolina, sent a
transcript of this autobiography, in 1908, to a friend residing in Evans-
ton. In a note accompanying the transcript Judge Douglas savs: "It
is in his own handwriting, hastily written and evidently never revised or con-
tinued. It is dated September 1, 1838, when he was only twenty-five years of
age, and does not extend beyond his service in the Legislature. It was evidently
never intended for publication but may now have some public interest as the candid
statement of the boyhood and early manhood of a young man who had bravely
and successfully faced life's battle ; and who was writing frankly purely for his
own future information, and at a time when the circumstances were yet fresh in
his mind. Autobiographies are generally carefully written in old age when the
circumstances of early youth have grown dim, and perhaps unconsciously colored
by the struggles and experiences of after life."

As will be observed Douglas even at that time in his life was possessed of a
good style and narrates the events of his early life in excellent and straightfor-
ward language. "I, this day," he writes, "commence this memorandum or jour-
nal of passing events for the purpose of refreshing my mind in future upon sub-
jects that might otherwise be forgotten. It may be well to turn my attention to
the past as well as to the future, and record such facts as are within my recollec-
tion or have come to my knowledge, and may be interesting or useful to myself
or others hereafter."

54 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

He relates that he was born in Vermont on the 23d day of April, 1813. He
was named after his father, Dr. Stephen A. Douglas, a physician by profession, a
graduate of Middlebury College, who died when he was but two months old. His
mother took her child and went to live with a brother who had no family of his
own, and where young Stephen reached the age of fifteen living the life of a farmer's
boy. He was provided with a good common school education, but became anxious
for a more independent position than he then occupied, and so determined upon
leaving home and finding employment "in the wide world among strangers."

Accordingly he left his mother and uncle and engaged to learn the cabinet
making trade with one Nahum Parker who had a shop at Middlebury. "I have
never," he says, "been placed in any situation or been engaged in any business
which I enjoyed to so great an extent as the cabinet shop. I then felt contented
and happy, and never aspired to any other distinction than that connected with
my trade." But a change gradually took place. "Towards the end of the year,"
he continues, "I became dissatisfied with my employer in consequence of his in-
sisting upon my performing some menial services in the house." This resulted in
his leaving his place and returning to his uncle's. Soon after, however, he ob-
tained employment in another cabinet shop where he remained another year.

Young Douglas had developed a fondness for reading as he grew older, his
interest being especially engaged with works of political writers. Even at this
time he had become a strong adherent and supporter of Andrew Jackson, and
remained throughout his life a believer and admirer of "Old Hickory." He says
that from this moment his politics became fixed, and all subsequent reading and re-
flection and observation confirmed his early attachment to the cause of Democracy.
His health failed him at length and he was obliged to give up his situation.

He commenced now to attend the Academy in his native town, but his mother
having married a man living in New York state, he followed her to her new home.
He then became a student in the Academy at Canandaigua and devoted himself zeal-
ously to the study of Greek and Latin, Mathematics and so forth. When he was
twenty years old he left the Academy and entered a law office as a student, thus
at last making a beginning in the profession in which he ultimately won distinc-
tion and renown.

"I pursued my law studies diligently five days in the week," he writes, "and
the sixth I spent in reviewing my classical studies, until some time in the month
of June in that year (1833). Finding myself in straitened pecuniary circumstances,
and knowing my mother's inability to support me through a regular course of law
studies, which would continue about four years longer according to the statutes of
New York requiring a course of seven years' classical and legal study before ad-
mission to the Bar, I determined upon removing to the Western country and rely
ing upon my own efforts for a support henceforth. My mother and relatives re-
monstrated, urging that I was too young and inexperienced for such an adventure;
but finding my resolution fixed and unchangeable, they reluctantly consented, and
kindly furnished me with three hundred dollars, the last of my patrimony, with
which to pay my expenses.

"On the 24th of June, 1833 (being twenty years of age), I bid farewell to my
friends, and started alone for the 'great West,' without having any particular place
of destination in view." Arriving at Cleveland he presented some letters of in-

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 55

troduction and was well received. Entering a law office at this place it then seemed
that his career was fairly inaugurated. But an attack of fever unfortunately kept
him confined to the house for some months, and after his recovery he determined to
leave the place and push on farther west. His fortune was now reduced to but
forty dollars, and by the time he had reached St. Louis by way of the Ohio river
he was nearly at the end of his resources. He found that he must immediately
engage in some employment which would defray his expenses, or go to some place
not far distant where he could do so.

"My first effort," he continues "was to obtain a situation in some law office
in the city where I could write and perform office labor sufficient to pay my ex-
penses, and during the rest of the time pursue my law studies." But in this he
was unsuccessful, and soon after he left the city. We now see the future states-
man on the threshold of his residence in the state of his adoption and the arena
of his nation-wide fame. His first point of arrival was at Jacksonville, Illinois,
where he found himself with one dollar and twenty-five cents in his pocket. "One
of my first acquaintances at Jacksonville," he says, "was Murray McConnell. Esq.,
a lawyer of some reputation, who advised me to go to Pekin on the Illinois river
and open a law office. I informed him that I had never practiced law, had rot
yet procured my license, nor had I any library. He informed me that he would
furnish me with a few books, such as I would stand in need of immediately, and
wait for the pay until I was able to pay him, and did so to the amount of thirty
dollars' worth, which I received and subsequently paid him for. He told me that
a license was a matter of no consequence, that I could get one at any time I desired
to do so. I concluded to take his advice, and consequently packed up my things
and went to Meredosia on the Illinois river to take a steamboat to Pekin.

"Arriving at the river, I waited one week for a steamboat, and then I learned
that the only boat which was expected up the river that season had blown up at
Alton, and consequently there would be no boat until the next spring. Wh.-it was
now to be done? After paying my bill at the tavern I had but fifty cents left. I
could find nothing to do there, and had no money to get away with. Something
must be done, and that soon. I inquired as to the prospect of getting a school, and
was told by a farmer residing in the country a few miles that he thought I could
obtain one at Exeter, about ten miles distant; and if I would go home with him that
night, he would go to Exeter with me the next day. I accepted his invitation, left
my trunk at Meredosia, rode behind the farmer on the same horse to his home, and
the next day we both went to Exeter.

"He introduced me to several citizens who were very polite and kind; but did
not think a school could be obtained there; but if I would go to Winchester, eight
or ten miles further, they had no doubt I would succeed in obtaining one.
I therefore determined to go to Winchester and make another effort. Accordingly
I parted with my friend, the kind-hearted, hospitable farmer, and taking my cloak
on my arm, went to Winchester on foot that night. Arriving in the town, I went
to the only tavern in the place, introduced myself to the landlord and told him I
wished to stop a few days with him, to which he readily assented. The landlord
introduced me to the citizens generally, who seemed pleased with the idea of a
new school in their little town, and in a few days obtained for me a subscription
list of about forty scholars.

56 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

"In the meantime there was on the second day after my arrival, an administra-
tor's sale, at which all the personal property of a dead man's estate was to be
disposed of at auction, and the Administrator applied to me to be clerk at the
auction, make out the sale bills, draw the notes, and so forth ; which I very cheer-
fully consented to do and performed the duty in the best style I knew how, and re-
ceived five dollars for two days' labor therein. About the first of December I
commenced my school, and closed it about the first of March, having during the
whole time a goodly number of scholars, and giving as I believe general satisfac-
tion to both scholars and parents. During this period I attended to considerable
law business before justices of the peace, and formed an extensive acquaintance
with the people in that part of the county. There was considerable political ex-
citement growing out of the veto of the United States bank and the removal of the
deposits by General Jackson, or rather the removal of the Secretary of the Treas-
ury because he would not remove the deposits, and the appointment of Mr. Taney
in his place, who did remove them from the vaults of the United States Bank.

"One evening at the Lyceum, Mr. - , a lawyer of some distinction from
Jacksonville, made a speech denouncing the leading measures of General Jackson's
administration, and especially the veto and removal of the deposits. He character-
ized the first of these acts as arbitrary and tyrannical, and the last as dangerous
and unconstitutional. Being a great admirer of General Jackson's public and
political character and a warm supporter of the principles of his administration,
I could not remain silent when the old hero's character, public and private, was
traduced and his measures misrepresented and denounced. I was then familiar
with all the principles, measures and facts involved in the controversy, having been
an attentive reader of the debates in Congress and the principal newspapers of the
day, and having read also with great interest, the principal works in this country;
such as the debates in the convention that formed the Constitution of the United
States, and the convention of the several states on the adoption of the Constitu-
tion; the Federalist, John Adams's work denominated 'A Defense of the Amer-
ican Constitution,' the opinions of Randolph, Hamilton and Jefferson on the con-
stitutionality of the Bank, and the history of the Bank as published by Gales &
Seaton, Jefferson's Works, and so forth. I had read all of them and many other
political works with great care and interest, and had my political opinions firmly
established. I engaged in the debate with a good deal of zeal and warmth, and
defended the administration of General Jackson and the cause of the Democratic
party in a manner which appeared highly gratifying to my political friends, and
which certainly gave me some little reputation as a public speaker ; much more
than I deserved.

"When the first quarter of my school expired I settled my accounts, and find-
ing that I had made enough to pay my expenses, I determined to remove to Jack-
sonville, the county seat of the same (Morgan) county, and commence the practice
of the law. In the month of March, I applied to the Hon. Samuel D. Lockwood,
one of the Justices of the Supreme Court, and after a short examination, obtained
a license, and immediately opened my office, being then less than twenty-one years
of age. During the first week of my residence at Jacksonville some members of
the Whig (alias the Federal) party called a county meeting, and made speeches
and passed resolutions denouncing the administration in the severest terms, and

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 57

more especially in relation to the Bank and currency question. The next week the
Democrats called a meeting, one of the most numerous and spirited I have ever
witnessed in that county. It was composed principally of farmers and mechanics,
men who are honest in their political sentiments and feel a deep interest in the
proper administration of the public affairs, although but few of them are ac-
customed to public discussion.

"It so happened that at that time out of twelve members of the bar there was
not a Democrat among them. This meeting I attended, and at the earnest solicita-
tion of my political friends (for personal friends I had not then had time to
form) I consented to make a speech. The excitement was intense, and I was rather
severe in my remarks upon the opposition ; so much so as to excite the bitter hostility
of the whole of that party, and of course the warm support of my own party. The
next week the Patriot, the organ of the opposition, printed and published by James
G. Edwards, Esq., devoted two entire columns of that paper to me and my speech,
and continued the same course for two or three successive weeks. The necessary
consequence was that I immediately became known to every man in the county, and
was placed in such a situation as to be supported by one party and opposed by the
other. This notoriety acquired by accident and founded on no peculiar merit,
proved highly serviceable to me in my profession; for within one week thereafter
I received for collection demands to the amount of thousands of dollars from per-
sons I had never seen or heard of, and who would not probably have known that
such a person as myself was in existence but for the attacks upon me in the opposi-
tion papers.

"So essential was the service thus rendered to me by my opponents that I have
sometimes doubted whether I was not morally bound to pay the editor for his
abuse according to the usual prices of advertisements. This incident illustrates a
principle which it is important for men of the world, and especially politicians, to
bear in mind. How foolish, how impolitic, the indiscriminate abuse of political
opponents whose humble condition or insignificance prevents the possibility of
injury, and who may be greatly benefited by the notoriety thus acquired! I firmly
believe this is one of the frequent and great errors committed by the political
editors of the present day. Indeed, I sincerely doubt whether I owe most to the
kind and efficient support of my friends, and no man similarly situated ever had
better and truer friends, or to the violent, reckless and imprudent opposition of
my enemies. Certain I am that without both of those causes united, I never
could have succeeded as well as I have done. But I must forbear, for I find that
I am philosophizing, which is far from my present purpose.

"During the summer of 1834, my time was about equally divided between law
and politics, reading and practicing the one and preaching the other. There was
a general election pending for governor, congressman and members of the legisla-
ture, in which I felt no special interest and took no active part. I supported the
Democratic candidate; William Kinney for governor against General Joseph Dun-
can, and William L. May for congress against Benjamin Mills, and the Democratic
ticket for the legislature in my own county. We lost our governor, elected our
congressman, and a part of our legislative ticket.

"At this time John J. Hardin, Esq. (now General Hardin), held the office of
State's Attorney under an appointment from Governor Reynolds, which then had

58 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

two years to run. He had procured this appointment through the aid and influence
of Colonel James Evans, Colonel William Weatherford, Captain John Wyatt, and
other leading Democrats, every one of whom he opposed at the next election after
the appointment. Captain Wyatt was the only one of them who succeeded in his
election, and was so indignant at Hardin for what he called his ingratitude, that
he determined upon removing him from office at all hazards.

"The opposition having succeeded in electing their governor, there was no hope
from that quarter; and the only resort left was to repeal the law conferring the
appointment upon the governor, and make the office elective by the legislature.
At the request of Captain Wyatt I wrote the bill, and on the second day of the
session of the legislature which commenced on the first Monday in December, 1834,
he introduced his bill, and also another bill written by myself making the County
Recorder's election by the people, instead of being appointed by the governor. I
felt no peculiar interest in these bills any further than I thought them correct in
principle, and desired to see them pass because my friends warmly supported them.

"Both the bills were violently opposed by the Opposition (alias Federal) party,
and advocated by a large majority of the Democrats, and they finally passed by a
small majority. When sent to the Council of Revision (composed of the governor
and judges of the Supreme Court) for approval, they were both vetoed, the former
as unconstitutional, and the latter because it was inexpedient. Then came a des-
perate struggle between the friends and opponents of the bills, and especially the
State's Attorney bill. The opposition charged that its only object was to repeal
Hardin out of office in order to elect myself in his place, and that the whole move-
ment had its origin in Wyatt's malice and my selfishness and ambition.

"I will here remark, and most solemnly aver to be true, that up to the time this
charge was made against me, I never had conceived the idea of being a candidate
for the office, nor had any friend suggested or hinted to me that I could or ought
to receive it. But from that moment forward the friends of the bill declared, that
in the event they passed the bill over the heads of the Council, I should be elected
to the office. At this time I did not desire to be a candidate, for I had no reason
to suppose I could be elected over so formidable an opponent, a man who had been
for a long time a resident of the state, had fought in the Black Hawk war, and
was well acquainted with the members. My short residence in the state, want of
acquaintance and experience in my profession, and my age (being only twenty-
one years old) I considered insuperable objections. My friends, however, thought
differently, passed the bill, and elected me on the first ballot by four votes majority.

"I will here remark that although I wrote this bill and reaped first fruits un-
der it, and was inclined at that time to think it was correct in principle and ought
to become a law,, yet subsequent experience, observation and reflection have con-
vinced me of my error; and I now believe that all legislative elections ought to
be abolished, and the officers either appointed by the Governor and Senate, or
elected by the people. In this remark I do not mean to include clerks of our courts
whose appointments, I am inclined to think, ought to be vested in the Judges.

"Immediately upon my election as State's Attorney I procured all the standard
works upon criminal law within my reach, such as Archbold, Chitty, Roscoe, Mc-
Nally, Hale's "Pleas of the Crown," and so forth, and devoted myself to the study
of them with a determination of making myself master of that branch of my pro-

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 59

fession. My official duties being exclusively within the line of my profession, I
now applied myself assiduously to study and practice. How far I succeeded in
this I must leave to others who are more impartial judges than myself to decide.

"An amusing circumstance occurred in McLean county at the first court after
my election as prosecuting attorney. The grand jury had found a large num-
ber of indictments for different offenses, and I had been engaged all night in
writing them, in great haste, in order to discharge the grand jury and enable them
to return to their families. After the grand jurors were discharged John T. Stuart,
Esq., came into court and moved to quash all the indictments, although he had been
employed in but a small number of the cases. He stated his reasons for quash-
ing the indictments, which were that they were presented by the 'grand jurors in
and for the county of McClean, when in fact there was no such county as "McClean,"
the true name of the county being McLean.'

"The manner of making this motion was very pompous and accompanied with
some rather contemptuous remarks imputing ignorance to the writer of the indict-
ments. Contrasting my youth and inexperience with the long practice and reputa-
tion of the opposing counsel, I considered his conduct extremely ungenerous, and
especially in a county where he was well acquainted with the people and I was
an entire stranger. The moment the motion to quash was made and the objection
was pointed out, it struck my mind as being fatal to all the indictments, and had
it been done in a respectful and courteous manner, I should have made no objec-
tion to the indictments being quashed. When the Judge (Stephen T. Logan), asked
me if I had anything to say in support of the indictments, I told him I did not
consider it necessary as yet to say anything; Mr. Stuart having made the motion
and having the affirmative of the question, the burden of proof rested upon him;
that I presumed the court would not take official notice that I had not spelled the
name of the county right until some evidence had been adduced to sustain the
motion, and when such evidence should be produced, it would then be time enough
for me to rebut such evidence.

"The court decided that it could not officially take notice of the precise mode
of spelling the name of the county, and gave Mr. Stuart time to procure the
statute creating and naming the county. My object was now accomplished, know-
ing there was none of the statutes to be found in the county, and that it would
require a good deal of traveling, trouble and expense to procure one, which would
sufficiently rebuke the gentleman's insolence; but not doubting that when the statute
was produced it would show that the defect in the indictments . was fatal, and they
ought to be quashed.

"After a lapse of two days the statutes were procured from an adjoining county,
and produced and read to the court by Mr. Stuart, when to his astonishment, and
I will say to the astonishment of myself and the whole Bar, it appeared that the
name of the county in the indictments was right, and that the learned gentleman
did not know how to spell the name of the county he had practiced in for years.
It turned the joke upon him so completely, and excited so much mirth and humor
at his expense, that he could not conceal his chagrin and mortification. The in-
dictments were all sustained by the court, much to my gratification. Some time
afterwards I took the pains to compare this printed statute with the enrolled bill

60 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

in the office of the Secretary of State, and found there was a misprint, the true
name of the county being McLean.

"This small incident, although of no consequence of itself, has been an instruc-
tive lesson to me in the practice of law ever since, to- wit: Admit nothing, and
require my adversary to prove everything material to the success of his cause.
Every lawyer's experience teaches him that many good causes are saved and bad
causes gained by a strict observance of this rule. During the time I held the
office of State's Attorney, I conducted many important criminal prosecutions, and
as far as I have been able to learn, acquitted myself in a manner satisfactory
to my friends and the public generally.

In August, 1836, I was elected to the legislature from the County of Morgan.
The contest was a very spirited one, conducted almost solely upon National politics
and party grounds. Each party ran a full ticket and strove to elect the whole
ticket, The stump speeches were made principally by General John J. Hardin on
behalf of the Whig ticket, and myself in support of the Democratic ticket. The
contest resulted in the election of five Democrats and one Whig, General Hardin.

"On the first Monday of December, 1836, I resigned my office of State's At-
torney and took my seat in the legislature. It was during this session that Illi-
nois embarked in her mammoth system of internal improvements. Before the
election I had announced myself in favor of a general system of internal improve-
ments, and was really anxious to see one of reasonable extent and expense adopted ;
but never for a moment dreamt of anyone's advocating such a wild and extravagant
scheme as the one which was finally adopted.

"When I learned the nature and extent of the bill which the Committee of
Internal Improvements was maturing, I attempted to arrest it by intro-
ducing resolutions by way of instructions (See House Journal of 1836-7, Page 36)
setting forth the kind and extent of a system I thought ought to be adopted. My
resolutions proposed, 1st. To finish the Illinois & Michigan Canal; :2d. To con-
struct a railroad from the termination of the canal to the south of the Ohio River;
3d. To make a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Wabash to connect with
the Wabash & Erie Canal.

"I was willing and anxious to make these three works on the faith of the
state; but was unwilling to go further. I believed the canal to be an important
State and National work, which would be useful to the government and people.
I entertained doubts whether the plan of construction adopted by the commis-
sioner was the best one that could be pursued, but rather than hazard the success
of the work by differences of opinions as to the best manner of doing it, I deter-
mined to support and did support the bill which passed that session. In fact the
bill passed that session was a compromise bill written by myself and introduced
by Captain Joseph Napier of Cook Count}', from a committee of which we were
both members.

"But to return to the Internal Improvements System; when it was ascertained
from my conversation, speeches, and resolutions that I would oppose the mammoth
bill, its friends procured me to be instructed by constituents to go for it. It must
be remembered that at that day the people were for the system almost en masse.
So strong was the current of popular feeling in its favor that it was hazardous for
any politician to oppose it. Under those circumstances it was easy to obtain in-

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 61

structions in favor of a measure so universally popular, and accordingly the friends
of the bill got up instructions, which, from my known sentiments in favor of the
doctrine of instruction, I did not feel myself at liberty to disobey. I accordingly
voted for the bill under these instructions. That vote was the vote of my con-
stituents and not my own. My own sentiments upon this subject are found re-
corded in the resolutions above referred to. If a limited and reasonable system,
such as I proposed, had been adopted, instead of the one which did pass, I have no
doubt it would have been entirely completed at this time, would be useful to the
state and sustained by the people.

"There was another question which excited much interest during that session.
Immense numbers of applications were made for charters of all kinds and descrip-
tions railroads, canals, insurance companies, hotel companies, steam mill com-
panies, and so forth. I first attempted to arrest this whole system of legislation
as unjust, impolitic and unwise. Failing in this I next attempted to cripple it by
inserting in each charter a clause 'reserving the right to alter, amend or repeal this
act whenever the public good shall require it.' "

The Autobiography, thus quoted from, is abruptly terminated at this point.
In the same year that it was written, namely, in 1838, Mr. Douglas made a visit
to Chicago. His first speech in this city was made at that time in the "Saloon
Building," at the southeast corner of Lake and Clark streets, where courts, public
meetings, balls, etc., were held. "It was there," says John Wentworth in one of
his historical addresses, "where Stephen A. Douglas and John T. Stuart, candidates
for Congress, had a public discussion in 1838."

HIGH LIGHTS IN THE CAREER OF DOUGLAS

The unusually interesting comments made by Judge Carter, whose address on
"Lincoln and Douglas as Lawyers" has already been referred to, have a special
value in obtaining a clear impression of this remarkable man. "Douglas spent
much of his time in politics," says Carter. "For that matter all lawyers at that
time in this state who were at all gifted along that line did the same thing. Be-
cause of his ability on the 'stump' he was persuaded to run for the legislature in
1836, and resigned as State's Attorney. Before the close of that session of the
legislature he was appointed as Registrar of the Land Office.

"The capital had previously been changed from Vandalia to Springfield, and
Douglas at once moved to the latter place to perform the duties of his new office
which was quite remunerative. He resigned this office in 1838 to accept the
leadership of what appeared to be a forlorn hope, an election to Congress. John
T. Stuart, a new partner of Lincoln, was his opponent. The district included
about two-thirds of the State, all of the northern part. He was defeated on
the face of the returns by five votes, his friends insisting that if the ballots had
been correctly counted he would have been elected.

"Douglas, disgusted with the result, announced publicly that thereafter he
would eschew politics and give himself entirely to the practice of his profession.
Until 1841, he did give much of his attention to law, but he was too much of a
politician to keep out of public life. He practically had charge of the Democratic
campaign for president in 1810, and largely through his efforts the state was saved

62 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

to Van Buren, the rest of the Middle West being carried for William Henry
Harrison.

"There can be no doubt that during the two years that he rode circuit, as did
Mr. Lincoln for many years thereafter, he established a name for himself as a
successful lawyer. He appeared as counsel in six cases in the Supreme Court
of the State from 1834 to 1839. The opinions in those cases are found in volume
2 of the Supreme Court reports. In all of them Douglas was successful. In the
first case he was associated as counsel with John D. Caton, who afterwards served
for many years on the Supreme .Bench."

DOUGLAS APPOINTED A JUDGE ON THE SUPREME BENCH

In the early part of 1841, "a law was passed reorganizing the judiciary of the
State, abolishing the circuit courts, increasing the membership of the Supreme Court
from four to nine, requiring Supreme Court Judges not only to attend to Supreme
Court duties, but as individual members of the court to hold circuit court in
the various circuits. The Legislature appointed to these five new places on the
Supreme Bench Thomas Ford, the next year elected governor, Walter B. Scates, for
many years after leaving the bench one of the prominent lawyers of Illinois, Sam-
uel H. Treat, afterward United States Federal Judge, Sidney Breese, one of the
most noted judges of this State, and Stephen A. Douglas."

Thus Douglas became a member of the highest court of the State when he
was yet under twenty-eight years of age, and "less than seven years from the
time he had come here a friendless adventurer." In his busy career he had not
been able to devote much time to study or investigation, but while on the bench
an opportunity was afforded him to become well grounded in the fundamental prin-
ciples of the law. During the time that he was a Supreme Court judge he wrote
twenty-two opinions. "There was little in any of these cases," says Judge Carter,
"that tested his capacity as a judge; enough, however, to justify the conclusion
that had he given his life unreservedly to the legal profession he would have been
known as an eminent lawyer and judge.

"In view of his subsequent connection with the slavery question it is interesting
to note that he was a member of the Supreme Court of Illinois when a majority
of that court of his own political faith held in a case in which Shields and Trumbull
were opposing counsel, Judge Scates writing the opinion, that the presumption of
law in this State was in favor of liberty and every person was supposed to be free
without regard to color. Douglas, while on the Bench, wrote an opinion as to
the adoption of the common law in this country, which has been frequently referred
to with approval in other decisions. In it he said: 'The common law is a beau-
tiful system, containing the wisdom and experience of the ages. Like the people
it ruled and protected it was simple and crude in its infancy, and became enlarged,
improved and polished as the nation advanced in civilization, virtue and intelligence.
Adapting itself to the condition and circumstances of the people, and relying upon
them for its administration, it necessarily improved as the condition of the people
was elevated. . . . The inhabitants of this country always claimed the com-
mon law as their birthright, and at an early period established it as the basis of
their jurisprudence.' "

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 63

DOUGLAS ENTERS NATIONAL POLITICS

"Douglas resigned as judge of the Supreme Court to run for Congress in
June, 1843, after serving two years and a little over three months on that bench;
he was elected representative and twice re-elected; shortly after his third election
the Legislature of Illinois elected him to the United States Senate, and he served
as a member of that body until his death. ... A public prosecutor before he
was twenty-two, leading counsel in some of the most important cases heard in
the state during the next few years, a Supreme Court judge at twenty-seven, Doug-
las' career at the Illinois bar has few parallels for brilliancy in the annals of
history."

CLARK E. CARR'S ESTIMATE OF DOUGLAS

Stephen A. Douglas was too broad a man to be judged solely by the part taken
by him in the events the recital of which we have given in a preceding chapter.
Even the course he pursued during the exciting week in Chicago in the fall of
1850, and the false doctrines he advocated on many occasions afterwards, or even
the debates with Lincoln in 1858, do not afford sufficient ground for an unfavorable
verdict upon his character and public services. Eventually Douglas showed him-
self to have the true spirit of a patriot, and hesitated not to sacrifice himself and
his political standing with his Southern friends, when it became apparent to him,
as it did at length, that such was his duty.

The reader who wishes to understand the character of Douglas may profitably
peruse the volume by Hon. Clark E. Carr, published in 1909, in which the career
of Douglas is fully set forth and its results estimated. In view of the fact that
he was at one time the champion of a losing cause, the author feels that "his
nobility and purity of character, his sublime patriotism and transcendent abilities,
have not been appreciated as they deserve to be." The grandeur of the character
and achievements of Lincoln "became so exalted as to overshadow, for a time, the
work of the great senator ; but the patriotic people of America," says Carr, "should
never forget the public services of Senator Douglas. Great as is the fame of Mr.
Lincoln, it may be doubted whether his name would ever have been known to any
considerable degree beyond the limits of the State of Illinois, but for his proving
himself to be able to meet and successfully cope with the senator in what are
known as 'The Lincoln-Douglas debates,' and it may also be doubted whether Presi-
dent Lincoln could have been successful in the mighty work of maintaining the
integrity of the Nation but for the timely support of Senator Douglas."

"No man of his time," writes the author of "Bygone Days," "had so many
personal friends and so many bitter political enemies as Stephen A. Douglas. The
former regarded him almost in the light of a prophet, and under his banner would
have undertaken any crusade it might have entered his head to preach. The latter
. . . went quite to the other extreme, and regarded the inventor of 'Squatter
Sovereignty' in the light of a Judas or Beelzebub, devoid of a single pure motive."

It was Douglas' ambition to become the president of the United States, but it
is to his glory and honor that when the peril of disunion was clearly perceived he
came to the support of his great opponent, and uttered words of patriotic loyalty
to the Union. Himself a defeated candidate, he called on Mr. Lincoln, just after

64 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

Fort Sumter had been fired on, and pledged his most earnest and active coopera-
tion toward putting down the rebellion. He sent a telegram to his supporters in
Illinois calling upon them to come forward and help save the Union. "There is no
better illustration," says Carr, "of the potentiality of Douglas with the rank and
file of his party than that presented by the most southern of the Illinois con-
gressional districts, known as 'Egypt,' a district which, in the Presidential election,
had given Douglas nearly twenty thousand majority over Lincoln. It was said
that that district furnished to the Union army more men, in proportion to popula-
tion, than any other district in the United States."

THE LAST PUBLIC SPEECH OF SENATOR DOUGLAS

The following report of the last public speech made by Senator Douglas at
the Wigwam in Chicago, where Mr. Lincoln had been nominated for the presi-
dency less than a year before, is here inserted. It is due to the memory of Douglas
to make a record of the sentiments he expressed in such positive terms on that oc-
casion; and the speech itself, delivered a month before his dying day, is an elo-
quent appeal to the people to stand by the Union then threatened with dissolu-
tion. The report is taken from the New York Tribune of June 13th, 1861, and is
as follows:

"Senator Douglas and his wife reached Chicago, 111., on their return from
Washington, on the evening of the 1st day of May, and were met at the depot
by an immense assemblage of citizens of all parties, who insisted on escorting Mr.
Douglas in procession to the great Wigwam, which was already packed with ten
thousand persons. Room having been made for the admission of Mr. Douglas, he
was addressed by Thomas B. Bryan, in behalf of Chicago. Mr. Douglas replied:

"Mr. Chairman: I thank you for the kind terms in which you have been
pleased to welcome me. I thank the Committee and citizens of Chicago for this
grand and imposing reception. I beg you to believe that I will not do you nor
myself the injustice to believe this magnificent ovation is personal homage to my-
self. I rejoice to know that it expresses your devotion to the Constitution, the
Union, and the flag of our country.

"I will not conceal my gratification at the uncontrovertible test this vast audi-
ence presents that what political differences or party questions may have divided
us, yet you all had a conviction that when the country should be in danger, my
loyalty could be relied on. That the present danger is imminent, no man can con-
ceal. If war must come if the bayonet must be used to maintain the Constitu-
tion I can say before God my conscience is clean. I have struggled long for a
peaceful solution of the difficulty. I have not only tendered those States what was
theirs of right, but I have gone to the very extreme of magnanimity.

"The return we receive is war, armies marched upon our capital, obstructions
and dangers to our navigation, letters of marque to invite pirates to prey upon our
commerce, a concerted movement to blot out the United States of America from
the map of the globe. The question is, Are we to maintain the country of our
fathers, or allow it to be stricken down by those who, when they can no longer
govern, threaten to destroy?

"What cause, what excuse do disunionists give us for breaking up the best
Government on which the sun of heaven ever shed its ravs? They are dissatisfied

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 65

with the result of a Presidential election. Did they never get beaten before? Are
we to resort to the sword when we get defeated at the ballot-box? I understand it
that the voice of the people expressed in the mode appointed by the Constitution
must command the obedience of every citizen. They assume, on the election of a
particular candidate, that their rights are not safe in the Union. What evidence
do they present of this? I defy any man to show any act on which it is based.
What act has been omitted to be done? I appeal to these assembled thousands
that so far as the constitutional rights of the Southern States, I will say the con-
stitutional rights of slaveholders, are concerned, nothing has been done, and noth-
ing omitted, of which they can complain.

"There has never been a time from the day that Washington was inaugurated
first President of these United States, when the rights of the Southern States stood
firmer under the laws of the land than they do now; there never was a time when
they had not as good a cause for disunion as they have today. What good cause
have they now that has not existed under every Administration?

"If they say the Territorial question now, for the first time, there is no act
of Congress prohibiting slavery anywhere. If it be the non-enforcement of the
laws, the only complaints that I have heard have been of the too vigorous and
faithful fulfillment of the Fugitive Slave Law. Then what reason have they?

"The slavery question is a mere excuse. The election of Lincoln is a mere pre-
text. The present secession movement is the result of an enormous conspiracy
formed more than a year since, formed by leaders in the Southern Confederacy
more than twelve months ago.

"They use the Slavery question as a means to aid the accomplishment of their
ends. They desired the election of a Northern candidate, by a sectional vote, in
order to show that the two sections cannot live together. When the history of the
two years from the Lecompton charter down to the Presidential election shall be
written, it will be shown that the scheme was deliberately made to break up this
Union.

"They desired a Northern Republican to be elected by a purely Northern vote,
and then assign this fact as a reason why the sections may not longer live to-
gether. If the disunion candidate in the late Presidential contest had carried the
united South, their scheme was, the Northern candidate successful, to seize the
Capital last spring, and by a united South and divided North hold it. That scheme
was defeated in the defeat of the disunion candidate in several of the Southern
States.

"But this is no time for a detail of causes. The conspiracy is now known.
Armies have been raised, war is levied to accomplish it. There are only two sides
to the question. Every man must be for the United States or against it. There
can be no neutrals in this war; only patriots or traitors.

"Thank God Illinois is not divided on this question. I know they expected to
present a united South against a divided North. They hoped in the Northern States,
party questions would bring civil war between Democrats and Republicans, when
the South would step in with her cohorts, aid one party to conquer the other, and
then make easy prey of the victors. Their scheme was carnage and civil war in
the North.

"There is but one way to defeat this. In Illinois it is being so defeated by

66 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

closing up the ranks. War will thus be prevented on our own soil. While there
was a hope of peace I was ready, for any reasonable sacrifice or compromise to
maintain it. But when the question comes of war in the cotton fields of the South
or the corn-fields of Illinois, I say the farther off the better.

"We cannot close our eyes to the sad and solemn fact that war does exist.
The Government must be maintained, its enemies overthrown, and the more stu
pendous our preparations the less the blood shed, and the shorter the struggle. But
we must remember certain restraints on our action even in time of war. We are
a Christian people, and the war must be prosecuted in a manner recognized by
Christian nations.

"We must not invade Constitutional rights. The innocent must not suffer, nor
women and children be the victims. Savages must not be let loose. But while I
sanction no war on the rights of others, I will implore my countrymen not to lay
down their arms until our own rights are recognized.

"The Constitution and its guarantees are our birthright, and I am ready to
enforce that inalienable right to the last extent. We cannot recognize secession.
Recognize it once, and you have not only dissolved government, but you have de-
stroyed social order, upturned the foundations of society. You have inaugurated
anarchy in its worst form, and will shortly experience all the horrors of the French
Revolution.

"Then we have a solemn duty to maintain the Government. The greater our
unanimity the speedier the day of peace. We have prejudices to overcome from
the few short months since of a fierce party contest. Yet these must be allayed.
Let us lay aside all criminations and recriminations as to the origin of these diffi-
culties. When we shall have again a country with the United States flag floating
over it, and respected on every inch of American soil, it will then be time enough
to ask who and what brought all this upon us.

"I have said more than I intended to say. It is a sad task to discuss questions
so fearful as civil war; but sad as it is, bloody and disastrous as I expect it will
be, I express it as my conviction before God, that it is the duty of every American
citizen to rally round the flag of his country.

"I thank you again for this magnificent demonstration. By it you show you
have laid aside party strife. Illinois has a proud position United, firm, deter-
mined never to permit the Government to be destroyed."

THRILLING EFFECTS OF DOUGLAS' SPEECH

"As he stood before that vast assemblage in Chicago," says Carr, "Senator
Douglas was the mightiest and most potential figure in the galaxy of American
statesmen. . . . Here patriotic men of every shade of opinion and of every
political party listened with breathless interest for every word that fell from his
lips, and vied with each other to do him honor. Such enthusiastic greeting, such
rapturous applause, had never been accorded to another public man since the days
of the fathers. Every one who took part in the great demonstration felt that the
Senator's utterances were the expression of the emotions of all the patriotic peo-
ple of the great nation, from ocean to ocean. . . . Patriotic men who then
saw the great Senator, for the last time, recalled in later days the splendors of that
great ovation : and as they realized that he had been withdrawn forever from their

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 67

view; and that they would never again see his familiar face and form, they felt
that they had witnessed his transfiguration."

Thereafter the name of Douglas, as well as his glowing words of loyalty, were
fully identified with the Union cause. The names "Douglas brigade," as applied to
a body of Illinois volunteers, "Camp Douglas," of Chicago, famous in the annals
of that period, are evidences of the recognition given by the people to this fact.
A further evidence of the profound respect which the people of Chicago cherish
for Douglas is furnished in the names of a beautiful park and a boulevard in the
city; and a county of this state, as well as many counties in other states, have
been named in his honor. He did not live long to render the invaluable aid which
he could have given throughout the coming struggle, for when he left the scene
of his triumphant ovation, he did so never to return to the public gaze. The strain
upon his physical and mental faculties had ' been too severe, and from the great
hall of the "Wigwam" he was driven to the old Tremont House, which was his
home when in Chicago. In a few days thereafter, he breathed his last, on the
third of June, 1861. His message to his children was in these words: "Tell them
to obey the laws and support the Constitution of the United States," and these
were his last words on earth.

JUDGE CARTER'S COMMENTS

Of Douglas Judge Carter says: "However much we may disagree witli his
position on the slavery question, it is clear he was against slavery and took the
position he did because he believed it was for the best interests of his country.
Perhaps the most remarkable triumph ever seen in Congress was that under Doug-
las' leadership, in opposition to his party and its president, in defeating the Le-
compton constitution which had been fraudulently and forcibly foisted upon the
people of Kansas by the advocates of slavery.

"During the presidential campaign of 1860, when Douglas saw that his own
defeat was certain and that Lincoln was to be elected," continues Carter, "he
abandoned his campaign in the North where his main hope of gaining votes lay,
and started on a speaking tour through the South, hoping against hope that he
could turn the tide of public feeling in that section so that the Southern States
would be satisfied to remain in the Union after Lincoln was elected. At Norfolk,
Virginia, he was asked, If Lincoln should be elected would the Southern States
be justified in seceding from the Union? He replied instantly: 'No: the election
of any man to the presidency in conformity to the Constitution of the United
States would not justify an attempt to dissolve the Union.'

"When Lincoln was elected Douglas threw all of his great influence on the side
of the Union. While asserting that he was still opposed to Lincoln in party mat-
ters he publicly announced that he would assist him in every way possible to pre-
serve the government. He proved this not only by his words but by his actions.
It is well known history that when Lincoln was inaugurated Douglas stood close
by him upon the platform, and when the president could not readily find a place
to put his hat Douglas held it during the inaugural address.

"As soon as Lincoln's family were installed in the White House Mrs. Douglas,
who was one of the society leaders of Washington, called upon Mrs. Lincoln, thus
setting the stamp of social approval on the new administration.

68 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

"A few weeks thereafter at the invitation of the Illinois legislature Douglas
visited Springfield and spoke before that body. Some of bis life-long political
opponents stated that it was one of the most powerful speeches that they ever
listened to from the lips of man. Near the close, with the deepest pathos, he
said, 'If war must come, if the bayonet must be used to maintain the constitution,
I can say before God my conscience is clear. I have struggled long for a peaceful
solution of this trouble. I deprecate war, but if it must come I am with my coun-
try and for my country in every contingency and under all circumstances. At all
hazards our government must be maintained, and the shortest pathway to peace

is through the most stupendous preparations for war.' "
i

COMPARISON BETWEEN LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS

Perhaps no two men in our history have oftener been compared than Lincoln
and Douglas. Among these comparisons that of Judge Carter's is one of the most
instructive. "These two men," says he, "were not only dissimilar in their physical
characteristics, but were most unlike in mental attributes. Douglas was shrewd,
keen, analytical, bold and aggressive ; a quick and ready debater, capable of think-
ing as well on his feet as he was after deliberation ; marvelously suggestive and
fertile as to resources. He rarely cited historical precedents except from Ameri-
ican politics. In that field his knowledge was comprehensive and accurate. No-
body knew when he read, yet he could refer to date, page and volume with wonderful
accuracy. He was without wit or humor; intensely practical; in no sense a dreamer
or follower of ideals. As great an authority as Elaine says of him: 'He was a
master of logic. In that peculiar style of debate which in its intensity resembles
a physical combat he had no equal. He spoke with extraordinary readiness; he
used good English, terse, pointed and vigorous.'

"Lincoln, on the contrary, was in a sense a dreamer, a man of ideals, a prose-
poet; slow of thought, not a ready extemporaneous speaker. He was never over-
bearing or intolerant. While he recognized his intellectual ability and never hesitated
to assert himself when necessary, he was usually modest and retiring; honest by
instinct, the logical working of his mind made him necessarily reach the true re-
sult after deliberation and thought; very strong when he was on the right side;
extraordinarily weak when he felt that his side was in the wrong. One of his most
effective weapons in leadership of men was his wonderful power of expressing his
views in clear, terse English, his arguing from analogy and explaining things hard
to understand by maxims, figures of speech and stories.

"His wit and humor, never pointed nor sarcastic, he used always very effect-
ively. He spoke with the most perfect sincerity and simplicity, so that his hearers
always felt that he was deeply interested in the moral bearing of the public ques-
tions he was discussing. He possessed, as perhaps did no other public man of
the country, lucidity, flexibility and simplicity of style. It was because of his
high ideals, his moral qualities, that he had such marvelous influence over the
men of his time and of all time. He was not a great reader of general literature
yet he was always a student. He knew a few books, such as Shakespeare, Burns
and the Bible better than any other public man of his time. From his boyhood
he had been familiar with them. In the files of the Circuit Court of Menard
County, in a case tried in 1847, in which Lincoln was counsel, is found a motion

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 69

in the writing of opposing counsel requesting the court to instruct the jury that
the passage from Exodus read by Lincoln to the jury was not the law in the case
on trial. The instruction was given.

"Lincoln's speeches are filled with biblical references; hardly one of his public
utterances or great state papers from the time he was elected president until his
death but has a quotation from the Bible or a reference to the fact that God rules
in the affairs of nations."

"Men who could meet and cope on equal terms with the great lawyers of Illi-
nois of their time as did Lincoln and Douglas," says Carter, "must have been more
than ordinary lawyers. Among the members of that bar were six future United
States Senators, eight future members of Congress, a future Cabinet minister, and
not less than six who were to be judges of the Supreme Court of the State, to say
nothing of many others distinguished in other walks of life."

MRS. DOUGLAS' DEVOTION TO THE UNION

In the Louisville Journal of December 20th, 1861, as quoted in Putnam's "Re-
bellion Record," the following anecdote of Mrs. Douglas is related. "Very few
people indeed," runs the account, "have been placed in a more trying position and
sacrificed more for the sake of the Union than has Mrs. Douglas. She has persist-
ently refused to entertain the proposition forwarded to her by a special messenger
under a flag of truce from the Governor of North Carolina, asking that the two
sons of the late Senator Douglas be sent South to save their extensive estates in
Mississippi from confiscation. If she refused, a large property would be taken
from the children, and, in her present reduced circumstances, they may thereby
eventually be placed in straitened circumstances. Here, then, was an appeal made
directly to her tender regard for them, which, if she should refuse, would work
disastrously against them in after years.

"But her answer was worthy of herself and of her late distinguished husband.
If the rebels wish to make war upon defenseless children, and take away the all
of little orphan boys, it must be so; but she could not for an instant think of sur-
rendering them to the enemies of their country and of their father. His last words
were, 'Tell them to obey the Constitution and the laws of the country," and Mrs.
Douglas will not make herself the instrument of disobeying his dying injunction.
The children, she says, belong to Illinois, and must remain in the North. Illinois
and the North, we take it, will see to it that they are not sufferers by the devoted-
ness and patriotism of their mother."

FINAL RESTING PLACE OF DOUGLAS

The remains of Senator Douglas are in Chicago, and rest in a marble sarcoph-
agus placed within a crypt under a lofty monument of granite. Surmounting the
shaft is a bronze statue of the statesman, the total height to the top of the statue
being ninety-six feet. Upon the sarcophagus is an inscription giving the dates of
his birth and death, and the words of his last message. The monument is situated
on rising ground, overlooking the lake, and is surrounded by an ample lawn space
adjoining the right-of-way of the Illinois Central railroad, at Thirty-fifth street.
It was completed in 1878 at a cost of about one hundred thousand dollars, the
principal share of which having been borne by the state of Illinois.

CHAPTER XXV

EVENTS PRIOR TO LINCOLN'S NOMINATION

THE COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH QUOTATIONS FROM THE SPEECH COMMENTS OF

THE HEARERS LINCOLN'S LABOR IN PREPARING THE SPEECH LAST APPEARANCE

IN COURT AT CHICAGO THE "SAND BAR" CASE LINCOLN'S VISIT TO WAUKEGAN

SPEECH INTERRUPTED BY A FIRE J. W. HULL'S ACCOUNT OF THE SPEECH

TABLETS PLACED IN MEMORY OF THE VISIT LINCOLN'S VISIT TO EVANSTON

LEONARD W. VOLK's RECOLLECTIONS HARVEY B. HURo's ACCOUNT RECEPTION AT

THE HOUSE OF JULIUS WHITE MEMORIES OF OLD EVANSTON RESIDENTS MAJOR

LUDLAM'S STORY INTERESTING SEQUEL OF THE EVANSTON VISIT SENTIMENT IN

FAVOR OF LINCOLN FOR PRESIDENT COMMENTS OF THE EASTERN PRESS ROBERT

LINCOLN'S LETTER OF INTRODUCTION UNFAVORABLE CONDITIONS AT CHICAGO
PREPARATIONS FOR THE APPROACHING CONVENTION HEADQUARTERS OF THE IL-
LINOIS DELEGATION AT THE TREMONT HOUSE STRONG FOLLOWING OF RIVAL CAN-
DIDATES LINCOLN'S MODESTY PROGRESS OF THE CITY ATTAINED IN 1860

INCIDENTS OF THE PANIC OF 1857 BEGINNING OF STREET CAR LINES OPENING

OF THE RAILROAD ERA FIRST LINES FROM THE EAST CHICAGO RAPIDLY BECOMES

A RAILROAD CENTER.

THE COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH

, HE address by Mr. Lincoln at the Cooper Institute in New York was de-
livered on the evening of February 27th, 1860. Mr. Lincoln had been
invited by certain of the Republican leaders in New York, through Mr.
Charles C. Nott, a representative of the Committee of the Young Men's
Republican Union, "to deliver one of a series of addresses which had
been planned to make clear to the voters the purposes and the foundations of the
new party. His name had become known to the Republicans of the East through
the debates with Douglas. It was recognized that Lincoln had taken the highest
ground in regard to the principles of the new party, and that his counsels should
prove of practical service in the shaping of the policy of the Presidential cam-
paign."

The meeting was presided over by William Cullen Bryant, and a number of the
most prominent citizens of New York were present, among them Horace Greeley.
In the Tribune the next morning Greeley said, "No man ever made such an im-
pression in his first appeal to a New York audience." Greeley was emphatic in
his appreciation, of the address, "it was the ablest, the greatest, the wisest speech
that had yet been made ; it would reassure the conservative Northerner, it was
conclusive in its argument, and would assure the overthrow of Douglas."

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 71

The peroration of the speech is often quoted, and is given here as an example
of Lincoln's oratory.

"Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone where it is,
because that much is due to the necessity arising from its actual presence in the
nation ; but can we, while our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into the
National Territories, and to overrun us here in these Free States? If our sense
of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty, fearlessly and effectively. Let
us be diverted by none of those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so in-
dustriously plied and belabored contrivances such as groping for some middle
ground between the right and the wrong, vain as the search for a man who should
be neither a living man nor a dead man such as a policy of 'don't care' on a ques-
tion about which all true men do care such as Union appeals beseeching true
Union men to yield to Disunionists, reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the
sinners, but the righteous to repentance such as invocations to Washington, im-
ploring men to unsay what Washington said, and undo what Washington did.

"Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor
frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to
ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to
the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."

Perhaps no appeal, uttered from the political platform in those stirring times,
breathed a loftier tone or carried convictions so strong as this memorable speech.
"As I read the concluding pages of that speech," says Horace White, "the con-
flict of opinion that preceded the conflict of arms, then sweeping upon the country
like an approaching solar eclipse, seemed prefigured like a chapter of the Book
of Fate."

RHETORICAL FEATURES OF THE ADDRESS

On the morning following the delivery of the Cooper Institute speech Mr.
Lincoln met Rev. John P. Gulliver of Norwich, Connecticut, on a train leaving
the city. Mr. Gulliver had listened to the speech the evening before, and the
two men presently became engaged in conversation. Mr. Gulliver afterwards be-
came a resident of Chicago and was pastor of the New England Congregational
church on the North Side, from 1865 to 1868, and president of Knox College at
Galesburg for four years following. Mr. Gulliver remarked to Mr. Lincoln that
he thought the speech was the most remarkable one he had ever heard. "I learned
more of the art of public speaking last evening," said he. "than I could from a
whole course of lectures on rhetoric." "I should like very much to know," replied
Mr. Lincoln, "what it was in my speech which you thought so remarkable." Mr.
Gulliver's answer was, "The clearness of your statements, the unanswerable style
of your reasoning, and, especially, your illustrations, which were romance and pathos
and fun and logic all welded together." He followed this with a further exposi-
tion of the peculiar power of the address. Mr. Lincoln replied, "I am much
obliged to you for this. I have been wishing for a long time to find some one who
would make this analysis for me. It throws light on a subject which has been
dark to me. I can understand very readily how such a power as you have ascribed
to me will account for the effect which seems to be produced by my speeches. I

72 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

hope you have not been too flattering in your estimate. Certainly I have had a
most wonderful success for a man of my limited education."

When they were about to separate Mr. Gulliver said to him, "You have be-
come, by the controversy with Mr. Douglas, one of our leaders in this great strug-
gle with slavery, which is undoubtedly the struggle of the nation and the age.
What I would like to say is this, and I say it with a full heart: Be true to your
principles, and we will be true to you, and God will be true to us all." Mr. Lin-
coln was touched by the minister's earnestness, and taking his hand in both his
own, he exclaimed, "I say amen to that! amen to that!" t

From New York he went to New England in order to visit his son Robert,
then a student in the Phillips Academy, at Exeter, New Hampshire. He made
speeches at various points. Putnam quotes from a letter written by him to his
wife, dated March 4th, 1860. "I have been unable to escape this toil. If I had
foreseen it, I think I would not have come East at all. The speech at New York,
being within my calculation before I started, went off passably well and gave me
no trouble whatever. The difficulty was to make nine others, before reading audi-
ences who had already seen all my ideas in print."

COMMENTS ON THE SPEECH

In the Century Magazine for July, 1891, an address by Horace Greeley was
printed, which had not, for some reason, previously been published. In this address
Mr. Greeley gives his estimate of Lincoln, and, in regard to the great speech at the
Cooper Institute, he said: "I do not hesitate to pronounce Mr. Lincoln's speech
at Cooper Institute, New York, in the spring of 1860, the very best political ad-
dress to which I ever listened and I have heard some of Webster's grandest. As
a literary effort, it would not, of course, bear comparison with many of Webster's
speeches ; but regarded simply as an effort to convince the largest possible number
that they ought to be on the speaker's side, not on the other, I do not hesitate to
pronounce it unsurpassed." Mr. Lincoln, he said, was "the foremost convincer of
his day the one who could do his cause more good and less harm by a speech
than any other living man."

In a reprint of the speech, the full text of which is given in George Haven
Putnam's "Abraham Lincoln," the following extract from the preface, prepared
by the Young Men's Republican Union, appears: "The address is characterized
by wisdom, truthfulness and learning. . . . From the first line to the last,
from his premises to his conclusion, the speaker travels with a swift, unerring di-
rectness that no logician has ever excelled. His argument is complete and is
presented without the affectation of learning, and without the stiffness which usu-
ally accompanies dates and details. ... A single simple sentence contains
a chapter of history that has taken days of labor to verify, and that must have
cost the author months of investigation to acquire. The reader may take up this
pamphlet, but he will leave it as a historical treatise brief, complete, perfect,
sound, impartial truth which will serve the time and the occasion that called it
forth, and which will be esteemed hereafter no less for its unpretending modesty
than for its intrinsic worth."

Mr. Lincoln's speech had indeed cost him much labor in its preparation. No

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 73

former effort had required so much time and thought as this one had done. "The
historical study which it involved," says Holland, "study that led into unexplored
fields, and fields very difficult of exploration, must have been very great; but it
was intimate and complete. Gentlemen who afterwards engaged in preparing the
speech for circulation as a campaign document were much surprised by the amount of
research that it required to be able to make the speech, and were very much wearied
with the work of verifying its historical statements in detail. They were weeks
in finding the works consulted by him." Herndon says that Mr. Lincoln obtained
most of the facts of his Cooper Institute speech from Elliott's "Debates on the
Federal Constitution." When he went to Washington, early in 1861, he gave Hern-
don a set of six volumes of this work.

While in New York, Mr. Lincoln was photographed by Brady, whose portraits
of the distinguished men of that time have become famous. It was a frequent re-
mark of Lincoln's that this portrait and the Cooper Institute speech made him
president.

LAST APPEARANCE IN COURT

One of the last cases in which Mr. Lincoln was engaged as a lawyer was that
known as the "Sand Bar" case. The title of the case was "W. S. Johnston vs.
William Jones and S. Marsh, Ejectment." Mr. Lincoln was engaged as one of
the counsel for the defendants. In the Chicago Press and Tribune of April 5th,
1860, the case is referred to as "one of the most notable trials in the annals of our
courts." The contest was "as to title to the valuable accretions on the lake shore,
north of the pier," the property directly and indirectly at issue being valued at
over half a million of dollars. This case was tried before Judge Thomas Drum-
mond in the United States District Court, and was the fourth time it had been
before the courts, this time ending, after a two weeks' trial, in a verdict for the de-
fendants. The question submitted to the jury was "whether the plaintiff had a
water line on the lake on October 22d, 1835, the date of the deed." The court
held its sessions in the "Larmon Block," on the northeast corner of Clark and
Washington streets.

It was during the progress of this case that the opposing counsel asked Colonel
John H. Kinzie (son of Chicago's original settler, John Kinzie), "How long he
had resided in Chicago?" when Mr. Lincoln interposed saying, "I believe he is
'common law' here, as one who dates back to the time whereof the memory of
man runneth not to the contrary."

MR. LINCOLN'S VISIT TO WAUKEGAN

While Mr. Lincoln was in Chicago he received invitations to speak on frequent
occasions. The citizens of Waukegan had requested his presence there and we find
an announcement in the Chicago Press and Tribune for Monday, April 2, 1 860,
as follows: "At the earnest solicitation of citizens of Lake County, Mr. Lincoln,
who is at present engaged here in the United States District Court, will speak on
political topics at Waukegan this evening. The announcement will of course bring
together one of the largest crowds that Waukegan can furnish."

The Waukegan Weekly Gazette, in its issue of April 7, 1860, gives this account
of what happened on the occasion of Mr. Lincoln's visit to that place.

74 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

"This noble Republican standard bearer of 1858 having been engaged attending
Court in Chicago, came up to Waukegan on Monday evening last to give us a
speech. But he had spoken only a few minutes when the meeting was broken up
in consequence of a destructive fire which we mention elsewhere. This is deeply
regretted by all save a few of the chivalrous Democracy, who seem to rejoice over
the fact that the meeting came to such an untimely end. We think they have rea-
son for it too, for 'Old Abe' had laid the foundation for a speech which would have
so completely wiped out the doctrine of Popular Sovereignty, that all candid Dem-
ocrats who admit that slavery is wrong (and to this class his remarks were spe-
cially directed) would have been forced to admit the inconsistency of the position
they occupy.

"Whether the fire was a 'democratic trick' or not the democracy will be forced
to resort to more desperate tricks than this to defeat Abe next fall should the
mantle of the Chicago Convention fall upon him. Although disappointed in not
hearing his speech through, yet we had the pleasure of seeing him, which really
does one's soul good. We hope he may be induced to come back and give the bal-
ance of the speech at some other time. Hon. Norman B. Judd accompanied him
from Chicago, who would have favored us with some remarks also had the meeting
gone on undisturbed."

The fire which broke up the meeting in this abrupt manner is described in an-
other part of the same issue of the Gazette. It is as follows: "About eight o'clock
on Monday evening last, when hundreds of our citizens were attentively engaged
in listening to the speech of our gallant Lincoln, an alarm of fire was sounded.
A rush was made for the door, but the excitement was partially allayed when it
was announced that it was a false alarm. This quiet, however, was but momentary,
for it soon became apparent that a destructive fire was raging. It proved to
be the warehouse and buildings belonging to the North Pier, owned and occupied
by Messrs. Case and Bull."

TABLETS PLACED IN MEMORY OF THE VISIT

On the one-hundredth anniversary of Lincoln's birth namely, February 12,
1909, the people of Waukegan celebrated the occasion by recalling the visit Mr.
Lincoln made to their city in 1860. The Waukegan Daily Sun printed some
reminiscences of the occasion, preceded by a brief account of the meeting as fol-
lows:

"On the evening of April 2nd, 1860, Lincoln visited Waukegan, and was the
principal speaker at a mass-meeting at Dickinson's Hall, an old-time resort, later
burned down, and visited a fire that consumed the old Case warehouse.

"That night he slept in the house at the northwest corner of Julian and County
streets, as the guest of Mr. Ferry. The house is now owned by L. H. Prentice
and on February 12, 1909, was marked with a bronze tablet inscribed 'April 2,
1860, Abraham Lincoln slept in this house. Tablet placed by the Lake County
Historical Society.'

"The building on the site of Dickinson's Hall is marked by a bronze tablet,
ten by sixteen inches, inscribed 'This tablet marks the site of Dickinson Hall where
Abraham Lincoln spoke April 2, 1860. Lake County Historical Society.'

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 75

"Following is a list of people now living in Waukegan who were at this meet-
ing, so far as their names were obtainable in February, 1909: W. E. Sunderlin
(who went to the fire with Lincoln), J. W. Hull, Jacob Martin, George Herman,
Philip P. Brand (who shaved Lincoln on his visit here), J. M. Simpson, George
R. Lyon (who remembers Lincoln's remark 'Slavery is wrong'), Homer Cooke
(who also says he went to the fire with Lincoln), W. B. Besley, E. D. Besley, Ar-
thur Blanchard, Mrs. G. H. Stafford, John A. Shea, John Maynard, George S.
Wheeler, Clinton Green, D. S. Meade, A. Z. Blodgett, R. J. Douglas, Nicholas
Martin, S. S. Greenleaf and Frank Greenleaf.

"J. W. Hull can recall the substance of the speech that Lincoln delivered in
the twenty-five minutes before the fire destroyed the Case warehouse, and the
meeting broke up. 'I was there when the meeting began,' he said, 'and noted Lin-
coln moving about the floor, meeting people. When he arose and ascended to the
platform I thought he was the humblest man in appearance I had seen in many a
day. When he began to speak he did not impress me, perhaps because he had a
squeak in his voice that was like a dash of cold water. I can well remember his
speech. Lincoln declared that civilization had pronounced human slavery wrong.
However, he said that we alone, the United States, with our boasted freedom, gave
it the standing of an institution, and that we did wrong. However, he said, he did
not blame the slave-holders; he said that most of them had inherited their slaves
as chattels or property, and, it seemed, could not help themselves. Then he called
attention to the fact that at that time the country was half slavery and half free,
and said that no government divided against itself in such manner could stand.

' 'The effect on me, at least, and I believe on others, was little short of miracu-
lous. While he was speaking, such was the sledge-hammer force of his logic, that
we forgot the humble appearance and the squeaky voice, and were carried away
by the man's simple eloquence, his power of reasoning and his clear exposition of
questions we had all debated within our own minds.

' 'Then the fire came; E. P. Ferry arose and stated his belief that the alarm
was a Democratic plot to break up the meeting. The shuffling and uneasiness among
the people continued, however, and finally Lincoln said, "Well, gentlemen, let us
all go. as there really seems to be a fire, and help put it out." '

LINCOLN S VISIT TO EVANSTON

It was on the afternoon of the day following the conclusion of the "Sand Bar"
case, that Lincoln visited Evanston and remained over night as the guest of his
old friend Julius White. Many particulars of this visit have been gathered from
old residents, and the visit forms one of the cherished episodes of Evanston his-
tory. At that time Evanston was a village of twelve hundred inhabitants and was
becoming important as a suburb of Chicago. An article in the Chicago Press and
Tribune, which appeared about this time, spoke of Evanston as having the hand-
somest residences and the best situation of any town in the vicinity of Chicago,
and the writer predicted that between the two places would be built up a con-
tinuous line of stores and residences. The Chicago and Milwaukee railroad, which
afterwards became known as the Chicago and North-Western railway, had then
been open five years. Evanston itself had borne that name only six years, though

76 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

under older names, originally Gross Point and afterwards Ridgeville, it could
claim a greater antiquity. The Northwestern University had been in existence
since 1854, and from the beginning had given a dominant tone to the community
life of the place, and many of those who had made their homes there had been at-
tracted by its influence. The University had one building completed and occupied,
and the Garrett Biblical Institute, which was affiliated with the University, was
about completing its first building.

Mr. Lincoln visited Evanston upon the invitation and as the guest of Julius
White, who afterwards became a general in the Union army. Mr. White at that
time was a member of the Chicago Board of Trade and was harbor master at Chi-
cago. He lived in Evanston on the northwest corner of Ridge avenue and Church
street, in a two-story house, which in later years was moved away, to make room
for the larger house now occupied by Mr. Richard C. Lake. Some controversy has
arisen from time to time as to the identity of the house in which Mr. Lincoln was
entertained. Mr. White resided in several different houses during his long resi-
dence in Evanston, each of which has been at one time or another regarded as the
house thus honored. But through surviving members of his family and others
its identity has been established beyond doubt. When it was moved from its orig-
inal location it was divided into two parts, and the larger part taken to a lot just
south of the Evanston Township High School, now known as 1227 Elmwood avenue.
Here it was remodeled and is now occupied by Mr. Albert D. Sanders.

MR. VOLK'S RECOLLECTIONS

A reference to Mr. Lincoln's visit to Evanston is found in an article published
in the Century Magazine for December, 1881, by Leonard W. Volk, the sculptor.
Mr. Volk had met Mr. Lincoln during the period of the Lincoln-Douglas debates
in 1858, and had requested him to sit for a bust. Mr. Lincoln said that he would
be glad to do so at the first opportunity. Mr. Volk, in the course of his article,
thus relates:

"I did not see him again for nearly two years. I spent most of the winter of
1860 in Washington, finishing a statuette of Senator Douglas, and just before
leaving in the month of March, I called upon Mr. Douglas' colleague in the senate
from Illinois [this was Lyman Trumbull], and asked him if he had an idea as to
who would be the probable nominee of the Republican party for president, that 1
might model a bust of him in advance. He replied that he did not have the least
particle of an idea who he would be, only that it would not be Judge Douglas.

"I returned to Chicago, and got my studio in the 'Portland block' in order and
ready for work, and began to consider whose bust I should first begin in the clay,
when I noticed in a morning paper that Abraham Lincoln was in town retained as
one of the counsel in the 'sandbar trial.' I at once decided to remind him of his
promise to sit to me, made two years before. I found him in the United States
District court room (in a building known at the time as the 'Larmon block') his
feet on the edge of a table, and his long, dark hair standing out at every imaginable
angle, apparently uncombed for a week. He was surrounded by a group of lawyers,
such as James F. Joy, Isaac N. Arnold, Thomas Hoyne and others. Mr. Arnold
obtained his attention in my behalf, when he instantly arose and met me outside

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 77

the rail, recognizing me at once with his usual grip of both hands. He remembered
his promise, and said, in answer to my question, that he expected to be detained by
the case for a week. He added:

' 'I shall be glad to give you the sittings. When shall I come, and how long
tyill you need me each time?'

" 'Just after breakfast, every morning, would,' he said, 'suit him the best, and
he could remain till court opened, at 10 o'clock.' I answered that I would be ready
for him the next morning, Thursday. This was in the early part of April, 1860.

' 'Very well, Mr. Volk, I will be there, and I'll go to a barber and have my
hair cut before I come.'

"I requested him not to let the barber cut it too short and said I would rather
he would leave it as it was ; but to this he would not consent. Then, all of a sud-
den, he ran his fingers through his hair, and said:

'No, I cannot come tomorrow, as I have an engagement with Mr. W to go
to Evanston tomorrow and attend an entertainment; but I'd rather come, and sit
to you for the bust than go there and meet a lot of college professors and others,
all strangers to me. And I will be obliged if you will go to Mr. W 's office now,
and get me released from the engagement. I will wait here till you come back."

"So off I posted, but Mr. W would not release him, 'because,' he said, 'it
would be a great disappointment to the people he had invited.' Mr. Lincoln looked
quite sorry when I reported to him the failure of my mission.

" 'Well,' he said, 'I suppose I must go, but I will come to you Friday morning.'

"He was there promptly indeed, he never failed to be on time. My studio
was in the fifth story, and there were no elevators in those days, and I soon learned
to distinguish his steps on the stairs, and am sure he frequently came up two, if
not three, steps at a stride. When he sat down the first time in that hard, wooden,
low-armed chair which I still possess, and which has been occupied by Douglas,
Seward and Generals Grant and Dix, he said:

" 'Mr. Volk, I have never sat before to sculptor or painter only for daguerreo-
types and photographs. What shall I do?'

"I told him I would only take the measurements of his head and shoulders that
time, and next morning, Saturday, I would make a cast of his face, which would
save him a number of sittings. He stood up against the wall, and I made a mark
above his head, and then measured up to it from the floor, and said:

" 'You are just twelve inches taller than Judge Douglas, that is, just six feet
one inch.' "

In the above extract, which is printed just as it appeared in the Century article,
the name of Mr. White is indicated by the initial W, followed by a line standing
for the omitted portion of his name. Also it is to be noted that in the last sen-
tence Mr. Lincoln's height is given as "six feet and one inch," whereas the fact
was that he was six feet four inches and Douglas was five feet four inches in
height. This was an error either on the part of the author or printer.

MR. KURD'S ACCOUNT

When the day arrived for Mr. Lincoln to go to Evanston he was taken in charge
by Mr. Harvey B. Hurd, who had been designated to act as his escort. Mr. Hurd
has left on record an account of this journey, which is as follows:

78 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

"On his return from his stumping tour through New England in the spring of
I860, bringing back with him the fame of his great Cooper Institute speech, he
[Mr. Lincoln] was given a reception in Evanston, at the home of my then next
door neighbor, General Julius White, and it was my good fortune to be designated
to escort him from Chicago to his house. On the way Mr. Lincoln and I occupied
the same seat in the railway car, that next to the stove. Putting his long legs up
behind the stove and leaning down toward me, he related to me some of the more
amusing episodes in his New England tour, such as he thought I would recognize
as characteristic of Yankeedom (I had told him I was a native of Connecticut),
some of them bringing out in strong light the issues of the campaign and how he
had presented them.

"Calling to mind his great debate with Mr. Douglas and how he had grown in
popularity all over the country, and that he was being talked of for the presidency,
I could not help a passing analysis of his characteristics. The way he impressed me
at that time was well summed up by a countryman at another time. 'Not that he
knew it all, and that I knew little or nothing, but that he and I were two good
fellows, well met, and that between us we knew lots.' His bearing at the recep-
tion, while easy, was at the same time dignified and pleasing. It required no
stretch of imagination to think of him as the coming president of the United States.
He inspired in all a desire to see him nominated and elected to that high office.
There was no lurking doubt as to his fitness."

MEMORIES OF OLD RESIDENTS

Many of the old residents of Evanston still vividly remember, after a lapse of
half a century, the occasion of Mr. Lincoln's visit here, and the accounts which are
here gathered are mainly compiled from their recollections of that most interesting
event. They are not all living whose testimony is here given, but the privilege
they enjoyed of meeting and grasping the hand of the greatest American of the
nineteenth century was a rare one, and the occasion forms one of the most inter-
esting episodes in our history.

On Mr. Lincoln's arrival in Evanston he was taken for a carriage drive about
the village by Mr. White and then to the residence of the latter. A general in-
vitation had been extended to the people to come in the evening and shake hands
with the distinguished visitor. It was easy to spread the news of anything of the
kind in a small community such as Evanston was at that time, and the people were
quick to respond to the invitation. The house was well filled with visitors and
Mr. Lincoln stood in front of the fireplace in the drawing room and conversed
with the people as they arrived. Many did not enter the house, but contented
themselves with standing outside on the lawn and giving vent to their enthusiasm
by blowing horns, singing and shouting, which was called "serenading" in the par-
lance of the time. These "doings" were naturally followed by calls for a speech,
a request which the visitor complied with by appearing on the front steps of the
house and addressing the people assembled on the lawn. "I have a sort of gen-
eral recollection of his speech," relates Dr. Henry M. Bannister, who was pres-
ent. "He spoke in a high, clear voice explaining his standpoint in politics and
the reasons for it, making a special point that he had been guided by his sense of

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 79

right." There was a general handshaking and exchange of greetings usual on
such occasions. Afterwards a number of those outside went into the house and
were presented to the visitor.

"I remember as though it was but yesterday," wrote Mr. Martin Mohler, a
former student at the university, in an article printed in The Evanston Index in
1903, "the tall, lanky form of Lincoln and his expressive countenance as he stood
shaking hands with admiring friends, while a stream of wit and humor, and story
and laughter, came bubbling up from the great soul within."

MRS. BANNISTER'S ACCOUNT

Mrs. Emma White Bannister, a daughter of General White, wrote recently
giving an account of the visit, which she remembers distinctly. "Father told us
one day that he would bring Mr. Lincoln up to spend the night, adding, 'he may be
our next president.' He arrived on the evening train and dined with us, after
which he addressed the Evanstonians from the front porch. Word had been sent
to the leading citizens that Mr. Lincoln would speak and they soon assembled in
goodly numbers in front of the house. At the conclusion of his address my father
invited all who desired to come in and meet Mr. Lincoln. They surged into the
house, were introduced by father, and all received a cordial greeting and hand
shake from Mr. Lincoln. My father's house at that time was full of children, and
during Mr. Lincoln's visit he endeared himself to us all by his individual and
kindly notice."

MR. PEARSONS' STORY

Mr. Henry A. Pearsons' memories of the occasion are extremely interesting.
At a banquet of the Men's Club at the First Methodist church in February, 1906,
he spoke as follows:

"Mr. Lincoln came to Evanston in 1860, soon after he began to acquire a na-
tional reputation and had been mentioned as the man whom Illinois would bring
out as a candidate for president. Evanston was then only a village of some twelve
hundred inhabitants, and, of course, all who could get there went to the house
of Julius White to meet the distinguished guest, we boys to cheer and make a wel-
coming noise, and our elders to shake his hand. I have a photograph of him taken
in 1858, which pictures him as I remember him. The characteristics which I 're-
member most distinctly were the pleasant smile and kindly greeting he gave us,
the cheerful speech and apt words of his address, the exceeding tallness of the
man, and the awkward way he had of turning himself one way or the other and
bending his knees a little when emphasizing a point or coming to a climax. A
really good quartet, led by our long-time friend and fellow citizen, Charles G.
Ayars, called for Lincoln's special commendation ; and I recall how he put his
arms around Avars' shoulders, and said: 'Young man, I wish I could sing as well
as you. Unfortunately I know only two tunes, one is "Old Hundred," and the
other isn't.' Mr. J. Watson Ludlam was then, as he still is, I think, the tallest citi-
zen of Evanston, and Mr. Lincoln stood up against him, back to back, to see which
was the taller." Mr. Pearsons on several occasions afterwards, while an officer of
the Eighth Illinois cavalry, saw Mr. Lincoln at reviews, and was one of the guard
of honor at the time his body lay in state in the Capitol at Washington.

80 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

MAJOR LUDLAM S STORY

Only a short time before his death in the fall of 1908, Major James D. Lud-
lam wrote his recollections of the visit, in a letter to Mr. Frank R. Grover, to
whom he had promised to furnish the details for the records of the Evanston His-
torical Society. "In redeeming my promise to you," he writes, "to furnish my
recollections of Abraham Lincoln's visit to Evanston, I send the following, only
reminding you that fifty years is a long time for one's memory to be exactly ac-
curate." He said he received an invitation from Mr. Julius White, "who lived, I
think, in the house built by Mr. Judson over on what we then called the ridge."
He met there "some twenty or thirty friends," some of whom he mentions by name:
Mr. and Mrs. John L. Beveridge, Rev. Philo Judson, Harvey B. Hurd, Mr. and
Mrs. N. P. Iglehart, Mr. and Mrs. John A. Pearsons, Mrs. Appleton, Miss Mattie
Stewart and Miss Isabel Stewart. "Mr. Hurd led the conversation principally
with the help of Mr. Beveridge at the start, but soon Mr. Lincoln had full control,
and in conversation and story telling captured the whole company."

Later in the evening some one proposed having some music, and Miss Isabel
Stewart was invited to play the piano, which she did in a very delightful manner.
Do not let the young readers of this sketch imagine the young lady seated at an
"upright," for pianos of that form were not made in those days. Square pianos
were in use and the one in Mr. White's house was probably of this pattern, the
kind we used to call "megatheriums," which we used to behold with awe and admira-
tion, including the player.

Mr. Lincoln then asked for some vocal music and Mr. J. D. Ludlam was in-
vited to sing. This he consented to do on condition that some one would play for
him. He was then introduced to the young lady at the piano, whom he did not
know before, and after a song or two the singing became general. It should be
noted here that this introduction to the young lady, Miss Isabel Stewart, was more
important in its results than seems at first sight, for in about a year after that the
singer and the player were married. Thus the Lincoln visit has a peculiar interest
as the starting point of a romance.

ASSEMBLAGE OP TALL MEN

James D. Ludlam and J. Watson Ludlam were brothers, both tall men, the lat-
ter the taller of the two; John L. Beveridge was over six feet in height, and there
was also present another tall man by the name of Homer Curtice, a conductor on
the Chicago and Milwaukee Railroad, the name by which the present Chicago and
North- Western Railway was then known. (Poor Curtice was killed by the cars
up near Kenosha some years later.) Mr. Lincoln, noticing so many unusually tall
men present, including himself, remarked upon it and proposed that they should
measure with each other. They therefore stood up, as Mr. Pearsons has related
in a previous part of this article, and compared their different heights. It was
found that Mr. Lincoln and J. W. Ludlam were exactly the same height, namely,
six feet and four inches, and were the tallest in the "bunch." The company re-
mained until quite a late hour for so quiet a place as the little town of Evanston
was at that time.

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 81

INTERESTING SEQUEL

The sequel to Major Ludlam's story is very interesting. During the following
year events succeeded each other with startling rapidity. Mr. Lincoln was nom-
inated and elected president, and the tremendous drama of the Civil War had
opened. With many other young men from Evanston J. D. Ludlam had joined
the army of the Union, and became an officer (finally major) in the Eighth Illinois
cavalry. This was the only Illinois regiment in the eastern army in the early part
of the war and Mr. Lincoln came out to their encampment near Washington to
visit them, and made a short speech to "his boys," as he called them. He recog-
nized Ludlam at once and asked after Miss Stewart, who had furnished such de-
lightful music on the occasion of his visit to Evanston, and invited him to call at
the White House. He made calls several times, and after lunch with Mr. and
Mrs. Lincoln one day, Mr. Lincoln asked him to sing for Mrs. Lincoln the same
songs which he sang when he visited Mr. White's house in Evanston. This echo
of the Lincoln visit to Evanston, and the romance that had its beginning at that
time, throws a golden haze of sentiment over the event we have been describing,
and heightens the interest that the episode otherwise possesses for all who take
a pride in Evanston annals.

Mr. Lincoln's visit to Evanston was made when he had reached a period in his
life when all was fair. He was at the height of his fame as the most distinguished
political orator of his time, he had become the rising hope of the new Republican
party, and was often mentioned as a possible presidential candidate. The law
case, which had required his presence in Chicago for the preceding two weeks, had
just been decided (the day before) in favor of his clients. He was in the full
maturity of his manhood, and he was probably as near "care free" as he had ever
been in his life. .

Six weeks afterwards Mr. Lincoln was nominated for the presidency, and in
the following November was elected to that high office. He evidently did not for-
get his Evanston friends and his visit among them, for soon after he became presi-
dent he began to show his appreciation of the friends he met here. White and
Beveridge became generals in the Union Army, and, as we have seen, the homely
songs and good cheer of the house in Evanston where he was so pleasantly en-
tertained were repeated in a charming manner at the White House in Washington.

SENTIMENT IN FAVOR OF LINCOLN

The possibility of Mr. Lincoln becoming a candidate at the next Republican
convention to be held in Chicago in the approaching month of May became stronger
during the early months of 1 860. While, however, the sentiment in his favor was
thus increasing in the West, it was by no means looked upon in a favorable light
by Eastern politicians and writers. Echoes of the western enthusiasm for Lin-
coln's candidacy began to reach the Eastern people in ever increasing volume, and
after his Cooper Institute speech there was frequent mention and discussion of
the possibility of such a thing coming to pass.

"Lincoln's defeat in November, 1858, in the contest for the United States sen-
atorship," says Miss Tarbell, "in no way discouraged his friends. A few days
after the November election, when it was known that Douglas had been re-elected

82 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

senator, the Chicago Democrat, then edited by 'Long John' Wentworth, printed an
editorial, nearly a column in length, headed 'Abraham Lincoln.' His work in the
campaign then just closed was reviewed and commended in the highest terms."

The editorial printed in the Democrat has already been quoted, in part, in a
previous chapter. "Up to the opening of the convention in May," says Miss Tar-
bell, "there was, in fact, no specially prominent mention of Lincoln by the East-
ern press. Greeley, intent on undermining Seward, though as yet nobody per-
ceived him to be so, printed in the New York Weekly Tribune the paper which
went to the country at large correspondence favoring the nomination of Bates
and Read, McLean and Bell, Cameron, Fremont, Dayton, Chase, Wade; but not
Lincoln. The New York Herald of May 1st, in discussing editorially the nominee
of the 'Black Republicans,' recognized 'four living, two dead, aspirants." The
'living' were Seward, Banks, Chase and Cameron; the 'dead,' Bates and McLean.
May 10th, the Independent in an editorial on 'The Nomination at Chicago,' said:
'Give us a man known to be true upon the only question that enters into the can-
vass a Seward, a Chase, a Wade, a Sumner, a Fessenden, a Banks.' But it did
not mention Lincoln. His most conspicuous Eastern recognition before the con-
vention was in Harper's Weekly of May 12th, his face being included in a double
page of portraits of 'eleven prominent candidates for the Republican presidential
nomination at Chicago.' Brief biographical sketches appeared in the same number
the last and shortest of them being of Lincoln."

LINCOLN BUT SLIGHTLY KNOWN IN THE EAST

As an instance of the limited knowledge among the people of the Eastern states
regarding Mr. Lincoln, even after the celebrated debates had brought his name
prominently before the nation, it is related that in 1859, Mr. Lincoln sent his
oldest son Robert to Cambridge intending to have him enter Harvard College.
The young man carried a letter of introduction to Dr. Walker, the president of
the college. This letter of introduction was given by Senator Stephen A. Douglas,
who, of course, enjoyed a national reputation far beyond that of Mr. Lincoln, and
in it he stated that Robert Lincoln was the son of his friend Abraham Lincoln,
"with whom I have lately been convassing the State of Illinois."

This story was related by the late Edward Everett Hale. Mr. Hale, it seems,
had it from a friend, who in turn had it from James Russell Lowell, at that time
a professor at Harvard College. The letter, it would seem, was read at a faculty
meeting in the course of routine business. "When this letter, now so curious in
history," says Hale, in his work "James Russell Lowell and His Friends," "was
read, Lowell said to my friend who tells me the story, 'I suppose I am the only
man in this room who has ever heard of this Abraham Lincoln, but he is the per-
son with whom Douglas has been traveling up and down in Illinois, canvassing the
State in their new western fashion, as representatives of the two parties, each of
them being a candidate for the vacant seat in the Senate.' What is more, my
friend says it is probably true that at the moment when this letter was presented
by young Robert Lincoln, none of the faculty at Harvard College, excepting Lowell,
had ever heard of Abraham Lincoln. This story is a good one," continues Hale,
"as showing how far it was in those days possible for a circle of intelligent men

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 88

to know little or nothing of what was happening in the world beyond the sound
of their college bell."

This episode was recounted in a contribution printed in the Collections of
the Illinois State Historical Library, Number 11, for the year 1906, page 292.
The contributor adds a note, as follows: "This anecdote arrested attention when
it was first published, and I received more than one note explaining to me that
it could not be true. All the same it is true. And I took care to verify the dates
of the several steps of the story." The contributor's name is Lucia A. Stevens.

UNDESIRABLE CONDITIONS AT CHICAGO

As the time approached for the assembling of the convention "the city was in
n tumult of expectation and preparation." The people were wide awake and there
was a determination that so far as they were concerned the convention should be
a success. "The audacity," remarks Miss Tarbell, "of inviting a National Conven-
tion to meet there, in the condition in which Chicago chanced to be at that time, was
purely Chicagoan. No other city would have risked it. In ten years Chicago had
nearly quadrupled its population, and it was believed that the feat would be re-
peated in the coming decade. In the first flush of youthful energy and ambition
the town had undertaken the colossal task of raising itself bodily out of the grassy
marsh, where it had been originally placed, to a level of twelve feet above Lake
Michigan, and of putting underneath a good, solid, foundation.

"When the invitation to the convention was extended, half the buildings in
Chicago were on stilts ; some of the streets had been raised to the new grade, others
still lay in the mud ; half the sidewalks were poised high on piles, and half were
still down on a level with the lake. A city with a conventional sense of decorum
would not have cared to be seen in this demoralized condition, but Chicago perhaps
conceived that it would but prove her courage and confidence to show the country
what she was doing; and so she had the convention come.

"But it was not the convention alone which came," continues Miss TarbeLTs
spirited narrative. "Besides the delegates, the professional politicians, the news-
paper men, and the friends of the several candidates, there came a motley crowd
of men hired to march and to cheer for particular candidates, a kind of out-of-
door claque which did not wait for a point to be made in favor of its man, but
went off into rounds of applause at the mere mention of his name. New York
brought the greatest number of these professional applauders, the leader of them
being a notorious prize-fighter and street politician, 'a sort of white black-bird/
says Bromley, one Tom Hyer. With the New York delegation, which numbered
all told fully two thousand Seward men, came Dodsworth's Band, one of the cele-
brated musical organizations of that day.

"While New York sent the largest number, Pennsylvania was not far behind,
there being about one thousand, five hundred persons present from that State.
From New England, long as was the distance, there were many trains of excur-
sionists. The New England delegation took Gilmore's Band with it, and from
Boston to Chicago stirred up every community in which it stopped, with music
and speeches. Several days before the convention opened fully one-half of the
members of the United States House of Representatives were in the city. To still

84 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

further increase the throng were hundreds of merely curious spectators whom the
flattering inducements of the fifteen railroads centering in Chicago at that time had
tempted to take the trip. There were fully forty thousand strangers in the city
during the sitting of the convention.

SCENES AND INCIDENTS IN THE STREETS

"The streets for a week were the forum of the multitude. Processions for
Seward, for Cameron, for Chase, for Lincoln, marched and counter-marched, brave
with banners and transparencies, and noisy with country bands and hissing rockets.
Every street corner became a rostrum, where impromptu harangues for any of a
dozen candidates might be happened upon. In this hurly-burly two figures were
particularly prominent: Tom Hyer, who managed the open-air Seward demonstra-
tion, and Horace Greeley, who was conducting independently his campaign against
Seward. Greeley, in his fervor, talked incessantly. It was only necessary for some
one to say in a rough but friendly way, 'There's old Greeley,' and all within hear-
ing distance grouped about him. Not infrequently two or three to whom he be-
gan speaking increased until that which had started as a conversation ended as a
speech."

HEADQUARTERS AT THE TREMONT HOUSE

The Tremont House was chosen as the headquarters of the Illinois delegation,
and here were gathered all the influential friends of Lincoln from all over 'the
state. Their determination was to win the day for their candidate, and "men never
put more intense and persistent energy into a cause." Seward's cause was cham-
pioned by Thurlow Weed one of the most sagacious politicians of the country, and
by William M. Evarts, one of the most eloquent orators and ablest lawyers of the
nation. "But, as has often been the case with 'the wise men of the East,' the vision
of Mr. Weed and of Mr. Evarts, and of most of the New York statesmen, was lim-
ited in range," says Colonel Carr in his book, "The Illini." "Their horizon was
not yet sufficiently extended to give them an adequate idea of the potentiality of
the new states of the Mississippi Valley. Many shrewd o'bservers were convinced
that Mr. Seward could not be elected, if nominated by the Republican party; and,
while he had the respect and admiration of the Republicans of the West, the wisest
of our leaders did not regard him as a strong candidate.

"Much as the Republican party owed New York's great statesman, Western
Republicans did not regard him as available. He was, as they believed, too rad-
ical. To be successful, it was essential for the Republicans to bring together all
the elements of opposition to the Democratic party, old line Whigs, those who
had affiliated with the American party, and Free Soilers. . . . Such was the
feeling of many of the best Republicans of the West. Much as they admired Mr.
Seward, and felt indebted to him, they could not favor, his nomination, and vast
numbers of them would not have voted for him had he been nominated. It was
urged, as has so often been done, that it was imperative that the candidate be able
to carry New York, with her large electoral vote, and that this Mr. Seward was
sure to do. But it was answered that Fremont had carried that great state four
years before, and it was sure to support any worthy Republican candidate."

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 85

Thus Abraham Lincoln was the only man whom the Illinois delegates would
present, and the delegates from neighboring states became convinced that a victory
for the party was assured by joining in the support of the Illinois man. "He
himself," says Carr, "was reluctant to allow his name to be used. It is apparent
from what he said that he really did not realize how strong a hold he had upon the
public." In letters to several editorial friends, written at this time, Mr. Lincoln,
referring to their urging his candidacy, said: "In regard to the matter you spoke
of, I beg that you will not give it further mention. Seriously, I do not think I am
fit for the Presidency."

But with all his humility he had an enduring faith in the success of the cause
of which he had become the leader, and keeping in view the straight line of duty
ahead of him, he never flinched from the task which Destiny had assigned to him.
While on his way to Washington to be inaugurated, he addressed the New York
Assembly at Albany, and in the course of his speech he said: "While I hold my-
self the humblest of all the individuals who have ever been elected to the Presi-
dency, I have a more difficult task to perform than any of them. I bring a true
heart to the work. I must rely upon the people of the whole country for support,
and with their sustaining aid even I, humble as I am, cannot fail to carry the ship
of state safely through the storm."

THE DECADE ENDING WITH THE YEAR 1860

In the year 1860, the United States census showed the population of the city
to be 109,206. The population for the year 1850 was 28,269, thus showing an in-
crease of 80,937 in the decade. Nearly all this wonderful increase had actually
taken place within the period covered by the years between 1850 and 1857, the
later years of the decade showing scarcely any advance. This was owing to the
blighting effects of the panic of 1857, which when it burst upon the city put an
immediate stoppage to the erection of new buildings. Building operations were in
full career at the time and when the means required to continue the erection of the
buildings were no longer to be obtained a general cessation of work followed. "Sev-
eral blocks were left unfinished for years," says Colbert, "and some commenced
were never finished by the original owners. As an instance of the severe loss
entailed in this direction, we may cite the case of Alexander Loyd, mayor of Chi-
cago in 1840. He was worth $750,000 in 1857, and on the strength of that he
borrowed $50,000 to erect an iron front building on the north-west corner of Lake
and Wells (now Fifth avenue) streets. The walls were almost up when the crash
came. He was obliged to suspend, lost his title to the land and building, and died,
some years afterward, an object of charity."

Colbert further says that "great numbers of workers left the city for want of
employment, and those who remained were obliged to go into narrowed quarters
to reduce expenses. This caused a great many residences and stores to be vacated,
and brought about a reduction in rents on those still occupied, which impoverished
even those who were able to hold on to their property." Chicago business men
stood by each other nobly during this crisis, and hence, though there was wide
spread loss, there were but comparatively few failures.

86 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

ANOTHER MORE CHEERFUL VIEW

A review of the city's progress in 1858 states that in that year Chicago had
attained its majority as a city. When its charter of incorporation was adopted in
1837, it was but a straggling town with a population of 4,179. From that time on
its history was one of steady growth and improvement except for the temporary
setbacks from the panics of 1837 and 1857. "Its citizens were men of more than
ordinary shrewdness and foresight. With wonderful pluck and perseverance they
set about conquering natural disadvantages and planning commercial victories."
They had raised the grade of the city, they had dredged and bridged the river in
the best interests of commerce and of the public welfare, the wharves were
thronged with vessels, and railroads were pushing into the heart of the city, and
on every hand there were tokens of the vigor and vim which were to characterize
the future Chicago.

In 1852 the Times stated in a paragraph that "the Galena & Chicago Union
Railroad has commenced laying the foundation for a new passenger station at the
corner of Wells and North Water streets in this city, into which cars will run, so
that passengers will be protected from the weather when taking or leaving the
cars." In the same year a correspondent sent to the New York Tribune some let-
ters from Chicago in one of which he writes: "Chicago has at least one feature
which no city I know of can equal. Along the lake shore for miles stretches a
noble avenue, occupied on one side by the houses of wealthy inhabitants. It is to
be hoped that there is taste and public spirit enough in Chicago to preserve and
finish the avenue, with all the beauty of which it is capable. It may become such
a promenade as the world cannot equal. Fancy our Battery extended from two
to four miles, and looking out, not upon a bay, but upon the broad and shoreless
ocean."

OTHER SIGNIFICANT EVENTS OF THE PERIOD

In the year 185-1 the United States government purchased from Dr. Charles
V. Dyer for $26,000 the ground at the northwest corner of Dearborn and Monroe
streets upon which the first Federal building was erected. There was much pop-
ular disapproval of this purchase, and an indignation meeting was held at Bryan
Hall where resolutions were adopted declaring that "the location is inconvenient
and unsatisfactory to a large majority of our citizens." A resolution was adopted
by the Board of Trade asking the State to interfere to prevent the carrying out
of the plan.

However, the government erected a building on the site chosen, and after its
completion one of the papers remarked upon it in these terms: "The massive archi-
tecture of the building, its elegant finish and its imposing proportions make the
postoffice one of the finest, as it is the costliest, buildings in Chicago."

"Previous to 1859 the omnibus was the only available vehicle for those who
could not command an exclusive conveyance," says Colbert. "In that year the Chi-
cago City Railway Company laid down rails on State street from Lake street
south to the city limits," the limits on the south at that time being at Thirty-first
street. Rails were also laid on Madison street as far west as Reuben street, now
called Ashland avenue ; on Randolph street nearly to the city limits which were

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 87

then at Western avenue, and on Nortli Clark street from the river to the city limits
on the north which were then at Fullerton avenue.

OPENING OF THE RAILROAD ERA

But far and away the most important steps in the growth and development of
Chicago were taken in the early fifties, when the first line of railroad from the
East was opened, followed in quick succession by lines connecting the city with
points south, west and north. The Galena & Chicago Union Railroad began to
run trains from Chicago to a point "near the Desplaines river," ten miles distant,
over its new road bed laid with strap rails, late in 1848. This line was continued
as far as St. Charles in December, 1849, but "owing to the hasty manner in which
the track was laid it was announced the trains would be drawn by horses tor the
present;" and again extended to Elgin which point it reached on January 22d, 1850.

The first line to reach the city from the east was the old Michigan Southern &
Northern Indiana Railroad, now a part of the great Lake Shore system. The
Michigan Central Railroad had already been in operation for some years between
Detroit and Ypsilanti, Michigan; later extended to St. Joseph which for some time
was the terminus of rail travel from the east. "Travelers," says Colbert, "gen-
erally crossed the lake from St. Joseph to Chicago, and the former point was con-
nected by stage with the moving end of the rail track as it approached from Detroit."
The Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Company were likewise approach-
ing the city, having reached Toledo, Ohio ; from which point the company were
making strong efforts to reach Chicago before the Michigan Central should do so.
It was believed at that time that there never would be traffic enough between Chi-
cago and the East to maintain two competing lines, and whichever line could first
make the connection might discourage the other from further attempts. The line
was completed to Chicago on the 20th of February, 1852, thus being the first line
from the east to reach Chicago.

The Michigan Central Company, however, did not relax its efforts, and the
last rail was laid on the 21st of May, 1852, thus being the second line to establish
a connection between Chicago and the East. When the Michigan Central was
completed to Chicago a temporary depot was constructed on the lake shore near
Twelfth street. This depot was used until 1856 when the road made arrangements
with the Illinois Central to run their trains to the new depot of the latter at the
foot of Lake street, both roads using a line of piling running parallel with the
lake shore. This line of piling is shown on the maps and also in all the old en-
gravings of that locality. The filling of the park has since that time gone far be-
yond this old line of piling, and the surface of the park, being considerably elevated,
has left the old road bed, afterward further depressed, almost out of sight from a
view point on Michigan avenue.

ENTRANCE OF RAILROADS FROM OTHER POINTS

The Chicago & Rock Island Railroad was completed from Chicago to the Mis-
sissippi river, one hundred and eighty-two miles distant, in February, 1854. The
Chicago & Alton came in about the same time, having already some portions of its
line in operation in the central portions of the state. The Chicago, Burlington

88 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

& Quincy Railroad and the Illinois Central Railroad established their terminals
in Chicago about the same period. The Chicago Democratic Press of January 10th,
1855, announced the arrival of the "first passenger train on the Illinois Central
Railroad." The Chicago & Milwaukee had completed its line as far as Waukegan
late in 1854.

In a review of the city's progress, made by William Bross in 1857, a list of
the railways centering in Chicago, and then in operation, together with their mile-
age, is given. This, shows a total of almost four thousand miles of railroad, com-
prising "eleven trunk and twenty branch and extension lines." When it is
remembered that six years before, says Bross, that but forty miles of the Galena
road had been completed, "this result is truly astonishing." It should also be borne
in mind that though Chicago was richly benefited by their construction she never
in her corporate capacity invested a dollar in railways or loaned her credit in any
instance to aid them. "The City of Baltimore," says Ackerman, in commenting
upon this fact, "subscribed $3,500,000, and the State of Maryland $500,000, to
the construction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and both reap the benefit
of it today. The City of Philadelphia also materially aided the Pennsylvania
Central verv early in its organization. Both the cities of Buffalo and Cleveland
have extended aid to their railways."

In 1868 John S. Wright wrote a "History of Chicago," in which occur many
flowery passages of the wonderful advantages possessed by Chicago. One of these
ornate periods may be quoted. Speaking of the railroads tributary to Chicago
he says, "Michigan's billowy bosom drew to her all these iron-handed wooers. Be-
cause Chicago was the western extremity of this chain of inland seas, which afford
ample room for the commerce of the world, and which have such a powerful stretch
into the very heart of the continent, and reaching far enough south to supply a port
in about the middle of the temperate zone, and in its very richest region, because
it is at the point of natural connection of the Valley of the Great Lakes with the
Valley of the Great Rivers, did Chicago receive her first impetus. As long as
the rivers run and the billows roll, must these moving and yet immovable causes
be potential in her advancement. The lakes drew hither the railroads, and the
railroads abundantly reciprocate, pouring upon their consorts a stream of com-
merce which has already reached fabulous figures, although the land tributary is
yet in the infancy of settlement."

RAILROAD CONDITIONS IN 1861

A graphic picture of the railway service on lines radiating from Chicago a half
century ago is shown in a railway guide of 1861, now in the possession of Mr.
George J. Charlton of Chicago. This guide entitled "Dinsmore's Railroad and
Steam Navigation Guide," which contains the complete schedules of all the trunk
and branch lines of the country at that time, is comprised in a small book of two
hundred and forty pages, four by six inches in size. By way of comparison it
may be mentioned that the corresponding volume of the present day has fifteen
hundred pages and is seven by ten inches in size.

There were at that time only four through routes to New York, compared with
ten to-day. Over the Pennsylvania, for example, there were two trains from Chi-

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 89

cage to the Atlantic coast. One of these, which was designated "fast" and made
the record time for its generation, left this city every morning at 6:10, reached
Pittsburg the next day at 2:30 a. in., and New York at 5:10 p. m. The time at
New York being one hour in advance of that at Chicago, the journey occupied just
thirty- four hours, as compared with the time of eighteen hours by the fastest trains
of the present day.

The thirty-four hour train was considered a wonder, however, and was adver-
tised especially in the guide. The line claimed to have a "capacity equal to that
of any railway in the country, operating three through trains daily from Philadel-
phia to Pittsburg." The Pennsylvania road also called attention to the fact that
"smoking cars are attached to each train, and Woodruff's sleeping cars to express
and fast trains."

A traveler from New York bound for Chicago by the Lake Shore route might
leave the former city by the Hudson River Railroad upon which he would travel
until he reached Albany ; there change cars and proceed by the New York Central
to Buffalo; change again and go on by the Buffalo & Erie as far as Erie, Penn-
sylvania; change once more and go on by the Cleveland & Toledo as far as Toledo,
Ohio; and making a final change at the latter point proceed by the Michigan
Southern & Northern Indiana to Chicago.

ROUTES EAST AND WEST

What is now the Chicago & Alton Railway was known in 1861 as the Chicago,
Alton & St. Louis, and its time table showed two trains each way daily between,
St. Louis and Chicago, the running time between these two cities being fourteen
hours. The time by the fast trains of the present day is eight hours.

Towards the north the Chicago & Milwaukee Railroad made the distance be-
tween the two cities named in its title in four hours, as compared with two hours
at the present day. Extending westward was the Galena & Chicago Union Rail-
road running as far as Freeport (it was never built to Galena) ; the Chicago, Bur-
lington & Quincy had a line from Chicago to Quincy; and the Chicago & Rock
Island, as it was then called, ran to Rock Island with two trains daily. Chicago
was the terminus of thirteen railways, and was thus described in the guide: "Chi-
cago, Illinois, the great commercial entrepot of the lakes and the Upper Missis-
sippi, is located on the southwest shore of Lake Michigan on both sides of the Chi-
cago river. It is the largest of the lake cities, its trade by railroad, lake and canal
is immense, and as a grain and lumber market it surpasses any other in the world."
The population of the city at that time was about 125,000.

CHAPTER XXVI

REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1860

EVENTS PRECEDING THE NOMINATION "RAIL SPLITTER" CANDIDATE THE WIGWAM

DESCRIBED- INTERIOR ARRANGEMENTS ACCOUNT OF THE PROCEEDINGS PROMI-
NENT MEN IN ATTENDANCE PLATFORM ADOPTED WILLIAM H. SEWARD's NAME

PROPOSED NORMAN B. JUDD PROPOSES THE "RAIL SPLITTER AND GIANT KILLER"

OF ILLINOIS NO LANGUAGE CAN DESCRIBE THE UPROAR STENTORIAN SHOUTERS

FOR LINCOLN CHORUS OF STEAM WHISTLES AND FIRING OF CANNON BALLOTING

FOR CANDIDATES LINCOLN CHOSEN ON THIRD BALLOT ANOTHER SCENE OF WILD

APPLAUSE EXTENDING OVER THE CITY "NEVER ANOTHER SUCH SCENE IN

AMERICA," SAID HORACE GREELEY SPEECH OF WILLIAM M. EVARTS RATIFICA-
TION MEETING IN THE WIGWAM ILLUMINATIONS AND PROCESSIONS WIDE AWAKE

CLUBS FORMED THE NEWS RECEIVED BY LINCOLN THE ELECTION IN NOVEMBER

LINCOLN'S VISIT TO CHICAGO AFTER ELECTION MEETS HANNIBAL HAMLIN AT
THE TREMONT HOUSE LINCOLN'S DEPARTURE FOR WASHINGTON.

EVENTS PRECEDING THE NOMINATION

URING the spring of I860, the counties of Illinois held their conven-
tions, and, except those in the northern part of the state, where Seward
was strong, unanimously recommended Lincoln as the candidate at Chi-
cago. The State Convention met at Decatur, May 9th and 10th, a few
days previous to the assembling of the National Convention in Chicago.
While the delegates were in session Mr. Lincoln came in as a spectator, and was
invited to a seat on the platform. Soon afterward Richard J. Oglesby announced
that an old Democrat of Macon county desired to make a contribution to the con-
vention. Thereupon a couple of weather-worn fence-rails were borne into the hall,
decorated with flags, and bearing the inscription, "Abraham Lincoln, the Rail Can-
didate for President in 1860." The two rails were described as "from a lot of
three thousand made in 1830 by Thomas Hanks and Abe Lincoln, whose father
was the first pioneer of Macon County."

A storm of applause greeted the appearance of the fence rails thus decorated
and inscribed. For fifteen minutes, cheer upon cheer went up from the assembled
delegates. Lincoln was called upon and said, "I suppose I am expected to reply
to that. I cannot say whether I made those rails or not, but I am quite sure I
have made a great many just as good." He followed this with some reminiscences
of the pioneer days. George Schneider, of the Staats Zeitung in Chicago, was one
of the delegates and an ardent supporter of Seward as a presidential candidate,
but after witnessing this demonstration he remarked to his neighbor, "Seward

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 91

has lost the Illinois delegation." Soon afterward John M. Palmer moved a reso-
lution that "Abraham Lincoln is the choice of the Republican party of Illinois for
the Presidency, and the delegates from this state are instructed to use all honor-
able means to secure his nomination by the Chicago Convention, and to vote as a
unit for him." The resolution was enthusiastically adopted.

"Lincoln did not believe in 'stage tricks,' " says Noah Brooks, "and he was
not greatly pleased with the rail incident, although he was gratified by the en-
thusiam of his friends when they saw this evidence of his humble and youthful toil.
. . . But for all 'that, from that day forward Lincoln was hailed as 'the Rail-
Splitter of Illinois.' "

THE CONVENTION AT THE "WIGWAM"

When Norman B. Judd, chairman of the State Republican Committee, secured
the Convention for Chicago, he contributed effectively by this manoeuvre to Lin-
coln's nomination. Following this the action of the State Convention held at De-
catur, May 10th, 1860, instructing the delegates to the National Convention "to
use all honorable means to secure his [Lincoln's] nomination" strengthened his
prospects greatly. State pride was thoroughly aroused, and as the time for the
Convention approached it was seen that the party in Illinois had organized for
victory. "Lincoln banners," says Miss Tarbell, "floated across every street, and
buildings and omnibuses were decorated with Lincoln emblems. When the Illinois
delegation saw that New York and Pennsylvania had brought in so many outsiders
to create enthusiasm for their respective candidates, they began to call in sup-
porters from the neighboring localities. Leonard Swett says that they succeeded
in getting together fully ten thousand men from Illinois and Indiana, ready to
march, shout or fight for Lincoln, as the case required." 1

In making plans for the Convention it was at first thought that Metropolitan
Hall would be the place in which it would be held. It was decided later to erect
a building for the especial use of the Convention. The building thus erected was
called the "Wigwam," and by that name it has become famous. It was built on
the lot situated on the southeast corner of Lake and Market streets, where the old
Sauganash hotel had formerly stood, which had been destroyed by fire nine years
before. The Wigwam cost five thousand dollars to construct, the funds being raised
by a general subscription. The builder employed to do the work was Peter Page,
well known as the builder of the County Court House which was destroyed in the
Great Fire. The land was owned by the Garrett Biblical Institute of Evanston,
having been bequeathed to that institution by the will of Mrs. Eliza Garrett, who
died in 1855. Mrs. Garrett was the widow of Augustus Garrett, who had been
mayor of the city in 1845. The lease of the land had been secured at a compar-
atively nominal rental by the projectors of the Wigwam, the property being re-
garded by the trustees of the Institute as "unproductive," 2 and like much other
Chicago property was awaiting the future growth of the city to add to its value.
The Wigwam was sold in March, 1861, to the Garrett Biblical Institute, which
as stated already owned the site, for nine hundred and fifty dollars. It was

1 Tarbell, II, 138.

2 Willard: "A Classic Town," p. 37.

92 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

demolished soon afterwards, and a block of stores built on the land. This block
was consumed in the fire of 1871. It may be stated here that the land still re-
mains in the possession of the Institute, and upon it stands a large business block.

On this lot was erected the immense structure known as the Wigwam built by
the Chicago Republican Club. 3 It was about one hundred and eighty feet long
by one hundred feet wide. While the exterior was plain the interior was admir-
ably adapted to its purpose, well ventilated, well lighted and well arranged for
speaking. One-third of the space was assigned for the use of the delegates, a great
floor one hundred and forty feet long and thirty-five feet wide, with two commit-
tee-rooms, one at either end. Within this space the delegations were provided with
settees and the location of each delegation was designated by placards with the
names of the states represented. The speaker's chair was at the front of the
platform, and toward it all the seats looked; extending around three sides of the
hall were spacious galleries appropriated to the use of ladies and their escorts, and
these were well filled with occupants. On the front of the galleries were painted
the coats of arms of all the states. The roof was arched and well supported by
posts and braces, as were also the galleries, and around all these were twined ever-
greens and flowers. The whole space over the platform was festooned with ever-
greens and drapery showing the National colors, the red, white and blue. The
vast structure had been decorated "through the energetic efforts of the committee,
assisted by the Republican women of the city, who, scarcely less interested than
their husbands and brothers, strove in every way to contribute to the success of the
convention," says Miss Tarbell. "They wreathed the pillars and galleries with
masses of green, hung banners and flags, brought in busts of American notables,
ordered great allegorical paintings of Justice, Liberty, and the like, to suspend on
the walls; borrowed the whole series of Healy portraits of American statesmen
in short, made the Wigwam at least gay and festive in aspect. . . . The chair
placed on the platform for the use of the chairman of the convention was donated
by Michigan, as the first chair made in that state. It was an arm-chair of the
most primitive description, the seat dug out of an immense log and mounted on
large rockers. Another chair, one made for the occasion, attracted a great deal
of attention. It was constructed of thirty-four kinds of wood, each piece from a
different State or Territory, Kansas being appropriately represented by the 'weep-
ing willow,' a symbol of her grief at being still excluded from the sisterhood of
states. The gavel used by the chairman was more interesting even than the chair,
having been made from a fragment of Commodore Perry's brave Lawrence." 4

Robert R. Hitt, who as we have seen was one of the pioneers in short hand re-
porting, had accompanied Mr. Horace White in attendance upon the great de-
bates between Lincoln and Douglas, reported the proceedings of the convention
for the Press and Tribune; while George P. Upton performed the same service
for the Chicago Journal. Mr. Upton soon afterward became a member of the edi-
torial staff of the Tribune at about the time that the latter newspaper resumed its
former name. 5

3 Tarbell, II, 142.

4 Tarbell's "Life of Lincoln," Vol. II, p. 143.

5 The Tribune and the Democratic Press were merged July ist, 1858, and continued under
the name of the Press and Tribune. On the 25th of October, 1860, the paper resumed its
former name of Tribune, and has so remained to the present time.

Prom Tarbell's "Life of Lincoln"

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

From Tarbell's "Life of Lincoln"

THE "WIGWAM," THE BUILDING IN
WHICH THE REPUBLICAN CON-
VENTION OF 1860 WAS HELD

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 93

ACCOUNT OF AN EYE-WITNESS

An account of the proceedings at the assembling of the Convention was written
within a week after its occurrence, by a citizen of Litchfield, Illinois, by the name
of Dr. Humphrey H. Hood, who attended as a spectator. The account was pub-
lished in the Free Press, a Republican newspaper at Hillsboro, Illinois ; and has
been printed in "Publication Number Nine" of the Illinois State Historical Society.
On entering the Convention hall lie found a large audience assembled, listening to
the Hon. Anson Burlingame. "When I entered," he writes, "he was speaking of
the certainty of a Republican triumph next fall, no matter who the standard-bearer
might be. Of all possible candidates he spoke in terms of appropriate eulogy, pay-
ing just tribute to the talents and virtues of each. Of Lincoln he spoke as 'the
gallant son of Illinois, who fought that wonderful battle of 1858, the like of which
had not been known since the time when Michael encountered and subdued the
Arch Fiend.' "

Dr. Hood was much impressed with the size and admirable interior arrange-
ments of the Wigwam, and of the immense audience which crowded it. "It was
worth a visit to the Garden City," he said, "to view the Wigwam and the assembled
throngs." "It was announced in the morning papers of the 16th," he writes, "that
the doors would be open at eleven o'clock. Two hours before that time the crowd
was sufficient to fill the vast building, assembled on Lake and Market streets ; and
when the doors were opened, the rush and pressure were terrific. I was in the
center of the crowd and thought myself fortunate in escaping with whole bones.
Nevertheless, I tried the experiment again in the afternoon, but that sufficed me.
And indeed, my subsequent experience proved that the better way to obtain an
eligible position was to wait till the rush was over, and then quietly insinuate one's
self through the crowd. In this way I never failed to obtain a position where the
whole proceedings of the convention were open to me."

The convention would have consisted of six hundred and six delegates if all
the states had been represented. It was decided that a majority of the delegates
present would be required to nominate. "A full, eager, and enthusiastic representa-
tion was present from all the free states, with representatives from Delaware,
Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri and Virginia, and some scattering representatives
from some of the other slave states ; but the Gulf states were not represented,"
says Arnold. "Indeed, few of the slave states were fully and perfectly represented.
On motion of Governor Morgan, Chairman of the national executive committee,
David Wilmot, author of the 'Wilmot proviso,' was made temporary chairman, and
George Ashman,' of Massachusetts, permanent president." 6

PROMINENT MEN IN ATTENDANCE

There was a vast crowd of strangers in the city. Holland, in his "Life of Lin-
coln," says there were twenty-five thousand people who had assembled in the city
as delegates and interested observers. There were as many as ten thousand in
the Convention Hall at one time. Of these some five hundred were delegates, but
the newspaper representatives outnumbered them nearly two to one. On the plat-

" Arnold: Life of Lincoln, p. 163.

94 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

form and floor were many of the notable men of the country, William M. Evarts,
Thomas Corwin, Carl Schurz, David Wilmot, Thaddeus Stevens, Joshua R. Gid-
dings, George William Curtis, Francis P. Blair, Andrew H. Reeder, George Ash-
mun, Gideon Welles, Preston King, Cassius M. Clay, B. Gratz Brown, and George
S. Boutwell." Some of the Illinois men present were: David Davis, Elihu B.
Washburne, John M. Palmer, Richard J. Oglesby, Orville H. Browning. Clark E.
Carr, Burton C. Cook, Norman B. Judd and Leonard Swett. 8 Among the news-
paper men and reporters, "a body of men scarcely less interesting than the conven-
tion itself," were Thurlow Weed, Horace Greeley, Samuel Bowles, Murat Halstead,
Isaac H. Bromley, Joseph Hawley, Henry Villard, Alexander K. McClure, Joseph
Medill, Horace White, and a throng of others. These men among the spectators
expressed their approval or disapproval of the proceedings frequently and emphat-
ically, swaying and, to some extent, controlling the delegates. 9

While officers of the convention were formally elected and a platform adopted,
"the real interest," says Miss Tarbell, "centered in the caucuses, which were held
almost uninterruptedly." "No man ever worked as our boys did," wrote Mr. Swett;
"I did not the whole week, sleep two hours a night." From one delegation to an-
other they passed arguing, pleading, promising. "Our great struggle," said John
M. Palmer, "was to prevent Lincoln's nomination for the vice-presidency." 10 This
was what the Seward men were willing to favor, and in fact they seemed deter-
mined this should be done. "The Seward men recognized in Lincoln their most
formidable rival, and that was why they wished to get him out of the way by giv-
ing him second place on the ticket."

THE PLATFORM

The platform was adopted by the convention, as usual on such occasions, before
the balloting for candidates began. The convention resolved "that the new dogma
that the Constitution carried slavery into all the territories, was a dangerous polit-
ical heresy, revolutionary in tendency, and subversive of the peace and harmony
of the country; that the normal condition of all the territories is that of freedom;
that neither Congress, the territorial legislature, nor any individual, could give
legal existence to slavery ; that Kansas ought to be immediately admitted as a free
state ; that the opening of the slave trade would be a crime against humanity."
The platform also declared in favor of a homestead law, harbor and river improve-
ments, and the Pacific railroad. 1 '

The reading of the platform brought forth thunders of applause, particularly
the sections in which freedom was affirmed to be the normal condition of the ter-
ritories. "The people could not be satisfied with one reading," writes Dr. Hood,
"but after shouting till one might suppose their lungs, if not their enthusiasm, were
exhausted, they would demand the reading of them [the sections of the platform]

- Tarbell, II, 143.

8 Carr: "The Illini," p. 270.

'Tarbell, II, 144.

10 Ibid., II, 144.

11 Arnold: "Life of Lincoln," p. 164.

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 95

again, when they would again applaud with all the vehemence of the first demon-
stration." 12

The importance of this declaration of principles justifies a more complete syn-
opsis of the platform than that given above. The following abridgement made by
Professor George W. Smith, and printed in his recent work entitled "A Student's
History of Illinois," will aid the reader in obtaining a better grasp of the subject
matter of that document.

"The past four years have justified the organization of the Republican party.
The causes which called it into existence are permanent.

"The principle of equality, stated in the Declaration of Independence, is es-
sential to the preservation of our Republican institutions.

"The wonderful development of the nation is the result of the union of the states.

"The lawless invasion of any state or territory by armed force is among the
gravest of crimes.

"The dogma that the constitution carries Slavery into the Territories is a dan-
gerous political heresy.

"We deny the right of Congress, or of any territorial legislature, or of any
individuals, to legalize slavery in any territory of the United States.

"The recent reopening of the African slave trade is a crime against humanity.

"Kansas should of right be admitted as a state under the constitution recently
formed.

"The party favors a protective tariff.

"The party favors liberal homestead laws.

"The party pledges efficient protection to all classes of citizens.

"All citizens who can unite on this platform of principles are invited to give
it their support."

THE NOMINATIONS

On the morning of the third day of the convention the names of candidates
were presented, Hon. William M. Evarts proposing William H. Seward of New
York as the nominee for President. The delegation from that state had prepared
a tremendous claque, which now broke forth in deafening shouts and for a moment
appalled the hearts of Lincoln's friends. 13 But the Illinois Committee had fore-
seen this contingency and were prepared with a "spontaneous demonstration" that
included voices of stentorian proportions. Whenever Lincoln's name was men-
tioned these voices would fill the air with shouting which quite overwhelmed any-
thing of the kind at the convention. "There was then living in Chicago," says
Arnold, "a man whose voice could drown the roar of Lake Michigan in its wildest
fury ; nay, it was said that his shout could be heard on a calm day, across that lake ;
Burton C. Cook, of Ottawa, knew another man, living on the Illinois River, a Dr.
Ames, who had never found his equal in his ability to shout and huzza. He was,
however, a democrat. Cook telegraphed to him to come to Chicago by the first
train. These two men with stentorian voices met some of the Illinois delegation
at the Tremont House, and were instructed to organize each a body of men to
cheer and shout, which they speedily did out of the crowds which were in attendance

12 Illinois State Historical Library Publication, No. 9, p. 370.
l, II, 147.

96 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

from the Northwest. They were placed on opposite sides of the 'Wigwam/ and
instructed that when Cook took out his white handkerchief, they were to cheer,
and not to cease until he returned it to his pocket. Cook was conspicuous on the
platform, and, at the first utterance of the name of Lincoln, simultaneously with
the wave of Cook's handkerchief, there went up such a cheer, such a shout as had
never before been heard, and which startled the friends of Seward, as the cry of
'Marmion' on Flodden Field 'startled the Scottish foe.' The New Yorkers tried
to follow when the name of Seward was spoken, but, beaten at their own game,
their voices were instantly and absolutely drowned by cheers for Lincoln. This
was kept up until Lincoln was nominated, amidst a storm of applause never before
equalled.

"Ames was so carried away with his own enthusiasm for Lincoln, that he joined
the republican party, and continued to shout for Lincoln during the whole cam-
paign; he was afterwards rewarded with a country postoffice." 14

After the Seward demonstration had subsided so as to permit further progress,
Norman B. Judd, taking his stand on a chair, proposed as a candidate for the
nomination, "The Rail Splitter and Giant Killer of Illinois, Abraham Lincoln." 15
The applause, reinforced by the shouters within and without the building, was pro-
longed for half an hour. Thousands of people leaped to their feet, "and the wild
yell made soft vesper breathings of all that had preceded," said Leonard Swett.
"No language can describe it;" said another, "a thousand steam whistles, ten acres
of hotel gongs, a tribe of Comanches, headed by a choice vanguard from pande-
monium, might have mingled in the scene unnoticed." 16

In Clark E. Carr's book of reminiscences, entitled "The Illini," he describes
the scene in these graphic sentences: "I remember," he says, "how happily Mr.
Evarts placed Mr. Seward's name before the convention, and the applause it re-
ceived. But this applause was as nothing compared with the deafening cheers and
shouts, prolonged for nearly half an hour by the vast assemblage, when Norman
B. Judd, standing upon a high chair, proposed as a candidate for the nomination
'The Rail Splitter and Giant Killer of Illinois, Abraham Lincoln.' As the cheers
would die away they would again break out in some remote part of the great build-
ing, and swell to a grand chorus. It seemed as if all the people of Illinois were
assembled outside, and I remember how their acclamations resounded through the
apertures between the single rough board walls of the great building."

The Lincoln men outside, to whom everything that was going on inside was
instantly communicated, were a hundred in favor of Lincoln. to one in favor of
any other candidate. "There was force in the declaration of the Seward men,"
says Carr, "that if the convention had been held anywhere else but at Chicago the
result would have been different."

THE BALLOTING

On the first ballot Seward received 1731/2 votes, and Lincoln 102. On the
second, Seward's vote was increased to 184%, while Lincoln's jumped up to 181.

14 Arnold: "Life of Lincoln," p. 167.

15 Carr: "The Illini," p. 284.
"'Tarbell, II, 148.

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 97

On the third ballot, Lincoln's vote had run up to 23 1-^2, far outstripping his com-
petitors, but still not quite enough to secure the nomination. 17 It lacked only one
and one-half votes to win the victory. "An instant of silence followed," says Miss
Tarbell, "in which the convention grappled with the idea, and tried to pull itself
together to act. The chairman of the Ohio delegation was the first to get his
breath. 'Mr. President,' he cried, springing on his chair, and stretching out his
arm to secure recognition, 'I rise to change four votes from Mr. Chase to Mr.
Lincoln.'

"It took a moment to realize the truth. New York saw it, and the white faces
of her noble delegation were bowed in despair. Greeley saw it, and a guileless
smile spread over his features as he watched Thurlow Weed press his hand hard
against his wet eyelids. Illinois saw it, and tears poured from the eyes of more
than one of the overwrought, devoted men as they grasped one another's hands
and vainly struggled against the sobs which kept back their shouts. The crowd
saw it, and broke out in a mad hurrah. 'The scene which followed,' wrote one
spectator, 'baffles all human description. After an instant's silence, as deep as
death, which seemed to be required to enable the assembly to take in the full force
of the announcement, the wildest and mightiest yell (for it can be called by no
other name) burst forth from ten thousand voices which we ever heard from mortal
throats. This strange and tremendous demonstration, accompanied with leaping
up and down, tossing hats, handkerchiefs, and canes recklessly into the air, with
the waving of flags, and with every conceivable mode of exultant and unbridled
joy, continued steadily and without pause for perhaps ten minutes.

" 'It then began to rise and fall in slow and billowing bursts, and for perhaps
the next five minutes these stupendous waves of uncontrollable excitement, now
rising into the deepest and fiercest shouts, and then sinking like the ground swell
of the ocean into hoarse and lessening murmurs, rolled through the multitude.
Every now and then it would seem as though the physical power of the assembly
was exhausted and that quiet would be restored, when all at once a new hurricane
would break out, more prolonged and terrific than anything before. If sheer ex-
haustion had not prevented, we don't know but the applause would have continued
to this hour.'

"Without, the scene was repeated. At the first instant of realization in the
Wigwam a man on the platform had shouted to a man stationed on the roof, 'Halle-
lujah; Abe Lincoln is nominated!' A cannon boomed the news to the multitude
below, and twenty thousand throats took up the cry. The city heard it, and one
hundred guns on the Tremont House, innumerable whistles on the river and lake
front, on locomotives and factories, and the bells in all the steeples, broke forth.
For twenty-four hours the clamor never ceased. It spread to the prairies, and be-
fore morning they were afire with pride and excitement."

A full length portrait of Lincoln, which his friends had in readiness, was dis-
played on the platform. Mr. Greeley telegraphed to the Tribune: "There was
never another such scene in America."

"Holland: "Life of Lincoln," p. 224, and Carr 284.

vol. n T

93 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

CARR'S ACCOUNT OF THE SCENE

Clark E. Carr's account of this memorable scene is equally graphic. Carr was
there and in his book of reminiscences he describes what took place during the
progress of the third ballot when 23iy 2 votes had been cast for Lincoln, lacking
but one and a half votes to secure the nomination which required 233. "I remem-
ber," he says, "the bursts of applause when the convention realized that Mr. Lin-
coln was so near the goal, and the hush and stillness and solemnity when Mr. Car-
ter of Ohio arose and changed four votes of that state from Chase to Lincoln;
and how uproariously and wildly men cheered, and yelled, and screamed, and
danced, and sang, and hugged each other. Hats and umbrellas and coats and vests
were thrown as high as strength would permit, in a perfect orgie of rapturous en-
thusiasm.

"And I remember," he continues, "how the motion to make the nomination unani-
mous brought those men, delirious with joy, back to their senses, and with what
depths of emotion they listened to the solemn cadences of the voice of Mr. Evarts,
representing his crushed associates of the New York delegation, to whom the blow
had been no less cruel than it was to their great leader. I shall never forget the
pathos and tenderness with which Mr. Evarts uttered the sentiment, 'The name
of William Henry Seward will be remembered when Presidents are forgotten;' and
how, in the name of their great leader and of the entire delegation of the great
State of New York, he seconded the motion to make the nomination of Abraham
Lincoln of Illinois unanimous, which was instantly adopted, and the vast crowd
moved slowly out, leaving the delegates to continue their work by placing that saga-
cious statesman and wise counsellor, Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, in the second
place on the ticket."

THE CLOSING SCENES OF THE CONVENTION

Dr. Hood, in his account of the proceedings, describes the closing scene. "Be-
fore the vote was counted State after State rose and changed its vote to Lincoln.
Mr. Evarts, of New York, demanded: 'Can New York have the silence of the
convention?' Instantly every voice was hushed. He stated that he desired to
make a motion and would inquire if the result of the ballot was announced. If it
was not, he would await that announcement. When the result was declared he took
the floor, or rather a table, and in a speech which won the admiration of all that
heard it; which was characterized alike by dignity, earnestness and deep devotion
to the great statesman of New York, he pronounced a most glowing eulogy upon
William H. Seward. It might be deemed honor enough to be accounted worthy of
such devoted friendship. At the close he moved that the nomination of Abraham
Lincoln be declared unanimous ; at the same time elevating high above him a life
sized portrait of 'Honest Old Abe.'

"The motion was first seconded by Blair, of Michigan. He said: 'We give
up William Henry Seward with some beating of the heart, with some quivering of
the nerves, but the choice of the convention is the choice of Michigan.' He was
followed by Anderson of Massachusetts and Carl Schurz of Wisconsin. This closed
the morning session.

"The convention re-assembled at 5 o'clock and at once proceeded to vote for

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 99

vice-president. Hannibal Hamlin was chosen on the second ballot. It may seem
somewhat remarkable that Texas should vote steadily in the morning for Seward
and in the afternoon cast six votes for Sam Houston. After appointing the com-
mittee the convention adjourned sine die." ls

SUBSEQUENT PROCEEDINGS

In the evening a grand ratification meeting was held in the Wigwam, and ad-
dresses made by Pomeroy, Giddings, Yates, and others. Bonfires, processions,
torch-lights, fireworks, illuminations of every description, and salutes, "filled the
air with noise and the eye with beauty." The Illinois delegation, before it sep-
arated, says a writer, "resolved that the Millenium had come." Decorated and il-
luminated rails surrounded the newspaper offices, and became a leading feature of
the ensuing campaign. "Rail Splitter Battalions" were formed everywhere. "Wide-
Awake Clubs," bands of torch-bearers in a simple uniform of glazed cap and cape,
carrying lanterns or torches, paraded the streets of nearly every town of the North
throughout the summer and fall, arousing everywhere the wildest enthusiasm. Down
in Washington Douglas said when he heard the news. "There won't be a tar bar-
rel left in Illinois tonight."

The origin of the "Wide-Awakes," says Miss Tarbell, "was purely accidental.
In February, Cassius M. Clay spoke in Hartford, Connecticut. A few ardent
young Republicans accompanied him as a kind of body guard, and to save their
garments from the dripping of the torches a few of them wore improvised capes
of black glazed cambric. The uniform attracted so much attention that a campaign
club formed soon afterward in Hartford adopted it. This club called itself the
Wide-Awakes and their example was followed by many other clubs having a sim-
ilar purpose throughout the country.

"A great many fantastic movements were invented by them, a favorite one
being a peculiar zig-zag march an imitation of the party emblem the rail-fence.
Numbers of the clubs adopted the rules and drills of the Chicago Zouaves one
of the most popular military organizations of the day. In the summer of 1860,
Colonel Ellsworth, the commanding officer of the Zouaves, brought them East. The
Wide-Awake movement was greatly stimulated by this tour of the Zouaves." 19

HOW LINCOLN RECEIVED THE NEWS

While the Convention was in progress Mr. Lincoln remained in Springfield,
where he was kept informed constantly by his friends at Chicago. "He was ap-
prised of the result of every ballot," says Holland, "and, with his home friends,
sat in the Journal office receiving and commenting upon the dispatches. It was
one of the decisive moments of his life a moment on which hung his fate as a
public man, his place in history. He fully appreciated the momentous results of
the convention to himself and the nation, and foresaw the nature of the great strug-
gle which his nomination and election would inaugurate. A moment, and he knew

18 Publication No. 9, Illinois State Historical Library, p. 372.
"Tarbell, II, 164.

100 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

that he would either become the central man of a nation, or a cast-off politician
whose ambition for the nation's highest honors would be forever blasted." 20

At length, he was handed a telegram by a messenger boy from the telegraph
office, who shouted at the same time, "Mr. Lincoln, you are nominated." The
crowd soon gathered he was in the street when the messenger found him and
he was overwhelmed with congratulations. "For a few minutes," says Miss Tar-
bell in her description of the scene, "carried away by the excitement, Lincoln
seemed simply one of the proud and exultant crowd. Then remembering what it
all meant, he said, 'My friends, I am glad to receive your congratulations, and
as there is a little woman down on Eighth street who will be glad to hear the news,
you must excuse me until I inform her.' " When he arrived he found that other
friends had outstripped him, and the "little woman" was already in possession
of the news.

A hundred guns roared a salute when the news became public in Springfield,
just at the same time that a similar salute was being fired in New York, in honor
of the nomination. Lincoln's house was thronged with visitors, and, in the evening,
the State House was thrown open, and an enthusiastic meeting was held by the
Republicans. At its close they marched in a body to the Lincoln house, where they
were received with a brief and modest speech. The people remained until a late
hour, and finally left the excited household to their rest.

LINCOLN OFFICIALLY INFORMED OF HIS NOMINATION

The next day, Saturday, Mr. Ashmun, the president of the convention, at the
head of a committee, visited Springfield to apprise Mr. Lincoln officially of his
nomination. After Mr. Ashmun had concluded his address, Mr. Lincoln expressed
his thanks to the committee and to the convention for the high honor done him, and
promised to consider the platform adopted by the convention and to respond in
writing, "without any unnecessary or unreasonable delay," "not doubting that
the platform will be found satisfactory, and the nomination gratefully accepted."

Judge William D. Kelley of Pennsylvania was a member of the notification
committee, and, like Lincoln, was a very tall man. When it came his turn to
shake hands Mr. Lincoln inquired at once, "What is your height?" "Six feet
three," replied the judge. "What is yours, Mr. Lincoln?" "Six feet four," re-
sponded Mr. Lincoln. "Then sir," said the Judge, "Pennsylvania bows to Illi-
nois. For years my heart has been aching for a president that I could look up
to, and I've found him at last, in the land where we thought there were none but
little giants."

Mr. Lincoln's letter of acceptance was written on the 23d of June, and is
addressed to Hon. George Ashmun, the president of the convention and a member
of the committee, and was as follows: "Sir: I accept the nomination tendered me
by the convention over which you presided, of which I am formally apprised in
a letter of yourself and others, acting as a committee of the convention for that
purpose. The declaration of principles and sentiments which accompanies your
letter meets my approval, and it shall be my care not to violate it, or disregard
it in any part. Imploring the assistance of Divine Providence, and with due re-

20 Holland: "Life of Lincoln," p. zz 7 .

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 101

gard to the views and feelings of all who were represented in the convention, to
the rights of all the states and territories and people of the nation, to the inviola-
bility of the Constitution and the perpetual union, harmony and prosperity of all,
I am most happy to co-operate for the practical success of the principles declared
by the convention."

"Thus was Abraham Lincoln," says Dr. Holland, "placed before the nation as
a candidate for the highest honor in its power to bestow. It had been a long
and tedious passage to this point in his history. He was in the fifty-second year
of his age. He had spent half of his years in what was literally a wilderness.
Born in the humblest and remotest obscurity, subjected to the rudest toil in the
meanest offices, gathering his acquisitions from the scantiest sources, achieving the
development of his powers by means of his own institution, he had, with none of
the tricks of the demagogue, with none of the aids of wealth and social influence,
with none of the opportunities for exhibiting his powers which high official position
bestows, against all the combinations of genius and eminence and interest, raised
himself by force of manly excellence of heart and brain into national recognition,
and had become the focal center of the affectionate interest and curious inquisition
of thirty millions of people at home, and of multitudes throughout the civilized
world."

DISAPPOINTMENT OF SEWAHD's FRIENDS

The disappointment of the friends of William H. Seward over his failure to
secure his nomination at the Chicago Convention was deep and widespread, es-
pecially in the Eastern states. "I remember," says a Republican of 1860 (quoted
by Miss Tarbell), "that when I first read the news on a bulletin board as I came
down street in Philadelphia, that I experienced a moment of intense physical pain,
it was as though some one had dealt me a heavy blow. ... I believed our
cause was doomed." At Auburn, New York, the home of Mr. Seward, there was
not a Republican newspaper man in town who had the heart to write approvingly
of the nomination of Lincoln after the news had been received. Mr. Seward him-
self, seeing what the situation was, wrote a paragraph which appeared in an even-
ing issue. "No truer exposition of the Republican creed could be given," he said,
"than the platform adopted by the convention contains. No truer or firmer de-
fenders of the Republican faith could have been found in the Union, than the dis-
tinguished and esteemed citizens on whom the honors of the nomination have
fallen. Their election, we trust by a decisive majority, will restore the Govern-
ment of the United States to its constitutional and ancient course. Let the watch-
word of the Republican party be 'Union and Liberty,' and onward to victory!"

Very soon afterward Mr. Seward wrote Mr. Lincoln extending congratulations
and promising to give him his support. So also did the other rivals for the nomina-
tion. These letters reassured Mr. Lincoln, and in one of his replies, the one to
Mr. Chase, he said : "Holding myself the humblest of all those whose names were
before the Convention, I feel in special need of the assistance of all; and I am
glad very glad of the indication that you stand ready." Many sought inter-
views with him after the nomination, and among others Thurlow Weed of Albany,
New York, paid him a visit. Miss Tarbell quotes from Weed's account, as fol-
lows: "I found Mr. Lincoln sagacious and practical. He displayed throughout

102 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

the conversation so much good sense, such intuitive knowledge of human nature,
and such familiarity with the virtues and infirmities of politicians, that I became
impressed very favorably with his fitness for the duties which he was not un-
likely to be called upon to discharge. This conversation lasted some five hours,
and when the train arrived in which we were to depart, I rose all the better pre-
pared to go to work with a will in favor of Mr. Lincoln's election, as the inter-
view had inspired me with confidence in his capacity and integrity."

FEATURES AND INCIDENTS OF THE CAMPAIGN

After the nomination of Mr. Lincoln at the Chicago Convention the Eastern
press printed descriptions of him colored, of course, by their political views. The
opposition declared that he was a "third-rate country lawyer," that "he could not
speak good grammar," that, in short, he was "not a gentleman." On the other
hand the Republican press replied to these disparaging comments, and one editor
wrote of him as follows: "A man who by his own genius and force of character
has raised himself from being a penniless and uneducated flat boatman on the
Wabash River to the position Mr. Lincoln now occupies is not likely to be a nullity
anywhere." Reporters were sent to his home in Springfield and described his
home, his family, his manner of life, showing that he lived in "an elegant two-
story dwelling," habitually "wore a broadcloth suit," that Mrs. Lincoln "spoke
French fluently," and that his son was a student at Harvard College.

On the other hand the people of the West took an especial pride in his record
as a "Rail Splitter," and this view of the candidate caught the fancy and won the
approval of the Eastern people as the campaign progressed. The story of Lin-
coln's life deeply stirred the hearts of men everywhere. "Here was a man," writes
Miss Tarbell, "who had become a leader of the nation by the labor of his hands, the
honesty of his intellect, the uprightness of his heart. Plain people were touched
by the hardships of this life so like their own, inspired by the thought that a man
who had struggled as they had done, who had remained poor, who had lived simply,
could be eligible to the highest place in the nation. They had believed it could
be done ; here was a proof of it. They told the story to their boys ; this, they
said, is what American institutions made possible, not glitter or wealth, trickery
or demagogy is necessary, only honesty, hard thinking, a fixed purpose. Affec-
tion and sympathy for Lincoln grew with respect. It was the beginning of that
peculiar sympathetic relation between him and the common people which was to
become one of the controlling influences in the great drama of the Civil War."

One who witnessed as a boy the torch light processions of this remarkable cam-
paign wrote in later years of the impressions he received. "The friends of the
Rail Splitter walked with calm bearing and cool heads, shouting with a will, fixed,
determined, with the consciousness of power and pre-ordained victory. On went
the procession winding in and out, the flickering lights passing like a fiery dragon
as far as one could see, the whole city receiving a symbolical visitation by fire, a
baptismal warning of what was coming within the short space of a year from that
hour."

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 103

A GREAT PROCESSION AT SPRINGFIELD

There was a great rail}' at Springfield on the 8th of August, on which occasion
fully 75,000 people passed Lincoln's home in a procession eight miles long. By
far the greater number came across the prairies on horseback or in wagons. Mr.
Washburne was with Mr. Lincoln on that day and afterward said of the occasion:
"It was one of the most enormous and impressive gatherings I had ever witnessed.
Mr. Lincoln, surrounded by some intimate friends, sat on the balcony of his
humble home. It took hours for all the delegations to file before him, and there
was no token of enthusiasm wanting. He was deeply touched by the manifestations
of personal and political friendships, and returned all his salutations in that off-
hand and kindly manner which belonged to him. I know of no demonstration of
a similar character that can compare with it except the review by Napoleon of
his army for the invasion of Russia, about the same season of the year in 1812."

LINCOLN ELECTED TO THE PRESIDENCY

"From May until November," says Miss Tarbell, "this work for the ticket
went on steadily and ardently. Mr. Lincoln during all this time remained quietly
in Springfield. The conspicuous position in which he was placed made almost no
difference in his simple life. He was the same genial, accessible, modest man as
ever, his habits as unpretentious, his friendliness as great. The chief outward
change in his daily round was merely one of quarters. It seemed to his friends
that neither his home nor his dingy law office was an appropriate place in which
to receive his visitors, and they arranged that a room in the State House, which
stood on the village green in the center of the town, be put at his disposal. He
came down to this office every morning about eight o'clock, always stopping on his
way in his old cordial fashion to ask the news or exchange a story when he met
an acquaintance. Frequently he went to the postoffice himself before going to his
office and came out his arms loaded with letters and papers." 21

The election took place on the 6th of November, and the result showed that
Lincoln had received one hundred and eighty electoral votes, out of a total of three
hundred and three for all the states. There were four presidential candidates in
the campaign, and besides Lincoln's electoral vote, as given above, Breckenridge
received seventy-two, Bell thirty-nine, and Douglas twelve. The popular and
electoral votes are shown in the following table:

Popular Vote. Electoral Vote.

Lincoln 1,866,352 180

Douglas 1,375,157 12

Breckenridge 845,763 72

Bell 589,581 39

Total 4,676,853 303

An analysis of the popular vote shows that Lincoln did not have a majority
of all the votes, though his electoral vote was a majority over all. While the
popular vote for Douglas was nearly three-fourths that of Lincoln's he only

21 Tarbell, II, 166.

104 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

received the electoral votes of Missouri, nine in number, and three out of the seven
electoral votes of New Jersey. Thus while Breckenridge received six times as
many electoral votes as Douglas he had only a little over sixty per cent of the
popular vote for Douglas. "The electoral vote of Douglas was small," says Carr,
in commenting on the subject, "on account of Lincoln's vote being just sufficient in
several states to give him a majority and carry to him the electoral vote."

VISIT TO CHICAGO AFTER ELECTION

Lincoln visited Chicago after his election, says Holland, "and met with a
magnificent welcome. One or two little incidents of this trip will illustrate espe-
cially his consideration for children. He was holding a reception at the Tremont
House. A fond father took in a little boy by the hand who was anxious to see
the new President. The moment the child entered the parlor door, he, of his
own motion, and quite to the surprise of his father, took off his hat, and giving
it a swing, cried, 'Hurrah for Lincoln !' There was a crowd, but as soon as Mr.
Lincoln could get hold of the little fellow, he lifted him in his hands, and tossing
him toward the ceiling laughingly shouted: 'Hurrah for you!' To Mr. Lincoln it
was evidently a refreshing episode in the dreary work of hand-shaking.

"At a party in Chicago, during this visit, he saw a little girl timidly approach-
ing him. He called her to him, and asked her what she wished for. She replied
that she wanted his name. Mr. Lincoln looked back into the room and said:
'But here are other little girls they would feel badly if I should give my name
only to you.' The little girl replied that there were eight of them in all. 'Then,'
said Mr. Lincoln, 'get me eight sheets of paper, and a pen and ink, and I will
see what I can do for you.' The paper was brought, and Mr. Lincoln sat down
in the crowded drawing-room, and wrote a sentence upon each sheet, appending
his name ; and thus every little girl carried off her souvenir." 22

MEETING WITH HANNIBAL HAMLIN

After his election the first letter written by Mr. Lincoln was to Hannibal Ham-
lin, the vice-President elect, asking for an interview. On November 23d, the inter-
view took place at the Tremont House in Chicago. Mr. Hamlin afterwards gave
an account of the interview to Mr. C. J. Prescott, of New York, which Mr. Prescott
wrote out for Miss Tarbell to be used in her "Life of Lincoln." The account is
as follows:

"Mr. Hamlin was for many years a member of the Board of Trustees of Water-
ville College, now Colby University, Waterville, Maine. On one of the annual
commencement occasions, I found him one afternoon seated on the piazza of the
Elmwood, for the moment alone and unoccupied. Taking a chair by his side, I
said: 'Mr. Hamlin, when did you first meet Mr. Lincoln?' 'Well,' said he, 'I very
plainly recall the circumstances of our first meeting. It was in Chicago. Some
time before the inauguration, I received a letter from Mr. Lincoln, asking me to
see him before I went to Washington. So I went to Chicago, where I was to meet
Mr. Lincoln. Sending my card to Mr. Lincoln's room, I received word to "come

"Holland: 246.

CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 105

right up." I found the door open, and Mr. Lincoln approaching with extended
hand. With a hearty welcome, he said, "I think I have never met you before, Mr.
Hamlin, but this is not the first time I have seen you. I have just been recalling
the time when, in '48, I went to the Senate to hear you speak. Your subject was
not new, but the ideas were sound. You were talking about slavery, and I now
take occasion to thank you for so well expressing what were my own sentiments at
that time."

" ' "Well, Mr. President," said I, "this is certainly quite a remarkable coin-
cidence. I myself have just been recalling the first time I ever saw you. It must
have been about the same time to which you allude. I was passing through the
House, and was attracted by some remarks on the subject of slavery from one of
the new members. They told me it was Lincoln, of Illinois. I heard you through,
and I very well remember how heartily I endorsed every point you made. And,
Mr. President, I have no doubt we are still in perfect accord on the main
question." '

"The result of the Chicago interview," continued Miss Tarbell, "was a cordial
understanding between the two men which lasted throughout their administration.
This was to be expected, for they were not unlike in character and experience.
The same kind of democratic feeling inspired their relations with others. Both
'marched with the boys.' Both were eminently companionable. Hamlin liked a
good story as well as Lincoln, and told almost as many. He had, too, the same
quaint way of putting things. Like Lincoln, Hamlin had been born poor, and
had had a hand-to-hand struggle to get up in the world. He had worked on a
farm, chopped logs, taught school, studied law at night; in short, turned his hand
cheerfully and eagerly to anything that would help him to realize his ambitions.
Like Lincoln, he had gone early into politics, and, like Lincoln again, he had revolted
from his party in 1856 to join the Republicans." 23

DEPARTURE FOR WASHINGTON

On the llth of February, Mr. Lincoln and his family left Springfield for Wash-
ington, never again to return to the West alive. The day previous to his departure
he went to his office and taking a final glance over his papers he said to Herndon:
"Billy, how long have we been together?" "Over sixteen years," answered Hern-
don. He then started to go, but before leaving he requested that the sign-board
which swung at the foot of the stairs should remain. "Let it hang there undis-
turbed," he said; "give our clients to understand that the election of a presi-
dent makes no change in the firm of Lincoln and Herndon. If I live, I am com-
ing back some time, and then we'll go right on practising law as if nothing had
happened."

Judge Gillespie remarked to Mr. Lincoln a few days before his departure, that
he thought it would do him good to get down to Washington. "I know it will,"
replied Mr. Lincoln, "I only wish I could have got there to lock the door before
the horse was stolen. But when I get to the spot I can find the tracks." He
referred to the traitorous actions of some of the members of Buchanan's cabinet,

2S Tarbell: H, lg2 .

106 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS

in removing arms from Northern to Southern arsenals, and transferring troops
and warships to distant stations. On the platform of the car he turned to the
multitude of neighbors and friends who had gathered at the station to bid him fare-
well, and said : "My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling
of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe
everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a
young to an old man. Here my children have been born and one is buried. I
now leave, not knowing when or whether ever I may return, with a task before
me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of
that Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance,
I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and
be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His
care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid
you an affectionate farewell."

The history of Lincoln from this period, is a history of the country ; and for
the next four and a half years of his life, his connection with this history will
become interwoven with the events of the Civil War.

CHAPTER XXVII

CIVIL WAR MEMORIES

BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR THE PRESIDENT'S F.IRST CALL FOR TROOPS ILLINOIS